I dispute Hippowdon being B- Rank. Hippowdon is an amazing tank with the right EVs, whips up sand, can get up Stealth Rock reliably.....and can threaten a lot of other leads with the right moveset: Jirachi and Metagross run from EQ, Aerodactyl fears StoneEdge and actually Ice Fang for that matter, Azelf hates Crunch, Machamp it can at least get up Stealth Rock. Even if you have problems with it it's definitely better then B-.
Also Lucario should be ranked: thanks to Counter and a great movepool its one of the best anti-leads around.
Hippo isn't that great of a lead. It's fairly common but imo that's by default: the teams it's mostly used in (stall and balance) usually won't run a dedicated lead so they'll just lead with whatever can lead on their team, and since Hippo isn't complete garbage at it it'll do it. Hippo doesn't do so well against most top leads, because the moves it needs to threaten them (ie Stone Edge and Crunch) are suboptimal choices almost all the time. Hippo already ALWAYS runs Earthquake, Slack Off, and Stealth Rock, so your last slot is limited in options, and since Roar and Ice Fang are the best choices it'll pretty much always run them. It's very predictable and easy to counteract which means it's very likely to be forced out right from turn 1. Keep in mind, B- isn't actually a bad rank, it's just that other things are better, which is Hippo's case.
Lucario really isn't one of the best anti-leads around, and here's why.
There are 3 types of leads in the metagame: A) Hazard leads that try to get their stuff up ASAP (such as Aerodactyl, Froslass, or Roserade), B) U-turn leads that grab momentum from turn 1 (like Zapdos or some Jirachi), or C) Anti-leads that try to kill the opponent's lead (like Dragonite, Machamp, or Gallade)
Lucario is a type C lead which is what you should compare it to, and when you look at the 3 mons I just mentioned, you realize they do the same exact thing as the Lucario set you mentioned. These leads try to maximize their coverage so they can kill as much stuff as possible; if they are forced out, they have failed their job. Bad lead match ups happen but they're not too common for these leads. The set you described has Counter, which leaves Lucario without either Crunch or Ice Punch / Stone Edge, which really increases the amount of leads that will force you out. That's not very good, but you could decide to go without Counter too, which basically leaves you as an inferior Gallade. Gallade's typing is much more appropriate as a lead because it has a winning match-up against Machamp as well as other popular leads. Then, you have Lucario's most critical flaw compared to the 3 other leads I mentioned: once it has switched out, it is useless. Lead Lucario is very underwhelming if it is forced out because it's a waste of a slot. If say, Dragonite faces Tyranitar, it only has to switch out to the appropriate Pokemon and it's not too big of a loss, because it's an excellent Pokemon in mid-game situations too. Both Machamp and Gallade are a lot less viable than Dragonite once they have switched out, but they're acceptable. Lucario is not very threatening without a boosting move / item which means you're probably better off using something else.
Also thanks
dadoux /
boudouche , I'm going to add your lead rankings to the OP ASAP :)