Breakdown
With Alomomola banned and Pawmot ruling the tier with an Iron Fist, one brave weird spinning thing has risen up to bring peace to a hostile metagame. Despite being slept on during the earlier days of July, various meta shifts have enabled Claydol to become the perfect fit on any team needing rocks, hazard removal, a Pawmot check, a Volt Switch blocker, and a genderless Pokemon so you don't get swept by Attract Furret. The Standard Claydol's most common set is reminiscent of its glory days in ADV OU, consisting of Stealth Rock, Rapid Spin, Earthquake, and Psychic. Rocks and Rapid Spin need no introduction, but for the last two slots, Claydol's wide movepool grants it a plethora of options. Earthquake threatens Pawmot and Tinkaton and gives Claydol a way to hit Goodra with powerful physical STAB, while Psychic hits physdef Rotom-Heat hard even when burned. Other options include Shadow Ball to hit Slowking and other Claydol, Ice Beam to hit ground types and Goodra (though Goodra still won't be taking much damage), and rock coverage to hit wispless Rotom-Heat harder. Claydol is also an excellent Trick Room setter with its access to rocks and Teleport. For its held item, Leftovers is the best in most cases, but Colbur Berry can be useful against Knock Off Pawmot and as a last-resort answer to Houndoom.
The Funny (hyper offense lead)
Claydol's other niche is that it is the only HO lead that can consistently prevent Primeape and Tinkaton, two other common leads, from getting rocks on the field, while having access to rocks itself. After one Rapid Spin, Claydol outspeeds both leads and hits hard with Psychic and Earthquake respectively. Claydol also has a useful tool in Explosion, creating a free pivot into any wallbreaker. The only downside is not being able to fit Rocks, Spin, EQ, Psychic, and Explosion all on the same set. A simple solution to this dilemma is to hack into the Showdown server right before your tour game and find out which lead your opponent is using.
Written by gcgoat