It’s a common misconception that only pure, unadulterated offense is viable in Little Cup, that it’s kill-or-be-killed. This is not true by any stretch of the imagination. One of the most viable strategies in Little Cup is called an Immunity Team, which is a defensive sort of Offense, based on switching and putting pressure on your opponent to predict.
What’s an Immunity Team? An Immunity Team is a team that takes advantage of various Pokemon’s ability to come in on hits that either benefit or don’t affect them to more easily get a sweep for the team. These teams rely much less on “gaining momentum” than other Little Cup Teams, and often instead seek to frustrate the opponent and disrupt their momentum with constant switches and hard-hitting sweepers.
Advantages to using Immunity
-Immunity Teams cannot be beaten using Choiced Pokemon
-Immunity Teams force the opponent to predict heavily, increasing the skill factor
-Very few teams are truly prepared to deal with a team abusing immunities
Disadvantages to using Immunity
-Stat-uppers can give Immunity Teams difficult if they are not properly prepared
-Pokemon with unresisted coverage cause Immunity Team problems
-Stealth Rock and other entry hazards give Immunity Teams hell
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Part I: Pokemon with Immunities
Part II: Using Pokemon with Immunities
Part III: Synergy between Immunities and Building the Team
Part V: The Role of Choice Items
Part VI: Pokemon to Look Out For
Pokemon with Immunities
This is the first, most important part. Recognizing which Pokemon are immune to what types and which among them are usable. A complete list of LC Pokemon immunities is below:
Electric:
Larvitar
Chinchou
Onix
Sandshrew
Geodude
Cubone
Rhyhorn
Swinub
Wooper
Numel
Trapinch
Barboach
Gible
Hippopotas
Diglett
Fighting/Normal:
Shuppet
Ghost
Munchlax
Lickitung
Porygon
Buneary
Bidoof
Rattata
Cleffa
Igglybuff
Meowth
Sentret
Togepi
Aipom
Teddiursa
Zigzagoon
Slakoth
Whismur
Glameow
Happiny
Poison
Magnemite
Shieldon
Aron
Beldum
Ground
Zubat
Ledyba
Natu
Wingull
Combee
Scyther
Yanma
Water
Croagunk
Paras
Poliwag
Fire
Ponyta
Growlithe
Vulpix
Psychic
Carvanha
Poochyena
Stunky
Two or More Immunities
Murkrow-Psychic/Ground
Taillow-Ghost/Ground
Pidgey-Ghost/Ground
Spearow-Ghost/Ground
Starly-Ghost/Ground
Gligar-Electric/Ground
Mantyke-Water/Ground
Houndour-Fire/Psychic
Hoothoot-Ghost/Ground
Doduo-Ghost/Ground
Swablu-Ghost/Ground
Bronzor-Ground/Poison
Gastly-Ground/Fighting/Normal
Misdreavus-Ground/Fighting/Normal
Drifloon-Ground/Fighting/Normal
Using Pokemon with Immunities
Okay, now that we know what Pokemon are immune to what types, let’s take a look at the more viable ones and what they can do:
Chinchou: Chinchou is among the best defensive Pokemon in Little Cup and packs a mighty offense with access to STAB Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt with Ice Beam to cover the few Grasses. Thunder Wave/Confuse Ray can also prove to be irritating to the opponent. It also resists the popular “Bolt/Beam” combination.
Cubone: Cubone with Thick Club boasts the highest attack in the Little Cup metagame. With a Swords Dance, it can OHKO literally anything with the right move. However, it is not well-suited to the hit-and-run style of an Immunity Team.
Hippopotas: More defensive variants of Immunity Teams will like packing Hippopotas to set up Sand to allow them to stall opposing Pokemon out of health. Hippo is an excellent Choice Bander on an Immunity team.
Trapinch: Strong with Arena Trap and STAB on the best offensive move bar none. Trapinch doesn’t like being slow, though.
