A Steelix suddenly appeared before Chu Xin and Bai Le in the Secret Realm, and judging by its size, it clearly would not be easy to deal with.
This was going to be tricky!
As the evolution of the first-generation Onix, Steelix gained the god-tier Steel typing and broke past a base stat total of 500. Congratulations all around. Ground/Steel was a good typing, with immunities to both Electric and Poison, and no fear of Electric/Ice coverage. Unfortunately, an Excadrill had firmly claimed its spot in OU. Steelix had absurd physical bulk. Although it could not match Mega Slowbro, most Earthquakes still took off less than half its health. Combined with the pile of resistances its Steel typing offered, Steelix made a very solid physical wall, though its weaknesses to the important and popular Ground and Fighting types cost it quite a few points.
Meanwhile, the benefits of resisting Electric, Fairy, and Psychic mostly mattered on the special side, where Excadrill was considerably sturdier than Steelix. GG. Outside its physical bulk, the rest of its base stats were rather shabby. An Attack of 85 was not high for something so enormous, and with only 75 HP, its special bulk was actually rather poor. Add its extremely low Speed, and that lopsided stat spread meant Steelix did not leave many people with the impression that it was impossible to break. It did not even feel as annoying as Excadrill, which could pressure opponents with its Speed and offense, had decent special bulk, and could run an Assault Vest. That really was rather sad.
Steelix's three abilities all looked pretty good, but much like a certain first-generation Pokémon... none of them were actually all that useful.
Sturdy was the same story as with Forretress: Sturdy on something with plenty of resistances and