CAP 27 - Part 1 - Concept Submissions

[Wolf134]

Name: Toxic Terror

Description: This Pokemon either abuses the move Toxic to its fullest extent, and/or utilizes it in new and interesting ways.

Justification: This concept falls neatly into Actualization because it sets out to create a pokemon engineered to either abuse the move Toxic more effectively than any other to have come before it, use the same move in unconventional ways, maybe even both. Either route or both routes can be achieved through the means available at their disposal; movesets, typing, ability, etc.

Questions to be answered:

• How far can we take the move Toxic to its fullest potential?
• Alternatively, what new means with which Toxic can be used so as to set itself apart from other toxic users?

Explanation: Ever since gen 2 with the advent of the steel type, the poison type has been held back greatly with its respective moves being only strong against grass types, being resisted by the ghost, ground, rock, and other poison types, and flat-out ineffective against steel types. Although the poison type has been given somewhat of a reprieve with the fairy Type being a thing in gen 6 (and weak to poison and steel, by the way), and come gen 7, the ability Corrosion showed up with the Salandit line receiving it, the latter being not particularly strong in the defensive department. I myself would like to see the poison type elevated just a little bit higher than it presently is, with Toxic being pushed to its limits, and/or being used in ways rarely seen before, and I'm fine with either route being taken, though I don't mind both options being put up for consideration.

 

[Deck Knight]

Name: Asymmetric Warfare

Description: A Pokemon defined by moves that alter the usual mechanics (type effectiveness, stat used to calculate damage, etc.) of that move type to provide a unique threat in the CAP Metagame.

Justification: This is an Actualization concept because it explores the unique, extant mechanics that change the factors of appropriate switch-ins and effective strategies that can be employed against a threat. This concept discusses which of these unique mechanics are most relevant to the metagame, and what the ideal mix of them would be to create a truly unique threat.

Questions to be answered:

• Which of these unique moves are the most effective at addressing existing metagame threats, to the point access to them would substantially alter counterplay?
• What roles can be unlocked by focus on some of these unique moves that are not normally obtainable with "vanilla" moves?
• How impactful are unique moves in the toolbox of a Pokemon when assessing its threat level to and viability in the metagame?
• What other aspects of the Pokemon augment or detract from the effectiveness of these specialized moves?
• What aspects of teambuilding would change to address an asymmetric threat's addition to the metagame?

Explanation: Over many years, Pokemon has created a number of unique and strange moves that alter the usual move mechanics and create unique opportunities for exploration. Weather Ball was the first unique move of this kind, changing type based on Weather conditions. Foul Play and Psyshock were added next, the former using an opponent's own Attack stat against their Defense, and the latter being a special attack that targets Defense. Flying Press is a Fighting-type move that also considers Flying-type resistances and weaknesses in damage calculation, while Freeze-Dry turns bulky waters from a valid switch-in to Ice types to a liability, especially if their secondary type is also weak to Ice. In Generation 8, Body Press was added to these kind of moves as a physical move that calculates off the Defense rather than the Attack stat.
These examples are not exhaustive, and non-damaging moves which significantly alter matchup mechanics such as Forest's Curse/Magic Powder/Soak/Trick-or-Treat or Reflect Type or Topsy-Turvy would qualify. Basically, any move whose existence on a viable set requires altering strategic concerns beyond the usual "send in type-based check/counter and use STAB/set-up."
Taken individually, each of these would not form a coherent basis for a project, but the ability to mix and match them creates a Concept that would fit within CAP's parameters of not dictating too much at the outset. There are now a sufficient number of different move types, compatible abilities, and combined effects that a real discussion about prioritizing and analyzing any one or a combination of them can take place.

 

[cringycoot]

Name - Game Flexer
Description - Adjusting/changing the current metagame to be more unique or modern' by adding a pokemon that will make or influence the meta into being more flexible and varied.
Justification-I'll say that the concept falls in the ACTUALIZATION archetype. The concept, when either be used creatively or differently, will be itself or will inspire others, to get more creativity or flexibility in the metagame. Right now, there are not many mons that can function as more than 1 role well enough, with the obvious exception being Clefable ( a wall breaker / support - wishpass).
Questions To Be Answered :
-What are possible ways the Pokemon can make the metagame more flexible by itself ( roles it can function as)?
-What are possible ways the pokemon can make the metagame more flexible by inspiring the use of new mon / new ideas for current mons?
-How can we guarantee that the mon will be balanced - good ?
-What are possible ideas that can be good but are not fit in the current meta ?
-What counts as flexible/ creative ideas and what is Meme- ry / stupid ideas?
Explanation - All the top Pokemon in the CAP and normal meta right now have mostly 1 or 2 very basic movepools that only works with them, and only serve for a specific purpose. A good example is a very common mon in the meta - Corviknight. Corviknight is always being used as 2 things - either a defensive defogger or as a bulk up wincon. The first set is so simple and straight out, but is being used because of his rare access to defog, while the latter can have some variations, but is not as common since it can be stopped with much ease. This lack of flexibility and variety is new to the ou metagame, as ORAS and USUM had a lot of variety.

 

[lezzy cuttlefish]

Final Submission

Name: In Pursuit of Pseudosuit

Description: A pokemon capable of replicating the effect that the move pursuit had on prior generations.

Justification: This concept fits pretty cleanly into the Archetype category; there are no pursuit trappers in the meta, which has led to a proliferation of fast and frail attackers - most notably (and perhaps most obnoxiously) Dragapult. I, for one, miss the unique counterplay pursuit used to offer and would like to fill its empty shoes. Due to the way pursuit can change the meta by gating frail offense (especially of types weak to it) I'd argue that it's a Target concept as well; if we do our job right, CAP 27 ought to have the same impact as a pursuit trapper might. While we can't mechanically replicate pursuit, I think we could strategically replicate it if we could engineer matchups in which losing the pokemon is less punishing than switching out against CAP 27.

Questions to be answered:

• What exact roles does pursuit serve, and what exact effects does it have, both in a single battle and in the larger meta?
• How much of that can we replicate? What's the most important to replicate?
• How much is a pokemon worth?
• What attacking types work for this?
• What frail pokemon are a problem right now? Ie, who do we want to "trap"?
• What tools exist to punish switching?
• Which of these tools could actually replicate the strategies & situations pursuit creates?
• Is priority/speed (ie moving first) integral to the functions pursuit serves?

Explanation:

So, the easiest way to do this (and also the least interesting) is massive offensive pressure, probably on a slow pokemon with good resistances; it's better to get chip than it is to switch out and take a hammering. This is also the least interesting route however, and the primary criticism leveled against this concept is that that's not all that fun! So I'm going to detail a few different methods below;

1: Decent but not stellar offense, largely unresisted stabs, and the ability stakeout. This functions pretty clearly, and punishes the switch in a very clear way.

2: The new fossil moves proc on the switch, so they're kinda like move stakeout! The issue here remains the move type, but could hypothetically be sidestepped with normalize... And support from option three;

3: Knock off! It's a little more of a soft punish than the other options, but there's a lot of pokemon that do not especially like losing their item. I see knock off as best as part of a switch punish "package"; it punishes certain pokemon for switching in, and we can back it up with other options.

4: Status! A slow pokemon with access to spore/glare (maybe both, to avoid immunity) puts your opponent in a tough spot where it can be better to sac whatever's in rather than get something disabled - especially if the pokemon is rather slow and has clear checks.... Which it can only beat if they're asleep or paralyzed.

5 - Pivoting! This one is the weirdest possible tool I've been able to think of, and somewhere else that normalize can be oddly useful. The idea goes like this; the "trapper" hits a pivot move. If the opponent stays in and sacrifices the "trapped" pokemon, the player with the "trapper" selects what pokemon to send out first, and the player who got "trapped" gets to pick what to send in against it. But if the "trapped" player switches, the one who clicked u-turn gets to choose second! The difference here is tempo, and it's again pretty soft; but it's a tool worth keeping in mind and I think it could be a valuable one.

There could be a few other mechanics I didn't think of, too. But, regardless; the possibilities here are not quite so restricted as they seem at first glance!

 

[Scizivire]

Final Submission

Name: Reverse Min-Maxing

Description: This Pokémon has one or more extreme base stats that it does not invest into to perform its intended role(s).

Justification: This concept would fall under the Actualization category, because it allows us to explore the relevance of raw base stats on the metagame, and their importance towards fulfilling specific roles. It might also teach us the bare minimum a Pokémon might need to perform specific roles in the OU metagame. Both now and in the past, there have been multiple Pokémon that don't want to invest into their highest base stat, most notably Cloyster serving as a setup sweeper despite its massive Defense stat.

Questions to be answered:

• At which point can we define a base stat as 'extreme'?
• Which base stats have more impact on any given matchup, and which have lesser impact?
• Which roles on a team are more dependant on base stats?
• How can we prevent a Pokémon from wanting to invest into the chosen base stat(s)?

Explanation: Basically, this concept aims to create a Pokémon which has one or more stats that are significantly higher than the average base stat across a given spread of Pokémon (let's say, all Pokémon currently in OU), but does not want to invest in the base stat to perform its given role in battle. Several official Pokémon already follow a similar EV investment pattern. I think the prime example is Cloyster, who despite having a whopping base 180 Defense stat usually does not invest into it, because it wants to allocate EVs into Speed and Attack to perform its role as setup sweeper better. This does not mean it does not use its Defense stat at all, because even uninvested it has a much easier time setting up Shell Smash against physically oriented opponents. Another notable Pokémon that tends to never invest into their highest stat is Stakataka. There are also Pokémon that do not invest into their highest stat only when performing specific roles, such as offensive Goodra and defensive Mega Garchomp in the past.

I think we can learn a lot about how uninvested base stats can impact the metagame from this concept, though the stats stage might become a bit messy!

 

[Snorlax in the way]

Name - A Coat of Many Colors
Description - A Pokemon that takes advantage of multiple resist berries.
Justification - This concept falls under the category of Actualization and Target. This concept is an apparatus of the latter as it addresses the idea of incentivizing items in not only the SWSH metagame, but in any given metagame. In particular, the lessons of incentivization are something that CAP has deal with before when learning to incentivize moves in previous projects, but item incentivization requires a particular skill with which CAP has not wrestled. The concept also hearkens back to an older role in far off metagames, where a Pokemon utilizing these berries to accomplish its goal was much more common. This Pokemon would be able to viably use several of the available resist berries to fill its role on any given team. Multiple resist berries would allow CAP to explore an idea synonymous with older generations and see how well it applies to the newest metagame, while also exploring the lesson of item incentivization to apply in future projects.

Questions To Be Answered:

• Compared to older generations, do the resist berries help this Pokemon perform its role as well or better than it would have otherwise?
• Can particular items be dissuaded with the purposeful implementation of others?
• Can similar principles of incentivizing moves apply to incentivizing items?
• It is possible to incentivize multiple berries effectively without diminishing the importance of one over another?
• Does the option of other viable resist berries change up the move types that are used to attack this Pokemon?
• Has the role a Pokemon with this item performs changed due to generational shifts?
• How does the purposeful implementation of the multiple resist berries compare in effectiveness to other viable items used for the Pokemon with similar roles?

Explanation -

This is a concept I have proposed before, but it has been updated to address a particular question that I surely hope others in CAP are willing to explore. The community has effectively incentivized certain moves in Pajantom's Spirit Shackle and in Equilibra's Doom Desire, and particularly with the latter was able to remove all worry that one of our projects will be burdened with ineffectiveness due to a move considered in every other account to be dead weight. Equilibra firmly got rid of the myth that a project can be perpetually burdened by its concept, as with the correct statline, anything seems to be possible with this community, and I certainly applaud the community's determination and ability to see these projects through in ways not previously seen feasible. In a way, that is why I propose this challenge; I see it as an essential piece in the mastery of Pokemon creation. The community has optimized stats, and it has learned to incentivize moves through the varying principles discovered during the aforementioned projects, and I think the realm of the item in particular is the direction to go. I chose resist berries for the particular nature of the item; once very popular, it has fallen out of favor for the "optimal" rotation of items, which I will not go into detail explaining, as surely many come to mind when I say this. The fact that they were viable, and of course not some throwaway item never to be used, leads me to believe that it can inherently be incentivized, which leads back to the proposition stated earlier. I believe resist berries present an opportunity to learn a valuable lesson in Pokemon creation with that lesson how to incentivize certain items over others in creation as opposed to simply reacting to the after effects during the beginning phases of any particular metagame. This concept particularly calls for multiple resist berries, which allows not only for unique combinations, but also allows for a double layering of potential to not only teach item incentivization but also to illustrate the evolution of what I would particular coin a lost role.

 

[Mx]

Name: Aftermath

Description: This Pokemon is able to leave a lasting impact on the game after fainting.

Justification: This is an Actualization concept. There are many ways in which one can influence a battle even after leaving the field, entry hazards can continue to wear down foes, weather and terrains will still be in effect for a few more key turns, and powerful attacks can leave exploitable holes on a team. Many powerful moves also cause directly or indirectly the user to faint, like Healing Wish, Memento, Destiny Bond, and Steel Beam. Despite all these existing elements, only very few cases exist where losing one of your own teammate is worth it, as most of the time one would much rather have their Pokemon live so that they can continue to provide support later. This concept tries to examine in which cases sacrificing one of your own Pokemon is worth it and how it can influence the game.

Questions:

• How much can we influence the game after we faint?
• What moves and abilities can ensure that our presence is felt even after we faint?
• At which point in the game would be optimal for us to faint?
• On which team archetypes can a Pokemon like this fit?
• Should this Pokemon be primarily offensive, defensive, or a mixture of both?
• What kind of payoff can justify losing one of your own Pokemon?
• If our payoff is high, what counterplay should the opponent have?

Explanation: As many of you probably already noticed, this concept takes a lot of inspiration from Plasmanta's concept. Despite the fact that something so similar has already been done for a past project, I still think there is a lot of things that can be learned here, as Plasmanta primarily tried to dissuade our opponent from making us faint. Instead of that, here we would be focusing exclusively on our impact after fainting. With this change, we should have more practical ways to accomplish our goal, as many moves and abilities can support a team without being directly on the field.

 

[G-Luke]

Name - Landorus-T 2: Centralizing Boogaloo
Description - A Pokemon who causes healthy centralization around it by viably performing differing multiple roles within a metagame.
Justification - This falls under the Actualization category, as the conceprt wishes to reimagine the presense performed by a formerly existing Pokemon, within the context of the present SwSh metagame.
Questions To Be Answered -

• 1) What does it mean to be centralizing in a Pokémon metagame?
• 2) What combination of tools did Landorus-T possess to achieve its level of presense in the metagame? How can these be applied to CAP 27 within the confines of SwSh?
• 3) What steps should be taken to prevent the CAP from being overcentraling? Should these be options like a wide variety of checks and counters? Preestablished limitations? Or a combination of the two?
• 4) What kind of roles should CAP 27 fill in the current metagame? Should it aim to fill Landorus-T's shoes, or should it tackle different opportunities while still carrying the spirit of having a wide impact on the metagame?

Explanation - Landorus-T has been a big threat since its inception in B2W2. In Generation 6 it had a multitude of differing sets that performed different roles from being a defensive pivot to a Wallbreaker to a Hazard Lead to a solid revengekiller. With CAP fully splitting off from OU, now is the time to grasp this opportunity to create this metagame's own version of Landorus, and truly explore what it means to be a top metagame threat. This is a character study of two Pokemon - the pragmatic Landoge of doom, and the beginnings of CAP 27.

 

[Sereg]

• Name - Ability Role Reversal
• Description - A Pokémon that uses an ability that is usually considered defensive in an offensive manner, or an an ability that is usually considered offensive in a defensive capacity.
• Justification- I see this as mainly an Archetype concept, but you could also say it has a bit of Actualization in it as well.
  • Actualization: This is a Pokémon that discourages the stereotypes of how abilities should be used in the metagame and encourages the metagame to adapt to and look for threats that are presented in an unusual way. Examples of Pokémon that do something similar to this already are contrary shell smash shuckle and life orb magic guard clefable and krillowatt. Crucibelle used to use Head Smash Regenerator to act as an offensive pivot as well. High-Jump Kick Regenerator Mienshao works similarly. Crobat has also used Infiltrator in SMNU to spread status through subs instead of for offensive purposes. Sylveon uses pixilate hyper voice to get through offensive Mons' subs
  • Archetype: This is a Pokémon that performs a role very different from the one associated with its ability. This results in an unusual way of fulfilling its role that is less easily replicated, thus fulfilling an unusual niche or a common niche in an unusual way, encouraging creativity.
• Questions To Be Answered -
• 1) What makes an ability suited to a specific role or style of play?
• 2) What circumstances change the best way for an ability to be used?
• 3) What potential do abilities posses to fulfill roles they have yet to be used for?
• 4) How can abilities be used in ways that are less obvious from what immediately presents itself?
• 5) Does finding a new use for an ability encourage different approaches to countering it?
• Explanation - I love it when CAP finds unusual ways to play with the tools Game Freak has given us. I also think that there are a lot of interesting abilities out there that have unexplored potential.
• 
  
• I also think it would be good for us to examine and re-evaluate what really makes a tool offensive or defensive. I have deliberately left this rather open ended to allow many possible ways of tackling this problem.
• 
  
• If Protean was allowed, it could be used on a wall to adjust its resistances and immunities to appropriately counter its target. I have already mentioned contrary's defensive potential. Unaware could ignore defensive boosts on a wall breaker. Stamina could go on a bulky attacker with body press, power trip and/or stored power. Adaptability, Pinch abilities, Iron Fist Tinted Lens or Fairy Aura could also boost draining moves for walling purposes. -Ate abilities can prevent spinblocking as was considered for Caribolt and they also boost sound moves which tanks use to get past offensive Mons behind substitutes. Walls could use Speed Boost, Sand Rush, Surge Surfer, Swift Swim, Chlorophyll, Unburden or Slush Rush to gain the speed needed to be proactive in their use of status moves. Grassy Surge could be used to weaken earthquakes and provide healing instead of boosting grass attacks. Corrosion could be combined with Hex or Poison Heal with Facade for wallbreaking. Harvest could be combined with Fling and/or Belch to make those attacks more reliable and spammable. No Guard could prevent status moves from missing. Parental Bond could be used for status spreading. Water Bbble could be used entirely to protect from fire. Regenerator could boost Water Spout and Eruption. Normalize Thunder Wave could be used to paralyse ground types.
• 
  
• I know that some of these ideas are illegal and some would be less viable, but this is just meant to show the kind of diversity in ideas that are possible. I think that people will come up with many interesting options, we will learn a lot more about the potential abilities posses and we will end up with a fun and unusual Pokémon.

 

[Voltage]

Alright, let's comment on a couple of these now that we've got a good two pages of them. I'll refrain from commenting on my own because I'm biased, but I think there are things I can say about a few in particular that caught my eye (for positive and negative reasons)

Hail Yeah: I think that centralizing around a weather very much limits us in terms of our choice of type or ability. Obviously this isn't our fault though, Hail is criminally weaker than Sun, Rain and Sand since there's very few useful additional boosts. All the same, I think if we lock ourselves into using specifically Hail, we really limit the amount of options we can have to make this an effective CAP. If we don't pick an Ice typing, we're limiting ourselves to an ability like Slush Rush or Ice Body, which then implies movepool. I'm not super for this concept.

Terrain-O-Saurus: Since Mova asked so kindly, I figured I'd give my thoughts here. Similarly to Hail Yeah, I worry about locking ourselves down too soon, but unlike Hail Yeah, I think the concept allows fora little bit of freedom with typings and moves. This concept doesn't require our mon to be Electric/Grass/Psychic/Fairy (though it does help)or to explcitly have an ability that benefits/sets terrain. Furthermore, I think having to build a mon that can function or change under different terrain is cool (Galarian Stunfisk, eat your heart out). Given the lack of prominence of terrains this gen, I would be curious to see how this would impact the meta. That said, another concern is that if this CAP is entirely dependent on Terrains to be successful, we absolutely have to consider this CAP when terrain isn't up, and considering that we may have to wait a while for DLC metas I almost wonder if this would've been a better suggestion last gen? IDK. I' mstill torn on this one.

Tempo: It was brought up in Discord, but I feel like we almost in a sense investigated this indirectly with Equilibra. Essentially the turn efficiency boiled down to using Doom Desire in a way that allowed the player to gain a notable amount of momentum on the knock out. that also applied with regaining tempo too. I'm not necessarily saying this is a bad concept, I actually really like it, I just think it's a little too soon after Equilibra for me to be totally on board with it. Of course, if it does get chosen, I think it could be fun.

Fragile Fighter: This feels like a glass cannon and it's something I feel like CAP hasn't explored much recently. What I'm not exactly excited about is the idea that no matter the situation, when this mon comes it, it makes a difference. It just feels very dangerous tying to meet all the set expectations. I think to Pokemon like Dugtrio for example, which is an obviously extreme example. Perhaps a more muted example would be Dracovish actually since the mon has trouble coming in, but really punishes any switches making a true lasting impact. I would need to be convinced that this mon wouldn't be immediately dangerous for the metagame.

Juggernaut/Passive Aggressive: I'm a little biased, but I'm really not about move-centered concepts just because we just finished one with Equilibra. This concept also really puts us down the path of "defensemon" right out of the gate imo., which isn't a bad things considering there are a couple new toys for more defensive pokemon this gen. And while I really like the idea of creating a CAP that can boost its defense one way or another (especially bc I'm a slut sucker for Body Press Kommo-o), I'm just VERY wary on a move based concept. Since the concept focuses mostly on moves and not necessarily ANY means of boosting defenses, I'd rank this one a little lower on my voting list, but I'd still put it on there.

The Good Ol' Switcheroo: I love the concept, but like Juggernaut/Passive Aggressive, I feel like it may be too soon to focus on a move-based concept. But damn do I like the idea.

Stalemate: If you want to make a mon that will effectively centralize the meta around itself, this is your concept. Unless you can say that this mon won't be some metagame defining menace, this is quite frankly a really dangerous concept. Being able to check/counter yourself still may force you to run this mon. And also there's the fact that Equilibra essentially already does this and we know how much everyone loves Equilibra.

Role-Switching It Up: I tend to like the play-style mechanic concepts and I think this is a really freaking cool one. Being able to make a CAP that capitalizes one where they're playing (early-game, mid-game, or late game) is something I think could really be explored. It might be a little difficult in preliminary stages though and I think if this were chosen, we would have to really nail it down. It almost feels a little too abstract sometimes, but eh, that's something we can mange with further rounds too. the examples you've given are all really good too (though again, I'm biased because I've played all three and I know how potent they can be), so I'm excited to see what we could do with this concept.

Set Customization: This is a dangerous concept IMO. While some of the skill playing against this CAP might come from being able to identify its set based on its teammates, that still doesn't make the idea of it any less menacing. I think back to Landorus-T in a fairly recent Gen. It theory, you could be running Scarf, Flynium-Z, Helmet, Lefties, and even Band, and most of the time it was quite difficult to determine what your opponent was running just by Team Preview. Same goes with Aegislash in OU now with HOME being released. You have Aegislash running two different choice sets, Swords Dance, Sub Toxic and probably some other garbage I don't want to think about. Sure it could be neat to do this for one or two things, but I think the whole "How would this CAP encourage scenarios where it doesn’t want to run one single “best set”?" really concerns me.

Toxic Terror: Maybe I'm closed minded about the idea of poisoning Pokemon, but I really cannot think of a good way to find a new use for Toxic. Toxic has always been a stupidly good move and I honestly think it would be hard to get it much higher than Corrosion + super defensive mon.

That's all I've got for now. I need to get back to studying since somehow I lost a fuck ton of points on a homework assignment and I literally have no clue why since there's no markings on the copy I got back. I'll probably post more later this weekend. voltage out

 

[Atha]

In this post I will give my feedback on what was proposed so far. I know I'm nothing of a veteran of CAP, actually I wasn't involved in any CAP project before this one, but I play this tier enough to the point where my opinion has some value.
First of all, I have to say that I feel like almost any idea, if it leads to a well driven project, can give an interesting and balanced Pokemon (sorry if I repeat the word "interesting" 92983 times in this post). With that in mind, the quality of a proposition entirely relies on how interesting it can be to drive, and on how many possibilities it offers. Originality is obviously welcome. I will use some colours so it's easier to read :
I love it / Looks ok / I don't like it

Idea Amender - This one is very interesting. Some past projects could definetly be rebooted. The comparison between the two results would also be interesting.

Hail Yeah - Kinda restricting, not very original, but it works.

Trickster Cleric - This one isn't that original, but it's hella interesting, so I'm down for it.

The Aftermath is Secondary - Eh... I find it a bit restricting, and definetly not too attractive.

Terrain-O-Saurus - Cool one. Kinda restricting, but not to the point where I can predict what it's gonna be.

Tempo - This one is very interesting, but I find it a bit blurry... I mean any good mon comes with tempo in one way or another. Exploring that is interesting, but it's doable through some other concept.

Comeback King - Just can't see how this can work. How can a Poke be good at making a comeback, and less good at just sweep

Fragile Fighter - Too blurry, not that interesting and original.

Break the Monotony - Worse Centralizing Boogaloo. Tell me if I'm wrong, as for all the rest.

Inoffensive - Overabundance of offense ? We're not playing the same game sir.

Compare and Contrast : A Monotype Story - Nope.

Juggernaut - I don't think defense boosting moves can be interesting in any way.

The Good Ol' Switcheroo - Trick is already used more than it has ever been. This concept would be interesting in another meta, but it lacks originality and potential in the current one.

Up and Down you go - Good one. Not the most interesting though.

Contrast is Key - Same. I prefer this one.

Item Acclimation - Is that legal ? We can't create items, and we would probably need to create an ability anyway so...

Customizable Core Crusher - If we can make this one work it could be beautiful. I just hope we can find something else than absurd coverage.

Item-Based Roles - I really don't see how this can work. Not the most interesting anyway.

Stalemate - This one needs to be very centralizing in order to work. That said, and as for Break the Monotony, I prefer Centralizing Boogaloo. I don't think making a mon that is checked by itself is interesting if we mostly focus on that aspect.

Role-Switching it up - I love the idea. Hard to pull off though.

Set Customization - Very similar to Contrast is Key. Interesting, and not very original.

Keep it Simple, Stupid - Illegal

Role Call - If we're going that way, I just prefer Centralizing Boogaloo ; which is the exact same thing but it assumes what it aims to do.

Toxic Terror - Very restricting, not too interesting.

Asymmetric Warfware - I don't know what to think of this one. It's probably the most interesting and fancy, but at the same time it's pretty damn restricting. I will put it golden, but I might change it to blue as the debate goes on.

Game Flexer - Very similar to a lot of other concepts. Same answer : I prefer Centralizing Boogaloo (although the idea is the same ; the post is worse).

In Pursuit of Pseudosuit - The idea is actually good, but bro, trapping has shown many times to be unhealthy for any meta...

Reverse Min-Maxing - With all the concepts that were proposed before, this one just seems uninteresting, even if it could lead to a good project.

A Coat of Many Colors - Good one, although overwhelmed by some others.

Aftermath - This one would be golden if I could see ways to make it work, but I can't.

Centralizing Boogaloo - This one is my favourite even if it's anything but original. The current metagame needs a bit of an earthquake I feel like, and a second Lando-T would do the job (pun intended).

Ability Role Reversal - Good one, not transcendent.

 

[Jho]

Finally have a little bit of time this week to go over and give my reactions to some of these. From reading over the thread the last few days I have to say I am shocked at the amount of really great concepts people have been submitted! I think the vast majority of these have potential and while I likely wont get to them all in this post, I will try and cover some of my favourites so far, as well as some that I think are really interesting but are maybe in need of some more expansive explanations or ones that seem interesting but that I have reservations of the implementations of.

Idea Amender
So I really like the idea of going back and using what we've learnt in order to try our hand at a previously done CAP concept, but with more experienced eyes. CAP itself is a learning process, but we oftentimes never put what we have learned from the interesting concepts we follow into practice and I feel this concept would be one way to do something like that. However, that does mean that this concept would be less about learning and more about implementing what we have already learned from the previous CAP whose concept we are revisiting. At its core, I think this concept is similar to another one in this thread that looks to explore a Pokemon which can stand the test of generational shifts - I do however prefer this implementation of that core idea. I will also echo a common reservation about this concept which is that it would turn the Concept Assessment stage into essentially another Concept Submission stage, where all previous CAP concepts are slated - which we could work with but I think is less than ideal.

