Hooo boy Korai. I’ve been playing this tier as long as it’s existed and I’ve got VERY strong feelings about it. This mf needs to go. In this post, I’ll explain exactly what it is that makes Korai broken and address some counterarguments.
All Koraidons run the same set: Fighting/Fire/Dragon + filler, where the filler can be Swords Dance, Stomping Tantrum, U-Turn, etc. depending on the set.
Fighting/Dragon/Fire is already amazing in its own right, being completely unresisted in Ubers. This is why Scarf is such a good set. It capitalizes on Koraidon’s fantastic offensive profile and Spikes being everywhere due to Ting-Lu being amazing and removal being extremely limited with U-turn pivoting into an absurd attacker like Miraidon. Thus, knowing what moves Korai is running does not really help with answering it.
Scarf on its own is an incredible set, but the best set is far and away the SD set.
This set is what truly makes Korai broken in DLC1.
The only way to cover Toxapex, Skeledirge, Giratina-O, and Rayquaza simultaneously is to run 4 attacks, but then you lose out on an actual stallbreaking move (Swords Dance, or if you're weird, Taunt).
252 Atk Orichalcum Pulse Tera Fire Koraidon Scale Shot (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 155-185 (50.9 - 60.8%) -- approx. 2HKO
252 Atk Orichalcum Pulse Tera Fire Koraidon Scale Shot (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skeledirge: 210-245 (50.9 - 59.4%) -- approx. 2HKO
slap on loaded dice. problem solved.
Before DLC1, the reason SD wasn’t making Koraidon broken was the lack of power it had. Dragon Claw and Flame Charge were alright moves, but they weren’t that strong and thus had defensive counterplay, Skeledirge, Toxapex, Fairyceus, Lando-T, and even the rarer Alomomola could somewhat comfortably take it on due to the lack of power it had outside of Close Combat/Low Kick. However, now it has Scale Shot, meaning it can drop Flame Charge for the significantly stronger Flare Blitz. It’s impossible to stress how big of a difference this makes, as now it no longer needs any extra coverage to break everything in the game, WHILE being obnoxiously difficult to revenge kill.
The Speed-boosting flavors (Scale Shot or Flame Charge) lack the immediate damage output to deal with Fairy-types, and Tera Fire Flare Blitz wallbreakers lack longevity.
While this is true, Tera being a factor means Korai doesn’t need the immediate power, as it can just Tera Fire, SD, and then the only remotely bulky Fairy in the tier, Fairyceus, drops to Flare Blitz. Nevermind the fact that it can’t run Leftovers, meaning it gets worn down significantly more by hazards. Also, Korai does indeed lack longevity, but with the sheer power of its SD Scale Shot set, it’s very likely to have left the opposing team so beaten down that it’s all too easy for its teammates to clean up.
Also, thanks to Scale Shot being an incredibly powerful move that boosts Koraidon’s base 135 speed, this bitch is insanely hard to revenge kill. Your only truly reliable method of doing this is to get Korai to drop its defenses enough and pick it off with Extreme Speed from Arceus or Rayquaza.
Finally, Koraidon is a critical answer to Tera Water Kyogre and an important way to scare out Ting-Lu. Without Koraidon as an answer, Tera Water Choice Specs Kyogre achieves such horrific feats under Sticky Web such as a 70% chance to OHKO specially defensive Eternatus after Stealth Rock, basically requiring Utility Umbrella to counter.
Okay firstly specially defensive Etern runs Heavy-Duty Boots and Spikes are amazing in this tier so uhhhh. But really, this is more a testament to how Tera makes already amazing Pokémon absurd, rather than Kyogre being broken. Tera is extremely contentious as is and I feel like webs being good only exacerbates that issue, but this is a post about Korai so that’s a topic for another post.
In conclusion, Korai is broken because Scarf and SD Scale Shot are already very difficult to handle as is, but hazards being fantastic in this tier and Tera continuing to exist push it over the edge in many players’ eyes, myself included.