You have Entei in your region now, Rhydon is ok...Golem is great. Rock is obviously better vs fire. Alakazam is as glassy as they get PC/ShB can get more shots fired. Poliwrath is useful, Machamps are somewhat fragile against a Tyranitar Boss. Still use any fighting Machamps you have, but add a Poliwrath to survive several seconds longer***Confusion/Solar Exeggutor helps add some bulk during a Machamp solo--legacy fast move, also more versatile than BS/SoB and more effective than EX/SoB
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Psychic and Rock/Ground Attacker Movesets
My previous question about Charge TMs attracted some responses that I would like clarification on.
For Rhydon, why is MS/SE a good moveset compared to MS/EQ? Rhydon is no longer relevant as a defender. Since it cannot learn a Rock-type quick move, Rhydon looks more like a Ground-type attacker in contrast to Golem with RT/SE. The Raid Boss Counters list usually recommends EQ for Rhydon.
For Alakazam, why is SBall a good charge move compared to FS? Both moves are super-effective against Gengar. For now, my Psychic-type attackers are Conf/Pbeam Espeon and Conf/Pchic Exeggutor.
I was also advised to power up my Conf/Solar Exeggutor. What useful role, if any, does it have in the current metagame? In contrast, one response described Poliwrath as "useless in the current meta" (I was hoping to change RS/HP to RS/DP).
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C/SoB Exegguttor is a good generalist because psychic has nice coverage. Confusion has high base power and so does Solarbeam. Exegguttors counters aren't used extensively in Gyms.
And Exegguttor resists psychic moves, which Blissey and Snorlax usually carry.
Plus you can use Exegguttor for weak-to-psychic Raid bosses and as a Grass counter also.
First of all: It's a very bad idea to gamble for a specific charge move with only 3 charge TM in your inventory. You should save them for certain improvements on top tier mons, like Hyper Beam Dragonite, Heavy Slam Machamp and Fire Blast Tyranitar.
Rhydon: If both are SE STAB as Rhydon against Entei is, Stone Edge is better than Earthquake. There really isn't any other use for Rhydon, so it makes no sense to downgrade your Entei attacker. The counters list recommends Earthquake because it's multipurpose, good for both Raikou and Entei. But you're not getting Raikou anymore so better to stay with SE anyway.
Alakazam simply isn't really a good attacker to invest dust or TMs into. The only use of psychic attackers right now is soloing Machamp and Gengar raids and they are disposable since any high level Espeons do the job and are easy to get more of.
C/SoB Exeggutor is an okay generalist and the best grass-type attacker in the game. It's also sufficiently high DPS for soloing Machamp.
Poliwrath is only useful for Tyranitar raids, where it's the second best mon to use after Machamp (not including regionals). Other than that there is no use for it and HP is fine against Tyra, so no need to spend resources here.
Thank you for the clear explanation!
Rhydon: I see that EQ is also recommended over SE against the level 2 raid bosses (but who cares?) and Gengar (which may matter if I lack good Psychic-type attackers). Will stick to SE for now to beat Entei, but once Entei is no longer available (and I should have many Charge TMs by then), is EQ better?
Alakazam: How does Espeon compare to Alakazam (and Exeggutor)? Soloing Gengar and Machamp raids is quite important! Machop is rare here, so back then, I walked for Machamp and was fortunate to get Count/DP on my first try. Regret transferring wonder Gengars with lousy moves twelve months ago!
Poliwrath: Did not realise that HP is fine against Tyranitar. The Raid Boss Counters page recommends only DP (except against Rhydon).
