SM OU Fried Bugs are a Delicacy (Bulky Volcarona Offense)

[A Gentle Summer Breeze]

Overview:

After playing this tier for around a year and wondering where my favorite Quiver Dancer was, I made a team. It's been doing pretty well on the mid ladder (~1500), but I've been getting smacked around by some threats, and was looking for some help on the forums! Feel free to try the team out!

Volcarona @ Buginium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 136 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Flamethrower
- Roost

In a meta where lots of special walls are created to resist the power of Ash-Greninja, Roost QD Volcarona is really strong. You can switch in on Tangrowth, Bulu, and Ferro basically for free if rocks are off the field and get a free QD or attack. Roost gives you longevity and allows you to switch in on Tangrowth and Ferro even with rocks up. After 1 QD, you outspeed Mega Alakazam, and pretty much every other non-scarfer in the meta game. At +2, Savage Spin Out has a 37.5% chance to kill AV Ttar without rocks. Flame body is nice insurance against physical sweepers, and the burn can completely shut down a sweep. Really strong set, can frequently solo teams at lower ELO. Just watch out for status.

Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Psycho Cut
- Fake Out
- Ice Punch

This spot was initially Mega-Mawile, but I realized that I had a pretty big Heatran weakness, so I switched it Mega-Medicham. M-Medi allows you to have one of the strongest wall breakers in the tier. High Jump Kick is incredibly strong, and hits Heatran and Ttar for SE damage while destroying most things that take it neutrally. I run Psycho Cut so that I have a STAB move that doesn't miss, and it doesn't make contact so there's no chance for getting hit by Static from Zapdos. It still kills defensive Amoonguss, has a 94% chance to kill spdef pex after rocks, and a 62.5% chance to kill defensive Mega-Venusaur after rocks. The higher crit rate is also nice. I ran Jolly because this team actually has a pretty significant weakness to other Mega-Medicham, and being able to outspeed Adamant variants or risking a speed tie at worst is one of the ways that I deal with this weakness.

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword
- Defog

Kartana is the 3rd member of the team. Scarf-Kartana is one of the fastest scarfers in the OU tier. Set is pretty standard, Leaf Blade for STAB, Knock Off to cripple switch ins, Sacred Sword for the nice coverage. Running defog to support Volcarona and keep rocks off the field. Provides a secondary cleaner for the team as well, out-speeding pretty much everything in the tier. Since most of the switch ins to Kartana are bulky Grasses and Steels, Volcarona gets free switch ins. Kartana also baits out a lot of Hidden Power Fires, which bulky Volcarona can easily switch into.

Tornadus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Hurricane
- Taunt
- Defog

Tornadus-T, a Pokemon that I'm sure would be Uber if Hurricane never missed. This unkillable beast provides additional defog support to Volcarona. U-Turn allows momentum gain, Hurricane for STAB, Taunt to prevent hazards and status from being thrown off. I was running Knock Off over U-turn, but I found myself frequently stuck losing momentum against offensive teams. Knock Off made my match up versus stall better, but Volcarona and Medicham have tended to be good enough. Rocky Helmet lets me get that nice chip on mons trying to get some momentum on me. Torn forms a strong core with Kartana, and gives me additional speed control.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Recover
- Toxic

Gastrodon gives me a really strong Special Wall. Gastro lets me stop volt switches, Tornadus-T, and hard-counters Electric types that aren't running HP Grass. Gastro can easily switch in on these threats and heal back up with Recover. It can also throw off Toxic to hit opponents with status or fish for a burn with Scald. Gastro baits in a lot of the same stuff as Kartana in terms of Grass type answers and can hit them with a Toxic to help Kartana in the future, and can allow Volcarona to come in on the 4x resisted Grass type attack.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Knock Off

Ferrothorn lets me set up Hazards, while having a primary switch in against Greninja, Koko, and other things. Ferro also gives me a way to deal with Lando-T, and opponents can't be completely unpunished if they bring in Zygarde. I really needed hazards on the team, and Ferrothorn seemed like a pretty reasonable option. Ferro also lets me absorb Toxic from the other team.

This team has a few really bad problems to deal with. Hawlucha after an SD OHKOs the whole team with acrobatics and HJK. Mega-Mawile after an SD destroys this team as well. Only Ferrothorn can take a hit at +2, and can't really do very much back. Mega Pinsir also destroys this team, but Gastrodon can take a neutral hit and Toxic it in return. Zapdos is difficult for this team to break, but it can be done with a combination of rocks and Volcarona or Ice Punch.

