Little Prep for Little Cup

Yes, I know that half the year’s almost over and this is my first blogpost for 2015. You might be wondering, “Smiles, what’s the hold up?” Well, it’s this little thing called life. Between work, moving to a new city, and all sorts of other craziness, I haven’t had much time to play Pokémon. I know right! It makes me angrier than a Primeape!

Missing out on way too much Pokémon, I needed to fix that pronto! So when the latest challenge was announced, I was determined to compete.

I’m familiar with Little Cup, but I honestly haven’t played it since Stadium 2. Basically, only Pokémon who are the lowest line in their evolutionary family are allowed. So that means you can use Pokémon like Charmander or Bidoof, but not Kangaskhan or Pachirisu. With not much time to work with, I went with the simplest team building strategy: Use everything that’s banned on Smogon’s Little Cup! Hate all you want, but it was an effective strategy.

…Or I thought it was anyways. As fate would have it, I didn’t have time to get a full party of six ready and had to settle what was in my box. So after a quick scramble, I got my bad girls ready for battle!

Introducing the Gross Sisters!

The basic team borrowed some elements from my past strategies. Since Scyther was the hardest hitter, her job was to cut down as much of the opposing team as possible. Afterwards, I’d U-Turn to Murkrow, who’d set up Perish Song to end game. Tentacool was more or less there to take hits, and also because I had no other Pokémon ready. The other three in the battle box were just filler to confuse the opponent. At a glance, the team had a big weakness to electric moves, but I hardly saw any Electric-Types.

I knew that I’d be encountering many Scythers and Sneasals, but I was quite surprised to run into things like Onix! While 45 base attack and 70 base speed doesn’t seem impressive, that’s quite a powerhouse for Little Cup standards! Tentacool actually served as a decent check, but a costly misprediction sealed up the game.

But nothing could have prepared me for the Minister of Doom, the Archangel of Destruction, the Harbinger of Death.    

Priority Acrobatics hurts

After a series of losses, I got the hang of things and knew more or less what to expect. With a better grasp of the metagame, I was able to pull off some decent wins - - with Lady Luck’s help of course.

While only having three Pokémon severely limited my options, I did pretty well. I barely squeaked out a win with a 10-8 win. Ranked in the top 30% isn’t bad either, but there’s always room for improvement. Still, it was great getting back into competitive play and learning about a new metagame. Despite the lack of prep time, my girls carried.

Walking away with a 2,151 rating isn't so bad, but I'll do better next time!