Name: Weather Equalizer
General Description: This Pokemon's existence would give a large buff to one of the lesser-used weathers, such that weather teams with CAP4 could compete with established Rain and Sand teams.
Justification: It is no secret that Rain and Sand dominate OU in terms of usage, but they also exhibit a very wide variety of team types and playstyles. Hail and Sun, on the other hand, are limited in viability to certain niches, and tend to have to devote lots of resources to anti-metagame considerations (i.e. Dugtrio) in order to be successful. This concept would aim to expand Hail or Sun beyond its current niche to a point where it can influence the metagame as much as it responds to it.
Questions To Be Answered:
- What are the challenges faced by Sun or Hail teams in the current meta?
- Which of these will need to be overcome, and to what extent, in order to make the weather in question more viable?
- Is Sun/Hail inherently worse than Rain or Sand, (taking combo bans into account) or is it simply a matter of what pokemon exist to be supported by them?
- Is one pokemon enough to affect the desired change to a weather? How strong does such a pokemon need to be in order to accomplish this goal?
Explanation:
The purpose of this concept would be to strengthen an underused weather condition to the point where it is competitive with the ubiquitous Rain and Sand. This isn't meant to hone in on a particular playstyle from the outset; it is meant to expand the weather enough that more than one playstyle is doable. Inevitably, a CAP4 that succeeds in this will also succeed in simply improving the niche that currently dominates that particular weather. It would also be foolish not to consider specific teammates and synergy that would be helpful. Still, I think it is important not to turn this concept into a something that fits in a slot on a certain team.
The goal of the concept as stated is very ambitious, and an absolute equalizing of weathers based on a single pokemon may not even be possible. However, just moving in the direction of the stated goal would give us insight into the questions raised by the concept. This concept would give us a very interesting playtest, as we see what ramifications the new pokemon has not only on the matchups involving our chosen weather but also on the Sand-Rain matchup, as old teams are forced to change to deal with the new weather threat.
|