Items in Little Cup Introduction: Items play a large role in Little Cup, of course when you think "Little Cup item" you think of Eviolite if you know anything about LC at all. However Eviolite isn't the only item that one can make use of in LC and this guide will attempt to show you some interesting things about items in LC as well as some pitfalls to avoid regarding items. Viable Items: Eviolite - This is of course the best item in Little Cup by quite a stretch, giving all Pokémon usable in LC a 1.5x boost to their defenses unless they have Klutz. This is of course viable on most any Pokémon from sweepers to walls and requires little explanation. Life Orb - An item of somewhat diminished usability from Generation IV with the prevalence of Eviolite Life Orb users can find themselves falling short of KOs a lot more than Generation IV. However Life Orb still serves a number of Pokémon well, such as Murkrow, Abra and Elekid. As a side note, Pokémon using Life Orb should aim to have 19 HP if possible as Life Orb will only take one point of health from a Pokémon with 19 or lower HP. Choice Scarf - Choice Scarf is the most common choice item in Little Cup by a considerable margin. The boost it gives allows a number of Pokémon to serve in a completely different role to their usual one. For example Mienfoo becomes a powerful revenge killer and scout Pokémon with a Scarf attached. Choice Band - Choice Band is the least seen of the Choice Items however it still has a few uses that give it a niche in Little Cup. Pokémon with very high attack that force switches such as Axew make good Band users as well as those on which it is unexpected such as Stunky or Mienfoo. Choice Specs - Specs are the middle ground of the Choice Items in Little Cup, they see some use on Pokémon such as Trick Misdreavus. Special moves can be somewhat difficult to wall so this item has a lot of potential on some of the more unexpected Pokémon. Oran Berry - The Generation IV staple item, certainly fallen from its glory days, however it still sees some use on certain Pokémon, most notably Dwebble and Drifloon due to their abilities, Sturdy and Unburden respectively. Focus Sash - A somewhat rare item due to the team preview feature and Stealth Rock being so common, the main use for this item is without a doubt Abra, this is due to its Magic Guard ability preventing damage from entry hazards on incoming and therefore preserving the Sash. Lum Berry - Lum Berry is an underused item in Little Cup, this is mostly due to the offensive nature of the metagame making status somewhat less common than normal tiers and reducing the impact of the Poison status especially. Some Pokémon such as Axew can make use of this item to avoid things like Thunder Wave and Will-O-Wisp ruining its fun. DeepSeaTooth - DeepSeaTooth is one of the signature items of Clamperl, its function is doubling Clamperl's Special Attack stat, this can be combined with Shell Smash or Trick Room to make Clamperl a potentially devastating sweeper. Thick Club - Thick Club is the signature item of Cubone and has the function of doubling its Attack stat. This is another item that does well combined with Trick Room in turning its holder into an extremely potent sweeper. Flying Gem - Flying Gem is a viable option on a number of Pokémon in Little Cup that make use of Acrobatics. The most notable of these are Archen and Drifloon. Flying Gem turns Acrobatics into an extremely powerful move and activates its secondary effect by removing the Flying Gem after use. Other gems can also be used in Little Cup to some extent but Flying Gem is by far the most used. Chesto Berry - Chesto Berry is another somewhat underused item in Little Cup. Its primary use is of course the Chesto Rest combination which uses Rest for a full heal and the sleep is instantly cured by the Chesto Berry. Damp Rock - Damp Rock is the weather extending item for Rain. It is seen exclusively on Pokémon with the intent of using Rain Dance such as Rain Setter Murkrow and Chinchou. Heat Rock - Heat Rock is the weather extending item for Sun. Like Damp Rock it is seen exclusively on setters for its weather. Notable setters of Sun are Cottonee and again Murkrow. Toxic Orb - Toxic Orb sees some usage in Little Cup. It may be found on Pokémon such as Teddiursa and Taillow that wish to activate their abilities, it can easily turn them into potent sweepers and one should be cautious of any Pokémon that induces status upon itself. Flame Orb - Much the same as Toxic Orb, this item is used by some bulkier users of Guts such as Timburr on occasion as the damage from Flame Orb is lower over a period of 4 or more turns. Custap Berry - Custap Berry is a rare item in Little Cup, its most common use will be on Wynaut in order to allow it effective use of Destiny Bond. It can also sometimes be seen on some hazard setting Pokémon in an attempt to gain another layer of hazards before death. Salac Berry - Salac Berry is another one of those items that was simply better in gens past. With masses of priority, the occasional Snover and many Scarfers around Little Cup Salac sweepers can struggle to make their mark, that said, if supported properly the surprise factor is not to be underestimated. Liechi and Petaya Berries - These berries serve more or less the same function as each other. They serve a few fast Pokémon in gaining an easy boost for a sweep. As mentioned with the Salac Berry, priority is common in Little Cup which dampens the effectiveness of these Pokémon. Even so, once again similar to Salac Berry users, they are to be underestimated at your own peril. Rocky Helmet - Rocky Helmet is a somewhat gimmicky item to use in Little Cup, its main use would come on Ferroseed as it stacks with the damage dealt by Iron Barbs. Eviolite is usually a superior option, however. Light Clay - Light Clay serves the function of extending Light Screen and Reflect, naturally the best user of Screens would be the best user of this item, that user is Natu, due to Magic Bounce Natu is immune to all status moves including Taunt, this