Community POTW #8

[Reno]

please... some sets without perversity... PLEASE. I know it's hard but... can't just be a one set show!

anyway, the most popular 5th gen starter serperior is the next potw. it has a cool design and stuff, so let's see if we can come up with anything awesome.

[Miltiades]

Serperior w/Leftovers : 252 HP,252 Sp.Def,4 Def (Careful nature)
Moveset:Coil,Leech Seed,Leaf Blade,Substitute/Aerial Ace

Description:Set up a substitute and then start boosting up with coil.Leech seed is very handy with this set,too while it helps gaining the HP that you lost using sub.

[Lucario At Service]

Ok, here is a set without Perversity,

Serperior

Ability: Overgrow
Nature: Adamant/Jolly

- Leaf Blade
- Aerial Ace/Iron Tail
- Dragon Tail/Pursuit
- Coil/Swords Dance

"Leaf Blade" is for good STAB.

"Aerial Ace" is for dealing with Grass, Bug & Fighting types while "Iron Tail" is for dealing with Ice types

"Dragon Tail" is to force the opponent to switch pokemon, where as "Pursuit" is to attack a switching pokemon ("Dragon Tail" also has good coverage, while "Pursuit" deals with Psychic & Ghost types better).

"Coil" is mainly good because it boost 3 stats at once. The accuracy boost is a bonus for moves like "Iron Tail" & "Dragon Tail", also since Serperior is more of a defensive pokemon, this works well with it.
Where as "Swords Dance" boosts it attack stats by 2 stages, which means more damage while attacking.

[TM0verlord]

Contradictions?

Hold Item: Leftovers
Impish Nature
EV's: 252 HP 252 Defense 4 Sp. Defense

Moves
Coil
Leaf Blade
Light Screen/Reflect
Taunt/Protect

This set focuses on Serperior's natural bulk and his ok attack stat. Coil is an amazing move that boost Serperior's attack, defense, and accuracy. Leaf Blade is your main offensive STAB move. Use Light screen if you want to be a special wall too or use Reflect if you want to be an even better physical wall. Taunt is there to scare away wall with no attacking moves. Use Protect for leftovers recovery and to stall your opponent for one turn.

[Swoobat]

Defensive Serperior is good thanks to Serperior's great defenses:

Glare
Leech Seed
Substitute
Leaf Storm / Taunt / Dragon Tail
Leftovers
Perversity / Overgrow
Timid
252 HP / 24 SpD / 232 Spe

Evs outspeed base 110 Speed Pokémon.

And the offensive variant would be:

Leaf Storm
Hidden Power Rock / Hidden Power Ground
Glare / Dragon Tail / Substitute / Taunt
Glare / Dragon Tail / Substitute / Taunt / Giga Drain
Life Orb / Choice Specs
Perversity
Timid
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Hidden Power Rock hits Fire and Rock types, while Hidden Power Ground hits Blaziken and Infernape harder.

Also, Swoobat deserves a mention as a Counter, as he outspeeds Serperior, and has Simple/Psych Up or Unaware to stop him. Some Choice Scarf Fire and Flying types are also counters. Moltres works well.

[SoAddictedToTheWii]

Tail-Sweeping Serperior
Item: Leftovers
EV: 252 Atk, 252 Speed 4 Sp.Def
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Overgrow
-Coil
-Leaf Blade
-Iron Tail
-Dragon Tail

Coil is a combined Bulk up and Hone Claws, giving a boost in Attack, Defense, and Accuracy. Leaf Blade is a great STAB attack and works well with Overgrow. Iron Tail is a great move to take out Ice-Types and works well thanks to the accuracy boost. Dragon Tail is there so you might be able to have a successful switch when the opponent's Pokemon is trying to use Swords Dance/Nasty Plot. Leftovers is there so you can stall out those Physical-Based attackers.

[Ekul the Sarcastic]

So we're not mentioning Perversity at all, or just trying to include some non-Perversity sets? Fact is, compared to the Perversity sets the other ones aren't even worth considering in singles- Serpy is 100% outclassed by other Pokémon without it. Still, Serperior has a vague niche in double or triple battles, being quite fast and able to set up both Reflect and Light Screen and have access to Taunt. Unfortunately, with Whimsicott, Tornadus and Thundurus all extremely common Pokémon and packing priority Taunt, Serpy has its work cut out, with his most valuable stat undermined.



