[overview]
**Draft Order**: Early round 1 onwards
**Price Range**: 18-19 points
**Overview**: The ultimate do-it-all Pokemon, the world is your oyster when it comes to choosing what flavor of Landorus-T you bring to your game. Offensively, with a monstrous base 145 Attack and access to Swords Dance, Landorus-T is a lethal wallbreaker; when combined with Rock Polish, it can also become a wincon. A reasonable base 105 Special Attack makes good use of its colorful special coverage, while slapping on a Choice Scarf with U-turn turns it into a revenge killer. Defensively, its unique typing in tandem with Intimidate gives it standout defensive utility, something only bolstered by its access to entry hazard support and removal. Furthermore, Landorus-T is an exemplary user of Z-Moves. Despite this abundance of excellent traits, Landorus-T isn't without fault. A 4x weakness to Ice makes Hidden Power Ice omnipresent, and an albeit decent base 91 Speed can be rather awkward, leaving it outsped by many common offensive Pokemon. Nevertheless, Landorus-T's overwhelming versatility provides it the toolkit to overcome many of its checks and makes it always worthy of a first pick.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Setup Sweeper**: Landorus-T has access to a myriad of different boosting options, and can often find opportunities throughout the entire game to set up thanks to Intimidate and its resistances. Swords Dance is the most commonly seen setup move, typically alongside EdgeQuake coverage and a Z-Crystal. Rock Polish enables it to clean up weakened teams or opt for a Double Dance set alongside the aforementioned Swords Dance. Bulk Up and Calm Mind can make it especially difficult to take down, particularly in conjunction with Leftovers and Substitute.
**Wallbreaker**: After a Swords Dance or Choice Band boost, Landorus-T's Attack reaches cataclysmic levels. Z-Crystals provide powerful one-time nukes that can blow past many defensive answers.
**Revenge Killer**: Equipping a Choice Scarf supercharges Landorus-T's Speed to be capable of outspeeding most of the unboosted metagame. An excellent Attack stat and access to U-turn maintains both momentum and strong enough damage output.
**Offensive Utility**: Landorus-T's offenses and movepool let it force out many defensive Pokemon to where it can reliably set up and remove entry hazards and make progress through removing items via Knock Off all while dishing out solid damage.
**Defensive Utility**: Landorus-T's decent natural bulk coupled with Intimidate makes for an effective defensive utility set when invested. A high Attack prevents passivity, and with STAB Earthquake pressuring Steel- and Poison-types, Toxic lets it effectively wear down the entire enemy team. This set typically uses Leftovers to make up for its lack of reliable recovery.
**Dedicated Lead**: Landorus-T can be a threatening dedicated lead, able to set hazards while softening up the opposing team for its teammates whether by leveraging Z-Crystals to instantly throw off nukes or by using a Focus Sash to get up hazards before using Explosion.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Earthquake, Earth Power, Fly
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance, Rock Polish, Bulk Up, Calm Mind,
**Utility Moves**: Stealth Rock, Knock Off, Defog, Toxic, U-turn, Substitute, Brick Break
**Coverage**: Focus Blast, Grass Knot, Superpower, Iron Tail, Psychic, Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave, Knock Off, Outrage, Hidden Power
Niche Moves
========
**Explosion**: Typically used on dedicated lead sets, Explosion can deal massive damage while gaining momentum, which can be heightened even further after a Swords Dance boost.
**Gravity and Smack Down**: Both of these move allow Landorus-T to circumvent Ground-immune Pokemon to spam its STAB moves with reckless abandon. Gravity is typically used against teams with multiple Ground-immune Pokemon or to prevent the Pokemon in question from coming in on a free switch, while Smack Down tends to be more effective versus teams with one Ground-immune Pokemon and has the additional benefit of dealing chip damage.
**Hidden Power Ice**: Hidden Power Ice allows Landorus-T to nail several common Pokemon that it otherwise can struggle to hit meaningfully with its STAB moves or typical coverage options, with these common Pokemon being Gliscor, Garchomp, Zygarde, and opposing Landorus formes.
**Bulldoze and Rock Tomb**: Lowering the foe's Speed upon switch-in with either of these moves can allow Landorus-T or its allies to outspeed the foe and select a stronger move afterwards.
Common Items
========
**Z-Crystals**: Landorus-T is a premier Z-Crystal user. Most notably, Flyinium Z with Fly gifts it a Flying-type nuke it in Supersonic Skystrike, which blows past defensive Grass- and Bug-types trying to come in on an Earthquake. Groundium Z and Rockium Z make EdgeQuake coverage more powerful, with Rockium Z additionally providing a one-time accurate Rock-type attack.
**Damage-boosting Items**: Any damage-boosting item is a great way to amplify Landorus-T's fearsome offenses. A Choice Band can be used for immediate wallbreaking power while bringing up the power of U-turn significantly. Soft Sand is often used on setup sweeper sets or alongside Gravity or Smack Down to improve the damage ranges of its STAB Earthquake without drawback. Both Life Orb and Expert Belt are less commonly seen, although both can be used when having more powerful coverage moves without locking itself into one option is desirable, and they the most effective options to boost damage on mixed attacking sets.
**Leftovers**: Leftovers bolsters Landorus-T's longevity, as it lacks reliable recovery. This is particularly useful on defensive utility and setup sweeper sets using Bulk Up, Calm Mind, or Substitute.
**Pinch Berries**: In faster games where Landorus-T is more likely to take several stronger attacks or switch in and out more frequently, pinch berries can provide greater healing than Leftovers.
**Choice Scarf**: Revenge killer sets require use of a Choice Scarf in order to outspeed most of the unboosted metagame.
**Yache Berry**: Landorus-T can offset its 4x weakness to Ice by using a Yache Berry to survive such a hit and either retaliate or get an extra turn turn to set up. Note that Ice-type moves coming off stronger offensive Pokemon may still KO it or do massive damage even with Yache Berry.
**Rocky Helmet**: In conjunction with Intimidate, Rocky Helmet reliably gets off chip damage versus physically oriented foes attacking into defensive utility Landorus-T.
Niche Items
========
**Focus Sash**: On dedicated lead sets, Focus Sash allows for greater investment in Speed and offenses while guaranteeing that Landorus-T survives at least one hit.
**Lum Berry**: Lum Berry is a great option on setup sweeper sets to avoid getting crippled by a burn.
**Assault Vest**: Against teams with significant specially offensive Pokemon that Landorus-T can threaten, Assault Vest enables it to come in on these Pokemon without dedicating as much investment in Special Defense. However, specially defensive variants with Leftovers or a pinch berry may have greater longevity over the course of a game.
Draft Strategy
========
Landorus-T is an immensely versatile pick that can find a place on any draft by virtue of being able to fill a myriad of key roles. Despite this, it does appreciate support from Pokemon that can give it role flexibility and cover its defensive weaknesses.
**Water-types**: Bulky and offensive Water-types love to be paired alongside Landorus-T. They can come in on the Ice- and Water-type moves it fears, while they appreciate it being able to force out and threaten the Electric-types they're weak to. Bulky Water-types such as Tapu Fini and Toxapex can form a robust defensive core, capable of making progress against any team. Offensively leaning partners such as Greninja and Keldeo appreciate both the momentum and potential to remove Grass-types that Landorus-T's Supersonic Skystrike provides.
**Electric-types**: Much like the aforementioned Water-types, Electric-types such as Mega Manectric, Thundurus and Rotom-W benefit greatly from Landorus-T's defensive profile and access to U-turn, as it can effortlessly switch in on incoming Earthquakes for free and gain momentum thereafter. In turn, Landorus-T appreciates them forming a VoltTurn core alongside itself in addition to taking advantage of the Water- and Flying-types that often like to come in on its STAB moves.
**Wallbreakers**: As Landorus-T can be an effective late-game cleaner with Rock Polish or even with a Choice Scarf, it appreciates not necessarily having to wallbreak itself or being able to finish off weakened teams. Wallbreakers like Kyurem-B and Kartana love having the defensive utility and momentum that it provides through setting Stealth Rock and U-turn to both help them find opportunities to come in and KO foes. Special wallbreakers such as Latios and Mega Diancie are worth a special mention due to Landorus-T necessitating opponents to use physical walls, which these strong special attackers can capitalize on.
**Other Entry Hazard Support**: Although Landorus-T is a capable setter of Stealth Rocks and can remove hazards with Defog, it prefers to not be pigeonholed into either of these roles such that it can make better use of its offensive arsenal. As such, finding other Pokemon that can set Stealth Rock that aren't Ground-types such as Infernape, Metagross, and Uxie, can be useful to open up all of its options, and the same goes for hazard removal via the likes of Tapu Fini and Starmie. Spikes and Toxic Spikes support from Greninja and Toxapex can also be effective in helping it acheive KOs on offensive sets.
**Faster Pokemon**: One of Landorus-T's shortcomings is its awkward base 91 Speed that, without a Choice Scarf or Rock Polish boost, leaves it vulnerable to being revenged killed or forced out by many common Pokemon. Hence, having faster Pokemon such as Greninja, Mega Manectric, and Mega Lopunny on your draft can alleviate this problem by providing speed control.
Checks and Counters
========
**Ice-types and Ice-type Coverage**: Landorus-T's 4x Ice weakness often forces it to be played carefully early on to not get surprised KOed by random Ice-type coverage or a sudden Hidden Power Ice from Pokemon it normally beats, like Tapu Koko and Zeraora. Ice-types such as Weavile and Kyurem-B and Pokemon commonly carrying Ice-type coverage like Greninja can easily force out Landorus-T using their STAB moves, with special mention going to users of Ice Shard that can threaten to KO Choice Scarf sets, such as the aforementioned Weavile.
**Water-types**: Bulky Water-types such as Tapu Fini and Rotom-W can stomach Landorus-T's STAB Earthquake and respond with their own STAB moves or Ice-type coverage. Faster ones with reasonable bulk like Keldeo and Manaphy can take a hit and outspeed it, and either OHKO it or gain an opportunity to set up off a predicted switch.
**Ground-immune and -resistant Pokemon**: Landorus-T's STAB Earthquake is its most powerful offensive tool, and although it can bring coverage moves or options like Gravity and Smack Down to hit Ground-immune Pokemon, such as Skarmory, Rotom-W, and Celesteela, bringing such moves means it has less options to hit other Pokemon and is generally easier to play around given the threat of a free switch-in. Bulky Ground-resists such as Buzzwole and Tangrowth can also fill a similar role, although they must be wary of or scout out for Flyinium Z.
**Strong Special Attackers**: Even with significant investment in Special Defense, the likes of Latios, Blacephalon, and Hydreigon can force out Landorus-T even with neutral STAB moves by virtue of their power and being unaffected by Intimidate. Z-Moves from such Pokemon also have the same impact to a more dangerous extent.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/takuaa.197914/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/odinrm.613514/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-blue-banana.649096/
**Draft Order**: Early round 1 onwards
**Price Range**: 18-19 points
**Overview**: The ultimate do-it-all Pokemon, the world is your oyster when it comes to choosing what flavor of Landorus-T you bring to your game. Offensively, with a monstrous base 145 Attack and access to Swords Dance, Landorus-T is a lethal wallbreaker; when combined with Rock Polish, it can also become a wincon. A reasonable base 105 Special Attack makes good use of its colorful special coverage, while slapping on a Choice Scarf with U-turn turns it into a revenge killer. Defensively, its unique typing in tandem with Intimidate gives it standout defensive utility, something only bolstered by its access to entry hazard support and removal. Furthermore, Landorus-T is an exemplary user of Z-Moves. Despite this abundance of excellent traits, Landorus-T isn't without fault. A 4x weakness to Ice makes Hidden Power Ice omnipresent, and an albeit decent base 91 Speed can be rather awkward, leaving it outsped by many common offensive Pokemon. Nevertheless, Landorus-T's overwhelming versatility provides it the toolkit to overcome many of its checks and makes it always worthy of a first pick.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Setup Sweeper**: Landorus-T has access to a myriad of different boosting options, and can often find opportunities throughout the entire game to set up thanks to Intimidate and its resistances. Swords Dance is the most commonly seen setup move, typically alongside EdgeQuake coverage and a Z-Crystal. Rock Polish enables it to clean up weakened teams or opt for a Double Dance set alongside the aforementioned Swords Dance. Bulk Up and Calm Mind can make it especially difficult to take down, particularly in conjunction with Leftovers and Substitute.
**Wallbreaker**: After a Swords Dance or Choice Band boost, Landorus-T's Attack reaches cataclysmic levels. Z-Crystals provide powerful one-time nukes that can blow past many defensive answers.
**Revenge Killer**: Equipping a Choice Scarf supercharges Landorus-T's Speed to be capable of outspeeding most of the unboosted metagame. An excellent Attack stat and access to U-turn maintains both momentum and strong enough damage output.
**Offensive Utility**: Landorus-T's offenses and movepool let it force out many defensive Pokemon to where it can reliably set up and remove entry hazards and make progress through removing items via Knock Off all while dishing out solid damage.
