Hi, all. This is my first RMT on Smogon so don't be too critical please ;).
I've always liked little cup. It gives lots of pokemon's little siblings who usually suck a chance to shine down here in little cup. The best thing about this is probably also winning with teams like this and that's one of the reasons I haven't taken super popular choices like mienfoo or scraggy (or any fighting type for that matter, bear with me) because I like to be interesting and use pokemon which I like for what they are not because they're great. Anway, enough of the mushy stuff, on to the team.
This team's gone through a lot of changes in the team-building so I will skip that and move straight on to the team.
Aipom @flight gem
EVs: 196 atk, 236 spd, 76 hp
Jolly (+spd - sp. atk) Pick up
-Fake out
-U-turn
-Fire punch
-Acrobatics
I loved using ambipom in the current meta-game and this purple pile of monkey fur follows in its father's footsteps. Aipom works great as a lead (better than mienfoo in my opinion) because it has a much better move-pool for one and EVERY good player will be prepared for mienfoo. With Aipom, people just don't know what to expect and that's one of the reasons he's done such a great job as a lead and revenge killer. Fake out should be on every aipom set and can deal decent damage with full STAB. U-turn lets it switch out and come in for more trolling while dealing damage. Acrobatics is really great for fighting types and lets him kill mienfoo leads without a scratch. It's particularly great watching their mienfoo go down on the second turn and psychologically reading the "oh crap" written all over their face in the three minutes they're trying to think of what to do next. Fire punch is a slightly unusual choice as most would usually be running taunt here but fire punch I found is really important for dealing with steels who think they can wall me and stopping them from making me play on their terms. Lack of taunt is usually not too much of a problem as I do have a spinner.
Sandshrew @eviolite
EVs: 236 def, 196 HP, 76 atk
Impish (+def -sp. atk) Sand veil
-Earthquake
-Stealth rock
-knock off
-rapid spin
Good old sandshrew. He's a great pokemon and always has been and I find it sad how he's been rejected as the generations fly by :( . I chose sandshrew to be my physical wall but mainly as by hazards setter and spinner. Why sandshrew over other walls like ferroseed? It is quite similar to aipom's reason. Fighting types are pretty much dominating the metagame at the moment and everyone is also prepared for steels. Sandshrew comes in as well as quite a surprise, and with no physical weakness, it can easily get some rocks up or spin them off. This works quite similarly to donphan really but I like sandshrew more than phanphy and it has better stats too. Earthquake let's sandshrew deal some good damage for frail things that try to set up. Knock off is a very handy move in every game and let's him cripple counter-walls or ghosts who try to come in to block his spin.
Darumaka @choice scarf
EVs: 196 atk, 196 spd, 116 HP
Adamant (+atk -sp. atk) Inner focus
-Flare blitz
-U-turn
-Brick break
-Dig/Rockslide
Oh darumaka, you crazy, fat, red ... thing. Darumaka is one of those pokemon who are made out of 100% metagame breaking material in the right circumstances. Even without a band and hustle, Darumaka hits astronomically hard and is virtually impossible to switch in to unless your name is staryu or chinchou and you're carrying a choice scarf too. Darumaka can sweep whole teams once revenge killers have gone with ease and to be honest, he's probably the best at doing this job. Flare blitz is his chosen tool of destruction and for good reason too as it incinerates nearly everything in its path. U-turn is very handy if I predict a switch forcing them to switch out again for more rocks damage. Brick break is over superpower as it gives darumaka a lot more staying power and can break those pesky screens but maybe I'm wrong and superpower would be better input on this would be handy. Dig is my filler move which I (rarely) use but maybe rock slide would be better. I have opted for inner focus over hustle as I find it a lot more useful with all the fake out users bouncing around and when flare blitz misses, it's almost certainly dead meat.
Lileep @eviolite
EVs: 220 sp. def, 228 HP, 60 sp. atk
Calm (+sp. def -atk) Storm drain
-Energy ball
-recover
-toxic
-HP fire
Lileep is a really good special wall and can soak up hits all day with the eviolite and recover. The grass and rock typing is very nice only taking neutral damage to ground and fire and a resistance to normal. The best bit though is that it soaks up water moves through its great ability which works perfectly alongside sandshrew when I need to pivot over to a specialy defensive side. Energy ball gives a handy grass attack for chinchou-killing goodness which is otherwise very difficult for the rest of my team to bring down (especially the eviolite-carrying type). HP fire has very nice coverage alongside energy ball and stops stuff like pawniard from setting up on me. The main problem for lileep are fighting types which can give it a hard time but it'll usually have time to toxic it before it goes down.
Chinchou @choice scarf
EVs: 232 sp. atk, 224 spd, 52 HP
Volt absorb, Modest (+sp. atk -atk)
-Hydro pump
-Thunderbolt
-Ice beam
-HP fighting
After some bad experiences facing chinchou, I decided to take the illuminating fish as I've always loved Lanturn for the under-rated beast he is. So here he is as my special sweeper. Chinchou is one of the best users of the choice scarf in the tier imo with a very nice variety of attacks (namely the holy trinity of offensive typing, water, ice, and electric). Hidden power fighting is thrown in to break bulky things like physically defensive tanks like munchlax or lickitung and steels that can soak up special attacks like ferroseed. Volt absorb is a nice ability making chinchou very difficult to take down with special attacks.
Dratini @oran berry
EVs: 112 HP, 244 atk, 36 sp. atk, 116 spd
Lonely (+atk -def) Shed skin
-Dragon dance
-Outrage
-Extreme speed
-fire blast
Dratini here is another gen 1 veteran standing proudly next to sandshrew. Dratini is my only set-up sweeper but fortunately it does this job very well. With one DD under his belt, he can easily breeze through a late-game sweep but with two he is unstoppable. Outrage deals insanely high damage with full STAB. Extreme speed is very useful for revenge killing and countering revenge killers and fire blast to break steels which will be the only thing that can stand a chance against a boosted outrage. I've taken shed skin over multiscale as I don't find it very useful without roost and it will usually be switching in on a weak attack anyway. Shed skin also laughs at sleep powder disablers and will-o-wisp AND toxic which almost any sweeper would beg for.
Well there you have it. I hope you enjoyed the read. And constructive critisism and comments would be appreciated. Threat list will come later :)
I've always liked little cup. It gives lots of pokemon's little siblings who usually suck a chance to shine down here in little cup. The best thing about this is probably also winning with teams like this and that's one of the reasons I haven't taken super popular choices like mienfoo or scraggy (or any fighting type for that matter, bear with me) because I like to be interesting and use pokemon which I like for what they are not because they're great. Anway, enough of the mushy stuff, on to the team.
This team's gone through a lot of changes in the team-building so I will skip that and move straight on to the team.
Aipom @flight gem
EVs: 196 atk, 236 spd, 76 hp
Jolly (+spd - sp. atk) Pick up
-Fake out
-U-turn
-Fire punch
-Acrobatics
I loved using ambipom in the current meta-game and this purple pile of monkey fur follows in its father's footsteps. Aipom works great as a lead (better than mienfoo in my opinion) because it has a much better move-pool for one and EVERY good player will be prepared for mienfoo. With Aipom, people just don't know what to expect and that's one of the reasons he's done such a great job as a lead and revenge killer. Fake out should be on every aipom set and can deal decent damage with full STAB. U-turn lets it switch out and come in for more trolling while dealing damage. Acrobatics is really great for fighting types and lets him kill mienfoo leads without a scratch. It's particularly great watching their mienfoo go down on the second turn and psychologically reading the "oh crap" written all over their face in the three minutes they're trying to think of what to do next. Fire punch is a slightly unusual choice as most would usually be running taunt here but fire punch I found is really important for dealing with steels who think they can wall me and stopping them from making me play on their terms. Lack of taunt is usually not too much of a problem as I do have a spinner.
