QC: KevinELF / Tyke / Moosical
AM GP Check: Aaronboyer
GP: The Dutch Plumberjack / A Cake Wearing A Hat
[OVERVIEW]
Ground
========
Landorus is the best special attacker Ground teams have to offer and one of the best special wallbreakers in the metagame. What makes it such an amazing wallbreaker is the combination of its good base 115 Special Attack, its Sheer Force ability, and the added power of Life Orb in addition to being able to freely change moves between each turns, in contrast to most other wallbreakers, which tend to use Choice items. Additionally, its Speed tier is just high enough to outspeed a multitude of Pokemon sitting at base 100 Speed and below, enabling it to outspeed dangerous threats like Mega Charizard Y and Hydreigon. Landorus's Earth Power is extremely powerful and, along with nice coverage in Sludge Wave and Focus Blast, Landorus can KO a great number of threats like Victini, Tapu Bulu, and Kyurem-B. In particular, the combination of Sludge Wave and Focus Blast nicely helps Landorus deal with Grass teams, which Ground teams usually struggle against. Landorus also has access to useful support moves in Gravity to pressure Flying teams and support its teammates, Knock Off to remove the the items from foes, which helps to break past the Normal-type defensive core, and Rock Polish to become a late-game cleaner. As a wallbreaker, Landorus sports decent bulk that lets it survive powerful hits like Choice Specs Blacephalon's Shadow Ball and Mega Scizor's Swords Dance-boosted Bullet Punch. Unfortunately, even with its nice Speed tier, Landorus gets outsped and OHKOed by threats like Greninja, Keldeo, and Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu. Also, Landorus's Ground / Flying typing exacerbates the Water- and Ice-type weaknesses commonly found on Ground teams, meaning fast users of such moves as well as Aqua Jet and Ice Shard users severely threaten Landorus and many of its teammates. Finally, even though Landorus is considered more viable than its Therian counterpart, using Landorus means you won't be able to add the reliable setup sweeper that is Landorus-T as a teammate.
[SET]
name: Special Wallbreaker (Ground)
move 1: Earth Power
move 2: Sludge Wave
move 3: Gravity
move 4: Focus Blast
item: Life Orb
ability: Sheer Force
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Earth Power, coupled with Sheer Force and Life Orb, is Landorus's strongest STAB move, enabling it to deal considerable damage to physical walls like Slowbro and Mega Venusaur. Sludge Wave is used as a way to hurt problematic Grass-types, OHKOing dangerous threats like Tapu Bulu and Breloom. Outside of Gravity, Sludge Wave also hits most Flying-types for neutral damage. Gravity greatly helps Landorus and its teammates against Flying and Steel teams, as it enables Landorus and the rest of the team to deal with troublesome threats found on these teams like Zapdos, Mega Charizard Y, and Celesteela that would be very problematic to deal with otherwise. It also has the added effect of reducing the evasion of Pokemon on both sides of the field by two stages, giving Landorus's Focus Blast perfect accuracy. Focus Blast allows Landorus to threaten even more walls, such as Porygon2 and Ferrothorn, in addition to some airborne threats like Skarmory and Air Balloon Heatran outside of Gravity. Knock Off can be used instead of Focus Blast to remove items like Chansey's Eviolite, which enables Landorus to break the Normal-type defensive core for its teammates. Rock Polish, on the other hand, lets Landorus clean opposing teams late-game by almost outspeeding the entire metagame, including some threats like Modest Alolan Raichu in Electric Terrain, Tapu Koko, and Choice Scarf Keldeo.
Set Details
========
Sheer Force boosts all of Landorus's STAB and coverage moves except Knock Off by a factor of 1.3, thus making it a terrific wallbreaker. Life Orb should be the only item used on Landorus, as it improves its damage output even further without having to suffer the recoil damage thanks to Sheer Force. Maximum Special Attack and Speed EVs coupled with a Timid nature are used so that Landorus can be as fast and strong as possible. If Landorus uses Knock Off in its fourth moveslot, the 4 Special Defense EVs should be moved to Attack and a Naive nature should be used instead to avoid lowering its Attack stat, enabling it to achieve certain KOs like a OHKO on Latios after Stealth Rock damage. A Naive nature is chosen over Hasty so that Landorus can better tank priority moves coming from the likes of Azumarill and Mega Scizor.
