Overview
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I literally get nothing from your overview that I couldn't find on google or bulbapedia. You talk about its movepool / typing, all of which can be seen easily when looking at the Pokemon on site. What you need to put in the overview is how the Pokemon functions in the meta, does it have any niche that sets it apart from the rest of the tier? Does it face competition in its role from anything else? Is there any reason not to use Claydol? Does it fit on all playstyles? Does having levitate + resistance to rocks + spin mean anything?
Fix up the overview pls
Pros
- Nice Defenses
- Can set rocks and spin them away
- Can set up dual screens
- Many offensive move options
- Can function as suicide lead with explosion
- Some setup moves like calm mind
- Resists fighting and has ground immunity
Cons
- Poor HP stat
Mediocre Speed
- Low Attaking stats
- Weak to common types like water, dark, and bug.
Agreeing with Dat Blast, Rejecting the screens set. Offensive Spin is good and should go first Max SpA some speed and rest in HP or something along those lines. Spin | Earth Power | Psyshock / Psychic | coverage move of some sort like Shadow Ball / Grass Knot / Ice Beam
Dual Screens Lead
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name: Dual Screens Lead
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Light Screen
move 3: Reflect
move 4: Rapid Spin / Explosion
ability: Levitate
item: Light Clay
evs: 248 HP / 8 Spe / 252 SpD
nature: Calm Nature
Moves
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- Stealth Rock is obligatory for every team and is a nice hazard to break sturdies and sashes as well as crippling rock-weak Pokemon.
- Light Screen allows teammates to tank special hits from threats like Mega Camel.
- Reflect allows teammates to tank physical hits from threats like Gurdurr.
- With Dual screens, teammates can set up to sweep the opposing team.
- Rapid Spin is a nice option that lets you spin away hazards for hazard-weak mons on the team and preserve sashes and sturdies for your teammates.
- Explosion is a nice nuke that can put a decent sized dent in anything that doesn’t resist it and can weaken up big threats enough for your revenge killers to kill them as well as allowing Claydol to function as a spinblocker against some slower mons.
Set Details
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- The HP EVs are at 248 to limit residual damage, which is even more present with Aurorus getting snow warning released, and are nearly maxed out to take general hits a lot better.
- The special defense EVs are to compliment Claydol’s superior defensive stat and function as a pivot that can take hits from special attackers and special attacking leads.
- The speed EVs are to speed creep other Claydols and min speed base 75 mons and explode before they can spin, which comes in handy more than you would think.
Usage Tips
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- Most of the time, Claydol should be the first Pokemon that you should send out, but don’t send it out if the opposing lead appears to be something that can easily kill claydol, such as a seismitoad.
- Go for rocks on the first turn unless Claydol needs screens to survive a hit.
- After rocks are safely set up, go to setup screens if it is safe for Claydol to do, but don’t let Claydol stay in if it is going to get knocked out.
- If you have a rapid spin Claydol and a rock-weak Pokemon, then play with it conservatively until ALL of the Pokemon on the opposing team that can learn stealth rock have fainted.
- If you have set up dual screens and have explosion while there are no ghost types on the opposing team, then you should explode and put a dent in something on the opposing team.
- If you are running the rapid spin set, use this set as a pivot to switch into strong special attacks if you don't want one of your other Pokemon to take a hit.
Team Options
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- A setup sweeper is a really nice teammate to have for this set, as it sets up dual screens and makes it really easy for them to setup with the screens as well as having rocks behind them to set up the sweep. Examples include but are not limited to; Feraligatr, Lilligant, and even damp rock Seismitoad.
- A rock weak mon such as really appreciates the rapid spin support that Claydol can provide them. Examples include but are not limited to; Archeops, Articuno, and Typlosion.
- Typlosion in particular really appreaciates rapid spin and stealth rock support because it allows eruption to reach its maximum power and nets some key KOs for Typlosion.
- This set usually sees more action on offensive-minded teams because it offers an opportunity for sweepers to set up or just blow through the opposing team with their newly added bulk.
I wouldn't really lead with Claydol, I would use it more of an early game setter switching it in when I have the opportunity as well as being a wall.
Standard Stealth Rock Lead
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name: Standard Stealth Rock Lead
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Rapid Spin
move 3: Earthquake
Why would you go mixed when you can just run Earth Power?
move 4: Psychic
ability: Levitate
item: Leftovers
evs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
nature: Gentle Nature
Moves
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- Stealth Rock is obligatory for every team and is a nice hazard to break sturdies and sashes as well as crippling rock-weak Pokemon.
- Rapid Spin is a nice option that lets you spin away hazards for hazard-weak mons on the team and preserve sashes and sturdies for your teammates.
- Earthquake is a standard hard-hitting STAB move that can hurt opponents that are weak to ground types and can deal out decent damage.
- Psychic is a STAB option that hits from the other end of the spectrum and makes it so that Claydol isn't complete taunt or setup bait against Pokemon that are immune to ground attacks.
Set Details
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- The HP EVs are at 248 to limit residual damage, which is even more present with Aurorus getting snow warning released, and are nearly maxed out to take general hits a lot better.
- The special defense EVs are to compliment Claydol’s superior defensive stat and function as a pivot that can take hits from special attackers and special attacking leads.
- The gentle nature is used so that neither of Claydol's attacking moves are powered down as a result of adding extra bulk.
- Leftovers are a great item that grants Claydol passive recovery over every turn and allows him to avoid getting KO'd by certain Pokemon.
Usage Tips
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- Most of the time, Claydol should be the first Pokemon that you should send out, but don’t send it out if the opposing lead appears to be something that can easily kill claydol, such as a seismitoad.
- Go for rocks on the first turn unless Claydol needs to kill something with earthquake or psychic on the first turn of the battle.
- This set should be played more carefully than the other set because it is meant to survive a lot longer than the other set.
- Try to use this set as a pivot into powerful special attackers that don't carry a super effective move against Claydol like camerupt and typlosion and try to KO with Claydol's STAB moves, but be careful of switching into attackers that can 2HKO you like specs Typlosion.
Team Options
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- A rock weak mon such as really appreciates the rapid spin support that Claydol can provide them. Examples include but are not limited to; Archeops, Articuno, and Typlosion.
- Typlosion in particular really appreaciates rapid spin and stealth rock support because it allows eruption to reach its maximum power and nets some key KOs for Typlosion.
- This set isn't a sweeping set, but it does like Pokemon that can take out flying types so that Claydol can spam earthquake freely and wear down the opposing team as well as something to take out dark types for psychic.
- Mons that are weak to ground types really like this set because Claydol can be a pivot that is immune to ground type moves and usually hit them on their weaker defense with psychic and earthquake.
Other Options
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- A calm mind set for Claydol may be appealing and have some niche uses, but it has such poor offenses and is weak to so many common types that it usually isn't worth it, but this option may be worthy of a main set mention if someone has some good reasoning for it.
- A rock polish set could also seem nice to relieve Claydol's poor speed stat, but it simply doesn't have the offenses to do anything with the superior speed stat.
- Claydol has many coverage moves such as ice beam and such, but it really needs the added power that STAB moves have to really do any decent damage.
Checks & Counters
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You can just lump all of these into a category to say Super Effective Attacks
**Water Types** Many water types such can nail Claydol super effectively with their STAB moves and KO it. Seismitoad in particular can lead off and prevent Claydol from doing its job and can set up rocks while threatening Claydol if he wants to spin his rocks away. Claydol may be able to run grass knot to amend this weakness, but it really needs all four moveslots for its set and doesn't do too much damage with this move anyways.
**Grass Types** Grass types can put Claydol to sleep, heal off of it with giga drain, and set up on it. They threaten it out with super effective STAB moves, and in the case of ferroseed, they can set up hazards that hurt claydol to spin.
**Liepard**
