Pokémon Cloyster

[lavarina]

Cloyster
Water/Ice
Base Stats: 50/95/180/85/45/70
Abilities: Shell Armor | Skill Link | Overcoat
Notable Moves: Shell Smash, Icicle Crash, Rock Blast, Liquidation, Tera Blast, Ice Shard
New Moves: Drill Run, Chilling Water, Body Slam, Ice Spinner, Snoiwscape
Lost Moves: Explosion, Rapid Spin, Self-Destruct
Irrelevant ones: Attract, Curse, Confide, Frost Breath, Headbutt, Pin Missile, Payback, Reflect, Steel Roller, Teleport, Torment, Toxic, T

Positives:
- Once having a Shell Smash boost, it's almost an unstoppable sweeper
- Great defense which lets it tank even some super effective physical attacks. The ability to Tera into a Ground type further improving it's defense capability.
- Skill Link guarantees Icicle Spear to cut through those Shed Shell shenanigans

Negatives:
- Disgusting special defense. Even a non-effective special attack does a lot on it.
- Needs that Shell Smash to sweep. So you need to find the right time to get this thing in on the battlefield.
- Lost Explosion and Rapid Spin, so it's role as a suicide lead before is unreliable.

Terastalize Potential:
Ground is the top typing for you to Tera with Cloyster, as it finally gives it the ability to hit Steels. Steels were always the bane of its existence, so being able to use Ground type Tera Blast to rip through them is an amazing improvement. Defensively, it gives Cloyster a good matchup against any Rock and Fire physical moves trying to kill it while it sets up (because its special defense is, yet again, trash). As of right now, that's the best choice.

Cloyster @ White Herb/Life Orb
Ability: Skill Link
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant/Jolly Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Shell Smash
- Liquidation
- Tera Blast

This set is the go to for Cloyster. A single boost most of the time is enough for you to start tearing through your opponents, with Ice/Water/Ground coverage in your arsenal. Ice/Ground was always known as one of the best types you could have offensively, and now that Cloyster has access to that, it'll deal some serious damage. Cyclizar and Shed Tail improves the chances of Shell Smashing even further, giving you a free Substitute and a chance of no damage dealt to you as you boost. Adamant deals greater damage, while Jolly outspeeds threats that might be faster than it.

Will Cloyster be OU? Depends. If Terastalizing does get banned, then it might rely on the newly acquired Drill Run as it's Ground move, which honestly I'm all here for it. Not as strong as Earthquake and has a chance to miss, but it's better than nothing!

 

[Athyestic]

Pin Missile

Losing this means it could no longer lure Slowbro, which is a solid check to Cloyster not packing the move.
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Cloyster Pin Missile (5 hits) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 390-470 (99.2 - 119.5%) -- approx. 93.8% chance to OHKO
vs like
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Cloyster Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 195-235 (49.6 - 59.7%) -- approx. 99.6% chance to 2HKO
EDIT: I just now realized that my calcs sort of betray me, because Rock Blast 2hkos if it switches in.

But also, like, if it comes in on Icicle Spear, its probably living Rock Blast while it's absolutely not living Pin Missile.


It doesn't make too much of a difference, but I would think it's notable enough to point out.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

Cloyster is still a very dangerous pokemon but in this metagame with hazards everywhere it can be challenging to pull off a Shell Smash and now has to compete with Drednaw who is slightly faster/better special bulk, not as weak to hazards.