NC97 Rhydon [QC 1/2]

1000043049.png

[OVERVIEW]

Rhydon's massive power, STAB combination, defensive typing, and move pool make it one of the sturdiest and most threatening physical attackers in the game.

[SET]
name: LOW LEVEL STALL BREAKER
level: 50
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Rock Slide
move 3: Blizzard/Double Team
move 4: Rest/Substitute/Double Team

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

*Earthquake when backed by a base 130 attack stat can cleanly OHKO Gengar and the best evasion staller in the game; Jolteon. Effectively bypassing the annoyance of Double Team plus Rest stall strategies, and switch stall strategies.

*Rock Slide in a similar manner to Earthquake is used to OHKO Jynx and mid to low level Articuno, this STAB combination effectively makes Rhydon a game ender against stall teams with paralysis support

*Despite Rhydon's abysmal base 45 special stat, Blizzard's 30% freeze rate in Nintendo Cup 1997 serves as a crucial pillar of Rhydon's threat potential, enabling it to fish for freezes on common switch-ins like Exeggutor and Tauros. Often proving to be substantial deterrence to electric types entirely during team preview.

*Rest is used to ensure Rhydon can not be broken by evasion Zapdos, even after tanking a Psychic from Gengar or Exeggutor. Additionally, it provides added stability against mono normal attacking Tauros, and sets relying on Seismictoss for damage

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Substitute or Double Team can both be used to stay in on ice type switch-ins, potentially enabling Rhydon's threat potential to cascade way out of hand very quickly. However, the cost of replacing Rest greatly limits the amount of Damage that Rhydon can take, and opens the door for losing to Zapdos, while the risk of staying in against ice types even with evasion set up is inconsistent.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Blizzard**: Blizzard users that aren't immediately threatened by Rhydon's STAB combination like Starmie, ace Lapras, and Tauros can threaten 2HKOs or OHKOs on Rhydon in addition to the 30% freeze chance, and often deny Rhydon a point of entry apart from Rest.

**Grass-types**: While Exeggutor and Venusaur must be weary of Rhydon's Blizzard or repeated attacks, they can often switch in and threaten status or an OHKO preying on Rhydon's specially weak stat spread.
 
"Often proving to be substantial deterrence to electric types entirely during team preview."
I'm confused as to why this is included on the bullet point talking about Blizzard. Should this be in the overview or elaborated more on?
 
"Often proving to be substantial deterrence to electric types entirely during team preview."
I'm confused as to why this is included on the bullet point talking about Blizzard. Should this be in the overview or elaborated more on?
Well my thought process was it's Blizzard that makes Rhydon so difficult to switch into, therfore using a pokemon that let's Rhydon in at all is kind of a big problem, especially for Articuno teams that don't wanna switch in their ice type to block the potential Blizzard at all. This was seen in practice during my battle with Ranshiin
 
Well my thought process was it's Blizzard that makes Rhydon so difficult to switch into, therfore using a pokemon that let's Rhydon in at all is kind of a big problem, especially for Articuno teams that don't wanna switch in their ice type to block the potential Blizzard at all. This was seen in practice during my battle with Ranshiin
Makes sense. I think you should incorporate that logic into the analysis so it's clear for the reader..
 
This would be better as a more general statement than specifically tied to anything like rest, just generally stating that the threat of blizzard makes rhydon very difficult to switch into
 
Back
Top