[overview]
**Draft Order**: Early round 3 onwards
**Price Range**: 15-16 points
**Overview**: Necrozma is a jack-of-all-trades Pokemon that can take advantage of both of its attacking stats with various ways of setting up and its supportive moveset thanks to its defensive stats and ability. While its Speed stat is poor for offensive sets, it can make up for it by being both a usable Trick Room and Rock Polish user depending on the situation. Its set unpredictability and access to a wide variety of coverage moves make it a fantastic secondary choice for a Z-Captain. Although it can be well-tailored for most matchups, it can still struggle with fitting four moves, leaving it vulnerable to some of its checks.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Setup Sweeper**: Thanks to its great natural defensive capabilities, Necrozma serves as a fantastic setup sweeper with access to Swords Dance, Calm Mind, and Rock Polish + Weakness Policy.
**Offensive Utility**: Boasting a naturally good offensive profile, Necrozma can use its utility moves like Stealth Rock and Knock Off to disrupt its foes while still dishing out substantial damage.
**Defensive Utility**: Leaning more into Necrozma's defenses, it can be a Toxic staller or spread paralysis to its foes with Thunder Wave while using Moonlight to maintain its own longevity.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Photon Geyser, Psyshock, Stored Power
**Setup Moves**: Autotomize, Calm Mind, Iron Defense, Rock Polish, Swords Dance
**Utility Moves**: Brick Break, Knock Off, Light Screen, Moonlight, Morning Sun, Reflect, Stealth Rock, Substitute, Thunder Wave, Toxic, Trick Room
**Coverage**: Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Earth Power, Earthquake, Flash Cannon, Heat Wave, Hidden Power, Iron Head, Night Slash, Outrage, Power Gem, Rock Blast, Rock Slide, Shadow Claw, Signal Beam, Stone Edge, X-Scissor
Niche Moves
========
**Solar Beam**: Necrozma struggles with breaking through bulky Water-types that want to put it on a timer with Toxic, so Solar Beam + Grassium Z or Power Herb can be an effective way of removing them.
Common Items
========
**Z-Crystals**: Necrozma can use a wide variety of Z-Crystals effectively, including Groundium and Firium Z to easier break through Steel-types, Psychium Z to give it a stronger one-time STAB move, and even Buginium and Fightinium Z to beat Dark-types.
**Weakness Policy**: Thanks to Prism Armor, Necrozma can tank most super effective attacks with relative ease, making Weakness Policy an extremely safe option on setup sets.
**Pinch Berries**: Necrozma is very rarely OHKOed, meaning it usually has to be slowly chipped down, making it a very reliable user of pinch Berries. It should be noted that Necrozma is prone to being hit with Knock Off, so avoiding that is important in preserving its longevity.
**Leftovers**: Being a very bulky Pokemon, Necrozma can take advantage of the passive healing of Leftovers very well.
**Lum Berry**: Often, the opponent's best way to deal with Necrozma is affecting it with a status condition, so Lum Berry can be used to give it an extra turn to set up.
Niche Items
========
**Rocky Helmet**: In matchups where Necrozma acts as a bulky Psychic-type, Rocky Helmet can be used to get consistent chip on Pokemon that rely on contact moves such as Mega Gallade and Mega Medicham.
**Damage-boosting Items**: While Necrozma prefers to boost its damage via setup, it can give itself more immediate power with the likes of Choice Specs and Expert Belt.
**Resistance Berries**: Despite having mitigation to super effective moves built in thanks to its ability, Necrozma can still benefit from reducing that damage further with resistance Berries.
Draft Strategy
========
Necrozma slots well onto a wide variety of teams; it can be a blanket check for a lot of Pokemon, it has a strong offensive profile of its own for offensive teams, it can be a setup sweeper that can hold its own defensively, and it can come in and switch out multiple teams on defensive teams.
**Fast Attackers**: Fast attackers such as Tapu Koko and Zeraora serve as good teammates for Necrozma, as they can better deal with the other fast Pokemon that threaten it.
**Status Absorbers**: Necrozma needs Pokemon that can switch into Toxic such as Celesteela and Mega Mawile. When it runs physical sets, Pokemon that do not mind switching into Scald like Tapu Fini and Tornadus-T are also important.
**Defensive Pivots**: Pokemon that can switch into Dark- and Ghost-type moves like Krookodile and Alolan Muk are important in letting Necrozma switch in and out of the field more easily.
**Wallbreakers**: Although Necrozma can serve as a decent wallbreaker, more reliable wallbreakers like Kyurem-B and Nidoking let it be the setup sweeper it would much prefer to be.
**Entry Hazard Control**: Necrozma is best when it can freely come onto the field multiple times, so having hazard control such as Mega Scizor and Landorus-T to keep hazards off is a necessity.
Checks and Counters
========
**Dark-types**: Necrozma typically wants to be a special attacker, and only having physical options to hit Dark-types super effectively means ones like Greninja and Krookodile can take advantage of that to outspeed and threaten to deal massive damage to it. Dark-types can also use their powerful Pursuit to pressure it to stay in on an unfavorable matchup.
**Status**: Due to Toxic's prevalence, Necrozma has to fear Pokemon like Mega Gallade and Mega Medicham that it would normally check as well as bulky Pokemon it would normally be able to set up on otherwise.
**Revenge Killers**: Necrozma is relatively slow, meaning it is very easy to revenge kill, and even on Rock Polish sets, Choice Scarf users such as Greninja and Tapu Koko are be able to outspeed and KO it.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/drizzle.313217/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/odinrm.613514/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
**Draft Order**: Early round 3 onwards
**Price Range**: 15-16 points
**Overview**: Necrozma is a jack-of-all-trades Pokemon that can take advantage of both of its attacking stats with various ways of setting up and its supportive moveset thanks to its defensive stats and ability. While its Speed stat is poor for offensive sets, it can make up for it by being both a usable Trick Room and Rock Polish user depending on the situation. Its set unpredictability and access to a wide variety of coverage moves make it a fantastic secondary choice for a Z-Captain. Although it can be well-tailored for most matchups, it can still struggle with fitting four moves, leaving it vulnerable to some of its checks.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Setup Sweeper**: Thanks to its great natural defensive capabilities, Necrozma serves as a fantastic setup sweeper with access to Swords Dance, Calm Mind, and Rock Polish + Weakness Policy.
**Offensive Utility**: Boasting a naturally good offensive profile, Necrozma can use its utility moves like Stealth Rock and Knock Off to disrupt its foes while still dishing out substantial damage.
**Defensive Utility**: Leaning more into Necrozma's defenses, it can be a Toxic staller or spread paralysis to its foes with Thunder Wave while using Moonlight to maintain its own longevity.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Photon Geyser, Psyshock, Stored Power
**Setup Moves**: Autotomize, Calm Mind, Iron Defense, Rock Polish, Swords Dance
**Utility Moves**: Brick Break, Knock Off, Light Screen, Moonlight, Morning Sun, Reflect, Stealth Rock, Substitute, Thunder Wave, Toxic, Trick Room
**Coverage**: Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Earth Power, Earthquake, Flash Cannon, Heat Wave, Hidden Power, Iron Head, Night Slash, Outrage, Power Gem, Rock Blast, Rock Slide, Shadow Claw, Signal Beam, Stone Edge, X-Scissor
Niche Moves
========
**Solar Beam**: Necrozma struggles with breaking through bulky Water-types that want to put it on a timer with Toxic, so Solar Beam + Grassium Z or Power Herb can be an effective way of removing them.
Common Items
========
**Z-Crystals**: Necrozma can use a wide variety of Z-Crystals effectively, including Groundium and Firium Z to easier break through Steel-types, Psychium Z to give it a stronger one-time STAB move, and even Buginium and Fightinium Z to beat Dark-types.
**Weakness Policy**: Thanks to Prism Armor, Necrozma can tank most super effective attacks with relative ease, making Weakness Policy an extremely safe option on setup sets.
**Pinch Berries**: Necrozma is very rarely OHKOed, meaning it usually has to be slowly chipped down, making it a very reliable user of pinch Berries. It should be noted that Necrozma is prone to being hit with Knock Off, so avoiding that is important in preserving its longevity.
**Leftovers**: Being a very bulky Pokemon, Necrozma can take advantage of the passive healing of Leftovers very well.
**Lum Berry**: Often, the opponent's best way to deal with Necrozma is affecting it with a status condition, so Lum Berry can be used to give it an extra turn to set up.
Niche Items
========
**Rocky Helmet**: In matchups where Necrozma acts as a bulky Psychic-type, Rocky Helmet can be used to get consistent chip on Pokemon that rely on contact moves such as Mega Gallade and Mega Medicham.
**Damage-boosting Items**: While Necrozma prefers to boost its damage via setup, it can give itself more immediate power with the likes of Choice Specs and Expert Belt.
**Resistance Berries**: Despite having mitigation to super effective moves built in thanks to its ability, Necrozma can still benefit from reducing that damage further with resistance Berries.
Draft Strategy
========
Necrozma slots well onto a wide variety of teams; it can be a blanket check for a lot of Pokemon, it has a strong offensive profile of its own for offensive teams, it can be a setup sweeper that can hold its own defensively, and it can come in and switch out multiple teams on defensive teams.
**Fast Attackers**: Fast attackers such as Tapu Koko and Zeraora serve as good teammates for Necrozma, as they can better deal with the other fast Pokemon that threaten it.
**Status Absorbers**: Necrozma needs Pokemon that can switch into Toxic such as Celesteela and Mega Mawile. When it runs physical sets, Pokemon that do not mind switching into Scald like Tapu Fini and Tornadus-T are also important.
**Defensive Pivots**: Pokemon that can switch into Dark- and Ghost-type moves like Krookodile and Alolan Muk are important in letting Necrozma switch in and out of the field more easily.
**Wallbreakers**: Although Necrozma can serve as a decent wallbreaker, more reliable wallbreakers like Kyurem-B and Nidoking let it be the setup sweeper it would much prefer to be.
**Entry Hazard Control**: Necrozma is best when it can freely come onto the field multiple times, so having hazard control such as Mega Scizor and Landorus-T to keep hazards off is a necessity.
Checks and Counters
========
**Dark-types**: Necrozma typically wants to be a special attacker, and only having physical options to hit Dark-types super effectively means ones like Greninja and Krookodile can take advantage of that to outspeed and threaten to deal massive damage to it. Dark-types can also use their powerful Pursuit to pressure it to stay in on an unfavorable matchup.
**Status**: Due to Toxic's prevalence, Necrozma has to fear Pokemon like Mega Gallade and Mega Medicham that it would normally check as well as bulky Pokemon it would normally be able to set up on otherwise.
**Revenge Killers**: Necrozma is relatively slow, meaning it is very easy to revenge kill, and even on Rock Polish sets, Choice Scarf users such as Greninja and Tapu Koko are be able to outspeed and KO it.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/drizzle.313217/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/odinrm.613514/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Last edited:
