CAP 35 - Part 1 - Concept Submissions

[quziel]

CAP 35 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..."
• 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"
"True Garchomp Counter"
"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.

 

[kenn]

Come one, come all to the CAP 35 process! I, along with the rest of the TLT, are excited to get things started and that begins with concept submissions. The main thing when it comes to making a great CAP is how it performs competitively. Therefore, I want to stress the importance of metagame knowledge when it comes to submitting a concept.

When it comes to the concepts themselves, I wanna emphasize that I will be looking to my team for input on any and all concepts that are submitted. That being said, I pride myself on being as hands-on as I can, so I will do my best to give feedback in the thread as often as I can. This stage is about as "free" as CAP gets, so I'm excited to see what concepts y'all come up with and even more excited for the process ahead.

This is my 400th post

gib me lieks pls

 

[dex]

Final Submission

Name: By Your Powers Combined

Description: This Pokemon can viably inhabit two distinct roles/niches in the metagame.

Justification: CAP Pokemon have historically been very concise in their competitive design; they are meant to do one thing and do it well. This is in part due to the concept system; if a CAP has a concept, its role has already been partly determined. The past few CAPs, (Chuggalong, Cresceidon) have been very set in their one role. However, many Pokemon inhabit multiple roles and do so well. Calm Mind vs. Stealth Rock Clefable, Choice Scarf vs. Defensive Gholdengo, and even offensive vs. defensive Zapdos come to mind as examples of Pokemon that, in one metagame, did multiple things.

Questions To Be Answered:

1. The definition of "role" is not a clear-cut thing. As seen when comparing Clefable to Zapdos, role can be shown by both move selection or EV investment. What are ways we can give CAP 35 the ability to inhabit multiple roles?
2. Some Pokemon run varying sets that could be distilled down to a single role. An example of this is Dragapult, where even though its Choice item and support sets vary in how they play, they both do boil down to "fast special attacker." Are Pokemon like Dragapult acceptable examples of inhabiting multiple roles in the same metagame?
3. A tricky part to balancing Pokemon is variability. In the past, CAP has often nerfed variability off of its Pokemon, citing unpredictability as uncompetitive. How will CAP 35 manage its inevitable set variability in its power budget?
4. Are there any common traits/combinations that enable Pokemon to inhabit multiple roles in the same metagame?
5. Can a Pokemon inhabit two offensive roles at the same time? What about defensive?
6. Are there any combination of roles that do not mesh well together and should be avoided? Why?

Explanation: If you look through the list of CAPs, you would be hard pressed to find that many CAPs that do multiple things with their toolsets. This is both a good and a not-so-good thing; CAPs have a singular concept that they need to achieve, and concept is king. However, that line of thinking, for better or for worse, often does not lend itself to a CAP doing much beyond "one thing very good". This is not to say that some CAPs have not done this. SM Jumbao was both Tyranitar's Wish passer and a scarfer, SV Venomicon can play both a supporting role and a sweeping role, and BW Tomohawk dons offensive and defensive hats in play. However, the vast majority of CAPs are limited to one, maybe two similar sets, and the CAPs that do have expansive use options were more often the indirect result of CAP handing out moves more than anything (Jumbao excepted). Specifically designing for two roles has been done before (Jumbao, Naviathan, and even Crucibelle sort of with its Mega), but there was more initial definition of the roles there. With this concept, we get the chance to really think about what roles play nice with each other and how to encourage varied use of a Pokemon's toolset.

 

[Explosion Badger]

Final Submission

Name: One-Trick Pony

Description: This Pokémon has one phenomenal stat, with the rest being average at best.

Justification: As the Pokédex count has grown steadily over the past few decades, it’s been of little surprise how power creep has affected stats over the years. Higher highs and lower lows become more common, but it’s more than one stat simply getting bigger. Superb offenses have been paired with higher and higher speeds; Massive HP stats now have greater defenses to guard alongside them. From the very start, Gen 9 has been filled with some of the most minimaxed Pokémon in the series, from Roaring Moon to Iron Valiant, Dondozo to Ting-Lu.

Despite what these trends say, however, certain Pokémon have still managed to be successful despite having only 1 stat above the average. Skarmory, Deoxys-Speed and Alomomola have managed to withstand the test of time, using their single outstanding stat to help them perform tasks that most other Pokémon in the meta can’t perform. In this concept, the goal is to explore how to balance a Pokémon around a single superb stat, identify what options and routes these stats allow us to take, and analyze how certain Pokémon have managed to succeed with these stats.

Questions to be asked:

• Across the generations, how have certain Pokémon with one excellent stat succeeded where others failed? What roles did these Pokémon fulfill in those metas?
• How high does a certain stat need to be in order to be considered "phenomenal"? How high can each stat go before becoming unhealthy?
• How high do our average stats have to be in order for us to take advantage of our defining stat? How high can they be while still being considered "average"? How can our defining stat make up for the shortcomings of other stats?
• Which stat should we pick as our defining one? When should we pick it?
• What tools can a particular high stat allow us to take advantage of?
• How do current examples of Pokémon with a single high stat take advantage of it? How can we differentiate our final product from those Pokémon?
• How might having a phenomenally high stat affect sets built around this Pokémon? How much do we need to invest into our defining stat? Could a high enough defining stat allow us to invest in other stats instead?
• Similarly, how would a phenomenal stat tie into choices such as typing or ability? Do we have to lean as heavily into a good offensive typing with a high offensive stat?
• Having one big stat only can lead to very straightforward counterplay (high def = use a special attacker, high attack = having bulk and resistances). Is this a good or a bad thing? How can we make this Pokemon's defining stat feel both useful and healthy?
• How do our average stats influence one another? How does our defining stat influence them? Can a different defining stat change if a stat is or isn't considered average?

Explanation: Despite there being a number of meta relevant examples that have existed even since gen 1, the idea of a viable Pokemon with only one phenomenal stat still feels relatively unexplored. For as well as Alomomola is currently doing, it's taken 4 generations for it to get the movepool and metagame it needed to become an OU staple, and it's one of the more succesful examples of high HP, average everything else that we've seen. Beyond Deoxys-S, very few Speedsters are able to take advantage of their massive speed stat, with the other strongest example, Regieleki, being banned earlier this generation. For every Skarmory or Cloyser, there's been an Aggron or Steelix who lacks the typing and/or utility to take advantage of their enormous defense. Even beyond the successful examples, theres still a slew of interesting routes that any stat set could take us down.

Along with all that, one more reason for this concept is that CAP has a tendency, especially as of late, to avoid particularly high stat totals and focus more on having above average stats across the board, and while this is of course successful, it also means that CAP often denies itself the ability to learn how to design and balance Pokemon with these more extreme stats.

