Project OU Next Best Thing: Cycle 87 - Not hosted anymore

[Steel With It]

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin / Stealth Rock / Toxic

Scarf Driller: For when you want Sand Rush's immediate speed and Mold Breaker's fuck Rotom in one set. Driller admittedly isn't the fastest Scarfer out there, but he beats out Zera, Pult, Scarf Rotom-A and Scarf Vish, and that's all you really need in this meta. I prefer Spin in the last slot, both for general hazard control and because sacking Driller to pull off the suicide Spin has saved my ass a few times, but Rocks and Toxic are Rocks and Toxic.

 

[nameless90]

Bright Powder Excadrill

Excadrill @ Bright Powder
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Mud Slap


General idea
Hax is a crucial part of the game: in actual fact, if you don't hit the opponent's threats you can't win.
This is a Mold Breaker set because Levitate can't negate anymore your Earthquake from doing a lot of damage and your Mud Slap for lowering the opponent's accuracy further. Considering that many moves have 95% accuracy or lower, this set isn't really based on hax, but on math.
Keep in mind that that the only moves with lower accuracy played are Hurricane (outside the rain) and Focus Blast with a meager 70% accuracy.

EVs (spread) and item
The EVs spread is a classic fast offensive one and there isn't muh to say; Jolly is picked over Adamant because you can have the Spe boost from the Sand.
Bright Powder is the reason to use this set, so it is mandatory with its -10% chance to the accuracy of the incoming moves, which is huge.

100% accuracy - 10% = 90%, which is the chance to be hit by Rock Slide. It is not that much, but Mud Slap comes into play here.
90% accuracy - 10 % = 81%, which is approximately the chance of hitting with Stone Edge.

Team(mates) support
This Excadrill lacks Stealth Rocks, so you need an hazard setter for sure. Speed control is always appreciated because base 88 Spe is good but non the best by any means.

 

[Ruft]

Reserving Choice Band

That one's been done FYI.

 

[aceguy123]

Imagine this scenario. You're running your sand team. You get in your Excadrill and have the opportunity to SD. But alas, the opponent has the broken Corviknight on their team. But you have your ace in the hole


+2 252+ Atk Sand Force Excadrill Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Corviknight in Sand: 221-260 (55.2 - 65%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers
recovery

Excadrill @ Leftovers/Life Orb
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide

...Excadrill doesn't really have a lot of moves that make sense.

 

[JTD783]

Spexcadrill



Excadrill @ Choice Specs
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
-Flash Cannon
-Earth Power
-Focus Blast
-Steel Beam / Rapid Spin

Do you want a special attacking Ground-type? Do you hate yourself? Do you want your ELO to collapse faster than the global economy? Look no further.

Spexcadrill catches opponents off guard by nailing them with solid coverage options off an impressive base 50 Special Attack. A Modest Nature is used to amplify this impressive firepower, while Sand Rush makes Spexcadrill a mildly annoying powerful sweeper under sand. STABs hit hard, Focus Blast hits Ferrothorn and Rotom-Heat, and Steel Beam serves as a last-ditch nuke. However, Rapid Spin can be used for utility.


As the following calcs show, Spexcadrill is capable of 2HKOing some of the bulkiest threats in the meta.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Excadrill Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 200-236 (65.7 - 77.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Excadrill Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Ferrothorn: 210-248 (59.6 - 70.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Excadrill Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 186-218 (47.2 - 55.3%) -- 15.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

A little bit of chip is needed to KO Corviknight:

252+ SpA Choice Specs Excadrill Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 208+ SpD Corviknight: 100-118 (25 - 29.5%) -- 81.9% chance to 4HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

 

[49 Days]

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Magnet Rise
- Substitute

Exca has a lot of presence in the meta. It is very useful to eliminate hazards and fairies.
In this case it is a somewhat peculiar set. MRise to protect me from ground CB Copperajah other Exca + Sub weakness for status and attack more safely. Otherwise double stab EQ with Mold Breaker for things like Rotom shapes or even Bronzong. Iron Head as an effective response for fairies especially Clefable.

