Type: Grass
Ability: Overgrow / Contrary
Base Stats: 75 HP / 75 Atk / 95 Def / 75 SpA / 95 SpD / 115 Spe
Notable Moves
- Leaf Storm
- Tera Blast
- Substitute
- Glare
- Leech Seed
- Synthesis
- Taunt
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- With Terastallization, Serperior unlocks a new and more powerful way to handle Pokemon that have traditionally been hard counters to it like Heatran. It can also break through new Steel-types like Kingambit and Gholdengo, which would otherwise prove problematic for it.
- Serperior’s great Speed tier allows it to get the jump on Ogerpon-W and other base 110s. With Glare, it can punish faster switch-ins like Dragapult and Zamazenta to outspeed them after paralysis too.
- The Stellar Tera Blast has the drawback of lowering a Pokémon’s Attack and Special Attack, which benefits Serperior due to Contrary. It can have a one-time neutral hit on any Pokemon, which helps to break through its checks, while becoming more threatening as a result.
- Sticky Web was a prominent playstyle pre-DLC. If this trend continues, Serperior can help to punish these teams.
Cons
- Serperior needs Tera to function because it has no coverage otherwise. This can limit teamstyles and your ability to respond to threats in game.
- Even with Tera, Serperior has to pick what it can beat. Tera Fighting beats Kingambit and Heatran, notably providing a resistance to Sucker Punch from the former, but it cannot break through Volcarona, Iron Moth, and Dragapult. Tera Ground provides this coverage for Fire-types but loses out on the Sucker Punch resistance. It also opens Serperior up to being revenge killed by Rillaboom.
- Serperior’s Grass typing is underwhelming offensively and defensively; offensively, many metagame staples resist Leaf Storm, and defensively, it offers few resistances. Tera Stellar may offer a small offensive benefit but offers nothing defensively to offset the poor typing.
- Serperior also struggles to break through key Flying-types like Zapdos and Dragonite. It could use a niche Tera type, but this worsens its overall matchups.
- Serperior is incredibly weak unboosted with only base 75 Special Attack. This means it needs to be at +2 (and often even +4) to pose a threat to most teams. Fast Pokemon and revenge killers will likely prevent Serperior from boosting as much as it would like to.
Potential Sets
Serperior @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
Tera Type: Ground / Fighting / Stellar
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Tera Blast
- Substitute / Synthesis
- Glare / Leech Seed
Serperior can boost its Special Attack with Leaf Storm and then attempt to sweep, using Tera Blast as coverage to break through problematic resists. Serperior has to pick what to beat, so its Tera type will be somewhat team dependent. Ground offers coverage to hit Heatran, Kingambit, Gholdengo and Iron Moth. Fighting loses out on the latter two but provides Serperior with a Sucker Punch resistance and a stronger hit against Kingambit. Stellar is an option to gain an extra boost to Special Attack on an unresisted hit, but this seems worse compared to being able to super effectively hit its checks.
Being able to paralyse checks like Kingambit and Iron Moth with Glare teammates handle them if Serperior does not have the right Tera. Leech Seed + Substitute is an annoying combination that chips down Serperior’s checks in a slower way if its Tera typing does not cover them. These status moves are useless against Gholdengo though, so running Tera Fighting means it needs reliable checks as teammates.
Serperior @ Light Clay
Ability: Contrary
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Leaf Storm
- Glare
For hyper offense, Serperior can take advantage of its access to dual screens combined with Glare and a (limited) offensive presence to act as a fast screens setter. However, this set is easily walked by any Pokemon that resists Grass, and apart from Glare, it does not offer more utility than other setters like Alolan Ninetales.
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