[overview]
**Draft order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price range**: 11-13 points
**Tera Price Range**: 13-14 points
**Overview**: Necrozma is one of the most versatile and unpredictable Pokemon in the game, but it can also be one of the most difficult to get use out of. With solid offensive stats, high bulk, and an incredibly deep movepool, Necrozma can fill a variety of roles, including physical setup attacker, offensive special attacker, and bulky utility. With Prism Armor, Necrozma doesn’t even fear the Dark- and Ghost-types that offensively send most Psychic-types packing—although its lacking coverage for Dark-types can become a problem without Tera. Necrozma is extremely customizable for any individual matchup, and the right Necrozma set can be a nightmare to handle in spite of its many flaws. But in a meta where disruption and revenge killers are everywhere, Necrozma's poor offensive typing, awkward Speed, and reliance on setup require a lot of creativity and support to get it to that legendary status.
Common Roles
========
**Setup Sweeper**: With good mixed offensive stats and a plethora of setup moves, Necrozma has plenty of ways to dismantle the opposing team after a turn of setting up. Dragon Dance can be run on both physical and special sets to boost speed, Calm Mind can boost its already-high Special Attack, and Iron Defense can keep Necrozma alive forever, making it a Stored Power sweeper worth fearing. Maybe you won't run any stat boosting moves at all, and let your foes do the work for you with Weakness Policy in Trick Room! By the time your opponent figures out what set you've decided to run, Necrozma will have already made light work of their team.
**Bulky Utility**: With excellent bulk assisted by Prism Armor, useful utility moves like Stealth Rock and Knock Off, and the coverage to hit just about anyone super effectively, Necrozma can be crafted into the perfect utility Pokemon for any matchup. Access to reliable recovery lets Necrozma stay alive for many turns while its solid offenses set it apart from garden-variety utility picks, keeping it as a threat even without boosts. Necrozma can reliably check and KO a specific threat, provide powerful Future Sights for its teammates, or simply supply dual screens and the occasional Trick Room.
**Wallbreaker**: Naturally high Special Attack, a strong STAB move in Photon Geyser, and the easy boosting potential of Meteor Beam allow Necrozma to be a strong special wallbreaker. Necrozma can act as a physical wallbreaker with Swords Dance well, with the added benefit of being able to hit Dark-types super effectively with physical coverage.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Photon Geyser, Psychic, Psyshock, Stored Power, Future Sight
**Setup moves**: Dragon Dance, Calm Mind, Swords Dance, Iron Defense, Meteor Beam, Trick Room
**Utility moves**: Stealth Rock, Knock Off, Psychic Fangs, Light Screen, Reflect, Moonlight, Morning Sun, Substitute
**Coverage**: Brick Break, Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Earth Power, Earthquake, Flash Cannon, Heat Wave, Iron Head, Outrage, Power Gem, Rock Slide, Shadow Claw, Stone Edge, Tera Blast, X-Scissor
Niche Moves
========
**Rest**: Rest, especially when combined with a Chesto Berry, can be used to keep bulkier Necrozma sets alive while allowing it to recover from status.
Common Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Necrozma is perhaps the best Weakness Policy user in the format, being weak to common moves such as Knock Off and U-Turn, yet taking reduced damage from them thanks to Prism Armor. This pairs excellently with both Dragon Dance and Trick Room sets, letting Necrozma boost to terrifying power levels with little setup if the foe attempts to hit it super effectively!
**Lum Berry**: No Necrozma set likes being put on Toxic’s timer or going on slow mode with paralysis, and physical sets can't stand the damage decrease from a burn. Lum Berry deals with all these problems, meaning Necrozma can set up against status-spreaders without fear.
**Power Herb**: Power Herb in tandem with Meteor Beam gives Necrozma access to an extremely strong one-time attack and Special Attack boost!
**Leftovers**: Necrozma’s solid bulk only becomes harder to beat when it’s using Leftovers, especially on Stored Power sets.
