Social Saturdays 5: The Great Claydol ex Prank

Although HeyTrainer won't be doing any April Fool's jokes this year (RIP), today we'll be going back to a time when secret decks and techs were more common than not, and to the joke deck that taught us why it isn't always smart to follow the hype: Claydol ex.

Setting the Scene for Secrecy

The first "secret" deck was actually not a secret at all, but the result of the international Pokemon TCG community not communicating much with Japan. Pokemon's homeland has always had a separate system of organized play, but back then its players very rarely spoke with those outside of their country. So in 2004, we experienced a swarm of nearly Japanese-exclusive Team Magma decks destroying their non-Japanese opponents, a Japan sweep in all three age groups, and the birth of the legend that is Tsuguyoshi Yamato.

The next season, Americans learned to appreciate the value of undisclosed information, and so began to deliberately develop their own secret decks The most famous among these is "Queendom," the deck that would ultimately dominate the Masters Division in 2005.

The Secret Deck that Never Was: "Troll-Dol ex"

It's 2006-2007, and Jimmy Ballard is fresh off of a stellar second place finish at the 2006 World Championships with his Eeveelutions deck. Jimmy is by nature more of a "rogue" player than a "secretive" player; in fact, he let many of his friends in on his second place deck months in advance of using it at Worlds!

I don't remember the exact details, but perhaps inspired by the sheer lunacy that can result of the secret deck phenomena, Jimmy and I had a fateful conversation that essentially went something like:

"Hey, wouldn't it be funny to make a fake secret deck?"
"Yeah lol."

And so, we found Claydol ex: the most horrible, yet nominally-believable secret card at the time. It should look horrible by anyone's standards at any time, I know, but keep in mind that its Type Shift Poke-Power was very attractive in a metagame where Psychic and Fighting Types in the same deck were a premium.

We spread the joke to some other players, who then went wild with it and spread the idea even further, to the point where a disproportionate amount of hype going into Nationals 2007 was for this very card…this very awful, awful card. What's even more hilarious wasn't merely that people paid attention to the card; some of these players who spread the joke gave legs to Claydol ex by making fake decklists!

It all came to a head at Nationals 2007, when several people ultimately netdecked this very awful concept, and did predictably poorly with it. However, the real surprise was that some people actually overcame the odds and did well with it! All the same, it became abundandtly clear that the community was trolled in the most hilarious, devastating way it ever was — or ever will be.

A Conclusion on Claydol

"The secret deck that never was" changed the way everyone saw secret decks. While the pranksters got their laughs, netdeckers would no longer blindly follow hype to this extent, and we actually saw a noticeable decrease in emphasis on "secret" information over the years. Although some decks such as Volcarona/Ampharos would imitate the sort of epic troll that Claydol ex pulled off, nothing ever came close in size or scope.

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!