Introduction:
Little Cup is one of the most fast-paced, if not the most fast-paced, metagame to play. This team revolves around speed and finishing off the opponent as quick as possible. Speed plays a huge part in LC, since with everything basically being 2HKOed or OHKOed most of the time, the one that is usually faster ends up coming out on top. This team has been extremely successful in my experience, winning me games like never before. I’m proud to say that team Baby Rampage has gotten me to the top of LC leaderboard, and it’s time to let this team go and start with a fresh idea. This was originally a joint team with Heysup, but I did a couple of changes and refined it much more to fit my needs. I'm not really looking for any changes, this is basically just for shows. Enjoy the team!
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Team Baby Rampage!
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Team Baby Rampage!
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Snover @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 116 HP/200 Spd/184 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Blizzard
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Water Pulse
Description: Snover is an extremely successful anti-lead. It usually always beats the opposing lead or forces it out, as it packs some very powerful moves. Against the most common leads, it will always win in most cases. Also, with hail being summoned, all Focus Sash leads will still lose, unless of course they are immune to hail. Snover isn’t much of a common leads itself, so it’s fun when people don’t know what Snover can do. Also, since most leads have Stealth Rock and since Snover can beat them, I’m usually battling without Stealth Rock hurting my team.
Here’s how Snover fares against the top 5 leads in LC:
Please note that the Sashed leads can either set up Stealth Rock or attack Snover. Snover will usually faint since many of the Sashed leads have super effective moves, but that just means they don’t have Stealth Rock set up. If they use Stealth Rock, Snover is still alive and can still wreak havoc.
Moveset: With Snover, I’m usually always using Blizzard, since it has so much power and great accuracy under hail. Even Houndour, a common Snover switch-in, will be taking around 40%, which is excellent. Energy Ball is very important as well, knocking out Water-types like Chinchou that try to absorb Blizzard. It also has the handy Special Defense drop, which is always great. The last two moves are pretty much for filling purposes, but Hidden Power Fire is nice to use against Steel-types, especially Bronzor, while Water Pulse is just thrown in there since there’s nothing else Snover can use. Although, it does hit Houndour and other Fire-types super effectively.
Item Choice: Choice Scarf is what makes Snover such an incredible anti-lead and sweeper. It reaches enough Speed to outrun every non-Scarfed Pokemon, and hitting them very hard with Snover’s STABed moves. Choice Scarf also helps it take care of the faster leads, like Meowth, Aipom, and Buneary.
Gligar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 236 Atk/236 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
Description: Probably going to be banned soon, due to how amazing this flying scorpion is. Gligar is such a fantastic Pokemon to have on any LC team, providing handy resistances and immunities, an excellent typing, and a great stat spread. It also has an extremely powerful Earthquake, OHKOing defensively frail Pokemon with ease. Gligar pretty much always saves me from a loss, and is a force to be reckoned with.
Moveset: Pretty straightforward moveset. Earthquake’s power is death-inducing to many Pokemon that reside in Little Cup, hitting extremely hard on even the ones that resist it. I decided not to add Aqua Tail, and I put in Aerial Ace instead. Aerial Ace is very helpful against Pokemon like Paras, Mankey, and Croagunk, especially the latter. Most Croagunk are usually paired with Misdreavus, and being locked into Earthquake and allowing it to set up Substitute/Nasty Plot is pretty risky. Therefore, Aerial Ace removes that possibility by OHKOing Croagunk and 2HKOing Misdreavus that don’t invest heavily in its defenses. Finally, Stone Edge is useful against Flying-types like Mantyke, while U-turn is an excellent scouting move.
Item Choice: Another Choice Scarfer on my team. Gligar reaches a high Speed stat of 27, outpacing a ton of Pokemon in LC, including Rock Polish Aron and Jolly Scarfed Mankey. These are all important threats to outpace, and Gligar fits that role of revenge-killing them perfectly.
Porygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Download
EVs: 74 Def/200 Spd/236 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Psychic
Description: Porygon is an excellent sweeper on any team it’s on, especially this one. It has such a high Special Attack stat, and with Download possibly making it higher, I’d say Porygon is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, special attacker in LC. It also has pretty good overall bulk, and it’s always nice when it can survive a powerful attack, like Gligar’s Earthquake.
Moveset: It’s a shame how Tri Attack is banned on Porygon, man would it be threatening. Anyhow, it still has a awesome movepool to work with, which still makes me want to use this. Since Snover starts everlasting hail, I chose Blizzard over Ice Beam, since the power Blizzard packs does not steer me away whatsoever. It’s incredibly strong; OHKOing pretty much everything that doesn’t pack a butt-load of Special Defense or HP. Thunderbolt works well in tandem with it, knocking out Water-types that resist it. Hidden Power Fighting eats away at Steel-types like Aron and Shieldon, while Psychic is basically used for filling purposes.
Item Choice: No one ever suspects Porygon to be carrying a Choice Scarf, which gives Porygon the element of surprise. This little monster is usually the one that wins me the match, since it scores so many kills. It also reaches a decent Speed stat of 21, outpacing all non-Scarfed Pokemon.
Stunky @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 12 HP/252 Atk/244 Spd
Hasty nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Crunch
- Explosion
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
Description: Stunky is a great Pokemon to use in my experience, and it’s a pretty sweet sweeper to. Even though I don’t necessarily sweep with it much, it’s still helpful in taking out weakened opponent’s with Crunch and exploding in a sweepers face later in the game. It also takes out Misdreavus easily, a big threat after the recent HGSS changes that gave it Nasty Plot.
Moveset: Crunch is the obvious STAB move of choice, hitting reasonably hard and also has the added chance of lowering the opposing Pokemon’s Defense. Explosion is such a handy move to use, OHKOing basically anything that doesn’t resist it by 4x. Also, since Stunky is usually taking out all Ghost-types, there are no Ghosts to absorb Explosion later in the game. Pursuit has been proven useful to me by taking out fleeing Ghost-types, or any fleeing Pokemon for that matter, while Fire Blast nails Steel-types like Bronzong for heavy damage.
Item Choice: The last Scarfer on my team, reaching an excellent Speed stat of 27. The Speed is important in order for Stunky to do its job effectively, especially when it comes to taking out Ghost-types that usually always outpace. It’s also great when it outpaces practically everything and use Explosion before they have a chance to attempt to KO Stunky.
Ponyta @ Choice Band
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 36 HP/236 Atk/236 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Flare Blitz
- Flame Wheel
- Return
- Double Kick
Description: Ponyta is probably my favourite Pokemon to use in LC. It’s ridiculously strong and is one of the fastest Pokemon in LC, reaching a Speed stat of 19. It’s usually used as a Pokemon that attacks until it dies, because that’s what it basically does best. Not only that, but it has a fantastic ability in Flash Fire, making its Fire-type attacks, especially Flare Blitz, insanely strong.
Moveset: Sadly, Ponyta doesn’t really pack such a nice movepool, but it doesn’t it need a good movepool in my opinion, all it needs is Flare Blitz. The power Flare Blitz offers is absolutely amazing, OHKOing so many Pokemon in LC that I just have to laugh. If I successfully get a Flash Fire boost, Flare Blitz can almost OHKO Munchlax, which is ridiculous if you ask me, considering that it resists it with Thick Fat and is one of the bulkiest Pokemon in LC. Flame Wheel is useful when I don’t need to use Flare Blitz, and it does hit pretty hard. Return is excellent to use as well, hitting very hard and having the power to almost OHKO Dratini and other defensively frail Pokemon. Lastly, Double Kick is good to use against Munchlax and Houndour, since I often find them switching into Ponyta.
Item Choice: Choice Band is what makes Ponyta a brutal offensive threat. Reaching a high Attack stat of 27 with Choice Band, I usually see Ponyta taking out at least 2-3 Pokemon on the opponent’s team. To be quite honest, Ponyta is really overpowered in my opinion.
Paras @ Oran Berry
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 236 HP/116 Atk/156 Def
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Seed Bomb
- Bug Bite
- Brick Break
Description: Paras is pretty neat Pokemon to use in my experience. It’s typing packs useful resistances and immunities, along with an added Water-type immunity thanks to Dry Skin, which also heals it for a quarter of its health. It’s the only Pokemon on this team that goes against the concept, considering how slow it is and not packing a Choiced item. However, it does a great job at what it’s supposed to do; stealing Berry items (Oran Berry in particular), sleeping the opposing Pokemon, and attacking with surprisingly strong STAB attacks.
Moveset: Spore is what makes Paras such a valuable Pokemon and teammate. It’s capable of sleeping a very dangerous threat, such as Gligar, which is always beneficial to itself and its teammates. It also has the bulk to survive some unSTABed super effective moves, which allows it to use Spore after that. Seed Bomb and Bug Bite are two STAB moves that hit pretty hard. Bug Bite in particular is a very useful move, due to the fact that it can steal Oran Berries to heal itself for 10 HP, or any other Berry for that matter. Lastly, Brick Break is a great move to use against Munchlax, and especially incoming Houndour switch-ins.
Item Choice: Oran Berry is used to add more survivability to Paras, since it really needs it in order to do its job effectively. It does go against the all Choiced theme, but it goes against it for a good reason. It’s essentially my wild card.
All images were taken from this: http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc41/davisgal1/pokemon/?start=0&mediafilter=images
All credibility goes to him/her, and I realize I used Skuntank instead of Stunky, there wasn't one in there!
Conclusion:
As you can see, having a speedy team in LC can be very threatening. The amount of wins this team has achieved is uncountable, since I have rarely lost with it. Taking me up the #1 spot on the LC ladder has proven to me that this team is one of the greatest LC teams I have ever made and used. Also, if you haven't noticed yet, my team lacks a Stealth Rock user. Even though Stealth Rock is always helpful to have, my team doesn't really need it. The reason is because I use sheer force to bring down my opponent, I don't need Stealth Rock to help me with that. Also, half of my team is weak to Stealth Rock. This may be the case, but my team rarely switches out and in. Since most of them are incredibly powerful, Pokemon like Snover and Ponyta don't need to switch it so much. Their moves are powerful enough to have a chance to 2HKO the ones that are even resistant to their attacks, so I really don't mind Stealth Rock in my way since I've learned to cope with it.
Everyone should try playing Little Cup, since it's ridiculously fun. If you're getting bored of playing OU, UU, or even Uber, come on down to Doug's Create-A-Pokemon Server to play some excellent Little Cup battles on the ladder!
Little Cup needs to grow! It can't stay little forever!