Sandshrew @eviolite
EVs: 236 def, 196 HP, 76 atk
Impish (+def -sp. atk) Sand veil
-Earthquake
-Stealth rock
-knock off
-rapid spin
Good old sandshrew. He's a great pokemon and always has been and I find it sad how he's been rejected as the generations fly by :( . I chose sandshrew to be my physical wall but mainly as by hazards setter and spinner. Why sandshrew over other walls like ferroseed? It is quite similar to aipom's reason. Fighting types are pretty much dominating the metagame at the moment and everyone is also prepared for steels. Sandshrew comes in as well as quite a surprise, and with no physical weakness, it can easily get some rocks up or spin them off. This works quite similarly to donphan really but I like sandshrew more than phanphy and it has better stats too. Earthquake let's sandshrew deal some good damage for frail things that try to set up. Knock off is a very handy move in every game and let's him cripple counter-walls or ghosts who try to come in to block his spin.
Darumaka @choice scarf
EVs: 196 atk, 196 spd, 116 HP
Adamant (+atk -sp. atk) Inner focus
-Flare blitz
-U-turn
-Brick break
-Dig/Rockslide
Oh darumaka, you crazy, fat, red ... thing. Darumaka is one of those pokemon who are made out of 100% metagame breaking material in the right circumstances. Even without a band and hustle, Darumaka hits astronomically hard and is virtually impossible to switch in to unless your name is staryu or chinchou and you're carrying a choice scarf too. Darumaka can sweep whole teams once revenge killers have gone with ease and to be honest, he's probably the best at doing this job. Flare blitz is his chosen tool of destruction and for good reason too as it incinerates nearly everything in its path. U-turn is very handy if I predict a switch forcing them to switch out again for more rocks damage. Brick break is over superpower as it gives darumaka a lot more staying power and can break those pesky screens but maybe I'm wrong and superpower would be better input on this would be handy. Dig is my filler move which I (rarely) use but maybe rock slide would be better. I have opted for inner focus over hustle as I find it a lot more useful with all the fake out users bouncing around and when flare blitz misses, it's almost certainly dead meat.
Lileep @eviolite
EVs: 220 sp. def, 228 HP, 60 sp. atk
Calm (+sp. def -atk) Storm drain
-Energy ball
-recover
-toxic
-HP fire
Lileep is a really good special wall and can soak up hits all day with the eviolite and recover. The grass and rock typing is very nice only taking neutral damage to ground and fire and a resistance to normal. The best bit though is that it soaks up water moves through its great ability which works perfectly alongside sandshrew when I need to pivot over to a specialy defensive side. Energy ball gives a handy grass attack for chinchou-killing goodness which is otherwise very difficult for the rest of my team to bring down (especially the eviolite-carrying type). HP fire has very nice coverage alongside energy ball and stops stuff like pawniard from setting up on me. The main problem for lileep are fighting types which can give it a hard time but it'll usually have time to toxic it before it goes down.
Chinchou @choice scarf
EVs: 232 sp. atk, 224 spd, 52 HP
Volt absorb, Modest (+sp. atk -atk)
-Hydro pump
-Thunderbolt
-Ice beam
-HP fighting
After some bad experiences facing chinchou, I decided to take the illuminating fish as I've always loved Lanturn for the under-rated beast he is. So here he is as my special sweeper. Chinchou is one of the best users of the choice scarf in the tier imo with a very nice variety of attacks (namely the holy trinity of offensive typing, water, ice, and electric). Hidden power fighting is thrown in to break bulky things like physically defensive tanks like munchlax or lickitung and steels that can soak up special attacks like ferroseed. Volt absorb is a nice ability making chinchou very difficult to take down with special attacks.
Dratini @oran berry
EVs: 112 HP, 244 atk, 36 sp. atk, 116 spd
Lonely (+atk -def) Shed skin
-Dragon dance
-Outrage
-Extreme speed
-fire blast
Dratini here is another gen 1 veteran standing proudly next to sandshrew. Dratini is my only set-up sweeper but fortunately it does this job very well. With one DD under his belt, he can easily breeze through a late-game sweep but with two he is unstoppable. Outrage deals insanely high damage with full STAB. Extreme speed is very useful for revenge killing and countering revenge killers and fire blast to break steels which will be the only thing that can stand a chance against a boosted outrage. I've taken shed skin over multiscale as I don't find it very useful without roost and it will usually be switching in on a weak attack anyway. Shed skin also laughs at sleep powder disablers and will-o-wisp AND toxic which almost any sweeper would beg for.
Well there you have it. I hope you enjoyed the read. And constructive critisism and comments would be appreciated. Threat list will come later :)
