Reliable STABs: To be more specific, what I mean here is the group of Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Lava Plume, Surf, Hydro Pump and Scald. While I don't think there is too much controversial about any of the reliable STAB moves, I do think that each individual one is important in their own right, so I want to take a bit to address them. Fire Blast and Hydro Pump are the pure power options, and when talking about how we want to punish switches, they are the most important moves. Not a lot can switch into the sheer power of this pair, and that is exactly why we chose the stats that we did. Fire Blast is especially notable for being able to get the KOs on Aegislash that we so desperately desire. Scald and Lava Plume allow us to go a somewhat different route, while still going for the same goal. These moves punish switches, not by their sheer power, but by having decent power along with threatening burns. They won't break things on their own, and won't let us get by anything that we weren't already able to blast through with Hydro Pump or Fire Blast, but they trade damage for potentially making things easier on teammates. Finally, Flamethrower and Surf are the middle of the road options. Generally inferior as the lack power or a good effect chance, but are very reliable, and could serve as a back up STAB along side the more powerful options.
Overheat: As already mentioned, possible the biggest goal that we had with our stats and abilities was punishing switch ins. Overheat does that like nothing else, in exchange for a huge loss of momentum. A few things that might consider switching into Fire Blast or Hydro Pump might just be overcome by this move. However, the increase in power is very rarely actually all that important. The Special Attack drop caused by the move makes it so that two Overheats is usually going to be much weaker than two Fire Blasts, so I don't really see its power as being a real negative thing at all. What's more, this movepool lacks any significant coverage moves, meaning it will never be able to follow up a nuking overheat with anything more powerful than another momentum killing overheat. Additionally, the movepool lacks switching moves, so if Overheat fails to do what was intended, it is forced into a cold switch. I believe that because of these facts, Overheat will almost always be an inferior choice to Fire Blast.
Power Gem: This is the only move in the entire movepool that I would really tout as good coverage. On our list of things we want to be threatened by are special Dragons, so we don't want anything hitting them hard. At the same time, physical Dragons, notably Dragonite, are problems for our core. Rock coverage hits almost every one of the common physical attacking Dragons harder than any of our other attacks could, while at the same time being weaker than our best STABs against special dragons. Additionally, Mega Charizard Y can also be a problem for the core, with good special bulk, SE STAB on Lucario, and Drought, which weakens what would normally be a super effective Water move. However, Power Gem utterly destroys it. There is literally nothing it hits that we do not want to hit, there is almost nothing that we want to threaten that both resists our STABs and is not weak to Power Gem. The perfect coverage move, in my opinion.
Clear Smog: While I just said that there is almost nothing we want to threaten that both resists our STABs and is not weak to Power Gem, almost nothing is not nothing. In fact, it is Azumarill. While Azumarill is not the biggest thing we need to worry about, as we can threaten burns, for a pure offensive set, Clear Smog will hit Azumarill harder than any other option we have. It also serves as a neat utility move against boosters or Baton Pass teams. It is also a rare supportive option that can even be used on a Choice or Assault Vest set. Its not all that notable as Volkraken is generally better off just craking things with its STABs, and the power bonus, even over a not very Effective STAB is not that large. Even so, it is a useful option to have, and not harmful to any of our check or counters in the least.
Flash Cannon: Despite the fact that this move hits Fairies, something we want to threaten, Super Effectively, Flash Cannon is really a rather unremarkable move. It is weaker than a STAB Fire Blast, even when it is one step more effective, and it is only neutral against Azumarill, the only fairy to resist both our STABs. It could see use on a choice set wanting a more reliable way to hit fairies, but in general, it is not all that useful at all. It is, however, quite flavorful, and, with no real negatives for our concept, it makes a lot of sense to include it.
Will-O-Wisp: Of all the support moves, I think Wisp is by far the most important. To keep with the theme I have set so far, Wisp does a wonderful job of threatening switch ins. The fact is that residual damage sucks for anything, and the only things immune to burn are fire types that don't want to switch into Volkraken. While it may be hard to justify using any status inflicting move when packing as much power as we are and lacking recovery, if we ever were to want to do so, burn would be the way to do it. Additionally, as mentioned before, burns are the best thing we have for shutting down Azumarill, who can otherwise be quite threatening to our core. Wisp also can be useful should you opt for Infiltrator over Analytic, allowing you to burn thing that might think you are substitute bait (if such a thing exists) or that is predicting a switch.
Substitute: Frankly, I don't think there is that much to say about Substitute, as my movepool lacks the necessary moves to really abuse it. Certainly getting up a Sub on a switch qualifies for "punishing switches," but the fact is, Volkraken would have little to do once it Subs up. It can't carry any obscure coverage moves, so Sub isn't helping ease prediction, and it lacks recovery of any kind, so it can't really help stall out its counters or anything. Its not a terrible move, but when the best thing it is doing is letting you get a second pathetic attack off against Chansey before being forced out, its not really a big deal. As always, Substitute is a great move, but I just don't think it is anything all that special here.
