XY Little Cup: How To Tang Your Dragonfly

Introduction

Yanma and Tangela are examples of two culprits that have always been outcasts to Little Cup here at Smogon, despite having all the qualities that would make them eligible competitors in the tier. This is because of a combination of many things that have caused them to be deemed broken for generations... Their stats are decidedly very overpowering for Little Cup, their insane offensive capabilities combined with their means of putting potential checks out of commission with sleep-inducing moves are highly threatening, and their ability to easily outspeed and overwhelm the opposition with much higher reward than risk have earned them a permanent banishment from the tier since it started. However, along with a handful of other previously banned Pokémon, Yanma and Tangela were released upon the XY Little Cup metagame as a test to see how their presence would affect competitive battling and whether they could actually fit into the tier. Following Sneasel's ban, it was eventually decided by the LC Council to also ban these two. This article will individually cover their effects on the metagame and what led up to their being removed from the game once again. Credit goes to Little Cup veteran Heysup for this witty title.

Yanma's Revenge

Finally being freed from captivity, Yanma made its fearsome debut at the beginning of XY Little Cup and began threatening the clear majority of the tier right away with its blistering Speed and destructive offensive power backed by an impressive Bug + Flying STAB combination, nailing many common threats in the tier for hard super effective damage as well as making total pushovers of even reliable Regenerator walls Foongus and Slowpoke. However, to be fair, even despite the immediate threat Yanma was at the beginning of this generation, it was kept in check reasonably well by Sneasel while it was around, as it was deathly weak to Sneasel's Ice STAB and its priority in Ice Shard allowed it to clip Yanma's wings easily regardless of the Speed boosts Yanma might have racked up. Yanma was unable to truly unleash its potential during this time, and it wasn't until after Sneasel's ban that Yanma was fully able to finally enact its vengeful downpour of terror upon the tier for having kept it locked away forever, and it became an instant bully, mowing down just about everything in sight without mercy and with great force.

One quality that made Yanma's offensive presence a unique one is that Bug / Flying has always been very rarely seen as a threatening dual STAB, as most Pokémon with this typing have typically been too weak to see practical use in competitive battling (with some obvious exceptions being Scyther and Yanmega), with their sub-par stats on average and severe 4x weakness to Stealth Rock as well as a type disadvantage against many types of attacks. Despite these crippling faults that Yanma was inherently cursed with as a Bug- / Flying-type, it had several things going for it that more than outweighed these drawbacks. There was almost nothing that could switch into Yanma in XY Little Cup safely, and any Pokémon that found itself hit for super effective damage by its Bug Buzz or Air Slash had just about no chance to survive at all. Bug Buzz kept Dark-, Psychic-, and Grass-types fearing for their lives, and also gained the buff this generation that allows sound-based moves to hit targets through Substitute, while Air Slash reduced the Fighting-types that once dominated the tier to either cowards or dead meat. What made Yanma's Air Slash particularly difficult to deal with was that it was a STAB attack coming from an offensive threat that hit a maximum Speed stat of 20, which was faster than every unboosted Pokémon in the tier right out the gate, with Diglett, Elekid, and Voltorb being the only ones to tie with it at maximum Speed, while also having a hefty 30% chance to cause a flinch, which put into perspective, is equal to the chance of Scald getting a burn or Focus Blast failing to hit, and Yanma only needed one flinch to get past the few walls that weren't 2HKOed by its STAB attacks.

The most initially conventional set, and the closest one to what would have been considered standard, was a Life Orb set with Speed Boost. It used the obligatory STAB moves Bug Buzz and Air Slash, but also featured added important options to help Yanma get around some of the checks that emerged to take it down. Hidden Power Fire or Ground was a simple enough choice as a coverage move to hit the Pokémon that resisted Bug and Flying, especially Steel-types. Many players figured they could outspeed Yanma and kill it off on the first turn it was out if they had a Choice Scarf-equipped team member with a strong super effective attack such as Stone Edge or Flare Blitz, but it wasn't long before Yanma started running Protect so that its Speed Boost would kick in while being shielded from damage, allowing itself to easily outspeed even Choice Scarf-boosted foes that would have otherwise had a chance in bringing it to the ground without much trouble. Giga Drain was a viable option to regain health lost to Life Orb recoil, and Yanma could also make effective use of Roost or Berry Juice to help keep itself in good health, though these options required more careful playing, as Yanma's typing and defensive stats weren't exactly indicative of something designed to take hits well. Yanma was also somewhat held back by strong priority users such as Meditite and Carvanha, and especially Fletchling, but it was still undeniably a very overwhelming threat to Little Cup. While it might appear that Yanma would be a lot less threatening if it were not for its Speed Boost ability, a newer strategy emerged as Yanma was experimented with... one that actually turned out to be even more annoying than its offensive one, and one that also proved that Yanma can present a huge and nearly unavoidable issue even without Speed Boost.

Hypnosis has always had decisively horrible accuracy since the first Pokémon games were introduced, and so it has usually never been seen as a reliable status option on a set unless a Pokémon had the bulk to be able to afford a miss or two with it, such as Milotic in DPP. However, Yanma just so happens to have access to the ability Compound Eyes to patch up this accuracy issue, making its ability to induce sleep on enemies a lot more frightening. While it may not seem like too big of a deal to have a reliable sleep-inducing move (as lots of other Pokémon have access to one as well), the true brokenness of this tactic came into view when it was combined with Yanma's access to U-turn. This meant that Yanma could easily shift momentum for its team at no cost and at any time with almost no way for the opponent to stop it from happening, counter it, or recover from it without getting lucky with a one-turn sleep. More thoroughly put, Yanma could outspeed its foe much more often than not and make them unable to do anything at all by putting them to sleep, and then follow up with U-turn to either bring in a teammate to set up for free on the incapacitated enemy or gain a comfortable matchup by capitalizing on the opponent's switch, while leaving their Pokémon asleep as well. This tactic was deemed not just highly effective or overpowered, but actually objectively unfair, and rightfully so, and it made Yanma very difficult to face.

But, even as formidable and rage-inducing as Yanma was, it was nothing like its partner in crime that also made its debut at the beginning of XY Little Cup, the big boss that concealed its face behind a mass of vines, the one called Tangela.

Tangela's Wrath

Tangela's introduction to the Little Cup tier marked the beginning of hell, where it acted as the devil and everything else was annihilated beyond belief with the scorching Solar Beams and meandering shots of Hidden Power Fire being blasted all over the place. Its gargantuan Defense and high Special Attack allowed Tangela to take hits like a champ and dish them out like a wrathful god, all with the simple support provided by sunlight. Vulpix was allowed back into the tier at the same time Tangela made its debut, giving it a partner that could effortlessly summon the auto-sunlight needed for Tangela to fully exert the burning hate it had been harboring from being denied entry into the metagame for so long. With access to Ancient Power to compliment its amazing Grass + Fire coverage in sunlight, nothing in the tier stood a chance against Tangela in the vast majority of situations. While it's true that mono-Grass typing does come with a handful of weaknesses, and while it's also true that Tangela's Special Defense leaves much to be desired and its Speed is mediocre at best, these apparent flaws were not anywhere near close enough to balance out the frightening power it wielded against the opposition, and its threat level was kicked up even higher the instant Sneasel was quickbanned from the tier. Basically anything Tangela could hit for super effective damage was done for, and even the bulkiest walls were 2HKOed even if they were only hit neutrally, leaving almost nothing able to switch in and every team dreading laying eyes on it in Team Preview.

