Which Serperior to use?

[grasssnake485]

I was thinking about using a serperior in my competitive team for X/Y, so,

Help me decide which one to use!

Semi-bulky Coil

Ability: Overgrow

Nature: careful

Held item: Snowball

252 attack, 52 defense, 52 sp. defense, 154 speed

Moves:

Leaf Blade

Iron tail/Aqua tail

Dragon Tail

Coil

Special Sweeper

Ability: Contrary

Nature: Modest

Held item: Choice specs/life orb

252 Sp. attack, 252 speed, 6 HP

Moves:

leaf storm

Solarbeam

Dragon pulse

giga drain

[Kamina]

contrary sweeper imo

It was the reason serperior become OU in the last gen.

If we saw your other team members i think it would make it easier to access which one is better in your team.

[grasssnake485]

contrary sweeper imo

It was the reason serperior become OU in the last gen.

If we saw your other team members i think it would make it easier to access which one is better in your team.

I was thinking about either drought ninetales or iron fist infernape or bulky volclarona or a physical sweeper blaziken OR a heatran.

All good partners.

[Tomas Elliot]

Contrary Sweeper, but don't use Solar Beam...

[grasssnake485]

I originally bulit the team around a drought ninetales. Anyway, SPAM LEAF STORM.

Edited December 7, 2013 by grasssnake485

[Absol-lutelty awesome!]

No no no you're missing the idea of serperior here... I know because I personally breeded one specifically to be a knockout switchout super tank and super attacker

It must have a nature like docile to keep all it's stats balanced. Then flawlessly evenly ev train it so it specifically has completely evened out stats, as to keep it protected and can still dish out pain hard and first.

Give it a item like a scope lens for crits or maybe a leftovers for the unkillable tank and attacker.

So to review

Docile nature

Perfectly even ev training.

Give it either scope lens or leftovers

MAKE SURE IT HAS THE CONTRARY ABILITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This ability is the ultimate for any serperior! Contrary reverses all stat changes causing a stat that would normally lower a stat like leaf storm, to instead raise the stat by the same amount! This combo is unstoppable!

Teach it

Leaf storm (combos with contrary ability)

Leech seed (with leftovers to make it unstoppable)

Dragon tail (to quickly switch out opponents like charizard and serperior is far faster than most pokemon meaning it will attack first with this switch attack)

Gigs drain (after spamming leaf storm it is so powerful with contrary leaf storm combo and it will restore health meaning it plus leech seed and contrary giga drain is very dangerous and serperior can easily recover from obliterating attacks)

FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES CAREFULLY AND REMEMBER U HAVE EXOERIENCE TRAINING SERPERIOIRS!

Ps: I <3 serperiors!

[Maelstrom]

Can't get serperior till pokebank comes out..

but yeah, don't use solarbeam, even in sun. Contrary leaf storm is the best grass move you could possibly have with serperior. solar beam is just no. especially when leaf storm has higher power and can only make you stronger with contrary.

In that vein, Giga Drain is just no- do you want it to die? They're not gonna give you something weak and juicy to suck up with giga drain before they toss a fire or ice type your way to deal with it first. If you're lucky in x/y, the hidden power is rock, so use that. Other than that... use toxic or swagger against those pokes that want to sucker punch you. You can use safeguard to foil thunderwaves that would foil your sweep or use reflect / lightscreen to allow it and its team to survive more.

And don't listen to the absol much. You can max spd and spA and allow the contrary to boost it into sweeping. or you can gamble on contrary and either some def or spD to let you tank through an attack or while while contrary beefs you up (still max spd for sweeping). I recommend max spA and spd to outspeed as much as you can and get max benefit from its attacks. I used to spread EVs about kind of evenly too, but really the best things to do in meta is power up areas where they're already strong (like a glass cannon for sweeps) or shore up weak defenses of any sort/hp to give tanks/stall longer survivability.

[grasssnake485]

Can't get serperior till pokebank comes out..

but yeah, don't use solarbeam, even in sun. Contrary leaf storm is the best grass move you could possibly have with serperior. solar beam is just no. especially when leaf storm has higher power and can only make you stronger with contrary.

In that vein, Giga Drain is just no- do you want it to die? They're not gonna give you something weak and juicy to suck up with giga drain before they toss a fire or ice type your way to deal with it first. If you're lucky in x/y, the hidden power is rock, so use that. Other than that... use toxic or swagger against those pokes that want to sucker punch you. You can use safeguard to foil thunderwaves that would foil your sweep or use reflect / lightscreen to allow it and its team to survive more.

And don't listen to the absol much. You can max spd and spA and allow the contrary to boost it into sweeping. or you can gamble on contrary and either some def or spD to let you tank through an attack or while while contrary beefs you up (still max spd for sweeping). I recommend max spA and spd to outspeed as much as you can and get max benefit from its attacks. I used to spread EVs about kind of evenly too, but really the best things to do in meta is power up areas where they're already strong (like a glass cannon for sweeps) or shore up weak defenses of any sort/hp to give tanks/stall longer survivability.

Thanks! I was actually going through some of my old cometitive grass types, HP rock is a definite yes over solarbeam. But i personally ran a serperior without Giga drain, cant say it worked too well. Buffed up SP attack+Gigadrain can 3HKO fire types (As long as theyre not bulked up or double resisted)

[Kamina]

hp fire is also good because your running it in the sun and hit steel pokemon who resist all your other moves giving you better coverage. fire and flying will take lots of damage from +2 dragon pulse.

[Shanco]

Your choice should be based on whether you need a physical or special attacker; neither set is a must-have over the other.

i personally believe that the physical set is Serperior right now; the turn of the generation has kind of made Contrary Serperior...not obsolete, but not as great as advertised.

• With Coil, you do have to set up a bit but you can give and take physical-heavy hits, which is perfect to help you deal with the threats of the physical-heavy meta (I'm looking at you, Talonflame). Also Grass+Water+Dragon is sexy coverage, and if you have hazards then you can spam Dragon Tail for days and win that way.
• The Special set, while it's undeniably powerful, is weak defensively, and Serperior being a Grass-type only amplifies this problem. Leaf Storm is actually easily switched in on by pokes like Aegislash and fliers. Also 325 speed is, quite simply put, not enough; Salamence, Charizard, and various megas have you served on a silver platter.

i personally dislike Serpeior in sun over Victreebel / Venusaur, but don't be afraid to do your own thing!

[Absol-lutelty awesome!]

remember to teach it something like dragon tail for those ice and fire types! Hidden power isn't necessary but being able to knock the enemy away is better, because not only are fire bug and ice are types totally even with dragon damage, however if it did turn out hidden power was rock for serperior, that would be absolutely perfect. If not dragon tail is your best bet, AND NOTE! Since it seems all starters are getting mega evolutions it would only make sense for a mega evolution to be mega serperior possibly giving it dragon type as a second and changing the ability to contrary! However this leaves the 4 times ice damage so yes as my other post stated, the best serperior is one that will not go down yet will also be faster than most pokemon and with even evs to boost its strong points and support the weaker areas to the same level. Beleive me, after training a serperior to level 100 using that exact stradegy in my last post and having it win almost every battle it's ever fought is hard to top. However it has one weakness and that's the formidable speed boost blaziken!!!! It's speed boost will make it faster than serperior meaning there's no time for a dragon tail sadly and it must be switched with something like goodra to step in and take the attacks from blaziken with its huge hp stat and defensive stats.

My last post's serperior Literally has that one weakness, dat frickin event blaziken... So if there is a mega evo for serperior giving dragon type, use it to deflect half the fire damage, or just immediately switch to the uber teir pseudo goodra to take some hits and lay out some Draco meteors or dragon pulses, perhaps some outrages with a persim berry to let him continue fighting on with outrage.

Just remember to keep serperior swear points evs even with strength evs so as to not disturb its growth. Docile nature is good to keep it in order too.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Absol-lutelty awesome!

[grasssnake485]

Absol, Dragon tail always goes last. Hidden power does more damage anyway, and it also covers more weaknesses. Ive tested my current set, and the only thing that trips it up are steel and poison types, which are covered by heatran. Check my first post.

Okay, my current set:

Ability: contrary

Nature: modest:

Item: Wise glasses/choice specs

252 speed, 252 sp attack, 6 HP

Leaf Storm

Hidden power Rock/fire

Dragon Pulse

Giga drain/leech seed

[Kamina]

TImid is better so that it can outspeed a lot of common pokemon like terrakion and latios/latias.

Also i think giga drain is better because leaf storm only has 8 pp and once you run it its bad. Leach seed is better on tanky pokemon like mega venasour not sweepers.

other than that good.

prefer wise glasses

[grasssnake485]

TImid is better so that it can outspeed a lot of common pokemon like terrakion and latios/latias.

I was thinking sweeper, plus, serpeiror's natrual speed stat already beats terrakion and the eons.

Also i think giga drain is better because leaf storm only has 8 pp and once you run it its bad. Leach seed is better on tanky pokemon like mega venasour not sweepers.

Bad? It gives you a free nasty plot! Plus you can use a maximum of 3 nasty plots, so even with pressure you have enough PP to max the Sp Attack.

Edited December 9, 2013 by grasssnake485

[Kamina]

Oh sorry I meant gigs drain instead of leach seed e_e. and that if u run out of leaf storm pP u will have no more grass move. Sorry for miscommunication.

[grasssnake485]

My team is:

Serperior

Aggron

Musharna

Heatran

Kingdra

Absol/Arceus

I can easily put solarbeam on heatran and energy ball on musharna

Plus, get a leech seed on blissey, and that thing will be draining more than it takes damage. Most high HP pokemon are seed bait and have low attack stats. Also pretty nice since serperior has quite a bit of bulk.