Import

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Recover
- Toxic

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Knock Off

Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Psycho Cut
- Fake Out
- Ice Punch

Volcarona @ Buginium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 136 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Flamethrower
- Roost

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword
- Defog

Tornadus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Hurricane
- Taunt
- Defog

 

[DKM]

Hello A Gentle Summer Breeze, this is a very cool team. Bulky Volcarona is a really cool Pokemon atm, not only is it a great sweeper but it can also switch into threats such as Kartana and M-Mawile. M-Medicham is also a great partner that takes advantage of its common counters such as Toxapex and Heatran.

The team does however have a few weaknesses that I noticed and want to address before suggesting changes to help deal with them.

Threats to the team:

: Due to lack of a dark resist, dark types such as Ash-Greninja and Hydreigon are able to pose a threat just by spamming Dark Pulse. Gastrodon and Ferrothorn are bulky enough to take a couple of hits but can get worn down quickly and risk getting flinched or, in the case of Hydreigon, risk losing 1v1 to Metronome or Darkiunium Z sets.
: Zygarde, especially SubCoil variants are difficult for the team to deal with. Even though most things can take a hit, none of them are able to deal much damage apart from Medicham. Once it's able to sub on Ferrothorn or Gastrodon and start setting up there's little that can be done.

: Flying types can also threaten the team. Opposing Tornadus-T hits everything hard with Hurricane and can beat Ferrothorn and Gastrodon 1v1 if it has Taunt. Kartana and your own Tornadus-T are the only things that can outspeed it, but they both fail to KO it. Although they're much rarer, other flying types such as M-Pinsir can threaten the team with its main STAB move + priority.

: Most variants of stall can be hard for this team to break. M-Medicham is the only breaker but is walled by M-Sableye and Clefable. Taunt Tornadus-T can help in this matchup, but alot of stall teams run Zapdos which forces it out.

​

Major Changes

> : The first major change I suggest is using Tapu Fini over Gastrodon. Firstly this gives you a good dark resist that deals with Ash-Greninja and Hydreigon easily. It also gives you a Defog user that can keep off rocks against Heatran and bulky Garchomp while using Taunt against other setters such as Clefable. I opted to put both Moonblast and Scald on this Tapu Fini so that it can effectively pressure Heatran while also dealing with the aforementioned dark and dragon types. The speed EVs allow you to outspeed Modest Heatran and 2HKO it with Scald thanks to the SpAtk EVs.

> : The next major change I suggest is using bulky Choice Scarf Landorus-T over Kartana. This gives you a scarfer that can keep momentum and also switch into Zygarde, threatening it with HP Ice. It also gives you back a ground type to block Volt Switch since I removed Gastrodon. Lastly, it has great role compression, being able to run Defog to further support Volcarona. The Defense EVs allow you to take hits from Zygarde better, avoiding the 2HKO from Choice Band Thousand Arrows, the 2HKO from +1 Thousand Arrows from defensive variants (after Intimidate and 2 Coils), and the 3HKO from +0 Thousand Arrows from defensive variants (after Intimidate and 1 Coil). The Speed is to creep opposing Choice Scarf Landorus-T that usually runs 196 speed to outpace M-Alakazam.

> : The last major change I suggest is running Tapu Koko over Tornadus-T. This gives you a good flying resist that can continuously switch into opposing Tornadus-T, M-Pinsir and Hawlucha. It's a great pivot in general that can keep momentum via U-turn. Tornadus-T didn't seem as useful on this team since you have Tapu Fini and Landorus-T to Defog, and a decent Kartana answer in bulky Volcarona. Lastly, Tapu Koko provides Electric Terrain which will be useful when considering the next change. The EV spread along with a Shuca Berry allows Tapu Koko to live a Thousand Arrows from Choice Band Zygarde after rocks and beat it 1v1 thanks to HP Ice.

​

Minor Changes

Adamant > Jolly / Thunder Punch > Psycho Cut: On M-Medicham I suggest running an Adamant nature, this gives more power to an already very strong Pokemon and allows it to threaten stall teams. Thunder Punch boosted by Electric Terrain lets you 2HKO M-Sableye and Clefable. Losing Psycho Cut shouldn't hurt too much as Ice Punch + Thunder Punch deals with most poison types.

