Necrozma, the Prism Pokémon. It survives by absorbing light. After a long time spent slumbering underground, impurities accumulated within it, causing its body to darken. It needs light to survive, and it goes on a rampage seeking it out. Its laser beams will cut anything to pieces.
Overview
Despite being the star of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Necrozma’s base form has not made a significant splash in the competitive scene, surprisingly enough. A great Base 127 Special Attack and a usable 107 physical Attack with a robust movepool to support both already makes Necrozma an unpredictable opponent. Photon Geyser furthers the unpredictability, being a powerful STAB attack that runs off Necrozma’s higher offense, ensuring Necrozma is never without a weapon. Necrozma isn’t all offense with. Its HP and Defense are solidly above average and Special Defense isn’t too bad either. With the super effective blunting Prism Armor, Necrozma has appreciable staying power, standing out from the competition as a bulky attacker.
What keeps Necrozma out of the light, however, is its lackluster speed. Base 77 Speed is awkward, being faster than most Pokémon you would expect to excel in Trick Room, while falling short of most offensive threats. As such, Necrozma must lean on its bulk to perform, and while good, its defenses are not absurd, especially with the resistance lacking pure Psychic typing. While Necrozma can answer its speed issues with Dragon Dance, that does not fit on every set and only synergizes with the weaker of its offenses. The absurd number of Dark types introduced in this generation does not help matters either, given Necrozma’s limited answers to them. Competition with other Psychic types does not help matters either; Hatterene eclipses Necrozma as a bulky attacker thanks to the insane utility Magic Bounce provides, on top of a superior base typing, while Armarouge is an even more explosive setup sweeper than Necrozma. Even as a lead Necrozma competes with Deoxys Speed, who is a more reliable setter thanks to its insane base Speed enabling both Stealth Rock and Taunt on top of coverage options in Superpower and Knock Off. Necrozma is still a force to be reckoned with, its blend of offenses and bulk cannot quite be matched by its competion which tends to be more generalized.
Positives
Base 127 Special Attack is overwhelmingly strong and access to Meteor Beam and Calm Mind makes it even more so.
Base 107 Attack is quite usable as well, especially when backed by boosting options in Swords Dance and Dragon Dance.
Photon Geyser is an absurd move, running off of Necrozma’s higher offense with a built in Mold Breaker effect preventing Unaware walls from tanking boosted attacks.
Good 97/101/89 defenses bolstered by Prism Armor give Necrozma good staying power.
Negatives
Base 77 Speed is incredibly awkward, leaving Necrozma outsped by a whole host of offensive threats
Pure Psychic typing offers little in the way of resistances cutting deeply into Necrozma’s tanking ability.
Movesets
Fermi Paradox Answer
-Stealth Rock
-Meteor Beam
-Photon Geyser
-Heat Wave
Ability: Prism Armor
Item: Power Herb
EVs and Nature:
252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
Necrozma's most popular set, boasting a mixture of power and utility that can help set or swing the tempo of a match. Necrozma's great defenses and Prism Armor make it an excellent Stealth Rock user, as Necrozma can be difficult to remove outright. The rest of the set is all about offense. Meteor Beam is both coverage and setup in one attack, granting what is an effectively a Specs boost, while slamming many Rock weak Pokémon hard, especially ones as Incineroar, Armarouge, and Weavile. Photon Geyser is Necrozma's main attack and as a Base 100 Power STAB move, there is little that can switch in safely after a boost. Heat Wave is coverage for Steel types that can weather Necrozma's other attacks, especially Kingambit, Iron Treads, Corviknight, and Gholdengo.
This Necrozma set excels on bulky offensive teams that benefit from Necrozma threatening both offense and Stealth Rock support while not truly relying on it.
Tera Types:
While Necrozma does suffer from its lacking base typing, this set is rather agnostic to Terastalization, as it can truly only go on the offense once and lacks the healing to make repeated pivots. Terastalization can be considered if it enables Necrozma to trade two for one, but not if it hamstrings another teammate. Tera Fairy is preferred, given the few Steel and Poison types really loathe switching into Heat Wave or Photon Geyser respectively, while giving valuable resistances to Dark and Bug that can enable setup or a finishing blow. Tera Steel is another fine option, with the wide amount of resistances Steel provides, further bolstered by Prism Armor blunting its weaknesses and Psychic STAB threatening Fighting types. Tera Ghost is more niche, being explicitly for stopping Rapid Spin from removing Stealth Rock.
EVs and Items:
Standard offensive sweeper investment is recommended for this set, allowing Necrozma to outspeed many popular defensive targets and apply pressure through threatening to setup against targets such as Pelipper, Modest Armarouge, uninvested Iron Treads, uninvested Landorus-Therian, Primarina, and uninvested Gliscor. Modest Nature is recommended to overcome Necrozma's lack of coverage, but Timid can be considered to move before dangerous Dark, Bug and Ghost types like Poleteageist, Sinishtcha, neutral Hisuian Samurott, Ceruledge, Galarian Moltres and Kleavor, as well as neutral Glimmora. If running Trick Room, moving Speed Investment to bulk can be considered. Power Herb is mandatory when running Meteor Beam, as it makes the move viable. Given the sheer momentum Power Herb Meteor Beam provides, it becomes difficult to justify any other move and or item. If not running Meteor Beam for some reason, other items do become viable. Leftovers give valuable passive recovery while Colbur Berry all but negates a Dark attack and ruins attempts to Knock Off Necrozma.
Partners:
Bulky attackers that excel into opposing Dark types are the order of the day for Necrozma. Of those, Zamazenta stands out its natural bulk and fierce Fighting STAB naturally complement Necrozma's while appreciating the chip damage from Stealth Rock and Meteor Beam being a one time nuke against Flying types. Enamorus-Therian also works well and appreciates Necrozma softly checking Poison and Steel types with its STAB and coverage, even more so if Necrozma is running Trick Room.
Other Options:
Trick Room is a fantastic option to coopt faster teams, flipping the speed advantage into Necrozma's team's favor, but often means dropping Stealth Rock.
Calm Mind is a more reliable boosting option, but Necrozma is starved for space, and must sacrifice valuable coverage or support to fit it in.
Dark Pulse greatly improves Necrozma's matchup in to opposing Psychic types, but the loss of Super Effective coverage to Steel types, or the one-time boost and nuke of Meteor Beam is hard to swallow.
Necrodragon
-Dragon Dance
-Photon Geyser
-Knock Off
-X-Scissor
Ability: Prism Armor
Item: Weakness Policy
EVs and Nature:
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Dragon Dance Necrozma contrasts the flexibility of its Specially offensive set for a more standard sweeper, that after a turn of setup is a frightful sweeper and all around threat. Dragon Dance does so much for Necrozma, boosting up its Speed and usable Attack to dangerous levels and does a lot in making physical Necrozma viable. Photon Geyser ensures Necrozma does not have to settle for a weaker Psychic STAB, running off its now higher invested physical Attack, dealing great damage to a wide range of targets. Knock Off is both coverage and utility, handling pesky Ghost types that cannot be afforded to survive while offering utility in item removal, so even if Necrozma doesn’t KO its target, its teammate will have a far easier time. X-Scissor’s coverage is invaluable, hitting other Psychic types and the Psychic Immune Dark types for considerable damage. This Necrozma set specifically excels on Screen teams, making the most out of the screens to setup and sweep.
Tera Types:
For a game ending sweeper, Necrozma largely prefers defensive Tera types to help guarantee the sweep, rather than an offensive Tera to help push for damage. Tera Fairy is preferred giving a valuable defensive typing that is hard to exploit while eliminating its Bug and Dark weakness. Tera Water is another solid hard to exploit defensive Tera type that does wonders for Necrozma’s survivability. Tera Fighting is niche, but worth considering if running Brick Break to help shatter opposing Steel and Rock types that may otherwise stop a sweep while still providing invaluable Bug and Dark resistances.
EVs and Items:
Necrozma’s base Speed and Attack need all the help they can get, so max investment in both is necessary to get the most out of Dragon Dance. Jolly Nature is highly recommended for the speed boost as after a single Dragon Dance, Jolly Necrozma otuspeeds everything up to Timid Dragapult, which is certainly a Pokémon Necrozma can’t afford to not outspeed. Weakness Policy is recommended to further shore up Necrozma’s power. Its defenses are quite good and Prism Armor naturally synergizes with Weakness Policy in enabling Necrozma to survive an attack and receive the boost. Kolbur Berry is also great for ensuring setup without expending your Tera, and indirectly weakens any future Knock Off against Necrozma given the popularity of it as both STAB and coverage.
Partners:
Screen Setters are invaluable for Dragon Dance Necrozma, easily facilitating setup, both through Dragon Dance and surviving the Super Effective hit for Weakness Policy, a hit opponents would be encouraged to try to break through Necrozma’s defenses. Alolan Ninetales is an exemplary Screen setter, given the efficacy of Aurora Veil. Intimidate Pivots such as Incineroar and Landorus-Therian can also be used to similar effect.
Allies that can handle the resists to Necrozma’s STABs are greatly appreciated. Volcarona is a standout being able to melt Steel, Psychic and Dark types with its natural STABs while also being a contrasting special sweeper to Necrozma’s physical. Zoroark-Hisui can do similarly with its Ghost STAB and Fighting coverage.
Countering Necrozma
While Necrozma’s offenses are threatening, what makes it truly scary is that until it uses something other than Photon Geyser, you don’t know what set its running, which have very different checks. Dark types are a serious problem for special Necrozma. Necrozma much rely on non-STAB, non-Super Effective coverage, a drastic step down from the power Photon Geyser would have you expect, though Metor Beam boosted offense still stings. If Power Herb has been expended, Crawdaunt tanks the rest of Special Necrozma’s moves just fine and OHKO’s back with Knock Off after a little chip damage, while Hisuian Samurott threatens a clean 2HKO with Ceaseless Edge. Bulkier Dark types like Roaring Moon and Tyranitar handily soak special Necrozma’s offense and crush it in turn with their own STABs, though Necrozma often runs defensive Teras to cover this weakness.
Opposing Psychic types also work well against special Necrozma, Cresselia all but using Necrozma as setup fodder, while Defense Deoxys wins the war of attrition and even Dragon Dance Necrozma can use its special counterpart to setup bar Trick Room activation.
Physical sets are terrifying in their own right given their broader coverage and speed boosting and are harder to deal with coverage wise but are more manageable from Necrozma’s lower Attack and Speed requiring multiple boosts to be truly threatening to walls. However, staple ungrounded Steel walls like Corviknight and Skarmory comfortably tank even boosted attacks while whittling down Necrozma’s HP. Enamorus-Therian has the sheer bulk to handle an unboosted Photon Geyser and outpace Necrozma in boosts but struggles to tank Photon Geyser after a single Dragon Dance. Hippowdon is also a threat to physical sets, able to switch in on a Dragon Dance or Swords Dance, tank the boosted Photon Geyser and whipe away said boosts with Whirlwind.
Dawn Wings Necrozma, the Prism Pokémon. Necrozma has subjugated Lunala entirely, forcing the unfortunate Pokémon to emit its light energy for Necrozma to consume. When Necrozma latches on to Lunala, it becomes vicious, seeing enemies everywhere it looks. It will burn the world with lasers.
Overview
Dawn Wings Necrozma, for such a prominent legendary of the seventh generation, is eclipsed by its competition. Despite an absurd Mewtwo surpassing Base 154 Special Attack with the incredibly spammable Ghost STAB with boosting in both the momentum maintaining Meteor Beam and Calm Mind, Necrozma Dawn Wing's offense is not enough. 97 HP now backed by a above average 109 Defense and a good 127 Special Defense, Necrozma Dawn Wing's defenses are not enough. Even Necrozma's support tools in Stealth Rock and Trick Room are not enough to save Dawn Wings from its fall.
What went wrong? Typing for starters. Psychic Ghost synergizes horribly with Prism Armor, only offering two quadruple weaknesses that Prism Armor's reduction does not do enough to save Dawn Wings from being felled by every Ghost and Dark move flying around. This is especially crippling given Dawn Wings Necrozma has the same poor base 77 Speed as its base form, being outsped by almost every prominent legendary forcing it to rely on a typing near devoid of resistances against some of the strongest attackers in the game. This leaves Necrozma Dusk Wings slow and effectively frail, a death knell for many Pokémon's viability. This leaves Dawn Wings Necrozma outclassed by its component Lunala of all things, who boasts a far superior defensive ability in Lunar Shield, much better Speed, and a far more robust support movepool that leaves Dawn Wing's superior offenses moot. Offensively, Calyrex Shadow Rider completely obliviates Necrozma Dawn Wing, having the same base typing, even higher Special Attack, an insane Speed stat by any standard and a passive boosting ability to escalate out of control. Lacking special coverage for Dark types paints an even larger target on Dawn Wing's back, given the popularity of Dark types like Ting-Lu, Arceus Dark and Kingambit being called to handle other threats. Dawn Wings Necrozma's power is nothing to scoff at, but power alone cannot be the wind beneath its wings.
Positives
Base 157 Special Attack is the 5th highest in the current game backed by multiple boosting options and a hard to resist Ghost STAB.
Above average defenses ensures Dawn Wings Necrozma can tank a hit
Prism Armor is an impressive ability in conjunction with Terastalization
Negatives
Base 77 Speed is poor, outsped by almost every relevant threat Dawn Wings Necrozma expects to face.
Two Quadruple weaknesses and no resistances sabotage its above average bulk.
Lack of meaningful coverage for opposing Dark types gives Dawn Wings Necrozma a massive target on its back.
