Volbeat

[Turnstoash]

I'm normally an RU player but I threw together a team of politoed/dragonite/lapras/volbeat/donphan/skarmory. Lapras is surf, thunder, ice beam rest w/hyrdation and max hp max def. I love it's bulk but obviously it's really lacking in power. This is where volbeat comes in. I use sub, encore, tail glow, baton pass with max sp. d bulk. I was shocked at how well it works. The awesomeness of priorty encore can not be understated. Sub, bulk up, dragon dance, calm mind, stealth rock, spikes, rapid spin or any attack that doesn't do 25% damage all become instant set up fodder. Sometimes they try to wait it out at which point I just get plus 6 and a sub, wait for the encore to end, re-encore them before they can change moves, and then pass. At that point it's usually game. Even with only plus three though lapras's staying power allows it to get through most threats with it's boosted surfs. (resting off scizor super powers, laughing at bullet punch, tanking verious electric moves, laughing even harder at toxic, surviving stone edges and sometimes close combats, ice beaming blissey until it freezes and in general being a troll). The rain dragonite also appreciates any boosts but especially appreciates baton passed substitutes if multiscale is still intact. Also, with the exception of espeon, priorty encore stops batton pass teams cold.

 

[lmitchell0012]

If I'm not mistaken, volbeat also gets trick, which can be extremely useful in the OU metagame. Volbeat has horrible defenses, but tricking a flame orb onto some of its attackers could help it sponge attacks better. Just be careful not to trick in onto something with guts like conkeldurr.