Concept Laboratory (and Workshop)

[kenn]

Welcome to my lair the lab!
*cue evil laugh*

Have you ever thought about submitting a concept, but not sure where to begin or how to flesh out your idea so that it is ready for submitting to the CAP Process? Maybe you wanna make sure your concept hasn't been won before (though there have been very similar concepts that have won or put a spin on an older concept so to speak) or that you want to revive a past submission (with the approval of the original poster should they still be active). Similarly to the Metagame Workshop in Other Metagames, this concept "lab" is a place for you to do all the above and more! Using the template provided below, please post your concept idea plus any thoughts you may have as to what you think might be missing or what you may want clarification on and the community can help you hone your concept to perfection before submitting to a real process!
​

Template for Concept Submission

Name:
Description:
Justification:
Questions To Be Answered:
Explanation:

And for those needing a more elaborate description on what the concept not only provides to the process, but what goes into a "good concept" vs. a "bad concept" is more than welcome to take a look below and read over the Concept Submissions OP for any and all CAP Processes.
​

What is a concept?

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.

So submit whatever you have bouncing around in your head and see if we can collectively help each other hone what bright ideas any of us might have!

 

[kenn]

Past CAP Concepts

Hide

CAP 1 (Syclant) - Mixed Sweeper/"Anti-Garchomp"
CAP 2 (Revenankh) - Offensive BU Sweeper/"Anti-Ttar"
CAP 3 (Pyroak) - ???
CAP 4 (Fidgit) - Pure Utility Pokemon
CAP 5 (Stratagem) - Break The Mold
CAP 6 (Arghonaut) - Decentralizer
CAP 7 (Kitsunoh) - Ultimate Scout
CAP 8 (Cyclohm) - Neglected Ability
CAP 9 (Colossoil) - Stop the Secondary
CAP 10 (Krilowatt) - Utility Counter
CAP 11 (Voodoom) - Perfect Mate
CAP 12 (Tomohawk) - Momentum
CAP 13 (Necturna) - Sketch Artist
CAP 14 (Mollux) - Extreme Makeover: Typing Edition
CAP 15 (Aurumoth) - Risky Business
CAP 16 (Malaconda) - Type Equalizer
CAP 17 (Cawmodore) - Show Me Your Moves!
CAP 18 (Volkraken) - Major Third
CAP 19 (Plasmanta) - Einherjar ~Acta Est Fabula~
CAP 20 (Naviathan) - Use the Boost to Get Through!
CAP 21 (Crucibelle) - Typing Underdog
CAP 22 (Kerfluffle) - Last Act of Defiance
CAP 23 (Pajantom) - Wait! It's a Trap Move!
CAP 24 (Jumbao) - Snow or Shine (or Sand)
CAP 25 (CAP Starters i.e. Caribolt, Smokomodo, and Snaelstrom) - Astounding Ability Actualization (Triple A)
CAP 26 (Equilibra) - The Future is Bright!
CAP 27 (Astrolotl) - Offensive Team Support
CAP 28 (Miasmaw) - Roadblock
CAP 29 (Chromera) - Defective Ability
CAP 30 (Venomicon) - Optimized Ability
CAP 31 (Saharaja) - Forbidden Fruit
CAP 32 (Hemogoblin) - Bang Average
CAP 33 (Cresceidon) - Very Fast Immovable Object
CAP 34 (Chuggalong) - Collector's Edition
CAP 35 (Shox) - Uphill Battle
CAP 36 (Ramnarok) - Help Yourself
CAP 37 (Obliteryx) - Perfect Conditions

Bold indicates a framework for that particular process which you can learn more about that here

 

[Ayecrusher King]

Name: Create-A-Parasite

Description: This CAP can only sustain itself and improve its presence, offensively and/or defensively, by 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 as well as benefit its teammates.

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/removing the opponent's HP/boosts if the opponent attacks you, options which are rather niche because of their unreliability, but satisfying because they are also punishing the opponent. This concept aims to explore how we can design a Pokemon that puts us outside of the driver's seat, forced to rely 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 Moves, items and Abilities allow us to parasitise the opponent(s)? Conversely, what moves, items and/or Abilities protect the opponent (or at least discourage CAP 37) from being parasitised? Additionally, what sort of counterplay for such moves are there?
• Building on that, what Pokemon or playstyles in the CAP metagame make it difficult for us to parasitise? Additionally, what Pokemon in the CAP metagame would prefer to keep what they have and are disrupted if one crucial part of their set is parasitised?
• How immediately effective - offensively and/or defensively - should this Pokemon be when it enters battle? Additionally, how much payoff from the opponent do we require to improve our presence, and to what level?
• Some concrete ways of achieving this concept are inherently reactive (ex. being a tank that shrugs off the hits) rather than proactive (ex. being a late-game cleaner). How can we achieve and maintain consistency while taking these routes?
• Building on that, what kind of team support would this CAP desire to improve its functionality? Conversely, what support could it provide to the rest of its team?
• If CAP 37 is unable to achieve its primary role in directly parasitising its opponents to build up enough power or momentum, what secondary role can it achieve that puts the opponent in a disadvantageous state (ex. a stat debuffer, a suicide mover)?

Explanation:
I've been submitting this concept for almost every S/V CAP (excluding Ramnarok, but that's more because its framework made it rather difficult), so to maybe build interest, 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 into a CAP that ultimately puts you outside of the driver seat, so to speak, and making you have to adapt to the road your opponent is paving?

Well, there are many, many examples of the idea, separately, that prove that it is more than executable, albeit with a certain level of difficulty, but executable nonetheless. Fair warning, the list is rather long:

Moves

• Foul Play: you use the opponent's Attack stat & boosts to calculate damage. The higher their Attack, the more damage you deal.
• Assurance: you deal more damage because the opponent damaged themselves already;
• Knock Off: you deal more damage because the opponent has an item.
• Lash Out: You deal more damage because your stats were just lowered by the target.
• Sucker Punch/Thunderclap: You deal damage because the opponent is going to attack you.
• Upper Hand: You deal damage because the opponent is using priority.
• Avalanche: You can hit harder because you were hit first by the target.
• Flail/Reversal, which gets stronger the less HP you have left, presumably because the opponent brought you to that level.
• Strength Sap, which restores as much HP as the target's effective Attack stat, debuffing them in the process. Second to Spectral Thief as an example that illustrates this concept.
  • Other draining moves do fit to a degree, because how much HP you can recover depends on how much HP they currently have.
• Burning Jealousy/Alluring Voice: you were able to burn/confuse the opponent because they just raised their stats.
• Skill/Power/Guard/Speed/Heart* Swap: swaps your Ability/offensive stat changes/defensive stat changes/raw speed stat/*all your stat changes (admittedly, Heart Swap's a Signature (barring this , but I'm including it here for thoroughness sake) with the opponent.
  • Pain/Guard/Power Split: instead averages your current HP/defensive stats/offensive stats with your opponent's.
  • Psych Up: you can raise your stats because the opponent boosted their own.
• Copycat: which allows you to steal the last move used on the battlefield.

Items

• Mirror Herb, boosts your own stats because the opponent has boosted 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/Lingering Aroma, 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;
• Defiant/Competitive: you can raise your Attack/Sp. Attack by two stages because an opponent lowered your stats.
• Berserk/Anger Shell: You can raise your Sp Attack/offensive stats & Speed because an opponent damaged you to below half HP.
• Rattled, which raises your Speed by one stage if you're Intimidated or hit with a Bug-, Dark-, or Ghost-type move.
• Iron Barbs/Aftermath/Inwards Out, same as Rocky Helmet, the latter two being a more potent one-off.
• Supreme Overlord: You gain offensive boosts because your allies have been knocked out by the opponent. (Unless you built your team to be filled with Suicide Leads. A shakier example, but one that does loosely fit.)
• Tangling Hair/Cotton Down/Mirror Armor: You can lower the opponent's stats because they attacked you; in the latter case, you debuff exactly what they wanted to do to you.
• Flame Body/Static/Effect Spore/Poison Point/Cute Charm/Cursed Body/Perish Body: You can put a status on the opponent because they contacted you.
• Seed Sower/Sand Spit/Toxic Debris: You can set up a field effect because the opponent attacked you.
• Stakeout: You can deal more damage because the opponent switched out.

