Well I finished working on my WiFi- Rand om battle team. And its been doing half decent, so I decided to look more into team #2. MY second team will more be for People looking for a 6 vs 6. Going through it, I found a spinner was needed hands down, no questions. I posted my team on Smogon, and finally got some replies, unfortunately, I found it giving me more to think about than ACTUALLY fix some of my questions. So far im looking at 3 spinners, Excadrill, Starmie, and Donphan. I am more or less looking for peoples thoughts on these 3.

My thoughts are as follows:

Excadrill- This was the guy that I put on orginally. I liked the typing and his move set options. However I found he struggled with TalonFlame, that LITERALLY wreaked my entire team.

Donphan- one of two other spinners suggested to me. Ive used Donphan on Showdown in the past, and I really like him. He has nice bulk and access to priority Ice shard, and can counter TalonFlame easliy. The only downside is that the two Items he needs to function well, are already in use by other members of my team.

Starmie- I have little experience with Starmie. Ive used him a little in the past, but I found it frail. The best option for me would be a life orb set, but I need something with a bit more Staying power. It is fast, and has wonderfull coverage, but again, the life orb reduces its longevity.

Any input would be greatly appreciated as I feel like im locked in a three way tug o war.

I haven't used Excadrill, well maybe once or twice but not enough to offer insight.

I currently have a Donphan on my OU Showdown team and I love it. It has priority in Ice Shard, Sturdy which guarantees a Rapid Spin, and it has access to Rocks. Now I am a bit biased due to my massive soft spot for Ground Types but Donphan is worth a shot.

I've used Starmie (in Gen V) and I like it as well. I don't remember too many of the details but I found that with the right prediction it can work wonders. I don't remember the set I used so I can't help too much there.

One other that you might look into is Claydol. Like Donphan, it has Rocks and Rapid Spin. It isn't the greatest spinner out there, but I'm rather fond of how it works.

What items are off the table for Donphan? Assault vest and Air balloon can work quite well on him assuming leftovers is taken.

Excadrill is good if your team has Rotom-W issues, but I've found him pretty unreliable in most cases for MB Spinning sets.

With Starmie you can try LO+Recover/Spin/BoltBeam to give it better staying power or even a Trick Specs set to have power and not have to worry about residual damage building.

Also is there anything keeping Defog users off the table?

Ive used Claydol, once, and I was not impressed with him. And youve hit on the nose with Donphan and Starmie, which is why im having difficulty.



Yeah, Leftovers is Kinda taken by another Poke. Is there a specfic set to use on Donphan with Assault Vest or Air Balloon? Ive looked at Smogon, but I havent seen anything for Donphan.

I personally havent had an issue with Rotom-W, and I do agree with you that he is kinda unreliable.

I think the LO set is what I was orginally looking at, but was concerend about the residual damage. What would be on a Trick Specs set Exactlly?

Im a little iffy on having a Defog user, since I run a Sticky Web Galvantula (which works REALLY well, if I say so myself.), and a good portion of my team likes having it up. I also have a M.Aggron with Stealth Rocks, although I find I dont set them up very often.

With Assault Vest use:
Donphan @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Earthquake

Air Balloon is really the same, but just has the safety of not caring about spikes/TS which is similar to some Excadrill spinners

For Trick SPecs Starmie use:

Starmie @ Choice Specs
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Trick
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam/Hydro Pump

The set gives you three options when it's played. Spin Hazards and run, Cripple pursuit users and ghosts/walls with trick then spin or flee, or revenge/clean with the boosted Boltbeam or STAB

Hm....Ill give those two a try. At the moment Im leaning more towards Donphan, as I know what he is capable of, however Stamie looks like it can wreak TalonFlame with T-Bolt.

I use a Starmie to great success (see sig for the rest). Although, I've never really needed to actually spin with it, it's mostly a sweeper.

I kinda noticed when I tried Starmie it felt more "sweeper" then Spinner. I kinda settled on Donphan. Ive used him before on Smogon, and well I enjoy him!