CAP 19 CAP 19 - Part 1 - Concept Submissions

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DetroitLolcat

Maize and Blue Badge Set 2014-2017
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnus
Okay everyone, let's get the second CAP of Generation VI started! We've got ourselves a leadership team, now let's get ourselves a Concept to work with.

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We will not be creating any Mega Evolutions for a new CAP during that CAP's process. Essentially, there will be no process set in place where a MEvo will be created alongside of a CAP. All concepts that require a Mega Evolution are be banned. To read an explanation for this decision, please see the relevant Policy Review thread.
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This is where we discuss the general goal of the next Create-A-Pokemon project -- CAP 19. The Concept will be a guiding force throughout the ensuing project, to ensure the the final result is a cohesive competitive pokemon. Any discussions, suggestions, or submissions in later topics, that do not support the spirit of the Concept, will be moderated by the moderators.

Concepts must be presented as high-level descriptions of a general idea. They cannot be detailed Pokemon designs. Since we have polls to determine each aspect of the Pokemon, we cannot allow any specific features of the Pokemon to be determined by the details of the Concept.

We intentionally have many rules regarding Concept Submissions. If you are not prepared to read and understand all the rules, then don't bother making a submission. These rules are made to help narrow the field of concepts down to those that have been carefully designed. This is not meant to be easy for everyone -- a good, legal Concept requires a lot of thought and careful wording.

The following rules must be followed when submitting a Concept:
  • One submission per person. You may edit your Concept, but you may not change the fundamental premise after it has been posted. If editing your concept, please edit the original post instead of posting a new revision. Do not bump your Concept after you have posted it. If people do not comment on it, so be it.
  • Do not duplicate or closely-resemble Concepts already posted by others. It is your responsibility to read through all previous submissions in this thread to ensure you are complying with this rule. Ignorance or laziness is not an excuse.
  • Specific Pokemon types or type combos cannot be included or excluded in a Concept.Nor can other characteristics of the Concept specifically result in in the inclusion or exclusion of Types. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:
    "This is a Fairy pokemon with..."
    "The pokemon should be immune to Ghost attacks..."
    "The pokemon should have at least 7 resistances..."
    "The pokemon should get STAB on Thunderbolt.."
  • Specific Abilities are not allowed.This applies to existing abilities and new abilities. Do not attempt to circumvent this rule by mentioning specific battle effects that can only be achieved by the implementation of an ability. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:
    "This pokemon should have a defensive ability like Intimidate or Marvel Scale..."
    "This pokemon has an ability that steals the opponent's held item..."
    "When this pokemon is switched in, all weather conditions are nullified..."
  • Movepools or lists of moves are not allowed. A specific move can be mentioned if it is the basis for the entire concept. For example, the Concept "Rapid Spinner" would obviously mention the move Rapid Spin.
  • Specific stat bias, base stats, or base stat ratings are not allowed. It is acceptable to use descriptive phrases like "fast", "bulky", "strong attacker", etc -- since there are a variety of ways a pokemon can fit those descriptions without specifically requiring certain stats. But, do not use overly-specific descriptions that would narrowly constrain the pokemon's base stat spread.
  • Indications of Physical/Special bias are discouraged, but acceptable if it is essential to the Concept.
  • Do not refer to any part of the pokemon's artistic design. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:
    "This is a bright blue pokemon..."
    "The pokemon looks like a..."
    "The pokemon uses its long tail to..."
  • A Concept Submission must be submitted in the proper format. The format is described below. If the proper format is not used, the moderators will not evaluate the submission, regardless of content.
  • CAP Projects are made for the OU Metagame: Concepts specifying other metagames or formats (such as UU, Doubles or the CAP Metagame) are illegal.
Concept Submission Format
Use this format for all concept submissions:
Name: (short name)
General Description: (See rules below. No more than a sentence or two here.)
Justification: (See rules below.)
Questions To Be Answered: (See rules below.)

Explanation: (Whatever you want to say here.)
Here is the format with tags. Just copy/paste this into your post, and fill it out:
Code:
[B]Name:[/B] (short name)
[B]General Description:[/B] (See rules below. No more than a sentence or two here.)
[B]Justification:[/B] (See rules below.)
[B]Questions To Be Answered:[/B] (See rules below.)

[B]Explanation:[/B] (Whatever you want to say here.)
  • Name - Don't get too clever with the name. If the essence of the concept is not intuitively obvious in the name, then you are hurting your chances of people understanding it. If the essence of your concept cannot be expressed in a few words, then you need to seriously re-evaluate your concept.
  • Description - This is the official description of the concept, and must follow ALL the content rules listed above. Do not make this a long description. Long descriptions are invariably too specific or too convoluted. Keep it short. Any more than a sentence or two is TOO MUCH. Do NOT include your Explanation of the concept in the Description. See "Explanation" below.
  • Justification- A few sentences describing how the concept satisfies one or more of the following:
    • Has a positive effect on the metagame (e.g Fidgit’s Pure Utility)
    • Allows us to learn more about the metagame (e.g Tomohawk's Momentum)
    • Introduces a new niche in the metagame (such as Mollux's Extreme Makeover: Typing Edition)
    Do not make up your own categories for justification. If you cannot justify your concept against at least one of the three requirements above, then your concept is illegal for the CAP project.
  • Questions To Be Answered - The purpose of the CAP project is to learn new things about the metagame, and each concept submission is a proposed "experiment". List out a few interesting competitive questions that should be answered after properly implementing your concept. At the conclusion of the CAP project, these questions will be revisited to see how well we implemented the concept. If your questions are not significant, relevant to your Justification, and well-written -- then your concept will be rejected.
  • Explanation - This can contain just about anything. This is where you can explain your concept without restraint. You may make suggestions, even specific suggestions, regarding the possible implementation of the Concept. This explanation should help facilitate discussion of the Concept -- but the Explanation is NOT part of the Concept and will be omitted from the polls and any future use of the Concept. Since your explanation is non-binding, regarding future polls and threads, it will not be evaluated for purposes of determining if your concept is legal or illegal.
It is the submitter's responsibility to figure out how to make a legal submission within the rules listed above. Do not complain about the difficulty of making a submission in this thread. There are many, many legal concepts that can be presented within the rules. Here are few examples of good and bad Concepts from previous projects:
Good Concepts from Past Projects
"Pure Utility Pokemon"
"Anti-Ghost Rapid Spinner"
"True Garchomp Counter"
"Great Lead Pokemon"
"Ultimate Weather Abuser"
"Status Counter"

Bad Concepts from Past Projects
"Ice-Resisting Dragon"
"Super Luck User"
"STAB Explosion Glass Cannon"
"Auto-Stealth Rock Remover"
"A Pokemon with Special Intimidate"
"Pyrokinetic Pokemon (Fire/Psychic)"
"Special Guts"
"Typing Means Nothing"

Here's a sample of a legal Concept post:
Korski's Concept from CAP12 (Tomohawk) said:
Name: Momentum

General Description: This will be a Pokemon that can be utilized to gain or regain momentum for a player's team at any point in the match as its primary function.

Justification: Gen. 5 is a very powerful metagame. As such, most battles are won by the smarter strategist who can best maneuver around his/her opponent's onslaught to gain even a single turn's advantage, potentially clinching them the match. This process of gaining and regaining momentum is most often the defining element that makes a winner and a loser out of a single Pokemon battle. Any top player in this metagame should agree that momentum is the most crucial element in any given match; however, "momentum" itself is a rather vaguely defined term that is never really explored in concrete terms. Is it keeping opposing teams on the defensive? Forcing switches? Good prediction? Spamming U-turn? These have all been approaches to achieving momentum, but they are also player-side and largely synonymous with "strategy," as opposed to Pokemon-side and regarding a Pokemon's role on the team. Certainly there are threats like Ferrothorn/Gliscor (defensive) and Scizor/Latios/Voltlos, etc., etc. (offensive) that can achieve momentum as we know it, but there is no current niche for a "momentum Pokemon" because the concept has been purely delegated to players and not to Pokemon.

Questions to be Answered:
-How do we define momentum in terms of competitive Pokemon? What factors make current Pokemon able to achieve momentum and how can we incorporate that information into a successful CAP?
-How do different styles of play (Weather-based offense, stall, bulky offense, etc.) use momentum to achieve their goals and how can our CAP play to those strategies in an effort to take their momentum away?
-What type of traditional role (sweeper, tank, wall, support) would a Pokemon like this most resemble? Would it have to be able to fit more than one of these roles to fit in a variety of teams?
-How will the different playstyles be affected by the addition of a Pokemon that can regain offensive/defensive momentum at any given point? Will offensive teams play more conservatively? Will defensive teams play more recklessly? Will everything simply adapt to a new threat and move on normally?

Explanation: This concept should teach us just as much about the metagame during its creation process than through actual playtesting, especially in the Concept Assessment, where the community should be looking to the metagame as a whole to analyze how successful teams and players gain, regain, and maintain momentum. Since momentum has largely been defined at the discretion of the battling community and takes many forms, so too could this CAP. Scizor, Blissey, Skarmory, Magnezone, Celebi, Jirachi (Celebi and Jirachi are great examples, due to their versatility), Heatran, Balloon Heatran, etc. can all achieve momentum according to their strengths, yet all are very different. Now, I'm not about to suggest that this CAP should be able to check everything in the metagame; that's not the goal here. What it should be able to do, though, is pose a reasonable threat in some manner to a good chunk of the metagame, enough to make opponents think twice about staying in or at least think very hard about what to switch into this Pokemon. A Pokemon with almost no offensive presence can do this just as well as a blunt instrument kind of Poke.
Please try to remember that we are simply pointing the project in a general direction. We are not trying to decide anything right now. We have several weeks of polls ahead of us where EVERYTHING about this Pokemon will be dissected, discussed, voted, and decided. The Concept is a very basic guide for the creation process. It is hard to provide solid concept descriptions without basically designing the entire Pokemon right off the bat. Submissions should be written and chosen very carefully, to avoid these problems.

CAP 19 so far:

Leadership Team:

DarkSlay - Topic Leader
ginganinja - Ability Leader
srk1214 - Typing Leader
Pwnemon - Movepool Leader
Deck Knight - Stats Leader
 
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DarkSlay

Guess who's back? Na na na! *breakdances*
is a CAP Contributor Alumnus
Hi everyone! This is your friendly neighborhood Topic Leader DarkSlay here, ready to kick off the first step of our yearly monthly CAP-ly 19th Create-A-Pokemon project! In the Concept Submission stage, this is your chance as a community to develop and write out solid conceptual frameworks for the community to work with. The concept of a CAPmon is by far the most important piece of the puzzle, driving the project forward through every step of the competitive project. Furthermore, our concept will impact our discussions, our calculations and our artwork as we work together to learn more about the game we all love to play. Needless to say, as Topic Leader, I take this stage of the process extremely seriously, and promise to carefully look at and analyze each and every concept brought forth in this thread.

Now, you might be asking yourself as you're writing down your concepts such questions as "What does DarkSlay want in a concept?" or "Why was someone like DarkSlay, of all people, chosen to lead an entire CAP project?". Well, for the latter question...that actually kind of hurts that you would ask that. :( But for the former question is a very good question! CAP 18, Volkraken, kicked off the Generation VI era with a bang, providing us with both a solid framework of how an XY CAP should operate and some valuable experience in what the XY metagame looks like. Volkraken had a very interesting concept in discovering the essence of a good core, and good or bad outcome aside, I feel like the discussions we had during that process should be our starting point in how we will conduct CAP 19 from here on out.

I'm a very simple Topic Leader. I'm a firm believer that each and every CAP project is the result of the hard work and dedication each community member puts towards, so as a result, I'm not really looking for "one specific concept" for us to work on. I am open to listen to just about anything and everything that's thrown my way. That said, these are some general guidelines of what's important in a CAP concept to me, and I strongly suggest that all submitters take these points into consideration when finalizing their concepts:
  • Concepts must be competitively sound and must have something to do with the competitive OU metagame.
  • Concepts should aim to teach us something important. Concepts that give us a hands-on approach at learning how our standard metagame works are often the best CAP concepts historically.
  • Concepts should be engaging and fun! Community involvement is the heart and soul of CAP, so approachable concepts (particularly how they are developed and introduced) are a wise decision.
I've been a part of the Create-A-Pokemon project for almost four years now. I've seen every concept from Krilowatt to Volkraken. Some have been successful, some have not. Some have created Pokemon that succeed, some have not. However, the best concepts are the ones that the community genuinely learns from. When there's a growth in knowledge shared by a cumulative group, our own positive experiences with the project increase dramatically. Krilowatt, for example, resulted in a Pokemon that ultimately played a role quite opposite of what it was intended to do. However, the process itself was one of the most engaging of CAP's tenure, and taught me a lot about the Gen IV metagame and how to build a successful team in it. I want that for this project. I want those kind of learning opportunities that can get both new and veteran players thinking about how their metagame works and about how we can use CAP 19 to garner more insight about competitive Pokemon. If the community can leave this concept with that kind of experience, that will be considered a success for me.

With all of that out of the way, please use this thread for both concept submissions and comments towards other submissions. Remember that constructive criticism should be given out (as opposed to negative criticism) and that the best concepts often take those comments/criticisms and uses them to sharpen his/her concept. I'll be providing my own remarks on comments and submissions as the thread progresses, but keep in mind that I cannot select each and every concept brought forth, and that my selection will be based on the quality of the submissions and the thoughtfulness of the post.

Let us begin! To CAP 19! Cheers!
 
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Name: Second Chance

General Idea: Remake a Pokemon that had an interesting concept, but for some reason didn't quite work. This applies not only to Pokemon that fell too short on the idea, but also to Pokemon that did the job too well or had another use that people focused on much more.

Justification: There are so many unique ideas used in Pokemon that for some reason fail to fall into OU. For one reason or another, these Pokemon had a niche only they could fill and yet still failed to fill that niche. Corsola, for example, has a beautiful movepool and great abilities, but is held back by abysmal stats and a historically bad typing that renders it unusable even in NU. Others fell aside for other reasons, like the 165 Atk Prankster Mega Banette taking up a valuable Mega slot. The heart of this concept is to find a Pokemon or idea that has so much missed potential and salvage it. This will allow us insight into what makes a niche successful and unique without being overshadowed by other options or too powerful to be allowed in standard play.

Questions to be Answered:
-What went wrong with the Pokemon/concept in question? Is the premise behind it unsound or just not well executed?
-How can we take this idea and make it work in an OU environment where it had previously failed?
-What separates good from overpowered (Mega Lucario) and underwhelming? (Lucario)
-If this Pokemon is also capable of fulfilling another role, will it still be used for the role it was made for? (Ferrothorn is a capable of being a bulky attacker that makes the opponent's Speed a liability, but is instead used to set up entry hazards.)
-What about this Pokemon, if anything, is truly integral to the role it fills? (Bibarel/Swoobat's unique combination of abilities lets it set up quickly OR ignore another Pokemon's stat boosts, but its typing and stats have almost no effect on what it does.)
-How will the meta react to the addition of a role/playstyle/mechanic it has never encountered before? (Like the havoc a lower tier Pokemon can wreak on an unprepared team.)

Explanation: We see so many Pokemon that have such a promising role, but due to some problem in their design are rendered unusable in OU. Some concepts even fall both above and below OU without ever fitting nicely in the middle. Some of these concepts even already had a second chance and still failed at it. Others have even already found a home amongst the CAP world already. This concept will give us many options to pursue without any truly limiting the possibilities of what we can do.
 

Base Speed

What a load of BS!
Name: Quit Stalling!

General Description:
A pokemon that aims to eliminate stall from the XY OU meta by specifically and effectively countering it

Justification:
The transition from BW to XY saw a huge amount of changes that effected stall and turned it into a prominent force in the current metagame, and people seem to be divided over whether that's a good thing or not. Creating a CAP that aims to counter stall will not only teach us how to both use and beat this important strategy, but will allow us to see what a metagame without it would look like.

Questions To Be Answered:

  • What are the main aspects of stall, and how can they be dealt with?
  • How did the various changes of Generation VI alter stall?
  • There already exist a handful of Pokemon considered to be "stallbreakers". Why then does stall still do well? What are they doing wrong?
  • What would a metagame without stall look like? Which playstyles and pokemon benefit most from its removal?
  • Is the stall playstyle defined by the Pokemon involved, or the mechanics they can use, such as healing moves and residual damage?
Explanation:
Obviously, total elimination of such a big part of the metagame is an ambitious goal and we'll have to use all our collective creativity to even come close. Stall effects every element of competitive pokemon so success depends on understanding every element of competitive pokemon. Stallbreakers already exist and we need to figure out how to simultaneously do their jobs better and more specifically, and I think this'll lead us to a unique approach that no stallbreakers have done before. We'll need to look both at the key pokemon in stall as well as overall trends and figure out a way to counter both effectively with a single pokemon, while ensuring this pokemon isn't simply used as a sweeper or even a staller itself!

But if it were easy, it wouldn't be fun.

Even if we fail, making and testing this CAP will be a great learning opportunity that will teach us both how to use and counter stall. I must stress that now is the best time for this: stall is stronger than it's been for years and the XY metagame is still fresh, with much to discover: stall experienced big changes this generation such as a new defensive type, alterations to steel, the weather change, even little things like Knock Off's improvement. The implications of these changes are unknown and there's much to learn by looking at them.

Now the biggest question that's being asked of this concept is whether stall is actually strong enough to make this CAP worthwhile. I must confess the raw statistics do me no favors: in 1825 stall and semistall combined account for about 20% of playstyles, which isn't huge. However, if you compare the 1825 stats to the 0 stats, you'll notice something incredible: in the 0 stats, stall and semistall combined make up about 7% of playstyles. That's a massive difference. It's absolutely incredible. And it backs up an opinion that many people have: stall is very good, but it's boring. It's a playstyle that people play to win, not to enjoy, and as such it's underrepresented. So no, the numbers don't deter me. If anything they spur me on: that jump between 0 and 1825 needs looking into. I still absolutely believe that stall as a playstyle should be investigated with a CAP.
 
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Concept: Unpopular Made Popular

General Description: A Pokemon that can support a niche playstyle to make it viable.

Justification: The metagame has changed in this generation shift, and new playstyles formed, some old ones received upgrades, while others have simply faded into being niche. One example of such a nerfed playstyle is Sun, which has become niche in OU due to the weather nerf limiting the amount of turns from unlimited to 5 (or 8 with a weather rock). In addition, Ninetales, the premier Drought supporter, struggles against common Pokemon in OU like Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Dragonite, Talonflame, and Latios. This project would attempt to remedy a niche playstyle so that it can thrive in the metagame.

Questions to Be Answered:

-What keeps this playstyle from functioning in OU?
-What Pokemon would be able to function in this playstyle?
-How would this Pokemon be able to consistently support its team?
-How would this Pokemon be able to threaten or help its teammates threaten different playstyles?
-How would this playstyle affect other playstyles?
-Would this increase the viability of Pokemon that can only function in these playstyles?
-What Pokemon are severly hindered by this playstyle that their viability decreases?

Explanation:

The Pokemon to be produced by this project shouldn't have to deal with the flaws that keep a niche playstyle from functioning and be able to help the playstyle without being bad itself. It should be able to check many of the threats that make the niche playstyle unviable, like Tyranitar for sun or Mandibuzz for Trick Room. This could lead to an interesting CAP leading to positive impact in the metagame and CAP in general. It could also open the doors for something undiscovered in the metagame.
 

Stratos

Banned deucer.
There are three main types of concepts. "Make a Pokemon with x," "Make a Pokemon that does x to the metagame," and "Make a Pokemon that discusses concept x." Historically, the concepts that have served CAP the best are the ones that aim to influence the metagame. Concepts like Arghonaut’s Decentralizer and Malaconda’s Type Equalizer have two important things going for them: first, they’re cooperative, and second, they teach.

By “cooperative” I mean that these concepts establish a common, specific goal which everyone works together to achieve. Ideally, these goals are ambitious, because that makes for a more fun CAP project instead of an easy one. But this is where concepts such as Risky Business and Momentum fall through: everyone comes to the table with their own definition of what these things mean and quite frankly it doesn’t matter what they mean. CAP works best as a direct dissection of the current OU metagame. If you want to have in-the-clouds discussion of metagame concepts then take it to the OU forum—it’s a better platform for that stuff than CAP anyways.

By “they teach” I mean that the playtest metagames for concepts like these tell us something about how metagames function as a whole. “What happens if you make a Pokemon that counters the top 10 Pokemon?” The answer, as we learned, is that there just become ten other top ten pokemon. “How can you drastically alter the dominant types in ou?" Make an entire playstyle more viable by giving it the perfect tool for its needs. This is where "make a Pokemon with x" concepts tend to fall through. "What happens if you make a Pokemon with a bad typing good?" Uh... you got a good pokemon. There are occasions where they also teach you things, like in the case of Voodoom: "can you make a bad Pokemon good by giving it a perfect partner?" (no.) but those are more hit and miss.
 

Valzy

Destroyer of Worlds
is a Contributor Alumnus
(WIP)

Name: Quit Stalling!
General Description: A pokemon that aims to eliminate stall from the XY OU meta by specifically and effectively countering it
Justification: The transition from BW to XY saw a huge amount of changes that effected stall and turned it into a dominant force in the current metagame, and people seem to be divided over whether that's a good thing or not. Creating a CAP that aims to counter stall will not only teach us how to both use and beat this important strategy, but will allow us to see what a metagame without it would look like.
Questions To Be Answered:
What are the main aspects of stall, and how can they be dealt with?
Which of this generation's changes had the greatest effects on stall and why?
There already exist a handful of Pokemon considered to be "stallbreakers". Why then does stall still do well? What are they doing wrong?
What would a metagame without stall look like? Which playstyles and pokemon benefit most from its removal?
Explanation:
Obviously, total elimination of such a big part of the metagame is an ambitious goal and we'll have to use all our collective creativity to even come close. Stall effects every element of competitive pokemon so success depends on understanding every element of competitive pokemon. Stallbreakers already exist and we need to figure out how to simultaneously do their jobs better and more specifically, and I think this'll lead us to a unique approach that no stallbreakers have done before. We'll need to look both at the key pokemon in stall as well as overall trends and figure out a way to counter both effectively with a single pokemon, while ensuring this pokemon isn't simply used as a sweeper or even a staller itself!

But if it were easy, it wouldn't be fun.

Even if we fail, making and testing this CAP will be a great learning opportunity that will teach us both how to use and counter stall. I must stress that now is the best time for this: stall is stronger than it's been for years and the XY metagame is still fresh, with much to discover.

The prospect of a shake up that creates a new metagame excites me. Both the learning opportunities it creates and and the chance to play in it excite me. And even if you love stall, you must be a little curious as to what life would be like without it, right?

(As a footnote, I'd like to say that I'm well aware I'm not the first person to suggest an anti-stall concept, so apologies to anyone else who submitted a similar concept previously)
Just want to point out that stall is not a dominant force in X and Y OU. While stall is a viable strategy in XY OU, according to the June 1825 stats, only 9.7% of teams are stall and 10.7% are semistall compared to 31.7% Offense, 21.4% HO and 20.6% Balance. Stall is clearly the least used team archetype.
 
Just commenting on the above, Stall is probably the most reliable team archetype in tournament play as it is incredibly easy to both use and win with if you are a good player. It permeates tournament play.
 

The Avalanches

pokemon tcg
is a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Name: Crippling Threat

Description: A Pokemon who is able to slow down or neuter threats in the OU Metagame despite having a limited offensive prescence.

Justification: Crippling an opponent at the right time can change the flow of a match. An opposing sweep can be stopped with a well-timed status move. A defensive threat hates having its item taken, especially when it is given something such as a Choice Scarf. A supportive threat can't do much if it is Taunted. Preventing an opponent from doing its job well can save a lot of trouble down the road, and make the way for your own sweep much easier. This CAP will demonstrate the importance of putting down foes, despite not being able to take them on itself, and how it compares to Pokemon already able to do this.

Questions to be answered:
  • Will a Pokemon who focuses solely on crippling opponents be viable? Will it need to also take on a supportive role in order to set it apart from other similar Pokemon?
  • How will this threat set itself apart from other Pokemon who have an easy time crippling opponents?
  • Will this CAP need support for dealing with Pokemon who aren't easy to cripple, or those who can undo its work easily?
  • Does crippling many opposing threats make a sweeper's job easier to the point where it can be considered viable despite lacking offense?
Explanation: Thundurus's priority Thunder Wave is one of the best examples of crippling a threat before they can do too much damage. It also packs Taunt for dealing with threats who would have an easy time setting up or laying entry hazards. However, it's an offensive threat with a powerful Thunderbolt coming off a base 125 Special Attack. Although Sableye lacks an offensive prescence, it isn't bulky enough to absorb a sustained assault, despite access to recovery. Although this CAP should be taking on a similar job to things such as Sableye or Thundurus to an extent, it should be able to differentiate itself to the point where it will generally be considered for the role over any other threat similar.
 

Tadasuke

Tuh-dah-skay
is a Community Contributoris a CAP Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
Just want to point out that stall is not a dominant force in X and Y OU. While stall is a viable strategy in XY OU, according to the June 1825 stats, only 9.7% of teams are stall and 10.7% are semistall compared to 31.7% Offense, 21.4% HO and 20.6% Balance. Stall is clearly the least used team archetype.
This may be a half-hearted attempt to take down stall in the CAP metagame (which is huge), but I do agree with your point, stall is not a large part of OU. The CAP Project adds to OU.
 

Stratos

Banned deucer.
This may be a half-hearted attempt to take down stall in the CAP metagame (which is huge), but I do agree with your point, stall is not a large part of OU. The CAP Project adds to OU.
No, BaseSpeed wouldn't try to break CAP rules like that, so don't sling mud at him. Stall is underrepresented on the OU ladder because nobody wants to sit through 200 turn battles every time they try to ladder, but as TRC said, it's perhaps dominant in the tournament scene, or at least very common.
 

Da Pizza Man

Pizza Time
is a Pre-Contributor
Name: Nostalgic Playstyle

General Description: A Pokemon who uses or encourages the use of a playstyle similar to a viable Pokemon or a group of viable Pokemon from a previous generations OU metagame

Justification: Over the past 15 years (18 if you count the Japanese versions) the game of Pokemon has changed a lot, espically in the competitive scene. Each generation has brought something new to the game and no generation's OU metagame is the same or even similar for that matter. Many types, moves, abilities, playstyles, and even Pokemon who where considered to be viable in generation are considered to be a complete joke in another. With CAP 19 we could see if we can bring a certain playstyle of a pokemon from a previous generation and create a way to make it viable in this generation.

Questions To Be Answered:
  • How excatly has the metagame changed with each new generation of Pokemon?
  • What types, moves, abilities, playstyles, and Pokemon that where considered to be viable in one generation are no longer considered to be viable in this generation?
  • What types, moves, abilities, playstyles, and Pokemon that where considered to be not viable in one generation are now considered to be viable in this generation?
  • Would it be possible to make a viable playstyle from a previous generation to be viable in this generation?
Explanation: These playstyles do not need to be from any specific generation and can be from any generation except our current one. When refering to playstyles, I mean by certain sets on individual pokemon (Like RestTalk and Perish Trapping) or the entire basis of a team itself (Like Rain and Stall), although It would be more helpful to do the former for CAP19.
 
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Name: The Slaking of OU

General Description: A Pokémon whose positive qualities would easily let it become an Uber powerhouse, but whose ability, typing, stats, or any other quality relegate it down to OU.

Justification: Over time, TrollGameFreak have made many Pokémon whose stats make them seem like behemoths. However, these Pokémon have had one quality (usually ability) that cripples them and drags them all the way down to NU. Such Pokémon include Slaking, Regigigas, and Archeops, who would have been nigh-unstoppable in OU bar ability. This concept attempts to learn whether a Pokémon with a flaw such as this can still fare well in the OU metagame.

Questions To Be Answered:
  • What makes a Pokémon overpowered or underpowered, exactly?
  • How do Pokémon work around their flaws?
  • What traits do some Pokémon have that keep them from plummeting to the lower tiers despite their obvious flaws?
  • How far can a Pokémon's weaknesses or strengths go without reaching a point where it is broken or unusable?
Explanation: The Pokémon created should not be hurt by its weaknesses so lightly that it becomes the staple of all teams in its new tier, like Tomohawk sort of is to the CAP metagame, not should it be a little-used niche Pokémon in OU. Once again, we are going for OU threat who could be in Ubers had one or two things been changed just a little.
 
Name: Yomi (読み)
General Description: This Pokemon creates and relies on so-called "50/50" scenarios to try to gain an advantage.
Justification: The Aegislash suspect test and the possibility of a Mawile suspect test have raised a relevant issue in the XY OU metagame. It seems that Aegislash at least creates such unbalanced "50/50" scenarios (I know it's an oxymoron... just bear with me here) as to warp the metagame severely around it. I believe that this is as good a time as any to visit (or revisit) the notion of 50/50 scenarios, how they're played out in a well-played Pokemon match, and how they impact on the perceived "health" of the XY OU metagame.
Questions To Be Answered:
  • How much substance is there to the notion of "prediction" a.k.a. "reading the mind of the opponent"?
  • What makes the turn-by-turn decisions in Pokemon different from coinflips or vanilla rock-paper-scissors?
  • How does the long-term picture of a battle impact short-term decision-making?
  • What kinds of risks and rewards make a "Yomi"-reliant Pokemon worth using?
  • What kinds of risks and rewards make a "Yomi"-reliant Pokemon so good as to start warping the metagame and being more than what it was meant to be?
Explanation: I can see two main concerns with this concept, both of which I know will make this a hard sell. The first is that "50/50" scenarios are really everywhere in Pokemon to some extent, and there are several existing Pokemon (particularly on the offensive front) that could be argued to rely on short-term "clutch" decisions to be the most effective. The second is that people may remember Aurumoth and worry that this concept might make a similar mistake. However, both of these concerns actually strengthen my resolve to make this as my concept submission. Risky Business was too vague, leading to lots of questions about what the concept even meant, and eventually everyone interpreted it in such different ways. As I said after Aurumoth was completed, my original working build for that project was more in line with Diggersby (though it didn't hit as hard and bled more HP).

This time around, we have working examples both in CAP and in the XY OU metagame to define the concept better and to show us what perhaps should be avoided. The questions reflect these considerations. The relationship between the long term and the short term is not likely to be found by a Pokemon attempting to go all in on one turn. I believe that both Aurumoth and Aegislash show that the all-in approach is a mistake. Moreover, the questions about risk and reward include the consideration of going too far and warping the metagame in an undesirable way. Finally, the first two questions are ones that I'm sure people are going to ask, anyway, so I might as well place them front and centre. Originally, I would have preferred holding off on a concept like this for much later, but with what's going on in suspect right now, it's apparent to me that this is the time to do it.
 

Bughouse

Like ships in the night, you're passing me by
is a Site Content Manageris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Name: OUber (bad name by DLC, subject to change)

General Description: A Pokemon that plays similarly to a Pokemon (or Mega Evolution) that OU has banned to Ubers but because of some added flaw remains squarely in OU.

Justification: So far, OU has banned Genesect, Deoxys-S, Deoxys-D, Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Lucario, and Mega Gengar, all of which were overwhelmingly seen as broken at the time they were voted out (even if Deoxys-S was seen as tolerable for a while.) But what if there was a Pokemon that could grab momentum in a less absurdly broken way than Genesect? What if there was a Pokemon to set hazards and revenge kill, but without speed and power quite as insane as Deoxys-S has? What sort of set-up sweeper would be tolerable and not get into Mega Kangaskhan/Mega Lucario territory?

Questions:
  • What are the factors that contributed to one of these Pokemon being banned?
  • Which factors most need to be preserved in order for this CAP to play similarly to the Uber Pokemon it is emulating and which must be discarded or nerfed in order to remain tolerable in OU?
  • Are metagame roles actually a thing? For example, would a non-broken Deoxys-S/D make CAP19Sharp viable again or did it need specifically the Deoxys Formes to work?
  • How do our 4 stages' inextricable connections with metagame role play into this emulation process? For example, can you emulate Gensect without having 99 Speed? U-turn? Can you emulate Deoxys-S/D if you only have the capability to set hazards effectively, but not to revenge kill or stallbreak?
  • How different can a Pokemon be from its inspiration while still clearly emulating it?

Explanation: In each case it's pretty clear why the six mons above were banned. The Deoxys forms are insane hazard stackers. Even beyond that Deoxys-S was probably the best revenge killer/late game cleaner in the game other than maybe Talonflame and Deoxys-D could completely wreck stall teams with a Taunt + Recover set. Genesect grabbed momentum like no other and forced situations where even if you guessed the 50/50 right you didn't win nearly as much as you had to lose if you guessed wrong. Mega Gengar's Shadow Tag ability is just largely uncompetitive and has been banned from UU and below, and it even bends the Ubers metagame to its will. Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Lucario are much more straightforward set-up sweepers the meta just couldn't handle. Today if you polled Smogon, all 6 of these would receive overwhelming support for the bans having occurred.

...Yet Gothitelle isn't banned. It's great against Stall, but that's about it. There are plenty of other hazard stackers that could be used in OU, but none would even come close to Deoxys-S or D. Mega Charizard-X is a great set-up sweeper, as is BD Azumarill. But once again, neither of those is the obvious ban to Ubers that we had with Mega Lucario and Mega Kangaskhan. As to Genesect, nothing has supplanted its role. It really has no replacement.

#cap says:
23:18 srk1214 what mons in OU today would you say best grab momentum?
23:20 TRC keldeo
23:22 DetroitLolcat on the defensive side, I'd go with something like Mega Venu. offensively, I'd go Aegislash
23:22 imanalt aegislash is definitely best yeah
23:22 TRC anything that gets a free turn to spin / defog gains momentum
23:28 FMD Thundurus affects momentum pretty well, I guess.

Essentially, there is no consensus momentum grabber and each of the mons here grab momentum in different ways. Only Keldeo kinda grabs momentum the same way Genesect did, though even then it lacks the all important U-turn. Thundurus arguably doesn't even grab momentum; it only takes it away from the opponent.

Since I think most people agree Shadow Tag is cancer and set-up sweepers are a category well explored in every tier, I would imagine we would focus in on Deoxys-S/D Lite or Genesect Lite. These mons held roles in the metagame that haven't been supplanted in any concrete way. They deserved to be banned, but the bans caused such big metagame shifts because there just wasn't a mon that could even sort of fill their place.

So what if we made a non-broken Genesect replacement that could grab momentum through offensive pressure convincingly enough to be a consensus top momentum grabber without needing the banhammer? What if we made a fast hazard stacker that could apply only moderate offensive pressure, not the insanity that was LO Deoxys-S?
 
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Name: If it isn't broken...

General Description: A Pokemon that is as "good" and centralizing as possible in the OU Metagame without being considered broken.

Justification:
It happens about midway into every generation. After all of the really obviously broken Pokemon are banned (Speed Boost Blaziken, BW Excadrill, Deoxys, Mega Kangaskhan, etc) we start to get to the really tricky suspect tests, such as BW2 Keldeo and Tornadus-T. These pokemon get suspected because they are incredibly good and often very centralizing in the metagame, though their suspect tests tend to be very divided as they aren't so overpowered that everyone can agree that they deserve to go. Right now, we've moved into that era of tricky suspects for XY with Aegislash. If you haven't been following the suspect thread you can find it here. Mostly, the thread boils down to an agreement that Aegislash is incredibly good and quite centralizing in the metagame (duh), and then a lot of back and forth arguing over reasons it is/isn't broken or reasons it is/isn't overly centralizing. There are a lot of good arguments for both sides and regardless of the decision many people are going to come out of this unsatisfied because it is incredibly hard to nail down an exact definition of "broken" that everyone agrees on.

So now to CAP19. I think that the CAP is the perfect place to further investigate the difference between a Pokemon being broken or just centralizing because in CAP we build from the bottom up. Upon game release we just get whatever Gamefreak gives us, which makes it difficult to judge a pokemon's brokeness because: A) Pokemon can just be so different and difficult to compare, and B) We get so much at one time it that it can be very difficult to judge exactly the difference between "very good" and "too good". With CAP however, we know the metagame that CAP19 is going into, and we (mostly) know what will and what won't push our CAP over the edge. Basically, my idea for this CAP is to take advantage of the CAP process to create more concrete definitions of "brokeness" and "centralization".

Questions To Be Answered:
  • 6th generation is already fairly centralized as it is. Is there a magic formula for a Pokemon in this metagame to land it a spot in the top 5 used pokemon (other than being a shiny new CAP that is)
  • What is the most effective role for a "centralizing" Pokemon to play. Aegislash is a pivot/wallbreaker, Talonflame is a revenge killer/cleaner, BW2 Keldeo was a wallbreaker/sweeper, etc. Because there are so many roles a Pokemon can play, which is most likely to get it quickly into the heart of the metagame?
  • When looking for direction with this CAP, should we be looking at Pokemon that have been agreed upon to be not broken and deliver something a little more effective, or should we be looking at Pokemon that were agreed to be definitely broken and deliver something a little less effective?
  • Is it possible for a single/small amount of traits to prevent a Pokemon from being "too good"? Where is the best place to have that "limiting factor" that prevents a Pokemon from being too effective? Typing? Movepool? Stats?

Explanation:
This is a really broad CAP that could go in a lot of different directions, but I don't think that is a bad thing. Personally, I think the easiest route to go here is some sort of offensive CAP, as historically the majority of Pokemon that get suspected in any generation are primarily offensive. I don't think that CAP needs to be a 600 BST monster, but it will probably need some good stats. In fact, it's going to need to be at least pretty good in every area (but not too good of course). To become truly centralizing, it's probably going to have to be a little "anti-meta" - something that most current OU teams couldn't handle easily without making some changes. As for the factors that keep CAP from being "too good", I think we should be aiming to limit it's movepool and it's speed, as they are by far the easiest qualities to fine tune. Ideally, I think that at the end of the project we should be able to look at CAP19 and say "Wow, CAP19 is pretty good. Good thing it can't 2HKO X Pokemon or else that would be too much" , or "CAP 19 is a monster, its good that Y and Z Pokemon are around to easily revenge kill it because otherwise it would be too good".

I'm open to feedback on this, though I think the idea here is pretty straightforward. If I've made any grammatical errors or I've got sentences/ideas that don't make sense or you just don't like my idea I encourage you to call me out on it. Thanks for reading! I'm liking the other submissions so far and I encourage everyone to keep up the good work! Good luck on your submissions everyone!

Edit: Wow this is kinda similar to the three submissions above mine... awkward... I guess great minds think alike
 

Stratos

Banned deucer.
Name: BWack to the Future (used with permission from srk1214)

General Description: A Pokemon whose presence in the metagame resurrects a certain aspect of the BW metagame (e.g. Dragon/Steel, weather wars, the death of stall).

Justification: The XY and BW metagames are vastly different beasts thanks to a couple mechanics changes. The terms which explained everything and were mainstream last generation have phased out. But are metagame patterns defined by the mechanics of the generation, or the dominant Pokemon of the generation? How are the two related? By attempting to give XY a more BW "feel" without altering a single mechanic, we'll see how mechanics changes affect Pokemon viability, and in turn how this affects the shape of the metagame as a whole.

Questions To Be Answered:
  • Are metagames defined by the mechanics that produce them, or the Pokemon that populate them? Is GSC stally because of Snorlax and SkarmBliss or different EVs and no viable items? Is BW so offensive because of Keldeo and Terrakion or Gems and perma-weather?
  • Are specific team styles restricted to generations where mechanics are favorable, or can they be used in any metagame where all the necessary Pokemon to use them are there?
  • Can a single Pokemon re-invigorate entire team styles, or is that too much to ask? Will it just be retconned into existing metagame trends?
  • What are the main differences between the BW OU and XY OU metagames?
  • How could we go about reversing those changes?
Explanation:
I said that I like concepts which try to affect the metagame and I delivered. This was my favorite concept from CAP18 and it deserves another shot.

I like this concept because, first and foremost, it's a great challenge to pull off. How can a single Pokemon so drastically reshape the metagame to look like an entirely different metagame? Malaconda showed us that a single Pokemon can have a butterfly effect, but sun was already good before malaconda. Something as drastic as this is much more challenging, and thus, much more intriguing. It would take all our brain power to make this CAP well, which is pretty cool. I'm excited for a challenging project if we choose it.

Secondly, it would show something informative about metagames as a whole through its playtest. Are they a slave to their mechanics, or can seemingly unfriendly mechanics be ignored by a style with the right Pokemon? Are we in control of our own destinies??? I feel like a broken record at this point, so I'm going to cut off this explanation because nobody reads them anyways.

also i like this concept because xy is the worst ou meta yet.


As a side note, I really am not a fan of Capefeather's concept. No offense, but I'd rather not ever play on that playtest ladder if yours is picked. 50/50s do not a fun match make, see: aegislash
 
Name: Quick Room

General Description: A normally slow priority user that can use Trick Room to counter faster priority users it would otherwise be incapable of handling.

Justification: I feel a good number of people have experienced a time where one Pokemon's priority just wasn't enough to overcome another Pokemon's priority just wasn't enough to get past another Pokemon's priority. Whether it be that your Bisharp has to play mind games with Talonflame to get his Sucker Punch through, or it's your Sableye having to run away from Whimsicott, I feel everybody has that story where priority alone wasn't enough to get the first blow on the opponent. This is where the Quick Roomer comes in. The Quick Roomer is a Pokemon that would usually fall the moment the opponent brings its priority user in, but can utilize Trick Room on the switch to gain the favorable position. Surprisingly enough, there really isn't a slow pokemon with access to both Trick Room and priority at this point that gains from having both. Dusknoir doesn't want Trick Room because it makes his only recovery move moot, Kecleon doesn't want both Trick Room and Sucker Punch because he loses out on coverage if he does both, and there aren't any other slow Trick roomers with priority moves.

Questions To Be Answered:
  • What motivates a Pokemon that will under many situations go first because of Trick Room to carry priority moves?
  • What motivates a Pokemon that will under many situations go first because priority moves to carry Trick Room?
  • What traits in a Pokemon make it so that a Pokemon can thrive on priority in one Speed tier, but not another?
  • What does a slow priority user need to focus on as opposed to a fast one to be successful? In other words, what does Conkelldur need as a slow Mach Punch user that a quick Mach-Punch user like Breloom doesn't and vice versa? In what quantity do each need that special something in order to be effective? What makes Mega-Pinsir a better quick priority user than Ambipom and Aegislash a better slow priority user than Shedinja, as extreme examples?
  • What does a Pokemon need to function in both a high speed tier and a low speed tier as far as priority goes?
  • And, after we answer all of these question, we'll have the building blocks to answer the question that people have been asking nearly since Gen 6 started. How has priority changed how we as players think of OU, and how has OU changed how we as players think of priority?
Explanation: As a clarification on a few points, I don't mean a slow Prankster user with Trick Room. As nice as having all of your status moves be priority is, it seems a tad unrealistic to think that a Prankster user is going to be in a great number of situations where a speed swap will flip the game against a priority user except where Thunder Wave or Taunt is involved, and many of us have already pretty much seen everything there is to know about how priority on those two moves in particular works. I also do not mean a Pokemon that wants Trick Room or priority moves, but never both in the same build. It has to be something that wants to have both priority and Trick Room.
 
Name: Old dog, new tricks

General description: A Pokemon that takes an existing typing, move, ability, or item and uses it in a completely new way.

Justification: Every generation, GameFreak gives us "unique" Pokemon, defined by some gimmick like a typing, ability, or forme change. Some of these are successful in OU, like Aegislash and Kyurem-B. Others, like Castform and Surskit, not so much. I think we've all seen that one mon, be it Surskit or Magcargo or even Zweilous, and thought, "it might have been useful if it had actual stats". There are so many exclusive typings and abilities (and moves to a lesser extent) that there's no way we've seen all they could offer. Heck, in Pure Hackmons, Wonder Guard Surskit is actually useful due to its typing. I think this concept gives us a chance to see if certain things contain hidden, unexplored potential, or if they just purely crap to begin with. On the other hand, there are a lot of things we are familiar with, such as Ice Beam and Leftovers, and we might just as well learn something from them as well.

Questions To Be Answered:
  • How do we define "in a completely new way"? Basically, how different does CAP19 have to be from other users of the same typing, move, ability, or item?
  • How specific is the original concept assessment going to be? Basically, do we want to say something like "defensive user of Protean" or "Pokemon that uses Discharge as coverage against Water-types".
  • Does the type/ability/move/item we choose have to be seen fairly often in OU, and would we learn more from choosing one that is?
  • Should we focus on a something with wide distribution (think Thunderbolt) or something with extremely low distribution (think unique typings)? Will we learn more from choosing one over the other?
Explanation:
There's not really much I can go into at this point since the concept is really vague, but this concept can really go two different ways. Cawmodore took a move that no one really used (Belly Drum) and used it well, and we could go this way with a typing, move, or ability, or item (like Bug/Grass, Hyper Beam, Absorb Bulb, etc.). We can also take something familiar, which in the current OU metagame has only one or two different uses, and using it in a completely different way. An example is making a wall that uses White Herb or Lum Berry--those two items are really only seen on setup sweepers (and LumRest Trevenant but lol Trevenant), or a Fairy-type sweeper (and I'm talking the Cloyster kind of sweep not the Clefable kind of sweep), or a mon that uses Techno Blast as STAB. The possibilities are endless here.
 
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Deck Knight

Blast Off At The Speed Of Light! That's Right!
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Top CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Name: Breaking Dawn

General Description: A Pokemon that is designed to bring momentum early in the game when most or all foes are fresh.

Justification: Team Preview has been in place for two generations now, and it ended the notion of "the lead" that was common in Generation 4. There is still however, an early game, mid-game, and late-game. With so many threats in Generation 6, answering the question "what is the best possible way to gain an early advantage" is very difficult, something only a CAP Project can do.

Questions To Be Answered:
  • What is the highest priority in getting an early game advantage? Is it setting or preventing hazards? Is it threatening an immediate KO on a popular opposing lead?
  • What are the characteristics of a good early-game Pokemon? Are they different from good middle game or good late game Pokemon?
  • Which existing Pokemon are good early-game Pokemon, and how should the Pokemon interact with them?
  • How would an all-purpose early-game Pokemon effectively deal with differing team strategies? Which is the most important to focus on for early-game purposes?
  • What style matchups (e.g. more Hyper Offense, more Stall) should a Pokemon designed to be good in the early game encourage?
  • Given that a good early game Pokemon by necessity gains momentum in the harshest possible conditions, what makes it different from a Pokemon that is just generally good?

Explanation: The lead may be dead, but early mistakes are still among the costliest in a competitive battle. This concept would seek to create the conditions for great early game starts by either threatening a specific playstyle or other common leading Pokemon, and test the limits of getting a good early start even when the Pokemon by its necessary abilities encourages counterplays. The most interesting facet of all is whether this Pokemon by its threat could encourage such a shift in teambuilding.

Where this concept differentiates from Momentum is that Momentum was concerned with gaining lost momentum, this concept is geared around gaining a very specific momentum from ground zero of a match. Whether this is through overwhelming offensive tactical power (like say a combination of attacks or abilities that circumvent Focus Sash or Sturdy leads), setting hazards while preventing foes from setting theirs, or any other number of things that translate to building a big advantage right off the bat.
 
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I know that a few people advised me to submit the concept that I submitted for the previous CAP, regarding Sticky Web, but the main focus of it for me was about seeing what a metagame would be like with a viable Sticky Web user. RU Stages 1-2 proved enough for me, as Shuckle was a very potent and centralizing support Pokemon there until its banning. I'm worried that a similar situation may occur in OU if the aforementioned concept goes through, which is why I'm suggesting a different one. It is certainly less inspired than the previous concept, but I feel as if it could be interesting to explore.

Name: Distribution Revolution

Description: A Pokemon which puts heavy emphasis on the importance of the distribution of EVs.

Justification: EVs are an important, though often forgotten, part of competitive play. In Pokemon, the EVs define the end value of our stats. We are allowed 508 EVs which can be allotted in any of six stats, Attack, Special Attack, Defense, Special Defense, Speed, and HP. The aim of this concept is to create a Pokemon that takes advantage of the allowed amount of EVs in several different ways that result in several notably different ways of using the Pokemon, and seems almost perfect at doing so.

Questions To Be Answered:
  • What competitive roles commonly differ based on EV spreads?
  • Where can we see examples of this to make comparisons to the current concept?
  • How important is specific EV investment in specific stats? Where is it more delicate than others?
  • Is it possible to make a Pokemon that can be this delicate itself, where EV differences change its role vastly?
  • How will the typing interact with this? Do we want a typing that seems like it would be successful at different roles?
  • Will we consider there a finite amount of "usable EV spreads" that we can discover and utilize with this CAP, or is there room for exploration?
Explanation: The majority of offensive Pokemon are recommended to use a very simple EV spread of 4 HP / 252 Atk or SpA / 252 Spe in order to accomplish their given role. Defensive Pokemon are often seen with more elaborate EV spreads that increase overall bulk while also avoiding specific OHKOes / 2HKOes from certain Pokemon. Pokemon with particularly awkward Speed tiers often only use enough Speed EVs to outspeed the closest relevant threat below their maximum achievable Speed if it threatens that Pokemon in some way. However, there is often more in-depth EV distribution. Some people manipulate the amount of EVs in HP to take less damage from Stealth Rock while switching-in, or to gain more health from Leftovers. In the Genesect metagame, a huge amount of Pokemon with even Defense stats added 4 EVs in one of the defenses so that opposing Genesect would miss out on the Download boost that would favour them more. I want to see how much further we can go with this EV manipulation. I think we can create a Pokemon that can fulfil this criteria and be a positive metagame addition. I'm going to show some examples of hypothetical Pokemon that somewhat portray what I am trying to achieve. The Pokemon could have an interesting Speed tier with average stats all around. Lets say it is a mixed attacker with Speed just above Dragonite and Mamoswine, but gets KOed by Dragonite's Dragon Claw and Mamoswine's Earthquake. It has the moves Icicle Crash and Hydro Pump. If it runs enough Speed for Dragonite and enough Attack for Icicle Crash to KO it, then it will not have enough Special Attack investment leftover to OHKO Mamoswine, and this dies in return. If it runs enough Speed for Mamoswine it can allot more EVs in Special Attack, KO it, but lose out on Dragonite. Another example is a Pokemon that avoids being OHKOed / 2HKOed by both Azumarill and Keldeo with certain amounts of bulk; it can use enough Speed and bulk for Azumarill to survive one hit on the switch-in and KO back, but it lacks the bulk to avoid the 2HKO as it switches in on Keldeo. If it runs more bulk to survive the Keldeo 2HKO, it can't use enough Speed for Azumarill. The idea is to create a Pokemon that can fulfil several different roles depending on its EV spread (an example of such being XY's Mega Venusaur, which can be offensive or defensive, or BW Jirachi, which could wall certain Pokemon, take offensive roles, spread status, or revenge kill with a Choice Scarf), while also having a large amount of specific metagame-relevant examples of things gained and lost by certain EV spreads. This heavily influences the stat stage and may require a fair bit more research than other CAPs, but I think it is an interesting idea worth exploring. There is somewhat precedent with the likes of Jirachi and Mew, but they don't have the exact specific technicalities that this CAP would achieve. Altogether, I think it is an interesting choice for a CAP Pokemon and is definitely worth using.
 
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Name: Pure Power

General Description: A Pokemon, that through sheer offensive presence, warps the entire metagame on its head.

Justification: Any competent team has a checklist of threats that must be accounted for, either offensively or defensively, which in turn makes competitive Pokemon an elegant dance of checks and counters. By introducing an incredible new force into this fragile maze of fine china, CAP19 would attempt to greatly alter usage by forcing players to use different, lesser used Pokemon to stand up to it.

Questions To Be Answered:
  • How much can a single Pokemon affect usage?
  • Would usage be difficult to change given the already stiff competition?
  • Would defensive playstyles adapt with new staples or simply disintegrate under the wider pool of threats to handle.
  • Is the viability of a Pokemon based on how well it matches up with the metagame or high stats/great ability/large movepool?
  • If so, can we abuse that to change the viability by introducing our CAP?

Explanation: Volkraken tried to bring out the potential of 2 lesser used Pokemon by synergizing with them. This takes the opposite approach, by trying to bump up multiple underused gems by being countered by them. Let me explain - CAP19's goal is to be a nuke that will completely implode your team if you don't have a counter, the twist being the only counters are currently uncommonly seen (which they hopefully won't be anymore.) As an example, a Huge Power Fighting/Poison type could really put a number on common teams, however Cofagrigus walls it to hell and back. While not the best of examples, this concept would be a great way to explore how much OU revolves around checks and counters.
 
Name: This time without any distractions
General Description: A pokemon that uses an uncommon ability in OU successfully
Justification: I always like the concept that was behind Cawmodore: a moveset with an uncommon move preferable with this pokemon. The concept was fun because there was a lot of choice and people had to think outside the box to make it work. Cawmodore worked out fine (if you ask me), but there where 2 main problems: the distraction of pokemon X/Y and the fact that it is easy to change moveset. This concept has the benefits of this previous concept but the downsides are (mostly) gone.
Questions To Be Answered:
  • What new strategies be obtained from the ability?
  • Is there a fundamental difference between the common abilities (like natural cure, intimidate,...) and the uncommon abilities
  • What will this new ability facilitate? Are other uncommon moves (or even partnering pokemon) associated with this ability?
  • Can a uncommon ability survive in OU?
  • Will this new ability change the dynamics of the metagame?
Explanation: Many abilities in OU either give a better defense (levitate, water absorb, natural cure,...) or a better offense (sheer force, protean, pure power,... ). The goal of this CAP is to add a pokemon with an ability that doesn't have this kind of function. This actually already has been done before in previous CAP's (for example illusion for Aurumoth). The issue here it that the focus isn't on the impact the ability has, which could lead to disaster. Examples of interesting abilities to work with are color change, magician, marvel scale, motor drive and zen mode.
 

Rotosect

Banned deucer.
  • Name - Not a gimmick
  • Description - A pokemon with the right tools to make successfully use of a strategy normally dismissed as a gimmick.
  • Justification- OU is often criticized for being an uncreative metagame where the only effective movesets involve sheer power or ludicrous walling or support capabilities. However sometimes more unorthodox sets emerge, but many of them are short-lived and people usually go back to standard sets. An example could be Harvest+Curse+Sitrus Berry Trevenant, a dangerous set when it works, but held back by Trevenant's mediocre stats and typing. Even solid OU pokemon are forced to run less creative sets in order to stay competitive - an example could be Greninja, who can't fully take advantage of its Protean ability with moves like Shadow Sneak (so it can block its own Spikes and avoid Mach Punches) simply because it's too weak.
  • Questions To Be Answered - What does it take for a strategy to turn from "gimmick" to "standard"? Where do we draw the line? Stats, type and abilities obviously play a big role, but it's not just that - it's a complex matter where many other variables, such as the current state of the metagame, are involved.
  • Explanation - There are so many interesting combinations of moves and abilities that are never used in competitive play simply because they were given to pokemon that lack the right stats to fully take advantage of them. Castform is a prime example: can we honestly say it would be a bottom-of-the-barrel NU pokemon if it had base 100 stats across the board?
    On the other hand, wouldn't Aegislash be dismissed as a gimmick if its stats were much lower? Imagine if it had 100 Atk/Sp.Atk in Blade forme and 100 Def/Sp.Def in shield forme. It wouldn't be anywhere close to its current status. It seems pretty clear to me that with the right stats, type, moves and abilities, a "gimmick" could become a standard set to watch out for.
 

Base Speed

What a load of BS!
In response to the discussion about my concept:

A "dominant" force isn't necessarily the one that sees the most usage. As Valzy stated, in 1825 stall and semistall combined make up about 20% of playstyles, and yes, that's less than offensive playstyles, though far from small. However, if you compare the 1825 stats to the 0 stats, you'll notice something which is, in my opinion, incredible. In the 0 stats, stall and semistall combined make up about 7% of playstyles. That's a massive change. It's absolutely incredible. And what it's telling us echoes what Pwnemon and TRC has already said. Stall is very good, but it's boring. It's a playstyle that people play to win, not to enjoy, and as such it's underrepresented.

Even so, whether you think stall is the most dominant force in the metagame or not, it's undeniably still a dominant force, and one that's changed undergone big changes this generation: a new defensive type, alterations to steel, the weather change, even little things like Knock Off's improvement all have big, uninvestigated implications for stall. So no, the numbers don't deter me. If anything they spur me on: that jump between 0 and 1825 needs looking into. I still absolutely believe that stall as a playstyle should be investigated with a CAP.

I shall edit my concept submission to somehow incorporate this explanation after it has been discussed more, and will get everyone else some feedback on their concepts later today.


Oh and lastly, no, Tadasuke, I'm not trying to manipulate the CAP meta. I couldn't even if I tried. The concept is for OU, like it should be.
 
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