CAP 36 - Concept Submissions

[kenn]

CAP 36 So Far

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The Concept will be a guiding force throughout the ensuing project, to ensure the the final result is a cohesive competitive Pokemon. Any discussions, suggestions, or submissions in later topics, that do not support the spirit of the Concept, will be moderated by the Topic Leader. Concepts must be presented as high-level descriptions of a general idea. They cannot be detailed Pokemon designs. Since we have polls to determine each aspect of the Pokemon, we cannot allow any specific features of the Pokemon to be determined by the details of the Concept. We intentionally have many rules regarding Concept Submissions. If you are not prepared to read and understand all the rules, then don't bother making a submission. These rules are made to help narrow the field of concepts down to those that have been carefully designed. This is not meant to be easy for everyone -- a good, legal Concept requires a lot of thought and careful wording. The following rules must be followed when submitting a Concept:

• Concepts must work with the mechanics laid out in Pokemon Scarlet/Violet. A concept that requires a custom ability, move, or other element that cannot be found on a Pokemon from Scarlet or Violet is not allowed. A concept must be feasible with the gameplay mechanics that are currently available. A concept MAY reference Pokemon unique to the CAP metagame, but the concept must be able to be fulfilled by a creation with access to only GameFreak created abilities, moves, etc. In short, "no customs." We are using GameFreak's toolbox.
• One submission per person. You may edit your Concept, but you may not change the fundamental premise after it has been posted. If editing your concept, please edit the original post instead of posting a new revision. Do not bump your Concept after you have posted it. If people do not comment on it, so be it.
• Do not duplicate or closely-resemble Concepts already posted by others. It is your responsibility to read through all previous submissions in this thread to ensure you are complying with this rule. Ignorance or laziness is not an excuse.
• Specific Pokemon types or type combos cannot be included or excluded in a Concept. Nor can other characteristics of the Concept specifically result in in the inclusion or exclusion of Types. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:
  "This is a Dragon pokemon with..." "The pokemon should be immune to Ghost attacks..." "The pokemon should have at least 7 resistances..." "The pokemon should get STAB on Thunderbolt.."
• Specific Abilities are not allowed. This applies to existing abilities and new abilities. Do not attempt to circumvent this rule by mentioning specific battle effects that can only be achieved by the implementation of an ability. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:
  "This pokemon should have a defensive ability like Intimidate or Marvel Scale..." "This pokemon has an ability that steals the opponent's held item..." "When this pokemon is switched in, all weather conditions are nullified..."
• Movepools or lists of moves are not allowed. A specific move can be mentioned if it is the basis for the entire concept. For example, the Concept "Rapid Spinner" would obviously mention the move Rapid Spin.
• Specific stat bias, base stats, or base stat ratings are not allowed. It is acceptable to use descriptive phrases like "fast", "bulky", "strong attacker", etc -- since there are a variety of ways a pokemon can fit those descriptions without specifically requiring certain stats. But, do not use overly-specific descriptions that would narrowly constrain the pokemon's base stat spread.
• Indications of Physical/Special bias are discouraged, but acceptable if it is essential to the Concept.
• Do not refer to any part of the pokemon's artistic design. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:
  "This is a bright blue pokemon..." "The pokemon looks like a..." "The pokemon uses its long tail to..."
• A Concept Submission must be submitted in the proper format. The format is described below. If the proper format is not used, the moderators will not evaluate the submission, regardless of content.

Concept Submission Format Use this format for all concept submissions: Here is the format with tags. Just copy/paste this into your post, and fill it out:

• Name - Don't get too clever with the name. If the essence of the concept is not intuitively obvious in the name, then you are hurting your chances of people understanding it. If the essence of your concept cannot be expressed in a few words, then you need to seriously re-evaluate your concept.
• Description - This is the official description of the concept, and must follow ALL the content rules listed above. Do not make this a long description. Long descriptions are invariably too specific or too convoluted. Keep it short. Any more than a sentence or two is TOO MUCH. Do NOT include your Explanation of the concept in the Description. See "Explanation" below.
• Justification- Your concept must answer the following questions to be eligible:
  • What new territory will your Concept Pokemon explore, why do you believe it’s interesting, and how would it interact with the metagame?
  • How does your concept motivate in-depth discussion at each stage of the process, and why do you believe the CAP Project community should discuss these topics?
• In filling out your concept submission, copy the questions above and add your answer after it.
• Questions To Be Answered - The purpose of the CAP project is to learn new things about the metagame, and each concept submission is a proposed "experiment". Each tool has its own specific set of questions, but good concepts often can explain other facets of competitive Pokemon. Use this section to pose those additional questions. Note that this is different from Justification where you are answering tool-related questions, in this section you are proposing questions.
• Explanation - This can contain just about anything. This is where you can explain your concept without restraint. You may make suggestions, even specific suggestions, regarding the possible implementation of the Concept. This explanation should help facilitate discussion of the Concept -- but the Explanation is NOT part of the Concept and will be omitted from the polls and any future use of the Concept. Since your explanation is non-binding, regarding future polls and threads, it will not be evaluated for purposes of determining if your concept is legal or illegal. Although it is tempting, refrain from making too long of an explanation; it will deter readers from fully considering your concept.

It is the submitter's responsibility to figure out how to make a legal submission within the rules listed above. Do not complain about the difficulty of making a submission in this thread. There are many, many legal concepts that can be presented within the rules. Here are few examples of good and bad Concepts from previous projects:

Good Concepts from Past Projects
"Pure Utility Pokemon"
"Anti-Ghost Rapid Spinner"
"Ultimate Weather Abuser"
"Status Counter"
"Momentum"

Bad Concepts from Past Projects
"Ice-Resisting Dragon"
"Super Luck User"
"STAB Explosion Glass Cannon"
"Auto-Stealth Rock Remover"
"A Pokemon with Special Intimidate"
"Pyrokinetic Pokemon (Fire/Psychic)"
"Special Guts"
"Typing Means Nothing"

Note that all good concepts do not specifically dictate anything in later polls. Please try to remember that we are simply pointing the project in a general direction, we are not trying to decide anything right now. We have several weeks of polls ahead of us where EVERYTHING about this Pokemon will be dissected, discussed, voted, and decided. The concept is a very basic guide for the creation process. It is hard to provide solid concept descriptions without basically designing the entire Pokemon right off the bat. Submissions should be written and chosen very carefully to avoid these problems.

