So for my thoughts on the Tate and Liza thing: I think this series really embodies the feeling of playing with just one really strong Pokémon as a kid, and leaving Tate and Liza as they are with needing to bring in an HM user still keeps that same spirit. Sure it makes it a little easier for the solo mon, but the two are functionally made to be a double battle, and changing something like that almost feels like changing the core of the game, even if it’s still a 2v1
You kind of put the way I feel into words; the more stuff the runner mods or manipulates kind of feels like it ruins the spirit of the way the game was intended to be played. That doesn't extend to stuff like giving a pokémon the best IVs of course, as the point is to get the best possible result for that mon.
100% agree. It's how fast can we beat the game solo, not how fast we beat the nodded game solo, and mods like keeping HM mules consistent makes sense, I like bringing in some scrub to eat a hit to Tate and Liza, just feels right
You know though I'm surprised it took until just recently with Ogerpon's Wellspring form for there to be another Grass/Water-type, especially given the number of aquatic plants in real life.
I love Ludicolo on swift swim teams with a life orb. Just brutal. Armaldo for that surprise factor! I also like to be a little weird and put EV's for Gorebyss in its non-dominant defense stat and then boost the other stat with a move, making it more of an all rounder defensively. It trips up players expecting a common set.
If I remember Claydol from anything, it’s that one episode of the anime featuring a giant one wreaking havoc upon a valley. It ends up being a classic for me mostly due to how hilarious it is (Ash and co. teaming up with Team Rocket, the fact that the giant Claydol actually hates eggplant when sacred texts claimed it like them, Claydol falling in love with Wobbuffet’s maid disguise, etc.).
Oh we are in for a treat. The thumbnail is both hilarious and quite accurate to what its biggest challenge is going to be... the massive number of water types that you encounter throughout the game. Looking forward to its premier.
I'm calling it now, we're going to be doing a lot of ancient pokemon like relicanth, etc, then at the end of the year we're building up to doing the three Regis.
Steven's Claydol in Ruby version was always the pokemon that walled me and messed me up as a kid. Once it got both screens up I knew I was finishing with struggle because he'd use all of his full restores on it. If Scott was playing Ruby or Sapphire he'd feel the same about the Claydol that he does now about Ludicolo. I never tried using it myself until I started doing some challenge runs as an adult. But then it carried me hard. When I got emerald and saw Wallace as Champion I thought "a water type user? this will be easy". Then he wrecked me over and over. His is probably one of the best mono-type teams in pokemon, it feels like he has answers for everything even though all his pokemon are part water.
Claydol is actually really great in gen 3 competitive pokemon. It has Rapid Spin as well as Explosion and can ignore Spikes with Levitate. It's typing isn't normally fantastic, but being immune to ground and electric actually gives it many good switch-ins. Also great coverage and the all important sandstorm immunity of the great rock/ground/steel giants.
My biggest nostalgia for Claydol is puzzles from Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs where roaming Claydol can catch you from all directions. Good playthrough overall, but I'll second everyone else saying to give HP Bug another look since a neutral Earthquake is stronger than a 2x effective HP Grass (assuming similar Def and SpDef) and Whiscash isn't an issue.
29:00 The Tate and Liza fight should remain as is. It's an iconic part of the Gen III games and it should always be considered. It's unfortunate that some Pokemon will struggle with it, especially the weaker Pokemon you'll have to run, but it won't be fair to the past runs you already did and would need its own list.
I'm on the side of not changing Tate & Liza fundamentally. It feels like way too much of a departure not requiring an HM user sacrifice. Also I think it's funny you mention Substitute in this video, because it completely shuts down Phoebe's lead Dusclops. Curse doesn't hit through Substitute in Gen 3, plus it won't be able to confuse you, so it's a great move there. Even without any set up to go with it, it's still really convenient to avoid a reset condition and even take a hit later on. Finally, with how awful Ludicolo was, I'm of the mindset that HP Bug would be a huge benefit for Claydol, but of course, I'd have to evaluate how that impacts guys like Whiscash. With all that said, this was a great video as always and I'm excited for Wailord next!
My main nostalgia for the Claydol line is using the shadow one from Gale of Darkness. In that game you do get it in the early game, and with it's shadow wave attack early game and EQ spam late game it has a cool niche of giving you spread damage options in a game of all double battles.
For the Tate and Liza thing: I think leaving it how it is feels more in line with the challenge. You already make minimal manipulations, even things like Abra mentioned in this video are things that could be argued to benefit the challenge run itself, but because it's too different from the base game you don't do it, and I think the one attack the HM Mon might absorb in Tate and Liza's fight feels more natural to the game than doing it with just the challenge pokemon.
You have no idea how happy i am that you are doibg relicanth. It might just be my most anticipated video this year so far. Its such an interesting little guy. Good abilities and decent movepool with two incredible stabs but a big weakness. And i juat like its look.
I always put my kids down for a nap right before these release, and it’s always nice when they sleep through the entire video, it’s a much needed mid day break on a Saturday
Hi Scott Your solo runs inspired me to start doing my own runs in Black and White. I just want to pitch in with my experience (ab)using substitute in those games now that the move is on your radar. You are absolutely right about undervaluing substitute in emerald. The move has essentially been a stellar choice for almost every run I've completed with the exception of absolute monsters like Darmanitan and Krookodile. Then when you consider weaker pokemon or those with crippling type weaknesses like Omastar, substitute becomes borderline essential to winning late game fights. If you can set it up before a big threat comes out, you have free turn to either set-up or deal damage. This is huge for fights that have one or two pokemon that just deal too much damage to beat conventionally. Not to mention that substitute gives you immunity to status conditions like toxic poison, which would be extremely helpful for Steven's Skarmory in emerald. That being said, its only worthwhile if the late game fights are dangerous enough that a free turn/status immunity would make a significant difference and the method to learn the move is reasonably accessible (unlike in yellow version). Given how powerful Steven's team is in emerald in particular and that substitute is behind one relatively quick fight, I think integrating substitute into certain runs would be a serious time-save and consistency boost.
A little nostalgia from me regarding Claydol: I remember when I was little we were at the playground playing around with our TCG cards (trading them and throwing them like throwing stars to see who could get them the furthest, but never actually playing the TCG) and meeting someone who had a french version of the Claydol-ex from EX Power Keepers. Of course even back then ex cards were all the rage, and this card in particular had such cool art. Growing up in the Netherlands, our cards weren't translated, so I had no idea they made cards in other languages. Up to that point I had never played the handheld games and had only ever seen the anime, without ever seeing Claydol appear in it. Its design seemed so awesome. You could say I was intrigued. I think I ended up trading it for two of my own gx cards. I can't remember which ones, but I was so happy with my new acquisition. The card is still in one of my old folders today and Claydol has been a favourite of mine ever since.
as for Tate/Liza, I think that the challenge of their gym in R/S/E is the doubles mechanics themselves, more so than the Psychic type as a type. For instance it only hits 2 types supereffective and has 2 resistances, and like you said many mons have HP for coverage or dark level-up moves. Ultimately, I would still watch and be interested to see the run with tate & liza battles separately or as one trainer
Re Tate & Liza modding for it to function with just one Pokémon: not necessarily against, but all the other runs were done with a second weaker Pokémon in your party. Changing now would require them to be replayed, but would likely cause time losses. I think going forward tho, this would still be the best option - after all having another Pokémon that gets destroyed in the first turn only provides an unfair advantage and generally is not in the spirit of the challenge. PS love the content, been watching every video for like a year now and it’s just fantastic ❤
My default approach (I can always be swayed by a good argument in any individual case) is that less modding is better for this sort of “tierlisting” challenge. I definitely would say to keep the mechanics for Tate & Liza vanilla.
