[OU] volcarona (Revamp)

[Sergi]

[OVERVIEW]

- quiver dance is best move to boost on the special side
- anti-metagame by nature and thus being one of the best late game sweepers
- really strong special attack and decent speed tier
- good and powerful dual stab with a good coverage
- speaking of coverage, it posseses all the moves to beat any would-be-check, and thus able to run effectively different variants
- hard to fit onto teams due to average defensive typing and crippling sr weakness
- quite frail on physical side
- due to these weakness, it usually has only one chance to sweep, but most of the time it'll only need a quiver dance to do so


[SET]
name: Offensive Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Giga Drain / Bug Buzz
move 4: Hidden Power Ice / Hidden Power Ground
item: Passho Berry / Lum Berry
ability: Flame Body
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

- volcarona’s most threatening set due to unpredictable coverage and possible item, one of best late sweeper and easily devastates teams unless they pack specific checks for the variant
- quiver dance is the move that defines volcarona, boosting its special attack, special defense and speed, making it and amazing dangerous sweeper
- fire is best volcarona’s stab to abuse as it hits super effective or neutral common types like steel, ground or grass
- giga drain + hidden power ice is the most threatening variant of volcarona as is its overall the most effective combination, though is hard walled by heatran
- giga drain covers and hits super effective water and rock-types like keldeo, tyranitar, jellicent, terrakion or gastrodon, also it helps volcarona to keep it healthy and heal off sr damage
- hp ice covers dragon-types like garchomp, latios or dragonite
- bug buzz + hp ground is the other well known variant, but this one misses the super effective hit on some top threats and common pokemons like garchomp, keldeo, jellicent or dragonite
- bug buzz is a good 2nd stab and pairs well with fire blast, hitting neutrally or super effective most dragon and water-types like garchomp, latios, politoed, starmie or gastrodon
- hp ground hits super effective heatran, terrakion and tentacruel, in particular heatran which any other move can cover

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

- passho berry is the best item overall as it lets volcarona to easily shrug off a water attack and having more opportunities to set up
- lum berry is classic on set up mons to deal with status like toxic or thunder wave, and in this helps to easily set up on jirachi or breloom for example which are some things you can capitalize on
- the ev spread and nature are straightforward as they maximize speed and special attack in order to take full advantage of volcarona's offensive capabilities
- a spread of 72 hp / 252 satk / 184 spe, timid still outspeed everything relevant at +1 and allows volcarona to survive a specs psyshock from latios and outrage from jolly garchomp at full health
- modest nature can be used for more power, like killing 0/4 keldeo at +1 93% of the time after sr and having a chance of killing latios after sr, but then is slower than scarf landorus-t and others pre-boost like jolly excadrill or adamant garchomp. Also bulkier spreads with modest are a option, like 144 hp / 252 satk / 112 spe, modest faster than jolly loom and everything at +2
- flamethrower and fiery dance are options over fire blast, flamethrower is in middle ground between power and accuracy, fiery dance gives you a 50% chance of getting other boost in satk but is very weak (like doesn’t ohko gliscor after sr); thought fire blast because it has a very good chance of ohko hippo after +1 and the more consistent power it brings is better for volcarona which has a case of all-in
- bug buzz + giga drain is another combination, dual stab + giga drain gives you the ability to hit super hard keldeo, tyranitar and jellicent all in one, but bug buzz overlaps a bit with giga drain, and the other combinations are overall better
- bug gem is a option, it allows volcarona to ohko gastrodon, garchomp, support tar, politoed and 2hko jellicent with the combination of fire blast + bug buzz at +1
- starmie is a really good partner and best overall spinner, it can check keld and tran for volca and weaken some waters plus spinning
- garchomp, landot or mamoswine are good sr that have good wise off synergy w/ volca
- uturn from things like scizor or landot are good partners as they attract steel-type mons that volca can take advantage of
- keldeo can make a good partner luring grass mons and wearing down waters like jellicent for volca
- scarf rachi is a very good partner as is a typically good glue set for off teams in which volca fits, and also packs healing wish which can gave volca a 2nd chance to sweep
- healing wish latias is another good partner being able to check keldeo and attracting steel-types for volca
- sun support is a option esp for the giga + hp ice variant as its benefits a lot of heatran gone, thanks to dugtrio, and powered fire blast, and basically this mon is why sun would still be a thing


[SET]
name: Rain Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Bug Buzz
move 3: Hurricane
move 4: Fire Blast / Hidden Power Ground
item: Leftovers / Lum Berry
ability: Flame Body
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

- rain variant of standard off qd, hurricane is a rlly strong attack and has good coverage with bug buzz
- quiver dance is self explanatory, this set up move is what volca a real threat
- bug buzz is the primarly stab of choice in this case as is not affected by rain
- hurricane is a strong attack and bug + flying gives volc a good neutral coverage, hurricane hitting things like keldeo, terrakion, jellicent or dragonite
- fire blast is still your best choice to hit steel-types like skarmory or jirachi
- hp ground is a great alternative in last slot, as otherwise heatran walls u hard, and hits tenta harder
- hp water is another option but is significantly weaker vs heatran and reliant on rain, has some other uses like guaranteed ohko on terra and landot +1 and hits rarer checks like moltres

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

- leftovers is the item of choice as it gives volca more survivability as it has good defensive typing to check some annoying mons for rain like ferrothorn or celebi
- lum berry has same uses as in the other set: shrugging off status and let you to capitalize and set up on mons like amoonguss or breloom
- the ev spread and nature are straightforward as they maximize speed and special attack in order to take full advantage of volcarona's offensive capabilities
- a spread of 72 hp / 252 satk / 184 spe, timid still outspeed everything relevant at +1 and allows volcarona to survive a specs psyshock from latios and outrage from jolly garchomp at full health
- modest nature can be used for more power, like the ability to 2hko jellicent after +1 w/ hurricane or ohko on spdef tran after sr w/ hp ground. but then is slower than scarf landorus-t and others pre-boost like jolly excadrill or adamant garchomp
- sub is a another option for the last slot, bug + flying is good enough coverage and invalidates teams that rely on status and wear it down to cripple volca, like making spdef tran a easy set up (unless it packs roar), amoonguss, thunder wave ferrothorn, breloom etc.
- politoed is obvious partner for this set to work
- spinners are a must, tentacruel benefits of rain and has good synergy such as checking tran. Starmie is another good option, it can beat a lot of easier jellicent thanks to be able to run thunder in rain
- landot can check some physical mons that threaten volca like chomp, terra or dragonite and set up rocks
- gyarados, feraligatr and azumarill are good partners they attract grass-types which volca can take advantage of, while being able to weaken some waters mons like gastrodon, rotomw or jellicent for volca and scaring

[SET]
name: Bulky Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Fiery Dance
move 3: Bug Buzz
move 4: Roost
item: Leftovers
ability: Flame Body
nature: Timid
evs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

- this set takes advantage of teams that rely on wearing down volca to beat it
- quiver dance is self explanatory, this set up move is what volca a real threat
- fiery dance is the 1st stab of choice in this case, the lack of spa investment and the more resilience of this set makes the 50% spa boost fiery dance packs very appealing
- bug buzz is the other move of choice, benifitting of stab and fire+bug having decent neutral coverage in most cases
- roost lets this set to last a lot more than off variant and thus be more resilient and difficult to take it down by wearing down

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

- leftovers is the item of choice as lets volca to increase longevity
- the evs spread tries to maximize volcarona physical bulk which is the weaker side of it, 16 spe evs + timid lets volca to outspeed 70 base max and everything at +2
- lum berry is an alternative item as it lets volca to shrug off status once which is a very effective to deal with this set due to the lack of raw power
- spinners are a must, starmie is always a good partner checking heatran for example, and others like forretress can fit too as it checks some strong physical attackers and slow volt switch is a very good tool to bring volca save due to even if bulky volcarona does not like to take many hits
- checks for scarfers like landot and terrakion are needed and others like nite, landot can check them and set up rocks
- ways to deal with heatran are needed as this set is completely open to it
- rain checks for things like keldeo, politoed or tornadus are needed as even if bulky the still put iton timer and volca needs a lot of prior damage to beat them than other sets
- ninetales a good partner, as this set benefits a lot of sun, weakening water-types to easier set up a lot and heatran gone (thanks to dugtrio)

