[Question] Hisuian Decidueye solo raid strats?

The new tera 7-star raid was announced; Hisuan Decidueye with Grass tera type. What is everyone planning to try for the raid?

Just brainstorming another solo build for this upcoming 7-star raid. Decidueye blocks Intimidate with it's ability Scrappy, so that crosses off a lot of possibles from my list (I was thinking Eviolite Qwilfish at first). I was thinking about brining a Fire/Flying Pokemon to counter the Grass and Fighting moves, but Rock Throw is a TM that it can learn, and I wouldn't put it past Gamefreak to have that move on there for coverage. Talonflame with Flame Body would be good otherwise. Most likely moves are Leaf Blade and Triple Arrows. Not sure if it will carry a Dark-type move, since it can hit Ghost-type Pokemon with its Scrappy ability. Brave Bird and/or Air Cutter could be the deciding factor for what a lot of people end up using, much like Rock Throw ruins the idea of Fire/Flying. Feather Dance would be an annoying add for it as well.

I think I'll try a Paldean (Fire) Tauros to start; Expecting to get crit on by Triple Arrows and Leaf Blade. Shell Bell to recover back to full with nearly every hit, and tera Fire to shed the Fighting-type weaknesses later on.


Paldean Tauros (Fire)
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SAtk)
Ability: Anger Point
Tera: Fire
Item: Shell Bell
- Raging Bull
- Sunny Day
- Bulk Up
- Will-O-Wisp

Ran Spirit Shackle, Brave Bird, Low Kick, and Leaf Blade on normal Decidueye's 7-star raid (Tera: Flying). Held Feather Dance, Swords Dance, and Air Cutter for specific moments too. Probably prefers to mix it up a little.

Figures Leaf Blade, Triple Arrows, and Brave Bird for three moves. Basically copies the original with Shadow Claw, so preferably not that. Kind of likes Smack Down there. Covers for Grass and Fighting well. For other moves, maybe Defog for a change. Probably Bulk Up as well.

Thinks about something like this:

Galarian Slowking
Tera: Poison (workable with Psychic too, but with different moves).
EVs: Max in Special Attack and Hitpoints.
Nature: Modest
Ability: Anything but Own Tempo
Moves: Skill Swap, Acid Spray, Sludge Bomb, and Iron Defense/Nasty Plot.
Hold Item: Shell Bell or Leftovers.

Strategy: Skill Swap on turn 1. Opens Decidueye up to Intimidate. Helps so much for physical Pokemon. Avoids increased critical chances.

Chose Galarian Slowking for not being weak to Grass or Fighting.

Some other halfway reasonable picks:

• Figures a similar idea for Delphox as above. Performs a bit worse than Galarian Slowking, but still serviceable.
• Arbok with Gastro Acid and Coil. A fun pick. May be able to pull it off.
• Weezing. Good Defense and typing. Not hindered by Feather Dance. Could use Stockpile or go straight to Acid Spray + Sludge Bomb.

Devalue said:

Avoids increased critical chances.

Click to expand...

A strat to avoid crits sounds good, and since the Rock-type moves Decidueye can learn are all physical, maybe Torkoal? Not sure how much Heat Crash would do, so maybe Tera Blast instead?


Torkoal
Nature: Relaxed (+Def, -Spe)
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera: Fire
Item: Leftovers
- Heat Crash / Tera Blast
- Will-O-Wisp / Clear Smog
- Sunny Day
- Curse

EDIT: I found a damage calculator website, and though I never used it before, even with maxed EVs, the Decidueye looks like it would take some big damage from a Heat Crash.

252 Atk Tera Fire Torkoal Heat Crash (60 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Tera Grass Decidueye-Hisui: 180-216 (47.3 - 56.8%) -- 87.5% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Tera Fire Torkoal Tera Blast vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Tera Grass Decidueye-Hisui: 240-284 (63.1 - 74.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Even with only 6 EVs in Attack, Torkoal at +6 from Curse would do even more damage with either attack. Maybe I'll pivot to Torkoal after all.

Sandslash Fan said:

A strat to avoid crits sounds good, and since the Rock-type moves Decidueye can learn are all physical, maybe Torkoal? Not sure how much Heat Crash would do, so maybe Tera Blast instead?

Click to expand...

Foresees one potential problem: Triple Arrows. Favors that as the hardest hitting move on Torkoal (effectively 135 power with STAB over Brave Bird's 120). Negates the critical, sure. Still deals with its 50% Defense drop and 30% flinch rate.

Edit: Negates that with a Covert Cloak, however.

Ended up winning by the skin of my teeth. The alert for "about to release energy" went off, but was still able to get the win. Had some clutch burns with Flamethrower, and did a Clear Smog after Bulk Up and Sword's Dance were both up. Iron Defense and Shell Smash between heal cheers and eventually whittled Decidueye down with Flamethrower at +6 Special Attack.


Torkoal
Nature: Quiet (+SAtk, -Spe) 252 HP, 252 Def, 6 SAtk
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera: Fire
Item: Covert Cloak
- Flamethrower
- Clear Smog
- Shell Smash
- Iron Defense

Some Hisuian Decidueye information
Ability: Scrappy (Hits Normal and Fighting types with Ghost moves. Blocks Intimidate.)
Nature: Adamant
Regular moves: Leaf Blade, Triple Arrows, Shadow Claw, and Brave Bird.

Some rough timings:

• After one move: Buff clear + Bulk Up
• After 3-4 moves: Debuff clear + Tera Shield + Swords Dance
• Uses Leaf Storm on one Pokemon at around 50-60% of the timer
• Double-attacks at low health. (Sometimes. Saw a double paralysis on one late turn. Usually felt like only one move. Perhaps at very low health?)

Carries a very similar moveset to normal Decidueye's 7-star raid (Leaf Blade, Low Kick, Spirit Shackle, and Brave Bird). Differs on some of the out-of-turn moves, though.
__________
Notched two very close victories. Doubts enough time for another move on either.

Iron Moth
Nature: Modest (+Special Attack / - Attack)
Tera: Poison
Item: Shell Bell
Moves: Acid Spray, Sludge Wave, Lunge, and Fiery Dance (unused)

Fainted twice. Lunged to keep the damage down for most of the fight. Eventually switched to damage.

Arbok
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Intimidate
Tera: Poison
Item: Shell Bell
Moves: Poison Jab, Gastro Acid, Haze, and Coil.

Lucked out on Arbok's fight. Received a turn 1 burn from Arcanine and a second one later in the shield phase. Mainly relied on the first one to stack more Tera Orb charges.

Fired off Gastro Acid on turn 1. Hazed once the Tera Shield went up. Fainted immediately. Returned with Coil x4, then an Attack Cheer (maybe better off with another Coil or Poison Jab?). Spammed Poison Jab from there.

Thought about Gunk Shot over Poison Jab. Planned to try that on the next attempt. Boosts accuracy via Coil. Primarily worried about missing some while building Tera Orb charges (before Coil) and the amount of PP.

Really wants a win for the level 100 shiny male Salandit. Maybe with something like Mud-Slap, Acid Spray, Nasty Plot, and...hm. Substitute? Sludge Bomb? Venoshock and hope for Toxapex? Taunt for Bulk Up and Swords Dance? Faints to +1 Brave Bird. Survives two attacks with Taunt. Hits for triple damage with (poisoned) Venoshock over Acid Spray.

I soloed the raid on Scarlet using Corviknight took me 40 attempts had maxed out stats and Hyper trained and still struggled as Triple Arrows OHKO'd me 6 times on previous attempts

Corviknight (Female) Level 100 - Flying Tera - Shell Bell - Mirror Armour

Drill Peck
Body Press
Iron Defence
Taunt

I had a much easier time on Violet using Sneasler its been very overlooked for this raid and its a criminally underrated Pokemon one of my favourites

Sneasler (Male) Level 100 - Tera Poison - Shell Bell - Unburden

Poison Jab
Dire Claw
Bulk Up
Taunt

Overqwil, Weezing (Kanto & Galarian), Seviper & Arbok also work well
Paldean Fire Tauros, Armarouge, Ceruledge, Salazzle & Skeledirge have also worked from what I have read

Kilowattrel, Scovillain and Ogerpon have also been used as well.

Corviknight did the trick for me.
Level 100 - Tera Fighting - Shell Bell - Mirror Armor - Impish - Max HP EVs, Max Def EVs
Body Press
Iron Defense
Taunt
Roost

1. Taunt, 2-4. Iron Defense, 5. Taunt, 6. Roost if healing needed, otherwise skip 7+ Spam Body Press, tera as soon as available

Scored wins with four more Pokemon:

• Shiny male Salandit: Chose Taunt for the fourth move. Worked well. Cut Hisuian Decidueye's Brave Birds down to a likely 4-hit knockout, thanks to a burn from Arcanine and optimizing with Defense Effort Values over Hitpoints. Took a few stray hits here and there. Ended with enough time for another Acid Spray or two.
• Volbeat: Prepared it with Taunt, Tail Glow, Lunge, and Bug Buzz. Lowered its Attack to -3 or -4 before switching to Bug Buzz. Hit pretty hard by barely staying in Swarm range. Basically matched Hisuian Decidueye's damage output with Shell Bell healing.
• Kricketune: Taunt, Swords Dance, Lunge, and Leech Life. Felt pretty similar to Volbeat. Healed better with Leech Life. Narrowly notched a win.
• (Johto) Qwilfish: Taunt, Minimize, Swords Dance, and Barb Barrage. Relied on Minimize to stay safe. Dodged most of Hisuian Decidueye's attacks. Defeated three 7-star raid bosses with this thing now (Chesnaught, Inteleon, and this.)

Short version: Recommends Taunt. Prevents the damage from going wild. May need to wait, rather than attack, for the Taunt to last long enough at the start. Could get by with Haze/Clear Smog too. Prefers Taunt for neutralizing both Bulk Up and Swords Dance with one use.

Finds Skill Swap/Entrainment alone a little lacking. Helps down the stretch. Burns so much time waiting for that +3 Attack to come down, though.

Thought about giving Anger Point Camerupt a shot. Barely lives a +0 Attack critical, unfortunately. Turns ugly at +2. Lacks a way to lower Hisuian Decidueye's Attack enough after the shield goes up. Could maximize survivability and survive a +2 Leaf Blade critical 43.7% of the time. Also needs to live after that too, of course.