Z-Moves in Little Cup

By Xayah.
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Torchic by h_n_g_m_n

Art by h_n_g_m_n.

Z-Moves in Little Cup

One of the biggest new mechanics introduced in Sun & Moon were Z-Moves. In many tiers, they changed up the metagame quite a bit, with previously largely unviable Pokémon gaining access to extremely powerful single-use attacks or setup moves to shake up the metagame. So what did they mean for Little Cup? Not nearly as much as for higher tiers.

Arguably the most important limiting factor to Z-Moves is the fact that they take up an item slot. In higher tiers, this meant the Z-Move user lost Leftovers or a boosting item, which in many cases was a worthwhile exchange. In Little Cup, however, items are much, much more powerful. Most notably, Eviolite and Berry Juice greatly enhance a Pokémon's defensive capabilities, Life Orb is often necessary to achieve crucial KOs for usually only 1 or 2 HP of recoil due to LC Pokémon's low HP stats, or Choice Scarf can allow a Pokémon with mediocre-at-best Speed to outpace the entire unboosted metagame. Especially in LC's very offensive metagame, many Pokémon simply can't afford to give up the ability to outspeed a key threat thanks to Choice Scarf or take important hits thanks to Eviolite, as this could allow a single opposing Pokémon to run all over the offensive team.

However, that does not mean that there are no Pokémon that can make use of them. While uncommon, the Pokémon that can afford to give up their item can make excellent use of the new mechanic, and they also do not face much competition as a Z-Move user thanks to the low number of good users. In addition, LC's offensive nature means that luring a single defensive Pokémon can often open the way for one of your threats to win a game with relative ease. Because of that, many Z-Move users focus on luring specific threats for their team to allow an ally to clean up.

It is important to note that the Pokémon mentioned here are by no means the only options for Z-Move users; there are certainly others that can make use of them effectively, and more are likely to be discovered in the future.

Users

Diglett

Diglett has always been excellent thanks to its unmatched trapping ability and incredible 20 Speed. Though it has a low Attack stat, it has a high-Base Power STAB move in Earthquake and solid coverage options to circumvent this, and especially in the SM metagame this Pokémon has seen a lot of play, largely because of the rise of the offensive sets. Specifically, its Groundium Z set significantly increases the number of Pokémon it can trap, as it allows Diglett to take out certain bulky Pokémon that are weak to Ground, such as Alolan Grimer and Croagunk, both of which are very common in SM. In addition, it allows Diglett to trap certain threats that aren't weak to Ground and aren't typically very frail, such as Staryu, Mienfoo, and Foongus if their Eviolite has been removed by Knock Off, though it needs Stealth Rock for the latter, as they simply get KOed by Tectonic Rage. This allows some of Diglett's teammates like Shellder, Scraggy, and Carvanha to clean up much more easily and has, in combination with Diglett's remaining ability to trap other Pokémon like Ponyta and Chinchou, allowed it to rise to greatness in this metagame.

Granted, this doesn't mean Groundium Z is always the best option for Diglett; a Life Orb is sometimes the superior option in order to give Diglett more power behind its Rock Slide, Sucker Punch, and Sludge Bomb or allow it to trap and KO multiple things in a single game, while Focus Sash can guarantee that Diglett takes a single hit, allowing it to trap some Choice Scarf users. However, Groundium Z is a very good option that allows Diglett to trap and KO a wide range of Pokémon.

Gastly

Gastly has been a solid Pokémon in every Little Cup metagame to date, and Sun & Moon is no exception. Its excellent Special Attack, great Speed, nice STAB combination, and good coverage options allow it perform as a powerful wallbreaker that every team needs to keep in mind. Sadly, however, its checks and counters have been getting more common, with Vullaby being one of the best Pokémon in the metagame, Alolan Grimer being extremely easy to fit onto a team, and Pawniard being the powerful offensive threat it has always been. Of course, Gastly could not stay behind, and this set emerged. Dazzling Gleam turns into a 160-Base Power Twinkle Tackle when empowered by Fairium Z, and this allows Gastly to always KO Vullaby if its Eviolite has been removed or it has taken Stealth Rock damage, as well as KO bulky Fighting-types like Mienfoo and Timburr. While Pawniard is still a big issue, its Sucker Punches can be played around with Substitute or it can be taken out by Hidden Power Fighting. Sadly, this Gastly is still unable to break through Alolan Grimer, but that is a problem for another day.

