Would the Deep Sea Scale or Deep Sea Tooth be better on a Clamperl in an Emerald Nuzlocke?

I had an encounter in the Underwater sections of Hoenn and found a Clamperl. However, I’m wondering if Deep Sea Scale or Deep Sea Tooth is better on it. I currently only have the final Archie fight, the Juan fight, the Wally fight, the Elite 4 and champ, and Steven left for major battles. I’m not allowing trade evolution either, so no Huntail / Gorebyss for me. If I need to include more info on my team, Pokemon left, etc, I can do that. I’m not sure if this kind of question is allowed either, so it can be closed if it isn’t

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

First, Clamperl is one of the worst water Pokemon in Emerald because it comes late and needs trading to evolve. One thing you can do, given that your Tentacool is level 13, is finding a higher level Tentacool or Wingull or using a super rod to fish for a Sharpedo. All 3 of these Pokemon have much better stats compared to Clamperl.

If you absolutely must use Clamperl for whatever reason, the better item is usually deep sea tooth. Let’s assume the average late-game opponent has 80 base stats, 80 base power STAB moves, and no type advantage or disadvantage against Clamperl. To do damage calculations with this theoretical Pokemon, I put a ghost dark type Glalie with shadow ball and crunch in the damage calculator.

Deep sea scale calculations:

0 Atk Glalie Shadow Ball vs. 84 HP / 84 Def Clamperl: 43-51 (38 - 45.1%) – guaranteed 3HKO84 SpA Clamperl Surf vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Glalie: 53-63 (34.1 - 40.6%) – guaranteed 3HKO

Deep sea tooth calculations:

sourceAccording to these calculations, the deep sea tooth allows Clamperl to do a lot more damage while taking only a little more damage from the Glalie.