>>32995261Pretty sure it's one of the best 'mons for in-game Sun and Moon.
Great bulk, amazing Special Attack (the highest of any starter so far) and fantastic movepool - Water and Fairy alone is amazing coverage, but it also has access to Psychic, Energy Ball, Ice Beam and Shadow Ball through TM. Scald is available right before the second trial, which helps a lot with its average (but still decent) physical defense - Keep in mind physical Electric and Grass types are rare, so that helps.
It also learns fun tricky moves like Aqua Jet, Sing and Encore along the way, which are all valid options.
Lastly, while speed should be a problem, it still outspeeds most of Alola, making it practically a non-issue.
All in all it was by far the most reliable Pokemon in my Sun playthrough and, even with extremely valid options like Wishiwashi and Araquanid, it's probably the best Water Type in the game for a normal playthrough. Smogon ranks the Popplio line S rank in its in-game tiers and it's used in speedrun the whole way until you get Lunala.
As for competitive, it's one of the hardest Pokemon to switch into once you get it safely on the field (which isn't that hard to do when you are a Water/Fairy).
Unless you have Chansey or Blissey in your team, it's a crapshoot whether it's going to OKHO your switch-in or not thanks to the moves mentioned above and HP fire, and this is true both for UU and OU.
It's great in Battle Spot too, where having a 195 Z move with a 126 Sp.Atk stat that can be boosted by Torrent simply lets it 1v1 pretty much everything in the game while also having access to utility moves such as Aqua Jet and Perish Song.
All in all it's a great, very unique Pokemon, and, for me, it has been really fun to use in every single situation I tried it.
