Shadow Ursaluna
Attack
Defense
Stamina
Best Movesets
Analysis
With the Shadow boost, Ursaluna actually has a fair presence on the field as a potentially powerful Ground Type attacker. However, its lack of a Ground Type Fast Move leaves it high-and-dry, and keeps it from living up to its true potential.
Offense
- Tackle benefits from STAB and is better for neutral fights. However it can't benefit from a Super Effective multiplier.
- Rock Smash is a poor move, but synergizes better with Ursaluna's Ground-type role.
- High Horsepower* is a move limited to Community Day events and Elite TMs, and is required for optimal performance.
- Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Swift, Trailblaze, Play Rough and Aerial Ace are all not good for Shadow Ursaluna to use on offense.
Defense
- Rock Smash is better for defense thanks to its much stronger base power.
- Tackle is quite weak for defense.
- Fire Punch is great for taking down Grass Types that could prey on Ursaluna
- Thunder Punch can blast Water Types that would hit Shadow Ursaluna's Ground typing
- Ice Punch doesn't really have much direct counter-coverage, but it's note-worthy for taking down the powerful Dragon Types that are very common for gym clearing due to their high power and outstanding neutral coverage.
- Aerial Ace hits common Fighting Types that would counter Ursaluna while also taking down Grass Type counters.
- Play Rough is also nice, with its solid neutral coverage.
- Trailblaze is nice, but it falls behind the other options.
- High Horsepower* hits hard, but Shadow Ursaluna probably won't get to it.
- Swift is too weak to be genuinely worth considering on Defense,
Tackle is now a decently viable move thanks to an energy buff from the Season of Light update. It benefits from STAB and offers average damage output and energy generation. Rock Smash is a very bad move for PvP despite its useful typing.
Ursaluna has a wide and relatively customizable Charged movepool. The combination of the low-cost Swift and high damage High Horsepower is often the most common. Both moves benefit from STAB and have good coverage together. However, players have the option to be creative when using Ursaluna to target specific enemies. Thunder Punch is useful for hitting Gyarados, a common Pokemon in Master League Premier, for instance, while Ice Punch smashes Dragons. Trailblaze can turn Ursaluna into a sweeping threat through its Attack boosts. Fire Punch sees the least use out of its cheap Charged Attack options due to the lack of good targets. Return is an extremely potent nuke, but Ursaluna lacks a good cheap coverage option to pair it with.
Ursaluna's performance is lackluster in PvP due to multiple common weaknesses, unimpressive bulk, and a much needed improvement to its moveset. Prior to its release, one of the best scenarios for Ursaluna was to obtain Shadow Claw as a Fast Move option. Unfortunately, Tackle and Rock Smash simply don't cut it for Ursaluna, with most matchups against the meta ended up as losses.
