LC Spotlight: Shellder

The History of Shellder

ADV

In the unofficial ADV LC metagame, Wailmer and Staryu both give the pearly Shellder stiff competition for a team slot, as they all share the same pure Water typing. They usually make better choices for a team, being almost impossible to switch into and guaranteed to cause issues for your opponent. However, Shellder carves out a niche for itself as one of the premier physical walls of the metagame; its amazing natural bulk and good typing allow it to defeat some of the tier's best Pokémon, including both Larvitar and Bagon after they Dragon Dance, the monstrous Choice Band Doduo, and the ever-present Arena Trappers Diglett and Trapinch. Other traits, including the ability to provide Rapid Spin support for the team and a rather powerful Explosion to almost always pick up a KO, further Shellder's viability. Yet ultimately Shellder is relegated to the shadows as an anti-metagame Pokémon—Wailmer's dominance has just made justifying including Shellder onto a team too hard for it to be anything more.

DPP

However, in DPP LC, most of the new mechanics added to Sheller's viability. Chiefly, the addition of the item Choice Scarf allowed Shellder to take on a completely different role. With a Choice Scarf, Shellder became a solid revenge killer, being able to KO Pokémon through Substitutes thanks to its new ability Skill Link. Choice Scarf Shellder also boasted a quick and mighty Explosion, forcing out many crucial Pokémon and forcing bulky Pokémon to think twice about switching in. In fact, between Hydro Pump, Icicle Spear, Rock Blast, and Explosion, only Bronzor was able to switch in without prediction. Unfortunately, many exceedingly threatening Pokémon such as Aron, Mantyke, and Dratini could take advantage of a Choice-locked Shellder, making it less than ideal without multiple safety nets. Even as the fourth generation of Pokémon concluded, Shellder proved to only be a niche Pokémon with minimal impact on the LC metagame.

BW

With Pokémon Black and White came the addition of two very important tools for Shellder: the move Shell Smash and the item Eviolite. After a Shell Smash, Shellder became incredibly threatening; only Steel-types, super bulky Water-types, and Porygon could claim to wall it. And teams oriented around Shell Smash Shellder could rather easily remove or sufficiently weaken almost all of these problematic Pokémon. However, Shellder still had several flaws; extremely common things such as Croagunk's Vacuum Wave and Sand Rush users could be an issue if they stayed out of Ice Shard range. Weather in general was less than ideal for Shellder and often could KO Shellder after a few turns after it set up. Sadly, Shellder was mostly classed by Tirtouga as a dedicated sweeper, which actually benefitted from the Sandstorm while only being shut down by a mere half of what Shellder was. Choice Scarf Shellder was still viable in Black and White, though a now weaker Explosion hurt this variation of Shellder enough to make it rare. With Generation 6 on the horizon, Shellder was still a niche Pokémon, though one with a bit more metagame presence than before.

ORAS

However, the story has changed for Shellder in ORAS LC. Over the course of the generation, Shellder has finally come out of its shell to take the limelight as perhaps the tier's most threatening sweeper. With its absurd physical bulk, Shellder can almost always comfortably use Shell Smash in a match. Very few Pokémon can claim to actually counter Shellder after it sets up, and now with Knock Off being a staple on every team thanks to its power buff and ability to remove items, some of its best counters have become almost entirely irrelevant. For instance, Bronzor's weakness to Knock Off coupled with its defensive nature has rendered it hardly worth considering despite previously being one of the best Stealth Rock users in Black and White LC and one of the best walls to Shellder. The buff to Knock Off has also caused the move to be extremely common, further bolstering Shellder's sweeping potential with each Eviolite removed. Additionally, almost all of Shellder's counters lack recovery and are crucial to checking some of the other top-tier sweepers, often allowing Shellder or a paired sweeper to overwhelm these Pokémon despite them being dedicated counters.

Qualities

Shellder has one of the highest Defense stats in Little Cup and one of the best typings to utilize it. Being a pure Water-type, Shellder only has to be wary of Electric- and Grass-type attacks—which are infrequently physical attacks anyways—or super powerful special attackers such as Gastly and Abra. With ample opportunities to get off a Shell Smash, Shellder is able to pummel down teams reliably. With Skill Link, one of the nuances of LC, multi-hit moves, becomes Shellder's primary weapon. Shellder's Icicle Spear and Rock Blast will always hit five times, and due to slightly bizarre damage rolls, both attacks hit deceptively hard. Moreover, Ice- and Rock-type coverage leaves Shellder only hard walled by Steel-types, all of which are prone to being worn down. Additionally, Shellder has a decently powerful Ice Shard in order to pick off Fletchling before it can use Acrobatics in an effort to revenge kill Shellder. However, Shellder can also run Razor Shell or Hydro Pump, which allow it to handle most Steel-types after minimal chip damage, leaving it rather hard to sufficiently deal with outside of priority.

Playing with Shellder

Standard

Shellder @ Eviolite
Ability: Skill Link
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 36 Def / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard

This is Shellder's flagship set; counterintuitively, this set forgoes any STAB attack for two multi-hit attacks and fairly weak priority. However, both Icicle Spear and Rock Blast are stronger against neutral targets than either Razor Shell or Hydro Pump is, and neither STAB option adds anything other than Magnemite to Shellder's OHKO list. Typically this set is played in a straightforward manner: once Shellder's answers are crippled, Shellder seeks out a free turn against a physical attacker in order to safely use Shell Smash. Between Icicle Spear and Rock Blast, only healthy defensive Pokémon and Steel-types can actually oppose Shellder, and while these are fairly common Pokémon in the metagame, they all have a tendency to be exploited and crippled fairly easily. The last slot is dedicated to prevent Shellder from being revenge killed by Fletchling's priority Acrobatics, though either Razor Shell or Hydro Pump can be used in its place. However, if Ice Shard is not used, Shellder should switch to a Defense-boosting nature, as the added Attack does not help Shellder outside of the rolls versus Fletchling.

Shellder has a few other options to use, though these are far less consistent and, generally speaking, niche sets. Shellder can make use of a Choice Scarf to reliably revenge kill Pokémon through Substitutes. Shellder may also sport a Life Orb over an Eviolite on its Shell Smash set in an effort to pick up a number of KOs, such as against Eviolite slow Mienfoo, Timburr, Fletchling without hazards damage, and Download Porygon. However this is a rather uncommon set, as the lack of Eviolite greatly hinders ability to get off a Shell Smash, forcing its team to add even more support for the sweeper. Lastly, Shellder has just the right amount of offensive coverage and natural bulk to pull of a rather useful Rapid Spin set. The sets viability is derived from Shellder's ability to prevent the most common spinblocker, Pumpkaboo, from switching in safely. However, due to Pumpkaboo's decline in usage and Shellder's limited offensive potential and shortage of reliable recovery, most teams find there are far more consistent options for Rapid Spinners.

Playing against Shellder

Playing against Shellder comes down to two basic principles: limit its chances to set up and preserve your answers to Shellder. However, both are easier said than done and rely heavily on having a well-built team and carefully managing your options. Typically, a Steel-type is used to handle Shellder, though these need to be kept healthy enough to survive its boosted attacks. Because of this, a Pawniard, Magnemite, or Honedge should not be your only way to handle both Shellder and Fletchling. However, Pokémon such as Slowpoke and Porygon are able to consistently beat Shellder, provided they are kept near full health. Moreover, niche strategies such as Trick Room and Toxic Spikes offense are able to inherently counteract Shellder's ability to sweep, though not fully, and therefore these require careful play. Teams can also resort to Croagunk's Vacuum Wave and Cottonee's Encore to either simply KO Shellder after a boost or lock Shellder into an unideal attack, but these answers need to be kept out of range of a boosted Ice Shard to be effective. Additionally, reasonably bulky Berry Juice Pokémon that are neutral to Ice and Rock coverage—such as Chinchou and Tirtouga—can usually survive a single volley from a boosted Shellder, even after taking Stealth Rock damage. However, these are generally shaky checks due to Shellder's five chances for getting a critical hit.

Most of the ways to safely handle Shellder require limiting the usage of a key Pokémon on your team in order to preserve it just for Shellder. But this itself is rather problematic, as most of Shellder's best teammates are often checked by the same handful of Pokémon, and playing around this requires both skill and great forethought even with a prepared team.

Fitting Shellder on a Team

Shellder is very rarely found on a team without being properly built around. Shellder generally needs a fair amount of support in order to pressure Steel-types so much that they crumble to its boosted attacks. This can be fairly easily done with a fair number of Pokémon, ranging from Overheat Fletchling and Vullaby, to Download Porygon and Trapinch, to Spritzee and Zigzagoon, to Abra and Cottonee. Likewise, Shellder is often paired with either Diglett or Magnet Pull Magnemite as to trap the common Steel-types of LC, leaving Shellder usually unopposed.

However, the real trick is to build a team that not only very strongly pressures all of Shellder's checks and counters but also handles all other metagame threats—including Shellder itself. Because of this, most Shellder teams tend to build themselves and be somewhat limited in variation. But due to the same issue of teambuilding, almost anything that does substantial damage to Steel-types and takes advantage of bulky blanket checks such as Porygon and Slowpoke makes an exceptional pair with Shellder.

Get out there!

Shellder excels in the offensive and swift metagame that Little Cup is known for; every team needs to be prepared for this pearl-like monster capable of smashing through most of the tier. If you haven't used Shellder, your next Little Cup team should definitely revolve around it. Shellder won't let you down.

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