Tell us a little about yourself.
Hello LC! My name is Coconut, lots of people call me Sherilyn or Sheri, so feel free to yourself. I am currently studying at Rowan University in Southern New Jersey as an Elementary Education Major with a Dual Major in English. I chose this field because I've always had a passion for helping people learn and grow and become better people. I am extremely nerdy as I grew up with a lot of older boy cousins, so I always had them to look up to. As a result, I grew a liking to things they like; the biggest one being video games. I was a quiet person, kept to my small group of friends. Then puberty hit; lot of people started talking to me that never did and I developed anxiety. That's about I realized it wasn't really normal for girls to like video games, and for the first time people were actually noticing me; so that part of me was hidden from a lot of my closest friends and even some of my extended family. When I got older and more mature, I just embraced it entirely and people either respected me for it, or I didn't talk to them at all. I'm honestly a huge nerd and absolutely love Shakespeare, Nintendo, Smash Bros, League of Legends and lots of other video games. I like all kinds of music and could talk about music for hours, but my favorite group is Weezer.
How and when did you get your start in LC? Do you remember your first team?
I first got my start in Little Cup when a friend of my showed me Smogon University. I lurked for a really, really long time, until I started playing on whatever battle simulator was being used at the time (it was somewhere in BW, pre BW2). I picked Little Cup for the most logical sense, that it had the cutest Pokemon. That was actually the whole reason, as much as a joke as it is now. I became instantly attached to it when I realized I was actually winning in LC instead of the other tiers. I also didn't enjoy how the tiers moved and shifted so much; LC was for the most part the same set of mons, and not having to worry about usage. My first LC team was a Sand team, build almost entirely off this thread. http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sandstorm-in-little-cup.3455835 It was very, very standard, but it worked so well that I couldn't complain about the results. Ever so often I would take long breaks from LC, because I wasn't really too attached to the community. I decided I wanted to become part of the community seriously again was pre-Missy ban.
What is your favorite aspect of LC?
My favorite aspect of Little Cup has to be that they are level 5. This makes the stats more simplified and I hate math so I don't have to worry about speed creeping everything when I'd rather just take the 50/50. Jokes aside, it forces switches so you need to rely a TON more on teambuilding and having a check for options instead of going for the tie.
Most underrated thing in LC in your opinion?
I need to shoutout my fish friends for most underrated; Remoraid and Finneon. Remoraid has the best movepool in LC, without question, hits 17 speed, and can run an insane Scarf set, a strong Hustle set, or literally anything offensive option you want on this monster.
Next is Finneon, I'm going to share my personal favorite Finneon spread.
Finneon @ Eviolite
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 5
EVs: 124 Atk / 148 Def / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- U-turn
- Tailwind
- Defog
This is my physical Finneon spread. I run Max Speed with Jolly to hit 17 speed. I then ran a significant amount in Defense to make it surprisingly tanky. I don't have any calcs with me on hand, but if you try out this set, I promise you won't be disappointed. Another common finneon usage, offensive wise is Scald/U-Turn. I opted for Waterfall/U-turn because I didn't want it to be mixed at first, but being allowed to invest fully in attack gave Finneon a surprising amount of damage. Tailwind support is very underused, but Finneon keeps momentum with it so well, coupling it with U-Turn. Defog is just the icing on the cake. While it may seem that this mon is entirely outclassed by the likes of vullaby; the combination of 17 speed, and not having 4MSS makes it an interesting alternate. Storm Drain is also nice.
Most overrated thing in LC in your opinion?
I really don't think anything is too overrated per se right now, but if I had to say something, stop trying to make Wingull work. Wingull is an absolutely awful mon that looks viable on paper, but in practice just sucks. It doesn't even get Hydro Pump and the fact that some people are really trying hard to make it work just upsets me because you can use actually useful things.
If you could change something about the current metagame, what would you change?
If I could change 1 thing in LC, I'd find a way to make the item selection more diverse. I guess this translates to an eviolite nerf, but I would rather buff other items instead of nerfing this one. I don't like how people say that Eviolite is the only item that you have to run in LC. There are quite a few options that you can run instead of Eviolite on practically every single mon that runs evio. I want there to be more options, even if there was only 1 or 2 more very viable items, that would satisfy me immensely.
Are there certain LC players that you look up to or respect?
I really don't want to shoutout every single user that I love, because I don't want it to be one of those posts. But there is no one in the community that idolize more than Ray Jay. Ray Jay sent me a PM suggesting that I, as a bit of a ladder hero, become more involved in the Little Cup community. This might not have seemed like much at the time, but it was a big deal to me. It was extremely well written, demanding respect, but also asking for my help to improve the LC community. I told him that I'd try, but I was still quite shy at the time, so I didn't do much at all. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be in the community at all. He also, when he ran the scrub team the "Tynamo Dynamos", drafted me and had a ton of confidence in me (and the rest of the team). Other shoutouts go to that scrub team, we really rocked it and showed people that the scrub team wasn't just a ton of awful players. Special shoutouts to Lego Fan Club, you guys rock, even though you put up with my shit way too often. Finally, I absolutely love all of the friends that I've made in the community here in LC and among the rest of the smogon community, you know who you all are. Thank you guys for being like a second family to me.
Any advice for new LC players?
To all new players: Feel free to ask for help! The Little Cup community is like a soft teddy bear, you just need to come and hug it. If you drop something in the Pokemon Showdown chat and no one responds, please don't get discouraged, we might just be busy. Try again in a little bit or PM someone on PS! or on Smogon. Myself, personally, I'd be happy to help anyone that needs any kind of help, even if it seems like a stupid question.
The team I'm sharing today was built for Fiend for some tournament, I don't really remember what it was exactly. Anyway, It's titled "Snovanha 2.0, Rise of ColdFish" It features my favorite defensive Snover set coupled with 4 attacks Special Carvahna. The rest of the team, while rather standard, is very effective. Diglett is running Stealth Rock and Memento with a Focus Sash, but it needs to be wary of the hail or it will lose the sash. With rocks on Diglett, I can run Defog on Archen. I opted for Earthquake instead of U-turn on Archen for more offensive pressure, but you can switch it if you so desire. Scarf Mienfoo as a wincon, Honedge as a general check-all that Snover doesn't.
Archen @ Berry Juice
Ability: Defeatist
Level: 5
EVs: 100 Atk / 76 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Defog
Mienfoo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 36 Def / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Acrobatics
Snover @ Eviolite
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 104 Atk / 140 Def / 104 SpA / 124 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Ice Shard
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Carvanha @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 5
EVs: 240 SpA / 240 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 9 HP / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Hydro Pump
- Blizzard
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
Honedge @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Atk / 116 Def / 140 SpD / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Pursuit
- Iron Head
- Sacred Sword
Diglett @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Memento
Ability: Defeatist
Level: 5
EVs: 100 Atk / 76 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Defog
Mienfoo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 36 Def / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Acrobatics
Snover @ Eviolite
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 104 Atk / 140 Def / 104 SpA / 124 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Ice Shard
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Carvanha @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 5
EVs: 240 SpA / 240 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 9 HP / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Hydro Pump
- Blizzard
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
Honedge @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Atk / 116 Def / 140 SpD / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Pursuit
- Iron Head
- Sacred Sword
Diglett @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Memento
