SM LC LIFE

[Berks]

To see the world, things dangerous to come to;
to see behind walls, draw closer;
to find each other; and to feel.
That is the purpose of LIFE.​

​

INTRODUCTION
I've been very excited for Sun & Moon; I pre-ordered Moon from Target but wasn't able to afford to buy it when the time came, so I still haven't played the game! Instead, I've been having a very good time with all the new stuff we got for LC. Now that we've removed two broken threats, it's time to get the teambuilding rolling; I put together a team featuring the new threat of Brave Bird Rufflet, and this is it. Normally, I don't build excellent teams, but I think this one is particularly solid, so I'm putting it out here for you folks!

Also, first.

TEAMBUILDING​

Access to Brave Bird finally makes Rufflet the threat it was always meant to be. Brave Bird Rufflet is excellent as a Choice Scarf attacker, as it has access to incredible STAB, strong coverage, and U-turn. That made Rufflet the perfect starting point for my team!

Vullaby is a real bitch to play against right now. It has unpredictability, phenomenal bulk, access to the newly-buffed Weak Armor, cool boosting moves, and an incredible STAB combo. However, the best thing about Vullaby for this team is that it shares a lot of checks with Rufflet. Equipping Vullaby with a Choice Scarf seemed like a good choice; it could throw off opponents who for some reason don't expect me to run two Choice Scarf Pokemon, it could act as a pseudo-Fletchling by threatening with strong, fast Flying-type attacks and U-turn.

Here's a teambuilding tip: if you have a bird with U-turn on your team, add a Diglett. With Fletchling heavily nerfed this generation, other birds have to fill the void it leaves in FletchDig cores. Now that we have Vullaby AND Rufflet sporting U-turn, it would almost be dumb not to include Diglett. It removes a lot of Rufflet's checks and is especially nice to have when you don't want to risk locking your bird into Superpower. It also does some other nice things you'll see when you see the set.

At this point the team desperately needed a lot of things, including but not limited to entry hazards, hazard control, a Water-type, a hard check to Vullaby, and a true stop to Chinchou. Adding the hazard core of Staryu, Pumpkaboo-S, and Dwebble covered all those issues and more, and the hazard control they provide also elevates the team from your run-of-the-mill Birdspam team to an extremely threatening hazard stack Birdspam squad! These Pokemon also happen to have incredible synergy with Diglett, particularly Pumpkaboo. From what I've gathered from watching and playing a bunch of games, the core of Staryu + Pumpkaboo + Dwebble is getting very popular, so this is a good representation of a strong meta trend as well.

✯ LIFE ✯
a

Rufflet @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 36 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Return
- Superpower
- U-turn
​

Rufflet is ridiculously strong. There's honestly not a lot to say about it; it simply gets in and demolishes anything that stands in its path. There is literally not one single Pokemon in the metagame that can avoid a 2HKO from Rufflet if Stealth Rock and a single layer of Spikes are on the field, a condition which is surprisingly easy to maintain with the advent of Weak Armor Dwebble. If Rufflet comes onto the field in the early game, expect to U-turn a hefty chunk out of the foe's HP as you head into a check. Rufflet's a monster when it hits, and I'm lucky, so it's practically a match made in heaven!

Vullaby @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 236 Atk / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Roost
​

Vullaby. Arguably the best Pokemon in the metagame right now, it'd almost be dumb to not use it! I chose to use the Choice Scarf set over the other for a couple reasons, but the most important one is that it gives me a backup revenge killer for +1 Speed Scraggy and can outpace things like Abra and Scarf Magnemite. If you're new or you haven't quite been paying attention, I like Choice Scarves. A lot. So this move really should come as no surprise! Essentially, Vullaby comes in to Knock Off Rufflet's checks, U-turn into Diglett, or wreck stuff with Brave Bird. Good times!

Diglett @ Life Orb
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Earthquake
- Sludge Bomb
- Rock Slide
- Substitute
​

Is it broken? No, probably not, but you'd be hard pressed to find a Pokemon better at its job than Diglett! The things that Diglett removes are exactly the things Rufflet and Vullaby need gone; Pokemon like Pawniard and Chinchou cower in the ... face? of Diglett! I include Sludge Bomb on Diglett because Cottonee is still a big problem for hazard stack teams. Now, whenever it comes in as Dwebble is laying hazards, I can go directly to Diglett, make Encore fail, and smack it with a Sludge Bomb! Other than that, the set is pretty standard; hopefully everyone knows what Diglett does by now!

