Spheal, Sealeo, Walrein (SM)

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Location: Route 7 (Island Scan on Monday)

Stats, Evolutions.
Spheal has poor stats even for an unevolved Pokémon. It has decent HP, but its stats are bad in this part of the game. Baby it.

But if you expected Spheal to evolve quickly like in other games, you're sadly wrong. It evolves into Sealeo at level 32. It has the stats of a middle-stage Pokémon. It has terrible speed, good good gajood HP and average everything else. Eviolite helps Sealeo become quite bulky though.

Sealeo finally grows the beard into Walrein at level 44. Walrein finally has stats befitting a final-stage Pokémon. It has pretty balanced stats; high HP, good special attack and good defenses which combined with those HP makes it quite bulky. You still had to baby it for a while that is made longer by Spheal and Sealeo being pretty mediocre Pokémon.

Movepool, Stats, Typing
Its unique move is Aqua Ring. It has it restore 1/16 of its HP every turn. Not very useful normally, but when it's holding a Big Root (actually quite common, Diglett sometimes leaves it behind after an ambush) it recovers 30% of its maximum HP every turn. For an extra bump in healing, having one with Ice Body (heals under hail) and teaching it Hail (TM in Royal Avenue or level 36/38 as a Spheal/Sealeo) can help. It will also have Brine, which doubles in damage when the target is at 50% or less of their HP, Ice Ball which is an ice-type Rollout, and Encore which makes the enemy repeat its last move. At level 21 it gets Aurora Beam, which is a standard Ice-type move with a negligible chance of lowering the opponent's physical attack. At level 26 it gets Body Slam, a very powerful move that uses its middling attack stat but has a high chance of paralyzing. And the level before evolving it gets Rest and Snore. Snore sounds awesome, but just grab Rest. It'll save you one moveslot.

Aside from the aforementioned Hail, there's nothing much to Sealeo. It gets Swagger right upon evolving, but it's a risky move. But you can hold it off just one level and it gets Blizzard (Level 45). Fairly inaccurate but it has high power. Plus it always hits during Hail.

The only noteworthy thing that Walrein gets is Blizzard at level 49. Don't count on Ice Fang or Sheer Cold. Especially Sheer Cold. Never Sheer Cold.

Unfortunately, Walrein doesn't get many moves exclusive to TMs, but I have to remark that Walrein is the best Ice Beam and Frost Breath user in the game. You can also give it Hyper Beam, Earthquake, and Rock Slide, or Rock Tomb/Bulldoze for the speed reduction.

Its abilities are Thick Fat (reduces damage from Fire and Ice-type attacks) and Ice Body (explained in the moves section). Depends on your tastes, if you want healing, go for Ice Body. If you want to have a good chance against Fire-types give it Thick Fat.

Its Water/Ice type has four weaknesses and only two resistances. Yikes.

Important Battles
It's surprisingly useful against Salazzle if it has both Brine and Thick Fat. It can also do somewhat decent damage before getting axed by Lurantis with Aurora Beam. It's risky for Olivia and Vikavolt, and after that it's good for Nanu and Hapu, and then it does decently in the League.

Conclusion
Walrein barely makes it. Most of its aspects are decidedly average. It has two things that make it stand out, however; healing a good chunk of its health with Big Root Aqua Ring and being the first Ice-type that you get in the game (Shellder doesn't gain its Ice-type until evolving, and Delibird is horrendous.). If you have enough money for the TM, it can toy with Hail quite nicely, and it gets its best moves early. Walrein does have issues, its movepool is not good, its typing covers very little when it comes to defenses, you have to baby it and it has average match-ups. If you want an Ice-type, then maybe Walrein's not that bad after all. It's very bulky and hits decently hard.

Rating: 58%