Cloyster – Pokémon TCG Highlander

Potent in offense, defense, and versatile targeting, Cloyster creates a fortress for your team with artillery ready to fire.

Strategy Points:

• There are a lot of great Water Type combos that appreciate the protection of “Solid Shell”, including:
  • Greninja’s “Water Shuriken” + Starmie’s “Aqua Recycle”
  • Blastoise‘s “Dig Well” + Delcatty’s and/or Mantine‘s (evolved from Mantyke) “Power Circulation”
  • Vanilluxe’s “Slippery Soles” + Pelipper – Level X’s “Cruising Coastline” and/or Flygon’s “Rainbow Float”
  • Floatzel’s “Water Acceleration” + Swampert’s “Wash Out.”
• “Clamp Crush” is a win-win scenario when you’re looking to disrupt and lock your opponent. The Paralysis/Energy Discard 50-50 can be further enhanced in disruption with cards like Crushing Hammer and Red Card.
  • Glaceon and Auroras provide great extra layers of defense, making Cloyster harder to Knock Out with your bench protected with “Solid Shell.”
• “Spine Missile” allows for persistent retargeting towards any of your opponent’s Pokémon. Along with Telescopic Sight, there are a lot of Pokemon that use Water Energy that can help chip away at HP for a potential multi-prized attack:
  • Blastoise with “Double Launcher.”
  • Delibird with “Hail.”
  • Dewgong with “Dual Blizzard.”
  • Glaceon with “Blizzard.”
  • Suicune and Palkia with “Tsunami.”
  • Kyurem with “Glaciate.”
• Shellder has great HP for a not fully Evolved Pokémon. Using “Water Splash” on your second turn can result in a quick Knock Out the next turn with Cloyster’s “Spine Missile”, especially with the range it has for hitting benched Pokémon.
• Cloyster – Level X:
• “Tidal Spikes” punishes the opponent for making brisk plays. Revenge killer Pokémon like Bouffalant and Druddigon will have to be careful about fast retaliations if they don’t want to take 40 damage from just this Poké-Body.
  • You can use Stadiums like Miasma Valley, Calamitous Snowy Mountain, and Frozen City to amplify the set up punishment damage.
  • Dugtrio, Toxapex, and Galvantula all add extra punishment with their respective Poké-Bodies.
  • Because the effect trigger is just from “having a new Active Pokémon”, this includes making your opponent switch. Feraligatr’s “Major Tsunami”, Vanilluxe’s “Slipper Soles”, Escape Rope, and Repel are all switch causing options that work here.
• “Shell Break Rampage” is a highly rewarding move if the opportunity presents itself to not get Knocked Out next turn. One heads on Spine Missile will now do 60 damage to the Defending Pokémon, while the free retreat will allow Cloyster to move to the bench and have both of its Poké-Bodies protect your board while disrupting your opponent’s.