Since this Gastly focuses on luring in and taking out Vullaby and bulky Fighting-types, Pokémon that appreciate those being gone appreciate this Gastly's presence. Dark-types like Carvanha and Pawniard very much like those being gone, while Ground-types like Drilbur and Mudbray love the removal of Vullaby, and Steel-types like Ferroseed appreciate Fighting-types getting lured.

Of course, not everything is great for this Gastly; there is a reason the Life Orb set is still quite common. That reason is that Gastly misses out on certain key knock outs because of the lack of Life Orb, such as the 2HKO on Foongus and the OHKO on non-Eviolite Staryu. Regardless, this set functions as a very effective lure in the current metagame.

Snivy

Ever since the release of its hidden ability Contrary, Snivy's combination of solid Speed and a STAB move with 130 Base Power with a free Nasty Plot have allowed it to function as a powerful wallbreaker. Its Grass typing also means it functions as one of the best checks to Ground-types in the metagame, which allows it to find a spot on many teams. While Berry Juice and Eviolite sets are still the most common, Sun & Moon graced it with another one: Z-Wring Out.

Since Grass isn't a very good offensive typing, Snivy always had a lot of common answers in the metagame, such as Vullaby and Foongus, and its lack of coverage options outside of the weak Hidden Power meant that it was pretty much unable to break through them. But then Z-Moves became a thing, and suddenly Snivy had access to a 190-Base Power Breakneck Blitz, which gave it incredible neutral coverage. This set allows it to break through Pokémon like the aforementioned Vullaby and Foongus if it hits them with Leaf Storm to get the +2 Special Attack first. Since they tend to switch into Snivy, hitting them first is very easy, and since this set is still quite rare, Breakneck Blitz is often unexpected. Since these threats will often be taken out, certain Pokémon that share these checks appreciate being on a team with this Snivy; Abra appreciates Snivy luring Vullaby and Alolan Grimer, while strong Fighting-types like Mienfoo and Croagunk love Snivy taking out Vullaby and Foongus. However, Z-Move Snivy is unable to hold Eviolite or Berry Juice, meaning it has nowhere near as much defensive utility as its other sets. In addition, even Normalium Z won't help Snivy when attempting to break down the very common Pumpkaboo-XL and Ferroseed.

Ponyta

Ponyta is very unique in Little Cup for its ability to utilize two different Z-Moves with roughly equal viability. Though both sets function as late-game sweepers or mid-game wallbreakers, they do it in a slightly different fashion. The first set makes use of Flame Charge to boost its already high 19 Speed, before using Hypnosis to immobilize an enemy and use its offensive Fire typing, which lacks common resistant Pokémon, to clean up. However, some Pokémon like Staryu and Onix are capable of easily taking a Fire-type move; that is where Grassium Z comes into play. Solar Beam turns into a 190-Base Power Bloom Doom when powered up, which allows Ponyta to easily break through these Pokémon as they get OHKOed after Stealth Rock. This set excels against teams with only one of the rare Fire-resistant Pokémon, as it only barely needs to be weakened before Ponyta can clean up.

The other set works quite similarly, though not quite the same. Instead of using Flame Charge to boost Speed, this set utilizes Z-Sunny Day to do so while also boosting Fire Blast's power and removing Solar Beam's charge turn. This set is capable of breaking through Water- and Rock-types like Staryu and Onix with Solar Beam, but the lower Base Power than Bloom Doom means that Staryu has to be significantly chipped beforehand. However, sun-boosted Fire Blast is very hard to switch into for many teams, meaning this excels against teams without a Fire-resistant Pokémon. In addition, this set is better against the common Staryu + Onix core, since it is capable of using Solar Beam multiple times. While Eviolite can certainly be run on Sunny Day Ponyta, Z-Sunny Day allows Ponyta to sweep thanks to Speed boost, while Eviolite sets will often be relegated to a wallbreaking role due to getting outsped by Diglett and Choice Scarf users.

Despite all these perks, Eviolite is still Ponyta's most-used item. The reason for this is that the added bulk allows Ponyta to take advantage of Flame Body more easily, allowing it to cripple many physical attackers, most notably Fighting-types like Mienfoo and Iron Fist Timburr. While Z-Move sets lose the ability to do this effectively, they gain the ability to set up quite easily, making them very threatening and often leaving the opponent guessing which set they're dealing with.

Since both of these sets focus on luring Water- and Rock-types, Ponyta functions well on Fire spam cores with Torchic or Houndour. In addition, Flying-types like Doduo and Vullaby appreciate Rock-types like Onix getting removed, while offensive Steel-types like Pawniard and Alolan Sandshrew appreciate Water-types like Staryu getting lured.

Torchic

Torchic used to be known as a support-focused Pokémon capable of boosting the Speed of slow but powerful wallbreakers like Corphish and Croagunk, thus giving them a chance to sweep. In SM, however, a drop in the usage of bulky Fire- and Water-types caused its offensive sets to greatly rise in popularity. At first, the focus was on the Life Orb variant, which functioned as an effective wallbreaker or cleaner that was incredibly hard to switch into due to Fire Blast's high Base Power and the good Fire/Grass coverage it had. With the very uncommon Fire-types being the only ones to resist this combination, Torchic's usage rose quickly. At some point however, people began to realize how effective it was to give Torchic a Z-Move; the incredible power behind Inferno Overdrive meant that almost anything that didn't resist it would go down, including Pokémon like Timburr and non-Eviolite Vullaby, which can take any one hit from Life Orb. This allows Torchic to easily wallbreak before Baton Passing to a teammate, which would then be able to clean up thanks to Torchic's Speed boosts. This set quickly transformed Torchic into a terrifying sight, as even if you were prepared to take it on defensively with something like defensive Staryu, a quick Baton Pass into the likes of Snivy would put your team on the back foot. And you also still have to keep the Life Orb set in mind as well, which trades a one-time nuke for incredible consistent damage.

Cottonee

Back in ORAS, Cottonee was one of the hardest stops to setup sweepers in Little Cup thanks to its access to Prankster Encore. This allowed it to switch into sweepers like Scraggy and Omanyte and lock them into their setup move, thus preventing them from sweeping Cottonee's team. However, Sun & Moon was not nice to the puffball: since Prankster no longer affects Dark-types, it completely fails to do its job against Pokémon like the aforementioned Scraggy and the new setup sweeper Vullaby, thus making Cottonee struggle in the current metagame. The new addition Alolan Grimer also gives it a run for its money, and the nerf to Gale Wings (and thus Fletchling) means Fighting-types run rampant, causing Cottonee to fall behind its bulkier Fairy-type brethren in Spritzee and Snubbull. This does not mean, however, that Cottonee is completely useless; Prankster Memento and Encore are still incredibly powerful tools, and its typing is still decent. Most notably, however, Sun & Moon gave it access to Z-Memento, which both drops a foe's offensive stats and heals up an ally completely, at the cost of Cottonee going down. While this might not sound very impressive, it allows Cottonee to support certain setup sweepers very effectively. Some setup sweepers like Shellder and Nasty Plot Vullaby appreciate the full heal to get a second chance to sweep, while others can fulfill other roles throughout a game before being completely healed up and sweeping. For example, Solid Rock Tirtouga can spend most of the game keeping an opponent's Flying-types in check before getting healed and using Shell Smash to sweep, or Dragon Dance Corphish can weaken an opponent's walls with Knock Off and Adaptability Crabhammer and eventually set up and clean thanks to the full heal and stat drops. This support can be very valuable, and thanks to Cottonee's Prankster ability, it can provide it very consistently. However, a lack of Eviolite means Cottonee is barely able to check Fighting-types, which is the most common role of a Fairy-type on a Little Cup team, meaning a team will need other soft checks as well.

Pumpkaboo-Small

Back in ORAS, Pumpkaboo-S saw practically no use. While it did have a tiny niche on Sticky Web teams as a mixed attacker, the presence of Fletchling and the commonality of Pawniard meant that it wasn't able to fill this role very well, resulting in it seeing very minimal usage. But Sun & Moon did a couple nice things of it. First off, the nerf to Gale Wings meant that Pumpkaboo-S has much more freedom, as it would not simply be switched into and KOed at every opportunity. Second, this nerf allowed Fighting-types to prosper, which caused Pawniard to became a bit less common, meaning another form of priority that threatened Pumpkaboo-S became slightly less threatening. But third and most importantly, it granted Pumpkaboo-S Z-Trick-or-Treat.

