Serperior Blaziken Offense(Peaked at 1600)

[miguel345]

Link to the team:

https://pokepast.es/62f41ea30211836e

I built this team around Serperior. It serves as an offensive team, looking to put pressure on with hazards and chip damage from pivot moves like U Turn or Flip turn.
It can pivot into more of a balance team but I've also had games that have ended in less than 15 turns.

Serperior @
Ability: Contrary
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Glare
- Substitute
- Tera Blast
is the main build around for this team. I run a fully offensive set with max speed to outrun common threats like not sun boosted, and . Leaf Storm is a good STAB option that is helped by Contrary turning Serperior into a boosting threat, Glare is to cripple opponents and help to slow down faster threats and synergises with Substitute, given the quarter chance of paralysis. I run Tera Blast Fire to hit opposing Steel types like and or Grass types like . It can struggle with opposing but I have other mons on my team to handle it.

Blaziken @
Ability: Speed Boost
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- U-turn
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat

's role on the team is to handle any opposing Grass or Steel types that resist Leaf Storm and also serves as a pivot with the addition of U Turn. Adamant nature to hit as hard as possible and Tera Flying to resist Earthquake. I run Protect so that after 1 speed boost, I hit 389 speed tier which is faster than the rest of the unboosted metagame apart from and . It doesn't matter however because is walled by them anyway so the extra investment in attack allows you hit harder. Dual STAB for maximum damage and U Turn to pivot out of a bad matchup or after forcing a switch. is to increase its longevity and give it more switch ins.

Samurott-Hisui @
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ceaseless Edge
- Razor Shell
- Sucker Punch
- Flip Turn

is an excellent lead for this team and completes the fire water grass trio of the team. Hazard stacking forces your opponent into pokemon such as or so my team is built to punish that. Ceaseless Edge for Spikes and STAB, Razor Shell for STAB, Sucker Punch is priority against boosted mons and Flip Turn is a pivoting move to keep momentum. Tera Ghost is to prevent Rapid Spin from .

Gholdengo @
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Nasty Plot
- Recover

serves as the ultimate hazard blocker remover. The is allow for switch ins to and to wall mons like and If the opponent has passive mons like that, I will keep the balloon as long as possible to allow for free Shadow Balls or set up opportunities. Tera Fighting is to resist Sucker Punch and also Kowtow Cleave from . Make It Rain and Shadow Ball as STAB, Nasty Plot to abuse passive mons and Recover for recovery.

Landorus-Therian @
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Grass Knot

provides excellent speed control to the team while also serving as a pivot for when it forces switches against opposing mons like or Tera Water to flip its weaknesses into resistances. Naive Nature to boost the power of Grass Knot. Earthquake for STAB, U Turn is for pivoting and Stone Edge is to hit birds like or .

Iron Valiant @
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock

The main sweeper/cleaner of the team. I opted for a mixed set due to the influx of Kingambit on the ladder while also wanting to abuse 's powerful Moonblasts. Tera Fairy is to boost the power of Moonblast, Thunderbolt is to hit mons like or while Psyshock is mainly for . However, I am contemplating changing Psyshock maybe to Destiny Bond.


Overall, this team is performing extremely well so far. I am open to any suggested changes as I am a relatively new player.

 

[NotDaProGamer]

Blaziken @
Ability: Speed Boost
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- U-turn
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat

's role on the team is to handle any opposing Grass or Steel types that resist Leaf Storm and also serves as a pivot with the addition of U Turn. Adamant nature to hit as hard as possible and Tera Flying to resist Earthquake. I run Protect so that after 1 speed boost, I hit 389 speed tier which is faster than the rest of the unboosted metagame apart from and . It doesn't matter however because is walled by them anyway so the extra investment in attack allows you hit harder. Dual STAB for maximum damage and U Turn to pivot out of a bad matchup or after forcing a switch. is to increase its longevity and give it more switch ins.

Honestly, this is a really swaggy team and I just had literally one idea. You know how you "outspeed the entire unboosted metagame apart from and ?" Well, first you forgot and second, the next fastest unboosted mon is , which hits 383 with max investment and a speed boosting nature. Well, then we just trim off the EVs to exactly 240, which makes still hit all of the your mentioned thresholds. There we go, I saved 12 EVs. #I'm Pedantic

 

[DaRotomMachine]

I saved 12 EVs. #I'm Pedantic

And put it in HP?

