Hi all, aspiring grass specialist here, recently I've been having quite a difficult time finding a reliable grass counter to Volcarona. More often than enough, the Satan moth quiver dances a path of destruction through my poor unsuspecting seedlings. So far, I'm aware that rock tomb breloom and cradily can somewhat deal with it in very niche situations, having no stealth rocks up for focus sash breloom and praying the moth doesn't have bug buzz for cradily. However, most of the time due to grass's lack of reliable defoggers and decent speed tier choice scarf users, seeing a volcarona especially after rocks from torkoal or forretress is simply an unwinnable game. Currently, I found that probably the most reliable way to stop the devil's insect is encore/tailwind whimiscott. However, that usually just delays the inevitable as the opposing player simply just pivots to a defensive option and the moth comes back in all it's special attacking glory.
So grass type experts, what are your methods of dealing with Butterfree's pyromaniac cousin?
GoldenTorkoal has explained most of my thoughts on his post but I will share my insights on that matter as well:
Volcarona is a huge threat to Grass teams, which means this matchup needs to be played around carefully. Cradily should be your most consistent response in many cases due to its ability to somewhat take Fire hits (except the Inferno Overdrive at +1) and OHKO it back with Rock Slide.
That being said, Cradily should be kept healthy for the most part of the game.
However there is something I disagree when he mentions:
I don't think there's another way to deal with it when using Grass, since i think Encore Whimsicott is inconsistent to neutralize a huge threat like Volcarona, especially because it tends to run a Z-move which is not affected by Encore.
Although Whimsicott is never able to win a 1v1 against Volcarona,
Encore locks its target on its last used move. This means that, even if Volcarona chooses to use Inferno Overdrive, two things will happen:
1- It will always force a switch because it will be locked in quiver dance so you can easily revenge kill with Breloom, Tapu Bulu or Cradily. Forcing switches on huge threats is always great.
2- Your opponent will no longer have the Firium-Z avaliable if it uses on the Encore turn, providing more opportunities for Cradily to check it.
This scenario, despite not always guarateeing the win, will provide a good amount of time / opportunity for you to play properly and not get swept if you correctly manage your responses. So even if Whimsicott dies, it can provide a reasonable amount of ''pressure'' by forcing a switch or preventing it from setting up so your teammates can check it and KO if it stays in.
If your opponent is using Armaldo (which in the case he should) it is not as hard to remove as Forrretress because Breloom can sleep induce and proceed to threaten it with Rock Tomb so you can also eventually bring up Stealth Rocks up depending on what Pokemon they have on the field. Of course you should not always expect to win the matchup because it is one of the hardest rn for Grass but hopefully I was able to clarify the options you have in that matchup and what is possible to do in a realistic battle scenario.
edit: gonna include response to DragonAscent's question here too so:
Hey, so I entered a casual monotype tournament and picked grass. The problem is that another guy got to reserve a mega before I could, and he picked venu for poison, so I picked sceptile since my other option was abomasnow. Any advice on building a mono grass team without mega venu? Should also mention that kartana isn't banned in that tournament, if that helps. Thanks in advance.
Sadly, Grass teams are not viable without the presence of Mega-Venusaur due to its amazing bulk and the Fire / Ice neutrality it provides to the type through Thick Fat, but if you really want to build a team around a secondary mega option, then definitely Mega-Sceptile is more worth of a shot than Abomasnow. (but keep in mind you shouldn't be using either in a standard environment). Your team would probably be focused on a more offensive approach due to how handicapped you already are at your defenses (maybe include a cradily + ferrothorn for hazard support).
(also make sure to use kartana since your friends dont mind and good luck lol)