No, Starmie sucks. I just argued it in my free time, with a beer handy.
Since it's pretty much identical to the team I posted, I don't recommend changing it too much. Starmie should have spin, then either Reflect, Light Screen, Twave, OR Psychic. Starmie without spin isn't worth using. A little history of the team, which should explain why it doesn't work as well as it use to.
Vil's generic stall circa 2005 featuring Growltank, Starmie, Skarmory, Snorlax, and Raikou, then readjusted and adapted in 2007 by me with my waklax combo and use of curseskarm and roarkou. Then + HP legends.
Problems with vil's original: SLOW. Great walling capabilities, but this was in a much slower meta, so that doesn't speak much. Usually won through drumlax after a hundred turns, or just straight up being impossible to break.
Problems with my version: Slightly quicker, but still slow for several reasons: dropping ST on kou messed with its availability. Additionally, the meta was quicker as a whole, which really negated my speed increase. Miltank, or more specifically growltank, became a standard "to-counter" thing for offensive team. Curseskarm was awesome, and I can't knock the roarkou, and they're still two necessities (not necessarily CURSEskarm, but skarm and HP raikou) on any spike abusing team in my book. Problem was, the team didn't have spikes. Cloyster makes its way on the team occassionally because of that. Starmie is also a subpar performer on this team, and usually ends up taking the sleep, not to mention its status as the best spinner in the game took a pretty big hit with and increasing number of spiker/ghost combos, HP bug forretress at its peak, and the odd icy wind/explosion cloysters. Team also loses a ton of speed after the initial kill (usually through Marowak sacrificing a good chunk of its health to net the kill, to which you then spend the next hundred turns trying to wall and heal up marowak for another attack).
Problems now: NO SPIKES! This is the biggest problem by far, since this has been completely relegated to a stall team in today's terms. Can't wall everything, even though it appears you can. You'll usually lose the game this way. HP legends is definitely nice given the option, but again, the primary problem is still a lack of spikes (and a way to keep it). Also, Starmie's role as "anti-machamp" doesn't work so well given its now omnipresent 3attack cursechamp form. Lack of talker also hurts it quite a bit given Eggy's rise to top 5 status. Also, the slow and methodical "scout everything" doesn't work as well given many teams threaten you from the get-go.
Options I've used to update the team was ST Zapdos, which covers Nidoking and Machamp just fine, raising speed of the team with ST. You lose the phaze, that you wouldn't really benefit from in the first place without spikes. Zapdos just hits so god damn hard. Or giving a cloyster a run over Starmie definitely has its moments when you don't have to worry about Machamp. That way, you have a much more flexibility in actually using it as a stall, punishing switches and absolutely dominating with prediction + skarm/raikou.
The lack of sleep talker was also a pretty big problem. ST Zapdos was one way to cover it (ST Raikou isn't as good as ST Zapdos imo, Raikou's biggest advantage is its defensive merits in its typing/stats), but another option I tried was ST cune. This was fine for spikeless teams, and actually really good in some cases to make the opponent feel absolutely helpless against me.
Also, the concept of a "separate" offense doesn't work as well in practice as it does appear on paper. You'll find that while Drumlax + flinch slide seems awesome, but it doesn't work as well anymore. Teams are quicker; before, you weren't threatened at all. You could just play to wall, and look for an opponent to execute offense. The primary reason why my wak/lax strat worked at the time was that I could always fall back on the team's defensive merits if I needed, but there's just so much shit today that keep you on your toes and never give you that opening. Furthermore, there's the fact that it's an extremely slow and methodical process, drumming, resetting, healing marowak are all timely processes. Offensive teams nowadays won't give you that opening that many times, which is why if Marowak ever needs to rest, it's pretty much impossible to wake it against an offensive team. Miltank is crutch in this sense; so many things set up on her.
Second team:
Most of the same problems, but less synergistics. I tried this variation too (but with also replaced starmie), but it's not as simple as replacing one sweeper with another in this sense. For one, if I had to choose, I'd go with the ST Vaporeon set (which is way better anyway, I switched to ST vap and never touched my old AA/Roar/IB variations since coming back to play in 2006).
Starmie won't para Raikou/Zapdos, it'll end up paralyzing Snorlax more than anything. Thief skarm is always a double-edged sword, but yeah it's fine. But that's the least of your problems. Synergy. There's none going on here. Drumlax is doing its own thing, which for all intents and purposes, is not a lot. One thing to keep in mind is that a ST curselax is probably the best all-around wall in GSC. Cursedrumlax is an awesome set I developed back in the day, and slowly garnering more attention (percentage-wise, of all 3 or so GSC players remaining). And LK is not something you want to pass up for no reason.
Counters to vap are far more than you think. Roar cune stops it cold, Egg is damn annoying, another vap, snorlax (depending on set), kingdra if that ever catches on, cloysters can give you a scare as well. Tentacruel goes apeshit all over Vap. Gengar is not a problem, nor Starmie. Electrics get paralyzed pretty easily just through random shit, so that's not a huge problem as well. But they're still nuisances.
www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3079345#post3079345try it on your team nigga
