Looking Back on an Era: Generation 6 LC

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With the release of X and Y and the onset of the sixth generation, many exciting mechanics changes arrived for LC. For instance, weather, which had dominated the fifth generation metagame, was no longer permanent. The move Knock Off was also given a hefty buff, becoming a powerful move in its own right in addition to removing the ever-common Eviolite. Meanwhile, Fairy-types and Pokémon such as Fletchling brought new checks and counters to the powerful Fighting type. These changes convinced LC to free most of its banlist at the start of the sixth generation, which lead to a rollercoaster of a generation, with various metagames, each with their own titans and strategies. In this article, we take one final look at the history of Generation 6 LC.

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Sneasel

At the beginning of the XY metagame, all of the previously banned Pokémon except Scyther were unbanned. This, combined with the excitement for newly released Pokémon, made the beginning of XY LC a chaotic metagame defined by truly overpowered old Pokémon and overhyped new ones. Some of the most exciting and most used of the new Generation 6 Pokémon were Swirlix, Bunnelby, and Honedge. Swirlix was initially used as a sweeper with Calm Mind, 3 attacks, and the newly unbanned Berry Juice, while Bunnelby—the cutest new Pokémon—drew attention because of possessing one of the highest Attack stats in LC thanks to its access to Huge Power, and Honedge was hyped for its unique defensive typing. Yet it was an older Pokémon that came to the forefront of the chaos: Sneasel. With a Speed stat far above anything else in the metagame, the potential to hit hard with Life Orb, and its access to the newly buffed Knock Off, Sneasel defined the beginning of the generation like nothing else. Teams often ran multiple dedicated Sneasel checks, such as Croagunk, Timburr, and Growlithe, and games frequently came down to Speed ties between opposing Sneasel.

Sneasel was soon quickbanned unanimously by the LC council due to its overwhelming speed, outrageous Attack, and extreme centralization.

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TangMa

TangMa is renowned as a sort of "Wild West" of the LC metagames, and as the closest thing to a balanced LC Ubers metagame that has existed in the sixth generation. For this reason, TangMa has been played in every LC Premier League since the beginning of XY (more on TangMa in LCPL below). The metagame was ruled by Tangela, which was able to use its sky-high stats and two great abilities in Chlorophyll and Regenerator to act as a terrifying sweeper in the sun or terrific bulky attacker in general. Yanma was also a major force to be reckoned with, able to either sweep with Speed Boost and a Life Orb or use its naturally high Speed and Compound Eyes to shut down its counters with Hypnosis and gain momentum on them with U-turn. Because both of the top two Pokémon were often seen with sleep-inducing moves (for Tangela, Sleep Powder; for Yanma, Hypnosis), sleep absorbers became a necessity on most teams. In addition, Belly Drum Swirlix began to dominate the metagame during this era, and sun teams, and consequently Vulpix, gained significant popularity. Meditite found limited usage as a threatening wallbreaker, but it struggled significantly against Gligar, Yanma, and Tangela, and the extreme speed of the metagame left it frequently revenge killed. Entry hazards did not last long in the developing metagame, with Defog seen on almost every team, which allowed SturdyJuice Magnemite and Tirtouga to become major threats, although Tirtouga's viability was hindered by the popularity of Tangela. Magnemite was fantastic for checking Gligar, Murkrow, Yanma, and Swirlix with its SturdyJuice HP Ice set, but it could also don a Choice Scarf in order to avoid being crippled by Knock Off and Hypnosis. Slowpoke was a resilient check for Gligar and Meditite, and it was quite popular despite the presence of Tangela and Yanma. A few Pokémon that would later become staples in the metagame, such as Mienfoo, Pawniard, Porygon, Chinchou, and Timburr, would begin to see use for their strengths, though the now-banned Pokémon prevented them from becoming as prominent.

Tangela was unanimously banned for being too bulky and too powerful for the tier to handle, while Yanma was unanimously banned for being so swift and powerful without leaving any means of reliable counterplay.

