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Community POTW #33

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C

caninobranco

Member
Partners:
Tyranitar/Hippowdown- For obvious reasons, perma-sand is needed for Excadrill, Tyranitar also takes fire atacks like a pro.
Gliscor/Landorus are pretty effective against fight pokes who can be deadly for the mole and they can also kill opposite Excadrill.
Garchomp- Resistant to fire and because he is very strong and one of the top sand sweepers.
Mamoswine- Very underrated pokemon but can kill Landorus and Gliscor who are top counters for Exca.
Heatran- Can absorb fire atacks.
Reuniclus- Good fighting pokemon counter and doesn't fear being burned.
Ferrothorn- Arguably the best rain team counter in the game can also take water atacks directed to the mole with ease.

Counters: Scarf Politoed and Ninetales can come into a swords dance or after something was killed, change the weather and KO the mole with their STAB atacks, Gliscor is the best counter he can take anything the mole throws at him and KO with STAB EQ, Landorus is at the same boat (and both can take advantage from the sandstorm) but needs to watch out for +2 returns that can KO him, Ballon Heatran can come into an EQ or a Swords Dance and kill the mole with a Fire STAB (or even Earth Power which can surprise an opposite Heatran who wants to absorb the fire atack), Bronzong takes little from Excadrill most used atacks but can't do much against the mole unless it is carrying Earthquake, Skarmory can also take on mole atacks and thrown as much Spikes as he wants before whirlwinding the mole away, Scarf Ditto can revenge non-ballon variants (though Scarf Ditto can revenge almost anything anyway), Fighting pokemons with priority atacks can kill the mole if it was prior damaged (I think Techniloom can even 1HKO an Excadrill with no HP or defense investments with his mach punch), Prankster Sableye can burn him.

Sets:
Swords Dance Sweeper 252 atk/252 spe adamant
Item Baloon/Life orb
Swords Dance
Earthquake
Rock Slide
X-Scissor/Return/Rapid Spin
Standard Excadrill set, Earthquake has STAB and is ridiculously strong, Swords Dance turns the mole high atack into a huge atack, Rock Slide for flyers and the last option depending on what to kill X-Scissor hits some Grass Pokemons for SE damage, Return has no super effective hit but has more base power and Rapid Spin can clear entry hazards, item choice depends on the user Baloon makes him temporaly immune to earth atacks, while Life orb makes the mole hit harder.

Choice Band Sweeper Same EVS and nature as the above
Item: Choice Band
Earthquake
Rock Slide
X-Scissor/Return/Rapid Spin
X-Scissor/Return/Rapid Spin
Basically the same set as the Swords Dance Sweeper with the diference it doesn't need to setup to break things and with the disadvantage of not being able to switch between atacks.

Other options:
Special atacks- Should never be used. EVER. Even hidden power ice which could surprise a Gliscor is not worth it.
Choice Scarf- Can be good if you want to use the mole without sandstorm or if you want to use Sand Force.
Substitute- Can be interesting to protect the mole from status ailments and with HP investment his substitutes won't be broken by Seismic Toss, though he doesn't fear Blissey at all.
Toxic- Is an atack other pokes can use much better than him.
Hone Claws- An alternative to Swords Dance but it is worse since Earthquake is already base 100 accuracy.
Brick Break- can hit some ballon metals, but X-Scissor and Return are better options as atacking moves.
Poison Jab- A worse X-Scissor, Poison has terrible coverage.
Swagger- Maybe in a gimmick set with substitute...
Shadow Claw- Can hit ghosts but a SE Shadow Claw is weaker than a neutral Earthquake so it is meh at best.
 
T

tecannon521

Steel Cannon
politoed should also get mention as a counter. the easiest way to stop excadrill is to remove its sand and politoed does it simply by switching in
 
D

Dmal

New Member
tecannon521 said:
politoed should also get mention as a counter. the easiest way to stop excadrill is to remove its sand and politoed does it simply by switching in
Click to expand...

Strictly speaking, Politoed is a check, not a counter, as if Politoed switches into an Excadrill using Swords Dance, Excadrill can then outspeed and OHKO Politoed with Earthquake. Scarf Politoed could however be considered a counter, because it outspeeds Excadrill before it gets OHKOed.