Niche Items
========
**Mental Herb**: Taunt and Encore can be a real pain in the neck for Necrozma when it’s trying to set up, but Mental Herb can easily negate such countermeasures.
**Expert Belt**: With so much coverage at its disposal, Necrozma is guaranteed to hit almost any threat super-effectively and can therefore make solid use out of Expert Belt.
**Sitrus Berry**: Sitrus Berry lets Necrozma run a setup move and three attack sets without worrying about getting into the red.
**Choice items**: With a very strong STAB move and a lot of coverage, Necrozma can utilize any Choice item to up its immediate threat level. Choice Scarf somewhat addresses Necrozma’s speed issue, while Choice Band and Choice Specs mean no setup is required to start poking holes in the opposing team.
**Resistance Berries**: Not even the strongest super-effective attacks will be able to break the combination of Prism Armor and a resistance berry on Necrozma, granting it extra setup turns or unexpected reversals!
**Light Clay**: Necrozma isn’t your typical dual screens setter, but with reliable recovery and access to both Light Screen and Reflect, it can get the job done.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: In games where entry hazards seem hard to avoid, or where Necrozma will be pivoting in frequently, Heavy-Duty Boots can offer a lot of value.
**Rocky Helmet**: Necrozma's solid defensive profile against many physical attackers allows it to use Rocky Helmet to punish contact moves.
**Room Service**: Room Service is useful in the not-uncommon case where Necrozma is too fast in Trick Room and needs a way to underspeed certain foes.
Tera
========
Necrozma's pricing can make it an awkward choice for Tera Captain at times, but that's not because it struggles to use the mechanic; if you're not looking to take a top-tier captain, Necrozma is a prime choice! Necrozma uses Terastallization on a matchup-dependent basis, setting up on or countering specific foes, but a few types appear more often than most: Tera Fairy complements its base typing while giving Necrozma access to Fairy coverage it otherwise lacks, Tera Fighting gives it an alternative way to hit Dark- and Steel-types, and Tera Steel and Poison are all-around good defensive types that grant an immunity to Toxic. Last but not least, Tera Fire boosts its most common coverage move, Heat Wave, to levels that could burn the sky itself!
Draft Strategy
========
Necrozma's best quality is its unpredictability: on a well-made team, your opponent will often have no idea if Necrozma will be sweeper or support until it's too late. Necrozma can make for a very strong wincon—just ask any Alolan—but its average Speed, reliance on setup, and bad matchup against common Dark-types makes it unreliable as a team's sole sweeper; likewise, its mediocre typing and weakness to status means it shouldn't be your only utility Pokemon either. Drafting it after a solid enabler or alternate wincon takes a lot of pressure off of Necrozma, letting it do all its jobs much more efficiently!
**Alternative Wincons**: Pairing Necrozma with alternative wincons such as Greninja or Gouging Fire is a must: those sweepers allow Necrozma dig into its arsenal of supportive moves more freely, and they offer more paths to victory in matches where setup Necrozma sets struggle. If you're aiming to make Necrozma a Tera Captain, consider pairing Necrozma with similarly-priced captains that do better against disruption like Iron Hands and Keldeo!
**Speed Control**: Even with Dragon Dance, Necrozma is not very fast and has a hard time dealing with some of the quicker Pokemon in Draft. Naturally fast Pokemon such as Iron Bundle and Meowscarada help bridge the speed gap, while priority attackers such as Palafin and Scizor can go first regardless of how fast the foe may be.
**Dark-type Checks**: Necrozma has ways of dealing with many Dark-types on its own, but its greatest strength is its unpredictability, and making it deal with Dark-types all by itself is the fastest way to rob Necrozma of that strength. Fairy-types like Primarina and Fighting-types like Quaquaval appreciate Necrozma luring in Dark-types for them to take advantage of, and in turn, Necrozma handles any pesky Poison- or Psychic-types that they might dislike.
**Grounded Poison-types**: Decent grounded Poison-types make good partners for Necrozma for several reasons. Many of them can lure in Psychic-types for Necrozma to set up on, and they remove the Toxic Spikes that would otherwise put it on a timer. With a consistent grounded Poison-type like Fezandipiti, Pecharunt, or Sneasler, both them and Necrozma will find their matches a lot less toxic.
**Entry Hazard Setters**: Necrozma doesn't want to run Stealth Rock every game, as its sweeping sets are often much more potent. Decent Stealth Rock users like Landorus-T, Ting-Lu, and Tinkaton free up that move slot for it, letting it run much-needed coverage or recovery.
Checks and Counters
========
**Revenge Killers**: Necrozma isn’t an easy Pokemon to counter, but revenge killers are the best at dealing with it consistently. Even after a Dragon Dance, Necrozma’s middling speed means it still falls short of common Choice Scarf users like Meowscarada and Gholdengo, while non-Dragon Dance sets can end up at the mercy of faster wallbreakers like Chi-Yu regardless of what item they're holding.
**Disruption**: Necrozma can take a few turns to get going, especially when acting as a wincon. During that time, if it’s locked into a move via Encore, Choice-locked after a foe uses Trick, or hit by an unprompted Yawn, Necrozma can be forced out before it's able to do much damage.
**Bulky Dark-types**: Necrozma has coverage to hit Dark-types super effectively, but reality sets in when you realize that "coverage" is Brick Break and X-Scissor. Dark-types like Ting-Lu and Mandibuzz can force Necrozma to run specific sets to beat them, while bulky Tera Captains like Annihilape can go Tera Dark and stonewall Necrozma sets that don't see it coming.
**Status**: Poison, burn, and paralysis are all crippling to various Necrozma sets. Sure, Trick Room sets might not mind paralysis, and only physical sets really care about dodging a burn, but Toxic is a status that keeps any Necrozma set up at night; the added chip puts a lot of pressure on Necrozma to forgo the setup it usually performs, making it a lot easier to manage.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/big-pharma.657717
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scionicle.599989/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/e-man.617175/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ken.594478/
**Draft order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price range**: 11-13 points
**Tera Price Range**: 13-14 points
**Overview**: Necrozma is one of the most versatile and unpredictable Pokemon in the game, but it can also be one of the most difficult to get use out of. With solid offensive stats, high bulk, and an incredibly deep movepool, Necrozma can fill a variety of roles, including physical setup attacker, offensive special attacker, and bulky utility. With Prism Armor, Necrozma doesn’t even fear the Dark- and Ghost-types that offensively send most Psychic-types packing—although its lacking coverage for Dark-types can become a problem without Tera. Necrozma is extremely customizable for any individual matchup, and the right Necrozma set can be a nightmare to handle in spite of its many flaws. But in a meta where disruption and revenge killers are everywhere, Necrozma's poor offensive typing, awkward Speed, and reliance on setup require a lot of creativity and support to get it to that legendary status.
Common Roles
========
**Setup Sweeper**: With good mixed offensive stats and a plethora of setup moves, Necrozma has plenty of ways to dismantle the opposing team after a turn of setting up. Dragon Dance can be run on both physical and special sets to boost speed, Calm Mind can boost its already-high Special Attack, and Iron Defense can keep Necrozma alive forever, making it a Stored Power sweeper worth fearing. Maybe you won't run any stat boosting moves at all, and let your foes do the work for you with Weakness Policy in Trick Room! By the time your opponent figures out what set you've decided to run, Necrozma will have already made light work of their team.
**Bulky Utility**: With excellent bulk assisted by Prism Armor, useful utility moves like Stealth Rock and Knock Off, and the coverage to hit just about anyone super effectively, Necrozma can be crafted into the perfect utility Pokemon for any matchup. Access to reliable recovery lets Necrozma stay alive for many turns while its solid offenses set it apart from garden-variety utility picks, keeping it as a threat even without boosts. Necrozma can reliably check and KO a specific threat, provide powerful Future Sights for its teammates, or simply supply dual screens and the occasional Trick Room.
