CCGn2

Hey, this is Stun, aka Uncle Stunny here to showcase the team I've used for the entirety of the Ground Core Challenge. The core presented was great for me because on my current main team, those 2 pokemon I already had (xD). Anyways, in terms of making my teams cores, I knew I wanted to experiment with some new stuff that people wouldn't normally at first think of, but at the same time not being so outlandish that they'd be ridiculous. In terms of how things went, I managed to make platinum rank within 2 days, what I was mainly doing for the rest of the challenge was defending my lead. Once this is posted I'm probably gonna try new stuff and change my team for the billionth time. Anywho, lets get to the team itself.

Hippowdon @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Slack Off

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Yawn
- Recover

Mamoswine @ Choice Band
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Superpower

Camerupt @ Cameruptite
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power
- Will-O-Wisp

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Excadrill @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Hippowdown: At first, I was pretty iffy about trying it specially defensive, in my head I was thinking "what is this gonna help with exactly?" Turns out this set worked very well for me. It made switching it in a lot easier, in terms of setting up sand as well as hazards, it arguably enough had a lot more liveability. As for the rest of it, the set's simple, set up hazards, and stop boosting sweepers in their tracks.

Gastrodon: I've tried it Defensive before, but this was where I discovered how great adding Yawn was. Originally I was thinking for Gastro to take on 1 part of Hippo's role as a defensive wall, which was to stop boosting sweepers. As I've played around with it, it's managed to take a ton of attacks, and it gives itself a somewhat reliable chance to recover any lost damage. For me at least, this has helped quite a bit with major threats like Gyarados. I really can't argue with the results I've gotten from it, and I do plan on keeping it for a while.

Landorus: This is the pokemon that wraps up my defensive core. I've been running it scarfed, and in conjunction with excadrill, it's been very helpful with cleaning teams up. What's really nice though is intimidate, so usually I like to lead with it to scout a bit. Overall, the set is simple, yet effective with the core.

Mamoswine: I've known for a little while I really needed to add it back. It helps so much in terms of coverage against ice and grass teams, and this time around I decided to make it a wallbreaker. Throughout the entirety of the core, it's helped so much with switching in, and just helping overall with the weakness I had to grass and ice before. The set once again is simple enough, but you can do other options such as running it bulky, or replacing superpower with knock off, just for more liveability in tough situations, and for help against annoying walls like chansey and porygon.

Camerupt: I've tried this pokemon on many occasions, but this was the first time I've actually found use for it. It provides great coverage, and with sheer force, conjunctions great as a special wallbreaker. The set itself is good enough, but what I didn't realize before is how great it is as a lure, so I gave it WoW. I gotta say, for switch ins such as garchomp, gyarados, and other threatening physical attackers, it's helped tremendously. For walls like Ferrothorn, Skarmory, ect, it's pounded the hard, and gave foe's some pressure switching out because of it's immense power and fair coverage. Only condition is, if you send it in, it has to kill something, sounds strange, but it is the truth, it cannot function unless you send it into something you know it can kill.

Excadrill: This is the OP monster of the team for say, and has a lot of support all around for it to sweep. I gave it the item choice band mostly for the reason that I tend to switch it into weak attacks, then start sweeping. So with life orb, you can imagine this gets hindered and doesn't help a lot. It also gains the ability to wallbreak, since its incredible 405 attack stat is now multiplied, so it can hit opponents a lot harder. Lando T helps well with switching out for earthquakes, and hippo and gastro can pretty much take the rest.

Threats:
-Water Teams are usually an automatic loss. There isn't a lot I can do against them as with a lot of ground teams. Keldeo's with sub cm usually aren't a problem because of gastro and it's eq's breaking subs, however choiced variants can be problematic. Gyarados is a gaint pain in the ass, especially Sub ddance variants. Sometimes gastrodon can break it's subs and go for yawn after living a boosted attack, but do not count on it.
-Mega Venusaur, this pain in the ass is usually pretty hard to get around since no one on the team can wallbreak it without getting smacked by giga drain and failing. Your best bet is excadrill, and spamming either eq, or iron head in hopes for the flinch chance, but you need to be careful about eq.
-Latios, this thing is usually pretty hard to get around, especially surf variants. Usually I try to send in hippo to get sand up asap, and send exca in to take hopefully an energy ball. Usually though if its a psychic team, expect a slowbro switch in.
-Kyurem, this thing if sand isn't up, can wreck, namely mixed variants. If it's choiced, I usually do the same strategy with latios, but the upside is usually not a lot can switch into excadrill upon switch out. You just need to be cautious, especially when you have mamo out, and your opponent expects an incoming ice shard.
-Other Mamoswines, don't get me started on this one. They can usually wallbreak a lot of the walls on this team upon switch into them. However if you can send gastro in safely, that's gonna help, or mamo, if you feel like it's a bulky variant or chocied, go for it and proceed to superpower or predict a switch out.
-Mega Sableye, I really don't have a lot to say here, other than it is pretty much impossible to wallbreak. Nuff said.
-Breloom, now these things are annoying to face. Usually if they lead with it, and lando is out, I can easily uturn into something to take a spore, and switch back into lando again to hopefully take a bullet seed, and gets it's attack way down. However if your opponent is smart and saves it, stay on your toes for what your gonna do, or it can make you lose the match.

As for major threats, that all I have from the top of my head. I hope you make good use out of this team, because I'm more than likely gonna make a new one anyways. The core challenge in itself was a great experience, and since I suck with most types besides ground, actually winning at least one makes me really proud of myself. If you ever have a goal, push yourself, it's not gonna come easy to you, you need to try again, and again, and again, until 1 day, you can achieve it. :)
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