Poliwhirl

Poliwhirl sits at #24 in XY Evolutions, released in November 2016. XY Evolutions is part of the modern English Pokémon TCG era and uses the standard contemporary card frame and rarity tiers. Illustration by Ken Sugimori. Sugimori is the lead character designer of the Pokémon franchise itself. His TCG illustrations carry a tighter, more on-model feel because they are by the same hand that defined how the Pokémon look in the games. In the games, Poliwhirl evolves from Poliwag, which makes it a late-stage card in the line.

The flavor text on the card reads: "Its two legs are well developed. Even though it can live on the ground, it prefers living in water." Pokédex entries from this era are short and often quirky, written by the original Japanese localization team for a specific stat-block layout that no longer exists in modern cards.

The middle Poliwag stage. Now bipedal with arms but retained spiral belly. Notably the card on the cover of the original Game Boy Pokémon manual. Mid-stage demand.

XY Evolutions shipped in standard Holofoil and Reverse Holo prints. No 1st Edition; that convention had been retired years before. The set reuses original Base Set artwork inside modern XY-era card frames, which makes the Evolutions Charizard a popular modern reprint chase despite the small price gap to other 2016 cards.

Modern Uncommons grade cleanly. The secondary market for graded modern Uncommons is mostly set-completionist driven; standalone demand is thin. Useful as a first grading submission to learn the process.

Raw copies of this card are inexpensive enough that the grading math rarely justifies submission unless you have a clearly pack-fresh example. For set completionists, picking up a clean raw copy and sleeving it is the practical move.