The Tale Of Two Bears
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Art by Deka.
When the new Hisuian Pokémon were introduced to the Scarlet and Violet metagame, Ursaluna, and later its Bloodmoon forme, were immediately seen as some of the best new Pokémon introduced, and when taking a closer glance , it is not hard to see why. Both formes share some good traits; for one, their Ground / Normal typing is great offensively, as it lets them hit almost everything for at least neutral damage, allowing them to run sets with only their STAB moves and still be effective. They also have offensive firepower, good bulk, and low Speed stats, making them effective Trick Room attackers. Besides these shared traits, their individual traits, and therefore how they play, become very distinguishable.
Ursaluna
- Ursaluna @ Flame Orb
- Ability: Guts
- Tera Type: Normal / Ghost
- EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
- Brave Nature
- IVs: 0 Spe
- - Facade
- - Headlong Rush
- - Swords Dance / Earthquake
- - Protect
Ursaluna's low Speed, great natural bulk, high Attack stat, and combination of Guts + STAB Facade make it a devastating wallbreaker under Trick Room. Facade becomes a 140-Base Power move when its Guts ability activates, allowing it to OHKO almost everything that doesn't resist it. Headlong Rush gives Ursaluna a powerful single-target Ground-type STAB option, allowing it to OHKO Pokémon that resist Facade such as Gholdengo, Kingambit, and Archaludon. Swords Dance allows Ursaluna to take advantage of free turns the opponent may give in an attempt to stall Trick Room. Alternatively, Earthquake could be run in the slot in case the user wants strong spread damage, but its partner-damaging effect and power being halved in Grassy Terrain are both huge drawbacks. Finally, Protect is mandatory on Ursaluna, as it allows it a free turn to activate its item while also protecting it from potential double attacks before Trick Room can go up. Flame Orb allows Ursaluna to safely activate its Guts ability while also providing itself with a Spore immunity. Ursaluna has two main Tera types: Tera Normal jacks up Ursaluna's Facade to insane heights, while Tera Ghost gives Ursaluna key immunities to Fake Out and otherwise super effective Fighting-type moves.
Other Options
An Adamant nature with 164 Speed EVs allows Ursaluna to outspeed faster Pokémon such as Ogerpon, Landorus, and Tornadus in Tailwind, although it sacrifices a good deal of bulk. Substitute can also be run to take advantage of turns where the opponent tries to stall Ursaluna out. Finally, Crunch can be used to threaten Sinistcha, which otherwise would wall it.
Teammates
Trick Room + Cleric
Both Sinistcha and Cresselia not only set up Trick Room but also help Ursaluna offset the burn damage that it takes every turn. Cresselia's Lunar Blessing not only heals Ursaluna for 25% of its health but also will stop it from taking burn damage due to its status-healing effect. Due to Cresselia's lower Speed under Trick Room, Ursaluna can attack and then get healed while also being at full power throughout Trick Room’s duration due to Flame Orb's activation happening at the end of every turn. Sinistcha offers 25% health restoration to Ursaluna when switching in due to its ability Hospitality and can heal Ursaluna with Life Dew. Also, both of these Trick Room setters allow Ursaluna to run Earthquake with minimal or no damage to its partner.
Trick Room + Cleric
The snow composition of Alolan Ninetales and Kyurem offers great defensive and offensive support. Alolan Ninetales's Aurora Veil allows Ursaluna to tank a great variety of super effective hits such as Rillaboom's Wood Hammer and Ogerpon-W's Ivy Cudgel, which can be the difference between getting a KO. Kyurem's offensive pressure with 100% accurate Blizzard as well as Freeze-Dry pairs greatly with Ursaluna's Ground-type STAB move, allowing this combination to hit almost everything for huge damage. Finally, snow can function both in and out of Trick Room, with Alolan Ninetales and Kyurem being dangerous out of it.
