CAP 18 CAP 18 - Playtest

Birkal

Birkal

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The CAP 18 Volkraken Playtest has officially begun!

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After 81 days of creation and discussion, we've finally completed our first CAP for the sixth generation of Pokemon. Release the Volkraken! Under the fine leadership of DetriotLolcat and his capable Topic Leadership team, we were able to churn out this Pokemon with efficiency and accuracy. For the playtest, DetroitLolcat ran CAP 18 with the core we designed for it: Offensive Defog Latias and Swords Dance Lucario, while ginganinja ran an unusual but effective Trick Room team. ginganinja's Conkeldurr was set for a sweep at the end of the match, but Volkraken helped stall out the Trick Room, giving leeway for Latias to finish off ginganinja's own Volkraken. You can see the entire replay for yourself here.

And now, Volkraken is available for public use on Pokemon Showdown.

Once you're there, hop onto the Teambuilder to make a team for the CAP 18 Volkraken Playtest ladder. Remember, you don't need to use Volkraken on your team; any Gen6 XY Overused team will do just fine. Once you're ready, get on the Playtest ladder and try out your team. Throughout the next two weeks, you'll face plenty of opponents who are testing the new metagame that features the hard hitting Volkraken.

The Volkraken Playtest Ladder will only be available for two weeks, meaning that its time will be over on June 7th. The user who is seated at the number one spot on the ladder at that time will receive global voiced status on Pokemon Showdown (+), and consideration towards the brand new CAP Contributor badge. Use this thread to post your impressions and thoughts on the new metagame. Share whatever tidbits of advice you may have. Best of luck on the playtest ladder!

Want to learn more about the Create-A-Pokemon Project? Check out the CAP Site for more information.
 
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Maybe not enough people have laddered yet, but Opposing Volkraken feel really underwhelming. If you have a switch in for it, it posses almost no threat to your team. Additionally, the Latias/Volkraken/Lucario core isn't that difficult to dismantle as Latias pulls 70% of the weight and has terrible 4MSS. The only niche use I could see for it would be to build a team that just completely shits on his counters.
 
It is sad to say that I have yet to see anyone using our complete core yet. In fact, after my short time on the ladder, I don't believe I have even seen any Lucario at all. Players are too focused on stopping Volkraken that using him optimally seems like it has been put on the backburner. I originally tried to use our core, but dropped it pretty quickly when I saw how prepared the ladder is.
 
I've done a few battles with volkraken and haven't gotten to use him because I keep getting haxed! One game I was flinched and finished off and another I took a hurricane, got confused, and hit myself and died.
 
I find that Volkraken is good as a wallbreaker, as such I'm using this set.
volkraken.png

Volkraken @ Choice Specs
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Fire Blast
- Hydro Pump
- Power Gem
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Pretty much does what a wallbreaker does; remove certain threats to set up a sweep for Lucario.
 
FierceDeity1 said:
It is sad to say that I have yet to see anyone using our complete core yet. In fact, after my short time on the ladder, I don't believe I have even seen any Lucario at all. Players are too focused on stopping Volkraken that using him optimally seems like it has been put on the backburner.
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I've played all of two battles so far, so I'm not really in a position to comment on what's actually happening, but remember that using our core might not be the same thing as using Volkraken optimally. Our goal was to make this core "optimal," and hopefully we succeeded, but the actual outcome could very well be different.
 
turd bunny said:
what is a good bulky attacker set? i am running hydro/fire blast/scald/?.
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Fire Blast / Surf / Will-O-Wisp / U-turn has been my favorite moveset for sets with Leftovers. U-turn to pivot and WoW for Azumarill, Gyarados, and Mega Mawile. Fire Blast because i need as much damage as possible vs Aegislash and Surf for a reliable and strong STAB.
 
Do you have any replays alexwolf? I'm curious to see how a non choice set plays out, most that I've faced were very underwhelming.
 