Offensive Team Support
I realise this is a fairly broad idea that has many avenues which we could explore but reading through the explanations and questions, I cannot help but draw parallels to two very common Pokemon in the current metagame: Jumbao and Clefable. Both fulfil, or can fulfil, the offensive portion of the concept as we have seen recently, but both can also provide team support in the form of Healing Wish and Wish for Jumbao, and Wish, Thunder Wave, and Heal Bell for Clefable. Both of these Pokemon have even been known to utilise sets which can accomplish both at the same time. I do believe there are ways to explore this concept that would lead us to a different result to how Clefable and Jumbao are utilised but I share the sentiment expressed in the questions portion of this concept that many could be "too cheesy". I think if we were to do this concept, we would have to identify a way to accomplish it that separates it from these other Pokemon very early, and very definitively as to avoid being gimmicky.

The Good Ol' Switcheroo
I really, really like this concept. Throughout Generation 8 so far, one of the biggest differences that I have seen has been the different uses for Trick / Switcheroo. In past Generations, these moves mainly seemed to be used as a filler fourth move for Choiced Pokemon which allowed them to cripple defensive answers and had very little other competitive uses. However, in Generation 8 already we have seen tournament usage of Trick with items such as Sticky Barb and Ring Target in order to alter key matchups, as well as Obstagoon using Switcheroo with its Flame Orb. Surprisingly I think there is a great amount of diversity to explore with this concept. I feel like the Concept submission may have over analysed it a touch but I dont think its to the point where it would degrade the quality of a process around this concept.

Role-Switching It Up
Another one that I really like. Pokemon which can perform multiples roles throughout the course of a game are generally Pokemon which are very sought after within a metagame, as alluded to in the post as it mentions Rotom-H and CM Clefable as examples. Exploring what makes this so important and the balance of implementing such a split could make for a very interesting process in my opinion. One reservation that I do have is that most Pokemon that come to mind when I try to think of ones that fit this concept, tend to be Bulky Pokemon with set-up options which could put us into a bit of a corner throughout the process unless we think of other ways to implement such an interaction. Very interesting concept that I think we could actually learn a lot from.

Asymmetric Warfare
I quite like this concept, mostly because I am a sucker for moves such as Trick-or-Treat and Forest's Curse which can mess with opponents typings. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much there would be to explore with a Move such as Body Press which would fall under the scope of this concept. I think the success of this concept would be dependant on which move (or type of unusual moves) we chose to explore, as moves such as Soak, Forest's Curse, Trick-or-Treat etc are fairly underexplored whereas moves such as Flying Press, Body Press, Psyshock/strike are all fairly straightforward and wouldn't offer much in terms of learning in my opinion.

In Pursuit of Pseudosuit
This concept is super interesting in that it aims to explore how to best replace something which was lost in the generational shift, which I love. I do think there is quite a shallow pool available to us in terms of ways we could recreate the lose/lose situations that Pursuit offered, but the fundamental ideas behind Pursuit, which I believe to be forcing the opponent to suboptimally play around switching, is something that could be explored a bit further in this new generation


I plan on doing another of these posts covering the concepts I missed over the weekend in the final few days of submissions, In the meantime, both Atha's and Voltage's posts above offer some insight and feedback into concepts I didn't manage to cover in this post. I am really liking how many submissions we have got so far and hope to see more over the weekend, there are honestly so many good ones this time around!

 

[snake]

Final Submission

Name: One-Hit Wonder

Description: This Pokemon has one reliable and strong move to deal damage, but otherwise it has to rely on a) significantly weaker coverage options, b) utility options and/or c) team support options to circumvent its checks and counters and to make it worthwhile using.

Justification: One-Hit Wonder is an Actualization concept, and the CAP should be known for using the chosen powerful move. This idea may not have been too well-explored before Generation 8, but in Sword and Shield, Dracovish, Dracozolt, Arctovish, and Arctozolt have access to Fishious Rend and Bolt Beak, which would all fit the concept very well. As such, we can see how some of these Pokemon can be very successful with the powerful move (Dracovish is firmly OU, Dracozolt is UUBL) and how some of these are not (Arctovish and Arctozolt have fallen far). Thus, a Pokemon that simply has an extremely strong move isn't necessarily good. A bigger challenge is to limit the CAP's coverage movepool such that it relies heavily on its chosen move - this CAP ideally shouldn't have coverage options that approach the power of its super powerful move.

Some other examples would be:

• Tapu Koko's Thunderbolt (in Generation 7)
• Melmetal's Double Iron Bash (although Melmetal has a sufficiently large and powerful coverage movepool too)
• Obstagoon's Facade
• OU/CAP Specially Defensive Centiskorch's Fire Lash
• Silvally's Multi-Attack
• Araquanid's Liquidation (supported by Water Bubble, yes)
• Tsareena's Power Whip
• Tornadus-T's Hurricane (in Generation 7)
• Assault Vest Magearna's Fleur Cannon (in Generation 7)

Note that this concept does not necessarily mandate that this Pokemon be an offensive juggernaut. The only requirement is that it has ONE main offensive move that is much more powerful than the rest of its arsenal of damaging moves. Tapu Koko is a fantastic example of this concept, as its Thunderbolt was threatening, but it had to rely on Hidden Power Ice most of the time to compliment it, and that was not a strong move against Pokemon that aren't 4x weak to it. Tornadus-T relied mostly on Hurricane, but it utilized team support options to become the dominant force it was in Generation 7. When Assault Vest Magearna was used for its defensive capabilities, Fleur Cannon's high base power compensated for a lack of Special Attack investment.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What types of Pokemon are best at using a singular, powerful move while bringing other benefits to its team?
• Does this Pokemon need coverage to complement its powerful move? What is the weakest (but meaningful) coverage we can provide it that makes it worth using? Can it rely more on utility and team support to be effective?
• How offensive does the Pokemon need to be to make it worth using its one move without centralizing the metagame?
• Will this Pokemon be added to teams because its move does a lot of damage? Or will it be added to teams for other reasons (positioning, utility, checking certain threats, etc.), with its primary damaging move giving it the offensive pressure needed to achieve other goals?

Explanation: For the record, I don't want to make another Dracovish, where its a CAP that centralizes the metagame around itself. Instead, I just want to see the creation process of a Pokemon that has to rely heavily on one move in particular. I think this leaves a lot of room for an offensive CAP (something closer to Dracozolt in terms of balance rather than Dracovish), a more utility based CAP (something like Tapu Koko or Tornadus-T in Generation 7), or even a defensive Pokemon (like specially defensive Centiskorch who uses Fire Lash for offensive pressure).

Again, if we choose to go with the weaker coverage options, I think it'd be more interesting to actually go much weaker than the most powerful move. I'll reiterate the difference between (Generation 7) Tapu Koko's Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Ice. If you weren't hitting Garchomp or Landorus-T, Hidden Power Ice wasn't doing much damage. Contrast this with Dracovish's Strong Jaw-boosted Psychic Fangs and Crunch - those are still pretty strong moves.

As for some moves I think would fit this concept well, Bolt Beak would be an obvious way to take the concept. Leaving Fishious Rend alone may be a good idea, though. Multi-Attack would be really interesting too. To be clear about the mechanics: RKS System changes Silvally's type based on its memory, while the memory itself changes Multi-Attack's type. So, this CAP could take Multi-Attack and sacrifice its item slot (very important!) to essentially have its one strong move be a 120 BP physical Hidden Power. Another I can see would be utilizing the the Terrain Surge to boost the power of Grass / Electric / Psychic moves similar to Generation 7's Tapu Koko. Stat-lowering moves like Fire Lash, Grav Apple, and Apple Acid can get dangerous quickly too with stat drops. Finally, we can always go with reliable, high BP moves like Brave Bird, Close Combat, or Flare Blitz, perhaps with the aid of abilities like Adaptability.

P.S. yes Jordy I know Assault Vest Magearna is bad

 

[Cuddly]

Name: The No-True-Scotsman

Description: A Pokemon that takes the tools (types, abilities, items, ect.) commonly seen in one archetype, and will use those tools to aid itself in a different archetype.

Justification: The purpose of this CAPmon is to help explore more creative ways of set construction, team-building, and ways of thinking about competitive Pokemon as a whole. With Gen 8’s limited roster, there are obviously less options for team selection, and despite the promise of a more diverse meta, 4 Pokemon alone have more usage than Landorus-T in Gen 7. While this CAP will shake up the CAP meta by itself, it hopefully will create a new way of thinking about certain tools, preferably with the newer tools.

Questions to be Answered:
-What ultimately will people be saying about this way of thinking if this CAP is successful?
-How will the selected tool(s) change how people think about said tools?
-Will this influence some Pokemon to take a different approach to play a different role?
-Could some previously unviable Pokemon become viable after this philosophy?

Explanation: This idea was partly inspired about some Team Fortress 2 (which fittingly enough also has a Scotsman) videos I watched, especially a video about the Gunslinger that the Engineer can equip for his melee. The video gives a brief overview of the weapon, what it does, and how it affects the meta. Essentially, it provides the Engineer with a whole new Subclass that changes the Engi into being much more aggressive. This drastic change of play style can be attributed partly by the health increase, which is seen as a defensive attribute. Also, the other benefit of the Gunslinger is having a faster sentry build speed with more efficient sentries, which would be seen as offensive.
In twist, the extra health actually helped the Engineer offensively as the amount of hits he can tank allowed him to do more damage, and the Mini sentries would also be a threat to an enemy, which would force the enemy to shoot at the mini sentries instead of the Engineer himself, giving a more defensive role. I should mention that there are also other Subclasses, such as the Demoknight, but the Gunslinger approach is more subtle and subverts your expectations.
I also want to give another shoutout to reflect type Starmie back in previous Gens, since that set also was surprising to see.

