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Welcome to my RMT for a recent monotype ground core challenge! I actually made this team a long time ago and it was one of my first non-sand ground teams that I could really call good, but I hadn't touched it for a while so when I saw there was a new core challenge that I could use it for, I decided to fix up this team and do it. It was pretty successful on the ladder; I peaked at 1713, but more impressively, a GXE of 88.
I cri everytiem bcuz there's no BW M-Camerupt sprite.
Teambuilding Process
When I first made this team, I actually did start out with mega Camerupt & Lando-T as the core. Mega Camerupt's role would be as a strong special attacker, the usual set, and as for Lando-T, well I wasn't sure yet. As for the team in general, I also planned on having no sand.
The next step for any ground team, but especially one with Camerupt is to put in a water absorber. In this case, I was interested in trying out counter Gastrodon so I put that in.
Now that I already had a water absorber and I wasn't interested in having Seismitoad & Gastrodon on the same team here, I decided I needed a counter for Crawdaunt or Gyarados. I was also in the market for a hazard setter, so that's when I decided to put in defensive Garchomp.
With both Landorus-Therian and Garchomp, I figured ice might be a problem. The team would also probably struggle against dragon so I put in Mamoswine.
Lastly, I lacked hazard removal and I wanted to try using SpD Excadrill more so I put it on the team, and eventually it became AV with max SpD. After that, the team was completed.
When I was building this team, I knew I was going to have both Garchomp and Landorus-T, so Mamoswine seemed essential for tanking ice hits. For this team, I wanted to use bulky Mamoswine over speed with icicle spear as having a stronger band is always useful and it it's bulk would also make it easier switching into ice moves. The moves are the standard: Ice shard is for priority which can come in handy vs things like Thundurus that are faster, or a sweeper check for threats like Serperior, icicle crash is it's main ice move for breaking things like Mandibuzz, EQ is ground STAB for things that ice can't hit, and the last move is either superpower or knock off. Knock off does help with ghost & psychic though, and also knocks off eviolites, but Personally I find superpower to be more useful especially on adamant band as it kills ice types like Abomasnow, and also Porygon2/Chansey.
I use 56 speed because outpacing Venusaur, AV Seismitoad, Heatran, and other Pokemon around 200 speed are necessary. It also guarantees outspeeding neutral base 55s like Golurk or Crawdaunt. 200 HP still lives a shit ton of hits and provides enough bulk. 252+ Atk is for maximum power.
Kyurem-B:
252 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-B Outrage vs. 200 HP / 0 Def Mamoswine: 288-340 (70 - 82.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-B Iron Head vs. 200 HP / 0 Def Mamoswine: 258-304 (62.7 - 73.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
32 SpA Teravolt Kyurem-B Ice Beam vs. 200 HP / 0 SpD Mamoswine: 177-208 (43 - 50.6%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO Weavile:
252 Atk Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 200 HP / 0 Def Mamoswine: 298-352 (72.5 - 85.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Weavile Icicle Crash vs. 200 HP / 0 Def Mamoswine: 159-187 (38.6 - 45.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Bisharp:
252+ Atk Bisharp Iron Head vs. 200 HP / 0 Def Mamoswine: 338-398 (82.2 - 96.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO +2 252+ Atk Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 200 HP / 0 Def Mamoswine: 336-396 (81.7 - 96.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Medicham:
252 Atk Pure Power Mega Medicham Bullet Punch vs. 200 HP / 0 Def Mamoswine: 176-208 (42.8 - 50.6%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO
And a lot of other notable calcs that I probably can't hink of lol
Defensive Garchomp might be popular on dragon, but it's very underrated on ground teams. It has far more uses than you probably realize, and this is mainly because water and grass are neutral against it making it easy for Garchomp to break physical water/grass sweepers, most notably some of ground's greatest threats: Crawdaunt , Aumarill & Gyarados. Bulky Zygarde is actually what seems to be popular on most non-sand ground teams, but Garchomp is basically a better version of that. Rocky helmet & rough skin means that rapid spinners can't stop you from setting rocks, and any physical attacker that isn't using an ice move is guaranteed to take a shit ton of damage. EQ is for things like Azumarill or Crawdaunt, and is also the main attacking move. Garchomp also gets access to roar which is necessary for dealing with sub Gyarados and other things like that. Flamethrower helps kill Scizor(a dangerous sweeper threat), Forretress, and damages other things like Pinsir that can be dangerous. Although it doesn't do much vs Ferrothorn, fire blast is not viable as you'll often find yourself needing the guaranteed hit and no miss. Rest or dragon tail is kind of another option, but flamethrower can be pretty necessary. Rest is good for simply healing up while till being a great switch in for physical contact attacks, and dragon tail is simply just like having roar but deals damage.
20 speed is to guarantee outspeeding things like bulky Jirachi, Tentacruel, some Heatrans, and other Pokemon with 240-244 speed.
Camerupt @ Cameruptite
Ability: Solid Rock
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 160 HP / 252 SpA / 96 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power
Camerupt is the special attacking mega of the team. Honestly, it's underrated as a mega seeing how much it helps ground being especially with sheer force + it's amazing sp.atk base that allows it to deal immense damage. For example, fire type means that it can't get burned so will-o-wisp Pokemon which are often leads like mew or sableye and can be dangerous af to ground are easily checked by Camerupt. Camerupt mainly helps a lot vs grass and threats like Ferrothorn, but it's not that bulky so it's important to keep it healthy in those matchups. Flamethrower & earth power are STABs with obvious uses, and ancient power is mainly for Charizard Y / Volcarona (I don't use rock slide because ancient power deals more to other Pokemon and ancient power will already guarantee beating those two anyway). Most people don't think to use eruption, but it's a very useful move for Camerupt. It guarantees breaking Mew for example, which flamethrower/earth power can't, and is guaranteed to do extreme damage to any switch in. And seeing how Camerupt is already used for breaking a lot of walls like Ferrothorn, Mew, Sableye, or Mandibuzz, eruption is very viable as it's usually easy to maintain maximum HP for at least the first few turns. Although will-o-wisp is a nice option instead of eruption, I prefer to use this as threats like Gyarados which will-o helps with are already dealt with by Garchomp anyway. Also I just felt like I should add that with eruption there's less pressure for me to need fire blast over flamethrower so I don't have to worry about misses.
96 speed is necessary to outpace M-Sableye, Slowbro, Ferrothorn, Bronzong, and other Pokemon up to 30 base while also allowing Camerupt to outspeed things like Forretress, Conkeldurr, Hippowdon, and Dragalge before it megas.
Mew:
252+ SpA Mega Camerupt Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Mew: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO M-Sableye:
252+ SpA Mega Camerupt Eruption (150 BP) vs. +1 248 HP / 60 SpD Mega Sableye: 163-193 (53.7 - 63.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Cradily:
252+ SpA Mega Camerupt Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Cradily: 201-237 (53.4 - 63%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Hoopa-U (switch-in):
252+ SpA Mega Camerupt Eruption (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hoopa Unbound: 232-274 (77 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Etc.
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Fly / Knock Off
- Stone Edge
Landorus-Therian is a monster on not only flying, but ground as well. Having a scarf on ground is extremely useful for many reasons, such as checking fast threats like Starmie & Keldeo, and Lando-T is one of the best. Intimidate and flying type stops earthquakes and strong attackers like Excadrill which can be a problem. U-turn gives you momentum and useful bug type coverage, EQ is the main STAB move while stone edge covers flying types/levitating Pokemon and almost everything else. Knock off is useful in a lot of situations when it's other moves just won't do it, or when you simply need to remove the foe's item, and is also dark coverage. However, I use fly on this team because fighting teams were really getting on my nerves especially because this team lacks good ways to beat Breloom and although fly isn't that strong, takes two turns, and can even miss at times, it's Lando-T's only real physical flying move so I have no choice but to use it.
24 HP allows Lando-T to live certain hits after stealth rock, and also means that you won't outspeed other scarf Lando-Ts so that you will u-turn last and gain momentum. With 232 speed, you still outspeed everything anyway except adamant scarfchomp (tie).
