Hello all, after seeing McMeghan's Querencia team, i was inspired to try an offensive starmie team of my own. This is what I came up with. In the early to mid game, the team plays a lot like a more stallish team in order to lure the opponent into a sense of security and wear them down, and then uses surprises such as explosion gar and dugtrio to clear the way for an offensive starmie sweep. Unlike mcmeghan's team which is much more focused on all out offense, this team is a bit more balanced and focuses more on residual damage. It has performed fairly well on the ladder, although there are definitely a few weaknesses. It is however a very fun team to play with.
At a Glance:
Team Building and Synergy:
The team of course starts off with offensive starmie. This set has been one of my favorites lately, and I've tried to fit it onto a lot of my newer teams. This team is the one it has worked best on. I opted to go with the standard 3 attacks recover set as it proved to be the most reliable and effective one.
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I really wanted to add some spikes to this team. Starmie is the sort of attacker that relies on its speed and coverage to clean up teams. As a result of this, it appreciates residual damage to help break down more defensive teams. Pokemon like swampert and metagross become a lot easier for starmie to take down when there are a couple layers of spikes on the table. Skarmory was chosen as it is more difficult to set up on than other spikers. I felt this would make it more reliable in comparison, on a more offensive team.
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After adding skarmory, gengar seemed like a very obvious choice. It not only provides spin blocking support, and abuses spikes but also provides explosion support for starmie in order to clear special walls such as blissey, snorlax and regice out of the way.
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With explosion gar added, I needed to make sure I had a poke that could finish the job, therefore I needed a dugtrio. Dugtrio also helps in that it provides a defensive fail safe against certain threats, it also helps skarm with magneton and takes out a number of gengar's and starmie's counters.
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I knew that if this team was going to be a bit more focused on residual damage, I would need sand. Sand also helps gengar and starmie to clean up in the late game, and helps dugtrio by keeping chip damage from being recovered. I knew tyranitar was going to be a member of this team, I decided on a choice band variant. I wanted something that could provide immediate offensive pressure with serious damage output, which is something the dragon dance and special sets sometimes have a difficult time with.
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Finally I needed something that could cover some holes on the special side. Blissey was not the most obvious choice due to its passive nature, however I have found with dugtrio support, calm mind blissey actually provides a decent offensive threat. Calm mind bliss pairs very well with both dugtrio and gengar. Gengar provides willowisp to cripple some of blissey's main counters, and also shares some similar counters so that the two can work in conjunction to take them out. Dugtrio also traps and kills the majority of those counters.
Tyranitar:
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug]
- Focus Punch
The team leads with tyranitar as I like having sand set up as early as possible. It is also the pokemon that provides the most offensive pressure which I like to have right off the bat. The set is a fairly standard choice band set which i chose due to the immediate raw power it provides. Choice band tyranitar is practically impossible to switch in to without prediction, It can hit everything extremely hard with at least one of its moves. Rock slide is the main stab move, earthquake has great coverage alongside it and hits steels, HP bug is for celebi, claydol and flygon mainly. Focus punch can put a serious dent in bulky waters, skarmory and flygon if I predict well. The EV spread is a simple max/max spread. I don't find the tiny bit of extra bulk that useful on CB tar and would rather just have the ability to outspeed opposing ttar, metagross, milotic and suicune. The way I play with it is by trying to constantly use double switches to get it into favorable match ups. This helps keep tempo and really keeps pressure on the opponent.
Gengar:
Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 124 HP / 160 Atk / 116 Def / 12 SpA / 24 SpD / 72 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Explosion
Bulky explosion gar provides spin blocking as well as a lure for special walls. This was a set M Dragon suggested on one of my earlier RMTs and I feel like it fits this team quite well. Tbolt and Ice punch provide gar's standard coverage moves, Will o wisp aids the illusion of a standard defensive team, and provides support by crippling some of blissey's main counters, as well as a few of starmies, and provides extra residual damage. Explosion provides surprise value, and sets the team's win condition in action. It is also useful as a panic button against a number of threats. The EVs allow it to outspeed base 100s, survive CB mence's hp fly, and just generally allow it to retain bulk while keeping a decently powerful explosion. I like to play this like a standard bulky gar, just throwing out willowisps and playing a bit safely until I reveal explosion. A lot of the time Gengar can be used to clean up in the late game.
