Stellar Evolution: Starmie Through the Years

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Introduction

Starmie, Ace of Gym Leader Misty's crew since 1996. Starmie has always proven to be a fearsome threat, both in-game and competitive wise. Seriously, I can't be the only one who picked Charmander and continuously had to keep leveling up only to kill that stupid starfish!

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RBY

In the first generation of Pokémon, one of Starmie's biggest selling points is its instant recovery. Also, Starmie has good physical bulk and has a wide variety of other tools. For example, access to Thunder Wave is a huge selling point for more defensive sets, as paralysis can neuter prominent threats, most notably Tauros. Besides the defensive set, Starmie also works very well offensively, sporting a great movepool in STAB Psychic, Thunderbolt, Blizzard, and the uncommon STAB Hydro Pump. Thunderbolt allows Starmie to break past bulky Water-types such as Slowbro and also lets it hit Cloyster super hard, making it one of the best counters to it. Blizzard hits Zapdos and Ground-types such as Rhydon and Golem really hard and is the best option to hit Exeggutor, letting you break past it with some luck. As a lead, Starmie is alright, since with Psychic it can 2HKO Gengar. However, Starmie struggles against other sleep leads, most notably Jynx. Starmie also doesn't do well versus the uncommon Jolteon, for obvious reasons. Starmie has a neutral matchup versus Alakazam and opposing Starmie, where the options are usually staying in attempting to freeze them with Blizzard, paralyzing them with Thunder Wave, or switching out to a Pokémon with an advantage.

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• Starmie
• - Blizzard
• - Thunderbolt
• - Recover
• - Thunder Wave

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GSC

As the new generation came along, Starmie could deal with much more. One of the best tools that Starmie got this generation was Rapid Spin, which gets rid of Spikes. Thanks to Starmie's incredible bulk and typing, it can Rapid Spin on Cloyster, a very common Spiker, and it can also threaten Ghost-types, which is something that its fellow spinner Forretress cannot do. Starmie is also a great check to outstanding threats like Machamp, being able to survive two Hidden Power Bugs and 2HKO with Psychic. Not only this, but Starmie checks obscure threats such as Tentacruel, Rhydon, and Belly Drum Charizard. Starmie is used solely as a defensive Pokémon in this generation, as it fails to do really anything offensively with Snorlax running around. That said, Starmie hates status: Thunder Wave lowers Starmie's Speed and also has a chance to fully paralyze it, and Toxic gradually decreases Starmie's health each turn. Reflect works stellar on Starmie, as it gives it the ability to to take an Explosion from Cloyster. Light Screen is good support for something like your own Machamp, which has trouble dealing with Vaporeon regularly. Thunder Wave is also an option, as it can paralyze many threats to Starmie and is great support for Belly Drum Snorlax. Unfortunately, Starmie is considerably worse offensively due to Snorlax's walling capability, so it is usually never seen without Rapid Spin, meaning it becomes quite predictable. Surf is used to hit spinblockers hard if they try to switch in, namely Gengar and Misdreavus, while also being able to hit Marowak really hard.

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• Starmie @ Leftovers
• - Surf
• - Rapid Spin
• - Recover
• - Reflect / Psychic / Light Screen / Thunder Wave

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ADV

A few years later ADV came along, and Starmie was gifted even more tools. The first major addition was Natural Cure. Natural Cure enabled Starmie to not worry about being statused while simultaneously letting it play as a status absorber. Also, with the rising prominence of Spikes, Rapid Spin was in more of a demand, which made Starmie's role as a spinner much more popular than any other. Starmie's defensive set was similar to the one in GSC, with the biggest change being that the fourth move now could also be Ice Beam to hit Salamence and Celebi for massive damage, weakening them for the rest of the game. Snorlax was still an issue, so some Starmie ran Reflect + Toxic to help break past it, and it worked quite well. Offensive Starmie still shines in the late-game thanks to its great movepool and offensive stats. Such Starmie variants also appreciate having a Blissey or Snorlax lure, since both of them are very solid counters to this set.

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RMT: "querencia"

In this RMT, Starmie is used as an offensive nuke. Starmie is meant to be a late-game cleaner and is usually saved until the end so it doesn't take too much damage before it can clean.

