
Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance / Rapid Spin
- Toxic
I know someone submitted CB+SR+Tox but that involves holding Choice Band which is extremely Gigalith specific+probably not good. My apologies if you think this is too similar—I have another set I can submit instead if you do—but I feel like being able to actually change moves is rlly important if you don't specifically carry Gigalith.
Hippowdon and Rotom-A r both bastards for SandDrill, and while you can technically hit Rotom-H with Rock Slide, running Toxic as a middle ground lets you catch+pressure Hippo and Rotom-W/C as well which is hella nice. It doesn't rlly target much else—I guess it's nice for catching Mandibuzz if you're running Spin, but until we get Lando-T/Gliscor back that's about the extent of what notable mons it targets.
404 ÷ 16 = 25.5 — This isn't a leftovers number. You're mixing it up with the '101 HP Substitute' number.
Also a personal thing, but I also think it's best to go for a much more mixed defensive spread on it—Exca is shit at checking anything defensively without heavy (as in max) investment in one defense or the other anyway, so you might as well just try and go for something more mathematically optimal unless you can think of any specific KO you desparately need to live (I can't think of any really notable ones). According to
this app, you can maximize Excadrill's overall bulk with a spread of 64 HP / 116 Def / 76 SpD / 252 Spe, which lets it avoid a few KOs:
- 252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 64 HP / 116 Def Excadrill: 300-354 (79.5 - 93.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
- 252 SpA Spell Tag Dragapult Hex (130 BP) vs. 64 HP / 76 SpD Excadrill: 271-319 (71.8 - 84.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery and burn damage
- 0 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 64 HP / 116 Def Excadrill: 306-360 (81.1 - 95.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
- 252 SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Flamethrower vs. 64 HP / 76 SpD Excadrill: 317-374 (84 - 99.2%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
- 252 SpA Togekiss Flamethrower vs. 64 HP / 76 SpD Excadrill: 238-280 (63.1 - 74.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
- 0 SpA Life Orb Clefable Flamethrower vs. 64 HP / 76 SpD Excadrill: 205-244 (54.3 - 64.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
- 0 SpA Hatterene Mystical Fire vs. 64 HP / 76 SpD Excadrill: 180-212 (47.7 - 56.2%) -- 26.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
If you wanna turn that Hatterene roll to 0% u can slightly favor SpD with a spread of 64 HP / 60 Def / 132 SpD / 252 Spe, but run calcs vs Zeraora/whatever else first and make sure u don't miss out on living anything u don't wanna miss out on. If you wanna favor SpD more heavily it might be worth running a Chople instead just to soft check Zera (unless u think having lefties is super important, which ye i get)—piss around in the app and find a balance u think u like for the KOs you think r important.
Also I rlly don't think that Iron Head is negotiable in this meta—being able to threaten Togekiss and Clefable is super important for a utility Steel-type, especially when one of the boons of going bulky is that you can actually soft check Flamethrower Togekiss when it's behind a Substitute.
As for the Speed, I think it's probably worthwhile to mention Rotom as the primary thing max Speed targets considering that a Mold Drill that doesn't threaten Rotom is just dead weight.
I think if you're gonna run Sand Force you might as well go all the way and run LO with it. If you give Exca LO+adamant you actually 2HKO Hippo after SR most of the time. This is a guaranteed OHKO after SR if u SD while Helmet Hippo switches in (or if you have 1 layer of Spikes vs Lefties variants). And you never need to worry about not having the sand for the KO bc Hippo sets it up for you !!!!
252+ Atk Life Orb Sand Force Excadrill Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon in Sand: 200-238 (47.6 - 56.6%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Sand Force Excadrill Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon in Sand: 399-472 (95 - 112.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock