Mollux
Typing: Fire / Poison
Base stats: 95 HP / 45 Atk / 83 Def / 131 SpA / 105 SpD / 76 Spe
Abilities: Dry Skin / Illuminate (Hidden)
Movepool: link
Height: 1.2m / 3' 11.2"
Weight: 41 kg (90.2) lbs [GK/LK: 60 BP]
Gender Ratio: 50% Male / 50% Female
Dex: Mollux, the Mantle Pokémon
Black: Its innards glow with a vibrant light, the color being determined by its current mood. Its predators take a red light as a warning to leave.
White: The light it generates helps it traverse the dark depths of the sea. Its soothing glow helps it befriend curious or lost Pokemon.
BW2 Changes
Syclant
Fast, powerful, mixed sweeper with thin defenses
Revenankh
Dangerous Bulk Up abuser with unresisted offensive STAB
Pyroak
Sturdy SubSeeding wall with good attacking prowess
Fidgit
Fast, defensive Pokemon with a variety of utility moves
Stratagem
Super-fast special attacker with mono-Rock typing
Arghonaut
Physical tank that stops stat-boosters in their tracks
Kitsunoh
Fast physical attacker designed to be the ultimate scout
Cyclohm
Unusual dragon with physical defense and special offense
Colossoil
Physical threat to many users of non-damaging moves
Krilowatt
Situational counter for a variety of common threats
Voodoom
Potent special attacker intended for use in an offensive core
Tomohawk
Momentum builder gifted with team supporting abilities
Necturna
Unpredictable bulky threat with access to Sketch
Typing: Fire / Poison
Base stats: 95 HP / 45 Atk / 83 Def / 131 SpA / 105 SpD / 76 Spe
Abilities: Dry Skin / Illuminate (Hidden)
Movepool: link
Height: 1.2m / 3' 11.2"
Weight: 41 kg (90.2) lbs [GK/LK: 60 BP]
Gender Ratio: 50% Male / 50% Female
Dex: Mollux, the Mantle Pokémon
Black: Its innards glow with a vibrant light, the color being determined by its current mood. Its predators take a red light as a warning to leave.
White: The light it generates helps it traverse the dark depths of the sea. Its soothing glow helps it befriend curious or lost Pokemon.
BW2 Changes
Syclant
Fast, powerful, mixed sweeper with thin defenses
Revenankh
Dangerous Bulk Up abuser with unresisted offensive STAB
Pyroak
Sturdy SubSeeding wall with good attacking prowess
Fidgit
Fast, defensive Pokemon with a variety of utility moves
- Final Product
- Old Analysis
- Old Movepool
- Concept: Utility-Support Pokemon
By aldaron and Magmortified
Description: There is a serious lack of Gravity, Rapid Spin, Wish, non Dark weak Trick Room, OU viable Heal Bell / Aromatherapy, Encore, Memento, Non Dark weak Perish Song, Psycho Shift, Safeguard, Magic Coat, Me First, Snatch, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Tailwind and Haze Pokemon in our lovely Metagame. I don't know what type, what stat distribution or even what kind of Pokemon would effectively use all those, but I want to build a utility Pokemon for the useful yet less used utility moves. If I had to narrow the field a bit, I would emphasize Tailwind, Gravity, non Dark weak Trick Room, Rapid Spin, Wish and Encore. The normal utility moves like Reflect and Light Screen go without saying.
Stratagem
Super-fast special attacker with mono-Rock typing
- Final Product
- Old Analysis
- Old Movepool
- Concept: Break the Mold
By lationheat
Description: An OU viable pokemon that goes completely against the stereotypes of its typing.
Yea so obviously there is some stereotypes associated with each of the types and i have noticed that this is something that has often had a negative effect on past CAP projects.
You've heard it all before when people were discussing Pyroak, a lot of people insisted it had to be fast and have huge special attack just because it was a fire type. Or when Fidgit's movepool was chosen Stealth Rock had to be on just because every other ground type has it.
I know there are some pokemon that already exist, that tend to have traits that you wouldn't expect given their typing; Cradily, Altaria and Ampharos come to mind. Despite this it seems the vast majority of these type of pokemon sit firmly in the UU tier, maybe this is the exact reason why, but i think this is an issue we can further discuss and something we can actually test in battle.
So the challenge with this concept is to take a typing and go completely against the stereotypes often associated with it and make a pokemon that is viable in OU.
Arghonaut
Physical tank that stops stat-boosters in their tracks
- Final Product
- Old Analysis
- Old Movepool
- Concept:Decentralizer
By Hyra
Description: A Pokemon can check a majority of the current top 5 Pokemon.
This is basically what Gormenghast wanted to do with Camerupt, but broader. I feel that specifically mentioning Scizor, Zapdos, and Heatran makes the concept too restrictive, but ideally this would be able to take at least two of these Pokemon on (Blissey does this for certain varients of Zapdos and Heatran). Unfortunately, there are very few type combos that do this, which is why I don't want to mention any specific Pokemon in the description.
Kitsunoh
Fast physical attacker designed to be the ultimate scout
- Final Product
- Old Analysis
- Old Movepool
- Concept: Ultimate Scout
By beej
Description: A Pokemon that is very capable of forcing the opponent to reveal vital information about their team members and their moves using various techniques.
Scouting is an increasingly important role in the Platinum metagame. Moves like U-Turn, Substitute and Protect are highly valued for their ability to give us such vital information as what kind of responses do your opponents have to your sweepers, what hidden moves do they have, and so forth. Getting this information early on allows you to prepare yourself for any threats your opponent has waiting in the wings and come up with a game plan. This Pokemon would probably need resistances to common attacking types, particularly ones backed up by Choice items, as those allow for the best opportunity to U-Turn and reveal a counter. It wouldn't have to have amazing offenses, but enough to scare the opponent into making some revealing switches.
Cyclohm
Unusual dragon with physical defense and special offense
- Final Product
- Old Analysis
- Old Movepool
- Concept: Neglected Ability
By Elevator Music
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.
Colossoil
Physical threat to many users of non-damaging moves
- Final Product
- Old Analysis
- Old Movepool
- Concept Stop the Secondary
By moi
Description: A Pokémon that through means of ability, moves, and typing, can stop a variety of the non damaging affect of moves and moves of non damaging origin.
Justification: While the immediate threat of damaging moves is large and present, the affect of moves such as status, Trick, Leech Seed, Taunt, Stealth Rock, Spikes have arguably had a greater affect to the metagame than anything has ever had, something that this would greatly look in to.
Explanation: While not always being a "specific" strategy, the use of these moves is always a commonplace sight in any metagame. Depending on which moves this Pokémon can tackle, it can perform a role on any team, and be used to check a variety of threats. This Pokémon could use anything, from typing (Steel and Poison are immune to Toxic, Fire-types are immune to Will-o-Wisp), to abilities (Insomnia avoids sleep, Sticky Hold stops Trick), to moves (Magic Coat can stop things like Leech Seed and Status). While being able to remove a good number of moves from their purpose, it manages to remain open enough as to what you'd like to do and should be stressed that it should not try and stop all types of non damaging moves.
Krilowatt
Situational counter for a variety of common threats
- Final Product
- Old Analysis
- Old Movepool
- Concept: Utility Counter
By reachzero
General Description: This Pokemon is capable of being customized to counter virtually any specific Pokemon, but is incapable of countering a large number of Pokemon at the same time.
Justification: It is not unusual for people to say that "versatility is broken" from an offensive standpoint; less attention is given to versatile defensive Pokemon such as Zapdos or Hariyama. This Pokemon would allow us to study the impact of having a Pokemon that is capable of dealing with such varied threats as Salamence, Lucario, and Gengar....but not all at once.
Explanation: I envision this concept as looking like a more extreme version of Porygon2 or Hariyama; it can be custom designed to handle virtually any threat given the correct selection of EVs, moves, etc. However, in choosing to deal with certain threats almost flawlessly, it leaves itself open to other threats. Multitype would obviously make this concept's job much easier, though I doubt it is absolutely necessary to making it work.
Voodoom
Potent special attacker intended for use in an offensive core
- Final Product
- Old Analysis
- Old Movepool
- Concept: Perfect Mate
By DougJustDoug
General Description: Pick a good-but-not-great OU pokemon, and design the perfect teammate for it, similar to the way Celebi & Heatran, or Blissey & Skarmory complement each other so well on competitive teams.
Justification: This would allow us to explore in detail how synergy between two pokemon can be achieved, because currently there are only a few perfect teammates in OU. And depending on the base pokemon we choose to give a "perfect mate", we can open a new niche in the metagame based around the efficient pairing.
The niche we create will be inherently tied to an existing pokemon in the metagame, which should provide a natural limitation to prevent this concept from being broken or "too different" from standard OU.
Explanation: This concept is very similar to the "Partner in Crime" concept proposed back in CAP 7. But, with all the changes in the CAP process, and stagnation in the metagame, I think this is a good time for the CAP community to focus on the competitive factors of synergy between pokemon.
I envision we will pick a base pokemon during the Concept Assessment. We will make a case to the TL for a good-but-not-great OU pokemon and the characteristics of that pokemon's "perfect mate". The Topic Leader would then select their favorite. We could even rename the concept to "<Pokemon>'s Perfect Mate" from that point forward.
It think we could have some fantastic discussions every step of the way, dissecting the base pokemon in exacting detail to figure out the best way to make an ideal teammate. If we choose the right base pokemon, we might even breathe some new life into a sentimental favorite, that isn't quite up to top-OU standards on its own.
Tomohawk
Momentum builder gifted with team supporting abilities
- Final Product
- Old Analysis
- Concept: Momentum
By Korski
General Description: This will be a Pokemon that can be utilized to gain or regain momentum for a player's team at any point in the match as its primary function.
Justification: Gen. 5 is a very powerful metagame. As such, most battles are won by the smarter strategist who can best maneuver around his/her opponent's onslaught to gain even a single turn's advantage, potentially clinching them the match. This process of gaining and regaining momentum is most often the defining element that makes a winner and a loser out of a single Pokemon battle. Any top player in this metagame should agree that momentum is the most crucial element in any given match; however, "momentum" itself is a rather vaguely defined term that is never really explored in concrete terms. Is it keeping opposing teams on the defensive? Forcing switches? Good prediction? Spamming U-turn? These have all been approaches to achieving momentum, but they are also player-side and largely synonymous with "strategy," as opposed to Pokemon-side and regarding a Pokemon's role on the team. Certainly there are threats like Ferrothorn/Gliscor (defensive) and Scizor/Latios/Voltlos, etc., etc. (offensive) that can achieve momentum as we know it, but there is no current niche for a "momentum Pokemon" because the concept has been purely delegated to players and not to Pokemon.
Explanation: This concept should teach us just as much about the metagame during its creation process than through actual playtesting, especially in the Concept Assessment, where the community should be looking to the metagame as a whole to analyze how successful teams and players gain, regain, and maintain momentum. Since momentum has largely been defined at the discretion of the battling community and takes many forms, so too could this CAP. Scizor, Blissey, Skarmory, Magnezone, Celebi, Jirachi (Celebi and Jirachi are great examples, due to their versatility), Heatran, Balloon Heatran, etc. can all achieve momentum according to their strengths, yet all are very different. Now, I'm not about to suggest that this CAP should be able to check everything in the metagame; that's not the goal here. What it should be able to do, though, is pose a reasonable threat in some manner to a good chunk of the metagame, enough to make opponents think twice about staying in or at least think very hard about what to switch into this Pokemon. A Pokemon with almost no offensive presence can do this just as well as a blunt instrument kind of Poke.
Necturna
Unpredictable bulky threat with access to Sketch
- Final Product
- Concept: Sketch Artist
By Korski
Description: A Pokemon that learns Sketch, once, and everything that goes along with that.
Justification: I'd like us to spend some time thinking about the Pokemon and what it can teach us from how it changes the metagame, rather than the other way around where we choose an effect on the metagame and then develop a Pokemon around it.
In terms of uniqueness, I think that few existing Pokemon can match DPP Smeargle, an otherwise laughably worthless Pokemon trolling OU with access to every trick in the book (or at least 4 of them) but also affecting the metagame greatly by becoming a top threat in the lead metagame. This Pokemon will borrow some of that uniqueness by learning the move Sketch and thus having access to ONE surprise/strategic/gutshot bonus move to supplement its pre-existing movepool. Being otherwise competently built (read: usable stats), this Poke could be a top threat or specialist for reasons we can't even predict yet.
Explanation: The key here is that we have a lot of freedom to construct a unique Pokemon while staying within the confines of the concept. Typing, stats, abilities, and even most of the movepool are completely fair game so long as the Poke learns Sketch only once along the way and that we keep that in mind during previous steps. Now, this doesn't mean the CAP process will be directionless; Rising Dusk is pretty well organized and good at keeping discussions focused, and the concept itself has firm grounding in Smeargle's precedent. What's really being studied with this concept is movepool diversity and effectiveness, so it should have the most effect on the movepool process, where movepool creators will have to carefully balance their Sketchmon's actual movepool with the possibility of adding any one other move to the list. In terms of the metagame, there is no doubt in my mind that throwing a wildcard like this into the mix will strongly affect the metagame.
I figure that now is the best time to make a thread about Mollux in the cap metagame, as well as a general purpose thread for discussion about how the B/W2 changes have affected the CAP Metagame. So feel free to discuss, throw down sets, and talk about what new and amazing ways this meta has found to break your soul!
You may participate in the CAP metagame by heading over to the offical smogon simulator, Pokemon Showdown! Registering is simple - win one match, and then you may register your account. You don't even need a email! Please note that your teams are saved to your cookies, and not the Pokemon Showdown! server, so please make sure to back them up with the import/export teambuilder option.
The CAP project also has a IRC channel we discuss the metagame, as well as past, present, and future projects on! #cap is your one stop shop for all IRC discussion on the Create-A-Pokemon project! If you have no idea how in the seven hecks this newfangled IRC technology works, you can find a guide here. Drop by, we won't bite! Although it does get rather silly at times.
Please keep speculation and discussion about future, past, and current CAP projects out of this thread. This is for discussing the current CAP meta, not about the process of making CAPs.
Personally, I think rain might be a bit absurd now, but that's just me. Tomohawk, the genies, Keldeo, Mollux...rain just has so many toys to play with. Also, RIP tentacruel you shall be missed.
