POLIWRATH PUNCHES ITS WAY TO *LEGEND* IN SEASON 17!! | POKÉMON GO BATTLE LEAGUE

[@SmallzG87]

Nice video man! Great explanation of the team and mechanics in general. Keep up the good work

[@KPine]

Appreciate it 🙏

[@fitat4224]

Awesome vid! I love you in-depth explanations of the mechanics on how to use this team! I am fairly new to pvp and can’t get past 2000 elo so this helps me a lot. I just don’t have polwrath with counter. I don’t have any elite tms left

[@KPine]

Thanks for the support! :) Poli is definitely worth the investment for when you do get and elite fast tm in the future!

[@missionfoodfreedom6464]

That great league guide sounds awesome, I can't wait!

[@KPine]

It’s more of a complete in depth breakdown for one specific team to learn it inside and out for go battle week :)

[@natu19900]

yay new vid!

[@megalomaniacv3706]

Another fantastic video with an unexpected line that offers a ton of opportunities for skill expression, I'm extremely excited to try this team out, even though I don't have a Shadow Poliwrath. I'm wondering what you think of swapping the Shadow Poliwrath lead for a Skarmory in my case. While it would make for a fundamentally different team, both of them share a lot of the same positive and negative matchups, only really swapping Whiscash for Gligar and Cresselia (which you surprisingly didn't encounter in the showcased battles), while also making Jellicent a whole lot more manageable. I'll be trying out both leads and comment back on the results, but I'd still like to know your thoughts on it or a different alternative as well.

[@KPine]

Skarmory is definitely worth a shot if that’s what you want to do. I’d still prefer regular polo over skarm just for the “team’s sake” but definitely let me know how it goes!

[@megalomaniacv3706]

Update: Ran the team with non-shadow Poliwrath and ended up going positive 2 matches. The team is still definitely good, although the non-shadow variant does lose out on a lot and is specially worse into Jellicent, which is extremely common (about 90% of the teams I faced had one) in the Ace-Veteran elo bracket I'm currently at. I can't say how many of those matches I would've won by having the shadow variant, but you are forced to deviate slightly from the playbook presented in the video by using the non-shadow variant. I will try using Skarmory in tomorrow's sets and write another update.

[@KPine]

@@megalomaniacv3706Good to know! Thx for the update :)

[@ruancpo]

what would you do against skeledirge in the lead? Had some trouble today

[@KPine]

Safe swap in to the vig right away. If they stay in they’ll have to go for disarming voice since the shadow ball is double resisted. If they swap out, you can either win switch or get an energy advantage on the poli

[@megalomaniacv3706]

@@KPine meanwhile me staying in with the Poliwrath like I do in UL and losing 4/5 of my Skeledirge lead matches lol

[@YangSook523]

Liked the video for excellent explanations for thoughts behind each move.

[@KPine]

Glad you enjoyed! :)

[@jonathanfontineli2638]

hello! great vid! but, why we didnt get any video on fantasy cup?

[@KPine]

I was running a team that was just for fun in the fantasy cup that also happened to be an instant loss against turtonator. While it was a good team if you didn’t see turt, I couldn’t recommend it just because of that :)

[@jonathanfontineli2638]

@@KPine very responsible, thank you for the attention!

[@ExiledtoVampa]

I love your stuff man. I'll have to try this team out because I've been at a loss with this cup and lost a ton of elo

[@KPine]

Thanks for the support 🙏 and best of luck with the team!

[@Sam18C]

Would it be fine to use a shadow Gligar in place of a normal one And would it also be ok to use a normal poliwrath instead of a shadow. I could build both but I don't have a normal gligar with PVP IV's and I'm debating if shadow wrath is worth the dust at the moment

[@KPine]

I would be using shadow gligar myself if I had one and as for poli, while the regular version could work, the pure fast move pressure and extra damage from the shadow helps a lot especially against jelli :)

[@azheng5366]

Would you prefer always shadow over normal?

[@KPine]

For most circumstances yes just due to the pure damage output of shadow counters

[@y0skunkz]

Can I use reg poli I don’t have shadow? Just built mine but I’ve been eating them alive with my team before so idk how to build around him lol

[@KPine]

Unfortunately shadow poliwrath is pretty crucial for the team as it makes the jelli matchup playable where it would be a lot tougher without being shadow. While the team would still work with regular poli against basically everything else, the jelli matchup is quite significant

[@megalomaniacv3706]

If you regularly see Jellicent in the elo bracket you're in, then it's better to keep using your anti-meta team for elo gain, although if you don't see much Jellicent, non-shadow Poliwrath still does amazing and I'd heavily recommend running this team instead.

[@expertenkom]

Would a regular poli work?

[@KPine]

pls check the comments under megalomaniacv3706 and antonioborrero294 :)

[@thijmen_m]

What is the best alternative for gligar because i dont have a good iv gligar?

[@KPine]

It’s a very tough one to replace considering its role and typing but the mon that does replace it needs to beat grass types but most importantly charjabug

[@megalomaniacv3706]

Gligar has such an insane typing that it's really hard to find any real alternatives, attempting to use any other flying types will result in a team that is extremely weak to Charjabug. While trying to use most other ground types will then make a double-weak to Poliwrath backline. The closest alternative I can think of is Clodsire, which I've personally used in an ABB line with Gligar before. It serves as a harder counter to everything Gligar is good against, while also not making shields mandatory against Poliwrath, but it is considerably worse against the rest of the meta, specifically turning the Gligar matchup into a nightmare. You can also try running Charizard or Skarmory, which serve a mostly similar role, but would make you be completely core-broken against a Charjabug. I'd personally recommend to just use your bad IV Gligar instead, I've been using a rank #770 myself and have done decently well with it, you can definitely feel the lack of bulk in a lot of matchups, but it's better than hard-losing them by trying to use a different mon and you can make good use of the higher attack stat, reaching a lot of breakpoints high-ranked Gligars don't and winning tons of CMPs.

[@thijmen_m]

@@megalomaniacv3706 yeah i know but like the only gligar i have now is a 15/10/12 and i could use that but im waiting for a good iv one

[@BOWELMOVEM3NT]

How does de-buf Work? I hear others talk about it and I have no idea how that works. No one ever explains those details, thanks

[@megalomaniacv3706]

@@BOWELMOVEM3NT what specific debuff are you talking about? Gligar doesn't have any debuffing moves, could you please give more details so I can provide a fitting answer?

[@yinonfried]

I love your videos but it seems like the meta shifted entirely. I dropped like 400 points when I started on 70 on the leaderboards 😅

[@KPine]

The meta has definitely shifted to being a lot more toxic than before