[SET]
name: Sand Rush (Defense, Special Defense, Speed)
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Rock Slide
move 3: Swords Dance
move 4: Iron Head / Rapid Spin
item: Leftovers / Life Orb
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Sand Rush Excadrill is a dangerous sweeper under sand thanks to its high Attack and offensive typing. Earthquake is its main attack, OHKOing numerous offensive Pokemon such as Zeraora and Heatran. Rock Slide hits Pokemon that are immune to Ground, notably Ho-Oh and Yveltal. Swords Dance further boosts Excadrill's Attack, allowing it to break through sturdy physical walls such as Magic Guard Clefable and Ferrothorn. Iron Head is its secondary STAB option that hits some Pokemon like Kyurem and Landorus-T harder, and its flinch chance can be useful to take down foes Excadrill struggles with otherwise, like Landorus-T, Unaware Clefable, and Tangrowth. Rapid Spin instead gives it some utility by removing entry hazards while also giving it the potential to sweep outside of sand. Leftovers is the preferred item to increase Excadrill's longevity and utilize its great defensive typing; however, Life Orb can be used to increase its damage output at the cost of being more prone to getting worn down. Sand Rush lets Excadrill outspeed the entire unboosted metagame, even fast Choice Scarf users like Kartana. An Adamant nature maximizes its damage output, but Jolly is an option to outspeed Pheromosa and its Speed receiver outside of sand at +1 Speed.
Excadrill's already great Attack and decent Speed make it flexible with what slot it can fit into. A sand setter is mandatory for Excadrill; Tyranitar is preferred, as it can act as a reliable switch-in to dangerous Pokemon like Yveltal, Kyurem-W, and Galarian Moltres once sand runs out, and it also provides Stealth Rock to chip Excadrill's checks and counters and can lure Landorus-T and KO it with Ice Beam. Dracozolt is another sand staple that can break physical walls that trouble Excadrill, especially Skarmory, Corviknight, and Ferrothorn. Together, they wear down Landorus-T for the other to break through. Magnezone can trap and eliminate these two Pokemon, which makes it a great teammate, although it does not provide much defensive utility. Sand cores are very susceptible to Ground- and Fighting-type attacks, so the rest of the team should focus on shoring up these weaknesses. Ho-Oh is immune to Ground, checks Tangrowth, and also provides great Attack for Dracozolt, Defense or Special Defense for Excadrill, and Speed for Tyranitar. Similarly, Rotom-W can handle Ground-type Pokemon and check other weather setters that would otherwise be problematic. Tangrowth and Buzzwole deal with Zygarde-10%, which can bypass Ho-Oh and Rotom-W's Ground immunities with Thousand Arrows. Clefable can switch in on Close Combat from Buzzwole and Zeraora and is also immune to sand chip damage thanks to Magic Guard.
[SET]
name: Specially Defensive (Special Defense)
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Rapid Spin
move 3: Toxic / Protect
move 4: Stealth Rock / Iron Head
item: Leftovers / Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Mold Breaker
nature: Careful
evs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Specially defensive Excadrill is a good form of role compression, capable of setting Stealth Rock, clearing entry hazards, and checking prominent metagame threats, in particular, Tapu Koko. Earthquake is its primary STAB attack, hitting Alolan Raichu and Tapu Koko hard and can also discourage specially offensive Fire-types like Heatran and Volcanion from switching in. Rapid Spin removes entry hazards, and Excadrill's natural resistance to them means it can often switch in multiple times even without recovery. Toxic cripples switchins such as Tangrowth and Landorus-T. Stealth Rock complements Excadrill's ability to support its teammates and compress roles. Alternatively, if another teammate already has Stealth Rock, Excadrill can opt for Iron Head to better deal with Kyurem-W and Fairy-types like Clefable and Tapu Lele. Leftovers is Excadrill's only form of recovery, but Heavy-Duty Boots is also an option on more offensive teams if Spikes is a particular concern. Mold Breaker helps Excadrill threaten Rotom formes with Earthquake by bypassing Levitate and also eases prediction for Stealth Rock and Toxic by going through Magic Bounce. 32 Speed EVs allow it to outpace Modest Magnezone and Victini after V-Create.
Specially defensive Excadrill fits best on offense teams as a utility Pokemon that serves as a Tapu Koko counter. It benefits from any Special Defense boost; however, gods with high Special Defense like Ho-Oh and Zamazenta ease its ability to take hits. Since Excadrill takes the Special Defense slot while still being weak to prominent special threats such as Volcanion, Slowking and Kyurem-W are helpful to shore up this weakness. Offensive threats enjoy Excadrill's ability to clear entry hazards and potentially land a Toxic on Landorus-T while still keeping entry hazards on the foe's side for them to more easily wallbreak. This is especially beneficial to those that tend to switch out repeatedly throughout a game like Victini and Rayquaza. Conversely, they threaten Skarmory, Ho-Oh, and Corviknight, which Excadrill struggles to take on. Rotom-W checks Rayquaza and Zamazenta-C, which would otherwise easily break Excadrill due to its low Defense.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
A dedicated lead set with Stealth Rock, Rock Tomb, Rapid Spin, and Steel Beam is possible; however, it still struggles to keep Stealth Rock up against Pokemon such as Corviknight and Giratina. High Horsepower is an option if Rillaboom is run on the same team to prevent reduced Earthquake damage.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Flying-types**: Skarmory and Corviknight are the hardest counters to Excadrill, as they are immune to Toxic, resist its STAB moves, can threaten it with Body Press, and remove its Stealth Rock with Defog. Physically defensive Yveltal and Mandibuzz can also beat Excadrill thanks to Foul Play, and Landorus-T is neutral to Rock Slide and weakens Excadrill's attacks with Intimidate. However, they fear Toxic wearing them down.
**Weather Control**: Rayquaza and Groudon can nullify sand, then outspeed and easily OHKO Excadrill.
**Physically bulky Pokemon**: Pokemon with great physical bulk like Tangrowth, Buzzwole, and Slowking can easily take a boosted hit from Excadrill. The former can then retaliate with Earthquake, Focus Blast, or cripple it with Stun Spore, while the latter two can hit it super effectively with their STAB attacks. Pyukumuku and Quagsire can ignore all boosts Excadrill acquires and heal off all damage done. However, all of these Pokemon can get worn down by Toxic and sand damage.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[longhiep341, 500884]]
- Quality checked by: [[UT, 523866], [beauts, 484270]]
- Grammar checked by: [[dex, 277988]]
name: Sand Rush (Defense, Special Defense, Speed)
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Rock Slide
move 3: Swords Dance
move 4: Iron Head / Rapid Spin
item: Leftovers / Life Orb
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Sand Rush Excadrill is a dangerous sweeper under sand thanks to its high Attack and offensive typing. Earthquake is its main attack, OHKOing numerous offensive Pokemon such as Zeraora and Heatran. Rock Slide hits Pokemon that are immune to Ground, notably Ho-Oh and Yveltal. Swords Dance further boosts Excadrill's Attack, allowing it to break through sturdy physical walls such as Magic Guard Clefable and Ferrothorn. Iron Head is its secondary STAB option that hits some Pokemon like Kyurem and Landorus-T harder, and its flinch chance can be useful to take down foes Excadrill struggles with otherwise, like Landorus-T, Unaware Clefable, and Tangrowth. Rapid Spin instead gives it some utility by removing entry hazards while also giving it the potential to sweep outside of sand. Leftovers is the preferred item to increase Excadrill's longevity and utilize its great defensive typing; however, Life Orb can be used to increase its damage output at the cost of being more prone to getting worn down. Sand Rush lets Excadrill outspeed the entire unboosted metagame, even fast Choice Scarf users like Kartana. An Adamant nature maximizes its damage output, but Jolly is an option to outspeed Pheromosa and its Speed receiver outside of sand at +1 Speed.
Excadrill's already great Attack and decent Speed make it flexible with what slot it can fit into. A sand setter is mandatory for Excadrill; Tyranitar is preferred, as it can act as a reliable switch-in to dangerous Pokemon like Yveltal, Kyurem-W, and Galarian Moltres once sand runs out, and it also provides Stealth Rock to chip Excadrill's checks and counters and can lure Landorus-T and KO it with Ice Beam. Dracozolt is another sand staple that can break physical walls that trouble Excadrill, especially Skarmory, Corviknight, and Ferrothorn. Together, they wear down Landorus-T for the other to break through. Magnezone can trap and eliminate these two Pokemon, which makes it a great teammate, although it does not provide much defensive utility. Sand cores are very susceptible to Ground- and Fighting-type attacks, so the rest of the team should focus on shoring up these weaknesses. Ho-Oh is immune to Ground, checks Tangrowth, and also provides great Attack for Dracozolt, Defense or Special Defense for Excadrill, and Speed for Tyranitar. Similarly, Rotom-W can handle Ground-type Pokemon and check other weather setters that would otherwise be problematic. Tangrowth and Buzzwole deal with Zygarde-10%, which can bypass Ho-Oh and Rotom-W's Ground immunities with Thousand Arrows. Clefable can switch in on Close Combat from Buzzwole and Zeraora and is also immune to sand chip damage thanks to Magic Guard.
