Welcome to the twenty-seventh Pokemon of the Week! This week we'll be finishing out our two-part special on Landorus. This week, we'll be focusing on Landorus-Therian.

From the forces of lightning and wind, Landorus creates energy to give nutrients to the soil to make the land abundant. Lands that have been visited by Landorus grant such beautiful crops that Landorus has been hailed "The Guardian of the Fields".

Base Stats: 89 HP / 145 Attack / 90 Defense / 105 Sp. Attack / 80 Sp. Defense / 91 Speed

Landorus-Therian is an amazing Pokemon. The base stats allow it to accomplish many different goals, depending on what your team needs. The comparison to Gliscor is an obvious one, as they share the same typing and are often used for the same purpose: physical wall. While Landorus-T has higher HP, much higher attacking stats and higher Sp. Defense, Gliscor has better Defense. This fact is offset, though, by Landorus-T's access to Intimidate. Given Intimidate's immediate 1-stage drop to the opponent's Attack, Landorus-T is actually physically bulkier than Gliscor upon switch-in. It isn't if the opponent's Attack doesn't drop (if they have Clear Body, Hyper Cutter or switch out), but with this one perfect ability for it, Landorus-T somewhat outclasses Gliscor as a physical wall/tank for short-term walling purposes.

Landorus-T's 145 base Attack cannot be overlooked either. Even without investment, STAB Earthquake is going to do a lot of damage to anything not immune or resistant, and with full investment, Landorus-T's Earthquake becomes one of the most powerful easily spammed attacks in the metagame. Landorus-Therian is a Pokemon that should always be considered for any team, for his wonderful ability to provide many significant roles in the metagame, and should also be prepared for.

Landorus-Therian can be an amazing physical tank, able to slow down or put a full stop to many prominent physical attackers such as Terrakion and Garchomp. Stealth Rock provides team support, which is one of the best moves in the game. Earthquake provides a powerful STAB attack with fantastic coverage. Rock Slide OHKO's full health Mega Pinsir 68.8% of the time. It should be noted that this should be used in a pinch, because Landorus-Therian really is not a counter to Mega Pinsir, since it will not enjoy switching into even a -1 Attack Return from it, given that Landorus-T lacks any form of recovery outside of Leftovers. Stone Edge can be used to deal sginificantly more damage to things such as Dragonite and Salamence, though the accuracy drop is annoying, and this set is more of a defensive spread anyway. Knock Off is fantastic on anything that learns it, removing the item and reaching base power close to that of an Un-STABed Earthquake. It also deals massive damage to Latios and Latias on the switch-in.

The final slot is usually filled by U-Turn, providing great scouting abilities and giving you momentum in battle. This is especially helpful because of Intimidate, which forces many switches, especially on Choice Scarf Pokemon locked into a physical move that doesn't deal much damage to Landorus-T. Knock Off can be used in tandem with one of the two Rock attacks in the third slot to provide added coverage and utility, though sacrificing the potential momentum is a bit of a trade-off.

The spread can be changed here, though deviating too much from the given spread will often make Landorus-T not able to provide the support that this set is meant to provide. 96 Speed can outspeed Mega Tyranitar, but since it often runs Dragon Dance, this is a bit unimportant. 68 Attack EVs ensures a OHKO on Mega Pinsir, but the drop in defensive capabilities is significant. Hidden Power Ice can be used with a Lax nature to retain physical defense and Speed, with a slight drop to special defense, allowing you to deal with things like Gliscor, opposing Landorus-Therian, and Dragonite after Multiscale is broken.

Rocky Helmet can be used to punish physical attackers, which also allows you to ensure the OHKO on Mega Pinsir with Rock Slide. Leftovers is generally preferred, however, because Landorus has no other means of recovering HP, and the extra 6% per turn is significant to his walling capabilities.

Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian can provide your team with an amazing revenge-killer, and an unexpected one too. Earthquake provides a very powerful STAB. Stone Edge gives EdgeQuake coverage, resisted by almost nothing, and nailing important targets like Mega Pinsir, Talonflame, Dragonite, and Mega Charizard-Y. Hidden Power Ice can be used here for revenging opposing Landorus-T and Dragonite. U-Turn provides fantastic scouting and momentum, along with some decent coverage against Latios.

The last slot provides either Superpower or Knock Off. While Fighting coverage is often redundant with Ground, Fighting is occasionally safer to use, since fewer things in OU are immune to Fighting than Ground. Knock Off can ensure a OHKO on the Lati twins, while also removing the item from an opponent. Hidden Power Ice can be used here in tandem with Stone Edge for multiple coverage options.

The EVs outspeed Mega Manectric and surprise OHKO it with Earthquake before it can use Hidden Power Ice. The HP gives it bulk to switch into physical attacks, and the rest is dumped into Attack. Naughty nature is obviously to be used with Hidden Power Ice only.

A double-dance set can be extremely threatening, and allows you to adapt to what your opponent is using. Rock Polish is very effective against opposing heavy offense, allowing you to outspeed their frail sweepers and KO them with the appropriate move, while Swords Dance is particularly good against stall and slow defensive teams. Earthquake and Stone Edge provide fantastic coverage together, making the most of your two remaining slots.

The EVs are set to outspeed Choice Scarf Latios after a boost, which is about the fastest thing you're likely to see in OU. This set is extremely effective as a late-game cleaner. Keep the opponent's remaining Pokemon in mind when sending in Landorus-T and before deciding which boost to use.

As Captain Jigglypuff pointed out last week, Landorus can be obtained at a level as low as 5, which gives very bizarre grounds for actually raising one in-game in X/Y. This isn't recommended, still, since the extra experience gained will over-level it and make your life hard. Still, if you want to raise one, here's what I recommend:

Landorus-T's insanely high Attack would make it a powerful Pokemon to use in-game. Earthquake gets STAB and deals a ton of damage. Rock Slide hits Flying types immune to Earthquake. Fly provides a secondary STAB and a way to get around in-game. Outrage because... Landorus-T's level-up and TM movepool is kind of sad. Still deals a ton to Dragons though, I guess, but X/Y's many Fairy types will make this a poor choice most of the time.

Landorus in its Incarnate Forme, like the other members of the Forces of Nature trio, is based on kami, which are spirits worshipped in Japanese mythology. In particular, Landorus is based on Inari, the kami of fertility, foxes, rice and Sake, and of agriculture and industry. Its design is also likely inspired by genies. The trio of Landorus, Tornadus, and Thundurus can also be seen as representations of the different domains of the world, with Landorus representing the land, Tornadus representing the heavens, and Thundurus representing the transitional state between the two.

Landorus in its Therian Forme is likely based on a large feline, likely a tiger. It may be based on the White Tiger of the Chinese Four Symbols constellation. The White Tiger represents the season of autumn. Autumn is commonly associated with harvest, so this design makes sense for the Abundance Pokémon.

Both the name Landorus and its Japanese name, ランドロス Landlos, come from the words Land and Aeolus, Aeolus being the name of the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology. In French and German, its name is Démétéros, or Demeteros in German, which comes from Demeter, the Greek goddess of harvest, and from Aeolus. Its name in Korean is 랜드로스 Raendeuroseu, which is a transliteration of its Japanese name. In Mandarin Chinese, its name is土地雲 / 土地云 Tǔdìyún, which means “Land Cloud”.

I like Landorus-Therian a lot. His face is very strange, especially in the official artwork. It looks like a tiger with an owl face. Competitively, Landorus-Therian is on most of my teams, for his fantastic support and ability to wall many common threats. The clouds on the feet are also cool. I love the idea of a tiger that can also fly around. The therian forms are so much more interesting than the genies.

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