CERULEDGE STRATEGY IN COMPETITIVE POKÉMON

The Pokemon-exclusive Pokemon Purple Ceruledge isn’t just one of the best designs of the ninth generation; it has great potential for  Competitive Pokémon . With a good combination of types, good stats, and the potential to become a hyper-doped beast thanks to its ability, we have a Pokémon that will surely not leave you indifferent. It is also another of the Paldea Pokémon with an exclusive movement that gives it a unique personality and playability.

Let’s see how we can play this Pokémon with a combo that you will surely love and can give you victories from the first turn. Ready? Let’s go to the mess

? CERULEDGE STATS

His stats add up to a total of 525 points , pretty good. Let’s see its distribution:

• Health: 75.
• Attack: 125.
• Defense: 80.
• Special Attack: 60.
• Special Defense: 100.
• Speed: 85.

We started at least good. Ceruledge has only 75 Health and 80 Defense, somewhat weak defensively, though he does have 100 in Special Defense (and many special attackers are types he’s weak against).

125 in Attack is nonsense and we will see that with its exclusive movement it will be decisive.

His Speed ​​is a bit low for a sweeper, so controlling the Speed ​​of the game will be key.

TYPE, RESISTANCES AND WEAKNESSES

Ceruledge is a Ghost Fire-type just like Chandelure , which gives it the following weaknesses and resistances:

• He is immune to Normal and Fighting.
• It is resistant to Fire, Grass, Ice, Poison, Steel, and Fairy.
• It is very resistant to Bug.
• It is weak to Water, Ground, Rock, Ghost, and Dark.

2 immunities is always good news, although in this case the most important is his immunity to Fighting. Thanks to this we will be able to protect Pokémon like Tyranitar when it is going to receive a blow from Pokémon like Annihilape .

It has 7 resistances, being its resistance to Bug on both sides (we will receive 1/4 damage of this type) and although it is a very rare type, it will help us to protect our Meowscarada (with its x4 weakness to this type) . Resistances to Steel, Fairy, and Grass types are tremendous because of their abundance in competitive.

5 weaknesses are not few and are very dangerous types. Let’s see some examples:

• Water : Water is one of the most dangerous types in competitive and Pokémon like Dracovish or Quaquaval are a danger.
• Earth : Although it is usually a more present type as coverage, do not forget Pokémon like Garchomp or Excadrill (which in sand storm is very fast).
• Rock : Again a more present type in coverages and eye with Rock Trap. Even so, Pokémon like Klawf or Ferropuas (Tyranitar Paradox).
• Ghost : A problematic type due to its Speed, where Pokémon like Dragapult outperform it by far.
• Dark : Generation 9 introduces several Dark-type Pokémon that are very dangerous for our Ceruledge. Special attention to Bramaluna (Salamence Paradox) and Umbreon (with his Foul Play).

CERULEDGE’S ABILITIES

2 abilities, although one is clearly superior:

ABSORBS FIRE

It makes the Pokémon immune to Fire-type movements and in case of receiving an attack of this type, it boosts the Fire-type attacks of our Pokémon by 50%.

It is not a useless ability, since it gives us an immunity that boosts our damage in case of predicting an attack and making a good switch, but its Hidden Ability is much better.

BRITTLE ARMOR (HIDDEN ABILITY)

When the Pokémon takes physical damage, its Defense will go down one level and its Speed ​​will go up one level. Multi-hit moves (Fury Attack, Pin Missile…etc) will trigger this ability every time they hit.

This ability makes up for Ceruledge’s low Speed ​​and gives us a very nice looking VGC combo. We show it to you below, in the Strategies for Ceruledge section.

IVS, EVS AND NATURE

The perfect Iv’s and classic Ev’s:

• EV’s : 252 in Attack, 252 in Speed ​​and 4 in Health. Easy, simple and for the whole family.
• Nature : We have 2 options; for Singles I recommend Cheerful Nature (+Speed, -Special Attack), but for Doubles VGC we will use Firm (+Attack, -Special Attack) since we can control the speed in more ways and thus activate our combo.

RECOMMENDED ITEM

These are the objects that we recommend for Ceruledge:

• Vidasfera : Enhances the damage produced by 30% and damages our Pokémon for 10% of its life. It gives us pure damage in exchange for losing survivability. If we do not need it in another Pokémon it is a very good option
• Choice Scarf : Increases the Pokémon’s Speed ​​by 50%, but forces us to use only one movement. This item is very useful in Singles, where the Speed ​​of our Ceruledge will surprise you.
• Choice Tape : Personally it is the one we like the least, although if we have the 2 previous objects placed on other Pokémon it will give us really high damage. Works like the bandana but increases physical damage.
• Insurance Weakness : This item may not seem good for a defensively weak Pokémon, but we will see how we use it in VGC Doubles with our combo.

LAMENTO SWORD (BITTER BLADE): ITS EXCLUSIVE MOVEMENT

• Type: Fire.
• Physical.
• Power: 90.
• Precision: 100.
• Effect: Heals 50% of the damage dealt.

This movement is really good, healing us a lot of life, which helps to improve our Pokémon’s low survivability.

