Type: Fire / Bug
Stats: 85 / 60 / 65 / 135 / 105 / 100
Abilities: Flame Body / Swarm
Notable attacks:
- Air Slash
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance
- Fire Blast
- Fire Spin
- Flamethrower
- Giga Drain
- Hurricane
- Mystical Fire
- Overheat
- Psychic
- Solar Beam
- U-Turn
Notable status moves:
- Amnesia
- Light Screen
- Morning Sun
- Protect
- Quiver Dance
- Substitute
- Tailwind
- Whirlwind
- Will-O-Wisp
Pros:
- 135 Special Attack + Quiver Dance = much destruction. (Vivillon, its only competition for now, has a Special Attack of 90.) Also has a solid speed tier as well, outspeeding the entire unboosted meta at +1.
- Being Fire type also sets it apart from other Quiver Dancers, who tend to struggle with Steels.
- Surprisingly solid defensive profile plus access to recovery lets bulky sets wall quite a few things, such as Mega Meganium (after a QD boost), Mega Floette, Meowscarada, and certain Aegislash sets. It also resists some common forms of priority, such as Bullet Punch, Mach Punch, and Ice Shard.
- Flame Body can punish U-Turn spam while Swarm can boost its Bug Buzz in a pinch.
- Some of its traditional "counters", like the Chansey line and Heatran, aren't in the game yet. And it has a decent amount of flexibility, meaning it can choose what counters it to an extent
Cons:
- 4x Stealth Rock weakness is nasty, and it doesn't have Heavy-Duty Boots to save it this time, leaving it reliant on hazard removal. The 4x Rock weakness in general can also make it so that Pokémon that Volcarona would otherwise punish so well like (Mega) Chesnaught can run Rock coverage to catch it off guard.
- No Tera or Hidden Power exposes the fact that it only has like two decent coverage options, and even then nothing super good against opposing Fire types. It has some interesting physical options but its physical attack is terrible.
- Its physical defense isn't super great either, and it has no way of boosting its defense (beyond just burning things) which can limit what bulky sets can wall
- 100 speed unboosted just isn't super impressive anymore and while it still outspeeds all the walls finding setup opportunities against more offensively aligned teams can be difficult.
Volcarona @ Leftovers / Charti Berry / Sitrus Berry
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 50
EVs: 32 HP / 22 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Fiery Dance
- Quiver Dance
- Substitute
- Morning Sun
The bulky Volc set, which has been the most used in the last couple of gens but might be surpassed by all-out offensive Volc due to the lack of Heavy-Duty Boots. The Speed investment is flexible; 12 EVs allows you to outspeed Mega Beedrill at +1, though it could easily be higher or lower depending on what threats you consider relevant. 5 is probably the minimum you can get away with, though, as it guarantees you outspeed all non-scarf Tyranitar as well as Adamant Mega Tyranitar. Leftovers is of course a consistent defensive item and Charti is another item that has historically been popular on Volc to give insurance against one rock coverage move (though Substitute basically does the same thing). The benefit of running Sitrus is it allows you to basically lose your item at will, which can be helpful in setting up against Knock Off and Poltergeist users. Quiver Dance helps it further wall special attackers while also threatening offensive teams and Fiery Dance is a reliable STAB that can further help it snowball. Morning Sun allows it to heal off Substitute damage as well as helping its walling capabilities. You can even try to fit Will-O-Wisp to cripple physical attackers, though at that point you might as well be running Skeledirge. Of course, all of this only works if you have exceptional hazard control, though you'd be surprised at what Volc can accomplish even in unfavorable conditions.