Tangela's most destructive set by far was its Life Orb set with the Chlorophyll ability, for use under sunlight. The main attack was its soul-shattering STAB Solar Beam, and it knocked everything that didn't resist it for a huge loop. Hidden Power Fire not only complimented Tangela's Solar Beam by hitting the Grass- and Steel-types that resisted it for super effective damage, but it also received a power boost from the sun. Ancient Power additionally scored double damage against four of the five types that Grass is weak to, making it an excellent coverage option that also sometimes boosted all of Tangela's stats to make it virtually impossible to overcome. Even if a player managed to find a way to check Tangela or sacrifice something to be able to send something healthy in that could take a hit and retaliate, Tangela had Sleep Powder to shut it down and continue its rampage. The combination of all these moves in tandem with its high stats and doubled Speed in sunlight made Tangela exceedingly difficult to play against, as it often required a lucky Sleep Powder miss or some strenuous thinking and prediction to be able to even think about taking it down. Giga Drain was sometimes used over Solar Beam for survivability, and while it was a lot less immediately threatening than Solar Beam was, it did make Tangela a lot harder to knock out, as its health was continuously restored after every use of it.

As time went on, players began to catch on to the fact that Tangela could function extremely well without Chlorophyll, destroying all arguments that it was only broken if it ran an offensive set in sunlight. By taking a more defensive approach, Tangela began finding use in a more reserved manner that protected Tangela throughout battles while still letting it leave huge dents in its victims. With Leaf Storm and the Regenerator ability, Tangela became the most fearsome hit-and-run monster that Little Cup had ever been exposed to. Not only is Leaf Storm even more powerful than Solar Beam (yikes!), but it did not require sunlight to fire off an insanely powerful hit. The downside was that it consequently lowered Special Attack by two stages, meaning it couldn't be spammed as reliably as Solar Beam, and often meant that Tangela would have to switch out to nullify its stat drop. While this might seem like a disadvantage at first, think about how many things are accomplished by switching out: first of all, Tangela regains it original stat value; second, it recovers 33% health automatically; finally, it gets Tangela out of harm's way from any potential check the opponent brings in thinking Tangela wasn't as threatening without sunlight. This allowed Tangela to hit brutally hard, switch out to safety while restoring health and stat drops for free, and come back in later to recycle the same strategy. This approach was also commonly used with Eviolite, making it a lot harder to damage than its Life Orb set. Sleep Powder was also a staple on this set for shutting down enemies on demand, and Knock Off was also included to permanently cripple enemies as they struggled to remain alive.

There was a final set for Tangela; one that allowed its offensive power to reach the heavens while still being able to use Eviolite and Giga Drain for longevity, and it was probably the meanest option of them all: Growth. In the sun, Tangela could boost both its offenses by +2 in a single turn, cranking up the power of its attacks to unbelievable levels and allowing it to easily overwhelm opponents. This was reserved for players who didn't mind using up more turns than necessary to achieve destruction, but the payoff was incredible, and Tangela's Eviolite and overall bulk allowed it to shrug off damage with relative ease while setting up and then recover the health it lost immediately while siphoning the life out of its victims with +2 Giga Drain. Growth also increased Tangela's physical prowess, so it could opt to use a physically inclined set with this approach, but its lack of good physical coverage and the disappointing accuracy of Power Whip generally made this choice impractical. No matter which set Tangela ran, it was highly overpowering and crushed pretty much everything set before it mercilessly and with much higher reward than risk.

Conclusion

The combination of Yanma's and Tangela's ability to apply extreme offensive pressure, push their Speed to nosebleed heights, and incapacitate foes with sleep status while wreaking havoc bought them both a one-way ticket outside of the tier where they could no longer terrorize it. Their overpowering capabilities and the inherent centralization and limits they placed on teambuilding, strategy, and overall competitiveness were deemed enough reason to give them the boot. It was during XY Little Cup's first suspect test where this was decided, and this was also the time at which the original LC Council was chosen. In early January, the newly formed LC Council unanimously decided to ban both Yanma and Tangela from the tier. As the fairly new tier continues to evolve and unfold, there are many solid strategies and playstyles that flourish throughout, as well as a gold mine of untapped power that has yet to be discovered. Be sure to check out the ever-changing metagame that is XY Little Cup!

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