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Overview
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Bulky Quiver Dance
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name: Bulky Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Bug Buzz
move 3: Fiery Dance
move 4: Roost
ability: Flame Body
item: Leftovers
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 192 Def / 68 Spe
Moves
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Set Details
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Usage Tips
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Team Options
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Other Options
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Checks & Counters
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- Fast, powerful Fire-type w/ access to Quiver Dance, which boosts its three best stats to astronomical levels
- Two good STABs in Bug and Fire
- Defog buffs make life easier for Volcarona
- Typing lets Volc check many pertinent threats
- 4x weak to SR, limiting switch-in opportunities and necessitating Rapid Spin / Defog support
- Vulnerable on the physical side of things; powerful priority moves such as Talonflame's Brave Bird and Azumarill's Aqua Jet do Volcarona in easily
- Base 100 Speed can only go so fast, leaving a slew of revenge killers for Volcarona, even @ +1 Speed
Bulky Quiver Dance
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name: Bulky Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Bug Buzz
move 3: Fiery Dance
move 4: Roost
ability: Flame Body
item: Leftovers
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 192 Def / 68 Spe
Moves
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- Quiver Dance boosts Volcarona's Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed
- Bug Buzz is reliable STAB
- Fiery Dance has perfect accuracy and a 50% chance to raise Volcarona's Special Attack even further
- Roost is reliable recovery that gives Volcarona the chance to acquire
businesseven more Quiver Dance boosts - Rest with Chesto Berry is an alternative recovery method that gets rid of status and fully restores Volcarona's HP once
Set Details
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- Speed EVs w/ Bold nature give Volc enough speed to outpace positive max speed Greninja after one Quiver Dance, and positive max speed Deoxys-S after 2 Dances
- The rest of the EVs are put into HP and Defense; the HP EVs allow Volcarona to switch into SR twice and live (but it really shouldn't be doing that!)
- Chesto Berry can be used with Rest to fully restore Volcarona's HP and eliminate status once
- Lum Berry can be used over Leftovers to set up on status users, but usually, the passive recovery Leftovers gives is more useful in the long run
Usage Tips
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- This Volcarona doesn't hit as hard as the offensive variant initially, so use it as a pivot against the likes of Aegislash or Mega Mawile during the early stages of the battle; save the set-up and sweep for when faster revenge killers are gone and walls worn down
- Use Roost to keep HP up before you go for the sweep
- Use Volcarona's bulk to gather multiple boosts before attempting to sweep
- IMPORTANT: Remove Mega Pinsir, Talonflame, and Azumarill before you go for the sweep. If you don't, you will have a bad time, since these threats can revenge kill Volcarona, regardless of how many speed boosts it has collected.
- Bulky steels, opponents choice-locked into moves Volc resists, and / or special sweepers with coverage that Volcarona can tank (see: Scizor, Keldeo, Mega Manectric) make for excellent set-up opportunities; in general, you should try to set up on opponents Volcarona can force out
- Watch out for phazers, since they can end Volc's sweep w/ their phazing move and force Volc to take hazard damage
Team Options
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- Spinners and / or Defoggers are good partners since Volc doesn't like taking SR damage, even when packing reliable recovery; excellent partners include Excadrill, Zapdos, and the Lati twins
- This Volc appreciates SR support just as much as, if not more than the offensive variant does; setters that can beat Volc's counters, such as Landorus-T, Excadrill, or Hippowdon are the best partners
- Toxic Spikes are useful but not necessary for wearing down Pokemon that wall Volc; Greninja and Tentacruel are excellent Toxic Spikes setters.
- Wallbreakers such as Megazard-Y, Choice Specs Keldeo, Mega Mawile, and Kyurem-B can help Volc get past its counters; watch for SR if using Megazard-Y and / or Kyurem-B
- Flying-type resists that can effectively deal with Talonflame and Mega Pinsir, such as Rotom-W, Tyranitar, Zapdos, or Thundurus, are extremely helpful
- Pursuit trappers, such as Tyranitar, Aegislash, Bisharp, and Scizor, can make short work of Talonflame locked into Brave Bird. Tyranitar is one of Volcarona's best teammates, heavily threatening and trapping both Thundurus and Talonflame, not to mention it also does well vs. most of Volcarona's defensive checks.
- Some offensive Water-type Pokemon make great teammates. As a lure, HP Grass Greninja is great for taking care of Azumarill. Mega Gyarados can also handle most of Volcarona's checks and can add extra pressure to teams with Dragon Dance.
- Sun support is helpful, but not a necessity
Other Options
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- Offensive Quiver Dance [comments will be added later]
- 3 Attacks + Roost
- Substitute is nice if you want to give revenge killers hell, but you have to sacrifice one of recovery (bulky) or coverage (offensive) to use it, making Substitute an inferior option overall.
- Hurricane works if you want to use Volc in rain
- Flamethrower is a compromise between Fiery Dance's accuracy and Fire Blast's power, but more often than not, it's an inferior choice. Flamethrower's base power drop doesn't help matters much.
