CAP 32 - Part 4 - Defining Moves Part 1

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For transparency, I am looking for this stage to provide a fairly broad list of moves that we might want to use, that being STABs, coverage, utility moves, and status. How do you feel about this direction for the stage?

I'm fine with this. I think we're gonna wanna give this thing a pretty generous amount of solid moves anyway, so this approach works perfectly. Given how tall an order it's gonna be to match the level of our competition, a few extra coverage/utility moves could make all the difference in letting CAP32 carve out a unique niche for itself.

Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?

I'm 100% down for this. As I said before, if CAP32 wants to compete with shit like Iron Moth, Skeledirge, and Cinderace, it's gonna need a fair amount of good moves to set itself apart. Signatures moves are great for this purpose; especially in more recent gens, signature moves have a tendency to be, for lack of better word, rather absurd due to the fact that they're balanced around one Pokemon. Thus, giving CAP32 access to them would let it bring something to the table that none of its competitors can.

I think it should go without saying that Fleur Cannon would be an outstanding choice here. A 130 BP STAB move more than makes up for mediocre stats, and the SpAtk drop leans deeply into the hit-and-run pivot archetype that it seems we wanna go for. Other moves like Lunar Dance and Magma Storm also stick out to me, allowing you to trap and consistently chip away at your switch-ins and heal teammates back to full, providing a unique support profile that, as of yet, no other Fire- or Fairy-type in the meta can replicate.

Our guiding role is Offensive Pivot, which has a fairly broad scope in terms of what we’re meant to provide to a team. Are there any moves that other Offensive Pivots find success with that we should consider right away?

Spikes
should be a must for this project, no question. Stealth Rock is great as well, but I don't think we can go without Spikes on this project. I and many other have written at length about our incredible matchup into the best Spinners and Defogger in the tier, and it also serves as a pretty free click against forced switches that you cause (of which, you force a ton). In addition to the limited distribution of Spikes giving CAP32 a tool to separate itself from its competition, the sheer amount of utility and pressure Spikes provide make it a fantastic choice for this project.

Other moves I wanna highlight real quick are Lava Plume, Parting Shot, and Knock Off. Firstly, Lava Plume is a moderately-strong move with very low distribution and a nasty 30% chance to burn, making it incredibly valuable on a pivot with middling stats. Not to mention that cramming a status move and a STAB attack into one slot is huge for allowing CAP32 to viably run other moves like the aforementioned Spikes, as well as Parting Shot and Knock Off. Like Lava Plume, PS and Knock also have really low distribution, and both provide incredible value to an offensive Spikes by removing Timbs and maintaining momentum on defensive switches and racking up chip damage. There's a ton of shit that this thing could viably run, but these four in particular are absolutely the best things it can go for.
 

shnowshner

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Very happy with how discussion has progressed so far. Consensus is overwhelmingly in favor of having a broader list of move options to choose from: these will help guide us during Ability, and afterwords we can trim out whatever is unnecessary or make any last-second inclusions we see fit. I saw some had thought that we’d only be taking away moves during the second half, which wasn’t what I intended, so I’m sorry for any misconceptions.

People are mostly receptive towards allowing signature moves, though many have reservations towards more than one signature move. Although there's nothing stopping us from having more than one, especially with how much we'll want CAP 32's moveset to carry its stats, we do need to tread carefully and not underestimate the strength strong signature moves, especially if we have more than one. Of course, we don't know exactly what moves we'll be sticking with at this time, so we'll just keep these concerns in mind going forward. I am going to allow open discussion on signature/restricted moves for the remainder of this stage, so long as users don't go too overboard with suggestions. Keep in mind that just because a move makes it onto the Defining list doesn't mean it's 100% part of our kit, and vice-versa. It's likely we'll leave Defining Moves 1 with multiple signatures on our plate, but only keep one at the end of Defining Moves 2.

Lastly, there was a great variety of moves mentioned that can help us succeed within our guiding Offensive Pivot role. To the surprise of exactly zero people, pivot moves are good, with many looking at Volt Switch in particular due to its fantastic complimentary properties to our STAB combo. Moves that help us make incremental progress or open up winpaths, like Knock Off, hazards, and status-inducing moves (even Sleep), look quite valuable as well. Priority and recovery moves are more novel but nonetheless instrumental aspects of Offensive Pivots. The former lets us threaten Pokemon independently of our Speed stat while potentially doubling as STAB/coverage, and the latter keeps our HP high enough to continue checking key threats on the opponents side.

With all that covered, let's get into the next set of questions, and start looking towards compiling ourselves a proper set of initial defining moves:
  1. What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?
  2. What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
  3. For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?
Quickly going to highlight Wulf's post as I agree with the sentiment of "allow for all moves which offer STAB outside of signature/restricted ones." For the first question, I'm less looking to pick out our best STAB options, but rather let people share their thoughts on which STAB moves they have the most confidence in.
 
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snake

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What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?
Fire Blast, Flamethrower, and Moonblast should definitely be on the table being standard STAB attacks for a specially oriented Fire/Fairy type. Physical options like Flare Blitz and Play Rough are definitely still on the table, but I'm not a huge fan of these moves.

As for signature moves:

Armor Cannon's 120 BP and 100% accuracy make it an attractive option over Fire Blast. The jump in power from the more consistent Flamethrower is about 33%, which is significant. The secondary effect of lowering defense has not been a barrier for other Pokemon to run Close Combat, so I don't view it as a problem here. Armor Cannon also fits well on an offensive pivot, who wouldn't care about its bulk as much as a defensive pivot would.

Torch Song can steadily make CAP32 stronger, increasing the pressure it can exert and making a lower special attack stat much more acceptable. This bakes a lot of power into one of CAP32's moveslots, making it a very flexible Pokemon in terms of moveset diversity and flexibility, and the move pairs well with a variety of abilities. It should come to no one's surprise that this has been one of my favorite options for CAP32 so far, but it conflicts with the offensive pivot role slightly.

Bitter Blade singlehandedly saves physically oriented builds in my eyes. Otherwise, I believe CAP32 will reach its maximum potential with special attacks.

What coverage types would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
Electric-type and Psychic-type moves should definitely be examined. Thunderbolt and Psychic are two standard but potent coverage moves to include. Volt Switch is good specifically if CAP32 has the strength to dent opponents with it; otherwise it would prefer some other more consistent pivoting move.

In particular, I'd like to highlight Lumina Crash as another signature move we could utilize effectively. While it's not a STAB move, Lumina Crash pairs extremely well with CAP32's typing. Lumina Crash typically demands Dark-type and Steel-type switch-ins, but Dark-types don't want to switch into Fairy-type STAB, and Steel-types don't want to switch into Fire-type STAB. Also, I wouldn't confound Lumina Crash with why Espathra was banned. Espathra was banned for its efficacy with Speed Boost and Stored Power, two elements that CAP32 is not guaranteed nor required to have. Thus, I think Lumina Crash is a strong and valid option to consider and starts providing a cohesive idea of what CAP32 wants to do.

Additionally, Ground-type and Fighting-type coverage are strong types that have historically paired well with both Fire- and Fairy- types separately. That being said, I'm wondering how necessary it is to have this efficient of coverage. The difference between Electric/Psychic vs Ground/Fighting is that CAP32 will always want to run both of its STABs with Electric or Psychic coverage, but it could feasibly drop a stab with Ground or Fighting coverage. I'm not completely against Ground or Fighting coverage, but I can't help but feel that we can restrain ourselves a little bit if we more heavily consider strong signature moves.

----

I will revisit the 3rd question later, as I haven't fully formed opinions about it yet.

EDIT: Liking Armor Cannon a lot better for an offensive pivot than Torch Song now.
 
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quziel

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  1. What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?
  2. What coverage types would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
  3. For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?
1)
I'm a huge fan of Eruption. This is, without a doubt, the single strongest move we can click, and lets us punch far above our weight class when it comes to offenses, even at lower spA values. It absolutely requires a lot of working around, as its very dependent on keeping us healthy, but that's a feasible concern.

Besides that, the standard Fairy STAB of Moonblast should obviously be on the table. Its strong, it has a good secondary effect, its perfectly accurate, its just a great option in general and I don't think there's a reason we shouldn't look at it.

2)
Honestly, coverage feels a bit less important than it would be on other projects here. Our STABs are fine vs most of the meta, and honestly we could probably get away with very limited coverage here. That said, Ground and Electric are the big ones, as they let us hit Toxapex, who is probably the most common resist to Fire+Fairy.

3)
Strength Sap is very neat. This is a recovery move that is nearly as good at forcing switches as Fire Blast, by virtue of basically setting up a no-win situation vs any mon doing less than like 100% damage to us. It lets us sidestep lacking bulk by giving up to 100% healing, which drastically increases our effective HP compared to any other recovery.
 

dex

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What coverage types would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
Ground comes to mind immediately as a means of hitting Poison-types not named Venomicon. It's also just generally good as complimentary coverage. Electric is also decent for hitting Water- and Flying-types. Tera doesn't really impact anything, in my opinion. Mons rarely tera for coverage because of how much of a dead slot tera blast is without tera.
 

shnowshner

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Hello I'm making a second post because there was a bit of confusion on Discord about what can be talked about:

Be sure that the move you mention is able to be used in Scarlet and Violet. The best way to check IMO is to load up the teambuilder, select Balanced Hackmons as the format, and see if the move is labelled as "Illegal" in the builder. Those moves cannot be used since they legitimately do not function within the game code.

Once again I'm keeping the floor very open right now so if any move interests you, go for it, just keep in mind that overloading on signatures isn't the goal here and pining for arbitrarily strong/impactful moves like Revival Blessing is fruitless unless you have damn good reasoning.
 
Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?

While I wouldn't be opposed to opening up the possibility of signature moves, I feel like it would be better for people to give actual concrete examples of which particular moves would make it worth opening signature moves, because from my perspective there is so little moves actually worth breaking the signature rules for.

For starters, we should look at the Non-STAB signature moves. These are either too weak to actually contribute in a worthwhile way to 32 movepool or either end up completely shaping the Mon in a singular direction so these aren't worth opening the restriction for.

Next we should look at setup moves on the like of Clangorous Soul, No Retreat and Tidy Up. Out stat limitation and direction as an offensive Pivot also make these options null.

As such, I only see the following as semi viable options:
  • Pyro ball: A weaker move than flare blitz that comes with the option to not lose huge chunks of health to recoil. Probably the most viable option of these tbh.
  • Armor Cannon: A reliable high power option that plays well into the offensive pivot role 32 is looking to fulfill, but it does raise the question, is it truly worthy to get despite being a signature? Fire blast while unreliable hits for way more damage, so people will have to justify its use over it and wherever we should open the signatures for a move whose only advantage of the other is it's accuracy.
  • Bitter Blade: Another decent option to give 32 a viable physical fire stab, which allows it to be more unique in the meta. However it might not be strong enough for the purposes of being used by our low stat Mon, and the fact remains that just like Armor Cannon it will have to heavily justify why it's worth opening signatures for it.
  • Chilling reception: the most weird option I will bring, but it does provide pivoting ala teleport and a fire fairy actually goes nice on a hail team.
I just think some thought should be put into what signature moves are allowed.

Edit: And the next round of questions for posted as I made this post ._.
 
What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?

The two most promising options in my opinion are Overheat and Fleur Cannon. As others have stated, Lava Plume is also promising due to its ability to spread status. As I've mentioned before, high base power moves are essential on a pokemon with middling stats in order for it not to be overshadowed by stronger threats. While both moves have drawbacks, namely lowering special attack and having a chance to miss, it does open up opportunities later on to design CAP32 around these flaws, such as giving it an ability to mitigate one of the drawbacks.

What coverage types would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?

I'd say the most important coverage type is Ground. Since Fire types resist both Fire and Fairy, it's important to have some kind of coverage to deal with them. Additionally, Pokemon such as Toxapex resist both STAB options, and Pokemon such as Heatran are immune to and quad resist each type respectively. I don't think any other coverage options are absolutely necessary, though some might be useful depending on the current state of the metagame. I think it may be a bit too early to tell how Terastallization will impact CAP32, but I could see some types being useful. However, Fire/Fairy also functions well defensively, so I'm not sure if it's something you'd want to get rid of.
 
What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?
Since our BST, and subsequently our offensive stats, are going to be quite low, STAB moves with high base power are the most promising right off the bat to me to make up for this. On the Fire-type special side, one move I really like in particular is Overheat. It synergizes really well with our role as an offensive pivot - fire off an Overheat for big damage, then pivot out to reset the Special Attack drop. Fire Blast is less powerful but still quite strong, and doesn't have the stat drops. If we open up signature moves, Armor Cannon is also an enticing option - it's basically a slightly less powerful, 100% accurate Overheat that synergizes just as well, if not better, with our role as an offensive pivot since we drop our bulk instead of our power. Torch Song may not be that powerful, but HOO BOY does it stack. It does make me worried that CAP 32 will turn into a set-up sweeper instead of the intended offensive pivot if we choose this, though.

