A guide to the wonderful world of Little Cup!

While playing Pokemon Online I decided to play the Little CUp tier because I was bored, never played it before, and wanted to see if it was fun or really stupid. After reading a small FAQ on Little Cup I decided to make a team that I thought consisted of some of the better pokes in the tier. Even though I lost my first couple, I got addicted to the fast-paced offensively orientated tier. I thought that I would try to introduce all of you to the tier of Little Cup because it was one of the most exciting tiers I ever played before and want everyone to give it a chance.

Standard rules of Little Cup:
-All pokemon must be able to evolve.
-They most be Basic pokemon (The smallest pokemon of a pokemon family)
-All pokemon must be level 5.
-No Ubers.

Ubers List: (This is the standard ban list)
Scyther
Murkrow
Misdreavus
Yanma
Meditite
Sneasel
Tangela
Clamperl with Deepseatooth

The rules of Little Cup are basically the same as every other tier.

Now I will post some of the more used pokes in a standard role (Lead, sweeper, wall, etc.)

Leads:



Gligar- Gligar is the most used lead and for good reason. It can Taunt an opponent, it's fast, and can setup Stealth Rock. Alongside that, Gligar has solid attacking stats and can sweep through unprepared opponents with it's STAB earthquake.



Aipom- Aipom functions a lot like Ambipom in UU. STAB Fake out, Taunt, and great speed, Aipom can shut down other leads while scouting for his team and wiping out frailer pokemon.



Machop- Machop makes for a great Anti-lead for several reasons. With a Lum berry, Machop can avoid status and spread confusion with it's STAB 100% accuracy Dynamicpunch. Machop also has great bulk and can usually take any STAB non super effective attack. All of these things and a great movepool make Machop a solid pokemon.

Walls:



Bronzor- Bronzor has only one weakness which is fire. Along with great defenses and the ability to setup screens make Bronzor a fine choice for a wall. Bronzor is also probably the best counter to Gligar in Little Cup, one of the scariest pokemon in the tier. REMEMBER!!! When using Bronzor do not use Gyro Ball. Many people make this mistake. Though it has slow speed, the proportion of it's speed to others puts a huge damper on Gyro Balls base power.



Munchlax- With uber HP and great Sp. Def, Munchlax makes a great special wall and best switch-in to the overly popular Gastly(I'll discuss him later), as well as Houndour thanks to it's ability Thick Fat. Also with great attack, Munchlax can take hits and dish out large amounts of damage.



Koffing- Koffing is a great physical wall as well as tank thanks to its great defense. With moves like will-o-wisp and pain split, Koffing can really kill a teams momentum. Koffing can switch-in on Gligar and Mankey almost unscathed, two very common physical attackers. And if you want to give a sweeper a free chance to come in, you could always explode, hopefully taking an opposing pokemon down too.

Special Sweepers:



Gastly- The most used Special attacker, Gastly's impressive speed and uber (For Litle Cup) Special attack make Gastly and obvious choice for a Special sweeper. With two deadly STAB's, and T-bolt for coverage, Gastly can run right through unprepared teams. Substitute can also be used to help Gastly deal with sucker punchers, a common move. However, the most used Gastly set is a choice scarf set. With a scarf Gastly can blow by other scarfers and utilize it's great special attacks. Also, you can always trick it off later to screw an opposing wall.



Staryu- Staryu makes a great Special sweeper with great speed and great special attacks that not only have great base power but also hit a wide range of enemies. give it HP ground and you can hit every pokemon in the tier for at least neutral damage. The most common is the Life Orb/Expert Belt sweeper, but Staryu can also run a choice set as well as act as a utility rapid spinner.



Abra- With even better sweeping stats than Gastly in speed and Special attack, Abra is quite a force to be reckoned with. With STAB Psychic and other good moves, Abra has the potential to go through teams with a Choice set. However, don't be so quick to use that STAB psychic, as many if not all teams have a dark type that could be holding pursuit. Abra also has very weak defenses, so keep abra away from pokemon that could be holding a priority move. Don't let these shortcomings discourage you from using abra though, it is still a very threatening sweeper.

Physical Sweepers:


Mankey- Mankey with a choice scarf is a bewildering force to behold, with great attack, solid speed, and great moves. STAB Close Combat is a very threatening thing to try and defend against in Little Cup, even things that resist it are 2HKO'd. Mankey also has U-turn, a great scouting move as well as Ice Punch for dealing with gligar, and Punishment for taking out setup sweepers as well as for dealing with Psychic's and Ghost's. Overall, a great pokemon that can fit it on almost every team.



Dratini- Dratini is quite the force to be reckoned with after a Dragon Dance. With unresisted type coverage in Outrage and Waterfall, and the always useful, powerful priority move Extremespeed, Dratini sets itself apart from other dragon types.



Taillow- Taillow functions a lot like Swellow, using a toxic or flame orb to gain a status which would activate guts boosting Taillow's attack to sky high levels (for Little Cup). That along with two powerful STAB's in facade and brave bird, quick attack for priority, and u-turn to scout make Taillow a valued sweeper that should be handled cautiously by any opponent.

Mixed Sweepers:



Houndour- Houndour has pretty good stats on both sides of the attacking spectrum, and with this can function as a great mixed sweeper. With Fire Blast and Dark Pulse making great special STAB moves, Sucker Punch, Crunch and Pursuit make great STAB physical moves. Houndpur also scares off a lot of pokemon which can give Houndour an opportunity to set up a sub or nasty plot, however, Nasty Plot is not as good to run because Houndour is so frail while with a sub Houndour would be protected for a turn, allowing it to fire off a powerful move.



Elekid- Another great Mixed Sweeper, Elekid can function as a Physical attacker or Mixed attacker with the elemental punches, T-bolt, Cross chop and Quick Attack for priority. The thing that makes elekid one of the best Mixed attackers is it's great speed stat at base 95. Give it a Life Orb or Expert Belt and you got a great late-game finisher.



Carvanha- Carvanha was gifted with great stats for a mixed attacker with good speed, good special attack, and great attack. The first thing Carvanha has going for it is it's STAB Aqua Jet, and coming off such a powerful attack stat gives Carvanha a great way to finish off pokes. Along with STAB Crunch and Waterfall, Carvanha also has access to Hydro Pump, Dark Pulse, and Ice Beam.

Couple Other Things to Know About Little Cup:

*Priority is one of the most important things to have in Little Cup. In such a fast paced offensive metagame, being able to hit first is very important. Priority is the best way to finish off faster frailer sweepers, such as Gastly or Abra.
*DO NOT USE LEFTOVERS. Leftovers gives you 1 HP per turn. Oran Berries are great for bulky attackers because they get 10 HP back, around 40-50% of their total HP. 1 HP per turn is nothing compared to 10 HP considering a pokemon will not be able to last more than a couple of turns.
*Stall teams are very hard to make in Little Cup. Most if not all Stall teams turn out as failures mostly because the walls of Little Cup can not stand up against the offesnively orienated metagame; they just don't have the endurance or defenses to make it work. I'm not saying it's impossible, it is just much harder to create a Little Cup stall team.
(I'll probably post more things if I think of more.)

So that's just a small introduction of tier that is Little Cup. Please try it on shoddy or pokemon online or wherever. If you have any question just let me know.

Thanks!

Good guide. Just saying, aipom doesn't have technician.