Kleavor Raid Day: A PvP Analysis

Alright, KLEAVOR Raid Day is here! How do we feel about this awesome looking beastie? Well, it’s mostly right here in our Bottom Line Up Front:

B.L.U.F.

• With poor bulk and a mediocre typing combination, Kleavor has a lot to overcome to make an impact in PvP (or PvE, for that matter!).
• …and overall, it mostly fails to do so, comparing unfavorably to not only its alternative evolution (well, eventually you should be able to evolve Scyther into Kleavor!) Scizor, but even things you never see in PvP like Kabutops.
• Keep in mind that Kleavor is currently not available in Great League OR as a Shadow, since there is no current way to evolve it… this is only for Ultra League and MAYBE Master League for now, folks.

Well, sunshine and rainbows there, eh folks? Sorry, but just giving it to you straight. If you want to go out and raid a ton anyway, or just want to know HOW bad it is, then please do read on! I uh… I spent a lot of time writing it, so I’d appreciate it anyway. 😅

You may be interested in our Kleavor Raid Guide and checking out how Volcarona, Kleavor and Mega Pinsir perform as Raid Attackers (Very Quick Preliminary Analysis). With that being said, let’s dive in, shall we?

KLEAVOR Stats and Moves

Kleavor BugRock

Ultra League Stats

Master League Stats

So, remember how I spent a few paragraphs in my recent analysis on Volcarona discussing how its typing and bulk were both poor? Well, Kleavor is… kinda worse in one respect, and clearly worse in the other. 😬

First, the typing. Volcarona’s Bug/Fire typing leaves it critically weak to common Water, Flying, and 2x Rock damage, but it does come with six handy resistances to somewhat make up for it (Bug, Fairy, Fighting, Ice, Steel, and 2x Grass). Kleavor is also left vulnerable to Water, has a one-stage weakness to Rock, and has an additional vulnerability to (admittedly, relatively rare) Steel moves. But the big glaring difference is that Kleavor has a mere two resistances: Normal and Poison, both coming from its Rock side. All three resistances of its Bug side — Fighting, Grass, and Ground — are negated by its Rock side. So while most Bugs are known for those resistances, Kleavor is left with none of them. In fact, the only real positive that comes out of the pairing of Bug and Rock is that Rock negates Bug’s standard vulnerability to Fire. But that’s it.

As for the bulk, it’s an even sorrier story. Volcarona is in NO way bulky; as noted in my analysis of it, the closest comps are… well, let me just quote my own article:

In Great League, Volcarona’s stats and overall bulk are in the same zip code as Primeape, Greninja, Luxray, Ursaring, and Deoxys… the Speed Forme of Deoxys. It is very slightly bulkier than those, but only ever so slightly. That’s not fantastic company to be among. Its neighbors are similar in Ultra League, with things like Pinsir, Houndoom, Tapu Lele (the never-seen Psychic Lele), Staraptor, and Galvantula having roughly the same Attack, (lack of) bulk, and stat product. Yuck.

It’s not plagiarism if you’re stealing from your own work! Got that, former-middle-school-grammar-teacher Ms. Oates? Ha! Guess who got the last laugh.

Ahem, sorry.

So yeah, Volcarona is the opposite of bulky. So what if I told you that Kleavor is strictly worse? In CP-capped Ultra League, it has about half a dozen more Attack, but that comes at the expensive of about 10 less HP. And in Master League, it trails BADLY, with about a dozen less Defense and 20 less HP. In fairness, it also trails by over 500 CP, but still. The UL comps alone make it clear that as frail as Volca is, Kleavor is worse.

It is ALSO worse than Steely cousin Scizor. Not known for its own bulk at all, despite having a MUCH more favorable defensive typing (with nine typing resistances and just a single weakness, to Fire), Scizor still boasts about 8 more Defense and 4 more HP than Kleavor in Ultra League, and despite having about 150 CP less than Kleaver in Master League, still has just as much HP as Kleavor and still about a half dozen more Defense.

Have I painted the picture yet?

Of course, flimsy things like Scizor can still thrive in PvP thanks to their moves. Might that save Kleavor? Let’s see.

Fast Moves

• Quick Attack – Normal type, 2.5 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 1.0 CoolDown
• Air Slash – Flying type, 3.0 DPT, 3.0 EPT, 1.5 CD

Hmmm. No STAB fast moves, despite having access to things like Fury Cutter and Smack Down in MSG. That’s a… bold choice. Technically, if Niantic was going with only the moves Kleavor can learn in the Legends Arceus game (when Kleavor was first introduced), Fury Cutter and Smack Down (and many other moves) were not in its movepool… not until the later Scarlet & Violet/Gen9 brought it a bevy of new moves to work with. (Legends Arceus famously had a very limited selection of moves overall as compared to most other recent mainline games).

But I digress. What we DO have is a very lackluster Air Slash, and an above average Quick Attack that nonetheless will NEVER be super effective against anything, seeing as how it’s a Normal type move. But it has good energy generation and passable power, so it’ll do. It’s at least much more attractive than Air Slash!

Now, what change moves can it power out? Super spam like Scizor with its 35-energy Night Slash and X-Scissor? Well… kinda?