Spread change: Lastly, on Ferrothorn I suggest running the standard spread with Max HP, 92 Defense, 164 SpDef and a Careful nature. This lets you better take on special attackers such as Ash-Greninja and Tapu Koko while still having enough Defense to take 2 Thousand Arrows from Choice Band Zygarde.


~~~~


Good luck with the new team if you decide to use it. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
​

Threatlist

: Although it's dropping in usage, M-Alakazam can be a threat if it gets enough free turns. Ferrothorn switches into Psychic easily but struggles to take a Focus Blast, Landorus-T can outspeed and U-turn on it, Tapu Koko can take a hit and U-turn or hit it hard with Thunderbolt. M-Medicham can also force it out with Fake Out if it's low.

: M-Charizard Y is rather uncommon but is still worth noting as it threatens the whole team with Flamethrower + Solar Beam. Volcarona can take a hit and setup on it by Quiver Dancing once and then stalling out the sun with Roost. Tapu Koko can also force it out with Thunderbolt. You can also try Stone Edge over Defog on Landorus-T if you really want a better matchup, but Defog will be more useful in most matchups.

: Opposing fighting types such as M-Medicham and M-Lopunny can threaten the whole team if they carry Ice Punch. Tapu Fini can take any hit from both of them and hit them hard with Moonblast, Landorus-T outspeeds them both and can switch in if they don't predict it and use Ice Punch. Tapu Koko also takes any hit from them and can outspeed M-Medicham, dealing alot of damage with Thunderbolt.

: Although the team deals with it better, some Zygarde variants still pose a threat. Choice Band can weaken the whole team if it gets enough switchins, some Dragon Dance variants can sweep if everything is weakened, although these variants aren't as common and they need their teammates to do alot of work first.

Importable

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 12 SpA / 56 SpD / 192 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Taunt
- Scald
- Moonblast

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Careful Nature
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Knock Off

Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Thunder Punch
- Fake Out
- Ice Punch

Volcarona @ Buginium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 136 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Flamethrower
- Roost

Tapu Koko @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 104 HP / 12 Def / 176 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 148 Atk / 156 Def / 204 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Defog

 

[A Gentle Summer Breeze]

Hello A Gentle Summer Breeze, this is a very cool team. Bulky Volcarona is a really cool Pokemon atm, not only is it a great sweeper but it can also switch into threats such as Kartana and M-Mawile. M-Medicham is also a great partner that takes advantage of its common counters such as Toxapex and Heatran.

The team does however have a few weaknesses that I noticed and want to address before suggesting changes to help deal with them.

Threats to the team:

View attachment 146160View attachment 146161: Due to lack of a dark resist, dark types such as Ash-Greninja and Hydreigon are able to pose a threat just by spamming Dark Pulse. Gastrodon and Ferrothorn are bulky enough to take a couple of hits but can get worn down quickly and risk getting flinched or, in the case of Hydreigon, risk losing 1v1 to Metronome or Darkiunium Z sets.
View attachment 146162: Zygarde, especially SubCoil variants are difficult for the team to deal with. Even though most things can take a hit, none of them are able to deal much damage apart from Medicham. Once it's able to sub on Ferrothorn or Gastrodon and start setting up there's little that can be done.

View attachment 146166View attachment 146163: Flying types can also threaten the team. Opposing Tornadus-T hits everything hard with Hurricane and can beat Ferrothorn and Gastrodon 1v1 if it has Taunt. Kartana and your own Tornadus-T are the only things that can outspeed it, but they both fail to KO it. Although they're much rarer, other flying types such as M-Pinsir can threaten the team with its main STAB move + priority.

View attachment 146167View attachment 146168: Most variants of stall can be hard for this team to break. M-Medicham is the only breaker but is walled by M-Sableye and Clefable. Taunt Tornadus-T can help in this matchup, but alot of stall teams run Zapdos which forces it out.

​

Major Changes

View attachment 146175> View attachment 146176: The first major change I suggest is using Tapu Fini over Gastrodon. Firstly this gives you a good dark resist that deals with Ash-Greninja and Hydreigon easily. It also gives you a Defog user that can keep off rocks against Heatran and bulky Garchomp while using Taunt against other setters such as Clefable. I opted to put both Moonblast and Scald on this Tapu Fini so that it can effectively pressure Heatran while also dealing with the aforementioned dark and dragon types. The speed EVs allow you to outspeed Modest Heatran and 2HKO it with Scald thanks to the SpAtk EVs.

View attachment 146165> View attachment 146184: The next major change I suggest is using bulky Choice Scarf Landorus-T over Kartana. This gives you a scarfer that can keep momentum and also switch into Zygarde, threatening it with HP Ice. It also gives you back a ground type to block Volt Switch since I removed Gastrodon. Lastly, it has great role compression, being able to run Defog to further support Volcarona. The Defense EVs allow you to take hits from Zygarde better, avoiding the 2HKO from Choice Band Thousand Arrows, the 2HKO from +1 Thousand Arrows from defensive variants (after Intimidate and 2 Coils), and the 3HKO from +0 Thousand Arrows from defensive variants (after Intimidate and 1 Coil). The Speed is to creep opposing Choice Scarf Landorus-T that usually runs 196 speed to outpace M-Alakazam.

View attachment 146185> View attachment 146166: The last major change I suggest is running Tapu Koko over Tornadus-T. This gives you a good flying resist that can continuously switch into opposing Tornadus-T, M-Pinsir and Hawlucha. It's a great pivot in general that can keep momentum via U-turn. Tornadus-T didn't seem as useful on this team since you have Tapu Fini and Landorus-T to Defog, and a decent Kartana answer in bulky Volcarona. Lastly, Tapu Koko provides Electric Terrain which will be useful when considering the next change. The EV spread along with a Shuca Berry allows Tapu Koko to live a Thousand Arrows from Choice Band Zygarde after rocks and beat it 1v1 thanks to HP Ice.

​

Minor Changes

View attachment 146186Adamant > Jolly / Thunder Punch > Psycho Cut: On M-Medicham I suggest running an Adamant nature, this gives more power to an already very strong Pokemon and allows it to threaten stall teams. Thunder Punch boosted by Electric Terrain lets you 2HKO M-Sableye and Clefable. Losing Psycho Cut shouldn't hurt too much as Ice Punch + Thunder Punch deals with most poison types.

View attachment 146187Spread change: Lastly, on Ferrothorn I suggest running the standard spread with Max HP, 92 Defense, 164 SpDef and a Careful nature. This lets you better take on special attackers such as Ash-Greninja and Tapu Koko while still having enough Defense to take 2 Thousand Arrows from Choice Band Zygarde.


