It's time to choose CAP28's concept! CAP28's TL
Mx picked a slate of 7 concepts from
the concept submissions thread! Before you vote, it's important that you read each concept carefully, as this will guide the discussion for the entire CAP Process.
This will be a Ranked Pairs vote (RP) (a form of voting where each candidate is ranked according to head to head matchups with each of its competitors in a directed acyclic graph), the details of which were discussed
here.
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IMPORTANT: When voting,
use only the name of the author! The list of possible votes include:
Pipotchi
SunMYSER
quziel
Rabia
FierceDeity1
Estronic
reachzero
This poll will be open for
24 hours. The concept submissions are quoted below in order of submission.
Roadblock:
- Name - Roadblock
- Description - A Pokemon that excels at slowing down, punishing or otherwise disrupting the opposing team's pivoting strategies.
- Justification - This is a Target concept, we are looking to shut down Teleport, U-turn, Volt Switch strategies in the meta, as well as targeting the abilities and items that enable them. Right now, Teleport has come to dominate the metagame, and the advent of Heavy Duty Boots and new Regen pivots has taken U-turn/TP on certain mons to a new high. Kril is also just as frustrating as before, spamming Volt Switch among others. Furthermore, pivoting goes beyond just moves- Toxapex, Tomohawk and Equilibra are well-known pivots that act as a mid-ground between 2 pokemon, usually scouting and sponging a hit before switching to something more appropriate.
- Questions To Be Answered -
-In what way(s) does pivoting most commonly manifest in the CAP meta?
-What typings, abilities and items allow specific mons to become the strongest pivots, and how can we target these?
-What do our target Pokemon gain from pivoting? Are they focused more on scouting information, sponging attacks, or dealing damage?
-Is it possible to dissuade or even block pivoting attacks like U-turn using reactionary methods?
-What are the difference between the direct methods and indirect methods of preventing pivoting, and which is appropriate for each target?
-Do offensive or defensive playstyles work best for preventing different styles of pivoting?
-Is it better in the current to create a blanket check to pivots, or a more tailored response to a few key pivoting mons/strategies?
Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks:
Name - Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
Description - A Pokemon that modernizes a popular set/niche of previous generations that has fallen out of viability.
Justification - This concept would fall into the
Archetype and
Target categories. This Pokemon should feel like playing a relic of the past, but in it's prime. Personally, one of my favourite things about playing older generation is seeing the sheer variety of viable sets that were used, most of which have fallen out of practice. Currently, the RestTalk sets are one of the few still used, albeit in lower tiers due to their general drain on momentum, with users like Throh or Type: Null being the main abusers of it.
Questions To Be Answered:
- Why did these certain sets fall by the wayside in the future generations?
- In addition, what are they?
- What made these sets good in their original contexts?
- Is their any way to adapt, modernize or change these sets to make them viable in the current metagame?
- Are there any pokemon that still use some of these sets? What makes their usage of it viable over others?
- Some of these sets were used before Items, abilities and some typings were in the game. How will these added variables effect the builds of these modernized sets?
Gun Fort:
Name: Gun Fort
Description: This pokemon fulfills a primarily defensive role on a team, such as a Tank or Wall, while utilizing purely offensive Setup Moves to also function as a setup sweeper or wallbreaker.
Justification: Gun Fort is both an
Actualization and
Archetype concept, and it is important that it blends a decidedly defensive role with a decidedly offensive one.
The key element of this concept is that it blends a very defensive role, that of a Tank or Wall, with the usage of a purely offensive setup move; that is more on the lines of Swords Dance than Calm Mind. By blending these together this Pokemon will increase in offensive power as it stays in, either to threaten a sweep or ensure that it can set hazards (a common theme in some examples of this playstyle) without ever coming into the "unkillable" status that pokemon such as Calm Mind Clefable reach. The need to balance good offensive prowess, the ability to function while dedicating one slot to boosting, and the fact that this pokemon will never be increasing its bulk means that there is a lot of depth to really Actualize this particular Archetype within CAP.
Questions To Be Answered:
- How can we ensure that this pokemon has enough moveslots to fulfill its defensive duties while also functioning as a setup sweeper or wallbreaker.
- What elements make a defensive pokemon inclined to run offensive setup moves; we have seen this in the past, what is a common theme between them.
- This pokemon will never increase its bulk, and will likely be quite slow, does that bias it mainly towards wallbreaking or sweeping?
- Are there any moves or abilities that can help reduce the strain that will be inherent within this mon due to the generally opposite roles?
- What kind of teams does this concept fit onto; in the past examples have found their place onto primarily balance teams and bulky offense teams, but is there room on other styles?
