04. Landorus-Therian

Ground / Flying · Intimidate · VR A+ · 2026-04 Usage 19.53% (#4 overall) · base 89 / 145 / 90 / 105 / 80 / 91 (HP/Atk/Def/SpA/SpD/Spe) · the format’s default Stealth Rock + U-turn + Intimidate glue, on a Ground/Flying frame that ignores Spikes/EQ and drops most physical switch-ins by a stage.

Tier vs usage: A+ VR and #4 usage line up — Lando-T is not over- or under-rated, it is omnipresent. With Intimidate at 100% of sets, every Lando-T you face shrinks your physical attacker the turn it comes in. Plan around that, not around any one set.

Coming from Gen 9 OU? Everything Terastal changes lives in Appendix: The Tera Ban.

Format role

Lando-T is the single most reliable utility pivot in NatDex OU. Ground/Flying gives it a Ground immunity, a Spikes immunity (it’s Flying), and a clean switch into the format’s physical attackers, which Intimidate then defangs. It compresses three of an offense’s least-glamorous-but-mandatory jobs — hazard setting (Stealth Rock), hazard control (Defog), and momentum (U-turn) — into one slot that also threatens real damage off base-145 Attack. Lando-T here is purely a glue/pivot piece, not a setup wincon.

It anchors bulky offense, balance, and hazard-stack alike; on aggressive offense it is the speed-control + entry-hazard + pivot backbone that lets your breakers come in safely and repeatedly.

Sets

The item split is the read: Rocky Helmet (34.7%) and Choice Scarf (32.8%) are effectively two different Pokémon sharing a species. Intimidate is the only ability (100%).

Utility pivot (Rocky Helmet) — the default

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Jolly Nature   (defensive teams: Impish 248/0/252/0/8/0, 2.8%)
EVs: 0/252/0/0/4/252   (34.4% — max Atk / max Spe)
- Earthquake        (93.1%)
- U-turn            (77.4%)
- Stealth Rock      (49.3%)  / Defog (32.1%)
- Stone Edge (34.2%) / Taunt (27.2%) / Knock Off (18.9%)

The dominant spread is Jolly 0/252/0/0/4/252 (34.4%) — max Atk / max Spe — paired most often with Rocky Helmet for an offensive-leaning pivot that still chips contact attackers and sets rocks. The defensive variant is Impish 248/0/252/0/8/0 (2.8%) or Jolly 8/248/0/0/0/252 (5.9%) for teams wanting a true physical wall. Slot 3/4 is a utility menu: SR vs Defog is your hazard stance; Stone Edge / Taunt / Knock Off is the coverage-vs-utility choice.

Choice Scarf — speed control / revenge pivot

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Jolly Nature
EVs: 0/252/0/0/4/252
- Earthquake        (93.1%)
- U-turn            (77.4%)
- Stone Edge        (34.2%)
- Explosion (13.2%) / Stealth Rock (49.3%)

Scarf (32.8% of all Lando-T) turns it into a 463-Speed Intimidate revenge-killer and U-turn pivot that scares slower offense and outruns the relevant unboosted field through Zamazenta/Mega Lopunny, though not Regieleki-style outliers. Explosion is the Scarf-set finisher; Stealth Rock lets a Scarf Lando still get rocks up turn one off a forced switch.

Mixed / Z lure (Flyinium Z) — niche but real

Landorus-Therian @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Naive Nature
EVs: 248/0/220/0/0/40  (2.9% bulky line) — or an offensive Naive spread
- Earthquake        (93.1%)
- Fly               (9.2%)   -> Supersonic Skystrike (Z)
- Stealth Rock      (49.3%)
- Hidden Power Ice  (11.1%)  / U-turn (77.4%)

Flyinium Z (9.2% of items) is the one-time nuke set: Fly -> Supersonic Skystrike can remove frailer or chipped Grass/Fighting/Bug answers that try to wall the EQ/Helmet pivot, while HP Ice (11.1%) blindsides Garchomp/Dragonite/opposing Lando. Legal — Z-Moves are allowed, max one per team, so this is your team’s Z slot if you run it.

