[Question] Blastoise Tera Raid solo strats?

[Sandslash Fan]

The Blastoise tera 7-star raid was announced at the same type Venusaur was; Blastoise with Steel tera type. What is everyone planning to try for the raid?

This could be as easy as just bringing Annihilape or Iron Hands (they have good HP/SDef) with Metronome held item + Drain Punch spam. No idea what I am using, I've brainstormed things using Haze, Water Absorb, and Sturdy, but talked myself out of them or they couldn't buff their own stats reliably. I want to attack on the special side, but Blastoise's immunity to Acid Spray makes that difficult. Nothing with Water Absorb or Storm Drain had access to Nasty Plot, so that was a bust as well. Not knowing whether Blastoise is going to be a mixed attacker or fully physical or special attacking makes it hard to decide on a Pokémon to use.

Blastoise's hidden ability Rain Dish has me thinking that Rain Dance will be used as soon as the raid starts. Since Blastoise will be Steel-type that already weakens Fire-type moves to protect it some. The devs could even be mean and stack Aqua Ring on top of that so Blastoise is healing at the end of each turn. Psychic Noise could be some interesting tech against even just the hidden ability, which make their choice of Steel-type tera for Blastoise make sense as it will resist the Psychic damage. For moves, the obvious one will be Flash Cannon. Wave Crash as another move is possible as recoil doesn't matter much at all for raid Pokémon, and the healing from Rain Dish would easily recover that damage. Weather Ball could be an interesting add (just as a change of pace from some of the more common raid moves), over Wave Crash, since the rain will probably be up at least twice during the raid. Ice Beam too for Ground-type coverage, so that would make bringing a Grass-type Pokémon a trap. Fighting-type seems the best to take Blastoise on with (Fire and Ground gets destroyed by the Water attacks), so Iron Defense as a move or timed event seems highly likely; We saw Venusaur carry Amnesia after all. Blastoise normal attacking stats aren't very high, so possibly a Shell Smash at the start or at 50% could happen. Curse + Gyro ball on it would be vicious... so many ways this raid could go.

Assuming one of these movesets:

Rain Dance at start, Shell Smash at start or 50%
- Iron Defense
- Flash Cannon
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam

Rain Dance and Aqua Ring at start
- Curse
- Gyro Ball
- Wave Crash
- Ice Punch

 

[Devalue]

Agrees on most of the ideas above. Some other additions for Blastoise:

• Body Press over an Ice move. Absolutely requires planning around with any defense-boosting move in its regular moveset.
• Shell Smash + debuff clear combo.
• An opening Rain Dance + Water Spout. May wait a turn for the Water Spout, much like Hisuian Typhlosion's Eruption.

Some ideas for Pokemon:

• Koraidon. Dispels the weather if it faints, plus Drain Punch. Potentially gives Blastoise an Ice move in some form solely for Koraidon. Will be tough to punch through defense boosts too, if it has them.
• Toxicroak with Dry Skin. Learns Nasty Plot. Relies on Tera Blast for a good Special Fighting move. Lacks much defensive power, as a downside.
• Golduck with Cloud Nine. Wants to give this thing another win, okay? Seems reasonably viable with Haze. Resists Water, Steel, and Ice.
• A Sunny Day + Weather Ball Pokemon. Could be a problem to set up on a Fire type after a Shell Smash. Spots Slowking/Slowbro with that combo.

A funny, but likely unviable choice: Polteageist with Weak Armor. Skill Swaps that onto Blastoise. Absolutely ruins a Gyro Ball and Body Press set. Cannot really handle the Water moves, unfortunately. Probably loses the speed race for Light Screen and Strength Sap (not to mention the initial Skill Swap).

 

[Sandslash Fan]

My ideas are leaning towards:
Vaporeon - Tera Fire. Water Absorb ability. Calm Mind, Sunny Day, Weather Ball. Has access to Haze and Fake Tears.
Iron Hands - Tera Fighting. Belly Drum, Drain Punch, Close Combat, Electric Terrain or Focus Energy.
Gallade - Sharpness ability. Shell Bell item. Sacred Sword (ignores any defense buffs), Low Kick, Sword's Dance. Has access to Sunny Day, Skill Swap, Reflect and Light Screen.

Legendaries if I have to:
Miraidon - Metronome item. Metal Sound, Mirror Coat, Parabolic Charge.
Terapagos - Scorching Sands, Earth Power, Calm Mind (but mainly for Tera Shell "All damage-dealing moves that hit the Pokémon when its HP is full will not be very effective.")

 

[Devalue]

Beat it on the first try, blind, with Golduck. How does it keep doing it? Did not even bring Haze. Helped to have the perfect party: Bellibolt (Light Screen), Sylveon (Moonblast Special Attack drops), and Drifblim (Shadow Ball Special Defense drops). Never got a paralyze because of Will-o-wisp, annoyingly.

Blastoise's main moveset: Hydro Pump, Flash Cannon, Aura Sphere, and Iron Defense.

Uses Withdraw into the Tera Shield at the start of the raid. Whips out Shell Smash after you break the Tera Shield. Sets rain at half health. Clears its debuffs twice and your buffs once.

Oddly gave it a Naive nature (+Speed / -Special Defense). Really encourages Special Attackers.

Played this pretty straight. Nasty Plot x3. Spammed Surf and eventually Terastallized. Ran into trouble at the buff clear, however. Cleared its debuffs at about the same time. Tried Heal Cheering out of it, but no luck. Fainted. Still pulled it back. Hit Blastoise with a very late Simple Beam, in hopes of getting a big stat drop. Might have happened. Inflicted reasonable damage with a +2 Surf (on top of the entire team benefitting from Special Defense drops).

Overall, not too scary.

 

[Sandslash Fan]

Beat it first try with my Vaporeon idea. Went with Fake Tears over Haze. Started with 6 Calm Mind and then Sunny Day/Weather Ball to build up tera charges. Tera Fire and started blasting unless I needed to set up the sunlight again. Blastoise reset stats and I just used 6 Calm Mind again and repeated. Did one Fake Tears after the shield dropped and then did a Weather Ball to test damage (I think I had 10 PP left). Ended up getting a crit to KO Blastoise, so not sure if the full -6 from Fake Tears was needed at that point. Effectively Blastoise was at -3 from its own Shell Smash.

Vaporeon
Nature: Calm
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera: Fire
Item: Shell Bell
- Weather Ball
- Sunny Day
- Calm Mind
- Fake Tears

 

[Mewtwolover]

Managed to defeat Blastoise with this Reshiram. Started with Sunny Day and then just attacked. Used Sunny Day when sunlight faded. I admit that I was lucky, Blastoise missed Hydro Pump after it used Rain Dance.

Reshiram
Nature: Naughty
Ability: Turboblaze
Tera: Fire
Item: Shell Bell
- Fusion Flare
- Hyper Voice
- Flamethrower
- Sunny Day