NationalDex
excadrill
#530

Excadrill

Subterrene Pokémon

GroundSteel

It’s not uncommon for tunnels that appear to have formed naturally to actually be a result of Excadrill’s rampant digging.

Base Stats

HP 110
Attack 135
Defense 60
Sp. Atk 50
Sp. Def 65
Speed 88
Total 508

Type Effectiveness

Abilities

Forms

Evolution Chain

Moves

Details

Category Subterrene Pokémon
Height 0.7 m
Weight 40.4 kg
Base Exp 178
Growth Rate Medium
Capture Rate 60
Base Happiness 70
Gender 50% ♂ / 50% ♀
Habitat
Egg Groups Ground

Sprites

excadrill Front Front
excadrill Back Back
excadrill Front Shiny Front Shiny
excadrill Back Shiny Back Shiny
excadrill Official Art Official Art
excadrill Official Art (Shiny) Official Art (Shiny)

Competitive

Sand Attacker
Item
Life Orb
Nature
Adamant
EVs
Atk 252
SpD 4
Spe 252

Strategy Overview

Sand Rush and high Attack make Excadrill a fast and strong attacker when sand is active. Its excellent STAB combination hits almost the entire tier for at least neutral damage. Excadrill finds itself on some variations of sand teams as the primary attacker, matching up well against all of Incineroar, Diancie, Kyurem-B, Naganadel, and Steel-types. Tyranitar is a mandatory partner to set sand, and Incineroar and Zapdos are common teammates, as they take on Water- and Grass-types that threaten Excadrill and provide Fake Out, Parting Shot, and Tailwind to maximize its offensive capabilities. Unfortunately, Excadrill has many noticeable flaws that keep it from being too common in Doubles. It can't rely on its strong, spread Earthquake due to the dominance of Rillaboom and Grassy Terrain, and it struggles against Rillaboom itself, along with many other common Pokemon in Tapu Fini, Urshifu-R, Amoonguss, and Zygarde. Furthermore, Excadrill hates opposing speed control, notably getting outsped and OHKOed by Urshifu-R and Landorus when opposing Tailwind is up, even when sand is active. Likewise, it also has a hard time against Volcanion and Incineroar in Trick Room. Lastly, Excadrill competes against Dracovish and Dracozolt as the primary sand beneficiary on sand teams, as they offer much higher single-target damage. Overall, Excadrill is an suboptimal option on an already niche style of play and, therefore, not the most common Pokemon in the tier.

Most Used Moves

Iron Head
96.5%
Protect
54.9%

Most Used Items

Life Orb
26.0%

Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc