#60-63 + #186: Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath and Politoed

Great, another divergent final evolution, and this family is more than a little disturbing since their name comes from the fact that you can see their 'whirl' of intestines through their flesh...

Poliwag is a dopy looking thing which is always that bit bigger than I remember (having seen it dwarf what I've sent out on wonder trade of late). It's fairly cute, but it lacks anything real in terms of stats other than a very nice 90 speed. Every other stat is stuck at a paltry 40 other than the attack at a still-less-than-impressive 50. Wow... The abilities it gets are ok (well, two of them): water absorb is great if you can switch in on a predicted water move as it won't hurt you and will actually heal you a degree damp is still rather dull as all it does is prevent self-destruct and explosion which rarely come up from sane people, and swift swim doubles your already good speed in the rain, so if you run on a rain team, you don't really need to invest in speed EVs.

Cute until you realise the swirl is its entrails on show... 

Water sport is a move I always get bored of seeing on water-type Pokemon since it just weakens fire, but water gun isn't a bad STAB move early on other than it's special, and you are an attacking Pokemon (unless you don't want to evolve (see later)). Hypnosis can put foes to sleep 60% of the time (barring abilities) and bubble is basically water gun but superior in every way other than base power so you'd be mad to stick with water gun... You evolve at level 25, so that gives you plenty of chance to take the forgettable double slap (base 15 per hit on a physical normal move), rain dance (gives double speed and boosted water attack power), body slam (finally a decent power physical move but is only a normal attack: base 85 power and can cause paralysis, plus it deals perfect accuracy with double damage to a minimised foe) and finally bubble beam (think bubble but with 65 power and lower PP).

If you don't evolve, you can take the delights of mud shot (a ground special base 55 power which lowers the foe's speed by one stage), belly drum (halves health, maximises attack, so is a risk, but I would have killed for a Poliwag with belly-drum a few weeks ago when I was trying to breed it onto a Marill and had to go through chaining with Linoone and Walrein...), wake-up slap (base 70 fighting physical that doubles in damage when it wakes a sleeping foe (so connects with hypnosis) and becomes STAB with evolution later on), hydro pump (a very powerful, base 110 special STAB water, attack with low PP and 80 accuracy, so surf may be preferable) and finally mud bomb (base 65 special ground that has a chance of lowering accuracy).

The TM list is rather familiar, but now we have hail, ice beam, blizzard and psychic to pretty much ignore due to the poor special attack of Poliwag, which is a shame since ice beam and psychic would be pretty cool... Facade rears its head once again, along with frustration/return, thief and round. Scald makes an appearance (base 80 water special with a decent chance of burning a foe, which I love). You get secret power, rest, substitute and dig, but you could go for the HM moves: surf is a powerful water special, but you'd be better off going with dive or waterfall, the latter being a better option as it doesn't have a build up turn and has chance to flinch, as well as 5 more in base PP.

With egg moves you can get endure and endeavour, which is highly frustrating as a combo, ice ball (basically an ice version of rollout that grows in power over 5 moves from a base 30 move, yet it hits double if defence curl has been used before), mind reader (means your next attack will not miss), refresh (a reasonable healing move), splash (the greatest move ever as it does nothing (!)) and water pulse (great but special...). If you visit the tutor then you add icy wind, helping hand and snore to your repertoire, which is a bit disappointing.

Upon evolving you actually gain no speed, but everything else gets a little better: 65 HP and 65 attack and defence, and 50 for both specials. There's no change for the abilities and you remain pure water type, which actually isn't too bad a typing for defence in truth.

Is it out canvassing for gym memberships?

By level up, there is no change. However, earthquake, brick break, bulldoze, power-up-punch and rock smash all join the viable moves from TMs and HMs. From the tutor you can now take ice punch and be tempted by focus punch (and since you get substitute, this may work for you).

If you want to go for the water/fighting Poliwrath, you'll need a water stone. The thing is, the previously pretty decent speed has now fallen (!) to 70, which just isn't good enough. Your HP has gone up to 90, and both physical stats are up to 95, with special attack at 70 and special defence at 90, so you lose speed for some survivability. This does kind of make sub/punching fairly viable. You keep the same abilities, but now you do kind of need swift swim to be active to outpace most threats. Even regular Gardevoir can now outpace you, and Gallade will make your life difficult, this even without considering things like Alakazam, Talonflame (as you're now weak to flying, and many flying types are very fast) or even Pikachu...

Definitely advertising gym memberships...

You get a very small list of moves by level up, wiping out most of the previous ones (Poliwhirl learns its last at 53 with mud bomb, the last physical at 43). Here you get circle throw (physical fighting base 60 with 90 accuracy and then knocks the foe out of the battle, dragging in a new one but at very low priority), bubble beam, hypnosis, double slap, and submission (base 80 physical fighting with 80 accuracy and you take recoil that is 25% of the damage inflicted). From levelling to 32 you get dynamic punch (base 100 physical fighting with 50 accuracy, 5PP but will confuse the Pokemon on the receiving end), to 43 you get mind reader and then 53 you could take circle throw if you missed it earlier.

Added to the TM list you get focus blast (not worth it since you have useless special attack compare to physical), rock tomb and rock slide, payback, giga impact (avoid), poison jab (nice and powerful at base 80 and physical coverage) and strength. The tutor adds nothing.

Politoed is a Pokemon I so often forget, maybe since it evolved by trade when holding a King's Rock (like Slowking, and the item is useful in battle as well, so I don't like using it too often for evolving). Politoed remains pure water, and the hidden ability changes from swift swim to drizzle, meaning it summons rain for 5 turns when it comes in (8 with damp rock). The regular abilities stay the same. The stats: base 70 speed, 90 HP, 75 in the physicals, 90 special attack (so you could have taken the special moves earlier on), and 100 special defence. Basically, you're a special wall or support with drizzle to maybe setup swift swimmers or rain dishes.

Hands up who thinks this looks good? Nobody? Great.

Level up moves are again thin on the ground, starting with bubble beam, hypnosis, double slap and perish song (any Pokemon who hears this will be KO'd after 5 turns unless they have soundproof). Swagger, bounce (base 85 physical flying akin to a weaker fly and without the utility) and hyper voice (base 90 normal special, as well as the potential to destroy scenery in battles like rocks).

The TM list looks similar, but you may look more favourably on ice beam, hidden power, psychic, scald (yay!), focus blast and surf. Visiting the tutor is basically a pointless trip unless you missed out on any moves.

All in all, I don't really like this line too much. The final evolutions disappoint since they lose speed, and Politoed disappoints even more since it lack swift swim. Drizzle isn't a bad ability, since you can use it as a great setup, and the lower speed means that it will setup its weather effect second and override the first. The stat distributions don't really make good reading if you want sweepers, but they aren't bad. Arguably the Pokemon are too good as they will be thought of too highly and will be outcompeted by their peers. The move lists are a little underwhelming as well, and this annoys me. The typing is uncommon, maybe unique (I can't think off the top of my head) with Poliwrath, but don't mistake this for being good. By all means, if you like, them, use them, and you could get some success, with the opponent not knowing what to do.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)