[SET]
name: Wallbreaker (Ground)
move 1: Earth Power
move 2: Sludge Wave
move 3: Focus Blast
move 4: Gravity
item: Life Orb
ability: Sheer Force
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Landorus is the premier special wallbreaker on Ground teams, capable of beating troublesome foes like Ferrothorn, Tapu Bulu, and Porygon2 through its amazing coverage moves boosted by the combination of Sheer Force and Life Orb. Earth Power is Landorus's most powerful move, pressuring walls like Mega Sableye, Slowbro, and Gastrodon. Sludge Wave threatens the Grass-types that resist Earth Power, such as Tapu Bulu and Celebi, while OHKOing Fairy-types such as Tapu Lele and Hatterene. Focus Blast nails Dark-, Ice-, and Normal-types, like Hydreigon, Kyurem, and Porygon2, while hitting Skarmory without relying on Gravity and targeting Ferrothorn. Gravity removes Ground immunities from foes that would otherwise check Landorus such as Celesteela, Rotom-W, and Zapdos, making Landorus's Earth Power and its teammates' Ground-type STAB moves much more spammable. It also ensures Focus Blast always lands, heightening Landorus's reliability in the Normal, Dark, and Steel matchups. Life Orb works well in tandem with Sheer Force, which negates Life Orb's recoil and adds to its damage boost. A Timid nature is needed in order for Landorus to outspeed common foes like Victini, Tapu Lele, and Hydreigon.
Excadrill pairs extremely well with Landorus, as it can deal with specially defensive walls that Landorus struggles with, such as Blissey and Slowking, while outspeeding fast threats to Landorus like Choice Scarf Weavile, Tapu Koko, and Mega Lopunny when under sand. In return, Landorus can provide valuable support to Excadrill with Gravity, letting it beat its usual checks like Skarmory, Celesteela, and Porygon2, in addition to dealing with physically defensive foes such as Porygon2 and Mega Sableye for it. Hippowdon provides a switch-in against certain foes that can outspeed and threaten Landorus such as Mega Gallade, Cinderace, and Garchomp. It also wears down most foes with Stealth Rock and Sand Stream, which Landorus generally appreciates. Gastrodon and Seismitoad both switch completely freely into Water-type attacks from the likes of Mega Swampert, Keldeo, and Mantine for Landorus. Gastrodon is also able to reliably take and heal off most other moves from Water-types thanks to its high bulk and Recover, while Seismitoad is one of the best ways for Ground teams to offensively deal with them. Mamoswine deals with troublesome Dragon-types such as Latias, Mega Latios, and Dragonite as well as Flying-types that Landorus relies on Gravity in order to beat, like Zapdos and Dragonite. Garchomp and Mega Garchomp are fearsome wallbreakers that pressure specially defensive walls like Blissey and Slowking while providing a Water neutrality. Mega Steelix's absurdly high Defense stat and Steel typing make it a fierce bulky sweeper with Curse that can consistently check Azumarill and take on Grass-, Normal-, and Dragon-types for Landorus, such as Rillaboom, Blissey, and Mega Altaria.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Ground
--------
Rock Polish enables Landorus to outspeed foes like Choice Scarf Blacephalon, Choice Scarf Greninja, and Tapu Koko, making it an excellent sweeper. Calm Mind can be used to increase Landorus's power to extreme levels, letting it better damage walls like Swampert and Mega Venusaur. Rock Slide allows Landorus to nail Flying-types like Mantine, Zapdos, and Mega Charizard Y without relying on Gravity. However, replacing Focus Blast with either move makes Landorus unable to deal with foes that it would otherwise beat, such as Hydreigon, Kyurem, and Porygon2. Replacing Gravity, on the other hand, makes Landorus unable to support its teammates or handle Pokemon like Skarmory and Celesteela.
Checks and Counters
===================
Ground
--------
**Specially Defensive Walls**: Specially defensive walls like Blissey and Slowking can act as sturdy checks to Landorus; Blissey can wear it down with Seismic Toss and Toxic, and Slowking can hit it with Scald. Slowking is also able to shrug off the damage Landorus inflicts due to Regenerator. However, Blissey has a chance of getting 2HKOed by Focus Blast.
**Water-types**: Defensive Water-types such as Slowbro, Tapu Fini, and Gastrodon can withstand an Earth Power from Landorus and force it out by dealing heavy damage to it with their STAB moves, while offensive Water-types such as Greninja, Mega Swampert, and Keldeo all outspeed and KO Landorus.
**Ice-types**: Ice-types like Alolan Ninetales, Weavile, and Choice Scarf Galarian Darmanitan all outspeed and threaten Landorus, while Mamoswine can revenge kill it using Ice Shard. However, slower ones like Kyurem and Piloswine take a lot from Focus Blast, and all Ice-types need to be careful of switching into it.
**Faster Pokemon**: Due to Landorus's only average Speed stat, faster Pokemon like Mega Gallade, Latios, and Blacephalon all force Landorus to switch out, as they can otherwise deal huge amounts of damage to it with their STAB moves. However, Landorus can outspeed and dispatch most revenge killers with Rock Polish.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Rotten, 491896]]
- Ground analysis by: [[Rotten, 491896]]
- Quality checked by: [[Maple, 473171], [Mateeus, 321991]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429]]
Last edited:
