Battle Stadium Singles blog #10 — Coba Volcarona (S8)

Here is my first post-Libero, post-DLC foray into ranked after grinding out a relatively decent finish last season. Given that it's still quite early in the new metagame, I don't expect this team to really have much long term viability, but I have nevertheless provided a rental code below because there is enough interesting decision-making to be had here, not to mention how cathartic it is to experience the empirical proof of demonstrating that the hypothesis of the over-centralizing effect of Libero Cinderace/Max Airstream momentum on gen 8 BSS is not purely a structural argument through the full splendor and glory of Coba Berry Max Strike lure Volcarona.

   I've also tried to throw in a paragraph or two about what I think the newcomers to the post-DLC meta on this team (GMax-Cinderace, Urshifu, Volcarona) are likely to do based on previous experience, as well as trying to revamp the team select screen/archetypes section to reflect what is going on at the upper ends of the ranked ladder as of weeks 1-2 into all this newfangled stuff.

Ur-shi*

Even paralyzed, Porygon2 is still good at clicking Recover.

Rental: 0000 0005 YF7H NP

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/96105bc08989b60b

1) Team overview:

Cinderace

Libero Cinderace is the big new threat the format got back in early June before the DLC even hit. Beyond its honeymoon period which saw it easily top the usage percentage list on the second day, it is here to stay thanks to basically hitting the full trifecta in terms of what I consider the main competitive viability criteria for BSS: superior native Speed tier, disproportionately powerful ability, and min-maxed stats or defensive bulk (though in this case obviously not reactive in the way bulk is conventionally understood, but, rather, proactive through its ability and Sucker Punch).

   While not quite a Greninja, primarily due to existing in a game with radically different mechanics, because of its more limited movepool, and — outside the occasional Electro Ball set — its difficulty of running mixed sets in general, this Cinderace can still opt either to try to snowball with a combination of Max Knuckle/Airstream, or work in the back as a potent, non-Dynamax physical threat thanks to its access to the disgustingly powerful Life Orb Libero Sucker Punch, which simply devastates virtually everything that is not carrying significant defensive investment (i.e something fast and frail, meaning Cinderace will use something else thanks to likely being faster anyway), or is still in Dynamax form.

   Overall, though, I have to say that I much prefer the hard, fire-and-forget, Dynamax lead Bounce + Zen Headbutt + Iron Head variants that can't get revenged by priority after trading two Dynamax turns against most opposing non-cripple leads, and can act as a Toxapex wall breaker in its own right. But that is a set for another team.

Urshifu

Urshifu Rapid-Strike is another one of the more powerful new toys in the metagame being the subject of furious experimentation at the moment, alongside Volcarona, Porygon2, and Azumarill, all of which will, in all likelyhood, find a place in the upper range of usage for the remaining duration of gen 8 going forward.

   On this team, the Sash set does the job of Speed control in the lead match up hyper offense typically needs, also protecting Volcarona from the most common Stealth Rock setters as it has historically been one of those things that tends to bait them in better than anything else, and acting as a decent way of checking opposing offensive momentum in the back with its Sash intact.

   Rock Tomb probably looks like the flex slot here, but in reality, it's Thunderpunch that I am not a big fan of on a Sashed non-dedicated Dynamax set like this. Make no mistake about it: its value as a button to click against some of the worst possible lead matchups like Primarina or Azumarill, where Max Lightning is not out of the question if it is likely to 1HKO, is undeniable. But in the end, and despite always finding Sash Counter sets — the only users of note in gen 8 have been Blaze Cinderace, and before that, Counter + Mirror Coat Gastrodon — underwhelming to say the least, this set is not bad thanks to having a Hatterene opener to protect its Sash in the back, or Gyarados to switch in on standard offensive Cinderace momentum after being put at 1 HP after surprising something like Rillaboom or Azumarill. Of course, it also helps that any previous sense of feeling slightly too situational as regards to Counter sets is out the window at this point, thanks to Cinderace.

   There is also an argument for slotting in Taunt, even if a number of the things it would be clicked against are relatively free switch-ins for Volcarona (Corsola, Corviknight, Porygon2, or Skarmory) and Hatterene. And, besides, avoiding the unrecoverable momentum loss lead match ups Urshifu has is part of the team select screen skill set, right?

