Drilbur
Approved by macle
Drilbur is certainly one of the main threats in the Little Cup metagame at the moment. With an automatic +2 Speed boost in Sandstorm, Drilbur reaches 32 Speed before it does anything as long as Sandstorm is active. To top that off, Drilbur also has a massive 19 Attack with an Adamant nature, and also gets Swords Dance. Access to Earthquake and Rock Slide means it can OHKO nearly the entire tier after a Swords Dance. However, Drilbur has a very shallow movepool, with Shadow Claw, Return, and X-Scissor being its only real coverage options. Its defenses are rather average, but not low by any means. Drilbur can even function in a support role, with its massive speed and access to Rapid Spin making it a good, but underutilized spinner. Let me put it this way: if you're playing a well built sand team and you don't have a counter to Drilbur, you're going to get swept.
HP: 60
Attack: 85
Defense: 40
Special Attack: 35
Special Defense: 45
Speed: 68
BST: 328
Movepool:
Level-Up
1 Scratch
1 Mud Sport
5 Rapid Spin
12 Fury Swipes
15 Metal Claw
19 Dig
22 Hone Claws
26 Slash
29 Rock Slide
33 Earthquake
36 Swords Dance
40 Sandstorm
43 Drill Run
47 Fissure
Egg
Crush Claw
Earth Power
Iron Defense
Metal Sound
Rapid Spin
Rock Climb
Skull Bash
Submission
TM/HM
01 Hone Claws
06 Toxic
10 Hidden Power
17 Protect
21 Frustration
26 Earthquake
27 Return
28 Dig
31 Brick Break
32 Double Team
36 Sludge Bomb
37 Sandstorm
39 Rock Tomb
40 Aerial Ace
42 Facade
44 Rest
45 Attract
48 Round
56 Fling
65 Shadow Claw
75 Swords Dance
78 Bulldoze
80 Rock Slide
81 X-Scissor
84 Poison Jab
87 Swagger
90 Substitute
94 Rock Smash
H1 Cut
H4 Strength
Attack: 85
Defense: 40
Special Attack: 35
Special Defense: 45
Speed: 68
BST: 328
Movepool:
Level-Up
1 Scratch
1 Mud Sport
5 Rapid Spin
12 Fury Swipes
15 Metal Claw
19 Dig
22 Hone Claws
26 Slash
29 Rock Slide
33 Earthquake
36 Swords Dance
40 Sandstorm
43 Drill Run
47 Fissure
Egg
Crush Claw
Earth Power
Iron Defense
Metal Sound
Rapid Spin
Rock Climb
Skull Bash
Submission
TM/HM
01 Hone Claws
06 Toxic
10 Hidden Power
17 Protect
21 Frustration
26 Earthquake
27 Return
28 Dig
31 Brick Break
32 Double Team
36 Sludge Bomb
37 Sandstorm
39 Rock Tomb
40 Aerial Ace
42 Facade
44 Rest
45 Attract
48 Round
56 Fling
65 Shadow Claw
75 Swords Dance
78 Bulldoze
80 Rock Slide
81 X-Scissor
84 Poison Jab
87 Swagger
90 Substitute
94 Rock Smash
H1 Cut
H4 Strength
[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Rock Slide
move 4: Protect / Shadow Claw / Return
item: Eviolite / Life Orb
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Adamant
evs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 212 Spe
The premise here is pretty simple: Grab a Swords Dance with Drilbur's decent bulk (especially with Eviolite), and OHKO nearly everything. The first three slots are pretty self-explanatory. Protect is by far my favorite option for the last slot. Eviolite Drilbur will take nearly nothing from priority not named Aqua Jet. Protect allows you to beat Fake Outers, most teams' only way of even hoping to take down Drilbur. In my opinion, Life Orb is somewhat unnecessary, as without it you still can sweep very well and it is much more difficult to get a Swords Dance in. If you choose to use Life Orb, Return or Shadow Claw are the best options, although keep in mind a super-effective Shadow Claw is still weaker than a neutral Earthquake. Life Orb does allow you to OHKO bulky waters like Slowpoke and Frillish after a Swords Dance, however.
Hippopotas is obviously a necessary partner, as sand is essential to this set's success. It can also set up Stealth Rock, which removes any potential Focus Sash holders as well as giving Drilbur some additional damage. Diglett and Wynaut can eliminate many of Drilbur's checks and counters, like Slowpoke and Frillish. Wynaut, in particular, can Encore attacks for Drilbur to set up on. Fire-types, like Ponyta can OHKO Drilbur's nemesis, Bronzor, but fall rather quickly to Sandstorm, Life Orb, and Flare Blitz recoil. Eviolite and Morning Sun (despite the recovery loss) are recommended. Lileep and Chinchou can destroy bulky waters. Drifloon is an interesting lure for Bronzor, as many team use Bronzor as their only counter to Acrobatics Drifloon. A well-timed Destiny Bond can open up a sweep for Drilbur. Finally, hazard-setters like Ferroseed or Dwebble will make Drilbur's sweep much easier. Magnemite is also quite amazing for killing Bronzor and Ferroseed.