 

[LemonLime78]

Name: Hazardous Material

Description: A pokemon that benefits from having hazards on its side of the field

Justification: Hazards are an essential part of singles, being able to determine games and make or break certain pokemons' viability. Given this, it makes sense that having hazards on your side is generally considered unfavorable, to the point that spinning is an essential role on most teams. What I want to explore with this concept is how that idea could be turned on its head, and how that would affect the idea of hazards as a whole. Would hazards become less prevalent? Could such a pokemon being on a team to dissuade the use of hazards?

Questions to be answered:
How could we make it so that a pokemon not only uses hazards to its advantage, but has hazards as the best way to trigger that advantage? For example, given a sr weak mon with berserk, how could we incentivize switching it in on hazards over letting it take damage naturally over the course of a battle?

Would CAP 35 focus on one hazard, or multiple hazards? Which hazard(s)? Hazards like toxic spikes or sticky webs have obvious ways to be taken advantage of, but they're also much more niche if not unviable. On the flip side, stealth rock and spikes are more prevalent, but also harder to take advantage of in comparison.

How exactly are we planning to take advantage of hazards? This ties in heavily to the last question. Would we give the pokemon abilities that increase its offensive capabilities? Would we give it moves such as court change?

Explanation:
To be honest, I really like this idea on paper (no duh, I created it), but I'm really not sure how it could play out. Most of my doubts are explained in the questions, but I'm honestly not sure how we would overcome them (in particular the first one). Similarly, while hazards like webs and tspikes have obvious answers, they're niche enough that I feel like focusing on them would defeat the purpose of such a mon.

 

[skippergamez]

WIP

Name: King of the Court

Description: This Pokemon defines an archetype used in the CAP metagame.

Justification:

Archetypes are essential to team building in Pokemon. From HO to Balance to Stall, to more niche archetypes like Rain and Sun, these archetypes guide the building process. This concept is designed to explore the building process and how it is tied to the viability of a Pokemon. For example in the CAP metagame right now, Walking Wake defines the Sun archetype: it’s viability is directly tied to it and its prowess is what allows Sun to be incredibly viable at the moment.

Questions to Be Answered:

How do archetypes affect the team building process? How do “staples” of archetypes affect it?
How does fitting extremely well onto a specific archetype affect a Pokémon’s viability?
What archetypes are fleshed out in the CAP metagame that would make it hard for a Pokemon to define it without being overpowering?

Explanation:
Many, many viable Pokemon fit onto many team styles

 

[StarFalcon555]

Final Submission

Name: Hoist By His Own Petard

Description: This Pokemon actively benefits from the opponent's stat boosts, and encourages the opponent to boost its own stats in order to achieve these benefits.

Justification: Stat boosting has been an integral part of competitive Pokemon ever since Generation I. Whether it's a powerful offensive sweeper or an unkillable defensive wall, the last thing you want to allow in a battle is your opponent boosting their stats with your team powerless to do anything. Strategies to prevent an opponent from boosting their stats, however, heavily rely on taking away their stat boosts, whether it be through phasing them out, switching in a Pokemon that forces the boosted opponent to switch out, or removing their stat boosts with Haze. A Pokemon that takes the stat boosts of an opponent to their advantage and handles the opponent in a more active way is heavily uncharted territory for OU and CAP, and would result in an extremely interesting final product.

Questions to be Answered:

• What methods are there of turning an opponent's stat boosts against them? Would we copy the opponent's stat boosts (Opportunist, Spectral Thief, Psych Up), or inflict stat boosts on them that could be used against them? (Swagger/Decorate/Spicy Extract + Foul Play)
• Is there a specific stat we want to encourage our opponent to boost? What are the pros and cons of the opponent boosting a certain stat?
• What Pokemon have tried to employ strategies that turn the opponent's stat boosts against them in the past? How can we learn from the failures of these Pokemon to ensure that our concept is successful?
• Are there specific set-up sweepers we want to target? What are the pros and cons of targeting certain set-up sweepers?
• What role would a Pokemon that aims to turn the opponent's stat boosts against them? Would it be an offensive Pokemon that focuses on taking out set-up sweepers with their own boosts, or a defensive Pokemon that aims to use the boosts of opponents to protect its teammates?
• How can we encourage the opponent to boost its own stats without having them switch out?

Explanation: I don't really think there's a lot that needs to be explained that wasn't explained in the Justification section. A Pokemon that benefits from the opponent's stat boosts would create an incredibly unique final product, and would also work really well in the current metagame. Gen 9 OU/CAP is one of the most hyper-offensive metagames Smogon has seen in years, with set-up sweepers such as Kingambit, Kyurem, Iron Valiant, Dragonite, Ogerpon-Wellspring, Roaring Moon, Zamazenta-H, and even some of our newest CAPs like Hemogoblin and Chuggalong running rampant. This concept would allow us to create an incredibly unique final product that also allows us to take a deeper look at the current metagame, figure out why set-up sweepers are so prominent within it, and how exactly we can take advantage of these set-up sweepers.

 

[Yu_IOTJ]

Final Submission

Name: The Green Green Grass of Home

Description: This Pokemon utilizes one of the terrains in a manner not typically utilized.

Justification: Terrains provide a very unique set of benefits as a field condition, but most that are used are primarily utilized in a one-dimensional manner. The terrains seen in past generations and in the current one are used primarily as a means to boost their users offensively, Rillaboom, Tapu Lele, and Tapu Koko all use their terrains primarily as a means to hit harder, which is valid in its own way, but their fullest potential is largely still being missed out with what unique secondary benefits they provide to themselves and their allies. This can also extend to Misty Terrain as part of its benefit is locked behind mons whose typing and role don't let them utilize it to its fullest necessarily.

Questions to be Answered:

- What terrain effects can be better taken advantage of, and how can we use these effects successfully?
- Should the CAP be reliant on producing its own Terrain, or will it be a Mon that is activated via its teammates?
- Terrains are also a means of providing benefits to your team members, if this CAP is to be the setter, should the mon be built in a way to facilitate themselves or their team more?
- If this mon is to be activated via the support from a different mon setting terrain, how should we build the CAP to function outside of Terrain?
- Considering the existence of the Quark Drive mons, should we exclude Electric Terrain from the conversation?
- Should we be concerned with the mon providing roles for specific teams that couldn't otherwise be as easily enabled by normal OU?

