Lately I have been given the impression that I am the bootlicker of SV OU and see nothing wrong with the tier, but I do believe there are a few issues to be addressed. One of those being
Firstly, I don’t think Tera Blast is the issue. Very few mons actually got banned because of it, one of them was more broken cause of Speed Boost + Stored Power than Tera. Tera Blast is a dead slot until you run into the matchup you’re looking for. Stuff like Gambit rarely runs Tera Fairy Blast these days. The stuff you’ll see use Tera Blast are
-CB Dragapult for Ghost STAB or to lure Kingambit with Tera Fighting/Fire.
-Dnite for Tera Fairy Blast or Tera Flying Blast.
-DD Kyu for Tera Ground/Fire Blast.
-Moth for Tera Ground/Water Blast
-Enam for Tera Stellar/Ghost/Ground
-and Serp
Most of these are good, but also Tera reliant. They do have clear weaknesses such as CB Pult being prediction reliant, Dnite having a 4mss, DD Kyu being telegraphable in preview, Moth having it HP cut by rocks and only coming in once or twice, Enam being frail with an ok speed tier, and Serp is Serp. Volcarona is not one of them.
In comparison to other Tera Blast users, Volc has a much higher reward that comes with it due to its bulk and set variety. Unlike something like Kyurem where you can figure the set out in preview, you have no idea with Volcarona. So what sets does it run?
Standard Bulkarona
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Ground/Dragon/Water/Grass/Fairy/Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Tera Blast/Giga Drain/Bug Buzz
- Morning Sun
The most common set you’ll find. It can pick whatever Tera it wants.
Tera Ground makes you immune to T-Wave Dragapult and also hits Fire resists.
Tera Water cteams Rain and Sun while hitting Balloon Tran and other Fire resists.
Tera Dragon smacks Dragons while still letting you 1v1 Heatran cause it lost Toxic and at the same time, avoids being rkilled by CB Rilla.
-Tera Grass with Giga Drain smacks Primarina and Garg while also beating Tera Water Wogre.
-Tera Fairy also smacks Dragons while giving you a Sucker Punch resist.
-Tera Steel can shit on Toxic Gking, and still keeps your Fairy/Ice resist.
Wisp Bulkarona
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Steel/Fairy/Water/Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Will-O-Wisp
- Morning Sun
This is what I refer to as Honest Volc. Wisp gives you early-to-midgame utility while crippling checks like Dnite or Moon. Annoys the shit out of offense.
Offensive Volcarona
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Dragon/Ground/Water/Fairy
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance/Flamethrower/Fire Blast
- Tera Blast
- Giga Drain/Bug Buzz/Morning Sun
The same as Bulkarona but more offensive. At +1 you OHKO Raging Bolt, G-Fire, with Tera Ground or Dragon. With Giga Drain it 1v1s non-AV Prim, and the spicy option here is Fire Blast which OHKOs Lando, Tusk, and physd Gliscor after rocks at +1. Since you have 135 SpA, you could even fish for Fiery Dance boosts vs Balance and kill Gking with Fiery + Tera Ground.
Sub-QD
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Water/Ground/Dragon/Fairy
EVs: 180 HP / 112 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance/Flamethrower
- Tera Blast
- Substitute
Degenerate asf. The counterplay to Volc for most Balances is to swap into Gliscor or Gking and click Toxic, then Volc whips out the Substitute and now the whole team gets wiped. Also it ruins Garg.
So Volc can be any one of these sets and Teras, which creates a problem of actually checking it. Here’s a list of checks that either lose to a certain Volc set/Tera or don’t.
Can’t T-Wave vs Tera Ground. Every other set loses to Tera Fairy or Dragon.
SpD Gliscor can trade with Volcarona and click Toxic, however you’re likely to lose Gliscor since offensive Volc still does a shitton. Also loses to Tera Water Blast and Sub-QD.
Loses to Bug Buzz or Tera Dragon variants. Also loses to Wisp + Tera Grass.
Forced to Tera against Volc since +1 Bug Buzz, Tera Dragon/Fairy Blast will one-shot. Also risks getting burnt by Wisp or Flame Body.
