CAP 31 - Part 8 - Stats Submissions

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spoo

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CAP 31 So Far

In this thread, you may post work-in-progress and final stat spreads for the community and the TLT's consideration, and make comments on other peoples' submissions. The Stats Leader, Wulfanator, will decide on a slate for voting based on the community's input. In the Stats Limits thread, the Stats Leader decided on the following limits:

Limits:
Physical Sweepiness: Limit is 140
Special Sweepiness: Limit is 100
Physical Tankiness: Limit is 130
Special Tankiness: Limit is 130
BSR: Limit is 590
Additionally, the following limits are in place:
  • If accounting for Swords Dance or Dragon Dance, -5 to PS and -10 to BSR
  • If accounting for Shift Gear, -20 to PS and -15 to BSR
  • If accounting for 50% recovery, -5 to BSR
  • PT + ST Cannot exceed 220
  • Hard limit of 126 Speed
  • T-value must be set to 2.5 (this is automatically done on the updated spreadsheet near the bottom of this post)
These limits are cumulative. For example, a spread that accounts for Shift Gear and 50% recovery would have a Physical Sweepiness limit of 120 and a BSR limit of 570, with an overall Speed limit of 126.

Defining Moves:
Required Moves: Diamond Storm, Earthquake
Optional Moves: One of (Milk Drink/Soft-Boiled/Recover/Slack Off), Pain Split, Grass-type coverage, special Fire-type coverage, Taunt, Thunder Wave, one of (Swords Dance/Dragon Dance/Shift Gear), Rapid Spin
BSR ABUSE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED AND WILL NOT BE SLATED!

BSR abuse is doing things like 150 HP and 70 Def/SpD to create a theoretical optimum with the limits that you have. The purpose of the stat rating limits is to restrict what submitters can do, not to give them a license to game the system. If you cannot justify your stats legitimately and have not proven that you aren't just making the best stats within the limits, you will not get slated.

A spreadsheet for calculating the ratings can be found here. To use it for yourself, create an editable copy with File > Make a copy. If you don't have a spreadsheet program, OpenOffice and Google Sheets are free. You must have the stat rating values listed correctly in your submission or it will be ignored for the slate.

When you are satisfied with your stat submission, mark it as finished using the following final submission post format:

Final Submission Format

[HP]/[Atk]/[Def]/[SpA]/[SpD]/[Spe] (BST: [BST])

PS: [PS]
SS: [SS]
PT: [PT]
ST: [ST]
PT + ST: [PT + ST]
BSR: [BSR]

[List of Defining Moves accounted for, if any]

[Justification]
 

Wulfanator

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With limits finalized, it is time for stat spread submissions. As a reminder, we are using a T-value of 2.5 so be sure your calculator is using it. If you are unsure what T-value your calculator is using, consider downloading a new copy of the calculator in opening post as it has been updated to the correct T-value for this project. I am excited to see what directions you all build given the open-ended design space left in this project.

As with all stat submission stages, be aware that I reserve the right to disallow submissions that are too strong or engage in BSR abuse. I will make an effort to inform users ahead of time of problems and supply recommendations as to effectively balance over-tuned spreads. Also, be sure to provide as much rationale for your decisions as possible, especially when riding the BSR limit. Some defining moves were intentionally not restricted compared to others, but this should not always invite users to use the full power allotted to them. Be reasonable and I will assess spreads on a case-by-case basis with help from the TLT.

Finally, be aware of our defining moves lists and the restrictions imposed there. More specifically, make note that it is a selection of one of Swords Dance, Dragon Dance or Shift Gear. Also, remember that move restrictions are cumulative, so be sure to make the proper reductions from the table. I will include the table from the limits discussion along with another copy of the defining moves list, but the same information can be found in the opening post.

T = 2.5​
Base Limits​
Swords Dance​
Dragon Dance​
Shift Gear​
50% Recovery​
PS​
140​
-5​
-5​
-20​
SS​
100​
PT​
130​
ST​
130​
BSR​
590​
-10​
-10​
-15​
-5​
Speed Limit​
126​
PT+ST Limit​
220​

Required Moves: Diamond Storm, Earthquake
Optional Moves: One of (Milk Drink/Soft-Boiled/Recover/Slack Off), Pain Split, Grass-type coverage, special Fire-type coverage, Taunt, Thunder Wave, one of (Swords Dance/Dragon Dance/Shift Gear), Rapid Spin

Happy building!
 
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Zetalz

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Final Submission

70 / 120 / 105 / 65 / 130 / 90 BST: 580

PS: 118.95
SS: 77.30
PT: 96.50
ST: 117.92
BSR: 572.17
t = 2.5
Combined Tankiness = 214.42

Optional Moves:
Swords Dance, Power Whip, 50% Recovery, Pain Split, Taunt

Brief Explanation: I've gone for a traditional sort of bulky offense build, prioritizing good mixed bulk to give 31 consistent switch-in opportunity throughout a given match, and having great flexibility in it's EV spreads. I chose a SpDef bias for bulk as it is generally a more useful trait for a bulky Ground in the CAP meta to have, also makes DStorm boosts matter more for your matchup into physical attackers.

As far as optional move choices go I went down the route of Grass > Special Fire for coverage, both to give it a stronger match-up into valuable bulky waters like Fini & Bro, and to keep Ferrothorn, Corviknight/Skarmory, Buzzwole and Libra (to an extent) as solid checks at high HP. SD gives 31 very good offensive presence and gives Diamond Storm the oomph it needs to make an impact. I flipped flopped a lot between 50% recovery and Pain Split. They both have their upsides, I like the playstyle Pain Split encourages but Recover is a huge consistency boost in long grind games, so for now I've kept both in mind.

Taunt is something I'm a bit unsure on. With all of SD/Recovery/Taunt it may become a little sussy for some of 31's checks to well, check it, but has an undeniable amount of cool applications. I think one thing in favor of it being a balanced inclusion is the natural restriction of 31's moveslots, dropping EQ or Diamond Storm is very undesirable and no matter what other 2 strong optional moves you pair together there will be checks that remain solid and have a bit of overlap. It is very hard to judge in a vacuum though so wouldn't be opposed to passing it by out of an abundance of caution. (decided to stick it through for now)

Calculated EV Spreads
0 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpDef / 252 Speed, Jolly/Adamant (can also be max HP over speed or atk)
92 HP / 176 Atk / 12 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpDef / 252 Speed, Adamant/Jolly (nicher spread for Zera & Choice Specs user matchups, max atk or hp is far more likely)
(Not set in stone spreads or anything, just generalist ideas to get an idea of what it does.)


Benchmarks

Speed: Max speed neutral outspeeds Timid Heatran, Jolly spreads can outrun the likes of Rotom-Wash, Tapu Fini and Nidoking.

Defensive: Defensive Zapdos Hurricane is a 3HKO after rocks & lefties, and Zera CC is a 3HKO after the same. 92 HP / 12 Def hits a lefties number and turns Zera CC into a 3HKO with 1 spike up aswell. Full HP dodges the 3HKO from Zera CC with 2 spikes (3 nearly) up and turns Offensive Zap hurricane into 3HKO. Jolly Urshifu CC is a 3HKO after getting a Diamond Storm boost with high to max HP but is a mid-low roll vs Adamant.

0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 115-136 (40.9 - 48.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 139-165 (40.4 - 47.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 92 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 127-150 (41.7 - 49.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Hippowdon: 113-134 (39.3 - 46.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 92 HP / 12 Def Hippowdon: 112-132 (36.8 - 43.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock, 1 layer of Spikes, and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 113-134 (32.8 - 38.9%) -- 12.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock, 3 layers of Spikes, and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. +2 156 HP / 24 Def Hippowdon: 138-163 (43.1 - 50.9%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 156-184 (45.3 - 53.4%) -- 36.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

0 Atk Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 236-278 (83.9 - 98.9%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
0 Atk Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 116-140 (41.2 - 49.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 182-216 (52.9 - 62.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 237-281 (84.3 - 100%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 237-281 (68.8 - 81.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 360-432 (104.6 - 125.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 186-222 (66.1 - 79%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 186-222 (54 - 64.5%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 130-154 (46.2 - 54.8%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 92 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 130-154 (42.7 - 50.6%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon in Psychic Terrain: 229-270 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (notably lets Lele threaten us out if HP is not managed well)


Offensive: No particular offensive benchmarks were gunned for since most key matchups are near-guaranteed OHKO/2HKOs. Will include more calcs vs other things later but that is time consuming and I am strapped for that atm.

176 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 372-438 (117.3 - 138.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. +1 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 288-342 (90.8 - 107.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (notably funny coin flip)
152 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 152-182 (50 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery
152+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Slowking-Galar: 378-446 (95.9 - 113.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 184-217 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kartana: 123-145 (47.4 - 55.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kartana: 246-289 (94.9 - 111.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock


152 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 272-320 (96.7 - 113.8%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 124+ Def Buzzwole: 141-166 (33.7 - 39.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+4 252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 124+ Def Buzzwole: 211-249 (50.4 - 59.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (buzzwole can't really hurt you if you get dstorm boosts goin but you need to get to +4 to even start threatening it and it can just roost stall your dstorm pp away. this is one of the matchups that worries me most with regards to Taunt as I'd like to keep buzzwole as a hard check.)

152 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 64 Def Zapdos: 204-240 (53.1 - 62.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 152+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220 Def Zapdos: 380-448 (99.2 - 116.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Zapdos: 366-432 (95.3 - 112.5%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

152 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 230-272 (63.5 - 75.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
152+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 240-284 (77.1 - 91.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Landorus-Therian: 186-219 (48.6 - 57.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 78-92 (19.5 - 23%) -- possible 5HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 154-182 (38.5 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 169-199 (42.2 - 49.7%) -- 30.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (skarm has a 10% roll into the same)


252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 240-284 (85.4 - 101%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Tapu Fini: 186-220 (54 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 184-218 (46.7 - 55.3%) -- 71.1% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arghonaut: 204-240 (49.2 - 57.9%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Equilibra: 127-150 (31.1 - 36.7%) -- 0.2% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Equilibra: 231-272 (56.6 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (notably you need Whip and SD to threaten Libra heavily which cuts into your utility and longevity a lot)
 
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Final Submission

75 HP / 114 ATK / 103 DEF / 54 SPA / 68 SPD / 122 SPE (536 BST)

PS:
131.09
SS: 77.51
PT: 98.32
ST: 71.59

PT + ST: 169.91
BSR: 545.52

Defining Moves: Diamond Storm, Earthquake, 50% Recovery, Flamethrower, Power Whip, Taunt

All calcs assume no item and that the EVs are 252 Attack and 252 Speed with a Jolly nature unless otherwise specified.

114 is the point where Earthquake guarantees the 2HKO on Black Sludge Toxapex. It also guarantees Diamond Storm 2HKO’s Pyroak, Epilogue (probable OHKO after Stealth Rock), bulky Tornadus-Therian, and offensive Zapdos, as well as the OHKO on Weavile.
  • 252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 162-192 (53.2 - 63.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Pyroak: 192-226 (50.3 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Zapdos: 228-270 (59.5 - 70.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 228-270 (73.3 - 86.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 228-270 (73.3 - 86.8%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
  • 252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 240-284 (66.2 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 282-334 (100.3 - 118.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Now give CAP 31 a Choice Band and Power Whip will OHKO Tapu Fini, as well as 2HKO Slowbro and Arghonaut.
  • 252 Atk Choice Band Donphan Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 316-374 (112.4 - 133%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • 252 Atk Choice Band Donphan Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 242-286 (61.4 - 72.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252 Atk Choice Band Donphan Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arghonaut: 266-314 (64.2 - 75.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

54 Sp. Attack Flamethrower burns Kartana to the ground, even with no investment and a -Sp. Attack nature. Other than that, the Sp. Attack stat will never come into use, aside from Ferrothorn, which is still only a 3HKO at best, and Adamant Choice Band Earthquake still does more to it anyway. Corviknight and Equilibra are both unharmed by Flamethrower.
  • 0- SpA Donphan Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Kartana: 340-400 (131.2 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • 0- SpA Donphan Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Ferrothorn: 128-152 (36.3 - 43.1%) -- 96.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
  • 0- SpA Donphan Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 88 SpD Corviknight: 74-88 (18.5 - 22%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery
  • 0- SpA Donphan Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 132 SpD Equilibra: 56-66 (13.7 - 16.1%) -- possibly the worst move ever

Unboosted 75/103 allows CAP 31 to avoid the 2HKO from Zeraora’s Close Combat with Stealth Rock on our side.
  • 252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 115-136 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
The Defense boosts from Diamond Storm make a difference too: Unboosted, it breaks apart from Weavile’s unboosted Heavy-Duty Boots Triple Axel and Kartana’s Choice Scarf Leaf Blade. However, the Diamond Storm boosts prevent it from instantly falling to these moves.
  • 252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 366-438 (125.7 - 150.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • 252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 372-438 (127.8 - 150.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • 252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 186-222 (63.9 - 76.2%) -- approx. 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes
  • 252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 186-222 (63.9 - 76.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes

Given that CAP 31 will be boosting its already good Defense, and the fact that the Attack and Speed are also pretty good, I thought special bulk was a good place to cut the power budget. The benchmark I went for is being able to take one Zapdos Hurricane with no hazards on CAP 31’s field.
  • 152+ SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 246-289 (84.5 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
That’s not great, but I think it’s more important that Zapdos can’t switch into us rather than us being able to switch into it.

Its bad Sp. Defense leaves it with plenty of checks. Without hazard damage, we cannot survive a Choice Specs Draco Meteor from Dragapult. And Tapu Lele’s Choice Scarf Psychic and Blacephalon's Choice Scarf Fire Blast are guaranteed to kill us if the opponent has set up either Stealth Rock or 1 layer of Spikes.
  • 252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 364-429 (125 - 147.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • 252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan in Psychic Terrain: 288-340 (98.9 - 116.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
  • 252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan in Psychic Terrain: 288-340 (98.9 - 116.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes
  • 252 SpA Blacephalon Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 276-325 (94.8 - 111.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
  • 252 SpA Blacephalon Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 276-325 (94.8 - 111.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes
We can, however, survive a Future Sight from Slowbro and a Dazzling Gleam from Tapu Koko if the opponent has set up Stealth Rock AND 2 layers of Spikes.
  • 4 SpA Slowbro Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 178-210 (61.1 - 72.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and 2 layers of Spikes
  • 252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 144-171 (49.4 - 58.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and 2 layers of Spikes

122 Speed makes us the fastest Ground type in the tier. We outspeed Nihilego, Krilowatt, non-Scarf Kartana, non-Scarf Astrolotl, Epilogue and Tornadus-Therian, which Garchomp cannot without Scale Shot boosts. I wanted it to be slower than Weavile so that we can use the Defense boosts of Diamond Storm to prevent it from being revenge killed by non-CB variants. We also, of course, are outsped by Dragapult, which can kill us in one hit.

Flamethrower allows us to check non-Scarf Kartana (and even Scarf variants if we are at 2+ Defense) and nothing more. Not even Ferrothorn is that bothered by it, it has to switch into it in order to be threatened by it, and it does a lot more back with Power Whip. I am not sure this would see much use given how specific it is, but I figure it is at least nice to have.

Speaking of Power Whip, I opted to use it mainly for Rotom-Wash. But it also hits other Water types like Slowbro, Tapu Fini and Arghonaut harder, and it helps CAP 31 get more mileage out of its ability.

The combination of 50% Recovery and Taunt improve its matchup against Landorus-Therian. 50% Recovery gives it better longevity than other Ground types in the tier, which I believe is important, and Taunt prevents Landorus-Therian and Rotom-Wash from inflicting us with status.

When making this spread, I wanted to ensure that I didn’t give any more than what it needed, and that Steels not weak to Ground (bar Kartana) would be answers to us. Given that I calculated everything with no item, I also believe it could have some nice item flexibility, between Leftovers to Life Orb to Choice Band, and this could help it not be particularly weak to Knock Off, especially given its Stealth Rock resistance. Other things I considered when making this spread were making sure we were different enough from other Ground types in the tier, and that we would able to use our ability effectively.
 