Claydol is one of my underrated favourites! _Powerful moveset, fun types, interesting design. Thanks to B/W2, I aways have to argue if it'll be on my team._
I love Claydol, probably my favorite Ground type. I did a run of Pokémon Shield using only ground types and after failing to catch the first Baltoy I encountered I found a shiny one! It was my ace for the rest of the game. Gave me new appreciation for Lightscreen and Reflect too. In the fight with Opal her Dynamax Pokémon could not inflict enough damage through Lightscreen to overcome my Leftovers!
You should really look into Teleport routing for mons that get it, there’s a LOT of overworld movement that can be skipped if you, for example, only heal in Mauville until after Norman.
Modding out the second pokemon requirement is definitely in the spirit of the challenge because it's a solo challenge, and you useing a second pokemon in the Tate and Liza fight makes it easier.
love the video! If you’re looking at legendary runs for emerald, Deoxys would be such an interesting run, definition of a glass cannon. I’m also a big player of gen 3 smogon OU and claydol is one of the best around!! it’s funny seeing little similarities in the most common competitive sets and what sets you use for runs.
About the nostalgia thing - I agree but the saving graces for some Pokémon were the Gamecube games (which you should ABSOLUTELY play if you haven't yet, I would place them on the same S Tier as R/S/E). So many Pokémon got to absolutely SHINE in those. Also fun fact, my nostalgia for Skarmory came from R/S/E and NOT G/S/C - because for the longest time I thought it was a Gen 3 Pokémon due to how Gen 2 tries its hardest to hide it from you. It's only available on one route (at night in Crystal from what I can remember) and NO trainers have it. Gen 2 has so many Pokémon that either don't appear at all as opponents, only appear ONCE on a random easily missable trainer's team AND/OR they appear so late into the game that you probably just forgot about them like Houndour/Houndoom.
My story with Claydol came from a rom hack. Pokémon Snakewood. This was my starter choice, and it helped carry me throughout much of the early game. It helped me a bunch. It became a Claydol later than I wanted it do, but it was still a loyal member of my team. I was tempted to remove it for Gardevoir, something I caught a while back, but it never left my team. I never get rid of my starter as a rule. It's usually the Pokémon I never get rid of. That rule started on my first game, Yellow Version, when I got my favorite Pokémon, Pikachu. Even then, I never removed my rodent, even if it sucked. This went double for my pal Claydol. It was my counter to the Faceleech Fakemon. Could take an attack, then kill it in one hit because it's defenses were literal paper. It also could reliably take hits. It was not the best at dishing out damage, but I knew I could rely on it basically all the time. Wish I knew where Earthquake was, though. Or Psychic. Whatever.
It's been a while since I've seen one of your videos pop up that is neither a stream nor over an hour long... perfect! I know little about Claydol (one of those Pokémon I tend to forget about) but this length and style is the sort that is easier for me to watch so I'm looking forward to it. 0:48 - Funny you say that as you put up the buffed version of Rapid Spin up on screen. It's not even 50 Attack Power in Gen 3; it's a mere 20. 2:29 - Claydol being a balanced attacker is a huge surprise to me. I expected it to be a more Defensive Pokémon but nothing about it screams physical attack. Perhaps it has that Attack stat purely because it's Ground typing, before the Physical/Special split. 5:37 - Abilityless runs are a fun possibility then. That could be an entertaining or cruel experience depending on the Pokémon. 6:55 - Roxanne had a somewhat answer for Special Attackers and it still wasn’t enough. To be fair, I don’t think she expected a badgeless trainer to rock up with a Psybeam firing Claydol. 10:54 - The specifically softer sand compared to all the other sand on the beach. 13:50 - I never knew the Rich Kid’s Pokémon all held Nuggets. Funny little detail. 17:00 - Going with a pretty luck based strategy with hoping Ancient Power would activate on the first turn. You should know by now that Ancient Power tends to work on the last turn that faints the Pokémon, much like how any move that isn’t 100% accurate is actually 50% accurate. 22:31 - Game Freak really didn’t want people using Ice types. They had the best variation of a move that could be learned by the majority of Pokémon be an Ice type attack. 27:26 - That’s because there aren’t many things that hinder Special Attack. It took until Gen 5 for them to introduce an attack that specifically lowered Special Attack of your opponent as a side-effect. 28:40 - I still feel you should have made all your Emerald challenges at tag-team challenges. Emerald Version does have the most tag battles (discounting the team up scenarios in Platinum, because you’re using only one Pokémon) so I feel it’d have made sense and distinguished from your other purely Solo challenges. 34:32 - A fortunate outcome with the freeze. I expected a win but that win was far quicker than it could otherwise have been. 36:11 - That’s because Mightyena only threw sand in one of Chucky the Claydol’s eyes. They just spun around and continued firing Ice Beam with no issue. 38:39 - Likewise, it always seemed like a Dark/Ice type to me. Funny enough, it’s Pokédex descriptions make it sound like it should have been an Ice/Rock type. Yet, it is just pure Ice. 42:52 - Oh my gosh; the foreshadowing and karma! You hinted to Leech Seed being a problem earlier, you insulted Gen 3 Grass types earlier, and now Wallace’s Ludicolo seeds you with a vengeance. Love the little animation of the two you did here. 47:06 - The PP shortage was something I thought might occur when Steven swapped out his Skarmory. You needed the Ice Beam kept aside to strike it down but you don’t get a lot of PP with Earthquake. 48:26 - Rather funny how this ends with a mirror match between Claydols. Awesome video!
Claydol is an incredibly important mon in gen 3 OU! Rock type damage is really important in the tier with threats like tyranitar and choice band aerodactyl, and earthquake is common, so Claydol's typing is quite excellent defensively. Further, Spikes are really important for stacking up damage, which makes rapid spinners important as a counter, which in turn makes ghosts important as /spin blockers/. And whos the best ghost? Gengar, who absolutely hates Claydol's Psychic!
Tate and Liza was my worst enemies growing up, they were so hard to beat back then ! :) I think the biggest strategic difference between having two pokemon vs. 1 pokemon against them is how much of a tank/race fight the entire thing is. Taking 1 - 2 less direct hits on your primary mon is pretty huge (assuming you setup turn 1 since you will you need to sweep fast). In a battle that will last atleast 4-5 turns, assuming you knock out a pokemon pr round before they hit you. That is ~25 % of the potential damage absorbed. I think for this fight alone, it should be modded to allow for 1v2
Claydol is based. Also happy to see another gen 3 run on your channel. Haven't been recommended you in a hot minute because UA-cam algorithms both make my subscriptions very low priority for showing up on my feed, and also I can't seem to have past a certain number of subscriptions to anyone I like. I guess either I have too many and they unsubscribe me, or I don't have my own subscription count high enough for higher subscription abilities? Which if the latter is the case that basically goes against the fact that most accounts are for watching and commenting on videos for the vast majority of the userbase.
I never used Baltoy or Claydol, actually now that I think about it there are a lot of pokemon I have never used... Anyhoodles, I never used Baltoy, but I was always happy to see it on an enemy team. I can imagine it spinning around, living its best life, being oblivious to the fact that it should feel anything other than joy and perhaps a bit of dizziness.
I understand that most people don't care much for it, but Claydol is one of my all time favorites. I love the ancient, quasi-angelixc look it has. I remember hearing its cry in the anime, and it sounded so mysterious and powerful. "Claaay- dol." Like a bell chiming. Honestly, it was so tragic, I would sometimes go entire playthrough with only two pokemon so i could grab a Claydol, Flygon, and Cacturne for my team. The desert had some of the greatest pokemon of the whole game for me, and forcing myself to choose one was difficult. And yeah, Claydol isn't very useful. Unfortunately. It's not evolved for Norman, the next two gym leaders are immune to ground, and then you have so many strong water trainers. Dark, ghost, and ice were all so difficult to go up against. It was at least decent for Steven. Still, an amazing pokemon with great stats, a versatile moveset, and a killer design
Ooh, an Edit for the Tate and Lisa discussion; I'm very mixed on it? In general I personally would keep modifications to the game to an absolute minimum, but this modification would remove a barrier that prevents the challenge from being as authentic as it could be. Overall I would be in favour of it c: Though ofc I dont and shouldnt really have a say
The move Flatter is the special version of Swagger. Not sure what it does but I'd say that maybe there's a function in the games that calculates confusion damage using the special attack against the special defense.
