Deck Knight
Blast Off At The Speed Of Light! That's Right!
Haven't had much time to formulate a comment. Just going to say a few words.
While I support what Magic Bounce is trying to do, it also does completely eliminate the threat of all defensive checks. Most of the Pokemon that can phaze though Magic Bounce are offensive, and among those, they won't choose Dragon Tail when CAP6 will be far too dangerous after a setup. It undoubtedly does give CAP6 maximum leeway to set up. The question is whether it is wise to eradicate the entirety of CAP6's defensive checks. I think that's an acceptable sacrifice.
While I'm leery of Electric immunity abilities, if I had to select one it would be Motor Drive because of the insurance it provides against Scarfers. I don't think Volt Absorb is entirely outclassed, after all if you're switching into Rocks you will be healed to 100% health if you've taken Rocks once or even twice. Lightningrod is novel but by definition this isn't going to be a mixed sweeper.
I like Sand Rush a lot more than Unburden for +2Spe abilities. I honestly don't see why it forces us into the 70 Spe territory. If anything if we go for such an ability, we compensate by making CAP6, less resistant to priority than we otherwise might, so instead of being fairly fast and resilient to most priority (say 25% or so from Scizor Bullet Punch), its more generally fragile but a complete monster once set up.
As far as the Scarf Magnezone issue (And Scarf Magneton for that matter), Mach Punch seems to me a non-ability way to resolve it later that keeps in line with the concept. I'd rather our ability focus on nullifying status.
I've also mulled over the idea of Guts, and I actually think it could work because a mediocre attack CAP6 is not going to run Flame Orb just so it can be barely competent at physical attacks and avoid paralysis, and be KO'd basically the turn after it Belly Drums by default. Guts will be purely about punishing opposing Burn / Paralysis, not making some kind of makeshift physical attacker.
Shed Skin is similar, and lets us bring back ShedRest, which could be absolutely mindblowing with a Belly Drummer, if Revenankh was any indication.
Incidentally I don't like Intimidate because there's nothing it does that can't be replicated or done better by stats. If the idea is it forces switches, isn't it better to take the reduced damage on all physical hits and not just the initial one? I don't think we should use our primary ability slot for Intimidate, the only thing it's going to do is alter defensive calculations when it comes to Stat Submissions time, and it addresses no unique problems to our Belly Drumming concept.
Right now I'm leaning to Magic Bounce / Quick Feet / Guts / Shed Skin / Motor Drive as abilities, in that order.
While I support what Magic Bounce is trying to do, it also does completely eliminate the threat of all defensive checks. Most of the Pokemon that can phaze though Magic Bounce are offensive, and among those, they won't choose Dragon Tail when CAP6 will be far too dangerous after a setup. It undoubtedly does give CAP6 maximum leeway to set up. The question is whether it is wise to eradicate the entirety of CAP6's defensive checks. I think that's an acceptable sacrifice.
While I'm leery of Electric immunity abilities, if I had to select one it would be Motor Drive because of the insurance it provides against Scarfers. I don't think Volt Absorb is entirely outclassed, after all if you're switching into Rocks you will be healed to 100% health if you've taken Rocks once or even twice. Lightningrod is novel but by definition this isn't going to be a mixed sweeper.
I like Sand Rush a lot more than Unburden for +2Spe abilities. I honestly don't see why it forces us into the 70 Spe territory. If anything if we go for such an ability, we compensate by making CAP6, less resistant to priority than we otherwise might, so instead of being fairly fast and resilient to most priority (say 25% or so from Scizor Bullet Punch), its more generally fragile but a complete monster once set up.
As far as the Scarf Magnezone issue (And Scarf Magneton for that matter), Mach Punch seems to me a non-ability way to resolve it later that keeps in line with the concept. I'd rather our ability focus on nullifying status.
I've also mulled over the idea of Guts, and I actually think it could work because a mediocre attack CAP6 is not going to run Flame Orb just so it can be barely competent at physical attacks and avoid paralysis, and be KO'd basically the turn after it Belly Drums by default. Guts will be purely about punishing opposing Burn / Paralysis, not making some kind of makeshift physical attacker.
Shed Skin is similar, and lets us bring back ShedRest, which could be absolutely mindblowing with a Belly Drummer, if Revenankh was any indication.
Incidentally I don't like Intimidate because there's nothing it does that can't be replicated or done better by stats. If the idea is it forces switches, isn't it better to take the reduced damage on all physical hits and not just the initial one? I don't think we should use our primary ability slot for Intimidate, the only thing it's going to do is alter defensive calculations when it comes to Stat Submissions time, and it addresses no unique problems to our Belly Drumming concept.
Right now I'm leaning to Magic Bounce / Quick Feet / Guts / Shed Skin / Motor Drive as abilities, in that order.