Serapis
Losing my way to Victory
Landorus-T is one of the most dominating Pokemon in the VGC format, and it certainly has things going for it. It's Ground/Flying typing grants it two immunities to relatively common types (notably making it immune to Thunder Wave) and with a strong attack stat backed by reasonable speed it certainly has the tools needed to be the strong force in the metagame that it is. With that said, however, I do not believe that Landorus-T is a good Pokemon, at least not in the traditional sense. Let's look at why.
STABs
Landorus-T has STAB on both Flying and Ground type moves. The only Flying type move that it gets (besides HP Flying) if Fly, which even with Power Herb is an inviable option. Right there, one of it's STABs is blatantly unusable. For it's Ground STAB, Landorus-T has a few more options. Besides HP Ground, it has access to Earthquake, Bulldoze, Dig, Earth Power and Mud Shot. Of those options, Earthquake is almost always used (97.3% usage on Battle Spot), and it's not hard to see why. With a strong Base Power of 100 backed up by 100% accuracy it's both able to deal reliable and strong damage. To sweeten the deal even further, it's a spread move meaning that it hits both of the opponent's Pokemon (for .75x damage, but since it's dealing damage to two different Pokemon it's net damage is 1.5x what it could achieve in a single battle).
Earthquake's spread damage is somewhat soured by the fact that it also hits the Pokemon on your team. Still, it's not a terrible obstacle because Flying types are easy enough to work onto teams and Levitators are also common enough, making it relatively easy to create Earthquake Synergy within a team. Here's a perfect example:
That is a screenshot of the team that Patrick Smith (Salamenace) used to with the VGC 2016 Autumn Regional Championship in Arizona. As you can see, the team has two Pokemon that Landorus-T can safely Earthquake next to, and because the Landorus-T in question is holding the Life Orb and Hearten has the move Protect, if he wanted to Patrick could also Earthquake next to his Heartan while it Protected without fear of being locked into the move like a Scarf Landorus-T (which has actually declined heavily in popularity since worlds, with Assault Vest sets rising in the Choice Scarf's place).
This is also why the Dual Genie combination is so strong; Landorus-T is free to Earthquake next to it's partner Thundurus while Thundurus benefits from Intimidate and is free to spread Thunder Waves. However, while this is all well and good in theory, the usage of Landorus-T is a little bit more disturbing. Here are some statistics.
There were 23 Landorus used across 40 Top Cut teams in the Masters Division from Autumn Regionals.
Of that number, 0 had three or more partners immune to Earthquake.
Of that number, 8 had two partners that were immune to Earthquake.
Of that number, 13 had one partner that was immune to Earthquake.
Of that number, 2 had zero partners that were immune to Earthquake.
Note: Of the 23 Landorus that Top Cut, two of them were mixed Life Orb sets that used Earth Power, and one of those two Landorus was a Landorus-I used by Ian Mclaughlin.
That means that of the 23 total Landorus, 65% of them could only use Earthquake next to one other Pokemon on their team (without damaging them). Well, that's fine. It can always just use it's other STAB. . . oh, wait. Seeing as it doesn't have a Flying STAB to use, let's look at the other moves it can opt for.
Movepool
Most notably, Landorus-T will always carry a Rock type move of some sort, normally Rock Slide, but occasionally Stone Edge. After fulfilling the Rock type requirement, Landorus-T has a couple of different options depending on it's item and the role it serves on the team. Superpower is often selected for the strong single target damage backed up by good 100% accuracy and the ability to hit Mega-Kangaskhan for massive damage.
Following that, Knock Off and U-Turn are the most popular choices. The former provides a nice Dark type attack that also reveals items, while the latter facilitates switching iniciative which is made all the more deadly by Intimidate. Any standard Landorus-T set will be comprised of some mixture of the moves already mentioned, and Protect on non Choice/AV sets.
With that said, and since I'm doing a full analysis here, let's take a deeper look into it's movepool. Smack Down is a different Rock move that can be selected, and it is notably as the only 100% accurate physical Rock type move in the game. It can also allow Landorus-T to Earthquake targets like Charizard and Thundurus for super effective damage once they've been grounded. Explosion is another rarely seen option, although it can offer extremely impressive damage on the turn it's used. Of course, if your opponent goes for a Double Protect you've literally just blown up one of your Pokemon so it's far from unbeatable. Landorus also gets Hammer Arm as an alternative to Superpower, which has it's nice as a move that can be used multiple times without lowering your Attack and Defense stats, although it comes at the cost of 20 less Base Power, a decrease in your speed stat and 90% accuracy.
So, those are offensive options. What about status moves? Most notably, Landorus-T can run Swords Dance. SD Landorus-T is able to deal massive damage once it gets to +2 (although it can't OHKO Kang without a Life Orb boost as well), and so can be a decent setup sweeper. Rock Polish sets do about the same thing, except with a speed boost instead of an attack boost. They can take full advantage of Rock Slide's flinch chance, and also don't have to lock themselves into a certain move, but they don't get the turn one speed offered by the Choice Scarf. Finally, Imprison is a pretty cool option. With Landorus-T showing up on over half of the teams in the Autumn Regional Top Cut, the ability to render other Landorus useless could be good.
So, why aren't any of those moves used? They're all outclassed by the standard, cookie cutter, Earthquake/Rock Slide/Superpower/Knock Off or U-Turn set. Since that's by far the most common set, let's use it to go about answering my earlier question of "What can it do when it isn't going for Earthquake?"
The first option is Rock Slide. Rock Slide has somewhat average base 75 power, and is a spread move. Unfortunately, that means that Rock Slide actually hits each of the opponent's Pokemon with 56 base power, which is even weaker than the 60 base power of the Aerial Ace Flying STAB that Landorus-T doesn't get. On top of that, unlike Aerial Ace which can never miss, Rock Slide has 90% accuracy. While that's actually pretty good, pretty much anybody who's ever played Pokemon has lost a game to a Rock Slide miss, so it's not the most dependable move out there. Of course, you can always flinch the opponent. Factoring in Rock Slide's accuracy, you have a 27% chance to flinch any given opponent. Relying on those odds consistently is asking for trouble.
Since Rock Slide isn't a great option, what about Superpower? Well, right off the bat it has 120 base power and 100% accuracy, meaning it's strong in two of the areas where Rock Slide is weakest. Fighting type is also pretty good offensively. The catch is the drop in both Landorus-T's Attack and Defense stats. While Rock Slide might not be dealing much damage, at least you can use it turn after turn. Every time you use Superpower you effectively Intimidate yourself and give all of your opponent's physical attackers a Choice Band boost when they target Landorus. While it is certainly good in certain situations, it's not a move you want to just spam.
So, the last option is Knock Off or U-Turn. Knock Off. . . is actually pretty good. 65 base power that is effectively 97 because everything holds an item is strong enough, and it never misses. Dark type is good offensively, and the bo3 uses for Knock Off are appealing as well. The closest thing to a catch here is that Landorus-T can only get off one base 97 power Knock Off; every Knock Off after that used against the same target will be base 65 power. So. . . it's okay. Really though, if you want to use Knock Off there are just better users. With regards to U-Turn, it has one super obvious problem. The base 70 power is acceptable, and it can never miss, but every time it hits it forces you to switch out. When You've maneuvered your Landorus-T in so that you can threaten your opponent's Pokemon, the last thing you want to do if be forced to switch it back out and by your own doing no less.
Thus far things have't been looking that good for Landorus-T. Perhaps it's Base Stats and Ability can redeem it.
Base Stats
I pasted again for easy reference
First and foremost, base 145 attack is excellent, allowing it to deal absolutely massive damage. When it can actually get off an attack that is. Rock Slide is easy enough to get off, then you don't have the STAB boost which really makes a difference. So much of a difference that assuming both have Adamant natures and 252 Attack EVs, Bonsly has a stronger Rock Slide than Landorus-T. What is a Bonsly you ask?
The answer is that it's a Rock type BABY Pokemon with a base attack of 80, just over half of Landorus-T's. That's how big of a different STAB makes in offensive calculations. Well then why don't Landorus-T just use it's STABs. . . oh yeah. Teams aren't built to accommodate it's Ground STAB and it doesn't have a Flying STAB.
The next easiest thing to cover is it's unused Special Attack stat. Although mixed Landorus-T was created by Angel Miranda and actually Top 8 Lacaster Regionals on Nicholas Borghi's (LightCore) team, it doesn't see much usage and it functions almost like a different Pokemon. Because of this, Landorus-T's base 105 SpA stat normally goes completely to waste.
Continuing in order of easiest to cover to hardest, next we have speed. Base 91 speed makes Landorus-T reasonably fast, but it's nothing special by a long shot. Non-Choice Scarf sets have to deal with being outspeed by the likes of Kangakhan and Charizard. Of course, it can opt for a Jolly nature to try and move before them, but even then there is no guarantee that they aren't Jolly and or Timid themselves. Scarf sets do overcome the speed issue, but at the cost of flexability. Since many teams don't support repeated Earthquakes, Landorus-T often locks itself into Rock Slide which deals downright pathetic damage to neutral targets.
So, how about it's bulk? Based only on it's stats, Landorus-T has reasonable bulk but it's nothing special. To draw a comparison, Hydreigon has 3 more base HP, the same Defense stat and 10 more Special Defense. Despite having greater defensive base stats, Hydreigon isn't terribly durable and doesn't see half the usage Landorus-T does. Perhaps it's the typing that really makes a difference here. Hydreigon's defensive type chat isn't great, is Landorus-T's better?
As already stated, the immunities to Ground and Electric are helpful but hardly groundbreaking. It's resistances to Bug, Poison and Fighting are all mostly meaningless outside of the occasional switch into a Low Kick which works just fine until the Kangaskhan reveals it actually has Power-Up Punch and gets up to +1. Landorus-T's two weaknesses, Water and Ice, are actually almost the same thing. While Weavile and other Ice types do see niche usage, the majority of Ice type moves are seen on Water type Pokemon like Ludicolo and Milotic. Generally speaking, you'll be taking neutral hits, so the type chat looks good enough. With that said, there are two things that still need to be addressed.
Intimidate
I certainly took long enough to get here. If there's a single reason why Landorus-T is used, that reason is Intimidate. The ability to lower the attack stats of both of your opponent's Pokemon just by being sent onto the field is not to be underestimated. Despite this, it isn't all powerful. That brings us to the last point I'll be discussing in conjunction with Intimidate. Put simply:
While Intimidate is a good ability by any definition, teams can and will be prepared for it. In some cases this can mean an actual Competitive or Defiant user, most notably Milotic and Bisharp respectively, and in others it simply means having more special attackers. Beyond that, teams will have ways to KO Landorus-T, either by using Super Effective hits that they worked onto the team expressly for that purpose or by setup sweepers like PuP Mega-Kang that can set up on Landorus with proper support and then OHKO it with a neutral hit.
In fact, over dependence on Intimidate is one of the hallmarks of Landorus-T in the current metagame. If it didn't have Intimidate it would be. . . well, like a slower and slightly stronger Landorus-I. To be frank, Landorus-I isn't a great Pokemon. Of course, it can work in certain situations and on team suited to it, but the point remains and even carries over.
Since Landorus-T is often slapped onto teams only because it has Intimidate, it can be complete dead weight against teams that can actually deal with Intimidate. Specially based teams are happy enough to ignore Intimidate, take minimal damage from Rock Slide and then capitalize off of the fact that one of your Pokemon can't carry it's weight in the battle. Not to mention, there are other Intimidators. To reference a recent team, Chase Lybbert (I Am A Rookie) used an Arcanine to win San Jose Regionals. Just because you need Intimidate doesn't mean you need Landorus.
Conclusion
Landorus-T is a Pokemon that has the potential to succeed, however it struggles to make use of it's STABs and as a result doesn't deal the type of damage it should. It's typing is fine defensively speaking, but it's nothing special and it's Base Stats don't make up for anything on that front. It has a good ability, but when that ability doesn't work out for, it can find itself in trouble (the Assault Vest does mitigate this somewhat) on top of being dead weight.
Remember though, this is all in the context of those teams that don't allow for Earthquake to be used. The second you let Landorus-T use Earthquake freely it becomes several times more scary and effective. So, what I'm really saying is that people using Landorus-T should place greater emphasis on having Flying Types and or Levitators (Telepathy woot-woot) so that Landorus-T is as effective as possible, or they should look for a different Intimidator that actually fits with their team.
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