February - March 7* Raids: Tera Ground Venusaur, Tera Steel Blastoise, and Tera Dragon Charizard

Earth Power has really wide distribution, has good power, accuracy and chance of special defense drops. I wonder if a Tera Stellar Palkia could just overpower Blastoise with a little support and spamming Earth Power.
 
Earth Power has really wide distribution, has good power, accuracy and chance of special defense drops. I wonder if a Tera Stellar Palkia could just overpower Blastoise with a little support and spamming Earth Power.
Assuming Blastoise doesn't have Dragon Pulse sure. But I'm pretty sure you lose the damage race if it does.
 
Double status reset is annoying, though predictable that he drops a Shell Smash + Status Reset at the same time.

Being purely special attacking at least makes support options insanely obvious, even with Aura Sphere.
 
Double status reset is annoying, though predictable that he drops a Shell Smash + Status Reset at the same time.
Shell Smash is on 75% HP, not time. From my experience it happens right after the shield breaks.

Preview of Azumarill's current situation (shoutouts to good AI from Venusaur):
1709686325920.png
 
Ok, yeah, Vaporeon steamrolls this guy. It especially helps if you get rid of his shield on the same turn he removes your ability because it will prevent him from attacking next turn with a potential Hydro Pump. In fact, I don't think Vaporeon needs any healing at all. So you can replace Shell Bell with something to increase damage further. Or better yet, Passho Berry.
 

Chou Toshio

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So guys now that this has dropped with data, what do we think of Tera Water Sunny Day Unaware Skeledirge?

Sunny Day, Tera before Shield goes down/sun disappears, cut through toise with Torch Song into Rain boosted Tera Blast in end game
 

Anubis

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Won a couple of times with Skeledirge, and had plenty of time left both times. I reset for an NPC team that didn't have Light Screen and Life Dew to see if we still win.

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Skeledirge (M) @ Shell Bell
EVs: Modest 80 HP / 252 SpD / 176 Spe or Timid 158 HP / 252 SpD / 100 Spe
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Fire
- Torch Song
- Sunny Day
- Flamethrower (optional, use this if you didn't PP max Torch Song)
- Slack Off (optional, safety for if you take too much damage)

Speed is to go faster than Blastoise.

Click Sunny Day to start, every time it runs out, and when Blastoise uses Rain Dance.
This significantly reduces damage you take from Hydro Pump and increases your damage output.
Torch Song until you can Terastallize. Do it as soon as you can. Torch Song until you win.

I only used Torch Song and Sunny Day to win, so last two moves are a bit fillery.
 
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Arcticblast

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Ok, yeah, Vaporeon steamrolls this guy. It especially helps if you get rid of his shield on the same turn he removes your ability because it will prevent him from attacking next turn with a potential Hydro Pump. In fact, I don't think Vaporeon needs any healing at all. So you can replace Shell Bell with something to increase damage further. Or better yet, Passho Berry.
yeah

:sv/vaporeon:
Vaporeon @ Mystic Water
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Calm Mind
- Wish
- who cares

Click Calm Mind and win. It's pretty much that easy. I didn't even bother getting to +6 honestly. You could also go with Shell Bell and two support moves in the last slots for pubs - might as well, right? Haze is kind of nice for said pubs in case any allies might struggle with the boosted attacks.

Don't be like me and use Mud Slap though. That doesn't help you avoid Aura Spheres.
 
yeah

:sv/vaporeon:
Vaporeon @ Mystic Water
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Calm Mind
- Wish
- who cares

Click Calm Mind and win. It's pretty much that easy. I didn't even bother getting to +6 honestly. You could also go with Shell Bell and two support moves in the last slots for pubs - might as well, right? Haze is kind of nice for said pubs in case any allies might struggle with the boosted attacks.

Don't be like me and use Mud Slap though. That doesn't help you avoid Aura Spheres.
??? What? I was referring to the build I posted with Tera Fire Weather Ball.

(Edit) Also, to address my previous reply, ignore the Passho Berry part, I just remembered the Ability Shield.
 
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Game Freak thought every other raid boss was too easy for Azumarill, so they decided to make one spam itself to +6 defense, which almost tempted me to build a new special set. Unfortunately the instant shield dashed my dreams of Fake Tears setup. On the other hand, we have access to a universal method of ignoring defense buffs through critical hits, and Blastoise doesn't really threaten Azumarill much offensively with the help of Sylveon and Gardevoir AI so we can forego Shell Bell's healing for some added consistency over 1/24 chances.

+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Tera Water Azumarill Liquidation vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Steel Blastoise on a critical hit: 1348-1586 (12.8 - 15.1% of 35x hp boss) -- possible 7HKO

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At first I was trying with Scope Lens to roll for 1/8 crits and getting very far even with a low amount of criticals, which I would need about 4-5 for a successful run and being off every time. Then mdash informed me that I could just use the Lansat Berry to get +2 crit and get up to a 50% chance instead, which ended up being harder to achieve thanks to Gardevoir healing, but still possible thanks to Belly Drum, and I ended up winning on my first try after it actually procced. At the least it took less time to try to get Lansat to proc and play the rest of the fight than fish for 1/8 crits the whole time and run out of PP.

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The set is pretty straightforward Azumarill fare. This is still my playthrough Azumarill, though I traded in about 90 Speed EVs for SpD just in case. Mud-Slap baits Aura Sphere, but Blastoise still tends to Hydro Pump fairly often and it helps to save some time and pressure. Amnesia may not be totally necessary with Sylveon, but better safe than sorry. Liquidation is still Azumarill's most reliable STAB in this situation with both accuracy and power.

With Scope Lens I used to start off the battle with 2 Amnesias, 3 Mud-Slaps, Belly Drum, and getting in about 5 Liquidations to fish for crits between Blastoise resetting his debuffs (using 1 Mud-Slap) and my own buffs being reset. From there I would set 2 Amnesias back and get Belly Drum off thanks to Gardevoir healing or a heal cheer, and spend the rest of the fight mostly spamming Liquidation. The goal was to get a huge Liquidation off preferably in the rain and stacking with an attack cheer as a last ditch effort, but even just one hit with a 1.5x boost would be helpful.

+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Tera Water Azumarill Atk Cheer Liquidation vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Steel Blastoise in Rain on a critical hit: 3030-3566 (28.9 - 34% of 35x hp boss) -- 2.1% chance to 3HKO

+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Tera Water Azumarill Atk Cheer Liquidation vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Steel Blastoise on a critical hit: 2020-2378 (19.3 - 22.7% of 35x hp boss) -- possible 5HKO

1709690915084.png
1709690928858.png

Unfortunately I didn't end up getting the win with Scope before switching to Lansat. My strategy shifted to fishing for early Lansat Berry procs instead by using Belly Drum early on instead of Amnesia, and hoping Gardevoir wouldn't heal too often before Blastoise's damage output went to nothing. I ended up getting it with a T1 Flash Cannon/T2 Iron Defense that failed/T3 Hydro Pump combination. I'm still not sure why I saw Blastoise use an Iron Defense at +6 but maybe that says something about the AI choosing moves for you before it actually makes them for the other players.

1709691207174.png
1709691213358.png

After that point I got 4 Liquidations in before the buff reset, getting 2 non-crits and 2 crits in that order. The AI ended up breaking the shield for me while I set Amnesia and Mud-Slap back up so I could get a free drum in. Afterwards I got a crit, a noncrit, a crit to send him below 50% and put the rain up, a rain crit, 2 noncrits, and a crit to end it. I didn't feel the need to send an attack cheer because I would have just needed 2 crits anyway and I had plenty of time.

1709691305121.png
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Overall Blastoise was a pretty intimidating threat on the surface but ended up not as hard a challenge for Azumarill as some other bosses, mainly because it can be tanked pretty easily and critical hits are an awesome mechanic. Thank you game freak.
 

Arcticblast

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??? What? I was referring to the build I posted with Tera Fire Weather Ball.
You really don't even need to be Tera Fire Weather Ball. Surf does enough damage, and Blastoise is even kind enough to set up rain for you later in the fight. Save your Tera Shards for something else and go catch the wild Tera Vaporeon at Casseroya Lake.

Healing does end up being kind of important though, whether you use Weather Ball or Surf, so Shell Bell or Wish is still a smart idea.
 
I tried going online, for some reason, with the vaporeon set

First attempt with Annihilape, Mewtwo & Quagsire
The ape used Sunny Day at the start but didn't set it up again once they realized i was powering up Surf and not Stored Power or whatever

Things were going okay until the status reset at which point both the Mewtwo & Quagsire died. The Quagsire jsut spammed Mud Slap a million times. Annihilape died at the second reset, so once the rain came back up there was just no time for me to deal with it. Oops!

Then I just did a solo and beat it first try with the same vaporeon. I put it in a heavy ball
 
Actually, in my 2nd ba
You really don't even need to be Tera Fire Weather Ball. Surf does enough damage, and Blastoise is even kind enough to set up rain for you later in the fight. Save your Tera Shards for something else and go catch the wild Tera Vaporeon at Casseroya Lake.

Healing does end up being kind of important though, whether you use Weather Ball or Surf, so Shell Bell or Wish is still a smart idea.
Actually, in my 2nd battle against Blastoise I was holding a Passho Berry and by the time Vaporeon got to yellow health Blastoise only had like probably less than a quarter of his health left. Helped by the fact his ai just doesn't realize Vaporeon has Water Absorb. Also, Tera fire Weather Ball deals more damage. If you ask me, it's worth using up a turn to put the sun up.

252+ SpA Tera Fire Vaporeon Weather Ball (100 BP Fire) vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Tera Steel Blastoise in Sun: 512-606 (171.2 - 202.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Mystic Water Tera Water Vaporeon Weather Ball (100 BP Water) vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Tera Steel Blastoise in Rain: 408-482 (136.4 - 161.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

That's a big enough jump for me to want to use Fire instead. Water feels like it'd be way too slow.
 
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Notes from https://stevecooktu.github.io/sv_raid_lookup/
The raid is 600s/10 minutes long, the shield is a smaller 25% HP but is still back to a 35x multiplier, damage rates are the usual, and the 50% HP doubling threshold is back. I feel like the percentages must round differently or something because I see him get chipped into Shell Smash before it has actually broken.

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marillmoves.png

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I did the exact same Azumarill clear but with Marill. It's the same strategy, Lansat and all, just with less stats. Marill just takes more time/hits and likely needs the max PP to work out. In one attempt I ended up actually dying to Blastoise's doubles because Gardevoir ran out of Life Dews and Sylveon ran out of Moonblasts too early. I think I got unlucky with lack of crits, Hydro Pump hits, and 50% doubles and didn't reapply Mud-Slap that time.

To set up Lansat, I mainly need Gardevoir not to Life Dew early. Being in slot 1 helps for the defense cheer usage. I could also have lowered my SpD investment so that Blastoise hits me to 25% with 1 Flash Cannon (which it does not currently). I also ended up using a Belly Drum on a turn I got hit below 50% HP so I just waited for the 60% time to reapply it and start doing damage.
 
Full support Milotic worked great for me. Unboosted Aura Sphere and Hydro Pump do like 7% each to you and well-timed Hazes + Light Screen ensure that your team is never threatened. Life Dew and Helping Hand round out the set nicely as more spammable options.
 
My general opinion from playing randos, in terms of what is good on the randoms ladder (assuming you know how to play this pokemon)
S: Delphox
A: Gallade, Espathra
B: Gastrodon, Vaporeon, Koraidon, Umbreon, Chansey line, Alcremie, Oranguru
C : Poliwrath, Volcanion, Arboliva
D: Iron Hands, Annihilape

Delphox is basically the best pokemon for this raid, especially with randos.
My set:
Tera fire
4/0-/0/252+/252/0
HeatRock/ShellBell
-Mystical Fire (PPMax in case)
-Nasty Plot
-Sunny Day
-Role Play/Light Screen

Role play is if you are playing with randos. There are a ton of Water Absorb pokemon around right now (Vaporeon, Gastro, Poliwrath, Volcanion). If you get get paired with one, you Role play, hard wall Blastoise, and then just do your thing in peace.

Delphox is still an easy solo/rando pick even without Role Play. You mostly need to know how to play around the shell smash portion, but if you figure that out, no other pokemon is as consistent and flexible as Delphox. I have a 90% winrate with her across >10 raids, despite my teammates’ best efforts to troll with Haze spam and setting up rain. Item is flexible. Use Shell bell for immortality. Switch to Heat Rock when you know the matchup better.

Make sure to bring a Vaporeon and wait for everyone to lock in before you switch and lock into Delphox.
——
Gallade spams Mystical fire, then SD into Sacred Sword. Very solid, but not as bulky.

Other physical attackers have really bad times (eg Poliwrath/IronHands). While Poliwrath is safe, his +6 BD basically just cancels out with the +6 from Iron Defense.
——-
Espathra’s Lumina Crash generally helps everyone’s times. Randos are exceptionally stupid, and terrible at taking advantage of Espathra’s Lumina crash. But you can still make it roughly work with tera fire tera blast. Espathra is basically a discount Delphox, but provides more offensive support for the team.
——
Koraidon gives snarl, auto sun, and HH… All the other pokemon should be self explanatory.

Btw if your team lacks Snarl/MysticalFire/SkitterSmack/StuggleBug/Haze, your chances of winning drop precipitously. Koraidon, Umbreon, Delphox, Gallade, Gastrodon, Vaporeon, and Poliwrath all have one of these.
 
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Arcticblast

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Because I have never once had a good idea in my life, I present to you today: CRIT HANDS

:sv/iron hands:
Iron Hands @ Scope Lens
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Swords Dance
- Focus Energy
- Charge

I had seen people talk about Focus Energy Annihilape in randoms, and I decided to see if anything could pull off a solo clear with Focus Energy. As it turns out, Iron Hands is the only thing in the Paldea dex with access to all of Swords Dance, Drain Punch, and Focus Energy (and I'm not using Hitmonchan anyway). Tera Water is necessary to survive the brutal +2 Hydro Pumps in Rain, but adding Charge on top takes the fight from precarious to pretty simple. Focus Energy turn 1, then alternate Swords Dance and Drain Punch to +6. Slam the Tera button when able, keep clicking Drain Punch, then use Charge first once Blastoise clears your buffs.

This set isn't good, but it's funny!

I think Crit Hands does much better in pubs than in solo, where you have things like Sunny Day and Snarl lowering Blastoise's damage output and can attack more freely. Use Tera Fighting if you're playing multiplayer; the increased damage is super significant.
 

Anubis

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yeah

:sv/vaporeon:
Vaporeon @ Mystic Water
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Calm Mind
- Wish
- who cares

Click Calm Mind and win. It's pretty much that easy. I didn't even bother getting to +6 honestly. You could also go with Shell Bell and two support moves in the last slots for pubs - might as well, right? Haze is kind of nice for said pubs in case any allies might struggle with the boosted attacks.

Don't be like me and use Mud Slap though. That doesn't help you avoid Aura Spheres.
I tried this set out because it was a bit surprising that you could just spam water and win. I like that it's fairly mindless and easy to obtain in-game. I never had to click Wish since Blastoise didn't do enough damage to me and gave me free Hydro Pump heals.

I made some slight adjustments which did make it go a little faster for me. Fake Tears is useful in a group setting.

Vaporeon @ Metronome
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Calm Mind
- Fake Tears
- Wish (never used this)

The commands basically went:
Calm Mind 3-4x to start.
Surf until you get your stats cleared, Tera when you can.
Shield should be broken by now.
Fake Tears 1x, Calm Mind 2x (there may be more optimal number of times to do this idk)
Surf until you win.

1709709108683.png
 

DougJustDoug

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This is what I used to solo Blastoise pretty easily, and it’s also a good set for online randos too:

:sv/iron_moth:
Iron Moth @ Booster Energy
Tera Type: Fire
Modest Nature
EVs: 128 HP / 128 SpAtk / 252 SpDef
- Fiery Dance
- Struggle Bug
- Sunny Day
- Morning Sun

Very simple strategy:
- Sunny Day at the start, and keep it up when it runs out or Blastoise Rain Dances
- Struggle Bug three times to debuff the boss and build tera
- Go Tera and spam the heck out of Fiery Dance until you win
- Morning Sun as required if your health gets low, you get crit, or whatever

The EV’s listed above are not optimized, it was just an easy tweak to an existing Moth I already had.
I thought briefly about going tera Stellar, so as to preserve my resistance to Aura Sphere after going tera. But, in practice, Blastoise never opts for Aura Sphere over Hydro Pump, and the only times you get hit with Aura Sphere are in the random double action phase of the battle. And it’s non-STAB to begin with, so it’s just not a big deal. Since the sun is always up and Moth easily outspeeds Blastoise, you are always one Morning Sun away from a fat green health bar anyway.

In randos, I tend to Struggle Bug a few times even post-Tera, mainly to help myself and teammates if there isn’t other support on the team.
I might play around with other configurations, like a Shell Bell and Metal Sound instead of Morning Sun, since the shield isn’t so big this time.
But yeah, Moth is a solid choice in this raid, if you’re looking for other options to what has been previously mentioned in this thread.
 
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Belated: For Venusaur I used the H-Goodra set mentioned, though I grabbed a random Goodra that was probably max speed, so I found I needed the all-out cheer to do enough damage to beat the raid in time.

For Blastoise I did it with Volcanion, which worked but came close to timing out because flamethrower really just doesn't pack enough punch even with sun up. Needed the all-out cheer and a defense cheer to keep from being KO'd at one point, too.
 

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