CAP 36 So Far
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After a great discussion led by our Ability Leader, Earthflax, we will be deciding on CAP 36's ability through two series of polls. If you haven't taken the chance to read through the thread, please refer to the Ability Discussion thread here to make an informed decision when submitting your ballot! Lastly, here are the descriptions for each ability slated, pulled from Earthflax's final post here.
No Guard
This Ability has seen a level of support that I've never observed before this early into a process, and it is obvious why many contributors think so highly of it. No Guard is a foolproof way to ease the movepool issue that CAP36 is bound to face; with moves such as Inferno now open for practical, consistent use, No Guard allows CAP36 to deal damage and provide other utility at the same time. A 100% accurate Blizzard and accuracy boosts to several other inaccurate moves showcases the second positive aspect of No Guard, namely its potential for more flexibility in the Stats stage; moves with a higher BP could potentially allow iterations with lower offenses to shine.
Lightning Rod
Broadly speaking, the Abilities that have been discussed in this stage have fallen into two loose groups: "overall good abilities" and "matchup enablers". While Lightning Rod falls into the latter camp, its practicality should not be ignored. Lightning Rod provides both an immunity and a deterrent to Electric-type moves. Any would-be Thunder Wave and Volt Switch users, in particular, must click with caution, because a savvy switch-in could lead to a massive shift in momentum as well as a Special Attack boost for CAP36 that could be very tricky to deal with.
Regenerator
Many would call Regenerator boring and many would call it uncreative. For the second straight time as Ability Leader, I concur with those statements while simultaneously placing Regenerator on the slate, purely because of what no one will ever dispute: it's just a really, really good Ability. While it doesn't provide a great deal of focus, it enables various moves and stat spreads that enable different (but still concept-pursuant) gameplans. I disagree with the idea that this Ability will completely disincentivize changing forms/carrying CAP Song, but I do understand the concerns; in my eyes, though, that is a risk that is more than manageable.
Purifying Salt
On top of a status immunity, Purifying Salt helps to improve CAP36's (admittedly already good) matchups into Ghost types. On the former trait, and in comparison with Lightning Rod, I would call this Ability a catch-all: On top of an immunity to Thunder Wave, Purifying Salt also provides immunity to (rare) Glare and Stun Spore use, and also covers fringe cases such as getting Poisoned while transformed. The in-game upside that Lightning Rod derives from Paralysis attempts is obviously not present with Purifying Salt, but it does provide interesting alternative traits that can be harnessed well in future stages.
Storm Drain
As similar as this Ability seems to Lightning Rod, the way it would play on CAP36 is (obviously) drastically different. A Water immunity would change many of CAP36's more vulnerable matchups, including versus strong attackers such as Primarina and Walking Wake, while also shutting down pivoting nonsense from the likes of Alomomola. While this Ability does not solidify a role, it flips many matchups that can improve CAP36's upside across the board.
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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.
Bold your votes and nothing else!
A typical vote might look like the following:
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.
CAP uses blind voting. Other people's votes won't appear in the thread, but they are counted and will be made visible at the end of the voting timeframe. For more information about this change, check out this PRC thread.
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.
The voting options are:
No Guard
Lightning Rod
Regenerator
Purifying Salt
Storm Drain
This poll will be open for 24 hours.
-----
After a great discussion led by our Ability Leader, Earthflax, we will be deciding on CAP 36's ability through two series of polls. If you haven't taken the chance to read through the thread, please refer to the Ability Discussion thread here to make an informed decision when submitting your ballot! Lastly, here are the descriptions for each ability slated, pulled from Earthflax's final post here.
No Guard
This Ability has seen a level of support that I've never observed before this early into a process, and it is obvious why many contributors think so highly of it. No Guard is a foolproof way to ease the movepool issue that CAP36 is bound to face; with moves such as Inferno now open for practical, consistent use, No Guard allows CAP36 to deal damage and provide other utility at the same time. A 100% accurate Blizzard and accuracy boosts to several other inaccurate moves showcases the second positive aspect of No Guard, namely its potential for more flexibility in the Stats stage; moves with a higher BP could potentially allow iterations with lower offenses to shine.
Lightning Rod
Broadly speaking, the Abilities that have been discussed in this stage have fallen into two loose groups: "overall good abilities" and "matchup enablers". While Lightning Rod falls into the latter camp, its practicality should not be ignored. Lightning Rod provides both an immunity and a deterrent to Electric-type moves. Any would-be Thunder Wave and Volt Switch users, in particular, must click with caution, because a savvy switch-in could lead to a massive shift in momentum as well as a Special Attack boost for CAP36 that could be very tricky to deal with.
Regenerator
Many would call Regenerator boring and many would call it uncreative. For the second straight time as Ability Leader, I concur with those statements while simultaneously placing Regenerator on the slate, purely because of what no one will ever dispute: it's just a really, really good Ability. While it doesn't provide a great deal of focus, it enables various moves and stat spreads that enable different (but still concept-pursuant) gameplans. I disagree with the idea that this Ability will completely disincentivize changing forms/carrying CAP Song, but I do understand the concerns; in my eyes, though, that is a risk that is more than manageable.
Purifying Salt
On top of a status immunity, Purifying Salt helps to improve CAP36's (admittedly already good) matchups into Ghost types. On the former trait, and in comparison with Lightning Rod, I would call this Ability a catch-all: On top of an immunity to Thunder Wave, Purifying Salt also provides immunity to (rare) Glare and Stun Spore use, and also covers fringe cases such as getting Poisoned while transformed. The in-game upside that Lightning Rod derives from Paralysis attempts is obviously not present with Purifying Salt, but it does provide interesting alternative traits that can be harnessed well in future stages.
Storm Drain
As similar as this Ability seems to Lightning Rod, the way it would play on CAP36 is (obviously) drastically different. A Water immunity would change many of CAP36's more vulnerable matchups, including versus strong attackers such as Primarina and Walking Wake, while also shutting down pivoting nonsense from the likes of Alomomola. While this Ability does not solidify a role, it flips many matchups that can improve CAP36's upside across the board.
-----
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.
Bold your votes and nothing else!
A typical vote might look like the following:
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.
- The scripts count bold words in ballots, so do NOT bold anything in your ballot other than the options you are voting for.
- Do NOT put any formatting other than bold in your post.
- Only one option per line.
- The spelling of options must be EXACTLY correct and must match the spelling listed above.
- Capitalization and spaces are ignored by the vote counting scripts, but you probably should not depend on it.
CAP uses blind voting. Other people's votes won't appear in the thread, but they are counted and will be made visible at the end of the voting timeframe. For more information about this change, check out this PRC thread.
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.
The voting options are:
No Guard
Lightning Rod
Regenerator
Purifying Salt
Storm Drain
This poll will be open for 24 hours.
Last edited by a moderator:
