[Resource] Items in Little Cup

Discussion in 'Gen 7 LC' started by E.T., Jan 4, 2017.

  1. E.T.

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

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    [​IMG] Items in Little Cup [​IMG]

    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.

    Common Items

    [​IMG] Berry Juice - Banned in all previous iterations of Little Cup prior to XY, Berry Juice remains a force to be reckoned with, and it is 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 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] Z-Crystals - Z-Crystals are new items introduced by Generation 7, and they allow Pokémon to use powerful Z-Moves once per battle. In addition, status moves such as Trick-or-Treat have the secondary effect of boosting all of a Pokémon's stats by one stage when the move is used as a Z-Move. While Z-Moves can be very powerful, they can only be used once per battle, which gives them a high opportunity cost in a tier where Eviolite and Berry Juice are prominent.

    [​IMG] Choice Specs - Choice Specs are the middle ground of the Choice Items in Little Cup, and 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 Choice 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.

    [​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 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 - Teddiursa is really the only Pokémon that can use Toxic Orb in Generation 7 due to mechanics changes in burn damage and poison damage. Teddiursa likes Toxic Orb because Toxic Orb activates Quick Feet without impeding Teddiursa's Attack.

    [​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. With 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 Attack or Special Attack 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, and 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, and 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 other tiers, makes Air Balloon a mostly useless item.

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] Any of the Super Effective damage reduction berries - These berries serve some gimmick purposes in main tiers such as Yache Garchomp. 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 less effective.

    [​IMG] Oran Berry - Berry Juice 100% outclasses it in 99.9% of situations. 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, 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 is a major force in Little Cup. Eviolite boosts can be removed by Knock Off, and Berry Juice can be slapped away before it can be consumed. While this guide is about items, Knock Off is mentioned here because its impact on the efficacy of items in the metagame is great.

    This was taken from the Gen 6 thread (which was taken from the Gen 5 thread) and updated for Gen 7. Feel free to discuss additions or possible content changes below!
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2017
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