SM OU Dancing with Fire-Volcarona Offense peaked 1694

[Leo]

Introduction​

Yo what's up everyone, this is a team I built around a week ago and posted in the Bazaar yesterday and I was pretty satisfied with it at first almost making it to 1700 but I've recently noticed some flaws I haven't been able to fix so I hope someone here could help. It was built around Volcarona which is a pretty overlooked threat right now with very few stops and that can be very threatening late-game.

Teambuilding Process

Teambuilding Process

The main focus of the team as I already said, Volcarona. The meta is infestated with Steel-types which give Volc plenty of opportunities to set-up.

Tapu Koko was added next as a nice pivot that lures fat Grasses for Volc to set up on them

Hazard Removal is a big deal when using Volc which is why I added Fini, providing a Water res and Defog support. It also summons Misty Terrain which is nice

Landorus-T is a nice blanket check for a lot of physical threats and is a nice partner for Fini. It has rocks too

I needed an electric check and something to deal with Stall next because Volc builds usually have a hard time against Stall.

I needed a Mega and a Lele check so yeah this was pretty obvious. It also helps break down walls early game for a Volc sweep.

The Team

Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ground]

This is the standard Volcarona set with Firium-Z to fire off a powerful Inferno Overdrive that melts resists. Thanks to Quiver Dance and a really nice speed tier Volc acts as an almost unstoppable late game sweeper. Offensive Fire-types are really good in this meta and most of its old checks (BandTar, Talonflame) are off of the picture which is what makes this mon so good even though it requires a fair amount of support, it's definitely worth it.

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

I decided to pair it with Tapu Koko, which is a really good pivot with a strong Thunderbolt despite its low SpAtk. Volcarona appreciates the pressure this mon puts on fat Waters and it also lures Grass types which Volcarona uses as set-up fodder. The set is the standard Fast Pivot with LO for max damage due to its low SpAtk. It also gives me some nice Speed control even though it's still outsped by Alakazam and Pheromosa.

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 176 Def / 16 SpD / 68 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nature's Madness
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Defog

I think Tapu Fini is the best Defogger to pair with Volcarona as it provides a useful Water resist and also lures Grass types. Misty Terrain is really helpful for Volcarona because it protects it from status thus making setting up easier. Enough Speed for defensive Landorus and opposing Tapu Finis with Nature's Madness for Stall

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Def / 28 SpD / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

There's almost no reason not to use Landorus on any team and since it pairs so well with Fini I figured I'd just use it. Standard defensive set with enough SpDef for Koko and speed for opposing Landorus. It forms a nice VoltTurn core with Tapu Koko to bring in Volcarona safely. The ground immunity is also greatly appreciated for Tapu Koko and Volc.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 192 HP / 248 Atk / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fire Punch
- Shadow Bone
- Bonemerang
- Swords Dance

When using LandoFini as your defensive backbone an electric resist is almost mandatory to avoid getting bodied by Tapu Koko and Thundurus. I chose Marowak because I was looking pretty weak to Stall and this set puts a ton of pressure on most Stall builds. I'm running SD>WoW because I never find myslef clicking WoW and SD just blows Stall back and smashes SpeedPass too thanks to Bonemerang hitting 2 times.

Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake

Finally we have the monster himself Mega Metagross. It acts as an early breaker for Volcarona and my only Lele check. I'm not 100% sold on this moveset because I'm not a big fan of running Ice Punch when I already have an HP Ice Lando but I didn't know what I should run so I'm keeping it like this for now. Double STABS+Earthquake are self-explanatory

Threats

Threatlist

Speedcontrol: I'm lacking a Scarfer and my fastest mon is Tapu Koko which means I have almost no means of revenge killing. Alakazam, Pheromosa and some set up sweepers such as Charizard Salamence and Dragonite can be really scary if played correctly. I usually try to keep my checks at full health and set up first

Metagross: This thing is a monster and a big threat to a lot of teams, including mine. While I can use it to set up with Volc I can't directly switch into it which means it gets a kill every time it gets in.

Greninja: Protean Gren is super annoying to face and it forces me to play more offensively to avoid losing a mon to it

Charizard-Y: This mon is seriously slept on and it basically gets a kill every time it gets a free switch into either Lando or Fini

Replays

Importable

Importable

Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 176 Def / 16 SpD / 68 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nature's Madness
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Defog

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Def / 28 SpD / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 192 HP / 248 Atk / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fire Punch
- Shadow Bone
- Bonemerang
- Swords Dance

Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake

 

[Professor Suicune]

You already have HP ice on two Pokemon, you mentioned you weren't sure about Ice Punch, and you listed speed control as a problem for the team. Consider running Bullet Punch > Ice Punch on Metagross to remedy this.

 

[FlamingVictini]

Hey man, cool team you have there.

My personal opinion is that Volc should be paired with dugtrio (while duggy is in the tier, fk that mon). Scarf Dugtrio can not only trap and remove Heatran and Nihilego, which eliminates the need for HP Ground and lets you run something like HP Ice to hit chomp / zygarde / lando, but it can also help you cover the weakness to elecs like koko you get from running fini and lando, eliminating the need for marowak, and giving you a solid revenge killer in general. Marowak is definitely a very good koko answer (might struggle to beat knock thundurus, but i doubt anyone runs that), but it hugely raises the pressure on your fini to keep rocks off the field. It also stacks up on your water weakness, and currently your only switchin is fini really since koko can't come in directly, which again means your team becomes extremely reliant on fini. This can be a problem since fini is defensive but its only form of recovery is passive leftovers, and as you may have seen from a lot of SPL games, a lot of teams that rely on fini too much have been getting overwhelmed and not performing as well. While dugtrio doesn't really help with switching into water types, it definitely can exert a decent amount of pressure on the opponent to keep their mons healthy because of its speed and arena trap.

Losing Wak can definitely make you weaker to stall and reduce your general balance breaking ability, so one idea is to run TPunch > Zen on Metagross. This takes advantage of the Electric Terrain from Koko to help break through many fat mons including slowbro and skarmory, and gives metagross very strong coverage in general, and also helping the stall mu, even though you're still fked by dugtrio weakening you. If you feel like you want a form of priority, BP can fit on meta, probably over ice punch since you feel lando/koko would weaken relevant targets (IPunch is still good though). Also I really dislike U-Turn on a LO Tapu Koko because you're just dealing more damage to yourself just to get a bit more secure switch initiative compared to hard switching. I would probably try Magnet instead, and if you want to break stall better than Taunt could fit on the Koko set somewhere as well.

Effective Volc teams tend to follow a very particular composition of mons with not a whole lot of variation, but still I'd prefer not to recommend so many changes that the team loses its original touch from you, so I hope the suggestions I made are enough to improve the team that you find more room to tinker around with it yourself. GL with the squad man. n_n

 

[Leo]

You already have HP ice on two Pokemon, you mentioned you weren't sure about Ice Punch, and you listed speed control as a problem for the team. Consider running Bullet Punch > Ice Punch on Metagross to remedy this.

BP looks really solid, thanks for the suggestion definitely gonna try it out :)

Hey man, cool team you have there.

My personal opinion is that Volc should be paired with dugtrio (while duggy is in the tier, fk that mon). Scarf Dugtrio can not only trap and remove Heatran and Nihilego, which eliminates the need for HP Ground and lets you run something like HP Ice to hit chomp / zygarde / lando, but it can also help you cover the weakness to elecs like koko you get from running fini and lando, eliminating the need for marowak, and giving you a solid revenge killer in general. Marowak is definitely a very good koko answer (might struggle to beat knock thundurus, but i doubt anyone runs that), but it hugely raises the pressure on your fini to keep rocks off the field. It also stacks up on your water weakness, and currently your only switchin is fini really since koko can't come in directly, which again means your team becomes extremely reliant on fini. This can be a problem since fini is defensive but its only form of recovery is passive leftovers, and as you may have seen from a lot of SPL games, a lot of teams that rely on fini too much have been getting overwhelmed and not performing as well. While dugtrio doesn't really help with switching into water types, it definitely can exert a decent amount of pressure on the opponent to keep their mons healthy because of its speed and arena trap.

Losing Wak can definitely make you weaker to stall and reduce your general balance breaking ability, so one idea is to run TPunch > Zen on Metagross. This takes advantage of the Electric Terrain from Koko to help break through many fat mons including slowbro and skarmory, and gives metagross very strong coverage in general, and also helping the stall mu, even though you're still fked by dugtrio weakening you. If you feel like you want a form of priority, BP can fit on meta, probably over ice punch since you feel lando/koko would weaken relevant targets (IPunch is still good though). Also I really dislike U-Turn on a LO Tapu Koko because you're just dealing more damage to yourself just to get a bit more secure switch initiative compared to hard switching. I would probably try Magnet instead, and if you want to break stall better than Taunt could fit on the Koko set somewhere as well.

Effective Volc teams tend to follow a very particular composition of mons with not a whole lot of variation, but still I'd prefer not to recommend so many changes that the team loses its original touch from you, so I hope the suggestions I made are enough to improve the team that you find more room to tinker around with it yourself. GL with the squad man. n_n

Yo, I've been using Dug Zard-Y for almost a month and it never crossed my mind how well it pairs with Volc too. I used Scarf early SM and it was cool so I'll try that set. TPunch BP Metagross looks really threatening for Stall under Electric Terrain unless they have Sucker Dug but I've been seeing a lot more Pursuit Dug for Marowak so I should be fine :) Magnet weakens HP Ice a bit but now that I think about it I have Fini+Lando for Zygarde and opposing Lando and reducing the recoil sounds nice, although I think I won't change the moveset because I really apreciate the Strong Volt Switches and HP Ice. Thanks for the rate I'll make sure to try these changes on the ladder and see how it goes :D

 

[Griff]

What about agility over a 4th attacking move on Metagross? It helps your weakness to Pheromosa or Alakazam in a pinch