Wrath of the Books: How Venomicon Broke CAP
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Introduction
Venomicon-Prologue and -Epilogue are CAP's newest additions, and they have made quite the impact! Venomicon's two formes have both entered the metagame and absolutely dominated, being incredibly splashable offensive behemoths that offer unique defensive traits thanks to their typing and, in Venomicon-P's case, ability. The two formes together overburdened the metagame with powerful sweepers, making it nigh impossible to prepare for all of the dangerous offensive Pokémon in the tier. Enter the library and read a bit about how the books broke CAP in two.
Process Info
Venomicon is a special CAP, as it has two formes. It was decided at the onset of its creation process that it would have two formes akin to Giratina and Giratina-O, with an item that boosts its STAB moves, while its concept revolved around maximizing underutilized abilities. This meant that the process itself had to juggle two Pokémon at once, all while tying them together through a shared typing, movepool, and BST. In addition to this complication to an already difficult project, there were looming fears from the past two CAPs, Miasmaw and Chromera, that CAP had fallen into a tendency of creating Pokémon with a less-than-desirable level of viability. Given this, posters felt more justified in going all out in terms of power level. Stamina was chosen as the base forme's ability while for the item forme, Tinted Lens was the winner. Venomicon-P, the base forme, was determined to inhabit the "tank" role, while the somewhat more mysterious role of "utility wallbreaker" was chosen for Venomicon-E. Both formes ended up with powerful setup options: Nasty Plot for Venomicon-P and Swords Dance for Venomicon-E. Little did anyone know at the time (though looking back, it seems obvious) that introducing two powerful setup sweepers into the metagame would have a massive centralizing effect, essentially allowing teams to easily overload defensive checks due to how well the books performed. Venomicon-E's strength was compounded by its access to Knock Off and U-turn, both of which made it a terror to face considering it only really needed Brave Bird to break through bulky targets, while Venomicon-P was gifted excellent coverage in Earth Power and Mystical Fire. Considering past concerns of CAPs not being particularly relevant in the metagame, I'd say these two really knocked it out of the park... err, library? Either way, the moment these two entered the metagame, CAP as a whole drastically changed!
Initial Release Reaction
On release, Venomicon-P stole the spotlight as a ridiculously bulky setup sweeper that was capable of easily spiraling out of control. It has near-perfect coverage in Hurricane and Earth Power, and its high level of all-around bulk allowed it to simply fully invest in Special Defense and bowl through teams that were not prepared for it. Due to Stamina, normal Flying-type checks like Zeraora and Weavile simply did not meaningfully pressure Venomicon-P, and it was easily able to accrue Stamina boosts through its ability to consistently switch into Landorus-T, making it simply impossible to pressure with any physical attacker. Even strong Electric-types like Tapu Koko and Zeraora could not check it, as its bulk allowed it to avoid an OHKO from both while OHKOing them with +2 Earth Power. Due to this, Tapu Lele, Nasty Plot Rotom-W, Encore Astrolotl, and Zapdos skyrocketed in usage as perhaps the only four Pokémon that could consistently threaten Venomicon-P. Venomicon-E, on the other hand, was not thought of at the time to be as strong. Sure, its wallbreaking prowess was obviously insane with Tinted Lens and Brave Bird, but due to its permanent Stealth Rock weakness and it being relatively easy to revenge kill, it was initially limited to hyper offense teams. It didn't take long, however, for people to realize just how busted this crazy fast tome was.
