<p>Does your team need a spinner who isn't vulnerable to the Spikes it deals with? Does your team need a half-decent check to Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Dragon Dance Salamence, and also the likes of Flygon and Jirachi? Does your team need a resistance to the EdgeQuake combination? (I'm pretty sure this didn't exist in Gen 3...perhaps QuakeSlide or something else?) If the answer to any or all of the above questions was is a resounding yes, then Claydol is an ideal fit for your team these criteria. However, Claydol is not without issues. Firstly, its ability to check threats such as Tyranitar is substantially lowered because it may fall to two Crunches from a Boah or Luretar set, and if one wishes to conserve Claydol for later purposes, it is sometimes necessary to switch in order to scout out a moveset, which could put you on the back foot very early in the game.</p>
<p>Claydol also sports six weaknesses, including those to the very common attacking types Water and Ice, which doesn't do the ancient doll any favors. (I'm really on the fence here. The weaknesses DON'T do it favors, but claydol having weaknesses DOESN'T do it any favors. Hopefully a full-time checker can rectify this if necessary) Claydol also has paltry offensive stats and a lack of phazing moves, leaving it as complete setup fodder for the likes of CurseLax, Dragon Dance Gyarados, Calm Mind Celebi, and Calm Mind Suicune. Although Claydol is very durable and lasts a long time in most stall-oriented matches—Claydol is much more suited to being featured on (and against) stall teams—one must remember that Claydol cannot cause any real heavy damage to most standard teams if the opponent makes the appropriate switches.</p>
[SET]
name: Utility
move 1: Rapid Spin
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Psychic
move 4: Ice Beam / Hidden Power Fire / Rest
item: Leftovers
ability: Levitate
nature: Relaxed
evs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>The idea behind this set is
simple—switch in whenever possible and remove any Spikes from your side of the field by using Rapid Spin. Rapid Spin is listed first on this set as it is the move that differentiates Claydol from other Ground-types in OU, and is an excellent supporting move. In drawn-out games, the deciding factor is often who has control of the hazards on the field, and Rapid Spin allows you to exert control to a certain extent, and also give teams that rely on hazards and
forced switches strategies trouble. Earthquake is a powerful STAB move that can damage Tyranitar decently and force it out.</p>
<p> Psychic is used in the third slot to threaten Gengar and allow Claydol to spin with more ease against it, and act as a check to it to a certain extent. Ice Beam is slashed first in the fourth moveslot because with it Claydol is a good answer to Dragon Dance Salamence and an excellent one to Flygon. Hidden Power Fire is a fairly decent option on Claydol above Ice Beam, as it deals more damage to Skarmory than anything else Claydol can do
, (remove comma) and also destroys Forretress, who can otherwise be a major annoyance to the ancient doll. Rest can also be used in the fourth slot, as it increases
Claydol's longevity and removes its vulnerability to status, although Claydol is usually used on stall teams that carry a cleric, and Ice Beam and Hidden Power Fire allow Claydol to cover more threats
short-term than Rest otherwise would.</p>
[
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>The primary reason to use Claydol
over other Ground-types
, (add comma) such as Swampert and Flygon
, (add comma) is for its access to Rapid Spin. Claydol is also often chosen
instead of Swampert for its ability
, Levitate, and
over Flygon for its lack of a 4x weakness to Ice. This set aims to make the best use possible of
Rapid Spin with a defensively based EV spread that aims to keep Claydol alive and well so that it can remove Spikes multiple times. Maximum EV investment in HP allows for decent all-around
bulk. The EVs are focused mainly on Defense so that Claydol can take physical barrages optimally, such as Tyrantiar's Rock Slides, but 40 EVs are invested in Special Defense to avoid the 2HKO from Tyranitar's Crunches
most of the time. They also they help in dealing with
the likes of Gengar and Jirachi. 96 EVs can be shifted into Attack to always 2HKO 4 HP Dragon Dance Tyranitar with Earthquake, or 144 EVs into Special Attack in order to OHKO Dragon Dance Salamence with Ice Beam.</p>
<p>Good teammates for Claydol include
Electric-types such as Raikou,
in order to check the
bulky Water-types that Claydol struggles with. Zapdos works especially well
, (add comma) as it can also safely cover Dragon Dance Gyarados
, (remove comma) as well as Swampert with a specially defensive EV spread and Hidden Power Grass. Claydol helps defend Raikou against the Ground-type attacks that it dislikes, such as Earthquakes
coming from Flygon. The ancient doll also defends Zapdos from Rock-type attacks, such as Rock Slides from Tyranitar. Heracross
is also a good partner for Claydol, because
Heracross covers threats to
Claydol, such as
CurseLax, Blissey, Swampert, and other
bulky Water-types, such as like Milotic
, (add comma) to an extent. In return, Claydol stops Heracross
from being Spikes fodder for Skarmory
, (remove comma) and checks Salamence.</p>
<p>Claydol adores Wish support due to its lack of reliable
recovery—prime candidates for this are Vaporeon and Jirachi.