 

[Orig Stall Guy]

First up, let me say that every submission here is really solid and quite creative. I tried drafting up one of these and it sucked. Since I play a bit of fighting games, I wanted to try and translate a fighting game archetype into Pokemon which the main idea being to create the Pokemon version of a mixup character. So instead, Im going to give my thoughts on some of these submissions that I really like and support, as well as ideas that I like but have reservations about.

My Favorite Submissions:
Idea Amender: Awesome idea. Some of the CAP Pokemon don't really follow through on their concept as the generations went on (looking at you Voodoom) so the idea of re-evaluating a previous CAP and giving the idea a retrain would be interesting. Yugioh does that with a lot of old archetypes and it would be a great learning experience. CAP is constantly evolving and while creating new stuff is always fun, going back to the old can be fun to.

Trickster Cleric: Like the idea of referring to the D&D cleric class instead of Pokemon usually considers a cleric. We actually have the potential for offensive clerics in CAP, but they don't really work. For example, Kerfluffle and Kistunoh learn Wish and have high speed+solid offensive stats but no one runs Wish on them. But there are some Pokemon like Jumbao would fit Healing Wish on their sets. Or you do what Grimmsnarl does. Either way, a very interesting idea and there are a lot of potential routes to run with.

The No-True-Scotsman: One of the other concepts I had was taking a archetype and flipping it on its head, so this concept gets my support.

Role-Switching It Up: Has some overlap with The No-True Scotsman so this caught my interest. There is a lot to learn about how to make a Pokemon super versatile and be able to do multiple roles without creating a Master of All kind of Pokemon or another Rotom-H or Clef.

Ideas Im on the fence about:

Customisable Core Crusher: On the one hand, I like this idea. But it seems hard to work out. Also, there is an issue that like Voodoom, the concept would not last as the generations go on. If the core crusher focused on crushing a core of CAP only Pokemon then I would like this idea a lot more.

Landorus-T 2: Centralizing Boogaloo: Centralizing metagames always raises a red flag to me. Because an over centralized meta is a stale and boring meta. Yes Im aware of how some people considering Landrous-Therian to be a healthy case of overcentralizing, but there is a lot of delicacy that needs to be done with this one. The other thing is that DLC is coming out to SwSh soon which will expand the pokedex again so even if we go through with this CAP, its centralization could be rendered moot by the changes in the meta that the DLC will likely cause. After the DLC comes out and we have a chance to see how the post DLC meta shapes up, I would reconsider this concept.

The Good Ol' Switcheroo: There is a lot of analysis here which I appreciate a lot. Trick/switcheroo are great moves that can be used to cripple certain Pokemon. My main issue is that 99% of the time, your tricking choice items which is okay, but I really want to see a Pokemon who is good at tricking non-choice items.

A Coat of Many Colors: Great throwback. I remember the days of Yache Berry Chomp in OU and using the super effective berries, but how would you incentivize the Pokemon to use multiple berries? And how to make the 1 hit wonder of those berries work? I lack imagination on this one.

Inoffensive: Im partially biased towards this one (as my name can imply), but this seems way to vague and can lead to an over centralized meta. Just replace being overcentralzied around a couple of Pokemon, with nearly everyone running stall or semi-stall teams. I love my stall and semi-stall teams but still.

 

[MrDollSteak]

I've been wanting to share some of my thoughts on the concepts for a while now but finally have the time! Massive shout out to everyone else who's been offering feedback, it's great to see such positivity and excitement during this stage! I'm going to try and cover all of them at some stage, but will be starting in chronological order.

Idea Amender
I'm not opposed to this idea per se, but agree with some of the comments that I've seen in this thread around the idea of Concept Assessment becoming about picking the actual concept to execute. This isn't necessarily a problem and could lead to good discussion, but I worry that it may slow the process down quite a bit.

Hail Yeah
I'm not a massive fan of this concept solely for the reason that Hail is in such a dire place it needs more than one Pokemon to make it viable. Currently there are no really viable Hail setters, Alolatales is passable but really not that ideal, but there are also no major Hail abusers either. Maybe when the Slush Rush fossils are released that could be a different story. At this stage I think trying to go in either direction will just lead to disappointment and unviability. As far as making an independent Hail setter that is a threat because of its own Hail, that may be quite possible, but I don't think fully explores the concept in the way that it is intended, and will probably lead to some poll jumping.

Offensive Team Support (the concept formerly known as "Trickster Cleric ")
I love this idea and it's not just because Voltage beat me to writing up a Cleric centred concept. I think the idea of exploring a Pokemon that can team its teammates healthy through a mixture of utility and its offensive presence is certainly very exciting and possible. I think this concept can allow us to explore a range of different ideas, and create a very unique Pokemon.

The Aftermath is Secondary
There's some interesting ideas highlighted here, but at the end of the day, I think the concept will probably end up being a bit shallow in the long run. I think the main thing that will determine the answer to this concepts question is whether or not it can score 2HKOs and OHKOs with the increased damage, and at the end of the day I don't know if that's enough to warrant a full concept.

Terrain-O-Saurus
I don't have much to say on this one. I think it's certainly interesting and would lead to a cool process with a cool Pokemon as its end result, but I don't think it's the most interesting concept.

Tempo
As someone that plays a lot of card games, the idea of Tempo is certainly an interesting one. As said by a few others though, I definitely agree that the idea of tempo was one that we as a community explored with Equilibra even if it was inadvertent, and subsequently think it's a bit too soon to start thinking about a tempo based concept, even if the end result is completely different.

Comeback King
I'm not a fan of this one unfortunately. It strikes me as very dangerous and could only lead to an incredibly uninteractive Pokemon or an unviable one.

Fragile Fighter
I don't think this concept is bad per se, but at the same time I find it a bit shallow. I think there's not a lot of room for exploration, and will lead to a somewhat generic Pokemon that has a very one dimensional style of play.

NFE
This reminds me of my submitted concept for CAP 26 which aimed to explore the Eviolite. The main issue that came up with it was the additional design decisions of creating an evolution and subsequently think this idea will be best served as a framework.

Inoffensive
I think punishing excessive offense is certainly an interesting idea, but I personally think that the goals of the concept would be better served by trying to design an effective stall Pokemon, than one that punishes offense. There's obviously a lot of overlap here but I think the angle is somewhat important.

Compare and Contrast: A Monotype Story
This strikes me as an unnecessarily convoluted concept, and one that may not even be eligible.

Invincible Juggernaut/Passive Aggressive
I think there's some interesting room for exploration here, but a very specific balance will need to be found in regards to its offensive potential, and its other utility options. I'm also just on a personal level a bit bored with move concepts at this specific stage, even if they aren't as clearly defined as Doom Desire was.

The Good Ol' Switcheroo
This is another interesting concept that I think explores a range of areas and would be fun to actually build. Providing counterplay to options is interesting, but my one worry with it is that it can only really be effective once per match and as such will likely end up being very similar to the existing Choice + Trick users.

 

[DetroitLolcat]

I was planning to submit a concept for this project, but as I was reading through the thread I found two concepts that I believe would make for a great CAP27:

gibygiby 's Set Customization and G-Luke 's Landorus-T 2 stand out because of how much freedom they provide the community to make a complex, meta-defining Pokemon while pushing us to think as outside the box as possible.

I'm especially partial to Set Customization. When I was planning to submit a concept, I wanted to base it off of one of my favorite Pokemon in OU history: Black/White Dragonite. For those who aren't as old as I am, Dragonite in Gen 5 used its balanced stats, great typing, and deep movepool to run eight different sets listed in the analysis - all of them were viable while none were broken! And most interestingly: these sets were extremely different from one another. This was a Pokemon that could run Choice Band, Offensive Dragon Dance, Defensive DD, a mixed attacker, a Rain-based mixed attacker, a Rain-based stallbreaker, an Agility sweeper, or a PP stall tank. When your opponent brought this thing in, you likely didn't have a clue what it did. However, unlike many "unpredictable" Pokemon, it wasn't particularly broken. It had clearly defined weaknesses - most notably, a middling 80-base Speed and mediocre Special Attack for a sweeper. The Rain-based sets were weak to opposing weather, while the physical attackers were typically well prepared-for.

What I'm getting at here is that I find those kinds of Pokemon extremely interesting and spur innovation in the metagame. Compare the Dragonite I just mentioned to say, OU/CAP mainstays like Toxapex or Volkraken. Toxapex is a metagame-defining threat, sure. But it's only capable of running one set, it's fairly obvious what its best teammates are, and you know what it does, how to beat it, and how the opponent is going to protect it. You're devising your strategy to beat Toxapex during teambuilding. It's a chess piece. Meanwhile, Gen 5 Dragonite is something you have to figure out how to beat after the game has started. It's a Pokemon, not a chess piece; one of the coolest things about Pokemon is that it's a game of asymmetric information. You have to learn what your opponent is capable of midgame.

And finally, a reason why I think a Pokemon with set diversity would make such a great CAP27 is because people will be innovating with it for years to come. You think people figured out all of those Dragonite sets as soon as Pokemon Black came out and we didn't even know Excadrill or Ferrothorn's English names (shout-out to Nattorei and Doryuuzu)? Of course not! The PP stall, Rain tank, and other sets were being devised by the best players for use in the most prestigious tournaments before they disseminated to the vulgar masses. And if we make a Pokemon with a high degree of Set Customization, we can make a Pokemon that will push the boundaries of the metagame - possibly for the entire generation.

