Excadrill (Ground) [QC: 1/2]

[MonkweyGwoose]

[SET]
name: Choice Band (Ground)
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Iron Head
move 3: X-Scissor
move 4: Rapid Spin / Rock Slide
item: Choice Band
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Excadrill acts as the premier Sand Rush user for Ground teams outspeeding and removing threats such as Blacephalon, Mega Lopunny, and Galarian Darmanitan. Earthquake functions as Excadrill's primary attacking move, notably dealing with Victini, Tapu Koko, and Toxapex. Iron Head is used to break through Fairy- and Ice-type Pokemon such as Tapu Bulu, Kyurem, and Galarian Darmanitan. X-Scissor handles Zarude and Celebi while also doing more damage to Dark- and Psychic-types like Hydreigon and Slowbro. Rapid Spin removes entry hazards, though Rock Slide is an alternative that hits Flying types that frequently switch into Excadrill such as Zapdos, Crobat, and Pelipper. With an Adamant nature Excadrill is able to 2HKO Slowbro with X-Scissor and 2HKO Mega Venusaur with Earthquake, whereas a Jolly nature enables it to outspeed Choice Scarf Greninja and Choice Scarf Weavile whilst in sand.

Excadrill's teammates all appreciate its excellent wallbreaking and revenge-killing potential with sand up and ability to take on most Fairy-, Psychic-, and Ice-types, specifically Tapu Bulu, Celebi, and Kyurem. Hippowdon is a requisite teammate for Sand Rush Excadrill because it sets sand and Stealth Rock in combination with being able to run an Eject Button to give Excadrill a free switch-in and maximum turns of sand. Gastrodon or Seismitoad provides Excadrill with a valuable Water-type immunity allowing these to check Barraskewda and Rotom-W. Gastrodon also acts as a reliable wall that can check Mega Swampert and Tapu Fini due to its access to recovery, while Seismitoad is able to check Azumarill, which threatens Ground teams, due to its better Speed and coverage. Mamoswine provides a check to Ice-types such as Alolan Ninetales and Cloyster by virtue of Thick Fat, priority in the form of Ice Shard that allows for late-game cleaning, and the ability to break Flying and Grass teams with Ice coverage, notably threatening Landorus-T, Tornadus-T, and Rotom-C. Swords Dance Mega Garchomp helps out Excadrill by taking advantage of weakened checks such as Tapu Bulu and Slowbro to clean teams. Landorus-I is able to set Gravity to threaten ground-immune pokemon such as Zapdos, Celesteela, and Rotom-W while also providing a strong special wallbreaking presence thanks to Sheer Force boosted Earth Power and Psychic, which take care of Galarian Corsola, Avalugg, Mega Venusaur, and Nidoking.

[SET]
name: Swords Dance (Ground)
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Iron Head
move 4: Rapid Spin / Rock Slide
item: Steelium Z
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
With Swords Dance, Excadrill's already potent breaking and sweeping power is amplified, although at the cost of a turn of Sandstorm. Corkscrew Crash at +2 allows Excadrill to break through threats that it otherwise would struggle with such as Landorus-Therian, Mega Venusaur, and Buzzwole. Rapid Spin lets Excadrill remove entry hazards and boost its speed, keeping it faster than Mega Diancie, Tapu Koko, and Mega Aerodactyl once sand ends, though Rock Slide can be used instead to hit Flying-types like Zapdos, Mega Charizard Y, and Mantine.

