CAP 1 - Concept Submissions

[boo836]

Name: what is this i don't even

General Description:

A Pokemon that encourages a new type of playstyle, or a playstyle that is very rarely used.

Justification:

In Generation 5, Pokemon such as Excadrill and Landlos were the main reasons that Sandstorm offense has been a huge success. If we were to make a playstyle that adds another variable, possibly one that could discourage use of a dominating style.

For myself (and most likely others), when making a team in the Black and White metagame, individual threats aren't the only threats to be considered. Now, entire playstyles are usually taken into consideration. Having a Pokemon that encourages a new style may very well increase variety in the game concerning the newest threat. This of course, means that there will be another threat that must be prepared for. There are many threats that teams can not get past, but they prepare for as many threats as possible. As such, another threat really shouldn't mean that much to us, checking wise.

Questions:

• Could creating another variable positively or negatively affect the metagame?
• If the dominating playstyle were to be discouraged, what other styles or Pokemon see an increase or decrease in usage?
• What would be needed to create or revolutionize a playstyle?

• Could one Pokemon revolutionize a playstyle, resulting in revolutionizing the metagame?

Explanation:

Most teams in the metagame have been largely focused around weather, notably Sandstorm. This concept was inspired by other anti-weather concepts and due to this, I have tried to keep my paragraphs rather short. Unlike other anti-weather concepts, this concept's other purpose is to also create another (obviously) viable playstyle. Adding another major variable to the metagame in the form of a playstyle could just be what the Black and White metagame needs.


Even though I know that Sandstorm is the dominant playstyle, I wrote "dominant playstyle" instead so I can recycle this concept for a different CAP, if seen fit to do so.

[Aerodactyl Legend]

Originally Posted by Fat Rising_Dusk

Yes. If you're ever curious, read the rules for concept submissions here or in the OP of this thread. The following is the relevant rule for your past concept:

Aha, my mistake. Maybe because we haven't actually done one based off a specific move yet.

I feel though even a single move shouldn't be used on its own, but I guess Trick Room is a strategy on its own and the move can't be as easily implemented as others on any concept.

[Byrn Dragonstone]

Name: Hax
General Description: A Pokemon that tides the flow of "Hax" in the battle. It would help control and direct it.

Justification: Often times "Hax" is blamed for losing/winning. Sometimes it is so feared that entire pokemon and abilities end up banned for fear of it (Garchomp in 4th Gen, Inconsistent in 5th). Many times Hax is frowned upon and shoved to the side, but certain pokemon thrive on it (Jirachi/Togekiss). A pokemon that could avoid Hax, or create it, would be able to change the flows of battle.
Questions To Be Answered:

• How far can the "Hax" go?
• Would creating or limiting the Hax in battles encourage or discourage playstyles?

Explanation: Certain moves and abilities already encompass Hax to an extent. Sand Veil/Snow Cloak provide endless hours of frustration. Serene Grace can make a battle completely one sided. And Super Luck can help make kills at critical points in the match. On the flip side controlling that hax is limited. Anger Point punishes those that land a crit on you, but the owners of it are relatively frail or slow, making the boost meaningless. Then there is Battle Armor that prevents critical hits completely. This pokemon could utilize one or multiple of these abilities to help put the dreaded Hax in check, or bring it out against your opponent. A well rounded fighter, or a bulkier stat spread would particularly useful to this Pokemon.

[Sambobz]

I love the idea of exploring momentum so I am going to attempt to define momentum more clearly.
I would compare momentum to setting up in a way, though not as narrow in concept. Some examples: setting up with Volcarona's butterfly dance gains momentum through setting up; KOing a poke gains momentum by getting you closer to your ultimate goal and removing future options from your opponent; setting a layer of spikes/SR gains momentum; Getting a move active like leech seed, substitute or trick room gains momentum; and finally lowering your opponents momentum to to raise yours in relativity to theirs.

I think the implications of making a momentum pokemon are trying to create something that can accomplish two of these tasks at once to gain momentum quicker than your opponent. again some more examples: Moxie helps set up for future KO's when you successfully KO one of their pokemon; Memento cripples their momentum by wasting their turn and gives you a free turn to set-up or gain momentum; u-turn helps get you closer to KOing your opponents poke at the same time as switching; there are probably more moves or abilities I can't think of right now that grant momentum.

so I guess Momentum could be defines as...

Momentum: used to describe "layers of progress" within a pokemon battle

I believe the 5th gen OU metagame is so unforgiving because you can gain momentum so quickly via weather producers and offensive pokemon that no other slower set-up pokemon can get rolling as fast so early in the match. So that matches are reduced to seeing who can get the biggest snowball rolling first (or in this case a sand-ball).

this is my first post here so I hope my comments will be received.

[ShyGuy1221]

This is the first time I am participating in CaP (though I lurked a bit during CaP 11). I am saving my concept for CaP 2 because I would much rather see many of the concepts above made into CaP 1 than the concept I came up with. I like the Momentum concepts because there are so many ways we could go about making them. I also like what Rising_Dusk said about how if we are going to try anything out with weather, than we should try it now. Other concepts I can get behind are DarkSlay's "Lead"-ing the New Generation and ungulateman's Perfect Enemy for reasons that have been listed by those who have commented on them.

[kalamadude]

I seem to have accidentally (but independently, I assure you) come up with the same concept as Staraptor Call (Divergent) so I will put my full support behind that idea as well. However I brainstormed all day today trying to come up with a new concept to propose. I wanted to do something with Team Preview since it's my favorite new feature, however besides working with the concept of a lead in this metagame (Darkslay's idea) and messing around with a Pokémon who is unpredictable when seen on the Team Preview (Staraptor's idea), I'm not sure how else to attack it. Needless to say, I will fully support either of these ideas. I did come up with some semblance of a new proposal which I'd like to try out...


Name: Spitting Image

General Description:

A Pokémon that is very similar to a currently Overused Pokémon but with enough seemingly superficial differences that makes the two fill very slightly different niches in the same competitive metagame.

Justification:

This generation has seen the introduction of many Pokémon who share similar typings, abilities, and stat distributions with older Pokémon (Escavalier/Scizor, Reuniclus/Alakazam, Rotom-W/Lanturn, Blaziken/Infernape). They compete for nearly identical niches, but in some of these pairs, they both fight their way into OU niches (Escavalier and Scizor) while others see one of the pair completely overshadowed (Blaziken and Infernape). This concept would allow us to study this peculiar phenomenon in greater detail.

Questions:

• What decides whether two similar Pokémon both see usage?
• How different must two Pokémon be before they cease fighting for an identical niche and settle into their slightly different roles?
• Can we as a community create a Pokémon in this vein without making it inherently superior or inferior to the model?
• Are offensive niches more specialized or heavily contested than defensive niches?

Explanation:

One thing I've noticed in this new generation (to my annoyance), is that there was not a huge amount of new, exciting type combinations. We got our third Fire/Fighting starter in a row. We got an absurd three new Bug/Steel types, when Scizor and Forretress were already very widely used in OU. We got a glut of pure Fighting types to muscle in on Machamp's terrain.

What surprised me, though, is that many of these very similar Pokémon are seeing high usage statistics at the same time in the same tier. How can two Pokémon who are almost identical BOTH see usage in OU? I'll use the example of Escavalier and Scizor. We have two powerhouse Bug/Steel types with hugely powerful attacks. Both are frequently run as pivots and usually invest in Special Defense if anything. They are both frequently choiced. How can these two coexist? They're fighting for EXACTLY the same niche and yet they're seeing close to equal usage. Is one better or do their small differences (Escavalier has higher attack and Megahorn, Scizor has Bullet Punch and U-Turn) allow them to fit in different but almost identical niches?

Compare this to a totally different case - the Fire/Fighting starters. All three are the same type. All three are statistically biased to be mixed attackers but all three tend towards physical playstyles (although Infernape is almost always mixed). However Blaziken has completely overtaken the other two. All three are almost identical in their stats and movepools but Blaziken has that key ingredient - Speed Boost. The three do not at all coexist because one is clearly better than the others and the others do not shine enough to carve out their own nearby niches as Escavalier and Scizor did.

We got Rotom-W and Lanturn who now share the role of bulky Water/Electric status platform. Both have the same spectacular typing and very similar defenses (Lanturn has a lot of HP and lower defenses while Rotom-W has the reverse). Rotom is immune to Ground with Levitate, has higher Special Attack, and has an instant recovery move (Pain Split). Lanturn gets the ever useful Heal Bell and is immune to Electric with Volt Absorb. These, what, four differences make Rotom-W solidly Overused and Lanturn totally absent. Why?

I've only taken two biology courses at university, but this really seems like an almost scientific question biologists face every day - how do different species (Pokémon) carve out independent niches in a heavily competitive ecosystem (the OU metagame)? What stops one from just butting the other into obscurity? I'm not sure if this concept really addresses the differences between Generation V and Generation IV, but it is an interesting question that has been brought to my mind by this generational shift.

