Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s next 7-star Tera Raid event is a throwback to Mega Evolution

The next Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Unrivaled Tera Raid event is going to be centered around Sceptile, and it’s giving major Mega Evolution vibes.

Seven-star Sceptile Tera Raids are coming to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet from June 27 to 30 and again from July 4. The Gen III Grass Starter will have the Dragon Tera Type, which sounds very intentional. Although Sceptile is naturally pure Grass, its Mega Evolution gives it the Dragon typing as well. Mega Evolution originated as the special battle mechanic in Gen VI, but it won’t be in Gen IX until Legends: Z-A drops next year.

That’s why giving Sceptile the Dragon Tera Type for this raid event is the next best thing to hold us over until Mega Evolution makes its official return. After all, it has plenty of Dragon-type moves to take advantage of, including Dragon Pulse, Dragon Dance, and Outrage.

And thankfully, the combination of Sceptile’s natural Grass typing and its Dragon Tera Type shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with. Right away, Fairy-type Pokémon look like they will be perfect counters since Sceptile can’t learn any Poison or Steel-type attacks to deal super-effective damage. Fairy Pokémon also happen to be immune to Dragon attacks, so that’s a great place to start when deciding on a counter.

On top of that, Sceptile’s hidden ability, Unburden, won’t even help it in this raid battle, unlike in the previous Emboar Tera Raids. These seven-star raid bosses will often have beneficial abilities like Emboar’s Reckless or Empoleon’s Competitive to make them stronger or harder to deal with, but Sceptile’s Unburden will be absolutely useless here. The ability only activates and raises Speed when the Pokémon uses or loses their item, but raid bosses never hold items. Therefore, its ability is just one less thing to worry about during the battle. Instead, you can focus on chipping away at Sceptile’s HP and keeping your Pokémon strong.

Perhaps I’m speaking too soon, but this does sound like it should be one of the easier seven-star Tera Raid events we’ve had so far in Scarlet and Violet‘s longer run. And, coming off those extra tough Emboar Tera Raids, I’m definitely not going to complain if Sceptile isn’t too challenging this time around. Either way, regardless of how difficult this raid ends up being, we’ll provide a guide on good counters and builds, as always.