**Wallbreaker**: Naturally high Special Attack, a strong STAB move in Photon Geyser, and the easy boosting potential of Meteor Beam allow Necrozma to be a strong special wallbreaker. Necrozma can act as a physical wallbreaker with Swords Dance well, with the added benefit of being able to hit Dark-types super effectively with physical coverage.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Photon Geyser, Psychic, Psyshock, Stored Power, Future Sight
**Setup moves**: Dragon Dance, Calm Mind, Swords Dance, Iron Defense, Meteor Beam, Trick Room
**Utility moves**: Stealth Rock, Knock Off, Psychic Fangs, Light Screen, Reflect, Moonlight, Morning Sun, Substitute
**Coverage**: Brick Break, Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Earth Power, Earthquake, Flash Cannon, Heat Wave, Iron Head, Outrage, Power Gem, Rock Slide, Shadow Claw, Stone Edge, Tera Blast, X-Scissor
Niche Moves
========
**Rest**: Rest, especially when combined with a Chesto Berry, can be used to keep bulkier Necrozma sets alive while allowing it to recover from status.
Common Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Necrozma is perhaps the best Weakness Policy user in the format, being weak to common moves such as Knock Off and U-Turn, yet taking reduced damage from them thanks to Prism Armor. This pairs excellently with both Dragon Dance and Trick Room sets, letting Necrozma boost to terrifying power levels with little setup if the foe attempts to hit it super effectively!
**Lum Berry**: No Necrozma set likes being put on Toxic’s timer or going on slow mode with paralysis, and physical sets can't stand the damage decrease from a burn. Lum Berry deals with all these problems, meaning Necrozma can set up against status-spreaders without fear.
**Power Herb**: Power Herb in tandem with Meteor Beam gives Necrozma access to an extremely strong one-time attack and Special Attack boost!
**Leftovers**: Necrozma’s solid bulk only becomes harder to beat when it’s using Leftovers, especially on Stored Power sets.
Niche Items
========
**Mental Herb**: Taunt and Encore can be a real pain in the neck for Necrozma when it’s trying to set up, but Mental Herb can easily negate such countermeasures.
**Expert Belt**: With so much coverage at its disposal, Necrozma is guaranteed to hit almost any threat super-effectively and can therefore make solid use out of Expert Belt.
**Sitrus Berry**: Sitrus Berry lets Necrozma run a setup move and three attack sets without worrying about getting into the red.
**Choice items**: With a very strong STAB move and a lot of coverage, Necrozma can utilize any Choice item to up its immediate threat level. Choice Scarf somewhat addresses Necrozma’s speed issue, while Choice Band and Choice Specs mean no setup is required to start poking holes in the opposing team.
**Resistance Berries**: Not even the strongest super-effective attacks will be able to break the combination of Prism Armor and a resistance berry on Necrozma, granting it extra setup turns or unexpected reversals!
**Light Clay**: Necrozma isn’t your typical dual screens setter, but with reliable recovery and access to both Light Screen and Reflect, it can get the job done.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: In games where entry hazards seem hard to avoid, or where Necrozma will be pivoting in frequently, Heavy-Duty Boots can offer a lot of value.
**Rocky Helmet**: Necrozma's solid defensive profile against many physical attackers allows it to use Rocky Helmet to punish contact moves.
**Room Service**: Room Service is useful in the not-uncommon case where Necrozma is too fast in Trick Room and needs a way to underspeed certain foes.
Tera
========
Necrozma's pricing can make it an awkward choice for Tera Captain at times, but that's not because it struggles to use the mechanic; if you're not looking to take a top-tier captain, Necrozma is a prime choice! Necrozma uses Terastallization on a matchup-dependent basis, setting up on or countering specific foes, but a few types appear more often than most: Tera Fairy complements its base typing while giving Necrozma access to Fairy coverage it otherwise lacks, Tera Fighting gives it an alternative way to hit Dark- and Steel-types, and Tera Steel and Poison are all-around good defensive types that grant an immunity to Toxic. Last but not least, Tera Fire boosts its most common coverage move, Heat Wave, to levels that could burn the sky itself!