Diglett: The best revenge-killer in the game packs a useful electric immunity. It hits the 20-speed tier and can pick its victims, letting you take out specific threats to your team.
Shuppet: Shuppet is arguably the best Trick-Roomer in Little Cup. It can also go with its decent speed and pack priority in the forms of Sucker Punch and Shadow Sneak. It can even go Special, with Shadow Ball and Thunderbolt. Insomnia grants it a helpful immunity to sleep that lets it come in on even more moves.
Munchlax: Munchlax’s immunity to Ghost lets in come in on Gastly and Pursuit it into oblivion. Munchlax can also pull off Leftovers and helps enormously against Trick Room teams, being the slowest Pokemon bar none, tying with Shuckle, whom is not LC-legal.
Lickitung: Lickitung is like Munchlax, but with less focus on bulk than on versatility. Make no mistake, Lickitung is quite bulky, but it has a larger movepool than Munchlax at the cost of stats.
Porygon: Porygon is a very effective Special Sweeper under Trick Room, but should really stay there. Without powerful STAB or good speed, Porygon proves to be rather underwhelming in an Immunity Team.
Buneary: Buneary has a great movepool that allows it to serve as a pseudo-Elekid on an Immunity team. Sky Uppercut, the elemental Punches, Quick Attack, Fake Out and STAB Return are all appealing options.
Rattata: Fast and has access to Guts and priority, making Rattata an excellent sweeper for an Immunity Team, coming in again and again on Ghost moves.
Meowth: STAB Technician Fake Out is incredible. Meowth is one the best attacking forces in the Metagame.
Aipom: Aipom is like a stronger, Technician-less Meowth. With Return, Fake Out, Shadow Claw and Brick Break, Aipom can dish out a lot of damage.
Teddiursa: Fast after Quick Feet and strong, Teddiursa can sweep unprepared teams with ease.
Zigzagoon: STAB Extremespeed.
Glameow: STAB Fake Out, Sucker Punch and U-Turn make Glameow a great alternative to Meowth.
Magnemite: Immunity to Poison is cool, as is the strongest Thunderbolt in Little Cup.
Croagunk: Formerly the #1 most-used Pokemon, Croagunk has a large movepool and excellent Dark and Fighting resistances which, when coupled with his Water immunity, make him a formidable Pokemon.
Ponyta: Strong and fast with excellent STAB, Ponyta is a force to be reckoned with. Its main downside is that it cannot have Flare Blitz and Quick Attack on the same set.
Carvanha: The strongest Aqua Jet in the game makes Carvanha one of the most powerful sweepers and revenge-killers in the game.
Taillow: After Toxic/Burn Orb, Taillw hits a Choice-Bander attack. It’s an excellent sweeper if opposing Rocks and Steels are out of the way.
Gligar: Gligar does his best work for an Immunity Team Scarfed, letting him come in an scout the opposing team with U-Turn.
Mantyke: The only Pokemon in the game immune to both Water and Ground. With its excellent Special Defense and access to Hydro Pump, Mantyke can be difficult to defeat.
Houndour: Another excellent Scarfer or LO sweeper, Houndour has two useful immunities, access to priority and powerful STAB moves to easily dispatch with opposing Pokemon.
Bronzor: Sets up like nothing else. Dual Screens and SR are very, very useful.
Gastly: Gastly is one of the most effective Scarfers in the game. With Sludge Bomb, Explosion, Energy Ball and Hypnosis to separate it from Misdeavus, it’s a force to be reckoned with.
Misdreavus: Three immunities, two resistances and only two weaknesses. Hitting the 19-speed group and getting excellent Special Attack, Misdreavus is one of the best special sweepers in the game and the main reason fighting-types hesitate to pack Choice items. With HGSS, Missy got Nasty Plot, making her all the more dangerous.
