OU Spotlight: Landorus
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History
Landorus hasn't been around for long, but since its arrival in BW it has been a fantastic Pokémon in OverUsed. Landorus terrorized teams in BW with its offensive prowess, usually with a set of Earth Power / Focus Blast / Hidden Power Ice / Rock Polish or U-turn. The last slot was the kicker; a Rock Polish Landorus devastated offense but usually had reliable checks in Celebi and Latias, but if it has U-turn and hit the "counter" on the switch, it became much more difficult to switch into later in the game. As such, Landorus was suspect tested and was banned with a very low majority. Fast-forward to XY, and Landorus is still a great Pokémon. Landorus went through a phase in which it was an amazing stallbreaker, then stall started over-preparing, and it became a popular offensive Stealth Rock user, at which point Latios and Latias underwent a massive rise in usage after the Aegislash and Mawile bans, and Landorus became particularly adept at destroying balanced teams. Currently, Landorus is a difficult Pokémon to switch into, but it fits much better in the metagame than it did in BW; one would be hard-pressed to call it broken (though these claims were made during early XY), but it is definitely still a threat. What factors make it such a threat, though?
Landorus's Qualities
It's undeniable that Landorus is ridiculously offensively potent. Its 125 / 115 offenses and 101 base Speed stat have a pretty obvious implication of Landorus's role on the battlefield. However, what may trip you up is that all of Landorus's common sets are special attackers, even though it has a higher base Attack stat than Special Attack. This is where Landorus's ability comes in: Sheer Force is fantastic and offers Landorus a free boost to some of its strongest special coverage moves, including Psychic, Focus Blast, and its STAB move, Earth Power. Sheer Force boosts more of Landorus's special moves than its physical ones, so it actually hits harder as a special attacker. Sheer Force also negates Life Orb recoil, a common issue for offensive Pokémon. Landorus also has access to Rock Polish and Calm Mind, both of which aid it immensely against particular playstyles, namely offense for the former, and stall for the latter. Landorus's power and move options give it few overall counters, as all of its common checks will lose to the right move barring Cresselia, which is a niche Pokémon in general. Landorus's set versatility, reasonable Speed, and great power make it one of the most formidable special attackers in OU.
Playing with Landorus
Landorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive / Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Knock Off / Stealth Rock
The most common Landorus set seen in standard play has no boosting moves and is either a set with four attacks or one with Stealth Rock + three attacks. With a set fully laden with Sheer Force-boosted moves, Landorus is quite the threat to switch into, and it performs exceptionally well against balanced teams containing common Pokémon such as Ferrothorn, Landorus-T, and Slowbro. Earth Power is Landorus's STAB move and 2HKOes almost every defensive Pokémon that doesn't resist it. Psychic doesn't really provide much super effective coverage per se; it hits Amoonguss and Mega Venusaur, but its main use is that Earth Power + Psychic is basically unresisted. Focus Blast beats Skarmory, OHKOes Mega Tyranitar, hits Ferrothorn and Air Balloon Heatran, and it does the most to Rotom-W as well. The final moveslot depends on whether Landorus is a better wallbreaker or provides more utility to its team. Knock Off smashes Latios and Latias on the switch, deals super effective damage against Mew, Celebi, and Slowking, which are common Landorus answers, and removes Chansey's Eviolite. Stealth Rock is essential for every team. There are some other options here as well: Hidden Power Ice OHKOes Gliscor and specially defensive Dragonite (after Stealth Rock damage). Sludge Wave lets Landorus beat specially defensive Calm Mind Clefable and Sylveon, while Rock Slide hits Gyarados, Mega Charizard Y, and the other miscellaneous Flying-types that are good defensive answers to Landorus.
Landorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
Calm Mind Landorus is inherently better at breaking stall teams than regular Landorus, as the boost to its Special Attack from Calm Mind gives it immense power, which most defensive Pokémon can't hope to stand up against. Earth Power, Psychic, and Focus Blast offer the best coverage with three attack against defensive teams, which usually don't possess a Pokémon which resists all three moves, typically only packing bulkier Pokémon that resist Landorus's attacks and crumble when facing Calm Mind-boosted attacks. An example of this is Chansey; at +1, Landorus is able to 2HKO Chansey with Focus Blast after Chansey switches in on a Calm Mind. As Landorus is unaffected by Thunder Wave, Chansey can either Seismic Toss it and outright lose, attempt to Wish + Protect stall Landorus, which will fail after a while, or its best hope, getting a Toxic off. When paired with a Pokémon such as Heal Bell Clefable or Healing Wish Latias, this can be a nightmare. Calm Mind offers great stallbreaking utility over Knock Off because even though with four attacks Landorus still breaks defensive teams decently well, it lacks the ability to beat combinations of Pokémon on stall teams that beat all the moves, such as Chansey and specially defensive Gliscor, which can switch in on the Knock Off after Poison Heal has been activated and wall Landorus from there, while Calm Mind beats both Pokémon on the same team.
Landorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest / Rash Nature
- Rock Polish
- Earth Power
- Knock Off
- Psychic / Focus Blast / Sludge Wave
In a change of pace from the previous two sets, this set aims to sweep offensive teams, as it can boost its Speed in order to outspeed the various Pokémon found on offensive teams, such as Keldeo and Gengar. Rock Polish is a great Speed-boosting move, as it enables Landorus to outspeed the entire unboosted metagame and also many Choice Scarf users and other fast Pokémon such as Excadrill in sand. Earth Power is mandatory on all of Landorus's sets as a powerful STAB move that damages most offensive threats at least neutrally. Knock Off provides coverage against the common Latios, Latias, and Gengar while improving Landorus's stall matchup. The last slot is a tossup between Psychic, Focus Blast, and Sludge Wave. Psychic hits Keldeo and has great neutral coverage with the other moves. Focus Blast hits Skarmory, OHKOes Mega Tyranitar, helps against physically defensive Mandibuzz, and hits Air Balloon Excadrill as well. Sludge Wave does the most to Mega Gardevoir and Sylveon. Rock Polish Landorus typically sets up against attackers Choice-locked into moves that Landorus can take, such as Choice Specs Keldeo locked into Secret Sword and Choice Scarf Landorus-T locked into Earthquake. Landorus also sets up on forced switches, such as against specially defensive Heatran.
Playing against Landorus
Because of Landorus's impressive power and movepool, it is annoyingly difficult to completely hard counter. Cresselia is the only Pokémon that counters every single one of Landorus's sets, as it is immune to Earth Power, resists Focus Blast and Psychic, and doesn't take enough from Knock Off or U-turn to be an unreliable answer. Even Calm Mind sets can't muscle through Cresselia, as +6 attacks don't do enough to Cresselia, and Cresselia can just OHKO Landorus with Ice Beam. Chansey and Blissey beat most Landorus variants, but the former loses to Knock Off on the first switch-in followed by consecutive Focus Blasts the second time, and both Pokémon can be beaten by Calm Mind Landorus. Latios and Latias are the best offensive pivots into Landorus, though they do get destroyed by Knock Off if Landorus is carrying it. Other defensive answers include specially defensive Gliscor and CrashinBoomBang's bulky Dragonite set (CBBNite), both of which are only threatened by the very rare Hidden Power Ice. Other Pokémon can check it pretty well depending on its moveset, such as Mew and Slowking (no Knock Off), Celebi (no U-turn or Knock Off), and Mantine (provided it hasn't taken much prior damage). Mantine is the only one of these Pokémon that is an incredibly niche choice, though Cresselia is niche in itself and limited to certain stall teams. Finally, offensive teams can revenge kill it with faster strong attackers, such as Keldeo, Thundurus, and even Azumarill, as it has priority (and Assault Vest Azumarill can tank Landorus's attacks).
Fitting Landorus onto your team
Like Greninja in the previous issue, Landorus is a typical offensive Pokémon. There aren't many Pokémon that form a complementary core with it, but it appreciates some support, especially Pursuit from the likes of Tyranitar or Bisharp, mostly for Knock Off-lacking sets, because otherwise Latios, Latias, Celebi, and Chansey can be real problems. Tyranitar gets a special mention because it can switch into Zapdos and threaten it, which is pretty valuable considering Zapdos is a Defogger that can switch in on Stealth Rock Landorus and remove its hazards without ramifications. The Rock Polish set also appreciates Stealth Rock support as it scores guaranteed KOs on Latios and Thundurus.
Get out there!
Landorus is definitely not as defining as it was in early XY, but it's still an incredibly devastating threat to most balanced teams thanks to its amazing coverage and Sheer Force. It has three different sets which threaten three different playstyles, each of which is sure to serve you well in battle, but only time can tell what Landorus's role will be in ORAS OU, as it's sure to change.
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