This week we’ll be discussing the fifth gym leader: Clay of Driftveil City! His Black and White 2 gym revamp isn’t as drastic as the previous leaders. To be honest, it leaves something to be desired. His gym now consists of a maze of unlit passageways that you must traverse to in order to reach Clay. I’m not exactly sure how it works to be quite honest, but no matter. It wasn’t too difficult to journey through. I was hoping for something that involved moving mine carts through a maze of mine shafts.  You’d have to set off a series of explosions to open up different pathways. Oh well, maybe in the next generations (assuming there are any), we’ll have a more interesting ground type gym.

As far as Clay goes, he’s a user of ground type Pokémon. Ground types are some of my favorites in the game. They’re amazingly versatile and come with a number of strong contenders. Ground type moves are also some of the strongest in the game with a combination of high power and impeccable accuracy. For this fight, bring along some decent grass and/or water types to exploit the two main weaknesses of ground. A fighting type would be helpful as well since Clay’s team has two dual type Pokémon weak to fighting.

Clay’s team is no exception to the awesomeness of ground type Pokémon. He uses a level 31 Krokorok, level 31 Sandslash and a level 33 Excadrill. Krokorok is a ground/dark type Pokémon, which gives it excellent type coverage and offensive ability. Paired with its high attack and decent speed stat makes it a decent threat. It can attack with Bulldoze, Crunch, Sand Tomb and Torment. Bulldoze is a ground type attack with 60 base power and can reduce the opponent’s speed stat. The combined STAB and secondary effect can be a bit dangerous, even if you manage to take out Krokorok after you get hit with it. The last thing you need is to give the opponent the upper hand with your reduced speed! Thankfully Krokorok has low defenses, so take advantage of one of its many weaknesses and take it out.

Sandslash is a pure ground fighter from generation 1. It has pretty decent physical attack and defense with subpar special stats and speed. It comes with Bulldoze, Crush Claw, Rollout and Fury Cutter. Crush Claw is somewhat powerful, but it’s lacking the important ground STAB. Bulldoze is the biggest threat here, and it’s not incredibly powerful. You’ll more than likely defeat it before it builds up enough Rollouts and Fury Cutters to be dangerous. Use a strong water or grass type attack to KO Sandslash and move onto the final opponent.

Excadrill is a beast, plain and simple. It’s easily one of the best Pokémon in Gen V (even in the entire game for that matter). It’s combined ground/steel  typing gives it extreme advantages in both offense and defense. It’s excellent attack and fantastic move pool only add to its ever-growing number of advantages. Its move pool contains Bulldoze, Metal Claw, Slash and Rock Slide. With the exception of the weak Metal Claw, its attacks are quite powerful and can easily take out a teammate or two. Rock Slide and Bulldoze will be the two most dangerous attacks in this fight. Since Excadrill is both sturdy and quick, you might get hit at least once by one of his moves. Thankfully, the dual typing leaves him open to a number of weaknesses. A water type will probably be your best bet in this fight. You can use a fire type, but you’re running the risk of being 1HKO with Rock Slide or Bulldoze.

The Challenge Mode fight brings some interesting twists to the fight. Clay now uses an Onix in his team. It comes with the moves Bulldoze, Rock Slide, Explosion and Rock Polish. Onix isn’t particularly dangerous, but Explosion can be quite irritating if you’re caught off guard. His recurring teammates come with a few new attack additions (with the exception of Excadrill). Sandslash comes with Rock Slide and Hone Claws instead of Rollout and Fury Cutter. Rock Slide makes it exceptionally more dangerous. Other than that, you should take it out just easily as before. Krokorok comes with Sandstorm instead of Sand Tomb, which can enhance the power of the entire team. All teammates will benefit from a defenses boost and Sandslash will get an additional speed boost because of its ability. I don’t know what ability Excadrill carries, but either way he’ll get some extreme benefits  from the storm. So, with that said, do NOT let Krokorok use it!