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Overview
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- With its high attack, Excadrill hits very hard especially with powerful STAB spread move in Earthquake.
- Excadrill has good offensive typing and coverage; with Earthquake, Rock Slide and Iron Head it knocks out top tier threats like Tyranitar, Togekiss, Rotom-W (if Moldbreaker) and Charizard (if Sand Rush is activated).
- 2 great abilities in Sand Rush, which makes Excadrill super fast in sand, and Mold Breaker, which lets it kill through an otherwise annoying ability Levitate.
- It's defensive typing has some useful resistances to Rock Slides, Pixilate Hyper Voices, and Bullet Punches, as well as immunity to Electric-type moves. However, its typing leaves it weak to loads of common Fire-, Ground-, Fighting-, and Water-type moves.
- Excadrill dies fairly easily to strong attacks, but has enough HP to withstand a few hits.
- Trick room and priority moves are really annoying for this Pokemon, as it relies on being really fast in sand to do a lot of damage
- Excadrill's viability also hits the shitter when afflicted by or Intimidate or Burn.
Physical Attacker
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name: Physical Attacker
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Rock Slide
move 3: Protect
move 4: Iron Head / Swords Dance
ability: Sand Rush / Mold Breaker
item: Life Orb / Focus Sash
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
nature: Adamant
Moves
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- Earthquake is a strong STAB spread move.
- Rock Slide is a good spread move that has nice coverage with Earthquake and can even net some skillful flinch :]
- Protect is cool for scouting moves, stalling out opposing field conditions, or just surviving a turn.
- Iron Head is another strong STAB but a single target move, and rounds off coverage with Earthquake and Rock Slide quite nicely. Also more skillful flinches.
- Swords Dance can give you a massive boost to your attack, making Excadrill effectively have +2 attack and +2 speed in sand. It's particularly helpful in counter-acting an Attack drop from Intimidate. It kills everything oO
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- Life Orb boosts Attack so Excadrill can hit even harder than it does already, making it a powerhouse.
- Focus Sash allows Excadrill to survive an attack that would otherwise KO it, and set up a Swords Dance for easy gg as long as they lack priority moves.
- Sand Rush boosts your speed in sand, and is the preferred ability as it allows for better sweeping.
- Mold Breaker breaks through Levitate, which is useful especially vs Rotom-W.
- Adamant nature is preferred over Jolly as the latter does not net any Pokemon Excadrill outruns. It already outspeeds Deoxys-A which is p much the fastest relevant threat, and you want Excadrill powerful.
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- Preserve it till late game, as it's a master late game cleaner
- Have sand up when it's out so you can outspeed everything :o
- It may be beneficial to have Excadrill's partner attack instead and Protect with Excadrill, if this will put the opponent's Pokemon into KO range from one of Excadrill's moves the following turn.
- Switch Excadrill out if you need to, as it should avoid taking too many hits
- Mold Breaker Earthquake hitting your own Levitate Pokemon restricts its partner choices to Flying-type and Telepathy users.
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- Sand is awesome, so Tyranitar is a great partner - FOR SAND RUSH BUT YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT. Smooth Rock is a worthy item on Tyranitar to prolong the Sand Rush.
- Something that deals with Intimidate users, particularly Landorus-T; Rotom-W is a good partner for this reason.
- Flying-types and Levitate Pokemon to avoid Excadrill's Earthquake, but no Levitate users if using Mold Breaker. Togekiss, Landorus-t, and Thundurus are all good game.
- Pokemon that deal with opposing Grass-, Flying- and Bug types are cool; Heatran is awesome, but has to watch out for Excadrill's Earthquakes. Thundurus is again great partner of Excadrill for this reason.
- Speed control is useful, so users such as Icy Wind Cresselia or Tailwind Togekiss is a great partner.
- Togekiss is awesome, as it can use Follow Me to deter burns and Fighting-type moves, as well as being immune to Earthquake. Note that it cannot prevent spread moves, such as Earthquake, Heat Wave, or Muddy Water from destroying Excadrill.
- Wide Guard Pokemon, such as Hitmontop and Aegislash, can pair up with Excadrill instead to protect it from Heat Wave and Earthquake. Wide Guard also protects them from Excadrill's Earthquake.
Choice Band
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name: Choice Band
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Rock Slide
move 3: Iron Head
move 4: Drill Run / X-Scissor
ability: Mold Breaker / Sand Rush
item: Choice Band
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
nature: Adamant / Jolly
Moves
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- Earthquake is a powerful spread STAB move.
- Rock Slide is cool spread coverage move with flinch chance that hits Flying-types that evades Earthquake for neutral or super effective damage.
- Iron Head is a secondary STAB move.
- Drill Run is an alternative Ground STAB move to bypass Wide Guard and to avoid injuring Excadrill's grounded partner.
- X-Scissor can be useful for inflicting super effective damage to Cresselia, Latias, Latios, and Hydreigon, which may be especially useful if Excadrill has Sand Rush instead of Mold Breaker.
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- Choice Band boosts Excadrill's Attack really fucking high while locking you into a move
- Mold Breaker is the best ability for the job, since it lets Excadrill to spam Earthquake more effectively.
- Sand Rush is still an option for a late-game speedy sweep.
- Adamant nature for maximum power, and is definitely the preferred option with Sand Rush. Use Jolly nature with Mold Breaker if you want to outrun Modest Charizard or Adamant Kangaskhan, but otherwise use Adamant Nature.
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- Most of the time Excadrill will be spamming Earthquake or Rock Slide, depending on how many Flying-types the opposition is carrying.
- Use Drill Run instead of Earthquake when Excadrill is paired with a grounded partner, because Earthquake WILL do a lot of damage.
- Mold Breaker helps it smash threats that would otherwise be troublesome - Rotom-W in particular.
- Mold Breaker hitting levitate Pokemon makes it sometimes hard to build around.
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- Pack at least 2 Pokemon immune to Excadrill's Mold Breaker Earthquake. This usually includes Flying-types such as Talonflame, or Telepathy users such as Gardevoir.
- Togekiss has Follow Me to deter burns and Fighting-type moves, and is also immune to Earthquake.
- Speed control is even better for this set. Icy Wind, Electroweb and especially Tailwind are crucial support options. Togekiss finds yet another use here as it can provide Tailwind.
- Wide Guard users such as Hitmontop and Aegislash protects Excadrill from Heat Wave, Earthquake and Muddy Water, as it continue its wreckage with Earthquake. All the while the Wide Guard users are protected from Excadrill's Earthquake
- Sand if using Sand Rush, so Tyranitar :]
Other Options
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- Scarf with Mold Breaker is viable, but generally Sand Rush is better for going fast
- Magnet Rise is an interesting option to avoid Earthquakes and other super effective Ground-type moves.
- Substitute lets it take an extra hit and avoid status.
- Excadrill can run Shuca, Occa or Chople berry to survive some super effective hits
Checks & Counters
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- Intimidate Pokemon are annoying because they lower Excadrill's Attack and make it a lot less powerful.
- Landorus-t in particular is irritating because it takes jack shit from Excadrill's moves and also evades Moldbreaker Earthquake.
- Cresselia is just really fucking bulky. Choice Band-boosted Adamant X-scissor fails to even 2HKO max HP / max Defense Cresselia.
- Burns destroy Excadrill :( Gourgeist (and Trevenant) are particularly effective at burning Excadrill, since it resists Excadrill's STAB Earthquake and possesses impressive physical bulk.
- Opposing weather that isn't sand is annoying, because it takes away the Sand Rush speed advantage, as well as allowing otherwise slower Pokemon like Kingdra and Ludicolo to swamp Excadrill.
- Trick Room is a bitch - Cresselia and Gourgeist mentioned previously can set them up effortlessly.
- Rotom-W annihilates non-Mold Breaker Excadrill
- Charizard Y can switch into Excadrill's STAB moves, eliminate sandstorm by summoning sun, and proceed to outspeed and reduce Excadrill to ash.
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