Volcarona (QC 0/2)

[1_TrickPhony]

[SET]
name: Offensive Sweeper
move 1: Fiery Dance / Fire Blast
move 2: Quiver Dance
move 3: Hurricane / Bug Buzz
move 4: Giga Drain / Bug Buzz / Psychic
item: Lum Berry / Heavy Duty Boots / Life Orb
ability: Flame Body / Swarm
nature: Timid / Modest
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* Volcarona exists as a special Dynamax sweeper capable of boosting its speed through Quiver Dance and Max Airstream.

* Fiery Dance is a moderately powerful STAB with a chance to boost Special Attack. If more power is needed, Fire Blast can be used instead.

* Quiver Dance is generally required to help assist Volcarona in sweeping.

* Hurricane allows Volcarona to boost its speed while attacking, usually used following a Special Attack boost.

* Giga Drain helps Volcarona damage Water-types and helps it remain healthy throughout an attempted sweep.

* Bug Buzz, while not as useful coverage, does benefit from a STAB boost and can be used over Hurricane or Giga Drain

* Psychic is used to beat Toxapex, who has seen a resurgence to stop Cinderace. Psychic terrain can also help with avoiding priority revenge killing as well when attempting to sweep.

* Substitute is another move option to bait in status moves when not using Lum Berry.

* Lum Berry and Heavy-Duty Boots are used to mitigate two of Volcarona's main issues when attempting to sweep, status and entry hazards.

* Life Orb can to improve Volcarona's general damage output and is particularly useful when Dynamaxed.


Team Options
============

Volcarona appreciates Pokemon that can check Cinderace and Toxapex, two Pokemon that prevent it from achieving its main goals of either sweeping or burning physical threats. It also works well in Fire-Water-Grass cores, which provide it with offensive and defensive synergy.

* Cinderace Checks:

* Toxapex Checks:

* Water-type Teammates:

* Grass-type Teammates:

 

[1_TrickPhony]

ready for qc

 

[zapper22001]

I think the first set should have Quiver Dance as a standalone move with no slashes. It is really the main niche Volcarona has (96% usage on HOME mobile app) and you have to have a really good reason to use an all-out attacking set over something like Cinderace. I think Fire Blast deserves a slash as well. It represents a pretty significant damage boost especially when using Life Orb. Finally the 4 EVs in SpD should be moved to HP to get an odd HP number.

The first sentence about Volcarona being a potent Dynamax sweeper overestimates Volcarona's viability in my opinion. Even with a Quiver Dance boost, you struggle to get OHKO since you are usually hitting for neutral damage. You also invite many Max Airstream users in which resist your STAB moves and are mostly physical based. This threat makes it difficult to commit to Dynamax with Volcarona. Based on my experience so far, Volcarona is best used to break down defensive teams or otherwise be benched.

I wonder if the other two sets deserve a write-up. Per HOME stats, Choice Scarf does not even reach top 10 in usage, which means <2.2% usage. I think historically it has been a decent set so it might age well as the metagame develops. I personally have not encountered any bulky Volcarona using Wisp so I am not too sure about its viability. The Cinderace matchup feels like a compelling enough reason not to use it though since you cannot burn on the switch and become a free Max Airstream target. No Roost is a big hit to this set as well. You should finish the Giga Drain sentence for the Bulky Bug set if you elect to keep it. Finally I have encountered Sub + Quiver Dance, but am unsure if people run bulk on those sets.

Hope these comments were helpful.

 

[1_TrickPhony]

I think the first set should have Quiver Dance as a standalone move with no slashes. It is really the main niche Volcarona has (96% usage on HOME mobile app) and you have to have a really good reason to use an all-out attacking set over something like Cinderace. I think Fire Blast deserves a slash as well. It represents a pretty significant damage boost especially when using Life Orb. Finally the 4 EVs in SpD should be moved to HP to get an odd HP number.

The first sentence about Volcarona being a potent Dynamax sweeper overestimates Volcarona's viability in my opinion. Even with a Quiver Dance boost, you struggle to get OHKO since you are usually hitting for neutral damage. You also invite many Max Airstream users in which resist your STAB moves and are mostly physical based. This threat makes it difficult to commit to Dynamax with Volcarona. Based on my experience so far, Volcarona is best used to break down defensive teams or otherwise be benched.

I wonder if the other two sets deserve a write-up. Per HOME stats, Choice Scarf does not even reach top 10 in usage, which means <2.2% usage. I think historically it has been a decent set so it might age well as the metagame develops. I personally have not encountered any bulky Volcarona using Wisp so I am not too sure about its viability. The Cinderace matchup feels like a compelling enough reason not to use it though since you cannot burn on the switch and become a free Max Airstream target. No Roost is a big hit to this set as well. You should finish the Giga Drain sentence for the Bulky Bug set if you elect to keep it. Finally I have encountered Sub + Quiver Dance, but am unsure if people run bulk on those sets.

Hope these comments were helpful.

Took a lot of these changes and implemented.

I think as of now we wait for the end of the season and see what kind of usage it sees on tops teams (if any), so I plan to put it on the backboard till the metagame settles and we see where exactly Volcarona will fall. (This meaning I plan to keep these two non-sweeper sets until its been shown they arent being used). I think to Charizard, who saw a lot of usage drop (until gmax saved it a little), who stopped running sweeper sets and often ran Choice Scarf instead on various high placing teams.

QC feel free to make some suggestions, but I think its best to wait for pushing it through until beginning of August.

 

[Psynergy]

Alright let's check this one, Volcarona may not have been the monster we thought when DLC was first announced but it's still solid.

I agree with zapper22001's comments on the sets, Choice Scarf hasn't turned out to be a thing and neither has bulky Wisp or U-turn (Sub is fine though) so I'd probably remove those. However, I do think the bulky set is fine if repurposed to a bulky Quiver Dance focus since Grassy Seed has been reasonably common, and they definitely seem to be running bulk. Obviously you want Rillaboom as a teammate but you've covered that already.

I'd probably add Lapras and/or Gastrodon as Water-types, they're definitely more common than Slowbro or Cloyster at least. Same with Venusaur for Grass-types apparently, not sure what that one's about so I'll leave that one to your judgment. Alakazam aged badly, remove that too.

With that said, Volcarona is mostly straightforward so consider this QC 1/2.