CAP 20 - Part 1 - Concept Submissions

[Birkal]

Welcome to the new Concept Workshop subforum! It's time for us to start thinking about concepts for CAP 20; we're finally here. For those of you keeping tabs on CAP, you'll notice that the format is a bit different this time around. We're opening up concept submissions permanently, meaning you can submit a new concept long after CAP 20 is in the pipes.

When you submit a concept, do so in this thread in accordance to the rules listed below. Anyone is free to comment (briefly) on your concept at the time. If a Quality Control teammate (found here) finds your submission usable, they'll create a new thread specifically for your concept! After discussion and potential simulation, the QC team may approve your concept to be slated by the Topic Leader for CAP 20.

Although we're in a new stadium, the ballgame has hardly changed. Review the rules below and get submitting! Here's to a new page in our saga.

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This is where we discuss the general goal of the next Create-A-Pokemon project -- CAP 20. 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 moderators.

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:

• 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.
  • NEW: If a QC member created a thread out of your concept, you are allowed to submit a new one at that time.
  • NEW: If a QC member has not created a thread out of your concept, you are allowed to submit a new one after one week of posting your original concept.
• 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 Fairy 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.
• CAP Projects are made for the OU Metagame: Concepts specifying other metagames or formats (such as UU, Doubles or the CAP Metagame) are illegal.

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:

[B]Name:[/B] (short name)
[B]General Description:[/B] (See rules below. No more than a sentence or two here.)
[B]Justification:[/B] (See rules below.)
[B]Questions To Be Answered:[/B] (See rules below.)

[B]Explanation:[/B] (Whatever you want to say here.)

• 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- A few sentences describing how the concept satisfies one or more of the following:
  • Has a positive effect on the metagame (e.g Fidgit’s Pure Utility)
  • Allows us to learn more about the metagame (e.g Tomohawk's Momentum)
  • Introduces a new niche in the metagame (such as Mollux's Extreme Makeover: Typing Edition)
  Do not make up your own categories for justification. If you cannot justify your concept against at least one of the three requirements above, then your concept is illegal for the CAP project.
• 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". List out a few interesting competitive questions that should be answered after properly implementing your concept. At the conclusion of the CAP project, these questions will be revisited to see how well we implemented the concept. If your questions are not significant, relevant to your Justification, and well-written -- then your concept will be rejected.
• 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.

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"
"True Garchomp Counter"
"Great Lead Pokemon"
"Ultimate Weather Abuser"
"Status Counter"​

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"​

Here's a sample of a legal Concept post:

Name: Momentum

General Description: This will be a Pokemon that can be utilized to gain or regain momentum for a player's team at any point in the match as its primary function.

Justification: Gen. 5 is a very powerful metagame. As such, most battles are won by the smarter strategist who can best maneuver around his/her opponent's onslaught to gain even a single turn's advantage, potentially clinching them the match. This process of gaining and regaining momentum is most often the defining element that makes a winner and a loser out of a single Pokemon battle. Any top player in this metagame should agree that momentum is the most crucial element in any given match; however, "momentum" itself is a rather vaguely defined term that is never really explored in concrete terms. Is it keeping opposing teams on the defensive? Forcing switches? Good prediction? Spamming U-turn? These have all been approaches to achieving momentum, but they are also player-side and largely synonymous with "strategy," as opposed to Pokemon-side and regarding a Pokemon's role on the team. Certainly there are threats like Ferrothorn/Gliscor (defensive) and Scizor/Latios/Voltlos, etc., etc. (offensive) that can achieve momentum as we know it, but there is no current niche for a "momentum Pokemon" because the concept has been purely delegated to players and not to Pokemon.

Questions to be Answered:
-How do we define momentum in terms of competitive Pokemon? What factors make current Pokemon able to achieve momentum and how can we incorporate that information into a successful CAP?
-How do different styles of play (Weather-based offense, stall, bulky offense, etc.) use momentum to achieve their goals and how can our CAP play to those strategies in an effort to take their momentum away?
-What type of traditional role (sweeper, tank, wall, support) would a Pokemon like this most resemble? Would it have to be able to fit more than one of these roles to fit in a variety of teams?
-How will the different playstyles be affected by the addition of a Pokemon that can regain offensive/defensive momentum at any given point? Will offensive teams play more conservatively? Will defensive teams play more recklessly? Will everything simply adapt to a new threat and move on normally?

Explanation: This concept should teach us just as much about the metagame during its creation process than through actual playtesting, especially in the Concept Assessment, where the community should be looking to the metagame as a whole to analyze how successful teams and players gain, regain, and maintain momentum. Since momentum has largely been defined at the discretion of the battling community and takes many forms, so too could this CAP. Scizor, Blissey, Skarmory, Magnezone, Celebi, Jirachi (Celebi and Jirachi are great examples, due to their versatility), Heatran, Balloon Heatran, etc. can all achieve momentum according to their strengths, yet all are very different. Now, I'm not about to suggest that this CAP should be able to check everything in the metagame; that's not the goal here. What it should be able to do, though, is pose a reasonable threat in some manner to a good chunk of the metagame, enough to make opponents think twice about staying in or at least think very hard about what to switch into this Pokemon. A Pokemon with almost no offensive presence can do this just as well as a blunt instrument kind of Poke.

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.

Best of luck!

 

[Acast]

Name: Defensive Adaptation

General Description: A bulky pokemon that is capable of changing its type in battle to take hits more reliably.

Justification: Greninja was a dominating force in the OU metagame up until recently for multiple reasons. One of the primary reasons is that it can change its type to increase its offensive capabilities. It would be fascinating to know if the same concept of changing a pokemon’s type mid-battle can successfully be used in a defensive manner.

Questions To Be Answered:
-What effect would a bulky type-changing pokemon have on the metagame as a whole?
-What play styles will become more/less viable with the introduction of such a pokemon?
-Will a defensive type-changing pokemon introduce more prediction into the metagame or simply more mindgames? Both?
-Will coverage moves that certain types are immune to become less useful? (Example: If the pokemon can become Dark type, Psychic moves can’t hit it. Will Psychic moves become less common then?)
-Could this kind of pokemon replace any current walls or tanks in the metagame? Which ones?

Explanation: A few different OU players were asked what they think about Greninja's effect on the metagame and the general consensus was that balanced teams suffer the most. By creating this kind of a CAP, we could find out what a wall or tank version of Greninja would do to alter the viability of play styles. Greninja almost exclusively abused type changing for STAB boosts. A defensive pokemon capable of changing its type could abuse the immunities and resistances of certain types. For example, if you predict the opponent will use Close Combat, you can become Ghost type and be immune to the move. The pokemon could be a wall, or we could try for a tank that might still get the STAB benefits that Greninja did while using the type changing to its defensive benefit. Protean is the most obvious way of changing types mid-battle and probably the most reliable, but other possible options are Conversion, Conversion 2, or even a version of Castform’s Forecast. If we go with Protean, then the pokemon might have access to a lot of priority moves such as Shadow Sneak and Bullet Punch, which will allow it to change its type before the opponent makes its move. Alternatively, it could also have a very high speed stat along with good bulk and then use status moves to change its type, such as Spikes to become Ground type when you predict an Electric move, or Iron Defense to become Steel type if you predict a Poison move such as Toxic.

 

[Alfalfa]

• Name - Capable Offensive Pressure + Utility Provider
• Description - Most bulkier offensive Pokemon are handicapped from being able to provide both support and enough offensive pressure against the opponent, such as by being item-locked, not having much bulk, etc. This Pokemon will be a bulkier Pokemon that provide both support and put enough offensive pressure against any team without pushing it over the edge and becoming flat-out broken.
• Justification- Most support Pokemon can provide utility + bulk + an attempt at offensive pressure (look at Heatran, Latias, etc.), but almost all of them are unable to pressurize the opponent offensively without getting worn down very easily, being item locked, or not being able to have all of the moves it needs to provide enough pressure. I am not suggesting that we create a flat-out broken or overcentralizing Pokemon, but can fill all of the qualities I have suggested for the benefit of the metagame without going too far.
• Questions To Be Answered - Why is providing general offensive utility difficult without forgoing offensive pressure that can be universally threatening?

- Is it inevitable that Pokemon who are able to provide bulk, utility, and offensive pressure possess an overcentralizing impact on the metagame?
- Can a Pokemon like this exist without forcing too many Pokemon out of viability?

• Explanation - When it comes to teambuilding, many bulkier Pokemon that could be used to patch up weaknesses against a number of offensive threats usually are not that threatening against the majority of teams and provide general utility at the same time. Think of Pokemon like Rotom-W, Heatran, Latias, etc. However, this Pokemon should not be so good at doing this that the metagame is unable to efficiently adapt to it - I am simply stating that our next CAP should be a Pokemon who can provide a general amount of utility while being able to be threatening to opposing teams without being item-locked, unable to take a hit, or unable to provide a consistent amount of offensive pressure against an opposing team, without the lack of a severe handicap pushing it over the edge.

 

[Empress]

Name: Leadoff Hitter

Description: A Pokémon that functions very well as a lead in the Gen 6 OU metagame.

Justification: Your leadoff Pokémon has a main job, which is to give your team momentum in the very early game. However, in the current Team Preview era, dedicated leads are no longer a thing because you can see your opponent’s team before the battle, and thus can send in something that can force out an opposing lead. Leadoff Hitter would allow us to re-explore the concept of leads, and perhaps devise new strategies besides setting up hazards and dying.

Questions to be Answered:

• Are dedicated leads viable at all with Team Preview?
• How are your lead Pokémon most often used?
• What Pokémon are most often used as leads in Gen 6 OU, and why?
  • In that vein, what Pokémon work as anti-leads in Gen 6 OU, and why?
  • How could we help this Pokémon deal with anti-leads, in that sense?
• To what extent does Team Preview discourage the use of dedicated leads?
• What new strategies could this Pokémon utilize in order to help your team gain the early advantage?
• Can dedicated leads (i.e. Azelf, Klefki) function outside of the role of being a lead at all? Why or why not?

Explanation: If you’re a competitive battler, you know how important it is to gain momentum early on in the battle. If you start off on the wrong foot, then your momentum is killed off and you’ll likely lose the game. That said, having a dedicated lead on your team could prevent you from starting off poorly. And as for Team Preview, all you have to do is send in a Pokémon that counters what you think will be the opponent’s lead, thus preventing their lead from doing its job. It is important for both players to come out of the gate, and Leadoff Hitter would help us to explore what it takes to do so. Team Preview was such an integral part of the switch from Gen 4 to Gen 5, yet it still went unexplored throughout the entirety of BW(2), leaving viable lead strategies far and few. I can’t say that leads will become a thing again, but I can say that we can learn new methods of gaining early momentum, and in the process what we learn here can spread to OU in general.

 

[Pent]

Name: Spazayo (Staller)

General Description: This Pokemon is more designed to stall out other Pokemon that can also function as a Wall to other Pokemon.

Justification: Stall is rather new, and developing to the OU Metagame, and is quite a lot of fun to play around with if you play right, and the team doesn't get completely shut down by Taunt. With this new Pokemon, it helps define the Stall tactic by putting a new spin on it. Offense. While offense can be rather Lacking in Stall since it is more for bulky Pokemon like Chansey or Clefable, offensive capability was really only given to Mega Sableye. This Pokemon gives pressure to Pokemon trying to shut down stall, and hits them when they're least expecting it.

Questions to be Answered:

• Is another Stall Pokemon needed in the current meta?
• Will this have any other benefit than Stall, or a Bulky Sweeper?
• Is this Pokemon able to function as a good Sweeper w/ Support?
• Will this Pokemon fit into teams well, Bulky or not?

Explanation:

If you play a team that includes Bulky Pokemon that like to kill you off with Status, you will understand that stall is in a great place as to where it stands in the current OU Metagame. You also will know that you can't throw a Stalling Pokemon in a Hyper Offensive team since it just drags you down like a ball and chain. It does need support to be beneficiary, but doesn't make it completely useless.

(I really didn't bother w/ the explanation. It's just extra words.)

 

[Ununhexium]

Name: Anywhere goes

General Description: A Pokemon that can find a teamslot (and be used well) on multiple team archetypes.

Justification: A lot of Pokemon only do one job really well or only fit on one or two archetypes of team. A good example of this is Bisharp. While it is a very good Pokemon, would you ever use it on a less offensively inclined team? (The correct answer is no). Another good example is Chansey; while it is very good on stall and defensive teams, it has no use on offensive teams because its such a big momentum suck. That said, a good example of what I'm trying to describe is Crobat in UU. It only really has two sets (support and Choice Band), but because of its unique stats, typing, and movepool, it can easily find a spot on all sorts of teams, ranging from hyper offense to defensive builds looking for a check to Beedrill, Fighting- and Grass-types, and can control hazards all in one go.

Questions To Be Answered:

• Is a Pokemon capable of fitting on many archetypes even possible in this meta
• What characteristics make a Pokemon valuable to multiple team archetypes
• How can it deal with threats to multiple team archetypes without compromising the ability to fit on some
• As it would fit on multiple team archetypes, would it mean it can function well against many teams as well

Explanation: I think I've covered most of what I wanted to say, but could a Pokemon be used in OU on an against many playstyles.

 

[Phione]

Name: Pure Pivot
General Description: A Pokemon that is purely and singly intended to switch into attacks and force opposing Pokemon out. It has the tools to dismantle its targets it switches into, but if played right, should never have to actually use them except perhaps during the endgame. It should not provide major support to the team, instead focusing purely on pivoting.
Justification: A pivot is an interesting role in battling. They are used to absorb attacks that could severely damage teammates and force threats that could sweep your team - or wall it - to switch out involuntarily. This means that they must have the typing, stats, moves, or ability to beat top tier threats, even if they cannot do too much by themselves. This makes a pivot one of the more matchup-reliant roles. There is still a lot to explore about pivots, as though we know what makes a matchup favorable, there is still a lot to see about how pivots pull their weight outside of switching and assist the rest of the team. This concept aims to explore
Questions To Be Answered:

• What defines a pivot and separates it from a simple counter or check?
• What qualities (moves, abilities, typing, stats) make a pivot better or worse at doing their job?
• What support does a pivot provide to their team by pivoting into threats?
• What support does a pivot provide to their team outside of pivoting into threats, and is this support significant?
• If a pivot has no utility outside of their ability to force out opponents, are they worth using at all? What makes pivots worth teamslots in the first place?

Explanation: Pivots. You all know them, it's likely you've all used them. VoltTurn is a form of pivoting in that you Volt Switch or U-turn into a Pokemon that can handle the opponent, force them out (or KO them), and VoltTurn back when they send in their check. There's also more commonplace switch pivoting, which is basically just switching to a check that can handle the opponent. There's a thin line between just a check or counter that you switch in to beat the opponent and a dedicated pivot that's placed on the team first and foremost as a switch-in to various threats, and sometimes little else. This concept aims to explore that line as well as exactly what pivots do, what they offer to their team besides checking things. I think I've covered most of my concept, so here it goes!

 

[Elite Lord Sigma]

Name: Core Collapse (aka C-C-C-Core Breaker!*)

General Description: A Pokemon that can effectively break the common OU core of Landorus-T and Rotom-W.

Justification: Both Rotom-W and Landorus-T share the distinction of being an alternate forme introduced in the "third" versions of their respective generations. Thus, perhaps it is fate that these two form one of the most common cores in OU, if not the most common. As of this post, Landorus-T and Rotom-W occupy the first and third spots on the 1825 OU usage stats and are among each other's most common teammates. Even with the advent of Mega Evolution, there remains virtually nothing that can break through this core on its own that has not been banned to Ubers, leading most battlers to have to land repeated strong hits to wear it down. Thus, a Pokemon capable of reliably breaking this core on its own would have a unique niche in the OU metagame.

Questions to be Answered:

• What factors make the core of Rotom-W and Landorus-T effective in the OU metagame? In particular, what makes this core more effective than other cores in the OU metagame? (Most experienced battlers should have a response to these questions already, but it still needs to be addressed for this concept to work.)
• What approach (bulky, quick, etc.) is best suited for breaking through the core without making the CAP too powerful like the Pokemon that came before it (e.g. Greninja)? What viable function(s) outside of breaking such an ubiquitous core can a Pokemon have without being too powerful?
• What cores would become more viable and/or widely used as a result of the CAP threatening the Rotom-W/Lando-T core? Are any of these cores ones that are currently overlooked in the OU metagame?
• To what extent do particular playstyles require constructing a core? Conversely, to what extent do particular playstyles revolve around breaking opposing cores?
• On what team archetypes is the Rotom-W and Landorus-T core commonly found? What effect would reducing the viability of the core have on these archetypes?

Explanation: After the complex concepts of the previous two CAP projects, I looked back on earlier CAP projects for inspiration. The one that most struck a chord with me was Syclant, whose concept was "True Garchomp Counter." I think it would be beneficial for the CAP Project as a whole to consider more direct concepts, leading me to come up with this concept.

There are several factors underlying the effectiveness of the Landorus-T/Rotom-W core, such as defensive synergy, high bulk, and access to VoltTurn. I firmly believe that most or all of these factors would need to be addressed in order for this concept to be successful. For instance, simply making a Pokemon that can counter VoltTurn would not be sufficient to fulfill this concept, but such an approach would need to be one part of the overall process.

Furthermore, the last two CAP projects at the time of writing (Volkraken and Plasmanta) both focused on making a Pokemon fit into a core in one way or another. Both of them failed to fulfill their concepts, so I have come to believe that the concept of cores can be better examined by taking an approach opposite to that of previous CAP projects.

Another possible avenue to take with this concept would explore how much certain playstyles revolve around building a core. For example, certain playstyles (e.g. balanced) usually involve constructing a core in which each member can cover the weaknesses of another member of the core, allowing a skilled player to pivot and play around threats to the team. Other playstyles (e.g. hyper offense) do not concern themselves with such a core, but can often have certain members that are intended to be the linchpin of the team. As such, it would be interesting to see how disrupting what is arguably the most common core in OU would affect particular team archetypes.

The idea of various team archetypes being rendered impotent has also come up frequently in recent suspect tests (e.g. Greninja), so I think examining the balance of team archetypes in the OU metagame would be an interesting secondary objective of this concept.


*Credit to Acast for the alternate title for this concept.

 

[hendrix96]

Name: Hail Endorser
General Description: A Pokemon that effectively makes hail more feasible in the OU meta game.
Justification: as sand has tyranitar and rain has mega swampert hail has always seemed to be not as good in ou and few mons can truly use hail to there advantage. This Mon set's out to make hail a viable strategy in the meta its presence will either make it easer for hail to go up or it would make players want it to be up. Although making a weather completely viable does require more then a single mon, A hail endorser could teach us what mons could shine if hail was more competitive, example of this maybe glaceon, it could become more viable because of the hail endorser as if hails use is promoted glaceon can effectively wear down and more pokemon as ice body gives it a free leftovers and hail hurts the opponent combine that with a stab 100% accurate blizzard 130 spa attack blizzard. In other words A hail endorser could make a lot more mons a lot more viable and let us see what it takes to make hail viable and how a single mon can affect the viablity of an entire play style.
Questions to be Answered:

• Is a single mon's influence enough to make hail more viable in a metagame?
• How should the hail endorser endorse hail, through offensive potential, team support or maybe through a defensive manner?
• Are there mons that could rise in the ranks of ou if hail was viable?
• What is needed to make a weather more viable in the ou metagame?

Explanation: Rain, sun, and sand all have specific pokemon that bring up the viability of their weather and very few people question why hail doesn't have one these mons that make them viable. It has pretty much been the rule of thumb that if you run weather you run sand sun or rain, hail is by far the weakest, but if there was a pokemon that could bring the viability of hail up a notch or 2 then what mons and what factors of the meta would change. In a nutshell we would see how a new weather could affect a meta.

 

[hendrix96]

Name: Anywhere goes

General Description: A Pokemon that can find a teamslot (and be used well) on multiple team archetypes.

Justification: A lot of Pokemon only do one job really well or only fit on one or two archetypes of team. A good example of this is Bisharp. While it is a very good Pokemon, would you ever use it on a less offensively inclined team? (The correct answer is no). Another good example is Chansey; while it is very good on stall and defensive teams, it has no use on offensive teams because its such a big momentum suck. That said, a good example of what I'm trying to describe is Crobat in UU. It only really has two sets (support and Choice Band), but because of its unique stats, typing, and movepool, it can easily find a spot on all sorts of teams, ranging from hyper offense to defensive builds looking for a check to Beedrill, Fighting- and Grass-types, and can control hazards all in one go.

Questions To Be Answered:

• Is a Pokemon capable of fitting on many archetypes even possible in this meta
• What characteristics make a Pokemon valuable to multiple team archetypes
• How can it deal with threats to multiple team archetypes without compromising the ability to fit on some
• As it would fit on multiple team archetypes, would it mean it can function well against many teams as well

Explanation: I think I've covered most of what I wanted to say, but could a Pokemon be used in OU on an against many playstyles.

Ununhexium your concept really intrigues me, but again there is the Discussion of why use your mon over another more specialized mon in a team. If it can do the huge amount of roles, it can't be amazing at all of them. So then why not have a mon that does one thing really good then have mon that does alot of things just good. Does the sheer versatility of the mon give it an advantage or does the mon just have a niche that every team can use? If it doesn't have some other factor to make it usable on every team, this mon is going to need very good stats to be useful.

 

[The Avalanches]

Name: Multi-Skilled

General Description: A Pokemon with two (or more) equally useable abilities, both of which are potent and useable.

Justification: Abilities are perhaps the most important facet of competitive Pokemon battle, and arguably the most influential factor in what makes a Pokemon viable, even more so than typing, stats, and movepool in some instances. Most of the Pokemon that have been banned from OU relied on their ability in one way or another, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a Pokemon in the S or A+ rank of the OU viability rankings that also didn't make good use of their ability.

However, most Pokemon do not have a useable second ability to choose from, leaving no need for guesswork regarding abilities; the Ferrothorn you're facing will always be running Iron Barbs, Bisharp has nothing better to run that Defiant, and Sylveon has no business running a Normal-type Hyper Voice. The idea behind this concept is to create a little ambiguity; the opponent should not be able to immediately ascertain which ability this CAP is running from Team Preview. This should hopefully mask what role the Pokemon performs to an extent too.

Questions to be answered:

- Should the abilities chosen allow the CAP to perform contrasting roles or two/three renditions of a similar role?
- Is it truly possible to create a Pokemon where its abilities are equally viable and useable?
- Is it possible to effectively mask this Pokemon's ability; would the type of team it is used on or perhaps its teammates be able to give it away?
- Should we avoid abilities that immediately trigger or have trigger messages in order to preserve the secrecy of the ability?
- If two otherwise unequal abilities are chosen, could we effectively equalize them by altering stats, movepool or typing?

Explanation:

To me, this is an intriguing concept, as there are not many Pokemon that have equally desirable abilities, and I believe that could be a niche in and of itself, as hopefully it will force some guesswork on an opponent facing it. Failing that, it should at least provide two roles that are equally imposing, even if they can be immediately recognized.

 

[nyttyn]

I'm not ready to make a submission of my own yet, but I can comment on some of the concepts we have right now!

Defensive Adaptation Acast
Unfortunately, type changing in the middle of the battle is only ever going to be viable under very gimmicky circumstances (Reflect Type Latias vs Genesect). Since all of the ways to change your typing from a defensive stand point are entirely dependent on your opponent, and basically pidgeon hole the CAP into not only taking specific (very bad) moves as well as having a high speed, and since Protean is an incredibly tricky beast to balance, I don't see this concept being either viable or project friendly.

Capable Offensive Pressure + Utility Provider Alfalfa
This concept looks extremely boring at the moment, and lacking in any real identity. The questions are also quite poor, and two of them boil down to "can we make it not overpowered," which would more or less just be an assumed "yes, yes we can" for something as straightforward as such a mon. Needs a lot of work.

Leadoff Hitter wh0sy0urpapa
The concept doesn't really even attempt to raise any questions about how a dedicated lead would survive in a meta where you can literally see your opponent's entire team and choose your lead accordingly. Doesn't really give any reason to believe that the concept would be possible, and it's really kind of vague as to what role a "lead" should take (a pokemon designed to force entry hazards? One designed to prevent entry hazards? Both? Something else entirely?).

Spazayo (Staller) Sparkl3y
This concept is just bad and confusing, I'm sorry. Why do we need an anti-stall stall mon when wallbreaking is already a well established role? What would this hypothetical pokemon do that a wallbreaker couldn't? And what questions would this answer that we don't already know about fighting stall? The concept's questions are also incredibly lacking, its justification is extremely confusing and somewhat nonsensical, and the explanation is almost nonexistant and is irrelevant.

Anywhere goes Ununhexium
This concept feels very vague and lacking in direction.

Core Collapse Elite Lord Sigma
While i'm not personally fond of the concept, since it's too specalized for my tastes, I think it is a good concept, and very relevant to current OU.

Hail Endorser hendrix96
Hail's dead. The inducer is weak, it's extremely lacking in benefits, and one pokemon alone isn't going to solve its complete lack of quality teammates. The lack of perma-hail abomasnow was the death kneel for hail, and resultingly, I don't see a Hail concept working out.

 

[Amitghosh]

Name: Priority Protection

General Description: A Pokemon that can discourage and be a good check to priority.

Justification: Since the era of Gen 6, priority has been an extremely overused concept. Most of the Pokemon in the OU tier have a good priority, which allows it to faint others quickly. It's extremely rare these days to find someone whose team doesnt have a single priority user. This concept will have a positive effect on the metagame, by discouraging simply priority, and opening spaces for new methods of using Pokemon other than priority. It also allows us to learn more about the tier about what will happen to it when priority is discouraged

Questions to be answered:

• Will a single Pokemon be able to discourage priority?
• Will the OU tier improve when priority is discouraged?
• Will discouraging of priority help other playstyles find a way into threatlists?
• Will this benefit any mons greatly?

Explanation: Priority is a factor that defines the game greatly, and affects the viability of many Pokemon. If there was no Gale Wings, Talonflame may have never even been seen in OU, and some Pokemon who are weak to priority Brave Bird would have risen greatly. With priority, it is also extremely simple to defeat mons with low defenses, however good their speed is. While this concept does not mean to drop Talon into NU, it just means to help the OU tier become a better place for other Pokemon to also come in and carve out their own spot in the list of threats.

 

[vyomov]

Name: Return of the Sun
Description: A Pokemon that can be effective under sunny weather and improves the viability of Sun as a playstyle.

Justification: In the transition from Gen V to Gen VI, one of the biggest changes was the loss of permanent weather, which changed the landscape of the metagame entirely. While both Sand and Rain teams managed to adapt to the new metagame and thrive(though not at the same levels as in Gen V), Sun teams fell off the face of the metagame, and have not come back since. However, Sun's large success in the previous generation suggests that it definitely has potential as a playstyle, which is why a CAP dedicated to Sun could help reinvigorate this playstyle. The CAP, by sole virtue of upholding Sun as a playstyle, would have a clear unique niche in the metagame; it would also give us a chance to learn about how weather has changed in the transition of generations and would also improve the diversity of the metagame, a positive influence.

