Excadrill

Excadrill's good base Attack combined with access to two stellar offensive abilities, Sand Rush and Mold Breaker, allow Excadrill to stand out among the many other viable Steel-types. Sand Rush doubles Excadrill's otherwise mediocre Speed when sand is active, whereas Mold Breaker allows Excadrill to attack through abilities when that would normally be impossible, importantly Levitate on the Rotom formes and Cresselia. While limited, Excadrill's movepool contains some very important moves; Iron Head for instance allows Excadrill to OHKO Sylveon and other Fairy-types that are common in the format. Earthquake when combined with Rock Slide gives Excadrill perfect neutral coverage; this guarantees that Excadrill will always be able to deal damage rather than become dead weight. With a great typing, Excadrill is gifted eight resistances and two immunities, which let it check common Pokemon such as Thundurus and Sylveon.

Excadrill has relatively poor bulk, taking roughly 40% from a spread Hyper Voice from Choice Specs Sylveon, which greatly limits Excadrill's opportunities to switch in. While having what it needs, Excadrill's shallow movepool makes it highly predictable, and this makes playing against Excadrill far easier than other Steel-types. The factor that holds Excadrill back the most is its middling Speed. Without Sand Rush, Excadrill finds itself being outsped by many relevant Pokemon such as Mega Kangaskhan and Landorus-T. Excadrill's Speed issues are compounded by being too fast to reliably be used on a Trick Room team. Excadrill suffers further by being weak to the common offensive types Fire, Fighting, and Ground. Excadrill also does not appreciate being burned by Will-O-Wisp.