What advice would you give a new person to this tier?

Skymin_Flower

It's Seed Flare time.
I first played little cup (technically) when i was still a casual player. My friends and I hatched eggs and then fought with the Pokemon. When I realised that this was an actual TIER i got very excited. Not many people play this tier however, but I really want to get into it. Is anyone willing to give me advice, how different this is from the OU, UU or any other metagame? How effective certain strategies are?

Thanks for your help in advance guys :)
 
Well for starters, I'd recommend reading the article on Little Cup play listed in he 'Articles' section of Smogon's homepage, that's how I started myself off. Next you should check out the 'Basic Things to Know in Little Cup' thread found in this same subforum, as well as some of the analyses in the Little Cup Analyses subforum.

If you have any more specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them; or, if you want advice from someone slightly more competent, you could ask eric the espeon, Vader, or SevenDeadlySins... (pretty sure that's all the LC mods, did I miss any?)
 
Little Cup is the fastest-paced of all metagames, in my opinion, and because of that, entry hazards aren't so common. Pretty much everything short of Munchlax and Gligar is dying in two-three hits. The learning curve is quick though, in my opinion. The most important thing in LC though, has got to be priority. It is EVERYWHERE, thanks to speed being everything in this metagame. Still hella fun though. The EV system for level 5 is also vastly different to the system at level 100... But, IIRC, there should be a guide about that.
 

eric the espeon

maybe I just misunderstood
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The best way to learn LC is to play it a bit, either make a team of relatively standard Pokemon (analysis index in my sig) or just copy someone else's and play a few matches to get a feel for the metagame then experiment and find what works for you. The LC ladder is on Doug's server, and #littlecup is the best place to ask any questions you may have.
 
The key is to assert the tempo that you want to play at and try to keep your opponent on the back foot. Having a couple of pokemon to punch holes into stuff and generally terrorise and then having a trump card sweeper, be it a scarfer, stat up sweeper or whatnot. Don't worry too much about countering pokemon, just have something that you can switch into a pokemon and then give yourself the impetus in the match-up as well as a back revenge killer in case something goes wrong.
 
sbc said something important in the fact that you just can't counter everything. What you do want to try and do though is make sure you have answers to the common threats. You yourself can capitalise on this mentality by using lesser known threats: Sure the general sweepers work great, but sometimes having that one niche, unsuspected Pokemon can net you the win. It's still important to recognise what has potential and what is just a gimmick or purely outclassed.

Priority is important as well, an even spread of priority across a team decreases the chance that you'll be swept by <insert random set up sweeper here>. Speed tiers are important to learn as well, although the main ones would be learning the speed tiers of different scarfers, and what reaches 19 speed and what doesnt, as well as the big three that reach 20- Elekid, Voltorb and Diglett.

As for help, the Little Cup Big World article is still helpful even though it is a trifle outdated with the ban on Misdreavus. #littlecup on the synIRC server is where you'll find all the Little Cup people, and even the CAP server is good for asking help, only when its active though.

So in general, pickup a team, start playing a few matches, and the game will come to you in no time. Have fun with Little Cup!
 
building a team is really easy in LC. Most of LC is prediction so if your good at that you will be fine but heres a ok outline for teams

speed boosting sweepers are boss so 1-3 of those per team.

elekid is a great crutch for begginers 20 speed is extremly powerful and 17 atk (IIRC) +life orb will hurt a ton and its pretty easy to use

finally use scarfers sparingly. 1-2 per team as they get really hurt/


remember the golden rule of LC

dont care about checking threats boost your speed and sweep sweep sweep
 
I would tell them to read those guides on EVs and that big begineers LC guide and they should be fine. Just know that everything is really fast and is going to be really fast until LC 5th gen or even thereafter.
 

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