CAP 34 - Part 1 - Concept Submissions

[spoo]

CAP 34 So Far

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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..."
• All submitted concepts for a standard CAP process will be used to create one fully-evolved Pokemon with zero alternate forms. This restriction can be partially or fully lifted by a winning framework that corresponds to the current project. Steps involving the CAP’s pre-evolutions are inherently flavor-based in nature and will have no bearing on concept fulfillment.
• 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.

 

[dex]

It took quite a ways to get here, but CAP 34 starts today! I and the rest of the TLT behind CAP 34 are greatly looking forward to the discussions in our future, and that starts with concept submissions. Now, the be all end all of a successful CAP is how it performs in the metagame, so I want to stress the importance of metagame awareness for this stage. Scroll through the VR, watch a few tour replays, and play some games yourself! It's time to warm back up.

The discussion around concepts will be about my team as much as it is what I see in a concept, so know that whatever comes out of this stage will have the backing of the entire TLT, not just one dude who likes birds. Feel free to tag me on Discord (correia.) if you need help massaging your concept. I won't think for you, but I am more than happy to help when asked! Also, reach out to the TLT. They are most likely smarter than I am (not a hard feat) and are a great resource for y'all as you work through this difficult stage. This stage is about as "no holds barred" as CAP gets, so I'm obviously not going to put any limitations in place that aren't already there. I'm excited to see what concepts y'all come up with and even more excited for the process ahead.

 

[Samirsin]

WIP
Name: Same joke, but louder

Description: This Pokémon uses uncommon moves and/or abilities that are on Pokémon that otherwise would not survive in the OU meta or that are outclassed by another move and/or ability in the same Pokémon.

Explanation: Have you ever seen an ability and/or move so cool that you think "Hey that's nice, wonder why no one uses that" and then see the Pokémon with it and say "Oh, that's why". This CAP aims to bring something new to the table, although that something has actually existed before and thus giving it a new use.

 

[Ehmcee]

WIP

Name: A Stellar Performance

Description: This Pokemon viably runs the Stellar Tera Type, and should be incentivized to run it for it's primary sets

Justification:

The Arrival of DLC2 introduced a new Tera Type in the Stellar tera type, which was expected to make a big splash in how Tera as a whole would function, only for it to be quite... lackluster. This concept aims to create a dedicated abuser of the Stellar Tera Type, and analyzing what aspects would make such an abuser viable.

Questions To Be Answered:

- Is the Contrary Ability something we should shy away from due to it's intrinsic synergy with Tera Blast?
- Should we incentivize broad coverage to abuse the 20% damage boost to the fullest?
- What type combos would appreciate getting a one-time offensive boost on both types, something which regular Tera cannot accomplish?
- Would Tera Blast be a viable move to run on a Pokemon with the Stellar Tera Type without the Contrary Ability due to it's unresisted nature?
- Should we prioritize a good defensive typing so our Pokemon wants to viably run the Stellar Type?
- is the interaction of Tera Blast Stellar being super effective into opposing Terastalyzed Pokemon worth exploring?

Explanation:
Quite simply, let's figure out the best way to make the Stellar Tera Type function on a Pokemon. It's incredibly lackluster on the vast majority of Pokemon, and the only real viable abuser of it is Enamorus, which mainly uses it in combination with scarf and Tera Blast. I'm really interested in seeing if there's other potential applications of this unique mechanic that we could explore together.

I'm personally interested in exploring why Stellar as a Tera Type is as unused as it is, we see Stellar occasionally used on some faster offensive threats like Zamazenta and Greninja with Battle Bond, so potentially a good abuser has fast qualities, with expansive coverage, which both have.

 

[Gekokeso]

Final Submission

Name - Collector's edition

Description - This Pokémon is built to be able to use an item/s not typically seen in competitive Pokémon.

Justification- Items have been an extremely key aspect of battling for the past 2 decades of competitive Pokémon, with the item highly determining the set and role that a Pokémon performs in a team. In these past gens (especially in SWSH) items like Heavy Duty Boots, Leftovers and the Choiced items are seen present in nearly every team, largely drowning out other options for items with the exception of rare cases such a Power Herb Stratagem or Loaded Dice Baxcalibur. This concept aims to explore an item more rare than the above examples and create a Pokémon that uses it to its fullest extent.

Questions To Be Answered -

• What are the most common items in the current metagame? What led to these items becoming so common?
• How can a Pokémon justify running an item that isn't common, which items can make it worth it? What makes it so good?
• Are there any examples of said items being used sucessfully in the past on viable sets?
• What traits about a pokémon led to it using these items? How does it justify running these items instead of more common options?
• What role can this pokémon employ that leads to it being able to use a rarely seen item?
• Should we focus on only using one particular item, or would it be better to explore a whole group of them?
• Should we look to only explore more the items themselves or should we look to explore any unique interactions they might have (Fling, Trick, etc...)?

Explantion - There's an infinite amount of items that often go overlooked due to a large amount of reasons. Think of this concept aiming to explore any item that ranges from not typical, but still somewhat common (Power Herb, NeverMeltIce), to truly insane shit (Sticky Barb, Mail). Some examples include:

Consumable items: Arguably the most common of the ""lesser" usage items but still nowhere as popular as other options. Consumables like herbs such as ,, and have seen high amounts usage in certain mons such as , and among others, allowing them to act as powerful sweepers which can end games by themselves, even if they weren't built around the item. Weakness berries and also similarly have a history of allowing crazy sets which would allow pokémon to either get rid of one mayor weakness of them like or , or be used to lure in and knock out opponents. Another example are consumables that disrupt the momentum of a match, with stall mons like using such items like and, or offensive mons like and . These are some of the more common examples, but there is still huge room for exploration of more rarely seen items like , , , among others.

Non-choiced move enhancing items : Items such as and have been used as choice item alternatives thoughout various gens in Pokémon known to spam various attacks of the same typing such as or . SV in particular also happens to have introduced a lot of items that can particularly aid many types of mons, such as boosting mons with multi-hit attacks like or , and boosting mons with punch moves like or .

Fling Items : These are similar to items in the consumable category. Fling is a very bizarre move with a lot of very underrated interactions. Sometimes some pokémon like and prior to its ban would run Fling alongside a heavy item like Big Nugget or Overheat, allowing for a one time 120-130bp Physical Dark type move that would not only obliterate certain checks, but would activate Unburden to begin a sweep. There were also part of possible sets for certain uber sweepers in previous generations like in order to heavily damage or lure out would be checks like . Fling has some other underrated interactions worth exploring as well, such as how fling light ball results in the opponent getting paralysed on top of the damage.

Sticky Barb and other damaging items : Everyone and their mother is aware of flame orb and toxic orb activating abilities like Guts and Poison Heal, but there are cases of mons running the items specifically to be menaces about it. Stuff like are notorious for being able to abuse the immunity to chip damage these items provide and be able to use them for absolutely nefarious means, as tricking these items allows you to not only give the opponent a status effect but also take away their item, effectively crippling them. Other mons like Psycho Shift and Klutz in the lower tiers also come to mind.

Other goofy examples that come to mind from sane to insane:

 

[Amamama]

Final Submission

Name: Stabbed

Description:

This Pokémon uses three or more STAB attacks on its most successful set(s). any utility move it has on these set(s) has to be of the same type(s) as well.


