CAP 11 - Concept Submissions

[Fuzznip]

Hello. Great submissions so far everyone. Here's my feedback!

Yilnath

When I read your justification, your concept is kind of like a Pokemon that breaks momentum through the use of secondary moves. I kind of like the general goal of this concept, as the focus of throwing teams that are too reliant on a certain strategy off interests me. It will definitely impact the metagame positively, which is one of the traits I am looking for, as teams will become more versatile and not so straightforward.

However, I'm not sure what you mean by "fast offensive non-attacking decentralizer". Where does offensive play into this? I envision that this Pokemon would just be a quick momentum breaker and not something that would sweep with all of that Speed. My main concern is how this Pokemon will actually decentralize two entirely different group of threats. Taunt and Encore go along way with putting an end to stall and possibly offense for sure, but I wonder what else this can actually do, because I'm not interested in building a Pokemon that takes advantage of two moves. Overall, this is a unique niche and definitely worth exploring, but it may need a bit more thought to help clear up some of the issues I've outlined.

Zystral

I like the idea of this concept personally. A Pokemon that is severely limited type and movepool-wise but has the offensive prowess to keep it as a significant threat interests me a lot. We can definitely learn a lot from this concept as it is completely new and provides the metagame with a unique niche. Furthermore, I would love to know the answers to your questions regarding power vs efficiency.

The only issue I think this concept has is the fact that it is too restricting and doesn't have a lot of options going for it. It's also one of those concepts that will either excel or fail. However, I am all for taking risks and I still think this concept is worth to be further analyzed.

Plus

It's interesting how this concept focuses solely on its team and not on itself, which not a lot of Pokemon are built to do, but there is a few issues I have with it. The thing is, if you want this concept to, say, set up dual screens and then use some fainting move to bring in your sweeper safely, there are already existing Pokemon that do this effectively and will be competing for a team slot. For instance, Azelf is a superb dual screen supporter, as it has pretty much everything a sweeper wants from it. Stealth Rock, Explosion, Taunt, you name it. This concept will be in a similar position if you want to use it as a dual screen suicide Pokemon. The question is, which one will you pick? If this Pokemon is so versatile in performing support duties, depending on which support role you give it, it may have to compete with other Pokemon that are similar to that role. I might just be missing the point, but this is where I stand at the moment.

DrkSlay

Deck Knight pretty much summed up my thoughts with his response. There is a reason why moves such as Water Pulse, Giga Drain, Psywave, etc are not used, there are moves that are better than them. I mean, the only real way I can see you pulling this off is by using a Pokemon with Technician or an ability similar to that and then using the aforementioned moves. But even then, moves such as Fire Blast, Hydro Pump, and Close Combat still exist and are definitely more powerful.

I honestly do like the idea of a Pokemon taking advantage of forgotten moves, but I think the idea is not something that can be done to good effect.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Ahh yes, one of the most least-used field effects in the metagame. I would like to point out that half of your concept has been already explored with Fidgit. Fidgit has literally everything a Gravity team wants in a supporter. Entry hazards, Persistent, Encore, Earth Power, Rapid Spin, Wish, the list just keeps going. Even with Fidgit's perfect traits for a Gravity team, Gravity is still not used. I really don't want to do something like Fidgit again. On the other hand, though, a Gravity sweeper has not been looked at. However, there are still a ton of Pokemon that take advantage of Gravity well. Think of Starmie with Thunder, Blizzard, and Hydro Pump, Metagross with Earthquake, and Skarmory with Spikes. There are offensive and defensive threats that abuse Gravity's effects well enough. What will this concept offer to the OU environment that doesn't already exist by other Pokemon?

HD

To be honest, I'm not too fond of intentionally making a Pokemon broken in the OU metagame. We already know why these Pokemon are being banned from OU. Salamence is just a top-notch offensive threat with literally no counters and has an impressive movepool. Shaymin-S is too fast and too strong with its STAB Seed Flare and STAB Air Slash, both backed up by Serene Grace. Deoxys-S is the best entry hazard lead that ever existed and it easily breaks the Support clause because of that, not to mention its extremely potent late-game sweeping ability. Also, making this Concept will be too messy because we are trying to make something broken. I don't like that, sorry.

Mektar

This concept has been brought up time and time again. I think this concept slightly tags in with Plus' "Get the Ball Rolling" concept, as the idea of his is to give the Pokemon's team a head start in achieving something. In this case, Baton Passing a Swords Dance to Gyarados for instance gives it a head start in sweeping. Also, I disagree with you when you say that Ninjask and Smeargle are never used. These two Pokemon are excellent, dedicated Baton Passers. Ninjask guaranteed Speed boosts, while Smeargle nearly guarantees a boost of your choice. I don't really want another Pokemon that is basically just for Baton Passing boosts to its teammates. For those reasons alone, I've come to think that this Concept is not worth the time.

Rising_Dusk

Like Mektar's, this concept also has been posted in previous CAP projects. Despite that, though, I honestly think this is a great Concept to look into. Hail seriously doesn't have the Pokemon to make it an effective, dangerous weather effect. Most, if not all, of these hail abusers are not even in the OU metagame, including the Pokemon that sets up an everlasting hailstorm. There is a lot we can learn from this Concept and I'm interested to see how it would clash with the popular sandstorm. Can it compete? I'd like to find out too.

Too many concepts to respond too, heh. Don't worry though, I'll be back with more responses for the rest of the concepts tomorrow. If you want to discuss anything with me or if you just have some questions, don't hesitate to pm me on the forums or on IRC. My door's always open.

That said, I'm liking some of these concepts so far. Good stuff!

[DetroitLolcat]

Name: Do or Die
General Description: A Pokemon that forces the opponent into a defensive position where they have to either attack or be defeated. Therefore, the opponent cannot set up or spread debuffs.
Justification: The metagame (with the exception of Choice Users) is based about setting up offensive boosts (such as Dragon Dance) to sweep the opponent or defensive debuffs (such as Toxic) in order to stall out the opponent. This concept would allow us to learn about a metagame built around unboosted attacking, instead of one based around boosts and hazards.
Questions To Be Answered:
Is is possible to stop any and all set-up moves with only one Pokemon?
Which Pokemon will become more viable now that setting up moves are discouraged?
Will the metagame shift offensively or defensively now that set-up pokemon have been severely weakened?
Will underused Pokemon that were outclassed by set-up Pokemon (such as Shaymin instead of Celebi) step into the limelight?
How important is supporting sweepers and walls in the current metagame?
Will stall teams become nonexistent due to the presence of this Pokemon?

Explanation: Dragon Dance. Swords Dance. Agility. Baton Pass. Reflect. Light Screen. Spikes. Stealth Rock. Toxic Spikes. Toxic. Thunder Wave. Will-o-Wisp. Rapid Spin. Some of the most commonly used moves in the metagame. They are used to directly or indirectly aid in a sweep or in a stall. What if a Pokemon made these moves much less viable by FORCING the opponent to attack? This is the goal of Do or Die. Basically, it forces the opponent to use unboosted attacks in order to kill this Pokemon.

[Yllnath]

Fuzznip, Deck Knight already asked similar questions on the previous page, and my reply is two posts below his. Here is a link to the post. http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpos...2&postcount=11
O, and btw, it's YLLnath, people always get that wrong, haha

[Bippa201]

Name: Double "Powder" Lead
General Description: A Pokemon capable of using accurate status moves to early incapacitate opposing Pokemon.
Justification: Depending on the shaky Hypnosis/Sleep Powder/Stun Spore to cause status is a bit unnerving, as a miss can cost you the game. But what if a Pokemon had more accurate status moves? The double powder strategy would not be much of a gamble.
Questions To Be Answered:
How much of a role does status play in Standard?
Will there be a defensive or offensive shift in the metagame?
Would stall become more abundant?

Explanation: I dislike relying on Roserade to spread status around my opposition because its move are inaccurate. But what if a Pokemon could utilize Spore and Thunder Wave to mimic the double powder strategy? These moves are more accurate, and would make the Double Powder strategy more effective.
I don't think it would need high stats anywhere, except speed. To perform well, it would need to be very fast.

[Drakhun]

Name: Anti-Residual damage
General Description: A pokemon that is spefically designed to combat residual damage effects (weather, entry hazards, status)
Justification: Stealth Rock, Sand, and status are all major parts of the current metagame, and are not reliably answered in a concise manner. A pokemon dedicated to preventing residual damage could provide an interesting study into the importance or residual damage.
Questions To Be Answered:
Is a pokemon dedicated to the prevention of residual damage worth a team slot, or would it too often be setup bait?
Would the prevention of residual damage help offense or stall more?
What methods of combating residual damage are most effective?
Would common and easy residual damage counter ability fundamentally change team design?

Explanation: There are many ways to combat residual damage. Weather can be used to cancel other weather, along with the abilities airlock and cloud nine. Spikes et-al can be spun away, or in the case of toxic spikes, absorbed by grounded poison types. Heal bell and aromatherapy work to take out status ailments. Less conventionally a wish pass helps patch up damage from constant switches, and even more rarely healing wish can wipe out all the damage on one of your pokemon. However, outside smeargle none of these features have ever been in one place, and without being designed around these things won't work as well. Anti-weather abilities are either on ubers or failures. Spinning can be blocked, unless we put scrappy with it, and cleric abilities are hard to find and often on pokemon with better things to do. Assembled properly in one place, anti-residual damage could be a valuable tool

[Vaz]

This is my concept idea I have been working on. I hope it is valuable enough to be presented as a "good" concept idea.
------------

Name:
Copycat

General Description:
A Pokémon that is able to copy the features of an opponent in a way that uses what features it has has to defeat it.

Justification:
Many Pokémon featured in today's metagame are used to counter the opponent. This Pokémon though would provide a different method of defeating the opponent, that being by copying it. By performing this, we would be able to explore how effective a Pokémon can be by copying the features of the opponent.

Questions To Be Answered:

• How sufficient will a Pokémon act if it copies the opponent's features rather than using a tactic of its own?
• Is copying what features the opponent has an adequate method of eliminating the opponent?
• How will the metagame respond to this Pokémon in play?

Explanation:
It would be an enjoyable sight to witness a fresh option to eliminate your opponent rather than entrusting on the commonly used tactic of switching to counter the opponent presented in battle. Due to the Pokémon’s concept, many viable options will perfectly fit what it should be, whether it is high base stats, unique (yet reasonable) move pool or an intriguing ability. A Pokémon capable of performing such an extraordinary concept would be appreciative.

[Deck Knight]

Since I'm up and have time, I'll plow through the rest right now so I can pay more attention to Beck this evening.

HD's Break The Metagame:

BRAKE BORING METAGAME

---

I will destroy you.

This is a terrible concept not only because CAPs are supposed to be constructed to influence OU play without being broken, but also because it's directionless. You don't specify what kind of Uber we should make, just that it should meet one of the various Uber characteristics. You probably posted inbetween the time I made my first string of responses and edited in the ones that managed to post before I finished the original three, but you should still know better. This isn't your first rodeo.

Staraptor Call's Concealer:

This reminds me a bit of a reverse Kitsunoh. The biggest issue we had with Kitsunoh (Ultimate Scout) was actually figuring out what a "scout" does. The only way to really conceal information from your opponent is to prevent them from using phazing moves that would prevent them from randomly seeing one of your other Pokemon. Fortunately there are a few things that operate to that end: Ingrain, Suction Cups, and Soundproof to an extent.