Draft Strategy
========
Necrozma's best quality is its unpredictability: on a well-made team, your opponent will often have no idea if Necrozma will be sweeper or support until it's too late. Necrozma can make for a very strong wincon—just ask any Alolan—but its average Speed, reliance on setup, and bad matchup against common Dark-types makes it unreliable as a team's sole sweeper; likewise, its mediocre typing and weakness to status means it shouldn't be your only utility Pokemon either. Drafting it after a solid enabler or alternate wincon takes a lot of pressure off of Necrozma, letting it do all its jobs much more efficiently!
**Alternative Wincons**: Pairing Necrozma with alternative wincons such as Greninja or Gouging Fire is a must: those sweepers allow Necrozma dig into its arsenal of supportive moves more freely, and they offer more paths to victory in matches where setup Necrozma sets struggle. If you're aiming to make Necrozma a Tera Captain, consider pairing Necrozma with similarly-priced captains that do better against disruption like Iron Hands and Keldeo!
**Speed Control**: Even with Dragon Dance, Necrozma is not very fast and has a hard time dealing with some of the quicker Pokemon in Draft. Naturally fast Pokemon such as Iron Bundle and Meowscarada help bridge the speed gap, while priority attackers such as Palafin and Scizor can go first regardless of how fast the foe may be.
**Dark-type Checks**: Necrozma has ways of dealing with many Dark-types on its own, but its greatest strength is its unpredictability, and making it deal with Dark-types all by itself is the fastest way to rob Necrozma of that strength. Fairy-types like Primarina and Fighting-types like Quaquaval appreciate Necrozma luring in Dark-types for them to take advantage of, and in turn, Necrozma handles any pesky Poison- or Psychic-types that they might dislike.
**Grounded Poison-types**: Decent grounded Poison-types make good partners for Necrozma for several reasons. Many of them can lure in Psychic-types for Necrozma to set up on, and they remove the Toxic Spikes that would otherwise put it on a timer. With a consistent grounded Poison-type like Fezandipiti, Pecharunt, or Sneasler, both them and Necrozma will find their matches a lot less toxic.
**Entry Hazard Setters**: Necrozma doesn't want to run Stealth Rock every game, as its sweeping sets are often much more potent. Decent Stealth Rock users like Landorus-T, Ting-Lu, and Tinkaton free up that move slot for it, letting it run much-needed coverage or recovery.
Checks and Counters
========
**Revenge Killers**: Necrozma isn’t an easy Pokemon to counter, but revenge killers are the best at dealing with it consistently. Even after a Dragon Dance, Necrozma’s middling speed means it still falls short of common Choice Scarf users like Meowscarada and Gholdengo, while non-Dragon Dance sets can end up at the mercy of faster wallbreakers like Chi-Yu regardless of what item they're holding.
**Disruption**: Necrozma can take a few turns to get going, especially when acting as a wincon. During that time, if it’s locked into a move via Encore, Choice-locked after a foe uses Trick, or hit by an unprompted Yawn, Necrozma can be forced out before it's able to do much damage.
**Bulky Dark-types**: Necrozma has coverage to hit Dark-types super effectively, but reality sets in when you realize that "coverage" is Brick Break and X-Scissor. Dark-types like Ting-Lu and Mandibuzz can force Necrozma to run specific sets to beat them, while bulky Tera Captains like Annihilape can go Tera Dark and stonewall Necrozma sets that don't see it coming.
**Status**: Poison, burn, and paralysis are all crippling to various Necrozma sets. Sure, Trick Room sets might not mind paralysis, and only physical sets really care about dodging a burn, but Toxic is a status that keeps any Necrozma set up at night; the added chip puts a lot of pressure on Necrozma to forgo the setup it usually performs, making it a lot easier to manage.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/big-pharma.657717
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scionicle.599989/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/e-man.617175/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ken.594478/
Last edited:
