CAP 25 - Part 2 - Concept Poll 2

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snake

snake

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It's time to get started on the starters!

This will be a Ranked Pairs vote (RP) (a form of voting where each candidate is ranked according to head to head matchups with each of its competitors in a directed acyclic graph), the details of which were discussed here.

This is a ranked vote: order does matter! You can upvote your favorites and downvote your least favorites. You may choose to rank as many or as few options as you like, but we encourage you to rank as many options as possible to ensure your preferences are taken into account.

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IMPORTANT: When voting, use only the name of the author! The list of possible votes include:

Deck Knight
Mr Holiday
Pipotchi

This poll will be open for 24 hours. The concept submissions are quoted below in order of submission.

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Astounding Ability Actualization

Deck Knight said:
  • Name - Astounding Ability Actualization
  • Description - These Pokemon each maximize the potential of their given, separate abilities by coordinating their movepools and that ability's competitive effect.
  • Justification - This is an Actualization concept much like Cyclohm's original "Neglected Ability." In my research on what made Pokemon with "Starter Level" stats effective, the common denominator was they all had abilities they used to full effect with their other competitive aspects. This framework gives us a unique opportunity to A-B test some fairly powerful abilities we usually shy away from and bring out an effective competitive starter trio.
  • Questions To Be Answered -
    • Which Abilities are best suited to a full, comprehensive exploration of their specific mechanics?
    • Why does Ability seem to be the common factor in taking "starter-esque" Pokemon into prominence (e.g. Protean and Battle Bond Greninja, Contrary Serperior, Speed Boost Blaziken to Ubers, etc.)
    • What is the threshold where maximizing an ability goes toi far, such as Blaziken's combination of Swords Dance, strong attack and mid-grade speed, and high BP STABS with Speed Boost or Protean Greninja's huge speed and just-varied enough movepool in prior Generations?
    • How will introducing three specialized Pokemon into the metagame at once impact it overall?
    • Which type combinations along with the starter types are best suited to maximizing the potential of a specific ability, and why?
  • Explanation - Competitive Pokemon has suffered from a massive power creep for a long time. In order for a Pokemon to be effective, not only does it have to be fairly good generally, it also can't be directly outclassed. Considering our Framework, our Pokemon are already competing against Heatran/Volcarona, Toxapex/Keldeo/Greninja, and Ferrothorn/Kartana for offensive or defensive roles. However, each of those Pokemon have their own flaws that give our FWG CAP Trio space to explore if we are focused on a key niche for each of them.

    Let's take Grass for example, and Tough Claws. Tough Claws boosts one of the most incredibly CAP-relevant moves, Grass Knot, because it is a special contact attack. Only Mega Metagross ever even came close to utilizing this combination, and Mega-Meta was banned (for other reasons, of course). Grass could also use it's huge number of healing options with Triage, including priority Strength Sap that even outruns Bullet Punch. Nearly every Fire attack has a secondary effect chance perfect for Serene Grace or Sheer Force. Water has a few specific moves that would also love Serene Grace, but would also appreciate breaking through Gastrodon and Mollux with Mold Breaker. Suffice it to say, this concept gives us an ability to meet our Framework demands and think through a huge combination of synergistic types and abilities in a single project.
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Once More, with Feeling!

Mr Holiday said:
Name: Once More, with Feeling!

Description: These CAPs would be designed to take ideas/concepts/gimmicks from past Pokemon, that either looked good on paper but didn't work in practice, or that just never worked in the first place, and revamp them into competitive viability.

Justification: This is largely a Target concept, focused on identifying Pokemon from the past that, for one reason or another, weren't able to cut it in the OU/CAP metagame and redoing the same underlying idea of that Pokemon in such a way that it could be competitively viable. This is not intended to "fix" bad Pokemon, so much as it is to find good ideas which were poorly executed in the past, and determine what, if anything, can be done to bring out the idea's full potential. This Concept can also fall under Actualization, by achieving the goals set by past Pokemon that were never fulfilled, ideally shedding light on what made them fail in the first place.

Questions to be Answered: Why did the selected Pokemon fail to make it in the OU/CAP metagame? Was their underlying idea or concept simply bad, or was it poorly executed? Are there simply some concepts, ideas or strategies that can never work in OU/CAP, or is it possible through the right combination of Stats, Typing, Moves and Abilities? Can these ideas be kept balanced while making them viable, or are they entirely broken when working properly? Is it worthwhile to pursue these failed ideas, or is it better to simply stick with the "accepted" norms of competitive Pokemon? If so, will this cause other, less "standardized" ideas and concepts to gain in popularity, or will the accepted norms always remain as such?

Explanation: Oftentimes in Pokemon, we have a Pokemon design that, on paper, looks to be perfectly viable and threatening, but when it's actually used in practice it can't quite live up to it's own hype. For example, when people first saw Rampardos and it's 165 base Attack, they assumed it would be a vastly powerful physical threat, one which every team would have to prepare for. However, when people actually started to use it, they found that Rampardo is plagued by a myriad number of problems (Less than ideal Stats, interesting but not very helpful Ability, etc.) that kept it from shining in the OU format. Other times, we have Pokemon that seem built for a very specific, if sometimes gimmicky, strategy, one which never gets used in OU. When I first saw Toxapex, with it's unique Ability in Merciless and varied ways of utilizing it, I immediately saw a strange kind of tank/wall breaker, using critical hits to plow through statistically superior foes. Competitive players, however, saw a wall with a useless main Ability. I think it would interesting, and potentially very informative, to see if ideas like these, that are considered to gimmicky, or that have been poorly executed, can be made viable in OU/CAP. With the special Framework of CAP 25, we can select 3 "failed" ideas of the past and see if they can be made viable.
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First Come, First Served

Pipotchi said:
Name- First Come, First Served

Description- Each pokemon will explore a different method of allowing your team to move first.

Justification- This is mostly an Archetype project, although the category exists in a more lateral way than most- the role of "speed control" (term I'll use to describe the ability to let your team move first) can manifest in many different ways and can be anything from fully supportive to fully defensive to maximum offense. To explore the contrast between all of these options will be interesting!

Questions-

-What are the most viable forms of speed control?
-What are the underused forms of speed control? What are their unique merits?
-How do opposing forms of speed control interact? Is there a pyramid or cyclic nature as to how different methods of speed beat each other?
-What is the importance of speed? What value is moving first for different team compositions?

Explanation-

Moving first has always been an important part of pokemon and has changed every generation- gen 1 was all about paralysis, gen 3 gave us abilities, gen 4 introduced the choice scarf sweeper, gen 5 gave the weather speed boost, gen6 came with powerful priority users and gen7 changed the game once again with Psychic Terrain. There is a complex and incredibly interesting relationship between methods of moving first and the battle for dominant speed control method over the generations should highlight that a little. Exploring that to find new and powerful strategies for the current metagame could be a very insightful project, and we might also be able to find a new strength in underused methods! The opportunity to explore something defensive (like prankster tomo), offensive (like scarf volkraken) or utility (like sticky web necturna) all in the same project will be very cool!
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