CAP 28 - Part 2 - Typing Discussion

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Quanyails

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CAP 28 So Far

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It's time to discuss one of the most important decisions for CAP 28--its type! Please follow quziel's posts carefully and DO NOT immediately propose type combinations until he says so.

Below is the final post from the Concept Assessment thread:

And now it's time to wrap this up.

First of all, CAP 28 will be targeting primarily Teleport pivots, with a secondary focus on other another kind of pivot to be decided later.
These are the proposed methods to accomplish this goal.
  • General offensive pressure
  • Substitute
  • Phazing (Whirlwind, Dragon Tail, etc.)
  • Disruption moves (Taunt and Encore)
  • Strong priority
  • Draining moves (Giga Drain, Drain Punch, etc.)
  • Resilience to passive damage
  • Type immunities
This is merely supposed to be a guideline. CAP 28 is not required to use these, but they should be considered useful tools moving forward. The list is also not final, and certain things might be added or removed on later stages depending on how CAP 28 plays out.

Apart from that, CAP 28 should always aim to have good offensive presence, as that will always be important to be able to pressure our targets, but that doesn't mean we need to be primarily offensive in nature (Zapdos and Vileplume are good examples of this that have been brought up). Additionally, CAP 28 should be able to act as a stallbreaker, which in this context means that it should be able to win most of the time against passive strategies like status and residual damage.

Other than that I'd like to keep our options open for the time being, as I think there are many different ways to approach this concept and I look forward to what the next stages might bring us. Without further ado, let's move on to the Typing Stage, which will be leaded by quziel.
 
Welcome to the typing stage. I'd like to start this off with two fairly simple questions informed by our discussion in the Concept Assessment thread.

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a) What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?

Being an "anti-pivot" means that we will often be expected to switch into the attacks these pivots throw out. What are some of the main STAB attacks that major pivots throw out currently, what coverage moves should we be worried about. How important is it for us to resist or at least not be weak to the two main Pivot moves (U-turn, Volt Switch).

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

While STAB is not the only way to boost a mon's damage, nor the only way to hit a wall hard, having super-effective STAB attacks against some set of pivots will likely benefit this CAP. What are some bulky pivots that we might want to be able to hit SE.

c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?


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Questions / Discussion stage will last at least 3 days. I will aim to ask a new set of questions at least once a day, so get ready.

As a note: I don't necessarily want any discussion of explicit type combos as of yet, nor for the first few days of the thread. I will let y'all know when that's acceptable, but I want some ground work and discussion laid out first.

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And now it's time to wrap this up.

First of all, CAP 28 will be targeting primarily Teleport pivots, with a secondary focus on other another kind of pivot to be decided later.
These are the proposed methods to accomplish this goal.

  • General offensive pressure
  • Substitute
  • Phazing (Whirlwind, Dragon Tail, etc.)
  • Disruption moves (Taunt and Encore)
  • Strong priority
  • Draining moves (Giga Drain, Drain Punch, etc.)
  • Resilience to passive damage
  • Type immunities
This is merely supposed to be a guideline. CAP 28 is not required to use these, but they should be considered useful tools moving forward. The list is also not final, and certain things might be added or removed on later stages depending on how CAP 28 plays out.

Apart from that, CAP 28 should always aim to have good offensive presence, as that will always be important to be able to pressure our targets, but that doesn't mean we need to be primarily offensive in nature (Zapdos and Vileplume are good examples of this that have been brought up). Additionally, CAP 28 should be able to act as a stallbreaker, which in this context means that it should be able to win most of the time against passive strategies like status and residual damage.

Other than that I'd like to keep our options open for the time being, as I think there are many different ways to approach this concept and I look forward to what the next stages might bring us. Without further ado, let's move on to the Typing Stage, which will be leaded by quziel.
 
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Table of Contents:

1. Opening Post
  • a) What are some attacks we should not be weak to?
  • b) What are some pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?
  • c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?
2. Resource Development Day
  • a) Broadly looking over available dual typings, what are some that do what we want offensively (beating slowking, mandibuzz, toxapex, etc.) (please cover a bunch).
  • b) Broadly looking over available dual typings, what are some that avoid weaknesses to as many offensive threats as possible (Electric, Water, Psychic, Dark, Fighting) (please cover a bunch).
  • c) While resisting as many types as possible is nice, its often infeasible, what weaknesses won't break the bank?
  • d) What are some unique things we can do offensively and defensively with respect to dealing with pivots and pivot-move users?
  • e) Are there any final thoughts you have on particular single typings and their relevancy?
2.1 Resource Roundup (in progress)
3.0 Typing Subs and Criteria
  • What defensive pivots does your typing have an advantage against (at least 2 from typing alone)
  • What offensive pivots does your typing have an advantage against (at least 1 from typing alone)
  • What general defensive attributes does your typing offer w.r.t. all threats
  • What general offensive attributes does your typing offer w.r.t. all threats
  • What general attributes does this offer (non-pivot threats, SR, unique stuff)
 
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For this post, I'm gonna be focusing on the volt switch and teleport pivots. As for Volt Switch, the 3 most common mons that run it are Rotom-W, Kril, and Zera. The former 2 are part electric/water, so it can click those moves on switches, mainly ground types. Zera usually runs a set of Plasma, cc, Knock, and Volt. As for teleport, the main users are blissey/chansey and slowking. These are more varied with chansey being a full-on tank which can toxic or do basically fixed damage while Slowking can scald (which can possibly burn) and get in a future sight which, if your mon isn't bulky enough or is weak to psychic, spells the end of that mon in 2 turns. Therefore, we should probably make it resist water.
 
Given a primary focus on teleport, I do not think that type chart interactions with Volt Switch or U-Turn are overly important. I would not want to shoehorn us into something that does well against both moves, since it's just not the focus. I believe the second question is far more important. STAB is an inherent part of any offensive Pokemon, even most of those that function as stallbreakers.

That said, if one of those two pivoting attacks is to be prioritized as a part of typing, it should be U-Turn, as this is the far more broadly distributed move on mons as diverse as Dragapult and Syclant to Corviknight and Mandibuzz.

Notably, this also doesn't shoehorn much of anything on a relatively secondary question, since 7 types resist Bug.
 
In my opinion, the most important thing here isn't resisting pivot moves, but instead it's to not be weak to pivot moves. Imo, a pokemon that has a generally neutral type MUs against most mons is what we should go for, and we should have the least weaknesses possible, with the only weaknesses preferably not being coverage of pivot 'mons. So, one weakness type combos like Dark/Ghost or Water/Ground are the best ones for this project, atleast imo.

In regards to what we should resist, I think resisting Future Sight is super important here, as not resisting future sight along with an offensive bias makes it easier for mons like Slowking to get out the situation by clicking FSight. A water resist would be cool, but imo it's less necessary than a psychic one since scald doesn't do nearly as much damage as Fsight.

So in conclusion, imo the typing should have very little weaknesses and should be psychic resistant
 
What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?

Considering that our main targets with this CAP are the teleporters, being the Slowtwins and Blissey, I think that it is necessary for this CAP to resist Scald, or at least not be weak to it. CAP28 should also be able to reliably take Future Sight as well. That being said, CAP28 also shouldn't be forced out by VoltTurn, but I do believe that it can get away with being neutral to VoltTurn.

What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

To take down Blissey, a strong physical attack will suffice; Fighting STAB isn't necessary. However, I do think that CAP28 should have a supereffective STAB against the slowtwins. The next priority to hit in my opinion would be the other bulky regenerators, being Toxapex, Amoongus, and Tangrowth, although it isn't necessary to hit all of them.

With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?

One of the best ways to address resilience to passive damage would be to be immune to some form of status, such as being Poison or Steel to be Toxic-immune or Grass to be Spore immune. Then, CAP28 should not be weak to Stealth Rock to increase its longevity. Alternatively, these can be done with CAP28's ability, but I would prefer it if we left the ability options open more by addressing this in the typing stage. Furthermore, CAP28 should have STAB on at least one draining/priority move, as it seems to be the consensus that these moves would be one of CAP28's main ways of fulfilling this concept.
 
What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?
The main attack I would like to highlight is Scald. Not only is it the most immediate attack of the likes of Slowking and Slowbro, but is also the main attack run by our overlord Toxapex, who is a major regenerator pivot whose presence has altered the metagame for two generations.

Future Sight and Doom Desire are two other moves I feel it would not be good to be weak to, especially Future Sight. Future Sight is the other attack used by Slowking and Slowbro, and considering their roles as the big teleporters besides Blissey. Doom Desire I’ve included in here purely for Equilibra being such a strong Pokémon in the metagame and it absolutely can foil any plans we have to discourage pivoting if a Doom Desire nukes us out of play.
What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?
The only pivots I can truly say it would matter confidently are Slowking and Slowbro, as they are the primary teleporters that we can easily target with super-effective STAB alone. Blissey, the other main teleporter, has only one weakness in Fighting and is absurdly bulky anyway, to where super-effective STAB is not enough alone. As such, I’m reluctant to say we need to have super-effective STAB against Blissey.
With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?
Offensive types such as Flying, Electric, Fighting, Ice, Ground, Fairy, Fire, Ghost and arguably Dark qualify for offensive pressure.

Fighting and Dragon obviously have access to STAB phazing attack moves and thus qualify for phazing.

Dark and Normal are two types with powerful priority moves, although the former type is more situational than the latter. Bug also has a priority move, albeit only on the first turn we are out. Water, Rock, Ghost, Ice, Fighting, and Steel also have priority moves, albeit less consistent or weaker.

Fighting and Grass are the two types with draining attacks with good power, albeit Electric and Fairy also have draining moves, albeit weaker. Flying does also have a draining move, but it being signature to Yveltal which as of writing is not in the game despite its return imminent, as well as being a legendary signature, is likely off the table.

Poison and Steel are the two types that are immune to Toxic, arguably the strongest form of passive damage in the game. Fighting and Ground are the two types that resist Stealth Rock, which may be important for a Pokémon that would like to avoid passive damage and not be bound to Heavy-Duty Boots like a ball and chain. Beyond that, Ghost is immune to Seismic Toss from Blissey, which is its main use of time when it actually is on the battlefield. Flying by its nature is immune to Spikes and can’t be hurt by Toxic Spikes from the three people that still run it.

Steel, Flying, Fairy, Ghost, Normal, Dark, and Ground are all the types with at least one type immunity, with the most relevant of these types with immunities in regards to the metagame and concept in no particular order are Flying, Dark, and Ground.

That should be a rather comprehensive breakdown of each question for now, and I’m excited to see where type goes!
 
a) What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?

If our main targets are the Teleport using Pokemon, then I think by far the most important weakness to avoid is Water. Scald from Slobro/Slowking, is by far the most immediately threatening move from Teleporters, and so being able to switch in without the risk of dying to that is crucial. Beyond that, however, I don't really think there is any one type that is crucial to avoid being weak to. Not being weak to Psychic would be nice, but that is not nearly as crucial as the water immunity as the only common move from our targets is Slowking's Future Sight, and that can be played around in other ways besides type.

Now, in terms of other pivoting moves, per the concept assessment, we should be able to target some other pivots other than the Teleport ones, but we don't currently have any specific targets. With that in mind, I personally would not want to be weak to both U-Turn AND Volt Switch, but I don't think either one by itself is more of a priority at this moment. Even being weak to one is perfectly fine, as there will still be pivots using the other we could try and have a better match up against. And seeing as only two type combinations (Dark/Water and Psychic/Water) are weak to both, so long as we don't pick one of those, I don't think we need to really take these other pivoting moves into account when picking a type.

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

Ultimately, I think this will partially depend on our stats and movepool. If we are a special attacker, for instance, STAB Fighting type is pretty much necessary if we want to get through Blissey or Chansey. But if we are physical, that is not necessarily the case. But those two are somewhat of an outlier. Outside of them, Slowbro and Slowking are an easy choice to say, but I'm not actually sure that is really the case. Their bulk is very good, but its not utterly massive, and I do absolutely think it is possible for us to break through them, either with power or other stallbreaker tactics, without the need for a super effective STAB.

While those are the most notable Teleporters, if we expand beyond that to other pivots, particularly bulky pivots that share a similar role with the Teleporters, I think ones where it is most crucial to have super effective coverage would be guys like Tomohawk, Mandibuzz and Toxapex, who all have great all around bulk, are hard to wear down, and are also not going to be trying to stay in and take a hit for something else like a Teleporter would.
 
A) What are some attacks we should not be weak to?

As others have said, Scald is the big one. The pivot attacks U-turn and Volt Switch are also worth mentioning, especially the latter because we can be immune to it on the basis of typing alone. Toxic, while not technically an attack, stands to incapacitate CAP28 in its role. Finally, I think we should also be thinking of Fire Lash/Flare Blitz. Astrolotl is an important Regenerator; I reckon we should at least ensure 28 doesn't flat-out die to it.​

B) What are some pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

Slowbro/Slowking and Chansey/Blissey are the main Teleporters we should be focusing on. Vaporeon and Sylveon also have a niche as WishPassers, but they are comparatively rare because they do not live up to Clefable's example. I am also less concerned about more passive Regenerators like Toxapex and Amoonguss, but Astrolotl feels like something that should be scared to switch in against 28. If Astrolotl is sponging a hit and leaving with more health than with she entered, something isn't right. Our STAB should at least be neutral.​

C) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?

