Red/Blue Little Cup Metagame Primer

Composition

LC (Little Cup) is a format in which players may only use Level 5 Pokémon that have not yet evolved but are capable of evolution. Due to the lack of breeding in RBY, tradebacks from GSC are allowed. This means movesets that are usually unavailable in RBY (such as Ice Punch Abra) are allowed in this format. To learn more about tradebacks, click here.

A list of the current LC Pokémon for the RB era are found on the dex page.

Play Restrictions

Clauses

Players must abide by the following clauses:

  • Species Clause - A player cannot have two Pokémon with the same National Pokédex number on a team. For example, you cannot have 2 Koffing on your team.
  • Evasion Clause - A Pokémon may not have the moves Double Team or Minimize in its moveset.
  • OHKO Clause - A Pokémon may not have the moves Fissure, Guillotine, or Horn Drill in its moveset.
  • Endless Battle Clause - In the event of an endless battle (such as only two Dittos remaining who can only transform forever, two Gengar forced to Struggle against each other, etc.), a draw is called.
  • Cleric Clause - All Pokémon must have full HP and PP, and not have any status conditions prior to the battle. In other words, heal up with Nurse Joy right before your battle if you're on cartridge; the simulators do this automatically.
  • Invulnerability Clause - A Pokémon may not have the moves Dig or Fly in its moveset. This is due to a glitch where a Pokémon that becomes fully paralyzed while in a semi-invulnerable state (the second turn of the attack) will remain in that semi-invulnerable state until switching or using Fly or Dig again.

Mods

Our simulator has implemented these modifications:

  • Sleep Clause Mod - No more than one Pokémon on each player's side may be sleeping as the direct result of an opponent's move. All effects of moves that would cause sleep are prevented from taking effect while Sleep Clause is active. For cartridge players, you lose if, at the end of your turn, two of your opponent's Pokémon were put to sleep by a move you used, but were not forced into, and neither have had their sleep removed since then.
  • Freeze Clause Mod - A player cannot freeze two of their opponent's Pokémon at the same time. All effects of moves that would cause freeze are prevented from taking effect while Freeze Clause is active. For cartridge players, a player has the option of requesting a redo or playing it out in the case of receiving multiple freezes.
  • Desync Clause Mod - If a move would cause a situation that leads to battles desynchronizing during a Link Battle on cartridge, the move will fail. For example, in the event Psywave would deal 0 damage on one side and 1 damage on the other, the move will fail.

Restrictions

The following are not allowed in the format:

  • The Pokémon Clefairy cannot be used because it is unavailable in both RBY and GSC at Level 5.
  • The moves Sonic Boom and Dragon Rage have been banned due to their ability to OHKO almost everything and everything in the tier, respectively.
  • The move Wrap has also been banned due to its increased potency at Level 5 and the overcentralizing effect it had on the metagame.