I want to start by explaining something I’ve tried to capture in prior posts and in Discord, since the question is here now:
How much power budget are we willing to invest into our ability? Should we be worried about limiting ourselves for future stages or not being able to create a strong enough product?
Lots of folks have talked about how they’d prefer to take a weaker ability here because it opens more design space, and saves power budget for later. And in a vacuum, I agree! I like the flexibility and design challenge of a weaker ability - “restrictions breed creativity”, after all. But for CAP31, personally, I’m significantly more worried about not being able to create a strong enough final product if we “low-ball” the ability stage.
A mono-type pokemon has some strengths that we’ve covered (notably a lack of 4x weaknesses), but more often that not I’d consider it a drawback and limitation, as it leaves a smaller defensive profile and a lack of dual STABs. While a pokemon is more than their typing, it seems important to me that there are only 10 mono-typed Pokemon viable in CAP, and the only two in A- or better (Clefable and Melmetal) are arguably the two best mono-types in the game in Fairy and Steel respectively. On top of that, Clefable has an insane movepool (STAB Moonblast, every coverage move a special attacker could dream of or wish for, and a stacked utility pool including Stealth Rock, Heal Bell, Wish, Calm Mind, Thunderwave, Toxic, Dual Screens, and Soft-boiled) alongside not one but two amazing abilities in Unaware and Magic Guard. Meanwhile Melmetal boasts an excellent and optimized BST, a devastating exclusive move in Double-Iron Bash, and a movepool that is small but mighty with great coverage options (bolstered by his solid, synergistic ability) and even a few utility moves like Toxic and TWave.
Going to ground, the most successful mono-grounds of all time are Groudon (a weather setter who is also freaking Groudon), Hippodown (a weather setter), and Dugtrio (who boats a broken and unfun ability in Arena Trap). All three of these ‘mons boast extremely powerful, pokemon-defining abilities.
Out the gate - we’re not those typings, and Diamond Storm is no Double Iron Bash. We also can’t really give CAP31 a Clefable-eqsue Movepool, as that will threaten Diamond Storm’s viability if we load this sucker up with every physical coverage move it could dream of plus a mountain of utility moves. We probably can’t even give it a movepool as crazy as Melmetal’s, TBH, or we’re going to end up with DStorm as a niche option. So…we’re basically only saving for the stats stage? That just feels too risky for me. Sure, we could give CAP31 Groudon-level stats…but are we really helping it differentiate itself from Landorus-T and Garchomp at that point (‘mons who don’t have Groudon-level stats but certainly are no slouches).
This is already turning into a novel, so I’m not going to go point by point through each other ability. I do still think it is wise to be cautious on Poison Heal and Regenerator (and to have banned Parental Bond, Stakeout, and Magic Bounce from further discussion) - these are some of the most powerful abilities in the game and we’d best be cautious. But to quickly summarize:
If we want Status Immunity - we need to be looking at Poison Heal, Misty Surge, Comatose, Guts, or Water Bubble. A more narrow ability (Water Veil, Immunity/Pastel Veil, Shield Dust) or a more RNG-dependent ability (Shed Skin) is not going to cut it for CAP31.
In terms of immunity/resistance, our fearless leader was wise to centralize us into focusing on Water Absorb and Flash Fire. Something like Dry Skin just isn’t going to work. I don’t hate Thick Fat, but generally think we should get a straight immunity.
For Intimidate-busting; I think we definitely should consider Defiant and Mirror Armor over Own Tempo. If we are going for these abilities its because we’ll have decided that all we want from our ability is to make sure Landorus-T thinks twice about mindlessly switching into us (a fair thing to decide; Lando is everywhere and is our biggest threat); Own Tempo doesn’t do enough of that alone since it only protects us from Lando-T and doesn’t actively punish him. Which of these is better is sixes; I prefer Defiant for sure since I think it’s pretty dubious we’re actually going to build a CAP31 who enjoys switching in to Choice Specs Shadowball from ‘Pult, but I respect those that want the option.
If we want a CAP31 who can snowball, we should 100% be looking at Moxie or as a worse but still good alternative Speed Boost. Relying on taking hits and then not being forced out before we can use that boost means that I think Weak Armor is just that - weak, despite the fun synergy with DStorm.
I think we should be very open to powerhouse abilities like Regenerator, Serene Grace, and Analytic. I think we should strongly favor these over more niche (although by no means bad) options like Solid Rock/Filter, Unaware, or Corrosion or abilities that are awfully similar to other grounds like Sandstorm or Rough Skin.
