Metagame DPP LC

[Zcarlett]

(Art by hultizy)​

Why play DPP LC?

It's Fast Paced - Thanks to generational differences such as the lack of staple Little Cup items like Eviolite and Berry Juice, Little Cup staples like Vullaby, Mienfoo, and Ferroseed being notably absent, and Gen 4 Mechanics like no team preview and double damage explosion all lead to DPP Little Cup to being the most fast paced generation of Little Cup.

It’s Diverse - Resulting from the aforementioned offensive nature of the tier & the lower power level this generation experiences, the greatest variety of viable pokemon in any generation of Little Cup can be found here. Pokemon that don’t see use in many other generations like Machop, Mantyke, Munchlax, and many others are tier staples.

It’s Easy to Learn - The relatively stable nature of the tier in combination the generational mechanics and dynamics that incentivize kill trading make the tier very easy to pick up while still having room for skill expression and creative building.

Viability Rankings

S
Munchlax
Gligar
A+
Gastly
Snover
Chinchou
Croagunk
Bronzor
Duskull
A
Houndour
Staryu
Machop
Mantyke
Stunky
Koffing
A-
Diglett
Elekid
Kabuto
Aipom
Ponyta
Zigzagoon
Aron
Cranidos
Voltorb
Wailmer
B+
Abra
Doduo
Drifloon
Mankey
Porygon
Tailow
Wynaut
Dratini
Buizel
B
Pineco
Carvanha
Magnemite
Bagon
Glameow
Growlithe
B-
Magby
Teddiursa
Tentacool
Phanpy
Chimchar
Krabby

Sample Teams

- Double Fighter by HSOWA
- Wacan Wailmer Scarf Snover Waterspam by Hacker
- Rain by HSOWA
- Aipom LOrb Stunky by Zcarlett
- Snover Lead Standard by Melon
- Scarf Wailmer Balance by Fantos13
- Voltorb Lead by Hacker
- Mixed Snover Bronzor SD Gligar by Kipkluif
- Screens by HSOWA
- Elekid Lead Houndour Balance by Nails
- Semi Rain by Nails

Role Compendium

Guidelines:
- Pokemon shown are exclusively from the DPP LC Viability Rankings, with a few exceptions
- Pokemon in front of the slash or without a slash means it is something standard or common, while something behind the slash means it is nonstandard or rare.

Entry Hazards
Stealth Rock:
(lead only) /
Spikes:
/
Toxic Spikes:
/
Rapid Spin:
/
Setup Sweepers
Agility / Rock Polish:
/
Belly Drum:

Bulk Up:
/
Calm Mind:

Curse:
/
Dragon Dance:
/
Nasty Plot:
/
Swift Swim:
/
Swords Dance:
/
Quick Feet:
/

Priority
Aqua Jet:
/
Bullet Punch:

Extreme Speed:

Fake Out:
/
Ice Shard:
/
Quick Attack
/
Shadow Sneak:

Sucker Punch:
/ :
Vacuum Wave:


Self Knockout Moves
Explosion:
/
Self-Destruct:
/
Memento:
/

Trapping
Arena Trap:
/
Magnet Pull:

Pursuit:

Shadow Tag:


Utiliy
Encore:
/
Rain Dance:
/
Recycle:
/
Reflect / Light Screen
/
Substitute:
/
U-Turn:
/
Will-O-Wisp


Items
As a sidenote, Oran Berry is the default item in the metagame, and as such will not be listed. Most pokemon listed here also have Oran Berry variants.
Choice Scarf:
/
Damp Rock
/
Focus Sash:
/
Life Orb:
/
Light Clay:
/
Lum Berry:

Speed Tiers

Speed	Sprite	Pokemon	Base	Nature	IVs	EVs	±
38		Buizel	85	Positive	31	236	+2
34		Chinchou	67	Positive	31	220	+2
34		Drifloon	70	Positive	31	196	+2
30		Bagon	50	Positive	31	196	+2
28		Gligar	85	Positive	31	236	+1
28		Chinchou	67	Neutral	31	60	+2
28		Kabuto	55	Neutral	31	156	+2
28		Dratini	50	Neutral	31	196	+2
28		Teddiursa	40	Positive	31	196	+2
28		Krabby	50	Neutral	31	196	+2
27		Gastly	80	Positive	31	196	+1
26		Mantyke	50	Neutral	31	116	+2
26		Aron	30	Positive	31	196	+2
25		Doduo	75	Neutral	31	236	+1
25		Mankey	70	Positive	31	196	+1
24		Chinchou	67	Neutral	31	220	+1
24		Cranidos	58	Positive	31	212	+1
22		Cranidos	58	Neutral	31	212	+1
22		Wailmer	60	Neutral	31	196	+1
22		Bagon	50	Positive	31	196	+1
21		Snover	40	Positive	30	200	+1
21		Machop	35	Positive	31	236	+1
21		Porygon	40	Positive	31	196	+1
21		Dratini	50	Neutral	31	196	+1
21		Krabby	50	Neutral	31	196	+1
20		Diglett	95	Positive	31	236	0
20		Elekid	95	Positive	31	236	0
20		Voltorb	100	Positive	31	196	0
19		Gligar	85	Positive	31	236	0
19		Staryu	85	Positive	30	240	0
19		Aipom	85	Positive	31	236	0
19		Ponyta	90	Positive	31	196	0
19		Abra	90	Positive	31	200	0
19		Taillow	85	Positive	31	236	0
19		Buizel	85	Positive	31	236	0
19		Glameow	85	Positive	31	236	0
19		Magby	83	Positive	31	252	0
18		Gastly	80	Positive	31	196	0
18		Stunky	74	Positive	31	244	0
17		Chinchou	67	Positive	31	220	0
17		Houndour	65	Positive	31	236	0
17		Doduo	75	Neutral	31	236	0
17		Drifloon	70	Positive	31	196	0
17		Carvanha	65	Positive	31	236	0
17		Tentacool	70	Positive	31	196	0
16		Cranidos	58	Positive	31	212	0
16		Growlithe	60	Positive	31	196	0
16		Carvanha	65	Neutral	31	236	0
16		Chimchar	61	Positive	31	188	0
15		Zigzagoon	60	Neutral	31	196	0
15		Cranidos	58	Neutral	31	212	0
15		Wailmer	60	Neutral	31	196	0
15		Bagon	50	Positive	31	196	0
14		Chinchou	67	Neutral	31	60	0
14		Croagunk	50	Neutral	31	196	0
14		Kabuto	55	Neutral	31	156	0
14		Porygon	40	Positive	31	196	0
14		Dratini	50	Neutral	31	196	0
14		Teddiursa	40	Positive	31	196	0
14		Krabby	50	Neutral	31	196	0
13		Snover	40	Neutral	31	196	0
13		Mantyke	50	Neutral	31	116	0
13		Aron	30	Positive	31	196	0
13		Magnemite	45	Neutral	31	156	0
12		Snover	40	Neutral	31	120	0
11		Machop	35	Neutral	31	76	0
11		Koffing	35	Neutral	31	76	0
11		Phanpy	40	Neutral	31	36	0
10		Machop	35	Neutral	31	0	0
9		Duskull	25	Neutral	31	0	0
9		Wynaut	23	Neutral	31	12	0
8		Munchlax	5	Neutral	31	76	0
8		Bronzor	23	Negative	31	12	0
8		Pineco	15	Neutral	31	0	0
7		Munchlax	5	Neutral	31	0	0

 

[Hacker]

For convenience sakes, I'm just gonna drop a tiermaker here so I don't have to go searching for it every time. Here's my personal VR with yap about some selective mons.

VR

S Tier
Munchlax is the clear top mon, you can't build good non rain or screens without it. Nothing else functions nearly as well as a special sponge. It also trades insanely well. This mons expected value is very good.
I think Gastly is insanely good and you can tailor it to beat its supposed checks while still being a great mon overall. Any pokemon with BOOM is also automatically really good. You can build good teams without Gastly, but I think that Gastly isconstantly elite and worthy of being grouped with munchlax. Its peaks are certainly better than Gligars