Toxic: Everything gets Toxic, but not many things use it, and I do not believe that, with this movepool, Volkraken would be one of those things. Spamming STABs will almost always be a better option, and when you take into account that you will often be coming in on Aegislash, its just downright risky for no good reason. You might worry what it can do in conjunction with Substitute, but without any way to recover health, it is not stalling anything out for long.
Reflect: This move is not one I expect to see get much use, but I think it meshes well with what we want to do. Everything we want to be checked by either does damage with special attacks or via status or set damage moves. On the other hand, multiple things we want to threaten are physical attackers. While Reflect is not generally the best way to stop these Pokemon, it is a usable option. What's more, Reflect helps give setup opportunities for Lucario. That alone is not all that amazing, as generally when providing that kind of setup support, you want dual screens, but in conjunction with everything else we have, it helps provide that kind of support in a way more beneficial to Lucario than most others.
Memento: Speaking of supporting setup, Memento is the king of that. Of course, it comes at the cost of your own life. Obviously all set up sweepers love this king of support, but when you have something this powerful, it is only going to want to use it if it knows it will end the battle. That is where I see it as an advantage for the core. Lucario's big draw is Extremespeed allowing to bypass everything, and completely finish weakened teams. It is only in the situations where Lucario can do what Lucario does better than anyone else that Volkraken will ever want to use Memento in the first place.
Weather Moves: Rain Dance and Sunny Day seem to have a lot of potential to be scary as they increase the power of our amazing STABs even more. However, I don't think either is actually all that great, as each one weakens a STAB, and in the time it takes to set them up, you will already have something threatening you. Since manual sun is not really that good in the first place, and manual rain is hindering to Volkraken as it nerfs arguably its most spammable move in Fire Blast, I don't really see much harm in having either of these moves.
Notable Exclusions
Sludge Wave: Despite my vote to allow this move, after much though, I decided that it was best not to include it in my movepool. This is not because I think the move is too powerful, but because I think that, while Volkraken should be punishing switches, it should be doing so in a very predictable way. Thus, any non STAB move that is our best move against a Pokemon that we do not want to threaten is not something I wanted to include. Sludge Wave's ability to hit Keldeo, Latios and Latias stronger than our STABs is not something that meshed with this ideal that I tried to keep to.
U-Turn: Momentum is always good to keep, and getting switch advantage on you side is always great. However, the design intent so far with this Pokemon has been to let us nuke switches. Passing switch advantage to a teammate is not really following with that goal. What is more, I like the ability to super nuke things with Overheat, but I want such a power to come with the risk of a cold switch. Allowing U-Turn lets us get in at least some chip damage for free, all while scouting the opponent. What's more, on faster Pokemon like Latias, it lets our Specially bulky CAP take the hit, allowing a more frail Pokemon a free switch. Since this eliminates one of the major downsides of Overheat, without really any negatives of its own, and without any major detrimental effect on switch-ins like we want, I don't see a good reason to include it.
Pain Split: Unreliable as it may be, healing is not something that I am particularly interested in for Volkraken. Our role is not so much about our own survivability, so much as it is about destroying the survivability of others, and wasting time on a move that will not even cripple most opponents that much in order to survive longer is not what I believe we should be doing. More importantly though is the fact that I do not believe such a move would ever even be useful, except in situations where we should be outright losing. With base 100 HP, it takes a high HP opponent for us to even heal a mediocre amount. The only time we are healing enough for it to really be worth it is against things like Chansey and Blissey, who are supposed to be hard counters. What's more, in combination with Substitute and Toxic, Pain Split can pretty much allow us to beat all our counters. Not only is that obviously bad, but in order for something so bad to even be possible, we must be running a set that doesn't even do the switch punishing job we should be doing. Pain Split might not be the only move needed for such a negative result, but it is by far the most unnecessary to have.
Stealth Rock: The reason for this exclusion was pretty much that I think Volkraken has better things to be doing than setting hazards. While it could be argued that you punish switches by getting up hazards, with Latias being all about Defog, and our build so far being all about direct damage, I don't think SR really fits in that well, and is something best left to a 4th teammate. Simply put, it just doesn't really mesh with my vision for this movepool, and, while I don't particularly see that much wrong with it, there was no real positive justification I could think of that would make me include it.
Baton Pass: To put things simply, I don't see why Volkraken should be passing anything. We have no desire to be part of Baton Pass chains, and, passing Substitutes, which is all we really can pass, are not incredibly helpful to our core. In addition, I don't really want to provide any more incentive for using Substitute than is necessary. While Sub Toxic might not beat Chansey without Pain Split, letting us get in a Toxic on them and then pass out for a free switch in is not all that much better in my mind. No matter how it is being used though, Baton Pass would sets would have Volkraken playing in an entirely different manner than the intended "nuke the switch" path, and that is not something I am looking to encourage.
