Community POTW #33

[Aurath8]

ROFL GUYS EXCA HAS BASICALLY NO REASON TO RUN BRICK BREAK

just thought i'd put that out there.

It can put a dent in Ferrothorn after a few SDs and any Steel holding an Air Balloon(like other Excadrills), but other than that it has no use.

Counters
Outside of QuakeEdge and X-scissor, Excadrills movepool is pretty barren so anything that resists those 3 core moves(or even just QuakeEdge) can take on Excadrill. Heatran with the Air balloon makes an excellent lure for Excadrill. All it has is feeble Rock Slide to cause damage. It gives Heatran a free turn to setup or Fire Blast away.
Changing the weather is another good way to stop Excadrill. Politoed is probably the best way to get rid of Sandstorm thanks to it's Rain-boosted Surfs. However it can only switch-in safely if the Excadrill is using Swords dance or Rapid Spin. Unless it invests heavily in Defence it just doesn't have enough bulk to take boosted EQ. The weather changes no matter what though, making it a lot easier to take down. Ninetales and Abomasnow can do it too but not as good as the Toad.
Like many sweepers, 'Drill does not like paralysis or Burn. Serperior with Glare, Rotom-A, Dusclops, you should know these guys by now.

[chronifused2]

Here's a fun gimmicky set for something a bit different
Excadrill @ Razor Claw
Adamant
4 hp/252 atk/252 spd
Hone Claws
Drill Run
Shadow Claw
Rock slide

The basic premise of this set is use Hone Claws to raise attack and improve the accuracy of Drill Run and Rock Slide then abuse high crit rate moves with Razor Claw would be nice if Excadrill got Stone Edge but Rock slide will have to do

Sorry if I didn't do this properly this is my first post on here

[windsong]

It can put a dent in Ferrothorn after a few SDs and any Steel holding an Air Balloon(like other Excadrills), but other than that it has no use.

Ferrothorn is beaten by +2 Earthquake, and hitting Balloon Tran and relying in speed ties with other Excadrill isn't worth losing out on hitting a ton of mons hit by Return or X-Scissor.

[Cometk]

Excadrill (F) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Frustration
- Rapid Spin

this is the set i use, it got to me around 1400, it's p good.

i don't feel like explaining so i'll let user epic_eevee do it for me.

[windsong]

Comet you're an idiot and I love you.

./explanation <3

[sbktdreed]

Sand Offence*
Ability: Sand Force
Item: Salac Berry/Petaya Berry/Smooth Rock
Drill Run
Rock Slide
Metal Claw
Focus Blast/Sludge Bomb

*I could make this as my Life Orb moveset with the Life Orb as the item.

Speed Trap
Ability: Sand Rush
Item: Quick Claw
Bulldoze
Metal Claw
Sludge Bomb
Rock Tomb

I don't know alot about natures and Effort Points, but I made some ideas on moves and items.

[Kraleck]

Countering Excadrill

Barring low defenses, Excadrill has a rather unique Dual Type. It's not like we've seen that bef...wait, what...Steelix has the same Types AND Base Sp.Def? OK. Anything Steelix hates on the Special end will ruin Exca's day.

Weak to Fighting, Ground, Fire, Water...a lot of Physicals, EQ, Flare Blitz, and Waterfall, respectively. What? Weaker Defense means Physicals hurt it more? Getting F.Blitzed AND burned will wreck your offense. Scald will wreak similar havoc. A Priority Move like Mach Punch (beware of Hitmonchan, Hitmontop, Breloom, and Conkeldurr), Vacuum Wave (beware of Lucario and Toxicroak), or Aqua Jet (beware of Kabutops, Carracosta, and Empoleon) will bypass your Sand Rush and hit for Super Effective damage, plus Ice Shard strikes for neutral Priority damage (beware of Weavile).

Getting your Ability copied, negated, or worse, stolen, by Role Play, Gastro Acid/Worry Seed, or Skill Swap (respectively) will also ruin your day. Alakazam is notable due to Skill Swap and higher Base Speed.