[OTHER OPTIONS]

- chesto rest
- subqd + stabs
- expert belt
- life orb
- sitrus berry
- roost + lefties on off qd
- psychic
- morning sun > roost on sun teams

[CHECKS AND COUNTERS]

- sr
- heatran (hp ground)
- gyarados can check any variant
- wearing it down by repeated hits + fast scarfers or rkillers like garchomp, keldeo and latios, alakazam, and esp scarf terrakion in sand is one of the best all around checks
- some water types: keldeo (giga drain or hurricane), jellicent (giga drain), tentacruel (hp ground)
- dragonite, garchomp and salamence (hp ice)
- chansey
- tyranitar (bug buzz), though support tar can take +1 bug buzz and ohko with rock stab
- tornadus (in rain can take +1 fire blast after sr)
- moltres (tho it has a big sr weakness too and rare)
- victini (tho rare mon)
- priority from azumarill and feraligatr (tho rare mons)

-----------------

also forgive me if so many mistakes, 1st analysis ever and english is not my mother language

 

[Sergi]

this is qc ready for the most part

steelphoenix i didn't implemented some things of ur "check" (cuz wip) as jirachee and i didnt agree (basically hp water > ground on rain set and set order) so i'll wait for others qc opinions before making any change

about main evs spread for off sets and sitrus berry i dont mind so u guys should decide

i did everything else i think

e: feedback for bulky set is apreciated

 

[Jirachee]

on the bulky set, mention that it fits much slower, bulkier teams than the standard volca which is usually seen on yolo ass offense. a slow sun squad w/ cress and stuff or the kind of balance w/ hippo starmie etc

victini is a p meh volca check, it has a chance to die to +1 buzz / hp ground after rocks and it's really not the kind of mon you can easily keep healthy. it doesn't outspeed volca either so I wouldn't even mention it

mention that one of the easiest ways to beat volca is status because it absolutely despises paralysis / toxic. twave rotom / ferro can lure it, zam can twave it, and basically anything with toxic will screw it over. beats most non-lum volcas

also mention some priority users that can pick it off once it's weakened a bit. cb nite, lucario, qa cb/lo terrak, cb scizor for example.

but yea this looks good I'll approve once you do that

 

[Apollo.]

Even without Scarf, Terrakion is an very good check.

 

[Mighty Mask]

Sorry if I do not have permission to post here, but I believe Famethrower instead of Firebast is viable for Volcarona because of better accuracy, but I havent played this generation much so I am not sure. Just a suggestion.

 

[Alfalfa]

Sorry if I do not have permission to post here, but I believe Famethrower instead of Firebast is viable for Volcarona because of better accuracy, but I havent played this generation much so I am not sure. Just a suggestion.

Fiery Dance completely outclasses Flamethower as a more accurate alternative to Fire Blast. The loss in power is not unnoticeable, but a 50% to boost Special Attack upon usage is something worth the cost in power.

 

[Tokyo Tom]

Just some quick comments, PERHAPS CONTROVERSIAL! Thus, Jirachee Finchinator BKC put me in my place if need be.

ANYWAY, HERE'S WHAT I THINK:

Offensive QD

[SET]
name: Offensive Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Giga Drain
move 4: Bug Buzz / Hidden Power Ice
item: Lum Berry
ability: Flame Body
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

I'd be inclined to keep the 252 / 4 / 252 spread on the offensive sets for simplicity's sake, as well as the ability to tie with the 100 Scarfers. Afaik, the 72 HP doesn't contribute anything significant in terms of bulk, which I believe should be the only reason why it should be included on this specific analysis.

