Card of the Day: Claydol
If this card were tournament legal, in what ways would it affect the metagame? Would it see play? What decks would it do well in? What decks would it be good against? Shallow and/or spam posts are not allowed.
♦ Special Rotated Review: Claydol (Great Encounters #15) {8/24/12} ♦
- Thread starter Vulpix Yolk
- Start date
If this card were tournament legal, in what ways would it affect the metagame? Would it see play? What decks would it do well in? What decks would it be good against? Shallow and/or spam posts are not allowed.
Claydol 
!
Too bad its not that great anymore.....with BTS gone, it helps with draw but would sacrifice space. However, it could work with Terrakion NV. The thing is, Claydol is catcher bait, and is so easy to KO or snipe. With Terrakion NV, Raikou, Darkrai, and their crew are too scared to KO it.
Claydol has an unbearable HP. It is easy to KO. TOO easy.
It gets OHKOd by:
Raikou
Terrakion
Darkrai
Tornadus
Tornadus EX
Zekrom
Zekrom EX
Garchomp (With 1 Altaria)
Hydreigon DRE
Thundurus
2HKOd by Hydreigon NV
Entei EX
Accelgor
and thats just a few of them....
To operate, it would need a Big Cape.
One of the greatest things about it however is that it prevents you from decking (to an extent) and ISN'T shut off by Garbodor.
!Too bad its not that great anymore.....with BTS gone, it helps with draw but would sacrifice space. However, it could work with Terrakion NV. The thing is, Claydol is catcher bait, and is so easy to KO or snipe. With Terrakion NV, Raikou, Darkrai, and their crew are too scared to KO it.
Claydol has an unbearable HP. It is easy to KO. TOO easy.
It gets OHKOd by:
Raikou
Terrakion
Darkrai
Tornadus
Tornadus EX
Zekrom
Zekrom EX
Garchomp (With 1 Altaria)
Hydreigon DRE
Thundurus
2HKOd by Hydreigon NV
Entei EX
Accelgor
and thats just a few of them....
To operate, it would need a Big Cape.
One of the greatest things about it however is that it prevents you from decking (to an extent) and ISN'T shut off by Garbodor.
Here are my thoughts on Claydol from Great Encounters:
It's a great card it improved the consistency of serval decks back when it was legal.However if it was somehow added back into the format the way it is now I don't think it would see as much play now as it did back then. Why? The format's Extremely fast and with Claydol's low HP I feel Claydol just can't keep up. Claydol can get OHKO'ed by almost every EX card in the format and several non EX cards too. Reshiram, Zekrom Terrakion and even a fully charged Cobalion all OHKO it.These cards all are much easier to get out since they're basics. Claydol being a stage 1 is harder to set up and easily Knocked out with the use of Pokèmon Catcher. However Claydol's low HP does have it's advantages it would allow Claydol to be more easily searched for with level ball and more consistently allow it to be played. If you were to play Claydol as a consistency tech in one of your decks you would have a hard time because it would be extremely hard to keep it on the field due to it's low HP. If you ran higher counts of Claydol with level ball and heavy cloak it would still take lots of work to keep it on the field(because of catcher and it's high retreat cost.) but it would be much easier to do. The problem with a deck that runs a lot of Claydol(3-3 or more)would likely be trying to keep up with all the High HP basics and Pokèmon Catcher. If Claydol were to make a return it would undoubtedly still have a place waiting for it in despite it's lack of HP. Claydol would be most likely be played in trainer-lock decks such as Zebstirika which usually runs level ball and will have a much easier time keeping Claydol on the field due to your opponent being unable to play items like Switch and Pokèmon Catcher. Overall I think if Claydol came back to the format the game would be more balanced and Claydol would definitely see play in some decks that can get around Pokèmon catcher and deal with Claydol's Low HP.
It's a great card it improved the consistency of serval decks back when it was legal.However if it was somehow added back into the format the way it is now I don't think it would see as much play now as it did back then. Why? The format's Extremely fast and with Claydol's low HP I feel Claydol just can't keep up. Claydol can get OHKO'ed by almost every EX card in the format and several non EX cards too. Reshiram, Zekrom Terrakion and even a fully charged Cobalion all OHKO it.These cards all are much easier to get out since they're basics. Claydol being a stage 1 is harder to set up and easily Knocked out with the use of Pokèmon Catcher. However Claydol's low HP does have it's advantages it would allow Claydol to be more easily searched for with level ball and more consistently allow it to be played. If you were to play Claydol as a consistency tech in one of your decks you would have a hard time because it would be extremely hard to keep it on the field due to it's low HP. If you ran higher counts of Claydol with level ball and heavy cloak it would still take lots of work to keep it on the field(because of catcher and it's high retreat cost.) but it would be much easier to do. The problem with a deck that runs a lot of Claydol(3-3 or more)would likely be trying to keep up with all the High HP basics and Pokèmon Catcher. If Claydol were to make a return it would undoubtedly still have a place waiting for it in despite it's lack of HP. Claydol would be most likely be played in trainer-lock decks such as Zebstirika which usually runs level ball and will have a much easier time keeping Claydol on the field due to your opponent being unable to play items like Switch and Pokèmon Catcher. Overall I think if Claydol came back to the format the game would be more balanced and Claydol would definitely see play in some decks that can get around Pokèmon catcher and deal with Claydol's Low HP.
Sorry if this is reviving, but I have actually played an Unlimited deck at league during Worlds and stuff with Claydol in as a tech for consistency. There was no point in playing HGSS-on, but Dragons Exhalted hadn't came out yet, so I thought I'd just play around with some of the older sets. My deck outsped so many other decks with an effortless T1 60; I actually found people were Catchering Claydol just to stall. I beat MonoTerrakion and a pretty good Eels list with a bunch of Stage 1, 100 HP ex's, each with a different type. It looked really horrible on paper, but because of Claydol, I was able to constantly have exactly what I needed in my hand. I think if Claydol were in format, It would give a lot of the tier 2 decks and rouge ideas a shot at tier 1, or at least first place at several events. Just my thoughts, though.