A Tiers
I think Gligar is worse than Gastly, but its still a great mon. I like the SD sets more than the rocks ones for sure, but you can kind of always put it on a team and it will do something. Can never really go wrong with it, but its peaks in games I find to be really underwhelming compared to the big two.
I used to hate on Bronzor a lot, but honestly building more balanced teams for this tiers standards is borderline impossible without it if you want consistent success. This guy can get a little passive sometimes so I like playing around with a random screen to help out your teammates for a little bit more, or alternatively just run some special attack to actually hit stuff decently. I encourage people to experiment with this mons spreads more.
Water's are really good, and Wailmer really capitalizes on that. It is also one of the few good scarfers that exist, but Oran Berry sets or stuff like Wacan to lure Chinchou work really well too. Great pokemon to use and build with.
Another staple of more balance structured teams, Snover is good. I've became slightly less high on him while I've been a bigger fan of Bronzor, but its a very consistent mon overall. It's not like Snover can never really get past even the good Bronzor spreads anyways.
I like this guy a lot. You can tailor it to check really anything and do a good job at it. Having to hit Hydro Pump is like super annoying, but you could probably run Surf on it if you really wanted. This guy is also just a really good breaker or wincon with it either winning with Munchlax gone, or chipping Munchlax for something else in the back. This guy's winrate isn't great over the past few tours TMK but I would certainly say it's not its fault.
Protect leads are literally optimal very much so of the time which hurts Aipom a lot, but its still really good. You have to respect it in the builder, and even if you are dealing with a Protect lead you often can live a single hit vs them anyways, or just be able to use it later in the game or U-Turn out with it later. My opinion on it has dropped a little over time, but its still a good mon.
Rain is good, everyone not me is using bad rain teams though. Omanyte is ridiculously good. Run Modest and you kill literally everything.

B Tiers
Other good users of rain, but I rank them a step below the other good users of it. Staryu is also generally good outside of rain, but I think it functions better on it.
I like this guy a lot. It's good vs the Water's and DD outrage is really good at winning games.
This pokemon sucks to pilot and is a coinflip machine. If you get all of your clicks with it right, yeah its good. However, it generally just makes me not feel good about it as a mon to use to consistently win with. I'll obviously acknowledge its merits of a really good water swap in a meta where waters are good, which is why I am not ranking it lower.

Everything else
I don't like Mantyke. Even on rain, it is just too weak. It has good defensive merit's but why should I use this when I can use other pokemon like Gastly on rain who do the same thing for it defensively. Use the broken main mons, not ones like Mantyke and..
I don't like Buizel. He's weak and is ridiculously easy to be able to check. It's "good" on rain because its usable outside of rain, but just try to end the game quickly with the broken abusers of rain.
Mankey is bad. Every team ever is good into fighting STAB, but unlike Machop it doesn't punish its swaps well. You are forced to just U-Turn out or give up momentum in a meta like this if you get the turn wrong, which is detrimental. Just use a good scarfer like Cranidos or Wailmer instead. Fightspam is not good

Anddddd that's all from me. This tier is very fun and I enjoy it a lot. Expect me to be playing this in future tournaments if im not playing SS.

 

[Colin]

My tier list, I've not played dpp in team tournaments but I consider myself moderately knowledgeable

S, A+, and A

S tier: the best pokemon

- Munchlax is the best pokemon at trading and switching into neutral special attacks in the tier. there are no safe switch ins, but ghost types and Bronzor can attempt to switch in hoping Munchlax lacks the correct coverage. its often safer for special threats such as Chinchou to trade its life for most of Munchlax's hp, even though Munchlax switched in and took a hit.

A+: I fit 2 of 3 on most bulky offense builds

- almost the only pivot, or the best setup threat depending on moveset. Gligar is very fast, strong, bulky, and dependable and is the reason why choice scarfers are important in this tier

- Gastly is really threatening, with stabs, wisp, boom, sub, hp ground, and more are all potential threats on the standard oran berry set that can switch into and trade vs pursuit munchlax (rip if zen headbutt). Sash lead and choice scarf are also usable, but not as good generally. Monstrous threat

- definitely the worst pokemon in this tier, but its usually the best option as a cranidos switch in and bulky steel type. Bronzors probably the easiest pokemon to slot stealth rocks on, but high usage can often get punished by moveset techs or pokemon such as houndour or wynaut to trap or pressure it. Recycle sets are important to be able to KO, and allow bronzor to stick around if it needs to in some games. its also a useful rain or screens setter for offense teams

A: the best threats and water resists

- Stunky is the best pursuit trapper by far, it also restricts what hyper offense teams can get away with by having sucker punch. boom is always good but memento is a viable support tool as well.

