CAP 31 - Part 6 - Defining Moves

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spoo

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CAP 31 So Far

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In this stage, we will develop sets of moves that will meaningfully affect future stages of the process for this CAP. These moves will need to be addressed in the stat limits and stat submission stages in order to contextualize submitted spreads. For example, a stat submission that elects to choose stronger Defining Moves will be put under heavier scrutiny than those without them. The chosen Defining Moves should be considered essential to the CAP's concept and/or chosen role. Defining Moves does not necessarily exclude moves from consideration in the Movesets Discussion, so not all of the CAP's viable moves need to be decided in this stage. The Movepool SL will organize these moves into the following lists:
  1. Required: Stat spreads (or other future stages) must account for this move, these moves, or a choice of moves.
  2. Optional: Stat spreads (or other future stages) can elect to use this move, these moves, or a choice of moves.
Moves that can be chosen as Defining Moves should be in the following categories:
  • Boosting Moves
  • Recovery Moves
  • Extraordinary STAB Moves (only moves with strong ability interactions, moves with strong secondary effects, and high-Base Power moves that might be relevant for stat calculations)
  • Extraordinary Coverage Moves (only moves with strong ability interactions and moves that directly affect our concept)
  • Strong Priority Moves
  • Strong Utility Moves (self-switching moves, hazard setting/removing moves, status-inflicting moves, etc.)
The TLT has the final say over which moves fall into which category, if they belong to one at all. Controversial moves or placements in lists can be sent to poll if the Movepool SL deems it necessary.

Please do not polljump by talking about specific stat spreads or suggest specific abilities.
 

Rabia

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Welcome to the third-ever defining moves stage! It's here where we really get to start theorycrafting what CAP 31 will look like in battle. To start off discussion, I want to bring a couple general points that we've talked about through the process:

1) So far, people want CAP 31 to lean towards an offensive route: i.e. take a similar mold to what Mega Diancie did where you can really exploit Diamond Storm boosts to become more of a pain to revenge kill.

2) Maximizing on-field presence: in threats discussion, we mentioned that between typing and ability, CAP 31 should find a good amount of opportunities to get onto the field. From there, it's about making the most of your ability to boost and what you do once you have obtained (x amount of) boosts.

3) Our relatively low power level so far: something people have made a good amount of mention of is how we have a good amount of power budget left still. This is worth keeping in mind when considering the types of moves we find acceptable to give CAP 31.

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With these notes in mind, I have a preliminary question to guide our starting discussion:

EdgeQuake coverage is sort of assumed here with us being a Ground-type Pokemon that wants to make use of Diamond Storm. This straps us a bit for moveslots; what should our focus be for our remaining slots? Utility? Recovery? Coverage? Something else? Note that discussion about specific moves is NOT allowed as of now.

A soft deadline of 24 hours will be in place; I'll be back with more questions based on discussion afterwards!
 

spoo

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I think we should discuss recovery first. It has consistently been a huge topic of discussion, moreso than many or all utility options, ever since we chose our typing (and probably before it as well). 50% recovery is also arguably the most impactful thing we could approve or deny right now, and therefore will inform us about how we proceed the most. There are perhaps one or two utility options that come close to recovery's impact, but I'm still skeptical.

Imo, recovery -> utility -> boosting -> coverage -> priority. This largely reflects my personal ranking of what options will have the biggest impact on us. I don't think we should waste time discussing extraordinary STAB moves when there is literally just one of them and our access to it has been a given since we chose our typing.
 
One of Recovery or Boosting should be first IMO, followed by coverage. Both are extreme boons, and they often make or break Pokemon. Pokemon that have either recovery moves or boosting moves tend to hold onto them tightly, and I doubt CAP 31 would ever not be running them if it were to get them. What makes these two things important to talk about is that we are not just talking about whether or not it gets access to healing and boosting, but it is largely where we consider the power budget, which is extremely important. Recovery and Boosting should absolutely be the first things to discuss.

After those, I think coverage is the next most important thing. What our coverage looks like will determine how Diamond Storm is used or how much it is used, mess it up and it might not run Diamond Storm, so I also believe coverage should be talked about relatively early.
 
If we want CAP31 to get on and stay on the field, then recovery and boosting should synergize the best with it. I'd put boosting over recovery; EdgeQuake coverage kinda isn't what it used to be, and I'd rather not make a mon that threatens big numbers immediately, can boost and sticks around forever.
 

quziel

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Personally would prioritize the conversation on recovery and then utility or boosting for this mon. Recovery is going to impact our expected time on field, is fairly unique to us as a Ground-type, and impacts every single other move category by sorta changing how we match into a lot more passive pokemon, as well as implicitly upping our capacity to wall stuff.

Utility and Boosting are what actually get us a slot on a team frankly (outside our defensive utility, but gastrodon already has that and it has meh usage). Hence I believe that they're worth discussing second. Don't necessarily have a preference as for which beyond Utility probably being a safer conversation. The choices made here are really what is going to help us figure out our actual role, with Boosting leaning towards sweeping or breaking, and Utility options leaning towards breaking and team support. I'd favor selecting quite a few of these as optional defining moves.
 
Definitely recovery, boosting, utility in my opinion. I believe CAP31 should have a large defensive presence, while having a decent offensive output. Recovery is interesting because all the viable grounds either don't have recovery (lando, chomp) or are very passive (hippo, gastro) or they don't exist at all (gliscor). Any 50% recovery would be fantastic for helping this Mon check Zeraora, assuming we have the bulk to be able to do that. Utility in hazards or status is always an interesting touch, but could possibly take away from its intended role as a bulky booster. Boosting in any form other than Nasty Plot or maybe Amnesia could be monumental for this Mon, but it leaves a few questions:

-how do we deal with Hazers and Phazers? Should we make the CAP31 faster, in order to outspeed most of them, or should we find some other way to beat them?

-if we're boosting our Attack, how would we deal with unaware pokemon such as Clef and Argh? Should this be in the form of coverage? For the sake of balance, should we even try to?

Sorry if this is an elementary-grade post, I'm somewhat new to CAP
 

Rabia

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Alright, so far discussion is putting the most emphasis on recovery being worth covering first, with some nods to boosting and utility. We'll start with recovery, and here are some questions about the specifics:

How important is recovery for actually making use of CAP 31's Diamond Storm boosts? Is it so crucial we need a reliable, 50% recovery move? Or is recovery more of a really good extra that allows us to explore weaker forms of it?

I'm allowing discussion of specific recovery moves here, but keep in mind this isn't yet the time to officially "submit" any. 48h soft deadline this time!
 
I agree, that the discussion around recovery should come first.

Recovery is probably the option we can reasonably give, that provides CAP31 the biggest distinction from other offensive Ground Types.

Another reason to look at recovery first is that it has the biggest impact between the different options on remaining moveslots.
If this Mon has reliable recovery it’s very likely going to use it.
This means 3 slots are already taken, leaving only one further slot, which limits additional utility/breaking power this Mon can provide to a team.

While Mons like Lando or Defensive Chomp would probably love recovery, I think that their overall viability might not be impacted as much as you might think, bc the moveslot it takes and the turn you spend recovering means less Role Compression in the builder and less Tempo in game.

We have to remember that Diamond Storm still has to be the focus and consider if the extra longevity plays in favor of it and how recovery might end up pushing DStorm out of the viable movesets.

If we give recovery I’m pretty sure, that we have to be laser focused with what utility and coverage we allow, to not make Dstorm obsolete.
Whereas going without reliable recovery let’s us a be a bit more free with additional utility options.

It’s going to be interesting to see if the distinction that recovery offers actually helps competing with other Offensive grounds or if the role compression of a recovery-less build does that better.

Edit: Sonce Rabia posted his question just seconds before this:


How important is recovery for actually making use of CAP 31's Diamond Storm boosts? Is it so crucial we need a reliable, 50% recovery move? Or is recovery more of a really good extra that allows us to explore weaker forms of it?
I don’t think recovery is hugely important to make use of the Diamond Storm boosts.
It defimakes the boosts more impactful as it greatly increases our staying power against Physical attackers and gives us more chances to stack boosts.
But the defensive nature of the boost means that it doesn’t immediately impact our sweeping/snowballing potential and doesn’t necessarily mean we can better abuse the boosts. We still can be forced out by defensive counterplay and Specially Offensive attackers making the additional boosts irrelevant.
The defensive boost can be as impactful in some matchups without recovery. Staying in on Weavile bc 31 procured a boost doesn’t need recovery bc we likely can OHKO and deny the revenge kill.

Recovery also doesn’t make Diamond Storm more spammable. It’s still only and 8PP non STAB Coverage move.

What recovery does here is solidify our average defensive profile, allowing us to take on neutral targets (which we atm have a lot of) much more consistently.

Recovery is definitely weird here because as stated above it has the potential to make the diamond Storm boosts slightly more impactful, but at the same time it cuts away another moveslot we could dedicate to breaking power or utility AND it also doesn’t really mesh with the low PP of Diamond Storm that doesn’t fit well with a playstyle that’s meant for longevity.
 
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Ehmcee

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I believe consistent 50% recovery is an important part of what CAP 31's toolkit will use as well as probably the best way to assure that we use our Diamond Storm boosts to the best of our ability as well as giving us the opportunity to accrue more boosts over time.
I definitely agree that we need to be careful with what additional options we give 31 with recovery, since we want to incentivize running Diamond Storm as much as possible.

However I do believe that a more offensively orriented build without recovery would also be possible, however it would come at the tradeoff of probably not becoming as good as a defensive answer towards the electric types we previously discussed we wanted to check.
 
Lets look at another Pokemon that boosts their defenses, Venomicon-Prologue. Prologue has 50% recovery, and it is absolutely essential for its viability, in fact this 50% recovery has excellent interaction with the Defense boosts it gets, and as long as it is being attacked, it gets bulkier WHILE recovering. Its defense boosts do not solely make its defensive presence, but rather, the defense boosts in conjunction with its recovery is what makes it so strong.

Of course, Prologue has more of a defensive build, whereas we know we're going more offensive. Even regardless, defense boosting and recovery go together like bread and butter. Even something like Calm Mind Latios in previous generations, while not the set that it would always be using, I feel is another decent example, and Mega Alakazam before it got Nasty Plot. And unlike these examples, we have the benefit of boosting while attacking at the same time, potentially eliminating 4MSS.

Recovery allows us to get the most out of our defense boosts IMO. I do not believe we absolutely NEED recovery given that we are more offensive, and simply using our defense boosts to prevent us from being revenge killed would work too. However, recovery + defense boosting is a great combination.

I don't know if I should straight up say I think we should get recovery (Rabia what did you mean by "submit?") but at the very least, I think it is a good idea. I apologize if I came off too strong here.

EDIT: Ty for clarifying
 
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quziel

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Honest? I don't think we need perfectly reliable recovery. Every single other viable ground (well, barring Hippo/Gastro which are more fringe) is capable of getting away without it, and while having something like Recover absolutely is a boon, and a way to differentiate ourselves from Lando/Chomp, it clearly ain't mandatory. I'd argue that 50% recovery in its various strengths, and also Pain Split should probably all be on our optional defining moves. I think there's a very valid path forward where we don't have recovery and focus fully on our offensive presence, or even one where we use the lack of recovery to help balance us. Similarly, having some sort of recovery (PS, 8 PP, 16 PP) all help to differentiate us heavily from Lando/Chomp, and are all very relevant.
 

Brambane

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I think we would benefit from some form of recovery, but it doesn't need to be the optimal recovery move (Milk Drink, as no other recovery move also provides free calcium) and that, when we get to the stats stage, some spreads can be submitted without recovery as an option. If you are a hyper offensive Pokemon that would use defensive boosts to really just prevent being revenge killed, then we give minimal hoots about our recovery options compared to the offensive options like boosting or coverage.

There are different levels of recovery worth considering as well:

1. Amazing - Shore Up (50%, good PP, with a bonus upside)
2. Strong - Recover and its clones (standard stuff, good overall)
3. Limited - Synthesis and its clones (worse PP, notable downside, mostly useless upside)
4. Situational - Rest and Wish (moves that have more niche use, or used when no other alternatives are provided)
5. Weird - Strength Sap, Pain Split, and Leech Seed (these ones are more difficult to assess at a glance)
6. Horseshit - Everything else (Ingrain sux, don't even think about Leech Life here)

Of the above recovery, I think the moves most worth exploring are Shore Up, Synthesis, Pain Split, and Leech Seed. As for the others, I think they just don't make much sense or are plain bad. Wish seems rubbish as a primary recovery option due to often pressuring the user into giving up another moveslot for Protect. Strength Sap is an odd move to assess, but it has diminishing returns and I am fairly certain that between its poor value into special attackers and being gigabad into Zapdos-G, it doesn't look too hot here. And Rest is basically the last resort for recovery on 99.9% of monss.

Shore Up is better than Recover and I am of the mindset if we are giving it Recover, we may as well give it the niche trait of being a Water Absorb partner for Tyranitar. TTar isn't really that good, but sand has some fun tools and it gives CAP31 a weird synergy that may be situationally useful (including if your opponent brings TTar ig.)

The limited recovery of Synthesis makes it a good "budget" option, where you can go a little further with stats imo. You can balance a spread by reducing its ability to heal over the course of a game. I feel similar about Pain Split, although you can also make a spread that leans into Pain Split and makes the otherwise mediocre recovery option more of a star, which is a cool option. Leech Seed is extremely weird, as it can sometimes provide wicked tempo and sustain over the course of a match, but it really isn't "reliable" in the slightest and terrible into Regenerator mons. But we do hit four big ones for super-effective damage already, so that discourages them from coming in or staying in on Leech Seed? It is definitely a cool option that also likely allows you to further with stats imo.
 

ausma

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While having recovery to incentivize Diamond Storm usage through getting long-term value out of defense boosts is extremely important, I also think some practical recovery from a defensive perspective will also be pivotal. Regardless of what role CAP 31 takes, having access to longevity not only means more turns to come in against things like Zeraora, Tapu Koko, and Heatran, but by extension, more long-term leverage to come in against Pokemon it wants to check means more turns to boost or make progress via other means. Longevity plays into both ends of the spectrum in a way that really sells its niche; it lets it play as a consistent win condition as well as provide constant defensive utility over a longer game, both of which are noteworthy in somewhat similar ways.

That then leaves what kind of recovery to give it. I believe there are two very strong and good options that I would like to advocate for, but I'd first like to explain the issues with some of the contenders.

Leech Seed: A massively appealing idea on paper, considering it provides a form of passive recovery that lets CAP 31 continuously boost without having to waste turns healing. In practice, though, you ought to have no recovery at all considering what Pokemon CAP 31 is going to be finding itself against, and how it would be playing against them. Ferrothorn as a Leech Seed user works mostly because it has access to safe utility options to stay in and keep farming HP, and because it packs great natural bulk and the typing to force switches and easier recovery. The issue I foresee is that we'd have to follow heavily in Ferrothorn's example to really make Leech Seed work, which means taking up moveslots and BST to really reap value out of Leech Seed and consistently make progress against its pivots without just being a Leech Seed bot. I would think that's even more of a problem since CAP 31 is already wanting two offensive moveslots, and that Leech Seed immunities already threaten it pretty hard. It could work in theory, but I worry that it would either mean having to center CAP 31's gameplan around Leech Seed to a point where the value of Diamond Storm is going to be rendered down a lot, or just foregoing it altogether.

Wish: Somewhat of a similar reason to Leech Seed, but a bit more intensely since it would mean having to run Protect to simulate automatic recovery. CAP 31 can't afford that considering it's already strapped for moveslots and I'm 100% certain we would want at least one of them to provide something to diversify and/or augment CAP 31's matchup into Pokemon that block it from doing much otherwise.

Strength Sap: My main issue with this move is that it entirely downplays a core appeal of Diamond Storm since it compresses the idea of dampening physical blows and recovery into one move, which really plays into the idea of diminishing returns as stated, and I would argue is anti-concept. Not too much else to say here.

_________

The two options I am most on board for are Pain Split and 50% Recovery Moves.

Pain Split is easily my favorite recovery option here, and there are a few reasons why. The biggest reason, though, is that CAP 31's matchup spread provides an incredible complement to Pain Split's design. What I mean by this is that, as a Ground-type, it's going to be intrinsically tasked with taking on a lot of really important moves rather consistently throughout the game, such as likely being a dedicated Knock Off pivot, a Magma Storm switch-in, and being the recipient of many U-turns by nature of its natural defensive profile covering so much ground. This will mean that Pain Splits will be, on average, higher value just because of how much pressure it's going to face (Rotom-W is a good example of this in action, base HP aside). Furthermore, I think it's important to consider how Pain Split's damage interacts with CAP 31's natural checks, especially Corviknight which it will have an extremely hard time playing against for reasons we've previously explored. Being able to simultaneously heal and force chip against it without having to dedicate a moveslot into pressuring it directly feels so huge; even just forcing a Roost turn without having to waste Diamond Storm PP can be critical in making progress. Diamond Storm's defense boosts are also a nice complement here since they leverage CAP 31 to be at a lower HP threshold, and then force crispy damage/healing simultaneously. It makes me really giddy thinking about the kinds of interactions Pain Split could really have on this CAP; it feels like such a strong complement to what we've built so far, and even better is that it gives us room to play around with its movepool/stats due to being intrinsically inconsistent.

50% Recovery I also like. In short, reliable recovery is good! CAP 31 becomes a Ground-type with great recovery and can consistently/safely play to its boosting to really win out longer games while maintaining its defensive utility for teams in the long run. We've already established what makes this option as solid as it is, so instead I'd like to talk about the differentiation between the limited and strong versions of recovery.

Option 1: Shore Up, Recover, Slack Off, and co. are obviously, the stronger of the options, mostly due to sheer consistency and a great PP pool, which can really make a difference in longer games. To me, I'm much more concerned about PP; with this option, CAP 31 has the ability to last effectively twice as long, which I think is the key point to consider. Do we value CAP 31's long-term defensive utility as being the most pro-concept? If so, I think this option is the wave. It is a far greater complement to a much more sturdy blockade that reinforces teams, but also lets it still play to Diamond Storm through, simply, being reliable recovery for us to reap value from as a bulky win condition.

Option 2: Synthesis, Morning Sun, and Moonlight have merits too. Although they are definitely the weaker options, them being weaker through a reduced PP pool means that CAP 31's usage of recovery needs to be, on average, more deliberate, especially if it's being designed as a win condition. It will need to be more sparing with its PP when it's out to deploy its boosts since it will be certainly taking a lot of heat, also in part to how it will likely be using PP in the process of checking Electric-types and Heatran regardless. The primary appeal here is that their lowered PP pool and weather inconsistency leverages the stat and movepool stages a bit more, which is of note.

I personally value Option 1 more, mostly because I don't really see much value in limiting 50% recovery if we're decided on that as our route. It'll still have the same interactions, and if anything, I think optimizing room for CAP 31's defensive utility to shine in tandem with Diamond Storm boosts as a win condition are, most certainly, pro-concept considering how CAP 31 is designed around taking advantage of its defensive profile to accumulate boosts in the first place. The difference, in practice, is pretty small, but I think it's definitely worth considering.
 

Da Pizza Man

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While I'm not strictly against the idea of reliable recovery, or recovery at all (Hell if anything I actually sort of prefer having it), I do echo quziel's sentiment that having access to recovery isn't going to be mandatory for us. I also want to bring up that if we choose to go with recovery, it's going to put a bit more restrain on other parts of our moveset. We want to be running Diamond Storm, there is no world where a Ground Type does not run Earthquake or Earth Power, and it's a fairly safe assumption to make that if we decide to go with recovery we are going to be using it, leaving one moveslot open for any other options we want to give. My biggest concern here is that I think that if we don't limit ourselves here, then the chances that we end up dropping Diamond Storm is fairly high. We already have an defined niche that doesn't really involve Diamond Storm, which is that we are a Ground Type that doesn't really care about Water types (Gastrodon does that as well, but their defensive types are just different enough that I could see them being interchanged depending on what other stuff we give ourselves), so I could absolutely see a world where CAP31 finds success in the metagame without really even touching Diamond Storm, which is obviously bad since it goes against the entire idea of the concept. Because of this, I think that we should generally leave most of the recovery moves as optional, since I feel this is a discussion on whether or not it's something we need to stick to is better left for the movepool stage, but it is still absolutely vital to prepare for since it will affect that stage a lot.

As for actual moves themselves, I don't really have too many strong opinions on them honestly, but I guess I might as well talk about a couple of them. I like the idea of Shore Up, since like Brambane said, it taps in quite nicely to partnering ourselves with Tyranitar and forming a sand core (Which is something I like since sand at the moment doesn't have too much of a place in the metagame, but giving them more options helps with that) and it's just a really good recovery option in general. Wish is going to be a terrible idea just because of the delayed nature of the heal. Either we don't run it, we run it alongside Protect, which heavily risks Diamond Storm being dropped, or we effiectevly run a slightly better Life Dew (Which is a terrible recovery move in singles). Strength Sap is also a pretty bad option like asuma said, since its pretty anti-concept and is deceptively weak when you really look at a lot of the things we are going to be using it on are going to be things with low Attack (No physical attacker apart from Weavile is staying in on a Ground Type mon with both Diamond Storm and Strength Sap, and even that is only staying in if we have +0 Defense).
 

Rabia

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24h reminder post that will double as me making an important announcement:

Diamond Storm is being officially added as a required move for set submissions. I've seen people worried about it potentially being dropped if CAP 31 has better options available to it, so I want to make it clear that any sets must feature it. (edit: and yeah I'm sure people passively assumed it was required, so I'm just playing it safe here)
 

snake

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How important is recovery for actually making use of CAP 31's Diamond Storm boosts? Is it so crucial we need a reliable, 50% recovery move? Or is recovery more of a really good extra that allows us to explore weaker forms of it?
Recovery is certainly one way to separate CAP31 from the other top Ground-types in the metagame. I think relilable 50% recovery and Leech Seed in particular are good fits. Wish seems like a particularly bad option due to necessitating Protect.

However, I don't think recovery required by any means, and that there are different ways for CAP31 to differentiate itself other than recovery (which I hope to discuss in due course). Thus, I think recovery moves are perfect candidates for the Optional category, allowing stat submitters to choose whether they want to assume recovery or not.
 

DetroitLolcat

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I agree that recovery isn't necessary, but it is a nice-to-have. If we look at CAP31's most obvious parallels - the Diancie forms - Mega Diancie didn't need recovery because it preferred all-out attacking and base-form Diancie was plenty viable in lower tiers without recovery. If we expand to looking at other defensive boosters, it's a little more mixed. Defense boosters like Iron Defense Reuniclus and Demon Mew rely on recovery while Iron Defense Magnezone does not. There are also plenty of defensive Pokemon that regain their HP through ways other than reliable 50% recovery - usually through an unreliable recovery move or Regenerator. In fact, by virtue of our own Ability, CAP31 already has unreliable recovery.

Offensive Pokemon that boost Defense care less about recovery than defensive ones do, and CAP31 already has one form of (albeit extremely unreliable) recovery. I don't see the need for guaranteed 50% reliable recovery on this Pokemon regardless of whether we go in an offensive or defensive direction.

Using Brambane's definition, I like the idea of Situational or Weird recovery moves. Pain Split synergizes well with our concept, since Diamond Storm should let us survive hits that would otherwise KO us and Pain Split works best on a Pokemon that spends a lot of time at low HP. Leech Seed is a bit more generic - I'm not sure if it's particularly pro-concept but it's a nice longevity-boosting move. Ferrothorn and Gen 7 Celesteela are great examples of Leech Seed's utility. Rest is not a great move in general but it could also synergize decently with Diamond Storm by letting us get so bulky we can afford to mill the two sleep turns. Wish is a terrible option - it's hilariously anti-concept given how CAP31 is designed to boost and stay in. Strength Sap is also a poor choice because it competes with Diamond Storm for softening Physical blows.

In short, Pain Split is probably the best recovery move for this Pokemon. Rest and Leech Seed are nice too, but I wouldn't seriously look at anything else.
 
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Astra

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Probably just rehashing stuff already said here, but any sort of recovery would be a great help to CAP 31 in regards to taking advantage of Diamond Storm and making it an option over other Ground-types on teams. While reliable recovery like Recover would obviously be a huge boon, though something like Pain Split is still in my opinion a viable option thanks to its synergy with Diamond Storm; as DetroitLolcat similarly mentioned, the boosts from Diamond Storm would allow CAP 31 to not worry too much when at low HP, which allows it to take great advantage of Pain Split's effects.
 

Ehmcee

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I agree that recovery isn't necessary, but it is a nice-to-have. If we look at CAP31's most obvious parallels - the Diancie forms - Mega Diancie didn't need recovery because it preferred all-out attacking and base-form Diancie was plenty viable in lower tiers without recovery. If we expand to looking at other defensive boosters, it's a little more mixed. Defense boosters like Iron Defense Reuniclus and Demon Mew rely on recovery while Iron Defense Magnezone does not. There are also plenty of defensive Pokemon that regain their HP through ways other than reliable 50% recovery - usually through an unreliable recovery move or Regenerator. In fact, by virtue of our own Ability, CAP31 already has unreliable recovery.

Offensive Pokemon that boost Defense care less about recovery than defensive ones do, and CAP31 already has one form of (albeit extremely unreliable) recovery. I don't see the need for guaranteed 50% reliable recovery on this Pokemon regardless of whether we go in an offensive or defensive direction.

Using Brambane's definition, I like the idea of Situational or Weird recovery moves. Pain Split synergizes well with our concept, since Diamond Storm should let us survive hits that would otherwise KO us and Pain Split works best on a Pokemon that spends a lot of time at low HP. Leech Seed is a bit more generic - I'm not sure if it's particularly pro-concept but it's a nice longevity-boosting move. Ferrothorn and Gen 7 Celesteela are great examples of Leech Seed's utility. Rest is not a great move in general but it could also synergize decently with Diamond Storm by letting us get so bulky we can afford to mill the two sleep turns. Wish is a terrible option - it's hilariously anti-concept given how CAP31 is designed to boost and stay in. Strength Sap is also a poor choice because it competes with Diamond Storm for softening Physical blows.

In short, Pain Split is probably the best recovery move for this Pokemon. Rest and Leech Seed are nice too, but I wouldn't seriously look at anything else.
I think the main problem with the current parralel to Mega Diancie is that Mega Diancie's raw power heavily outshadows basically anything that our power budget would allow us to make.

Mega Diancie succeeds so well as an offensive presence due to having rock stab as well as one of the best stabs in the game with the fairy type, not to mention having the perfect final coverage option in earth power as well as having obscene stats that we can't really give to a non-mega pokemon.
Also the fact that it ran a basically mixed set meant it could threaten special walls a fair amount with diamond storm and clean with the rest of it's strong special movepool.

The few bulky wincons you also stated have other virtues that we can't really give to 31 due to virtue of their typing/ability, Mew and Reuniclus obviously have access to Stored Power, which is very synergetic with their defensive boosts, while Magnezone's only real use in battle is countering a few prominent steel types.

I think an issue that's propping up right now is how to properly make use of our physical boosts to incentivize the usage of Diamond Storm as much as possible, and the only real issue is what kind of build we want to lean towards. This is most likely going to be decided by what kind of recovery we give 31, if at all.

For that reason I'm a proponent of either No Recovery, Pain Split or 50% Recovery (probably Shore Up).

Not a big fan of Leech Seed, the only prominent user of it (Ferrothorn) is able to use it so well due to it's plethora of resistances as well as it's obscene defensive stats on both sides of the spectrum.
 

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I think the main problem with the current parralel to Mega Diancie is that Mega Diancie's raw power heavily outshadows basically anything that our power budget would allow us to make.

Mega Diancie succeeds so well as an offensive presence due to having rock stab as well as one of the best stabs in the game with the fairy type, not to mention having the perfect final coverage option in earth power as well as having obscene stats that we can't really give to a non-mega pokemon.
Also the fact that it ran a basically mixed set meant it could threaten special walls a fair amount with diamond storm and clean with the rest of it's strong special movepool.
I would just like to provide a minor rebuttal here. Its important to note that Mega-Diancie cannot run a boosting item, and we can. Even a relatively minor power boost in Muscle band is comparable to Mega-Diancie at 140 base attack, while our Soft-Sand boosting Earthquake hits as hard as Mega-Diancie's Diamond Storm at 125 base attack. This is without going into more potent power-boosting items such as Life Orb and Choice Band. I am not advocating for these numbers, but to just remind folks that we have access to boosting items, which our primary point of comparison (MDia) does not.

To provide a recommendation or preference, I think I'd prefer us to have access to the "weird" recovery moves (Leech, Pain Split) instead of the hyper consistent ones (Recover, etc). That said, since we have the ability to assign optional defining moves, I think it would be best to place all of them in that category.
 
I agree with Ausma that Leech Seed doesn't work great here. Leech Seed is not a great move in a metagame with boots in my opinion, because it can be used to force switches, but we don't necessarily gain much from that due to boots. Any slow pivot can also bring in a check to us while evading Leech Seed. I don't think the move really does anything for us.

Pain Split is the most appealing option to me. It has good synergy with our build and is more "active" so to speak than 50% recovery, in that it also reduces our opponent's HP, which we can take advantage of.
 
Sorry if this is not the place or is poll-jumping, but I'm wondering what are any thoughts on HP-Healing attacks as coverage? (e.g. Horn Leech, Drain Punch, etc.)
 
I think I'll echo what others have been saying and voice my support for recovery in the form of Pain Split only. While 50% recovery moves would definitely work well with CAP 31's goal of longevity, they would almost certainly be mandatory for any set, and their lack of use outside of simply boosting our longevity leaves 31 lacking in flexibillity, to the point that Diamond Storm might be dropped for utility options that better support 50% recovery options. Pain Split, in contrast, gives us a recovery move that, while useful, isn't strong enough to be mandatory, allowing us more breathing room for other options. Additionally, Pain Split is far less passive than 50% recovery moves are, as it allows us to potentially reduce our opponents HP while healing, assisting the offensive role that 31 wishes to fill. If it comes down to it, I'd argue for either Pain Split or No Recovery for CAP 31.
 
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