[DISCUSSION] Why isn't Rapidash Viable

[Dassah]

I'm just getting started into Competitive Pokemon, and I'm being told that Rapidash isn't viable in battles. I'm so confused, is anybody able to dumb this down enough for me to understand, because its going over my head so much.

[Magnificzero]

@Dassah Well here are the reasons I believe that it is not viable.

# 1, Weakness to stealth rocks
#2, Subpar HP, defense and Sp. Def
#3, Very limited move pool
#4, And frankly...not very viable abilities

[Dassah]

I'm still confused (but I'm going to say its probably because I'm extremely biased), but I've moved my team around to hopefully something that works.

[Marcusube]

Whoever told you that doesn't know what they're talking about in the slightest unless you misunderstood.

The thing is, Rapidash is viable but it isn't as viable as other Pokemon. To start things off, Rapidash's best stats, it's speed and attack, are outclassed by a plethora of other Pokemon of the same typing and different typings. Rapidash doesn't take hits as well as other fast sweepers nor does it hit as hard as other glass cannons. It's abilities and movepool don't complement it's stats very well either (seriously, Flame Body and Flash Fire are borderline useless or extremely situational). And lastly, it can only run so little sets that make it stand out from most Pokemon but even then, those sets find themselves getting outclassed

Rapidash is still a good Pokemon in competitive but not in formats like VGC 16 or Smogon OU-RU

[Dassah]

(Jun 21, 2016, 10:53 PM)Marcusube Wrote: Whoever told you that doesn't know what they're talking about in the slightest unless you misunderstood.

The thing is, Rapidash is viable but it isn't as viable as other Pokemon. To start things off, Rapidash's best stats, it's speed and attack, are outclassed by a plethora of other Pokemon of the same typing and different typings. Rapidash doesn't take hits as well as other fast sweepers nor does it hit as hard as other glass cannons. It's abilities and movepool don't complement it's stats very well either (seriously, Flame Body and Flash Fire are borderline useless or extremely situational). And lastly, it can only run so little sets that make it stand out from most Pokemon but even then, those sets find themselves getting outclassed

Rapidash is still a good Pokemon in competitive but not in formats like VGC 16 or Smogon OU-RU

Thank you for letting me know, I decided to say "Screw it, imma use Rapidash" because well it's my favorite Pokemon and because I want a team I'm going to have fun playing with. Not one I felt like I had to make. So thank you, you actually made me stick with this.

[Johnnyspyguy]

Isn't Rapidash one of the top-tier Pokemon in PU?