Little Cup versus OU

Hi I'm Sax King, and I don't play LC. But I'd like to. I tried one match, with a quick little team which was basically just the unevolved forms of my regular OU team, and I failed horribly. So I was curious, what are the major differences between OU and LC. I'd like you to address the following questions:

  • What works in LC that doesn't work in OU?
  • What works in OU that doesn't work in LC?
  • Who are the most prominent pokemon in the metagame?
  • Which pokemon are great in LC, but their evolved forms aren't good in OU?
  • Which pokemon aren't great in LC, but thier evolved forms are good in OU?
  • What's some basic knowledge you need for becoming evolved in LC?
 
  • What works in LC that doesn't work in OU?
  • What works in OU that doesn't work in LC?
  • Who are the most prominent pokemon in the metagame?
  • Which pokemon are great in LC, but their evolved forms aren't good in OU?
  • Which pokemon aren't great in LC, but thier evolved forms are good in OU?
  • What's some basic knowledge you need for becoming evolved in LC?
- - -

  • Oran Berry definitely since everything has such low HP; it'll usually heal half your health. You really shouldn't use Leftovers unless your Pokemon's HP is divisible by 8. Since some things in Little Cup can easily become ridiculously fast or powerful, priority works very well to stop them, whereas slapping a scarf onto everything doesn't work as well.
  • Leftovers for sure, usually stall since the games are fast-paced. All that Bulk Up / Calm Mind stall isn't as effective as some Pokemon are too strong to be held back by defense boosts and will just shit all over you. In OU, overpredicting still leaves you with a chance to win. In Little Cup, you're usually screwed if you make one bad move at the end of the game.
  • Zuruggu (Zuruzukin jr) runs a mean bulky DD set with Dragon Dance, Drain Punch, Crunch and Ice Punch, as well as Evolution Stone to make it bulkier. Zuruggu has has access to Bulk Up ShedRest and its two STABs (Drain Punch and Crunch) provide perfect coverage as well as even more recovery on the former. Meditite is an absolute monster with Pure Power (it hits 26 attack with a neutral nature, which can be compared to 450+ in OU). It also has Drain Punch and Zen Headbutt blah blah blah. Clamperl with DeapSeaTooth hits 34 Special Attack with a neutral nature, and 68 after a Shell Smash. Totally a beast.
  • Chinchou is nothing like Lanturn other than its typing. Chinchou is actually decently speedy and can run a great Agility set. As opposed to Lanturn, it has an offensive nature and checks many threats in the metagame with its popular Choice Scarf set, such as Gligar and Murkrow (does your Lanturn do that). Meditite, as I mentioned before, is much stronger in its metagame than Medicham and has double priority in Fake Out and Bullet Punch, which as I also mentioned earlier is extremely useful. Croagunk checks many theats like Zuruggu with Fake Out + Vacuum Wave. Toxicroak can do this too, but usually the OU threats are too much for it. Carvanha is a total beast and hits 19 attack with an Adamant nature (which is good), while Sharpedo can't really do this because of Roobushin and a more defensive oriented metagame when compared to Little Cup (not saying OU is defensive, saying it's defensive when compared to Little Cup. In fact, it's stall when compared to Little Cup).
  • Blissey, Clefable, Breloom, Shandera, Gyarados, Milotic, etc.
  • Pretty much what I said in the above posts. Priority is good, prediction is good. Also, EVs affect Pokemon much differently at level 5, so you're going to need to read the guide to know how many EVs to use (or, you can do what I do and use the EV bar in the PO teambuilder. You can grab it with your mouse and slide it until you get the right amount.)
I guess my answers aren't 100% fact, but this is the knowledge I used to get me to #9 on the leaderboard. Hope I helped :) have fun with Little Cup. Best. Tier. Ever.
 
  • What works in LC that doesn't work in OU?
  • What works in OU that doesn't work in LC?
  • Who are the most prominent pokemon in the metagame?
  • Which pokemon are great in LC, but their evolved forms aren't good in OU?
  • Which pokemon aren't great in LC, but thier evolved forms are good in OU?
  • What's some basic knowledge you need for becoming evolved in LC?
Nice format in your answers, Charm.

Sun works in LC. With Snover dying to HP Fire (or a Vulpix Fire Blast) and Hippopotas to a STAB Grass (or Toxic from Vulpy), and no Drizzle, in addition to Sleep Powder and the ability to get to +2/+2/+2 in a turn (provided by sleep), Sun is quite awesome, although it's hampered by Evo-stone.

It says something about little cup that a defensive item breaks offensive pokemon
Evolution Stone changed LC. With the option of every viable pokemon getting a 50% boost to their defenses, it really helps defensive pokemon take hits and recover-stall out Toxic and weather damage...and offensive pokemon set up and bulldoze through teams. Like above mentioned Zuruggu.

Since there's no Drizzlewag, Rain is nonexistent. Now that I think about it, it's a metaphor for how OU will be if Drizzletoed is banned.

Agility sweepers work far, far better in Little Cup. In one turn, many moderately fast pokemon can now outspeed every unboosted pokemon in the tier, even when running a Modest/Adamant nature, such as Chinchou and Ponyta. Even unboosted, Life Orb STAB attacks dent anything, although Evo-stone hampers the effectiveness of these sweepers.

In addition to what above poster said, Gligar is everywhere. It checks the fighting-types that run rampant throughout Little Cup, as well as nearly everything else, with extremely impressive Evo-stone boosted defenses backed by good typing and Roost, immunity to sandstorm, and a hard-hitting STAB Earthquake right off the bat. Similarly, Misdreavus takes Fighting attacks with impunity and either burns them or sets up a Nasty Plot on them.

Speaking of Misdreavus, it's quite good. Like....a fast ghost-typed Rotom-a (gen 4) that can boost its speed. It also gets Pain Split to help utilize Evo-stone. Unresisted coverage in two moves is great, and lets it make room for its STAB priority move, Shadow Sneak. Misdreavus...well, I've never seen one.

Similarly, Murkrow. STAB Brave Birds hit like trucks off 85 base attack. and with STAB Sucker Punch, priority is generally not an issue. The small problem of Steel-types that resist both STABs can be dealt with via a Heat Wave. The last move can be Roost, if using Evo-stone, to lengthen Murkrow's life and heal recoil from Brave Bird, or Pursuit, to checkmate ghosts. If running Mischevious Heart and Evo-stone, priority Substitutes and Roosts are very, very fun, but at the cost of Heat Wave. Honchkrow...is lulzily, lulzily outclassed by Tyranitar. Hell, Murkrow sees more usage in OU than it.

Shroomish isn't so great without a watered down LC-equivalent of 130 base attack. With a meager offensive movepool consisting of Seed Bomb, Return, and Wake-Up Slap, It still makes a mean support pokemon with access to Poison Heal and Spore, but it's unable to slay things left and right like its evolution.

Happiny, on the other hand, is shit.

Munchlax takes its place as the premier special wall, with access to Pursuit, Thick Fat, and 85 base attack to shoot off STAB Returns, it can take hits and dish them out just as well. Notable for gaining two hp from Leftovers, if you slot Protect in, you can recover an Oran Berry's worth in five turns, two or three of which Munchlax will be protected.

Yeah. Evs are different. Priority is awesome. Oran Berry is better than Evo-stone without a form of recovery. Sitrus Berry sucks, don't use it. Gastly only reaches 18 speed. CB Eevee is outclassed by CB Dratini. Trick Room isn't used for a reason. A fuckton of pokemon are walled by Steel-types. Bronzor and Baltoy resist Edgequake. Tesshildo resists Water/Dragon and Water/Normal. Watch out for Fake Out leads blowing up your Sash. Taunt is only seen on Monmen. Aipom doesn't get Technician. Pinch Berries still don't work, because of oodles of priority everywhere, and weather as well.

...

I just cranked out a humongous post. Um, enjoy it.

Disclaimer: some of this stuff is subjective. I did get to number three on the leaderboard, though. Take that how you will.
 
The most important thing is that LC is crazy offensive, as the others said. If something gets priority, it's going to be good. Such as Meditite, Dratini, Carvanha and Dokorra (Or however you spell it).

The 19 Speed mark is very important. If a Pokemon hits 19 speed, it'll outspeed the majority of the metagame. If something can hit even higher, it's one of the fastest Pokemon around. Only Diglett, Voltorb and Elekid hit 20 though.

If a Pokemon has 14 Speed or more, it's a viable Scarfmon. A Choice Scarf boosts their speed to 21, which beats everything without a boost.

Set-up sweepers and Sub users are all very effective. DD Dratini, DD Larvitar, SD Komatana and Sub Carvanha are all powerful threats.

On the defensive, stall is rarely seen but still played by some. Some defensive mons include Gligar, Bronzong, Munchlax, Koffing, Tesshido and Puruiru. Hippopotas starts Sandstorm, and Sand Stall can be very hard to break with things like Evo Stone Curse Lileep.

If you want more info, you can head over to the RMT threads and check out LC teams. SDS did a great RMT that's a pretty good example of how LC teams work in this metagame.
 

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