Staryu @ Eviolite
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 36 HP / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Psychic
- Recover
- Rapid Spin
​

Now that Vullaby has so much more to do with its offensive sets, now that Archen has so much less to do with Fletchling gone, and because of the fact that I already have a Ground-type, Staryu is really the only hazard remover worth using on this team. Why Analytic though? Well, hazard removal is key to the success of this team, so I can't allow Staryu to be complete and total Goth bait. Now, if Gothita tries to switch directly into Staryu, it'll be hit with a newly powerful Analytic Hydro Pump; if there are some hazards on the field, Goth is gonna get bopped! Other than that discrepancy, Staryu does what it usually does. It comes in, gets hazards off, and beats all the low ladder Croagunk and Gastly with its cool Psychic coverage!

Pumpkaboo-Small @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 4 HP / 244 SpA / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Trick-or-Treat
​

There's a lot that's weird about this set, and I get that. The cool thing, though, is that this set synergizes really, really well with Diglett. When Snivy or Corphish or Chinchou or whatever other Grass- or Water-type come in to revenge KO Diglett, they're gonna get a crisp Z-Trick-or-Treat to the face, and they'll be up against a Pumpkaboo-S at +1 everything. The set is special so that I can threaten Mudbray with it; Bullet Seed Pumpkaboo is essentially nullified by Stamina Mudbray. Pumpkaboo-S mostly joined the team to spinblock while hard checking Chinchou and keeping up some semblance of offensive pressure.

Dwebble @ Eviolite
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 196 HP / 76 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Rock Blast
​

Weak Armor Dwebble is actually surprisingly good! The +2 Speed it gets from any physical hit and its surprising bulk with Eviolite help it get up Rocks and at least one layer of Spikes more often than not! Dwebble also has the boon of beating Weak Armor variants of Vullaby with Rock Blast, which is just so so helpful at this point in the meta's development. Knock Off is Knock Off, of course, and although this team doesn't really need Mienfoo to be Eviolite-less persay, it's always nice! I chose to run max HP on this set because I figured that Dwebble's Defense will gradually trend towards the same number as it takes physical hits, making adding Defense largely pointless.

THREATS​

Hail Teams - As of right now, the only stop I have to Hail is Staryu; everything else straight-up loses to AlolaShrew under hail! It's a pretty big threat.

Pawniard - Nothing on the team can comfortably switch into Pawniard; Diglett can come in to revenge KO without a problem unless it's Scarf, and Rufflet can smack it with Superpower or wear it down with repeated Brave Birds and U-turns, but it's always guaranteed to make a dent.

CONCLUSION​

I'm very excited for this new generation! With SPL and the next LCPL looking bright on the horizon, Generation 7 is looking to be another great era for Little Cup! As usual, I have to make shoutouts to my good friends and mentors:

Mambo - the ultimate tutor; it's tradition at this point
Holiday - the premier promoter of awful name changes and excellent beats
Shrug - the closest thing to my battling equal I can think of at this point
Oma - delightful
Fiend - insightful
WaterlessMelon - frightful
Coconut - a wonderful gem of a player, team captain, etc.
Quote - the best tier leader out there!

Here's an importable if you like the team, and I welcome your comments!

Importable

Rufflet @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Hustle
Level: 5
EVs: 252 Atk / 36 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Return
- Superpower
- U-turn

Vullaby @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Roost

Diglett @ Life Orb
Ability: Arena Trap
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Earthquake
- Sludge Bomb
- Rock Slide
- Substitute

Staryu @ Eviolite
Ability: Analytic
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Psychic
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

Pumpkaboo-Small @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Frisk
Level: 5
EVs: 4 HP / 244 SpA / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Trick-or-Treat

Dwebble @ Eviolite
Ability: Weak Armor
Level: 5
EVs: 196 HP / 76 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Rock Blast

Thanks! <3

 

[Fiend]

Berks I actually like your team, and while I'm suspicions of some of the sets *cough* pumpkaboo *cough* you should really look back at all of your rmts and see how far you've come as a builder. And while this is anything but innovation, it is in some ways new and overall solid. That being said,

