Pokémon Mega Excadrill

[Sultan]

Typing: Ground/Steel (both forms)
Base form stats: 110 / 135 / 60 / 50 / 65 / 88 (BST 508)
Mega stats: 110 / 165 / 100 / 65 / 65 / 103 (0/+30/+40/+15/0/+15, BST 608)
Abilities: Sand Rush / Sand Force / Mold Breaker -> Piercing Drill (Unseen Fist clone, contact moves break through Protect but deal only a fourth of the damage)

Notable attacks:
- Aerial Ace
- Brick Break
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Facade
- High Horsepower (could be relevant if terrains come back)
- Iron Head
- Megahorn
- Poison Jab
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Blast
- Rock Slide
- Shadow Claw
- Throat Chop

Notable status moves:
- Curse
- Iron Defense
- Protect
- Rest
- Stealth Rock
- Substitute
- Swords Dance

Pros:
- Massive 165 attack stat, complimented with a powerful STAB Earthquake and complimentary coverage in Rock Slide. Also beats both the Unaware walls currently in the game.
- Great physical bulk, comparable to base form Skarmory's, and a good defensive typing as well, blocking Volt Switch, 4x resisting Stealth Rock, and being immune to Toxic and Thunder Wave
- Boosts its previously middling speed to be one point higher than base Garchomp's, also beating notable threats like Mega Medicham, the Mega Zards, Volcarona, and Mega Glimmora. While the speed tier has been speed crept quite a lot in recent generations, Rapid Spin's +1 speed bonus will allow it to outspeed all non-scarfers
- Base form Excadrill is great on its own, with a Stealth Rock that can't be blocked by Magic Bounce on top of spinning looking like it will be incredibly useful in the meta, so it could fit on two-mega teams without a high opportunity cost
- Excadrill's eternal enemy Landorus-T isn't in the meta yet so enjoy it while you can

Cons:
- It replaces its two great base form abilities for one that is incredibly situational and does nothing in >90% of matchups, especially considering that it likes to run non-contact moves. The only utility it has is spinning on Protect I guess
- Its special bulk isn't improved, and while it could be decent with investment it'll ultimately be outclassed in any defensive role by Mega Steelix
- It suffers from major 4MSS. You're going to have to sacrifice either utility in the base form or sweeping potential in the mega form
- It struggles to break through certain defensive Pokémon, like Skarmory, Corviknight, and (Mega) Chestnaught.
- Its typing gives it vulnerability to priority like Mach Punch, Aqua Jet, and Water Shuriken, as well as a vulnerability to Swift Swimmers in general

Movesets:
Excadrill-Mega @ Excadrite
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin

Basically a standard Excadrill set, but with the option to mega if it needs the extra power or speed. Simple stuff.

Excadrill-Mega @ Excadrite
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin / Iron Head

If you're using this moveset though you're committing harder to megaing it. It still wants Rapid Spin to boost its speed, but on Sticky Web teams you could probably get away with using Iron Head to break through Mega Chesnaught (though you'll need Stealth Rock and two layers of Spikes for the guaranteed 2HKO) as well as do more damage to things like Gliscor (which isn't as annoying due to the lack of a reliable way to proc Poison Heal but still). Mold Breaker is still the better ability to hit a certain washing machine with Earthquake (as well as Mega Chimecho if that ends up being any good) before megaing, Sand Rush probably isn't worth it until Smooth Rock is brought back.

Teammate recommendations:

- Hazards If running Mega Excadrill as a sweeper you want the extra damage to the switchins. Stealth Rock is obviously important for the Flying types immune to Earthquake, while you need Spikes if you want any hope of breaking through Mega Chesnaught and as mentioned previously Sticky Webs reduce its reliance on the speed boost from Rapid Spin.
- Weather: Can disrupt rain teams that threaten Mega Excadrill as well as Chesnaught's Synthesis recovery. Aurora Veil support also makes setup easier while Tyranitar allows you to run Sand Rush on the base form if you want to.
- Fire types: These can easily break through most of what Mega Excadrill can't and also benefit from its spinning capabilities.
- Other megas: As one of the benefits of running utility-based Mega Excadrill is that it can function well on its own allowing another teammate to mega. Just make sure you choose something that's decent in its base form, which is why the Mega Zards probably aren't a good idea despite otherwise synergizing with Excadrill well.

Checks:
- Water types that are fast and/or have priority like scarfed and Swift Swim . is also annoying if you don't nab it with Mold Breaker Earthquake beforehand though it's not taking a +2 Rock Slide super well either.
- Most of the Fire types are well below Mega Excadrill's speed range or not that strong in the case of but and could prove troubling if they see real usage and while Mega Excadrill will win the 1v1 getting burned by isn't good.
- Although less troublesome than usual, can still cause problems. Other bulky Ground and Fighting types like and aren't ideal matchups either. and too.

Counters:
- :Mega Chesnaught: hard walls everything but a boosted Iron Head, and it's an uphill battle even with that. Its base form isn't much better for Mega Excadrill to deal with.
- As is usual, Excadrill will have problems with and .

Overall, Mega Excadrill will likely see most of its success as an incidental mega. Perhaps we are all sleeping on this just because it has a disappointing ability, after all a +2 boosted Mega Excadrill with +1 speed sounds super scary, but it's likely to get chipped doing Excadrill things and I doubt there will be a lot of easy setup opportunities with many teams packing natural checks to it. It will likely get better as some of the broken stuff gets banned, but on the other hand a lot of its advantages are because of the limited dex. We'll see what happens, though if it does end up dropping to UU (unlikely given the base form carries it) it will probably get banned in an instant