 

[snake]

In this post, I want to go over first the concepts I really like, and then comment on some of the other ones. Also I ran out of steam as I went, so I'm probably going to revisit this post and elaborate with more pointed feedback. If anyone wants feedback more immediately, please feel free to reach out to me on Discord / PS! / Smogon PMs.

Concepts I like:

Offensive Team Support (the concept formerly known as "Trickster Cleric ")

I want to highlight Voltage's concept because I think, like myself, everyone's got the wrong idea about this concept. After a discussion with him on Discord, Voltage originally named this concept after a Dungeons and Dragons sort of cleric, which differs heavily from the Pokemon sort of cleric. What Voltage is really looking for was an offensive support Pokemon along the lines of Grimmsnarl, which focuses on supporting its teammates offensively (hence the new title). I hope that the submission will reflect this perspective on the concept by the time it hits Final Submission. Of course, Aromatherapy / Heal Bell / Wish / Healing Wish are options for this concept, but I think making an offensive support Pokemon could make for an interesting project.

Contrast is key

I can get behind this one. I like Pokemon that, on team preview, you need to guess between two very different roles. It can get annoying when the Pokemon is very good, but I think it'd be interesting to make a decent utility Pokemon that can be a sweeper if it wants to be.

Item-Based Roles

Out of all the item-based concepts I've seen, this is one of the ones that appeals to me a little more than the rest! It reminds me a lot of contrast is key.

Role-Switching It Up

My favorite concept of the bunch! Although I've just endorse two role-based concepts, this one is different. I really think it'd be interesting to explore other options than just pivot -> sweeper. Hazard control <-> setup (think SD Excadrill, Generation 7 SD + SR Rockium Z Garchomp, SD + Defog Silvally in lower tiers, etc.) has a lot of potential too!

Compress to Impress (Formerly Role Call)

Certainly interesting; I just think it'll need to be discussed thoroughly in concept assessment which roles we want to compress so that we don't try to make it compress too many roles - that's not the best either!

In Pursuit of Pseudosuit

I like this one a lot because it deals with Generation 8's new mechanics...or lack thereof. I'd love to explore how to punish switches now that the ultimate switch-punishing move is literally not in the game.

Reverse Min-Maxing

I think this one is pretty interesting! It reminds me a little bit of Kyurem-B too (before it got Dragon Dance and Icicle Spear, of course...). I think these Pokemon end up being not min-maxing due to movepool constraints or metagame constraints, but it'd be interesting to actually explore that in a process.

A Coat of Many Colors

Again, I generally don't like item-based concepts, but this one is pretty decent. I'm wondering whether the removal of Hidden Power is a good thing or a bad thing for this concept...you could really incentivize at least Yache Berry by making it 4x weak to Hidden Power Ice. Not sure. I'll parrot again that this Pokemon will have to WANT to run those resist berries rather than a choice item / Life Orb / Leftovers, but it's still a neat idea.

Aftermath

Revisiting Plasmanta's concept would be really cool honestly. I think there's some potential here with this one.

Landorus-T 2: Centralizing Boogaloo

I'm nervous about achieving *healthy* centralization, in that it could easily become *unhealthy* centralization, but it'd be an interesting experiment to look at for sure. Especially now that we have a metagame that doesn't have Landorus-T being the star of the show.

Ability Role Reversal

I can get behind this one. I like exploring abilities a lot!




And for the concepts that I'm not such a fan of / could use some improvements. For most of these, I find myself a little uninterested in them because I can't envision an interesting and/or reasonable end product.

Idea Amender

I think you actually need to pick which concept we would revisit. If our concept is "pick a concept," we aren't actually picking a concept with the vote after this stage...which is the point of the vote. I don't think revisiting certain concepts is a bad idea, but, in my opinion, you need to be the one who pitches which one we go back to.

Hail Yeah

Ah yes, the hail concept once again. I just don't think there's enough to work with for Hail. Slush Rush doesn't even cover hail chip damage immunity like Sand Rush does :(

The Aftermath is Secondary

This concept isn't synonymous with Serene Grace, which is the sentiment I've seen about it on Discord, but I'm not as excited about this one right now.

Terrain-O-Saurus

Terrain just...doesn't have much going for it. Sure, it's powerful, but there's not many dimensions you can take it, especially ability-wise. Granted, I'd love to see a CAP with a surge ability, but I don't think that's enough to design a CAP around.

Tempo

I can definitely see the learning objective with this one, but the concept doesn't really give much direction to begin with. We know that setting entry hazards and boosting is good tempo, so what are we really working towards, or learning really?

Comeback King

This one just doesn't appeal to me because it screams being a sweeper...either one that sets up at the end of a match because it can NEVER come out in the middle of the match because it has to "make the comeback." Cawmodore is the perfect analogue: it NEVER comes out mid-game because if it takes any damage, setting up with it is a nightmare for the user. I'm just not a fan of making a hit-or-miss sweeper.

Fragile Fighter

We've had so many of these in previous generations that I'm wondering if we'd be treading new, interesting ground with this one. I like the Syclants, Pheromosas, Greninjas, and Kerfluffles, but I find myself personally uninterested in this one :(

NFE

Instead of making a Pokemon that's deathly afraid of Knock Off and forced to run Eviolite, we could make a Pokemon that's fully evolved and doesn't really mind how Knock Off is a super spammable move. If we want to make a bulky Pokemon, we'll just give it high defensive stats in stat stage.

Inoffensive

Since I like to run offensive playstyles, of course I'm not going to vibe with this one as much. I don't necessarily dislike this concept, but we did just make Equilibra, which definitely shifted the metagame towards being less offensive by throwing out Doom Desires and making Focus Blast harder to use. I'm ready to take a different approach this new CAP.

Compare and Contrast: A Monotype Story

CAP builds for the CAP Metagame...so I'm not sure how this one is supposed to work. The playerbase we have is familiar with CAP, so we build for CAP.

Invincible Juggernaut/Passive Aggressive

I think Reuniclus basically defines this concept, and I'm not sure how much room there is to take with this concept. Also, going for STAB Body Press as your only offensive option is a really terrible idea in a metagame where Jumbao and Mollux are kings of the metagame.

The Good Ol' Switcheroo

I can't really come up with a reason why I don't like this concept, but I also can't find any reason why I would like it. I'm feeling exceedingly indifferent to it. It's well-written though.

Up and down you go

This concept feels like the stat drops concept that I've seen a lot with extra stuff tacked on, honestly. Given that I was never too excited about the stat drop concept, I just don't feel that excited about this one either.

Item Acclimation

Forme changes may not be unprecedented in Pokemon, but they are in CAP (excluding Mega Crucibelle). CAP doesn't have the process set up for making a forme change.

Customisable Core Crusher

I have to say - I really liked this concept before, but now it sort of scares me. On one hand, it's really interesting in the builder when you have a Pokemon that gets to pick and choose among all of your counters. On the other hand...it's not fun in the builder when you have to cover all of those sets for when you inevitably have to face that Pokemon. I'm a little worried about the end product for this one.

Stalemate

Not even going to sugar-coat it: I hate this concept. Equilibra vs. Equilibra is the worst thing ever and I don't want to make a CAP that does that again.

Set Customization

I think this one is interesting, but think about how we made Jumbao - rather than run intermediate sets between its most offensive and most defensive sets, it really just runs either extreme. I'm wary of the concept because I'm not sure how well it could be pulled off.

Keep it Simple, Stupid

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..."

Toxic Terror

Toxic has been explored for...ever. It's nothing new, and I think there are better concepts to explore now.

Asymmetric Warfare

I feel like moves like Psyshock, Foul Play, and Body Press - the ones that don't do what moves usually do - are pretty ingrained into Pokemon now. There's not much novelty behind using this moves. Meanwhile, I think most of the type-changing moves end up being pretty gimmicky the rest of the time.

Game Flexer

I don't understand what you mean by "flexible," and you use it throughout your entire submission. Can you define what you mean a little bit better using terms based on competitive Pokemon?

The No-True-Scotsman

In your justification and explanation, can you elaborate what your envisioning using Pokemon terms, rather than vague verbage or TF2 terms?

 

[CadmusRhodium]

AN AGENT OF THE LOW TIERS
Description- take a lower-tier Pokemon from the past or present that has a unique playstyle but can’t cut it in OU, and make a Pokemon that plays in a similar fashion but can thrive in the current OU environment.
Justification- Many Pokemon that have inhabited lower tiers in the past and present play the game in ways that are fascinating and completely unique to them. A few good examples would be Mudsdale’s Stamina abuse, Salazzle’s ability to run an annoying passive set or an offensive Nasty Plot set equally well, and Mr. Rime’s very good utility movepool combined with excellent special coverage. This concept is unique because it fits all three “types” of CAP projects quite well; it has a TARGET in whatever low-tier ‘mon is chosen as the basis for the project, it fits ARCHETYPE because (proposal name) is meant to play in a unique way based on that target, and it fits ACTUALIZATION because the target and its bag of tricks haven’t found success in OU for one reason or another.
Questions to be answered-
-What makes unique lower-tier Pokémon incapable of success in OU?
-Are there any examples of OU Pokémon, past or present, that have played like an improved version of a lower-tier mon?
-What makes a unique playstyle, or even a gimmick, successful?
-There are many lower tier Pokémon that have found success in OU in the past, like DPP Nidoqueen and USUM Reuniclus. Why are they good?
Explanation- Honestly, this whole schtick was inspired by the fact that there’s a specific Pokémon (the Smogon Discord made fun of me for liking it, so I won’t say which Pokémon it is) that I would love to be able to use in higher tiers on Showdown, and the fact that it’s not OU viable unless the entire team is built to support and be supported by it really sucks. It’s awful when a lower tier Pokémon plays in a unique way but is too weak for OU.

