Claydol
Levitate
This Pokémon is immune to Ground moves.
Type Tier
Ground / Psychic OU
Statistics
Min- Min Max Max+
HP
60
 - 261 324 -
Atk
70
 158 176 239 262
Def
105
 221 246 309 339
SpA
70
 158 176 239 262
SpD
120
 248 276 339 372
Spe
75
 167 186 249 273
Name Item Nature

Utility

 Leftovers Relaxed / Bold
Moveset EVs
~ Earthquake
~ Rapid Spin
~ Ice Beam / Psychic
~ Rest / Explosion
252 HP / 114 Def / 144 SpA

The standard Claydol—Spins, counters Dragon Dance Salamence with Ice Beam or Gengar with Psychic, and destroys the standard Tyranitar. Rest can be dropped for one of the Other Options on teams that have Wish support from something like Jirachi, Blissey, or Vaporeon.

Name Item Nature

Pseudo-Passer

 Leftovers Impish
Moveset EVs
~ Earthquake
~ Light Screen / Reflect
~ Rapid Spin
~ Rest
252 HP / 112 Atk / 114 Def / 32 Spe

Pseudo-passing Claydol is pretty decent. It's an easy gateway to setup a switch, and provides good team support.

Other Options

With the advent of Substitute Skarmory, Hidden Power Fire and Hidden Power Electric are viable options. Hidden Power Electric is probably the best choice, as it can actually do some damage to Gyarados (2-3HKO with no Special Attack EVs, always a 2HKO in a Sandstorm), but Hidden Power Fire can be used to surprise Forretress, and do a little bit of damage to a wounded Celebi if you lack Ice Beam.

Toxic is an option on any set, because it's the only way Claydol is getting through Dusclops. Rest Dusclops still laughs at it, but Pain Split Dusclops can't stay in forever, so eventually Toxic will wear him down. Cosmic Power can help stall with toxic. Although, defensive stat-uppers generally don't work.

Choice Band Claydol is decent, if somewhat of a novelty, as it can 3HKO Dusclops (possibly 2HKO with Spikes down), so your Rapid Spinning efforts won't be completely stopped.

EVs

You'll want to concentrate on HP and Defense mainly, with maybe around ~200 Attack and the rest in Special Attack. If you really care that much about KOing Salamence, use 220 Special Attack.

Opinion

Unique type combination and Levitate make it THE Dragon Dance Tyranitar counter, and its great defensive stats and Ice Beam help to make him a Dragon Dance Salamence counter—it's best used in stall teams who need a reliable Rapid Spinner. Just a quick note, Claydol + Skarmory beat 99% of the physical threats in the game, as they resist every single physical attack type.

Counters

Water-types easily kill him.

Dusclops is the best "counter"—he blocks Claydol's Rapid Spin, and will kill him off with a STAB Shadow Ball.

Celebi with Calm Mind laughs at it, as Claydol can do nothing but Explode (and even that might not KO), while Celebi sets up and possibly Baton Passes to a real threat like Zapdos. Note that Leech Seed Celebi is not a counter, as Rapid Spin sheds Leech Seed, and has 64 PP with PP-Ups active.

Heracross resists Claydol's Earthquake, shrugs off Ice Beam with his decent Special Defense, loves Toxic (if his ability is Guts), and kills it with Megahorn. The rare Psychic Claydol is the only line of defense (barely a 2HKO).