Swords Dance Excadrill's wallbreaking and sweeping power helps out teammates by breaking their checks and letting them clean or vice-versa, and Rapid Spin removing entry hazards, most notably Toxic Spikes, is appreciated by all teammates. Hippowdon is required on Excadrill's team due to setting sand and Stealth Rock alongside giving Excadrill a free switch-in with Eject Button. Being immune to Water-type moves, Gastrodon and Seismitoad are beneficial to Ground teams. Gastrodon, thanks to Recover, can check Urshifu-Rapid Strike and Mega Swampert, whereas Seismitoad, with its better speed and offenses, can check Azumarill. Mamoswine can check Kyurem and Cloyster thanks to Thick Fat and Superpower while Ice Shard can prevent sweeps and take care of Pokemon such as Latios, Landorus-T, and Garchomp, providing openings for cleaners or cleaning itself. Gravity from Landorus-I can improve the matchup against Pokemon immune to the Ground-type, notably Galarian Weezing, Thundurus-T, and Celesteela; additionally, Sheer Force boosted Sludge Wave and Psychic enable Landorus-I to cripple Pokemon that Ground teams often struggle with such as Tapu Bulu, Buzzwole, and Crobat.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Ground
--------
Rockium Z + Rock Slide can be used in combination with an Adamant Nature on the Swords Dance set to have a chance at OHKOing defensive Celesteela and Zapdos, though this option is generally inferior to Steelium Z since it gives up Corkscrew Crash, which takes advantage of Excadrill's STAB and deals much more damage to Buzzwole, Breloom, and Landorus-T who aren't KOed by Earthquake. Mold Breaker is often used on sand-less Ground teams to deal with Pokemon like Rotom-W, Latios, and Bronzong. A Choice Scarf can be used on Mold Breaker Excadrill to make it faster than any unboosted Pokemon, though it is still outsped by the likes of Choice Scarf Greninja, Choice Scarf Zarude, and Choice Scarf Galarian Darmanitan.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Ground-Immune Pokemon**: Pokemon that are immune to ground moves are often problematic for Excadrill, since Earthquake is its primary move of choice and coverage is often lacking against ground-immune threats such as Rotom-W, Celesteela, Zapdos, and Landorus-T. While Excadrill can deal with a number of ground-immunes by virtue of Rock Slide and/or Corkscrew Crash, they are still important to be wary of because they prevent Excadrill from freely using Earthquake.

**Physical Walls**: Bulky Pokemon that are able to tank hits from Excadrill such as Porygon2, Ferrothorn, and Slowbro-Mega are problematic, as Excadrill doesn't appreciate taking excess damage, and these Pokemon are able to burn valuable sand turns, meaning that Excadrill is vulnerable to being chipped down by them and outsped by opposing pokemon once sand has ended.

**Fast Revenge Killers**: Once sand has ended Excadrill is left vulnerable to faster revenge-killers like Greninja, Cinderace, Lopunny-Mega, and Gallade-Mega, though the speed boost from Rapid Spin can mitigate some of these threats and only leave Excadrill outsped by Choice Scarfed opponents.

**Status**: While Excadrill is immune to being poisoned, Burn is a relevant and dangerous status condition for Excadrill and its teammates, halving the power of its physical moves and neutralizing it as a threat. Paralysis is also problematic for Excadrill and necessary to be wary of with Zapdos Static, but less relevant because of its electric immunity preventing it from being affected by common paralyzing moves.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[MonkweyGwoose, 585916]]
- Ground analysis by: [[MonkweyGwoose, 585916]]
- Quality checked by: [[Neko, 542526], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ]]

 

[Neko]

add remove (comment)

AM QC, implement what you want

[SET]
name: Choice Band (Ground)
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Iron Head
move 3: X-Scissor
move 4: Rapid Spin / Rock Slide
item: Choice Band
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Earthquake and Iron Head are STAB attacks that deal with a large variety of common pPokemon (It would be nice to mention what these some Pokemon are, also probably separate the Iron Head and Eq line into 2 different sentences). X-Scissor handles Zarude and Celebi while also doing more damage to Dark- and Psychic-types like Hydreigon and Slowbro. Rapid Spin removes entry hazards, though Rock Slide is an alternative that hits fFlying-types that switch into Excadrill such as Zapdos, Crobat, and Pelipper. Sand Rush is the main appeal of Excadrill for Ground teams, doubling its speed when Sandstorm is present and allowing allows Excadrill it to outspeed threats such as Blacephalon, Mega Lopunny Lopunny-Mega, and Darmanitan-G Galarian Darmanitan under Sandstorm (If desired, move this sentence to the start of the analysis, because its the main purpose of Exca: "Excadrill is the premier Sand Rush user for Ground teams, as it outspeeds and removes threats such as.... under Sand"). With an Adamant nature, Excadrill it is able to 2HKO Slowbro with X-Scissor and deal more damage to threatening pPokemon(Which one?), whereas a Jolly nature enables it to outspeed Choice Scarfed Greninja and Choice Scarf Weavile in sand.

