Pokémon Landorus-Incarnate

[WhinoTheRhino]

OP gives too much credit to Rock Slide, and not enough to Psychic and Sludge Bomb, which are both really good attacks on Lando-I in this metagame. Finding room for them alongside Earth Power, Focus Blast, and HP Ice is actually quite a challenge!

Landorus-I prefers Sludge Wave over Sludge Bomb for the added power, since Sheer Force cancels secondary effects anyways.

 

[OrdA]

Am i mistaken, or has the calm mind set not been mentioned yet? It beats latias sets that don't have ice beam, which counter other special lando-i.

calm mind / sludge wave / psychic / earth power @ life orb, i'm not sure about the spread but i think they put some evs into bulk actually.

 

[WebBowser]

Am i mistaken, or has the calm mind set not been mentioned yet? It beats latias sets that don't have ice beam, which counter other special lando-i.

calm mind / sludge wave / psychic / earth power @ life orb, i'm not sure about the spread but i think they put some evs into bulk actually.

The two main problems with that set is that Calm mind is kinda slow and I can't think of many things that +1 lando-I threatens that regular lando does not. I guess not needing to rely as much on the raw power of focus miss is a nice bonus, but ground, poison, psychic coverage has some notable gaps, such as any floating steel type ever.

Honestly, I think he'd be better off with gravity, focus miss, EP and either sludge wave or psychic. Gravity allows EP to hit flying and levitating mons that normally give him trouble, it also goes a long way to patching up focus miss' less then steller accuracy, bringing it up to almost 100% and, incidentally, brings up sludge wave to 100% accuracy.

 

[gnr61]

eek, Gravity Lando-I sounds terrifying for defensive teams

 

[OrdA]

ground, poison, psychic coverage has some notable gaps, such as any floating steel type ever.

hmm, it still has ok damage on skarm with +1 psychic. All Skarm can do back is whirl it out or toxic, and if might be forced out low if it hits a bad whirl target.

Seems more important to get past latias imo, which the focus blast set misses out on.

+1 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Skarmory: 152-179 (45.5 - 53.5%)

 

[WebBowser]

Latias outspeeds and ohkos with ice beam rather easily, so unless you are running rock polish, staying in on latias is quite honestly a bad idea for lando, even with +1 sp def. Skarmary, on the other hand, walls a large number of late game physical sweepers and is rather common, making it's death a high priority for any good wallbreaker such as landorous.

 

[Tressed]

Latias outspeeds and ohkos with ice beam rather easily, so unless you are running rock polish, staying in on latias is quite honestly a bad idea for lando, even with +1 sp def. Skarmary, on the other hand, walls a large number of late game physical sweepers and is rather common, making it's death a high priority for any good wallbreaker such as landorous.

Why would Latias be running Ice Beam? Worry about Surf, but Ice Beam doesn't actually do anything for Latias.

 

[travisbrown]

Landorus I is a very deadly pokemo to face. If needs be however its good to run a set with choice scarf. Sheer forces already acts as a life orb so it lready has the needed power to do damage. I very good scarf set is
Earth power
Focus blast
U turn
Psychic

Pokes with sheer force such as nidoking, landorus and darminitan work very excellent with choice scarf

 

[WebBowser]

BlackLight If a specially offensive pokemon gets ice beam, it's worth consideration. Ice is that solid of an attacking type. Latias in particular has the ability to outspeed most dragons and all ground-flyings, it's also tanky enough to weather most coverage moves that a dragon type may carry, making it a solid check to pretty much any dragon that's not a full hp dragonite or Kyub.

travisbrown While scarf has always been a great way to secure surprise KOs, the problem with scarf lando-I is that it loses out on his most powerful asset, his amazing coverage. The fact that he can threaten almost any OU wall, and then 2hko virtually any swap in, is a huge asset that is compromised by being choice locked. Darm is a much better scarfer because there are relatively few pokemon that would appreciate swapping in on a flare blitz off a sheer force boosted 145 base attack in OU or UU (compared to an EP or focus miss at least).

 

[Ryolain]

BlackLight If a specially offensive pokemon gets ice beam, it's worth consideration. Ice is that solid of an attacking type. Latias in particular has the ability to outspeed most dragons and all ground-flyings, it's also tanky enough to weather most coverage moves that a dragon type may carry, making it a solid check to pretty much any dragon that's not a full hp dragonite or Kyub.

Draco Meteor outdamages Ice Beam even on 4x weak Dragons (140 x 1.5 x 2 = 420, 90 x 4 = 360) so Lati@s almost never runs Ice Beam. Tbolt, Surf and HP Fire are more common coverage moves.

