Volcanion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Solar Beam
So when I originally made this set, there was no Tapu Koko to outspeed and kill it no matter what, but even now this set holds up. Choice Scarf catches a lot of people off guard and leads to many 2HKO's using Volcanion's strong special attack. Steam Eruption is a natural pick, being the most reliable STAB move that also deals massive damage. I used to run Fire Blast as secondary STAB, but not only do I have two Sun setters to boost Flamethrower into a powerful move, but running Fire Blast on both Charizard and Volcanion made misses occur more often than I wanted. The next move, Hidden Power Ice, marks the first of many weird teambuilding choices in an effort to cover everything. The Mono-Dragon matchup seemed borderline unwinnable with Mono-Fire without using Charizard-X, which I just didn't want to use for personal preference reasons. Thus, I added HP Ice to be able to OHKO Dragonite after rocks (and I usually outsped because everyone ran Adamant Dragonite which even at +1 speed gets outsped by Volcanion) and to be able to sometimes 2HKO normal Latios after rocks. It also hit Garchomp hard after chip, although it failed to OHKO. Finally, with two sun setters on the team, I was usually able to manipulate the weather well enough to beat Mono-Water using Solar Beam. Both Volcanion and Charizard-Y had Solarbeam coverage to remove a lot of threats on Mono-Water which, combined with the surprise factor of Choice Scarf, nabbed a lot of free kills. Just to be clear, though, even without the element of surprise, Volcanion could put a lot of pressure in a lot of matchups.
Infernape @ Focus Sash
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
It should be well known by now just how much rocks hurt a Mono-Fire team, especially with how prevalent they are overall. If my opponent set up rocks, that could sometimes seal my fate right then and there because of how much damage they deal to this team, especially with the switching that I did. Enter Taunt Infernape, the perfect lead to counter other leads. Being able to Taunt and then set up rocks of yourself own is a huge plus in many matchups, especially in the Mono-Dragon matchup. If you prevent a turn 1 rocks from Garchomp, then Infernape is able to chip it with Close Combat and put Garchomp in KO range from HP Ice, which is huge. Rocks also brings Dragonite into KO range from Volcanion and Latios into 2HKO range. Finally, both STAB moves were threats of their own, with Flare Blitz potentially getting a boost from Blaze and Close Combat pressuring Mono-Normal teams.
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
In most Mono-Fire teams, you will usually find Charizard-X, but I wanted maximum control over the weather to beat Mono-Water as much as I could. With Charizard-Y, I won against Mono-Water more than I lost. Solar Beam saw to that, as it OHKO'd most things on Rain after Stealth Rocks, and pressured other variants of water hard. It also made the Mono-Ground matchup pretty free so long as I played correctly. Fire Blast is just an insanely powerful stab move that will almost 2HKO anything that doesn't resist (except Chansey, but Charizard is instrumental in beating that too, as you'll see in the Victini section). Now Earthquake is an interesting tech that I enjoy more than the other common 3rd move, Focus Blast. I already had Fire Blast to OHKO every steel type in the game except Heatran, which made Focus Blast feel redundant, and although Focus Blast could try to cover for Heatran, it also had a good chance to miss. However, Earthquake never misses, and it OHKO's almost every variant of Heatran. I would usually try to predict the Air Balloon Heatran switchin by hitting it with a Solar Beam or HP Ice, then use Earthquake to finish it off and put the final nail in the coffin for Mono-Steel. Earthquake also helped out in the Mono-Poison matchup, where Fire Blast in the sun doesn't even 2HKO Nihilego. Since Scarf Nihilego is a huge threat to this team, and many players try to switch it into a Fire Blast to sweep, I enjoyed using Earthquake to predict the Nihilego switchin and OHKO it. Finally, HP Ice is another way for me to curb the Mono-Dragon weakness that my team has. This time, it deals much more damage to Garchomp and the rest of the dragons, so if I catch a Latios on the switchin I can 2HKO it while living a full Draco Meteor from Scarfed variants.
