CAP 37 - Part 2 - Concept Submissions

[kenn]

CAP 37 So Far

-----

The Concept will be a guiding force throughout the ensuing project, to ensure the the final result is a cohesive competitive Pokemon. Any discussions, suggestions, or submissions in later topics, that do not support the spirit of the Concept, will be moderated by the Topic Leader. Concepts must be presented as high-level descriptions of a general idea. They cannot be detailed Pokemon designs. Since we have polls to determine each aspect of the Pokemon, we cannot allow any specific features of the Pokemon to be determined by the details of the Concept. We intentionally have many rules regarding Concept Submissions. If you are not prepared to read and understand all the rules, then don't bother making a submission. These rules are made to help narrow the field of concepts down to those that have been carefully designed. This is not meant to be easy for everyone -- a good, legal Concept requires a lot of thought and careful wording. The following rules must be followed when submitting a Concept:

• Concepts must work with the mechanics laid out in Pokemon Scarlet/Violet. A concept that requires a custom ability, move, or other element that cannot be found on a Pokemon from Scarlet or Violet is not allowed. A concept must be feasible with the gameplay mechanics that are currently available. A concept MAY reference Pokemon unique to the CAP metagame, but the concept must be able to be fulfilled by a creation with access to only GameFreak created abilities, moves, etc. In short, "no customs." We are using GameFreak's toolbox.
• One submission per person. You may edit your Concept, but you may not change the fundamental premise after it has been posted. If editing your concept, please edit the original post instead of posting a new revision. Do not bump your Concept after you have posted it. If people do not comment on it, so be it.
• Do not duplicate or closely-resemble Concepts already posted by others. It is your responsibility to read through all previous submissions in this thread to ensure you are complying with this rule. Ignorance or laziness is not an excuse.
• Specific Pokemon types or type combos cannot be included or excluded in a Concept. Nor can other characteristics of the Concept specifically result in in the inclusion or exclusion of Types. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:
  "This is a Dragon pokemon with..." "The pokemon should be immune to Ghost attacks..." "The pokemon should have at least 7 resistances..." "The pokemon should get STAB on Thunderbolt.."
• Specific Abilities are not allowed. This applies to existing abilities and new abilities. Do not attempt to circumvent this rule by mentioning specific battle effects that can only be achieved by the implementation of an ability. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:
  "This pokemon should have a defensive ability like Intimidate or Marvel Scale..." "This pokemon has an ability that steals the opponent's held item..." "When this pokemon is switched in, all weather conditions are nullified..."
• Movepools or lists of moves are not allowed. A specific move can be mentioned if it is the basis for the entire concept. For example, the Concept "Rapid Spinner" would obviously mention the move Rapid Spin.
• Specific stat bias, base stats, or base stat ratings are not allowed. It is acceptable to use descriptive phrases like "fast", "bulky", "strong attacker", etc -- since there are a variety of ways a pokemon can fit those descriptions without specifically requiring certain stats. But, do not use overly-specific descriptions that would narrowly constrain the pokemon's base stat spread.
• Indications of Physical/Special bias are discouraged, but acceptable if it is essential to the Concept.
• Do not refer to any part of the pokemon's artistic design. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:
  "This is a bright blue pokemon..." "The pokemon looks like a..." "The pokemon uses its long tail to..."
• A Concept Submission must be submitted in the proper format. The format is described below. If the proper format is not used, the moderators will not evaluate the submission, regardless of content.

Concept Submission Format Use this format for all concept submissions: Here is the format with tags. Just copy/paste this into your post, and fill it out:

• Name - Don't get too clever with the name. If the essence of the concept is not intuitively obvious in the name, then you are hurting your chances of people understanding it. If the essence of your concept cannot be expressed in a few words, then you need to seriously re-evaluate your concept.
• Description - This is the official description of the concept, and must follow ALL the content rules listed above. Do not make this a long description. Long descriptions are invariably too specific or too convoluted. Keep it short. Any more than a sentence or two is TOO MUCH. Do NOT include your Explanation of the concept in the Description. See "Explanation" below.
• Justification- Your concept must answer the following questions to be eligible:
  • What new territory will your Concept Pokemon explore, why do you believe it’s interesting, and how would it interact with the metagame?
  • How does your concept motivate in-depth discussion at each stage of the process, and why do you believe the CAP Project community should discuss these topics?
• In filling out your concept submission, copy the questions above and add your answer after it.
• Questions To Be Answered - The purpose of the CAP project is to learn new things about the metagame, and each concept submission is a proposed "experiment". Each tool has its own specific set of questions, but good concepts often can explain other facets of competitive Pokemon. Use this section to pose those additional questions. Note that this is different from Justification where you are answering tool-related questions, in this section you are proposing questions.
• Explanation - This can contain just about anything. This is where you can explain your concept without restraint. You may make suggestions, even specific suggestions, regarding the possible implementation of the Concept. This explanation should help facilitate discussion of the Concept -- but the Explanation is NOT part of the Concept and will be omitted from the polls and any future use of the Concept. Since your explanation is non-binding, regarding future polls and threads, it will not be evaluated for purposes of determining if your concept is legal or illegal. Although it is tempting, refrain from making too long of an explanation; it will deter readers from fully considering your concept.

It is the submitter's responsibility to figure out how to make a legal submission within the rules listed above. Do not complain about the difficulty of making a submission in this thread. There are many, many legal concepts that can be presented within the rules. Here are few examples of good and bad Concepts from previous projects:

Good Concepts from Past Projects
"Pure Utility Pokemon"
"Anti-Ghost Rapid Spinner"
"Ultimate Weather Abuser"
"Status Counter"
"Momentum"

Bad Concepts from Past Projects
"Ice-Resisting Dragon"
"Super Luck User"
"STAB Explosion Glass Cannon"
"Auto-Stealth Rock Remover"
"A Pokemon with Special Intimidate"
"Pyrokinetic Pokemon (Fire/Psychic)"
"Special Guts"
"Typing Means Nothing"

Note that all good concepts do not specifically dictate anything in later polls. Please try to remember that we are simply pointing the project in a general direction, we are not trying to decide anything right now. We have several weeks of polls ahead of us where EVERYTHING about this Pokemon will be dissected, discussed, voted, and decided. The concept is a very basic guide for the creation process. It is hard to provide solid concept descriptions without basically designing the entire Pokemon right off the bat. Submissions should be written and chosen very carefully to avoid these problems.

Now I will hand things over to CAP 37's TL, earthflax!

 

[earthflax]

Welcome one and all to the inaugural stage of CAP37! The concept is the most pivotal component of each and every CAP process, and I am excited to see what the community will think of this time around. If you’re a newer user or find submitting a concept to be daunting, don’t fear! There are plenty of great examples of concepts in past Concept Submission stages (found in the CAP Archive), and our community is always happy to discuss ideas and iterate on specifics in the CAP Discord server. Additionally, I will be giving periodic feedback on submitted concepts, which will include specific advice on things to change. Finally, I’ll emphasize that a concept submission is not final until you finalize it yourself, so do not be afraid to post a concept in this thread and edit it later based on feedback.

A wise man once said, “it takes a village to raise a CAP.” Let’s make the first step right here!

 

[kenn]

WIP

Name: Perfect Conditions

Description: This CAP excels at using conditional moves to their fullest effect.

Justification: Conditional moves have seen a wide range of success between tiers across all generations ranging from SubPunch Breloom in DPP OU to Beak Blast Celesteela in SS STABmons. However as time has gone on, most conditional moves themselves have become less popular whether that is due to exclusivity (Beak Blast, Comeuppance, etc.) or just straight up unviability (Attract, Covet, Steel Roller, etc.). However, conditional moves can have extremely powerful effects when procced whether that be just pure power or getting the jump on an opponent or even putting the opponent at a disadvantage.

Questions to be Answered:

- Why are conditional moves, outside of Sucker Punch, rarely seen? Is this just due to the nature of the generation or is due to lack of accessibility for Pokemon to utilize these moves?

- What needs to be achieved to successfully utilize the effects of these conditional moves? How does one leverage these effects to apply pressure?

Explanation: DPP Breloom with Substitute + Focus Punch is a gleaming example of what a concept like this could achieve as it was able to leverage a wonderfully defensive ability in Poison Heal with its decent typing to hit hard and avoid being KO'd despite lackluster defensive stats. Other, more recent, examples include mons like Kingambit and Raging Bolt that utilize Sucker Punch and Thunderclap respectively to smack the opponent before they attack provided they are actually attacking. One of the examples that really intrigued me for this particular concept is the move Beak Blast. *continue here* Landorus-T/Corviknight in STAB, etc.

 

[Gekokeso]

WIP

Name - Big Guy

Description - This Pokémon has a stat that is so high it surpasses the 200 stat mark, while still having an average BST.

Justification- High stats, when combined with good elements, are known to make pokémon that range from phenomenal to broken. In general, is agreed upon that pokémon that have multiple good stats instead of just one really high one tend to excel at their jobs, but there are cases where certain mons can be carried by a particularly high stat, known as minmaxed Pokémon. This concept would look to explore the absolute limits we can take a min-maxed Pokémon while still making it balanced.

Questions To Be Answered -

• What examples can we look at of min-maxed pokémon that succeeded in OU while still remaining balanced? What kept them in check?
• There are multiple pokémon that, despite having one or two particularly good stats, ended up not being viable in OU. Why? What caused them to fail?
• What particular stat would be best to explore? Should we pick a stat that's known to work really well already, or should we pick a stat that hasn't been studied much yet?
• How customizable is such a large stat? Should we focus on having it EV to the max or very little at all?
• What role can this pokémon employ that takes the most benefit of said large stat?

Explanation - The first concept of this generation () revolved around seeing how to make low stats work, so I thought it would poetic to finish the generation with another stats-related concept. We have seen mons with absurdly high stats have very unique roles in the meta. We have seen them succeed ( , ), we have seen them struggle ( , ). I think a concept where we can play around with an extremely high stat can lead to a large level of customization for various sets, and thus to a very fun concept.

 

[chartung17]

WIP

Name: Butter Knife

Description: This Pokémon does not have access to any high-BP STAB moves, but it makes effective use of its less powerful STABs.

Justification: There are a couple different routes this concept could take. First, it could make a Pokémon that is less reliant on its STABs than most Pokémon, as a medium-strength STAB would be about as effective against a neutral target as a powerful non-STAB move. And second, there are many moves with interesting effects that rarely see use due to their relatively low base power; this concept could provide the opportunity to explore one or move of those moves by removing the opportunity cost associated with choosing them over more powerful options.

Questions to be Answered:

• What counts as high BP?
• Are moves that have conditional BP pro-concept?
• Which route would be more interesting - a Pokémon where STAB and coverage are equally effective, or one which uses rarely-used STABs with interesting effects? Could we do both?

Explanation: Personally I think building around one or more rarely-used moves is the most interesting route for this concept. There are several mid-power moves that can be powerful under certain conditions, such as Stomping Tantrum, Temper Flare, Brine, or Revenge. There are moves with unique events, such as Burning Jealousy, Jaw Lock, and Fell Stinger. And, of course, there are far too many moves that raise one of the user's stats or lowers one of the opponent's to list them all.

 

[IronTemplar]

WIP

Name - Priorities Straight

Description - A CAP that sacrifices speed for concentration on priority moves

Justification - Plenty of increased priority moves have achieved meta status. This concept would take advantage of various moves with increased priority to challenge the current and emerging meta, with the benefit of enabling a stronger focus on attack or defense, while reducing its own speed in order to accommodate

Questions To Be Answered - There are 2 possible design philosophies for this approach: width and depth. Width means taking stock of the coverage available in every available type and maximizing the damage possibility for each. Depth means minimizing our coverage to increase the sheer damage from one of them (rain Jet Punch for instance)
The hard part comes with designing one of these that is both not outcompeted by the modern game and can function with the available meta. It would also need to take full stock of every priority move available. Do we assess a very wide range of moves for type coverage? Or, do we focus on 1 move in particular with multiple buffs? Do we ONLY focus on priority moves? Finally, if not, how much speed are we willing to sacrifice?

Explanation - One of the first examples of this concept () focused very heavily on Bullet Punch, using its typing together with Technician to achieve much higher damage than the move was capable of on its own. This idea would be heavily embraced by ( ) , greatly justifying the loss of an item. The concept would be revisited with (), although utilizing various supporting moves around effective execution. I personally think a degree of concentration towards increased priority makes effective means of challenging the meta, while also paying homage to entire eras of the game

 

[AzothBend]

WIP

Name: Another STAB at It

Description: This Pokemon uses a type-boosting ability to effectively grant it an additional STAB separate from it's typing.

Justification: Tera has rightfully sparked a lot of discussion on Pokemon types. This concept aims to examine that discussion from a different angle. It's no secret that STAB is a very important aspect to a Pokemon's viability. But typing necessarily comes with implications for a Pokemon's defensive profile. Some types are more offensively oriented, some defensive, others still maintain a balance.

Many Pokemon have found success this generation by foregoing their base types for a better defensive profile, maintaining their original STAB and often gaining boosts to valuable coverage. Some Tera types are especially popular in this regard. But Terastalization is limited to one Pokemon a match and only one type at a time. It also is requires a turn to activate, something noteworthy for Pokemon weak to certain hazards or common attacking moves.

Questions to be Answered:

Explanation:

 

[Shock3600]

WIP

• Name - Selfish Support
• Description - This Pokémon sets up a field effect primarily for its own benefit instead of for the benefit of its allies.
• Justification
  • What new territory will your Concept Pokemon explore, why do you believe it’s interesting, and how would it interact with the metagame?
    • Field effects are more commonly seen used to support a Pokémon's allies rather than itself. Instead of focusing on taking advantage of the field effect they support up for themselves, they can invest in creating more opportunities to set up the effect and to do so repeatedly, in order to support allies that can focus the entirety of their ev's, ability, item, and move sets for offense instead. By choosing to instead focus on utilizing these effects for itself, we can explore what is needed to push a Pokémon from enabling allies to enabling itself, making the most of it despite dedicating a move slot or ability to setting up a field effect, how field effects can differ from using standard set up moves, and the benefit out of having an easier time making the most of the limited time field effects are in play.
  • How does your concept motivate in-depth discussion at each stage of the process, and why do you believe the CAP Project community should discuss these topics?
• Questions To Be Answered
• Explanation

 

[dex]

WIP

Name: Stallbreaker

Description: This Pokemon inhabits the Stallbreaker role, improving a team's matchup into stall or semi-stall archetypes.

Justification: The term stallbreaker has been used in competitive Pokemon since generation 3, but it is a difficult thing to exactly define. The general idea of a stallbreaker is just "Pokemon that is good into stall", but the way stallbreakers have accomplished that over the generations is actually quite varied. ADV's number one stallbreaker is Medicham, which bowls through stall with its powerful attacks. BW, on the other hand, has Pokemon like Mew, which excels at messing with Stall's gameplan utilizing status-inducing moves and Taunt, and Reuniclus, whose access to Magic Guard and Calm Mind make it a very difficult Pokemon for stall to effectively deal with. There are numerous ways to threaten stall as a playstyle, and this concept seeks to identify those methods and actualize it through a CAP.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What are common ways Pokemon threaten stall? Are there common features across historical stallbreakers that we can use?
• The role of "stallbreaker" is not always well defined from generation to generation. Pokemon like Heatran, perhaps the best example of a historical stallbreaker, offer teams value outside of the stallbreaker role. What are some other roles that can coincide with a stallbreaker's goal?
• What are common strategies that stall teams employ that CAP 37 can target?
• Stallbreakers across generations are often quite varied in their strategies. Common strategies include inescapable power (Choice Specs Tapu Lele), status moves (Taunt + Will-o-Wisp Gengar), and trapping (Heatran and Magnezone). What are some strategies that would be particularly effective against Generation 9's iteration of stall?

Explanation: Stall in Generation 9, like most other archetypes, has experienced power creep. As evidenced by Gliscor's S rank on the CAP VR and the high ranking of other stall mainstays like Garganacl and Hydrapple, stall obviously has a foothold in the current generation of Pokemon. Additionally, I don't think it would be a rash statement to say that stall is even better in CAP than it is in OU due to CAPs like Snaelstrom, Cresceidon, and Kitsunoh. Stall this generation has as many if not more tools at its disposal than any other generation before. This makes creating a stallbreaker interesting to me; stallbreakers don't typically have 6-0 matchups on lead into a well-built stall team. Instead, they often reward proper positioning and prediction to generate progress against stall.

 

[Gaboswampert]

WIP

Name: Big Numbers

Description: This Pokemon must have 650+ BST.

Justification: While the premise is simple, making a Pokemon with this good of a stat pool, allows the creation process to experiment with usually unseen type combos and abilities, as mainly a way to balance the high BST, but it can also give it distinct niches that wouldn't usually be pursued in an usual creation process due to these usually considered weak elements.
In OU/CAP, there's no Pokemon over the 600 BST limit. This Pokemon would let us observe how could a Pokemon with an enormous BST, could be balanced in an OU setting and what things would balance it, these possibly being an underwhelming type, abilities, or movepool.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What elements of this Pokemon should be weaker than usual as to balance its high BST?
• What niches in the current metagame can be found within usually considered bad types/ability/moves? Could any of these be saved or brought to its full potential from this enormous BST?
• Due to the high BST this Pokemon would have, we can make its stats go for a mixed approach, making both its offense/defense similarly good, or a more lopsided approach, leveraging its high BST to have an above average offensive/defensive stat. What approach should we go for?

Explanation: wip

 

[Guingil]

WIP

Name: Hit or Miss or… Just Lightly Hit, Reliably

Description: This Pokemon can adopt two distinct strategies towards achieving the same goal: one high-risk, high-reward; and the other which is more consistent but with lower immediate impact.

Justification: A defining dilemma of competitive Pokémon is the decision of choosing between high-risk, high-reward options and things that consistently generate value but with a lower outcome ceiling. In the iconic example of Surf vs Hydro Pump, the latter achieves key KOs not attainable by playing safe, but can miss unlike the former. Reliability vs risk can be chosen not just with moves or through accuracy, but also items (Choice or single-use items being particularly relevant), coverage, sets, or choosing between different Pokémon.

With one Pokémon that can achieve the same defined goal in two distinct and mutually exclusive ways/sets, this concept would pry into what makes immediate impact with risk acceptable or even necessary in the SV metagame, rife with Terastallization to flip matchups, setup sweepers, or even stall which can invalidate safer incremental progress.

Questions To Be Answered:​

• What kinds of drawbacks (accuracy, recoil, single-use or Choice item, imperfect coverage, predictability, etc.) meaningfully balance high-reward options so as to not always be preferred?
• Conversely, what goes into making some moves reliable in all contexts despite their lower immediate impact?
• How cleanly is it possible to differentiate and make mutually exclusive two approaches and still aim toward the same goal, as to avoid it being a case just two very different Pokémon with different matchups?
• What is the amount of changes between sets for the same Pokémon that make them distinct, in terms of moves, investment, ability, Tera type, etc?
• What does the usage statistics of each mode say about the metagame? Is it possible to keep them close to balanced, or does the needs of the current meta significantly skew usage towards either of the approaches?

Explanation: wip, but some examples

• High-accuracy vs high-power moves (e.g., Dragon Pulse vs Draco Meteor, Surf vs Hydro Pump) are usually preferences rather than identity-defining
• Choice vs non-Choice/HDB sets on offensive mons, e.g., CB Tera Ghost Tera Blast Dragapult and Wisp + Hex Dragapult do similar things (speed control, late game cleaner) but the former involves far more risk (immunity, Tera usage, Choiced) and the usage stats have preferred the more flexible option
• Utility vs setup variants (e.g., Great Tusk utility vs Bulk Up) try to do different enough things that they can't be said to be the same goal; here, having the same goal is very important to have the experimental vs control structure
• On Great Tusk, use of Ice Spinner being more common than other moves; Dragonite

 

[a fairy]

WIP but I think it's pretty close to finalized pending feedback!

Name - Trade Offer.png
Description - This Pokemon excels at trading with an opposing Pokemon. While not skilled at sweeping or cleaning, this Pokemon is geared for and capable of getting a single KO and going down as its designed intent during a match.

Justification- Pokemon has added a surprisingly large number of options for elimination of your own resources, given the concept of the game, from stuff like Healing Wish or Memento to Destiny Bond to Explosion and its cousins. However, rarely do Pokemon run these for its own sake, despite a wide unexplored area of game design. This concept would explore what trading intends to do in a game, when players intend to trade or simply happen upon an opportunity to do so, what makes trading tools usable on what Pokemon, and why can it be occasionally beneficial to eliminate your own Pokemon in a game about resource management.

Questions To Be Answered -

• What tools exist for trading? Moves like the Justification examples exist, but what items, abilities, or other features/traits exist in the game that enable trading?
• What trading tools are worth using in a competitive sense? What value is necessary to justify the elimination of one of your own resources? Must the value be guaranteed, or is a good enough value worth a gamble, and what gamble is good enough?
• Why do some Pokemon run these trading tools? What causes IV to be able to run Destiny Bond, but Hoopa-U or Pecharunt rarely if ever do? Are the Explosion family of moves doomed to irreversible power creep, or are they powerful options waiting for the right opportunity?
• Is trading something that requires opponent participation, or can it be pushed onto an opponent despite their objections? Depending on how much opponent participation is required, what does it mean when this Pokemon shows up in Team Preview?
• While not trading specifically, what causes a team to benefit from a Pokemon there only to set up hazards, screens, terrain or other similar effect?

Explanation - Trading is a byproduct of the resource competitive game, where you have six resources and need to run out your opponent of theirs before yours run out. This is not intentional game design necessarily, in the way that it isn't in chess or other similar games of a kind. Winning, generally speaking, is preferred to be accomplished without losing any of your own resources when possible, or only resources specifically designed to be lost (think suicide leads and trappers pre-Team Preview, some modern Screen/Webs/Hazard setters, and other similar concepts). In something like chess, when the opportunity is presented to "trade up", such as sacrifice a bishop to eliminate your opponent's queen, a good player jumps at the opportunity. However, without equal equivalent in Pokemon, where a Pokemon's value can shift game by game or even turn by turn, the value of a Pokemon is in many ways what the player puts on it, what is trading up, if anything? What can we learn from things like Webs/hazard/screen setters or ADV Dugtrio in the value of a Pokemon intent on doing a very specific task, whether it's changing the battlefield or elimination of a specific Pokemon?

 

[Explosion Badger]

WIP

Name: One Trick Pony

Description: This Pokemon has one superb stat, while the rest are mediocre at best.

Justification:
One thing the CAP process often makes clear, especially during the Stats section, is that a single amazing stat cannot carry a Pokémon. High attack is nigh useless without speed and/or bulk, HP can't work with at least some Defense or Special Defense to help, etc.

That being said, there are some Pokémon that manage to succeed, despite their stats seeming too lopsided to work. Alomomola for example, has no stat above 80 other than its gargantuan 165 HP, and yet it manages to be a phenomenal pivot that keeps up in the most powercrept OU of all time. This isn't the only example either, as Pokemon such as Pecharunt, Deoxys-S and Skarmory have all been viable in both the current OU and CAP metagames. The goal of this concept, then, is to actualize a Pokemon with a stat far exceeding the average, while the rest are average or below average.

Questions to be asked:

• How high does a stat have to be to qualify as "superb"? Does it change depending on which stat it is?
• What qualifies as a "mediocre" stat? How does our superb stat change what qualifies as mediocre?
• How good do our other stats have to be in order for the superb stat to do its job?
• How can our other traits (Typing, Abilities, Moves) make up for our mediocre stats?
• As a Wish Passer and Mirror Coat user, Alomomola's superb HP has a unique role that more balanced stats can't perform as well. Can our superb stat also open up unique synergies for us?
• Some superb stats have had more successful pokemon tied with them than others. Can we learn anything new about more previously successful superb stats? How can we make a less succesful stat viable?
• How does designing a more lopsided mon differ from our usual process? How much more difficult is it to balance it between being over or underpowered?
• With a pokemon designed like this, it can be very easy to make it unviable if we give it too many tools early on, then hesitate to give it tools it needs later because of that. What can this concept teach us about balancing the stages of a CAP?

