aroramage |
Now we've got the potential
superior Serperior that Servine from yesterday could
evolve into! Though I'm not sure if he's going to be
able to do much, but there's always potential.
On the plus side, Serperior has two
attacks that are both really cheap at only 1 Energy
each. And they build up into each other too! Coil is a
1-for-40 that boosts up the damage from all of
Serperior's attacks on the next turn by 60 damage, so
even on his next turn, Coil is doing 100 damage for only
1 Energy - that's pretty ridiculously in and of itself!
And Slashing Strike does twice as much damage for the
same amount of Energy, with the only restriction being
he can't use it on consecutive turns. Still, combined
with Coil, it can do 140 damage, which is just enough to
KO a Pokemon-EX with the 40 damage from Coil!
So lots of potential for sure, but
is there anything more we can do with Serperior? The
truth is that he can only 2HKO stuff, and 3 Coils in a
row will do 240 damage - more than an alternating
Coil-Slashing Strike-Coil (40+140+40 = 220 vs 40+100+100
= 240). Well, there's also combining him with
yesterday's Servine, which further combined with Forest
of Giant Plants means that Serperior could, by way of
Servine's Strangle, be able to last the turns he needs
to do the damage he needs to do.
But that is relying on a coin
flip...and the opponent not to switch out...and
Serperior doing enough with his maneuvers that he won't
get KO'd by the opponent somewhere inbetween, but aside
from that, it could totally work!
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (normally I'd give
him a 2, but with the combination of other cards, at
least he's able to be useful)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (is he the best
Serperior? maybe, maybe not, but he's a contender at
least)
Limited: 3.5/5 (so there's not much
to say about him here)
Arora Notealus: Freaking Smugleaf.
Next Time: Rising above the world
is a mighty tower...
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Otaku |
Finishing what we
started yesterday, now we’ll look at Serperior (XY:
Fates Collide 7/124). As a Grass Type, it
enjoys attacking into Weakness against a good chunk of
the Water some of the Fighting Types, without anything
having Resistance. The only specific anti-Grass
effects I can find just soak 20 damage from Grass (and
other) Types and aren’t particularly significant.
The support on the other hand is significant.
While less than the Fighting Type, you’ll enjoy being
able to Evolve quickly into Serperior, aided by
Forest of Giant Plants to Evolving immediately
(instead of having to wait) and possibly Revitalizer
as it allows Battle Compressor to be a double
Pokémon search. Being a Stage 2 is pretty bad
right now as it means extra time and cards to get a
Pokémon into play, but as just stated, Grass Type
support alleviates many of the drawbacks. All in
all, a good start. 140 HP is large enough that being
OHKO’d is less likely than being 2HKO’d, but I am
uncertain by how much. It sits in a nice, awkward
place where attacks that are either going to OHKO or
2HKO most Pokémon will find Serperior in the
latter half; bad for that attacker, good for
Serperior. Fire Types will still burn through
it rapidly, which is less a ding to Serperior and
more an indictment of how damage doubling Weakness is
probably not a balanced mechanic for the TCG. No
Resistance is unfortunate, though I am uncertain how
much of a difference it would have made. It is
also typical, so it won’t affect the card’s performance
(or score) much, if at all; -20 damage doesn’t make a
dramatic difference, and that actually is well balanced.
Serperior has a Retreat Cost of [CC], low enough
you can pay if you must but high enough you ought to
find away around it.
Serperior
has two attacks, “Coil” and “Slashing Strike”, which
cost [C] and [G] respectively. Coil can thus be
used totally off Type, while Slashing Strike can be used
mostly off Type (a single [G] isn’t usually hard to
provide). Coil does 40 damage, while placing an
effect on Serperior itself so that the attacks on
Serperior do an extra 60 damage to the opponent’s
Active during your next turn. So you could use
Coil to do 40, then so long as your Active Serperior
(or something like Mew-EX copying the attack)
aren’t Benched or bounced or KO’d it would do 100 on
each successive use. The wording allows any attack
Serperior (or another card copying Coil) can use
to gets the bonus the damage bonus. Slashing
Strike does 80 damage, a great return for a single
Energy, but it also places an effect on Serperior
(or Pokémon copying Slashing Strike) so that it cannot
use Slashing Strike the next turn. Like most such
effects, this will reset if Serperior is Benched
and then promoted back into the Active slot, or if it
Devolves and then re-Evolves, and definitely if it is
bounced to hand and played back down. Even with
the drawback, it is still a pretty good return for the
Energy invested. Together you set up to 2HKO most
Basic Pokémon-EX and that isn’t bad, but it probably
isn’t good enough to be competitive.
