Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Claydol: I don't get it...

Pinsir52

Pinsir52

New Member
I've been wondering for a while, but only just now actually decided to post on it.

After worlds, I always buy one of the decks, not only for the cool deck, but for the book that comes in it. It gives the decklists of the top 4 in each age division, and I like to read over and study then. I really do feel that studying how the best of the best's builds (not necessarily playing :) ) can help my own deck building skillz, and who knows, maybe one day my list will be in one of those books :)

Anyway, a few of the lists last year had a 3-2 Claydol line. I really don't get it...I'm not saying it's a bad play or anything (top 4 in worlds! Who am I to question the quality of the deck !?), I simply just don't get it.

Obviously, 1 extra Claydol gives it a slightly lower chance of being prized and a higher chance of drawing into it, but then why not a 3-3?

Ugh...I know it's good, just someone please explain to me why. I've been trying to figure it out for like a year now...
 
do you mean a 2-3 claydol line? i think they had that just so they had a max chance of getting claydol, without the risk of starting with baltoy.
 
Most decks play Call energy and Roseanne's which both have the ability to fish out the Baltoy. But Claydol can really only be searched by Bebes in most decks. So, adding an extra Claydol gives u a slight advantage of drawing into it early game.

Bottom line, baltoy is a lot easier to get out than Claydol is.
 
Professor Elm said:
Most decks play Call energy and Roseanne's which both have the ability to fish out the Baltoy. But Claydol can really only be searched by Bebes in most decks. So, adding an extra Claydol gives u a slight advantage of drawing into it early game.

Bottom line, baltoy is a lot easier to get out than Claydol is.
Click to expand...


Im talking about last season, where a deck could play Bebe's AND Celio's (which most did).
 
Wait.. did you mean THREE BALTOYS and TWO CLAYDOLS?

If that's the case then the answer is simple.

Start the Baltoy , dump your hand , Psychic Balance for cards.... get setup.

Baltoy gets smashed, you don't need to retreive it from discard because you're now at a 2-2 line :)
 
Rogue Archetype said:
Wait.. did you mean THREE BALTOYS and TWO CLAYDOLS?

If that's the case then the answer is simple.

Start the Baltoy , dump your hand , Psychic Balance for cards.... get setup.

Baltoy gets smashed, you don't need to retreive it from discard because you're now at a 2-2 line :)
Click to expand...



No. A few decks at worlds, and probably nats, last season played 3 Claydol and 2 Baltoy. I bet they did it just to mess with people. These top tier players are conspiring against us; they make their lists all wacky and weird so we average players will try to immolate them, then BAM, they play a real lists just to farther humiliate us...in fact, the Masters Plox that won last year was the only list that didn't have some weird stuff in it. Did you see that empoleon deck in seniors with Claydol and C Crystal!? OMG, they're trying to get in our heads, man!

/rant

I'll guess I'll never understand how those guys do it..
 
My Empoleon deck used Claydol and Cess Crystal. I used Claydol to set up, and then locked them with Cess Crystal. Or, if I happened to get lucky and have a quick Empoleon, I would just lock them from the start and never let them use any powers. It's all about mind games. ;)
 
Pinsir52 said:
No. A few decks at worlds, and probably nats, last season played 3 Claydol and 2 Baltoy. I bet they did it just to mess with people. These top tier players are conspiring against us; they make their lists all wacky and weird so we average players will try to immolate them, then BAM, they play a real lists just to farther humiliate us...
Click to expand...

Yeah! Did you see that Yamato list with the 1-1 Monferno line?! Insane! :lol:
 
Pinsir52 said:
No. A few decks at worlds, and probably nats, last season played 3 Claydol and 2 Baltoy. I bet they did it just to mess with people. These top tier players are conspiring against us; they make their lists all wacky and weird so we average players will try to immolate them, then BAM, they play a real lists just to farther humiliate us...in fact, the Masters Plox that won last year was the only list that didn't have some weird stuff in it. Did you see that empoleon deck in seniors with Claydol and C Crystal!? OMG, they're trying to get in our heads, man!

/rant

I'll guess I'll never understand how those guys do it..
Click to expand...


Main Entry:
im·mo·late

1: to offer in sacrifice ; especially : to kill as a sacrificial victim2: to kill or destroy often by fire

I think you meant "imitate" rather than "immolate." Haha.

