(Quality Control) Serperior QC (0/3)

[V0x]

[Overview]

<p>Serperior boasts one of the most incredible offensive abilities, Contrary. A Pokemon like Latios would kill for a free Nasty Plot with every Draco Meteor, and it seems like a shame for such a great ability to be wasted on such a mediocre movepool. However, Serperior has just enough to be a dangerous threat, under not uncommon circumstances. If one needs a stellar rain check, or a devastating supporting sweeper, single in on the Serperior option.</p>

[SET]
name: SubSeed
move 1: Leaf Storm
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Ice
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Leech Seed
item: Leftovers
ability: Contrary
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Despite an unfortunate movepool for an amazing ability, Serperior can pull half offensive half defensive set rather well. Leaf Storm is required, not only as a 140 Base Power STAB move, but also as a free +2 in Special Attack with each use. The next slot is about as much coverage as Serperior is going to get. Hidden Power Fire hurts Steel-types such as Ferrothorn, especially after Serperior gets a few Special Attack boosts. However, Hidden Power Ice deals with Dragon-types that would otherwise utterly wall even a +6 Serperior. Substitute is a good move on Serperior, easing prediction and giving it a layer of defense against the notorious Genesect. Leech Seed complements Substitute well, providing Serperior with an increased number of Substitutes and providing overall healing. It is even possible to stall out some Pokemon to the Leaf Storm KO range, giving Serperior a Substitute and +2 Attack.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Leftovers is a helpful item since it provides Serperior with passive recovery to offset the HP lost by Substitute. However, this leaves it prone to Chandelure's Shadow Tag, so Shed Shell is also an option. The EV spread is standard for a special sweeper--Serperior doesn't really have the bulk for a move defensive spread. Furthermore, Serperior needs as much Special Attack as possible to maximize Leaf Storm's boosts. However, 4 EVs are placed in Defense: if Serperior doesn't have a Substitute and Genesect switches in, it doesn't matter what the bug uses. If you want a Serperior left, you will switch. Therefore, 4 Defense EVs provides a Special Attack boost, lessening the overall damage of U-turn.</p>

• Dragon Pulse provides good neutral coverage, but not good SE coverage, so most useful at higher boosts. Can replace and HP or Sub or Seed

<p>Serperior is most appreciative of trappers such as Magnezone, Dugtrio, and Chandelure. Magnezone and Chandelure in particular can remove Steel-types that utterly wall Serperior, if the snake carries Hidden Power Ice. Opposing Chandelure can trap Serperior, so you can pack Tyranitar to re-trap it with Pursuit. Heatran basically always walls Serperior, so powerful Water-, Ground-, or Fighting-type attacks are good to have. For example, Keldeo can force Heatran out and has decent synergy with Serperior. Genesect is also a problem, so having a Heatran of your own can reduce the damage it does.</p>

[SET]
name: Life Orb
move 1: Leaf Storm
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Ground
move 3: Dragon Pulse
move 4: Giga Drain / Taunt / Glare
item: Life Orb
ability: Contrary
nature: Timid
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>

• Free Nasty Plots with STAB powerful damage
• HP Fire hits Steels since Leaf Storm and Dragon Pulse can't
• HP Ground also hits Steels and Fire-types resisting Leaf Storm
• Dragon Pulse hits Dragons (HP Ice not needed at high boosts)
• Giga Drain gives healing after boosts, Taunt stops Ferro from setting up hazards, and others, Glare for switch ins even para's Garchomp

</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>

• Life Orb power Giga Drain heals some
• 4 HP for SpA boost so Genesect U-turn doesn't hurt the rest of your team
• Timid needed to outspeed and hit Keldeo Lati@s positive-natured 101s and such (what was the actual #)
• Tornadus-T outspeeds now so special wall, weather changer, or flying resist good partner
• Hazards like always
• works great against rain teams though Ferro still hard to take down
• Chandelure and Magnezone to trap that sucker

</p>

[Other Options]

<p>Serperior has a very sparse offensive movepool. Giga Drain provides some amount of recovery but it better be run alongside Leaf Storm. Serperior has a few other Hidden Power options: Rock gives it good neutral coverage, but then it can't get past Steel-types or Dragon-type without a secondary Flying-typing. Hidden Power Ground hits Heatran and Chandelure, which can be useful except Heatran usually has Air Balloon, and Chandelure usually outspeeds with Choice Scarf. Support-wise, Serperior has access to Glare to paralyze checks and switch ins, which has 90% accuracy and even affects Ground- and Ghost-types.

• and Thundurus-T

Unfortunately, Serperior can't always defeat its check. It also has access to dual screens, but doesn't have the support movepool like a Pokemon such as Latios or Latias does. Choice Scarf is an option for Serperior, giving it the speed necessary to outspeed Chandelure and Genesect and the capability to clean up rain teams singlehandedly.
-Taunt stops stuff like Ferro from setting up, but Gyro Ball will hurt and you need boosted HP Fire to do anything, even worse in rain</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Unfortunately, all Grass-types like Serperior have a slew of counters. The first that comes to mind is Genesect, which 4x resists Leaf Storm and typically outspeeds due to Choice Scarf. The only thing it needs to worry about is switching in to Hidden Power Fire, which Serperior doesn't even always have. Without Hidden Power Fire, basically all Steel-types wall Serperior. Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Forretress all 4x resist Leaf Storm and take a pittance from Hidden Power Ice. Heatran and Chandelure virtually always beat Chandelure, resisting or being immune to Hidden Power Fire and Hidden Power Ice, in addition to Leaf Storm. Latias and it's immense Special bulk can generally set up enough to KO Serperior.</p>

• Tornadus-T outspeeds and hits SE

<p>Without Hidden Power Ice, the majority of Dragon-types wall Serperior. Salamence and Dragonite 4x resist Leaf Storm and take nothing from Hidden Power Fire. Similarly, Latios and Latios are basically unaffected.</p>

[Jukain]

You could name the set SubSeed.

[shrang]

Serperior also has a few other options it could be running:

- Choice - I personally don't like Choiced Serperior, but I can see the appeal behind it. It should at least get an OO mention, IMO.
- HP Rock needs to mention how it defeats Volcarona one-on-one, which without it, pretty much hard counters you.

This set:

[SET]
name: Amazing (you can replace the name, although "Parashuffler" sounds silly, IMO)
move 1: Leaf Storm
move 2: Substitute
move 3: Glare
move 4: Dragon Tail
item: Leftovers
ability: Contrary
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Get some hazards up and this thing is a monster. Glare is not that useless, especially the best way for offensive teams to take down Serperior is through revenge killing it with Genesect or Chandelure, and to paralyse them would mean you just eliminated a check. You can paralyse things on the switch-in (or just set up a Sub, then paralyse), then you Sub down until you get a full paralysis (or if you can kill with Leaf Storm straight away safely, do it). With hazards down, if you can't beat anything, just Dragon Tail it out and make it eat hazard damage.

[jrrrrrrr]

Choice Scarf needs to be OO, it destroys Rain teams singlehandedly. It also outspeeds the main counters you listed Genesect and Chandelure (Genesect needs prior damage but Chandelure can lose if SR is up). Other than that I think this is good, there's no movepool to cover outside of what you listed. Thank god you didn't mention Twister.

Also take out Calm Mind because it drops your stats with Contrary. Or just mention that you need Overgrow if you want to use it. CM is not a terrible set...in standard NU. It doesn't deserve any more than one sentence, let alone serious consideration for a DW analysis.

[V0x]

Originally Posted by Fat jrrrrrrr

Choice Scarf needs to be OO, it destroys Rain teams singlehandedly. It also outspeeds the main counters you listed Genesect and Chandelure (Genesect needs prior damage but Chandelure can lose if SR is up). Other than that I think this is good, there's no movepool to cover outside of what you listed. Thank god you didn't mention Twister.

Also take out Calm Mind because it drops your stats with Contrary. Or just mention that you need Overgrow if you want to use it. CM is not a terrible set...in standard NU. It doesn't deserve any more than one sentence, let alone serious consideration for a DW analysis.

Taken into consideration. I removed Calm Mind LOL I forgot it drops your stats with Contrary and why would you ever want to use it with Overgrow. Scarf got the OO, thanks!