Anyways:

Swords Dance:
Excadrill @ Life Orb / Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: / 252 Atk / 72 Def / 28 SpD / 156 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Return / Rapid Spin

SD enables you to sweep. Earthquake is obligatory STAB. Rock Slide has great coverage alongside Earthquake, most notably hitting the Flying-types immune to Earthquake. Return, whilst netting no more super-effective coverage, is the best extra coverage attack due to gaining more neutral coverage, especially against Breloom and Virizion, who resist your other attacks (also Claydol and Flygon, who aren't commonly seen in OU). Return also deals more damage than Rock Slide against most foes. Excadrill is the best offensive spinner in the game, so Rapid Spin needs a slash. When running Rapid Spin, Leftovers is a viable item choice to give Excadrill more durability for the entire match, as LO recoil is not desirable with Rapid Spin where as the power boost to Rapid Spin is negligible, and Air Balloon may pop earlier than intended if using Rapid Spin.

LO is the main option for the large power boost it provides. Air Balloon gives Excadrill more opportunities to set up, and can enable Excadrill to check other Excadrill.

The EVs enable you to outrun Jolly Choice Scarf Garchomp, with the remaining EVs spread between Def and SpD to balance his defences (this gives more overall durability than dumping then in HP, thanks to his high base HP stat and low base defence stats). An alternative EV spread is a Jolly nature with max Spe EVs. This is to at least speed tie with opposing Excadrill, and is definitely not a bad option, because Excadrill is very common. It is also viable to run max Spe EVs with Adamant nature Excadrill to speed tie with other Adamant Excadrill. However, by running more Speed, you don't outrun much else of significant worth. If playing on the Smogon server, where Garchomp is banned (and hence Scarf Chomp), when using the main EV spread, lower your Spe EVs by two, as they won't be useful, whilst still outspeeding Scarf Landorus.

Btw this is exactly the same as the Smogon set except that I wrote these set comments, but I'm mentioning it, because I feel it is the most effective set.

Choice Band:
Excadrill @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: / 252 Atk / 72 Def / 28 SpD / 156 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Return
- Rapid Spin / X-Scissor

Self-explanatory. Refer to other CB sets for a good description. EV spread is same as above.

Other options: X-Scissor, Shadow Claw, Hone Claws, Choice Scarf, other abilities.

X-Scissor is Excadrill's best attack against Bronzong and most Grass-types. However, the most common Grass-type, Ferrothorn, is hit harder by Earthquake. The same applies for Venasaur. Out of the only other common grass-types in OU, Breloom, Virizion and Celebi, only the latter is hit harder by X-Scissor than Return, making X-Scissor a lesser option.
Shadow Claw offers redunant coverage amongst Excadrill's other moves: a x2 Shadow Claw is weaker than STAB Earthquake. It's only useful against Leviating Ghost and Psychic-types. It should also be noted that a +2 Rock Slide can OHKO Gengar, making Shadow Claw unnecessary against it's most common target.
Hone Claw: Don't use this. Inferior to SD, and the accuracy boost to Rock Slide does not compensate for the lack of power.
Choice Scarf: You don't need this much Speed when using Sand Rush. If you feel like using it with Sand Power, don't: you'll have less Spe and Atk than a Choice Band Sand Rush Excadrill.
Other abilities. THE reason Excadrill is so deadly is Sand Rush. Any other ability removes Excadrill's main utility.

Teammates: Tyranitar and/or Hippowdon is essential. Otherwise do not use Excadrill. Rotom-W can handle Gliscor, Bronzong, Skarmory, Politoed, Azumarill and Hitmontop (the latter thanks to Will-O-Wisp), some of Exacdrill's counters and checks.

Counters: Gliscor, Bronzong, Skarmory (whilst it can't damage Excadrill, it can break its Air Balloon and then Whirlwind it away, taking little damage in the process).
Checks: Politoed, Ninetales, anything with Mach Punch or Aqua Jet, particularly Conkeldurr, Hitmontop and Azumarill. Hippowdon can take even a +2 LO Earthquake if it's healthy and then retaliate with Earthquake. But it won't work if Excadrill has an Air Balloon. Other Air Balloon holders can check Excadrill, such as Heatran and Terrakion, whilst OHKOing with their STABs, but must be weary of losing their Balloon, especially to a Rock Slide flinch.
 
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