Jarooda (M) @ Mental Herb/Light Clay
Trait: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Taunt
- Leaf Blade

As Serpy has comparatively low base HP (at least relative to its defences), a simple 252 HP spread maxes his defences, and 252 speed is a given. Mental Herb is a useful item that allows you to remove the effect of Taunt; this essentially guarantees you'll get at least one screen up, and is thus arguably better than Light Clay. Fast Taunt is always nice, allowing you to stop slower Pokémon from using Trick Room or weather moves unless they too pack a Mental Herb. Leaf Blade does mediocre damage but is the best move Serpy has. Note that the only reason you should even consider this set over Whimsicott is Reflect;everything else Serpy does Whimsi does with priority. Gastro Acid sounds like a neat gimmick, but remember that Slaking or Regigigas in doubles are massive targets and very likely to be focus fired. If your opponent attacks Slaking twice as you Gastro Acid and attack once, your Slaking is likely to be in bad shape and you're left with Serperior looking fairly useless (note that unless you're using Slaking in particular, Whimsicott is still better at this since it gets priority Worry Seed (Truant is unaffected by Worry Seed).

As for singles... I wouldn't really bother mentioning anything without Perversity since he's more or less completely outclassed at everything. As a SubSeeder, he'll never be able to compete with Whimsicott, and as a sweeper he's just bad, unable to convert his useful array of statup moves into anything worthwhile with his dire movepool (Rock Smash, Aerial Ace, unSTAB Pursuit, Return and Iron Tail, along with Leaf Blade; it's just not good enough).

perversity isn't being excluded, I just wanted to let people know not to post PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM etc.

OK then. Probably the set I've found the most enjoyable was the SubSeed/Perversity set; SubSeed is excellent and allows Serpy to potentially beat some Pokémon you'd figure would be obvious counters.



Jarooda (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Perversity
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Leech Seed
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Substitute

PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM PERVERSITY LEAF STORM

What's great about Serperior is that, owing to his excellent speed stat and low HP, he possesses the ability to actually stall out a lot of Pokémon that would appear at first glance to be solid counters. Many common Pokémon resist Grass + Fire- Heatran, Latias, Latios, Salamence and Dragonite are just a few- but a lot of these Pokémon struggle to actually beat SubSeed Serperior. You Substitute on the switch, and then Leech Seed; this turn allows you to scout out whether the switch in is Scarfed and thus faster than you (in which case you should get out asap). Heatran will run out of Fire Blast PP long before you run out of HP to craft Substitutes, so you actually beat him, and the typical Specs Latios doesn't do too well, either. Set-up dragons- DDMence, DDNite, and CMLatias- will tend to force you out, but you're in a favourable position here, having landed a Leech Seed on them and significantly reducing their capacity to sweep. Since Serperior's movepool is so poor, you lose no coverage at all from running SubSeed alongside Leaf Storm and HP Fire, making this a valuable choice. Serperior is quite fast and reasonably bulky, so it makes a solid late game sweeper once you've removed the irksome x4 Grass resistant Pokémon. One possible idea is to reduce Serperior's HP IV to 0- this means that Leech Seed will restore a greater percentage of HP, allowing you to make more Substitutes. Moreover, it only reduces Hidden Power Fire's base power by 1. As for natures, Timid is the only really viable one since you lose way too many Speed wars as Modest- with HP Fire and 252 Speed EVs you only hit 324, which isn't even enough to beat 252 Speed + speed base 100s. This is unacceptable.

Other Hidden Power types are usable over Hidden Power Fire, but HP Fire's ability to hit Ferrothorn x4 effectively and hit foes immune to Leech Seed makes it the most helpful choice. Hidden Power Rock is perhaps the best alternate option; it has decent if unspectacular neutral coverage alongside Leaf Storm and allows you to give Dragonite or Salamence switchins a nasty surprise, though Serperior definitely resents the inability to beat Ferrothorn or hit Scizor hard enough.

[SoAddictedToTheWii]

Special-based Serperior
Item: Life Orb
EV: 252 Sp.At, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Nature: Modest
Ability: Perversity
-Leaf Storm
-Wring Out
-Hidden Power [Fire]
-Giga Drain

Leaf Storm is the key to this Serperior, having an awesome base stat and getting a double boost in Sp.At thanks to it's ability. Wring Out to take out Fire, Flying, and Bug Pokemon that happens to get in the way. Hidden Power Fire is there to take out Ice and Steel types. Giga Drain is there so Serperior can recover a lot.

[Swoobat]

Also, even in Defensive sets, Perversity is better. It allows Serperior to use Leaf Storm in the last moveslot and it also makes attacks that lower stats such as Focus Blast, Psychic, Flash Cannon, Screech, Fake Tears or Razor Shell to raise his defenses instead. Overgrow should also be considered in Physical sets with Coil or Swords Dance.

[dragon zero]

for a non perversity set

Coil/Swords dance
Leaf Blade
Iron tail
dragon tail

Nature: Adamant/jolly/careful
well on non perversity set would need need sword dance or coil as its stat boost. iron tail helps deal with ice types and leaf blade gets STAB. dragon tail as an extra attack and if the opponent is being annoying with their stat boosting then it will send them back.

another non perversity set

growth
leaf blade
giga drain
hidden power(rock)

Nature: Hasty(+spd, -def)/naive(+spd, -sp.def)
in this case growth give both attack and sp.attack the boost leaf blade and hidden power being main attacks and giga drain for when serperiors hp gets low.

A Defensive one would involve using reflect and light screen. Modest with overgrow knowing giga drain and either growth, leech seed or calm mind holding the light clay to keep light screen and reflect going.

im feeling that if i dont put down a perversity set i would be ignoring probably the only move set that can exploit perversity the very best and possibly give Serperior it name

Ability: Perversity

Leaf Storm
Hidden Power(rock or ground)
Giga Drain
wring out

Nature: Modest(+sp.atk, -atk)
Leaf storm is the MAIN attack of this set as perversity will reverse the sp.atk drop. if things get worrying for serperior after that then giga drain will give a big health recover. im kinda unsure about wring out but at least the move types are mainly one type. still best to use after perveristy and on a freshly entered pokemon.

[The Joker.]

Calm Mind
Overgrow
252spatk/252spe/4hp
-calm mind
-energy ball
-hidden power (fire)/(ice)
-toxic
Item:leftovers
Nature:timid/modest

Calm mind boosts spatk and spdef,energy ball STAB, hidden power for coverage( pick your type), and seeing as this thing is bulky and has the spdef boost it could poison with toxic to wear the opponent down.

[Swoobat]

Calm Mind
Overgrow
252spatk/252spe/4hp
-calm mind
-energy ball
-hidden power (fire)/(ice)
-toxic
Item:leftovers

Calm mind boosts spatk and spdef,energy ball STAB, hidden power for coverage( pick your type), and seeing as this thing is bulky and has the spdef boost it could poison with toxic to wear the opponent down.

Why is this better than Perversity Leaf Storm?

[The Joker.]

I didn't say it was better I was trying to introduce a different set as Reno said in the first post

[Lucario At Service]

For a Serperior with "Perversity" as its ability, the best counter which can be used against it would be pokemon who could either use "Swagger" or "Flatter".

I know both of these moves are a bit of gimmick type and requires good prediction, but reduction of attacking stat + confusion can really hamper a pokemon with "Perversity".

Also moves like "Gastro Acid" can also be used for countering a pokemon with "Perversity".

[Porgon-XYZ]

Special Serpirior:
Moveset:
-Leaf Tornado/Leaf Storm
-Giga Drain
-Calm Mind
-Hidden Power(Water/Ground)
Item: White Herb/Life Orb
Nature: Modest/Timid
EVs: 252Sp/252Satk/4Hp
Ability:Overgrowth

Although not quite as effective as a physical Serpirior, it still has it's charm! Start things off with calm mind to boost your Satk. Leaf Storm destroys a lot and goes perfectly with the White Herb, but Leaf Tornado has that nifty chance of lowering your opponents accuracy. Giga Drain is a good recovery move that causes damage. The last move can be either Hidden Power Water or Ground. Both take care of fire types, ground being more perferable since it's super effective against steel and poison types. If your using Leaf Storm, use White herb. If you use Leaf Tornado, use Life Orb.

[Lord Zoroark]

O.K. Serperior. Easily one of my favorites. I've been working on sets for this guy. How about this?


Serperior
Ability: Overgrow (I know, I know, heresy. Sue me.)

Moveset:
-Coil Around
-Leaf Blade
-Leech Seed
-Iron Tail/Dragon Tail/Toxic

Serperior boasts access to Coil Around, which boosts Attack, Defence, and Accuracy. Serperior offers really good defences, and bolstering them with Coil Around jacks 'em up really nicely. Leaf Blade offers a nice base power of 90 (135, if you factor in STAB), and has a good chance of scoring a critical hit, boosting it to 180 (270 with STAB factored in). Throw a Leech Seed at the opponent to sap 1/8 of their maximum HP on each turn (not to mention that Serperior keeps the lost health, so leech away). Finally, you can give him Iron Tail by birth move. Great base power, a 50% chance to lower the opponent's Defence, pretty good neutral coverage, but it has terrible accuracy...Of course, that isn't a problem, since Coil Around boosted your accuracy as well. Nifty little trick, that one is. Of course, if you don't want to bother with birth moves, just give him Dragon Tail. Even better coverage than Iron Tail, really, but considerably lower base power (60 compared to Iron Tail's 100). It forces the opponent to switch out, eliminating any stat changes (unfortunately, they also could have also lowered their own stats, so the road runs both ways here). It ALSO forces Serperior to go last to use it, so have fun with that. Serperior could use Toxic to really chip away at the opponent's health along with Leech Seed if you don't want Dragon Tail OR Iron Tail. Toxic could also set up for a team mate with Hex. Fun, huh?

I'd give Serperior either a Careful Nature to boost his Special Defence, or a Jolly Nature to boost his Speed, both at the cost of his Special Attack. Meh, who cares. This set isn't using that. I'm coming up with a set for that. Adios, compadres! Hope this helps your ambitions to be Serperior over all!...Bad joke...Heh, heh, heh..

[MasterLucario]

Subseed

Nature: timid
Item: Leftovers
ability: overgrow
EVS: 252 HP/ 24 sp. def./ 232 speed
-Glare
-Substitute
-Leech Seed
-Giga Drain/ Taunt

3rd fastest SubSeeder in the game (beaten by sceptile and whimsicott). But Serperior's advantage is his bulk. 354 HP and around 230 sp def. allow him to come in multiple times. Glare is great to cripple a sweeper/scarfer they try to bring in on him. Sub up until they switch or get parahax'd. Leech Seed to get back extra HP and break some walls. Giga Drain to get back extra HP, thanks to its boosted base power. Taunt if you want to run a more stalling version.

Overall: great subseeder, good defenses, fast, and can take multiple hits. Glare sets it apart from other subseeders in the fact that most don't get status.

Teammates: Fire types and water types are your friends. They cover serperior's weaknesses and provide the good basic fire/water/grass combo. Heatran and Jellicent work with serperior perfectly.

Counters: Grass types completely and utterly wall this set. Shaymin especially with immunity to leech seed and natural cure to get rid of paralysis, then fight back with HP Fire/Ice. A scarfer that can U-Turn to damage/ break sub work too, but watch out for glare. Of course fires work too.

[yinandyang]

Status Spread Serperior

Overgrow w/ Leftovers
Adamant, 252 HP, 128 Def, 128 SpDef

Glare
Toxic
Dragon Tail
Leaf Blade

Serperior gets access to a couple of different status moves and a forced switch move, so why not take advantage of it? Toxic and Glare are there to spread the status effects, while Dragon Tail makes sure you can keep spreading the love. Leaf Blade is there in case the need arises where Serperior needs to actually attack. Adamant raises the power of both Dragon Tail and Leaf Blade, and Overgrow helps out Leaf Blade when its HP runs low. Leftovers gives it some recovery to help it last. EVs in HP, Def, and SpDef for survivability, since its Speed stat is already sufficient.

[bugcatchersdream]

OK...
As Serperior has a small special movepool, if you want to branch out a little, you CANNOT have perversity as it defeats the purpose of Coil. Also, because everyone will be using Perversity Leaf Storm, everyone will use Flatter, making it kind of risky to use. Some good coverage moves for Perversity are Twister and HP Ground. A good partner is Jellicent, for a combined good movepool and countering all of Serp's weaknesses.

[Lord Zoroark]

O.K., let's explore the sub-seedier side of our reptilian friend, shall we?

Serperior
Ability: Overgrow (I know. No Perversity. When that becomes available, I swear up down, and sideways that I'll make one. Until then...)

Moveset
-Calm Mind
-Giga Drain
-Leech Seed
-Substitute

First, throw up a Substitute to give you a little breathing room. After that, throw the opponent a Leech Seed to start sapping health. Then use Calm Mind several times to raise your Special Attack and Special Defence to Serperior levels (Geez...how many cheesy joke sets could I run with a name like that...). With a super-boosted Giga Drain in your moveset, you can now fire away and sap the opponent for all the HP they got, give it to Serperior, and use it to fuel your next Substitute...over, and over, and over. The problem here is that Giga Drain only has 10 PP, so use it wisely.
I'd give Serperior a Timid Nature to boost his Speed at the cost of his Attack... which he ain't gonna be using in this set. Already made one for that. Quite a Serperior one, too.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and give him a Big Root.