Gen 7 Tapu Tapu Volcarona Team

[shadowpea]

Ok this is a team based on Volcarona's sweeping powers. Volca is also my favorite mon in OU and second in the entire game (besides Dewgong, because Dewgong is awesome, but its complete trash in OU so lets not dwell on that). I consider the team as a balanced/bulky offensive team. Tbh I think introductions are kinda dumb so whatever here we go.
Disclaimer: I am completely new to the forums. Please don't get mad at me if I accidentaly break a rule.
Double Disclaimer: I am also a complete noob and my rating is around 1300. But hey, part of the point of this is to help people improve, right?

You don't wanna read this

I see other people with teambuilding process so I might as well put one too.

I picked Volca because its my favorite mon in the entire OU meta so I wanted to build a team around it.

I picked Koko because its a good pivot and cleaner and it gets rids of annoying waters.

I picked Fini because I wanted a defogger and an Ash-Gren check.

I picked Ugly Pants because I needed a physical breaker that can break Toxapex.

I picked Lando as a secondary defogger and part of the defensive backbone.

I picked Ferro because its a good lead, defender, rain check, and hazards setter.

Ok now the part that you actually want to read:
THE TEAM:

Kokonut (Tapu Koko) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost
Tapu Koko's job is to bring Volcarona or Mega Medicham safely while giving Mega Medicham's Thunder Punch a boost with Electric Terrain. It is also supposed to get rid of water-types like Tapu Fini and Pelipper. EVs are self-explanatory. Timid is for the extra speed. Shuca + HP Ice is EXTREMELY useful against the likes of Garchomp and Lando-T. Koko can bluff Scarf or Specs and wait for an eq, then eat the Shuca and go HP Ice. HP Ice have a 50% chance of KO-ing Lando-T after rocks. Koko can always heal up at a better time with Roost. Tbolt and Volt Switch should not need an explaination. I really like this one and I love shuca Koko and this set have been extremely useful. It can even outspeed Greninja which is just great.

Blockhead (Landorus-Therian) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Defog
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Lando here is part of the defensive backbone, hence the EVs, and nature. I basically copied the EVs from smogon's defensive Lando-T set, so if you wanna know why look it up there. Intimidate is a phenomenal defensive ability and is also Lando-T's only one. Rocky Helmet is to punish priority like sucker punch and shadow sneak as well as other contact moves. Eq is obvious. Defog is kinda a must on every Volcarona team and I have two defoggers just to be safe. U-turn is a slow pivot move that can get stuff in safely. HP Ice is useful against opposing Lando-T as well as Garchomp, especially those choice-locked into eq. Tbh I'm not sure about this dude and is thinking of replacing him with Gliscor.

Sunrise (Volcarona) @ Buginium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Hidden Power [Ground]
The star of the team. Volcarona is a fantastic special sweeper with a great special attack stat and good speed. It also have Quiver Dance, one of the best boosting moves in the game (basically cm with a speed boost). Volcarona should be switched in through uturn or voltswitch or into something it forces out like Tangrowth or Ferro. The set is the standard offensive Volca set and is self explanatory. Qd is what makes Volca good so it should have it. Fireblast is used over fiery dance for PP and over flamethrower for power. I mean, flamethrower is an option but you will be missing out on a ton of KOs if you dont use fireblast. Bug buzz is for bug STAB and turnes into a nuke with Bug-Z. Finally, hp ground completes the set to crush Heatran and Zard X. Use Volca's Z-move wisely, preferably against something like Ttar or Garchomp, but you can use it against whatever you want if its the only thing stopping Volca from sweeping. However, Volcarona is physically frail, and its weak to stealth rock, so make sure when its switching in neither are in the way.

