In-battle formes
Evolutions
- Staryu
- Starmie
Strategies
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Overview
Starmie is one of the most common Pokemon in RBY OU thanks to its Psychic typing and access to Recover and Thunder Wave. Starmie's physical bulk allows it to be a defensive check to virtually every Pokemon lacking an Electric-type attack and take two hits from almost any physical attacker. Additionally, its access to many special attacks such as Blizzard, Psychic, and Thunderbolt turns it into an offensive threat versus anything without instant recovery. Although Starmie naturally outspeeds many common Pokemon, most notably Tauros, oftentimes a paralyzed Starmie functions well in its defensive role due to its ability to block sleep-inducing moves from almost anything, while the ability to paralyze any non-Ground-type Pokemon via Thunder Wave makes it difficult to pressure offensively even then. Among the Recover and Soft-Boiled users in OU, Starmie also possesses a special defensive utility, as it's the only one of them to not be forced out immediately by Snorlax when paralyzed and is able to fight back against it offensively as well when running a STAB move. Those traits make Starmie usable in pretty much any state of the game, turning it into a very flexible Pokemon and easy addition to most RBY OU teams.
Special Attacker
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Set Description
Recover and Thunder Wave alongside Starmie's incredible Speed turn Starmie into a very sturdy Pokemon that possesses the ability to paralyze the foe and outspeed it after, even when paralyzed itself, and proceed to recover its health, since most attacks do not deal 50% to it. This makes Starmie tough to break and is why this move combination allows Starmie, despite its high Speed, to take paralysis even early on in the game and avoid being crippled by it as much as most other Pokemon. In fact, a paralyzed Starmie is very good at blocking sleep-inducing moves from common sleepers like Exeggutor and Sing Chansey lacking Thunderbolt.
Starmie's traits do not end at its defensive role, however. In its last two moveslots, Starmie is able to run a variety of powerful special attacks, which can be chosen to hit almost every Pokemon in the tier except Chansey super effectively or at least decently hard. In that context it is worth noting that, due to its high Speed, Starmie has a very high chance of 22.46% to score a critical hit, which frequently enables Starmie to successfully knock out opposing Pokemon by shooting for critical hits.
Blizzard most notably hits Exeggutor, Zapdos, and Rhydon, as well as Victreebel and Dragonite. It is chosen over Ice Beam due to having more power while only being 10% less accurate. In addition to the coverage Blizzard provides, another reason to use it lies in its chance to score a freeze on opposing Pokemon such as Chansey and Alakazam or just about any Pokemon if you're desperate. Moves that typically go alongside Blizzard are Psychic and Thunderbolt.
Psychic is Starmie's best option to hit Pokemon like Gengar and the Normal-types, thanks to gaining STAB. This is especially important against Snorlax, as a Starmie without STAB moves struggles quite a bit to really hurt it. Another important feature of Psychic is the chance to score Special drops, which can help force switches and thus spread paralysis on the opposing team. This is especially noteworthy against Chansey, especially those running Reflect, since enough Special drops can force it out even when it has already set up a Reflect, which Starmie will otherwise fail to achieve. It can be useful against Alakazam as well, albeit not as consistently, since Alakazam itself can cause Starmie's Special to drop. It is worth mentioning however, that the Blizzard + Psychic set does have some issues with running out of PP rather quickly against opposing Recover users and will not be able to hurt opposing Starmie and Slowbro.
Thunderbolt is used to hit opposing Water-types super effectively, including Lapras, Cloyster, and especially opposing Starmie and Slowbro. Being able to threaten other Starmie, especially when they lack Thunderbolt themselves, and beating Slowbro with a critical hit are the biggest selling points for Thunderbolt. Additionally, Thunderbolt is Starmie's only super effective move against Articuno, which itself doesn't really threaten Starmie much but can be annoying to actually knock out. If Thunderbolt is chosen alongside Blizzard, it should be noted that Starmie will struggle to properly threaten Gengar and Snorlax, as the latter can usually Rest stall Starmie, especially if it is paralyzed.