Justification:

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

STABs are a Pokémon’s most powerful tool to make immediate progress, thanks to the boost the Pokémon’s type grants.
Most successful Pokémon rely on STAB boosted moves to be threatening to the opponent. At the same time the majority of Pokémon seeks to patch holes in their offensive output with coverage moves, that complement their STAB typing.
CAP 34 will not have to do that and in fact have several options, that make it desirable to run as many STAB attacks as possible.
This way we can explore how much value a movepool dictated by just two types can generate, what makes it desirable to omit coverage options and how to find versatility within a restricted pool of options.
This is generally fairly metagame agnostic, but in a generation, that often punishes passive play and wrong predictions due to its fast pace, squeezing additional value out of just STAB attacks, can help make in-game decisions easier and quicker. Focusing on just the STAB boosted options a Pokémon has and finding value and utility in this pool, means CAP34 can make use of its biggest offensive strengths (offensive typing and STAB boosted moves) at any turn.

“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?”

Finding a typing that is capable of offering both a varied enough movepool, as well as wide enough coverage, to make it easy to just run STABs obviously will dictate the typing stage. Usually we look only at the strongest STAB moves for value, which lead to the creation of the Defining Moves stage, but filling out a movepool with up to 4 STAB attacks means we might have to dig deeper to look at options, that might often not make the cut as “defining” and see what value these options can generate in the right movepool.
Gen 9 also saw the influx of several new highly specialized move options (mostly signatures like the hazard setting moves, psychic noise or matcha gotcha), that include interesting utility, but might not be sufficient as main STAB, which this concept could still explore.
The choice of typing and movepool will also influence how this Pokémon uses its (offensive) stats to make full use of its limited pool of options.
At the same time, when typing and movepool might be more constrained by the choice of moves, stats and defensive typing might have to step up to add defensive utility to make the Pokémon compelling to use.
Overall I believe this concept, while constraining in its premise, will be able to generate diverse and open discussion through all stages.

Questions to be answered:

1. What sets Pokémon apart, that can make effective use of just STAB moves without additional coverage and what sets Pokémon apart, that run two or more attacking moves of the same type(s)? What trends do existing examples show?

2. Is it possible to fill anything but an offensive niche with only or mostly attacking moves of the same type(s)? Is it necessary for these moves to threaten a lot of damage or can value be found in their utility as well?

3. Are there ways to substitute critical coverage options on a moveset with STAB moves? If not, can access to a wide STAB movepool (and the tools to make it work) expand the pool of Pokémon, that CAP34 can threaten, in different ways?

4. What modes of progress exist, that CAP34 can leverage, when its STABs are answered by an opposing Pokémon, if it’s not able to resort to coverage?

5. Does only using STAB attacks limit set versatility and how can this effectively be patched by Movepool, Ability, Stats, defensive Typing or Item Choice?

6. What can ensure, that a Pokemon chooses to run only STAB, In a generation, where a Pokémon can pick any type of coverage through its Tera Typing and Tera Blast? How can we achieve a movepool that possibly includes sufficiently strong coverage options, which only rarely outshine the available STABs?


Explanation:

Usually Pokémon rely on extensive coverage to create meaningful progress during a game.

There aren’t a lot of examples in SV, that will only run STAB attacks on their sets and Pokémon that run 3 or more STAB moves on their sets are even more rare.

Still there are examples ofhighly viable Mons that omit any coverage on their movesets some of which even choosing to run two or more moves of the same STAB type.

In SV the most complete example of this is Samurott Hisui, which often runs up to four STAB moves on its moveset. Between Ceaseless Edge, Knock Off, Sucker Punch, Razor Shell, Flip Turn, Aqua Jet and Hydro Pump it has more than four options, that are used alongside different items, even though the goal of the sets is always the same.
It is pretty unique in that regard though.

Kingambit running Sucker Punch, Kowtow Kleave and Iron Head alongside Swords dance is another very Prominent option, that still runs three STAB moves.
The special Version of this is Raging Bolt which despite an immunity against it can viably run two or three electric type moves alongside its Dragon options in OU, though sets that use Weather Ball or Tera Blast as coverage are probably more common.
Other mons that sometimes or most often run three STAB moves are Ogerpon, Weavile, Revenankh, Ceruledge, Armarogue and Azumarril a common thread being, that they all have access to set up and priority moves.
Mons that run two STAB moves are fairly common, often being walls or set up sweepers with recovery and or great offensive coverage.
One interesting version of this is Alomomola, which runs Mono STAB with two water moves.
Though overall I think this version of the concept isn’t as interesting, as finding a good (offensive) dual typing isn’t incredibly hard to do and doesn’t inform much of the rest of the build.
I think the more slots in the moveset are taken up by STAB moves that add some sort of utility, the more interesting the build becomes. Trying to find enough utility in just STAB attacks to justify running 4 attacks with only two types is a fascinating prospect to me.
That said, it might be a bit too constricting, which is why I think another approach to create something more unique would be to restrict utility moves to the same types as attacking moves.

 

[Explosion Badger]

Final Submission

Name: Hypocrite

Description: This Pokémon performs a role for its team while discouraging opponents from achieving that same role.

Justification: Pokemon that warp the metagame come in a lot of different flavors, but an underlying trait that many of them have is that they are their own best counters; that is to say, these Pokemon are often incredibly difficult to stop unless one has one of these Pokemon on their own team. Hemogoblin and Kingambit are two recent examples, with both being incredibly dangerous late game setup sweepers whose strong priority allows them to discourage other setup sweepers while they're still present in a battle. This ability to deny or discourage other wincons while being a wincon themselves makes these Pokemon premier late game sweepers. Because of this, however, these two are also notorious for having a warping effect on the meta at one point. Their ability to reverse sweep makes other setup sweepers less desirable, as Hemogoblin and Kingambit's sweep denial means that other setup sweepers have to respect them while they show no such restriction, making it hard to justify late game setup sweepers other than them. This also means that these Pokemon are often their own best checks, further forcing people to run Hemogoblin or Kingambit in order to deny opposing Hemogoblin or Kingambit sweeps. Like other "Hypocrite" Pokémon, because of their overwhelming power and utility, these Pokemon warp the meta around them. This concept, then, aims to explore how CAP can create a Pokemon that counters the same role it accomplishes, and how to limit it in such a way that other pokemon with the same role still have advantages to using them that makes them also viable.

Questions to be asked:

• How can we make a Pokemon that accomplishes the same role it denies be a healthy part of the meta?
• How can we prevent this Pokemon from being its own best check? Can CAP 34 still be able to check itself without becoming unhealthy for the meta?
• What examples of "Hypocritical" Pokemon can we look to? Do these Pokemon have traits in common? Are any of these Pokemon healthy for the meta and why?
• What role and role denial is most likely to have a meta-warping effect? Which is least likely? Should we focus on these more risky pairings, or should we instead use a safer pair of roles to use for this concept?
• How does the meta influence what "Hypocrite" Pokemon are seen as unhealthy or not?
• What advantages should current pokemon with our chosen role have over CAP 34? How can we make CAP 34 coincide healthily with these Pokemon?

