This took so long to write lol
Toxic Spikes Supreme (
WhiteDMist ) and
Switching it Up (
RishRaff ) are concepts that, in any other CAP, would be on the list above, but that I struggle to see making the most of a Mega CAP. I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong though, because they're otherwise concepts that I'd like.
Yeah, my concept doesn't make the most of a Mega CAP, but it does at least work with it relatively well. In my concept, I described that there are two facets to the concept: the successful setting of Toxic Spikes, and the maintenance of Toxic Spikes. Any form can set Toxic Spikes, but the base form might be better at guaranteeing they are set: the Mega form would be ideal in the role of maintaining hazards through offensive/defensive pressure, through higher BST. I also noted before that people are focusing too much on the fact that this is a Mega CAP and focus on making a Mega Pokemon, rather than look at whether their concept(s) can accommodate a Mega. Mega CAP opens up new concepts to be sure, but I see no reason to restrict ourselves to Mega CAP concepts; as long as a concept doesn't hinder the making of a Mega CAP, it should be looked at for its own merits. Some concepts can simply look at a Mega evolution as an additional benefit, as long as it IS an actual benefit.
Name: I Use My Own Weather, Thank You Very Much
General Description: A Pokemon that, in its base form, brings out weather, and in its mega form takes great advantage of that weather
I know you've mentioned that the base form doesn't need to have a weather setting ability to fulfill this concept, so you really should change your concept description and such. It still makes it sound like the base form MUST have a weather setting ability, which is a bit of a restriction for the ability phase, limiting the CAP to one of 4 abilities only. I'll also note that most of your questions run on the assumption that this CAP will an ideal movepool, typing, etc., and also have to wait until the actual completion of the CAP to finish. Maybe a question or two that the community can try to answer during the creation would help, though I would wait until you've clarified the concept first to suggest any.
Name: Extreme Makeover: Typing Edition (Resubmitted) Originally by Theorymon.
General Description: A Pokemon who's typing, while normally considered poor defensively and/or offensively, becomes a strong selling point of the Pokemon itself via help from its ability, stats, and/or movepool.
A good concept, though I thought that it focused too much on patching a type combination's weaknesses to try and turn it into a benefit. I also think that the question about
overcoming a bad typing is hard to answer, because looking at Mollux, it didn't overcome it so much as the community just threw stuff on it to remove as many weaknesses as possible. I think it's the way it's phrased more than anything, as you really do need to differentiate this concept from a similar concept where a Pokemon succeeds DESPITE a poor typing (you already noted Volcarona, and I am referring to Typing Underdog).
Name: Suicide Mega
General Description: This pokemon would effectively utilize supportive/offensive tactics but often ends up dying in the process of contributing to the end result of a game.
Justification: Within OU right now, many of the toptier threats with the realm of the Megas mainly have the bulk or reliable recovery to be able to survive throughout the game and contribute throughout the game such as MMeta's high Bulk, ZardX and MAlt's Roost. Even the less bulky Megas such as MGarde and MDiancie are often aimed to be preserved throughout the match. Many nonmega mons like Scolipede, Staraptor and Azu are able to contribute the overall game and die after finishing their job.
Questions To Be Answered:
- Can a Mega be successful by only being able to contribute for a part of a match?
- Will it face competition for a mega slot since it only will be utilized in part of a match and will be forgone for other Megas?
- How do we ensure that it's low priority to the player (i.e the player doesn't just save it like a MGarde-esque mon)?
- Can suicide mons still be effective in this sort of metagame?
Explanation: Recently I have been experimenting with Hazard Stacking offense and two of the mons that I have used on that team (Scolipede and Honchkrow) stood out to me in particular. They both play big roles on the team despite them being out on the field for max 5 turns a game. I rarely switch them out of a fight and they often die in the process yet they do exactly what I want them to. They are a good example of playing supportive/offensive roles while killing themselves. I want to be able to utilize this idea of low survivability to create a mega that would be effective since many of the current top tier megas have the bulk and recovery to stay throughout an entire match.
Does this concept limit the CAP to hazard setting or Dual Screens? I think maybe you can add in a question about "what roles need to be accomplished as early as possible", and "what key strategic niche is worth the sacrifice of this CAP over a non-Mega?" The concept has potential, but I really hope it isn't limited to either suicide lead or wallbreaker (I'd also like to know how a wallbreaker would be "suicidal"for this CAP, any more so than other offensive Pokemon).
So Im kinda new, but I wanted to try my hand at this so here is mine.
Name: Switching it Up
General Description: A Pokemon with a specific niche of acting as a pseudo-hazer that specifically utilizes forced switching moves, such as Roar, to stop set up sweepers
While I and another concept also focus on a single move (or in your case, a type of move), there is a key difference: this concept does not set up a win condition, or is a win condition unto itself. It ends up requiring more support to be a win condition, which is strange for a support type move. On its own, it hinders your opponent's win condition, but is technically a delaying tactic if you have no way to prevent a set up again. The other sticky problem is the negative priority: it nearly invalidates the Speed stat for the actual move. I think adding a question about whether the CAP would be a win condition, or a reactionary defense would be in order.
Name: The Generalizer
General Description: A viable, highly-specialized CAPmon whose mega sacrifices its ability to preform its specialty in exchange for more utility.
Justification: When you look at megas, there's a general trend wherein a Mega Evolution either improves the pokemon's ability to preform what it's good at (Mega Heracross), gives the pokemon a new niche (Mega Charizard Y), changes the pokemon's niche (Mega Diancie), or gives new utility to an already utility-oriented mon (Mega Audino, and to a lesser extent Mega Sableye). This pokemon intentionally ruins its ability to shine in order to be more generally good.
Mega Evolution gives us a significant advantage with a play style like this because Mega Evolution can happen in the middle of a match. This means that the CAPmon can preform his duty up to the point where his expertise is no longer needed and turn himself into a more generically good monster. This gives the specialty even more powerful, since you only keep it until it grows stale.
Questions to be Answered:
- What roles lose power as the game extends and would want to lose their forte in the middle of the match?
- What team archetypes would a pokemon that changes into a utility mon partway through the match fit into that wouldn't rather have something that's always a utility mon?
- What typings and abilities are good, but only good in the earlier stages of the match?
Explanation: There are a few different ways I could see this working. The obvious way is to give the pokemon one incredible stat which gets knocked down when it Mega Evolves, but there are other ways to do it. For example, suppose CAP had really good typing for wallbreaking, and its Mega had better stats, but changed his typing to something less appealing for wallbreaking. A similar thing can be done with abilities.
I mean, you could also have the base be a scout and the Mega be a cleaner, so its not like this concept is limited. I have two major issues with this concept: a) your definitions of "specialization" and "utility" for this concept (the usage of these terms here are a bit different in context in other areas of battling I think) and b) how can you lose your specialty when Mega Evolving when you keep the same moveset? Not that I can't find a way, but I want to see how you answer the second one, or even place that in the questions, as it would be what the community would have to decide as well.
Name: It's Simple.
General Description: A Pokémon that breaks important attacks with a good coverage (I mean EarthBeam, BoltBeam, GhostFight). Its typing permits to set up quickly.
Er, my perception of this concept is different from jas'. It sounds like you want somethign that can easily get a single turn to set u and sweep with a 2 attack combination that has excellent coverage. It's a bit too specific if that is the case, and it's hard to not already know how the concept would turn out: a good defensive typing (with at least 1 STAB move that is part of the 2 attack combo), above average defensive stats, decent speed and offenses, a good boosting move. Would you disagree? I mean, it looks very limiting the way it is now, and you also have to note that it cannot become too overpowering, which is hard to do with such good coverage; you also good abilities and stats, which is a bit over the top.
Name: One Turn of Bliss
General Description: A pokemon that is able to take advantage of the turn it Mega-evolves by making use of it's ability before and after evolving. As a result the turn of Mega-evolution becomes crucial to most if not all of it's strategies and sets.
It's a cool idea, one that forces players to think before they act. While the Pokemon itself can be used multiple times, the concept focuses on the change in abilities during Mega Evolution, which only happens once. Timing is key for this concept, which is a double-edged sword for it. On the one hand, it ups the overall skill level of players by forcing them to think and time strategically (as a former TL, this is highly appealing to me); on the other hand, such theory doesn't always work out in practice as well as it does on paper (or in assessment in this case). Also, does this limit the concept to having only these powerful abilities (many of them are just generically powerful on their own after all).
Name: Abilities Lord
General Description: A CAP that would be valid without Mega Evolving at all due to its ability (i.e. Slowbro), while the Mega Evolved CAP would have a different ability that allows this CAP to do a totally different role than it's normal forme would perform.
Questions To Be Answered:
- What abilities are determinating on a Pokemon's role?
- Could we possibly create a CAP that it's fittable in all playstyles and makes them at least as viable as they currently are in the OU metagame?
- Which form of playstyle and role the most seen abilities in OU favor?
- What Pokemon have most, if not all of their viability based on their's ability?
- Which Pokemon are able to perform varied roles in the OU metagame?
- If we picked any specific X Pokemon among these, would any of them have at least one OU threat that effectively counters all of its sets?
- If the answer is no to any X, does X's ability contribute to any form to this? If yes, how?
- What do we want this CAP to be able to perform for a team?
- How different would be tactics to counter this Pokemon assuming it has very different roles?
- Can this CAP's base form be equally viable as its Mega Evolved form in the OU metagame?
- May all of these CAP's possible roles be equally wanted on a large variety of team?
- How can a player abuse the opponent's lack of knowledge on what his or her Pokemon actually do?
- How can this same opponent possibly counter this lack of knowledge?
- Is it possible to guess out a Pokemon with multiple roles role on a specific team? If yes, how?
The last 3 questions are pointless imo, considering we are making its movepool so it's going to be hard to surprise anyone at all; people who don't know the CAP wouldn't really be playing the CAP playtest either. Also, how many roles is this concept supposed to have? I see 2, but your questions seem loaded to direct us to 2 or more, which is kind of much. Unless you concept relies on fitting on all types of teams, question 2 may not be something we focus on. The concept is good, the questions are a bit leading (with a bunch of unnecessary ones).
Name: Multi-Role Mega
General Description: A CAP that would play two completely different (viable) roles in its base form and mega form.
Well, most of the Mega CAP concepts seem to have the same idea of each form having different roles; yours in particular is focusing on making both forms viable, which you should clarify in your general description. A couple of questions to add would be: a) "what situations would this CAP want to Mega Evolve, and what situations would it not?" and b) can the same moveset fulfill 2 different roles?" It's a decent concept, but seeing as almost every concept seems to be asking the same thing, I can't really get excited for this, sorry :/
Name: Perfect unbalance
General Description: A pokemon with many huge disparities, be it in stats, typing, abilities or movepool, that yet stays perfectly balanced for the OU metagame.
If I understand the concept correctly, it is that the CAP would have some extremely high points and some extremely low points. But that does limit it to only a few possible roles. In addition, what would be the limit of disparity? Would all of stats, abilities, movepool, and typing have to do so, or just one of them? Some? I don't think that it being open-ended is too huge, as long as the concept assessment stage focuses it properly. The main problem would probably be having the community try and strike such a balance, as its truly going to be walking on the edge of a knife. If the low points all stack up, can the CAP be too difficult to use? If the high points combine, can the CAP become too powerful and overcentralizing?
Resubmitting this
Name: Assassin to Cleaner
General Description: A Pokémon that relies on taking out its own counters in its base form so that it can attempt a late-game Mega sweep.
Good concept, just one major issue to be addressed: ow does a Pokemon with the same moveset break its Mega form's counters without the Mega form being able to do so on its own? I guess it can be an answer for the community to find, but it would help to know your own.
Name: in battle forme change
General Description: Im thinking of the idea behind Darmanitan and zen mode. How can a similar idea be executed well in the current meta? (Forme change can be due to anything, ability, mega, perhaps there are other exploitable changes as well, such as when a move is used like meloetta? theres a lot to work with here)
I mean, this is already a Mega CAP. Idk, it sounds like its being done right now. And if you add another form change on top of it, it ends up making this CAP rather stretched, and there's no actual solid concept to base it around. Interesting, but maybe for a later time when the Mega CAP process is down pat.
Name: Wearer of Many Masks
General Description: A Pokemon viable with various held items, its Mega Stone being one of them, obfuscating its immediate purpose in the team.
Justification: Knowledge about the opposing team is a major thing. Many creative sets exist as a result of defying expectations - that the Pokemon you're up against shouldn't be able to outspeed, but it actually had a Choice Scarf all along, that it will fall to the next hit, but it won't because one of the type mitigation berries, or that it can't take yours out quickly, but it can because of an unusual coverage move. These are all elements which help prevent a battle from being planned out as soon as the team preview happens. Mega Evolution allows this trickery to reach new heights as a Pokemon can change its ability or shift its stats significantly, such as Mega Latios gaining a good Attack stat or the two Mega Charizards targeting different defences.
Questions To Be Answered:
* How effective can bluffing and/or not revealing certain information be?
* Will the Mega form see much use, considering existence of other Pokemon whose Mega Evolutions are more necessary for their viability while other options are planned to exist for this?
* Will people bother running Frisk to scout this if its item dependency is done really well?
* Will the options available remain roughly at par in viability as the metagame shifts, or will one become dominant? Will new ones arise?
Explanation: In the end, I'm not much of a competitive player, and so my CAP submission is marred by what I'd like to see designed - the various trickery, theorymonning and adjusting stats to that given moves reach crucial KOs only with given items, or avoiding KOs that way - instead of truly being about what I'd like to see played. This, and I'm probably reaching too much into the possibility of completely changing the Pokemon's role as it goes Mega instead of it just being a nice power boost, which what a few other concepts are about. If this gets picked, I'll be happy as a clam, if it doesn't, I'll be happy for whatever does. And, well, it'd probably help if I knew that the previous CAP also was about unpredictability, although in a different manner...
I think this is a decent concept, especially since we are not limiting it to Mega Evolving. Idk how the community as a whole would react to it though. I do like the question about bluffing, and as a whole, your questions should expand on that.
Name: Wolf in a Sheep's clothing
General Description: a Pokémon that pairs well with other Mega Evolution-able Pokémon.
Justification: from Team Preview, it is usually quite easy to pinpoint which one of the opponent's pokes is the one equipped with a mega stone. CAP21 will make this guess a bit harder: it should pair well with other Megas in its base form while its own Mega Evolution goes well with other pokes' base forms.
Questions To Be Answered:
- How can we make a Pokémon that is viable in both forms?
- Which are the best candidates to pair up with CAP21?
- How much advantage can this added variance give you in a battle?
- Is it worth to make a whole Pokémon just to harness this kind of tactical advantage?
- Which roles are we giving to CAP21's base and Mega forms?
Explanation: As a random battle aficionado, I discovered that knowing which one of your opponent's pokes is the Mega one can give you a sizeable tactical advantage. The foe's Pinsir is no longer that scary after you saw his Mega Mewtwo X. Most of the times, however, spotting the Mega is pretty trivial: when you see an Altaria, Gardevoir, or Pinsir on the opposing team, you can guess pretty safely that they're going to Mega-Evolve as soon as they hit the field. But what if we make this harder? What if your opponent no longer knows for sure which mega poke to expect from Team Preview? By forming a core with another Pokémon, in which either can be the Mega Evolving one, CAP21 adds another aspect to the already multi-faceted craft of prediction in a Pokémon battle.
While I like the bluffing aspect, I don't like the pairing aspect. CAP hasn't had a good track record of pairing the CAP to another Pokemon after all. And you would need to find a Mega partner that would want to stay in its base form as well in order to form a solid bluff. Considering the fact that we would choose the partner, it makes the bluff less effective, as you would simply prepare for the possibility of both Megas.
I've actually been noting that a lot of these concepts could do with a question about proactivity versus reactivity as well. Just an observation.