Volcan Cannon...or something less stupid

[.Aero]

TeamVolcan

TeamVolcan

Team Building Process

I've made quite a few Generation V teams, however I've never gotten around to making one including Volcarona (formerly Urugamosu). I guess I've always seemed to brush him aside as his 4x Stealth Rock weakness is a real turn-off. But after battling against some of these some more, I found out how threatening this thing can be if you don't have a proper counter to it. That's when I decided that I have to base a team off this menace.

Now I need to get another pokemon in that can either spin away rocks, or prevent them in some way. For now, I'm going with the simple mechanic of preventing them through the uses of the lovely new ability Magic Bounce. Now this ability is only available to two pokemon currently: Espeon and Xatu. I figured I'd go with Espeon to minimize Stealth Rock weakness in the event that it appears.

Time to decide on a good offensive combo for Volcarona. SDGarchomp seems like a good fit, as he complements Volcarona's coverage and resistances quite well.

Now to start thinking about threats now that I have the base to my team. Terrakion is sort of handled by Garchomp...if he was scarfed. But sadly he is not. Therefore I need to find something to handle him as he's certainly the most threatening pokemon to a Volcarona sweep. I decided on Azumarill as it has access to Aqua Jet, a rather useful priority move for taking down Terrakion after a Rock Polish. It can also take care of Mamo, by chance he tries to come in and revenge with Ice Shard.

Gyarados and bulky waters basically wall my entire current team, especially Burungeru. Therefore, I have opted to take a gander at Thundurus, who not only provides a check to those pokemon, but also has access to a priority taunt which can assist in the prevention of Stealth Rocks. In theory, he seems like the perfect pokemon to finish off my team.

I then experimented with many many leads, ranging from Machamp to Zoroark (actually, those were the only two leads I tried before realized Burungeru really, really hurt me). So I decided to take a look at me and realized that Azumarill wasn't really doing his job. I decided to replace him with the next best thing that could handle the same threats: Breloom. On top of that, I wanted a lead that would benefit the team and I decided to go with SpecsNinetales for some sun support (and now that I no longer have Azumarill, he won't suffer from the sun). The sun also helps by removing Volcarona's water weakness.

As per Dark Azelf's suggestions in the post below, this is the new team.

After attempting Vrai's suggestions in this thread, I have decided upon this team and it works quite well:

Ninetales@Leftovers
Timid Nature [+Spe; -Atk]
Ability: Drought
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Speed

Flamethrower

Toxic

Protect

Substitute

Volcarona@Life Orb
Timid Nature [+Spe; -Atk]
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Quiver Dance

Fire Blast

Bug Buzz

Hidden Power [Rock]

Starmie@Life Orb
Timid Nature [+Spe; -Atk]
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Rapid Spin

Psyshock

Grass Knot

Hidden Power [Fire]

Sawsbuck@Life Orb
Adamant Nature [+Atk; -SpA]
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 136 HP / 252 Atk / 116 Spe

Return

Horn Leech

Jump Kick

Swords Dance

Heatran@Air Balloon
Timid Nature [+Spe; -Atk]
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Fire Blast

Earth Power

Hidden Power [Ice]

Stealth Rock

Thundurus@Leftovers
Timid Nature [+SpA; -Atk]
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Nasty Plot

Focus Blast

Thunderbolt

Hidden Power [Ice]




I'll edit with proper descriptions when I'm bothered. I've basically told you why the pokemon is on the team in the team building process, so. Yeah. Anyway. Go ahead and rate. I may add a threat list later (which is probably me just kidding myself).

 

[Dark Azelf]

Cute team.

Anyway, you're pretty much gonna need Heatran in here. Latios and other dragons really hurt this team as you have no way of beating or checking them. Put it over Breloom imo who just...sits there.

I dislike Specs Ninetales, Tar can just come in and Pursuit you and Politoad wrecks you and you're stuck using Solarbeam if you predict wrongly. Its not like Specs Toed where you can just spam Hydro Pump/Focus Blast and everything dies, its has a much worse movepool and predicting wrongly costs it alot more. Its much better as a bulky status spreader imho.

Focus Blast > Taunt on Thundurus. Losing to Tyranitar really sucks. NP LO Focus Blast OHKO's Bold Bliss anyway iirc, not that you're weak to it lol.

My last thoughts are something with Chlorophyll would really help this team because its rather slow, over chomp and/or Thundurus. Faster things really stone you, especially anything with a way of upping its speed. Blaziken and Dragon Dancers are the main culprits but yeah.

EDIT:

HP Fight sucks on Espeon, use HP Fire please so you dont actually lose to Spikers lol. x_x Grass Knot already crushes Tar in 2 hits.

 

[.Aero]

Thanks for the rate elf. Uh, I adjusted the team in PO, as well as in the main post. I think I have troubles with Buffalomon. He hits hard. >.< Heatran can hardly take the hits as well, and losing my balloon to take an Afro Break (or whatever it's called now) seems ridiculous. Any suggestions?

 

[MasterTobias]

I'm no expert, but looking at this team, I can see at least 4 different places where rock would kick your butt. I'm guessing that you're using espeon or the new grass pokemon (no black/white expert either) to counter it, but what if a pokemon like regirock comes in and uses stone edge on your fire team?

 

[.Aero]

I've never once seen a Regirock in Gen V. :P I am rocks weak, but Heatran can at least take neutral from it, and not many current top-tier pokemon even get STAB from rock. I don't think it's much of a problem if I have a counter for the pokemon who is carrying the Stone Edge or rock slide (which in most cases, I do).

