Starmie

Water / Psychic · Natural Cure · VR B · Base 60 / 75 / 85 / 100 / 85 / 115 (HP/Atk/Def/SpA/SpD/Spe) · The tier’s premier offensive Rapid Spinner — a base-115 special cleaner that keeps your Spikes live while it revenge-kills, pressures, and shrugs off status on the switch.

Typing & role

Starmie is the rare hazard-control piece that pays its own way. Most spinners — Forretress, Claydol, Cloyster — are slow utility bodies that spend a turn clearing your board and then sit there. Starmie spins at base 115 Speed off a 100 Special Attack and Bolt-Beam-plus-STAB coverage, so the turn it removes the opponent’s Spikes it is also a live threat that outpaces and revenge-kills a big slice of the unboosted field. For an aggressive offense that wants to keep momentum on every turn, that dual identity is the whole pitch: spin support that does not cost you tempo.

Water/Psychic is a clean offensive typing in ADV and a workable defensive one. The page’s TypeProfile widget lays out the full grid; what matters for the aggressive plan is that Starmie resists Water, Fire, Ice, Fighting, and Psychic (each 0.5×) — it can pivot into a slower Suicune’s Surf or a Charizard’s Fire Blast (both resisted) and threaten back; note it only takes Tyranitar’s Rock Slide neutrally, and Crunch hits it 2×, so it cannot safely pivot into Tyranitar. The flip side is a stack of common offensive weaknesses: it takes 2× from Electric, Grass, Dark, Ghost, and Bug, which is why Tyranitar’s Crunch, Snorlax’s Shadow Ball, and Celebi/Zapdos coverage all cleanly threaten it. Natural Cure is the quiet engine — every time Starmie switches out, it cures any burn, poison, or paralysis, so the Thunder Wave/Toxic that would otherwise neuter a frail cleaner just falls off.

Why it matters to aggressive offense

The central problem of ADV offense is breaking and out-chipping the SkarmBliss + bulky-Water + Snorlax backbone, and Spikes is your single most reliable chip engine (you only get one hazard in Gen 3 — there is no Stealth Rock or Toxic Spikes). Spikes-stacking offense only works if your hazards stay down, and the opponent’s spinner is the thing that erases your game plan. Starmie is your answer on both ends: it removes the opponent’s Spikes so your own switch-ins stop bleeding, and — paired with a Gengar spinblock and a Skarmory/Cloyster Spiker — it keeps your layers down so every forced switch costs the enemy 1/8 → 1/6 → 1/4.

Beyond spinning, it is a genuine fast special breaker/cleaner:

• Hydro Pump is its hardest hit and, off STAB and 100 SpA, OHKOs uninvested Tyranitar (Water is 2× into Rock/Dark) and dents the physical-wall cores you want gone.
• Ice Beam is the Bolt-Beam other half: 4× into Salamence and Flygon, 2× into Celebi, so Starmie is a clean revenge answer to the tier’s dragons and a soft check to Dragon Dance setup that has outrun your other mons.
• Thunderbolt rounds out the coverage, hitting Skarmory for 2× (Electric is 2× into Flying), Gyarados and other Water/Flying for 4×, and bulky Waters like Suicune for 2×.

Because base 115 sits above the base-100 tier and ties nothing relevant below the 130s, Starmie is fast enough to clean late once Blissey and the bulky Waters are worn down, and to revenge a +1 Dragon Dance Salamence/Tyranitar with Ice Beam/Hydro Pump after a little chip. It does all of this without a setup turn, which is exactly the no-Scarf “speed comes from base stats” math that aggressive offense lives by.

Key sets (Gen-3 legal)

Both offense-relevant builds are the same Offensive Smogdex set — Leftovers, Timid, 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe, Natural Cure, maxing Speed (to clear the base-100s and reach the 110s) and Special Attack, with the same locked Hydro Pump / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt core. The only real decision is the fourth slot, which is a Rapid Spin / Psychic / Recover slash.

Offensive Spinner — the aggressive-offense default

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Timid Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin

This is the build you run on Spikes offense. Full Bolt-Beam-plus-Hydro coverage means nothing walls all three moves except Blissey and Snorlax, and Rapid Spin keeps your layers down. Hydro Pump is the canonical water STAB here, and the extra power over Surf turns 2HKOs into OHKOs (uninvested Tyranitar, chipped bulky Waters); the accuracy risk is acceptable on a mon whose job is pressure, not a guaranteed grind.

