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With a monstrous appearance, stats on the physical side to match, and crippling issues against Water and Grass Pokemon, Rhyperior is a Ground Pokemon’s Ground Pokemon. For most of its short career, Rhyperior has had trouble finding a place to fit in most teams, despite one of the best abilities in the game and the highest attack stat of any Pokemon in the Over Used tier. The problem with Rhyperior is that, in order to really use it effectively, you need to be willing to support it. This makes the stone rhino very hard to just casually throw onto a team.

Rhyperior
Ground / Rock
HP: 110 Atk: 140 Def: 130 Sp Atk: 55 Sp Def: 55 Spd: 40
Ability: Solid Rock: This Pokemon takes 25% less damage from Super Effective attacks.
Lightning Rod: Electric-type attacks must target this Pokemon.

At a glance, Rhyperior’s most obvious strength is its base stats. With HP, attack and defense all well above average, Rhyperior can take a physical beating and fire back like nothing else. Make no mistake, STAB Earthquakes and Stone Edges coming off a base attack of 140 really, really hurt, so much so that even Pokemon with solid resistances to these attacks may find themselves having trouble tanking. Aside from that, Rhyperior gets a great ability in Solid Rock, which reduces damage from its weaknesses by 25%. The rhino also got a big boost in the form of Sandstorm’s new special defense boosting property. Between Solid Rock and Sandstorm, Rhyperior can take a surprising amount of damage on either side of the spectrum.

Of course, the other side of the story is Rhyperior’s special attack, special defense, and speed. Combined with some genuinely atrocious weaknesses, Rhyperior has a hard time taking on more or less any special sweeper you’d care to name. The rhino’s resistances really cause it a problem when compared to the Pokemon competing with it for a moveslot; Swampert can do a support set about as well as Rhyperior, and has only one weakness. Metagross, with its long list of resistances and access to much of the same movepool, is a significant competitor for an Agility set. And Gliscor and Hippowdon tank much better than Rhyperior, thanks to instant recovery moves.

On the whole, it’s not always easy to find a place on a team for Rhyperior. The critter’s monstrous base stats just aren’t that easy to capitalize on when you have to play around two 4x weaknesses, though Rhyperior has the potential to wreak some real havok once it manages to take the field.

Rhino Polish
Rhyperior @Wide Lens / Life Orb / Leftovers
Adamant (+Atk, -Sp Atk) or Jolly (+Spd, -Sp Atk) nature
Solid Rock ability
252 Atk, 252 Spd, 6 HP
-Stone Edge / Rock Slide
-Megahorn / Crunch
-Earthquake
-Rock Polish
Rhyperior’s abysmal speed is its biggest impediment to using that impressive 140 attack. Thankfully, there’s Rock Polish, which will allow Rhyperior to get enough speed to outrun a lot of things after one use. Your choice of nature is a pretty big deal here; With Adamant, you might not be able to outspeed Pokemon with an extremely high base speed and a positive nature, such as Timid Starmie or Jolly Weavile, but the difference in damage output between Jolly and Adamant is significant enough to make Adamant a worthwhile choice.

As with many physical sweepers, Rhyperior has to choose between higher damage or greater accuracy in its moveset. It’s significantly more pronounced for this beast, though, because the risks are much higher. With 4x weaknesses to Grass and Water, one miss could get Rhyperior KO’d. The rhino’s monster attack stat makes the higher accuracy moves a bit easier to swallow, but you’re still sacrificing a huge amount of power; Crunch is a loss of 40 points of base power from Megahorn, a significant drop. Not an easy choice. Wide Lens is an easy quick fix, and a good midpoint between the survivability of Leftovers and the increased power of Life Orb. Substitute also makes a fine choice in the second slot, especially if you have sandstorm support, though the loss of coverage can be bothersome.

Metagross is big competition for this kind of moveset, the Agility sweep being one of ‘Gross’s favorite movesets. Rhyperior boasts a slightly higher attack stat and a much better HP, but Metagross’s resistances are much, much better and it can reach higher speeds after one Agility. Rhyperior can hit a broader spectrum of foes with its moves, and gets much better choices for STAB attacks, but Metagross gets access to Explosion, allowing it to outright destroy many of its counters.

Rhino Band
Rhyperior @Choice Band
Adamant (+Atk, -Sp Atk) or Jolly (+Spd, -Sp Atk) nature
Solid Rock ability
252 Atk, 252 Spd, 6 HP
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Megahorn
-Ice Fang
The only thing scarier than a Rhyperior with Rock Polish is a Rhyperior with Choice Band. Its weaknesses make it a bit of a challenge to get into play at times, but once it’s in, your foe is officially in trouble. With the Band’s 50% boost to his attack, an Adamant Rhyperior at Lv. 100 is going to be firing off STAB Earthquakes and Stone Edges from an offensive stat of more than six hundred. With that kind of damage flying around, even Pokemon who resist Rhyperior’s attacks are going to be risking a one-hit KO.

Now, generally speaking, when one comes across such a defensive Pokemon, you’d boost its defenses rather than its speed when putting together a Choice Band set. But so many defensive Pokemon hover around Rhyperior’s speed that it becomes worthwhile to try and outrun them. By boosting Rhyperior’s speed, we can outrun Hippowdon, Donphan, Tangrowth, and the Regi trio, amongst others. Of course, boosting Rhyperior’s defenses is still a worthwhile investment; just stick to Adamant, and switch from 252 EVs in Spd to 252 in HP. In such a set, it’d be best to replace Ice Fang with Avalanche, which is a much better attack for Rhyperiors who don’t care about speed.

Rhino Dance
Rhyperior @Life Orb / Expert Belt / Leftovers
Adamant (+Atk, -Sp Atk) or Jolly (+Spd, -Sp Atk) nature
Solid Rock ability
252 Atk, 252 Spd, 6 HP
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Megahorn / Avalanche
-Swords Dance
…And the only thing scarier than a Rhyperior with a Choice Band is a Rhyperior with a Swords Dance. This set is darn hard to pull off, but in all honesty, there really is nothing more disconcerting than a Rhyperior with a Swords Dance and a cavalier attitude towards its own survival. This set requires a lot of support — preferably something with Thunder Wave and a lot of time on its hands — but once it gets going, Swords Dance Rhyperior can rip through defenses like nothing else.