Help I Just Can't Win Consistently With Volcanion and it's Depressing.

[TheGuardian118]

Well those are relatively simple techs to correct if that's your meta. Against a water meta run the new stadium that gives you no weakness, Altar of the Sun, and/or tech in one weakness policy. Against Garb, you can afford to play a little slower and not use as many items, but you don't necessarily need to change the decklist just how you play it. Your main weakness is that this deck really needs Shaymin and if you don't have enough you're already playing from behind. In Pokémon there's quite a bit of Rock/Paper/Scissors so you will have some 20/80 matchups that are mostly unwinnable, but the key is to turn your 50/50 matchups into 70/30 and accept one or two autoloss matchups. I wish my meta was a little more Water based, I could use my Greninja deck again. Near me lots are running Grass or Metal so Fire is the counter.

It's also possible you just need to wait it out, if water is getting popular again then grass will rise to counter it, which means fire will rise to counter that, and the cycle continues.

 

[josie0001]

I spent the entire first half of the season, from Rotation thru the New Year, playing Volcanion exclusively, and the issues you're having are a result of the inherent problems with the deck, not necessarily meta-related issues - excluding Garb, of course, which just punishes any of the old, item-heavy builds. That said, the deck is also inherently quite powerful, which gives current and former Volc players hope.

Much like Decidueye, Volcanion is powerful enough to battle thru weakness from time to time, so teching in awful stadiums like Altar or a Weakness Policy will only muddy up an already tight and at times clunky list. You will lose to Gyarados, but then again teching in 1 copy of Spinda and hitting it at the right time could make it winnable - only testing will tell. Water Box/Lapras is an auto-loss: every deck has them. Greninja is a totally winnable matchup, 50/50 at worst, but from my experience, that's with the non-elixir builds (which I still believe are better), so you're using your resources Steaming Up and taking early KOs with Baby Volc and setting up the bench for a big KO on a BREAK late-game. You also NEED 1 copy of Ranger to mitigate Shadow Stitching.

Azul's take on the deck at Madison Regionals seems to be heading in the right direction in the new Garb-dominated meta - I'd look that up and start from there. I will say this too: ignore just about anything that has worked in the past. The Hoopa/Shaymin Engine might not be ideal anymore. Max Elixirs and Mails/Bikes might no longer be necessary. Turtonator just might not work in the deck. Cards that constantly feed energies to your hand but AREN'T items, like Oricorio or Starmie, now seem more powerful. Brooklet Hill does seem to be better right now than any other past stadium choices. Test everything and take nothing for granted. You'll find your win percentage increase over time if you're willing to put in the work.

All this applies to Darkrai too. There's been a couple post-GRI lists that have been interesting and successful. Look 'em up, take ideas from them, put in some of your own, and go from there. Good luck!

 

[StevenM]

I spent the entire first half of the season, from Rotation thru the New Year, playing Volcanion exclusively, and the issues you're having are a result of the inherent problems with the deck, not necessarily meta-related issues - excluding Garb, of course, which just punishes any of the old, item-heavy builds. That said, the deck is also inherently quite powerful, which gives current and former Volc players hope.

Much like Decidueye, Volcanion is powerful enough to battle thru weakness from time to time, so teching in awful stadiums like Altar or a Weakness Policy will only muddy up an already tight and at times clunky list. You will lose to Gyarados, but then again teching in 1 copy of Spinda and hitting it at the right time could make it winnable - only testing will tell. Water Box/Lapras is an auto-loss: every deck has them. Greninja is a totally winnable matchup, 50/50 at worst, but from my experience, that's with the non-elixir builds (which I still believe are better), so you're using your resources Steaming Up and taking early KOs with Baby Volc and setting up the bench for a big KO on a BREAK late-game. You also NEED 1 copy of Ranger to mitigate Shadow Stitching.

Azul's take on the deck at Madison Regionals seems to be heading in the right direction in the new Garb-dominated meta - I'd look that up and start from there. I will say this too: ignore just about anything that has worked in the past. The Hoopa/Shaymin Engine might not be ideal anymore. Max Elixirs and Mails/Bikes might no longer be necessary. Turtonator just might not work in the deck. Cards that constantly feed energies to your hand but AREN'T items, like Oricorio or Starmie, now seem more powerful. Brooklet Hill does seem to be better right now than any other past stadium choices. Test everything and take nothing for granted. You'll find your win percentage increase over time if you're willing to put in the work.

All this applies to Darkrai too. There's been a couple post-GRI lists that have been interesting and successful. Look 'em up, take ideas from them, put in some of your own, and go from there. Good luck!

I'm 8-5 with the newest Volcanion deck I made. Lost mirror match due to circumstances such as coin flip. Coin Flip determines mirror matches. He was able to go second so he was able to be one step ahead all game and I lost. He also ran Elixirs, Mails, etc so he was faster than me too. Lost to some Garb deck that techs in Vaporeon for no reason so of course he squeaks out the win. And I lost to Ninetales GX due to losing track of what Steam Ups I needed for knock out on Ninetales. I'm so stupid because I should have won that one. So 9-4 is my actual record. (if you even can count that)

Played close to 400 games and I still play like a noob. Sorry for my terrible attitude but i'm just very sad and disheartened by how bad I am at this. I'm not very good at critical thinking.


I'm trying to put in the work but I keep making stupid decisons and the deck lets me down in tight games. That combination just drives me into the dumps. Idk what to say really. I don't have any friends that play and the closes shop to me doesn't even play Standard.

 

[SLEvIN609]

Hi i see nobody speek of the 1-1 Line of staryu/starmie in this deck. Volcanion is going to be Power Up with Burning Shadows set,so continu with it.

From my side i have started with this deck but switch for a Umbreon/Zoroark break deck because god i love copying a Gx attach.

 

[ToxicGirl]

Idk what to do because that's the deck I started out with a month ago. Before Guardians Rising, I was winning 60% of games (most of which were without Elixirs, Shaymins), which is tournament worthy. I just can't seem to strike the right combo of cards for a consistent Volcanion deck right now. It draws dead a lot for me. And Turtonator doesn't help most often. It's easy for the opponent to play around regarding Shell Trap. Never have been able to pull off it's GX attack.

I also run into the dilemma of not having bench space for the Hoopa or Shaymins, and to fill my bench with Volcanions. On one hand, Sky Field is great for that, but Scorched earth can help give me draw power. And I also run into the problem of having too many items which makes Garb an auto loss.

I tell myself there is Darkrai, but who am I kidding? It plays sorta the same way so i'd likely be the same way. I have never been to a locals or anything but i want to have a deck i can feel good with and win with. It's very frustrating.

I play Volcanion also, and lose a lot too. But don't think of your losses as failing, think of them as experience. Losing, for me, is what makes me a better player.