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DPP

With the new main series games out, Starmie became a lot better... and a lot worse. With Starmie's amazing Special Attack and Speed it rocked a Life Orb set really well, and with great coverage it was very hard to wall. It also still worked as a spinner, threatening common Stealth Rockers such as Hippowdon, Skarmory, and Heatran and spinning on them. Starmie was not only great offensively; it could also play a defensive role very nicely thanks to its ability to switch into Heatran and Choice-locked Infernape, which were monsters of the DPP metagame. Both the defensive and offensive set could run Thunderbolt, which could easily break past common would-be Starmie walls such as Vaporeon and Suicune, and Ice Beam, which could hit Grass-types. The biggest con that came with DPP was the introduction of Pursuit and sand now boosting Tyranitar's Special Defense. With these things, Tyranitar could easily take a hit and OHKO back with Crunch if the Starmie player decided to stay in, or Pursuit if they switched out. Tyranitar could also run Choice Scarf, which meant it didn't need to rely on Dragon Dance anymore, and could just outpace Starmie right off the bat. Rotom-A also stopped what Starmie did the best, Rapid Spinning. It could also outspeed Starmie and do a ton with Thunderbolt or Shadow Ball.

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RMT: "Swamp things"

On this team, Starmie is used as a bulky spinner. With Colbur Berry, it can Rapid Spin on one of its most common counters, Tyranitar, and hit back hard with Hydro Pump. The reason Starmie is so important on this team is it provides a way to clear Stealth Rock, which decimates Yanmega.

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BW2

With the new games, Starmie got even more buffs. The best one, which boosted its offensive capability, was its Dream World ability, Analytic. Analytic boosts all of Starmie's moves by 1.3x if Starmie moves last, which means that if an opponent switches out, then Starmie gets the Analytic boost, decimating the switch-in. Speaking of offensive boosts, Starmie also got access to Psyshock, which deals damage based on Defense rather than Special Defense, letting it break past special walls much more easily. The offensive set also loved Drizzle from Politoed, since rain boosted Starmie's Hydro Pump a ton, letting it break past walls that resist Water. Both the offensive and defensive set could deal with one of the greatest BW threats, Keldeo, by scaring it out with a strong Psychic STAB attack, or by tanking most of its hits. Moving on to the more defensive set, Scald let Starmie burn both defensive and offensive threats, forcing them to take 12% each turn and halving their Attack stat. While Starmie in past generations could Rapid Spin on almost all Spikers, the introduction of Ferrothorn changed that slightly, as it could Leech Seed + Power Whip Starmie to death. Starmie could, however, get past Ferrothorn with Reflect Type, which made it immune to Leech Seed and let it 4x resist Ferrothorn's attacks, and pressure it with Scald Burns. Starmie also faced more competition as a spinner, since Excadrill could successfully clear hazards against many more Pokémon.

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RMT: "Gliding Over All"

This is a very common team that uses Starmie as an offensive spinner. It is also a nice way to trouble opposing rain teams, as rain teams don't usually pack switch-ins to Analytic Life Orb Starmie. It also has the coverage to hit spinblockers, mainly Gengar and Jellicent, and also hits Gyarados hard with Thunder.

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ORAS

In the beginning of XY, Greninja and Aegislash really hurt Starmie's usage. Even with their bans and the arrival ORAS, however, Starmie still struggled. Starmie was hard walled by things like Clefable, which could easily take advantage of it and set up. Weavile and Tyranitar being more common also wasn't good for Starmie, since it could just easily get Pursuit trapped or one-shotted by their respective Dark STAB attacks. Also, the rain nerf meant that offensive Starmie couldn't freely spam Hydro Pump the entire game. Although, just because it had some cons didn't mean it was terrible! Starmie was still an excellent spinner and could Rapid Spin against many common Stealth Rockers without fear of much. Ghosts also weren't too common to spinblock after the recent banning of Mega Sableye. The offensive set was also good to revenge kill threats such as Keldeo, Heatran, Breloom, and Mega Diancie.

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RMT: "Mega Sableye Semi-Stall"

This RMT also uses Starmie as a defensive spinner and a Keldeo answer. Starmie, with its great coverage and typing, fulfills this role quite well. Psyshock beats Keldeo, which was a huge threat to this team beforehand, and Rapid Spin clears hazards for Talonflame so it doesn't have to take 50% upon switching in. Starmie also uses Scald for a nice burn chance on physically inclined attackers.

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SM

Starmie really fell off in Sun and Moon. While there haven't been any direct nerfs to Starmie itself, there are common OU threats lurking in the metagame that easily deal with Starmie. Some of the most common examples are the four Tapus and Greninja. Misty Terrain also blocks Scald burns meaning that defensive Starmie isn't really as good as it once was. Tapu Fini also outclasses Starmie as a Water-type hazard remover due to amazing bulk and typing.

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