Monotype Ground Monotype team

[klowdu]

So basically, I play on a minecraft pixelmon server, and am trying to make a team for ground gym leader(I also want to use this team in natdex monotype on showdown for fun though).

Just some things to consider while giving feedback are that both arceus and regular landorus are banned in those gyms i'm trying to become leader of, and so are quick claw, and razor fang. Dynamaxing is also banned. And the clauses are OKHO, Sleep, Species, Endless battle, Evasion, Moody, and Swagger.

My Team:

Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Scale Shot

Garchomp is the main sweeper for this team, with a garchompite to make him hit harder and bulkier to survive a shuriken greninja, and scale shot to try to and outspeed any problematic ice and grass types. Fire fang is also to deal with any grass or ice types that won't get 1 shot by an earthquake, or are just bulkier in general. Swords dance is of course to make mega garchomp hit like a train instead of a truck, but I can never seem to find any time to get that off without a counter/check immediately coming out and forcing me to switch, so i'm thinking of maybe changing that.

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Toxic

Hippowdown is the setup pokemon of my team and can also double as a toxic stall with his survivability and slack off. His sandstorm also sets up excadrill's sand rush in order to get myself an extra speedy pokemon for one to three turns. I was thinking of replacing it because it becomes dangerous to keep in if a water/flying or ice/flying pokemon were to get swapped in, but it is my main sandstorm provider, which would also maybe help with a substitute pokemon.

Excadrill @ Steelium Z
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide

Excadrill is my anti-ice/second sweeper pokemon. It has sand rush so that it can outspeed fast ice types like alolan ninetales, frosslass and weavile, while also having iron head, and steelium-z to ensure they die as soon as possible. Rock slide is there in order to take care of any flying type pokemon people may bring to try and exploit the ground immunity, and earthquake as a powerful and usually reliable stab move against anyone careless enough to bring a poison type.

Gastrodon-East @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
- Earth Power

Gastrodon is my main anti-water pokemon. A reliable switch in for any water type pokemon about to use a water move, while also equipped with toxic to stall some health down, if none of my other pokemon are tanky enough to fight it. I also gave it scald to possibly burn any dangerous physical attackers people might bring along. And of course I have recover and leftovers to ensure that gastrodon can live as long as possible. The only two downsides are its 4x weakness to grass types and also its slug paced speed. I was considering swapping it for quagsire, due to its better moveset, but decided that gastrodon is the better chioce with more health and sp. atk.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Knock Off
- Earthquake

Mamoswine was my solution to fast grass type pokemon. I haven't been able to test this very well yet, since i haven't queued with any grass monotype teams, but I had one encounter with a grassy terrain, grassy glide and choice band Rillaboom setup that basically swept my team. The jolly nature, which is probably unexpected was to give Mamoswine a higher speed stat than any Rillabooms that don't have a choice scarf, or a speed nature so that it could move first with ice shard. The life orb is to make sure that ice shard can do a good amount of damage to any grass types that are out with Mamoswine. The rest of the moveset is just copy/paste from its smogon page.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Knock Off
- Superpower
- U-turn
- Earthquake

Landorus is sometimes my revenge killer, but was mainly used as a counter to scarfed arctovish and ash greninja, equipped with superpower to deal super effective damage to them both. It also serves as an attempt at an ice killer, but the scarf can mess up my whole strat forcing me to swap, and even if it doesn't force me to swap it probably wasn't a good idea to make a pokemon that is 4x weak to ice an ice killer... I am considering swapping it for a nidoking(will put below) or a donphan(will put below).

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Not part of the team, but considering

Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
- Poison Jab
- Thunder Punch

I'm considering using both this nidoking and the donphan below as sort of hard counters to ground counters. The only skepticism i have is that none of the moves on either one are STAB, nor do either of them have the best stats... Nonetheless, I have considered them for their potential as hard counters to any of the 3 types that are strong against ground, and yes this does mean I just slapped moves that are super effective against grass, ice and water on them with almost no regard for strategy. I just did the bare minimum with evs, natures and whether the moves are physical or not. I gave this nidoking sheer force instead of poison point because all of the moves it has, while not very good in base power, have a secondary effect + the life orb, basically giving it a choice band without the choice restriction. Not sure if thats a good idea or not though...

