Before you vote, it's important that you read through each concept carefully, as well as look at our TL SHSP's final post in the concept submissions thread with their justification for each that made the slate, since this concept will guide the discussion for the rest of the CAP Process. This is linked here.
This will be a Ranked Pairs vote (RP) (a form of voting where each candidate is ranked according to head to head matchups with each of its competitors in a directed acyclic graph), the details of which were discussed here.
This is a ranked vote: order does matter! You can upvote your favorites and downvote your least favorites. You may choose to rank as many or as few options as you like, but we encourage you to rank as many options as possible to ensure your preferences are taken into account fully.
Bold your votes and nothing else!
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IMPORTANT: When voting, use only the exact name of the concept submissions as listed below! The concept submissions are quoted below in order of submission:
Defensive Transformation
Once again, your options are:
Defensive Transformation
Help Yourself
Damned if You Do
I Can Do This All Day
Fighting Against the Extremes
Duality of Ability
Please ensure your ballot uses the concept names listed above in bold and not the usernames of the submitters. Please do not feel rushed, and instead ensure you make an informed decision!
This poll will be open for 24 hours.
This will be a Ranked Pairs vote (RP) (a form of voting where each candidate is ranked according to head to head matchups with each of its competitors in a directed acyclic graph), the details of which were discussed here.
This is a ranked vote: order does matter! You can upvote your favorites and downvote your least favorites. You may choose to rank as many or as few options as you like, but we encourage you to rank as many options as possible to ensure your preferences are taken into account fully.
Bold your votes and nothing else!
A typical vote might look like the following:
Most Preferred
Second Most Preferred
Third Most Preferred
Any comments that the voter has would go below the votes in non-bold text. Bold text is used to determine what the user's votes are, so none of the supplementary text should be in bold.
CAP uses automated scripts to count votes. For this reason, it is very important for all ballots to be submitted correctly. If you do not compose a legal ballot, your post will be subject to moderation.
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Please post only your votes in this thread. You are allowed to say whatever you like in relation to your vote at the bottom of your post, but please do not look to begin a discussion. Keep those comments to the PS! CAP chatroom or the CAP Discord channel.
Asking for votes for your submission or for the submissions of others is not allowed. Anyone found to have done so risks punishment at the moderation team's discretion. If you find that someone has broken this rule, please contact the CAP moderation team with your evidence and no one else. Mini-moderation of this rule is also considered a serious offense and can be punished.
IMPORTANT: When voting, use only the exact name of the concept submissions as listed below! The concept submissions are quoted below in order of submission:
Defensive Transformation
Help Yourself
- Name - Defensive Transformation
- Description - This Pokemon uses a form change in a manner that is primarily or at least partially defensive. This could be changing defensive bias from physical to special to deal with a specific opponent, utilizing immunities from a typing change, or changing from an offensive form to a defensive form.
- Justification- Frankly speaking we have only seen a Pokemon use a defensive form change once, being Aegislash. Every other forme change is either out of battle, one way, or whatever Cramorant has going on. This concept has explicit interactions with stats, from thinking about how our speed stat interacts with our Relic Song clone, to typing where we can leverage changes in defensive typing to interact with counterplay, to our defensive stats.
- Questions To Be Answered-
- Does having a transformation that can be used defensively imply a defensive or offensive role.
- Is a defensive transformation useful for walling? What does that imply about our stats.
- Do we need a high speed stat to use a defensive transformation? Is a transformation something that is best used proactively (predicting a switch), reactively (transforming after being hit or before being hit?)
- Is it best to use major stat changes to focus on a defensive transformation, typing changes, or a combination of the two?
- Explanation - The most obvious thing that leapt out at me after selecting our framework is how to use the transformation to react to opponent's switching. Gaining a new STAB is cool, and gives you a 1.5x boost on your coverage moves, but going from Dragapult to Melmetal bulk, or going from a weakness to an immunity is life-changing. This is something that's relevant to basically any role as well, a wallbreaker would love to turn into a flying type after Equilibra swaps in, a wall would love to go from specially defensive to physically defensive the second a Zamazenta swaps in. Finally, Dragapult would love to be able to hit an opponent and take basically nothing in return if its playing its cards perfectly.
Damned if You DoName - Help Yourself
Description - This defensive Pokémon sets the stage for its own cleaning later on.
Justification - We are exploring and trying to mesh two roles- defensive Pokémon and cleaner. "Cleaner" does not have a set definition on the Smogon Dictionary, but in this context we should consider it as an endgame Pokémon that can sweep a heavily weakened enemy team without using moveslots for boosting moves like Swords Dance. Examples include Iron Moth and Specs Dragapult. "Defensive" is a term that can cover a wider range of valid roles, as long as they work towards an advantageous endgame situation for the cleaner. Some examples include Ting-Lu and Moltres.
Questions to be answered -
This is a Pokémon that must share its moveslots between two forms, and for that reason:
- How will this mon handle the various crippling tools of the tier that defensive Pokémon are supposed to take in place of offensive mons, knowing that it needs to transform into an offensive form later?
- As a speedy mon, how will this Pokémon match up to dominant fast Pokémon like Dragapult and Hemogoblin? How will this matchup affect its viability?
- What type of support do cleaners from different team archetypes (balance, weather, etc) value most and how does it differ between archetypes?
- What are some mono-types that contain both strong offensive dual types and strong defensive dual types? Can we find a pair of typings (with a shared type) that both make the offensive version offensively strong and defensively weak, and the defensive version the opposite?
- How does the speed of the Relic Song user affect its awkwardness? Is it better to Relic Song before or after the opponent moves?
Explanation - One of the most frivolous roles in modern Pokémon has been the "cleaner"- a very fast Pokémon that simply takes out the trash once the enemy team has been weakened enough, usually by outspeeding the remaining Pokémon and ohkoing them from their remaining HP percentage. Nowadays, this is a trait which is tacked onto other mons with more solid purposes for being added to a team. Examples include Iron Valiant- which provides either sweeping with CM or extremely solid anti-sweep with Encore, or Hemogoblin who is very capable of sweeping.
- What coverage moves would do best in the tier when it comes to cleaning with the fewest possible moves?
- What defensive tasks can be performed in the fewest possible moves?
- Are there attacks in the tier that could be used for both cleaning and incremental damage?
- How can this mon find a strong EV middle-ground between being capable defensively and also powerful and fast enough offensively?
- What abilities can help alleviate the lack of moveslots, acting as an additional move for the purpose of either defense or cleaning?
- Can Relic Song be made into a useful attack for one or both forms, rather than just a transformation tool?
Its rare, however, for a mon to be able to be both a cleaner and defensive Pokémon. These two roles tend to sit at the far opposite ends of the spectrum in all ways- cleaners of the past are more likely to be single-use and aim for big hits, while defensive mons want to switch in and out all game and lean towards incremental damage that can stack up despite lack of investment, or performing other tasks to give their team an advantage. It'll be interesting to combine the two halves of the same strategy inside of one mon: the defensive mon "sets the stage" for the cleaner by crippling and chipping down the opposing team. It could also make the cleaner's job easier by enabling teammates such as wallbreakers to break down the opponent.
In CAP, we rarely explore the upper tier of speed- Hemogoblin being a rare exception, so a true cleaner in the ranks of Iron Val, Deoxys-Speed and Dragapult would be a new frontier for us.
Now, we have had all-rounders in the past- Cresceidon and arguably Kitsunoh could be called defensive mons that can clean- but these mons offer a very different playstyle thanks to their ability to attack and defend at once- Meloetta forms can be much more extreme in their offensive/defensive capabilities and also separate them from each other, resulting in the player needing to be more strategic. It should be a great way to explore the unique framework we find ourselves with.
I Can Do This All DayWIP
Name - Damned if you Do
Description - This Pokemon forces opponents to make sacrifices, expend resources, or enter disadvantageous game states in order to make progress against it.
Justification-
This is a Pokemon that always has an ace up its sleeve. It may wound an opponent while going down, or pose such an immediate threat that your opponent's team is staggered by it, or it may force opponents to slowly expend their resources over the course of the game, enabling a teammate to clean up later.