So far I've gotten up to like the lower 20s on the ladder using the core, bulky pivot lando t, tbolt gengar, and mega venusaur
 
I've been using a Sand HO team and it's been working out pretty well, but man is Specs Volkraken one hell of a nuke. Some of its supposed "counters" (Keldeo, Latios, etc...) don't really counter it : after just a little bit of recoil damage from Sand, Life Orb, or Stealth Rock, and they cannot switch in at all. I initially decided to run Fire Blast/Hydro Pump/Scald/HP Electric with max SpA, max Speed, and a Modest Nature, but I soon realised that Volkraken only needs 60 Seed EVs to outspeed what it wants to (specifically, Hasty Aegislash), and HP Electricreally isn't needed since Volkraken pummels its switch-ins hard with its STABs alone (I replaced it with WoW to play around Sucker Punch users). The set takes its inspiration from Keldeo, but it reminds me more of Crawdaunt : it has a hard time switching in, but once it's on the field, something is going to take a lot of damage.

I've seen quite a few people use an Assalt Vest set, which actually sounds quite good given that the hits Volkraken will take tend to be special. Does anyone have any experience with that set?
 
I have seen a few specially defensive sets and damn it can be hard to break down! My best bet is to annoy it with venusaur and latias and try to finish it with tbolt from latias of gengar or if its still alive, an earthquake from lando t. I wish landorus was a bit more bulky specially or faster so it could out speed volkraken without using a scarf set, which I don't want to because I like having rocks.
 
Albacore Just ran into a specs set, this is the analytic wall breaking nuke I've been waiting to see. Assault Vest wouldn't be too good due to no recovery and a SR weakness, though I suppose with wish and defog support it could be a good glue.
 
I run a Choice Scarf set, similar to what i run in OU with my Hydreigon. It's power (135 SpA) exceeds many of the special sweepers in OU and with a Scarf and access to U-Turn becomes a late game cleaner. I only played a few games, but it has tended to be pretty successful, although with Gyarados common on the ladder now, I think that HP Electric is a pretty good option.
 
i find that luke really doesn't do anything except, like, get sacked for a free switch. I don't want to ruin the concept but i've stopped using him altogether. I do better w/o him tbh.
 
Been trying a bread-and-butter specs set with fire blast, hydro pump, power gem, and u-turn to start off (a lot of changes could be made to this set). I've found that Power Gem is the best answer to opposing Volkraken, especially when allowed a safe switch-in from after a kill or with wish support.
 
I'm one of the few people who is running the core, but I as well am finding it underwhelming. Volkraken is a great wallbreaker with Choice Specs and all, but I often find that Latias just doesn't hit hard enough without a boosting item. The majority of my opponents thus far didn't even use Stealth Rock or any hazard, so it really does feel like Defog Latias is dead weight on my team in regards to one of its major roles, hazard removal.
 
Early impression for me is mainly the fact that while Volkraken is, in a vacuum, a good Pokemon, there simply isn't any reason to use it over Keldeo. It seems as though when making the CAP we forgot that Keldeo as a Pokemon existed and does many of the same things as Volkraken, only better. Keldeo's attacking prowess is similar, while its secondary STAB is much more effective. Secret Sword is just generally a much more useful move, especially when facing defensive teams that feature Chansey. Keldeo is also much easier to fit onto a team, with it being resistant to Stealth Rock as opposed to being weak to it, and its additional Speed lets it beat Pokemon that can OHKO Volkraken such as Landorus and Garchomp. I feel as though Keldeo hits hard enough that Volkraken's Analytic boost doesn't really make a noticeable difference.

In terms of Volkraken in the core, I've played a few games with it and the core isn't all too effective. Latias pulls the majority of the weight for the core, while Lucario and Volkraken kind of just sit there waiting for an opportunity to get in. The fact that both Lucario and Volkraken are pretty slow don't really help matters, and I haven't really seen many Aegislash, which is basically the one main selling point of using Volkraken over Keldeo.
 