Sets that achieve this concept in some form

: In Gen IX Ubers, Annihilape's standard set can gain an Attack boost because the opponent dropped its stats, can power up its Rage Fist because an opponent damaged it, and is dependent on the target for recovering HP.
: In Gen IX RU, Bellibolt' set can gain a Charge effect because an opponent damaged it, and can then recover some more HP from the opponent as a result.
: In Gen IX OU, Hatterene's Pain Split set can set off potential hazards because the opponent did, is dependent on the target for recovering HP, can deal chip damage because the target hit you with contact.
: In past OU, Heatran sets can power up their Fire-type moves, such as Magma Storm, because the opponent used a Fire-type move.
: In Gen VIII OU, Goltres' double dance set is capable of extensive offensive boosts because an opponent uses a super-effective move to hit it below half HP.
: In Gen IX UU, Tinkaton's walling set can facilitate indirect item removal because the opponent damaged it.
: In Gen VIII OU, dex's gimmicky 'Hen 5' set (I'm borrowing the link from Voltage's parry & riposte concept sub because, as earthflax said, the replay's been dexited. And also I can see some elements from that sub utilisable here) can gain an Attack boost because the opponent dropped its stats, and can power up its Reversal & boost its Speed once because an opponent damaged it sufficiently.

 

[Sivanandi]

It has come to my attention that Berry bandit has been tried and failed several times so let’s pivot

Name: Bring your Cloaks

Description: This CAP makes effective use of damaging moves that have secondary effects to debuff and disrupt their opponents.

Justification: A subset of moves not commonly seen in singles is damaging moves that come with a reliable secondary effect. Often, these effects are debuffs, and singles formats typically prefer buffs, but debuffs can be equally as much of a hindrance in the right scenario as well as forcing switches. A CAP that utilized these moves effectively could be one that introduces this new threat to, as the concept name suggests, encourage its opponents to start running the item Covert Cloak.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What moves have secondary effects powerful enough to balance out the often weaker base power they’re given?
• Should this concept be limited to moves that have 100% chances of applying their secondary effects, or are other high-frequency effects also on the table? If so, what percentage is enough to make the moves worth fishing for the effect chance?
• What typings, items, and abilities can synergize with this role?
• Many of these moves see much more usage in doubles formats like VGC. What can be done to take the pressure that they provide in doubles and make that work in a singles format?
• Many of these moves with added effects encourage the opponent to switch out. How can this CAP or its teammates capitalize on that?
• How significant does the amount of damage dealt by these moves need to be to make them worth using? How can this be effectively done while avoiding making the CAP simply another wall breaker or sweeper?
• How might the metagame adapt to a CAP that uses these moves, and how should it play into specific counters such as Covert Cloak, Shield Dust, Defiant/Competitive, etc.?

Explanation:
Playing regulation m-a in champions made me realize how much I missed the item Covert Cloak because of the prevalence of Rock Slide with its infuriating 30% flinch chance. This led to me also realizing that a lot of the things that Covert Cloak blocks are things you are pretty unlikely to see in singles. Moves such as icy wind, electroweb, snarl, breaking swipe, fake out, acid spray, nuzzle, bulldoze, chilling water, etc are much less often found in singles, and I think that there is room for the pressure of dealing damage (even chip damage) combined with the debuffs these moves provide to add an interesting dimension even to a world where snarl is only hitting one target. Also, this has the potential to play interestingly with some existing stuff CAP has such as Cyclohm or Pyroak.

 

[traceyscetchit]

Name: Two sides, one coin

Description: This CAP is tailored towards performing one, specific role on a team, but can go about performing that role in one of two drastically different ways.

Justification:
The CAP process encourages convergence towards a single, optimal build. Movepool variablity within one set is accounted for in the movepool stage, but having multiple distinct sets that can't mix or share elements is often something that CAP actively tries to avoid. If multiple sets are nearly impossible to appear naturally due to our process, a CAP that has two sets can only occur if the concept itself pushes the CAP down two roads instead of one. This concept explores how distinct sets can share a niche and what keeps them differentiated.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What role should the CAP be built around?
• Does performing the role in different ways necessitate having two viable abilities, or can the CAP be forced down one of two paths via item, stats, and movepool alone?
• How distinct should the two sets be? What can be done to make sure that both sets have advantages over the other while existing within the same niche?
• Is the surprise value of not knowing which set the CAP is running toxic? If so, how can the CAP be forced to reveal its set?
• What variables discourage a pokemon from mixing and matching the pieces its viable sets? How do we ensure that this pokemon doesn't just end up with one viable set that happens to have a lot of flexibility in its options?
• Should the order of the process be tweaked to tailor to the concept; for example, to allow two primary abilities to be selected back-to-back?

Explanation:
Gamefreak often unintentionally or intentionally makes pokemon that end up with two incredibly different viable sets that do pretty much the same thing.
Most of the time this is because of two busted abilities, but it can happen in a variety of ways:
Ability: ,,
Boosting moves: ,, ,, (3 boosting methods!?)
Utility moves:
Physical/Special split: ,,
Item (my personal favorite): ,,
Due to the linear nature of the CAP process, pretty much the only way that such behavior would exist in a capmon is if something changes between generations or a secondary ability ends up being strong. As we actively discourage this behavior to occur organically, I thought it would make sense to try to get it to work artificially.

 

[chartung17]

I suspect this might not be a legal concept (so I'm not going to put too much effort into it yet), but I don't see a specific rule against it, so:

Name: Flavor First

Description: Unlike typical CAP processes, where competitive stages come first and then flavor stages at the end, this CAP process would begin with flavor stages. Specifically, artwork would come first, followed by a concept assessment to determine how to make a competitive Pokémon that is consistent with the design.

Justification:

Questions To Be Answered:

• Should the name stage come immediately after artwork, or are there other stages (such as typing) that should come first?
• Does it matter where in the process other flavor stages (e.g. flavor ability or number of prevos) occur?

Explanation:

 

[Mugenman88]

Been thinking about this one for a while, gonna throw out a WIP to gauge if this would be an interesting concept. Or even legal.

Name: Living Life on the Edge

Description: This CAP seeks to take advantage of lowering its HP.

Justification:

• What new territory will your Concept Pokemon explore, why do you believe it’s interesting, and how would it interact with the metagame?

HP manipulation has always gotten glances, but a chance to really explore one of the longest-standing move/item mechanics can bring a lot of creativity into the mix. Depending on how powerful it is, it might even dissuade the usage certain long-standing staples, like hazards since this CAP could potentially take advantage of them.

• 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?

Having a Pokemon be made to be low on HP can push our discussions in the various steps to directions that many would likely never have thought about before. I want us to deal with this because of the great amount of underutilized moves/abilities/and items that work with lower HP thresholds and the challenges that can come with trying to make this concept into a good CAP.


Questions To Be Answered:

• What should CAP's method of lowering its own HP be?
• What threshold of HP should CAP be aiming for?
• At what stage of the game should CAP be considering to go off?
• How do we deal with some of the common answers to low HP Pokemon?
• How does this CAP thrive with low HP when most Pokemon either want to keep themselves healthy or get in and get out?

Explanation:
Taking advantage of HP has been a thing that Pokemon has been toying with for a long time, and while this has seen success occasionally (such examples being Gen 4 Agility Sub-Petaya Empoleon, Custap berry leads, or Custap in 1v1 in general), nothing has truly hit the limelight. With the various items, moves, and abilities for this concept that have been drip-fed into the game, the pieces seem to be there, but can we complete the puzzle?

I'm still new to making concepts for CAP so I'm definitely not that good at really fleshing things out, so let me know what I can do to make it better.

 

[Cyaneedle]

Name: Grand Entrance

Description: This Pokemon functions best during the first few turns it's active.

Justification: The lead Metagame is a rather interesting part of Competitive Pokemon, from Hazards to denial of hazards to creating positive gamestates and stifling of opposing strategies; It has given fringe use-cases for Pokemon others wouldn't even consider in a good while.

Questions to be Answered:

* What role do we want this Pokemon to spec into?
* Should the Pokemon befitting of this role be an Anti-Lead or a Hazard Lead?
* How exactly do we emphasize this Pokemon's role while keeping true to the prompt?

Explanation:
attempting to make the most of or shake up the lead Metagame sounds interesting enough of a prompt to sub ^u^

 

[IronTemplar]

Name: Perfectly Executed Eviolite Pairing (PEEP)

Description: 2 Pokémon in an evolutionary line with vastly different roles to take advantage of the defensive bonuses Eviolite provides while not shrinking the relevance of either member

Justification: Eviolite is and always has been an important defining feature of all competitive tiers for as long as it's been present in the game.
Entire formats have been defined by it, and will only continue to be a staple as Pokemon remains

Typically, as a Pokemon gains an evolution, it may actually see more play than its evolved form, due to the improvements Eviolite offers

For example, both Dusclops and Porygon2 gained this spotlight due to this fact. This framework will work to avoid that
There are 3 uses for Eviolite commonly: -To strengthen defenses and useability during a long leveling period (not relevant to our needs)
-To increase defenses in an otherwise attack heavy stat spread, or...
-To overpower an ALREADY strong defense of a defense heavy stat spread!
In order to properly execute these CAPs, they should each have a playstyle relatively different from one another, so as not to be overshadowed If the prevo is very defensive, to take advantage of the Eviolite, the evolved form should be fast and nimble. A bit like Scyther and Scizor in reverse

To achieve this properly, the typing of the prevo should be as suited to limiting weaknesses as much as possible, perhaps even utilizing the ability for further reinforcement (even this isn’t necessary)

Conversely, the evo would dominate fiercely with a type(s) well suited to sweeping, so as not to limit the usage of the prevo
There have also been a fairly limited number of Pokemon with BSTs already quite high before evolving, most recently Duraludon. This allows the possibility of similar numbers In many ways, this pairing could lead to a number of pioneering feats, and design wise could be tremendously fulfilling

(I wrote this up for CAP 36 and I quite enjoy it)

Questions:
1. How much are we willing to compensate for the prevo effectively not having an item?
2. What roles suit such a build of presumably strong defences?
3. What typings suit both stages while still changing as little as possible between them?
4. Do the typings necessarily have to be similar (as is the case for Alolan Marowak)?
5. How do we accomplish all of the above in a meta defined setting?

Explanation: A CAP taking advantage of a classic strategy while making its own homage and perhaps even going beyond them

Scenarios:

Bug/Steel—> Bug/Fighting

Massively inspired by Scizor, my favourite Pokémon. Bug/Steel has some of the best coverage in the game, with only one weakness. A defensive spread able to easily swap in to a large variety of popular moves and offensive types (Earthquake, Close Combat, Draco Meteor). Fire is obviously another very strong type but also one that is fairly easy to predict and counter (Stealth Rock, rain, anti-fire abilities)

Bug/Fighting is the most logical damage focused combination I could think of while also retaining one of the types the prevo had (Close Combat, First Impression)

Grass/Steel—> Grass/Fighting

Similar reasoning as Bug/Steel with added possibilities of drain focused strategies (Strength Sap, Leech Seed, Giga Drain). We essentially have an optimized Ferrothorn with bigger stats and a stronger ability

 

[chartung17]

Name: Perfectly Executed Eviolite Pairing (PEEP)

Description: 2 Pokémon in an evolutionary line with vastly different roles to take advantage of the defensive bonuses Eviolite provides while not shrinking the relevance of either member

Justification: Eviolite is and always has been an important defining feature of all competitive tiers for as long as it's been present in the game.
Entire formats have been defined by it, and will only continue to be a staple as Pokemon remains

Typically, as a Pokemon gains an evolution, it may actually see more play than its evolved form, due to the improvements Eviolite offers

For example, both Dusclops and Porygon2 gained this spotlight due to this fact. This framework will work to avoid that
There are 3 uses for Eviolite commonly: -To strengthen defenses and useability during a long leveling period (not relevant to our needs)
-To increase defenses in an otherwise attack heavy stat spread, or...
-To overpower an ALREADY strong defense of a defense heavy stat spread!
In order to properly execute these CAPs, they should each have a playstyle relatively different from one another, so as not to be overshadowed If the prevo is very defensive, to take advantage of the Eviolite, the evolved form should be fast and nimble. A bit like Scyther and Scizor in reverse

To achieve this properly, the typing of the prevo should be as suited to limiting weaknesses as much as possible, perhaps even utilizing the ability for further reinforcement (even this isn’t necessary)

Conversely, the evo would dominate fiercely with a type(s) well suited to sweeping, so as not to limit the usage of the prevo
There have also been a fairly limited number of Pokemon with BSTs already quite high before evolving, most recently Duraludon. This allows the possibility of similar numbers In many ways, this pairing could lead to a number of pioneering feats, and design wise could be tremendously fulfilling

(I wrote this up for CAP 36 and I quite enjoy it)

Questions:
1. How much are we willing to compensate for the prevo effectively not having an item?
2. What roles suit such a build of presumably strong defences?
3. What typings suit both stages while still changing as little as possible between them?
4. Do the typings necessarily have to be similar (as is the case for Alolan Marowak)?
5. How do we accomplish all of the above in a meta defined setting?

Explanation: A CAP taking advantage of a classic strategy while making its own homage and perhaps even going beyond them

Scenarios:

Bug/Steel—> Bug/Fighting

Massively inspired by Scizor, my favourite Pokémon. Bug/Steel has some of the best coverage in the game, with only one weakness. A defensive spread able to easily swap in to a large variety of popular moves and offensive types (Earthquake, Close Combat, Draco Meteor). Fire is obviously another very strong type but also one that is fairly easy to predict and counter (Stealth Rock, rain, anti-fire abilities)

Bug/Fighting is the most logical damage focused combination I could think of while also retaining one of the types the prevo had (Close Combat, First Impression)

Grass/Steel—> Grass/Fighting

Similar reasoning as Bug/Steel with added possibilities of drain focused strategies (Strength Sap, Leech Seed, Giga Drain). We essentially have an optimized Ferrothorn with bigger stats and a stronger ability

This is a framework, not a concept. I submitted a similar concept for CAP33 (except with the focus on just the eviolite user instead of trying to build two separate viable Pokemon, which would obviously not be allowed outside of a framework), and they added a new rule to make it illegal: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/cap-33-part-1-concept-submissions.3725770/
For some reason that rule doesn't appear in more recent concept submission threads, but I'm guessing that's just an oversight by the leadership team and not a change in policy.

 

[Sceptilite_Z]

I mainly worry if this might overlap too much with Ayecrusher King's CAParasite, since it could be considered a sublevel of that more general concept. If so, I'll take this down.

Name: Thanks for the Hazards

Description: This CAP punishes and discourages would-be hazard use by benefiting from their presence on the field.

Justification:

• What new territory will your Concept Pokemon explore, why do you believe it’s interesting, and how would it interact with the metagame?
  • Maintaining Hazard control is a constant in any metagame that includes them. Beyond just hazard use and hazard removal, there are deeper levels of hazard control via blocking removal through ghosts and Gholdengo, and then also punishing attempts at removal with the likes of Defiant against Defog. An aspect of hazard control I've yet to see put to good use is dissuading hazards through having a Pokémon that would simply love their presence. This invites the possibility of offense or balance teams to consider the idea of running this CAP as their catch-all answer to hazards, leaving the remainder to work more freely with this in mind.
• 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?
  • The discussion I believe this concept invites is more about the inherent back and forth that hazards present within the metagame. This concept of freely accepting hazards because it benefits you is one that somewhat gives you the option to say, "I don't need to remove hazards," but at the cost of being a dedicated team slot. I hope this serves also as further exploration of the depth that the hazard metagame can offer, by showing this as a new way to go about it.

Questions To Be Answered

• What mechanics can serve as ways to punish applying hazards?
• How much of a reward does this CAP need to offer within hazards so that the rest of the team can put up with dealing with hazards?
  • How much is too much reward that it becomes centralizing as the go-to answer against hazards?
  • How can you balance this concept such that an opponent will still consider setting up hazards despite this CAP's presence?
• How does this reward play out? Is it to become a sweeper, to become a defensive piece, or to disrupt the opponent?
• How much should this CAP be able to contribute to a battle when no hazards are in play?
• Should this CAP still have access to forms of hazard removal if it is a hazard deterrent?
• Should this CAP invite teams to consider it the sole anti-hazard team member, or should it serve as a supplement to other hazard control?
• Should this CAP punish all hazards or just specific forms?
  • Should different sets punish different hazards?

Explanation:
This concept is inspired by my favorite gimmick team: Self-Webs. Load up on Pokémon with Defiant, Competitive, Unburden, or Contrary, and after setting up Webs on yourself via Court Change, reap the (insufficient) benefits. Self-Toxic Spikes also exists to specifically charge Guts Pokemon + Zangoose, as well as for Poison Heal Gliscor. I wonder then how much further a concept like this can go, keeping in mind not just abilities, but typings and movesets as well. I also wonder how you could implement a similar solution with the damaging hazards, with Berserk being the first ability that comes to mind; however, that fails to trigger from indirect damage and would thus need an extra damage source to actually trigger.

Edit: LemonLime did make this submission first, although in a previous thread. Thanks to Ayecrusher for pointing it out.

 

[Arkayhl]

• Name - Paradox Second
• Description - Create a single future or past paradox CAP using a previous CAP prevo/NFE as the base. The goal being to create viable paradox pokemon within the gen 9 meta, but a paradox ability abuser secondarily.
• Justification -
  • What new territory will your Concept Pokemon explore, why do you believe it’s interesting, and how would it interact with the metagame?
    CAP doesn't have any paradox pokemon and it feels like a core part of gen 9 and an interesting concept for the CAP community to undertake.
  • 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?
    Creating a CAP paradox would allow the community to draw inspiration from a previous project and re-imagine how a paradox version of that pokemon could fit in the current meta.
• Questions To Be Answered -
  • Which CAP NFE/prevo would be selected?
  • Would it be a future or past paradox CAP?
  • Which weather or terrain would activate the paradox ability, and would it be a new weather/terrain rather than Sun or Electric terrain?
  • Which STAB would the selected NFE/prevo carry through to the future/past paradox version that was selected?
  • What niche in the current meta needs more viable options and which previous CAP project as a paradox might suit that role?
• Explanation - I think Great Tusk and Iron Treads are an appropriate analogy because they succeed as strong ground type pokemon with utility, without the need to use booster energy/weather/terrain every game although they can provide niche alternate sets. In my head I gravitated towards a prevo/NFE as the base for the paradox, because to me it feels more like a new project. Taking one as the base for a starting point rather than a re-imagining of a final form CAP, which could be frustrating for those involved that earlier project to see a CAP paradox shift power & direction.

I don't know if this concept is illegal because of "Specific Abilities are not allowed." and the nature of paradox mons conflicts with this, if so sorry, but i still think it could be fun. I hope it is similar enough in principal to "A specific move can be mentioned if it is the basis for the entire concept" to be allowed.

Edited to be building around 1 pokemon instead of both a future and past paradox.

 

[chartung17]

• Name - Paradox Second
• Description - Create a future and past paradox CAP using a single previous CAP prevo/NFE as the base. The goal being to create viable paradox pokemon within the gen 9 meta, but a paradox ability abuser secondarily.
• Justification -
  • What new territory will your Concept Pokemon explore, why do you believe it’s interesting, and how would it interact with the metagame?
    CAP doesn't have any paradox pokemon and it feels like a core part of gen 9 and an interesting concept for the CAP community to undertake.
  • 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?
    Creating a CAP paradox would allow the community to draw inspiration from a previous project and re-imagine how a paradox version of that pokemon could fit in the current meta.
• Questions To Be Answered - Which CAP NFE/prevo would be selected? Which STAB would the selected NFE/prevo carry through to the future and past paradox versions and would it be the same for both or different? What niche in the current meta needs more viable options and which previous CAP project as a paradox might suit those roles?
• Explanation - I think Great Tusk and Iron Treads are an appropriate analogy because they succeed as strong ground type pokemon with utility, without the need to use booster energy/weather/terrain every game although they can provide niche alternate sets. In my head I gravitated towards a prevo/NFE the base for the paradox, because to me it feels more like a new project. Taking the base as a starting point rather than a reimagining of a final form CAP, which could be frustrating for those involved that earlier project to see a CAP paradox shift power & direction.

I don't know if this concept is illegal because of "Specific Abilities are not allowed." and the nature of paradox mons conflicts with this, if so sorry, but i still think it could be fun. I hope it is similar enough in principal to "A specific move can be mentioned if it is the basis for the entire concept" to be allowed.

The first post of the abilities stage states:

These abilities [Beast Boost, Protosynthesis, and Quark Drive] will only be unbanned on a concept which is based around this ability - Such as an Ultra Beast or Paradox Pokemon

So a concept centered around building a paradox Pokemon should be allowed. However, your concept appears to be building two Pokemon, not one, and thus is illegal.

 

[Pipotchi]

oh hey cool idea for a thread. Im just gunna submit something thats bouncing around in my head

Name: Nuclear Option

Description: This pokemon is mostly supportive, but its one offensive attack is a nuke.

Justification: This is a Pokemon that breaks the mold of how supportive pokemon often avoid passivity- while usually aiming to cripple mons by removing items, applying status, or pivoting, this mon will actually rival the offensive capabilities of offensive mons or even wallbreakers with its access to a single attack. This should change its switchins from simply chip-resilient midgame switchins to dedicated walls, and it should be interesting to both explore the offensive and supportive potential that this nuclear option affords, while also working around the limitations of it only having access to that singular offensive threat.

Questions To Be Answered:
-What are the strongest choices when it comes to single type coverage?
-What combinations of abilities, typings, and other factors like field conditions can lead to the highest nuclear damage output?
-What supportive roles are enabled by a Pokemon that forces a defensive response?
-What offensive roles can a mon fill with only one attack? Can this mon operate as a real offensive aspect of the team, or is it simply a non-passive defensive member of the team?
-What typings enable both the offensive nuke as well as a more defensive, supportive role?
-When given the choice of wallbreaking or making supportive progress such as hazards, pivoting, etc, which takes priority in different scenarios and stages of the game?

Explanation:
Ive always found mons like Tinkaton, Araquanid, and to lesser extent stuff like Regieleki, Serperior, Maushold, Torkoal and spdef Talonflame to be really interesting because they have offensive presence but its usually limited to one move. The rest of the moveset is so barren or mediocre offensively that it tends to dip into its supportive movepool, so you end up with a mon that has a unique blend of limited but potentially devastating offense that also provides a solid defensive purpose. I think it could be really interesting to push the envelope even further, and create a mon with even more of an extreme narrow offensive strength and see what supportive options it enables for itself.
There's a lot of mons that teeter on the edge of this concept, but don't quite fulfil it, and it'd be cool to see what happens when we push those Tinkatons, Araquanids, Zamazenta or Rillabooms even further down that extreme path of narrow strength. On the other side of things, mons like Umbreon, Chesnaught, and Bronzong are mons that have defensive/supportive value in OU but are just far too passive to ever cut it. If they had a real Nuclear Option, could these unique mons could actually have a place in the metagame?

 

[Guingil]

Welp, let me have a go at providing some feedback. I'll try to tackle how technically sound a concept is, but also provide some discussion/alternate directions as seen from my point (which submitters are, of course, free to dismiss if it seems irrelevant).

1. Create-A-Parasite

I think the imperative of the CAP only being able to improve itself through a reactive playstyle is this concept's biggest drawback. It's the unique selling point of the concept, but very few Pokémon in practice have a low floor of output in battle, which this concept seems to demand. This is exacerbated by the fact that, as you mention, different positives can be stolen from opponents (boosts, items), and you can only design a Pokémon to address so many things.
​

If CAP 37 is unable to achieve its primary role in directly parasitising its opponents to build up enough power or momentum, what secondary role can it achieve that puts the opponent in a disadvantageous state (ex. a stat debuffer, a suicide mover)?

Given that this floor is required, I think it might be interesting but also more feasible to target a twinned "floor-and-parasite" mechanism, even if it is targeting only one aspect of opponents to steal.

The trivial case of concept fulfillment is Ditto, which has no floor but is uninteresting and unreliable. More interesting is Obliteryx, with Opportunist targeting stat boosts. STAB Knock Off/Beak Blast/Recover is so strong as a floor kit that even in games where Opportunist does not procc, Teryx is still doing a lot for its team. Opportunist was chosen primarily not as a parasite mechanism but to address one of the counterplays (setting up) to get past Beak Blast. This has interesting implications for teambuilding as well. Spammernoob, I think, said the following (paraphrased): if Obliteryx is on a fat team, often the way to get past its teammates is to set up and snowball. Opportunist with Sucker Punch prevents this counterplay. Meanwhile, the floor is always outputting value anyway and building towards ceiling situations in the endgame.

Tinkaton, I think, works out in similar ways with items, and Hatterene with status moves. Tinkaton with Pickpocket and Air Balloon is a synergistic kit for a one-time item steal (or more, if you get it knocked again), but meanwhile, it is providing great lead or utility value with Rocks, Knock Off, Encore, TWave, and Gigaton Hammer. Even with Mold Breaker, its other ability, which does not leech off opponents, this kit is viable. Hatterene spreads para, heals itself, does Rocky Helmet damage, or even sets up with Calm Mind while always providing Magic Bounce value (Magic Bounce situations are more defining as they're more likely to occur, but still, there's a reason it does it better than Espeon).

So I think the parasite aspect is maybe difficult to justify as the primary driving force of the concept, but its association with specific types of base kits could be an interesting point of exploration. Who knows, perhaps it might be possible to target different things to steal from the same kit, but exclusively?

2. Bring your Cloaks


In terms of concept fulfillment, Garganacl (with Salt Cure) or Ramnarok (with Inferno, Thunder) already do this, but not for the moves you have in mind. This concept is a way to group things in doubles, which you have experience with, but I'm not sure the current draft is the best/only option. It might be possible to explicitly say you're targeting doubles strategies/moves to bring them to singles, rather than some other umbrella to fit them under.
​

Many of these moves see much more usage in doubles formats like VGC. What can be done to take the pressure that they provide in doubles and make that work in a singles format?

I think this question is key. The move economy of doubles is fascinatingly different from singles and totally deserves exploration, which CAP could do. I think of Fake Out as the iconic example. The flinch threat allows your partner more freedom; it induces Protects, which helps ally setup/not actually click Fake Out and do something else/switch out again into maybe another Fake Out user, like the Incineroar Rillaboom combination. On Incineroar, the rest of the kit (Intimidate, U-turn, Parting Shot, Knock) takes advantage of Fake Out or allows you to start the cycle all over again. Pure evil. Compare that to singles, where it's simply chip on one mon with possible additional effects (Munkidori, still not a part of its main movesets). Mega Lopunny is perhaps the best user, as Scrappy makes it unblockable, and the extra STAB chip really helps secure KOs (sort of like an entry hazard). But it's a different use case altogether.

Perhaps some of this "chip" aspect of singles could be combined with the "extra turn" aspect that is there in doubles, e.g., an ability like Speed Boost or Poison Heal. But by itself, just inducing Cloak usage seems weaksauce and not representative of your intentions. I would recommend fleshing that out more and thinking of examples of things that do this. I understand that since voters might be less familiar with doubles, explicitly mentioning doubles might be less appealing, but reframing it as, say, "double(s) move economy" could be a safe middle. Have to mull over that more.

3. Two sides, one coin

Don't have too much to say about this one, it's a nice concept where you have provided good examples. I actually submitted a concept that is a subset of this concept (Which Road Leads to Rome?, which made it to the slate and the second poll), so people definitely have an interest in it. Your broader interpretation actually addresses one of the criticisms I got (from Steam Buns, I think), which was that it did not leave much for people to play with.

The justification write-up seems a bit too meta about what CAP has done before; I think it should be more about why this is interesting on its own. I think explaining one of the examples you mention at the end, perhaps even in the justification section, could be great as a visualisation tool.

4. Flavor First

Illegal, except in a framework where it has (I think) been submitted as recently as last time. Putting flavor stage first could have interesting implications, and there's a PRC thread going on right now about how Art Polls closing before Secondary Ability might affect the latter a bit. Ultimately, I think this is too large a departure from the standard process, which provides important direction for the artists to work with, whereas the other way round harms both artists (where they can make literally anything) and competitive-minded people (who have to work around this arbitrary design). Don't think it'll ever take off. But if it did, I would be interested in seeing if designs that could feasibly accommodate many stats/typings would be the most popular ones.

5. Living Life on the Edge

Lowering HP strats usually are a byproduct or a price you have to pay for boosts, like Belly Drum, Clangorous Soul, or Fillet Away. But the other way round is difficult. The only examples I can think of that fit your concept are things like Endure Endeavour Custap Berry on Araquanid, or Whirlpool/Substitute/Endeavour Luvdisc in RandBats (that thing is a demon, with that speed). But these are either a one-use case for a Pokémon that otherwise already has a niche (Araquanid) or is uninteresting (Luvdisc). Your write-up doesn't have much either, but I don't think this is something that can define a CAP as there is little scope to take advantage of the liability of low health. Maybe I don't know enough, could you provide more examples and explain them?

6. Grand Entrance

Leads are pretty well explored and often end up sacrificing themselves on offensive structures rather than hanging around as dead weight. I guess something like Shox counts here as well, as after it has used Knock Off and/or spread paralysis, it offers little other utility. Don't think this is interesting as-is, you'd have to add something really interesting here in order to make it seem worthwhile.

7. Perfectly Executed Eviolite Pairing (PEEP)

As chartung17 said, this is a framework. An interesting one, for sure, but I dislike that you provide a lot of direction in the justification section (with the word "should", where it could be "could"). A good justification shows why it is interesting to do said concept, and ideally offers many possible ways instead of prescribing one. I think it is more important to set ground rules as to what defines the two Pokémon as being part of the same evolution line, as in CAP we are really free to do anything otherwise.

8. Thanks for the Hazards

There is a discrepancy between your justification and questions, which provide a dream scenario of a Pokémon that feeds on hazards, and the explanation of self-Webs or self-Toxic spikes. I enjoy these strategies as well, but there is nothing that can punish the most common hazards, i.e., Stealth Rocks and Spikes. Webs teams normally work well because of the insurance, either you slow opponents or speed up Contrary mons if an opposing Cinderace uses Court Change, but not the same as what your concept is trying to sell. Perhaps this win-win situation is interesting in itself, and you can have a look at whether that's workable into the concept? Otherwise, anti-metagaming Webs or Toxic Spikes alone does not seem worthwhile. Setting either on the opponent's side, using your own Cinderace to Court Change, and then reaping the benefits, is also too much work, hence the strategy mostly being a gimmick.

9. Paradox Second

The new CAP being a relative of an existing CAP is purely a flavor reason (although perhaps necessary as the design cannot reference another existing Pokemon) and cannot be the selling point of the concept, unless it's a framework where you can even have 2 Paradox mons. If you remove this relationship, I guess it's an interesting concept, but you would need to really describe the competitive reasons for why Protosynthesis or Quark Drive are interesting abilities (which is the selling point). Would be kind of hard to do, as it's already well explored with some of the best mons in the current generation.

10. Nuclear Option

I loved Hammer in the last cycle, and I love this concept highlighting the 1 Attack + 3 support subset of it, which I think is the most interesting part. An aspect of this could also be how to prevent the Pokémon from wanting the nuke or the support options mutually exclusively, given that we have EV constraints or even the possibility of spamming the move. I think of Landorus, which has a sky-high attacking stat and something close to a nuke with invested EQ, but often ends up running Earth Power and a Timid nature on the standard set. Or goes the other way, with offensive or Choiced sets. I think you should definitely put this push and pull in the write-up, and it could be a great thing to build a process around (like Help Yourself for Ramnarok, wonder whose concept that was :P).

Sorry, ran out of steam a bit towards the end, but I hope I have done the concepts justice. I have something in the works myself, but I'll have to flesh it out more before I post it here.​

 

[chartung17]

4. Flavor First

Illegal, except in a framework where it has (I think) been submitted as recently as last time.

As I said, I suspected it might not be legal, but I don't see an explicit rule against it (and if concept submissions are being deemed illegal based on unwritten rules, that's a problem).

 

[Guingil]

As I said, I suspected it might not be legal, but I don't see an explicit rule against it (and if concept submissions are being deemed illegal based on unwritten rules, that's a problem).

CAP being a declared competitive-driven process is probably the unspoken rule here, but in the concept submission guide itself:

"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?"

I don't think a flavor-driven process can pose questions about interacting with the metagame/competitive aspects of Pokémon, but it's more a study of the CAP process itself as you say. Hemogoblin's process was another one where there was an implicit study of the CAP process with assumed average stats resulting in the other stages having more of the power budget. But even the question of "How does a Pokemon with average stats succeed?" is ultimately competitive.

 

[Sceptilite_Z]

8. Thanks for the Hazards

There is a discrepancy between your justification and questions, which provide a dream scenario of a Pokémon that feeds on hazards, and the explanation of self-Webs or self-Toxic spikes. I enjoy these strategies as well, but there is nothing that can punish the most common hazards, i.e., Stealth Rocks and Spikes. Webs teams normally work well because of the insurance, either you slow opponents or speed up Contrary mons if an opposing Cinderace uses Court Change, but not the same as what your concept is trying to sell. Perhaps this win-win situation is interesting in itself, and you can have a look at whether that's workable into the concept? Otherwise, anti-metagaming Webs or Toxic Spikes alone does not seem worthwhile. Setting either on the opponent's side, using your own Cinderace to Court Change, and then reaping the benefits, is also too much work, hence the strategy mostly being a gimmick.

Hi! Thanks for this, although I suppose I should clarify, I included the self-hazard strategies more so as inspiration, and they were thus in explanation and not in justification. I do, however, get that there isn't yet a proper way to "punish" the damage hazards, or at least not one that does so explicitly. I do like the idea of the win-win situation, although I also worry it might lead to a narrower idea of what moveset the CAP would have, since I think this implies it would have to have webs or tspikes itself, and if that might go against the "no specific moves" rule.

 

[Falchion]

To date, I have submitted a CAP concept exactly once, way back in the Fossil Pokémon era 2019. The text of this sub is provided below without any changes whatsoever, so proposals for updating and improving it would be much appreciated.

---

• Name - From Nobody To Nightmare
• Description - A Pokemon that's useless or at most difficult to use in the early phase of a match, but becomes a formidable threat as the match continues.
• Justification- This concept combines Actualization and Archetype, because it invokes a specific type of combatant, a tank or sweeper that is very difficult to use offensively early on but becomes very dangerous if it can survive long enough to be used in circumstances more ideal for it.
  • Actualization - The key takeaway from this project would be to understand how the circumstances of a battle can change over time along with how these changes affect Pokemon from one situation to the next. A Pokemon can be extremely dangerous in one particular matchup and pretty much deadweight in another, and it's important to understand why, how, and when the odds can turn either against or in favor of it.
  • Archetype - We're looking at a late-game sweeper or tank, specifically one that would be very difficult to use in the early stages of a match due to disadvantages or a lack of advantages against foes most likely to be brought into play at this point. Conversely, if it manages to survive long enough and find the right time to mobilize later on, it can potentially decimate other late-game combatants. The most important aspect of using this Pokemon is knowing when to bring it out and how to prepare it for pulling off a late-game sweep or turnaround, otherwise it may arrive too early and expose key weaknesses that can then be exploited.

Questions To Be Answered

• What would make this CAP stand out among other late-game sweepers? In particular, what do any existing examples of late-game sweepers that are much harder to use effectively, if any, have in common? What could this concept do to make it different from these examples?
• Do we want this CAP have a more active support role early on? Since it has to rely on its teammates to pick off early-game threats, should it remain out of play and rely wholly on team support or should it help its team more actively?
• What strategies should we consider with this CAP? Should we bring it out early and have it stall for time until it can find the right moment to strike, or let other teammates do the work for it and bring it out later?
• What are the most common strengths and weaknesses of commonly used Pokemon from the early stages of a match? What are those from Pokemon used in later stages? In what ways can this CAP be rendered vulnerable to the former and strong against the latter?
• Can this CAP be used effectively on offensive teams, defensive teams, or both?
• Conversely, can this CAP be used effectively as a counter to offensive teams, defensive teams, or both?
• What would be the most effective way to ensure that this CAP remains alive until it can be used? Are we looking for a frail but speedy Pokemon that can switch out of threats or a sturdier one that can remain in play to defend against them?

Explanation
In most instances when I played in online tournaments using Pokemon Showdown, my favorite strategy has always been one of ambush, waiting for the enemy to make a wrong move and then capitalizing on it. However, when an enemy team is fully stocked with all members present and functional, waiting for the right time to strike can be difficult, since knocking out one enemy can provide an opening for another. In most cases, my defeat came about by bringing out team members too soon and failing to study the pros and cons of certain foes. The concept I'm proposing epitomizes the "wait and see" strategy in that it does precisely that, because if you use it too early then it can become easy pickings without the correct setup or timing that can allow it to go up against foes it has the advantage against. A good example I can think of off the top of my head is Volcorona, which has immensely powerful Special Attack and access to Quiver Dance, but a 4x weakness to Stealth Rock, middling speed compared to certain Choice Scarf users like Garchomp, and vulnerability to priority users like Mega Mawile. It needs lots of team support to get rid of hazards and chase away counters, but once those are out of the way, it's nigh unstoppable. In the case of the CAP, I can easily see different stat builds being used to fill the role, with either a defensive Pokemon that has to stall early-game enemies and help teammates fight them off before bringing its attack power to bear, or a fast, aggressive sweeper that's forced to switch out or remain out of play in the face of early-game counters while itself serving as a counter to other Pokemon that are more frequently used later.

 

[Pipotchi]

To date, I have submitted a CAP concept exactly once, way back in the Fossil Pokémon era 2019. The text of this sub is provided below without any changes whatsoever, so proposals for updating and improving it would be much appreciated.

---

• Name - From Nobody To Nightmare
• Description - A Pokemon that's useless or at most difficult to use in the early phase of a match, but becomes a formidable threat as the match continues.
• Justification- This concept combines Actualization and Archetype, because it invokes a specific type of combatant, a tank or sweeper that is very difficult to use offensively early on but becomes very dangerous if it can survive long enough to be used in circumstances more ideal for it.
  • Actualization - The key takeaway from this project would be to understand how the circumstances of a battle can change over time along with how these changes affect Pokemon from one situation to the next. A Pokemon can be extremely dangerous in one particular matchup and pretty much deadweight in another, and it's important to understand why, how, and when the odds can turn either against or in favor of it.
  • Archetype - We're looking at a late-game sweeper or tank, specifically one that would be very difficult to use in the early stages of a match due to disadvantages or a lack of advantages against foes most likely to be brought into play at this point. Conversely, if it manages to survive long enough and find the right time to mobilize later on, it can potentially decimate other late-game combatants. The most important aspect of using this Pokemon is knowing when to bring it out and how to prepare it for pulling off a late-game sweep or turnaround, otherwise it may arrive too early and expose key weaknesses that can then be exploited.

Questions To Be Answered

• What would make this CAP stand out among other late-game sweepers? In particular, what do any existing examples of late-game sweepers that are much harder to use effectively, if any, have in common? What could this concept do to make it different from these examples?
• Do we want this CAP have a more active support role early on? Since it has to rely on its teammates to pick off early-game threats, should it remain out of play and rely wholly on team support or should it help its team more actively?
• What strategies should we consider with this CAP? Should we bring it out early and have it stall for time until it can find the right moment to strike, or let other teammates do the work for it and bring it out later?
• What are the most common strengths and weaknesses of commonly used Pokemon from the early stages of a match? What are those from Pokemon used in later stages? In what ways can this CAP be rendered vulnerable to the former and strong against the latter?
• Can this CAP be used effectively on offensive teams, defensive teams, or both?
• Conversely, can this CAP be used effectively as a counter to offensive teams, defensive teams, or both?
• What would be the most effective way to ensure that this CAP remains alive until it can be used? Are we looking for a frail but speedy Pokemon that can switch out of threats or a sturdier one that can remain in play to defend against them?

Explanation
In most instances when I played in online tournaments using Pokemon Showdown, my favorite strategy has always been one of ambush, waiting for the enemy to make a wrong move and then capitalizing on it. However, when an enemy team is fully stocked with all members present and functional, waiting for the right time to strike can be difficult, since knocking out one enemy can provide an opening for another. In most cases, my defeat came about by bringing out team members too soon and failing to study the pros and cons of certain foes. The concept I'm proposing epitomizes the "wait and see" strategy in that it does precisely that, because if you use it too early then it can become easy pickings without the correct setup or timing that can allow it to go up against foes it has the advantage against. A good example I can think of off the top of my head is Volcorona, which has immensely powerful Special Attack and access to Quiver Dance, but a 4x weakness to Stealth Rock, middling speed compared to certain Choice Scarf users like Garchomp, and vulnerability to priority users like Mega Mawile. It needs lots of team support to get rid of hazards and chase away counters, but once those are out of the way, it's nigh unstoppable. In the case of the CAP, I can easily see different stat builds being used to fill the role, with either a defensive Pokemon that has to stall early-game enemies and help teammates fight them off before bringing its attack power to bear, or a fast, aggressive sweeper that's forced to switch out or remain out of play in the face of early-game counters while itself serving as a counter to other Pokemon that are more frequently used later.

I actually think this is a pretty good idea because it ties into existing playstyles (Moxie pokemon that needs everyone chipped down slightly to begin its sweep, trick room sweeper that needs team support to get started, Stored Power sweeper that needs the dark type removed etc).
The thing is, a lot of what makes these pokemon work well is the sets of their teammates rather than their own design- if anything it feels designed backwards in a way where it lacks something that has to be found somewhere else, and this HAS been seen in cap before in the dreaded partner concepts which left a couple mons feeling very weak when their designated partners cycled out of the meta. For this to work best, I think it needs to align well with more general concepts (for instance the playstyle of Kartana that needs key mons removed and a little chip to get its rampage on- this doesnt require specific teammates, but rather just a gameplay style that most teams can perform regardless of the members).
This could be a genuinely good opportunity for cap to learn from its previous processes, analyse what went wrong in previous partner concepts and make something in a way that relies on teammates but isn't overly stunted or too specific to the current metagame.
tldr: currently flavor of the month cresselia and kartana are nice-ish routes for this and i like the concept

 

[IronTemplar]

Submitting a new concept since my last one was a framework, and I didn’t know those were not allowed

This one came to me while coincidentally inspired by Falchion. I had been imagining CAP Fossils and what they might need to be considered viable. I later arrived at our theme for this entry

Name: Sheer Heart Attack

Description: A Pokémon with no weaknesses (or damage modifiers so as to make those weaknesses irrelevant) by combining typing with abilities

Justification: The goal here isn’t to make some big invincible thing that can’t be stopped. The goal is to create a logical competitively viable option, whose goal is not overly compromised, in part because of the lack of weaknesses

Now, I want to be clear on some of these. Combinations such as Water/Ground with Sap Sipper will still have 1 weakness, but since Freeze Dry is a special exception, I’ll have to allow it

Abilities like Flash Fire, Storm Drain, and Levitate have been used to bait the meta for almost as long as the game has had them. Simply switching in after predicting the opponent’s moves, is a staple play. And then you’ve stopped their strategy for 1 crucial turn. This is what I want to do. Pair this logic against active threats and bring them down

Questions to be Answered:

1. What types and abilities would be most useful against meta presence?

2. What kind of stat limitations would need to be enforced to ensure a Pokémon without weaknesses doesn’t become inherently broken? And…

3. Is the removal of said weaknesses wholly enough for it to survive, even with neutral damage from most other sources?

4. What kind of roles can this Pokémon reliably perform where its lack of weaknesses (or the types and abilities that allow them) are utilized for this role?

Explanation: I see CAP as a vehicle for creativity, and an exercise in thought. With literally the entirety of the franchise at our disposal, we can and have made extremely fun Pokémon for competitive use. Sheer Heart Attack is yet another mental exercise, both to explore limits and move past them. It’s also a chance to really look at “meme typings” and see how viable they would really be

Examples:

Bug/Steel with Well Baked Body. This seemed more logical than Flash Fire, which has so far been exclusive to Fire. This is also the laziest execution of this concept, but one of my favourite type combinations, so I’m going to mention it. One possible use of this is as a hazard setter able to safely switch into the Fire types it’s trying to get rocks on. It punishes the opponent by becoming a pain to deal with, gaining defence where it would otherwise fold under heat

Dark/Poison with Earth Eater. Expect Earth Eater a lot. I realize now why it’s considered busted and that’s because the user is still on the ground. Dark/Poison is Prankster proof, can’t be poisoned, and can act as a cleanup crew for Toxic Spikes

Water/Ground with Sap Sipper. Something I’ve wanted to see for a while. Competitive use includes dodging Leech Seed or Strength Sap. While it would still suffer from Freeze Dry, I think it’s worth excluding it as an exception rather than a rule

