*Raiden- I haven't gotten experience with all of his Techs yet, and I plan to revise this post when I do, but I believe I can say a few things based on all the battles I did with him early in my career. First, Raiden is obviously a Pow-based monster, though if you want to make him well-rounded, Head Clasher and Hell Arrow are both GREAT techniques. Both are relatively low-cost considering their other stats, which paints a picture of Raiden as a whole. While the bird men don't have very good Guts Regen, it's not a big issue because all their moves seem to be cheaper than comparable attacks on other monsters' lists. I rarely found myself in a bad position as long as I planned my comboes carefully- and the Raiden is very much a Combo King. Although Phoenix Combo can trash through an even-level Tank without much difficulty, you'll usually want to use a change-up of techniques. For instance, most of Raiden's attacks are short-range, as would be expected. Plow Kick makes a great thing to go along here, as it's a "jump-in" move. I won many lower-rank battles against opponents who had all their moves in mid-range simply by keeping far away from them to build guts, then when they backed me into a corner and approached mid-range, I would rapidly hit the button aside to Plow Kick, assuring most of the time that I would leap straight over mid-range and into short-range, where I could begin pummeling them with Raiden's nice techs there.

Among these, Smash Fist should probably be kept around a for low-cost hit tech, suitable for finishing off weak opponents. Judo Chop and Heel Drop aren't as effective, and should be dropped for better moves, like Jumping Kick (good power and critical rate, not as good of accuracy), Spin Knuckle (good all-around move and one of Raiden's most accurate), and Eagle Rush (a little expensive for its low damage, but if you're lucky the high critical and Wince factor will make up for it). Atomic Fist is a special bonus to all those summoning a Petraiden, and great for a set-up move. Speaking of which, you might notice that it has a lot of moves (Atomic Fist, Eagle Rush, Head Clasher) that inflict status ailments. It's absolutely necessary to obtain at least one of these, because the central problem for Raiden is accuracy.

Before I started incorporating Sharp Eyes into all my monster lines, I raised a Speed-based Raiden (the best kind). Even when it greatly outmatched its opponents' agility, it still had problems connecting, mostly because a Raiden doesn't have any moves with a base hit rate above 45% (training with the technique can change that easily, though). This is Raiden's greatest weakness, and the reason he works better as a Combo King instead of One-Hit Wonder: the odds aren't in favor of an all-or-nothing gamble. Instead, make full use of attacks that cause status problems like Addled, Dizzy, or Wince, which will help to set up the target to strike home with Raiden's less-accurate but potent Jumping Kick or Phoenix Combo.

You won't encounter Raidens except those raised by friends, but in that case the best way to defeat them, obviously, is to exploit this weakness. They can be severely messed up by a Speed-based Antagonizer, because even with the plethora of cheap techniques, killing their Guts also kills their accuracy, which Raiden can't afford. Of course, most Raidens will be speed-based themselves, meaning you'll have a tougher time connecting (the bird-men have no problems with dodging unless they have Tough Skin). In most cases, you can try to survive by keeping your distance, and since Defense isn't the forte of most Raidens (Life is good, though), use your sharpest hit-and-critical techs to take them down. Overall, though, a Raiden will need to build his Guts to unless effective comboes, which gives you plenty of time to do the same with (probably) faster Guts Regen. Begin your assault before he does (though not right off the bat), and above all else, if you get hit with status problems, ATTACK! It's better to lose guts than to lose all your HP when Raiden slams your confused butt.

*Suezo- Suezos have Sharp Eyes. Even though technically it should say "Sharp EYE" with these guys, that characteristic alone means that any smart trainer will raise at least one of these in their career. In fact, unless you're lucky enough to get something else with this trait (I've gotten only two other non-Suezos with it), the plucky little eye guys will form the base of every monster line you make-- good thing they're so versatile! Much like the Henger, these guys were relatively good in MR1, but sort of dropped into mediocrity or outright crappiness in MR2. They're back to being on the top of the charts now, though!

A quick look at Suezo's tech list will indicate that he really CAN go either way better than almost any other creature. This is compounded by his high Power and Intelligence, along with relatively good Speed. Even if you use these to found a Tank line of monsters, it's still better to work on Speed in order to save yourself that much more work when you pass its Heart on. On the Power route, I had quite a lot of fun with my Fukazo-turned-Usazo (Goat to Brillia type who had Sharp Teeth) Ravage. There are only four Pow-based Suezo techs, but Tail Whip, Bite, 100 Fists (hilarious), and Give Me (should be Gimme) work just fine together. Tail Whip is your accuracy move, 100 Fists is your raw damage (for low cost) move, Bite fits in between, and "Gimme" delivers heavy damage, withering, and a tendency to inflict Slow (the enemy's evade and guts regen drop dramatically, allowing for an easy set-up of 100 Fists). If you want, you could trade out either of the two high-impact moves for Lick, which is a cheap but effective withering (Gutsdown) move even for advanced Suezos. The only problem here is that this kind of Suezo is devoid of long-range attacks. However, Tail Whip can always be used as a Jump-In move as soon as you squeek into mid-range, setting you up to "Ravage" the enemy with Bite or other techs. Combo King, Antagonize, One-Hit Wonder, it's totally versatile!

Of course, Int-based Suezos have more choices. Suezo Beam will form the base of your tech line, and can be made quite effective with the High Output characteristic. Lick might still be good, but Deep Kiss is better yet for an Int-based Suezo, and Hypnosis trumps them both (best withering plus Addled effect). If you have Heart W/S, than those move and the rare Psychokinesis can all be very effective. If you don't have that, and especially if you have Wind W/S, Noise is the clear winner here- it may cost a lot, but it does serious damage with better accuracy. In all cases, copying Raiden's combo strategy can bring devastating results: Noise or Hypnosis (or even Give Me, if you're balanced) can set up for a devastating spike with Meteor. In short, the ideal move list for an Int-based Suezo would probably be Meteor, Psychokinesis, Noise, and Suezo Beam. The only problems here are the slightly-expensive attacks (not a REAL problem with Suezo's average Guts Regen, so an Antagonizer shouldn't be able to keep you down the whole fight) and the reverse problem of the Pow-based Suezo: No short-range moves! (I haven't personally seen everything a Suezo can do to make absolutely sure, and if I'm wrong please correct me, but I'm assuming here based on information from other monsters and Suezos in the other games). This can present a real problem for Suezo if the opponent is skilled at wrangling around in short quarters, but if you're Speed-based, you'll hopefully have just a little more time to escape attacks and get away (or push them away) far enough to blast'em.

Naturally, these are the strategies for busting Suezos, as well. Having a huge eye taking up more than half your body mass can really give you problems with taking a hit (just how strong IS that thing's eyelid and lower lip, anyway!?), which translates to generally-low Defense and Life. Hit Techs rule the day here, though if your opponent has gone overboard on all the expensive most powerful, expensive moves (which would mean that Suezo would have to have both the Power and Intelligence to back them up), then high-accuracy Antagonizers can safely waltz through the battle. If your opponent has gone the other route and is using lots of Bit Techs (generally the cheapest and most accurate, though Psychokinesis falls in with these, too), position yourself in range for the attacks that you'll take the least damage from (Int-based monsters with Int-based techs, Pow-based monsters with Pow-based techs) and try to dispatch him before he Combo Kings you to death.