What it does
Natural Cure triggers on switch-out: whenever the holder leaves the field — voluntary or forced — every status condition it is carrying clears immediately.
This covers everything: Burn, Paralysis, Sleep, Poison (including toxic), and Freeze. The holder comes back in with a clean slate.
A few important details:
- It only activates on switch. The holder still takes burn chip, sleep turns, paralysis speed penalty, and all status effects normally while on the field. Natural Cure does not suppress status in place — it erases it on exit.
- Forced switches from Roar, Dragon Tail, or similar moves also trigger the heal.
- After the cure, the Pokémon returns to the bench completely clean regardless of what status it was carrying.
In doubles, status moves are a meaningful tempo tool. A burn on a physical attacker cuts its damage by half; paralysis occasionally prevents it from acting entirely; sleep is effectively a free KO of a turn. Natural Cure removes the sustained threat — you lose a turn when the status lands, but the opponent's investment in applying it has zero long-term value.
Who runs it
Starmie at 67% adoption. Fast, offensively strong special attacker. Status is one of the better tools against it — paralyze it and you threaten its speed advantage; burn or toxic chip away at it. Natural Cure removes the follow-through value of any of those. Hit it with a status, and a single switch undoes all of that.
Roserade (22%) is immune to poison by typing but vulnerable to other status conditions. Natural Cure means opponents cannot chain burn or paralysis onto it for sustained chip damage between its offensive turns.
Altaria (2%) and Trevenant (1%) run it less commonly, usually preferring other ability options.
How to use it
The basic pattern: opponent applies status → you switch out → status clears → holder returns clean. The cost is one switch action. The opponent spent a turn applying status and gained only one turn of effect — no lasting threat, no stacking pressure.
You do not have to switch immediately after status lands. If the current field position is still favorable, you can stay in for another turn. Natural Cure only asks that you can switch safely at some point; it does not demand immediate rotation.
With Starmie in doubles, pair it with something that pressures or removes the status-user directly. Opponent's status move turns into a wasted action when you pivot Starmie out, the partner handles the front, and Starmie cycles back clean.
Tips & strategy
Natural Cure frees up Starmie's item slot. Without it, you might run Lum Berry as a one-time status cure; with Natural Cure, that slot becomes Life Orb, Choice Specs, or any offensive tool. That is a meaningful damage difference over the course of a match.
In doubles, switching has a real cost — you lose one Pokémon's action for the turn it cycles. Do not rotate just to cure a minor status if the current field position is actively winning. Reserve the switch for turns when the position is neutral or when the status is already hurting you in ways that affect the immediate outcome (paralysis on Starmie that needs to outspeed something, for example).
Paralysis on Starmie is the scariest because it threatens the Speed advantage the whole set relies on. Cure that promptly. Burn or toxic on a non-attacking set are less urgent — you can stay in for a turn if the damage output still matters.