Little Legends Cup! (Now playable on Aqua Server!)

Thanks to Eevee General and The Immortal for approval!

LITTLE LEGENDS CUP


What would Legendaries play like if they were legal in a Little-Cup-like format? How does a Level 5 Pokemon with Arceus' ability and movepool stack up to the strongest Little Cup has to offer? And how can this be balanced into a viable, interesting Metagame?

Well, here is Little Legends Cup! In this format, Little Cup is played exactly as before, except all Legendary Pokemon are now also allowed!

"But wait, how is that balanced?"
Well, in order to balance this, all Legendaries will have their base stats halved (and rounded up), and then increased depending on their current tiers (with Borderlined Pokemon rounded up to the next tier). After halving their stats:
  • Uber-tier Legendary Pokemon have an increase of +5 per base stat.
  • OU-tier Legendary Pokemon have an increase of +10 per base stat.
  • UU-tier Legendary Pokemon have an increase of +15 per base stat.
  • RU-tier Legendary Pokemon have an increase of +20 per base stat.
  • NU-tier (and lower) Legendary Pokemon have an increase of +25 per base stat.
  • Mega Rayquaza is above Ubers and as such, does not get any stat increases.
So for example, Arceus's base stats are usually base 120 across the board, but as it is an Uber they are halved to base 60 and then +5 is added, resulting in base 65 stats across the board. Note that Mega forms and Primal reversions are all allowed for the time-being.

Additionally, all Little Legendaries are capable of holding an Eviolite to boost their defenses should they choose to, though of course they must forgo other item options such as a Primal Orb, Life Orb, etc. However, if the playerbase deems this broken once play has begun, this may be retracted.

For a full list of the new base stats, open the spoiler below.

Base Stats are placed in the following order: HP/Att/Def/SpA/SpD/Spe

Ubers (and above):
Arceus (all forms): - 65/65/65/65/65/65
Darkrai: - 40/50/50/73/50/68
Deoxys-N: - 30/80/30/80/30/80
Deoxys-A: - 30/95/15/95/15/80
Deoxys-D: - 30/40/85/40/85/50
Deoxys-S: - 30/53/50/53/50/95
Dialga: - 55/65/65/80/55/50
Genesect: - 41/65/53/65/53/55
Giratina: - 80/55/65/55/65/50
Giratina-Origin: - 80/65/55/65/55/50
Groudon:
(Normal) - 55/80/75/55/50/50
(Primal) - 55/95/85/80/50/50
Ho-oh: - 58/70/50/60/83/50
Kyogre:
(Normal) - 55/55/50/80/75/50
(Primal) - 55/80/50/95/85/50
Kyurem-White: - 68/65/50/90/55/53
Lugia: - 58/50/70/50/82/60
Mewtwo:
(Normal) - 58/60/50/82/50/70
(Mega-X) - 58/100/55/82/55/70
(Mega-Y) - 58/80/40/100/65/75
Palkia: - 50/65/55/80/65/55
Rayquaza:
(Normal) - 58/80/50/80/50/53
(Mega) - 53/90/50/90/50/58
Reshiram: - 55/65/55/80/65/50
Shaymin-Sky: - 55/57/43/65/43/69
Xerneas: - 68/71/53/71/54/55
Yveltal: - 68/71/53/71/54/55
Zekrom: - 55/80/65/65/55/50

OU:
Diancie-Mega: - 35/90/65/90/65/65
Heatran: - 56/55/63/75/63/49
Keldeo: - 56/46/55/75/55/64
Kyurem-Black: - 73/95/60/70/55/58
Landorus: - 55/73/55/68/50/51
Landorus-Therian: - 55/83/55/63/50/56
Latias:
(Normal) - 50/50/55/65/75/65
(Mega) - 50/60/70/80/86/65
Latios:
(Normal) - 50/55/50/75/65/65
(Mega) - 50/75/60/90/70/65
Manaphy: - 60/60/60/60/60/60
Mew: - 60/60/60/60/60/60
Terrakion: - 56/75/55/46/55/64
Thundurus: - 50/68/45/73/50/66
Thundurus-Therian: - 50/63/45/83/50/62
Tornadus-Therian: - 50/60/50/65/55/71
Zapdos: - 55/55/53/63/55/60
Zygarde: - 64/60/71/51/58/58

