The Blue Man Group

[BrokenMusicBox]

Hello, this is my first RMT and my first LC team. First off, I'd like to say that this team wasn't originally made so that most of its members were blue, it just ended up that way. Each of these pokemon fit a certain roll, however the main hero of this team is Clamperl. Your objective should be to get rid of any possible counters to Clamperl so that he can set up Shell Smash.

The Team​

Abra @ Focus Sash (The Manager)
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 240 SpA/200 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power Fighting
- Protect

Abra is very powerful, yet VERY squishy. A single Fake Out from Croagunk can will bring Abra near death. With only 15 base Defense, it can not tank any physical attacks. Its Special Defense is better, but it won't be able to take more than two hits. This is the reason for Focus Sash; without it, it would only last a single turn in most cases. However, it is one of the fastest Pokemon in LC with a huge 90 base speed. It also has an impressive 105 base Special Attack which can put a massive dent on just about anything if it doesn't outright kill it. The Timid nature and speed EVs ensures it is on par with max Speed Misdreavus, which is one of Abra's main counters. Abra is used as a clean up sweeper if Clamperl is taken out and can also be used to soak in burns and Toxics thanks to Magic Guard.

Magnemite @ Eviolite (The IT Guy)
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 156 HP/36 Def/240 SpA/76 Spe
Modest Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power Fire
- Magnet Rise

A problem I had with this team was that I was really vulnerable to Sucker Punch Murkrow. Magnemite can wall Murkrow and KO him with ease unless it has Heat Wave. You can also use Chinchou instead of Magnemite, but then you're really vulnerable to Leaf Storm Treecko. I prefer to use Magnet Pull instead of Sturdy because of entry hazards, which render it useless. Magnet Rise is to troll people with Diglett and other Earthquake users that try to get an easy KO. You can replace HP Fire with HP Ice if you're less concerned by Ferroseed and want to do more to Ground types

Bronzor @ Eviolite (The Smart One)
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 220 HP/68 Def/8 SpA/148 SpD/16 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Rain Dance
- Psychic
- Flash Cannon

Bronzor is a great tank Pokemon in LC. He can take just about anything that isn't a fire type attack, but even if they do use a fire type move, it's still tough to 2HKO. His one weakness (other than fire) is that it lacks recovery. Still, it does its job of setting up Stealth Rock really well. Rain Dance is there to be a check to Choice Scarf Snover. Bronzor can take a solid Blizzard and change the weather. This will usually force your opponent to switch and allow you to counter switch.

Porygon @ Eviolite
Trait: Trace
Level: 5
EVs: 76 SAtk / 196 Def / 236 HP
Bold Nature
- Tri Attack
- Shadow Ball
- Thunder Wave / Toxic
- Recover

Porygon is a decent tank and a major check to Misdreavus. It's immune to its main source of damage, Shadow Ball, and is mostly unaffected by Will-o-Wisp. Toxic is to break other walls and Thunder Wave is to slow down other pokemon so you can always get Recover off first.

Mienfoo @ Choice Scarf (The Rebel)
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 236 Atk/36 Def/236 Spd/
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- High Jump Kick
- Stone Edge
- U-Turn

Choice Scarf is to take out faster counters. High Jump Kick is the main source of damage. Drain Punch is for recovery outside of Regenerator. Stone Edge is to take out Murkrow and Darumaka. U-Turn is to dupe people out and get a counter for whoever your opponent put out to counter you.

Clamperl @ DeepSeaTooth (The Leader)
Trait: Rattled
EVs: 76 HP/248 SpA/180 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Grass
- Shell Smash

Here we are, the grand finale. If you have played LC, then you probably already know how powerful this guy is. For those who don't know, when Clamperl came out in Gen 3, it got two unique items just for it: The DeepSeaTooth and the DeepSeaScale. When Clamperl is traded with either item it evolves into Huntail and Gorebyss respectively. However, Clamperl also recieves stat boosts in battle while holding these items too. DeepSeaTooth doubles Clamperl's Special Attack while DeepSeaScale doubles its Special Defense. DeepSeaTooth plus Shell Smash brings Clamperl's Special Attack to enormous levels. Once Clamperl is set up, it's impossible to stop without priority moves or a very fast Choice Scarfer. Surf is my main STAB move, Ice Beam is for Grass types, and HP Grass for bulky Water types who would otherwise wall it. Some people use HP Fire for steel types such as Bronzor and Ferrothorn, but I've OHKO both of these with only Surf and Ice Beam. Other Water types like ChinChou is a bigger threat to Clamperl since they could take a Surf to the face and knock it with help of my lowered defenses.

