Rhyperior
“From holes in its palms, it fires out Geodude. Its carapace can withstand volcanic eruptions.” Ladies and gentlemen, this is Rhyperior’s Pokedex entry in Pokemon X. Did we get that? Not only can this guy survive volcanic eruptions, but he literally uses other, lesser Pokemon as his own personal ammunition. Rhyperior has a lot of cool things going for it: huge Attack stat, crazy large HP and Defense stats, good offensive typing, and an incredibly diverse movepool. You’d think Rhyperior was some sort of Pokegod. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and Rhyperior is commonly relegated to the lower tiers. While Rock/Ground is a fantastic offensive typing, it is terrible from a defensive perspective. Rhyperior is sorely hurt by Water and Grass type attacks. His terrible Special Defense stat (base 55) doesn’t exactly do him many favors when considering that both Water and Grass attacks (especially Water) typically come from a Special Attacking side. While he has an ability called Solid Rock that reduces damage from super effective moves by 25%, having to rely on this ability to survive those hits is an indicator of just how unfortunate he is. Even if Rhyperior has so many good things going for him, they mean nothing if he can never get the chance to even fire a move off before he is one-shotted. And considering that Special Water moves are some of the most common attacks in the metagame, Rhyperior has a disappointingly tough time living up to his badass potential.