Trick-or-Treat when powered up by Ghostium Z boosts all of the user's stats and adds a Ghost typing to the foe. Omniboosts were immediately seen as incredibly powerful when they were announced at the start of the generation and Pumpkaboo-S is the best user of them in Little Cup (that's not banned). Its Grass/Ghost typing is quite solid offensively, as there are only a couple Pokémon that resist the combination. Fire Blast rounds off the coverage, giving Pumpkaboo-S the same Fire/Grass coverage that Torchic and Ponyta use. This very solid coverage that is only resisted by three Pokémon in Little Cup (Houndour, Deino, and Litleo) allows Pumpkaboo-S to sweep with relative ease once set up. And even that is not much of an issue for this Pokémon, as decent natural bulk and a solid defensive typing gives it plenty of setup opportunities, especially as it doesn't take the full damage from Knock Off due to holding a Z-Crystal, allowing it to set up on Fighting-types in an emergency. In addition to all of this, the other effect of Z-Trick-or-Treat can't be underestimated either, as giving a Ghost typing to the foe means they are now weak to Shadow Ball, thus allowing Pumpkaboo-S to force them out or KO them.

Not all is well for this Pokémon, of course. While it does have excellent neutral coverage, it fails to hit some bulkier Pokémon very hard, such as Vullaby, Alolan Grimer, and Timburr. Due to Pumpkaboo-S's low Special Attack for a sweeper, it's unable to KO them very easily even after a boost, and the former two can simply OHKO it back, meaning these Pokémon have to be significantly weakened before Pumpkaboo-S sets up. In addition, the set only reaches 14 Speed before a boost, meaning almost every Choice Scarf user can easily revenge kill it, such as Pawniard or Scraggy. In order to circumvent this, however, this set as mainly found its place on Sticky Web teams. While it is still vulnerable to non-grounded Choice Scarf users like Doduo and Gastly, it is significantly less likely to get revenge killed due to outspeeding other Choice Scarf users after setting up. In addition, it also spinblocks for these Web teams, meaning it offers important role compression. All in all, Pumpkaboo-S certainly gained a niche in this generation, and while it struggles to break through bulkier foes, it can definitely sweep in the right circumstances.

Honorable Mentions

Of course, these are not all the good users of Z-Moves in Little Cup; they are merely examples. While the pool of reliable users is small, certain Pokémon can make very effective use of them. For example, Rufflet can make use of Flyinium Z with Brave Bird to get an incredibly strong STAB move that also doesn't suffer from the Hustle accuracy drop, or Fightinium Z to take out its biggest counter in Onix. Vullaby can utilize Flyinium Z with Mirror Move to gain +2 Attack and fire off a Z-Move based on the move its foe used most recently, allowing to sweep easily with its high-Base Power STAB moves. Wingull uses Flyinium Z in a similar fashion to Rufflet, as it powers up its Hurricane to remove the chance to miss and break through certain Pokémon like Ferroseed more effectively. Bulbasaur can make use of Normalium Z with Celebrate to, similarly to Pumpkaboo-S, boost each of its stats by one stage, allowing it to sweep. Mienfoo sometimes uses Flyinium Z with Bounce to easily break through Croagunk and Foongus while also winning the one-on-one with Timburr and opposing Mienfoo. Carvanha can make use of Psychium Z with Psychic Fangs to lure and KO Fighting-types like Mienfoo and Croagunk, as it takes a Vacuum Wave from the latter thanks to the extra HP it run because of the lack of Life Orb. Pancham can make use of Darkinium Z with Parting Shot to function similarly to the Cottonee set that was outlined above, as it also drops an opposing Pokémon's stats and heals up an ally without forcing Pancham to go down. Scraggy can make use of Fightinium Z with High Jump Kick to break through almost anything that doesn't resist it, like Mienfoo or Vullaby, after a Dragon Dance boost. Quite a few Pokémon, including Staryu and Chinchou, can make use of Icium Z to break through bulky Grass-types, which stop them in their tracks otherwise. Even Gastly and Cottonee, whose most notable Z-Move sets have been outlined above, have other options as Z-Moves. Gastly can use Electrium Z to power up its Thunder and break through Pokémon such as Vullaby, Rufflet, and Staryu more easily than with Fairium Z or Life Orb. Lastly, Cottonee can use Psychium Z with Dream Eater to break through Poison-types like Foongus and Mareanie after their Eviolites have been removed.

Closing Remarks

While Z-Moves don't have quite the impact in Little Cup as they do in other tiers and don't necessarily see use on every team, they certainly have an impact when they do make an appearance. Sun & Moon Little Cup also still has a long life ahead of it, so perhaps we'll be seeing many more Z-Move sets develop. Personally I'm certainly looking forward to how this metagame continues and what new sets will be appearing, and maybe Z-Moves will be seen on almost every team at some point, though that is highly unlikely. But as of right now we have no idea how this metagame will develop, so maybe, just maybe...

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