Now I will hand things over to CAP 36's TL, SHSP!

 

[SHSP]

Hey everyone! We've got a very cool framework and an excellent team picked out to get us to the finish line. I highly recommend getting familiar with how CAP operates before jumping into things: understanding the metagame and how the process works is going to be a huge help for concept creation, especially considering we're running a framework that changes some of how the process operates. I'm really excited to see what everyone comes up with and how they can interact with Meloetta Forms as a framework, too.

As I and other TLs have done in the past, I'll be leaning on the TLT to discuss concepts and help decide what works and what doesn't. I suggest anyone who hasn't already to join the CAP Discord. If anyone needs specific feedback or has any questions, reach out to me or the TLT. With all that out of the way, lets get this show on the road!

 

[quziel]

• Name - Defensive Transformation
• Description - This Pokemon uses a form change in a manner that is primarily or at least partially defensive. This could be changing defensive bias from physical to special to deal with a specific opponent, utilizing immunities from a typing change, or changing from an offensive form to a defensive form.
• Justification- Frankly speaking we have only seen a Pokemon use a defensive form change once, being Aegislash. Every other forme change is either out of battle, one way, or whatever Cramorant has going on. This concept has explicit interactions with stats, from thinking about how our speed stat interacts with our Relic Song clone, to typing where we can leverage changes in defensive typing to interact with counterplay, to our defensive stats.
• Questions To Be Answered-
  • Does having a transformation that can be used defensively imply a defensive or offensive role.
  • Is a defensive transformation useful for walling? What does that imply about our stats.
  • Do we need a high speed stat to use a defensive transformation? Is a transformation something that is best used proactively (predicting a switch), reactively (transforming after being hit or before being hit?)
  • Is it best to use major stat changes to focus on a defensive transformation, typing changes, or a combination of the two?
• Explanation - The most obvious thing that leapt out at me after selecting our framework is how to use the transformation to react to opponent's switching. Gaining a new STAB is cool, and gives you a 1.5x boost on your coverage moves, but going from Dragapult to Melmetal bulk, or going from a weakness to an immunity is life-changing. This is something that's relevant to basically any role as well, a wallbreaker would love to turn into a flying type after Equilibra swaps in, a wall would love to go from specially defensive to physically defensive the second a Zamazenta swaps in. Finally, Dragapult would love to be able to hit an opponent and take basically nothing in return if its playing its cards perfectly.

 

[Magic Mayhem Maiden]

Can we have an explanation on what specifics does the Meloetta-Formes frameworks introduce, and what is already predetermined?
1. What aspects of typing/ability/stats are allowed to be changed between formes?
2. What aspects of the move (that triggers the change) are allowed to be customized in the future?

Edit: I asked SHSP, and here is what is allowed:
- The form will change one of its two Types.
- The ability and movepool cannot change between forms.
- Also here is SHSP's later explanation post about the specifics of the Relic Song clone.

 

[Yu_IOTJ]

WIP

Name - Ain't no Mountain High enough, Ain't no Valley Low enough

Description - This pokemon makes use of stats with extremes in very high stat values and contrasted with very low stat values.

Explanation - wip

 

[dex]

Final Submission

Name - Pro Gamer (adapted from That's a Skill Issue by Dogfish44)

Description - This Pokemon has a high skill ceiling. The user of this CAP can get a lot of value out of it by thinking through their turns and playing well.

Justification - This is an Actualization concept. Pokemon is a game with a lot of RNG. However, there are still good and bad players; there's some underlying level of skill involved with the game. There's also various levels of difficulty in piloting teams. An offense team may have less margin for error than a balance team, but the reward for playing well could be higher. This concept seeks to explore the effect skill really has on the game of Pokemon and what Pokemon/attributes really accentuate skill difference in-game.

Questions to be Answered -

• How is skill quantifiable in Pokemon? Do we need to be completely results-oriented in determining skill?
• What types or traits of Pokemon are easier to derive value from? Does ease-of-use preclude a Pokemon from the high-skill conversation?
• Are there any roles that lend themselves more towards a high-skill payoff?
• Are there certain team archetypes that have a bigger payoff for high-skill players?
• Do "feast or famine" Pokemon qualify as high-skill options? How do we differentiate a Pokemon that a high-skill player gets value out of vs. a matchup fish?
• Is prediction a marker of a skilled player? How much does skill factor into "50/50s"?
• Is RNG management (calcing, thinking about most likely outcomes) a part of skill expression?

Explanation - There is only so much that is controllable in Pokemon. It is important in-game to keep that in mind. Control what you can, do what you can in the match to win. Sometimes you have a bad matchup, sometimes you just win on lead, but most games of Pokemon come down to the plays that get made. This concept seeks to explore how certain Pokemon open themselves up for high skill expression plays. An example that I discussed on Discord was Tornadus-T. With Regenerator as its only form of recovery and a weakness to contact effects, Tornadus-T has always had to pick and choose very carefully what it does each turn. It's high utility and great survivability lets good players get a lot of value out of it, but careless play can lead to it getting KOed earlier than it should. Tornadus-T emphasizes a bunch of parts of skill expression such as RNG management (how much are you really getting out of clicking Hurricane?) and prediction (you have a Zapdos so I'll just double instead of brainlessly clicking U-turn). These are the types of questions that this CAP would hope to inspire in a match, causing thoughtful moments where players would need to really consider their best play.

I think this concept is particularly fitting for this framework, as the agency of when to activate CAP 36's forme change is entirely in the hands of the user, which gives CAP 36 a very unique avenue to explore skill expression.

 

[HealthGage]

Name: Recoil & Rebound

Description: This Pokémon has a heavy reliance on using recoil moves to damage the opponent and health stealing moves to heal themselves.

