7* Raid - Hisuian Decidueye (Grass Tera) - October 6-8 rerun 13-15

[Worldie]

Also, weirdly, it only used Leaf Storm on one of the AI? I assumed it was a "hit everyone" type turn.

Nope, looks like it's same as the old Charizard's Overheat, he just throws it at someone on a free turn.
Tbfh kinda makes sense in a way, he's going to get -2 spatk from every cast so after the first one the others would barely tickle anyway.

the walking hax factory that Decidueye is in this raid.

Honestly this is my kinda issue with this specific raid, the fact both his stabs have high crit means that you're really forced to use something that resists both or you're just playing "will i get crit at worst time possible / twice in a row" roulette.

I wouldn't mind this kind of scenario if that's the whole gimmick and you're able to offset it in some way (es, Battle Armor or equivalent mons being viable)
Not quite the case here, the only viable one that is not weak to some of his coverage or the stabs is Torkoal who doesn't even have innate recovery and isn't realistically ever outspeeding so it's likely just going to die before getting anything done.

(Though, with Clear Smog and high burn chance I think Torkoal could make for a reliable support honestly)

Edit: I felt like sharing this absolute unit of set I ran into while trying a couple of online raids.

Don't click if you value your sanity

DougJustDoug honestly I don't think there's any actual youtuber or anything advocating for it, I think it's just the typical pokemon player assuming "oh ghost/fire surely walls grass/fighting CLUELESS"

 

[Chou Toshio]

I’m kind of sad this one doesn’t have a cool theme though, compared to its double hitting Alola form or crit Samurott :<

 

[Worldie]

compared to its double hitting Alola form

It actually DOES have double hit as well.
Just due to the way the strat works, you don't really get to see it, but it definitely starts double hitting below 50% hp if you don't break the shield asap.

 

[Vengeance417]

Existence is pain.

 

[Worldie]

If you're looking at the absolute support, honestly this is I think the best you can opt for:

Slowbro-Galar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Quick Draw (honestly irrelevant, may as well go first once in a while)
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Acid Spray
- Chilling Water
- Slack Off
- Iron Defense

You take absolutely negligible damage from anything, even crits, assuming +0 or less, and are one of the very few Chilling Water users that resists both stabs. (in fact the Leaf Storm hits harder than anything else lol)

0+ Atk Decidueye-Hisui Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Galar: 78-92 (19.7 - 23.3%) -- possible 6HKO after Black Sludge recovery
0+ Atk Decidueye-Hisui Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Galar: 92-110 (23.3 - 27.9%) -- possible 5HKO after Black Sludge recovery
0+ Atk Decidueye-Hisui Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Galar on a critical hit: 117-138 (29.6 - 35%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Black Sludge recovery
0+ Atk Decidueye-Hisui Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Galar on a critical hit: 138-164 (35 - 41.6%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery

Honestly not exactly the most complicate strategy ever, chilling water t1, iron defense twice or thrice after buff wipe, keep spamming chilling water and acid spray...

I've managed to even carry a team of (i'm still amazed) Ceruledge, Ceruledge and Galarian Articuno (who died, then spammed double team and did nothing else).
Sadly I don't think there's any chance to carry anyone locking anything weak or even just not resistant to the stabs though, they'll just die to crits no matter how many debuffs you put up.

 

[Slowpokeking]

Outside of the perfectly appropriate name for something we found out 2 pages ago...

Corviknight is *not* a perfect counter. It's a reliable one, but you can actually get deleted by a poorly timed crit after the Sword Dance.
All it takes is 2 crits in a short time or crit when you're in KO range.
+2 0+ Atk Tera Grass Decidueye-Hisui Triple Arrows vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight on a critical hit: 246-289 (61.5 - 72.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+3 0+ Atk Tera Grass Decidueye-Hisui Triple Arrows vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight on a critical hit: 306-361 (76.5 - 90.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

With a high crit move, that *can* happen. It's unlikely, but can and will every few attempts.
It's why I keep recommending to just go Arceus. I've seen plenty of online attempts on Corvi die from 70% hp to a crit (without considering the other 3).

Honestly don't use Corviknight if you can avoid it, if you want a sure kill, go Arceus (if you have one), it's hilariously free. If you don't have one... well hope the RNG is on your side.

You can taunt to let it not be able to Sword dance.

I was busy yesterday so didn't have much time to think! It's not because I'm slow.

Got the idea while sleeping.

 

[Chou Toshio]

It actually DOES have double hit as well.
Just due to the way the strat works, you don't really get to see it, but it definitely starts double hitting below 50% hp if you don't break the shield asap.

I know it has it but it’s not doing any one thing consistently throughout. This one is literally all over the place doing like, everything.

 

[Worldie]

You can taunt to let it not be able to Sword dance.

You wish. While it's tecnically possible, you need a very specific situation in which you manage to land a taunt just before it shields itself and after your first taunt expires (so the party must not be dealing too much damage, but also not too little), and hope the taunt is still live by the time it gets in Sword Dance range.

It's possible, but very rare to happen. I've only seen someone pull it off once.

Also for the love of arceus if any of you actually goes into online with Skeledirge, Armarouge or Ceruledge, at least have the decency to WoW turn 1.

 

[pika pal]

So what seems like the least-sandbag Pokemon I can bring in absence of Arceus? Nothing looks particularly fun for this thing and Triple Arrow spam but I wanna roll dice finding randos and know I'm not THE problem

 

[Worldie]

So what seems like the least-sandbag Pokemon I can bring in absence of Arceus? Nothing looks particularly fun for this thing and Triple Arrow spam but I wanna roll dice finding randos and know I'm not THE problem

If you're looking for offensive mons, Skeledirge and Armarouge are ok as long as you actually click WoW turn 1 (and possibly Clear Smog turn 2 if noone is using Taunt). Corviknight is also obviously still fine as long as you have taunt

If you're looking for supportive, as I said above Slowbro-Galar is a option, I've seen some supportive Iron Moth (prolly defensive invested?) which was probably spamming Lunge then Fiery Dance. I theorized that Weezing-Galar can also work but honestly I couldn't cook a good enough set other than just WoW / Acid Spray / Clear Smog / something.
I've attempted to bring Fezandipity as well, which on paper would work until you notice it only gets Charm and not Reflect, so you can charm t1, then basically you're just fishing for poison procs on Acid Spray and using Roost.
I've also tried Skill Swap Polteageist which is cool turn 1 and then you just get obliterated if you die even once cause weak armor works against you then.

Also generic rant: I swear half of these Ceruledge raids would be winnable if people stopped bringing fucking Weak Armor instead of Flash Fire ones.

 

[pika pal]

Also need to decide: Level or Fast Ball

 

[Slowpokeking]

You wish. While it's tecnically possible, you need a very specific situation in which you manage to land a taunt just before it shields itself and after your first taunt expires (so the party must not be dealing too much damage, but also not too little), and hope the taunt is still live by the time it gets in Sword Dance range.

It's possible, but very rare to happen. I've only seen someone pull it off once.

Also for the love of arceus if any of you actually goes into online with Skeledirge, Armarouge or Ceruledge, at least have the decency to WoW turn 1.

It's not hard, you just need to focus on buff and not to deal too much damage.

 

[Worldie]

It's not hard, you just need to focus on buff and not to deal too much damage.

Good luck organizing this with 3 randoms online.

 

[pika pal]

Screw the unshown Baxcalibur. Everyone else was totally sensible (Ceruledge had Will-o-Wisp and ensured it was applied whenever Shield was down while the Arceus and I were boosting), but the one goober spamming Icicle Crash with no Support or bulking up caused it to come down to this.

 

[Slowpokeking]

Good luck organizing this with 3 randoms online.

I was talking about solo, 4 ppl together is a different situation.

 

[Worldie]

I was talking about solo, 4 ppl together is a different situation.

Solo it's definitely much more doable but using corvi to solo is painful due to how long you're playing the rng lottery on crits from Triple Arrow until you tera.
I'll still recommend Arceus or Armarouge over it any day.

Screw the unshown Baxcalibur. Everyone else was totally sensible (Ceruledge had Will-o-Wisp and ensured it was applied whenever Shield was down while the Arceus and I were boosting), but the one goober spamming Icicle Crash with no Support or bulking up caused it to come down to this.

Ngl even with suboptimal picks, this raid is way more doable as long as people don't bring absolute unmons around.

I've messed around with the Slowbro set above for a couple hours, I've achieved around a 50% winrate.
I've won more or less any attempt where noone brought actually detrimental picks (including a few weird choices like a handful of Charizards, and a guy with Galarian Articuno as I said above, and even a run where someone brought Fire Ogerpon which died twice and I barely kept him up with Heal Cheers at the end).

My failures pretty much involved people bringing mons weak to the boss or just useless, including but not limited to
- A bunch of Charizards, often physical, and one actually with dragon dance but then spammed Inferno and Fire Blast
- Weak Armor Armarouge / Ceruledge, no really why Weak armor ffs
- A Baxcalibur, I wonder if it's the same you had. Don't have to tell how that went
- Someone who was on Ceruledge then swapped to... Luxray. Wasn't even Intimidate.. just a random Luxray :|
- Someone who saw Skeledirge work and thought Hisuian Thyplosion also would (spoilers it didn't)
- One person who locked Mew with basically what looked like a Lunge spam set... minus the part he died almost istantly, prolly Leaf Blade crits
- One guy who had Rayquaza which... honestly maybe would have worked if he didn't DDance 3 times, then die, then just click Dragon Ascent and die again
- A bunch of people attempting to lock Cinderace and honestly I just dodged there, wasn't even worth trying

Honestly I'm surprised to have seen absolutely 0 Arceus. You'd think that'd gain traction... then again, Arceus itself isn't exactly easy to come by if you don't own old ones and didn't 100% LA...

 

[Slowpokeking]

Solo it's definitely much more doable but using corvi to solo is painful due to how long you're playing the rng lottery on crits from Triple Arrow until you tera.
I'll still recommend Arceus or Armarouge over it any day.

It won't kill you unless you go real unlucky.

The best part is that it can taunt, iron defense and reflect triple arrow's effect.

