Theorymon Sessions - Revamped

But you have to realize the opportunity cost of using either one of those Pokemon. Gigalith does not really offer much to a team that something like say Golem can. Rampardos could be using a more offensive set with an item like Choice Band, but Rampardos is also not that great of a Pokemon, especially if it wants to get rid of a moveslot for Stealth Rock. If you want a powerful Stealth Rock, you could always use something like Golurk, whose Stealth Rock's power is comparable to Gigalith at 12.4%.
Sure, they could become more viable after this change... but does that mean they are good enough to be worthy of using them on every team? Probably not.
Well Stealth Rock is already a confusing move as is, with rapid spin being there to get it away. I find it simple to just spin it away, and if you're only doing 8.5% or even 10% damage on pokemon that take neutral damage from it, it's not really worth it. I want to be able to kill common switching pokemon as fast as possible, and the loss of stealth rock doing 12.5% every time. I need as much damage per switch-in as possible.
 
Nice responses so far, especially HispanicPanic.

I disagree that Stealth Rock Rampardos would not be good, though. I think Focus Sash Rampardos has the potential to be pretty good. 16.5% on neutral targets is pretty huge, even if Rampardos could be doing other things. I could see Focus Sash Rampardos being pretty common on offensive teams as they can afford to lose a Pokemon for a very powerful Stealth Rock. It's much easier for an offensive team to overwhelm another team when they have an extra powerful Stealth Rock.
Yeah, I completely forgot about Focus Sash being an option for Rampardos. It could probably use the offensive utility set that's already up on site but replace that Life Orb with Focus Sash. With Superpower / Earthquake as coverage, it can break through common lead Probopass's and Bastiodon's Sturdy with max Attack investment and Mold Breaker if it really wants to, but chances are you'd want to invest in bulk instead. Now that I thought about, Rampardos would definitely see some usage because those rocks hurt. Charizard can't even Roost back to full HP seeing as over 60% of its health is gone after switching in. Jynx would be really hurt too, and it'd be even easier to revenge with priority because less prior damage will be needed after Rampardos's rocks damage is calculated in. Pretty much any rock weak mon in this meta would be so much easier to handle. I agree with DTC now. Rampardos would be a godsend to offensive teams if Stealth Rock mechanics were to change like that. If offensive play styles are popular and dominate now, that Stealth Rock change and Rampardos, would just kind of cement that even further.
 
Remember: the format is mostly for fun. It doesn't accurately represent the changes made in this thread because each of the theorymon's are considered in a vaccum rather than everything combined. If you want to talk about this meta, feel free to talk about it in #neverused, but keep it out of this thread. There may be a mini-tour for this in the future.

Also I'll usually be willing to battle, so just challenge me if you want to play.

edit: Torkoal was a Water/Ice-type. It's fixed now.
 
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scorpdestroyer

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Wow, I might actually play that if I ever bother to teambuild

I don't think I'll use Gigalith over Golem anyway. Golem's SR would lose some power, but Golem provides a lot more utility in STAB Earthquake, priority, and a Volt Switch absorber. Getting a bit more residual damage might not be important (unless there are calcs to prove it), and Golem will be much more useful midgame in comparison to Gigalith. Furthermore, I'm pretty certain that Golem would be able to fair better against several other stealth rockers. For example, it outspeeds and 2hkoes Gigalith, and earthquake + sucker punch would allow it to fair much better against Golurk than Gigalith would.

Rampardos, on the other hand, is a different story. I'm sure it's Attack stat is so much higher that the greater residual damage would actually matter. In addition, it has access to Mold Breaker, which means that in addition to setting up rocks, it would also be able to defeat other SR leads with EQ and Mold Breaker breaking through Sturdy. I'm not sure if unboosted EQ can OHKO Gigalith, but I'm pretty sure that slapping a Ground Gem on Rampardos would. Rampardos also would have greater utility later in the game because it can still threaten with Head Smash.

I also see Golurk becoming even more common because its SR is just as strong and it beats Gigalith and Rampardos fairly easily, in addition to all the positive traits it currently has
 

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