http://pastebin.com/CwRCW4FZ
This is a pastebin that
absdaddy has bought back to my attention, and it's from a post that
Ray Jay made a while back, in September. So in this post I'd like to talk a bit about some overrated as fuck Pokemon that people are sticking to way too much which leads people to believe LC is overcentralising. It's not overcentralising at all, in fact I think it has such a wide variety of Pokemon with nothing which I feel restricts my teambuilding at all.
Here's the top 5 Pokemon in the 1760 stats:
| 1 | Mienfoo | 57.66603%
| 2 | Chinchou | 38.59675%
| 3 | Pawniard | 35.69857%
| 4 | Fletchling | 34.58831%
| 5 | Abra | 31.27053%
Of course the first Pokemon I want to talk about is Mienfoo. It got 24.57305% usage overall last month, but 57.66603% in the 1760 stats. I have often 'joked' with people and said Mienfoo isn't worthy of S-tier, but tbh I have always kind of meant it. Being the easiest Pokemon to put on a team, doesn't always mean it's the best pokemon to put in a team. For this, I'm gonna be comparing bulky mienfoo to timburr and pancham.
I feel that Pancham and Timburr actually have a lot more utility, despite them missing out on regenerator.
If you opt for Pancham, you still have the ability to pivot with parting shot, yet you also have the ability to bring set-up sweepers in easier, have the ability to lure/wallbreak poisons and fairies with coverage moves, and you have overall better bulk. You have a much larger unpredictability factor due to the fact it can even run 4 attacks or SD. Overall, pancham offers the same team support as mienfoo, and more, the only difference being mienfoo can regen back up.
If you opt for Timburr, you lose out on the pivoting ability, but do gain Mach Punch and Bulk Up. Mach Punch makes up for Timburr's lack of speed compared to Mienfoo, yet also helps your team not be weak to shell smashers, and other set up sweepers. Bulk Up means timburr can be a pivot early - mid game AND be a better wincon than Mienfoo could ever hope to be. Not to mention the overall bulk difference.
Of course, I'm not claiming Mienfoo is bad, I just feel it offers less utility a lot of the time compared to these two. Yet with Mienfoo, you can afford mistakes, because if you fuck up, you can switch out and it doesn't matter. What Ray Jay argues is that if you don't make these mistakes, you have 2 choices of Pokemon that offer more overall utility than Mienfoo, but you have to be a better player.
Another Pokemon, Chinchou. Now, many people know I have argued Chinchou for S, but I have since changed my mind. Chinchou is a great Pokemon against balanced teams, switching in on something it walls, and pivoting out. It's another 'jack of all trades' mon, like mienfoo. Ray Jay talks about Stall and Hyper Offense punishing safe Pokemon, and Chinchou is an amazing example of this. It doesn't have the longevity to withstand repeated attacks from powerful mons. Imagine pairing together Elekid, LO Staryu, and Fletchling. Chinchou walls them all but on the same team, it stands no chance and it will be broken through. It also doesn't have any power to break through a stall team. The best it can do is Scald Burn, or the rare Toxic, but no stall team is gonna be without a cleric. However if people keep using the standard Mienfoo/Chinchou/Fletchling teams that I see all the time, it will remain to be an amazing mon. You should all go out there, and build teams that punishes the use of Chinchou, because it's extremely easy to take advantage of.
Sash Abra: the most common glue mon ever. Why? because, again you can make a mistake. 'oh shit I let a set up sweeper get a boost, ah well it doesn't matter, I can send in Abra and it's fine.' Not saying Abra is a bad mon, but teambuilders often use it wrongly. Not gonna lie, it is cool to have a safety net, but like Chinchou is only really shines vs. balance. Abra can only check 1 thing max on a Hyper Offense team, and without a Life Orb, Abra doesn't have what it takes to break through stall teams either.
Fletchling, faces competition from birds like Taillow and Doduo. Fletchling does have a significant advantage in Priority Acrobatics and Swords Dance, which makes it a nice late game cleaner and revenge killer. It is still an amazing Pokemon, like Chinchou and Abra and Mienfoo are. But it also lacks initial power and doesn't have the ability to break through it's counters, like Taillow and Doduo do. The other 2 birds are incredibly hard to switch in, and have next to no switchins that aren't worn down easily, but no-one uses them because Fletchling is a safer option, because of it's revenge killing abilities. And, that is fair enough, I'm not saying don't use Fletchling, but think about why are you using it? If you want a set-up sweeper, alongside a sun check that's fine, but if you want something which can force out Fighting-types and Grass-types whilst giving you offensive momentum, then Taillow and Doduo can do an amazing job, often a better job.
Pawniard. It's chosen as an offensive Knock Off mon, whilst also a semi decent check to Normal-spam, and also a check to Psychic, Ghost and Fairy types. However, it can't do that too well tbh, Gastly and Abra are common HP Fight carriers, whilst other ghosts like pumpkin carry will-o-wisp, and other Psychic types are non-existant, except Goth who you can't really 'counter' because of its ability, and Slowpoke who has scald. Fairy-types can wear you down, Snubbull fucks it over with TWave and Earthquake, although it still remains a decent switch-in to Spritzee. As for it's offensive capabilities, Pawniard is still really good, Knocking Off Fighting-types is a fantastic for Balanced and Offensive teams, it can sweep weakened teams with Swords Dance, and also provide nice utility with Stealth Rock. To be honest, Pawniard is the best out of the top 5 mons, because it has a fantastic role as an offensive pivot on offensively inclined teams. But, like Fletchling, consider why you are using it. Consider the offensive options it brings to the table and how that supports your team. I always see Pawniard in bulky offense teams as a glue mon to certain threats, and it doesn't shine in that role.
The final 'safe' mons I would like to talk about are Ferroseed and Spritzee. This core dominates LC at the moment, because it's a good defensive core to stick on a balanced team to check the most amount of mons possible. They're safe choices for balance teams. But what can this core do vs. stall? Fuck all, Ferroseed has no offensive presence, and all stall teams have ways of dealing with hazards. Spritzee also has little offensive presence unless you're running Calm Mind, but,again Stall will have stuff that resists its mono coverage. Hyper Offense also fucks with this core when using it on a balanced team, because it just can't stand up to repeated attacks. Good offensive pressure will stop Spritzee from being able to heal Ferroseed, and the core will be worn down. Both mons are also easy set-up bait because of their non-existant offensive pressure.
Their usage in 1760 stats:
| 13 | Spritzee | 11.11427%
| 14 | Ferroseed | 10.50778%
tl;dr
These 7 Pokemon are staples on Balanced/Bulky Offense teams which are the most common playstyles in Little Cup. And they are all good against opposing Balance/Bulky Offense teams. This leads to a cycle where these Pokemon gain more and more usage and people claim Little Cup is stale and boring. It's up to the playerbase to change this though, and counter the common playstyles and take advantage of the average players who use these mons all the time. I have a few ideas of cores and Pokemon which can take advantage of these common Pokemon, but I'm not gonna talk about them now, I'll let you post about any you have. Also please keep this in mind during SPLC, no-one wants to watch matches of the same Mienfoo, Chinchou voltturn core with a defensive backbone of Spritzee and Ferroseed, with a late game sweeper in Fletchling and Abra chucked in as a glue mon.
I'll leave you with some things to think about your teambuilding from absdaddy in our Team Shop Conversation
abs was talking about gimmicky mons here, and people being creative for the sake of it. But it also applies to the standard mons, think about what they do better than the other choices you have when teambuilding, and whether they really are the best choices.
shoutout to
absdaddy for not being boring af with his LC teams, and
Ray Jay for being insightful as ever, and the best poster the LC forum has ever seen.
