CAP 27 - Final Product

So here it is: CAP27's process has come to a close and I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Adapting to the SWSH Meta with the Pokemon and Move cuts was tough at first but I think we really pulled it off with Astrolotl. This concept touched on a lot of key themes in competitive Pokemon such as what constitutes a support and how can we best utilize the tools a support Pokemon provides offensively? What we have learned about these question from exploring Astrolotl's concept I feel will serve us extremely well going forward into future CAPs and I feel has given us something very special and (hopefully) fun to use in the CAP metagame. I'd like to thank the incredible TLT team of Jordy GMars Wulfanator72 and LucarioOfLegends for the tremendous amount of work and effort they put into CAP27 not only to make us a great addition to CAP but also to ensure their stages really explored the concept and make it one of the most enjoyable processes I've experienced personally in CAP so far. Also a massive shoutout has to go out to the artists, modelers, and spriters who submitted their work or just helped out in any way because Astrolotl is easily one of my favourite designs of a CAP in a long time - serious serious props to all involved on that front! Some things that were decided between us were Axolotl's height, weight, and gender ratio and in the end we ended up going with: 1.9m for the height, 50kg for the weight, and a 50/50 gender ratio. Without further ado, here is Astrolotl:







Name: Offensive Team Support (the concept formerly known as "Trickster Cleric")

Description: A Pokemon that is able to fit the role of team support through more offensive and/or utility based means, whether these are through moves, abilities, typings or other factors unique to CAP27.

Justification: This is absolutely an Archetype based concept, if that weren't inherently clear by its name. This more or less comes from the class of a similar name from the fifth edition of dungeons and dragons (not necessarily being a Pokemon that uses Aromatherapy or Heal Bell), and it's meant to fill a role that we haven't explored in CAP since as far back as generation four with Fidgit. Furthermore, of all the offensively-oriented Pokemon that exist in the metagame, very few can also act as support for their team.

Questions to be answered:
  • How can a Pokemon that might be more offensively-focused or utility-focused fare as a healer/cleric/support mon in the current metagame?
  • What are aspects of specific support Pokemon that make them effective in their roles in the current meta?
  • To what extent can CAP27 use the new mechanics of utility based moves be used in a way to benefit players using them?
  • Without getting into overly cheesy strategies, how can CAP27 bring about creative ways to assist the rest of the team it finds itself on?
  • How does CAP27 bring about situations in which the opponent has to debate whether or not CAP27 will be healing or attacking, and how can they effectively beat that 50/50?
  • To what extent does CAP27 have to choose between acting more as a cleric versus acting more as an attacker? Can it do both without sacrificing anything relevant to its viability?
  • Are there any forms of playstyle that CAP27 might be able to benefit just by existing?
  • How can CAP27's offensive or utility presence open opportunities for healing its allies later in the game (if CAP27 gets healing methods) ?
  • To what extent does an offense-oriented support Pokemon need to use healing (via HP recovery or status healing) to support teams it finds itself on?
Typing: Fire / Dragon
Abilities: Regenerator / Vital Spirit / Magician
Stats: 108 / 108 / 74 / 92 / 64 / 114
Movepool
Height: 1.9m
Weight: 50kg

Here you can find the inaugural game of CAP27! https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8cap-1131564500 as you can see quziel anhiliates me thanks to Astrolotl's constant pressure with defense drops and support from Plasmanta :psycry: ggs: heres the teams we each used
https://pokepast.es/cbe3eb2cac6f4f9d quziel's
https://pokepast.es/949853dacd85e420 Jho's
 
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Voltage

OTTN5
is a Pre-Contributor
My baby <3 What a wonderful process, I can't wait to play with Astro for years to come and make all my teams using it! Great job to TLT as well for makinga wonderful process. PodCAP8 will be coming soon to summarize this!
 
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LucarioOfLegends

Master Procraster
is a CAP Contributor
This process has been an absolute blast and this is most certainly a fantastic product we have created with Astrolotl. I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who participated in CAP, including my fellow buddies in TLT, the fantastic work of the modeling team, and especially every single person who participated in the process for CAP 27. We really couldn't have done it without you all.
 

Wulfanator

Clefable's wish came true!
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Top CAP Contributor Alumnus
Congrats to the TLT and community for another positive project. Thank you to all the first-time contributors. Thank you to veterans who continue to submit their ideas and incredible artwork to the project.

Some special recognition:
Congrats to Jho for his first time being TL.
Special thanks to LucarioOfLegends for stepping up and being a part of the TLT this project even with the concern of availability.
Congrats to -Voltage- for our concept (aka his brain child).
Congrats to Quanyails for the winning name submission and, most importantly, her first art submission win.
Congrats to MrDollSteak for the winning sprite submission.
Congrats to G-Luke for the winning movepool.
 
I haven't been paying as much attention as usual until late in the process, but Astrolotl came out great! I'm looking forward to seeing how well it does in The Isle of Armor.
 

Steam Buns

:rosetriumph:
is a Pre-Contributor
I didn't help much (or at all) but this project was a joy to watch unfold and I am completely in love with the final product! you all did an amazing job.
huge congrats to quany for finally winning an art sub very well deserved and massive props to Jho and the rest of the TLT, there's really no surprise how this turned out with such good leadership.
 

MrDollSteak

CAP 1v1 me IRL
is a Community Contributoris an Artist Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnus
This was a really awesome project to be a part of, definitely the most interesting CAP experience I've had to date! There were some real twists and turns in the project, and excellent discussions throughout. The movepools stage was a blast and I want to just give a shout out to LucarioofLegends for their excellent leadership during that stage.

Can't wait to play with Astro on showdown!
 
Les just pray that the dlc doesn't introduce stuff like fire lash tutor, cause that would certainly be anticlimatic
Nice works guys
 
Congratulations to the whole team for this project! The result is magnificent, and the process to get there has been extremely smooth Jho, Quanyails, Wulfanator72, LucarioOfLegends, GMars. I especially want to thank the veterans of the CAP project for their warm welcome to the new faces. Attention was paid to everyone, even the less experienced like me and many others. It is by accepting the good will of newcomers and not making fun of someone because of their mistakes that a community can evolve, and this one is definetly a model.

edit : woops, forgot the full time smogon worker Jordy
 
Yay, it's finally done! It was really cool to see Astrolotl take shape over time, and I got a great first look into how the CAP process works. I'm excited to get back to Showdown and try it out!
 

Austin

Schismatic
is a Programmeris a Community Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Love the CAP guys, great work :). The pokemon has been added to the calc, so enjoy (although it has no sets yet, so beware of that!)
 
I didn't know "Offensive Team Support" meant Fire Lash-->Explosion...
Also, not sure this was intended...
Astrolotl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Explosion/Healing Wish
- Spikes
- Taunt/Magic Coat
- Encore/Dragon Tail/Magic Coat
HO and Sun have a new best friend. (Also, get ready for Fire/Water/Grass full Regen cores when Bro and Tang return shortly).
For real, awesome mon, great fun to be part of the process.
 
I quite like how the participants of CAP27 handled the project just to create Astrolotl! BTW, when will I be able to participate in CAP28?
 

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