Mr.E, what I'm telling you is that these days that Explosion is so valuable. Tauros is so dangerous that leaving your opponent the chance to OHKO you for free with a move (Blizzard) that is the move they're going to use anyways (not like hoping for HB crits to OHKO) is inexcusable for the way we look at the game these days.
Pretty often, you just try to understand your opponent's 6 and use your rock midgame in case Zapdos is not there: Explosion is a quick way to get some value and a very handy emergency brake. You're not guaranteed to use Rhydon in the offensive scenario you wish (where it does well, undeniably), and that extra bulk is well known to be irrelevant.
About Golem>Rhydon, I forgot that Golem’s Explosion gained value after the rise of RestLax (Isa himself stated that “Reflect Rest was the best moveset for Snorlax”, that I’m not sure about- it obviously depends on the matchup/metagame).
What if you meet Slowbro? Exeggutor is your only Exploder and well, you really need to send Rhydon into predicted Rest or force multiple Substitutes against para’d Bro. AmnesiaLax is scary too, and anyways, a well timed Explosion on Starmie (40% to OHKO at full health, you’re good with very low damage on it…) is very good (like in case your Chansey got frozen), before you can forfeit and close the window.
An ultimate decision on Jolteon and Rhydon requires a scientific approach on win rates, and it would take plenty of time: I mean, at this point we adapted our teams to current metagame/usages, and I can see Rhydon causing me way more troubles than it should with its Subs against my SToss Chanseys, etc…
about
Earthworm asking about PP making only an
UU and a NU tier:
Solution a) I think most PPers would stick with their first two lower tiers, because they work fine and we highlighted gaps between tiers:
UU would be 2U (Dodrio, Gyarados, Haunter, Hypno, Kadabra, Kangaskhan, Persian, Poliwrath, Raichu, Raticate, Rhydon, Tentacruel, Victreebel)
NU would be 3U (Aerodactyl, Charizard, Clefable, Dewgong, Dugtrio, Electabuzz, Exeggcute, Fearow, Golduck, Kingler, Mr. Mime, Pinsir, Poliwhirl, Sandslash, Vaporeon, Venusaur, Wigglytuff).
Moltres, Articuno get killed and exiled to OU (with their low usages), everything lower than 3U is basically killed (bar Nidoking maybe, who has issues though).
Solution B) PPers are asked by Smogon (or something like that, like mixing counceils) to make wider tiers, like rby 2k10 did:
pokemon like Clefable, Mr.Mime, Venusaur, Golduck, etc (decisions there)… would suffer the same treatment as Moltres and Articuno (and at this point, maybe Persian and others could get banned from UU to improve diversity): they would be claimed 2U despite having low usages/small niches to be effective.
Then we would have a different NU, with an higher number of overall involved pokemon.
This would be legit too, but I really hope we wouldn’t get back to the old UU metagame- the one with Golduck, Poliwrath, Vaporeon, Kingler, Graveler, Sandslash, Electabuzz, Tangela, Raticate and no Razor Leafers, no Raichu, no Nidoking, no Gyarados, no Hypno, no Clefable etc (those were claimed BL, and BL was claimed an unplayable tier).
That’s a way to kill a big number of highly enjoyable pokemon, and honestly that UU tier wasn’t even funny.