 

[MrDollSteak]

Continuing my feedback today now that I have some more time! Going in chronological order as I said, so will aim to try and address the rest soon.

Up and down you go
I think that this one has some potential, but I think it needs a little bit more focus in terms of determining which it will be focusing on. If it aims to create a sweeper it can naturally be quite dangerous if it also lowers stats. On a superficial reading it strikes me like an Intimidate sweeper. It also strikes me as difficult to fit both lowering and raising in the same move set since they naturally compete with one another.

Contrast is Key
I think this is a really interesting concept, although I think that CAP has previously engaged with this idea somewhat inadvertently in the past with Pokemon such as Jumbao and Naviathan like you mentioned. This isn't a criticism per se, but I just think will need some thinking about in order to try and accentuate what sets it apart from these Pokemon. I think it will definitely lead to an interesting Pokemon in either case and will be happy to think about what roles it will aim to perform.

Item Acclimation
As much as I would love a forme-changing Pokemon, this strikes me as something that would be better suited to a framework.

Customisable Core Crusher
I'm personally a bit sceptical about this idea. I think it either relies a bit too much on there being specific cores in the metagame to function, or is able to dismantle key pokemon and subsequently tank their viability no matter who they are paired with. I think it is ultimately quite a risky concept, especially as the metagame of Generation 8 seems to be inherently more variable than that of Gen 7. We've already seen a few major shakeups with quickbans, Home and soon the DLC, and subsequently find it hard to believe there will be one core that remains for the entirety of the concept.

Item-Based Roles
I like the idea of this concept being related to items, but personally think it will be quite hard to actualise in any interesting way. Because of the dominance of the Choice Items and Leftovers, I don't think that this concept will end up exploring particularly new territory, as we already see a lot of our CAPs like Jumbao running a mixture of offensive and defensive sets of the back of these common items. It could work well if built around other items, but I suspect will likely become dominated by Choice and Leftovers anyway.

Stalemate
As others have mentioned, this inherently reminds me of Equilibra vs Equilibra, which I don't think many people think is a particularly fun experience. It suggests a certain level of ubiquity that I think is something that we shouldn't aim to create.

Role-Switching It Up
I have to say, I really like this concept. I think compared to the other dual role concepts, this one has very defined parameters that establish its uniqueness. I think the chosen examples do a good job of explaining how the concept could result in interesting Pokemon. I think it raises some very interesting questions and will allow us to explore specific moves, stats, and typing well to fulfil two purposes during a match. I would be very happy if this gets chosen personally.

Set Customization
This reminds me a lot of Contrast is key, but with less specificity. I think there are too many variables here to guide the process and ultimately reads to me as generically good Pokemon that can do anything it wants (cough Jumbao cough). I don't see what this specific concept will teach us about, since it isn't just focused on roles, but a mixture of everything. Compared to Contrast is key which at least points to opposing roles, this concept seems to suggest that the Pokemon could effectively do anything. I think some further parameters need to be included to stress what the focus is.

Toxic Terror
As others have said, Toxic isn't a particularly confusing move to explore. It's quite one dimensional and is certainly very effective at what it does and has been explored inadvertently in a lot of projects.

Asymmetric Warfare
I think this has some potential. There are certainly some interesting areas this project can touch upon, but on a personal level I'm a bit apprehensive about another move concept so soon after Equilibra. That being said, I think the flexibility of this project is what makes it attractive. Targetting some of these unviable moves could prove a unique challenge, it's just a matter of making sure that these moves are worth running.

Game Flexer
This concept is a bit hard to follow. I think it's a bit hard to work out what the aim of the Pokemon is. As far as I understand it, it's a case of the Pokemon encouraging greater diversity, and thus a sort of centralising effect, which isn't something that I necessarily agree with. I think you need to be a bit more specific in defining what you want the Pokemon to achieve.

In Pursuit of Pseudosuit
This is my personal favourite of the concepts so far. I really like that you've thought about a fundamental change that Generation 8 has brought and how to replicate a lost effect. I think there's a lot of very interesting directions that this concept could take us, and can explore what made successful Pursuit users successfully, and how to discourage switching without the actual mechanic being in place.

Reverse Min-Maxing
I think that this concept is certainly quite interesting, and could lead to some interesting discussion. It's not particularly flashy, but actually has quite a level of nuance. It's one of those ones that the more I think about, the more I see what makes it interesting. I think that as part of the concept assessment we really need to define what kind of role we want the Pokemon to fulfil.

 

[Mx]

Here's my thoughts about a few of the most interesting entries:

Offensive Team Support (the concept formerly known as "Trickster Cleric "): As many people said before, one of the best concepts submitted. Not much else to add to be honest, many have already spoken about this one.

The Good Ol' Switcheroo: A great concept. I disagree with atha's idea that just because Trick is currently common we can't learn from this. There might be many viable users of the move, but I still think more than enough viable combinations exist to make for an very interesting process.

Role-Switching It Up: Another very solid submission. I would love to see more different examples on how this could work, because I personally struggle to see how the final result wouldn't be something on the lines of early game utility/pivot+late game cleaner/sweeper. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I wonder if there are other directions this could go.

In Pursuit of Pseudosuit: While I admit I miss Pursuit, I really can't imagine a healthy way to implement this. The best I can think of would be a powerful sweeper that will win the game if allowed to set up, which would obviously not be a good idea. There are other ways that can punish switches like Analytic and Bolt Beak/Fishious Rend, but I think that if you get to the point where the opponent doesn't want to switch out at all, you'd need an insane and unhealthy level of power.

Landorus-T 2: Centralizing Boogaloo: This is a very interesting idea to explore and one of my favorite entries. I understand that many people might be turned off by the idea of intentionally centralizing the metagame, but without Pokemon like Heatran or Landorus-T, capable of checking a wide variety of threats while still having good utility, it is very hard to check everything in the meta and the game becomes much more matchup reliant. Many of our top tier threats like Mollux and Corviknight already follow this pattern and I don't think anyone will argue that they are broken because of it. I think if this is successful, the result would be beneficial to the health of the meta, although I'll admit this is a pretty risky concept to take. The line between healthy and unhealthy centralization can be very thin, and CAP tends to be very good at making centralizing threats even when the concept doesn't require it, so we'll need to be extra careful if we pick this.

Atha, about how my concept can be realized, I think there are many ways to go. Explosion seems pretty interesting to explore in the current meta as many threats like Mollux could be realistically lured with it. Moves with heavy recoil can also leave holes in a team at the cost of killing you after just a few uses, especially if we have low base HP. Healing Wish is always a powerful move, but perhaps it could be interesting to see if we can build a bulkier user instead of the more common Choice Scarf ones (I know Equilibra has access to it to, but it's rather rare on its usual sets), Memento and Destiny Bond are cheesier and less consistent, but could be great additions if the rest of our kit is solid enough. Other forms of support (status, hazards, weather, etc.) can also be used to complement the effects we would have after faint. Of course, we would need to pick carefully which tools this CAP would be given, but I think many combination can prove to be interesting and viable routes to take.

 

[Glitchwood High]

This is a concept that I actually submitted a quite while ago for a previous CAP, made 100% by me. After looking through all the

Name: Reversal
Description: A Pokémon capable of viably using reversal moves.
Justification: It mostly likely fits into the category of Target. Since the beginning of time, sweepers have dominated the metagames of not just CAP, but of most conceivable categories-you may recall Crucibelle's suspect tests, and Aurumoth's many, many nerfs. And while nerfing that Pokemon isn't inherently bad, I have always found that increasing the viability of another Pokemon has always been far more dynamic a choice. So, instead of buffing another Pokemon, why not use the opportunity of CAP to create a new one? Reversal would function as checks to the majority of big offensive threats to the metagame.

It would also fit into the category of an Archetype, as it functions as an emergency counter to the fast sweepers, the bulky priority-users, the whole group. Think of Sword Dance Scizor or, previously, Quiver Dance Auromoth. In many conditions, once they have been give the chance to setup even once they can tear through entire team's. Sweepers like these are prevalent in the metagame, and very often these sweepers become too powerful for the metagame to sustain. Pheromosa, Marshadow, Zygarde, Azumarill-their ability to sweep or to setup and sweep, in all of these cases, were deemed too powerful for their previous metagame, and these examples are few out of an ocean. As of Gen 8, we now also have Darmanitan-Zen to serve as a warning.
Questions To Be Answered:

• How can a CAP that can check most, if not all, attackers be balanced?
• How can CAP 27 be made in a way that doesn't make it too viable an answer to offensive Pokemon?
• Would all of these 'Counter' moves be allowed at once? Or perhaps certain combinations be balanced?

Explanation: The goal of Reversal is to create a CAP that not only utilizes fairly undervalued moves but to have a Pokemon that could answer almost any threat in the metagame, but never being able to take them all on at the same time; something that could be quite powerful, but loses it's edge once the opponent knows it's moveset! It would be a guessing game for the opponent every time the Pokemon is played; what moves is it using? Think Mewtwo, but defensive and not as strong. Another goal of Reversal is to create a more sustainable metagame; with such a defensive force, the offense that helps shape the competitive CAP metagame would be quite mitigated.

 

[Aizaik]

Final Submission

Name: New Trade Deal

Description: A Pokémon that mitigates bad team matchups by sacrificing itself to eliminate an opponent’s problem Pokémon.