So what determines this? Why can Escavalier and Scizor carve out independant niches, but Infernape and Blaziken can't? Why can't Reuniclus and Alakazam carve out independant niches of Magic Coat Psychic powerhouses? How come two Bulky Water/Electrics cannot fit into similar but unique niches? I honestly have no idea and think it would be interesting to investigate.

[sax king]

Name: Surprise!
General Description: A Pokemon that is completely unpredictable and is capable of filling any role, but not as well as others might fill it.

Justification: There are many pokemon capable of running more than one set. But no pokemon can run a huge multitude of different sets and is completely unpredictable. Every pokemon has its counters and stuff that can beat it almost every time. But what if there were a pokemon that was so unpredictable that there was no way to know what set it was running? What if there were a pokemon that could do anything and everything well? Players would have to think about what to send out against it and how to beat it much more. The whole game would turn into much more of a mindgame and much less of a brainless revenge killing game, like a lot of we see today.

Questions To Be Answered:
How does total unpredictability make a pokemon dangerous?
How important is the element of surprise in pokemon?
Is there a surefire way to counter something completely unpredictable?
Will scouts become more popular due to the need to scout for movesets?


Explanation: Thought is the greatest weapon in pokemon. A great player can use mind games, prediction, and good playing skills against another. This unpredictability topic helps promote the use of thought and thinking in pokemon battles. It's really hard to read your opponent when he is running an unreadable pokemon. You can abuse the unpredictability to play with your opponent's mind and to win through skill and prediction. A lot of what we have now is what I call either a spam-fest or a revenge-killing spree. Players either spam one or two moves to kill off the opponent or just revenge kill everything. It has turned into I kill you, you kill me, I kill you, you kill me, etc. Thinking has become optional. But this pokemon will re-instill the thinking part of pokemon into the game, making this game much more rewarding for those players who are experienced and skilled.

I'm having a hard time articulating my ideas, so if someone wants to help me out or give me comments, that would be great.

[Teh_Mysterious_Egg]

I would just like to voice my opinion that the 'Momentum' idea is completely redundant to me... momentum is a very, very abstract concept that is a part of ALL games, from chess to Pokemon to Yugioh.
Every pokemon creates momentum, that's why you play the pokemon you do, to get and hold on to momentum. Momentum is a +2 SD Garchomp, momentum is getting 3 layers of Spikes down, momentum is WishPassing. It's not really an idea we can base a specific pokemon on, I mean, it SHOULD have a good way to create momentum, otherwise it wouldn't be a useful Pokemon, but if we were to name it as our concept, we still don't really have a direction of what type of pokemon.


And I must also say that I agree with Deck Knight that we shouldn't make this concept strongly linked to weather, but not for the same reasons. I just think that there is no room for creativity, there are only a few concepts I could see us coming up with, and I very much doubt that we would be able to say,"Wow, I never really thought of something like that before." This, to me, is what CAP is about, and I am pretty sure most of us have thought "Wouldn't it be cool to have a pokemon that could check all types of weather at once?" or "Wouldn't it be cool if there was actually a good, versatile, balanced Hail sweeper?"

[kingofkongs]

Originally Posted by Fat sax king

Name: Surprise!
General Description: A Pokemon that is completely unpredictable and is capable of filling any role, but not as well as others might fill it.

Justification: There are many pokemon capable of running more than one set. But no pokemon can run a huge multitude of different sets and is completely unpredictable. Every pokemon has its counters and stuff that can beat it almost every time. But what if there were a pokemon that was so unpredictable that there was no way to know what set it was running? What if there were a pokemon that could do anything and everything well? Players would have to think about what to send out against it and how to beat it much more. The whole game would turn into much more of a mindgame and much less of a brainless revenge killing game, like a lot of we see today.

Questions To Be Answered:
How does total unpredictability make a pokemon dangerous?
How important is the element of surprise in pokemon?
Is there a surefire way to counter something completely unpredictable?
Will scouts become more popular due to the need to scout for movesets?


Explanation: Thought is the greatest weapon in pokemon. A great player can use mind games, prediction, and good playing skills against another. This unpredictability topic helps promote the use of thought and thinking in pokemon battles. It's really hard to read your opponent when he is running an unreadable pokemon. You can abuse the unpredictability to play with your opponent's mind and to win through skill and prediction. A lot of what we have now is what I call either a spam-fest or a revenge-killing spree. Players either spam one or two moves to kill off the opponent or just revenge kill everything. It has turned into I kill you, you kill me, I kill you, you kill me, etc. Thinking has become optional. But this pokemon will re-instill the thinking part of pokemon into the game, making this game much more rewarding for those players who are experienced and skilled.