Skarmory:
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpD / 100 Spe
Careful Nature
- Toxic
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Skarmory acts as the team's spiker, phazer, and physical wall. I chose a taunt skarm as this team does not have a spinner, and I want to minimize the number of pokemon that allow spikes set up. Taunt also has other random applications such as preventing status from things like dusclops, and stopping last poke lax from setting up (although i can't really do anything to it unless it's thick fat, and if i get para'd then that's over too) but for the most part it's only for opposing spikers. Spikes are the reason I'm using skarm and help my attackers to clean up late game, toxic is mainly for hitting spinners such as cloyster and claydol, as well as bulky waters such as swampert who don't appreciate it. Finally whirlwind allows skarm to shuffle the opponents over spikes and prevent it from being set up fodder. The EV spread allows me to outspeed most opposing skarm to get an early taunt off. The rest is put into special defense and HP with a careful nature to help set up vs bulky waters. I play it just like any other skarmory, come in on physical attackers, set up spikes, be weary of magneton. The lack of recovery sometimes forces me to play a bit safely however.
Blissey:
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 248 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
Blissey is the team's special wall and tank. CM bliss is a pretty decent offensive threat when paired with gengar and dugtrio, meaning it not only has the ability to sweep certain teams, but it also helps wear things down for starmie and gengar. Thunderbolt and Ice beam are its coverage moves, I chose them as they make blissey far more threatening in general than the fire grass set, and they give it an easier time vs threats such as mence, gyarados and dugtrio. My own dugtrio helps with most of the things that fire grass bliss has an easier time with. The EVs allow it to survive CB mence's brick break, and give it a small speed creep for opposing bliss. The rest is thrown into special attack for maximum damage output. I like to play blissey a bit aggressively. It is often the main bait for dugtrio. It's fairly easy to use, bring it in on special attackers, then calm mind, attack, heal or double switch to ttar/dugtrio as you see fit.
Dugtrio:
Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 20 SpD / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
- Hidden Power [Bug]
Dugtrio has a lot of utility on this team. It acts as a fail safe against offensive threats such as heracross, tyranitar, offensive celebi, jirachi and others, removes opposing trappers such as magneton for skarmory and pursuit tar/houndoom for gengar, it helps finish things off after an explosion from gar, and it clears away pokemon that can wall some of my attackers such as blissey, snorlax, celebi and metagross. The moveset is the standard for pretty much all dugtrio, EQ is the main STAB move for TTar, Metagross, Jirachi, magneton and others, as well as any grounded weakened pokemon not resistant to it, HP bug is for celebi, aerial ace is for hera and breloom, and rock slide provides some extra coverage. I chose to use an adamant duggy as i don't really care too much about raikou, and the extra power is extremely beneficial for taking out things like blissey and snorlax as well as sleeping cune. The EVs allow me to outspeed +1 adamant ttar, and survive CB ttar's rock slide. I maxed out attack to max the chances that dug will 3hko cune (It will always die after sand damage but there's a small chance cune will live and kill dug with surf before going down to the sand) finally the rest is thrown into special defense to help survive weak blissey ice beams and ttar hp grasses. There's not a whole lot in that range for dug to speed creep against so i figured the extra special defense was more worth it. I usually try and save this for the late game when I've scouted the opponents team. How I play dugtrio often determines whether I win or lose. Ideally when I first reveal dugtrio it should be double switching into a big target to really turn the tide in my favor.