What it does

The Rocky Helmet set plays as a momentum machine: it switches into a physical attacker, Intimidate drops its Attack, then either sets Stealth Rock, clicks U-turn to bring in a breaker on the forced switch, or punishes a contact move for ⅙ Helmet chip + the Intimidate’d hit. Because it’s Flying, it ignores Earthquake and Spikes, so it’s the natural pivot into the Ground attackers that pressure the rest of your team. The SR-vs-Defog fork defines its identity on a given team — it can be your hazard setter or your hazard remover, rarely both. Stone Edge exists almost entirely to punish the Flying-types (Zapdos, Corviknight, Tornadus, Dragonite, opposing Lando) that the EQ-only set would otherwise give free turns to — it 2HKOes most of them and makes the Defog cost real rather than free; Taunt shuts off slower defensive setters and Defog users; Knock Off strips Leftovers/HDB/Eviolite and accelerates the hazard war.

The Scarf set is a different beast: it sacrifices Helmet utility for a 463-Speed revenge-kill + U-turn engine. It outspeeds the common unboosted tier through Mega Lopunny/Zamazenta but not extreme speed outliers, revenge-kills weakened sweepers, and keeps pivoting with Intimidate softening each entry. Explosion is its emergency answer to a wall it can’t break, trading 1-for-1 while removing a defensive piece your breakers can’t.

The unifying interaction every opponent must respect is Intimidate on every set: each Lando-T entry is a free -1 Atk on whatever is in front of it, which is why it’s the format’s premier blanket check to physical breakers like Kingambit, Great Tusk, and Urshifu before they get rolling.

Load-bearing calcs

All vs the standard offensive Jolly 0/252/0/0/4/252 Lando-T (389 Atk / 246 SpA / 309 Spe; Scarf = 463 Spe; offensive bulk 319 HP / 216 Def / 197 SpD). Numbers from this guide’s calc helper.

• Lando-T Earthquake vs 0/0 Kingambit: 306-360 (89.7-105.6%) — 6/16 OHKO (clean 2HKO; OHKOs after any chip). EQ punishes a Kingambit before Supreme Overlord stacks; combined with Intimidate it pressures the format’s scariest late-game cleaner.
• Lando-T Earthquake vs 252/0 Gholdengo: 372-438 (98.4-115.9%) — 14/16 OHKO. The defining “Lando beats the spinblocker” line: even fully HP-invested Gholdengo dies 14 rolls in 16 (and any prior chip closes it), so it can’t reliably sit on your hazards once Lando is in.
• Lando-T Stone Edge vs 252/0 Zapdos: 272-320 (70.8-83.3%) — 2HKO (2× via Flying, no STAB; no OHKO). This is why EQ-only Lando hands Zapdos free Defogs and Stone Edge does not: SE isn’t a kill, but it 2HKOes the premier Flying pivot and, with any SR/U-turn chip, turns its switch-in into a real cost rather than a free Defog.
• Lando-T HP Ice vs 0/0 Garchomp: 208-248 (58.3-69.5%) — clean 2HKO, OHKOs after SR (4×). The lure that punishes the Ground-type that otherwise walls EQ/Helmet; with Stealth Rock up, a chipped Garchomp becomes a non-switch-in.
• Lando-T U-turn vs 252/252+ Slowking-Galar: 69-82 (17.5-20.8%). It can’t break the Future Sight engine, but ~1/5 per pivot plus the free switch means Lando trades momentum into it rather than getting walled — key against the FS/Chilly-Reception cores it most often meets.

And the mirror you must respect when Lando-T is on the other side:

• Kyurem Specs Ice Beam vs offensive Lando-T: 1156-1368 (362.4-428.8%) (4×) — obliterates. Lando’s 4× Ice weakness is its hard ceiling: anything Ice-typed that is faster or has priority ends it outright. (Great Tusk’s Ice Spinner, 384-456 / 120.4-142.9%, guaranteed OHKO, does the same on the physical side.)

Checks & counters

Hard (true counters) — none are clean switch-ins; all exploit the 4× Ice weakness or out-bulk it:

• Kyurem — the #1 listed answer (74.8 rating / 90.5% switch-or-KO). 4× Freeze-Dry/Ice Beam OHKOes any offensive Lando, and SubRoost/Specs sets pivot in on EQ. The single most reliable Lando-T deterrent in the format.
• Terapagos — 62.6 rating; its Terapagos-Terastal bulk (95/95/110/105/110/85) lets it tank weaker hits and threaten back with its STAB-led coverage.