Charge Moves

• X-Scissor – Bug type, 45 damage, 35 energy
• Rock Slide – Rock type, 75 damage, 45 energy
• Stone Edge – Rock type, 100 damage, 55 energy

Ah, there’s the STAB moves! Awkward for PvE not to have any Bug or Rock moves, though. (For fuller thoughts on PvE, see the quick look by my friend and colleague Teban54, but uh… it’s not good.) But at least we got ’em here.

X-Scissor is disappointing, ngl. In fairness, the ONLY Bug moves Kleavor learns in PLA are X-Scissor and Silver Wind, but uh… honestly, I might have preferred the latter. Oh well. Even in the later game S&V, the only Bug charge move added on was Bug Buzz, so the pickings are slim. X-Scissor CAN be workable, as it is for Kleavor’s fellow Rocky Bug Crustle. It’s just far from ideal.

Much better are the Rock moves. One day Kleavor will hopefully get GO’s version of its exclusive move Stone Axe, but for now, Rock Slide and Stone Edge are both pretty great. Better than the Rock Blast it could have been stuck with instead, and probably a better fit than the Rock Tomb it learns in MSG too.

So at least some promise here. How does it shape up when you put everything together?

ULTRA LEAGUE

For the time being, we’re actually skipping over Great League, as Kleavor is ONLY able to be acquired via raiding (no wild or even evolve option as of yet), which means a minimum of Level 20, and Level 20 Kleavor will never squeeze under 1500 CP. For your Raid Day Kleavors, Ultra League is your floor. But don’t worry… Kleavor is mostly just a worse Kabutops in Great League anyway. You’re not really missing out on much. I mean, when’s the last time you saw freaking Kabutops in PvP anyway?

So onward with Ultra League. Onward, but uh… not exactly upward. Yet again, you’re left trailing the likes of Kabutops… and there’s a reason you never see Kabutops. The pluses for Kleavor are the ability to slay Mandibuzz and Obstagoon thanks to the speed of X-Scissor, but Kabutops, by contrast, can take down stuff like Umbreon (thanks to the Fury Cutter that Kleavor would like to get its claws on), Pidgeot, Aurorus, Charizard, and Kleavor’s cousin Scizor in addition to beating everything else (other than the aforementioned Mandi and Goonie) that Kleavor can.

If you want a Sycther evolution in Ultra League, it’s definitely still Scizor, especially in Master League Premier. (Yeah, Kleavor mostly flops there too.)

As is, Kleavor is a BAD PvP option, folks. Sorry.

And spoiler alert: as you might expect of something that barely crosses 3500 CP, Master League is no better. But for completeness….

MASTER LEAGUE

Yeah, here is Kleavor’s current best. It DOES manage to slay Flyers like Ho-Oh, Gyarados, Yveltal, and Togekiss, but other than sneaky wins versus Zacian, that’s about all the praise I can give it. Heck, the only other truly meta win it gets at all is weak-to-Rock Reshiram… no other Dragon even comes realistically close to losing. Even Flying Dragonite wins without even needing Superpower.

Ungood.

WHAT COULD SAVE KLEAVOR?

Well, just to finish the tease I mentioned earlier… no, Silver Wind isn’t the answer.

Out of moves it has available in Pokemon Legends Arecus, there are really only two that stand out. Psycho Cut provides a potentially intriguing fast move alternative, though in actual practice, it doesn’t really help. More interesting is Close Combat, which would give Kleavor at least a little more potential and flexability, though somewhat less so in Master League. (Gain Mamoswine but lose several other potential wins from before.)

Our best solutions lie in Kleavor’s move pool from Scarlet & Violet, which adds on things like the previously mentioned Fury Cutter and Smack Down, as well as stuff like Bug Buzz, Acrobatics, Brick Break, Wing Attack, and most promising of all, Night Slash and even Counter (those last two through breeding). At least some combinations of those moves make Kleavor a bit more interesting, particularly in Ultra League and Ultra Premier, but even then, if I’m being honest, it looks like to remain more spice than something that will ever be considered meta.

Its best chance likely lies in how GO implements Stone Axe, Kleavor’s signature move. In the mainline games, it’s a relatively low power move (65 base damage), though highly accurate with an elevated chance to land critical hits. It also leaves “splinters” in the target that pile on additional damage over a further 2-4 turns. How will that translate to GO? Guess we’ll see! But it really is likely Kleavor’s last, best option to gain sudden relevance down the line. Here’s hoping, as I LOVE the design. 🤞

IN CONCLUSION

I mean, just to reiterate one more time: with current and even known future moves, Kleavor can’t overcome its inherant flaws of a so-so typing and very poor bulk, and is unlikely to have a major impact on PvP (or even PvE, for that matter). I’m not here to tell you what to do this weekend, but I WILL say that I personally plan to hit the closest gym for the Pokedex entry and probably call it a day. I may not even go that far depending on my kids’ soccer (fútbol for my non-American friends) schedule! ⚽ Do with this information what you see fit, dear reader, but if you for whatever reason (and I can’t imagine why! 🫠) don’t feel like raiding much right now, I think this is a Pokemon and a Raid Day for which you don’t have to worry much about FOMO. I’ll just leave it at that. 😉

Alright, that’s it for today! Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with near-daily PvP analysis nuggets or Patreon, if you’re feeling extra generous.

Happy raiding, for however much you try to get in! Do stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!