Fire/Ground with Dry Skin. I chose Dry Skin rather than Storm Drain or Water Absorb for logical reasons. Its own resistances to Fire already neutralize the increased damage from Dry Skin, while also providing immunity to its only weakness. Water is obviously incredibly common in the meta, and this could function quite nicely

I actually just realized Fire/Ground is still weak to Ground, and therefore does not complete the criteria, so with that in mind I have another example

Rock/Fighting with Solid Rock. This combination has more weaknesses than any other, but none of them are double. By pairing it with Solid Rock, that super effective damage essentially becomes neutral, and therefore it can be said to have no weaknesses by proxy. While this would be true of almost any type, this is also a very strong physical combo that makes great use of its typing

 

[Lectrys]

Submitting a new concept since my last one was a framework, and I didn’t know those were not allowed

This one came to me while coincidentally inspired by Falchion. I had been imagining CAP Fossils and what they might need to be considered viable. I later arrived at our theme for this entry

Name: Sheer Heart Attack

Description: A Pokémon with no weaknesses (or damage modifiers so as to make those weaknesses irrelevant) by combining typing with abilities

Justification: The goal here isn’t to make some big invincible thing that can’t be stopped. The goal is to create a logical competitively viable option, whose goal is not overly compromised, in part because of the lack of weaknesses

Now, I want to be clear on some of these. Combinations such as Water/Ground with Sap Sipper will still have 1 weakness, but since Freeze Dry is a special exception, I’ll have to allow it

Abilities like Flash Fire, Storm Drain, and Levitate have been used to bait the meta for almost as long as the game has had them. Simply switching in after predicting the opponent’s moves, is a staple play. And then you’ve stopped their strategy for 1 crucial turn. This is what I want to do. Pair this logic against active threats and bring them down

Questions to be Answered:

1. What types and abilities would be most useful against meta presence?

2. What kind of stat limitations would need to be enforced to ensure a Pokémon without weaknesses doesn’t become inherently broken? And…

3. Is the removal of said weaknesses wholly enough for it to survive, even with neutral damage from most other sources?

4. What kind of roles can this Pokémon reliably perform where its lack of weaknesses (or the types and abilities that allow them) are utilized for this role?

Explanation: I see CAP as a vehicle for creativity, and an exercise in thought. With literally the entirety of the franchise at our disposal, we can and have made extremely fun Pokémon for competitive use. Sheer Heart Attack is yet another mental exercise, both to explore limits and move past them. It’s also a chance to really look at “meme typings” and see how viable they would really be

Examples:

Bug/Steel with Well Baked Body. This seemed more logical than Flash Fire, which has so far been exclusive to Fire. This is also the laziest execution of this concept, but one of my favourite type combinations, so I’m going to mention it. One possible use of this is as a hazard setter able to safely switch into the Fire types it’s trying to get rocks on. It punishes the opponent by becoming a pain to deal with, gaining defence where it would otherwise fold under heat

Dark/Poison with Earth Eater. Expect Earth Eater a lot. I realize now why it’s considered busted and that’s because the user is still on the ground. Dark/Poison is Prankster proof, can’t be poisoned, and can act as a cleanup crew for Toxic Spikes

Water/Ground with Sap Sipper. Something I’ve wanted to see for a while. Competitive use includes dodging Leech Seed or Strength Sap. While it would still suffer from Freeze Dry, I think it’s worth excluding it as an exception rather than a rule

Fire/Ground with Dry Skin. I chose Dry Skin rather than Storm Drain or Water Absorb for logical reasons. Its own resistances to Fire already neutralize the increased damage from Dry Skin, while also providing immunity to its only weakness. Water is obviously incredibly common in the meta, and this could function quite nicely

I actually just realized Fire/Ground is still weak to Ground, and therefore does not complete the criteria, so with that in mind I have another example

Rock/Fighting with Solid Rock. This combination has more weaknesses than any other, but none of them are double. By pairing it with Solid Rock, that super effective damage essentially becomes neutral, and therefore it can be said to have no weaknesses by proxy. While this would be true of almost any type, this is also a very strong physical combo that makes great use of its typing

It seems you're dodging the one already existing fully evolved example in Pokemon: Eelektross, the infamous Electric-type with Levitate. It remains not broken at all due to its frailty and mediocre Speed. Its Mega in Pokemon Champions doubles down on having no weaknesses by getting a strictly better Levitate as its new ability. It's still not broken due to its not-exactly-improved Speed and its still-middling bulk, although its offences are good.

 

[IronTemplar]

It seems you're dodging the one already existing fully evolved example in Pokemon: Eelektross, the infamous Electric-type with Levitate. It remains not broken at all due to its frailty and mediocre Speed. Its Mega in Pokemon Champions doubles down on having no weaknesses by getting a strictly better Levitate as its new ability. It's still not broken due to its not-exactly-improved Speed and its still-middling bulk, although its offences are good.

I wouldn’t say that I’m dodging Eelektross, so much as not mentioning it due to how successful it has obviously been. I would still say it’s a great model for how this could be executed, but there are absolutely other options available. Sap Sipper into Ivy Cudgel for instance. Levitate might not even be the ultimate execution for an Electric type either, since Earth Eater exists, and then could therefore benefit from Electric Terrain

Also worth noting that Eelektross is the only non-Tera example currently without any weaknesses, so I didn’t think it was necessary to bring it up

 

[Feldirion]

Came up with an idea earlier, not sure if it's got any potential (but hey, that's what this thread is for!)
Name: Load and Fire.

Description: A Pokemon designed to make use of two-turn moves.

Justification: There are a lot of two-turn moves in Pokemon. Some, like Solar Beam, have found use in the competitive metagame, but there are many others that haven't, such as Freeze Shock and Sky Attack. There are items like Power Herb that can facilitate these powerful moves, or options like Substitute that can help create 'free' turns. I think exploring these under-used moves creates some interesting territory.

Questions To Be Answered:
1. What defines a two-turn move? Is it solely moves like Solar Beam, which charge before firing, or do moves like Giga Impact, which act and then rob you of your next turn, also count?
2. Should this Pokemon focus on one two-turn move, or embrace multiple options?
3. Should this Pokemon be dependent on Power Herb, or be capable of using its moves without item support?
4. How would this CAP prevent opponents exploiting it or switching out while it's locked into charging a move?
5. What types and abilities would synchronize best with the CAP's chosen moves?
6. Would a bulkier spread be better, to better tank out the second turn, or a speedy one to get the move off quicker?

Explanation: Most of the Pokedex isn't used in competitive battling. There are a lot of moves that are fluff, or weaker versions of the popular ones, and then there are the moves which could be powerful, but are held back by limited distribution or troublesome mechanics. Many two-turn moves suffer from both, and even those that do appear on multiple Pokemon movelists are often neglected. I think there are some pretty cool options, and it would be nice for some of them see usage.

 

[RovVelvet]

Name: The Little Things

Description: A Pokémon that uses only low base power moves.

Justification: As it currently stands, the vast majority of moves remain unused in the competitive scene of Scarlet Violet; and serve only as moves used in a playthrough that get replaced later down the line. The lower base power moves that are viable in competitive often come with side effects that grant value to its user; namely Fake Out and it's priority flinch, and multi-hit moves such as Surging Strikes and Triple Axel.

Questions To Be Answered:

1) What defines a low base power move?
2) What role should this Pokémon take on a team?
3) How should this Pokémon take advantage of low base power moves?

Explanation: Most low base power moves remain underutilized, so a Pokémon which solely uses them is an interesting concept that not many Pokémon fulfil, if any. The one Pokémon that exists that sort of fulfils this concept is Mega Scizor, making advantage of the low base power Bullet Punch with it's Technician ability. A second approach is to give the Pokémon very good stats of which are balanced by having low BP moves.