ORAS LC: What's Changed?
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Introduction
The release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire brought some substantial new threats to Smogon's metagames. Twenty Pokémon received Mega Evolutions, and two legendary Pokémon received Primal formes. There were hilariously overpowered threats rolling around in lower tiers, heavily unbalancing their respective metagames so much that some Pokémon rose from PU all the way to UU after just a few weeks' usage, while others were swiftly banned for the negative impact they had, as they often forced opponents to run niche counters or unusual playstyles in order to beat them. Mega Rayquaza had such a profound impact on Ubers that a new metagame was created to accommodate it.
Little Cup dodged all the drastic metagame alterations the upper tiers experienced completely.
The only changes Little Cup received during the transition from XY to ORAS were additions to movepools via move tutors and access to a few previously unavailable hidden abilities. Although it might seem dull that LC wasn't flooded with heaps of brand new offensive and defensive titans, the small changes to the tier have given many previously ignored Pokémon a new lease while still keeping the metagame arguably the most balanced of Smogon's metagames. Here are some of Little Cup's most improved Pokémon.
Pancham
Pancham is undoubtedly the Pokémon that got the most new toys to play with from the introduction of ORAS. Pancham was previously viewed as a Fighting-type that was rarely worth using. Its strongest STAB move was Storm Throw, which is only a tad stronger than Drain Punch but misses out on the extremely valuable recovery that Drain Punch provides. Knock Off, undoubtedly one of the best moves in Little Cup, was another move its Fighting-type siblings had that Pancham was missing. Pancham did have a niche in Parting Shot, allowing it to safely get in teammates by lowering the enemy's Attack and Special Attack stats by one stage while also providing momentum. This was, however, far from a big enough niche to consider Pancham on most serious teams.
Luckily, Pancham got access to almost everything it could ask for with the ORAS tutors. Not only did it get access to key moves in Drain Punch and Knock Off, but it also received a large number of extremely valuable coverage moves. The list of new moves it now has access to is huge, including Iron Head, Gunk Shot, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Superpower, Zen Headbutt, Focus Punch, and, most importantly, Drain Punch and Knock Off. Now with a wide array of new moves, Pancham is considered to be one of the best Fighting-type Pokémon in Little Cup, functioning as a very threatening wallbreaker that can also support its team greatly thanks to Knock Off and Parting Shot. Pancham can also utilize Knock Off especially well thanks to Mold Breaker, which allows it to remove Eviolite and Berry Juice from Sticky Hold users such as Shellos and Trubbish respectively. Mold Breaker also allows Pancham to OHKO Pokémon with the ability Sturdy, such as Magnemite, Tirtouga, and Dwebble.
Pancham can run multiple great sets, including a Swords Dance sweeper set and the most common set, a bulky attacker. The Swords Dance set is extremely threatening thanks to Pancham's good defenses, Attack stat, and especially its excellent coverage moves such as Zen Headbutt, Gunk Shot, Iron Head, and Stone Edge. The bulky attacker set mainly focuses on wearing down the opponent's team and supporting Pancham's teammates with moves such as Knock Off and Parting Shot.
Teammates with Thunder Wave and Stun Spore can make it much easier for Pancham to sweep with its Swords Dance set, helping it outspeed threats even with its below-average Speed stat. Pancham also benefits from Pursuit support to help it against Psychic-types, namely Abra and Gothita, both of which can easily stop Pancham's sweep; Gothita is a huge problem even for the bulky attacker set because of Shadow Tag and its ability to OHKO Pancham with Psychic if Pancham's Eviolite has been Knocked Off. Pancham is extremely useful as a teammate for setup sweepers. Pancham can Knock Off the opposing team's Eviolites, greatly aiding in a sweep, and more importantly, possesses a slow Parting Shot, which is great for gaining momentum and allows teammates to get in safely against a Pokémon with its Attack and Special Attack stats lowered by one stage. Frailer Pokémon that have trouble switching in benefit immensely from Parting Shot for this reason.
Overall, Pancham has gone from being a Pokémon with a very small niche in Little Cup to being one of the best Pokémon in the metagame thanks to ORAS tutors.