Strategy

I usually start out with Bronzor so it can set up Stealth Rock early and then poison my opponent when they do the same. If my opponent has a Bronzor too, then I start off with Clamperl so it can set up without Bronzor doing anything about it other than maybe a Toxic. And even if Bronzor poisons Clamperl, it can usually take out four Pokemon, including the Bronzor, before it dies as long as my opponent doesn't have any priority moves. After Bronzor is taken down, it's just a matter of revenge killing whoever took down Bronzor. Also, do not be afraid to use Wooper as a punching bag so one of your Pokemon can live. Wooper is only useful in case of boosting Pokemon. After Wooper is down, you can switch to another Pokemon that can take a better handle of the situation.

Counters

As said before, this team hates Murkrow. In most cases I've seen, Murkrow always has Sucker Punch. This really hurts my team since two of my best hitters are weak to Dark. Abra can't KO it, even if it gets a crit and Golett is always OHKO'd by it. This is the reason why I had to introduce Magnemite to the team. Misdreavus does the same, albeit in different ways. Misdreavus also hurts Abra and Golett, but Abra has the off chance of 2HKOing it with Shadow Ball. Still, Magnemite can tank Misdreavus' Shadow Balls. Stunky can also be a problem, but can handled easier by the rest of the team. Croagunk can also be trouble to Clamperl with both Fake Out and Vacuum Wave killing it after Shell Smash, but Abra, Bronzor, and Golett easily take care of him too. Last, but not least, Chinchou can be very threatening if not taken care of. Abra can usually take it out, but if that fails, then Clamperl can OHKO with HP Grass if it hits first, even without a boost.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any advice or suggestions are welcome. Please remember that this is my first RMT, so don't be too harsh.

 

[Rowan]

Hello there and welcome to Smogon! Clamperl is an extremely powerful Pokemon in Little Cup so I can see why you'd want to build a team around it. However I have noticed a few flaws in it.

First off is a general weakness to Misdreavus and Mixed Murkrow. If you look at February's usage stats only Mienfoo is used more than them so they are extremely common to face and also very threatening.
Misdreavus can set up a Nasty Plot on Bronzor and proceed to rip through your entire team. You can try to toxic it but many Misdreavus use Taunt or Substitute which prevents this strategy. I think Porygon would be a great addition to this team. It can take down Misdreavus with Shadow Ball whilst it survives a +2 HP Fighting. I suggest this goes over Wooper; you said yourself when using the team that you often sack Wooper and use it as a 'punching bag'. Porygon also only takes 65-80% from Life Orb Murkrow's Brave Bird. This means it can revenge Murkrow as Tri Attack will KO after Stealth Rock, Life Orb and Brave Bird recoil. Porygon can also serve as a check to Chinchou (another pokemon you have trouble with) as it hardly takes any damage from anything Chinchou has and can Trace Volt Absorb so it can be immune to Volt Switch.

Aside from these 2 great threats, Scraggy can also be a problem. Currently it can set up a Dragon Dance on Bronzor and Golett (and Porygon should you choose to take it) and proceed to sweep your team. Wooper doesn't help because it Scraggy 2HKOs it with Hi-Jump Kick whilst Wooper does very little back-Scraggy can just Shed Skin off Toxic. I don't see what Golett is doing for your team- you already have a Stealth Rock user and it's not the most threatening of Pokemon. I suggest you use Choice Scarf Mienfoo in Golett's place. This will outspeed and OHKO a +1 Scraggy which is very useful. It can also revenge Murkrow as it can outspeed it and hit it with HJK or Stone Edge. With U-turn it can keep momentum on your side and maybe even allow a free switch in to Clamperl as it lures in Larvesta and Shelmet who Clamperl can set up on. Mienfoo also beats Ferroseed and Lileep who can stop Clamperl.

As for minor details, you may want to consider using Substitute on your Clamperl - this will prevent and other Sucker Punch users stopping your sweep short. This could go in place of Ice Beam or Hidden Power. You will have to take down Grass types if you choose to use it in place of Ice Beam and Water types if you use it in place of Hidden Power so you may want to leave it how it is, it's just thought.
Magnemite can also run Hidden Power Fire over Thunderbolt - This can trap and take down Ferroseed who is Clamperl's no.1 counter. It's just another thing you might like to consider.