 

[Worldie]

It won't kill you unless you go real unlucky.

The best part is that it can taunt, iron defense and reflect triple arrow's effect.

I think you underestimate one detail of Triple Arrow: it's a high crit chance move, meaning it has 12.5% chance to crit baseline.
Not getting crit at least once during an attempt is actually being lucky. Being crit twice is a reasonable thing that can happen.

Due to the high crit chance status, it means that you have to keep yourself above 50% at any time (higher threshold if you don't manage to taunt the boss before Sword Dance). Of course after you Terastalize, you're resisting both Leaf Blade and Triple Arrow so it's unlikely the boss picks these moves again. Still can die to a crit, but at least it's down to the regular 1/24 with Brave Bird and Shadow Claw (which also are unstabbed and hit for way less on a crit)

 

[Slowpokeking]

I think you underestimate one detail of Triple Arrow: it's a high crit chance move, meaning it has 12.5% chance to crit baseline.
Not getting crit at least once during an attempt is actually being lucky. Being crit twice is a reasonable thing that can happen.

Due to the high crit chance status, it means that you have to keep yourself above 50% at any time (higher threshold if you don't manage to taunt the boss before Sword Dance).

Without buff, 1 crit isn't a big problem. Of course bad luck could happen.

 

[Vinc2612]

A lot of people are boosting their defense the first turn, especially in solo.

Doing nothing is better, you know you'll be reset turn 2 anyway. Waiting those 5 seconds before moving will spare you a hit.

 

[wdcjernigan]

I took the advice in this thread and also got a Toys R Us Arceus out of Pokémon Jail Home, made him into the Poison God, and easily beat the owl solo.

Y'all weren't kidding about random Ceruledges either.

I might farm this one solo. Thanks for everyone's posts!

 

[Jadis]

I did two raids online with Corviknight, winning my second one. First bunch of allied were like Skeledirge, Typhlosion and a Gliscor for some reason, and don't ask me why I even tried. Second team were two Ceruledge and a Skeledirge, I think. They held on decently, there were little to no deaths, and the more prepared Ceruledge even had Clear Smog for SD. Caught in a Level Ball, because auctions don't want to give me Fast Ball... I didn't have any problems winning, but reading this thread now suddenly I don't feel like farming this...

 

[Worldie]

They held on decently, there were little to no deaths, and the more prepared Ceruledge even had Clear Smog for SD. Caught in a Level Ball, because auctions don't want to give me Fast Ball... I didn't have any problems winning, but reading this thread now suddenly I don't feel like farming this...

Ceruledges specifically are mainly a coinflip. Despite being a noobtrap, the mon itself is fine if played right.

So you have the bunch of weak armor who go thinking they can sword dance > bitter blade and get obliterated.
And then the ones with actual braincells that WoW t1, have Clear Smog for the buffs, and actually either SD->BB or have further supportive moves.

Skeledirge players are on similar level where if they go into this with Unaware, defensive investment, Slack Off and possibly WoW, they more or less pull their weight and don't die. Or they go in with their Blaze starter and well...

 

[Vinc2612]

View attachment 558690View attachment 558692

Azumarill runs Jolly with 28 Speed EVs to outspeed Decidueye, which allows it to avoid taking hits before debuffing and not get flinched. The rest of the EVs go into Attack (I have 248 here because of suboptimal vitamin order) and 238 Defense to maximize our bulk against Decidueye.

Thanks for the report, that was a good read. But I have a teambuilding tip that might interest you.

This is your Azumarill:

And this is another Azumarill with the exact same stats:

As a rule of thumbs, if your nature-boosted stat is not the highest one (except of course HP) AND you can reach the same value (157 Speed) without the nature, you can probably save some EVs by picking another nature. In this example, switching from Jolly to Impish allows me to spare 36 EVs, so 9 free points wherever I want.
It doesn't work everytime (it might not work if your higher stats don't have many EVs before the nature change) but it's good to keep in mind.

 

[formula4speed]

You wish. While it's tecnically possible, you need a very specific situation in which you manage to land a taunt just before it shields itself and after your first taunt expires (so the party must not be dealing too much damage, but also not too little), and hope the taunt is still live by the time it gets in Sword Dance range.

It's possible, but very rare to happen. I've only seen someone pull it off once.

Also for the love of arceus if any of you actually goes into online with Skeledirge, Armarouge or Ceruledge, at least have the decency to WoW turn 1.

As for Taunt with Corviknight, I've had good luck using Drill Peck turn 1 and Taunt on Turn 2 and having it block both Bulk Up and Swords Dance. Drill Peck on Turn 1 does next to no damage, but helps build towards tera. Turn 3 Iron Defense, after that I mix in Bulk Up and Drill Peck. 2 Bulk Ups let me do decent damage, but sometimes I only get 1 in because of crit or flinch. Holding a Sitrus berry gives me a little wiggle room when RNG hates me.

It's not a guaranteed win with randoms, but I can deal decent damage and not die pretty reliably. Having someone running Reflect or WoW is also great obviously, but you can't count on that.

I sort of enjoy that you don't need a perfect team to clear this one, so I've done more online raids than I was originally planning.