Competitive Pokemon History - Claydol Quiz

Answer: Rapid Spinner

Claydol's 70/70 offenses were very bad, but it had just the right assortment of moves and great bulk with which to make the set work. Thanks to its good bulk and decent defensive typing, Claydol made for a good check to top tier threats such as Tyranitar, Salamence and Jirachi. Sadly, Claydol's offenses were so low that it would often be setup fodder for various setup sweepers not weak to its moves, such as Gyarados, Celebi, Suicune and Snorlax.

This meant that Claydol could really only fit on stall teams that could adequately deal with setup sweepers. Still, its immunity to Spikes, Sandstorm damage, and ability to both offensively and defensively check huge threats made it a great fit on these teams.

Answer: Levitate

Levitate renders Claydol immune to Ground type moves. Combined with its own Ground typing, and Claydol effectively resists the popular Rock + Ground offensive duo, known as "EdgeQuake" or "SlideQuake". This also granted Claydol an immunity to Spikes as well, which was incredibly helpful for defensive teams.

Answer: It lacked reliable recovery

Claydol was forced to expend three moveslots on the trio of Earthquake, Rapid Spin and Ice Beam. If it could've been granted Recover, it would have been amazing. Sadly, the best it could do was use the unwieldy Rest or go without recovery entirely, forcing its team to invest a teamslot on a Wish passer.

This was a problem shared by most of its competitors for its Rapid Spin niche, namely Tentacruel and Forretress. As a point of reference, Starmie's defensive stats are far, far worse than any of these three, but because it has access to Recover, it is a superior choice for a Rapid Spinner.

Answer: Six

Claydol is weak to Bug, Dark, Ghost, Grass, Ice and Water. With Venusaur and Milotic ruling over the tier, Claydol was hard countered by the latter, and was easily checked by the former, both easily forcing it out with strong super effective attacks. Being weak to common Ghost type moves caused it to run into issues against Mismagius, Rotom, and especially Spiritomb as well. The latter could not only effortlessly switch into it, as its main job was generally blocking Rapid Spin anyway, but it could use Pursuit as Claydol fled the field to inflict major damage, crippling it for the rest of the game.

Claydol wasn't unviable, as it did offer nice utility in either Rapid Spinning, or even boosting with Calm Mind to function as a bulky win-condition. Still, it had severe flaws that stopped it from being particularly great in fourth generation UU.

Answer: Suicide, hazard and screen setting lead

Access to Rapid Spin, Reflect, Light Screen, Explosion and Stealth Rock meant Claydol could work as a suicide lead for hyper offensive teams. The immense utility this set granted teams of that calibur easily offset Claydol's bad offenses. With Rapid Spin, it could keep hazards off the field, while using Stealth Rock to set its own. Explosion was an option, as Claydol could blow something up to give a teammate a free switch in, and it would generally replace one of Reflect or Light Screen. Because of Claydol's good bulk, it could pretty reliably set Stealth Rock and set at least one screen, so a Focus Sash was not mandatory, enabling it to take on Light Clay to keep its screen(s) up for three turns longer.

Answer: Resistant or immune to all entry hazards and immune to sand damage

Claydol is immune to both forms of Spikes, resists Stealth Rock, and is immune to Sand damage. This gives it good longevity, letting it not be plagued by the hazards it is tasked to remove. This trait is unique to only Claydol itself. Sadly, Claydol's weaknesses to Water, Ice and Bug made it unviable in fifth generation standard play's daunting weather wars. Still, Claydol carved out a nice niche in fifth generation UU thanks to this helpful trait.

Answer: Claydol's typing and stats were both poor

The redeeming qualities granted by its Ground/Psychic typing were now completely overshadowed by the many drawbacks it had. Many top tier Pokemon could easily exploit these weaknesses. Even those which Claydol can hit back for super effective damage, like Virizion or Heracross, are not seriously threatened by it due to its lacking offensive stats.

They can take a hit if need be and destroy Claydol in return. Because of this, Claydol dropped all the way to NU. There, it was a pretty good Pokemon, but it still had issues dealing with Ghost types, as well as accounting for its poor overall typing.

Answer: Malamar

Malamar was an incredibly dangerous end-game sweeper and stallbreaker which demanded attention when building a team for the tier, both as a teammate and as something to prepare ample counterplay for. Malamar could endlessly switch in on Claydol and threaten to boost in its face, as Claydol could do absolutely nothing of note back to it. Malamar could also simply beat Claydol down with a couple STAB, super effective Knock Offs, and could remove the item of a teammate Claydol bailed out into if a sweep was not yet in the cards for it. Thus, anyone looking to make use of Claydol needs to have a teammate which can be switched into Knock Off, and ideally a teammate which can check Malamar outright.

Unfortunately, this often required two teamslots, as finding a single Pokemon who could do both was just about impossible.

This made using Claydol quite tricky, even for all of its merits otherwise.

Answer: Alolan Sandslash

Alolan Sandslash also had access to both Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock. It was a lot stronger, roughly as bulky, and while its Ice/Steel typing did have some big deficiencies, these were far easier to account for than Claydol's. Claydol's mediocre offensive presence and lack of recovery options were more crippling than ever in the Z-Move era.

The latter made it a major, gaping target to get blown up by a nucleic Z-Move, while the former meant Claydol made for a terrible user of Z-Moves itself. Sadly, Claydol's only real niche over Alolan Sandslash is being better against Rock and Ground types, such as Alolan Dugtrio and Lycanroc. Still, Alolan Sandslash performs sufficiently enough against them as is, leaving very little reason for Claydol to see serious use.

Answer: No

Thankfully, Claydol was included in the original set of roughly 450 Pokemon who were welcomed into Galar immediately. Unfortunately, it got absolutely nothing new which is relevant, meaning that all its old flaws went unaddressed with the introduction of the eighth generation.