Pokémon Excadrill

[CyclicCompound]

I wonder, is it any useful to use Sand Force or Sand Rush with a Tyranitar on the team? I'm currently running Jolly Mold Breaker, but I don't know if I'd be better served with any of the other two abilities. He's acting as a spinner, and with Sand Stream's nerf I'm not sure if I need to go to anything besides Mold Breaker.

Edit: Also, what seems to be a better item on Jolly Mold Breaker spinner Excadrill, Air Balloon or Scarf? Currently running it with a team of Ttar/Tyrantrum/Scizor/Gastrodon/Talonflame. It looks like a Sandstorm team but it seriously isn't, it just happened to work out that way lol.

It really depends on your playstyle. If you observe that Excadrill always tends to come in when Sandstorm is up (especially if T-Tar can afford to hold a Smooth Rock), it's definitely a good idea to try one of Excadrill's weather abilities. With that said, Excadrill is by no means a bulky Pokemon. Make sure you're not forcing yourself into switching in Excadrill, because it's not going to be able to stand up to as many attacks if you play it like that. Also, make sure you're not losing out on coverage by dropping Mold Breaker. Considering Rotom-W is so popular, make sure your team can handle not having an offensive answer to it.

Basically, Sand Rush, Sand Force, and Mold Breaker are all useful given the right circumstances. The team you use and playstyle you follow will dictate which ability is the most useful.

As for an item, I personally love Scarf, but that's just because Excadrill is usually my late-game sweeper and revenge killer. If you don't use it like that, then Air Balloon is an equally great item (especially since you can play around so many immunities).

 

[ShadowMarioGalaxy64]

Just commented on this thread for the first time, so let's get started with it!

Pros:

- Mold Breaker. This hits Levitating Pokemon with Earthquake and breaks through Multiscale.
- Ground-Steel has to be one of the best typings when pinned against Hazards. Double Rock Resist, Neutrality to Spikes, and an immunity to Toxic Spikes is amazing to have.
- Air Balloon is a thing.
- Edgequake...fine, Slidequake.
- Sand Rush is viable in dedicated Sandstorm Teams.
- RAPID SPIN! RAPID SPIN! RAPID SPIN!
- Swords Dance is still usable, guys.
- Pokebank will give it Stealth Rock once again!
- Steel-Type attacks hit Faeries Super-Effectively. For those Steel-Faeries, EARTHQUAKE! Take that, Jingle-Keys! ^_^
- Permanent weather is gone. This means that Sun and Rain won't boost moves that its weak to.

Cons:

- Permanent weather is gone. Not only does this mean that Sandstorm for Sand Rush is gone, Excadrill enjoyed Rain for its bulky Rapid Spin sets.
- The Steel Nerf, removing its Ghost and Dark-resists.
- Its bulk is...meh. Good HP, but its Defenses make it less than impressive.
- Priority isn't kind to Excadrill...Mach Punch.
- 88 Speed, while good for a Bulky Pokemon (hell, Deoxys-D has 90), is not the best for a sweeper unless you're in a Sand Rush-based team. It also doesn't help that Excadrill doesn't have Agility or a similar move.

There are more on either side, but this is what I can think of in two minutes.

I'm glad Excadrill is back--I honestly want it to stay. With the Generation's nerfs to Steel-Types and Permanent Weather, this makes Monty Mole a good, but not completely overpowered, OU Threat. Excadrill was always the best Rapid Spinner in Pokemon. Nothing has changed about that--in fact, other spinners either didn't really gain anything or were nerfed because of the loss of Rain (Tentacruel and Starmie).

 

[EternalZ]

252+ Atk Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Gourgeist Super: 146-174 (39.03 - 46.52%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Gourgeist Super: 134-158 (35.82 - 42.24%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Gourgeist Tiny: 146-174 (46.49 - 55.41%) -- 71.09% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Gourgeist Tiny: 134-158 (42.67 - 50.31%) -- 1.17% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Trevenant: 216-256 (57.75 - 68.44%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Trevenant: 198-234 (52.94 - 62.56%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 120 Def Trevenant Subseed: 188-222 (50.26 - 59.35%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 120 Def Trevenant Subseed: 170-202 (45.45 - 54.01%) -- 41.8% chance to 2HKO

The damage isn't too bad, and this is taking into consideration he has mold breaker and air balloon. With a SD, I'm sure he could KO them, or at least come close to that (too time crunched to do calcs for boosted hits, could do that later if no one else does it before then).