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dex

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Final Submission

110 / 147 / 75 / 60 / 80 / 83 BST: 555

PS: 135.13
SS: 70.32
PT: 93.72
ST: 100.55
PT + ST = 194.27
BSR: 584.32

Optional Moves:
Power Whip, 50% Recovery, Taunt, Rapid Spin

Explanation: This spread is heavily inspired by what Life Orb Jumbao was earlier in this generation, except without the Life Orb. The concept is that it is a tankier mon that can deal insane damage with Earthquake, forcing in Flying-types to threaten with Diamond Storm. 110 / 75 / 80 bulk is surprisingly solid, hitting some key benchmarks that will be explained later. For now, lets talk about the damage. Taunt is included as a tech option over Power Whip to wall non-Power Whip Ferrothorn. Rapid Spin is given as a means of role compression to possibly compete with other top dogs in the Ground-type game.

147 Attack is absolutely monstrous, and it is necessary to pick up some key KOs:

252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Zapdos: 194-230 (50.5 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 254-300 (90.3 - 106.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tornadus-Therian: 286-338 (79 - 93.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 274-324 (88.1 - 104.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 192-228 (63.1 - 75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Essentially, this spread does one big thing: do damage. It is an absolute beast of a mon in this regard. 83 Speed was chosen to outpace Modest Tapu Lele, which has become increasingly common; additionally, it outpaces Dragonite, Blaziken, and Timid Heatran. The point on Tapu Fini is quite notable, as CAP 31 can comfortably switch into Choice Scarf Tapu Fini barring Trick and force it out. Zapdos is never able to freely Hurricane for fear of a 2HKO, AV Tornadus-T can never stay in if it takes rocks, and Venomicon-E is a completely lost cause. The calc doesn’t speak to this, but an Adamant nature lets this spread 2HKO Venomicon with Diamond Storm through Stamina; it is still a favorable roll with Jolly. This attack notably does not break through Ferrothorn, which I have left alone as a soft check.

The bulk is quite targeted towards Tapu Fini, but it has a number of upsides outside of that:

252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Hippowdon: 151-178 (42 - 49.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Heatran Eruption (97 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Hippowdon: 208-246 (57.9 - 68.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Hippowdon: 162-192 (45.1 - 53.4%) -- 89.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery and trapping damage

0 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Hippowdon: 154-183 (42.8 - 50.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Hippowdon: 172-204 (47.9 - 56.8%) -- 35.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 150-177 (41.5 - 49%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery


This spread always lives 2 Tapu Fini Moonblasts, even if its Leftovers have been Knocked. With Leftovers, it can comfortably take on Tornadus-T and usually Zapdos. Switching into offensive Heatran is a no go, but this is true of pretty much every Ground-type. That being said, in the 1v1, CAP 31 always comes out on top thanks to its Speed and bulk. Bulky Heatran is completely washed by this set, though bulky Heatran is more and more rare nowadays. Zeraora can never 2HKO CAP 31 from full with Close Combat.

Investment into bulk can let CAP 31 eats hits more effectively, including the possibility of eating a Timid Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic; however, for the sake of ease, I did not calc with bulk investment.
 
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DetroitLolcat

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Final Submission

75 / 150 / 120 / 65 / 110 / 65
(BST: 585)

PS: 121.71
SS: 66.53
PT: 112.22
ST: 105.78

PT + ST: 218 even
BSR: 582.76

Defining Moves: Pain Split, Taunt

Explanation: Yeah, folks, we gotta do damage with this thing. I'll explain more later but dex is 100% right about the damage. You need to scare the daylights out of Zapdos, Tornadus, and the books if you wanna carve a niche for this thing. The low Speed lets you cream Corviknight with either EQ or something else when it makes the foolish, foolish decision to Roost.

1. Speed Tier

This spread is unique in that it *disincentivizes* Speed investment. CAP31's biggest checks at the moment are Pokemon like Corviknight which wall us - let's scare Corv by making it terrified to Roost against us. This Speed tier - enough to undercut Corviknight while ensuring Melmetal can't invest enough to reasonably beat us - gives us the best of both worlds. Specifically, I think we could be in serious trouble if we don't have a way to consistently pressure Corviknight. Corvi can eat up our Diamond Storm PP, and even sets with SD will lose the PP war. Furthermore, the biggest issue with Corviknight is that it can just come in and either U-Turn or Roost with impunity. This slow Speed tier is, IMO, the only way we can consistently prevent Corviknight from pivoting and healing for free.

Furthermore, Corviknight being faster than CAP31 means that if it U-Turns against us, we get to smack the switch-in with an Earthquake or Diamond Storm. Corviknight cannot, for example, freely pivot to a Specs Lele and force us out because the Specs Lele will die upon being pivoted in.

Other highlights of this spread are that we outspeed uninvested Venomicon-P, although we could likely drop Speed IVs as well to undercut it and catch it on a Roost instead.

2. Offensive Calcs

I'm going to assume a stat spread of 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe with an Adamant nature for calcs. The 4 Speed EVs are to ensure no neutral-nature Melmetal spread can ever outspeed us and we're still slower than uninvested Corviknight. I could also imagine CAP31 running Defense or SpD EVs to hit specific benchmarks, but for simplicity's sake I'll start with the above spread.

Diamond Storm is the star of the show, and Flying-types are going to fear CAP31.

252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 320-378 (106.6 - 126%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tornadus-Therian: 318-376 (87.8 - 103.8%) -- 25% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 306-360 (98 - 115.3%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220+ Def Zapdos: 220-260 (57.4 - 67.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 240-284 (64.1 - 75.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. +1 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 160-190 (42.7 - 50.8%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zapdos-Galar: 146-172 (45.4 - 53.5%) -- 39.5% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Moltres-Galar: 292-344 (90.9 - 107.1%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 100-118 (25 - 29.5%) -- 0% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragonite: 278-328 (86 - 101.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

Diamond Storm is also likely to OHKO standard Astrolotl and does 40-45% to offensive Heatran, neutralizing its Eruption immediately. Landorus-T does Landorus-T things against us, and that's okay.

As you can see, virtually no Flying-type other than Corviknight can switch into CAP31, and Corviknight isn't able to reliably pivot or Roost against us either. Even Pokemon such as Galarian Zapdos take serious damage coming in on 31, and if we get a Diamond Storm boost we can shrug off its attacks. Venomicon-P cannot take two Diamond Storms even after the Stamina boost. This Pokemon is not going to lose to Flying-types, period. In fact, we'll see in the Defensive Calcs section that we're going to switch into them consistently.

Opponents are going to be quaking in their boots against CAP31's STAB.

252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 135-160 (34.2 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 216-254 (71 - 83.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Slowking: 238-282 (60.4 - 71.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 118-141 (33.5 - 40%) -- 28.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Tapu Fini: 136-162 (39.5 - 47%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 178-210 (63.3 - 74.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 294-348 (69.8 - 82.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Lele: 253-298 (90 - 106%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kartana: 159-187 (61.3 - 72.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252+ Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Pajantom: 264-312 (85.4 - 100.9%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

The narrative is pretty simple. You hit things, they die. Slowbro can still do Slowbro things and Equilibra is going to beat us, but other than that nothing wants to throw hands with CAP31. Offensive Pokemon such as Tapu Lele are OHKO'd, while everything outside of dedicated walls such as Slowbro and defensive Tapu Fini is 2HKO'd. By the same token, Slowbro doesn't do anything other than PP stall us and Tapu Fini does not have a winning matchup either.

In summary, click attack do damage.

3. Defensive Calcs

75/120/110 defenses are nothing to sneeze at. We have similar Physical bulk to Volcanion and even better Special bulk. Furthermore, unlike Volcanion, CAP31's going to invest in that bulk. I could see 248 HP sets, but also potential for a SpDef set to better check Dragapult or a PDef set in case CAP31's team is pressed for bulk.

252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Donphan: 324-384 (91.5 - 108.4%) -- approx. 37.5% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 252 HP / 4 Def Donphan: 162-198 (45.7 - 55.9%) -- approx. 8.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 236-282 (66.6 - 79.6%) -- approx. 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 120-144 (33.8 - 40.6%) -- approx. 39.4% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Zapdos-Galar Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 246-289 (69.4 - 81.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Zapdos-Galar Close Combat vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 123-145 (34.7 - 40.9%) -- 63.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 Atk Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 210-248 (59.3 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 104-126 (29.3 - 35.5%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 324-384 (91.5 - 108.4%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 164-194 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 9.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

In short, against Physical attackers, get the boost get the win. Even Pokemon like Choice Scarf Kartana, Ferrothorn, Galarian Zapdos, and Weavile can struggle against a boosted CAP31. And that's a good thing - it carves out a niche for CAP31 in relation to other Grounds. Landorus-T has no prayer against Weavile, CAP31 will survive the revenge kill half the time and OHKO back. Zeraora's Close Combat isn't even a guaranteed 4HKO. Opponents are going to have to rely on Special attackers to revenge kill 31.


252 SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 226-267 (63.8 - 75.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 117-138 (33 - 38.9%) -- 7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 246-289 (69.4 - 81.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 151-178 (42.6 - 50.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 148-175 (41.8 - 49.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 118-141 (33.3 - 39.8%) -- 23.6% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 133-157 (37.5 - 44.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 160-190 (45.1 - 53.6%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Venomicon Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 127-150 (35.8 - 42.3%) -- 93% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Slowbro Future Sight vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 118-141 (33.3 - 39.8%) -- 23.6% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan in Psychic Terrain: 264-312 (74.5 - 88.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Donphan in Psychic Terrain: 177-208 (50 - 58.7%) -- 72.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

In short, we can take Hurricanes from just about everything except offensive Zapdos, which we shouldn't be beating anyway. Slowbro can regularly switch in and Future Sight us, but that's all it can do and Future Sight isn't going to destroy CAP31 by any means. Powerful Special attackers like Dragapult and Tapu Lele can greatly damage CAP31, but they will have trouble pivoting in and need chip damage to actually win.

4. Defining Moves

I don't think we need much more than Taunt and Pain Split here. I considered 50% recovery, and my BSR limits do allow it, but tbh I don't see the point. CAP31 has plenty of opportunities to keep its HP up, and I have no concerns about viability without recovery. Pain Split on a slow Pokemon with a middling HP stat is solid recovery, and Water Absorb is a type of recovery too. This mon could probably also run Protect + Lefties or even Rest if it needed it.

Furthermore, I think recovery on this mon is a little too passive. Pain Split is better for this Pokemon since it also brings opponents into KO range for Earthquake and Diamond Storm. I don't think it's healthy for what I believe to be an already strong CAP31 to sit back and mill 50% recoveries on its defensive answers.
 
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Final Submission

90137905010880555

PS: 125.02
SS: 61.57
PT: 96.80
ST: 114.73
BSR: 582.39

Combined Tankiness = 211.54

Optional Moves: 50% Recovery, Taunt, Grass Coverage (Power Whip)

Explanation

This Stat spread forgoes boosting in exchange for nuclear attack, high bulk, and reliable recovery. While not reaching the insane levels of damage possible with boosting moves, having high attack immediately allows for extra moves and not needing to take a turn to reach desired power levels.

This spread is designed to tank hits from Flying and Electric types and retaliate hard with Diamond Storm and Earthquake. We're not a speed demon, so 50% recovery is important to heal off the damage we'll inevitably sustain. Our above average speed does allow a wide degree of flexibility in terms of EV spreads, and notably allows us to creep Heatran, however. Taunt helps us break through stall and prevent Flying types from Roosting or Defogging. Power Whip offers another coverage option to specifically hit bulky Water types that do not care about EdgeQuake, mainly Slowbro and Tapu Fini.

Attack
137 attack is designed to break through most Flying and Electric types in the tier. This spread would most likely run 252 Attack with an Adamant nature, which is what my calcs will use. Specifically, 137 attack allows us to:
  • 2HKO utility Zapdos and CAPdos
  • 2HKO pivot Tornadus-T and OHKOing 0 bulk Torn-T
  • 2HKO Venomicon even after a Stamina boost
  • 50% chance to OHKO Venomicon-Epilogue
  • OHKO Zeraora even after a Bulk Up
Outside of Flying and Electric types, we also deal with annoying tanks and walls such as:
  • OHKOing Galar Slowking
  • OHKOing Heatran (duh)
  • 2HKO Tapu Fini with Power Whip. OHKO's Choice Scarf Tapu Fini if a Spike or Stealth Rock is up
  • 2HKO Slowbro with Power Whip
  • Always 2HKOing Toxapex, even with no attack investment
  • 98% chance to 2HKO melmetal with no attack investment, 20 EVs in attack guarantees the 2HKO
  • 80% chance to 2HKO Blissey with 252 Attack Adamant
Equilibra, Corviknight, Skarmory, and Ferrothorn remain checks to 31 as Diamond Storm, Earthquake, and Power Whip do not seriously hurt them (none are 2HKO'd by any of these attacks)

252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 300-354 (100 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. +1 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 320-378 (100.9 - 119.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220 Def Zapdos: 206-244 (53.7 - 63.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 64 Def Zapdos: 266-314 (69.2 - 81.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 226-266 (60.4 - 71.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. +1 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 150-178 (40.1 - 47.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 286-338 (91.9 - 108.6%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Slowking-Galar: 450-530 (114.2 - 134.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 712-840 (184.4 - 217.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 266-314 (94.6 - 111.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 266-314 (94.6 - 111.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes
252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 204-240 (51.7 - 60.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 152-182 (50 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 206-246 (48.9 - 58.4%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO
20 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 212-252 (50.3 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 339-399 (47.4 - 55.8%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO

Physical Bulk
90 HP 90 Defense is designed to be able to tank strong neutral hits, and gives us room to boost with Diamond Storm. Notably, it allows us to:
  • Not be KO'd by Zeraora's Knock Off into Close Combat, or be 2HKO'd by Close Combat without investment.
  • With no investment, only an 8% chance to be 2HKO'd by Tank Garchomp, and avoids 2HKO with 40 HP EVS
  • Avoids being 2HKO'd by Defensive Landorus-T with 164 HP EVs
  • With 252 EVs in HP, it lives Choice Band Urshifu's Close Combat
  • lives max attack Melmetal's Double Iron Bash
  • Lives one Brave Bird from Venomicon-Epilogue
252 Atk Zeraora Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 104-123 (32.3 - 38.3%) -- 97.8% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 129-152 (40.1 - 47.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 148-175 (44.7 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 168 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 162-192 (44.6 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 322-379 (83.8 - 98.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 306-360 (79.6 - 93.7%) -- approx. 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Vile Vial Venomicon-Epilogue Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 229-270 (59.6 - 70.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Special Bulk
90 HP 108 Special Defense specifically allows us to avoid being 2HKO'd by most Flying Type's Hurricanes, as well as prevents us from being 2HKO'd by Specially Defensive Heatran. Specifically, it:
  • Prevents 0 Sp. Atk Tornadus-T from 2HKOing us with Hurricane without any investment.
  • Prevents Venomicon from 2HKOing us with hurricane without HP investment
  • Avoids being 2HKO'd by Scarf Tapu Fini's Moonblast without HP investment
  • Avoids being 2HKO'd by Slowbro's Future Sight or Ice Beam without HP investment
  • By running 252 HP EVs, we can prevent 252 Sp. Atk Tornadus-T from 2HKOing with Hurricane
  • 252 HP prevents offensive Zapdos and CAPdos from 2HKOing us as well
  • We prevent specially defensive Heatran from 2HKOing with Magma Storm, after accounting for trapping damage
4 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 121-144 (37.6 - 44.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 150-177 (39 - 46%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 135-159 (42 - 49.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 163-193 (42.4 - 50.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 118-139 (36.7 - 43.3%) -- 98% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Slowbro Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 121-144 (37.6 - 44.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Slowbro Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 122-144 (38 - 44.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 127-150 (33 - 39%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery and trapping damage

Speed
80 Speed allows us to outspeed Heatran and speed-tie Dragonite.
 
