If I may, I'd like to respond to some of the submittals from the last twenty-four hours.
Name: Pair of OU CAP with the same Uber restricted gimmick.
Description: A Pokémon pair usable in OU, but with a forme, signature item, or such that's restricted to Uber.
Explanation: Having a single restriction for 2 Pokémon without banning the Pokémon themselves would be an interesting competitive and flavor design, while also giving both OU and Uber new tools to play with.
In generation 3 & 4 the Lati twins signature item, the Soul Dew, was banned giving a 1.5 physical/special attack boost to two really good Pokémon. Single spices examples in later generations introduce Pokémon like Kyurem and Zygarde, and powerful Mega evolutions like Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Gangar, who has the power to go head-to-head with Uber Pokémon (mostly) yet happily exists in lower tiers.
(I originally was going to say box cover pair for OU and Uber, since I didn't want the new mons unusable in the main OU tier, yet not underpowered for box cover mons. But I generalized it since box cover Pokémon has been mentioned twice here already.)
This is an interesting suggestion, but designing content for Ubers play specifically intending for it
not to see the light of day is contrary to what we actually do here. Remember that CAP is founded upon OU. There is no such thing as CAP Ubers (at least currently).
Your concept invites us to develop an item that will never be used in CAP or an entire
form change that will never be used in CAP—which begs the question: what part of this project
is actually meant for CAP? To use your example, Pokémon A minus Mega Pokémon A equals... Pokémon A. The same holds if we decide it should have a super-exclusive item that it's simply not allowed to use in standard play. I have misgivings about this concept because it does not give us a profile for what "Pokémon A" should actually be—because practically that's all the CAP tier would be left to work with.
Name: Fight for your right to vote CAP
Description: Instead of voting as a community, only a small number of participants will gain the chance to select one aspect of the CAP per competitive stage from a community made slate, through winning a CAP SS tournament.
Explanation: The idea is to play around with what community based voting can be and to bring a more competitive aspect into the creation of our CAPs (as its name implies).
Instead of giving everyone the right to vote in a modern democratic process, this framework will return to the archaic rule of the toughest and give the opportunity to cast a vote to only a a few or even just a single player per competitive stage.
This right to vote will be achieved through winning a tournament, where anyone can register to compete for the spot at the top.
This will be the only change to the usual process though.
The competitive aspects like typing, Ability, stats, moves etc will still be discussed by the community lead by a TLT and made into a regular slate by intelligent community consensus determined by the TLT.
I imagine that the registration for the tour opens concurrently to each competitive stage of the process and runs until the slate is finished.
As an example the ability stage would run like this:
The Community discusses the ability according to the necessities of the chosen concept = Signups for the Tournament for the ability stage open and run during that time > The TLT chooses a slate > The tournament is held and the winner is allowed to chose one of the slated abilities > the next stage commences
As for the tournament mode I think a ladder tour alike to a suspect test, where participants create a registered alt and play ladder games would be best to handle the amount of registrations.
I imagine the Runtime between 24 and 48 hours to give everyone time to play but also keep it short enough.
I think it might be cool to add a best of top x play off, where the top x ladder players play each other in a small scale tour format (maybe something like the roomtours) to ensure at least a small amount of high quality games for the top players.
But all of the specifics will be open to be determined by the community.
Of all the concepts presented thus far, I am leeriest about this one. CAP is already seen as a highfalutin, inaccessible club by a significant portion of guests on PS, and this concept plays right into that image. Deliberately disenfranchising everyone unprepared to christen an army of alts and grind the ladder for hours at a time is a move that restricts newcomers from participating and concentrates power in the hands of the current snake draft crowd. While I can recognize that this concept carefully leaves discussion and slating untouched, it still means most contributors are left to sit on their thumbs while the TLT and tournament elite do everything.
Am I nuts for thinking this would be unhealthy?
Name: Heavy Duty Boots Ability CAP
Description: A CAP pokemon with an ability that is a clone of heavy duty boots
Restrictions:
- Has to have at least one of its abilities be a clone of heavy duty boots
Explanation: Ever since the introduction of hazards the metagame has changed Pokemon have completely lost viability or had to have team members to stop stealth rocks from getting up/removing them, toxic spikes allowing every Pokemon on your team to be poisoned with the click of a single move. Then gen 8 came around and added in the heavy duty boots allowing Pokemon to relieve themselves from the threat of hazards at the cost of their item slot. I think CAP 30 getting heavy duty boots as an ability so it can also hold an item would be an interesting concept, would the CAP fill in a more defensive role, or does it use its ability to hold a choice band and sweep?
Questions to be Answered:
- How does a pokemon that has heavy duty boots as an ability with the power to still hold another item effect the metagame
This... is Magic Guard. You are talking about Magic Guard.
Magic Guard, which has already seen extensive use in CAP and been the subject of a mega post in every primary ability discussion since CAP21 (at least), Chromera notwithstanding. The only hazard that Magic Guard does not cover is Sticky Web, which goes unmentioned here.
If there is a solid reason why we should develop an ability that negates all hazards, including Sticky Web, I am all for hearing it. Otherwise, I feel like this concept more than any other aspires to reinvent the wheel. Syclant, CAP01, received a custom ability to negate Stealth Rock. With all respect, I have difficulty seeing what new insights we can glean from this concept that we haven't laid bare in thirteen or so years of dancing around entry hazards like this.