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| LC Item Analyses; I didn't change too much. | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 28 2009, 10:28 PM (226 Views) | |
| HeYsUp | Mar 28 2009, 10:28 PM Post #1 |
Hey, what's up?
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This was based off of Cooper's work (because it deleted itself, I didnt change the wording too much if I thought it was fine, so yea)..and uh.. this is where I post it right? Little Cup Item Analysis  Hey there, since you're reading this, most likely you've taken one of the biggest steps to building a team: assigning items to your Pokemon. This is an analytical guide as to what items are most common in Little Cup play, which ones will work best with which Pokemon, and why certain items work and don't work in a competitive environment. Since many of you are probably still transitioning from standard play, let's start with the basics. The Most Effective Items in Little Cup In alphabetical order.   Choice Band / Choice Specs - Little Cup is all about power and speed. It's highly unlikely that you'll ever see a Pokemon last more than three turns on the field without some kind of stat boost, and you'll almost never see a stall war. Choice Band and Choice Specs are staples on a lot of common leads and sweepers, usually those that are fast enough to not worry about getting out sped. Bulky Pokemon who can take hits can also effectively use Choice Specs or Choice Band. Pokemon such as Kabuto are often used with Choice Band as well due to power increase for it's priority attack.   Choice Scarf - Choice Scarf is possibly the most common item in the metagame. The ability to increase your Speed 50% is incredibly useful, as anything that normally maxes out at 14 Speed has the potential to outspeed every single Pokemon not wearing a Choice Scarf (the highest obtainable un-boosted Speed is 20). Starters, sweepers, and revenge killers are notorious for using Choice Scarves, and usually the only way to beat a Choice Scarf user is with priority, a Focus Sash, or simply by a faster Choice Scarf user. Cranidos and Remoraid (with Hustle) make great Choice Scarf users with their monstrous Attack stats and mediocre Speed. Pokemon such as Magby are used with Choice Scarves to revenge kill Pokemon in the rain or sun, and slower Choice Scarf users.   Damp Rock / Heat Rock / Light Clay - Little Cup is fast-paced enough that by the time you use Rain Dance/Sunny Day and switch to a sweeper, only three turns are left and it's easy for your opponent to stall you out. As such, an extra three turns is incredibly useful, giving you a total of six. Light Clay is similar, because with both screens many Pokemon such as Gligar can set up and sweep or pass quite easily due to natural bulk, but only get 3 turns without Light Clay. Light Clay is often used with Pokemon such as Natu, or even on the odd Abra. All of these items are quite common on Bronzor.   Focus Sash - A great Little Cup item that pops up quite often. In OU it is used on frail but powerful Pokemon like Rampardos that could manage to get a Rock Polish in. In LC, it's abused by similar Pokemon, but for the purpose of killing fast Pokemon, but still used to get the set-up move most of the time. There are much more Pokemon in LC than OU that resemble Rampardos's characteristics, such as Dratini. This item is also used by Pokemon such as Diglett to revenge kill Pokemon using Choice Scarf. Pokemon can also use Focus Sash to lead, and pretty much any Pokemon can be a usable lead as long as it has a Focus Sash, though Pokemon who have a decent attack stat, and are fast or have priority generally do it better than others, because they beat other Focus Sash leads. This allows the Pokemon to survive a hit and KO back. Beware of Stealth Rock, which is becoming very common to break the Focus Sashes of Pokemon so that they can't successfully revenge kill sweepers.   Liechi / Petaya / Salac Berry- The "pinch" berries are used mainly for those Pokemon with outstanding Attack (or Special Attack) / Speed, but which lack the stat to use the naturally strong stat with. A good example would be Substitute + Petaya Drifloon, which not only appreciates the boost to its mediocre Special Attack, but gets an added kick from Unburden. Misdreavus uses Salac Berry so that it can outspeed most Choice Scarf users and sweep with a couple Calm Minds under it's belt.   