Unfortunately most of your opponents that are good competitive battlers are intelligent human beings and they gather information throughout the battle through memory. Some of the best "information concealing" Pokemon are suicide leads or something like Leadcario, which basically stays in the lead position attacking the opponent mercilessly with great coverage and/or powerful attacks until it faints. A combination of these elements and maybe some anti-lead strategies like Fake Out or Rapid Spin to remove hazards could also be employed.

This has a lot of potential if you think of it from these aspects, since you can never fully "conceal" information from your opponent if they have a Pokemon that threatens you.

bugmaniacbob's Defensive Characteristic

Even though we're not supposed to be creating Ubers, I would be most interested to see if we can make a Pokemon that is deemed too powerful using the defensive characteristic without the support characteristic. I can't think of a Pokemon that's deemed too defensive that wouldn't also fall under support (or possibly offensive). Lugia for example has ridiculous defenses, high speed, Pressure, and Roost so it can take basically any Stone Edge and stall it out, but it also has a huge support movepool with Thunder Wave, Dual Screens, Trick, and it can also use its massive bulk to set up Calm Mind and sweep. Giratina doesn't have screens but it does have Thunder Wave and Will-O-Wisp, and of course with Dragon typing it has insane offensive STAB to back up its distuptive capabilities (and again can set up Calm Mind with extreme ease)

It runs into limitation issues because you would have to eschew most of the status moves, screens, and other support moves like Trick, and rely on self-status boosters like Cosmic Power, Power/Guard Swap, etc.

Dark Kaiser's Trick Room Abuser:

Fidgit covers a lot of this already because Persistent boosts the duration of Trick Room. It's sort of a cop-out since I gave a similar response to Res Ipsa Loquitur, but we've tried to make a mon based around boosting these oddball field effects and they never materialize because other strategies are simply more powerful or other moves more immediately helpful.

Mektar's Ultimate Baton Passer

Fuzznip summarized it pretty well. Ninjask and Smeargle are the premier examples of dedicated Baton Pass Pokemon, but there is also the famous Baton Pass Gliscor that comes in after Dual Screens to set up Rock Polish and Swords Dance while Taunting the phazer. Baton Pass is well explored in the OU metagame, and if you don't agree I direct you the aforementioned Light Clay DS Azelf + BP YacheGliscor + 4-Attack Metagross combination. That combo is maddening.

Rising_Dusk's Winter Wonderland

Or as we might call it on irc, "Tyranitar of the Hail." Weather-abuse related concepts pop up perennially, and because of Hail's limited nature most people invariably think "use Blizzard" and leave it at that. The biggest wall with Hail is that unlike Sandstorm, it doesn't give Ice Pokemon any benefits outside Blizzard, so it's tough to be as big and bad and Ttar. I like where the concept is going, but it will be difficult if we don't select Ice-typing to go with any other ability than Snow Warning. If the pokemon is just all-around strong and functions perfectly outside of Hail, how could we justify it outside of the weak argument that CAP 11 has Blizzard?

What worries me is if we try to make it too good without Ice typing or Snow Warning itself that it will be just another Cyclohm where it's just a generally solid Pokemon with no other direction. Garchomp didn't really need Sand Veil that much, but it was just one more thing that pushed it over the top.

reachzero's Helping Hand

My biggest problem with this concept is it's very vague in what it demands for success. You've heard the phrase "a rising tide raises all boats," and it's difficult to help the dingys in UU/BL (or low OU) without also raising the yachts of OU.

However, Colossoil is a pokemon that helped bring back Pokemon like Staraptor and Crobat because it was effective at shutting down OU's Stall core of Rotom-A/Forretress/Blissey and also spinning away the Stealth Rock they hate. That was all in retrospect though, because Colossoil's function was never to bring other Pokemon up but rather to have a function for itself (scare the bejeesus out of stall cores), and by performing that function effectively it forced the metagame to change. Is there any particular offensive or defensive core you'd want to target to reach that effect? As it stands its almost directionless because neither the pokemon it's supposed to lift up nor the means of lifting them up are considered.

Vader's Clean-Up Kid

"It Cleans, not Sweeps!"

I personally like this concept because it can emphasize the importance of huge speeds on the metagame. Speed is considered the most important stat and the ability of Deoxys-S to outspeed even Choice Scarfed Pokemon led it to become the ultimate lead. Without that ability to set up hazards or support nearly unquestioned it would likely remain in the metagame. The biggest issue here is going to be balancing offense and defense with speed. The concept is thus somewhat limiting in that most of the arguments will be about what things it needs to KO with say Life Orb, or whether it should fall just short of it. Pursuit would be pretty important for the Pokemon because it's difficult to clean, and Arena Trap with high speed is sort of covered by Dugtrio.

All in all it would be difficult to strike the right balance, but I think CAP would be up to the task.

---

I've run out of time for now. I'll catch up with the rest this evening.

[shrang]

Okay, since no-one has actually posted this yet this round, I'm going to post this (I got infracted last time because someone already came up with it):

• Name - QuickStaller
• Description - A CAP with high Speed and decent defenses (Doesn't have to be an extremely bulky Pokemon, just so long as it isn't extremely frail), with a movepool and ability fit for stalling (Moves that can allow it to cripple attackers or bolster its own defenses)
• Justification - QuickStall is usually a playstyle associated with Ubers, a prime example being stalling Mewtwo. However, the style doesn't get enough love in OU due to the lack of viable Pokemon to fit such a role, which is why stall in OU is more balanced. It could find a great new niche of a "Fast staller" in OU, as well as teaching us more about the QuickStall style.
• Questions To Be Answered:

- How can stall teams benefit from such a CAP (How can they stall more efficiently)??
- How does the metagame adapt to this QuickStall??
- What strategies are effective and ineffective against QuickStall??
- How much team support will such a style and CAP require??

• Explanation - A QuickStaller would be fun to use in OU. While Stall teams are seen as "boring" and "tedious", it is a very reliable style. One problem that Stall bumps into is the fact that its abusers are often bulky and slow, therefore susceptible to Taunt, Trick, and possibly status. A QuickStaller would hope to minimise this as much as possible, with the expense of some of its defenses. A good ability for this CAP would be stuff like Intimidate, Pressure or even Magic Guard, while it should have very high Speed (Base Speed should be over 110) with reasonable defenses (Around 80/90/90). Good movepool ideas can be stuff like Taunt, Agility, Toxic, Dual Screens, Substitute, etc.

[callforjudgement]

Name: Stealth Rock punisher
General Description: A Pokémon whose mere existence in the metagame makes people think really hard if they want to waste a moveslot on Stealth Rock.
Justification:
Stealth Rock is seen on pretty much every competitive team nowadays. Unlike some of the other submissions, which focus on generally reordering the metagame or on residual damage in general, this one move deserves to be looked at in more detail, to determine exactly what affect it is having in the metagame, by comparison to an engineered metagame in which it is somewhat less prevalent.
Questions To Be Answered:

• Many Pokémon are commonly understood to be NU/UU merely because of Stealth Rock's prevalence. Is the common wisdom right in this respect?
• Stealth Rock favours both defensive and offensive teams, but for different reasons. Which would be hurt more by its removal?
• Is Stealth Rock, as a move, powerful enough that people will use it anyway despite one CAP's best efforts to get rid of it?
• Conversely, is Stealth Rock dangerous enough that people will dedicate an entire slot in their team to try to get rid of it?
• Are there any other effects in the metagame that could take Stealth Rock's place? (Spikes and bad weather come to mind.)

Explanation: This concept has a slight overlap with some of the others; one of the above submissions mentions suppressing residual damage in general, but I think it may be more interesting to look at a metagame missing just one move. Arguably, this isn't a bad thing, as it means people are interested in the same general idea. This is also a "special case", as it were, of reachzero's idea, in that trying to suppress the rocks would likely favour a lot of Pokémon commonly underused due to their typing (although it does other things too, and there are other ways to implement reachzero's idea).

Arguably this would be less attractive for a spot on a team than a number of other CAPs; I can imagine such a single-minded Pokémon being relatively useless against a team that doesn't run, or use, SR. I don't have much of an idea of how it could be implemented beyond that, though; there are several strategies that could be used to implement the idea (an ability, an SR-hostile movepool (foresight-spinning, anyone?), a build designed to kill most SR-capable Pokémon before they can get set up, a "suicide antilead" for which IIRC there aren't many/any viable options in OU atm, and probably lots of other things I haven't thought of).

[noobiess]

Name:
the summer love

General Description:
A pokémon that easily and permanently sets up sunshine, so other pokemon have a chance to shine in OU

Justification:
Teams based on sunshine are hardly seen in the current OU metagame. There are alot of reasons for that; you always lose one turn by using sunny day (since the only pokemon that can set it up by ability is an uber-pokemon); it only stays in effect for a few turns; there isn't so much variation in pokemon that could use the sunshine (either fire-pokémon or grass pokemon that have an ability that boosts their speed). By losing the first 2 reasons, a sunshine-based team could become a powerfull and common team in the OU metagame

Questions To Be Answered:
- Will this pokemon be able to make sunshine-based teams more common in the OU-metagame?
- Will the sunshine be able to brighten up some UU pokemon and let them become more common in the OU metagame?
- Will we be able to discover some new movepools for pokemon that will raise the popularity?
- Will it make the move solorbeam alot more popular?
- Will this pokémon make sandstorm-based team much less popular?

Explanation:
Actually a sunshine-baseed team could be very strong if it would be easy to set up the sunshine. Fire pokémon are already very strong pokémon in the OU metagame. With sunshine the fire moves will be even more dangerous (because of the 50% more damage) and they won't be so vulnerable against watermoves. And with a sunshine-based team you always have some grasspokemon that could easely wall the water and ground moves. Grass pokemon are also very strong against the last weakness of fire pokémon: rock.
Fire pokémon could also protect grass pokémon in the same way as above with ice,fire and bug attacks. This makes a team with fire and grass pokemon a strong combination.
The grass pokémon also get alot of advantages because of the sunshine. Not only are there alot of grass-types pokémon that have abilities that strongly boost their speed (or other stat), it also gives the opportunity to use solarbeam directly without waiting one turn.
This strong grass moves also make it much harder for sandstorm and rain based teams to set up sandstorm/rain. The fire moves also keep the hail-based away.

Now you might think that sunshine-based team could be too strong and will wreck the viriaty of the OU-metagame, but that is wrong.
Fire pokemon are very vulnerabel for stealth rock, and without a strong grass/fire types rapid spinner, you could imagen that a stops sunshine team of becomming too big.
There also aren't so much strong OU grass-typed pokémon and grass is also concidered as one of the weakest types because of the amount of weaknesses.

Now some people might know what happened with pyroak, but I want to approach it much diffrently. I want to focus on making it easy to set up the sunshine, either then make another pokemon that is strong in the sunshine. Just like a snover of hippopotas in the UU metagame. It personaly suggest either a pokemon with the ability drought or either a fast pokémon with the abilty that if you use sunny day, it stays every turn. I think this way is much more effective then pyroak and will clearly raise suneshine-based teams.

ave a nice summer :)

[TFT]

Hello, while my post count is very low, I am not new to Smogon, I've been lurking here for about a year, without an account, just reading. Now I have an account and I'd like to take a shot at CAP with an idea I've been sitting on for awhile.