Summary

Wooper --> Bulky Porygon
Golett --> Choice Scarf Mienfoo
Ice Beam / Hidden Power --> Substitute on Clamperl (not too important as long as you can deal with Murkrow, Pawniard and other Sucker Punch users)
Thunderbolt --> Hidden Power Fire on Magnemite

sets

Mienfoo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Def / 236 Spd / 236 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Hi Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Drain Punch / Knock Off

Porygon @ Eviolite
Trait: Trace
Level: 5
EVs: 76 SAtk / 196 Def / 236 HP
Bold Nature
- Tri Attack
- Shadow Ball
- Thunder Wave / Charge Beam
- Recover

Hope I helped, have fun playing Little Cup, we're always looking for new people to play this extremely fun tier :D You can always join #littlecup on irc if you have any more questions!

 

[apt-get]

Hi! I like this team, especially with Clamperl's use. I won't go over some flaws, as Corkscrew described most of the things pretty well.

However, I can see you're kinda weak to Sand. Bronzor might hard-counter Life Orb Drilbur, the Swords Dance variant is even more threatening as it 3HKOes your Bronzor, and Double Rush is even more threatening as Sandshrew might weaken him enough. Wooper isn't enough to wall these threats, as Lileep, a pokémon commonly found on sand teams, can switch in about anything except Toxic and proceed to OHKO you with giga drain.
I honestly don't see what Bronzor is really doing for you. It has no offensive presence, your stealth rock user is Golett and Magnemite is the one that can take most steel-type resist hits. I'd suggest to replace it with Choice Scarf Snover. Even if your revenge killer is Abra, it'd be nice to have a choice scarf user in case the psychic-type is gone. It also fixes your problem with sand teams, as you have a reliable hail-inducer that outspeeds Drilbur and friends. It also scares out water-types that kinda threaten your team.

tl;dr
Bronzor --> Snover

Sets:

Snover @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Snow Warning
Level: 5
EVs: 104 Atk / 184 SAtk / 200 Spd
Naive Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard
- Hidden Power [Fire]

 

[BrokenMusicBox]

@Corkscrew: Thank you for welcoming me, I appreciate it very much! I have tried to your suggestions and I have good results for it. Porygon does an excellent job at as a psudo-wall. It can take several hits so that I can use Thunder Wave and recover all the damage done. I've battled it against a Misdreavus and it's done exceptionally. I'm still a little wary about Choice Scarf Mienfoo as I often had to switch out, which while Mienfoo recovers, another of my Pokemon is damaged. I'm going to test out a Eviolite Mienfoo to see if it will work out better. Still, Mienfoo has helped me out better than Golett in some cases, so I believe I might keep it. The main factor about Golett that I preferred was that it was immune to constant Fake Outs. I believe Mienfoo, though not immune, can do something similar since it has decent recovery with Regenerator. Still, I am going to Porygon over Wooper from now on. I'll update my RMT with it soon. I might also replace Golett after some more testing.

@Sarkynin: Thank you for your suggestion, but I have tested out Snover and had mixed results for it. While the extra power was nice, the Hail was problematic for the rest of my team. It constantly chipped away at their health as Snover is the only one to actually benefit from it. I could forgo Snow Warning and use Soundproof, but then Blizzard loses its 100% accuracy. Golett is not as reliable as Bronzor is either as it is easily KO'd by super effective hits. I've also replaced Golett with Mienfoo, so it leaves me without a Stealth Rock user. You are right when you say that Sand teams can be a problem, but the biggest threat against this team would be Sand Rush Drilbur. Bronzor can avoid his Earthquakes and out stall it with Toxic. Sandshrew can also be a problem if it runs Sand Rush, but the most common one I see is Sand Veil users. And while switching weathers would help me, on non-weather teams it mostly just hurts me. A Rain Dancer might be more beneficial as it can cancel out the weather without doing extra damage to my team. So, while I will not be using Snover, I thank you for bring that to my attention.

 

[BrokenMusicBox]

Edited my team to include Porygon and Mienfoo. I also put Rain Dance on Bronzor to counter Sand and Hail teams. I decided to go with Choice Mienfoo because of how hard it is to counter Choice Scarf Snover. Mienfoo should be able to easily KO it and can KO +1 Dragon Dance Scrafty. Any other suggestions will be helpful and appreciated.