Volcarona

In the past, it was more or less enough for offensive Volcarona to get inserted so that Quiver Dance could be clicked without being crippled, after which things like Hidden Power: Ground or Z-Hyper Beam/Psychic could then be relied on to blow through the more common checks in Mega Salamence/Charizard X/Y/Heatran with a reasonable degree of certainty. This is no longer true, and not just because of the Dynamax mechanic, whose most prominent examples, the Max Airstream snowball threats Cinderace, Gyarados, Togekiss, and even Dragapult/Dracozolt not only resist one or both of its STABs, but, with the sole exception of Togekiss, don't get punished by coming in down momentum against one Quiver Dance boost owing to the fact that they not only handily take any hit from +1 Volcarona in Dynamax form, but are also Max Airstreaming back from the physical side of the aisle. This phenomenon is also borne out in the metagame in general: physical attackers are simply much more prominent with the absence of the Tapus, Greninja, and Naganadel, making Quiver Dance win-conditions all the more situational.

   Moreover, like Charizard without its mega forms, losing Roost and Morning Sun also means that for Volcarona, too, the meta-knowledge based defensive (FIWAM/pinch berry) Will-o-Wisp / Quiver Dance / Roost / Fiery Dance sets are probably gone now, with seemingly only offensive variants left, be it Substitute + Leftovers Quiver Dance, or even some kind of Weakness Policy based set with Hurricane and Will-o-Wisp.

   The over-centralizing effect of Cinderace on the metagame is also something that virtually guarantees checks that incidentally also tend to do a number on Volcarona: of particular note in this regard are Yawn spam Hippowdon with its Stealth Rock, and since about season 6, fat Intimidate Gyarados as a non-dedicated Dynamax user — going from 70:30 in favor of Moxie to 50:50 in season 7 and flipping to 70:30 for Intimidate in season 8, a remarkable swing considering how long things can take to trickle down from the top of the ladder.

   As regards Togekiss, conventional wisdom would certainly seem to suggest having a few checks or even a hard counter (Rotom-H, Assault Vest Snorlax) on a Volcarona team. To this end, this team aims to solve that problem with a mixture of getting offensive momentum first (2x +1 Max Flare goes through even 252 HP Togekiss in Dynamax form), or, when in the situation of having to respond to opposing Togekiss momentum, doing so through Focus Sash Urshifu (Rock Tomb), Gyarados (Max Guard) or Hatterene (Nuzzle). But, ideally, the best answer is having the wherewithal to have benched Volcarona when the opponent has better momentum tools in the team select screen.

   The reasoning behind going Modest over Timid has to do with the Toxapex match up. Potentially having to switch into a Toxic is already bad enough, but Calm +252 SpDef sets also consistently live even a +1 Max Mindstorm from Timid Volcarona, whereas Modest ones only whiff on the 1HKO 6.3% of the time. Indeed, +1 boosted base 100 Speed is not the major benchmark it was in formats past, the most relevant resulting trade-off being giving up outspeeding +252 Speed Choice Scarf Darmanitan after a Quiver Dance. The unboosted Speed stat of 152 does of course mean that Volcarona is slower than +252 Spd Excadrill and Mimikyu, which, on the other hand, is a valid concern.

   Alright, that was a rather substantial wall of text, but what does all this amount to, then? Well, first, wallbreaking against defensive play is still very much on the table — and, indeed, is what I'm going for with Volcarona on this team; second, the value of forcing out opposing Dynamax with Quiver Dance momentum while preserving your own in the back shouldn't be underestimated, especially when your potential Dynamax users have Max Guard to exhaust an additional Dynamax turn; and, third, there is of course the matter of the Coba Berry tech. It is obviously more clunky than Lum Berry, which makes setting up immensely more consistent, but as with Urshifu's Sash Counter set above, what was once deemed too situational or dubious in some way, is now in danger of becoming viable...and it's not like Volcarona has anything that can 1HKO Gmax-Cinderace from +1 SpAtt even with Stealth Rock support anyway. So, as long as +1 Volcarona is above 70% in that encounter (252 Att Life Orb Max Airstream does 58.3 – 69.5%), and keeping in mind the multiple redundancies this team has for dealing with Cinderace (Gyarados, Counter Urshifu, or even Hatterene, which only dies to 252 Att Life Orb G-Max Fireball 31.3% of the time) before actually committing to Dynamax, Max Strike away by all means.

Hatterene

First of all, Hatterene is not really a thing in the metagame, being most known as a terribly telegraphed Sashed Trick Room setter, now with addition of Misty Explosion as an insertion tool for a sweeper, reminiscent of Curse Mimikyu. Indeed, with relatively minor adjustments to the rest of the team, other, more universally viable, options for this team slot would have to include Hippowdon, Porygon2, and Ferrothorn, with Kee Berry Mimikyu still very much retaining a phenomenal level of checking-consistency even after the introduction of Surging Strikes and G-Max Fireball.

   With the major caveat out of the way, Hatterene is on this team running a fully defensive Assault Vest set, whose goal is to Nuzzle cripple or bruise an opponent to enable momentum simultaneously leveraging Magic Bounce to protect Focus Sash Urshifu, Gyarados, and Volcarona from Stealth Rock, also bringing to the table decent match ups against both hard stall and reverse-Speed control (the Trick Room Porygon2 fad as well as the Mimikyu classic).

