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Originally Posted by Fat birdboy2000
Still using my Salamence/Garchomp/Articuno team, got up to 78 at best (not much of an improvement) but I've run into one big problem called Starmie. It's got the bulk to take an outrage and hits everyone on my team really hard - I lose at least one pokemon every time I face it and suffer significant damage on another.
Metagross can also be troublesome, but only if it runs into Salamence first - between Magnet Rise and Occa Berry it's hard to take down, it's immune to intimidate, and you don't want to face three turns of Meteor Mash. Garchomp gets STAB Earthquake before it can magnet rise and Articuno can just mind reader/sheer cold - I don't think the Subway carries the meteor mash/bullet punch version.
I'm thinking I should switch out Salamence - yeah, it covers a ton of pokemon, but does so in the exact same way as Garchomp, and has the same weaknesses. But what should I replace it with?
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Yup, Starmie is a subway beast. Timid King's Rock SPIT (Surf, Psychic, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt) Starmie is one of those huge threats you definitely need to be able to handle, and I agree that the shared weaknesses on Mence and Chomp leave you very vulnerable.
Ideally, for a Salamence replacement you want something that can resist Chomp's Dragon and Ice weaknesses (neither of which Articuno resists), and Articuno's Steel weakness (which unlike Articuno's other weaknesses, is not resisted by Garchomp). You also want to be able to switch into SPIT Starmie and KO back.
Scizor can do all of these jobs, and can also sometimes Swords Dance up and do a bit of sweeping on its own, but has to be careful about an untimely flinch from Starmie's King's Rock. Unfortunately, because of that King's Rock, few things can switch into and beat SPIT Starmie 100% of the time, but Scizor gives you very good odds, so would be my initial recommendation.
If you want a clean revenge kill on Starmie, I did some theorymoning earlier and found that Modest max Special Attack Choice Scarf Latios can just barely guarantee the OHKO with Thunderbolt on SPIT Starmie. It won't cover your other weaknesses, but does a beautiful job of outrunning and revenging a bunch of big subway threats besides Starmie (Choice Scarf Garchomp, for example), so is definitely worth considering. I've long wanted to give it a try, but have never ended up using it, so would be happy indeed if it can help you get a good streak. Also note that you can even use Scarf Latios as hybrid revenge killer/Tricker, though that would probably require more team modification, as Latios's Trick will lock a lot of pokes into Ice or Dragon attacks, which Chomp can't really set up on.
Good luck!