CAP 10 CAP 10 - Part 5a - Ability Discussion

[Zystral]

My support lends out to the likes of Intimidate and Trace.

Intimidate arguments are already sufficient, so let me address those who say "Trace lets you counter too many things at once!"
Let's take a look at OU and see how many things have abilities that can be used against it:
Vaporeon (Water Absorb), Jolteon (Volt Absorb), Magnezone (Magnet Pull), Flygon (Levitate), Salamence (Intimidate), Gyarados (Intimidate), Heatran (Flash Fire), Electivire (Motor Drive). You may be able to argue some Pressure users but for the sake of simplicity I'll ignore those.

Frankly, I don't see how that's "too many things at once." Yes, they're very different, and it'll be silly to counter the likes of Vaporeon and Salamence at the same time. But the fact is, if you aim to stop GyaraMence (they're similar, so I'll group them together for sake of example), then obviously Trace is a great ability, allowing you to nullify the DDance as you switch in. However, running Trace, if they happen to have a Vaporeon too, then bonus, but being inclined to stop Mence, are you really going to want to stand up Vaporeon? It'll likely Wish in your face and pass it to a teammate, while you are left with Water Absorb versus a very high-HP Mence.

The thing with Trace is that while you are given a safety net to catch other things you weren't planning to, it's also a double-edged sword in that switching in against the wrong thing could be disastrous. Also, nobody is forcing you to run Trace. The only things you would absolutely need Trace for would be Heatran and Magnezone.

I don't think Trace would be broken in any way, as there are plenty of ways to stop it, even if it can be easily abused.

 

[Anachronism]

Out of all non-custom abilities, I would have to go with Trace, Levitate, or Intimidate, but I still think the correct ability is "Expert". it fits the CAP like nothing else presented has. None of the other options I mentioned support what this CAP should be about. I think that people need to stop looking at the cool gimmicky things you can do with Trace and see what it provides the concept. It gives you the ability to counter 10 things in the metagame slightly better, but we should focus on countering almost the entire metagame, and this is done with neutral typing and a wide movepool, which encourages specific super effective hits. Expert accomplishes this.

 

[SJCrew]

It just dawned on me that this Pokemon could really use Levitate if it wants to counter Salamence at all. It's the biggest threat in OU right now and it'll put a huge dent in CAP's utility if its EQ weakness prevents it from countering it properly. As far as I'm concerned, any argument against this is null.

 

[petrie911]

It just dawned on me that this Pokemon could really use Levitate if it wants to counter Salamence at all. It's the biggest threat in OU right now and it'll put a huge dent in CAP's utility if its EQ weakness prevents it from countering it properly. As far as I'm concerned, any argument against this is null.

STAB Outrage is just 10% less powerful than SE EQ. Intimidate/Trace does far more to counter Salamence than Levitate. Not to mention that Filter would also reduce EQ's power below that of Outrage. So, yeah, Levitate is not absolutely required to counter Salamence.

 

[Paradox]

I think that the point that the majority of these abilities are making this pokemon overpowered is being almost entirely ignored.
To be frank, a utility counter doesn't need that much going for it, and with its stats, typing, and a movepool with great coverage, it already does it's job perfectly.

Keep in mind these points of the concept:

Questions To Be Answered:
--How useful is defensive versatility in a metagame with so many different threats to account for?
--Which is more useful, a Pokemon that can somewhat handle a wide range of threats, or a Pokemon that can handle a few threats extremely well?

Most of the abilities suggested would allow this Pokemon to counter a large number of threats very well. I earlier suggested a Defensive Flamethrower/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam/Surf set that would decimate tons of top threats with intimidate, filter, trace, or any other great ability.

I see two ways that this can go:
A. Make a CaP that is not very powerful, but fulfills the idea of 'Utility Counter' to the word, and actually explores the entirety of what the concept was proposed to find out.
This would require an ability that further limits it, as with the stat spreads already posted the CaP will do this job almost too well, surviving hits from threats and then KOing them. Thus I suggested lower base attacking stats and download to make it weaker.
B. Make the CaP more metagame viable by making it able to counter more threats at once. Here it would be best to make it so that the CaP can only counter certain similar types of pokemon, i.e. certain physical sweepers, supporters, etc.
Then a more effective ability can be used, I still like Battle Armor as I don't think this pokemon needs any more help, and stopping crits could be a lifesaver. I still don't like Trace, as the pokemon it counters is somewhat limited: the CaP should be able to counter opponents through its own abilities, not by abusing theirs. Also Trace would be useless against a lot of pokemon, so it wouldn't be a utility counter at all. The pokemon doesn't need to intimidate salamence. If the only way it can beat salamence is a scarfed ice beam, then thats what it should have to do. This fulfills the idea of Utility way better than something that can switch in, survive an attack with plenty of health and take down its target, then continue to kill other things afterwards.

Edit: People seem really scared of EQs from salamence and the like. The CaP WILL survive an EQ from anything bar a choiced stab EQ (I am assuming that you don't allow a DD then switch in on the next attack). Then you can just throw on a choice scarf and ice beam/superpower the shit out of that thing. Scenario 1: Switch in on a dragon dance, KO with scarf. Scenario 2: Switch in on EQ, KO with scarf. I don't see a problem that merits levitate, solid rock, filter, intimidate, or trace.

 

[Rhys29]

It just dawned on me that this Pokemon could really use Levitate if it wants to counter Salamence at all. It's the biggest threat in OU right now and it'll put a huge dent in CAP's utility if its EQ weakness prevents it from countering it properly. As far as I'm concerned, any argument against this is null.

Shuca Berry. Intimidate. Also Salamence is actually #3.

 

[swampmist1142]

I think we should use an ability that would be like a choice item ecxept for defence\sp.defence (depending on EV's) because it would make it so that it woudn't get over powerd as well as this ability would keep CAP10 from using choice item's (it could still have them but it would make the item useless so say you gave it a choice scarf it woulsn't raise your speed and you would still only be able to use 1 move at a time). I hope this clear's up any problems with my last post.

 

[bgg1996]

Has anybody considered a negative ability?

 

[swampmist1142]

Has anybody considered a negative ability?

mine is, it makes it so that he can only use 1 move at a time.

 

[Objection]

In response to Objection's statement, I think 4-slot syndrome is enough. Mew is banned because of its support movepool more than anything else. I think that CAP 10 is rather forced to use super-effective moves to hit for decent enough damage on things, so 4 slot syndrome is quite adequate. The comparison to mew is a bit unfair...

I picked Mew because it doesn't have extreme stats like Kyogre or a broken ability like Wobbuffet, but it has a diverse movepool. Kinda like what a utility counter would need: no need for awesome stats or a really powerful ability, it just needs the movepool for the job.

And again, you're assuming that the only way to be a utility counter is to kill what you set out to counter. Thunder Wave* by itself causes grief to any OU pokemon not named Flygon, Gliscor, Hippowdon, Jolteon, Electivire, Swampert or Mamoswine. However, looking at the stat spreads in the poll, I think CAP10 is going to get another Achilles' heel: meh offences. Electivire gets better offensive stats than most of the available stat spreads and a movepool that hits almost everything super effectively, and it's still lingering around the middle of OU. I can't say for sure but with the way things are looking, that will be CAP10's non-four-moveslot-syndrome Achilles' heel, provided that CAP10 does not get an ability that either boosts its own offences or reduces the opponent's defences.

However, of the existing abilities, are there any that embody the concept (counter many mons, counter few mons at once)? If not, can we make an ability that embodies the concept without being overpowered? If not, then Illuminate!

*CAP10 is an Electric-type, it's virtually guaranteed to get Thunder Wave.

 

[Anachronism]

@Objection:
The reason it is unfair is because Mew's support movepool is ridiculous, specifically the ability to baton pass any stat it wants. This is the major reason it is banned, and that is why the comparison is unfair, as most people appear reticent to give this CAP any statup moves let alone all of them.

The Electivire comparison is similarly flawed. Electivire may have good attacking stats but it also has low base power stabs available to it as well as no recovery to work with and a situational ability coupled with lower speed and bad defenses.

I have things I would like to say about Thunder Wave, but that can wait. Where we are right now, we need to talk about countering things via moves. Statuses in general are a blanket response to threats. Also, I think that saying it is guaranteed to get Thunder Wave because it is electric is a debate topic in and of itself.

I am not assuming that threats must be countered by attacking but rather saying that this is the direction we should take it in. Using general answers like status does not promote specialization to beat threats, which is important to the concept.

I would say that poor offensive stats is the reason why the 4-slot syndrome exists. It would be absolutely fine with a Starmie set if it didn't have to seek super-effective hits like it does.

To tie this post back to the ability, I would like to once again offer support to "Expert" for the same reasons as before. As I have said numerous times, it supports the concept phenomenally, encouraging exactly what we want in the CAP, allowing us to counter nearly any mon effectively but never all of them at once. Read my previous posts for more explanation.

 

[Slyguy46]

I'm going to suggest an ability that I believe would work for the utility counter to counter specific types of teams, Air Lock. Air Lock allows the Utility Counter to counter Rain Dance, Sandstorm, Hail or Sunny Day teams, and thereby deal with threats like Kingdra and Gliscor, which are hard to deal with when weather is in effect. This could work very well for teams that are RD or Hail weak, without devoting an entire moveset to the countering of such teams.

Beyond Air Lock, I see Intimidate/Special Intimidate as a good choice, as it can directly counter a specific threat by weakening the appropriate stat. I also really like Yilnath's proposed ability, as it perfectly defines the Utility Counter.

I'm opposed to Filter and Solid Rock, as Levitate would accomplish everything it sets out to do, while also avoiding Spikes/Toxic Spike.

 

[Banryu]

Of the ones suggested, I agree with Filter, Magic Guard, and Battle Armor.

Filter is one that I've been considering since the typing discussion; I think it would be a good way to allow CAP-10 to tank hits if it decides it wants to counter things that could answer it with a supereffective attack (this being mostly the case with Earthquake). In my mind, this is better than Levitate, because if we make it light to take less damage from Grass Knot AND give it levitate-- well that's too much. It HAS to have a weakness. In my mind, Filter is a much fairer alternative.

Magic Guard could allow it to counter stallers by giving it immunity to Toxic, Sandstorm, etc, something that I think would be extremely helpful in the current OU metagame, as there aren't many was to reliably beat stall teams. Having the option to do so sounds good to me.

Battle Armor would be a decent ability, especially for something that wants to be at least partially defensive, but in all honesty, it's only an okay ability. Filter seems like it would be more useful, and Battle Armor is fairly situational as far as the Pokemon's appearance (For instance, it would fit perfectly on Aragornbird's shrimp, but not at all on Caladbolg's jellyfish). It would be good, but I think Filter would be better.

Here's why I don't like other abilities:
Intimidation combo: I think that this is a good suggestion, but not overly well-thought out. If you have a choice between Intimidate and whatever the special version is called-- well, that's extremely focused and somewhat limited. Sure, it allows you to specifically counter offensive threats on whatever spectrum you like, but overall it sort of kills the possibility to have useful, more-defensive ability like Magic Guard. (And if this combo is meant to be all in the same ability-- well, that seems to be bordering on broken to me. You can't come in and do that on both stats, it's TOO good. =\ ) I'm probably least-opposed to this ability of all the ones I don't like, but I think that we should pick ONE (probably the special variant) version of Intimidate to use alongside something else. Although personally, I just feel that Filter is better all around-- you get some degree of protection from any supereffective hit on either end of the spectrum, but not as much as with Intimidate on either spectrum. Seems fair to me.

Yllnath's Ability: I liked this idea at first, but when I thought about it a little more, I feel like it makes him too fragile, too vulnerable. =\ I don't think that CAP-10 should need to wall things, but it should be able to tank to a certain extent. Maybe there could be a limit on the stat reduction, (like, maybe after turn 3 or 4, its stats stop decreasing), or maybe Haze could be included in its movepool in order to halt the ability altogether, or at least reset it to its original, unchanged stats.

Levitate: Yes, it's a good ability, but it's too easy to just slap it on and call it a day. It might be a different story with the Electric-Poison typing that got voted against, but in this situation, I think we can do better. (Besides, it looks like CAP-10 is gonna be pretty fast... we can always just throw Magnet Rise into his movepool.)

Trace: Mostly, because it's too situational. What's more, it's easy to come in on someone whose ability you don't care about, like, say... Starmie with Natural Cure, only to have Salamence or Gyarados come in to threaten you with Earthquake or something. I feel that our ability should be something more consistent and reliable.

Reverse Natural Cure: There is no status whatsoever that affects you negatively in any way while your Pokemon is not active, and I feel like the option of taking Sleep, switching to a counter and eliminating the sleep-inducer, then bringing CAP-10 back in wide awake is unfair and too much.