Starmie:
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
Starmie is the team's late game cleaner. This thing is deceptively strong, and has insane coverage and speed. Once dedicated special walls have been removed there's not a whole lot that can prevent this thing from tearing through a team. For the moveset, i chose a 3 atk recover set. 3 attacks gives it very good coverage, it could use psychic for the ohko on gar and hera, but i found recover a lot more useful as it allows me to heal off damage from spikes, status and resisted attacks. Even though starmie can't take many attacks the ability to improve its longevity is still important. I chose surf over hydro pump because pump kept missing and losing me games all the time and the power loss was worth it in my opinion. That's definitely something that can be changed with preference though. I went for a max/max ev spread to maximize starmie's offensive capabilities. I usually save this for the late game when things have been worn down and its counters eliminated. I like to try and bring it in on predicted switches and free turns as I don't like it taking too much damage but it does occasionally switch in on resisted attacks such as weak fire blasts or surfs. It can also act as a revenge killer, and I sometimes like to abuse the double natural cure between it and bliss to stall out things like toxic milotic.
Weaknesses:
This team has been quite successful and a lot of fun, however it definitely has a number of issues. The first is a lack of a rock resist. Tyranitar isn't a huge problem thanks to dugtrio, but aerodactyl can be very hard to deal with. Its speed means that even starmie has difficulty with it. Spikes can be another issue. Even though most spikers don't get many set up opportunities, if they do get the chance, it can be much more difficult to win games. Tyranitar and dugtrio really suffer from having spikes down, while blissey and starmie are definitely better off without spikes on their side of the field. Finally certain variants of gengar can be an issue. Blissey is my most reliable gar answer, meaning sub punch gar and explosion gar can be a real problem. Hypnosis gar is also challenging especially if the opponent manages to get spikes down.
Other Options:
Some other things i've tried on this team include:
Putting protect over taunt on skarm, this makes skarm much more durable and annoying to spinners, however it also makes it set up fodder for opposing spikers.
Replacing dugtrio with claydol. This helps with my spikes weakness as well as my aero weakness. It even helps to an extent against gengar, however it seriously slows down the pace of the team which is not something I like.
Finally i've tweaked with the starmie set a bit. Psychic was really nice for gengar and heracross, whereas rapid spin helps with the spikes problem. Replacing recover however makes starmie a lot less reliable as it is more easily revenged by dugtrio, and takes away starmie's ability to continually come in on spikes, status and resisted attacks.
I hope you guys can maybe find ways to make these options work, or find other improvements that can solve some of the issues on this team.
Importable:
At a Glance:
Team Building and Synergy:
The team of course starts off with offensive starmie. This set has been one of my favorites lately, and I've tried to fit it onto a lot of my newer teams. This team is the one it has worked best on. I opted to go with the standard 3 attacks recover set as it proved to be the most reliable and effective one.
I really wanted to add some spikes to this team. Starmie is the sort of attacker that relies on its speed and coverage to clean up teams. As a result of this, it appreciates residual damage to help break down more defensive teams. Pokemon like swampert and metagross become a lot easier for starmie to take down when there are a couple layers of spikes on the table. Skarmory was chosen as it is more difficult to set up on than other spikers. I felt this would make it more reliable in comparison, on a more offensive team.
After adding skarmory, gengar seemed like a very obvious choice. It not only provides spin blocking support, and abuses spikes but also provides explosion support for starmie in order to clear special walls such as blissey, snorlax and regice out of the way.
With explosion gar added, I needed to make sure I had a poke that could finish the job, therefore I needed a dugtrio. Dugtrio also helps in that it provides a defensive fail safe against certain threats, it also helps skarm with magneton and takes out a number of gengar's and starmie's counters.
I knew that if this team was going to be a bit more focused on residual damage, I would need sand. Sand also helps gengar and starmie to clean up in the late game, and helps dugtrio by keeping chip damage from being recovered. I knew tyranitar was going to be a member of this team, I decided on a choice band variant. I wanted something that could provide immediate offensive pressure with serious damage output, which is something the dragon dance and special sets sometimes have a difficult time with.
Finally I needed something that could cover some holes on the special side. Blissey was not the most obvious choice due to its passive nature, however I have found with dugtrio support, calm mind blissey actually provides a decent offensive threat. Calm mind bliss pairs very well with both dugtrio and gengar. Gengar provides willowisp to cripple some of blissey's main counters, and also shares some similar counters so that the two can work in conjunction to take them out. Dugtrio also traps and kills the majority of those counters.