Relevent (and some irrelevent) calcs

+1 252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Charizard-Mega-Y in Sun (bc Zard Y sets sun duh): 185-218 (62.2 - 73.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 232+ SpD Celesteela: 404-476 (101.7 - 119.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 232+ SpD Celesteela: 270-318 (68 - 80.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Kartana: 1764-2076 (681 - 801.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (oof)
252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Tapu Bulu: 276-326 (80.4 - 95%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 222-262 (58.1 - 68.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 333-393 (104.3 - 123.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Hidden Power Ground vs. 252 HP / 176+ SpD Heatran: 296-352 (76.6 - 91.1%) -- 25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Volcarona Hidden Power Ground vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Heatran: 256-304 (79.2 - 94.1%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Hidden Power Ground vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Heatran: 384-456 (118.8 - 141.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Volcarona Hidden Power Ground vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Charizard-Mega-X: 154-182 (51.8 - 61.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Hidden Power Ground vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Charizard-Mega-X: 230-272 (77.4 - 91.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Volcarona Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Alakazam-Mega: 290-344 (115.5 - 137%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Volcarona Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Greninja: 398-470 (139.6 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Volcarona Savage Spin-Out (175 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Garchomp: 336-396 (94.1 - 110.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Volcarona Savage Spin-Out (175 BP) vs. 132 HP / 0 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 392-464 (104.8 - 124%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 SpA Volcarona Savage Spin-Out (175 BP) vs. 224 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 378-446 (95.2 - 112.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

Ugly Pants (Medicham) @ Medichamite
Ability: Telepathy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Thunder Punch
- Ice Punch
Now here, we have Ugly Pants himself. His job is to abuse Pure Power and smash the opponent into sorry bits. Medicham should be used to break stuff like Toxapex and Chansey. EVs and nature are self explanetory. Telepathy is used before mega evo so stuff like Ditto won't steal Pure Power. Fake out is for revenge killing and the flinch certainly doesnt hurt. HJK does massive damage but be careful with the recoil as the opponent can protect or send in a ghost-type for it to miss. Ice punch is for coverage and does massive damage to Lando-T and the like. Finally, Thunder Punch is used to break Toxapex and other waters, and becomes ridiculously powerful when paired with Tapu Koko's Electric Terrain. Zen head butt can be used instead of that to break Toxapex and M-Bunny, but I prefer thunder punch because it gets rid of annoying waters as long as they are not too fast. Medicham is the physical wallbreaker of this team, but beware that he is frail on both sides so try not to switch him in on strong/supereffective attacks. If you like, he can also be used to ugly the opponent to death, because only Jynx rivals him for this job and he is sure to do it well. I mean, Bunny can be used instead of this, but I like to use this as the wallbreaker of the team especially seeing how it just wrecks Toxapex.

Lightning Stick (Tapu Fini) @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
Hidden Power: Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 12 SpA / 40 SpD / 192 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Moonblast
- Scald
- Taunt
Tapu Fini. One of the tier’s premier defoggers with an extremely useful ability to boot. Due to taunt, Fini can shut down stall pretty well. Fini also acts as a great check to Ash-Greninja, resisting both of its STAB moves and ice beam while being able to retaliate with moonblast. Misty Terrain is used to protect teammates from status, particularly Volca from toxic and Medicham from burns. The EVs are the standard smogon EVs for Fini so if you wanna see why just go there. Leftovers are to keep Fini as healthy as possible because it often has to switch into hazards to remove them. Defog is the reason Fini is here. Scald and moonblast are self-explanatory. Scald is used over surf because it gives a nifty burn chance. Taunt is used to shut down passive mons like Chansey and Toxapex, denying them of moves like softboiled and toxic. Finally, Fini is a great check to a whole bunch of dragons in this tier, as well as being able to check other fire-types that would wall Volcarona. This set has been awesome and it proved to be able to take special hits for the team, and it is the most reliable defogger for me by far.

Hug Me (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Hidden Power: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
Finally, we have Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn is the lead and hazards setter of the team. It also is part of the defensive backbone combined with Lando-T. Iron barbs is a great ability that adds to its defensive capabilities. It is also the team’s biggest check to rain teams, so against them, you should try to keep it alive and healthy. Leftovers give Ferro recovery. Negative investment in speed and a -speed nature maximizes the power of gyroball. Stealth rock is incredibly useful, and it can get rocks up against a great majority of leads. As you saw above, Volcarona can OHKO or 2HKO a lot of Pokemon only if rocks are down. Leech seed is for recovery both for Ferro and for teammates. Power whip and gyroball are STABs. Ferro can also be used to heal teammates with leech seed. Ferro can be a liability at times, but I always felt like that he belonged on the team and he really works.

