2010-10-20 la poliwrath 035

[MrMeches]

"Before posting, please review the FAQ and follow the Guidelines provided for Card of the Day. Whereas we enjoy opinions of the cards, it is necessary to include a Brief Description for all players to understand your point of view and an optional Rating (ex. x/10). In the future, posts not using the FAQ information may be deleted and reported. Thanks, Mgmt"


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[gal=35708]
2010-10-20 LA POLIWRATH 035
[/gal]​

 

[Kurama]

Its a shame he needs fighting energy. I think hes pretty good with the politoads, and the first attack has donk potential 6/10

 

[Blue Wave]

Focus Punch is a pretty cool attack for a Stage2 with 130 HP, the downside being Poliwrath can only use it on one turn (providing your opponent doesn´t play Gengar Prime). Focus Punch can donk if played T1... :lol:
Submission became much better with the arrival of DCE and is a decent attack, and the downside of doing 20 to itself doesn´t hurt that much.

The weakness is somewhat disturbing with Luxray GL LV.X in the format, but it´s no huge deal.
Retreat of two isn´t that bad either if your deck uses DCE, but that´s usually the only way you´ll want to retreat a Poliwrath with energies.

All in all, I´d say this card is 4/10 in modified, fairly underrated.
In limited it´s 8/10 providing you can get it out, but in unlimited it´s completely useless in my opinion.

 

[Redados1]

I think this card is good, but not competitive. Beginning players may use this card, but it does not have good enough attacks to see competitive play. Sure it has donk potential, but so does Machamp, Kingdra, Shuppet, and plenty of other stuff that is better.

 

[TheGeneral]

Belt it and you have a 150HP monster hitting for 110 T2! woohooooooooo

5/10

 

[thepliskin5005]

Well this isnt a bad card it hase good hp i would give this a 5.5/10

 

[chrisgib]

I like Poliwrath because he is a beast in the video game. This card not so much.

 

[JimboPro]

5 out of 10 .... it has potential if used in the right way I guess... if it wasn't a water pokemon, maybe a fighting pokemon, and had a differen't weakness it could be alot better... Make sure you get two of these bad boys out with the UD dodrio, for free retreat and switch them back and forth every turn to do 60 every turn for one, then find a way to keep healing the one on the bench it could be awesome. BTS out, super scoop up the thing, play it right back down, then add the free retreat from the dodrio, not only is he healed but he has not been damaged yet this turn... It could work but would take too much effort to get it going I think... just trying to figure something out that would make this better, love Poliwrath !

 

[maddox23]

I'm building a rogue on Redshark with this card. It's pretty good, I like it.

Donks a lot.

I'll give it a 7/10, because I'm nice.

 

[goliaththegreat]

While it has some donk power,I just can't see it being very good for compitive play in anyway.

The hp is nice,the retreat is sorta bad at 2,weakness is bad.

Overall 4/10

 

[Shen]

The Poliwrath/toed lines have lots of tools, but unfortunately no "good" attackers. I've experimented a lot with Politoed UL, and I can't find a decent attacker to fit in with it. The newer Poliwrath/toed are both plagued by lightning weakness (and flippiness), Politoed LA isn't much of an attacker at all, and then we have Poliwrath LA. IMO, this is the best attacker for a deck.

Poliwrath LA has a manageable weakness with 130 HP (I find Lucario GL decreasing in use), making it a bit of a tank. It's first attack has great donk potential. Though it often can't be used repetitively, it's a good attack for a newly evolved Poliwrath to attack with. It's second attack is what really hurts the card, damaging itself. This prevents it from playing Expert Belt aggressively, because it would then be doing 40 damage to itself (and you really don't want that). It is, however, DCE'able, allowing Poliwrath to keep up the damage. I wish the effect on the first attack went away when it was sent to the bench =/ then this card would be beastly.

I wouldn't rule off fighting energy as a bad thing. Fighting energy allows a deck to consistently run counters to Luxray or other SP decks (My personal preference is Relicanth, but there's also Machamp). The pre-evolutions don't matter and the Politoeds aren't the greatest attackers. Also -- speaking of pre-evolutions -- I think it's unfortunate that both Poliwags are very donkable by a Luxray T1 (possibly before you take a turn, with a DCE). Thankfully, Poliwag UL has CFF, but I'd still be very scared about going second with no other basics.

Nonetheless, the Polis are very underrated and are incredibly open to creative deck builders. Maybe in the future, some cards will make them a bit more manageable.

