SS OU Rise of the Sun (a Volcarona-Centric Bulky Offense Team)

[shadowpea]

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Volcarona, I feel, has always been underrated in higher levels of play in almost every tier it has been in (though I can’t really speak for BW OU). However, it’s an amazing mon to me in almost every way. With it’s awesome design and lore out of the way, Volcarona is quite a Pokemon in the competitive scene. A pokemon that needs team support, sure, but quite a pokemon nonetheless

Before I start, I'm going to say this: this is not a perfect team. In fact, this is probably not even a good team, and I'm not the best teambuilder in the world. So I posted this team here, at Smogon, where you're reading it now, so I can get some advice. Any helpful advice is welcome!

DA TEAMBUILDING PROCESS​

Well, I obviously started with Volcarona. Offensive Volcarona, mind you, meaning I’m not going with the Roost/Safeguard/Fiery Dance shenanigans No, offensive Volcarona is still the sweeper that it always was. Now the trick is to get proper team support for it.

Another Pokemon that I’ve always been fond of, Latios certainly got amazing gifts this generation in Mystical Fire and Aura Sphere. Here, Latios was chosen mainly because, well, he’s a phenomenal wallbreaker that obliterates many walls that gets in Volcarona’s way.

I needed a physical wallbreaker, and thus far the team lacks a ground-type. I chose SD Lando-T because my forgetful self forgot that Garchomp existed and also because Gliscor no longer exists (man, do I miss Gliscor).

Spectrier is running rampant in the tier and I still need a check to it. Mandibuzz was chosen because it can also Defog and generate momentum with U-Turn.

Kartana offers amazing firepower, a way to dispose of Blissey, speed control, and the ability to clean. Honestly, it offers way too much for this team to pass up.

Good ol’ Heatran. After remembering, once again, that Gliscor no longer exists (man, do I miss Gliscor), I reluctantly accepted that I’m using Heatran to set stealth rocks. It also helps me against stall.

Soon, I re-learned of SD Garchomp’s existence and I decided to give it a shot. It was objectively amazing, much better than my Lando-T ever was. Those 11 points of speed come a long way, and I feel more comfortable with running Life Orb on a faster mon. It’s also a fantastic backup sweeper.

At this time, I have trouble against QD Pheromosa (doesn’t everybody?) and a huge weakness against rain, and Heatran wasn’t helping. Also, this might sound crazy, but I never liked Heatran, even when it peaked in SM OU. So, I put the Dethroned Queen of OU in Heatran’s spot. Clefable can also support the team pretty well.

Kartana was then replaced with the True Queen of OU, Pheromosa. CB Pheromosa filled Kartana’s role very well. I also gave Mandibuzz Knock Off, as I have replaced both Landorus and Kartana. More Pokemon like to take on Mandibuzz, anyway, which is good for a Knock spreader.

Now the only thing is that Latios is just not pulling its full weight for the team. I am also notoriously weak to rain. Choice Specs Kyurem solves these problems by hitting obscenely hard and having good secondary STAB. Freeze-Dry also helps my rain matchup a ton, though there are still holes in it.

Honestly, I hate Ferrothorn, it’s so annoying, and I hate playing against it. Because of this, I also dislike playing with it, as it’s kinda hard to love what you hate with passion. But rain is still a huge problem against the team, as well as Trick Room, and I lack a bulky steel-type. I reluctantly chose Ferrothorn as it somehow fills all these gaps.

DA ACTUAL TEAM

OUTB BANNED (Pheromosa) @ Choice Band
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Triple Axel
- U-Turn
- Poison Jab​

Pheromosa, speed demon and Uber extraordinaire. Seriously, though, Choice Band Pheromosa hits too fast and too hard, and gains so much momentum for the team with the sheer amount of switches it forces. Most of the time, this Pheromosa (and just about every CB Pheromosa for that matter) will just be spamming U-Turn, which makes it Kyurem’s favorite teammate. This is just the Mega Lopunny + Specs Kyurem core in Natdex on steroids. MLop/Phero U-Turns on forced switches to bring Kyurem in, often with devastating results. Almost nothing is safe from this core. And of course, the damage accumulated by this core allows Volcarona or Garchomp to sweep. Poison Jab is mainly for fairies, and Jolly because, let’s be real, CB Pheromosa does not need any more firepower.

Hug Me (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
- Gyro Ball​

After that first team I built, I thought that Ferrothorn would never make it on one of my teams again. I was wrong. It took it a while, but Ferrothorn finally managed to come back onto one of my teams. After experimenting with both Heatran and Clefable (which took a considerable toll on my elo on the ladder - I was too stupid to use an alt), I finally decided to try Ferrothorn. And oh my god, it worked. It actually worked. Ferrothorn was the last mon picked on this team and it covered up almost every existing weakness for this team, including rain, Trick Room, and SG+CM Magearna. It does its job beautifully, setting up rocks, spreading paralysis, and making rain cry. Of course, it brings a set of new weaknesses, and doesn't cover some of the largest ones the team have. However, never had I thought that I would use Ferrothorn again, and never had I thought that it would work so well.

