ORAS OU Volc Vap (Peak #3 at 1900)

[DANN3]

Sableye-Mega @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Knock Off
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic
- Recover

Sableye is one of the most disgusting megas in OU at the moment. It has allowed many playstyles to become far more viable through its control of hazards and spread of status. Knock off is good utility and helps the rest of my team wear down a mon quicker once it loses its leftovers, will-o-wisp is standard, and toxic is there for the annoying bulk up Talonflames and Charizards which switch in. It is also valuable against a lot of calm minders including Slowbro and Mega Latias. I use a mixed defense spread to live 2 shadow balls from life orb Gengar while being able to take on many rocks setters including Garchomp and defensive Landorus-T. It is important to keep Sableye healthy as long as rock setters are alive as otherwise this would severely hinder Volcarona. If you are faced with a really threatening team, it might be better to keep Sableye non mega just to get a prankster will-o-wisp.

Volcarona @ Leftovers
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 224 HP / 220 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Giga Drain
- Roost

Volcarona is the definition of a heat mon. It is an extremely powerful balance breaker and win-con that can easily countersweep a lot of offensive and balanced teams. Bulkarona is surprisingly bulky, as it can tank a variety of physical hits (see calcs below) and even super effective hits once it is at +1 or +2. Despite not having special attack investment, Volcarona hits decently hard and can pick apart offensive teams that are only slightly weakened. Fiery dance is a clutch move that can aid Volcarona's sweep by getting KOs from the special attack boost and prevent taking damage. Flamethrower is an option over fiery dance because of its higher PP and base power. Giga drain is used over bug buzz because it hits Azumarill, Keldeo, and Hippowdon harder, all of which can take a dump on Volcarona. Giga drain also heals back damage, which may be necessary for a sweep. Flame body is also useful because it allows Volcarona to roost stall physical attackers like Mega Lopunny and Metagross. The spread allows Volcarona to live a stone edge from Hippowdon, and outspeed Tornadus-T at +1, and then wall it after setting up another quiver dance.

0 Atk Hippowdon Stone Edge vs. 224 HP / 220+ Def Volcarona: 308-364 (83.9 - 99.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

232 SpA Mega Gardevoir Psyshock vs. 224 HP / 220+ Def Volcarona: 151-178 (41.1 - 48.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Mega Lopunny Return vs. 224 HP / 220+ Def Volcarona: 168-198 (45.7 - 53.9%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Zen Headbutt vs. 224 HP / 220+ Def Volcarona: 183-216 (49.8 - 58.8%) -- 72.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 224 HP / 220+ Def Volcarona: 234-276 (63.7 - 75.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

160 SpA Tornadus-T Hurricane vs. +2 224 HP / 0 SpD Volcarona: 144-170 (39.2 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. +2 224 HP / 0 SpD Volcarona: 258-306 (70.2 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Explosion
- U-turn

Landorus-T is a really good pivot and check to a lot of fast wallbreakers which could easily wreck my team. Speed control is very important on balanced teams and Landorus is a powerful scarfer which also has defensive utility via intimidate. Explosion is the most important move on this set, as it severely weakens huge threats to my team (+1 Mega Gyarados, +3 Manaphy (if Serperior is dead), +1 Dragonite (without risking stone edge), etc.). In other words, explosion Landorus-T is like Gothitelle without the BS. Sadly, this is my main answer to Charizard X, which is a huge threat (rocks must be kept up and you need to apply as much offensive pressure as possible).

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Heal Bell

Vaporeon is an excellent cleric in OU that is often overshadowed by Alomomola due to its bulk and regenerator, but Vaporeon has its advantages: immunity to scald burns, access to heal bell, and better offensive presence with 110 special attack. I went with a full phys def spread to take Keldeo's specs secret swords well, and to take on various physical attackers including Excadrill, Landorus-T, and others. Meanwhile, its special bulk is good enough to survive 2 dracos from Latios. Wish passing is a convenient way to heal teammates and get momentum with a safe switch into either Volcarona or Serperior. Scald is fairly powerful and has a 65% chance to 2hko non-life orb Bisharp, which is a big threat to my team. Heal bell is important because Sableye and Serperior are vulnerable to scald burns and Serperior and Volcarona are vulnerable to toxic and paralysis. Alternative options over heal bell include ice beam to pressure Gliscor, baton pass to guarantee safe switch ins, and roar to phase out set-up mons, but heal bell is preferred because of this team's vulnerability to status.

Serperior @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Substitute
- Leech Seed

Subseed Serperior is amazing and I have no idea why it is not used more. Because of Serperior's low base HP and decent defenses, leech seed can help it recover quickly and get back in the game, and sub seed helps Serperior wear down common switch ins including Chansey, Heatran, and unaware Clefable. HP Rock is a lure move which hits Torn-T harder (in case of being behind a sub) and has a 56% chance to ohko specially defensive Talonflame at +2 (which can not KO back with brave bird), and removing Charizard Y, paving the way for Volcarona to sweep. This is the teams main answer to Manaphy and water types in general, so it is important to keep it healthy via pivots, wish passing, or seeding back health.