Movesets
Wings of the Coming Dawn
-Trick Room
-Meteor Beam
-Moongeist Beam
-Tera Blast
Ability: Prism Armor
Item: Power Herb
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
Dawn Wings Necrozma is a terrifying Trick Room Attacker, taking advantage of its below average speed to turn the tables on many faster threats and warp tempo to its team's favor. Meteor Beam is setup and coverage in a single move, striking down all but the bulkiest of Pokémon, while boosting Necrozma Dawn Wing's already insane Special Attack into superlative defying levels of power. Moongeist Beam is incredible Ghost STAB, being hard to resist and having a built in Mold Breaker effect that shatters any Unaware Walls trying to slow Dawn Wings Necrozma' boosted assault down. Tera Blast is for valuable Fairy coverage into Dark types like Ting-Lu.
Tera Types:
Given Necrozma Dawn Wing's insane Dark weakness and no special coverage to answer it, it is incredibly reliant on Tera Fairy to overcome these shortcomings, giving a valuable defensive typing that resists its crippling Dark weakness as well as superb Fairy coverage into the many Dark and Dragon types running around. Aside from Tera Fairy, just about any type is acceptable if just to shed Necrozma Dawn Wing's onerus base typing. Water is decent given it is a great base defensive typing and for covering the many Ground types called to handle Miraidon (including Ting-Lu). Fire also works given it checks Kingambit, along with the many resistances it affords while its common weaknesses are blunted by Prism Armor.
EVs and Items:
As with any Trick Room attacker, everything into HP and the appropriate offense (Special Attack in this case) is recommended. Alternatively, if one is going for Calm Mind, throwing everything from Special Attack into Defense to shore up Dawn Wings Necrozma weaker defense and make it as difficult to break as possible post setup is an alternative. If worried about powerful Special Attackers like Miraidon and Kyogre, Special Defense investment can be considered. Max HP and 64 Special Defense is the minimum required to not be OHKO'd by Specs Miraidon and Scarf Kyogre. If running Meteor Beam, Power Herb is mandatory given the instant boost and powerful Rock Attack being instrumental in dealing as much damage as possible. If not running Meteor Beam, other items such as Leftovers or Life Orb can be considered if one wants to go for more damage or Longevity.
Partners:
As a Trick Room setter, Dawn Wings Necrozma benefits other Trick Room abusers as well. Ursaluna Blood Moon is fantastic in this regard, being immune to opposing Ghost types that can given Dawn Wings trouble while having Ground STAB to deal with the terrifying Kingambit and appreciates Dawn Wings Fighting Immunity for handling Koraidon's Fighting STAB. In more inclusive formats, Calyrex Ice Rider also works, as another Trick Room abuser and setter while appreciating Dawn Wings ability to handle most Unaware Walls with its ability Ignoring Moongeist Beam and insane Special Attack.
Fighting typed partners to handle the Dark and Normal types that blank Moongeist beam are also appreciated. Koraidon is amazing in this regard given its absurd speed enabling it to handle faster threats Dawn Wings Necrozma can't cope with, as does Sneasler, whose Dire Claw alone is great in creating setup opportunities for Dawn Wings Necrozma. In turn these Fighting types appreciate Dawn Wings Necrozma threatening opposing Psychic types (and to a lesser extent Flying types given the one shot nature of Meteor Beam).
Other Options:
Calm Mind is an alternative over Meteor Beam, giving a noticeable Special Defense boost handy against the many Special Attackers Dawn Wings Necrozma contends with, and the loss of coverage less noticeable thanks to how great Moongeist Beam is at dealing damage.
Photon Geyser is Psychic STAB with the same side benefit as Moongeist Beam, but there are very few Pokémon that Photon Geyser hits that Moongeist Beam doesn't, namely Arceus and Tera Normal Dragonite.
Moonlight is incredible on Calm Mind sets, giving Dawn Wings Necrozma badly needed longevity and can make it unbreakable if physical threats are removed.
VGC & Doubles Options
The same issues that keep Dawn Wings Necrozma down in singles plague it in Doubles as well. Calyrex Ghost Rider is such a superb offensive Ghost Psychic type it becomes difficult to justify Dawn Wings Necrozma and Lunala's support is even more potent in Doubles, leaving little space for Dawn Wings Necrozma. Even as a Trick Room attacker, Dawn Wings Necrozma suffers from strict competition with Calyrex Ice Rider who boasts a far superior Ice STAB, is slower in Trick Room and passively boosts itself unlike Dawn Wings Necrozma. The glut of fantastic Ghost and Dark types running around including Incineroar, Flutter Mane, Chi-Yu, Urshifu-Dark mean most teams carry one if not two Pokémon that can easily eviscerate Dawn Wings Necrozma, often turning it into a Tera Sink as well. By all accounts, Dawn Wings Necrozma should be fantastic, but it does too little differently enough to stand out from those who do its job that much better.