It's irrelevant because most Lando-I builds are killed by Surf anyway.

 

[effyouzion]

I don't get the point of Psychic. Earth Power already slams Conkeldurr and Venusaur. I mean sure Earth Power can be bad to use sometimes because it can invite an immune pokemon to come in that isn't OHKO'd but is 2HKO'd, but I feel like HP Ice is more important for things like Dragonite, Gliscor, opposing Landorus, and Landorus-T.

HP ice means Gengar and specially defensive Venusaur can switch in on you and avoid the 2hko. The point of psychic is so that nothing can switch in on you and avoid the 2hko (assuming proper prediction) unless it's Chansey.

I like 4 attacks with EP/FB/sludge wave/psychic for that reason. Gliscor and other Lando can be annoying but if you have other switch ins for them it's def worth it.

 

[WebBowser]

Draco Meteor outdamages Ice Beam even on 4x weak Dragons (140 x 1.5 x 2 = 420, 90 x 4 = 360) so Lati@s almost never runs Ice Beam. Tbolt, Ice Beam and HP Fire are more common coverage moves.

It's irrelevant because most Lando-I builds are killed by Surf anyway.

Just pointing that out... You meant to say "surf", right?

Also, ice beam has this neat property of not dropping your spa 2 levels. While your point about draco meteor is still valid, it's worth noting.

Also, lando-T dies to ice beam, which is relevant because they often run u-turn. Incidentally, lando-I and Gliscor also die to ice beam.

*edit*

missed the last part of your post. Right about non calm-mind varients, but Gliscor and Lando-T both can live a surf (not well though).

252 SpA Latias Surf vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Landorus-T: 210-248 (54.9 - 64.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

 

[Flan76]

Psychic is good to hit Mega Venu and Conk harder.

 

[Ryolain]

Just pointing that out... You meant to say "surf", right?

Also, ice beam has this neat property of not dropping your spa 2 levels. While your point about draco meteor is still valid, it's worth noting.

Also, lando-T dies to ice beam, which is relevant because they often run u-turn. Incidentally, lando-I and Gliscor also die to ice beam.

*edit*

missed the last part of your post. Right about non calm-mind varients, but Gliscor and Lando-T both can live a surf (not well though).

252 SpA Latias Surf vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Landorus-T: 210-248 (54.9 - 64.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Whoops, good catch. Fixed. At any rate, the point is that it's almost never a good idea to stay in on Lati@s whether they're running Ice Beam or not, plus Lati has the advantage of a potential free switch against a predict Earth Power. Generally not a great matchup for Lando.

 

[WebBowser]

Whoops, good catch. Fixed. At any rate, the point is that it's almost never a good idea to stay in on Lati@s whether they're running Ice Beam or not, plus Lati has the advantage of a potential free switch against a predict Earth Power. Generally not a great matchup for Lando.

Well, the original point (which started all of this) was that lando-I should use sludge wave over focus miss on a calm mind set to hit lati@s, and I said that was a bad reason because they would probably kill you even at +1 or +2 spdef (even if I was wrong in their method of choice).

Also, as for the free switch argument, that's why I run gravity. You only need 1 free turn to set up gravity, and you can nail anything on switch in with EP. It's scary how few things can swap in on that once their precious ground immunity is gone. Gravity also turns focus miss into focus almost-garenteed-hit, so bye bye blobs not named sp defensive clefable.

 

[Dododoggy]

Here are a few calculations I did just to show how insanely strong Lando-I is.

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Greninja: 300-355 (105.2 - 124.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowbro: 274-324 (69.5 - 82.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Bisharp: 611-720 (225.4 - 265.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Heatran: 426-504 (110.3 - 130.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Heatran: 629-749 (162.9 - 194%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Klefki: 359-424 (112.8 - 133.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 344-407 (89.5 - 105.9%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Forretress: 344-407 (97.1 - 114.9%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 200 HP / 0 SpD Scizor: 274-324 (82.7 - 97.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Mega Venusaur: 192-229 (52.7 - 62.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 200 HP / 0 SpD Machamp: 348-411 (93.8 - 110.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Conkeldurr: 432-510 (104.3 - 123.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Tyranitar in Sand: 468-551 (115.8 - 136.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar: 390-463 (96.5 - 114.6%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Ferrothorn: 356-421 (101.1 - 119.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Sludge Wave vs. 184 HP / 0 SpD Azumarill: 387-458 (100 - 118.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

 

[Obviouslyanoob]

I've been using lando for the past few days with a gravity set, and he's still insanely strong, there is no reason for this not to be OU with the sheer force(get it?) it has.