Ok thats the team. To sum up:

: Pivot, speed control, water check, eterrain setter, Gliscor/Lando/Garchomp bait, cleaner.

: Physical defender, defogger, pivot, Gliscor/Lando/Garchomp check.

: Sweeper, special wallbreaker (if necessary), cleaner, main wincon.

: Physical breaker, revenge killer, Toxapex check.

: Defogger, Ash-Gren check, dragon check, stallbreaker, special defender.

: Lead, hazards setter, rain check, leech seeder, fairy check.



WEAKNESSES:
Every team has weaknesses. This team have quite a few, maybe because I'm a noob and I'm completely new and this is my first team. So yeah here you go:

Rain teams: Rain teams basically shut down Volcarona and its only use is spam bug buzz and use Savage Spin-Out, which can be alleviated easily by switching into a bug-resistant pokemon. The rest of the team, bar Koko and Ferro, don’t do good against them either, and Pelipper proves to be annoyingly hard to kill so it can switch in and resume the rain the moment Volcarona comes in with no rain.

Tapu Lele and Mega Gardevoir: Choice Specs Tapu Lele is easily one of the greatest threats for this team, being able to fire off ridiculous terrain-boosted psychics. The only real counter for this is Volcarona, and it can only do that if a pokemon is sacked or through u-turn or volt switch, and it has to still be able to use its Z-move. Even Ferrothorn can be crushed by a focus blast. Z-move variants are also dangerous. Mega Gardevoir, although outclassed by Tapu Lele, can still do much of the same thing. Instead of being able to use Choice Specs or Psychic terrain, it has a massive base 160 special attack stat, along with having access to cm.

Mega Alakazam: Mega Alakazam, while not being able to claim the sheer power of Tapu Lele or Mega Gardevoir, have blazing speed. In fact, it is the fastest unboosted, non-scarfed pokemon in OU. It also have a useful ability in Trace. It can get Iron Barbs to punish Mega Medicham, and it can get Intimidate, a good ability for MegaZam especially with three of the pokemon on the team having to use on their attack stats. It is still powerful with its incredible special attack stat.
Edit: Mega Alakazam DOES have the sheer power of Tapu Lele or Mega Gardevoir. I just remembered it have a base 175 SpA. Translation? I'm completely screwed over against Mega Alakazam.

Fast teams: In case you didn’t notice, the only real speed control on this team is Tapu Koko (and boosted Volcarona), so fast teams can easily KO before this team can KO them. Furthermore, the only priority on this team is Ugly Pants’ fake out, and that only works if it’s his first turn in. I guess this could be somewhat alleviated if Volca gets a boost and you play right, but these teams are incredibly dangerous regardless. And yes I know Deo-S is banned but its the fastest mon in the game so its the image i chose.

Mega Lopunny: It’s fast, it can get rid of Koko through team support, and it can tear through half of my team if it has the moves. Boosted Volca and Fini can take it, but then all it has to do is to switch out and I don’t have a good way to get rid of it. I guess i can chip it down with fake out, rocky helmet, and iron barbs, but obviously there’s a problem with that.

Thank you for reading this!

This is my first RMT and in fact its the first and only team I built. In addition to general advice and whatever you guys can give me (any is appreciated!) I have some specific questions (obvs you can ignore them if you want):
-Should Ugly Pants run zen head butt instead of thunder punch?
-Should I have two defoggers? If not, what move should Lando-T run instead of defog?
-Do I need two pivots? I head that voltturn cores are good but is it really necessary for this team and are there better options?
-Do you think this needs more speed control? If so, what should I do?
-Finally, I saw that Gliscor is also very good at defending, perhaps better than Lando-T, so should I replace it? Also, since Gliscor is physically defensive and Fini is specially defensive, should Fini drop the defense EVs?

MY EYES!!! MY EYES!!!

These all have Volcarona sweeps of some form.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-1152768638
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-1152774607
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-1152994874
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-1155425104-77yktgvi264smmapn0078xykktwv2k1pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-1155899907
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-1155911013
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-1157614800-j7w1qj8w58b92g7lw2h2s0licnvjxr9pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-1159152864
Btw I used Gliscor for that last one. Just full on prediction war lol.

