What's "CroSparce" supposed to mean anyways?@Leftovers
Serene Grace | Careful OR Sassy
252 HP/ 252 Special Defense / 6 Defense
Rest
Sleep Talk
Curse
Rock Smash/Body Slam/Gyro Ball
Rock smash is strong on this set, due to 100% lowering defense and having good coverage against mightyena, one of the best NU walls. The downside is there are lots of bug types and poison types in NU, and a decent amount of fliers, too. Body slam is workable if you're worried about them and want para support for our team, but Gyro Ball is more useful since it hits most of NU for neutral and because curse is a "double set-up" move for it, but it loses "cool points" for not abusing Dunsparce's Serene Grace ability. Headbutt and the other flinch moves are worthless, since curse lowers speed. 0 Speed IV's are useful on sets that use Gyro Ball, as is the sassy nature.
StartlingSparce@Leftovers
Serene Grace | Adamant
114 HP / 252 Attack / 144 Speed
Thunder Wave/Body Slam
Rock Slide/Bite
Head Butt
Roost/Rock Smash/Earthquake
NU Flinchkiss. 'Nuff said. Roost is only worth considering for NU usage, otherwise Sparce is too frail for healing to mean anything. Bite is less necessary in NU due to lack of ghosts and the fact that rock/normal gets pretty decent coverage overall, leaving a clear spot for a ground move to take on wormadam steel or for rock smash The given EV's allow you to outspeed anything in the NU tier not wearing a scarf after paralyzing it, as well as letting you outspeed most scarfers in the tier, too. This set's biggest issue comes from it getting paralyzed and trick room teams that abuse trapinch and clamperl.
FashionableSparce@Choice Scarf
Serene Grace | Jolly
6 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Headbutt
Rockslide
Bite
Rock Smash/Earth Quake/Body Slam
Like ScarfKiss, this is the sort of solution to the "oh no, I'm slow" woes that most don't turn to, despite it being a viably powerful option. Scarfing your Dunsparce will let him outspeed everything in the tier except for +natured Raticate/Luvdisc, most things set up with +1 speed, and faster scarfers. To take them down, body slam is a definite option in the fourth slot, but, again, beware of trick room.
General Acksparce@Life Orb/Leftovers
Serene Grace | Adamant
252 HP / 216 Attack / 40 Defense
Body Slam/Thunder Wave/Glare
Roost
Rock Smash
Pursuit
This set comes courtesy of KiwiDean.
KiwiDean wrote:As Rock Smash now has a 100% chance of lowering defense, thanks to Serene Grace, the opponent will be severely tempted to switch their pokemon out. This gets the mind games going. Pursuit them, and they'll be maimed. Don't Pursuit them, and you get a free chance to Roost up, which is definitely useful, as Dunsparce can actually be quite bulky on occasion. The Def EVs are there just for some more bulk, but I don't think they're particularly necessary.
For held items, life orb is preferred to make the repeated rocksmashes or well-predicted pursuits more devastating, while lefties can be useful if you go a tad bulkier for survivability. The EV's are mostly basic, and can easily be shifted to have the 144 speed that Dunsparce likes with his paralyzing attacks, max attack, and the rest in HP for bulk. Likewise, if you want him more specially bulky, that option is at your disposal. Overall, it's a fun, creative set which is usable in the NU tier.
I'm A-Chargin' Mah Dunsparce@leftovers
Serene Grace | Modest
144 HP / 252 Special Attack / 36 Defense / 76 Special Defense
Charge Beam
Ice Beam
T-Wave/Glare/Roost
Ancient Power/Waterpulse/Flamethrower
Charge up special attack with charge beam, 20% freeze chance with ice beam and boltbeam combo justify the first two slots. The third slot is your choice of paralyzing move or roost, and the fourth slot goes to another attacking move. Ancient Power is worth it for the 20% chance of boosts to all stats, as well as for its ability to hit the bugs, fliers, and flying bugs of NU for large amounts of damage. Waterpulse's confuse chance and flamethrower's burn chance can greatly help with the set's longevity. If you want to go all-out attacking or have paralysis and roost, that's always an option, as the last two slots are rather flexible. The EV spread was calculated to give him maximum attack with the rest dumped in his defenses to provide neutral defensibility to give him better roost recovery survivability, but sets that eschew roost for a paralysis move will often want the 144 speed from the flinch spread. Likewise, this set can be easily shifted to wall and threaten certain sets mostly by changing its EV's around to give it lower attack or concentrate its defenses more on one side.
Tranquil Like A Flying Snake@leftovers
Serene Grace | Bold
252 HP / 252 Defense / 6 Special Defense
Calm Mind
Thunder
Ice Beam
Roost/Ancient Power
Thunder and ice beam give good freeze and paralysis chances, ancient power as discussed above for bugs, with Roost to improve longevity through healing. Flamethrower and water pulse are also workable in the last move slot as attacking moves that provide chances at longevity, but are generally inferior to roost. The EV spread is basic "calm mind tank," and is easily changeable to outspeed certain threats or to get more attack power before after or during set up based on the needs of your team.
Other options:
Dunsparce's roost is worth a lot more in NU than in UU, since there are fewer pokémon with high attack powers. On some sets, this could buy him the time it takes to set up, meaning a variety of different calm mind, curse, or even ancient-power focused sets that weren't shown are viable. Magic Coat can go over T-Wave/Glare/Body Slam on most sets, since it can provide status protection alongside spreading harmful status. In higher tiers, Dunsparce is easily not viable.
Opinion:
Let's face it: Dunsparce is basically the coolest Serene Grace user there is. He gets so many different tools to play with in his tranquil playground, massive flinch from STAB headbutt, the ability to be physical and flinch, charge beam, thunder, ice beam, flamethrower, and ancient power rounding out the special side, and not to mention that he's basically the only pokémon on the game that can be seriously threatening with rock smash. But all of his cool factors start to leave when he gets out of NU where a lot of the fun craziness mentioned in earlier sets is just not viable. Dunsparce is better at NU Serene Grace using than Kiss is at OU Serene Gracing, but the moment he moves up a single tier into UU competition, he's just not going to do his job well.
Counters:
In UU or higher tiers, Dunsparce is easily handled by one or two hits from almost any sweeper, and unless set up, he rarely threatens them. Against the flinch sets, ground types always counter unless Dunsparce uses glare or body slam. If it uses body slam, bring in a ghost. In NU, counters are different, depending on the set. Trickroom abuse teams love the flinch sets and the scarfset, and trapinch and clamperl both threaten these sets greatly, but these same teams have some minor issues with the crocurse set. Crocurse is best handled by phazing it away, preferably with butterfree who doesn't mind a rock smash as much as other NU phazers. The calm mind and charge beam sets can be taken down by just about any specially defensive phazer, and unless they're running magic coat they hate getting paralyzed. For all sets save Crocurse or sets running magic coat, basically anything that paralyzes can greatly cripple the set.