Explanation: While this concept did not start as one that addressed patterns in CAP or Pokemon, discussion about both it and the Pokemon related to it has lead to it becoming focused around how strong Pokemon that check themselves often warp the metagame thanks to their presence. Specifically, if a Pokemon becomes is its own most reliable check, its own usage begins to snowball, as the safest way to prevent that Pokemon from achieving its goal is to use one of your own, restricting teambuilding significantly if one does not want to use that Pokemon while having to prepare against it. Depending on how reliably other Pokemon in a metagame can check this Pokemon, this effect can spiral quickly, to the point of making entire games center around making sure this Pokemon stays as healthy as possible just so one sides "Hypocrite" doesn't lose to the other sides one. This of course, takes a huge toll on healthiness of the meta, as well as the enjoyment of the meta as well.

A few people both here and on the discord have asked how my concept aims to tackle the issue of this Pokemon possibly warping the meta, and I think my answer to that is that the concept is meant to ask that very question. Rather than trying to avoid the possibility of CAP 34 becoming meta warping, this concept aims to tackle the problem head on, in the hopes that knowingly designing a "hypocritical" Pokemon will allow us to learn what patterns to avoid when making future CAPs in order to make them healthy for the meta as well.

 

[Ayecrusher King]

Final Submission

Name: Create-A-Parasite

Description: This Pokemon can only get stronger 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.

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 if the opponent attacks you, options which are rather niche because of their unreliability. This Actualisation concept aims to explore how we can design a Pokemon that relies 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 Pokemon or playstyles in the CAP metagame make it difficult for us to take advantage of? Additionally, what Pokemon in the CAP metagame would prefer to keep what they have?
• What moves and Abilities allow us to leech off the opponent(s)? Additionally, what moves, items and/or Abilities protect the opponent from being leeched upon?
• How should CAP 34 be able to best utilise what it has leeched off its opponent(s)?
• How effective - offensively and/or defensively - should this Pokemon be when it initially enters battle? In addition, what can we do when CAP 34 isn’t and/or incapable of leeching off its opponent?
• Is there a risk of CAP 34 not being able to find enough opportunities to leech off from its opponents to build up enough power? Additionally, how do we ensure that CAP 34 can continue finding opportunities to leech off from its opponents as the metagame evolves?

Explanation:
Here's a breakdown of the 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 from move to mon?
That's not to say it's not undone before, albeit they have flaws: you have the item , which boosts your own stats if the opponent boosts their own (although admittedly not useful if the stat boosted is worthless to the mon), the , which provides +2 Atk & Sp. Atk if they hit you with a Super-Effective move (Worthless uf they lack such moves), and the , which provides +1 Speed if you're Intimidated; you have the Ability Opportunist, which is basically permanent Mirror Herb, Mummy/Wandering Spirit, which takes away the opponent's Ability and deprives them of a possible component of their set that you can take advantage of, Berserk, which provides +1 Sp. Atk every time you survive a hit that takes you below half max. HP, or Rattled, which provides +1 Speed if you're Intimidated or hit with a Bug-, Dark-, or Ghost-type move; you have the moves Foul Play, which uses the opponent's Attack to calculate damage (though useless against physically weak foes), Rage Fist, which gains +50 power every time you live a hit, Flail/Reversal, which gets stronger the less HP you have left (assuming you can hit first next turn/survive this turn). Strength Sap, which restores the user's HP by the same amount as the target's effective Attack stat and debuffing them at the same time(which also means the healing is lessened each turn, particularly against Sp. Offensive or Walls) and Power/Guard/Speed Swap, which does as it says. A lesser spectrum related to the concept are contact effects, such as with Rocky Helmet + Iron Barbs/Rough Skin (Deals chip damage), Static/Poison Point/Flame Body (inflicts a Status condition), Gooey (Lowers Speeds per hit), Aftermath (Deals chip damage if its fatal), albeit one that I think we might have learned from Cres's example.

 

[armaldlothearmaldo]

Final Submission

• Name – Team Player Partial Trapper
• Description – A pokemon that is able to effectively make use of either abilities or moves to support it’s team through partially trapping and eliminating critical threats.
• Justification- In the past, the role of a partial trapper has applied exclusively, or at least almost exclusively, to pursuit users. However, with pursuit no longer in the game, I believe it would be valuable to explore possible alternative methods or partial trapping, which would also give an opportunity to explore switching itself, which is one of the fundamental mechanics in pokemon.
• Questions To Be Answered –
  • 1. Beyond entry hazards, what factors make switching less desirable in competitive pokemon?
  • 2. Outside of the pursuit trappers, have other pokemon made use of either abilities or moves to become partial trappers, particularly in lower tiers?
  • 3. Is a pokemon that aims to discourage switching fundamentally reliant on coverage or its own ability to pivot?
  • 4. In what circumstances does the ability to discourage switching become overbearing and restrict the tier too much?
  • 5. In the context of partial, rather than full trapping, what additional tools are required to make a pokemon viable?
• Explanation – Trapping is an extremely powerful mechanic in pokemon, and pokemon with the ability to trap or partially trap opposing pokemon, such as shadow tag Gothitelle or pursuit Tyranitar, have previously played very important metagame roles. CAP has previously explored the concept of trapping with Pajantom, but partial trapping has been under-investigated. With the exceptions of Tyranitar, Weavile, and perhaps a few less prominent pursuit trappers, partial trapping as a strategy has not seen considerable usage in the metagame, which leaves considerable room to explore the concept further.
  Conventionally, partial trapping has essentially only meant pursuit, a move which is no longer in the game. I believe CAP 34 offers an excellent opportunity to explore other options that heavily discourage switching, thus achieving a similar effect to pursuit trapping, such as the abilities stakeout and analytic.

 

[Steam Buns]

WIP

Name: Type-Cast

Description: This Pokemon uses a typing not represented in the cap metagames pool of viable Pokémon, to form a unique niche.

Justification:

Questions to be Answered:

Explanation:

 

[Hiusi guy]

WIP (I think)

Name - Nurse Joy

Description - A heavily supportive cleric mon with offensive options

Justification - Currently in the CAP meta there are about a handful amount of mons that are able to use wish and none of them actually use it and/or don't use it well, nor is there any heal bell user, so this Cap aims to fix that by providing a mon that is able to sponge hits and heal it's teammates whilst also not being passive.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What are its "Offensive Options"? - I would consider this to be like the cleric learning High bp moves but having about average attacking stats or vise versa (Something similar to tinkaton and it having gigaton hammer)
• What does "Heavily Supportive" imply? - This would imply having moves to support its teammates in anyway beyond having Wish or Heal Bell

Explanation - This concept is obviously based off of the character in every Pokemon Center, Nurse Joy, who heals your pokemon. But one seemingly random thing she also does is be a Gym inspector in the anime where she has a fucking Latias, being one of the few trainers to have a legendary in the anime, which is where the offensive part comes from. I would want to have this mon have at least some kind of pivot but I want to keep the concept to only Wish and heal bell so that would be up to the moves vote. As well the offensive stat and moves in question could be just about anything as long as they actually do damage.

 

[caninesfan]

Final Submission

Name - Critical Acceptance

Description - This Pokemon's play style is built to not react negatively to a critical hit (reacts positively and/or neutrally to a crit), whether defensively or offensively.

Justification - Critical hits shatter most strategies and have literally caused prominent players to ragequit. Building a strategy around critical hits averts this (but not flinches, unfortunately, so a Lavos-level ragequit is still possible).

Questions to be Answered -

How can you build a playstyle around something that happens so infrequently?​

If building an offensive Pokemon centered around the critical hit, what are ways to build it that don't involve Super Luck and are fun to play?​

More importantly, are there any means to build this Pokemon defensively? Would it be possible to focus on both offense and defense?​

What means do we have to achieve any of this that doesn't involve extremely niche items or abilities that are very limited in scope?​

Explanation - Unfortunately, I have little competitive experience, so this may not be cohesive, but: because this Pokemon could react non-negatively to crits both offensively or defensively, this leaves a decent range of ways to achieve this. However, most methods of reacting non-negatively to crits offensively just boil down to a hyper-offense strategy - it is defense that is the most interesting here, but sadly the most limited, as there are nearly no tools to do so. It may be possible to create a Pokemon with a mixed style, utilizing moves like Focus Energy, Laser Focus or even Dragon Cheer and high-crit moves or abilities like Anger Point and Sniper, or even items like Lansat berry and Scope Lens. Please note that focusing on critical hits does not mean that a Pokemon built around this concept would just use Super Luck. The process of building and utilizing a CAP is supposed to be interesting.

ykw lets make this a Final Submission

 

[skippergamez]

WIP

Name - Ew-tility

Description - This Pokemon discourages the use of utility moves from the opposing Pokemon.

Justification - Utility moves are some of the most important parts of competitive Pokemon.

Questions to be answered -

Explanation -

 

[Sawyer.]

Final Submission

Name: The Mighty Burden

Description: This Pokemon promises immense power or utility, but requires an unprecedented level of support from its teammates in order to unlock its full potential.

Justification:

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

This concept is designed to facilitate discussion of two key questions:

1. How is a Pokemon's viability impacted by its reliance on various types of team support?
2. What traits does a Pokemon need to succeed in spite of this reliance?

In the process of creating and balancing a CAP that is viable despite being utterly reliant on team support, the CAP community will learn a lot about quantifying the cost of the various forms of support. For example, how much does relying on Wish support impact viability in the current metagame vs relying on teammates to break down and eliminate Steel types? What about hazard removal vs terrain support? This is a unique line of enquiry for a CAP process and will inevitably teach us a great deal.

In addition, I believe that this concept is inherently interesting because it involves a number of extremes. The community will need to design a Pokemon with both extreme strengths and limitations. This will require us to break outside of our usual design space. Concept examples such as Regieleki (pre-Tera) and Shedinja demonstrate this perfectly and (imo) give rise to some of the most fascinating teambuilding and gameplay.

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?

Without doubt, this is a challenging concept. At each stage of the process, the community will be asked to incorporate enormous limitations and/or strengths into this CAP while achieving a balanced and cohesive vision. It's essentially a big problem-solving exercise for the community, and I think it is unlikely that we would get it exactly right prior to playtesting. But it is precisely because this concept is so challenging that it presents such incredible learning opportunities. Reliance on team support is a fundamental concept in Pokemon that needs to be explored further through a CAP process.

Questions To Be Answered:

1. How is a Pokemon's viability impacted by its reliance on various types of team support?
2. What traits does a Pokemon need to succeed in spite of this reliance?

Explanation:

I have unfortunately run out of time to flesh out this concept submission further. As a proof-of-concept, I came up with the idea of an extremely bulky CAP with access to Rage Fist, but which is weak to hazards and has no form of recovery. It could become an unstoppable juggernaut over the course of a game, but relies on healing from its teammates via Wish, Healing Wish, Grassy Terrain, Revival Blessing. However, this is only one direction among many that we could go in.

Finally, I don't see Tera as being an obstacle for fulfilling this concept successfully. However, there are definitely cases where Tera Blast should probably be denied to an offensive iteration of this CAP (a la Regieleki, which is defined by its inability to make progress against Ground types), or the use of Tera should be assumed while balancing it (e.g. in the case of something like Tera Electric Shedinja).

 

[Amamama]

going to try and to comment on some of these before there’s so many that I get overloaded:

This Pokémon uses uncommon moves and/or abilities that are on Pokémon that otherwise would not survive in the OU meta or that are outclassed by another move and/or ability in the same Pokémon.

I don’t really enjoy these kind of concepts, that are basically „pick something cool and undervalued and see what we can do with it“. But often the „why is this move not used more?“ is simply answered with „the user or the move is just outclassed“.

The biggest weakness of these kind of concepts to me is, that once chosen, we basically have to poll again to find out what mechanic we’re focusing on.

And with this WIP we’d even have to pick between ability or move first.

Imo at the very least narrow down the scope to either ability or move. And tbh I’d much prefer if you’d pick a mechanic you’re interested in for the community or at least a narrower range of mechanics to pick from. (underutilized hazard removal or unconventional pivoting idk).
Atm this concept is weak for being much too broad.

- Is the Contrary Ability something we should shy away from due to it's intrinsic synergy with Tera Blast?

I think that the fact your leading with this already is telling about how much design space Tera stellar leaves.
The fact that aside from Terapagos only two mons with Contrary SOMETIMES use the stellar form is kinda daunting.

Should we incentivize broad coverage to abuse the 20% damage boost to the fullest?

I don’t see a good way to incentivize Tera stellar over another Tera type with good coverage, unless this Mon is capable of breaking open entire defensive cores with the right moveset AND prediction, bc frankly 20% can be achieved with items like life orb, expert belt or plates.

is the interaction of Tera Blast Stellar being super effective into opposing Terastalyzed Pokemon worth exploring?

of the entire concept, this is the most interesting aspect to it. Using stellar Tera blast to deny an opponent a Tera Lure in a pinch is potentially cool, though how to pull that of reliably is a bit hard to picture.

overall I believe you picked the narrowest and hardest to achieve Tera concept available.

This Pokémon is built to use an item/s not usually not typically seen in competitive Pokémon.

I like the premise of this idea, though I feel like in your write up you’re focusing a lot on trickable and flingable items.

Is that something your interested in? Then use those as the premise of the concept. If it’s about lesser used items in general I think you need to make that clearer in the writeup.

This Pokemon utilizes a secondary aspect of a specific terrain or weather condition that other users do not typically use or use well.

Similar to samirsins I think this is too broad for my liking. Pick the mechanic/interaction you like most/find most interesting and roll with it.
Additionally I am sceptical how much depth these mechanics actually have, to explore more than a very narrow niche.

This CAP can only get stronger 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.

going to hold off on commenting on this as I quite like it already. I’m interested to see where this goes.

A pokemon that is able to effectively make use of either abilities or moves to support it’s team through partially trapping and eliminating critical threats

atm I can only say that it seems quite hard designing a partial trapper that works to remove particular teammembers, especially now that pursuit is not in the game. Usually partial trapping sets are lures, which are particularly hard to design, since now the lure is expected.
One element that might make this more reliably possible is the addition of Terastalizing. It still is awkward to design a lure but maybe this new mechanic makes it a bit more practical.

WIP

mooooooore! This is potentially interesting but heavily dependent on which way you take it.

This Pokemon possesses incredible power and/or utility, but requires an unprecedented level of team support in order to do its job.

potentially interesting as well but needs more development.

 

[kenn]

Final Submission

Name: Mix and Match

Description: This CAP excels at being a mixed attacker.

Justification: Mixed attackers are an extremely rare offensive archetype that benefit usually by being able to circumvent walls that may usually check them. This can make them hard to check since most walls are dedicated to taking on physical or special attackers but not both. Mixed attackers are particularly on the rise this generation with Pokemon such as Iron Valiant and Hoopa-Unbound thanks to their ability to continue a sweep or break down walls, respectively, which can help themselves or teammates to forge a path to winning. While it all seems amazing being a mixed attacker, the reality is that because of the inherent nature of using physical and special attacks, they're often forced to potentially spread themselves too thin with regards to their EV investment and may have to use a nature that could cut into their bulk.

Questions to be Answered:
•Why do Pokemon want to go mixed? Is it because of the metagame trends/changes that occur as time goes on? Or could it be something as simple as missing the "right" move?

•What tools do we need to give this CAP in order for it to excel as a mixed attacker? More importantly, what tools should we omit?

•How do we address what nature to run since we ideally don't wanna lower our Attack/Special Attack as well as our Speed potentially? How would we distribute the given EVs to maximize mixed attacking efficiency?

•How can we build this CAP to where it doesn't favor a strictly physical or special set?

•How has the generational shifts heightened or deterred the ability to go mixed?

•Why have mixed attackers died out since their "heydays" in the earlier gens?

Explanation: Hoopa-Unbound and Iron Valiant are excellent examples in the current generation of going mixed to achieve the wallbreaking abilities that they provide for a team with Hoopa-Unbound running Psychic to get around Venomicon/Arghonaut and Iron Valiant running Moonblast for Pokemon like Great Tusk on physically biased sets or Close Combat on specially biased sets for Pokemon like Equilibra. In the past, mixed attackers such as Aegislash and Genesect use their ability to give themselves the upper hand when it comes to wallbreaking where the former is able to tank hits and then fire off powerful STABs while the latter uses the boost from Download to power up its fantastic special coverage. Other good examples are Superpower Tornadus-Therian of ORAS/SM fame, using this particular move to chunk away at Chansey, a dedicated special wall. Kyurem-Black is another great example that would explicitly run a mixed set back in ORAS/SM to utilize its fantastic Ice STAB coupled with the amazing Fusion Bolt for BoltBeam coverage amongst other options such as Outrage, Iron Head, and Earth Power. Other examples can date back as far as ADV Swampert or GSC Nidoking too. The former would usually run mixed whether it be on a defensive or offensive set because it was able to utilize both of its STABs that way thanks to it being pre-physical/Special split. The latter would do the same but being able to strike harder thanks to higher BP for its special coverage.

 

[Binacle Pinnacle]

Final Submission

Name: I Just Want To Grill, For Pete’s Sake!

Description: This CAP is a versatile Pokémon, despite it having very little to no utility options.

Justification: For essentially the entirety of generations 7 through 9, the best Pokemon in their respective tiers have been the ones with the most utility that they can possibly have, whether that be through their abilities or movepools, with the ones who don't have that utility usually having only a single set worth using. This is especially true in CAP; most of our creations are built around said utility from an early stage. This concept aims to explore what kind of niche a Pokemon like this will be able to carve out in an environment filled with the most optimized options the game has seen thus far, as well as how we as a community will handle creating something without the ease of having some sort of utility and a single set to balance it around.

Questions to be Answered:

• Will emulating what Pokemon like this did in past generations act as a good foundation for our own Pokemon?
• How will our lack of utility impact our Defining Moves stage?
• Most CAPs have either fallen into using the same set over time or have always had a single set. How can we build this CAP in a way that prevents us from falling into this same pattern?
• How can we make this CAP worth using if it doesn't offer the kind of utility seen in most other Pokemon?
• Does our lack of utility inherently mean that our niche will be primarily offensive?

Explanation: This concept was inspired by a good amount of different Pokemon, chief among them being Swampert in gens 3-4. In both gens, it lacked the sheer strength or utility of its peers, but was a very good Pokemon despite it. Even after gaining Stealth Rock in DP, Swampert kept the variance in play it always had, albeit to a lesser extent than in ADV, and remained a solid mon. The variance that Swampert has in those gens makes it one of the most fun mons to play with and against in my opinion, and this concept will hopefully result in a similarly flexible mon.

 

[Pipotchi]

Final Submission

Name: Cold Front

Description: This Pokemon abuses Snow to its full extent.

Justification: In today's metagame, Snow is the most interesting and potential-rich it has ever been. Through Snow providing a defense boost to Ice-types, having new setters in the metagame, access to Terastallization, and the current dominance of (other) weather in the tier, everything has lined up to allow a Snow-focused mon to tread new ground and have a real impact.

Questions To Be Answered:

• If this Pokemon does not set its own Snow, what are the ideal setters to pair with it, and what playstyle do they dictate?
• Snow now provides a 1.5x defense boost to Ice-types- how can this be utilized, and does it justify an Ice typing?
• Defensively, what are the strongest dual-typings that mitigate Ice-type weaknesses in the current meta? Offensively, what typings can synergize best with Ice-type coverage? And lastly, what typing works the best with Ice-type teammates?
• What are previous Snow/Hail-related strategies and why have they failed? Are they the fault of the setter, or the abusers?
• Snow has so far been heavily attached to Aurora Veil for success. What other playstyles outside of HO could a Snow abuser be a part of?
• What tools and typings would a Snow setter need to dominate other weather setters in the tier?
• Snow abusers in the past have ranged from completely dependent (Arctozolt) to optional (Baxcalibur). What does a snow-dependent mon need to be for the payoff to be worth it, and what's the key differences between snow-dependent and snow-optional mons?

Explanation:
The times have changed! Ive been a hater of hail concepts before, but Snow is a different beast altogether, and the stars have aligned to make this interesting. As previously mentioned, the weather has recieved 4-5 large improvements in Gen 9:

• Slowking-G (and Slowking) as new setters, allowing non-HO playstyles as an option and no longer needing to dedicate an entire team to the snow playstyle.
• 1.5x boost to Ice types in Snow- not only a boost to Snow abusers itself, but also opening up an interesting avenue to explore Ice; one of the most popular typings that never really fits for most projects.
• Snow no longer hurts Snow Warning or Slush Rush Pokemon if they aren't Ice type, allowing for much more type freedom.
• Terastallization allows you to take advantage of things like STAB Blizzard without being an Ice type, or even swap into Ice typing to gain a defensive boost in Snow and catch an opponent off guard, in the vein of Ogerpon-Cornerstone/Wellspring.
• Weather is truly EVERYWHERE this gen, and Snow can potentially dampen these playstyles with very low risk of activating the opponent's weather abilities.

I'm a big fan of doing a concept that explores what's currently new and fresh in the generation, and Snow is a great choice for that reason! Baxcalibur has recently opened up a lot of people's eyes to how a non-Aurora Veil, not-tied-to-HO Ice-type could use a seemingly useless ability in Ice Body to destroy teams, and that really inspired me to think harder into what Snow can offer. I believe that we can explore plenty of unique defensive and offensive routes with both Ice Body and Snow Warning, and Slush Rush offers a route for people who want a more typical Snow sweeper. The question of Ice or not for typing is also very interesting to me- there are so many benefits to being an ice type in Snow, but non-Ice types also reap some of the unique benefits of Snow but bolster them with a great defensive typing. That being said, even inside the Ice-type there are many dual-typings to discuss and many of these typings never get real consideration in CAP, so it feels very fresh.

I would definitely encourage people to think outside of the old vision of Hail; a janky Ice-type committing suicide to set Aurora Veil and/or throwing out Blizzards to questionable results. This gen, we just have so much more going for us, and this mon could look extremely interesting with some imagination!

 

[Scizivire]

Final Submission

Name: Built Different

Description: This Pokémon makes full use of a highly customizable EV spread in order to hit the different benchmarks it needs to beat different targets for its team.

Justification: Pokémon running multiple sets with different EV spreads is nothing new, but a lot of the time this affects the role the Pokémon takes on the team, and thus its matchups pretty drastically. I think we can learn something from making a Pokémon that can customize its EV spread, and thus its matchups with a smaller degree of change, by picking and choosing what to sacrifice in order to hit the benchmarks needed. I'm aware that this can become quite complicated for the stat stage, but nonetheless I think it's worth pursuing.

Questions To Be Answered:

• How can we determine which benchmarks are valuable for this Pokémon to hit in various stats/stat combinations?
  • How much should EV spreads vary in order to hit those differing benchmarks?
  • What can we do to prevent this Pokémon to reach most if not all of its intended benchmarks at once?
  • How can we make sure this Pokémon doesn't beat its EV spread's intended targets through other means on different spreads?
• Which type of stat spreads (focused or generalist) lean themselves well to customizable EV spreads?
  • Which stats in particular are easier to sacrifice in order to gain benefits elsewhere? Which stats are harder to justify?
  • Which stats benefit the most of EVs, even if not fully invested in?
• How much should the role this Pokémon takes on shift depending on the EV spread it is running?

Explanation:
The balance between offensive power, bulk and speed is often talked about during processes, with many CAPs being specifically geared towards two of these three categories or more like a jack-of-all-trades. For example, our last CAP, Cresceidon, even had its concept specifically built around being fast and bulky, whereas CAPs like Jumbao and Chromera have a more balanced stat spread.

The purpose of this concept is to create a Pokémon which, through different specific EV spreads rather than raw base stats, can influence its matchup against certain other Pokémon in the meta. Sacrificing Speed EVs to gain the necessary bulk benchmarks to ensure you live certain hits or vice versa - sacrificing bulk EVs in order to outspeed certain walls or offensive threats are decently common routes seen in various metagames, but you'll also see defensive Pokémon invest into offense in order to gain the upper hand against some Pokémon they might otherwise struggle with. A few examples:

• Kingambit currently uses a variety of EV spreads on similar sets to outpace various walls: It will either run max speed in order to outpace as many walls as possible in the lategame, or run just 44 Speed EVs in order to specifically hit a speed stat of 147, which is enough to beat out Blissey for example while still maximizing its survivability. It used to also run a midground option of 144 EVs, though that is no longer favored and I forgot what it was for tbh
  • In reaction, Pokémon like SpDef Heatran have mostly adapted to aim for a speed stat of 200 (40 EVs needed), which is enough to outpace Adamant 252 Speed variations of Kingambit
  • Last gen you would see other slow breakers like Melmetal invest into speed sometimes to outpace Pokémon like Clefable, sacrificing its attack power and/or bulk EVs.
• Slowking-Galar, specifically the Assault Vest set, has been known to drop some of its bulk for various combinations of Special Attack, Speed and sometimes even Attack (to 2HKO Heatran with Earthquake!) since the excess bulk was not necessary for it to perform its role.
• Equilibra is in theory a good example of what this concept aims to achieve, though generally it sticks with one EV spread at any given point. It usually runs variable mixed bulk alongside a tiny bit of Speed and Special Attack depending on what the meta is like. Last gen you'd see spreads that would have enough speed (20 EVs needed) to outpace Timid 252 Speed Magnezone at +1 on the off chance you got a Rapid Spin off on the switch-in, which would beat Magnezone's Air Balloon Magnet Rise sets. This gen it trends a bit more towards physical defense in order to beat mixed Iron Valiant more reliably.
• Ultra Beasts and Paradox Pokémon can sometimes take advantage of manipulating their EVs and IVs in such a way that a desired stat will be boosted by their ability/item. You'd see Pokémon like Nihilego, Iron Moth and Iron Crown, and to a lesser degree Walking Wake, not fully invest into Special Attack in favor of a speed boosting effect on some of their sets. Heck, Stakataka even lowered its Defense IVs in order to obtain an Attack boost upon kill. Things like this would also be under the scope of this concept, even though getting the required abilities seems unlikely.

To summarize, the Pokémon this concept would create would have some flexibility in its EVs in order to shore up its matchups into specific Pokémon or team structures, whether that be through bulk, power or speed.

 

[KeeganSkymin4444]

WIP

Name: Speed Bump

Description: In optimally performing its role, this Pokemon utilizes or takes advantage of Speed reduction tactics.

Justification: Speed is highly important in Pokemon, and thus it makes sense to increase it in some way. Setup sweepers boost their Speed to dismantle opposing teams without the fear of being revenge killed, Paralysis can keep opposing Pokemon from moving first, and strategies like Tailwind or Trick Room can affect which Pokemon will go first for a time as well. However, a method of controlling the Speed of a battle that is underutilized is manually lowering the enemy's Speed stat. Sticky Web is one such way to do this, and it has seen use, but other Speed lowering options are often neglected due to their low power and lack of persisting after a Pokemon switches out, and Sticky Web faces its own hardships in being perfectly consistent Speed control. Therefore, a Pokemon that would be incentivized to take advantage of these options in a meaningful way could prove interesting.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What Speed reducing moves or abilities would be worth adding to the toolkit of a Pokemon willing to take advantage of them?
• How could this Pokemon best address the issues Speed reduction faces?
• If paired with Sticky Web, can manual Speed lowering be effective against Flying Pokemon or users of Heavy Duty Boots?
  • If given Sticky Web, would manual Speed lowering enable this Pokemon to perform its role more effectively?

Explanation: There are a variety of speed reducing options that aren't tied to paralysis, but as stated, they're typically weaker than other options for coverage or STAB, or are otherwise not able to be abused for one reason or another. The best examples of Speed reducers would probably be Ribombee with Sticky Web and Breloom with Rock Tomb, the latter of which does benefit from Flying types being made slower for its follow-up attack. Kricketune, though weak, theoretically capitalizes on having a strong speed reducing option (Technician Pounce) as well as Sticky Web, so it can ideally reduce the Speed of the Pokemon in front of it and all the Pokemon that come after it. Cotton Down, the ability that reduces the Speed of other Pokemon upon being hit by any attack (as opposed to Gooey or Tangling Hair requiring contact), is the signature ability of Eldegoss, which would prefer to run Regenerator. Overall, manual Speed lowering has yet to see much success due to a lack of proper abusers, so focusing on these moves could provide them with a chance to shine.

 

[sneakyjeans]

Final Submission

Name: Training Dummy

Description: This Pokemon is designed to teach players how to succeed in the CAP metagame through clear match-ups against top CAP specific threats.

Justification: Entering the CAP metagame as a new player requires learning 30+ additional Pokemon that have varying degrees of viability. This also includes Pokemon that are lower in viability based on experienced play but can take unprepared players by surprise, like Cawmodore. The barrier to entry into playing CAP grows with every additional inclusion as the metagame gets continually more complex. A Pokemon that is designed to help a player quickly identify what CAP Pokemon are capable of doing would be a challenge for this community that is deeply focused on how to develop new players.

Questions to be Answered:

1. What are the CAP Pokemon that are the most likely to surprise a new player with their capabilities?
2. How can we prepare a new player with the top threats they need to consider during teambuilding?
3. Are there other examples of Pokemon that reveal the roles, moves or abilities of different Pokemon on opposing teams?
4. How do we design a Pokemon around multiple specific match-ups, whether positive or negative?
5. What sort of role lets us elicit the most information about opposing Pokemon?
6. What traits does a Pokemon need to have for a new player to prioritize picking them?

Summary: I had some positive reception to a similar concept for 33 around a training Pokemon, however that was designed around the key mechanics of competitive Pokemon for someone coming from the games. I felt something more CAP specific would be a better choice. Particularly given I think a lot of prospective players find this community through laddering or the rare tournament sign-up, there are a lot of Pokemon that can absolutely dismantle a new player which can be discouraging. A set-up Cawmodore, an unkillable Venom-P, even a Caribolt Boomburst can all catch someone off guard.

I think this would be an interesting concept because it would be heavily focused on the CAP meta and how to make it accessible for more players. On a slightly more macro level, this is a whole other game, and preparing players for the game is a critical element of game design. I also think this does still give a very blank slate for a CAP which will lead to some very solid debates about what match-ups to focus on and how to set a new player up to maximize learnings through the use of CAP 34.

 

[aaronarium]

WIP

Name: Nature Lover

Description: This Pokemon is designed to incentivize the use of nature(s) that are uncommon in competitive play.

Justification: The new territory that this CAP will explore are what the *ahem* nature is of natures in competitive play. Some natures are no-brainers; like I feel like I don't even have to explain the use cases of Adamant/Modest/Jolly/Timid. Or how mixed attackers may run Hasty/Naive/Lonely/Naughty/Mild/Rash, depending on how fast/bulky they are. Or walls running Bold/Careful/Calm/Impish depending on their stat spreads. However, certain natures force the player to ask harder questions about their team composition that often are too challenging or require too much mental gymnastics to answer, and thus dissuade the player from using that nature at all. For example, what would the use case be for a Gentle nature, where a Pokemon wants to be bulky enough to want the SpD boost, but also has Def as the most desirable dump stat? This concept motivates in-depth discussion at each stage of the process because of how it places the granular nature of stats and hitting various benchmarks at the forefront. Addressing topics like what constitutes an important benchmark for a Pokemon to reach, what makes natures an optimal way of meeting those benchmarks, and the nature of opportunity cost in stat spreads I feel can demystify what many may see as the most confusing part of the CAP process.

Questions to be Answered: [WIP]

1. What constitutes an "uncommon" nature? Does it have to be one with fringe-to-no use cases, or can it be that the nature is seen on an archetype of Pokemon uncommon in the current metagame?
2. How can we incentivize the use of an uncommon nature, as opposed to choosing a nature that is more straightforward, and compensating through our EV spreads?
3. What is the specific opportunity cost of choosing a given nature?
4. Many natures and stat spreads are focused on maxing out a given stat in the hopes of walling/defeating/outspeeding the most Pokemon you can. Is this something an uncommon nature can fulfill effectively without a "straightforward" nature being the better/simpler option, or do we have to build this CAP around meeting certain benchmarks and not necessarily maxing out stats?
5. What is it that determines what an important benchmark is for a Pokemon to meet, and what makes using certain natures the optimal way of meeting them?

 

[dex]

I plan on giving daily reactions to concept subs, so here's the first go of that. Now, these'll be my own thoughts on each concept; they aren't indicative of anything, they're just my immediate reaction to them. I'll try to circle back to concepts that either radically change or are not too complete at the moment as well later on.

Name: Same joke, but louder

CAP has done this concept quite a few times, in essence, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. This reminds me most of Mollux's and especially Venomicon's concepts, as they too sought to bring something that sees little usage into the spotlight of the tier. I think you would be better served specifying one of move or ability, as leaving both up for change is a little too open-ended for my liking. Also, look to those past similar concepts for potential questions.

Name: A Stellar Performance

I'm fine with Tera-based concepts, but I find Stellar Tera to be uninteresting. There are some examples here and there with what situations Stellar is good in, and they are all pretty similar (fast mon with good coverage wants to do fast mon with good coverage things but better). This concept is going to live or die based on what examples you can provide of Stellar tera not being a one-way street.

Name - Collector's edition

An interesting concept that is in need of better examples. You list a few potential routes this could go, but most of them revolve around shedding a bad item via Trick or Fling, something that is gimmicky in practice and usually relegated for off meta sets. I think the concept could be expanded to cover the actual use of some items that don't normally see use but could under the right scenario. Fling and Trick are obviously one path, but I almost feel like that's the cheap way out when there is stuff like Ability Shield, resist berries, etc. that don't see a lot of use but could.

Name: Stabbed

Coverage is often unavoidable (see Regieleki running Ancient Power) because you get next to zero return on running more moves of the same type, and there are not any obvious examples in SV right now of this happening. Still, I think this concept is doable, though I don't particularly like the idea of "nerfing" the process by itself. The easiest example that fits your concept that I can think of is defensive Scizor, which has in the past run Bullet Punch + U-turn as its only attacking moves. I think looking back at historical examples to show that there is a diversity of options for this concept would be a good first step towards making it seem more tenable.

Name: Hypocrite

This is where concepts can get dangerous. You are, in essence, asking to make Pokemon that is its own best check. The best example of this is how Levitate Equilibra beats Bulletproof Equilibra. This is a dangerous thing to do because these types of Pokemon can quickly turn into meta warpers (see: Dragapult, Arghonaut). I guess my question is in what way is your concept going to avoid that situation from happening?

Name: Clever Name for an Unorthodox Terrain/Weather User idk

You are definitely angling too broad here. Pick a weather or terrain that you think could do with another piece to work with. Note the available support for what you choose (i.e. there being not that much support for Misty Terrain teams would lead to that being a bad choice).

Name: Create-A-Parasite

This is definitely an interesting concept, and I can think of a lot of situations that qualify under it. I think the interesting thing to really focus in on with a concept like this is the interaction of giving up player agency to get a desired effect, which is a very unique way of playing. Some more examples that I thought of while reading your post that you didn't list are contact effects and abilities like Berserk, Gooey, and even Aftermath. Just food for thought! I like the direction of this one, though!

Team Player Partial Trapper

You are going to need to explain what you mean by partial trapping. You define it as Pursuit, but Pursuit isn't in the game. As you mention, CAP has already done a trapping concept (Pajantom), but that doesn't mean the subject is tapped for knowledge. I think it's a fine space to go into, but you need to be more clear with your intent.

Unique Role Typing

My main issue with this concept is that it may be surprisingly limiting on the typing stage. Where this concept could get interesting is focusing on how typing can define what a Pokemon does, and then trying to do something unique that way, looking at what types impact role most, etc. Looking forward to seeing you expand on this.

Name - Nurse Joy

Clerics have almost always been niche, not just in CAP, but also in OU. Sure, Clefable has run Aromatherapy or Heal Bell here and there throughout the generations, but it was rarely ever "main set" material. Wish has obviously seen a lot more popularity, but not in the capacity of healing others outside of that WishPort stint SS CAP went through for a bit. I think analyzing why Clerics haven't seen high usage in generations and then trying to work around that is the most interesting question this concept can answer, so try to think about that a bit as you flesh this out.

Critical Acceptance

Flatly, I do not think this concept has the necessary design space to be successful. Not only are there very few ways to interact with crits (outside of avoiding them with Shell Armor or boosting off them with Anger Point), crits are also just not something I'm looking to build around at a 4% ish occurrence rate. Sorry, I just don't see it.