Staryu doesn't exactly need Psychic and Ice Beam should be more helpful overall so I suggest Ice Beam over Psychic. Hydro Pump fells Gastly 50% of the time from full, or more realistically it KOs 93.8% of the time after SR or Life Orb (and a 100% of the time after both). And while it sucks to have to go for Hydro Pump, Staryu lives any attack plus half your team can also revenge kill Gastly. Ice Beam lets you spin versus Pumpkaboo teams, which you even noted are increasingly common now. Also your EVs are a bit unoptimized--versus Eviolite 14 SpD mons 15 SpA hits as hard as 16 SpA; it doesn't matter much against Munchlax; the rare Eviolite 12 SpD mons die to two Hydros anyway so the difference is completely negligible; Gastly and other frail LO attackers take the same amount; and versus Pumpkaboo the difference won't matter if you have 2 hazards up, you know, what your team aims to do. Therefore you should switch to a spread of: 156 Def / 116 SpA / 236 Spe, still with a Timid Nature.

Updated Staryu set

Staryu @ Eviolite
Ability: Analytic
Level: 5
EVs: 156 Def / 116 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

Trick-or-Treat Pumpkaboo is also not the best at spin blocking nor is it the best sweeper nor is it a good water, ground, or electric resist, so while making it a standard Pumkaboo set would vastly improve the team overall (and I'm sure you know why) it would also make if far less fun and I don't think you really want to change it. I will however leave the set here just in case.

Standard Pumpkaboo Set

Pumpkaboo-Super @ Eviolite
Ability: Frisk
Level: 5
EVs: 204 HP / 36 Def / 4 SpA / 236 SpD / 28 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Synthesis
- Shadow Ball
- Giga Drain
- Will-O-Wisp

Rock Smash over Roost on Vullaby might be worth considering, as you mention Pawniard as a threat and Rock Smash 2HKOs Eviolite variants (and KOs after say Brave Bird or U-turn + hazards) and OHKOs LO sets after Spikes and SR. You probably won't be using either move much anyway, but considering how Ice Beam Staryu helps keep hazards away I suspect Rock Smash will have more milage for you.

Replacing Rock Slide on Diglett may also be something to look at. Beat Up would give your team assurance against Abra which is always nasty for hazard stack to deal with, while Sucker Punch can be enough to prevent Sun or Hail teams from ending you. Either would make a fine choice, and Beat Up over Rock Slide is probably the better option considering half of Sun and Hail teams (ones with Evio Sprout or Evio Sandshrew specifically, or perhaps ones expecting the Sucker Punch so maybe more than half tbh) wouldn't truly mind the Sucker Punch damage against their sweeper anyway.

I think this is the first time everything I've suggested has been minor (besides my half suggestion against your very intentional usage of Trick-or-Treat Pumpkaboo and ignoring your team of the best 6 Scarf users), which again should speak volumes to how good you're getting at building teams.

Cheers!

 

[SergioRules]

I am not a team rater and I am not that into LC, but with the turn of the generation I've been trying to get more in it and your team stuck out to me in the sample team thread. I want to preface this by saying that I love the team and it's given me a lot of success so far.
However, I have lost a couple games to one thing: Scarf Chinchou. Like I said, I'm not super into the tier so I don't know how common it is nowadays but I remember it being big in ORAS. Scarf Chinchou is faster than the two scarfers on this team, and everything gets destroyed by Ice Beam bar Staryu which is an easy Volt Switch. It seems like the only way to really deal with it is having to predict a Volt Switch and go into Diglett but when playing against this team, there's never a reason for Chinchou to click Switch over Ice Beam.
As far as combating this, I thought maybe either Sash on Diglett or EQ on Dwebble to take an Ice Beam then outspeed. But even with those two changes, if rocks get up and/or Dwebble drops below 50% it just blows right through the team. I don't really know how to fix it, but it just seemed like a glaring weakness and wanted to give some feedback (isn't that the purpose of RMT?)
I know you didn't necessarily pick your team to be showcased, but it is. Other than the one thing, I've had tons of fun and success with the team going 7-2 in just one day.

Also just now realizing that this thread is really old but as it's a sample, I felt like input could still be beneficial.

 

[Berks]

The Progression of Berks

This is a post I'm adapting to track all of the stuff I've done here on Smogon. It'll include all of the stuff I'm proud of on this website, all of which is centered around my favorite metagame, Little Cup! Also, do me a favor, and don't read too much into the incredible yet ridiculously cringe-inducing prose you see in some of the early RMTs (especially that first H&MBerkeley one). It was a product of a different time! (It's actually really funny to go back and read, cause ... wow.) Anyway, here's the stuff; it's mostly in chronological order, so you can follow me on my journey to being a decent user!

