SM OU A shitty Volc team (1700+ peak)

[Thighbone]

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This is a team I made a couple weeks ago, and I've been enjoying it so far. It mostly grew out of a desire to make a team with Mega Diancie as support for Volcarona. Not really much else to say, so on to the team!


The Team

Diancie-Mega @ Diancite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
Mega Diancie is the first member of the team, and its role is to function as a lead, as a wallbreaker and as support for Volcarona. Not being the stealth rocker means that Diancie doesn't have to take any hits to set up rocks, increasing its longevity so that the threat of magic bounce is there longer. Having both earth power and diamond storm is also nice, because you can reveal one and make the opponent think you don't have the other so that later you can take out a Heatran or Tornadus or something.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 232 Atk / 68 Def / 208 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Explosion
- Defog
Landorus is the scarfer and defogger. With defog on this and magic bounce on Diancie, it's almost always possible to bring Volcarona in with no rocks. Landorus is also pretty much my only check to physical attackers, which is not ideal because it gets worn down pretty easily. I've got explosion over stone edge or whatever else so that I can make scary things go away, but that means the only way it can touch Rotom is by killing itself. Stone edge might be better, I'm not sure.

Greninja-Ash (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- U-turn
Ash Gren is probably my favorite pokemon in OU, and it seems like I can't make any team without putting it on there. The specific reason this one is here is because Volcarona sets up on most of its checks. That's why it has U-Turn, so that if a Ferrothorn or Magearna or something switches into it Volc can just come in immediately and win. Spikes might still be better though, let me know what you think. Other than that, Greninja acts as a wallbreaker and a secondary win condition, and it has the only form of priority on the team.

Volcarona @ Psychium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Finally we reach Volcarona, the mon this team is built around. Volc has psychium z so that it can get past Toxapex or do a strong neutral hit on somebody; the lack of a bug move isn't a huge problem because Tyranitar and the Latis are countered by most of the rest of the team. Surprisingly, this set can actually do pretty well against rain: bring it in while rain isn't up, quiver on the switch to Pelliper and then again on scald/hurricane (it doesn't do that much). Now you're faster than all the swift swimmers, and you can kill Pelliper with your z and get some big damage on whatever comes in next.

Keldeo @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Taunt
Keldeo is the stall/balance breaker, and it fits in surprisingly well with the rest of the team. Having both it and Ferrothorn means that opposing Ash-Gren is almost never a problem, and having both it and Ash-Gren gives this team a pretty okay matchup against rain. It's also an extra fire resist, taking hits from Heatran so that Diancie and Greninja don't have to. One thing I don't like about this set, though, is that going for a calm mind is almost never a good idea, even against stall. Sometimes it works out, but usually I just have a useless move slot.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Knock Off
Ferrothorn is the rocker of the team and a check to special attackers. It also has power whip, the only move on the team that's super effective against water types, which is not ideal; having a faster threat to mons like Tapu Fini and Mega Swampert would be better. Having another, faster mon with knockoff would also be nice. Even so, I'd say it does its job pretty well; it gets up rocks reliably (so that Diancie doesn't have to), heals up itself and its teammates with leech seed, and also has fairly strong attacks so that it isn't completely passive.


Threats

Tapu Fini - Tapu Fini is the main mon that this team struggles with. Our only super effective hit on it is Ferrothorn's power whip, which is almost impossible to actually use on it if your opponent isn't an idiot. Usually the best way to get rid of it is to get Volcarona to +2 and then OHKO it with z-psychic, but that's kind of hard to pull off.

Celesteela - The only way to really kill this thing is to fire blast it with Volcarona, which means that Volc might get worn down trying to do that. Volc can't usually set up on it either, because of leech seed and protect.

Hawlucha - This pokemon isn't impossible to deal with, but it can be a real problem if you can't outplay your opponent. Lucha + Lele is especially difficult because the spdef boost lets Lucha survive water shurikens that it otherwise wouldn't be able to, and then if your Landorus isn't healthy enough to survive an acrobatics and explode you're basically screwed.

Mold breaker Excadrill - Diancie can't stop this mon from setting up rocks, so sweeping with Volc is a lot more difficult.

Rain - There are some things about this team that make the rain matchup not nearly as bad as it could be (Ferrothorn, double water types, z-psychic on Volc) but the fact that Volc can't operate at full capacity makes it still kind of difficult.


Replays

I thought I knew how to save replays but I guess I didn't. I have a bunch of replays that I downloaded as html files, but I'm not sure how to put them in here. Here's the one replay that I can link to:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-971512758


Pokepaste

https://pokepast.es/0e1a27c6409567a8

 

[Bold School]

Ironically, the team that beat you in that replay you linked appears to have much better synergy. Your team has a ton of special attacking presence and not much in the name of physical attackers outside of Landorus. Does that ever give you problems at all? My first instinct would be to replace Keldeo with some sort of physical attacker. Is it really crucial for certain matchups?

The things you mentioned are Heatran, opposing Greninja, rain, and stall. Although, you also said you can't usually get away with Calm Mind versus stall? This makes little sense to me since stall is normally slow paced enough where you can often set up on it. Either way, if you can't use it as a wall breaker then I wouldn't recommend using that many special attackers on the same team.

--->

You could try replacing Keldeo with a physical dragon set. I suggest this because it would allow you to keep the fire and water resists you were talking about while also balancing out the team's offense. Kommo-o is the most similar to what you already have since it is also part fighting has access to Taunt and easier setup than what you claim with Calm Mind. You could run a mixed or physical variant. It wouldn't be good against all Greninja since many Protean Greninja carry Extrasensory and/or Ice Beam. But you can still out speed it after setup and you have some other ways around it on your team. Keldeo wasn't exactly an answer for Extrasensory anyway.

Here is the set I personally recommend for you:

Kommo-o @ Kommonium Z
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Clanging Scales
- Close Combat
- Poison Jab
- Taunt/Ice Punch/Earthquake/Dragon Dance

I modified the normal Stealth Rock set and simply switched Stealth Rock to Taunt, since that was what you were already closest with for Keldeo. This would allow you to beat stall better. You can replace it with something else if that doesn't work to your liking. Dragon Dance is an option here if you want to set up with that instead of or in addition to the Clangorous Soulblaze Z move if you replace Taunt. You can also replace Taunt with another coverage move like Ice Punch to hit flying and ground types like Tornadus-Therian and Garchomp or Earthquake to hit poison, fire, and electric types like Toxapex, Victini, and Mega Manectric.

Fighting/Poison coverage let's you hit fairy types that otherwise wall you. Any fairy that Poison Jab doesn't hit is likely part steel type like Magearna, and would therefore be hit by fighting STAB anyway.

Psychium Z -----> Leftovers/Life Orb

I mainly recommend doing this if you take my advice on Komoo-o. Obviously, Clangorous Soulblaze is the easiest way to setup on Komoo-o if you can avoid fairy types walling the Z move. And if you do that, you need to adjust Volcarona some. Leftovers would give you just a bit of extra longevity to allow you to setup a little more against certain special attackers. Life Orb would give all your moves extra damage, which would really stack after a Quiver Dance or two and make up just a little bit for not having a Z move.

An optional thing you can do is switch out HP Ground. I say this because the most rest of your team can actually deal with Heatran pretty well. Landorus-Therian can Earthquake it for 4X damage. Same for Mega Diance and Earth Power. Both Ash Greninja and Komoo-o can deal super effective STAB damage to it. On the other hand, Giga Drain gives you a bit more sustain and a much better matchup against rain teams (especially Mega Swampert) once you setup. You could also bring back Bug Buzz if you are so inclined.