Thanksgiving (Mandibuzz) (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 160 Def / 44 SpD / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
- Knock Off​

Mandibuzz is just an amazing Pokemon and it does so much for this team. For starters, it stops Spectrier in its tracks, and any good player on the ladder can tell you how important that is. It also has a slow U-Turn to gain momentum. On top of that, it packs a mean Knock Off, which weakens many foes, including Choice Scarf users and Pokemon that relies on Leftovers. It is also the team’s hazard remover, which is very important for Kyurem and Pheromosa. Finally, it is a second wall. A good second wall. A second wall this bulky offense team desperately needs. And it gets its job done well.

Le’duck (Kyurem) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def/ 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Freeze Dry
- Focus Blast​

Kyurem is a duck. Don’t argue with me. Not only that, just by looking at it you can tell Kyurem is French. There’s no point arguing. It won’t work, and you know I’m right.

Okay, I’m gonna be honest, Kyurem is the MVP of the team. It and Ferrothorn basically completely shuts down rain (besides Barraskewda, which is annoying beyond words), and the aforementioned Phero+Kyurem core destroys balance. Balance gives Kyurem way too many opportunities to switch in, and with the correct prediction (and a tiny bit of luck), Kyurem can severely dent the opposing team every time it gets a chance to launch an attack. Midgame often just revolves around getting Kyurem in as much as possible (while keeping it safe, of course) via Phero/Mandi and then killing everything. It might be a pain to get in, but once it does, the damage it can cause is impressive.

Dead Fish (Garchomp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Scale Shot​

Ahh, Garchomp, another mon I never thought I’d use. Garchomp is invaluable as it fills a couple of important roles on this team. First and foremost, it is a wallbreaker, and a great one at that. It has a dumb (and I mean dumb, not broken) base 102 speed that allows it to just troll the base 100s, which honestly helps it out a lot and a major reason I like it better than Landorus-T. Another thing is that after a SD, it still outspeeds a lot of stuff, and while an additional base 11 speed seems small there is a lot, lot more Pokemon that Garchomp outspeeds and/or can’t take a hit. It is also a secondary/backup sweeper, as again, not many Pokemon can eat a +2 attack. Garchomp is often very valuable late-game, as it can both clean and do damage to the opponent’s team. The only thing that I have against it is that it has low longevity with Life Orb, but it needs a Life Orb to do the damage I need it to do. Thus, Garchomp is often not sent out until the endgame.

Firestorm (Volcarona) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain​

And everybody and their mothers saw this one coming. Offensive Volcarona is, by far, my favorite Pokemon to use in any OU tier it exists in. Since Kyurem and Garchomp can take on Pex pretty well, Giga Drain is my coverage move of choice. Swarm was chosen over Flame Body because, honestly, I find Flame Body useless. Swarm, though, can punish enemy Pokemon that tries to damage Volcarona as it sets up. Bug Buzz then does amazing damage to anything that doesn’t resist it. Volcarona’s job is just to sweep after the opposing team is sufficiently weakened and the opposing Heatran/Blissey gone. It is a bit matchup dependent (mostly on whether Blissey or Heatran are on the opposing team), but it works out great and synergizes well with this team.

DA THREATLIST​

Ironically, the Pheromosa set I have the most problems with is the HDB pivot set, for the simple reason that CB is choiced, and Volcarona can tank a hit from QD and retaliate. However, Drill Run HDB pivot tears apart my entire team, and I have no way to stop it, as once it gets a kill it outspeeds my own Pheromosa. Band is also a huge problem.

Not rain, just this. Barra, again, destroys this entire team given that it has Close Combat equipped. Thank goodness it needs to be banded to absolutely destroy me.

Another hyperfast mon that has too much coverage to handle. Basically the same as the two above.

These two hard walls Volcarona and are thus very annoying. Thank goodness the rest of my team is well-prepared to take on those two.

Not too difficult by itself, but its combination of U-Turn, Grassy Glide, and Grassy Terrain (which weakens my Earthquakes and makes Heatran much more difficult to handle) makes it a HUGE pain to deal with with certain partners (see: Heatran).

Too much coverage. To be fair, though, everything has trouble with Nidoking nowadays.

HAX: Critical hits, Ice Beam freezes, Fire/Focus Blast misses... hax can screw this team up pretty badly. Once both Mandi and Ferro got frozen by consecutive Ice Beams, then Mandi got thawed by a Flamethrower only to be burned.