I believe that Bug Buzz and HP Ice hit more similar (more relevant, perhaps) targets than Bug Buzz and Giga Drain (think Lati@s, Hydreigon, and the ever-prominent Shiftry vs. Tyranitar / Slowking, and Volc will want Bug Buzz if it wants to realistically beat Ttar). I want to say dual STABs + Giga is the most common and threatening combination, but by all means slash HP Ice first if you feel that's better, I can see that as well; I just believe that it's more specialized (keep in mind +1 Fire Blast will OHKO 248 / 0 Landorus-T). I think Lum should be the first and only item slot as Volc worries much more about TWave and Poison than, say, Scarf Keldeo in Rain or Feraligatr/Azumarill (you are typically not beating Gyarados regardless, +1 Giga only has a 14% chance to 2HKO 88 / 0 after Rocks and Leftovers, and it always has a chance to Bounce). Passho is still definitely relevant but I feel that it does not carry the same weight Lum does and should therefore be mentioned in the set comments. Volcarona is faster than the large majority of the Waters and thus will have the +1 buffer to help it take attacks; the only times I can think of off the top of my head where it sets up successfully on a faster Water with Passho is on a chipped ScarfToed, AnalMie, or EBelt/Specs Keldeo.

I would personally regulate HP Ground to the set comments of the offensive set. It's quite (extremely) specific in its targets, hitting all of Heatran and Tentacruel, the latter of which is almost exclusively found on Rain. So like, if the team cannot be relied on to remove these Pokemon, then HP Ground can be used, otherwise it's an inefficient choice in coverage.

Other Options

To Steel's point about Sitrus, I've seen it used to success on one team (Sogeking's spinoff of the classic Sun formula), so I'd say if we're also mentioning stuff like Psychic (I mean, I can see how it works on paper, but I've never seen this in practice) then by all means keep Sitrus.

Take the Roost on Offensive QD part and just throw it in the set comments of the Offensive QD set. I doubt it's gonna see any use on Rain, so if it refers to a specific set, then it looks better to mention it with that set.

I'd remove Morning Sun from OO, or at least if you choose to include it explain why it is largely inferior to Roost even on Sun teams, due to the massive presence of other weathers in the metagame and the inability to always lock down the weather war. I would venture that it doesn't really need the extra 25% on Sun teams regardless.

Checks & Counters

In C&C, I personally would like to see SR mentioned last, as it's more of a general thing (in an "if all else fails, keeping SR up can limit Volcarona..." kind of statement). It's nearly a no-brainer by simply looking at Volcarona's typing, and as a reader I would like to see what specific Pokemon I would be able to use on a team to check/counter Volcarona first before a general hazard statement.

Here's what I think C&C should look like -

- Heatran (along with HP Ground mention that Heatran needs Stone Edge, Toxic, Taunt, or Roar to actually handle Volcarona)
- Phys. Waters (Gyarados, Feraligatr, Azumarill)
- Faster Scarfers (Terrakion, Garchomp, Keldeo - mention that it needs Rain for Hydro Pump to OHKO at +1)
- Phys. Dragons (Dragonite, Salamence; I'm tempted to say don't mention Garchomp here as it takes massive damage from +1 Bug Buzz, let alone HP Ice, and only has a 37.5% chance to OHKO Volcarona in return with Outrage. By this I mean, I would rely on Dragonite to check Volcarona on a team but I would never use non-Scarf Garchomp to fulfill that role)
- Chansey (I'm with Steel here, although it's not as splashable it should be mentioned high largely due to it actually hard-countering the majority of Volc sets, especially if it's Toxic)
- Bulky Waters (Tentacruel, Jellicent; I'd remove Keldeo here since Giga and Hurricane are the main slashes on the offensive sets and Scarf Keldeo has already been mentioned)
- Support Tyranitar, Tornadus, Sand Terrakion; something like "they can each take a hit in their respective weathers and retaliate with super effective STAB"
- Moltres (you can write the Phys. Dragons section as flying types that resist Volcarona's STABs and mention Moltres there)
- General mention of SR
- General mention of Status

 