Synergy between Immunities and Building the Team
The main thing about an Immunity Team is synergy. While some teams may just be six sweepers with good type coverage, the Immunity Team seeks to go beyond this and allow its sweepers to switch-in with minimal damage. Because of this, the Immunities must work well together, which can be accomplished in two ways:
Maximum Immunity: This type of team focuses on getting the most number of immunities that it possibly can. This type of team is known for its high number of Choice Item users and its tendency to switch.
Set-Up Immunity: This type of team uses Immunities to force the opponent to put in a particular Pokemon or kind of Pokemon to be able to deal with the team, allowing a set-up sweeper to set-up and win.
In terms of Synergy, one of the most important things to remember when building Immunity teams are the “core immunities” to the most common types. These include Normal, Fighting, Ghost, Ground and Water. Water/Normal and Fighting/Ghost are both extremely prevalent type combinations and are often used on powerful attackers. You will need to keep your Pokemon with these immunities alive in order to effectively defeat such Pokemon.
The Role of Choice Items
Once of the most prominent items in the Little Cup metagame is Choice Scarf, which allows you to take a slow Pokemon and suddenly outspeed everything else. The hit-and-run style of attack promoted by usage of Choice Items complements an Immunity Team very, very well. The tradeoff is that an Immunity Team is centered very heavily around switching and, as such, often neglects to carry a stat-up sweeper which can prove disastrous.
Pokemon to Look Out For
Elekid: Elekid is very fast and very strong with superb type coverage. Because its sets carry moves with such wide coverage, it can be a bitch to take down.
Diglett: Arena Trap prevents switching with grounded Pokemon. Beware.
Croagunk: Priority and an enormous movepool make Croagunk very difficult to play against with a Choice-heavy Immunity teams.
Gligar: Superb stats combined with a stellar movepool make this guy hard to beat with any team. The fact that he makes using choiced Ground and Electric moves bad weakens an Immunity Team considerably.
Misdreavus: Unresisted coverage and immunity to two of the most common offensive types in LC. Combine that with its insane ability to set up and you have quite a dilemma on your hands.
For an example of an Immunity Team in action along with a solid team analysis, check out my warstory!
However, this is just my take on one way to use Defense in Little Cup. Are there other ways you've found to use Defense or even outright Stall? Let's hear them!
What’s an Immunity Team? An Immunity Team is a team that takes advantage of various Pokemon’s ability to come in on hits that either benefit or don’t affect them to more easily get a sweep for the team. These teams rely much less on “gaining momentum” than other Little Cup Teams, and often instead seek to frustrate the opponent and disrupt their momentum with constant switches and hard-hitting sweepers.
Advantages to using Immunity
-Immunity Teams cannot be beaten using Choiced Pokemon
-Immunity Teams force the opponent to predict heavily, increasing the skill factor
-Very few teams are truly prepared to deal with a team abusing immunities
Disadvantages to using Immunity
-Stat-uppers can give Immunity Teams difficult if they are not properly prepared
-Pokemon with unresisted coverage cause Immunity Team problems
-Stealth Rock and other entry hazards give Immunity Teams hell
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Part I: Pokemon with Immunities
Part II: Using Pokemon with Immunities
Part III: Synergy between Immunities and Building the Team
Part V: The Role of Choice Items
Part VI: Pokemon to Look Out For
Pokemon with Immunities
This is the first, most important part. Recognizing which Pokemon are immune to what types and which among them are usable. A complete list of LC Pokemon immunities is below:
Electric:
Larvitar
Chinchou
Onix
Sandshrew
Geodude
Cubone
Rhyhorn
Swinub
Wooper
Numel
Trapinch
Barboach
Gible
Hippopotas
Diglett
Fighting/Normal:
Shuppet
Ghost
Munchlax
Lickitung
Porygon
Buneary
Bidoof
Rattata
Cleffa
Igglybuff
Meowth
Sentret
Togepi
Aipom
Teddiursa
Zigzagoon
Slakoth
Whismur
Glameow
Happiny
Poison
Magnemite
Shieldon
Aron
Beldum
Ground
Zubat
Ledyba
Natu
Wingull
Combee
Scyther
Yanma
Water
Croagunk
Paras
Poliwag
Fire
Ponyta
Growlithe
Vulpix
Psychic
Carvanha
Poochyena
Stunky
Two or More Immunities
Murkrow-Psychic/Ground
Taillow-Ghost/Ground
Pidgey-Ghost/Ground
Spearow-Ghost/Ground
Starly-Ghost/Ground
Gligar-Electric/Ground
Mantyke-Water/Ground
Houndour-Fire/Psychic
Hoothoot-Ghost/Ground
Doduo-Ghost/Ground
Swablu-Ghost/Ground
Bronzor-Ground/Poison
Gastly-Ground/Fighting/Normal
Misdreavus-Ground/Fighting/Normal
Drifloon-Ground/Fighting/Normal
Using Pokemon with Immunities
Okay, now that we know what Pokemon are immune to what types, let’s take a look at the more viable ones and what they can do:
Chinchou: Chinchou is among the best defensive Pokemon in Little Cup and packs a mighty offense with access to STAB Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt with Ice Beam to cover the few Grasses. Thunder Wave/Confuse Ray can also prove to be irritating to the opponent. It also resists the popular “Bolt/Beam” combination.
Cubone: Cubone with Thick Club boasts the highest attack in the Little Cup metagame. With a Swords Dance, it can OHKO literally anything with the right move. However, it is not well-suited to the hit-and-run style of an Immunity Team.
Hippopotas: More defensive variants of Immunity Teams will like packing Hippopotas to set up Sand to allow them to stall opposing Pokemon out of health. Hippo is an excellent Choice Bander on an Immunity team.
Trapinch: Strong with Arena Trap and STAB on the best offensive move bar none. Trapinch doesn’t like being slow, though.
Diglett: The best revenge-killer in the game packs a useful electric immunity. It hits the 20-speed tier and can pick its victims, letting you take out specific threats to your team.
Shuppet: Shuppet is arguably the best Trick-Roomer in Little Cup. It can also go with its decent speed and pack priority in the forms of Sucker Punch and Shadow Sneak. It can even go Special, with Shadow Ball and Thunderbolt. Insomnia grants it a helpful immunity to sleep that lets it come in on even more moves.
Munchlax: Munchlax’s immunity to Ghost lets in come in on Gastly and Pursuit it into oblivion. Munchlax can also pull off Leftovers and helps enormously against Trick Room teams, being the slowest Pokemon bar none, tying with Shuckle, whom is not LC-legal.
Lickitung: Lickitung is like Munchlax, but with less focus on bulk than on versatility. Make no mistake, Lickitung is quite bulky, but it has a larger movepool than Munchlax at the cost of stats.
Porygon: Porygon is a very effective Special Sweeper under Trick Room, but should really stay there. Without powerful STAB or good speed, Porygon proves to be rather underwhelming in an Immunity Team.
Buneary: Buneary has a great movepool that allows it to serve as a pseudo-Elekid on an Immunity team. Sky Uppercut, the elemental Punches, Quick Attack, Fake Out and STAB Return are all appealing options.
Rattata: Fast and has access to Guts and priority, making Rattata an excellent sweeper for an Immunity Team, coming in again and again on Ghost moves.
Meowth: STAB Technician Fake Out is incredible. Meowth is one the best attacking forces in the Metagame.
Aipom: Aipom is like a stronger, Technician-less Meowth. With Return, Fake Out, Shadow Claw and Brick Break, Aipom can dish out a lot of damage.
Teddiursa: Fast after Quick Feet and strong, Teddiursa can sweep unprepared teams with ease.
Zigzagoon: STAB Extremespeed.
Glameow: STAB Fake Out, Sucker Punch and U-Turn make Glameow a great alternative to Meowth.
Magnemite: Immunity to Poison is cool, as is the strongest Thunderbolt in Little Cup.
Croagunk: Formerly the #1 most-used Pokemon, Croagunk has a large movepool and excellent Dark and Fighting resistances which, when coupled with his Water immunity, make him a formidable Pokemon.
Ponyta: Strong and fast with excellent STAB, Ponyta is a force to be reckoned with. Its main downside is that it cannot have Flare Blitz and Quick Attack on the same set.
Carvanha: The strongest Aqua Jet in the game makes Carvanha one of the most powerful sweepers and revenge-killers in the game.
Taillow: After Toxic/Burn Orb, Taillw hits a Choice-Bander attack. It’s an excellent sweeper if opposing Rocks and Steels are out of the way.
Gligar: Gligar does his best work for an Immunity Team Scarfed, letting him come in an scout the opposing team with U-Turn.
Mantyke: The only Pokemon in the game immune to both Water and Ground. With its excellent Special Defense and access to Hydro Pump, Mantyke can be difficult to defeat.
Houndour: Another excellent Scarfer or LO sweeper, Houndour has two useful immunities, access to priority and powerful STAB moves to easily dispatch with opposing Pokemon.
Bronzor: Sets up like nothing else. Dual Screens and SR are very, very useful.
Gastly: Gastly is one of the most effective Scarfers in the game. With Sludge Bomb, Explosion, Energy Ball and Hypnosis to separate it from Misdeavus, it’s a force to be reckoned with.
Misdreavus: Three immunities, two resistances and only two weaknesses. Hitting the 19-speed group and getting excellent Special Attack, Misdreavus is one of the best special sweepers in the game and the main reason fighting-types hesitate to pack Choice items. With HGSS, Missy got Nasty Plot, making her all the more dangerous.
Synergy between Immunities and Building the Team
The main thing about an Immunity Team is synergy. While some teams may just be six sweepers with good type coverage, the Immunity Team seeks to go beyond this and allow its sweepers to switch-in with minimal damage. Because of this, the Immunities must work well together, which can be accomplished in two ways:
Maximum Immunity: This type of team focuses on getting the most number of immunities that it possibly can. This type of team is known for its high number of Choice Item users and its tendency to switch.
Set-Up Immunity: This type of team uses Immunities to force the opponent to put in a particular Pokemon or kind of Pokemon to be able to deal with the team, allowing a set-up sweeper to set-up and win.
In terms of Synergy, one of the most important things to remember when building Immunity teams are the “core immunities” to the most common types. These include Normal, Fighting, Ghost, Ground and Water. Water/Normal and Fighting/Ghost are both extremely prevalent type combinations and are often used on powerful attackers. You will need to keep your Pokemon with these immunities alive in order to effectively defeat such Pokemon.
The Role of Choice Items
Once of the most prominent items in the Little Cup metagame is Choice Scarf, which allows you to take a slow Pokemon and suddenly outspeed everything else. The hit-and-run style of attack promoted by usage of Choice Items complements an Immunity Team very, very well. The tradeoff is that an Immunity Team is centered very heavily around switching and, as such, often neglects to carry a stat-up sweeper which can prove disastrous.
Pokemon to Look Out For
Elekid: Elekid is very fast and very strong with superb type coverage. Because its sets carry moves with such wide coverage, it can be a bitch to take down.
Diglett: Arena Trap prevents switching with grounded Pokemon. Beware.
Croagunk: Priority and an enormous movepool make Croagunk very difficult to play against with a Choice-heavy Immunity teams.
Gligar: Superb stats combined with a stellar movepool make this guy hard to beat with any team. The fact that he makes using choiced Ground and Electric moves bad weakens an Immunity Team considerably.
Misdreavus: Unresisted coverage and immunity to two of the most common offensive types in LC. Combine that with its insane ability to set up and you have quite a dilemma on your hands.
For an example of an Immunity Team in action along with a solid team analysis, check out my warstory!
However, this is just my take on one way to use Defense in Little Cup. Are there other ways you've found to use Defense or even outright Stall? Let's hear them!
