Other Tier National Dex Little Cup (Spotlight Ladder for June!)

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(banner in progress, current “banner” drawn by teamo)
LC (Little Cup) is a format where players may only use Pokémon that have not yet evolved, are capable of evolution, and are obtainable at level 5 in-game.

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Council
rarre
Flou
MuffinMelody
Charis_Akins
Roldski32

Banlist:

Pokemon

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• Aipom
• Basculin-White-Striped
• Clamperl
• Corsola-Galar
• Cutiefly
• Drifloon
• Dunsparce
• Duraludon
• Flittle
• Girafarig
• Gligar
• Meditite
• Misdreavus
• Murkrow
• Porygon
• Qwilfish-Hisui
• Rufflet
• Scraggy
• Scyther
• Sneasel
• Sneasel-Hisui
• Stantler
• Swirlix
• Tangela
• Vulpix-Alola
• Woobat
• Yanma
• Zigzagoon

Abilities

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• Moody
• Chlorophyll

Items

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• Eevium Z
• King's Rock
• Quick Claw
• Razor Fang

Moves

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• Assist
• Dragon Rage
• Sonicboom
• Baton Pass
• Sticky Web

Codes

Challenge Code

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/challenge gen9nationaldex @@@ Little Cup, Adjust Level = 5, -Sneasel, -Scyther, -Swirlix, -Tangela, -Gligar, -Corsola-Galar, -Aipom, -Rufflet, -Drifloon, -Cutiefly, -Meditite, -Yanma, -Woobat, -Murkrow, -Misdreavus, -Girafarig, -Flittle, -Dunsparce, -Porygon, -Stantler, -Basculin, -Qwilfish, -Scraggy, -Duraludon, -Vulpix-alola, -Clamperl, -Zigzagoon, -Eevium Z, -Chlorophyll, +Arena Trap, +Shadow Tag, -Sonicboom, -Dragon Rage, -Sticky Web

Tournament Code

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.

Watchlist:
Tyrunt
Magby
Diglett

NDLC Discord

 

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Sample Teams

Hisuian Voltorb Balance by TheShowdownHoedown and MuffinMelody


Trapinch Balance by Sciroccoo


LO Voltorb Grass Spam by Charis_Akins]


Voltturn Hazard Stack by Roldski32


RegenSpam by Flou

 

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Viability Rankings (Last updated 3/4/24)

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S
Mienfoo
Vullaby

S-
Diglett
Pawniard

A+
Abra
Ferroseed
Koffing
Voltorb-hisui

A
Foongus
Gastly
Mareaine
Ponyta
Snivy
Staryu
Timburr

A-
Carvanha
Growlithe-hisui
Mudbray
Onix
Shellder
Spritzee
Tyrunt
Vulpix-alola
Wingull

B+
Clamperl
Doduo
Gothita
Grimer-alola
Grookey
Magnemite
Snubbull
Stunky
Trapinch
Vulpix


B
Archen
Dwebble
Magby
Glimmet
Minccino
Zigzagoon

B-
Charmander
Elekid
Frillish
Munchlax
Omanyte
Sandshrew-alola
Toedscool

Below in C & D, these Pokemon are generally considered to have negatives such that they are not considered very competitive choices for your team. However these Pokemon usually have at least one positive quality which makes them usable though nonoptimal. These are generally considered "for fun" but are ranked to indicate their strengths and weaknesses. Please do not spend your energy discussing if a Pokemon in C should actually be in D (or vice versa).

C

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Chespin
Chinchou
Cottonee
Croagunk
Drilbur
Fuecoco
Hippopotas
Houndour
Larvesta
Meowth
Nymble
Pikipek
Ponyta-galar
Pumpkaboo-super
Shellos
Shroodle
Slowpoke
Taillow
Tinkatink
Tirtouga
Torchic
Zorua-hisui

D

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Amaura
Axew
Buizel
Bunnelby
Corphish
Dewpider
Dratini
Farfetch’d-galar
Golett
Kabuto
Lileep
Natu
Numel
Pancham
Quaxly
Riolu
Sandygast
Skrelp
Snover
Trubbish
Wattrel

Visual (SLIGHTLY OUTDATED):

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Speed Tiers:
here

 

[Flou]

Guess I'll be the first one to post, thanks for making this happen, National Dex overlords



I think of the two Mons on the watchlist currently, Clamperl is the one more obviously broken.