Useless

Kokonut (Tapu Koko) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

Blockhead (Landorus-Therian) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Defog
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Sunrise (Volcarona) @ Buginium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Ugly Pants (Medicham) @ Medichamite
Ability: Telepathy
Hidden Power: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Thunder Punch
- Ice Punch

Lightning Stick (Tapu Fini) @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 12 SpA / 40 SpD / 192 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Moonblast
- Scald
- Taunt

Hug Me (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball

 

[shadowpea]

I've began to use Gliscor instead of Landorus. Tbh I switch between them every few games or what I feel like that day. Heres the set:

Flying Scorp (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 100 Def / 28 SpD / 136 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Defog
- Roost
- Toxic
Gliscor fullfills much of the same roles as Landorus-T. It can't use hp ice and it can't pivot with u-turn, but it makes it up by having a higher defense, and healing with toxic orb and poison heal. It can also heal it self with roost, and cripple enemy Pokemon with toxic. EVs are in smogon so yeah. Unlike Lando, where you can stomach a hp ice, avoid it with Gliscor at all costs because it has low special def. Other than that there is nothing much to say because it fullfills much of the same roles as Lando.

 

[shadowpea]

bump

 

[ElectricEpic384]

Ur team is pretty good, better than mine will ever be lol
So I have nothing to say, it’s an incredible team!

 

[shadowpea]

Thanks!
This is the first team I ever made or used (besides those random battles)

 

[Sickist]

Hi! Here's a rate to at least get you going. There are far better builders and players in SM OU then me, but I'm going to give you some pointers to make your team get a lot further then it would otherwise.

Major Changes

->

Okay so the first thing I picked out was the lack of an actual Lele/Zam answer. While you do lose the lure and your volt switch, you gain valuable counter-play to the likes of Z-Fly Landorus, Alakazam-Mega, Tapu Lele, as well as a soft Kartana check. Celesteela also nets Leech Seed recovery, which can be valuable recovery and chip when you switch out into something like Landorus or Volcarona.

->

After scratching my head looking at my builder for about 20 minutes, the thing that felt most out of place here was Medicham. I get what you were trying to do here with the Koko+medi thing, but it kinda felt like a core smashed into another core with your fini/volc/ferro. That being said, Heatran was also looking kinda scary (especially Bloom Doom variants). So, I replaced MMedi with Mega Latios. While it still functions like a wallbreaker, Mega Latios provides actual defensive utility to the team, coming in on threats like Heatran and Kartana, and also revenge kills stuff like Kartana, SD Landorus and Gliscor, as well as helps Volcarona break Toxapex.

Minor Changes

[set change: offensive -> bulky]

This team at it's current state matches up not so great against stuff like Kartana and Mega Mawile. Bulky Volcarona, as compared to offensive, allows Volcarona to abuse it's typing to check Kartana, MMawile, Tapu Bulu (watch out for Stone Edge), and avoid being revenge killed by something like Landorus-Therian as easily.

[move change: Gyro Ball -> Protect/Knock Off]

This is just a minor change involving Ferrothorn's last move slot. Protect allows you to scout Heatran's Z moves (if it has one), scout for coverage, and for different sets (ash v protean gren). Protect also allows you to nett more recovery from Leech Seed. Knock Off could also help scout for Z moves, but I feel like Protect is more useful in this instance.

[set change: defensive -> scarf]

Like you said, this team lacks Speed Control. So, with Landorus being insanely versatile, I just turned it into a Scarf Variant. It still carries Defog incase of emergency, and still functions as a check to stuff like Mega Lopunny, but is able to revenge kill things like Volcarona. Landorus also carries U-turn to provide momentum, as well as take advantage of the fact that Landorus lures in stuff that Volcarona can set up on most of the time.

That's all for this rate. It's still gonna have some issues, as some things I couldnt fix without completely rebuilding the team. Anyways, click the Sprites below for an importable, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

 

[shadowpea]

Thank you for the rate! Cele+Ferro gives me an answer to Lele/Zam as well an actual defensive backbone and Lando proved to be a great speedy pivot despite my doubts. Mega Latios makes it look a bit like my other team but no matter, it is working much better than before.