Amazing Haetae Power: VGC ’13 Korea Nationals Top 4 Team Analysis
Hello everyone! I am Korean VGC player Wonseok Jang (CROC). I think some of you may know me from the Korea vs USA matches. I am here to introduce my friend Cheol Hwan Yeom‘s Top 4 team. I think the team is pretty interesting and good. I hope you guys like the team too! This is a translation of his blog post which I have done with permission.
Raikou @ Shuca Berry
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 76 HP / 204 SAtk / 228 Spd
Timid Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Snarl
– Protect
I picked Raikou in most of my matches. It can counter Gyarados with Thunderbolt and deny the opponent’s special attackers with Snarl. I gave it a Shuca Berry to endure super effective ground type moves. Shuca Berry allows my Raikou to beat Landorus and Garchomp. I gave it only 228 Speed EVs because I thought out-speeding Tornadus was enough.
Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 4 SAtk / 44 SDef / 212 Spd
Modest Nature
– Rage Powder
– Heat Wave
– Bug Buzz
– Protect
Rage Powder is a great move. It can make Fake Out useless and draws status attacks to Volcarona to cure with Lum Berry. Volcarona has great synergy with other teammates with Rage Powder. Also, Volcarona deals a lot damage to the Pokémon that most players use (for example: Cresselia, Tyranitar, Metagross, Hydregion, and Scizor).
Latias (F) @ Haban Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 Spd / 80 SAtk / 156 HP / 20 Def / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Hidden Power [Fire]
– Reflect
– Safeguard
I used Latias to counter the popular Pokémon that most players used. I gave her a Haban Berry to counter dragons like Kingdra, Latios and Hydregion. My Latias can endure a Dragon Gem boosted Draco Meteor from Timid Latios with 252 Special Attack EVs. Hidden Power Fire can deal crucial damage to Escavalier and Scizor (67.8 – 81.4% damage to 252 HP / 4 SDef Escavalier and 85.9 to 101.7% damage to 252 HP Scizor). Reflect makes my team hard to break through. I chose Safeguard to protect my team from status moves — especialy sleep. I spent a lot of time on Latias’ EV spreads and moveset because she is a very important Pokémon for my team. However, I didn’t get a chance to use her in a single match at Nationals…
Gastrodon @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 60 SDef / 196 HP / 76 SAtk / 156 Def / 20 Spd
Calm Nature
– Ice Beam
– Earth Power
– Recover
– Protect
I was afraid of rain-boosted Hydro Pump spam, so I used this Storm Drain Gastrodon to make water moves useless. I used Bulky Gastrodon with Recover to stall. My Gastrodon is bulky enough to endure Swagger-boosted Metagross’s Zen Headbutt and Gem-boosted Draco Meteor from dragons. With Reflect and Snarl, he can sponge almost any attack. I won my Top 8 battle with Gastrodon and thought bulky Gastrodon was a great choice.
Scizor @ Steel Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 164 Atk / 236 HP / 84 SDef / 20 Def / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Bullet Punch
– Bug Bite
– Swords Dance
– Protect
My most used Pokémon after Raikou. Swords Dance Scizor is an awesome sweeper. Scizor can KO most Pokémon with Bullet Punch after a successful Swords Dance. I also love it when my Scizor steals a berry from my opponents with Bug Bite. Taking Sitrus Berry from Cresselia is the sweetest; I knock Cresselia down and recover my HP! My Scizor can endure Jolly 252 Attack Terrakion’s Gem-boosted Close Combat and Timid 252 Special Attack Thundurus-T’s Choice Specs Thunderbolt. Scizor becomes more bulky with Raikou’s Snarl and Latias’ Reflect, so it can get more chance to use Swords Dance or power STAB attacks. Scizor is a strong sweeper that I recommend, but beware of surprise HP Fire!
Garchomp @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 76 HP / 180 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
– Dragon Claw
– Earthquake
– Substitute
– Protect
Everyone’s favorite Pokémon HAXchomp with HAXveil! I chose Substitute to threaten Sand teams. My Garchomp can 2HKO 252 HP Metagross with Earthquake and OHKO 4 HP Latios with Dragon Claw. Also, he can endure Ice Beam the Cresselia build from Ray Rizzo’s winning 2012 World Championship team. My Garchomp is pretty bulky — 252 Attack Adamant Metagross can’t break his Substitute. I used Garchomp to counter Heatran which threats its teammates.
Thank you to the people who cheered for me and thanks to my friends who had a fun time with me today. I hope to get a chance to go to Worlds next time 😀 Anyway, thank you for reading my post!
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18 Responses to Amazing Haetae Power: VGC ’13 Korea Nationals Top 4 Team Analysis
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Awesome team! I like the addition of powerful but less prominant moves such snarl and safeguard. That Raikou looks fun to play with.
I like the bulky teams, and yours are a lot !! I want to try this Scizor…
Great team I also use the same set raikou+item, and I also only let mine outspeed tornadus, and its nice to see a winning team without a weather starter(no offense to anyone).
A fellow snarlkou user.
Deffiinetly one of the best korean teams I’ve seen! Would’ve liked to see a report though. 🙁
Very cool team, thanks for writing, I rarely get to read about Korean teams.
@wonseok FINALLY you posted it!!!
First off, props for doing so well with such a cool team full of hip Pokemon that don’t see A LOT of play, especially at a major event like nationals. I’d also like to take time to appreciate the teams makeup. Dual ground, bug, and dragon mons would usually make people scream, but he managed to comprise the team with Mons that share stab, but offer different things to handle different situations.
all in all a sick team! raikou is pretty sweet, and so was that latias.
That team was so bulky, And it barely shared any weaknesses. He thought this team out so well guys, it’s quite impressive really. And he didnt even have a solid TR or Weather counter! Every thing about this team impresses me and I love all the pokemon he is using. Phenomenal.
It’s a shame he assumingly lost to item hax.
Very nice team, although I’m a little confused as to why he didn’t use Light screen instead of snarl on Raikou, since you can’t switch out of Light Screen. Otherwise amazing team, sucks top 4 doesn’t get invites.
Fellow double bug user
Congrats to Cheol Hwan Yeom on getting Top 4! And congrats to Wonseok on getting Top 8!
Snarl Stacks and neutralizes Focus Sash
Always been wanting to see snarl Raikou have success at a public event. I love the amazing team, good job!
@Wonseok please do the vgc last chance qualifier
Cheol Hwan is my hero. Thanks for translating, Wonseok!
Really like the choice of most of the pokemon. I’ve been meaning to use raikou and latias on the same team for a while with one screen/one snarl user, and I’m glad someone else put in work with it, at a national no less. Hope to see more of Korea in the future since they’ve been putting out interesting team concepts and have really showed that they are quite the threat because of it.
This is one of the coolest teams I’ve ever seen. Cheol Hwan, I congratulate you on getting top 4 with such hipster Pokemon.