After reviewing the results, three concepts are moving on.
Due to this being a clickable poll, I will not allow posts such as "I voted for Smelly Dan." Put some substance into your posts. Discussion is strongly encouraged at this point. What did you like about the concept you voted? What did you not like about the concept you didn't vote? Show some support for your favourite!
Concepts in the order they were submitted:
Due to this being a clickable poll, I will not allow posts such as "I voted for Smelly Dan." Put some substance into your posts. Discussion is strongly encouraged at this point. What did you like about the concept you voted? What did you not like about the concept you didn't vote? Show some support for your favourite!
Concepts in the order they were submitted:
Rising_Dusk said:Name - Winter Wonderland
Description - A Pokemon that can take advantage of Hail in some form.
Justification - Face it, Hail sucks in the current metagame. When you look at the auto-weather starter being 4x weak to Fire, the entire lot of Pokemon that abuse it being weak to Stealth Rock, and the utter lack of very effective sweepers under Hail, you can immediately see why its usage is practically nonexistent and it's primary mode of use is "Hail Stall." Hail in itself, though, is not much worse off compared to other weather effects; it is primarily limited in the Pokemon that can take advantage of it successfully. This concept attempts to explore the depth to which Hail could become successful in the OU metagame through creating a Pokemon that interacts with it on some fundamental level and fixes - or helps to fix - many of the problems Hail-themed teams run into in the current OU metagame.
Questions To Be Answered -
Explanation - 4th generation is marked by much excitement for the "auto Hail-inducing" Pokemon. When it came, it wasn't all that people were hoping for. Furthermore, all of the Pokemon that appeared in the metagame to assist Abomasnow in its job did nothing to negate the severe weaknesses that come with Ice-typing with Stealth Rock around or the general lack of type diversity allowed on Hail teams. Lastly, in terms of weather, Hail is the only other one besides Sandstorm available permanently in the OU metagame, so this doesn't make it unfamiliar or bizarre to the common player.
- Can Hail become a legitimate, non-gimmick strategy in OU with better Pokemon to take advantage of it?
- Can Hail effectively function in a manner other than HailStall?
- Will a greater prevalence of Hail decentralize the weather metagame from around Sandstream users?
- In what interesting ways can we develop a Hail-based Pokemon other than what we've already seen?
This Pokemon could be any number of things. It could use either Snow Warning itself to be a starter of Hail, serving a different role than Abomasnow, or it could run Snow Cloak / Ice Body without having the Ice-typing of the other users. It could still be Ice-typing, but could otherwise be anything. It doesn't even really need any of the obvious abilities or typing, though, as a Pokemon could simply be designed to function effectively as another Pokemon in Hail. Heatran comes to mind as a common Hail supporter for its ability to take Fire-type attacks with ease and set up Stealth Rock for the Hail team. Furthermore, the concept could either make a sweeper or a defensive Pokemon, although I feel that a bulky attacker on the order of Tyranitar might help Hail the absolute most. The ability for this Pokemon to go toe-to-toe with Tyranitar and fare well would alone provide an interesting point of study for the OU metagame. What happens when Tyranitar isn't the baddest weather-user on the block anymore? I'd like to find out.
Vader said:Name: Clean-Up Kid
General Description: A Pokemon capable of cleaning up lategame, but incapable of outright sweeping.
Justification: In the current OU Metagame, Pokemon can largely be lumped into three broad categories: Sweeper, Wall and Supporter. However, no Pokemon exists solely for the purpose of cleaning up lategame or revenge-killing Pokemon. They all have some means of sweeping. Scizor can use a SD set, and Choiced Pokemon have poor type coverage, leading to their ultimate downfall.
Questions To Be Answered:
-Is it possible to create a Pokemon who can clean without sweeping?
-How much of an effect does movepool have on a Pokemon's ability to clean-up compared to stats and ability?
-Which OU Pokemon are the most likely targets that need cleaning?
-How much does speed affect a Pokemon's ability to clean up?
-How will teams that don't rely on residual damage adapt to a cleaner?
Explanation: Ever since Deoxys-Speed left OU due to its insane set-up capabilities, there has been a sort of gulf in the metagame. No Pokemon is as capable of outspeeding and finishing off weak Pokemon. I envision mediocre stats beyond Speed as well as a fairly large movepool to allow it to clean up. I don’t have any typings in mind, but I’d probably go with a good defensive typing to allow it some longevity. I would also expect no stat-up or set-up moves in the movepool, because that just turns it into a sweeper. I also don’t have an ability in mind.
This poll will close tomorrow at 3 pm EST. Go!DougJustDoug said:Name: Perfect Mate
General Description: Pick a good-but-not-great OU pokemon, and design the perfect teammate for it, similar to the way Celebi & Heatran, or Blissey & Skarmory complement each other so well on competitive teams.
Justification:
This would allow us to explore in detail how synergy between two pokemon can be achieved, because currently there are only a few perfect teammates in OU. And depending on the base pokemon we choose to give a "perfect mate", we can open a new niche in the metagame based around the efficient pairing.
The niche we create will be inherently tied to an existing pokemon in the metagame, which should provide a natural limitation to prevent this concept from being broken or "too different" from standard OU.
Questions To Be Answered:
- Is the base pokemon's usefulness (and usage) in the metagame increased as a result of having a "perfect mate"?
- What strategies are more effective for the base pokemon, as a result of having a perfect teammate?
- What are the most effective aspects of the new pokemon, for purposes of making a great teammate with the base pokemon?
- Is the new pokemon viable in the metagame without the base pokemon as a teammate?
Explanation:
This concept is very similar to the "Partner in Crime" concept proposed back in CAP 7. But, with all the changes in the CAP process, and stagnation in the metagame, I think this is a good time for the CAP community to focus on the competitive factors of synergy between pokemon.
I envision we will pick a base pokemon during the Concept Assessment. We will make a case to the TL for a good-but-not-great OU pokemon and the characteristics of that pokemon's "perfect mate". The Topic Leader would then select their favorite. We could even rename the concept to "<Pokemon>'s Perfect Mate" from that point forward.
It think we could have some fantastic discussions every step of the way, dissecting the base pokemon in exacting detail to figure out the best way to make an ideal teammate. If we choose the right base pokemon, we might even breathe some new life into a sentimental favorite, that isn't quite up to top-OU standards on its own.