[Question] Meganium Tera Raid solo strats?

[Sandslash Fan]

The Meganium tera 7-star raid was announced with Psychic tera type. What is everyone planning to try for the raid?

Not sure why they decided on Psychic tera for this raid, since the only Psychic-type attack Meganium can learn is Zen Headbutt and Tera Blast. Meganium has some good defenses, so perhaps an instant shield at the start of the raid and then Curse spam like the Bulk Up spam from Cinderace would give a challenge. I could see Light Screen and/or Reflect being used, and that would make the Psychic-type choice understandable since it would resist Brick Break and Raging Bull. When Zen Headbutt, perhaps the raid will start out with a Trailblaze to boost Meganium's speed and the chance for flinch could be a challenge; I could see Sword's Dance instead of Curse if that's the case. If the sunlight is going to be set up, due to Leaf Guard, then Solar Blade/Solar Beam could be on the table too. Frenzy Plant would be funny along with Sword's Dance. Ancient Power could be a sneaky way to buff and would be a good counter for Bug-type Pokémon people might bring to the raid.

I think I'll try Scizor for a first attempt at the raid. Fury Cutter keeps getting stronger and boosted by Technician, and with Sword's Dance the healing should be able to outpace anything Meganium is trying to do. Tera bug won't resist the possible Ancient Power, but Skitter Smack or Lunge could help lower Meganium's attack stats, even if there is an instant shield at the start of the raid.

Scizor
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Technician
Tera: Bug
Item: Shell Bell
- Fury Cutter
- Sword's Dance
- Skitter Smack / Lunge
- Defog

 

[Devalue]

Guesses a "run out the clock" strategy with dual screens, Leaf Guard/Safeguard, Leech Seed, Zen Headbutt flinches, Body Slam paralysis, Charm, and/or Mud-Slap. Could even pull out a mid-health Rest, similar to Mewtwo. Hm, or Substitute. Would not hurt it too bad.

May go with the "Swords Dance/Curse on the main moveset" route. Likely places Body Press on the set. Shreds it with Dark types and Power Trip otherwise. Rounds it out with Zen Headbutt and Seed Bomb as the other two moves.

One other, possibly scary route: AncientPower on the main set. Harvests your partners for buffs.

Leans away from any special-heavy set. Lacks any means of boosting its own Special Attack. Knows Fake Tears, though. Hits pretty hard with a Fake Tear + Leaf Storm + debuff clear.

Some ideas:

• Cacturne with Power Trip. Handles everything but Body Press. Likes Krookodile here too, despite being part Ground. Knocks down Meganium immediately with Intimidate.
• Foul Play with Archeludon against a Swords Dance set. Builds up Defense very quick to handle the Attack buffs. Assumes no Body Press, once again. Doable with Umbreon and Kingambit too.
• Annihilape. Rage Fist and go. Who cares about the super-effective flinches?
• Kricketune. Has all the tools to win (probably): Taunt, Focus Energy, Screech, Swords Dance, Leech Life, Lunge, Skitter Smack, Brick Break, and Swarm. Likely wears a Covert Cloak to stop flinches. Only fears a sun + Weather Ball set.
• Dragapult with Infiltrator. Bypasses screens and Substitutes, if it goes that route.

 

[Devalue]

Released the 7-star raid. Packs a Curse set: Curse, Body Press, Seed Bomb, and Zen Headbutt.
Nature: +Defense / -Special Attack.
Leads the raid with Reflect + Light Screen. Clears your buffs once, when the shield goes up (maybe 4-5 turns in). Sheds its debuffs twice, both sometime after the buff clear. Tosses in a random Bulldoze near the end too.

Gave Kricketune the first crack at it. Suffered from four move slot syndrome. Landed two good Taunts to shut down most of Meganium's Curses. Still gained a Defense boost or two before then. Became tough to do enough damage and not also take too much. Led to some Curse stacking with the shield up. Could not handle a double Body Press turn.

Started thinking about a special attacker of some kind. Found something else while looking through the box: Malamar.

Turn 1: Skill Swapped Contrary onto Meganium. Shuts down the threat of Curse for the entirety of the raid.
Turn 2: Topsy-Turvied off any buffs it got. (Actually did this twice. Might have Cursed twice with Contrary active. Saw +2 Attack, +2 Defense, -2 Speed after one Topsy Turvy.)

One note: ...Might actually continue Cursing with Contrary. Saw it at -5 Attack / -5 Defense / +5 Speed at one point.

Waited to faint from there to regain Contrary. Problem on the first attempt: Gardevoir. Healed with Life Dew too much. Could not die. Tried again without Gardevoir. Still burned half the raid time before that happened, if not more. (Could have done it more optimally. Continued attacking and healing slightly from Shell Bell. Should have Skill Swapped with partners.)

Buffed up with Superpower with Contrary back online. Smashed it with Night Slashes to barely win in time. (Was not Tera: Dark either.)

One other possible option: Nasty Plot + Dark Pulse instead of Superpower + Night Slash. Saves time on waiting to faint.

 

[Delta Crowned Sword]

Started thinking about a special attacker of some kind.

I don't have the game; but had you tried Unaware Skeledirge ? Sounds good option after reading your experience there. Will bypass Curse. Torch Song spamming is also coming to my mind, but then it will be reset later on. Psychic Tera could be Countered as well with Shadow Ball, but I cannot say how will work out as I can't play it !!

 

[Devalue]

I don't have the game; but had you tried Unaware Skeledirge ? Sounds good option after reading your experience there. Will bypass Curse. Torch Song spamming is also coming to my mind, but then it will be reset later on. Psychic Tera could be Countered as well with Shadow Ball, but I cannot say how will work out as I can't play it !!

Did not try it. (Never got too far in looking for the next option.) Bets on that doing okay, though. Normally worries about the baseline damage of the raid boss. Deals 17.7 - 21.1% per hit, assuming 31 IVs across the board and 252 EVs in Hitpoints. Seems kind of manageable.

Leans towards a moveset of Torch Song (to boost your damage), Shadow Ball (the main damage source), Protect (for the one turn of Unaware being negated), and Slack Off.

One main concern: Zen Headbutt. May or may not use that over Seed Bomb, when Terastallized into Ghost. Hates dealing with a 20% flinch chance. Questions whether Covert Cloak is worth the loss of Shell Bell. Probably not? Heals with Slack Off about every third turn, essentially becoming a 33% turn loss.

 

[Delta Crowned Sword]

Did not try it. (Never got too far in looking for the next option.) Bets on that doing okay, though. Normally worries about the baseline damage of the raid boss. Deals 17.7 - 21.1% per hit, assuming 31 IVs across the board and 252 EVs in Hitpoints. Seems kind of manageable.

Leans towards a moveset of Torch Song (to boost your damage), Shadow Ball (the main damage source), Protect (for the one turn of Unaware being negated), and Slack Off.

One main concern: Zen Headbutt. May or may not use that over Seed Bomb, when Terastallized into Ghost. Hates dealing with a 20% flinch chance. Questions whether Covert Cloak is worth the loss of Shell Bell. Probably not? Heals with Slack Off about every third turn, essentially becoming a 33% turn loss.

Nice explanation !!

Although I am not playing, thinking of ideas sound fun to me. Saying of which, how will it be to use a Pokemon that knows moves like Punishment and Foul Play, considering stat boosts from Curse ?

Though it's too shallow considering the PP of Punishment....


Using Power Trip after boosting our stats also sound good, but again timing should be the key.





If you had Pokemon GO, then Gholdengo could also be used, I think, but it will be niche option and will be countered with niche Earthquake. Good as Gold might come handy, I feel...

Thought about Aegislash as well, but it is not available in S/V.....

 

[Devalue]

Nice explanation !!

Although I am not playing, thinking of ideas sound fun to me. Saying of which, how will it be to use a Pokemon that knows moves like Punishment and Foul Play, considering stat boosts from Curse ?

Though it's too shallow considering the PP of Punishment....


Using Power Trip after boosting our stats also sound good, but again timing should be the key.





If you had Pokemon GO, then Gholdengo could also be used, I think, but it will be niche option and will be countered with niche Earthquake. Good as Gold might come handy, I feel...

Thought about Aegislash as well, but it is not available in S/V.....

• Punishment: Removed that move in Sword/Shield.
• Foul Play: Not that amazing here, actually. Ramps way up because of +6 Attack. Dulls the edge by being at +6 Defense. Amounts to using Foul Play against a Meganium with no buffs (barring criticals), which is not great.

One possibly good Power Trip option: Corviknight. Use Taunt to stop the initial Curses. Wait for the buff clear. Start buffing from there.

Gholdengo: Accesses Gholdengo in Scarlet/Violet by collecting 999 coins. On this battle: maybe not? Has the right typing. Cannot stop Curse. Takes 40.2 - 47.3% health on a +6 Zen Headbutt / Seed Bomb, even when resisted. Deals with the boss stacking Curses on your partners' turns too. Lacks any means to reduce the damage.

Adds some notes on Tera Raid boss mechanics. Figured it may be helpful, since you do not own the game. May affect some of your thoughts:

• Tera Shield: Covers about 40% of the boss's health bar. Clears any status effects on the raid boss when it goes up (like paralysis, Sleep, Burn...). Reduces damage by 80% for unterastallized Pokemon, 70% for Terastallized Pokemon not using its type, and 30% for Terastallized Pokemon using its type. Cannot use status moves on the raid boss while the shield is active. Skips the raid boss's turn on the round after breaking the shield.
• Multiplied Meganium's normal health by 35.
• Calculates percentage-based damage (Leech Seed, poison, Wrap) based on its base health, not the multiplied health.
• Cannot lock the raid boss into moves by Tricking something like an Assault Vest on or using Imprison.
• Cannot flinch a raid boss.
• Occasionally clears its own debuffs, based on a trigger. Only removes the negative stuff, not the positive. (For example: Uses Curse 3 times. Clears its debuffs. Will be at +3 Attack, +3 Defense, and +0 Speed.)
• Figures roughly enough time for...20 moves? Assumes you do not faint. Takes off maybe 10% for the first faint and probably 15-20% for the second time. Receives no penalty for AI partners fainting.

 

[Mewtwolover]

Defeated Meganium with Calyrex-Shadow

Calyrex-Shadow
Nature: Docile
Ability: As One
Tera: Ghost
Item: Shell Bell
- Astral Barrage
- Reflect
- Shadow Ball
- Nasty Plot

There are three important things you need to remember if you use that Calyrex-Shadow build
- Keep up Reflect all the time
- Use Nasty Plot in turn 2 and when Meganium nullifies your stat changes
- Use Shadow Ball to build tera, it possibly lowers Meganium's special defense

 

[Sandslash Fan]

Started thinking about a special attacker of some kind. Found something else while looking through the box: Malamar.

Turn 1: Skill Swapped Contrary onto Meganium. Shuts down the threat of Curse for the entirety of the raid.
Turn 2: Topsy-Turvied off any buffs it got. (Actually did this twice. Might have Cursed twice with Contrary active. Saw +2 Attack, +2 Defense, -2 Speed after one Topsy Turvy.)

One note: ...Might actually continue Cursing with Contrary. Saw it at -5 Attack / -5 Defense / +5 Speed at one point.

Waited to faint from there to regain Contrary. Problem on the first attempt: Gardevoir. Healed with Life Dew too much. Could not die. Tried again without Gardevoir. Still burned half the raid time before that happened, if not more. (Could have done it more optimally. Continued attacking and healing slightly from Shell Bell. Should have Skill Swapped with partners.)

Buffed up with Superpower with Contrary back online. Smashed it with Night Slashes to barely win in time. (Was not Tera: Dark either.)

Used this method for clearing on the first success. Scizor didn't get there, and I didn't want to tweak it. Had a shiny Malamar in my boxes that I built, but never used, so I broke it out for this raid.

T1: Skill Swap, then kept using Superpower to lower my defense so I would get knocked out (also had the Gardevoir problem). After coming back in went Stellar and used Superpower to get +3 Atk and +3 Def then spammed Tera Blast to get to +6 Atk. Did Night Slash after the shield broke to get high crit chances and still got STAB since Stellar sees Malamar as Dark/Psychic still. Was immune to Zen Headbutt, so didn't have to worry about flinching. Failed the first attempt until figuring out to use Superpower to ensure fainting to reset to Contrary ability.

Malamar
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Contrary
Tera: Stellar
Item: Shell Bell
- Superpower
- Tera Blast
- Night Slash
- Skill Swap