Raging Bolt is rising in the ranks of the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet metagame, finally dethroning the dominant Flutter Mane to become the top Paradox Pokémon by day two of the Europe International Championships (EUIC). Following its emergence, Dot Esports asked pro VGC players what’s all the rage with Raging Bolt.
Ever since Raging Bolt’s VGC debut at the beginning of Regulation F, the long-necked behemoth has proved to be among the very best Pokémon to come out of The Indigo Disk DLC. At EUIC (which ran from April 5 to 7), Raging Bolt took this one step further, claiming the second spot on the usage chart for day two of the event, only behind Incineroar. In doing so, it ranked the highest among all Paradox Pokémon and special attackers—including Flutter Mane, who dropped to seventh place in day two’s usage.
During EUIC, Dot discussed the rise of Raging Bolt with some of the best VGC players in the world, with travel expenses provided by The Pokémon Company International. Regional champion Joseph Ugarte summed it up best: Raging Bolt “condenses a lot of roles into one Pokémon,” putting it in an interesting spot in the meta. Indeed, the players all praised the tall ‘mon for having a great stat distribution, a strong typing in Electric/Dragon, plenty of bulk, and a superior signature move.
On the topic of Raging Bolt’s Electric/Dragon typing, Ugarte mentioned the “lack of dragons” in the previous regulation before its VGC debut. Now with Raging Bolt in Reg. F, we have this strong dragon that is great against a lot of common Pokémon in the format—specifically the Grass/Fire/Water cores, which international champ Alex Gómez Berna considers “the most broken core of any Pokémon format.”
At the center of this broken core is Ogerpon, which can be either Grass/Water or Grass/Fire, depending on form. The most common Ogerpon movesets limit it to Grass, Water, or Fire offense, so it can’t really hit dragons like Raging Bolt for meaningful damage.
In conjunction with its strong defensive typing, Raging Bolt just has really good bulk that can be enhanced with Calm Mind or an Assault Vest. If it goes with Calm Mind, it can hold the Leftovers to heal while also healing from Grassy Terrain if there’s a Rillaboom around. “It’s a Pokémon that can handle many hits and stay on the field for maybe 10 turns. I don’t think many Pokémon in the current format can actually do that,” Gómez explained.
While staying alive that long, the mighty Paradox Pokémon can dish out a lot of damage with its impressive 135 Special Attack stat. It might not have the best speed on its side, but it makes up for that with its priority signature move, Thunderclap, which is the special, Electric-type version of the commonly used Sucker Punch. Regional champ and content creator James Baek explained how Thunderclap is “really strong into what was previously dominant in Tornadus and Urshifu Rapid Strike.” With how broken Urshifu is, it’s great to see we now have the perfect counter for it. This could also be the reason Tornadus completely fell out of the top 12 most-used Pokémon by day two of EUIC.
Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng also briefly touched on Raging Bolt’s influence on the upcoming Regulation G format, which throws restricted Legendary Pokémon into the meta. Zheng told Dot he feels like players are “already writing out” Kyogre in the restricted format “just because of the existence of Raging Bolt and Water Ogerpon,” though he believes the Gen III Legendary still has a shot. It’s very apparent players are giving Raging Bolt a lot of respect, even in a format with stronger Legendary Pokémon involved.
We’ll have to wait and see what Raging Bolt can pull off in Regulation G, but it’s already done a lot in the short time it’s been legal in VGC. As Jeudy Azzarelli told us, the long-necked Pokémon is “uniquely positioned,” and it’s already helped the competitive Pokémon format become a “very interesting, defined meta,” and we’re here for it.