One Shell Smash with Screens or Memento support is basically a loss if you don't have priority, and even that can be accounted for with Substitute for Pokemon like Pawniard's Sucker Punch or Protect for Mienfoo's Fake Out. (You can also just Sub on the Mienfoo swapping out if they are continuously sacrificing Pokemon to Fake Out spam...)

Water-types that take on Clamperl are shaky answers or not answers at all. Frillish is generally a poor bring due to being a victim of much of the greatest threats, offensive Staryu (defensive sucks) dies 70% of the time to Surf BEFORE Tera Water, Mareanie is OHKO'd with Tera Water after Rocks. Grasses like Foongus die to Ice Beam (or Tera Water Surf after rocks) and Ferroseed better hope that it stayed healthy enough to eat Ice Beam. Also, this calc:

84 SpA Ferroseed Giga Drain vs. -1 76 HP / 0 SpD Clamperl with an ally's Aurora Veil: 10-13 (47.6 - 61.9%) -- 93.8% chance to 2HKO

lol

I won't even begin to mention Tera Water +2 Surf calcs, because if your typing doesn't resist Surf you die.

With a Clamperl ban, Vulpix-A and Aurora Veils lose one more sweeper option and could make them easier to handle without extensively preparing for them in the builder. I could of course be completely wrong and veils could be broken even without Clamperl, but I think banning one Pokemon as opposed to killing an entire strategy is favorable.

See you all in May for the seasonal

 

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Vulpix-alola, Clamperl, Sticky Web, and Zigzagoon have been Banned!​

Votes

Veils have firmly cemented themselves as a broken and unhealthy playstyle in ndlc, often necessitating extreme measures in order to effectively check. Besides Clamperl and Zigzagoon, other strong sweepers such as dragon dance Tyrunt, nasty plot Vullaby, and belly drum magby would easily take advantage of the veils and setup to try winning the game immediately. The overarching factor, of course, was the veils itself and the Vulpix-alola that effortlessly set them. While axeing an entire playstyle might not be ideal, neither is choosing to ban 5+ mons in order to keep a proven unhealthy and fundamentally matchup fishy playstyle. In the end, with a narrow 3-2 vote, Vulpix-alola is now banned from ndlc.


Click one move and win! While it may be somewhat difficult to safely click shell smash, once you do, it’s pretty much always lights out. Clamperl also paired up amazingly with the breakneck pace of veils ho teams, as veils gave it significantly more opportunities for setup. Of course, Clamperl didn’t necessarily require veils to function, as it could make use of memento or a choice lock to easily set up as well. The advent of tera water really pushed it over the edge, as the monstrous power of +2 deep sea tooth Tera water surf could do some silly things like killing foongus after rocks 75% of the time. This power also made playing around it with Tera of your own impossible, as clamperl would just drop everything with surf. Clamperl could now fit in protect and substitute far more easily, foiling traditional methods of dealing with clamperl such as mienfoo fake out and pawniard sucker punch. Out of the 5 council members, all 5 voted ban for clamperl, making clamperl the only unanimous ban.


Historically, sticky web has always been a very strong and unhealthy matchup fish. To check it without overly preparing for it often necessitates running solid, reliable removal, something that is becoming less and less common in ndlc. The introduction of Voltorb-hisui made defensive staryu all but obsolete, vullaby have been turning away from defog in favor of hidden power fighting to effectively handle pawniard, and standard timburr have also been dropping defog in order to run a 4th attack, which usually proves more useful. Furthermore, sticky web teams have more options than ever to deny removal, from tera ghost to spinblock to tera pawniard and snivy, both of whom defogging against is greatly recommended against. Thus, in a metagame where removal is sparse and not entirely reliable, sticky webs are too strong and unhealthy a matchup fish, and are as such banned.


Zigzagoon is very similar to clamperl in that all it needs is that one turn to set up to run though your team, really appreciates veils but doesn't necessarily require them to function, and abuses tera incredibly hard. Whether it's using tera normal to do things like ko scarf pawn and timburr with boosted extreme speed, using a defensive tera such as ghost to avoid fake out, or just simply dipping into its solid coverage movepool with thief, seed bomb, and rock smash among others, ziggy has no shortage of ways to get around checks and sweep teams with ease. tldr this is just slightly more manageable clamperl

Since matches have already been played, Vulpix-alola, Clamperl, Sticky Web, and Zigzagoon will REMAIN LEGAL for the remainder of ndlc seasonal round 1. Vulpix-alola, Clamperl, Sticky Web, and Zigzagoon will be banned starting round 2.



Other minor changes:
Surskit from B+ to UR
Dewpider from B- to D
New Watchlist: Tyrunt, Magby, Diglett