[Metagame] SM LC Discussion Thread

SM LC Discussion Thread
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Use this thread to discuss the Sun / Moon Little Cup (SM LC) metagame, including potentially broken Pokémon or re-tests. We will be starting with the following ban list (things with links have been banned since the initial list was made).

Ban List:

Banned Pokémon: Cutiefly, Drifloon, Gothita, Gligar, Meditite, Misdreavus, Murkrow, Porygon, Scyther, Sneasel, Swirlix, Tangela, Vulpix, Yanma
Banned Items: Eevium Z
Banned Moves: Dragon Rage, Sonic Boom, Swagger

Spoiler: Clauses

Sleep Clause
Species Clause
Self-KO Clause
Team Preview
OHKO Clause - You cannot use the moves Fissure, Guillotine, Horn Drill or Sheer Cold (except in ORAS Doubles).
Evasion Clause - You cannot use the moves Double Team or Minimize, or the items Brightpowder or Lax Incense.
Moody Clause - You cannot use the ability Moody.
Confusion Clause - You cannot use the moves Confuse Ray, Flatter, Supersonic, Swagger, Sweet Kiss or Teeter Dance.
Attract Clause - You cannot use the move Attract.
Hax Item Clause - You cannot use the items King's Rock, Razor Fang or Quick Claw.

Note that in addition to Pokémon introduced by SM...
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Spoiler: New SM Pokémon

1. Rowlet | Grass / Flying | Overgrow, Long Reach* (Doesn't make contact)
2. Litten | Fire | Blaze, Intimidate*
3. Popplio | Water | Torrent, Liquid Voice* (Sound moves become Water-type)
4. Rockruff | Rock | Keen Eye, Vital Spirit, Steadfast
5. Yungoos | Normal | Stakeout (Doubles damage against switch-ins.) , Strong Jaw, Adaptability
6. Pikipek | Normal / Flying | Keen Eye, Skill Link, Pickup
7. Grubbin | Bug | Swarm
8. Stufful | Normal / Fighting | Fluffy (Half-damage from contact moves; Double fire damage) , Klutz, Cute Charm
9. Mudbray | Ground | Own Tempo / Stamina (Defense raises one stage when hit.), Inner Focus
10. Fomantis | Grass | Leaf Guard, Contrary
11. Sandygast | Ghost / Ground | Water Compaction (Defense raises two stages if hit with Water.), Sand Veil
12. Type: Null | Normal | Battle Armor
13. Jangmo-o | Dragon | Bullet Proof, Sound Proof, Overcoat
14. Cosmog | Psychic | Unaware
15. Cutiefly | Bug / Fairy | Honey Gatherer, Shield Dust,Sweet Veil
16. Salandit | Poison / Fire | Corrosion (Can poison Steel-types), Oblivious
17. Wimpod | Bug / Water | Wimp Out (Basically, Eject Button when HP below 50%)
18. Bounsweet | Grass | Leaf Guard, Oblivious, Sweet Veil (Like Vital Spirit)
19. Morelull | Grass / Fairy | Illuminate, Effect Spore, Rain Dish
20. Mareanie | Poison / Water | Merciless (Crits if target is Poisoned), Limber, Regenerator
21. Dewpider | Water / Bug | Water Bubble (Halves Fire damage, doubles Water moves before STAB, prevents burns), Water Absorb
22. Crabrawler | Fighting | Hyper Cutter, Iron Fist, Anger Point

*Not Yet Released

Alolan Formes

1. Rattata | Dark / Normal | Gluttony, Hustle, Thick Fat
2. Sandshrew | Ice / Steel | Snow Cloak, Slush Rush (Boosts speed in Hail)
3. Vulpix | Ice | Snow Cloak, Snow Warning
4. Meowth | Dark | Pickup, Technician, Rattled
5. Grimer | Poison / Dark | Poison Touch, Gluttony, Power of Alchemy (Doubles only)
6. Diglett | Ground / Steel | Sand Veil , Tangled Hair (Gooey clone), Sand Force
7. Geodude | Rock / Electric | Magnet Pull, Sturdy, Galvanize (Electric version of Pixilate)

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...Murkrow, Meditite, Misdreavus, and Diglett are unbanned. Generation 7 has also introduced a plethora of new game mechanics.

Expect Eevee's Z-move (boosts all stats to +2) and Type: Null (has extremely high base stats for LC) to be quick banned, but they will probably be allowed for at least a day or two.

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Good to know. The OP has been updated to reflect Type: Null being illegal in LC.

I've added Mareanie to the OP since I missed it. Merciless seems like an interesting ability, but it probably won't see any usage because of how awesome Regen is. Statistically, Skrelp hits harder thanks to Adaptability, and it has better Special bulk, but Mareanie having Regen and access to Recover should make it last much longer than Skrelp, which has to rely on Rest-Talk for recovery. Looks pretty interesting.

 

Eevium Z has been quick banned from SM LC.

Eevium Z allows Eevee to use its Z Move, Extreme Evoboost, which boosts all its stats by two stages. Eevee does need Last Resort in its moveset to use it, but this isn’t much of a handicap considering what it gains by using the Z Move. In addition, Eevee can Baton Pass these boosts to setup another Pokémon to win the game. Since neither Eevee itself nor Baton Pass have proven to be broken in SM LC at this point, it was decided that the logical option was to ban Eevium Z, which effectively bans Extreme Evoboost as well.

 

The LC Resources have been updated to reflect the recent Cutiefly and Misdreavus bans (Conversion and Murkrow have also been banned since the last post, but that's old news).

The next suspect will probably be Meditite unless anyone has seen anything that should be looked at sooner.

 

With Meditite concluded, feel free to make suggestions for what should be looked at next. I'm thinking Gothita should be next on the agenda.

The main reason that Baton Pass was banned in other tiers was passed stat boosts + Magic Bounce + Stored Power shenanigans. Natu is the only LC Pokemon with the combination of Magic Bounce + Stored Power, and BP chains are generally lackluster in LC. Torchic is probably the most dangerous BP passer due to having Speed Boost, but I don't really think it is broken. If people can explain why Baton Pass is broken in LC and would be worth looking at, feel free to post.