How much power budget are we willing to invest into our ability? Should we be worried about limiting ourselves for future stages or not being able to create a strong enough product?
Lots of folks have talked about how they’d prefer to take a weaker ability here because it opens more design space, and saves power budget for later. And in a vacuum, I agree! I like the flexibility and design challenge of a weaker ability - “restrictions breed creativity”, after all. But for CAP31, personally, I’m significantly more worried about not being able to create a strong enough final product if we “low-ball” the ability stage.
A mono-type pokemon has some strengths that we’ve covered (notably a lack of 4x weaknesses), but more often that not I’d consider it a drawback and limitation, as it leaves a smaller defensive profile and a lack of dual STABs. While a pokemon is more than their typing, it seems important to me that there are only 10 mono-typed Pokemon viable in CAP, and the only two in A- or better (Clefable and Melmetal) are arguably the two best mono-types in the game in Fairy and Steel respectively. On top of that, Clefable has an insane movepool (STAB Moonblast, every coverage move a special attacker could dream of or wish for, and a stacked utility pool including Stealth Rock, Heal Bell, Wish, Calm Mind, Thunderwave, Toxic, Dual Screens, and Soft-boiled) alongside not one but two amazing abilities in Unaware and Magic Guard. Meanwhile Melmetal boasts an excellent and optimized BST, a devastating exclusive move in Double-Iron Bash, and a movepool that is small but mighty with great coverage options (bolstered by his solid, synergistic ability) and even a few utility moves like Toxic and TWave.
Going to ground, the most successful mono-grounds of all time are Groudon (a weather setter who is also freaking Groudon), Hippodown (a weather setter), and Dugtrio (who boats a broken and unfun ability in Arena Trap). All three of these ‘mons boast extremely powerful, pokemon-defining abilities.
Out the gate - we’re not those typings, and Diamond Storm is no Double Iron Bash. We also can’t really give CAP31 a Clefable-eqsue Movepool, as that will threaten Diamond Storm’s viability if we load this sucker up with every physical coverage move it could dream of plus a mountain of utility moves. We probably can’t even give it a movepool as crazy as Melmetal’s, TBH, or we’re going to end up with DStorm as a niche option. So…we’re basically only saving for the stats stage? That just feels too risky for me. Sure, we could give CAP31 Groudon-level stats…but are we really helping it differentiate itself from Landorus-T and Garchomp at that point (‘mons who don’t have Groudon-level stats but certainly are no slouches).
This is already turning into a novel, so I’m not going to go point by point through each other ability. I do still think it is wise to be cautious on Poison Heal and Regenerator (and to have banned Parental Bond, Stakeout, and Magic Bounce from further discussion) - these are some of the most powerful abilities in the game and we’d best be cautious. But to quickly summarize:
If we want Status Immunity - we need to be looking at Poison Heal, Misty Surge, Comatose, Guts, or Water Bubble. A more narrow ability (Water Veil, Immunity/Pastel Veil, Shield Dust) or a more RNG-dependent ability (Shed Skin) is not going to cut it for CAP31.
In terms of immunity/resistance, our fearless leader was wise to centralize us into focusing on Water Absorb and Flash Fire. Something like Dry Skin just isn’t going to work. I don’t hate Thick Fat, but generally think we should get a straight immunity.
For Intimidate-busting; I think we definitely should consider Defiant and Mirror Armor over Own Tempo. If we are going for these abilities its because we’ll have decided that all we want from our ability is to make sure Landorus-T thinks twice about mindlessly switching into us (a fair thing to decide; Lando is everywhere and is our biggest threat); Own Tempo doesn’t do enough of that alone since it only protects us from Lando-T and doesn’t actively punish him. Which of these is better is sixes; I prefer Defiant for sure since I think it’s pretty dubious we’re actually going to build a CAP31 who enjoys switching in to Choice Specs Shadowball from ‘Pult, but I respect those that want the option.
If we want a CAP31 who can snowball, we should 100% be looking at Moxie or as a worse but still good alternative Speed Boost. Relying on taking hits and then not being forced out before we can use that boost means that I think Weak Armor is just that - weak, despite the fun synergy with DStorm.
I think we should be very open to powerhouse abilities like Regenerator, Serene Grace, and Analytic. I think we should strongly favor these over more niche (although by no means bad) options like Solid Rock/Filter, Unaware, or Corrosion or abilities that are awfully similar to other grounds like Sandstorm or Rough Skin.