I'm having a hard time articulating my ideas, so if someone wants to help me out or give me comments, that would be great.

Doesn't Clefable do this exact thing? It's outclassed in most regards (i.e. Special walling is outclassed by Blissey, Attacker largely outclassed by Metagross etc...) While this is a concept that Clefable used to relative success, it is nothing new to the game.

[Destiny Warrior]

Originally Posted by Fat kalamadude

Name: Spitting Image

I don't see what exactly we can learn from this. Building a similar Pokemon to an existing Pokemon inevitably leads to us just building a better version of the Pokemon, and we don't learn anything from that imo.

[kalamadude]

Originally Posted by Fat Destiny Warrior

I don't see what exactly we can learn from this. Building a similar Pokemon to an existing Pokemon inevitably leads to us just building a better version of the Pokemon, and we don't learn anything from that imo.

That is exactly the opposite of the goal. The goal is to make two Pokémon that are similar but who both succeed in the metagame without one just being the go-to "better" version. We know this is possible from Scizor and Escavalier. But we also know that it is not a simple thing, given how Blaziken so clearly outclasses Infernape (and to a lesser extent Rotom-W outclasses Lanturn). I do not want two similar Pokémon where one outclasses the other, I want two Pokémon who are similar but manage to coexist all the same in this very competitive metagame. I'm not sure how to do it but that's why we would have a whole process.

Anyway, I don't think this is something that can be tossed aside so easily. It is not as simple as you made it seem and I think we stand to learn a lot since the battle over similar niches has not really been addressed in a CAP in the past.

[Sirfunchalot]

Originally Posted by Fat kalamadude

That is exactly the opposite of the goal. The goal is to make two Pokémon that are similar but who both succeed in the metagame without one just being the go-to "better" version. We know this is possible from Scizor and Escavalier. But we also know that it is not a simple thing, given how Blaziken so clearly outclasses Infernape (and to a lesser extent Rotom-W outclasses Lanturn). I do not want two similar Pokémon where one outclasses the other, I want two Pokémon who are similar but manage to coexist all the same in this very competitive metagame. I'm not sure how to do it but that's why we would have a whole process.

Anyway, I don't think this is something that can be tossed aside so easily. It is not as simple as you made it seem and I think we stand to learn a lot since the battle over similar niches has not really been addressed in a CAP in the past.

Blaziken is seldom better than Infernape since nape has a way better movepool and doesnt need to waste a turn protecting. Scizor almost always is better than Escavalier. Rotom-W IS better than Lanturn. Breloom and Virizion don't have much in common other than their typing, and both play almost completely differently. Reuniclus and Alakazam also have completely different stat spreads and therefore also play completely differently. If the idea you had is to simply make a poke with identical typing to a current OU threat, say Gyarados, but instead a Special Sweeper with Butterfly Dance, then that really isn't going to teach us anything about the way OU works aside of the fact that certain typings can be used to accomplish different things based on the stat distribution and movepool and ability of said pokemon, which is obvious.

[UltiMario]

Originally Posted by Fat Sirfunchalot

Blaziken is seldom better than Infernape since nape has a way better movepool and doesnt need to waste a turn protecting.

I'd argue that Blaziken really is superior to Infernape, since Protect is so safe it's really negligible the one turn Blaziken has to spend Protecting, it's just a sheer statistical advantage. That and if you get a safe turn it's free SD time.

In other news, I'm also loving the momentum stuff here. I was going to submit an idea, but it really could fall under momentum-ish as well, so I think I'll just go for that instead.

[Zebstrika]

Lanturn has Volt Absorb, Ice Beam, Scald, Attract (to add on to parafusion) and Surf. Rotom only has better stats, Levitate and Will-O-Wisp.

Blaziken has to use Protect to get better speed. Its main advantages are its raw power and Speed Boost.
Infernape has a much bigger movepool with stuff like Taunt, Stealth Rock and U-turn.

Breloom has Spore, Technician or Posion Heal. Leech Seed, Mach Punch and monstrous attack.
Virizion is much faster, bulkier and can go mixed. These two are very different besides typing.

But we still have enough of these pairs already. Ferrothorn vs. Forretress is another one. Salamence vs. Dragonite.

[Yllnath]

I'd like to throw my support behind Staraptor Calls Divergent concept, as well as kalamadude's Spitting Image.

I like the idea of Divergent for the simple fact that it is fairly broad in execution. It could even take in DrkSlay's Lead concept and as one of his possible roles, etc. The reason I like it so much is that Team Preview seems so underutilized right now. I for one have been using a team on PO with fairly unpredictable pokemon, and then having a pokemon in the first slot of my team who is known to be a lead (SR, Spikes, etc.), yet I placed him in the first slot as a bluff only and always start with another pokemon, and almost always net at least 1 kill or gain a big amount of momentum going because of just fooling the opponent with Team Preview, by playing into their believes of what pokemon does what, etc.

The concept in itself may seem chaotic, as you indeed almost need a 2nd concept submission thread just to figure out what to do with the guy, what roles he needs to fulfill. However, the idea of putting a lot of emphasis on Team Preview, the underlying mindgames because of multiple sets, could teach us a lot about this new (and imo most fun) aspect of the 5th Gen.

As for Spitting Image, I'm not sure if it's really suited for a CAP1 concept, as this concept could be done anytime, and there are concepts proposed that are more about discovering new 5th mechanics which is obviously more CAP1-ish. That being said, I actually love this idea.
If it teaches us one thing, it is that we need to keep our heads cool in the building process and not OP anything we do. All CAP so far have become more powerful than imagined and strayed more from the concept than planned. Even though the concept may be limited in it's options when building the CAP, because you need to somewhat copy another pokemon, it does finally give us a very good oppertunity to very carefully compare powerlevels (so to say) between our model pokemon that we base our CAP on and our CAP to build. Because in the end, if our CAP as much as outclasses our model pokemon slightly, it's likely it'll fall out of usage and we will have failed our concept.
Another reason I like this is because up til now, we really have mostly worked on finding new niches for concepts, because it seemed useless to build something that was already in the game, and that we already knew all about.
However, thinking about it now, if we really go in-depth a lot on one single pokemon, trying to find his niches, his core-being so to speak, and we have to copy that niche to a point where the two pokemon are very similar, yet still worth it to make you think about which of the two you want on your team because of the minor differences, it'll learn us a lot about interpreting niches properly. For example, Scizor could be seen as a Scout and Revenge Killer. Those two roles are frequently given to Flygon to. Yet they are not similar at all and there could be reason enough to have both of them on the same team.
Making a CAP that really gets into the Blaziken/Infernape range where having both pokemon on the same team is a liability since they are too similar to each other and fulfil almost the exact same niche yet build the CAP so that the respective "powerlevels" of the two pokemon are so equalled out that when building your team, you really need to scratch your head on who to pick, not only will that learns us a lot about the building process itself, it also forces us to focus really carefully on niches and how "strong and useful" the model pokemon is because if we misjudge him, or we screw up during the building process, our CAP will likely outshine the model pokemon.


I'm not sure about Momentum as a concept. Sure, learning more about momentum as a vital part of gameplay is intrueguing and probably very educational. However, in the end, when we do need to build the pokemon, the concept is still vague at best. Because like many already have commented, anything can give momentum. Switching in Blissey, the slow fat blob that doesn't have any offensive capabilities can still be seen as gaining momentum when you switch it into a choicelocked Starmie for example. And of course, a scout with U-turn, a fast lead with SR or even a Misch Heart Taunter/Encorer, as well as a fast offensive pokemon, all can be used to (re)gain momentum. Going with a more focused concept like "slowing the pace" still gives us the same oppertunity to dig into momentum as a gameplay element in general, but when we actually get around to building a pokemon, we also have a very clear outline on what we want to build. Something that slows down both sides so both sides gets more turns to carefully build up their strategy and ultimately get the momentum needed to win the game. How we go about making a concept like that, I don't know, but at least it's more focused that the Momentum concept.
So if we want to explore momentum, lets at least pick up a more focused concept like Slowing the Pace.

[JellyOs]

Name: Fulcrum

General Description: A sturdy wall with an ability that cripples the opposing Pokemon on the switch, or a move that can halt a sweep, (p)haze a Baton Pass chain, etc. all while maintaining "momentum" on your side of the field.

Justification: New threats require new counters, and with the offensive out-weighing the defensive, a new kind of defense could be put into use. A true "Perfect Pivot" would allow us to study, and break down, offensive into what simple mistakes allow a sweep and the specifications that stop a sweep; and new ways to destroy the dreaded successful Baton Pass chain.

Questions To Be Answered:
-What defines a "Pivot-Pokemon"
-How can offense be stopped quickly and efficiently without KO-ing one's self with moves such as "Memento"
-Could so many threats be put down by one simple strategy? (Do all offensive Pokemon have one, common, crippling weakness)

Explanation: This generation has introduced many, many new threats and new (and insane) stat boosts to pass. Although offense may be the dominant play-style many walls exist to halt all momentum. The currently OU Mew and Smeargle with Gear Change and Butterfly Dance both pass excellent boosts, allowing a sweep. Or the new set-up sweepers such as Conkledurr and the Terrakion. All of these have one thing in common: a set in stone check. Although I am not proposing a check, I am proposing a Pokemon simply used to switch out to, and then re-switch to the appropriate counter. You may say we have Mence and Gyra with Intimidate, but a 1 stage Attack drop doesn't hurt their momentum terribly much. I'm talking about a pivot that in one turn, or on the switch, completely shut down a possible sweep, yet remain useful to the team after providing its role, perhaps Spinning or Spin-blocking. Very few reliable pivots exist that can stand up to powerful offense, but maybe it's just that those "pivots" were never truly designed to be in the roles they posses.

[Little Battler]

after pondering for a few days, I managed to come up with a somewhat absurd idea

Name Wildcard

General Description A pokemon that is more fine tuned than a jack-of-all-trades to perfectly fit into more than one niche, yet is only capable of doing one at a time by a specific combination of hold items and abilities.

Justification
We have seen lots of pokemon capable of doing more than one thing, only restricted by a 4 moveslot syndrome. This pokemon should be capable of doing more than one thing perfectly, so it's not a jack of all trades, yet is only capable of doing so by the means of a certain hold item / ability combination.

Questions to be answered
- How do we respond to a pokemon capable of doing two or more perfectly different roles perfectly?
-Could one pokemon be specialized in various different niches, while incapable of doing more than one role at a time?
- the rest of the question depends on what roles this pokemon will take. This means that this concept can be combined with one or more concepts.

Explanation
We have seen lots of jack-of-all-trades such as mew. These pokemon are decent in everything they do, yet they are capable of doing so much that they are good in their own rights, even though they are only decent. What we'll do with this concept is that, we narrow down the options that a pokemon is capable of doing, while still keeping enough variety, and fine tune its stats, abilities and movepool to do those specific roles we have appointed it. This pokemon should be capable of doing any role we appointed to it perfectly while being incapable of doing more than one at a time. In short, a jack-of-all-trades that has sacrificed part of its unpredictability for being better at what it does.

[mec]

Name: Conservatory

General Description: A pokemon that, while perhaps not strongly effected by them, makes the "Room" Moves more competitively viable.

Justification: These room moves (Trick room, Wonder room, Magic room) may be considered gimmicky, but that is only due to the fact they lack the support that other 'weather' conditions have, such as Ninetales with Drought setting up sun indefinetly. Previous to this, Sun was considered a 'gimmick' by many, and this new lease on life for sun caused many pokemon to skyrocket in use (Charizard, Venasaur,etc.) If 'rooms' were given this kind of injection, they could easily become more viable.

Questions to be answered:
-Would this be possible without the introduction of a new item/ability?
- How much of an effect would this have on the existing metagame?
-(Follow-up)How easily could this pokemon (and it's following team) be countered?
- when and what could this pokemon switch in on?
- How effective would this pokemon be if it's 'rooms' were shut down?

Explanation: Trick room makes some unviable pokemon viable. It's that simple. It can also be and effective counter to hyper-offence: For example, under trick room, Slowbro can come in on Doryuuzu, take an (un-boosted, I admit) Earthquake, then outspeed and OHKO with surf. The other rooms as well, for those who are unfamiliar:
Magic room- Prevents both pokemon's hold items from being effective
Wonder room- Switches both pokemon Defense and Sp.Def
Both of these could be wonderful if they could be induced more effectively. Magic room prevents trick users from ruining your lead, stall, etc. and rarer stuff like
yache-chomp still takes full damage from ice. Under wonder room, Blissey is open to special attacks, and vice versa for physically defensive pokemon. Basically, a pokemon like this could re-write a section of the rule book, without being game-breaking.

P.S. I also think it would be better if this pokemon wasn't psychic type: Trick room and wonder room are almost psychic exclucisive and magic room IS psychic exclucisive.

P.P.S. I'm also behind the splitting image idea in part, and would argue that we COULD learn from it, in that slightly if different pokemon require slight differences to fill completely different niches, what are these differences and how slight are they?

Also, with the momentum idea, Is that not just what earthquake spiral/overconfidence/moxie sets out to do? In terms of attacking, anyway.

[Alchemator]

Fidgit already has the ability Persistent, which increases the duration of Trick Room.

Just a note.

[deuxhero]

^
What are we doing with the gen 4 caps in gen 5 CAP anyways? Cloning them over directly? Abandoning them? Exanining how they are effected by the general swap as a future project?

[ungulateman]

Originally Posted by Fat deuxhero

^
What are we doing with the gen 4 caps in gen 5 CAP anyways? Cloning them over directly? Abandoning them? Exanining how they are effected by the general swap as a future project?

We're abandoning them for serious play, but they're currently available on the server. We'll be able to use them in 5th Gen for off-ladder mathces, as far as I can tell.

Some ideas are similar to older ideas, so we could see some interesting parallels.

[mec]

Originally Posted by Fat Alchemator

Fidgit already has the ability Persistent, which increases the duration of Trick Room.

Just a note.

And Palkia's rain dance lasts longer if you give it a Damp rock. But it doesn't do that, because it has better things to do.
I feel this is the case with Fidgit: Give it trick room, and it suddenly suffers from severe 4 move syndrome. With moves like encore, tailwind, etc. that utilise this ability, and it's high speed, I don't think Fidgit is cut out for trick rooming.
Also, I read somewhere that we 'aren't shoehorning new moves and abilities' into 4th gen CAPs to make them fit. So where does that leave Wonder/magic room?

[capefeather]

There have been a lot of submissions related to a Pokémon filling one of multiple possible roles, but I don't think that this is appropriate for CAP 1. I had something along these lines thought up myself for a possible CAP 12, but it never happened. In other words, I think that a "jack of all trades" CAP is more suited for late in the generation, when the ban list is settled and a lot is already known about this OU environment. I just fear that in our quest to make a "Jirachi of CAP", it will be hard to make it actually work the way we want it to without extensive collective familiarity of Generation V OU.

[sax king]

I actually think that a pokemon capable of filling more than one role should be our CAP 1. Everyone is going to use the new CAPmon. There's no point of playing on the CAP server if you're not going to use the new CAPmon. If this pokemon is going to be on everyone's team, we want it to be able to do more than one thing. Take for example Stratagem. If we implement a pokemon that is similar to Stratagem on every team, everyone's team will be predictable. Everyone is going to have Stratagem, Stratagem counter 1, Stratagem counter 2, Stratagem counter remover, filler, filler. If we have a pokemon that can do only one thing, we will have teams running the same pokemon with the same set with the same team mates. This is not going to be fun to play. But if we have a pokemon capable of doing more than one thing, the metagame becomes much more diverse. It's not so easy to just pack a counter to it. If we want a diverse dmetagame, we will have to make our first CAP a CAP that can be have a multitude of uses. We should leave the specialized or niche CAPs for later.

Also, @kingofkongs, Clefable really isn't the same thing at all. To start, Clefable is pretty bad in OU and really can't do anything well at all. And there are many sure-fire ways to beat Clefable, the first being a strong fighting type. Clefable is also incapable of running many sets (Specsable, Revengekillerable, Physical Wall, Sweeperable, etc) and really only has three different viable options of roles. The mon I'm trying to create is capable of doing almost anything. To stop it from being broken, I said that it can't do it to the same extent as others (I don't want Blissey special walling, Skarmory physical walling, Excadrill sweeping, and more all on the same pokemon).

[reachzero]

Originally Posted by Fat ungulateman

Concept: Perfect Enemy

General Description: A Pokemon designed to be another popular Pokemon's worst nightmare. They are an absolute full stop to that Pokemon and others like it, although they may lack in other areas. Examples include Infernape and Starmie, or Suicune and Vaporeon.

Although I generally like this idea, I am a bit concerned about the extent to which the concept would design itself. Once the enemy is picked, I feel that five different people could design the CAP independently and the designs would come out looking very similar. This isn't a total poo-pooing of your concept, though, just an expression of worry. If we chose this concept, I think we would need to choose a very difficult threat to counter as our enemy. By the way, you should really remove the "Examples include" sentence from the description, since it is both unnecessary and not very accurate (Infernape with U-turn clobbers Starmie, and any Suicune with Rest is beating Vaporeon one-on-one).

Originally Posted by Fat FarfetchDFanboy

Concept: Tierless

General Description: A Pokemon that can check or counter most of the current metagame's threats, but is countered by pokemon that would not normally see use in a competitive OU team.

