Volcarona



Type: /
Weaknesses: (X2) and (X4)
Resistances: , , , , (X0,5) and (X0,25)


Abilities:


Flame Body: The opponent has a 30% chance of being induced with Burn when using an attack, that requires physical contact, against this Pokémon.


Hidden Ability:


Swarm: When HP is below 1/3rd its maximum, power of Bug-type moves is increased by 50%



Base stats: 85 HP / 60 Attack / 65 Defense / 135 Special Attack / 105 Special Defense / 100 Speed


Volcarona is a great Pokémon in this metagame since it's very hard to switch into because of its great Special Attack and good coverage, and its good Speed allows it to beat some very threatening Pokémon at +1, including Scarf Tapu Lele. On the other hand, it does have a 4x times to Stealth Rock and is vulnerable to Spikes, and it can't do as much if it can't set up Quiver Dance. Regardless, it is still a major threat that every team should be ready for.


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the set


Quiver Dance + Firium Z



Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Volcarona's claim to fame is the move Quiver Dance, which boosts Special Atack, Special Defense and Speed all at once, allowing it to become a powerful late game cleaner. Base 135 Special Attack allows it to be very strong after a boost, especially if using Inferno Overdrive, as it can 2HKO or OHKO a lot of things in the tier after a boost. While base 100 Speed might not seem very impressive, it is actually very useful, allowing it to outspeed many common scarfers such as Tapu Lele, Excadrill and Landorus-T after a boost. It has a decent defensive typing, allowing it to take a hit or two from some very common threats like Mega Metagross and set up on them (and potentially get a Flame Body burn, who knows), and it has pretty decent HP and Special Defense, allowing it to take some hits after a boost, such as Ash-Greninja's Water Shuriken. For the moveset, it is pretty basic; Quiver Dance is its most important move, since it is what allows it to beat so much things in the tier, from bulky walls to speedy attackers. Fire Blast is its most powerful STAB move, allowing it to clean up weakened teams because of its raw power. Now while Bug STAB would seem like a good idea, Volcarona actually benefits a lot more from Giga Drain and HP Ground since they allow Volcarona to beat some of its biggest checks, such as Tapu Fini, Rotom-W (with Giga Drain), Nihilego and Heatran (with HP Ground). The item used on this set is the Firium Z, which allows Volcarona to use its very strong Inferno Overdrive to nuke remaining walls and allow for a sweep. It is absurdely powerful and can even OHKO Pokémon that resist Fire, and this is why Volcarona is such a threat; resist =/= live. It can also be used during a sweep if you don't want to miss a Fire Blast since it cannot miss. The EV spread is pretty straight forward; max Special Attack allows Volcarona to get the most KOs possible, while max Speed, along witha Timid nature, allows it to outspeed a lot of things after a Quiver Dance. When using this Pokémon, you should always be very careful because playing too recklessly with it could lead to your Volcarona taking unecessary damage and then dying to a hit it could've lived at full health. Be sure to never send it on entry hazards (if possible), because it gets destroyed by Stealth Rock and hates having to take Spikes damage or a Toxic from Toxic Spikes. Also, it often needs a bit of chip damage to net some KOs, so having Stealth Rock or Spikes up can be beneficial for it, and same goes for VoltTurn cores.

calcs

Offensive:


Defensive:



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other options

Bug Buzz is a decent option, though it is outclassed by its coverage moves. If needed, Volcarona can run HP Electric for Pelipper and Mantine, HP ice for Garchomp, Salamence and Dragonite or Psychic for Toxapex. A bulky Volcarona can be used to set up more easily, but it lacks the raw power of offensive Firium Z. A set with Flyinium Z and Hurricane can be used on Rain teams to beat bulky grass types, which trouble rain sweepers like Kingdra and Kabutops, making Volcarona one of the few Fire types usable on rain. Both of the sets previously mentionned will be in this spoiler.



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good partners


Water, Flying and Rock Checks/Counters: Volcarona is weak to these typings, so having something to deal with them is always useful.

Hazard Support: As seen in some of the calcs, Volcarona needs chip damage to score some KOs, so Stealth Rock and Spikes users such as Landorus-Therian, Ferrothorn, Garchomp and Greninja are good partners.

Volt Turn: Another way of getting chip damage is by using Volt Turn (Volt Switch and U-Turn) to weaken the opposing team. Thus, Pokémon that learn Volt Switch and/or U-Turn are good partners. Tapu Koko is very notable since it deals with Water types for Volcarona and can use U-Turn to deal chip damage and bring in Volcarona safely.

Hazard Control: Volcarona is very vulnerable to hazards, so having a Rapid Spin or Defog user is very important. Tapu Fini is an excellent partner since it can Defog away hazards and check Water types that are troublesome for Volcarona. Latios and Excadrill can also remove hazards, but don't soak up momentum and can fit better on offensive teams.

Water and Grass types: Water and Grass types can form a FWG (fire water grass) core, which is pretty good since they have good defensive and offensive synergy. A core that is fairly popular that I used myself is Volcarona/Tapu Fini/Tangrowth.

Dugtrio: Dugtrio can trap and KO stuff that trouble Volcarona, such as Heatran, Tyranitar and Chansey.


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threats


Super Effective Hits: Pretty obvious: super effective=big damage. Beware of coverage moves too, such as Stone Edge Tapu Bulu.

Faster Scarfers: Pokémon like Scarfed Garchomp and Scarfed Nihilego are faster than Volcarona even with a boost and can revenge kill it with Rock Slide or Power Gem.

Bulky Water Types and Rain: Volcarona can't do much to Pelipper and Mantine except if packing the very rare HP Electric, and even with Psychic, Toxapex can wall it with Haze to remove its boosts. It also can't do anything against rain since its Fire type moves are weakened and it gets outsped by rain sweepers such as Kingdra.

Stealth Rock and Spikes: Volcarona has a glaring weakness to Stealth Rock and doesn't appreciate Spikes, since it can get revenge killed by things like Ash-Greninja with Water Shuriken if weakened.

Dragon Types: They don't take super effective damage from any move bar the rare HP ice and can retaliate hard, so beware of Dragons like Dragonite and Salamence and their Supersonic Skystrike and Garchomp which often runs Scarf with Rock Slide or Stone Edge.


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