SM OU HELP NEEDED! Bulky Volc & Mega Medicham

[NimbleSloth]

Hey everyone, I'm rather new to Smogon battling on Pokemon Showdown and have been messing around with a tonne of various teams using cores that I've noticed to work well together to provide a powerful build around strategy. Today I decided to build around the core of Bulky Quiver Dance Volcarona + Tapu Fini.
I'll go over my thought process behind each pick and then whatever suggestions on improvements I could make you all have would be very much appreciated.
So far this team has proven to be pretty solid for the most part, but I'd like your opinions too and other more experienced players to let me know if they see any huge glaring weaknesses that need patching up.

Volcarona
Item: Buginium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 112 Def / 148 Spe
Timid Nature
- Bug Buzz
- Roost
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower

Since I started playing I've enjoyed using this on the teams where it has worked well. I've come to learn just how ridiculous this thing can be with the right support around it. But it does need the necessary support to help clear the way for it to come down and start Quiver Dancing up to become the sweeper it can be.

Medicham-Mega
Item: Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Ice Punch
- Zen Headbutt

Medicham is our Mega on the team is our main wallbreaker. It is supported nicely be our 2 U-Turn users who can help chip away at the opposition early on gaining momentum for Medicham to then come in and take an easy KO on slower Pokemon. Also thanks to our Serperior and its Glare it also allows Medicham to come in against what would usually be faster threats such as Ash Greninja and Gengar which would often outspeed it.

Tapu Fini
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 12 SpA / 40 SpD / 192 Spe
Calm Nature
- Defog
- Nature's Madness
- Scald
- Taunt

One of the main support Pokemon to help out Volcarona is Tapu Fini, it provides us with a Defog user that also doubles as a very solid threat against many hazard setters such as Toxapex, Greninja and Heatran and it can also force in potential grass and electric types allowing our two U-Turn threats to jump in and be a nuisance. Taunt can be a nice way to lock pokemon down from setting hazards or trying to stall with Protect, Healing moves etc. and also pairs nicely with our Serperior's Glare to then allow Serperior to potentially set up with Leaf Blades.

Serperior
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 56 HP / 200 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Glare
- Leaf Blade
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Fire]

I love this Pokemon in the OU meta when paired with threats that may be a little slower than some others (in this case Medicham-Mega and Bulky Volc) as Glare can just allow them to come in and get to work with acquiring relatively easy KOs or in the case of Volcarona a chance to get off a Quiver Dance. This also gives us a great pokemon to switch into to finish off pokemon that may have been chipped away at by our U-Turn users or Fini's Nature's Madness allowing Serperior to turn into a potent threat itself.

Landorus-Therian
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 184 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Now it wouldn't be OU if a team didn't have a Landorus on it... there's a reason why so many teams have a Landorus and that's because he can just do so much. Here for instance he provides us with Stealth Rock and a great U-Turn core alongside Tornadus-Therian. He's set up defensively to tank as much as he can and try to just be a nuisance for the opposition for as long as possible whittling away at the opposing team and hopefully baiting in Water or Grass threats for our Serperior or Volcarona to then be able to U-Turned into to hopefully take them out.

Tornadus-Therian
Item: Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Hurricane
- Knock Off
- U-turn

I don't think I'll ever build a team in OU without someone having Knock Off. This comes in to check opposing Tapu Bulus, Kartanas and Landorus-T and to Knock Off Leftovers and other potentially pesky items. It also provides us with good threat to opposing grass types, another Defog user to help clear the way for Volcarona and also to round off a U-Turn core with Landorus-T.


Thanks for taking the time to read through this and once again any suggestions on how to improve this team and pointing out it's big weaknesses would be very much appreciated.​

 

[cwarning]

Hey there!

I dig the team a lot. Admittedly, I haven't done a rate in a long time but I will say that the most striking weakness your team currently struggles with is a common weakness to ice with three of your Pokemon. Particularly, Kyurem-Black appears to be one of the scarier threats to your team considering he can nuke Tornadus, Landorus, and Serperior with his STAB ice moves. Tapu Fini has a somewhat favorable matchup against him as well, but your current set can't outspeed him which means it can fall to Fusion Bolt fairly easily. I'd say your most favorable matchup against Kyurem would be your Medicham or Volcarona, but you just need to be wary of an Icium Z set on Kyurem because he loves to bait switch-ins to nuke them with Subzero Slammer. I'm not entirely sure what the best way to handle this threat is because you might be able to play around it, with a little extra effort. I just wanted to bring that weakness to your attention so you can adapt accordingly if need be! Best of luck to ya!

 

[NimbleSloth]

Hey there!

I dig the team a lot. Admittedly, I haven't done a rate in a long time but I will say that the most striking weakness your team currently struggles with is a common weakness to ice with three of your Pokemon. Particularly, Kyurem-Black appears to be one of the scarier threats to your team considering he can nuke Tornadus, Landorus, and Serperior with his STAB ice moves. Tapu Fini has a somewhat favorable matchup against him as well, but your current set can't outspeed him which means it can fall to Fusion Bolt fairly easily. I'd say your most favorable matchup against Kyurem would be your Medicham or Volcarona, but you just need to be wary of an Icium Z set on Kyurem because he loves to bait switch-ins to nuke them with Subzero Slammer. I'm not entirely sure what the best way to handle this threat is because you might be able to play around it, with a little extra effort. I just wanted to bring that weakness to your attention so you can adapt accordingly if need be! Best of luck to ya!

Hey thanks for the response... Yeah I agree that something like Kyurem-B poses a huge threat here. I'm not completely certain, but I'm confident Serperior outspeeds it, if so I guess my only option would be to try and bait it into that and use Glare, I doubt it would avoid the chance to take out Serperior so I guess it would come down to getting lucky with the Paralysis, if it works though I can potentially just go to town on it with Volc. Worst case is that it just comes down to revenge killing it with Medicham-mega.
I also am still on the fence between using Moonblast or Nature's Madness on Fini. Nature's Madness is a great way to deal with potential walls but something like Moonblast does have great uses in handling potential threats that we otherwise struggle to answer. I mean looking at the team it gets really punished by something like Weavile or Mamoswine.

 

[cwarning]

Yeah, your Serperior set does marginally outspeed a Naive max speed Kyurem-Black. Hitting him with Glare might do the trick to set up some revenge killer on him, but your Serperior or switch-in may trade with him as a result. Weavile and Mamoswine can be scary too, but just be wary about these threats and you should be good. Again, I'm not too sure what would be a great inline replacement to cover these threats, however.

In regard to Nature's Madness vs Moonblast, it might be in your best interest to run Nature's Madness to ease the burden of a stall matchup. Otherwise, if you can fit a mon that can run toxic to wither down walls that may be a strong alternative because Moonblast is an incredibly powerful move to nuke opponents who are weak to it and it can be a good answer to your Weavile matchup.

 

[Ethertainment]

I would replace scald with moonblast. All the types scald hits are already covered by others on the team. That is just my two cents.