Pokémon Lunala - OU Material?

Scattered mind

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While we don't know what stats Lunala has, nor how the metagame will look like in SM, it seems like Lunala has some chances to be the second legendary mascot to be available in OU. The main reason for that is the type combination. Ghost/Psychic has 2 x4 weaknesses in Dark and Ghost, which are amazingly common. In particular, Pursuit can be extremely dangerous for it, as it traps Lunala and hit it severely. On the other hand, Lunala still has an amazing ability to handle these moves at least when it is at 100% HP. (basically, it's Multiscale).
If Lunala is not enough bulky, it might find itself in OU:

252 SpA Life Orb Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Multiscale Lunala: 343-406 (100.5 - 119%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(Lunala: HP:100 S.Def:100)

252 SpA Life Orb Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Multiscale Lunala: 343-406 (77.7 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
(Lunala: HP:150 S.Def:100)

*took Gengar since it is fighting Lunala in the trailer :p

EDIT: LUNALA'S STATS AND MOVEPOOL:

HP: 137
ATK:113
DEF: 89
S.ATK: 137
S.DEF: 107
SPE: 97

Notable moves:

Moongeist Beam
Cosmic Power
Hypnosis
Air Slash
Shadow Ball
Moonlight
Night Daze
Moonblast
Phantom Force
Wide Guard
Work Up
Psyshock
Calm Mind
Roar
Hidden Power
Ice Beam
Light Screen
Roost
Solar Beam
Thunderbolt
Psychic
Reflect
Focus Blast
Will-O-Wisp
Shadow Claw
Thunder Wave
Swagger
Sleep Talk
Rest
Substitute
Trick Room
 
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It's way too early to make calls like this without even knowing its stats and movepool.

Of course a Pokemon, Multiscale or not, is going to take lots of damage from a 4x super effective move. That's not an effective way of showing its ability to take hits.
 
What PP said, it's hard to say for now without stats.

However, movepool is something I might have a guess on. Lunala might not need to run away from Dark types that badly as you say... assuming it learns Moonblast. Hey, it's the mascot of Pokemon Moon, it has the looks and lore too, which I think makes it likely that it can learn the move.

Of course it still depends on whether it has the speed to strike first or the defenses to take the hit before striking back with super effective damage. The latter is the more likely scenario given its Ability as we currently know.
 
It makes sense that they will give Lunala Moonblast. However, dark and ghost type moves are very common on Pokemon from different types. So many Pokemon have access to Knock Off and Shadow Ball. Lunala needs to be really good. That ability is not that good to save it btw, as it is most of the times a one time use ability in a battle because of all the hazards.
 
It DOES seem to have a lot going against it...

- Lunala's Multiscale is broken by all forms of hazard, rather than Dragonite and Lugia who are only touched by Stealth Rock.
- As already pointed out, it has a x4 weakness to the very spamable Knock Off. The Pursuit weakness might not be a big deal if it's faster than Weavile and can OHKO TTar, assuming that gen 7 doesn't bestow upon us any good Pursuit users.
- Doesn't seem to mesh well with the current hazard removers in the tier barring Excadrill. Starmie and Latios compound the poor Psychic typing. Might lead to very predictable team builds.

I can imagine a Hoopa-U case where it has awful defensive typing but a very strong STAB that's just enough to tip it over the edge.

And yeah of course we don't have many details, but it's still fun to speculate.
 
So... we now know Lunala's stats! (and everything else). This thing is scary. Great movepool, stats and ability that compensate the bad typing.

Stats and movepool will be added to the OP

Some calcs:

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Shadow Shield Lunala: 117-140 (24.4 - 29.2%) -- 99.5% chance to 4HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Lunala: 234-281 (48.9 - 58.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Lunala: 592-700 (123.8 - 146.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Lunala: 460-544 (96.2 - 113.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Shadow Shield Lunala: 230-272 (48.1 - 56.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and sandstorm damage
252 Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Shadow Shield Lunala: 296-350 (61.9 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and sandstorm damage

It still got relatively low speed, but it is fairly bulky.
Oh, and here is a Sun and Moon damage calculator

Don't forget to change the level to 100 and singles if you want to calc for OU.
 
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