Chasing Dawn
-Trick Room
-Expanding Force
-Meteor Beam
-Moongeist Beam
Tera Type: Water/Fairy
Ability: Prism Armor
Item: Power Herb
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
Dawn Wings is a terrifying Psyspam Hard Trick Room attacker, taking advantage of its low speed and Psychic Surge support from Indeedee-F to launch nuclear Expanding Forces to roll over an opposing team quickly. Thanks to its great natural bulk and Ghost typing blocking Fake Out, Dawn Wings is a stellar Trick Room setter, able to do so multiple times without being stopped. Expanding Force is primary Psychic STAB, just click it and watch everything faint. Meteor Beam serves dual purpose, boosting Dawn Wings to get that valuable OHKO power while threatening prominent Wide Guard user in Pelipper as well as several popular Dark types including Incineroar, Chi-Yu and Chien-Pao. Moongeist Beam is a secondary STAB and partially solves a weakness Psyspam teams have into opposing Psychic types, by being a super effective STAB to eliminate them.
EVs are to Maximize bulk and offense, as expected of any Trick Room attacker. In regards to IVs, one normally aims for a 0 IV in speed when running a Trick Room Pokémon, but a Speed IV of 12 or higher allows Dusk Mane Necrozma to outspeed min Speed Incineroar out of Trick Room and slam it with a Meteor Beam before it can Parting Shot. Tera Water is recommended as a defensive Tera, providing valuable Fire (Incineroar, Chi-Yu, Koraidon), Ice (Calyrex-Ice) and Water (Kyogre, Pelipper) resistances and is where Prism Armor gets to shine a bit, taking the edge off super effective Electric and Grass attacks. Tera Fairy is also an option and provides a valuable Dark resistance and Dragon immunity on top of it. Tera Dark is a niche option, but provides numerous defensive benefits including resisting both Ghost and Dark as well as blanking Prankster Taunt from Tornadus.
Other Options and Preferred Partners:
Protect is the best move in Doubles for good reason, stalling for Trick Room setup, scouting for moves and punishing doubling up into a single slot as legendary Pokémon tend to provoke.
Photon Geyser is a secondary STAB option that also possesses a built in Mold Breaker effect, great for muscling through Terapagos' Tera Shell as well as not being blocked by Wide Guard, but is otherwise redundant with Expanding Force.
Indeedee-F is mandatory for this set, being the only available Psychic Surge Pokémon, but thankfully is quite fantastic, being another Trick Room setter, offering redirection with Follow Me, boosting with Helping Hand and a handy Ghost immunity.
Trick Room and Ursaluna go together like bears and honey, and as such work fantastically with Dawn Wings Necrozma, providing valuable Ghost and Electric Immunities to contrast Dawn Wings weakness and vulnerability to them. Either form of Ursaluna works; the Hisuian variant contrasting Dawn Wings by being a physical attacker and thus better into Assault Vest Pokémon while Bloodmoon is effectively more durable and is not ruined by Intimidate.
Gallade is notable for being a Wide Guard user that excels in Trick Room and can threaten opposing Dark types while possessing tools for other notable Pokémon such as Sacred Sword for ignoring Zamazenta's Iron Defenses, Leaf Blade to threaten prominent Water and Tera Water users. Hitmontop also works well, though its Fake Out has anti-Synergy with Psychic Terrain.
Countering Dawn Wings Necrozma
Between Necrozma Dawn Wing's slow speed and quadruple weakness to Ghost and Dark make it relatively easy to remove, though getting such checks in is a tad more difficult. Dark types are a consistent issue for Dawn Wings Necrozma given their resistance to Ghost and immunity to Psychic make switching in on a STAB move easy and able to threaten it out or OHKO with their own STABs. This does not make every Dark type an answer, however; Dawn Wing's extreme Special Attack means that frail Dark types such as Chien Pao and Chi-Yu can still take significant damage switching into Moongeist Beam and absolutely cannot switch into Meteor Beam and Trick Room is equally as ruinous. Ting-Lu is notable for having resistance to Meteor Beam and the sheer special bulk to comfortably tank even boosted Moongeist Beams. Kingambit similarly performs well, only fearing the odd Heat Wave or super effective Tera Blast. Arceus Dark is also notable given its massive Special Defense and able to match Calm Mind sets with its own Calm Mind. Do note that Dawn Wings Necrozma often carries Fairy Tera specifically to counter its crippling Dark weakness, so do be wary if Tera hasn't been used yet.
