#90 - #91: Shellder & Cloyster

Do you remember that I already discussed Shellder in Slowbro and Slowking's entry? Yeah, I know that Shellder doesn't look like the shells on Slowbro's tail and Slowking's head, but there's this thing called evolution that might cause a Shellder that is attached to either Slowbro or Slowking to change its appearance as well, so don't question it. Okay?

Shellder in the anime. Due to its dopey look and big tongue,
Shellder is actually kinda cute, despite being a slimy mollusk. 

Okay. So, Shellder is already interesting by itself, especially because of its symbiotic relationship with the Slowpoke line. Now, I'm not going to write an entire paper about that; if you want to read about what Shellder does to Slowbro and Slowking, I suggest you go read their entry instead. All I know is that Shellder doesn't look so cute in its 'parasite' form anymore, nor does it actually look like a Pokémon when it clamps on to a member of the Slowpoke family, for that matter. In battles, Shellder is not so keen on clamping itself to an opponent, because that will reveal its vulnerable parts and therefore it will only do that as a last resort. Obviously, Shellder lives and sleeps in a hole on the seafloor, which it creates by using its broad tongue that is always kept hanging out. Loose grains of sand that get trapped inside its body after burrowing its hole are mixed with body fluids to form beautiful pearls. Shellder moves around by rapidly opening and closing its bivalve shell (which, by the way, is as hard as diamond)... while facing backwards. So it doesn't see where it is going, or does it have an intuitional orientation? Unfortunately, the Pokédex - or rather: Game Freak - fails to provide us with any information on that.

Cloyster fan art.

What is evident, though, is that Shellder is capable to fully evolve by itself. When it is exposed to a Water Stone, this cute little mussle (or clam) evolves into a giant not-to-be-fucked-with oyster. Cloyster definitely has more spikes on its shell than Shellder, but these spikes are even harder than its diamond-hard shell (harsh tidal currents affect their size and sharpness) and are also its main tools in battle. That is evident in the fact that it is able to learn flavor-matching moves like Spike Cannon and Spikes, as well as Icicle Spear, which can only be learned by Shellder. Its projectile system is also used to move itself forward, swallowing seawater and ejecting it towards the rear propelling it through with siphon-jet propulsion. Cloyster is kind of a mysterious Pokémon in the first place, because no one knows what its innards look like, will ever be able to open its shell when it is closed, or knows why its shell is so hard it can withstand a bomb blast or even a missile strike.

Some more awesome Cloyster fan art.

Whatever material(s) Cloyster's shell is made of, its in-game use strongly matches its flavor: Cloyster has a massive base 180 defense stat, which makes it capable to survive quite some physical attacks from its opponents. Unfortunately, its base HP is quite low and its special defense is absolutely garbage, so its endurance might disappoint in the long run. That is why Cloyster is often given a Focus Sash, which saves it from being one-shotted. Cloyster comes with three excellent abilities, but one of its two regular abilities, Skill Link, is absolutely the best. This ability allows Cloyster to hit the opponent a maximum number of times with multi-strike moves like Icicle Spear and Rock Blast, which hit for 25 power a pop for a maximum of five times. That's some clean 125 damage right there, so these moves are must-haves for Cloyster. So, what about the other abilities? Well, Shell Armor prevents Cloyster from getting a critical hit to the face, which is useless when it is hit by Thunderbolt or something anyway, while its hidden ability Overcoat prevents it from receiving chip damage from weather conditions such as Hail and Sandstorm, which is situational at best.

As for the other moves he should have: Razor Shell is its only usable physical water-type move (although some players carry Ice Shard on Cloyster instead), and Shell Smash raises its attck, special attack and speed by two stages each and lowers its defense and special defense by one stage each. Losing some defense for a lot of offense and speed is a good trade in my opinion, as Cloyster can still withstand quite a few physical attacks after a Shell Smash boost. The defense and special defense drop makes it even more frail than it is though, so that Focus Sash might be a very good idea. Although a Life Orb is a good alternative, a White Herb, which is an item that restores negative stat changes like the defensive drops from Shell Smash, might come in handy as well. A Jolly or Naive nature (both makes Cloyster's speed stat grow better) are the preferred natures for Cloyster and make it outspeed many Choice Scarf opponents after a Shell Smash.

Now, this player takes Game Freak's suggestive joke to the next level. Dirty
motherfucker!

This water/ice dual-type Pokémon is definitely great in battles, but the funniest thing about it is a joke theory that is going round on the Internet. In HeartGold and SoulSilver, the player is challenged by Young Couple Duff and Eda, who use Cloyster and Onix. But as it happens, in this context, Cloyster and Onix tend to strongly resemble a vulva and a phallus, respectively. Very suggestive, but I guess someone at Game Freak likes dirty inside jokes that children won't even notice. It makes adult players go LOL and parents go OMG, but I really don't see the harm in it.

Cloyster is one of those Pokémon I would LOVE to use in a playthrough once, especially one with the Skill Link ability, which makes it an extremely useful, unique and overpowered Pokémon (although it beats me why it isn't able to learn Pin Missile, with its effective projectile system and all). I love its design and its mischievous look, which suggest that we're dealing with a highly defensive and strong Pokémon. I'll gladly give Cloyster a rating of 5 stars, every one of them more than deserving!

Rating: 5/5