Life Orb - Used on sweepers, for the purpose of maximizing type coverage. The Pokemon that use Life Orb are generally fast, strong, have great coverage, or have a powerful priority move to make revenge killing quite difficult. The most common pure attacking sweepers with Life Orb are Elekid, followed by Magby. The mixed priority sweepers who use Life Orb effectively as well include Houndour and Croagunk. This item is as popular as Choice Scarf, due to the one of the best ways of countering a Choice Scarf Pokemon, is with a Life Orb boosted priority attack.   Lum Berry - Little Cup is slightly more diversified in it's metagame than OU is; that is, you'll see a lot more weather teams, and slightly more Trick Room teams. Because some of thr common LC leads use Hypnosis or a lesser status move, teams that rely on set-up will often lead with a Lum Berry Pokemon to ensure they get the turn they need. Leads like Houndour are also common with Lum Berry because of their ability to trap and knock out Gastly, another common lead. Pokemon that lead with an Agility, followed by Baton Pass strategy (such as Aipom) are also commonly found using Lum Berry.   Oran Berry - The other most common item in LC. If you can't think of a good item to put on your Pokemon, use Oran Berry. While 10 HP was next to nothing in standard, for many LC Pokemon, 10 HP is 50% of their health. Oran Berry is generally seen on walls, stat-uppers, and utility Pokemon.   Toxic / Flame Orb - Pokemon that use the ability Guts or Quick Feet can take advantage of status orbs, because it will increase their Attack or Speed respectively, giving an advantage of a Choice Band or Choice Scarf, but with the ability to change attacks, and use an 140 base power Facade. Pokemon such as Taillow and Teddiursa use these items effectively. Flame Orb does not work with Quick Feet well though, as it still reduces the Attack of the Pokemon. Shroomish can also use the Toxic Orb with it's Poison Heal ability. Items that are good in OU but not in Little Cup Leftovers - Due to the fact that Leftovers heal only a relatively small percentage of your health per turn, it would take 5-10 turns for the majority of pokemon to achieve the healing powers that one Oran Berry will have in a single use. therefore, Oran Berry is a much better choice in Little Cup. There are a few exceptions, though. One exception to this is Munchlax with Protect, as it can outheal an Oran Berry after 4 or 5 turns, which is easy to do with Protect. Another is Sub-Seed Pokemon, who outheal Oran in around two turns with Leech Seed + Leftovers + Protect. Expert Belt - Generally used on Pokemon that don't like taking recoil damage. Since the only Pokemon that rely on having lots of type coverage are fast sweepers that don't like getting hit anyway, some Life Orb recoil doesn't affect them as badly. Also, with 19 HP, Pokemon only lose about 6% of their health, which isn't nearly as much of an impact in LC than 10% in standard is. To summarize, Life Orb is always better than Expert Belt. The Right Item for your Pokemon With the diverse metagame of Little Cup and all the strategies that can be used effectively, it can be difficult to decide what the correct item to assign your Pokemon is. This section will breakdown some general guidelines regarding the qualities a specific Pokemon should have for each item. Choice Band or Choice Specs Fast Speed, Priority or bulky Defenses- With the 1.5x multiplier effect to attack stats, it's unlikely that more than a few specific Pokemon will be able to switch into a boosted attack without taking at least 50%. To be able to hit on the switch and deliver the finishing blow the next turn without sustaining heavy damage yourself would be highly beneficial. As such, slower Pokemon are generally better for using these items. On the contrary, Pokemon with defenses such as Munchlax or Bronzor can use these items quite well, since they can take a couple of attacks while taking out a few Pokemon with a boosted attack. Pokemon with priority can also be used with these items to remedy any Speed problems for Pokemon such as Kabuto. Excellent Type Coverage - A diverse moveset, while not a strict requirement, would be useful for a Choice Band or Choice Specs user. Look at the metagame and decide what the most prevalent threats are. Gligar, Bronzor, and Misdreavus are staples on almost every team, so having to rely on Earthquake as your only powerhouse attack would not be your best bet. Having at least three damaging moves of different types that cover the weaknesses of each other, while also using a priority attack in the last slot is advised Choice Scarf 14 