Fighting and Dragon are both very alluring for a phazer, especially in light of our Roadblock concept. The former has STAB Circle Throw and U-turn resistance, the latter STAB Dragon Tail and Volt Switch resistance. However, Fighting has a weakness and a poor matchup against Slowking. We need to make sure we don't lose to our main targets simply clicking STAB Psychic.​
 
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a) What are some attacks we should not be weak to?
It was mentioned earlier but Scald being something that we could not fear would be really nice. That being said there really isn't a solution through typing alone that would make 28 a good scald switch in. We could go with a typing that resists Water, but not taking a ton of damage isn't the only thing that makes a good Scald switch in - it's not being dragged down by the burn.

As far as VoltTurn goes I think it would be nice if we were to at least only take neutral damage from these moves. We can probably get away with taking 2x damage from U-turn if we are a bit on the bulkier side, but this really isn't a scenario that I think it would be good for 28 to be lacking in. We don't have to be the ultimate stop to VoltTurn like Garchomp, but not being worn down super fast by VoltTurn would be amazing for an antipivot mon.

b) What are some pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

The Regenerator pivots come to mind for me. If they're switching out and healing 33% of their HP it feels like it would be nice to hit some for SE damage so that our damage output from a stab attack can be doing over 33% allowing us to continue to make progress in this sort of match up.

Hitting Blissey/Chansey for decent damage also comes to mind as something that would prove useful. If we can't deal enough damage to threaten them, then we get pivoted on. Or at the very least we need a method that we could stay healthy in the match up and wear down Blissey's Soft-Boiled PP on a consistent basis. We need to be able to win the long game against Blissey/or at least pressure it well enough that it will be disrupted regularly.

c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?

Typing immunity obviously fits into this category. If we want to be immune to something like Volt Switch one of the best places to do that is this stage. Strong priority is another that would be nice to line up with Stab to increase that strength - though I really am unsure at a glance how priority really helps vs teleport mons. Draining moves also comes to mind since once again it would be nice for our Giga Drain or Drain Punch to be Stab for good damage leading to better recovery. Lastly resilience to passive damage also comes up since we could alleviate a weakness to something like Toxic through typing.
 
In response to the first question, I agree with others that Scald is an attack that immediately comes to mind when considering moves we should not be weak to. "Not being weak" is also very different than "having a type resistance" - in order to not be weak to the low-power Scalds that are fired off by bulky waters, a type resistance won't always be necessary, and the issue of burns and repeated chip from Scald would ultimately be addressed better in later stages anyways. Basically as long as water isn't super effective against us I think we'll be in the clear. I also agree that Future Sight is a move we can't be weak to, else Slowking has a means to exploit us when it should really be the other way around. Given the high BP of Future Sight, I think an immunity or resist would be beneficial, although there are ways other than typing we can avoid being weak to Future Sight so once again as long as it doesn't hit us super effectively, we will most likely be in the clear. Additionally, I believe that a weakness to attacks from Zeraora would spell doom for this concept. If Zera were able to consistently threaten us out, it could simply Volt Switch on whatever Pokemon was sent in as a check and continue to gain momentum when our goal is to discourage exactly that scenario. Being able to function without our item is also a large part of this if we want to confidently stay in versus an incoming Knock Off (meaning no typings that are weak to rock). While an immunity or resistance to electric would certainly go a long way in this regard, resisting Plasma Fists and Zera's accompanying coverage moves still isn't critical in order to effectively check Zeraora, as a Pokemon like physdef Clefable is a perfectly fine answer to Zeraora's powerful electric STAB yet doesn't outright resist electric. This is all to say that while there are a broad range of moves that we should not be weak to, none of these moves will explicitly require a resist in order to stomach them, ultimately meaning that we could end up with a typing with very few resists that looks defensively poor on paper but in reality may still be great for this concept's success. In summary, I believe we should have a neutral or resistant type matchup against water, psychic, electric, fighting, dark (this I think we could probably budge on due to Knock Off becoming a lot weaker after the first time it's used), and rock.

On the second question, I don't think there is any Pokemon we need to have STAB to beat, but the closest thing I'd say would be the Slowtwins and Toxapex. Pex has such incredible bulk that having a super-effective STAB would be a fantastic help in breaking through and displacing the recovery from Regenerator, and Slowbro + Slowking cover both ends of the defensive spectrum so I worry slightly that if we resorted to weaker coverage to beat the twins, we may fare well against one but less so against the other. Beating the Slowtwins and Toxapex with purely coverage options would admittedly still be very manageable but far less ideal in my opinion. Having STAB for Blissey would be incredible in theory, but Blissey is a Pokemon that's kind of annoying in this early stage because it's definitely beatable through other options than straight fighting STAB (we make a strong physical attacker, taunt/encore/other various moves, probably some abilities too) but if we decide right now that it's a priority, then making this Pokemon a fighting type is basically the only option that guarantees we can adequately threaten it. If the options are to restrict ourselves into making CAP28 a fighting type or ignore it and trust that Bliss will get dealt with in the later stages then I would much rather ignore it for now. The other regenerator pivots like Amoonguss and Astrolotl could potentially be annoying without STAB but they shouldn't be too horrible, and most other pivots I think are either frail enough to fear most common non-STAB moves or can be dealt with by the appropriate coverage. I don't think it's realistic or even a good idea for us to have a perfect matchup against every pivot anyways, so I am not that concerned about our STAB as long as we can kill bulky waters, especially the ones clicking Teleport 30 times every game.
 
a) What are some attacks we should not be weak to?
I’m going to echo the claim that we’ll want to not be weak to Scald or Future Sight, which are the most common moves on the Slowtwins.
Regarding Future Sight in conjunction with Teleport, we might want to look at how we could limit the options to what the twins will most commonly bring in, since resisting future Sight but then being weak to for example Urshifu will not really help us, although I’m not exactly sure how to address that problem, because the nature of the TP switch being: what comes in, comes in for free and is usually the best answer to your mon.
Also, While they are not technically Attacks, being Immune to Toxic or Seismic Toss from the blobs might be interesting as that is a good way to render their presence on the field ineffective.
Due to the nature of the concept, dissuading Volt switch and uturn through typing is definitely a cherry on top if we find a typing that can address other important things.

b) What are some pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?
Since Teleport is the main target, which is most commonly found on Slowking and Blissey and their respective siblings, having a STAB that can hit them hard will greatly help this concept.
Slowbro + Slowking cover both ends of the defensive spectrum
I think this is a very good observatio, because targeting Teleport means targeting the twins and having a means to bypass them regardless of offensive bias seems very important.

Other pivots that come to mind - that aren’t teleport users - but are generally harder to wear down without super effective STAB - are the regenerator mons Toxapex, Amoongus and Astrolotl and bulky mons with recovery like Tomohawk and Mandybuzz.

Edit:
I moved my answer for the last question to a separate post, since it got rather long and I didn’t want to overshadow the other two.
 
