I am currently playing through Pokémon Black Version and this time around I used Emboar (for the first time). While playing through most of the game, i noticed how OP the Pokémon is. It had grown to level 44 before the 7th gym, and this is not me just being carried by it, i did not use it during the gyms that it was at a disadvantage (Gym 1,5,6 and 7).
I also learned that Pokémon do not need to look pleasant to be good Pokémon.
Emboar has such a good movepool at every stage of its development.
- Tepig: Flame Charge is great and after the first gym you get WorkUp and this thing becomes a monster.
- Pignite: Adds the Fighting-type and thus you get Arm Thrust. Not the best move, but it works well vs. Sturdy users. Or Rock Smash in Pinwheel Forest. Which leaves you sweeping Lenora.
- Emboar: Don't sleep on that 100 base Sp.Attack. It gets
Scald which is amazing. Flare Blitz, Stone Edge, Earthquake, Scald. Also Brick Break or Low Sweep if you want Fighting-type coverage. Hammer Arm is stronger, but leaves you a sitting duck unless you switch-out.
And that's without its Hidden Ability, which paired with Flare Blitz, Head Smash and Wild Charge gives you a nuke, but you basically have two turns to try and make this work since the recoil will get you killed.
Compare that to Serperior, which outside of Coil is such a deadweight. I mean Coil+Leaf Blade, that works. But the coverage moves it get are bad: Iron Tail through breeding or Aerial Ace or stuff like Facade/Strength/Giga Impact or Dragon Tail (which is fun, but doesn't work well with your great speed). It gets a bit better with Outrage in B2W2 though. The Hidden Ability is great, but leaves you predictable: Leaf Storm = +2 and then the rest of the options are Giga Drain and Dragon Pulse in B2W2. Compared to Emboar, Serperior is incredibly shallow and frustrating to use. It just looks good.
Fun fact: Serperior's attack stats are both at
75. Tepig hits off a base
63 Attack. One single
Work Up and your Tepig hits harder then a base
Serperior.
Samurott is fine, just has no direction it wants to go in terms of stat/moveset. Visually you'd think physical, stats imply special/mixed, moveset has plenty to make a physical set and just barely to make a special set work (Scald/IceBeam/GrassKnot/AirSlash).