Either move can be run alongside Blizzard whether or not Starmie is used as a lead, though as a lead Starmie usually prefers Psychic, as it's usually more useful for early-game purposes; Thunderbolt's coverage alongside Blizzard is appreciated if Starmie is kept for late-game, when opposing Pokemon like Chansey and Snorlax are taken care of otherwise.
Psychic and Thunderbolt can be used on the same set if you want to retain the power versus Starmie and Slowbro and the ability to threaten Snorlax, which can be very dangerous for teams that have to rely on either of those Pokemon to fend off Starmie if Chansey is taken out already. Not being able to do much versus Exeggutor, especially when facing it as a lead, plus being unable to hit Rhydon super effectively can be annoying, but neither of them really likes going up against Starmie, since Psychic still does a lot to Rhydon, and Exeggutor usually cannot do much back if it lacks Mega Drain and Starmie cannot be put to sleep anymore. Exeggutor will be paralyzed and receive permanent chip damage in the process of trying to beat Starmie. However, Starmie cannot beat it without giving it multiple chances to fish for Special drops, which might force Starmie out and give Exeggutor the opportunity to put a switch-in to sleep. Additionally, Exeggutor has plenty of time to go for its Explosion, meaning Starmie will likely only trade with Exeggutor. Furthermore, not running Blizzard means you miss out on hitting especially the rare Dragonite super effectively, which then does not have to fear being outright KOed by Starmie and may be able to try its luck with setting up Agility on a weakened team.
Another STAB option Starmie has is Surf. However, Water-type moves do not provide much in terms of coverage in the RBY OU metagame, since Fire-types are basically nonexistent and will be unable to beat Starmie anyway, and the ones you might meet such as Moltres are already hit super effectively by Blizzard. Nevertheless, Surf is used to OHKO Rhydon, hitting it by surprise, and it's Starmie's best option against Alakazam and Jynx, giving it a chance to take them down with some luck. It is worth noting that even with Surf, Starmie does not necessarily beat Alakazam; it will force it to Recover more frequently, though, and thus create turns to gain momentum by switching in a physical attacker on a Recover. Like Psychic, Surf also serves as a stronger STAB move against neutral targets such as Snorlax. The lack of a Special drop chance, however, makes it the inferior choice for that purpose. Usually the move to go alongside Surf is Thunderbolt, since Blizzard and Psychic are somewhat redundant with Surf. Since Surf and Thunderbolt both have 24 PP, this Starmie set is best suited for drawn-out games that include PP stalling. It must be noted that with Thunderbolt and Surf, Starmie is walled by Victreebel and Exeggutor, the latter of which has a good chance to force Starmie out due to its high Special and Psychic dropping Starmie's Special, giving Exeggutor opportunities to use Sleep Powder on a switch-in. Additionally, Starmie can no longer hurt opposing Zapdos and Dragonite. Pairing Surf with Blizzard is possible to avoid these issues, but the inability to hit opposing Water-types makes this less desirable.
Other Options
Ice Beam is an option over Blizzard for the increased PP if Starmie tries to fish for freezes on opposing Alakazam or Chansey lacking Thunderbolt.
Hyper Beam is an option to surprise weakened Chansey or Alakazam, but Starmie loses a lot of potential if you drop a move for it. Hydro Pump is an option on a late-game Starmie, as it can 2HKO Tauros and generally do decent damage to anything that does not resist it, especially with a critical hit.
Hydro Pump can be used for strong STAB hits, and can be especially powerful when combined with Special drops from Psychic, but running the two moves in combination severely limits Starmie's coverage options and leaves it struggling to hit Pokemon such as Exeggutor or an opposing Starmie.
Starmie also has access to Reflect and the rare Light Screen. However, it will struggle to fit those moves onto its moveset most of the time.