Conspiracies definitely are raging....
 
butlerforhire said:
Main Entry:
im·mo·late

1: to offer in sacrifice ; especially : to kill as a sacrificial victim2: to kill or destroy often by fire

I think you meant "imitate" rather than "immolate." Haha.

Conspiracies definitely are raging....
Click to expand...

I think he meant immolate as in the destroy sense -- you try and destroy, in the Yamato case, an Infernape deck, but then then they retreat and use whatever the actual deck was, and due to your prior committing to a different strategy, you have to scramble to change how you're handling the matchup.

But yes, as someone previously said:

4 Call Energy
4 Roseanne's
4 Celios'
X Bebe's

The top two entries can get Baltoy, but not Claydol. Therefore, Baltoy is more easily accessible, by a considerable factor, thus, you can afford to run 2, and run 3 Claydol to maximize your chances of drawing into it early.
 
prodigal_fanboy said:
I think he meant immolate as in the destroy sense -- you try and destroy, in the Yamato case, an Infernape deck, but then then they retreat and use whatever the actual deck was, and due to your prior committing to a different strategy, you have to scramble to change how you're handling the matchup.
Click to expand...

He was saying that "average players" do the "immolating" of people like Yamato, and then the elite players being "immolated" turn around and run completely different lists, making the "immolators" look silly for trying to "immolate" them no matter what "crazy" stuff we hear through the grapevine that they're running.

If you replace all of those "immolate"s with "imitate"s, it makes a lot more sense.

I find it especially funny that Yamato's Infernape tech (which kills/destroys via fire) has been brought up in this discussion about immolation.

I am not a fan of 2-3 Claydol myself. With 4 Bebe's and 1 Luxury Ball, you have 5 ways to search it out (aside from stuff like Pokedrawer) already. Playing the 3rd Claydol to increase your odds of drawing into it naturally is redundant with Luxury Ball already essentially providing that function. I would rather devote that 3rd Claydol slot to a tech like Chatot (better than Claydol in a handful of critical instances, such as when facing a Power lock deck like Palkia G or when you have a terrible opening hand), a Cynthia's, a Looker's, another energy, an Uxie lv. X, another Uxie, etc..
 
Pinsir52 said:
Im talking about last season, where a deck could play Bebe's AND Celio's (which most did).
Click to expand...

Exactly, last season T2 Claydol was crucial to ur setup because we didn't have Uxie. Doing anything to increase ur chances or getting it was very common. Many people played Bebes, Celios, and 3 Claydol to ensure that.
 
DarthPika said:
My Empoleon deck used Claydol and Cess Crystal. I used Claydol to set up, and then locked them with Cess Crystal. Or, if I happened to get lucky and have a quick Empoleon, I would just lock them from the start and never let them use any powers. It's all about mind games. ;)
Click to expand...

LOL, my Magmortar deck used Cess Crystal and Claydol. Yay shutting yourself down!
 
eriknance said:
Yeah! Did you see that Yamato list with the 1-1 Monferno line?! Insane! :lol:
Click to expand...

Yeah, from 2007. CRAZINESS, and it no doubt helped him in his top4 match (Scizor Ex, which I guess was really popular in Japan).

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:

Rogue Archetype said:
Great question.

I don't think you'll see that this year because of Luxury Ball ;)
Click to expand...

No, people still use it, just not as much. It was a rarity last format, too. It's about as frequent as last format, people just usually cut the 3rd Claydol.
 
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butlerforhire said:
Main Entry:
im·mo·late

1: to offer in sacrifice ; especially : to kill as a sacrificial victim2: to kill or destroy often by fire

I think you meant "imitate" rather than "immolate." Haha.

Conspiracies definitely are raging....
Click to expand...

Meant to say emulate...hehe

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:

prodigal_fanboy said:
I think he meant immolate as in the destroy sense -- you try and destroy, in the Yamato case, an Infernape deck, but then then they retreat and use whatever the actual deck was, and due to your prior committing to a different strategy, you have to scramble to change how you're handling the matchup.

But yes, as someone previously said:

4 Call Energy
4 Roseanne's
4 Celios'
X Bebe's

The top two entries can get Baltoy, but not Claydol. Therefore, Baltoy is more easily accessible, by a considerable factor, thus, you can afford to run 2, and run 3 Claydol to maximize your chances of drawing into it early.
Click to expand...

Running 3 doesn't maximize the chances of drawing it. If that's what they wanted, why didn't they use a 4-2 line?
 
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