I want to talk about another one of my all-time favorite Pokemon.
Well, I say all-time but compared to some of the others, this gal is a newcomer to Pokemon relatively.
She's big, scary, really tanky but also REALLY hurts. You give her one free turn and she'll break your entire spirit.
Best of all, she comes from a Pokemon typing that most people associate with being kinda bad with maybe... a few notable exceptions.
Did I mention she's a Kaiju, just like how Tyranitar was an homage to Godzilla?
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I really like Volcarona. I really like her design, and I love how she's the ultimate bug-type. She can outperform a hell of a lot if not ALL the bug-type legendaries for one and she's not even a pseudo-legendary. (though to be fair, she is part fire-type so bug-types really don't like fighting her)
Though personally I do consider Volcarona to be a pseudo-legendary. Larvesta takes eons to evolve into Volcarona. It only evolves at level 59. For a bug-type that's basically forever. Hell, for almost all Pokemon that's one of the longest that it takes. It has a base stat total of 550 which is almost 600. So it's almost a pseudo-legendary. And it's got a 4x weakness to rock, which used to amusingly be one of the prerequisites for being a pseudo-legendary. Yeah, I have no idea why having a 4x weakness used to be one of those but oh well.
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Strengths:Volcarona shares a lot of the traits I associate with very powerful Pokemon.
1. She has very misleading weaknesses.Sure, you might look at this and go...
That's a lot of weaknesses. But it's also strong against many things and takes okayish damage from others. Not to mention just like with Tyrantiar it can be misleading because our girl here can boost her special defense so high that even the strongest special attacks will just bounce off her. Making her a really powerful special wall if she wants.
Additionally, one of her favorite Abilities is Flame Body. And that thing procs very reliably. So essentially the opponent has to gamble against a burn for the chance to hit her physically. And if the burn procs, you better pray for a crit because she ain't dying and will start using you as setup fodder.
2. She has very optimized stats.Look at this baby:
Essentially perfection. It might have 550BST but that doesn't matter because it doesn't really waste too much in attack which it doesn't need. Great speed, great special defense, and fantastic special attack. Good HP too. And all that gets boosted as well.
3. She is fricking scary.When it comes to breaking your shit, Volcarona is one of the top tier choices you could have on a team. She has access to one of the best boosting moves in the game in Quiver Dance. Hell, I'm sure everyone has seen it. All it takes is one Quiver Dance and it's basically good
nightday forever. You better pray you have priority water, rock, or flying if not you're in some serious shit.
And she has access to devastating combat moves. Fire blast or the lesser Fiery Dance if you're a gambler. Heat Wave for those multi battles. Bug Buzz for more STAB. Hidden Power for coverage. Anything she can't 1HKO, she'll just continue stacking Quiver Dances until she does.
Best of all, she comes with really good sustain. Between leftovers and Roost, she'll be there forever unless you have really good physical moves.
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Weaknesses:
She has weaknesses too, there's no doubt about it. All Pokemon have weaknesses except for a certain bullshit dragon. But if you can work with them, she is easily top-tier.
For one, she's relatively weak to physical, especially rock-type moves. This includes
Stealth Rock obviously, so if you want to run her you basically need anti-entry hazards. She always has to watch for priority too. Stuff like Accelrock and Aqua Jet are scary, alongside Talonflame or what have you. But she can gamble against lesser physical attacks and hope for a burn.
She might be weak to water special moves at first, but with some smart play she can combo Quiver Dance with Roost to easily turn that weakness into a boon. There are many, many overconfident people who think they can down a Volcarona with Surf. This is a mistake. This is free setup for our queen. Well, unless it's a Choice Specs surf or something. Water moves also become a nonissue if Volcarona is being run in a sun team, which it very often is but conversely can become a major threat in the rain.
Additionally while she could theoretically be unpredictable (she has a really big moveset) and could be run with stuff like Assault Vest or Choice Specs or what have you, the strength of her Quiver Dance is so potent that you can basically guarantee she'll always have it no matter what. But again, you could turn that into a strength as if people are expecting the Quiver Dance but she ends up being a Choiced Wallbreaker, you can leverage that to an easy win.
Toxic. Volcarona can handle Paralyze to some degree but Toxic? She doesn't like Toxic. Then again, who does really?
Taunt, phasing out, trick, etc. etc. Anything that cancels the boosting. Though this is usually only a problem if Volcarona hasn't boosted up yet. After she has a boost or two, it's usually not an issue.
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Volcarona is one of those Pokemon like Cloyster who could theoretically have a lot of varied movesets but everyone really only uses one. Because that one is so goddamn strong that despite being ridiculously predictable, it's so strong anyway. It instills fear just by appearing in the deck. It's a bit difficult to describe but I'll try anyway.
Volcarona, like Cloyster and Toxapex and Aegislash, have kits so well known but are so potent that despite you knowing what's going to happen, it's like a train that you can't stop without huge amounts of preparation. You might have a Pokemon that counters it. Or Stealth Rocks up or something. But that's not enough.
Say you're in a big, tough match. You're both several Pokemon down. But you know the Volcarona is coming. The only thing stopping it is the Stealth Rocks. The enemy is just waiting for you to expend all your resources. Then it'll sacrifice a Pokemon to defog the arena. You know that's coming. You can't stop it. You already lost. It's already checkmate. That's Volcarona for you. Or maybe the only thing that could have stopped it was your Talonflame, but you had to sacrifice it to get rid of the enemy's Scizor. Now there's nothing that can fight the Volcarona.
Or hell, my favorite one. Say you get into a match. You see your opponent has a Volcarona but also a Smeargle. You gamble that Smeargle will be leading to set up hazards or boost. So you send out your lead as well. But it turns out the enemy sent out Volcarona first. Oh fuck. It takes you one turn to switch. You know it will Quiver Dance. Shit has hit the fan and it's only turn one.
Pokemon like these exist in a power tier where somehow being predictable can actually benefit them because of their reputation and their sheer power. But it's not to say that they can't. They just don't need to. But when they do decide to be unpredictable, you can spend the entire time expecting the Quiver Dance to come... only to be obliterated by something else.
And that's what makes this Queen so scary.
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She defies the bug-type stereotype. She's not squishy, she doesn't evolve quickly, and she's not a newbie friendly Pokemon. Her moveset and proper usage requires some experience in the game, as you need to know what attacks she can safely boost through and what she can't switch into.
And the thing I love about her the most? She's just a normal Pokemon that can easily manhandle legendaries like nobody's business.
If you ever find yourself wondering
"hmm, I could really use a really powerful special attacker or a special wall... then look no further." Volcarona can fit into almost any team and will serve you very well.
Bonus trivia: Volcarona and Sunflora (who I wiffed on earlier) both have the same category name. They're both the Sun Pokemon.
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Topic: A Thread about the Pokemans: POKEMANS ON MOTORCYCLES (Read 684357 times)