Rhyd on!

[Isa]

So, I'm not a common user of Rhydon. However I decided that I'd try him out and naturally had a hard time to choose a fourth move after Body Slam, Earthquake and Rock Slide. Then I noticed...Rhydon learns Stomp.

Why should Rhydon ever pick Stomp then? Well, Rhydon prefers to operate against paralyzed opponents. Should you end up against one that happens to be a bit out of killing range, you can bring them there with Stomp and then use EQ to take them out. This is especially useful if your opponent can kill you in one shot.

Example time. Against Zam with max HP, EQ deals 206-242 damage and Stomp deals 90-105 damage. The attack order is obviously Stomp-->Earthquake. I'm not doing to do the exact calculations (sorry!) but if Stomp deals minimum damage, 90, you need to deal 223 damage, which is 21/39, around 54%, not counting CH's. If you deal maximum damage with Stomp, 105, you only need to deal 208 damage, which is almost 95% chance (37/39), again not counting CH's. IMO, very good odds.
Unfortunately Zam's the only viable character you can 2HKO this way except for Jynx, who'll die from this frequently. Too bad Rock Slide is an OHKO on her, but the calculations are below anyway.

SPOILER: Click to show

EQ deals a whooping 271 damage to Jynx on a max roll, and 231 on a minimum. Stomp deals 118 as max and 100 as minimum. Considering that Jynx has 333 HP, and if you only deal 100 damage with Stomp, you still have almost 95% chance to kill her (again, 37/39). If you deal 101-102 damage, it's 38/39, and everything else is a guaranteed 2HKO.

So to conclude, Stomp isn't something that will revolutionize how Rhydon is played in fresh 1v1's, but against paralyzed opponents, preferably slightly damaged ones, it can be a very useful asset. Thoughts upon this?

[brookman]

ice beam is the best fourth.

[Nerd]

Substitute...

[pocket]

Rhydon behind a Substitute is scary. It pretty much lets Rhydon throw a second attack in if my mon fps. And it can keep on going until its sub breaks. Definitely need paralysis support, though.

[t3h Icy]

Haha, cute find. Rhydon runs on Substitute, but Stomp could be interesting for partially banged up Pokemon that are Paralyzed, or otherwise if you have to heighten your chances to avoid damage completely.

The EQ->Stomp combo on Zam has a 1148/1521 chance to 2HKO (75.5%), and with CHs, that goes up to about 79.2%. However, FPing is a 25% chance, and Flinching is a 30% chance. With both combined, you have a 47.5% chance to keep Alakazam from doing anything, which is pretty good. One thing you could do if you see Stomp doing poor damage on turn 1 and knowing you'll likely 3HKO at that point, you could do a second Stomp in between.

Likewise, Rhydon has a 455/1521 chance to 2HKO Starmie, but you could throw in Stomp for the remainder if the first Earthquake does low damage. There's a few ways you could make Stomp useful.

Viable? Sort of, but more of a gimmick and Substitute is probably the better choice in most cases.

[jorgen]

Other fun 4ths for your amusement:

Hyper Beam (putting a para'd Egg in kill range sooner)

Fire Blast (Burning Egg instead of paralyzing it on the switch doesn't help Rhydon itself as much as it just limits Egg in general)

Counter (very situational, but: come in on a Hyper Beam from Surf-less Snorlax, EQ it as it recharges, and then nail Egg for over 40% on the switch without having to recharge)

Surf (pretty dumb, but if you really want to be able to guarantee that Golem will fall to you at 69% instead of 60%, go ahead)

Rest (basically needs fps or Zapdos to wake up, but who knows, it could be handy for shaking off the Alakazam Psychics, Chansey Ice Beams, and Snorlax EQs it'll probably have to take when looking for its kills)

Leer/Tail Whip (um, I'm more or less just listing this to recognize that it exists, and that it sucks. 100% of the time, you're better off just firing off an attack than you are getting cute with this shit)

Ice Beam (lol, see Leer/Tail Whip on how effective it is. Rhydon's not staying in long enough to try to freeze anything)


Of all the above, Hyper Beam is probably the only real "serious" alternative to Substitute. Stomp is gimmicky and situationally effective for when you want Rhydon to not have to eat a hit when it's sweeping, but realistically, it's a luxury that you probably would rather forego anyway if you're ever in a situation where it's either "Rhydon EQs for massive damage and faints, letting Tauros/whatever revenge" or "Rhydon Stomps, has 50% chance of dying with minimal damage done, and 50% chance of straight-up killing Zam/Starmie/paralyzed whatever."

[brookman]

My rhydon has frozen his fair share of exeggutors on the switch in.

[t3h Icy]

Bubblebeam + Earthquake is a guaranteed 2HKO on Golem.

[Zilch]

I agree with Icy. Stomp is just too situational and gimmicky to work right in a situation were just throwing an EQ or Rock Slide at your opponent wouldn't do.

You can have some success with Substitute, especially if your opponent decides to switch a sleeping Pokemon into Rhydon as a sacrifice. It gives Rhydon a free attack for 25% of his HP, and losing 25% is nothing compared to taking Alakazam's Psychic or anything with Surf or Ice Beam.

[Earthworm]

What would be pretty cool is if you could fit both of Sub and Stomp on a set and face something paralysed. Sub on a switch or fp, then you are basically giving them about a 50/50 shot to move every time you use Stomp, and you don't have to worry about being OHKOed. Then if they do get to move you can sub some more for FPs.

Unfortunately this is also situational since it's at least somewhat difficult to paralyse all the opponent's Rhydon handlers against anyone competent (unless it is just eggy), especially without having Body Slam on Rhydon's set.

Sub is easily the best IMO -- Hyper Beam and Counter seem pretty worthless to me, Stomp is situational, Rest could be used to give yourself extra switches into predicted explosions/mindgame I suppose, but Rhydon isn't gonna wake up.

[t3h Icy]

Mega Kick is a possible alternative to Hyper Beam, but I don't know if there are any useful times for it besides the whole "when you need the extra damage on partially damaged Pokemon". The accuracy bites too, but no recharge. Perhaps on Exeggutor switch-ins? It does over 1.4x the damage Body Slam does.

Also instead of Fire Blast vs Exeggutor, you could use Blizzard too. Blizzard and Earthquake 2HKO Golem too.

[Nerd]

You know Rhydon learns Rock Slide, right? And that it does more damage to Exeggutor than blizzard and has much better accuracy than mega kick?
EQ and RS are staples, Body slam and Substitute are recommended, though rest is a possible alternative over one of the latter two. I suppose hyper beam COULD help against eggy, but realistically nothing else is viable.

EDIT: Wait a second, isn't Rock Slide supposed to be able to flinch? I know it doesn't on netbattle, but I could have sworn that the ingame text when you get it says 'TM48 is ROCK SLIDE! It can spook the target sometimes!'

[t3h Icy]

Yeah, I didn't actually calc anything for that. My bad.

Rock Slide flinches in GSC, not RBY.

[Zilch]

It's also kind of funny that Rhydon is supposed to be one of the poster 'mons for Horn Drill, yet due to the mechanics of the move he's its worst user.

[Consumptus]

THIS HORN WILL PIERCE THE MECHANICS (of RBY)!!

edit: ok, that failed. Unfortunately, I don't know japanese =(

[garrinred]

Jul 24, 2011 18:35:05 GMT -8 Consumptus said:

THIS HORN WILL PIERCE THE MECHANICS (of RBY)!!

edit: ok, that failed. Unfortunately, I don't know japanese =(

"THIS IS THE HORN DRILL THAT WILL PIERCE THE GAME'S MECHANICS!"