Great video. A few thoughts: I'm really surprised Ludicolo could be such a wall, but in hindsight it makes sense that Double Team & Leech Seed can be so antagonizing. I wonder which other mons will have the same type of issues with it. (To be honest, I don't remember which ones have up to this point, if any.) I was not expecting a PP issue on Steven, and I appreciate that you went straight for the max PP strats on the second run. Lastly, be careful with the stats pages you pull from Bulbapedia. Rapid Spin has been updated since gen 3 to have 40 BP, and while the correct value was present in the overlay, it could be confusing to someone not privy to that fact. The type charts weren't an issue for this video, but remember for Steel types that it was updated in Gen 6 to take neutral damage from Dark & Ghost attacks. I don't know if there's a way to pull stat blocks & type matchups for older gens off of Bulbapedia, if so that could solve the discrepancies.
I think you shouldn't mod it out, I feel like your original take on runs is the best. Try to keep it hypothetically possible to run the game unmodified. Tinker a bit to get your starter the way you want- you could reset over and over for this manually. Maybe also make all temporal items available since you could wait out the clock- time is being manipulated by game speed after all. I absolutely have hyperfixating ADHD too and love your content, but I am conflicted by your choices sometimes... like I think it's a probable situation to have perfect mons with egg moves to start... I've done this a bunch! People have given me their copies of games and I'll breed amazing mons on my original copy of a game and then transfer them to my new game! That's my brain operating my way though! You keep being super awesome Scott, I'm so glad your content has been getting better and better over the years 😀
This might well be nostalgia but it feels like with the exception of Mewtwo, the weather trio are the cleanest and best designed legendaries. They strike the balance between simple and intricate, and they're clearly very powerful both to look at and with generation-defining abilities. I think it's because they're the first legendaries (Mewtwo notwithstanding) that (a) fight (b) are not birds (c) are not "cute" mythicals like Celebi and Mew.
I tried using baltoy during a playthrough once and thought it was really bad, it had very little bulk and didn't deal very much damage. it was only after fighting a claydol that I found out it actually became quite good and it became my default ground type if I wasn't using flygon or swampert in a playthrough
Looking at Clatdol's backsprite and art, and seeing the only "eyes" that are "closed" are the ones to either side of the front center one, I thus conclude that those two are the _only_ eyes, and the rest...are mouths.
As a random thought, since you're being outstalled by Wallace's Ludicolo, Toxic might be able to solve that problem for you. However, that would mean you'd need to delete Ice Beam, which would make the Gyarados harder and cause problems with Full Restores. Worth a try, though!
That ludicolo is truly brutal. On a regular play through I did years ago, it set up one double team followed by me missing ten attacks in a row. It crit me three times in that span of time. RNG is the absolute worst thing thats ever happened in video games.
I think that keeping a required 2nd pokemon for the Tate/Liza fight it better. I know it introduces some more randomness to the run, but it was intended to be a double battle anyway. It's not like you can do a true solo because of HM users anyway. They should get their 2 seconds in the spotlight. Could even do a fun thing for the channel where you name the intended 2nd pokemon after a patreon sponsor.
Since the devs didn't implement any way for you to enter the battle with one Pokemon, I don't think it's right for you to modify the game to allow that. Modding the enemy trainer AI to always think you only have one pokemon (so they don't use Roar or Mean Look) makes a lot more sense. You *could* enter virtually every fight with only one non-fainted mon, it's just super tedious. But it just makes the AI fight only the pokemon who is being run, which I feel is perfectly in-keeping with the rules and intent. Modifying the Tate and Liza entry conditions fundamentally changes the scope of the fight and is going to make things significantly, and unnecessarily, more difficult for pokemon that use set up moves. Because you virtually always get at least one of the Xatu or Claydol attacking the HM mon, you get something of a reprieve on round 1 and entering with only one mon would remove that. Not a fan. You're doing the correct thing regarding T&L, imo. Plus, comments are engagement
That's one thing about Gen 1 that is lost in later generations. The wild Pokemon were strategically placed by the developers based on the next major battle. Before Brock even if you chose Charmander, you could pick up Mankey in Red or Nidoran in either version to get a fighting type move. Before Misty even if you didn't pick up Paras or Pikachu, you could get Bellsprout or Oddish after Nugget Bridge. Before Surge you could already have Sandshrew in Blue but even if you had Red you would have to go through Diglett Cave to pick up Flash anyways so you could get Diglett or Dugtrio. By the time the game opens up you have all the tools you need for the rest of the game, but even then you have to have Surf before you can even get to the fire type gym.
The TMs are placed similarly to this in generation 2. Fury Cutter before Bugsy, Rollout before Morty, DynamicPunch before Jasmine, and Iron Tail before Pryce.
Gen5 did the same: the Elemental Monkeys before the 1st Gym Trio, Tinburr, Sawk and Throh before Lenora, Darumaka and Pansear can be obtained before the Burgh, there is a desert area filled with ground type before Elesa, Ducklett, Deerling and Fungoos are obtainable before Clay, the cave before Skyla is filled with Electric types, you can find fighting and rock types before Brycen, and the routes before Iris and Drayden have Ice types. The same applies to B2/W2 (Riolu before Cheren, Magnemite before Roxie and Marlon is the only exception but by the time you reach him you have a full team and coverage moves available).
I think whatever advantage you get from a free hit on the HM user is more than made up for by doing the rest of the fight 2 v 1. It also sets a precedent for any mandatory double battles in future gens, if there are any.
Concerning your quick discussion on HP Bug at the end, the Solrock and Lunatone actually just have swapped base Defense stats (same for Offensive stats too actually, with Solrock leaning Physical and Lunatone Special) so I think bringing a Physical move into Tate and Liza is sometimes warranted. Now, I think with how the game gives out IVs/EVs, Lunatone actually has a bit more Defense than Solrock does Special Defense, but I think they are close enough to still make stuff like HP Bug or HP Ghost an option.
I think modding out the second pokemon requirement for Tate & Liza is in the spirit of the challenge. This challenge is already representative of how many people play the game. A lot of people I knew would just take their starter and go through the whole game with it. I would always use a team of six and go through whole game. I remember one of my friends telling me it was weird that I did that. It fits because this is a solo challenge. It would make the battle more difficult I'm sure, but that would make it even more entertaining for us viewers. The only downside to modding it out, is it'll be unfair to the pokemon who have already had their runs finished. Then again, the newer runs will always be unfair to those already done because you keep getting better at the game. In the end, I don't think getting rid of that requirement or keeping it, is really all that important. I couldn't care less really. The only thing I'd like to see changed which most would disagree with is Return not being used. Especially in Generation II, I hate how every pokemon uses Return. it trivializes things to an extent by giving them a move that is even more powerful than rarer moves like Ice Beam, Surf, & Flamethrower. It is normal making it useful in most situations especially in a game where Normal types feel OP. It is just mundane too. Even when.I play the game I stopped using it because it feels like Double Team to me, both OP and tedious.
