Hey, it's been a little over a year since my last RMT, so here I am with another RMT. This time, it's for my 2000th post. I made this team a while ago, and at the time, I really wanted to make a viable Ground team that was as off-meta as I could manage. Now, a few of these sets are more popular, but I was quite happy with topping out at #4 on the ladder. Monotype is often a metagame where you see the same sets, the same Pokemon, and the same types, so I really wanted to go against the grain and show how diverse Monotype really can be if you're willing to try new and special ideas. This name comes from the song above (it's piano) and I felt it's fitting because there's always something coming on the horizon and you can never know what that is until you've made it there. It took Monotype five years to get to where we are now, and I hope we'll be here for another five and more into the future. This has been a long enough introduction, so here's my team!
Teambuilding Process
Mega Steelix is a complete monster in Monotype, but still no one really ever used it before (well back when I made this team at least). This thing flips Ground's more nightmarish matchups on its head, with the ability to basically 6-0 Fairy and Dragon teams almost for free. Many other teams like bulky offense or balance Psychic without Slowbro, Normal, and Dark are also generally very unequipped to deal with a Mega Steelix that gets even one free turn. Even without being in play, Mega Steelix is always looming in the back as a threat if its few checks are removed.
Since Heavy Slam is its only attacking move, Mega Steelix does have trouble with types that resist Steel, and that's where Landorus comes in. With Gravity, any type weak to Ground is automatically going to feel the pressure of a Sheer Force + Life Orb Landorus spamming an Earth Power that has no immunities on Electric and Steel teams.
I still needed Stealth Rock, and I already knew I didn't want this team to be sand, so the standard Hippowdon was out. I decided to go with Garchomp to cover this utility. Garchomp is in general really nice, since it can typically come in a few times with its natural bulk and I don't need to worry too much about it going down early.
Every Ground team needs a way to stop Water, and Gastrodon was the one I chose. Because Mega Steelix handles Z-Belly Drum Azumarill, I didn't need Seismitoad's help, and Gastrodon's access to recovery and crazy stalling potential was too tempting.
I'm known for how much I hype up Dugtrio, so it was pretty much always going to show up on this team. Even though Mega Steelix can beat both Azumarill and Tapu Bulu, it can't do both unless it already got up a Curse, so I wanted to have some insurance in the form of Dugtrio. The Landorus + Dugtrio synergy is also just undeniably useful for stopping threats like Celesteela and Zapdos.
With a Focus Sash Dugtrio, entry hazard removal is not optional. Since my fastest Pokemon was literally a Garchomp, I needed something to serve as a revenge killer that could also bring Rapid Spin. Choice Scarf Excadrill was really just the obvious choice to fill in both of these roles at once, wrapping up the last couple "obligations" a Ground team needs.
The Team
Steelix-Mega @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Mega Steelix, the star of the show. With even one Curse, very few physical attackers can actually break Mega Steelix unless it pulls Rest with both Sleep Talks, and that assumes Mega Steelix doesn't have time to get a second Curse before Resting (hint: it usually can). In general, it's very easy to leverage Mega Steelix's insane natural bulk and great typing to find free Curse opportunities, such as against Latios, Mimikyu, and even Pokemon with super effective like Garchomp. For types like Normal and Fairy that Ground typically hates, it's usually a matter of just finding the first Curse, at which point nothing that actually has a chance to touch Mega Steelix can safely switch in or deal damage. Even when you're up against Fire-types that deal super effective damage to Mega Steelix and take half from Heavy Slam, somehow, +1 Mega Steelix can 2HKO some of them like Volcarona and Infernape while surviving at least one hit if not more almost all the time, so if you get a free turn, they literally can't even switch in. The spread is just maximizing bulk efficiency; the nature gets the most mileage out of its base 230 Defense while the EVs max out its Special Defense.
Landorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Rock Polish
- Gravity
With Mega Steelix pretty much incapable of touching Pokemon like Rotom-W, Zapdos, Toxapex, and others, that's where Landorus comes in. Being one of the strongest special wallbreakers in Monotype, Landorus wallbreaks like a champ to open up the way for Mega Steelix's final sweep. Gravity helps take out airborne Pokemon for Ground, but it also synergizes perfectly with Dugtrio's Arena Trap. While Sludge Wave may seem unnecessary given Mega Steelix's effectiveness against Fairy, it remains one of the best general coverage options, as it hits Pokemon that can force Landorus out like Latios on the switch. I chose Rock Polish over another coverage move to really lock in matchups like Electric, as a +2 Landorus with Gravity active is going to be pretty difficult to touch. It also really punishes Poison and Steel, preventing Choice Scarf Nihilego and Excadrill from revenge killing Landorus.