Intimidate can hinder you enough to lose a few potential 1KOs. Mawile and Krookodile are able to ignore Sandstorm damage while weakening your Physical offense, but Weavile won't do much.

Cofagrigus will negate your beefy Physical offensive with Mummy and good Defense while hurling Will-o-Wisps at you like a monkey with so much poo (part of why Shadow Claw is preferred over X-Scissor in my mind). If you can get EQ and Rock Slide going strong, you'll bypass 1 of the 3 problems Cofagrigus brings.

Whimsicott brings a huge table-turner to Exca's high HP and Attack: Prankster Leech Seed. Sucking up huge amounts of HP will offset some of the Sandstorm damage while you have to resort to Rapid Spin (giving them a free switch to a Ghost Type, Abomasnow-Warning, Drought-tales, or Drizzle-toed) or a switch-out. This leads to free hits on Exca's team left and right.

Excadrill makes for a great team member, but can also be the weakest part of your strategy. Countering any part of Exca's support will cause you to rush to repair the damage, so make sure you have decent backup and lots of patience.

[Dracoflare]

Why can't people get the fact that earthquake and brickbreak do the same damage??
Seriously Balloon is a **** item on excadrill,have you ever use adamant LO excadrill,the sheer power it has is just amazing..also stop using brickbreak+shadowclaw and call it perfect coverage.Just because you have a fighting, ghost move and get a perfect coverage doesn't mean it's a good combo...both attacks have 75bp and a normally effective earthquake will do the same damage as a supereffective shadowclaw/brickbreak.USE EARTHQUAKE and rockslide to complement it and x-scissor and or return to complete the coverage..that's how you get good coverage.

[Barbeller]

Sandstorm is completely useless in the third moveslot. Everything that changes the weather through ability and is commonly used either outspeeds and kills you once they change the weather (Scarf Politoed, Ninetails, Scarf Abomasnow), so you can't stay in against them, and anything that changes the weather through a move (which is pretty rare, but w/e) you outspeed and KO before they can change the weather. And if you don't run Return/X-Scissor/Spin in the last slot, you either get a couple of free turns where you can't do anything or you get walled by something like Latios.

tl;dr, Sandstorm is a useless move.

And lol, LO isn't crap. All Air Balloon does is mean that you beat some other Excadrill and can stay in an extra turn against Gliscor and stuff, but with LO, you gain a ton of cool things, like the ability to KO even bulky Rotom-W at +2 and the ability to 2HKO Quagsire switch ins who can wall Air Balloon sets.

but you can't set up... and ferrothorn? Use sandstorm with it out. Duh. Either a switch or a leech.

[garchompkid]

on any set you need earthquake, end of story.

[Kraleck]

Multi-Battling
Doubles will give you a lot of potential, but don't use EQ if your Partner can't take that hit (use Drill Run instead there). If you can get away with EQ past your partner (such as with Air Balloon, Flying Type, Levitate Ability, or Magnet Rise), smash away. Just make sure your opponent isn't using such tactics, too.

Triples show a ton of potential for Exca' to wreak havoc. EQ and Rock Slide have great potential and many of its usual partners are bulky in HP, defenses, or both and have ways around Sandstorm damage.

Note that opponent teams with Magnet Pull Ability and Wide Guard will prevent half of Exca's usual offense and lock you if you go Choice.

Notable partners in Doubles/Triples (due to Sandstorm and EQ immunities) include Cloud Nine-taria, Magic Guard Sigilyph, Overcoat Mandibuzz, Skarmory, Flygon, Levitate Bronzong, Claydol, Solrock, Lunatone, Gliscor, Archeops, and Landorus. I do NOT recommend Aerodactyl unless Exca and Aero are on the sides in Triples because of Pressure.