(Can you have only one emdash in a sentence? I'm really not sure) The former acts as a
backup check to
the likes of Tyranitar and Salamence (especially if Tyranitar is a
LureTar which Claydol can't deal with)
, (remove comma) while the latter has decent type synergy with Claydol. It resists the
Grass- and Ice-type moves that Claydol dislikes, while
in return, Claydol covers
the likes of Tyranitar, which
threatens Jirachi. Jirachi is also able to switch in fairly well on bulky
Water-types, Shadow Ball Snorlax, Regice, and specially defensive Zapdos. Pursuit users
, (add comma) such as Tyranitar and Houndoom
, (add comma) are also good partners, because despite increasing the team's overall Water weakness, they
remove Ghost-types cover teams that attempt to spinblock
using by removing them for Claydol. Skarmory deserves a mention, as between the two of them, every physical attacking type is
resisted; the two physical types that Skarmory is neutral to, Fighting and Rock, are resisted by Claydol. </p>
[Other Options]
<p>Claydol can make use of either Light Screen or Reflect
on one of its
moveslots (besides Rapid Spin and Earthquake), or even both on the same set. However, in stall-based games (
probably the games that are most likely to feature Claydol), screens are poorer options as five turns in
ADV can often consist of only switches, support moves, and resisted attacks. Also, because there is a definitive answer to almost every sweeper in
ADV (aside from
the rare fully set up Flail or Reversal users which are rare because of the abundance of Tyranitar)
, and
because there is
no Pokemon that is
really overpowered enough to muscle through its usual checks (when
they're healthy)
behind screens, using Light Screen or Reflect is a comparatively poor option.</p>
<p> Toxic is a fairly decent option on Claydol to wear down the bulky Water-types that switch in
on it, and is also notable for allowing Claydol to turn the tables on non-Resting Dusclops
, (remove comma) and
also Cloyster, who can keep Spikes up against Claydol otherwise. However, Toxic lowers Claydol's utility and ability to check certain threats overall, due to the fact that using Toxic means removing another key move from the set.
Also, the abundance of Rest and/or Heal Bell/Aromatherapy in ADV lowers Toxic's overall effectiveness. Explosion is also an option to cause some
surprise damage and open an opposing team up to a threatening sweeper, but it is not really suited to Claydol because once it is down, opposing
Spikes users are free to set up and force multiple switches. Claydol's Explosion is
also very comparatively weak and may not OHKO
opponents like a healthy Suicune.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Bulky
Water-types, such as Milotic, Suicune, and Swampert
, are the bane of
Claydol's existence, as they are capable of shrugging off Earthquakes and hitting hard back with powerful
super effective Surfs. Suicune in particular is an excellent Claydol counter, being able to set up on it freely with Calm Mind
, (remove comma) and not particularly fearing Toxic due to Rest
removing status from it. Cloyster also gets a notable mention,
because if Cloyster is the source of Spikes for a team, then
the Claydol user will have difficulty keeping Spikes off the field. Every time Claydol removes Spikes, Cloyster can switch right back into it and set them up again. However, Cloyster
must (I haven't seen many all caps in analyses, but I suppose it doesn't matter) watch out for
the comparatively rarer Toxic. Hidden Power Bug or Toxic Forretress can beat Claydol
one-on-one, and thus is able to keep its team's Spikes up against Claydol. However, Forretress must watch for Hidden Power Fire before taking Claydol on.</p>
<p>Dusclops is a very good Claydol counter, blocking
its attempts to Rapid Spin. It can also easily take any attack that Claydol dishes out and return the blows with Shadow Ball. The bandaged spinblocker also
doesn't fear Toxic when carrying Rest. Calm Mind Celebi does not fear anything Claydol has to dish out, and can boost multiple times freely on it. However, it should be emphasized that Leech Seed Celebi is not a Claydol counter as Rapid
Spin's gargantuan 64 PP far outlasts Leech
Seed's meager 16. Dragon Dance Gyarados is immune to Earthquake, takes little from
a fairly weak Ice Beam and, like Celebi,
can set up freely. However, it should be noted that Gyarados should Taunt first against Claydol to scout for a potentially harmful Toxic. Regice is a very good answer to Claydol, having good all-around bulk and a powerful Ice Beam.</p>
<p>Heracross is also a decent answer to Claydol
overall, resisting Earthquake, taking Ice Beams well with its fairly decent Special Defense stat, and hitting back with a vicious STAB
super effective Megahorn. However it should be noted that Heracross is unable to switch into Claydol's Psychic multiple times, and must predict to get in safely.
Curse Snorlax
(though CurseLax was said before...) takes little from uninvested Earthquakes and can set up on Claydol, potentially readying it for a sweep. Blissey walls Claydol all day,
especially Calm Mind variants who can set up freely
on it.</p>
