CAP 4 CAP 4 - Part 1 (Concept Poll 1)

[Sunday]

Heya guys! It's time to kick of Smogon's Fourth Create-a-Pokemon for real this time! After first narrowing the concepts that fitted the most basic criteria down to thirty four begins the arduous process of finding just one on which to base our entire Pokemon.

I began by eliminating those that either seemed to be more or less recreating the effect of a Pokemon in a different tier (Ultimate Batton Passer, Priority Abuser, etc.), or would need a custom ability or the likes to be effective.
If there were two that esentially served the same purpose (ie. To reduce the impact of SR on the metagame) I removed one of those two, for the simple reason that two of the same means half the votes each.

That leaves us with a list of 20 to work with:
Anti Ghost Rapid Spin

Description: Should be neutral to most standard ghost attacks with balanced-good defenses. Scrappy isn't neccesarily required.

Pure Utility Pokemon

Description: There is a serious lack of Gravity, Rapid Spin, Wish, non Dark weak Trick Room, OU viable Heal Bell / Aromatherapy, Encore, Memento, Non Dark weak Perish Song, Psycho Shift, Safeguard, Magic Coat, Me First, Snatch, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Tailwind and Haze Pokemon in our lovely Metagame. I don't know what type, what stat distribution or even what kind of Pokemon would effectively use all those, but I want to build a utility Pokemon for the useful yet less used utility moves. If I had to narrow the field a bit, I would emphasize Tailwind, Gravity, non Dark weak Trick Room, Rapid Spin, Wish and Encore. The normal utility moves like Reflect and Light Screen go without saying.

Flying Type Counter

Description: A defensive pokemon that can take on the duel threats of Togekiss and Staraptor. Preferably resists Flying and cannot be weak to Flying (duh) or Fighting (due to Aura Sphere/Close Combat). Should have a consistent way to punish said Flying types, either by laying Stealth Rock or by having an Super Effective STAB attack.

Gravity Unit

Description: A Pokemon who can set up Gravity with little to no risk for itself, unlike Probpass and Jirachi, and preferably makes it usable by extending the amount of time it is in play. It may or may not have the moves to actually use Gravity - I cannot imagine it having enough moveslots left to sweep effectively, so the primary goal would be to make it viable to set up Gravity for something else.

Trick Room Unit

Concept: Trick Room unit
Desciption: Same as above, except for Trick Room. This is less difficult to pull off, because for Trick Room to be not a danger for yourself you just have to be slow, whereas for a good Gravity you basically have to be a Bug or Grass type or something, or at least have very sufficient Defense.

Stat Buster

Description: A Pokemon that can successfully take on popular Pokemon relying on stat boosting moves. May overlap with the "true Garchomp counter" idea.

Armour Break / Pierce

Concept: Armor Break / Pierce
Description: A Pokemon designed to break through opposing Pokemon's defensive stats or walls.

Status Counter

Concept: Status Counter
Description: A Pokemon designed to be a decent status absorber/blocker all while not being a huge burden towards the team.

Great Lead Pokemon

Description: Inspired by Doug's post above this one. Basically, a lead that's able to disrupt the standard opening Pokemon, be it by threatening them or being able to nullify their standard strategy.

True Garchomp Counter

Description: A Pokemon designed solely to counter Garchomp. It would be able to take Dragon, Ground and Fire moves well.

Fast Tank

Description: It would be way cool to have a bulky tank fast for a change. Good defenses, nice speed but it could have average attack to make it balanced.

It's a Trap!

Description: A fairly bulky Pokemon that is meant to utilize the underused trapping moves available to us. After it has trapped its prey, it begins to kill by indirect means, hopefully Perish Song.

Me First

Description: I have always loved the idea of using Me First, but it's not on any pokemon nearly fast enough to take advantage of it. This pokemon should be defensively frail, but have adacquate attacking stats in order to take advantage of moves on both sides of the spectrum... The main focus should be on speed, though. It should be able to outspeed most, if not all of the metagame in order to use the move Me First viably. It should be noted that its movepool should be fairly limited, as the primary use of the stats should be abusing its opponents moves, not its own.

Wait, Where's my wallet?

Description: A pokemon meant to "steal" the opponent's strategies... Should be able to utilize the moves Thief, Snatch, Mimic, and with ease. It should have access to most of the Stat Up moves, but have fairly mediocre stats as bases for boosting. I know this isn't the most in depth analysis of the concept, but I'm open to suggestions on how this is supposed to function/work. I just really like the idea of a pokemon who steals.

I know what you're doing and I'm not going to allow it!

Description: A pokemon specifically designed to figure out the opponent's moveset... With all of the problems arising from multiple movesets that certain pokemon can use that counter its own counters, this pokemon should be able learn its opponents moveset quickly and efficiently.... and hopefully, it should be able to do something about dismantling the opponent's moveset in some way.

Meteorology

Description: A Pokemon that can easily summon weather, any weather, all weather (not at once, for obvious reasons), but can't really do much else until a weather effect is in play.

Skill Swap Abuser

Description: Skill swap is one of those moves that nobody uses; not too many pokemon can learn it, and the ones that do couldn't care less. Its like having Trick when you're holding a rawst berry and your opponent's holding an cheri (just an example, don't argue over situations). Why not make a pokemon who can actually USE the move? Something with most probably moderate stats and a negative ability (although not one that completely screw it over from the beginning, even if its not using the swap abusing build).

Item/Status Harasser

Description: A fairly bulky but offensively weak Pokemon that harasses the opponent through hold item manipulation and status effects.

No Miss Breaker

Description: In the ream of moves, we have a set of moves exclusively ignore due to their lack of power despite shining accuracy. Would it not be sweet to have a pokemon that can take full advantage of these no miss attacks in a way that mkes it worthwhile for the user.

The Ultimate Weather Abuser

Description: A rather average pokemon, but when weather comes into affect anything from stats,movepool,typing(to be decided) changes.
The role of the pokemon will be totally dependant on the weather in play for example fire could change it in to sunny day physical sweeper, whilst rain could turn it into a special wall.
This concept allows for a versatile pokemon, that would be a fine fit in any version of a weather team.

This round I am hoping to narrow down the submissions to between five and ten. Exactly where will be determined by the margin of victory. You will vote for your first preference and your second preference. Both votes will be in the same post. Please bold your votes.

Eg:

1. Status Absorber
2. Ledian Counter

<Explanation goes here>

Your first vote gets two points. Second vote gets one. Concepts with the most votes go through as explained above. Votes that do not fit the criteria will be disqualified. Voting will end around 48 hours from the time this OP is posted.

Thanks for reading all this and have fun guys!

 

[Aldaron]

1. Pure Utility Pokemon
2. Great Lead Pokemon

A pure utility Pokemon is an exciting proposition...mostly because it is really open to any sort of manipulation. A utility Pokemon can be any type, and it can have many different stat distributions (low hp high defense high special defense (bronzong) high speed deoxys-S high HP one low defense one high defense (blissey) etc. etc.). The fact is that moves such as Encore, Haze, Gravity and Tailwind (along with all the others I listed) are all very useful moves, yet severely underrepresented in the metagame. There is no need to limit Pokemon to only have a few of them; we literally give as many utility moves to this Pokemon and be satisfied with the whole deal.

Great lead Pokemon is awesome because, well, it would be awesome to have a Pokemon capable of dealing with the sleep threat from Gengar and Roserade, the Dragon Dance threat from Gyarados, the Baton Passing threat from Ninjask and the utility threat from Bronzong. Enough said, lol.

 

[X-Act]

1. True Garchomp Counter

A true Garchomp counter is required in the current metagame in my opinion. Garchomp cannot be reliably countered, unlike say Heracross with Gliscor, so a reliable counter that would be easily dispatched of by other means (like Gliscor is) would be very desirable.

2. Anti Ghost Rapid Spin

I think Stealth Rock is that little bit too good, so I see a Rapid Spinner that's unblockable by Ghosts as a good idea.

 

[timw06]

1. Anti Ghost Rapid Spin

There are no current rapid spinners capable of putting up a fight against ghosts let alone using rapid spin.

2. Gravity Unit

Gravity seems a very interesting move but it has been let down by not being easily and safely usable.

 

[eric the espeon]

1. Gravity Unit
This is a slightly modified version of my idea, so I like it.
this would make Psudo-Weather teams more popular.

2. The Ultimate Weather Abuser
Would be fun... maybe not as it should be a castform evo..

 

[Sunday]

Oh right I get to vote >.>

Pure Utility Pokemon
Flying Type Counter

Pure utility with a bunch of Speed to allow it to "utilise" Light Screen + Reflect before the opponent attacks is my dream.

Togekiss however is my nightmare XD


About "True Garchomp Counter"
Personally, I am totally against. For one, Garchomp is not nearly as much a problem on the CaP server as it is on the official and in standard D/P OU. Since CaP will never be standard D/P OU there is no point making a Garchomp counter. Secondly it's nearly impossible to be able to take Ground, Fire and Dragon type attacks all at once, and to do so severly limits our typing and possible Stat spreads. The only thing I see viable is Tons of HP and Def with decent Sdef and the move "Ice Beam"... doesn't sound like much fun to me tbh. =/

 

[Mr.Doom]

1. Great Lead Pokémon

It'd be amusing to see a Pokémon that deals with the constant threat of the standard leads. Anything that can deal with Smeargle and Ninjask is fine enough.


2. True Garchomp Counter

As much as I'm against this idea, I vote for it. Garchomp has swept for me and has swept me many times, and a Pokémon that walls it better than Bronzong is needed.

 

[Raverist]

True Garchomp Counter

Let's face it, the fucking lizard is nigh-on broken in OU, and simply outclassed in Ubers by other dragons like Rayquaza and to a lower extent Palkia. A proper counter for it that would resist SR would be damn well useful.

Anti-Ghost Rapid Spinner

What with the fact that it's more like 'Anti-Gengar/Dusknoir Rapid Spinner', it should also likely be bloody good at soaking hits, like a tank, but also shrug off statuses, and naturally have that important Rapid Spin.

 

[Jhonny]

1) Pure utility Pokemon
2) The ultimate weather abuser

For what my vote is worth... I felt that a pure utility pokemon would open up the metagame rather than just re-centralizing it (although a number of utiliy users would obviously do this more than having just one would.) With the number of functions it could perform there would be a much better chance of seeing some more developed strategies come into play rather than just novel ones.
As for the weather abuser I just thought that it would be an interesting concept as long as it isnt TOO ultimate. To be honest it sounds like a do it yourself deoxys in terms of stat changes although working with weather put in enough of a twist to make it interesting, aswell as challenging to make.

 

[MegaBuddha]

True Garchomp Counter
Anti-Ghost Rapid Spin

 

[Aquilae]

1) Pure-utility pokemon

Around the same reasons as Aldaron, that it would be easily manipulated and is open to all sorts of possibilities.

2) Me First

I think that Me First is an interesting concept and definitely has potential against many common pokemon.

 

[latinoheat]

1. Ultimate Weather Pokemon
2. Trick room unit

I also agree with Garchomp counter being restrictive, and the minute an incorrect type is picked the whole concept is ruined.

 

[Yin Absol]

1. No Miss Breaker
2. Me First

 

[gec]

Flying Type Counter

Zapdos? Takes on Both Staraptor and Togekiss extremely well and has what you want this "Flying Type Counter" to have (No Stealth Rock, but STAB T-Bolt).

 

[Earthworm]

1. The Ultimate Weather Abuser
2. Gravity Unit

Weather abuse sounds fun, I might actually use a team with both Abomasnow and Tyranitar if it is good enough. Gravity is a really cool new move in DP which is not used enough unfortunately. A Tailwind unit would have been cool too and I probably would've voted for it if it was here!

 

[Sapientia]

1. Pure Utility Pokemon
2.True Garchompcounter

 

[Gothic Togekiss]

1. Status Counter
2. Gravity Unit

Gravity has always sparks me as a wonderful move to construct a team upon, but very few Pokemon can use it without killing themselves. The Status Counter idea is my pride and joy and I really like to have a Pokemon on my team that can handle status like a man.

And about the Flying Counter idea, I would like to say that there's only three type combos that are resisted/immune to both Flying and Fighting attacks. There are Electric/Poison, Electric/Flying, and Electric/Ghost.

 

[sbc]

1.Anti Ghost Rapid Spin - I want to be able to actually use Moltres, personally I would prefer something that would just take care of SR without making stall virtually impossible, I think there's a big difference in that respect.
2.Stat Buster

 

[flygon493]

1. Pure Utility Pokemon
2. Gravity Unit

 

[Tsukikage]

1. Anti-Ghost Rapid Spin - I either want a Scrappy Spin or something that can spin and also deals with a majority of the standard spin blockers.

2. Ultimate Weather Abuser - I think this concept would be quite fun. Four concepts all rolled up into one.

 

[Legacy Raider]

1. Pure Utility Pokemoin
2. Anti-Ghost Rapid Spin

1. I feel that a utility pokemon would spice up the metagame by introducing moves that are rarely seen at the moment.

2. An anti-ghost spinner would help reduce the effectiveness of the broken Stealth Rock, which I think is far too over-used.

 

[Jonathan]

1. Stat Buster
2. Fast Tank

Just reading about a "stat buster" Pokemon I had a fantastic idea. What if we gave it an Ability or a Move such that if it switches into a Pokemon which stats up (or uses the move against a Pokemon which has already stated up), those stats are boosted in the negative direction! I.e. I switch the stat buster Pokmon into Garchomp which has +2 attack from Swords Dance. But with this guy's ability taking effect, Garchomp would have -2 Atk! It's sort of like an Anti Heart Swap kind of ability.

And this could work very well as the Garchomp counter everyone's dying for, as well as countering things like SD Luke, DDMence, DDGyara, CMCune, etc. Because unless you plan on making a Steel / Flying with Flash Fire or Heatproof, nothing can really be an "ultimate Garchomp counter" (because they WILL get screwed by Sand Veil eventually.

We could even decide to have this effect take place for Choice items. If we go ahead with this concept though, we'd have to give this guy medicore stats, because this is simply such an awesome ability. But it would have an interesting effect on the metagame, as it counters so much.

As for Fast Tank, it seems interesting, so what the hell. Though I prefer Stat Buster by miles.

Seriously, a lot of these abilities are kind of dumb in my opinion. What's the point of a "great lead" Pokemon if everyone's using it -_- Unless it's a counter to itself, in which case there will be a lot of annoying draws and pissed off people. And soon people will just use other things to counter this "great lead" and it will have lost its purpose. This is such a lame idea, no offense.

And a lot of the ideas out there are either done already (flying counter HELLO ZAPDOS or Meteorology (I don't care how much Castform sucks the fact is he exists)). A number of ideas are really vague and would be very difficult to effectively implement (like figuring out your opponents moveset, you already have forwarn which works well enough really, or the no miss breaker idea, or even the ultimate weather idea). And the vast majority are simply to gimmicky to ever see widespread use: me first, trick room, skill swap, item harasser, wait where's my wallet, it's a trap, and more. Vote for something more substantial please.

 

[Metal Gods]

1.Me First
2.Flying Type Counter

 

[Buckles]

1. Trick Room unit
2. Me First

 

[Syprus]

1. Pure Utility Pokemon
2. Item/Status Harasser

Those two would be so fun to use.