Edit: And I got a replay! Technically, it's not mine, but... you'll see

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1244739262

Thank you for reading! Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Smashburn]

I love this team! The mashup of Pheromosa and Volcarona is nice, and I like the thought process. The one thing I would say I don't like as much is Volcarona having Swarm. I have played Volcarona quite a bit, and I know that Flame Body can make all the difference during the match. I also know that from playing offensive Volcarona that it is best with higher HP > higher SpA, this way even after it is chipped some it can take an Urshifu-SS's Sucker Punch or potentially Wicked Blow to the face and have a chance to burn. Although you do have Madibuzz in this team, it does gets wrecked by stuff that Urshifu is often paired with (and being as you don't have Foul Play, your team might get 5-0ed by it). I wouldn't make this adjustment if the team was still running Clef as its coverage is amazing, but since Clef isn't here I like running Bulky Volcarona better. The situations you can force with it are amazing, especially when they don't expect you to have such a bulky set. Having Giga Drain or Bug Buzz- even Psychic- gives Volcarona so much power for a bulkier set. Can't forget that you have to heal up your sweeper as well, use Roost. To add to these comments, Bulky Volcarona only needs about 2 turns of Quiver Dance to sweep a team.

Also, I would say you need to add Urshifu to your threat list if you aren't running bulky Volcarona or Foul Play on Mandibuzz > U-Turn on Mandibuzz. I understand it is for momentum, but what's momentum at the cost of a common threat becoming your team's worst nightmare?

Volcarona set I am talking about:

Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Bug Buzz

Bug Buzz is only on this set because I figure you'll want to use more STAB, but Giga Drain and Psychic are equally good.

 

[ChubsTheGod]

I love this team! The mashup of Pheromosa and Volcarona is nice, and I like the thought process. The one thing I would say I don't like as much is Volcarona having Swarm. I have played Volcarona quite a bit, and I know that Flame Body can make all the difference during the match. I also know that from playing offensive Volcarona that it is best with higher HP > higher SpA, this way even after it is chipped some it can take an Urshifu-SS's Sucker Punch or potentially Wicked Blow to the face and have a chance to burn. Although you do have Madibuzz in this team, it does gets wrecked by stuff that Urshifu is often paired with (and being as you don't have Foul Play, your team might get 5-0ed by it). I wouldn't make this adjustment if the team was still running Clef as its coverage is amazing, but since Clef isn't here I like running Bulky Volcarona better. The situations you can force with it are amazing, especially when they don't expect you to have such a bulky set. Having Giga Drain or Bug Buzz- even Psychic- gives Volcarona so much power for a bulkier set. Can't forget that you have to heal up your sweeper as well, use Roost. To add to these comments, Bulky Volcarona only needs about 2 turns of Quiver Dance to sweep a team.

Also, I would say you need to add Urshifu to your threat list if you aren't running bulky Volcarona or Foul Play on Mandibuzz > U-Turn on Mandibuzz. I understand it is for momentum, but what's momentum at the cost of a common threat becoming your team's worst nightmare?

Volcarona set I am talking about:

Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Bug Buzz

Bug Buzz is only on this set because I figure you'll want to use more STAB, but Giga Drain and Psychic are equally good.

I completely agree with the Volcarona set. I've been messing around with your squad as well and the bulkier set with roost feels a lot more threatening than the glass cannon version. This allows you to set up easier and really isn't threatened by too many moves atleast to the degree that you need to worry about getting one shot. It really forces a response from your opponent before you can finish setting up, and depending on what their squad looks like you can predict it and demolish it. All around a super fun team to play with.

 

[shadowpea]

Thank you for you comments! I tried the bulky Volcarona and it worked as well as advertised, though I do miss the extra coverage move at times. Also, bulky Volcarona is so much more prone to status, as without that extra coverage move and SpA investment you need a couple of turns to be ready, which gives the opponent free turns. However, I'm having a lot less problems with Urshifu and Rillaboom now, and Flame Body has proved itself to be useful.

Now that Pheromosa is banned, is this team still useable and what should I replace with Pheromosa? Currently using Banded Urshifu as a placeholder for priority and pivoting. It also does most of the things Phero did well enough, though I do miss its speed. Then again, Pheo was banned partly because it did its job too efficiently and too well.

 

[Smashburn]

Thank you for you comments! I tried the bulky Volcarona and it worked as well as advertised, though I do miss the extra coverage move at times. Also, bulky Volcarona is so much more prone to status, as without that extra coverage move and SpA investment you need a couple of turns to be ready, which gives the opponent free turns. However, I'm having a lot less problems with Urshifu and Rillaboom now, and Flame Body has proved itself to be useful.

Now that Pheromosa is banned, is this team still useable and what should I replace with Pheromosa? Currently using Banded Urshifu as a placeholder for priority and pivoting. It also does most of the things Phero did well enough, though I do miss its speed. Then again, Pheo was banned partly because it did its job too efficiently and too well.

Well, with Pheromosa's ban, you need another mon to fill the void. Someone with good setup and removal potential that is fast works. As of right jow Hawlucha is going to ravage the meta, so I recommend looming for an answer to it since it is such a threat right now. If you really feel things don't work well anymore, I would suggest trying out new combinations. With Pheromosa gone and some news mons in power, I'm sure there will be openings for new strategies.