Meet CAP22: Kerfluffle

By HeaLnDeaL and cbrevan. Art by Sunfished.
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Kerfluffle Artwork

Introduction

CAP 22, Kerfluffle, has just been released, and this article hopes to introduce this new playable Pokémon by explaining the main arguments behind the competitive stages of its creation. By the end, you should be up to speed on how Kerfluffle was designed to function, even if you were unable to participate in the creation of CAP 22 on the forums. A few sample sets will even give you the tools you need to put it on one of your teams and try it out on Pokémon Showdown!

CAP, or Create-A-Pokémon, is a forum project here on Smogon that creates fan-made Pokémon. However, unlike the vast majority of other "fakemon" projects out on the web, CAP uses a competitive frame of mind to design their Pokémon. While there are flavor aspects such as art and Pokedex entries, a huge amount of CAP's focus is in designing a Pokémon that will be fun and viable in a specific metagame. Additionally, many of the Pokémon that CAP designs explore a new niche that the metagame lacks. The creation process is often likened to a journey, and sometimes making a Pokémon offers more knowledge and insight into the game than simply playing with it. The process itself involves many discussions and subsequent voting that help to decide the specific qualities of the Pokémon.

Shifting CAP's Metagame of Focus

For the majority of CAP's history, the metagame that its new Pokémon were designed for was the OverUsed metagame (OU). However, CAP 22 was instead designed for the CAP metagame, in which all previous Pokémon made by CAP are playable. This shift was not without a lengthy discussion (and not without controversy). However, there was a desire for something new amidst a stalemate, and the decision was made to give designing for the CAP metagame a shot for this project, with the possibility CAP could change its metagame of focus again before the next project. The world of competitive Pokémon goes far beyond OU, and though there's a chance CAP will return back to it soon, the idea that competitive play doesn't have to be secluded to a single tier resonated with a number of our contributors this time around. This might be a step into a brave new world of possibilities for CAP, or perhaps the desire to be with the popular and well-known metagame of OU will overtake us again. The future is uncertain, but by the time we'll have to make this decision again, the whole new world of Sun and Moon will have changed the landscape of competitive play, too.

CAP 22's Concept

Since the time of CAP 4, Fidgit, the Create-A-Pokémon project has used concepts to give its Pokémon a focus in their competitive direction. After a vote, CAP 22's concept became Last Act of Defiance: a Pokémon that would be defined by its use of the move Parting Shot. With the move suffering from very poor distribution within the world of real Pokémon, many participants were curious to explore the possibilities that it offered on a more viable Pokémon. During Concept Assessment (a stage in which the concept is given a more concrete direction), it was decided that a relatively fast user of the Parting Shot would be preferred. This would allow CAP 22 to switch out before most opposing Pokémon could damage it, allowing CAP 22's teammate to come in and take reduced damage. Additionally, since as a move Parting Shot failed to deal with many bulky supporting Pokémon that wouldn't mind the drop to their offenses (such as CAP metagame threats Tomohawk and Cyclohm, plus Clefable and Chansey), CAP 22 was also decided to have the ability to threaten or mitigate the impact of such Pokémon through offensive pressure, utility moves, or a combination of both.

CAP 22's Typing

With the threat of opposing supporting Pokémon well within the minds of the participants, being able to threaten Pokémon that didn't fear Parting Shot became a primary concern while choosing CAP 22's typing. Additionally, the fact that Parting Shot encouraged CAP 22 to switch in and out of battle multiple times throughout the match created a desire for a typing that was not weak to entry hazards. The desire to have good offensive STAB types, to mitigate hazard damage, and to have positive typing match-ups against Pokémon that could take advantage of switching into Parting Shot (such as Bisharp and Serperior) led Fairy / Fighting to be an early favorite. However, there were also concerns regarding opposing Flying-types, notably Talonflame, which would be able to hit CAP 22 before it could use Parting Shot. This led to Electric / Fairy gaining fair support as well. But whereas Electric / Fairy could handle Flying-types better, there were concerns of its performance against Ground-types such as Landorus-T. In the end, it is probably the superior super effective coverage and resistance to Stealth Rock that led Fairy / Fighting to victory.

CAP 22's Ability

With a solid offensive typing in hand, many were concerned to make sure the CAP 22 would have the tools to stay in top form throughout the match. From very early on in the Primary Ability discussion, things such as Regenerator and Natural Cure were discussed due to their synergy with Parting Shot and their ability to keep CAP 22 in good health. Since Concept Assessment determined that CAP 22 would be at least fairly fast, the desire to thwart paralysis in particular became quite attractive. In one of the biggest landslide votes in recent CAP history, it's no surprise that Natural Cure became CAP 22's ability.

