ReCAP 28

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Introduction

Miasmaw, the Gas Beetle Pokémon, is the newest Create-A-Pokémon creation, acting as installment 28 to the vibrant CAP roster. In this article, we will go over Miasmaw's creation process, with the Concept Assessment, typing, ability, stats, and movepool stages, alongside Miasmaw's art process and the fearsome beetle's place and role in the Create-A-Pokémon metagame. If you'd like to participate in the process, feel free to discuss the present creations in the Create-A-Pokémon Project forum, and if you'd like to participate in tournaments and discussion surrounding the competitive aspects of the process, look no further than the Create-A-Pokémon Metagame subforum. Without any further ado, let's dive in to Miasmaw's process!!

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Concept Assessment

During the Concept Assessment stage, the community discusses how we want to execute the chosen concept, which in this case was "A Pokémon that disrupts pivoting strategies". It was clear from the start that we wanted something to target the bulky Teleporters and Regenerator users (Slowking, Slowbro, and Blissey), considering that they were the most prominent pivots in the metagame at the time, while also noting that we could expand our scope later in the process. However, the way the Pokémon would achieve this was still up in the air. Draining moves were seen as pro-concept due to their ability to both maintain offensive presence, which was seen as very important, and allow the Pokémon to stick around for a bit. Phazing was also brought up due to its historical ability to disrupt an opposing team's strategies, with comparisons being drawn to Hippowdon during the pre-DLC meta, which disrupted Clefable's WishPort strategies to a great extent. Another extremely popular idea to take advantage of Teleport was the use of Substitute, which punished of the passivity of Teleport by guaranteeing a free turn and significantly reducing the opposition's momentum. Strong priority moves were also seen as a very effective way to punish the Pokémon that would be brought in with Teleport, as they were typically frail and fast. In the end, it was decided that a stallbreaker with a general offensive presence that could effectively use some of the strategies mentioned above would be the direction we'd take our 28th process in.

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Typing

After we had decided that we wanted to target the plethora of defensive pivots in the metagame, with emphasis on the Teleport users and the Regenerator Pokémon, we moved on to the typing stage. Right off the bat, it was clear that we wanted to have a super effective STAB move for Slowbro and Slowking while also not being weak to Water. This is due to the fact that Slowbro and Slowking were picked as our targets during Concept Assessment, as they were the most popular defensive pivots in the CAP metagame at the time. This, along with the fact that beating popular bulky pivots like Tomohawk and Mandibuzz would have been a huge benefit, meant that the Electric type was very pro-concept and surged in popularity. This showed more than ever in the typing submission part of the process, with the sky-high number of part-Electric types being submitted and the final voting slate having 4 Electric types out of the 7 options. The rest of the typings on the aforementioned slate strived to achieve a different goal from the Electric dual-types and each other, each having defined targets and weaknesses. The best example of this might be the winning Bug / Dragon typing, which targeted Slowbro, Slowking, and Tangrowth, allowed for a number of pro-concept moves like First Impression and Dragon Tail, and had specific resistances that allowed it to come in on pivots like Zeraora and Rotom-W, all while having a relatively neutral matchup with the other pivots. However, the typing had specific problems in its weakness to Stealth Rock, fairly subpar STAB combination, and the fact that it was just generally "worse" both offensively and defensively than most of the other options on the slate. All these qualities, alongside the general appeal of a Pokémon with a never before seen typing, allowed Bug / Dragon to win the poll with a solid majority of votes.

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Abilities

From the beginning, Miasmaw had a couple different abilities that seemed to fit perfectly with the concept of preventing pivoting. Storm Drain was seen as a really nice addition due to its ability to take advantage of Slowking's Scalds and prevent their burns. Triage was also very popular, as it compressed two of the "tools" that were decided on during the Concept Assessment stage (strong priority and draining moves), and the specific moves affected by Triage (especially Leech Life and Drain Punch) could serve as potent offensive tools against faster pivots like Zeraora, which could form powerful pivot chains with Teleport users. Download was seen as a way to effectively run mixed sets that threatened both Blissey and Slowbro while also powering up moves and making up for Miasmaw's rather subpar STAB combination, and it was thus heralded as one of the best possible tools in our arsenal. In the end, though, many contributors found the idea of having Neutralizing Gas prevent common pivoting boons such as Regenerator recovery and status removal from Natural Cure, as well as ensuring entry hazard damage from the removal of Magic Guard, appealing; thus, Neutralizing Gas found its way onto the primary ability slate and was eventually selected overall.

It was also decided that Miasmaw would benefit from a secondary competitive ability to further punish pivots and their actions in the CAP metagame. Abilities that improved special sets and damage output overall like Competitive and Punk Rock were deemed useful possible additions, while abilities like Thick Fat and Motor Drive that gave immunities or resistances to specific types were considered to allow for Miasmaw to come in on common attacks from pivots such as Krilowatt, Astrolotl, and Rotom-H. There were also lots of people that felt that Neutralizing Gas was defining and useful enough, and therefore voted for No Competitive Ability. Ultimately, however, the ability Compound Eyes won the poll for secondary competitive ability due to providing a much higher accuracy for common attacks like Dragon Rush and Thunder.

The third ability for Miasmaw, specifically the non-competitive ability, was determined after all of the competitive parts of Miasmaw had been decided. Abilities that matched Miasmaw well included Stench, which was also seen on the similar Galarian Weezing, and the eventual winner, Hyper Cutter, which both fit the flavor of Miasmaw and was present on similar Pokémon like Pinsir and Gliscor. Strong Jaw was also considered as a possibility; however, due to the competitive implications of the ability and the fact that Fire Fang and Ice Fang were guaranteed to be in our movepool, the ability was blacklisted.

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Stats

CAP 28’s stat selection process was an interesting one that didn't lack its own share of controversy. Much of this can be attributed to the diversity of opinions about which direction to take them in. During the stat limits discussion, it was decided that CAP 28 should have a high level of physical and special sweeping potential with reasonable special bulk, as physical bulk was determined to be unimportant. As a result, when it came to submitting spreads, members of the community were divided over making slower and bulkier mono-attacking spreads or faster and more offensive mixed sets. Users were particularly split about how to handle HP, with extremely high and low HP spreads both being entertained. The selected slate for the most part encapsulated these different directions, and the community at large spoke by choosing Amamama’s more balanced mixed spread. This spread leans towards physical offensiveness but has a high enough Special Attack that mixed sets could be preserved. Defensively, it is really quite frail, although it does take Volt Switch and Scald from some of the premier pivots in the metagame reasonably well. Originally, the spread had a Speed stat of 89 in order outspeed the Rotom formes (which were determined as Pokémon we'd be able to situationally switch in to during Threats Discussion) and Excadrill, even under sand, as Neutralizing Gas gets rid of Sand Rush. That being said, as part of the 2.0 release during the Crown Tundra meta, it was determined that an additional 3 points in base Speed would be important to adapt to new threats in the meta, particularly Heatran and Landorus-T.

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Moves

Community discussion made it clear that a stallbreaker/wallbreaker with strong Ground, Fighting, and Electric coverage would be our goal. This coverage specifically made it easier to break Pokémon like Toxapex, Equilibra, and Tomohawk, respectively, as well as dismantle Regenerator-based defensive cores. Stallbreaking options such as Taunt were also deemed important, although a major tool of stallbreaking strategies in Hypnosis ended up becoming rather controversial later in the process. First Impression was seen one of our most valuable possible tools, as it was an extremely effective way to force out faster pivots and was relatively powerful; Miasmaw's sky-high Attack stat meant that First Impression could OHKO or seriously damage fast pivots like Zeraora and Syclant. Entry hazards were also discussed but later blacklisted due to the fact that they were deemed fairly unnecessary and distractive.

A major debate that took place during this discussion period was that of Dragon Hammer, a move many feared would be an unnecessary power boost to Dragon Claw and/or overpowered due to its ability to 2HKO the best physical wall in the metagame: Tomohawk. However, it was concluded that the extra power from Dragon Hammer achieving important benchmarks, like 2HKOing Tomohawk with a Choice Band, was important considering our rather subpar Speed tier. The other major discussion point of the Moveset Discussion was sleep, specifically Hypnosis. Sleep was a highly contested disruption method, as many believed that sleep allowed Miasmaw to surpass its counters and generally create unnecessary mind games, while others believed it was a pro-concept addition that was balanced out by Miasmaw's lower Speed tier. Sleep was also originally seen as a way to effectively utilize both Neutralizing Gas and Compound Eyes, as a sleep move would be able to cripple switch-ins, and Compound Eyes could patch up the low accuracy of sleep moves. However, tests revealed that sleep could only really make use of Compound Eyes, which significantly reduced its concept-relevancy and likeability in general. Furthermore, although it was originally approved, tests showed that Hypnosis was very annoying to play against, causing the community to have a change of heart towards it. Sleep in general has inherently uncompetitive aspects and the tests proved this, with the replays showing Miasmaw causing multiple luck-based situations. The above reasons caused Hypnosis to be blacklisted at the end of discussion.

This, however, gave Miasmaw the ability to use more of our "power budget" and add other coverage options, allowing us to bypass main Fairy-type counters in Jumbao and Kerfluffle. This decision did not come without backlash, though, as some people felt that Miasmaw's lack of hard counters if it were given physical Steel-type coverage would cause it to become overbearing. This was further aggravated by the fact that Miasmaw had a very large offensive presence in battle, and a single wrong predict against a Miasmaw with Steel coverage could cause the battle to go downhill for you extremely quickly. However, the community felt that these factors would be balanced by Miasmaw's four-moveslot syndrome and general lower power level, resulting in Miasmaw receiving Iron Head and Iron Tail.