Pokemon exist which fulfill this to varying degrees. I think Roaring Moon is a decent embodiment of this concept, since it's often forcing a defensive tera, knocking boots, forcing less than optimal positioning by the opponent just to take it out, or just absolutely chunking things, etc. Or imagine being forced out and staring down an Enamorus behind a sub that hasn't burned tera yet. There are many different ways to explore this. What's notable for this framework is that the form change itself gives us really interesting ways to fulfill the concept in terms of positioning.
To be clear about this, this Pokemon will not generally turn losing situations into winning situations, since that becomes almost impossible to balance. It's just able to capitalize on good positioning to put your opponent in a bind, force concessions, or force your opponent to have to think twice about actions that would otherwise be free.
This process will allow us to take a deeper look at the complex decision making process when you click a move or make a switch. Every stage can play into the concept in concrete ways like contact punishing or a high speed stat forcing suboptimal positioning, or more abstract ways like the threat level we exhibit, the interplay between moves, or the ways we can allow teammates to capitalize on opponents who have overstepped.
Questions To Be Answered -
Explanation -
- Since sacrifice, risk, and reward are such a fundamental part of almost every interaction, how can we allow ourselves to be in the driver’s seat in these exchanges?
- In-battle sacrifices as I've defined them above are often mutual to some degree between you and your opponent– there is loss on both sides. If your full-health Ferrothorn dies to Close Combat but gets Iron Barbs damage off, that's rarely a worthwhile trade. What constitutes a successful sacrifice on your part? Is having more control than your opponent enough to stack the odds in your favor?
- How can we build this form change to be able to position ourselves favorably in most scenarios? Could a more defensive form and a more offensive form, running the same moveset, fulfill this concept in different ways?
- How can we take advantage of our own weaknesses, or allow our teammates to take advantage of potential counterplay?
- How can you take advantage of your own Pokemon taking damage or even fainting? Can we design a Pokemon where this is often a beneficial trade, even outside of roles like suicide lead?
- Can a Pokemon that forces sacrifice or risk from its opponent be low-risk itself? What does that look like?
- Some concrete ways of achieving this concept are inherently reactive rather than proactive. How can we achieve consistency while taking these routes?
- If we choose a team support-oriented route centered on baiting in opponents, can we be useful throughout a match regardless of a successful bait?
These "between a rock and a hard place" situations are very common in every match. Some examples: Moltres loves its boots, but if you knock them off you're risking a burn. Clicking Close Combat into a Rocky Helmet user forces you to sacrifice health. Checking a Knock Off user might mean you lose your boots. Hitting Bellibolt or Galarian Moltres risks powering it up. Ursaluna might force you to sack a mon to bring in a revenge killer safely. Dragapult might force in scarfers or Booster Energy Pokemon, locking the opponent into a move its teammates can take advantage of or using up their Booster Energy early. Roaring Moon might force a defensive tera in order to take it out. Every single time you send in a mon or click a move, there are potential downsides which you must factor into your decision making. Actions have consequences, even when they're the right choice.
This concept is centered around being in the driver’s seat in as many of these interactions as possible. This Pokemon will capitalize on good positioning, and will force the opponent to make risk/reward calculations frequently.
To illustrate a build that fulfills this concept, imagine a threatening offensive Substitute user (something like Sub Enamorus), where the immediate threat level can force a lot of game states in which you have more control and less risk than the opponent, and they may have to make sacrifices to get past you.
The concept also applies more generally to many forms of contact punishing or general move punishing, on-death effects, field effect setting where dying might be beneficial, conditional moves where the odds may be tilted in your favor, various aspects of the hazard game… there are a lot of cool applications.
Fighting Against the ExtremesFinal Submission
Name - I Can Do This All Day
Description - This CAP is best played when it can stay in for longer and uses its forme change as a pseudo-switch to enable itself to do so.
Justification - This CAP is an Actualization concept that explores how a Pokémon can be most effective when it can stay in without switching out. The design space is huge for how staying in for extra turns can benefit a Pokemon, such as: more passive healing or damage, to gain or keep stat boosts, PP stall, among others. Despite a few examples, I believe this concept is underexplored because of how switch-heavy the meta is, and this CAP will be a valuable addition to our understanding of the benefits of staying in.
The Meloetta-style forme change is an integral aspect of this CAP's longevity. It will be used as a pseudo-switch that allows the CAP to dynamically adjust its typing and stats to become a better matchup against the counters of one forme, which might be brought in to deal with it, while retaining all the benefits of staying in. The success of the two formes synergistically working off each other's attributes to be a stubborn stay in-er depends entirely on smart play and predicting opponent responses, adding a layer of skill to using the CAP. This dynamic play is in stark contrast to how this concept has been actualized in the past, with Pokemon that are more matchup-independent and can stay in against any opposition.
This concept also justifies the use of some underpowered moves (such as the 75 BP move for this CAP) or moves that only work for staying in (such as Protect or Substitute), which are otherwise not part of most Pokemon movesets. Thus, I believe this concept is rich in its capacity for us to learn more about what goes into switching or staying in, uniquely leveraging CAP36's framework to do so.
Questions To Be Answered -
Explanation -
- What benefits justify a Pokemon staying on for extended periods of time over the more conventional tactic of switching when convenient?
- How exactly does the Pokemon thrive by staying in: does it have aspects that work better with time, or does it simply not want to switch out?
- What qualities would help the CAP not become a sitting duck against typical progress-making or crippling attempts against it as it stays on the field, like status moves, Knock Off, Taunt/Encore?
- Which among defensive, offensive and utility roles can be enhanced best by staying in? Can the CAP run different roles with different sets?
- How do the two formes deal with each other's checks and counters through a change of typing and stats?
- How can we design the two formes so that there is minimal overlap between their counters?
- Given that the CAP will still have the same moves and thus an intended playstyle for one set, is it unavoidable that we would still have some blanket counters to it?
- How can this Pokemon, by strategically switching its matchups, itself force switches on the opponents' side? Is this interaction integral to its play?
- What moves can become viable because of the CAP's intention or capacity to stay in that would otherwise not be used very often?
- Compared to Pokemon that can stay in regardless of matchups, how does the skill-cap of making switches at the right time affect the CAP's allowed power level?
- Can we afford to give each forme more exploitable weaknesses in each forme if the other forme addresses these?
- Can we give the CAP a greater reward for staying in because it is not guaranteed?
- Does the fact that this Pokemon stays in for extended periods affect team building with it?
- Because the CAP's main playstyle is staying in, how exactly should it function suboptimally when it has to switch out often?
Switching is one of the most important aspects of decision-making in battle, allowing you (at the most fundamental level) to get out of a bad matchup into a good one. However, there are benefits of keeping a Pokémon in battle for extended periods that are I believe underexplored due to the metagame’s emphasis on switching. These can be broadly divided into Pokemon that excel at staying in, or mons that do not want to be switched out.
Mons that excel at staying in prevent opponents from making progress against them, while themselves making consistent progress. In SV OU, Gliscor can maximize the healing from its Poison Heal as well as the damage from Toxic by staying in and using Protect, while using Knock Off to remove opponent items. Garganacl can heal itself up while being immune to all status, while consistently dealing damage with Salt Cure (also using Protect to get an extra turn). Ting-Lu has ridiculous bulk, sets hazards, and resets opponents' progress against it with Rest. What is common among these Pokemon is resistance to damage, status or disrupting moves (like Knock Off). Another way of achieving this is by using Substitute, which prevents disrupting effects altogether. This strategy is exemplified in the Protect + Substitute + Pressure set on Kyurem, which PP stalls opponents while doling out damage with the great offensive combination of Ground and Ice moves. Harvest + Substitute is an annoying strategy on RandBats based on the same philosophy. All of these sets function by staying on for longer durations so that they get the most juice out of their unique weapons.
Mons that do not want to switch out easily either want to obtain stat boosts on a turn (e.g., Speed Boost Blaziken, Guts Ursaluna, Contrary Serperior) and/or retain them (e.g., Cosmic Power + Stored Power, one-time activation items or abilities, or cascading effects like Moxie or Beast Boost). The same strategy of using Protect or Substitute is also seen with some of these Pokemon, while others carefully bide their time before the perfect time to bring them in is seen.
However, these mons' strengths are very broad or matchup-independent. They depend on excellent typing, ability or Terastallization to make them have very few bad matchups (Gliscor, Tera Fairy Garganacl), ridiculous bulk (Ting-Lu), or the snowballing of their boosts either leads to a win or the Pokemon faints trying. This CAP aims to make something that is not as independent of matchups as these examples but involves skill in strategically switching up matchups through its forme change so that it can stay in. This means that each forme can have weaknesses, but these are mutually exclusive and cannot be taken advantage of by the same mon. This is somewhat "underpowered" compared to mons with no weaknesses and involves more risk, this also allows us to reward better play compared to the more autopilot way of playing the current examples. This could also open up the floor to make this CAP explore certain options that would be overpowered on a Pokemon with no matchup weaknesses.
The fact that opponents are forced to adjust to the CAP's formes by considering switching is also an excellent way to justify the 75 BP move, whose damage becomes more of a bonus, allowing mind games on whether to switch out against the mon. Thus, compared to what is currently available, the CAP community would get to apply its creativity to design a Pokemon that has a high skill... cap (*ba dum tss*), requires predictions by the user for optimal play, and whose ability to stay in is not a given, like current mons, but something that the user has to earn.
Stats of some mons that fit the concept use moves outlined in the explanation:
Most common users of Protect that are not Wish-passers, based on Feb OU Stats > 1825 (mons fitting the concept bolded):
Pokemon Name % of Sets with Protect (approximated to the nearest number) Gliscor 95 Kyurem 13 Garganacl 64 Blaziken 95 Heatran 7 Bronzong 99 Ursaluna 19
Most common users of Substitute, based on Feb OU Stats > 1825 (mons fitting the concept bolded):
Pokemon Name % of Sets with Substitute (approximated to the nearest number) Kyurem 26 Primarina 15 Walking Wake 6 Enamorus 8 Serperior 76 Skeledirge 14 Hydreigon 61
Thanks to viol and bass, AzothBend, Spammernoob, Antsaya, twoziel, and many others for their input on Discord (sorry if I haven't named you here, there are so many people who have helped me with this).
Duality of AbilityName - Fighting Against the Extremes
Description - The two forms of this Pokemon will be built to have a strong matchup against common Stall or Hyper Offensive team structures respectively but will be less useful or may even struggle against the other team archetype.
Justification-
One of the most important skills when team-building in competitive Pokemon is the ability to construct teams that can deal with opponents who forgo balanced structures in favor of the extremes i.e extreme defense (stall) or extreme offensive (hyper offense). These teams have inherently less flexibility in play style when compared to the more common balance or bulky offense structures seen in tournaments but nonetheless can extremely scary if your team does not have the right tools to combat them. There are many strategies one might employ to combat these structures, and a particularly common one is the use of stall-breakers that are teched to beat common stall structures but might be less useful against Hyper Offensive team structures (i.e Hoopa-Unbound or Gliscor). Although there isn't a community term for it, there are also plenty of Pokemon known for their strong matchups into hyper-offense (i.e Dragonite, Hemoglobin, and Zamazenta) but are consequently not known for having a particularly stellar matchup against Stall structures. This concept aims to utilize the inherent flexibility granted by being able to change forms based on matchup to explore what qualities might make a Pokemon good against these extreme matchups, what distinctions are made between stall breakers and "HO"-breakers, the overlap in tools that either might employ, and how slight differences in stats and typing can dramatically re-contextualize a Pokemon's role in a team.
Questions To Be Answered -
- What tools define a Pokemon's ability to do well against the "Extreme" Matchups?
- What tools (stats, ability, typing, moveset) are useful for combatting common Stall structures?
- What tools (stats, ability, typing, moveset) are useful for combatting common Hyper Offensive structures?
- Does being strong against Stall and Hyper-Offense imply only offensive-leaning builds, or can we lean into defense or utility to achieve our goals on either form?
- What tools overlap between these two roles, and which ones conflict?
- What Pokemon have been able to fulfill both duties, and what can we learn from them when creating our Pokemon?
- Given our shared moveset, how can we design a Pokemon that feels more useful against one structure than the other?