Can tank a few hits from Volc, especially with AV. However since Gking is tasked with checking other specially offensive threats on Volc’s team, it gets overwhelmed fast and won’t be able to maintain the moth. Also Sub-QD and Tera Steel shits on this.
Loses to Wisp or Tera Fairy variants.
Loses to Tera Ground or Tera Grass Giga, especially with Sub QD.
Loses to Tera Ground or Dragon.
Non-AV loses to Giga Drain or even Tera Ground Blast since Prim doesn’t do enough to +1 Volc.
One of the few reliable Volc checks as it can phaze out any Volc set, but loses long-term due to no recovery.
2HKOd by Tera Ground. Tera Water also gets forced to clicking Recover vs Offensive variants with Bug Buzz or Giga Drain.
Clod and Blissey are the only long-term checks to the Moth, even Tera Ground fails to break past Unaware Clod. CM Blissey 1v1s Volc.
Even without Tera Ground/Water, Volc can still 1v1 this after a few QD boosts since no Toxic.
Denies Morning Sun recovery, but otherwise loses to Tera Ground Volc unless it techs Roar.
These are not real.
So what is the counterplay to beating Volc? Either hope it’s not the set your team loses to, stack a bunch of Volc checks, or run Ting/Clod/Blissey because that is what it boils down to. The builds that have the hardest time against Volc are BO/HO. Their answers are Glimmora who is almost never on the field and is setup fodder for certain Volc variants, Encore Val who only comes in once and Volc can just switch out, or Primarina who can lose to Giga Drain variants or lose the 1v1 to Offensive Tera Ground/Fairy.
If there is one mon that incentivizes a slower paced meta filled with Balance or Stall, it’s Volcarona. So if we don’t want the tier to be like this, then action should be taken on Volc.
But wait, doesn’t Volc provide some defensive value to the tier? Yes, it does, but here’s why it doesn’t matter.
Volc is one of the best Kyu checks and without it, Kyu would run over the tier, right? Wrong. Specs Kyu is overrated due to being more support reliant and harder to fit than other breakers. Any good Balance team can respond to Specs with SR + scouting from Tect Gliscor while packing Glowking, or an Ice resist. Boots variants have less horsepower and can be played around with Garg, SpD Clef, Glowking, Dirge, Weavile, Mirror Coat Mola, SpD Corv, etc.
Volc covers these two nicely, but unlike in Home or DLC1, we aren’t lacking in offensive Val checks. Stuff like Primarina comes to mind. On the defensive side we have Pjab Clod, Glowking, Corv, Mixed Dfse Mola, Dirge, Clef, etc. Enamorus is not nearly on the same threat level it was in Home due to the meh speed tier. In fact, banning Volc would make it easier to check them and open up other possible Fairy checks like
These two are discouraged from clicking their spammable Grass moves with Volc, but Volc also doesn’t switch into them well due to Knock. The role of Rilla check can already be accompanied on Balance by Corv or Heatran.
Volc has been the most consistent Ghold check since its been in the tier. I would argue it’s an outright counter. So Volc being banned would make Ghold the biggest winner. This is the main thing that makes players hesitant on banning Volc due to its matchup against slower builds, but I don’t think its going to be broken. Defensive counterplay such as Gambit, Ting-Lu, Unaware Clod, G-Fire, AV Hoopa, and Tera Water Garg do exist. Faster paced teams don’t need Volc’s help with Ghold, they have like 5 fucking Dark types to work with. Balance will live.
While Volc is beneficial to the tier defensively, it generates matchup fishy scenarios where checking it offensively/defensively is almost entirely dependent on the set or Tera. The only archetype that can consistently deal with Volc is Stall or by stacking 2-3 Volc checks on Balance. Raging Bolt is another bulky CM sweeper that can break its checks, but it’s balanced out due to its lackluster speed plus its reliance on Tera and Thunder Clap to handle BO.
Imo the best archetype in the tier is Special BO or HO (more on that in a future post). Volc can be handled by Gking + SpD Gliscor or Ting-Lu, but when you also have to fend off a Raging Bolt or Primarina, it makes things too difficult, creating an eerily similar problem with Archaludon. If I haven’t made myself clear, Volc should be the next suspect, regardless of the defensive value it provides in the tier.
Firstly, I don’t think Tera Blast is the issue. Very few mons actually got banned because of it, one of them was more broken cause of Speed Boost + Stored Power than Tera. Tera Blast is a dead slot until you run into the matchup you’re looking for. Stuff like Gambit rarely runs Tera Fairy Blast these days. The stuff you’ll see use Tera Blast are
-CB Dragapult for Ghost STAB or to lure Kingambit with Tera Fighting/Fire.
-Dnite for Tera Fairy Blast or Tera Flying Blast.
-DD Kyu for Tera Ground/Fire Blast.
-Moth for Tera Ground/Water Blast
-Enam for Tera Stellar/Ghost/Ground
-and Serp
Most of these are good, but also Tera reliant. They do have clear weaknesses such as CB Pult being prediction reliant, Dnite having a 4mss, DD Kyu being telegraphable in preview, Moth having it HP cut by rocks and only coming in once or twice, Enam being frail with an ok speed tier, and Serp is Serp. Volcarona is not one of them.
In comparison to other Tera Blast users, Volc has a much higher reward that comes with it due to its bulk and set variety. Unlike something like Kyurem where you can figure the set out in preview, you have no idea with Volcarona. So what sets does it run?
Standard Bulkarona
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Ground/Dragon/Water/Grass/Fairy/Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Tera Blast/Giga Drain/Bug Buzz
- Morning Sun
The most common set you’ll find. It can pick whatever Tera it wants.
Tera Ground makes you immune to T-Wave Dragapult and also hits Fire resists.
Tera Water cteams Rain and Sun while hitting Balloon Tran and other Fire resists.
Tera Dragon smacks Dragons while still letting you 1v1 Heatran cause it lost Toxic and at the same time, avoids being rkilled by CB Rilla.
-Tera Grass with Giga Drain smacks Primarina and Garg while also beating Tera Water Wogre.
-Tera Fairy also smacks Dragons while giving you a Sucker Punch resist.
-Tera Steel can shit on Toxic Gking, and still keeps your Fairy/Ice resist.
Wisp Bulkarona
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Steel/Fairy/Water/Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Will-O-Wisp
- Morning Sun
This is what I refer to as Honest Volc. Wisp gives you early-to-midgame utility while crippling checks like Dnite or Moon. Annoys the shit out of offense.
Offensive Volcarona
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Dragon/Ground/Water/Fairy
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance/Flamethrower/Fire Blast
- Tera Blast
- Giga Drain/Bug Buzz/Morning Sun
The same as Bulkarona but more offensive. At +1 you OHKO Raging Bolt, G-Fire, with Tera Ground or Dragon. With Giga Drain it 1v1s non-AV Prim, and the spicy option here is Fire Blast which OHKOs Lando, Tusk, and physd Gliscor after rocks at +1. Since you have 135 SpA, you could even fish for Fiery Dance boosts vs Balance and kill Gking with Fiery + Tera Ground.
Sub-QD
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Water/Ground/Dragon/Fairy
EVs: 180 HP / 112 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance/Flamethrower
- Tera Blast
- Substitute
Degenerate asf. The counterplay to Volc for most Balances is to swap into Gliscor or Gking and click Toxic, then Volc whips out the Substitute and now the whole team gets wiped. Also it ruins Garg.
So Volc can be any one of these sets and Teras, which creates a problem of actually checking it. Here’s a list of checks that either lose to a certain Volc set/Tera or don’t.
Can’t T-Wave vs Tera Ground. Every other set loses to Tera Fairy or Dragon.
SpD Gliscor can trade with Volcarona and click Toxic, however you’re likely to lose Gliscor since offensive Volc still does a shitton. Also loses to Tera Water Blast and Sub-QD.
Loses to Bug Buzz or Tera Dragon variants. Also loses to Wisp + Tera Grass.
Forced to Tera against Volc since +1 Bug Buzz, Tera Dragon/Fairy Blast will one-shot. Also risks getting burnt by Wisp or Flame Body.