Justification: This would fall under an Archetype concept, being an idea that centers around the constant management of health. It's high risk/high reward through deciding when to focus on knocking out the opponent or to heal yourself. Though with the concept in place, the only way they can heal is from the opponent which depending on the opposing Pokémon & the move being used can heavily vary the amount of health regained.

Questions to be Answered:

• How will we approach the inherent power of recoil moves? Will we lean into it or regulate it?
• How do we incentivize players to use this mix of moves instead of risk free moves?
• Should one form be more tailored to recoil moves and one more tailored to life stealing moves, or should each form utilise both?
• A question posed by SHSP; Should we instead focus more on either Recoil moves or health stealing moves? If so, which should we go for?

Explanation: Most Pokémon either have an ability that negates the effects of recoil moves, an ability that off sets the damage done through passive regeneration, or a reliable source of health Regen moves like recover or roost. However I've seen very few Pokémon, if not zero, mitigate the damage caused through life stealing moves. This would be interesting to work with since we would have to balance when to strike with great force or to take health for less damage, this teetering balance of health control on both ends. There are a plentiful amount of recoil and life stealing moves of varying types and attack preferences for us to use, so the typing of the CAP as well as it's stats can be left open ended and can lead itself to a good variety of roles, albeit it's very offensive in nature.

 

[Scepticskep]

Final Submission
Name: The Chosen One

Description: This CAP is designed to run a very high BP move with a heavy drawback/condition preventing other Pokémon from using it.

Justification: Every attacking move in Pokemon comes with advantages and disadvantages that determine its value on a mon's set. Flamethrower, and Thunderbolt offer good damage with consistent accuracy, Close Combat and Overheat offer high power at the cost of stat drops, Nuzzle and Trailblaze have low power but valuable secondary effects. On the most part, offensive Pokemon are comfortable running moves that usually land in the 80-120 BP field, as well as low power moves with strong secondary effects. A CAP designed to reach the farthest end on that spectrum is sure to introduce a unique element into the metagame, as very few pokemon utilize tools from that tier of base power due to the high risk attached.

Questions To Be Answered:
- Why are these moves considered too high risk for their reward?
- Which of these moves would result in a unique offensive presence that’s not already present in the CAP metagame?
- What tools can a Pokemon be given to effectively deal with the drawbacks / consistently meet the conditions of these moves?
- How do we prevent this Pokemon from becoming too overbearing offensively, if it can effectively use such a strong move?
- Have any of these moves been used on fringe sets in the past, and what can we learn from their usage?

Explanation:
For this concept, I've compiled several examples of moves I consider “high power, heavy drawback” here, but by no means are these moves the extent of potential discussion.

Self-Damaging and Self-Destructing moves: (Explosion, Self Destruct, Misty Explosion, Chloroblast, Steel Beam)

These moves are certainly the most literal definition of "nuke". They provide some of the highest immediate strength of any move, but at the cost of cutting a Pokemon's health or just killing it. You gamble your Pokemon's health on a potential switch in to a resist or immunity, which could ruin your momentum. But these moves can certainly have significant utility: whether it's on a suicide lead or a breaker, these moves provide a pokemon immense offensive pressure while also allowing a free switch in for a Pokemon with stronger longevity. Moves like Chloroblast and Steel Beam could even be used repeatedly if a pokemon has an effective way of recovering its health, either though ability, recovery move or item.

Abysmal Accuracy: (Zap Cannon, Inferno, Dynamic Punch)

Moves that have less than 100% accuracy have always been difficult choices to place on a Pokemon's moveset. As a wise man once said, "If it's not 100 percent accurate, it's 50 percent accurate". So naturally, moves that are actually 50 percent accurate are never run. Zap Cannon, Inferno, and Dynamic Punch all fall in the fairly strong 100-120 BP range, but their true strength comes from the guaranteed status effect each move applies. In this sense, the moves are pretty unique in providing both high power and a useful secondary effect, and if a Pokemon is given a tool/tools to get around the accuracy issue it's sure to be a unique offensive threat.

HP-Based Moves (Eruption, Water Spout, Dragon Energy)

This trio of moves offer some incredible immediate power, but deflate once a user takes significant damage. 150 BP at max HP creates a massive threat, especially when combined with boosting items and weather. While these moves tend to thrive in double formats, very few Pokemon have the tools to effectively run these moves in singles. The fastest legal runners of these moves (Blastoise, Typhlosion-Hisui, Regidrago) are all essentially forced to run to find value in these moves, as they lack both the speed to immediately hit these high power moves and the bulk to use these moves multiple times in a row. A Pokémon that most effectively runs one of these types of moves would most likely have to deal with one/both of these issues, but I’m interested if any other solutions could be found.

Other Stat Reliant: (Electro Ball, Power Trip)

Unlike the previous HP based moves, these moves come with significantly less reliability. Electro Ball rely on Speed reaching up to 150 BP if the user is 4x faster than the opponent. Naturally, it’s difficult to reach these maximums without stat changes on either side of the field. The blisteringly fast Regieleki never ran Electro Ball, even though Gyro Ball found success with Ferrothorn and Bronzong. In order to succeed with Electro Ball, a Pokemon would have to find a way to consistently reach much higher speeds. Power Trip is a Dark type physical copy of Stored Power. While many mons run Stored Power, Power Trip is very rarely run as physical attackers don’t have as many options for multiple stat increasing moves like special attackers do. A strong Power Trip user would have to have some tool(s) to rack up stat boosts in a way other physical attackers lack.

Miscellaneous: (Steel Roller, Terrain Pulse, etc.)

There are many other examples of moves with difficult and sometimes bizarre conditions in order to utilize their high power. Steel Roller, a 140 BP steel move that only works when terrain is up, and removes terrain. Terrain Pulse and Weather Ball, both increasing to 100 BP and changing type under specific terrains/weather. Lash Out, a move that doubles to 150 BP if the user’s stats were lowered that turn. Brine, which doubles to 130 BP if the opponent is below half health. The range of untapped power in the game is massive, and I’d be excited to see how a CAP could potentially reach these heights.

 

[Ehmcee]

WIP
Name: Mixed and Matched

Description: This CAP is designed to be a mixed attacker, with the goal of incentivizing running at least one physical and one special move on it's best sets.