Checks and Counters
Chansey: Chansey is the number one counter to Starmie, as Starmie realistically cannot beat it with any of its movesets, especially when Chansey is paralyzed. In return, Chansey beats Starmie by paralyzing it and beating it down with Thunderbolt, which Starmie will almost certainly fail to outstall with Recover due to full paralysis and critical hit chance. Alternatively, a Chansey lacking Thunderbolt can attempt to freeze an unparalyzed Starmie, as it runs little risk of losing by doing that. However, in order for Chansey to reliably beat a paralyzed Starmie, it needs to run Thunderbolt, since Seismic Toss's PP does not surpass Recover's massive 32 PP, meaning Starmie can outstall variants without Thunderbolt. It's also worth noting that an unparalyzed Chansey runs the risk of getting frozen by Starmie's Ice-type attacks, especially if it cannot threaten with Thunderbolt.
Alakazam: Alakazam has little to fear from Starmie as well. Although it does not possess any super effective move to hit Starmie with, its higher Speed and Special mean Alakazam can trade paralysis against Starmie and proceed to damage it with Seismic Toss or go for Special drops with its own, vastly stronger Psychic. The best Starmie can do is try to freeze an unparalyzed Alakazam or paralyze it and go for Special drops of its own in order to gain the Speed advantage and make Blizzard do more damage. Recover's massive PP leaves Starmie outstalled relatively quickly with that approach, though, since Alakazam can switch out to something like Chansey to relieve the Special drops. Additionally, while Surf can help Starmie in the Alakazam matchup, it usually still is not enough to beat it, since it only 4HKOes. The possibility of critical hits combined with multiple full paralysis turns on Alakazam, however, does give Starmie a fighting chance.
Snorlax: Even though Starmie is relatively bulky for a Pokemon with instant recovery, it still takes a good chunk from Snorlax's Body Slam. Alongside Starmie's relative trouble to deal great damage to Snorlax plus Snorlax frequently running Rest to heal damage and sometimes carrying Hyper Beam, this makes it a solid check to Starmie. If nothing else, Snorlax's Body Slam is another tool to paralyze Starmie, which generally makes it easier to handle. However, Snorlax has to be careful versus Starmie carrying a STAB move, especially Psychic, since one Special drop means it can no longer reliably Rest stall even a paralyzed Starmie. Another tool Snorlax has to dispose of Starmie is Amnesia. Since Amnesia Snorlax frequently only carries Blizzard and Body Slam as attacking moves, it still does not reliably beat Starmie, but outspeeding Starmie thanks to the additional Speed drop caused by using Amnesia when both are paralyzed surely helps break it with Body Slam. However, Amnesia does not protect Snorlax from Starmie's high critical hit chance, meaning Starmie can even break through Amnesia Snorlax with two consecutive Psychic critical hits or a potential freeze from an Ice-type attack.
Jolteon and Zapdos: Starmie struggles to stay in against Electric-type STAB moves from Jolteon and Zapdos or trade a Thunder Wave with them, since it cannot attempt to Recover off the damage they inflict piece by piece. Jolteon is definitely the best offensive check to Starmie. It does not like paralysis very much, but since it is one of the rare Pokemon that naturally outspeed Starmie, it can afford to take Starmie on even when paralyzed. Starmie can at best 4HKO Jolteon with Psychic, while Jolteon outspeeds and 2HKOes it. Zapdos does not fare as brilliantly against Starmie as Jolteon does due to being weak to Blizzard and not naturally outspeeding it, but it still does beat Starmie one-on-one, though it greatly appreciates it being paralyzed beforehand. Note that both Zapdos and Jolteon have a high critical hit rate thanks to their high Speed. One critical hit Thunderbolt from them will easily OHKO Starmie.
Grass-type Attacks: Razor Leaf from Victreebel does upwards of 73% to Starmie, meaning that Victreebel does not need to hit many Wraps to put a paralyzed Starmie in range of being KOed by Razor Leaf. If Sleep Clause is already active, Starmie absolutely needs to be paralyzed for Victreebel to beat it, though, since Starmie 2HKOes Victreebel with either Psychic or Blizzard. Mega Drain on Exeggutor is another option to pressure paralyzed Starmie trying to block Sleep Powder, since it 3HKOes Starmie and 2HKOes it after a Special drop from Psychic.
Electric-type Attacks: Other non-STAB Electric-type attacks coming from the likes of Gengar, Lapras, and opposing Starmie will put enormous pressure on Starmie, potentially taking it down with a single untimely full paralysis or critical hit.
