CAP 31 - Part 2 - Typing Discussion

[Me bad boi]

How important is STAB given that we want to utilize Diamond Storm? Would certain roles appreciate STAB on it more than others?

I know I definitely would enjoy working with STAB, but it is definitely not mandatory. Someting I haven't seen mentionned however is the question of what types could use it as coverage and justify it thematicaly. For example, I'm sure a fighting-bug type would enjoy the coverage, but it doesn't make a lot of sense with the types it pairs with. It shouldn't be too restrictive, but it's something to keep in mind should we go without stab.

What types synergize well coverage-wise with Diamond Storm?

Something something EdgeQuake TM, but I find that psychic is a really cool option, especially if we go with dual-STAB. Of course, the biggest boon of psychic coverage is hitting pex for super effective damage, as well as many fighting types. Other options, like bug and grass, still bonk Slowbro while potentially adding defensive value if paired with rock as a typing.

I brushed off ground, but I feel it's a given that CAP 31 will have ground ground automatically as coverage, if not a stab. After all, a non-rock type ground can easily justify rock coverage and a non-groud type rock can easily justify ground coverage.

Also, shoutout to fighting with body press, a match made in heaven.

Do we value narrowing the playing field with regards to what role CAP 31 will inhabit by giving it a more specified typing?

I don't thinkI'm personally ready to answer, as I'm still open on the archetype.

Diamond Storm has a powerful secondary effect that can improve CAP 31's matchup into physical attackers. What are common physical attacking types that CAP 31 can leverage Diamiand Storm's secondary effect against effectively?

Definitely fighting and steel, especially if we chose a type that is neutral to them, as diamond storm's effect is basically to remove a weakness or add a resistance to the pokemon on the physical side. One that will be a pain though is water, as most bulky waters can not only switch in easily, but threaten burn with Scald.

 

[Brambane]

I am going to make this post quick and short since most people already touched upon this point. This somewhat creeps into the checks and counters stage but this is a point that feels best addressed early. I don't think we can have a bad Toxapex match-up; I think having a bad Toxapex match-up is basically forfeiting the concept since the sequence will play out with it switching into Diamond Storm, wasting your PP and worse of all, hazing your Defense boosts. Considering that most people would agree that the +2 Defense component Diamond Storm is most interesting and worth preserving, letting Toxapex metaphorically tie us up and bang our dad is going to feel like it literally tied us up and banged our dad.

I bring this up here since Toxapex is one of those mons so good at preserving its HP and incredibly bulky that threatening it with unSTABed coverage, especially physical coverage, is tough. 252+ Melm doesn't even reliably 2HKO with EQ, and that mon has 423 Attack for reference. It's particularly risky as a physical attacker (I don't think its a tremendous leap of logic to say Diamond Storm means we will be somewhat physically inclined) because if it can't/doesn't have to Recover in your face, it can Scald your face. At some point in this process, we are going to have to decide how we break open Toxapex; typing is a good stage for that.

This post is pretty targeted at a specific Pokemon, and I know Pex is an easy mon to point fingers at, so bear with me. I don't think we need to target every defensive threat in the game, but Toxapex (and to a lesser extent, Circle Throw/Whirlwind/Clear Smog users) seem completely antithetical to the most fascinating part about Diamond Storm. Even to the point that brushing it off to "build a team where your teammates can handle Toxapex for 31" is not sufficient (or nearly as fun from a project design standpoint imo.)

 

[Da Pizza Man]

How important is STAB given that we want to utilize Diamond Storm? Would certain roles appreciate STAB on it more than others?

It goes without saying that STAB is going to be incredibly valuable if we decide to take an offensive route, but Rock is a good enough offensive type and Diamond Storm is a good enough move that STAB is hardly mandatory for us to be able to use the move effectively. On the flip side, I actually think if we decide to go with a defensive route, that not only is STAB less important, but it doesn't seem super desirable just because Rock is just such an underwhelming type defensively. Granted, it's not without its perks, as resistances to Fire and Flying are both really good in the current metagame, but it's clear that it has more negatives then positives on the defensive spectrum, and that if we want to go into a purely defensive route, I actually think STAB is something we should avoid. Also, like lezzy cuttlefish said previously, Diamond Storm having such low PP also really hurts it's viability for primarily-defensive routes.

What types synergize well coverage-wise with Diamond Storm?

Ground: EdgeQuake, nuff said.
Fighting: Rock and Fighting complement each other extremely well. Rock appreciates Fighting's ability to hit nail Steel-Types and Fighting appreciates Rock's ability to nail flying types, and with the exception of Aegislash and Fidgit, neither of which are super common, Rock/Fighting coverage hits everything currently ranked on the VR for at least neutral. Diamond Storm also has a pretty funny interaction with a couple Fighting types attacks as well. Close Combat is probably the biggest one for this really, as being able to partially patch-up one of the biggest weaknesses of the move, in that it drops your bulk to the level of a wet paper bag, is obviously pretty nice. Body Press is also another obvious option, but while I do think that it's a route we can take, we need to remember that Body Press is a pretty weak move in of itself and sort of requires either STAB and/or extremely high defense to be useful. We looked at Body Press last process with Venomicon, and it turned out to be very underwhelming. Granted we ultimately gave it coverage that made Body Press sort of redundant in the form of Earth Power and Mystical Fire, but I honestly think that was a pretty minor factor and that Venomicon's Defense was just too low to really use it effectively (And if a mon with 113 Base Defense and Stamina has too low Defense to really use it effectively, that says a lot).
Fire: Stratagem's recent surge in viability and usage is a good demonstration of just exactly how well Rock and Fire go well together. Rock obviously appreciates Fire's ability to melt Steel types that aren't named Heatran, and Fire appreciates how Rock hits every Fire-Type except Heatran in the current metagame super effectively (And even Heatran takes neutral damage, so it can be used as a way to apply pressure to it). That being said, physical fire moves feel kinda underwhelming for this. Pyro Ball has accuracy problems (Granted it's not terrible, but it does sort of compound with Diamond Storm also not being perfectly accurate), Flare Blitz's recoil sort of works to go against the idea of buffing our defenses (And unlike with Close Combat, I don't really think this poses for a potentially interesting interaction at all), and the rest are either other Forbidden Fruits (Which are off limits) or are laughably weak. That being said, I still think this is a very interesting option to look at.

Diamond Storm has a powerful secondary effect that can improve CAP 31's matchup into physical attackers. What are common physical attacking types that CAP 31 can leverage Diamiand Storm's secondary effect against effectively?

I'm honestly not entirely sure how to answer this question, because I feel like a lot of it sort of depends on just what our exact type is going to be. I guess one general statement I can apply is that we can look into how it interacts with different types of priority in the metagame such as Ice Shard from Weavile or Aqua Jet from Urshifu. Either patching-up weaknesses to these types or turning these into resistances obviously goes a long way to make us harder to revenge kill, and as such I think this may be a factor worth considering when we want to determine our typing. I guess the other thing I should say is that we should try to pick some sort of type that isn't weak to Flying, as from all the types in respect to the current metagame, flying seems by far to be the easiest one to exploit with Diamond Storm, and as such I think it's essential that we at least somewhat play into this.

Bird Fact of the Day: The slowest top speed of any bird is that of the American Woodcock, clocking in at a blistering pace of 5 miles per hour.

lol woodcock

 

[dex]

I'm super happy with the conversation here! Looks like we have quite a few diverse takes on the direction we are heading in, which is something I am more than excited to see. I want to quickly summarize some of the discussion here and move on to some additional questions. For the time being, typing submissions are still closed. I also want to give a friendly reminder to stray away from discussing particular moves outside of Diamond Storm, as that does constitute poll jumping. To point out an example of this, there is obvious intrinsic synergy between Body Press and Diamond Storm which has seen a bit of discussion; but for now, lets just focus on types.

To start off my summary of the discussion so far, I want to make one point clear: I am not going to mandate Rock as a type during submissions. There have been many excellent points made showing that the Rock typing is not necessary to encourage the use of Diamond Storm, and while STAB is a nice plus for those that will eventually choose to submit a typing involving Rock, it is by no means a requirement. It has also become abundantly clear that we do not want to narrow down our options with regards to role through typing, so the playing field is going to be quite wide open. I think this is a good path forward, as Diamond Storm is an inherently diverse move. We've seen a number of types get a look from posters as pairing well with Diamond Storm, so I would appreciate a deeper dive into these types that you all feel most strongly about.

1. Are there any 4x weaknesses that CAP 31 would like to avoid given Diamond Storm's secondary effect?
2. Are there any key resistances that CAP 31 would like to have?
3. Are there any key types that CAP 31 would like to hit super effectively with STAB?
4. How much do weaknesses to Knock Off, U-turn, and Stealth Rock impact CAP 31? Would weaknesses to any of these seriously diminish CAP 31's ability to use Diamond Storm?

Bird Fact of the Day: Though it may seem unnatural, the Ameraucana Chicken naturally lays blue-colored eggs.

 

[Granny Pie]

Many great points have already been made in this thread, but I'd still like to throw in my 2 cents.

dex said:

1. How important is STAB given that we want to utilize Diamond Storm? Would certain roles appreciate STAB on it more than others?