UU:
Azelf: - 53/78/50/78/50/73
Celebi: - 65/65/65/65/65/65
Diancie: - 40/65/90/65/90/40
Entei: - 73/73/58/60/53/65
Jirachi: - 65/65/65/65/65/65
Kyurem: - 78/80/60/80/60/63
Raikou: - 60/58/53/73/65/73
Shaymin: - 65/65/65/65/65/65
Suicune: - 65/53/73/60/73/58
Tornadus: - 55/73/50/78/55/76

RU:Cobalion: - 66/65/85/65/56/74
Cresselia: - 80/55/80/58/85/63
Meloetta:
(Normal) - 70/56/56/84/84/65
(Pirouette) - 70/84/65/56/56/84
Moltres: - 65/70/65/83/63/65
Registeel: - 60/58/95/58/95/45
Virizion: 66/65/56/65/85/74

NU:
Articuno: - 70/68/75/73/88/68
Mesprit: - 65/78/78/78/78/65
Regice: - 65/50/75/75/125/50
Regigigas: - 80/105/80/65/80/75
Regirock: - 65/75/125/50/75/50
Uxie: - 63/63/90/63/90/73


That's basically it! Level 5 Legends with lowered stats, fitting into a metagame made for baby Pokemon. How will it play out? Which ones will play well and which ones fall behind? Which Little Cup standards will rise to the challenge of countering these miniature monsters? Only time will tell!

A few things to keep in mind:
- Remember that the Little Legends are capable of holding an Eviolite, unlike regular legendaries. This is important when deciding what Pokemon to use in a defensive or bulky manner.
- Several Little Legends have unique or rare abilities that you cannot find among the normal roster of Little Cup. Factor these into your decisions during team-building.
- The same goes for moves that are rare in Little Cup but may be unique to Ubers or other Legendaries / fully-evolved Pokemon. While Hyper Beam and Giga Impact are irrelevant, there are other moves such as Bolt Strike, Extremespeed, Judgement, Sacred Fire and Psystrike that may sway your decision to use a certain Pokemon. Additionally, Legendaries and other fully-evolved Pokemon tend to have far wider movepools than the NFE Pokemon normally found in Little Cup
- All the same, some of the Little Legends may simply be outclassed by regular Little Cup veterans in their regular roles. For example, Mewtwo's offensive stats of 60/82/70 simply pale in comparison to Abra's 20/105/90 (attack aside) and ability to use a recoil-less Life Orb, so if you choose Mewtwo make sure you do not use it as an inferior Abra and instead use what it has that Abra does not - its superior movepool, decent Attack stat, usable bulk, and access to Mega forms.
- Latios, Latias, Mewtwo, Groudon, Kyogre and Arceus are immune to the effects of Knock Off and Trick/Switcheroo if they are holding their Mega Stones, Primal Orbs or Elemental Plates. This can be extremely significant as Knock Off is very influential in Little Cup and can be debilitating to a lot of (otherwise potentially superior) Pokemon in this tier (though the Latis and Mewtwo are weak to the move), and nothing viable in the regular Little Cup metagame boasts an immunity to Trick.
- All standard clauses apply, including Sleep Clause, Species Clause, Evasion Clause and OHKO Clause.
- All move illegalities caused by Pokemon being Level 5 are not present, allowing all Pokemon to use any moves they learn solely by level-up.
- The following things are banned from Little Legends Cup at the current time:
  1. All normally banned moves and abilities. Currently this constitutes Moody, Swagger, Dragon Rage and Sonicboom in addition to those moves banned via Clauses (e.g. Double Team), but may include others at a later date.
  2. Soul Dew is banned. Other items may be banned if circumstances dictate.
  3. The "Little Cup Ubers" - that is, Scyther, Sneasel, Gligar, Tangela, Meditite, Swirlix and Yanma - are banned. They may be unbanned for testing at a later date if such an option becomes warranted however, with the exception of Scyther who is clearly still broken and will never be unbanned.
If you are not familiar with Little Cup, it may be best for you to play that metagame first before trying Little Legends Cup. Otherwise, try this out and see what works for you!

This metagame can be played on the Aqua Server, here: http://aqua.psim.us/
You will need a good knowledge of how EVs function at Level 5 in order to effectively team-build, however, as the teambuilder does not currently show the lowered stats but the regular stats of the Legendaries.

----------

NOTE: The stat-changes for Legendaries may be altered if there is a common opinion that they are generally too high or too low.
 
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Snaquaza

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Reserved.

(Also, can someone tell me how to make a spoiler? Thanks).

You may now post.
[hide="Spoiler" ][/hide]

Edit: I can Mesprit being very good here. It has very high stats for the metagame. While it's typing is still fairly bad, it has an awesome movepool which you'll know if you've ever played NU. It pretty much has coverage for everything you want and it even gets some support options like Healing Wish and U-Turn. Levitate is a pretty good ability and it has four times a stat of 78, which is around as high as the stats of most other mons are.
 
I added in Uxie, which I missed for some reason. If anyone else notices a missing Legendary (Phione and Rotom are not Legendaries), please tell me.

And obviously, the NU legendaries have (comparatively) huge stats here so they will be tricky to face, especially since they are all defensively-oriented and can utilise Eviolite. I doubt any of them are particularly broken though. Regirock for example doesn't have much more physical bulk than Onix, so powerful fighting and water types will still leave a huge mark, its special bulk is good but not stellar, and it has no form of recovery outside of rest.
 
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Snaquaza

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I added in Uxie, which I missed for some reason. If anyone else notices a missing Legendary (Phione and Rotom are not Legendaries), please tell me.

And obviously, the NU legendaries have (comparatively) huge stats here so they will be tricky to face, especially since they are all defensively-oriented and can utilise Eviolite. I doubt any of them are particularly broken though. Regirock for example doesn't have much more physical bulk than Onix, so powerful fighting and water types will still leave a huge mark, its special bulk is good but not stellar, and it has no form of recovery outside of rest.
I think I noticed Moltres was missing while I was coding this. Anyway it should almost be done.
To not let this post go to waste, I think DeoA and DeoS should be pretty good. Both are really fast, have great movepools and can support the team with priority and spikes/SR. Deoxys is the fastest thing in the meta tied with Voltorb, so it should be able to revenge kill a lot. DeoA is probably the best mixed Pokemon in LC as it has extremely good offenses and great speed. Both (and tbh all) Deoxys formes are p frail though, and DeoxysN is still outclassed by A unless you need to survive some specific hits. I guess it can run Eviolite though. Deoxys Defense could be decent, but I don't see it being too great with that low HP.
 

MZ

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Viable regigigas? I thought only fu accomplished that! Tbh a lot of these are simply unusable, but some good looking ones I'm seeing rn are both tornadus formes and Landorus formes, cresselia, Zygarde, and The Lord Mega Latias. Are you going to consider adding Hoopa and Volcanion even though they aren't released?
 
Isn't this a pet mod since it changes base stats (of the legendaries, primarily)?

Anyway, Registeel looks like a good wall, but I don't see many other legends with good-ish stats.
Come to think of it, this Meta is like Tier Shift + Inverse 350 Cup + LC :P
 
Poor Regigigas, even worse here than in Ubers.

All Primal Reversions and mega evolutions in here is definitely not balanced. Especially when Mewtwo has two VERY potent megas that work in opposite ways.
 

dhelmise

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Isn't this a pet mod since it changes base stats (of the legendaries, primarily)?

Anyway, Registeel looks like a good wall, but I don't see many other legends with good-ish stats.
Come to think of it, this Meta is like Tier Shift + Inverse 350 Cup + LC :P
Well, Tier Shift and 350 Cup change stats and aren't pet mods.
 
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Isn't this a pet mod since it changes base stats (of the legendaries, primarily)?

Anyway, Registeel looks like a good wall, but I don't see many other legends with good-ish stats.
Come to think of it, this Meta is like Tier Shift + Inverse 350 Cup + LC :P
It's not specific changes for each Pokemon but a general rule/formula.
 
Some tidbits that stand out

Deoxys Speed is the only added Pokemon to match or exceed Abra, Poliwag, Ponyta and Meowth in base Speed, Voltorb outspeeds even Deoxys Speed, Diglett and Elekid tie with Deoxys Speed. The little legends are not the Pokemon to look at for raw Speed, including oddly enough Deoxys Speed. (Though obviously movepool gives Deoxys Speed utility) This in particular impairs several of the legends that lean heavily on their Speed for their normal tactics, such as Darkrai.

Levitate is substantially more common -there's 7 Levitators in LC normally, and this adds 7 more. (Not counting the Mega Latis) So double the Levitators.

Pressure is considerably more available, going from just Wailmer to... a lot of Pressure Pokemon. Furthermore, Wailmer has limited ability to actually abuse Pressure, making it much more relevant in Little Legends Cup than in Standard Little Cup. Behold as Kyurem Pressure-Roosts through all your PP!

