Other PGL Little Cup Prospective Tournament Team

Simperheve

Simperheve

Hi all,

I'm attending a local PGL Little Cup tournament in the next few weeks, and I need some help making sure my team is completely up to scratch. I have chosen a team that looks good, but I need to make sure i'm running the best of what I can have. Please take a look and lemme know what you think!

Sneasel @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 5
EVs: 4 HP / 236 Atk / 32 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Brick Break

I chose Sneasel as the base for the team as it's one of my favourites and is legal in this format. Its high speed and attack provide a potent physical force for the team. I wasn't sure on the ability, but I thought it was better to go with Fake Out to hit back with Brick Break against other Sneasels who go for it. Knock off and Ice Punch cover the STABS, and Brick Break is for coverage against steel types.

Krabby @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sheer Force
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Crabhammer
- Superpower
- X-Scissor

I have heard many good things about Krabby, so I thought I would give him a go. Krabby makes a fairly decent physical attacker who can switch into the Fire Attacks Sneasel can't take. The Choice Scarf helps mitigate his otherwise middling speed and let's Krabby focus on doing what he does best (hitting things really hard). Sheer Force seemed like the better of the abilities, but I could change that if needs be. Rock slide tackles flying and bug types, Superpower covers Steel/Dark types and X-Scissor because I didn't know what else to put there. It'll get me a super effective move against psychic types though!

Magnemite @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Def / 236 SpA / 236 SpD
Modest Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Signal Beam
- Volt Switch

Magnemite has been chosen to provide Electric and Steel coverage, as well as balance out the ratio of special to physical attackers.

Since I have been informed that Berry Juice is legal, I thought i'd give this annoying Magnemite set a go. Magnemite's HP sits at 19 without any investment, so I plopped the EVs into defenses instead to give Magnemite extra longevity. Sturdy means Magnemite can take a hit, get fully healed by Berry Juice, and then take another hit before it goes down. In the mean time, he's either netted a KO or he's jumping back to the bag using Volt Switch. Since Magnemite can live so long, it might be better to take off Thunderbolt/ Volt Switch and put Thunder Wave on instead. I'm still debating this.

Snivy @ Light Clay
Ability: Contrary
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 156 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Leaf Storm

Snivy's purpose is to provide support via screens to help mitigate damage. Once the appropriate screen is down, Snivy can boost itself using Leaf Storms. Hidden power Ice helps fight back against those Pesky Flying types (especially Fletchling who 4x resists grass moves). Speed is maximised to ensure it can get those screens down. 3 on 3 games last nowhere as long as regular 6v6 games, so Light Clay allows the screens to stay down for most, if not the entire battle.

Growlithe @ White Herb
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 5
EVs: 236 HP / 156 Def / 116 SpD
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Overheat
- Morning Sun
- Wild Charge

Growlithe provides much needed Fire Coverage and utility through burns. The intimidate + burn combo allows me to prevent having problems with Sneasel, Scyther and Slurpuff, who all run physical sets most of the time. It's also handy to stall out other mons using Morning Sun. Wild Charge stops Growlithe being dead weight against water types, and Overheat means he can circumvent attack drops. White Herb allows Growlithe to avoid stat drops and recover himself after an overheat.

Slurpuff @ Oran Berry
Ability: Unburden
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Atk / 132 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Play Rough
- Substitute
- Drain Punch

Slurpuff provides Fairy coverage and a switch in to fighting types such a Timburr, something this team didn't have until now. The function of the set is quite simple. Set up Belly Drum and/or Subs, and sweep once Unburden activates. The Oran Berry allows Slurpuff to claw back some of that HP loss sustained from Subs and Belly Drum.


Thanks in advance!
 
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Hello. I just want to note that you are lacking sufficient descriptions of your Pokemon, most specifically why you chose it to you team. As such, moderators may lock this thread.
 
Firstly, some resources since they are quite scarce for this meta: here's the discussion thread we had set up for when this comp was live (starting from the first full team description), here's the PGL page on it, featuring results, usage statistics, and battle videos from the top 3 finishers (featuring our own user Jhon who finished 1st!). Finally, Antar ran usage statistics on Pokemon Showdown! for the meta as well. Basically, if your team can't beat Sneasel then you won't get far. Swirlix was something I had a lot of trouble with personally so be ready for that as well.

Guess I should comment on your team while I'm here! For Sneasel, he can pretty much spam Knock Off against most things, so Ice Punch doesn't really add that much, I would recommend changing Ice Punch > Ice Shard since the priority is really helpful for cleaning up weakened teams, stuff with Focus Sash / Sturdy, and Fletchling!

I've actually never heard of Krabby being anything special. He looks kinda cool on paper with Sheer Force boosting the power of Rock Slide but as a Water-type Scarfer I prefer Chinchou. If you're set on using Krabby though then I would change Sheer Force to Hyper Cutter because you're only boosting Rock Slide, and losing the flinch chance of it, when combined with the Choice Scarf seems like a waste to me. It also saves your attack stat in case you run into any surprise Intimidates / attack lowering moves.

Magnemite is one of my favourite mons for various reasons, and SturdyJuice is definitely one of those. I believe it's a better idea to invest in speed instead of defences since you want to activate Sturdy / Berry Juice anyway so there's not really much merit in adding to the bulk. I would run an EV spread of 36 Def / 236 SpA / 236 Spe. Signal Beam doesn't jump out to me as an amazing option since Bug doesn't hit much of anything better than your STABs, so maybe tack on Protect (to help against Fake Out leads like Sneasel breaking your Sturdy) or Recycle to use your Berry Juice repeatedly.

Snivy looks OK to me. I prefer to run a mini-Serperior set with Rocky Helmet, Reflect and Synthesis to stall out physical attackers. I tested it out quite a bit before the actual competition and it was cool but pretty situational. He also struggles hard against the omnipresent Sneasel. No changes for him, but remember that Fletchling doesn't 4x resist Leaf Storm since it doesn't become a Fire-type until it evolves into Fletchinder. You might find that Hidden Power Fire or Ground will offer better coverage, Ice doesn't really hit anything notable, if you want to hit Flying-types then I would use Rock.

Growlithe is a bit weird. Firstly you have the White Herb so you can negate the SpA drop from the first Overheat, but you aren't running any SpA investment, and your nature even hinders it! Here's my favourite set for him (and good for you since it doesn't require re-breeding!)

Growlithe @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 236 HP / 36 Atk / 236 Def
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Morning Sun
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge

Swirlix looks totally standard so that's fine. The double-dance set with Cotton Guard + Calm Mind + Draining Kiss + [coverage] was super popular in the competition and absolutely wrecked if played well, so that might be something to try out.

Sorry I couldn't offer much more input, I'm no LC player so this competition was my first taste of the format (although this meta was apparently vastly different to Smogon LC). Check out the threads / links I provided and you should be fine!
 
Thanks for the help! I now realise Growlithe is indeed a bit strange! The set you've shown looks pretty cool, i'll give it a shot. I've learned there won't be any level resetting, so I won't be able to use any level up moves for my team. I've updated the team now so I won't be able to use some of the moves in each set. I'll post it later!
 
Remember that if you breed a male and female of the same species, who both know the same level up move(s), it/they will be passed down to the baby. This is how you get around level up movepool restrictions in LC iirc.

I totally forgot you can't set levels to automatically become 5 over wifi, otherwise I'd offer to practice with you with the team I used, except my whole team is in the 40s from training...
 
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