Download: I don't think it would make the Pokemon TOO good, but Download to me seems like an offensive ability. =\ We're creating a counter, not a sweeper.

Shadow Tag: Is broken. Should only be used on someone who is extremely limited in very specific ways. *koffWOBBUFFETkoffhaaaack* Even then, it's STILL considered 'too good for standard play'. /discussion

 

[Jibaku]

For those supporting Shadow Tag

Do you realize how deadly this ability is?

First of all, if you bait correctly, or come in after a kill, you can easily land a kill on the target Pokemon without taking a scratch. Given CAP10's possibility of having high Speeds and vast offensive movepool to cover many threats (not all at once though), this is easily done. Since you are not limited to one move, and you come out unscathed, you can kill another Pokemon if your moveset allows you to do so.

Secondly, it disallows double switching. This means that if CAP10 is placed in a disadvantageous position it can switch out without the fear that the opponent will switch out to counteract your switch in.

 

[Lucario_Skywalker]

I'd like Trace.

Just look at Porygon2. It's already THE best Gyarados counter, a pretty solid Scarf Heatran counter, and a counter to purely physical Salamence (but who runs that these days). And what makes all this possible? Trace, coupled with some rounded defensive stats. Trace bounces back all Intimidates, copies the "absorbing" abilities (Flash Fire, Volt Absorb, etc), and can even copy Sand Veil to grant immunity to sandstorm. In other words, Trace will make this versatility CAP 10 is looking for possible.

 

[McLuvdisc]

I'm opposed to Trace on CAP 10 because I think it makes it far too versatile. When proponents of this ability boast of how many things CAP 10 could beat with it, they have obviously forgotten its initial purpose. CAP 10 is a Utility Counter - those who use it will tailor it to counter a few Pokemon that their team is weak too. Users of this mon must focus on defeating these specific enemies, and should be punished if they try and switch it in against anything else. They should not be able to take on every threat at once. They should not be changing their strategies on the fly depending on what ability they Trace. This would go completely against the spirit of the project.

I don't like Levitate either. A Pokemon with great defenses, tolerable offenses, and STAB on water and electric moves is threatening enough. With only a 2x grass weakness to hold it back (not to mention toxic spikes/spikes immunity) it's absolutely terrifying. What's going to stop it? Will every team be forced to carry Leaf Storm Roserade? The only way to prevent this mon from being completely overpowering would be to drastically cut down on its movepool options. Now, our CAP has no utility, and is just a obscenely strong wall. Filter and Solid Rock should not be used for the same reason. The former is fair on Mr. Mime, who has below average defense (base 65) and a laughable base 40 HP - even with the damage halved, a good Crunch will leave him pushing up daisies. The latter is fair on Rhyperior, whose base 55 Special Defense and base 40 speed leave his two 4x water and grass weaknesses open to exploitation. Combine these abilities with our CAP's well rounded defenses, and you have a Pokemon that is most definitely not fair. Imagine a Spiritomb with 80 points added to its base HP, 70 points added to its base speed, and the ability to use STAB Surf and Thunderbolt. This would be our CAP, judging by the submissions to the first Stat Spread Poll. It would also be an Uber.

Right now, I think the best idea out there is Battle Armor, no contest. It would allow CAP 10 to counter specific opposing Pokemon without worrying about the danger of a lucky critical hit. Also, it would allow us to give our creation a diverse movepool without worrying about it being overpowered. Super-effective moves are the best way to "counter an opponent for good" - not abilities.

 

[Rhys29]

I'm really unsure why Filter and even things like Battle Armor are being suggested. This doesn't help the CAP at all, and quite frankly with each spread available it will need it.

These abilities also don't give CAP10 a hook. If we give CAP10 an ignorable ability there will be no reason to use it. Sure, you can have a set that counters Salamence with Battle Armor. But then taking that specific slot to counter a single opponent becomes a waste when you can just use Choice Band Scizor to revenge kill it or time a switch. CAP10 needs something to define it as a utility counter and make it stand out among the other potential counters to threats.

The abilities Trace, Intimidate, and Levitate give it a hook. A third Trace user that can actually be useful. Intimidate isn't a common ability, though not very original, and will give it a much better shot at becoming generally useful. Levitatel, as with Intimidate, isn't very common overall but shows its face a lot in competitive and there are plenty of reasons to use it.

For those of you looking to take away a potential advantage, stop now. You will be making CAP10 that much more forgetable.

 

[Drybones]

Trace is attractive for an ability because it is so very adaptable to the multitude of threats out there; good examples have been previously cited.

Filter would provide extra assurance against a pokemon one designs CAP10 to counter simply running a set with a ground or grass move thereby making it uncounterable. Both of these abilities are very good, but they miss the mark on the following concern.

I'm a tad worried about whether or not this thing will be able to weather extremely powerful neutral attacks like SpecsLatias's draco meteor, or say CBInfernape's close combats. Now that typing has been decided, either CAP10 is going to have to be made extremely bulky to not be handily 2hkod or we're going to have to give it an ability to counter these threats. Dual intimidates would work, but man does that feel like a cop out.

Other ones we should consider are Damp, because there's no way CAP10 can hard counter metagross without it. Color Change would work as well to counter certain threats like choiced crunches or tbolts.

 

[reachzero]

Since I already mentioned which abilities I would like to see (namely Intimidate and Water Veil), let me take a moment to explain why I feel that certain abilities should be avoided at all costs.

Shadow Tag is an ability that should never be given to a CAP unless it is being designed specifically for Ubers, or as part of a dedicated concept, in my opinion. With even a decent movepool to go with its decent offensive stats (on any of the spreads in the poll) it could easily serve as a peerless wallbreaker, since it would prevent any dedicated physically defensive wall from switching out.

Arena Trap is not as extreme as Shadow Tag, but has many of the same problems. Dugtrio has pretty poor overall stats for a reason; Arena Trap still allows you to trap a huge percentage of the metagame. There are relatively few Pokemon that Dugtrio can kill before they kill Dugtrio; the same is unlikely to be true of CAP10.

Download would almost certainly make CAP10 into a sweeper, considering that will very likely have >base 100 speed and ~80 SpA. Considering that with a neutral nature the boosted attack stat will approach 400 and the fact that CAP10 has excellent offensive STABs, there simply would not be any reason NOT to use it as an all-out attacker.

Defensive Download ("Upload") is simply too general and too powerful for this concept. It would not force CAP10 to specialize, it could simply switch into anything at all and automatically gimp its main source of offense.

Magic Guard would be incredibly potent on this Pokemon for a few reasons; the one that concerns me the most would be the ability to use Life Orb absolutely for free, with no recoil. I feel that this would give CAP10 much more offensive power than I'm comfortable with on a Pokemon that is meant to be a utility counter.

Unaware....not only have we already used it in CAP, we've seen it to be very close to broken on a Pokemon with OU-caliber stats. Yeah, I think I'll pass on this one.

 

[McLuvdisc]

Rhys, I agree with your dismissal of Filter, but I'm not really sure what you mean by "hook". Fishing lines not a hook. Good persuasive essays need a hook. Pokemon do not. Are you saying that you wouldn't want CAP 10 to have Battle/Shell Armor because it's a boring ability? I admit that other users of this ability (Lapras, Armaldo, Drapion) are not exactly star players in the current metagame, but that doesn't mean our creation couldn't have some use for it.

Maybe, by "hook", you mean "something that makes CAP 10 overpowered or departs completely from the initial concept"? Levitate does the former, Trace does the latter. As for Intimidate, I could get behind that, but only if it's paired with a special equivalent. Again, this is a Utility Counter. What if my team has a Choice Specs Salamence weakness, or a Rotom-A weakness? What good does it do to reduce Rotom-A's attack?

Edit: @Drybones - Your last post has changed my mind - I was undecided about Dual Intimidates before, but now I see that it would be the only way for CAP 10 to withstand powerful choiced attacks like the ones you describe. However, I cannot see why you support Trace more. This ability would completely shift the mindset of playing with this Pokemon, and it also does not do any good against CB Infernape or Specs Latias. I also do not agree with your opinion on Color Change. It could occasionally prove useful, but it would also invite extensive abuse from Ghost and Dragon attacks.

 

[toshimelonhead]

If people are referring to Porygon2 and Hariyama as "Utility Counters", I would have no problem with Trace as this could bounce back Intimidate at Salamence and Gyarados, one of the key reasons Pory2 can counter them.

For Special intimidate, I think we should call it Narcissate or Hubris, because Special Intimidate seems too cheesy.

(took out the Sticky Hold idea and will credit to whoever thought of it first).

 

[McLuvdisc]

Toshi, I think someone did already mention Sticky Hold. It's a good idea, but I have to wonder how much CAP 10 would really mind having a choice item. After all, it's not a wall, and I don't see it doing a ton of set-up sweeping.

You're right, Trace does make Porygon2 a great Gyarados and an OK Salamence counter - if the Salamence in question is physical, that is. But why does this fact make it the most desirable ability? And why bother tracing Intimidate from opposing mons when you could simply give CAP 10 Intimidate? This would have the same effect on Gyarados and Salamence. Now you can counter them, or Infernape, or Lucario, or Scizor - depending on the moveset you choose, of course.

Don't worry about the name of Special Intimidate - its just a placeholder until something better comes along. Hubris does sound pretty cool, I have to admit.

 

[Gothic Togekiss]

Shadow Tag is an ability that should never be given to a CAP unless it is being designed specifically for Ubers, or as part of a dedicated concept, in my opinion. With even a decent movepool to go with its decent offensive stats (on any of the spreads in the poll) it could easily serve as a peerless wallbreaker, since it would prevent any dedicated physically defensive wall from switching out.

But isn't this a dedicated concept and what about dedicated special defensive walls? When I suggested Shadow Tag, I was going by the assumption that people wanted this project to "hard counter" threats i.e make sure that bastard is dead the first time around, not scare them away like some boogymen. I'm aware that scaring the opponent away is a form of countering, it doesn't like that's what the community wanted from CAP10 as a whole. Shadow Tag would theoretically allow it to fulfill those unheard/heard wishes and make it a true counter.

Arena Trap still allows you to trap a huge percentage of the metagame. There are relatively few Pokemon that Dugtrio can kill before they kill Dugtrio; the same is unlikely to be true of CAP10.

So they're be more Pokemon that are able to kill CaP10 before CaP10 could kill them if it had Arena Trap? Sounds like a nice balance to me.

Magic Guard would be incredibly potent on this Pokemon for a few reasons; the one that concerns me the most would be the ability to use Life Orb absolutely for free, with no recoil. I feel that this would give CAP10 much more offensive power than I'm comfortable with on a Pokemon that is meant to be a utility counter.

Why when I see comments like the one in bold, I keep thinking that Utility Counter = Utility Cannon Fodder or Utility Sack of Potatoes. It has a 99% chance of being useless and/or dead weight on a team, and a 1% chance of being somewhat useful.

Also while this is off-topic Magic Guard is generally very potent on almost anything, which is why it's rarely ever allowed to play outside. When are we ever going to make a OU material Pokemon that has Magic Guard? They're has to be a concept that put Magic Guard to some use.

 

[petrie911]

I was undecided about Dual Intimidates before, but now I see that it would be the only way for CAP 10 to withstand powerful choiced attacks like the ones you describe.

CaP10 will be perfectly able to take on CBApe and Specs Latias...if it is faster than them. If not, I am certain CaP10 cannot take on Specs Latias. I never ran calcs on CBApe, since my spread was significantly faster than it, but it is a concern if CaP10 is slower.

However, as bad as it sounds, CaP10 can still counter Specs Latias, in a sense. If Latias goes for the second DM, she's taking a grave risk of Pursuit from Ttar, Scizor, or Metagross. It's not as good as being a true counter to Latias, but Special Intimidate is far too good. Pick any special attacker, aside from perhaps Roserade/Celebi, and CaP10 could switch in with impunity.

As for CBApe, I think CaP10 might be able to take the hits (could someone run the calcs?). If not, there's always a STAB Aqua Jet. A SE STAB priority move against Infernape's -1 defenses will probably net the KO.

Intimidate is still too good, as it basically means CaP10 can switch in on any physical threat not named Metagross or Gliscor. This is supposed to be a Utility Counter, not a general purpose wall.

 

[Infiltrator]

Gonna support: Intimidate and Special Intimidate

Intimidate/Special Intimidate seems like the best choice for CAP10 and will fits its concept nicely. This is so because with one ability being chosen over the other it will help possibly be able to counter Pokemon but will be unable to counter all of them.