Skrelp
Despite its interesting typing and decent offensive movepool, Skrelp found itself mostly cast aside during XY in favor of numerous more prominent Water- and Poison-types such as Chinchou and Foongus. This was not because Skrelp was totally outclassed or possessed inexcusable flaws, but simply because it was unable to stand out. Skrelp's bulk, although not especially low, wasn't exceptionally good, and due to its lack of reliable recovery, Skrelp struggled to withstand repeated assaults. Its typing, while offering some nice resistances, also rendered Skrelp vulnerable to common Ground- and Psychic-type attacks, among others, leaving it prone to being trapped. Although Skrelp had numerous offensive options at its disposal, between powerful STAB attacks and versatile coverage moves, its average Special Attack and awful Speed meant it struggled to take full advantage of them.
Come ORAS, and most of this has not changed. Skrelp's low Speed and lack of recovery leave it prone to being worn down, and its defenses and typing, which are decent but not great, are not enough to remedy these shortcomings. However, ORAS has given Skrelp a gift that has been enough to propel it from complete obscurity to excellent viability: its hidden ability, Adaptability. Skrelp now has a means to heavily differentiate itself from just about every other threat in Little Cup, as no other Pokémon can use both Water- and Poison-type attacks of such power without needing to set up. It is extremely difficult to switch into the incredible power of Sludge Wave and Hydro Pump; the few Pokémon that can, most notably Croagunk and Ferroseed, are crushed by the appropriate Hidden Power.
Such immense offensive presence allows Skrelp's other traits to shine, giving it the choice of using either defensive or offensive sets. Offensive sets utilize Eviolite and maximum Special Attack EVs to take a few attacks and hit back hard, allowing Skrelp to act as an effective bulky attacker. Defensive sets also take advantage of Eviolite's boosts but instead run bulky EVs, taking greater advantage of Skrelp's important resistances to find more opportunities to come into play while still being able to dish out heavy damage. Bulky sets are a good fit on more defensively oriented teams; they often run Rest and Sleep Talk to remedy Skrelp's lack of recovery otherwise and occasionally Toxic Spikes to support the rest of the team. ORAS hasn't just given Skrelp Adaptability, though; it has also given Skrelp the move it needs to take advantage of such an ability both physically and specially. Skrelp's Gunk Shot has the equivalent of 240 Base Power factoring in STAB and Adaptability, enough to utterly decimate anything that isn't dedicated to tanking physical attacks. This in conjunction with Aqua Tail and Play Rough means Skrelp has all the tools it needs to run a dangerous physical moveset. Still, Scald, Sludge Wave, Hydro Pump, and Hidden Power are often too useful to pass up, so Skrelp will more commonly be seen using a special set instead.
Of course, Skrelp is still a slow Pokémon with prominent weaknesses and only decent bulk, so some support is required. For example, Houndour can trap Gothita, while Ferroseed checks Chinchou and sets up hazards for Skrelp to take advantage of. Both also share decent type synergy with Skrelp, especially Ferroseed. This support is well worth it; if Skrelp receives the team support it needs, its Adaptability-boosted attacks truly turn it into a force to be reckoned with.
Pumpkaboo
When XY was released, people thought that Pumpkaboo would have some kind of impact on the LC metagame. It had nice defensive typing that lets it deal with threats such as Shell Smash Tirtouga and act as a solid spinblocker that could check Drilbur and Staryu, the most common Rapid Spinners in the metagame. Pumpkaboo also had decent bulk, especially its Large and Super formes, an above average Attack stat, various support moves, such as Will-O-Wisp, Destiny Bond, Trick Room, and Light Screen, and a wide offensive movepool, including Shadow Sneak, Bullet Seed, Seed Bomb, Rock Slide, Fire Blast, and Explosion. However, what made people hesitate to use Pumpkaboo was its lack of reliable recovery. This decreased its longevity during matches and hurt its viability, and even though people figured out some ways to fix that by running some semi-reliable recovery, such as Leech Seed, Berry Juice, and even Pain Split, they weren't really satisfied with that and wished it had a reliable recovery move.
However, Game Freak gifted Pumpkaboo with new tutor moves. It got Synthesis, its long-awaited reliable recovery, which let it rise heavily in both usage and viability as one of the biggest defensive threats and best spinblockers in the metagame. Pumpkaboo also got Foul Play, but it doesn't have much of a use on Pumpkaboo, as it has way better options to run.
