Competitive Pokemon History - Regirock Quiz

Answer: Tyranitar

Tyranitar, largely in contention for being the best Pokemon in third generation standard play, overshadowed Regirock by quite a lot and made it hard for Regirock to see serious usage on most well built teams. That said, Tyranitar did not outclass Regirock completely; Regirock's access to Explosion gave it a niche over T-Tar, while its access to Counter also took advantage of its ability to easily survive a single Fighting or Ground type attack, which is something Tyranitar could struggle with at times. Still, Tyranitar was a lot more threatening and versatile offensively, often making it easier and more profitable to fit onto teams. Running the two in tandem was possible, but stacked a lot of weaknesses which were hard to adequately patch up.

Answer: Clear Body

Clear Body is more useful on Regirock than it is its fellow titans in Regice and Registeel, since Regirock is a decently strong physical attacker. Notably, this lets it easily check Gyarados and Salamence when healthy, as their Intimidate ability will fail to affect Regirock at all thanks to Clear Body. Regirock can then 2HKO them with Rock Slide or Hidden Power Rock while avoiding the 2HKO from their unboosted Earthquakes.

Answer: UnderUsed's banned list

As previously mentioned, the existence of Tyranitar stole a lot of spotlight away from Regirock. It would no doubt have received enough usage to natively be OU were it not for Tyranitar taking up its niche more often than not. Still, Regirock was probably the best Pokemon of the small crop which did not receive enough usage to be OU per Smogon's usage statistics, as it actually did have legitimate viability for the tier off of its own merit, and not on any sort of silly gimmick.

Answer: Check Rapid Spinners which remove Stealth Rock

Hitmonchan and Sandslash, thanks to having type advantages, would be able to defeat Regirock one-on-one and Rapid Spin away entry hazards in the process. Still, Regirock was an amazing Pokemon which nearly hard countered Charizard and Tauros, who were the best Pokemon in the tier, and provided its team with crucial Stealth Rock support to help pressure the opposing team and punish switches. Regirock was easily top 5 in fourth generation NeverUsed as a result.

Answer: Curse-based mono attacking sweeper

A simple set of Curse/Rock Slide/Rest/Sleep Talk or Earthquake was difficult to stop once it going. The EV Spread and Nature were intended to patch up Regirock's so-so Special Defense, while Curse made it impossible to break Defensively and made its respectable Base 100 Attack stat a lot more threatening.

This was Regirock's go-to standard play set, and was also a great set in UnderUsed as well.

Answer: Golurk

Alomomola comes close, but if it switches in to a Regirock using Toxic, it will thoroughly be crippled for the remainder of the game, thus not making it a great switch in. Golem can defeat Regirock one-on-one thanks to its STAB Earthquake, but has difficulty switching in on Regirock's own Earthquake or Drain Punch. Samurott simply cannot afford to switch in on a strong Stone Edge. However, if it can get a free switch in, it can win one-on-one fairly reliably. Still, it cannot switch in, and thus, is not a counter.

Golurk, on the other hand, counters Regirock thoroughly. It resists Stone Edge, is immune to Drain Punch, immune to Thunder Wave if Regirock should be running it, and takes Earthquakes reasonably well. It can use its own Drain Punch to easily heal off any damage it took while switching in, or it can just pound away at Regirock with its own STAB Earthquakes. This made Golurk into a Regirock counter in the fifth generation.

Answer: Moltres and Entei

Moltres's Hidden Power Grass maxed out at a mere 40% damage against specially defensive Regirock, letting it switch in, take this hit, take it again if need be, then remove Moltres with a single Rock Slide. Entei simply had nothing to dent Regirock with, as its only viable set in the tier was physically offensive, and it had nothing in that regard to bother Regirock with its gargantuan Base 200 Defense stat. Regirock would brush off whatever Entei threw at it and would easily remove it, similarly to how it could take out Moltres.

Regirock could check Escavalier and Durant if running Fire Punch, but it couldn't afford to switch in on their brutally strong Steel type attacks. It also generally lost to Omastar and Klinklang due to being at a type disadvantage.

Finally, Hariyama and Poliwrath countered Regirock, rather than the other way around. Poliwrath feared nothing switching into Regirock, while Hariyama could profit if it happened to switch in to Regirock using Toxic or Thunder Wave, thanks to its Guts ability.

Answer: Sturdy

Sturdy enables Regirock to always survive an attack when at full HP, regardless of how strong the attack was. This gave birth to a suicide lead set which single handedly made sun teams viable in sixth generation NeverUsed. It could set Stealth Rock, set up Sunny Day, and then use Explosion to bring in a sun based threat, such as Shiftry or Exeggutor. Regirock was by many, many miles sixth generation NU's best suicide lead who, again, made a previously unusable playstyle extremely threatening and viable all by itself.

It could do this while simultaneously being able to check huge threats in Tauros, Swellow and Kangaskhan if its team needed it. All of this meant Regirock, as a whole, got better, even if it did not receive a tier based promotion to reflect that.

Answer: Xatu utilizing Magic Bounce to block Stealth Rock

Golem was not viable in NU, and didn't have access to Rapid Spin anyway. Incineroar would often lose to most Stealth Rock setters one-on-one and didn't threaten to set up on them at all. Xatu became infamous for shutting down defensive utility Pokemon, owing to its Magic Bounce ability which punished Stealth Rock, and other entry hazards or status moves, used against Xatu while it was on the field. Xatu wouldn't dare switch in to Regirock, however, as Regirock could pulverize it with its strong, super effective Rock type attacks.

Answer: PartiallyUsed

Regirock was once again a great threat in PU, pulling off the same sets that it had been utilizing since the fourth generation. It took a bit of a decline, but functioned no differently for the most part, despite its tier based demotion.