CAP 17 CAP 6 - Part 10 - Movepool Poll 3

[Korski]

Welcome once again to your local Create-A-Pokemon polling station! We're still doing movepools, so you should know what to do!

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My preferred submission

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This poll will be open for 24 hours.

When voting, use only the submitter's name to indicate which entry you support. Here are the options:

Bull of Heaven
jas61292
Korski

And here are their Final Movepool Submissions:

Final Submission

Each VGM is marked with an asterisk.

Level

1 - Peck
1 - Leer
5 - Foresight
9 - Quick Attack*
13 - Metal Claw
19 - Bide
23 - Pluck
27 - Defog
33 - Steel Wing
37 - Drill Peck*
41 - Detect
47 - Belly Drum*
51 - Bullet Punch*
55 - Hurricane*

Nothing too exciting here I think, but there are a few notable competitive moves. Drill Peck is the alternative Flying STAB for those that don't want the drawback of Acrobatics, since Brave Bird would discourage the use of Belly Drum. Bullet Punch and Quick Attack provide priority, with Cawmodore getting STAB on Bullet Punch and being able to use it on faster threats that would knock it out after a Belly Drum. All of these moves have already been discussed at length, and none of them are particularly controversial, so I doubt I need to say anything more about them.

On to flavour. I think my level-up flavour might have gotten a little out of hand in my last movepool submission, so this time I tried to keep things fairly simple. The two main themes here are the use of Cawmodore's prominent beak (Peck, Pluck, Drill Peck) and the navigational skill that it would need to have as a sailor. Foresight suggest strong eyesight, Defog allows it to see more clearly and Detect refers to the eyesight again while allowing it to notice danger with enough time to evade it. A Cawmodore with Detect definitely won't be crashing into any icebergs. Metal Claw, Steel Wing and Bullet Punch provide the almost-obligatory Steel STAB. I had actually wanted Bullet Punch to be an egg move, but nothing in my desired groups could pass it on. Metal Claw might seem like a stretch to some, but those feathers on the ends of its wings definitely look to me like they could be used for clawing, and if Piplup can use Metal Claw, surely Cawmodore can. Bide suggests an ability to survive in, and even exploit, harsh environments. Just like Cawmodore can handle being battered by the elements, it can take a beating from opposing Pokemon and hit them back even harder. But that's just a vague start; a Cawmodore that manages to learn Hurricane has truly mastered its environment and is ready to unleash that power in battle, even if it is only backed by 65 base SpA.

If anyone's actually wondering about the level pattern, I originally copied it from Skarmory and then made some modifications. After its level 1 moves, Skarmory gets its next move at level 6 and then follows a 3-3-5 pattern in terms of the differences between levels that bring new moves. I didn't think that pattern quite suited this slightly short list, so I tried a few small adjustments to the numbers to see which variation I liked most. The result is a 4-4-6 pattern starting at level 5.

TM/HM

TM06 - Toxic*
TM07 - Hail
TM10 - Hidden Power*
TM11 - Sunny Day
TM15 - Hyper Beam
TM17 - Protect*
TM18 - Rain Dance*
TM20 - Safeguard
TM21 - Frustration*
TM27 - Return (functionally identical to Frustration)
TM31 - Brick Break*
TM32 - Double Team
TM40 - Aerial Ace*
TM42 - Facade*
TM44 - Rest*
TM45 - Attract
TM48 - Round
TM49 - Echoed Voice
TM60 - Quash
TM62 - Acrobatics*
TM66 - Payback*
TM67 - Retaliate
TM68 - Giga Impact
TM87 - Swagger
TM88 - Pluck (repeated from level-up)
TM90 - Substitute*
TM91 - Flash Cannon*
TM94 - Rock Smash
HM02 - Fly
HM04 - Strength

The two notable competitive moves here are Acrobatics and Brick Break. Acrobatics is the most Belly-Drum-friendly move available to Cawmodore, since it provides strong Flying STAB with no recoil and pairs well with either a Sitrus Berry for recovery or a Flying Gem for maximum power. The presence of Acrobatics and absence of Brave Bird also discourage the use of a Choice Band or Life Orb, two common items that don't pair well with Belly Drum. Most importantly, Acrobatics ensures that Cawmodore will be a genuine threat, capable of doing some damage before setting up and tearing through opponents after the setup. Both of these are important, as Cawmodore cannot afford to rely solely on such a risky move as Belly Drum, and the HP loss from Belly Drum combined with the absence of Drain Punch in this movepool mean that Cawmodore might only get one chance to boost and hit hard. While it does also have recovery in the form of Roost, that opens other vulnerabilities that will be discussed in the "tutor" section, and is not reliable enough by itself to compensate for Belly Drum. In short, I think that Acrobatics is necessary for the concept's success, especially without Drain Punch.

As for Brick Break, it provides some coverage on things that resist Acrobatics without being overpowered. Again, Cawmodore is a Pokemon that needs to be able to demolish many opponents quickly in order to be viable, and some sort of Fighting coverage is an important piece of that puzzle. Brick Break's relatively low base power ensures that Cawmodore's most important checks won't be among the aforementioned demolished opponents.

Flavour-wise, this list is largely filled with simple, required and self-explanatory moves. Cawmodore is a tough, straightforward physical battler, not something that uses flashy elemental attacks. As a sailor-like Pokemon, it finds value in being able to clear problematic weather (Sunny Day), but it can also learn how to unleash the power of the storms it's encountered (Rain Dance, Hail). Note that many Water-types learn Hail, and while Cawmodore isn't a Water-type, it's certainly familiar enough with aquatic environments. It's also a Pokemon that commands attention, allowing it to use Swagger and Echoed Voice effectively. Quash is normally given to authoritative-looking Pokemon, and Cawmodore definitely looks like it would be the captain of its ship. Flash Cannon is semi-obligatory Steel STAB, while Rock Smash and Strength demonstrate its physical power.

The two most notable flavour omissions are Sky Drop and Surf. Sky Drop actually has surprisingly narrow distribution. It's not a move that just any bird gets, and Cawmodore looks to me to be more interested in straightforward, direct attacks than in picking an opponent up and dropping it. As for Surf, I never even seriously considered it before I saw other people including it. Sure, it fits the sailor theme well, but frigate birds don't swim and Cawmodore doesn't look like an exception. It's very hard to imagine it carrying a trainer on water.

Tutor

Ice Punch*
Icy Wind
Iron Head*
Recycle
Roost*
Sky Attack
Sleep Talk*
Snore
Uproar

The one notable competitive move that the tutor list brings to the table is Roost. Ice Punch is also a decent attack, and does a little extra damage to the likes of Dragonite, Gliscor and Landorus-T, but Acrobatics and Bullet Punch handle threats well enough that there isn't much value in giving a moveslot to Ice Punch. I included it mainly as a flavour move. Roost, on the other hand, is the only way for this version of Cawmodore to regain HP without relying on an item, and has a couple of drawbacks to keep it more balanced that Drain Punch. First, relying on Roost prevents Cawmodore from attacking and healing at the same time, meaning it can't negate the drawback of Belly Drum and exploit the benefit in the one turn. Second, I've tried to keep Cawmodore balanced by giving it a slight case of 4MSS, and if Roost is included in a set, it's very likely to come at the cost of either coverage or priority. Finally, Cawmodore's high Speed means that it's likely to use Roost before the opponent moves. While this does bring some obvious benefits, it also means that Cawmodore temporarily gains two very common weaknesses in Fighting and Ground, which limits the number of opportunities is will get for safe recovery. While I've seen it suggested that a Roost + three attacks set will overshadow Belly Drum if Roost is included, I doubt that this is the case. I've already mentioned why a fast Roost is a double-edged sword, and Cawmodore lacks the power to be a major threat in OU without some kind of boost. If it relies on an item for that Boost instead of Belly Drum, it still suffers because Acrobatics is no longer viable.

Drain Punch, as mentioned already, was left out because I think that allowing Cawmodore to put its +6 boost to use while simultaneously negating the drawback of Belly Drum is too much. I believe that if we don't want a boosted Cawmodore to break OU, we should force its trainer to make some reasonably tough decisions, and a move that does so much at once doesn't really fit with that principle. Belly Drum's drawback is what keeps the move balanced, and any options Cawmodore gets to negate it should come with significant drawbacks of their own. I've already demonstrated why Roost is such an option, and I don't believe that Drain Punch is as balanced as Roost.

Both the presence of Recycle and the absence of Endeavor reflect my weakness for odd, gimmicky moves that could have some use but aren't so likely to actually be good. Endeavor would be a great flavour move, but it exploits Belly Drum's drawback in a way with which I'm not comfortable. That's not to say that I think it would be broken, but I don't like the idea of Cawmodore doing a ton of damage to itself and then weakening its checks so easily with Endeavor. As for Recycle, it's probably not worth a moveslot, but with Belly Drum and Acrobatics encouraging the use of consumable items, it could conceivably be useful to grab a little extra recovery from a Sitrus Berry or use that Flying Gem a second time. The ability to get as much use as possible out of a single item seems to me to be something a resourceful sailor like Cawmodore would want to learn.

Icy Wind is yet another flavour move that refers to Cawmodore's native environment, plus it's something that a lot of birds get. The other flavour moves shouldn't need much explanation. Ice Punch gives Cawmodore Ice coverage, once again implicitly tying it to the Water type, and anyone that's seen the supporting art knows that Cawmodore has no trouble throwing a punch.

Egg (Flying and Water 1)

Baton Pass*
Endure
Focus Energy
Gust
Mega Punch
Mist
Water Gun
Water Sport

Choosing egg groups was easy. Flying is the most obvious one for a bird, and aquatic birds tend to be be in Water 1. Cawmodore shares this egg group pairing with Pelipper and Swanna. Illegal move combinations are a non-issue because the only viable move in this list is Baton Pass. Baton Pass provides a second interesting use for Belly Drum, and is another way that the move can potentially be made viable. Like Cawmodore's other interesting options, though, Baton Pass comes at the cost of a valuable moveslot, meaning that its inclusion will hurt Cawmodore's ability to either sweep by itself or heal itself. Baton Pass can be a difficult move to pull off if the opponent maintains offensive pressure, and does nothing to reduce the difficulty of setting up a Belly Drum. These factors keep the move balanced, but the ability to sometimes give a successful Baton Pass to a powerful physical sweeper might still be just what Cawmodore needs to properly influence the OU metagame.

The other moves add some extra flavour to the movepool. Endure represents Cawmodore's ability to survive a harsh environment. Focus Energy and Mega Punch represent its tough fighting spirit, and as mentioned in the "tutor" section, the supporting art makes it quite clear that Cawmodore can throw a good punch. The other four moves are additional references to Cawmodore's ocean habitat and implicit connections to the Water type. Gust made the list, or rather stayed on it as I was cutting moves to reach the limits, as a reference to Gustern, my favourite name for this Pokemon that didn't win. While Water Sport has no competitive value, it is another example of Cawmodore's resourcefulness in battle, as its inclusion means that some [Volt Absorb] Cawmodore have found a way to negate their only weakness.

Summary

VGMs: 23 + 1
Acrobatics
Aerial Ace
Baton Pass
Belly Drum
Brick Break
Bullet Punch
Drill Peck
Facade
Flash Cannon
Frustration + Return
Hidden Power
Hurricane
Ice Punch
Iron Head
Payback
Protect
Quick Attack
Rain Dance
Rest
Roost
Sleep Talk
Substitute
Toxic

Non-VGMs: 36
Attract
Bide
Defog
Detect
Double Team
Echoed Voice
Endure
Fly
Focus Energy
Foresight
Giga Impact
Gust
Hail
Hyper Beam
Icy Wind
Leer
Mega Punch
Metal Claw
Mist
Peck
Pluck (appears twice)
Quash
Recycle
Retaliate
Rock Smash
Round
Safeguard
Sky Attack
Snore
Steel Wing
Strength
Sunny Day
Swagger
Uproar
Water Gun
Water Sport

Total Moves: 60

Basically, the idea is to give Cawmodore a decent number of options while preventing it from doing everything in one set and forcing the player to make some choices. Most of the notable moves were included, but if I thought that a single move might do too much, I left it out. The most notable omission is Drain Punch, which means it takes two slots to get both coverage and recovery, and I also left out all priority moves except Bullet Punch and Quick Attack to separate coverage and priority. A Pokemon built around Belly Drum is difficult to balance, since the move tends to fail or succeed completely with no middle ground. My solution is a movepool that has all the tools Cawmodore needs to succeed, but also gives it some 4MSS.

Final Submission

One thing you will notice with my competitive movepool overall is a sense of conservativism. While I will save the specifics for the competitive section down below, the overarching reasoning behind every inclusion and exclusion is the fact that I believe that what we have already is incredibly powerful with Belly Drum, and simply trying to make it better and better at the expense of the counters we have decided on is not a good way to go about things. Yes, Belly Drum is a risky strategy, but we have taken many steps so far to counteract this risk, and I truly believe that CAP6 can be incredibly successful with a minimalistic movepool, so that is what I am providing here.

Bold = VGM
* = Equivalent to another VGM
~ = Repeated move

Level Up

00 Growl
00 Peck
06 Sand-Attack
10 Gust
14 Mist
19 Wing Attack
23 Detect
27 Swagger
32 Steel Wing
38 Defog
42 Tailwind
47 Bullet Punch
51 Belly Drum
55 Air Slash
60 Embargo
66 Flash Cannon
72 Hurricane

17 Moves, 6 VGMs

Level Up flavor reasoning

For my level up movepool I wanted Cawmodore to have fairly basic bird based movepool, but with a few additions inspired by his nautical commander theme. However, despite having the base of a simple bird, I imagined Cawmodore being more of a lategame Pokemon like Braviary, and thus it is off of Braviary that I based the basic structure of the level up learnset.

To start off, it gets Growl and Peck from the beginning. They are staple bird moves, so there is no better way to get things going. Next comes Sand-Attack and Gust, which, again, are just moves that you would expect on just about any given bird. Level 14 is where things start to get a bit interesting. I wanted a move that would not be that strong, but give more of that sea bird feel. I think Mist does this very well, as it represents the spray off the ocean, specifically off of boats. Level 19 brings Wing Attack, which, while not that exciting, is another bird staple that is necessary to have before it gets too late if the Pokemon is to be useful in game. The next couple of moves represent the kind of qualities a good captain (or commodore) should have: some basic foresight into the dangers of his surroundings (Detect), and some bravado (Swagger). These are followed by another "obvious" move in Steel Wing, which is not all that special, but, for a Steel type bird is practically a necessity.

Moving onto the higher levels, we get a lot more into the sea captain theme. The next two moves, Defog and Tailwind, are incredibly useful tools for sea travel. I mean, what captain would not absolutely love the ability to eliminate bothersome fog or get a favorable wind at will. After those, we go back to more standard Pokemon flavor for a bit with important STAB options in Bullet Punch and Air Slash, with the concept defining Belly Drum in between. While not necessarily related to the rest of the flavor theme, I wanted Belly Drum in the level up movepool because Cawmodore's design just gives it such a perfect belly to drum on. Following that we have my absolute favorite flavor move of all: Embargo. While an embargo should not be confused with a blockade, ships could still be used to enforce an embargo, and I love imagery this move brings.

Finally, the last two moves it learns are a pair of powerful STAB options, but each also has its own additional flavor benefits. The classic power weapon of a sea vessel is the cannon, so having Flash Cannon as its final steel move is quite fitting. Hurricane, on the other hand, is not specifically ship related, but certainly has sea ties in its own right, as hurricanes always form out over the ocean. In addition, Hurricane is a common capstone moves for the Flying types that learn it, and especially ones with ties to water.

TMs/HMs

TM06 Toxic
TM10 Hidden Power
TM11 Sunny Day
TM15 Hyper Beam
TM17 Protect*
TM18 Rain Dance
TM21 Frustration
TM27 Return*
TM32 Double Team
TM39 Rock Tomb
TM40 Aerial Ace
TM42 Facade
TM44 Rest
TM45 Attract
TM48 Round
TM58 Sky Drop
TM63 Embargo~
TM68 Giga Impact
TM80 Rock Slide
TM84 Poison Jab
TM87 Swagger~
TM88 Pluck
TM90 Substitute
TM91 Flash Cannon~
HM02 Fly
HM03 Surf
HM04 Strength

24 Unique Moves, 11 VGMs

TM flavor reasoning

For TM flavor, most of the non-competitive stuff here is pretty basic and obvious. Toxic, Hidden Power, Return and the like are all standard on all Pokemon. Aerial Ace is on all flying types. Sky Drop, Pluck and Fly are fairly standard for birds, and Embargo, Swagger and Flash Cannon are all repeated from level up. Rain Dance and Sunny Day are moves seen on a ton of different Pokemon, with little connection between them all. Since I already had some weather related reasoning in the level up pool with Hurricane, Defog, Tailwind and the like, I though these moves would fit in here. Surf was also included as I felt it was something a sailor bird would have.

The few potentially competitive coverage moves here are Rock Slide and Poison Jab. Poison Jab is something a lot of random Pokemon get, with the only basic requirement seeming to be having some appendage to jab with. Rock Slide (and Rock Tomb as well), unlike there stronger counterpart Stone Edge (which I did not include) are moves seen on all sorts of Pokemon, from Granbull to Munna. There was little reason I could see that Cawmodore would not be able to get these moves, and since I am not giving a lot of other options for competitive reasons, I wanted to give it the few I could that made sense.

Tutors

Helping Hand
Icy Wind
Iron Head
Knock Off
Last Resort
Seed Bomb
Signal Beam
Sky Attack
Sleep Talk
Snore
Tailwind~

10 unique moves, 5 VGMs

Tutor flavor reasoning

Tutor moves are often where some more obscure options can come in, but in this case I tried to keep things fairly simply. Icy Wind and Sky Attack are standard for Flying types, while Iron Head is standard for steels, and Sleep Talk and Snore are standard for everything. Last Resort is a more unique flavor move, but I feel it show the kind of determination a Pokemon like Cawmodore would have. Helping Hand also works as, a captain is not alone on his ship. He has to work with and help out his crew. Finally, Signal Beam is a fun and symbolic move as the ability to send out signals is highly important to a commodore in change of multiple vessels.

Seed Bomb is very similar to Poison Jab back in TMs in that it is an interesting coverage move that a ton of random Pokemon get. While not necessarily huge on the flavor, it made the cut as one of the best coverage options I am giving Cawmodore in my movepool.

Egg Moves (Flying/Water 1)

Brine
Drill Peck
FeatherDance
Mirror Move
Ominous Wind
Splash

6 unique moves, 1 VGM

Combos

Legal Combos

Brine + Drill Peck + Featherdance from Empoleon
Brine + FeatherDance + Mirror Move from Swanna
Brine + Ominous Wind from Pelipper
Brine + Splash from Kingdra
Drill Peck + FeatherDance + Mirror Move + Ominous Wind from Fearow and others

Illegal Combos

Brine + Drill Peck + Mirror Move
Brine + Drill Peck + Ominous Wind
Brine + FeatherDance + Ominous Wind
Brine + Mirror Move + Ominous Wind
Drill Peck + Splash
FeatherDance + Splash
Mirror Move + Splash
Ominous Wind + Splash

Egg Move reasoning

Egg moves are always my favorite, as they simultaneously contain pure flavor and any extra competitive moves that don't fit elsewhere. Fortunately, there were no real competitive moves I wanted that wouldn't fit elsewhere, so I got to stick to pure flavor here. The egg groups themselves were chosen because they were the same groups that Pelipper and Swanna were in. While it may be Steel and not Water, Cawmodore has much more in common with these water birds than any other flying types.

Like many before it, Brine is another sea inspired move. In fact, when it comes to moves that represent the ocean at its best, nothing comes close to Brine. FeatherDance and Mirror Move are some fun bird exclusive moves, and I think they make Cawmodore feel more realistic. Ominous Wind is in for similar reasons, as, like Icy Wind in the tutor pool, a lot of Birds have access to this move. But when it comes to fun moves, Splash definitely takes the cake. I got the idea for this one when DougJustDoug made an offhand comment on IRC about how a Cawmodore prevo should have splash, and, while I don't have any control over if we have a prevo or not, the idea of Cawmodore splashing around in the water is just too good to pass up.

Drill Peck is the lone competitive move in the egg movepool. Not much to say on this one. Its a fairly standard STAB move, and has precedence as being an egg move in Pokemon like Skarmory and Murkrow.

Competitive Summary

Physical Attacking VGMs:

Aerial Ace
Bullet Punch
Drill Peck
Facade
Frustration
Iron Head
Poison Jab
Return
Rock Slide
Seed Bomb

10 Moves (1 set of equivalents)


Non-Attacking VGMs:

Belly Drum
Detect
Knock Off
Protect
Rain Dance
Rest
Sleep Talk
Substitute
Toxic

9 Moves

Total:

57 Moves, 24 VGMs

Competitive Reasoning

Drill Peck: The most important of all the moves on Cawmodore, Drill Peck is where the bulk of its damage output will come from. It is tied with Iron Head for the strongest STAB move it has, and is by far of the better offensive typing. Once it is set up, the power provided by Drill Peck should be enough to finish off mildly weakened teams without providing so much power that it becomes unstoppable whenever it sets up regardless of the situation.

Bullet Punch: The other key offensive move in Cawmodore's repertoire, Bullet Punch makes sure it is not stopped by every revenge killing scarfer and priority user in the game. After a Belly Drum, frail offensive Pokemon such as Breloom are cleanly OHKOd, along with Pokemon weak to steel like Terrakion. It also allows it to pick of other fast Pokemon who are weakened, and gives a bit of utility to it even before Belly Drum is used.

Seed Bomb: Probably the most useful coverage option Cawmodore has. Seed Bomb is not exactly a wondrous coverage move, as most things weak to it are already destroyed by Drill Peck or Bullet Punch. However, it does have a few very notable advantages. At +6, Seed Bomb will always OHKO 252/0 Tyranitar (who can sometimes survive a Bullet Punch), easily OHKO any Rotom-W, and your best option against Unaware Quagsire and Hippowdon.

Tailwind: While not actually a VGM, our Movepool Leader DarkSlay asked for comment on this move if we were going to include it. Personally, I included it because I think it is good flavor, and it simply lacks any competitive advantage. Cawmodore lacks the support movepool to run a team supporter set, doesn't have the power to take advantage of it without Belly Drum, and lacks the time to use it in tandem with BD. Besides, Tailwind is an underused move, so if by some miracle it does become common, at worst it would cause us to pull a Voodoom and succeed in an unintended way. But I highly doubt that would happen. Its just not good enough.


Notable Exclusions

Acrobatics: If there is one word to describe why I chose not to include Acrobatics, it would be "power." We chose a set list of checks and counters early on in the project, and these checks and counters are really important. When we ignore them, we are likely to run into major problems. So, to put it bluntly, Acrobatics allows us to power through each and every one of these counters, which is a recipe for failure. Not a single Pokemon in the game can switch in safely on it, making battles way too team reliant. Either you have a revenge killer for it, or you lose, because checking it defensively is simply impossible. To make things worse, it essentially frees up a moveslot as it eliminates the need to ever run a coverage move. You certainly could, but you could also run substitute or something just as easily. Either one of these things that Acrobatics does alone would be dangerous to allow, but together they are far too much.

Drain Punch/Brick Break: Like Acrobatics, the main reason for disallowing these moves here is that they allow Cawmodore to simply power through any counters. Sure, there are a few pokemon that could still survive a hit with these, but the best they can do in return is phaze out. Drain Punch makes this even worse as before phazing can be done, Cawmodore would have healed itself up so much that it can't have been considered countered at all. While these moves may not have the moveslot freeing effect of Acrobatics, the fact that they eliminate counters without hitting much else besides these counters is more than enough reason to keep them out.

Non-STAB Priority moves: Once again, the reasoning for not including these moves has to do with or checks and counters list, though this time, rather than focusing on the defensive switch ins, these moves remove too many of the offensive revenge killers. Things like Keldeo and Jolteon should be able to revenge kill us fairly easily. Yeah, that is unfortunate as a player, but it is the players responsibility to clear out such Pokemon before they attempt the game ending sweep, not our responsibility to make sure Pokemon like that don't exist. Now, I don't think every single one of these moves removes all of our offensive checks. However, I believe we have a good list right now and have absolutely no reason to remove any of them.

Roost: Honestly, I'm shocked this move was even allowed. It does absolutely nothing to help facilitate Delly Drum sweeping, and with our physical bulk and abilities, puts us dangerously close to being able to just be a wall or pivot without running Belly Drum at all. We might not have incredible power, but we have higher offensive stats than guys like Skarmory and Jellicent, while having awesome abilities and fantastic speed. Maybe it might make Belly Drumming easier (though I doubt it), but with Roost, there would be absolutely no incentive to even try an use Belly Drum at all. Like, I'd try and justify this further, but I can't even understand why we are even considering this move to begin with. When it comes to allowed moves that do nothing to help the concept at all, Roost is the king.

Final Submission

This is a pretty fun art design to build a flavorful movepool around. We've got the obvious Flying-type elements of the frigate bird as well as the necessary Steel overtones and Fighting/Water-type undertones from the nautical theme of the art and name (e.g. Detect, Quick Guard, Rock Smash, Brine, Water Sport, Rain Dance, etc.), all of which I try to emphasize throughout the movepool. On the competitive side, this movepool is predominantly offensive and offers a strategically powerful single coverage type in Fighting, specifically Drain Punch, to supplement Commodore's STAB attacks. There isn't a whole lot of room for variation in movesets here by my estimation, but that is by design. There may be wiggle room between Acrobatics and Drill Peck, and then possibly amongst Bullet Punch, Knock Off, Rest, and Substitute, but I don't expect standard sets to deviate much at all from the Belly Drum / Acrobatics / Drain Punch / Bullet Punch setup.

Level-Up Moves

(15 moves, 5 VGMs)

0. Leer
0. Peck
5. Growl
9. Swift
13. Metal Claw
18. Screech
22. Wing Attack
26. Detect
31. Steel Wing
35. Belly Drum
39. Bullet Punch
44. Brine
48. Tailwind
52. Flash Cannon
58. Hurricane

Here I've tried to bring out the personality of the art design as I see it, that is, of a rough-and-tumble sailor-bird that oozes confidence and doesn't know the meaning of the word "retreat." Cawmodore is always moving forward, never looking back and never backing down from a fight. There's no such thing as "too fast" (Tailwind) or "too strong" (Belly Drum) to Cawmodore, no, in fact, this mighty bird is a surly, salty brawler who will never surrender because it downright refuses to lose.

So, the Level-Up pool here follows a steady transition from more "biological" moves in the early (likely pre-evolved) stage to more "nautical" ones as Cawmodore's brutish and seafaring aspects come to light in later levels. Early moves like Leer, Peck, and Swift are standard fare for birdmons, while Growl and Screech reflect the primary ability, Intimidate, rather well. The primary attacks of these early stages of development are Metal Claw, Wing Attack, and Steel Wing, as they seem to fit incredibly well together in progression and with the understood way this Poke would use its body to attack.

At L35, Cawmodore learns Belly Drum (might be a good place for an evolution!) and thus transitions into the nautical movepool progression. Of these, I especially like the combination of Bullet Punch and Flash Cannon for their connotations of heavy artillery within the naval theme. Brine is a really flavorful addition that brings the water element (salt water, even) that I liked about the overall art design into this section of the movepool. I also added Tailwind and Hurricane to establish a "wind theme" that goes really well with the Flying-typing and the sailor vibe, especially. Hurricane is a good last move here, too, as it demonstrates a sailor's dominance and control over his closest friend and most mortal enemy, the unforgiving sea.

Egg Moves

(Flying group; 9 moves, 4 VGMs)

Air Slash - Braviary, Crobat, Farfetch’d, Mandibuzz, Noctowl, Pelipper, Pidgeot, Sigilyph, Skarmory, Swanna, Swellow, Swoobat, Togekiss, Unfezant
Drill Peck - Dodrio, Fearow, Honchkrow, Skarmory, Xatu
Metal Sound - Skarmory
Mirror Move - Altaria, Chatot, Dodrio, Farfetch’d, Fearow, Honchkrow, Mandibuzz, Noctowl, Pidgeot, Sigilyph, Swanna, Swellow, Togekiss
Pursuit - Aerodactyl, Altaria, Crobat, Dodrio, Fearow, Honchkrow, Pelipper, Pidgeot, Skarmory, Staraptor, Swellow
Quick Attack - Archeops, Crobat, Dodrio, Farfetch’d, Fearow, Honchkrow, Pelipper, Pidgeot, Staraptor, Swellow, Unfezant, Xatu
Quick Guard - Archeops
Razor Wind - Fearow, Unfezant
Water Sport - Pelipper, Swanna

Move Combos

Legal Move Combinations:
Air Slash + Drill Peck + Metal Sound + Pursuit (Skarmory)
Air Slash + Pursuit + Quick Attack + Water Sport (Pelipper)
Air Slash + Quick Attack + Razor Wind (Unfezant)
Air Slash + Mirror Move + Quick Attack (Farfetch’d)
Drill Peck + Mirror Move + Pursuit + Quick Attack + Razor Wind (Fearow)
Mirror Move + Water Sport (Swanna)
Quick Attack + Quick Guard (Archeops)

Illegal Move Combinations:
Air Slash + Quick Guard
Drill Peck + Quick Guard + Water Sport
Metal Sound + Mirror Move + Quick Guard
Metal Sound + Quick Guard + Razor Wind
Metal Sound + Quick Attack
Metal Sound + Water Sport
Pursuit + Quick Guard
Razor Wind + Quick Guard + Water Sport

Note: There aren't any notable Egg move illegalities, mostly because there aren't many notable Egg moves.

The Egg pool flavor is a continuation of the themes established in the Level-up pool. The combative, war ship elements are reflected here with the additions of Metal Sound (clang!) and Pursuit. Cawmodore can be bred to learn advanced aerial and fighting techniques like Air Slash, Drill Peck, Mirror Move, and Quick Guard. Also carried over from the LU pool are the nautical theme (Water Sport), the wind theme (Razor Wind), and the need for speed (Quick Attack, Quick Guard).

TM/HM Moves

(28 moves, 14 VGMs)

TM06 - Toxic
TM10 - Hidden Power
TM15 - Hyper Beam
TM17 - Protect
TM18 - Rain Dance
TM21 - Frustration
TM23 - Smack Down
TM27 - Return
TM31 - Brick Break
TM32 - Double Team
TM40 - Aerial Ace
TM42 - Facade
TM44 - Rest
TM45 - Attract
TM48 - Round
TM58 - Sky Drop
TM62 - Acrobatics
TM67 - Retaliate
TM68 - Giga Impact
TM77 - Psych Up
TM87 - Swagger
TM88 - Pluck
TM90 - Substitute
TM91 - Flash Cannon
TM94 - Rock Smash
HM02 - Fly
HM03 - Surf
HM04 - Strength

Here (Acrobatics) and in the Tutor pool (Drain Punch), we see how Cawmodore's true power comes from its training. The TM list is an efficient grouping of tricks and techniques that showcase this Pokemon's potential for battle prowess. Cawmodore's aerial skill is on full display here, with access to Acrobatics, Aerial Ace, Fly, Pluck, and Sky Drop, in addition to showoffy moves like Swagger and Smack Down that are designed to embarrass lesser opponents. Fighting flavor is reinforced in the TM pool with Brick Break and Rock Smash, while Water flavor comes through with Rain Dance and Surf. And of course Cawmodore learns Strength, as it is the surly bird's most important trait.

There are 28 moves in the TM/HM pool, with Flash Cannon repeating from the Level-Up pool, leaving 27 moves unique to this list.

Tutor Moves

(10 moves, 5 VGMs)

Block
Drain Punch
Endeavor
Iron Head
Knock Off
Sky Attack
Sleep Talk
Snatch
Snore
Tailwind

Finally, the Tutor moves complete the movepool with some more flavor additions like Block (frigate birds have a crazy wingspan, perfect for cornering and blocking off retreating opponents), Endeavor, and Sky Attack. Other moves I have added for pseudo-gimmicky competitive reasons, like Knock Off for Choice Scarf switch-ins and Snatch for opposing Cawmodore looking to set up.

There are 9 moves in the Tutor pool, with Tailwind repeating from the Level-Up pool, leaving 8 moves unique to this list.

Summary

(60 moves, 25 VGMs)

Attacking VGMs (17):

Acrobatics
Aerial Ace
Brick Break
Bullet Punch
Drain Punch
Drill Peck
Iron Head

Endeavor
Facade
Frustration / Return
Pursuit
Quick Attack

Air Slash
Flash Cannon
Hidden Power
Hurricane
Surf

Non-Attacking VGMs (8):

Belly Drum
Detect / Protect
Knock Off
Rain Dance
Rest
Sleep Talk
Substitute
Toxic

Competitively, I tried to take into account several prevailing attitudes from our previous discussions. First and foremost, I wanted to ensure that Belly Drum would be its best set, as per the second Concept Assessment. This is a fundamental requirement for any movepool submission here, as Belly Drum's general terribleness will cause its usage to fall by the wayside if any other options, at all, are available. There simply aren't enough useful moves in this movepool to fill out a set that has any kind of merit without Belly Drum; there's no Roost, no Baton Pass, no exotic coverage, and no real utility here, which should ensure that viable movesets won't stray from the original intention of our design.

The second attitude from past discussions I strongly considered was the inherent risk/reward nature of Belly Drum, not only on the Pokemon itself, but in using up an entire teamslot on a Belly Drummer to begin with. Despite this Poke's abilities, I still believe that there is an astronomical risk involved in making a BD set work, first in setup and second in execution. On setup, I imagine being handicapped to a team of 5 so that the Belly Drummer could be preserved enough to actually get a shot at setting up later in the match, and that's before even considering the in-battle scenarios wherein the CAP could actually use the move and put it to its intended use. I imagine the specific precautions that will need to be made before committing to a 50% HP sacrifice, crucially the elimination of both Choice Scarfers and stubborn defensive threats like Skarmory. Then, after those precautions are made, there is the actual attempt at boosting, which will need to be done without the opponent simply attacking through it. The strategic requirements of this strategy are far more than every other boosting sweeper has to deal with, which is a big disadvantage for this CAP. These are the main reasons why I believe a big reward is in order for the big risk involved in using this Pokemon; I was not afraid to give Cawmodore both Acrobatics and Drain Punch simply because they do a great job at sweeping that no other move combination can mimic. The checks list is a very important element of most CAP Projects, but I think it is less significant this time around, and that is due to the very nature of relying on Belly Drum to have any kind of effectiveness in OU.

Drain Punch is actually a pretty fun move here. Having ideal 2-move coverage in Flying and Fighting actually leaves room for Bullet Punch in the standard set, which is imo pretty awesome. The healing effect of Drain Punch is less overwhelming than I think a lot of people are assuming. While managing 44-52% to Skarmory at +6, Drain Punch heals back only 31-36% of Cawmodore's HP before it gets Phazed out, which gives it a severely encumbered but still plausible second shot at a sweep. If you want to factor in one Belly Drum and two rounds of Stealth Rock damage only, this will leave you at 56-61% HP on your second attempt, just barely enough to try for another boost if you've taken less than 6-11% in other damage. Remember, Skarmory's best option is to wall and Phaze (Brave Bird: 17.4% - 21.2%), making it a soft check at best. Drain Punch also keeps Ferrothorn from stalling out Cawmodore with Leech Seed and Protect while it sets up, which is nice.

Umm, I included Tailwind for flavor purposes entirely, and as I said before, there is nothing in this movepool that could supplement a utility moveset. A set with Tailwind would be one without cohesion, so the set's effectiveness would be equivalent to the strength of the move itself, which is very small.

--------------------

CAP 6 so far:

Name: Cawmodore

Name: Show Me Your Moves!

General Description: A good user of moves with effects not frequently used in the OU metagame.

Justification: There are many moves in Pokémon with great effects, but they often end up unused. Moves such as Gravity, Snatch, and Safeguard have potential in OU, but they are neglected for several reasons: the moves are apparently overshadowed, have poor distribution, or are inefficient compared to another strategy. This CAP uses a combination of typing, ability, and stats to make these underused moves not only feasible, but also capable.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What mechanics of Pokémon determine how viable moves are?--not only the Pokémon's typing, stats, and ability, but also its interaction with playstyles and momentum.
• What new strategies might emerge by giving a new OU Pokémon underused moves?
• What challenges do Pokémon that use lesser-used moves face compared to ones that use a more standard moveset?
• If the Pokémon has options of staple OU moves (high-powered STABs, offensive stat-boosting moves, reliable recovery, Substitute), will those moves be useful to it, even if it's specialized toward a separate and distinct strategy?
• Can underused moves increase other underused moves' viabilities?
• Can one user of a strategy unrecognized in a metagame massively influence a pre-existing playstyle?

Typing: Steel / Flying
Abilities: Intimidate / Volt Absorb / ???
Stats: 50 HP / 92 Atk / 130 Def / 65 SpA / 75 SpD / 118 Spe

 

[Quanyails]

Bull of Heaven

 

[alexwolf]

Korski

 

[Bull of Heaven]

Bull of Heaven

 

[Qwilphish]

Bull of Heaven

 

[jas61292]

jas61292

 

[Korski]

Korski

Finish strong!

 

[Imanalt]

Korski

 

[Mova]

Bull of Heaven

 

[DetroitLolcat]

jas61292

If only you had Baton Pass, man. If only...

 

[jynx KB]

Bull of Heaven

 

[scrake]

Korski

 

[Dr. Koga]

jas61292

 

[cjrocker]

Bull of Heaven

 

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[Molk]

Bull Of Heaven

 

[Azost12]

Bull of Heaven

 

[Eagle4]

Korski

 

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[vyomov]

Bull of Heaven

 

[ganj4lF]

Korski

 

[topher4167]

jas61292

 

[Unitas]

Korski

 

[Jellied Eels]

jas61292

 

[nyttyn]

jas61292

for the love of god

just say no to baton pass