Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Tomahawk9
Okay, Volcarona sucks.
First of all, hazards are extremely common in Ubers. That goes with three great spinblockers who are very hard to spin against. Forretress is pretty much the only viable spinner on sun teams, and it can't dream of spinning against those three spinblockers. At least Ho-Oh has Roost and Reshiram isn't 4x weak to Stealth Rock. Shell Smash Cloyster with Rapid Spin can be used, but it has a hard time setting up against something and really I don't want to be forced to use one Pokemon to make another slightly usable.
Secondly, there's pretty much nothing it can set up on. Almost everything can take a unboosted hit from Volcarona, or outspeed it. Not to mention Dragon Tail is extremely common, and that kills Volcarona due to its horrible Defense and hazard weakness. The only things it can set up on are Ferrothorn, Forretress, and Scizor. Actually, not even Scizor, as it 2HKOes with Bullet Punch after Stealth Rock, so if you stay in and Quiver Dance you're done for. After SR + 2 layers of Spikes it always KOes in one hit as well. So there's Ferrothorn, and Forretress. Ferrothorn is used on a rain team most of the time, which means it's paired with Kyogre which has an easy time countering Volcarona, and there's Giratina-O and Tentacruel which are both common on rain teams as well and take on Volcarona easily (granted Tentacruel needs Volcarona to have a little residual damage). Forretress is used on sun teams mostly, and it's almost always paired with either Giratina-A or Giratina-O. Both have no problem taking on Volcarona, as the former only has a 18% chance of being 2HKOed by +1 Life Orb Fire Blast in the sun, while it can Dragon Tail Volcarona out for more Stealth Rock damage aka it dies. Giratina-O on the other hand always KOes Volcarona with Dragon Tail after SR damage, while Shadow Sneak 2HKOes or has a good chance of KOing after SR + 1 round of LO, while +1 LO Fire Blast doesn't KO Giratina-O.
Also, it has a lot of common counters: Kyogre is the most prominent one, but there's also Giratina, Rayquaza, Giratina-O, Tyranitar, Ho-Oh, Reshiram, Terrakion, Tentacruel, Chansey, Blissey, Salamence, etc.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the point of ubers research week to try and find a niche for certain pokes, not just list their flaws and deem it unusable?
First off, I want to address the SR weakness. Volcarona has Morning Sun and can use a Rest/Chesto set (since Volcarona is a sweeper, you don't need reliable Roost recovery like Ho-Oh). Stealth Rocks are also not impossible to stop. Stalltwo, Taunt Gliscor, Whimsicott, Sableye, Xatu, Espeon, etc all can do an ok job at blocking SR from certain pokes. If you really hate Dialga and Taunt on Mewtwo doesn't work for you, run a banded Groudon to surprise it. There are many things you can do to prevent SR.
Second, Tyranitar does not counter Volcarona (Bug Buzz), Chansey/Blissey can check Volcarona once(Rest/chesto set usually can beat Chansey), and any bulky water (Tentacruel, Gastrodon, etc) loses to a Volcarona with recovery in the sun. You can put something like HP Rock to hit Ho-oh/Rayquaza/Reshiram/Salamence as well, which would improve Volcarona's coverage and viability quite a bit. Kyogre is obviously a hard counter, but you can run Arceus-Grass, Ferrothorn, Gastrodon, Palkia, or Giratina-A to help alleviate that problem. You have to really focus on team support, and breaking Kyogre/Giratina.
However, a good player who has a Giratina and an SR poke will probably have 0 problems with Volcarona, so I do agree that it does suck and I would never use it. But it isn't as bad as you describe, although it is pretty bad.
Edit, got Rank 1:
Rank 1 means so much right now, I know.