Garchomp @ Firium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Outrage
- Stealth Rock
Garchomp is a pretty decent Stealth Rock setter lead against most types other than Flying thanks to Rough Skin blocking Rapid Spin and having a nice typing for Ground overall. The set is straightforward, with only the item being out of the ordinary. Firium Z with Fire Fang lets Garchomp handle specially defensive Celesteela sets and gives it enough damage output to take out a full HP Mega Scizor. Fire Fang can be replaced with Fire Blast for physically defensive Celesteela, which is more common nowadays. I've bounced back and forth between Outrage and Swords Dance a lot, and I think both are great here. Swords Dance gives you more help against threats like Mega Venusaur and Skarmory, but Outrage has been really nice as a hard-hitting non-Ground-type move, since this team tends to be overly reliant on Gravity otherwise. Having a way to threaten to OHKO Kyurem-B from full that no Dragon-type can switch into (assuming pre-Mega Altaria) is always nice, even if Garchomp is going to get revenge killed right after. Of course, having a Garchomp that's walled by Air Balloon Heatran is also highly suspicious.
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Recover
- Toxic
Gastrodon is the token Water-immune Pokemon I went with, and the set is pretty much what you'd expect. While I would really love max Special Defense to help with Kyurem-B and other assorted special attackers, I think max physically defensive is most important on Ground teams to deal with Choice Specs Keldeo and Mega Sharpedo properly. You can sort of just bop Kyurem-B with Mega Steelix if you play it right, so that matchup isn't even that bad without specially defensive Gastrodon. Earthquake is kind of good for beating Calm Mind Keldeo more easily, but a Storm Drain boost lets Earth Power beat Toxapex, and I feel that's much more important, since Gastrodon can easily just Toxic Mantine if it tries to come in. Not much to say, pretty simple Pokemon.
Dugtrio @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 21 HP / 0 Def / 0 SpD
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch
- Reversal
- Sludge Wave
Unsurprisingly, I'm using my Dugtrio set that I feel should be on almost all Ground teams when it's combined with Gravity Landorus. Being able to Arena Trap airborne Pokemon like Celesteela can be a huge advantage if pulled off correctly. Of course, the set includes the Focus Sash strategy to let it easily revenge kill Mega Lopunny to basically guarantee Mega Steelix's sweep against Normal teams. Similarly, it beats Alolan Raichu on Electric, Fire-types like Victini and Mega Charizard X, and other threats like Nidoking. Even with Mega Steelix, I still like having Sludge Wave as added safety against Tapu Bulu teams to make sure I really can't lose to it. In general, Dugtrio is meant to support Mega Steelix and the team by relieving pressure from specific threats, rather than be the primary revenge killer it normally is.
Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Toxic
- Rapid Spin
Excadrill rounds out this team with decent Speed and hazard control. Toxic is less for Mold Breaker luring Mega Sableye and more for nailing walls like Mandibuzz, Mantine, Slowbro, and others, since this team doesn't really fear Mega Sableye one bit. Rock Slide doesn't really hit anything for Excadrill that Toxic can't, since +1 Volcarona outspeeds you anyway. Rapid Spin is a must with Focus Sash Dugtrio and removing stuff like Toxic Spikes and Spikes is super nice too. It's like the third Pokemon that Fairy hates and serves as a last ditch check to stuff like Kommo-o, Keldeo, and other Pokemon that outspeed Landorus and Garchomp. Even when you don't have sand, Excadrill is honestly too good to not have, able to cover Ice-types and generally having so much utility.
Last Thoughts
Even though my ladder run was quite a while ago, this team still has it and can definitely put up a fight in the current metagame, although you will absolutely want to think about teching against the new balance Flying archetype. Vincune is seeing less usage than it has in the past year, so there are bright sides to metagame shifts. I've always really enjoyed using weird Ground teams (see: Ground stall dating back to ORAS and into MPL 4), and this team is no exception. Playing without sand is completely different from the classic sand build we've seen almost unmodified in Monotype since Sand Stream + Sand Rush was allowed due to no more permaweather in gen 6. I always encourage people to try new things to keep the metagame moving forward, and it would be a little hypocritical if I don't too. Since I made this, I've done a little evangelizing for Mega Steelix, so I'm happy to see it producing results in MPL and becoming more accepted. If you give it a try, I hope this team succeeds for you as it did for me!
