First of all, what's the discussion with adamant raptor about? Sure it hits really hard, but losing out on the 100 base speed benchmark when it outpaces stuff like Krookodile and Hydreigon seems a little too important to pass up. It sounds good with scarf maybe, but then you miss out on scarf Hydreigon (the most common set atm).
e: this whole discussion is just me theorizing how I feel Staraptor is gonna fair in the current meta based on my experiences with it in beta, it's certainly subject to change.
As someone who spammed Staraptor a lot near the end of beta, I feel pretty safe saying that scarf is the superior set, at least for the current meta. The power behind band seems cool but scarf still gets pretty convincing 2/3HKOs on a majority of balance and stall staples.
In addition, there's a whole lot of common Pokemon that can outspeed base 100s, usually with at least 2 or three commonly finding their way onto (bulky) offense playstyles that the meta seems to gravitating toward. Keldeo, Cobalion (which can now OHKO it with a pummel too) Alakazam, Latias, Infernape, a lot of which commonly run scarf too...the list goes on and on. Bisharp, Scizor, SD Decidueye, and some others hit it with priority and such. Being weak to rocks doesn't help it either, since right now hazards are really hard to remove against the right team comp with stuff like Bisharp, Gengar, MAero, etc. In general, this meta is a little better at showing some of raptor's flaws with the really, really common ways of beating it offensively, as well as a good number of bulky mons with recovery that it can't OHKO, which tends to be its major problem in most games.
That being said, Staraptor absolutely shreds offensive teams with scarf sets. the most common steels in Cobalion and Scizor don't even resist flying and stuff like Bisharp can't even really switch in well at all. Only things we really have are Doublade, Metagross, the may I even say it - bad Bronzong and Rhyperior, and Aerodactyl and Empoleon that barely switch into scarf. Just having really really strong Normal- or Flying-type STAB is enough to rocket something up in viability, as we've seen Bewear do over the last week or so. Couple that with ridiculous speed and an ability that actually boosts its offensive power, and it ends up so fast and powerful that its probably gonna do 50 to at least something, and that's even if you play it relatively badly.
tl;dr - Staraptor has some stuff that, in my opinion, that might make it redeemable, since i find that its flaws are a little more easy to exploit in the current meta. Like I've expressed to a few people (haven't posted) about Clefable, it doesn't seem genuinely broken on paper, but i feel as if UU would be a much better metagame without it. So at the moment, I'm hoping that the vote ends up with Staraptor being banned.
e: this whole discussion is just me theorizing how I feel Staraptor is gonna fair in the current meta based on my experiences with it in beta, it's certainly subject to change.
As someone who spammed Staraptor a lot near the end of beta, I feel pretty safe saying that scarf is the superior set, at least for the current meta. The power behind band seems cool but scarf still gets pretty convincing 2/3HKOs on a majority of balance and stall staples.
252 Atk Staraptor Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 448-528 (62.7 - 73.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (doesn't even take recoil damage!)
252 Atk Reckless Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 195-231 (49.4 - 58.6%) -- 69.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (I know this isn't the common spread but it obviously is a guaranteed 2HKO on anything less that max/max)
252 Atk Reckless Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Forretress: 127-150 (35.8 - 42.3%) -- 93% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Reckless Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 84+ Def Hippowdon: 163-193 (38.9 - 46%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Reckless Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 195-231 (49.4 - 58.6%) -- 69.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (I know this isn't the common spread but it obviously is a guaranteed 2HKO on anything less that max/max)
252 Atk Reckless Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Forretress: 127-150 (35.8 - 42.3%) -- 93% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Reckless Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 84+ Def Hippowdon: 163-193 (38.9 - 46%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
In addition, there's a whole lot of common Pokemon that can outspeed base 100s, usually with at least 2 or three commonly finding their way onto (bulky) offense playstyles that the meta seems to gravitating toward. Keldeo, Cobalion (which can now OHKO it with a pummel too) Alakazam, Latias, Infernape, a lot of which commonly run scarf too...the list goes on and on. Bisharp, Scizor, SD Decidueye, and some others hit it with priority and such. Being weak to rocks doesn't help it either, since right now hazards are really hard to remove against the right team comp with stuff like Bisharp, Gengar, MAero, etc. In general, this meta is a little better at showing some of raptor's flaws with the really, really common ways of beating it offensively, as well as a good number of bulky mons with recovery that it can't OHKO, which tends to be its major problem in most games.
That being said, Staraptor absolutely shreds offensive teams with scarf sets. the most common steels in Cobalion and Scizor don't even resist flying and stuff like Bisharp can't even really switch in well at all. Only things we really have are Doublade, Metagross, the may I even say it - bad Bronzong and Rhyperior, and Aerodactyl and Empoleon that barely switch into scarf. Just having really really strong Normal- or Flying-type STAB is enough to rocket something up in viability, as we've seen Bewear do over the last week or so. Couple that with ridiculous speed and an ability that actually boosts its offensive power, and it ends up so fast and powerful that its probably gonna do 50 to at least something, and that's even if you play it relatively badly.
tl;dr - Staraptor has some stuff that, in my opinion, that might make it redeemable, since i find that its flaws are a little more easy to exploit in the current meta. Like I've expressed to a few people (haven't posted) about Clefable, it doesn't seem genuinely broken on paper, but i feel as if UU would be a much better metagame without it. So at the moment, I'm hoping that the vote ends up with Staraptor being banned.
Last edited: