BROAD: Golem or Rhydon against Raikou SPECIFIC: Which should I power up?
So I wasn’t anticipating Raikou hitting the game (in my region) so soon, and hadn’t been paying attention to my squad plans. Gamepress lists the supreme counters as Golem and Rhydon with Golem first — is that purely alphabetical or should I think about powering-up some non-double-rock Golems for this baby? It seems like the two rock moves was the factor that made Golem so special against the birds, so I originally planned on Rhydon being the better option here given his stats.
My main question is whether I should just plan on a six-Rhydon squad, or if I should consider powering-up or TMing some Golems. (Ho-Oh is still coming so I won’t change all my Golems, of course.) My biome is loaded with Geodudes and Rhydons, so I’m not hurting for candy.
I powered up four of these guys back in the old gym system because my local scene was full of people who drove around using trackers and had second accounts to shave gyms, so I needed any high-CP mon I could get to stay in. Now I’m level 35 (100,000 XP away from 36), so all of these have room for at least a little powering-up if it would help. What do you all think, will any of these become better with some dust?
MY RHYDONS:
- A. Hitchcock - MS/E • A14/D13/S14 • Level 35.5 • 3054 CP
- Billy Wilder - MS/E • A15/D14/S14 • Level 34.5 • 3027 CP
- Oliver Hardy • MS/E • A14/D12/S15 • Level 34.5 • 3008 CP
- G del Toro MS/E • A14/D15/S13 • Level 33 • 2945 CP
- Unnamed #1 • MS/E • A14/D7/S11 • Level 30 • 2741 CP
- Unnamed #2 • MS/MH • A11/D12/S4 • Level 30 • 2694 CP
- Probably-won’t-be-named • MS/MH • A6/D15/S9 • Level 30 • 2685 CP
- [OMITTED: About 15 level-27-to-30 Rhydons with underwhelming IVs, some of which have good movesets and others of which have Megahorn but could be TM’d if they’ll do a job.]
- Low-level #1 • RS/E • A15/D15/S11 • Level 17
- Low-level #2 • MS/SE • A15/D14/S15 • Level 8
RHYHORNS TO EVOLVE (as I said, plenty of candy so no reason not to other than I’m saving them for a lucky egg and/or bonus XP event— I can always find pidgey to spam in their place):
A15/D9.5/S0.5 L30
A14/D10/S14 L27
A14/D15/S15 L20
A15 84.4% L6
MY NON-DR GOLEMS:
All my best Golems are double-rock, but my eighth best is L28 A15/D8/S10 with Mudslap/Earthquake. Would this be better than any of my Rhydons? Or should I power up a higher IV one/TM one of my double-rocks?
Thanks for the advice!
Answers
A Golem with Mud Slap + Earthquake is flat out worse than a Rhydon with the same moves, as Rhydon has better stats.
Golem's advantage is in it being able to have Rock Throw, and although it isn't SE to electric types, is one of the strongest quick moves that it's still close to Mud Slap even with type advantage.
Don't TM any Golems though. Besides Omastar vs Moltres, it's the best rock type attacker and there's not really any substitutes for it, whereas Pokemon that a ground type Rhydon is good against, there's usually a Pokemon you can substitute instead.
I wouldn't waste a charge TM on a Rhydon, especially in your situation since they seem to be really common, just use a high level one that already has Mud Slap + Earthquake (or the Golem) and save yourself the TMs for more useful Pokemon.
