Yo.... Serp is actually insane. Is there a reason this guy does not get used more?
I've been finding that this mon is just really good at clicking glare vs a lot of Pokemon like Coriknight, Slowking-G, Moltres, etc. which is EXCELLENT since it can disrupt these Pokemon's primary strategy of just clicking pivot moves. Pairs wonderfully with Rotom-W which can punish a lot of the Pokemon that may use Serperior as setup bait, mainly Dragonite + punishing Cinderace U-Turn is also good. Mola isn't too bad of a partner either. Once its weakened most crap with Glare, it can sweep later in the game, or break in the mid-game by luring a few targets with Tera Blast. I really appreciate this Pokemon's solid bulk + synthesis, since that can make it a bit hard to revenge kill + gives it valuable defensive utility vs a few Pokemon like Ogerpon-W, Garg, Ting-Lu, etc. Something that helps it is that a few of the anti-para guys like Gholdengo, Raging Bolt, etc. will usually exhaust their Tera to handle another Pokemon, giving Serp some room to break past them.
I think Knock off could be decent on this Pokemon too, since its best partners seem to be hazard stackers like Ting-Lu, Samurott, or Gliscor. Additionally it can fuck over most of its switch-ins like Moltres, Gking, etc. Haven't tried this yet though so IDK. It might also be a bit difficult to fit. I don't think this Pokemon is an insane Tera Sink necessarily - I feel it can manage itself just fine in late game scenarios cleaning w/ Leaf Storm, with Tera Blast mostly being a strong KO button against Corv, Ghold, Gambit, etc. This is no doubt powerful, but I feel that one could play a more patient game with Serp to break through these Pokemon using Knock Off + Hazards. I've also faced a few Subseed sets, which are a bit tougher to justify with the 4MSS, but can be very frustrating to face in certain match-ups as it glares everything and fishes for para procs, with Leech seed Recovery fully healing it. We saw Taunt used to fuck over a Skeledirge in SPL, which was pretty cool. IDK, I feel this Pokemon is a bit unexplored, especially given its excellence in past gens.
I've been finding that this mon is just really good at clicking glare vs a lot of Pokemon like Coriknight, Slowking-G, Moltres, etc. which is EXCELLENT since it can disrupt these Pokemon's primary strategy of just clicking pivot moves. Pairs wonderfully with Rotom-W which can punish a lot of the Pokemon that may use Serperior as setup bait, mainly Dragonite + punishing Cinderace U-Turn is also good. Mola isn't too bad of a partner either. Once its weakened most crap with Glare, it can sweep later in the game, or break in the mid-game by luring a few targets with Tera Blast. I really appreciate this Pokemon's solid bulk + synthesis, since that can make it a bit hard to revenge kill + gives it valuable defensive utility vs a few Pokemon like Ogerpon-W, Garg, Ting-Lu, etc. Something that helps it is that a few of the anti-para guys like Gholdengo, Raging Bolt, etc. will usually exhaust their Tera to handle another Pokemon, giving Serp some room to break past them.
I think Knock off could be decent on this Pokemon too, since its best partners seem to be hazard stackers like Ting-Lu, Samurott, or Gliscor. Additionally it can fuck over most of its switch-ins like Moltres, Gking, etc. Haven't tried this yet though so IDK. It might also be a bit difficult to fit. I don't think this Pokemon is an insane Tera Sink necessarily - I feel it can manage itself just fine in late game scenarios cleaning w/ Leaf Storm, with Tera Blast mostly being a strong KO button against Corv, Ghold, Gambit, etc. This is no doubt powerful, but I feel that one could play a more patient game with Serp to break through these Pokemon using Knock Off + Hazards. I've also faced a few Subseed sets, which are a bit tougher to justify with the 4MSS, but can be very frustrating to face in certain match-ups as it glares everything and fishes for para procs, with Leech seed Recovery fully healing it. We saw Taunt used to fuck over a Skeledirge in SPL, which was pretty cool. IDK, I feel this Pokemon is a bit unexplored, especially given its excellence in past gens.
to be as immediately game-ending as 
by any means, but 
, as both abuse their superb bulk and ability to pick and choose coverage and utility both to set up incredibly easily and get past things they frankly shouldn’t - i won’t go into details as gren’s post covered most of what i would say here. i think 
aside, a few cool things i’ve been using as of late that i wanted to touch on.
check, spiker, 
check, and even an fblast plot 
check (
checks most other variants). since synthesis is hampered by sand, i’ve been running a rather unusual set of idpress spikes psplit, which is exceedingly good at racking up chip on threats quickly with sand and helmet.
, and with the rise of balance, specifically banded variants. bandrott is incredibly strong right now, immediately crippling most switchins to more standard scarf/sash/boots mons, and provides the utility of standard sets while also being immensely immediately threatening at the cost of being more easy to exploit, which can easily be remedied with common partners such as twave encore 
.
sand i’d be happy to rmt it after i get out of this ladder rut
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, and more. It will never be her (
or 
booster exhausts. Tera blast ground is great against 
, and its just a phenomenal offensive type. Tera blast is unpredictable, and so hard to play around. I feel that it should be banned.