- Although this concept is focused on the extremes of stall and hyper offense, we must also consider the matchup into more balanced team structures as well:
- What should the game plan for this Pokemon look like against Balance?
- How do we ensure that our strengths into Stall and Hyper Offense don't become oppressive against Balanced structures?
- Which form should be the starting form, and which one should be the one summoned by using the move? How do we ensure that the starting form does not completely overshadow the summoned form?
- How do we work around the constraint of having one move slot taken up by the Relic Song Clone?
Explanation - One of the things I've always been fascinated with when doing competitive team-building has been the process of figuring out how combat the very common HO or Stall structures that you might see on the ladder. These team styles are very strong and tend to see a lot of use in competitive tournaments, but both structures will run into major problems if they face the wrong matchup in team preview.
At cursory glance, you might think that the key to having a Pokemon strong against Stall or Hyper-Offense is actually really simple. Against Stall, just build an extremely powerful Pokemon, preferably with bulk, but without the need for high speed investment (i.e Hoopa, Ursaluna, Heatran etc). Anti-HO, on the other hand, is a bit more nebulous to define due to the increased diversity of HO structures but typically a pokemon described as good into HO will have blindingly fast speed or some form of priority. However, if you peel back the layers, this simplistic distinction gets a bit more problematic because you can easily have pokemon with high bulk, power, but low speed being described as an amazing anti-offense mon (like Melmetal back in Gen 8 or Kingambit) and you can also have fast but relatively frail Pokemon that do well against Stall (like Knock-Off Iron Valiant or Taunt Roaring Moon). The ability to combat either extreme isn't really a binary but rather ends up in more of a spectrum that depends a lot on various attributes of the Pokemon. Still, there definitely still are distinctions between Pokemon that do well against Stall and Hyper-Offense, and I think that having essentially a 2-in-1 deal of a mon presents an interesting avenue to explore what distinguishes those two roles in the builder and also see the strength that comes from having increased flexibility in team composition after team preview. This is all without talking about other avenues we could use to achieve having a strong MU against HO or Stall respectively without needing to make two offensive pokemon. For example, pokemon like Slowking-Galar and Hisuian Samurott tend to have amazing matchups into Stall because of their respective utility while Pecharunt could be described as an amazing anti-HO pokemon precisely because of its ability to mess with setup sweepers.
Finally, one reason I think this particular concept works well among the various concepts we have about having two forms with different roles among the two forms is that I think it will help us avoid the Meloetta issue with one form standing out and basically becoming the sole form as the inherent strength of having good MUs against both archetypes while also having in-built weaknesses against the other would encourage players to use both forms in the teambuilder.
Name - Duality of Ability
Description - This pokemon utilises it's ability that is identical between forms in two different ways
Justification- A unique aspect of Meloetta's design is despite being a form change Pokemon, it has access to a standard ability. Unfortunately, Meloetta's ability, serene grace, does not play a significant role in it's viability, limited to essentially raising SpDef drop chances of Psychic / Shadow Ball / Focus Blast. It's effect on Pirouette is similarly weak and irrelevant, outside of boosting the odds of the initial Relic Song sleep. CAP36 aims to remedy this by not only have an ability that is actively contributing to it's battle prowess in every battle, but one that can serve two different purposes between two respective unique forms
Questions To Be Answered
Explanation - I feel like the best way to simplify what I'm talking about is to talk about the initial ability that inspired the concept, Unaware. Unaware is typically viewed as a defensive ability, an ability for walls to sit in front of set up sweepers and ignore their boosts. This ability also comes with the less used facet of being able to wall break defensive boosting Pokemon within the meta, such as the physically inclined Skarmory, Corviknight, Venomicon, Zamazenta, Hemogoblin, Garganacl, and Dondozo, or even calm mind users like Raging Bolt, Iron Crown, Clefable, Blissey and Iron Valiant. Utilising both a defensively oriented form, with limited attack investment, and an attacking oriented form, CAP36 would be able to both be able to serve as an Unaware wall, as well as an Unaware wallbreaker that only properly in either role in their proper forms.
- How can a single abillity serve multiple purposes?