[GaryTheGengar]

as the guy who started the whole hp ice trend on volc the targets are def in hp ices favor, all bug buzz is really good for is ttar, if you absolutely need a ohko on the lati twins and like slowking i guess vs really common shit like garchomp, dragonite, land-t as well as the re-emerging spdef gliscor and salamence. the dragons (lati, hydreigon) just need like sr and 5-10% residual to drop to hp ice anyway, which will likely be the conditions when volc goes for a lategame sweep. slowking isn't doing shit, even to a lum variant and is almost always 2hko'd by +1 giga with king hardly ever running spdef evs. of course, tyranitar is a huge problem, but the thing is bug buzz doesnt even come close to koing support ttar; to show how weak it is buzz only has a 37.5% chance to kill 0/4 scarftar without rocks. you can't understate hp ice's importance either, a ohko on 4x ice weak shit even while at+0 rules.

onto the item, passho doesn't only help with the ubiquitous keldeo, allowing it to dodge a scarf rk as well as letting it blow through keld if spikes arent down (+1 252 SpA Volcarona Giga Drain vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Keldeo: 274-324 (84.8 - 100.3%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO) - it grants you far more set up bait then lum berry does. It helps vs starmie, rotom-w, politoed and other random waters, while also letting you do random cute shit like taking 16 from a jelly scald or setting up a 2nd qd on a strong water attack instead of getting chipped and then revenge killed. lum only really give you the ability to dodge para which is useful, but the only huge deal is losing out on sash zam and spdef jirachi imo. most other twaves can be scouted for (rotom, latias), or can even be pursuit trapped if you care that much (celebi, latias). I also disagree with rachee about toxic being a death sentence. volc can still do a shitload of damage in its semi-limited turns, more than enough to sweep unless they've already got a scarfer / strong prio. not to mention the main users of toxic are just as likely to hit you with a strong water move as they are to toxic. lum is still a plenty viable option, I just think passho should be the primary.

heres what my ideal set would look like:

Offensive QD

[SET]
name: Offensive Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Giga Drain
move 4: Hidden Power Ice / Bug Buzz
item: Passho Berry / Lum Berry
ability: Flame Body
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

max speed because theres no reason not to be and getting flinched by zen headbutt rachi would fucking suck. hp ground in AC as its pretty much just as team specific as bug gem - it removes one poke alone that isn't on every team; in fact heatran in declining in usage. note that hp ground should be used with bug buzz as getting walled by latias / garchomp is dumb.

in terms of the general analysis I'd say you need to emphasize volcs reliance on spin a little bit more. a 50% volc will rarely do anything while a 100% one is one of the most threatening pokes in the meta. analytic starmie really is the perfect offensive spinner to pair with it. I notice you mentioned starmie but id give a specific nod to the offensive one, a much more effective set in general.

 

[Luckstard.]

Checks & Counters

- Moltres (you can write the Phys. Dragons section as flying types that resist Volcarona's STABs and mention Moltres there)

Note that Rain variant using HP Water destroys Moltres.

I'd add on this :

- sDef Hippo with Rock Slide, it takes a hit (63.57 - 75% from +1 Fire Blast) and OHKO back (109.32 - 128.61%)
- Scarf Latios with Psyshock deals some damages (59.8 - 70.73%)
- Alakazam can take a hit if Sash isnt broken and strikes back (61.73 - 72.66%)

 

[Mighty Mask]

To be honest, not only I think Sitrus is viable in Volcarona, but I also think its the best item in most teams.
Ive seen lots of games where Volcarona would have won if it had Sitrus instead of Pasho, Lum or Leftovers.

And I think Modest bulkish Volcarona is worth a mention, because everyone pretty much already noticed how awful Scarf Landorus-T is in BWOU (which was basically the only point in running Timid, other than a weird speed tie against rares Scarf Mence and Scarf Jirachi, I guess), and started respecting Volcaronas's destructive power, developing better ways to check the mighty Ulgamoth (Scarf Chomper, Twave Alakazam, Toxic Tentacruel, as well as Terrakion and Tran being more used overall).

 

[Jellicent]

Sergi is this still happening?