CAP 10 Cap 10 - Part 5d - Secondary Ability Poll

[Rising_Dusk]

I'd like to add that while Toxic Orb is a plus in allowing CAP to negate some 2HKOs, it doesn't activate right away, so you will not block status upon switching in and you don't receive the extra recovery until turn 2. And really, you're you're just plain fucked if you need something to switch into Twave, Will-o-Wisp, etc. Poison Heal requires CAP to have prior exposure sometime during the battle, in which case your opponent becomes aware of it and can predict future switch-ins.

I think you misunderstand the concept a bit. The idea of CAP10 is to switch into its target offensive threats and soft counter them. Some of these, sometimes, use status on the switch, yes. If they do and you have no prior time to activate your orb, that's unfortunate. Still, despite this, the post-activation immunity to status is great. With Poison Heal, you see many options to switch in and check threats that you don't necessarily counter. You might not counter Heatran, for instance, but you'll be able to switch into it calmly, get the free turn to activate the orb, and scare him off to boot.

These abilities are meant to soften or facilitate CAP10 being useful in a given battle where its target Pokemon is absent. If you design it to beat Lucario, but the enemy does not have Lucario, you would want to be able to at least support the team somehow. This is in particular why Trace was so great in allowing CAP10 to passively check numerous threats even if they aren't the target. Poison Heal works in a similar fashion, allowing CAP10 to successfully come in and not get murdered by Blissey's TWave/Toxic, for instance, or come in and not be scared of a Gliscor's Toxic or a Cresselia's TWave or a Rotom-A's Will-O-Wisp, etc.

Why are we advocating this, again?

Because Breloom hits like a truck and CAP10 hits like a rusty motorcycle. Without a boosting item, CAP10's attacks fail to even 2HKO a majority of threats, and its attacks fail to remotely threaten anything with decent walling ability that isn't weak to its STABs. Furthermore, Poison Heal doesn't supply the lovely 12% recovery a turn guaranteed if you're using an attack-boosting item. (Unless your enemy plays into it and poisons you somehow) For instance, that set you proposed fails to 2HKO standard Defensive Celebi with Ice Beam. It's also, hilariously, completely walled by Abomasnow for example, failing to 4HKO even purely offensive variants with any move. (Lol)

Furthermore, we shouldn't be presumptuous about the movepool at this stage. Granted, Surf, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam will likely make a show, we can't say the same about Substitute or Magnet Rise or whatever. We'll get to discussing that later on, after the ability is decided.

 

[beej]

This poll has been open for longer than I would have wanted it to be. Magic Guard and Poison Heal move on.