Tyranitar:
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug]
- Focus Punch
The team leads with tyranitar as I like having sand set up as early as possible. It is also the pokemon that provides the most offensive pressure which I like to have right off the bat. The set is a fairly standard choice band set which i chose due to the immediate raw power it provides. Choice band tyranitar is practically impossible to switch in to without prediction, It can hit everything extremely hard with at least one of its moves. Rock slide is the main stab move, earthquake has great coverage alongside it and hits steels, HP bug is for celebi, claydol and flygon mainly. Focus punch can put a serious dent in bulky waters, skarmory and flygon if I predict well. The EV spread is a simple max/max spread. I don't find the tiny bit of extra bulk that useful on CB tar and would rather just have the ability to outspeed opposing ttar, metagross, milotic and suicune. The way I play with it is by trying to constantly use double switches to get it into favorable match ups. This helps keep tempo and really keeps pressure on the opponent.
Gengar:
Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 124 HP / 160 Atk / 116 Def / 12 SpA / 24 SpD / 72 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Explosion
Bulky explosion gar provides spin blocking as well as a lure for special walls. This was a set M Dragon suggested on one of my earlier RMTs and I feel like it fits this team quite well. Tbolt and Ice punch provide gar's standard coverage moves, Will o wisp aids the illusion of a standard defensive team, and provides support by crippling some of blissey's main counters, as well as a few of starmies, and provides extra residual damage. Explosion provides surprise value, and sets the team's win condition in action. It is also useful as a panic button against a number of threats. The EVs allow it to outspeed base 100s, survive CB mence's hp fly, and just generally allow it to retain bulk while keeping a decently powerful explosion. I like to play this like a standard bulky gar, just throwing out willowisps and playing a bit safely until I reveal explosion. A lot of the time Gengar can be used to clean up in the late game.
Skarmory:
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpD / 100 Spe
Careful Nature
- Toxic
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Skarmory acts as the team's spiker, phazer, and physical wall. I chose a taunt skarm as this team does not have a spinner, and I want to minimize the number of pokemon that allow spikes set up. Taunt also has other random applications such as preventing status from things like dusclops, and stopping last poke lax from setting up (although i can't really do anything to it unless it's thick fat, and if i get para'd then that's over too) but for the most part it's only for opposing spikers. Spikes are the reason I'm using skarm and help my attackers to clean up late game, toxic is mainly for hitting spinners such as cloyster and claydol, as well as bulky waters such as swampert who don't appreciate it. Finally whirlwind allows skarm to shuffle the opponents over spikes and prevent it from being set up fodder. The EV spread allows me to outspeed most opposing skarm to get an early taunt off. The rest is put into special defense and HP with a careful nature to help set up vs bulky waters. I play it just like any other skarmory, come in on physical attackers, set up spikes, be weary of magneton. The lack of recovery sometimes forces me to play a bit safely however.
Blissey:
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 248 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
Blissey is the team's special wall and tank. CM bliss is a pretty decent offensive threat when paired with gengar and dugtrio, meaning it not only has the ability to sweep certain teams, but it also helps wear things down for starmie and gengar. Thunderbolt and Ice beam are its coverage moves, I chose them as they make blissey far more threatening in general than the fire grass set, and they give it an easier time vs threats such as mence, gyarados and dugtrio. My own dugtrio helps with most of the things that fire grass bliss has an easier time with. The EVs allow it to survive CB mence's brick break, and give it a small speed creep for opposing bliss. The rest is thrown into special attack for maximum damage output. I like to play blissey a bit aggressively. It is often the main bait for dugtrio. It's fairly easy to use, bring it in on special attackers, then calm mind, attack, heal or double switch to ttar/dugtrio as you see fit.
