Having just come out of the European International Championship in Berlin with a 5-4 record, and a similar record on the Sunday MSS, I definitely needed to change something I was doing. I was running Rayquaza/Kyogre, but what I found difficult was maintaining speed control, or too easily loosing it. There’s a lot of good speed control options out there like Salamence’s Tailwind, Tapu Fini’s Icy Wind, and of course Trick Room. But it was mainly Crobat that has seen a lot of recent usage and does a good job of doing the job it’s there to do: Speed control. So I went about looking at how to stop it, so I looked at Prankster Pokémon. Murkrow immediately popped out because if its access to tailwind and the ability to prevent Crobat setting up with Taunt.



So now I was looking for a restricted pair that would benefit from Murkrow’s presence, but also dealt with the wave of Xerneas/Rayquaza that have been performing consistently well at tournaments. Looking at the small list, Dusk-Mane Necrozma sticks out, being a bulky steel type, thus resisting Fairy moves, Dragon Ascent, and Extreme Speed. As for a moveset, I initially tried Solganium Z on it to surprise opponents in game 1 and get the OHKO on Xerneas at -1, with Trick Room as a third move for more speed control options. I then picked Primal-Kyogre to pair with it, with a speed stat to benefit from both tailwind and trick room.



I then added Hitmontop, because I wanted a Fake Out Pokémon that outsped and threatened Incineroar so I could get the choice of Fake Out target to facilitate Murkrow’s Tailwind. I then realised my Yveltal matchup looked a bit shaky, so I slapped on Tapu Koko for good measure, giving it the Fairium Z to get access to Twinkle Tackle, in case of Lightning Rod support. This also helped my Smeargle matchup greatly, to the point that many players just don’t bother bringing it to the game.

Finally, lacking some fire power, I added Incineroar, because why not.



After not many games, I realised a few things. Firstly, Hitmontop is dead weight if not vs Incineroar. Second, I wasn’t using Trick Room much, and if I did, other primals would underspeed or just have other Pokémon like Ferrothorn that gave me a hard time. And thirdly, Yveltal is still annoying, especially with Gengar, to the point I wasn’t bringing Necrozma to the matchup.



In response, I swapped the Z move to Ultranecrozium Z, and ditched trick room for Earth Power, which I think is necessary, even on a physical Ultra-Necrozma. I loved the power this thing had, and I found that I didn’t crave a Tapu Lele to boost it because my opponent would often set it for me, with all the scarf Tapu Lele around. I then ditched Hitmontop, and changed it to the far superior Mega-Lopunny. Although I had enjoyed the double intimidate, Mega-Lopunny was able to dish out big damage to many more foes, and naturally outspeeds anything relevant in the format. With Gengar being so popular in Berlin, it felt like a good choice, with its ability to knock it out with Fake Out + Return. To patch the Yveltal match up, I decided to swap Kyogre for Xerneas. With the double Fake Out, Taunt for Roar/Haze, and naturally fast Pokémon threatening knockouts even without Tailwind, Xerneas had a comfortable time amongst the rest of my team. With the Yveltal matchup looking a lot easier, I changed Tapu Koko’s Fairium to a Focus Sash, and taught it Nature’s Madness. This was so good with Ultra Necrozma because I could just pick a slot and knock it out.