a volcarona team

Nah · Jun 24, 2017

thread title names were never my strong suit

As you hopefully guessed, this is an OU team based around a Volcarona sweep. If you have watched PCL replays you've probably seen this before, probably the most notable time being the finals of the PCL sign-up tournament. This is the latest form of it, thought I'd have people take a look at it.

Spoiler: sets

Spoiler: explanation and thoughts

Tapu Fini pairs fairly well with Volcarona, as it provides hazard removal, something necessary for a team involving a Stealth Rock weak Pokemon, and Misty Terrain helps prevent Volcarona from being poisoned or paralyzed, which it hates (really tho few 'mons like status lol). Fini combats Dragon types, which are problematic for the fire moth since they tend to resist its moves and hit back rather hard, and also takes on Ash-Greninja, a major threat to the team (though not Protean Greninja since that thing is still ridic). It also is capable of harassing (but not necessarily breaking, since it can be worn down) more defensive 'mons, which is a general good thing. Right now the 3rd slot is Moonblast, though I've played around with Surf and Muddy Water in that slot too. At the moment a super-effective move on Dragon/Fighting/Dark types sounds more useful than hitting Fire types and Scizor/Lando a bit harder, though Ice Beam is potentially an option too. Either way, there's always gonna be something it can't cover. 68 Speed EVs are to outspeed the standard defensive Lando-T set--Smogon's stratdex page for Tapu Fini says that you only need 52, though that number doesn't take into account that their own page for Landorus says to run 16 Speed EVs on that set.

Landorus-Therian is kind of the Primal Groudon of OU: extremely good, packs a lot of shit into a single set, and is somewhat flexible/capable of running multiple different sets....there's reason why those two are the #1 in usage in their tiers. In this case I'm using the defensive set. It sets up the all-important Stealth Rocks and provides a slow U-Turn to try to bring in the frailer parts of the team more safely. Ground and Electric immunities on top of Intimidate are also really nice. I'm running a Relaxed nature in order to have its U-Turn go after neutral natured opposing Landos' U-Turn, as well as not decrease the power of HP Ice, which is needed against opposing Landos/Garchomps/Zygardes, who would otherwise be a issue here. Was originally running Leftovers on him, but found in my battle with Shawn that the ability to wear down the bunch of physical attackers that are prone to being worn down seems more useful.

At this point, the team is kind of slow and in need of something fast. Went with Scarf Nihilego for that. I sort of have a love-hate relationship with the space jellyfish: sometimes it's very hard to use because it has like no physical bulk and is 4x Ground weak, its STABS are walled by common types, and being choice-locked makes things more of a guessing game than it already is. On the other hand, it checks Zard Y, Mega Manectric, opposing Volcarona (funnily enough if the opponent's Volc sets up you lose unless smol jellyfish bby can save the day somehow), and all the Tapus...which is kind of needed. It also can act as a backup (offensive) wincon since Beast Boost can sometimes let it snowball through what's left of weakened teams, like MoxieMence could ages ago. Psychic is a new addition to the third slot--I used to run T-bolt in that slot, but Psychic seems better in order to hurt Mega Venusaur (which the team sort of has struggled with) while still hitting Toxapex and Keldeo hard.....Skarm/Celes/Torn-T still get hit hard enough by (boosted?) Power Gem and the rest of the team. Sometimes I wonder if I should have Lando and Nihilego switch roles though.

Placed Serperior on the team to check (fat) Water types and is cute in general since it boosts its own power by attacking. Fini and Volc can handle them a little bit, but it never hurts to have more than one answer to things. It also provides the ever-useful Knock Off, and the ability to discourage/use against the opponent Defog and Sticky Web. Usually Bisharp is the go-to 'mon for that, but I wanted something faster and not Ground weak. Question whether or not I should swap Leech Seed with another move.

Final slot is Mega Scizor. Steel types are important to have in a Fairy-infested meta, and Mega Scizor is a reliable Steel types to use thanks to its good stat spread and access to Roost. Swords Dance helps the team break up defensive 'mons since it's a bit lacking it that ability as is. Bullet Punch seems unappealing given that Tapu Lele is a fairly common poke (and Scizor is admittedly dead weight against it), but not all teams run Lele, and so against those priority is really nice to have. Using Superpower instead of U-Turn since I already have a slow U-Turner in Lando, and the move also lets it take on Ferrothorn/Celesteela/Skarm/Heatran switch-ins while obliterating Chansey. Might not seem necessary to have it for those considering the rest of the team, but like I said, having an extra answer to things is good.

so yeah there it is and it's a lot of words and my though process is probably fucking garbage but hey, what were you expecting from me

so offer suggestions and stuff or whatever

also ban arena trap dugtrio plz

wolf · Jun 28, 2017

Tapu Lele is problematic. Mega Scizor is your only switch-in, which gets 2HKOed by Psychic. You could try a more specially defensive spread. 248 HP / 240 SpD / 20 Spe takes 41% max from Specs Tapu Lele, not including HP Fire. Alternatively you could experiment with Magearna or Celesteela with a Z-Crystal > Mega Scizor and Charti Berry on Volcarona. They're arguably more effective sweepers, and at a glance you don't need Mega Scizor for anything. You lose some speed control, though. Autotomize Celesteela is notable for checking Mega Venusaur.

Consider going back to Thunderbolt > Psychic on Nihilego, or even drop HP Ice for it. Hydro Pump / Gunk Shot / HP Fire Greninja sweeps you. Sludge Wave OHKOes Naive variants with one round of Stealth Rock and Life Orb damage, but that only accounts for ~15% of Greninja. Other Greninja need a little more chip damage. If Mega Venusaur is a problem, you could try Flynium Z offensive Landorus-T and Charti Berry on Volcarona.

Anti · Jun 28, 2017

idk jack about sm but hasty seems bad on serp, is knock off rly damaging anything? idk if chansey/leftovers heaten still get used but i was kind of assuming it was for them/general utility and not for dmg. extra def had utility vs random priority esp if youre running leftovers serp.

also, not sure if showdown gives a shit about it, but legal hp fire ivs are 31/31/30/31/30/30 though hyper training might render that irrelevant? in either case, all 31s except atk should get changed.

Nah · Jun 28, 2017

Anti said:
idk jack about sm but hasty seems bad on serp, is knock off rly damaging anything? idk if chansey/leftovers heaten still get used but i was kind of assuming it was for them/general utility and not for dmg. extra def had utility vs random priority esp if youre running leftovers serp.

also, not sure if showdown gives a shit about it, but legal hp fire ivs are 31/31/30/31/30/30 though hyper training might render that irrelevant? in either case, all 31s except atk should get changed.

Yeah I don't really know why I've been running Hasty on it this whole time, it's like you said, I'm not using it for damage. Thanks for pointing that out.

You can actually run any HP type now with any IV spread in S/M, since Hyper Training technically doesn't alter IVs. Not really sure why the IVs on it were like that, but it was giving me HP Fire in battles regardless. Changed them now.

a volcarona team

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