Soft (checks / revenge / pressure):

• Dragonite (53.7) — Multiscale eats one hit, Extreme Speed revenges a weakened Lando, and it’s a hard switch-in to non-Ice variants; HP Ice (4×) is your only punish and Multiscale halves even that.
• Ogerpon-Wellspring (53.5) — outspeeds (base 110 > 91), takes neutral EQ, and pressures back with Ivy Cudgel; a recurring momentum drain on Lando.
• Great Tusk (52.6) — its Ice Spinner is 4× and it out-bulks Lando on the physical side; the classic Ground-mirror that wins via Ice coverage.
• General rule: anything Ice + faster or with priority revenge-kills offensive Lando outright; physically bulky Grounds/Waters wall the Helmet set’s EQ.

How Lando fights back: Stone Edge for the Flyings, HP Ice for the Dragons/Grounds, Flyinium-Z Supersonic Skystrike to one-shot a wall it lured, and Taunt + U-turn to refuse to be set-up bait.

★ Offense angle

On aggressive offense, Lando-T is the glue that makes your breakers cheap to deploy, and you should pick its item by what your team is short on:

• Run Choice Scarf if your offense lacks a revenge-killer. At 463 Speed it outruns the relevant unboosted field through Zamazenta/Mega Lopunny, though not Regieleki-style outliers, and revenge-kills with Intimidate softening every entry — and its EQ vs 0/0 Iron Valiant (195-229, 67.5-79.2%) plus U-turn keeps you ahead of the frail mixed breakers your offense will mirror. Scarf Lando + a wallbreaker is the textbook “I always have momentum and a panic button” pair.
• Run Rocky Helmet if you need a hazard lead that also pivots. Lead Lando → Stealth Rock or U-turn turn one; against opposing hazard control it Taunts the Defogger or 2HKOes the Zapdos/Corviknight with Stone Edge, then U-turns your breaker in on the switch. The EQ vs 252 Gholdengo (14/16 OHKO) line is the keystone: the format’s best spinblocker can’t safely sit on your rocks, so your hazard chip stays up for your breakers to convert.

The repeatable engine: U-turn -> bring in your breaker safely, with Intimidate having already softened the wall that breaker now clicks into. Lando enables fast frail breakers (Iron Valiant, Tapu Lele) by giving them a safer, chip-supported entry than a raw double. As speed control it pivots on the physical attackers your offense fears most (Kingambit, Great Tusk, Urshifu) and -1’s them before your own answer arrives.

When Lando-T is on the other team, the answer is its 4× Ice weakness: an Ice attacker (Kyurem, or Great Tusk’s Ice Spinner) ends it, and any Flying-type that resists EQ but fears the Stone Edge 2HKO has to weigh the switch-in cost rather than Defog for free — pressure it with your own pivots. Don’t let a Helmet Lando freely trade Intimidate chip all game — force it in on attacks it can’t punish (special coverage, Ice) and it folds.

Top teammates & cores

From the 2026-04 teammate data (top 10):

The two cores that matter for an offense builder:

1. Lando-T + Gholdengo (30.2%) — the hazard system. Lando sets Stealth Rock (and its EQ makes opposing Gholdengo a non-switch-in to your rocks); Gholdengo’s Ghost typing spinblocks while Good as Gold blanks the opposing Defogger, so the chip stays up. This is the spine of nearly every hazard-pressure offense in the format.
2. Scarf Lando-T + Iron Valiant (22.4%) — pivot-and-break. Lando U-turns Valiant in safely behind Intimidate-softened entries; Valiant’s mixed coverage breaks the walls Lando can’t, while Scarf Lando is the revenge-killer covering Valiant’s frailty. The cleanest “momentum + breaker” pair on aggressive offense.

The Alomomola pairing (40.1%) is real but pulls toward bulky offense/balance; for aggressive offense, lean on the Gholdengo and Iron Valiant cores above.