SM OU V-V-V-Volcarona

[ADwards]

Hey, I'm Xyrillow AKA ADwards AKA Xyrwards, and I'm recently getting back into the comp Pokemon scene after leaving in about 2014. Would really appreciate some advice for my current team that I'm working on!

Psychium Z Aggressive Volcarona

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Volcarona @ Psychium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain
- Psychic

Volcarona is the main reason for putting this team together; it's one of my favourites and seems pretty viable in OU. Quiver Dance is a move which can get out of hand pretty quickly, and switching it in when its main counters are gone can often result in a victory. I'm running a Psychium Z set specifically to deal with Toxapex, but Psychic can come in handy against Hawlucha and other Fighting-types, and Fire-types if it is at +2. I'm also running Giga Drain on this set to provide some recovery and a bit of coverage, although it has a habit of being a bit of a dead slot in some games.

I specifically chose the aggressive EVs over a bulkier alternative to allow it more power at +0, and early against lineups that prevent it from sweeping or setting up.

4 Attack Mega Mawile

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Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Thunder Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Brick Break

Mega Mawile is an absolute beast, with its high attack stat and ability to force enemy Pokemon out with the strength of its Sucker Punch or Play Rough. As much as I love Mega Mawile, I feel the team may be better served with a Mega that partners better with Volcarona. That said, I find the versatility of this set to help against a lot of Pokemon like Toxapex and for catching some of MMaw's counters like Heatran on the switch. I considered a bulkier Substitute or Swords Dance set, however I found those to make MMaw bad against teams that Volcarona was already struggling with. Its also nice to have a switch-in for strong Dragon-type moves, although I haven't seen a great deal of those so far.

Choice Specs Ash-Greninja

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Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Extrasensory

Greninja is an interesting Pokemon for sure. The strength of its STAB moves under Choice Specs scare a lot of Volcarona's counters after switching in, especially with Water Shuriken as a strong priority move that also breaks Focus Sashes. Extrasensory is another instance of Toxapex giving this team a lot of trouble, and perhaps that is warping this team too much and I should include a strong Psychic-type instead of investing 3 moveslots into countering it. Previously I was running the standard set with Spikes instead, but I found very few opportunities to get those down with Choice Specs locking the move in. Greninja works moderately well as a partner for Volcarona, but I often feel that it is a just a little too frail in a lot of cases.

Focus Sash Excadrill

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Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb

To support the aggressive nature of the team and to support Volcarona specifically, it was important to me that I could set up my own Stealth Rock and remove the opponent's. Initially I was running Defog on my Landorus-T, however I found the fact that it removes my Stealth Rock too to be very detrimental in battle. Previously I was running Toxic over Rock Tomb, but found that the vast majority of the time Toxic would have been better off just being an Earthquake as this team lacks the ability to stall poisoned Pokemon out. I feel like Excadrill is the perfect fit for this team by consolidating those two roles into one while still being strong against Pokemon not immune to its Earthquake.

Choice Band Weavile

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Weavile @ Choice Band
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit

Weavile feels a solid choice for this team, but honestly a bit weak overall. With Icicle Crash and Knock Off it has two fast, strong STAB attacks that often put a large dent into Pokemon that don't resist them, but that's kind of the problem. The coverage provided by those two moves tends to be fine, but leaves a little to be desired. It's possible that the feeling is coming from having 3 Choice-locked Pokemon on the team. On the other hand, Weavile easily pursuit-traps weakened enemies that are afraid of Weavile's fast speed and priority Ice Shard, and so its main function has been as a brutal revenge killer. This pursuit-trapping ability is one of the main reasons why I am using Weavile over Kartana at the moment.

Choice Scarf Landorus-T

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Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 232 Atk / 68 Def / 208 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Landorus-T has largely been playing a role of bulky-ish pivot on this team, scaring out Pokemon weak to its Earthquake and as a fast revenge killer against Pokemon that Weavile is weak against. Landorus-T has gone through a few iterations on this team, and I have found this one to be the best fit over sets running Defog, Flyinium Z and more bulky sets. In terms of synergy, this team is pretty weak to Ground-type moves, so Landorus-T provides an easy switch-in to predicted Earthquakes and Earth Powers, and by providing a good switch-in against strong Fire-type moves that the rest of team tends to be weak to.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my rambling about this team. I feel like there is some real potential here but I'm just unsure on what to change and to what. Part of me sees an alterative to Greninja and MMaw with a bulky Mega Gyarados and something else, but that could worsen the marchup against bulky Poison and Dragon-types in general. Looking forward to seeing what you people think!

 

[Manflap]

Hello! This is a pretty good start you got here. A few things I want to point out moves wise first. Giga drain Volc really doesn't make sense on an offensive set, especially with psychic. Replace it with bug buzz and I'm sure you will not have a dead move slot anymore. Also considering you have a Volcarona, Excadrill is likely not going to be reliable enough to keep rocks off the field, I would suggest putting defog back on Landorus, just in case you need it since Landorus is typically much better at hazard removing. I would also probably use sd Mawile to better break through teams for Volc. As for the team composition, I agree it looks a bit frail, but that's okay on a hyper offense team. I would suggest getting a better switch in to Heatran since you want them gone asap for Volc, maybe something like Garchomp over Drill, you can fiddle around. And perhaps mega Gyara is a good thought after all since on ho a backup sweeper is a very good idea. Then maybe you could replace Gren with someone like Bulu to help with ground and dragon types.