Reading the metagame shifts there's a repeated comment that Rhydon's buff makes him the first real counter to Snorlax and claims that he's the first pokemon able to 1v1 Snorlax without dodging.
Don't get me wrong - Rhydon received a huge buff. I just don't think either statement is true though.
First, let's look at the Rhydon 1v1 Snorlax without dodging scenario:
Rhydon may resist BS and HB, but doesn't resist ZH. Further, he's weak to EQ. The best Rhydon (MS/EQ) versus his worst Snorlax matchup (ZH/EQ) is probably a close fight without dodging that I would give to the Snorlax in a PvP.
Now, if we're talking about a defending Snorlax then sure. Rhydon might win. However lots of other pokemon won in these cases as well. Definitely Vaporeon (I beat higher level Snorlax many times before I started dodging), I'd guess Dragonite (I always assumed the top 3 were like rock-paper-scissors with Dragonite/Lapras/Snorlax), with Exeggutor (resists ZH) and probably Arcanine as well. Maybe a Snorlax with HB could win these 1v1s but we're seriously assuming you can't dodge Hyperbeam? 0.7sec dodge window when dodges have a 0.5sec cooldown and can be pre-loaded, and you get over 3 seconds notice? When I was first learning to properly dodge I just started swiping frantically when Hyperbeam came up and never failed to dodge it...
Rhydon's buff is good for the game (especially since players can compete more on the gym scene) but with his double weakness to grass/water he's still not going to be a threat in battle. When attacking he'll be more useful but with the huge grass nerfs we'll probably be seeing way more waters in the gyms than before.
People are just excited that he has a counter at all now. Everything else had a counter before. Except snorlax.
All because you beat snorlax with vaporeon doesn't mean it's a counter.
They gave a massive buff to a poke with fighting move that resists normal moves. It's the only counter there is to snorlax at the moment and it was unexpected and people are sick of fighting snorlax.
Yeah it was me. I posted that because the stamina stats were the same and I supposed the other stats were also the same, I was wrong.
I'm not complaining. I'm okay with this change. I do think it wasn't really necessary since the only thing this change did was "switching" attackers. Gym defenders are still going to be the same as before.
As for Rhydon, yeah, what's the problem in saying he is useless due to his typing ? I'm not complaining about Rhydon. He was never into my radar and its still not in there even after this update. I just made an opinion given a lot of people may get excited but maybe doesn't know all the weakness that ground/rock types mons have.
Actually, db dragonites can also 1v1 an equivalent level snorlax if without dodging ( though dragonites will have higher CP advantage than snorlaxes at same level with similar IVs ). However, they barely survived.
Tested with arcanines too, but they can't survived without dodging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_vMAel-Go8
Now with the buffs on rhydon, vaporean, and gyarados, might find some time to test them out too on a snorlax.
Even before the Rhydon buff I used him as a Snorlax killer. I had two high level Rhydons 1700+ (pre-buff) with Rock Smash and Stone Edge and used them to attack into Snorlax. They would do quite well.
Now with the buffs it should be even easier, even if Snorlax got a buff too.
Haven't tried them yet but looking forward to it. The one downside is it will be harder to level up a gym now with my Rhydon army as their CP is a lot higher now.
I wish Pidgeot didn't get nerfed as he was my other go to for killing/prestiging vs Snorlax (Wing Atk and Hurricane - was awesome).
