More CAP Pokémon in the CAP Metagame

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Introduction

The Create-A-Pokémon Project, also known as the CAP Project or simply CAP, is a Smogon-run community project that aims to create new Pokémon concepts as a way to explore the OverUsed metagame and competitive Pokémon in general. It's been running since the DPP era, and at the time of writing this, we have completed 20 CAP Pokémon and are in the process of building our 21st. The project has spawned various side projects, including its own metagame.

The CAP Metagame is essentially the current generation's OU metagame with the addition of all 20 of the Pokémon created by the CAP Project, which makes for an incredibly fun, balanced, and diverse spin on regular OU. Back in The Smog era, our buddies sparktrain and cbrevan gave you an overview of how some of the past CAP Pokémon perform in the CAP Metagame that you can find here. Now it is my turn to share the rest of our creations with all of you!

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Syclant was the very first Pokémon ever to come out of the CAP Project. Its goal was to be a true counter to Garchomp, which was such a threatening Pokémon in the DPP era that it was ultimately banned to Ubers. While Syclant clearly had the typing advantage over Garchomp, it lacked the bulk to switch into Garchomp's attacks and was also weak to Fire Blast. Syclant was still a good Pokémon, though, as its combination of a great Speed stat, a strong offensive typing in Ice, powerful coverage moves, and the ability to go mixed helped it dominate the DPP OU metagame. It also received a gift in the form of its custom ability, Mountaineer, which allows Syclant to switch into Stealth Rock and Rock-type moves without taking damage; however, custom abilities are no longer allowed under today's CAP rules.

Nowadays, Syclant's flagship set is that of a powerful mid- and late-game special wallbreaker and cleaner, somewhat filling the void that Greninja left in our hearts. Being able to offensively take down top-tier threats such as Mega Slowbro, Colossoil, Tomohawk, Necturna, Serperior, and Cyclohm with STAB moves alone is not something that many Pokémon can boast. Syclant's coverage and equally impressive Attack stat are great for eliminating its would-be counters, particularly Heatran, Mollux, Ferrothorn, and Chansey. With very few Pokémon being able to switch into Syclant, you'd think that it's a perfect Pokémon itself, right? Wrong. Although it may not fear Stealth Rock, it fears priority attacks due to its paper-thin defenses and horrendous defensive typing, leaving it a sitting duck against the likes of Talonflame and Mega Scizor. This, in combination with Syclant's inability to take more than two hits the majority of the time, means it is quite easy to revenge kill. However, if you can eliminate opposing revenge killers and save Syclant for the late-game, it should have no trouble finishing off what's left of the opponent's team.

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Our second CAP Pokémon, Revenankh, was built to be the perfect Bulk Up user, and that is exactly what it ended up being. With a typing that gave it great resistances and immunities as well as an unresisted STAB combination, great bulk across the board, Shed Skin mostly alleviating its susceptibility to status ailments, and reliable recovery, Revenankh was well-nigh unstoppable during its generation. Its utility did not stop there, either. Revenankh's Ghost typing was a godsend for entry hazard-stacking teams, as it could spinblock every viable entry hazard remover bar the somewhat uncommon Psychic Starmie. Moreover, while Shed Skin was mainly there to prevent status ailments from crippling Revenankh's sweep, the ability also allowed it to switch into status moves even when it wasn't in position to sweep, making Revenankh a good dedicated status absorber.

Unfortunately, unlike its friend Syclant, Revenankh has not stood the test of time very well. When Gen VI rolled around, the introduction of Fairy-types and the rise of Flying-types pushed Revenankh far off its previous perch, as being weak to such prolific types puts a dagger in the viability of any setup sweeper. Additionally, while spinblocking is far more relevant in the CAP Metagame than in OU and Revenankh notably is able to spinblock the highly prevalent Colossoil by virtue of its typing, spinblocking is also not as useful as it used to be due to the new Defog mechanics, and Revenankh has a hard time against a lot of today's Defoggers, being checked by the likes of Latios and Latias and countered by the likes of Skarmory.

To make matters worse, prominent threats such as Clefable, Mega Altaria, Talonflame, and Tomohawk walk all over it. Base 105 Attack is also pretty underwhelming in Gen VI due to the ever-prominent power creep that has been happening since Gen V. As a result, Revenankh needs multiple boosts under its belt to sweep, which can be tough in a metagame full of threats that hit it super effectively. Even so, the rest of Revenankh's positive attributes, in addition to its good matchups against Colossoil and Chansey, allow it to hold its own in today's CAP Metagame.

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In terms of typing, you can't get much more badass than Fire / Grass. The goal of Pyroak was simply to make this typing viable, which led to it using said typing to wall some of DPP OU's most powerful threats, such as Metagross and Swampert. Unfortunately, Fire / Grass just didn't cut it back then, as Pyroak's lack of resistances and weakness to Stealth Rock made it far easier to wear down than it was supposed to be. So, people tried using it in many different roles. Some utilized it as a Stealth Rock and dual screens lead. Others turned to more offensive sets. While Pyroak was a fine special attacker, many players tried to make it work as a physical attacker, though they failed to do so. No matter how promising the combination of Rock Head and STAB Wood Hammer and Flare Blitz looks, Pyroak's base 70 Attack severely prevented it from packing a physical punch. For the most part, Pyroak was a jack of all trades but a master of none, and it was fair to say that it was the weakest CAP Pokémon throughout the DPP era.

Come Gen VI, and even though it wasn't looking good for Pyroak at the start of the generation, it is now one of the metagame's best defensive Pokémon. What the hell happened?! As Flying-type spam fell, Fairy-type spam rose to take its place. The Fairy type, while already one of the best types in the entire game, is even better in the CAP Metagame than it is in regular OU. Fairy-type spam is common because some of the metagame's most dominant threats are weak to the type, particularly Colossoil, Cyclohm, and Tomohawk. Moreover, because many CAP Pokémon are special attackers, the generally specially bulky Fairies make for good all-around tanks. If you're using a defensive team in the CAP Metagame, you need a Pokémon that can wall Fairy-types, and Pyroak can do just that. Not only does it resist Fairy-type moves by virtue of its Fire typing, but it can also shrug off the coverage attacks of opposing Fairies thanks to its good all-around bulk, such as Mega Gardevoir's Focus Blast, Choice Specs Sylveon's Psyshock, Mega Altaria's Earthquake, and anything from non-Belly Drum Azumarill.

Another important reason for Pyroak's surge in popularity was its ability to wall some more of the most dominant Pokémon in the CAP Metagame by virtue of its typing and bulk, such as Mega Metagross, as well as Mega Scizor, Serperior, and even attackers that hit it neutrally, such as Syclant and Landorus-T. Pyroak isn't a perfect wall, though, as it still loses to some Fairies, such as Mega Diancie and Magic Guard Clefable. Moreover, Flying-type spam still exists, so that same typing that makes Pyroak such a good wall simultaneously forces it to be paired with a check to Flying-types; Pyroak's Stealth Rock weakness also requires it to be paired with an entry hazard remover, meaning that it's not fit for every defensive team. Nonetheless, if you find yourself tearing your hair out from Fairy-type spam, Pyroak might be just what you need to stop yourself from going bald.

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Unlike our first three CAP Pokémon, which were mishmashes of ideas from the beginning, Fidgit's concept was picked using the concept system that still exists today. It was built to be the perfect utility Pokémon, and while its direction was about as specific as that of Revenankh, Fidgit's building process was a lot less lenient. Even so, how Fidgit was built didn't really play any factors into its effectiveness on the battlefield. It was easily one of the most versatile Pokémon in the metagame back in DPP, being able to disrupt defensive teams with Encore and Taunt, effortlessly set up Spikes and Toxic Spikes, spin away entry hazards with Rapid Spin, pivot with U-turn, and even give rise to entire team playstyles with the combination of Persistent and either Trick Room or Tailwind. For those who don't know, Persistent is Fidgit's custom ability, and it increases the duration of certain field effects by two turns. Because Fidgit could fulfill various roles and was neither too passive for an offensive team nor a momentum killer for defensive teams, it could be slapped onto almost any squad and perform admirably.

Unfortunately, Fidgit isn't nearly as easy to fit onto a team nowadays as it used to be. It's pretty outclassed in most of its support roles by Tomohawk, which boasts Prankster, and Ferrothorn, which has a much better defensive typing. Fidgit is a rather inconsistent Spiker as well, especially considering that it loses to many entry hazard removers, such as Colossoil, Latios, and Latias. Lastly, while base 90 Special Attack was plenty back in the DPP era, it's pretty low by today's standards, which makes it easy for foes to switch in on Fidgit and force it to bail out with U-turn. In order to make the most out of using Fidgit, you need to make sure that you're using its unique attributes—in this case, Persistent and speed control. The short duration of Trick Room and Tailwind makes those moves unviable in singles the majority of the time, but two extra turns are sometimes all that a team needs to take advantage of these field effects. If offensive teams are giving your CAP team a problem, then building around Fidgit can definitely help royally screw over any offensive archetype. Your Azumarill or Kyurem-B will surely be thanking Fidgit for its support!

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The concept behind Stratagem was to "play against type." That is to say, we intended to reverse the stereotypes associated with a typing and apply them to a Pokémon. Normally, Rock-types are slow, bulky, and physical attackers, as seen by the likes of Rhyperior, Golem, and Regirock, among others. Stratagem, on the other hand, is anything but—it's a fast, frail special attacker, and man, was it good in the DPP OU metagame. Its primary role back then was that of a late-game sweeper, utilizing its base 130 Speed, base 120 Special Attack, strong coverage options, and Technician-boosted Giga Drain and Vacuum Wave to clean up weakened teams. Stratagem's utility didn't end there, however. Its high Speed, access to Stealth Rock and Trick, and good matchup against Aerodactyl gave it utility as a lead, while Levitate and Energy Ball helped it fare well against Ground-types, which few, if any, Rock-types could do! Even Calm Mind Stratagem acted as a strong wincon despite its frailty.

Today, Stratagem returns to its familiar roots as a dedicated cleaner. The combination of Paleo Wave and Earth Power grants it nearly perfect neutral coverage, limiting the number of Pokémon that can stop its sweep late-game. Not many Pokémon can switch into Stratagem, either, with its coverage moves dissuading the likes of Slowbro and Mega Metagross from coming in. However, without Calm Mind or the combination of Choice Specs and Trick, Stratagem is pretty much entirely confined to the late-game, as it's not strong enough on its own to be a mid-game wallbreaker. Because of this, it falls flat in the face of stall and even against some balance and bulky offense teams, all of which are quite common and viable archetypes in the CAP Metagame. Moreover, Stratagem's frailty and bad defensive typing make it very easy to revenge kill by the likes of Azumarill, Arghonaut, Cawmodore, and most Mega Scizor variants. Stratagem might need a lot of support in order to obtain a position to sweep, but if you can get it into such a position, any opposing team will be hard pressed to stop it.

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When we built Arghonaut, we envisioned it being the ultimate decentralizer—that is to say, its goal was to simply take down some of the DPP OU metagame's most dominant offensive threats, such as Metagross, Gyarados, Tyranitar, Scizor, and Heatran, among others. Obviously it had the typing to do just that, being resistant to the most important STAB moves of all four of those Pokémon and hitting some of them super effectively. Unaware was the icing on the cake, preventing certain dominant threats from beating Arghonaut through use of setup moves, such as Dragon Dance Gyarados. Arghonaut certainly did just what it was intended to do, causing the usage of those threats to plummet. As for the Pokémon that didn't see a drop in usage, many of them started running obscure moves for the sake of beating it. Bounce saw a surge in usage on Gyarados, while Zen Headbutt became almost standard on Metagross.

As the metagame adapts, however, some threats don't exactly stand the test of time, and new, equally dominant threats come in to take their place. That's exactly what happened with Arghonaut come Gen VI. Don't get me wrong; Arghonaut fares well against the likes of Tyranitar, Scizor, Heatran, Mega Charizard X, Excadrill, and Weavile, all of which are solid threats in the CAP Metagame. It's a lot different from plain old DPP OU, however, with threats such as Tomohawk, Cyclohm, Cawmodore, Serperior, Talonflame, Thundurus, and pretty much every single Fairy-type dominating the CAP Metagame as well. Ironically, the combination of Bulk Up and Recover would have allowed Arghonaut to run a boosting set to successfully take on several of those physical attackers; however, while it does have access to both those moves, they are incompatible with each other. Consequently, Arghonaut faces strong competition from Clefable, which can take on all of these threats, as an Unaware user. Nonetheless, what threats you need to counter is rather team dependent, so if your team is more weak to Steel- and Fire-types than it is to Fighting- and Electric-types, Arghonaut will fit perfectly into your balance or bulky offense squad.

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Because there was no Team Preview back in DPP OU, good scouting was key for players in order to figure out what Pokémon comprised the opposing team. Along came Kitsunoh, which was built entirely for the role of scouting. With great Speed alongside access to Trick and U-turn, a custom move called Shadow Strike that has a 50% chance to lower the foe's Defense, and Frisk to reveal the items of foes, Kitsunoh was adept at killing off the opposing team's momentum, forcing the opponent to rethink their strategy and reveal important members of their team. As scouting is most important early-game, Kitsunoh was primarily used as a lead, being able to shift momentum to your team's side from the get-go.

Unfortunately, now that Team Preview is standard, scouting is much less valuable of a role in today's metagame. You can see your opponent's team and they can see yours, which provides valuable information in and of itself by allowing you to make an educated guess as to what your opponent's team archetype is and what sets their Pokémon are running. Nevertheless, Kitsunoh's utility movepool is still as great as ever, containing gems like U-turn to gain momentum, Will-O-Wisp for crippling physical attackers, and the newly buffed Knock Off and Defog. It especially stands out as a Defogger because of its resistance to Stealth Rock and its immunity to Toxic Spikes. Sadly, there are more ways how Kitsunoh hasn't managed to stand the test of time as well as it would have liked to.

The Steel-type nerf means that Kitsunoh always loses to Colossoil, which is arguably the most common Pokémon in today's CAP Metagame. Moreover, base 103 Attack was fine for a support Pokémon in DPP, but it's shockingly low by Gen VI standards, with Kitsunoh often being unable to OHKO even threats that it hits super effectively. In the end, though, it's utility that makes Kitsunoh a good Pokémon as opposed to raw power, so if you find that your team has problems early-game, look no further.

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When first glancing at Krilowatt, you'd have no idea that this little fella was designed to be the ultimate utility counter. Upon closer examination, though, it makes sense. With a typing that gives only two weaknesses, well-rounded bulk, Trace to combat the likes of Heatran, Salamence, Jolteon, and Gyarados, and high enough Speed to be able to switch into and attack many of DPP OU's threats, such as Lucario, Krilowatt seems like it'd be great at patching up a team's weaknesses to top-tier Pokémon. While it certainly was good at doing that, it was better at being an all-out attacker largely because of Magic Guard. Magic Guard was supposed to be a secondary ability that allowed Krilowatt to switch into powerful attackers without having to fear Stealth Rock damage. Unfortunately, we forgot that the ability would also negate Life Orb recoil. This, in addition to Krilowatt's excellent Speed and incredible coverage, shaped its primary role as an all-out attacker.

Come Gen VI, and Krilowatt still finds itself doing almost the exact same thing. With the necessary typing, coverage, bulk, and Speed to threaten the likes of Mega Altaria, Tomohawk, Azumarill, Cyclohm, non-Energy Ball Manaphy, Mollux, Slowbro, and Stratagem, Krilowatt is a notable jack of all trades. However, it is a master of none. For one thing, Krilowatt lacks any form of reliable recovery, even Leftovers, making it easy to wear down despite Magic Guard. Moreover, even with the boost from Life Orb, Krilowatt still has a mediocre base 84 Attack and 83 Special Attack, meaning that it doesn't hit nearly as hard as many of the other special attackers that are commonplace in the CAP Metagame.

While base 105 Speed towers over the crowded base 95 and 100 Speed tiers, Krilowatt still falls short of outspeeding important threats such as Keldeo and Mega Metagross, often forcing it to take one more hit than it should. As a result, it's safe to say that Krilowatt is outclassed to a degree by the likes of Stratagem and Mega Manectric. To use Krilowatt correctly, you need to make use of its defensive capabilities, as it's very difficult to OHKO and even 2HKO without using a super effective STAB attack. It is most effective at pressuring balance teams, as their cores generally rely on type synergy and Krilowatt can dismantle because of its awesome coverage in tandem with its decent speed and power. If you can take advantage of Krilowatt's durability as well as its expansive offensive movepool, it might be just what your balance squad needs.

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Arguably the most successful project ever to come out of the CAP Project, the idea behind Voodoom was to create the perfect teammate for an underrated OU Pokémon. In Voodoom's case, it was meant to be the ideal partner for Togekiss. When it came time for the playtest, however, we discovered that it was actually a terrible teammate for Togekiss, and the concept seemed lost as we scrambled to find other Pokémon to pair with it. Ultimately, we discovered that Voodoom had amazing synergy with Zapdos. Voodoom could reliably switch into Rock-type moves, while Zapdos could tank Flying- and Fighting-type attacks in return. Moreover, Zapdos's Electric typing allowed it to beat bulky Water-types such as Vaporeon, which Voodoom had trouble breaking through, and due to Voodoom's Fighting typing and good mixed attacking stats, it could take down Tyranitar and Blissey, two major threats to Zapdos, with little effort. It wouldn't be a stretch to call Voodoom + Zapdos the best offensive core in the DPP OU metagame.

Unfortunately, just because Voodoom was successful doesn't necessarily mean that it was viable. It certainly was back in the DPP era, but it's pretty bad in today's CAP Metagame. Zapdos did not stand the test of time very well, as BW addition Thundurus completely outclasses it offensively, which has forced Zapdos to almost exclusively run defensive sets. Voodoom itself fared even worse in the transition from DPP OU, notwithstanding the decline of its partner. Being completely walled by the Fairy-types that Gen VI brought upon us is a huge liability in the CAP Metagame, where Fairies dominate even more so than in regular OU. The power creep that comes with each passing generation has left Voodoom's base 85 Attack and base 105 Special Attack in the dust, so saying that it hits like a wet paper bag isn't too far from the truth.

The rise of Flying-types such as Talonflame, Tornadus-T, Cawmodore, and Mega Pinsir has done Voodoom no favors either. With all of this in mind, it can be quite difficult to justify using Voodoom over other fast Dark- and Fighting-type attackers, particularly Weavile and Keldeo, respectively. It's not all bad for Voodoom, though, as its matchups act as an emergency check to Colossoil, Latios, Latias, Kitsunoh, Chansey, non-Hammer Arm Mega Metagross, and most Electric-types give it utility on certain offensive squads.

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After the blunder that was Aurumoth, we built Malaconda under the Topic Leadership Team (TLT) system that is still in place today. With multiple voices guiding the project as opposed to a single one, Malaconda gives Voodoom serious competition as the most successful CAP in history. Its concept was to give rise to underused types while simultaneously performing well against some of the more dominant types in the BW OU metagame. Ultimately, we chose to make it increase the usage of Grass- and Fire-types while decreasing the usage of Dragon- and Water-types; in order to do so, we decided that it would be best to make Malaconda perform well under sun. Needless to say, we totally nailed it.

Latios and Latias, the most dominant Dragons in BW OU at the time, were seen far less often, and sun teams had a much easier time against the popular rain teams because of Malaconda's great matchup against the Water-types that rain teams always pack. Because of the rise of sun teams, Fire-types became more common as to utilize the benefits of sun and to take on Malaconda itself. However, Malaconda's insane special bulk and access to Harvest allowed it to hold its own against the mostly specially oriented Fire-types. The most striking metagame shift, however, was the decline of Steel-types, particularly Scizor; while Steel-types wall Malaconda's STAB moves, their poor matchups against sun teams were enough to drop them out of favor.

However, like Voodoom, Malaconda's success proves to be inversely related to its present-day viability—and for many of the same reasons as Voodoom. Because weather is no longer permanent, Malaconda's niche of shifting the weather wars in favor of sun got completely thrown out the window. Not only that, but Harvest is much less reliable without permanent sun, making Malaconda far easier to wear down than it once was. Moreover, the increased viability of Flying-types and the introduction of Fairy-types have made Malaconda struggle to find a new niche, as having poor matchups against two of the best typings in the CAP Metagame is not ideal.

In theory, Malaconda has a niche as a special wall capable of eating bulky Water-types alive, but Ferrothorn does the job so much better by virtue of its solid physical bulk and much stronger defensive typing. However, Malaconda is capable of countering Pokémon such as Latios and Latias handily by virtue of its access to powerful STAB Dark-type moves, and it has access to a ton of excellent utility options, such as Toxic, Glare, and Dragon Tail, allowing it to beat non-Heal Bell Cyclohm, to cripple Belly Drum Cawmodore before it sets up, and to rack up entry hazard damage on the opposing team.

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Naviathan's goal was to be a sweeper with two equally viable boosting options and different checks and counters depending on which setup move it's running. Eventually, we decided that it would utilize both Dragon Dance and Calm Mind, with Dragon Dance helping Naviathan sweep offensive teams and Calm Mind allowing it to break past defensive teams. With a good neutral STAB type in Water as well as its Steel typing and Water Veil granting it immunities to poison and burn, you'd think that Naviathan would be unstoppable, right? Wrong.

The Dragon Dance set just didn't cut it, as Naviathan was easily walled by Rotom-W and Ferrothorn, two staples on bulky offense and balance teams alike—not to mention that other Dragon Dancers fare better against them, with Mega Altaria walling Rotom-W and Mega Charizard X eating Ferrothorn alive. Moreover, being countered by Mega Metagross meant that Naviathan needed something to check it back. If only Naviathan's movepool leader, aka yours truly, had given it Blaze Kick, Seed Bomb, Earthquake, or something of that caliber...

Despite that, I encourage you, my fellow readers, to hold off on jeering and throwing tomatoes at me until after I discuss the success of the Calm Mind set. Calm Mind Naviathan had everything it could possibly want in order to eat defensively oriented teams alive. With the ability to make burns negligible through Heatproof, STAB Scald, resistances to the STAB moves of many stall staples such as Clefable and Skarmory, an immunity to Toxic, and access to a myriad of utility moves such as Taunt and Refresh, Naviathan could make stall unviable faster than you can say "Crocune." However, while the death of Gothitelle stall thanks to the recent Shadow Tag ban gave it a slight boost in viability, it's not as good in today's CAP Metagame.

Firstly, the additions of Plasmanta, Mollux, and Colossoil give Naviathan huge problems no matter what kind of team it's facing. Moreover, a lot of dedicated stallbreakers, such as Togekiss and Gliscor, have significantly better matchups against much of the CAP Metagame. Naviathan also faces intense competition as a bulky Water-type from Slowbro, which boasts the ability to offensively threaten Mollux and Plasmanta and a better matchup against attackers like Mega Charizard X. If your team is severely weak to the almighty Clefable, though, Slowbro won't cut it, so turning to Naviathan is likely your best bet. Okay, okay, you're free to hurl your tomatoes now. /me takes off

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Conclusion

In combination with my colleagues' article, this should just about cover all of the new threats that players will find in the CAP Metagame. If you're a competitive OU player, don't dive headfirst into this metagame, as you may find Pyroak making your Fairies unable to break past defensive teams, as well as Stratagem thwarting your Talonflame's attempt at a late-game sweep, among other scenarios. Nonetheless, if you can prepare for these threats, perhaps even placing a few of them onto your team, you'll find yourself playing a fun, diverse spin on plain old ORAS OU. While you're at it, be sure to check out the CAP subforum! Not only are we always looking for new players for our metagame, but we're also in the middle of CAP 21 and could use some knowledgeable voices to help us make something great.

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