Pokémon Landorus-Therian

[CaptainDaimyo]

Base Stats: 89 HP / 145 Attack / 90 Defense / 105 Special Attack / 80 Special Defense / 91 Speed
Abilities: Intimidate
Notable Moves:
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- Crunch

Pros:
- A great ability in Intimidate in conjunction with its decent physical bulk allows Landorus-T to take hits from physical attackers.
- It offers great utility to any team thanks to its access to both Stealth Rock and U-turn, and combined with its typing, Landorus-T can serve as a great hazard setter and pivot.
- With its stat spread, Landorus-T can fulfill many roles on a team, such as being either a great wallbreaker or a defensive hazard setter.
- The GOAT of OU

Cons:
- Mediocre special bulk, meaning it cannot take attacks from special attackers like Iron Valiant and Walking Wake really well.
- Landorus-T lost some key moves in the transition from previous games, notably losing Toxic, Defog, Knock Off, and Explosion.
- 4x weakness to Ice, meaning it struggles against common Ice-types like Baxcalibur and the newly unbanned Chien-Pao.

Terastal Potential
- In order to flip its type weakness, Landorus-T can utilize Tera Fairy especially on Choice Scarf sets to be able to pressure would-be checks in Chien-Pao and Baxcalibur, while also being able to pressure Dragon-types like Roaring Moon and Dragapult.
- Tera Ghost is another option on defensive sets in order to prevent the removal of its hazards from Rapid Spin.

Potential Sets:
Defensive
Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Tera Type: Ghost
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock

Standard defensive set for Landorus-T based on previous generations. However, due to the loss of several of its key moves, Taunt is now used alongside Earthquake, U-turn, and Stealth Rock in order to shut down boosting attempts from sweepers and status spreading from Pokemon like Skeledirge and Toxapex. This set of Landorus-T is best utilized on balanced teams, and it appreciates Pokemon that can absorb Knock Off. Tera Ghost allows Landorus-T to spinblock, keeping its hazards on the opponent's side of the field.

Choice Scarf
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Fairy
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Tera Blast

Equipped with a Choice Scarf, Landorus-T outspeeds a majority of the unboosted tier bar Regieleki. U-turn allows it to serve as a fast pivot to help bring in teammates safely while also dealing significant damage to Pokemon that are weak to it such as Meowscarada and Hoopa-U. Stone Edge is nice coverage against Tera Flying Kingambit and Volcarona. Tera Fairy grants it Tera Fairy Tera Blast, allowing it to pressure better Dragapult, Roaring Moon, Iron Valiant, Great Tusk, Chien-Pao, and Baxcalibur.

THE VERDICT

The king of OverUsed has been stripped of some of its former glory. It lost important moves that made it the top-tier OU Pokemon it was known for in past generations. Nonetheless, with the addition of Terastalization, as well as retaining some of its previous good moves like Stealth Rock, Landorus-T can still find a place in the current metagame. How do you think Landorus-T will perform this generation? Will losing some of its most important moves hurt it in the long run?

 

[Dreadfury]

Lando-T will probably still have its place in OU, since it's the definitive blanket check to all things physically-offensive, but this poor thing's got more competition than ever. Great Tusk is still looking incredible despite all the fierce Fighting-type competition and has all the utility Lando wishes it still had while being just as scary offensively. Garchomp is slated to get Scale Shot back (admittedly, not 100% confirmed yet) and that move will singlehandedly propel it back into the OU spotlight. And then we're getting an absolute beast in the form of Ursaluna, who's a better immediate wallbreaker than Lando-T has ever been.

Losing Knock, Defog, and Toxic is miserable for Lando, but losing Rock Polish is also quite a bummer since that's a very real niche it would've had over these other three mons. If it's gonna remain a top-tier mon in OU, Lando-T is gonna need to tap into that Flying-type Tera Blast a fair bit more; it's usually been strapped for Flying-type coverage, but now it can commit its Tera and become a pretty fierce wallbreaker in its own right, plus a check to Great Tusk at the same time.

EDIT: OOF, so much for Scale Shot Garchomp. For now, that's one Ground-type Lando doesn't need to worry about.

 

[Magcargo]

Losing Toxic is a big blow to this guy, but on the flipside, other Lando-T losing Toxic is also pretty nice since it means its not going to get worn down as quickly. Its defensive Set does lose out on quite a bit since Toxic, Defog, and Knock Off are no longer on the table, so after the obligatory Earthquake / Stealth Rock / U-Turn, the last slot is relatively free. RN I am thinking about running Protect since that gives extra leftovers recovery + eases prediction vs the Tera Ice Electric-types that are no doubt gonna use their Tera to OHKO Lando-T. Another option could be Grass Knot to deal massive damage to Tusk / Dozo.

 

[Chilln0]

People only mention it when talking about Lando-I, but Lando-T gained Nasty Plot in Gen 9, which could be really good as a surprise option combined with substitute. What’s great about it is that you won’t be able to tell wether its Nasty Plot or Swords Dance until after it uses it, so you won’t be able to counter it safely even after it substitutes

 

[Wapf]

Man one other huge bummer that I didn’t even realize is that it lost both agility and rock polish, so it lost another one of its sets too. Rip double dance

 

[Urajio]

It is definitely a huge bummer Lando lost everything it did but I think Sandsear Storm is an interesting addition through its pseudo scald nature. Also yeah I concur with what Magcargo said, Grass Knot could definitely be used to remove Dozo and Tusk. Luna and Garg also don't like Knot either.