Hi there.
I'm gonna get in on this fun too! Ground-types are very good in the NU metagame because Rotom-S, Ampharos, and Eelektross are everywhere (not to mention Magmortar's Thunderbolt). Ground also gets a nice resist to Rock, which is great with all the Flying-types and Bug-types running around. All in all, Ground-types make up some of the most solid Pokemon in the tier.
Let's start it off with the big guns, shall we?
Metagame Shifters
[pimg]76[/pimg]
Golem was the #2 used lead in January, and is extremely common in Neverused right now. Heck, I even personally use one on almost every team. Golem has a lot of things going for it: excellent Defense, well above average Attack, strong STAB moves in Stone Edge, Earthquake, and Rock Blast, Stealth Rock to support the team, Explosion if you want to take out a Pokemon as soon as possible, and finally, Sucker Punch, which allows Golem to remedy it's poor speed and hit Mesprit super effectively if it tries to attack you. It also has Sturdy, which allows it to extremely reliably get up Stealth Rock or get off an attack, whichever you prefer at the start of the match.
However it's not all fun and games for Golem. It has pitiful Special Defense, and nice 4x weaknesses to Water and Grass-type moves, as well as 2x weaknesses to Fighting, Ground, Steel, and Ice. It's typing is a blessing and a curse as it allows Golem to act as a passable lure, allowing it to draw in Pokemon that can beat it and either Exploding, double switching to gain momentum, or just attacking then switching out to a powerful set-up Pokemon. Just don't let it take a super effective special attack.
[pimg]195[/pimg]
Quagsire is probably the derpiest Water-type in Neverused, but it's also the most used. The reason for this is simple: it's immune to Electric-type attacks, thanks to it's nice Water/Ground typing. This typing only leaves Quagsire 4x weak to Grass-type attacks, and nothing else. Couple this with Unaware, which allows Quagsire to ignore any attacking boosts the opponent may have, and you have the making of a great support Pokemon. Throw in STAB Scald, Waterfall, and Earthquake, with Ice Beam, Recover, Toxic, Curse, and even Amnesia, and you have a focused and formidable defensive threat. The most common thing you will see Quagsire doing is checking various Electric, Rock, Ice, and Fire-types that are abundant in the metagame. It stops Volt-turning strategies cold, since it is immune to Volt Switch and can just heal off U-turn. The only thing it has to be really careful about are random HP Grasses that people use solely to hit it, especially on Magmortar.
There are a couple negatives that really stand out about Quagsire though. One is that overall, 95/85/65 isn't all that strong defensively, and most of Quagsire's "bulk" is derived from resistances, Recover, and Unaware. Furthermore, in this NU metagame, that 4x weakness to Grass-type attacks is very easily exploitable by many Pokemon, including but not limited to: Exeggutor, Leafeon, Vileplume, Meganium, Amoonguss, Cacturne, Tangela, Torterra, Serperior, Victreebel, and whichever Pokemon randomly have HP Grass to fuck you. Even with so many Pokemon able to set up on it, Quagsire is sill a great choice in the metagame solely because it is one of the top 2 bulky Water-types, and the #1 bulky Water-type by usage.
[pimg]323[/pimg]
Camerupt may not have the defensive chops to be a top-tier tank, with meager 70/70/75 defenses, but what it does have is excellent typing and a perfectly suited movepool, in addition to a great ability. Camerupt's Fire/Ground typing gives it nice resistances to Fire, Poison, Bug, and Steel-type attacks, in addition to an immunity to Electric-type attacks. It also gives Camerupt neutrality on Grass and Ice-type attacks, which is nice. With a specially defensive EV spread, this allows Camerupt to take on Magmortar that don't carry HP Water. In addition, Camerupt has above average offenses and has the movepool to match, but doesn't have the speed required to sweep normally. So, a defensive set with Lava Plume, Earth Power, Roar, Stealth Rock, or even Yawn, Toxic, or Will-o-Wisp is the most common type of Camerupt you'll see.
Camerupt does come with some negatives though. It has a 4x weakness to Water-type moves, and a 2x weakness to Ground-type moves. It does get Solid Rock to soften the blow a bit, but Solid Rock only applies to Super Effective moves, and many attack types are super effective on one type of Camerupt but resisted by the other, making them neutral. Even more unfortunate is that these types are all common in the metagame, such as Rock, Grass, and Ice. However the fact remains that Camerupt does some things very well, and those are setting up Stealth Rock and checking Magmortar and other similar threats.
These next Pokemon are still good, but a little more rare in the current metagame.
Metagame Tremors
[pimg]392[/pimg]
Torterra was a very formidable threat in the previous NU metagame, before the tier shifts. It has good bulk, great resistances, above average attack, and a movepool to back up either a sweeper set or a tank set. However, the metagame shift was cruel to Torterra, as it brought in an influx of Misdreavus, Jynx, Weezing, and Rotom-S, among other things. This isn't even mentioning all of the Sucker Punchers running around in the tier! All of these Pokemon give Torterra severe problems, whether it be outspeeding and KOing or walling and burning. Back to the good things though! Torterra gets a lot of cool moves that come with its typing, such as Wood Hammer, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Stealth Rock, Leech Seed, Rock Polish, Swords Dance, Roar, and even Reflect and Light Screen. It can either be totally offensive with a Rock Polish set, or make itself a tank set that sets up Stealth Rock and drains the opponent of their health.
Again, all isn't fun and games for Torterra. There are plenty of top threats in the metagame that have some way of beating it, whether it be super effective Ice Beams, the ability to take any hit it has and cripple it for the rest of the match, being immune to Leech Seed and hitting Torterra hard, etc, it's hard for Torterra to get something going. However it is still a great choice for your team, provided you support it correctly.
[pimg]105[/pimg]
Marowak just missed the "OU of NU" usage cut last month, but it is still an extremely formidable threat. It is the first pure Ground-type mentioned, but that typing is a blessing over something like Rock/Ground due to the weaknesses that aren't added on. Marowak may look very mediocre when you only look at its stats, but it has a couple tricks up its sleeve: it has the exclusive item "Thick Club", which doubles Marowak's attack stat. This raises Marowak's attack to ludicrous levels, without locking it into any one attack. Of course this means it doesn't get Leftovers healing or anything, but it doesn't lose HP every attack like, say, Life Orb. It gets the standard Ground-type movepool, with Earthquake and Stone Edge, but it also gets some other interesting options. It gets Rock Head and Double Edge, giving it a 120 BP coverage move with 100% accuracy and no drawback. It also gets Bonemerang, which is essentially a base 100 power STAB move that breaks Substitutes, at the cost of an infuriating 90% accuracy. Finally, it gets Swords Dance or Belly Drum, in case 568 attack with an Adamant nature isn't enough and you want to level an entire city instead.
There is a pretty big catch though: Marowak is slow. It can outspeed a lot of the walls in NU if you fully invest its speed, or it can utilize Trick Room to outspeed frail sweepers, but it can't do it alone. Thankfully, in addition to those options, its partner in crime for the last two generations joins it in NU: Ninjask. Ninjask is great because it not only can pass Substitutes, Swords Dances, and speed boosts to Marowak, it lures in Rock-type attacks, which Marowak resists.
After these 5 Pokemon, the usage of Ground-types drops off significantly. However, here are some other cool Ground-type Pokemon that have cool niches. I'll write a bit about them, then expand it later.
Metagame Shakers
[pimg]221[/pimg]
Piloswine has some cool things going for it, namely Eviolite, Base 100 HP and Attack, and STAB Ice in addition to Ground, so it can hit Flying-types super effective with an Ice Shard or Icicle Crash. It also can set up Stealth Rock.
[pimg]449[/pimg]
Gabite, while no where near as destructive as its big brother, is still quite formidable as one of the only Dragon-types left in NU. It has a passable base 82 speed, which allows it to outspeed Pokemon sitting at base 80 (read: most of the metagame). It also gets Hone Claws to boost its attack, and Dragon Rush, Earthquake, and Stone Edge to abuse that with.
[pimg]340[/pimg]
Whiscash may have mediocre offensive stats, but it does get Dragon Dance to remedy this. In addition, it gets Hydration through the Dream World, and the interesting coverage move Spark, which is a physical Electric-type attack.
[pimg]648[/pimg]
Stunfisk is a pretty sorry excuse for a Pokemon in the looks department, but it is very bulky and has a great defensive typing. Its Electric/Ground typing allows it to take on Braviary and Swellow and come out on top, while also defending against the typical Ground- or Rock-type switch ins with STAB Earth Power or super effective Scalds.
[pimg]565[/pimg]
Seismitoad is the only Unova Pokemon with Swift Swim, and that allows it to become faster than most of the metagame after a Rain Dance. However it has an extremely shallow movepool outside of STAB (it doesn't get Waterfall or Ice Beam, but gets Grass Knot for coverage somehow).
[pimg]417[/pimg]
Wormadam-G is the most physically defensive Wormadam, sporting a healthy 105 base defense. That's about the nicest thing I can say about it really, they should have named all the Wormadams "Trash Forme" instead of just the Steel-type one. It doesn't even get Stealth Rock...
Anyway, talk about Ground-types! If you come up with more that I missed, just talk about them in here and I'll add them. Talk about what sets you like best, what strategies you use (luring out Water-types with Golem/Camerupt for Jynx or Leafeon, BP with Leafeon to Marowak, etc).