Justification: This is an Archetype concept, and aims to create a Pokemon that uses offensive pressure on both sides of the attacking spectrum. Current gen Scarlet and Violet OU has a fairly good amount of mixed attackers, however no CAP Pokemon really fit that bill currently. Much defensive counterplay currently revolves around having a Physical and a Special wall / check currently, which a mixed attacker is able to bypass, requiring defensive counterplay to operate around type effectiveness. This concept aims to find out what makes a mixed attacker viable in such power-crept metagame.

Questions To Be Answered:
- How do other mixed attackers such as Iron Valiant, Deoxys-Speed, Kyurem and Hoopa-Unbound currently have success in the metagame?
- Should our Meloetta-Style Transformation change our ratio of Attack - Special Attack? Should one form be physically offensive, while the other be specially offensive?
- Should we consider having equal Physical and Special attacking stats such as current and historic mixed attackers like Deoxys-Speed, Kyurem, Infernape and Mega Diancie?
- For a Pokemon with higher stats on one offensive side, how could we incentivize the use of moves from the lower stat?
- Should our Relic Song adjacent transformation move be physical or special? How would this decision affect our offensive stats?

 

[AzothBend]

WIP

Name: Lost and Found

Description: This Pokemon takes changing its types through moves to the extreme, swapping, losing, and gaining types several times throughout a battle.

Questions to be Answered:

• What benefits are there to switching type mid-battle? (STAB, defensive profile, etc.)
• What are the consequences?
• What are the unique mechanics of Relic Song's type change over other form changes?
• Why would this Pokemon opt for these moves over more straightforward alternatives?

Explanation: The provided frameworks means CAP 36 will be changing its type mid-battle at least once. Many would like to see it change types, back and forth, multiple times over the course of a battle. This is also in the midst of the Tera phenom of Gen 9, allowing any Pokemon to change its type once in battle. This concept takes all of these to the logical extreme: a Pokemon that's using its move pool to constantly shift its typing. Relic Song's form changing property already grants CAP 36 three potential types. Powerful moves like Burn Up and Double Shock remove the user type until switch out. Combined, Relic Song allows for the unique benefit of using these moves repeatedly without switching. Defensive options, like Roost temporary removal of the user's Flying, also exist.

 

[Birkal]

I normally am not big into CAP concepts that require a specific move, like Equilibria or Cawmodore (I think they’re kind of boring from a process perspective), but I think they may be particularly wise for CAP36 due to our framework. Narrowing down its competitive movesets to a single key support/setup move may give us more of a solid footing for choosing our typing and form change differences. That focus on a few specific moves (or even one) seems optimal this time around, imo.

I fear that going with a broad concept may open this CAP up way too much, making it unfocused and difficult to make balanced as a form changing mon. Alternatively, narrowing the scope may help us hone in on what sort of strats CAP36 is able to pull off with its form changing move.

 

[CharSiuEmboar]

WIP

Name: Two Turn Tony

Description: This pokemon uses a move that takes multiple turns, to trigger the form change. This can be either an attack that triggers as normal with a cooldown, or has a charge up.

[Query] Relic Song takes place after being successfully used. Would that mean on a two turn attack it would need to wait until after both turns, after first turn, or after the move does its main effect? (e.g would (for example) Skull Bash trigger after +1 Def, or after *hopefully* landing the attack)?

Oops, midread it was a clone of Relic Song, not that we were using our mechanics to replicate the form change.

 

[Marcman24]

As I have mistaken between framework and concept, I try again there (but better).
Name : Type revenge

Description : This pokemon particularly suffers from a drawback of it's main type or double-type, but makes it's weakness a trap or a strenght.

Justification : This is an Actualization concept. Some types or double types are condamned to stay in ZU due to the drawbacks of their types. CAP process offers the tools to make such pokemon playable, while there are only a few CAP pokemons with bad typing (and no one with very bad typing). The challenge of the concept would be of not searching to counterbalance it's drawback with overwhelming tools beside, but instead, of thinking it's tools together to make him a coherent all, leading to a unique role. It fits very well in the framework, and this may conduct to a pokemon with a lot of adaptability in-game instead of a pokemon condemned to the role chosen for him during CAP process or teambuilding.

Questions :

What would be the role of the secondary's form typing ?
Would it be the offensive part of the trap in question ? How can we then make the change-form move not be a forced urgence ? Does the types of the other form also have drawbacks and if so, is it same kind of drawback or another ?

How far can we push the adaptability of a change-form pokemon in-game ?

What is a trap in this context ?
The objective would be to discourage some natural predators of the bad typing or make them think twice. Typical exemple are offensive movepool threatening these predators, or another exemple is Garganacl with it's salt against water and steel pokemon which loose a lot on swich-in.

Myriad of questions arise from this one : what may be the switch-in ? We may classify bewteen traped switch-in, true switch-in, ... Responding to this question may be the key to find how we can make this pokemon have this desired adaptability. We can also wonder how it may affect the game planning at different times of the battle : beginning of the game, when you make your plan and late game, when you have to adapt with what it remains. How does the adaptability and open weaknesses of the pokemon affect the switch-in strategies of the opponent ?

What is the drawback of it's types ?
Obviously it can be number of weaknesses. But it can also be double weakness to stealth rock or weaknesses to actual very popular offensive types. The drawback may also be offensive, as normal pure pokemons. As CAP lacks of one-type pokemons, we can think about this category. (I remind that ZU has a lot of one-type while OU has a lot of double-types, so we can think about it)

What tools do we give, in addition, for teambuilding adaptability ?
As aegislash who have been a terror by being playable physical, special while defensive in same time thanks to it's change-form.

How does the change-form impact the role choice ?
As exemple, with bad typing, it may naturally not fit well as defensive, but many bad double-types have as much resistances as weaknesses so we can be surprised. We can also naturally think of a revenge-killer, and so one. As the exemple of the preceeding question, we can be lead to imagine a pokemon that shine in being able to play many roles.

Offensive movepool also rises questions :
How do we manage the role of potentially three stabs as it can be the key of the trap ? In particular what is the role of the changing-form move in the context of the this trap concept ?