means that it is difficult to stop Natu setting up at least one of the Screens thus making Light Clay worth a spot on Natu at least. Red Card - Red Card sees use primarily on Pokémon with Sturdy such as Dwebble, it forces the opponent to switch which generally disrupts your opponent's play. Even better if your opponent has set up boosts with a Pokémon as it acts as a semi-reliable Phazing method. It must be said that this item is a one-time-only thing and can often be used prematurely. Do Not Use: Leftovers - One of the most well known and effective items in normal competitive play, Leftovers carry a great reputation. None of this applies in Little Cup. For the vast majority of Pokémon Leftovers will heal 1 HP per turn, this means that it would take 10 turns of Leftovers recovery to amount to one Oran Berry. Not to mention the fact that any given wall gains untold amounts of bulk from Eviolite that would easily out shine the 1 HP per turn recovery from Leftovers Expert Belt - Expert Belt in normal play serves the primary function of bluffing Choice Items on Pokémon such as Terrakion to get some kills on unsuspecting Pokémon. However this function, and therefore the usefulness of Expert Belt is completely redundant in Little Cup, this is due to the fact that most items used in Little Cup, such as Eviolite and Oran Berry don't have an obvious sign that shows up every turn like Life Orb damage or Leftovers recovery. Air Balloon - There are no Pokémon in LC that benefit enough from the use of an Air Balloon to justify its use over an item such as Eviolite or a Choice Item, that in combination with the fact that Ground-type moves are somewhat uncommon in Little Cup compared to normal tiers makes Air Balloon a useless item all round. Any of the Super Effective damage reduction berries - These berries serve some gimmick purposes in main tiers such as Yache Garchomp and Tanga Deoxys-D. In Little Cup these gimmicks are more or less worthless, the one-time-only nature of these berries means that a Pokémon must be able to OHKO its assailant and thus remove its "counter". Due to the nature of LC this is rarely the case and many sweepers can be checked or countered by multiple Pokémon on the same team making the surprise factor yet less effective.
What about the Heat Plate for ponyta too boost stabs, Iron Plate on ferrothorn and bronzor too boost gyro ball, while uncommon is viable. I'm trying to think of more common viable items that aren't plates. Shed Shell can save stuff from stunky I presume and even ferrothorn from magnemite. Um while none of those are REALLY viable they can be in some situations just like rocky helmet. Also brightpowder on snow cloak pokemon on hail teams is viable though ice gem/icy plate are better on them sometimes.... um that's all I can think of for now. Deepseascale can boost clamperl's special defense and allow you to run a bulky set though it can't do much and is outclassed by tooth but some people may run it.... Absorb bulb can be a gimmick on fire types and ground types that are special attackers.... Black Belt and Fight Plate are useful on bulky fighting types like timburr and makuhita... Iron Ball on ferroseed to make an almost guranteed 150 base power gyro ball....
Most of the things listed here are either extremely gimmicky or just plain not viable. Absorb Bulb doesn't grant an immunity to Water-type moves. If I were to add things like Flame Plate I'd have to add them all and I'm not doing that, since the only one that's really viable at all is Splash Plate Turtle. I refuse to add Brightpowder as it's a hax item. I did consider it for a while, it's just an non-competitive strategy. Shed Shell does not stop Pursuit and Magnet Pull and Arena Trap are only really on one Pokémon for each, since Nosepass and Trapinch are more or less non-existent so Eviolite is, without fail, superior on any given wall that might need to escape. The good suggestion on here is DeepSeaScale, I gave this a minute or two of consideration and decided not to include it atm, if it gets some support then it'll go in, I just find Eviolite or DST to serve superior purposes on it.
And I would still take Evio Ferro over Shed Shell Ferro, some items that usually work in other metas do not cut it in LC. Gj on the items Weavile you got all of them I think. I think you should put the items in categories, like rocky helmet it's viable but really not as common as evio or life orb. Just a suggestion.
shed shell would be a gimmicky set as it sacrifices great bulk for other mons. I'm also agreeing with weavile's original analysis that deeseascale shouldn't be added
The problem is that it's so situational - so gimmicky - so ineffective (a majority of the time), that it's not really viable, nobody uses Shed Shell (Steels) in LC, I guarantee it. If we where to add things like that, we might as well say that Mienfoo should use Rock Gem Stone Edge, just for Drifloon so it kills it, rather than begin killed and them activating unburden. But, clearly there's no reason to add such garbage (for lack of a better term :x) (Also, lack of a better random comparison at mid-night.) Anyway, great guide - good job :]
Lol I missed this? Anyway cool thread. I suggest you add white herb to "do not use items" since eviolite outclasses it 99.98% of the time. As eviolite cancels the -1 defences well providing bulk pre-ss unlike white herb. I dont know if it belongs in "do not use" but boosting type gems are really mediocre / bad in LC, since youre better off with LO.
Considering the only other generation Life Orb is in is Gen 4 I think this could be rewritten better. of*. I would also suggest Rocky Helm being removed I feel its potential use is too situational to merit a spot on the guide but others can decide. Outside of those few things I noticed I see nothing wrong with this it's a fantastic guide!
Will make some edits, Rocky Helm was indeed a questionable inclusion, I'll think it over a bit and ask one or two more people but for now I might as well leave it in. Still need opinions on DeepSeaScale.