Questions to be Answered:

• What factors differentiate Sun from Sand and Rain as successful weathers, and in what way have these factors contributed to the downfall of Sun? What forces in the current metagame prevent Sun from seeing success?
• To what extent can the creation of one Pokemon solve the problems of the entire playstyle, and how can this be done without creating an overcentralizing CAP? Would the "new" Sun function similarly to the old playstyle, or would it take a different approach?
• How would the metagame react to the resurgence of Sun as a viable playstyle? Would we see a repeat of the weather wars of Gen V?
• What playstyles (outside Sun) would benefit from the reinforcement of Sun? Which Pokemon not used on Sun teams would stand to benefit the most from this CAP, and are any of these overlooked as of now?

Explanation: While there have always been massive changes throughout the history of Pokemon, in terms of playstyles there has been some stability since the beginning of Gen V. The introduction of new Pokemon have had impacts on the viability of playstyles (such as a rise in the viability of Stall with the introduction of M-Sableye), but Sun is one of the very few playstyles that became redundant almost overnight, and I think that the playstyle does still have potential, which can be brought out through this CAP. The existence of cookie-cutter teams has been a complaint throughout Gen VI(right from the DeoSharp teams to the Italian Bunny teams), and I believe that reviving a dead playstyle will only serve to mitigate this issue by bringing up diversity(for instance, the presence of Rain keeps Kabutops and Omastar as OU viable, and I think there are many similar parallels for Sun that would benefit too).

 

[NumberCruncher]

Name: Leave Nothing to Chance
Description: A Pokemon that stands to lose very little if the opponent gets lucky.

Justification: Chance is always something you need to be aware of when it comes to Pokemon. I think we've all had one of those games where we were completely outplaying our opponent, but whether his Icicle Crash made the flinch, or your Stone Edge missed, or paralysis kicked in at just the right time, a game that was easily in the bag slipped through our grasp. Heck, entire movepools have been banned from OU for punishing an opponent for being unlucky. And yet one of the bigger aspects of the game is an aspect taken out of the control of the players.

Questions to be answered:

• What is the absolute minimal amount of risk that a player has to take?
• Does a Pokemon that loses little to chance also stand to gain little from chance?
• Is a Pokemon with low risk options best off using those options, or is it better off switching to slightly riskier strategies?
• How much does risk impact your average Pokemon?
• What strategies lead to less risky gameplay?
• Are there Types/Items that are inherently riskier/less risky to use?
• What does a Pokemon have to give up in order to become "safe"?

Explanation: This is basically the "It's cold outside, so remember your coat, your helmet, your bulletproof vest, and 3 layers of bubble wrap." Pokemon. It's a Pokemon. This concept looks to explore how plays, movepools, types, abilities, etc. increase risk and how to minimize the risk one actually takes.

 

[Empress]

I'm not ready to make a submission of my own yet, but I can comment on some of the concepts we have right now!

Defensive Adaptation Acast
Unfortunately, type changing in the middle of the battle is only ever going to be viable under very gimmicky circumstances (Reflect Type Latias vs Genesect). Since all of the ways to change your typing from a defensive stand point are entirely dependent on your opponent, and basically pidgeon hole the CAP into not only taking specific (very bad) moves as well as having a high speed, and since Protean is an incredibly tricky beast to balance, I don't see this concept being either viable or project friendly.

Capable Offensive Pressure + Utility Provider Alfalfa
This concept looks extremely boring at the moment, and lacking in any real identity. The questions are also quite poor, and two of them boil down to "can we make it not overpowered," which would more or less just be an assumed "yes, yes we can" for something as straightforward as such a mon. Needs a lot of work.

Leadoff Hitter wh0sy0urpapa
The concept doesn't really even attempt to raise any questions about how a dedicated lead would survive in a meta where you can literally see your opponent's entire team and choose your lead accordingly. Doesn't really give any reason to believe that the concept would be possible, and it's really kind of vague as to what role a "lead" should take (a pokemon designed to force entry hazards? One designed to prevent entry hazards? Both? Something else entirely?).

Spazayo (Staller) Sparkl3y
This concept is just bad and confusing, I'm sorry. Why do we need an anti-stall stall mon when wallbreaking is already a well established role? What would this hypothetical pokemon do that a wallbreaker couldn't? And what questions would this answer that we don't already know about fighting stall? The concept's questions are also incredibly lacking, its justification is extremely confusing and somewhat nonsensical, and the explanation is almost nonexistant and is irrelevant.

Anywhere goes Ununhexium
This concept feels very vague and lacking in direction.

Core Collapse Elite Lord Sigma
While i'm not personally fond of the concept, since it's too specalized for my tastes, I think it is a good concept, and very relevant to current OU.

Hail Endorser hendrix96
Hail's dead. The inducer is weak, it's extremely lacking in benefits, and one pokemon alone isn't going to solve its complete lack of quality teammates. The lack of perma-hail abomasnow was the death kneel for hail, and resultingly, I don't see a Hail concept working out.

I do attempt to raise such questions in "Are dedicated leads viable at all with Team Preview" and "To what extent does Team Preview discourage the use of dedicated leads". I can rephrase the questions if need be, though.

devise new strategies besides setting up hazards and dying.

Granted, I really only stated this once, so I'll add it into the other sections. Nonetheless, I want to be clear that I'm looking for something besides our suicide hazard leads (Azelf, for instance).

 

[Burt Racecar]

While I'm trying to develop my half baked 'Opportunity Cost' concept that probably won't be submitted, I figure I'll give some feedback for the concepts so far.

Acast's Defensive Adaptation
I'm in an agreement with Nyttyn here. I can currently see two ways to go about it. First off with Protean, but this ability has balancing problems when combined with the right moves and speed. And secondly Reflect Type which would probably be the more CAP-like option to take. The problem with this is that Reflect Type Starmie is a thing in OU and works incredibly well to change its dark weakness into a resist (think pursuit trappers like TTar and Bisharp). However, with that said, it could still be interesting to see how another 'mon can benefit from Reflect Type on a more consistent basis.

Alfalfa's Capable Offensive Pressure + Utility Provider
Not sure the concept reads exactly how you intend it to, because it seems like the role is already taken by the examples you provided, Heatran, Rotom-W and Latias can all generate capable offensive pressure. I get that they lack all initial coverage and power, but the trade off for that is the utility they provide. It seems like a difficult concept to get right since we're asking for bulk, greater offensive pressure than Latias and utility and all this without being overpowered.

wh0sy0urpapa's Leadoff Hitter
Actually, I built a rain team the other day with no Politoed and at the start of my battle my opponent said something on the lines of 'I see four potential leads' and that got me wondering about how I could use that illusion to my advantage, so I sent out my lead Azelf.
Anyway the concept might be better off giving more weight about exploring early game momentum than lead pokemon. As you said that early game momentum is an incredibly important part of every battle and can be the difference between a win and a loss. There is definitely something to be explored here and a number of options we could take, not limiting to creating a lead or anti-lead.

Sparkl3y's Spazayo (Staller)
Just creating a stall pokemon doesn't seem all that exciting to be honest. The concept might be better with a little work. Since the concept is oriented around stall, I assume that's what you want to explore. Maybe the concept can be improved by giving these questions some thought and consideration. How can we explore stall? What playstyles suffer against stall? Is it possible for that playstyle to counter stall without being dependent on matchup?

Ununhexium's Anywhere goes
I generally like the idea though where we create a pokemon that has a the freedom to be competitively viable across a range of team archetypes. At first thought, Landorus-T pops into my head though as its a pretty huge gluemon right now, fully capable of being defensive or offensive, I'd be concerned we might end up somewhat emulating Lando-T if we pursue this concept.
Could we somehow refine the concept to make it closer to the Crobat in UU you described? A primarily offensive mon but with the defensive capability to check some of bigger threats of OU (M-Metagross and M-Sableye come to mind) if the team needs.

Phione's Pure Pivot
Interesting concept, seems pretty well formed on the whole. I just can't really see how this concept could work without deciding on a core for pivotmon to work in, and having had the last two CAPs focus on creating core members it's something I personally would like to stay away from this time.

Elite Lord Sigma's Core Collapse
In agreement with you regarding the past two failures I quite like the idea of exploring cores from the other side. However, just pointing out here that Contrary Serperior can break the proposed core with a single Leafstorm boost:
+2 252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 355-418 (92.9 - 109.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock.
Although that's not to say the concept is a bad idea, Serperior isn't the easiest mon to bring in to battle.

hendrix96's Hail Endorser
Hail is quite an undesirable weather to use as those that benefit from it have a poor defensive typing and switching in can be costly. Then I thought, nowadays the premium sun abuser is Char-Y, who sets its own weather up and has the right moves to benefit from it. We could do the same for hail, however I fear if we do that, our creativity could be limited.
I never thought I'd say it but it really would be interesting to see hail become viable.

The Avalanches' Multi-Skilled
Seems a cool concept. Not many pokemon do have multiple abilities to use, and those that do often have a 'tell' when they enter the battle, mold breaker and intimidate for example. Clefable is in my opinion the best multi-skilled 'mon currently, having unaware and magic guard both viable. It's quite similar to Ununhexium's Anywhere Goes in a way, at their core both concepts are about increasing CAP20s versatility.

Cretacerus' Not Fully Evolved
In OU right now Eviolite Chansey is far more viable than Blissey even with the boost Knock Off received this gen. So I would probably say we know a fair bit about how good eviolite is; that's probably why the users are one dimensional because without that defense boost they are outclassed by their evolved form.
There's only really one way I can see this going that would be different from mimicking Chansey, and that is an NFE which deters the other team from removing eviolite. Perhaps pose that as a question, how can CAP turn losing its eviolite into an advantage? If you intended to say that it's not entirely clear. However, in response to that question I can think of several avenues of exploration and it could actually make for quite a fun CAP.

Amitghosh's Priority Protection
Priority is a huge part of OU no doubt about that, it's a major influence on teambuilding. Discouraging it will be so hard to pull off as there are no drawbacks to having priority. One pokemon isn't going to show us what a priority free meta would be like. So discouraging priority against this CAP would be considered a win I think. The concept as it's very relevant to current OU.

vyomov's Return of the Sun
I think it's a solid concept, OU is absent of dedicated sun teams. Though not without its flaws Char-Y is a sun team in one mon and that could be part of the reason why. If we go with this concept, I think the first question you posed is very important to answer in the concept thread.

NumberCruncher's Leave Nothing to Chance
I'm not entirely sure I grasp this concept in relation to creating a CAP to be honest. I don't see how it's possible to minimise the risk against chance when there are tonnes of ways to be lucky/unlucky in pokemon games.

 

[hendrix96]

Name: Priority Protection

General Description: A Pokemon that can discourage and be a good check to priority.

Justification: Since the era of Gen 6, priority has been an extremely overused concept. Most of the Pokemon in the OU tier have a good priority, which allows it to faint others quickly. It's extremely rare these days to find someone whose team doesnt have a single priority user. This concept will have a positive effect on the metagame, by discouraging simply priority, and opening spaces for new methods of using Pokemon other than priority. It also allows us to learn more about the tier about what will happen to it when priority is discouraged

Questions to be answered:

• Will a single Pokemon be able to discourage priority?
• Will the OU tier improve when priority is discouraged?
• Will discouraging of priority help other playstyles find a way into threatlists?
• Will this benefit any mons greatly?

Explanation: Priority is a factor that defines the game greatly, and affects the viability of many Pokemon. If there was no Gale Wings, Talonflame may have never even been seen in OU, and some Pokemon who are weak to priority Brave Bird would have risen greatly. With priority, it is also extremely simple to defeat mons with low defenses, however good their speed is. While this concept does not mean to drop Talon into NU, it just means to help the OU tier become a better place for other Pokemon to also come in and carve out their own spot in the list of threats.

I find your concept to be incredibly relevant as priority brave bird, choice band technician bullet punch, and aerialte quick attack have all become quite common in ou and made mons that otherwise would not be as good (im looking at you talonflame) incredibly viable. So making a mon that could make people use priority less, would be quite interesting as it would teach us more about priority in the meta of high power priority moves.

 

[Acast]

I'm not ready to make a submission of my own yet, but I can comment on some of the concepts we have right now!

Defensive Adaptation Acast
Unfortunately, type changing in the middle of the battle is only ever going to be viable under very gimmicky circumstances (Reflect Type Latias vs Genesect). Since all of the ways to change your typing from a defensive stand point are entirely dependent on your opponent, and basically pidgeon hole the CAP into not only taking specific (very bad) moves as well as having a high speed, and since Protean is an incredibly tricky beast to balance, I don't see this concept being either viable or project friendly.

I disagree when you say "all of the ways to change your typing from a defensive stand point are entirely dependent on your opponent". Reflect type is merely one option and that, along with Conversion 2, are the only ones that are dependent upon the opponent. I suppose it can be labelled as "gimmicky", but I don't see why that's a bad thing as long as it works. Protean is Greninja's gimmick and it was obviously more than viable enough for OU. There are no gimmicky circumstances for an ability like Protean, it's just that the ability itself is a gimmick, an incredibly useful gimmick.
I'll admit my concept heavily implies Protean, but if we do use Protean, then it would be all about relying on prediction. It's possible I didn't emphasize the prediction aspect enough in my post. Would you recommend I edit it to include that or should I just abandon the concept all together? (I'd prefer not to abandon it as I really would like to see how this concept works in OU)

 

[Qwilphish]

Name: Momentum Stall
General Description: A Pokemon whose purpose is to wall a portion of the metagame while still being able to maintain momentum.
Justification: At the moment, there are three broad categories that teams can be classified into: Hyper Offense, Balanced, and Stall. Middle ground groups can be created between each of these groups such as Bulky Offense (Balanced + Hyper Offense) which contains Pokemon which can tank hits but still do not give up momentum and Semi-Stall (Balanced + Stall) which thrives off of Pokemon which can stall combined with those which can deal heavy damage. However, a style that is heavily underrepresented in OU exists as the middle ground between Stall and Hyper Offense called Momentum Stall (?). A team whose win condition is to whittle the opponent's team while still being able to maintain momentum that most stall teams fail to do. This Pokemon is meant to be the face of this almost unrepresented playstyle almost in the way that Mega Sableye is the face of stall and Mega Lopunny is the face of Hyper Offense.
Questions To Be Answered:
-Since this is meant to be a promotion of a type of playstyle, what Pokemon would make good teammates to make this a viable archetype?
- The concept of momentum has been discussed previously with Tomohawk, however, the product tended to ally itself with balanced teams. How does the introduction of the stall element change the ways that this Pokemon will look for momentum?
- Why is the momentum stall archetype not seen in the OU metagame? Is it due to its lack of viability, its lack of teammates, or just lack of knowledge of it?
- Since this is a relatively unknown archetype, how will the introduction of a Momentum Stall into the metagame affect the usage of other archetypes?
- With this Pokemon attempting to be the face of this new archetype, will CAP 20 be too good on its own and end up fitting on other playstyles better? A similar question, what dictates a Pokemon's optimal team archetype?
- Is one Pokemon enough to revitalize a lost archetype?
Explanation: I don't want this project to end up as Momentum 2.0 in the context of the ORAS metagame; this concept is meant to be a promotion of the Momentum Stall playstyle. Momentum Stall makes an interesting concept due to its underrepresentation and its variance from the other team archetypes. The concept of Momentum Stall has been discussed and even conceptualized in previous CAP projects, however, I believe that this gen with such a blurred line between the three archetypes due to the wide variety of viable Polemon makes this metagame the best to promote this playstyle.

feedback welcome!

 

[nyttyn]

I disagree when you say "all of the ways to change your typing from a defensive stand point are entirely dependent on your opponent". Reflect type is merely one option and that, along with Conversion 2, are the only ones that are dependent upon the opponent. I suppose it can be labelled as "gimmicky", but I don't see why that's a bad thing as long as it works. Protean is Greninja's gimmick and it was obviously more than viable enough for OU. There are no gimmicky circumstances for an ability like Protean, it's just that the ability itself is a gimmick, an incredibly useful gimmick.
I'll admit my concept heavily implies Protean, but if we do use Protean, then it would be all about relying on prediction. It's possible I didn't emphasize the prediction aspect enough in my post. Would you recommend I edit it to include that or should I just abandon the concept all together? (I'd prefer not to abandon it as I really would like to see how this concept works in OU)

Whoops, while I failed to mention it (I just called it a tricky beast to balance, though I should've also added it's banned), Protean is actually entirely banned from CAP, and Protean is more or less the only thing that could possibly make type changing work on a reliable basis. Do keep to try and avoid having your concept lean towards access to a specific ability like that for future concepts.

Do keep in mind that type changing is incredibly bad outside of Protean. Off the top of my head, only Reflect Type (ignoring the banned Protean) has seen usage in OU, and only under two circumstances: Reflect Type Latias, which was a gimmicky set designed to make Latias into a Genesect counter instead of being murdered by it, and Reflect Type Starmie, which runs the move to avoid being slaughtered by dark types. The former was frankly bad and inconsistent and the later is probably the only example of a 'consistent' usage of the strat, and basically does the only thing Reflect Type is good for perfectly (namely, a pokemon that is weak to Pursuit with no way to OHKO opposing dark types that also wants to switch in multiple times in a match gaining a resistance to it instead). Seeing as how even the 'perfect' usage for the only move that is remotely viable for self-type changing is a. already done and b. highly circumstantial, I don't really think the concept could ever work.

 

[Acast]

Whoops, while I failed to mention it (I just called it a tricky beast to balance, though I should've also added it's banned), Protean is actually entirely banned from CAP, and Protean is more or less the only thing that could possibly make type changing work on a reliable basis. Do keep to try and avoid having your concept lean towards access to a specific ability like that for future concepts.

Do keep in mind that type changing is incredibly bad outside of Protean. Off the top of my head, only Reflect Type (ignoring the banned Protean) has seen usage in OU, and only under two circumstances: Reflect Type Latias, which was a gimmicky set designed to make Latias into a Genesect counter instead of being murdered by it, and Reflect Type Starmie, which runs the move to avoid being slaughtered by dark types. The former was frankly bad and inconsistent and the later is probably the only example of a 'consistent' usage of the strat, and basically does the only thing Reflect Type is good for perfectly (namely, a pokemon that is weak to Pursuit with no way to OHKO opposing dark types that also wants to switch in multiple times in a match gaining a resistance to it instead). Seeing as how even the 'perfect' usage for the only move that is remotely viable for self-type changing is a. already done and b. highly circumstantial, I don't really think the concept could ever work.

Ah I see. My apologies, I wasn't aware that Protean was banned from CAP. I agree Protean is really the only feasible way to make type-changing viable unless we make an entirely new ability or move (which I know CAP doesn't like to do), so it's probably best if I just scrap it and maybe submit another concept a week from now if I can think of anything worthwhile. For future reference, is there a thread somewhere that lists anything banned from CAP? I was sure I read through all the guidelines but somehow I missed that Protean was banned.

 

[Bramblestein]

Name: Offense is the Best Defense
General Description: A Pokemon designed to be defensive in nature, but with an offensive ability

Justification: There are a plethora of offensive Pokemon in the current meta that have defensive abilities and make great use of them to perform better as offensive Pokemon (Gyarados, Mamoswine, and Dragonite come to mind). However, the number of defensive mons with offensive abilities in OU is limited to pretty much Sylveon; and even then the Choice Specs sets are extremely popular making its identity as a defensive Pokemon suspect at best. Most defensive Pokemon rely pretty heavily on their abilities to perform their roles, this CAP would instead be able to function well as a wall, but without the luxury of relying on a defensive ability.

Questions to be Answered:

• Can a Pokemon be designed to have an offensive ability, but not be used as an offensive mon and still succeed at its role?
• Would an offensive ability actually provide niche cases where it is more useful to a defensive mon than a defensive ability might have been?
• Would an offensive ability on a defensive Pokemon increase the viability of certain moves that just aren't seen?
• What offensive abilities have potential to increase defensiveness in a mon?

