I know user toaster has talked about Rhydon in another post, but I'm going to talk about my favorite Rhydon set to use. Before I get to that though, I may as well mention the reason why Rhydon is superior to Rhyperior in this metagame. It's all about Rock Head. Having a no recoil Head Smash coming from 130 base attack is pretty scary, and Rhydon's stats are very similar to Rhyperior's anyways. Solid Rock is a cool ability and all, but it's not going to beat having a STAB no recoil Head Smash!
Rhydon @ Eviolite / Lum Berry
Trait: Rock Head
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Head Smash
- Sheer Cold
- Earthquake / Wood Hammer / V-create
I have been using this guy since around April, but Rhydon's been appearing on a lot of my TR teams lately because its such a great mon. First of all, while Rock / Ground is normally considered a poor defensive typing, Rock is actually a great defensive typing to have in this metagame. It provides Rhydon a vital resistance to V-create and ExtremeSpeed, which is not only important in Mimic Street Pokemon in general, but is even more important on TR teams considering how hard it can be to fit a Fire resist! Because of this, Rhydon makes a great check to most Ursaring, with most Ursaring being unable to 2HKO Rhydon, while Rhydon threatens to Head Smash it to death. The other great thing about Rhydon is it's poor Speed. Thanks to that base 40 Speed, it will outspeed Machoke under Trick Room, and then OHKO it with Sheer Cold.
Like I said before, recoiless Head Smash is a big part of what makes Rhydon so good in this metagame, and good lord does it fucking hurt! Almost anything that doesn't resist Head Smash will get 2HKOed, and even mons that do resist Head Smash still take quite a bit of damage! The last move can actually be quite tricky to choose. Earthquake is the most common choice for the last slot. It provides great coverage with Head Smash, crushing Steel-types that may attempt to switch in on Head Smash. However if you are more worried about Groudon, you can use Wood Hammer over Earthquake. While being walled by steels is annoying, Wood Hammer 2HKOs most Groudon as long as they aren't Impish, meaning that Rhydon can actually beat Groudon under Trick Room! Wood Hammer also slams Golem and opposing Rhydon hard. Finally, Rhydon isn't a bad user of V-create. V-create does more to Groudon than Wood Hammer, and it busts through steels as well. Sadly, you will lose to Golem and Rhydon if you use V-create.
Another tough choice for Rhydon is the item. Evolite is pretty awesome, making Rhydon the most bulky Pokemon on the physical side in the game! It also boosts Rhydon's lack luster SpD, which can be helpful for taking stuff like sunny Fire Blasts. However, Evolite gives Rhydon one big weakness: Spore. Rhydon's biggest problem is that after Trick Room runs out, Pokemon such as Magnezone will usually set up on it via Spore. Unlike Machoke, Rhydon's physical defense is still pretty good without evolite, so you can elect to use a Lum Berry to screw up Magnezone and friends after Trick Room is done. Losing that bulk sucks, but having a way to deal with Spore can make lum a reasonable alternative.
I'd also like to note that while I think the Shell Smash Rhydon toaster posted was too slow, I am very interested in trying it! If I were to test Shell Smash Rhydon, I would personally use an ev spread of 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Speed with Jolly. This way, you outspeed Dugtrio after one use of Shell Smash, so it won't have the chance to Spore you! Im also thinking of trying Sheer Cold or Brave Bird over Earthquake on this set. Brave Bird does 86.8% - 102.2% to Machoke after a Shell Smash, and its nice to have in case someone double switches to scout for Sheer Cold since Brave Bird will still do a nice amount of damage to nuetral mons after a boost. Also note that Magnezone takes 77.2% - 91.1% from +2 Head Smash, so if I were to use lum, it can't set up! However, losing to stuff like Jirachi and Metagross can be a pain so it may just be best to play carefully around Machoke.