
[OVERVIEW]
Landorus-T is a useful pick in Ubers by virtue of its good typing and access to Intimidate. Its Ground typing, resistance to Fighting, and immunity to Ground allow it to fit on certain bulky offense teams as a temporary check to physical attackers like Koraidon, Zacian-C, Necrozma-DM, and Arceus-Ground, and its great Attack allows it to strike back at Pokemon like Necrozma-DM and Koraidon that Gliscor might struggle with. Landorus-T is also one of the few good Choice Scarf users in the tier, given its good enough Speed, access to pivoting, and ability to threaten Zacian-C and Miraidon. However, it cannot hope to take attacks from prominent special attackers like Miraidon, Kyogre, and Eternatus. It also does not have reliable recovery and is quite prone to being worn down throughout a game. Furthermore, the presence of other Ground-types like Arceus-Ground, Gliscor, and Ting-Lu, which tend to be more consistent choices for teams thanks to their greater ability to stave off Miraidon, make it harder to justify using Landorus-T. Regardless, Landorus-T's unique traits and role compression make it worth using on offensive teams.
[SET]
Defensive (Landorus-Therian) @ Rocky Helmet / Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Tera Type: Fairy / Water
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Taunt / Stone Edge / Rock Tomb
[SET COMMENTS]
Landorus-T can provide a great amount of role compression into one slot with Stealth Rock, Intimidate, and U-turn. Taunt stops Necrozma-DM from setting up Dragon Dance and Ting-Lu from setting Spikes, with the former being especially important since Landorus-T cannot 2HKO Necrozma-DM with Earthquake. Stone Edge is useful for slamming Ho-Oh, ensuring it cannot take advantage of Landorus-T, but has little practical use otherwise. Rock Tomb can be used instead of Stone Edge to deny Speed boosts from Dragon Dance Necrozma-DM while still hitting Ho-Oh hard. Rocky Helmet is the preferred item thanks to the extra passive damage on Pokemon it checks like Koraidon and Zacian-C, but Leftovers can be used for passive recovery. Tera Fairy is usually preferred to block Koraidon's Scale Shot, which is likely to 2HKO Landorus-T even with Intimidate. Tera Fairy is also useful for blocking Miraidon's Draco Meteor. However, these benefits come with the caveat of Landorus-T no longer checking Zacian-C and Necrozma-DM. Tera Water allows Landorus-T to better take on Zacian-C, Necrozma-DM, Calyrex-I, and the rarer Kyurem-B and Chien-Pao at the cost of significantly worsening the matchup into Miraidon.
Landorus-T is best used as a pivot and short-term check to physical threats on bulky offense teams. A major beneficiary of Landorus-T is Bulk Up Arceus, which can take advantage of the Rocky Helmet chip damage, Intimidate, and pivoting that Landorus-T provides to get going against many physical attackers. Ting-Lu can double down on Landorus-T's Stealth Rock with its Spikes while also checking special threats that Landorus-T couldn't hope to, like Miraidon, Calm Mind Arceus-Ground, and Eternatus. Pokemon that can take advantage of Landorus-T's pivoting like Miraidon and Kyogre are also good partners. Kyogre in particular helps greatly against Pokemon like Calyrex-I and Gliscor that Landorus-T struggles with.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
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Smack Down can be used to destroy Corviknight, which otherwise walls Landorus-T, but is not worth it given how little practical use it has otherwise and how rare Corviknight is. A Swords Dance set can be used with Toxic Spikes support, but its middling Speed tier means it struggles to perform at all against offensive teams and is thus unreliable. Tera Steel is an option for its resistance to Extreme Speed from Extreme Killer Arceus as well as Ice and Dragon, but becoming weak to Fighting and Ground is generally not worth these upsides.
Checks and Counters
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**Special Attackers**: Special attackers like Miraidon, Kyogre, and Eternatus have little issue blowing past Landorus-T thanks to its subpar special bulk. Calm Mind Arceus formes like Arceus-Ground and Arceus-Water can also set up on Landorus-T without much issue.
**Residual Damage**: Since Landorus-T does not have reliable recovery, it is quite susceptible to getting worn down by Stealth Rock and repeated hits. Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire is especially problematic, as the burn completely compromises Landorus-T's ability to hit back at targets that it would normally check.
**Ground-immune Pokemon**: Gliscor, Giratina-O, Corviknight, Air Balloon Kingambit, and Tera Flying foes like Zacian-C and Necrozma-DM can easily take advantage of Landorus-T. However, aside from Zacian-C, they must be wary of Taunt.
**Ice-type Moves**: Calyrex-I, Chien-Pao, and Kyurem-B all naturally threaten Landorus-T, and Arceus-Ground can sometimes use Ice Beam to lure Landorus-T.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/oreospeedruns.597293/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/lasen.273339/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/katerina.306317/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/tbolt.555379/
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