Unboosted Speed - This is extremely important when considering using a Choice Scarf. Choice Scarf gives a multiplier boost of 1.5x to Speed, so to outspeed any non-Choice Scarf Pokemon would require an unboosted 14 (14*1.5=21). Destructive Power - Choice Scarf Pokemon will generally want pretty high attack stats and a versatile movepool. Apply the principals for the other Choice items, but instead reverse (Special) Attack and Speed. Pokemon such as Cranidos or Remoraid have very high Attack stats, but are too slow to really use it. This is where Choice Scarf comes in, it allows these Pokemon to boost their Speed and use their hard hitting attacks while outspeeding almost every Pokemon in the metagame, except for those faster Pokemon such as Magby who also use Choice Scarf to revenge kill threats like the previously mentioned Cranidos. Life Orb High Attack Stat(s) - As you probably could have guessed, Life Orb is used by either powerful mixed attackers, late game sweepers, and Pokemon with powerful priority attacks. Elekid is an excellent example, being strong and fast enough to do serious damage, but having low enough defenses and HP that it would not feel comfortable if a counter switched in. As such, it needs a varied movepool. Pokemon like Houndour use this well, because it can take out all slower Pokemon with a Life Orb boosted Fire Blast, and take out the frail faster Pokemon with a Life Orb boosted Sucker Punch. 19 HP - The mechanics of Life Orb take away 10% of your health with each successful attack, but the damage is rounded down. So 10% of 20 HP is 2 HP per turn, but 10% of 19 is only 1.9. This is rounded down, so you only take 1 point of damage. Good Life Orb users are generally the ones that can manipulate their health to hit that magic number. This is not required, however, it just allows certain Pokemon to keep their health higher, and being less vulnerable to revenge killers. Focus Sash A Good set-up Pokemon - Pokemon that run Focus Sash should be those that are too frail to reliably increase their stats. However, after the boost, frail stats shouldn't matter, as they should in theory be able to sweep. Think of Cranidos or Dratini. They have horrible HP and defenses, but high attack (or move power) and decent speed. After a Rock Polish or Agility, it should be able to reliably sweep any team, barring priority attacks. This can also include Pokemon that lead, who want to use Stealth Rock first, and then live to contribute to the battle later. Revenge Killing Power - Pokemon that are not either a set-up Pokemon with frail defenses, or a Counter / Mirror Coat user, need to have this aspect to take advantage of a Focus Sash. Pokemon that have trapping abilities, such as Diglett or Trapinch, trapping moves, such as Pursuit are good with Focus Sash to make sure your opponent will not switch out. Your Pokemon can also be slower, but this means it needs to hit hard, because it only has one chance to KO your opponents Pokemon. Sending a Pokemon equipt with Focus Sash will often put your opponent between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, your opponent would switch out, and have to take two attacks from your Pokemon, and on the other hand, if they stay in, they lose their Pokemon. Counter / Mirror Coat - Counter or Mirror Coat is not a requirement for a Focus Sash user, but it is an excellent strategy. The idea is to bring the Pokemon with Focus Sash into a Pokemon that will easily knock it out. The opposing Pokemon should attack, you survive, and reflect the attack right back. This is rather gimmicky, however, and makes your Pokemon rather useless after it hopefully takes out one Pokemon. *Pokemon can also generally lead quite well with a Pokemon equipt with Focus Sash. It allows a Pokemon to nearly always beat another Pokemon without Focus Sash, but there are no requirements for this. Generally faster Pokemon, or Pokemon with priority will do this better, however, due to beating other lead Pokemon carrying a Focus Sash. Oran Berry There aren't any specific requirements for an Oran Berry user. Usually the item is put on walls to add to their staying power, but this isn't necessary one bit. I personally run a Belly Drum Poliwag with an Oran Berry to heal the damage. Just keep several things in mind about the item itself: Pluck / Bug Bite- Many Pokemon such as Natu and Paras carry the attack Pluck or Bug Bite (respectively) to deal with the bulky Pokemon who switch in with Oran Berry. This is something to keep in mind when switching Bronzor into any