My own analysis:
Code:
Sleep
Poison
Paralysis
Freeze
Burn
Confusion
Roar
Whirlwind
Stealth Rock
Spikes
Toxic Spikes
Hail
Sandstorm
Rain
Sun
Gravity
Trick Room
Trick
Taunt
Leech Seed
Firstly, I think that the easiest way to make this Pokemon immune to status is to give it something similar to Breloom - self-inflicted status, allowing it to block the status moves of others and switch in for free on status moves. Poison Heal is a great ability, and the difference it makes to Breloom is fairly large, and crucially the Pokemon is never any worse off for inflicting itself with status, unlike a Guts Pokemon. While I'm not suggesting using it on CAP9 (since I feel it would probably be broken on what may likely turn out to be a bulkier Pokemon) it is, I feel, worth consideration. A free switch into a status move is extremely valuable, and I think it could be worth the moveslot to free up other areas, such as the typing.
I believe that the very nature of stopping secondary attacks dictates the ability to switch in unthreatened to many of the main culprits and to take advantage of the free turns; while not quite to the same extent as mentioned earlier by Deck Knight, but still allowing us to. Thus,
Blissey
Breloom
Celebi
Cresselia
Dusknoir
Latias
Rotom-a
Zapdos
...would be among the Pokemon that CAP9 should be able to tackle to a good degree of efficiency. I can think of a number of typings that would suit this CAP, allowing it to deal with these threats and more besides, as well as granting it several key immunities to common secondary moves, but to avoid poll-jumping I shall leave it there.
Some of the less important secondary attacks should, here, be omitted as main priorities. Trick Room and Gravity are lesser seen, to my knowledge, and usually based around an entire team, rather than being general methods of support. Moreover, as already noted, this Pokemon cannot use Taunt on the turn it switches in, and I would assume that Trick Room would be used on a switch and not in immediate danger of Taunt. Thus it is impossible, realistically, to stop Trick Room going up and even harder to remove it, as carrying Trick Room yourself just for the purpose of removing others' set-ups is pretty daft, all things considered. Freeze is only activated by low-chance moves such as Ice Beam, and as such cannot be considered the product of a secondary move, so is for the most part irrelevant. Confusion is, from my experience, an uncommon and oft-unreliable tactic, and leaves so much to chance that I would think it best to scrap, considering it is removed on switch-out, goes away naturally and could easily be countered by giving CAP9 low Attack and high Defence, while saving an ability slot for something potentially more useful. Then, entry hazards, the hot potato, as it were. Since there is only one way thus far to remove them, Rapid Spin, we find it difficult to make an absolute prevention of them going up, unless you happen to incorporate a sort of automatic Taunt Pokemon. As it stands, Toxic Spikes should be a non-issue if CAP9 is already unbothered by Poison (if not, the problem should be reconsidered, though I firmly believe that the concept cannot succeed without a Poison immunity), Spikes take a while to set up and Stealth Rock can be solved with a simple resistance, which is not too hard to incorporate, which should be sufficient to cover these areas.
This leaves us with the following:
Code:
[COLOR=black][COLOR=black]Sleep[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Poison[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Paralysis[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][COLOR=black]Burn[/COLOR][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Roar[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Whirlwind[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Hail[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Sandstorm[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Rain[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Sun[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Trick[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Taunt[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Leech Seed[/COLOR]
[/COLOR]
These can be grouped into the categories Status, Weather, and Other (naturally). Methods of dealing with status have already been discussed - from a special ability such as Poison Heal or Natural Cure to simple type immunities. In the case of weather, Sun and Rain are, at present, not the biggest problems. Rain teams are usually quite difficult to stop, and CAP9 would ideally be used to stop weather teams from functioning rather than simply countering them outright. Sandstorm and Hail are more pressing problems - they are the only constant weather conditions available in OU and of them Sandstorm is the only one where the typing can be used to work in its favour, as Ice offers few immunities to speak of, while also weakening it to Stealth Rock. Methods of dealing with weather teams are usually confined to abilities, such as Cloud Nine or one's own Sandstream to turn the weather in its own favour. While certainly an issue, weather is not on the same ground as status in terms of secondary team support, and CAP9 should, in my view, reflect that.
Now we come to the most interesting part - that which CAP9 was more or less designed to take on - the 'other' category of secondary moves. Of particular importance are Taunt and Trick, as well as Leech Seed. From my experience Leech Seed is the lesser seen and used option, so takes a back seat, especially as it requires a Grass typing or an ability that does not help in any other way for it to be deflected. It can be dealt with by Rapid Spin, should we choose to include it. This leaves Taunt, and Trick. There are a number of ways to deal with Trickers, but many of them involve a vital item slot or ability, although I believe Trick may well be the single most important move for it to stop. Ideally, it would be able to switch in on the Tricker time and again, so Klutz or Sticky Hold would be ideal, but then so would something like Toxic Orb, assuming that it does not mind the Poison status. Taunt is more difficult to stop, assuming that it will be carrying secondary moves of its own, but then the opponent suffers the same problem as CAP9 - it cannot switch in and use Taunt at the same time. Hopefully this crease can be ironed out later on.
On other ideas that have been presented - Multitype. I simply cannot see this working. True, it makes Trick fail and allows for a number of different takes on the concept according to the user, but I do not like the idea of 'Stop one thing - but your choice which'. I think the concept dictates that CAP9 should be able to repel a majority of the secondary attacks in the game all of the time. Multitype does not allow for this to happen, not least because of its potentially gamebreaking consequences - our Pokemon has now a seemingly endless movepool (in keeping with standards) and is practically uncounterable by any common means. On an instant Taunt ability - I would consider this less broken, certainly, than Drought or Drizzle, and maybe on the same scale as Sandstream, by conventional means. However, this would almost require us to give it poor defences or poor offences (or both), else it would simply make a perfect anti-lead, able to sit there and tank, without fear of Poison or boosting sweepers, or else an excellent sweeper, unbothered by status or Encore. Which is not, I assume, where CAP9 wants to end up. It's a very interesting idea, but may require some limitations to work competitively. In regards to a new field effect, I can't see this being implemented; I'm sure DJD has quite enough on his plate with a custom anything, let alone something that requires so great a change in game mechanics.
In conclusion then, this would, I think, represent an ideal interpretation of the concept:
- Typing that not only allows one to absorb status but does not give Stealth Rock weakness (preferably), gives good defensive coverage and allows it to take on the majority of status spreaders and other support Pokemon
- Ability that allows CAP9 to switch without fear into any one (but preferably more) secondary attacks; IF I am allowed, I would advocate something similar to Poison Heal in this category.
- Lack of 'extreme' moves or abilities, such as Anti-Taunt or Anti-status (this point is up for debate in my mind, I have not quite decided on the point)
Just my honest opinion.
