CAP 37 - Part 2 - Concept Submissions

[kenn]

CAP 37 So Far

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now I will hand things over to CAP 37's TL, earthflax!

 

[earthflax]

Welcome one and all to the inaugural stage of CAP37! The concept is the most pivotal component of each and every CAP process, and I am excited to see what the community will think of this time around. If you’re a newer user or find submitting a concept to be daunting, don’t fear! There are plenty of great examples of concepts in past Concept Submission stages (found in the CAP Archive), and our community is always happy to discuss ideas and iterate on specifics in the CAP Discord server. Additionally, I will be giving periodic feedback on submitted concepts, which will include specific advice on things to change. Finally, I’ll emphasize that a concept submission is not final until you finalize it yourself, so do not be afraid to post a concept in this thread and edit it later based on feedback.

A wise man once said, “it takes a village to raise a CAP.” Let’s make the first step right here!

 

[kenn]

WIP

Name: Perfect Conditions

Description: This CAP excels at using moves with conditional effects.

Justification: Moves with conditional effects have seen a wide range of success between tiers across all generations ranging from SubPunch Breloom in DPP OU to Beak Blast Celesteela in SS STABmons. Even nowadays, you still see some of these moves with high usage such as Sucker Punch and Hex. However as time has gone on, most of these moves themselves have become less popular whether that is due to exclusivity (Beak Blast, Comeuppance, etc.) or just straight up unviability (Attract, Covet, Steel Roller, etc.). Some of these moves can have extremely powerful effects when procced whether that be just pure power or getting the jump on an opponent or even putting the opponent at a disadvantage.

Questions to be Answered:

- What makes a move with a conditional effect work in a competitive scene like Hex or Thunderclap while others such as Thief falter?

- Why are moves with these conditional effects, outside of moves such as Sucker Punch and Hex, rarely seen? Is this just due to the nature of having to activate the condition or is it the lack of accessibility for Pokemon to utilize these moves?

- What needs to be achieved to successfully utilize the effects of these moves? How does one leverage these effects to apply pressure or put the team it is on at an advantage?

- What advantages are there to using these moves with conditional effects?

Explanation: DPP Breloom with Substitute + Focus Punch is a gleaming example of what a concept like this could achieve as it was able to leverage a wonderfully defensive ability in Poison Heal with its decent typing to hit hard and avoid being KO'd despite lackluster defensive stats. Other, more recent, examples include Pokemon such as Kingambit and Raging Bolt that utilize Sucker Punch and Thunderclap respectively to smack the opponent before they attack provided they are actually attacking. One of the examples that really intrigued me for this particular concept is the move Beak Blast. Landorus-T and Corviknight in STABmons utilize this move, only exclusive to Toucannon, to dissuade physical attackers for fear of being burned, but also have them deal with a powerful STAB move at the same time.

Rough List of Moves with Conditional Effects

Big shoutout to viol and bass

 

[Gekokeso]

WIP

Name - Big Guy

Description - This Pokémon has a stat that is so high it surpasses the 200 stat mark, while still having an average BST.

Justification- High stats, when combined with good elements, are known to make pokémon that range from phenomenal to broken. In general, is agreed upon that pokémon that have multiple good stats instead of just one really high one tend to excel at their jobs, but there are cases where certain mons can be carried by a particularly high stat, known as minmaxed Pokémon. This concept would look to explore the absolute limits we can take a min-maxed Pokémon while still making it balanced.

Questions To Be Answered -

• What examples can we look at of min-maxed pokémon that succeeded in OU while still remaining balanced? What kept them in check?
• There are multiple pokémon that, despite having one or two particularly good stats, ended up not being viable in OU. Why? What caused them to fail?
• What particular stat would be best to explore? Should we pick a stat that's known to work really well already, or should we pick a stat that hasn't been studied much yet? A defensive stat or offensive stat?
• How customizable is such a large stat? Should we focus on having it EV to the max or very little at all?
• What role can this pokémon employ that takes the most benefit of said large stat?

Explanation - The first concept of this generation () revolved around seeing how to make low stats work, so I thought it would poetic to finish the generation with another stats-related concept. We have seen mons with absurdly high stats have very unique roles in the meta. We have seen them succeed ( with hp, for speed), we have seen them struggle ( for defense, for special defense). I think a concept where we can play around with an extremely high stat can lead to a large level of customization for various sets, and thus to a very fun concept.

 

[chartung17]

WIP

Name: Butter Knife

Description: This Pokémon does not have access to any high-BP STAB moves, but it makes effective use of its less powerful STABs.

Justification: There are a couple different routes this concept could take. First, it could make a Pokémon that is less reliant on its STABs than most Pokémon, as a medium-strength STAB would be about as effective against a neutral target as a powerful non-STAB move. And second, there are many moves with interesting effects that rarely see use due to their relatively low base power; this concept could provide the opportunity to explore one or move of those moves by removing the opportunity cost associated with choosing them over more powerful options.

Questions to be Answered:

• What counts as high BP? Should the definition of "high BP" take typing and physical/special bias into account?
• Are moves that have conditional BP pro-concept?
• Which route would be more interesting - a Pokémon where STAB and coverage are equally effective, or one which uses rarely-used STABs with interesting effects? Could we do both?

Explanation: Personally I think building around one or more rarely-used moves is the most interesting route for this concept. There are several mid-power moves that can be powerful under certain conditions, such as Stomping Tantrum, Temper Flare, Brine, or Revenge. There are moves with unique events, such as Burning Jealousy, Jaw Lock, and Fell Stinger. And, of course, there are far too many moves that raise one of the user's stats or lowers one of the opponent's to list them all.

Similarly, I think building around a move that's commonly used as STAB is the least interesting route to take. Moves like Shadow Ball might have a low BP compared to offensive moves in general, but there are no non-signature special Ghost moves more powerful than it. And while moves like Knock Off and Volt Switch are certainly not high-BP, they have very powerful effects that make up for the loss in power. While these moves may technically fit the concept, they certainly don't fit the intention behind it.

 

[IronTemplar]

Final Submission

Name: Priorities Straight

Description: A CAP that sacrifices speed for concentration on priority moves

Justification: Plenty of increased priority moves have achieved meta status. This concept would take advantage of various moves with increased priority to challenge the current and emerging meta, with the benefit of enabling a stronger focus on attack or defense, while reducing its own speed in order to accommodate

Questions To Be Answered: There are 2 possible design philosophies for this approach: width and depth. Width means taking stock of the coverage available in every available type and maximizing the damage possibility for each. Depth means minimizing our coverage to increase the sheer damage from one of them (rain Jet Punch for instance)
The hard part comes with designing one of these that is both not outcompeted by the modern game and can function with the available meta. It would also need to take full stock of every priority move available. Do we assess a very wide range of moves for type coverage? Or, do we focus on 1 move in particular with multiple buffs? How does offensive coverage impact us defensively? Do we ONLY focus on priority moves? Finally, if not, how much speed are we willing to sacrifice?

Explanation: One of the first examples of this concept () focused very heavily on Bullet Punch, using its typing together with Technician to achieve much higher damage than the move was capable of on its own. This idea would be heavily embraced by ( ) , greatly justifying the loss of an item with improved attack and defence. The concept would be revisited with (), utilizing various supporting moves around effective execution. More recently, () and () have taken advantage of Jet Punch and Extreme Speed respectively, though neither rely fully on just those moves. I personally think a degree of concentration towards increased priority makes effective means of challenging the meta, while also paying homage to entire eras of the game

 

[AzothBend]

WIP

Name: Another STAB at It

Description: This Pokemon uses a type-boosting ability to effectively grant it an additional STAB separate from it's typing.

Justification: Tera has rightfully sparked a lot of discussion on Pokemon types. This concept aims to examine that discussion from a different angle. It's no secret that STAB is a very important aspect to a Pokemon's viability. But typing necessarily comes with implications for a Pokemon's defensive profile. Some types are more offensively oriented, some defensive, others still maintain a balance.

Many Pokemon have found success this generation by foregoing their base types for a better defensive profile, maintaining their original STAB and often gaining boosts to valuable coverage. Some Tera types are especially popular in this regard. But Terastalization is limited to one Pokemon a match and only one type at a time. It also is requires a turn to activate, something noteworthy for Pokemon weak to certain hazards or common attacking moves.

Questions to be Answered:

• Why have official Pokemon with this framework, Dhelmise () and Bombirdier (), failed to reach viability? Is it their type combination, movepool, stats, etc.?
• Does the offensive value of some types vis-a-vis their defensive value make some type-boosting abilities more viable than others?
• How important is the synergy of the type-boosting ability with the Pokemon's base typing?
• What is the benefit of an additional STAB? Is it preferred to maximize coverage, to target specific threats that would otherwise be checks and counters, or to power-up utility moves that the Pokemon would already use?
• What considerations should be made for some type-boosting abilities' other effects (defensive immunities, field conditions, etc.)?
• How the heck does Tera come into play? Does the Pokemon want to double down on it's ability? Does it opt for a completely different type and effectively have 4 STABs?

Explanation: Abilities that boost a Pokemon's offensive output are obviously good. Many Pokemon have made names for themselves in the metagame with type-boosting abilities that further multiply their STAB moves, look no further than CAP's sweetheart Hemogoblin () for the potential of these kinds of abilities.

List of Potential Abilities

Aerialate, Blaze, Dark Aura, Dragon's Maw, Drought, Drizzle, Electric Terrain, Electromorphosis, Fairy Aura, Flash Fire, Galvanize, Grassy Terrain, Psychic Terrain, Rocky Payload, Refrigerate, Overgrowth, Pixilate, Sand Force, Steelworker, Steely Spirit, Swarm, Torrent, Transistor, Water Bubble, & Wind Power

 

[Shock3600]

WIP

• Name - Selfish Support
• Description - This Pokémon sets up a field effect primarily for its own benefit instead of for the benefit of its allies.
• Justification
  • What new territory will your Concept Pokemon explore, why do you believe it’s interesting, and how would it interact with the metagame?
    • Field effects are more commonly seen used to support a Pokémon's allies rather than itself. Instead of focusing on taking advantage of the field effect they support up for themselves, they can invest in creating more opportunities to set up the effect and to do so repeatedly, in order to support allies that can focus the entirety of their ev's, ability, item, and move sets for offense instead. By choosing to instead focus on utilizing these effects for itself, we can explore what is needed to push a Pokémon from enabling allies to enabling itself, making the most of it despite dedicating a move slot or ability to setting up a field effect, how field effects can differ from using standard set up moves, and the benefit out of having an easier time making the most of the limited time field effects are in play.
  • How does your concept motivate in-depth discussion at each stage of the process, and why do you believe the CAP Project community should discuss these topics?
• Questions To Be Answered
• Explanation

 

[dex]

WIP

Name: Stallbreaker

Description: This Pokemon inhabits the Stallbreaker role, improving a team's matchup into stall or semi-stall archetypes.

Justification: The term stallbreaker has been used in competitive Pokemon since generation 3, but it is a difficult thing to exactly define. The general idea of a stallbreaker is just "Pokemon that is good into stall", but the way stallbreakers have accomplished that over the generations is actually quite varied. ADV's number one stallbreaker is Medicham, which bowls through stall with its powerful attacks. BW, on the other hand, has Pokemon like Mew, which excels at messing with Stall's gameplan utilizing status-inducing moves and Taunt, and Reuniclus, whose access to Magic Guard and Calm Mind make it a very difficult Pokemon for stall to effectively deal with. There are numerous ways to threaten stall as a playstyle, and this concept seeks to identify those methods and actualize them through a CAP.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What are common ways Pokemon threaten stall? Are there common features across historical stallbreakers that we can use?
• The role of "stallbreaker" is not always well defined from generation to generation. Pokemon like Heatran, perhaps the best example of a historical stallbreaker, offer teams value outside of the stallbreaker role. What are some other roles that can coincide with a stallbreaker's goal?
• What are common strategies that stall teams employ that CAP 37 can target?
• Stallbreakers across generations are often quite varied in their strategies. Common strategies include inescapable power (Choice Specs Tapu Lele), status moves (Taunt + Will-o-Wisp Gengar), and trapping (Heatran and Magnezone). What are some strategies that would be particularly effective against Generation 9's iteration of stall?

Explanation: Stall in Generation 9, like most other archetypes, has experienced power creep. As evidenced by Gliscor's S rank on the CAP VR and the high ranking of other stall mainstays like Garganacl and Hydrapple, stall obviously has a foothold in the current generation of Pokemon. Additionally, I don't think it would be a rash statement to say that stall is even better in CAP than it is in OU due to CAPs like Snaelstrom, Cresceidon, and Kitsunoh. Stall this generation has as many if not more tools at its disposal than any other generation before. This makes creating a stallbreaker interesting to me; stallbreakers don't typically have 6-0 matchups on lead into a well-built stall team. Instead, they often reward proper positioning and prediction to generate progress against stall. How CAP 37 goes about stallbreaking is a very open-ended question given the vast swath of strategies that could be employed, so I think this would be a fun chance to really explore a concept that tackles an idea that's been around for a long time but has never been fully defined.

 

[Gaboswampert]

WIP

Name: Big Numbers

Description: This Pokemon must have 650+ BST.

Justification: While the premise is simple, making a Pokemon with this good of a stat pool, allows the creation process to experiment with usually unseen type combos and abilities, as mainly a way to balance the high BST, but it can also give it distinct niches that wouldn't usually be pursued in an usual creation process due to these usually considered weak elements.
In OU/CAP, there's very few Pokemon with a BST over 600, even fewer over 650. This Pokemon would let us make our own version of a Pokemon with an enormous BST being balanced in an OU setting, and lets us explore what things balance these sorts of Pokemon, these possibly being an underwhelming type, abilities, or movepool.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What elements of this Pokemon should we make weaker than usual as to balance its high BST? How can we explore these weaker elements on the current metagame?
• What niches in the current metagame can be found within usually considered bad types/ability/moves? Could any of these be saved or brought to its full potential from this enormous BST?
• How do we utilize the high BST provided in ways lower BST cannot? Due to the high BST, we're able to more easily make mixed walls or attackers, or lopside one of our stats, leveraging our high BST to have an above average stat, but there's more possibilities out there.

Explanation: This higher BST, while it may not seem like much, allows for many new niches to be explored. The highlight of this concept is the plethora of interesting ways its high stats can be balanced and bring to the spotlight many otherwise underutilized or unused moves, types, and abilities.

Movepool-wise, if we go for a defensive pokemon, instead of going for the strongest utility, like Knock Off, Heal Bell, or self-healing like Recover, to balance out its stats, instead of Knock Off, it can get Corrosive Gas, instead of Heal Bell, it can get Safeguard, instead of Recover, it can get Life Dew, or Rest, etc. Offensively, instead of this Pokemon getting the strongest versions of its STABs possible, it can get versions that are weaker offensively, but have interesting side effects that can be brought to the spotlight via this Pokemon, like a Psychic Noise/Trop Kick/Electroweb user that can do good damage with the move, while also making use of their secondary effects, a Stomping Tantrum/Temper Flare user that can viably make use of their power boost without being too bothered by it, or similar to old Kyurem-Black, it could just not get a strong STAB move on the offensive stat its more proficient, forcing it to go mixed, or fully rely on its other STAB, with its other type acting only defensively.

Typing-wise, many usually considered bad types can shine in certain aspects, while still holding the Pokemon back. As a great example, Hoopa-U has a widely considered bad defensive type, as it isn't good defensively, with a very annoying 4x weakness to U-Turn, and offensively its completely stonewalled by Dark-types, but it uses its type to have both STAB Knock Off, and Psychic Noise, which due to its extremely high, mixed attacking stats, it can make use of both, and still do amazing damage with them, becoming a solid stallbreaker. Similar things can be done with the typing of this Pokemon, and it can also be expanded into being able to break or wall specific mons, while still holding the mon back. As an example, something like Bug/Ghost can hold off Great Tusk, or force it to run Knock Off more often, or something like Rock/Fairy can tank most attacks Dragonite or Cinderace can run, and dish damage back at it, and both of these types still holding this Pokemon back via their weaknesess to the rest of the metagame.

Ability-wise, usually considered bad or niche abilities could be given an use via this Pokemon. Though this Pokemon could take a similar route as Slaking or Regigigas, it'll limit the creation of this Pokemon a lot. Something like SubTect Kyurem is a good example of what could be done by limiting the ability of this mon. Pressure is usually considered a filler ability for legendaries, and yet Kyurem is able to run a set revolving entirely around it, by using its already amazing offensive pressure, but focusing more on speed and defenses, it can bait or force the opponent to waste PP on it, allowing its teammates who may be weak to similar things Kyurem is, to be able to switch around more safely. SubTect Kyurem managed to push an usually ignored ability, to viability, using the tools on its disposition the best it can.

Stats are possibly the most important part of this concept, as they are the main thing for the rest of the elements to balance out, but it can still balance itself out. Kyurem, even with its amazing BST, is still got a somewhat middling speed for the standards of OU, and it is a similar case with Hoopa-U. As mentioned in the questions, the stats for this Pokemon can be both lopsided, or mixed, both offensively and defensively. Kyurem uses its mixed offensive stats to be one of the most fearsome offensive pieces in OU, having to guess whether its a special or physical attacker once it switches in, and being about equally good with both. Zamazenta is defensively mixed, allowing it to have enough time to set up with Iron Defense and sweep via Body Press, or use these defenses to help it stay alive along a battle as to wallbreak over and over.

As mentioned at the start of this explanation, the biggest part of this concept is the ways this Pokemon can be balanced around its high stats, and as shown in the points before, there many ways this can be done, and many mons who have.

 

[Guingil]

WIP

Name: Which Road Leads to Rome?

Description: This Pokémon can be played in two competing modes aimed at achieving the same goal: one high-risk, high-reward, the other more consistent but with lower immediate impact.

Justification: A defining dilemma of competitive Pokémon is the decision of choosing between high-risk, high-reward options and things that consistently generate value but with a lower immediate outcome ceiling. This is seen in iconic examples such as Surf vs Hydro Pump, or Dragon Pulse vs Draco Meteor. But what is really driving these decisions? Inconsistent and/or high-risk options are necessary in certain contexts, to break through defenses in one go, to counteract the matchup flips offered by Terastallization (or to bait it out), or even as a counter-measure against other plays running their own big risky delete buttons. Lower-powered, more consistent options promise not leave a game up to chance and often help with their secondary effects or longevity (e.g., priority, Horn Leech over Power Whip on Ogerpon, or Heavy-Duty-Boots on an offensive Pokemon over a damage boosting item). Terastallization also uniquely provides a way for low-powered, or non-STAB options, to potentially receive a boost (with Dragonite not running any STABs, for e.g.).

The current SV metagame thus provides a unique space to investigate what exactly constitutes risky vs safer options (e.g., accuracy, secondary effects, being locked into a move, recoil, coverage, setup, etc). So why not put it to the test? By making a single Pokémon that can adopt two different modes that exemplify risk and safety and are mutually exclusive, we can see which is more suited to achieving the same defined goal.


Questions To Be Answered:​

• What constitutes risk? What constitutes safer options?​
• For a given goal, which of the two modes is optimal for achieving it?​
• Given a design process aimed at making the two modes relatively balanced in strength, how heavily skewed are the actual usage statistics towards one mode? Does this change over the course of the evolution of a metagame, or a generation change?​
• In team-building, how easy is it to fit in risky sets that require teammate support, versus consistent sets that function well in most contexts?​
• How cleanly is it possible to make mutually exclusive approaches, given that the Pokémon will have the same stats, movepool, typing, and perhaps even ability between the two moves? Is the prevention of the natural emergence of "middle-ground" sets, which take the best of both worlds, possible?​
• What is the amount of changes between sets for the same Pokémon that make them distinct, in terms of moves, investment, ability, Tera type, etc?​

Explanation: CAP has previously tried to make a Pokémon that exemplifies risk, in what wound up being Aurumoth. But due to some aspects of the process, it just so happened that Aurumoth ended up famously not very risky at all—or, if it did imply risk, it shifted all the risk onto the opponent by making them guess whether it is Aurumoth or not (with Illusion), while it could set up with its myriad options, or just blow you out of the water. Not fun, but more importantly, not illuminating anything about risk despite it having Tail Glow.

This concept is not as much a revisit as it is a try to bring an aspect of “choice” into risk, as I believe it is more commonly understood for people playing the game. First of all, this risk has to be rested primarily on the shoulders of the user of a risky strategy, not the recipient, because your opponent does not have a choice in this. Otherwise, it just bugs the heck out of their mind (Bug/Psychic pun). Pokémon is a game with an inherently risky aspect, that being design parameters like the accuracy of moves, their % chance of inflicting something (looking at you, Sneasler). Some factors of risk are also introduced by the fact that you do not know your matchups, and the possibility of being countered if you put all your eggs into a Choice-locked or Outrage-ed basket. Similarly, if you decide not to run coverage to make room for setup, then you run the risk of being hard-countered in certain matchups. When running moves with conditional effects like Poltergeist over Shadow Claw, you could run into mons with no items. Other risks might be you knocking yourself out with Recoil, being so weak to hazards that you can only switch in a few times, being weak to common moves such as U-turn or Knock Off, or being so prone to options to shut you down that you have to win the game of matchup-fish to be relevant. Add to the fact that if others are running risky options or can shut down safer options very easily, as it is with stall, sometimes just by game theory you need to have that huge burst damage with a Choice item, with all its risk, e.g., with Hyperspace Fury on CB Hoopa-U. Rather than risk being this one-dimensional thing, it is rich and complex, resulting from the game's base mechanics, as well as how we players play it, and thus merits further exploration.

Then, an aspect that I believe is essential for studying what risk is (or really, any other concept) is having a “control”: if something is said to be risky, what is it risky compared to? Some Pokémon do not have any consistent or safe options, so they are, by nature, obliged to play riskily, and that mode is trivial. The most notorious example is the lack of accurate Rock-type moves with good distribution. This is why, in this concept, I believe it's very interesting if we make a Pokémon that has the choice: to either go risky, or to play safe. Safe or more consistent options do not offer you the sweet rush of winning a gamble, or the excuse of saying your opponent got lucky, but they do offer other things. Perfect accuracy. Longevity, with moves like Horn Leech over Power Whip, or with Heavy-Duty-Boots over a power boosting item on an offensive Pokémon. Perfect coverage, with how Great Tusk runs Ice Spinner to pair with Headlong Rush over Knock Off/Close Combat/Stone Edge (lol) or how some Kyurem sets run Earth Power over a Dragon move. With Terastallization, these moves have been boosted as you could simply power up your good non-STAB, risk-free moves (for example, with how Dragonite rarely runs STAB in favour of Extremespeed/Earthquake/Ice Spinner, or Flying Tera Blast). So if we have to make a balance between a risky mode and a non-risky mode, SV is a game that is very friendly to the latter.

In order to maintain the comparative value of these modes, it is essential to have the same general goals; otherwise, it simply becomes an issue of two very different sets doing different things. For example, Bulk Up Great Tusk vs utility sets do not really try to do the same things (opportunistic cleaner vs repeated utility with good damage). A good example of things that try to do the same thing could be Choice Band Tera Ghost Tera Blast Dragapult, vs the Will-o-Wisp + Hex sets. Both function as speed control and late game cleaners, but the CB set uses up your Tera into a move with an immunity and does not run a Ghost move without this Tera, in addition to being locked. The Wisp set, on the other hand, needs to successfully apply status over the course of a game to achieve a similar level of power, but is far more flexible and does not use up your Tera as a resource. Or on Shox, how Sticky Hold, which provides a Knock absorber and ensures no hazard damage, has seen more usage than the immediate power provided by Eletromorphosis, which could whiff into a Ground-type switch-in.

Ultimately, the goal is not to prove that risky play is better than safe play, or vice versa, but to put them on equal footing and see what actually happens when players are given a real choice between the two. At every stage, we will forced to decide what “risk” and “consistency” actually mean in concrete terms, and how much of each is acceptable. Those decisions will shape our choices for movesets, stats, abilities, items, and Terastallization, and because so much of this will be common, because in the end it is just one Pokémon that we are designing, it will be an interesting and involved investigation into one of the most fundamental aspects of the game.​

 

[a fairy]

WIP but I think it's pretty close to finalized pending feedback!

Name - Trade Offer.png
Description - This Pokemon excels at trading with an opposing Pokemon. While not skilled at sweeping or cleaning, this Pokemon is geared for and capable of getting a single KO and going down as its designed intent during a match.

Justification- Pokemon has added a surprisingly large number of options for elimination of your own resources, given the concept of the game, from stuff like Healing Wish or Memento to Destiny Bond to Explosion and its cousins. However, rarely do Pokemon run these for its own sake, despite a wide unexplored area of game design. This concept would explore what trading intends to do in a game, when players intend to trade or simply happen upon an opportunity to do so, what makes trading tools usable on what Pokemon, and why can it be occasionally beneficial to eliminate your own Pokemon in a game about resource management.

Questions To Be Answered -

• What tools exist for trading? Moves like the Justification examples exist, but what items, abilities, or other features/traits exist in the game that enable trading?
• What trading tools are worth using in a competitive sense? What value is necessary to justify the elimination of one of your own resources? Must the value be guaranteed, or is a good enough value worth a gamble, and what gamble is good enough?
• Why do some Pokemon run these trading tools? What causes IV to be able to run Destiny Bond, but Hoopa-U or Pecharunt rarely if ever do? Are the Explosion family of moves doomed to irreversible power creep, or are they powerful options waiting for the right opportunity?
• Is trading something that requires opponent participation, or can it be pushed onto an opponent despite their objections? Depending on how much opponent participation is required, what does it mean when this Pokemon shows up in Team Preview?
• While not trading specifically, what causes a team to benefit from a Pokemon there only to set up hazards, screens, terrain or other similar effect?

Explanation - Trading is a byproduct of the resource competitive game, where you have six resources and need to run out your opponent of theirs before yours run out. This is not intentional game design necessarily, in the way that it isn't in chess or other similar games of a kind. Winning, generally speaking, is preferred to be accomplished without losing any of your own resources when possible, or only resources specifically designed to be lost (think suicide leads and trappers pre-Team Preview, some modern Screen/Webs/Hazard setters, and other similar concepts). In something like chess, when the opportunity is presented to "trade up", such as sacrifice a bishop to eliminate your opponent's queen, a good player jumps at the opportunity. However, without equal equivalent in Pokemon, where a Pokemon's value can shift game by game or even turn by turn, the value of a Pokemon is in many ways what the player puts on it, what is trading up, if anything? What can we learn from things like Webs/hazard/screen setters or ADV Dugtrio in the value of a Pokemon intent on doing a very specific task, whether it's changing the battlefield or elimination of a specific Pokemon?

 

[SDK03]

Final Submission

• Name: Colourblind
• Description: This is a Pokémon that excels in dealing with opponents despite possessing mostly neutral type matchups.
• Justification: This concept aims to create an offensive or defensive mon that uses its lack of offensive or defensive type advantages/weaknesses to its benefit.

Questions To Be Answered:

1. What would be a more successful path for this Pokémon: Offensive neutrality, or Defensive neutrality?

2. To what extent should we compensate for the neutral typing in other aspects (ability, stats, moves) of the Pokémon’s design?

3. With the introduction of Terastal, how does it interact with this concept depending on the Pokémon’s role?

4. If offensive, how much should we allow this Pokémon to hit super-effectively or be resisted by?

5. If defensive, how much should we allow this Pokémon to resist or be hit super-effectively by?


Explanation:

It’s been almost 2 years since the last time I submitted a concept for a new CAP, that being for a Pokémon that either takes advantage of a typing with a neutral offensive profile or a neutral defensive profile. I thought I’d tweak the explanation on that older concept a bit and put it forward yet again, especially after the introduction of Shox as a strong execution of a neutrally-defensive CAP. You can read my original post here: Post in thread 'CAP 35 - Part 1 - Concept Submissions'

On the offensive side of things, Zoroark-Hisui and Porygon-Z are alright examples to mention even if they aren’t that viable in an OU-adjacent meta. Zoroark-Hisui’s type combo of Normal/Ghost is nearly unresisted (aside from itself, Steel/Dark, Rock/Dark and Garganacl) and Porygon’s got 135 SpA + Adaptability to make its STAB hit hard and its own Shadow Ball hard to eat, despite the frailty and underwhelming speed both possess along with the fact that there’s not much those types are hitting super-effectively. Dragon types are also a nice example offensively since even with the Fairy typing existing, that’s still only 2 types in it and Steel that can stand up to the extremely strong STAB Dragon tends to get in Draco Meteor, Outrage, Scale Shot and more. Before the introduction of the Fairy type, the former two moves were also even stronger neutrally due to only being resisted by Steel-types.

Defensively, Blissey is universally the best example of this concept in action. Mono-Normal is only immune to Ghost, weak to Fighting but otherwise resists nothing. However, since most Fighting moves are Physical and Blissey has a massive HP and Special Defense stat, it excels at eating Special attacks like nothing else thanks to the lack of Special moves capable of actually hitting it hard. Dondozo is also a solid example of this through being extremely hard to take down physically and only really being weak to Electric or Grass on the physical side. Yes, Water has quite a few valuable resists, but Dondozo still abuses its ability to take Physical neutral hits very well. The CAP project’s own Shox also stands as a successful execution of a primarily defensive Pokémon with a neutral defensive profile

Because this is a typing-centric concept, I would prefer that a Pokémon created using it doesn’t end up relying on Tera to function in any sort of way. Offensively I don’t see this being too much of a worry since if something hits hard, it’ll hit hard. Defensively though, the moment people see something with solid bulk, one of the first things they’re gonna be thinking is “what if I used Tera Water / Fairy on this lol”.

Overall a concept I’ve found to be pretty interesting and fairly unique for CAP considering most of the offensive Pokémon created mainly rely on hitting stuff Super-Effectively with STAB or with coverage. While defensively they tend to abuse strong defensive typings (Water/Fairy, pure Ground, Flying/Poison, Water/Fighting, etc.) to just refuse to die.

 

[viol and bass]

WIP

Name - Only Room For One

Description - This pokemon is a offensive Trick Room User.

Justification - "Offensive Trick Room" is the usual name of the archetype, but "selfish Trick Room" might be a better descriptor. This pokemon should be fully designed to both set and take advantage of Trick Room itself. A few pokemon in the past have done this well: OTR Stakataka and Magearna are snowballing demons, TR meteor Beam Diancie in lower tiers and OTR Hoopa-U can be hugely threatening, and there are a few other examples such as OTR Bronzong in gen 4. Overall though, this is quite a rare archetype despite Trick Room's potency against offensive teams in particular, and I'd like to explore how to bring out its strengths.

Questions To Be Answered -

• Trick Room turms are famously very limited. Is it more preferable to hit broadly neutrally to prevent safe switch-ins and make better use of your turns, or to have good super-effective coverage against a lot of the meta, which might be easier to play around?
• Other forms of boosting in addition to TR, as a form of "double dance", can be clunky in terms of both moveslots and finding the turns in battle. Can we make do without a secondary form of boosting?
• Moves like Protect and Substitute which can stall turns, and strong priority moves which sneak through Trick Room's speed reversal, are common and effective forms of Trick Room counterplay. How necessary is it to build in direct answers to these problems?
• Many examples of past and present OTR pokemon have a lack of immunities on their primary attacking moves. How important is a lack of immunities on your primary attacking move(s) to prevent the opponent from switching around to stall out turns?
• Can a pokemon built for OTR have play against bulkier teams? Does this require mammoth attacking stats à la Hoopa-U?
• CAP has Fidgit, a mon which revolutionizes the full Trick Room archetype, and gen 9 has incredible abusers like Ursaluna. How can we build this mon not for full TR teams, but for more general usability? Do we risk making full Trick Room a more potent archetype?
• To what extent does Trick Room's inclusion on sets have to be forced? Is it a powerful enough effect that this is not a concern?

Explanation - My ideal OTR pokemon is one that you slap on a team that is otherwise not built for Trick Room, perhaps with one or two minor tweaks to sets, and call it a day. I don't believe it's possible to "full TR-proof" this mon when things like Fidgit and Ursaluna exist. The bar for success is just that it finds itself primarily as a standalone TR mon on non-full-TR teams and is successful in that role.

Trick Room is a pretty powerful effect against any team that leans offensive. It can be compared to traditional speed boosting moves, but it allows you to outpace opposing speed boosters, you don't have to run speed EVs, allowing you to invest heavily in bulk, and you also are less vulnerable to paralysis than a traditional speed booster. And of course, your teammates can also take advantage of the effect, but we aren't focusing on that here. Despite the turn limit, these traits add up to a pretty powerful reset button / momentum swing.

Many of these OTR mons function as cleaners, so I see that as the most natural role here, but we can also build in some versatility. It's also important that we don't create an anti-offense demon that crumbles to any other team style, so finding ways to broaden our impact will be important.

This is the generation of plentiful strong priority moves, and I think building in resilience toward some of these moves will be a large consideration in the typing stage. The prevalence of Protect on mons like Gliscor, Garganacl, and Alomomola, which stall turns very effectively, is a large hurdle to clear. Protect can potentially be dealt with via boosting on the Protect turn if we run a secondary boosting move. Substitute can stall turns as well under the right conditions, but it may not be necessary to build in specific counterplay.

Thanks to Guingil for the concept name!

 

[Lectrys]

Some feedback regarding pressing issues about WIPs:

WIP

Name: Butter Knife

Description: This Pokémon does not have access to any high-BP STAB moves, but it makes effective use of its less powerful STABs.

We'll need to define "high-BP" quickly. If we set it to 85 BP, we notably end up with entire types sneaking through if they have the correct physical/special bias. For example, if "high-BP" is set to 85 BP and therefore all 80-BP STAB moves sneak through, Darkrai would pretty much count as fitting your description (it notably doesn't have the most powerful Knock Off ever, a move that could virtually bypass some fairly stringent "high-BP" limits, so it's defined by its dependence on the 80-BP Dark Pulse). Likewise, special attacking Dark-types would fit your description. So would all special attacking pure Ghost-types, as they're stuck with the 80-BP Shadow Ball. All a special-attacking Fairy-type would need to fit your description is to fail to learn Moonblast (e.g. Togekiss, Magearna if it didn't learn Fleur Cannon).

WIP

Name: Big Numbers

Description: This Pokemon must have 650+ BST.

Current, Gen 9 OU actually has Pokemon with over 650 BST: Kyurem and Zamazenta. You'll want to rewrite your WIP knowing that you'll need to remove the sentence "In OU/CAP, there's no Pokemon over the 600 BST limit."

 

[Ayecrusher King]

WIP

Name: Create-A-Parasite

Description: On its own, this CAP does not have any immediate presence, especially upon switching in for the first time. It can only sustain itself and improve its presence, offensively and/or defensively, by taking advantage of the opponent and their actions, whether that is through taking damage, stealing benefits, and/or exploiting certain playstyles, disrupting them in the process to become a credible threat.

Justification:
Most Pokemon in the metagame excel due to either being able to boost their own stats and/or lowering the opponents, as well as recovering its own HP if need-be. However, there is also the avenue of using the opponent to get stronger; among the options include taking the opponent's HP/stats/boosts/Ability/item/moves, or boosting your moves/stats/removing the opponent's HP/boosts if the opponent attacks you, options which are rather niche because of their unreliability. This concept aims to explore how we can design a Pokemon that puts us outside of the driver's seat, forced to rely on the opponent to develop an advantage and to create opportunities where the opponent must overthink to minimise the benefits they're giving you.

Questions to Be Answered:

• What Moves, items and Abilities allow us to leech off the opponent(s)? What moves, items and/or Abilities protect the opponent (or at least discourage CAP 37) from being leeched upon? Additionally, what sort of counterplay for such moves are there?
• How effective - offensively and/or defensively - should this Pokemon be when it enters battle? Additionally, some concrete ways of achieving this concept are inherently reactive (ex. being a wall that shrug off the hits) rather than proactive (ex. being a late-game cleaner). How can we achieve and maintain consistency while taking these routes?
• What Pokemon or playstyles in the CAP metagame make it difficult for us to take advantage of? Additionally, what Pokemon in the CAP metagame would prefer to keep what they have and are disrupted if one crucial part of their set is leeched on?
• Building on that, what kind of team support would this CAP desire to improve its functionality? Conversely, what support could it provide to the rest of its team?
• Is there a risk of CAP 37 not being able to find enough opportunities to leech off from its opponents to build up enough power or momentum? Additionally, if CAP 37 is unable to leech off its opponents at all, what can we do to make it less passive?

Explanation:
I've been submitting this concept for almost every S/V CAP (excluding Ramnarok, but that's more because its framework made it rather difficult), and I confess that communicating my thoughts have never been my strong suit, but this hill is not so bad to die on (it was an honorary mention for the slate for Cres), so once again, here's the breakdown of the main move that inspired this idea, Spectral Thief: while having decent base power, takes advantage of the opponent's positive stat boosts, depriving them to boost its own, before striking back stronger. Now, how do we turn such a concept into a CAP that ultimately puts you outside of the driver seat, so to speak, and making you have to adapt to the road your opponent is paving?

Well, there are many, many examples of the idea, separately, that prove that it is more than executable, albeit with a certain level of difficulty, but executable nonetheless. Fair warning, the list is rather long:

Moves

• Foul Play: you use the opponent's Attack stat & boosts to calculate damage. The higher their Attack, the more damage you deal.
• Assurance: you deal more damage because the opponent damaged themselves already;
• Knock Off: you deal more damage because the opponent has an item.
• Lash Out: You deal more damage because your stats were just lowered by the target.
• Sucker Punch/Thunderclap: You deal damage because the opponent is going to attack you.
• Upper Hand: You deal damage because the opponent is using priority.
• Avalanche: You can hit harder because you were hit first by the target.
• Flail/Reversal, which gets stronger the less HP you have left, presumably because the opponent brought you to that level.
• Strength Sap, which restores as much HP as the target's effective Attack stat, debuffing them in the process. Second to Spectral Thief as an example that illustrates this concept.
  • Other draining moves do fit to a degree, because how much HP you can recover depends on how much HP they currently have.
• Burning Jealousy/Alluring Voice: you were able to burn/confuse the opponent because they just raised their stats.
• Skill/Power/Guard/Speed/Heart* Swap: swaps your Ability/offensive stat changes/defensive stat changes/raw speed stat/*all your stat changes (admittedly, Heart Swap's a Signature (barring this , but I'm including it here for thoroughness sake) with the opponent.
  • Pain/Guard/Power Split: instead averages your current HP/defensive stats/offensive stats with your opponent's.
  • Psych Up: you can raise your stats because the opponent boosted their own.
• Copycat: which allows you to steal the last move used on the battlefield.

Items

• Mirror Herb, boosts your own stats because the opponent has boosts their own;
• Weakness Policy, raises your offensive stats because you were hit by a super effective move;
• Eject Button: switches you out because you were damaged by an attack;
• Rocky Helmet: you can damage the opponent because they used a contact move;
• Destiny Knot: infatuates the opponent because they infatuated you.

Abilities

• Opportunist, same as Mirror Herb;
• Wandering Spirit, same as Skill Swap;
• Magic Bounce, same as Magic Coat, which inflicts upon the opponent the status move they wanted to put on you or your side;
• Defiant/Competitive: you can raise your Attack/Sp. Attack by two stages because an opponent lowered your stats.
• Rattled, which raises your Speed by one stage if you're Intimidated or hit with a Bug-, Dark-, or Ghost-type move;
• Iron Barbs/Rough Skin/Aftermath, same as Rocky Helmet, the latter a more potent one-off.
• Supreme Overlord: You gain offensive boosts because your allies have been knocked out by the opponent. (Unless you built your team to be filled with Suicide Leads. A shakier example, but one that does loosely fit.)

Sets that do achieve this concept in some form.

: In Gen IX Ubers, Annihilape's standard set can gain an Attack boost because the opponent dropped its stats, can power up its Rage Fist because an opponent damaged it, and is dependent on the target for recovering HP.
: In Gen IX RU, Bellibolt' set can gain a Charge effect because an opponent damage it, and can then recovering some more HP from the opponent as a result.
: In Gen IX OU, Hatterene's Pain Split set can set off potential hazards because the opponent did, is dependent on the target for recovering HP, can deal chip damage because the target hit you with contact.
: In Gen IX UU, Tinkaton's walling set can facilitate indirect item removal because the opponent damaged it.
: In Gen VIII OU, dex's gimmicky 'Hen 5' set (I'm borrowing the link from an old sub from Voltage) can gain an Attack boost because the opponent dropped its stats, can power up its Reversal & boost it Speed once because an opponent damaged it sufficiently.

 

[CapitanPabloskii]

Name: E.M.P

Description: This is a mon that disrupts every aspect of the opposing mon, moves, typing and abilities.

Justification: The list of disruption moves is very large and versatile, seeing Encore and Taunt being basically the only ones used due to how nieche the others are is a bit dissapointing and opens up alot of doors for the process itself, allowing for high move diversity, possibly multiple abilities for diffrent roles and finding a typing to synergise with this is going to be interesting.

Questions to be answered:

• How can we make a disruption mon that doesn't feel unfair or cheap to play against, rather make it feel like the user is taking control of the battle with smart planning and creative building?
• Why haven't the more nieche disruption moves like Soak or Imprison seen more usage and how can we use their strenghts?
• Wip

Explination: I'm terrified of the fact that this mon could end up frustrating, but even more so im fascinated by the possibilities. I hope to make this the most unique cap, utilizing things like normalize skill swap/entrainment and mummy for abilities, maybe even giving it 3 abilities, soak to take stabs away from mons too reliant on it, maybe make it grass type to be super effective on the soaked mon, imprison with moves like rapid spin to block it. Having a wide movepool will make this mon very interesting and very fun to use, feeling like the user can take control into their own hands with smart plays, good teambuilding, even making a team weak to a mon and then customizing this concept cap to disrupt it.

 

[Ixkukul]

WIP

Name: Absolute Power

Description: This Pokémon is overflowing with offensive options and not much else, but will find itself in a pickle if it fails to eliminate targets.

Justification: While Gen 9 isn't strapped for power, most of those mons require some form of setup, and those who don't aren't nearly threatening enough off the bat. An absolute powerhouse of a Pokémon that threatens stall and balance alike could speed up the pace of battles, though at the cost of easily exploitable flaws. If it manages to let in the wrong opponent, the dude will be in trouble despite possessing the tools to deal with em otherwise, aiming to reward a generally prediction-reliant play style. The concept is a very simple one, but balancing power with flaws isn't usually a specialty of Gamefreak's...

Questions To Be Answered:

• What sorts of "roadblocks" should be allowed to keep the Pokémon somewhat in check? How might the mon respond to them?
• To what degree should the built-in flaws impair the opportunities the Pokémon has to dish out damage?
• What measures could teammates take to maximize the opportunities of the Pokémon, as well as mitigating it's weaknesses?
• How would a Pokémon based around a prediction-reliant play style interact with current defensive cores?
• Would the sheer damage output this Pokémon can provide outweigh the value of other sweepers?

Explanation: WIP - Aside from general frailty, this mon's main vulnerability should be revenge killing. If Pursuit was still in the game, this would've likely been an easier mon to deal with, though the pressure exerted demands an air of caution (e.g. Hoopa-U in Gen 6). For the mons that might check it, the most value is extracted by hitting them on the switch, after that it obviously becomes more vulnerable.

It's intended team style would definitely be hyper-offense, but a smidge of defensive value might be helpful in finding switch-in opportunities without fully relying on pivot mons or a teammate being KO'd. The best I could suggest without altering much would be a quad-resist (e.g. Mega Beedrill).

Mixed offenses are limited in CAP, being sorta exclusive to Kyurem, Iron Valiant, and Dragapult maybe. Kyurem-Black's Subzero Slammer is an unrealistic level of power to aim for, but invoking Z-moves in order to destroy defensive staples on a modern offensive mon is certainly a goal. Being able to discard all factors besides sheer power vs pure bulk would be nice considering the number of multipliers always in effect...

Ultimately, I believe the goal of this concept would be to create an mon that theoretically, could threaten anything with its plethora of options, but only under the right circumstances. Think of a more robust, stripped down version of DPP Infernape. More limited boosting options and less utility focused moves.

 

[Gaboswampert]

Current, Gen 9 OU actually has Pokemon with over 650 BST: Kyurem and Zamazenta. You'll want to rewrite your WIP knowing that you'll need to remove the sentence "In OU/CAP, there's no Pokemon over the 600 BST limit."

Unfortunately my brain at 11PM wasn't working properly and seems to hate numbers over 600. Thanks for pointing that out :)

 

[Seraphyde]

Finalized

• Name - You’re Just Not My Type
• Description - A Pokemon that excels in the metagame despite having a type combination that is broadly considered to be subpar and unfavorable.
• Justification - YJNMT is an Actualization concept, aiming to create a Pokemon that is considered viable despite having a typing that is considered ill-fitting for having any kind of presence in the OU metagame. Typing is considered a key aspect of a Pokemon's viability, and usually either central to or defining of its role, with certain typings generally considered better suited for offensive or defensive Pokemon. Likewise, this has also been a central aspect of designing CAPs to fulfil their concepts, and conversely also been a focal point for subversion within the process of designing a CAP. This is simply because typing is an essential part of how a Pokemon is successful because of or in spite of it. There are a certain few type combinations, however, that would generally be considered asnot only counterproductive, but just straight up "bad", being unsuitable for optimizing any kind of role compared to other potential choices and an active detriment to the Pokemon's viability. While various CAP concepts have danced around the idea of a Pokemon working to subvert its typing, such as the still reliable and , the infamous , the unintentional , and the recent , these have so far only been within the context of the conventions surrounding either the typing itself or the archetype that the CAP is fulfilling; in addition, the development and conversations surrounding these processes have mostly concerned notions of being counterproductive or being "against the stereotypes" of their typing. Finally, it should also be noted that while CAP projects have focused on other "bad" elements of Pokemon ( with a "bad ability" and with its "bad/mediocre stats"), the notion of a truly "bad typing" is still uncharted territory for the CAP project (and given that we are in the generation where the gimmick is to change your type, I think that this CAP would be particularly insightful if executed at this time). This CAP seeks to directly tackle the context and conventions of a "bad typing" and the various traits and methods that a Pokemon can have to succeed in spite of it, as well as how a bad typing affects a Pokemon's overall/general position in the metagame.
• Questions To Be Answered:
  • How much of a drawback is a bad typing? How much should a bad typing be compensated for in the ability, move, and stats stages?
  • How does a Pokemon's typing allow it to interact with elements in a metagame?
  • How much do stats have to compensate for a bad typing, and what kind of stat spread and/or role can compensate the most for it?
  • How much does an ability have to compensate for a bad typing, and what kind of ability can compensate the most for it?
  • How can a Pokemon's movepool change and/or reduce the impact of its typing? Is it better to give it the best STAB options or the best coverage in order for it to work around its typing?
  • How can we define a "broadly unfavorable typing"? What are some metrics to define it? Are comparisons with good or mediocre typings helpful?
  • What kinds of checks, counters, vulnerabilities, and weaknesses can a "bad typing" provide, and how can a Pokemon's other traits compensate for them?
  • Can a "bad typing" still provide some kind of strength or benefit in some way?
  • Is there even such a thing as a typing that is always "broadly unfavorable" to have?
• Explanation - Both the vanilla and CAP metagame have seen various mons that prove to be useful in spite of having typings that would not be associated with success in both their specific role in the metagame and general (for lack of a better word) viability in a metagame. Historically this has been achieved through various methods, such as stat distribution (whether minmaxing like with or all-around versatility and usefulness like ), abilities ( and ), or movepool and/or role specialization in tandem with those things (such as in the case of all four of those Pokemon). This has been especially prominent in Gen 9 with the introduction of Terastalization, which has allowed a direct bypass to unfavorable type matchups, which has in turn led to the development of "Tera Hogs" that are reliant on Terastalization in order to overcome Pokemon that would otherwise be reliable checks and counters. It is important to distinguish between a bad and counterproductive typing, as well as that "bad" and "counterproductive" are similar but separate ideas. The former refers to a component which is low quality outright or otherwise missing something. "Counterproductive", meanwhile, can be good on Pokémon with certain roles but unhelpful or detrimental with other roles. For example, Psychic/Grass is a bad typing regardless of role whereas Electric/Ice would be a counterproductive typing on a defensive pivot that wants to stay healthy so that it can stop foes throughout the course of a match. This is because Electric/Ice is a fantastic typing offensively, but if we are trying to create a defensive pivot, then Electric/Ice would be a counterproductive typing. In the case of the latter, what makes the typing "bad" (counterproductive) is the way that it has been applied, while the former is a bad typing because it is just innately subpar because of the traits associated with it, regardless of its application (merely applying it is actively counterproductive, and thus this makes it genuinely bad). A good rule of thumb would be that "counterproductive" is more role-specific than "bad", and that a bad typing will always be counterproductive but a counterproductive typing may not always be bad. Continuing with my example, a Psychic/Grass wall would have a typing that is both bad and counterproductive, while an Electric/Ice wall would have a counterproductive typing but not necessarily a bad one. This concept focuses on straightforwardly "bad" elements of a Pokemon (in this case typing), and I think that it will also provide a good frame of reference to explore the inverse (a Pokemon whose central concept is having a "good typing" and may or may not be held back by its other traits) in the future. Smogon has actually written an article about this and I think that it would be an interesting source to use when considering what makes a typing "bad" or "good".

 

[SunMYSER]

WIP

Name - Snowball in Hell

Description - A pokemon that starts off as exceptionally weak, but gets exponentially stronger as it stays on the field.
Justification - Everyone likes a good set-up sweeper. Swords dance Ogerpon and omniboost Chugg are a blast to run, though less fun playing against. However, as the meta has been powercrept and powercrept further set up sweepers are just already powerful mons that are immediately really strong… but can drop a set up move to end a game. This concept seeks to make a more high risk, high reward mon. bigger payoff for more turns setup. This concept is seen in Toxictricy’s shift gear set, which must simultaneously use shift gear to get into a good speed tier, while also activating throat spray to wall break. Other mons like Comfy usually need at least 2 CM boosts and a tera to effectively break mons, but once its at the threshold, its GGs. Both are very weak before set up, and sometimes a dead slot on preview.
Questions To Be Answered-

• in what ways is a “snowball” different to a conventional set up sweeper? why would one pick a “snowball” over one.
• What could benefit, yet limit, a mon to “snowball” in the current meta?
• would this concept benifit from an offensive, or defensive typing in the current meta?
• what moves or abilities could facilitate a “snowball”?
• when would this mon be safe to snowball? when would it not be?
• what roles could this mon answer when it isn’t snowballing? should it have other roles

Explanation - I’ve found the last couple of offensive cap mons to be very high tempo - Hemo, Ram, Chugg - which is fun, but they all feel very similar to play imo. Even in OU, all setup mons seek to set up quick and easy to sweep. I think tone wise having a more plant and pay off setup sweeper would be unique in the meta. Let’s change the tempo!
This concept’s mon would obviously needs a lot of support function. Most of the more recent caps created feel very independently viable, rather than conditionally viable like my concept would be, leading to fresher building/discussion threads to come.

 

[the_strikelasercl4w]

WIP

Name: One of the Cool Kids

Description: This CAP has an ability that currently only one other Pokémon has

Justification: From Anger Shell to Water Bubble, there is a vast ocean of abilities that only one of the cool kids in the Pokémon club ever gets a chance to use. But somewhere out there is some lonely nerd of an uncreated CAP mon that wants to be like one of them when it grows up. Jokes aside, there are tons of singleton abilities that have loads of design space to make something really cool that can fit into all kinds of niches within the CAP metagame. Could be a new mon with Gulp Missile punishing turn centric strategies, or maybe its a new loaf of bread with a Well Baked Body. We the CAP community could have a lot of fun and make something really cool and competitive with this

Questions to be Answered:

- What former unique ability would give us the most design space?

- Could the new ability be represented in a new role from the predecessor?

- What abilities are competitive vs OP vs too cute to make an impact?

- What advantages are there to creating a new mon from the ability first?

Explanation: (I may mess this up because this is my first concept submission, so plz help and be nice lol). My inspiration for this came from playing Almost Any Ability. Obviously some abilities (looking at you Wonder Guard) are just WAY too powerful to do much with and be fair about it, but I tried a team with Punk Rock tera Normal Noivern spamming Boom Burst and it was a ton of fun without being crazy. It made me think..there are a ton of one off abilities that could get the same treatment. I know a bunch of CAPs end up with some of these abilities along the way (Shox). But I can't recall a mon being built with this as the starting point.

[As stated above, this is my first concept, so feed back on how to make it better would be appreciated]
{{spoiler list updated to no longer include banned abilities and to also include sample ideas of how I could see it working. Hopefully I didn't get so specific I get disqualified}}

UNIQUE ABILITIES

Anger Shell- A defensive pokemon designed to switch on on specific hits to get reverse sweeps
Comatose- Status absorber (honestly pretty boring)
Cotton Down- A defensive pokemon designed to switch on on specific hits, and pivot out into a real threat
Dancer- Counter set up sweeper
Defeatist- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) This feels like a high skill ability to build around to make a more interesting and better Archeops
Earth Eater- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) I personally think a pokemon that isn't weak to ground having this ability makes it interesting and doesn't compete for the same type of role as Orthworm (not that it really has a role lol)
Emergency Exit- Similar to Defeatist, we make a pokemon that can be a threat but have decent counter play. Maybe something that is weak to some more common priority like aqua jet or something to further force it into a stick and move role and not another set up sweeper.

UNIQUE ABILITIES

Flare Boost- One of my favorites on the list. Collosoil is basically the only mon I ever see with a Flame Orb besides Ursaluna, so having what is essentially a special variant (maybe even a regional variant) could be cool
Gale Wings- Typically I think of this as a wall breaker ability, probably because that,s all Talonflame every really does with it, but something like making it a special attack version or a mon that isn't a flying type could be fun to create
Good As Gold- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) This and Comatose occupy almost the exact same design space but this does it better. Still kinda boring but if the community voted for it I would go for it
Gorilla Tactics- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) I feel like this could be a ton of fun to build around and would be appealing to the people who want one giant stat with the rest being sub par or the one trick pony style of building
Grass Pelt- Could be fun to design a mon that is meant to pair with Rillaboom. Maybe it tanks certain hits in terrain that it is meant to die to outside of it. Honestly haven't thought on this on much
Ice Scales- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) I think this ability would be a neat one to design a set up sweeper around. Maybe one with great Def and the SpDef is in the crapper
Innards Out- (banned as a secondary ability so maybe primary is ok?) Someone wanted to build a punisher mon. This could be exactly that. High HP, low Def/SpDef support mon
Lingering Aroma- Similar to Innards Out, I believe there was a concept submission this would work great for. The flavor of like a smelly fish or a turn makes me giggle lol
Liquid Voice- Sound based wall breaker, but one that's actually good at it. Bonus points if its STABs are resisted by something that water super effects
Merciless- Another of my favorites to theorize for CAP. Something designed to spread status (or be paired with a status spreader) that can come in and clean up with repeated crits
Mimicry-(on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) A mon that can utilize all the terrains and use terrain pulse to clean up seems cool. I believer another submission had this idea too
Mind's Eye- Kind of surprised this one isn't on a banned list. It would be fun to design around IMO, though the typing may be pigeon holed from the start
Mirror Armor- This one is tricky. Like, it basically has to be built with Intimidate in mind so it may be a bit too narrow
Mummy- Same as Lingering Aroma
Mycelium Might- This would be a really challenging CAP to design I think, unless it was designed to be a direct counter to Gholdengo
Normalize- Either a status spreader designed to paralyze ground types (boring) or a mon that spams some hard hitting normal move like Boomburst, Hard Press, or Gigaton Hammer (strong moves off the top of my head)
Opportunist- An anti set up sweeper that can actually take a hit if you switch it in and get the prediction wrong
Parental Bond- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) I think a mon that tries to spam Serene Grace style moves, but not the flinch hax ones, would make an interesting build process. And leave off moves like power up punch and seismic toss that made mega Kang OP
Pastel Veil- Snooze fest boring, but a stall mon that couldn't be worn down from Toxic is the design space I can see
Perish Body- Similar to Innards Out and the Mummy clones, I think this could be really fun to build around as a mon that forces set up sweepers to get out. Lets be honest CAP is kind of flooded with them
Poison Puppeteer- Taking Pech's idea of spreading poison like crazy without being an obnoxious physical wall could make this ability interesting maybe. Otherwise this is another of the less interesting ones
Punk Rock- Similar to Liquid Voice, but not type dependent
Pure Power- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules)(Basically same as Gorilla Tactics)
Purifying Salt- Adding an additional resistance to a mon is such a fun design space. And having it on a mon thats more interesting than Garg is a huge plus
Quick Draw- A mega slow mon that wants to get lucky....honestly the only draw to this ability IMO is that maybe its a cowboy pokemon or an actual gun lol
Ripen- This would be a tough one to make interesting because it seems like it occupies much the same space as Harvest without the sun abuse
Rocky Payload- The idea of a third stab I believe was presented as a concept submission. Here is how we both win
Screen Cleaner- One of the coolest abilities on one of the worst mons. I feel like Screens aren't ever present anymore, but they do creep up some. Having a mon with this that doesn't suck would be a really great option. Bonus points if it isn't weak to rocks
Seed Sower- *yawn* had to list it because its an unbanned unique ability, but honestly outside of yet another mon meant to swap in on attack, then pivot out this doesn't jump out at me as being exciting
Slow Start- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) This mon would have to be a mega tank that turned sweeper. Listing it because per the rules I set for myself I have to but I hate it lol
Stall- (Same as Slow Start)
Steam Engine- (banned as a secondary ability so I think that means it's ok for a primary?) I feel like there is a ton of design space here. A mon that abuses Electroball, a mon that resists both fire and water that uses the speed for support, or even a mon weak to fire and water that is built to barely live (meaning like as close to 1% as we can get from a specific hit) and reverse sweep. This is another I feel strongly about having it being the building block rather than added later makes it totally fine to build around
Supersweet Syrup- I know we have several No Guard mons in the tier, but having this ability on a mon would allow for other mons with less accurate moves to actually run them. Maybe not rely on Ram to hit all the thunders outside of rain
Supreme Overlord- (banned as a secondary ability so I think that means it's ok for a primary?) A mon that maybe doesn't have the traditional strong moves (flamethrower, thunderbolt, ice beam etc) but has to get SO stacked up to be a threat
Surge Surfer- Honestly its hard to draw the line between this and Quark Drive other than you can't use booster energy. So maybe the only real space left for this is designing a mon to fit on a QD centric team that fills a different role than the other mons abusing the terrain
Tangled Hair- This would be another of the mons designed to swap in, take a hit, and leave. I find it boring but i can see that there is a bunch of space to design around it
Teraform Zero- Personally I hate designing around a mechanic that will phase out likely within the year. But I can see merit to making a mon that turns off the sun/electric terrain
Tera Shell- Kind of surprised this one slipped through the ban list too. I see this as a bulky attacker mon that we design with as many immunities as we can to maximize the defenses. Honestly any mon with this ability is probably going to be on almost every team
Tera Shift- This is banned and just got missed right?
Thermal Exchange- A specific hard counter to fire types could be really fun. Especially if it already resisted fire before the ability gets involved (unlike Bax)
Toxic Boost- (essentially the same as Flare Boost)
Toxic Debris- (banned as a secondary ability so I think that means it's ok for a primary?) One of the biggest draw backs to Glim is the 4x weakness making you have to run a balloon or tera to keep it safe. Designing a mon that avoided that would be great
Wandering Spirit- Same as Lingering Aroma
Water Bubble- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) Another ability that has a ton of design space. Much like Thermal Exchange it would be nice if the user already resisted fire
Water Compaction- Something that resists water and could utilize the Def boost, like maybe with Body Press or something. The challenge would be making it different from Venomicon
Well-Baked Body- (on the soft ban list so selecting before typing would not break any rules) Honestly who doesn't want more pokemon made of bread? But yea, a mon that has a ton of weaknessess, but one of them is fire so WBB can remove a single weakness could be really fun to design
Wimp Out- (see Emergency Exit)
Wind Power- I would love to build around a mon that used this. Maybe even one that had Wind Rider as a secondary ability for building versatility. Not sure I even have to pitch much here as to why I think the design would be good. The writing is on the wall here

 

[AthenaStrive9]

WIP

Name: Trapping Opportunist

Description: CAP that can partially trap opponents and take advantage of them being stuck on the field.

Justification: Trappers have played a pivotal role in OU for many generations, but many of these trappers have struggled to keep up with the current generation's power creep and the terastal phenomenon. Heatran is the last trapper to remain in OU, but they do not particularly take advantage of trapping—it is more so a byproduct of Magma Storm's sheer power and utility. There is an opening in the metagame for a unique CAP that can partially trap opponents and take advantage of the opportunities provided by trapping.

Questions to be answered:

• What makes a trapping Pokémon successful at their role?
• What makes a trapping Pokémon unsuccessful at their role?
• What makes a trapping Pokémon too successful at their role?
• In what ways can a Pokémon take advantage of the opportunities provided by trapping?

Explanation: Switching is a key element in competitive singles, and trapping removes said element from play for the duration of the trap. There are many Pokémon that can trap opponents—look at the wide list that learn moves like Fire Spin or Whirlpool—but very few can take advantage of this effectively. Some Pokémon with stronger trapping moves like Decidueye and Drednaw fail to function as trappers due to other limitations. Others take advantage of trapping too effectively such as anyone with access to Shadow Tag or Arena Trap. Thus, successful trappers in the CAP metagame must be strong enough to be worth using, but not too strong to where they are banned from play. An important aspect of this is partial trapping, where the trap is only met under certain conditions or when it has a limited duration. Some examples of successful partial trappers are Heatran with Magma Storm, Toxapex with Infestation, and Magnezone with Magnet Pull.

 

[StarFalcon555]

WIP

Name: When All You Have Is A Hammer

Description: This Pokemon is specifically built to effectively and viably utilize one single damaging move, with the other three moveslots acting as support for that damaging move.

Justification: The four moveslots available to a Pokemon are one of the most important parts of the series' core mechanics. Choosing which four moves to run is an incredibly important part of teambuilding, and figuring out when to use these moves forms the very basic of the strategy that makes up Pokemon's gameplay. Zeroing in on one of these moveslots and building the rest of the Pokemon around that one move would provide us with a unique challenge to overcome, but one that I think would be very fun to overcome!

Questions to be Answered:

• What kinds of moves make up for a limited moveset? Are attacking moves the only way to go, or is it possible to viably use up one of our three remaining moveslots on a status move?
• In terms of attacking moves, how much does the BP matter? What about the move's accuracy or any secondary effects it may have? How do these factors work together to allow a move to viably fit onto a Pokemon's moveset?
• What types and type combinations benefit the most from a lack of move variety? What factors make these types able to rely on limited movesets without sacrificing viability?
• Are there any Abilities that synergize well with a more limited moveset? What factors create the most synergy between an Ability and a moveset?
• What other Pokemon in Smogon history have been able to focus on a single move or viably run less than four moves? What metagame factors have allowed these Pokemon to make their limited movesets work, and how can we accommodate for the lack of some of these metagame factors in the Gen 9 CAP/OU metagame? How can we use these previous examples to make CAP37 work?

Explanation: This concept was primarily inspired by one of the funniest and greatest sets to ever grace competitive Pokemon: Gen 8 UU Vanilluxe. Normally, Vanilluxe is a real shitmon due to its limited movepool, particularly its lack of coverage, but this set takes advantage of this lack of coverage in a really unique way: by almost solely focusing on its one strength (being able to fire off 100% accurate STAB Blizzards thanks to Snow Warning) and building a moveset that has only three moves just to maximize its efficiency at being a Snow Warning Blizzard spammer. Memes aside, it's honestly quite fascinating how this set is genuinely able to make an incomplete moveset work, but unfortunately, a lot of this set's viability is based on metagame factors that aren't there in Gen 9, specifically the legality of Sleep, which allowed Vanilluxe to run Sleep Talk to conserve Blizzard PP. However, Vanilluxe isn't the only example of making a limited movepool work in Gen 8. Some of Gen 8 OU's most notorious threats, Dracovish and Spectrier were eventually banned to Ubers because they were able to circumvent their limited movepools and use just a few moves (Spectrier) or even just a single move with occasional supplemental coverage (Dracovish) to break through teams. It would be an interesting and incredibly fun challenge to try and see if we can make this work viably in the Gen 9 metagame, where good coverage is key and Terastal forms the backbone of the metagame's identity!

 

[Rysachi]

WIP

Name: This isn't even my final form

Description: This CAP is built in mind that it starts out in a weaker form and will typically want to find an opportunity to sacrifice a or multiple turns to achieve a more desirable final form.

Justification: We have potentially multiple examples in which we can take inspiration from varying from less viable/unseen Pokémon due to outside factors e.g. Cramorant, Mimikyu, Wishiwashi, Eiscue, Minior or from more successful Pokémon which can prove this to be a concept that can work under the right conditions e.g. Palafin and Ash-Greninja (before this was cut.) All of these examples have a large variety of conditions to allow the form to be activated whether it is HP % related or a requirement elsewhere as we see from the 2 more viable options, this gives us flexible options to be able to discuss further into the process which direction we would want to take this CAP's form potential and potentially make a CAP that stands out from the other options it is based on either be reusing a form change mechanic unseen or one that is already viable but feels like it plays entirely different to the template Pokémon we base it off either through different typing/coverage or stat-line that can specific checks/weaknesses we want to cover without effecting the base concept.

Questions to be Answered:

• How can we make the base form feel like a hindrance to prioritize the promotion of the form change without making the base form feel too weak and vulnerable to the current metagame?
• What stat limit or benefit can we make the final form gain without making the final form feel either too overbearing that can break teams immediately or too underwhelming that the conditions required for this form change is too detrimental for the benefit?
• How can we make this concept feel distinct from previous CAP's that have had more than a singular form e.g. Ramnarok and Venomicon where both forms function as separate CAP's using different statlines compared to a CAP that focusses more on boosting BST, stats or something entirely different?
• Are there any distinct weaknesses/counterplay in the current meta we need to consider adding to this Pokémon to be able to force pressure on this Pokémon being able to achieve it's concept

Explanation - This concept takes a familiar concept that has been previously enjoyed by the public and leaders during the process of creating multiple forms of a Pokémon but also create new challenges and hopefully will like a distinct enough process compared to a very recent addition in Ramnarok whilst also potentially creating new architypes of teams that focusses on having this CAP be a form of either a CAP that immediately loses out on momentum or a late game win condition that requires the right support from the team to be able to get value out of this CAP using a similar concept plan to some stand out and fairly popular Pokémon within the community design wise.