I'm gonna get in on this fun too! Ground-types are very good in the NU metagame because Rotom-S, Ampharos, and Eelektross are everywhere (not to mention Magmortar's Thunderbolt). Ground also gets a nice resist to Rock, which is great with all the Flying-types and Bug-types running around. All in all, Ground-types make up some of the most solid Pokemon in the tier.
Let's start it off with the big guns, shall we?
Metagame Shifters
[pimg]76[/pimg]
Golem was the #2 used lead in January, and is extremely common in Neverused right now. Heck, I even personally use one on almost every team. Golem has a lot of things going for it: excellent Defense, well above average Attack, strong STAB moves in Stone Edge, Earthquake, and Rock Blast, Stealth Rock to support the team, Explosion if you want to take out a Pokemon as soon as possible, and finally, Sucker Punch, which allows Golem to remedy it's poor speed and hit Mesprit super effectively if it tries to attack you. It also has Sturdy, which allows it to extremely reliably get up Stealth Rock or get off an attack, whichever you prefer at the start of the match.
However it's not all fun and games for Golem. It has pitiful Special Defense, and nice 4x weaknesses to Water and Grass-type moves, as well as 2x weaknesses to Fighting, Ground, Steel, and Ice. It's typing is a blessing and a curse as it allows Golem to act as a passable lure, allowing it to draw in Pokemon that can beat it and either Exploding, double switching to gain momentum, or just attacking then switching out to a powerful set-up Pokemon. Just don't let it take a super effective special attack.
[pimg]195[/pimg]
Quagsire is probably the derpiest Water-type in Neverused, but it's also the most used. The reason for this is simple: it's immune to Electric-type attacks, thanks to it's nice Water/Ground typing. This typing only leaves Quagsire 4x weak to Grass-type attacks, and nothing else. Couple this with Unaware, which allows Quagsire to ignore any attacking boosts the opponent may have, and you have the making of a great support Pokemon. Throw in STAB Scald, Waterfall, and Earthquake, with Ice Beam, Recover, Toxic, Curse, and even Amnesia, and you have a focused and formidable defensive threat. The most common thing you will see Quagsire doing is checking various Electric, Rock, Ice, and Fire-types that are abundant in the metagame. It stops Volt-turning strategies cold, since it is immune to Volt Switch and can just heal off U-turn. The only thing it has to be really careful about are random HP Grasses that people use solely to hit it, especially on Magmortar.
There are a couple negatives that really stand out about Quagsire though. One is that overall, 95/85/65 isn't all that strong defensively, and most of Quagsire's "bulk" is derived from resistances, Recover, and Unaware. Furthermore, in this NU metagame, that 4x weakness to Grass-type attacks is very easily exploitable by many Pokemon, including but not limited to: Exeggutor, Leafeon, Vileplume, Meganium, Amoonguss, Cacturne, Tangela, Torterra, Serperior, Victreebel, and whichever Pokemon randomly have HP Grass to fuck you. Even with so many Pokemon able to set up on it, Quagsire is sill a great choice in the metagame solely because it is one of the top 2 bulky Water-types, and the #1 bulky Water-type by usage.
[pimg]323[/pimg]
Camerupt may not have the defensive chops to be a top-tier tank, with meager 70/70/75 defenses, but what it does have is excellent typing and a perfectly suited movepool, in addition to a great ability. Camerupt's Fire/Ground typing gives it nice resistances to Fire, Poison, Bug, and Steel-type attacks, in addition to an immunity to Electric-type attacks. It also gives Camerupt neutrality on Grass and Ice-type attacks, which is nice. With a specially defensive EV spread, this allows Camerupt to take on Magmortar that don't carry HP Water. In addition, Camerupt has above average offenses and has the movepool to match, but doesn't have the speed required to sweep normally. So, a defensive set with Lava Plume, Earth Power, Roar, Stealth Rock, or even Yawn, Toxic, or Will-o-Wisp is the most common type of Camerupt you'll see.
Camerupt does come with some negatives though. It has a 4x weakness to Water-type moves, and a 2x weakness to Ground-type moves. It does get Solid Rock to soften the blow a bit, but Solid Rock only applies to Super Effective moves, and many attack types are super effective on one type of Camerupt but resisted by the other, making them neutral. Even more unfortunate is that these types are all common in the metagame, such as Rock, Grass, and Ice. However the fact remains that Camerupt does some things very well, and those are setting up Stealth Rock and checking Magmortar and other similar threats.
These next Pokemon are still good, but a little more rare in the current metagame.