I'm Eternal Earth (not the ladderers=nobrain guy LOL). I forgot to save replays while laddering, so the only replays you'd see are my losses haha
Steelix-Mega @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Landorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Rock Polish
- Gravity
Garchomp @ Firium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Outrage
- Stealth Rock
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Recover
- Toxic
Dugtrio @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 21 HP / 0 Def / 0 SpD
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch
- Reversal
- Sludge Wave
Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Toxic
- Rapid Spin
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Landorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Rock Polish
- Gravity
Garchomp @ Firium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Outrage
- Stealth Rock
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Recover
- Toxic
Dugtrio @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 21 HP / 0 Def / 0 SpD
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch
- Reversal
- Sludge Wave
Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Toxic
- Rapid Spin
I'm Eternal Earth (not the ladderers=nobrain guy LOL). I forgot to save replays while laddering, so the only replays you'd see are my losses haha
I did hella long individual personal shoutouts last time, so you'll have to forgive me for not doing them all again. Love you all, though! No order and I did this at like 3AM, so don't yell at me :notlikeblob:
#fgo - No idea how you guys haven't mutinied from my endless Arturia fanaticism lol. Talking with you all is honestly half the reason I love fgo so much. The true Smogon overlords Acast 6ti Quantum Tesseract Omega-Xis (rip) Leru roman Gratify Bluxio the nibba Arifeen Amaroq Trace Ark Holy Break Hikari Bouff Kreme Aquasition Misaka Mikoto The Cheesen One Haruno Altina TSR EternalSnowman Alpha Rabbit Colonel M nui (PLAY!) and all the others who I know are with us but I have no idea what your Smogon is lol
WoA - we out here. Sad a lot of people are slowly moving on but you all are always gonna be my og mafia brothers lax Paleo Clearly Attribute Sabella Vid Wanka Wyn Azelea Zarif Entei Yaksok Waszap Its Hatch 1 True Lycan ima TheThorn North Chras rnbs Zukushiku Ticken Croven Endal Jyph Ridley. scpinion
Monotype Staff - Imagine having to work with Mao Zedong... the best staff I could ask for always keeping me in check Moosical Tyke decem DoW iLlama Bondie Cam ChildOfDisorder KevinELF smub StarBlim
Monotype Community - Only thing that could be worse than working with Mao is having to just deal with what I do. Shoutouts to everyone for not rioting too hard whenever we make (or didn't make) literally any decision.
OMs friends - I'm still not really sure how I managed to slither my way into such an awesome and tightly knit community but please never snake ORAS Monotype out of OMPL again!! #gogoat
GP team - Monotype C&C moves because of you guys, and we really never stop adding more and more new analyses for you to check. We've done somewhere around 200 this generation alone, and it couldn't have been done without every one of you. Thank you for all the help!
Crew - big fan of your work oo all super hardworking Good Users™. Really happy I (finally) started to get to know you guys this past month!
RMT friends - When I first joined Smogon, I didn't really get rating at all and never thought I'd do it. While I only do a couple a month, it's come to be really fun and I've come to have a lot of respect for you all that have done a ton of rates.
And everyone who has supported Monotype!
#fgo - No idea how you guys haven't mutinied from my endless Arturia fanaticism lol. Talking with you all is honestly half the reason I love fgo so much. The true Smogon overlords Acast 6ti Quantum Tesseract Omega-Xis (rip) Leru roman Gratify Bluxio the nibba Arifeen Amaroq Trace Ark Holy Break Hikari Bouff Kreme Aquasition Misaka Mikoto The Cheesen One Haruno Altina TSR EternalSnowman Alpha Rabbit Colonel M nui (PLAY!) and all the others who I know are with us but I have no idea what your Smogon is lol
WoA - we out here. Sad a lot of people are slowly moving on but you all are always gonna be my og mafia brothers lax Paleo Clearly Attribute Sabella Vid Wanka Wyn Azelea Zarif Entei Yaksok Waszap Its Hatch 1 True Lycan ima TheThorn North Chras rnbs Zukushiku Ticken Croven Endal Jyph Ridley. scpinion
Monotype Staff - Imagine having to work with Mao Zedong... the best staff I could ask for always keeping me in check Moosical Tyke decem DoW iLlama Bondie Cam ChildOfDisorder KevinELF smub StarBlim
Monotype Community - Only thing that could be worse than working with Mao is having to just deal with what I do. Shoutouts to everyone for not rioting too hard whenever we make (or didn't make) literally any decision.
OMs friends - I'm still not really sure how I managed to slither my way into such an awesome and tightly knit community but please never snake ORAS Monotype out of OMPL again!! #gogoat
GP team - Monotype C&C moves because of you guys, and we really never stop adding more and more new analyses for you to check. We've done somewhere around 200 this generation alone, and it couldn't have been done without every one of you. Thank you for all the help!
Crew - big fan of your work oo all super hardworking Good Users™. Really happy I (finally) started to get to know you guys this past month!
RMT friends - When I first joined Smogon, I didn't really get rating at all and never thought I'd do it. While I only do a couple a month, it's come to be really fun and I've come to have a lot of respect for you all that have done a ton of rates.
And everyone who has supported Monotype!