CAP 30 - Part 16 - Flavor Ability Discussion

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I would like to second Liquid Ooze and Poison Point as great choices for the flavour ability! The Liquid Ooze comes from the literal liquid ooze all around the book, and the poison point of course refers to the point on the quill.

I am not as much of a fan of Power of Alchemy. In this case, its original name is referring to the science of alchemy (kagaku, chemistry) rather than the more fantastic and magical version that would be fitting Venomicon (renkinjutsu, alchemy)

One more ability that I think is worth some discussion is Trace. The flavour is obvious, given that it refers to tracing and is also found on a lot of mystical Pokemon, but does it run the risk of being used over Stamina?

Two more abilities are both related to precognition, Forewarn and Anticipation. Of the two, I think Anticipation has more relevance, as it is a generally type neutral ability which translated to Danger Premonition, while Forewarn is exclusive to psychic types, most of which have sleep flavour as the name translates to Prophetic Dream. A book that tells the future is rather mystical and eerie, fitting the flavour, and I think that fits Anticipation rather well.
 

dex

Hard as Vince Carter’s knee cartilage is
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Unfortunately I think Gooey would have a fair number of competitive implications. Given that Cotton Down was talked about a fair amount during movepool discussions (Granted Gooey is weaker since it only works with contact moves, but what it does is exactly the same) and how Speed is widely considered to be the most important stat in the game, it isn't exactly out of the question for people to want to use Gooey over Stamina as a way to have Venomicon form as a minor form of Speed Control at the cost of physical bulk.
There is literally no way Gooey would ever in a million years be run over Stamina. The ability does next to nothing, especially in the face of Stamina, which has a much better time deterring contact moves. Especially considering how slow Venomicon is, Gooey is fine to include as a flavor option.

One more ability that I think is worth some discussion is Trace. The flavour is obvious, given that it refers to tracing and is also found on a lot of mystical Pokemon, but does it run the risk of being used over Stamina?
Trace, on the other hand, does have competitive implications. As was mentioned on Discord, Trace lets Venomicon full-wall both Heatran and Zeraora. While it already matches up well into the former, straight up winning vs. Zeraora probably shouldn't be a thing it can do.
 
One more ability that I think is worth some discussion is Trace. The flavour is obvious, given that it refers to tracing and is also found on a lot of mystical Pokemon, but does it run the risk of being used over Stamina?
(Note: this was written before dex posted.)
I think Trace does have a pretty sizable risk of getting used. Jumbao is a demonstration of how useful Trace can be as an ability, given that it allows it to steal all sort of abilities and flip some matchups on their head. You can steal Regenerator for extra health, Flash Fire or Volt Absorb to dominate Heatran and straight up switch into Zeraora, Magic Guard to avoid passive damage (although this one is lessened by the already-existing Poison immunity), and more possibilities that I am likely missing. Maybe it doesn't completely outperform Stamina, as Trace only works on switch-in and not every Pokemon has a relevant ability to take compared to Stamina being constantly active, but I think it is too competitive to be truly considered flavor, especially for the ability to completely shut down Heatran and block a potential check.

One more thing I want to point out is that the translation on Power of Alchemy is weird. The Japanese translation, according to Bulbapedia, is Power of Chemistry (putting it through Google Translate gives "power of science"), and many of Alolan Muk's Pokedex entries reference the many chemical reactions that happen within its body. This personally spoils the flavor for me, as it is less magic and more science, although others may feel differently.

As for abilities I do like, Poison Point is pretty high on my list. I'd also like to put Synchronize on the table, as magical objects sometimes have a tendency to get back at whoever harmed them.
 
Aerilate could work as a flavor ability, since Venomicon's movepool doesn't include any strong normal attacks that could outclass Hurricane after the Aerilate boost.
 

Unsee

so smart me, enjoy book so much
is an Artist
I’d like to throw Quick Draw into the mix! Though it’s a different interpretation than its original usage with Galarian Slowbro, I love a good drawing pun for a sentient quill pen. I don’t think it would step on any metagame toes, as Stamina is the superior choice over such a chance-based ability, but it’s not without its possible perks for the rare, creative, anti-meta player.

(but god I wish I could submit Schooling)
 
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shnowshner

You've Gotta Try
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Angry Reacts only

Submitting Levitate

You see, Flying-type Pokemon have always held a close association to all assortments of real life flying animals, such as birds (Pidgeot, Skarmory), bats (Crobat, Swoobat), winged insects (Butterfree, Yanmega), winged dragons (Dragonite, Salamence), wyverns (Noivern), wingless dragons (Gyarados), wingless birds (Dodrio), pre-avian dinosaurs (Archeops), rays (Mantine), squirrels (Emolga), djinn (Landorus), cats (Landorus), baloons (Drifblim), meteorites (Minior), space shuttles (Celesteela), dandelions (Hoppip), and [REDACTED] entities (Sigilyph). All of these are creatures that roam the land and skies: the beasts of the world who reign over their lofty domain and inspire awe to those who may be blessed to witness them.

Now, our hardcover friend here is not an animinals. Anyone who has taken courses in biology would be aware of this, which does leave me concerned for winning artist Unsee, but I shouldn't let realism get in the way of creative liberties. Do consider retaking biology, however.

The good news is that Levitate provides us an out for this predicament, as it was the exact solution GameFreak used for Rotom-Fan. When deciding on what elemental attacks the various Rotom-forms would use, they had settled on Water, Fire, Ice, and Air, while also including Nature to tie them all together. Since Rotom isn't a living creature in the traditional sense, all its forms are appliances: this includes the Flying variant, which is based on the very inorganic dollar store fan. Not a bad solution, as fans are capable of blowing air like wind, but how could Rotom truly work as a Flying type if it was an inanimate object? You'd end up with a Flying type that couldn't fly.

Levitate rectifies this issues as its properties work independent one's status as an organism. Various nonliving Pokemon have Levitate, like Bronzong (bells), Chimecho (chimes), Cryogonal (snowflakes), Solrock (meteorites), Carnivine (plants), and Vikavolt (beetles). Thus, Rotom-Fan is able to function as a regular Flying-type in spite of how it clashes with the rest of its family, all because GameFreak had the foresight to endow it with Levitate.

It should be our rightful duty to follow in the footsteps as our predecessors, as we have been doing with our meticulously-designed CAP creations, and grant Venomicon with the Levitate it so badly desires, so it may not be the subject of scorn and redicule among its peers. We only have one shot at this, and I urge the community to get it right.
 

Da Pizza Man

Pizza Time
is a Pre-Contributor
Angry Reacts only
No. I give you Haha Reacts instead.

But to give this post some actual substance, yeah I've changed my mind about Gooey. After looking for certain situations where it could be useful, legitimately all I found was us being able to switch into Surging Strikes from Urshifu and revenge killing it, which is such a small niche that it's not worth giving up Stamina for. Probably still not going to vote for it though since I'm not the biggest fan of Sticky Book flavor though, but it should be fine on the poll nonetheless.
 

Bloopyghost

guging
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We've got a lot of abilities suggested already, so I wanna say stuff about some of them. I'm leaving out the ones I don't feel strongly about just to keep this post shorter and to make myself look less like an a-hole.

Power of Alchemy: In my most humble and well-thought out opinion, this one is based. It's already been mentioned here that Power of Alchemy's JP name translates more to Power of Science, but I still think it fits well. A-Muk's lore is all about chemistry and being toxic, which is likely where the ability comes from. And inks are basically just cocktails of toxic chemicals, so I'd say Power of Science fits all the same.

Poison Point: Every mon that has this is spiky and venomous except for Budew, which evolves into the thorned Roselia. So I'm not feeling this one.

Magician: Self-explanatory and straight-forward, I like this one a lot.

Telepathy: Big fan. The magic book can read its allies.

Overcoat: which handsome chap subbed this one

Aerilate: This is exclusive to two Mega Pokemon who normally lack physical Flying STAB, so I don't like the idea of giving this out for flavor. The lack of an explanation for why we should pick this also turns me away.

Illuminate: Imma be honest, I really don’t like this one. All mons that get this glow in some fashion, and Ven does not glow in any way. I think 99% of people would scratch their heads if this was our flavor ability.

Quick Draw: This was discussed on Discord a bit, but the lack of a gun on this book makes this flavor questionable. Yes it's a pun, but I don't think punniness should supersede the ability's original intention.

Levitate: This has a very excellent high-quality explanation behind it :)
 
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I was going to suggest Forewarn/Anticipation, but Jewvia beat me to it. Fortunately, I still have some options to submit:
  • Unnerve/Pressure living book giving off them scary vibes aspect.
  • Cursed/Perish Body you activated a spell! Would the potential implications of a disabled move/three turn countdown be too strong, though?
 
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Since someone beat me to submitting Forewarn, I'd like to submit Inner Focus. Focus is pretty important when reading or writing a book, and I'd imagine Venomicon-Prologue has a good sense of focus when its head isn't dunked into an ink vial.
 

Bloopyghost

guging
is a Pre-Contributor
Cursed/Perish Body Would the potential implications of a disabled move/three turn countdown be too strong, though?
While both Cursed Body and Stamina deter the opponent from attacking you, Stamina does so consistently and much more effectively, so there should be no competitive implications. Perish Body is even worse since it punishes you as well, so that should also be fine from a competitive standpoint.
 
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I would like to submit Overcoat, in the flavor side: it can use his cover (thats how its called right???) to protect himself from small things, like the sandstorm, hail, and powder moves, in competitive side: its not that useful compared to stamina, BUT it still can be used and its not trash
 
I'd rather not see Quick Draw as a flavour ability, as I believe it will actually see semi-competitive use. Venomicon-P is often seen as a Nasty Plot user and OK wallbreaker (at least from the playtest tournament replays I've seen). Give this guy quasi-priority and it will break things it shouldn't enough of the time. Although https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/creative-and-underrated-sets.3659574/#post-8566507 involves the item Quick Claw instead of the ability Quick Draw, I fear similar scenarios happening if we give Venomicon-P Quick Draw - that of mons that should outspeed and check Venomicon-P getting randomly broken for no reason.

As a possible aside, every time I want to use Slowbro-G, it's because it has access to Quick Draw and Slowking-G does not (although Regenerator does help both survive a lot).

Given that Venomicon can literally use a Vile Vial and the book is a Poison-type, I think we have enough flavour to justify even the chemistry interpretation of Power of Alchemy. I don't wanna drink whatever ink Venomicon-P is written with - or whatever material Muk-A is made of.

I think some of the latest suggestions, such as Corrosion (too powerful; it almost made it to the 30b competitive ability polls) and Slow Start (technically an acceptable flavour ability, although putting a legendary-exclusive ability on another mon as a non-core lark doesn't feel right to me at all), come off as jokes.
 
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Da Pizza Man

Pizza Time
is a Pre-Contributor
I'd like to submit Corrosion. Venomicon's ink would probably be corrosive.
Corrosion is a definite no, and unlike Gooey I'm pretty sure I'm not going to end up changing my mind on this. While Nasty Plot will pretty much always use Stamina instead because those sets have no real reason to ever run Toxic, I absolutely can see sets that just aim to be more of a tank or even a wall preferring Corrosion just because the ability to hit opposing Poison Types (Namely Toxapex, Galarian Slowking, and opposing Venomicon) with Toxic is extremely valuable (It also hits Steel Types as an added bonus which is nice).

I'm not the biggest fan of it flavor wise anyways to be honest, since I don't really envision Venomicon's ink to be corrosive.
 
As Jewvia said Forewarn can be used to keep on the whole book that tells you the future kind of things and Anticipation could also work since it has wider distribution. Both of these abilities are somewhat linked to a psychic, mystic side which could be interesting. Also, as these Abilities are fairly useless, there is no risk for these to outclass the main ones!

To propose something new, Oblivious to reflect a magic book oblivious to any form of damage or to any attempt of dispatching of it could be interesting, and it only would have somewhat niche issues which once again fail to put the ability in a conflict with the main ones.
 
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LucarioOfLegends

Master Procraster
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Yea not really feeling Quick Draw either. It's an ability that is very heavily gun-based and while a decent pun, I think the fact that Venomicon being solidly more book than quill kind of kills the flavor.

On the other hand Levitate is hysterical and deserves to be on slate for irony alone.

Others I like are Poison Point, Liquid Ooze, and Magician. Power of Alchemy I am on the fence about but I think it still bypasses the problems if you think of it in how Dungeons and Dragon spells are constructed through physical material components.
 
Kind of late to this, but one ability I haven't seen submitted yet that I think would work great as a flavor ability for Venonicom is Wonder Skin. Mystical/odd Pokemon like Sigilyph also have this ability, and I could see Venomicon's pages being made of some funky stuff.

Other abilities I like are Power of Alchemy, Magician, Liquid Ooze, and Levitate (for the lols ofc)

Another one I considered was Power Spot, but based on Venomicon's stats and stat spread, it might be too powerful? IDK let me know what y'all think :3
 
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