Sunday, June 26, 2011

2404. Starapator


Staraptor, The Predator Pokémon. It has a savage nature. It will courageously challenge foes that are much larger. The muscles in its wings and legs are strong. It can easily fly while gripping a small Pokémon.
It's a recurring theme of the Pokémon games to have a small bird available early on, who'll eventually grow to become a decent Pokémon. Pidgey to Pidgeot, Spearow to Fearow, Hoothoot to Noctowl, Taillow to Swellow and now Starly to Staraptor.
Staraptor is a fast but fragile Normal-Flying type, with a decent Attack stat and a poor Special Attack stat. As such, it's made in a similar mould to Fearow, Dodrio, Swellow and to a lesser extent, Pidgeot. Staraptor has one move at its disposal that sets it head and shoulders above its brethren however, and that's Close Combat. Most Normal-Flying types are completely walled by Rock and Steel types, but where they fail, Staraptor succeeds.
Despite being the best of its mould, Staraptor doesn't have the raw stats to break into the Standard environment, lingering in the no man's land of the Borderline tier. Base 120 Attack and base 100 Speed is a solid combination, and definitely too much for the Underused environment, but it gets crowded out by the hard hitters and strong defenders of the Overused tier.
Intimidate: drops the opposition's Attack stat by one stage (barring extenuating circumstances, such as an active Substitute or Clear Body). Staraptor is rather lacking from a defensive perspective. It doesn't pack too many resistances (although it benefits from two immunities), and it lacks raw defensive stats, but Intimidate will soften physical blows on the occasions that it has to take them.

No comments:

Post a Comment