Competitive Retypes

I decided to put this here because I really didn't see another place to put it. Basically, what I want people to do is to consider a pokemon and wonder if that pokemon would appreciate a different typing. I got the idea from this http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue10/retype, to show a few examples of what I mean. Now, I want to know what added typings would be useful in this generation.

Here is one that I randomly thought of -

(I scratched those fins!)

Taken from bulbapedia (though edited slightly)- Offensively, Grass-types have problems. The main problem Grass-type moves face is that nearly all of the few Pokémon they are advantageous against are also weak to moves of other types, making them seem dwarfed by the other moves. Too many Pokémon types resist these moves to rely on them as a main form of dealing damage, and most of them aren't very powerful. Even then, most of the powerful moves have drawbacks, which can cause more trouble. Making matters worse, the majority of Grass-types have very narrow movesets, often where the only damage-dealing level up moves are Grass-type and Normal-type moves. Another problem is that double resistances to Grass are extremely common, even more so than double weaknesses, and the ability Sap Sipper, which several Pokémon have, negates Grass-type attacks, raising Attack whenever hit with one.

It is really clear that Serperior wants a retype. It follows the grass symdrome very well, learning essentially nothing but grass and normal, and relying on hidden power hugely. Grass is a very poor move as STAB, and Serperior really wants to be grass/water instead of plain grass for a larger movepool. The applications of this might seem really off, as it may seem like grass/fire or grass/dragon might be more offensively effective, but this is the reason that I chose grass/water over other types -

Better defensive typing. Grass/water is better than grass/nothing for its better defensive typing. Serperior actually has 75/95/95 defenses, which in my opinion, should not be squandered by using grass/dragon for instance. Grass/dragon has a massive ice weakness, and has many others such as flying, bug, poison, ice, and dragon, many of which are commonly seen in OU. The 4x ice weakness also makes it an easy revenge kill with the relatively common ice shard. Another bonus of grass/water is that all priority moves are only neutral hits, and some, such as aqua jet and bullet punch are resisted. Also, grass/water only has three weaknesses and 3 resists, as opposed to the 5 weaknesses and 4 resists. Although it misses the electric resist, the removal of fire and ice weaknesses is worth it. Grass/fire has less weakness troubles than grass/dragon, but its weakness to stealth rock is less appealing.

Ability to defeat counters. This is the main reason why grass/water is chosen above grass/fire. Grass/fire is able to hit many things that have a 4x resistance to fire much harder with often a super effective STAB, but most of these would be defeated with hidden power without the STAB and the greater amount of power anyways. Pokemon that switch in on leaf storm are easily killed with a +2 move that the grass/water version would get, such as hydro pump. This typing is actually the only one that allows it to defeat heatran and dragonite on the same team, as water types almost always get ice beam, which serperior has always dreamed of having. Even though it doesn't have two moves that can shoot its SpA to the moon, one for the most part, is enough. Serperior can actually defeat a blissey switch-in. Hypothetical battle, assuming 252 hp 252 Def 4 SpD (serperior is holding lum berry and Timid)-

Ponyboy withdraws Swampert!
Ponyboy sends out Blissey!
Serperior uses leaf storm!
Blissey loses 145/714 of its health!
(no shed shell) Blissey's leftovers heal its health! (90)

Serperior uses leaf storm!
Blissey loses 291/714 of its health! (blissey is now at 368/714 w/leftovers, 278/714 w/o)

Next, two things can happen. Blissey can try to use toxic, thunder wave, attack with seismic toss, or recover with softboiled or wish. If blissey uses toxic/twave and does not have shed shell, serperior will use lum berry and KO next turn with hydro pump or leaf storm. If it has leftovers, then serperior has a chance to KO in the same manner, about 50-50 with SR, and a guaranteed KO with one layer of spikes as well. If serperior is unlucky, it will win the battle, but with a status condition such as paralysis if blissey repeats the move. The player could also get lucky with a toxic miss or if the opponent uses softbolied turn after to recover health after the status attempt, which is KO'd despite the additional health. If blissey, attacks, serperior wins the battle with lowered health, and if itrecovers with softboiled....etc. the most troubling sets are those with wish/protect, as it can waste leaf storm's precious Hp. If you want to prevent serperior from wasting pp, swtiching out is another option, and can allow a teammate such as scizor to get a free swords dance.


Here is a hypothetical set -

- Leaf Storm
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hidden power fire
@Lum berry/Life Orb/Miracle Seed/Leftovers
Timid
252 SpA, 252 Spe, 5 spD

Leaf Storm is the strongest attack, hydro pump provides coverage and secondary STAB, ice beam prevents dragons from raining on your parade, and hidden power fire is to hit ferrothorn and genesecct on the switch. The lum berry is to prevent annoying status such as paralysis and poison, and life orb guarantees victory against blissey as well as a 0hko on some extremely bulky waters, but sacrifices bulk and time on the field. Miracle Seed also guarantees leftover-holding blissey death, though it doesn't have much other use. Leftovers give more health. Timid is used to take full advantage of serperior's base 118 speed. A choice scarf could be used as well to put it in front of other scarfters, but it really isn't that necessary, as with 'chomp out of the picture, serperior's natural bulk can handle most hits. Cscarf genesect can a problem with Bug Buzz, but it will be a problem on any other set as well.

That's awesome. It's like a Delta Species!

-_- I spen so long typing these...