So is stealth rock viable/recommended over swords dance post-bank?

+2 252 Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Trevenant: 394-464 (105.3 - 124%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gourgeist-Super: 198-234 (52.9 - 62.5%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Anyways, has anyone tried out AV Exca? I was thinking

Excadrill @ Assault Vest
Mold Breaker
Adamant
252 HP/ 252 Atk/ 4 Def
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin
- Shadow Claw/Iron Head

The last slot is a toss up; Shadow Claw to beat spinblockers or Iron Head if you want a secondary STAB and hate Fairies

 

[ColtCababa]

Anyways, has anyone tried out AV Exca? I was thinking

Excadrill @ Assault Vest
Mold Breaker
Adamant
252 HP/ 252 Atk/ 4 Def
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin
- Shadow Claw/Iron Head

The last slot is a toss up; Shadow Claw to beat spinblockers or Iron Head if you want a secondary STAB and hate Fairies

I've tried it out. You'd want to invest in SDef rather than HP if you want to tank special hits better. Specially defensive Rotom-W will fail to 2HKO with Hydro Pump. The only concern is the disability to run Stealth Rock on it, but it's great in it's own function.

 

[JSteele]

so, what does the lead set look like?

 

[TwinklePuff]

I'm having a LOT of trouble deciding which set I should use for an Excadrill I plan to use on my team.

For defensive syngery, Excadrill and "Charizard counter" Gyarados (not running mega stone on it) cover each others' weaknesses, but RotomW and RotomH STAB attacks tear apart that 2-man core. Does that mean I should run Jolly max speed to scare them off?

I would love to, especially with a scarfed max speed Excadrill to beat scarf Rotom, but I have a bad feeling about locking myself into Rapid Spin and then having to switch out (I also want to use Excadrill as a spinner). Is being locked into Rapid Spin not as bad as I make it out to be?

I could also run max speed Jolly and Assault Vest, with the rest im of the EVs split between Atk and SpD to survive Hydro Pump and KO back with Earthquake.

Sets that came to mind:
Excadrill @ Choice Scarf | Mold Breaker
Jolly
252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Speed
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Shadow Claw

Standalone, the set isn't ideal, but Shadow Claw kinda deals with the GrassGhosts and Celebi, notable Pokémon who bulky Gyarados can't handle.

Excadrill @ Assault Vest | Mold Breaker
Jolly
180 Atk, 76 SpD, 252 Speed

180 Atk should almost always OHKO specially defensive Rotom (is the damage calc seriously going to tell me 172 Atk and 180 Atk have the same % chance of KOing? Or am I missing something?) while Excadrill takes around 63% from a Hydro Pump.
I think the idea is to come in on Volt Switch aimed at Gyarados, but the same can be said for the scarf set. I think the difference is that AV Excadrill survives Hydro Pump if I predict incorrectly. At the same time, scarf Excadrill always checks scarf Rotom......where am I going with this?

Bottom line..which set do you think is superior in terms of assisting Gyarados?

 

[Loupeitak]

I've been running this set:

Justice (Excadrill) (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 220 SDef / 32 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

EVs look a bit weird, with Adamant and only 4 EVs in attack, but they're the leftover EVs. With max HP, 220 SDef and AV, you guarantee defensive Rotom only 3HKOs you with Hydro Pump. It even lives non-specs Rotom-H Overheats. Meanwhile you 2HKO with EQ. 32 Speed is enough to outspeed 44 Speed EV Rotoms, who run that to outspeed Jolly Azumarill. It is also bulky enough to get a rapid spin off in most cases, and works decently well as a specially defensive pokemon to take Dracos, Tbolts, Ice beams and whatnot which my other team members appreciate.

How does this look like?

 

[Mitchhhhhh]

180 Atk should almost always OHKO specially defensive Rotom (is the damage calc seriously going to tell me 172 Atk and 180 Atk have the same % chance of KOing? Or am I missing something?) while Excadrill takes around 63% from a Hydro Pump.
I think the idea is to come in on Volt Switch aimed at Gyarados, but the same can be said for the scarf set. I think the difference is that AV Excadrill survives Hydro Pump if I predict incorrectly. At the same time, scarf Excadrill always checks scarf Rotom......where am I going with this?

Bottom line..which set do you think is superior in terms of assisting Gyarados?

Specially defensive Rotom-W was more of a thing in gen 5, nowadays it needs to be physically defensive to check Talonflame and Mega Pinsir.

Both Gyarados and Excadrill absolutely hate being burned, so what will likely happen when you expect an electric move on your Gyarados and switch into Excadrill is your excadrill gets burned and can't even 2hko physically defensive Rotom-W, Gastrodon pairs well with Gyarados defensively and can trap Rotom-W with infestation, it can't spin however.

If you're death set on using Excadrill and Gyarados I'd advice pairing it with a cleric to remove potential burns and pass wishes to Gyarados and Excadrill.

 

[PsychoPulse]

I'm thinking of trying out something like this.

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 136 HP/252 Atk/120 Spd
Nature: Adamant
-Rock Slide
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Rapid Spin

The idea of this set isn't to be a traditional sweeper, it's main focus is to be an offensive spinner/utility with a mix of speed and bulk which can take down some important threats to my other sweepers or weaken them enough for them to be finished off by another team member all while spinning away hazards and setting up rocks of my own.

Main Points:
-120 Speed EVs are enough to outrun anything with up to max investment 115 base speed with Sticky Web support

-All the most common fairies in OU get 2HKO by Earthquake with only Azumarill being a threat requiring prediction.

-Talonflame and MegaZardY are OHKO by Rock Slide, MegaZardX gets OHKO by Earthquake

-Levitate users Rotom-W and Gengar are OHKO by Earthquake, Latias is 2HKO. Latios is brought down to approx 25% HP on switch in

-Other spin blockers Jellicent and Aegislash get 2HKO by Earthquake, only Trevenant and Gourgeist require support from another team member to take down.

For support, I'm planning on going with Galvantula for SW support and MegaZardY/Tyranitar/Aegislash for Trevenant/Gourgeist. Aegislash acts as a spin blocker to keep SW and SR on the field.

 

[the-bumper-car]

Is it worthwhile using a Choice Scarf on Exca this gen? It's just that he takes so much damage from the priority flying around right now, barring Talonflame's Brave Bird.

 

[SunDriedRainbow]

Air Balloon protects from Sticky Web and Spikes. Excadrill is already immune to Toxic Spikes thanks to its Steel typing. On that note, its typing makes it a fantastic spinner thanks to 4x resisting Stealth Rock. No other spinner in OU can boast that, at least not that I know of.

Excadrill, Steelix, Lucario, and Cobalion are the only four pokemon that 4x resist Stealth Rock, period.

 

[X3H]

Exadrill is amazing he's just hard for me to put on some of the teams i build since he's ground and steel the only typing i'm able to have multiple is Steel and thats if one of the 2 is heatran

 

[X5Dragon]

Zombie bump.

I think the OP can be mopped to reflect current meta trends, but otherwise I think that Adamant LO Excadrill (paired with Smooth Rock TTar) is one of the scariest late game sweepers atm right now, and the things that usually handle Excadrill tend to fade early game such as lead Azumarills and sash Looms.

I think discussion on how to support Excadrill can be a good topic.

 

[Chali]

Well W-o-W ruins TTar and Exca combo so taking care of Rotoms and Sableye becomes a huge priority to your team.

Also Exca and TTar stack way too many weaknesses with them 2 alone so you have to have something to take those blows. Also priority Mach Punch (Breloom, Conkeldurr, Infernape) and Aqua Jet from Choice Band Azumarill will put a quick stop to any shaningans.

Maybe a bringing back physical Hippo and giving it Sand Stone would be a better sand stream candidate for Sand Rush Exca. Physical Hippodon can even tank Earthquakes and fighting moves Exca attracts so well.

And I haven't tested but since Exca himself causes so many special walls to switch why not give him the move Sand Storm and let him set sand up himself? You could even still give him an Air Balloon and switch him into choice locked earthquakes.

 

[Vaporeon Isn't Bad]

Scarfbreaker drill is an AMAZING set, as the counters are priority and other scarfers, because even at jolly its speed is only 302, meaning scarfchomp, scarftrick latios, and a few others. Also stopping scarfbreaker are bulky water types, and bulky ground types. Sand rush is also an INSANE clean up crew, outspeeding all good scarfers, but the downside to that is you have to sack ttar/ hippowdown usually, since they share many common weaknesses, and it also only lasts for a short time. Regular drill is kinda eh, tho. Outsped by alot of stuff. But thts just me.