I do have memories from using Claydol and it’s from Pokémon XD. You mentioned not getting it at a good time but in Pokémon XD it’s one of the early shadow Pokémon you are able to obtain. Its okay, but getting it to level 36 with stats on par/very slightly lower than starter Pokémon can be miserable. Wish either Baltoy had better stats or the evolution level was lower. That being said, Claydol’s defenses are helpful for tanking shadow moves, which are super effective on all non-shadow Pokémon. Also Claydol is pretty good in gen 3 OU
I don't know if it is a big deal since it was only a two point damage difference but noticed you used Ice Beam against Winona's Pelipper instead of Psybeam which had higher effective power. I also do have some memories with Claydol. I ended up replacing my Dustox with it the second time I ever played the game. I thought it looked cool and I remember it seeming good because of my training in the desert. It was a lot easier to raise compared to Trapinch which I used in my first run. Trapinch seemed fragile. Baltoy was a little fragile but not nearly as fragile. I remember my Claydol being an MVP of the battle with the Tate & Liza with Shadow Ball of all things. She resisted their psychic moves and hit them super effectively. I still remember my final lineup the first time I played Sapphire consisted of Seviper, Swalot, Masquerain, Lunatone, Flygon, & Kyogre. For me, it seems whichever pokemon I use the first time I play the game end up being some of my favorites except for Flygon in that case. I thought Vibrava looked cooler and Trapinch was a pain to raise. Seviper, Swalot, Masquerain, & Lunatone though are all some of my favorite pokemon overall. Sapphire was my favorite overall too for the longest time despite Yellow then Blue being my first pokemon games.
Claydol using Dig at 27:55 and then dodging Camerupt's Earthquake with Levitate is so funny 😂 I was imagining it just mindfucking Maxie in the fight and him being flabbergasted as to how that works ☠️☠️☠️
@@claytonroberts1622 I think so! As long as the pokemon that is casting earthquake doesn't have Mold breaker or neutralizing gas, they shouldn't be able to hit a levitating mon using dig 😂😂
Regarding stealing nuggets for money, the Match Call feature does not allow you to rebattle trainers until after you've beaten Norman and secured 5 badges, so you wouldn't be able to get more than 2 Nuggets that way (skipping Watson and Cindy when you pass through that route and coming back later with Thief). Regarding Claydol's availability, it is not a late-game Pokemon. You can pick up a Baltoy around level 20 in the Desert on Route 111 with 4 gym badges. Your team should be right around level 30 at that point, so there's a little bit of catch-up, but it's reasonable to evolve it (L36) in time to battle Winona (badge 6).
27:40 I always figured when a pokemon hit themselves with confusion is because they tripped on themselves and fell and that's why it does physical damage. and when you have a higher attack stat it's because you have more physical momentum thus doing more physical damage.
My thoughts on the tate & Liza Q: keep the Hm user, but if you can mod the Claydol to guarantee use EQ on the first turn it gives a Consistent first Turn KO & a Consistent Line
Not entirely related to the video but here's a thought I had while checking out Claydol's pokedex entries... We're supposed to be helping researchers catalogue and study the various pokemon around the region, right? Solve mysteries and all that? Well, why is it that throughout all regions, the only information the pokedex has is information we already knew? Why is it that the only pertinent information a pokemon will ever have outside of its height and weight are two lines of text that never meaningfully change from region to region? In elementary school, I researched Arctic Foxes for about an afternoon to prepare a presentation that lasted roughly five minutes. I know more about an animal that I will never meet than the foremost authorities on pokemon will ever know about creatures they've spent their entire lives with. It... feels like a hugely wasted opportunity for the writers at Game Freak to have fun and make something up and not just truncate/copy/paste the pokedex from the last game. Gen 7 stands out as a shining example for Claydol in particular, because we found out it not only melts in the rain but ALIENS(!!!), but the next time it gets a podedex entry it's back to the "this mysterious pokemon is full of mysteries" tripe. [/ramble]
I've never been a fan of the Tate and Liza fight in solo runs. Every other gym tests a Pokémon's ability to handle any other given Pokémon with its moveset, level, and trainer AI, but the Tate and Liza fight disproportionately affects Pokémon that don't have a specific answer. Compare it to the Wattson fight: many Pokémon struggle there and need to level up to a specific move, or plan carefully, or rely on RNG, taking more resets. This challenges each Pokémon on its general abilities. Tate and Liza, however, nearly all Pokémon just have to over-level, costing your rare candies for later. I do think there's still some interesting data to be gathered there, and it's not an ignorable metric, but i feel like it would be much more interesting to see Tate and Liza as a single battle, like every other trainer. The value of double battles in the spirit of the Pokémon games has been the ability to have 8 different directional interactions, increasing the variety of the fight and its options. There's very little variety to the Tate and Liza fight, though. The most interesting thing about it being a double battle is which Pokémon you bait them to bring out next, and your Pokemon's ability to either tank or OHKO its way through. Any Pokémon that can't (and even many who can) only answer this by leveling up.
I think modding Tate&Liza is within the spirit of a solo challenge, but either way is good. I love this archeology pokemon! I never used it as a kid, but as an anthropology major, this nod to ancient statues is absolutely awesome, and this poor Pokémon deserved better than to be religated because of bad game design choices
I'd love to see you do Zangoose, who is probably the best new normal type to gen 3, and considering how well normal types did in gen 2 I think it would be interesting to see how that flows into gen 3, though honestly i feel like normal types just will have a harder time of it for gen 3 due to much stronger fights involving rock and steel type pokemon.
Hearing early on about the abra thing with chances and such is fair to say why you don’t wanna manipulate them but also I feel like if at this point you are going to the cave, if you manipulate only 1 first encounter abra could be fair, though as you said it does feel a bit more cheaty then normal
Calvin, you mean? Speaking of which, any more art of hers you really look forward to? I hope to see some of that Gyarados/Raichu duo in Platinum that also causes Nuzlockers trouble.
Don’t mod it out, the HM friend sacrifice is necessary to please the old gods.
so true
Agreed
Hey YEAH! Why _isn't_ there a Lovcraftian Pokémon mod?
I mean the only mod I would add is a black screen during this fight when your hm user dies that says, "sacrifice accepted" but that is just me.
So for my thoughts on the Tate and Liza thing:
I think this series really embodies the feeling of playing with just one really strong Pokémon as a kid, and leaving Tate and Liza as they are with needing to bring in an HM user still keeps that same spirit. Sure it makes it a little easier for the solo mon, but the two are functionally made to be a double battle, and changing something like that almost feels like changing the core of the game, even if it’s still a 2v1
Couldn’t have said it better myself
Swampert always soloed them for me. Though I couldn't do the E4 with just Swampert due to the level curve being really well made.
You kind of put the way I feel into words; the more stuff the runner mods or manipulates kind of feels like it ruins the spirit of the way the game was intended to be played.
That doesn't extend to stuff like giving a pokémon the best IVs of course, as the point is to get the best possible result for that mon.
100% agree. It's how fast can we beat the game solo, not how fast we beat the nodded game solo, and mods like keeping HM mules consistent makes sense, I like bringing in some scrub to eat a hit to Tate and Liza, just feels right
+100000, now I've just realised why I keep watching scotts videos
Grass/Water is such a disgusting combo once you realize that its weaknesses to Flying, Bug, Poison are such rare moves offensively.
You know though I'm surprised it took until just recently with Ogerpon's Wellspring form for there to be another Grass/Water-type, especially given the number of aquatic plants in real life.
I love Ludicolo on swift swim teams with a life orb. Just brutal. Armaldo for that surprise factor! I also like to be a little weird and put EV's for Gorebyss in its non-dominant defense stat and then boost the other stat with a move, making it more of an all rounder defensively. It trips up players expecting a common set.
@@CoffeeFlavoredMilkCrasily should have been water/grass but gamefreak really likes their fossils being rock type
@@Israel_Augustine tell that to dracovish arctovish arctozolt and dracozolt lol.
Aerial ace n sludge bomb in dewford trainers hall takes care of these ludicolo
If I remember Claydol from anything, it’s that one episode of the anime featuring a giant one wreaking havoc upon a valley. It ends up being a classic for me mostly due to how hilarious it is (Ash and co. teaming up with Team Rocket, the fact that the giant Claydol actually hates eggplant when sacred texts claimed it like them, Claydol falling in love with Wobbuffet’s maid disguise, etc.).
