Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
97
|
- |
335 |
398 |
- |
| Atk |
165
|
329 |
366 |
429 |
471 |
| Def |
60
|
140 |
156 |
219 |
240 |
| SpA |
65
|
149 |
166 |
229 |
251 |
| SpD |
50
|
122 |
136 |
199 |
218 |
| Spe |
58
|
136 |
152 |
215 |
236 |
Rampardos is the very essence of a "glass cannon"—it hits hard, but good luck killing anything with it before it dies. Choice Scarf remedies this a bit by making Rampardos able to actually go first sometimes. Adamant gives more power, but Jolly puts Rampardos ahead of 350s and those Pokémon that sit slightly above 350. You can put Head Smash on here as a kamikaze move—even Jolly you stand to do 49-57% to a 404 HP/350 Def Suicune, and Adamant is a certain 2HKO even without Sandstorm. If you don't care for that, Crunch will hurt Claydol and be a bit more reliable against Cresselia and Dusknoir.
The Choice Bander, on the other hand, is a bit different. It's incredibly powerful (Head Smash is overkill when using it), but it's extremely slow, so you'll definitely want Jolly to at least outspeed Adamant Tyranitar and friends. Focus Punch should be used here, as it can come close to 2HKOing Hippowdon.
The best way to use this is to pass some speed to it. Once it's in, use the Focus Sash to set up a Swords Dance, and sweep away. You'll need a Rapid Spinner, but at least it's immune to Sandstorm.
If you're brave (or have Sandstorm support), you can hope that an opponent's attack will leave you at enough HP to activate your Salac Berry and try to sweep that way. A 266 SpA STAB Surf in Sandstorm will do it.
This set is probably the most "practical" of all the sets listed here. If you've read the above sets, this should make perfect sense. You can sacrifice a little speed here—shaving 52 EVs will put you at 404 after a polishing, which will make you faster than Adamant Choice Scarf Heracross. Any extra EVs should go into special defense for Sandstorm abuse. If you're using Liechi Berry, Natural Gift becomes an 80 power Grass move, which can do some good damage to Swampert and Hippowdon.
This set deserves its own mention, which is why it's separated from the Rock Polish set above. Can be used as a lead. Works like this: You Rock Polish and attempt a sweep. If Rampardos' counter appears like Rhyperior or Hippowdon, you Endeavor them to 1 HP and let them kill you. You can use this as an advantage. Since Rampardos shares counters with Tyranitar, you'd pretty much have beaten your opponent's Tyranitar counter down and you can use it to let your Tyranitar sweep much easier.
Other Options
Ice Beam deserves mention because it is Rampardos' only method of dealing with Torterra.
Opinion
Rampardos has gone from crazy overhyped to basically forgotten—in a speed-driven metagame, 215 with such bad defenses simply doesn't cut it. Still, there's always speed-passing—while Marowak may be, in most cases, a bit more inviting due to tolerable defenses, Rampardos has some neat tricks, particularly in Mold Breaker, which brings Bronzong and Rhyperior crashing down.
Counters
Hippowdon is the counter for Rampardos. Nothing else takes hits from it well; even the mighty Suicune trembles before the might of Rampardos' Stone Edge. Skarmory is usually acceptable. A very defensive Rhyperior can take on the Choice Scarf set, as can Swampert. If Rampardos lacks Ice Beam, it will have no plausible options for Torterra. Otherwise, your best bet is to hope you kill it before it gets away with whatever it plans to do. Fortunately, that's usually not hard.