Name - Ew-tility

I look forward to the explanation for this one, because right now, this concept looks almost entirely ability-based. I see Magic Bounce and Pressure as essentially the two ways to do this, and that seems a little limiting to me right now. Think about other ways to achieve what you are going for.

Name: The Mighty Burden

While I find the basis for this concept quite interesting, I think the end-product would be dissatisfying. You currently have two examples listed, Shedinja and Regieleki, that were both very, very niche when they were even meta. As interesting as it would be to make a Pokemon like that, we want CAPs to be viable, and this seems like a one-way ticket to C rank obscurity. Show examples of these types of Pokemon doing well, and by well I mean decently used, and you have my attention.

Name: Mix and Match

Some may play this off as simple, but in reality I think that making a mixed attacker is actually quite the challenge, one that I would look forward to. I also think that if there was ever a generation to do it, it is SV, with its fast-paced metagame and one-sided walls, mixed attackers have it about as good as they have in any team preview metagame. You listed two great current generation examples, so why not dip into looking at previous success cases? Ones that come to mind are Superpower Tornadus-T in 6 and 7 and Kyurem-B. On a different note, another question that could be good to look into is looking at why Pokemon go mixed to begin with, be it movepool or metagame tendencies.

I Just Want To Grill, For Pete’s Sake!

To be honest, I don't think your concept really means anything right now. Being "diverse" means nothing in a vacuum, so please explain what exactly you mean and I'll get back to you.

No Type Attack Bonus

On the flip side of Amamama's "Stabbed" concept is this, and I think the devil here is going to be in providing better examples. You can point to offensive options (Mega Latias comes to mind the quickest) where coverage is just so good its preferential or defensive options (solo Knock Toxapex, even ID Skarm) where utility / Body Press being Body Press removes the need for STAB. You can definitely expand your base of examples and related questions to accommodate for the whole range of Pokemon that forego STAB moves.

Cold Front

Snow is good, a reality that I am still coming to grips with. This is especially true in the wake of Kyurem's suspect test leaving it solidly still in the tier. People have already taken to running Blizzard on it in conjunction with Galarian Slowking, and I think that is proof enough that a "snow mon" doesn't have to just be an "only snow mon". I think a deeper dive into the recent developments of running stuff alongside a Chilly Reception user, or even looking at the move in question, would be good places to expand on, but it looks solid already.

Built Different

While I do love me some custom, funky EVs, I'm not as sold on this concept being particularly great. It hyper-focuses on a part of the process that is exclusively done with the context of typing and ability, but the concept doesn't provide any direction to those two stages. Perhaps I would be more onboard with the concept if you gave a bit more direction (i.e. it uses particular EVs to outspeed particular threats depending on team needs or it uses particular EVs to check particular things better depending on team needs), but right now I think it is just too open-ended.

Speed Bump

The first issue with any concept based around dropping opposing stats is that you can switch out and reset all the work the CAP does. Now, I don't think that that is actually that big of a deal; it is a great challenge to get use out of that side of the game. I think the big question you really want to be able to answer is "Does this concept have enough design space?" I'm not sure Sticky Web is all that much of a route, as what are you really adding to the playstyle even if you have a slightly better setter? And the playtsyle itself is not consistent either, we want to make a CAP that lasts. I need to see that there is more here before I'm on board.

Training Dummy

As interesting as it is to look into what Pokemon are easier or harder to use and Pokemon's room for skill expression (or lack thereof), I don't think this is a realistic concept for a CAP. It is simply way, way too open ended, and it is also exceedingly subjective. There's just so, so much out there that can be described as "noob-trap", and a lot of it is random off meta stuff that really shouldn't be accounted for (from your own examples, Boomburst Caribolt). I just don't see this one working out.

Nature Lover

There are a few, just a few, examples historically of Pokemon using a weird nature. Tyranitar is the example you will always need to bring up, as it has run some very weird stuff back in the day. However, this concept largely runs into the same issue Built Different does. It's a stats-centric concept that doesn't provide any direction to the other stages, and since the stats stage is very much informed by typing and ability, there just needs to be that direction. I don't think this concept is as difficult there since I think we can feasibly have a discussion about what kind of spreads most often utilize these weird natures, but there also just isn't much to go off of there. Go for some examples and I can rethink my stance.

 

[Hera]

Final Submission

Name: The Stuff Of Legends

Description: This CAP would be a "box legendary" in everything but name (and potentially even that), and made to be balanced in a CAP setting.

Justification: In the past, CAP has made many strong Pokemon from weak and restricted concepts. For example, there's Hemogolbin from this generation (Bang Average) and Equilibra from gen 7 (The Future Is Bright). Both of these concepts have had clear restrictions, and yet turned out CAPs that both required nerfs and remain viable to this day. This would be the opposite: the community, using a strong concept that doesn't have to fit a specific role, would create a CAP weaker than one would expect, which is something I've never seen the CAP community tackle before. I believe this would be an interesting concept to explore for that reason and would allow the community to show what they've learned from the previous CAPs in this gen.

Questions To Be Answered:

• What exactly is a "box legendary"? How useful is that definition to this concept?
• Why are current Pokemon that are considered "box legendaries" balanced in their gen's OU? What separates the ones in OU from the ones in Ubers? How can we use those aspects to fit the concept?
• What role would a CAP with the aspects of a "box legendary" fit best?

Explanation: I've been thinking about this concept for over a year, but didn't submit it until now because DLC was still ongoing, and a CAP that fit this concept made in, say, July might have been too weak for the current meta. I also wanted to write it up now because CAP has more tools as its disposal than it did before DLC.

You may notice I put the term "box legendary" in quotes. That's because not only it is not an official term, the defintion for it seems to be hard to decide on. If you just say "all Pokemon on the cover of a box of a mainline game and are officially legendaries are box legendaries", then you get things like Suicune being box legends even though it's a massive outlier, or Necrozma-DW and DM being box legends but not Necrozma or Ultra Necrozma. Being more or less specific would include or exclude some mons that not everyone would agree are box legends. I can think of a defintion myself but I don't want to provide one because I think it should be something the community decides on.

I explained most of why I thought of this concept in the Justification section.

 

[chartung17]

Final Submission

Name - Not Terably Common
Description - This Pokémon is an effective user of an uncommon tera type.
Justification - Tera is an interesting mechanic that allows you to change one mon into any of the 18 types (or Stellar), but not all tera types are created equal; some are very common, while others are extremely rare. This concept will explore whether one of the uncommon tera types can be made viable. I believe it would be interesting to explore what qualities make certain tera types popular and how to overcome the lack of those qualities to make an unpopular choice viable. Every type offers some offensive and defensive utility against some of the top mons in the tier, so a viable user of any one of them could be an interesting addition to the metagame. Also, discussion will be needed at every stage of the process in order to make a Pokémon that not only will be viable but will be good enough at using a bad tera type to be worth teraing, allowing us to better understand tera in the process.
Questions To Be Answered -

• Do we want to focus on one of the extremely uncommon tera types, or should we also consider types that are more common but still rare compared to the most common tera types?
• Should we focus on a single tera type, or can we consider making a mon that can viably use multiple uncommon tera types?

Explanation - According to the OU Tera Type Index, there are 38 mons that can viably use Tera Fairy and 36 that can viably use Tera Water, but only two use Tera Rock, only one uses Tera Psychic, and there isn't a single OU-viable user of Tera Bug.