Maximizing Rhydon vs Golem

[t3h Icy]

Outside of Explosion, Rhydon's only other inferiority to Golem is 10 less Speed (and ~1% less CH chance), but that difference causes Rhydon to lose 1v1 to Golem most of the time. This thread is about maximizing Rhydon's chances to take out Golem.

First of all, let's start simple with Golem:

Golem vs Rhydon

Golem's Earthquake vs Rhydon: 243-206 (59%-~50%) (1520/1521 (99.93%) chance to 2HKO)
Golem's CH Earthquake vs Rhydon: 468-399 (113%-97%) (31/39 (79%) chance to OHKO)

Explosion does less damage by a lot, all other moves are weaker save Metronome (but it's by far unviable).

Defense Curl/Harden brings Defense to 537

Rhydon's Earthquake vs +1 Defense Golem: 174-148 (48%-41%)

So Rhydon takes 3 turns rather than 2 to KO, but that's an extra chance to be CH'd. It also doesn't work with Special moves obviously, so don't use it.

Using Mimicked Surf does at most 361 damage, so don't use that.

Thus, with Golem, use Earthquake and nothing else.

So this is simple to work with as Golem should never use anything except Earthquake against Rhydon.

Rhydon vs Golem

Rhydon's Earthquake vs Golem: 258-219 (71%-60%)
Rhydon's CH Earthquake vs Golem: 498-423 (137%-117%)
Rhydon's Surf vs Golem: 296-252 (82%-69%)
Rhydon's CH Surf vs Golem: 571-486 (157%-134%)
Rhydon's Bubblebeam vs Golem: 205-174 (56%-48%)
Rhydon's CH Bubblebeam vs Golem: 393-334 (108%-92%) (20/39 (51%) chance to KO)
Rhydon's Ice Beam vs Golem: 148-126 (41%-35%)
Rhydon's CH Ice Beam vs Golem: 285-243 (79%-67%)
Rhydon's Blizzard vs Golem: 186-158 (51%-44%)
Rhydon's CH Blizzard vs Golem: 359-306 (99%-84%)

Fire Blast does too low damage (12% normal max), and can't combo well with anything, so don't use it. Body Slam also does too low damage (less than 10% normal max), and would need to Paralyze and cause an FP to be useful, which is far too low of a chance to be useful.

All other attacks are not viable vs Golem.

So now let's do a run-down on what Rhydon should be doing

Regardless of Surf or Earthquake, both KO at the same rates, although Surf does do more damage. It's useful if the opposing Golem is already banged up, and it has a slightly useful combo in that Surf + Ice Beam is guaranteed to KO, whereas Earthquake + Ice Beam has a minimum of 345 (1223/1521 (80%) chance to 2HKO). Though doubling up on both Surf and Ice Beam is a bit silly as it is, so I would not recommend that since it's dumb for regular purposes.

So we have Earthquake + Earthquake which 2HKOs and is straight forward, we have Ice Beam + Earthquake which may not 2HKO, but could Freeze, Bubblebeam + Earthquake which lowers Speed to KO, and Blizzard + Earthquake, but Blizzard could miss. However, since Ice Beam is relying on Freezing, it doesn't matter if the follow-up 2HKOs or not, so Blizzard is deemed unviable. Likewise, the Surf + Ice Beam combo is unnecessary.

Golem wins on turn one ~7% of the time with a KOing CH Earthquake. Otherwise Golem KOs in two turns (I'm ignoring the absurdly low chance Rhydon survives two Earthquakes). So in other words, Golem wins 7% of the time on turn one, and 93% of the time on turn two, so Rhydon has to KO Golem faster than that.

Earthquake + Earthquake wins by CHing on the first turn (7.8%)
Ice Beam + Earthquake wins by Freezing on the first turn (~10%)
Bubblebeam + Earthquake wins by lowering Speed or CH KOing on the first turn (13.6%)

So Bubblebeam is his best bet. When including Golem's chance to CH KO on the first turn, Rhydon's chance to win is ~12.65%. Ice Beam also relies on an opposing Pokemon not already being Frozen, so Bubblebeam it is.

So to conclude, Rhydon's best chance to take out Golem is by using Bubblebeam which let's him have about a 1 in 8 chance of winning. Without it, Earthquake gives him about a 1 in ~13 chance of winning. So if you ever feel the need to give Rhydon Surf, consider Bubblebeam instead. The one disadvantage is that Surf is more destructive if the opposing Golem has already taken some hits, so you can decide based on that.

SPOILER: Click to show

Sosososososososo

[Isa]

Body Slam paralyzing allows you to hope for a CH Earthquake as well as a FP. You can also use Substitute once. If you hit that 30% chance, following that, Golem has to hit two times in a row while paralyzed (56,25% chance) while dodging a Critical Hit EQ (7,8%).

0,3 * (1 - 0,5625) * 0,922 = 0,1210125

So, not significantly worse than Bubblebeam if my calculations are correct, and better than Ice Beam. Technically, the chance is ever-so-slightly higher since Golem has a 1/39 chance to make it possible for Rhydon to create two Substitutes, but eh.

I'd rather use Substitute than Bubblebeam, since Bubblebeam won't help you vs. paralyzed Chansey, Starmie etc.

[t3h Icy]

Ahh, I forgot to consider Body Slam + Substitute. Still though, as you showed, it's not quite as effective, but doesn't altar his moveset. The downside is that Body Slam not CHing (70%) means Golem is almost completely fresh after, whereas any other move leave him banged up. So even if it were the case that Body Slam -> Substitute were the best chance, the variance in damage is way too high for anyone to be comfortable using. Thanks though!

[Isa]

Given that this is a strict 1v1, I'd use whatever had the highest chance of working, because if you're concerned about leaving Golem with major damage, it means you have more Pokémon to switch to, in which case you're very likely to just go for the option to switch out. I'd only do a 1v1 with Rhydon vs. Golem if I was absolutely positive I had no other way of beating it. I don't think you'd battle Golem even if you use Bubblebeam.

[t3h Icy]

It's definitely not a useful part of Rhydon's gameplay, but being one of the only reasons he's worse than Golem, I thought it might be interesting to go through. Or to put it another way, Rhydon doesn't learn Explosion, has a 1% less CH chance, and with only Earthquake, and has a 42.2% less chance to win vs Golem, all compared to another Golem.

[magic9mushroom]

I'd hesitate to stick BubbleBeam on Rhydon, because Zapdos occasionally runs Mimic. Mimicked Earthquakes won't save Zapdos (only a 4HKO most of the time) but a Mimicked BubbleBeam almost OHKOs Rhydon.