Sadly its only good with choice lock sets. I'm with DracoNinja's moveset but I would make mine Choice Banded instead of scarf.Staraptor (F) @ Choice Scarf
- What is the best set for Staraptor in this metagame?
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Double-Edge
- Close Combat / U-turn
- Final Gambit
birdspam has decreased drastically in usage in ORAS, mainly because MPinsir isn't once as good or dominant as it was in XY. popular pivots such as landorus-t and rotom-w are also taking the metagame by storm, they are found on almost every offense team because they provide momentum for the team which is essential against opposing offense teams. these popular pivots coincidentally also check birds very well, making the life of birds very difficult to succeed. final gambit staraptor, however, cleanly 1hkoes these pivots, clearing a huge roadblock for another flying-type such as talonflame or mpinsir to take advantage of and punish offense teams. staraptor's role is to get rid of these birdspam checks as effeciently as possible to pave a way for another bird to clean. great partners are obviously those who appreciate landorus-t and rotom-w being taken down turn 1 such as talonflame. another great partner for this is another scarf final gambit user, victini. staraptor+victini lure and quickly ko the infamous landTom-W pivot core which always had a place in the metagame since their debut in bw2, giving yourself a huge advantage as you already have taken out your win-condition's checks while your opponent has yet to do anything.
sadly, staraptor's only niche in the current metagame is scarf+final gambit :(
- Does Staraptor have any other good sets than choice locked sets (LO Agility? Feather Dance?
About spikes Glalie: Glal actually beats Lati@s out outspeeds non scarf/sand Exca so it can explode, to block the spin/defog. it's niche is to set hazards, kill the spinner or at least block the spin, and blow up. I agree it isn't the best M.Glal set, but I don't like any of them TBH.U-Turn is definitely the best option for banded sets and I don't see why banded sets should give it up in exchange of Final Gambit. Final Gambit is a more viable option on choice scarf sets, but even then U-Turn is the better choice in my opinion.
Spikes on Mega Glalie is more of a thing in RU, probably because the tier is more adapted to it as a wallbreaker and the switchins can be punished by stacking hazards everytime they come in. Glalie in RU has a niche that it threatens many defoggers or spinners like Golbat and Skuntank, but in OU the most common defoggers and spinners (Starmie, Lati@s, Excadrill) all can threaten Glalie out and removing the spikes glalie just set. While there are still a few viable switchins for Mega Glalie in OU, such as Slowbro and Rotom-W, I think Freeze-Dry is a better way to get rid of these threats instead of punishing them with Spikes. Earthquake is almost a mandatory option because steel types are omnipresent in the metagame and without Earthquake steels like Heatran and Jirachi come in for free.
*Earthquake / Return / Explosion / Ice Shard or Freeze-Dry is the best moveset in my opinion.
A jolly nature (Naive if Freeze-Dry) seems better than an adamant nature (Naughty if Freeze-Dry) because you outspeed pokemon like Timid Manaphy and speed tie with Mega Gardevoir if needed. With an adamant nature you get the sure 2HKO on 252 / 0 Tyranitar without rocks up and OHKO Excadrill with rocks up 80% of the time, but these situations often only occure when they are switching in, which they won't do that often. Excadril can revengekill if scarf or sand rush and tyranitar also runs scarf pretty often, so mega glalie is forced out anyway in these situations. Being able to outspeed Jolly Excadrill, Modest Zard-Y and Timid Manaphy is worth more than the attack boost.
I participated in the Teambuilding Competition I mentioned before when the core featuring Dragalge was the core of the week and I immediately thought Draco Plate was the right item because a Choice Specs give pokemon like Mega Scizor, Bisharp, BD Azumarill and Mega Altaria a free turn to set up, while also giving Banded Azumarill, Mega Diancie and Mega Metagross a free turn to fire off one of their heavy hitting moves. The specs set is definitely an interesting set, but your team needs to be build to either have a backup for pokemon like SD Bisharp if it gets a free switchin or the team needs to have switchin for common lures (for example a grass type to lure in Specs sludge bomb and give Mega Metagross a free switchin) when the Dragalge player lands in a 50/50 in going for their poison move or their dragon move. The Toxic Spikes doesn't really need this support, but rather gives support to other teammates in the form of the toxic spikes + still having good wallbreaking power + possible luring in pokemon like Bisharp after a Sludge Bomb and surprise them with a Draco Meteor (doesn't work very often but sometimes players make this mistakes)
Seems like a pretty good set, though might I recommend altering the spread to 76 HP/ 252 Atk / 180 Spe? This outspeeds 216 Speed neutral Mega Altaria (which is evidently worth noting on the Speed Tiers post) by 1 point, letting you nail it for very near a kill unMega'd and guaranteed on the Mega without being threatened by Earthquake or Fire Blast on the Special sets.Entei: Well, if you predict right, 252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Bulldoze vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 376-444 (97.6 - 115.3%) which always takes it down after rocks. Heatran, however, can't do anything back except Toxic, Roar, or set up its own rocks. Of course, if you're locked into SF, you're kinda screwed. On the other hand, AV does beat Heatran 1v1. As for something like Gengar, Sludge Wave 2HKOes about 54% of the time, while having a 1 in 4 chance to live SF from AV Entei. AV also lives a DM from LO Latios once after SR, doing 63-74.6%. So yeah, AV Entei is legit, but needs to be played correctly. You can forget about beating Slowbro regardless of item, though. These calcs, btw, are standard 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe Adamant Entei.
Toxicroak: Adamant variants need 152 speed to outrun 252+ Tyranitar, which is only ever seen on its DD set, and only 8 (lol) to outrun 68 spe (sdef) Heatran. Still walled to hell by Lando-T in most cases, but Ice Punch can lure it in, scoring a 2HKO on defensive variants even at -1 while outspeeding it. So the set I propose is:
Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 152 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch / Ice Punch
This spread gives Toxicroak 333 HP, so you can shift 16 EVs from HP to Defense to get the LO number if you want. (that makes the spread 88 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Def / 152 Spe)
Wouldn't that require Entei to forfeit Extremespeed?It's a shame it doesn't get Flash Fire as its hidden ability yet