Explanation:

I'm a fan of using unorthodox and unique combinations to make a good mon, and Terrains provide a lot of benefit that could be used for so much more than what their current abusers take advantage of, especially with fun combinations of type and movesets that could be done. This includes the obvious choices that someone would come up with on their initial impressions of the concept. Terrains seem to be a fun thing to build around given our freedom with picking and choosing. I'm interested in the applications of the more defensive terrains the most, Grassy and Misty can make particularly potent mons out of their effects. Grassy terrain can be used to make a mon similar to Gliscor that regenerates effortlessly with a great defensive typing, especially bolstered with the earthquake resistance it provides. Misty terrain has a dirth of reliable team support mons who can pivot out safely with u-turn or the like, and with its status immunity it could take better advantage of not being burned as a physical attacker, or be used with a typing that loves having the dragon resist, an electric resistant type + misty walls out Raging Bolt for instance. Psychic Terrain helps with Psyspam teams by having another reliable setter, and could similarly be useful alongside pivoting moves and be a more beefy support option. Not to mention there isn't a very good use-case for Terrain Pulse, so building a mon that could use it as coverage could be very lucrative. All of the terrains are high variance and very powerful, and they are just cool.

 

[Jomakl]

Final Submission

Name; No in between

Description; A Pokémon who uses a mixture of very strong moves and very weak moves with nothing in between.

Justification; This is an Actualization concept creating a Pokémon who uses possibly less common moves and has to make a small sacrifice no matter what they pick whether it’s damage, secondary effect or accuracy. An example of this that uses more often seen moves it Great Tusk with, Headlong Rush, Close Combat, Knock Off and Rapid spin. Most Pokemon like to use either a variety of strong and consistent moves or a mix of support and attacking moves, this on the other hand uses a selection of moves that all have some downside to deal with.

Questions to be answered; Should we pick which moves it uses before anything else?
What advantages would there be selecting less common moves over more common moves and should we aim for less common moves?
How do we keep it from just spamming a single move instead of using its entire kit?
Should we try to mitigate the disadvantages of its moves or roll with them?

Explanation; This concept allows for the interring case where the Pokémon isn’t able to, at least not safely, spam any one move it must choose a sacrifice every turn. Most Pokemon have this one move they love to spam, whether its CC, Moonblast or Surf every pokemon has some move they don't want to stop using if possible. This CAP doesn't have that safety and how they interact with other pokemon will be quite interesting. It could use its high damage moves to take out high priority targets and its weaker moves to not risk the disadvantage of those same moves.

This is my second concept submission ever so any critiques/help would be very welcome.

 

[Scepticskep]

Final Submission

Name: The Chosen One

Description: This CAP is designed to run a very high BP move that has a heavy drawback/condition which prevents other Pokémon from using it.

Justification: Every attacking move in Pokemon comes with advantages and disadvantages that determine its value on a mon's set. Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt offer good damage with consistent accuracy, Close Combat and Clanging Scales offer high power at the cost of stat drops, and Nuzzle and Trailblaze have low power but valuable secondary effects. Usually, the higher a move's BP is, the larger the drawback placed on said move is, at least most of the time *cough* Ivy Cudgel *cough*. As a result, it's very rare you see mons running the highest BP moves available, and opt instead for more consistent moves like my examples earlier. This concept is meant to explore the untapped potential of one of these powerful moves, discuss how to build around its strengths and drawbacks, and design a CAP that defines itself by said move.

Questions To Be Answered:

- Why are these moves considered too high risk for their reward?
- Which of these moves would result in a unique offensive presence that’s not already present in the CAP metagame?
- What tools can a Pokemon be given to effectively deal with the drawbacks / consistently meet the conditions of these moves?
- How do we prevent this Pokemon from becoming too overbearing offensively, if it can effectively use such a strong move?
- Have any of these moves been used on fringe sets in the past, and what can we learn from their usage?

Explanation: CAP should seek to create Pokemon that add as much variety to the metagame as possible. On the most part, offensive Pokemon are comfortable running moves that usually land in the 80-120 BP field, as well as using certain low power moves with strong secondary effects. A CAP designed to reach the farthest end on that spectrum is sure to introduce a unique element into the metagame, as very few pokemon utilize tools from that tier of base power due to the high risk attached. I've compiled several examples here, but by no means are these moves the extent of potential discussion.

Self-Damaging and Self-Destructing moves: (Explosion, Self Destruct, Misty Explosion, Chloroblast, Steel Beam)
These moves are certainly the most literal definition of "nuke". They provide some of the highest immediate strength of any move, but at the cost of cutting a Pokemon's health or just killing it. You gamble your Pokemon's health on a potential switch in to a resist or immunity, which could ruin your momentum. Misty Explosion even has an additional terrain condition to have any value. But these moves can certainly have significant utility: whether it's on a suicide lead or a breaker, these moves provide a pokemon immense offensive pressure while also allowing a free switch in for a Pokemon with stronger longevity. Moves like Chloroblast and Steel Beam could even be used repeatedly if a pokemon has an effective way of recovering its health, either though ability, recovery move or item.

Abysmal Accuracy: (Zap Cannon, Inferno, Dynamic Punch)
Moves that have less than 100% accuracy have always been difficult choices to place on a Pokemon's moveset. Moves like Focus Blast or Stone Edge are inherent gambles due to their low accuracy, and as a wise man once said, "If it's not 100 percent accurate, it's 50 percent accurate". So naturally, moves that are actually 50 percent accurate are never run. Zap Cannon, Inferno, and Dynamic Punch all fall in the fairly strong 100-120 BP range, but their true strength comes from the guaranteed status effect each move applies. Essentially, the moves trade their unreliable accuracy for a consistent status, whilst most moves only have a chance of a status effect. In this sense, the moves are pretty unique in providing both high power and a useful secondary effect, and if a Pokemon is given a tool/tools to get around the accuracy issue it's sure to be a unique offensive threat.

Item-Dependent: (Belch, Fling)
Both these moves force a Pokemon to not only run specific items, but force item loss to have value. Belch has a strong 120 BP but only works if the user has eaten a berry before hand. This boost does last permanently, even if the user is switched out or somehow regains the berry. It could be interesting to see a mon that has the ability to combo berry boosts with Belch's high damage to become a strong offensive threat. Fling, on the other hand, begins as a usable attack and then uses your held item. Fling can reach a high benchmark by using a for a solid 130 BP attack. Both these moves can work with abilities and moves related to held items and item loss (Unburden, Magician, Harvest, Acrobatics, etc.), and could allow them to find a place in the current meta if the right set of tools are given to a mon.

