[OVERVIEW]
Excadrill's ability to compress many roles make it one of the most unique Pokemon in OU. It can be both a hazard setter or hazard remover while also being a sweeper. Excadrill's typing can allow it to check Electric-types such as Tapu Koko and Fairy-types such as Calm Mind Clefable, though it has to worry about Flamethrower from the latter. Its Strong STAB combination in Earthquake and Iron Head can hit a majority of the tier neutrally. Access to Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock allow it to be a hazard setter or hazard control. Excadrill has 2 great abilities in Sand Rush and Mold Breaker allow it to fulfill different roles and be very versatile. Sand Rush can outspeed almost everything in the tier and become a fearsome sweeper on sand teams, while Mold Breaker can bypass Levitate from Hydreigon and Latios allowing it to more freely spam Earthquake. Excadrill outside of sand is relatively slow, outsped by many common Pokemon such as Garchomp, Volcarona, and Landorus-T. Despite the High HP, Excadrill is also very frail and is susceptible to be easily revenge killed by strong hits and priority such as Aqua Jet from Urshifu-R and Grassy Glide from Rillaboom.
[SET]
name: Sand Rush
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Iron Head
move 3: Swords Dance
move 4: Rapid Spin / Rock Slide / Toxic
item: Leftovers / Life Orb / Air Balloon
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Sand Rush alongside Swords Dance allows Excadrill to be a very strong and very fast sweeper. Rapid Spin gives Excadrill a Speed boost and clears entry hazards. Excadrill can Rapid Spin on many Fairy-types such as Clefable. Rock Slide is an alternative to Rapid Spin for coverage against Flying-types such as Tornadus-T, Pelipper, Zapdos, and Mandibuzz. Toxic can cripple many checks to Excadrill like Slowbro and Mandibuzz. Leftovers is the main item, due to having extra recovery every turn, Life Orb can jack up the power of Earthquake to be able to 2HKO Blissey, and Air Balloon can let Excadrill pivot on Ground-type moves and be unaffected by Spikes. Jolly is the preferred nature over Adamant, to remain faster than Heatran, Nidoking, and Tapu Fini outside of sand. Adamant allows Excadrill to 2HKO Swords Dance Garchomp.
Tyranitar is the most common sand setter for Excadrill, allowing it to activate Sand Rush and start its sweep. Tyranitar checks many threats to Excadrill such as Kyurem and Heatran, while Excadrill can check Tapu Koko and Calm Mind Clefable for Tyranitar. It can also set up Stealth Rock to soften up Pokemon for Excadrill to get Easier KOs. Hippowdon is an alternative Sand Stream setter, as it has great synergy with Excadrill. It can switch into opposing Excadrill and recover health with Slack Off. Unfortunately, it is more passive and doesn't have coverage vs Ground immune Pokemon. Other sand users can be paired along side Excadrill such as Sand Rush Dracozolt and Sand Veil Garchomp. Dracozolt is great at helping Excadrill break through checks such as Mandibuzz, Slowbro, and Corviknight. Excadrill can use Toxic to bait in Hippowdon and Landorus-Therian and cripple them which can let Dracozolt clean easily. Grass-types such as Tangrowth, Ferrothorn, can check the stacked Water-type weakness from the sand core. Choice Scarf Tapu Lele can be a great check to some of Excadrill's best checks such as Defensive Garchomp and Landorus-T, allowing Excadrill to have an easier time sweeping. Mandibuzz can check Grass- and Ground-types, while also removing Heavy-Duty Boots and Leftovers with Knock Off, and providing hazard control if Excadrill is not running Rapid Spin. Mandibuzz can also check opposing Excadrill by hitting it with a strong STAB Foul Play to turn the tides on the Swords Dance boosts. Tornadus-T is another Flying-type that can provide hazard control and Knock Off, and the ability to run an offensive Nasty Plot set.