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Contributions and Corrections
Member of the LC C&C QC Team
Author of The Little Cup C&C Process [ORAS]

ORAS LC Analyses

a
SuMo LC Analyses

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The Flying Press
Member of the LC TFP QC Team

LC Spotlight: Snivy
LC Suspect Coverage: Drifloon

The Little Cup Handbook™ Chapter One: Underused Pokémon
The Little Cup Handbook™ Chapter Two: The S-Ranks
The Little Cup Handbook™ Chapter Three: Smashing!

=========

Little Cup Subforum Threads

[ORAS] Insert Innovation Here - Creative Movesets 2.0

[ORAS] LC Other Metagames Hub

[ORAS] LCPL 5 Replays & Records

[ORAS] Know Your Niche

[SuMo] LC Roles Compendium

[SuMo] SM LC Really Good Cores

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RMTs
Disclaimer: The first two RMTs were posted under a different username, Good Morgan. Long story short, I have a really hard time picking usernames online, and I didn't know the name change thread existed. I sorted it out with some mods, and now I'm the one, the only, H&MBerkeley Berks.
s

XY LC - Pleasure in the Pathless Woods
This team showcased two threats introduced in XY and somehow was picked for Team Showcase. You would not believe the amount of time I put into this one! Overall, I'm especially proud of this as my first RMT on the site, and I think it looks especially aesthetically sound.

ORAS LC - Dreamers of the Day
The sequel is never really as good as the original. Take Two™ in the tryhard department came with a less original, less sound team that ultimately failed to do anything significant.

ORAS LC - American Beauty/American Psycho
Good heavens, this RMT has Mambo written all over it. No disrespect to Mambo, but I sure am glad I got out of that phase! Anyway, this team is incredibly poor, but it's the first thread I created as H&MBerkeley and it was a fun RMT to put together. My building has definitely come a long way since then!

ORAS LC - Strawberry Stall
This is a team I tried to put together for Week Two of the first LCPL I ever played in! Unfortunately, I wasn't that good at battling yet, and the team is a stall team; essentially, I was doomed to fail. I like the team though, mostly because it signifies a step forward in my development as a player - but, also, because it's very cute.

ORAS LC - Kit BoltBody and the Tough Boy Squad
This is the best team I had built by myself at this point (the next RMT was already built with Shrug) and I feel it's the first really solid team I RMT'd. Granted, I had to ask PS chat what I should do ("just add Gothita and hazard stack" - Fiend), but I still feel really good about this one. It won an LC Open match and a bunch of roomtours and it has fun nicknames and I love it.

ORAS LC - Berkeley Shrugged
This is by far the best, most successful team I've ever had a hand in creating; even better is that I made it with my good friend Shrug. It carried me through an entire LC Suspect Tour, and Shrug has gotten his fair share out of it as well. That success got the team into the Team Showcase, which was absolutely deserved in my opinion! Rock Polish Cranidos is my starchild; it's so good in ORAS! If you're gonna steal a single team from me in your Smogon career, make sure it's this one. Hell, it even still works in SuMo!

ORAS LC - ★GOAO: are you ★GOAO: double scarf
My favorite item is the Choice Scarf. I like it so much, I decided to create an entire team of Pokemon that I thought used the Choice Scarf to its fullest. Turns out, this meme of a team is actually pretty solid, and it's really fun to ladder with! Somehow, this disesteemed scheme to create a supreme themed meme team seemed to redeem into a gleaming dream!

ORAS LC - for my fisted friends.
I made this team for an important game I played against Kingler12345 in LCPL 5. I lost (big surprise) but the team was okay. I mostly put this RMT up because the badged LC Team Raters need sustenance every once in a while, and I was bored. It's nothing special!

SM LC - LIFE
Guys, this is actually a good team too! Or, at least, that's what Fiend says! Rufflet got buffed and Vullaby is really good, so I wanted to use them in my first team of the new generation! Since I also am known for my RMTs (according to Nineage) I also decided to be the first person to post an SM LC RMT. It ended up becoming a sample team, which I am actually really really proud of! Let's just hope we don't end up banning Diglett or Vullaby!