CAP 24 CAP 24 - Part 4 - Primary and Secondary Ability Discussion

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I know that the speed boosting route has been largely discussed (in large part by me in Discord and other posts of mine), but I encourage everyone to look at the Sun situation from a different angle. I also encourage everyone to get on Showdown! and actually build a Sun team and play with it for a handful of games.

Here are the 3 big problems with full-on, Sun-based teams:

Supbar setters: Malaconda, Mega Charizard Y, (special mention to secondary setter Tomohawk, but it's a secondary setter for a reason)
Garbage Chlorophyll Users: Venusaur, take your pick from the rest of the bottom of the barrel
Extreme Special Bias: Heatran, Volkraken, Venusaur, etc. are all specially oriented; physical abusers either stack weaknesses or are clunky to use

Now, how can we attempt to address all 3 problems in just one CAP?

The full Speed Control way: If we give this Pokemon the weather-dependent speed boosting track, then we fix the garbage Chlorophyll users section. Great, that's a perfectly good direction to take. But...we're still stuck with subpar setters, and I'm projecting that we'll still be stuck with the extreme special bias after looking at our threatlist for Sand teams.

The new Sun settter way: If we let this Pokemon set sun for its teammates, I think we're taking advantage of Sun much better. Sun, because of the problems it has that I outlined in the list above, is essentially a weather for wallbreakers. It's just hard to keep the Sun up and hard to keep offensive teams at bay. Sun has so many holes that, instead of trying to support those bad setters, it might be nicer to just focus on the wallbreaking prowess of Sun. Think about how hard Choice Specs Volkraken is to deal with, and think about the typing synergy that Tapu Bulu and Heatran have - it extends to CAP24 + Heatran without Grassy Terrain. With Sun active, you can make a powerful, Sun-based wallbreaking core that's much easier to use than if you're using Malaconda, Mega Charizard Y, or Tomohawk. How does it address the list above? Well, you get rid of the subpar setters problem because CAP24 is the good setter. You also can get rid of the extreme special bias not because CAP24 can run physical now, but rather because you have other teammates that can run physical attacks that aren't necessarily trying to abuse sun. At this point, we wouldn't be building sun teams akin to Rain and Sand teams, but rather sun cores, with a few other teammates (again, not necessarily abusing sun) to work with CAP24. With this, the Chlorophyll section actually goes away because you've shifted your focus towards focusing on what Sun does well right now. Basically, keeping Sun up is much easier and much more effective than focusing on the full Speed Control way. In fact, there are some moves that could help with the speed control issue, just on a softer level.

Because of the bad setters AND the lack of a good weather-specific speed abusing ability for Sun teams, I don't think it's realistic to try to make it in the image of a Rain team. Rain teams have both of those problems under control; Sun does not. If CAP24, though, supports what Sun does have, wallbreakers, then you can actually make reliably looking teams with it. A team with a sun-setting CAP24 would look a little bit like this:

Sun Core: CAP24 / Volkraken / Heatran (honorable mention to Mega Charizard Y)
Rest of Team: Hazard Control / Scarfer or speed control (probably not Venusaur) / other physical breaker

For example, CAP24 / Volkraken / Heatran / Defog Tapu Koko or Heat Rock Tomohawk / Choice Band Zygarde / Choice Scarf Kartana


Now, I've spent some time saying that the other setters are pretty bad. And I agree with that to a certain extent. Here's why...

Malaconda: Arguably the best one of the bunch, it's actually much harder to use as a Sun setter than you'd think. The reason is that it really just has to click U-turn every time it comes in safely. If you send Malaconda in on, say, Tapu Koko to set sun, you're already facing problems. If Tapu Koko is Choice-locked, then you either have to hope that you Glare something useful and can U-turn out the next turn, or U-turns out, it's still doing a lot of damage, even with maximum Defense investment, and now you've got a severely chunked Malaconda with very few opportunities to set up Sun anymore. Really, it can't really do any its Glare, Rapid Spin, or Knock Off utility very well while trying to set Sun because a) it has no way to recover, especially if it holds Heat Rock, b) has basically no offensive presence, unlike Pelipper, and c) loses too much momentum for its team, which is pretty important for an offensive team. It looks great on paper, but again, try it out on Showdown to see what I mean.

