Classic CAP Semi-Stall: a full CAP RMT

[reachzero]

The full CAP metagame is best known for defensive play: stall and semi-stall. When I decided to build a truly ladder-wrecking CAP team, I knew right away what qualities I wanted in it. As someone who typically plays "bulky offense", I had already experienced Arghonaut frustration many times, and I decided to plan accordingly. I also knew that I would be using Arghonaut myself. I knew that I wanted Toxic Spikes to take out enemy Arghonaut, and I wanted to make sure I could take out Fidgit to keep my Toxic Spikes down. As I filled out all the weaknesses and holes, Here is the team that took shape! One thing you'll notice right away it that I have two Choiced Pokemon with Trick, because I am aiming to beat enemy stall/semi-stall and Trick is potentially crippling to several notable stall Pokemon, such as Fidgit and Blissey. Also, Tricking a Choice item is my best strategy against last Pokemon Bulk Up Revenankh, which would otherwise be a real issue. Why am I revealed my team after all this time, you may ask? Mostly because of the introduction of Colossoil. Once Colossoil joins full CAP, it will really change things! Blissey becomes a lot harder to use effectively with the huge threat of Pursuit, so I'll really have to rebuild this team almost completely, if I continue using it at all!

Without further ado, my team!



Kitsunoh (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- ShadowStrike
- Superpower
- Trick


"The Ultimate Scout" plays a really important role on this team. Against faster Starmie or Stratagem leads, I go straight to Blissey (though yes, I'm wary of Explosion, so I usually go right back to Kitsunoh against Stratagem). Against lead Fidgit, I Trick! Once Fidgit is Choiced, it's a lot less threatening over the course of a game, and crippling Fidgit makes my own Fidgit much, much stronger. I knew it was important for me to have a good switch into Scizor, and Kitsunoh is certainly that. Of course, Kitsunoh is also my Spin blocker, so I do have to be careful about sacrificing Kitsunoh early in the game, that would be a good way to lose to a team with a living Spinner.

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Latias (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Trick

A very potent special attacker that can switch in virtually for free on Fidgit and OHKO, and can Trick to Blissey to cripple it if need be. My best switch into Heatran (I don't like Arghonaut eating a Toxic), and a great partner for Kitsunoh as it takes Fire and Ground type attacks. the nice part about Specs Latias in particular is that she doesn't need to stat up, so she still hits Arghonaut hard regardless.

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Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Def/138 Spd/120 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Softboiled
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock

Blissey is kindof an obvious piece to a semi-stall team, but mine is hardly a conventional Blissey, as you can see. I needed something to take on Latias and use Stealth Rock, which pretty much meant "Blissey or Tyranitar", and Blissey fit my team much better with its ability to shut down Starmie, which would otherwise be a problem Pokemon. When you look at my Blissey's EVs, however, you'll see something very interesting: Blissey is the single best Choice Band Scizor lure in the game. The vast majority of Scizor are bulky and run little speed, leaving their total speed less than 180. Conveniently, the 120 SpA EVs allow me to OHKO 248/0 Scizor with Stealth Rock damage nearly all the time.
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Arghonaut (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP/96 Def/162 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Toxic
- Roar
- Waterfall
- Recover

A newcomer to CAP once asked me after playing my team whether Arghonaut has base 40000 stats in HP, Defense, and Special Defense. It often feels like it....My answer to set-up sweepers of various kinds, including Lucario, Infernape, and many others. Roar is really the key to this set, my team usually has Spikes as Toxic Spikes down, so shuffling my enemy's Pokemon is obviously useful. I should specifically note that in case Gyarados reveals that it is a Bounce Gyarados, I go to Cyclohm as Bounce Gyarados hardly ever has Earthquake.
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Fidgit (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 252 HP/110 Spd/136 SAtk/12 SDef
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Shadow Ball
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes

I needed a grounded Poison-type to protect my own Arghonaut from Toxic Spikes, and a Ground type to take Electric attacks didn't hurt. Fidgit was an obvious choice for both! Having Rapid Spin is really important in CAP, since spike stacking is such a common strategy, so often the player whose Fidgit lives longer wins. I use Fidgit really differently against offense or stall; against offense I prioritize getting hazards up quickly even if it means sacrificing Fidgit, whereas against stall I play very conservatively with Fidgit. I usually drop Spikes before Toxic Spikes when facing stall, since it helps in wearing down enemy Fidgit.
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Cyclohm (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Shield Dust
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Slack Off
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt

Cyclohm was one of the first Pokemon I thought of when creating this team, a Pokemon that case take Bullet Punch like it's nothing while threatening Arghonaut with no setup. Once the enemy Blissey dies or gets Tricked a Choice item, Cyclohm can almost completely dismantle the opponent, virtually singlehandedly. I love the coverage that Cyclohm gets; with correct prediction, Cyclohm can heavily damage anything that isn't Blissey or Snorlax, and the fact that it is neither Pursuit weak nor Stealth Rock weak means it can spam Draco Meteor over the course of a game better than any other Dragon-type.

This team's combination of potent special attackers, Trick users and entry hazards make it an excellent matchup against the stall and semi-stall temas that are typical of the full CAP metagame, while remaining balanced enough to compete with offense and "heavy offense" teams. It should be interesting to see how full CAP changes with the addition of Colossoil, and how this team needs to change going forward!
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[cyberzero]

Since you've already got Toxic on Arghonaut and Toxic Spikes on Fidgit, Toxic on Blissey does seem like a little overkill. I think that you should opt for Heal Bell or Aromatherapy instead because your team does get harmed by status pretty badly outside of Fidgit. A Toxic Poisoned Arghonaut in particular would really hurt your team.

If you decide that Blissey is making great use of Toxic and want to keep it, I still think that too much of one status is unecessary. Arghonaut may have a niche on your team but I feel that you could use a setupper to take advantage of the heavy offensive power of Latias and Cyclohm. Changing Arghonaut to a Bulk Up/Waterfall/Drain Punch/Filler would be ideal for your team, but that's just from what I can see. Good luck, and I definitely hope I don't have to see this team too often when the CAP ladder comes back!

[Zach]

Alrighty... I think this team is DDMence weak. Dragon Dance can be set up against a choice-locked Surf from Latias, a choice-locked Superpower from Kitsunoh, or on Fidgit. A Jolly Life Orb Outrage does a minimum of 60% against your Arghonaut, and every other member of the team is outsped and/or hit for super-effective damage, save Blissey, who obviously can't stand up to a +1 Life Orb Outrage.

My proposed fix is simple: swap Kitsunoh's Choice Band for a Choice Scarf and use Ice Punch over Trick or U-turn. That way you can outspeed Salamence after a Dragon Dance and OHKO. Alternatively, you could swap Ice Punch with Toxic on Arghonaut, but Arghonaut is slightly more risky to switch into Salamence due to Draco Meteor.

Also note that I don't know much about the CAP metagame so please do take me with a grain of salt.

[Anachronism]

This is more balance than semi-stall in my opinion, but it looks very good. It incorporates some of the more broken pokemon in the metagame very well. Nice job reach!

Yeah, I kind of see where crunchatize me is coming from. perhaps a bit more def on arghonaut would help. All of the things that it counters for you are physical threats, so this seems pretty intuitive to me.

I think you might want a LO on Latias so that you gain access to recovery, since opposing blissey are probably goners anyway with all of the spikes you can stack.

Along the same vein, wish on fidgit would improve its survivability against stall, and this is arguably more important than toxic spikes are.