Name: It can do it all! ...Kinda!
General Description: This Pokemon has the ability to do any role that the user wants, however it's only decent at these roles, and not excelling at any particular one.
Justification: The Pokemon is fully customizable introducing more of an element of surprise, your opponent will have no idea what you are using it for.
Questions To Be Answered:
Can a Pokemon that's only decent at its role be successful through its element of surprise?
Can a Pokemon like this gain an advantage through the opponent over predicting?
Can it hang in there with other sweepers, leads, status users, etc. that do it better?
If the opponent correctly predicts what this Pokemon is there for, can it still function effectively?
Explanation: In theory this Pokemon can come in, the opponent, not knowing what its there for, and do its job to perfection while the opponent is trying to figure out what its doing. It forces over prediction commonly. A Pokemon like this would be able to throw your opponent off balance and mess with his strategy, preferably, he won't be able to recover until its too late, and your team is victorious.

I would really love feedback from some of the CAP experts, thanks in advance. =)

[Little Battler]

Name: True Anti Lead
General Description: A Pokemon capable of stopping common leads, including common anti leads, from doing their job, but not capable of doing whatever a common lead does.

Justification: The lead is a very important position in competitive battling. A bad match up at turn one can be very dangerous, as that could mean the absence of entry hazards in the opposing side of the field, missing a few turns of rain, or failing to set up screens, which in turn makes lots of pokemon unusable in the OU (E.G. because of entry hazard). This pokemon shall be able to stop the opposing lead from doing whatever they are meant to do (entry hazards, screening, weather) and therefore allowing us to find out whether or not stopping leads from doing their role creates a big impact in the metagame.

Questions To Be Answered:
-How does the first few turns affect the flow of battle?
-Which lesser used pokemon become more relevant with the lack of common leads?
-Which strategies will be most effective with the lack of first turn set up?
-How will the lack of common leads affect the metagame?

Explanation:
The Lead is one of the most important role in a team. A common lead either taunts, sets up entry hazards, status, does other set up, blow up, or any combination of said things. This pokemon should be designed to disable any leads from doing their job, either by taunting them first, killing them on the first turn, or clearing whatever they set up. Resisting / immune to explosion is a nice bonus, as well as immune to status, although status can be fixed with a lum berry.

[Defyin]

Name: The Ultimate Trapper

General Description: Pursuit, Arena Trap, Magnet Pull, all forms of trapping the enemy, but there is no pokemon that really trap wells, we have Dugtrio, but his stats a terribly low and his movepool is limited. What if we could create a Pokemon that with means of ability, moves, stats could become a great trapper?

Justification: A trapper Pokemon can easily change the tides of a battle to be positive to you. This pokemon can easily pick off weak enemies and they have no chance to switch out.

Questions To Be Answered:
Does this Pokemon need to be overcentralized on either Magnet Pull or Arena Trap?
Would this Pokemon potentially become overused if it's stats are too good?
What kind of counters could it have if it could trap and pick off anything that comes along atleast once?

Explanation: Trappers are able to shake up the game enough to change the tides to you, say you have a Rotom-h out and your opponent switches in Tyranitar, the tides have suddenly turned to him, you must either face switching out and hoping you survive the pursuit, or stay in and try to dish out as much damage as you can before you die. A Pokemon like this could change how the metagame is played because you must always be prepared for if this thing comes along, and it would help give you the flow of the battle.

[toshimelonhead]

TFT your concept is basically what Krillowatt was.

[TFT]

I was afraid someone would say that, I thought Krillowatt was meant to counter common threats, but not at once, mine is similar as in it can only do one thing at once, but it can do a wide array of things and uses surprise to do better.

[kd24]

Name - Slowing Down the Game

Description - A Pokemon that punishes / revenges others who raise their Speed / faster teams

Justification - The biggest threat in the metagame remains to be Pokemon who hit too fast and the game constantly revolves around Speed. Speed numbers/Choice Scarf/Dragon Dance/Agility, whatever the case may be, you can be sure teams will be using Speed to their advantage. A Pokemon that can make the opponent readjust and give more chances of strategic play rather than that of "who can bring in the right Pokemon first" would have a very postitive effect on the metagame. This Pokemon would ideally bring a rise back to slower Pokemon who simply aren't used because their Speed is too low to compete with those faster. This fills both the 1st and 2nd category for justification.

Questions To Be Answered -

~ What are the biggest speed threats are and how we can force Speed down?
~ Should this Pokemon employ revenge killing with priority and what other attacks / abilities can it use to capitalize on teams that rely on quickness?
~ Should this Pokemon be offensively minded to kill the opponent's fast Pokemon or should it be defensively minded to support your own?

Explanation - I think a lot of people are tired of metagames that are simply dominated by Speed. People always remininsce about old gens and how it requires more strategy and I think a Pokemon that invokes that strategy again would do wonders for the metagame. CAP has previously created Pokemon who could slow down DDers / Speed quite a bit with stuff like Scylant, Arghonaut, and Krilowatt but it never was the intended purpose and unfortunately, these Pokemon just couldn't help with this "problem" in the end. Again, my major thinking is a metagame based more on strategy than team building matchups / lucky when getting the right pokemon in is a better metagame.

[petrie911]

A few of these concepts remind me strongly of things that have been used effectively in UU. This is a good thing for the concepts, mind you, as it indicates that they can work, and gives us an example of how it worked in the past.

Sextus's Pivot sounds a lot like how Crobat worked before he got himself banned. He could come in on tons of things, kill offensive mons with Brave Bird, Taunt defensive/support mons, and could U-Turn out to keep momentum. Roost let him do this repeatedly even with SR weakness.

Rising_Dusk's Winter Wonderland reminds me of another BL pokemon: Froslass. During her time in UU, Hail actually became somewhat common, despite Snover being the only one that could set it up. I think this shows that a new Snow Warning pokemon is not necessarily needed. Abomasnow isn't even all that bad; it's a good subseeder and can switch in on most bulky waters. In fact, we don't even really need Ice-type, as Snow Cloak, Ice Body, and Magic Guard can block hail damage, too.

bugmaniacbob's Defensive Characteristic is basically Milotic++. Milotic's support movepool consists of Haze, Toxic, and Hypnosis, and only the first 2 actually see use. Otherwise, its purpose is to just sit there and wall things while hitting back with its fairly good SpA.

TFT's concept (which might be better named as "Jack of all trades") is essentially what Clefable does in UU. It can do tons of stuff, but it's not always the best at it. Its unpredicatability makes it pretty dangerous, though, and it's also got a number of sets only it can run.

Since these Pokemon all fulfill(ed) rather interesting niches that aren't really seen in OU, I would definitely like to see these concepts.

[TFT]

Thanks Petrie, that makes me more confident about my idea, but what do you mean about the name?

[Fuzznip]

reachzero

My main problem with this Concept is how exactly it will be executed. There isn't a solid direction with it, because, like Deck said (thought stealer >:I) it's vague. Furthermore, we already have CAPs that made these kind of Pokemon usable. Colossoil brought Staraptor, Pyroak brought Crobat, Revenankh brought Togekiss, and Fidgit brought Dugtrio, among many others. How exactly will this be executed? In my opinion, the aforementioned Pokemon get used because they end up matching very well against our CAP Pokemon, without even considering them.

Vader

I like the idea of this Concept, but it's going to be difficult to pull off I think. We have to be sure we aren't making a Pokemon that is just your basic sweeper with excellent Speed and type coverage, like a stronger Starmie for example. This can also become an excellent revenge-killer if it gets the right movepool and Speed stat. If we want this Pokemon to solely be used as a late-game sweeper and nothing else, it will be a challenge.

Vaz

The idea of seeing if copying the opponent as a way of countering the opponent is effective interests me for sure. I'm kind of confused with the way you worded your explanation, though. "A Pokémon that is able to copy the features of an opponent in a way that uses what features it has has to defeat it." Do you mean that this Concept will copy something about the opponent and use that against it? I can see some ways we can go about building this, so it's not something that can't be done.

shrang

QuickStalling is definitely an unexplored niche in the OU environment. Stall teams are generally slow and some have a Choice Scarfer to help with the fact that they usually never move first. A QuickStaller will definitely change the way stall is used and it may be either extremely effective or it may not even impact stall at all. I guess you can say that this would be Fidgit-esque in that it will have high Speed and decent defensive stats with a movepool that takes advantage of its fast Speed and bulk. I think this is a Concept that would be interesting to explore and to discover what kind of impact it has on stall teams.

noobies

Setting up Sunny Day without actually using the move was deemed broken when it was tested for Pyroak. Pyroak was intended to abuse Sunny Day with his perfect typing of Grass and Fire, two types a Sunny Day Pokemon likes. I think sun is one of the lesser-used weathers because it doesn't have Pokemon that benefit from it greatly. For instance, every Rain Dance sweeper has Swift Swim and get their STAB Water-type moves boosted by 50%. Sandstorm Pokemon get increased evasion or a 50% Special Defense boost. Hail is kind of in the same boat as sandstorm, as it has Pokemon that will get increased evasion. Sunny Day will either give Grass-types double the Speed or Fire-types 50% stronger Fire moves, but never both. It would be nice to see a Pokemon that is capable of abusing both of these in the same set for a change and to see the impact it has on the ever-present sandstorm. My only concern is that I don't want to build an identical Pyroak with just a bit of movepool and ability changes.

TFT

If I understand your concept correctly, it's already been done by existing OU Pokemon. Your Concept implies that this Pokemon can do any role you want it to, but not all at once. For example, you can either make it a sweeper or a tank, but never both. This idea has already been accomplish by Pokemon such as Jirachi and Celebi. They have the stat spread and movepool to abuse whichever role you want them to. Jirachi can be a revenge-killer, a sweeper, a tank, a paralysis abuser, anything you want. Celebi is similar. We've already explored this Concept. Do we need to do it again?

Defyin

This is another one of those concepts that have been brought up time and time again. However, I do like the idea of making a trapper that can actually trap effectively. Dugtrio is too frail and not strong enough to be effective in OU. Magnezone is a pretty awesome Steel trapper. Tyranitar and Scizor are solid Pursuiters. What happens if we have a Pokemon that can use many different trapping strategies, depending on what your team needs trapped and disposed of? It would be interesting to see how it plays.

More to come later.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Originally Posted by Fat Fuzznip

Res Ipsa Loquitur

As I mentioned in my explanation, Fidgit is a fair comparison in some regards. But Fidgit is only good at getting Gravity going, while Pokemon like Starmie are only good at using it. I feel certain that a successful Gravity team would take advantage of some of these Pokemon, but they do not make the team.

Successful field effect teams always have one or more Pokemon adept at both activating and using the condition. Rain teams have Jirachi to set up with Damp Rock and then hit hard with Serene Grace Thunder or boosted Water Pulse. Electrode does a similar trick on those Rain teams. Sun teams have any number of Chlorophyll sweepers with access to Solar Beam, Fire-type moves, and Sunny Day. Trick Room teams have Bronzong to set up Trick Room, then outspeed nearly everything and use powerful STAB Gyro Balls. Slowking, similarly, forces out special attackers, uses Trick Room on the switch, and becomes an instant threat with Nasty Plot and powerful Surfs. Gravity has nothing like these Pokemon.

I believe that Gravity has a powerful and interesting effect. I believe that the metagame would benefit from its becoming more popular. I believe that a "Bronzong of Gravity" could make this happen. That is what I intend with my concept, and it should come out quite different from Fidgit.

[DougJustDoug**]

Name: Perfect Mate

General Description: Pick a good-but-not-great OU pokemon, and design the perfect teammate for it, similar to the way Celebi & Heatran, or Blissey & Skarmory complement each other so well on competitive teams.

Justification:
This would allow us to explore in detail how synergy between two pokemon can be achieved, because currently there are only a few perfect teammates in OU. And depending on the base pokemon we choose to give a "perfect mate", we can open a new niche in the metagame based around the efficient pairing.
The niche we create will be inherently tied to an existing pokemon in the metagame, which should provide a natural limitation to prevent this concept from being broken or "too different" from standard OU.

Questions To Be Answered:

• Is the base pokemon's usefulness (and usage) in the metagame increased as a result of having a "perfect mate"?
• What strategies are more effective for the base pokemon, as a result of having a perfect teammate?
• What are the most effective aspects of the new pokemon, for purposes of making a great teammate with the base pokemon?
• Is the new pokemon viable in the metagame without the base pokemon as a teammate?

Explanation:
This concept is very similar to the "Partner in Crime" concept proposed back in CAP 7. But, with all the changes in the CAP process, and stagnation in the metagame, I think this is a good time for the CAP community to focus on the competitive factors of synergy between pokemon.

I envision we will pick a base pokemon during the Concept Assessment. We will make a case to the TL for a good-but-not-great OU pokemon and the characteristics of that pokemon's "perfect mate". The Topic Leader would then select their favorite. We could even rename the concept to "<Pokemon>'s Perfect Mate" from that point forward.

It think we could have some fantastic discussions every step of the way, dissecting the base pokemon in exacting detail to figure out the best way to make an ideal teammate. If we choose the right base pokemon, we might even breathe some new life into a sentimental favorite, that isn't quite up to top-OU standards on its own.

[TPM]

Name: The Knight Who Says Ni
General Description: A Pokemon posessing great power that has one crippling, and potentially easy to exploit weakness (and I don'tjust mean type weakness).
Justification: I believe it would be rather interesting to see a Pokemon so incredibly devastating, thatisat the sametime not very feared for the reason it can be crippled quite simply. Now people may say this already exists in the form of many of the 4x weak Pokemon, however Salamence's strength ISN'Tcounter-balanced by his weakness, Scizor/Magnezone aren't so much "threatening" as they are useful, and Heatran and Gyarados can be handled without abuse of their weakness.
Questions To Be Answered:
-Can we balance Hercules' muscle with Achilles' heal?
-Can there exist a weakness so great that can render a would be tyrant to a merely okay Pokemon?
-How far can we push the abilities of a Pokemon if we put a handicap on it?
Explanation: Now the easiest thing wouldbe tojump to 4x weaknesses, but there are somany other things that can be done. Maybe instead of one 4x weakness, it has poor defensive typing in general. Maybe we make incredibly succeptible to paralysis, or incapableof breaking through acertain class of threats. Maybe its speed sits ata point where there a several Pokemon always able to switch-in, outspeed and KO. Now, I think the key to this would be porducing a PHENOMINAL pokemon made good because of a weaknes, instead of a good Pokemon made bad.

[Jibaku*]

Name: Offensive Trick Room user

General Description: A Pokemon that can "selfishly" (ab)use Trick Room and excellent firepower to cause great deal of damage to the opponent.

Justification: Okay this is rather hard to justify (and what's worse, there's already a Trick Room concept posted before this)... anyways, I'd like to ask - when was the last time you saw a Trick Room team? Or rather, how often? Almost none, right? What makes Trick Room such an unpopular move in singles, where Speed and relative frailty quite often dominates our metagame? Is it its duration? Is it the time it takes to set up (and then switch?)? Is it the lack of Pokemon that can take advantage of it? All of the above?

Come to think of it, how many Pokemon can simulatenously learn Trick Room and have decent firepower? FIVE! Exeggutor, Gallade, Bronzong, Palkia, Dialga. Exeggutor has too many weaknesses and a horrid special defense, along with an unappealing coverage in the offensive department, and Gallade has low Defense and is vulnerable to priority attacks. Bronzong has decent firepower, great bulk mainly due to Gyro Ball and Explosion, but falls flat against stall, and the last two are Uber. That leaves us with a grand total of ONE Pokemon in OU that can fit this role - and it's not quite strong enough sometimes, especially against slower teams

Also in case you aren't getting this, I don't mean stuff like Camerupt, Rampardos, or Rhyperior, all who have stats that are well suited under TR. This Pokemon HAS to learn Trick Room.

Questions to be Answered:
- If we make a Pokemon whose main purpose is to set up and destroy under Trick Room, how would the increased popularity of the move affect the metagame? How would teams change as a result? And I know this has been asked before, but "how would it affect stall teams?"

Explanation: I guess a big issue with this concept is the relative tightness of it. We know that this Pokemon either has to have great power and/or coverage, low Speed, and decent bulk. We might even have to stick Persistent for its ability to ensure the success of the concept. THat said, we still do have quite a bit of freedom to mess around. Speaking of which, I envision this Pokemon to mainly be used as a Trick Room sweeper, but that doesn't mean it can't do other roles.

PS: Cyclohm learns Trick Room, has middling Speed, and impressive firepower. But no one really uses it, because it has better things to do.
PS2: Fidgit gets Persistent and Trick Room, but it has lol 105 base Speed and other, more consistent utility moves to use.
PS3: I've said this before in the chat, I feel like mentioning it again. Can we not make cap11 weak to Ground pleeease?

[HouseFantastic]

Name: Opposite-stat Wall and Counter.

General Description: A wall that can block one type of assault and counter immediately using the other, "un-walled" stat.

Justification:
Pokemon that have a wide variety of things to do are extremely fun to use. I enjoy pokemon with lots of roles like Venusaur and Clefable, but not so much that their role is completely undiscernable until they use a few of their moves. I'd like to take out a bit of that unpredictability and replace it with a better opportunity to come in on attacks, which is something that pokemon like Venusaur and Clefable don't always have the luxury of doing. In conclusion, this pokemon would be fun to use like Clefable, and this would help the metagame out.

Questions To Be Answered:

• Does the current metagame have enough pokemon to really make people stop and think about what button they're clicking?
• Is a pokemon that goes in for the kill and not much else boring, even though it has a wide variety of attacks in its arsenal?
• Are easily predictable pokemon too prevalent in the metagame?
• Are certain types more effective as special types in general, and others as physical? How can we transcend this distinction with this pokemon?

Explanation:
I like the idea of having opposite stats, so that it would be analogous to or the antithesis of pokemon like Tyranitar, who attack physically and block specially. Imagine a physical wall with special attacks locked in a heated struggle, when Tyranitar comes in to block your special attack and set up its sandstorm, only to find out that you've got Aura Sphere in your arsenal, when he expected you to have something else, for an example. This could help create exciting and tense situations in the metagame, thereby improving its overall quality.

I would suggest that this pokemon has a huge movepool in one stat, and maybe a few good moves in the other one. Because of this, a wide variety of types may be suggested for use, too, but hopefully the one that prevails will be unique. Perhaps it could even take advantage of Conversion, a very cool move given to only the porygon family. While porygon2 is pretty bulky, it is far from a wall.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Originally Posted by Fat TPM

Name: The Knight Who Says Ni
General Description: A Pokemon posessing great power that has one crippling, and potentially easy to exploit weakness (and I don'tjust mean type weakness).
Justification: I believe it would be rather interesting to see a Pokemon so incredibly devastating, thatisat the sametime not very feared for the reason it can be crippled quite simply. Now people may say this already exists in the form of many of the 4x weak Pokemon, however Salamence's strength ISN'Tcounter-balanced by his weakness, Scizor/Magnezone aren't so much "threatening" as they are useful, and Heatran and Gyarados can be handled without abuse of their weakness.
Questions To Be Answered:
-Can we balance Hercules' muscle with Achilles' heal?
-Can there exist a weakness so great that can render a would be tyrant to a merely okay Pokemon?
-How far can we push the abilities of a Pokemon if we put a handicap on it?
Explanation: Now the easiest thing wouldbe tojump to 4x weaknesses, but there are somany other things that can be done. Maybe instead of one 4x weakness, it has poor defensive typing in general. Maybe we make incredibly succeptible to paralysis, or incapableof breaking through acertain class of threats. Maybe its speed sits ata point where there a several Pokemon always able to switch-in, outspeed and KO. Now, I think the key to this would be porducing a PHENOMINAL pokemon made good because of a weaknes, instead of a good Pokemon made bad.

This sounds a lot like Shedinja. Amazing in that it is borderline-unkillable, but with the flaw that it dies in one hit to any entry hazard or super effective move. I'm not sure how much better we could execute the concept.

Originally Posted by Fat HouseFantastic

Name: Opposite-stat Wall and Counter.

General Description: A wall that can block one type of assault and counter immediately using the other, "un-walled" stat.

Justification:
Pokemon that have a wide variety of things to do are extremely fun to use. I enjoy pokemon with lots of roles like Venusaur and Clefable, but not so much that their role is completely undiscernable until they use a few of their moves. I'd like to take out a bit of that unpredictability and replace it with a better opportunity to come in on attacks, which is something that pokemon like Venusaur and Clefable don't always have the luxury of doing. In conclusion, this pokemon would be fun to use like Clefable, and this would help the metagame out.

Questions To Be Answered:

• Does the current metagame have enough pokemon to really make people stop and think about what button they're clicking?
• Is a pokemon that goes in for the kill and not much else boring, even though it has a wide variety of attacks in its arsenal?
• Are easily predictable pokemon too prevalent in the metagame?
• Are certain types more effective as special types in general, and others as physical? How can we transcend this distinction with this pokemon?

Explanation:
I like the idea of having opposite stats, so that it would be analogous to or the antithesis of pokemon like Tyranitar, who attack physically and block specially. Imagine a physical wall with special attacks locked in a heated struggle, when Tyranitar comes in to block your special attack and set up its sandstorm, only to find out that you've got Aura Sphere in your arsenal, when he expected you to have something else, for an example. This could help create exciting and tense situations in the metagame, thereby improving its overall quality.

I would suggest that this pokemon has a huge movepool in one stat, and maybe a few good moves in the other one. Because of this, a wide variety of types may be suggested for use, too, but hopefully the one that prevails will be unique. Perhaps it could even take advantage of Conversion, a very cool move given to only the porygon family. While porygon2 is pretty bulky, it is far from a wall.

I find this concept very unclear. You say "like Clefable," which is basically the classic "jack of all trades, master of none" Pokemon. But then you talk about surprising Tyranitar with Aura Sphere. If you have so many strong special attacks that an amazing move like Aura Sphere isn't even expected, then you are master of a trade: special attacking!

Maybe you could make the concept clearer by changing your questions section. Your questions all pertain to why we should pick this concept; if we are answering yes to these questions, then we would like to see this as a CAP. That is not what the questions section is supposed to do. The questions are supposed to be things we currently do not know about the metagame that would be answered if we made a successful CAP under this concept. Put another way, if your concept is "a Pokemon that knows Fire Blast," a good question would be "What Pokemon would become less effective with another Fire Blast user available?" rather than "Are there currently not enough Pokemon able to use Fire Blast?"