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WIP

90 / 130 / 110 / 85 / 95 / 80 (BST: 590)

PS: 103.47
SS: 77.34
PT: 114.83
ST: 103.05
BSR: 577.79

Combined Tankiness = 217.78

Optional Moves: 50% Recovery, Power Whip, Flamethrower, Taunt, Rapid Spin


It's late here and I had a final today, so I am extra tired and will write something up within the week. The basic gist though is that CAP 31 is kind of reminding me of Mew a bit, with good set up options, recovery, utility, and coverage, so I gave it a fairly balanced stat spread, with higher Attack and Defense to make more use out of Diamond Storm. the feminine urge to go all in on the Mew inspiration and give this thing 100 for each stat across the board was incredibly powerful but unfortunately it had just too high of a BSR:blobpensive:
 
Final Submission

80/140/90/70/120/80 BST: 580

PS: 127.35
SS: 76.89
PT: 90.73
ST: 117.78
BSR: 584.01

Combined Tankiness = 208.51

Optional Moves: Taunt, 50% Recovery, Pain Split, Power Whip,
(maybe) Flamethrower. Not all of the above together tho.

Went for a hard-hitting well rounded build essentially. EVs on this are kinda flexible and can be played around with. Because we only outspeed Tran by 3 base speed, the speed EVs will probably in practice be decided by how much defensive Trans are running. That being said, I've been playing around with an EV spread of

252 HP/120 Atk/36 Def/100 Spe
Impish Nature

This hits 221 speed, which outspeeds the 220 speed Tran in the damage calc, has enough Attack to 2HKO the defensive Zap in the calc, with the rest invested into Defense to better take on Zera.

Offensive Stats

The main benchmark I wanted to hit was 2HKOing defensive Zap with diamond storm. 140 base attack with 120 attack EVs accomplishes that. With further investment, we can even 2HKO Bold Zapdos, and threaten waters with Power Whip.

120 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220 Def Zapdos: 192-226 (50.1 - 59%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 240+ Def Zapdos: 188-222 (49 - 57.9%) -- 96.1% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tornadus-Therian: 276-326 (76.2 - 90%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

120 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 168-200 (55.2 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 186-218 (61.1 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery (I think this nearly guarantees 67% net to Pex after rocks and Black Sludge)

120 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 234-276 (55.5 - 65.5%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO after Poison Heal (I used Poison Heal to simulate 2 turns of Lefties on the Protect set)

120 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 141-166 (50.1 - 59%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (I guess it can't come in and threaten Trick as easily)
252 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 246-290 (87.5 - 103.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

120 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 170-202 (43.1 - 51.2%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock (Once it's knocked)

Spdef stats
These were again decided by Zapdos. There is more than enough bulk to avoid the 2HKO from offensive Zap Hurricane with only HP investment.

252 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 150-177 (41.2 - 48.6%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes and Leftovers recovery (guaranteed to avoid the 2HKO without the spike. This also means we're not 2HKOd by Torn)

252 SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon in Psychic Terrain: 163-193 (44.7 - 53%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 141-166 (38.7 - 45.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery and trapping damage (We avoid the 2HKO from non-Eruption offensive Tran if you ever run into one of those. This obviously means we beat regular Sp.Def Tran, especially if you're EV'd to outspeed)

Defense stats
These were largely selected to improve the Zeraora matchup as much as possible, while also trying to hit benchmarks for avoiding revenge killing at +2.

252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 36+ Def Hippowdon: 113-133 (31 - 36.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 36+ Def Hippowdon: 280-331 (76.9 - 90.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (We 2HKO after rocks)

252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 252 HP / 36+ Def Hippowdon: 270-320 (74.1 - 87.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (We 2HKO after rocks)

252 Atk Choice Band Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 252 HP / 36+ Def Hippowdon: 270-324 (74.1 - 89%) -- approx. 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (We OHKO back)

+2 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 36+ Def Hippowdon: 313-369 (85.9 - 101.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

120 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 156 Def Equilibra: 112-132 (27.4 - 32.3%) -- 66% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery (Power Whip does not do enough to overwhelm Libra)
 
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ausma

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Final Submission

132 / 123 / 67 / 92 / 82 / 89
(BST: 585)

PS: 119.92
SS: 98.20
PT: 96.12
ST: 114.88
PT + ST = 211
BSR: 573.90

Optional Moves:
50% Recovery
Grass-type coverage (Giga Drain)
Swords Dance
Special Fire-type coverage (Fire Blast and Flamethrower)
Taunt
Rapid Spin
Pain Split

Explanation:

Okay, so this entire spread is weird at a glance and so are a lot of the moves I opted to give it, but so far it's something I enjoy and I'm going to do what I can to explain my thought process. I'm still contemplating setup and I may opt to remove it but in this stage I've had a lot more fun thinking about how its other moves would actually interact with it and I think giving CAP 31 options is going to be really important considering it's already pitted with two guaranteed moves.

In short, this submission is centered around giving CAP 31 offensive flexibility, putting pretty much everything CAP 31 could have at its disposal to the table and encouraging CAP 31 to explore its options, but being cripplingly balanced around 4MSS due to how much it still values Earthquake + Diamond Storm. Before you panic: Diamond Storm is still absolutely integral to its kit, especially regarding my chosen defense stat. I'm going to break my explanation down on both the offensive and defensive spectrum.

Offensive Spectrum

Let's first talk about its 123/92/89 offenses. Obviously, they are nothing to scoff at, but its 123 Attack stat is most definitely of note and it's the thing we obviously need to discuss first given the angle of our CAP. I agree with dex and Detroit's core arguments regarding high Attack; we need immediate power, but where I deviate is that I don't think it needs to be extremely high to get the value we really want out of an Attack stat. As long as we deal at minimum over half to all of Zapdos, Venomicon, or Tornadus-T, we are applying very very prominent pressure and Diamond Storm is still accomplishing what we want it to accomplish against them. Plus, in some cases Diamond Storm not doing OHKO-levels of damage can encourage them to situationally soak a hit, which can be prominent for ally Pokemon like Kartana. I wanted something still very practical and having immediate threat power, but reasonable relative to its bulk, speed tier, and movepool (in other words, with respect to the BSR limit) Specifically, 123 locks vital 2HKOs with Diamond Storm. Imo Base 123 is a very legitimate Attack stat and accomplishes what we need it to by itself.

252 Atk CAP 31 Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: 154-183 (45.1 - 53.6%) -- 91% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk CAP 31 Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 168-198 (55.2 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery
252 Atk CAP 31 Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Slowking-Galar: 384-452 (97.4 - 114.7%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
0 Atk CAP 31 Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 170-204 (55.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252 Atk Abomasnow Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 252-298 (69.6 - 82.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk CAP 31 Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220 Def Zapdos: 192-228 (50.1 - 59.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk CAP 31 Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 190-224 (50.8 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Now let's talk about the interesting parts: the Special Attack and Speed margins. This is where I really put on the lab goggles and pulled out the DIY chemistry kit, since I was mostly charting weird waters with this one.

Getting Speed out of the way, this one was a bit more straight forward. I opted to outspeed Nidoking and Modest Tapu Lele, Slush Rush Arctozolt, and Excadrill, but miss out on Urshifu-R so if we didn't have a Defense boost, we could be feasibly revenge killed. This has other good benefits thanks to being a generally good Speed tier, decisively outpacing all prominent tanks that run Speed investment. Base 89 at +1 with Rapid Spin also lets it serve as a solid potential endgame cleaner, only being viably outsped by Choice Scarf Kartana, Slush Rush Arctozolt, and Timid Tapu Lele, trumping the former if it packs a Diamond Storm boost. 89 is very serviceable by itself for wallbreaking purposes too, as shown by competitor Landorus-T whom this submission is pretty close by in base Speed.

Now let's talk about the fun part: Base 92 Special Attack. We've established earlier on having a Special bias would be mostly anti-concept since it takes away from CAP 31's much needed power to really get as much value from its STAB and Diamond Storm as possible, so what gives? Fire Blast and Giga Drain. Fire Blast specifically provides a very strong complement to CAP 31 for reasons I've addressed previously, but the main Pokemon it would be pressuring are Buzzwole, Corviknight, Ferrothorn, and Equilibra, all of which greatly stifle its main STAB combination and outlast it in a vacuum. I think these matchups (barring Ferrothorn) being so polarizingly terrible for CAP 31 is a really big problem for it, even with Swords Dance, to a point where its consistency in comparison to Landorus-T is put to question. Realistically speaking, Diamond Storm will get PP stalled or it'll get crippled with status/damage in the process. That's why I do think powerful coverage to threaten these Pokemon will be necessary on some sets, and Fire Blast is a good option that respects the integrity of its main offensive moves while letting it actually do something consistent against them. 92 Special Attack, specifically, honors the investment you will want to put into its main offenses. Uninvested, you attain the rolls necessary to make the option not obsolete, while respecting Equilibra as a fairly consistent check. 92 Special Attack specifically was for Corviknight, guaranteeing its standard set will always take half of its HP after Stealth Rock, consistently forcing it to Roost. It will always 2HKO after 2 rounds of Stealth Rock. One last thing is that 92 Special Attack also complements a coverage option I'd like to grant it: Giga Drain. Grass-type coverage is a very cool option that lets it further pressure Water-types, but I worry in most cases it will be impractical: Giga Drain I think is a fringe option that can double both as that and slight extra recovery against them if so desired, which 92 Special Attack just barely makes viable, attaining a 2HKO against Urshifu-Rapid after Stealth Rock and being a moderately okay option against Slowbro as it outdamages Regenerator most of the time and gives CAP 31 some health back.

0 SpA CAP 31 Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 92 SpD Corviknight: 152-180 (38 - 45.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA CAP 31 Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Equilibra: 128-152 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 97.7% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA CAP 31 Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Ferrothorn: 192-228 (54.5 - 64.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0 SpA CAP 31 Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Buzzwole: 246-290 (58.8 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA CAP 31 Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowbro: 122-144 (30.9 - 36.5%) -- 61.7% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA CAP 31 Giga Drain vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: 152-180 (44.5 - 52.7%) -- 83.6% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Sidenote: I can't give this any more Special Attack since otherwise it breaks the 100 SS limit, so you're mostly going to get value out of Fire Blast here with fringe uses for Giga Drain here and there.

Defensive Spectrum

If we want to talk about flexibility, CAP 31 needs some natural defensive utility. A lot of that defensive utility, though, has to be intrinsic to naturally good base stats in order to respect offensive investment. Plus, defensive BST obviously has merits from an offensive perspective, especially as I've given it Swords Dance to play to said bulk. I want to make setup (bulky and all-out alike) strong but not too much to where it overloads things and makes CAP 31 overall too difficult to break. Tl;dr: bulk is important, and 132/64/82 is pretty good, letting it form 101 HP Substitutes (relevant against Blissey) without investment while also letting it maintain an overall consistent defensive profile. High HP in general alleviates a ton of room in the investment department, and was something I thought would be particularly fun to explore, with the only main caveat being that it's a somewhat poor pairing with Pain Split on sets with heavier HP investment.

First, lets talk about Defense. This stat I feel is kind of weird to talk about, considering it will be inevitably boosted by Diamond Storm throughout the game. However, I designed it to be a bit of an Achilles' heel when unboosted, while still keeping it usable. The benchmark I chose here specifically was to ensure that Urshifu-Rapid's Choice Band Close Combat and Landorus-T Earthquake would always lock the KO/2HKO respectively , meaning that it needs Diamond Storm boosts in order to truly win the 1v1 against them (and against any super effective coverage for that matter). Middling base defense also ensures that it can't waltz away against all Physical matchups and that 1: Diamond Storm boosts are more vital if it wants to play to a bulky cleaner-style endgame 2: any strong STAB/coverage is going to give it a run for its money.

252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def CAP 31: 408-481 (100.7 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Garchomp Aqua Tail vs. 0 HP / 0 Def CAP 31: 272-322 (67.1 - 79.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def CAP 31: 386-456 (95.3 - 112.5%) -- approx. 81.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Melmetal Superpower vs. 0 HP / 0 Def CAP 31: 214-252 (52.8 - 62.2%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def CAP 31: 193-228 (51.1 - 60.2%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Special Defense is the other goodie. We established in the threats phase that we want CAP 31 to be able to naturally pressure and beat Tornadus-T, Zapdos, Tapu Koko, and Heatran, which Special Defense is, naturally, vital in helping it deal with if it wants to come in against them. Specifically, I aimed for Defensive Zapdos Hurricane and Heatran Magma Storm as my key targets, the latter being especially important as Ground-types are often utilized as the de-facto checks for them. Heatran Magma Storm, particularly, can be forced out with CAP 31's speed tier and entirely healed off with 50% recovery and Leftovers with this investment, letting it keep healthy against it, and with Max SpDef investment it will always take 2. Conveniently, this spread also takes two Hurricanes from utility Tornadus-T after Stealth Rock.

0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD CAP 31: 169-201 (41.8 - 49.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD CAP 31: 160-189 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- 33.2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock, Leftovers recovery, and trapping damage
0 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 0 HP / 252+ SpD CAP 31: 111-132 (27.4 - 32.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock, Leftovers recovery, and trapping damage
252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD CAP 31: 126-148 (31.1 - 36.6%) -- 72.5% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD CAP 31: 153-180 (37.8 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
 
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WIP

132 / 105 / 80 / 42 / 55 / 126 BST: 540

PS: 122.92
SS: 66.39
PT: 110.90
ST: 84.29
PT + ST = 195.19
BSR: 557.76

Optional Moves:
Mystical Fire, 50% Recovery, Taunt


Explanation:
This spread is centered around two things: The Threats Discussion, and Diamond Storm. I think I'm probably in the minority when I say I don't think CAP 31 needs Swords Dance or Dragon Dance, or should even have them. Being able to attack and boost simultaneously is extremely strong imo and we're likely to face balancing issues if we use other boosting moves alongside it.

Hit Points helps make the most out of Diamond Storm's boosts and keeps CAP31 specially bulky enough to switch into Koko. Speed allows you to take on the Ice type sweepers, E-Book, and Tornadus-T. These stats are also meant to lend CAP31 set flexibility in using Diamond Storm, from a set-up sweeper and revenge killer, to a stallbreaker utilising Taunt, Diamond Storm boosts, and healing. It can't compress these roles though, and suffers from 4MSS.

I tried to make Special Defence a weak point without breaking the mon too much. With these stats, you still pressure Tornadus-T, and defensive Landorus-T. You can also switch into Tapu Koko's Dazzling Gleam with minimal investment. Special attack stat is the bare minimum to OHKO Kartana with Mystical Fire with a neutral SpA nature, but not enough to 3HKO Ferrothorn without a Life Orb/Expert Belt/EV investment.



One change I am really looking at is whether or not I should push defence to 90. It takes CAP31 out of 2HKO range of defensive Lando's EQ with SR and Leftovers factored. I'm also on the fence about healing

PS: 122.92SS: 66.39PT: 122.28ST: 84.29BSR: 571.60

PT+ST= 206.57



252 Atk Mew Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Landorus-Therian: 102-121 (31.9 - 37.9%) -- 0.8% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Mew Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Lele: 231-274 (82.2 - 97.5%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Mew Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220 Def Zapdos: 170-202 (44.3 - 52.7%) -- 18.4% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Mew Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 152-180 (50 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Mew Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 98-116 (30.3 - 35.9%) -- 41.8% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Mew Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 206-246 (48.9 - 58.4%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Mew Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 216-256 (69.4 - 82.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

48- SpA Mew Mystical Fire vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Kartana: 260-308 (100.3 - 118.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Mew Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 164+ Def Landorus-Therian: 79-94 (20.6 - 24.6%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery


252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 171-202 (42.2 - 49.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 142-168 (35 - 41.4%) -- 99.9% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 178-211 (43.9 - 52%) -- 14.8% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 213-252 (52.5 - 62.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 232-274 (57.2 - 67.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Vile Vial Venomicon-Epilogue Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 252-297 (62.2 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

0 Atk Buzzwole Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 172-204 (42.4 - 50.3%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew in Grassy Terrain: 572-674 (141.2 - 166.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 202-238 (49.8 - 58.7%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

-1 0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 154-183 (38 - 45.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

+1 252 Atk Dragonite Dual Wingbeat (2 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 242-288 (59.7 - 71.1%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 234-276 (57.7 - 68.1%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 168-200 (41.4 - 49.3%) -- approx. 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 252-296 (62.2 - 73%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery


Modedit: Removed refs to Hone Claws, as it is not a Defining Move
 
Last edited by a moderator:

shnowshner

You've Gotta Try
is a Pre-Contributor
Final Submission

62 HP / 128 Atk / 108 Def / 77 SpA / 144 SpDef / 81 Spe | 600 BST


Limits: 135 PS, 575 BSR

PS: 119.56
SS: 83.24
PT: 93.21
ST: 121.68
PT + ST: 214.89
BSR: 574.11

Defining Moves: 50% Recovery, Swords Dance, Taunt

Explanation: Decided to go for a slower, generally bulkier spread with a more condensed selection of defining moves. I feel Taunt + SD is a good toolset for dealing with Slowbro, which is a primary target of Power Whip, while also giving us a good edge versus a lot of slower utility/set-up mons like Clefable, Venomicon, and Ferrothorn. 50% Recovery just feels too useful and defining for 31 to drop, it offers a lot more flexibility to pretty much any set you could run just because having your mons stay alive longer is almost always a good thing.

Base 81 Speed ensures that Base 95 Speed tiers with 252 EV investment always outspeed us even if they don't run a +Speed nature (this means Lele and Colo),

The main spread I was assuming was 252 HP / 252 Speed Jolly. This lets you outpace all Dragonite and Heatran, and you have plenty of options available to harass or 1v1 these two.

with 252 HP EVs and 4 Def EVs

252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. +2 252 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 138-163 (42 - 49.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 252 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 180-216 (54.8 - 65.8%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock, 2 layers of Spikes, and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. +2 252 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 194-230 (59.1 - 70.1%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 110-130 (33.5 - 39.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock, 2 layers of Spikes, and Leftovers recovery

You can alternatively run 248 HP and 8 Def EVs to achieve this:

0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Silvally-Ground: 138-163 (42.2 - 49.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

The change in investment very slightly messes with a few calculations but is overall the same.


Special tankiness

252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 169-201 (51.5 - 61.2%) -- 94.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery)

252 SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 178-211 (54.2 - 64.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 93-109 (28.3 - 33.2%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 118-141 (35.9 - 42.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock, 1 layer of Spikes, and Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 290-343 (88.4 - 104.5%) -- guaranteed KO in 2 turns after Stealth Rock, 1 layer of Spikes, and Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 117-138 (35.6 - 42%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery


Offensive Calcs

Providing both no Attack investment and 252 Attack investment.

0 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 214-254 (71.3 - 84.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 260-308 (86.6 - 102.6%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO


0 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 240 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos: 144-170 (37.7 - 44.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 240 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos: 174-206 (45.6 - 54%) -- 41.8% chance to 2HKO


0 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 162-192 (43.3 - 51.3%) -- 8.2% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 198-234 (52.9 - 62.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


0 Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 144-170 (47.3 - 55.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 174-206 (57.2 - 67.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

Some calcs at +2

+2 0 Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 159-187 (45.1 - 53.1%) -- 32% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

+2 252 Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 193-228 (54.8 - 64.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

+2 0 Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 180-213 (45.6 - 54%) -- 46.9% chance to 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 219-258 (55.5 - 65.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+1 0 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Landorus-Therian: 145-171 (37.9 - 44.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

+1 252 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Landorus-Therian: 175-207 (45.8 - 54.1%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery



Checks to SD 31 (using Adamant to really prove a point):

+2 252+ Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 177-209 (44.3 - 52.3%) -- 79.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

+2 252+ Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Buzzwole: 146-172 (34.9 - 41.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

+2 252+ Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Equilibra: 61-72 (14.9 - 17.6%) -- possible 6HKO after Stealth Rock

Obviously this is quite strong but such a set will also lack bulk and/or Speed and get RK'd by a lot more. Honestly if Chomp somehow is balanced with 130 Attack and 102 Speed I can envision we are as well.






WIP

65/130/110/90/115/90 (BST: 600)


Limits: 135 PS, 575 BSR

PS: 127.24
SS: 97.73
PT: 96.85
ST: 102.41
PT + ST: 199.26
BSR: 572.52

Defining Moves: Power Whip, 50% Recovery, Pain Split, Heat Wave, Taunt

Explanation: I'm going for a very generalist-type spread for 31, I think it's important that we have decent flexibility in what we can invest into, while still having enough stats in the right places to get the job done. This is why a Speed stat of 90 was chosen, which critically outpaces all unboosted Heatran with 252 investment in Speed. Beyond that benchmark, I felt there was a lot of room left to put investment into. To be a bit more specific, I want the user to tailor 31 the best they can to fit their team, but also be unable to do everything at once, meaning that some sacrifices here and there must be made.

Using Silvally-Ground because it's artificial and so is everything we make here. Wow!

First, here is us dying with 252 HP and dump 4 EVs

252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 348-414 (104.1 - 123.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 348-410 (104.1 - 122.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Silvally-Ground in Psychic Terrain: 255-300 (76.3 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (18.8% chance to OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes)

252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 271-319 (81.1 - 95.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Without any bulk investment:

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Silvally-Ground: 235-277 (86.7 - 102.2%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO (56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 93.8% chance to OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes)

252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Silvally-Ground in Psychic Terrain: 255-300 (94 - 110.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO (guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock)

252 Atk Choice Band Zapdos-Galar Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 262-310 (96.6 - 114.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Silvally-Ground: 217-256 (80 - 94.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock (50% chance to OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes)


Also, consider this match-up.

252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 108-128 (39.8 - 47.2%) -- 42.2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock, 1 layer of Spikes, and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Silvally-Ground: 108-128 (32.3 - 38.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock, 1 layer of Spikes, and Leftovers recovery

So without proper investment, we can struggle to tank a lot of hard-hitting threats or fail to properly check certain Pokemon we may be tasked with handling if chipped sufficiently. What this boils down to is that if you want 31 to be taking up the role of something like Specially Defensive Lando, you need to seriously dedicate it to that role.

Other Important Calculations
252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 111-132 (40.9 - 48.7%) -- 9.8% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 94-112 (34.6 - 41.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

We can handle both of these pretty well without really trying to.

0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Silvally-Ground: 103-123 (30.8 - 36.8%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Silvally-Ground: 115-136 (34.4 - 40.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Very Specially-Defensive sets are decent at staving off Flying-types, assuming we don't get too unlucky (though at some point, what even is a good Hurricane switch-in?)

252 SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 219-258 (65.5 - 77.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Heatran Eruption (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Silvally-Ground: 145-172 (43.4 - 51.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

The second calc is after we use Pain Split. Assuming I did the math correctly, we can take an Eruption and use Pain Split to lower the power of min-roll Eruption to 100 BP, which we have enough HP to tank afterwards.

There's a couple ways to split this, but I'll focus on the more damaging side as that's the biggest point of contention for most spreads.

Neutral Nature

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 262-310 (87.3 - 103.3%) -- 25% chance to OHKO

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 240+ Def Zapdos: 178-210 (46.4 - 54.8%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 176-210 (57.8 - 69%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 240-284 (57 - 67.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

:melmetal: This isn't 100% reflective of the set but here's a simulation of Protect + Lefties still losing

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 64 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 240-284 (56.2 - 66.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Poison Heal

252 Atk Silvally-Ground Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 234-276 (83.2 - 98.2%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock


Running Adamant Nature

252+ Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 288-340 (96 - 113.3%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Silvally-Ground Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 240+ Def Zapdos: 194-230 (50.6 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 192-228 (63.1 - 75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252+ Atk Silvally-Ground Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 264-312 (62.7 - 74.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252+ Atk Silvally-Ground Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 256-302 (91.1 - 107.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

I like Heat Wave's less explosive power compared to Fire Blast and Overheat, but also its lessened reliability compared to Flamethrower. It just makes the option a bit worse overall, and feel that's important in terms of balance when considering a tech option into annoying Pokemon like Ferrothorn or Buzzwole.

0- SpA Silvally-Ground Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Ferrothorn: 200-236 (56.8 - 67%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock, Leftovers recovery, and Leech Seed recovery

0- SpA Silvally-Ground Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Buzzwole: 188-222 (44.9 - 53.1%) -- 87.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery


The lower damage and likelyhood we always run -SpA also means that Equilibra and Corviknight are more than comfortable taking these alongside Leftovers, preserving their identities as checks.

0- SpA Silvally-Ground Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Equilibra: 98-116 (24 - 28.4%) -- possible 5HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

0- SpA Silvally-Ground Heat Wave vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Corviknight: 130-154 (32.5 - 38.5%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Note that neither of these are running SpDef investment outside of HP, and thus SpDef variants are much stronger into Heat Wave than they already are.



This is admittedly pretty stacked in terms of distribution of stats and moves, but I feel such a nature is necessary given that our two biggest competitors are Landorus-Therian and Garchomp, who are both in their own ways insanely powerful and have a ton of merits over us that we struggle to fulfill. Lando has the incredible defensive benefits of a secondary Flying-type and Intimidate, while being both faster and stronger than us naturally assuming equal investment, and having a deep movepool with plenty of useful support options or techs. Chomp meanwhile is an offensive behemoth whose Dragon-typing grants it secondary STAB and a very important Fire resist, yet still maintains a sizeable defensive presence with above-average bulk for such a fast Pokemon and access to Rough Skin letting it passively wear down most physical attackers. Both also have Swords Dance, and Garchomp especially has no trouble fitting a Speed-boosting option onto its set with Scale Shot being a good move for it already. Basically these two are ridiculous and so we should be likewise.

What I'm envisioning with this is you come in on various Pokemon it can threaten or sit infront of (bulky Waters, slow Ground- and Rock-weak mons, anything vulnerable to Taunt) and use those opportunities to start attacking, keep itself healthy, or provide other team support.

I did consider SD but I felt the combination of inherent flexibility + coverage + water absorb limiting our weaknesses + decent bulk was maybe getting into overtuned territory, and unfortunately our two other boosting options both raise Speed which I'm simply not very interested in. I do not think SD is inherently broken on such a build, but the more I looked into it the less comfortable I was with its inclusion. We do still have Secondary Ability and proper Moveset Submissions to get through, and in that sense I feel my spread provides us with a good amount of room to go forwards with and really carve out a niche.
 
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Yu_IOTJ

formerly NoahIOTJ
is a Community Contributor
Final Submission

99/149/69/59/109/69 BST:554

PS: 124.23
SS: 63.86
PT: 82.26
ST: 122.02
BSR: 571.78

Combined Tankiness: 204.28

Optional Moves: 50% Recovery, Dragon Dance

Explanation:


By the power of Aesthetic, I give you 9 SPREAD! As you can see, this is a clear example of trying to pander to the trends, as it's got everything you want ladies and gentlemen. Now I'm not pulling any punches here, I mean there's nothing subtle about this pitch. I found a good spread with 9s at the end of each stat, and it has BIG ATTACK so I'm subbing it. It's gonna be temperamental and hard to work with, but you won't care! Because we'll all dunk on a lot of electrics and flyings and Toxapex! And Arceus will look down on us, and he'll smile on us, and he'll say; "Let them have a Whack Ass CAP 31!!"

Uh with that preamble out of the way, I went with a statline that's got big damage and just enough bulk to make it worthwhile to set up and become a goodness gracious great balls of stats. Much like other subs, I've decided making defense relatively lower would be best as to make having the boosts from diamond storm more worthwhile.

Offensive Stats:

The Large attack stat and the inclusion of dragon dance means that 31 through this spread can invest little to none in the actual attack stat and still be a force. Offensive Zapdos is cleanly OHKO'd without any investment, and with 252 investment and a neutral nature, even a decently bulky zapdos can be one-shot with a boost. Against Zeraora we always KO with unboosted EQ, and even against a +1 bulk up, max attack investment has a high chance to still One-shot. A single boost is enough to heavily damage and/or outright OHKO most of the target's we're aiming for with or without investment into attack.

+1 0 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Zapdos: 348-410 (108.4 - 127.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+1 0 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 64 Def Zapdos: 324-382 (84.3 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. +1 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 306-362 (96.5 - 114.1%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO

+1 0 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. +1 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 386-456 (121.7 - 143.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+1 0 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tornadus-Therian: 364-430 (100.5 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+1 0 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 242-288 (79.6 - 94.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 288-342 (94.7 - 112.5%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 183-216 (46.4 - 54.8%) -- 62.1% chance to 2HKO

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 398-470 (94.5 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 326-384 (87.1 - 102.6%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 240-283 (85.4 - 100.7%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO


It does however fail to do much to our Counters without a lot of boosts. The metal birds can easily take a negligible hit from us at +1 even with max investment. And Equilibra walls us completely. Ferrothorn is threatened with boosted EQs, but it is a considerable stop gap if we don't manage to have a boost.

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 136-160 (34 - 40.1%) -- 39.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 103-122 (30.8 - 36.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

+6 252 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. +6 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 69-82 (20.6 - 24.5%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Equilibra: 42-49 (10.2 - 12%) -- possibly the worst move ever

+6 252 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Equilibra: 112-132 (27.4 - 32.3%) -- 64.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 109-129 (30.9 - 36.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 160-190 (45.4 - 53.9%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 164+ Def Landorus-Therian: 102-120 (26.7 - 31.4%) -- 24% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

+1 252 Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: 270-318 (79.1 - 93.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

And these are calcs that DO take max investment with Jolly into account. So we're far from the most unstoppable force. And even then, this spread still has the problem of...

Defensive Stats:

The bulk that we do have for this spread is useful for getting around the mons that 31 wants to be threatening in the first place. It's 3HKO'd by the strongest attacks thrown its way by Zapdos, Torn, and Zeraora. It's special bulk especially with just HP investment allows it to live other remarkable stray hits. However without +2 we struggle to fight physical attackers well outside of nonstab options, and because of our low speed despite +1, we are easy to revenge kill.

252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 160-189 (39.9 - 47.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Sandaconda: 160-190 (39.9 - 47.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Sandaconda: 148-175 (36.9 - 43.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

80 SpA Slowking-Galar Ice Beam vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Sandaconda: 140-166 (34.9 - 41.3%) -- 69.5% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Life Orb Krilowatt Ice Beam vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Sandaconda: 177-208 (44.1 - 51.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

+1 252 SpA Chromera Boomburst vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Sandaconda: 193-228 (48.1 - 56.8%) -- 37.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Sandaconda: 97-115 (24.1 - 28.6%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Sandaconda: 117-138 (29.1 - 34.4%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Syclant Icicle Crash vs. +2 248 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 260-308 (64.8 - 76.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Sandaconda: 226-267 (56.3 - 66.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. +2 248 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda in Grassy Terrain: 324-384 (80.7 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery and Grassy Terrain recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 248 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 335-398 (83.5 - 99.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 248 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 384-456 (95.7 - 113.7%) -- approx. 87.5% chance to OHKO

252 SpA Jumbao Leaf Storm vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Sandaconda: 380-450 (94.7 - 112.2%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. +2 248 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 384-453 (95.7 - 112.9%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 202-238 (50.3 - 59.3%) -- 79.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 378-446 (94.2 - 111.2%) -- approx. 75% chance to OHKO

252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 399-469 (99.5 - 116.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO

In short, we're not the most unstoppable force with this spread, but it is very strong and very good at coming in and taking out the threats it needs to. Especially considering that we're up against Lando and Garchomp for Ground type competition. We've got plenty of opportunities to come in and set up roll out. And I think that it'll work pretty well, all Aesthetic aside.
 
