At this point I want to discuss, why I don’t particularly like Magic Guard for this Mon.
A lot of why I don’t enjoy it is summarized in this post from Snake, that was made during Astrolotus ability stage. Here they discussed the shortcomings of Magic guard on a Mon that for all intents and purposes has some key similarities to what we are trying to build right now.
Weak to stealth rock offensive pivot with a good offensive typing.
In this post Snake relates how Magic Guard+Life Orb will essentially hijack our stats stage.
Assuming that an offensive fire type with Magic guard will run any other item than life orb is very bold, which means we will have to account for this item in our calcs. Now looking at our concept that idea isn’t technically bad since it likely means we will be able to lower the effective attacking stat of CAP32.
BUT imo basing our calcs on MG Life Orb will have a negative impact on CAP32 in practice, as losing the item will cripple it to the point of making it useless, something I like to call „unacceptable Shrimp Syndrome“ In reference to Krilowatt, which needs its item to function as a breaker and pivot.
Even now that Kril is one of the hardest to check mons in the tier staying in on it with a Mon like Venom or argh and knock off its item and later recover the damage is a play worth thinking about, as it removes Krils ability to reliably offend threaten these two mons. Krill’s viability last gen tanked as one of the mons it was supposed to beat - Torn-T - was also one of the most notorious knock spammers.
I now fear that in our pursuit of low stats we will bind CAP32 to Life Orb and effectively make it a Mon that is very hard to pilot in game, fearing knock off as much as we would with any other ability and boots.
Now knocks distribution has been limited this gen so all this a little less worrying than it might have been during Astros process.
Still another issue I see with MG is that compared to other abilities it both gives less direction to create a viable niche for 32 and eats more of our power budget, which makes me wonder what exactly will allow CAP32 to stand apart from other fire type breakers and pivots that are able to hold boots and still be strong without lifeorb I.e cinderace, Volcarona, iron moth or skeledirge, hell even Astro.
Also quick excursion to the other semi banned ability that’s getting discussion.
Regenerator isn’t as good as it is on Torn bc we will have to run boots. While Torn made other items work with it, this was also partly due to its immunity to spikes. 32 on the other hand would take both stealth rock and spikes without boots.
That said I think even still is solid here albeit well treaded ground as Astro already does it.
So this isn’t a post that only talks about what I don’t like, I want to thrown in support for Pixilate, Prankster and Snow Warning.
All three of these are capable of opening niches, which nothing else can offer at this moment.
The absolute leftfield option is Snow warning.
Why is it good?
It carries two archetypes. Previous Hail teams used a combination of Aurora veil and Hail chip plus Slush Rush for a bulky offense team. This archetype doesn’t exist atm bc there’s no good hail plus veil setter.
Aurora Veil HO was huge at the end of gen of SS but with no viable setter is currently dead.
CAP 32 could carry both these archetypes on its own.
On top, with its defensive profile plus Hail 32 would be THE top switch in to Bao denying it basically all means of progress In walling it’s stabs, removing sun and nerfing Baos recovery, while threatening it with SE stab. What’s more it would be very effective at keeping up hail to set veil or pivot in a teammate, since Bao resetting the weather would mean potentially switching into a sun boosted fire move.
Snow warning plus veil plus Stabs plus pivoting is incredibly coherent in enabling Hail and HO structures.
Tho tbf there’s a lot of theorymonning at play here since none of this exists atm.
Prankster is a great ability to increase the threat this Mon presents to opposing teams.
Sableye demonstrated how far Prankster can take an utterly weak Mon in the right circumstances.
While I doubt that Sableyes particular brand of spamming burn works here with fire types being such good switch ins to 32, other utility moves paired with Prankster like speed control and fast encore could cary this mon to be a good anti offense mon.
My favorite of the bunch is Pixilate though. Particularly to open the possibility of unique fairy type priority.
Any type of priority is a good way to create a niche for a Pokémon, even if it’s not guaranteed to make something viable.
Moreover Priority means that its speed stat is less important for CAP 32s offensive presence.
The room you can create with strong priority against fast and frail mons means you might need less defense and could neglect speed for a possible stats spread. Breloom is an excellent example of this.
Now strong priority on its own might not cut it tbh, especially off a weaker attacking stat.
But if you consider the fast and frail mons that STAB Fairy Priority targets, you realize how much value CAP 32 could have as a form of speed control.
Dragapult, Valiant, Roaring moon, Greninja, Meowscarada, Baxcalibur, Miasmaw and Quaquaval are all mons that usually outspeed most of the meta (in some cases after a boost), that would be weak to fairy type priority, which would enable CAP32 as a revenge killer and speed control against these mons.
Targeting these offensive mons also would mean that we wouldn’t necessarily need as much power in our offensive stats to still be threatening enough to opposing teams as well as enable CAP 32 to use the space it could create against offensive threats to gain momentum with its own pivoting.