If you can block Surf, Rock Types and Exca will have a huge advantage. Wide Guard on your side is great for that reason, especially if you can block Sandstorm Damage (Carracosta, Swampert, Torterra, and Bastiodon are quite adept at it, as are Throh, Alomomola, Hariyama, and Conkeldurr with Leftovers).

Blocking EQ and Sandstorm with Leftovers/Black Sludge and Levitate gives a few more options. Gengar and Weezing can fill the Black Sludge niche, while Mismagius, Carnivine, Rotom, and Eelektross can fill the Levitate-Leftovers role.

[svenosman]

Overview

Excadrill, one of my favorite Pokémon. This Pokémon has 2 great abilities, who both abuse Sandstorm: Sand Force for higher Attack and Sand Rush for higher Speed. Doubled Speed + high base Attack = sweeping king!

Abilities

Sand Rush: This is what makes Excadrill so deadly. Your Speed Doubles within a Sandstorm, turing your "normal" 88 base speed into 172! This thing outruns (almost) everyone if you have set up a Sandstorm!
Sand Force: An alright Ability. Ground-type, Rock-type and Steel-type moves are 33% stronger in a Sandstorm. Excadrill already has a great base Attack, so upgrading it isn't needed. Especially if your Speed is average and your defenses not good enough to keep you alive till you can attack.
Mold Breaker: let's Ground-type moves hit Levitating-users. Mmm. You can also just go for Rock Slide, so Mold Breaker isn't usefull.

Sweep Sweep

- Earthquake / Bulldoze / Drill Run / Dig
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
- X-scissor
Item Attached: Muscle band / Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

Earthquake is for STAB'ed sweeping the entire field. Same thing for Bulldoze, except that Bulldoze lowers Speed when it hits. Drill Run is for a selected target if you Run Excadrill in a team where not every Pokémon is Flying/Levitating type. Same for Dig, but Dig doesn't miss and it protects you for one turn. Rock Slide for taking down Flying/Bug types who are not affected by Eartquake. Aerial Ace for Grass and Fighting types. X-scissor for Focus Blast-Psychic and -Dark types. Muscle Band / Choice Band for extra Attack and Sand Rush for extra Speed.

EVs and Natures

You can offer some Special Attack (which you will never use) for some Attack or Speed. Your HP can be boosted by EV, then you have the choice to give 252 to Speed and 4 to Attack or 252 to Attack and 4 to Speed (which I recommand)

Other Options

Rapid Spin, Toxic, Swords Dance
Rapid Spin removes anything you don't want on your team, like Leech Seed and Spikes.
Toxic is for supporting. Mwa, not very good, but it can be an option.
Swords Dance to equal your Attack with your Speed.

Double and Triple

Earthquake, Bulldoze and Rock Slide works best in Triple, so why don't use it?

Partners

Archeops and/or Aerodactyl can be a good option. Both don't get hurt by Sandstorm, resist Eartquake, Special Defense boosted during Sandstorm (which is always up when Excadrill is on the field), etc. Tyranitar and/or Hippowdon is also good for setting up Sandstorm. Golem can use Explosion while Excadrill is digging. Eelektross can resist Eartquake and kill Watertypes with Discharge.

Countering Excadrill

(I'll put something here later)

[svenosman]

Notable partners in Doubles/Triples (due to Sandstorm and EQ immunities) include Cloud Nine-taria, Magic Guard Sigilyph, Overcoat Mandibuzz, Skarmory, Flygon, Levitate Bronzong, Claydol, Solrock, Lunatone, Gliscor, Archeops, and Landorus. I do NOT recommend Aerodactyl unless Exca and Aero are on the sides in Triples because of Pressure.

Cloud Nine-taria will block the added effect of the weather, leaving both of Excadrills most used Abilities useless.

[Vandslaux]

Just saying, but Gliscor counters Excadrill hard. He lols at even +2 Rock Slide.

[ParaChomp]

Here's the best set Excadrill can run:

Item: Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
Nature: Jolly / Adamant
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissors
- Swords Dance
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Since Earthquake is so common, the best item to use is Air Balloon. Thanks to Excadrill's typing, it usually resists all of the foe's other moves allowing it to set up a Swords Dance safely. Jolly nature is preferred here but you could use Adamant.

As for counters, Conkeldurr is obvious. Gliscor, even at +4, Excadrill takes 2 to 3 turns to KO it. That's all I can think of.

[Kraleck]

Cloud Nine-taria will block the added effect of the weather, leaving both of Excadrills most used Abilities useless.

Cloud Nine and Air Lock block the effects of weather when they attack or are attacked, plus passive weather damage. This means Sand Force is ignored (because it aids the user in attacking) but Sand Rush isn't (unless they actually changed how the Cloud Nine and Air Lock Abilities work in 5th Gen).

[tecannon521]

Sand Offence*
Ability: Sand Force
Item: Salac Berry/Petaya Berry/Smooth Rock
Drill Run
Rock Slide
Metal Claw
Focus Blast/Sludge Bomb

*I could make this as my Life Orb moveset with the Life Orb as the item.

you seem new to this so just as a heads up... moves like sludge bomb and focus blast are special attacking moves which should never be used on excadrill due to its low special attack stat. also low base power moves like metal claw shouldnt be used in competitive battling

[tecannon521]

Sweep Sweep

- Earthquake / Bulldoze / Drill Run / Dig
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
- X-scissor
Item Attached: Muscle band / Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

never use dig in competitive battling. ever. you use dig and the turn that you are underground they switch into a flyer/levitator. bulldoze is completely outclassed by EQ and DR. and aerial ace has low base power and poor coverage making it useless on excadrill

[svenosman]

never use dig in competitive battling. ever. you use dig and the turn that you are underground they switch into a flyer/levitator. bulldoze is completely outclassed by EQ and DR. and aerial ace has low base power and poor coverage making it useless on excadrill

You can use dig if your other Pokémon uses a non-selected target move (like Golem uses Explosion). Bulldoze lowers Speed, which can be usefull for your Rock-type Pokémon, because most of them are slow. Aerial Ace is just for Fighting-type Pokémon, who else would hurt Excadrill a lot.

These are all just options.

[Waterlover711]

Lucky drill or Exca lucky: (which ever one sounds cooler)

Nature- adamant/brave
Ability- sand force
Held item- zoom lens/ wide lens
Moves: earthquake, fissure, horn drill, sandstorm

Strategy- use fissure at the very beginning of the battle, if that fails then
use sandstorm, next use fissure, if that fails again then use horn drill, after that use fissure one more time and if it fails than use earthquake.. and repeat until fissure or horn drill lands(if it doesn’t land and you run out of pp then use earthquake and sandstorm to weaken it)

[WeatherEffectRain]

Lucky drill or Exca lucky: (which ever one sounds cooler)

Nature- adamant/brave
Ability- sand force
Held item- zoom lens/ wide lens
Moves: earthquake, fissure, drill run, sandstorm

Strategy- use fissure at the very beginning of the battle, if that fails then
use sandstorm, next use fissure, if that fails again then use drill run, after that use fissure one more time and if it fails than use earthquake.. and repeat until fissure lands(if it doesn’t land then use earthquake and drill run to weaken it(occasionally use sandstorm when its time is up))

This sucks. First of all, Fissure is banned in competitive play. Second of all, three ground moves and RUNNING Sandstorm on a Pokemon in OU is stupid. Third, Zoom Lens activates if you're moving last, which, even without Sand Rush, means he's still fast. Four; you didn't put any EVs.

I assume you don't know this is for Competitive battling right now?

...Anyways...

Noticing the fact that Brick Break is not worth it on a set via Epic_Eevee.

E_E, anything disregarding the use of Shadow Claw? I see no real uses besides maybe the Rapid Spin set, and even then it's shaky. You got anything to vouch for or against it?