Meta Centralization
CAPCL rolled around, and Venomicon-E's insane power level was finally put on full display. It began sprouting up on teams outside of hyper offense like balance and offense, as it was uniquely capable of guaranteeing damage on defensive foes or even outright sweeping. There was essentially only one consistent defensive answer to it, Magnezone, which was easily chipped thanks to Venomicon-E's access to Knock Off and U-turn. Meanwhile, Venomicon-P was consistently tearing it up as a bulky win condition that provided excellent defensive utility as a great Landorus-T and situational Heatran switch-in. The dominance these two began to display at the onset of the tour caused checks like Zapdos, Tapu Lele, and Magnezone to rapidly rise in usage. Slowbro, which had not seen that much usage due to Arghonaut's excellence as a physically defensive wall, quickly overtook its fellow Water-type, as Arghonaut was simply OHKOed by Venomicon-E and 2HKOed by Venomicon-P. Jumbao, which had previously been a terribly dominant offensive threat, fell off a cliff in usage, as it was fully walled by both Venomicon formes. Venomicon-E, in particular, had an incredibly centralizing effect on the metagame, as players began running off-meta sets and Pokémon like Iron Defense Melmetal, Cyclohm, and Thunder Wave Ferrothorn just to check it. To add onto this, offense as a playstyle had begun to take a stranglehold of CAP, with Pokémon like Blacephalon, Choice Band Weavile, Galarian Zapdos, and Nihilego seeing increased usage. Although Venomicon-E in a vacuum might not have been too unbearable, its ability to guarantee massive chip damage made it fit seamlessly on offensive teams, making the playstyle nigh impossible to fully account for. Furthermore, due to how both the books required differing counterplay, and that their only shared defensive check was Zapdos, building balance became a much tougher task. Throughout CAPCL, players were either running a book or were forced to bring distinct and obvious counterplay to both.
Replay Showcase
Venomicon-P
Raj.Shoot vs. arn.av136: In this replay, Venomicon-P's ridiculous longevity was put on full display. Arnav came prepared with Choice Scarf Tapu Lele as his dedicated Venomicon check, and while Tapu Lele does a great job at forcing Venomicon out, its vulnerability to chip damage from entry hazards is exacerbated when it is required to check a Pokémon as bulky and resilient as Venomicon-P. Despite multiple Hurricane misses, Raj was able to leverage the constant threat of a Venomicon-P sweep to force damage onto Tapu Lele, eventually landing a Knock Off on it to guarantee a win with Urshifu-R in the end-game. If you needed proof of Venomicon-P's ridiculous natural bulk, look no further than Turn 32, where Raj's Venomicon-P tanked Tapu Lele's super effective Psychic.
Venomicon-E
The Number Man vs. D2TheW: Here, Venomicon-E's dangerous presence on balance showed itself. This match was a long one between two players known for winning tough games in CAP; however, The Number Man was able to successfully chip D2TheW's team with a combination of Tapu Lele, Dragapult, and Venomicon-E to the point where Tapu Lele was able to outright clean up. Venomicon-E's incredible ability to force damage on the opponent with Swords Dance and Tinted Lens Brave Bird led to the situation where D2TheW had to play extremely conservatively in order to not straight up lose to it, opening the door for a late-game Tapu Lele sweep.
Post-Play Lookback
With the dominance that both Venomicon formes showed in CAPCL, nerfs were assured to occur. While there was much debate about what nerfs were most appropriate, the books are finally (hopefully) balanced. Venomicon-E lost 8 base Attack and Swords Dance, forcing it to rely on Coil and solidifying Zapdos as a check, as before Venomicon-E had a roll to 2HKO defensive Zapdos with Brave Bird (or OHKO it at +2, something it importantly can no longer achieve). In a surprising result, Venomicon-P received no changes. Though it felt overbearing as a sweeper on release, players have since figured out that it isn't too demanding to pack a check to it. Its weakness to Knock Off is a particular sticking point here because it limits its set up opportunities.
How to use Venomicon now
Even with the nerf, these two books are still continuing their story of dominance! Venomicon-P retains its role as a bulky setup sweeper that needs just the slimmest of openings to clean through opposing teams, while Venomicon-E is a dangerous wallbreaker that can easily open up holes in opposing defensive cores for Pokémon like Choice Band Weavile and the newly buffed Pyroak to take advantage of. Their best sets are provided below:
Venomicon Sets
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Conclusion:
Despite their centralizing nature, both Venomicon formes can only be described as successful CAPs. Both maximize their powerful abilities, and both are unique and honestly quite fun to use. They absolutely put concerns over CAP making unviable creations to rest. While they were obviously a bit over-tuned, they turned a metagame that had previously been dominated by standard OU threats into something more unique and interesting, and CAP as a whole is better for their introduction into the metagame. I would highly suggest signing up for the next SS CAP tournament and seeing for yourself just how broken these books can be!
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