Explanation :
As you can see this concept, combined with this framework, offers a lot of possibilities and challenges for CAP process.
Is this concept a duplicata of recent other concepts such as for Shox ? No, the challenge is not about contradiction, but about typing which is bad in it-self.
If you look at typing of CAPs, you may see an omnipresence of rare typing. If it brings diversity to pokemon, it makes CAP process avoiding the subject of typings more liked by the franchise. This fact is even more caracterized about the aspect of bad typing, as already said.
This concept would also be an opportunity to force to add some diversity in CAP typing : only one ice pokemon and two rock as example.

Je suis français, donc n'hésitez pas à me signaler les mauvaises tournures de phrase de mon anglais aléatoire.

 

[Pipotchi]

Name - Help Yourself

Description - This defensive Pokémon sets the stage for its own cleaning later on.

Justification - We are exploring and trying to mesh two roles- defensive Pokémon and cleaner. "Cleaner" does not have a set definition on the Smogon Dictionary, but in this context we should consider it as an endgame Pokémon that can sweep a heavily weakened enemy team without using moveslots for boosting moves like Swords Dance. Examples include Iron Moth and Specs Dragapult. "Defensive" is a term that can cover a wider range of valid roles, as long as they work towards an advantageous endgame situation for the cleaner. Some examples include Ting-Lu and Moltres.

Questions to be answered -

• How will this mon handle the various crippling tools of the tier that defensive Pokémon are supposed to take in place of offensive mons, knowing that it needs to transform into an offensive form later?
• As a speedy mon, how will this Pokémon match up to dominant fast Pokémon like Dragapult and Hemogoblin? How will this matchup affect its viability?
• What type of support do cleaners from different team archetypes (balance, weather, etc) value most and how does it differ between archetypes?
• What are some mono-types that contain both strong offensive dual types and strong defensive dual types? Can we find a pair of typings (with a shared type) that both make the offensive version offensively strong and defensively weak, and the defensive version the opposite?
• How does the speed of the Relic Song user affect its awkwardness? Is it better to Relic Song before or after the opponent moves?

This is a Pokémon that must share its moveslots between two forms, and for that reason:

• What coverage moves would do best in the tier when it comes to cleaning with the fewest possible moves?
• What defensive tasks can be performed in the fewest possible moves?
• Are there attacks in the tier that could be used for both cleaning and incremental damage?
• How can this mon find a strong EV middle-ground between being capable defensively and also powerful and fast enough offensively?
• What abilities can help alleviate the lack of moveslots, acting as an additional move for the purpose of either defense or cleaning?
• Can Relic Song be made into a useful attack for one or both forms, rather than just a transformation tool?

Explanation - One of the most frivolous roles in modern Pokémon has been the "cleaner"- a very fast Pokémon that simply takes out the trash once the enemy team has been weakened enough, usually by outspeeding the remaining Pokémon and ohkoing them from their remaining HP percentage. Nowadays, this is a trait which is tacked onto other mons with more solid purposes for being added to a team. Examples include Iron Valiant- which provides either sweeping with CM or extremely solid anti-sweep with Encore, or Hemogoblin who is very capable of sweeping.
Its rare, however, for a mon to be able to be both a cleaner and defensive Pokémon. These two roles tend to sit at the far opposite ends of the spectrum in all ways- cleaners of the past are more likely to be single-use and aim for big hits, while defensive mons want to switch in and out all game and lean towards incremental damage that can stack up despite lack of investment, or performing other tasks to give their team an advantage. It'll be interesting to combine the two halves of the same strategy inside of one mon: the defensive mon "sets the stage" for the cleaner by crippling and chipping down the opposing team. It could also make the cleaner's job easier by enabling teammates such as wallbreakers to break down the opponent.
In CAP, we rarely explore the upper tier of speed- Hemogoblin being a rare exception, so a true cleaner in the ranks of Iron Val, Deoxys-Speed and Dragapult would be a new frontier for us.
Now, we have had all-rounders in the past- Cresceidon and arguably Kitsunoh could be called defensive mons that can clean- but these mons offer a very different playstyle thanks to their ability to attack and defend at once- Meloetta forms can be much more extreme in their offensive/defensive capabilities and also separate them from each other, resulting in the player needing to be more strategic. It should be a great way to explore the unique framework we find ourselves with.

 

[StarFalcon555]

WIP

Name: All Field Effect Vehicle

Description: This Pokemon is built to be an equally effective abuser of a weather and a terrain.

Explanation: Weather conditions and terrains are some of the most interesting game mechanics in Pokemon. Their unique effects allow Pokemon that are normally seen as unviable to have a niche in higher tiers when paired with a weather/terrain setter (or even as the weather/terrain setter itself - Pelipper was a PU shitmon before getting Drizzle in Gen 7 and is now a mainstay OU/UUBL Pokemon, while access to Grassy Surge caused Rillaboom to catapult from RU pre-DLC SWSH OU to a top rank OU mon, where it's remained ever since, just to give a couple of examples.) Even Game Freak seems to be playing into this with the introduction of the Paradox Pokemon, split into two groups meant to abuse either a specific weather (Past Paradoxes with Sun) or a specific terrain (Future Paradoxes with Electric Terrain). However, weather teams and terrain teams often tend to be mutually exclusive - the mons found on these archetypes tend to be very niche and specialize mainly in their specific field effect, so trying to combine the two leads to a team that's quite lacking in synergy. However, there is a lot of potential for synergy in the field effects themselves - for example, Grassy Terrain benefits the Fire types that act as the centerpiece for Sun teams by reducing the damage they take from Earthquake, while Electric Terrain makes the 100% accurate Thunders allowed by Rain even more powerful. This concept would allow us to explore these potential interactions by creating a Pokemon uniquely suited to taking advantage of them, allowing for a unique and interesting process. This framework makes this concept extra interesting IMO - since CAP 36 will be changing forms quite often, we'll have to make sure that both forms can utilize these field effects, adding an extra layer of creativity to the process!