Dusk Mane Necrozma, the Prism Pokémon. When it dominates Solgaleo, it takes on this form. It's a vicious Pokémon, mangling prey with its many claws—including those on its back. Necrozma has attached itself to Solgaleo. It siphons away its host's limitless energy, exploiting that energy to fuel a rampage.
Overview
Dusk Mane Necrozma has been a staple ever since its introduction, and it is easy to see why. One of the few Legendary Steel types, its possesses the defenses one would associate with the role becoming a vital pivot into many of the strongest attacks in the game, further bolstered by it’s access to Morning Sun for reliable recovery and Prism Armor blunting what few weaknesses Dusk Mane Necrozma does have, further increasing the attacks it can take. Dusk Mane Necrozma isn’t just a hit taking machine either. Base 157 Attack surpasses even Groudon and Zekrom’s might, ensuring Dusk Mane Necrozma is always hitting hard, regardless of investment. Add in boosting moves in Dragon Dance and Swords Dance on top of physical coverage such as Earthquake and Knock Off and the sum equates to a mighty attacker. Between offense and defense, Dusk Mane Necrozma is quite versatile and fits on many teams to fit whatever is required of it.
Necrozma’s crippling speed comes back to haunt it, nonetheless. In a generation with such insane speed creep, Dusk Mane Necrozma’s poor base 77 Speed means that it can be reliably outsped, even after a Dragon Dance boost. While Dusk Mane Necrozma defenses are good, they are far from impenetrable, requiring Dusk Mane Necrozma to remain healthy throughout the match lest it falls to the Dragons, Zacian Crowned Sword, and Arceus it is supposed to check. Ground types being near mandatory to handle Miraidon further hurts Dusk Mane Necrozma, ensuring most teams have at least a soft check to their might. Dusk Mane Necrozma is also suffers from Four Moveslot syndrome, being incapable of covering every threat without giving up valuable boosting, recovery or support in return. Don’t be mistaken, Dusk Mane Necrozma’s dominance is well deserved and should be planned for.
Positives
Steel Psychic typing bolstered by Prism Armor is fantastic, giving a litany of resistances in exchange for four weaknesses.
97/127/109 defenses in conjunction with Morning Sun make Dusk Mane Necrozma a fantastic hit taker, able to soak up attacks time and time again.
Base 157 Attack is the 9th highest available, and coupled with fantastic boosting options and coverage means Dusk Mane Necrozma is rarely wont for power.
Negatives
Poor Base 77 Speed forces it to tank an attack before acting, compromising its otherwise great bulk.
Vulnerable to boosting sweepers getting enough power to overwhelm it.
Cannot fit answers to every check in a single set.
Movesets
Solar Eclipse
--Trick Roome
-Swords Dancee
-Photon Geysere
-Earthquake
Ability: Prism Armor
Item: Weakness Policy
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
Trick Room Dusk Mane Necrozma is an excellent check for hyper offense teams, especially Sticky Web ones, turning their extreme Speed against them. Swords Dance on top of Trick Room can turn Dusk Mane Necrozma into a late game reverse sweeper or counter predicted switches by setting up, leaving said checks now unable to tank Dusk Mane Necrozma’s assault. Photon Geyser is recommended as primary STAB checking Pokémon that would normally stomach Dusk Mane Necrozma’s Steel STAB with ease, such as Ho-oh, Kyogre, Miraidon and Arceus Water while preventing Unaware Walls Dondozo from reliably walling it after a boost. Earthquake is largely for opposing Dusk Mane Necrozma who could otherwise handle this set with ease while obliterating popular Fire Pokémon such as Skeledirge, Chi-Yu and Tera Fire Koraidon.
Tera Types:
As a Pokémon that gets so much mileage out of its base typing, careful consideration is needed when to Terastalize Dusk Mane Necrozma to make sure you aren’t opening a hole to another attacker. However defensive Tera’s may be needed to guarantee setup for the sweep. Of those, Tera Fire is by far the most popular, negating Dusk Mane Necrozma’s Fire weakness, giving it an immunity to Ho-oh’s Sacred Fire and Arceus’ Will-oWisp Burns, while maintaining the resistance to Fairy and Steel necessary for Zacian Crowned Sword. Tera Water is also popular for the similar reasons, being another solid defensive Tera that provides a Fire resistance with no overlapping resistances with Dusk Mane Necrozma’s base typing while improving the match up against Water types like Arceus Water, Iron Bundle and Dondozo. Tera Ground is a more offensive option for boosting Earthquake but has defensive merit, helping to survive a predicted Overheat or Electro Drift from Miraidon. Tera Ground is invaluable in getting surprise OHKOs against Miraidon and Zacian Crowned Sword with Earthquake, who would not be in danger otherwise.
