Pokémon Excadrill

[Drop a Burn]

Typing: Ground/Steel

Base Stats: 110 HP / 135 Atk / 60 Def / 50 SpA / 65 SpD / 88 Spe

Abilities: Sand Rush / Sand Force / Mold Breaker(HA)

Notable Moves:
- Earthquake
- High Horsepower
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Stealth Rock
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Tera Blast
- Throat Chop

Pros:
- The ability Sand Rush allows it to immediately double its speed and helps it outrun a majority of the metagame.
- Excadrill boasts a massive base 135 atk along with consistant stab options in earthquake and iron head and the option of boosting with swords dance which makes it extremely challenging to switch into it for many mons within the tier.
- Rapid Spin allows excadrill to support its team with valuable hazard removal

Cons:
- Base 88 speed is quite mediocre, this means that excadrill is almost entirely dependent on sand rush or rapid spin to be able to contribute in most games.
- Excadrill is rather frail which makes is susceptible to being revenge killed by strong priority moves from or or just mons that outspeed it naturally outside of sand like or , although these mons cannot switch directly into excadrill safely
- Excadrill finds itself walled by common defensive mons such , , , and a few more.

Terastallizing Potential:
- Excadrill is able to use tera quite well as it can make its job of being a potent cleaner/breaker much easier by boosting the power of its moves or providing additional coverage with tera blast
- Excadrill is able to utilize tera in a defensive manner to allow itself more opportunities to set-up in situations where it wouldn't otherwise be able to.

Potential Sets
Set 1- SD Sand Rush Sweeper
Excadrill @ Leftovers / Life Orb / Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Ground / Flying / Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin / Rock Slide / Tera Blast / Substitute
- Swords Dance
This is a pretty straightforward set all things considered. Enter the field and click buttons. can opt to run Rock Slide to be able break past if Rapid Spin is not needed. Alternatively tera blast electric allows Excadrill to break past its usual walls like , and .

Set 2- CB Driller
Excadrill @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Ground / Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin / Tera Blast
Once again this is a pretty straight forward set thats similar to the sd set, the only difference is that this set trades the set-up opportunties for more immediate power to muscle through bulkier mons without needing to set-up.

 

[Magcargo]

This mon is a nice addition to sand teams. Pretty fast and decently strong, so its a workable wincon. Tera Ground deals nasty damage. I've seen a fair few Tech Tera Blast Ice for Gliscor too, which is nice since the mole didn't get Ice Spinner.

Outside of Sand, this mon's potential is more limited than last gen due to Iron Treads existing and performing non-Sand utilities better. SD + Spin could probably cheese some wins though.

 

[Morkal]

I've been seeing a pretty high amount of Assault Vest Excadrill variants, have any of you been trying that? Excadrill otherwise has been pretty decent - if you don't have sand up it's extremely exploitable due to its weakness-laden typing and frustrating speed tier, but it's still quite good if you can get it going (and not much likes to switch into its attacks).

 

[F22/aRaptor]

I think Tera Fairy is a very solid Tera option. It turns it's Fighting weakness into a resist, removes Excadrill's Water, Fire and Ground weaknesses. Also most Steel/Poison users are not going to want to run into it given their weakness to STAB Ground.

Also I feel Choice sets should have Mold Breaker over Sand Rush, especially on a Scarf set but that's my personal pref.

 

[Derpzones]

Excadrill does seem like a good counter for Ribombee leads, resisting Psychic and Moonblast and being immune to Stun Spore. However, it's bad against Samurott-H and Gliscor, even Glimmora if it gets off an Earth Power or Energy Ball. Body Press Corv, Balloon Gholdengo, and Swampert are also big checks. I feel like Iron Treads fulfills the niche of a Steel/Ground spinner better without also having to rely on sand.

 

[Ehmcee]

I've been seeing a pretty high amount of Assault Vest Excadrill variants, have any of you been trying that? Excadrill otherwise has been pretty decent - if you don't have sand up it's extremely exploitable due to its weakness-laden typing and frustrating speed tier, but it's still quite good if you can get it going (and not much likes to switch into its attacks).

252+ SpA Electrode-Hisui Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Assault Vest Excadrill: 117-138 (32.4 - 38.2%) -- 96.5% chance to 3HKO
252+ SpA Electrode-Hisui Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 111-132 (34.5 - 41.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

I have a hard time justifying AV or bulky lefties Excadrill sets due to just how similar it is to Iron Treads, but having a much shallower utility movepool.
Having access to Knock Off + Volt Switch are big advantages of using iron treads, as well as the superior speed stat.

Now what exca does have over treads is a much better attack stat, coupled with access to SD and Sand Rush + Mold Breaker, I think it's usually a lot better to then play to Exca's niche, as a scary setup sweeper/breaker with SD+Spin and it's stabs.

 

[cyrtie]

Excadrill does seem like a good counter for Ribombee leads, resisting Psychic and Moonblast and being immune to Stun Spore. However, it's bad against Samurott-H and Gliscor, even Glimmora if it gets off an Earth Power or Energy Ball. Body Press Corv, Balloon Gholdengo, and Swampert are also big checks. I feel like Iron Treads fulfills the niche of a Steel/Ground spinner better without also having to rely on sand.

Pretty sure stun spore works on ground types