What is the strongest ground type in Sun\Moon?

Question

Title, with emphasis on being a sweeper-type.

Comments

How dare you.

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In terms of sweepers: Landorus-T, Excadrill, Garchomp, Zygarde 50%

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… Krookodile? Flygon?

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Flygon's buffed but no where near optimal unless you really don't want to use Garchomp. Krook's got a good scarf Moxie cleaner set but still not optimal.

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I'm out of Ground types.

Answer 1

There are many contenders, but the best is probably Zygarde-50% with Power Construct, credit to sumwun.

The sole ground-type legendary available in SM without migration, Zygarde serves as a bulky setup 'mon, with moves such as Coil, Dragon Dance, and Glare to help boost its offensive and defensive prowess.

Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Power Construct
EVs: 12 HP / 216 Atk / 48 SpD / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Substitute
- Dragon Tail

Zygarde-50%'s Substitute set from Smogon enables it to reach its monstrous Complete Form quicker while setting up D-Dances, while Thousand Arrows hits most, if not all of the meta game neutrally. Dragon Tail works well with hazard stacking teams, making its moves unresisted in Ubers.

Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Power Construct
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Glare
- Rest
- Coil

Glare and Coil sets can also be run with a more defensive role, but that wouldn't let it function as a great sweeper.

Some other valuable Ground-type sweepers include Excadrill, Garchomp, Landorus, Landorus-T, Mega Swampert in Rain, etc.

Hope I helped!

Answer 2

I would probably say a mamoswine for a physical sweeper, (you can get a swinub from an island scan, Ula-Ula Island on Monday, at Tapu Village) preferably with maxed EVs in Attack & Defense and the last 4 in HP. The most desired nature would be Adamant (+Atk, -SpAtk). characteristic would be best for either attack or defense, you choose.

As for its ability, snow cloak is probably the best. For a movies I would say:
Hail: Snow cloak and +accuracy to ice type moves, damage to non ice types
Earthquake: STAB and a high power, useful in double and triple battles
Blizzard: STAB and a high power, + 100% accuracy in hail
Stone Edge: High power, good for coverage.

Feel free to modify this to your liking.
(swap Stone Edge for curse etc.)

Comments

Why run blizzard on a physical mamoswine? That is a very bad decision

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It has the highest power of any ice type move (that Mamoswine can learn) apart from sheer cold, which has a low accuracy, even with natures, blizzard will almost always be more powerful.

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0- SpA Life Orb Mamoswine Blizzard vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Cinccino: 156-185 (53.6 - 63.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Blizzard does 53% to 63% damage.

252+ Atk Life Orb Mamoswine Icicle Crash vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Cinccino: 298-352 (102.4 - 120.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Icicle Crash does 102 to 120% damage.

Icicle crash does almost double the damage of Blizzard. Bare in mind Cincinno has 60 def and 60 special def with no investment in either stat.

Blizzard is definitely not more powerful. Not even close.

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Also the best ability for Mamoswine is Thick Fat, since it removes mamoswine's Fire and Ice weaknesses. With Snow Cloak Mamoswine becomes almost reliant on Hail, while with Thick Fat Mamoswine can function in all weathers. Bare in mind that Mamoswine does a lot of things, not just be a hail sweeper, so Mamoswine outside hail is perfectly viable.

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sorry about the most powerful, forgot to account for EVs, also, I chose snow cloak as it gives him a 20% evasiveness boost, and does more that just make you take less damage from fire and ice, which can easily be countered using Mamo's moves, or by switching, which is why I have chosen snow cloak instead of Thick Fat, but a very good argument though.

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You do realize that unless there is hail, you won't have an ability right? while thick fat protects you against a weakness.