 

[Martin]

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 back that's about the extent of what notable mons it targets.

Toxic Mold Breaker Excadrill

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 172 HP / 84 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock / Iron Head

The idea behind this set is a very fat mole which sponges hits from special attackers, spins away hazards and lures in fat grounds and tries to weaken them for teammates using Toxic.
This set may work well with electric types that enjoy he removal of these fat grounds.
The reason for this spread is well just max speed to speedtie opposing drills outside of sand. 172 HP EVs which hits 404 hp, a lefties number and 84 SpD just to absorb random special moves that may be fired at driller. such as hex's from Dragapult, Flamethrower from Hydrei (94% chance to live from modest LO from full), has a good chance to live a CC from lefties Zeraora. This set loves to be partnered with hazards and even hex pult.

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.

Imagine this scenario. You're running your sand team. You get in your Excadrill and have the opportunity to SD. But alas, the opponent has the broken Corviknight on their team. But you have your ace in the hole


+2 252+ Atk Sand Force Excadrill Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Corviknight in Sand: 221-260 (55.2 - 65%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers
recovery

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide

...Excadrill doesn't really have a lot of moves that make sense.

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

 

[Amir]

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

Ah neat thanks for the tip on the app.
And yes my brain farted and put a Substitute number instead of a lefties number haha.

 

[aceguy123]

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

Yea I just edited in the Life Orb option, I actually considered it first then saw that Leftovers still killed through Roost and thought that people would be like "you're gonna kill yourself with life orb". Silly concern.

 

[Red_Shaggy]

Excadrill @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rest
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Iron Defense

All the good sets were taken, so I had to use this. Set up an Iron Defense and activate Maranga Berry. Then, start using Swords Dance and sweep through a team. Loses automatically to flying types unfortunately.

 

[Ruft]

It's voting time! There are 12 submissions:

Toxic Mold Breaker by Amir
Flame Orb Fling by Andrew Loh
Sand Force + Endure + Eject Button by MasterRyuga
Choice Band by expurement
Sand Tomb Trapper by ReadTheMango
Choice Scarf by Steel With It
Bright Powder + Mud Slap by nameless90
Sand Force + Rock Slide by aceguy123
Spexcadrill by JTD783
Magnet Rise + Substitute by Taerim
Toxic Sand Rush by Martin
Iron Defense + Maranga Berry by Red_Shaggy

Chazm, your set is not included because you did not fill out your reservation.
ReadTheMango, please add a description or your set will not be eligible to win.

The deadline for voting is Friday 8th of May.​

 

[JTD783]

Choice Band

 

[aceguy123]

Hard to vote for this one because imo, Excadrill is actually really limited in what it can do after evaluating its movepool. Choice Band, Toxic Sandrush, and even Choice Scarf are also relatively "known sets" that I don't think really fit the list here (not knocking the posters, I've just encountered each several times). So my vote's going to Sand Tomb Trapper because it looks like something Excadrill could actually do in certain circumstances.

 

[ReadTheMango]

Spexcadrill is very cash money, but I can't in good faith give it my vote.

In the end I'm voting practicality over creativity this week, Scarf Driller gets my vote for the amount of times it has ruined HO teams of mine.


Edit: Shoutouts Martin for that bulk optimiser app, has really helped me develop spreads for different specific benchmarks.

 

[Martin]

Choice Scarf

 

[TheMadness]

Magnet Rise + Substitute

 

[49 Days]

Scarf.

 

[Robot7620]

sand tomb

 

[MilkyWay]

Toxic Mold Breaker

 

[Proftreez]

Flame orb fling

 

[nameless90]

Sand Force + Rock Slide by aceguy123
because it show the use of the third ability of Excadrill, which is still worth noting and Rock Slide itself is not that easy to predict on its set.

 

[Astra]

Choice Scarf

 

[Abyssal Ruins]

Flame Orb Fling by Andrew Loh

 

[BlueLobster]

Flame orb fling

 

[B1001]

Choice Scarf