LC Spotlight: Spritzee
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Spritzee
Type: Fairy
Abilities: Healer, Aroma Veil
Base stats: 78 HP / 52 Atk / 60 Def / 63 SpA / 65 SpD / 23 Spe
Spritzee's Beginning
Being one of the two all-new Pokémon to have the Fairy-type in this generation's wave of Little Cup newcomers, Spritzee was initially cast aside as unusable when compared to its XY Fairy-type partner Swirlix; reasons for this include that Swirlix was much more powerful, had many more awesome coverage moves, and was a vastly superior setup sweeper, having access to three highly potent setup sets that were all quite metagame-defining. While Swirlix was tearing up the Little Cup tier, Spritzee was almost entirely outclassed by it and lived rather quietly in its shadow, finding serious use on only experimental teams. Decidedly average stats and horrible Speed were additional factors that kept players away from using Spritzee, and it existed only as a neglected creature that sat in the background for pretty much the entire first few stretches of XY Little Cup.
Becoming Little Cup's Alpha-Fairy
As time went on, Sneasel was quickbanned from Little Cup. It was at about this time that Spritzee began to find slightly increased usage on teams that had a more defensive approach. Spritzee's high HP stat allowed it to pass ample Wish recovery to its teammates, and its solid defenses combined with its resistances to Dark and Fighting proved to be incredible with an Eviolite equipped to complement them. However, Swirlix's immense popularity and dominance in the tier still made Spritzee somewhat overshadowed, and the vast majority of teams during this time were riddled with fast and insanely powerful sweepers, including not only Swirlix, but also Yanma and Chlorophyll carriers, such as Tangela, that took advantage of Vulpix's Drought to double their Speed and power up their attacks. The extreme threat of such offensive titans made it very difficult for defensive Pokémon to stand out, and this unfortunately included Spritzee. Almost nothing, even with Eviolite, could reliably switch in on Tangela's Life Orb-boosted Solar Beam or Swirlix's +6 Play Rough, and Yanma could simply flinch them to death with Air Slash if it failed to 2HKO them. This was a very rough time period for bulky walls such as Spritzee, but it was seeing increased usage nonetheless.
Then, Yanma and Tangela were banned by the new XY Little Cup council by unanimous decision, and this took offensive play down quite a few notches, or so it seemed at first. As the air cleared a bit, there began to be a recognized distinction between Swirlix and Spritzee, one that existed as a horrifying setup sweeper, and one that was a lot more respected than it was in the past for its bulky support presence—offense and defense. Spritzee began finding more and more use on teams and could hold its own against the toned down offense of the tier, for the most part; it served as a reliable defensive check to Fighting-types that carried Knock Off, as well as Dark-types such Carvanha and Vullaby, while also acting as the backbone for bulky or balanced teams by providing incredible support with Wish and Aromatherapy, and being immune to Taunt and Encore by way of its exclusive Aroma Veil ability to be certain that it could do its job. However, the rise of Gligar and Swirlix (not just due to Swirlix having been a superior Fairy-type) in the tier greatly cut down on Spritzee's viability in the resistance department, as they too were designed to combat Fighting-types that carried Knock Off; they both resisted Fighting-type attacks and could take advantage of having their items removed much better than Spritzee could, making them much better answers; Swirlix gained doubled Speed instantly upon item loss and the power of Gligar's Acrobatics was doubled if its item was removed as well. As they grew in popularity, reason to use Spritzee dwindled once again, and Swirlix and Gligar eventually got to the point where they ran Little Cup and literally decided what was sensible or unacceptable on a team if players wanted to win battles.
Not long after that, and rather recently, Swirlix and Gligar were both suspected and consequently banned from Little Cup. These two bans alone caused the greatest drop in the significance of offensive setup sweepers that Little Cup has ever seen, and it caused the metagame to mellow down to a much more balanced state—one without such low-risk, high-reward tactics or overpowering offense. It was then that defensive Pokémon began to once again crawl from their lowly ground up to higher plateaus in the tier, and with Swirlix out of the picture and the two premier Fighting-type checks gone, Spritzee became the number one go-to Pokémon for walling and checking Fighting-types that run Knock Off, which is an attribute that almost every team needs in order to be successful in XY Little Cup. After many important milestones had been passed, and after the metagame had weeded out several things to make the game more objectively fun and competitive, Spritzee now holds the title as Little Cup's alpha-Fairy, being able to reliably sponge Fighting-, Bug-, and Dark-type attacks as well as tank many other hits, and it doesn't appear that it will lose that title anytime soon.
Playing With Spritzee
Spritzee is by far the best at what it does in the current Little Cup metagame. In addition to having important resistances that come with its Fairy typing (and even an immunity to Dragon!), its ability to reliably heal its teammates with Wish and Aromatherapy is unmatched, only facing slight competition from Lickitung, which isn't weak to Poison or Steel but has an overall worse defensive typing. A healthy Spritzee can generally switch in without fear against every Dragon-type or Fighting-type in the tier (bar Croagunk) and expect to force them out on the following turn, granting a free turn for using Wish to heal itself or a teammate, Aromatherapy to rid its comrades of crippling status afflictions, or a STAB-boosted Moonblast to deal severe damage to any Fairy-weak foe that is foolish enough to stay in. Spritzee forms an excellent resistance core with Steel-types such as Pawniard, Magnemite, or Ferroseed, as it can easily take the Fighting-type attacks aimed at them, and they can shrug off the Poison- and Steel-type attacks directed at Spritzee, while all parties are kept healthy by Spritzee's support moves. Spritzee also makes a wonderful teammate for any bulky core that has problems with Dark-types. As mentioned previously, Spritzee's immunity to Taunt and Encore make it practically unstoppable as far as its supportive capabilities go, and this exclusive boon is a large part of why Spritzee's currently high viability remains intact, as it is a godsend of an attribute that other walls and bulky support Pokémon in Little Cup can only dream of having. Additionally, Spritzee's low Speed and high tolerance for damage make it not care too much about status other than sleep. It is way too slow to mind being paralyzed, the residual damage caused by a burn and poison are negligible to it, and it has Aromatherapy to rid itself of these conditions even if they were to become problematic anyway.
Even as defensively amazing as Spritzee is, don't overestimate its tanking power because it still has a limit. Poison and Steel are two types of attacks that were very uncommon in previous generations due to their obvious lack of coverage, but now that Fairy-types are significant and players have let this fact sink in, Poison- and Steel-type attacks are definitely out there, and you don't want to let Spritzee get hit by these if it doesn't have to—when faced with a Poison- or Steel-type enemy, get Spritzee the hell out of there. Another thing you'll want to keep in mind is that Spritzee's Eviolite is a big help to its ability to take hits, and even though it is meant to be able to switch in on things like Timburr and Mienfoo, having its Eviolite removed via Knock Off on the switch makes a significant difference later in the match when you need Spritzee to take hits, and this is something you must consider before making that move. Sure, it still has its resistances to Dark, Bug, and Fighting, and it can still tank these kinds of attacks after having lost its Eviolite, but its ability to tank other neutral hits will have noticeably decreased. Another thing that is very important to bear in mind is that Spritzee is slower than most other Pokémon in the tier, and what this means for Spritzee as it's being offensively hammered is that if it waits too long to use Wish to recover its own health, it may not get the chance to, and it will be finished off before it can get its health out of panic range. It's generally safe to say that a Spritzee with less than half of its health is at high risk if it has to switch out, especially if the opponent has entry hazards in play, and a Spritzee at low health without Wish recovery coming to it as it's using Protect is totally useless and only good for death fodder later to bring in another Pokémon safely. Spritzee is easily Little Cup's most incredible bulky support Pokémon of this generation, within a few boundaries. It has its limitations, but Spritzee will almost always serve any player well in battle if used properly and played to its strengths. Toxic stall might have been a decent option for Spritzee to employ if the two types it's weak against weren't immune to it. Calm Mind is an option for pulling off late-game sweeps after the opposing Fairy resists have been removed from the game, but the most conventional moveset is Wish / Protect / Aromatherapy / Moonblast.
Playing Against Spritzee
This can be a lot more annoying than you might think. Usually, the most conventional and reliable way to stop bulky support Pokémon from performing their duties is to use Taunt on them to prevent their non-attacking moves from ever being used in the first place. Well, you're going to have to find another way to stop this thing, because Aroma Veil makes it immune to any moves that limit its move options. You can't wear it down with Toxic because it commonly runs Aromatherapy, and it has reliable healing and scouting ability with Wish and Protect. Your best bet for defeating Spritzee is to either keep it cornered with type disadvantages so that it has as few chances to move as possible, while damaging it bit by bit with chip damage and entry hazards, or to overwhelm it with pure offense, which is not an easy task. Applying constant pressure with Pokémon that can pick at its weaknesses is a great help in limiting what it can do safely; a few strong candidates for this job include Bulbasaur, Pawniard, Magnemite, and Trubbish. While this is a common scenario anyway, a good idea would be to remove its Eviolite and make it less bulky; it will retain this lack of added bulk for the remainder of the match and make it a bit easier to bring down. However, it's generally only practical to use Knock Off against it as it switches in, as most good Knock Off users are weak to its STAB Moonblast and therefore run a risk by letting Spritzee have a turn to hit them; there are Pokémon like Tentacool that resist Moonblast and can use Knock Off with no fear, but Spritzee is likely to switch out of Tentacool due to the blatant type disadvantage it has against it. It's tricky to pull off at times, but removing Spritzee's Eviolite definitely improves your odds of successfully beating it down with brute force.
Pitting an opposing Spritzee against your Poison- or Steel-type will usually guarantee a momentum shift in your favor, and this should be capitalized on whenever possible; put Spritzee in a position where the opponent must choose between either risking their Spritzee taking serious damage or giving you a free turn as they switch to get a less uncomfortable matchup. Also notable is that Spritzee cannot, under normal circumstances, really do anything to a Pokémon that resists Moonblast, so any Fire-type with Morning Sun will eventually force Spritzee to flee despite the fact that Fire is not super effective against it; Fire-types are additionally useful for combating the Fairy + Steel core that Spritzee is often part of, threatening the Steel-types with a STAB-boosted super effective Flare Blitz and easily walling Spritzee's Moonblast, while hitting back hard and recovering health lost to recoil by way of Morning Sun. Do not waste your time trying to status Spritzee unless you're attempting to put it to sleep, as this will usually end up giving Spritzee a free turn. Taking down this thing usually involves a long, drawn-out plan of action if you're facing a competent player; it's not very offensively threatening, it's just that it keeps its whole team consistently healed and free of status, but for the sake of your own dignity, you should try to keep your Fairy-resistant Pokémon alive and in good health until Spritzee finally goes down. An offensive team that fails to get past Spritzee is comparable to a group of ninjas being defeated by a monk.
Summary
It's crazy how things change sometimes. Spritzee is probably the best example of a newly introduced XY Little Cup Pokémon that climbed up the ranks from being a highly unappreciated and poorly-sought after downer to the absolute best Fairy-type as well as the best support Pokémon in the entire metagame that only a fool would underestimate. Its ability to support its team with health and status recovery is simply unparalleled in Little Cup, and the brightness it shines with now more than makes up for the darkness it was once obscured by while living in the shadow of Swirlix.
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