Do I even need to introduce the fact that I'm not saying this is a god?
With a ridiculous stat spread that lends well to nearly every team archetype and nearly every god available, Golisopod stands out as a strong abuser of practically any team you want. You got a pretty defensive Pokemon and need a tank? If it has Recovery or Leech Life, just slap Golisopod on and either click a setup move or toxic everything to death. Got an offensive team and have a spare slot? Golisopod loves having access to Priority moves and realistic coverage options that help it, like Earthquake and Fire Punch. Got a Trick Room God and want to have a physical abuser? Just give Golisopod a STAB move... or don't, and give it strong offensive options, or even make it a tanky Trick Room setter that can use STAB U-Turn to pivot out into a proper abuser.
Let's look at a few fairly popular Gods.
With Nidoking, Golisopod has access to its entire ridiculously large Movepool and access to an incredible boosting ability, Sheer Force. Megahorn and Aqua Tail form pretty good STAB options (better than X-Scissor but worse than Leech Life and Liquidation), letting Golisopod have access to one or either of its two main spamming moves. Neither are boosted by Sheer Force, but the Elemental Punches, Rock Slide, and Gunk Shot make up for it, giving him enough coverage to scare out practically anything that fails to OHKO. Earthquake and Superpower are also nice for when you don't run Fire Punch to break through physical walls such as tanky Steel types not named Celesteelmywins. Sucker Punch lets you use at least some form of priority to get around Golisopod's practically nonexistant Speed stat, which is fun. Nidoking is also possible to pass down Stealth Rock, Taunt, and Toxic Spikes for a supporting Golisopod. A RestTalk Hone Claws set is possible with either STAB move, although sadly Nidoking doesn't get Curse. Unlike everything else.
Clefable's a bit... weird for Golisopod. He gets no STAB option, which is sad, and no boosting options for Attack, which is even more sad. What you get instead is Clefable's mental supporting and coverage movepool consisting of the Elemental Punches, Drain Punch, Knock Off, and Meteor Mash offensively and Thunder Wave, Cosmic Power, Softboiled, Heal Bell, Stealth Rocks, Wish, Trick, Magic Coat, Dual Screens, Encore, and even Metronome for a laugh set. He can be the team's offensive tank with a Life Orb and Magic Guard, a Magic Guard Toxic Orb Defensive set with Cosmic Power, Softboiled, and 2 coverage options, or just an Unaware tank. He fits a few roles pretty well, but his awkward typing might not land him a spot.
Rock Jesus. Think Nidoking, but has arguably even better Physical moves to abuse the hell out of. Golisopod can retain its fairy frequent role of a Rocks setter, who remains having the ability to have Thunder Wave from Clefable, semi-reliable healing in Pain Split, and Phazing with Whirlwind. A physical movepool consisting of Elemental Punches, Head Smash, Rock Slide, Earthquake, Hammer Arm, Crunch, Iron Head, Pursuit, Superpower, and Zen Headbutt is also neato. A lack of STAB is a bit sad, but it's sacraficable with the magical abilities of Mold Breaker, making supporting movesets able to set rocks and Taunt a bit easier, and Sheer Force, turning a majority of the moves you'll be using into even stronger options that remove Life Orb Recoil, A lack of Hazard Removal for Golisopod's sake sucks, though.
Yeah, looks good, right? Thought so. Golis is fun, but I haven't experimented perfectly with him. Doesn't help this Meta doesn't look like it'll be going anywhere anytime soon with how little most people play it. Get some games, peeps!
...I don't want to double post, so I'm doing ANOTHER POST RIGHT HERE! HAHA!
+ SlideQuake is nice for practically anything and with Sand being a high focus with Excadrill, It's not that bad.
+ Other Physical options can fit for a bunch of Mons main STAB moves, like Poison Jab, X-Scissor, Iron Head and Brick Break, but also the fairly bad but still there Aerial Ace.
+ Mold Breaker is a fantastic ability in an metagame where an entire team can have Unaware or sturdy, while Sand Rush and Force can be run alongside a Sand setter to create very quickly dangerous physical attackers with an immunity to Sand residual damage.
+ Access to Swords Dance and Hone Claws is pretty nice for setup.
+ Special Movepool has Earth Power, Sludge Bomb, and Focus Blast, and with Hidden Power, most Special mons will only need three attacks to do enoguh damage, and can run one of Excadrill's nice supporting moves.
+ Access to Stealth Rocks and Rapid Spin is shared by extremely few decent Pokemon.
+ Excadrill itself is an incredibly good Pokemon, and thus can fill in a slot on the team instead of being just deadweight like some Gods tend to be (ex. Keckleon).
- Very limited Special movepool makes it difficult to find Pokemon that carry a STAB of one of the types it has (although, like in an earlier post of mine, Keldeo is still great for this job).
- Related to above, has a lack of a move that boosts Special Attack.
- Only 2 supporting moves that are good are Stealth Rock and Rapid Spin. No Taunt, no Spikes, nothing like that. Magnet Rise is there I guess?
Essentially, Excadrill is the Hyper Offense god that appreciates a Weather, but doesn't need said weather to do things. Mold Breaker's good enough for standard teams, if you're not a fan of running Sandstorm. Keldeo, Camerupt-Mega, Gengar, and Nihilego don't mind the Special Attacking movepool, and can use it well enough that they can fill the one or two slots you'll use for Special Attackers. Sand Rush can turn anything into a dangerous threat, and Swords Dance only makes things harder for teams not built to take on Hyper Offense. If you're afraid of Unaware, you can fill a slot with a Mold Breaker SD Pokemon like Kyurem-Black and just wallbreak Stall teams into oblivion. Golisopod is also nice here (see? Tying into earlier posts is a great idea.), with STAB X-Scissor and having SD/Rocks with Mold Breaker. And don't forget the fact that Excadrill itself is actually a good Pokemon.
yeeeeee ending to posts
boneless pizza