Donphan @ Choice Band
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Seed Bomb
- Gyro Ball
- Ice Shard
- Fire Fang

Donphan has ice shard, which i could use in case of mamoswine's death. He also has sturdy and a choice band, max attack evs, adamant nature and a wide range of moves that are super effective against all 3 of ground's weaknesses. I also gave it good old gyro ball due to its weight, and terrible speed stat. I'm not sure who, if anyone I would replace with this Donphan, but I am almost desperate at this point for walls and anti-grass/ice/water types so that i don't get swept by every decent grass type or water type or whatever pokemon it may be.

 

[style.css]

Hey there and welcome! You have a good start to your team but there are some things that could be changed to optimize it a bit more.


Because Rain this generation is so heavily physical it makes perfect sense to go Def on Gastrodon. That leaves you a little short on the SpD side though which I think Hippowdon (and the Landorus update) can help alleviate. I'd also swap Toxic for Whirlwind which helps discourage your opponent from setting up on you.

Set

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

You're definitely on the right track here; Rock Slide makes sense but with the buff to Rapid Spin this generation, Excadrill has become great as a set up sweeper even outside of Sand. Not only does it provide a speed boost but help clear any pesky hazards that could cause you trouble in the later game. Dropping Rock Slide is ok because of what we are going to do with Landorus.

Set

Excadrill @ Steelium Z
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Iron Head

Nothing needs to be changed here but it's worth mentioning that some Gastrodons will run Earthquake instead of Earth Power so that they aren't beaten by Calm Mind users like Keldeo or Suicune. Here is the set if you want to make that change:

Set

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover

Because you have Excadrill and Scale Shot on Garchomp, speed control might not be 100% necessary; especially given the other utility that Landorus can provide Ground. There are a couple options but the most common and successful set uses Bulk Up, Substitute, Earthquake and Gravity. Even if you don't decide to set up with Bulk Up, Gravity helps the whole rest of your team to hit your opponents with strong Ground STABs and no fear of immunities. This set can set up after Intimidating an opposing Ferrothorn.

Set

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Def / 108 SpD / 96 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Bulk Up
- Substitute
- Gravity

Another option here is a more strict utility and pivot which could help maintain momentum in battle.

Set

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 164 SpD / 96 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Gravity
- U-turn

Finally for when you're not battling for Pixelmons, you should undoubtably use Landorus-Incarnate over Therian. The set is basically a combination of Nidoking and Landorus-Therian. Earth Power is your obvious STAB choice, Focus Blast has amazing coverage and power with Sheer Force / Life Orb boosts (it also gets above 100% accuracy under Gravity) and the final slot is up to you. Sludge Wave hits Fairy and Grass for a ton of damage but Psychic can be used as a specific check to Venusaur-Mega which can otherwise be a pain.

Set

Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Focus Blast
- Gravity

- - - - - - - - - -

As for the other options you are considering I'll make some suggestions here too. The best thing for a league situation like you are going to be in is having options and not bringing the same team for risk of being counter teamed.


It may seem odd, but actually Nidoking does far better with a Special Attack set than physical because of Sheer Force + Life Orb. This also is nice because Ground has very few special attackers. This set is all about maximum coverage; Sludge Wave isn't necessary because the coverage moves KO anything that Sludge Wave would. Fairy types are still pressured by Nidoking without Sludge Wave and Excadrill is always good back up in that match up.

Set

Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

->
Though they don't fill the same roles, Donphan doesn't typically do that much for Ground Monotype. On the other hand, Mega Steelix can single handedly win a multitude of match ups including Normal, Ice, Rock, and most notable Fairy as well as provide a nice sponge for damage since it can recover with Rest. Full Special Defense investment is used to maximize survivability and because Curse will help to boost your Defense. The set does rely a tad on RNG, but overall it's very effective. This also frees up Garchomp for other sets including LO, Sash, Z, Lum Berry or Scarf to name a few. You can even use the same set you're using currently and just change the item.

Set

Steelix @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Curse
- Sleep Talk
- Rest

Click the icons below for the revised team paste:


Here is an alternate team that doesn't use Sand:


Overall you have a pretty good build but try out some of the suggestions and I think you'll be a formidable Gym Leader and threat in general to National Dex Monotype. Let me know how the suggestions work or if you have any other questions!