This seems a lot like Arghonaut's Decentralizer concept; one of the issues with it is that by seeking to counter most of the biggest threats (i.e. the very good Pokemon) it needs to be extremely powerful, and the Pokemon that beat it become more and more obscure. Arghonaut was one of the most overpowered Gen 4 CAPs, and I think the concept itself was a big reason for that.

Originally Posted by Fat Destiny Warrior

Concept: Binary Star
General Description: A Pokemon that shines in doubles with a good niche, but is not particularly good in singles.

A strong concept and long overdue! Let's see how it does in the polls, considering have few of us have ever played doubles...

Originally Posted by Fat Woodchuck

Concept: Hazards Defier
General Description: A pokemon that is exceptionally weak to or crippled by entry hazards, but has ways to recover from the damaging effects of these hazards.
.

If there is already a Pokemon in OU that already embodies a concept almost perfectly, I don’t really see the value of making a CAP along that concept. As you noted yourself in your description, Volcarona (Uragamosu) already fits this concept about as ideally as possible.

Originally Posted by Fat Mektar

Name: The Assassin

General Description: The Assassin is a Pokémon that can eliminate a few problem Pokémon for certain unconventional teams swiftly, and without possibility of failure. However, it would be incapable of harming anything else.

If this is the “offensive version of Utility Counter”, if it an okay concept. However, I am very concerned about the phrase “without possibility of failure”. Just about the only way failure could be totally excluded would be Arena Trap (or possibly Pursuit with a massive Attack stat). Either of these is a factor that needs to be VERY carefully balanced against the rest of the CAP.

Originally Posted by Fat Solstice

Concept: Speedy Staller

General Description: A Pokemon that can be a prominent defensive threat by outspeeding and outstalling the opponent.

“Walls on Wheels”, “Quickstall”, whatever it is called, someone submits this every concept poll because it is a good idea and eventually we will actually choose it.

Originally Posted by Fat Admiral_Stalfos19

Concept: The Hax Hunter

Description: A Pokemon that's designed to eliminate, or at least severely reduce, the amount of luck-based events: such as critical hits, paralysis from stuff like Discharge or Body Slam, burns from stuff like Lava Plume or Scald, flinches from stuff like Rock Slide or Iron Head, etc that happen to anyone who adds it to their team.

An acceptable concept; of course, we would have to make sure that we intentionally made this turn out different from Cyclohm!

Originally Posted by Fat srk1214

Concept: Trick Room Abuser

General Description: Trick Room has had some success as an anti-metagame playstyle, however, apart from Reuniclus and Krimgan, the pool for viable sweepers is quite small. This Pokemon would need to threaten from both the physical and special sides in order to distinguish itself from the two aforementioned options.

My concerns mostly lie with your description. A Trick Room abuser obviously needs very slow base speed, but specifically requesting a mixed attacker is well outside the boundaries of what a concept is allowed to dictate. Aside from that, I somewhat disagree that the metagame lacks good Trick Room attackers, but I would be content to leave that for the voters to decide.

Originally Posted by Fat DetroitLolcat

Name: Second Chance

General Description: A pokemon that can, if on a team, can reduce or negate the effect of a misplay by the user.

Conceptually, I love this concept. It’s fresh, it would clearly help the metagame, etc. More concretely, I think this would be quite difficult to actually flesh out and make into a Pokemon. CAP is a creative community, so we could probably find a way somehow!

Originally Posted by Fat Teh_Mysterious_Egg

Name: Status Assassin

Originally Posted by Fat Teh_Mysterious_Egg

General Description: Geared towards effectively crippling top metagame threats with, but not less-commonly seen Pokemon, and cannot outright KO top threats, but isn't defensively weak to them either.

Interesting concept, to be designed to cripple threats without actually killing them, but the description is worded in a very confusing way--please re-arrange the wording of the description to clarify it.

Originally Posted by Fat Sirfunchalot

Name: Poison Abuser

General Description: The goal of this pokemon is to make full use of the HP draining status of Poison.

Justification: The Poison Status is perhaps the least useful status in the current OU Metagame. It can't cripple sweepers to the extent paralysis does, it can't cripple physical attackers like burn, it doesn't completely incapacitate a pokemon like sleep or freeze; it's just meant to steadily wear down the opponent. In a metagame filled with steel types and other pokemon immune to common forms of poison, how can we wear down both offensive and defensive threats alike with this underused status?

Lots of Pokemon can Toxistall, but designing a Pokemon specifically to Toxistall is indeed a fresh concept. Just to clarify, though, do you meant the Toxic poison status, or the ordinary Poison status? Obviously Toxic poison is a lot stronger and more common than ordinary Poison.