- Theres no real precedent for an in-battle form-changing Pokemon that makes particular use of it's ability. With this in mind, what can be learned from other Pokemon that have multi-faceted abilities that either do or don't effectively utilise all the facets of the ability?
- How will the importance placed on CAP36's ability interact with it's stats and typing, and influence the other steps of the process?
- How do the trends of the metagame influence the chosen ability, and it's overall effectiveness?
- What opportunity costs would arise from using its ability in one form as opposed to another?
- In what ways can the "proper" usage of the forms ability be incentiviesed through the design process?
- Is niche "improper" usage of one forms ability a drawback of the design or a an interesting facet of the design?
- How can CAP36 be incentivised to click "Relic Song"
- Is there a notably "stronger half" to different multi-faceted abilities?
- Should the base form have a more niche or more relevant use-case than the transformed form?
Water Bubble - Definitely the most powerful example, and probably too overpowered, Water Bubble would allow a normally fire-weak or neutral defensive form to turn that weakness around, while giving an offensive form a significant power boost to it's water moves. The dodging burns aspect of the ability is appreciated by both defensive and offensive mons in it's own unique way as well, negating chip damage, or not suffering burns physical damage reduction
Storm Drain / Lightning Rod / Flash Fire etc. - Any of these abilities could be used to give a key immunity to the initial form, while providing the potential SpAtk buff to bolster the other form, that isn't at all concerned with being hit by the type that it's immune to. Potentially calls the concept into question due to the consistency of the offensive facet of these abilities coming into play however.
Wind Rider - Similar to above, but probably far too niche/specific, only relevant moves being Hurricane from Moltres/Zapdos/Venomicon/Tornadus-T (also blocking Bleakwind Storm in this case), Heat Wave from Zapdos, or Whirlwind from Ting-Lu
Well Baked Body - Also similar to above, but provides a defensive benefit as opposed to an offensive one, so would require a different approach to the roles of the form than one for offense and one for defense
Grassy / Psychic / Electric Terrain - All 3 of these terrains have pretty obvious offensive benefit in potentially buffing key STAB attacks of an offensive form, with all of their defensive/utility benefit being a lot more up for debate. I'd say grassy sticks out as the obvious one that makes the most sense to the concept, with both it's healing and earthquake-halfing properties being pretty obviously defensively oriented, and similar to all the other above ideas, making a defensive form eq weak, and an offensive one not scared of eq could fire off grass type attacks. However, both are benefitting from the best part of grassy terrain being the passive regen, and I think that somewhat goes against the concept. Psychic Terrain and Electric Terrain both feel weird but could work, as one doesn't have a defensive benefit, and the others defensive benefit is very geared towards enabling offensive strategies rather than reinforcing defenses, but theres potential for one form to be built to be a pure setter/utility mon, with the other being an offensive abuser of the terrains. I didn't include misty terrain due to there not being offensive properties, but there is some potential for it's two different defensive properties to both benefit one form but not another
Weather Setting Abilities - I feel like the other paragraphs inform this one enough where I don't have to go overboard, but put simply, another ability that has both unique offensive and defensive properties.
Download - Very different from the other examples, but one form could utilise the physical boost, and the other the special boost provided by download, were a mixed CAP36 to be decided on
Serene Grace - A bit too extensive to cover comprehensively, maybe will edit more later. Meloettas failure to use this ability succesfully is briefly addressed in my Justication, so this one is interesting. Potentially one form could be aiming to spread status effects, with another form being able to fish for fast flinches, guaranteed charge beam/fiery dance boosts or other things. Undoubtably a lot more possibilities to this one.
Beast Boost - This one is illegal, but it's probably one of the clearest routes to achieving the concept so i'll keep it even if just as an impossible example. CAP36 would be able to switch between two forms that have two different highest stats, using the ability to get different boosts.
Once again, your options are:
Defensive Transformation
Help Yourself
Damned if You Do
I Can Do This All Day
Fighting Against the Extremes
Duality of Ability
Please ensure your ballot uses the concept names listed above in bold and not the usernames of the submitters. Please do not feel rushed, and instead ensure you make an informed decision!
This poll will be open for 24 hours.