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 216 HP / 252 SpD / 40 Spe
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

Excadrill provides good role compression for the team, with mold breaker rocks and rapid spin in one slot. It is extremely bulky, being a very good switch in to non-EQ latis, Clefable, and electric types like Raikou. It is bulky enough to take focus blasts from powerful attackers like Mega Gardevoir and Gengar. Typically I only use Excadrill for hazard control, but sometimes its necessary to preserve its health if I want to get damage on a threat in order to revenge kill it.
​

Peak

Replays

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-278447913 (Subseed serp putting in the work)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-278463771 (How to beat rain)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-279793981 (vs semistall)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-279335308 (vs Birdspam (hard matchup, but possible to win))

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-279123392 (how to deal with rest manaphy effectively)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-278599849 (vs metagross offense)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-275951556 (finals of ou room tour with zard y and manaphy when 1st testing team, didnt have hp rock on serp)

http://pastebin.com/Ts0FisBe

 

[DennisEG]

Hey man i'll give my rate thanks for pm me. First great rmt and cool team because you don't see bulky moth too often specially because need a lot of support and is really hard to set up freely but still is a solid late game cleaner in terms of threat for your team Azumarill CB is a huge threat basically you have to predict correctly the entire match, another could be Lopunny if you dont get the burn in the first contact with Volc, guess you can play mind games with Vapo too and fish for a burn, Bisharp another huge threat after +2 and maybe an annying mon could be Tornadus-T Life orb set because literally click hurricane a couple of times and can destroy your team. I really think is a solid team in terms of sinergy but i would like to make you a couple suggestion about sets:

• Change your Sableye set to this 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SpD Calm nature this Ev spread take 2Sball coming from LO Gar and give you a bit more phisycal bulk to take a +2 Iron head from LO Bisharp that could be really helpful to deal with this treat.
• The Volc set is a bit slow for my taste i recommend you a 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe Timid Nature this allow you to outpace at +1 Lopunny-Mega, MegaMan etc. and this ev spread still apply for the calcs you made in the rmt bar the Lopunny calc so be careful.
• And last the Serperior set, i found very weird have HP rock without glare because is a common combo to lure Torn/ZardY/Volc but i think is more usefull glare just to neutrilize those threats or HP ground too to lure Heatran and leave a freeway to Volc late game, also i think serperior should be your stallbreaker because you kinda struggle a bit against stall so i'll leave you a sets that might help you more down below.

Serperior

Serperior @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ground] / Glare
- Taunt
- Synthesis

hope i help u man and gl cool team

 

[chimpact]

I actually built a very similar team to this featuring a bulkier cm rest mega diancie over sableye. I've had trouble dealing with both variants of zard and altaria on paper but it's possible to beat them if they play them recklessly.

The only suggestion I have is to consider synthesis over leech seed. you rely less on wish passing to keep it healthy sso you can pressure with it more often.

 

[Clair]

I had a lot of success with a similar build, Hippo / Vap / Volc / Ferro / Sab / Exca, and like that team I think you struggle with a lot of common boosters and balance breakers. Zard-Y and Talonflame are both serious threats, although mitigated somewhat by your lures in Toxic Sab and HP Rock Serp. The lack of a Dark resist is really painful as well, especially if SR is up because it means Volc can't check Bisharp or Weavile (I actually used Wisp Volc on my team). Crawdaunt, Hoopa and M-Gyarados look insanely hard to deal with too. SDef Excadrill is also your only Fairy resist, so pretty much every offensive Fairy in the game (CB Azu, M-Gard, DD Malt) is very threatening. Finally, without a solid physical wall certain things like SD Garchomp will cause problems.

If you want to go down the route I used, then physically defensive SR Hippo > Lando-T, offensive Sand Rush Excadrill, and something like Ferrothorn or AV Amoong > Serperior. Hippo checks Zard-Y in conjunction with Vappy and gives you a more stable physical wall, Sand Rush Excadrill gives you a cleaner and reliable revenge killer, and Ferro / Amoong can still handle Manaphy (if it has HP Fire, it doesn't have Energy Ball for Vappy) while taking pressure off Excadrill to handle Fairies.

I do really like the combination of SubSeed Serp + Volc though, so maybe you could just try Skarm > Excadrill to take some pressure off against physical attackers. Spikes Skarm, not Defog. Even Forretress might do work in that spot, although either option will make you Clefable weak, so Taunt Talon > Volcarona might be necessitated.

Anyway I hope that helps, cool team and gratz on the peak :)

 

[Jeong]

Hi, DANN3.

I had the pleasure of seeing the same team in action yesterday in meetings ladder. He looks solid and yet somewhat weak Talonflame, although you have to Landorus-Therian / Vaporeon to face. Well, now seeing the team does not know if he really carried M-income Sableye been two attacks. Analyzing the potential of this Poké think that would go well Will-O-Wisp + Calm Mind, so you can absorb attacks by both defenses. Same can be helpful to Foul Play set. Finally where you could advise is to test anti Serperior Talonflame with Coba Berry to weaken something flying attacks and spam and to give Brave Bird with Hidden Power Rock.
I also thought that a variation between Excadrill and Landorus-Therian objects could do. The downside is that you make a lot Lando Scarf is good user. But if you want you are free to try. It would Excadrill Scarf and defensive Lando Stealth Rock, thereby option you get another attack on the mole.

Congratz for the peak.

 

[DANN3]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I am trying Synthesis Serperior over substitute, and I did test a variant with Hippowdon and Air balloon drill. While that Hippowdon is a lot more consistent than Landorus-T, it does amplify some weaknesses that were already present (specs keldeo can easily switch in on Hippowdon if Vaporeon is weakened and Manaphy has a much easier time setting up. This is why I am reluctant to give up Serperior, as a lot of Manaphys now can get past Amoonguss with psychic and Ferrothorn will get burned eventually anyways. I think this team needs to be aggressive with its win-cons in order to work properly and not get screwed over by certain wallbreakers. Synthesis works well on Serperior, and I like Leech Seed just to provide team support and have safer switches. Also included replays.