Welcome to a new blog series called "CMG-UTOPIA's Pokemon Recommendations", where I talk about a Pokemon that I recommend other Pokemon trainers to use with some helpful strategies. This section is for intermediate and/or advanced trainers that know what EV's and natures are. For those of you that don't know (but can prolly already tell) I LOVE the Pokemon video games. The latest one I have right now is Pokemon Platinum for Nintendo DS. I have Pokemon Daimond as well but I already finished making my ultimate team for that game.

For my first Pokemon blog post, I choose Rhypherior. When I first saw that Rhydon got a new level 2 evolution form, I was amazed, specially at how cool it looks. For me, a Pokemon has to be appealing while maintaining some great moves in order for me to keep it, and Rhypherior is no exception. Before Rhypherior, there was only so much you could do with Rhydon, specially with it's weak stats with the exception of it's ATTACK stat. But I always found it funny that he actually can learn Surf, which is actually a good move to teach if you wanna have an "element of surprise" move at your disposal. After all, there aren't too many Ground and/or Rock type pokemon that can learn a Water type move like Surf. But in the latest games, Rhydon finally get's an advantage as far as learned moves, move tutor moves, and TM's are concerned, and with his new evolution form Rhypherior, things really start to look good for this Ground & Rock type Pokemon.

So what makes Rhypherior so special? Well for one thing, his attack stat is through the roof, and a majority of his moves are physical attacks, and not just rock and ground moves either. His defense stat is the second best, but then again, a high defense has always been a trademark for rock type pokemon. The only MAJOR downfall to this pokemon is it's special defense. This is where alot of trainers get scared when making the choice of using Rhypherior. One hit with a water type or grass type move and he is history. Nevermind the fact that majority of ground and rock type pokemon are slow to begin with. So how can you make it withstand something like that? Well it's quite simple really.

From what I can tell, most people like to use a Rhypherior with the Lonely, Brave, Adamant, and/or Naughty natures, which boosts the attack stat the most with each level up, making Rhypherio's attack even MORE threatening. This strategy is ok, but you're still taking a big gamble against pokemon that have moves that will One-Hit K.O. it (I.E. Surf, Giga Drain, ect..). Instead, here is my advice. You want a Rhypherior with a CALM nature. This sacrifices some of it's already huge attack stat for a boost of it's special defense stat. It works better to your advantage if Rhypherior's personality was also "Strong Willed", "Somewhat Vain", "Strongly Defiant", "Hates To Loose", and/or "Somewhat Stubborn", as they too give the Special Defense stat a better boost. Lastly, but not least, the "Solid Rock" ability will help out as well to prevent Rhypherior from getting all of the damage done by "Super Effective" moves. AFAIK you'll only recieve like 75% rather than the full 100% damage. Finding a Rhyhorn/Rhydon with ALL 3 of these necessities is like finding a Needle in a haystack. I was lucky enough to find a Rhyhorn with both the Calm nature AND Rock Head (which turns into Solid Rock after evolving into Rhypherior), which took me 3 days to find one. Unfortunately it's female rather than male, but at this point, gender doesnt matter to me. I can imagine how much longer i'd be at the same spot if I was stubborn enough to actually find a Rhyhorn with all 3 necessities. 2 Out of 3 is good enough for me, specially with my attention span, and the fact that Rhyhorn also can carry the "Lightningrod" ability as well made things even more difficult. Now you wanna talk about moves, thats your call. But if you wan't my advice on that as well, heres what you should teach it... two physicals, and two specials. First special is Surf, which would come in handy against any other rock & ground type pokemon such as Golem, AND also gives you an opportunity to train a water type with another water attack plus other moves (for example, im also using Octillery, giving it Waterfall rather than surf). Second Special is Earth Power. power of the move may be 10 less than Earthquake, but since it's a ground type move, the power increases by 1.5 because Rhypherior is a ground type as well. It will do some nice damage. The two physicals would be your choices between Hammer Arm, Megahorn, and/or Poison Jab. These are moves that Rhypherior learns by leveling up (with the exception of Poison Jab, where you have to use a heart scale to teach it that move), and do really great damage, and given that your attack stat won't be harmed by the Calm nature and Special Defense personality of Rhypherior, you'll have nothing to worry about. Overall, when it's all said and done, your Rhypherior's stats should be more or less equally balanced.

And that is my Pokemon Recommendation :)