~~~~


Good luck with the new team if you decide to use it. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
​

Threatlist

View attachment 146188: Although it's dropping in usage, M-Alakazam can be a threat if it gets enough free turns. Ferrothorn switches into Psychic easily but struggles to take a Focus Blast, Landorus-T can outspeed and U-turn on it, Tapu Koko can take a hit and U-turn or hit it hard with Thunderbolt. M-Medicham can also force it out with Fake Out if it's low.

View attachment 146189: M-Charizard Y is rather uncommon but is still worth noting as it threatens the whole team with Flamethrower + Solar Beam. Volcarona can take a hit and setup on it by Quiver Dancing once and then stalling out the sun with Roost. Tapu Koko can also force it out with Thunderbolt. You can also try Stone Edge over Defog on Landorus-T if you really want a better matchup, but Defog will be more useful in most matchups.

View attachment 146186View attachment 146190: Opposing fighting types such as M-Medicham and M-Lopunny can threaten the whole team if they carry Ice Punch. Tapu Fini can take any hit from both of them and hit them hard with Moonblast, Landorus-T outspeeds them both and can switch in if they don't predict it and use Ice Punch. Tapu Koko also takes any hit from them and can outspeed M-Medicham, dealing alot of damage with Thunderbolt.

View attachment 146162: Although the team deals with it better, some Zygarde variants still pose a threat. Choice Band can weaken the whole team if it gets enough switchins, some Dragon Dance variants can sweep if everything is weakened, although these variants aren't as common and they need their teammates to do alot of work first.

Importable

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 12 SpA / 56 SpD / 192 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Taunt
- Scald
- Moonblast

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Careful Nature
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Knock Off

Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Thunder Punch
- Fake Out
- Ice Punch

Volcarona @ Buginium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 136 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Flamethrower
- Roost

Tapu Koko @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 104 HP / 12 Def / 176 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 148 Atk / 156 Def / 204 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Defog

Thanks for the response DKM, I'll be sure to try out the new team and see how it goes!