Jan/Feb 7* Event - Greninja (Poison Tera)

[Worldie]

It gets support options like Metal Sound, Screech, Taunt, and dual screens, while also sporting Bulk Up and Power Trip.

I have no idea it it would actually work though.

As I see now, the best option is likely to just have 1-2 Slowbros setting up while the others support them by clearing debuffs and healing.

The main issue will basically be ridding of the Double Team stacks after the shields go up which is likely going to be inevitable. Differently from attack, there's no damaging move that lowers Evasion, and the Clear Smog users don't fare well at all vs Greninja, except to some degree Gastrodon.

...Maybe Storm Drain Gastrodon is the tech for support actually...

 

[Theorymon]

This has been a pretty easy raid honestly, Slowbro and Vapreon in randos are smacking this thing around since it cant really snowball compared to Cinderace.

I myself am basically just using a re-eved Qwilfish lol.


EVs: 252 HP / 160 SpD / 96 Spe
Nature: Timid
Ability: Intimidate
Item: Bright Powder
- Accupressure
- Acid Spray
- Taunt / Chilling Water
- Haze / Chilling Water

EDIT: It gets Haze, might as well use that cuz Greninja is so weak that Night Slash isn't worth debuffing, might as well get rid of the evasion lol

This does pretty much the same thing as the Cinderace raid, but with max HP and a lot of SpD investment because Greninja seems to randomly choose between Hydro Pump and Night Slash against Qwilfish. The Speed EVs outspeed Greninja (who is Sassy for some reason lol, maybe because of Stored Power). It doesn't really come close to KOing you, and the early reset means you can just Accupressure away until someone hits it a few times and it dies lol.

 

[Nokocchi]

View attachment 487007
Slowbro wins again with the same solo set for maximum efficiency. Greninja made some questionable move choices when I was testing with Clodsire and this match. It mainly tried to Hydro Pump Slowbro and a few Night Slashes that didn't do that much. Unlike Cinderace, an OHKO before the shield doesn't look as viable since Greninja resets early, but Slowbro can handle the battle of attrition with Slack Off.

I can confirm that using the exact same Slowbro from the Cinderace Raid, with no changes whatsoever, works fantasically. Got it on my first try, which I did Solo as well

 

[RocketSurgery]

View attachment 487007
Slowbro wins again with the same solo set for maximum efficiency. Greninja made some questionable move choices when I was testing with Clodsire and this match. It mainly tried to Hydro Pump Slowbro and a few Night Slashes that didn't do that much. Unlike Cinderace, an OHKO before the shield doesn't look as viable since Greninja resets early, but Slowbro can handle the battle of attrition with Slack Off.

https://www.serebii.net/scarletviolet/teraraidbattles/event-mightygreninja.shtml
The Greninja is Sassy as a small mercy. The support mons feature Steel Lucario with Meteor Mash/Swords Dance/Vacuum Wave/Earthquake and Psychic Bronzong with Stored Power/Iron Defense/Gyro Ball/Heavy Slam so I guess they are hinting towards setting up, though with some filler attacks on Bronzong and the screens relegated to the boss-only moveslots. I think a Defog mon would have been a choice to counter both Double Team and Toxic Spikes at the same time.

Managed to solo on my second try with Slowbro. The first try ended due to a night slash crit just as I finished setting up.

The second attempt came down to the wire due to several stored power misses in a row, but thankfully got it in just before I ran out of PP or got hit with another crit.

It wasn't too bad, but I sure hope someone comes up with a more consistent setup for this.

 

[Perriechu]

Seeing Double Team in its move set made me want to vomit but I’m excited that Slowbro again manages to be MVP.

Lure Ball Greninja here we goooo!!!

(Do think it’s a little odd that it’s not Battle Bond but hey)

 

[wdcjernigan]

I have only tried soloing twice with Slowbro but Greninja cleared boosts both times after I used Nasty Plot and Iron Defense about four times total.

I also missed a Stored Power once but have been crit a couple of times.

Maybe some other build on a different mon will be more reliable, but evasion and hax are the least fun parts of these games so this raid feels like I won't be farming it on first impression.

Belly Drum Stomping Tantrum Cetitan?
Nasty Plot Aura Sphere Lucario?
Is there any way around the boost clear? Almost feels like we are supposed to play the way they "want us to" by chipping away without boosts.

I will hop online and play with people to see if anyone brings Haze Qwilfish or something. Maybe I should build one.

EDIT: just started with Iron Hands and it went
Belly Drum Hydro Pump red HP
Ice Beam ded
Teammate Iron Hands wasn't dead and Greninja cleared boosts

They literally don't want us to boost. Thanks GF GG No RE

 

[Nokocchi]

(Do think it’s a little odd that it’s not Battle Bond but hey)

The last thing I would expect would be it ever being a Battle Bond Greninja. Mostly because it cannot breed(As was the case in Gen VII), which means players couldn't give Froakie to people who missed the raid or are not far enough in the game to get it during the event. In fact Froakie and Frogadier would just be unobtainable period until Home updates, and the only Greninja that would exist were the ones caught directly in the raids.

Like with Own Tempo on Rockruff and Power Construct Zygarde, Battle Bond Greninja is not just another ability, but coding-wise it is an entirely different form from any normal Greninja. Usually Greninja is 87.5% Male has Torrent/Torrent/Protean as its three ability slots, and is in the Water 1 Egg group so it can produce Froakie eggs. Battle Bond Greninja is 100% Male, had Battle Bond/Battle Bond/Battle Bond as its three ability slots, and is in the Undiscovered Egg Group, and additionally is not coded in any way that would connect it to Froakie or Frogadier in any capacity.

 

[doipy hooves]

Is there any way around the boost clear? Almost feels like we are supposed to play the way they "want us to" by chipping away without boosts.

The cleanse seems to trigger based on the timer, so if necessary you can idle for a minute without pressing anything on turn 1 and Greninja will eventually waste the one boost removal it gets, and after another minute it puts up a shield. There are probably more consistent strategies to be found though, like apparently Vaporeon is another popular Stored Power user with Covert Cloak to block status.

 

[TheMantyke]

I am at work and can’t fight this thing for several hours, but boy howdy, if I had a shiny Croagunk I would be so tempted to load it up with an Eviolite, Chilling Water, and Acid Spray to support the one tap.

I’ve got a qwilfish already and that does really look like all anybody needs for support but like… C’mon, it’s a Croagunk.

 

[wdcjernigan]

I am at work and can’t fight this thing for several hours, but boy howdy, if I had a shiny Croagunk I would be so tempted to load it up with an Eviolite, Chilling Water, and Acid Spray to support the one tap.

I’ve got a qwilfish already and that does really look like all anybody needs for support but like… C’mon, it’s a Croagunk.

You might on to something. Just had a raid with two Slowbros, Vaporeon, and Toxicroak with Mud Slap. Greninja couldn't hit anyone so we just kept boosting through the clear and then fired Stored Powers until they hit.

This raid feels less solo-able, but if everyone does a setup like that we could farm together.

 

[Idle89]

Wanted to report that I've also been doing well with my Qwilfish from the Cinderace raid. Basically max HP EVs, enough Speed EVs to outspeed Greninja (at least 96 per Theorymon's post above), and the rest in Def/SDef (doesn't really seem to matter). Tbh I didn't bother adjusting my EVs from the Cinderace raid and it seems to work fine.

Held item is bright powder
Ability is intimidate

Move Set
Taunt
Minimize (replacing chilly water)
Acupressure
Acid Spray

Turn 1 taunt
Turn 2 minimize

Then acupressure your ally vaporeon/slowbro like crazy.

With minimize and random heal cheers from your allies you have a good chance of living. Not a big deal if you die, since the shield will come up early no matter what. As a bonus, you clear spikes when you respawn.

Keep on acupressuring as much as possible until your ally starts firing off stored powers. With luck you will have boosted their accuracy once or twice by this time.

At this point I switch to acid spray so that the Greninja dies to 1-2 more stored powers.

Been winning raids pretty consistently (4-1 record so far) including one raid in which a Tyranitar literally got OHKO every turn, no cheers or anything.

 

[Lightning Energy]

As I see now, the best option is likely to just have 1-2 Slowbros setting up while the others support them by clearing debuffs and healing.

The main issue will basically be ridding of the Double Team stacks after the shields go up which is likely going to be inevitable. Differently from attack, there's no damaging move that lowers Evasion, and the Clear Smog users don't fare well at all vs Greninja, except to some degree Gastrodon.

...Maybe Storm Drain Gastrodon is the tech for support actually...

I can confirm that Storm Drain Gastrodon is very useful. I went Calm 252 HP/SpDef, but given that Greninja very often chooses Night Slash against you, Bold 252 Def might be better (it did try Ice Beam once or twice though). I won on my first attempt thanks to a Stored Power Slowbro partner, but with Gastrodon I just kinda sat there throwing out Earth Power and Clear Smog as necessary with little worry.

 

[Vurnoise]

Might try Kingambit later. Kowtow Cleave ignore Double Team and if what I've read is correct, it's immune to two moves + TSpikes, resists Ice Beam and I'm hoping Hydro Pump doesn't do too much

Failing that I'll just try SwolBro again lol

 

[edoipi]

First try solo with physically defensive Slowbro. Greninja's Night Slash was really not threatening with Iron Defence and I got lucky with NPC Arcanine intimidating to boot. After setting up for ages I got stat-ups wiped, then shield got up because of the timer. There was never a second stat-up wipe and it went pretty smoothly from this point. For special attack I used calm mind which turned out to be not that bad of an option since Greninja used quite a few Hydro Pumps against me and they did relatively big damage.

Overall the biggest threats for Slowbro are:

• Night Slash crit - but phys defensive can live quite a few of them, just don't risk getting very low on HP and heal up
• Stored Power PP - I won with 3 PP left, though I did not use PP ups, it felt like if I just got little bit worse luck I could lose
  

 

[Worldie]

By the way if you're using Qwilfish as support, a Minimize or two after the buff pulse do wonders considering Greninja seems to priorize spamming Hydro Pump

Edit: currently I'm rocking this set and got quite close to the kill a few times but people queueing in with Belly Drummers and lvl 75 pokemon aren't making it easy as per usual.

Qwilfish @ Black Sludge
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spe (I didn't bother re-Eving, could prolly invest in spdef if you wanted)
Calm Nature (Seems to only use Hydro Pump against Qwil)
- Acid Spray / Chilling Water (ngl haven't clicked this at all)
- Acupressure
- Stockpile
- Minimize

I'm really struggling to not run into a group that doesn't have at least a "unviable" pokemon though...

Edit n2: yep finally worked out as soon as I didn't have a team with people chaindieing. It helps that Acupressure can actually raise Accuracy making Slowbro / Vaporeon actually able to hit consistently.

Plan:
Defensive Cheer > Stockpile > Minimize
Wait for buff clear pulse
Stockpile > Minimize x2 > mash that Acupressure button on Slowbro/Vaporeon until you vomit

 

[Nexor]

I made it today (holiday ftw), but I needed almost 10 tries, because people bring... strange pokémons... or cannot play their pokémons...

I use Stored Power Vaporeon with Covert Cloak. But I also see many Slowbros.

 

[Worldie]

My impression after a few hours of trying online and getting multiple kills:

The Double Team isn't anywhere as obnoxious as Bulk Up spam was, the raid rarely gets more than 2 up (very rarely 3) so counterplay isn't really necessary.
Intimidate & similar stuff at start is nice but not as mandatory as for Cinderace. Since you're not really going to get the oneshot, the boss will eventually get a debuff clear off. However, Mud-Shot spam is actually pretty nice as both Gunk Shot and Hydro Pump have significant miss chance on its own which just gets worse.
Since Greninja will do buff clear very early, setting up is actually quite safe, and once you have Iron Defense / Calm Mind / equivalent up you can tank hits relatively safely.
Stored Power is still the strat, however you're not really going to oneshot, rather going to take 2-3 shots since it's basically guaranteed for the shield to be up.

Stored Power users that look viable:
- Slowbro is still solid however it'll be eating Night Slash so there is the risk of crits thus you have to play a bit more conservative on HPs / Slack Off more often
- Slowking is basically budget Slowbro, does exactly the same thing so I mean if you have a shiny one you can use it
- Vaporeon is the new entry, Acid Armor + Calm Mind sets up defenses faster than Slowbro's Iron Defense + Nasty Plot, will be eating Gunk Shots instead of Night Slashes most of the time so you trade the crit chance for higher miss chance and risk of poison. You can also notably run Covert Cloak + Aqua Ring

Support mons that I've seen work
- Qwilfish. I mean, did you have any doubt? See post above for set and plan. Honestly I can't think of a better support at the moment.
- Clodsire provides an interesting combo of Mud-Shot, immunity to 2 attacks and Acid Spray. Can also use Yawn early to buy a few turns. However there is a very dangerous turn where the boss does the buff clear where you can eat a Hydro Pump and die horribly
- Slowking with Iron Defense can actually provide screens
- A frisky set I've seen twice and may be cooking up something is a Gallade set, probably specially defensive, which has Life Dew
- I've seen a couple Toxicroak but they didn't... really do anything. Yes it has Chilling Water, Acid Spray and resists everything + Dry Skin but I don't see it doing much more than all of the above.

 

[Perriechu]

Is it possible that Greninja has a crit multiplier applied?

Night Slash was doing pitiful damage against my Slowbro without defense buffs but then whenever it got a crit it was literally OHKO’ing me with +6 defense?

 

[Worldie]

Night Slash was doing pitiful damage against my Slowbro without defense buffs but then whenever it got a crit it was literally OHKO’ing me with +6 defense?

Critical hits ignore your +stats as well as its -stats.
There's no modifier, that's just how it works.

0 Atk Greninja Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Slowbro on a critical hit: 200-236 (60.4 - 71.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
You'll likely want at very least a defense investment of some kind to eat the inevitable crits.

 

[TheMantyke]

Some initial thoughts getting back home and playing / winning with randoms:

• Slowbro’s king here again. Multiple Slowbros felt annoying playing vs Cinderace. Here it actually seems optimal. Greninja leads off with that first stat wipe and shield pretty quickly. Just chuggin’ and sluggin’ with two Slowbros seems solid given you’re probably not going to 1 shot.
• Qwilfish is great, though be sure to re-EV for SpDef if you’re reusing your cinderace one. It take Hydro Pumo down from like a 3HKO to like a 5-6KO.
• You really might as well not bother buffing those opening turns. I’ve been smacking Greninja with debuffs during that window before the first stat wipe. I’m halfway considering giving a Slowbro Fling + Burn Orb to kick off the match to do something useful in that window.
• Anyone try Espathra? Like, fat as hell feather dance + Lumina Crash really doesn’t seem that bad here given Gren’s not prone to clear his own stats too quick. Seems like it can maybe feather dance and do some work while the Slowbros do a thanksgiving meal’s worth of set up.

 

[Worldie]

Anyone try Espathra? Like, fat as hell feather dance + Lumina Crash really doesn’t seem that bad here given Gren’s not prone to clear his own stats too quick. Seems like it can maybe feather dance and do some work while the Slowbros do a thanksgiving meal’s worth of set up.

I don't feel very optimistic about Espathra. You just die to a crit pretty quickly even with full investment
0 Atk Greninja Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Espathra on a critical hit: 216-254 (54.8 - 64.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Like, ipotetically if you manage to get a feather dance /reflect off AND not get crit, then you can probably just abuse Speed Boost + Stored Power, maybe throw out substitute or spam roost, but as soon as debuff clear is out you just start eating 40% hp per hit even on a noncrit and need Reflect to be up to even think of living
0 Atk Greninja Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Espathra: 144-170 (36.5 - 43.1%) -- 98.5% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Greninja Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Espathra through Reflect: 72-85 (18.2 - 21.5%) -- possible 7HKO after Leftovers recovery

 

[Perriechu]

Critical hits ignore your +stats as well as its -stats.
There's no modifier, that's just how it works.

0 Atk Greninja Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Slowbro on a critical hit: 200-236 (60.4 - 71.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
You'll likely want at very least a defense investment of some kind to eat the inevitable crits.

that's crazy, I've played this game for two decades and I have only just found that out i'm so ashamed omg

either way, a full team of Slowbro's managed to take it down so I now have Lure Ball Greninja

 

[TheMantyke]

Just actually gave Espathra a whirl with Max HP Max Def and… honestly it seems kinda mediocre. Night Slash isn’t what you should be worrying about, Hydro Pump nearly 2HKOs. It’s a bit rocky, and honestly Qwilfish or any other acid spray bot just does its support better I feel.

 

[Worldie]

You really might as well not bother buffing those opening turns. I’ve been smacking Greninja with debuffs during that window before the first stat wipe. I’m halfway considering giving a Slowbro Fling + Burn Orb to kick off the match to do something useful in that window.

Also if you really don't know what to put on that last move, Growl is always a option... and so are Yawn and Heal Pulse
Or even Light Screen to help eventual Qwilfishes that are eating Hydro Pumps

 

[Sixfortyfive]

The cleanse seems to trigger based on the timer, so if necessary you can idle for a minute without pressing anything on turn 1 and Greninja will eventually waste the one boost removal it gets, and after another minute it puts up a shield. There are probably more consistent strategies to be found though, like apparently Vaporeon is another popular Stored Power user with Covert Cloak to block status.

Yep. Just finished solo-ing it in my second try. Patience is king.

- Slowbro w/ Zoom Lens to compensate for evasion
- literally do nothing until he wastes his debuff
- Iron Defense x3
- Nasty Plot x3
- attack cheer x1
- Stored Power until dead (~3 hits)
- Slack Off whenever <= 50% HP

Took two tries because I ate an inopportunely timed Night Slash crit during the first attempt.