Can tank a few hits from Volc, especially with AV. However since Gking is tasked with checking other specially offensive threats on Volc’s team, it gets overwhelmed fast and won’t be able to maintain the moth. Also Sub-QD and Tera Steel shits on this.
Loses to Wisp or Tera Fairy variants.
Loses to Tera Ground or Tera Grass Giga, especially with Sub QD.
Loses to Tera Ground or Dragon.
Non-AV loses to Giga Drain or even Tera Ground Blast since Prim doesn’t do enough to +1 Volc.
One of the few reliable Volc checks as it can phaze out any Volc set, but loses long-term due to no recovery.
2HKOd by Tera Ground. Tera Water also gets forced to clicking Recover vs Offensive variants with Bug Buzz or Giga Drain.
Clod and Blissey are the only long-term checks to the Moth, even Tera Ground fails to break past Unaware Clod. CM Blissey 1v1s Volc.
Even without Tera Ground/Water, Volc can still 1v1 this after a few QD boosts since no Toxic.
Denies Morning Sun recovery, but otherwise loses to Tera Ground Volc unless it techs Roar.
These are not real.
So what is the counterplay to beating Volc? Either hope it’s not the set your team loses to, stack a bunch of Volc checks, or run Ting/Clod/Blissey because that is what it boils down to. The builds that have the hardest time against Volc are BO/HO. Their answers are Glimmora who is almost never on the field and is setup fodder for certain Volc variants, Encore Val who only comes in once and Volc can just switch out, or Primarina who can lose to Giga Drain variants or lose the 1v1 to Offensive Tera Ground/Fairy.
If there is one mon that incentivizes a slower paced meta filled with Balance or Stall, it’s Volcarona. So if we don’t want the tier to be like this, then action should be taken on Volc.
But wait, doesn’t Volc provide some defensive value to the tier? Yes, it does, but here’s why it doesn’t matter.
Volc is one of the best Kyu checks and without it, Kyu would run over the tier, right? Wrong. Specs Kyu is overrated due to being more support reliant and harder to fit than other breakers. Any good Balance team can respond to Specs with SR + scouting from Tect Gliscor while packing Glowking, or an Ice resist. Boots variants have less horsepower and can be played around with Garg, SpD Clef, Glowking, Dirge, Weavile, Mirror Coat Mola, SpD Corv, etc.
Volc covers these two nicely, but unlike in Home or DLC1, we aren’t lacking in offensive Val checks. Stuff like Primarina comes to mind. On the defensive side we have Pjab Clod, Glowking, Corv, Mixed Dfse Mola, Dirge, Clef, etc. Enamorus is not nearly on the same threat level it was in Home due to the meh speed tier. In fact, banning Volc would make it easier to check them and open up other possible Fairy checks like
These two are discouraged from clicking their spammable Grass moves with Volc, but Volc also doesn’t switch into them well due to Knock. The role of Rilla check can already be accompanied on Balance by Corv or Heatran.
Volc has been the most consistent Ghold check since its been in the tier. I would argue it’s an outright counter. So Volc being banned would make Ghold the biggest winner. This is the main thing that makes players hesitant on banning Volc due to its matchup against slower builds, but I don’t think its going to be broken. Defensive counterplay such as Gambit, Ting-Lu, Unaware Clod, G-Fire, AV Hoopa, and Tera Water Garg do exist. Faster paced teams don’t need Volc’s help with Ghold, they have like 5 fucking Dark types to work with. Balance will live.
While Volc is beneficial to the tier defensively, it generates matchup fishy scenarios where checking it offensively/defensively is almost entirely dependent on the set or Tera. The only archetype that can consistently deal with Volc is Stall or by stacking 2-3 Volc checks on Balance. Raging Bolt is another bulky CM sweeper that can break its checks, but it’s balanced out due to its lackluster speed plus its reliance on Tera and Thunder Clap to handle BO.
Imo the best archetype in the tier is Special BO or HO (more on that in a future post). Volc can be handled by Gking + SpD Gliscor or Ting-Lu, but when you also have to fend off a Raging Bolt or Primarina, it makes things too difficult, creating an eerily similar problem with Archaludon. If I haven’t made myself clear, Volc should be the next suspect, regardless of the defensive value it provides in the tier.