Offensive (Recover) — the staying-power cleaner

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Timid Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover

Same Offensive set, just taking Recover over Rapid Spin in the fourth slot. Trading the spin for recovery turns Starmie into a repeatable revenge killer/cleaner that pivots in on resisted hits, Recovers off chip, and keeps offering Hydro Pump Bolt-Beam pressure all game. Run this when a teammate already handles spinning (Claydol, Forretress) and you want Starmie purely as a fast special check + late-game closer. Natural Cure + Recover makes it a surprisingly durable status-absorbing pivot for an offensive piece.

Either way the move category math is friendly: Hydro Pump (Water), Ice Beam (Ice), and Thunderbolt (Electric) are all special-type, so they run off the 100 SpA you invested — there is no Choice Band miscategory trap here, and indeed Choice Band is the wrong item entirely (it is the only Choice item in Gen 3, and it boosts only physical Attack).

How an aggressive team uses it

Slot Starmie as the spin support + fast special cleaner of a Spikes-offense core. The canonical shell is a Spiker (Skarmory or Cloyster) + a Gengar spinblocker + fast special breakers + Starmie to guarantee your own hazards stay down while the opponent’s come up. Its sequencing inside a game:

• Early: spin away the opponent’s Spikes the moment they threaten to chip your switch-ins, then immediately pivot out — Starmie is too frail to sit, so spin-and-flee keeps it alive for its cleaning job.
• Mid: click Hydro Pump/Thunderbolt to chip the Skarmory/bulky-Water side and revenge-kill anything that overstays. Thunderbolt punishes Skarmory and Gyarados switch-ins; Ice Beam deletes a Salamence that just clicked Dragon Dance.
• Late: once Blissey and the opposing bulky Waters are worn down (by your Tyranitar, Heracross, MixMence, or a Dugtrio Beat-Up trap on Blissey), Starmie’s base 115 cleans the rest of the team with Bolt-Beam-Hydro.

It pairs naturally with a Blissey-remover. Starmie’s one hard stop is Blissey, so a Dugtrio (Beat Up) that traps and removes Blissey, or a wallbreaker that overloads it, frees Starmie to sweep — the “trap the counter, free the special sweep” pattern from common cores. Because it is grounded, note Starmie does not escape opposing Dugtrio (Arena Trap) or sand chip, so play it as a hit-and-run piece, not a pivot you leave exposed.

A small but real perk for hazard-stack: Natural Cure means Starmie can take a Thunder Wave or Toxic aimed at slowing/wearing your cleaner and simply cure it on the next switch, so the opponent cannot status-cripple your win condition the way they can a Jolteon or Suicune.

Counters & checks

Starmie’s frailty (60/85/85) and that 2× Electric/Grass/Dark/Ghost/Bug weakness list mean it is checked broadly — it pressures, but it is not hard to handle when healthy:

• Blissey — the hard stop. It sponges every special move Starmie has (Water, Ice, Electric are all resisted-or-neutral into its enormous Special Defense) and Soft-Boiled/Toxic back. You do not break Blissey with Starmie; you remove or overload Blissey for Starmie.
• Snorlax — fat enough to eat Bolt-Beam-Hydro, and it threatens back with Shadow Ball (Ghost, 2× into Psychic) and Body Slam paralysis; Self-Destruct cleanly trades.
• Tyranitar — sand chips Starmie 1/16 every turn (it is neither Rock/Ground/Steel), and Pursuit traps it on the predicted flee (Dark is 2× into Psychic) while Crunch 2× threatens it on the stay. The single most uncomfortable answer to a spinner that has to keep switching.
• Gengar — not actually faster (Starmie’s base 115 edges Gengar’s base 110), but Gengar wins the pivot game anyway with Levitate + immunity to Spikes, spinblocks Starmie’s Rapid Spin by being a Ghost, and threatens it with Thunderbolt.
• Celebi / Jolteon — Celebi is a bulky special pivot that resists Water/Electric/Psychic and clicks status; Jolteon is faster (base 130) and 2× into Starmie with Thunderbolt.
• Faster Electrics and revenge killers generally — anything outspeeding base 115 with an Electric/Grass/Dark/Ghost/Bug move revenges its frail body.

The takeaway for the builder: Starmie is not a wall-breaker against the fat backbone — Blissey and Snorlax wall it cold — but as the spin engine + fast cleaner of a Spikes offense it earns its slot by keeping your hazards down at no tempo cost and closing games once its two checks are gone. Treat it as connective tissue with a knife, and pair it with a Blissey-remover so its late-game ceiling is real.