Pokemon Black/White 2 Ingame Tier List

[eclipse]

Iron Tail for Ice-types, and to make sure that you can do something to Ghosts. That's about it. Return's base power is slightly higher, and doesn't require Coil accuracy to be awesome. Iron Tail also costs shards, and Return comes for free early. I'd probably use Return, and reserve Iron Tail for postgame (if at all).

Edited December 1, 2012 by eclipse

[Espinosa]

this is assuming that you even need to power up to 6 stages, or that serperior is 2HKO'd by the opponent. but here's the deal: if serperior is getting 2HKO'd, then he's never going to pull off a successful setup anyway. so he has to set up against an opponent that 3HKOs at worst. if you're at full HP, then a critical hit doesn't matter, because you'll just heal it back right away. you have greater leeway to be careful with coil because you'll be taking less and less damage, whereas with growth, 1 attack will put you in KO range of a critical hit.

If both variants need X items for survival, then the longer you stay in, the higher the odds of being crit'd. Coil's defensive advantage only applies to setting up on physical attackers.

How many Coils do you expect to use before sweeping in important battles? Will this number OHKO? If not, shouldn't you be restoring HP back as you attack?

if he is 2HKO'd, then you need an x item. clearly coil has the advantage here against physical opponents because coil boosts the attacking stats at the same time. frosty fire mage brings up a good point with light screen: it's better at blocking special damage than an x sp. def., and coil serperior has the moveslot to spare. growth serperior is stuck with sunny day. coil serperior can also run leech seed.

An addition of Light Screen to a Coil set leaves Coil Serperior with no moveslot advantage over the Growth variant - both are then restricted to two offensive moves at best, so a STAB + a coverage move, likely Return or Aqua Tail/Iron Tail. Coil + Light Screen provides solid defence but does not accelerate the setup process.

@ cottonee setting up sunny day: why don't we just baton pass +6/+6 atk/spe to serperior instead

+1 speed should be more than enough I'm sure. I get the implied meaning but Cottonee's easy to catch and needn't be trained. Point is, anything can come in and set up Sunny Day before dying. Baton Passing in-game is limited to Patrat, Eeveelutions, Drifblim and Lopunny. None of them really take hits better than Serperior.

you could just use strength or iron tail

And deal no effective damage to menacing dragon enemies. Do you believe there's no value in being able to power up special moves? Because that's another thing Coil Serperior can't do, besides X items.

Iron Tail for Ice-types, and to make sure that you can do something to Ghosts. That's about it. Return's base power is slightly higher, and doesn't require Coil accuracy to be awesome. Iron Tail also costs shards, and Return comes for free early. I'd probably use Return, and reserve Iron Tail for postgame (if at all).

Iron Tail can be useful for OHKOing Zinzolin's Cryogonals. One major drawback is that it's nearly incompatible with Aqua Tail on the same playthrough. Return might be wasted on a 75 base attack Pokemon, lacking STAB and not hitting anything super-effectively, but it is an early option and the only coverage Serperior can have without shards (not so much coverage as "use this when it's about to die" or hitting something that resists grass). Aqua Tail helps with steel-types and ghosts alike, but running Aqua Tail and Leaf Blade/Giga Drain alone leaves you with nothing to hit dragons with.

[BBM]

Hey you guys missed Lapras. He's pretty good since he comes with STAB Ice Beam just before the Dragon gym and has decent durability. Pretty decent stats overall so I'd say either High or Upper Mid?

[Espinosa]

Lapras has availability problems to be in High IMO, and 5% encounter rate in rippling water means it takes time to catch (at least other Pokemon with the same catch rate in shaking grass can be caught more easily unevolved). Its typing and moves are good for the last two gyms (Thunder for Marlon) and Iris, but not so much for the E4.

[BBM]

I guess rarity is a point against it, but I didn't think we were counting it. It doesn't have great availability, no, but then I'd question why Staryu is in High when its availability is not much better (they both come between the sixth and seventh gyms), and they share fairly similar performance. Starmie has better Sp.Atk and Spd than Lapras but doesn't get Ice Beam against Drayden like Lapras does. It gets Ice Beam for Iris, but lacks STAB so it probably deals less damage despite having better Sp. Atk. It's more likely to outspeed though. As for the rest of the E4, Starmie does better against Marshall, but is weak against both Grimsley and Shauntal.

Overall I can't see how Staryu > Lapras by a tier. Either they should both be in Upper Mid or they should both be in High. Thinking a bit upon it I'd suggest they both go in Upper Mid.

[Espinosa]

I don't agree with Staryu being in High either. Psychic-typing is bad in the E4 with ghost/dark specialists and fighting-type mons packing Payback. If Starmie's not OHKOing with Psychic, it should stay away from Marshall much like Lapras. Blizzard is an option for Drayden though, as is Thunder for Marlon.