A lot of why I don’t enjoy it is summarized in this post from Snake, that was made during Astrolotus ability stage. Here they discussed the shortcomings of Magic guard on a Mon that for all intents and purposes has some key similarities to what we are trying to build right now.
Weak to stealth rock offensive pivot with a good offensive typing.
In this post Snake relates how Magic Guard+Life Orb will essentially hijack our stats stage.
Assuming that an offensive fire type with Magic guard will run any other item than life orb is very bold, which means we will have to account for this item in our calcs. Now looking at our concept that idea isn’t technically bad since it likely means we will be able to lower the effective attacking stat of CAP32.
BUT imo basing our calcs on MG Life Orb will have a negative impact on CAP32 in practice, as losing the item will cripple it to the point of making it useless, something I like to call „unacceptable Shrimp Syndrome“ In reference to Krilowatt, which needs its item to function as a breaker and pivot.
Even now that Kril is one of the hardest to check mons in the tier staying in on it with a Mon like Venom or argh and knock off its item and later recover the damage is a play worth thinking about, as it removes Krils ability to reliably offend threaten these two mons. Krill’s viability last gen tanked as one of the mons it was supposed to beat - Torn-T - was also one of the most notorious knock spammers.
I now fear that in our pursuit of low stats we will bind CAP32 to Life Orb and effectively make it a Mon that is very hard to pilot in game, fearing knock off as much as we would with any other ability and boots.
Now knocks distribution has been limited this gen so all this a little less worrying than it might have been during Astros process.
Still another issue I see with MG is that compared to other abilities it both gives less direction to create a viable niche for 32 and eats more of our power budget, which makes me wonder what exactly will allow CAP32 to stand apart from other fire type breakers and pivots that are able to hold boots and still be strong without lifeorb I.e cinderace, Volcarona, iron moth or skeledirge, hell even Astro.
Also quick excursion to the other semi banned ability that’s getting discussion.
Regenerator isn’t as good as it is on Torn bc we will have to run boots. While Torn made other items work with it, this was also partly due to its immunity to spikes. 32 on the other hand would take both stealth rock and spikes without boots.
That said I think even still is solid here albeit well treaded ground as Astro already does it.
So this isn’t a post that only talks about what I don’t like, I want to thrown in support for Pixilate, Prankster and Snow Warning.
All three of these are capable of opening niches, which nothing else can offer at this moment.
The absolute leftfield option is Snow warning.
Why is it good?
It carries two archetypes. Previous Hail teams used a combination of Aurora veil and Hail chip plus Slush Rush for a bulky offense team. This archetype doesn’t exist atm bc there’s no good hail plus veil setter.
Aurora Veil HO was huge at the end of gen of SS but with no viable setter is currently dead.
CAP 32 could carry both these archetypes on its own.
On top, with its defensive profile plus Hail 32 would be THE top switch in to Bao denying it basically all means of progress In walling it’s stabs, removing sun and nerfing Baos recovery, while threatening it with SE stab. What’s more it would be very effective at keeping up hail to set veil or pivot in a teammate, since Bao resetting the weather would mean potentially switching into a sun boosted fire move.
Snow warning plus veil plus Stabs plus pivoting is incredibly coherent in enabling Hail and HO structures.
Tho tbf there’s a lot of theorymonning at play here since none of this exists atm.
Prankster is a great ability to increase the threat this Mon presents to opposing teams.
Sableye demonstrated how far Prankster can take an utterly weak Mon in the right circumstances.
While I doubt that Sableyes particular brand of spamming burn works here with fire types being such good switch ins to 32, other utility moves paired with Prankster like speed control and fast encore could cary this mon to be a good anti offense mon.
My favorite of the bunch is Pixilate though. Particularly to open the possibility of unique fairy type priority.
Any type of priority is a good way to create a niche for a Pokémon, even if it’s not guaranteed to make something viable.
Moreover Priority means that its speed stat is less important for CAP 32s offensive presence.
The room you can create with strong priority against fast and frail mons means you might need less defense and could neglect speed for a possible stats spread. Breloom is an excellent example of this.
Now strong priority on its own might not cut it tbh, especially off a weaker attacking stat.
But if you consider the fast and frail mons that STAB Fairy Priority targets, you realize how much value CAP 32 could have as a form of speed control.
Dragapult, Valiant, Roaring moon, Greninja, Meowscarada, Baxcalibur, Miasmaw and Quaquaval are all mons that usually outspeed most of the meta (in some cases after a boost), that would be weak to fairy type priority, which would enable CAP32 as a revenge killer and speed control against these mons.
Targeting these offensive mons also would mean that we wouldn’t necessarily need as much power in our offensive stats to still be threatening enough to opposing teams as well as enable CAP 32 to use the space it could create against offensive threats to gain momentum with its own pivoting.
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