Mega Charizard Y: Well first, talk about stacking Stealth Rock weakness. Mega Charizard Y, Volkraken, and Heatran - all packaged together and pretty much can't do much about Stealth Rock. Yes, hazard removal exists, but you're trying to get rid of it every single time Mega Charizard Y wants to come in. Just to reset the sun, the team/core archetype you're trying to build around. It's just not a Sun setter that lets its teammates work with it. Drought Mega Charizard Y really just wants to abuse its own Sun by itself. It can't even hold Heat Rock if it really wanted to.

Finally, let's think about the rest of the project. If Sun focuses on the wallbreaking aspects on that, it makes the stats stage much easier. There's no trying to balance out speed tiers so that both a full-Speed Control CAP for Sun works and a wallbreaking CAP for Sand works. It'd be easier just to use the speed that Sand teams really want and then go from there. There's also no balancing offensive stats between something that will be super fast (Sun) and something that will be only kind of fast (Sand). For moves, there are some good moves that CAP24 will enjoy using if it can reliably set up sun.

Overall we have to ask ourselves this question: it easier to support Sun by...

...by giving it a super reliable Speed Control CAP, which won't solve the special bias problem and the bad setters problem?

...or let it set up Sun, which can keep sun up more easily and capitalize on Sun's huge wallbreaking potential?

After some thought, I'm thinking setting up Sun might be easier.
 
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In these hours, I was reflecting if the speed boosting was the correct solution for CAP24 instead of focusing on the sun wallbreaking potential and then snake posts this.
Excellent job! You definitely convinced me :blobthumbsup:
 
1. What kinds of abilities would best bolster sun/sand teams?
I feel like the biggest things both team archetypes are lacking is offensive presence, be it a reliable 1st option or a target nuke for Sun or a serious wallbreaker for Sand. As such, I believe the main focus of our abilities should go towards tuning CAP24's offense and making it powerful enough to pose a threat within either of its weathers.

2. Given CAP 24's typing and our threatlist, should CAP 24 specialize one of each of CAP 24's abilities for each weather ?
I think the opportunity of CAP having 2 abilities where each is notably focused towards its role within a single weather would really benefit this project, regardless of whether or not said abilities are weather abilities. I think the needs of Sun and Sand, while both on the offensive end, are disparate enough for us to gain more from specializing CAP24 through its abilities than from trying to go for a catch-all solution.

3. Should CAP 24 have an ability that complements it outside of weather?
To me, the answer to this question is simple: The concept marks CAP24 within its weathers. If the ability that best enables CAP24 within a respective weather is effective outside of said weather as well, then fantastic! If not, then our priority should not be making it so CAP24 can function outside of weather to the detriment of its role within the target weathers.

4. Does CAP 24's ability have to help it directly break through the Pokemon we need to threaten?
I don't think it has to help, but if you ask me odds are it probably will. Since both of the weathers lack effective offensive pressure, I think our abilities will help us break our targets as a secondary benefit.
 
snake_rattler said:
Overall we have to ask ourselves this question: it easier to support Sun by...

...by giving it a super reliable Speed Control CAP, which won't solve the special bias problem and the bad setters problem?

...or leaving it with lame ways of setting up Sun, which can keep sun up more easily and capitalize on Sun's huge wallbreaking potential?

After some thought, I'm thinking setting up Sun might be easier.
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Can you offer some arguments of what makes Grass/Fairy a good typing for a sun setter? I think it would have been far more suitable for Rock/Dragon, but that ship has sailed of course.
 
TKGriffiths said:
what makes Grass/Fairy a good typing for a sun setter
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Same reasons as Malaconda but better, Grass doesn't have a crippling weakness to Stealth Rocks which worsen many of the sun setters that aren't named Groudon or Primal Groudon. We cannot say whether its a good setter of sun or not as currently, it lacks stats and a movepool for damage calcs or testing in battle.
 
TKGriffiths said:
Can you offer some arguments of what makes Grass/Fairy a good typing for a sun setter? I think it would have been far more suitable for Rock/Dragon, but that ship has sailed of course.
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This type was chosen for multiple reason, not only for a possible ability that will be used in a single weather
 
Doesn't take much to be a comparatively better sun setter than Fire or Fire/Flying, especially when one cannot take Heat Rock.

Also, Sun Setters otherwise weakness to Ground-type gets mitigated quite a bit.
 
Regular user Drew post:
I disagree with the notion that in order to fulfill the concept one has to have a weather related ability or even weather related moves. I agree that something that merely defeats what sun/sand teams cannot is just as a valid a completion of the concept.

Ability Leader Drew post:
So after 2 days of discussion, we seem to have a few things down. 1. Sun teams need either speed control or a good setter. 2. Sand teams need a good wallbreaker, plus CAP 24's Grass/Fairy typing doesn't like the chip damage sand gives it. 3. The abilities will each correspond to the weathers, one for sand one for sun. 4. Having and ability that specifically handles our threatlist isn't a priority. Whereas we still have not come to a consensus on if we should have an ability that is good outside of weather. Obviously, not being able to discuss specific abilities has made some discussion falter, so you are now allowed to discuss specific abilities, although I do caution against having one ability control discussion. Additionally, I'd like discussion to go on for how we should handle what sand and particularly sun truly needs in an ability, and whether or not it is best to have an ability that is good outside of weather. Also, we have decided that one of the abilities will use the primary ability banlist, and the other the secondary, so I'd like to pose a question:

5. Does sun or sand need the primary ability?
 
Sun definitely needs the primary ability. Not only is it the worst weather in CAP, but the teams that use sun have so many holes that we probably need a really good ability to cover for it.

Sand's problems, on the other hand, really can all be solved at movepool thanks to our synergistic typing. I could even see an ability like Overcoat being good enough to justify putting on a Sand team.
 
I'm asking for some in depth explanation because giving this CAP Drought seems entirely unimaginative and like a creative cop-out at first glance. And without some more explanation, a first glance is all I can judge the idea on.

Not to mention the possibility of making Malaconda unusable by simply doing what it does better and supplanting its role. It's unlikely the two could coexist on a team if they have similar roles, given their already similar typing.

I'd also agree that Sun should get the primary ability, it needs a bigger shot in the arm than Sand due to being less viable to start with.

Another argument against Drought is that it may actually end up a better Sand ability than the intended Sand ability. Charizard-Y has been seen on Sand before because of the good offensive and defensive synergy. Even resetting each other's weathers can be a good thing due to the next setter being guaranteed the full weather turns (as opposed to having to switch in again before their weather has worn off, meaning their ability wouldn't trigger). Excadrill may even appreciate sun so that it is no longer checked by water types, all the while having a very safe answer to incoming fire attacks in Tyranitar (and Hippowdon to a lesser extent).

Consider CAP would have been designed for sand at every stage meaning it would fit in even better than Charizard-Y did. Drought would even stop it from taking the sand chip damage.
 
One ability I would personally like for us to avoid is Sheer Force for Sand. While it may look like it would give us all the power we need to break walls, there would be absolutely no reason to use it on a sand team. STAB moves like Energy Ball, Moon Blast, and any possible coverage move, such as Thunder Bolt, Focus Blast, Earth Power, etc all would receive a boost from Sheer force, making it a good all-around wallbreaker, but not specific enough to empower Sand teams and not just teams in general. You can make the same arguments that we also shouldn't have abilities such as Magic Guard either, due to those just being "good" abilities slapped onto Cap24.

I'd also like t say having Sun as the first ability would be better IMO, due to it being less viable and to show, even by a glance, that it was meant to be a weather abuser.
 
5. Does sun or sand need the primary ability?

Since I'm making an argument for Drought, then Sun should have the primary ability, as it is not banned for the secondary ability.

TKGriffiths said:
Can you offer some arguments of what makes Grass/Fairy a good typing for a sun setter? I think it would have been far more suitable for Rock/Dragon, but that ship has sailed of course.
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Certainly. Though, remember that Grass / Fairy was not chosen solely for Sun cores, but also for Sand teams. On Sand, Grass / Fairy provides good counterplay to Ash-Greninja and Zygarde and can OHKO Tomohawk for Excadrill. As for Sun, Drought CAP24 could very viably run STAB Solar Beam if it wanted to, as Moonblast hits Tyranitar super effectively, and Pelipper has weaker Special Defense. Moonblast can easily 2HKO both of these with a wallbreaker's Special Attack, making them unsafe switch-ins. One great advantage that CAP24 has (over Rock / Dragon, for example) is that it can blow through Arghonaut really easily. Arghonaut tanks Choice Specs Volkraken's Fire Blast pretty comfortably for what it is. Heatran can't even trap it reliably because of Circle Throw. Arghonaut also gets Spikes, which cuts into Volkraken and Heatran's bulk as well. While Arghonaut can run Gunk Shot, it's already having do decide between Recover, Circle Throw, Spikes, Scald, Knock Off, and Toxic, so Gunk Shot Arghonaut would have less overall utility. Having CAP24 be part of the active Sun core means Arghonaut will be less trouble for Fire-type breakers. Grass / Fairy also has good match-ups against defensive and Choice Scarf Landorus-T, almost all Zygarde sets, most Colossoil sets, most Pajantom sets, Mega Latios, and Cyclohm, all of which can annoy Heatran, Volkraken, Mega Charizard X, etc. in various ways. Again, having CAP24 on the active Sun core means there are less trouble for the Fire-type breakers. I mean, we've seen the typing synergy that Tapu Bulu and Heatran share alone, though you'd get Sun-boosted attacks instead of Grassy Terrain with CAP24. Weakening Greninja-Ash's Hydro Pump to pathetic levels for almost every time CAP24 switches in (resists Water due to Grass typing) also helps it check Greninja-Ash for its Fire-type teammates as well. That way, you can set up Sun very reliably without taking 40-50% switching into Hydro Pump. One effect, albeit luck-based, is that Hurricane's accuracy becomes 50%, meaning offensive Tomohawk and Tornadus-T must use their Z-move to feel safe hitting CAP24.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Volkraken Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Arghonaut in Sun: 164-193 (39.6 - 46.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Analytic Volkraken Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Arghonaut in Sun: 213-252 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Aside from Grass / Fairy-specific advantages, Fire-type Weather Ball (or Fire-type coverage moves) is very useful alongside Grass / Fairy coverage, and Synthesis nets some extra health with reliable Sun. These could be said for most any type, though.
 
