March 7* Raid Event - Decidueye (Flying Tera)

[Perriechu]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1632538712348172288

No date announced yet, but our next 7* event is Decidueye with the flying type tera.

UPDATE: March 17th through March 19th and repeating on the 24th through March 26th

Other details, such as raid supports mons aren’t available either.

Brave Bird is going to be the big one here. Probably Swords Dance, Leaf Blade/Ghost type move. Maybe more HP to mitigate the Brave Bird recoil?

yes I know raid thread etc etc

 

[Magcargo]

Grassy Terrain would be a funny troll vs the Miraidon that ppl will likely be using against this.

 

[R_N]

I'm guessing it will have Spirit Shackle, at the very least

Long Reach...is basically a non-ability, so nothing to realyl worry about there.

Looking at the support move pool to see what stuff we might have to deal with:
-Double Team as always is an option but idk, I dunno if we see it again. Greninja at least was a Ninja
-Defog's kind of whatever. Would basically be a wasted slot
-Confuse Ray? I think this one's pretty possible, we haven't had someone throwing around a status like this yet. Seems like something we'll have to deal with eventually.
-Swords Dance. Seems like an easy slam dunk here regardless of what else it brings. I mean it COULD use Nasty Plot and a special set but feels a bit mismatched relative to the rest of its move pool.
-Light Screen. This would be an interesting "turn 0" move
-Feather Dance to be annoying. Imagine if they did all 3 of Light Screen, Feather Dance and Confuse Ray

 

[Vengeance417]

I definitely wouldn't rule out the possibility of random special moves since its attacking stats are very similar. Wouldn't be surprised if it ended up using a mixed set with Spirit Shackle + whatever else (Leaf Blade, Energy Ball, Brave Bird, Hurricane being the big possibilities).

Miraidon + Iron Hands will likely be a popular combo.

In case Decidueye is all physical, I got this cold mf right here:

Avalugg @ Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo / Ice Body
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Snowscape
- Curse
- Avalanche
- Recover

It's slow, but it'll never die vs a pure physical Decidueye. Snowscape gives it +1 Defense, followed by Curse further boosting it along with its Attack for more powerful Avalanches. Own Tempo if Confuse Ray is being used, Ice Body otherwise for 12% healing every turn w/ Snow up + Leftovers.

 

[Worldie]

I do wonder myself what they will come up with this time.

The most notable "challenge" for the devs is that flying tera will make it weak to electric, and Decidueye doesn't have any notable ground coverage, so electric types seem to be a given.

Just going through the moveset, I struggle to see how they can make this one challenging.
Greninja had basically unresisted coverage and if you wanted to hit it supereffectively with stab you were going to eat its own stabs, not so much in this case, not even coverages, so even just the threat of that was enough to make it challenging, without even accounting for the Double Teams.

Maybe they are cooking some other cheese like the Pikachu thing with the shields. I think Feather Dance as extra move is very likely as that would horribly shut down phisical attackers like, duh, Iron Hands.
IPOTETICALLY if they feel frisky they could have it spam Nasty Plot and hit hard on special side, basically putting you on a timer, with all current Clear Smog users being weak to something the boss can throw, be it flying, ghost or grass stabs.

Considering Decidueye doesn't even get Dragon or Fairy moves, Miraidon + Iron Hands + would prolly be a pretty cursed combo if it doesnt have Feather Dance.

 

[R_N]

Maybe this will be the raid they pull out Taunt

"Oh you want to set up Iron Hands, do you?"

 

[Worldie]

Maybe this will be the raid they pull out Taunt

"Oh you want to set up Iron Hands, do you?"

Taunt AND Feather Dance.

If you gotta do it dirty, you do it very dirty.


But nah memes aside, I feel they must have some ace up their sleeve cause as is, Miraidon + any somewhat bulky Electric type (or steel type not weak to fighting) would basically run it over. Decidueye's movepool isn't exactly that big, and outside of the 3 "stabs" it doesn't really get much coverage bar some generic fighting and dark options. So they'll either play it with setup or status moves.
Taunt would shut down some setup strats but... Miraidon does get Parabolic Charge to heal itself THONK

 

[pika pal]

IPOTETICALLY if they feel frisky they could have it spam Nasty Plot and hit hard on special side, basically putting you on a timer, with all current Clear Smog users being weak to something the boss can throw, be it flying, ghost or grass stabs.

Torkoal and Gulpin would both be neutral to that set of STABs, and if it's Physical Torkoal has ID to make itself unkillable (Shell Armor for no crits unless we find important Sun abusers).

Curious though to see if there'll be a "puzzle" to this one or if for once this Pokemon consigns things to a straight up Slugfest.

 

[AztecCroc]

Decidueye doesn't have any notable ground coverage,

Fixed that for you.

Torkoal and Gulpin would both be neutral to that set of STABs, and if it's Physical Torkoal has ID to make itself unkillable (Shell Armor for no crits unless we find important Sun abusers).

Curious though to see if there'll be a "puzzle" to this one or if for once this Pokemon consigns things to a straight up Slugfest.

Swalot and Torkoal are probably the best Clear Smoggers, though Swalot does have to worry if they decide to start handing out transfer only moves to the raids, Psycho Cut will go right through it.

 

[Worldie]

if they decide to start handing out transfer only moves to the raids

It's unlikely this'd ever be the case.

Even without the fact that for gen 8 there were the "split movesets" preventing transfer moves and thus there is this looming question of if this will be done for gen 9 (I still doubt, but that's something for another day), GF has been pretty adamant in "refusing" transfer moves in games, with facilities since gen 7 not having any, them being banned from VGC since gen 6, etc.
There'd be no real purpose in raid having transfer moves as is now.

 

[Chou Toshio]

Kingambit seems good without Close Combat.

Analytic Metal Sound Magnezone sounds amazing without it!! Too bad no Parabolic Charge… But Reflect/Thunder/Charge Beam Metal Sound anyone?

 

[Worldie]

Analytic Metal Sound Magnezone sounds amazing without it!! Too bad no Parabolic Charge… But Reflect/Thunder/Charge Beam Metal Sound anyone?

I don't think I'd bother running Thunder over Tbolt, less PP and worse accuracy feels pointless.

...That said, if Double Teams shenenigans were to happen again, OR if they pair rain dance with Hurricane on the boss, Thunder would definitely be a good option due to the guaranteed hit chance under rain.

 

[Perriechu]

I feel like Hurricane may be something they opt for just because Avalugg would wall this thing very hard, it also just ensures that physical walls still struggle against it (somewhat) and a mixed-set allows for more shenanigans. Sure there's the accuracy situation but Charizard seemed to pull it off every turn :)

Feather Dance is probably a given, again, given how frail Decidueye is on the defensive front this is their way of mitigating that. So a potential moveset could be;

Feather Dance (Opening move / every so often?)
-
Leaf Blade / Leaf Storm(?)
Swords Dance / Nasty Plot
Brave Bird / Hurricane
Spirit Shackle / Shadow Ball
Something for additional coverage?

I feel like one of the "puzzle pieces" for this is potentially not knowing what set it can run. Special set has more power and can probably get KOs quicker but lacks longevity, whilst physical is walled harder but doesn't suffer from stat drop drawbacks.

Off the top of my head Avalugg, Coalossal, Iron Hands, Miraidon seem to be the obvious choices.

Intimidate Luxray, Magnezone, Calm Mind Jolteon, Forretress, Tinkaton, Revavroom all could provide useful given the set it runs.

This might be our last raid before HOME's release, too. Early 2023 is pretty much.. done with by April lol but anyway

 

[Worldie]

I feel the setup route is a given, since Decidueye murders all the Clear Smog users available in SV with its stabs + "stab"

Main reason I am unsure about Feather Dance is that it's single target, and they do not seem to want single target debuffs in these 7 star raids *so far*.

I do think that setup + taunt may actually be the nastiest thing this can pull off, since it does nail all clear smoggers on top of most chilling water users.
Hybrid also feels mostly guaranteed, cause otherwise it gets walled HARD by stuff like Blissey or Skarmory

 

[SadisticMystic]

Calling my prediction for the gimmick:
-scripted False Swipe at 5 seconds
-scripted False Swipe at 10 seconds
-scripted False Swipe at 15 seconds
...
and so on until the timer is halfway gone, and players can finally gain access to the menu. Long Reach means Rocky Helmet isn't even an option to punish all those swipes.

 

[Worldie]

Calling my prediction for the gimmick:
-scripted False Swipe at 5 seconds
-scripted False Swipe at 10 seconds
-scripted False Swipe at 15 seconds
...
and so on until the timer is halfway gone, and players can finally gain access to the menu. Long Reach means Rocky Helmet isn't even an option to punish all those swipes.

Shtap, dont give them ideas

 

[Vengeance417]

Clodsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Impish / Bold Nature
- Acid Spray
- Recover
- Curse / Chilling Water
- Poison Jab / Helping Hand

Since we don't really know what side of the attacking spectrum Decidueye is going to use this raid, I wanted to try to find a "general counter" to most things Decidueye could possibly do, and I think physdef Unaware Clodsire is our pool float. Unaware lets it ignore both Swords Dance and Nasty Plot, and its strongest unboosted attack (Tera Flying Adamant Brave Bird) is pretty much not a 3HKO after Leftovers. Even a crit into a regular Brave Bird won't knock you out if you're at full.

BB Calcs

0+ Atk Tera Flying Decidueye Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clodsire on a critical hit: 222-262 (47.8 - 56.4%) -- 32% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0+ Atk Tera Flying Decidueye Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clodsire: 148-175 (31.8 - 37.7%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

Acid Spray and Recover are mandatory imo, but the last two slots are kinda filler? Could go for an offensive Curse route to help against the shield or go full support with Chilling Water and Helping Hand. A shame this doesn't get Fling or Smack Down because flinging an Iron Ball or using Smack Down to make it grounded, then spamming Mud Slap would have been a funny meme.

 

[Menshay]

Kingambit seems good without Close Combat.

Kingambit + Bisharp (possibly with Eviolite) seem to be the only choices which resist all of its STABs (Grass + Ghost + Flying), they have very good Attack to target its low Defense, and have Defiant to counteract Feather Dance; they however do not have good ways to hit it super-effectively (no Electric / Ice coverage; Stone Edge which is unreliable and Rock Tomb which is weak).

 

[pika pal]

Kingambit + Bisharp (possibly with Eviolite) seem to be the only choices which resist all of its STABs (Grass + Ghost + Flying), they have very good Attack to target its low Defense, and have Defiant to counteract Feather Dance; they however do not have good ways to hit it super-effectively (no Electric / Ice coverage; Stone Edge which is unreliable and Rock Tomb which is weak).

Since Decidueye isn't particularly defensive without Feather Dance working, maybe they could power through on STAB neutral, or barring that bring defensive Support for something like Electric Tera Blast

Don't think it suits this raid due to Flying offense, but one funny tech I thought of for future raids is Strength Sap Supports paired up with Defiant Kingambit. Free health for the supports while boosting the Attacker, if not needing to debuff the boss.

 

[Menshay]

one funny tech I thought of for future raids is Strength Sap Supports paired up with Defiant Kingambit.

Do debuffs from allies trigger Defiant in raids? Because they do not in regular double battles.

Another potentially interesting idea seems to be Heat Rotom which resists Flying + Grass and has Will-o-Wisp, Eerie Impulse in case Decidueye is specially oriented, Nasty Plot and Electric STAB. Other interesting options could be Charge Beam, Stored Power, Foul Play in case it uses Swords Dance, and Reflect, Light Screen and Helping Hand for a support role.

 

[pika pal]

Do debuffs from allies trigger Defiant in raids? Because they do not in regular double battles.

Another potentially interesting idea seems to be Heat Rotom which resists Flying + Grass and has Will-o-Wisp, Eerie Impulse in case Decidueye is specially oriented, Nasty Plot and Electric STAB. Other interesting options could be Charge Beam, Stored Power, Foul Play in case it uses Swords Dance, and Reflect, Light Screen and Helping Hand for a support role.

It's possible I'm wrong, but it's something I'd want to test since Raids also exclude your Allies from "everyone" spread moves like EQ, so I'm curious if they're handled the exact same way. If it doesn't work in that manner, strat could also maybe work for Contrary teammates.

 

[Chou Toshio]

Kingambit + Bisharp (possibly with Eviolite) seem to be the only choices which resist all of its STABs (Grass + Ghost + Flying), they have very good Attack to target its low Defense, and have Defiant to counteract Feather Dance; they however do not have good ways to hit it super-effectively (no Electric / Ice coverage; Stone Edge which is unreliable and Rock Tomb which is weak).

My experience is Super Effective STAB is not as important as defensive robustness. Defensive ability can be changed to offensive power through boosts, but a mon who gets easily beat can’t really beat the clock either. If no fighting coverage they should work out great.

Otherwise I think Ghost is the one we’re mostly going to have to settle for being neutral to.

Miraidon, Toxitricity, and Magnezone are the others I have most hope to see as great soloists.

 

[AztecCroc]

My experience is Super Effective STAB is not as important as defensive robustness. Defensive ability can be changed to offensive power through boosts, but a mon who gets easily beat can’t really beat the clock either. If no fighting STAB they should work out great.

Otherwise I think Ghost is the one we’re mostly going to have to settle for being neutral to.

Miraidon, Toxitricity, and Magnezone are the others I have most hope to see as great soloists.

Fighting STAB? You're aware this is regular Decidueye right? The Grass/Ghost one? There is no Fighting STAB. And the only Fighting moves regular Decidueye gets are Low Sweep and Low Kick.

 

[Chou Toshio]

Fighting STAB? You're aware this is regular Decidueye right? The Grass/Ghost one? There is no Fighting STAB. And the only Fighting moves regular Decidueye gets are Low Sweep and Low Kick.

Sorry meant “coverage”, not STAB

 

[HallowedHarlequin]

I've always been impressed by the value of moves that lower attack/special attack while still doing damage in raids, since they reduce the damage your whole team takes, while building tera orb charges, even when the shield is up.
For physical attack we have: Chilling Water, Lunge, Breaking Swipe, Trop Kick, Bitter Malice
For special attack we have: Spirit Break, Mystical Fire, Snarl, Skitter Smack, Struggle Bug

Assuming it's mostly a physical attacker, Chilling Water Bellibolt looks like a fantastic option here, providing team support early on with Chilling Water or Acid Spray, and quickly being able to pivot into damage since it will be able to use that to Tera Electric and start firing off Parabolic Charges, or a stronger move if HP isn't too big of an issue.
Definitely gonna be my mon of choice for testing things out once it starts.