PttP said:
Early impression for me is mainly the fact that while Volkraken is, in a vacuum, a good Pokemon, there simply isn't any reason to use it over Keldeo. It seems as though when making the CAP we forgot that Keldeo as a Pokemon existed and does many of the same things as Volkraken, only better. Keldeo's attacking prowess is similar, while its secondary STAB is much more effective. Secret Sword is just generally a much more useful move, especially when facing defensive teams that feature Chansey. Keldeo is also much easier to fit onto a team, with it being resistant to Stealth Rock as opposed to being weak to it, and its additional Speed lets it beat Pokemon that can OHKO Volkraken such as Landorus and Garchomp. I feel as though Keldeo hits hard enough that Volkraken's Analytic boost doesn't really make a noticeable difference.

In terms of Volkraken in the core, I've played a few games with it and the core isn't all too effective. Latias pulls the majority of the weight for the core, while Lucario and Volkraken kind of just sit there waiting for an opportunity to get in. The fact that both Lucario and Volkraken are pretty slow don't really help matters, and I haven't really seen many Aegislash, which is basically the one main selling point of using Volkraken over Keldeo.
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I agree with your keldeo point; the only use I've seen for volkraken was a gimmicky subtorment set I've been trying. I have been seeing a lot of aegislash though and volkraken really puts work in eliminating it so I can spin.

There's not a lot of people playing right now so I come up against the same opponents, which is annoying when that opponent is taking advantage of no swagplay clause :^(

While volkraken is outclassed for the most part it's fun to play with; and with a lot of the ladderers actually using it instead of a bunch of counters to the core, it's a nice change to the normal OU metagame. Badass design too :^)
 
Volkraken is the best design. Just got swept by a BP chain that had Volkraken as the final recipient (too bad it doesn't have Suction Cups!). Was trying out AV Volkraken and it's pretty darn bulky, but no recovery, sadly.

E: vvv Yeah, that was me :)
 
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Nuclear disaster said:
Volkraken is the best design. Just got swept by a BP chain that had Volkraken as the final recipient (too bad it doesn't have Suction Cups!). Was trying out AV Volkraken and it's pretty darn bulky, but no recovery, sadly.
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Yeah, I think you were the guy I was just watching (I dunno) Against meteordash right?

In addition to my earlier posts I'd like to comment on its abilities: analytic can make it a good switch wallberaker with specs but unlike starmie it's so goddamn slow (in comparison to the rest of the OU tier) that if you can predict around it you can easily kill it, even with threatening analytic hits. Its resistance to u-turn is nice but the volt switch weakness is ass tbh, the omnipresent rotom-wash is a fairly safe switch in; it's only neutral to weak power gems. For some reason, I have seen much rotom-wash, but its a nice switch in. Beats subtorment too. Infiltrator is nice but I'm not seeing too much Substitute. It's good for surprise because a lot of people expect anayltic, but it's not that great either way. I'm seeing a lot of thundurus-I and landorus-T doing their volt-turning shenanigans, as they both can easily kill volkraken, and that's a bit hard to deal with if you can't predict right. This CAP expirement is proving really interesting though.
 
I agree with you on most points, but the reason Rotom-W is such a good switch in is because it was supposed to be. It was decided that as Latias is a very good switch in to Rotom-W, Volkraken shouldn't really be able to touch it, to maintain functionality as a member of the core (because it needs the support from Latias/Luke to break through it)
 
Something I do not believe that we considered when picking analytic is that not everyone is the smartest and don't make obviously switches which analytic banks on because to be quite frank you are not going to be losing a lot speed wars since volkraken is a hit and run wallbreaker kind of like latios, but anyways we were so concerned in not making volkraken broken that we did not really give it that muche of a niche like PttP said he has been very underwhelming. As for the core lucario is just absolute deadweight unless you run sticky web, latias will be the leader, and volkraken will only be your win condition when your playing against a foe who switches a lot, or sets up a ton of subs.
 
Goldwing777 said:
I agree with you on most points, but the reason Rotom-W is such a good switch in is because it was supposed to be. It was decided that as Latias is a very good switch in to Rotom-W, Volkraken shouldn't really be able to touch it, to maintain functionality as a member of the core (because it needs the support from Latias/Luke to break through it)
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Ah I see. Unfortunately though, unless you predict rotom-wash coming in, it's instant momentum for the opponent...
 
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