Rock can be decent non-STAB coverage, especially in conjuction with Ground, Fire, Bug, Grass, and Flying STAB. However, there's not many reasons I see why many Pokémon would choose Diamond Storm as physical Rock coverage over Stone Edge. If we don't go with the Rock STAB route, I'm afraid we wouldn't be doing much other than offering CAP31 a slightly more accurate Stone Edge, which is incredibly underwhelming for a "Forbidden Fruit" concept.
That being said, offensive roles would certainly appreciate the move as both STAB and non-STAB more than a defensive role would. Offensive non-STAB Pokémon like LO Lando-T, Mega Pinsir, Blaziken use Stone Edge as coverage for ice, fire, and flying types. However, a defensive Pokémon would much rather use a stronger support move like Toxic, Roar, Rapid Spin, Stealth Rock, and the like. I'm afraid that a 50% chance to boost defense simply just doesn't offer that level of guaranteed usefulness.

dex said:

2. What types synergize well coverage-wise with Diamond Storm?

We all know this, but it's good to get down on paper. Rock is strong against Bug, Flying, Fire, and Ice, and resisted by Fighting, Ground, and Steel. We can now look at this in 2 ways: What Type Coverage helps Rock STAB, and what Types are helped by Rock coverage?

Rock STAB Synergy

Types	Fighting	Ground	Steel
Ice	□	☆	-
Fighting	□	□	☆
Ground	□	□	☆
Steel	□	□	-
Fire	□	□	☆
Water	□	☆	□
Grass	□	☆	-
Electric	□	○	□
Normal	□	□	-

Bug	-	□	-
Dark	-	□	□
Psychic	☆	□	-
Ghost	□	□	□
Flying	☆	□	-
Poison	□	-	○
Fairy	☆	□	-
Dragon	□	□	-

○ = no effect
- = resistance
□ = neutral
☆ = super effective

In a pure vacuum, Fighting, Ground, Fire, Water, and surpringly Ghost, all have good synergy with Rock, hitting all 3 of the types that resist Rock for at least Neutral Damage.

However, looking past the pure vacuum is where we will find the true strengths of synergy with STAB Diamond Storm. The best Fighting, Grounds, and Steels in the meta are best countered by some pretty interesting types.

Arghonaut, Tomohawk, Kerfluffle, Revenankh, Voodoom, Buzzwole, Urshifu, and Gapdos are all hit for super-effective damage by Fairy and Flying coverage alone, and most are hit for at least neutral damage in conjunction with Diamond Storm by Psychic (SE on all except Voodoom), Fighting (not Kerfluffle or Revenankh), Ground (all of them), Electric (SE on Arghonaut, Tomohawk, Urshifu, and Gapdos, no effect on Voodoom), Fire (not Arghonaut and Urshifu), Grass (all of them), Water (not Arghonaut or Urshifu), Normal (not Revenankh), Ghost (not Voodoom), Poison (not Revenankh), and Dragon (all of them).

Landorus-T, Garchomp, Hippowdon, Fidgit, Equilibra, and Colossoil are all hit at least neutral by Ice, Water, and Grass coverage alone, while most of them are hit for at least neutral in conjunction with Diamond Storm by Ground (not Equilibra), Ghost (not Colossoil), Normal (not Equilibra), Fighting (not Fidgit), Steel (not Equilibra), Fire (not Garchomp), Dark (not Colossoil), Flying (not Equilibra), Dragon (not Equilibra), Psychic (not Colossoil and Equilibra), and Fairy (not Fidgit and Equilibra).

Cawmodore, Equilibra, Kitsunoh, Naviathan, Bisharp, Corviknight, Ferrothorn, Heatran, Kartana, Magnezone, Melmetal, and Scizor are not all hit by a single type for neutral damage alone, but most of them are hit for at least neutral damage in conjunction with Diamond Storm by Fighting (not Kitsunoh), Ground (not Equilibra), Fire (all of them), Water (not Naviathan, Kartana, or Ferrothorn), Electric (not Equilibra, Ferrothorn, or Kartana), Dark (not Bisharp), and Ghost (not Bisharp).

We begin to see some interesting patterns.
Fighting coverage does really well against the meta's Fighting types, Ground types, and Steel types, failing only to hit Kerfluffle, Revenankh, Fidgit, Kitsunoh, and a few rarer Pokémon like Aegislash for neutral damage in conjunction with Diamond Storm.
Electric coverage deserves special note as it does extremely well against the meta's Fighting and Steel types, even better against bulky waters that would give a Rock type a hard time, but completely fails to help against all the Ground types and Ferrothorns CAP31 could run into.
Fire type coverage does the exact opposite, giving at least neutral damage in conjunction with Diamond Storm to almost every single Fighting, Ground, and Steel type in the meta, at the cost of being much worse offensively against bulky waters, while notably being SE against most Steel types.
Water does a very similar thing to Fire, giving at least neutral damage in conjunction with Diamond Storm to every Fighting, Ground, and Steel types in the meta except for the bulky Water types and Ferrothorn, and notably hitting most Ground types for SE damage.
Ground unsurprisingly does similarly, as EdgeQuake hits every single Fighting, Ground, and Steel type in the meta for neutral damage, barring Equilibra alone.
Ghost coverage is a surprise candidate here that also deserves special note, as it appears to do at least neutral damage in conjunction with Diamond Storm to everything in the meta barring Voodoom, Colossoil, and Bisharp.

Rock Coverage Synergy

Type	Bug	Fire	Flying	Ice
Ice	□	-	☆	-
Fighting	-	□	-	☆
Ground	-	☆	○	□
Steel	□	-	□	☆
Fire	☆	-	□	☆
Water	□	☆	□	□
Grass	-	-	-	□
Electric	□	□	☆	□
Normal	□	□	□	□

Bug	-	-	-	□
Dark	□	□	□	□
Psychic	□	□	□	□
Ghost	□	□	□	□
Flying	☆	□	□	□
Poison	□	□	□	□
Fairy	□	-	□	□
Dragon	□	□	□	□

○ = no effect
- = resistance
□ = neutral
☆ = super effective

Again, in a pure vacuum, Rock coverage is useful for Ice, Fighting, Ground, Steel, Fire, Grass, Bug, and Fairy types, hitting at least 1 type that they can't hit neutrally. Rock is especially good coverage for Grass and Bug types, hitting Bug, Fire, Flying, and Ice super effectively, 4 types that Grass and Bug struggle against both offensively and defensively. It also makes good coverage for Ice, Fighting, and Ground types, hitting 2 types that they struggle against offensively, as well as helping Ground against the Ice types that they struggle against defensively.

There's less to look at beyond the vacuum in this section, since it's hard to analyze how good Rock coverage in Diamond Storm would be to a Pokémon without knowing at least 1 base type for it.
We should be good to just note for future discussions that Rock coverage synergizes well with Grass, Bug, Ice, Fighting, and Ground types both offensively and defensively.

dex said:

3. Do we value narrowing the playing field with regards to what role CAP 31 will inhabit by giving it a more specified typing?

In my opinion, yes. As I've stated above, I do not believe that Diamond Storm's Defense boost offers enough utility to a defensive Pokémon to be worthwhile in fulfilling the concept set forth for CAP31. Diamond Storm as a strong, accurate, physical Rock type attack is better used as an offensive check or Counter to many of the modern CAP Meta threats.

Flying types are extremely strong right now. Cawmodore is arguably stronger than he's ever been, and while both Books have been slightly nerfed, they're still strong. Tomohawk has seen a rise, and Tornadus-T and Landorus-T are always good, alongside Zapdos, Gapdos, and Corviknight. While we could attempt to create a Defensive Pokémon to check or counter these powerful Flying types, I don't believe Diamond Storm as coverage alone will be the real reason why CAP31 would do well, which kind of goes against the concept.
If we want CAP31 to use the Forbidden Fruit of Diamond Storm as often as possible, we will want this Pokémon to use it primarily as a strong, offensive, Rock-type move with a useful secondary effect rather than use it as a quasi-setup move for its Defense, especially since it only has 8PP. The last thing you need for a move that you want to use defensively is such terribly low PP. You don't use Fire Blast or Steam Eruption for their Burn chance, you use them for their power first and foremost.

dex said:

4. Diamond Storm has a powerful secondary effect that can improve CAP 31's matchup into physical attackers. What are common physical attacking types that CAP 31 can leverage Diamond Storm's secondary effect against effectively?

Flying types immediately come to mind, followed closely by Fighting, Ground, and Steel types. If we decide to give CAP31 Body Press alongside Diamond Storm, with either STAB or not, the Rock and Fighting coverage threatens many physical types like Flying, Steel, Dark, Ice, and Bug.




To sum everything up, I really believe that we ought to focus CAP31 into a more Offensive Type, especially with Rock STAB, to focus on Diamond Storm being a strong, accurate, physical Rock-type move with a useful secondary effect rather than a defensive setup tool.
Fire, Water, Grass, Ice, Fighting, Ground, Electric, and Ghost coverage all have decent-to-great offensive synergy with Diamond Storm, with special attention going to Fire, Fighting, and Ground for beating Steels hard but being weak against bulky Waters, Water and Ice for beating Grounds hard but being weak against bulky Waters, Grass for beating Grounds and bulky Waters but being weak against Steels, Electric for beating bulky Waters but being weak against Grounds, and Ghost for being good at hitting everything offensively in exchange for not having a strength against bulky Waters.

 

[Granny Pie]

Oh hey new dex post while I was typing up my last one lol

dex said:

1. Are there any 4x weaknesses that CAP 31 would like to avoid given Diamond Storm's secondary effect?

Any and all 4x weaknesses are always a bad thing, but I think that special consideration ought to be given to avoiding 4x weaknesses to typically Physical types. If Diamond Storm is going to be used for its secondary effect, CAP31 can't let that boosted Defense go to waste by being blown up on the Physical side by a 4x SE move. Steel, Ground, and Fighting weaknesses immediately come to mind, since CAP31 will naturally invite those types of Pokémon in to try and minimize the damage their team takes from Diamond Storm. Inviting in Ferrothorn and immediately dying to Gyro Ball just sounds like CAP31 is failing to use Diamond Storm and its Defense boost correctly thanks to its typing.

dex said:

Are there any key resistances that CAP 31 would like to have?

In my opinion, Flying. Diamond Storm as Rock coverage alone helps CAP31 check many of the meta's Flying types, and resisting their STAB will come a long way in helping counter them. With several strong Physical Flying types like Cawm, the Books, and to a lesser extent, Gapdos and Corviknight doing well in the CAP Meta right now, the Defense boost from Diamond Storm will also help stave these threats off and help CAP31 check or counter them.

dex said:

Are there any key types that CAP 31 would like to hit super effectively with STAB?

Again, I would say Flying. However, I know that poll jumps a bit by insinuating that CAP31 oughta be a Rock type, so I'll more or less leave it at that.
Moving on, I also believe that at least one of Fighting, Ground, and Steel also ought to be hit super effectively by CAP31's STAB, with a small honorable mention going to Water. A Pokémon designed around using Diamond Storm to its fullest extent will naturally invite in Pokémon of these 4 types, and while CAP31 maybe shouldn't completely counter every single Pokémon of this demographic, I believe it should at least have the tools to deal with many of them, whether that be offensively or defensively.

dex said:

How much do weaknesses to Knock Off, U-turn, and Stealth Rock impact CAP 31? Would weaknesses to any of these seriously diminish CAP 31's ability to use Diamond Storm?

I like dex asking this, because I believe that weaknesses to Dark and Bug would be detrimental to CAP31. These are 2 of the most common moves in any metagame, especially CAP, and eating a SE hit on the switch by anything that universally common and spammable would stop CAP31 before it even begun. However, I don't think that a Stealth Rock neutrality or even a weakness would significantly harm the use of Diamond Storm, though it is something to think about.
Something super interesting to consider, however, is that the Fighting type would offer CAP31 resistances to all of Dark, Bug, and Rock, while giving it at best a neutrality to Flying, which kind of forces CAP31 to be an offensive check to many Flying types with Diamond Storm instead of a defensive one.



If it's okay, I'd like to bring up the merits and flaws of a few specific type combinations that I've thought of since writing up my first post. In case it's not okay, I'll keep all of these thoughts in a spoiler tag for easy ignoring or editing out.

Thoughts on Specific Typings

Rock/Steel immediately comes to mind as a hard Flying counter, especially to the Books Flying+Poison STAB and Cawm's Acrobatics+Bullet Punch, while resisting Stealth Rocks as well. However, it does terribly against any and all Fighting and Ground-type moves thanks to the dual 4x weaknesses, including Torn-T's Focus Blast, Lando-T's Earthquake, Cawm's Drain Punch, and Tomo's Aura Sphere.
Rock/Flying does the opposite, trading the Rock resist for a weakness and the Steel resist for a weakness, but gaining an immunity to Ground and a neutrality to Fighting.
Rock/Ground also has a Rock and Flying resistance, but essentially trades terrible defenses with a 4x Grass and Water weakness, a Steel weakness, a Ground weakness, and a Fighting weakness for unparalleled Offensive Coverage in STAB EdgeQuake.
Steel/Flying gives CAP31 an edge over all of the Fighting, Ground, and Steel types that Diamond Storm will invite in, as none of them will hit it with SE STAB. This typing also keeps the Flying resist, and, very interestingly, is only threatened by Electric types on paper since Diamond Storm should dissuade any Fire types from wantonly switching in, which in the long term, could indirectly make Flying types weaker simply by making Electric types more relevant in the meta.
Rock/Electric, Rock/Fire, and Rock/Water all fill similar niches by giving CAP31 a Steel resist and, in Rock/Fire's case, a way to threaten those same Steel types.
In fact, Flying/Any Type has several merits, resisting Fighting and being immune to Ground. I've discussed the merits of Flying/Rock and Flying/Steel, but Flying/Fire and Flying/Electric stand out to me specifically because they not just resist and scare the Steels that Diamond Storm invites in, but also resist Flying in the case of Flying/Electric to help CAP31 counter the meta's Flying types, kinda like how Cawmodore has no answer to Zapdos at all.
Similarly, a fascinating idea to me is Bug/Any Type. Aside from the possibility of U-Turn, Bug packs the rare ability to resist both Fighting and Ground. This means a Bug/Rock type wouldn't be weak to Flying types, and would only fear the bulky Waters and Steels Diamond Storm invites in. A Bug/Electric type resists Fighting and Steel and is only neutral to Ground, and threatens bulky Waters while keeping that key Flying neutrality and only being afraid of Fire and Rock types. Most insanely, a Bug/Steel type would defensively only fear Fire types, which Diamond Storm naturally keeps off the field. No wonder Scizor has no Rock coverage.

 

[Amamama]

dex said:

Are there any 4x weaknesses that CAP 31 would like to avoid given Diamond Storm's secondary effect?

I think that being 4xweak to ground or fighting will make the effect of Diamond Storm less impactful, as we can’t afford to stay in on a gamble on procuring the stat boost.
That said I don’t think, that we can look at typings in this binary way alone, as we will have options down the line to mitigate these issues. On paper mons like Zeraora:Zeraora:, Koko:Tapu Koko:, Heatran:Heatran: or even fucking Mollux:Mollux: suck against Ground but in practice end up being really good pressures to Lando:Landorus-Therian:for example, bc they continuously force it in and wear it down with strong neutral attacks and chip damage.
If anything I’d say being BOTH 4xweak to AND incapable of heavily pressuring even one of ground, fighting or steel AT THE SAME TIME should be avoided, but that is ultimately not down only to typing, but also abilities and moves, so I wouldn’t worry if we ended up with a suboptimal typing into one of these, so long as the typing has desirable characteristics for the use of Diamond Storm.

dex said:

Are there any key resistances that CAP 31 would like to have?

I think being able to switch into most Flying attacks would definitely be helpful, as Diamond Storm becomes very spammable if we counter flyings overall. So a Rock, Steel or Electric type seems valuable. I don’t think that anything else is quite as valuable, or clear cut. I still believe it would be nice to have a good matchup into Fire types and we should not actively lose to Weavile:Weavile: and to lesser extent Syclant:Syclant: as a Strong Rock move is a great option to threaten them out So Rock and Fire as well as Fighting type combinations might be interesting.

dex said:

Are there any key types that CAP 31 would like to hit super effectively with STAB?

Imo this is much more important than the question of weaknesses.
Frankly if we want a role that leans into wallbreaking or a Mon that appreciates the defensive stat boosts it will suck if this Mon Clicks Diamond Storm and Pex:Toxapex:,Argho:Arghonaut:,Bro:Slowbro:or Corvi:Corviknight:come in, suck it up, drain our PP and stall out our moves.
Rock is a solid attacking typing, but it doesn’t threaten any of the mons with reliable recovery in the meta and 8 pp means we will have trouble with reliability into any of these mons, especially Pex and Argho, which just ignore any boost and Corvi which deters us from clicking Diamond Storm, due to fear of losing PP too fast, especially if it’s our main attacking move.
People have said, that hitting grounds or steels is very important, but I don’t think it is as important as hitting at least some of the aforementioned hard, because none of the steels and only one of the grounds, that resist Diamond Storm have reliable recovery and thus can be worn down over the course of a game. So as long as we have solid neutral Coverage into most of these Mons, CAP 31 will be able to make progress.

The issue of not making progress against these defensive mons, might be less important, if CAP 31 has the ability to reliably check some of the offensive threats in the meta, similar to how Colo:Colossoil:, Melm:Melmetal:, Scarf Kart:Kartana:/Lele:Tapu Lele:/Fini:Tapu Fini:, Urshif:Urshifu:or Zeraora:Zeraora:deal with some of the strongest offensive threats, while struggling to beat some walls on their own.

This brings me back to the second question:
I think it can be valuable to have a typing that checks strong offensive meta threats defensively and or pressures them offensively.
Typings like Fairy Steel or Dark are great for this purpose.

dex said:

How much do weaknesses to Knock Off, U-turn, and Stealth Rock impact CAP 31? Would weaknesses to any of these seriously diminish CAP 31's ability to use Diamond Storm?

Imo Uturn is entirely a non issue and Stealth Rock is an issue, that can be dealt with even though it can be a considerable weakness.
None of these two should be a priority.
Knock Off I think should not be a weakness, because being able to deal with Weavile is cool for any Mon, that uses Rock moves.

 

[pyuking muku]

Are there any 4x weaknesses that CAP 31 would like to avoid given Diamond Storm's secondary effect?

As others have mentioned, ‘physical’ 4x weaknesses like Fighting, Ground, Steel, Bug, and Rock should be avoided. While not necessarily all of them have to be avoided, it’s best to mitigate them. Additionally, I’d like to advocate for avoiding a 4x Water weakness. Several people have mentioned that our lovely bulky waters like Bro, Pex, and Argh can easily switch in on Diamond Storm, waste its precious PP, and set up Future Sight, cripple us with Scald, Haze our boosts, or phase us with Circle Throw. If we’re going to be especially crippled by Scald, it shouldn’t do 1/2 HP to us.

Are there any key resistances that CAP 31 would like to have?

I think resisting both Flying and Fire should be essential for CAP 31. This will allow it to switch into the mons it can actually threaten with Diamond Storm, like Books and Astro.

Are there any key types that CAP 31 would like to hit super effectively with STAB?

Again, I think that bulky Waters will be a huge issue for us without SE STAB. I’d like to especially advocate for Electric STAB. This can allow us to effectively threaten the bulky Waters who eat Diamonds for breakfast and especially Corviknight who can slurp up our Diamond Storm PP.

How much do weaknesses to Knock Off, U-turn, and Stealth Rock impact CAP 31? Would weaknesses to any of these seriously diminish CAP 31's ability to use Diamond Storm?

I personally don’t think these are a huge issue for CAP 31, but because we’re going to play at least a semi-defensive role through boosts, I think thar we should not be weak to more than one of these. This should help us to avoid being chipped down, especially given boosts. I think that the worst one to be weak to would be U-turn, which should be relatively easy to avoid. The only type that seems very good to use with Rock attacks that is weak to Bug is Grass. Psychic and Dark aren’t all that useful, and Psychic is weak to both Knock Off and U-turn, so I’d heavily discourage it.

 

[Da Pizza Man]

Brambane said:

I am going to make this post quick and short since most people already touched upon this point. This somewhat creeps into the checks and counters stage but this is a point that feels best addressed early. I don't think we can have a bad Toxapex match-up; I think having a bad Toxapex match-up is basically forfeiting the concept since the sequence will play out with it switching into Diamond Storm, wasting your PP and worse of all, hazing your Defense boosts. Considering that most people would agree that the +2 Defense component Diamond Storm is most interesting and worth preserving, letting Toxapex metaphorically tie us up and bang our dad is going to feel like it literally tied us up and banged our dad.

I bring this up here since Toxapex is one of those mons so good at preserving its HP and incredibly bulky that threatening it with unSTABed coverage, especially physical coverage, is tough. 252+ Melm doesn't even reliably 2HKO with EQ, and that mon has 423 Attack for reference. It's particularly risky as a physical attacker (I don't think its a tremendous leap of logic to say Diamond Storm means we will be somewhat physically inclined) because if it can't/doesn't have to Recover in your face, it can Scald your face. At some point in this process, we are going to have to decide how we break open Toxapex; typing is a good stage for that.

This post is pretty targeted at a specific Pokemon, and I know Pex is an easy mon to point fingers at, so bear with me. I don't think we need to target every defensive threat in the game, but Toxapex (and to a lesser extent, Circle Throw/Whirlwind/Clear Smog users) seem completely antithetical to the most fascinating part about Diamond Storm. Even to the point that brushing it off to "build a team where your teammates can handle Toxapex for 31" is not sufficient (or nearly as fun from a project design standpoint imo.)

I gave a bit of a response to this on Discord yesterday but I figured I would post it in the thread as well just for prosperity sake, as well as to expand upon what said a bit.

While I agree with the notion that not losing to Toxapex is something we can't really afford to do, I question whether or not this is really the right stage to be worrying about this. I think there a good number of type combinations for this project that don't necessarily have a positive match-up against Toxapex right out of the gate, but at the same time have a bunch of other positive aspects to them that make them appealing for us. Hyper-focusing on the Toxapex match-up at this stage I feel heavily restricts our available options, and while I understand (and agree with the notion) that having a somewhat limited pool of options can actually be a good thing as it can help maintain our focus, this feels like it would be too limiting for us. Generally, I think the best approach to take regarding this question is to just avoid types that get completely shit-canned by Toxapex, but at the same time we should be open to options that aren't necessarily positive matchups.

Also while I'm mostly talking about Toxapex in this post, I feel this could be applied to a lot of different Pokemon in the current metagame. I feel that in general we are sort of in a weird situation where we want to deal with a bunch of different shit at the same time (Beating Grounds, beating Steels, beating bulky waters (especially Toxapex), and give Diamond Storm STAB), but it's just not going to be possible to do all of them at once. I think in general we are just going to have to accept the fact that we need to sacrifice one of these things at this stage of the game, and either rely on future stages to grant us these things or just cut our losses.

Anyways, I will probably respond to dex's new questions later on I guess.

 

[Voltage]

A 4x multiplying weakness is something that we, as a group making CAP31, should not be afraid of with respect to making a viable mon. I think that if we look at Diancie and it's 4x weakness to Steel, we can see that Diancie still has a clear and defined weakpoint in its defenses despite a very reasonable Rock/Fairy typing even with a +2 Defense boost. Mega Diancie, and to an extent vanilla Diancie, both still very much fear any kind of physical Steel type attack even after a +2 Defense boost. A 4x weakness is always detrimental to a mon, but it doesn't make it outright unusable. Consider, for example, Ferrothorn and Scizor. Both are absolute defensive monsters that are 4x weak to Fire. They are still completely viable and valid threats in CAP (especially with Ferrothorn). These both have Steel type, so perhaps another example might be useful too. Consider something like Landorus-Therian. 4x weak to Ice, but arguably the best Pokemon in this and plenty of other metagames. I say this all to just point out that a 4x weakness is not the end of the world and will not render this mon unviable. All of the mons I listed all have ways to mitigate this significant type weakness through abilities and stats. If we take a similar approach with CAP31, we can absolutely afford a 4x weakness. Hell, it might even allow us to have a few more options for fun and powerful stat and ability combinations going forward. Am I absolutely for a 4x weakness and suggesting this mon absolutely have one? No. But I think that we shouldn't be afraid to consider a typing with a 4x weakness.

While the Rock type is not mandated here, I think it makes complete sense to ensure CAP 31 gets STAB on Diamond Storm in order to maximize its output power. Flying types currently dominate the meta, no thanks to CAP 30 and other common long standing threats like Tornadus-T and Landorus-T. It's no surprise that Meteor Beam spam has arisen in order to combat this excess of flying-spam. It logic follows, then that in order to be confident that we get maximal returns out of Diamond Storm from an offense standpoint, that CAP 31 get STAB on Diamond Storm. This would also allow for an inherent resistance to Flying and Fire types that are significantly obnoxious in the metagame right now, which would carve out a niche for the mon.

With respect to typing well, I think there's a lot of merit in choosing a secondary typing that synergizes well with boosting one's defense very quickly. For example, we might consider a typing that is otherwise weak to a lot of common physical attacking moves, such that it would benefit from a +2 Defense boost. This might well ensure that CAP 31 still has some moderate weaknesses that can be played around even when user gets stupidly lucky in spamming Diamond Storm and getting to +6 Defense. I would also be interested in seeing if we could get STAB on moves that become stronger from having general stat boosts as a result. While avoiding poll jumping, a +2 Defense boost 50% of the time might allow for some riskier, more situational play.

When considering the three best moves in the metagame, Knock Off, U-Turn and Stealth Rock, I think having a type that ideally is resistant to at least one of these is essential. I am of the opinion that we shouldn't pigeonhole ourselves with our typing to require a resistance to Knock Off or U-turn since there are other ways that we can work around these moves. That said, I do think a Stealth Rock resistance would be greatly beneficial for CAP31 as it allows CAP31 that much more longevity in matches. A weakness to Stealth Rocks in generation 8 almost mandates that CAP31 run Heavy Duty Boots, which will likely limit our options for competitive sets down the line. In contrast, a resistance to Stealth Rocks opens a lot of doors for various other items in competitive sets, making CAP31 a much more interesting and, in my opinion, valuable process. Obviously, a weakness to Knock Off or U-turn is not idea, but I figure as long as we're at least neutral to at least one of these moves, I think we'll be fine.

 

[shnowshner]

dex said:

Are there any 4x weaknesses that CAP 31 would like to avoid given Diamond Storm's secondary effect?

Breaking down this question is a bit difficult because we need to consider when being 4x weak is significantly worse than being 2x weak or not even weak at all.

Take for example a 4x weakness to Water. This is enough to scare us out of even the weakest Water-type moves in the metagame simply because of how inflated the damage multipliers are. But looking closer into what Water-type moves are being used, should we be staying in versus them at all? Scald is incredibly common, and as we're almost certainly going to have a physical bias of some sort, Scald is a move we need to be extremely careful around. Similarly, though we don't know our Stats yet, our potential +2 boosts from Diamond Storm aren't going to really help us versus the primarily-special Water-type attacks used in the metagame, and the best Water-type Physical Attacker in the tier just so happens to bypass any Defense boosts we get with Surging Strikes barring us having like Battle Armor or something. Is being 4x weak to Water any worse than simply being a Physical Attacker in a world of Scald burns?

I feel there's a double-edged relationship between how vulnerable we are to damage and our ability to patch up our Defense stat just by attacking. You could say that being weak to Stealth Rock, for example, is antithetical to our concept, because we want to preserve as much health as possible; but you could also argue that being weak to Stealth Rock is fine given that our ability to tank hits after Diamond Storm boosts means we can afford to lose some of our HP and still get mileage out of it. If we can turn a losing matchup versus a type that hits us 4x into one that's skewed more in our favor, I would say that's actualizing the benefits Diamond Storm brings to us in one of the best ways possible.

Though I had just used it as an example, if there's any type I think we want to avoid being 4x weak to, I'd wager it'd be Rock for the simple fact that taking ~1/2 our HP from Stealth Rocks would absolutely mandate that we use Heavy-Duty Boots or have to pair up with some insane hazard control to function, at which point the benefit of adding 31 to your team would need to be extremely high given how much the opportunity cost would be. Venomicon-Epilogue is an example of how being Rocks weak can be manageable if what you bring to the table is good enough, but initial release Epilogue was far from a balanced addition to the metagame, and it didn't lose half its HP every time you had to bring in it on Rocks either. Otherwise, I feel we could absolutely afford having a heavy weakness or two if it's a typing we already didn't want much to do with anyway, or can leverage with stats and Diamond Storm.

dex said:

Are there any key resistances that CAP 31 would like to have?

Given the nature of CAP 31 so far, Fire and Flying sound key to our success. A Rock-typing would secure that immediately, but isn't 100% the go-to. Still, since Diamond Storm is the move we're basing ourselves around, and thus our main targets will end up being Fire- and Flying-types, it makes sense to cover for their attacking type as well. Similarly, Ice would be a great resistance to have, even if Ice-types are limited in number compared to the other two.

Ground may be harder have a resistance to, but I feel it's extremely important. Lando, Heatran, VenomP, Pyroak, Astro, and the more niche Volcanion all make use of Ground-type coverage, and all off these are potential targets of use due to being weak to rock and/or being vulnerable to chip. If we want to switch into or stay in versus these mons, reducing the damage we take from their Ground-type moves in vital.

dex said:

How much do weaknesses to Knock Off, U-turn, and Stealth Rock impact CAP 31? Would weaknesses to any of these seriously diminish CAP 31's ability to use Diamond Storm?

I already covered Stealth Rock so I'm mention Knock Off instead. This move is annoying for almost every Pokemon in the metagame, at best you're either Epilogue or like Static Zapdos and paralyze a Torn-T or somethin, and neither exactly wants to take the move 100% of the time since Epilogue wants to keep itself healthy as much as possible and Zapdos still loses its ever-important item.

Knock is one of the few Physical moves that no amount of Defense boosts will make us comfortable to take, since losing our item sucks and there's not really a good angle around that. That said, going back to what I mentioned earlier about using our potential boosts to leverage our remaining HP with greater impunity, Knock Off could very well be both a curse yet a blessing to us: Knock Off is often used more as a support tool than a damaging attack, and the opponent using a non-lethal move against us means more time to fish for Diamond Storm boosts or whatever we may want to do. If we're staring down a Lando-T at +2 and it decides to stay in and Knock Off before switching out, since we don't like losing our item, that's an extra two turns we get at our disposal for the cost of, what? 15% of our HP? It's an abstract take for sure, but I think encouraging the opponent to spend time using a weaker Physical move on us when one of our main attacks can increase our Defense stat is another good way of extracting value from our concept, though this does rely heavily on the rest of our kit being cohesive.

All that said, I don't think being Knock-weak is the end of the world for us outside of us choosing a type that is really dependent on an item to work, or if we face some serious restrictions in our movepool that means losing our item sends us on a death march, neither of which are things that have been decided for us at the present time.

 

[Brown4Sides]

Answered questions 2 and 3 first because I felt like I had better answers for them at first, edited again with questions 1 and 4.

dex said:

Are there any 4x weaknesses that CAP 31 would like to avoid given Diamond Storm's secondary effect?

This really depends on the kind of Pokemon we want to beat. I would avoid 4x weaknesses to Dark, Ice, and Electric if we want our Diamond Storm boosts to prevent it from being revenge killed by Weavile and Zeraora. Ground and Fighting are bad to be 4x weak to as well because they are very common physically attacking types. Fire wouldn't be a good 4x weakness to have if we want to beat Astrolotl, and Water, Psychic and Fairy wouldn't be good 4x weaknesses either if we want to beat Water types such as Toxapex, Slowbro, or Tapu Fini. I think having one of these would be fine, but I definitely don't think it should have any more than one.

dex said:

Are there any key resistances that CAP 31 would like to have?

Flying really sounds like the best thing for CAP 31 to resist. It allows it to switch-in on the many Flying type Pokemon in the tier so it can then attack them with a super-effective Diamond Storm. Types that resist Fire and Electric would also be useful as the Flying type Pokemon in this metagame are seen running those types of moves as well.

dex said:

Are there any key types that CAP 31 would like to hit super effectively with STAB?

I think types that hit Water and Poison super-effectively would make the best STABs. I agree with Brambane that whether or not Toxapex can switch into CAP 31 makes or breaks this concept. Types that are super-effective against Steel would also be useful, but I think Water types take priority over them, because I also agree with quziel that bulky Steel types are easier to wear down than bulky Water types.

dex said:

How much do weaknesses to Knock Off, U-turn, and Stealth Rock impact CAP 31? Would weaknesses to any of these seriously diminish CAP 31's ability to use Diamond Storm?

It can be weak to one of these, but being weak to 2 or all would harm it. I think weaknesses to Knock Off and Stealth Rock kinda go hand in hand, by being weak to Stealth Rock, you will probably run Heavy-Duty Boots, making you weak to Knock Off. I don't think we should exhaust a lot of energy into using our typing to defend ourselves from these moves, as power isn't what makes any of them strong. But I don't think we should be weak to 2 or all of these either.

 

[pyuking muku]

Continuing on the hydrophobic train, I think that Electric would be not only a good offensive type, but a surprisingly useful defensive type. As there are many Steels (Corviknight, Ferrothorn, Libra, Magnezone) that might want to swap in on a Diamond Storm, Electric typing allows us to resist their Steel STABs. Additionally, this allows us to resist Flying, the bane of everyone’s existence. This can give us a massive niche by being able to easily swap into a strong Flying attack and threaten them right back with a SE Diamond Storm. An Electric resistance is nothing to sneeze at either, as it could allow us to soft check Zeraora given boosts and shut down Zapdos. And as a small bonus, CAP31 becomes immune to paralysis! While a Ground weakness is certainly far from ideal, given that it’s the second-most common physical attacking type, Electric’s defensive utility shouldn’t be ignored.

Another surprise defensive type is Ghost. While normally associated with the offensive spamming of Dragapult and Pajantom, Ghost provides two immunities, one to the most common physical attacking type: Fighting. This can help alleviate a lot of pressure from depending on Diamond Storm boosts. Additionally, Ghost provides a Bug resistance, which can help reduce the chip of physical attackers pivoting out after a boost. Finally, we can spinblock, for whatever that’s worth. While Knock Off weakness never feels good, I think that the defensive utility of Ghost typing is overlooked. On top of all this, it provides great neutral coverage with Diamond Storm.

Something in common between these two types are the relative lack of weaknesses or resistances. Having a way to boost our defense will allow neutralities to become resistances and our weaknesses become neutralities, á la Chromera. Having few weaknesses and many neutralities seems very pro-Diamond Storm.

 

[Da Pizza Man]

Are there any 4x weaknesses that CAP 31 would like to avoid given Diamond Storm's secondary effect?

Flying: In my opinion, this is the most important type to avoid a weakness to in general, let alone a 4x weakness. A large part of the appeal of Rock as an offensive type, and by extension Diamond Storm, is the ability to cover Flying types and is something I think is essential to play into for this process. Having a 4x weakness to Flying heavily restricts our ability to do this, especially when at the moment, a lot of the more relevant Flying types in the metagame are Special Attackers who don't really care about Diamond Storm boosts.
Water: Like I said in response to Brambane, it's imperative that we avoid having a significant weakness to bulky waters, especially Toxapex. It goes without saying that if we want to be able to not lose hard to bulky waters, we need to limit how much damage we are taking from Scald, and as a result I think we should avoid having a 4x weakness to. Although unlike Flying, having a regular weakness to Water is perfectly fine in my opinion, as with the exception of Tapu Fini (and even that it depends on the Set), Scald from bulky water types generally doesn't do too much damage in most cases (Slowbro can't even OHKO Stratagem after hazards without the burn, a water weak mon with piss poor bulk) and the threat has always just been the burn, something that is mostly unavoidable at this stage without locking ourselves into Fire.

Other than those two, there aren't really a whole lot of 4x Weakness that we really need to avoid. I kinda want to say that we should avoid having more than one 4x weakness, but the vast majority of type combinations with multiple 4x weaknesses aren't super going to be super relevant here anyways, so I don't think that's really something that we need to worry about for the most part.

I'm not going to really cover any of the other questions mostly because I feel like everyone else here has sort of covered a lot of what I would say.

 

[dex]

I'm glad to see such excellent conversation here so far! To quickly summarize the past few questions:

1. 4x weaknesses to Flying, Water, Ground, Fighting, and Steel are seen as undesirable. While these do not make or break a typing, and a typing can absolutely get by with one of them, there needs to be appropriate recompense for having one.
2. Key resistances include Flying, Fire, Ice, Electric, and Ground, as these are all common revenge killing types or targets of Diamond Storm. Water is another resistance that may seem useful, as many a bulky Water-type will seek to sponge Diamond Storm.
3. There has been strong support for hitting Water-types super effectively due to the numerous bulky Waters in the tier. Another type that was mentioned here was Steel, as there are a number of bulky Steel-types like PhysDef Heatran, Melmetal, and Corviknight that can comfortably switch into Diamond Storm.
4. Of the three of Knock Off, U-turn, and Stealth Rock, a weakness to Knock Off seems to be the most debilitating to a Diamond Storm user; however, resiting these moves is deemed as not super important and would be more of a bonus than anything.

With that, I am going to open typing submissions! I've prepared a few guiding questions that I would like you to answer when submitting your typing. As a reminder, the Rock type is not required. Please make sure to very clearly note what typing you are submitting at the beginning of your post. Additionally, feedback posts and support/dislike posts are heavily encouraged; it is always nice to know what options get the most community support.

1. What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?
2. Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31? (ex. Stealth Rock resistance, immunity to a status, etc.)
3. What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?
4. Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?
5. How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise? If this type does not have STAB on Diamond Storm, how does it justify using the move and how much value does the extra STAB coverage provide?

Excited to see what y'all come up with!

Bird Fact of the Day: The Toucan has the biggest bill-to-body ratio of any bird; however, its bill is not solid. It is formed of a lattice of hollow sections, making it much lighter than its appearance portrays.

 

[quziel]

Submitting Rock / Lobster type

Rock / Normal typing is fairly nice for us simply because it takes the existing defensive palette of Rock-Typing, that is, resisting Flying, Fire, and some other less important typings, and adds on the incredibly relevant Ghost-immunity at the cost of turning out Fighting-weakness from 2x to 4x. This is very relevant as it lets us occupy a role similar to current Weavile, aka a Pokemon that immediately threatens choiced Ghost-types with setup (in our case defensive) or heavy damage. Additionally, while turning our Fighting-weakness from 2x to 4x definitely hurts us, it is not hyper relevant against the Flying-types we wish to target. While Tornadus-Therian can definitely run Superpower (and AV Superpower does exist), its far from the most common coverage option on its moveset, and Zapdos literally does not run this coverage. Considering Fire-types, the only one that commonly runs Fighting-type coverage is Blaziken, a Pokemon we would definitely lose to unless we're well, Rock/Ghost. I should also note that the Fighting-weakness that this typing adds is very relevant against Body-press users, of which Corviknight, Magnezone, Slowbro, and Ferrothorn are the only relevant in the meta. That said, Body Press is often non-stab and is only 80 BP; we'd only need 60/60 uninvested stats to tank a Corv BP after a Dstorm boost. I should also note that most Rock-types are likely to do poorly into Ferrothorn and Slowbro barring access to super-effective coverage.

As for the offensive element its far less prominent here, but having access to the strong neutral coverage against Ground-types and Fighting-types is what Normal brings to the table here. There are options on the Physical and Special side that are far above 100 BP, and also options on both sides for moves that carry significant utility in addition to damage.

This typing is offers a unique and in-demand defensive profile by naturally compressing many Fire-Types (most notably Blacephalon), Zapdos, Tornadus, and Dragapult into one slot, which is incredibly relevant for roles such as Wallbreaking, Tanking, and Cleaning (a la Weavile). It does trade a crippling weakness to Fighting-type attacks for this, but this does not affect too many of our naturally strong matchups.

To directly address questions that were not covered in the above:

1. What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?

The main benefit here is a Ghost-immunity, which lets this typing get in without taking damage, force out a likely choiced Ghost-type, and therefore buy space to boost its defenses enough with Diamond storm to tank through incoming Earthquakes.

2. Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31?

Nope.

3. What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?

The most relevant of these are those that are already present in Rock-typing itself, primarily Ground-type attacks (notably Earthquake as coverage or used by defensive Pokemon) and Steel-type attacks (more limited, difficult to tank through a DiB).

4. Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?

This typing seeks to use it both offensive and defensively. STAB Diamond Storm is very likely to be a major part of this Pokemon's offensive arsenal, giving the lion's share of your SE hits, and will likely be how this Pokemon forces switches. As a typing that relies on Immunities and Resisted hits to get in, this typing is situated to get in freely and then break using the space afforded by Diamond Storm. That said, the defense boosts are also potentially game winning by buying time against common Ground-type switchins, thus denying one of the most common resists to Diamond Storm.

5. How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise?

The following are B+ viable or above and either resist Rock, or have substantial Physical Bulk.

Both: Ferrothorn, Magnezone, Melmetal, Arghonaut

Rock: Garchomp, Kartana, Urshifu-RS, Colossoil, Revenankh

Bulk: Landorus-Therian, Toxapex, Slowbro, Corviknight

Normal-typing does not hit any pokemon in the Both or Bulk category super-effectively, so is not a benefit against them. Normal-STAB hits Garchomp, Urshifu-RS, Colossoil neutrally, so is a major benefit against them. Normal-STAB is a benefit against Landorus-Therian if we come in on it, rather than the other way around.

----

other stuff that is v cool is Grass/X (X could be legit nothing fwiw), Ground/X, Rock/Elec, Rock/Ground (both of which threaten pex heavily).

----

Gonna push back against

1) We must be able to hit Pex SE with a STAB:

Water-types: Bulky Water-types such as Gastrodon and Toxapex can switch into Mega Diancie and take little from its STAB attacks, but Toxapex has to be wary of Earth Power after Stealth Rock damage.

Mdia could not hit Pex SE, and still could break it (without a boosting item mind you). We are fully capable of carrying non-STAB coverage for the Pexxer, an ability that targets it specifically (eg immunity to Burn/Toxic), or just the move Taunt.

2) 4x weaknesses must be avoided

This goes back to Pex/Bro, but its ok to lose to a mon if you can damage it hard. Camerupt-Mega could break Toxapex despite taking 5000 from Scald. Yes I'm using megas as examples, but try to find other mons that are 4x weak to water (in general, there legit ain't many). Garchomp could easily break Kyurem, arguably the best way to deal damage to Landorus atm is Air Balloon Heatran.

 

[Da Pizza Man]

Submitting Rock/Flying

What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?

The big ones here are the Fire and Flying resists. As mentioned by many people in the thread, including myself, resisting Fire and Flying is going to be very valuable since for the most part, those are going to be what we are trying to get Diamond Storm boosts off of. The Ground immunity also helps this to a noticeable degree, since both Venomicon and a good number of the more notable Fire-Types (Pyroak, Astrolotl, and Heatran) tend to run Ground coverage to complement their Fire and Flying moves, which we thankfully don't have to worry about by virtue of this typing.

Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31? (ex. Stealth Rock resistance, immunity to a status, etc.)

Mostly just the things that are offered by the virtue of being a Flying-Type, such as the spikes immunity and ground immunity, both of which, especially the later, are quite valuable on a Rock-Type. That being said, the Stealth Rock weakness does make this typing a bit of a double-edged sword.

What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?

The biggest weakness that is patched-up by Diamond Storm is definitely going to be Ice. While there is pretty much no world here where Weavile wants to switch-in on us, the Ice weakness noticeably makes it very easy for us to be revenged killed by it. The Defense Boost from Diamond Storm does a good job to help fix this by noticeably weakening Ice Shard and makes Triple Axel a bit more managable as well. In a similar vein, it also helps with the Urshifu match-up by weakening Aqua Jet, although unlike with Weavile it doesn't help with its main attack (Surging Strikes) since that just ignores the boosts. Outside of helping deal with priority we are weak too, I would say that it most notably helps deal with Zeraora and Melmetal.

Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?

Generally, I would say that there is a very clear offensive bias in regards to how this typing uses Diamond Storm.

 

[snake]

Going to bring two typings to the table - one with Rock-type and one without Rock type. (I got sniped by DPM's post while writing but I'm not deleting all this)

Rock / Flying:

dex said:

What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?

Out of all the Rock typings, Flying is one of the best that compliments it. First, by being immune to Ground-type moves, it actually solidifies the valuable Fire-type resistance that Rock provides, as the most relevant Fire-types (Heatran, Astrolotl, and Pyroak) all run Ground-type coverage. No other Rock-types (excluding abilities) can boast this, as Rock / Grass and Rock / Bug would be weak to Fire. Rock / Flying also retains the invaluable Flying-type resistance, which is also great. These defensive merits open a Rock / Flying CAP31 to switch in and use STAB Diamond Storm very effectively.

dex said:

Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31? (ex. Stealth Rock resistance, immunity to a status, etc.)

It...mandates Heavy-Duty Boots. Not all typings are perfect.

dex said:

What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?

It's very weak to priority moves like Ice Shard from Weavile and Aqua Jet from Urshifu, but if Rock / Flying CAP31 can use Diamond Storm offensively, the Defense boosts that come with it could help survive those moves. Furthermore, Diamond Storm boosts could help it survive Zeraora's Plasma Fists.

dex said:

Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?

This typing aims to use Diamond Storm as an offensive tool, but as stated in the previous question, it would definitely appreciate a Defense boost when using Diamond Storm.

dex said:

How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise? If this type does not have STAB on Diamond Storm, how does it justify using the move and how much value does the extra STAB coverage provide?

Secondary Flying-type STAB would cover Fighting-types like Arghonaut and Urshifu-R and some neutral Pokemon like Kartana, but admittedly that's about it. Flying typing doesn't help with Steel-types, which can sponge Diamond Storm easily. Flying typing is mostly there for its defensive merits, so these deficits could be fixed with coverage or status moves.

It's important to note that unlike non-Rock typings, including Diamond Storm as its best STAB move means that Diamond Storm will definitely see usage. Non-Rock typings have to worry about whether or not Diamond Storm will be worthwhile as coverage.

----

Ground / Fighting:

dex said:

How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise? If this type does not have STAB on Diamond Storm, how does it justify using the move and how much value does the extra STAB coverage provide?

Answering this question first.

Ground / Fighting solves a very interesting puzzle. How do you make a typing that really wants to run Diamond Storm for coverage against Flying-types but can still break open Corviknight? Ground / Fighting does that very well. STAB Fighting-type moves can be strong enough to crack open Corviknight, while Diamond Storm picks up the slack against the rest, like Zapdos, Tornadus-T, and Venomicon. Diamond Storm should chip Landorus-T as well. As a Fighting-type, it has great value of not being completely walled by Toxapex, fearing its Ground-type STAB. Of course, it's not unwallable (Landorus-T, Slowbro, and Buzzwole come to mind), but Diamond Storm is a key coverage move that compliments Ground / Fighting very well.

dex said:

Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31? (ex. Stealth Rock resistance, immunity to a status, etc.)

Ground / Fighting also fits a really great niche in the current metagame - it's a Ground-type that isn't weak to any of Zeraora's common coverage moves (Close Combat and Knock Off). This gives it an excellent niche to compete with the other Ground-types in the metagame. It also resists Knock Off and takes pathetic damage from Stealth Rock.

dex said:

What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?

As with Rock / Flying, Weavile's Ice Shard and Urshifu-R's Aqua Jet can be tanked much more easily with a Diamond Storm boost. On the other hand, getting a Defense boost against Corviknight makes beating it much easier.

dex said:

Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?

This typing combo wants to use Diamond Storm offensively, but again, the defense boosts are very much appreciated.

----

I have considered Ground / Fairy as a typing as well, as it would be a Ground-type not weak to Zeraora. However, Fairy-typing doesn't cover Corviknight like Fighting-type STAB would (non-STAB Diamond Storm will not crack open Corviknight), and it wouldn't be as reliant on Diamond Storm to cover Flying-types, as Fairy-type STAB is very strong. In short, Ground / Fairy is nowhere near as reliant on Diamond Storm as Ground / Fighting is, and that's an issue for this concept. Thus, I will be keeping in mind, but I think Ground / Fighting is a much better fit for this concept, even if it's not as good of a typing as Ground / Fairy.

 

[Gekokeso]

Stratagem has been lonely in the mono typing CAP club, lets give them a little friend:

Subbing Mono Ground

What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?
Ground itself has a rock and poison resistance as well as an electric immunity. It has a singular weakness to ice, grass and water attacks. While this doesn't sound too great on paper, only having x2 weaknesses on such few types grants it an edge over other typings like ground fighting or rock ground defensively as with good enough bulk it can tank all the neutral attacks coming its way. An electric immunity without another type means electrics like zapdos, koko and zeraora lack reliable coverage to take you down and thus become easy switch in opportunities to begin spamming Diamond Storm. The poison resistance is okay to have but the rock resistance is another crucial one. Being able to easily switch into moves like the meteor beam spam currently ongoing in the meta as well as rock coverage commonly run by mons like lando-t or Garchomp.

Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31? (ex. Stealth Rock resistance, immunity to a status, etc.)

The stealth rock resistance is a big one, allowing us to enter the field rather safely without being scared of losing our item to enter again. A sandstorm is also good i guess.

What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?
Here is where mono ground truely shines. Ground heavily apprieciates being able to hit flying types that its main stab can't normally cover on its own, as well as nailing pesky levitate mons. The inmense amount of neutralities of mono ground can be exploited by the Diamond Storm defense as it allows it to muscle past many physical attacks in the metagame, as anything that doesn't hit it supereffectively will be unable to knock it out from the physical side.

Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?
It uses it as a conbination of both, so it does leave it up in the air. With the Diamond Storm boost it is able to either muscle past teams to sweep them or use the boosts to tank physical attacks from multiple mons, but it proubably depends more of the position this mon may find itself on the battle.

How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise? If this type does not have STAB on Diamond Storm, how does it justify using the move and how much value does the extra STAB coverage provide?
Edgequake. Good old edgequake.

Overall i believe that mono ground is extremely flexible with this concept, allowing us to explore multiple ways to improve the effectiveness of 31 in using diamond storm, leaving a lot of design space to work with.

 

[Zetalz]

Submitting Ground/Fairy


1. What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?

This type seeks to use Diamond Storm as potent coverage alongside it's STABs. Offensively Ground is a perfect complement to Rock allowing for a wide swath of at least neutral matchups and immediately gives CAP 31 a valuable defensive niche in the builder, while Fairy offers useful resistances to U-Turn (not that big a deal tbh but notable), Knock, and Fighting attacks that in conjunction with defense boots from Dstorm rounds out for a nice defensive profile. (also a Dragon immunity but tbh not that relevant).


2. Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31? (ex. Stealth Rock resistance, immunity to a status, etc.)

As mentioned Fairy gives resistance to U-turn and Knock, while Ground gives a rocks resist as well as a paralysis immunity. Aside from perhaps U-turn all of these are very nice resists to have for an offensively leaning mon, and gives it defensive value even if Diamond Storm just ain't giving the juicy boosts.


3. What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?
On the physical side of things this typing has some useful resistances but consists of several neutral matchups into common physical types like opposing Grounds and Flyings that can be made into positive matchups with Dstorm. With a few notable weaknesses to Ice, Steel, Water and Grass, there is also some room for Dstorm to help shore things up. Water is going to be a losing battle on the physical side pretty much no matter which way it's sliced since the premiere physical Water just does not care about defense boosts in the slightest. Grass and Steel are a bit more interesting, non-flying Steels have to worry about Ground STAB and the common Steel physical attackers (Kartana, Ferro, Melmetal) may not be able to easily force out 31 if it's gotten some boosts (same applies to Rilla even tho it's fallen off heavily).

4. Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?
5. How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise? If this type does not have STAB on Diamond Storm, how does it justify using the move and how much value does the extra STAB coverage provide?

This typing seeks to use Diamond Storm as potent coverage in combination with it's STABs. EdgeQuake is a solid type combo as is and the addition of Fairy gives CAP 31 a way of dealing with some mons with high natural bulk and/or a neutral matchup into EdgeQuake coverage (things like Argh, Buzz, Rev etc.). While not Flying resistant like a Rock typing would be Ground/Fairy does still have positive matchups into several relevant Flying types, namely Zapdos, Lucha and Torn somewhat.

 

[buna]

Submitting Fighting/Steel

What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?

The highlights of this typing are it's nifty resistances between Steel, Ice, Dark, and Rock. This typing resists Kartana and Weavile STAB (these both have fighting coverage), which are among the powerful physical threats to consider. Resistances to Knock Off and U-Turn cover two commonly used physical moves in the game.

Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31? (ex. Stealth Rock resistance, immunity to a status, etc.)

Has a huge resilience to Stealth Rocks which is a boon towards what I anticipate to be a CAP which aims to be utilizing it's defensive properties in one way or another. Poison immunity isn't entirely relevant outside of adding towards being able to deal with Venomicon-E though being worry free of Toxic is nice.

What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?

Weaknesses with this type combination include Ground, Fighting, and Fire. Both Ground and Fighting are heavily physically oriented in their attacks between every Earthquake and Close Combat in the tier, being only 2x Super Effective allows a single Diamond Storm proc to patch up these weaknesses especially considering these attacks tend to be slotted on offensive Pokemon and thus potentially removing them as checks.

Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?

This is the result of me attempting to think of a typing open towards a more offensive or defensive direction. The resistances are definitely available for what could be a defensive pick especially considering a 4x Stealth Rock resistance. At the same time Fighting STAB in tandem with Diamond Storm is suitable as offensive coverage notably against Flying picks. How far this coverage gets is honestly dependent on how much strength we decide to allow for our Fighting STAB. Having the firepower to break through Corviknight in particular is what defines the difference between a potent physically offensive pick or an otherwise unimpressive one.

How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise? If this type does not have STAB on Diamond Storm, how does it justify using the move and how much value does the extra STAB coverage provide?

Birds! But suddenly...Diamond Storm! Reliable rock coverage fits nicely with Fighting STAB as mentioned previously, it works well to make up the coverage on a moveset. I originally considered Rock as part of the type combination but STAB isn't necessary towards being able to handle the Flying types without a secondary typing to neutralize the Rock weakness as well as Steel generally offering more as a defensive typing than Rock.

 

[Jewvia]

Gonna submit Rock/Grass here, as a combo that helps emphasize the strengths of our Rock STAB from Diamond Storm while mitigating the defensive weaknesses presented by Rock. Might edit it later to expand, just keeping it short for now.


What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?
What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?

Answering these two together as they kind of go hand in hand for this part of the typing combo. This typing combo only has two resistances, one of which is relevant in Electric. However, this combo removes a lot of the weaknesses that we want to avoid that are given by rock, namely Water and Ground. Likewise, we also lose the weaknesses to Fire and Flying given by Grass as well, which makes each half of the combo cover each other's weaknesses rather well. Likewise, the boosts from Diamond Storm helps turn a lot of our neutral matchups into effective resistances, such as Ground, Flying, and Dark, as well as push our Fighting, Steel or Bug weaknesses into neutral territory. At the end of it, our only major and unpatchable weakness is our final typing weakness in Ice, a drawback that I think is manageable.


Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?
How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise?

Gonna answer these together too. While this typing does gain many benefits from the defensive stat boost from Diamond Storm, it especially thrives from using it in an offensive role. Grass and Rock have no overlap in what types they hit offensively, with grass adding vital Ground and Water STAB coverage, in addition to less important Rock coverage. Likewise, the Rock typing gives our Diamond Storm STAB, letting us destroy Fire and Flying types, as well as throw it out for devastating damage to a lot of Pokemon that are not used to being threatened by Rock moves, such as Landorus, Venomicon, and Zapdos.

Overall, this typing's advantage is not so much its resistances as much as being able to mitigate the defensive weaknesses of Rock typing, and emphasize its offensive strengths. The only duo typing with less weaknesses and no 4x weaknesses is Bug, but Bug pairs poorly with Rock as an offensive typing. The other option would be to go for a strong defensive typing with a 4x weakness, or a typing with more 5 or more 2x weaknesses, which are viable routes for a Rock typing as well, but the main focus I had with this was a strong offensive duo that undoes a lot of weaknesses, primarily focusing on trying to minimize the impact of Ground vs Rock. The best for this is Rock/Flying, but that was submitted above.

Thanks to Zephyri on Discord, adding a little more. This typing combo can beat most Bulky waters through its Grass STAB, and has a very workable relationship against Landorus thanks to the newfound neutrality to Ground and Flying. Likewise, it doesn't instalose to all the birds in the meta either, something that it can leverage with its STAB Diamond Storm.

 

[sneakyjeans]

I would like to submit Mono - Fighting.

What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?
Fighting carries three resistances in Bug, Dark and Rock. Being SR, U-Turn and Knock Off resistant means we have more opportunities to try to use Diamond Storm for the defence boost, as the most common moves in the game aren’t particularly threatening. These types all have a strong physical leaning (with the exception of Meteor Beam spam) and we can expect to be able to come in on these moves with impunity.

Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31? (ex. Stealth Rock resistance, immunity to a status, etc.)
Nothing that isn’t covered above.

What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?
The Psychic and Fairy weaknesses are not substantially covered by a defence raise, considering there aren’t a whole lot of physical examples of these types. A +2 Def raise to help against Brave Birds is excellent, and the Rock coverage helps to threaten flying types looking to threaten with STAB attacks. The real benefit of this typing is that the +2 will help shore up defences against the other neutral types trying to hit Fighting.

Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?
Certainly could be either, it is more up in the air. Mono-types fit an easier bill as there are many more neutral interactions we could play around.

How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise? If this type does not have STAB on Diamond Storm, how does it justify using the move and how much value does the extra STAB coverage provide?
Rock and Fighting are a match made in heaven. Rock hits Flying, Fire and Bug, where Fighting hits Rock, Dark and Steel, and they both scare Ice. This typing loves the Diamond Storm coverage, and trades STAB for a defensive boost for not taking the weaknesses associated with a Rock/Fighting typing. The additional coverage goes a super long way and turns a typing already primed to have defensive merit into the upper leagues with a powerful secondary option with the defence boost.

 

[avyrie]

I am in support of a Rock/Electric typing.

small rant on Rock-type

This probably belongs to earlier discussions and has been said by other people, but I feel the necessity to repeat this simply because a Rock-type CAP31 seems infinitely advantageous to me.

I believe being a Rock-type opens up much more space for flexibility, both further in the process and in playing. Diamond Storm is very versatile on its own as a blend of offense and defense, but 8 PP is a huge playing factor especially defensively. I can see defensive Rock-types still being able to utilize it, the obvious example being support Diancie, but it will be a tall order for a non-Rock defensive Pokemon to utilize a 8 PP non-STAB, or in other words justify using Diamond Storm. If we proceed without the Rock-type, we will likely go with the offensive Rock coverage route, and that might greatly limit how we will design CAP31 / how CAP31 will be played. Even so, Diamond Storm would probably just end up being a better Stone Edge, which takes away most of Diamond Storm's unique offense-to-defense blend and defies the Forbidden Fruit concept. Contrarily, Rock-types can utilize Diamond Storm offensively or defensively or even both, leaving much more options on what role CAP31 can take on. Looking back at Diancie, it is also a defensive Pokemon that can be very difficult to switch into if given the opportunity to stack Defense boosts.

What useful type resistances/immunities does this type have that mesh well with Diamond Storm?
Does this type come with any additional benefits that are particularly appreciated by CAP 31? (ex. Stealth Rock resistance, immunity to a status, etc.)
Rock/Electric most notably quad resists Flying, making CAP31 a very solid answer to the popular fly-spam. Other notable resists are Fire, Poison, and Electric, as well as a neutrality to Steel, which can prove useful against stuff like Zapdos and Zone. While this typing doesn't offer much utility resistance, it does give an immunity to paralysis which is always nice to have ig, especially if CAP31 will be able to take on a sweeper role.

What weaknesses does this type have that can be effectively patched by a Diamond Storm Defense raise?
The first examples I can think of are Kartana's Leaf Blade and Zeraora's Close Combat, as they will not be able to (revenge) kill CAP31 at +2, assuming decent bulk say taking Tapu Koko's. Some weaker Ground-type coverage such as Astrolotl's Stomping Tantrum should also be covered by the Defense raise, as well as priority moves like Aqua Jet. Still folds to Lando-T however, and the boost will not save CAP31 from Surging Strikes should it be slower.

Does this type seek to use Diamond Storm offensively or defensively? Or does it leave this more up in the air?
How does this type complement Diamond Storm coverage-wise?
It's more up in the air, but it might as well be both. Offensively, Diamond Storm is obviously a very strong STAB move, going back to it being a solid answer to fly-spam, Diamond Storm punishes them by forcing them out AND threatening a Defense boost which will make it much harder to revenge kill. Electric complements Diamond Storm excellently by dunking on bulky Water-type switchins (well, switchins if it only had Rock) like Toxapex and also has extra merit against the likes of Corviknight, Urshifu-RS, and Melmetal. Again, this coverage will fold to any Ground-type easily, though Diamond Storm is able to hit some key Ground-type coverage users like Book and Pyroak.
Defensively, Diamond Storm's boost is able to deny revenge killers like Kartana and Zeraora as answered in the previous question. Even with a quad weakness to Ground, it is still possible for CAP31 to take on a defensive role, where CAP31 utilizes Diamond Storm to become an physically unkillable wall to answer threats like EBook and Weavile.

 

[Zzuxon]

This may be a bit surprising, given my passionate plea for rock STAB in my first post, but several arguments in the thread have brought me around to the idea of a non-rock CAP31. What really clinched it for me, however, was this specific typing.
I propose Bug/Electric.
This is a typing that Diamond Storm does so much for, that I think it would be near-essential on any CAP31 set, just as it should be. I'll go over my reasoning.

DEFENSIVELY:
Bug/Electric has 4 resistances and a mere 2 weaknesses. This gives it excellent defensive neutral coverage. I agree with certain other members on this thread that strong neutral coverage pairs very well with Diamond Storm's boost, as it provides many neutral types that become effectively similar to resists after a boost.
And what of it's resistances? Grass and Electric are certainly nice to have, but I don't have much to say about them. On the other hand, Steel and Fighting are much more interesting. Steel and Fighting are among the types I've seen discussed most here for how CAP31 ought to respond to them. While Bug/Electric isn't hitting either of them especially hard, it resists them both, meaning the idea of throwing out a Steel or fighting type to challenge Diamond Storm becomes less productive and less appealing. This is, I think, potent. Also of note is that Bug cancels out what could have been a devastating ground weakness introduced by Electric and/or Rock. Conversely, Electric cancels what would have been a problematic flying weakness introduced by Bug.
Now for the weaknesses: Rock and Fire. I'll start with Rock: a Stealth Rock weakness hurts, but not terminally. As for direct rock attacks, the very reason Diamond Storm was interesting to this community is that rock-attackers were uncommon in the meta on account of the poor physical moves available. This very same point mitigates the Rock weakness greatly: Stealth Rock is the only situation it is likely to come up. Indeed, under this typing I could imagine CAP31 being a major check to the other player's CAP31.
Fire is more dangerous, it seems. Common attacking type with a special slant that our DS boosts won't help with. Except... the Diamond Storm hits Fire for super effective. The prospect of trying to throw out a fire type to take down CAP31 would be very risky and scary knowing they have a 100 BP, reliable Rock move up their sleeve. I would argue that the ability to make switching in unsafe for fire types is perhaps the key reason a Bug/Electric CAP31 would virtually always run DS.

Plus, it would also be immune to paralysis. Likely not a huge deal, but certainly nice to have.

OFFENSIVELY:
A Bug/Electric CAP 31 has a lot going for it offensively. One big theme that people have been excited for with Diamond Storm is the ability to hit prominent Flying types. Well, the Electric typing would give it 2 ways to hit Flying super effectively, affording it flexibility to deal with inconvenient second typings. Electric also provides good options for dealing with the bulky waters that threaten CAP31's plans. Bug offers CAP31 more defensively than offensively, but a Bug STAB's ability to blast Grass, Dark and Psychic is nothing to sneeze at.

This typing does have one major offensive weakness however. I think it is reasonable to assume CAP31 will have solid physical attack to complement Diamond Storm. Bug has many solid physical moves that synergize well with this, but Electric doesn't. Electric is a very specially-slanted type whose physical options are, in my view, quite awful. With a Bug/Electric CAP31, we would be forced to chose between saddling them with a poor physical electric STAB, a special electric STAB they aren't great at using, or putting substantial investment into their special attack, which eats up power budget.

IN SUMMARY:
I believe that Bug/Electric is an phenomenally versatile typing for CAP31. Its excellent neutral coverage synergizes very well with DS's boost and I feel would make it well suited for either offensive or defensive strategies. It powerfully threatens Flying types, and has tools (offensive or defensive) for dealing with it's own major threats, such as bulky waters, fires, steels and fightings. I would consider it's main weaknesses to be a weakness to stealth rock and Electric's absolute dearth of good physical moves.