In the moonlight n°22: Drilbur and Excadrill

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Drilbur is a ground type Pokemon from Gen 5. Offensively good, yet rather fragile, it has a 328 base stat total for 85 in attack and 68 in speed. With 60 base HP for 40 base defense and 45 base special defense, it needs an eviolite to survive in LC, but compensates that weakness with good offensive abilities: Sand Rush doubles its speed in sandstorm, Sand Force raises by 30% the power of rock, ground and steel moves in sandstorm, and Mold Breaker prevents opposing abilities to alter the damage or effects from its moves.

Comparing it to its evolved form: Excadrill is a huge threat if well used, to the point of being Uber in Gen 5, even if it was moved down to OU in Gen 6. It gets a 508 BST with a 110 base HP, 135 base attack and 88 base speed. 88 seems to be low compared to Drilbur, but with Sand Rush Excadrill can outspeed most scarfers. Add that to a ground/steel typing for great STAB moves and good coverage, and the access to Rapid Spin. Yet it has limits, such as a 60 base defense and 65 base SpD. With the many Mach Punch, Vacuum Wave and Aqua Jet users, Excadrill isn't as OP anymore, but still extremely dangerous.

How to play them?

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Drilbur: LC tier. A sandstorm team is hard to run in LC, so better give it Mold Breaker, and it needs an eviolite. Even with it, it won't last long, but you can hurt with Earthquake, especially if you had time to setup with Swords Dance. The rest is for coverage, you can choose between X-Scissor, Shadow Claw, Poison Jab, and you can also get Rapid Spin to protect your sash/Sturdy users from hazards. Despite all that, Drilbur is just decent in LC.


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Excadrill: OU tier. I'm going to detail three different sets here.

First set, mostly used in OU: Mold Breaker with either air balloon to avoid ground moves, choice scarf to compensate its lack of speed, or focus sash to get time to use Swords Dance. Earthquake and Iron Head for STAB, a coverage move among what I listed for Drilbur (you can add Stone Edge and Rock Slide), and you can also run Swords Dance if you have a sash. Not that good though. 252 atk 252 speed 4 SpD, either adamant or jolly nature.

Second set, used in a sandstorm team or in a ground monotype. Either Sand Force with a choice scarf, or Sand Rush with a life orb or a choice band. The best variant is Sand Rush, because it doubles the speed in sand while the scarf only raises it by 50%, and a life orb raises power as much as Sand Force, but choice band can go even further (50%). A third variant is high risk high reward: focus sash with Swords Dance, reinforced by Sand Rush. But any priority move can finish it off.
Whatever the ability and item, get at least Earthquake and Iron Head. Then a coverage move, like Rock Slide, Stone Edge, X-Scissor… The last move is up to you, another coverage move, Rapid Spin, or if you have a focus sash, Swords Dance. Whatever the variant, this set gives you enough power to deal heavy damage to the opposing team, sometimes even wiping it out. 252 speed 252+ Atk 4 SpD

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The third set is a personal one, that I used before Baton Pass clause came and messed it up. You can try it in Ubers though. The SuperDrill set combines speed going beyond Sand Rush, power going over choice band and life orb together, but takes a while to set. I used Protect with Ninjask to boost its speed once, then Swords Dance with a focus sash, while Speed Boost kept activating. Third turn, one more Protect, then Baton Pass to Excadrill. Now Excadrill itself, had a life orb and Mold Breaker. With Mold Breaker, it laughed at the likes of Gengar before taking them out. Its speed multiplied by 2.5 and its power multiplied by 2.6 made it a true beast. 252 Atk 252+ Speed 4 SpD. When its speed is multiplied by 2.5, there are only two Pokemon able to outspeed it: scarfed Ditto and scarfed Deoxys-Speed (by one). Those would be its counters in Ubers, along with sash/Sturdy users, or unaware Pokemon. Here are two very old battles I had with SuperDrill, just to show you how dangerous it is, even if my opponents made awful mistakes. And yet I only doubled its speed. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-179448380 and http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-179622129 .

Excadrill has the potential of a war machine, thankfully the apearance of many counters in Gen 6 had it moved down from Ubers, making it more accessible.

By Champion Blackwolf. I do not own the pictures. Next topic: Lugia and Ho-Oh, tomorrow.

good article n_n just some minor mistakes of excadrill doesn't have stone edge as coverage option cuz it can't learn it and a typo in what sand force do(should be 30% instead of 50%). And it's counter in ubers would probably be lugia who can switch in and whirlwind it out. Ditto would just be a situational check cuz excadrill sometimes carries air balloon and deoxys-s would just be a pokemon that can revenge kill it. I like the baton passing idea but the main problem of using it is that there's things that can do the job better like landorus-t

That's kinda true, but you don't look like an intimidating bully

i look like a fish don't judge .-.

I like fish

Good n_n