Volcarona @ Charti Berry / Charcoal / Twisted Spoon
Ability: Swarm / Flame Body
Level: 50
EVs: 32 SpA / 2 SpD / 32 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast / Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz / Giga Drain
- Psychic / Giga Drain / Substitute
The more classic offensive Volcarona. Offensive sets tend to prefer the immediate power of Fire Blast, but Fiery Dance's reliability and snowball potential still make it an option. The last two slots are a bit more flexible. Bug Buzz notably beats Tyranitar and Slowbro while providing a neutral option against Mega Delphox. It also allows you to take advantage of Swarm in a pinch, though Flame Body is still a respectable ability option. Psychic is mainly only for Toxapex, but considering Toxapex can be incredibly annoying with Haze and Toxic it's still definitely worth running. Plus, Fire/Bug/Psychic is perfect neutral coverage for what it's worth, at least until Heatran comes into town, though the true potential of Psychic is limited by the lack of a Psychic Terrain setter in the game. Giga Drain hits a few Waters that resist both stabs such as Primarina and Azumarill (excluding incredibly niche Sap Sipper sets) and more importantly is a recovery option, though it's not very powerful; a super-effective Giga Drain barely outdamages a neutral Bug Buzz, and that's before taking Swarm into account. Again, a Grassy Terrain setter being in the game would make this option more appealing. Or you could just say screw all that and run Substitute, which can still help with setup and also put you into Swarm range, though between that and Stealth Rock damage you are putting yourself through a lot of chip.
There have been other niche sets that Volc has run before, but due to the lack of some key tools (Z-moves, Heavy-Duty Boots, Tera) I don't think any would be worth running right now.
Teammates:
Hazard Control
Bolded because it's really important. Magic Bounce users that can proactively prevent hazards from going up in the first place are super helpful but can't be relied on alone. Having two different hazard removers on a team with Volc is not overkill. Also leaving it here because it's also obvious but Volc as with all sweepers appreciates hazards being up on the opponent's side of the field.
Bulky Grass/Water types
Bulky Volc sets can't exactly wall Water types so things that can switch in and check them are necessary. Many of these can also provide additional support: Mega Chesnaught and Toxapex can provide hazards, Mega Chesnaught and Venu spread Leech Seed, Venu and Toxapex can hit walls with Toxic, Slowbro and Rotom-Wash spread burns with Scald and Will-o-Wisp respectively, and Primarina comes with the disruptive Psychic Noise.
Scarfers/Priority
Unboosted Volc isn't particularly fast so you'll need things that can immediately pressure the multitude of faster threats.
Wallbreakers
Having the walls be either KO'd or heavily chipped makes sweeping much easier. While the lack of Choice Band and Choice Specs limits the non-Mega options for this role things like SD Aegislash and Weavile could still help.
Checks:
Rock-type coverage
If Volcarona sees a physical Rock move and it's not holding a Charti Berry, it's bye-bye. It can sometimes eat special Rock moves if it's boosted but those aren't super common. Tyranitar in particular causes a lot of trouble for Volc sets lacking Bug Buzz (even Giga Drain is not enough). Choice Scarf Garchomp and Greninja outspeed it even at +1, while Mega Camerupt can take a hit even at +1 and 1HKO back. The saving grace is that Rock moves are inaccurate, so Volc can sometimes luck itself into a victory anyway, plus Substitute can help.
Certain priority users
While Volc resists some common priority moves the ones that it is weak to are very dangerous. While very niche, Lycanroc-Dusk just straight up murders Volc with Tough Claws-boosted priority Accelerock.
Some bulky waters and other resists
If it isn't boosted enough and they are healthy, Volc is at minimum taking a bunch of damage here.
Counters:
There isn't a lot Volc can really do to Unaware Skeledirge. Plus, its Torch Song breaks through Substitute and boosts its own Special Attack, meaning bulky Volc can't win the battle of attrition.
Without Psychic, Volc is also losing to Toxapex, which can just Haze its boosts away and shrug off any damage with Regenerator. Even with Psychic, specially defensive sets are still annoying.
Without Heavy-Duty Boots and Tera, Volc will likely be in its previous state of "broken when you really think about it but nobody really cares to do anything because they don't see it often". Volc has historically been one of the less used Pokémon in OU due to the heavy team support it requires, but it's always an A+ threat that you have to respect in the builder because one wrong move will lose you the game. And while it doesn't get anything super fancy this time around, it's not like there's much here stopping its rampage either. One way or another, Volc will still leave its mark on OU.
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