   The substantial defensive investments are adapted from haru-poke's build, and are basically geared to live any single unboosted, non-Dynamax physical hit, including 252 Att Iron Head from Excadrill, with even Sash +252 Att Aegislash Iron Head being survivable 87.5% of the time, letting it consistently cripple a target with Nuzzle. Kind of remarkable given that Hatterene often ends up playing out as a suicide lead anyway, this not only frees up Focus Sash for another teammate, but, with Assault Vest, lets it also play reactively to Nuzzle things like Togekiss (252 SpAtt Max Airstream/Starfall miss the 2HKO) and Porygon2 to some extent.

   Offensive coverage targets Toxapex and Ferrothorn (the former is also the chief target of Hatterene's Speed creep), and having a move to click after switching in on or leading against the increasingly common Hex Dragapult set — Rotom-W is also something Hatterene really wants to trade into. Beyond the Rotom-W match up, Giga Drain over the admittedly kind of redundant Mystical Fire would also add a degree of longevity in the Hippowdon encounter, but being already natively slower than hippo, denying Yawn and Stealth Rock while bruising it into sweeping range has been enough thus far.

Gyarados

Fat Intimidate Gyarados obviously gives up any hope of offensively breaking through stuff like Rotom-W in exchange for providing a defensive check to 252 Att Life Orb Gmax-Cinderace, being able to hard switch into a Life Orb Max Airstream and not even have its Sitrus Berry proc, one of only a handful of things in the entire format able to make the same claim.

   One of a number of different bulky Gyarados spreads from the recent past, this set is so defensive it might benefit from going Thunder Wave over Taunt to get as much out of its defensive kit as possible, because its benchmarks for Speed and offense do not allow it to play like Gyarados usually would.

   The Speed investments allow Gyarados to Taunt only up to max Speed Mimikyu's 162 after a Dragon Dance, for what that's worth. Indeed, even Kee Berry Mimikyu has had to cede some ground to defensive Porygon2 in the I-check-everything-physical-but-Cinderace role. Therefore, because its existence is so limited to checking physical momentum from Cinderace and other Gyarados, with Azumarill also being notable given what Aqua Jet does to Volcarona (and Cinderace on paper, at least) with the occasional highlight of catching a hippo with Taunt to actually Dragon Dance on, this iteration of Gyarados I found is alright being benched when playing for momentum yourself.

Dragapult

As outlined above, one of the goals of this team is to force Volcarona momentum in order to lure and duel the Cinderace or just bait out the opposing Dynamax. As with Gyarados, Max Guard on Dragapult can capitalize on this by regaining momentum by exhausting the opposing Dynamax.

   Unlike Gyarados, however, this set — by kacr — is obviously a more dedicated Dynamax user. As regards Weakness Policy in general, Dragapult sets in that vein have a long and illustrious pedigree in gen 8 BSS, with EV-spreads and movesets to sate one's every desire.

   Still, reasonable people would probably opt for more defensive bulk (a good benchmark is to consistently live Cinderace Sucker Punch outside Dynamax, which this set does only 60% of the time), and an unboosted real Spd stat of 189 to likewise beat Cinderace's 188. Rather than going too deep into the weeds on a hypothetical 1v1 scenario, the way most games actually play out in practice is that one party always has the Dynamax momentum, so that playing around Dynamax Dragapult's Weakness Policy proc is what the Cinderace player has to factor in in order to come out on top. Sucker Punch obviously doesn't care about the Spd stat in this match up either, and being slower in any kind of 1v1 in a vacuum doesn't change the fact that a sequence of Max Guard-Max Wyrmwind-Max Guard will shut down any Cinderace that knows to go for Max Airstream over Max Darkness as its opener.

2) Usage notes:

As per tradition, I played around 30 games total with a few different iterations of the team above. The main conclusion being that this team can gamble through offensive match ups as long as the lead game works, with defensive teams ideally having the answer of Volcarona inserted against a paralyzed opponent.

Placement matches with the first version, which included 204 HP / 164 Def / 140 SpA Modest Choice Specs Expanding Force Indeedee-F in an attempt to recapture the glory days of LeleVolc.

Trading evenly at triple digits thanks to a combination of early-season poor match-making and people trying to figure out all the new toys.

2.1 — Usual team compositions

Hatterene-Urshifu/Gyarados-Dragpult/Cinderace

Urshifu-Gyarados-Cinderace/Dragapult

Volcarona-Urshifu/Hatterene-Gyarados/Dragapult/Cinderace

2.2 — Most brought, by rate/member (descending)

 

1. Urshifu

2. Hatterene

3. Cinderace

4. Gyarados

5. Dragapult

6. Volcarona

2.3 — VS Team Select Screen (in order of frequency)

Balanced or Momentum Offense (goodstuffs compositions)

- Cinderace, Rillaboom, Togekiss/Gyarados, Excadrill, Mimikyu, Dragapult/Dracozolt, Rotom-W, Yawn Hippowdon/Snorlax, Porygon2.

- At first glance, almost everything bar 1-2 defensive anchors is potentially an offensive threat in its own right, likely with a solid defensive backbone in something like Hippowdon, Ferrothorn or Snorlax. Indeed, most teams in this mold are geared towards winning three 1v1s.

- With multiple threats like this, something might also have an unexpected support set like Sash/Stealth Rock + Rock Tomb Excadrill or Will-o-Wisp + Thunder Wave Dragapult in order to get an edge over everyone else slapping together teams of the most impactful pokemon in the format like this.

Hatterene-Urshifu-Dragapult

Urshifu-Cinderace-Gyarados/Dragapult

Hatterene is a decent lead, though does not particularly enjoy hitting Excadrill, but even still, breaking its Focus Sash or scouting its Choice Scarf are both good outcomes that set up momentum.

   Urshifu, which wants to avoid Rotom-W, can elect to lead into Rillaboom if a Choice Band set is likely, because in such a case Wood Hammer is one of the few things that do indeed oneshot Hatterene (the Nuzzle trade is obviously also bad against Sash Rillaboom because of Grassy Terrain recovery).

   Porygon2 is one of those things Dragapult tends to want to avoid because it is unbreakable unless heavily bruised prior in the game, or when rocking Weakness Policy boosts. The danger is amplified that much more if it is present as the sole offensive pivot, meaning Thunder Wave (16% usage as of week 2 of July) is that much more likely.

Screens or Tailwind Offense

- Light Clay Gmax-Lapras + Kee Berry Mimikyu (Swords Dance + Drain Punch) in the back.

- Grimmsnarl or other (Light Clay) Dual Screens as leads or as follow-ups to (Dynamax) damage leads à la Trick Room offense builds.

- Alternatively, dedicated suicide/cripple leads like Tailwind/Memento/Switcheroo Whimsicott (Sash, Eject Button, Flame Orb) or Will-o-Wisp/Thunder Wave/Curse Dragapult/Mimikyu with set-up win conditions in Togekiss or Haxorus, for example.

Hatterene-Cinderace/Urshifu-Dragapult

Urshifu/Volcarona-Hatterene-Dragapult

Avoiding getting crippled by Prankster Thunder Wave or Lagging Tail likely means slow playing it from the start, and playing reactively with your Dynamax (Infiltrator Dragapult).

Dedicated Defense or Stall Mode

- Ferrothorn-Toxapex, 1-2 offensive options to clean up.

- Stall Mode: Avalugg, Corviknight, Toxapex, Unaware Clefable/Quagsire, Gastrodon.

- Offensive option/slot: Ditto, Darmanitan pivot, Mimikyu/Dragapult.

Volcarona-Hatterene-Gyarados/Cinderace

Depending on the opponent's exact line up, Hatterene and Volcarona should both be viable brings. Gyarados' Taunt should not be overlooked, but what it really brings to the table is an answer to stall mode's possible sweeper or wall breaker option, provided it's something like Cinderace, Ditto, or Darmanitan, and not SpAtt Dragapult, for instance.

Trick Room mode

- Trick Room Curse Mimikyu typically paired with Rhyperior, Dracovish, Azumarill, or even something like Primarina, Lapras, or Marowak.

- Porygon2 is also a potential Trick Room setter when paired with one or more of the slow offensive threats above.

- Likely partners include Sash/Dynamax leading a sweeper to trade 1-for-1 at a minimum so that Trick Room Mimikyu and its partner can clean up.

- The other, conventional mode may consist of Ferrothorn, Cinderace/Dracozolt/Dragapult, and even Gyarados and/or Togekiss play.

Hatterene/Volcarona-Dragapult-Urshifu/Cinderace

Urshifu-Dragapult/Cinderace

Urshifu is the go-to against a suspected Mimikyu-mode's aggressive opener. The much more telegraphed Poyrgon2 variants usually opt to lead, so Assault Vest Hatterene can comfortably exhaust Trick Room turns in that scenario.

3) In Conclusion:

For the next entry, I'm thinking about experimenting with Taunt / Bulk Up / Flame Charge / Baton Pass Cinderace into something like Dragapult, or seeing if I can do something with Kingdra (unlikely) or Single-Strike Urshifu. Revisiting Dracovish is also on the agenda at some point.

- Tox

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