Other Metagames 4CAP Stall, peak #6-#8

My main preferred playstyle is a lot of bulky pivots along with one or two extremely high damage Pokemon. In past generations I used Tapu Lele and Equilibra's Doom Desire, and recently I used Chien-Pao for this. When it was banned, I found the team functioned almost as well without it, and since I've had sustained success with the team, with a couple of weaknesses I want to shore up, I decided it would be a good RMT candidate. I'm not entirely certain on the team's peak, as I didn't screenshot it; it could have been anything between #4 and #8, but if I had to guess I would say #6. The team is currently standing at #10 and also #15 on the CAP ladder, both at or above 80% GXE.

While the team carries no clear game plan, it does have a strategy of shutting down the opponent's ability to make progress while making incremental progress of its own, taking beneficial trades where necessary. The main pieces in its toolbox for making progress are:
  1. Hazards (carried by Arghonaut and Ting-Lu)
  2. Status (carried by Garganacl and Snaelstrom)
  3. Knock Off (Arghonaut)
  4. Threat of setting up to sweep (Venomicon and Garganacl)
and its toolbox for preventing progress from the opponent consists of
  • Extreme Bulk
  • Reliable Recovery (Venomicon, Arghonaut, Garganacl, Snaelstrom)
  • Knock Off absorbers (Snaelstrom, sometimes Venomicon)
  • Status Absorber (Snaelstrom, Garganacl, sometimes Equilibra)
  • Rapid Spin (Snaelstrom and Equilibra)
  • Phazing (Arghonaut and Ting-Lu)

Cookbook (Venomicon) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Stamina
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Hurricane
- Body Press
- Roost

This set may appear unorthodox, with a set-up move only used for one attack, but is makes Venomicon extremely valuable, carrying the team to a win single-handedly more than any other member. Stamina+Roost allows it to hard wall many physical attackers that would seem to 2HKO it, and the threat of setting up to +4 and sweeping forces these attackers to switch out sooner rather than later, reducing the damage pressure on Venomicon. No Venomicon should ever not run Roost, and the two attacks are chosen for type coverage as well as the flexibility of mixed attacks. For any set which wants to threaten a sweep, full special defense is optimal since otherwise it is quite vulnerable to random coverage moves or even strong neutral STABs. HDB is there to make it a better pivot when rocks have not been spinned away yet, and Steel Tera as an emergency option, but neither of these has much of an impact on how Venomicon is used. Be aware that 70% accuracy will feel like 40%.

Calamari (Arghonaut) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Circle Throw
- Knock Off
- Spikes
- Recover

Arghonaut has been strong for as long as I have played CAP. Its Unaware ability defines the landscape of set-up sweepers in CAP, and its diverse movepool makes it useless against nothing. Against passive Pokemon you can set up Spikes, against sweepers you can circle throw them away, when you take damage you can recover it back, and every Pokemon enjoys its item slot, especially Krilowatt, one of the better threats to Arghonaut. I ran defensive EVs when Chien-Pao was in the metagame, but it's no longer necessary, and the special attackers in the tier are more important to answer. Fairy Tera is a nice emergency button to press either to become neutral to Jumbao's attacks, or to take a Dragon-type attack from Miasmaw or Walking Wake. Leftovers make it bulkier, I don't know what to say. If the ladder were more populated I might run Covert Cloak to beat Garganacl, but I rarely see it.

Scale (Equilibra) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Earth Power
- Flash Cannon
- Rapid Spin
- Protect

Last generation Equilibra was the star of my main team, dishing out unavoidable KOs with its Doom Desire. But after I stopped crying over the move being snapped, I found that even with just Flash Cannon it could still provide strong pivoting potential, with a typing+ability combination that makes it the perfect rapid-spinner (taking no damage from spikes and 1/32 from stealth rock) and taking effectively nothing from either end of the EdgeQuake attacking type combo. Equilibra especially synergizes with Arghonaut, taking Toxic and Fairy or Flying-type attacks while Arghonaut takes the Water/Fire attacks Equilibra can't. Equilibra's limited health is bolstered by Protect-doubled Leftovers, and I've had many matches where even after being knocked down to almost no HP (often in exchange for a full KO) it finds switch-in opportunities to gradually build that health back. I'm not sure Fire Tera is the best, and having some EVs in special attack may be worth it, but this set has been working well enough for me.

