[OVERVIEW]
Serperior plays the simultaneous role of a Leech Seed staller and an offensive presence in 1v1. If Serperior can seed its foe first and survive a slower move, it will almost always win the matchup. This will allow it to beat Pokemon that prove unable to muscle past its respectable bulk in one turn, primarily Pokemon like Garchomp, Mega Metagross, and Magnezone, proving excellent in striking down bulky offense. This is further augmented by Serperior's use of Protect and Substitute to play mind games and bait potentially devastating single-use moves from Tapu Lele, Aegislash, and non-Flame Charge Mega Charizard Y. The usual weaknesses of fellow Leech Seed stallers, such as Jumpluff and Whimsicott—Taunt and recovery moves—do not necessarily apply to Serperior; thanks to its powerful Leaf Storm and Contrary, Serperior can muscle past Pokemon that attempt to mitigate Leech Seed's usefulness, allowing it to strike down Pokemon like bulky Mega Gyarados and Mega Sableye. Unfortunately, despite these advantages it holds over fellow Leech Seed stallers, it still falls prey to strategies that almost all Leech Seed stallers will lose to: faster, powerful attackers and sound-based moves. Common Pokemon like Greninja and Choice Scarf Porygon-Z will find no trouble in OHKOing Serperior, and noisy behemoths like Meloetta, Mega Gardevoir, and Kommo-o will bypass its Substitute and hit it where it hurts.
[SET]
name: SubSeed Breaker
move 1: Leech Seed
move 2: Leaf Storm
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Protect
item: Leftovers
ability: Contrary
nature: Timid
evs: 248 HP / 24 Def / 4 SpD / 232 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Leech Seed allows Serperior to sap away health from its opponent for itself, allowing it to beat anything that it can outspeed, take a hit from, and land a Leech Seed on, like Avalugg and Garchomp. Leaf Storm is Serperior's STAB option which will boost its Special Attack after each successful use. This allows Serperior to beat back recovery users like Mega Slowbro and most Mega Altaria. Substitute is used to block attacks from opposing Pokemon, as well as give an extra layer of protection against Toxic users. Protect allows Serperior to avoid taking damage without losing a portion of its HP, unlike Substitute. When used with Substitute, it can also be used to PP stall moves with 8 PP, such as V-create from Choice Band Victini. Taunt can also be used to prevent Pokemon such as Crustle and offensive Mega Gyarados from setting up.
Set Details
========
248 HP and 24 Defense EVs allow Serperior to tank an Outrage from Choice Band Garchomp as well as an Air Slash from non-Flame Charge Mega Charizard Y and force mind games with it. 232 Speed EVs let Serperior outspeed base 110 Speed Pokemon like Mega Metagross. The 4 Special Defense EVs are leftovers, giving Serperior a better chance for playing mind games against Tapu Lele variants. Contrary is run in order to consistently boost the power of Leaf Storm as well as give much better odds against Metal Sound users like Aegislash. It also means that stat-dropping moves like Rock Tomb, Confide, and Metal Sound actually help Serperior instead, shutting down foes like Sawk, Type: Null, and Aegislash, which rely on these moves to gain the upper hand. Leftovers is run in order to give Serperior more recovery alongside Leech Seed, which, combined with Protect and Substitute, lets Serperior stall out slower Pokemon hit by Leech Seed indefinitely. 184 HP / 72 Def / 252 Spe can also be run if you need to outspeed a few niche Pokemon, specifically Mega Lucario, while also Speed tying with opposing Serperior for better odds in the mirror matchup. These EVs also maintain the Garchomp matchup.
Usage Tips
========
If the opposing Pokemon is slower than Serperior and cannot immediately threaten it with a powerful Z-Move or recharge move, you should use Leech Seed. After a foe is seeded, simply alternate Protect and Substitute to eventually sap away all of an opponent's health. If a foe can mortally threaten Serperior with a powerful Z-Move or recharge move, such as Aegislash, Tapu Lele, Z-Conversion Porygon-Z, and non-Flame Charge Mega Charizard Y, Serperior will need to play mind games to get in a position where it can land a Leech Seed without being KOed by using Substitute on the predicted Z-Move or Blast Burn or by using Leech Seed on a weaker hit that it can survive. Against Magearna, you should always use Substitute first, in case it is running the niche set of offensive Fairium Z. Only use Leech Seed after they use their Z-Move followed up by Fleur Cannon or if they don't break Serperior's Substitute on a turn. If an opposing Pokemon recovers while moving last, you should use Leaf Storm the following turn, which will quickly snowball into damage that exceeds the health they are recovering. This is useful against bulkier threats like most Mega Altaria. If your opponent utilizes Toxic, use Substitute before Leech Seed in order to avoid being afflicted by the condition, such as against Porygon2 or Chansey. Against Fly users, specifically Choice item Landorus-T and Dragonite, use Substitute on turn one as well, which will allow you to avoid the potentially deadly damage and safely Leech Seed them. Serperior will have to play around a potential Outrage from Choice Scarf Dragonite, however. Against setup Pokemon that can potentially threaten Serperior, such as non-Rock Blast Crustle, Serperior will need to predict whether or not they will attack or use Shell Smash, and act accordingly. Mega Gyarados can potentially beat Serperior if it predicts the wrong set. If it's running a hyper offensive set, the winning play is to Leaf Storm twice, not bothering to Leech Seed, as Serperior can be 2HKOed after a Dragon Dance boost while failing to do enough damage without boosts itself. Using Leech Seed and Substitute turns one and two could leave Serperior open to a potential Taunt. Against bulky Mega Gyarados, Serperior will want to use Leech Seed on turn one and then use Leaf Storm, Protecting when they use Outrage to gain back HP.
