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What If? - Alternate Timelines (AT #10w: Snaelstrom - Ability Voting)

Well since only one of y'all submitted stats ot looks like AzothBend is the de facto winner!

With that, before we move onto AT Snaelstrom, we are gonna vote on AT Caribolt's art and put a name to a face as well!

We have the lovely and wonderful Scepticskep with their submission of Antramber

And we have the amazing and stupendous YamiTheYin with their submission of Sheplord

I'll give the voting stage for this 24-48 hours!
 
And with that, YamiTheYin has won with their submission for AT Caribolt, Sheplord!

Now we are opening up art submissions for AT Smokomodo while starting on the final AT of the starters, Snaelstrom!

While the last 2 we have done typing first, we have discussed in CAPcord about doing ability first as this process was all about ability-move synergy and since this project is meant to explore unconventional ways to execute the CAP process as it stands, that is exactly what we are gonna aim to do!

Therefore, the Ability stage for AT Snaelstrom will be done first followed by the Typing stage. With that, let's discuss what ability that isn't Water Bubble will best work for a Water type to utilize and make efficient with the moves that it may have.

I will give this stage until the end of the week and then we can vote on some abilities!
 
Water doesn't quite have the movepool diversity of Grass or Fire, so we may better served by taking a more abstract view of the concept. That being said, just to get to the ball rolling as we head into the weekend, here are two more traditional picks which may have merit.

Gen 9 has seen a lot of Pokemon defined by their ability. So, why not ignore them?

This framework is admittedly fairly limited in scope. It's primary example is flipping what should be an obvious check in Wogerpon around to become a risk for the opponent. Some other Pokemon that could be targets include Ting Lu, Garganacl, Mollux, and Gholdengo. Most of these will not want to face down a Water type to begin with, so exploring different ways of incentivizing them may be an interesting direction to take.
Water does have a few great moves with the only drawback being inconsistent accuracy. Namely, these are Hydro Pump, Muddy Water, and Crabhammer/Aqua Tail. Its not many, but this ability could really open up the door for our secondary typing and coverage movepool. No Guard would also apply, but between having just done that with Ram and Compound Eyes more than fully negating their accuracy, it's not needed.

Just going to add some very brief additions from the Discord so they're here for posterity. I'm not sure all four of these are on equal footing, but it's never a bad idea to have options.
Water has some wacky moves that pair will with contact spread abilities like Poison Touch, namely Flip Turn and Triple Dive. And while Poison is not the strongest status effect on its own, plenty of great Water types have made a name for themselves as status spreaders.
Regenerator is a good ability and pairs well with Flip Turn and two strong Water type attacks in Water Spout and Wave Crash. It's like Alomomola was a tank.
 
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Download is fairly simple, but excels on a typing that is generally specially biased while having a physical pivoting move. If you, for whatever reason, get the wrong boost just Flip Turn out, if you get the correct boost just attack what's in front of you with your main stab(s). Quite simple, but its arguably pro-concept and presents a lot of cool play patterns. See Genesect.
 
Some options that I think would be neat:

Drizzle is basically a weaker version of Water Bubble for all intents and purposes: boosts the power of Water-type moves and weakens the power of Fire-type moves. The main difference here is that while Water Bubble is permanent, Drizzle only lasts for up to 8 turns maximum with a Damp Rock, so it can be played around. Is it boring? Yes. Is it effective? Also yes.

Sheer Force is another simple yet effective option, providing a clear path forward while also not pigeonholing us into a specific stat spread, as Water has options on the physical (Liquidation) and special (Scald or Muddy Water) that both interact with Sheer Force.

Technician could be a fun one to mess around with. Water has a surprisingly high amount of low BP moves that just so happen to work with Technician, including Aqua Jet, Water Pulse, Chilling Water, and most intriguingly, Flip Turn and Jet Punch. With Technician, Flip Turn's BP becomes higher than U-turn/Volt Switch, and Jet Punch's BP becomes higher than Extreme Speed. Since Technician affects a wide variety of moves, it also gives us a lot of room for our secondary typing and our stat spread.
 
Okay it is time for the ability slate after some other options have been given! The slate is as follows:

Technician
Download
Mold Breaker
Sheer Force
Poison Touch

I will give us ~24 hours to vote before we move onto typing!
 
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