CAP 22's Base Stats

While its ability might have been an obvious choice, CAP 22's base stat discussion offered a wider variety of opinions. Due to Tomohawk and Cyclohm both being physically defensive, a special attacking bias was formed rather early. Concept assessment had predetermined that CAP 22 would be fast, but just how fast was certainly up for debate. For many people, outspeeding Mega Crucibelle (which sits at base 114 Speed) was an important benchmark, especially since CAP 22 would be weak to its Gunk Shot and a fast Parting Shot aimed at Mega Crucibelle could make it much easier for a teammate to switch in. Others aimed higher, wanting to outpace threats such as Tornadus-T, since otherwise CAP 22 would have to hard switch out when facing it. Other considerations included the likely use of Life Orb as an item, which led many people to advocate for an uninvested final HP stat ending with a 9 to ever so slightly minimize Life Orb recoil. And while an offensive focus over a defensive one was clear, the question of how frail CAP 22 should be came up in many forms. Ultimately, probably the bulkiest submission of 84 HP / 78 Atk / 86 Def / 115 SpA / 88 SpD / 119 Spe ended up winning in a very close poll (which is not to say that it's a particularly bulky stat spread). Though the vote was quite close, it seemed that the winning spread barely edged out its competition in part because of its slightly extra bulk that was aimed at letting CAP 22 take certain hits and still have enough HP remaining to accommodate Life Orb recoil or entry hazards damage.

CAP 22's Competitive Movesets

Due to the predetermined offensive typing and the fairly offensive stats, finding good coverage moves became a key talking point while the participants tried to come up with good competitive sets for CAP. Clefable stood out as a worthwhile target for CAP 22's coverage, especially since it didn't fear a Parting Shot from CAP 22 while CAP 22 subsequently feared a Moonblast from it. Thus, it's not hard to see why a set with special STAB attacks, Parting Shot, and Sludge Wave was proposed and accepted relatively early on in the Competitive Movesets discussion. In a similar vein, a set with Taunt or Encore was also proposed and accepted to stop other passive threats such as Chansey and Fidgit. A few other, more niche sets also eventually won support, such as a WishPass set that took advantage of Parting Shot to heal teammates and a Yawn set that aimed to force switches so that CAP 22 could end the next turn with a switch advantage after using Parting Shot. Below are some more detailed descriptions of the two most prominent sets (feel free to copy them and import them into your team if you wish!).

Three Attacks

Kerfluffle Sprite

Kerfluffle's most straightforward set takes advantage of its good STAB combination and a coverage move to better handle one of its possible checks. Moonblast with the combination of Focus Blast or Aura Sphere allows Kerfluffle to hit the majority of the tier for neutral damage and threaten many of CAP's top threats with super effective damage. Focus Blast is the preferred option, as it allows Kerfluffle to perform feats such as OHKOing Talonflame and Mega Diancie after Stealth Rock damage, but Aura Sphere is an alternative due to its acceptable damage output and greater reliability. Sludge Wave allows Kerfluffle to power through Clefable, which would otherwise be able to put a hard stop to it, as well as giving Aura Sphere sets the ability to OHKO Talonflame if it switches in with Stealth Rock active. Energy Ball is another option that better allows Kerfluffle to deal with bulky Water-types such as Slowbro and specially defensive Rotom. Finally, Hidden Power Ground can be used to get the drop on Poison-types and Steel-types, such as Crucibelle, Mollux, and weakened Kitsunoh, but it is ineffective as a coverage move otherwise.

Utility Attacker

Kerfluffle Sprite

Kerfluffle's other main set is very similar to its three attack set, with the exception of dropping the additional coverage move for Taunt. Taunt takes advantage of Kerfluffle's high Speed to deny opposing entry hazards from Pokémon such as Landorus-T, as well as providing pressure against walls such as Chansey. Moonblast and Focus Blast are even more notable on this set for allowing Kerfluffle to threaten the OHKO on Mega Sableye and Mega Diancie, which could otherwise block Taunt with Magic Bounce, but as in the case of the first set, Aura Sphere can be run over Focus Blast for its better reliability.

Other Options

There's still experimentation going on with Kerfluffle, so it is worth noting some of its less standard options. One notable set uses a combination of Taunt and Wish to act as a stallbreaker by simultaneously denying chip damage and status. Others have tried out Choice Specs sets to take advantage of Kerfluffle's good STAB combination, and there's also been experimentation with Rest to give Kerfluffle a full heal in conjunction with Natural Cure after switching out. Encore is expected to take advantage of Kerfluffle's high speed to force additional switches and potentially grant its teammates a free turn. Giga Drain has seen some mild usage compared to Energy Ball, as it potentially allows Kerfluffle to mitigate entry hazard damage or Life Orb recoil, but the loss of power is notable.

CAP 22 Playtest Tournament

So that's Kerfluffle in a competitive nutshell. Feel free to hop onto the CAP metagame ladder and give Kerfluffle a try. Additionally, if you want to try your shot at competing with or against Kerfluffle, consider signing up for the Playtest Tournament. The format will be best of three, single elimination, and each round will last one week, with the finals match being scheduled the week just before Sun and Moon are released.

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