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Art

The art stage of the process is the biggest draw for most people to the project, with talented artists submitting amazing designs every single time. It's a bit different from the other stages of the project in that it opens after typing discussion and runs parallel to the other stages until the secondary typing poll, after which the final submissions of all of the art designs are polled. Miasmaw's process specifically had a record number of submissions at 44, with newcomers like Yokaiju, Pinesmoke, and BlorengeRhymes placing extremely highly for their first submissions, while older users like Mos-Quitoxe, Golurkyourself, and KoA came back to Smogon to participate in CAP and ended up ranking pretty well, with Golurkyourself even winning the whole thing. Basically, this was a particularly special art process, since it involved artists, both new and old, pushing their creative limits to fit such a difficult framework. Third place artist Shadowshocker even went so far as to illustrate fanart snippets of various submissions for CAP 28, culminating in a story celebrating one of the most vibrant aspects of the project. Regarding Miasmaw's inspiration, the design is based on a bombardier beetle with heavy "soldier" themes and was a creative spin on the Bug / Dragon Neutralizing Gas base that left a lot of artists fumbling for design ideas.

The 3D Modeling stage, led by QxC4eva, is one that happens in the background and definitely deserves so much more attention. CAP's growth as a community and ability to separate itself from other fakemon projects can be attributed almost entirely to the amazing professional 3DS style models that the team creates, completely for free. This specific process had Golurkyourself work on the reference model sheet and the skin textures, Pipotchi make the wireframe and "design" the model, and Clawed Nyasu work on the rig and animation of the model. To finalize everything, QxC4eva worked on the smoke animation and the final render, and with that, Miasmaw was ready for release.

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Miasmaw At Release

Miasmaw was released at the tail end of the Isle of Armor DLC, only a few weeks before the Crown Tundra DLC released, so it unfortunately didn't get much time in its intended metagame. However, during that short period of time, it was an amazing addition to the metagame. Although it was difficult to fit on teams due to the fact that it offered little to no defensive utility, it formed a rather terrifying offensive core with Kerfluffle, a CAP Pokémon that was held back by its inability to break through bulky Regenerator pivots like Slowking and Toxapex, which Miasmaw could beat with ease. Miasmaw could also form cores with most offensive pivots in general, since bulky Regenerator users walled a large portion of the offensive threats in the metagame.

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Miasmaw In the Current Meta

As of the Crown Tundra DLC, Miasmaw has a fairly small niche in the metagame. It still works well with offensive pivots like Kerfluffle and offensive Tornadus-T and excels at breaking Regenerator-based cores, and just defensive cores in general such as Slowking + Tomohawk and Equilibra + Tomohawk; however, the Crown Tundra caused some metagame trends that pushed Miasmaw down in terms of viability. The main problem with Miasmaw is that, although it is very good at forcing switches with its huge Attack stat and has great coverage, the bad defensive typing, dependency on Heavy-Duty Boots, and poor defensive stats mean it can't switch into most physical and strong special moves, making the beetle pretty hard to get in in a metagame filled with more offensive builds and Pokémon like Astrolotl and Landorus-T. All of this makes it really hard to take advantage of Miasmaw's anti-pivot abilities, which, in all fairness, are very good with STAB First Impression, offensive stats allowing it to run a mixed set that breaks most pivot cores, and a Choice Band set that is frightening to switch into. But at the end of the day, Miasmaw's place in the current metagame is rather subpar.

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Some Miasmaw sets

This set is by far the best one in the current metagame, as it acts as a stallbreaker and effectively threatens Slowbro, Toxapex, and Tomohawk by shutting off their recovery with Neutralizing Gas + Taunt and threatening them with super effective coverage moves. Draco Meteor is a solid STAB move that allows Miasmaw to lure in and KO opposing Landorus-T that expect it to have a physical set. Although Thunder's higher power is very valuable, Thunderbolt is an option for consistency.

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Miasmaw's Choice Band set is frightening to switch into, with First Impression allowing Miasmaw to act as a solid cleaner against Pokémon like Barraskewda and Latios while also threatening Rillaboom, Slowbro, and Slowking. Dragon Hammer is a solid STAB move that 2HKOes most Pokémon that don't resist it. Earthquake allows Miasmaw to threaten Pokémon like Equilibra and Magearna, which would otherwise beat it. Finally, Poison Jab helps against most Fairy-types, allowing Miasmaw to 2HKO Clefable and Tapu Fini.

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Conclusion

The 28th CAP process was fun and incredible, with enlightening discussion that allowed us to learn about pivots and how to beat them. CAP's 29th process is now underway, so if you like what you've read, be sure to check out the CAP Process forum and participate in the present stage of discussion; we love new people! Don't forget to check our Discord and PS room, and have a good day!

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