Oh we are in for a treat. The thumbnail is both hilarious and quite accurate to what its biggest challenge is going to be... the massive number of water types that you encounter throughout the game. Looking forward to its premier.
Oooh Scott! If you happen to see this I believe I've noticed a small bias you mentioned at the end /positive, attempting to be helpful
I'm calling it now, we're going to be doing a lot of ancient pokemon like relicanth, etc, then at the end of the year we're building up to doing the three Regis.
And the best part is that they won’t take Scott very long at all.
Wonder what he will choose to do for all of them starting with Explosion only though.
@@SoraDonaldGoofy99 Like I said, a very easy video for him to make.
He said it’s 3 emerald in a row to build up to something though so Regis could be at the end of April
Ancient pokemon, correct. Regis were belated April fools :).
Ludicolo & Sanslash living Rent Free in Scott's Head 😂
Along with magneton and pidgeotto
Steven's Claydol in Ruby version was always the pokemon that walled me and messed me up as a kid. Once it got both screens up I knew I was finishing with struggle because he'd use all of his full restores on it. If Scott was playing Ruby or Sapphire he'd feel the same about the Claydol that he does now about Ludicolo. I never tried using it myself until I started doing some challenge runs as an adult. But then it carried me hard.
When I got emerald and saw Wallace as Champion I thought "a water type user? this will be easy". Then he wrecked me over and over. His is probably one of the best mono-type teams in pokemon, it feels like he has answers for everything even though all his pokemon are part water.
Claydol is actually really great in gen 3 competitive pokemon. It has Rapid Spin as well as Explosion and can ignore Spikes with Levitate. It's typing isn't normally fantastic, but being immune to ground and electric actually gives it many good switch-ins. Also great coverage and the all important sandstorm immunity of the great rock/ground/steel giants.
it’s typing is so funny tbh, at first glance it’s awful but in gen 3 ou that rock resist and ground immunity is so unbelievably useful
Ludicolo is shockingly competent. I absolutely love that weird little freak.
Your videos are just exactly how I wish all of UA-cam was.
No filler, engaging, informative, entertaining. Thank you
My biggest nostalgia for Claydol is puzzles from Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs where roaming Claydol can catch you from all directions.
Good playthrough overall, but I'll second everyone else saying to give HP Bug another look since a neutral Earthquake is stronger than a 2x effective HP Grass (assuming similar Def and SpDef) and Whiscash isn't an issue.
29:00 The Tate and Liza fight should remain as is. It's an iconic part of the Gen III games and it should always be considered. It's unfortunate that some Pokemon will struggle with it, especially the weaker Pokemon you'll have to run, but it won't be fair to the past runs you already did and would need its own list.
I'm on the side of not changing Tate & Liza fundamentally. It feels like way too much of a departure not requiring an HM user sacrifice. Also I think it's funny you mention Substitute in this video, because it completely shuts down Phoebe's lead Dusclops. Curse doesn't hit through Substitute in Gen 3, plus it won't be able to confuse you, so it's a great move there. Even without any set up to go with it, it's still really convenient to avoid a reset condition and even take a hit later on. Finally, with how awful Ludicolo was, I'm of the mindset that HP Bug would be a huge benefit for Claydol, but of course, I'd have to evaluate how that impacts guys like Whiscash. With all that said, this was a great video as always and I'm excited for Wailord next!
My main nostalgia for the Claydol line is using the shadow one from Gale of Darkness. In that game you do get it in the early game, and with it's shadow wave attack early game and EQ spam late game it has a cool niche of giving you spread damage options in a game of all double battles.
For the Tate and Liza thing:
I think leaving it how it is feels more in line with the challenge. You already make minimal manipulations, even things like Abra mentioned in this video are things that could be argued to benefit the challenge run itself, but because it's too different from the base game you don't do it, and I think the one attack the HM Mon might absorb in Tate and Liza's fight feels more natural to the game than doing it with just the challenge pokemon.
You have no idea how happy i am that you are doibg relicanth.
It might just be my most anticipated video this year so far.
Its such an interesting little guy. Good abilities and decent movepool with two incredible stabs but a big weakness.
And i juat like its look.
I always put my kids down for a nap right before these release, and it’s always nice when they sleep through the entire video, it’s a much needed mid day break on a Saturday
Hi Scott
Your solo runs inspired me to start doing my own runs in Black and White. I just want to pitch in with my experience (ab)using substitute in those games now that the move is on your radar.
You are absolutely right about undervaluing substitute in emerald. The move has essentially been a stellar choice for almost every run I've completed with the exception of absolute monsters like Darmanitan and Krookodile. Then when you consider weaker pokemon or those with crippling type weaknesses like Omastar, substitute becomes borderline essential to winning late game fights. If you can set it up before a big threat comes out, you have free turn to either set-up or deal damage. This is huge for fights that have one or two pokemon that just deal too much damage to beat conventionally. Not to mention that substitute gives you immunity to status conditions like toxic poison, which would be extremely helpful for Steven's Skarmory in emerald.
That being said, its only worthwhile if the late game fights are dangerous enough that a free turn/status immunity would make a significant difference and the method to learn the move is reasonably accessible (unlike in yellow version). Given how powerful Steven's team is in emerald in particular and that substitute is behind one relatively quick fight, I think integrating substitute into certain runs would be a serious time-save and consistency boost.
A little nostalgia from me regarding Claydol: I remember when I was little we were at the playground playing around with our TCG cards (trading them and throwing them like throwing stars to see who could get them the furthest, but never actually playing the TCG) and meeting someone who had a french version of the Claydol-ex from EX Power Keepers. Of course even back then ex cards were all the rage, and this card in particular had such cool art. Growing up in the Netherlands, our cards weren't translated, so I had no idea they made cards in other languages. Up to that point I had never played the handheld games and had only ever seen the anime, without ever seeing Claydol appear in it. Its design seemed so awesome. You could say I was intrigued. I think I ended up trading it for two of my own gx cards. I can't remember which ones, but I was so happy with my new acquisition. The card is still in one of my old folders today and Claydol has been a favourite of mine ever since.
as for Tate/Liza,
I think that the challenge of their gym in R/S/E is the doubles mechanics themselves, more so than the Psychic type as a type. For instance it only hits 2 types supereffective and has 2 resistances, and like you said many mons have HP for coverage or dark level-up moves.
Ultimately, I would still watch and be interested to see the run with tate & liza battles separately or as one trainer
In the future maybe Toxic the sombrero duck? Stall out the staller.
Re Tate & Liza modding for it to function with just one Pokémon: not necessarily against, but all the other runs were done with a second weaker Pokémon in your party. Changing now would require them to be replayed, but would likely cause time losses. I think going forward tho, this would still be the best option - after all having another Pokémon that gets destroyed in the first turn only provides an unfair advantage and generally is not in the spirit of the challenge. PS love the content, been watching every video for like a year now and it’s just fantastic ❤
Wailord hit with leech seed means massive HP recovery for Ludicolo. Good luck with that one, you're gonna need it
It's Nostalgia Claydols Battle Cry is always one of my favorites
Claydol has such a satisfying aesthetic. Look at him. He's...
So symmetrical|lacirtemmys oS
My default approach (I can always be swayed by a good argument in any individual case) is that less modding is better for this sort of “tierlisting” challenge. I definitely would say to keep the mechanics for Tate & Liza vanilla.
Claydol is one of my underrated favourites! _Powerful moveset, fun types, interesting design. Thanks to B/W2, I aways have to argue if it'll be on my team._
I love Claydol, probably my favorite Ground type. I did a run of Pokémon Shield using only ground types and after failing to catch the first Baltoy I encountered I found a shiny one! It was my ace for the rest of the game. Gave me new appreciation for Lightscreen and Reflect too. In the fight with Opal her Dynamax Pokémon could not inflict enough damage through Lightscreen to overcome my Leftovers!
You should really look into Teleport routing for mons that get it, there’s a LOT of overworld movement that can be skipped if you, for example, only heal in Mauville until after Norman.