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I think being Scald weak would be absolutely dreadful because of bulky Water-types as a whole being some of the best pivots available in most formats; to put it in a CAP perspective, Toxapex and the slow brothers are some of the best pivots around, and with an emphasis being put on Teleport as something to deal with, it makes sense that the CAP at hand should not be troubled by switching into Scald (although, this surely will also need to come into play somehow in the stats department, but that's a discussion for another time). I think resisting Volt Switch or Electric as a whole may also be preferable because of how common Volt Switch users are (and generally are), but that's not a huge deal. U-turn isn't really a problem to me at all, at least not now; the most common users of it are passive or don't use it as a primary source of damage output.

I think hitting Water-types hard would be cool. I think it's pretty irrelevant whether the CAP can hit something like Zeraora or Dragapult for big damage because they're offensive Pokemon that lack bulk investment and bulk in general; it's not that hard to overwhelm them with even resisted attacks. Maybe looking to deal with Blissey/Chansey more directly too could be nice? I just find it really hard to find a way to deal with both bulky Water-types and the pink blobs because you'd run into the issue of being Scald weak more likely than not.

I think Grass would be a nice typing to have somewhere in here because of the resistance to Scald, STAB on moves that can inflict great damage to the slow brothers, and Electric resistance. I could even see Ground work its way on here for a Volt Switch immunity---and thus a good Zeraora matchup---and helpfulness against Regenerator pivots like Toxapex and Astrolotl. This probably would end up needing help in other areas, though.
 
There's already been some great discussion so far, so I don't particularly feel like I'm adding all that much apart from reinforcing some points that I've seen brought up already with very minor clarifications and recommendations.

a) What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?

As pretty much everyone has mentioned at some point, we are aiming to target, at the very least, Blissey and the Slows, and as such some way to mitigate a combination of Future Sight, Scald, Seismic Toss or Toxic would be helpful for fulfilling our concept. That being said, and again to echo the points made by Jas and Gross Sweep, I think that Typing doesn't necessarily have to be all and end all here. In regards to Scald and Future Sight in particular, I personally don't know that a resistance will be as necessary as just not being weak to them, considering that their main power comes from the burn chance and delayed damage respectively. As Amamama mentions a resistance to Future Sight is easily rendered insignificant by Pokemon brought in by Teleport, specifically Urshifu, and as such probably doesn't need to be pursued too deeply.

Although I don't think that we need to specifically address both Volt Switch and U-Turn through our typing, I think that being neutral to both, or having a resistance to at least one of them will certainly be important utility for CAP 28, as typing is arguably the best method of not necessarily discouraging these pivoting moves, but reducing the power that they have against the team. Of the two, I think that a resistance to U-Turn is the easiest to fit organically within other points of discussion due to the sheer number of types that resist it, and the more useful to target as it is seen on a wider variety of Pokemon in the current metagame.

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

I think this is by far the most important question at this stage. As brought up in the Concept Assessment, CAP 28 will require a strong offensive matchup against the pivots that it aims to target, and one of the most practical ways of achieving this is through STAB. In particular I think it is important that we have access to a STAB that can hit the Slows super effectively because of their great bulk coupled with Regenerator. The Slows are for the most part able to take on neutral attacks very efficiently, and as such I think it would be a hard sell for this concept to not address this. Blissey on the other hand has such a bizarre stat spread that merely having access to Super-effective STAB (literally only Fighting) isn't a guarantee that we will be able to deal significant damage to it, or conversely, can deal major damage to with neutral STABs.

Moving onto secondary targets, I think that other bulky pivots we may want to threaten include Toxapex, Amoonguss, Mandibuzz, Astrolotl and Tomohawk in no particular order or import, for much the same reason as the Slows, their longevity over the match due to great bulk, defensive typings and in the case of 3/5, Regenerator. Now of course there are no single typing combinations that cover all of these, but I think that we should probably be, in addition to the Slows, hitting at least two of them.
 
What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?

Since we are mostly aiming at Teleport users like Slowbro, Slowking, and Blissey. Since Blissey can’t hit anything super-effectively, I feel that CAP28 DEFINITELY needs to resist either Water- or Psychic-type moves so that it can continuously switch in to disrupt Teleport. The only problem is that neither Water- nor Psychic-types share one common resistance. The next one I would like to address is to either comfortably take or resist Volt Switch, since Volt Switch users can be common in CAP, such as Zeraora and Rotom-H. I am currently leaning towards the Grass-type, since it not only resists Water-type moves, but it is also able to comfortably take Volt Switches. Although Dragon also does both of this well, it is a bit unlikely we would do another Dragon-type, especially since the previous CAP, Astrolotl, is Dragon-type.

c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?

Grass - A Grass-type will be able to resist Scald and offensively pressure Water-types that use it such as the Slowtwins and Pex. It can also use Giga Drain.
Ground - It can offensively pressure Toxapex and Astrolotl, both of which have access to Regenerator.
Dark - It has access to Sucker Punch STAB, which could be useful priority, and it is also one of the best offensive typings out there, and can check the Slowtwins.
Fighting - It has useful access to priority Mach Punch, it is a good offensive typing, and it also has access to a draining move in Drain Punch, and also takes very few damage from U-turn, and since most Fighting-types can carry Guts, it would make for a nice status absorber.
Poison/Steel - They are immune to poison, and Steel also has access to a priority Bullet Punch.

I still do not have a suggestion, but I will try my best!
 
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Welcome to the typing stage. I'd like to start this off with two fairly simple questions informed by our discussion in the Concept Assessment thread.

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a) What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?

Being an "anti-pivot" means that we will often be expected to switch into the attacks these pivots throw out. What are some of the main STAB attacks that major pivots throw out currently, what coverage moves should we be worried about. How important is it for us to resist or at least not be weak to the two main Pivot moves (U-turn, Volt Switch).

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

While STAB is not the only way to boost a mon's damage, nor the only way to hit a wall hard, having super-effective STAB attacks against some set of pivots will likely benefit this CAP. What are some bulky pivots that we might want to be able to hit SE.

c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?


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Questions / Discussion stage will last at least 3 days. I will aim to ask a new set of questions at least once a day, so get ready.

As a note: I don't necessarily want any discussion of explicit type combos as of yet, nor for the first few days of the thread. I will let y'all know when that's acceptable, but I want some ground work and discussion laid out first.

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And now it's time to wrap this up.

First of all, CAP 28 will be targeting primarily Teleport pivots, with a secondary focus on other another kind of pivot to be decided later.
These are the proposed methods to accomplish this goal.

  • General offensive pressure
  • Substitute
  • Phazing (Whirlwind, Dragon Tail, etc.)
  • Disruption moves (Taunt and Encore)
  • Strong priority
  • Draining moves (Giga Drain, Drain Punch, etc.)
  • Resilience to passive damage
  • Type immunities
This is merely supposed to be a guideline. CAP 28 is not required to use these, but they should be considered useful tools moving forward. The list is also not final, and certain things might be added or removed on later stages depending on how CAP 28 plays out.

Apart from that, CAP 28 should always aim to have good offensive presence, as that will always be important to be able to pressure our targets, but that doesn't mean we need to be primarily offensive in nature (Zapdos and Vileplume are good examples of this that have been brought up). Additionally, CAP 28 should be able to act as a stallbreaker, which in this context means that it should be able to win most of the time against passive strategies like status and residual damage.

Other than that I'd like to keep our options open for the time being, as I think there are many different ways to approach this concept and I look forward to what the next stages might bring us. Without further ado, let's move on to the Typing Stage, which will be leaded by quziel.

a) What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?
Volt Switch/Plasma Fists
- Currently, Zeraora is the premiere mon to run as the offensive pressure to pair with pivot teams. Though he's frail, his speed tier and physical power behind strong STAB make him the optimal partner for Teleport abusers. Taking away Zeraora's ability to pivot and do damage with Plasma Fists should be a must cor CAP28
Scald - Scald has been a mainstay on bulky water types since the move premiered in Gen 5. It also happens to be the biggest threat from Slowking and Toxapex on physical attackers. Discouraging scald is also fairly essential to CAP28.
Future Sight - Put simply, if CAP28 is weak to Future Sight, then the very pivots we sought to counter would make CAP28 pivot. Any momentum lost from having to hard switch with Slowking or Slowbro would be gained in forcing CAP28 to hard switch due to an incoming Future Sight. This is a move CAP28 needs to have a resistance to.
Toxic - While not totally tied to typing, Toxic is a fairly common measure used by stall mons on pivot teams like Blissey and Toxapex. Being able to fulfill the Stallbreaker role means being able to shrug off Toxic
Close Combat - Close Combat is just a common move on pivot teams that I think we would do well to resist. Urshifu and Zeraora both run it consistently, and being able to stay in on those two would help stop the momentum of most pivot teams.

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?
Slowking
- Slowking is the premiere Teleport abuser in the tier at the moment. If CAP28 can't apply pressure to him, then we will have not accomplished anything. Simple as that.
Toxapex - Toxapex is a very common switch-in to a whole variety of offensive mons. If CAP28 is forced out by The Pex, then it really won't be effective. CAP28 needs to be able to take down Toxapex, or at least do enough damage to it to make switching in constantly not worth it.
Blissey - Though Blissey's physical bulk is minimal, it's worth noting that it can still withstand some physical attacks due to its chonkiness. A physical Fighting STAB attack would put a good deal of pressure on Blissey teams.

I want to mention something about
Zeraora and Urshifu here, since those are the two most common offensive threats paired with Teleport teams. Because they're both relatively frail, if CAP28 has enough offensive ability, they shouldn't need to be hit with super effective STAB. However, if we opt for a more defensive or tanky route, supereffective STAB for these two come into the conversation as being quite helpful in applying pressure.

c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?
I want to mention a few types here and explain how they meet some of the above quoted criteria.
Dragon - Dragon gives us key resistances to Electric and Water along with access to STAB Dragon Tail, which I think could be a really interesting way for this CAP to go. I personally haven't used a phaser on a serious team since last generation with AV Dragon Tail Slowking.
Ground - Ground gives us the incredibly important Electric immunity, along with access to the always great STAB Earthquake. This typing would point CAP28 to more of a "hit hard and don't worry about it" route, but I think that would be fine.
Steel - Steel gives us the easiest way of dealing with passive damage due to status. A steel typing would probably lead CAP28 to a more tanky role.
Flying - I want to mention flying for three reasons: a somewhat useful Ground immunity, flavored access to Whirlwind, and most importantly, what is perhaps the strongest priority in the game: Gale Wings. While Gale Wings is somewhat gimmicky, I think it could be a very interesting route to take with CAP28. Even without Gale Wings, Flying could still be a very useful type. This would lend CAP28 to the role of the setup stallbreaker.
Dark - Dark gives us a lot of things: a key Psychic immunity, strong priority in Sucker Punch, thematic access to a whole host of non-damaging moves like Taunt, Encore, etc., and a good attacking type against common pivots. This would lead CAP28 to being sort of an offensive utility mon, similar to how Liepard played in older generations.
Grass - Grass gives us a few things as well, notably key resistances to Electric and Water and the best recovery in the game with Giga Drain, Strength Sap, and Leech Seed, along with an immunity to its passive damage. A Grass typing would suggest that CAP28 fill a more defensive Stallbreaker role, utilizing recovery to shrug off pivoting.

A special typing mention: I feel like
Electric and Fighting should both be mentioned here as, while they don't necessarily provide any of the listed qualities we're looking for, they resist Volt Switch and U-Turn, respectively, and are both strong attacking types into the main Pokemon we're trying to counter here.

My Current Type Suggestion:
Electric/Flying
 
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c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?


  • General offensive pressure:
    this comes down to two factors, which are, how many threats the Type is super effective against/how many it is resisted by and if the type gives acces to good offensive tools eg high power STAB. Of course it can be more complicated than that, especially regarding pivoting.
    I think it’s easier to mention typings, which are mostly not as good offensively. These include Grass, Poison, Bug and to a lesser extend Steel, water and normal
  • Substitute:
    Substitute is best set up in situations, were you can force out an opponent due to SE coverage or even better, when your opponent doesn’t have tools to get past a Sub in one blow.
    Thus good defensive typings, that have a plethora of resists are very helpful in this regard. Notably Types with immunities can easily enable these opportunities, as they can hard wall a choice locked Pokémon or a mon reliant on status.
    More Recent Examples include Aegislash, Mega Mawile and Excadrill

    typings that also gain something from substitute, are typings, that give access to high power Attacks or Status, which get even more dangerous when your opponent needs to spend turns breaking the sub. An extreme example of this is a Fighting type with acces to Focus Punch.
    I’d also like to mention that typings, which strongest moves include recoil damage might not be so well suited, although this is of course mostly dependent on stat bias.
  • Phazing (Whirlwind, Dragon Tail, etc.)
    I think this is similar to Substitute, as phasing gets easier when your opponent needs to get lucky, to get in that one mon, that can hit the user super effectively and even more so, if your type grants acces to tools that can cripple many of theunlucky mons that come in. Good examples for this combination are Suicune/milotic, Raikou and our own doom phaze Libra
  • Disruption moves (Taunt and Encore) These moves are good on types that give generally more utility leaning typings like steel, poison Or grass a hard time.
  • Strong priority
    These include most notably Normal with fake out and extreme speed. Equally strong, albeit more situational are bug and dark.
    Other typings can get strong priority through Abilities, but I think assuming them at this stage is detrimental.
  • Draining moves (Giga Drain, Drain Punch, etc.)
    of course these moves are best on users that have access to STAB on them, due to their lack of power. Considering the discussion and our focus on the slow twins and Blissey, the best options are Bug, Grass, Electric and fighting. Grass is Special in a way, as it has two none damaging draining moves in Leech Seed and Strength sap.
  • Resilience to passive damage
    Typings that don’t take much damage from entry hazards are important here. Flying for spikes poison/flying and steel for Tspikes and ground/steel/fighting for Stealth rock.
    poison and steel are equally interesting for poison immunity.
    Grass and fire can stop passive damage from Leech seed respectively burns.
 
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Going to address these two points in one for the sake of brevity and putting points together

a) What are some attacks we should not be weak to?

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

I'm partial to making sure that we can function well against many of the common Regenerator pivots such as Amoongus, Toxapex, Slowking, Slowbro, Tangrowth and Astrolotl, though obviously this might be a little broad. Therefore, I think it's beneficial to narrow this scope perhaps a little bit and try to at least resist many of the common chip STABs from these mons.

Many others have already mentioned this, but resisting or being relatively unaffected by Scald will be crucial given how Toxapex and both slowtwins see use this regularly. The omnipresence of Scald is something huge we have to consider when giving CAP28 the proper typing. I think this goes well as giving a blanket statement. Whether that means we outright resist Scald in our typing or not, I figure CAP28 should not be weak to water. I don't think that's a super radical stance in the grand scheme of things, but that's my stance on a typing.

If we get a little more specific about some of these pivots, we can identify a few other moves and statuses that are commonly employed by these pivoting mons. Poison and Badly Poison status is often employed by Toxapex (TSpikes), and Amoongus (Toxic), which is one of the ways they can effectively pivot around foes and win matches. Future Sight is obviously unique to the Slowtwins, but coupled with Teleport, they're able to shuffle around matchups because of the threat of delayed damage. Also, I think one move that people might not be as concenred about, but I'd like to bring awareness to is Spore and its ability to effectively force a switch and allow for free pivoting (see Amoongus) via free Sleep.

Going back to the list of Regen pivots, I think it's also very crucial that we threaten at least some of those mons with our own STABs if possible. Ultimately Water, Grass, and sometimes Poison type mons seem to dominate these Regenerator pivots. I think the immediate choice would be to make sure that at least one of our types (should we decide to go dual-typing) can threaten at least one of these types either offensively or defensively. This is still a very abstract statement, but having a typing that also could have super effective STABs here would be quite beneficial in discouraging these pivots from coming in. Of course, if they're ALREADY IN and CAP28 is switching into these pivots somehow, we have to also make sure we're discouraging their pivoting in the first place, if that's not too much of a leap in difficulty.

There's one other mon I would really like for CAP28 to be able to threaten quite well: Mandibuzz. I haven't really emphasized not being too weak to U-turn because ultimately, I think U-turn resistance is somewhat important but if we're focused on specializing to prevent mons from being effective, then I'd mainly highlight Mandibuzz's U-turn. Presently Mandibuzz is an effective pivot in the sense of its general bulk and its ability to come in for relatively no cost thanks to HDB, and then have a slow U-Turn out of the field. I think it is crucial that our STAB should threaten Mandibuzz in a way that prevents it from being overly effective.

From these points, I'd advocate for a typing that allows for Super Effective STAB against many of the common Regenerator pivots + Mandibuzz as well as a resistance to Water types. Additionally, if possible, I'd also advocate for a potential typing that discourages the use of Toxic or the Poisoned status. This might be a bit overreaching, but I think these are my top two / three priorities in typing right now.

I've been pretty low-key with my postings here for the sake of making sure I cover all the topics when we get to my stage next, and I don't want to influence things TOO TOO much :]
 
a) What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?

As most have pointed out, Scald is hugely important for the Slowtwins to make progress, so being able to take hits from that move is extremely important for the concept. If we are weak to the move, they will not hesitate to just stay in and Scald. This of course implies CAP 28 can't be weak to Water, but considering our focus for this concept I think it is absolutely fair.

Toxic is also a move that would be nice for us to be able to block, but in my opinion it can placed a bit lower on the totem pole. I say this because type doesn't have to be where we fix all of our problems, and I think specifically Concept Assessment's Final Post offered multiple methods that actually block the status (most particularly Substitute and Taunt). Also I am personally not a fan of how focusing on Toxic here restricts to mandating either Poison or Steel, and Toxic concerns can be addressed in a later stage if we so choose. Future Sight is also a move that would be nice to block, but I feel similarly to Toxic in that there are methods outside of typing that can address them.

I also echo Voltage in that we should to some extent have the ability to hit or pressure the Regenerator pivots with our typing's STAB. I don't think we should have to be able to hit all of them to be successful at the concept (apparently we actually do like balance here) but being able to hit them some way for actual damage will be quite important so they don't just run off to a different pivot after Slowking is killed by this mon.

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

I agree with jas almost completely, and I do think that the largest one in mind are probably Tomohawk, Mandibuzz, and Toxapex. Toxapex especially I think is important considering how incoherently bulky it is, so if we want to deal with Regenerator pivots Pex we are going to have to address at some point regardless.

Once again the pink blobs (Chansey and Blissey) mostly come down to offensive bias. If we are special, then we pretty much need STAB Fighting attacks to actually get through it. If we are physical, or possibly mixed, then that's easier.

c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?

Going through it categorically:

- Offensive pressure is good as long as we hit them for good damage they can't easily recover from. Super-effective hits preferred so anything that hits our core audience is good ie, Electric, Grass, Flying, Ground, Dark, Bug honestly there's a lot of them this hardly narrows down.
- Any type is fine with Substitute since all relevant pivots don't directly run ways through it to my knowledge, although it is fair to expect an increase in Infiltrator Dragapult.
- Dragon and Fighting both have STAB on their phasing moves Dragon Tail and Circle Throw respectively. Fighting is also notable because that hits Blissey super-effectively.
- Any type can have disruption moves so no issue there.
- Strongest priority belong to Normal and Dark, using Extreme Speed and Sucker Punch respectively. Other types do have priority, most relevantly Fighting and Ice, but it would require Technician to be effective considering their base power. Sucker Punch also only works on attacks, so it would also require a good bit of prediction from CAP28.
- Grass has the majority of draining moves, although Bug and Fighting both also have them in Leech Life and Drain Punch. Parabolic Charge technically exists but is far too weak to be use effectively, Electric would much rather use an actually powerful STAB.
- The last two Revi covered well and it would pretty much be c/p so read their post for those two.
 
bit rusty on the competitive scene and it's been a while since i've done anything with CAP so bear with me

a) What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?
This question has pretty much fully been hashed out by now, but I'll throw in my thoughts on some of the most standout examples. Scald is the big one, of course, being ubiquitous on the most domineering pivots such as the SlowTwins and Toxapex, as well as a number of other bulky water types that personify the archetype. While it has been noted that we may be able to get away with merely a neutrality against Water given the low power of most Scald users, I do believe that a resistance is still preferable given the SlowTwins' relatively competent Special Attack; minimizing the amount of chip our primary targets can do in the typing phase will allow us to prioritize overcoming their bulk later on in the process. Toxic poses a similar issue, being incredibly prevalent on major pivots such as the aforementioned Pex, Blissey (itself one of our main targets as a Porter) and Amoonguss as a dangerous source of chip. I don't think there's much argument that having some way of fighting off Toxic, whether through type immunity or otherwise, will be vital to ensuring CAP28 can maintain pressure against bulky pivots.

On the other hand, I don't feel as though the main Pivot moves are worth tailoring our typing to beyond ensuring neutrality against them if we can manage it. U-Turn is a true example of a low-power move, primarily used by more passive pivots such as Mandibuzz and Corviknight without even STAB or burn chip to back it up as Scald's primary users have; while there are some exceptions to this, such as Dragapult, Rillaboom, and Syclant, these mons can already be pressured through other means compared to the SlowTwins due to their low bulk, and shouldn't be our top priority. Volt Switch is more problematic, since its main users (Zeraora, the Rotoms, Krillowatt, Magnezone) actually have the power to make it hurt. That said, I believe that tailoring CAP28's type to it would actually be to its detriment; the obvious choice of Ground-type to block Volt Switch, for example, would ultimately leave us more vulnerable to the bulky waters that we should be focused on, while still doing little to dissuade Rotom-W and Krill in particular.

Lastly, I think Close Combat is indeed worth looking out for given its prominence on common pivot partners such as Zeraora and Urshifu; being unable to handle its power will ultimately force CAP28 to be able to take out the pivots as soon as possible in order to fulfill its purpose, but a resistance against it would likely allow for more consistent pressure, forcing the pivots to think twice about bringing in Zera or Urshifu against us.

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?
The SlowTwins are, of course, enemy number one, boasting the perfect storm of Teleport, good mixed bulk, and Regenerator to become truly difficult to crack; while Blissey and Chansey, the other premier Teleporter, have more lopsided defenses (even with Chansey's Eviolite) that are relatively easy to exploit without the need for a super-effective STAB, the same can't be said of these two. Furthermore, their distinct defensive differences makes pressuring both -- a critically important matter, lest one simply replace the other when CAP28 is complete -- somewhat of a challenge; type advantage thus serves as an effective catch-all against both.

Besides these two, Regenerator pivots command perhaps the most attention, and of this group Toxapex is definitely the most egregious; every advantage counts if we want even a chance of beating its frankly obscene longevity. As perhaps the ultimate example of a passive Pokemon in the current meta (save for maybe Blissey), I believe that Pex should be our top priority to beat after the SlowTwins; if we can conquer it, that will be a strong indicator towards CAP28's success as a Roadblock. Other noteworthy Regenerators to consider are Tangrowth, Amoonguss and Astrolotl, but I feel that these mons are secondary to Pex with their greater degree of vulnerabilities in mind. Additionally, while not Regenerators themselves, bulky Flying types such as Mandibuzz and Tomohawk (and the somewhat less prevalent Corviknight) boast similar longevity that a super-effective STAB would aid greatly against.

As an alternative route, CAP28 may benefit from having advantage against Zeraora (and Urshifu, though he's not a pivot in his own right); pivoting is a two-part system, after all, and a lot of the strength of the strategy lies in the threats that it can bring in, with these two being the most prevalent. As mentioned previously, being able to pressure Zeraora, Urshifu, and other common pivot partners would serve as a method of pressuring pivots as a whole, limiting their ability (the Porters in particular) to bring in their team's offense without consequence.

c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?
Firstly, I'd like to posit Electric as perhaps our best choice for an offensive typing, checking off many of our boxes with the sheer coverage it offers against pivots. Electric alone offers vital offensive pressure against the bulky Water type pivots such as the SlowTwins and Pex, as well as the previously discussed Flying pivots; as a bonus, it also grants a resistance to Volt Switch and Plasma Fists from Zeraora and an immunity to the Stun Spore occasionally carried on Amoonguss and Tangrowth, giving it a slight degree of defensive utility, and while Parabolic Charge is far from an ideal draining move, it isn't necessarily useless considering the amount of pivots it can hit for super-effective STAB against. Grass has some similar advantages on this front -- albeit more defensively-oriented ones -- with its most notable distinctions being its resistance to Scald, superior draining options, and immunity to Amoonguss and Tangrowth's sleep-inducing moves; that said, considering the loss of coverage against key targets like Toxapex and the Flying types and the greater degree of weaknesses Grass has, I believe that Electric should take priority if we are to choose one or the other.

From a strictly defensive perspective, Steel is as always a potent option for its Toxic immunity and general chip resistance alone; the resistance to the SlowTwins' Future Sight and Libra's Doom Desire that it offers is a nice perk as well. That said, its neutrality against Scald and weakness to Close Combat may be problematic without a secondary typing that alleviates these issues. Dragon has also been brought up, and it's certainly worth considering: resistances against Water, Electric and Grass automatically enable it to hinder the notable pivots of these respective typings, and access to a STAB phazing move that, unlike Circle Throw, isn't resisted by practically every pivot on the block gives it a major niche by default.

Besides these, there are of course the other options with immunities, such as Dark, Ground, and Flying, as well as Poison with its particular immunity to Toxic. In Dark's case, STAB Sucker Punch offers the opportunity of shutting down fast VoltTurners such as Zeraora and Dragapult after the pivot brings them in, but the type's true strengths lie in its immunity to Future Sight and access to STAB Knock Off, which can offer a greater degree of more consistent offensive pressure and cripple the effectiveness of both pivots (especially the SlowTwins and HDB-reliant pivots) and their partners. Ground, as discussed, offers an immunity to Volt Switch and super-effective STAB against Pex, but otherwise is a detriment against the bulky Water and Grass pivots and has no real value against the Flying pivots. Flying offers super-effective STAB against the Grass pivots and a resistance to U-Turn, but its weakness to Volt Switch is debilitating and its Ground immunity doesn't have much bearing against the targets we're trying to punish, while Poison offers its aforementioned Toxic immunity and U-Turn resistance in exchange for a dangerous weakness to Psychic and little offensive pressure to speak of. If we are to use immunities at all, I would frankly recommend Dark or, as a more niche pick, Ghost: immunities to Normal and Fighting leave Chansey and Blissey helpless short of Toxic while also walling Close Combat and Tomohawk's Aura Sphere (though it is vulnerable to being wiped out by Urshifu). Beyond that, it also boasts super-effective STAB against the SlowTwins and resists U-Turn, while also having some interesting move options that can be catered to such as Shadow Sneak for priority and Poltergeist to fish for items. That said, Knock Off is definitely something to be wary of if we go down that route.

I apologize for the length of this post, but I had quite a lot to remark upon! This is a very interesting concept that's highly relevant in the current meta, and I'd like to see it realized to its fullest potential.
 
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a) What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?
First off, even though I wasnt one of the (many) people that supported it, we definitely should not be weak to Teleport. Another one we should not be weak to is the one I was supporting, Volt Switch!

