Battle Moveset

A Good Moveset for Stantler would have to be this:

Attacks:

Return
Thunder Wave
Earthquake / Shadow Ball / Substitute
Earthquake / Shadow Ball / Substitute

Items Attached:

Leftovers

Preferred Nature:

Jolly.

Strategy Using Stantler

Stantler is an interesting Under-Used Pokémon, it's Speed, Attack and Special attack are all average or above and it has a nice wide-move pool as well as a nice ability in Intimidate, it's main downfall is below average defensive stats. With Thunder Wave it can bring many sweepers to a halt and with it's above average attack and options it can do some decent damage. Since you'll want to avoid being statused you may want to sacrifice a move for Substitute, Stantler's good Speed stat can take advantage of it reasonably well.

EV Corner:

EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

290 Speed is enough to outrun a neutral nature Jynx as well as many others, there's very little point in going for Max Speed since only a few Pokémon tie Speed with Stantler. Some EVs can be drained from Attack to boost the defences but it'll only make a slight difference.

Other Optional Sets

Stantler @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 24 HP / 232 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) / Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef) / Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind
- Thunder Wave / Substitute / Return / Shadow Ball

Special Sweeper Stantler, Calm Mind is what mainly makes this a viable set-up. Sub-Calm Mind can catch some people by surprise, combining Calm Mind boosts with Substitute can become powerful overtime if you can use your surprise to your advantage, some other Pokémon can do this better (Girafarig for example) but it's still viable on Stantler. You can use Return for some Physical offence against Special Walls as well as to maintain the appearance that the Stantler is Physical based. Since a lot of Special Walls in UU are Psychic types, Shadow Ball works nicely as a counter. Of course many are also Normal-Types so you may be risking a move slot that will go unused and since Return has a base attack similar to a super-effective Shadow Ball it may not be worth the risk for the minor boost in Attack power.

Stantler @ Choice Band
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) / Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Return / Double-Edge
- Shadow Ball
- Earthquake
- Iron Tail / Hyper Beam / Thunderbolt / Psychic

Choice Band Stantler, a bit of an obvious set but still effective. Iron Tail is mainly a filler that can be easily replaced. Hyper Beam acts like a miniature Explosion, a powerful attack but the next turn you'll most likely find yourself fainted. In OU Thunderbolt can cover Skarmory while Psychic can hit Weezing, both moves can also hit a handful of other opponents.

Other Optional Moves

Hypnosis, Toxic, Confuse Ray, Swagger, Spite, Roar, Reflect, Light Screen, Psych Up. Hypnosis, Toxic, Confuse Ray and Swagger serve as extra status (or status-like) attacks that can be used in place of or alongside Thunder Wave. Spite can waste the PP of an opponent using Recovery moves or moves with low PP but isn't worth the effort on a Pokémon with little staying power. Roar, Reflect and Light Screen are all utility moves, once again low survivability makes them of less use although Reflect and Light Screen and increase Stantler's survivability dramatically. Psych Up can copy an opponent's stats, although this doesn't work too well with Intimidate which lowers the opponents Attack stat, in some cases this can work with Swagger although the effectiveness of this combination is usually very chance based, especially against physical opponents.

Strategy Against Stantler

Stantler's main short-coming is it's defences, it's HP is average and both defences are below average. As with many Pokémon with sweeper-like stats being hit with a status severely reduces how much of a threat they can be. Stantler has Intimidate so some physical sweepers may be caught off guard, even after it switches out the Attack drop will remain so in many cases you'll want to switch out to remove the Attack drop. Many Stantlers carry a status move of some sort, it has access to Thunder Wave, Hypnosis and Toxic so it has the potential to cripple it's opponents in many ways. Stantler's stats and move-pool give it the potential to be a Physical or Special Sweeper and while the Physical way is more popular (due to Return STAB and a better Attack stat) it has the ability to use both effectively and should be kept in mind when sending in Counters.

Contest Moveset

A good Contest Moveset for Stantler would have to be this for the Tough Contest best with Impish, Lax, Relaxed or Bold Nature:

Attacks:

Confuse Ray
Swift
Psychic
Calm Mind

Items Attached:

Yellow Scarf

Strategy Using Stantler

If you do the attacks in this following order you should have very few problems; 1st - Confuse Ray, 2nd - Swift, 3rd - Confuse Ray, 4th - Swift, 5th - Psychic

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Safari Zone, Altering Cave (Emerald) Trade from E/FR/LG/C (R/S) Colosseum Snatched From Chaser Liaks in The Under City (Col) Trade from EFRLGC (XD) Fire Red/Leaf Green Altering Cave

Animé Appearences

Stantler has had a few Animé Appearences though mose are Cameos. First Santa's Stantler was ill and Pikachu & Co. had to find some Berries to heal it. After that Brock befriended one. Ash's Rival Shinji later caught one and then released it Winter Vacation 2: Stantler's Little Helpers! Episode 127: Little Big Horn! Episode 148: Tricks Of The Trade! Episode 191: Freeze Frame! Episode 243: Hocus Pokémon! Episode 287: A Bite To Remember! Episode 484: Forest of Hesitation! Shinji Again!