Kingambit
Kingambit is a great partner for Ursaluna due to its ability and great matchup against Grass- and Ice-types such as Rillaboom, Ogerpon-H, and Kyurem. Defiant allows Kingambit to take advantage of the Attack drops that are usually targeted towards Ursaluna. In return, Ursaluna decks the Pokémon that resist Kingambit's STAB combination such as Chi-Yu and Iron Hands.
Ursaluna-Bloodmoon
- Ursaluna-Bloodmoon @ Life Orb / Throat Spray / Assault Vest
- Ability: Mind's Eye
- EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
- IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Tera Type: Normal / Ghost / Grass
- Quiet Nature
- - Blood Moon
- - Hyper Voice
- - Earth Power
- - Protect / Vacuum Wave
Ursaluna-B is a dangerous special attacker thanks to its great bulk and the Mind's Eye ability allowing it to hit Ghost-types. Blood Moon is a single-target nuke that OHKOes everything that is not tanky or resists the move, although Blood Moon's 8 PP and inability to be used on consecutive turns mean it should be used carefully. Hyper Voice is Ursaluna-B's other Normal-type STAB move that, in exchange for a drop in power, is extremely spammable thanks to being a spread move with great neutral coverage. Earth Power is Ursaluna-B's Ground-type STAB move, allowing it to threaten Steel- and Rock-types that resist its Normal-type STAB moves such as Archaludon, Glimmora, and Kingambit. Throat Spray gives Ursaluna-B a one-time +1 boost to its Special Attack when it uses its spammable Hyper Voice, although it becomes much weaker when it switches; on the other hand, Life Orb gives Ursaluna-B a consistent boost in its damage output with the drawback of decreasing its HP with every attack. Tera Normal allows Ursaluna-B to greatly increase its offensive pressure thanks to its main moves being Blood Moon and Hyper Voice. Tera Ghost allows Ursaluna-B to be immune to Fake Out and the Fighting-type moves that would hit it super effectively. Finally, Tera Grass allows Ursaluna-B to become resistant to the Water- and Grass-type attacks that would hit it for high damage while also being immune to powder moves such as Spore and Rage Powder.
Other Options
With maximum Speed EVs and a Modest nature, can outspeed Chien-Pao under Tailwind. A Calm Mind set can be run to increase its wallbreaking potential and its mediocre Special Defense stat simultaneously, but it has trouble fitting all the moves it wants. An Assault Vest set can be run to improve Ursaluna-B's special bulk, and it allows Ursaluna-B to run Vacuum Wave to pick off any low-HP Pokémon. However, the loss of Protect is a huge issue and causes Ursaluna-B to be much more vulnerable on the field.
Teammates
Speed Control
Due to Ursaluna-B's higher Speed, it is able to take advantage of both Trick Room and Tailwind. Farigiraf offers Trick Room and can keep it away from priority such as Kingambit's Sucker Punch and Rillaboom's Grassy Glide with its ability Armor Tail. Tornadus can use priority Tailwind thanks to its ability Prankster while also having a strong spread move in Bleakwind Storm that complements Ursaluna-B's STAB Ground-type attacks.
Spread Attackers
All three of these Pokémon offer a spread attack that can combo with Ursaluna-B's Hyper Voice to output great spread damage. Iron Crown can deal great damage with Expanding Force when accompanied by Psychic Terrain. Regidrago has Dragon Energy, which can KO many Pokémon when at full power. Finally, Gholdengo has a powerful Make it Rain while also being immune to Fake Out or any status move that could potentially hamper it. These three Pokémon also have a positive matchup into Rillaboom, while Gholdengo and Iron Crown have excellent matchups into snow archetypes, allowing Ursaluna-B to be less pressured when on the field. Finally, Ursaluna-B's Ground-type STAB move can deal damage to some of the Steel-types that resist these attackers' spread attacks such as Kingambit, Gholdengo, and Archaludon.
Fire-types
All 3 of these Fire-types synergize very well with Ursaluna-B and can each offer something unique while also decking the Grass- and Ice-types that irk Ursaluna-B. Chi-Yu has massive firepower (pun intended) with its spread attack Heat Wave and also boosts it and Ursaluna's special attacking power with Chi-Yu's Beads of Ruin ability. Incineroar offers a strong Flare Blitz while also having a very deep support movepool, with some of its notable moves including Fake Out, Parting Shot, Knock Off, and Helping Hand. Ogerpon-H is a Fire-type that has a good matchup into Water-types such as Pelipper and Ogerpon-W, has a very good Speed tier, and can redirect potentially fatal attacks directed at Ursaluna-B with Follow Me.
Matchup Comparisons
Ursaluna
Pros
- Ursaluna, with its Flame Orb, hits much harder than Ursaluna-B, allowing it to achieve OHKOs on Pokémon that Ursaluna-B misses out on, such as Iron Hands and Rillaboom.
- Ursaluna's 130 / 105 / 80 bulk is a better distribution than Ursaluna-B's 113 / 120 / 65. This makes Ursaluna-B's better physical bulk barely noticeable, while Ursaluna's ability to take special attacks is much higher.
- Ursaluna's lower Speed allows it, in a worst-case scenario, to Speed tie with other base 50 Speed Pokémon under Trick Room such as Iron Hands and Kingambit.
- Finally, when Ursaluna's Flame Orb activates, it becomes immune to all forms of status, giving it measures against stalling tactics such as Spore and Toxic Spikes.
Cons
- Ursaluna is extremely weak to the methods used to neutralize physical attackers such as Intimidate spam and Rocky Helmet.
- Ursaluna can sometimes feel like a liability if either Trick Room cannot go off or it cannot find a safe turn to switch in and activate its Flame Orb.
- Each type in Ursaluna's STAB combination has a type that is immune to it, and this can cause the Ursaluna player to make bold or risky predictions in order for it to not be stonewalled.
- Ursaluna therefore has a limited window where it can put in some serious damage due to the relative ease the opposing player has in chunking Ursaluna's HP or limiting its opportunities to switch in at all.
Ursaluna-Bloodmoon
Pros
- Ursaluna-B, being a special attacker, makes it immune to the many stopgaps of physical attackers such as Intimidate and Rocky Helmet.
- Ursaluna-B immediately outputs its maximum amount of damage due to its preferred item being Life Orb and its most powerful STAB move in Blood Moon starting at 140 Base Power.
- Ursaluna-B's Speed tier allows it to be useful in both Trick Room and Tailwind, allowing it to be used in a lot more teams than just full or semi-Trick Room archetypes.
- Ursaluna-B's Hyper Voice becomes very spammable in conjunction with Mind's Eye's ignorance of Ghost-types' immunity to Normal-type attacks. This allows Ursaluna-B to not be affected by defensive switches from an opponent.
Cons
- Ursaluna-B's special bulk is straight up poor, causing it to crumple against strong super effective or even neutral special attacks such as Kyurem's Blizzard and Landorus's Earth Power.
- While not as bad as Ursaluna, Ursaluna-B's longevity is still questionable due to Life Orb cutting into Ursaluna-B's HP whenever it fires a devastating attack.
- Ursaluna-B's reliance on Blood Moon for high single-target damage can also make it somewhat of a risky proposition because a misfire can potentially make it a sitting duck.
- Finally, Ursaluna-B has a much weaker Ground-type STAB move in Earth Power, which could cause it to miss the OHKO on key threats such as Iron Hands and Raging Bolt.
Which Bear?
For more specialized purposes, normal Ursaluna stands out due to its higher output of power, but for more general purposes, Ursaluna-B is usually the better choice due to it being applicable to more types of teams. However, the bear to choose, if to choose a bear at all, is at the discretion of the teambuilder, and each bear's shining traits can serve the Trainer great if utilized effectively.
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