Looks like you are 'new' to clay alternatives.
If you never used conventional clay, I'd recommend you to start with a small piece of clay, and also a clay alternative (sponge, towel or mitt)
Meguiar's Clay is a nice starter kit and comes with a very good QD for lube:
Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Kit, meguiars detailing clay,
It's the most gentle Clay I've tried, yet it removes contaminants really well. The advantage of this being a fine grade is that it causes little to no marring. You can go from wash and clay to applying a coat of wax (if no more correction is needed).
I've also tried another from 3M:
3M Perfect-It III Cleaner Clay, 3m 38070, a paint-cleaning detailing clay that grabs foreign particles as it glides across the paint.
It's more 'aggressive' than the Meguiar's listed above, even feel more 'consistent' in your hand (Meg's one feels soft). It does removes 'more contaminants' at a time, at the cost of leaving more surface marring. It's always better to follow aggressive claying with at least one polishing step prior LSP.
Now we can talk about clay alternatives. They are (generally) larger and easier to hold, don't need continuous folding, and you can rinse it to clean (even if you drop it). They are a lot faster than conventional claying, so worth using every time.
You just need a bit of conventional clay for tight spots, and for that you'll have the Meg's kit I've suggested above, it'll last a really long time. For the rest of the car, you'll use your clay alternative + car shampoo as lubricant (please do a search regarding how to properly do this. If you wish, I can help you).
In fact, just like aggressive clay listed above, clay alternatives tends to leave more marring, which would benefit from one polish step just after.
For sure it will depends if you're dealing with harder/softer paints, the clay lube used, your technique, apart of the grade of the clay. Fine grade 'clay alternatives' tends to leave less or no marring (compared to medium grade clay alternatives).
Hope I've helped,
Kind Regards.