Saltshaker (Garganacl) @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Salt Cure
- Recover

Garganacl is the most recent addition to the team, and it's been astoundingly useful. Purifying Salt makes Garganacl one of the 4/6 Pokemon on the team that doesn't care about getting Toxic'd, and a great switch-in to Pokemon that like to spam Thunder Wave. Salt Cure is of course the most important move on the set, beating out even Recover, because of how many switches it forces, switches that incur damage from hopefully already-set-up hazards. Often progress can be made through low-risk double switches brought about by Salt Cure. I'm less sure about the set-up set here with Iron Defense, but Garganacl cleans up against so many teams that it's hard to lose the option, and Body Press is necessary to get some of the quick KOs onto e.g. Chromera or Equilibra I wanted. Tera-type Ghost is amazing, makes Garganacl a spinblocker not weak to Ghost. It's one of the most common terastallizations for me to do.

Escargot (Snaelstrom) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

Snaelstrom has a good reputation in CAP, now that Recover has been added to its movepool, and it's worked okay as a pivot for me, but its weakness to Stealth Rock and weaker bulk means it too often is knocked out in the early stages of a match. Still, it's a secondary rapid-spinner, which is important for the many cases where Equilibra can't switch in, and the ability to absorb anything an opposing Snaelstrom does and then U-turn out to Venomicon or Garganacl is really useful. Its health is simultaneously more vulnerable to knock off (double the healing foregone if Toxic Orb is knocked off before taking effect) and much less vulnerable to it (no reason to keep the toxic orb once Snaelstrom is poisoned). I'm sure Snaelstrom is a good Webs setter, but this team really doesn't care about speed, so I prefer to threaten Arghonaut and Volcarona and Miasmaw with Toxic, and to have U-turn for the power of a slow-pivot. Dragon Tera is for Caribolt.

Venison (Ting-Lu) @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Ruination
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind

Ting-Lu is the member of this team I've most tried to replace, because its recovery is much weaker than even Equilibra's, and it can't even dish out good damage in most cases. But whenever I try to replace it with Scream Tail or something else, I find out that I was relying on its stats+ability to make it a one-time stop to sweeps with Whirlwind, and relying on Stealth Rock being up at least some of the game. Poison Tera is really good on Ting-Lu because it lets it become the 5th Pokemon on the team to not care about Toxic (even absorbing Toxic Spikes) and because this team is otherwise really weak to Cawmodore.

Weaknesses:
  • Trick - None of the members of this team appreciate a Choice Scarf
  • Miasmaw - the Pokemon in this team rely so heavily on their abilities to work that Miasmaw becomes a massive threat, specifically Loaded Dice Swords Dance Miasmaw
  • Walking Wake - I've been sometimes able to deal with it through very aggressively covering for it, but even with Tera-Fairy Arghonaut it is impossible to switch in on, and Sun is much easier to use in CAP thanks to Jumbao.
  • Cawmodore - More common on low ladder where it's badly misplayed, Cawmodore played carefully will beat me if it can avoid being salt cured or phazed out after the use of its sitrus berry. Stealth Rock for the chip is essential to get up against Cawmodore teams.
  • Caribolt - Electric/Grass is nearly perfect coverage against the team. If I can't Tera Snaelstrom to Dragon to take the Electric/Grass coverage that's otherwise perfect, there's a real chance I get swept even if Caribolt has only gotten in one SD.
  • Orthworm - Its Earth Eater ability makes it too strong a switch-in to Equilibra for the team to handle it properly, and it's normally played on Hyper Offence teams which can tear the team apart (often with one of the Pokemon listed directly above)
  • Venomicon-Epilogue - The damage on this thing's Brave Bird will never not get a KO. At least it KOs itself too.
  • Technician Breloom
  • Nasty Plot Gholdengo
  • Amongus
  • Special Syclant
Individually difficult Pokemon I can play around because I know my own team well, but against Sun and Hyper Offense I really struggle. Can I get some advice?
 

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