Explanation:

The main pokemon that inspired this concept is Alomomola, mainly due to how its stats interact with the rest of its traits to create a Pokémon that no other Pokémon can really replicate at its level. Of course, the obvious use for Alomomola's massive HP stat and low Speed is as a wish passer that's easily capable of making sure teammates get onto the field safely, helped by Alomomola's Regenerator keeping it healthy as well. The interesting interactions however, comes when Alomomola uses Mirror Coat. Because of its enormous HP and lower defenses, a larger amount of HP is lost per percentage than a pokemon with less HP but similar bulk. Because of this, even with the good special bulk that it gains from Assault Vest, Mirror Coat deals a huge amount of damage back to opponents, meaning Alomomola can easily hit special hits while doing huge damage back to the opponents, and because of Regenerator, it can do this multiple times per match. The fact that Alomomola can make use of a move that almost nothing else can is incredible, especially considering that Alomomola already has a trove of useful utility moves, such as Scald and Flip Turn. This is part of what inspired this concept, the idea of discovering how a more unconventional stat spread can lead to a playstyle that no other pokemon can replicate.

 

[SDK03]

Final Submission

• Name: Colourblind
• Description: This is a Pokémon that excels in dealing with opponents despite possessing mostly neutral type matchups.
• Justification: This concept aims to create an offensive or defensive mon that uses its lack of offensive or defensive type advantages/weaknesses to its benefit.

Questions To Be Answered:

1. What would be a more successful path for this Pokémon: Offensive neutrality, or Defensive neutrality?

2. To what extent should we compensate for the neutral typing in other aspects (ability, stats, moves) of the Pokémon’s design?

3. With the introduction of Terastal, how does it interact with this concept depending on the Pokémon’s role?

4. If offensive, how much should we allow this Pokémon to hit super-effectively or be resisted by?

5. If defensive, how much should we allow this Pokémon to resist or be hit super-effectively by?


Explanation:

It’s been almost 2 years since the last time I submitted a concept for a new CAP, that being for a Pokémon that either takes advantage of a typing with a neutral offensive profile or a neutral defensive profile. I thought I’d tweak the explanation on that older concept a bit and put it forward yet again, especially after the introduction of Shox as a strong execution of a neutrally-defensive CAP. You can read my original post here: Post in thread 'CAP 35 - Part 1 - Concept Submissions'

On the offensive side of things, Zoroark-Hisui and Porygon-Z are alright examples to mention even if they aren’t that viable in an OU-adjacent meta. Zoroark-Hisui’s type combo of Normal/Ghost is nearly unresisted (aside from itself, Steel/Dark, Rock/Dark and Garganacl) and Porygon’s got 135 SpA + Adaptability to make its STAB hit hard and its own Shadow Ball hard to eat, despite the frailty and underwhelming speed both possess along with the fact that there’s not much those types are hitting super-effectively. Dragon types are also a nice example offensively since even with the Fairy typing existing, that’s still only 2 types in it and Steel that can stand up to the extremely strong STAB Dragon tends to get in Draco Meteor, Outrage, Scale Shot and more. Before the introduction of the Fairy type, the former two moves were also even stronger neutrally due to only being resisted by Steel-types.

Defensively, Blissey is universally the best example of this concept in action. Mono-Normal is only immune to Ghost, weak to Fighting but otherwise resists nothing. However, since most Fighting moves are Physical and Blissey has a massive HP and Special Defense stat, it excels at eating Special attacks like nothing else thanks to the lack of Special moves capable of actually hitting it hard. Dondozo is also a solid example of this through being extremely hard to take down physically and only really being weak to Electric or Grass on the physical side. Yes, Water has quite a few valuable resists, but Dondozo still abuses its ability to take Physical neutral hits very well. The CAP project’s own Shox also stands as a successful execution of a primarily defensive Pokémon with a neutral defensive profile

Because this is a typing-centric concept, I would prefer that a Pokémon created using it doesn’t end up relying on Tera to function in any sort of way. Offensively I don’t see this being too much of a worry since if something hits hard, it’ll hit hard. Defensively though, the moment people see something with solid bulk, one of the first things they’re gonna be thinking is “what if I used Tera Water / Fairy on this lol”.

Overall a concept I’ve found to be pretty interesting and fairly unique for CAP considering most of the offensive Pokémon created mainly rely on hitting stuff Super-Effectively with STAB or with coverage. While defensively they tend to abuse strong defensive typings (Water/Fairy, pure Ground, Flying/Poison, Water/Fighting, etc.) to just refuse to die.

 

[viol and bass]

WIP

Name - Only Room For One

Description - This pokemon is a offensive Trick Room User.

Justification - "Offensive Trick Room" is the usual name of the archetype, but "selfish Trick Room" might be a better descriptor. This pokemon should be fully designed to both set and take advantage of Trick Room itself. A few pokemon in the past have done this well: OTR Stakataka and Magearna are snowballing demons, TR meteor Beam Diancie in lower tiers and OTR Hoopa-U can be hugely threatening, and there are a few other examples such as OTR Bronzong in gen 4. Overall though, this is quite a rare archetype despite Trick Room's potency against offensive teams in particular, and I'd like to explore how to bring out its strengths.

