[ORAS] Items in Little Cup

Discussion in 'Past Gens Discussion' started by Weavile, Mar 30, 2014.

  1. Weavile

    Weavile Phoenix

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    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 or Berry Juice 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.

    Common Items:

    [​IMG] Berry Juice - Banned in all previous iterations of Little Cup, Berry Juice is now unleashed on the world. By far the strongest contender to Eviolite for best item in LC. It is best made use of by Sturdy Pokémon such as Dwebble, Tirtouga and Magnemite, but that is by no means the extent of its usefulness. Many offensive Pokémon such as Drifloon can make effective use of it as well.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] Life Orb - An item of somewhat diminished usability from its glory days of 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 Gastly, Abra and Mienfoo. 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.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] Focus Sash - A somewhat rare item compared to the rest in the "common items" section due to the team preview feature and Stealth Rock being so common, the main use for this item is without a doubt Abra, due to its Magic Guard ability preventing damage from entry hazards and therefore preserving the Sash. This one use is prevalent to the point that it warrants a mention in the "common items" section.


    Viable Items:

    [​IMG] Choice Specs - Specs are the middle ground of the Choice Items in Little Cup, they see some use on Pokémon such as Trick Drifloon. Special moves can be somewhat difficult to wall so this item has a lot of potential on some of the more unexpected Pokémon.

    [​IMG] 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 or Drilbur make good Band users as well as those on which it is unexpected such as Pawniard or Mienfoo.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] 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 Chinchou.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] 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, with Prankster Sunny Day, and Vulpix since in Generation 6 this extends the turns of Drought from 5 to 8.

    [​IMG] Smooth Rock - Smooth Rock is the weather extending item for Sandstorm. It has no use outside of extending the turns of Hippopotas's Sand Stream ability to 8 turns, making some potential for a sand sweeper such as Drilbur or Sandshrew. This is however, an unreliable strategy overall.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG][​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] Light Clay - Light Clay serves the function of extending Light Screen and Reflect, so naturally the best user of Screens would be the best user of this item. That user is Natu because it is immune to all status moves including Taunt thanks to Magic Bounce, and 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.

    [​IMG] 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. It's 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.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] 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.

    Do Not Use:

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] 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 due to the fact that most items used in Little Cup, such as Eviolite and Berry Juice, don't have an obvious sign that shows up every turn like Life Orb damage or Leftovers recovery.

    [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] 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.

    [​IMG] Oran Berry - Berry Juice 100% outclasses it in 99.9% of situations. For obvious reasons. The only exception to this is with Pokémon that have the Harvest ability, such as Phantump and Exeggcute.

    [​IMG] Assault Vest - A niche item in other metagames, in this one it's just outclassed by Eviolite in every circumstance.

    Knock Off:
    Knock Off - [​IMG], 65/100
    Primary: Removes the held item of the target
    Secondary: If the opponent holds an item, Knock Off's power is increased by 50%

    Knock Off has received a huge buff this generation, going from 20 to 65 power and gaining the mentioned secondary effect. This makes it a major force in Little Cup, Eviolite boosts are less permanent than ever before, and even Berry Juice can be slapped away before it can be consumed. While this guide is about items, I mention Knock Off here because its impact on the efficacy of items in the metagame is no small one.

    This was copy-pasted from the gen 5 one with tweaks. May need some relevant touch-ups, let me know if you spot any glaring issues
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 10, 2016
  2. Isa

    Isa Well-Known Tauros

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    Mention Assault Vest as a Do Not Use item? :P

    Good guide, made me learn.
     
  3. Mylo Xyloto

    Mylo Xyloto if your world falls apart, i'd start a riot

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    Yeah mention Ass Vest in Do not use and remove Custap Berry as it is unreleased. Maybe add a mention of Vulpix to Heat Rock. Good guide though!
     
  4. fitzy

    fitzy Heart of the cards Forum Moderator Forum Moderator

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    Oran berry has a niche over berry juice when used on harvest pokemon such as Phantump.

    Leftovers atm is actually viable on "SwagPlay" pokemon and can often heal more damage than a Berry Juice would.

    Good job on the rest.
     
  5. Weavile

    Weavile Phoenix

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    Removed Ass Vest, Added Harvesters to Oran Berry, Removed Custap, Added Smooth Rock.
    Also I'm not adding swagplayers to lefties because, we need to talk about that Fitzy!
     
  6. -Mike-

    -Mike- hi

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    You have given the link instead of the name Avest o.o

    Weavile edit: Thanks for pointing it out, fixed.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 1, 2014
  7. E.T.

    E.T. Random Slowpoke Super Moderator Server Administrator Articles Leader Super Moderator Server Administrator Articles Leader

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    Update: Removed/updated parts that were outdated. I also moved Choice Specs from common to viable since it hasn't really been common since Misdreavus was in the tier.