Team Options
========
Generally bulky Pokemon will be Serperior's greatest form of aid, as they will naturally be able to tank the hits coming off of extremely powerful Pokemon that Serperior cannot handle and retaliate in kind. Pokemon such as Mega Gyarados, Magnezone, Meloetta, Tapu Fini, and Primarina can generally threaten some highly offensive Pokemon, including Mega Charizard X and Y, Choice Scarf Porygon-Z, Greninja, and trickier foes like Aegislash. In return, Serperior threatens other bulky offense Pokemon that generally threaten these teammates, such as opposing Mega Gyarados, Magearna, most Mega Altaria, and opposing Magnezone. Choice Scarf Dragonite is a particularly good choice as well, as it provides not only the power and bulk to beat powerful threats to Serperior like Meloetta, Kommo-o, and Genesect but also the Speed necessary to outspeed and OHKO Greninja and Porygon-Z, whose Ice Beam and Hyper Beam would normally beat other bulky Dragon-types and, in the case of Greninja, other Dragonite variants that could play the role that Choice Scarf Dragonite provides. In return, Serperior beats back Fairy-, Water-, and Steel-type Pokemon that are not threatened by Dragonite, like non-Taunt Mega Mawile, Mega Metagross, Tapu Fini, and Primarina.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Serperior can choose to run Grassium Z which will not only allow it to serve as a more potent offensive threat against Pokemon like Kartana and Tapu Bulu, but also slighly lessen prediction around Taunt Mega Gyarados. Mirror Coat is a good option to bait out special attackers like Kommo-o, but this only works once, as they can simply work around it with with physical attacks.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Strong super effective Damage**: Serperior needs at least one turn to set up Leech Seed, and in that one turn it is vulnerable to being OHKOed by basically anything that can hit it for super effective damage. This includes Pokemon like Mega Charizard X, Greninja, and Incineroar. Overheat users like Mew and Heatran will have to watch out for Substitute, which can bring their Special Attack down by two stages and allow Serperior to Leech Seed them on the next turn.
**Powerful single attacks**: Serperior always has to bear in mind the threat posed by Pokemon like Porygon-Z and offensive Deoxys-S, which can launch off a single powerful attack and OHKO Serperior as it attempts to set up Leech Seed. Serperior can play mind games with slower powerful Z-Move users, like Tapu Lele and Aegislash, or slower recharge move users, like non-Flame Charge Mega Charizard Y and Mega Pinsir, but their matchups will never be clear.
**Substitute bypassers**: Slower Pokemon that are not blocked from attacking Serperior by Substitute will easily be able to face off against Serperior and OHKO or 2HKO it. This includes powerful sound move users like Uproar Meloetta, Bug Buzz Genesect, and Hyper Voice Mega Gardevoir. Hoopa-U can also bypass Substitute protection with its signature Hyperspace Fury. It should be noted that Mega Altaria, a prominent Hyper Voice user, will not be able to damage Serperior fast enough with Hyper Voice to seriously threaten it, unless Mega Altaria not only runs Fire Blast and a more specially offensive set than what is recommended, but also wins four successive mind games.
**Grass-types**: Serperior is heavily reliant on Leech Seed chip damage and will thus have a terrible time against other Grass-type Pokemon like Mega Venusaur and Ferrothorn. This excludes Kartana, which Serperior can easily break through with Leaf Storm.
**Taunt users that resist Grass**: While Serperior does have an excellent matchup against Taunt users like Mew and Tapu Fini, Pokemon that have the combination of access to Taunt, a resistance to Leaf Storm, and offensive presence will be able to take it down. These include the likes of Heatran, Mega Mawile, and Mega Aggron.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Alakazam, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[Chickenpie2, 305552], [Osra, 239997], [Freddy Kyogre, 321529]]
- Grammar checked by: [[The Dutch Plumberjack, 232216], [Mafeking, 122460]]
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