SerperiSeed

[Weeds]

Kay, so me and my friend have decided to get into competitive battling, and he wanted some help in designing a set for his Serperior. He wanted it to be a Seeder, so originally I just gave him the SubSeeder set found on Serebii. However, as my friend pointed out, Serperior's HP stat is lolfail, so I slightly tweaked the set, and I'd like to see what you guys think about it.

Serperior @ Leftovers
Timid
Contrary
252 Def 252 SDef 6 Spd

- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Tail

So, the point is to Seed and Protect for a free heal from Leftovers + Leech Seed. Leaf Storm + Contrary increases Serperior's S.Atk every time it's used, which is pretty nifty. Dragon Tail is for forcing switches on stuff it can't handle, or just if it wants to Seed more Pokémon. Sadly Dragon Tail is a physical attack, so it doesn't get Leaf Storm + Contrary boost and actually looses power due to Timid, but it still beats stuff like Roar or Whirlwind, cos it can still be used if Serperior is Taunted.

~Weeds

 

[KoL]

I find it hilarious that your friend not only considers Serperior's HP "lolfail" (have you seen Skarmory or Dusknoir?) but then you go and compound that issue by putting no EVs into HP on your set. Serperior's average HP stat makes HP EVs absolutely mandatory.

Overall, your set is poor. Leech Seed and Substitute are made for each other on a Pokemon like Serperior, and Substitute itself works fantastically with Calm Mind and in Serperior's case, Coil. Protect + Leech Seed is decent, but Substitute works better here since Leech Seed works best against defensive Pokemon with high HP, and Substitute has notable advantages over Protect against such foes (blocking status effects and providing handy defense when they use anything that isn't an attack.) Dragon Tail is absolutely pointless when Leech Seed generally forces switches easily as it is, and trying to Dragon Tail away a major threat like Heatran or Chandelure is suicide. The poor EVs are the final nail in the coffin.

Something like this is more what you want:

Serperior @ Leftovers
Timid/Calm/Bold
Overgrow
252 HP/252 Speed/6 Sp.Defense

- Leaf Blade/Giga Drain
- Coil/Calm Mind
- Leech Seed
- Substitute

Apparently your friend's knowledge of this game is lacking if he thinks a low HP stat makes SubSeeding fail (SCEPTILE can do it for hell's sake!) The clincher here is the Speed actually - Sceptile's ability to outspeed foes and set up moves before they can strike was what made SubSeed Sceptile successful, and Serperior's only slightly slower than Sceptile but also considerably tougher. The first two moves depend on which stat you wish to focus on boosting out of the two defenses, and then picking the attack that gets boosted in turn. Giga Drain has the added effect of healing you, but Leaf Blade is more damaging and dangerous physical sweepers are (oftentimes) more common than special sweepers. Normally, I wouldn't recommend combining SubSeed with a stat-boosting move, but Serperior gets so few offensive options you might as well. Note that Contrary won't work with this set since Coil and Calm Mind would cause your stats to decrease instead.

If the setup move combined with SubSeed proves too much to handle, a Contrary set with Leaf Storm and Hidden Power (Ice, Fire or Ground) works as well.

 

[Weeds]

The original set I came up with (and actually turned out to be the same as the one on Serebii) was actually the optional one you posted here, except I hadn't considered HP Ground. The EV's were placed by me, however, which I obviously failed quite bad at ^^; I'm guessing he'll wanna go with the HP set anyway, but I'm actually personally liking this one more, so i think I might just use that on my own Serperior. TBH I wanted a Special Sweeping Serperior (with Contrary and Leaf Storm), but Serperior's Special moves are ridiculously limited, and I just don't know how well a set like that's work anyway.

Thanks for the help though, I shall convey this set along with the description on how to use it to my friend.

~Weeds