 

[TheInsanity]

Only 3 page for one of the best revenge killers/cleaners? Really?

The sand offense teams is one the most used playstyles now:

Excadrill @ Air Balloon/Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 Def / 252 Atk/ 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin / Sword Dance

Obviously the best team mate for him is ttar: can put sand and remove the counters/checks of excarill with ice beam (gliscor, landobros) or fire blast (skarmory, ferrothorn). RSlide/IHead/EQ are basic, u can hurt everything in the meta with this coverage, last move can be used on what the team needs.

 

[Der Richter]

One question: I have a breed that I use as scarfed spinner. Problem is, the only steel STAB avaiable is Metal Claw, considering Iron head is a gen V tutor move (the fact that this thing has literally a drill for head and doesn't learn it drives me nut). Now, hoping for the tutors in ORSA, I wondered if you could suggest me another coverage move to use (the damage calculator doesn't even have Metal Claw!). I was thinking about Brick Break.

 

[Karxrida]

One question: I have a breed that I use as scarfed spinner. Problem is, the only steel STAB avaiable is Metal Claw, considering Iron head is a gen V tutor move (the fact that this thing has literally a drill for head and doesn't learn it drives me nut). Now, hoping for the tutors in ORSA, I wondered if you could suggest me another coverage move to use (the damage calculator doesn't even have Metal Claw!). I was thinking about Brick Break.

Just RNG one from Gen V and transfer it or get one from a trader in the WiFi forums.

 

[Der Richter]

Just RNG one from Gen V and transfer it or get one from a trader in the WiFi forums.

Well, I didn't need a forum to get this idea, but I do really appreciate the effort.

 

[Onala]

Excadrill with Mold Breaker wrecks a Cosmic Power Clefable set, or at least forces it to switch out. It is a great counter to almost every fairy type, really.

 

[Karxrida]

Excadrill with Mold Breaker wrecks a Cosmic Power Clefable set, or at least forces it to switch out. It is a great counter to almost every fairy type, really.

CP Clefable is pretty shit since it doesn't have any offensive presence outside of Stored Power and is a crit magnet. Excadrill can't counter any Fairies anyway since most have a move that hits it super effectively.

 

[Onala]

CP Clefable is pretty shit since it doesn't have any offensive presence outside of Stored Power and is a crit magnet. Excadrill can't counter any Fairies anyway since most have a move that hits it super effectively.

I agree. CM Clefable is much better. I run a Mold Breaker Excadrill just in case, though. It's also a pretty good rapid spinner.

 

[Lolme]

One question: I have a breed that I use as scarfed spinner. Problem is, the only steel STAB avaiable is Metal Claw, considering Iron head is a gen V tutor move (the fact that this thing has literally a drill for head and doesn't learn it drives me nut). Now, hoping for the tutors in ORSA, I wondered if you could suggest me another coverage move to use (the damage calculator doesn't even have Metal Claw!). I was thinking about Brick Break.

You could try Shadow Claw or even Poison Jab but missing Iron Head really hurts in an All-attacking set. Brick Break has almost the same coverage as EQ only hitting harder Ttar and Bisharp specially considering that a super effective hit from BB=Stab EQ, but you might find the utility of breaking barriers useful meanwhile you get Iron Head.

 

[GOD Tsukamoto]

mmm... scarf excadrill with sand force in sandstorm seems good, it's like a life orb with a scarf. With balloon it can enter on earthquakes and spam. CBand and sand rush is also a good alternative for exca

 

[Albacore]

mmm... scarf excadrill with sand force in sandstorm seems good, it's like a life orb with a scarf. With balloon it can enter on earthquakes and spam. CBand and sand rush is also a good alternative for exca

Scarf Sand Force Excadrill is completely inferior to Life Orb Sand Rush, since, not only can it not switch moves meaning it will easily be forced out, not only is Iron Head not boosted by Sand Force, but it's also significantly slower than Sand Rush Excadrill, meaning it'll be outsped by faster scarfers such as Landorus-T, Kyurem-B and Garchomp. Please do not use this set.