- How much initial power should this pokemon possess, and does it need to offer good offensive coverage, or merely good enough?
Boxing Gloves:
Name: Boxing Gloves (alternatively known as "god help me my typing sucks")
Description: A Pokemon designed to be an effective wallbreaker that lacks a great offensive typing
Justification: This would be an
Actualization concept. The idea would be to have a CAP that despite a poor offensive typing (think Normal, Bug, Poison, Grass) still manages to be a potent wallbreaker. This could be as a result of great coverage, solid bulk, or utility options to help provide a buffer.
Questions To Be Answered:
- How can we avoid simply turning this concept into "I spam pivoting moves until my checks are weakened enough?"
- Is it within the realm of reasonable to have a secondary typing count as compensation? Or should the typing as a whole be mediocre/poor to stay true to theme?
- How much set divergence should be encouraged? In specific, how heavily skewed should the movepool be towards that of a wallbreaker?
- What makes an offensive typing lackluster/mediocre? Is it entirely a matter of looking at a type resistances chart and seeing that said typing is strong against few and weak against many? Or are there other factors at play?
- Can a typing be considered bad for reasons beyond type effectiveness, i.e. can a typing be bad on a specific Pokemon but good on another?
Knock It Off!:
Name - Knock It Off!
Description - This Pokemon aims to discourage the opponent's use of the move Knock Off.
Justification - This concept falls under the Target category. With Astrolotl at the top of the metagame, as well as other A-rank Pokemon such as Mandibuzz, Toxapex, and Zeraora, Knock Off is currently a very common move. There is little to no risk in using Knock Off currently, so CAP 28 would be used to discourage the opponent from freely using the move. This can be achieved either by taking advantage of the move or completely ignoring it. CAP 28's typing, stats, and movepool should give it a positive matchup against most if not all common users of Knock Off. By putting CAP 28 on your team, you should be able to use Pokemon who are very item-reliant with much less risk of them losing their item.
Questions To Be Answered -
- What traits are shared between common Knock Off users and how can those be exploited?
- Is it better to target specific users of Knock Off, or can we take on all of them?
- What considerations must be made in teambuilding regarding Knock Off? How different would a team look if Knock Off was less of a threat?
- What aspects of the move Knock Off itself can be exploited?
- Is there a case where an itemless Pokemon can be viable?
- Can CAP 28 discourage Knock Off just by not running an item, or does it need a specific mechanic to take advantage it?
Cheapskate:
Name: Cheapskate
Description: This Pokemon only has a select handful of "useful" moves, but the great synergy the moves have with each other and the Pokemon itself allows the Pokemon to perform a wide variety of roles on many team playstyles.
Justification: This concept would mostly fall into both the
Actualization and
Archetype categories. This Pokemon's identity would come from the fact that it can easily flex onto any team that requires any role while having a smaller pool of useful moves to work with when compared to other Pokemon. Moreover, the fact that this Pokemon has a very small useful movepool by itself would grant it an identity, as such a trait is often why a Pokemon would lack viability in a metagame, yet this Pokemon specific would be able to break such a stereotype.
Questions to be Answered:
- What specific roles would this Pokemon be able to play with a small useful movepool?
- Likewise, what team playstyles would this Pokemon be able to play on?
- What combination of moves would this Pokemon need in order to be viable while only having a small useful movepool?
- How would this Pokemon's other aspects, such as typing, stats, and abilities, compensate for its small useful movepool?
- What exactly makes a move "useful" for a Pokemon? What makes a move "useful" to one Pokemon but useless to another Pokemon?
Substitute Teacher:
Final Submission
Name - Substitute Teacher
Description - This Pokemon does its best work behind a Substitute.
Justification- This concept is an archetype concept with a splash of target thrown in: the goal is to build a Substitute abuser capable of addressing the host of offensively-challenged defensive Pokemon that currently dominate the CAP metagame. Many, many games are being decided by the player that lands their Toxic and Knock Off on the correct enemy Pokemon first, and the dominance of this strategy of small, accumulated gains and incremental progress would be tempered considerably by a dedicated Substitute abuser.
Questions To Be Answered -
What are the defining characteristics of strong Substitute users?
Which Substitute abuse tactics are the most effective in addressing a range of defensive Pokemon as diverse as Toxapex, Blissey and Astrolotl?
How have traditional benchmarks associated with Substitute abuse moved? (For instance, do 101 HP Substitutes even still matter?)
What are the consequences for the metagame of increasing the risks involved with pivot use? How will defensive play adapt?
CAP 28 So Far
