Day 2: Claydol

(BGM: Route 111 Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald)

It's honestly interesting to see people constantly make comparisons between the Pokemon franchise and the Digimon franchise. When you think about it, both have a similar premise; they're both about befriending a plethora of monsters, all of which have different abilities and types, they both started as video games before they became a 'Monster of the Week' anime, and they both have a monster based on the Dogu figurines from the Jomon period of Japan.

Oddly enough, both Dogu inspired monsters are quite underrated in their respective franchises. Digimon has Shakkoumon, a Digimon that I feel gets way too much hate and makes sense for an Angemon evolution. And Pokemon has the monster that I'll be talking about today…

Claydol!

(Insert Claydol cry here)

(BGM: Battle! Archie/Maxie from Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire)

Do you ever have a Pokemon that you love to pieces, but you're not exactly sure why? That's kind of how I feel about Claydol to be honest with you.

I guess it all stems from when I first watched the episode of the anime, 'Claydol Big and Tall'.

Lyra: I thought you weren't taking anime into account.

Me: Stay with me, I have a point!

I remember watching this episode before I even got into the games; for reference my first Pokemon game was Emerald back in 2007, and I think I saw this episode somewhere between 2005 and 2006.

Anyway, 'Claydol Big and Tall' was my first experience with this Pokemon, and its appearance stuck with me. Just seeing this gargantuan Claydol, who may or may not be the first Dynamax Pokemon according to my own headcanon, wreck shit was a sight to behold; seeing it blast Hyper Beams as it attempts to destroy a village Godzilla style, all while talking in that low, droning voice of his just left an impression on me, and I immediately grew both a respect and a fear for this fearsome Dogu.

So when I got my hands on Pokemon Emerald a year later, you'd better believe Claydol was one of the Pokemon I used for my team. And overall, I really enjoyed my time using it. Granted it wasn't as OP as the anime made it out to be, for instance I do not recommend teaching your Claydol Hyper Beam; not only is it not STAB but Claydol's attack and special attack stats aren't the best. But all things considered, I still had a lot of fun and I've used a Claydol on one or two more teams in other games.

Let me set the record straight by saying that Claydol is meant to be a defensive/tanking Pokemon as its defense and especially its special defense are its main attraction, with Cosmic Power boosting those defenses even further, making Claydol a very annoying Pokemon to take out, even with six weakness to Water, Grass, Dark, Bug, Ghost, and Ice.

On the subject of Claydol's strength and weaknesses, not only does it resist Electric attacks by being part Ground type, Claydol comes with the Levitate ability, meaning it also has a resistance to Ground type moves, which can come in handy.

If defense isn't your thing though, don't worry, because Claydol comes with moves like Power Split and Power Trick to hopefully gain some attacking power so you can better deal with your foes.

And finally, we come to Claydo's moveset, and hot dawg this thing can learn a lot of moves. I've already talked about Hyper Beam which…I personally wouldn't recommend but it's there if you like it, but let's talk about some if its attacking moves.

At first glance its natural moveset isn't anything too special, with Psybeam and Earth Power being the only STAB moves of note. Other than that though, it does learn Ancient Power which has a small chance of boosting all of Claydol's stance by one stage, and it even comes with Self Destruct and Explosion if you're someone who likes to battle strategically.

While Claydol's natural move set does have some interesting moves, they're mostly in the stat boosting department. But if you're looking to turn your Claydol into a beast on the same level as the one from the anime, take a look at the moves it can learn through TMs…

Now we're talking!

On top of better STAB moves like Earthquake and Psychic, Claydol can learn Shadow Ball to take care of Ghost types, Charge Beam for Water types and boost its Special Attack stat, Ice Beam for Grass types, and Rock Slide and Stone Edge for Bug and Ice types! Really the only thing Claydol needs to worry about is something to deal with Dark types, but that's about it.

And I haven't talked about other moves Claydol can learn like Dazzling Gleam and even Solar Beam. Claydol can even learn Sunny Day to it can get the benefit of an instantly charged Solar Beam, giving Water types another thing to be afraid of.

You pretty much have free reign to give Claydol whatever moves you want, its movepool is that diverse. The only move I'm surprised that Claydol doesn't learn is Flash Cannon which, given the number of beam based attacks it has I'm really surprised.

You mean to tell me that Claydol can learn Gyro Ball but not Flash Cannon? I don't buy it.

I know Claydol isn't the first thing people think of when the subject of defensive or tanky Pokemon, or Pokemon with diverse movepools, come into conversation, but if you haven't used a Claydol yet, go ahead and give it a try. It can be a lot of fun to use if put in the right hands.

Claydol, you may not be as big and tall as the anime made you out to be, but you are still one of Generation 3's best Pokemon to me and one of the more underrated monsters in the Hoenn Pokedex.