**Defensive Utility**: Landorus-T's decent natural bulk coupled with Intimidate makes for an effective defensive utility set when invested. A high Attack prevents passivity, and with STAB Earthquake pressuring Steel- and Poison-types, Toxic lets it effectively wear down the entire enemy team. This set typically uses Leftovers to make up for its lack of reliable recovery.
**Dedicated Lead**: Landorus-T can be a threatening dedicated lead, able to set hazards while softening up the opposing team for its teammates whether by leveraging Z-Crystals to instantly throw off nukes or by using a Focus Sash to get up hazards before using Explosion.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Earthquake, Earth Power, Fly
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance, Rock Polish, Bulk Up, Calm Mind,
**Utility Moves**: Stealth Rock, Knock Off, Defog, Toxic, U-turn, Substitute, Brick Break
**Coverage**: Focus Blast, Grass Knot, Superpower, Iron Tail, Psychic, Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave, Knock Off, Outrage, Hidden Power
Niche Moves
========
**Explosion**: Typically used on dedicated lead sets, Explosion can deal massive damage while gaining momentum, which can be heightened even further after a Swords Dance boost.
**Gravity and Smack Down**: Both of these move allow Landorus-T to circumvent Ground-immune Pokemon to spam its STAB moves with reckless abandon. Gravity is typically used against teams with multiple Ground-immune Pokemon or to prevent the Pokemon in question from coming in on a free switch, while Smack Down tends to be more effective versus teams with one Ground-immune Pokemon and has the additional benefit of dealing chip damage.
**Hidden Power Ice**: Hidden Power Ice allows Landorus-T to nail several common Pokemon that it otherwise can struggle to hit meaningfully with its STAB moves or typical coverage options, with these common Pokemon being Gliscor, Garchomp, Zygarde, and opposing Landorus formes.
**Bulldoze and Rock Tomb**: Lowering the foe's Speed upon switch-in with either of these moves can allow Landorus-T or its allies to outspeed the foe and select a stronger move afterwards.
Common Items
========
**Z-Crystals**: Landorus-T is a premier Z-Crystal user. Most notably, Flyinium Z with Fly gifts it a Flying-type nuke it in Supersonic Skystrike, which blows past defensive Grass- and Bug-types trying to come in on an Earthquake. Groundium Z and Rockium Z make EdgeQuake coverage more powerful, with Rockium Z additionally providing a one-time accurate Rock-type attack.
**Damage-boosting Items**: Any damage-boosting item is a great way to amplify Landorus-T's fearsome offenses. A Choice Band can be used for immediate wallbreaking power while bringing up the power of U-turn significantly. Soft Sand is often used on setup sweeper sets or alongside Gravity or Smack Down to improve the damage ranges of its STAB Earthquake without drawback. Both Life Orb and Expert Belt are less commonly seen, although both can be used when having more powerful coverage moves without locking itself into one option is desirable, and they the most effective options to boost damage on mixed attacking sets.
**Leftovers**: Leftovers bolsters Landorus-T's longevity, as it lacks reliable recovery. This is particularly useful on defensive utility and setup sweeper sets using Bulk Up, Calm Mind, or Substitute.
**Pinch Berries**: In faster games where Landorus-T is more likely to take several stronger attacks or switch in and out more frequently, pinch berries can provide greater healing than Leftovers.
**Choice Scarf**: Revenge killer sets require use of a Choice Scarf in order to outspeed most of the unboosted metagame.
**Yache Berry**: Landorus-T can offset its 4x weakness to Ice by using a Yache Berry to survive such a hit and either retaliate or get an extra turn turn to set up. Note that Ice-type moves coming off stronger offensive Pokemon may still KO it or do massive damage even with Yache Berry.
**Rocky Helmet**: In conjunction with Intimidate, Rocky Helmet reliably gets off chip damage versus physically oriented foes attacking into defensive utility Landorus-T.
Niche Items
========
**Focus Sash**: On dedicated lead sets, Focus Sash allows for greater investment in Speed and offenses while guaranteeing that Landorus-T survives at least one hit.
**Lum Berry**: Lum Berry is a great option on setup sweeper sets to avoid getting crippled by a burn.
**Assault Vest**: Against teams with significant specially offensive Pokemon that Landorus-T can threaten, Assault Vest enables it to come in on these Pokemon without dedicating as much investment in Special Defense. However, specially defensive variants with Leftovers or a pinch berry may have greater longevity over the course of a game.
Draft Strategy
========
Landorus-T is an immensely versatile pick that can find a place on any draft by virtue of being able to fill a myriad of key roles. Despite this, it does appreciate support from Pokemon that can give it role flexibility and cover its defensive weaknesses.
**Water-types**: Bulky and offensive Water-types love to be paired alongside Landorus-T. They can come in on the Ice- and Water-type moves it fears, while they appreciate it being able to force out and threaten the Electric-types they're weak to. Bulky Water-types such as Tapu Fini and Toxapex can form a robust defensive core, capable of making progress against any team. Offensively leaning partners such as Greninja and Keldeo appreciate both the momentum and potential to remove Grass-types that Landorus-T's Supersonic Skystrike provides.
**Electric-types**: Much like the aforementioned Water-types, Electric-types such as Mega Manectric, Thundurus and Rotom-W benefit greatly from Landorus-T's defensive profile and access to U-turn, as it can effortlessly switch in on incoming Earthquakes for free and gain momentum thereafter. In turn, Landorus-T appreciates them forming a VoltTurn core alongside itself in addition to taking advantage of the Water- and Flying-types that often like to come in on its STAB moves.
**Wallbreakers**: As Landorus-T can be an effective late-game cleaner with Rock Polish or even with a Choice Scarf, it appreciates not necessarily having to wallbreak itself or being able to finish off weakened teams. Wallbreakers like Kyurem-B and Kartana love having the defensive utility and momentum that it provides through setting Stealth Rock and U-turn to both help them find opportunities to come in and KO foes. Special wallbreakers such as Latios and Mega Diancie are worth a special mention due to Landorus-T necessitating opponents to use physical walls, which these strong special attackers can capitalize on.
**Other Entry Hazard Support**: Although Landorus-T is a capable setter of Stealth Rocks and can remove hazards with Defog, it prefers to not be pigeonholed into either of these roles such that it can make better use of its offensive arsenal. As such, finding other Pokemon that can set Stealth Rock that aren't Ground-types such as Infernape, Metagross, and Uxie, can be useful to open up all of its options, and the same goes for hazard removal via the likes of Tapu Fini and Starmie. Spikes and Toxic Spikes support from Greninja and Toxapex can also be effective in helping it acheive KOs on offensive sets.
**Faster Pokemon**: One of Landorus-T's shortcomings is its awkward base 91 Speed that, without a Choice Scarf or Rock Polish boost, leaves it vulnerable to being revenged killed or forced out by many common Pokemon. Hence, having faster Pokemon such as Greninja, Mega Manectric, and Mega Lopunny on your draft can alleviate this problem by providing speed control.
Checks and Counters
========
**Ice-types and Ice-type Coverage**: Landorus-T's 4x Ice weakness often forces it to be played carefully early on to not get surprised KOed by random Ice-type coverage or a sudden Hidden Power Ice from Pokemon it normally beats, like Tapu Koko and Zeraora. Ice-types such as Weavile and Kyurem-B and Pokemon commonly carrying Ice-type coverage like Greninja can easily force out Landorus-T using their STAB moves, with special mention going to users of Ice Shard that can threaten to KO Choice Scarf sets, such as the aforementioned Weavile.
**Water-types**: Bulky Water-types such as Tapu Fini and Rotom-W can stomach Landorus-T's STAB Earthquake and respond with their own STAB moves or Ice-type coverage. Faster ones with reasonable bulk like Keldeo and Manaphy can take a hit and outspeed it, and either OHKO it or gain an opportunity to set up off a predicted switch.
**Ground-immune and -resistant Pokemon**: Landorus-T's STAB Earthquake is its most powerful offensive tool, and although it can bring coverage moves or options like Gravity and Smack Down to hit Ground-immune Pokemon, such as Skarmory, Rotom-W, and Celesteela, bringing such moves means it has less options to hit other Pokemon and is generally easier to play around given the threat of a free switch-in. Bulky Ground-resists such as Buzzwole and Tangrowth can also fill a similar role, although they must be wary of or scout out for Flyinium Z.
**Strong Special Attackers**: Even with significant investment in Special Defense, the likes of Latios, Blacephalon, and Hydreigon can force out Landorus-T even with neutral STAB moves by virtue of their power and being unaffected by Intimidate. Z-Moves from such Pokemon also have the same impact to a more dangerous extent.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/takuaa.197914/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/odinrm.613514/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-blue-banana.649096/
Last edited:
