Steamroll
huh?
Excadrill was one of the most controversial bans of 5th Generation so far, being bandwagoned into Ubers by a late string of ban votes in Round 5 of Suspect testing for OU. Needless to say he didn't get the boot from Dreamworld OU due to those events but the influence it had on the OU metagame then is definitely still around now. With Sand Rush Excadrill is able to hit a Speed stat of 604 (jolly nature; even with a neutral nature its able to outspeed every single pokemon including Deoxys-S) while sand is up. 110/60/65 Defenses are very good for a mon like Excadrill, able to take hits while setting up a Swords Dance in order to totally destroy the opponent's team. Its movepool looks rather lacking but it is effective, I mean it did get banned way back in October...
Base Stats:
HP: 110
ATK: 135
DEF: 60
SPA: 50
SPD: 65
SPE: 88
Here is the infamous set you can expect Excadrill to be running in the DW OU metagame:
Excadrill @ Life Orb / Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 ATK / 252 SPE
Adamant Nature (+atk, -spatk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
- X-Scissor / Rapid Spin
Now this technically can be considered two different sets but each one only depends on the item and move you select on each slash. X-Scissor for more coverage against Psychics and Grasses while Rapid Spin to support the team. If you opt for a Life Orb run X-Scissor over Rapid Spin, as the recoil damage will surely make Exca pay later by spinning away hazards at the cost of its health. If you opt for Air Balloon run Rapid Spin, as you can freely switch Exca in only to worry about rocks and spin away hazards. Earthquake, Rock Slide and Swords Dance are the standard three moves Excadrill will use, providing great coverage via a psedo-EdgeQuake combo and a means to boost its Attack to god-like levels.
Checks/Counters: While Excadrill was one of the most fearsome mons in the Standard OU metagame he still had problems getting past certain mons without support. Gliscor, Skarmory, Ferrothorn and Tangrowth (sans X-Scissor) all can throw a wrench in Excadrill's sweep unless Exca has accrued too many boosts. Skarmory can wall +2 Excadrill because it fails to be 2hko'd by Rock Slide, but be wary of flinching because that will definitely shut Skarm down. 252 HP/184 DEF Gliscor can withstand more than 2 hits from Rock Slide (48% - 56.5%) with Poison Heal recovery and Protect and proceed to Swords dance in Exca's face but again be careful of Rock Slide flinches. Ferrothorn can take two of Excadrill's Earthquakes (45.5% - 54%) factoring leftovers and set up spikes with its standard defensive spread but cannot do much back besides Protect and Leech Seed. Tangrowth can wall Excadrill's Earthquakes all day but comes to problems when faced with X-Scissor, barely missing a chance to be OHKO'd with rocks up (78.2% - 92.6%); Tangrowth can then proceed to Sleep Powder Excadrill and pivot the match in your favor as you can then leech seed and stall it out ever so slowly sans X-Scissor.
Even with these setbacks, with the right support and careful play beforehand you can proceed to sweep your opponent's team with little resistance on the path to victory.
Base Stats:
HP: 110
ATK: 135
DEF: 60
SPA: 50
SPD: 65
SPE: 88
Here is the infamous set you can expect Excadrill to be running in the DW OU metagame:
Excadrill @ Life Orb / Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 ATK / 252 SPE
Adamant Nature (+atk, -spatk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
- X-Scissor / Rapid Spin
Now this technically can be considered two different sets but each one only depends on the item and move you select on each slash. X-Scissor for more coverage against Psychics and Grasses while Rapid Spin to support the team. If you opt for a Life Orb run X-Scissor over Rapid Spin, as the recoil damage will surely make Exca pay later by spinning away hazards at the cost of its health. If you opt for Air Balloon run Rapid Spin, as you can freely switch Exca in only to worry about rocks and spin away hazards. Earthquake, Rock Slide and Swords Dance are the standard three moves Excadrill will use, providing great coverage via a psedo-EdgeQuake combo and a means to boost its Attack to god-like levels.
Checks/Counters: While Excadrill was one of the most fearsome mons in the Standard OU metagame he still had problems getting past certain mons without support. Gliscor, Skarmory, Ferrothorn and Tangrowth (sans X-Scissor) all can throw a wrench in Excadrill's sweep unless Exca has accrued too many boosts. Skarmory can wall +2 Excadrill because it fails to be 2hko'd by Rock Slide, but be wary of flinching because that will definitely shut Skarm down. 252 HP/184 DEF Gliscor can withstand more than 2 hits from Rock Slide (48% - 56.5%) with Poison Heal recovery and Protect and proceed to Swords dance in Exca's face but again be careful of Rock Slide flinches. Ferrothorn can take two of Excadrill's Earthquakes (45.5% - 54%) factoring leftovers and set up spikes with its standard defensive spread but cannot do much back besides Protect and Leech Seed. Tangrowth can wall Excadrill's Earthquakes all day but comes to problems when faced with X-Scissor, barely missing a chance to be OHKO'd with rocks up (78.2% - 92.6%); Tangrowth can then proceed to Sleep Powder Excadrill and pivot the match in your favor as you can then leech seed and stall it out ever so slowly sans X-Scissor.
Even with these setbacks, with the right support and careful play beforehand you can proceed to sweep your opponent's team with little resistance on the path to victory.