Anyway, good team, just a question:
Have you tried Stellar Tera Type on Serperior? Because you run Contrary and if you use tera Blast while Stellar Teraed you get +1 atk and SpA.

 

[miguel345]

Honestly, this is a really swaggy team and I just had literally one idea. You know how you "outspeed the entire unboosted metagame apart from and ?" Well, first you forgot and second, the next fastest unboosted mon is , which hits 383 with max investment and a speed boosting nature. Well, then we just trim off the EVs to exactly 240, which makes still hit all of the your mentioned thresholds. There we go, I saved 12 EVs. #I'm Pedantic

Yep that's a valid point. Thanks for correcting.

 

[miguel345]

And put it in HP?

Anyway, good team, just a question:
Have you tried Stellar Tera Type on Serperior? Because you run Contrary and if you use tera Blast while Stellar Teraed you get +1 atk and SpA.

No I haven't yet. You had any success with it?

 

[Roller K]

I like what the team is aiming to do, and I'm glad you've been able to break 1600s with the team! There are some weaknesses I want to address and how I approached them.

Weaknesses

1. HO and Volt Turn: With a Focus Sash lead, you play the game 5v6 and hope your threats can break down the opposing team enough to make up for the initial number disadvantage. Combining it with pivot moves is not bad in itself as the team can force switches while having a safe pivot, but with HO, you should already be playing aggressively and making doubles to force switches. Pivot moves only limit your team's coverage and discourages set up, which is anti-HO. Especially on , there's not much point in running Flip Turn as your point is to spam Ceaseless Edge until you die.

2. Lack of Set-Up Sweepers: Not all 5 other Pokemon on HO need to be sweepers, but you only have and to boost stats and threaten the opposing team. Your team could use one or two more set-up Pokemon to perform better as an Offense team.

3. Vulnerable to Hazards: This is not a big issue for an offensive team as you want to set up and quickly put on pressure; you do not need to bring in your threats multiple times to have this effect. My main concerns are Toxic Spikes and lack of hazard prevention/removal. Your team has no countermeasures for either of these, and when combined with pivot moves forcing you to switch and deal with entry hazards, it's a recipe for disaster.

I did my best to adjust the sets and preserve most of the members of the team.

Version 1 (CM Valiant + Knock Off Blaziken):
Version 2 (SD Valiant + Protect Blaziken):

Changes

1. > : I like this lead a lot more as it provides you a grounded Poison to absorb Toxic Spikes, a form of hazard removal in Mortal Spin, and an extra form of hazards in Toxic Spikes. is a nice hazard lead, but for this team, fills the role much better. I put Power Gem and Earth Power for its coverage, but you can mess around with what combination works best for the team. I like it in theory as it still annoys and to an extent while still being able to punish Air Balloon . Dazzling Gleam or Energy Ball over Power Gem is fine too.

2. Calm Mind > Close Combat, Tera Electric > Fairy on : Calm Mind allows to make better use of its Booster Energy and threaten to sweep the opposing team. Tera Electric lets set up on and boosts the power of Thunderbolt. Psyshock already serves the purpose that Close Combat would as it hits special walls, so I saw it as the most expendable move. You can make the set Spirit Break, Close Combat, Knock Off, Swords Dance with Tera Stellar/Dark and have a similar effect.

3. Swords Dance + Knock Off > Protect + U-Turn, Jolly > Adamant on : While enjoys having Protect on its set, if you want a lead hazard setter, you need Knock Off to punish teams that spam Heavy-Duty Boots. If you use the aforementioned Swords Dance over the Calm Mind set, you do not need Knock Off on this set. However, Swords Dance > U-Turn is much more valuable to this team as you can become a strong threat boosting speed and attack. Jolly > Adamant on is important in this current meta, as you will be able to outspeed / at +1 and / at +2.

4. Tera Stellar > Fire on : GiratinaDentist already mentioned this is their post, but Tera Stellar Tera Blast is quite potent after a +2 boost from Leaf Storm. You lose immediate power into Steels, but you can punish much more of the metagame as Tera Blast is neutral against everything and super effective on terastallized Pokemon.

5. Tera Fairy > Fighting on : Tera Fairy lets you resist an incoming Sucker Punch from while also improving the matchup against the new Dragons running around the metagame.

Let me know what you think of the changes. If you were able to crack 1600s with your version, I believe in your ability to crack 1700s with the suggestions! Have fun toying around with it