Staravia, Staraptor (SM)

Every time I'm in the streets, I hear HAWK HAWK HAWK HAWK.

Location: Route 10 (Island Scan on Thursday)

Stats, Evolutions
Staravia, like Marill and Luxio, is a middle-stage Pokémon that you catch via Island Scan. It has quite a bit of speed and good attack, but it's really frail. It will need just a bit of babying.

It evolves into Staraptor at level 34. It has a lot of Attack, high Speed, but most importantly, decent HP... while its defenses are not good when not modified, its HP allows it to take at least one hit as long as it's not super-effective or has high power. Then it can use Agility to sweep whole teams. Oh, and it has Intimidate as an ability.

Movepool, Abilities, Typing
Its unique move is Roost. It heals￼ half its maximum HP and removes its Flying-type until the end of the turn. That's how a healing move should be. The best moves it also has are Double Team and Endeavor. Double Team makes it harder to hit, making it very spammable, and Endeavor reduces the opponent's HP to the user's HP. A level after you get it (28) it gets Aerial Ace, a fairly weak move that never misses and gets STAB. A level before evolving, it gets Take Down, which has good power, but bad accuracy and it recoils.

Upon evolving, it gets Close Combat, a 120 power fighting-type move that lowers both of its defenses. I repeat: Upon evolving, it gets Close Combat, a 120 power fighting-type move that lowers both of its defenses. In case you're still in shock: Upon evolving, it gets Close Combat, a 120 power fighting-type move that lowers both of its defenses. Freaking heck. It's a move that removes a flying type's biggest weakness: the inability to stand up against Ice, Steel and Rock types. Wow. Just wow. Wow. WOW. It gets better from there; at level 41 it gets Agility to double its speed. 49 gives it Brave Bird, an awesome move that hits hard but recoils. And finally, at 57 it gets Final Gambit, which hits the opponent for as much damage as the user's HP at the cost of the user fainting. It will be very useful in the league, and considering Staraptor has surprisingly high HP, it will do a lot of damage to many, many things. And considering that there are many Pokémon in the League that have low HP, Staraptor may get to shine in the League. Just stock up on lots of revives.

Good TMs: Return and Fly for STAB, Steel Wing for coverage. Fly in particular is a must-have. It also has U-turn for a bit of coverage, and Facade is not bad either. We also have Giga Impact and Thief. That's it, unfortunately.

Its ability is Intimidate. It decreases the opponent's attack by one stage. It's more useful than you would think, making Staraptor go from a bit frail on the physical side to A WALL AMONG FLIERS.

Its type is Normal/Flying. Its weaknesses are easy to spot, and it doesn't have many matchups.

Important Battles
Staravia starts off rather weak. It's not good for Vikavolt or Mimikyu, but Intimidate can be useful in either fight. While I don't consider the Po Town battles to be that important, it's the perfect Pokémon for them. Slap Fly on it and wreck stuff. Nanu gets rekt with Close Combat, Hapu won't know what hit her, neither will Kommo-o, and the Elite 4 is laughed off. Advantage over Olivia and Hala, good for Acerola and Kahili, and pretty good for Kukui.

Conclusion
If you don't have a flying-type in your team at this point of the game, and aren't in the mood for Minior, I can thoroughly suggest you to pick Staraptor up. It's one of the finest flying-types in the game. It has lots of Attack, pretty good speed, and decent HP... It has decent HP! Couple that with its Intimidate ability (cuts the opponent's attack) and you've got a fast and durable hard-hitter. It also knows Agility, which doubles its speed. One use of this and Staraptor outspeeds everything. The biggest problem that it has little options... But you have Close Combat, a 120 power fighting-type move that lowers both of its defenses, so why would you care about options? And toward the end of the game, you get Final Gambit, which will prove to be useful for the League battles. In short; there is very little wrong with Staraptor. It's a fast, hard-hitting, decently durable juggernaut.

Rating: 90%