CAP 32 - Part 4 - Defining Moves Part 1

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quziel

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CAP 32 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.
 
Welcome to Defining Moves! Much like my place within CAP leadership, this section for CAP 32 is fairly experimental, having been split across two parts I’ll label “pre-Ability” (where we’re at right now) and “post-Ability.” Given that strong synergy is something we want CAP32 to have, it’s important that we can make strong inferences on the way our Ability helps us succeed, but it’s equally important to leave room open for the remaining parts of the process.

With that, let’s get right into preliminary questions:
  1. For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?
  2. Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?
  3. Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?

We'll shoot for 24 hours to discuss and then start getting into moves proper.

I would like to add that any moves which make it through Defining Moves 1 are not guaranteed to be part of our moveset going forward. We are looking to use this first half to better inform our primary Ability, and from there we’ll narrow our scope. Don’t become too attached to anything we decide during this stage.

Oh, and one last thing: Wednesday is the start of my workweek and said job takes up a majority of my time starting then through early Sunday, so there will be a period of inactivity on my part. If you want your opinion heard, make sure to post in the thread so that I see it. I can't add anymore formatting to grab your attention. Now get posting!
 
I'm definitely in favor of a deliberately broad list in this stage. A lot of moves are going to have very specific interactions with different abilities, and making the list expansive enough to work with a number of different abilities absolutely should be our goal moving forward here.

As for signature moves, I'm generally in favor of allowing them, provided that we have a significant reason for doing so. Giving this CAP Population Bomb so it can reliably beat FEAR Toxel seems weird in a way that discussing eg Court Change (bad example but first I thought of) doesn't. Aka treat signature moves in a way that requires significant justification as to why we may want to give them out.

The obvious moves to discuss for an offensive pivot are well, Pivoting moves. They're nearly all relevant here, from Parting Shot to pivot without giving Venomicon a +1 defense (this will lose you the game a lot of the time fyi), to well, the damaging ones. Beyond that strong wallbreaking options are something we'll need to consider, as well as specific strong coverage moves. I'll also note healing, as eg Koko shows how important healing is on an offensive pivot, letting you actually switch into, wall, and then force out some specific attackers is vital to the role, despite us calling it an offensive pivot.
 
For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?
I agree that we should be as vague as possible and instead of naming moves in particular go with broader categories like say strong x type coverage would be good or Stab moves that compress moveslots with utility will help CAP32 etc, wherever possible. Obviously some moves are so special that you probably have to name them to make a case.
Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?
I think non legendary signatures should be fair game for any concept if there’s a good case for them. Meanwhile especially with our typing Idt legendary signatures provide much and should be left alone.
Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?
Three categories that are always great for an offensive pivot are obviously pivoting attacks, item manipulation and strong stab priority, the former two provide safe methods of progress, while the third is great for applying offensive pressure against weakened foes regardless of speed stat (examples include Rillaboom, scizor, Syclant, cinderace and palafin).
A fourth option that isn’t immediately offensive but that can be great for offensive leaning pivots are moves that spread status which reduce the offensive potential of mons (So any move that spreads Paralysis, Burn and Sleep)
 
How do you feel about this direction (broad list for each category) for the stage?

This is super fine. I think having an idea for what we want out of each part of CAP32 is great going into the Ability stage. Referring to what spoo said in CA1, an idea of CAP32’s move set will definitely aid in the ability process.

Is this (sigs) something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?

Ok, read Quziel’s post and realized that this also includes regular signatures (i.e. Salt Cure and Lumina Crash), which is totally fine (for posterity can’t we include sigs regardless? f.e. we gave Jumbao Shore Up)

Anyway, if we also mean Legendary sigs. Those are fine, like we learned from Saharaja that DStorm doesn’t make it broken

Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?


Pivoting moves. We should definitely consider these as they’ll define how CAP32 will pivot out of the battlefield, chip damage, self sacrifice, weakening the opp, slow pivoting.

I think STAB is very important. While not necessarily STAB pivoting moves, using STAb while still on the field is very important for offensive pivots, like Scizor, Greninja. and Krilowatt.

I think Utility is something to consider. Other than momentum, how will CAP32 help its teammates? I think this question definitely needs to be addressed, especially since we might not have the raw power or bulk compared to most CAP threats
 
Looks like I got back just in time for Defining Moves!

For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?

This is fine. Discussing a variety of moves will help the ability process. That being said, I don't think just because we're potentially discussing a wide variety of moves here doesn't mean moves not talked about should mean they can't be talked about in the second part of Defining Moves.

Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?

Absolutely yes. Not allowing moves because of limited distribution feels like arbitrary reasoning to me. Signature moves have also been given in the past for CAPs with much higher stats (see Jumbao with Shore Up), and they have been given out as movepool updates this gen too (Caribolt with Hyper Drill and Malaconda with Grav Apple). And with our lower stats, we should absolutely treat these usually stronger moves as valid options.

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?

Pivoting moves is the first thing a pivot would want. This includes Flip Turn (not a sig since both Palafin and Bundle get it), U-turn, Volt Switch, and Parting Shot. I'm not gonna go over which one of these would be best, as I'll save it for dedicated discussions on these moves, but I think this is what we would want most if we're trying to make an offensive pivot.
 
For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?
That is probably the best choice. Since we have yet to do ability there are a lot of specific aspects of CAP32 that we can't exactly nail down, so keeping our options open for our role is a good idea, as long as we narrow it down in a later stage of course. We can always subtract what we don't need, but its much harder to add something later on.

Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?
Dismissing my personal hang-ups, I do think signatures should be on the table since the options they provide are absolutely something to consider to amp up CAP32's power. A request I do have is that, while this seems like an obvious thing, we do make sure to respect them at the very least and in CAP's final form we really shouldn't be giving them more than one signature, so suggestions of moves should hopefully keep that in mind. Being willing to poll these moves should also be taken, although this might be a given. Legendary signatures if considered should be treated with extra care.

(A lot of my concerns come from a perspective of optics, which while some will argue are irrelevant to a competitive stage I don't think is entirely true. All I am asking for at this point is some level of care with sigs.)

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?
Not gonna spend much time on pivot moves since others have mentioned it, but basically any of them are going to work wonderfully for a dedicated offensive pivot, since being able to either damage or weaken a foe before letting your teammate in safely is a massive boon that a lot of extremely successful pivots utilize.

Some form of utility is also something really important that could help out CAP32. Giving CAP something to do that isn't exclusively clicking attacks gives it more reason to put it on a team, be that item manipulation, hazards, or remedial forms of team support. Our focus is still on maintaining team momentum, but giving CAP32 something else of use aside from stabs and coverage will make it easier to slap on a team.
 
  1. For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?
    In my opinion, keep the list open. Just because we're an offensive pivot doesn't mean we can't dip into utilty options. Many Offensive Pivots either do more than force switches, or use the forced switch to make progress. Additionally, with our concept being an extremely restricting factor, I don't see why we'd want to restrict ourselves even further with a shallow move list.

  2. Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?
    I don't see why not, although we don't necessarily NEED to. All of the "Bang Average" pokemon currently in OU all use common moves, except for Breloom who uses Spore.

  3. Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?
    Hazards should still be on the table. Many offensive pivots make use of the switches they force to get up a layer of Spikes.Item manipulation such as Knock and status conditions should be considered as well.
 
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For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?

I agree with the general consensus that a broad approach is a good idea at the moment - some pretty powerful abilities with diverse functions have been discussed in places like the discord and I think that a broad look will keep as many of these options open for discussion.

Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?

I reckon signature moves should be open for consideration. Limited distribution doesn't seem like it should be much of a factor for this mon given the move-strength we'll need to be viable with poor stats. That said, for flavour reasons I'm okay with restricting legendary signature moves.



On the subject of limited distribution moves, gen 9 is a bit notorious for gutting the distribution of a huge number of moves. I think looking at some of those moves will be a good idea since the utility provided by them is all the more valuable due to it's rarity. Having access to some of these moves (like knock-off, scald, etc) can help define a use case for the mon.
 
For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?
I agree with that. I think our selections should be very broad to allow for abilities to be chosen that make less inherently useful moves viable or even fantastic options. We're going to need a lot of good tools to make up for our lackluster stats, and so a broad list of moves is a good starting point.

Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?
Yes, I think signature moves should be on the table with decent justication behind them.

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?

Pivoting moves and item manipulation are historically pretty common on good pivots. Priority is pretty useful (as an example, Scizor has an offensive pivot set despite being slow– this is one way to circumvent a low speed stat while remaining offensive).
 
Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?
Actually speaking mainly as an artist here:

Game Freak has already shown us that they are quite willing to make some non-legendary signature moves no longer signature, with Jaw Lock and Spirit Break being "demoted" in this way this generation alone. Thus, us similarly making non-legendary signature moves non-signature is not without approved precedent. However, some non-legendary unique moves have flavour so restrictive that not even their users' pre-evolutions learn the moves despite having reasonable flavour for them, thus making me really uncomfortable with freeing them, and even some non-legendary signature moves have awkwardly restrictive flavour:
  • (Steel-type) Make It Rain has such restrictive flavour that not even its own sole user's pre-evolution Gimmighoul, which somewhat easily has enough coins to use this attack, is willing to learn or use this attack.
  • (Steel-type) Gigaton Hammer has restrictive enough flavour that its sole user's pre-evolution Tinkatuff does not have a big enough hammer to use this attack. Not even having a hammer is good enough justification to learn this move.
  • (Grass-type) Drum Beating clearly requires a drum.
  • (Dragon-type) Dragon Darts demands a multi-dragon(-energy)-chucking Pokemon. Its sole user's pre-evolution Drakloak does not carry enough small dragons to learn or use this move.
  • (Dragon-type) Glaive Rush's flavour actually might not be so bad as a generic attack for glaive-wielding Pokemon if it weren't Dragon-type. On another note, its sole user's pre-evolution Arctibax's back fin is clearly not good enough to count as a glaive.
  • (Dark-type) Kowtow Cleave has just restrictive enough flavour that its sole user's pre-evolution Bisharp doesn't feel like bowing, kowtowing, dogeza-ing, or grovelling often enough to learn or use this move, not even for nefarious purposes.
  • (Normal-type) Population Bomb essentially requires a particularly fecund user. I incorrectly guessed that Lokix might learn this move based on flavour alone - locusts seem like among the only animals with large and consistent enough population explosions to use this move.
  • (Rock-type) Salt Cure essentially requires a Pokemon that actually has enough salt on their person to regularly apply it on others.
Heck, Malaconda has really great flavour for Grav Apple - I otherwise wouldn't have approved of it getting it.
 
Not a ton to add for the first two questions that haven't been answered already; I think giving ourselves options here is pretty important and the protocols described sound fine to me. The main thing I wanted to address was the last question.

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?

Offensive pivots are a bit two-fold with how they play. Aside from enabling scary offensive teammates, they are just as capable of using their own pivoting selfishly. Particularly this is mainly the case with a lot of offensive U-turn and Volt Switch users (think Cinderace or Tapu Koko), who use these moves to safely accrue chip and use the subsequent switch-in as a way to then scare the pivot's threats out. This is pretty much the core gameplan of the VoltTurn playstyle and it works hugely because you're constantly forcing damage and making it easy for your pivots to become increasingly threatening in the endgame. As an offensive pivot I think playing to these moves particularly would be important, especially as we inherently need to secure ranges by merit of our lower offensive stats. However, in the case of a Fire/Fairy type that matches poorly into Regenerator-user Toxapex and Stamina-holding Venomicon, U-turn is really underwhelming for the most part. It's for this reason I believe Volt Switch would be probably the best option in terms of offensive pivoting, especially as our STABs naturally threaten Volt Switch immunities in Great Tusk, Garchomp, and Equilibra. Volt Switch emphasizes all of offensive/synergistic chip with its Electric-type into Venomicon/Toxapex as well as pivoting, which are both invaluable for offensive pivots.

However, aside from pivoting itself, I mostly want to emphasize that offensive pivots thrive off of the support of passive damage and other progress-making options, and ensuring said chip damage can stick is really important for augmenting the threat factor of offensive pivots in the long run. Knock Off and Taunt are both really good options in this regard as Knock Off can disrupt Heavy-Duty Boots/Leftovers holders, and Taunt can block recovery from potential switch-ins that can negate chip damage with auto-heal moves. We see the practicality of these options particularly because of the success that Tornadus-T has historically posed with these moves in its arsenal.
 
Adding my support to compiling a broad list of moves

  1. Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?


We should be doing this anyways lol, as others pointed out it's neither internally consistent within the process concerning past CAPs nor consistent with GF's game design (and now with the norm being DLCs that expand the pool of available Pokemon, it makes even less sense). I'm also strongly against instating arbitrary limits like only having one signature move or determining whether moves have "enough flavour." It's just plainly bad policy to have this arbitrary restriction for some CAPs and not for others, especially where non-Legendary signature moves are concerned. Gen 9 has a wealth of great Fire-type signature moves that could function well on an offensive pivot and it just doesn't make sense to exclude them all. While I do not think the current project needs signature moves to succeed, I believe that this concept gives us a significant amount of latitude to explore novel interactions not seen outside of OMs without having to worry about making something that needs to be nerfed off the bat. Extreme examples of what I'm talking about with novel interactions would be Cud Chew-Revival Blessing, or Triage-Healing Wish.

I'm strongly against Population Bomb or moves like Rage Fist or Last Respects on the grounds that balancing around a move like that would be extremely constraining on future steps due to their sheer damage output, not because they are signature moves.

As for approaches to offensive pivoting, viol and bass and ausma are right that item control is important to pivots and helps accrue progress. Same applies to field control, the most powerful moves in that regard being Court Change, Tidy Up and Mortal Spin. Cinderace has already proven how impactful a pivot with Court Change can be, effectively forcing the opponent into a situation where they need to weigh whether it's worth taking up multiple set-up turns against a team that can simply gain tempo from pivoting moves AND both set up hazards and remove them in a single turn.
 
Just putting a summary here of the type features so people don't have to keep looking stuff up when discussing coverage and such.

Offensively:

Hits SE: Dark, Dragon, Fighting, Bug, Grass, Ice, Steel
NFE Against: Fire

Defensively:

Weak To: Poison, Rock, Ground, Water
Resists: Dragon (x0), Bug (x0.25), Dark, Fighting, Fairy, Fire, Grass, Ice


Looking at this, providing Grass and Ground type coverage moves could cover the types we can't hit neutrally / are weak against.
 
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For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?
This sounds like a fine route to me. with defining moves happening before and after abilities, it makes sense to me to give ourselves a large list of moves to consider before trimming the fat and cleaning up the pool when there's an ability under our belt.

Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?
This is a question I feel mixed on. On the one hand, I do feel that signature moves should at least be considered if push comes to shove and something like that is neccessary. On the other hand, though, I find it difficult to believe signature moves are neccessary for this mon. Many mons that we've considered Bang Average, such as Clefable, Rotom or Nidoking, don't have much in the way of signature moves. Even Breloom, who has Spore, shares that move with other Pokemon such as Amoonguss, and even then its not a required move on some of the sets Breloom runs. To me, any signatures available to us should be handled with care and only used if they provide the synergy that the Pokemon is looking for.

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?
pivoting moves are obviously the most important moves to consider for this role. the ability to create momentum is essential for us in this role, and of those moves, damaging pivot moves are the most useful, as the chip they provide allows to us to slowly wear down the opponent's switch ins and make our offensive presence that much stronger. Along with this, then, moves that provide offensive presence needed, as the ability to threaten heavy damage or even KO's is neccessary for us to actually get the momentum we want for this mon.
 
thus making me really uncomfortable with freeing them
Moderator Hat on.
CAP generally is against making decisions on competitive steps based on flavor concerns. To pick on Astrolotl, as its a very well received recent design, its very smooth, and spikes are very rough, and I've seen no complaints about mismatch between flavor and function there.
 
Moderator Hat on.
CAP generally is against making decisions on competitive steps based on flavor concerns. To pick on Astrolotl, as its a very well received recent design, its very smooth, and spikes are very rough, and I've seen no complaints about mismatch between flavor and function there.
To add onto this, Spirit Shackle has distinct "arrow" flavoring, but you don't see any complaints about Pajantom getting it. Just because a move has some specific flavor qualifications ingame does not disqualify it from the process.
 
For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?

Considering a wide range of moves is best for this initial defining moves stage! A wide list is still a lot narrower than "every move in the game."

Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?

We should absolutely consider signature moves for this process. Coming up with a list of these moves will be critical because one could argue that some signature moves can impact CAP32's build even more than its ability or stats can. I will hold off on making said list of these moves for now based on the wording of the question.

In my opinion, though, I think picking only one signature move will be necessary. While it would not against any rules to utilize more than one signature move, I would question why it would be necessary to do so. One strong signature move in combination with a strong ability should be enough balance out CAP32's average stats.

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?

While I don't believe pivoting moves are required on a pivot, moves like Volt Switch, U-turn, and Parting Shot will undoubtedly help enable CAP32 to fit in this role. Also, while the offensive hazard setter role did not win the poll, I don't think hazard-setting moves should be completely off the table. They just shouldn't be CAP32's primary focus. It's also hard not to mention Knock Off as the premier move for an offensive pivot to spam; see basically every Tornadus-T from gens 6 to 8. Again, while it's certainly not required, it's an easy move to add that CAP32 would definitely appreciate.
 
I always kind of believed that at defining moves to include "every possible move we want to include, and then cut the broken and fluff later" so I have no issue going broad.

We should allow signature moves for two reasons:
1. Flavor implications don't matter at this stage in the process
2. Generally speaking, I think the signature or low distribution Fire-type moves is an effective way to push us in a solid direction going into ability and give CAP32 a tool to compensate for a stat spread that will end up lacking in some aspect

I would go ahead and throw the big three pivoting moves (U-turn, Volt Switch, and Parting Shot) in the necessary category at this point; yes there are pivoting offensive Pokemon that don't use pivoting moves, but I don't think our typing alone facilitates it particularly well in the current metagame, nor do I think we are in a position to make CAP32's life harder by denying it crucial scouting tools. There are other pivoting moves that can be discussed that do different things, but the bread-and-butter ones seem important inclusions.

The other moves I would consider for an offensive pivot would be sleep moves (generally good at applying pressure and scouting, as you have less risk switching your teammate into a sleeping target) and Knock Off. Hazards are generally safe to include as well, although how they interact with CAP32 I think lies more with ability.
 
For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?

Based (In all seriousness, I don't really have a whole lot to comment on here other than just saying I think it would be a good idea).

Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?

I really don't see any problem with taking this stance regarding signature moves. Generally speaking, a lot of the signature moves in the game tend to be stronger than ones that are more commonly given out, and given that we are not going to really going to be able to use our stats to serve as a threat (Especially in regards to how much damage we can output), opening ourselves up to more powerful options just seems like the natural course of action to take. Of course, any move we give out should be justified with fairly sound reasoning, which is something that we already do for most moves in general, the only real difference is that they are put under a bit more scrutiny just due the semantics surrounding the moves in question.

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?

Looking at some examples of successful Offensive Pivots from past metagames, we can see a few patterns start to arise when it comes to their movepools.

Pivoting Moves: In a shocking mystery that not even Sherlock Holmes could solve, pivoting moves turn out to be really good on an Offensive Pivot. Joking aside, while it's fairly obvious that having access to some sort of pivoting is going to be helpful to us, I do think that there is a good debate to be had on what move would be helpful here, although I'm not sure if now is really the time to be having that conversation or not.

Recovery: Tapu Koko is a great example of how an offensive pivot can utilize recovery very well. The ability to switch-in on attacks multiple times during the course of a match is essential for the vast majority of pivots in the game, and being able to recover from any damage we have taken when switching in is obviously going to be very beneficial for our ability to do this. While I don't see our bulk really being the best here, our defensive typing is already good enough that we shouldn't have too many problems being able to switch-in and heal off most of the damage we took.

Knock Off: I don't really have much here to say other than I agree with what pretty much what everyone has already said about this move. The only thing I really want to add here is that with the limited distribution of Knock Off this gen, I think that having access to this move would already be a fairly solid niche that would help us stand out in the metagame.

Hazards: This is a fairly safe option to go with if we want to just have some form of extra utility outside of just being a pivot. Syclant last gen got a ton of value off of Spikes, and in a very similar vein so does SM Greninja. Also, even though we aren't planning on making this the focus of the Pokemon, a lot of the arguments users made in Concept Assessment 2 (myself included) are also pretty solid arguments in favor of their inclusion.
 
1. For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?

It is the ideal route to handle the defining moves stage. Since synergy is fundamental to this concept’s success, having tools to discuss during the ability stage will better position CAP32 to be successful.

When it comes to STABs, I think we need to be more generic in how we refer to them. Instead of defining specific STAB moves, we should be allowed to consider all moves that offer STAB, especially since some abilities can grant additional STABs/STAB options. This allows us to be more fluid during the ability stage without being distracted about what moves make the list. The only exception to this rule would be signature moves.

2. Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?

Yes. I think everything except legendary signature moves are up for consideration. I also do not believe we need to slow down the conversation by needlessly polling each signature move. Polls were used for multiple moves in Astrolotl’s project, and I still believe them to be a mistake that dragged out the stage.
 
Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?
I completely agree with freeing signatures moves, as long as a strong case is made about them and they provide some new and interesting on the table that is not available with common moves. One example I have in mind is Pyro Ball which is basically "Strong Fire physical STAB" where Flare Blitz exists. On the other hand, Bitter Blade provides healing on Fire-STAB, which is something no other move can emulate.

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?
Strong spammable STABs. I suppose it is a given but we will probably have one or two moves more utility-oriented, which means we want something to achieve strong, reliable coverage with as few moves as possible. Fire + Fairy is already decent and as BobKingOfSeagulls mentioned, Ground makes for a fantastic additional coverage and has moves with decent / good power (EQ / EP).
Just a quick mention to Lava Plume which combines decent power and status spreading, which is an another way to apply some pressure.

Pivot moves are obviously useful for a Pivot Pokemon. Out of these, Volt Switch is the safest choice: Electric is good coverage to our STABs and it avoids triggering contact. Bulky Grounds may not be to keen to come on us, especially if we are specially-oriented which makes a nice move for us, not only for pivoting but also to apply some pressure.
Teleport is intriguing but I don't think it is suited for an offensive pivot. Lastly, Parting Shot has always seemed a bit un-explored. A mini-Memento which does not kill you can help a set-up sweeper come in and start going to town. EDIT: My ass forgot about Kerfluffle, -5 points for Parting Shot.

Recovery is great with our typing: there are many common types we resist and we want to come in and out often as a pivot. Tapu Koko (with Roost), Tornadus-T and Astrolotl (Regenerator) showed how some recovery goes a very long way.

Disruption moves like Taunt, Knock Off / Corrosive Gas or even something like Encore or even a 50%-damage move like Tapu Koko can be used to good effect. Our typing does make Trick much less enticing for now. Status are good too especially sleep (because it is really good) and Toxic to bypass are lack of brute force, but I want to mention that the Pex and Heatran from the future resists both our STABs and is not bothered by Toxic so we can't really on it to cover everything.
 
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For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?

Definitely agree with the direction here.

Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?

Absolutely. Moves such as Flamethrower and Moonblast (or Fire Punch and Play Rough) might be serviceable STAB options on a Pokemon with good base stats, but won't cut it on a Pokemon with mediocre stats. Additionally, Fire and Fairy have several interesting signature moves that might be worth a look, such as Bitter Blade, Sacred Fire, or Fleur Cannon.

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?

Obviously some kind of pivoting move is absolutely necessary on an offensive pivot. Of the three main ones, (U-Turn, Volt Switch, and Parting Shot) I personally lean towards Volt Switch. Volt Switch is obviously hindered in effectiveness by the presence of Ground types, but many of the prevalent ground types in the tier such as Equilibra, Great Tusk, and Garchomp are hit super-effectively by either of CAP 32's STAB options, something that no other Volt Switch user can claim. Additionally, Parting Shot seems a bit redundant considering there is already a CAP Pokemon built around the move.
 
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