Yes folks, it's finally time for me to retire from this benevolent dictatorship thing and return to my role as benevolent oligarch. The last time I was making this post I was filling in for Fuzznip. My schedule has gotten insanely busy at the end but I really appreciate all the work our contributors, new and long-time have put into this CAP.
It was a wild ride, I'll tell you that much. From the get-go we set out on an ambitious project that had several groundbreaking concepts in the slate, each of which would have made a fantastic product. In the end it was time to do a typing makeover. The Great Drought War hasn't occurred incidentally since the first CAP 3, all the way back in Gen 4. Weather keeps cropping up as a pivotal point of discussion and interest in each CAP project, and I suspect it will continue. Hopefully next time it won't have so many casualties...
The best part about these discussions though were trying to pin down a vision for this concept. Taking a "bad" typing and turning it around requires several levels of thought long before you get to the typing poll. I remember early in the process there were several complaints that it was going too slowly, but I made it a point that in order to fulfill this concept we would have to batten down exactly what we meant by a "bad" type - and then take the next step and figure out what qualities we could draw out of that typing to maximize its strengths.
The end result of that selection was Fire/Poison, a typing with a crippling 4x Ground weakness, Stealth Rock weakness, and a weakness to water in a Rain-dominated metagame - with the now more common Psychic typing bringing up the rear. In exchange our Pokemon had immunity to the two damaging statuses and a wide array of resistances. After selecting the type, we now had to find a way to make it shine. One discussion that had occurred since the selection of the concept was immunity abilities. Although I quickly bounced Magic Bounce, Magic Guard, and Wonder Guard for being too overpowering and centralizing in and of themselves, we noted a wide array of OU Pokemon use immunity abilities effectively, from Rotom-W and Gengar to Gastrodon. Immediately after the typing poll we had the Threats Discussion, where we discussed what our CAP's role should be. It was noted that Fire/Poison's immunity to Burn and Toxic and Ice resistance made it an ideal Pokemon to deal with the stalling strategies usually employed in Rain, with Scald and Toxic / Toxic Spikes. Except for the whole "weak to water" thing.
All of this built up to a change in process order. Our CAP would threaten common Rain Pokemon up to and including the likes of Ferrothorn, and in turn be threatened by the other major player in the interminable weather wars: Sand. Our Ability poll had Dry Skin and Drought duking it out, with the eventual winner being Dry Skin. So how do you make Fire/Poison shine? Turn it into Rain's worst nightmare - a Pokemon that can switch into boosted Water attacks with impunity, threaten an easy OHKO on Rain's chief hazard Pokemon even in Rain, and absorb the Toxic Spikes employed by more defensive Rain teams all at once.
I won't bore you with the rest of the play-by-play - suffice it to say the CAP process that produced Mollux really tested the flexibility of our early-project CAP procedures and showed the value of not rushing into certain concepts. The playtest is coming soon and I hope Mollux performs its role as well as is expected, and that the decisions we've made along the way end up as key points in the analysis. Mollux was built with two status immunities and an ability that would allow its typing to shine for its resistances, residual benefits, and hopefully its STABs. Only time will tell how much Mollux will succeed, but I have high hopes for it.
Thank you again to all of our contributors who have made me proud to be a TL for a CAP Project. Having had to clean up the end of one before I know how stressful it can be, I'm glad I got the chance to do it from start to finish.
Without further delay, I present to you Mollux:
Name: Mollux
Concept: Extreme Makeover: Typing Edition
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Theorymon
Name: Extreme Makeover: Typing Edition
General Description: The idea here is to create a Pokemon who's typing, while normally considered poor defensively and/or offensively, becomes a strong selling point of the Pokemon itself via help from an ability, stats, and/or movepool.
Justification: There are a lot of typings we scoff at on a daily basis because of their serious flaws, often forgetting about their strong points. For example, Poison is a really terrible offensive typing, but a decent defensive typing, while the Ice typing is good offensively, but awful defensively. Instead of just accepting that some typings will just ruin a Pokemon, this CAP concept aims to take that "terrible typing", and find ways to fix it (usually via ability, movepool, or stats) to the point where the formerly terrible typing becomes the CAP's strong point! The reason this CAP could benefit OU is because a Pokemon who makes a "bad typing" into a great one could find many unique offensive and/or defensive niches that aren't currently found!
Questions To Be Answered
-What does it take for a Pokemon to overcome its "bad typing" so much that its typing becomes good? Are the stats the biggest contributer, is the ability the thing that saves it, does movepool make it a force, or is it a combination of the above?
-How does the typing makeover effect the Pokemon's playstyle? Does the Pokemon become a unique wall that uses its makeover to overcome its typing's normally fatal flaws, does the make over make a terrible offensive typing into a fearsome sweeper, does the makeover make it into a formidible combination of deffense and offense to a typing that brings it neither, or does the makeover bring forth something none of us see coming from the typing?
-Which resistances and immunities are the most relevant to the metagame? Sure, this concept is aiming to have a "bad typing" become good, but part of that will require the bad typing to have some key resistances and/or immunties to certain typings to defend against or set up on, while still having a very unorthodox competitive typing. This works the other way around too, what are the typings most relevant to hit super effectively or at least neutral?
-How will the rest of the OU metagame react to this extreme type makeover? Will Pokemon start carrying moves they normally wouldn't carry to break through a new defensive threat, will some Pokemon take on new defensive roles due to resisting the unorthodox STABs CAP 3 may carry? Or will This Pokemon, despite being a very real threat, not have many "custom made sets" to beat it, being more of a Pokemon that is a reaction to the metagame than causing a metagame reaction?
-Finally, how will this effect the teams CAP3 is on? Will this be the kind of Pokemon who needs a lot of support to become a threat, will this Pokemon be more of key team member to execute another strategy, or will this be the kind of Pokemon that's part of the glue that holds the team together?
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Typing: Fire / Poison
Base stats: 95 HP / 45 Atk / 83 Def / 131 SpA / 105 SpD / 76 Spe
Abilities: Dry Skin / Illuminate (Hidden)
Movepool: link
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Fat nyttyn
Level Up:
Egg Moves:
TM Moves:
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Height: 1.2m / 3' 11.2"
Weight: 41 kg (90.2) lbs [GK/LK: 60 BP]
Gender Ratio: 50% Male / 50% Female
Dex: Mollux, the
Mantle Pokémon
Black: Its innards glow with a vibrant light, the color being determined by its current mood. Its predators take a red light as a warning to leave.
White: The light it generates helps it traverse the dark depths of the sea. Its soothing glow helps it befriend curious or lost Pokemon.