Go Fest 2024 is already underway in person at Sendai, where ticket-holders can now fuse their Necrozma caught in raids with either Solgaleo or Lunala to obtain Dusk Mane Necrozma and Dawn Wings Necrozma respectively. They can also obtain this year’s Go Fest mythical, Marshadow.
These Pokemon will come to all players at a later date: Necrozma fusions will be live for all players on Day 2 of Go Fest Global, or July 14, 2024, while Marshadow will presumably be available with a ticket during Global Go Fest, and eventually be released for free around April 2025.
In this article, we will examine the extent to which all aforementioned Go Fest Pokemon can be relevant as raid attackers.
Summary (TL;DR)
Both of Necrozma’s fusion forms are as overpowered as you can imagine in their respective types, Ghost and Steel.
Necrozma (Dawn Wings)
- Dawn Wings Necrozma (fused with Lunala) is the #1 Dark/Ghost attacker, period. It’s slightly better than top Megas and Shadow Tyranitar.
Necrozma (Dusk Mane)
- Similarly, Dusk Mane Necrozma (fused with Solgaleo) is the #1 Steel attacker, substantially above Shadow Metagross, and also outperforms future Mega Metagross.
Which fusion form to choose? I don’t want to give definitive advice, but:
- Dawn Wings (Ghost) typically has greater utility, as it’s super effective against more raid bosses
- Dusk Mane (Steel) stands out a little more from the alternatives, and may help specific players with a team that’s otherwise harder to build.
All Necrozma forms are rather underwhelming as Psychic attackers, though. Due to mediocre moves, DW and DM Necrozma are only in the same tier as regular Metagross (as a psychic attacker!) and Latios, while base form Necrozma sits together with Gardevoir.
Marshadow
Likewise, the Go Fest mythical Marshadow also suffers from a moveset problem. Despite great base stats, it ends up as a Machamp clone because Close Combat sucks. It can’t even be used as a ghost attacker, as it has no ghost-type moves.
My analyses of other types are in this spreadsheet. You can also follow me on Twitter (X) and Threads!
Charts
Dark/Ghost (Dawn Wings Necrozma)
Steel (Dusk Mane Necrozma)
Psychic (Base Necrozma, Dawn Wings Necrozma, Dusk Mane Necrozma)
Fighting (Marshadow)
Comparing Dawn Wings Necrozma to Top Megas and Shadows
If you still remember how Mega Gengar’s debut in 2020 immediately revolutionized shortmans for many raids, and how Shadow Tyranitar receiving Brutal Swing made it above and beyond all other non-megas… Congrats, now you get to relive that moment.
The only other Dark and Ghost attackers (see here for why I combine them) that can even hope to be compared to Dawn Wings Necrozma are: Mega Tyranitar, Shadow Tyranitar and Mega Gengar. No other attackers come close. Even then… 5 times out of 6, DW Necrozma is better than them.
DW Necrozma only has one Achilles’ heel: It’s really, really afraid of Ghost- and Dark-type charged moves from the raid boss. Being a dual Psychic/Ghost type, DW Necrozma is double weak to ghost and dark. In fact, whenever it performs worse than the aforementioned trio in practice, it’s typically because the boss has Shadow Ball or Dark Pulse. This also means DW Necrozma can be just a bit less reliable, especially when compared to Mega Tyranitar.
Thankfully, a few factors prevent this from becoming a major problem:
- There are far more Psychic-type bosses than Ghost-type ones, and most of the former do not pack any coverage moves that hurt DW Necrozma (unlike what Gengar has to go through). Even if you do face a Ghost-type boss, it doesn’t always use a STAB charged move, much less one that OHKOs DW Necrozma.
- Tyranitar and Gengar both have their own weaknesses. Shadow Tyranitar collapses if the boss has Focus Blast (e.g. Mewtwo), Solar Beam, etc., while Mega Gengar melts to the much more common Psychic-type STAB moves. Only Mega Tyranitar is the most reliable, even though it still hates Focus Blast.
- (This also explains why DW Necrozma is not meaningfully above Mega Tyranitar in ASE on the line chart, despite its dominance in the bar chart.)
Quick Note of Dusk Mane Necrozma
This section is shorter, but not because Dusk Mane Necrozma is worse — simply because there’s not as much to discuss.
DM Necrozma dominates Steel attackers just as much as DW Necrozma dominates Dark/Ghost ones. Yes, that includes dethroning even Shadow Metagross. And it does so even more effectively: at level 40, DM Necrozma is 11% better than Shadow Metagross, while DW Necrozma is “only” 6% ahead of Shadow Tyranitar.
What about Mega Metagross? Its gains in stats through the mega treatment are mostly in bulk, so Mega Metagross is only comparable to Shadow Metagross as a solo attacker, and can’t touch DM Necrozma.
Which Form to Choose?
Disclaimer: Please do not treat this section as giving definitive advice or instructions. Rather, think of it as additional information to help you make your own decisions.
As of writing, it’s not yet feasible for anyone to get more than one fused Necrozma of either form (due to lack of fusion energy), and there remains uncertainty in the maximum number of fusion forms that one can obtain. While both forms are extremely valuable for raids, there are easily a dozen scenarios where someone can only do one more fusion (or only has one more Cosmog) and thus faces a choice between the two forms.
On paper — or, for someone with a well-rounded raid team — Dawn Wings Necrozma (Ghost) is “more useful”. I typically measure utility as the number of raid bosses to use an attacker or a type against, and this philosophy underpins my prior work, such as the Strength & Utility (S&U) chart and a more abstract type utility chart. Using this methodology, Ghost attackers are Super Effective against twice as many T4+ bosses as Steel attackers do. This is primarily because Psychic types see disproportionately greater representation among legendaries.
However, two counter-arguments in favor of Dusk Mane Necromza (Steel) exist that may push some players towards choosing it. One argument is difference in raw power from the next best alternative: 11% for Dusk Mane, 6% or less for Dawn Wings, as explained in the previous section.
Perhaps a more practical point is: Steel-type teams are often difficult to build. Without DM Necrozma, Metagross (shadow or regular) is the only viable pick for a top-tier steel team, and it remains rather inaccessible to many players today, especially new and returning ones. Even “budget” steel teams can be challenging, not to mention they’re weak. But on the Dark/Ghost side, you have two types with virtually identical roles; Shadow Tyranitar doesn’t require any legacy moves; and there are at least 13 other great non-mega options if you look further down. Dusk Mane Necrozma can easily be a bigger fish in a small pond for at least some players.
(Note: Strength-wise, both Necrozma forms are about the same, since their signature moves have identical stats.)
Speculations…?
A separate upcoming article will focus on everything speculative that has not been discussed here. Will Ultra Necrozma be any good (if we do get it in PoGo)? How much may Solgaleo and Lunala benefit from the signature moves, and what about Necrozma’s own psychic-type signature moves? Could Marshadow become more relevant one day with a move shakeup?
This speculative article may come either before or after (probably after) another article on the upcoming season’s move pool changes due to GBL. (TL;DR: Fly Salamence.)
Imgur Links and Additional Charts
General attacker charts: ASE and ASTTW*
Comparisons:
* indicates additional charts that are not in the main post.
