Pokemon Eligibility
In order to be used in LC, a Pokemon must comply with the following criteria:
Little Cup, like other metagames, uses clauses to ensure the most competitive environment. These are:
Dragon Rage: This move always inflicts 40 damage on the foe, unless it is a Fairy-type. This move is an absurdity in LC, where no Pokemon can even reach an HP stat above 40.
Sonic Boom: This move always inflicts 20 damage on the foe, unless it is a Ghost-type. Although it is less brutal than Dragon Rage, it is still enough to instantly take out a large portion of the tier.
Swagger: In conjunction with moves such as Thunder Wave, this move could successfully immobilize an opposing Pokemon while dealing rather consistent damage. It was deemed uncompetitive and banned from the tier.
Moody: This ability increases a random stat by 2 and decreases a random stat by 1 at the end of each turn. It is considered too random to be competitively relevant.
In order to be used in LC, a Pokemon must comply with the following criteria:
- The Pokemon must be able to evolve.
- The Pokemon must be at its earliest evolution stage.
- The Pokemon must be at level 5.
Little Cup, like other metagames, uses clauses to ensure the most competitive environment. These are:
- Species Clause: Only one Pokemon from each species may be on a team.
- Sleep Clause: Only one Pokemon per team can be put to sleep by an opponent at a time.
- OHKO Clause: Moves that score a guaranteed OHKO on the opponent (Sheer Cold, Horn Drill, Guillotine, and Fissure) are banned.
- Evasion Clause: Moves that boost evasion (e.g. Double Team and Minimize) are not allowed. Note that moves with an alternative purpose that also incidentally affect evasion (such as Defog and Acupressure) are allowed.
Dragon Rage: This move always inflicts 40 damage on the foe, unless it is a Fairy-type. This move is an absurdity in LC, where no Pokemon can even reach an HP stat above 40.
Sonic Boom: This move always inflicts 20 damage on the foe, unless it is a Ghost-type. Although it is less brutal than Dragon Rage, it is still enough to instantly take out a large portion of the tier.
Swagger: In conjunction with moves such as Thunder Wave, this move could successfully immobilize an opposing Pokemon while dealing rather consistent damage. It was deemed uncompetitive and banned from the tier.
Moody: This ability increases a random stat by 2 and decreases a random stat by 1 at the end of each turn. It is considered too random to be competitively relevant.
Banned Pokemon
Scyther
A moveset consisting of Swords Dance, Aerial Ace, Quick Attack, and Brick Break is almost unstoppable in Little Cup, with no Pokémon in Little Cup able to resist that attack combination. Both Aerial Ace and Quick Attack have their power boosted by 50% due to Technician; the latter attack is vital in stopping Pokémon using Choice Scarf to outspeed it or in stopping slower users of priority attacks. Scyther's pedigree is enhanced by the sheer power of its base stats, boasting both the second highest Attack stat, base 110, and the second highest Speed stat, base 105.
Sneasel
Sneasel can run a similar moveset to Scyther consisting of Swords Dance, Ice Shard, Bite, and Brick Break and be equally difficult to stop. Also akin to Scyther, it boasts a priority attack and an attack combination that no Pokémon resists. A 95 base Attack stat and the highest unboosted Speed in Little Cup with a base stat of 115 make Sneasel all the harder to stop.
Yanma
Already in one of the highest speed tiers, Yanma's Speed Boost ability means that after two turns it will outspeed virtually everything. From there it can wreak havoc with STAB Air Slash or STAB Bug Buzz from a respectable Special Attack stat or simply put to sleep anything it can't kill with Hypnosis.
Tangela
With Sunny Day in effect, Tangela becomes an offensive juggernaut. Its Chlorophyll ability can take its Speed stat to 30, and it can power through anything not resistant to Grass-type attacks with SolarBeam from a 100 base Special Attack stat, which not even Munchlax can stand up to when factoring Life Orb in. Hidden Power Fire and AncientPower provide it with good type coverage, or it can take the option of putting its counters to sleep with Sleep Powder. Moreover, Tangela's bulky defensive nature--in particular its 115 base Defense stat—makes it even harder to take down.
Misdreavus
Misdreavus was the last Pokemon to be banned from Little Cup. After much discussion, it was unanimously voted Uber. Its ability to beat Munchlax and Stunky, its only two "checks," one-on-one as well as being used on over 70% of teams showed that it was clearly too powerful for the tier, and consequently it was removed. STAB Shadow Ball and Hidden Power Fighting afforded it flawless coverage, while Will-O-Wisp allowed it to burn attackers, Shadow Sneak allowed it to revenge kill Choice Scarf-wielding Pokemon and Substitute allowed it to attack with impunity. If anything could be called unstoppable in Little Cup post-Murkrow, it was Misdreavus.
Meditite
Pure Power transforms Meditite into a very potent threat, reaching 28 Attack with no item boosts. Not even Cranidos and its 125 base Attack stat can match that. Hi Jump Kick, Psycho Cut, and Ice Punch gives it all the coverage it needs, and such is the power of Hi Jump Kick is that with Life Orb it can OHKO Bronzor, arguably the best defensive Pokémon in Little Cup, who is not even weak to it. Alternatively, Choice Scarf can be used to remedy its average Speed stat and make it difficult to revenge kill.
Murkrow
Murkrow was allowed in Little Cup for longer than the rest of the banned Pokémon (barring Misdreavus), but in the end it was deemed that its ability to sweep through multiple members of a team without any set-up pushed it over the banned threshold. Sucker Punch really makes Murkrow difficult to take on, bypassing the Speed hierarchy with an 80 Base Power STAB attack with priority running off 91 base Speed (i.e. the second highest speed tier aside excluding Sneasel and Scyther). Pluck complements Sucker Punch and runs off its 85 Base Attack, and hits any Pokémon carrying a berry, such as the Oran Berry, favored by walls, for 60 Base Power (90 Base Power after STAB), disabling and consuming the berry in the process. Dark Pulse hits many physical walls, such as Gligar and Koffing, for plentiful damage and has a 20% flinch rate. Murkrow also has access to Hidden Power, Heat Wave, Calm Mind, and Pursuit. Murkrow was not unstoppable but was deemed too powerful and was also a clear centralizing force.
Tier Specific Bans:
Clamperl is not banned, but the DeepSeaTooth item is. DeepSeaTooth can give Clamperl up to 36 Special Attack, more than a Modest Choice Specs Abra, whilst still retaining freedom to switch attacks. Surf, Ice Beam, and Hidden Power Electric or Hidden Power Grass provide good coverage, and not even Munchlax, the Pokémon widely considered to be the best Special wall in Little Cup, can switch in on Surf, being 2HKOed, even taking Oran Berry into account. Its low Speed is a problem but if it is Baton Passed an Agility then it will be incredibly dominant over an opponent's team. Without DeepSeaTooth, however, Clamperl is much more manageable.
The Most Effective Items in DPP Little Cup
Choice Scarf
Choice Scarf is possibly the most common item in the metagame. The ability to increase your Speed 50% is incredibly useful, as anything that normally maxes out at 14 Speed has the potential to outspeed every single Pokémon not wearing a Choice Scarf (the highest obtainable un-boosted Speed is 20). Starters, sweepers, and revenge killers are notorious for using Choice Scarves, and usually the only way to beat a Choice Scarf user is with priority, a Focus Sash, or simply by a faster Choice Scarf user. Cranidos and Remoraid (with Hustle) make great Choice Scarf users with their monstrous Attack stats and mediocre Speed. Pokémon such as Magby are used with Choice Scarves to revenge kill Pokémon in the rain or sun, and slower Choice Scarf users.
Damp Rock / Heat Rock / Light Clay
Little Cup is fast-paced enough that by the time you use Rain Dance/Sunny Day and switch to a sweeper, only three turns are left, and it's easy for your opponent to stall you out. As such, an extra three turns is incredibly useful, giving you a total of six. Light Clay is similar, because with both screens many Pokémon such as Gligar can set up and sweep or pass quite easily due to natural bulk, but only get 3 turns without Light Clay. Light Clay is often used with Pokémon such as Natu, or even on the odd Abra. All of these items are quite common on Bronzor.
Focus Sash
A great Little Cup item that pops up quite often. In OU it is used on frail but powerful Pokémon like Rampardos that could manage to get a Rock Polish in. In LC, it's abused by similar Pokémon, but for the purpose of killing fast Pokémon, but still used to get the set-up move most of the time. There are much more Pokémon in LC than OU that bear Rampardos's characteristics, such as Dratini. This item is also used by Pokémon such as Diglett to revenge kill Pokémon using Choice Scarf. Pokémon can also use Focus Sash to lead, and pretty much any Pokémon can be a usable lead as long as it has a Focus Sash, though Pokémon who have a decent attack stat and are fast or have priority generally do it better than others because they beat other Focus Sash leads. This allows the Pokémon to survive a hit and KO back. Beware of Stealth Rock, which is becoming very common to break the Focus Sashes of Pokémon so that they can't successfully revenge kill sweepers.
Liechi / Petaya / Salac Berry
The "pinch" berries are used mainly for those Pokémon with outstanding Attack (or Special Attack) / Speed, but which lack the stat to use the naturally strong stat with. A good example would be Substitute + Petaya Drifloon, which not only appreciates the boost to its mediocre Special Attack, but gets an added kick from Unburden.
Life Orb
Is often used on sweepers with the purpose of maximizing type coverage. The Pokémon that use Life Orb are generally fast, strong, have great coverage, or have a powerful priority move to make revenge killing quite difficult. The most common pure attacking sweepers with Life Orb are Elekid, followed by Magby. The mixed priority sweepers who use Life Orb effectively as well include Houndour and Croagunk. This item is as popular as Choice Scarf due to one of the best ways of countering a Choice Scarf Pokémon is with a Life Orb boosted priority attack.
Lum Berry
Little Cup is slightly more diversified in its metagame than OU is; that is, you'll see a lot more weather teams, and slightly more Trick Room teams. Because some of the common LC leads use Hypnosis or a lesser status move, teams that rely on set-up will often lead with a Lum Berry Pokémon to ensure they get the turn they need. Leads like Houndour are also common with Lum Berry because of their ability to trap and KO Gastly, another common lead. Pokémon that lead with an Agility, followed by Baton Pass strategy (such as Aipom) are also commonly found using Lum Berry.
Oran Berry
The other most common item in LC. If you can't think of a good item to put on your Pokémon, use Oran Berry. While 10 HP was next to nothing in standard, for many LC Pokémon, 10 HP is 50% of their health. Oran Berry is generally seen on walls, stat-uppers, and utility Pokémon.
Toxic / Flame Orb
Pokémon that use the ability Guts or Quick Feet can take advantage of status orbs, because it will increase their Attack or Speed respectively, giving an advantage of a Choice Band or Choice Scarf, but with the ability to change attacks, and use an 140 base power Facade. Pokémon such as Taillow and Teddiursa use these items effectively. Flame Orb does not work with Quick Feet well, though, as it still reduces the Attack of the Pokémon. Shroomish can also use the Toxic Orb with its Poison Heal ability.
Items that are good in OU but not in Little Cup
Leftovers
Due to the fact that Leftovers heal only a relatively small percentage of your health per turn, it would take 5-10 turns for the majority of Pokémon to achieve the healing powers that one Oran Berry will have in a single use. Therefore, Oran Berry is a much better choice in Little Cup. There are a few exceptions, though. One exception to this is Munchlax with Protect, as it can out heal an Oran Berry after 4 or 5 turns, which is easy to do with Protect. Another is Sub-Seed Pokémon, who out heal Oran in around two turns with Leech Seed + Leftovers + Protect.
Expert Belt
Generally used on Pokémon that don't like taking recoil damage. Since the only Pokémon that rely on having lots of type coverage are fast sweepers that don't like getting hit anyway, some Life Orb recoil doesn't affect them as badly. Also, with 19 HP, Pokémon only lose about 6% of their health, which isn't nearly as much of an impact in LC than 10% in standard is. To summarize, Life Orb is always better than Expert Belt.
The Right Item for your Pokémon
It can be difficult to decide what the correct item to assign your Pokémon is. This section will break down some general guidelines regarding the qualities a specific Pokémon should have for each item.
Choice Scarf
14 Unboosted Speed
This is extremely important when considering using a Choice Scarf. Choice Scarf gives a multiplier boost of 1.5x to Speed, so to outspeed any non-Choice Scarf Pokémon would require an unboosted 14 (14*1.5=21).
Destructive Power
Choice Scarf Pokémon will generally want pretty high attack stats and a versatile movepool. Apply the principles for the other Choice items, but instead reverse (Special) Attack and Speed. Pokémon such as Cranidos or Remoraid have very high Attack stats, but are too slow to really use it. This is where Choice Scarf comes in; it allows these Pokémon to boost their Speed and use their hard hitting attacks while outspeeding almost every Pokémon in the metagame, except for those faster Pokémon such as Magby who also use Choice Scarf to revenge kill threats like the previously mentioned Cranidos.