Questions:

• What are the most commonly used weathers and terrains in CAP and OU at the moment? What are the least commonly used weathers and terrains? What differences in the archetypes and abusers of each field effect allow for some weathers/terrains to succeed while others fail?
• Which weather/terrain combo makes the best pair, and which combo makes the worst pair? What factors are involved in maximizing the synergy of a weather/terrain pair?
• How can we make a Pokemon that can effectively utilize a weather and a terrain to equal success, since the two archetypes are vastly different?
• What roles are most commonly found on weather teams and terrain teams? What makes these roles most compatible with the weather/terrain of our choosing? Are there roles uniquely suited to a weather/terrain combination? If so, why wouldn't these roles work individually?
• What makes a weather/terrain abuser a weather/terrain abuser? Is simply setting the weather/terrain in question enough to call a Pokemon a weather/terrain abuser?
• One of the biggest downsides of both weather and terrain teams is that they are quite niche, which means that their abusers are also often considered niche at best in OU/CAP. How can we make CAP 36 an abuser of both a weather and a terrain without it becoming too hyperspecialized? Should we give it a niche on "regular" teams? If so, what should that niche be?

 

[Ayecrusher King]

Final Submission

Name: I am not left-handed

Description: Both formes specialise in countering (or at least checking) a specific role and/or archetype, but each forme differs in the methods that they can counter/check said role/archetype, leveraging its type change and change of STABs to cover the other forme's weaknesses.

Justification: When you're building a team and need to cover certain weaknesses, you normally may be forced to choose between differing options. And even in scenarios where you can have both, you might not be able to bring in the alternative option safely, whether because that gives the opponent a few turn, or if the other option cannot function as optimally. With CAP 36’s framework allowing it to change form, this allows an opportunity to compress options against a specific role, such as hazard setters, or an entire archetype, such as Stall.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What sort of archetype should both CAP36 and CAP36i be able to counter effectively in general? In addition, what methods are there that can generally disrupt these archetypes?
• How would the aspects of CAP36 and CAP36i (i.e. Movepool, Ability, etc.) that stay the same between each forme be crafted in a way so that both formes would be desirable fairly equally (i.e, can a move that is used as utility in one form be equally valuable as a valid damaging option in the other form)? Additionally, how would the aspects that change (i.e. stats, one of its types) differ to allow each form to counter the chosen archetype differently(i.e. should our type allow us to turn what is a crippling weakness in one form into an immunity in the other)?
• How would the differences between CAP36 and CAP36i be crafted in a way that their utility would be able to affect different Pokemon? Should both formes share a relatively similar pool of Pokemon they can affect, or should the pool of Pokemon be vastly different between them?

Explanation: Before anyone asked, concept name's from a quote from the Princess Bride, and is formerly referred as Multipurpose CAP.

Anyways, picture that your team requires an option that needs to counter against, say, something that sets up stat boosts, and you've narrowed it down to two Pokemon that can provide that utility. However, one performs it in an offensive style (i.e. it is capable of knocking the opposing Pokemon into range to be revenge killed before it can build up enough boosts to be a threat) while the other performs it in an defensive style (i.e. it can shrug off the moves no matter how much the opponent sets up). This is what this concept plans to achieve for CAP36b and CAP 36i: if you need a strong offensive presence immediately, you can use CAP 36b; if your opponent then sends in something stronger but frailer, you just use the special move to transform into the alternate defensive form to pressure them to switch out.

An earlier, likely polljumping example I'm archiving here purely for the explanation's sake

Say you need something to counter the opponent from removing your hazards, like via Rapid/Mortal Spin. In one form, CAP 36 can knock out the Spinner before it has a chance to use the move. In its other form, CAP 36 is immune to the attack, forcing them to switch. This example is not noted because I recognised that it would necessitate a specific type, hence polljumping, and thus should be ignored.

 

[chartung17]

Final Submission

Name: Mind Games

Description: This Pokémon uses its high speed and the differing defensive profiles of its two forms to force opponents to predict whether it will change form or not and punish those who predict incorrectly.

Justification: This is an Actualization concept which seeks to build a Pokémon that is difficult to beat when used by a player who is good at predicting. Tera allows many Pokémon to fill a similar role; for example, many Fire-types including Iron Moth use Tera Grass to turn their Water and Ground weaknesses into resistances (while turning their Fire and Bug resistances into weaknesses), and when facing Iron Moth, incorrectly predicting whether or not it will tera can result in losing a crucial Pokémon. However, tera can only be used once per game; few Pokémon (only Meloetta and Castform, if I'm not mistaken) can change their defensive typing at will multiple times per game, and currently none can do so viably.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What typing combinations would be effective for this concept?
• How powerful is this concept? Is the ability to change typing at will powerful enough that we'll need to restrict our power budget in other areas, or does the reliance on a 75 BP move mean we'll have to have a large power budget to make it viable?

Explanation: The ability to change one's defensive profile at the start of the turn is one of the most powerful abilities of tera, as gaining a free turn by turning a super effective hit into a resisted one can be enough to change the course of a match. However, it comes with a high opportunity cost, as sometimes (especially if the opponent correctly predicts that you'll tera), using tera too early results in losing the game. This concept seeks to build a mon with similar capabilities, but with a somewhat lower risk and reward: switching types once does not prevent doing so again later in the match, but the turn gained by a successful prediction is not a completely free turn since a specific move must be used when transforming (or not used when staying in the same form). Meloetta may have been designed with something like this concept in mind, as Psychic and Fighting resist several of each other's weaknesses, but it fell short in practice; this concept is essentially aiming to build a better Meloetta.

 

[Gekokeso]

WIP

Name: Mr Negative

Description: The typing change that comes with change between forms in this CAP is absolute: neither form shares a type with one another. The CAP uses this to its advantage.

Justification: This concept, should it be legal, would essentially add a bit of a fun challenge to the framework. Rather than keeping one stab, the activation move would completely change both the users STABs. An example of this would be a Flying Ground turning into a Water Steel.

Questions To Be Answered:

• In what situations would a complete overhaul of a mon's stats and STAB be useful?
• Just how different are we allowed to make the Pokémon's stats and typing between the forms?
• Should we take on this challenge, how exactly we would ensure that one form doesn't just use the other form's tools to its advantage and prevent the other form from ever being used?

Explanation: The meloetta-style forms concept is already a fun one. By using a move we are able to change our typing and stats at will, which is already pretty fun to explore. This concept would attempt to push the concept even further: to completely change the tpying between forms to ensure completely different offensive and defensive profiles.

One of the more fun aspects of this concept should it be executable its that if Tera gets eliminated in the future, this pokémon would be the cloest equivalent to the mechanic's aspect of completely changing a pokémon typing.

Concept is ilegal, womp womp.

 

[hexatron]

WIP

• Name - Prudent Planning
• Description - This Pokémon's transformation move will fail if specific conditions aren't met
• Justification- Transforming with a single move is a powerful and unique trait, it would make sense to limit it in some way to prevent the Pokémon from being overpowered. This would also add an extra layer of strategic depth, by having the player set the stage or correctly predict the opponent in order to use the Pokémon to its fullest extent. This would save us a lot of power budget and give us more creative liberty in the later stages of the process, too.
• Questions To Be Answered -
• Explanation - Examples of conditional moves that we could design this move on, and how it changes the mon's strategy. There are several not listed here, these are just the first that came to mind.
  • Fake Out/First Impression: Move will fail if it isn't the first turn user is out. This would force the player to commit fully to the transformation if they want to use it, not being able to keep it in their back pocket.
  • Sucker Punch/Protect: Move will fail if foe isn't attacking. This would require the player to predict the opponent's move to transform.
  • Poltergeist: Fails if foe doesn't have an item. This could result in more careful usage of Knock Off, and gives an additional reason to run no item.
  • Fling/Bestow/Stuff Cheeks: Fails if user doesn't have an item. Would require player to carefully avoid Knock Off. If item is consumed during the process like with these moves, would also add a level of resource management depth.
  • Aurora Veil: Requires Snowstorm to be active. Would require Weather/Terrain management, could give life to a lesser used weather or terrain.

 

[Explosion Badger]

FInal Submission

Name: Stick With Me

Description: This CAP functions effectively as a "glue" pokemon for teams.

Justification: Glue mons are some of the most interesting Pokemon to think about in terms of how they're designed. On the surface, it might seem as simple as a mon having a good typing, stats, movepool, etc., but there's a lot more to it than that. Glue pokemon are those whose toolsets allow them to compress roles like no other-Pokemon that can contribute to a teams offensive presence, their defensive core and pivoting, Pokemon that support their team in a multitude of ways, etc. Glue Pokemon find value in the fact that they're able to help with multiple different issues with a team at once, where more specialized pokemon might solve a single problem more soundly. As such, the goal of figuring out how to properly balance a Pokemon between being good all-around while not being overwhelming would be a fascinating process to explore. What makes this even more interesting, however, is the process of making a glue pokemon whos form change allows it to provide unique support for its team, in a way that no other glue mon has shown. Through the form change, our created Pokémon can change what Pokémon its type answers, as well as how different stats can change the way it interacts with other Pokémon.

Questions to be asked:

• What are some common traits among different glue mons? How do their types, movepools and abilities play into their role? Are there common patterns among some of these traits? do some of these shared traits skew more offensively or defensively?
• Glue pokemon usually have some combination of both offensive and defensive prowess. How do we design a Pokemon with strong all-around traits without it becoming overwhelming? How do prior examples balance their strengths and weaknesses?
• How does our form-changing aspect influence how we balance our stats? Can we push for higher extremes between one form's offenses and defenses if the other form does the opposite? Should one form more closely resemble a typical glue mon while the other is allowed to be more unique?
• How can we design a glue mon's toolkit to compress multiple roles while being somewhat limited in what moves we can run? How can we prevent this mon's signature move from being discarded in favor of more role compression?

 

[Scizivire]

Name: Shieldbreaker

Description: This Pokémon specifically targets common defensive core structures by leveraging its varying STABs between formes

Justification:
It is not often that we can make a mon with more than two STABs, and it would be interesting to explore how we can make the most of this through this concept. The concept would also generate meticulous discussions involving the effectiveness of type coverage into the current and past metagames. In my opinion an ideal end product for this concept would reward good gameplay through correct predictions, on both the user's and the opponent's end.

Questions to be asked:

• Which typing patterns can be seen in defensive cores, historically and in the current meta?
  • Which weaknesses are often shared between members, and how are these generally patched up?
• How can we make sure swapping formes is a viable option to deal with switch-ins, given it takes a turn to perform?
  • Should our unchanging STAB, and thus our Relic Song clone, be more or less impactful into our original matchups than our changing STAB?
  • Our Relic Song clone has a relatively weak base power. How can we make it so clicking this move doesn’t feel like a completely wasted turn when we predict wrong?
  • How can we balance our power in such a way that a coverage move on one forme isn’t enough to break something, but the same move as a STAB is?
• How does Terastalization play into the matchups and our ability to break things?
• How important are defensive matchups into the opponent’s active Pokémon and switch-ins for this scenario?
• Our matchup into more offensive Pokémon isn’t the main focus of the concept. Regardless, how concerned should we be about these matchups?

Explanation:
OU, and by exentension CAP, is a metagame where good teams are often built on the back of a solid defensive core. The goal of these is of course to ensure you can generally take repeated hits from any/most unboosted Pokémon in the tier. To effectively do this, raw stats are important, but weaknesses and resistances play a much bigger role (unless you are Blissey). Historically, Pokémon of certain types bring more defensive value than others, and therefore certain patterns develop when teambuilding: For the last few gens, most teams will have a Ground type to stop Volt Switch, a bulky Water type to cover for Water, Fire or Ice types, a Flying type to deal with common Fighting and Ground attackers. Steel types tend to have a lot of resistances and can absorb Toxic, et cetera et cetera. Generally a defensive core has the capacity to resist most move types and cover the weaknesses of the individual parts quite well.

These defensive cores then often coincidentally consist of multiple Pokémon that share a weakness and something that resists said weakness. A good example of this would be a defensive core of Arghonaut / Venomicon / Ting-Lu, where the first two share weaknesses to Electric and Psychic, but Ting-Lu stops attacks of both types dead in their tracks. Similarly, Arghonaut and Ting-Lu stack Grass and Fairy weaknesses, which Venomicon can often switch in on freely.

This sounds abusable, but in reality there aren't too many Pokémon that can effectively break all / most Pokémon in a defensive core with just the power of their STABs. CAP36 has a unique position where it can use more than 2 STABs throughout a game, but never more than two at the same time. Through skillful gameplay and predictions, a good player can take advantage of this by switching its STAB coverage towards a predicted defensive switch-in. For example, keeping the example core above in mind, if you were so start out as as a Dark/Psychic type, you might do well into Arghonaut and Venomicon but Ting-Lu really doesn't care about switching into your STABs, but if you predict the switch-in and transform into a Dark/Fighting type with actual power behind your Fighting coverage move, you are suddenly much more threatening to Ting-Lu at the cost of being weaker into the first two. If you read the situation wrong, you might disadvantage yourself instead.

 

[ihbst]

Name - Boosted Brute

Description - The Pokémon is built to enable a high-power spammable attacking move.

Justification- When you think of high-power spam attacks, I think of Water Spout/Eruption/Dragon Energy, and the Pokémon that currently have these moves have large issues; the biggest is lack of coverage, but many also don't have the speed/power, usually due to weak abilities, and are thus reliant on support teammates. The high-power attack is the main threat, but the Pokémon could utilize versatile coverage, a good ability, and such- boosts that make it consistently threatening against many teams.

Questions To Be Answered

- What "high power move" would be used, and how will it's spamability be balanced?

- Since it's bound to be much stronger than the Pokémon's other options, how do you avoid overreliance on said move?

- Would too much coverage be overpowered? How much coverage are you willing to give?

- How would different formes affect the high power move?

Explanation
I think that these high-power moves are often overlooked, and many of them are restricted by having weak users. As most of the distribution was slapped onto old Pokémon, They will inevitably be sidelined by Pokémon who are designed stronger with generational creeps. Unless the high-power attacker become the power creep, heh.

Anyways, while I used HP-based moves as an example earlier, there are other moves that should be considered. Expanding Force and Rising Voltage can be potent with the respective terrain setting ability. You could also make a signature move to go with the current framework. A lot could work here if people get creative.

A powerful ability is essential for this concept, and I think any damage-boosting ability would work well. If you go the HP-based move route, abilities that minimize chip damage and counter priority would also be of great use, to maintain the main attack's high power.

A nice place to start is pivot moves, which have great synergy with powerful attacks. You gain both the threat of massive damage, and the potential to gain momentum. It would be especially potent if the pivoting also served as a coverage move; a fire-type eruption user with volt switch would be nice against bulky waters that wall it otherwise.

 

[SHSP]

Hey everyone! Quick note here, as there's been a bit of confusion regarding what we can do with Meloetta Forms and Relic Song itself. After discussing with the TLT and mods, here's some clarification:

Our Relic Song equivalent is going to be the same base power as Relic Song, and function similarly: transforms CAP 36 into its next form, and has a 10% chance to do some sort of secondary effect. That secondary effect does not have to be Relic Song's sleep, but it does have to be something that exists and is chance-based already, such as another status, flinching, or a stat drop. We'll be able to change its typing, and potentially make it physical instead of special, but I expect that change would need a very good reason. Additionally, both forms are going to have to share half their typing, just as both Meloetta forms share Normal.


I'll have feedback posted within the next few days if I'm able to pry myself away from March Madness. Go Huskies! Everything's great so far, I'm excited to see how the concepts develop!

 

[a fairy]

Name: Slow Down, Please
Description: CAP36's Relic Song variant has a chance to drop an opposing Pokemon's speed stat (ala Bleakwind Storm, Bubble/Bubblebeam, or Constrict).
Justification: This is a Target justification in my eyes, interfacing with the way offensive checks/counters work in this game. Offensive checks/counters are designed to take weak/resisted hits, and scare out an opponent by threatening to outspeed and do significant damage. However, an inability to outspeed can result in an offensive check/counter being hindered by status, hit by SE coverage, or pivoted on. What do offensive checks/counters look like when they suddenly can't keep up the pace?
Questions to be answered:
- Speed-dropping moves and abilities are exceedingly rare in competitive Pokemon, despite Speed being incredibly important. Why is that? Why is increasing Speed, via Choice Scarf, Agility, etc, the preferred method of speed control?
- How effective are offensive checks/counters when they can't outspeed their target? What do successful slow offensive checks/counters have in common that allow them to succeed?
- What can be done when outspeeding an offensive check/counter that would justify staying in and taking potentially significant damage? If not switching out, what can CAP36 do to discourage offensive checks/counters from checking or countering it if it has the speed drop?

 

[R. P. Genocraft]

Final Submission

Name - Do you love the change in me?

Description - The Pokémon benefits from repeatedly using its signature move to change forms as much as possible.

Justification - When Meloetta actually uses Relic Song (AKA only in randbats lol), it's basically just an obligatory click to turn into Pirouette forme, and it practically never wants to use it again to turn back into Aria forme. Here this CAP would want to transform as much as possible, with its signature move being highly desirable to use in both forms.

Questions to be answered

- How should this CAP best be encouraged to change forms, rather than sticking to a single one?

- Given the low BP and secondary effect chance of Relic Song, how to make this move desirable to use in either form?

- How much should this CAP's stats change between forms?

- What secondary types best complement each other to encourage changing forms?

Explanation - Pokémon that change back and forth between forms are some of the most fun to use, but unfortunately most of them are terrible. The concept is just inherently really hard to make work, Aegislash being basically the only relevant example. Meloetta's gimmick in particular has a ton of potential though, but it's mainly held back by the change in highest offensive stat and a bad defensive profile in the "bulky" form. I do believe the pokémon could've worked well if those issues were fixed, though. Relic Song itself is also a rather unimpressive move, which is why I'd advocate for more flexibility in this CAP's equivalent move, but at least the change from normal type should improve it somewhat. Overall this would be a tricky concept to execute, but worthwhile IMO.