Questions To Be Answered -

• Trick Room turms are famously very limited. Is it more preferable to hit broadly neutrally to prevent safe switch-ins and make better use of your turns, or to have good super-effective coverage against a lot of the meta, which might be easier to play around?
• Other forms of boosting in addition to TR, as a form of "double dance", can be clunky in terms of both moveslots and finding the turns in battle. Can we make do without a secondary form of boosting?
• Moves like Protect and Substitute which can stall turns, and strong priority moves that sneak through Trick Room's speed reversal, are common and effective forms of Trick Room counterplay. How necessary is it to build in direct answers to these problems?
• Many examples of past and present OTR pokemon have a lack of immunities on their primary attacking moves. How important is a lack of immunities on your primary attacking move(s) to prevent the opponent from switching around to stall out turns?
• Can a pokemon built for OTR have play against bulkier teams? Does this require mammoth attacking stats à la Hoopa-U?
• CAP has Fidgit, a mon which revolutionizes the full Trick Room archetype, and gen 9 has incredible abusers like Ursaluna. How can we build this mon not for full TR teams, but for more general usability? Do we risk making full Trick Room a more potent archetype?

Explanation - My ideal OTR pokemon is one that you slap on a team that is otherwise not built for Trick Room, perhaps with one or two minor tweaks to sets, and call it a day. I don't believe it's possible to "full TR-proof" this mon when things like Fidgit and Ursaluna exist. The bar for success is just that it finds itself primarily as a standalone TR mon on non-full-TR teams and is successful in that role.

Trick Room is a pretty powerful effect against any team that leans offensive. It can be compared to traditional speed boosting moves, but it allows you to outpace opposing speed boosters, you don't have to run speed EVs, allowing you to invest heavily in bulk, and you also are less vulnerable to paralysis than a traditional speed booster. And of course, your teammates can also take advantage of the effect, but we aren't focusing on that here. Despite the turn limit, these traits add up to a pretty powerful reset button / momentum swing.

Many of these OTR mons function as cleaners, so I see that as the most natural role here, but we can also build in some versatility. It's also important that we don't create an anti-offense demon that crumbles to any other team style, so finding ways to broaden our impact will be important.

This is the generation of plentiful strong priority moves, and I think building in resilience toward some of these moves will be a large consideration in the typing stage. The prevalence of Protect on mons like Gliscor, Garganacl, and Alomomola, which stall turns very effectively, is a large hurdle to clear. Protect can potentially be dealt with via boosting on the Protect turn if we run a secondary boosting move. Substitute can stall turns as well under the right conditions, but it may not be necessary to build in specific counterplay.

Thanks to Guingil for the concept name!

 

[Lectrys]

Some feedback regarding pressing issues about WIPs:

WIP

Name: Butter Knife

Description: This Pokémon does not have access to any high-BP STAB moves, but it makes effective use of its less powerful STABs.

We'll need to define "high-BP" quickly. If we set it to 85 BP, we notably end up with entire types sneaking through if they have the correct physical/special bias. For example, if "high-BP" is set to 85 BP and therefore all 80-BP STAB moves sneak through, Darkrai would pretty much count as fitting your description (it notably doesn't have the most powerful Knock Off ever, a move that could virtually bypass some fairly stringent "high-BP" limits, so it's defined by its dependence on the 80-BP Dark Pulse). Likewise, special attacking Dark-types would fit your description. So would all special attacking pure Ghost-types, as they're stuck with the 80-BP Shadow Ball. All a special-attacking Fairy-type would need to fit your description is to fail to learn Moonblast (e.g. Togekiss, Magearna if it didn't learn Fleur Cannon).

WIP

Name: Big Numbers

Description: This Pokemon must have 650+ BST.

Current, Gen 9 OU actually has Pokemon with over 650 BST: Kyurem and Zamazenta. You'll want to rewrite your WIP knowing that you'll need to remove the sentence "In OU/CAP, there's no Pokemon over the 600 BST limit."

 

[Ayecrusher King]

WIP

Name: Create-A-Parasite

Description: On its own, this CAP does not have any immediate presence. It can only get stronger by remaining on the field and taking advantage of the opponent and their actions, whether that is through taking damage, stealing benefits, and/or exploiting certain playstyles, disrupting them in the process to become a credible threat.

Justification:
Most Pokemon in the metagame excel due to either being able to boost their own stats and/or lowering the opponents, as well as recovering its own HP if need-be. However, there is also the avenue of using the opponent to get stronger; among the options include taking the opponent's HP/stats/boosts/Ability/item/moves, or boosting your moves/stats if the opponent attacks you, options which are rather niche because of their unreliability. This concept aims to explore how we can design a Pokemon that relies on the opponent to develop an advantage and to create opportunities where the opponent must overthink to minimise the benefits they're giving you.

Questions to Be Answered:

• What Pokemon or playstyles in the CAP metagame make it difficult for us to take advantage of? Additionally, what Pokemon in the CAP metagame would prefer to keep what they have?
• What Moves and Abilities allow us to leech off the opponent(s)? Additionally, what moves, items and/or Abilities protect the opponent from being leeched upon?
• How should CAP 37 be able to best utilise what it has leeched off its opponent(s)?
• How effective - offensively and/or defensively - should this Pokemon be when it initially enters battle? In addition, what can we do when CAP 34 isn’t and/or incapable of leeching off its opponent?
• Is there a risk of CAP 37 not being able to find enough opportunities to leech off from its opponents to build up enough power? Additionally, how do we ensure that CAP 37 can continue finding opportunities to leech off from its opponents as the metagame evolves?

Explanation:
I've submitted this concept for almost every S/V CAP (excluding Ramnarok, but that's more because its framework made it rather difficult), so once again, here's the breakdown of the main move that inspired this idea, Spectral Thief: while having decent base power, takes advantage of the opponent's positive stat boosts, depriving them to boost its own, before striking back stronger. Now, how do we turn such a concept from move to mon?

That's not to say it's not undone before. In fact, there are many, many examples of the idea separately:

• Moves: Foul Play: which uses the opponent's Attack to calculate damage (for the record, a lot of other Dark-type moves fall into this category as well - Assurance [you deal more damage because the opponent damaged themselves already] and Knock Off [you deal more damage because the opponent has an item] are prime examples - I don't want to be accused of poll jumping because it's an inherent quality they have); Flail/Reversal, which gets stronger the less HP you have left; Strength Sap, which restores the user's HP by the same amount as the target's effective Attack stat and debuffing them at the same time (you can count other draining moves as well to a degree); Burning Jealousy/Alluring Voice, burning/confusing the opponent because they raised their stats; Skill/Power/Guard/Speed/Heart* Swap, which swaps your Ability/offensive stat changes/defensive stat changes/raw speed stat/*all your stat changes (admittedly, Heart Swap's a Signature, but I'm including it here for thoroughness sake) with the opponent, deprives them of their set all but moves-wise that you can take advantage of; Pain/Guard/Power Split, which instead averages your current HP/defensive stats/offensive stats with your opponent's; Copycat, which allows you to steal the last move used on the battlefield.
  • Sucker Punch/Thunderclap also are pro-concept [you deal damage because the opponent is going to attack you] - even if I admit this one might be treading on the toes of Kenn's concept, see above, which is why I'm not going to be elaborating much here.
• Items: Mirror Herb, boosts your own stats because the opponent boosts their own; Weakness Policy, raises your offensive stats because you were hit by a super effective move; Eject Button: switches you out because you were damaged by an attack; Rocky Helmet: you can damage the opponent because they used a contact move; Destiny Knot: infatuates the opponent because they infatuated you.
• Abilities: Opportunist, same as Mirror Herb; Wandering Spirit, same as Skill Swap; Magic Bounce, same as Magic Coat, which inflicts upon the opponent the status move they wanted to put on you or your side; Rattled, which raises your Speed by one stage if you're Intimidated or hit with a Bug-, Dark-, or Ghost-type move; Iron Barbs/Rough Skin/Aftermath, same as Rocky Helmet, the latter a more potent one-off.

 

[CapitanPabloskii]

Wip

Name: Plan A didn't work
Description: This is a mon that disrupts every aspect of the opposing mon.
Justification: The list of disruption moves is very large and versatile, seeing Encore and Taunt being basically the only ones used due to how nieche the others are is a bit dissapointing and opens up alot of doors for the process itself, allowing for high move diversity, possibly multiple abilities for doffrent roles and finding a typing to synergise with this is going to be interesting.

 

[Ixkukul]

WIP

Name: Unstoppable Force vs. Immovable Object

Description: This Pokémon is overflowing with offensive options and not much else, but will find itself in a pickle if it fails to eliminate targets.

Justification: While Gen 9 isn't strapped for power, most of those mons require some form of setup, and those who don't aren't nearly threatening enough off the bat. An absolute powerhouse of a Pokémon that threatens stall and balance alike could speed up the pace of battles, though at the cost of easily exploitable flaws. If it manages to let in the wrong opponent, the dude will be in trouble despite possessing the tools to deal with em otherwise, aiming to reward a generally prediction-reliant play style. The concept is a very simple one, but balancing power with flaws isn't usually a specialty of Gamefreak's...

Questions To Be Answered:

• What sorts of "roadblocks" should be allowed to keep the Pokémon somewhat in check? How might the mon respond to them?
• To what degree should the built-in flaws impair the opportunities the Pokémon has to dish out damage?
• What measures could teammates take to maximize the opportunities of the Pokémon, as well as mitigating it's weaknesses?
• How would a Pokémon based around a prediction-reliant play style interact with current defensive cores?
• Would the sheer damage output this Pokémon can provide outweigh the value of other sweepers?

Explanation: WIP - I don't have much for particular flaws, the most immediate that come to mind are pre-Gen 8 Volcarona's fear of Stealth Rock and Deoxys-Attack's frailty. Extremely low defenses in current CAP is really just Ramnarok-Radiant on the special side, but that's too low...

Mixed offenses are limited in CAP, being sorta exclusive to Kyurem, Iron Valiant, and Dragapult maybe. Kyurem-Black's Subzero Slammer is an unrealistic level of power to aim for, but invoking Z-moves in order to destroy defensive staples on a modern offensive mon is certainly a goal. Being able to discard all factors besides sheer power vs pure bulk would be nice considering the number of multipliers always in effect...