Fennekin

[cinderkitteh]

Name: Fennekin
Type: Fire
Abilities: Blaze/Magician
Base Stats: 40/45/40/62/60/60
Notable Moves: Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Psychic, Psyshock, Grass Knot, Overheat, Sunny Day, Will-o-wisp, Hypnosis, Wish, Hidden Power
So Fennekin was the starter of choice in the sixth generation, and at first it seems underwhelming, but with access to some powerful stab and a few unique moves, Fennekin could manage to carve out a few unique sets for itself.
Fennekin @Eviolite
EVs: 156 HP/156 SpA/156 SpD
Calm Nature, Ability: Blaze
Set:
Hypnosis
Fire Blast
Psyshock/Grass Knot/Protect
Wish/Psyshock/Grass Knot/Will-o-wisp

A kind of special wall set. Kinniekins has access to a few notable support moves such as Hypnosis and Wish, and with its decent SpD stat and resistances to Ice, Grass, Fire, and Fairy (all of which are usually special), Fennekin can make a good special wall. It has a good SpA stat too, and with powerful moves such as Psyshock and Fire Blast, it can hit some things reasonably hard.
Fennekin has some hurtful weaknesses to water, rock, and ground, and the SR weakness doesn't do it any favors either. Its HP and Defense are low too, and it probably can't take a physical hit.
I don't have many ideas for sets, but I like the little fox and think she could do well in LC.

 

[ryan]

Grass Knot isn't really a notable move in Little Cup where hardly anything weighs enough to go above 20-40 BP. I also don't see much reason to use Fennekin as a bulky attacking Fire-type over something else like Ponyta or Larvesta, but who knows if it might be able to pull something off.

 

[Phemeto]

I dont know about you but Froakie was all i was hearing about in Gen 6 Starters.

The problem with Fennekin is that it doesnt bring much to the table that Other Fire types can like Ponyta and Growlithe. Blaze/Magician are not great abilitites (however with Berry Juice, Magician can be nice to take back another one) compared to Flame Body or Intimidate. Fennekin has very very low BST, and that isnt winning it any points with those abilities. And the move-pool isnt so great either.

It does not get stab Psychic unfortunately, and even with all the fighting types in the meta, Scraggy has immunity to it, Meditite takes neutral from it, and Mienfoo is faster and can U-Turn out of it.
Fireblast/Flame thrower is nice, but there are not many pokemon in the LC meta that take SE from it, and with a ~60 S.Atk, its not punching holes in anything.

 

[atomicllamas]

Yeah, in addition to the mons mentioned above, it is also essentially Vulpix without drought (in the sun its fire moves are stronger than a sunless fennekin). It's only niche is stealing berry juice/eviolite with magician, but knock off does almost the same thing far more reliably :/.

 

[cinderkitteh]

I thought it was gonna end up mediocre, this is my first thread so i don't know much... These are all good points though, guess kinniekins won't get used very much. Well at least it's cute!

 

[Phemeto]

Yeah, while i wish it was useful, sadly its just outclassed. It is quite adorable.
But hey we're all here to learn. (As posts go, im quite new aswell, just really loved LC at the end of Gen 5, so i started to take it a bit more seriously rather than just lurking the forums)

 

[Mozilla Fennekin]

I feel obligated to use it on all of my LC teams no matter what anyone else says.

But yeah, don't think starters do so well here, Fennekin's no exception. Stealing a Berry Juice or Evolite from someone could be pretty nifty, though.

 

[Sergetank]

In a metagame where Knock Off runs rampant with it's 95 bp while the victim holds an item, could an itemless Magician Fennekin be viable? 65 power, especially without stab, isn't exactly threatening. Probably wouldn't have the durability to switch into anything, I think. Something else I wonder, at what point does the item get stolen with Magician? Because taking Eviolite away and then the damage going into effect might be a+.

 

[Banryu]

I feel like there could be a creative way to somehow abuse Magician.. .....But I've no idea what it might be.
I guess the only real advantage of Magician VS Knock Off is he ability to hit things with STAB or without making contact (IE, better at messing up Ferroseed, though he probably just switches out anyway). Or, um... to predict switchins with SD moves, I guess....

 

[Camden]

From what I've seen, I'm not really impressed with it because of it's limited potential. If you run an Eviolite, you're outclassed by Growlithe and Ponyta. If you run a Scarf, it's outclassed by Yanma and Pokemon with more reliable coverage moves, and you're super frail. By running a Power Herb, you can at least shoot off a Turn 1 SolarBeam and take your opponent's item, although it pretty much ends there if you grab an Eviolite or other hold item. At least you can keep trying if you take something like a Berry Juice, but that won't save you from getting hit hard.

 

[blarajan]

Closing this as I would rather Fennekin be discussed here: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/starter-pokemon-in-little-cup.3493590/