Rhydon Discussion

[Yuelia]

[pimg]112[/pimg]

Base Stats, Abilities, Notable Moves

Base Stats:
HP: 105
Atk: 130
Def: 120
Sp. A: 45
Sp. D: 45
Spe: 40

Abilities:
Lightningrod
Rock Head
Reckless

Notable Moves (an asterisk indicates the move is illegal with Reckless)
Aqua Tail*
Avalanche*
Body Slam*
Brick Break
Bulldoze
Counter
Crunch
Curse
Double-Edge*
Dragon Tail
Earthquake
Fire Punch*
Focus Punch*
Frustration
Hammer Arm
Ice Punch*
Megahorn
Payback
Rain Dance
Reversal
Roar
Rock Blast
Rock Polish
Rock Slide
Sandstorm
Shadow Claw
Stealth Rock*
Stone Edge
Sunny Day
Superpower*
Swords Dance
Thunder Punch*

With Rhyperior being called up to UU, those of us who play RU have to make do with this. Luckily, it's almost as good as its armored upgrade, thanks to Eviolite. To give some idea of how bulky it is, a 0 HP 0 Def neutral natured Eviolite Rhydon survives a neutral 4 ATK Tangrowth Power Whip even after SR, albeit just barely. Rhydon can take almost any hit from a physical attacker and hit back hard; most notably, this includes any physical Entei not carrying strange moves like HP Grass.

Some useful sets:

Substidon
Rhydon @ Eviolite
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/92 Def/164 Spe
Substitute
Earthquake
Stone Edge/Rock Blast
Megahorn

Switch in on something that can't hurt Rhydon and Sub on the switch, then use the appropriate move to hit the switch-in hard. Simple, yet extremely effective. The Speed EVs allow for outspeeding any Clefable that don't invest in Speed. An alternate EV spread of 172 Def/84 Spe can be used to outspeed minimum-speed Tangrowth with a neutral nature.

CBDon
Rhydon @ Choice Band
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/92 Def/164 Spe
Earthquake
Rock Blast/Stone Edge
Megahorn
Hammer Arm/Crunch/Dragon Tail

Trades bulk for much greater initial power, and stats of 105 HP/120 Def mean it's still plenty bulky on the physical side. Requires prediction to run well, but can be very devastating if played right.

Rhypolish
Rhydon @ Eviolite/Life Orb
Nature: Jolly/Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Rock Polish
Earthquake
Stone Edge/Rock Blast
Megahorn/Swords Dance

Boosts Rhydon's Speed to give it sweeping potential. The EVs may look lazy, but all of those 252 Speed EVs are needed to outspeed max speed Choice Scarf Adamant Medicham. If Rhydon is using Adamant, you can use 240 Speed EVs to outspeed Jolly Archeops, which is the fastest Pokemon Adamant Rhydon can outspeed after a Rock Polish that you are likely to encounter.

Rhino Tank
Rhydon @ Eviolite
Nature: Impish
EVs: 248 HP/176 Def/84 Spe
Rest
Sleep Talk
Dragon Tail
Rock Slide/Focus Punch

Takes advantage of Rhydon's natural bulk, six resistances, Rest recovery, and Eviolite to phaze and tank hits. Works best on a stall team with cleric support; Altaria is very useful in this role, resisting four of Rhydon's weaknesses, though the shared Ice weakness can be troubling. It should be noted that Sleep Talk cannot select Focus Punch, so using it as your fourth move increases the risk of Sleep Talk. The EVs are used to outspeed minimum Speed Tangrowth while maximizing Rhydon's physical bulk.

Some miscellaneous other notes:
- Rhydon can use Rock Slide in place of either Rock Blast or Stone Edge on any of the above sets, if both Rock Blast's potential low power and Stone Edge's potential miss are troubling
- Rhydon has access to every weather-starting move except Hail which those teams don't need anyway, and so can be used as an unorthodox weather starter
- Rhydon can use Counter for a surprise kill, though most opponents would be using special attacks on Rhydon anyway
- Rhydon, surprisingly enough, has a special movepool Alakazam would kill for, but it's not doing much with those stats unless you run something like Baton Pass Tail Glow Prankster Volbeat

Your thoughts?

 

[BTzz]

My favorite set right now is Sub SD (with edge-quake). With Cress gone, there's no reason to run Megahorn anymore, there's Tangrowth, but +2 Rockslide still does a lot.

The lack of Lefties and Solid Rock are also really annoying on sub sets.

 

[Lady Shinki]

I think you could make a viable resttalk set to abuse its recovery and raw bulk.

Rhydon @ Eviolite
252 HP/252 Def (or 252 SpDef)/4 Spe

Rest
Sleep Talk
Rock Slide/Focus Punch
Dragon Tail

It makes a decent phazer since it can scare out a lot of common threats. Focus Punch is for the initial switch and giving a 50% chance to phaze with dragon tail with Sleep Talk, and it can smack some of his counters hard on the switch-in.

 

[tednugent1]

I've been messing around with a SD/EdgeQuake/Thunderpunch set, and it's been pretty nice. Rhydon is a bawse

 

[Nails]

stone edge over rock blast on the sweeper. it's useful on cb don but on a sweeper the higher average power is preferred.

rhydon is exactly like rhyperior except with slightly lower offenses and slightly better bulk. there's almost no difference, they have the same speed stat even. it's a very good mon.

 

[Yuelia]

My favorite set right now is Sub SD (with edge-quake). With Cress gone, there's no reason to run Megahorn anymore, there's Tangrowth, but +2 Rockslide still does a lot.

Claydol walls a Rhydon without Megahorn, and if it has Earth Power it'll probably win, though that's theorymon on my part. In general, I feel like while Rhydon may be bulky, it is slow and has plenty of special weaknesses to hit by things that outspeed it - too many for SubSD to be viable. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise though; if you could provide logs or some proof of its efficiency I'd be willing to put it in the OP.

I think you could make a viable resttalk set to abuse its recovery and raw bulk.

Rhydon @ Eviolite
252 HP/252 Def (or 252 SpDef)/4 Spe

Rest
Sleep Talk
Rock Slide/Focus Punch
Dragon Tail

It makes a decent phazer since it can scare out a lot of common threats. Focus Punch is for the initial switch and giving a 50% chance to phaze with dragon tail with Sleep Talk, and it can smack some of his counters hard on the switch-in.

That sounds like a really interesting idea, but Gen V sleep mechanics + relatively low SpD + two 4X weaknesses means it would need team support to work well. I'll put it in the OP, though I have yet to test it.

stone edge over rock blast on the sweeper. it's useful on cb don but on a sweeper the higher average power is preferred.

I've personally used Rock Blast for its ability to break Subs and Sashes (I use the Substidon set), but I see your point. I've switched them around on two of the sets.

 

[Stratos]

I've been messing around with a SD/EdgeQuake/Thunderpunch set, and it's been pretty nice. Rhydon is a bawse

unless i'm missing something Tpunch literally does not hit a single Pokemon harder than QuakeEdge; you may as well go with Megahorn for Tangrowth and Claydol.

 

[Ningildo]

stone edge over rock blast on the sweeper. it's useful on cb don but on a sweeper the higher average power is preferred.

rhydon is exactly like rhyperior except with slightly lower offenses and slightly better bulk. there's almost no difference, they have the same speed stat even. it's a very good mon.

I'll have to disagree here.
Rhyperior has slightly better offenses along with a great defensive ability.
Solid Rock.
Just saying.

 

[Vratix]

unless i'm missing something Tpunch literally does not hit a single Pokemon harder than QuakeEdge; you may as well go with Megahorn for Tangrowth and Claydol.

Mantine?
But yeah, you're right about Thunderpunch being a bit superfluous. -Edit- yeah I just checked, Rhydon has an 87.5% chance to OHKO Mantine with Stone Edge (On the switch, who would stay in) where Thunderpunch has a slightly better 93.75% chance to OHKO.

I do run Fire Punch though, specifically to beat the (somewhat declining) Ferroseed.

 

[Stratos]

Mantine?
But yeah, you're right about Thunderpunch being a bit superfluous. -Edit- yeah I just checked, Rhydon has an 87.5% chance to OHKO Mantine with Stone Edge (On the switch, who would stay in) where Thunderpunch has a slightly better 93.75% chance to OHKO.

I do run Fire Punch though, specifically to beat the (somewhat declining) Ferroseed.

SE has base 150 power and is 2x super, Tpunch has base 75 and is 4x super. it should be the same chance.

either way, Megahorn is the best coverage move because it hits Claydol, Tangrowth, and other fringe Pokemon

 

[UncleFinger]

TPunch has better accuracy, however much that matters to you.

 

[Vratix]

SE has base 150 power and is 2x super, Tpunch has base 75 and is 4x super. it should be the same chance.

You would think that, however, the variance on the damage changes with the base power of the attack

you can check it yourself, this shows its math

http://masara.byethost15.com/SilverlightDmgCalcTestPage.html

 

[HuntSaboteur]

Surely any kind of NFE is only useful as a defensive evioliter. Except this one it seems.

 

[StruggleSweep]

I've ran a Substitute/Stone Edge/Earthquake/Focus Punch with Eviolite 252 Att 252 HP before and it worked pretty good.

 

[hamiltonion]

I've been using Rhydon to check non HP Grass Honchkrow and it works extremely well as a tank. I just replaced Megahorn with Roar and Substitute with SR and it works really well. It isnt just a sitting duck either, Earthquakes puts a major dent into stuff, scoring around 40% on Steelix.