Modding out the second pokemon requirement is definitely in the spirit of the challenge because it's a solo challenge, and you useing a second pokemon in the Tate and Liza fight makes it easier.
I’m so excited for when you get to the Regis in this game. They’re weird but hopefully fun!
love the video!
If you’re looking at legendary runs for emerald, Deoxys would be such an interesting run, definition of a glass cannon.
I’m also a big player of gen 3 smogon OU and claydol is one of the best around!! it’s funny seeing little similarities in the most common competitive sets and what sets you use for runs.
About the nostalgia thing - I agree but the saving graces for some Pokémon were the Gamecube games (which you should ABSOLUTELY play if you haven't yet, I would place them on the same S Tier as R/S/E). So many Pokémon got to absolutely SHINE in those.
Also fun fact, my nostalgia for Skarmory came from R/S/E and NOT G/S/C - because for the longest time I thought it was a Gen 3 Pokémon due to how Gen 2 tries its hardest to hide it from you. It's only available on one route (at night in Crystal from what I can remember) and NO trainers have it. Gen 2 has so many Pokémon that either don't appear at all as opponents, only appear ONCE on a random easily missable trainer's team AND/OR they appear so late into the game that you probably just forgot about them like Houndour/Houndoom.
My story with Claydol came from a rom hack. Pokémon Snakewood. This was my starter choice, and it helped carry me throughout much of the early game. It helped me a bunch.
It became a Claydol later than I wanted it do, but it was still a loyal member of my team. I was tempted to remove it for Gardevoir, something I caught a while back, but it never left my team. I never get rid of my starter as a rule. It's usually the Pokémon I never get rid of. That rule started on my first game, Yellow Version, when I got my favorite Pokémon, Pikachu. Even then, I never removed my rodent, even if it sucked. This went double for my pal Claydol.
It was my counter to the Faceleech Fakemon. Could take an attack, then kill it in one hit because it's defenses were literal paper. It also could reliably take hits. It was not the best at dishing out damage, but I knew I could rely on it basically all the time. Wish I knew where Earthquake was, though. Or Psychic. Whatever.
Always happy to see a gen three video from ya scott hope you’re having a awesome day
It's been a while since I've seen one of your videos pop up that is neither a stream nor over an hour long... perfect! I know little about Claydol (one of those Pokémon I tend to forget about) but this length and style is the sort that is easier for me to watch so I'm looking forward to it.
0:48 - Funny you say that as you put up the buffed version of Rapid Spin up on screen. It's not even 50 Attack Power in Gen 3; it's a mere 20.
2:29 - Claydol being a balanced attacker is a huge surprise to me. I expected it to be a more Defensive Pokémon but nothing about it screams physical attack. Perhaps it has that Attack stat purely because it's Ground typing, before the Physical/Special split.
5:37 - Abilityless runs are a fun possibility then. That could be an entertaining or cruel experience depending on the Pokémon.
6:55 - Roxanne had a somewhat answer for Special Attackers and it still wasn’t enough. To be fair, I don’t think she expected a badgeless trainer to rock up with a Psybeam firing Claydol.
10:54 - The specifically softer sand compared to all the other sand on the beach.
13:50 - I never knew the Rich Kid’s Pokémon all held Nuggets. Funny little detail.
17:00 - Going with a pretty luck based strategy with hoping Ancient Power would activate on the first turn. You should know by now that Ancient Power tends to work on the last turn that faints the Pokémon, much like how any move that isn’t 100% accurate is actually 50% accurate.
22:31 - Game Freak really didn’t want people using Ice types. They had the best variation of a move that could be learned by the majority of Pokémon be an Ice type attack.
27:26 - That’s because there aren’t many things that hinder Special Attack. It took until Gen 5 for them to introduce an attack that specifically lowered Special Attack of your opponent as a side-effect.
28:40 - I still feel you should have made all your Emerald challenges at tag-team challenges. Emerald Version does have the most tag battles (discounting the team up scenarios in Platinum, because you’re using only one Pokémon) so I feel it’d have made sense and distinguished from your other purely Solo challenges.
34:32 - A fortunate outcome with the freeze. I expected a win but that win was far quicker than it could otherwise have been.
36:11 - That’s because Mightyena only threw sand in one of Chucky the Claydol’s eyes. They just spun around and continued firing Ice Beam with no issue.
38:39 - Likewise, it always seemed like a Dark/Ice type to me. Funny enough, it’s Pokédex descriptions make it sound like it should have been an Ice/Rock type. Yet, it is just pure Ice.
42:52 - Oh my gosh; the foreshadowing and karma! You hinted to Leech Seed being a problem earlier, you insulted Gen 3 Grass types earlier, and now Wallace’s Ludicolo seeds you with a vengeance. Love the little animation of the two you did here.
47:06 - The PP shortage was something I thought might occur when Steven swapped out his Skarmory. You needed the Ice Beam kept aside to strike it down but you don’t get a lot of PP with Earthquake.
48:26 - Rather funny how this ends with a mirror match between Claydols. Awesome video!
Fun fact about confusion recoil, Deoxys-A can one hit itself in confusion.
Claydol is an incredibly important mon in gen 3 OU! Rock type damage is really important in the tier with threats like tyranitar and choice band aerodactyl, and earthquake is common, so Claydol's typing is quite excellent defensively. Further, Spikes are really important for stacking up damage, which makes rapid spinners important as a counter, which in turn makes ghosts important as /spin blockers/. And whos the best ghost? Gengar, who absolutely hates Claydol's Psychic!
Tate and Liza was my worst enemies growing up, they were so hard to beat back then ! :)
I think the biggest strategic difference between having two pokemon vs. 1 pokemon against them is how much of a tank/race fight the entire thing is. Taking 1 - 2 less direct hits on your primary mon is pretty huge (assuming you setup turn 1 since you will you need to sweep fast). In a battle that will last atleast 4-5 turns, assuming you knock out a pokemon pr round before they hit you. That is ~25 % of the potential damage absorbed.
I think for this fight alone, it should be modded to allow for 1v2
Claydol is based. Also happy to see another gen 3 run on your channel. Haven't been recommended you in a hot minute because UA-cam algorithms both make my subscriptions very low priority for showing up on my feed, and also I can't seem to have past a certain number of subscriptions to anyone I like. I guess either I have too many and they unsubscribe me, or I don't have my own subscription count high enough for higher subscription abilities? Which if the latter is the case that basically goes against the fact that most accounts are for watching and commenting on videos for the vast majority of the userbase.
I have no idea how it works. My feed has never had these sort of issues. UA-cam always just shows me the stuff I’m actively watching.
11:35
Fury cutter: "Am I a joke to you?"
I never used Baltoy or Claydol, actually now that I think about it there are a lot of pokemon I have never used... Anyhoodles, I never used Baltoy, but I was always happy to see it on an enemy team. I can imagine it spinning around, living its best life, being oblivious to the fact that it should feel anything other than joy and perhaps a bit of dizziness.
BTW, when you do eventually do the Regis, the run itself is actually impossible in vanilla so you’ll have to add stomp to their starting moveset
In regards to tate and liza, i just like watching magiakrp get smacked
I understand that most people don't care much for it, but Claydol is one of my all time favorites. I love the ancient, quasi-angelixc look it has. I remember hearing its cry in the anime, and it sounded so mysterious and powerful. "Claaay- dol." Like a bell chiming.
Honestly, it was so tragic, I would sometimes go entire playthrough with only two pokemon so i could grab a Claydol, Flygon, and Cacturne for my team. The desert had some of the greatest pokemon of the whole game for me, and forcing myself to choose one was difficult.
