Ok, so recently I've been experimenting with the less represented pokemon of OU, looking for those dark horses lurking at the bottom of OU.
Some are obvious like Haxorus, but some are not so obvious, Staraptor is one of those not so obvious ones. Usually people think of Staraptor as a reckless brave birder that loses too much hp from stealth rock, isn't worth spinning for, and is too fragile to make an effort to build an offensive core around.
Staraptor @ Choice Band
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Return
- U-turn
- Close Combat
Scarfed staraptor is all but redundant with Salamence and Venusaur forcing the speed requirement for a scarf to remain at 100+, banded staraptor on the other hand is simply amazing!
In OU, double edge is an entirely redundant skill seeing as brave bird already has recoil and the same power and hits mostly the same threats for the same amount of damage! Therefore return is Staraptor's ideal 2nd choice STAB, and the bulk retention from no recoil can be really important. A lot of the same targets are better off being hit by return, return 2hkoes every single bulky rotom (even max/max) whilst ohkoing every single offensive rotom, brave bird is really there just as a potential threat, i find myself using return or u turn most of the time.
When using Staraptor, I recommend a few things:
1. Stop using spinners!! spinners take away momentum and staraptor is no where near bulky enough to be on a balanced or non offensive team, try offensive taunt strategies, I've played around with a few different partners, Whimsicott is a good one as it stops a lot of SR users, combining it with another taunter like Keldeo covers approximately 95% of viable SR users in OU!
2: You really want pokemon that bait celebi/landorus-t/gliscor/Jellicent etc, Breloom is great lure for Celebi for example, as is Keldeo (who also lures Jellicent). You want partners that can cover Skarmory and ferrothorn though, one can survive everything Staraptor has and the other can deal so much recoil damage, the raptor becomes all but useless.
3. Intimidate is actually a good ability, its really clutch in some battles, sometimes I sack Staraptor in order to give a sub user/set-up sweeper a good chance to sweep after it faints, you'd be surprised!!
Ok heres a replay showing why avoiding SR is important, Staraptor can do work if you keep it relatively healthy enough to survive the odd move.
(yes my team is one of a few I was testing staraptor on, its nothing amazing and is weak to sun, lol)
http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-16863148