Gastrodon is often seen as outclassed by Swampert, which is the main Water / Ground type in the tier thanks to its access to Stealth Rock, better offensive coverage, and better stats. However, Gastrodon offers some unique assets that Swampert is missing, such as consistent healing via Recover as well as its ability Sticky Hold, which makes Gastrodon immune to Trick and prevents Knock Off from removing its item. Thanks to those two traits, Gastrodon has the luxury of being a truly excellent counter to Clefable. Like with Swampert, Gastrodon's excellent Water / Ground typing only leaves it with a Grass-type weakness while also granting it an Electric immunity, which can make Gastrodon hard to immediately threaten. Gastrodon's main utility is Curse, which in conjunction with its ability makes it a slow setup sweeper that cannot get easily stopped by Trick unlike its competition. Despite its unique attributes, Gastrodon remains very passive and has quite a few flaws; on one hand its coverage consisting of Waterfall and Earthquake means Pokemon like Breloom, Haze Milotic, and defensive Latias completely blank it, and on the other hand its extreme lack of power means it needs several boosts before being actually threatening. Furthermore, status like burn and poison heavily invalidates Gastrodon in the long run, so it's going to require a lot of support to be able to function nicely.