BEST MOVES FOR CERULEDGE

These are the movements that we most recommend for Ceruledge:

• Wailing Sword : STAB Favored Fire as we have seen above. It is very effective against Steel, Bug, Ice and Grass. This move can destroy Pokemon like Rillaboom , Zacian , or Meowscarada for example.
• Phantom Strike : Phantom STAB, Physical, 90 Power and 100% Accuracy. The Pokémon will disappear for one turn and will be affected only by weather effects (sandstorm and snow). It then appears to hit (cannot be avoided by Protection or Detection). We can dodge hits from faster Pokémon with this move if we use it correctly, although if we use it crazy it can leave us sold. It will be very effective against Armarouge and Skeledirge for example .
• Fel Shadow : Ghost STAB, Physical, 40 Potency, 100% Accuracy. Priority attack that will help us to finish off Pokémon before they hit us.
• Point Blank : Fighting, Physical, 120 Power and 100 Accuracy. After hitting the Pokémon loses it sees its Defense and Special Defense reduced by 1 level. It’s our coverage for Steel, Ice, Normal, Rock, and Dark types. We cover many of them with Fire, but we have an answer for 2 of our weaknesses, Dark and Rock. This way we can hit Pokémon like Kingambit (the evolution of Bisharp) or Coalossal hard .
• Iron Head : Steel, Physical, 80 power, 100% accuracy and a 10% chance to fear the opponent (preventing them from attacking). It is a good cover for the Fairies if we don’t have another, as it does very effective damage to them, as well as Rock and Ice. We recommend you over A Bocajarro, it hits much more and covers more Types. But it can save you against Pokemon like Togekiss .
• Wisp Fire : Fire, Status, 85% accuracy. This move burns the opponent, reducing their physical damage by 50% (due to the burning state). If we don’t have another Pokémon that carries it, it can be very surprising for the opponent.
• Sword Dance : The Pokémon raises its Attack by 2 levels. We will use this move for Singles, where if we predict a switch and buff ourselves we will be very powerful.

CERULEDGE STRATEGIES

This fanboy ghost of Edward Scissorhands can be devastating. Initially we think that it is a Pokémon more focused on Singles, although with the combo that we propose it can sweep a team alone in Doubles VGC:

CERULEDGE ATTACKER/SWEEPER (SINGLES)

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: 252 Attack, 4 Defense, 252 Speed.
• Nature: Cheerful.
• Item: Election Scarf / Life Orb / Election Ribbon.
• Skill: Brittle Armor.
• Movements:
  • Lament Sword.
  • Phantom Strike/Fel Shadow.
  • Point blank.
  • Sword Dance/Fatuous Fire.

A fairly classic set and use for a sweeper. The key is to place our Ceruledge when we are going to receive a physical blow that is not very effective . This will activate the ability, increasing our Speed ​​and turning our Pokémon into a very dangerous sweeper.

Fel Shadow can come in handy against very fast Ghost Pokémon, but it does less damage than Ghost Strike (which is harder to use correctly).

The choice between Sword Dance and Wildfire is up to taste, but Sword Dance if we have activated our ability and force the opponent to change, they can turn Ceruledge into Thanos. in just 2 turns.

CERULEDGE + BEATING, THE DOPED (DOUBLES VGC)

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: 188 Health, 252 Attack, 56 Defense and 12 Speed.
• Nature: Firm.
• Object: Insurance Weakness.
• Skill: Brittle Armor.
• Movements:
  • Lament Sword.
  • Fel Shadow/Phantom Strike.
  • Point blank.
  • Protection.

This set is amazing. We take a Pokémon with Ceruledge that learns Beatdown (we recommend Maushold with his Compiescolta ability to protect our Ceruledge), it is important that it be faster than our Ceruledge. We hit ourselves, activating Safe Weakness raising our Attack to +2 and also activating our ability increasing our Speed ​​from 1 to 6 levels (it will rarely be 1). With only 2 levels of Speed ​​we already passed Dragapult max Happy Speed.

Keep an eye out for a Lure from the opponent that will make our Beat Up movement go to the opponent, eliminating our combo.

CERULEDGE TERACRYSTALLIZATION

• Teracrystallization: Fire.

We’ll use the extra damage in Teracrystallization to make our Wailing Sword heal us even more, which can be impossible for our opponent to deal with if we have our stats up. Be very careful with Pokémon that can throw us, especially the aforementioned Dracovish.

HOW TO DEFEAT CERULEDGE AND COUNTERS

Ceruledge needs to get its Speed ​​up or it won’t be able to hit sooner and being a low defensive Pokémon this is paramount. Let’s see how we can deal with it:

• Fog : This move removes all stat variances that have occurred, removing any Speed ​​or Attack buffs Ceruledge has. Clodsire and Toxapex are great options for this move.
• Knock him out in one hit : Even though he can raise his Speed ​​and heal with his signature move, there are Pokémon he doesn’t have a good response to and can knock him out in one hit. Hero Form Palafin, Quaquaval, and Garchomp are very good at taking down the Ghost Sword Pokémon.