- Choice Specs / Scarf
- Swarm makes Volcarona's Bug Buzz POWERFUL
Checks & Counters
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- STEALTH ROCK
- Status moves (paralysis and Toxic poison in particular)
- Pokemon that wall Volcarona by virtue of massive special bulk and / or resistance to STABs + coverage (see: Chansey, Blissey, Goodra, Tentacruel, Jellicent, Heatran, Rotom-H, Megazard (both X and Y), Assault Vest Tyranitar, Dragonite, bulky waters)
- Unaware: Clefable can ignore any boosts Volcarona may have gotten, but unless Clefable has Calm Mind or Toxic, it can only stalemate at best
- Revenge killers: Azumarill, Dragonite, Garchomp, Gyarados (regular, not mega), Keldeo, Pinsir (mega, not regular), Talonflame, Terrakion
so volc was brought up on ps maybe last week and valentine brought up a good point: giga drain is needed for volc to be successful atm. hitting bd and ~75ish av azumarill (cb ohkoes with aqua jet), keldeo, and non-scarf terrakion, as well as just the extra recovery on weakened threats that you can ko with +1 giga and preventing quag from getting of a toxic, is really important and useful. i hadn't used volc this gen and tested out both bulky and offensive lo variants. i found bulky variants really difficult to sweep with, just lacking the +1 power and coverage to do the job. offensive qd has a lot more power to work with (+1 fire blast and even bug buzz are really strong, there's definitely some kos that i can edit in later when i have more time) and the extra coverage to sweep in front of these massive threats. this is what i'm talking about:
Offensive Quiver Dance
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name: Offensive Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Bug Buzz
move 4: Giga Drain
ability: Flame Body
item: Life Orb
evs: 136 HP / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
nature: Modest
evs outrun jolly mega ttar, not really much reason to go any faster unless timid to outrun jolly scarf exca, but you lose a good chunk of power and moreover bulk.
i don't support defensive qd volc atm, it really just has too much trouble sweeping. was a lot better in luc/gene meta. this set is more effective.
Overview
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Offensive Quiver Dance
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name: Offensive Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Bug Buzz
move 4: Giga Drain
ability: Flame Body
item: Life Orb
evs: 136 HP / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
nature: Modest
Moves
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Set Details
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Usage Tips
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Team Options
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Other Options
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Checks & Counters
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- Pretty huge 4x SR weakness which limits its switch-in opportunities.
- Minor case of 4MSS. It cannot run all of the moves that it wishes it could run, meaning that what it misses out on will dictate its counters.
- Volcarona's physical defense isn't particularly good and this weakness is exacerbated by its vulnerability to priority.
- Quiver Dance is pretty tight because who doesn't love +1 SpA, +1 SpD, and +1 Spe all in one move?
- Its Speed stat and unique STAB combination is pretty alright for a sweeper
Offensive Quiver Dance
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name: Offensive Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Bug Buzz
move 4: Giga Drain
ability: Flame Body
item: Life Orb
evs: 136 HP / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
nature: Modest
Moves
========
- Quiver Dance is used to boost Volcarona's Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. It is obviously used prior to attacking in order to ultimately achieve a sweep.
- Fire Blast is Volcarona's strongest STAB move with respectable power behind it. If the power isn't needed, Fiery Dance can be used over it for its chance to score Special Attack boosts.
- Bug Buzz is Volcarona's secondary STAB. It hits Pokemon such as Rotom-W, Tyranitar, and Latias, which Fire Blast cannot KO.
- Giga Drain is used to deal with Water-types such as Azumarill and Keldeo. It also gives Volcarona way to deal with Terrakion and heal its HP when attacking.
- AC moves: Hidden Power Rock or Hidden Power Ground to bypass checks and counters. e.g. Heatran, Dragonite
Set Details
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- Modest is to get as much power as possible from Volcarona's attacks. AC mention of Timid for extra Speed but it's generally not worth the power drop, but it does let Volca outpace Scarf Exca.
- Enough Speed to beat Jolly Mega Tyranitar is given by the spread
- Life Orb is for a power boost
Usage Tips
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- Remove entry hazards before switching in
- Beat primary checks and counters before attempting a sweep
- Works best in late-game. You should only try setting up Quiver Dance if you're confident that you can sweep or do great damage with Volcarona.
Team Options
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- Hazard removal for its massive weakness to entry hazards.
- Defog: Latios, Zapdos, Latias, etc.
- Rapid Spin: Excadrill
- Pokemon that can deal with its defensive counters (think Chansey / Heatran etc)
- Specs Keldeo, Bisharp, Landorus
Other Options
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- Volcarona can try to run a bulky Quiver Dance set with Roost and a more defensively inclined EV spread, but the lack of coverage options makes this set hard to pull off because it will be walled by a lot of Pokemon.
Checks & Counters
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- Stealth Rock (4x weak)
- Pokemon that wall Volcarona due to their bulk or resistance to its attacks
- Chansey, Blissey, Heatran, Rotom-H, Mega Charizard X and Y, Dragonite (tank), Assault Vest Tyranitar
- Unaware -> Clefable ignores Quiver Dance boosts and can beat Volcarona if it has Calm Mind or Toxic itself.
- Revenge killers
- Priority: Azumarill, Pinsir, Talonflame
- other: Sand Rush Excadrill (or Jolly Scarf), Garchomp, Dragonite (offensive), Gyarados, Keldeo, Terrakion
- Status
- Paralysis / Toxic from the likes of Chansey (or Thundurus for Twave)
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Offensive Quiver Dance
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name: Offensive Quiver Dance
move 1: Quiver Dance
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Bug Buzz
move 4: Giga Drain
ability: Flame Body
item: Life Orb
evs: 136 HP / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
nature: Modest
Moves
========
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Set Details
========
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Usage Tips
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Team Options
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Other Options
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Checks & Counters
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