Weather! Instead of just Snover and Hippopotas, we've also got Sun and Rain setters. Also Delta Stream, but from a Singles perspective it barely counts as a weather.

Competent Special Fighting attackers! (Few LC Pokemon get Focus Blast, fewer get Aura Sphere, still fewer have the stats for Special at the same time)

Extreme Speed is more than just Dratini and Zigzagoon.
 
Manaphy 60 across with access to Tail Glow. Definitely a threat to consider.
Does Manaphy even make sense in this metagame? The flavor seems to be that these "little legends" are the baby stage of the legendary, as they can hold eviolite. Manaphy already has Phione, which despite being shitty, still exists, and makes the "baby Manaphy" a little more perplexing. I guess Phione can't actually evolve into Manaphy, so it's not a big deal.

On a more relevant note, Eviolite Lugia could be a threat. I have no LC experience, but 58/70/82 defensive stats (before Eviolite) look pretty solid, though the real draw is Multiscale. As this is an ability typically unique to OU and Ubers, I'm curious if LC has Pokemon that are able to break through as Lugia just Roosts up and laughs as you die to Toxic damage.
 
Poor Regigigas, even worse here than in Ubers.

All Primal Reversions and mega evolutions in here is definitely not balanced. Especially when Mewtwo has two VERY potent megas that work in opposite ways.
Remember that they cannot hold Eviolite if they do that. Besides, we can start playing with and testing these now to figure out whether they are broken or not, thanks to Snaquaza. :)

I'm also adding in Moltres now.

Viable regigigas? I thought only fu accomplished that! Tbh a lot of these are simply unusable, but some good looking ones I'm seeing rn are both tornadus formes and Landorus formes, cresselia, Zygarde, and The Lord Mega Latias. Are you going to consider adding Hoopa and Volcanion even though they aren't released?
Some of these are unusable, yes (Shaymin-Sky is definitely on that list I would think), but unfortunately I have to make a stat-changes rule that affects all Pokemon in a fairly equal and balanced fashion. And I will add in Hoopa and Volcanion when and if they are released, in whatever tier they end up in.

Again, I may remove the option to use Megas and Primals if the general concensus is that they are broken.
 
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Does Manaphy even make sense in this metagame? The flavor seems to be that these "little legends" are the baby stage of the legendary, as they can hold eviolite. Manaphy already has Phione, which despite being shitty, still exists, and makes the "baby Manaphy" a little more perplexing. I guess Phione can't actually evolve into Manaphy, so it's not a big deal.
If we're going to complain about flavor, this isn't a very good objection. Manaphy is just what comes out of an egg from one climate, Phione from an egg in a different climate. Phione isn't really the "baby version" of Manaphy, it's the sickly cousin born in an unpleasant climate. Manaphy is the baby version of Manaphy.

Some of these are unusable, yes (Shaymin-Sky is definitely on that list I would think), but unfortunately I have to make a stat-changes rule that affects all Pokemon in a fairly equal and balanced fashion.
69 Speed isn't terrible by LC standards (Nor for that matter by Little Legends Cup standards), so Shaymin-Sky can still flinch a lot of things to death, not to mention it provides the single strongest spammable non-weather-dependent Grass move of the game. (Barring Snivy with Contrary Leaf Storm) It can also just be Scarfed if its Speed is that problematic. I highly doubt it will be unusable.
 
If we're going to complain about flavor, this isn't a very good objection. Manaphy is just what comes out of an egg from one climate, Phione from an egg in a different climate. Phione isn't really the "baby version" of Manaphy, it's the sickly cousin born in an unpleasant climate. Manaphy is the baby version of Manaphy.
Good point, it's been so long since I've played Diamond that I forget how I got Manaphy in the first place.

Also, how does the stat increase for Rayquaza work? There's no differentiation between it and the Mega, so does the base form just get +0, or does it get +5 if not running Dragon's Ascent? In any case, this would be the Mega's spread:

53/90/50/90/50/58

It's a little weaker and a little slower than Deoxys-A, but it has much better bulk, typing and ability. 90/90 attacking stats are still great, and Dragon's Ascent is more spammable for than Pyscho Boost. If Kyogre and Groudon become as popular here as they are in Ubers, Delta Stream will serve as a good check to them.

Finally, I think this should be your banner:

 

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