Originally Posted by Fat shrang

Serperior also has a few other options it could be running:

- Choice - I personally don't like Choiced Serperior, but I can see the appeal behind it. It should at least get an OO mention, IMO.
- HP Rock needs to mention how it defeats Volcarona one-on-one, which without it, pretty much hard counters you.

This set:

[SET]
name: Amazing (you can replace the name, although "Parashuffler" sounds silly, IMO)
move 1: Leaf Storm
move 2: Substitute
move 3: Glare
move 4: Dragon Tail
item: Leftovers
ability: Contrary
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Get some hazards up and this thing is a monster. Glare is not that useless, especially the best way for offensive teams to take down Serperior is through revenge killing it with Genesect or Chandelure, and to paralyse them would mean you just eliminated a check. You can paralyse things on the switch-in (or just set up a Sub, then paralyse), then you Sub down until you get a full paralysis (or if you can kill with Leaf Storm straight away safely, do it). With hazards down, if you can't beat anything, just Dragon Tail it out and make it eat hazard damage.

This is nothing against you, shrang, and you have some amazing sets that I love playing with (lol Tentacruel), but I am absolutely horrible at using parashuffling of any kind. I don't think I could properly test the set and write it up, so if you have time could you post it as a separate set. I just cannot correctly use parashuffling at all. ty~~ :)

[Cherub Agent]

Serperior @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- HP Ice
- Taunt

Credit goes to Cherub Agent for suggesting this set in the Serperior topic. It sparked quite a bit of discussion, and with good reason! When combining Serperior's respectable Base 113 Speed stat with Contrary Leaf Storm, we're dealing with a major powerhouse. Giga Drain helps recover HP lost from Life Orb and Sandstorm, while HP Ice gives us a fighting chance against Dragon-types and other Grass-types. Taunt is another fantastic choice that prevents slower Pokemon like Ferrothorn and Blissey from setting up on us.

I took this from Birkal's old thread of Counter that Pokemon. HP Fire is just as viable as HP Ice in the third slot, since it lets you beat the myriad of 4x weak Pokemon, like Ferrothorn, Scizor, Forretress, and stuff like Skarmory, meaning that this Serpeior is a really nifty stallbreaker as well (not like Stall's common but whatever). Consider testing it?

[V0x]

Originally Posted by Fat Cherub Agent

I took this from Birkal's old thread of Counter that Pokemon. HP Fire is just as viable as HP Ice in the third slot, since it lets you beat the myriad of 4x weak Pokemon, like Ferrothorn, Scizor, Forretress, and stuff like Skarmory, meaning that this Serpeior is a really nifty stallbreaker as well (not like Stall's common but whatever). Consider testing it?

This is intriguing, I'll try giving it a shot after partying for !_!

[Hawkstar]

Glare is definitely OO material at least. A 90% accurate move that paralyzes everything besides Limber mons, including Ground- and Ghost-types? Sign me up. It doesn't even need a set based around it, although Shrang's set is definitely very annoying. My problem with it is Serperior's 4MSS and how it can't fit it easily over Leech Seed or Substitute, but it's still a really underrated move, especially with its huge Speed.

[V0x]

Glare is in OO already

[Hawkstar]

Originally Posted by Fat V0x

Glare is in OO already

I missed that one sentence out of the whole paragraph, of course. Guess the fast reading I use to check analyses isn't very good for comprehension.

[V0x]

Originally Posted by Fat Hawkstar

I missed that one sentence out of the whole paragraph, of course. Guess the fast reading I use to check analyses isn't very good for comprehension.

dw, I added the part about accuracy and being able to paralyze Ground-types since that's a nice perk.

[Cherub Agent]

Well, this will obviously have to be revamped with a Leaf Storm/Dragon Pulse/HP Fire/ (Giga Drain/Taunt) set

[V0x]

I guess this is ready for QC checks? there wasn't too big of changes Dragon Pulse in AC

[Tobes]

Needs an offensive set, especially now with Dragon Pulse available. Something like:

[SET]
name: Life Orb
move 1: Leaf Storm
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Ground
move 3: Dragon Pulse
move 4: Giga Drain / Taunt / Glare
item: Life Orb
ability: Contrary
nature: Timid
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[V0x]

donezo?