HP-Reliant: (Eruption, Water Spout, Dragon Energy)
This trio of moves offer some incredible immediate power, but deflate once a user takes significant damage. 150 BP at max HP creates a massive threat, especially when combined with boosting items and weather. While these moves tend to thrive in double formats, very few Pokemon have the tools to effectively run these moves in singles. The fastest legal runners of these moves (Blastoise, Typhlosion-Hisui, Regidrago) are all essentially forced to run to find value in these moves, as they lack both the speed to immediately hit these high power moves and the bulk to use these moves multiple times in a row. A Pokémon that most effectively runs one of these types of moves would most likely have to deal with one/both of these issues, but I’m interested if any other solutions could be found.

Other Stat Reliant: (Electro Ball, Gyro Ball, Power Trip)
Unlike the previous HP based moves, these moves come with significantly less reliability. Electro Ball and Gyro Ball both rely on Speed, each reaching up to 150 BP if the user is 4x faster/slower respectively. Naturally, it’s difficult to reach these maximums without stat changes on either side of the field. The blisteringly fast Regieleki only occasionally ran Electro Ball, while Gyro Ball found success with Ferrothorn, who is thankfully no longer with us. In order to succeed with either of these moves, a Pokemon would have to find a way to consistently reach these maximums. Power Trip is a Dark type physical copy of Stored Power. While many mons run Stored Power, Power Trip is very rarely run as physical attackers don’t have as many options for multiple stat increasing moves like special attackers do. A strong Power Trip user would have to have some tool(s) to rack up stat boosts in a way other physical attackers lack.

Miscellaneous: (Steel Roller, Terrain Pulse, etc.)
There are many other examples of moves with difficult and sometimes bizarre conditions in order to utilize their high power. Steel Roller, a 140 BP steel move that only works when terrain is up, and removes terrain. Terrain Pulse and Weather Ball, both increasing to 100 BP and changing type under specific terrains/weather. Lash Out, a move that doubles to 150 BP if the user’s stats were lowered that turn. Brine, which doubles to 130 BP if the opponent is below half health. The range of untapped power in the game is massive, and I’d be excited to see how a CAP could potentially reach these heights.

 

[Samirsin]

WIP


Name: Unexpected Forecast

Description: This CAP will explore the introduction of a weather setter that fills a niche not currently covered in the metagame.

Justification:
The goal is to create a Pokémon that can reliably set a specific weather condition that either isn't currently dominant or offers a new twist on an existing weather strategy. A new setter could also counter or complement existing dominant weather strategies, adding depth to team-building and battle dynamics. It could also explore typings and their relation to weather, for example, some counterintuitive ones, like a Fire-type that sets rain. Another option is how terrain affects other Pokémon, like Fire-weak Pokémon under Rain or Water-weak Pokémon under Sun, or Defense boosts for Ice Pokémon and Special Defense boost of Rock types.


Questions To Be Answered:

1. How would this new weather setter affect the balance of current weather-based strategies in the metagame?
2. What new strategies or team compositions could emerge with the introduction of this Pokémon?
3. How would this Pokémon interact with existing weather setters and abusers?
4. What checks and counters would be necessary to ensure that the new weather setter doesn't dominate the metagame excessively?

Explanation: The concept focuses on the introduction of a new weather setter that enhances the diversity and strategic depth of current weather-based playstyles in the metagame. This Pokémon would leverage one of the existing weather conditions (such as rain, sun, sandstorm, or snow) but with a fresh approach that could reshape how these weather conditions are utilized in competitive play.

For example, consider how sandstorm and snow (formerly hail) are often associated with specific archetypes, sand teams dominated by Ground, Rock, and Steel-types, or snow teams featuring Ice-types. Ultimately, the goal is to create a weather setter that is versatile, not only fitting into existing team structures but also enabling new ones. This Pokémon could redefine how weather is approached in the metagame, making it a central pillar of both team-building and in-battle decision-making.

 

[Steam Buns]

WIP

Name - Typecast

Description - This pokemon uses it's unique typing a carve a distinct niche in the CAP metagame. More specifically, by selecting a single type or type combination, not represented within the current pool of potentially viable pokemon in the CAP metagame. CAP 35 will fill new role in the metagame by specifically leveraging the unique qualities of its typing, alongside it's stats, movepool and ability.

Justification
While typing is one of the first things decided about each CAP, it rarely guides the process itself, rather serving as a means to end. I've felt in recent process that the closer we get to this "end" the more narrow and as a result, less interesting, the discussion becomes. This concept is aims to highlight typing as a focal point for discussion, so we can better understand the ways typing leads to the formation of a competitive niche. But it also leaves us a clear goal for each stage, without restricting our room to explore options. By being limited to unique typings, we open the door to endless new territory and untapped potential within this game. I believe there is enough depth to this concept to be repeated for a dozen processes without it getting dull

Questions To Be Answered

• What is a niche and how do they form? Are there any empty niches in the meta right now?
• Are there any pokemon in the lowers tiers with valuable typings, that aren't able to be taken advantage of because limitations in other areas? If so what would it take for these pokemon to be viable?
• Do any individual types feel underrepresented in the current metagame, because of a lack of strong pokemon to take advantage of them?
• How many type combinations are yet to exist in the pokemon franchise and how many of these would be a good fit for this process? Do any of them have strengths that couldn't be replicated by another typing?
• How Important is typing in forming a niche? Could a pokemon be viable with nothing else to set it apart from the rest of the metagame?
• How much of a pokemons niche is defined by its typing? Will there be a clear best route to take with other stages of the process once typing is decided?

Explanation

 

[R. P. Genocraft]

Final Submission

Name - Controlled Chaos

Description - This CAP's best tools are inherently inconsistent or RNG reliant, yet it still finds a way to be reliable without being broken.

Justification - While top tier pokémon that rely on tools that have high variance are often very frustrating to use or deal with, there have been rare instances of mons who could find a healthy balance.
RBY Sing Chansey relies on a 55% accurate move, but is otherwise relatively passive while getting many chances to fish for it.
BW RU Durant has its moves capped at 80% accuracy thanks to Hustle, but it commonly mitigates this by using Hone Claws on the many switches it forces.
While both can still create frustration, their positions in their respective metas are unique and require interesting risk/reward assessment to use optimally.

Questions To Be Answered

• What elements of high variance are the main causes of frustration to the players, and what are good ways to mitigate them?
• Should this CAP be offensive or defensive, and which option has the highest risk of being unbalanced?
• Should the mitigating factor be up to the user's choice () or should it be inherent to the pokémon ()?
• What are good ways to encourage players to interact with inconsistent options rather than ignoring them, IE simply choosing other moves/abilities instead?
• Is it acceptable for these tools to not see constant usage if merely the threat of them is enough to impact battles (IE discouraging the use of contact moves with just the possibility of Flame Body)?
• What are RNG mechanics historically associated with frustrating gameplay that could be redeemed?
• What are low odds moves/abilities that have never seen much use despite having potential?

Explanation - Probability management is an underrated aspect of competitive pokémon that I'd like to see more of in modern generations, although powercreep makes it especially difficult to reach a healthy balance. A CAP that emphasizes it, while likely very challenging to make right, could bring a unique flavor of fun strategy to the gen 9 metagame. And still occasionally piss people off, but that's pokémon for you.

 

[Ehmcee]

WIP

Name - BackSTABbed

Description - This Pokemon fills an offensive niche while not having access to any STAB moves.

Justification - Most Pokemon tend to run at least one STAB move on their main set, STAB is a powerful boost to your own moves after all. This concept aims to explore how we could make a Pokemon successful without giving it a same type attack bonus, but not pidgeonholding it into a purely defensive stally role.

Questions To Be Answered

• Which Pokemon have a successful set or sets that do not utilize STAB?
  
  
• At what point in the process should typing be decided?
  
  
• Which avenues do we want to explore to have high offensive potential despite our lack of STAB?
  
  
• Which concessions should be made in regards to Terastalization?

 

[Lightniong]

WIP

• Name - The CAP Theorem
• Description - This Pokemon’s niche is entirely due to a singular part of the Pokémon that helps it thrive.
• Justification-
  • 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?
• Questions To Be Answered -
• Explanation -

 

[viol and bass]

Final Submission

Name: Keep it a Stack

Description: This is a Pokemon whose gameplan revolves around stacking multipliers.

Justification: Multiplier stacking means combining stat modifiers multiplicatively, and it's notable because it's more effective than simple stat boosts, which combine additively. Swords Dance gives a multiplier of 1.5 + 1.5 = 2, but if you combine one stat boost with a separate 1.5 multiplier, the total multiplier is 2.25. The difference between additive and multiplicative boosts increases exponentially with each additional boost.

Gen 9 leans into this hard. You have things like Gouging Fire in sun stacking STAB+tera, the sun boost, and the choice band boost for a total multiplier of 2 * 1.5 * 1.5 = 4.5. This usually uses a Protosynthesis speed boost, but if you want to really make sure everything dies, you can add in a Protosynthesis attack boost for a total multiplier of 4.5 * 1.3 = 5.85. Just stupid damage. Another example of this is Steely Spirit Perrserker, with STAB, tera and Steely Spirit granting a multiplier of 3 on Steel moves, further augmented by Band or SD. Even Kingambit is an excellent example of how adding a single relatively small multiplier can make a massive difference in your damage output when combined with other boosts. Sniper Kingdra is perhaps the most straightforward example there is, stacking multipliers for a 2.25* boost.

On the flip side, we have defensive multiplier stacking. One old gen example of this is Assault Vest Tyranitar. The rock-type Sandstorm SpDef boost combines with the Assault Vest for a total multiplier of 2.25. Mon just eats Focus Blasts for breakfast. For other examples, you can look at things like Quiver Dance Ice Scales Frosmoth (3* SpDef multiplier after one Quiver Dance), Aurora Veil Alolan Ninetales (Ice-type snow defense boost stacks with veil for an effective defense multiplier of 3) or Bulk Up Grass Pelt Gogoat in terrain (not a real set, the mon is ass but it's very funny conceptually). Finally, there is speed multiplier stacking. Stat-based speed boosts can combine multiplicatively with various means of boosting speed independent of stat stages, and this can lead to hilarious speed modifiers. Protosynthesis Rapid Spin Great Tusk (2.25 multiplier) technically utilizes this, but outspeeding Regieleki by 127 points is probably overkill.

So this concept is not at all unfamiliar in gen 9, but it has a ton of unexplored and extremely interesting manifestations (many using underutilized abilities or mechanics that are new this gen, such as the snow boost!). This concept is so much broader than it might initially appear. Combining numbers like this can very quickly turn a mediocre package into a a threat to be respected, or a horrifically slow Pokemon into a blindingly fast one, and it's cool as hell.

Questions To Be Answered:

• Is this an ability first concept? A lot of these modifiers are ability-based, and it could be beneficial to use the ability to determine our direction.
• Will we find in exploring this concept that when combined with other multipliers, single stage boosts are preferable to further boosts because of diminishing returns with additive multipliers?
• Are offensive approaches dangerous here? Using the example of Gouging Fire, is stacking that many multipliers too volatile to guarantee a balanced product?
• Similarly, if we take an offensive approach, do we have to specifically avoid the weather boost? Are Fire and Water off limits as offensive typings?
• Using the example of AV Tyranitar, can defensive multiplier stacking allow a bad defensive typing to shine? How about a mediocre stat spread?
• How do we keep a defensive multiplier stacking pokemon out of the trap of passivity?
• Is it possible to achieve multiple of these routes at once? Can a pokemon stack offensive multipliers and defensive multipliers? Or combine one of these with speed multiplier stacking?
• Is this type of Pokemon inherently less consistent than one that just has high raw stats? Is there a way to make it more consistent?

Explanation:

Big number go brrrrrrrr. This concept came about because of a realization during the last CAP process that combining Unburden with a single stat boost is equivalent to +4 (a 3* multiplier). For an example of what this means, if a mon with 20 base speed and Unburden uses Trailblaze one time, it would easily outspeed Dragapult. A mon being able to increase its speed that drastically in potentially a single turn is really really interesting.

My favorite approach though is probably a defensive one. Alolan Ninetales stacking Aurora Veil with the Ice-type Defense boost is just the tip of the iceberg on what can be done here. The weather approach is an interesting one, partly because it is buffing otherwise horrible defensive typings to be actually pretty usable. This doesn't even necessarily even require a weather-setting ability: an ice type that can partner with Galarian Slowking and boosts defense (Bulk Up for example) grants a route to fulfill this concept while leaving the ability slot open. But there are plenty of other options. Grass Pelt is honestly one of the coolest routes. You can even hit the field with a 2.25 multiplier thanks to Grass Pelt and Grassy Seed. That is a massive boost to just have off the bat. Imagine this on a Calm Mind Fire type or something and being granted passive healing from terrain. I know Gogoat is ass but think about the possibilities here bro. Anyway abilities like Marvel Scale are another great place to start.

Offensively there are endless cool ways of combining STAB boosts and stat stage multipliers with pseudo STAB abilities or class-based attack modifiers or Supreme Overlord or Flare/Toxic Boost or choice items or weather boosts or crit strategies or whatever else. I think one of the coolest offensive approaches is dialing up the numbers on a typing that has a very hard wall in the metagame, think a physical rock type attacking into Great Tusk, but allowing it to actually put a small dent even when facing that wall.

