Why does this Mon has so amazing Sprites and is usable
every single Gen?
PoliCorrupto (Poliwrath)
Ability: Water Absorb
- Blizzard
- Amnesia
- Surf
- Submission
Other Options:
-Hypnosis ( sucks, but Sleep is broken, hard to put it tho)
- Ice Beam (weak, but more PPs and accuracy),
-Hydro Pump. Guaranteed 2HKO to Alakazam at +2 if it doesn,t miss, guaranteed OHKO at +6 if someone is dumb enough to let you set-up to that point. Guaranteed 2HKO to Snorlax at +2 (neither Submission nor +2 Surf reach so) and OHKO at +6. Same thing for Gengar. Guaranteed 2HKO at +6 to Chansey (with Reflect, Chansey actually walls Submission unless it crits). High chance to OHKO Jynx at +4. High Chance to 2HKO Starmie at +4 (you still lose to it like 99% of times). And thats it I think, Surf is still better most of the times but extra power might be handy.
-Earthquake. Just for Jolteon and Gengar that switch directly to Poliwrath... so, not good.
-Body Slam. You almost never win Starmie, but at least with this you can hope to Paralize it.
-Psychic is bad. Never use it (Hydro does more damage to Gengar, and Blizzard to Grass Mons).
So, Poliwrath is a very niche mixed Amnesia Sweeper in OU. It threatens Normals and Rocks, and can also damage Egg and Zapdos with Blizzard. It also can win against paralized Alakazam, Jynx and more niche in OU Mons such as Lapras, Articuno and Moltres. Unlike Slowbro, it speedties with Victreebel, so he can actually win against it without needing paralisis support. However, unlike Slowbro, it does not resist Psychic. It loses BADLY to Starmie, loses to opposing Slowbro too (unless running hypnosis), and can,t never OHKO Gengar at +2 (Slowbro sometimes can if it uses Psychic), reveiving more damage from both TBolt and Explosion.
This means it needs huge support so succeed. TBolt Chansey is good for dealing with Starmie and critting Slowbro. Electrics in general work fine with Poliwrath, as well as grass Types (Egg checks Gengar, Vic or the also niche Venu deal with Slowbro and somewhat Starmie). Rhydon is also a good partner, because it atracts Starmie, at least when the oponnent doesn,t have an Egg (I heard more and more people started to drop Egg these days) and can paralyze and weak it. At the same time, Rhydon counters the electrics, that always treaten Poli with their high crit ratio even when he has already used an Amnesia.
In the end, Poliwrath can be a powerful sweeper, especially against no-Starmie teams, but needs a lot of support to put work. If given said support, it will be helpful for your team... but what won,t?
PoliCorrupto (Poliwrath) @ Leftovers
Ability: None
- Belly Drum
-3 of Return, Body Slam, Earthquake, Hidden Power Ghost, Hidden Power Rock, Hidden Power Fight, Submission, Hydropump, Lovely Kiss.
Poliwrath is the second fastest Belly Drumm sweeper in GSC. And with his movepool, he can win against
every single OU Mon provided he has the adequate move and some of them are paralized beforehand (see Raikou, Zapdos and Gengar). The issue is that no matter what moves it has, there will always be some Mon that walls it completely, a severy 4 slot sindrome. So, like in RBY it needs huge support to work properly and like RBY, his typing has some serious defensive problems ( Electrics are everywhere). At least, now he has a better Sleep move if it can fit it somewhere. Probably a better drummer than Clefable, worse than Charizard (speedties with Zapdos, deals more damage to Skarm) and Quagsire (much better defensive typing at the cost of having more issues against Cloyster and Egg due to its pathetic speed) and far worse than Snorlax. Still, a cool mon to give a try.
Note: Hidden Power Ghost at +6 OHKOs almost always Egg, so Hidden Power Bug is not needed on this Mon unless you really fear Meganium.
