Opinions on How Pokemon do Competitively

Landorus-T

     Requested by: @MusicGreninja

      Now, Landorus-Therian is well known in the OU tier, having been there for nearly a decade now I think since BW, and is still relevant even now in the USUM meta. Even with it's obvious weaknesses in Water and Ice type moves, with the latter being a 4x weakness, Landorus still manages to show how good it is in the tier with skilled players. Plus, it has a few sets, and can keep you or your opponent guessing on what set you have for it, such as Scarf, Choice Band, defensive, Stealth Rocker, or Flyinium Z, etc,).  Despite this, one move(switch, U-Turn, etc) can reveal what set it is, which gives you the knowledge as to how to counter it. 

    For some reason, Landorus is thought to be OP because of it's versatility by certain players, who want it to be banned to Ubers. Smogon is not ban happy, as some people seem to think....and they give some sort of basis of reasoning as to why they think that the Pokemon should be suspect tested or banned. Landorus can be countered with the right plays, thinking, and Pokemon. A fault of Landorus is that it can be easily dispatched by moves such as Ice Beam or Hydro Pump, and it's special defense is  kind of bad, so it doesn't do well against special attackers who out speed it, such as Mega Charizard Y. 

    Landorus also hates getting burned by moves like Scald or Will-O-Wisp, which cripples it's effectiveness in getting some chip damage on some Pokemon like Ferrothorn. However, if it has the move Knock Off, this gives it a good chance for scouting out for items that could be detrimental against your team or 2 certain types of items that can't be knocked off. This works nicely on predicted switches, so if you're predicting a switch when Landorus is on the field, and you have Knock Off, go for it! Another move that you could go for at the start of the match or on a predicted switch is Stealth Rock, which can do some chip damage on Pokemon that switch in...especially Charizard. It's also got a decent speed stat and defense, coupled by Intimidate. This allows Lando-T to comfortably switch in on most physical attackers, and lower their attack stat by 1 stage.  

   I think that Lando-T isn't that bad of a Pokemon but what brings it down is it's terrible special defense, and when facing powerful special attackers, you either have to switch out or go for U-Turn. Also, when facing Pokemon like Skarmory who can soak up it's hits easily as they can't be hit by Landorus's most powerful move, Earthquake while also not taking that much damage from it's coverage moves, such as Knock Off, U-Turn, HP Ice, or Stone Edge/Smack Down. It also doesn't help that it's speed stat isn't exactly the best in today's metagame. It's max speed is 309. Still, it is a good Pokemon in the OU Metagame and with the right team and preparation, working together with it can be enjoyable. 

 Some recommendations for it's teammates are Pokemon that can cover it's weaknesses easily, such as a Water type like Greninja or Tapu Fini, or those that it can cover for. More information can be found here:  https://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/pokemon/landorus-therian/

   Score: 8/10