Excadrill's teammates all appreciate its excellent wallbreaking and revenge-killing potential with sand up and ability to take on most Fairy-, Psychic-, and Ice-types once it's on the field (It would be nice to mention what these Fairy-, Psy-, Ice-mons are, like for example, Tapu Koko is a Fairy-type, but I'm likely guessing that Ground teams don't care about him, but care more about how to deal with Tapu Bulu). While not very reliable as far as entry hazard removal goes, Rapid Spin helps out teammates such as Mamoswine and Garchomp that don't appreciate entry hazard damage and, in tandem with Excadrill's steel typing, is useful in removing Toxic Spikes, which are problematic for any teammates that aren't flying-, poison-, or steel-type. Hippowdon is a requisite teammate for Sand Rush Excadrill because it sets sand and Stealth Rock in combination with being able to run an Eject Button to give Excadrill a free switch-in and maximum turns of sand. Gastrodon and Seismitoad are able to provides Excadrill with a valuable wWater-type immunity, allowing these to check Barraskewda and Rotom-W. for moves such as Barraskewda's Liquidation and Rotom-W's Hydro Pump, Gastrodon also acts as a reliable wall that can check (Insert what mons Gastro walls) due to its access to recovery, while Seismitoad is able to check Azumarill, which threatens Ground teams, due to its better Speed and coverage. with Gastrodon walling out more pokemon thanks to its reliable recovery and Seismitoad being able to successfully check Azumarill, a threat to Excadrill and ground teams on the whole, by virtue of its better speed and coverage. Mamoswine can check Ice-types such as (insert examples) provides the team with an ice resistance by virtue of Thick Fat, priority in the form of iIce sShard, the ability to break fFlying and gGrass teams, and effective late-game cleaning (Add examples, also I think Ice shard relates to late-game cleaning, so it would be better to condense those two points together). Swords Dance Mega Garchomp Garchomp-Mega helps out Excadrill by acting as a secondary sand abuser and wincon with its own base 170 attack and speed-boosting thanks to scale shot, taking advantage of weakened checks to clean teams (Add examples, what M.Garchomp check is Exca able to delet?). Lastly, Landorus-I is able to set Gravity to threaten ground-immune pokemon such as Zapdos, Celesteela, and Rotom-W while also providing a strong special wallbreaking presence presense thanks to Sheer Force boosted Earth Power and Psychic (name targets).
*although not as used in NDM, add Nidoking.
[SET]
name: Swords Dance (Ground)
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Iron Head
move 4: Rapid Spin / Rock Slide
item: Steelium Z
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
(Take note that SD Exca is slightly worse than Band Exca, as the extra turn of sand is wasted.)
With Swords Dance, Excadrill's already potent breaking and sweeping power is amplified, enabling it to break through many more pokemon with sand present. (You did mention the targets it breaks in the next sentence, but separate these so that readers have an idea on what is the "many more Pokemon" that you speak of) Corkscrew Crash at +2 allows Excadrill to break through threats that it otherwise would struggle with such as Landorus-T, Venusaur-Mega, and Buzzwole, while Iron Head itself can be used as a complementary STAB move to Earthquake. Rapid Spin lets Excadrill remove entry hazards and boost its speed, keeping it faster than a number of opponents once sand ends (which mons?), though Rock Slide is an alternative that hits flying types that switch into Excadrill such as Zapdos, Crobat, and Pelipper (this sentence is reused from set 1, rephrase this/switch up the examples). Sand Rush doubles Excadrill's speed and, when combined with a Jolly nature, allows it to outspeed Choice Scarfed Greninja and Weavile.