And yeah, Claydol isn't very useful. Unfortunately. It's not evolved for Norman, the next two gym leaders are immune to ground, and then you have so many strong water trainers. Dark, ghost, and ice were all so difficult to go up against. It was at least decent for Steven. Still, an amazing pokemon with great stats, a versatile moveset, and a killer design
Ooh, an Edit for the Tate and Lisa discussion; I'm very mixed on it? In general I personally would keep modifications to the game to an absolute minimum, but this modification would remove a barrier that prevents the challenge from being as authentic as it could be. Overall I would be in favour of it c: Though ofc I dont and shouldnt really have a say
I never used Claydol as a kid. I recently learned that Claydol is a beast in Gen 3 OU, though. So hey, that’s something!
I actually have a lot of nostalgia simply from seeing it in Sky Pillar! I thought it was cool lol
The move Flatter is the special version of Swagger. Not sure what it does but I'd say that maybe there's a function in the games that calculates confusion damage using the special attack against the special defense.
Great video. A few thoughts:
I'm really surprised Ludicolo could be such a wall, but in hindsight it makes sense that Double Team & Leech Seed can be so antagonizing. I wonder which other mons will have the same type of issues with it. (To be honest, I don't remember which ones have up to this point, if any.)
I was not expecting a PP issue on Steven, and I appreciate that you went straight for the max PP strats on the second run.
Lastly, be careful with the stats pages you pull from Bulbapedia. Rapid Spin has been updated since gen 3 to have 40 BP, and while the correct value was present in the overlay, it could be confusing to someone not privy to that fact. The type charts weren't an issue for this video, but remember for Steel types that it was updated in Gen 6 to take neutral damage from Dark & Ghost attacks. I don't know if there's a way to pull stat blocks & type matchups for older gens off of Bulbapedia, if so that could solve the discrepancies.
I think you shouldn't mod it out, I feel like your original take on runs is the best. Try to keep it hypothetically possible to run the game unmodified. Tinker a bit to get your starter the way you want- you could reset over and over for this manually. Maybe also make all temporal items available since you could wait out the clock- time is being manipulated by game speed after all.
I absolutely have hyperfixating ADHD too and love your content, but I am conflicted by your choices sometimes... like I think it's a probable situation to have perfect mons with egg moves to start... I've done this a bunch! People have given me their copies of games and I'll breed amazing mons on my original copy of a game and then transfer them to my new game! That's my brain operating my way though! You keep being super awesome Scott, I'm so glad your content has been getting better and better over the years 😀
Cant wait to see the nidoking and queen in crystal. Heck even in emerald would be cool to see it in this game as well.
Gen 1 Yellow Champion Sandslash: Finally! A worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary! (The moment it sees Gen 3 Emerald Champion Ludicolo)
The near psychotic tone of 51:13 got me so good 😂😂
So, uh, whenever I heard Claydol's in-game cry, I always thought it sounded like it was saying "barometer."
Probably the creepiest looking pokemon. I love it.
when it comes to the twins fight, I would just keep doing it as you have been.
Even Ludicolo's name is evil. Every time I hear it, I think, "that is called Lucario-- oh that one."
I remember using this line in Snakewood, as it was one of the starters. (The other 2 were paras and koffing)
This might well be nostalgia but it feels like with the exception of Mewtwo, the weather trio are the cleanest and best designed legendaries. They strike the balance between simple and intricate, and they're clearly very powerful both to look at and with generation-defining abilities. I think it's because they're the first legendaries (Mewtwo notwithstanding) that (a) fight (b) are not birds (c) are not "cute" mythicals like Celebi and Mew.
I tried using baltoy during a playthrough once and thought it was really bad, it had very little bulk and didn't deal very much damage. it was only after fighting a claydol that I found out it actually became quite good and it became my default ground type if I wasn't using flygon or swampert in a playthrough
Looking at Clatdol's backsprite and art, and seeing the only "eyes" that are "closed" are the ones to either side of the front center one, I thus conclude that those two are the _only_ eyes, and the rest...are mouths.
These thumbnails for Emerald are spectacular.
Brian is doing awesome work with them!
Such a beautiful thumbnail art. Also DROOOPPEEED MY BALLLSS.
As a random thought, since you're being outstalled by Wallace's Ludicolo, Toxic might be able to solve that problem for you. However, that would mean you'd need to delete Ice Beam, which would make the Gyarados harder and cause problems with Full Restores. Worth a try, though!
The pinata duck will haunt your dreams!
I would say that it is in the spirit of the challenge as it would make them target your singular pokemon instead of the weak hm user
That ludicolo is truly brutal. On a regular play through I did years ago, it set up one double team followed by me missing ten attacks in a row. It crit me three times in that span of time. RNG is the absolute worst thing thats ever happened in video games.
I think that keeping a required 2nd pokemon for the Tate/Liza fight it better. I know it introduces some more randomness to the run, but it was intended to be a double battle anyway. It's not like you can do a true solo because of HM users anyway. They should get their 2 seconds in the spotlight.
Could even do a fun thing for the channel where you name the intended 2nd pokemon after a patreon sponsor.
claydol reminds me of the freaky robots from megaman legends, which scared me as a kid loool
Since the devs didn't implement any way for you to enter the battle with one Pokemon, I don't think it's right for you to modify the game to allow that.
Modding the enemy trainer AI to always think you only have one pokemon (so they don't use Roar or Mean Look) makes a lot more sense. You *could* enter virtually every fight with only one non-fainted mon, it's just super tedious. But it just makes the AI fight only the pokemon who is being run, which I feel is perfectly in-keeping with the rules and intent.
Modifying the Tate and Liza entry conditions fundamentally changes the scope of the fight and is going to make things significantly, and unnecessarily, more difficult for pokemon that use set up moves. Because you virtually always get at least one of the Xatu or Claydol attacking the HM mon, you get something of a reprieve on round 1 and entering with only one mon would remove that. Not a fan. You're doing the correct thing regarding T&L, imo.
Plus, comments are engagement
Great video Scott, although all the freezing made it hard to watch
That's one thing about Gen 1 that is lost in later generations. The wild Pokemon were strategically placed by the developers based on the next major battle. Before Brock even if you chose Charmander, you could pick up Mankey in Red or Nidoran in either version to get a fighting type move. Before Misty even if you didn't pick up Paras or Pikachu, you could get Bellsprout or Oddish after Nugget Bridge. Before Surge you could already have Sandshrew in Blue but even if you had Red you would have to go through Diglett Cave to pick up Flash anyways so you could get Diglett or Dugtrio. By the time the game opens up you have all the tools you need for the rest of the game, but even then you have to have Surf before you can even get to the fire type gym.
The TMs are placed similarly to this in generation 2. Fury Cutter before Bugsy, Rollout before Morty, DynamicPunch before Jasmine, and Iron Tail before Pryce.
Gen5 did the same: the Elemental Monkeys before the 1st Gym Trio, Tinburr, Sawk and Throh before Lenora, Darumaka and Pansear can be obtained before the Burgh, there is a desert area filled with ground type before Elesa, Ducklett, Deerling and Fungoos are obtainable before Clay, the cave before Skyla is filled with Electric types, you can find fighting and rock types before Brycen, and the routes before Iris and Drayden have Ice types. The same applies to B2/W2 (Riolu before Cheren, Magnemite before Roxie and Marlon is the only exception but by the time you reach him you have a full team and coverage moves available).
I think whatever advantage you get from a free hit on the HM user is more than made up for by doing the rest of the fight 2 v 1. It also sets a precedent for any mandatory double battles in future gens, if there are any.
Concerning your quick discussion on HP Bug at the end, the Solrock and Lunatone actually just have swapped base Defense stats (same for Offensive stats too actually, with Solrock leaning Physical and Lunatone Special) so I think bringing a Physical move into Tate and Liza is sometimes warranted. Now, I think with how the game gives out IVs/EVs, Lunatone actually has a bit more Defense than Solrock does Special Defense, but I think they are close enough to still make stuff like HP Bug or HP Ghost an option.