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Final Submission

80/113/122/53/86/126 (BST:580)

PS: 130.62
SS: 76.83
PT: 117.79
ST: 89.15

BSR: 589.51

Combined Tankiness: 206.94

Defining Moves: Taunt, Power Whip, Overheat


What CAP31 was super fast AND had exceptional physical bulk AND hit decently hard?

The Speed let’s you zoom past Weavile making it almost impossible for it to revenge CAP 31 as Diamond Storm is a guaranteed OHKO.
Being faster than every relevant Defogger, means it’s going to be really good at keeping rocks up with Taunt and with Diamond Storm it can pressure and Chip these Flying types fairly well, while obviously demolishing Astro.

It also allows you to still outrun Kartana if you wish to run a more agressive Adamant Spread.

Bulk let’s you live a bunch of shit unboosted.
Most notably Zeraora only barely 3hkos with Close Combat (Knock Off into 2 Close Combats still isn’t guaranteed to KO if hazards are off the field) and Landorus cannot break a substitute with Uturn and neither with Earthquake after a Diamond Storm boost.
Weavile cannot OHKO with +2 Ice Shard, but OHKOs with Triple Axel
Choice Band Kartana cannot OHKO after a Diamond Storm Boost and gets 2hkoed by Earthquake and obviously gets obliterated by Overheat.

The Special Bulk let’s it take 2 Dazzling Gleams from Tapu Koko and live with rocks up and three Slowking Galars Flamethrowers, while easily Ohkoing both with Earthquake (after Rocks).

113 Atk ensures a guaranteed 2HKO on Pex and with the addition of taunt makes this matchup really hard to lose.
It also does 66% to Pivot/Defog Torn with Diamond Strom meaning it can’t really scout moves.
Running Life Orb or Adamant nature allows a 2hko on max defense Zapdos with Diamond S

While Overheat is great for Kartana and almost 2hkos Ferrothorn/2hkos Ferrothorn through two cyclesit does negligible Damage to Corviknight and Equilibra.

Life Orb Power Whip enables a 2hko against Slowbro and Arghonaut, while UnboostPower Whip is enough to threaten CM Tapu Fini.

252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 100-118 (33.1 - 39%) -- 11.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 100-118 (33.1 - 39%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after 3 layers of Spikes and Leftovers recovery

0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. +2 4 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 63-75 (20.8 - 24.8%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Landorus-Therian U-turn vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 59-70 (19.5 - 23.1%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery

+2 252 Atk Weavile Ice Shard vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 210-248 (69.5 - 82.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 312-378 (103.3 - 125.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 4 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 240-284 (79.4 - 94%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

80 SpA Slowking-Galar Flamethrower vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 86-102 (28.4 - 33.7%) -- 97.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 158-188 (51.9 - 61.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Slowking-Galar: 356-422 (90.3 - 107.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220+ Def Zapdos: 213-252 (55.6 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220+ Def Zapdos: 164-194 (42.8 - 50.6%) -- 2.3% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 238-282 (65.7 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0- SpA Donphan Overheat vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Ferrothorn: 180-212 (51.1 - 60.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0- SpA Donphan Overheat over 2 turns vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Ferrothorn: 268-320 (76.1 - 90.9%) -- not a KO

0- SpA Donphan Overheat vs. 248 HP / 92 SpD Corviknight: 104-124 (26 - 31%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0- SpA Donphan Overheat over 4 turns vs. 248 HP / 92 SpD Corviknight: 220-264 (55.1 - 66.1%) -- not a KO
0- SpA Donphan Overheat vs. 252 HP / 100 SpD Equilibra: 80-96 (19.6 - 23.5%) -- possible 6HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Donphan Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 160-190 (40.6 - 48.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 208-247 (52.7 - 62.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arghonaut: 231-273 (55.7 - 65.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Donphan Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Tapu Fini: 162-192 (47 - 55.8%) -- 21.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

While offensively it matches up fairly well into flying types it is 2hkoed by all Hurricane users.
and can be revenged by strong special Attackers.

Considering, that it’s probably going to be tasked to be a switch in to a several key threats without access to reliable recovery, I believe that it’s going to be worn down fairly fast, limiting its undeniable overall power.
It also struggles to immediately break past mons like Landorus, Corviknight and Equilibra or bulky waters (depending on Coverage), especially if it wants to run it’s great utility.
In return its a fairly offensive Mon that is really hard to immediately threaten with just offensive presence and it can flex between a bulkier utility focused option and more aggressive offensive sets.
 
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Zephyri

put on your headphones and burn my city
is a Top Artistis a Forum Moderator
Final Submission

100/148/54/64/116/58
BST: 540

PS: 112.79
SS: 62.17
PT: 68.38
ST: 129.41
PT+ST: 197.79
BSR: 537.96

Optional Moves:
Recover, Dragon Dance

Explanation: Sorta inspired by mdia/gliscor-style mons with this one. people before me have explained why dummy high attack is cool; 148 specifically OHKOs zapdos after +1 attack.

the idea behind this spread is to really push the dstorm+ddance snowball concept. you have tons of opportunities to come in on flyings like zapdos/tornt/venomicon with 100/116 special bulk, alongside waters because of water absorb, and ddancing once puts it in sweeping position because of 148 attack and a speed tier that's surprisingly solid, outspeeding landorus-t, specs lele, and shifu. +2 speed makes it so you outspeed zera with full investment. 100/116 does some really cool things, like getting guaranteed 3HKOd by zapdos and specs pult, and 4HKOd by tornadus-t without any investment.

the big thing about this spread is the paper thin physical defense though. without boosts, the spread gets ohkod by venom-e and shifu, and gets 2hkod by zera's cc. i think that's where the cool part of dstorm comes in; the spread requires a dstorm boost to act as a significant threat, because you get outsped and ohkod otherwise and after the dstorm boost, stopping it from setting up snowballing is difficult.

i realize that the spread may seem a little underpowered, but i think the fact that it uses dstorm in a way that makes it essential to its toolkit as a sweeper is really cool, and makes that tradeoff worth it.

(update: adding calcs sounds annoying and finals week is a bitch so uhh trust the benchmarks i gave? ty <3)
 
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Brambane

protect the wetlands
is a Contributor Alumnus
FINAL SUBMISSION
75170888013552600

75 / 170 / 88 / 80 / 135 / 52
BST: 600

PS: 123.13
SS: 70.40
PT: 86.06
ST: 126.14
PT+ST=212.2
BSR: 578.92

Optional Moves: Thunder Wave, Pain Split, Rapid Spin

Attack Explanation:
170 Attack is the absolute upper limit I see for CAP31's raw power. CAP31 should hit extremely hard, and I would like to do that from the get-go as oppose to needing set-up. And if we are going to be this slow, you need a LOT of power to compensate. Anything that is neutral or worse to Earthquake is getting utterly and profoundly demolished. Diamond Storm sends Zapdos and Venomicon to the shadow realm. However, Diamond Storm's lowish BP still leaves CAP31 somewhat meager into some Pokemon.
252+ Atk Sandshrew Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Equilibra: 38-44 (9.3 - 10.8%)
252+ Atk Sandshrew Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 159-188 (46.6 - 55.1%)
252+ Atk Sandshrew Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rotom-Wash: 138-163 (45.3 - 53.6%)
-1 252+ Atk Sandshrew Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Landorus-Therian: 107-126 (28 - 32.9%)

So offensive Grass-types that resist EQ, Lando-T and Rotom-Wash are short term answers, even if the ladder two take a lot of damage upfront. Equilibra is a hard counter. Preserving Equilibra as a counter is important, so I denied it access to Grass coverage.

The relative power of a Pokemon has a number of factors beyond just raw base Attack. Abilities and move base power are all critical components. As little exercise of what I mean, I am going to take a completely neutral target (a typeless Pokemon with 100/100/100 bulk without investment) to compare the raw power of 170 BP STAB Earthquake to some other defining offensive Pokemon in the metagame.
252+ Atk CAP31 Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 220-259 (64.5 - 75.9%)
252 Atk CAP31 Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 201-237 (58.9 - 69.5%)
252+ Atk Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 216-255 (63.3 - 74.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 196-232 (57.4 - 68%)
252 SpA Blacephalon Overheat vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 237-280 (69.5 - 82.1%)
252+ Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 201-243 (58.9 - 71.2%)
252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 189-225 (55.4 - 65.9%)
252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mew in Psychic Terrain: 211-249 (61.8 - 73%)
252 SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mew in Psychic Terrain: 192-226 (56.3 - 66.2%)
252+ Atk Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 278-330 (81.5 - 96.7%)
252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 189-223 (55.4 - 65.3%)

My point of the above calcs is that, when you consider the raw power of a lot of breakers in the current metagame, 170 Attack isn't too far out of scope. And I didn't even give CAP31 a lot of the tools the above Pokemon have to leverage their attacking power. I didn't give it Swords Dance like Weavile or Kartana. I didn't give it good Speed like everything on the list except Melmetal. And I gave it fairly inconsistent recovery, incentivizing Leftovers heavily over other times. That is another big factor: all the above calcs do not include boosting items, which is what really pushes Urshifu, Lele, and Kartana to their wallbreaking heights. This much Attack also probably makes Choice Band a viable option for the mon, which is fine to me because locking yourself in Earthquake is always going to carry a healthy amount of risk into standard teams. And while Diamond Storm is strong, even Band isn't getting through the likes of Equilibra or Ferrothorn before they PP stall it. Life Orb seems decent, but greatly limits CAP31's defensive profile.

Now the above demonstration is NOT perfect. There are factors I didn't address, such as the distribution of phys def vs spdef Pokemon in the meta, the targets Earthquake is hitting neutrally vs something like Triple Axel or Close Combat, or the general safe midground play of clicking Diamond Storm some games (although all of these Pokemon have a pretty good midground play, its part of what makes them good lmao.) But to those who think that 170 Attack alone seems ridiculously high, I disagree. Its certainly strong, but not catastrophically so.

The other component I like about 170 Attack is you still have good power without investing in it. 376 Attack without investment is absolutely incredible, and allows the spread to focus more on its defenses if you need CAP31 for that role. I intentionally used inspiration from Melmetal for this. Melm can invest in its Attack to do monster truck loads of damage, but it is also very free to focus more heavily on its defenses. This makes it a flexible option that fits on many team, despite the heavy competition for Steel-types in CAP and OU.

Other stats:
75 / 88 physical bulk is enough for a <1% chance for Zeraora 2HKOing 252 HP Lefties CAP31, even with notable hazards:
(252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Sandshrew: 131-155 (37 - 43.7%)
It also lets you live a HDB Weavile Triple Axel at +2 Defense, which is good for the concept.

75 / 135 special bulk make CAP31 extremely good into Zapdos without investment, and solid into Heatran with investment
(252 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Sandshrew: 135-160 (38.1 - 45.1%)
( 252 SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Sandshrew: 144-169 (40.6 - 47.7%)

80 SpA is a dump stat; special Fire coverage is not given to better preserve Corviknight as a short term answer and Equilibra as a hard counter.

52 Speed gives 140 without investment, letting you outspeed offensive Heatran after Thunder Wave. That was the main justification, but there is some synergy with Rapid Spin here as well. With 252+, CAP 31 hits 223 Speed, outspeeding Garchomp and everything slower after a Rapid Spin. There is significant opportunity cost for investing that much in Speed and I don't expect that to ever be standard, but the option exists.

Low Speed and mediocre Defense makes this spread inherently worse into a lot of the offensive physical mons in the tier without a Diamond Storm boost. Kartana and Weavile especially force it out without a boost. This is naturally interactive with Diamond Storm, as well as prevents this Pokemon from being able to come in on too many things and trade effectively with its massive Attack stat.

Moves:
Boosting would obviously be ridiculous. 50% recovery I could be convinced on, but between the raw power and special bulk of this set, I am inherently leery. Taunt is a possibility, but I am honestly not sure if it does anything but shit on Ferrothorn harder, which isn't needed. This Pokemon would almost always rather like QuakeStorm, recovery, or Thunder Wave I think. Rapid Spin was added for role compression really; makes it easier to justify on teams compared to other Ground-types.
 
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Da Pizza Man

Pizza Time
is a Pre-Contributor
Final Submission

132 HP / 135 Atk / 86 Def / 52 SpA / 66 SpD / 79 Spe (550 BST)
PS:
121.82
SS: 62.36
PT: 117.73
ST: 96.75
BSR: 578.84
PT + ST: 214.48

Optional Moves: Dragon Dance, Power Whip

Explanation: This spread was largely based on the idea of using CAP 31 as a SubDD Sweeper, with Diamond Storm serving as both a means of coverage and as a way to make the Substitutes more sturdy. I gave the spread Power Whip just as a means to be able to hit Arghonaut and Quagsire, although due to the nature of us having to use Diamond Storm it sort of means we have an issue with 4MSS. I don't really see this as a bad thing though, as it does help give these sets more variety.

132 HP is the minimum HP required to be able to generate 101 HP Subs without investment. I figured this would be important as it gives CAP31 an additional niche over Lando-T in this regard as it turns Blissey into the perfect set-up bait for us.

135 Attack makes it so that +1 Earthquake always OHKOs Dragapult and always OHKOs Toxapex after hazards, while also allowing Power Whip to 2HKO Arghonaut with 1 layer of Spikes. I wanted to make sure that Dragapult is unable to really stop us once we get going in order to better incentive the idea of using Substitute over Power Whip. It also allows Diamond Storm to 2HKO Defensive Zapdos around 80% of the time and always OHKO Torn-T after Stealth Rock damage, which works very nicely to help incentive the move being used.

86 Defense makes it so that after a Diamond Storm boost, Defensive Lando-T is unable to destroy our Substitutes. Amamama brought this up on Discord when I first posted the spread and I figured this interaction was very pro-concept and also gives us a pretty cool niche so I decided to implement it into my spread.

Special Attack was largely used as a dump stat since I didn't really feel the need to give my spread access to fire coverage.

66 Special Defense is the maximum Special Defense that I can go with while still being within the PT+ST limit, and I figured it would be important to have some special bulk so I decided to go with it. Admittedly, it is on the lower end of a lot of the 132 HP spreads that have been submitted, but I think the higher physical bulk is able to make up for it. It is also still just barely enough to avoid being OHKOd by Timid Heatran's Eruption at full HP, which I think would be the biggest worry for a lot of people.

79 Speed allows us to outspeed Timid Heatran unboosted and also allows us to outspeed Dragapult and tie with Zeraora after a Dragon Dance.

252 Atk Sandshrew Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 240+ Def Zapdos: 182-216 (47.5 - 56.3%) -- 83.6% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Sandshrew Diamond Storm vs. 192 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 272-320 (78.3 - 92.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252 Atk Sandshrew Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dragapult: 318-375 (100.3 - 118.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252 Atk Sandshrew Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 270-318 (88.8 - 104.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Sandshrew Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Arghonaut: 202-238 (48.7 - 57.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes and Leftovers recovery

0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Sandshrew: 84-100 (20.7 - 24.6%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Sandshrew: 134-158 (33 - 39%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Sandshrew: 68-80 (16.7 - 19.7%) -- guaranteed 6HKO
252 SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Sandshrew: 342-403 (84.4 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
 
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Voltage

OTTN5
is a Pre-Contributor
Final Submission

132 / 125 / 61 / 55 / 95 / 82 -> 550
PS
: 117.44
SS: 66.27
PT: 89.29
ST: 129.61
PT + ST: 218.90 (out of 220)
BSR: 574.17 (out of 575)
t = 2.5

Assumed moves: Swords Dance, 50% Recovery, Wood Hammer (and other Physical Grass Coverage), Special Fire coverage, Pain Split (but why would you ever use it on 132 base HP lol), Thunder Wave
___________________________________________

EXPLANATION:
After reading over a lot of the limits discussion and other stages, I'd like to throw my hat into the ring for stats. To begin, I wanted to really lean into the Physical offensive capabilities of Diamond Storm and Earthquake, while also giving us plenty of Special tankiness since most of the mons CAP31 is supposed to be an answer to often rely on powerful Special attacks. Also, since Diamond Storm has a 12.5% chance to get to a +6 boost after three consecutive Diamond Storm uses, I wanted to make sure that our defensive capabilities didn't quickly spiral out of balance.

