Project OU Next Best Thing V2 Week 4: Landorus-T

[Prisoner952]

Weakness Policy

Landorus-Therian @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Polish
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Here we got a rock polish lando with weakness policy instead of the usual SD. This substitution allows you to do a variety of things, namely setting up in he face of defensive lando, weakened hp ice tang, and Zapdos. With no SD, I chose to put in hp ice to ohko opposing landorus, and zygarde at +2. Using weakness policy also allows you to setup in one turn instead of the two that double dance takes. The given hp investment allows you to take a hp ice from koko (w/o rocks or specs or the occasional wise glasses) and then rock polish and kill it in return.

 

[asterat]

Landorus-T @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe OR 248 HP / 116 Def / 144 Spe
Impish / Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock

Something that always kinda irritates me when I use Lando-T is the way that Kartana is able to come in as it KOs something and just set up without any real repercussions, and it's not always convenient to fit HP Fire onto sets to circimvent that (and the Mega Scizor MU) as you may be relying on Lando-T as your main stop to opposing Lando and Zygarde, making HP Ice an important tool for it to have. This is where Earth Power comes in; instead of being Swords Danced on and then proceeding to be KO'd by a boosted Leaf Blade after some prior damage, Earth Power is able to put a significant dent into Kartana–having a 37.5% chance to OHKO after SR and a 75% chance to KO with 1 Spike (or a guarantee if you can get both up+keep them both up) if you assume the Impish/Jolly+EQ variant that I listed above is used as opposed to some jank set with Toxic or U-turn or whatever. It's also nice for its ability to OHKO max HP Heatran through Grassy Terrain (as well as dealing more to most other 'mons under Grassy Terrain than EQ would). The first spread just hits the last Defense jump point whereas the second spread outruns timid Heatran.

That is pretty creative, but if you want to nail Kartana why not just use superpower over earth power? I get not wanting to give up hp ice because it's pretty essential to how defensive landorus operates, but superpower is another good alternative to maul Kartana . Earth power is super niche whereas superpower has a bunch of other applications like ferro, kyurem-b, lopunny, ttar, greninja, mega gyara, celesteela (won't do much but will do something), etc. Earth power pretty much hits Kartana, and can still hit Heatran with grassy terrain which is a pretty specific scenario. Not about to say that superpower is an optimal move most of the time, but I think it's a lot less niche than earth power. Earth power does like 10% more to Kartana, but I don't really think that's enough to justify using it.

 

[Martin]

That is pretty creative, but if you want to nail Kartana why not just use superpower over earth power? I get not wanting to give up hp ice because it's pretty essential to how defensive landorus operates, but superpower is another good alternative to maul Kartana . Earth power is super niche whereas superpower has a bunch of other applications like ferro, kyurem-b, lopunny, ttar, greninja, mega gyara, celesteela (won't do much but will do something), etc. Earth power pretty much hits Kartana, and can still hit Heatran with grassy terrain which is a pretty specific scenario. Not about to say that superpower is an optimal move most of the time, but I think it's a lot less niche than earth power. Earth power does like 10% more to Kartana, but I don't really think that's enough to justify using it.

Superpower also drops your attack and defense, which is Not Good for a variety of reasons. Also that damage difference is the difference between a dead Kartana and a +2 Kartana when there are any hazards at all on the Kartana side of the field, which is huge af especially given that the whole point of this set is explicitly to stop that happening.

 

[LeNorm]

Bulk Up Landorus-T

Landorus-Therian @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off/Superpower
- Bulk Up

With the nice amount of switch-ins Landorus-T provides, you have plenty opportunities to set up once or even twice a match.
This way you can win stalemates towards i.e. other Landorus-T and, with the aid of Lum Berry to avoid status moves, the damage output goes out of control really quickly.
You are now able to beat your opponent by through force alone; Edgequake is for coverage, whereas Knock Off or Superpower are both good options to deal properly with a wider range of threats. I'd like Knock Off due to its utility beyond its power, but this move took a huge hit due to the presence of both Z-crystal and Megastones all around.

Some calcs:
+1 252 Atk Landorus-Therian Superpower vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Ferrothorn: 324-382 (92 - 108.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery
+1 252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 234-276 (59.3 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+1 252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 244 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 352-415 (50.1 - 59.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (you can PP stall Recover)

Just FYI, the calcs here are for a Jolly Lando, but the set is adamant. Adamant doesn't change much for the chansey or clef, but the Ferrothorn is a guaranteed OHKO if Lando is adamant.

 

[Felixx]

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Bulbapedia says that Landorus learns BLOCK
Oh yes ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Hide

EDIT: Btw, I would put an image, but my computer hates me so I can't

You know where this is going
Reserving Stuuful's trapping problem: Part 8 Landorus Style

Ok, who's ready for some trapping fun

Stuuful Bait (Landorus-Therian) @ Yache Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Def / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Block
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance

Thanks to its stellar movepool, great attack, and amazing boosting movepool, Landorus can easily utilize many sets. But this set is unlike any other, as it is a trapping set. Equipped with Block, Swords Dance, and Stone Edge, Landorus can effectively straight up remove or heavily weaken to the point of no return counters to its regular sets like Zapdos, Tapu Bulu, and Celesteela, as well as trap pivots like Magearna who go into it predicting Hidden Power Ice. Usually, when set-up Landorus is revealed, other teams just try to offensively pressure it. But with Block, swapping is impossible, leading to some great traps with effective predictions.The set is really self-explanatory as well. Block traps most hard-counters there are to Landorus, and Swords Dance can help boost its attacks to great levels, with Continental Crush following, leaving a potential sweep for a teammate like Kartana and Ash-Ninja

On to set details. Adamant Nature provides maximum attack which is crucial to ensuring OHKOs and 2HKOs on Stone Edge. 96 Spe outspeeds defensive Zapdos. Finally 160 Hp just improves overall bulk and helps Landorus take hits better on both sides. Finally Yache Berry lets you remove all Zapdos, and trap opposing Landorus if they do not have U-Turn. Essentially the set works like this: Block on a predicted switch, Swords Dance, then K.O. You can trap certain threats regardless of whether you predict them or not. This set works best when you bluff it to be a Choice Scarf set since defensive mons aren't afraid to switch-in into an Earthquake. This set is pretty cool when I was testing it out, and I hope you find it so as well.

You mention Continental Crush, despite your Lando set not having it slashed with Yache berry as an item

 

[MANNAT]

I'm dropping this project to focus on getting better + have more time for irl shit in general. It's not a massive time commitment, but I'm not really enjoying hosting this now like I did when it started. (fwiw my favorite set from this week was eternam's) Can a mod pls lock this