of these two Pokemon. Lum Berry Requires a turn of set-up - To require a Lum Berry, the Pokemon in question should have an objective that can only be stopped by status. Usually it will lead, and will lead for a reason. That reason should be what the team depends on. If it's a Baton Pass team, the Lum Berry user should be the one who starts off the chain. If it's a Rain Dance team, the Lum Berry carrier will use Rain Dance, while not having to worry about opposing Gastly who may try to put them to sleep before setting up. Note that Gligar and Bronzor are generally the best Pokemon for these jobs, and usually carry Lum Berry to fend off Hypnosis while they set up. Liechi / Petaya / Salac Berry As with Oran Berry, beware of Pluck. The last thing Doduo needs is more Speed. Lacks a Necessary Stat - The "pinch Berries," as they are called, are a bit trickier to use than other items: not only do you not get their effect right away, you have to be very low of health for them to activate. For the downsides to be worth it, your Pokemon has to have a need for a particular stat. Something like Belly Drum Poliwag is a good example. One hit, a Belly Drum, and your berry will activate. The boost will make you faster than anything without high Speed and a Choice Scarf. And with the Attack increase from Belly Drum, you'll be a force to be reckoned with. *Damp Rock / Heat Rock / Light Clay have been omitted merely because there are many Pokemon who can use it, because the only requirement is to be able to use Sunny Day or Rain Dance, or Reflect and Light Screen. *Toxic / Flame Orb have been omitted because there are only a handful of Pokemon who can use them, and they are quite obvious (Pokemon with the ability "Quick Feet", "Guts", or "Poison Heal"(Toxic Orb only)). Common Mistakes Regarding Items Why Oran Berry over Sitrus Berry? Sitrus Berry is a better choice when playing competitive OU, because 25% recovery is much more useful than a measly 10 HP. But, in Little Cup, 10 HP will always be more than what 25% would give you. For Sitrus Berry to be as effective as Oran, you'd need a Pokemon with 40 HP, of which there are none. Edited by HeYsUp, Apr 10 2009, 04:56 PM.
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 Thanks to Legacy Raider for this sig :D. Thanks to bugmaniacbob for my avatar :D. Visit my Little Cup blog. | |
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| eric the espeon | Mar 29 2009, 03:12 PM Post #2 |
vader was here
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"Because some of the most common LC leads use Hypnosis or a lesser status move, teams that rely on set-up will often lead with a Lum Berry Pokemon to ensure they get the turn they need." Not really accurate. Only a few leads have a status move, many are SR users, weather setuppers, Scarfers or something else. Lum is used only a little in LC from what I have seen, Sash tends to give fragile things a better chance of setting up while Oran is normally more helpful for the bulkier Pokemon. Oran could do with some expansion, its the thing that makes stall or defensive teams have half a chance in LC. "Pokemon such as Cranidos or Remoraid have very high Attack stats," Remoraid has 65 base Atk, it may not be clear to some people that Hustle gives it that boost. Maybe change your example to.. Krabby? "Focus Sash A Good set-up Pokemon Counter/Mirror Coat " How about adding: High attacking power With some stuff about how Sash is often used to aid revenge killing. |
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| Beefy | Mar 29 2009, 07:57 PM Post #3 |
Troll on Dougs and be trolled
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I am on my psp so I can't quote but you said scarves once in the focus sash section. Looks good but maybe you should put Yache berry in there somewhere. I know only Gligar uses it but it uses it alot |
 Credit to P.bus for all my artsy stuff | |
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| eric the espeon | Mar 29 2009, 08:11 PM Post #4 |
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vader was here
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Yache Gligar? Its very rare from my experience... Oran seems to be useful in more situations. |
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| Dragonite24 | Mar 29 2009, 11:16 PM Post #5 |
Robots BEEEEEEEEP BOOOOOOP BAAAAAAP
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Yeah I'm the only one I know of who uses Yache Gligar, which is mainly for Snover who rips through my team otherwise.
