[Jumpman16**]

Alive and kicking ass, Battle 105:

Starmie@Expert Belt ** You wish!!
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4HP/252SpA/252Spd
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

Gets unequivocally better from Advance now that it has a good item to use (I used the almost-redundant Lum Berry on it in Advance the few times i used it in the BT). Hits 9 of 17 types for SE and can take a hit from a LOT of pokemon it can't OHKO, which is why I don't use the Life Orb whose recoil would kill it. Grass Knot would be an option over Thunderbolt if the rest of my team actually liked dealing with Gyarados lol

329 speed here: only Garchomp pretty much is a threat and of the three that are actually 333 speed, one is Timid. Not enough of a threat to make me consider a Timid Starmie and drop considerable power.

This very Starmie (with Lum) won me my Gold Symbol in the Battle Factory in Emerald after six straight weeks of mind-bogglingly bad luck, and will always have a place in my heart as "the best pokemon in the game". I built this team around Starmie, after my Bronzong/Gyarados/Cresselia and Garchomp/Metagross/Blissey teams I thought would be stronger failed.

Tyranitar@Lum Berry ** Like That?
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4HP/252Atk/252Spd
Nature: Jolly
- Crunch
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

Sand Stream screws over enough Focus Sashes still to make the addition of Tyranitar a more than welcome one to my team. Jolly so it gets to 363 and beats all Base 115 Speed pokes after a DD, all of whom, with the exception of Floatzel and Ambipom, it can DD in their faces thanks to the SpD boost (Raikou, Starmie, Azelf). A free 3-0 win usually against Psychic types that can't hit it at all or only have like Shadow Ball...but the object isn't really to sweep with Tyra thanks to my next poke.

Garchomp@Choice Scarf ** Jet Blue
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 160HP/252Atk/96Spd
Nature: Adamant
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Crunch

What goes better with Sand Stream than Garchomp? Adamant Outrage from 396 speed is pretty damn dirty, and is the only move I really use besides EQ. Nothing in the DP BT surpasses 394 speed even with a Scarf besides the stuff you would expect — Ninjask and Electrode — so the rest of the EVs gladly go into HP for a relatively bulky revenge killer. Outrage is stronger than even a SE Crunch and if anything I'd replace the latter with AA to deal with Double Teamers, but that has much less efficacy unSTABbed and unboosted (I swore by AA on my CB Salamence on Emerald Frontier) [i replaced Crunch with AA many months ago and am editing it today, 9-20-08, to finally reflect that, lol].

The idea is to take out basically everything I can with Starmie, gladly switching Garchomp into Electrics. Lead grasses can be a problem but Ice Beam can usually KO. If Starmie kills the first pokemon it is pretty much over, as I can and will sacrifice Tyranitar, as I kind of alluded to above (object isn't to sweep with Tyra), to better sweep with either Starmie or Garchomp as the situation calls for it. You essentially cannot do anything when Sandstream is running (go to hell Focus Sash/Band) against a 329 Speed Starmie and a 396 Speed Garchomp who together can OHKO like 90% of the pokemon in the game or something.

On paper, a Timid Latios (359SpA/350Spd) is better than a Modest Starmie (328SpA/329Spd), but with Garchomp also on my team, Latios would attract a lot of Ice Attacks, many of them being from Water pokemon that Tyranitar doesn't exactly like tangling with. The #1 reason, perhaps, that I can't use Latios is Weavile.

921 440 Weavile Brave Razor Claw Night Slash Metal Claw Slash Shadow Claw HP/Atk
922 576 Weavile Jolly Chople Berry Night Slash Ice Shard X-Scissor Poison Jab Atk/Speed
923 712 Weavile Jolly Choice Band Night Slash Ice Shard Aerial Ace Brick Break Atk/Speed
924 848 Weavile Jolly Focus Sash Night Slash Ice Punch Aerial Ace Brick Break Atk/Speed

If a Weavile leads off against Starmie, it is 100% going to Night Slash since all of them have it and an Ice Attack is NVE against Starmie, where it could be both SE and more power against Latios in the case of Ice Punch on the CB variant. So I can switch to Tyranitar into the Night Slash and get Sandstream going (as you can see, one Weavile variant has a Focus Sash that would otherwise allow it to sweep my team).

From Tyranitar, I can switch in my Scarfed Garchomp because it will not use an Ice Attack. It will use: BB, meaning it's the Focus Sash variant (848) that doesn't have Ice Shard; Metal Claw (440), meaning it can't touch Chomp (no Ice Shard); X-Scissor (576), which does 21-25%, or Night Slash again (712), which means it's the CB variant that can't use its Ice Shard. Only the X-Scissor variant (576) is cause for concern, since after the switch to Garchomp it will use an Ice Shard that does 66-78% but thankfully Weavile needs to do near max damage twice in a row to Garchomp (adding the 21-25% damage of X-Scissor), which is all the less likely thanks to Sand Veil.

As you can see, I'm proud enough of this team to have graced you all with another big boring Jumpman Wall of Words!