[jas61292]

So, I would like to bring up a few more points as to why Drought is not a good idea for this Pokemon. I honestly think that we have gotten too much away from discussing what makes a good ability in the first place. A lot of arguments I see on both sides are about how the other side is wrong, rather than how the ability actually is good or not. So I just want to throw out a few reasons as to why Drought is not a good idea for CAP3.

Firstly, as was show very well already by FlareBlitz, Drought simply make CAP3 too strong for its counters. With incredible Special Attack and double STAB, naught but Tyranitar, Politoed and Flash Fire Pokemon can really switch in safely. Now, Tyranitar is indeed one of the counters we want, so that is not a problem. But all of the other counters we listed would no longer be able to switch in due to the massive damage they would take. Additionally, Politoed would essentially become a counter, and we have already decided we want to counter Politoed, not vice versa. I mean, its just a simple fact that the power provided by this ability to something this strong makes it near impossible to counter in the traditional sense. I mean, look at Politoed. Very few things in OU, even ones with a resistance can tank a Specs Toed Hydro Pump. And that if off of a much lower attacking stat. But really, the point is not that it is obscenely powerful. No, the point is that Drought lets it overcome its counters while doing nothing to actually help it fit the role we have chosen for it so far.

Secondly, I just want to touch on what Deck Knight has said in one of his posts, specifically about disallowing Adaptability while allowing Drought. Now, I don't think Adaptability is a good ability for this CAP. Not at all. But the fact is that Deck said it was disallowed because "CAP3's STABs don't need an additional power boost when they have a 131 Attacking stat." Well, if that is true, then why is Drought even being considered. Outside of rain CAP3 might as well not have Poison STAB for all the good it does it (hell even in rain it is questionable), so a boost to STAB is essentially a boost to Fire moves. And you know what? Drought boosts them more than Adaptability. So if an ability is disallowed because it gives a boost to STABs, then Drought should not even be considered. And that is not even counting all the team support that it provides as well. For a Pokemon like this, Drought is essentially Adaptability++.

Finally though, I want to mention something that I think may not be a competitive reason, but is important to consider anyways. As I and many others have said before, CAP is like a science experiment. And, no matter whether or not Drought is a good ability for the concept, it will skew the results of our experiment in a negative way, simply because Dry Skin is the first ability. What I mean by this is that, during the play test, as we all know, CAP3 will get a disproportionately large amount of use. Now, with Drought and Dry Skin, it would have two roles: Killing Water and Setting Sun. With both of those getting enormous amounts of usage who in their right mind would use rain? Significantly fewer people than in a normal stable environment. And when rain is not common, a water killer isn't needed. And when sun is common, Dry Skin is a negative. So suddenly, Drought is completely superior to Dry Skin. Now, as I said, this is not exactly what would happen in a standard competitive environment, but it is what will happen in the environment we have to work with. We have already decided we want to test out Dry Skin, and the decision to go with Drought will simply undermine that, as Dry Skin, at least during a skewed playtest environment, will be outclassed.