SS OU Scarf-Excadrill BALANCE

[Norman2509]

SCARF-EXCADRILL Balanced team

(For past generations, Ubers was my favourite tier but due to the fact that OverUsed was the most played tier, I decided to focus on SS OU this time and make a solid team on it.)

Being new to this tier, I need you guys to help me make possible changes in the moveset and in EV's to make the team even more better. Also, Scarf-Excadrill is the main Pokemon of the team and I built a team covering its weaknesses and counters so if you guys are rating my team, don't insist me to remove Scarf-Excadrill at any cost because it is the star of the team. Instead, try changing other Pokemon's on my team, or their moveset and EV. I'll briefly explain everything from scratch to give you guys a better idea,

How the team was built?

As I told earlier, Excadrill is one of the most solid-mons in this gen. My basic idea was to create a sand team pairing it with Tyranitar, but Mold Breaker is one of my favourite abilities which I don't want to lose so instead I added a Choice Scarf on Excadrill which means it can be one of the most strongest revenge killer in the game. It can out-speed the Rotoms and kill them like a rat and can Bypass Mimikyu's disguise. Provided with amazing defensive typing in Ground / Steel paired with Rapid Spin for hazard removal, Excadrill looked perfect for me.

Dragapult was added as it helps pressuring the defensive walls such as Corviknight and Galarian Corsola, which Excadrill struggles to break past. Also it can prevent Excadrill from being used as a setup-bait by Gyarados as Dragapult's infiltrator hits through Substitute. Dragapult Ghost-typing can be used to prevent Excadrill from being killed by Conkledurr as it either runs Facade or the Fighting-moves and primary Water-Type moves being less effective versus its Dragon-Type.

Clefable prevents opposing Dark and Dragon-Types such as Hydreigon and Mandibuzz from revenge killing or countering Dragapult. It can also check the opposing Dragapult as it is gifted with good Special bulk. With the lack of recovery options for other Pokemon in the team, Clefable can Wish-pass to the weakened mons in the team.



Seismitoad was added as it serves as the best check for Dracovish. It simply absorbs Fishious Rend and the other moves can be walled with its incredible Defense-bulk. Even though Excadrill can revenge-kill Rotom-W and Rotom-H, their STAB moves kills Excadrill with an OHKO so Seismitoad can easily wall the Rotoms STAB moves and resists Volt Switch. It is the SR user of the team.

Corviknight was added as the primary Hazard-remover of the team. Corviknight has huge benefits from Clefable and Seismitoad as the former checks Dragapult while the latter checks Rotom-Heat, and Rotom-Wash effectively. Toxtricity is a huge threat for Corviknight but it can be defeated by playing around with Excadrill, and Boomburst can be resisted by Dragapult. Aegislash can be PP stalled with the help of Corviknight and Seismitoad.

Rotom-Mow can threaten usual Ground-type Volt Switch absorbers like Seismitoad and Gastrodon thanks to Leaf Storm, making it a great offensive pivot and wallbreaker in the metagame. Nasty Plot is used to further increase Rotom-Mow's firepower, letting it destroy common Pokemon such as Toxapex. Volt Switch allows Rotom-Mow to escape out of bad matchups and destroy Mandibuzz and Corviknight. Clefable helps Rotom-Mow as it lacks recovery and gets back the health that Rotom-C lost due to Substitute usage. The combination of U-Turn from Corviknight and Volt Switch from Rotom-Mlw creates great momentum for the team.

And this is how the team was built, using Scarf-Excadrill as the main Pokemon and creating suitable backup covers for it.

Importable

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Brick Break
- Rapid Spin

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Toxic

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Wish
- Protect

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt

Rotom-Mow @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Volt Switch
- Leaf Storm
- Substitute

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SpD
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

Moveset explanation

Excadrill: Iron Head and Earthquake are STAB moves. Rapid Spin can be used as a secondary hazard removal move if Corviknight gets killed. Brick Break is a surprise bait-move for Ferrothorn.

Dragapult: Fire Blast is crucial for Steel-types that avoid a 2HKO from Shadow Ball, namely Ferrothorn and Corviknight. Thunderbolt is very useful for breaking past Mandibuzz, after chip damage, and especially physically defensive Toxapex. The rest two are STAB moves.

Clefable: Moonblast is a STAB move for chip-damage and Super Effective against Dark and Dragon-Types. Flamethrower can be used to damage Steel and Grass-Types such as Ferrothorn and Rotom-C. Protect is used to prevent hits and heal itself with Wish.

Seismitoad: Accessibility to Stealth Rock and Toxic makes it a great defensive pivot to threats such as Dracovish, Rotom-Wash, and Rotom-Heat. Scald is Seismitoad's primary attack to prevent it from being too passive versus physical attackers. Earth Power is an another STAB option.

Corviknight: Defog is the primary hazard removal move. Roost is the recovery-option for Corviknight. U-Turn creates momentum and makes it escape from bad matchup. Brave Bird enables Corviknight to pressure Pokemon such as Kommo-o and Hawlucha.

Rotom-Mow: Leaf Storm threatens Ground-Types such as Gastrodon and Seismitoad. Volt Switch creates momentum while Nasty Plot gives great firepower for Rotom-C to hit more harder. Substitute allows Rotom-C to take advantage of common defensive threats like Seismitoad and Mandibuzz and proceed to set up with Nasty Plot while also avoiding Status moves.

EV-sets explanation

Except Corviknight, every Pokemon is being given the EV spread of "252 / 4 / 252".

Corviknight EV-set explanation:

252 HP EVs in tandem with 180 Special Defense EVs make Modest Dragapult unable to 2HKO Corviknight with a Choice Specs-boosted Shadow Ball. The rest of the EVs are put into Defense alongside an Impish nature in order to check Pokemon such as Excadrill better.