Also after battling a bit more, I found that this team works quite well. :] I just have some problems dealing with Evo Stone Chansey (my guess is that it's only a problem because I just straight-up don't know what to do against it). And...shoot, I forgot the other pokemon. >.<

 

[Vrai]

I've never once seen a Regirock in Gen V. :P I am rocks weak, but Heatran can at least take neutral from it, and not many current top-tier pokemon even get STAB from rock. I don't think it's much of a problem if I have a counter for the pokemon who is carrying the Stone Edge or rock slide (which in most cases, I do).

Also after battling a bit more, I found that this team works quite well. :] I just have some problems dealing with Evo Stone Chansey (my guess is that it's only a problem because I just straight-up don't know what to do against it). And...shoot, I forgot the other pokemon. >.<

I'd presume that your problem with Chansey is that it walls your specially-based team easily (Toxic'ing things like Volcarona) and isn't broken by Espeon's Psycho Shock. My suggestion would be to try running Sawsbuck > Lilligant, because it still fulfills that "sun-sweeper" slot with much greater coverage, speed, and everything really haha. Lilligant's coverage never really felt optimal to me, either - you're either walled by Fire-types or Dragon-types, whereas Sawsbuck offers a physical punch to your team and breaks both, as well as Chansey. It probably can't switch in, but...

Sawsbuck @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
136 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 116 Spe
~ Swords Dance
~ Horn Leech
~ Return
~ Nature Power / Jump Kick

^
I'd run Jump Kick for Chansey. That leaves you walled by Chandelure, but Heatran deals with it, so...

Also, I'd perhaps suggest using a spinner over Espeon - it's significantly more reliable. Once SR is down with Espeon, you're not getting rid of 'em. The best Rapid Spinner is Excadrill, but he kinda loses purpose in sun... you could try Starmie. The only thing really holding back Starmie this generation is Ferrothorn, and the fact that the rest of the team has about 0 trouble with Ferrothorn could let you use Starmie (plus its HP Fire is boosted in sun, so...).

Yeah, hopefully I helped maybe a bit. :(

 

[Opposite Day]

It's time for the wonderful gimmicky player Opposite Day to take a ride in the Volcan Cannon!

Just sort of adding to what Vrai said, you might consider running a spinner over Espeon, however as an avid UU player I know that probably the most reliable spinner you are going to run is Hitmontop. Intimidate Top will probably help you out a bit when it comes to facing Hippowdon/Tyranitar that try to change the weather back, and with a foresight spin combo it is near guaranteed to get the rocks away (unless you face DA and his "ohai I'll run three ghosts because I can" teams)

Anyway. Top has always suffered from being forced in its choice of moves, Close Combat is wonderful, but drops its above average defenses, and Revenge is only remotely useful on a Technician set, forcing it to give up Intimidate as well as having negative priority. The solution to all of this? HI JUMP KICK!

Now don't get me wrong, you know that HJK will deal damage to top if it crashes into a ghost, but it is a freaking SPINNER, and besides you can just foresight to hit them with it if you feel like it. Using Top will also give you a sort of reliable switch-in to Tar, as I sort of doubt that Heatran will be able to take repeated Stone Edges.

In the last slot, I'd probably run some sort of super effective coverage against dragons, as they work pretty decent against Sun. Stone Edge will probably do for coverage, or you could run Sucker Punch for that SE hit on Lati, it's your choice.

tl;dr, swap Espeon with Hitmontop.

Hitmontop @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Foresight
- Hi Jump Kick
- Rapid Spin
- Sucker Punch / Stone Edge


You could also try using HP Fighting over Toxic and Energy Ball over Substitute on Ninetales while keeping Protect, as it allows you to scout for CB/Scarftar, if that even is used nowadays. Pursuit = Stay in and maim with HP Fight, SE/Crunch = Go to Top and wall. That, and it allows you to do something to Heatran lol.

gl!

 

[Cycle]

Idk but I like specially defensive ninetales more than offensive variants.
Something like 252 Hp/252 Spdef/4 spe and a movepool of wow/hp fighting/flamethrower/toxic or hypnosis.
Subdisable set is kind of gimmicky but works as well, sub/disable/flamethrower/wow or toxic

Espeon is less reliable than a spinner, poor defenses mean it wont really be doing anything. I'd probably use forry or what ^ said.

Idk about you but I prefer Venasaur over liligant. The extra bulk really helps and vena still gets sleep powder. Lack of sleep powder is annoying but Vena gets growth which gives +2 on both offensive stats.

Venasaur@leftovers
36 HP/252 SpA/220 Spe
Modest
Sleep Powder
Growth
Energy Ball
Hidden Power Ice/Fire OR Earthquake (HP fire is usually the best choice although it leaves you walled by tran and dragon/flying friends)

The given speed EV's allow you to outspeed Scarf Garchomp. Sleep Powder is for disabling a counter and energy ball is for stab. Last slot is mostly filler but needs to be a move which provides reliable coverage.

oh, btw if you use sawsbuck>vena as well, I suggest aromatherapy>swords dance and double edge>return.

 

[.Aero]

I went with Vrai's suggestions and added in Sawsbuck (who trolls other teams with the SD set) and Starmie (who I just recently adjusted thanks to DA). I'll make updates when I get the time. Thanks for the rates everyone. :]