Swords Dance Excadrill's wallbreaking and sweeping power helps out teammates by breaking their checks and letting them clean or vice-versa and Rapid Spin removing entry hazards, most notably Toxic Spikes, is appreciated by all teammates. Hippowdon is once again a necessary partner for Sand Rush Excadrill because it sets sand and Stealth Rock plus can give a free switch-in with Eject Button. Gastrodon or Seismitoad can provide Excadrill with a valuable water-immunity for Excadrill, checking Barraskewda and Rotom-W; Mamoswine provides an ice-resistance, strong priority, and can break flying and grass teams; Garchomp-Mega can act as a secondary sand abuser and chip mutual checks for Excadrill; and Landorus-I can set Gravity to improve ground's matchup against teams with ground-immune pokemon, most notably Zapdos, Celesteela, and Rotom-W.
(This para is quite a shortened version of the first set, so rephrase this. Also, Types such as Water are capitalized, Moves such as Ice Shard are capitalized, and Mega Garchomp is Mega Garchomp)
*Add Nidoking

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Ground
--------
Rockium Z + Rock Slide can be used in combination with an Adamant Nature on the Swords Dance set to have a chance at OHKOing defensive Celesteela and Zapdos, though this option is generally inferior to Steelium Z since it gives up Corkscrew Crash, which takes advantage of Excadrill's STAB and deals much more damage to a variety of threats that resist or aren't KOed by Earthquake (name the Variety of threats). Mold Breaker is often used on sand-less gGround teams to deal with Pokemon improve the matchup against levitate pokemon like Rotom-W, Latios, and Bronzong. A Choice Scarf can be used to make Excadrill a fast revenge killer outside of sand as well, outspeeding nearly all unboosted opponents not also holding the Choice Scarf item. (Specify that this is Mold Breaker Exca, also it outspeeds all relevant mons in the meta, unboosted [Ground doesn't care about Regieleki]. Tho do say tho that its unfortunately outsped by *insert relevant choice scarf users*)

(Due to the recent changes to SS Mono Analyses, Checks and Counters are removed. However, since you already wrote it, the C&C team might let you keep it. I didn't check this part though)
Checks and Counters
===================

**Ground-Immune Pokemon**: Pokemon that are immune to ground moves are often problematic for Excadrill, since Earthquake is its primary move of choice and coverage is often lacking against ground-immune threats such as Rotom-W, Celesteela, Zapdos, and Landorus-T. While Excadrill can deal with a number of ground-immunes by virtue of Rock Slide and/or Corkscrew Crash, they are still important to be wary of because they prevent Excadrill from freely using Earthquake.

**Physical Walls**: Bulky Pokemon that are able to tank hits from Excadrill such as Porygon2, Ferrothorn, and Slowbro-Mega are problematic, as Excadrill doesn't appreciate taking excess damage, and these Pokemon are able to burn valuable sand turns, meaning that Excadrill is vulnerable to being chipped down by them and outsped by opposing pokemon once sand has ended.

**Fast Revenge Killers**: Once sand has ended Excadrill is left vulnerable to faster revenge-killers like Greninja, Cinderace, Lopunny-Mega, and Gallade-Mega, though the speed boost from Rapid Spin can mitigate some of these threats and only leave Excadrill outsped by Choice Scarfed opponents.

**Status**: While Excadrill is immune to being poisoned, Burn is a relevant and dangerous status condition for Excadrill and its teammates, halving the power of its physical moves and neutralizing it as a threat. Paralysis is also problematic for Excadrill and necessary to be wary of with Zapdos Static, but less relevant because of its electric immunity preventing it from being affected by common paralyzing moves.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[MonkweyGwoose, 585916]]
- Ground analysis by: [[MonkweyGwoose, 585916]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ]]

Really good job for a first time, congrats
I would stamp it if I am able to

Mateeus