We covered which
Snivy and Servine to use yesterday: you have
no choice for Standard play as only Snivy (XY:
Fates Collide 05/124) and Servine (XY:
Fates Collide 06/124) are legal there, but in
Expanded I recommend Snivy (BW: Black Star
Promos BW06) and Servine (XY: Fates
Collide 06/124) because they can Paralyze.
Specifically, the latter Paralyzes via an Ability that
triggers when you Evolve into it from hand, though it
does also require a successful coin flip. Thanks
to Forest of Giant Plants as well as bounce
effects like AZ, Devolution Spray, and
Super Scoop Up you should be able to spam the
Ability to improve your odds of it working. So we
really are looking to see if any other Serperior
works better with it. There is Black & White
5/114, Black & White 6/114 (reprinted as BW:
Black Star Promos BW20, BW: Dragons Exalted
125/124, BW: Legendary Treasures 8/113), BW:
Boundaries Crossed 13/149, and BW: Legendary
Treasures RC3/RC25. All are Stage 2 Grass Type
Pokémon with Fire Weakness and none are Standard legal.
Black & White
5/114 has 130 HP, Water Resistance, a free Retreat Cost,
and two attacks. For [CC] it can use “Vine Whip”
to do 40, while for [GG] it can use “Leaf Storm” to hit
for 60 while healing 20 damage from all of your [G]
Pokémon. It was reviewed
here.
Black & White 6/114 also has 130 HP with Water
Resistance, but a Retreat Cost of [C], one Ability, and
an attack. The Ability is “Royal Heal”, which
heals 10 damage from each of your Pokémon between turns,
while the attack is “Leaf Tornado” for [GC], which does
60 damage and allows you to move your [G] Energy
attached to your Pokémon around as you wish. This
one was reviewed
here
and
here.
BW: Boundaries Crossed 13/149 has 140 HP, no
Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], and two attacks. For
[GC] it can use “Double Slash” to flip two coins and do
50 damage per “heads”, and for [GCC] it can use “Mega
Drain” to do 70 damage while healing 30 from itself.
This one too was
reviewed.
BW: Legendary Treasures RC3/RC25 also has 140 HP
with no Resistance, but with a Retreat Cost of [CC], one
Ability and one attack. The Ability is “Royal
Garden” which zeroes out its Retreat Cost if it has any
[G] Energy attached to it. The attack is “Solar
Beam” for [GCC] which does 80. Black & White
6/114 is somewhat tempting due to its healing Ability,
but none of these have proven worthwhile.
So if you want to
use Serperior (XY: Fates Collide 7/124),
stick to just that version. Forest of Giant Plants,
bounce effects, and spamming Servine (XY:
Fates Collide 6/124) are in order, as well as
Ariados (XY: Ancient Origins 6/98) so that
you can get some Poison to help with larger targets.
You’ll still need Muscle Band as well for things
like Mega Evolutions. I also suspect you’ll need
to just use Slashing Strike and not worry about Coil, as
the effect of Coil can be reset by things like Escape
Rope and Lysandre or simply by being KO’d.
As you need to bounce Serperior for the sake of
reusing Servine, it seems more prudent to just
hit for 80 each turn and ensure Serperior just
has to avoid a OHKO. So with Muscle Band
and Ariados, it can be 100 plus one or two damage
counters each turn. This kind of deck has already
surfaced, though I don’t know of any top cut finishes
for it at recent events. So for Standard or
Expanded, that is how I think one uses Serperior.
In Limited you just enjoy the line for what it is; no
spamming Abilities but it is an easy to splash Stage 2
with a useful Stage 1. Unless you’re deck
absolutely can’t, then you run it. Only being a
Stage 2 keeps it from being quite strong.
Ratings
Standard:
2.8/5
Expanded:
2.5/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Summary:
Serperior alone isn’t strong enough to be
competitive, but with its set-mate Servine it
might stand a chance as you can deliver solid blows
while often Paralyzing your opponent (thus avoiding
retaliation). Its low Energy attack helps with the
bounce tactics needed to spam the Evolution line with
Forest of Giant Plants.
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