Explanation: Nidoqueen is the closest thing to this idea as it can hit decently hard with Sheer Force and stab moves while still working well as a wall. However, the mon that uses its offensive ability to increase its defensiveness and actually be OU worthy just doesn't seem to exist. Some might point to Togekiss as well saying it fulfills the same idea, but Paraflinch isn't really that defensive of a playstyle. This project would provide the opportunity to explore some lesser seen Offensive abilities and see if they have any way to be useful for a defensive playstyle. Ideally, the ability chose would allow the CAP to use an offensive ability to increase its defensive capabilities rather than just split its usage into an offensive set vs a defensive one.

 

[heartofgold]

I submitted this in CAP 19 as well, but I've touched it up a bit, and I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with re-submission.

Name: Lord of the Crossing
“Can you switch? Mayhaps….”

Description: A Pokemon that controls the switching game, punishing and limiting its opponent’s ability to switch out while ensuring greater freedom of movement for itself.

Justification: Switching is one of the most powerful and dangerous tools in Pokemon, and via CAP we have an opportunity to examine its effects and measure its influence. This concept allows us to learn more about the metagame by exploring switching in its own negative, seeing its advantages and strengths in how opponents are hamstrung when their ability to switch is punished or removed. Much like Tomohawk, this concept should also teach us about momentum, and how having the advantage on a switch can grant a player control of the match.

Questions To Be Answered:

• How does switching, and the abilities and moves that affect the mechanic, confer advantages to both players? Can those advantages be negated or multiplied?
• By what means can we punish or limit an opponents ability to switch, beyond simply using a trapping ability like Shadow Tag? Which combinations are most effective?
• How can we ensure that our Pokemon maintains an advantage on switches, when it chooses to leave the battle field?
• Given how fundamental switching is the to the meta, can a Pokemon that limits an opponent’s ability to do so be truly balanced

Explanation: If you talk to any good Street Fighter player they’ll tell you the most important factor in the game, the thing you absolutely must understand to succeed, is movement and spacing - how the two characters relate to each other in space. I’ve always thought of switching in Pokemon in the same terms. It’s a mechanic that defines the game from the top of Anything Goes to the bottom of Little Cup. To be a good player, you simply must make good switches. By the same token, limiting an opponent’s ability to switch can be devastating. Look at Mega-Gengar’s near-ban in Ubers, and Gothitelle’s use in OU despite its frankly lackluster stats. Even the oh-so-common Stealth Rock was considered broken by a sub-section of players simply because it punishes you for switching - something that's normally a free action. These are just a few examples, and there are countless more, but fundamentally the idea is to force your opponent into a corner where they need to make a bad decision, or trap them in a position they can’t escape. This Pokemon should fundamentally be about just doing that: forcing your opponent into no-win scenarios, trapping them when they’re at a disadvantage, and walking away from every switch with an advantage. As a side note (and as long as this isn’t considered poll-jumping), I want to emphasize that this Concept isn’t a ‘Let’s Make a Shadow Tag Pokemon’. Frankly, we’ve all seen the damage that ability can do, and there’s a variety of moves and abilities that can affect switching that don’t get that level of play (and aren’t on the banned abilities list).

 

[KhosroTheGreat]

Name: Momentum Stall
General Description: A Pokemon whose purpose is to wall a portion of the metagame while still being able to maintain momentum.
Justification: At the moment, there are three broad categories that teams can be classified into: Hyper Offense, Balanced, and Stall. Middle ground groups can be created between each of these groups such as Bulky Offense (Balanced + Hyper Offense) which contains Pokemon which can tank hits but still do not give up momentum and Semi-Stall (Balanced + Stall) which thrives off of Pokemon which can stall combined with those which can deal heavy damage. However, a style that is heavily underrepresented in OU exists as the middle ground between Stall and Hyper Offense called Momentum Stall (?). A team whose win condition is to whittle the opponent's team while still being able to maintain momentum that most stall teams fail to do. This Pokemon is meant to be the face of this almost unrepresented playstyle almost in the way that Mega Sableye is the face of stall and Mega Lopunny is the face of Hyper Offense.
Questions To Be Answered:
-Since this is meant to be a promotion of a type of playstyle, what Pokemon would make good teammates to make this a viable archetype?
- The concept of momentum has been discussed previously with Tomohawk, however, the product tended to ally itself with balanced teams. How does the introduction of the stall element change the ways that this Pokemon will look for momentum?
- Why is the momentum stall archetype not seen in the OU metagame? Is it due to its lack of viability, its lack of teammates, or just lack of knowledge of it?
- Since this is a relatively unknown archetype, how will the introduction of a Momentum Stall into the metagame affect the usage of other archetypes?
- With this Pokemon attempting to be the face of this new archetype, will CAP 20 be too good on its own and end up fitting on other playstyles better? A similar question, what dictates a Pokemon's optimal team archetype?
- Is one Pokemon enough to revitalize a lost archetype?
Explanation: I don't want this project to end up as Momentum 2.0 in the context of the ORAS metagame; this concept is meant to be a promotion of the Momentum Stall playstyle. Momentum Stall makes an interesting concept due to its underrepresentation and its variance from the other team archetypes. The concept of Momentum Stall has been discussed and even conceptualized in previous CAP projects, however, I believe that this gen with such a blurred line between the three archetypes due to the wide variety of viable Polemon makes this metagame the best to promote this playstyle.

feedback welcome!

Unless I've misunderstood something, this sounds like you want to make a bulky VoltTurner. 'the middle ground between Stall and Hyper Offense' - isn't that just balance? While 'A team whose win condition is to whittle the opponent's team while still being able to maintain momentum' sound like regular VoltTurn. If the mon is meant to be a complete wall with access to one of Baton Pass, Volt Switch or U-turn, the concept is limited by Baton Pass clause and by the fact that Landorus-T and Rotom-W, both bulky VoltTurns, are currently #1 and #3 in OU usage, meaning that many of the questions regarding bulky VoltTurners are alrerady answered.

If the aim is to make an even more bulky version of these defensive pivots (I assume with less offensive presence), then they would suffer firstly possibly being unbalanced, and secondly from a lack of partners. Many stall Pokemon don't have momentum moves, and those that do, don't appreciate losing one of their moveslot. For example, Mandibuzz, Gliscor and Mew are the only real walls which have access to U-Turn, but none of these use these because they prefer to have other moves which are better or at least considered to be so, while Zapdos is the only wally Pokemon which has decent usage with Volt Switch, with the exception of the afore-mentioned Rotom-W. U-Turn Gliscor has a usage of 9.522%, while the other two don't even have enough U-Turn usage for the command on #cap to show them. To answer your question 'Is one Pokemon enough to revitalize a lost archetype?', it isn't. Unless it is broken, a single Pokemon cannot change the viability, or lack thereof in this case, of an entire archetype.

In conclusion, it's either unusable due to a lack of partners for the playstyle, or its already been done in OU, and done quite prominently.