Rules Simple Questions, Simple Answers / Little Cup Information / Forum Rules

[Coconut]

What is Little Cup, and what makes it different than the other tiers?

Little Cup is a very unique and interesting tier. Unlike other tiers, which are based around level 100 Pokemon, Little Cup plays with Pokemon that are all level 5. Also, Little Cup further restricts the rules to include only Pokemon that can evolve and are the lowest evolution in their evolution chains. This creates a drastically different metagame in Little Cup than from other tiers, and Little Cup contains a lot of Pokemon that you simply would never see used anywhere else in competitive Pokemon. Because of its uniqueness, Little Cup exists in a state of its own-- it has its very own banlist, which means bans made in other tiers don't affect Little Cup at all (for example, in SM, Ferroseed was considered NU, but was also legal in Little Cup). It's a ground for baby Pokemon to grit their teeth and show their evolved counterparts how powerful they can be as well.

What Pokemon are legal in Little Cup?

See here.

Where do I play Little Cup?
You can follow the link here to Pokemon Showdown's Little Cup room!

How do I get involved with Little Cup?

Great place to talk to fellow lovers of Little Cup is on the Little Cup room on Pokemon Showdown! Another place to talk to us is the Little Cup Discord which can be found here!

Finally, one of the best ways to contribute to Little Cup is by posting in the forums! I know that doing so can be intimidating if you aren't that interested in a discussion, or are unsure what to post. Rest assured, Little Cup is a judgment free zone. We recommend and even encourage posting from people of any experience level. Keep in mind that every "good" player started off as a "noob" once. We all get better via practice and via contributing, so please do so to your heart's content. If you have any questions about how to contribute, then please don't hesitate to talk to any of the more experienced members of the Little Cup community.

LC Forum Moderators:

Coconut
Corporal Levi
Fiend
Merritt

The LC Council:

See here.

If you have a question that can be answered in one post, please ask it here.

When posting in the thread, please follow these guidelines:

1. Make sure that your post is relevant to Sword and Shield Little Cup
2. Your answers should contain at least a brief explanation, even if it was the simplest of questions.
3. Do NOT ask for anything that could be considered illegal. This includes anything related to hacking, Action Replay, ROMs, and 3ds hacking.
4. Remember that in-game questions should be asked in Orange Islands. This subforum is for competitive discussion only. Asking about specific breeding moves and why a certain illegality exists is okay though.

In addition to the information above, if you want permission to post your own thread please ask either Coconut, Corporal Levi, Fiend, or Merritt.

 

[lcuuftw]

Do we know whether moves with reduced distribution (e.g. Knock Off no longer on Pawniard) might return after Home releases, or does the game’s coding prevent Pawniard with KO from existing?

On a similar note, are moves like HP and Return completely removed from the game’s coding, or just unlearnable in-game?

I am assuming Litten + company will not be legal until actually released, even though they are in the game’s code?

To sum up all three of these questions, it would be helpful to know general legality guidelines for LC, in addition to expectations for how things might change post-Pokemon Home. The datamine info is sometimes inconsistent with PS! and it’s sometimes hard to know where the error is.

Also I totally get why Sneasel and Swirlix are banned, but anybody who has not played with either should play a couple LC Ubers matches to get a feel for them. Sneasel is relatively worse than last time it was legal (no Knock Off, many of its biggest threats in sword/shield) and makes for fun matches. Matches with Swirlix are not fun at all in my opinion, but it’s still good to see what it’s capable of.

 

[Yoshi]

Do we know whether moves with reduced distribution (e.g. Knock Off no longer on Pawniard) might return after Home releases, or does the game’s coding prevent Pawniard with KO from existing?

On a similar note, are moves like HP and Return completely removed from the game’s coding, or just unlearnable in-game?

Once Home is released, we're fairly certain that Pokemon will get moves from previous games that they cannot learn in current games. Therefore, Pokemon like Pawniard and Timbur should be able to learn Knock Off again, although the only way we'll know is when we actually have Pokemon Home. Hidden Power and Return are simply just not in the game's coding. There was a leak that shows that when you transfer a Pokemon with any of these moves (Pursuit included), you'll get a text that forces you to delete the move when transferring the Pokemon in question over.

 

[lcuuftw]

Once Home is released, we're fairly certain that Pokemon will get moves from previous games that they cannot learn in current games. Therefore, Pokemon like Pawniard and Timbur should be able to learn Knock Off again, although the only way we'll know is when we actually have Pokemon Home. Hidden Power and Return are simply just not in the game's coding. There was a leak that shows that when you transfer a Pokemon with any of these moves (Pursuit included), you'll get a text that forces you to delete the move when transferring the Pokemon in question over.

Thanks. When you say “fairly certain,” is there a coding-related reason to think that would be true, or is that just speculation based on what would seem reasonable? (I’m not knowledgeable on how moves are coded into the game).

 

[Yoshi]

Thanks. When you say “fairly certain,” is there a coding-related reason to think that would be true, or is that just speculation based on what would seem reasonable? (I’m not knowledgeable on how moves are coded into the game).

Through datamines, people found that code for the moves literally just don't exist in the game, so it's even impossible to hack the moves in.

 

[redvelvet]

I haven't done anything actively competitive since oras (though I've still been lurking around), so finding out Hidden Power got removed was a total shock. What common Pokemon/sets from gen 7 are gonna get affected by this? I'm specifically thinking this is gonna take away some of Ferrothorn's checks?

 

[Roldski32]

I haven't done anything actively competitive since oras (though I've still been lurking around), so finding out Hidden Power got removed was a total shock. What common Pokemon/sets from gen 7 are gonna get affected by this? I'm specifically thinking this is gonna take away some of Ferrothorn's checks?

When it comes to positive, Ferroseed is definitely one of those defensive pokemon that benefits the most from the removal of Hidden Power, as it allows it to reliably check pokemon that are reliant on the move to heavily damaged it. Onix was another one that benefits from the loss of Hidden Power when it comes to checking Vullaby, which allowed it to reliably checked it in the long run.

As for negatives, the obvious ones would be pokemon that lack super-effective moves against their checks outside of Hidden Power. For instance, Nasty Plot Spritzee, Chlorophyll Oddish (Kantonian Vulpix is currently legal), Cutiefly and occasionally, Mime Jr. are no longer able to heavily damaged Ferroseed. Mantyke and Chinchou are no longer able to hit opposing Chinchou hard. Salandit, mixed Vullaby and Electrike are no longer able to threatened to KO a healthy Onix.

 

[ghost]

I haven't done anything actively competitive since oras (though I've still been lurking around), so finding out Hidden Power got removed was a total shock. What common Pokemon/sets from gen 7 are gonna get affected by this? I'm specifically thinking this is gonna take away some of Ferrothorn's checks?

HP's removal also makes Pawniard a much more reliable check/counter to ghosts like Gastly or Sinistea.

 

[HajimeDess]

So does anyone play LC on console, any place I can look for that?

 

[Most]

So does anyone play LC on console, any place I can look for that?

For wi-fi battles you can try joining the smogon wi-fi discord.
https://discordapp.com/invite/wBamhYd

There we have a channel #swsh-battle-requests where people can post looking for battles. LC on cart is pretty niche but it won't hurt if you leave a comment there imo

 

[HajimeDess]

For wi-fi battles you can try joining the smogon wi-fi discord.
https://discordapp.com/invite/wBamhYd

There we have a channel #swsh-battle-requests where people can post looking for battles. LC on cart is pretty niche but it won't hurt if you leave a comment there imo

Thank you.

 

[TheRam]

what do I gotta do to get recognized like idfk anymore

 

[Gummy]

what do I gotta do to get recognized like idfk anymore

post some REALLY good riffs in discord, join seasonals or any other notable non-team tournament and do somewhat decently, get a replay of you playing well against someone who's relatively well known, sacrifice your first born, good question bro who knows

 

[TheRam]

post some REALLY good riffs in discord, join seasonals or any other notable non-team tournament and do somewhat decently, get a replay of you playing well against someone who's relatively well known, sacrifice your first born, good question bro who knows

i got top 4 in spring seasonal :/
i dont have a first born tho :(

 

[Berks]

what do I gotta do to get recognized like idfk anymore

best way to do it is to be a positive presence in the community and to avoid self pity

 

[TheRam]

best way to do it is to be a positive presence in the community and to avoid self pity

I tried. I gave this tier my biggest effort and it all got thrown in the trash

 

[GoldenSandslash15]

Does the ban on Dynamaxing also include Gigantamaxing?

 

[Coconut]

Does the ban on Dynamaxing also include Gigantamaxing?

Yes.

 

[Fresher Than You]

It's obviously super early but what are some of the early threats or some interesting sets floating around?

 

[The Avalanches]

I tried. I gave this tier my biggest effort and it all got thrown in the trash

Pro tip: don’t take this so damn seriously. just make some online friends and remember that lc clout does not translate into the real world in any way.

 

['sei.]

TheRam i'm not very much recognized in the community either so i dunno how much this will help, but just focus on having a good time i think is the right way to play this game.

i dont believe it's hard to gain recognition in the community from what ive seen but i also dont think it's for everyone

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

What makes Munchlax so good in the current meta? Cutiefly check?

 

[Gummy]

What makes Munchlax so good in the current meta? Cutiefly check?

That, and it checks a lot of the special attackers running around right now, like Wingull, NP Vullaby, Mareanie, and Sun teams. Has a lot of staying power with BJ Recycle and it hits decently hard as well.

 

[Cheryl.]

What makes Cherubi the better Sun sweeper for Sun teams than Oddish? They seem pretty similar except Oddish has another STAB to make use of.

 

[Merritt]

What makes Cherubi the better Sun sweeper for Sun teams than Oddish? They seem pretty similar except Oddish has another STAB to make use of.

Access to Weather Ball. With significantly fewer Pokemon that resist both Fire and Grass coverage than Grass and Poison, it makes it significantly harder to switch into Cherubi or check it.