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Personally, I consider weather setting abilities to be against the spirit of the concept. IMO, we want a mon that likes having weather as opposed to one that has weather up automatically by its very nature and decides it may as well use it seeing as though it's already there. There's a difference between these two things. I also think that solving Sun's non-setting problems can be done better than by having a new setter. I'd support non-weather related abilities over Drought or Sandstream.

5. Does sun or sand need the primary ability?

I agree that Sun needs more powerful, defining abilities than Sand does, especially if we're going for speed control or even another setter as I don't want but others do. So, that means Su n should probably get the pimary ability.

Personally, I want Chlorophyll. It's the obvious choice, but it's obvious because it's what we need. Speed control that support Sun, likes Sun and encourages Sun use and use on Sun.

If we decide to go for the capitalising on Sun's wallbreaking potential instead, as has been suggested, the ability that makes the most sense is Solar Power, though that is a double edged sword.

My personal second choice for Sun ability is Prankster. It supplies Speed Control that can benefit the whole team instead of just one mon, is useful outside of weather and especially for getting the right weather back up and is generally great for support.

There are other Speed Control abilities though. In order of my preference, I'd suggest Unburden, Rattled, Gooey/Tangling Hair, Steadfast and Speed Boost.
 
5. Does sun or sand need the primary ability?

Definitely Sun needs the primary ability, since it is the weather that needs the most important ability.

Since I support the wallbreaking option, Drought is my choice, this will also simplify our job when we will create its stats.
As a secondary choice I purpose Prankster, that can easily set the sun and use other support moves.

For the Sand, I choose Sand Force, since it needs of a wallbreaker. Sand Rush can also be useful, since Excadrill can act as a breaker, but as I said before this will make the stat creation more difficult
 
For Sand, I also want Sand Force. Not only does it give us immunity to sand damage, it gives us psuedo-STAB on extra types to help with th wallbreaking we want.

If we decide to go the direction of replacing Excadrill and turning Excadrill into our wallbreaker instead though, that makes or obvious choice Sand Rush.

Sand Veil is generally a bad idea as it's just an evasion boosting ability that incidentally removes sand damage, Overcoat also loses most of its benefits with our Grass typing.

Magic Guard is interesting as it not only removes sand damage, but life orb recoil which could help with a wallbreaker.

For non weather related abilities that help with wallbreaking, there's Sheer Force. Tough Claws also works, but we decided that sand needs more of a special wallbreaker which Tough Claws is not very useful for. Another interesting option is Flare Boost, but racking up damage from both sand and burns at the same time makes us incredibly fragile and may actually discourage sand use. Alternatively, there is Simple to try boost fast enough to get past the wall. Sand Force is still by far my favourite though.
 
The problem with Sand Force is the moves it boosts don't have STAB so they will still be relatively weak. Also we almost certainly wouldn't be running Steel coverage, and maybe not even Rock given the lack of good moves, meaning CAP wouldn't be using it to its full potential. The secondary effect of avoiding sand damage makes it hard to ignore though.

Thick Fat could be an interesting ability. While it doesn't offer any direct offensive benefit to a wallbreaker, it does allow CAP to survive more moves and keep swinging. Removing its common weaknesses in Fire and Ice while only leaving Flying, Steel and Poison makes its defensive typing far better and allows it to beat a much wider selection of threats. Protean Greninja as a threat to Sand hasn't been talked about much so far, but it always has Ice Beam which means it threatens CAP more than Ash-Greninja. Scarf Greninja can even outspeed Adamant Excadrill with Sand Rush active. Thick Fat turns this matchup around somewhat, CAP now only fearing Gunk Shot.

It also improves its matchup against Dragons. It could now stomach Garchomp's Fire Blast/Fang, Lati@s' HP Fire/Ice Beam, Kingdra's Ice Beam, maybe even Charizard-X's +1 Flare Blitz.
 
I think Drought is something that should be seriously considered for primary ability, and I would note comparisons to Malaconda are errant for the simple reason Drought was added in updates, not something we explicitly built Malaconda around. That Malaconda would basically be Sun's version of Pelliper (slow utility mon with U-turn) but a LOT more bulky is incidental.

So why Drought? The answer is that Drought creates for CAP ready-made offensive circumstances not currently available to other Sun setters, it's typing attracts and repels different attackers than Zard-Y, and having Drought solves many issues in maintaining our checks and counters list. For example, we do not need to add non-Weather Ball Fire coverage if CAP can be assured to have Sun up in nearly every switching scenario. It also means Sun CAP is much safer to run Solar Beam than have to rely on Grass Knot's inconsistency or something like Leaf Storm's big gamble on move timing.

Let's talk about Speed Control. Drought doesn't preclude speed control which can be brought about by support moves (such as paralysis or Cotton Spore if that's your bag), or by CAP itself being a competent Scarfer, or both for different sun-oriented sets. A not only viable, but strong alternative Sun setter to Zard-Y gives the rest of sun teams more room to specialize their sets because they do not need to fit Sunny Day onto the set.

The more I've thought about it, the more I come to think that while yes, the increase in fire moves does harm CAP a great deal, the ending of other weathers, the immediate accuracy reduction in Hurricane and Thunder from Rain teams, and immediate access to Solar Beam and Weather Ball (+ Synth healing boost) are sufficiently useful both for CAP and in alignment with out concept and threats.

For a secondary ability, I think Sand Force works the best, because Sand Force is the most offensive ability one can have that is fully compatible with a Z-Sandstorm Set. Remember when I said Sun CAP could be an effective Scarfer as a means of Speed Control? Z-Sandstorm also provides this and a few other benefits. The first is that Sand Force CAP is immune to Sandstorm itself, so if it isn't setting it can come in during the storm and fully use it's typing's defensive matchups against Zygarde and Lando EQ on the switch. The second is that Sand Force Weather Ball has an effective BP of 130. This is far and away stronger than Power Gem and the tradeoff for Z-Sandstorm Weather Ball vs LO Sand Force Power Gem is a competitive one [assuming we would want Power Gem given it might impact Pyroak in Sun]. Given we want to maintain Toxapex as a threat, it would also allow CAP to run a stronger HP Ground or Earthquake for Heatran without affecting the Toxapex matchup. Whether the Steel boost would be relevant on anything but a niche set is questionable, but strengthening "QuakeEdge" coverage for a decent defensive Fairy typing is compelling.

As a combination both of these abilities would have a clear offensive and defensive bent to them focused on each weather, and the similarities they bring about in need (Being a good scarfer vs being good at +1 Spe via Z-Sandstorm) make them a natural pairing within the framework of this concept. Are they an obvious pairing? Perhaps, but this is a concept that calls for specific needs, and we should orient CAP towards them.
 
I can't take the Z-Sandstorm idea seriously. Not just because it can't hold Smooth Rock; Rockium Z doesn't work on Weather Ball. The only reason Z-Weather is even slightly viable on other pokemon is that they can choose between using the Z-Weather or the typical STAB nuke depending on the situation, rather like a Double Dance set.
 
Given that I thought about Prankster myself, I'll give my two cents on that discussion. I think the main thing we need to ask ourselves about Prankster CAP is, "why would anyone use this over Whimsicott?", given that we would have not only the same typing but the same ability.
The obvious answer is that Whimsicott is terrible, and CAP would hit harder and, presumably, have better bulk. However, if the idea would be for CAP to set up sun for various wallbreakers to abuse, it's hard to find a mon that's better suited than Whimsicott, given its access to U-Turn and priority Encore/Memento/Tailwind/Stun Spore. Given that there are already several Prankster Sunny Day mons and that they don't ever see use outside of lower tiers, we should first ask ourselves what would make CAP viable in that role where Volbeat, Liepard, Klefki, Meowstic and especially Whimsicott are not.