 

[ShadowMarioGalaxy64]

Gengar is a decent...ish check. It can't switch in at all into Stone Edge or Psychic at all, but between Earthquake/Earth Power, Sludge Wave, and Focus Blast, it can switch easily. SubDisable sets can completely cripple Landorus if it doesn't obtain a speed boost. Other than that, keep Gengar away from Landorus.

This thing is still an absolute monster, though. Even if Sandstorm was nerfed, Landorus+Tyranitar for Offense is fun. Tyranitar can start up the sandstorm and Landorus can use a Physical Set to work off of the weather. Even then, Landorus can play coy and use a Special set to throw everybody off, which was half of what made Landorus so dangerous last gen: Unpredictibility. He is still on par/just below the par with some of the most offensive Pokemon (though he'd much rather have more Speed, even after the slower metagame, mixed offenses is still good) and can still hold his own, especially with the OHKOs he nets. After all this time using it (since even before my post here), I would still argue that Landorus has near zero counters, with Goodra being as close as it gets. Azumarill+Landorus can fix up most of the problems since Landorus resists Poison and is immune to Electricity and Azumarill resists Water and Ice. Now throw in Ferrothorn for the core and gg.

Just a bit more thought off the top of my head while I sit here bored in class.

 

[Ziaf999]

Does Sheer Force disable the secondary effect of Smack Down?

I'm currently running this:
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Rock Slide (maybe replace for Smack Down)
- Psychic

If Smack Down's effect of grounding Flying / Levitate Pokemon isn't disabled by Sheer Force, he can surprise a lot of slower checks and threaten to KO them with Earth Power. Rock Slide can be replaced for Smack Down if it would work, and he still gets KOs on Char-Y or Talonflame with it.

 

[Dustflier]

Does Sheer Force disable the secondary effect of Smack Down?

I'm currently running this:
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Rock Slide (maybe replace for Smack Down)
- Psychic

If Smack Down's effect of grounding Flying / Levitate Pokemon isn't disabled by Sheer Force, he can surprise a lot of slower checks and threaten to KO them with Earth Power. Rock Slide can be replaced for Smack Down if it would work, and he still gets KOs on Char-Y or Talonflame with it.

What advantages does this set have over a Gravity set? Gravity adds the bonus of making Focus Blast 100% accurate, and works for the whole team.

 

[Ziaf999]

Oh true. I was thinking "keep a Rock-type move to KO the important Fire / Flying Pokemon," but Earth Power does OHKO them anyway after Gravity is used.

 

[Xelus Shnider]

I personally like the Gravity set with Earth Power/Focus Blast/ Gravity/ Psychic using Gravity on forced switches and being able to most likely OHKO or 2HKO certain counters and checks barring Blissey but it does make Focus Blast nice and accurate for anything else it might need to hit like T-tar

 

[SuperWumbology]

Well Gravity is kind of a gimmick, and you kind of have to base your team off it if you have one gravity user.

I would use Sludge Bomb because that 30% poison rate is too much to give up, basically why people use scald over surf most of the time. The pink blobs can be problematic as they can softboil/wish + protect stall Focus blast's pp. Can Lando-I do anything to them?

Sheer Force negates the 30% poison chance from Sludge Bomb, and the poison isn't Toxic-esque, so the residual damage wouldn't be so great. However, you could simply not use Sheer Force if running Sludge Bomb, but then you would throw Lando-I's main selling point out the window.

 

[Aragorn the King]

Well Gravity is kind of a gimmick, and you kind of have to base your team off it if you have one gravity user.

I would use Sludge Bomb because that 30% poison rate is too much to give up, basically why people use scald over surf most of the time. The pink blobs can be problematic as they can softboil/wish + protect stall Focus blast's pp. Can Lando-I do anything to them?

Sheer force nullifies secondary effects from happening, so Sludge Bomb and Sludge Wave both have a 0% chance to poison. Thus, there's no reason to use Sludge Bomb.

The only way to handle the blobs is if you run a physical Sand Force set with sand support, which certainly is less reliable than the goto Sheer Force + Life Orb set. If using the special set, there really is no way around them.

 

[WebBowser]

Well Gravity is kind of a gimmick, and you kind of have to base your team off it if you have one gravity user.

I would use Sludge Bomb because that 30% poison rate is too much to give up, basically why people use scald over surf most of the time. The pink blobs can be problematic as they can softboil/wish + protect stall Focus blast's pp. Can Lando-I do anything to them?

Not at all man. Gravity isn't like trick room where it gimps anything that doesn't benefit from it. Anything that has less than perfect accuracy moves benefits from it. It only actually hurts flying types in taking away their ground immunity, and everything else just does not care,