Metagame Tremors
[pimg]392[/pimg]
Torterra was a very formidable threat in the previous NU metagame, before the tier shifts. It has good bulk, great resistances, above average attack, and a movepool to back up either a sweeper set or a tank set. However, the metagame shift was cruel to Torterra, as it brought in an influx of Misdreavus, Jynx, Weezing, and Rotom-S, among other things. This isn't even mentioning all of the Sucker Punchers running around in the tier! All of these Pokemon give Torterra severe problems, whether it be outspeeding and KOing or walling and burning. Back to the good things though! Torterra gets a lot of cool moves that come with its typing, such as Wood Hammer, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Stealth Rock, Leech Seed, Rock Polish, Swords Dance, Roar, and even Reflect and Light Screen. It can either be totally offensive with a Rock Polish set, or make itself a tank set that sets up Stealth Rock and drains the opponent of their health.
Again, all isn't fun and games for Torterra. There are plenty of top threats in the metagame that have some way of beating it, whether it be super effective Ice Beams, the ability to take any hit it has and cripple it for the rest of the match, being immune to Leech Seed and hitting Torterra hard, etc, it's hard for Torterra to get something going. However it is still a great choice for your team, provided you support it correctly.
[pimg]105[/pimg]
Marowak just missed the "OU of NU" usage cut last month, but it is still an extremely formidable threat. It is the first pure Ground-type mentioned, but that typing is a blessing over something like Rock/Ground due to the weaknesses that aren't added on. Marowak may look very mediocre when you only look at its stats, but it has a couple tricks up its sleeve: it has the exclusive item "Thick Club", which doubles Marowak's attack stat. This raises Marowak's attack to ludicrous levels, without locking it into any one attack. Of course this means it doesn't get Leftovers healing or anything, but it doesn't lose HP every attack like, say, Life Orb. It gets the standard Ground-type movepool, with Earthquake and Stone Edge, but it also gets some other interesting options. It gets Rock Head and Double Edge, giving it a 120 BP coverage move with 100% accuracy and no drawback. It also gets Bonemerang, which is essentially a base 100 power STAB move that breaks Substitutes, at the cost of an infuriating 90% accuracy. Finally, it gets Swords Dance or Belly Drum, in case 568 attack with an Adamant nature isn't enough and you want to level an entire city instead.
There is a pretty big catch though: Marowak is slow. It can outspeed a lot of the walls in NU if you fully invest its speed, or it can utilize Trick Room to outspeed frail sweepers, but it can't do it alone. Thankfully, in addition to those options, its partner in crime for the last two generations joins it in NU: Ninjask. Ninjask is great because it not only can pass Substitutes, Swords Dances, and speed boosts to Marowak, it lures in Rock-type attacks, which Marowak resists.
After these 5 Pokemon, the usage of Ground-types drops off significantly. However, here are some other cool Ground-type Pokemon that have cool niches. I'll write a bit about them, then expand it later.
Metagame Shakers
[pimg]221[/pimg]
Piloswine has some cool things going for it, namely Eviolite, Base 100 HP and Attack, and STAB Ice in addition to Ground, so it can hit Flying-types super effective with an Ice Shard or Icicle Crash. It also can set up Stealth Rock.
[pimg]449[/pimg]
Gabite, while no where near as destructive as its big brother, is still quite formidable as one of the only Dragon-types left in NU. It has a passable base 82 speed, which allows it to outspeed Pokemon sitting at base 80 (read: most of the metagame). It also gets Hone Claws to boost its attack, and Dragon Rush, Earthquake, and Stone Edge to abuse that with.
[pimg]340[/pimg]
Whiscash may have mediocre offensive stats, but it does get Dragon Dance to remedy this. In addition, it gets Hydration through the Dream World, and the interesting coverage move Spark, which is a physical Electric-type attack.
[pimg]648[/pimg]
Stunfisk is a pretty sorry excuse for a Pokemon in the looks department, but it is very bulky and has a great defensive typing. Its Electric/Ground typing allows it to take on Braviary and Swellow and come out on top, while also defending against the typical Ground- or Rock-type switch ins with STAB Earth Power or super effective Scalds.
[pimg]565[/pimg]
Seismitoad is the only Unova Pokemon with Swift Swim, and that allows it to become faster than most of the metagame after a Rain Dance. However it has an extremely shallow movepool outside of STAB (it doesn't get Waterfall or Ice Beam, but gets Grass Knot for coverage somehow).
[pimg]417[/pimg]
Wormadam-G is the most physically defensive Wormadam, sporting a healthy 105 base defense. That's about the nicest thing I can say about it really, they should have named all the Wormadams "Trash Forme" instead of just the Steel-type one. It doesn't even get Stealth Rock...
Anyway, talk about Ground-types! If you come up with more that I missed, just talk about them in here and I'll add them. Talk about what sets you like best, what strategies you use (luring out Water-types with Golem/Camerupt for Jynx or Leafeon, BP with Leafeon to Marowak, etc).