Justification: This concept is an Archetype submission. Although this obscure archetype is currently severely underrepresented, there are a number of Pokémon from past generations that have demonstrated how this role can be utilized. The most notable past example is Gen 7’s Mega Banette in the lower tiers, who was a stall-breaker who also had a unique combination of Prankster Destiny Bond + a low speed stat, which would force trades against non-dark types as long as Banette wasn’t statused. Other examples include Gen 2’s Explosion Steelix, and arguably some Explosion hazards leads - though those Pokémon were less inclined to choose their targets. The appeal of these Pokémon is that they can act as an emergency check to nearly all Pokémon - just not all at once, because they usually die or are crippled in the process. In good hands, this becomes better for the user than just creating a 5v5 because it allows you to remove or dissuade that one Pokémon that your opponent has that can beat your whole team, or that they need to win the game. This has the net effect of creating battles that have less polarizing matchups, which is valuable in any metagame were you can't prepare for everything.

Questions to be Answered:

• What can we learn from past "trading" Pokémon, and how should that inform the design of CAP27?
• What options for "trading" mechanics do we have that are effective and consistent enough to use while leaving room for counter-play? What abilities, stats, and movepool choices do we have to augment these mechanics?
• How important is it for CAP27 to specifically target one of the opponent's Pokémon? To what degree should CAP27 be given the tools to do so?
• Do Pokémon that solely attempt to trade contribute enough to a team, or should CAP27 adopt a secondary role, as the wall-breaker Mega Banette and generation two's physical wall Steelix did?
  • What additional roles could synergize well with a "trading" Pokémon?
• With these answers in mind, which method(s) of "trading" should CAP27 be equipped with?

Explanation: There are two points that I want to elaborate on: What we can learn from past examples and How many different options we have to make the archetype work. On the first point, this concept doesn’t work if you pretend that a Pokémon that only lives to die will be competitively credible. What past examples of this archetype all demonstrate is that your opponent also has to lose out from the Pokémon staying alive - which usually involves the Pokémon having a secondary role. Mega Banette didn’t have to die to contribute to the team - it was also a wall-breaker with a sky-high Attack stat, creating pressure for as long as it was left alive. Moreover, it helps for the two roles to share some direct overlap. Once again, Mega Banette is the ideal example of this; it ran Taunt to disable opposing walls/setup while forcing opponents to attack into destiny bond. Other examples also reinforce the need for utility beyond self-sacrifice: Steelix in Generation 2 was also a setup sweeper with Curse and one of the few counters to Snorlax, and Explosion leads run hazards as their main team support (though this is a worse example, because Explosion leads use Explosion less to target an opposing threat than to keep up momentum once you are done with the Pokémon, which isn't a true representation of the archetype). The takeaway for this Pokémon is that it is meant to be coupled with a secondary team role to make the most of the concept. I also want to emphasize that there are enough possible options to actualize this archetype that we aren't hamstringed to one course of action, but there is also enough specificity in what we are going for to structure discussion around, which is important. There are three main move set options that can make this archetype tick - Explosion, Destiny Bond, and Final Gambit - each with their own counterplay and each giving us different options during the Movepool, Stats, and Ability stages. Explosion is the easiest to make work, and it comes with counterplay (type resistances) that we can customize during the ability stage (with Scrappy or -ate abilities) and the movepool stage (the choice between Self Destruct or Explosion) and is the most flexible during the stats stage for extra freedom for deciding a secondary role. Destiny Bond also comes with counterplay (status), affords us an extra ability choice (Prankster with a low Speed, which adds Dark types to the counterplay), or can be built around during the stats and movepool stages with high Speed + reduced priority moves. Final(ly) Gambit, which has counter-play (taking damage/ghost-type threats), but leaves room for a lot of abilities and only really needs high HP and Speed stats to work (and is also less vulnerable to Hazards than it would have been before gen 8 thanks to boots). These options give us a lot of different ways of actualizing the archetype before we've even gotten to the secondary role, so we are in no way hamstrung by the archetype. Equally important, however, is that the concept is still specific enough to generate clear discussion and decision making. To finish, what excites me the most about this submission is the opportunity to introduce an unrepresented archetype from past metagames to CAP.

Further Explanation & Commentary

A few additional notes that I see as relevant to discussion:
1. "Why trading?"

The important part of this archetype is that it provides a one-time use blanket answer, which can improve your team's worst-case-scenario. The point isn't to make the user die, but the best moves for blanket-answering opposing threats happen to result in self-destruction. This is probably for the better, for the sake of balance, but it has lead members of this Archetype to be exceedingly rare.

2. Mx said some things that contributed to this submission.

I brought this submission back partially because it addressed a metagame concern that Mx expressed in advocacy for Landorus-T 2: Centralizing Boogaloo by G-Luke, namely that:

" … I understand that many people might be turned off by the idea of intentionally centralizing the metagame, but without Pokémon like Heatran or Landorus-T, capable of checking a wide variety of threats while still having good utility, it is very hard to check everything in the meta and the game becomes much more matchup reliant. ..."

What I like about the comparison to "New Trade Deal" is that it addresses this problem differently - that is, by making it easier to take care of unfavorable matchups through plays during the game as opposed to making different bets during team building.

3. Some interesting submission overlaps that I noticed.

While we are talking about Mx's content, I also did notice that my submission is actually one way of fulfilling his concept, Aftermath, which is nice because I liked his submission but wasn't sure how it could be implemented in a very direct manner. As it turns out my submission is related to his, Actualizing his Actualization concept with an Archetype that hasn't been given the chance to shine. I just thought that that was interesting.

I obviously really like my own submission, but I like Role-Switching it Up, by quziel, almost as much - but I didn't like the thought of only getting to use one or the other. I think that his submission sets a really good design goal, to encourage players to play the Pokémon dynamically throughout the game. Reflecting upon the previous Aftermath overlap, however, I realized that this submission creates a similar dynamic. Before the Pokémon is willing or able to trade, it performs a specific role. Then, once the time is right, it instead trades for an opponent's Pokémon. I thought that that was another fun potential overlap. If New Trade Deal doesn't happen, can we do Role-Switching it Up? :D

 

[Moxhi]

WIP:

Name: Teamfight Tactics

Description: A Pokémon that is unviable by itself (either as a lead or in 1v1s), but when supported by its team, can be very strong.

Justification: In competitive Pokémon, team building is one of the core fundamentals of the game. This is interesting, considering that in most metagames, one of your Pokémon are fighting against one of your opponent's Pokémon. And yet, concepts such as type matchups, cores, roles, etc. are essential to competitive team building. This is because many mechanics in Pokémon can indirectly affect the battlefield and current battlers. For example, moves that affect the battlefield such as terrains, weather, Trick Room, Wonder Room, all directly affect how both Pokémon in play should be behaving. Moves like hazards, tailwind, and screens often only affect one side of the field, but they operate under the same principle. Finally, more direct effects on battling Pokémon include delayed moves such as Future Sight or Doom Design or moves like Baton Pass that functions as "pre-setup" for your own Pokémon or moves like Yawn or Toxic, which can enable you to setup a turn for free. Although many Pokémon appreciate team support, there are Pokémon like Kyurem-Black or Hoopa-Unbound who could care less.

This concept falls under the Target category, as it explores the concept of Teambuilding and Teamfighting in the Pokémon metagame.
This concept also falls under the Actualization category, as it looks to create a Pokemon that functions as the ultimate Teamfighter, while also being completely unviable without a team to support it.
This concept also falls under the Archetype category as it explores the concept of the "Hyper-carry". Although there exist Pokémon like Zygarde or

Questions to be answered:

Explanation:

 

[An Explosion]

Final Sub

Name - Wonder Warrior

Description - A Pokémon that can utilize undervalued field effects to their fullest potential, while also being able to work well in tandem with other field effects.

Justification - This is an Actualization and a Archetype concept. Many interesting & unique field effects exist currently, but the only useable ones currently are Weather, Terrain, and Trick Room. This leaves field effects like Gravity, Wonder Room and Magic Room, which can completely change a battle temporarily, sitting in a back closet gathering dust. CAP27 would be able to summon a large amount of field effects to shift the battle at a moment’s notice, while also being powerful in its own right.

Questions to be Answered -

• How could CAP27 take advantage of field effects that are usually considered disadvantageous to both the user and opponent?
• How can we prevent CAP27 from being prey to its own power (i.e, how can we prevent it from failing horribly under a field effect it set?)
• How could we utilize other archetypes, such as weather and Trick Room, alongside CAP27?
• How could we alleviate the downsides of the field effects?
• With the Rooms being able to be stacked together and canceled distinctly from one another, how could we utilize all 3 on the same Pokémon without resorting to not having an attacking move?
• How can we dampen the after effects of a forced switch to CAP27’s teammates?
• How would we differentiate CAP27 from Fidgit, the face of Trick Room in CAP?

Explanation - Wonder Room and Magic Room are the younger and less successful siblings of the very powerful Trick Room, but all 3 have game changing power, with Wonder Room swapping Defense and Special Defense, Magic Room nullifying held items, and Trick Room being Trick Room. These, along with Gravity, weather, and Terrain, make up the quartet of field effects. Most strategies involve only one of the main 3 field effects (weather, terrain, Trick Room,) but a Pokémon like this would be able to change strategies on the fly to suit the current field effects (notice: plural) while putting the opponent in a tight bind, such as setting a different weather to counter a weather team, setting a different terrain to shut down terrain based teams, or shutting down a Trick Room team by nullifying the Room after the main setter goes down. Field effects are a largely unexplored strategy, and CAP27 could be the one to make the Magic Room happen (both literally and figuratively.)