Snover is a fairly tough nut for Drilbur to break. While it can't directly switch in due to the threat of Rock Slide and is actually slower without a Choice Scarf, it takes away the sand instantly and with it Drilbur's main advantage in its speed. Choice Scarf Diglett can switch in and OHKO Snover with Rock Slide. Wynaut can trap a Snover and kill it with Mirror Coat or pass it on to Diglett if it tries to Substitute. The main thing is to not let Hippopotas die if you see a Snover in team preview. As long as Snover is dead and sand is up, you're fine.
Rapid Spin and Substitute are also options for the last slot. Drilbur, if switched in appropriately, can force a switch to your opponent's counter. This can allow Drilbur to grab a free Rapid Spin. Substitute gives you protection against status, and can allow you to get a Swords Dance. Keep in mind though that Drilbur is vulnerable to Stealth Rock and Spikes, and has no recovery.
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Rock Slide
move 4: Protect / Shadow Claw / Return
item: Eviolite / Life Orb
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Adamant
evs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 212 Spe
The premise here is pretty simple: Grab a Swords Dance with Drilbur's decent bulk (especially with Eviolite), and OHKO nearly everything. The first three slots are pretty self-explanatory. Protect is by far my favorite option for the last slot. Eviolite Drilbur will take nearly nothing from priority not named Aqua Jet. Protect allows you to beat Fake Outers, most teams' only way of even hoping to take down Drilbur. In my opinion, Life Orb is somewhat unnecessary, as without it you still can sweep very well and it is much more difficult to get a Swords Dance in. If you choose to use Life Orb, Return or Shadow Claw are the best options, although keep in mind a super-effective Shadow Claw is still weaker than a neutral Earthquake. Life Orb does allow you to OHKO bulky waters like Slowpoke and Frillish after a Swords Dance, however.
Hippopotas is obviously a necessary partner, as sand is essential to this set's success. It can also set up Stealth Rock, which removes any potential Focus Sash holders as well as giving Drilbur some additional damage. Diglett and Wynaut can eliminate many of Drilbur's checks and counters, like Slowpoke and Frillish. Wynaut, in particular, can Encore attacks for Drilbur to set up on. Fire-types, like Ponyta can OHKO Drilbur's nemesis, Bronzor, but fall rather quickly to Sandstorm, Life Orb, and Flare Blitz recoil. Eviolite and Morning Sun (despite the recovery loss) are recommended. Lileep and Chinchou can destroy bulky waters. Drifloon is an interesting lure for Bronzor, as many team use Bronzor as their only counter to Acrobatics Drifloon. A well-timed Destiny Bond can open up a sweep for Drilbur. Finally, hazard-setters like Ferroseed or Dwebble will make Drilbur's sweep much easier. Magnemite is also quite amazing for killing Bronzor and Ferroseed.
Snover is a fairly tough nut for Drilbur to break. While it can't directly switch in due to the threat of Rock Slide and is actually slower without a Choice Scarf, it takes away the sand instantly and with it Drilbur's main advantage in its speed. Choice Scarf Diglett can switch in and OHKO Snover with Rock Slide. Wynaut can trap a Snover and kill it with Mirror Coat or pass it on to Diglett if it tries to Substitute. The main thing is to not let Hippopotas die if you see a Snover in team preview. As long as Snover is dead and sand is up, you're fine.
Rapid Spin and Substitute are also options for the last slot. Drilbur, if switched in appropriately, can force a switch to your opponent's counter. This can allow Drilbur to grab a free Rapid Spin. Substitute gives you protection against status, and can allow you to get a Swords Dance. Keep in mind though that Drilbur is vulnerable to Stealth Rock and Spikes, and has no recovery.
These teams were all very successful on the Little Cup ladder, and are a good display of how to support Drilbur.
Team Desert Storm by comatthew6
Lil Kidz On The Block by D4RR3N
maybe a little different than what you expected by kd24
iss: Personally, I feel Drilbur is broken because Bronzor is the only true counter to it. Bronzor can't be trapped by Diglett, and is somewhat tricky to kill with Wynaut (you'd have to be playing pretty dumb). Furthermore, a huge amount of speed right off the bat makes most sand teams not have to carry a Choice Scarf user, as Drilbur is a pretty nice revenge killer with that 19 Speed. It doesn't have problems switching in, as it only takes one damage from Stealth Rock and Spikes is usually limited to one layer if at all (and Drilbur can Rapid Spin those away too). With excellent two-move coverage in Earthquake and Rock Slide, it can afford to use Protect to be safe from Fake Out.
The bigger underlying problem here is Scraggy. Most teams have been forced to overprepare for Scraggy, as it has been the hyped-up supersweeper of Little Cup. Nearly every team has one of bulky Mienfoo, Croagunk, Tailow, or Doduo. All of those are pretty much destroyed by Drilbur. It's a rather odd dilemma: either we overprepare for Scraggy and feel Drilbur is broken, or we overprepare for Drilbur and feel Scraggy is broken. Right now the former is much more true. It takes a very good teambuilder to counter both these threats and still have a solid team against a team without either. Bronzor is dead weight in this metagame aside from setting up Stealth Rock, but nearly every team needs it due to the threat of Drilbur. Being #5 in the statistics should not be happening for a Pokemon like Bronzor. Drilbur has a huge effect on the Little Cup metagame, and it is broken because of how much we need to prepare for it.
Vader: I am PRETTY sure if you are "unprepared" for a major threat, you deserve to lose, straight up.
I don't like banning stuff that isn't Scyther-level in power. Drillbur is decidedly not that powerful. Neither is Scraggy. The problem here, in my opinion, is that we are trying to deal with problems by removing them. That is not the way we should try to respond to threats in the metagame. In fact, the term metagame arose from when players changed their playstyles and tactics to deal with major threats in competitive gaming. The metagame shifted to deal with Scraggy, but is now centered around Drillbur.
What this means is, good players will use what beats Drillbur because it's powerful and popular. If it requires two Pokemon for your team to beat, so be it. It is childish to expect that you will always beat a Pokemon even if you "prepare" for it, too.
And if you want to argue that Scraggy or Drillbur "imbalance the tier," then you're absolutely right. But a perfectly balanced metagame is boring and stale. A balanced metagame has no shifts because every archtype is represented. The metagame's overall power level has been tanking throughout this entire generation, and it always feels to me like the Pokemon are not too strong, just stronger than they were before but players didn't want to adapt.
While I would rather have steered the discussion away from tiering issues, I guess that's what you guys wanna talk about, and Drillbur is a pretty good representative of what I would consider a stupid ban.
The bigger underlying problem here is Scraggy. Most teams have been forced to overprepare for Scraggy, as it has been the hyped-up supersweeper of Little Cup. Nearly every team has one of bulky Mienfoo, Croagunk, Tailow, or Doduo. All of those are pretty much destroyed by Drilbur. It's a rather odd dilemma: either we overprepare for Scraggy and feel Drilbur is broken, or we overprepare for Drilbur and feel Scraggy is broken. Right now the former is much more true. It takes a very good teambuilder to counter both these threats and still have a solid team against a team without either. Bronzor is dead weight in this metagame aside from setting up Stealth Rock, but nearly every team needs it due to the threat of Drilbur. Being #5 in the statistics should not be happening for a Pokemon like Bronzor. Drilbur has a huge effect on the Little Cup metagame, and it is broken because of how much we need to prepare for it.
Vader: I am PRETTY sure if you are "unprepared" for a major threat, you deserve to lose, straight up.
I don't like banning stuff that isn't Scyther-level in power. Drillbur is decidedly not that powerful. Neither is Scraggy. The problem here, in my opinion, is that we are trying to deal with problems by removing them. That is not the way we should try to respond to threats in the metagame. In fact, the term metagame arose from when players changed their playstyles and tactics to deal with major threats in competitive gaming. The metagame shifted to deal with Scraggy, but is now centered around Drillbur.
What this means is, good players will use what beats Drillbur because it's powerful and popular. If it requires two Pokemon for your team to beat, so be it. It is childish to expect that you will always beat a Pokemon even if you "prepare" for it, too.
And if you want to argue that Scraggy or Drillbur "imbalance the tier," then you're absolutely right. But a perfectly balanced metagame is boring and stale. A balanced metagame has no shifts because every archtype is represented. The metagame's overall power level has been tanking throughout this entire generation, and it always feels to me like the Pokemon are not too strong, just stronger than they were before but players didn't want to adapt.
While I would rather have steered the discussion away from tiering issues, I guess that's what you guys wanna talk about, and Drillbur is a pretty good representative of what I would consider a stupid ban.
Thanks for reading!
