Sorry for the wall-o-text...
I'm going to re-post and go into detail on some of my favorite ideas out of all these great ones (an honorable mention is DougJustDoug's example "Kingdra of the Sun," but I didn't quote it here because it was an example).
Name: Surprise Factor
General Description: A Pokemon who can do multiple kinds of tasks, make the opponent have little idea what it's up to and surprise the opponent.
Justification: Currently a lot of Pokemon just follow the specific sets, and occasional you will see a surprise... I don't doubt the same for this Pokemon will be following sets too, but the difference is that this Pokemon will be capable of dealing out many different type of surprises to the opponent that the opponent will have no idea of what's coming until some move has been used. This Pokemon will add a whole new level of surprise factors as the point is to have the opponent have no idea what is coming from it and a very hard time predicting, which is also a large part of today's metagame.
Explanation: This Pokemon is very flexible on how to use it, and can be used for almost all spectrums in the Metagame. It is a good idea to give it a large movepool so it will be capable of executing many things, weather offensive, defensive, support, set-up, or cleric, but try to make it a jack of all trades but a master of none so it is not overpowered due to its ability of accomplishing so many things. The idea is to give the opponent a surprise factor, and any player that isn't fully prepared for this will still go down.
This sounds like an OU Mew which, IMO, the metagame needs. EDIT: Perhaps the "lack of counter-ability" can be balanced by bad typing?
Okay, once again, it's concept time:
Concept: Bad, but in a Good Way
Description: A Pokemon that is built specifically to use and abuse a poor typing combination, hindering abilities, or underused moves (one, or a combination of any of the three).
Justification: This concept is, obviously, to help the community to learn about the affects of unorthodox stratgies on the metagame, as well as test the viability of moves and abilities that get no use on the server. Depending on how successful the project is, it could also provide new niches in the metagame, or have a positive affect on our metagame.
Explanation: Why doesn't Regigigas get any use? It has great raw stats, but a combination of horrible movepool and a terrible ability sets it firmly in the current NU. Change aspects of either of these could radically affect how it is played. For example, Trick Room and Protect to stall, or a less terrible ability to abuse it's massive attack stat. Another example could be Sableye, whose Stall ability could allow it to abuse "powered up if hit prior to moving" (albeit, Sableye needs better stats). This was already used when Skill Link Icicle Spear Cloyster was used to counter Garchomp, all that was needed was a creative solution. Why can't this work again? I propose we focus on one, MAYBE two of the above topics, create something viable out of it, and see how it affects the metagame.
I like this concept simply because I'd be able to help actively for once; during most CaP projects I've lurked, voted, and put in my two cents here and there. But, in the words of a dear friend, I "take the road less traveled" when it comes to battling, but I "take it with a map."
Here's a concept I've been thinking of for a while:
Name: True Steel Counter
General Description: A pokemon that can come in on a variety of steel types, and counter it, either by forcing said steel pokemon out, rendering it useless (eg. trapping and paralysing), or KOing it.
Justification: The metagame is dominated by steel types. By having a true counter (similar to Arghonaut 'the decentralizer) to steels, it would allow one to counter the steel threats in the metagame that have gone relatively unchecked for so long. This concept would hopefully have a positive effect on the metagame because this would in turn allow the pokemon that are countered by the said steels to step in, and so on. It would also help us to learn about the metagame without the usual influence from many top-tier pokemon.
Explanation:
MAR 2009 CAP USAGE
Battles: 993
+------+------------+--------+---------+
| Rank | Name | Usage | Percent |
+------+------------+--------+---------+
| 1 | Metagross | 565 | 28.45 |
| 2 | Latias | 556 | 28.00 |
| 3 | Scizor | 537 | 27.04 |
| 4 | Salamence | 441 | 22.21 |
| 5 | Jirachi | 417 | 21.00 |
| 6 | Starmie | 388 | 19.54 |
| 7 | Tyranitar | 387 | 19.49 |
| 8 | Heatran | 358 | 18.03 |
| 9 | Infernape | 330 | 16.62 |
| 10 | Zapdos | 316 | 15.91 |
+------+------------+--------+---------+
(Sorry about the bad formatting but its copied directly - hopefully you get the idea)
Steel types come in at 1, 3, 5, and 8 - 3 of the top 5 and 4 of the top 10 - CAP8 should probably at least be able to counter 2 or 3 of these. The challenge for the community here is how it would counter them. Typing? Ability? (Think Magnezone) A certain move? A combination of the three? There are so many possibilities.
This took so long, I goddamn hope it isnt illegal.
Discuss and flame away.
Just one word:
YES. (It'd be three words if the other two weren't taboo.) EDIT: Now that I think about it, it'd pretty much need a Fire-type Vacuum Wave to decimate Mr. Bullet Puncher (aka Scizor).
Name: Viable Gimmick'Mon
General Description: A Pokemon that can use a gimmicky attack/ability to great effect.
Justification: Gives some of the less competitive more "just doing it for fun" players a reason to join the CAP server, and all around just fun to play.
Explanation: OK. During CAP6? I think it was, I posted an idea for a transforming pokemon. This is a broader version of that.
There are a LOT of gimmicky pokemon/attacks, but none of them get used much in competitive play (Shedinja, Ditto, Metronome, etc.). I want pokemon like that to get used more, because they're fun and unique pokemon, that fill a niche that no other pokemon can fill. I like the way they force the other team to kind of regroup and try a different strategy (Sweeping with Waterfall is slightly less effective against Shedinja, don't send out dragon pokemon with dragon attacks against Ditto, etc.), and there effectiviness relys a lot on the opponent, or on just plain luck (metronome). It would really boil down to giving a pokemon a new attack or ability, or giving it an old one, and changing it's stats/typing to make it more effective. (Dark/Ghost Wonder Guard O.o?)
I think that we would end up with a pokemon that is very fun to play with, and a challenge to deal with.
Maybe not so much on the "Wondertomb" idea, but this is what I had in mind suggesting "gimmick" moves like Me First and Assist for Kitsunoh; however, the only problem was Kitsunoh's low Special Attack. It would also give us a reason to change these "gimmick" moves for accuracy to the game, which is what Shoddy Battle
should be about.
Name: The Monkey Wrench Arsenal
Description: A pokemon capable of using a wide range of offensive utility moves, like Heal Block, Snatch, Worry Seed ect., as well as potentially using weaker offensive moves with uncommon effects, such as multi hit moves or trapping attack moves.
Justification: Defensive support and utility moves, like wish, entry hazards, the screens ect., having always been fairly common because of their consistancy and usefulness in almost any team build.
However disruption utility moves, outside the status effects and one or two exceptions, are rarely used because of their highly situational nature. This is a fairly untapped area of strategy we can explore and a niche that doesnt seem to have any current pokemon filling.
Explanation: Fidgit is arguably one of CAPS most succesful pokemon. Providing an extremly flexible utility pokemon. However I think its one failing is how its defensive suppor movepool and ability has completly overshadowed its more offensive natured ability and support moves.
I think creating an offensive support equivalent to fidgit would be an excellent addition to the game.
True, but that's always the case for support; most people would try powering their own Pokémon (team) up before trying to power their opponent's team down.
Name: Leave a Legacy
Description: A Pokemon that cannot be directly countered but forces the opponent to think around it because after it faints, there may be other consequences.
Justification: This is also a good way to learn about how underused abilities and moves such as those can affect the metagame. All of the CAP Pokemon that we've created so far have SOME type of longevity, but this would allow us to test how a quick come-in-do-something-and-die Pokemon would work.
Explanation: By means of abilities such as Unburden, Aftermath, or possibly a custom ability, moves such as Memento, Lunar Dance, Explosion, Selfdestruct, Healing Wish, a custom move, or a combination of such. This is NOT meant to be a good suicide lead, but do a very similar thing midgame or lategame. For example, if the Pokemon has Aftermath as an ability and his lategame sweeper is on a roll, you might be able to use Memento, lowering both attack stats AND leaving him with 25% less HP. This way, it gives you another chance to end his sweep. The opponent would not be able to outright go and attack the Pokemon because these consequences of, requiring more thinking on his part, but in order to use this, you must know what you're doing.
Hmm... Aftermath doesn't
quite work that way, but the point stands; a Pokémon that can "do-something-and-die" can be of value.
I feel like this is kinda on the fence between allowed and unallowed but I'll post it anyways.
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Name: Neglected Ability
Description: This pokemon will have an ability [or two] that is currently undervalued (but possibly very helpful) in the metagame but isn't used because the other pokemon with this ability don't have the stats or movepool to make it work.
Justification: This is probably one of the best ways to go about learning about the metagame. Seeing why certain abilities don't see much play and what we can do to make them more used is an easy way to learn about the metagame. There is also the possibility that this pokemon will have a beneficial effect on the metagame and/or will create a new niche in the metagame (or take the niche of an old pokemon that didn't see much play).
Explanation: There are plenty of abilities that we can base a concept around that don't see much play. I'm thinking things like Shield Dust (we all know how much I want a good pokemon to abuse this!), Shed Skin (though Rev has this covered imo), Simple, hell even things such as Solar Power or Forewarn. It would be silly of me to try and list out all the abilities we could use for this.
I like this concept because it doesn't restrict typing or stats or whatever. There are so many possible directions this could go in we aren't narrowing too much down, but at the same time I feel it provides just enough direction to keep the pokemon on track.
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^__^
Again, I like this idea because of how much I'd be able to help; I love trying to emulate what so many on YouTube record themselves doing on Pokémon Battle Revolution: winning with original or "underpowered" strategies. And the level of freedom is a definite perk.
So yeah, I originally thought I'd post links to the posts instead of multi-quoting them like this, but posts have been bigger, right?