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

Definitely the Slow Twins, or maybe Clefairy!

c) With respect to the Concept Assessment Final Post are there any typings that are relevant to the roles / playstyles mentioned?
Electric or Fire may be good, but if immunities, Ghost or something like that
 
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a) What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?
It seems to me that it would be most important to not be weak to Water or Psychic moves, for reasons articulated by others above. As for VoltTurn, it would be nice to resist one or both, but I don't think it would be the end of the world if we ended up having a weakness to one of them, firstly because those aren't the pivot strategies that were selected as a focus, and secondly because we have the opportunity in later stages to build in strategies that discourage or punish the use of VoltTurn. So resistance to VoltTurn, while nice, should not be the priority.
 
What are some attacks that we should not be weak to?

Important to remember here is that good Pokemon can and do change their dominant sets to account for new metagame factors--pivots can and will adapt to the presence of CAP28. When that becomes an issue is if CAP28 is 4x weak to a coverage move Slowking might actually carry--that would be Water, Ice, Fire or Psychic. Being even 2x weak to Water or Psychic would be bad, Water especially so since it's also pretty nasty in the matchup against Toxapex. Being weak to Dark would be almost as bad, since it would make the matchup against Mandibuzz almost unwinnable, and damage the matchup against Toxapex and Astrolotl, both of which commonly have Knock Off.

I personally feel that Volt Switch should not impact our typing much; being able to deal with Krilowatt is oppressively difficult, handling Zeraora is less difficult but still pretty restrictive. What we would lose by taking on Ground typing (Water weakness) is far more than what we would gain (Electric immunity).

Weakness to U-turn is a little worse because Mandibuzz should be a very reachable target for us; it isn't as fatal as weakness to Water, Dark or Psychic would be, though.

b) What are some Pivots where having a super-effective STAB will likely matter?

Breaking Toxapex while hitting neutral is notoriously difficult. Breaking Mandibuzz with neutral moves is not quite as bad, but close. Breaking Blissey is more a matter of moveset and physical vs special bias. I think a good rule of thumb for our STAB coverage is "hit Slowking, Toxapex and Mandibuzz hard, without getting totally blanked by Equilibra and Astrolotl."
 
I thought that due to the relative freedom (in my opinion) we have in choosing our type combination for this project, it might be nice to compile a visualization for what many of our potential options could be. I wasn't really sure how best to format this so apologies if the tables are confusing but I think it works well enough here. Picking type combinations based on their resistances is only one of many ways to choose the final type, and as such this is not meant to be a definitive list of all viable type combinations, but is merely intended to be a supplementary resource that can help us throughout this stage to reach our goal. Whether or not the final type is one that appears on this list at all, or appears and ends up being one I crossed out, I truly have no idea. There might be a couple oversights but I'm only human. Anyways, here it is laid out:

Full list of typings not weak to Scald, Future Sight, Close Combat, and Plasma Fists/Volt Switch (with combos of previous CAPs scratched out):
bugbug steeldragon ghostelectric psychicflying grassice psychic
bug darkdark fairydragon grasselectric waterghostnormal psychic
bug dragondark ghostdragon groundfairyghost normalpoison steel
bug electricdark poisondragon psychicfairy ghostghost psychicpsychic
bug fairydark psychicdragon waterfairy grassghost steelpsychic steel
bug ghostdragonelectricfairy icegrass
bug grassdragon electricelectric fairyfairy normalgrass ground
bug icedragon fairyelectric flyingfairy psychicgrass psychic
bug normaldragon fire lolelectric ghostfairy steelgrass water
bug psychicdragon flyingelectric grassfire grassground water
+ Not hit super-effectively by Knock Off or weak to rocks:
bugbug steeldragon ghostelectric psychicflying grassice psychic
bug darkdark fairydragon grasselectric waterghostnormal psychic
bug dragondark ghostdragon groundfairyghost normalpoison steel
bug electricdark poisondragon psychicfairy ghostghost psychicpsychic
bug fairydark psychicdragon waterfairy grassghost steelpsychic steel
bug ghostdragonelectricfairy icegrass
bug grassdragon electricelectric fairyfairy normalgrass ground
bug icedragon fairyelectric flyingfairy psychicgrass psychic
bug normaldragon fireelectric ghostfairy steelgrass water
bug psychicdragon flyingelectric grassfire grassground water
Same as above but only what's left for easier visualization:
bug steeldragon fairyfairygrass ground
dark fairydragon grassfairy ghostgrass water
dark ghostdragon groundfairy normalground water
dark poisondragon waterfairy psychicpoison steel
dark psychicelectricfairy steel
dragonelectric fairygrass
And finally the ones that can also hit the Slowtwins with super effective STAB:
bug steeldragon fairyfairygrass ground
dark fairydragon grassfairy ghostgrass water
dark ghostdragon groundfairy normalground water
dark poisondragon waterfairy psychicpoison steel
dark psychicelectricfairy steel
dragonelectric fairygrass
This leaves us with ten type combinations and two single-types. If I chose to go further and include "able to hit Pex with super-effective STAB" we would be left with a whopping three edit: four options in grass/ground, dark/psychic, electric, and electric/fairy, with dark/psychic getting axed if we also choose to avoid being weak to U-Turn. This was admittedly a restrictive process and meeting all of these criteria likely won't be necessary or even possible to produce the best type in the end (to reiterate, this is not meant to be definitive of all potential options in any way and is only one angle to approach this discussion), but it was interesting personally to see the results. This was also done with the /coverage command on PS, so if you didn't know that command existed and you want to go through a similar process yourself, you can type /coverage [type1], [type2], table. Unfortunately this can only be done with up to four typings but it's still a nice resource. I'll attach the table for water + psychic + electric + fighting below so you can see these results in a slightly different visualization. There are also some more really cool typings that I've seen discussed in the discord server like electric/dark that didn't make this list but I think could work wonderfully! It's still way too early in this stage to decide anything for sure but I hope that the results are at least interesting to think about.
bug steel
dark fairy
dark ghost
dark poison
dark psychic
dragon grass
electric
electric fairy
fairy ghost
grass
grass ground
grass water
Screen Shot 2020-08-18 at 6.52.39 PM.png
Edit: It was also suggested to me that I include typings of previous CAP creations in the chart, as I had originally excluded them right away. This was mostly just personal bias but I understand that there are many people who have nothing against redoing a type, so here are the ones that we've done before that also meet the same criteria!
Not weak to water + psychic + electric + fighting:
bug ice, bug psychic, fire dragon, electric dragon, dragon ghost, electric grass, electric water, fairy grass, fire grass, ghost steel
+ Not weak to Knock Off and rocks:
electric dragon, electric grass, electric water, fairy grass, fire grass
+ Can hit Slowtwins super-effectively:
electric dragon, electric grass, electric water, fairy grass, fire grass (no difference)
+ Can hit Toxapex super-effectively:
electric dragon, electric grass, electric water
 
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