EVs and Items:
Trick Room physical Attacker so max HP and max Attack EV investment are the order of the day here. One can opt for more bulk to help ease setting up, or survive a super effective blow for Weakness Policy. 120 Special Defense is enough to avoid being 2HKO’d by Specs Flutter Mane’s Shadow Ball after Terastalization, as well as survive Scarf Chi-Yu’s Fire Blast. Weakness Policy is the recommended item, potentially giving a huge boost while Dusk Mane Necrozma sets up Trick Room and allowing it to go immediately for the sweep, though Dusk Mane is far from beholden to it. Occa and Shucca Berries can help survive Fire and Ground attacks with ease without having to burn Terastalization, enabling for a surprise one time setup. Lum Berry is also a niche option albeit fantastic against Ho-oh if not running Tera Fire just to prevent the Burn from stopping a sweep before it starts.
Partners:
Fellow Trick Room setter and abuser Calyrex Ice Rider makes for an excellent partner, either setting up Trick Room for Dusk Mane to use or taking advantage of a recently KOd Dusk Mane Necrozma’s Trick Room to start attacking. Ice Rider’s Ice STAB into opposing Ground types is greatly appreciated, while loving Dusk Mane Necrozma for handling opposing Steels and luring in shared checks like Ho-oh and Arceus Water to eliminate or weaken them in preparation for a sweep.
Kyogre has been a consistent partner in crime to Dusk Mane Necrozma for good reason. Its Drizzle providing Fire dousing Rain makes Dusk Mane Necrozma that much harder to take down while threatening opposing Fire and Ground types with its own Water STAB. Dusk Mane Necrozma returns the favor using its great defensive typing and higher defense to handle the many physical attackers that trouble Ho-oh so.
Other Options:
Sunsteel Strike is good alternative STAB, especially into Arceus Fairy, Calyrex Ice Rider, Flutter Mane, Chien-Pao, and Zacian Crowned Sword as well as the Unaware Walls Dondozo and Skeledirge, but forces one to either drop Swords Dance or lose out on the valuable coverage that Photon Geyser provides into Arceus Water, Kyogre, and Ho-oh.
Knock Off is brutal coverage into opposing Psychic types such as the Calyrex Riders, opposing Dusk Mane Necrozma, as well as Skeledirge and the item removal effect is incredible on its own.
VGC & Doubles Options
Dusk Mane Necrozma has not enjoyed the same success in Doubles as it has in Singles. While it flourished in the Dynamax format getting great dividends out of Dynamax’s HP doubling, the Defense and Special Defense boosts from Max Steelstrike and Max Quake to easily trigger Weakness Policy, the removal of Dynamax has brought a lot of problems back to the fore for Dusk Mane Necrozma. Once again, it must worry about Fake Out disrupting plays. Intimidate is just as popular as ever, all but forcing Dusk Mane to run Clear Amulet to not get its attack gouged. Adding into this is a format extremely hostile to Dusk Mane Necrozma. Calyrex-Shadow Rider, Koraidon, Groudon, Landorus, Ursaluna Bloodmoon, and Urshifu-Single all have naturally advantageous matchups into Dusk Mane, Miraidon can obliterate Dusk Mane through sheer power, and Zamazenta is impossible to break through after an Iron Defense. All of these issues come together in Incineroar, who possesses Intimidate, Fake Out and advantageous STABs, making Dusk Mane Necrozma's life miserable. Compounding these issues is that Dusk Mane Necrozma has steep competition with Calyrex-Ice Rider, who excels on the similar teams to Dusk Mane while possessing a far better offensive STAB and ability to escalate, and Zamazenta-Crowned who boasts a similar typing and is also very hard to take down.
Setting Sunfall
-Sunsteel Strike
-Earthquake
-Swords Dance
-Protect
Tera Type: Ground
Ability: Prism Armor
Item: Clear Amulet
EVs and Nature:
160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Jolly Nature
This Dusk Mane Necrozma is a key piece to a TailRoom team, flourishing in both Tailwind and Trick Room as the situation calls for. Sunsteel Strike is Dusk Mane Necrozma's primary STAB, crushing Calyrex Ice Rider and Fairies like Clefairy, Whimsicott, Flutter Mane, while having incredibly valuable utility in ignoring Tera Shell, allowing Dusk Mane Necrozma to crack Terapagos' shell and deal significant damage when Terapagos isn't expecting it. Earthquake provides valuable spread damage and coverage against the many Fire types that give Dusk Mane Necrozma trouble such as Chi-Yu, Tera Fire Koraidon, and especially Incineroar, while also slamming Miraidon and Raging Bolt hard. Swords Dance helps overcome any initial weakness to Dusk Mane Necrozma’s offense and is hard to remove said boosts thanks to Clear Amulet. Protect is invaluable in Doubles, punishing opponents for doubling up into a slot, scouting for moves, switches and terastalizations, stalling opposing conditions out, waiting for allies to setup beneficial conditions, the sheer utility of Protect is undeniable.