Usage Tips
========
As a wallbreaker, Landorus is best used to punch holes early-game so it can pave the way for its teammates to eventually sweep or clean the opposing team. Even with its decent bulk, it's preferable to bring Landorus onto the field against weak attackers, such as Skarmory and opposing Hippowdon, or after a teammate has fainted, as it's still easily 2HKOed by a vast number of Pokemon like Mega Lopunny and opposing Excadrill. Because Landorus has such a fantastic damage output, it often forces opponents to switch in their specially defensive Pokemon, such as Chansey and Mantine. If Landorus cannot seriously harm them, it's often best to switch out to a physical wallbreaker like Excadrill or Mamoswine. If Landorus is running Knock Off, however, removing the special wall's item might be more profitable than switching out. Gravity is best used in matchups like Flying, Steel, and Electric where there are numerous airborne threats. More specifically, Landorus can set up Gravity when forcing a passive Pokemon like Skarmory to switch out or when it's being sacrificed against slower Pokemon, such as Mega Charizard Y and Rotom-W. In the instance that Landorus carries Rock Polish, the best course of action would be to not set up until late-game, when its checks, such as Keldeo and Latios, are weakened, and to safely do so against Pokemon that are more likely to switch out. Having many viable options for its last move as its disposal, Landorus can use that unpredictability to its advantage by concealing its last move, if possible, until an opportunity opens up. In the long run, the opponent will have to carefully play around it, whether it's to not lose any Ground-immune Pokemon, to preserve its special wall's item, or to avoid being swept clean late-game. However, for whatever move Landorus has in its final moveslot, it's important to try and keep Landorus away from status, as status will chip down its health rather quickly, especially if entry hazards are to be taken into account. Furthermore, opposing Knock Off users can remove Landorus's Life Orb and make it considerably less powerful, preventing it from achieving certain OHKOs, such as against Celesteela with Gravity support, and 2HKOs, such as against Mega Sableye.
Team Options
========
All of Landorus's teammates really enjoy Gravity support, as it lets them freely spam their Ground-type STAB moves against Flying-types and other airborne threats. Seismitoad and Gastrodon are both great additions to any Ground team due to their Water immunities and Ice neutralities. Seismitoad can stop Belly Drum Azumarill's sweep with Sludge Wave and get rid of Chansey's Eviolite with Knock Off, while Gastrodon can repeatedly switch into Greninja's and Keldeo's moves due to its superior longevity. Dugtrio is a superb offensive teammate for Landorus, as after the latter has set up Gravity, Dugtrio can trap airborne threats like Mega Charizard Y and Celesteela that couldn't be trapped otherwise. Additionally, Dugtrio can trap and dispose of Chansey and Choice Scarf users like Tapu Bulu and Kyurem-B for Landorus. In return, Landorus can deal with physical walls like Skarmory and Slowbro. Sand Rush Excadrill can form a potent wallbreaking core with Landorus because they can blast through each other's checks. Furthermore, Excadrill can clean opposing teams after Landorus has punched holes in them, outspeeding and KOing most opposing threats, especially against Fairy and Ice teams. Hippowdon is a great switch-in to fast and strong physical attackers that would severely weaken or outright KO Landorus, such as Mega Gallade and Choice Scarf Victini. Hippowdon can also set Stealth Rock so that Landorus can OHKO threats like Focus Sash Breloom and offensive Mega Scizor. Swords Dance Garchomp is one of the few setup sweepers found on Ground teams and can take advantage of Landorus's early wallbreaking to inflict severe damage upon the opposing team. It can also dispose of numerous threats that Landorus has a hard time against, such as Chansey and Mantine, while Landorus takes out physical walls like Skarmory and Clefable for Garchomp. Mamoswine and Mega Garchomp can also wallbreak alongside Landorus and overwhelm troublesome Flying, Grass, and Normal teams. As a bonus, Mamoswine can switch into Ice-type moves aimed at Landorus, while Mega Garchomp, in addition to being neutral to Water-type moves that Landorus is weak to, is bulky enough to survive Tapu Bulu's Wood Hammer or Azumarill's +6 Aqua Jet before KOing them in return with Fire Blast and Earthquake, respectively.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Ground
--------
Calm Mind lets Landorus become a balance breaker, pressuring multiple defensive cores like the dual Eviolite core on Normal teams and the Mega Sableye + Mandibuzz core commonly found on Dark teams. However, Ground teams have their fair share of wallbreakers and strong sweepers to manage those kinds of cores and would rather have Landorus sport a support move like Gravity to help the entire team instead. Rock Slide, which is prefered over Stone Edge because of its comparable damage output due to Sheer Force and better accuracy, can be used to OHKO Mega Charizard Y and deal major damage to other Flying-types like Zapdos and Mantine, but it has little use in other matchups like Grass and Normal and much less overall utility than Gravity and even Knock Off.
Checks and Counters
===================
Ground
--------
**Water-types**: Most Water-types, such as Greninja, Keldeo, and Gyarados, can OHKO Landorus and are either faster than it or bulky enough to tank one of its attacks. As a result, most of these Pokemon easily gain the upper hand against Landorus, forcing it out or simply KOing it.
**Specially Defensive Pokemon**: Pokemon like Chansey, Mantine, and Araquanid all tank Landorus's attacks rather easily and can either heal off the damage or deal major damage to Landorus in return; however, they fear the occasional Knock Off.
**Super Effective Priority Users**: Though none of them can switch into Landorus, Ice Shard users, namely Mamoswine and Weavile, can use their strong priority moves to easily KO Landorus before it even moves. In addition, Azumarill can OHKO Landorus with Aqua Jet at +6.
**Revenge Killers**: Choice Scarf users like Tapu Bulu and Victini and naturally faster threats like Tapu Koko and Nihilego can all dispose of Landorus with their STAB or coverage moves.
**Airborne Pokemon**: Without Gravity support, Landorus will have a lot of trouble dealing with Flying-types like Celesteela and Zapdos or healthy Levitate users like Rotom-W, while they can stall Landorus out or, in Rotom-W's case, OHKO it.
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