[WIP] Intro to Little Cup Threats

[antemortem]

Hey everyone! If you've been playing Pokemon on the internet anytime in the last eight years or so, you might have heard of a neat little ruleset known as Little Cup. It's a game format in which every Pokemon used must be Level 5 Base form with a potential evolution. It's really that easy. It started out as a metagame filled with baby Pokemon, but as time has passed, these pre-evolutions are thought far less of as baby Pokemon and more as threats, depending on which ones you look at. In this article, I plan to quickly break down some of the top threats in the metagame, and in future Featurettes, I will be taking a closer look at each Pokemon in particular and sharing insight on why the Pokemon is great and how you, too, can use it.

In order to paint a more vivid background, let me share some tips on common tricks that you're likely to see incredibly often in Little Cup. As far as items are concerned, there are a token couple that you'll see more often than others: Berry Juice and Eviolite. Because the HP margins in LC are so low, Berry Juice, which recovers 20 HP when a Pokemon is at or below 1/2 their max HP, is an extremely useful tool, especially when used on Pokemon that have Sturdy. This way, if they have a method of setting up entry hazards such as Stealth Rock or boosting moves such as Shell Smash, they have one turn of guaranteed setup opportunity, and Berry Juice assures lost health is replenished. Eviolite multiplies the defenses base level Pokemon (with an evolution - every Pokemon in LC qualifies!) by 1.5, turning some Pokemon into powerful defensive walls. Eviolite can technically be slapped on any Pokemon and be "decent", but it works best on offensive Pokemon with a bit of natural bulk themselves such as Timburr, Porygon, Chinchou, Houndour, and Honedge because stall is very uncommon in LC. There are far too many strong offensive presences in the metagame to justify stall wars, and very few Pokemon are capable of pulling off stall successfully while also holding up to wallbreakers such as Magnemite, Carvanha, and Amaura, not to mention the dozens of setup sweepers.

The Fighting Kings

There's not a huge amount of Fighting-types in LC, but when you consider just how devastating Fighting-type moves and Knock Off (which every FIghting-type above has and uses) are, they become that much more prominent. The bulkier, versatile ones such as Croagunk often lead to teams having to sac an individual mon, or risk a Knock Off landing from any of the pool of threats, to bring in something that actually effectively checks and/or counters them. They aren't even limited to exhibitions of raw power - Pancham is capable of crippling an opponent not only via Knock Off, but Parting Shot, which almost guarantees a partner can come in and wreak havoc. Fighting-types are nothing to sneeze at in this metagame.

The Rulers of the Sea

The Rulers of the Sky

The Mysterious Menaces

 

[bobandbill]

Seems to be a decent start here. I would suggest maybe having a short paragraph before analysing the fighting types to give people who don't know anything about LC a general idea of how battles occur/last for compared to other formats, the typical items expected, etc (which appears to be a possible assumption allowed given the explanation about it in the opening paragraph).

I'm not sure of the 'The Rules of the Sky' title because it's very similar to the one above it - perhaps try something else, like The Winged Assassins, or Sky Kings, or something better. =p 'The Dark, Psychic Ghosts' is more bland than the others too - The Mysterious or something like that may fit better?

 

[antemortem]

Seems to be a decent start here. I would suggest maybe having a short paragraph before analysing the fighting types to give people who don't know anything about LC a general idea of how battles occur/last for compared to other formats, the typical items expected, etc (which appears to be a possible assumption allowed given the explanation about it in the opening paragraph).

I'm not sure of the 'The Rules of the Sky' title because it's very similar to the one above it - perhaps try something else, like The Winged Assassins, or Sky Kings, or something better. =p 'The Dark, Psychic Ghosts' is more bland than the others too - The Mysterious or something like that may fit better?

I've included a short paragraph on Berry Juice and Eviolite - how is it?

As for "Rules of the Sky" VS "Rulers of the Sea" - I did that on purpose to create a bit of contrast, that's all. I changed the last one to "The Mysterious Menaces" because they're some of the strongest in the ruleset, so it's a accurate description. I might add one more section for Steel-types or something and then call it a day.

 

[bobandbill]

I've included a short paragraph on Berry Juice and Eviolite - how is it?

Seems sound content wise. Perhaps consider splitting it into two paragraphs, and extend the last sentence a touch? It has a lot about items and less about the sort of teams which is maybe a bit unbalanced. I'm no expert though, haha. It reads well, but a separation between berry juice and evolite may be better presentation wise.

I'd also change the 1/2 (...recovers 20 HP when a Pokemon is at or below 1/2...) to the word half.

As for "Rules of the Sky" VS "Rulers of the Sea" - I did that on purpose to create a bit of contrast, that's all. I changed the last one to "The Mysterious Menaces" because they're some of the strongest in the ruleset, so it's a accurate description. I might add one more section for Steel-types or something and then call it a day.

I prefer the current setup with both of them being Rulers, rather than Rules/Rulers. Mysterious Menaces sounds good to me as well!

 

[bobandbill]

Dropping this post here to say this article is on hold - Dave's on leave for the time being.

 

[bobandbill]

.

Poke! Checking in to see if you wanted to begin work on this article again.

 

[antemortem]

I'll check on it at the weekend and see if I have motivation to do so!

 

[bobandbill]

I'll check on it at the weekend and see if I have motivation to do so!

Should I take that as a no? :< If so, is it alright to open this up for anyone else to take over to finish it? You'd still get credit for writing what is here already.

 

[antemortem]

I'm so sorry for leaving you hanging, I just have not been able to focus on writing like this.

Sure, if someone is earnest about finishing it, all the power to them!