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LCPL TangMa

When TangMa was played again during LCPLs, the metagame shifted posthumously. For instance, Munchlax and especially Fletchling became much more popular in LCPL TangMa matches; Fletchling is now considered one of the best Pokémon in the metagame due to how well it matches against both Tangela and Yanma. These games saw more usage of Cotton Guard + Calm Mind Swirlix, Scarf Magnemite, and Haze Murkrow variants, none of which were very common during the actual TangMa metagame. The last LCPL also saw significant usage of Shellder.

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SwirlGar

This is often considered one of the worst Little Cup metagames. Before the banning of Tangela and Yanma, Cotton Guard Calm Mind Swirlix had hardly been discovered and was almost never used, so Swirlix was limited to running either a powerful but predictable Belly Drum set or the much less threatening Calm Mind + 3 attack set. But as Cotton Guard Calm Mind Swirlix was popularized, its diversity meant that it was hard to know what set Swirlix was using. This was amplified by how difficult both the Belly Drum and especially the Cotton Guard + CM set were to counter or even check, and how very few checks were shared. Even with dedicated counters, it could be hard to be certain Swirlix wasn't sweeping. For instance, Meditite could handle the Calm Mind or Belly Drum sets with the combo of Fake Out and Bullet Punch, but it could do little in the face of the Cotton Guard Calm Mind set. Alternatively, Clear Smog Foongus, Calm Mind Spritzee, and Ponyta were used to stop the fearsome Cotton Guard Calm Mind set but would fall to a +6 Return with a bit of prior damage. Despite its obvious drawbacks, Koffing ended up seeing some usage due to its ability to hard check all common Swirlix variants. Prankster Haze Murkrow also helped to impede Swirlix's sweep, but only once. Otherwise, keeping hazards off the field to keep Magnemite's Sturdy preserved was often key to not losing to Swirlix, though this wasn't too difficult a task thanks to the presence of Defog Gligar, which made SturdyJuice Magnemite and Tirtouga difficult deal with in general. In fact, Gligar had everything desirable in a Pokémon. It had great support capabilities as well as an incredible Swords Dance set, coupled with incredible bulk, good coverage between its STAB moves, the means to break through almost any defensive check except for physically defensive Slowpoke, and reliable recovery—all backed up by a lively Speed stat of 19. Gligar could fit on almost every team to no detriment; there was virtually never a reason to not use Gligar. Even Baton Pass variants, which used Swords Dance, usually alongside Meditite and Speed Boost Torchic, were extremely potent. Murkrow and Misdreavus were similarly diverse, though not to the same extreme, and they played critical roles in the metagame due to Speed tying Gligar at 19 Speed and their general high power. SwirlGar is where Murkrow's SubThief set was innovated, and this set made Murkrow very common and hard to reliable deal with. SwirlGar matches frequently came down to either winning a Speed tie or setting Swirlix up first.

Gligar's versatility was deemed too much for the tier by the LC council, and it was promptly banned. The unreliability of Swirlix counters left the tier in a state where Swirlix's set meant you won or lost a match, and this negative influence pushed the LC council to ban the cotton candy monster. As arguably the best sweeper to ever grace LC, Swirlix is unlikely to be unbanned ever, unless substantial changes to the metagame occur. And even then, it's doubtful it would happen.

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KrowTite

With the most absurdly limiting Pokémon gone, the metagame began to see some growth. Murkrow and Meditite began to cement their places as the premier offensive Pokémon of the tier and, with both being able to wallbreak so effectively, limited the viability of defensive teams substantially. Murkrow was extremely powerful with its mixed Life Orb set, which is often hailed as virtually impossible to switch into, but also often ran a Sub/Berry Juice/Thief set, popularised by dcae during SPL. Much of the metagame revolved around checking Murkrow, with RestTalk Chinchou becoming a staple on nearly as many teams as Murkrow itself and Spritzee rising in popularity. Berry Juice Munchlax also occasionally saw use during this era due to its ability to counter Life Orb Murkrow reliably and stay healthy by Recycling its item continually. Birdspam steadily gained popularity, with Murkrow being able to dispose of most answers to Flying-types effectively, clearing the path for Fletchling to sweep late-game. Meanwhile, Meditite benefited from no longer having to run Ice Punch to hit Gligar and had a range of other coverage moves to choose from to help against its counters. It was most effective with its Eviolite set, with Drain Punch providing longevity, although it also ran High Jump Kick with Life Orb to use its ridiculous Attack stat. Many other Pokémon benefited from Gligar's absence, which allowed them to no longer run Ice-type coverage moves. Magnemite now had room to run Hidden Power Ground for Chinchou and could use Volt Switch much more freely, whilst Timburr now no longer had to choose between Ice Punch and Poison Jab. It was this metagame in which Pawniard began to really excel. Pawniard was one of the best Scarf users in the tier, due to its unrivaled ability to revenge kill Misdreavus and Murkrow and resist Fletchling's Acrobatics.

Another notable playstyle in this era was hazard stacking. Since the premier Defog user had left the tier, Dwebble and Trubbish saw great rises in popularity, the latter of which could counter Mienfoo and Pawniard thanks to Sticky Hold and Recycle. Hazard removal was relatively uncommon at first, which quickly cemented Dwebble as one of the most threatening support Pokémon in the game. Backed up by a fantastic spinblocker in Misdreavus and a threatening Defog deterrent in Defiant Pawniard, hazards were very difficult to remove, and this only made Meditite and Murkrow's wallbreaking prowess more potent. Mienfoo soon switched from running a slow pivot set to a faster Taunt variant to shut Dwebble leads down. As the metagame started adapting to Dwebble, Onix was sometimes used to outspeed and Taunt Dwebble while setting up Stealth Rock itself. Drilbur began seeing significant usage as a fantastic Rapid Spinner and often ran Swords Dance to heavily damage Misdreavus with Mold Breaker Earthquake, which many teams had trouble switching into. The general lack of Ground resistances except for frail Flying-types led to Diglett beginning to see some usage towards the end of KrowTite. Omanyte was discovered part way through this metagame and soon became fairly popular. Cottonee's offensive set began seeing use. Wynaut has never been as popular as it was in this era as well, thanks to the fact it could switch into Meditite with ease and remove it from the game. In fact, many Psychic-types were used in an attempt to neuter the threat of Meditite, including Slowpoke, Exeggcute and even Elgyem.

Murkrow was banned by the LC council due to its insane raw power coupled with its ability to muscle past its few counters. Meditite's pure power and plethora of coverage options and ways to circumvent its counters made it an incredibly centralizing, and often overwhelming, force in the metagame; Meditite was banned by the LC council on account of its devastating traits. Swagger was banned during this meta as well, partially because Murkrow could run a very threatening yet uncompetitive Swagger set, which made it even harder to handle.

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Misdreavus

Naturally when the two of most the potent wallbreakers in the LC tier had been banned, the metagame was able to evolve into a metagame where balance and even semi-stall could actually exist. Despite this, offense was still the most popular style, and Misdreavus, Fletchling, and Shell Smashers shone as the early dominating forces of the metagame. Yet teams were able to diversify in a meaningful way for the first time in Generation 6 LC; balance teams based on Porygon + Spritzee defensive cores, sun teams, Flying-type spam, various hyper offense teams, and hazard stacking teams were all staples of the tier. More importantly, none of these were head and shoulders above all the other options either, another first for the tier. Misdreavus fit onto most of these archetypes with minimal consequences, and this resulted in a plethora of metagame trends. Non-mixed Fletchling began to run enough bulk to survive a +2 Hidden Power Fighting after Stealth Rock damage; Scarf Pawniard was on an astounding number of teams; Porygon gained traction and gave balance a great answer to Misdreavus; Eviolite Houndour and Stunky saw decent usage as Pursuit trappers almost exclusively for Misdreavus; Abra was forced to run Shadow Ball; and Omanyte was usually forced to run Hydro Pump to OHKO Misdreavus. With Murkrow banned, Fletchling was the premier Flying-type of the era. In the early weeks of the new metagame, Doduo and Fletchling dominated the scene, tearing apart and sweeping teams as a fearsome core. However, this core became less popular fairly quickly, and Fletchling was left to break for itself. Yet Fletchling still dominated the metagame alongside Misdreavus, and often the two would act as sweeping pairs which pressured balance immensely, especially when the duo was used on VoltTurn. Yet despite Fletchling's omnipresence, sun teams grew to be one of the most memorable aspects of the era, since they happened to have the right balance of speed, power, and flexibility. mad0ka's Sun team was the most influential and one of the strongest teams to date. Between sun teams, Misdreavus, and Fletchling, balance again began to suffer and become overall less reliable once more. And as the shift away from balance progressed, Diglett made its debut as a menace. Here, the infamous Fletchling + Diglett core became a standard. Other hyper offense trends, such as the re-emergence of Zigzagoon hyper offense, hastened the decline of balance. As the era neared its end, sun teams, Fletchling, and Misdreavus exerted the most influence on the tier.

Fletchling and Misdreavus were suspected as a result of their insane centralization, while sun was left alone to continue to shine until further notice. Misdreavus's ability to be simultaneously a great supportive asset and one of the best offense threats caused the LC council to ban the ghost, while Fletchling's general inability to handle its counters and its only moderate centralization was deemed to be balanced enough for LC.

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Post-Misdreavus

With the ban of Misdreavus, the metagame settled into a much more balanced and diverse state. Mienfoo benefitted from the loss of the tier's biggest burn spreader and rose to become the top Pokémon in the metagame, where it would remain for the rest of the generation. Pawniard, too, got a boost from the lack of Misdreavus, as it could now afford to forgo a Choice Scarf and instead adopt a role as a support Pokémon or Swords Dance sweeper. Fletchling was still prominent, and even more often coupled with Diglett. However, with the suspect had come a general metagame trend towards running more Fletchling checks on a team. This gave Pokémon such as Archen and Chinchou a new place in the metagame.

Another important aspect of the post-Misdreavus metagame was the rise of varied team types. In previous metagames, the only playstyles seen had been standard offense, sun in the TangMa and Misdreavus metagames, Spikes stacking teams, and only limited balance teams. With Misdreavus's ban, new archetypes that would define the generation began to appear. Setup sweepers were now much more viable, because they didn't need to be able to OHKO Misdreavus to be effective, and thus building around them became extremely common. Teams based around Belly Drum Zigzagoon became especially popular, often pairing Zigzagoon with a Memento user such as Cottonee or Diglett. Sticky Web teams, though they had existed since the beginning of the generation, saw a spike in usage, because the tier was no longer defined by a fast Pokémon immune to Sticky Web. Even semi-stall teams were now possible, including GlassGlaceon's popular RMT Kaleidoscope.

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Early ORAS

The metagame shifts that ORAS brought Little Cup were relatively tame compared to those of many other tiers, but they still presented some interesting new options. At the forefront were Snivy, Skrelp, and Pancham, which obtained Contrary, Adaptability, and Knock Off, respectively. Snivy immediately became, and remains, a potent sweeper against bulkier builds with Contrary Leaf Storm allowing it to break past slower teams once Foongus and Vullaby have been removed, though it struggles to get around revenge killers when facing offense. Skrelp quickly became popular for its ability to check some of the tier's most important threats in Fighting- and Fire-types while still being extremely difficult to switch into. Pancham was used as a Parting Shot pivot with its newfound ability to cripple a variety of switch-ins with Knock Off or as a Swords Dance wallbreaker due to its excellent coverage; however, it soon fell out of favor because Mienfoo and Timburr were more useful against a wider variety of matchups. A few other Pokémon benefited slightly, such as Ferroseed gaining Knock Off and Amaura gaining Snow Warning, but these were relatively minor. Gothita gained Trick, which didn't significantly improve it but did help bring it to the attention of the LC community. As a result, some Gothita-weak Pokémon such as Foongus and defensive Cottonee suffered somewhat, although those with significant offensive presence, such as Skrelp, remained prominent, as the main Gothita variant, Scarf Gothita, was unable to switch in on them.

Bulky offense, especially built around VoltTurn cores, was soon cemented as the dominant archetype. Timburr grew in popularity to become arguably the best sweeper at the time and was often paired with Pursuit Stunky to eliminate Ghost- and Psychic-types. Ponyta was often listed among the top threats. Porygon + Sprizee and Ferroseed + Spritzee were considered two of the toughest cores to break. The bulkier metagame meant that Fletchling was on the decline; meanwhile, offensive Vullaby was beginning to gain popularity as the bird of choice. Sun and Spikes stacking were no longer the dominant archetypes they once were, although Tricking's Spikes-stack VoltTurn team brought a temporary resurgence to Dwebble. Taking advantage of how slow many teams were, wallbreakers such as Gastly, Snivy, Swords Dance Pawniard, and Aipom steadily rose in viability. However, the Pokémon that took advantage of these trends the most was Diglett.

