Good news for players who enjoyed the Hisuian pokemon typings in Pokemon Legends: Arceus: The next tera raid event for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet has been announced, and it will be the original Typhlosion with the Mightiest Mark, but with a Ghost tera typing, making it somewhat like its Hisuian version.
The bad news, though, is that planning on how to take it down might be a little tricky, thanks to the fact that Ghosts are weak only to Dark and themselves.
What players are worried about is Typhlosion’s movepool, as usual. It has access to Fire, Grass, Ghost, Ground, Fairy, Fighting, Electric… essentially, it’s another ‘mon that can cover most of its bases. The biggest issue is getting access to Ghost and Fighting moves. Ghost is almost guaranteed due to the tera typing, so basically most ghosts are a no-go during this event (Sableye probably won’t last against just regular Fire attacks with its poor bulk). That largely leaves Dark types.
Getting Play Rough would help Typhlosian counter the Darks a bit, but it learns only Play Rough, which uses Ty’s weak Attack stat instead of its Special Attack. Admittedly, that would threaten Roaring Moon, which some people are already planning to build around despite taking quad-damage from Fairy moves. That leaves Focus Blast, which would take advantage of its Special Attack Stat. That could be scary.
However, as the trend is often to leave a glaring hole in the raid ‘mon’s defenses, I’m predicting Typhlosion won’t be learning a Fighting move. Fire and Ghost moves are almost guaranteed. Typhlosion is often also known to make use of Sunny Day and Solar Beam to handle Water types. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Will-O-Wisp as a status move, as it’s often associated with both Fire and Ghost pokemon, fighting the theme perfectly, and Smokescreen could also fit that theme.
Assuming it has no Fighting moves, my favorite Chansey build (or a modified version of the Umbreon one) may be safe. Support Blissey would be OK too.
But the attacker front in this situation is a challenge. Players aren’t optimistic for anything but Gyarados with a Dark-type tera, probably with Dragon Dance to buff Attack and Speed and following it up with a good old Crunch. Tyranitar could be good, but Typhlosion would need to lack both the Sunny Day/Solar Beam combo and Fighting moves. No, instead, traditional support ‘mon like Grimmsnarl with Bulk Up and Crunch could work, or possibly Dachsbun with its default ability, Work Up, and once again, Crunch.
As always, we’ll update this after once the event starts April 14th, 00:00 UTC, running until April 16th 23:59 UTC, then again April 21st through 23rd during the same hours. There does seem to be some overlap to help ensure old investments can still be used, but this may be one of the more challenging Mightiest Mark raids in months.
4/13 Update:Â Via Serebii.net, our prediction about no Fighting moves was correct, as was it having Play Rough, but it lacks Solar Beam, making Krookadile a useable choice if you have people who can pull off a semi-complicated plan. However, people are also simply having Annihilape use Rage Fist spam, pausing only to terrastrialize, which is key, as the feature also makes taking down the boss shield easier. Umbreon is a good support, as it can use Light Screen, Screech, and Helping Hand to make the battle a little less frightening, as Anni does tend to die with this strategy.
Massively OP’s Andrew Ross is an admitted Pokemon geek and expert ARG-watcher. Nobody knows Niantic and Nintendo like he does! His Massively on the Go column covers Pokemon Go as well as other mobile MMOs and augmented reality titles!