Pumpkaboo can run a bunch of sets, but the most common one is the bulky support set with Bullet Seed, Will-O-Wisp, Shadow Sneak, and Synthesis, which lets it function well as a defensive Pokémon. Bullet Seed is a cool STAB move, as multi-hit moves do a high amount damage in LC because of how damage rolls work, and it lets it hit Tirtouga, Chinchou, Drilbur and a lot of other threats. Pumpkaboo can also use Will-O-Wisp to stop physical attackers without Guts, making them fairly useless. Shadow Sneak is a cool priority STAB move which Pumpkaboo can use to revenge kill a lot of weakened foes, and Synthesis, Pumpkaboo's ORAS gift, is used for reliable recovery. Pumpkaboo also uses an all-out-attacker set with maximum Attack and Speed investment which makes use of its decent Attack, wide attacking movepool, and usable Special Attack, and a suicidal Trick Room set. However, the support set is the best thing Pumpkaboo can run in ORAS especially with the addition Synthesis to its movepool.
Pumpkaboo is often used on teams that need an answer to Rapid Spinners, which Pumpkaboo can check well with its Ghost / Grass-typing. Pumpkaboo is also a cool support Pokémon that can easily fit in any kind of playstyle, as it gives teams a reliable check to Shell Smash Tirtouga and Ground-types such as Drilbur.
Gothita
Before the introduction of ORAS, Gothita's revenge killing set struggled against defensive Pokémon. Spritzee, Porygon, Ferroseed, and many more once had little to fear from Gothita. The addition of Trick to Shadow Tag in Gothita's movepool in ORAS has given the little tyke a means of crippling dangerous Pokémon it cannot outright defeat, widening its range beyond the previously smaller assortment of Pokémon that Gothita could prey upon. Note that this range remains for the most part unaltered, as Gothita had before only really utilized three coverage moves, and stays in line with the reasons that make Gothita a solid choice as a team member. Picking and choosing which threats to break down couldn't become any easier, as Trick deprives Pokémon of beneficial items, such as Eviolite and Berry Juice, and replaces them with the potentially harmful Choice Scarf.
Trick has given way to new, albeit perhaps gimmicky, sets, most notably of which being the Choice Scarf Calm Mind set, which functions as a more offensive variant of the Calm Mind + RestTalk wallbreaking set Gothita sometimes runs. However, the loss of a coverage move reduces Gothita's capabilities as a revenge killer, and similarly the lack of recovery severely scales back Gothita's role as a wallbreaker. Such sets place Gothita in a "jack of all trades, master of none" situation, and care must be taken not to use such a set when others may be a better choice.
As far as teammates go, nothing has really changed for Gothita. Knock Off and VoltTurn support are still vastly appreciated and provide the necessary chip damage Gothita needs to turn 2HKOs into OHKOs. However, Pancham's newfound capabilities as a pivot not only provide Gothita with Knock Off support but also a slow switch in the form of Parting Shot, which effectively also gives Gothita a handy Defense buff. This benefits virtually every Gothita set, as the boost (or, more accurately put, the drop) Parting Shot gives provides Gothita a potentially invaluable extra turn during which Gothita can take an extra hit and dish out extra pain.
Beating Gothita has remained unchanged as well. Pursuit users such as Pawniard and Stunky are still virtual auto-win matchups versus Gothita. Applying pressure, which may restrict Gothita's switches, will also diminish Gothita's presence as a threat.
Amaura
Amaura is a Pokémon that has always been cast aside by many players due to the myriad of common weaknesses brought on by its pitiful defensive typing. Being weak to Stealth Rock, 4x weak to Fighting and Steel (offensive STAB typings belonging to severely threatening S-tier Pokémon in Mienfoo and Pawniard), and vulnerable to Water and Ground serves as multiple thorns in Amaura's side. Its few advantages, though, including its resistance to Flying and inherent ability to check Fletchling, access to Thunder Wave, and the Refrigerate ability for powering up its Normal-type attacks, do definitely have their merits. That said, it is usually still held back by its weaknesses and the fact that Steel-types can usually manage a free switch-in against it, which have been enough to keep it roaming about at the bottom of the LC viability rankings.
However, ORAS brought Amaura a few new things to allow it not only to hit harder, but also to get past the Steel-types that it couldn't beat before. Amaura was gifted with the powerful Hyper Voice, the best special Normal-type attack in the game bar Boomburst, and when combined with Refrigerate, this provides the ice dinosaur with a 175.5 Base Power STAB attack, which outdamages STAB Blizzard while having perfect accuracy and the ability to hit through Substitute to boot. This addition makes Amaura's STAB Ice-type offensive power quite strong and probably the best in the metagame unless you count Shellder's Skill Link Icicle Spear, which isn't boosted by STAB but is definitely relevant. What really makes Amaura difficult to switch into now, though, is Earth Power, which it also got from ORAS. Magnemite could usually have a free switch before, but now it has to think twice before attempting to come in on Amaura while Stealth Rock is up. Earth Power also gets a hard hit against Pawniard if it wants to come in on a resisted attack. This is probably the best coverage move Amaura could have asked for, and while it still must be played carefully, it makes switching into this Pokémon that much more difficult, especially if it's equipped with a Choice Scarf and its player predicts well.
A Choice Scarf set with Hyper Voice, Ancient Power, Earth Power, and Thunderbolt 2HKOes the majority of the relevant metagame with the correct move and takes good skill and prediction to use, but does not require risking a turn of setup with all those weaknesses. A Life Orb set with Rock Polish over Thunderbolt can be very effective as a deterrent to Fletchling; if you can pressure it enough into KOing something without letting it set up for free, it will serve as an enabler for a Life Orb Amaura sweep, as Fletchling is forced to switch out or faint. A Berry Juice set is feasible if Amaura is to be used primarily as a Fletchling check on offensive teams, and it can spread paralysis throughout the opponent's team with Thunder Wave while maintaining its Ice-type offensive presence, although it still must be played carefully.
Unfortunately, there is no one Pokémon in Little Cup that forms a perfect resistance core with Amaura, as it has far too many weak points to be covered. Croagunk is a good partner, as it beats both Mienfoo and Pawniard while Amaura covers Fletchling for Croagunk, but the core is defeated by Earthquake users. Spritzee is a good partner that sponges the Fighting-type attacks directed at Amaura, but both are threatened by Steel-type onslaughts. Amaura takes skill and patience to use properly and takes careful building around when adding it to a team, but its strengths with its new moves are great if players are willing to use it despite its defensive shortcomings.
Other Minor Changes
Other LC Pokémon received minor additions to their movepool, and while they weren't enhanced to the extent of the other Pokémon mentioned, the moves they received made their options a bit more diverse. Both Inkay and Ferroseed received Knock Off from the move tutors. Inkay previously had to rely on Night Slash as a Dark-type STAB move, so the addition of the stronger Knock Off was welcomed, as it meant Inkay was able to remove items from its counters, enabling it or a teammate to beat them more easily later in the game. Ferroseed was less improved than Inkay with the addition of Knock Off, as its wide movepool means that it has a harder time fitting Knock Off on a set despite it being one of the best moves in the tier. However, Ferroseed can still use the move to surprise its counters by removing their items. Chespin received Drain Punch from the move tutors, and although it already had Fighting-type coverage to deal with the likes of Pawniard and Magnemite, Drain Punch allows Chespin to recover health, meaning it can utilize its good natural bulk in order to set up Spikes or Bulk Ups more effectively.
Changes to the Metagame
The Pokémon that received new moves and abilities weren't the only ones that shifted in viability. Croagunk was already popular in XY for its versatile movepool and ability to check almost all of the Water- and Fighting-types in the tier, but its ability to check both Skrelp and Pancham bolstered its viability further. Consequently, Skrelp began to use Hidden Power Psychic in other to score a surprise OHKO on Croagunk, while Zen Headbutt became a common option on Pancham to check not only Croagunk but also most of the Fighting- and Poison-types in the tier. Pumpkaboo's increase in viability as a spinblocker made using entry hazards much more viable, as it is able to switch into spinners such as Staryu and Drilbur repeatedly thanks to Synthesis and keep its teammates' entry hazards up. Sticky Web teams have skyrocketed in usage recently, with Surskit's usage roughly tripling since the new additions to the tier. This is largely due to Pumpkaboo's prowess as a spinblocker, but also because Pokémon such as Amaura, Skrelp, Pancham, and Inkay add to the group of Pokémon that function well under Sticky Web.
Conclusion
Little Cup might not have gained the offensive and defensive giants that the upper tiers did, but the tier was still bolstered by the additions it received, even if they were only additions to movepools and abilities. Rather than upsetting the metagame, the changes gave the tier a refreshing change and kept it one of the most stable metagames out there, with no bans or suspect tests since Misdreavus's departure last August. Although some Pokémon are very heavily used, there are no overly-dominant threats, and almost all playstyles are viable.
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