[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 3 points
**Overview**: Rhydon is a budget option for a Stealth Rock setter that can take advantage of its absurd natural physical bulk thanks to Eviolite and impressive Attack stat to effectively function as both a bulky Stealth Rock setter and a wallbreaker. Due to its low Special Defense stat, slowness, reliance on Eviolite, and 4x weakness to the common Water- and Grass-type moves, however, it finds it difficult fitting on teams.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Stealth Rock Setter**: Thanks to Eviolite, Rhydon will likely be able to tank at least one hit and get Stealth Rock up, softening up its foes to help the rest of its team.
**Wallbreaker**: Rhydon can use Swords Dance to bolster its Attack even further or even Rock Polish to help it outspeed at least some Pokemon, making it dangerous as a wallbreaker.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Earthquake, Stone Edge, Rock Blast
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance, Rock Polish, Iron Defense
**Utility Moves**: Brick Break, Rock Tomb, Stealth Rock, Bulldoze, Roar
**Coverage**: Avalanche, Body Press, Crunch, Fire Punch, Hammer Arm, Heavy Slam, Ice Punch, Megahorn, Outrage, Poison Jab, Shadow Claw, Supercell Slam, Thunder Punch, Heat Crash
Niche Moves
========
**High Horsepower**: Specifically used on or against Grassy Terrain teams, High Horsepower is a near equally powerful move to Earthquake but with the big downside of being a contact move in addition to the loss of accuracy and power.
**Counter**: Against physical threats Rhydon struggles with breaking through like Great Tusk, it can use Counter to punish a big physical hit.
Common Items
========
**Eviolite**: Rhydon should almost always hold an Eviolite, giving a significant boost to its bulk.
Niche Items
========
**Choice Band**: If Rhydon wants to fire off powerful attacks and doesn't have to worry too much about taking hits, Choice Band can be an alternative to catch your opponent off guard.
Tera
========
Rhydon is a great choice for an alternative Tera Captain to the main one on a team. While it does not necessarily rely on it, it can use types with generally good defensive properties such as Tera Dragon and Fairy, go with Tera Water and Flying with Lightning Rod to make use out of that ability, or even offensively use Tera Ground to remove the weaknesses the Rock typing gives it while significantly boosting its Earthquake.
Draft Strategy
========
Rhydon should be drafted exclusively as a budget Ground-type physical tank or wallbreaker. It does appreciate what Terastallization provides, (AC) so it would prefer to be drafted alongside Tera Captains that do not rely on Terastallizing if it is chosen as an alternative Tera Captain.
**Specially Defensive Pokemon**: Rhydon provides immense physical bulk for a team, but its poor special bulk means that it appreciates Pokemon like Tinkaton, Galarian Slowking, and common Assault Vest holders such as Tornadus-T.
**Special Attackers**: While Rhydon can muscle through some physical walls with Swords Dance, it much prefers to just click attacking moves, so special attackers that can break through physical walls like Enamorus, Iron Valiant, and Greninja are useful for it.
**Grass-type Pokemon**: Grass-type Pokemon such as Meowscarada, Ogerpon, and Zarude are uniquely useful partners for Rhydon, as they cover both of its 4x weaknesses to Water- and Grass-type attacks while threatening them back with their own Grass-type STAB moves and U-turn, respectively.
**Tera Captains Unreliant on Tera**: Pokemon like Ogerpon-W, Raging Bolt, and Iron Moth can function in certain matchups without Terastallization and enable Tera Captain Rhydon much more.
Checks and Counters
========
**Grass-types**: As Rhydon wants to very often be using its powerful Earthquake, Grass-type Pokemon such as Ogerpon-W, Meowscarada, and Zarude serve as big threats for it, as they resist Earthquake and hit back with their 4x super effective STAB moves.
**Water-types**: Water-type Pokemon such as Greninja, Urshifu-R, and Primarina can all threaten Rhydon with their powerful Water-type attacks, forcing non-Terastallized Rhydon to switch out; however, they often have difficulty switching into it.
**Special Attackers**: Powerful special attackers like Enamorus, Terapagos, and Raging Bolt can break through Rhydon's poor special bulk very easily.
**Physical Walls**: Pokemon like Great Tusk, Ting-Lu, and Rotom-W can shrug off Rhydon's attacks and punish its setup sets, greatly reducing its efficacy.
**Passive Damage**: Lacking a way to reliably heal off damage from the likes of Spikes and Toxic Spikes can make it very difficult for Rhydon to serve as a good tank without proper entry hazard control.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/drizzle.313217/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/e-man.617175/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-blue-banana.649096/
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 3 points
**Overview**: Rhydon is a budget option for a Stealth Rock setter that can take advantage of its absurd natural physical bulk thanks to Eviolite and impressive Attack stat to effectively function as both a bulky Stealth Rock setter and a wallbreaker. Due to its low Special Defense stat, slowness, reliance on Eviolite, and 4x weakness to the common Water- and Grass-type moves, however, it finds it difficult fitting on teams.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Stealth Rock Setter**: Thanks to Eviolite, Rhydon will likely be able to tank at least one hit and get Stealth Rock up, softening up its foes to help the rest of its team.
**Wallbreaker**: Rhydon can use Swords Dance to bolster its Attack even further or even Rock Polish to help it outspeed at least some Pokemon, making it dangerous as a wallbreaker.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Earthquake, Stone Edge, Rock Blast
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance, Rock Polish, Iron Defense
**Utility Moves**: Brick Break, Rock Tomb, Stealth Rock, Bulldoze, Roar
**Coverage**: Avalanche, Body Press, Crunch, Fire Punch, Hammer Arm, Heavy Slam, Ice Punch, Megahorn, Outrage, Poison Jab, Shadow Claw, Supercell Slam, Thunder Punch, Heat Crash
Niche Moves
========
**High Horsepower**: Specifically used on or against Grassy Terrain teams, High Horsepower is a near equally powerful move to Earthquake but with the big downside of being a contact move in addition to the loss of accuracy and power.
**Counter**: Against physical threats Rhydon struggles with breaking through like Great Tusk, it can use Counter to punish a big physical hit.
Common Items
========
**Eviolite**: Rhydon should almost always hold an Eviolite, giving a significant boost to its bulk.
Niche Items
========
**Choice Band**: If Rhydon wants to fire off powerful attacks and doesn't have to worry too much about taking hits, Choice Band can be an alternative to catch your opponent off guard.
Tera
========
Rhydon is a great choice for an alternative Tera Captain to the main one on a team. While it does not necessarily rely on it, it can use types with generally good defensive properties such as Tera Dragon and Fairy, go with Tera Water and Flying with Lightning Rod to make use out of that ability, or even offensively use Tera Ground to remove the weaknesses the Rock typing gives it while significantly boosting its Earthquake.
Draft Strategy
========
Rhydon should be drafted exclusively as a budget Ground-type physical tank or wallbreaker. It does appreciate what Terastallization provides, (AC) so it would prefer to be drafted alongside Tera Captains that do not rely on Terastallizing if it is chosen as an alternative Tera Captain.
**Specially Defensive Pokemon**: Rhydon provides immense physical bulk for a team, but its poor special bulk means that it appreciates Pokemon like Tinkaton, Galarian Slowking, and common Assault Vest holders such as Tornadus-T.
**Special Attackers**: While Rhydon can muscle through some physical walls with Swords Dance, it much prefers to just click attacking moves, so special attackers that can break through physical walls like Enamorus, Iron Valiant, and Greninja are useful for it.
**Grass-type Pokemon**: Grass-type Pokemon such as Meowscarada, Ogerpon, and Zarude are uniquely useful partners for Rhydon, as they cover both of its 4x weaknesses to Water- and Grass-type attacks while threatening them back with their own Grass-type STAB moves and U-turn, respectively.
**Tera Captains Unreliant on Tera**: Pokemon like Ogerpon-W, Raging Bolt, and Iron Moth can function in certain matchups without Terastallization and enable Tera Captain Rhydon much more.
Checks and Counters
========
**Grass-types**: As Rhydon wants to very often be using its powerful Earthquake, Grass-type Pokemon such as Ogerpon-W, Meowscarada, and Zarude serve as big threats for it, as they resist Earthquake and hit back with their 4x super effective STAB moves.
**Water-types**: Water-type Pokemon such as Greninja, Urshifu-R, and Primarina can all threaten Rhydon with their powerful Water-type attacks, forcing non-Terastallized Rhydon to switch out; however, they often have difficulty switching into it.
**Special Attackers**: Powerful special attackers like Enamorus, Terapagos, and Raging Bolt can break through Rhydon's poor special bulk very easily.
**Physical Walls**: Pokemon like Great Tusk, Ting-Lu, and Rotom-W can shrug off Rhydon's attacks and punish its setup sets, greatly reducing its efficacy.
**Passive Damage**: Lacking a way to reliably heal off damage from the likes of Spikes and Toxic Spikes can make it very difficult for Rhydon to serve as a good tank without proper entry hazard control.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/drizzle.313217/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/e-man.617175/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-blue-banana.649096/
Last edited:
