Serperior Moveset Idea

Jordan

Jordan

swaggot
Member
Ok, so first of all this thread might not go here, but I don't know where else it would go. But anyway, I recently decided to work on a new pokemon, and I decided on Serperior. I went to smogon to look for a recommended moveset, but all they had were support movesets like "Dual-Screens". I wanted an offensive moveset and since they didn't have any I decided to come up with my own so if you could tell me if I did an ok job this is my first original moveset. Thanks. :D

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Serperior @ Life Orb
Overgrow ability
Timid nature (+Speed, -Attack)
252 Spa / 10 Spe / 248 Hp

Moveset:
- Calm Mind
- Protect
- Hidden Power Fire
- Giga Drain

Where Serperior seriously lacks in Special Attack even with a 252 complete EV train, it can easily make up for it with Calm Mind which not only boosts its Special Attack by one stage but its Special defense as well the Life Orb also comes into play in helping Serperior's attack. Protect is mainly used to scout out incoming moves and possible choiced pokemon. HP Fire check for some of Serperior's weaknesses like Bug, Ice, but also checks for steel types as well. Giga Drain is Serperior's STAB move of choice seeing as it not only does damage to the opposing pokemon but it also makes up for the loss of health done by Life Orb.
 
Not all pokemon make good attacking pokemon, and Serperior is no exception (and BTW I don't think there is a section for this type thing unless the Simple Questions & Answers thread would work.).

Serperior has excellent speed and decent attack power, but it has very few usable attacks. Furthermore, Serperior has better bulk than attack, allowing for it to use it's plentiful status moves very well. You seem to be missing the power of Serperior's fast Sub-Seed set which is still primarily an attack based set. With this set, bulk doesn't matter much as Serperior outspeeds most (if not all) other bulky substitute users and can cripple their effectiveness with leech seed and hit them with taunt either first or later (since taunt works through substitutes). Your set forfeits Serperior's amazing speed making it much less effective, since speed is one of the few reasons to use Serperior over other bulky grass types like Leafeon or Vileplume. Lacking it's speed investment only adds to what can stop the grass serpent cold and practically all of Serperior's regular counters remain undaunted (Ninjask, Swellow, Braviary, Whirlipede, Garbodor, Scarf Electrode, etc.). It's a interesting idea, but I'm not so sure it will be seeing much use in the metagame.

Now when Contrary is released, we all know a certain move that would make Serperior an excellent special sweeper, but that will probably bump this snake up at least to UU.
 
@iSharingan Thank you for your input. Serperior has a good base speed but is quickly outsped by a Pokemon who chooses to use a speed boosting move, and I see where I kind of neglect Seperiors true potential with this set. But like I said its my first moveset and there's always room for improvement. Also, looking back I do agree Hidden Power Rock is a FAR BETTER move choice than HP Fire seeing as it covers more of Serperiors weaknesses. I'm working on the changes thank you!
 
Thing is, Rock and Fire are rather common on NU teams and in most cases don't need to be used as a HP type. Also, simply covering a pokemon's weaknesses doesn't always cut it since pokemon can be threats without having the typing to match the defending pokemon's type weaknesses. To use a RU example, Magmortar has most of the tier covered in it's standard moveset (Fire Blast, Thunderbolt, Focus Blast, HP Grass) but Druddigon can come in and Earthquake it without being hit supereffectively by any of Magmortar's moves. This is similar to why HP Ice, which takes care of Flying and Grass (who pose major problems for the remaining moves in Serperoior's set) but not Bug and Fire, is the preferred HP type. HP Ice also deals with the 6 dragons in NU (Gabite, Altaria, Zweilious, Dragonair, Fraxure, and Shelgon) since one finds it's way onto almost every team and most dragons can carry Fire, Ice, and or Flying moves, threatening Grass types, among many other types. If you can clear the opponent's dragon out of the way (as well as their revenge killer), it's usually much easier to use your own dragon. this makes Serperior an excellent fit with it's speed and decent Special Attack, allowing it to act as a revenge killer and a decent wall-breaker using HP Ice and Leech Seed - something HP Fire and HP Rock can't do anywhere near as well.

Don't get me wrong; sometimes there are better HP types than the ones listed on reference sites, but this isn't one of them. Figuring out the best HP type requires a good deal of understanding about the various metagames (even I don't understand everything, but NU has become my home tier despite my predominantly OU team count - seeing as there are few others who actually play NU and lower tiers are more forgiving to gimmicks).
 
In the future, threads like this should go into 5th Generation Competitive Play. The Rate My Team forum is only for completed teams that need some tweaking. Thanks! :)

*moved*
 
MrGatr said:
What does it do against Braviary and Musharna???
Click to expand...

Switch out. Not every Pokemon has to be able to handle an entire tier on its own; that's what you have a team for.
 
I was hinting to hidden power being changed. HP Electric would be better than HP Fire.
 
MrGatr said:
What does it do against Braviary and Musharna???
Click to expand...

HP Rock can hurt braviary, max sp att + stealth rocked braviary would knock it out.

There's nothing serpeior can do against musharna but hope for a critical when using giga drain lol.
 
MrGatr said:
I was hinting to hidden power being changed. HP Electric would be better than HP Fire.
Click to expand...

No it wouldn't. What does HP Electric hit that HP Ice and a grass move doesn't? Ice, Fire, and Rock are the best options of Hidden Power for most mons, Serp is no exception. Which one you choose should depend on what the rest of your team is weak to.
 
Dark Void said:
MrGatr said:
I was hinting to hidden power being changed. HP Electric would be better than HP Fire.
Click to expand...

No it wouldn't. What does HP Electric hit that HP Ice and a grass move doesn't? Ice, Fire, and Rock are the best options of Hidden Power for most mons, Serp is no exception. Which one you choose should depend on what the rest of your team is weak to.
Click to expand...

Mantine :D

But yeah HP Ice is always better than HP Electric except for very specific situations (Eg Keldeo on a Gyarados weak team)
 
Why not Coil or Swords Dance? Serperior physical movepool is way better than the special one

Serperior @ Life Orb
Overgrow ability
Adamant nature (-Spa, +Attack)
32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe

Moveset: (adjust this for what coverage you need )
- Coil/ Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Aqua Tail
- Pursuit/ Iron Tail/Protect/Dragon Tail /Outrage
 
The thing is, Serperior is not a good sweeper no matter which side of the spectrum its attacking on. It has 75 base attack and 75 base special attack which is terrible even with boosting moves and even in lower tiers, it has a poor defensive type and only okay defensive stats to help it set up. Its physical movepool isn't exactly good either; of the moves you listed on the fourth move slot only Outrage is worth using on a Pokemon trying to be a sweeper, and Leaf Blade/Aqua Tail/Outrage isn't that hard to wall (considering that using Outrage sets you up to revenge kills) even if Serperior does somehow set up. Its probably better as a physical sweeper than a special one but I feel that its not good as either.
 
Exactly if he wants to sweep it has to be on physical side since it has way more coverege than on special side
After a Swords Dance Serperior attack reaches 546 running Adamant nature using Musharna as example ( since its mention here ) with Max HP and Defense it does :

252 +2 Atk Life Orb Serperior (+Atk) Leaf Blade vs 252 HP/252 Def Musharna (+Def) : 52,98% - 62,84% (2-3 hits to KO)
252 +2 Atk Life Orb Serperior (+Atk) Pursuit vs 252 HP/252 Def Musharna (+Def) : 63,76% - 75,23% (2 hits to KO)

If its specially defensive

252 +2 Atk Life Orb Serperior (+Atk) Leaf Blade vs 252 HP/0 Def Musharna: 76,38% - 90,37% (2 hits to KO)
252 +2 Atk Life Orb Serperior (+Atk) Pursuit vs 252 HP/0 Def Musharna: 91,28% - 107,34% (43,75% chance to OHKO)

Musharna cant kill Serperior (3Hits to KO) without investment in Special attack before it gets killed , and if it switches out he is dead

Serperior's movepool is shalow , he can try and go for a sub seed set but its walled by other grass types
 
I might as well post my physical serperior

Serperior @ leftovers
Overgrow
Jolly (- sp.att, + speed)
-Coil/ Swords dance
-Leech Seed/ Substitute/ Outrage
-Leaf Blade
-Dragon Tail/ Aqua Tail

I prefer Jolly over adamant because Serp's max att is terrible, I might as well just rely on buffs. Max speed ensures I can outspeed everything, so even if I get walled I'd at least be able to do some damage before getting KO'ed

This set works best in unison with other set-up pokemon. Sadly the best team mates for it are in higher tiers, Drapion notably.

Coil is best for accuracy and added defense, it get's wrecked by special sweepers though. Swords is best used for the purely physical set (swords, leaf blade, outrage, aqua tail).

Leftovers + Leech seed + Coil is great against would be physical sweepers, I don't like running sub on serp unless it was baton passed to it, serp can't risk the loss of hp when it relies on buffs. Outrage after buffs is great, works best with coil since it gives you def to take the confusion hits (depending on whether or not you wish to stay in).

Dragon tail is weak even with the buffs but its purpose is too be a damaging roar/ whirlwind; it forces you to hit last so only reserve it for something you know won't OHKO serp. Aqua Tail hits harder, has better coverage, and doesn't force you to go last but it has no other effect; use it against fire threats like Charizard.
 
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