Pokémon Scarlet & Violet - Pikachu the Unrivaled Failures

This was the easiest of the 7-star Tera Raid Battles to date when it debuted, but apparently, when there was another go-around of the Pikachu event, people found themselves struggling more. Granted, we succeeded in most of the ones I participated in, but even this one had some setbacks. Since I didn’t have one of these “failures” videos for the first run, I decided now’s the time to have a video. Here are two of these raids that ended not-so-good.


00:00 - The Case Against Terapagos and Ogerpon
For the first one, I was wondering what Terapagos was doing in this raid. On the surface, there aren’t any glaring advantages or disadvantages against Pikachu the Unrivaled, but like all of the other “Unrivaled” series raids, you’re encouraged to bring in as direct a counter to the Pokémon as you can think of, and the raid’s difficulty is scaled to as such. But as it seems, something some people didn’t realize (and for this one, it’s understandable) is that this Pikachu has Lightning Rod, which is its Hidden Ability. So Terapagos attempted a Thunderbolt on the first turn, fueled Pikachu’s Sp. Attack with Lightning Rod, and turned what was a precarious raid (as someone else brought Ogerpon, who is a glass cannon and thus has no business being in a 7-star Tera Raid Battle) into a spiral of failure. If you were wondering why Pikachu was dealing so much damage, it’s because of Lightning Rod.

What do Terapagos and Ogerpon both have in common? They’re the Legendary Pokémon featured in the DLC. The “Pikachu the Unrivaled” event first occurred in February 2023, before either of the DLC was released.

03:29 - The Case Against Miraidon
The second raid in this video had someone bring in Miraidon, a Pokémon I saw people who missed out on the first Pikaachu event talking about, but others (including myself) discouraged because, again, this Pikachu has Lightning Rod. This may be a worse pick than Terapagos with Thunderbolt because Pikachu also has Play Rough. Unrivaled Raid Pokémon have the best AI that Game Freak could muster, and they’re at least good enough not to bother with Thunder, Iron Tail, or Surf, and just beat down Miraidon with Play Rough. It won’t be powered up by Lightning Rod. Though Miraidon using Electro Drift, followed by Parabolic Charge, didn’t help, telling me that this trainer didn’t know what Lightning Rod actually does. Having TWO Sp. Attack boosts from Lightning Rod quickly made this raid unmanageable; even that Annihilape was having major problems, then Arboliva, a Pokémon that would ordinarily take Pikachu’s attacks like a champ. (Mega Drain on Arboliva is an odd choice though, considering this Pokémon gets Giga Drain too.) I could see the logic in bringing in Miraidon too: Miraidon is a Pokémon that, under normal circumstances, can hit super-effectively on pure Water-type Pokémon for a lot of damage and resists both Water and Electric.

The rest of us tried our best, but I hope that person with Miraidon picks something else for another attempt. And hopefully that Miraidon wasn’t their only Pokémon at Level 100. Oftentimes, these people don’t have a Plan B though.