Pokemon Analysis: Poliwhirl

[niga]

Poliwhirl is often overlooked in favor of it's fully evolved evolutions, Poliwrath and Politoed. However, Poliwhirl has one principal advantage over both: speed. Hypnosis with 90 base speed can outrun a LOT of pokemon, and you can belly drum afterwards. So, here's the belly-drumming set I use:

~Hypnosis
~Belly Drum
~Earthquake
~Hidden Power Ghost/Bug

@ Salac Berry or Leftovers if Poliwhirl is going to switch out after a Belly Drum and switch back in for another belly drum.

Water Absorb

Basically, you play it like this: either somehow get it in (lead it off or explode or baton pass with a sub) or switch onto a water attack (so you can absorb it for hp). Once at this point, a judgement must be made between Hypnosis if necessary(if the opponent is not likely to switch), or an outright Belly Drum(if the opponent is likely to switch). Even without STAB, 912 attack and 306 speed (Jolly) are quite scary to deal with. Sweep until you find resistance, then switch.

Other Options:
There is no reason to use Poliwhirl besides this combo.

EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd is the the only real option...you need all the speed and attack you can get.

Opinion: Poliwhirl is an awesome pokemon. All he needs is a single turn for a Hypnosis, then a Belly Drum, and he can wreak havoc. Sure, he gets ignored a lot for being a NFE(non-fully-evolved) pokemon, but he has a lot of potential.

Counters: Anything faster than him, which there are a lot of, unfortunately. He is also very fragile, so if he can't OHKO something with a Belly Drummed Earthquake or Hidden Power, it will probably KO him. Anything that has some sort of resistance to Earthquake and the chosen HP will give Poliwhirl troubles...also, Quick Attack and Extremespeed can kill him because the pokemon using those attacks usually have high attacks. Hypnosis also only has 60% accuracy, so if he cannot use hypnosis, chances are he will be KO'd. Just watch out for him; he can become quickly a monster with good prediction skills and a healthy dose of luck(to get hypnosis off). Plus, Skarmory makes him cry. Skarm makes a lot of stuff cry. Zapdos and raikou will also give him hissy fits, but they do that to a lot of stuff. As always, you have to build your team to have good synergy: there are certain pokemon that can give EVERY team a problem (pokemon like skarmory). Recognize them and deal with them.

 

[Aeroblacktyl]

Er...how does it touch.....skarmory...

 

[makiri]

Hypnosis with 90 base speed can outrun a LOT of pokemon

Anything faster than him, which there are a lot of, unfortunately.

Which is it?

and Skarm says GG

 

[sxcdude]

i suppose it scares people into thinking that it has focus punch, and he prays that the opponent believes it has focus punch, so they send out gengar after thier metagross gets ohkoed by eq, and get gengar ohkoed by hp ghost, and then the guy realises that it dosent have focus punch, but by then, a magneton would have switched in and trapped skarmory, so there we have it, we got rid of thier gengar skarm and metagross

 

[Aeroblacktyl]

Or they just send in Zapdos to begin with since most all Poliwhirl/wrath can't touch it with or without Ice Beam. Also faster and has sleep talk.

 

[crabnebula]

You use this set on a 60% win chance that is if the opponent decides to stay in and Hypnosis misses, the set is ruined.And you cannot go for another hit, unlike other good users of it because either your hp will be below 50% or you will die from whatever was set up that turn.I dont think it will be a gamebreaking kind of set though innovative, because of Skarmory(perhaps Forry too) and the reason stated before this.

 

[AJC]

yeah but if it gets below 50% HP and doesn't die it can come in later on a surf and try to drum again

 

[niga]

Sure it doesn't like skarmory, but you can say that about any sort of physical sweeper =\ this is why you pack a magneton. He's not the kind of pokemon that can setup and deal with every single pokemon all by himself, but belly drum and hypnosis running off of that speed is a force to be reckoned with.

Also he has WATER ABSORB so basically if you can predict any sort of water attack then you can get this guy in.

Which is it?

and Skarm says GG

HEY GUYS I DUNNO MAYBE IT COULD BE BOTH LOL!!!!
306 speed is enough speed to rape a lot of stuff, but at the same time, get raped by a lot of stuff. Your team should be able to deal with the stuff faster than it. If you're afraid of zappy, pack a zappy counter =\ you're going to have to deal with problem pokemon no matter what team you have. But thanks for the comments guys, I'll add it.

 

[Bologo]

This is actually a good idea. This would like, destroy NU because it's basically faster than everything there, well, except pidgeot, luvdisc and raticate, but what're the odds that they're gonna have a +spd personality. I don't know about UU because it's like, all out attack, so anything faster than it is just gonna OHKO it right away. In standard...90 speed is faster than a lot, but I suppose that if you want it to do good in standard, you have to like build your team around it or something.

 

[rekt]

It would probably be too strong for NU, but too weak for UU.

 

[0rz]

Second level UEs are not allowed in NU.

 

[norulz]

If Hypnosis misses you can kiss your strategy goodbye.

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

Poliwhirl is one of the better NFE's, but he's in no way near Poliwrath in usability and is really inferior to Politoed too. It might possibly do something in UU I guess.

 

[Bologo]

Yeah, now that I think about it, you're better off just using Charizard in OU, because it has more speed, better attack, better stats all-round, and it can destroy Skarmory with STAB Fire Blast.

 

[Slobroking]

I actually quite like the idea behind this

 

[toy]

imo, predict and put FP>Hypnosis

 

[Nate]

Poliwrath worked fairly well in UU once upon a time with Sub/Drum @ salac, but then everybody started using quick attack. Whoops.

Seeing as poliwhirl doesn't even have the sweeping potential of poliwrath (which rarely could sweep succesfully) and will still get killed done dead by quick attack and fast ou pokemon, I don't see the potential usability of poliwhirl.