Torkoal @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 160 Def / 92 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest
- Will-O-Wisp
- Clear Smog
- Rapid Spin
This weird Torkoal set was originally intended to beat Scarf Terrakion, or at least hinder it enough that the rest of my team doesn't get swept by it. Barring a crit, Torkoal lives a single Stone Edge 100% and can Willowisp the Terrakion so that Victini and Volcanion can live a hit and kill it later. This also works on other Physical mons, however, and Torkoal is usually my go to against Dragonite, Mega Gallade, and really any other physical mon that threatens my team. I put rest on this set in case there was more than 1 physical threat that I needed to Willowisp (Dragonite + Mega Altaria or Tapu Bulu + Mimikyu), but Rest also allows this mon to use Clear Smog and beat set up sweepers after burning them while being able to deal with chip damage. On that note, Clear Smog also removes stat changes from +1 Dragonite and allows Volcanion to outspeed 100% of the time again, and Torkoal can be sacrificed to prevent Volcarona from setting up and winning by repeatedly using Clear Smog. Finally, Rapid Spin gives this team a way to remove rocks in case the opponent sets rocks after Infernape goes down. I have some SpDef investments to survive a Z-Celebrate boosted Victini Stored Power because that used to be a threat, but I think that most Victinis are banded now, so I might put those evs back into Defense.
Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bolt Strike
- V-create
- U-turn
- Zen Headbutt
Yes, this team has two scarfers. However, this usually didn't hinder me because of two things. Firstly, each scarf mon has enough power to at least 2HKO most threats anyway, especially under Sun where Victini could OHKO a lot of things. Secondly, I used to make a lot of predictions in my games to keep the pressure up, so having two scarfers on my team wasn't a problem since I usually switched them out pretty quickly anyway. Scarf Volcanion doesn't have enough speed to actually act as speed control. That role goes to Victini. With Bolt Strike, Victini could clean up a lot of kills onto Mono-Water and Mono-Flying teams, further pushing the Mono-Water matchup into my favor. U-turn allowed me to keep momentum up with correct predictions, and Zen Headbutt was added for coverage against random things, but most of all, Toxapex, which ruined my team more often than not. But the last move, V-create, is a personal favorite of mine because under the Sun, Victini did Banded damage with the added benefit of running Choice Scarf. Sun boosted V-Create OHKO'd things like most Gliscor sets and almost any offensive sets, and it dealt insane amounts of damage to Mono-Normal mons like Chansey and Staraptor even after intimidate. Then, when my opponents assumed that I was slower because of the debuffs from V-Create, the Choice Scarf kicked in and often times let me land another V-Create to 2HKO what I couldn't already OHKO (Staraptor, again). Once stuff like Chansey fell to the unrivaled power of Sun boosted Victini, my predominantly special attacking team could clean up, notably Scarf Volcanion and Charizard-Y.
Heatran @ Assault Vest
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Stone Edge
The final surprise on this team is an Assault Vest Heatran set. Despite having two Scarf mons and in general a hyper offensive looking team, I still lost pretty hard to certain special attackers like Latios, Nihilego, and Volcarona if it set up. Thankfully, Heatran has amazing typing as a SpDef wall and also amazing power. This let it OHKO Volcarona even after boosts with Stone Edge while living HP Ground, eat 4 hits from Nihilego before going down, and come in hard on Latios every single time. After switching in on a special attack and forcing a switch out, Heatran has a variety of threatening options. With maximum SpAtk investments, Heatran could do things such as OHKO Kyurem-B on the Latios switching out with Flash Cannon. Heatran was also crucial in beating Toxapex, as it was the only thing on the team that could 2HKO every variant of Toxapex reliably with Earth Power. Even though Heatran could usually only force a switch on Toxapex, I could be put in a situation where Toxapex was unable to switch into a Charizard-Y Solar Beam without being 2HKO'd in the Mono-Water matchup.