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake / Earth Power / Counter
- Toxic
- Recover
Gastrodon is the water tank of the team. Every ground that isn't hyper offense team needs a water absorber/storm drain user because otherwise water just wins. Both defensive and specially defensive Gastrodon work on this team, so I'll leave that as an option. Defensive will allow you to have a Garchomp/Landorus-T + Gastrodon defensive core that covers all of their weaknesses, and also gives you more options against certain threats like Dragonite or Feraliatr. Earth Power is the prefered move over EQ for defensive Gastrodon as hitting Gardevoir, Tentacruel, and those things isn't really it's job, but making sure threats like Weavile or Mamoswine is and E-power will do more damage there (..and the +1 SpA boost will help a lot with that). The only major downside to using E-power over EQ here is that while you don't get 2KO'd by sub cm Keldeo's secret sword, you can't break it's subs after some calm minds. Specially defensive Gastrodon will work as an spdef core with Excadrill, and provides a great switch-in for all special attack hits, ice beams, and strong SpA water attackers like Kingdra. EQ is prefered for it as it hits a lot of things harder such as Gardevoir, Hoopa-U, Empoleon, Tentacruel, and also breaks cm Keldeo's subs. Counter is kind of a side option that can be great for destroying strong physical attackers that don't expect it such as non-sub Gyarados, Dragonite, Gallade, etc.
Excadrill @ Assault Vest
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 216 HP / 40 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Iron Head / X-Scissor
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide / X-Scissor
- Rapid Spin
MVP right here! AV Excadrill a god, being able to tank practically every special attacking threat to ground and retaliate with the correct moves while also carrying rapid spin? Amazing. Many many threats that you'd normally have no switch-in for are dealt with right here. This includes HPice/Gknot Thundurus, +2 Volcarona, Ludicolo (even under rain), Serperior, Whimsicott, Gardevoir, special Hoopa-U, Hydreigon, Rotom-W, Latios, Latias, Omastar, Gengar, Chandelure and many more. You would really be surprised at the amount of damage it can take. The moves are pretty standard, except x-scissor is an extra option as it deals more against Serperior and it also allows Excadrill to counter Ludicolo. Personally I feel like rock slide and EQ(with moldbreaker) are absolutely necessary on this set so I would recommend taking out iron head for x-scissor if anything. Rapid spin is there of course for removing hazards which is amazingly useful. The downside to using AV is that the lack of recovery, so paying extra attention to the amount of HP you have left is important.
40 Attack is so that you can a slight amount of extra damage on certain Pokemon. The rest of the EVs in bulk still tank everything necessary.
Volcarona: +2 252 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 338-398 (81.4 - 95.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 330-393 (79.5 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Ludicolo:
252+ SpA Life Orb Ludicolo Scald vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill in Rain: 276-328 (66.5 - 79%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Ludicolo Hydro Pump vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 252-299 (60.7 - 72%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Ludicolo Giga Drain vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 87-103 (20.9 - 24.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO Serperior:
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 93-111 (22.4 - 26.7%) -- 24.7% chance to 4HKO
M-Gardevoir:
252 SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 72-85 (17.3 - 20.4%) -- possible 5HKO
252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Focus Blast vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 198-234 (47.7 - 56.3%) -- 82.8% chance to 2HKO Gardevoir:
252 SpA Gardevoir Focus Blast vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 160-190 (38.5 - 45.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Omastar:
+2 252+ SpA Omastar Scald vs. 216 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 332-392 (80 - 94.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Ice Teams: Ice is tough for non sound ground in general because of the lack of sand rush Excadrill for sweeping, but this team can usually hold off on it's own pretty well. Bulky Mamoswine tanks hits ez while AV Exca holds off against ice beams & Kyu-B. Garchomp's roughskin/rockyhelm makes it impossible for Avalugg to rapid spin off your rocks if you play it right so get rocks up and Mamoswine/Excadrill will have to do most of the work. Defensive Gastrodon can take hits from opposing Mamoswines or Weavile, and even Glalie if you prepare for it. Specially defensive Gastrodon can take hits from ice beams (just watch out for freeze-dry users). Landorus-T is almost always used as a sac, and Camerupt can help finish up jobs that the rest of the team can't such as Avalugg or speedy Abomasnows. Lastly, it's extremely important to make sure you have a check for every major threat that the opponent has with them, because if you don't, something like Weavile or Kyu-B will just sweep.
Water Teams: Water is the bane of my existance, along with the Pokemon that just keeps getting more and more popular on rain water: Ludicolo (your best bets against it are Lando-T u-turn, ice shard Mamo, and/or x-scissor Excadrill). Not much you can really do here but sac Camerupt and toxic stall meanies, and just win(?).
- SS Water Teams: Lol gud1, there's no winning vs this unless the opponent is absolutely ass.
- Physical Water Sweepers: Garchomp breaks these mofos with defense + rockyhelm/roughskin so it's important to keep it healthy. Defensive Gastrodon helps as well, but know that it doesn't actually help that much because Crawdaunt can 2KO with a lot of damage using knock off, and if Gyarados uses subs while you try to counter you're screwed. If you're using EQ, that won't even break it's subs with 1 hit so it's important to be careful there.
Grass Teams: Tbh, this team can do very well vs grass. Mega Camerupt is a major wincon, which is also why I have to stress keeping it healthy because many power whips & giga drains can wear it down to the point where it can't even switch in safely against Ferrothorn. Lando-T with fly can break most grass teams after Ferro and Cradily are taken out, and AV Exca with or without x-scissor is helpful af especially vs things like Whimsicott Serperior, or Rotom-M. Mamoswine is great as a late game wincon and ice shard can be used as a check for sweepers.
- Grass Walls: Ferrothorn and Venusaur pose major threats, so playing safely (mainly with Camerupt) is very important. Mamoswine breaks every other wall.
M-Gardevoir: Yeah, there is no ground team that has switch-ins for this thing.. unless you have AV Excadrill! But even then, focus blast does a good amount so be careful on those switchins as well. Either way, Excadrill and Lando-T are the only real options. Just keep in mind this thing often carries sub and you do not want it to use it. Hoopa-U: Again, another psychic type that ground has no switch-ins for until you reveal it's set. M-Scizor: You'd be surprised at how much of a threat this is. Without Hippowdon to wall it or band Excadrill to break it, it can easily get sweeps if you don't play correctly. Camerupt & Garchomp are the checks for it, but keep in mind that superpower SD Scizor KOs Camerupt so Garchomp is usually the better wall/check.
- Scizor: Not as much of a threat as it's mega, but a threat nonetheless. Camerupt takes care of it easily usually, but if not, Garchomp can be used as well. Kyurem-B: A major threat, however Mamoswine doesn't get KO'd by any of it's attacks including iron head so that can be used as a check. The safer way is to use Excadrill, but dragon always has switch-ins for it. Thundurus: Both Thundurus-I and Thundurus-T are dangerous as they almost always run HP/ice grass knot on flying teams. Excadrill walls them and Mamoswine checks with ice shard, but be careful and don't let it switch in. M-Gallade: If this sets up, you might actually be in trouble. Lando-T checks it with fly but beware of ice punch. Also, definitely beware of the bulk up set. M-Medicham: Fake out, Bp, HJK? fuck this thing. It's too strong, there's no switch-ins. Luckily rockyhelm/roughskin on Garchomp deals a lot to it and Lando-T checks it as well. Omastar: Do NOT let this monster set up. 1 shell smash and you're finished. Excadrill is the only real hope you'll have left if it does.
Great team dude! I love that it's so unique, and you did so astounding with a sandless team. A lot of the sets are very creative, and I have no real complaints other than Fly on Lando-T and Eruption on Mega Camel! Keep up the great work! And lucky me I still won bc you didn't beat my peak until after the challenge :_)
Jokes aside, I think you should keep laddering to increase your peak, excellent job otherwise! :)