[Absol-lutelty awesome!]

Now dragon tail does often go last but getting rid of a move like that? can't let you do that star fox! (MEME ALERT)

Replace it with something like toxic then! Poison all the enemies pokemon then add on leech seed for easy knock outs while you spam leaf storm, when hp gets low use giga drain with the leech seed and the toxic to knock out just about everything, plus serperior just doesn't have rock hidden power... It has ice! Meaning there's no rock ko's or ice ko's it can either be a health sucking sweeper or a chemical killer

Both have its huge speed. Serperior has the learnset of a vampire pokemon, it learns leech seed and giga drain by level up and finally leaf storm, meaning it's a combo of a vampire and sweeper naturally. Replace dragon tail with whatever just remember, serperior is naturally a sweeping vampire. Don't misuse that either, that's a very rare combo

Just as you said dragon tail has low priority points to attack first so add to the mixture of the already speedy, vampire, sweeper naturally combo and you can add something to spice that up, like toxic to take out fire types and stuff, combine that with leech seed and the level 4 sp attack boost to knock out enemies

Edited December 9, 2013 by Absol-lutelty awesome!

[grasssnake485]

Now dragon tail does often go last but getting rid of a move like that? can't let you do that star fox! (MEME ALERT)

Replace it with something like toxic then! Poison all the enemies pokemon then add on leech seed for easy knock outs while you spam leaf storm, when hp gets low use giga drain with the leech seed and the toxic to knock out just about everything, plus serperior just doesn't have rock hidden power... It has ice! Meaning there's no rock ko's or ice ko's it can either be a health sucking sweeper or a chemical killer

Both have its huge speed. Serperior has the learnset of a vampire pokemon, it learns leech seed and giga drain by level up and finally leaf storm, meaning it's a combo of a vampire and sweeper naturally. Replace dragon tail with whatever just remember, serperior is naturally a sweeping vampire. Don't misuse that either, that's a very rare combo

Just as you said dragon tail has low priority points to attack first so add to the mixture of the already speedy, vampire, sweeper naturally combo and you can add something to spice that up, like toxic to take out fire types and stuff, combine that with leech seed and the level 4 sp attack boost to knock out enemies

No need for leech seed and giga drain together. HP Rock covers every weakness of Serperior's (and plus I know how to breed a rock HP poke, perfect EV's except for SP def and speed.) Toxic + leech seed is good, but dragon is resisted by nothing but fairy and steel, and if Blissey(any other bulky pokemon) isnt on a team, then theres no need for a seeding pokemon. And I also have a pokemon to break the bulky-types.

Serperior is a sweeper. Your #1 goal: stop those leaf storms. (I doubt most pokemon would run grudge/spite)

Normal tank heatran is normal. Also covers some of Serp's weaknesses, can fully switch into Serp's counters (except Heatran)

Bulky vampire BAKU musharna FTW. Dream eater+yawn+hypnosis+future sight.

Yawn to force switch, then hypnosis as soon as they switch. Continue until they RAGE

Hazard Aggron+more coverage. Spikes/Rocks, iron head, focus punch, earthquake. Heck, this thing shares two moves with heatran. Dont know if thats good or not.

Decided to go with Skarmory. Toxic spikes+rocks+ whirlwind+Steel wing

Sniper kingdra snipes crits. Focus energy, waterfall, leer, Outrage

-2 defense+ crit outrage HURTS. Badly.

Absol.... I do want a crobat to back up Musharna. Abso-Crob..Ab...C....ASDFGHJKL

CROBAT! Night slash, U-turn, Mean look, cross poison

Mean look a monster, U-turn to Musharna, yawn, future sight, Dream eater, let them RAGE!

[Absol-lutelty awesome!]

Hehe what's funny is I master in grass, dragon, dark, and ghost types! Have fun trying to dream eat my hydreigon! XD

[grasssnake485]

Dont forget I have a kingdra, and once pokebank comes out, Skarmory is being replaced with florges. Also helps mah serpy. Plus, I can moonblast Hydreigon while under cover of sleep, Misty terrain, and STAB. *Cough* *cough* Absol VS Flabebe. Who won?

I master Grass, Dragon, Fairy, Steel, and Psychic.

[Maelstrom]

I think this is a dispute to settle on the server

[Absol-lutelty awesome!]

Im also rather fond of the ice type/water type

[Deleted User]

All it takes to kill the first one is a decent special attacker with Fire/Ice/Flying type move. Contrary Absolutely.

[zeroznmn]

The second one my friend uses one like that and its really hard to beat

[Eliskae]

The Contrary special sweeper for me is defintely the most optimal choice in my mind. However, having three grass moves on that set won't provide much coverage. I'd swap out either giga drain or solarbeam for a hidden power of your choice.