An attempt at VoltTurn

[ThatOneKoreanGuy]

Hello! I've been lurking around Smogon for a while now and decided to finally post something and become involved in the forums.

A while back, he made a comment about how U-Turn is a bad move. What better way to prove him wrong than by beating him with a VoltTurn team. I've been running this team for a little while on Showdown and it's been doing pretty decently, but I wanted to get some suggestions on how to improve it before I trained these guys in-game.

Without further ado, the team!

Zephyr (Staraptor) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Double-Edge
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- U-turn

Man I love this bird. With the Choice Scarf, he’ll outspeed most of the metagame and leave a dent in whatever he hits. He pretty much does one thing and one thing only—hit like a truck and get the heck out. Double-Edge and Brave Bird are powerful STABs to take advantage of Reckless and Close Combat gives it some phenomenal coverage. U-Turn’s there because.. you know. VoltTurn. I prefer Staraptor over Talonflame on this team due its lesser stealth rock weakness and MUCH greater raw power; even without priority, Brave Bird still wrecks teams.

Forry (Forretress) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Volt Switch
- Rapid Spin

What VoltTurn team is complete without hazards? I’m finding that Forretress has some issues laying down multiple layers of hazards, but it does provide some other support for my team. It serves as my physical pivot and gives me rapid spin support (which Staraptor desperately needs). The slowest volt switch in the game is also a nice bonus—it lets Forretress take an attack and switch over to one of my frailer mons. It’s not one of my favorite pokemon by any means, but it works.

Poltergeist (Rotom-Wash) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef/ 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Rest
- Will-O-Wisp

Rotom-Wash on a VoltTurn team? What a shocker. Nothing special here, just a standard specially defensive Rotom. ChestoRest is its only form of recovery since Pain Split remains unreleased. This also allows it to absorb status (to a degree anyways), which is a nice bonus. Will-O-Wisp is there to neuter Aegislash along with other physical sweepers. Even without investments in its Defense it serves as a decent check to Talonflame which could otherwise punch some unwanted holes in this team with its STAB moves.

Red Bug MK-2 (Scizor) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Brick Break
- U-turn
- Pursuit

Scizor is another standard VoltTurn member, and it’s a pretty darn good one at that. The moveset doesn’t need much explaining—Bullet Punch gives it a STAB priority to abuse, Pursuit lets it trap psychics and ghosts, and U-turn is there to laugh at my friend’s face. With no access to Superpower, the best fighting coverage it gets is Brick Break, which is rather unfortunate. I opted for a Choice Band over a Mega Scizor since it has MUCH more immediate power; Mega Scizor is better for a Bulky Swords dance set, but I don’t want to rely on boosting to deal damage when I want to be switching so often. Besides, it leaves the Mega slot open for..

Max (Manectric) @ Manectite
Ability: Lightningrod / Intimidate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]

I’ll be honest, I underestimated this Goku lookalike when I first saw it. It might not be the strongest or the fastest mega, but it has just the stats and the tools to be a great member on a VoltTurn team. Lightningrod lets it switch into the Rotom forms on the Volt-Switch and grab a Special attack boost, while Intimidate forces switches and thus serves as a perfect addition to this team. Its 135 Special Attack and Speed lets it outspeed many threats and kill off some weakened pokemon. Overheat is a fantastic coverage move, easily destroying Ferrothorn and Scizor (amongst other things). Hidden Power Ice rounds out its coverage, allowing it to take down common switch-ins to its STAB moves like Gliscor and Garchomp.

Zeroro (Greninja) @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- U-turn
- Grass Knot

And here we have my favorite Gen 6 pokemon—Greninja. As much I love it, I’m a bit iffy on its inclusion in this team, as the coverage it provides is rather redundant. The only thing it really brings this team is Grass Knot to kill bulky water/ground types (I’m looking at you Quagsire). With that said, it’s still a very powerful attacker and a great U-turn user. He might be on here as filler, but I could certainly do worse.

So there’s my team! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, if anybody could tell me how to get pictures of my pokemon on this post to break up this wall of text, that would also be greatly appreciated. xD​

 

[Hiryunix]

As for pictures you can use the sprites from serebii or google copy image then place.


Back on topic! The technique of volturn is always respected. I see it as a game of ball and cup personally.

Here are some strengths I see in your set.

You have great coverage! I can't name a type off hand other than ghost that truly walls you.

I really like the way your foretress is set up I never thought of using one the way you do. Normally people run whirlwind to abuse force switching, but they way you do it creates a natural switch allowing you to hit for more damage.

manetric is a really nice pokemon and I think its set makes good use of its ability to counter sweep. use uturn with staraptor, send out manetric to get extra special attack then mega evolve on their switch.

damage output = amazing! seriously between manetric scizor and staraptor pokemon that try to counter it take a lot of damage.



Some Problems I see.


running two choice items is risky for getting locked.

Bulky ghost using will-o-wisp will cause you a lot of problems.

fire types can take down 2 of your main pokemon. even with its not hard to use priority to kill greninja then bait out rotom to kill it off.

if they switch in a ground type before you switch! luckily non of your volt switches have choice items. but if they switch into your volt switch then you lose momentum.

Your team sort of lacks a core. the switches seem a bit random as apposed to having a switch to counter every type. Random switching can be your advantage for a few turns, but after those turns are up they begin to start locking you and making you lose momentum.


Solution

Greninja should run surf over scald (even hydro pump works) its so frail that even if you manage to land burn it wont make much difference. Hit hard and hit fast!

You should lead with foretress in the first place any anti lead you can surprise switch on then kill with a counter.

if you see a fire type I would be very cautious. Use rotom to switch into the fire type threat(not greninja) then use volt switch on their switch.

Ghost types are only stopped by scizor and you have no way to shrug off incoming W-o-W. You can predict it and switch to rotom to sleep it off then attempt to deal some damage. Greninja should also run dark pulse instead of grass knot to hit these ghost harder.

don't be afraid to get creative with ev spreads. You can move over some evs on rotom to its special attack to do more damage(but that's more optional)

I would think step by step who you would switch to if you see a specific threat(like gyrados, talonflame, aegislash)




Conclusion

I think your team has great potential. it seems you have a good idea of what you want to do and how you want to do it.
You have a few holes but most of which just require a minor prediction change. overall I think you have pokemon designated for certain roles as apposed to just switching "because my type is better." I can see a lot of synergy that can do massive damage and tank some surprising hits.

 

[ThatOneKoreanGuy]

First off thank you so much for helping me out, both with the team and with the pictures. xD
Greatly appreciated.

You've also hit my issues with the team right on the head. If I can use the switches to grab momentum early and maintain it, I do fine through the match. If I lose said momentum, then my team is in danger of breaking down. It seems like running some less conventional pokemon (ie. Staraptor and Manectric) is helping me out quite a bit, as people aren't quite sure how to break through before their team gets worn down quite a bit.

The Choice locking I've been able to play around; using U-Turn as a first choice definitely helps with that. I figure the issue with losing momentum from switch-ins to choice locked attacks will become less of an issue as I gain more experience with this team and with competitive battling in general.

The fire type weakness is a tad bit of an issue; Rotom's the only thing that can really tank a fire attack and it can get worn down pretty quickly. The fact that I use it to switch into status attacks doesn't help its longevity either. The only solution I've come up with so far is to play Rotom conservatively and find a good opening to use Rest for recovery.. it's subpar but I'm not sure what I could do to alleviate this problem.

I haven't had too many issues with ghosts so far, actually. Will-o-Wisp makes Aegislash MUCH more manageable and Jellicent really doesn't like the electric STABs from Rotom and Manectric. Other ghosts, like Gengar, are frail enough that they get taken down by Staraptor's Brave Bird. I'm realizing that Eviolite Dusclops could very well cripple my team if not downright walling it, so I'm going to take your suggestion and run Dark Pulse on Greninja. However, I'm weary of replacing Grass Knot, as I otherwise have trouble getting over Water/Ground types like Quagisire and Gastrodon. I actually added Grass Knot after a Storm Drain Gastrodon walled just about everything I could throw at it x(. So I'm thinking of trying this set.

Zeroro (Greninja) @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn
- Grass Knot

The loss of a water move is a bit annoying, but I have Rotom to switch into and deal with most Fire and Ground types anyways. Protean also makes the loss a bit less painful since it gets STAB on every attack anyways. Still, water is a fantastic attacking type and I'm not sure replacing it will serve me better in the long run. Any thoughts on this set?