PoliCorrupto (Poliwrath) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Focus Punch
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
Not a bad Sub-Puncher with Spikes support, as it had perfect coverage and enters easily in Tyranitar and Suicune due to his typing and ability. There are better options, of course, but it still has a niche. Apart from Spikes ( and Spinblocker) it needs Dugtrio, because Celebi is a pain to deal with otherwise. There are better options than Poliwrath in Advance, but it definetely has a niche.
Other options: Salac Berry + Belly Drum can work against some teams, as well as Belly Drum with Agility Pass support.
PoliCorrupto (Poliwrath) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Waterfall
- Bulk Up
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Poliwrath is definetely at its worst in DPP, its niche is very small here. He can sweep late game against some teams while checking pretty well Tyranitar, Infernape and Heatran, among other things but almost always there will be a better option.
Other options: Belly Drum + Salac Berry or Agilypass Support. Poliwrath has great sinergy with both Zapdos and Gliscor.
The ORAS set that Martin posted works in BW too (with some EV variatons and Leftovers as a possible item). He can check well Lando, Tar, Tran and some Jirachi and Keldeo sets. Spikes are at their prime moment in BW with Ferrothorn and Skarmory being amazing at it and Defog being still non-existant. On the other hand, Sleep mechanic of that generation hurts Poliwrath a lot. However, its one of the very few mons capable of using a Restalk Strategy due to Circe Throw, which phazes out what would be counters. Spinners are another problem, Starmie and especially Tentacruel in Rain enter easily in Poliwrath while the main Spinblocker of BW ( Jellicent) both walls Poli and has horrible sinergy with him. Gengar and the niche Spiritomb, Sableye and Cofagrigus have better sinergy, but struggle against both Starmie and Tentacruel ( except Spiritomb, which can actually beat Starmie).
In the end, it happens like in other Gens, Poliwrath needs support, but still can pull its weight.
Other Options:
https://pokepast.es/5478d548410c2ad3 Very unreliable, but can sometimes work to completely troll Rain Teams while you use other weather such as Sand.
Nothing to add in regard of the Standart Restalk Poliwrath, Martin already explained it pretty well. However, it still has another reliable option, at least in theory (didn't test it in practice, but works in SM).
PoliCorrupto (Poliwrath) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Waterfall
- Return
- Ice Punch/ Earthquake / Brick Break
If it manages to boost in Rain and there are enough Rain Turns left, it murders whole teams. Its better in SM than in ORAS due to some meta trends (Greninja being back in OU, Pelipper being better than Politoed as a Rain setter, Mega Slowbro and PDef Tangrowth being much rarer than in ORAS less Sand and Zard-Y, etc.), but still could work in ORAS too.
Waterfall + Return offer almost perfect neutral coverage (being Ferro, Empoleon and Shedinja the exceptions). The last move depends on what you want to kill: Ice Punch probably is the best option, as it OHKOs Defensive Mega Latias, Defensive Mega Altaria, Amoonguss and has a chance to kill after Rocks PDef Tangrowth. Earthquake is almost only for Jellicent. It doesn,t OHKO it if it has full health and max Defense, but leaves it very weak. Brick Break is only for Ferrothorn, it obviously kills it.
Mega and Regular Slowbro completely wall Poliwrath even at +6 ( they need to have a Psychic move to kill it, though). Starmie doesn,t and Slowking almost always dies at +6 Return. Don,t set up if the oponnent still has a Mega Alakazam or a non-Megaevolved Gardevoir, they will Trace the Swift Swim and easily kill Poliwrath. Unaware Clef and Quagsire also wall Poliwrath, although if you flinch them twice, you still win. Other than that, Poliwrath kills almost all the Meta if the oponnent lets it boost himself. Volturn support (such as Jirachi, which atracts Tran, Lando, Gliscor and Scizor) helps a lot to boost Poliwrath.
Hope you read all the post and now use more Poliwrath