- Cranidos is the most dangerous threat in the tier if it hits. your options to switch into head smash are Bronzor, Aron, and fighting types that usually need defense investment. faster scarfers and priority users can offensively threaten it, recoil can also limit Cranidos koes. Cranidos is best in the back but will sometimes lead anyway.

- Snover is a great lead with any of sash, scarf, or SD being viable. in the back, scarf is decent but slower than Cranidos, SD Oran Berry sets are usually more effective defensively and Munchlax cannot switch in on a potential SD. Snover is a great check to rain, but so-so vs water spam. Its good at forcing damage vs munchlax or bronzor early on for more dangerous threats later when used on lead.

- Chinchou is a dangerous water type threat that beats most other water types. Its typically going to switch into them and then trade vs Munchlax or itself, or if held in the back until those are chipped its a great setup sweeper. It needs support as a water resist, because water spam and rain especially will overwhelm it. Scarf isnt great but is usable too, and it has the benefit of outspeeding Cranidos/Wailmer with one equipped.

- Scarf wailmer is the best scarf lead and hits really hard. Water Spout, Hydro Pump, and boom should be slotted in, and make it great at trading, breaking and leaving, or as a wincon. back wail is good too, but early rocks can bite into it. Wailmer makes rainless water spam great offensively.

A- and B+

A-: threatening leads, rain, and Croagunk

- I think Croagunk is really good at what it does. it uniquely bullies Wailmer teams, and with max physdef can eat 2 Cranidos head smashes. special sets are okay and notably better vs rain and Cranidos with vacuum wave, but I prefer physical sets carrying sub thanks to having a better midground than icy wind vs most things. Having a poor accuracy stab on both sets hurts a lot, and phys sets sometimes are needing for power vs neutral targets.

- right now, Aipom as a lead suffers from success with many pokemon opting to slot protect for its fake out. Its incredible at utilizing trapping and selecting its coverage to beat the rest. I think U-turn should be slotted even though its coverage will be worse.

- can enable rain as a lead, or act as a fast attacker that also gets boom on lead. Voltorb's main problem unless carrying sash is Choice Scarf leads, and it needing hidden power for too many things on fast attacker sets.

- dynamic punch gives Machop a fighting chance against most leads, and also hits really hard. Protect and spread flexibility allow it to beat a lot of common leads. Going to a ghost type is dangerous because of payback and the commonly paired Stunky, but it can still be used to pivot. Back Machop is rare but not unusable.

- Omanyte hits insanely hard in the rain, and has great coverage. it can OHKO munchlax and bronzor in rain with a life orb, unlike kabuto.

- Kabuto also hits really hard, but on the physical end. It has more set versatility than Omanyte, and with aqua jet, SD, and a better speed tier its more likely to be able to finish the job if rain ends midway through a sweep.

- Staryu is decent outside of rain with a good speed tier and great coverage to help some water spam teams. I also like it on rain teams as a cleaner that doesn't depend on rain to be good

B+: niche but effective

- Koffing is a solid lead that mostly shuts down Machop, has good coverage and enough power, and can use wisp or boom. unfortunately with Aipom being good it wants to fit protect too so it has to sacrifice something. It also dislikes sash leads and water leads that are gaining popularity. Koffing in the back is decent too, but specific.

- Duskull has seen better days, but is really passive and hates pursuit. Its bulky, switches into munchlax, and clicks wisp. Gastly is way better though and can boom if it doesn't like its prospects in a game, unlike Duskull who can get stuck on the field.

- houndour is very unreliable at trapping Gastly and lacks boom. Wisp, Fire stab/typing, and not needing Lum Berry are what make it potentially better on some teams.

- Can fit on rain, or make semi rain work. Mantyke really needs Chinchou chipped and would like Munchlax to be chipped too to unlock its potential. Even if it can't sweep, its got a bunch of nice defensive traits and is good at slamming into Munchlax with its hydro pump being slightly stronger than Chinchou. run HP grass instead of electric so you can at least try to damage Chinchou.
- aron has a lot of trouble setting up and also needs chip on Gligar and Munchlax, in addition to Bronzor being gone or not eq. Aron does eat Cranidos's stab though and can sometime punish Stunky, wispless Gast, and Duskull really hard.