[SET]
name: Specially Defensive (Special Defense)
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Rapid Spin
move 3: Toxic / Protect
move 4: Stealth Rock / Iron Head
item: Leftovers / Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Mold Breaker
nature: Careful
evs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Specially defensive Excadrill is a good form of role compression, capable of setting Stealth Rock, clearing entry hazards, and checking prominent metagame threats, in particular, Tapu Koko. Earthquake is its primary STAB attack, hitting Alolan Raichu and Tapu Koko hard and can also discourage specially offensive Fire-types like Heatran and Volcanion from switching in. Rapid Spin removes entry hazards, and Excadrill's natural resistance to them means it can often switch in multiple times even without recovery. Toxic cripples switchins such as Tangrowth and Landorus-T. Stealth Rock complements Excadrill's ability to support its teammates and compress roles. Alternatively, if another teammate already has Stealth Rock, Excadrill can opt for Iron Head to better deal with Kyurem-W and Fairy-types like Clefable and Tapu Lele. Leftovers is Excadrill's only form of recovery, but Heavy-Duty Boots is also an option on more offensive teams if Spikes is a particular concern. Mold Breaker helps Excadrill threaten Rotom formes with Earthquake by bypassing Levitate and also eases prediction for Stealth Rock and Toxic by going through Magic Bounce. 32 Speed EVs allow it to outpace Modest Magnezone and Victini after V-Create.
Specially defensive Excadrill fits best on offense teams as a utility Pokemon that serves as a Tapu Koko counter. It benefits from any Special Defense boost; however, gods with high Special Defense like Ho-Oh and Zamazenta ease its ability to take hits. Since Excadrill takes the Special Defense slot while still being weak to prominent special threats such as Volcanion, Slowking and Kyurem-W are helpful to shore up this weakness. Offensive threats enjoy Excadrill's ability to clear entry hazards and potentially land a Toxic on Landorus-T while still keeping entry hazards on the foe's side for them to more easily wallbreak. This is especially beneficial to those that tend to switch out repeatedly throughout a game like Victini and Rayquaza. Conversely, they threaten Skarmory, Ho-Oh, and Corviknight, which Excadrill struggles to take on. Rotom-W checks Rayquaza and Zamazenta-C, which would otherwise easily break Excadrill due to its low Defense.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
A dedicated lead set with Stealth Rock, Rock Tomb, Rapid Spin, and Steel Beam is possible; however, it still struggles to keep Stealth Rock up against Pokemon such as Corviknight and Giratina. High Horsepower is an option if Rillaboom is run on the same team to prevent reduced Earthquake damage.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Flying-types**: Skarmory and Corviknight are the hardest counters to Excadrill, as they are immune to Toxic, resist its STAB moves, can threaten it with Body Press, and remove its Stealth Rock with Defog. Physically defensive Yveltal and Mandibuzz can also beat Excadrill thanks to Foul Play, and Landorus-T is neutral to Rock Slide and weakens Excadrill's attacks with Intimidate. However, they fear Toxic wearing them down.
**Weather Control**: Rayquaza and Groudon can nullify sand, then outspeed and easily OHKO Excadrill.
**Physically bulky Pokemon**: Pokemon with great physical bulk like Tangrowth, Buzzwole, and Slowking can easily take a boosted hit from Excadrill. The former can then retaliate with Earthquake, Focus Blast, or cripple it with Stun Spore, while the latter two can hit it super effectively with their STAB attacks. Pyukumuku and Quagsire can ignore all boosts Excadrill acquires and heal off all damage done. However, all of these Pokemon can get worn down by Toxic and sand damage.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[longhiep341, 500884]]
- Quality checked by: [[UT, 523866], [beauts, 484270]]
- Grammar checked by: [[dex, 277988]]
Last edited:
