Golem

While in heavy competition with Rhydon for a spot on a team, Golem has merit for its access to Explosion, letting it blow holes in opposing teams for its allies to exploit. Golem's higher Speed compared to Rhydon also pays dividends in Stadium, giving it a 12% critical hit rate that helps it break through opposing Reflect Snorlax and Chansey. These traits make Golem a fair pick on teams weak to Rhydon that need a consistent way to beat bulkier Pokemon like the aforementioned Normal-types, as well as Slowbro and Rest Exeggutor. When provided with paralysis support, Golem is a serious threat, dealing massive damage with its STAB moves while still maintaining the threat of Explosion, often securing the late-game for its team as a result.

However, Golem's Explosion and Speed are all it has over Rhydon. Rhydon has superior overall bulk, 103 HP Substitutes to consistently beat Seismic Toss Chansey, and a better Attack stat that gives it more consistent KO ranges. Because of this, on top of Snorlax having a superior self-KO move in STAB Self-Destruct, Golem is very hard to fit onto teams. Golem still has Rhydon's flaws as well: it's very slow and specially frail, making it take mortal damage against special attackers like Starmie, Alakazam, and Lapras, forcing it to use Explosion earlier than one would expect. Its slowness also causes it to lose one-on-one matchups surprisingly frequently, such as against Tauros and Exeggutor. Like Rhydon’s, while Golem's defensive typing does provide a useful Electric immunity for combatting Zapdos and Jolteon, it also gives massive weaknesses to Ice- and Water-type coverage from Pokemon like Chansey and Snorlax, making it very difficult for Golem to successfully enter battle and do its job. These problems make Golem a rare sight in Stadium OU, but it’s still a serviceable pick for teams that need a better Rhydon matchup in addition to an Explosion user.