- Diglett traps things, Snover's hail and stealth rock make sash sets a lot more difficult to use.

- good on random HO structures such as screens, rain, and baton pass as either a support or a wincon. Gastly can usually do well on these teams too, even if its sometimes worse at doing what Drifloon does.

- Elekid is voltorb with more coverage, but without boom. it has less scary sets, compared to Voltorb who teams have to be wary of as an attacker, taunt user, and rain setter.

B and B- tiers

B tier: Good but niche Pokemon
- Porygon pairs with Munchlax or sometimes is used on screens teams. Lead Porygon trades positive vs a lot of things but lacks speed, agility in the back can sweep some weakened teams but Tri Attack not being legal with download hurts.

- Wynaut punishes Bronzor for existing, and can sometimes trap a weaker special threat. Its most commonly seen with Aipom to allow it to use non fire punch sets better, but will sometimes be seen on other off meta builds.

- Stunky uses pursuit on Gastly, and then uses memento and zigzagoon tries to win. Espeed is only +1 prio in gen 4, so faster priority can pick it off. its sometimes seen on screens, but it really needs Gastly gone so its just easier to have Stunky use memento.

- Bagon is a nice Pokemon on screens teams to help out vs Water spam and some rain builds. It tries to sweep with dragon dance outrage. Compared to Dratini, Bagon has fire fang, hits slightly harder, and is physically bulkier but does not have espeed and is specially frailer.

- Ponyta is the best fire type lead, and is really good at using wisp. Unfortunately, Water Spam teams are very common, and Ponyta has difficulty breaking through them.

:tailow: - guts tailow clicks facade, unfortunately pluck is so weak it wont even ohko gastly with a guts boost, and it has no good method of breaking resists on its own making it very team reliant. I think Brave Bird has potential on the right team, even if it does evaporate really fast.

B- tier: worse niche Pokemon that get used or I'm surprised that aren't

- Magnemite can potentially trap bronzor, and it gets boom. It wishes it had more than 4 moveslots. Its got a bunch of uniquely good traits paired together in a generally poor package.

- Krabby's an okay setup sweeper with good power and bulk + a water typing that is great for it but leaves it with heavy competition with a lot of things that need to be chipped since water type switch ins are stacked.

- Horsea exists on rain and isn't weak to Croagunk vac wave. I don't like it much or understand why you use this over Omanyte generally, but some people pair it with Omanyte

- Buizel typically gets used as a rain cleaner after the bigger hitter has gone in and attacked things. Its useful because its fast even outside of rain so it can be effective with Bulk Up even if rain ends midway through its sweep. I generally prefer Staryu over both Buizel and Horsea as a rain cleaner that can work outside of rain.

- Doduo clicks brave bird and return. Its one of the fastest Scarfers available, but I see other sets get used too.

 

[jhm5]

Hey, I'm going to be taking a break from mons. Figured I should drop some teams here. This is a cool tier and a great community. I'm not the best player, nor am I the best builder, so I'm sure a lot of it could be improved upon, but I hope this helps new players trying to get into DPP LC.

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[xzeroxman]

Some small errors I noted in the sample teams, not a huge issue but wanted to document it here. Some of them do not have the correct format type in the paste but I feel this is very minor and nitpicky so feel free to disregard.
Below each is an updated paste with the format and title as close as I could get that gives credit.
- Scarf Wailmer Balance by my boy Fantos13 Sand Veil is banned in DPP LC.
(The set is otherwise standard, I think this was likely just a mispaste when compiling everything.)
https://pokepast.es/fd1d22add8d115d4

The rest are title issues: Not sure how much this matters
- Semi Rain by Nails (has the name of the sample team above it on the list in the paste)
https://pokepast.es/ba1d830b35d8e13a
- Double Fighter by HSOWA (Untitled in the paste)
https://pokepast.es/066f30bbed5632b2
- Rain by HSOWA (Title is just "copy of rain")
https://pokepast.es/227f7172e7a3288e
- Snover Lead Standard by Melon (This one just has no title)
https://pokepast.es/496bd9dab6cab79c
- Screens by HSOWA (This one also has no title)
https://pokepast.es/27aca325e0fc0d76