[Waterlover711]

Drill sweep:

Nature- adamant/jolly
Ability- sand force
Held item- earthplate, expert belt, razor claw, soft sand, and leftovers
Moves- dig, slash, earthquake, drill run

Strategy- use earthquake at the beginning of the battle to deal the most damage, next use drill run, after that use dig and if it is still not dead then finish it up with slash.. and repeat if it is still not dead(which I don’t think it’s possible unless it’s a bird or it has a lot of health and a regenerating move)

[multi-scale]

Overview
One of the most hyped pokemon of the 5th generation, Excadrill takes sandstorm to a whole new level. Sand Force, its revolutionary new ability, doubles its speed in the sand. Its small movepool is adequate enough, and it can run Swords Dance sets along with QuakeSlide and either Return or X-Scissor. On top of that, its solid typing gives it immunity to both Thunder Wave and poison, giving it free switch ins on Toxic stallers and paralysis spreaders. However, it does have some difficulty. Conkeldurr picks up a guaranteed KO with a +1 Mach Punch, and Excadrill has no priority move to stop it. Dream World brings 2new weather starters in Poiltoed and Ninetales, who can switch in, change the weather, and KO the now slow Excadrill with a STAB move. Dream World also brings Technician Breloom, who possesses Mach Punch to outspeed the mole and Spore to put it to sleep.

Partners
Sandstorm is a given. In fact, it's required. Killing other weather starters is important since they can switch in, stop Excadrill's crazy speed and KO with a STAB move. Priority users such as Conkeldurr and Breloom is also important. They defeat both Excadrill and Tyranitar, making it a huge threat. I've heard Slowbro is solid against Conkeldurr. I don't know what else. Landorus is immune to Excadrill's STAB and KOs with Sand Force EQ, so something like Mamoswine is nice.

Counters
Conkeldurr comes to mind, but remember that (according to Smogon) an LO boosted Mach Punch fails to OHKO while Excadrill OHKOs with +2 EQ. Breloom also works. Althpugh it is less bulky, it resists EEQ and Rock Slide and can put the mole asleep with Spore. Politoed and Ninetales can come in after something is KOd and change the weather, allowing them to outspeed and OHKO Excadrill.

Pre-Evo Corner
Apparently Drillbur is solid in LC, but it has problems with Snover switching in and OHKOing with Blizzard. It also depends on Hippopotas.

[WeatherEffectRain]

Drill sweep:

Nature- adamant/jolly
Ability- sand force
Held item- earthplate, expert belt, razor claw, soft sand, and leftovers
Moves- dig, slash, earthquake, drill run

Strategy- use earthquake at the beginning of the battle to deal the most damage, next use drill run, after that use dig and if it is still not dead then finish it up with slash.. and repeat if it is still not dead(which I don’t think it’s possible unless it’s a bird or it has a lot of health and a regenerating move)

I think you should just stop. No offence or anything, but using Dig, Slash, Earth Plate, Leftover, Soft Sand, three Ground moves, no EVs on a set... You're not too good at this. Look here; Smogon Analysis as stands.

I've got nothing else to say right now, so.... Meh.

[sbktdreed]

you seem new to this so just as a heads up... moves like sludge bomb and focus blast are special attacking moves which should never be used on excadrill due to its low special attack stat. also low base power moves like metal claw shouldnt be used in competitive battling

I know about Excadrill's low Special Attack. The biggest reason I added a special attack at all is to make pokemon with mostly Physical attacks less pedictable. Sludge Bomb's poison bonus can be useful; espically when it can't do additional damage.

For countering advice, a pokemon that knows Counter, like Sawk, could counter Excadrill. Ferrothorn's high Defence and Iron Barbs ability can work too.

As for Metal Claw, a STAB move can also boost the Physical Attack of Excadrill's already high Attack power, is the only Steel-type attack it knows for a Ground/Steel-type Pokemon; so I put it. But, I can recommend to replace that with Aerial Ace, a no-miss attack that can be used against Fighting-Types; or Poison Jab, a Physical-version of Sludge Bomb.