Claydol – Sword & Shield Fusion Strike 145/264
Date Reviewed:
January 18, 2022
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.00
Expanded: 1.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Claydol is another card that I can find because it has one thing that caught my eye.
Having no abilities and two attacks means that Claydol won’t do much since players can only pick one of the two attacks. Rapid Spin costs CC for 30 damage and makes both players switch their Active Pokemon. The wording ensures that your opponent will know exactly what you bring out and they’ll make their choices accordingly. It it’s the other way around, say like your opponent switches their Pokemon first, then it might be on your favor. But alas, we turn to the next attack.
Ancient Imprint costs FF, which might be hard to meet that attack cost, but thankfully there’s Swampert from that same set that can help you accelerate Fighting energies, even if it’s only once per turn. What it does is that you get to put damage counters until the Defending Pokemon’s remaining HP is 60. Doesn’t matter how big your opponent’s Active Pokemon is; their HP will drop to 60 regardless. The bad news is that you’ll never OHKO any Pokemon with this attack, but on the bright side, you can get your other Pokemon to finish it off next turn. Or even better, inflict Special Conditions to damage them between turns.
I don’t know any feasible method to put sixty damage in between turns. Poison and Burned Special Conditions usually puts 1 and 2 damage counters respectively, and unless there’s another method to put more damage counters than their original amount, your opponent may have time to retreat their damaged Pokemon and bring out a fresh one. Still, Claydol may have a chance to prove me wrong in Standard. The attack is good, but I don’t know what else to supplement one. For Expanded, however, there are other Pokemon with similar attacks and it even puts damage counters on the Defending Pokemon until they have 10 HP left! Like Raticate from BW Boundaries Crossed and Raticate BREAK, their Super Fang does exactly that and totally outclasses Claydol, so that alone ruins any chance for Claydol to see play in Expanded.
Ratings:
Standard: 2/5
Expanded: 1/5
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read our Pokémon Card of the Day Archive. We have reviewed more than 4700 Pokemon cards over the last 20 years!