EVs are a mixture of bulk, speed, and offense. 96 Speed with Jolly Nature is required to outspeed the base 135 club in Tailwind (including the Raidons, Flutter Mane and Chien Pao), though one can push to 160 Speed with Jolly to cover Calyrex Shadow Rider in Tailwind. Tera Ground is recommended for the boost to Earthquake it provides, helping muscle past bulky Fire types like Incineroar as well as overcome the spread damage penalty Earthquake incurs.
Other Options and Preferred Partners:
Pelipper is a fantastic partner for Dusk Mane Necrozma, providing Tailwind Support, Wide Guard Support, and Fire dampening Rain while being immune to Earthquake. The sheer utility is hard to argue even before getting into the STAB weather balls eviscerating Fire and Ground types.
Indeedee is preferred as the secondary Trick Room setter for the team, being immune to Ghost, blocking Fake Out with Psychic Terrain and helping in Miraidon and Rillaboom matchups by eliminating their favored terrain. Necrozma can also benefit from Psychic Terrain if running Photon Geyser as an extra boost to one of its STABs. Sinistcha is also worth a mention, its Hospitality great at keeping Dusk Mane Necrozma in the game.
Photon Geyser can replace or be ran alongside Sunsteel Strike, having the same built in Mold Breaker effect. Photon Geyser offers a much stronger STAB hit against Steel resistant targets like Miraidon, Ho-oh, Kyogre and Zamazenta Crowned without having to worry about friendly fire from Earthquake or Wide Guard, but does poorly into the Calyrex Riders.
Trick Room is potent Speed control that Dusk Mane Necrozma is quite capable of setting, but moveslots are at a premium and comes at the cost of boosting or Protection.
Knock Off is fantastic given the many Psychic types running around and the item disruption is always useful.
Countering Dusk Mane Necrozma
Dusk Mane Necrozma’s power and defenses are varied that checks largely succeed and fail by what Dusk Mane Necrozma could not fit into its moveset. With few exceptions.
If lacking Photon Geyser, Ho-oh, Hearthflame Ogerpon, and Water types consistently prove problematic, able to stomach both Sunsteel Strike and Earthquake while firing back with their own STABs. Ho-oh is especially terrifying given Sacred Fire’s meaty chance to Burn all but turning Dusk Mane Necrozma into setup fodder for the rest of the match. Arceus Water is just as bad being able to cripple with Will-O-Wisp and can stop setup with Taunt.
Sets lacking Sunsteel Strike on the other hand find Calyrex Ice Rider impossible to deal with given the latter’s sheer bulk causing Earthquakes to bounce off while wearing down Dusk Mane with High Horsepower. Bulky Dark types like Ting-Lu, and Arceus Dark also pose considerable problems given their own Super Effective STABs and ability to switch into Earthquake comfortably.
Sets lacking Earthquake struggle against opposing Steel and Tera Steel types, like Arceus Steel, opposing Dusk Mane Necrozma and even Zacian Crowned Sword. Chi-Yu also becomes nightmarish, only being threatened by a Swords Dance boosted Sunsteel Strike while threatening a OHKO in turn.
Regardless of set, Dusk Mane Necrozma’s biggest weakness is Ground Immune Steel types, unable to threaten any without an absurd number of Dragon Dances or Swords Dances. Skarmory can Whirlwind away any boosts, Orthworm sets up Spikes and Tera Steel Giratina Origin can cripple with Will-O-Wisp.
Dusk Mane Necrozma’s poor speed also leaves it vulnerable to a few wallbreakers. Specs Miraidon OHKOs any set that isn’t running max HP and considerable Special Defense investment, as does Specs Kyogre’s Water Spout.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Not in game
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Not in game
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game
Colosseum/XD:
Not in game
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Not in game
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Not in game
Black/White:
Not in game
Black 2/White 2:
Not in game
X/Y:
Not in game
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Not in game
Sun/Moon:
Ten Carat Hill
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Mount Lanakila
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Not in game
Sword/Shield:
Dynamax Adventures
Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl:
Not in game
Legends: Arceus:
Not in game
Scarlet/Violet:
Socarrat Trail
Anime Appearences
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Necrozma has made a few appearances in the anime. In it, one appeared in Alola nad took over Lunala, causing darkness to cover the Alola region |
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