However, before I get any further into stats, I'd like to first discuss the Optional Moves I chose when doing my calculations.

OPTIONAL MOVES DISCUSSION:
With Grass Coverage being on the table, I opted to use the strongest physical Grass coverage move we could have in order to test the limits of what CAP31 could do. While others have been using Power Whip, I like the idea of Wood Hammer as, if used, the recoil requires us to consider the longevity of CAP31, and would thus force a second moveslot for Swords Dance. This almost certainly would give this mon a kind of 4MSS, but if it is by design, it's a small but very effective way to ensure that this Pokemon isn't able to boost, and recover AND hit most bulky water types all at once. For what it's worth, Power Whip has the same BP so I understand why people have ben using that for their calcs, but I think Wood Hammer is a "safer" coverage option just because it provides us with a check to ourselves down the line.

Special Fire coverage is pretty simple. I'll spare you this calc for now, but with a Choice Scarf and 55 SpA Flamethrower still absolutely nails Kartana as a cute little lure. When facing Ferrothorn, given STAB on Earthquake, one is actually incentivized to use Earthquake over the fire coverage, and even then an unbooted EQ from this spread doesn't actualy 2HKO Ferro, which is ideal given the C&C list. Basically I don't expect CAP31 to ever run the special fire coverage, but the option is there for some cute niche-filling possibilities if so desired.

You may notice that taunt is missing from the option moves list. This is simply because between giving CAP31 Swords Dance and 50% recovery, throwing Taunt in the mix has the dangerous potential to get out of hand very quickly, especially if CAP31 is already sitting on a set of +2 Attack and +2 Defense boosts. I figure this can also be mitigated by the Speed stat, more on that later, but we all know how creative players in this metagame can be, and I have no doubt that adding Taunt to this movepool would create situations in games where CAP31 would be able to prevent some of its checks from doing their job with the combination of these three moves. So no Taunt.

Also Thunder Wave as a cool utility option that might be used as a lure in a mid-game situation to allow CAP31 or a teammate to beat a faster foe with good play. I didn't run a ton of calcs on it, but again, I'll cover this more when I discuss the speed of CAP31.


STATS DISCUSSION:

HP:
132 HP is the magic number that a lot of people are going for, and I am no exception. With no investment, 132 HP allows CAP31 to have 405 HP, which therefore allows it to make use of 101 HP Substitutes if it so desires. This would make a great answer to any common stall staples like Seismic toss from Blissey and/or Chansey, in addition to the general usefulness that Substitute provides. I don't think one would ever want to run a maximum investment in HP since you hit 468 (not a particularly useful number), but that number is still very big and big is good hahaha.

Speed: 82 Speed is an interesting speed tier you speed tie with Modest 252 Tapu Lele should you opt for Jolly and max speed, but this is a very customizable Speed. The next relevant mon in the speed tiers is Dragonite at 284 Speed, meaning that in theory, one might not have to run a full 252+ Eve Spread on this mon if they'd rather find a more tailor-made defensive spread while still hitting important benchmarks. I find that we don't need CAP31 being the fastest Ground type in the metagame, especially if it has the incredible potential to be a more bulky offense staple. 82 Speed also means that this mon fits in that weird liminal space between being not super fast, but also not being slow enough for Trick Room, unlike Melmetal.

Special Attack: 55 SpA with no means of boosting means that we can maintain the fidelity of Skarmory, Levitate Equilibra and Corviknight as counters to CAP31. I am a little hesitant to give CAP31 any special Fire Coverage stronger than Flamethrower since in theory, running a Specs 252+ set guarantees a 2HKO on Corv, but at the same time, that set seems more or less unviable given the rest of CAP31's stats, so I think it's reasonable enough to let slide for now. I may change this before the final submission (mainly by removing fire special fire coverage). Basically though, a stat this low is ideally discouraging any special bias, and promoting CAP31 to go fully physical. It's our dump stat essentially. I managed to get it this low as the final means of getting our BSR back to around 575.

After figuring out those three boundaries, I decided the best course of action would be determining the limiting factor defensively, which in this case is the Special Defense stat. I wanted CAP31's Special tankiness as high as reasonably possible in order to survive things like NP +0 Tornadus-T's Hurricane and Specs Dragapult's Shadow Ball (which are both rolls to 2HKO without investment, 60 SpD guarantees 3HKO on both), for example. We still have to play carefully around Specs Tapu Lele with this defense, but that's a threat I'm willing to let slide here since we definitely still handle. Heatran's Magma Storm also doesn't scare us that much with some minor investment (20 SpD EVs), but that's been move or less known from the start. I feel that 132 HP + 95 SpD isn't the absolute BEST spread without investment, but absolutely allows for plenty of customization with which threats you want to live and which threats you want to then answer.

Next, I focused on nailing down Attack. Like ausma, I want to get our money's worth out of diamond Storm + Earthquake, but I agree that we shouldn't be immediately powerful upfront, and should allow space for boosting with Swords Dance if we want. Admittedly a lot of the points ausma make are ones that I would also make: giving us reliable power while still providing openings for teammates, having proprotional power and bulk, and reasonable means of not immediately being a threat from team preview. The calcs ausma has provided are ones that I also used, but I also wanted to show that with 125 Attack we can still easily threaten things like Bulk Up Zeraora when it's even at +1 after a Bulk Up. Which is ideal

Then there's Defense. Some may scoff at the, admittedly low, Defense that I've given at 61. But as I stated earlier, by spamming Diamond Storm and having 50% recovery, it is reasonable to assume that CAP31 might be on the field for long periods of time, especially if it is to, for example, switch in on a resisted / immune move, get a +2 boost from Diamond Storm and then recover any damage it may have taken. This is al a very specific hypothetical, but I believe that CAP31 shouldn't necessarily be able to switch into things with powerful physical attacks, but rather be able to last on the field because of a Diamond Storm boost. This lower defense actively encourages the player to use Diamond Storm in an attempt to get the +2 boost as soon as possible, while still weighing the options of limited PP. Again, if we consider the math here, with 8 PP, and we need three boosts to occur, a random 50% chance from happening, it's a simple Binomial model problem, and yields a roughly 1/5 chance (21.875%) that we could get to +6 in a 1v1 situation. All of this is to say that I wanted the defense to be low enough so that a +2 Diamond Storm boost + 50% recovery doesn't immediately turn us into an unbreakable wall. also this helped with lowering BSR so that was cute too :] This defense is useful since, if healthy, you can still revenge kill things like Venomicon-E and Choice Scarf Astrolotl with zero defense investment, and more if we throw some EVs into Def. all of this is to say that with a low Defense Stat, we are absolutely incentivizing Diamond Storm usage on CAP31, which has been the goal since the start of the project.

I'd like to show this screenshot from the damage calc because it really illustrates the point I'm trying to make with a low Base Defense with Diamond Storm. To see the equivalent Base Defense CAP31 would have when compared to the Base 61 Defense with a +2 defense boost from Diamond Storm when uninvested, I did some work in the damage calc. Using a +6 Cawmodore's general movepool (since that's a really good bulk litmus test in the meta), I was able to generate the following screenshot.




Ignore that Sitrus berry is still there on the Acrobatics, I'm not trying to show anything with t percentages other than they're the same. the point I'm trying to make that base 61 uninvested at +2 is the same as having no boost with base 140 Defense. To me this is more than acceptable when it comes to playing with CAP31. It encourages the user to find openings in which CAP31 can enter the field, roll for a Diamond Storm boost if they want, and then sit on the field. This also prevents us from potentially having a Pokemon that is absurdly tanky, and a pain to play against / beat (in my humble opinion)


RELEVANT CALCULATIONS:
(I'm planning to potentially add more relevant ones, of course)

Some minor notes:
  • I mainly used a spread of 252 Atk or 0 Atk with a Jolly nature to show what might be used for invested or no investment in attack. This was done to simulate a fully offensive or fully defensive set, and sets a general bound\
  • I didn't include any initial Def or SpDef investment to show the natural bulk of CAP31, and then added lower bound calcs to find 2/3HKO limits (like 60 SpD to guarantee a 3HKO Specs Pult's Shadow Ball)
  • Items were either Life Orb or Leftovers as I assumed that these would be the two most common items that add offensive and defensive utility. I understand the merit of using a Choice Band or an Assualt Vest for some calculations, but I felt that they were less viable sets.
  • Getting nuanced Defensive sets isn't as much of a priority for me with a first wave of calcs as it is just seeing an initial reaction to prevalent metagame threats. I imagine a set like SubSD might be popular, but will always run the risk of being walled by the C&C list, for example, so I didn't go too deep there.

Relevant Defensive Calcs:
Zeraora
252 Atk Zeraora Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 142-168 (35 - 41.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 176-208 (43.4 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO
+1 252 Atk Zeraora Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 213-251 (52.5 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 263-310 (64.9 - 76.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 16 Def Donphan: 342-403 (84.4 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Tapu Koko
252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Donphan: 109-130 (26.9 - 32%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
0- Atk Tapu Koko U-turn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 76-90 (18.7 - 22.2%) -- possible 5HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Tapu Koko Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 233-274 (57.5 - 67.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Toxapex
0- Atk Toxapex Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 64-76 (15.8 - 18.7%) -- possible 6HKO

Magnezone
252 Def Magnezone Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 119-141 (29.3 - 34.8%) -- 10.4% chance to 3HKO
+2 252 Def Magnezone Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 238-281 (58.7 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Magnezone Flash Cannon vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Donphan: 223-264 (55 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Magnezone Flash Cannon vs. 0 HP / 216 SpD Donphan: 181-214 (44.6 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery


Barraskewda
252+ Atk Choice Band Barraskewda Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 309-364 (76.2 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Dragapult
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 171-202 (42.2 - 49.8%) -- 30.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 60 SpD Donphan: 160-189 (39.5 - 46.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 416-492 (102.7 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed KO in 2 turns after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Donphan: 326-385 (80.4 - 95%) -- 12.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Landorus-T
0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 222-262 (54.8 - 64.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 111-132 (27.4 - 32.5%) -- 7.4% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Pyroak
212 SpA Pyroak Overheat vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 172-204 (42.4 - 50.3%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO
+2 212 SpA Pyroak Overheat vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 345-406 (85.1 - 100.2%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 212 SpA Pyroak Overheat vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Donphan: 270-318 (66.6 - 78.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Tapu Fini
252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 132-156 (32.5 - 38.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Tapu Lele
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan in Psychic Terrain: 381-448 (94 - 110.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan in Psychic Terrain: 298-352 (73.5 - 86.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 0 HP / 252+ SpD Donphan in Psychic Terrain: 213-252 (52.5 - 62.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Tornadus-T
252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 168-198 (41.4 - 48.8%) -- 14.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 40 SpD Donphan: 160-189 (39.5 - 46.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Urshifu-Rapid Strike
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 439-517 (108.3 - 127.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 252+ Def Donphan: 286-337 (70.6 - 83.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 220-259 (54.3 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. +2 0 HP / 252+ Def Donphan: 144-169 (35.5 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Venomicon
0 SpA Venomicon Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 144-169 (35.5 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
+1 0 SpA Venomicon Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 213-252 (52.5 - 62.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Venomicon-E
252 Atk Vile Vial Venomicon-Epilogue Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Donphan: 313-369 (77.2 - 91.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Zapdos
0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Donphan: 150-177 (37 - 43.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 128 SpD Donphan: 160-189 (39.5 - 46.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock


Relevant Offensive Calcs:
Zeraora
0 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 332-392 (104.7 - 123.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. +1 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 222-264 (70 - 83.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. +1 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 270-320 (85.1 - 100.9%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

Tapu Koko
0 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Koko: 300-354 (106.7 - 125.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Toxapex
252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 170-204 (55.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 338-402 (111.1 - 132.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 221-265 (72.6 - 87.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Magnezone
0 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Magnezone: 460-544 (163.7 - 193.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. +2 4 HP / 252 Def Magnezone: 192-228 (68 - 80.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Magnezone: 564-664 (200.7 - 236.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 252 Def Magnezone: 460-544 (163.1 - 192.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. +2 4 HP / 252 Def Magnezone: 232-276 (82.2 - 97.8%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Barraskewda
252 Atk Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Barraskewda: 238-282 (90.4 - 107.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Donphan Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Barraskewda: 384-452 (146 - 171.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Dragapult
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dragapult: 261-308 (82.3 - 97.1%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Landorus-T
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 164+ Def Landorus-Therian: 116-136 (30.3 - 35.6%) -- 35.8% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 164+ Def Landorus-Therian: 230-272 (60.2 - 71.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Pyroak
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Pyroak: 265-315 (69.5 - 82.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Pyroak: 530-624 (139.1 - 163.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Tapu Fini
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 294-348 (104.6 - 123.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Tapu Fini: 226-268 (65.6 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Tapu Fini: 142-168 (41.2 - 48.8%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Tapu Lele
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Lele: 263-309 (93.5 - 109.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

Tornadus-T
252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 256-302 (85.3 - 100.6%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 333-393 (111 - 131%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Urshifu-R
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: 330-390 (96.7 - 114.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

Venomicon
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 250-294 (66.8 - 78.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. +1 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 166-198 (44.3 - 52.9%) -- 23.4% chance to 2HKO

Venomicon-E
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 317-374 (101.9 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Zapdos
252 Atk Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220 Def Zapdos: 192-228 (50.1 - 59.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220 Def Zapdos: 250-296 (65.2 - 77.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Donphan Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Zapdos: 315-372 (98.1 - 115.8%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO


More will be in this post, I'm sure, but I welcome any feedback and/or criticism!

(5/12 Edit, fixed typo in SS from 66.67 to 66.27, thanks Wulfanator for the catch)
 
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Final Submission

80 / 130 / 99 / 48 / 112 / 86 (555)
PS:
124.88
SS: 62.37
PT: 98.34
ST: 111.05
PT+ST: 209.39
BSR: 579.48

Optional Moves: Swords Dance, Taunt, Pain Split, Rapid Spin, Power Whip

Explanation:
The purpose of this spread is to make 31 an offensive powerhouse whose strengths and weaknesses lie in the choices it makes for its 3rd and 4th moves, with each combination changing why 31 seeks longevity on the field, but still keeping diamond storm as an influential factor in that reason.

Reasonings:

SPEED

86 speed allows 31 to get the jump on many of the pokemon that it wants to either take advantage of or prevent from limiting its time on the field, such as defensive Zapdos :Zapdos:, Tapu Fini :Tapu Fini:, defensive Landorus :Landorus-Therian: and Heatran :Heatran:. 86 speed also allows 31 to outspeed every non-scarfed opponent after a Rapid Spin boost, threatening pokemon such as Tapu Koko :Tapu Koko:, Tornadus Therian :Tornadus-Therian: and most importantly, Zeraora :Zeraora:.

SPECIAL BULK

High special bulk is incredibly useful in boosting the usefulness of Diamond Storm, as it allows 31 to more easily handle . Specifically, 80/112 in combination with our type and ability, allows us to take on special attackers that most other grounds in the tier struggle with, such as Tapu Koko :Tapu Koko: not being able to guarantee a 3hko on us w/o stealth rocks and no leftovers, and scarf Tapu Fini :Tapu Fini:only getting a 3hko on us. more specifically, this bulk allows us to take on attackers such as these without too much investment, allowing 31 to invest offensively while still serving a defensive role for the team. It also allows for 31 w/ leftovers to not be 2hko'd by Zapdos' :Zapdos: Hurricane, and prevents a guaranteed 2hko from Heatran :heatran: without removing leftovers and setting up rocks.

:Tapu Koko: 252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 96-114 (31.8 - 37.8%) -- 30.6% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
:Tapu Fini: 252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 114-135 (37.8 - 44.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
:Zapdos: 0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
:heatran: 0 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 123-145 (40.8 - 48.1%) -- 67.2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock, Leftovers recovery, and trapping damage

PHYSICAL BULK

even without a Diamond Storm Boost, 80/94 allows 31 to not be 2hko'd by Zeraora's :Zeraora: Close Combat. with a +2 boost, then, 31 is able to survive through hits that it would normally not be able to take as well, such as being 2hko'd instead of ohko'd by Non-banded Kartana :Kartana:, Non-banded Weavile :Weavile: and Urshifu :Urshifu:, and preventing a 2hko from Landorus :Landorus-Therian:, Garchomp :Garchomp:, Ferrothorn :Ferrothorn: and Venomicon-E, with Garchomp and Defensive Landorus being unable to guarantee a 4hko on a boosted 31. The ability to potentially beat these threats after a boost is a huge factor in helping to boost incentive to use Diamond Storm.

No Boosts
:zeraora: 252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 119-141 (39.5 - 46.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 Boost
(OHKO->2HKO)
:Kartana: 252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 250-296 (83 - 98.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
:Weavile: 252 Atk Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 198-234 (65.7 - 77.7%) -- approx. 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
:Urshifu: 252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 148-175 (49.1 - 58.1%) -- 64.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
(2HKO->3HKO or less)
:landorus-therian: 0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 76-90 (25.2 - 29.9%) -- 0.1% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
:Garchomp: 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 84-99 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- 83% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
:Ferrothorn: 0 Atk Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 126-150 (41.8 - 49.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Venomicon-Epilogue: 252 Atk Vile Vial Venomicon-Epilogue Brave Bird vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 102-120 (33.8 - 39.8%) -- 28.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

ATTACK

130 attack is useful in ensuring that 31 can actually threaten and pressure targets for both its STAB and Diamond Storm. For one, it guarantees that Toxapex :Toxapex: is cleanly 2hko'd by 31's Earthquake, plain and simple. For another, Earthquake 2hko's scarf fini :Tapu Fini:, Kartana :Kartana:, most Melmetal :Melmetal: sets, and threatens to OHKO Zeraora :zeraora:, even with a bulk up boost. Swords Dance makes this power even scarier, now assuring 2hko's on the likes of Garchomp :Garchomp:, Slowbro :Slowbro:, and Ferrothorn :Ferrothorn:.
130 attack allows Diamond Storm to 2hko both of Venomicon's forms, Tornadus-Therian :Tornadus-Therian: and even threaten an OHKO on less bulky variants of Torn-T, and threaten bulky Zapdos :Zapdos: with a strong chance of being 2hko'd, a chance which increases to being guaranteed or near guaranteed if the slightest of chip damage hits Zapdos, pressuring it to stay healthy throughout the match. This pressure only increases once Swords Dance is added into the equation, threatening bulky Zapdos with a 50% chance to OHKO, and dealing enough damage to specially defensive lando :landorus-therian: at +1 for Power Whip to finish the job.

Power Whip is extremely helpful in allowing 31 to thrive in its ability to absorb water type attacks, and 130 attack helps 31 tear through the bulkier water types that make up the tier. Specifically, urshifu :urshifu: , Rotom-Wash :Rotom-Wash: and bulkier Tapu Fini :Tapu Fini: sets are 2hko'd and have high chances to be 2hko'd respectively, while with a swords dance boost, Slowbro :slowbro: risks being ohko'd from it while specially defensive Landorus-therian :landorus-therian is always 2hko'd, even after an intimidate drop.

No boost
Earthquake
:toxapex: 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 176-210 (57.8 - 69%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:tapu fini: 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 145-172 (51.6 - 61.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:kartana: 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kartana: 130-154 (50.1 - 59.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:melmetal: 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 128 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 240-284 (54.1 - 64.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:zeraora: 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. +1 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 278-330 (87.6 - 104.1%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
Diamond Storm
:weavile: 252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 310-366 (110.3 - 130.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Venomicon: 252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Venomicon: 198-234 (52.9 - 62.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Venomicon-Epilogue: 252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 250-296 (80.3 - 95.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:tornadus-therian: 252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 262-310 (72.3 - 85.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:tornadus-therian: 252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tornadus-Therian: 262-310 (87.6 - 103.6%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
:zapdos: 252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 240+ Def Zapdos: 178-210 (46.4 - 54.8%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO
Power Whip
:urshifu: 252 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: 260-308 (76.2 - 90.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:tapu fini: 252 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Tapu Fini: 180-212 (52.3 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
:rotom-wash: 252 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rotom-Wash: 248-292 (81.5 - 96%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Swords Dance Boost
Earthquake
:garchomp: +2 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 136 Def Garchomp: 297-349 (70.7 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:ferrothorn: +2 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 195-229 (55.3 - 65%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
:slowbro: +2 252 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 220-261 (55.8 - 66.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Diamond Storm

:zapdos: +2 252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 240+ Def Zapdos: 352-416 (91.9 - 108.6%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
:landorus-therian: +1 252 Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Landorus-Therian: 179-211 (46.8 - 55.2%) -- 14.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Power Whip
:slowbro: +2 252 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 352-416 (89.3 - 105.5%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
:landorus-therian: +1 252 Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Landorus-Therian: 215-253 (56.2 - 66.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
 
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quziel

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HPAtkDefSpASpDSpeBST
701241175211394570

PS: 124.64
SS: 67.82
PT: 105.97
ST: 104.56
BSR: 580.31
PT+ST: 210.53

Assumed Moves: Taunt, Pain Split

Justification:

My design parameters are the following: 1) There must be some use of Diamond Storm, 2) this pokemon should be able to fulfill standard Ground-type defensive duties, 3) this pokemon should have a good matchup into Toxapex, and other Water-types to the greatest extent possible. This spread is designed to be a very effective stallbreaker, using Taunt + SR as its defining set. To me the lack of boosting that is on such a set, combined with the lack of recovery on such a set imply rather high stats all around, so I have benchmarked it on a few calculations. In order to make effective use of Diamond Storm, I aimed to ensure that we live two Close Combats from Choice Band Urshifu after a single Diamond Storm Defense raise and Leftovers. As part of general Ground-type defensive duties, I aimed to maximize our matchup into Tapu-Koko, Zapdos, and Zeraora.

On the defensive side, Calc [1] is the main pinning point, with our matchup into Zeraora listed with calc [4], which we match into about as well as Garchomp does. The calculations that I have pinned my defenses are Calc [1], and Calc [2], which define my physical and special bulk. The calculation that defines my attack is Calc [3], with calc [4] as an additional reference point. On the specially defensive side the pinning point is calc [2], which ensures that we live two Hurricanes from Defensive Zapdos. This then moves into calc [3], the deciding calc for our Attack, which guarantees we beat defensive Zapdos 1v1 by cleanly 2HKOing the main defensive set. Our speed stat is set such that we can achieve our defensive priorities while outrunning Heatran, with the EV spread assumed being 36 HP / 252 Atk / 220 Spe with an Adamant nature.

Some other calcs of notice. With respect to our matchup into other Water-types, we cleanly 2HKO zero defense invested Slowking [5], and fail to cleanly 3HKO Slowbro [6], with its Regenerator often outdoing our Earthquake. This ensures that Ice Beam Slowbro generally will outpace us, especially given that I am not assuming reliable recovery. We additionally have very good odds to ensure a 2HKO against Toxapex [7] even accounting for one round of Regenerator, meaning that we can apply reliable pressure against it.

With respect to our matchup into Heatran, our Diamond storm deals fairly heavy damage [8], and we avoid an OHKO from Eruption, which is likely just enough to ensure we can win vs it. We also avoid a 2HKO from Tapu Koko [10], and have some odds to avoid a 2HKO from Specs Koko [11], albeit very much so not good ones with SR up.

Note, I am only assuming Taunt and Pain Split when designing this spread, however I am not excluding the potential to eventually run Swords Dance, Recover, or other high strength optional moves, just that they aren't necessary when designing according to the set assumptions I have made.

[1] 252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. +2 36 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 129-153 (44.4 - 52.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
[2] 0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 36 HP / 0 SpD CAP 31: 129-153 (44.4 - 52.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
[3] 252+ Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 220+ Def Zapdos: 192-226 (50.1 - 59%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
[4] 252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Sandaconda: 103-122 (35.5 - 42%) -- 87.4% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

[5] 252+ Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Slowking: 208-246 (52.7 - 62.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
[6] 252+ Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 118-139 (29.9 - 35.2%) -- 22.6% chance to 3HKO
[7] 252+ Atk Sandaconda Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 186-222 (61.1 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

[8] 252+ Atk Sandaconda Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 111-131 (34.3 - 40.5%) -- 48.6% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
[9] 252 SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 36 HP / 0 SpD Sandaconda: 220-261 (75.8 - 90%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
[10] 252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 36 HP / 0 SpD Sandaconda: 96-114 (33.1 - 39.3%) -- 10.1% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
[11] 252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 36 HP / 0 SpD Sandaconda: 144-169 (49.6 - 58.2%) -- 63.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
 
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Final Submission

88 HP / 145 Atk / 88 Def/ 57 SpA/ 120 SpD / 52 Spe

BST = 550

PS
: 107.36
SS: 56.10
PT: 93.80
ST: 123.96
PT + ST: 217.77

BSR: 549.95

Optional Moves: Swords Dance, 50% Recovery, Thunder Wave, Taunt, Power Whip/Wood Hammer

Explanation:

A slow, hard-hitting spread with great special bulk, reliable recovery, SD, and a speed tier that works surprisingly well with Thunder Wave. My goal was to create a tanky Melmetal-esque mon with :
a) enough offensive power to grind through bulkier mons
b) enough tankiness to beat a lot of offensive mons 1v1

The first goal is supported by SD and recovery, which give 31 insanse breaking power and allow it to shrug of chip damage while also making 31 very threatening should it get a Diamond Storm boost. The second goal is supported by Thunder Wave, which lets 31 cripple and outspeed many offensive threats. Taunt and physical grass coverage are broadly useful for reasons that have been well covered during the defining moves stage.
Rapid Spin is intentionally left out - too much utility on a slow/bulky spread risks side-lining the offensive sets that get the most out of Diamond Storm.

The strengths of this submission are balanced out primarily by its slow speed and vulnerability to toxic, substantial drawbacks in a fast-paced/offensive metagame where a lot of the most viable mons commonly carry toxic. Additionally, there is a substantial opportunity cost to dropping any of the optional moves I've selected.

Offenses

With 252+ Atk, my submission can threaten to OHKO offensive variants of Weavile, Tornadus, Venomicon-E and Zapdos with Diamond Storm (the first two are guaranteed, the latter two are rolls). Defensive variants of Tornadus, Zapdos and Venomicon-P are all 2HKOd by Diamond Storm (Venomicon-P can attempt to roost for an extra Def boost, but this risks getting destroyed by an EQ).

Earthquake unsurprisingly OHKOs Zeraora, Tapu Koko, Slowking-G, Volcanion (this one is a roll), and Grounded Heatran/Magnezone, while 2HKOing Toxapex and Slowking. After a Swords Dance it can also 2HKO PhysDef Ferrothorn, Slowking, and defensive Tapu Fini.

Power Whip/Wood Hammer lets 31 2HKO bulky waters like Calm Mind Tapu Fini, Arghonaut, and Slowbro without needing to boost.

SpAtk is basically a dump stat here. Two cycles of Overheat 2HKOs PhysDef Ferrothorn, however Earthquake 2HKOs after SD so it’s not too relevant and was left off defining moves.

Diamond Storm
252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 370-436 (131.6 - 155.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venomicon-Epilogue: 298-352 (95.8 - 113.1%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tornadus-Therian: 312-368 (86.1 - 101.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 240+ Def Zapdos: 210-248 (54.8 - 64.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Diamond Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Venomicon: 234-276 (62.5 - 73.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Earthquake
252+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 206-246 (67.7 - 80.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Slowking: 234-276 (59.3 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 231-273 (65.6 - 77.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 262-309 (66.4 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Power Whip/Wood Hammer
252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Tapu Fini: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arghonaut: 232-274 (56 - 66.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Hippowdon Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 210-248 (53.2 - 62.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Speed

Without any investment, 52 speed allows 31 to outspeed Toxapex, Ferrothorn, the Slowtwins, and slower Melmetal sets. With speed EVs, 31 can potentially outspeed Clefable, Tyranitar, faster Melmetals, Venomicon-P, defensive Scizor, Pelliper, and Arghonaut. Of course slower sets also gain value by being able to EQ Corviknight after a roost.

With Thunder Wave, 31 can paralyse and outspeed timid offensive Heatran without any investment. With added speed EVs, 31 can paralyse and outspeed anything up to Stratagem (with 232). Timid could even outspeed paralysed Dragapult, although that would be more of a niche tech.

Defenses

I didn't want to push 31's physical bulk too high, for the same reasons that others have expressed. That said, I still wanted 31 to be comfortable switching into Zeraora. My submission can live 2 Close Combats without the need for any bulk investment. Additional HP EVs lets 31 do this with hazards up, as well as allowing it to live Ferrothorn Power Whip, and even avoid the 2HKO from utility Landorus-T Earthquake if running leftovers too.

After a Diamond Storm boost, 31 can live an Leaf Blade from Scarf Kartana / Triple Axel from SD Weavile without any HP investment. With full HP investment, it can live the same attacks from the Life Orb and Banded variants, as well as avoiding the 2HKO from Urshifu-R Close Combat if running Leftovers.

I wanted lots of special bulk, so that 31 can switch into defensive/utility variants of Tornadus-T, Zapdos, and Heatran without being at risk of a 2HKO from any of their attacks, as well as avoiding the OHKO from Balloon Heatran Eruption and Specs Zapdos Hurricane. Adding HP EVs allows 31 to live hits from more offensive variants of these mons. Only Eruption and Specs Hurricane can 2HKO 31 at 252 HP, and even these can be avoided with a Careful nature, although like Timid this would probably be more of a niche tech.
Physical Bulk
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 131-155 (41.3 - 48.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Zeraora Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 131-155 (34.4 - 40.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock, 1 layer of Spikes, and Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 272-324 (71.5 - 85.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 166-196 (43.6 - 51.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 212-252 (66.8 - 79.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 312-378 (82.1 - 99.4%) -- approx. 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Close Combat vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 163-193 (42.8 - 50.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Special Bulk
0 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 109-130 (34.3 - 41%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 123-145 (38.8 - 45.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
0 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 117-138 (36.9 - 43.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after trapping damage
252 SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 210-247 (66.2 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 165-195 (43.4 - 51.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 141-166 (37.1 - 43.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery and trapping damage

Edit: I changed the stats a bit, adding a little speed and physical tankiness while bringing the special bulk down. BSR values have been updated, must have been using an older spreadsheet.
 
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96 HP / 127 ATK / 105 DEF / 45 SPA / 82 SP.DEF / 87 SPE
BST: 543


PS: 122.79

SS: 60.11

PT: 114.47

ST: 94.74
(PT+ST: 209.21)

BSR: 574.52

This Spread was made with Recovery, Dragon Dance(making the BSR budget 575), Taunt in mind, however special fire coverage and Thunder Wave have been taken into consideration as well.

Explanation:
I built this spread with the idea of cementing this mon's mu vs. pokemon it is supposed to check, while also being a scary threat on its own. This set tries to be a jack-of-all trades tank.127 Attack means that defensive Zapdos gets downed in 2 hits without a boosting item. The speed is to outpace non-scarfed Rotom-Wash (with maximum investment and a +speed nature) and Taunt it before it Wisps us. The combination of 96 HP and 105 Defense allows CAP31 to (just barely) live a Choice Band Weavile Triple Axel and a Life Orb Kartana's Leaf Blade after a Diamond Storm Boost. The Special Defense EVs allow for us to be able to take two Magma Storms from an uninvested Heatran after some investment. (a set of 252 Atk / 216 SpD (calm) / 40 Spe, to be specific.) This set also allows us to be a solid Tapu Fini check. Additionally, the 40 Speed evs allow us to beat Base 60s, such as Magnezone. If it wasn't obvious before, the Special Attack is a bit of an afterthought, however, you can still OHKO kart with flamethrower if you really wanted to.

Calcs:
0 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 0 HP / 216+ SpD Abomasnow: 115-136 (34.5 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after trapping damage

252 Atk Choice Band Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. +2 0 HP / 4 Def Abomasnow: 270-324 (81 - 97.2%) -- approx. 2HKO

0- SpA Abomasnow Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Kartana: 296-352 (114.2 - 135.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +2 0 HP / 4 Def Abomasnow: 237-281 (71.1 - 84.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 216+ SpD Abomasnow: 106-126 (31.8 - 37.8%) -- 91.3% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Abomasnow Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 144-169 (51.2 - 60.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO



.
 
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Korski

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Final Submission

43 / 116 / 136 / 53 / 106 / 126 (BST: 580)

PS: 133.51
SS: 76.83
PT: 97.61
ST: 80.32
PS+SS: 210.34
PT+ST: 177.93
BSR: 560.76


Optional Defining Moves: Grass-type coverage, Pain Split, Rapid Spin, Taunt

EVs [Aggro]: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252+ Spe @ Life Orb
EVs [Bulky]: 236 HP / 20 Atk / 252+ Spe @ Leftovers


Intro: Okay with fastest-mon banned I’ve tweaked my original plan down to fastest-allowed, which hopefully can be a compelling enough approach to the concept to warrant consideration. I hope to show in this submission that utilizing CAP’s Electric- and Water-type immunities, high natural speed, unique toolset, and immediate pressure vs. our offensive targets in a variety of ways can carve out a new niche that only this Pokemon can fill, one that will earn this CAP its own teamslot that Garchomp and Landorus-T cannot compete for, instead of the other way around, trying to muscle our way into their already-fully-optimized tanky Ground-type space in the metagame.

Approach: This CAP is automatically limited in terms of tanking damage by its outstandingly neutral defensive typing profile. Being neutral-or-worse to 13 of the 17 attacking types in a very powerful metagame means timing and speed are everything when it comes to entering the fray. With a defensive profile such as this, if you can't consistently move first, you are forced to invest heavily in bulk in order to achieve any consistency at all, which moves us too far out of the offensive category. The opportunity costs we’ve incurred in order to net immunities to Electric- and Water-type attacks require us to commit to coming into battle clean and taking full advantage of those opportunities in the offensive direction when we have them. This is why I am trying to avoid slotting fully into the tank role; the CAP is simply not set up for success in that area, at least not compared to the options we already have for absorbing attacks. No amount of stats can reasonably compensate for the 50% damage reduction that a better defensive typing can provide, and we shouldn’t try to shoehorn this CAP into such an awkward role for the tools it has at its disposal.

On the other hand, our 2-move offensive profile is actually very well-situated to shaking up the higher speed tiers and making an impact in that space with the freedom of our third and fourth moveslots. Zeraora and Stratagem are actually both good role models here on how to execute mono-typing and targeted immunities within a speedy, offensive framework, so we look to them here for guidance. By focusing less on absorbing hits in order to set up, and by focusing more on capitalizing off of momentum and manipulating our own HP levels as a form of offense, this spread will attempt to provide a cohesive frame around the concepts and pathways we've been building off of since the start of the project. And with our concept revolving around the exploitation of situational defensive boosts from our primary coverage move, it gives an offensive CAP an entirely unique and bold approach to one of the oldest and most broadly-available concepts in competitive Pokemon, EdgeQuake. Isolating and optimizing that niche is the primary goal of this submission.

Defining Moves: In terms of moveslots 3 and 4 I am envisioning primarily an offense-targeting SubSplit or defense-targeting TauntSplit, although slashing in Grass coverage and Rapid Spin instead would make for an interesting utility cleaner set that could be a worthwhile experiment with this build. I have not listed Swords Dance (~Weavile) or Dragon Dance (~Dragapult) here, as I personally do not think they are needed; however this submission does adhere to the BSR penalty for either move anyway to leave open the possibility later on if the community consensus is there. All of these potential sets take full advantage of the CAP’s high base Speed and designated offensive role. They each play directly and specifically into the CAP’s ability to passively boost its Defense by limiting counterplay when the boost is activated, and they altogether exhibit a tight but cohesive toolkit that is unavailable anywhere else in the metagame.

The Stats: Apart from the very Pokemon-y progressive +/-10 base stat number aesthetics, what should immediately stand out about this spread are the HP, Def, and Spe stats, which each in their own ways represent the core strength of this Pokemon. This CAP is designed to take heavy advantage of high natural speed and status-blocking Substitutes and Taunts in conjunction with Life Orb recoil to maximize the threat of Pain Split as an offensive longevity tool and to use its momentum and advantage state to soften the bulky CAP metagame into closer range for its primarily neutral EdgeQuake coverage. It’s highest numerical stat is actually Defense, which is designed to dramatize the impact of our Diamond Storm boosts while also maintaining a SpD soft-spot; at +2 Def, 0/4 CAP has an effective 103/104, 252/252+ physical defense profile (or 144 HP / 143 Def uninvested), flipping the script on revenge killers like Choice Band Weavile and giving CAP the extra turns it needs to muscle through healthy bulkier opponents like Zapdos-G, Urshifu-R, and Melmetal. If you were to optimize these defensive stats for BST efficiency you’d get 91 HP / 90 Def / 69 SpD, which would result in an overall 545 BST and -0.36 BSR compared to the spread as-is. I hope the elevated BST can be justified when taking that into account, as I really wanted to lean hard into Pain Split as an offensive tool, so here we are.

Balance: This spread is balanced primarily by an unmitigated openness to damage from special attackers (~79 HP / 76 SpD) and secondly by a focused Atk stat that is designed to accomplish specific tasks and utilize the whole team and each of the CAP’s moveslots instead of blindly clobbering the tier all on its own. These two design elements ensure reliable offensive counterplay from faster special attackers like Choice Scarf Tapu Lele / Blacephalon and Choice Specs Dragapult, as well as variably-reliable defensive C&C in Buzzwole, Corviknight, Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Equilibra, as intended, in addition to various adaptable checks based on moveset choices and opposing team compositions.

A lot of this counterplay, though, can be mitigated to various degrees by Defense boosts, Substitute, Taunt, and/or Pain Split. There aren’t very many ways to waste a free turn with these stats and this toolkit, which is why capitalizing off of momentum and using CAP’s immunities to enter the field safely is so important here. The best situational checks to this CAP when it has momentum control, most likely, are going to be high-HP and invested-HP defensive Pokemon, and the low-HP strat plays directly into that. When it comes to reaching this Pokemon’s in-battle potential, it really will come down to smart play and manipulating the pace of battle, which is healthy here, imo, for an offensively-inclined Pokemon.
I’ve opted for a Weavile-like offensive build, with an Atk stat that hits just the right benchmarks to threaten out our key targets. For instance, um, Weavile, actually, is OHKO’d by 252 EV Diamond Storm with or without an item, forcing it to use Ice Shard, which only gets two damage rolls to break 0/4 CAP’s Sub at +2 Def, unlike Triple Axel. Unboosted Ice Shard never breaks 236/0 CAP’s Sub at +2 Def, while capping out at 50% vs. 0/4 CAP. (CB Weavile Ice Shard vs. 0/4 CAP: 63 - 75% or 32 - 38% vs. +2 Def). Weavile is often splashed about as an easy answer to opposing offense, so being an offensive Ground-type that circumvents Weavile as an RKO option is a huge advantage that cannot be understated and will instantly set this CAP apart in the meta.

When it comes to our actual Threats list, 20 EVs is enough to OHKO both Zeraora and Tapu Koko 100% of the time with Earthquake, so even bulkier EV spreads will have plenty of freedom to invest elsewhere and still hit these basic thresholds. Zeraora can manage at best 47% with Close Combat vs. 0/4 CAP, while Tapu Koko does a bit better with Dazzling Gleam (45 - 53%), but not enough to reliably RKO in most situations or to stay in when healthy CAP swaps into its Electric moves (36 - 42% vs. 236/0 CAP). 252 EV Earthquake will OHKO 252/0 Tapu Koko every time and 2HKO through Reflect (50 - 59%) without LO. 252 EVs + LO Earthquake always OHKOs Krilowatt from full, with a 25% chance to do so without LO. Kril’s Ice Beam maxes out at a single damage roll to OHKO 0/0 CAP after SR damage (79 - 94%), while the bulky spread takes 74% max and comfortably 2HKOs with Earthquake (73 - 87%). Slowking-Galar is cleanly OHKO’d by LO Earthquake, but if you don’t have your LO that goes down to a 50% coin flip to OHKO from full HP. Bulky CAP 2HKO’s Slowking-Galar with Earthquake (77 - 90%) but in exchange is never KO’d from full HP by Flamethrower (26 - 30%) + Future Sight (50 - 60%) even after SR.

252 EVs + LO Diamond Storm always OHKOs offensive Tornadus-T (81 - 95% w/o LO), with the added bonus of not getting your LO Knocked Off first. The same set has a 19% chance to OHKO defensive Tornadus-T and a 75% chance to OHKO 0/4 Venomicon-E each from full health. If you do miss the OHKO on 0 SpA Tornadus-T, you’re looking at 54 - 64% from Hurricane 70% of the time, while Knock Off (from all Torns) gets just a single damage roll to break its Sub. The bulky spread still outspeeds and 2HKOs these Pokemon with the added bonus of never getting its Sub broken by Tornadus-T’s Knock Off and comfortably netting additional chances to set up or fish for Diamond Storm boosts if they choose to sac or stay in (252 Atk LO Venomicon-E Knock Off vs. 236/0 CAP: 31 - 37%; +2 Def: 16 - 19% | Brave Bird: 58 - 69%; +2 Def: 29 - 35%).

Defensive Zapdos is a bit trickier, but 248/220 Zapdos will always be 2HKO’d by LO Diamond Storm (62 - 73%) and 2HKO’d 84% of the time by a 252 EV spread w/o LO (48 - 56%). The 252/240+ Zapdos spread will also be 2HKO'd by LO Diamond Storm (55 - 66%) as well. Zapdos 2HKO’s back with Hurricane (60 - 71%), but even if you switch into it, you can use Pain Split on the next turn, heal back up out of KO range (If Zapdos is at full HP, you heal back to 100% on average), and do enough damage in the process to drop Zapdos down to guaranteed LO Diamond Storm KO territory for the following turn. 252/0 Venomicon likewise is 2HKO'd through Stamina by LO CAP (63 - 75% + 43 - 50% vs. +1 Def = 106+%).

Even if you get your item Knocked, the Aggro set 2HKOs Toxapex with EQ (53 - 63%) and Rotom-W with Leaf Blade (57 - 67%). LO Power Whip would OHKO Rotom-W 88% of the time, though, and 2HKO Arghonaut (57 - 67%) and Slowbro (54 - 64%), should we go that route with Grass coverage. Choice Scarf Tapu Fini, while 2HKOing 0/0 CAP with Moonblast (52 - 62%), would only have a 6% chance of surviving LO Power Whip from full HP (LO Leaf Blade: 75 - 89%).
As I said before, the defensive profile is not a huge priority here except in terms of maximizing the bonus Defense boosts from Diamond Storm. +2 Def lets 0/4 CAP survive CB Rillaboom’s Grassy Glide in a pinch (80 - 95%) as well as Choice Scarf Kartana’s Leaf Blade (64 - 77%) and even LO Kartana’s Leaf Blade sometimes (max damage roll: 226 / 227 HP). Zeraora’s Close Combat will not break 0/4 CAP’s Substitute at +2 Def (20 - 24%) and likewise will not 2HKO at +0 Def.

The real power of +2 Def comes up vs. Pokemon you haven’t had the chance to wear down into range yet. Something like Choice Band Urshifu-R would OHKO 0/4 CAP with Close Combat but easily survive LO Earthquake (58 - 68%) and even LO Leaf Blade (69 - 82%). But if it comes in on or after Diamond Storm, which it very much can do, very safely, and CAP has the boost, that CC becomes a 2HKO on the spot (55 - 65%) and CAP wins the interaction in two turns. Likewise, CB Zapdos-Galar cannot come in and bully CAP around if it’s gotten the boost. LO Diamond Storm (45 - 53%) is a guaranteed 2HKO vs. Zapdos-G only when it takes one round of Brave Bird recoil or gets -1 Def from CC, meanwhile both those moves have a 75% chance to OHKO CAP (96 - 114%) that drops to 0% (48 - 57%) at +2 Def; suddenly CAP wins this interaction in two turns, also. Examples abound, but I hope it’s clear here how Diamond Storm can facilitate a better execution of the CAP’s offensive role on the team without making it utterly reliant on its boosting effects.

Where you really want to C&C this CAP is on its special side. All of Choice Specs Dragapult, Choice Specs Tapu Lele, Choice Scarf Blacephalon, and Jumbao have OHKO moves vs. 0/4 CAP and can defeat CAP one-on-one or RKO (or both). It's risky trying to switch into Choice Specs Volcanion, even though you are immune to Steam Eruption and get a coin flip to OHKO w/ LO Earthquake, as Flamethrower is a clean OHKO. Choice Scarf Tapu Fini and Strategem can each tank a neutral hit while outspeeding for the 2HKO, although not a super-effective one (LO Leaf Blade vs. Stratagem: OHKO; LO Power Whip vs. Tapu Fini: 99 - 118%). Even special attacking fatmons like Clefable can 2HKO between Moonblast (41 - 49%) and your own LO recoil, and getting LO Knocked will put a fair amount of CAP’s offensive benchmarks out of reach.
579 - CAP31 [252+ | +1 Spe]
568 - Base 80 [252+ | +2 Spe]
388 - Base 80 [252 | +1 Spe]
386 - CAP31 [252+]
383 - Weavile [252+]
351 - CAP31 [252]
350 - Base 110 [252+]
293 - Urshifu-R [252]
288 - CAP31 [0]
284 - Base 80 [252+]
278 - Heatran [252+]
259 - Base 80 [252]
257 - CAP31 [252+ | -1 Spe]
253 - Heatran [252]
193 - CAP31 [252+ | PARA]
190 - Heatran [0]
 
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dex

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EVs [Bulky]: 20 Atk / 80 Def / 156 SpD / 252+ Spe @ Leftovers
Just as a heads up, for spreads with low HP, it is generally better to invest in HP than either defense. For example, in this spread you have posted, the special bulk can be equaled with 148 HP EVs, which also provides even more physical bulk than your given investment. This allows for 88 extra EVs on the side to be invested as you please. Low HP spreads get a lot from investing in HP, just like the high HP spreads get a lot from investing in defenses. It’s all about respective resultant value. The amount that EVs impact bulk is dependent on the relative percentage that each EV makes up of the resultant stat; therefore, it is almost always more optimal to invest in the lower stat between HP and Defense (or SpD).

On a related note, there is no real benefit to having a really high Defense stat and a really low HP stat outside of Pain Split, so spreads like that should focus on the move. Diamond Storm impacts spreads regardless of their respective base Defense numbers equally; physical tankiness is the real marker, not the base stats alone.
 
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Korski

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Just as a heads up, for spreads with low HP, it is generally better to invest in HP than either defense. For example, in this spread you have posted, the special bulk can be equaled with 148 HP EVs, which also provides even more physical bulk than your given investment. This allows for 88 extra EVs on the side to be invested as you please. Low HP spreads get a lot from investing in HP, just like the high HP spreads get a lot from investing in defenses. It’s all about respective resultant value. The amount that EVs impact bulk is dependent on the relative percentage that each EV makes up of the resultant stat; therefore, it is almost always more optimal to invest in the lower stat between HP and Defense (or SpD).
Thank you, that is fair to point out and I am aware of the difference. I guess I can't really fully explain my reasoning behind that EV spread without polljumping, technically speaking, as the move that goes along with it was discussed in the previous thread but never placed in the optional moves category at the end. I'll have to go in and edit that somehow because it won't make sense without that context.

EDIT: Done
 
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