# Politoed: usage, win rate, builds, partners and matchups

> Politoed in Pokemon Champions VGC, measured from tournament match records: usage, win rate under a fitted prior, the most played build, teammates and head to head.

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Corpus | Reg M-C |
| Data published | 2026-09-28 |
| This document | https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/pokemon/politoed.md |
| Human page | https://suckerpunch.gg/pokemon/politoed/ |

## Summary

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Id | `politoed` |
| Types | Water |
| Usage rank | #33 |
| Usage | 4.8% |
| Teams | 543 |
| Win rate | 51.2% |
| Decided matches | 5,444 |

Win rate is a posterior mean under a prior fitted to the field, credited to every species on
the team rather than to this one alone. Build shares below are of the teams carrying this
species **that published a list**, which at most events is the cut and not the field.

## Most played build

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Moves | Encore, Perish Song, Protect, Weather Ball |
| Item | Sitrus Berry |
| Ability | Drizzle |
| Nature | Calm |
| Share of lists | 34.4% |
| Win rate | 54.3% |
| Decided matches | 2,006 |

## Builds

### Moves

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Protect | 96.5% | 51.4% |
| Weather Ball | 94.1% | 51.8% |
| Perish Song | 58.2% | 52.7% |
| Encore | 44.2% | 53.5% |
| Ice Beam | 40.0% | 49.4% |
| Muddy Water | 30.8% | 49.6% |

### Items

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sitrus Berry | 57.1% | 53.1% |
| Mystic Water | 14.2% | 52.8% |
| Life Orb | 12.7% | 46.1% |

### Abilities

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Drizzle | 98.3% | 51.3% |
| No ability | 0.9% | 51.4% |

### Natures

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Calm | 49.9% | 52.2% |
| Modest | 23.4% | 51.1% |

## Teammates

Share is of this species' own rosters: how often, when someone runs this, they run that.

| Teammate | Share | Teams | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Archaludon | 68.9% | 374 | 53.7% |
| Rillaboom | 61.7% | 335 | 53.1% |
| Incineroar | 59.1% | 321 | 52.9% |
| Gengar | 57.1% | 310 | 53.4% |
| Golisopod | 41.8% | 227 | 50.3% |

## Head to head

Teams carrying this species, against teams carrying the opponent, over decided matches.
A cell is a team record, not a one-on-one simulation.

### Beats

| Opponent | Win rate | Games |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Golisopod | 55.2% | 745 |
| Excadrill | 54.5% | 358 |
| Gardevoir | 54.1% | 448 |

### Loses to

| Opponent | Win rate | Games |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Raichu | 43.5% | 1,043 |
| Volcarona | 47.2% | 404 |
| Gengar | 48.3% | 305 |

## Related

- Every species: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/pokemon.md
- Archetypes this could belong to: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/teams.md
- The same species on the ladder: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/ladder.md
- Live JSON for this species: https://us-central1-sucker-punch-71328.cloudfunctions.net/api/pokemon/builds?name=politoed

## Freshness and provenance

- Rendered at deploy time from the published snapshots. Snapshot stamp: 2026-09-28.
- The boards behind them republish daily, so a figure here can trail the live data by a deploy.
- The read that is never behind is the JSON API: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/api.md.
- Tournament data and ladder data are separate populations and are never blended.
- Estimator, denominators and floors: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/method.md.
- Attribution: Sucker Punch, https://suckerpunch.gg.