Excadrill (Analysis)

[Soundblaster]

I've had really good success countering Excadrill with relaxed Swampert. Scald FTW.

 

[BBoyAjolt]

The Sand Force set is actually pretty good considering Trick Room is out and Excadrill's high Hit Points.

 

[AccidentalGreed]

The Sand Force set is actually pretty good considering Trick Room is out and Excadrill's high Hit Points.

We generally try avoiding sets needing Trick Room support, so Sand Rush is the way to go in this metagame.

 

[justind123]

IMO Air Balloon is best to avoid random earthquakers

 

[Desolation101]

Excadrill @ Choice band
252 attk/4 DEF/ 252 SPEED
Ability: Sand rush
Earthquake
Rock slide
Brick break
Aerial ace

This thing simply rips through things in sand. And if given the right opportuinty can sweep late game.
Sorry for bad formatting, on my phone
If anybody has other suggestions tho I am open too them

 

[Bugbot]

Excadrill @ Choice band
252 attk/4 DEF/ 252 SPEED
Ability: Sand rush
Earthquake
Rock slide
Brick break
Aerial ace

This thing simply rips through things in sand. And if given the right opportuinty can sweep late game.
Sorry for bad formatting, on my phone
If anybody has other suggestions tho I am open too them

The analysis already has a Choice Band set. By the way, Aerial Ace and Brick Break are too weak in order to be used well with a Choice Band. Besides, Aerial Ace doesn't kill anything except Breloom, which (I think) gets murdered by Return anyway.

 

[SlimMan]

Now that Garchomp is gone, you oughta remove mentions of him being in OU.
Actually, most analyses will suffer this issue. :/ w/e

 

[Rising_Dusk]

Valid points. I've adjusted the Garchomp mentions out of the analysis.

 

[AWESOMESAWCE]

Is Drill Run a good move for Excadrill?

 

[AccidentalGreed]

Excadrill doesn't exactly have the time to be playing with something as weaker as Drill Run, and Earthquake is always good on something that has physical STAB on it.

 

[MaestroXXVI]

I don't think this really warrants a mention in the official writeup, but excadrill gains quite a bit from gravity - earthquake hitting everything and rock slide not missing for three turns is nothing to laugh at. Just to show how much it gives him, here's a calc against what's almost certainly his best check:

252 +2 Atk Life Orb Excadrill Earthquake vs 252 HP/184 Def Gravity Gliscor: 87.6% - 103.4%

The min damage roll does exactly enough to KO with either rocks or level 2 spikes up, or with both up and poison heal already in effect. How awesome is that?

 

[Porii Sames]

Brick Break seriously needs extra mention for being an Excadrill counter in and of itself.

 

[Super Mario Bro]

The last 4 EVs should be in defense in order to buffer its weakest stat.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I run an adamant Excadrill, I know exactly what I am risking (speed ties, and choice scarf Landorous), but I have been pondering, if you do run adamant, what is a good speed to fall on? An outright 252 speed seems wasteful.

 

[Super Mario Bro]

I run an adamant Excadrill, I know exactly what I am risking (speed ties, and choice scarf Landorous), but I have been pondering, if you do run adamant, what is a good speed to fall on? An outright 252 speed seems wasteful.

I wouldn't be any slower than Timid Scarf Gengar/Latios. At that point, though, you should probably max out speed to not be completely helpless against other Adamant Excadrill...

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I don't think many other Excadrills on adamant, in 100 battles I might run into one. And besides, if I found fellow Excadrills to be a problem, I would be Jolly.

 

[prem]

most excadrills are adamant, jolly drill is just weaker (unless running a life orb). but yes +1 base 110s is your best speed tier now because scarf latios is somewhat common

 

[Porii Sames]

Jolly Orb or Adamant Balloon imo. One or the other is just overkill.

 

[-Tsunami-]

Jolly Orb or Adamant Balloon imo. One or the other is just overkill.

How is it overkill? Jolly is mainly only useful for speed tying other Jolly Excadrills. Adamant LO allows you to do even more damage to Gliscor, and hit even harder. Since most Excadrills are Adamant, running Adamant LO still gives you a chance to speed tie.

 

[Milos]

Rapid Spin is also a very effective tool for that last slot, however, if you're not looking for added coverage.

It could just be me, but this looks weird.

I was thinking of rewriting it something along the lines of:
Rapid Spin is also a very effective tool for the last slot, however, if you're looking for added coverage then you should stick with Return or X-Scissor.

<p>The EV spread is standard for an offensive sweeper. Adamant is the preferred nature as it adds considerable punch to Excadrill's attacks, especially after a boost. Jolly is a very viable alternative, however, due to the fact that with it Excadrill can Speed tie opposing Excadrill. Regardless, Excadrill typically needs the extra power to break down its defensive checks, so Adamant is the best choice. Adamant is also the better nature when run with Air Balloon, since it prevents opposing Excadrill from hitting yours (removed hyphen) super effectively if kept intact.

other than those minor nitpicks, everything looks good. :)

 

[Porii Sames]

How is it overkill? Jolly is mainly only useful for speed tying other Jolly Excadrills. Adamant LO allows you to do even more damage to Gliscor, and hit even harder. Since most Excadrills are Adamant, running Adamant LO still gives you a chance to speed tie.

Because Jolly Air Balloon doesn't hit hard enough, Adamant LO is situational and you lose to most Excadrill.

 

[Peternummer14]

Playtested: Classic Weezing with W'o'W and haze along with defensive EVs is a really good check/counter for excadrill asuming the wisp hits.

 

[November Blue]

[Other Options]

<p>There's a good reason why Excadrill is forced to use moves like Return and X-Scissor for coverage, and that's because it has virtually no other attacking moves worth using over the listed options. Brick Break can be run as a coverage move to nail opposing Excadrill that are floating on an Air Balloon, but otherwise has basically no utility; practically every other Pokemon vulnerable to Brick Break, namely Tyranitar and Ferrothorn, is hit equally hard by Earthquake. Shadow Claw might sound nice to hit Ghost-types that are immune to Rapid Spin, but a neutral Earthquake hits all Ghost-type Pokemon in the game except for Rotom and Gengar for the same Base Power as Shadow Claw. Since both Rotom and Gengar are easily dispatched of with a boosted Rock Slide, Shadow Claw has no real value. Excadrill can run Hone Claws over Swords Dance for setting up so that Rock Slide will never miss, though this is always inferior to just chancing Rock Slide's accuracy with a Swords Dance boost.</p>

Rotom-A isn't a Ghost-type anymore. Maybe replace Ghost-types with Levitators?

 

[blarajan]

That didn't imply Rotom-A. It implied normal Rotom, though it didn't include Drifblim or Mismagius.

 

[November Blue]

You can't be serious. Who the hell uses normal Rotom in OU? Especially as an Excadrill counter? It may see some use, be definitely not enough to garner a mention in the analysis.