When I talk about diminishing returns on additive multiplier stacking above, what I mean is that every subsequent stat boost grants a smaller multiplier relative to the boost before it (the second boost grants a 1.33 multiplier, the third grants 1.25, etc.) So in exploring this concept, we might find that combining single-stage boosts with other multipliers is the most effective approach. Exploring some of the moves that grant single-stage boosts but have other additional effects (things like Rapid Spin and Psyshield Bash) is therefore crucial to this concept.

 

[Brammi]

• Name - Field Janitor
• Description - Field Janitor encapsulates a Pokemon that is able to use the various tools built within the game to create an even battlefield. Weather, Terrain, Hazards, and Battle effects are all things that change the battlefield, and this CAP would look to alleviate one or more of these.
• Justification - Each generation of Pokemon brings with it more complicated elements to the battlefield. Generation 2 brought weather and hazards, 3 gave us weather abilities, and so on. We now have many elements that change the way the game is played. These include the aforementioned Weather (Rain, Sun, etc), Terrain (Grassy, Misty), Hazards (Spikes, Rocks), and Field Effects (Trick Room, Magic Room).
• These together have increased complexity of battling from the first generation of Pokemon, and while this has no doubt brought with it more interesting gameplay, the game of strategy and counter strategy has existed in some form or another since generation three. We also have many tools that exist within Pokemon that interact with these in a meaningful way. Abilities and Moves both exist that react and neutralise ways that teams look to create advantages by changing the battlefield itself.
• Regularly these options are either not widely available on viable Pokemon, such Pokemon have something better to do if they have them available, or the combination of cleaning tools, typing, movepool, and stats make running such sets unviable in regular 6v6. We do see some of these issues alleviated in formats such as draft where narrow in fine, but answering the questions in each phase of how to make such a role viable through each of these stumbling blocks other Pokemon have seen is an exciting prospect.
• Questions To Be Answered -
• Which of the tools are best for cleaning the battlefield of effects; Abilities, moves, prevention, or replacement?
• What battle effects would be most impactful to 'clean'? Terrain and Weather have both seen strong support in this generation with paradox abilities. And many previous CAPs have provided support to strategies.
• How is such a Pokemon made viable within this role without both being centralising in and of itself or too narrow to be viable?
• What can be done in the design space to make this Pokemon viable not just in formats where, say sun or terrain are common, but also if rain, trick room, or TSS were to become prevailing playstyles?
• Explanation -
• Many tools available within Pokemon to disrupt specific strategies have existed for a long period of time. As discussed above, there's much that is available to be looked at. If you look at formats where narrow answers are able to see results moves like Steel Roller, and abilities like Cloud Nine are able to find the time of day. There are way more options than these, some of which have seen competitive success. Manual weather in generation 5 strikes as a prominent example of this when teams would run hail to stop weather while not benefiting from it themselves. We have also seen that moves like Chilly Reception are considered valuable for removing other weather effects on top of their usual use.
• We have seen CAPs in the past that have been designed to shut down specific strategies or Pokemon, however Field Janitor looks to be more of a catch all, or to be variable in what it can answer. We can lean in to this and also look at things like reacting to the threats that exist that have been looked at before in more narrow fields like Jumbao or Miasmaw as they were designed in completely different generations and metas. Avilities like Trace and NGas could work for Field Janitor and would be exciting to look at in a different form.
• I am also just excited for, in the case of Field Janitor being picked, to see the discussion around what actually constitutes neutralising a playstyle, and then the follow on effect of what would happen in reaction with such teams.

 

[Reythlos]

Name: Berry Aggressive

Description: This pokemon is geared towards an offensive role, and accomplishes this via utilising held berries.

Justification:
-Berries are a wide and diverse set of items, but never normally see use due to being broadly outclassed. A pokemon that effectively utilises held berries to be an offensive threat, as opposed to an offensive threat that is coincidentally running a berry, is unexplored territory.
-Berries aren't a balanced group, with very little seeing already-limited play besides the Lum and pinch berries, with the occasional resist berry thrown in. A pokemon that utilises them for an offensive role, instead of the defense or support-oriented roles the berries currently play, may enable less-used berries to see play, and diversify item selection.

Questions To Be Answered:
-Will CAP 35 rely on its held berry being consumed, or will it have some way of retaining it? If the former, what dynamics will it have before and after the berry is revealed/used? Will it have a way to reliably activate its berry, or will it require the opponent to do it? If the latter, will it gain a benefit from reobtaining its berry? Would counterplay exist to permanently deprive it of the berry?
-How exactly will it take advantage of held berries? Will it utilise the berries in some way to bolster its existing offenses, or will it be a naturally-offensive pokemon utilising held berries for staying power?
-Are berries beyond the Lum, pinch and resist berries still relevant in modern-day formats, or are they primarily playthrough-oriented items?
-How much of CAP 35's power budget should be allotted towards facilitating its usage of berries?
-Can a pokemon reliant on a sub-par category of held item still be relevant, and if it is, will it only manage to be relevant despite that design philosophy, instead of because of it?
-How much should an intended playstyle impact a pokemon's entire design?

Explanation:
I've always liked the idea of held berries as a concept, but they've always seemed outclassed as an item in singles. Aside from Lum, they're almost never run in singles due to simply being either outclassed or inconsistent, and the pokemon that do consistently run them are either passive walls (shout out to Random Battles Tropius) and/or are plain bad. I want to see a pokemon in an offensive role use them effectively, and as a vital part of its game plan. Garchomp running a Yache Berry doesn't really alter any fundamental part of what Garchomp is as a pokemon or a team slot, but for CAP 35, I'd like that to be different.

 

[Turn Up]

Final Submission

• Name - The Debuffer
• Description - This Pokemon creates a strong offensive pressure through the use of stat debuffs, rather than buffing itself
• Justification - While stat boosting has been a major persistent part of competitive play, stat dropping strategies, especially in the upper tiers of play, has largely paled in comparison. Due to stat debuffing being a relatively unexplored facet of competive pokemon gameplay, due to it's obvious weakness that existing mons can't make up for, there's a lot of room for discussion for how to viably implement this concept. Defensive team structures & walls in general are quite prominent in the CAP metagame currently (I believe CAPPL usage stats back this up) and this concept could serve a very viable niche in such a metagame
• Questions To Be Answered-
  • Has this concept, or any defensive stat drop strategies in general been realised in any other tiers of play or generations? Stat drops are very unexplored due to their obvious weaknesses, so any frame of reference could be helpful.
  • What are the weaknesses of debuffing and how can this mon overcome it? The obvious one would be switching resetting debuffs, but there is also covert cloak, specific abilities, and the fact that +2 defensive stat buffs are far more common and available than -2 stat debuffing moves, and -1 stat debuffs will likely have to suffice in certain situations
  • Relating to question above, is trapping necessary in making a debuffing strategy viable? The inclusion of trapping in any form would likely have pretty drastic effects on the strength of this mon and it would probably be necessary to decide early into the process
  • Should this mon be relegated to only be focused on stat debuffs, or are there other debuffing moves moves that could be considered, such as psychic noise, infestation (also a trapping method), torment etc. Not to say that the mon shouldn't be exempt from having any other status moves if not, but should it be a focus of the process
  • If this mon is to utilise trapping, how will it overcome the main shortcomings of trapping strategies (ghost types, pivot moves)?
  • How is it possible to make active progress through the use of debuffing moves, considering how easy it generally is to undo the effects of debuffs
• Explanation - Speficially within the last 2 generations there's been a bit of a hidden movement to include more attacking moves that also have the side effect of guaranteed defensive drops that have consistently fallen to the wayside due to their underwhelming (or in one case, overwhelming) users. By no means am I trying to pigeonhole the concept, but the main criticism my concept has received is that it would be underpowered due to the nature of debuffs but I think some debuffs are highly unexplored due to being tied to underwhelming mons.
  
  Stat-dropping moves

  Lumina Crash - Admittedly the move that inspired this concept, Lumina Crash has the potential to be a very powerful move but it's unfortunately very underutilised due to Espathra just having a far more powerful set. The ability to effectively double this moves power if used consecutively into the same pokemon makes this move both difficult to switch into and out of and actively makes progress where other debuffing moves are often lacking
  Octolock - Octolock has the benefit of doubling as both a debuff, and a trapping move, both answering the inherent concept, and a big question of it's viability. It's a very strong move, bordering problematic if the mon using it is overtuned, instantly forcing a mon into a 1v1 slugfest where the octolock user becomes progressively more effective the longer it can survive, but also is held back by not making any progress if the opposing pokemon has the means to switch out of a trap
  Obstruct - Definitely not powerful enough on it's own to be reliable but there's quite a few mons in the tier that only run contact moves that would second guess clicking an attack on this move
  Apple Acid / Grav Apple / Fire Lash - Essentially all toned down versions of Lumina Crash. Not much to say other than they do basically everything I mentioned but weaker. Could go well with any of the above moves
  Syrup Bomb - Syrup Bomb is an interesting one, could be interesting to use alongside octolock to enhance the opposing pokemons gradual downfall but is also a debuff that could help make great progress against teams relegating speed control to one or two mons

 

[chartung17]

Final Submission

• Name - The Outlier
• Description - This Pokémon has a characteristic that is currently unique to a certain type, without belonging to that type.
• Justification-
  • What new territory will your Concept Pokémon explore, why do you believe it’s interesting, and how would it interact with the metagame? - This concept is explicitly about exploring new territory, expanding the availability of moves or abilities that are normally exclusive to a certain type of Pokémon. I believe exploring brand new territory such as this is always interesting, but it's hard to say how it would impact the metagame, since that is dependent on which move/ability we choose to focus on.
  • 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? - Like many successful CAPs, this concept starts with the community choosing a move or ability to build around, and there is sure to be in-depth discussion at every stage on how that move/ability can be used most effectively.
• Questions To Be Answered -
  • Are there any types that would especially benefit from access to another type's exclusive move or ability?
  • Do we want to focus on a damaging attack?
    • What types would benefit from having access to Freeze Dry as coverage?
    • Are there any type-exclusive attacks other than Freeze Dry that stand out compared to more widely-available coverage of the same type?
  • Do we want to use a status move?
    • Spore is banned due to Sleep Moves Clause; are there any other type-exclusive status moves worth focusing on?
  • Should we focus on an ability?
    • Would an immunity ability like Flash Fire be worth building around? Would building around Flash Fire restrict us to types that would otherwise be weak to fire?
    • What types would benefit from Flame Body or Compound Eyes?
    • Are there any other abilities worth building around?
  • Can we build around more than one move or ability?
  • Do we need to focus on moves/abilities? Are there any other characteristics that can be type-exclusive that we could focus on instead?
• Explanation - Only Grass types learn Spore. Only Fire types get Flash Fire (excepting one LC that evolves into a Fire type), Flame Body, or Magma Armor. Only Water types learn Dive. Only Bug types get Swarm or Compound Eyes. Only Steel types get Heavy Metal. Only Ice types learn Freeze Dry. There are likely many more that I haven't found yet. What if other types had access to these tools? This concept seeks to explore one or more of these moves or abilities in a context in which they have never been seen before. Note that this concept is not intended to focus on moves or abilities that are exclusive to a single Pokémon or evolution line.

 

[Ayecrusher King]

WIP
I'm recycling this idea until it gets onto a poll.

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 35 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 35 isn’t and/or incapable of leeching off its opponent?
• Is there a risk of CAP 35 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 35 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), Last Respects, which gains +50 power every time one of your team members faint, 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.

 

[Gaboswampert]

WIP

Name: Untouchable

Description: This Pokemon must be able to viably use Protect-like moves to enable its role, or for general utility.

Justification: This Pokemon searches to use Protect-like moves for scouting, punishing, longevity, or for mindgames against foes. There are very few examples of Pokemon using Protect-like moves with success all around the generations, making these moves mostly unexplored all around. While the pool of moves with this property is limited, all of them can lead to interesting gameplans for most roles, as these moves can fit on their movesets without much trouble.

Questions To Be Answered:

• May multiple Protect-like moves be needed to acomplish the concept?
• Most Protect-like moves are bypassed by status moves. Should we account for this, or let it be part of the gameplay of this Pokemon?
• Some Protect-like moves secondary effects relate to contact. How will this concept interact with special attackers, or physical attackers that dont make contact?
• Due to the properties of Protect-like moves, their accuracy is divided by 3 if used the turn before, making them unreliable after being used the turn before. How can this concept deal with the 50/50's that Protect-like moves are bound to have, will the use of other tools this Pokemon may have help out with this? Which tools?
• How do existing Protect or Protect-like move users use their moves? In which ways? What roles do they accomplish? Could they be outclassed by another move on their toolkit?
• If we go for a fast and offensive role, how could the momentum sink from using a Protect-like move affect it? Is there any way to avoid it? Any way to use it on our favor? Or any way where the momentum sink does not matter much?

Explanation: This concept will let CAP35 be able to
gliscor stuff, taking advantage of choiced moves, leftovers, how to not be too passive (opportunist, mbounce?), how to play against special attackers (probably similar to glisc in that regard, most special attackers with pivoting have pivoting with contact), advantages of stalling turns (pressure stuff, weather/terrain stalling, chipping down with status/trapping moves like infestation, whirlpool, fire spin, magma storm, etc), punishing pivoting like contact abilities (rough skin, iron barbs, static, flame body, we have many examples for these like chomp, ferro, zap, cyclohm ig, and moltres), can punish rapid spin and knock too so thats fun and kinda has a synergy with leftovers, glisc can scout for ice moves against guys like tusk of glowking, glisc only uses base protect and is good (WIP, just needed to spit out some ideas)

 

[Binacle Pinnacle]

Final Submission

Name: Invasive Species

Description: This Pokémon uses a move or ability that is commonly associated with certain team archetypes outside of said archetype.

Justification: As you likely know, teams are commonly categorized into archetypes depending on how they plan to win their games (Stall, Balance, Offense, Bulky Offense, etc.) With these archetypes are trends within them, common types of moves and abilities seen in their Pokémon that are used to play into the team’s win condition. In the current generation, the differences between archetypes are more stark than they’ve ever been before, resulting in the aforementioned trends being pushed to their extremes. This concept aims to expand upon the usage of these traits by exploring how they can be utilized outside of their usual archetypes.

Questions to be answered:

• How do we ensure that this CAP isn’t too proficient at using the chosen move/ability in an unintended archetype?
• Which archetype will we take our move/ability from? Where do we want this CAP to be used?
• How do we separate moves/abilities that only don’t see use on other archetypes due to lack of distribution from our desired options?
• If specifically an offensive-leaning move is chosen as our route, would setup moves be entirely out of the question?
• Given that Balance teams could be considered directly in the middle of the spectrum between offense and fat, how do we ensure that this CAP isn’t used on, or at least not primarily used on balance over its intended archetype?
• Do we necessarily have to try to confine our CAP to one archetype? Would it be fine to let it exist in any archetype aside from the one from which our move/ability is chosen from?

Explanation: This concept came about thanks to Light Screen Toxapex, used for the move’s high PP and ability to alleviate pressure from its special wall teammates in dealing with strong special attackers. The idea of using a common move’s strengths in a different way, or even bringing our strengths that other archetypes simply had no need to utilize, was very fun to me, thus the concept. One of my favorite ideas for this concept is a fat-biased Speed Boost user: the ability leans fairly hard into offense, but it seems quite easy for us to not make it desirable on offense-leaning teams compared to other options. There are a few other ideas I’ve considered, some from myself and others from discussions in the CAP Discord:

• Offense-Biased Leech Seed user: This one has been seen a fair amount of times before, most notably on Sceptile in ADV OU/DPP UU and Serperior in ORAS-SV OU. This is one of the most straightforward options but I think it sorta suffers from Leech Seed just being a good move and not leaning much into either direction. Salt Cure was mentioned along side it but has the exact same issue on a much larger scale.
• Stall-Biased Destiny Bond user: Another one of my favorites, Destiny Bond is most commonly seen on leads that use it to force a one-sided trade in the even that something tries to stop whatever setup it wants to achieve, or on cleaners like Iron Valiant to get an extra pick off of what would otherwise be a revenge kill. A DBond user on stall would likely play more similarly to the former, being able to either force trades or prevent being taken out entirely against something that would otherwise greatly threaten a defensive core.
• Stall-Biased Protean/Libero user: Seems tricky to build a CAP around, seeing as you’d have to give it a move it’d like to use frequently AND is of a desirable type, but it certainly isn’t impossible. Priority moves with solid defensive typings (albeit situational is a few cases) like Bullet Punch, Shadow Sneak, Burning Bulwark, and Spiky Shield seem like strong options. Our options grow further if we just choose to give it good speed as well. Arguably this does fall into the same trap as Leech Seed, where the ability is just very good, but I think that Protean by nature is offensively leaning enough to work here. As far as I know, CAP has wanted a Protean mon for a bit, so I can see this being a popular choice.
• Offense-Biased Magic Guard user: I never considered this myself, but it seems like multiple people have mentioned this, so I’d like to say that I find this to be an outright bad idea. It simply doesn’t fit the concept at all. Magic Guard has been seen on offensive builds and fatter builds in pretty much equal parts, Zam and Reuni for the former and Clef and Reuni (again) on the latter. The ability is just extremely strong, Clefable being its most prolific user says nothing about how the ability leans.

 

[IronTemplar]

WIP

Name: Surprise Muk and Shuckle!

Description: Heavily based on Schrodinger’s CAP (from years ago; appreciate you Badger!), but a bit more literal. The idea is to force the opponent to hesitate and possibly misplay to reveal ability of choice, both of which are not shown on entry

Justification: The ability to interrupt an opponent is an invaluable one. If the opponent does not deploy their initial strategy, they risk losing momentum, or much worse, tiptoe around a threat that isn’t real. Presenting 2 very different challenges force them to either switch or suffer, neither of which are very helpful. Ideally, this should be possible on switch in, pairing trickery with the highest priority in the game, and CONSTANTLY making your opponent second guess their decisions

Questions to be answered: What stats, moves, type, and abilities pair with each other for differing playstyles and uses?

How do we make this concept “fun” but not “annoying”?

Explanation: I’m not overly experienced with competitive, but I recently got some in a draft league with FaelisongTalim (you rock gurl! Playoffs!). One of my favourite techs I’ve seen was a Mega Sableye to slow down or stop hazard deployment, but it got even better because it bounced a STRENGTH SAP! That is the kind of thing I’m hoping to recreate. Flip of the coin excitement to spice up the battle and jazz up the crowd

Follow up: After receiving some criticism, I just wanna note that the central idea isn’t to reveal the opponent’s ability. It’s that there are 2 abilities with distinct roles that are both difficult to prepare for. Another great example would be using a Water move on a Clodsire you expect to have Unaware, but it has Water Absorb anyway and you feel foolish

 

[Docter_Peng99]

WIP
Name: In Support of Support
Description: A support pokemon that can fill a defensive role for most teamstyles while helping it's teammates force progress against the enemy.
Justification: It is my opinion that every team needs at least one support pokemon however one pokemon can't do it all so my concept aims to fix that problem by having all the tools that it can slot into it's moveset to help its teammates force progress to overcome the opponent.
Questions to be answered: What combination of stats, ability , and moves can best support a team?
What makes a support pokemon viable in the current meta?
Explanation: I am quite fond of using balanced offense teams but most of the time I feel my support just can't do all the things it needs to do against opposition so I aim to try to fix that with this concept. By making a usable and viable defensive support pokemon to help most team styles I aim for a support that while it can fit on offensive team styles it can also support defensive team styles. I don't expect to win with this but I feel as the support has always had one of the most important roles for any type of team.
Small edit: if it is too specific then I'll possibly delete the post