6/10

 

[Dio Brando]

I am very disappointed in the scores people are giving this card. I for one think it's a great rogue card and deserves a little more credit than what it has been given so far, and here is why:

First, I think he has a very good base amount of HP for a stage 2. It can stand on it's own for a very long time and is amazing with Super Scoop Up.

Second, his first attack "Focus Punch" has AMAZING donk potential and good damage. Reason being is that the damage that has been possibly done to your Poliwag or Poliwhirl at an earlier stage of the game won't carry over to Poliwrath since he is now a new pokemon.

Third, his second attack is a hard hitter, especially with DCE now in our sets. With a belt you can be knocking out SP and any low hp stage 2 pokemon in one hit.

I have no idea why people are complaining about the first attack, if you are hit chances are you already have the fighting energy on him and are about to attach DCE next turn so it isn't a fat gimp. Especially if you have the Politoed in your deck which can get rid of the effect by switching out.

The only issue I have is the retreat, but the new Politoed is an excellent tech for such situations.

I have experience with this type deck and it works exactly like any other donk deck.

We all know there are far more superior donk cards out there, but if your looking for a rogue donk, this is the deck for you.

I give this champ card an 8/10

 

[tonmon]

I like how the card says it can swim the pacific ocean without resting. Where in pokearth exists a Pacific ocean?

 

[Regis_Neo]

Ok, first things first on my to-do-list: review Glaceon Lv X as the DNIWER card since I was out of town without internet and the thread has already locked

SO, Glaceon Lv X...well, I always thought it was ok at best. Statwise 100 HP is decent for a Stage 1, but still within OHKO range of so many things, and as this is a Lv X of a Stage 1, he's essentially a Stage 2, which makes 100 HP pretty poor...+30 Weakness to :metal: is ok, no Resistance is common, and :colorless: to Retreat is cheap. Chilly Breath is an awesome Poke-Body, shutting off all of your opponent's Poke-Powers; only catch is, Glaceon Lv X has to be active for it to have effect, which brings it back to the HP problem...100 really is just too low for a main attacker (which Glaceon Lv X has to be in order to keep Chilly Breath in effect). Avalanche is decent at :water::water::colorless: for 70 and a potential 20 to each of your opponent's Benched Pokemon with a Heads coin flip.

Modified - 4/10 (Died out around the same time as Leafeon Lv X, the HP is just too problematic to work with, not to mention it wasn't super easy getting both Lv Xs out. Nowdays...well, even if you play it by itself, the HP is still just so poor...if only Chilly Breath didn't require him to be active...)
Limited - 7/10 (Not many uses for Chilly Breath, but the attacks and HP are ok)
Unlimited - 1/10 (Muk Fossil, or any of several other Pokemon/Trainers do Glaceon's job better)

And now, for the CotD of this thread, Poliwrath LA:

Poliwrath LA is an ok Pokemon...but that's about it (since his intended use was to be part of that super impractical Politoed combo where you had to have him, Wrath, Whirl, and Wag all out to do big damage...yeah lol). Statwise 130 HP is average for a Stage 2, +30 Weakness to :lightning: sucks, no Resistance is common, and :colorless::colorless: to Retreat is eh. Focus Punch deals a great 60 for :fighting:, but if Poliwrath was damaged by an attack during your opponent's last turn, it deals nothing (almost as annoying as the VG version, shame you can't set up a Substitute first with this guy in the TCG). Submission is decent at :fighting::colorless::colorless: for 90, but the fact Poliwrath deals 20 to himself is bad. Just a shame there really isn't a way to abuse Focus Punch...

Modified - 2/10 (Not really worth using, Luxray GL chews it to bits and it's extremely popular atm. Shame Poliwrath isn't a :fighting: type on the card so he could at least OHKO Luxray GL back...)
Limited - 7/10 (Not easy to get out, but the attacks are worth it if you have the line and run the right Energy, otherwise pass on it)
Unlimited - 1/10 (No use here...just a pure vanilla Pokemon with nothing that really makes it worth using)

 

[Scipio]

A kid at my league uses this thing. 4-4-3 Poliwrath, 2 UL Politoed, and a 2-2 Donphan to cover for weakness. It works remarkably well, the moment he has 2 Wraths and a Toed out he keeps slapping you around, and if you pull out a water resist or an electric, he just brings out Donphan. Pretty annoying to face.

Still, its far from a Tier 1 deck. It can be used in a few interesting decks, IMO the Donphan-based build is the best.

Modified - 5/10. Its not BAD but its not going to be great either. Can be used for fun in the lower catagory tourneys.
Limited - 8/10. Quick high damage and can keep up the smackdown with Submission.
Unlimited - 1/10. Please, so many better cards.