So You Want to Play With Samurott
Oshawott evolves into Dewott at level 17 and then into Samurott at level 36. It's a Water-type with a solid defensive stat line and some genuinely useful movepool depth that people underestimate because the base designs don't look particularly intimidating compared to something like Gyarados or Hydreigon. I've run Samurott in both competitive singles and double formats over the years. It doesn't dominate anything, but it checks several important boxes when built correctly. The common mistake I see is treating it like a standard special attacker when its physical set often outperforms it depending on the generation you're playing in.
Unleashing The Beast Exploring The World Of Oshawott Final Evolution
The physical setup usually runs Close Combat, Ice Shard, X-Scissor, and either Bulk Up or Aqu Jet. The special attacker version trades that for Hydro Pump, Dark Pulse, Ice Beam, and Energy Ball or Shadow Ball. Both are viable. Neither is broken. Here's what actually matters: Samurott's ability. If you're running standard Samurott, you're working with Torrent. If you're dealing with the Hisuian variant from Legends: Arceus, that's a whole different discussion because it's Water/Dark and gets Sharpness instead. Sharpness boosts all cutting moves, which makes Close Combat and X-Scissor significantly more reliable in practice than their base power numbers suggest. I switched to Hisuian Samurott specifically because of this. Regular Samurott's physical set feels slow and vulnerable to priority users, but the Hisuian form changes the math noticeably. The EV spread I default to is 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD with an Adamant nature. Some players max out Attack and put the remaining points into Speed, but honestly, Samurott's Speed tier is mediocre either way. You're not outspeeding much. The extra HP just prevents you from being 2HKOed by common neutral hits like Thunderbolt or Crunch. I've seen people run Life Orb on it, and it works fine if you have a plan to get at least one hit off before the recoil burns through your health, but Rocky Helmet or an Assault Vest on the special variant tends to be more consistent long-term.
I ran into a specific problem once during a Doubles tournament where my opponent stacked weather around Sun and ran a Fast Raikou with Wild Charge. Samurott was getting wrecked before it could move, and Ice Shard wasn't fast enough to finish Raikou off. The workaround was swapping to a Choice Band set and using Aqua Jet as my primary priority move instead of relying on Ice Shard, which let me clean up faster opponents while still maintaining respectable damage output with Close Combat. It cost me some raw power but solved the speed problem entirely. If you're looking at the moveset details, you can find a full move list here. A couple of things beginners miss. First, Samurott's defensive typing as pure Water means it's weak to Electric and Grass moves, and it has no Fairy immunity, so you're vulnerable to common support Pokémon like Clefable or Togekiss. Second, the base 100 Attack and 85 Special Attack are close enough that the line between physical and special builds is blurry, which is why I personally prefer committing fully to one path rather than trying to hybrid it. A half-and-half build just does mediocre damage with both.
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The other thing people don't account for is its Stealth Rock weakness. Samurott comes in, takes a hit from Stealth Rock, and then the match just kind of grinds down because it's 25% healthier than it should be for the rest of the fight. I always run Rapid Spin support or just accept that it's a late-game cleaner rather than an early-game entry point. That shift in mindset alone made it usable for me in formats where I'd previously dropped it after three matches. Downsides exist. It's slow. It gets walled by Ground-types and strong Grass walls like Tangrowth or Ferrothorn. It lacks recovery on any standard set unless you give up a move slot for something like Recover or RestTalk, which then makes it even less threatening offensively. In higher tiers it gets shut down by faster priority users regularly because despite having Aqua Jet or Ice Shard, it's still vulnerable to Extreme Speed, Mach Punch, and various other forms of priority that just eat it alive if you switch in blind. If you want something similar but more immediately effective, considerlooking at Dewott as an option since it brings different utility to the table before you commit to the full evolution path.
Build it right, respect its limitations, and it holds its place. Don't expect it to carry, and you'll probably have a good time with it anyway.