[SET]
name: Utility
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Iron Head
move 3: Toxic / Swords Dance
move 4: Stealth Rock / Rapid Spin
item: Leftovers
ability: Mold Breaker
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 Atk / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Utility Excadrill can use support options such as Toxic to cripple fat walls such as Mandibuzz, Tangrowth, and Slowbro, that would otherwise check Excadrill. It can run Stealth Rock to set entry hazards for its teammates, or Rapid Spin to provide hazard removal. Mold Breaker can be used to Earthquake Levitate Pokemon such as Rotom-W, Latios, and Hydreigon and use status moves in front of Hatterene's Magic Bounce. Mold Breaker also allows Excadrill to ignore Unaware from Quagsire and can hit it with a boosted Earthquake. Excadrill can take advantage of its already high HP and Attack by running max Special Defense, to check common special attackers such as Calm Mind Clefable and Tapu Koko. Swords Dance is an alternative Toxic, allowing Excadrill to patch up its lower attack due to running max Special Defense.
Excadrill is a good fit on balance teams due to its hazard control. Fast pivots such as Choice Scarf Landorus-T and Choice Specs Dragapult appreciate being able to pivot freely without worrying about hazards due to Excadrill removing them with Rapid Spin. Grass-types such as Tangrowth and Amoongus can help deal with Excadrill's Water-type weakness and shrug it off due to Regenerator. They can benefit from Excadrill removing hazards with Rapid Spin to pivot easier. Heatran can help with Excadrill's Fire-type weakness, handle Corviknight, as well as be an alternative Stealth Rock setter. Excadrill can Toxic checks to Heatran such as Slowking, allowing Heatran to freely use trap other Pokemon such Melmetal and Toxapex. Toxapex and Clefable are common checks to Fighting-types such as Urshifu-R as well as providing support in Toxic Spikes, Aromatherapy or Wish. Clefable can Teleport on its checks such Melmetal and Toxapex, allowing Excadrill to fire off a strong Earthquake to handle them.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
====
Choice Band is an option on Sand Rush, but the ability to switch moves is much preferred over the immediate power or Choice Band, as Excadrill can be exploited for locking into its strongest move by common Flying-types like Tornadus-T and Landorus-T, which can set up on it. Excadrill’s utility and passive recovery from Leftovers is also lost. A Suicide Lead with Focus Sash, Stealth Rock, Earthquake, Rapid Spin, and Steel Beam is an option for hyper offensive teams, but is outclassed as a suicide lead by Landorus-T which has a powerful Explosion, and Mew which has Taunt and Explosion. High Horsepower can be used over Earthquake to avoid Grassy Terrain weakening Excadrill's main STAB move. However, its imperfect accuracy and reduced power can be undesirable in other situations.
Checks and Counters
====
**Flying-Types**: Corviknight, Skarmory, and Landorus-T are nearly perfect counters to Excadrill, due to being immune to Earthquake and not worrying about Excadrill's coverage. With the former two having Roost, while the latter has Intimidate to weaken Excadrill further. Zapdos can threaten a paralysis on a Rapid Spin attempt, but it must watch out for Rock Slide.
**Bulky Ground-types**: Ground-types such as Hippowdon, defensive Garchomp, and Landorus-T, are common switch-ins to Excadrill, due to pressuring it with their Ground STAB. However, if Excadrill is holding an Air Balloon, they can become set up fodder. They must watch out for Toxic as well.
**Water-Types**: Slowbro and Rotom-W are great checks to Sand Rush Excadrill, having good physical bulk and resisting the Steel typing, and Rotom-W being immune to Earthquake. Slowbro has to worry about Toxic, Rotom-W has to worry about Mold Breaker.
**Grass-Types**: Tangrowth can switch into Earthquake and shrug off the hits with Regenerator. Rillaboom provides Grassy Terrain, weakening Earthquake, and OHKOing Excadrill with Grassy Glide, but it cannot safely switch into Toxic or a boosted Iron Head.
**Priority**: Since Excadrill is very frail, it is vulnerable to many common priority attacks such as Aqua Jet from Urshifu-R, and Grassy Glide from Rillaboom, and Sucker Punch from Bisharp.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[UrAverageHuman, 524894]]
- Quality checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2]]
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