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Rise of Trappers

While trappers were somewhat useful in the KrowTite era, the only one seen often was Wynaut, which swiftly fell out of favor once Meditite was banned. In its place, Diglett and Gothita began to see usage as trappers in the Misdreavus metagame, often used alongside Fletchling and Zigzagoon, in Diglett's case, and alongside Timburr and Carvanha, in Gothita's. After Misdreavus's ban, both trappers further rose in viability. It took until the metagame had settled after the release of ORAS, though, for the trappers to truly shine. With the release of ORAS, Ponyta, Croagunk, Skrelp, and Chinchou's usage rocketed up, all of which Diglett could trap and remove, and therefore Diglett saw a spike in usage alongside them. Before, Diglett's role was limited to trapping and removing counters from specific sweeper partners, but with such a wide number of Pokémon that Diglett could trap now everywhere, Diglett started fitting onto teams as a glue Pokémon. VoltTurn teams and even bulky balance teams were now utilizing the mole, which had been limited previously entirely to hyper offense. Gothita also became more viable, though not nearly as easy to fit on teams as Diglett. Gothita was able to trap irksome Pokémon for nearly every sweeper in Little Cup, using unique coverage moves depending on what a team needed eliminated. It was successfully paired with everything ranging from Fletchling to Pawniard to Omantye to Carvanha to Scraggy to Timburr. Ultimately, Gothita remained less common than Diglett yet far more viable and dangerous than it was in the Misdreavus meta. Diglett was suspected twice, and Gothita was suspected once along with it; however, though dominant, neither Pokémon has ever been deemed too much for LC to handle. Simultaneous with the meteoric rise of Diglett and Gothita, full Baton Pass teams also became notable. Originally, these teams were deemed gimmicks, but as better teams using it were developed, Baton Pass as a whole was taken more seriously. In fact, between the two suspects of Diglett, Baton Pass itself was the suspect of choice for the LC community at large, though it was deemed competitive enough to remain in LC.

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Rise of Drifloon

Since the Missy meta, Drifloon had barely seen usage and was nothing more than an irksome foe. However, during SPL 7, prominent LCers began to use a new Drifloon set. Its usage in SPL 7 showcased Drifloon's potential to beat almost the entire metagame through Will-O-Wisp to cripple physical attackers, Recycle to recover health while opponents were worn down from their burns, and Unburden to give it the potential to outspeed the entire metagame after consuming Berry Juice. With the discovery of this new set, and as more and more players began to use Drifloon, the meta became centralized around it. To the frustration of many, Drifloon now could dispose of most Flying-type counters and caused Pokémon such as Archen to fall out of favor. Instead, Ponyta was used to handle Drifloon and skyrocketed up in popularity once more, with Berry Juice Magnemite and Chinchou following suite, and more obscure Pokémon began to be used just for their ability to counter Drifloon, such as Hyper Voice Amaura and Boomburst Taillow. Many of the relatively few Pokémon which could handle Drifloon were susceptible to Diglett, making this an extremely effective pair. Trapinch became somewhat relevant, being infrequently used in Diglett's place for its ability to trap Magnemite reliably.

Responding to a growing anti-Drifloon sentiment, LC decided to suspect and, subsequently, ban Drifloon. The ban was by far the most controversial of the sixth generation, as many believed Drifloon should be given more time for the metagame to settle around it, while others still blamed Diglett for being broken and considered it the real cause of the problem.

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Post-Floon

With Drifloon banned from the tier, LC has returned to the fairly balanced metagame it was before Drifloon's rise to the top. However, Calm Mind+Rest Gothita has gained momentum in the tier after its success in SPL and has helped shape the metagame into a more offensive tier. Shellder has also cemented itself as a metagame force, no longer being overlooked in favor of other Water-types. Due to various minor changes in the metagame, Dark-type spam has become slightly more popular than before while Fighting and Water spam have become slightly less prominent. As a whole the metagame is very balanced, though some still hold grievances of Diglett being left unbanned.

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