CAP
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Introduction to CAP Playtesting
While many Smogon members know CAP for its artistic qualities, the main focus of the project is competitive. CAP aims to create and test new Pokémon concepts for the OU metagame. Kitsunoh and Cyclohm are the two latest creations. Playtesting took place on Doug's Create-a-Pokémon server, a server run by none other than our lovable admin, DougJustDoug. Playtesting took place over the course of two weeks in which each new CAP was thrown into the Platinum OU environment. No other CAP creations, such as Arghonaut, Stratagem, and Pyroak, were allowed during the playtest.
Kitsunoh, a Ghost / Steel-typed ethereal cat, was created to serve the function of "ultimate scout". Its typing sports many immunities and resistances, allowing Kitsunoh to switch in with relative ease. Its ability, Frisk, gives the user immediate knowledge of the opponent's team by revealing the item of the opponent's Pokémon. With access to moves such as Fake Out and U-turn, Kitsunoh does its job of scouting spectacularly. On the other hand, due to high base Speed and Attack and high Base Power moves such as Meteor Mash and Shadow Strike, a CAP-created Ghost-type move that has a large chance to lower the opponent's Defense, Kitsunoh is more than able to take the offensive. With a broad movepool and great stats, Kitsunoh can fill a variety of roles on a team while revealing useful information about the opponent.
The lovable little three headed nimbus located at the bottom of the page is Cyclohm, an Electric-typed Dragon created to make use of a rare ability. The ability chosen by the community was Shield Dust, previously only available to Venomoth and Dustox, which prevents secondary effects, such as Flamethrower's burn chance or Iron Head's flinch chance, from occuring. To make use of such a fantastic ability, Cyclohm was outfitted with Hippowdon-like bulk as well as Slack Off, allowing it to switch in against common threats in the OU metagame such as Jirachi and Scizor. However, the fun doesn't stop there. Cyclohm also sports an amazing base 112 Special Attack stat from which to fire STAB Thunderbolt and Draco Meteor. Like many other Dragon-types, Cyclohm has a rather large movepool complete with Surf, Hydro Pump, Flamethrower, and Overheat. Although Shield Dust was the focus of the project, the CAP community also decided to give Cyclohm another ability, Static. Due to Cyclohm's strong offensive and defensive presence, it can serve as either a physical tank or a monstrous Special Attacker with Life Orb or Choice Specs.
Kitsunoh Playtesting
Kitsunoh singlehandedly shifted the metagame from a slow, stall based one to a faster, offensive one relying on bulk and power, with some fast sweepers in the mix. Using its physically offensive capabilities to force out many offensive threats, as well as its useful immunities to paralysis and poison, Kitsunoh made it possible to shift the user's game instantly in their favor when switched in correctly.
During the playtesting period, Kitsunoh was primarily used as a lead, usually packing a Scarf in order to outspeed some of the most common leads as well as giving oneself a check towards Pokémon such as a Dragon Danced Salamence and Agiligross. With Kitsunoh came increased usages of Magnezone, Skarmory, Restalk Gyarados, and Metagross, all of which packed some defensive bulk in order to take hits from Kitsunoh with ease. In addition, there were also sets that focused on status, utilizing Kitsunoh's tendency to force switches in order to get a Substitute up and burn the opponent with Will-O-Wisp. Other forms of this strategy included Psycho Shift and Trick with a Flame Orb, giving unprepared teams problems. Although not the most powerful threat in CaP, Kitsunoh's offense was decent enough to give an adequate amount of the metagame a desire to switch.
Kitsunoh, however, is quite easy to take down one on one. Very rarely will Kitsunoh be able to OHKO something in OU, unless it is packing a Choice Band or a Life Orb. Because of this, one can take down Kitsunoh with sheer force, although doing so will come at a sacrifice of health. However, Kitsunoh is not as frail as Infernape or Azelf, and has plenty of resists to work with in order to stay in the game. Furthermore, its Limber ability and Steel typing allows Kitsunoh to take on the most common types of status in the metagame. Most Steel-types defined Kitsunoh checks, as they could easily take Kitsunoh on. The metagame became more focused towards Steel types and bulkier strategies of offense as a whole with Kitsunoh's debut.
Compared to its other scouting counterparts, Kitsunoh trades the valuable power of Scizor and the diversity of Flygon for a scout with much more options to choose from, as well as a typing to make use of its concept. In addition, it is faster than both Flygon and Scizor, so it can succeed in outspeeding a +1 Base 100 Speed Pokémon all the time. Anybody looking for a fast and threatening Pokémon should consider Kitsunoh thanks to its amazing typing and options.
Cyclohm Playtesting
During the playtesting period, many people used defensive builds of Cyclohm to great success, since it was easy to use as a pivot on offensive or balanced teams, and as a centerpiece on a stall team. However, offensive versions were more surprising and lethal, due to there being little able to switch in without a sacrifice to a powerful Draco Meteor. Blissey was popular for this very reason, along with Bronzong and Mamoswine. Blissey was able to switch in on special attackers threatening Cyclohm, while Bronzong was able to take on physical Dragon and Ground-type attacks. Mamoswine was an extremely useful Pokémon on offensive teams, checking Blissey, Cyclohm, and Dragon-types such as Salamence.
Cyclohm is a bulky special attacker with decent speed, and an amazing movepool rivaling that of Salamence and Latias, two of its contemporaries in the Dragon-type department. It has the ability to tank hits from the physical side with ease, due to it having the same physical defensive stats as Hippowdon. It also has base 80 speed, which allows it to clean up later in the game with paralysis support from itself or its team. It's also not too shabby on its own, either.
Offensive versions are extremely powerful; Draco Meteor from Specs Cyclohm is more powerful than both Specsmence and Specs Latias. Blissey is really the only safe switch in for any of its sets, anything else is easily dealt with by the sheer power. Defensive sets are really only vulnerable on the special side, even the strongest Earthquakes fall short of 2HKOing. In addition, Cyclohm can recover any damage lost through Slack Off.
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