Into the Kiddie Pool!

[EonADS]

Introduction: Hello, all who rate teams. I created this Little Cup team out of sheer boredom, and a desire to take my first steps out of the rough waters of Standard and UU and into the kiddie pool. I loved what I found, so I decided to post my team to see if I could improve upon it further.

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Team at a glance:
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In-Depth:

Machop @ Lum Berry
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 116 HP / 196 Atk / 36 Def / 76 SpD / 76 Spe
Ability: No Guard
-Dynamicpunch
-Payback
-Bullet Punch
-Protect​

Machop is a great LC lead that is plagued with problems, namely a weakness to Fake Out users, especially Meowth and its Hypnosis. To rectify this problem, I've swapped out Ice Punch for Protect and a Lum Berry in place of the usual Focus Sash. This means that Machop will always beat Meowth 1 v. 1, barring a crit Return. Otherwise, the set is perfectly standard.​

Eevee @ Life Orb
Nature: Naughty
EVs: 240 Atk / 236 Spe
Abiltiy: Adaptability
-Return
-Quick Attack
-Bite
-HP Grass​

Ooh, shiny... Eevee is one of two pokemon on my team with the biggest roles, and both of them are shiny by complete coincidence. This set is utterly standard, but there's a reason that you shouldn't often mess with the classics, because they work. Eevee's power stems mainly from Adaptability, which turns Return and Quick Attack into 204 and 80 Base Power moves respectively with STAB factored in, more than enough to dismantle whole teams once its counters are out of the way.

Stunky @ Oran Berry
Nature: Brave
EVs: 176 Hp / 252 Atk / 32 SpA / 32 SpD / 4 Spe
Ability: Aftermath
-Pursuit
-Sucker Punch
-Explosion
-HP Ground

Stunky is my Ghost killer, as well as one of my favorite priority abusers in the Little Cup. STAB Sucker Punch hits like a Mac truck, and STAB Pursuit
chases down and hits fleeing Pokemon who fear the wrath of Sucker Punch. Explosion is Explosion, a great move no matter how you slice it, and HP Ground is to deal with opposing Stunky, Houndour, and Croagunk, as well as provide him decent neutral coverage with his Dark type STAB.

Bronzor @ Oran Berry
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 220 Hp / 8 Atk / 152 Def / 4 SpA / 68 SpD / 12 SpD
Ability: Levitate
-Psychic
-Earthquake
-HP Ice
-Stealth Rock

Bronzor is an invaluable pivot point on my team. Not only does it get great synergy with all the members of my team, but it also draws in Fire attacks for Ponyta to absorb with Flash Fire. Bronzor also serves to throw up SR and is an excellent check for Gligar. Psychic is the primary STAB, since it allows Bronzor to deal with troublesome Fighting types, especially Croagunk. Earthquake is mainly for Fire types and Stunky, and HP Ice is an assured 2HKO on Gligar, even with an Oran Berry in the way.

Ponyta @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Naughty
EVs: 36 Hp / 240 Atk / 196 Spe
Ability: Flash Fire
-Flare Blitz
-Return
-Overheat
-HP Grass

Ponyta is one of the most dangerous Choice Scarfers in the Little Cup, and for good reason. With 196 Speed EVs (the minimum required to assure maximum speed at Level 5), Ponyta will at worst tie with Choice Scarf Gastly and outspeed Choice Scarf Houndour, making it a potent revenge killer. It's also a great partner for Bronzor, since it can make great use of the Fire attacks Bronzor draws, and Bronzor provides a resistence to two of Ponyta's weaknesses. With a Flash Fire boost, Flare Blitz can OHKO or 2HKO almost anything that doesn't resist it, and with Stealth Rock on the field, many 2HKO's become OHKO's. Finally, Ponyta serves to remove Bronzor who would interfeer with Eevee's sweeping ability.

Ghastly @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Timid
EVs: 36 Hp / 40Def / 200 SpA / 200 Spe
Ability: Levitate
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Bomb
-HP Ground
-Thunderbolt

Ghastly is an excellent Scarfer, with its amazing typing and powerful attacks, its perfect for an offensive team like this one. Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb provide strong dual STABs, HP Ground is for Stunky, Fire types, and Croagunk, and Thunderbolt is for Water types, which I unfortunately lack a resist for. Ghastly is also a great Eevee partner because he is immune to Fighting type attack and makes an excellent check for Fighting type Scarfers.

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So yeah, that's the team. Its powerful, but it has a few problems, namely Kabuto. Sure, several of my Pokemon can weaken it enough to allow my other team members to prioritize it do death, but I almost always have to sacrifice a Pokemon in the process. So, if somebody has a solution to that, without destroying my team's synergy, please let me know.

Any changes to this will be updated in bold.​

 

[Nails]

Machop really wants an Oran berry. There's only one sleep inducing lead in lc and meowth can be switched out of to a sleep absorber (a large amount of the time they don't have hypnosis anyways). Also, something to try with it's moveset; try dropping Payback for Ice Punch. Having used leadchop a ton, being able to beat gligar is incredibly useful. You already have stunky to ghost kill anyways.

Run a silk scarf on Eevee. It lets you bluff a choice band, which could very well win you a game. Also, use hp fighting over grass. It lets you ohko Aron (I'm not sure what hp grass is supposed to hit... Swampert?)

Stunky should never be running a brave nature. Run max speed and attack with Hasty or Lonely. It has a great speed stat, use it! A slow stunky is a worse munchlax.

Gastly is NOT an excellent scarfer, it is barely a decent scarfer. Munchlax absolutely destroys it. Then, after munchlax destroys gastly, something like a scarfchop can destroy your team. Bare minimum, run trick on gastly so you can cripple munchy... but scarf gastly is not adequate for the duties of little cup "Ghosting". The lack of another fighting type resist really scares me. Please fix this... Although I can't really come up with anything... so maybe replace Gastly with a duskull, as you already have scarf pony. Maybe a gligar < bronzor, but that may make you more gligar weak... I'm not sure.

 

[Kannon]

Ponyta looks incredibly average to me. Consider a scarfer with a lot of power behind it like chinchou, or one with a lot of speed and u-turn to scout the opponent's team, like mankey or gligar.

Scarfed Gastly is huge bait for anything immune to one of it's stabs, and munchlax regardless of what you use. Tricking a scarf isn't even that good since there are numerous things that can take that scarf and use it well. Consider using a substitue gastly, it pairs well with one of the aforementioned u-turn scarfers, and makes a joke of munchlax and sets up on ever present choiced ground, fighting, and sometimes normal moves, and is just a great pokemon regardless.

Eevee might have a x2 STAB quick attack, but it only ends up as strong as an unstabbed extremespeed or sucker punch. Eevee is easily the weakest link on your team, as stunky even fills the role of priority spammer better due to being able to force prediction wars. Consider a croagunk or carvahna instead of it, as they both have a lot more utility on a team than eevee, who is walled by many threats regardless of whether you have bite and hidden power.

 

[ShinyAzelf]

Hey nice team.

Just one thing I'd like to edit.

I see SubHoundour being able to do lots of damage to your team. To fix this, I'd suggest putting Double Kick on your Ponyta.

Though you do lose lots of speed, try this set:

Ponyta @ Oran Berry
Naive Nature
EVs:36 HP/236 Atk/196 Spe
-Flare Blitz
-Overheat
-HP Grass/Return
-Double Kick

Now, you can outspeed Houndour, come in on a fire attack when he's behind a Sub, and use Double Kick, and take it out. Since you wanna hit harder on the physical side, I'd suggest Return over HP Grass.

Good luck!

-ShinyAzelf

 

[Nails]

Azelf, his pony is scarfed, not oran. Subdour does look like a big threat though.

 

[RisinDevil]

Azelf, his pony is scarfed, not oran. Subdour does look like a big threat though.

That is why he said he will lose lots of speed because he will be changing to an Oran Berry.