Also, I don't really think "stronger, fatter Whimsicott" is what this part of the concept had in mind? Idk, change my mind.
 
TKGriffiths said:
I can't take the Z-Sandstorm idea seriously. Not just because it can't hold Smooth Rock; Rockium Z doesn't work on Weather Ball. The only reason Z-Weather is even slightly viable on other pokemon is that they can choose between using the Z-Weather or the typical STAB nuke depending on the situation, rather like a Double Dance set.
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If CAP ran even somewhat mixed you'd probably end up with Sandstorm/Stone Edge, but Z-Power Gem is rather underwhelming, and using it after a non-Z Sandstorm boosted by Sand Force seems less viable to me than getting the speed boost, using Weather Ball, and possibly resetting later. Rain and Sun have the benefit of boosting their own respective STABs 50%, here we're using coverage and the ability to provide a better coverage option. Still, the Z-Sandstorm + Sand Force combination is basically a psuedo Dragon Dance for both attack stats on Sand-related coverage moves, and it's not an effect that can be replicated any other way.
 
I disagree with the choice to just beat the counters to sun/sand teams. Yes, it is valid, but it would turn the concept into a target justification, which the concept states to be a archetype or actualization. I do not like target concepts because to just counter top tier Pokemons in the current metagame is a waste of a concept towards more interesting and enjoyable projects, such as the shackles concept, resist berries concept, and the berserker concept. I do not say that this concept is necessarily bad, but you are moving it towards a target concept.

On to my second point. We have bigger problems to face than just the counters, such that as many have said sun has mediocre setters with 4x weakness to either U-Turn or rocks, which are both problematic to set sun. The abusers are also terrible. Sand has some problems, but they are mostly targets or something. We should not focus on targeting threats but rather take a role into using a sun team.

This is somewhat related but not: My type submission of Grass/Electric was not chosen because it did not support sun/sand teams, but rather primarily destroy rain teams. It was a target, and the lack of utility meant it was not worth choosing

The above "paragraph" may be wrong, in which case I am dead inside
 
I could have sworn i suggested Flower Gift here. It addresses the lack of Physical on Sun Teams, and provides SpD boosts as well. I'll update when I get home as to why I think it works for the concept.
 
I'm pretty sure that Flower Gift is hardcoded onto Cherrim, because that's what's responsible for Cherrim's transformation (note that this is true for ever generation since Gen 5. Before that, you could Trace Flower Gift. Since that changeover, you can't Trace Flower Gift). Therefore, I believe it's an illegal primary ability for the same reason Forecast and Schooling are.
 
I want to speak against Sand Force a bit. It's a pretty underwhelming Ability, especially on a Pokemon that gets no STAB on Rock, Ground, or Steel moves. Ground is without a doubt the best attacking type of those moves, but I don't think having stronger Ground attacks is really that important for CAP24. Sand CAP24 would use Ground attacks to defeat Pokemon such as Heatran, Toxapex, Magearna, Magnezone, Mega Mawile, Volkraken, Mega Charizard X, Naviathan, and Crucibelle. Many of those Pokemon can be dispatched with an unboosted Earth Power or Earthquake coming off a reasonable attacking stat, and those that can't be generally aren't OHKO'd even by a boosted move. I guess Sand Force could aid in ensuring the 2HKO against Toxapex, but a 30% boost to one coverage move is really not all that great. It's not going to make Sand a must-use for CAP24. I really do think Sand Force is a trap here; we need a better Sand-abusing Ability than Sand Force.

Unless you believe CAP24 is going to run a 4-attack set or forego one of its STABs, all Sand Force can do is provide a moderate boost to one of its coverage moves. That really is not all that great.

I'm also not really sold on Drought. Sun's problem is the lack of abusers, not setters. And taking advantage of STAB Solar Blade or Solar Beam seems a bit silly after choosing a type that gets STAB on Power Whip or Leaf Storm, which are simply better moves than Solar Beam/Blade. I really think that CAP24 needs to use its Ability to take advantage of Sun after a setter such as Charizard Y, Malaconda, or even Sunny Day Tomohawk does its work. If we don't allow CAP24 to take advantage of the Sun through its ability, we are relying simply on movepool to get the job done. Chlorophyll is a really good choice here, although there are other Abilities that can let CAP24 take advantage of the Sun such as Solar Power or even Flash Fire.
 
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