Edited by Dragonite24, Mar 29 2009, 11:16 PM.
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| HeYsUp | Mar 30 2009, 04:12 AM Post #6 |
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Hey, what's up?
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I dont exactly agree with many of your points eric... Meowth and Gastly are both very common leads, and carry hypnosis, I also see Ponyta every so often, but Meowth is probably the most common lead. For Focus Sash, I put that speed set-up Pokemon have high attack to use Focus Sash with already. I also put that they are used for revenge killing..lol. I put (with Hustle) next to remoraid, because it is probably the second best / best (Stat wise) Choice Scarf user, so I feel its important. |
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Thanks to Legacy Raider for this sig :D. Thanks to bugmaniacbob for my avatar :D. Visit my Little Cup blog. | |
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| eric the espeon | Mar 30 2009, 07:39 PM Post #7 |
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vader was here
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For Sash I was meaning this section: "Focus Sash A Good set-up Pokemon - Pokemon that run Focus Sash should be those that are too frail to reliably increase their stats. However, after the boost, frail stats shouldn't matter, as they should in theory be able to sweep. Think of Cranidos or Dratini. They have horrible HP and defenses, but high attack (or move power) and decent speed. After a Rock Polish or Agility, it should be able to reliably sweep any team, barring priority attacks. Counter/Mirror Coat - Counter or Mirror Coat is not a requirement for a Focus Sash user, but it is an excellent strategy. The idea is to bring the Pokemon with Focus Sash into a Pokemon that will easily knock it out. The opposing Pokemon should attack, you survive, and reflect the attack right back. This is rather gimmicky, however, and makes your Pokemon rather useless after it hopefully takes out one Pokemon." Which does not say anything about revenge killing and seems to imply that without a setup move or Counter/MC Sash is not very useful. |
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| HeYsUp | Mar 30 2009, 10:45 PM Post #8 |
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Hey, what's up?
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Ah yea, I fixed that now. I also added a bit how Pokemon commonly use Focus Sash to lead. |
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Thanks to Legacy Raider for this sig :D. Thanks to bugmaniacbob for my avatar :D. Visit my Little Cup blog. | |
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| TPM | Apr 8 2009, 11:23 PM Post #9 |
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Add Bug Bite in with the Pluck mentions, as it is seen probably just as often. Maybe add Leftovers part in common mistakes because many new people think Leftovers is superior to Oran. |
 credits to plus for this amazing banner
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| HeYsUp | Apr 9 2009, 04:58 AM Post #10 |
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Hey, what's up?
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err...its there... |
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Thanks to Legacy Raider for this sig :D. Thanks to bugmaniacbob for my avatar :D. Visit my Little Cup blog. | |
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| Dragonite24 | Apr 9 2009, 02:38 PM Post #11 |
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Robots BEEEEEEEEP BOOOOOOP BAAAAAAP
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Pretty good, just a few minor changes: First, I think you should merge the "Common Mistakes Regarding Items" section and the "Items that are good in OU but not in Little Cup" sections, as they are highly similar. Second, maybe add something in the Pinch Berries sections about passing the Pinch Berry boosts, as it is a common strategy utilised by Drifloon, Gligar, etc. Also agreeing with the addition of Bug Bite. Also, why is a random Gastly sprite under the title? Edited by Dragonite24, Apr 10 2009, 02:02 PM.
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| Dixie | Apr 9 2009, 05:09 PM Post #12 |
Back. Will see in the next week or so how much I can contribute.
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I'll have a glance over this tomorrow, as I'm busy today but good work so far. |
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