My Request:

Because of me being new to this tier, I built this team without perfect knowledge of the tier. I could only do my best covering each of the Pokemon threats so if you guys could help me finding the actual threats for this team and providing me better moveset options and proper EV sets with changes I would be happy to the core and will start laddering as soon as possible. The reason why I even didn't ladder is that I have so much of works to be done IRL.

Thanks for reading the RMT and feel free to comment

 

[theotherguytm]

Also, Scarf-Excadrill is the main Pokemon of the team and I built a team covering its weaknesses and counters so if you guys are rating my team, don't insist me to remove Scarf-Excadrill at any cost because it is the star of the team.

Scarf Drill has the following issues (among others):

• Getting locked into EQ against any of the many Flying mons in the tier be big rip.
• One of Drill's best uses for Rapid Spin is to boost up before a sweep, this is impossible due to being locked into Spin, and it also makes it very easy to spinblock you, while punishing spinblocking requires good prediction. In other words, being locked into a 50 BP Normal move is not good.
• Drill cannot use Swords Dance while scarfed, effectively removing any chance it had of sweeping unless the entire opposing team is weak to EQ.
• Drill also can't use Rocks while scarfed, which takes away a serious element of Mold Breaker's power-the ability to beat Magic Bouncers.

While Mold Breaker is a good ability, it's also telegraphed from the moment Drill enters battle, which means no-one who actually knows what it does will leave a mon it beats in against it. Try your original idea with Sand Rush instead. But if you want to keep with this...
Excadrill: Brick Break to Rock Slide/Stone Edge
Wouldn't it be nice if you could punish those birds that otherwise switch in for free against you? Rock coverage is an important tool for any Drill that wants a third attack. It also hits Corv moderately hard. Rock Slide offers more consistency, Stone Edge does loads of damage and has a high crit rate.
Dragapult: Thunderbolt to U-turn
You mention those two mons, but Draco Meteor already 2HKOs them.
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 294-348 (96.7 - 114.4%) -- guaranteed KO in 2 turns after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mandibuzz: 414-488 (97.6 - 115%) -- 81.3% chance to 2HKO
Thunderbolt doesn't actually hit anything Draco Meteor can't wipe out. Draco Meteor is also far more more likely to smash a random switch-in to oblivion. U-turn gives Dragapult a lot more flexibility in what it does. Also, Choice Specs Dragapult is faster than scarfers like Dracovish etc, so it works as a revenge killer, which means this team has two revenge killers.
Clefable: Flamethrower to Aromatherapy/Thunder Wave/Trick
Flamethrower on an uninvested Clef doesn't really hit as hard as it needs to to be worth the moveslot. For instance, the best-case scenario against Corv:
4 SpA Clefable Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Corviknight: 144-170 (36 - 42.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
You get PP stalled by Pressure+Roost. Against a 0 SpeDef Corv with no held item. Which realistically isn't happening. Instead, any of the above moves would provide more team support, or the ability to cripple opposing switch-ins. Trick should be used with Sticky Barb to cripple various threats while stealing their Leftovers.
Seismitoad: Toxic to Protect
Toxic on Toad is surprisingly bad, as nothing that actually switches into Toad cares about it, bar Rotom-M and other Toads. Everything you mentioned will just switch out of Toad. All of Ferro, Corv, Clef etc don't care about Toxic. Instead, Protect lets you scout Choiced locked mons and surprise Grass coverage/status/Tricks, as well as giving you an extra turn's Leftovers recovery.
Corv: EV changes and Brave Bird to Body Press
I think you (and whoever did the Dex entry) forgot Rocks when doing that calc, because Corv, as a Defogger, will almost always be switching into Rocks.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 180 SpD Corviknight: 169-199 (42.2 - 49.7%) -- 28.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
Also, I would not suggest using Corv against Dragapult, for two reasons. Shadow Ball's 20% SpeDef drop, and Dragapult's coverage.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. -1 252 HP / 180 SpD Corviknight: 253-298 (63.2 - 74.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 180 SpD Corviknight: 310-366 (77.5 - 91.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
I would suggest the following spread:
Careful Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 192 SpD
The 84 Def EVs avoid the OHKO from +2 Adamant Black Glasses Bisharp's Throat Chop after Rocks, which is currently a major threat your team. Bisharp can get to +2 just by switching in on Defog thanks to Defiant, and surviving allows you to OHKO back with Body Press, a move which pressures mons better than Brave Bird on defensive sets.
+2 252+ Atk Black Glasses Bisharp Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 84 Def Corviknight: 297-349 (74.2 - 87.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
84 Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Bisharp: 264-312 (97.4 - 115.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
The rest of the EVs are dumped into SpeDef with a Careful nature to make Corv the best at checking special attackers as it can be, turning it into an effective mixed defender.
Rotom-M: Volt Switch to Thunderbolt/Discharge
While Nasty Plot+VS is not unheard of on Rotom- sets, Sub on top of that is a pain, as your opponent can invalidate your Sub just by walling Leaf Storm. With Dragapult taking over the fast U-turn role, Rotom-M can now focus on wallbreaking from behind its sub. Discharge is an alternative that lets you cripple its switchins with paralysis.
+6 0 SpA Rotom-Mow Leaf Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Ferrothorn: 127-150 (36 - 42.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (so Ferro doesn't have to break your Sub, he just has to sit there and wait for the Volt Switch with your old set)
+6 0 SpA Rotom-Mow Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Ferrothorn: 177-208 (50.2 - 59%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (Much better)
It now also means you can put consistent pressure on Corv, Aegislash, and really anything that resists Leaf Storm without being forced out.
Hope this all makes sense!