Life Orb
High Attack Stat(s)
As you probably could have guessed, Life Orb is used by either powerful mixed attackers, late game sweepers, and Pokémon with powerful priority attacks. Elekid is an excellent example, being strong and fast enough to do serious damage, but having low enough defenses and HP that it would not feel comfortable if a counter switched in. As such, it needs a varied movepool. Pokémon like Houndour use this well, because it can take out all slower Pokémon with a Life Orb boosted Fire Blast, and take out the frail, faster Pokémon with a Life Orb boosted Sucker Punch.
19 HP
The mechanics of Life Orb take away 10% of your health with each successful attack, but the damage is rounded down. So 10% of 20 HP is 2 HP per turn, but 10% of 19 is only 1.9. This is rounded down, so you only take 1 point of damage. Good Life Orb users are generally the ones that can manipulate their health to hit that magic number. This is not required, however; it just allows certain Pokémon to keep their health higher and be less vulnerable to revenge killers.
Focus Sash
A Good set-up Pokémon
Pokémon that run Focus Sash should be those that are too frail to reliably increase their stats. However, after the boost, frail stats shouldn't matter, as the Pokémon should in theory be able to sweep. Think of Cranidos or Dratini. They have horrible HP and defenses, but high Attack (or move power) and decent Speed. After a Rock Polish or Agility, they should be able to reliably sweep any team, barring priority attacks. This can also include Pokémon that lead, who want to use Stealth Rock first and then live to contribute to the battle later.
Revenge Killing Power
Pokémon that are not either a set-up Pokémon with frail defenses or a Counter / Mirror Coat user need to have this aspect to take advantage of a Focus Sash. Pokémon that have trapping abilities, such as Diglett or Trapinch, or trapping moves, such as Pursuit, are good with Focus Sash to make sure your opponent will not switch out. Your Pokémon can also be slower, but this means it needs to hit hard because it only has one chance to KO your opponent's Pokémon. Sending a Pokémon equipped with Focus Sash will often put your opponent between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, your opponent can switch out and have to take two attacks from your Pokémon, but on the other hand, if they stay in, they lose their Pokémon.
Counter / Mirror Coat
Counter or Mirror Coat is not a requirement for a Focus Sash user, but it is an excellent strategy. The idea is to bring the Pokémon with Focus Sash into a Pokémon that will easily knock it out. The opposing Pokémon should attack, you survive, and reflect the attack right back. This is rather gimmicky, however, and makes your Pokémon rather useless after it hopefully takes out one Pokémon.
A Pokémon can also generally lead quite well when it is equipped with Focus Sash. It allows a Pokémon to nearly always beat another Pokémon without Focus Sash, but there are no requirements for this. Generally faster Pokémon or Pokémon with priority will do this better.
Oran Berry
There aren't any specific requirements for an Oran Berry user. Usually the item is put on walls to add to their staying power, but this isn't necessary one bit. I personally run a Belly Drum Poliwag with an Oran Berry to heal the damage. Just keep several things in mind about the item itself.
Many Pokémon such as Natu and Paras carry the attack Pluck or Bug Bite (respectively) to deal with the bulky Pokémon who switch in with Oran Berry. This is something to keep in mind when switching Bronzor into any of these two Pokémon.
Why Oran Berry over Sitrus Berry?
Sitrus Berry is a better choice when playing competitive OU, because 25% recovery is much more useful than a measly 10 HP. But, in Little Cup, 10 HP will always be more than what 25% would give you. For Sitrus Berry to be as effective as Oran, you'd need a Pokémon with 40 HP, of which there are none.
Liechi / Petaya / Salac Berry
Lacks a Necessary Stat
The "pinch Berries," as they are called, are a bit trickier to use than other items: not only do you not get their effect right away, you have to be very low of health for them to activate. For the downsides to be worth it, your Pokémon has to have a need for a particular stat. Something like Belly Drum Poliwag is a good example. One hit and a Belly Drum, and your berry will activate. The boost will make you faster than anything without high Speed and a Choice Scarf. And with the Attack increase from Belly Drum, you'll be a force to be reckoned with.