I think modding out the second pokemon requirement for Tate & Liza is in the spirit of the challenge. This challenge is already representative of how many people play the game. A lot of people I knew would just take their starter and go through the whole game with it. I would always use a team of six and go through whole game. I remember one of my friends telling me it was weird that I did that. It fits because this is a solo challenge. It would make the battle more difficult I'm sure, but that would make it even more entertaining for us viewers.
The only downside to modding it out, is it'll be unfair to the pokemon who have already had their runs finished. Then again, the newer runs will always be unfair to those already done because you keep getting better at the game. In the end, I don't think getting rid of that requirement or keeping it, is really all that important. I couldn't care less really.
The only thing I'd like to see changed which most would disagree with is Return not being used. Especially in Generation II, I hate how every pokemon uses Return. it trivializes things to an extent by giving them a move that is even more powerful than rarer moves like Ice Beam, Surf, & Flamethrower. It is normal making it useful in most situations especially in a game where Normal types feel OP. It is just mundane too. Even when.I play the game I stopped using it because it feels like Double Team to me, both OP and tedious.
Ludicolo: Does this look like the face of mercy?
I do have memories from using Claydol and it’s from Pokémon XD. You mentioned not getting it at a good time but in Pokémon XD it’s one of the early shadow Pokémon you are able to obtain. Its okay, but getting it to level 36 with stats on par/very slightly lower than starter Pokémon can be miserable. Wish either Baltoy had better stats or the evolution level was lower. That being said, Claydol’s defenses are helpful for tanking shadow moves, which are super effective on all non-shadow Pokémon. Also Claydol is pretty good in gen 3 OU
I think claydol is awesome, i hope we get more Pokémon like it sometime.
Would gyarados hyper beam at +1 been a threat?
I don't know if it is a big deal since it was only a two point damage difference but noticed you used Ice Beam against Winona's Pelipper instead of Psybeam which had higher effective power.
I also do have some memories with Claydol. I ended up replacing my Dustox with it the second time I ever played the game. I thought it looked cool and I remember it seeming good because of my training in the desert. It was a lot easier to raise compared to Trapinch which I used in my first run. Trapinch seemed fragile. Baltoy was a little fragile but not nearly as fragile. I remember my Claydol being an MVP of the battle with the Tate & Liza with Shadow Ball of all things. She resisted their psychic moves and hit them super effectively.
I still remember my final lineup the first time I played Sapphire consisted of Seviper, Swalot, Masquerain, Lunatone, Flygon, & Kyogre. For me, it seems whichever pokemon I use the first time I play the game end up being some of my favorites except for Flygon in that case. I thought Vibrava looked cooler and Trapinch was a pain to raise. Seviper, Swalot, Masquerain, & Lunatone though are all some of my favorite pokemon overall. Sapphire was my favorite overall too for the longest time despite Yellow then Blue being my first pokemon games.
Claydol using Dig at 27:55 and then dodging Camerupt's Earthquake with Levitate is so funny 😂 I was imagining it just mindfucking Maxie in the fight and him being flabbergasted as to how that works ☠️☠️☠️
Made me giggle…. Does it still function like that in current gen ?
@@claytonroberts1622 I think so! As long as the pokemon that is casting earthquake doesn't have Mold breaker or neutralizing gas, they shouldn't be able to hit a levitating mon using dig 😂😂
@@YoghTato apparently it functions the same with any flying Pokémon too
@@claytonroberts1622 that's so funny
Regarding stealing nuggets for money, the Match Call feature does not allow you to rebattle trainers until after you've beaten Norman and secured 5 badges, so you wouldn't be able to get more than 2 Nuggets that way (skipping Watson and Cindy when you pass through that route and coming back later with Thief).
Regarding Claydol's availability, it is not a late-game Pokemon. You can pick up a Baltoy around level 20 in the Desert on Route 111 with 4 gym badges. Your team should be right around level 30 at that point, so there's a little bit of catch-up, but it's reasonable to evolve it (L36) in time to battle Winona (badge 6).
Naming the pokemon Chucky is pretty humorous.
27:40 I always figured when a pokemon hit themselves with confusion is because they tripped on themselves and fell and that's why it does physical damage. and when you have a higher attack stat it's because you have more physical momentum thus doing more physical damage.
That, or since some Pokemon have sharp limbs, maybe they stab themselves accidentally.
My thoughts on the tate & Liza Q:
keep the Hm user, but if you can mod the Claydol to guarantee use EQ on the first turn it gives a Consistent first Turn KO & a Consistent Line
Not entirely related to the video but here's a thought I had while checking out Claydol's pokedex entries... We're supposed to be helping researchers catalogue and study the various pokemon around the region, right? Solve mysteries and all that? Well, why is it that throughout all regions, the only information the pokedex has is information we already knew? Why is it that the only pertinent information a pokemon will ever have outside of its height and weight are two lines of text that never meaningfully change from region to region? In elementary school, I researched Arctic Foxes for about an afternoon to prepare a presentation that lasted roughly five minutes. I know more about an animal that I will never meet than the foremost authorities on pokemon will ever know about creatures they've spent their entire lives with. It... feels like a hugely wasted opportunity for the writers at Game Freak to have fun and make something up and not just truncate/copy/paste the pokedex from the last game. Gen 7 stands out as a shining example for Claydol in particular, because we found out it not only melts in the rain but ALIENS(!!!), but the next time it gets a podedex entry it's back to the "this mysterious pokemon is full of mysteries" tripe.
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how do you plan to play the regis they only start with explosion so you can never level up with struggle
I've never been a fan of the Tate and Liza fight in solo runs. Every other gym tests a Pokémon's ability to handle any other given Pokémon with its moveset, level, and trainer AI, but the Tate and Liza fight disproportionately affects Pokémon that don't have a specific answer. Compare it to the Wattson fight: many Pokémon struggle there and need to level up to a specific move, or plan carefully, or rely on RNG, taking more resets. This challenges each Pokémon on its general abilities. Tate and Liza, however, nearly all Pokémon just have to over-level, costing your rare candies for later.
I do think there's still some interesting data to be gathered there, and it's not an ignorable metric, but i feel like it would be much more interesting to see Tate and Liza as a single battle, like every other trainer. The value of double battles in the spirit of the Pokémon games has been the ability to have 8 different directional interactions, increasing the variety of the fight and its options. There's very little variety to the Tate and Liza fight, though. The most interesting thing about it being a double battle is which Pokémon you bait them to bring out next, and your Pokemon's ability to either tank or OHKO its way through. Any Pokémon that can't (and even many who can) only answer this by leveling up.
I remember thinking it was some how tied to unknown as a kid because of the symbols on it
Cave of Dragonflies, the OG OG. Should be as ubiquitous as serebii, but alas
I think modding Tate&Liza is within the spirit of a solo challenge, but either way is good. I love this archeology pokemon! I never used it as a kid, but as an anthropology major, this nod to ancient statues is absolutely awesome, and this poor Pokémon deserved better than to be religated because of bad game design choices
I'd love to see you do Zangoose, who is probably the best new normal type to gen 3, and considering how well normal types did in gen 2 I think it would be interesting to see how that flows into gen 3, though honestly i feel like normal types just will have a harder time of it for gen 3 due to much stronger fights involving rock and steel type pokemon.
That RNG with Juan and Wallace was absolutely disgusting, I felt sick just watching it.
I really think ditching rest and just running sub + cosmic power would've given you a much more consistient out vs ludicolo.
Hearing early on about the abra thing with chances and such is fair to say why you don’t wanna manipulate them but also I feel like if at this point you are going to the cave, if you manipulate only 1 first encounter abra could be fair, though as you said it does feel a bit more cheaty then normal
Thia is one of Sol's funniest drawings yet
Calvin, you mean?
Speaking of which, any more art of hers you really look forward to? I hope to see some of that Gyarados/Raichu duo in Platinum that also causes Nuzlockers trouble.
Itd be pretty funny if you used explosion on as the last move on the last pokemon of the run. Going out with a bang😂