Dugtrio:
Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 20 SpD / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
- Hidden Power [Bug]
Dugtrio has a lot of utility on this team. It acts as a fail safe against offensive threats such as heracross, tyranitar, offensive celebi, jirachi and others, removes opposing trappers such as magneton for skarmory and pursuit tar/houndoom for gengar, it helps finish things off after an explosion from gar, and it clears away pokemon that can wall some of my attackers such as blissey, snorlax, celebi and metagross. The moveset is the standard for pretty much all dugtrio, EQ is the main STAB move for TTar, Metagross, Jirachi, magneton and others, as well as any grounded weakened pokemon not resistant to it, HP bug is for celebi, aerial ace is for hera and breloom, and rock slide provides some extra coverage. I chose to use an adamant duggy as i don't really care too much about raikou, and the extra power is extremely beneficial for taking out things like blissey and snorlax as well as sleeping cune. The EVs allow me to outspeed +1 adamant ttar, and survive CB ttar's rock slide. I maxed out attack to max the chances that dug will 3hko cune (It will always die after sand damage but there's a small chance cune will live and kill dug with surf before going down to the sand) finally the rest is thrown into special defense to help survive weak blissey ice beams and ttar hp grasses. There's not a whole lot in that range for dug to speed creep against so i figured the extra special defense was more worth it. I usually try and save this for the late game when I've scouted the opponents team. How I play dugtrio often determines whether I win or lose. Ideally when I first reveal dugtrio it should be double switching into a big target to really turn the tide in my favor.
Starmie:
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
Starmie is the team's late game cleaner. This thing is deceptively strong, and has insane coverage and speed. Once dedicated special walls have been removed there's not a whole lot that can prevent this thing from tearing through a team. For the moveset, i chose a 3 atk recover set. 3 attacks gives it very good coverage, it could use psychic for the ohko on gar and hera, but i found recover a lot more useful as it allows me to heal off damage from spikes, status and resisted attacks. Even though starmie can't take many attacks the ability to improve its longevity is still important. I chose surf over hydro pump because pump kept missing and losing me games all the time and the power loss was worth it in my opinion. That's definitely something that can be changed with preference though. I went for a max/max ev spread to maximize starmie's offensive capabilities. I usually save this for the late game when things have been worn down and its counters eliminated. I like to try and bring it in on predicted switches and free turns as I don't like it taking too much damage but it does occasionally switch in on resisted attacks such as weak fire blasts or surfs. It can also act as a revenge killer, and I sometimes like to abuse the double natural cure between it and bliss to stall out things like toxic milotic.
Weaknesses:
This team has been quite successful and a lot of fun, however it definitely has a number of issues. The first is a lack of a rock resist. Tyranitar isn't a huge problem thanks to dugtrio, but aerodactyl can be very hard to deal with. Its speed means that even starmie has difficulty with it. Spikes can be another issue. Even though most spikers don't get many set up opportunities, if they do get the chance, it can be much more difficult to win games. Tyranitar and dugtrio really suffer from having spikes down, while blissey and starmie are definitely better off without spikes on their side of the field. Finally certain variants of gengar can be an issue. Blissey is my most reliable gar answer, meaning sub punch gar and explosion gar can be a real problem. Hypnosis gar is also challenging especially if the opponent manages to get spikes down.
Other Options:
Some other things i've tried on this team include:
Putting protect over taunt on skarm, this makes skarm much more durable and annoying to spinners, however it also makes it set up fodder for opposing spikers.
Replacing dugtrio with claydol. This helps with my spikes weakness as well as my aero weakness. It even helps to an extent against gengar, however it seriously slows down the pace of the team which is not something I like.
Finally i've tweaked with the starmie set a bit. Psychic was really nice for gengar and heracross, whereas rapid spin helps with the spikes problem. Replacing recover however makes starmie a lot less reliable as it is more easily revenged by dugtrio, and takes away starmie's ability to continually come in on spikes, status and resisted attacks.
I hope you guys can maybe find ways to make these options work, or find other improvements that can solve some of the issues on this team.
Importable:
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug]
- Focus Punch
Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 124 HP / 160 Atk / 116 Def / 12 SpA / 24 SpD / 72 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Explosion
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpD / 100 Spe
Careful Nature
- Toxic
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 248 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 20 SpD / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
- Hidden Power [Bug]
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug]
- Focus Punch
Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 124 HP / 160 Atk / 116 Def / 12 SpA / 24 SpD / 72 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Explosion
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpD / 100 Spe
Careful Nature
- Toxic
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 248 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 20 SpD / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
- Hidden Power [Bug]
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
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