On the Fire-type physical side, Flare Blitz is the answer a lot of people will look towards, but its recoil combined with our lower than average bulk makes me worried for our longevity. This is where opening up signature moves really shines IMO. Pyro Ball may be less accurate, but the burn chance is incredible, and we've already seen another Fire-type offensive pivot, Cinderace, utilize it to great effect. Raging Fury also intrigues me a bit, since it's basically Flare Blitz without the recoil, but it being an Outrage clone and preventing us from switching does feel a bit anti-role for me. And of course I have to give a nod to Bitter Blade - it's far less powerful than all of these moves except for Torch Song, but the recovery is MONUMENTAL for us.

The Fairy-type side is a lot more limited, sadly, with the strongest non-signature moves being Moonblast for special and Play Rough for physical. Even then, all of the signature moves we have for Fairy are legendary signatures, which I assume would remain banned. Which is a shame, because Fleur Cannon would be great for this, for the same reasons I like Overheat a lot :P

What coverage types would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
Electric, Ground, and Psychic are the two big ones here, with Electric to nuke Water types, Ground to slam Rock, Poison, and Steel types and Psychic to give us near unresisted coverage combined with our STABs. Other options that I haven't seen brought up yet are Grass to hit stuff like Rotom-W and Krilowatt as well as Ground and Rock types, Water to deal with said Ground and Rock types as well as other Fire types, and Dark to handle pesky Skeledirges and the occasional Hisuian Zoroark. There are also some interesting signature moves available to us from these types that we could use: Apple Acid wears down bulkier walls over time and makes up for our low BST (though it is pretty outclassed by Lumina Crash, a move that has been talked about a lot here, which I also really like), Flip Turn is a solid option for our pivoting move of choice, and Kowtow Cleave is a powerful move for anyone to use, just to name a few. As for Terastallization, while expanding our coverage on the fly is always a good thing, dropping our main typing makes us weaker in a lot of ways, namely losing that Dragon immunity for Walking Wake and the Fire resistance for our many Fire type sweepers. I think we'd be better off not relying of Tera.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?
Going to echo Quziel here and vouch for Strength Sap here - if we don't go on the physical side and allow Bitter Blade, this is the best possible recovery we can get. Recovery options in general are really nice here, so moves like Slack Off, Soft-Boiled, Milk Drink, and good old Recover are also pretty intriguing. Status-inflicting moves are also pretty interesting to me. The ones that I think would work best would be Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave/Glare, as they make up for our lower stats by weakening the opponent's Attack and Speed respectively. As for moves that could be less than effective than initially thought, Trick and Switcheroo are kind of held back by our Rocks-weak typing, so we'd have to sacrifice our Boots to use an item that would allow us to use these moves effectively.
 
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  1. What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?
  2. What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
  3. For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?
1) Any stab move that has more than usual base power should be interesting for now.

Especially Fire has a wealth of common and uncommon widely distributed attacking moves that hit 100BP or above and several strong moves that have 80BP and a great secondary effect.
Alongside the common stabs like Flare Blitz, Overheat, Fire blast, Flamethrower and Lavaplume, to me the most interesting of the non signature moves is Eruption with a small nod to inferno (which I only don’t like bc it forces us into no guard).
Fairies pool is much less ample but both Moonblast and Play Rough are obviously solid. Additionally Draining Kiss is an interesting option for the Healing it can provide.
Of the signature moves we can tap into fire again has a stupid variety from legendary signatures like Vcreate, Sacred Fire and Blue flare/Fusion Flare, Magma Storm to great moves like armor cannon, Torch Song, Fiery Dance or Bitter Blade. Here too Fairy has only Fleur Cannon although that one is hilariously strong as well.
2) Three types come to mind.
Ground has absolutely ridiculous coverage with both Fire and Fairy. both Psychic and electric are a bit more targeted but still help against some of the best switch in options against our stabs. I’m entirely in favor of giving access to one or two strong options of these types.
A fourth type that seems solid enough is Rock although imo it lacks the reliably strong attacking options the other types provide.
3) not sure if this means any move or just type specific utility. If it’s the former there’s basically will o wisp which is fine.
If it’s the latter there are just too many honestly that I could see making it onto a moveset, although my favorites are probably Parting shot which incidentally is a pivoting move and Glare which is just a super strong option to force switches even if we don’t hit smth super effectively. AnOther move that could be interesting especially in conjunction with one of the stabs mentioned above is strength sap with eruption.
 
  1. What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?

    Luckily for us, our STABs already come with common solid offensive options. Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Eruption, Moonblast, Overheat, Flare Blitz, and Play Rough all come to mind for just being solid attacking moves. As for signatures, Fleur Cannon, Springtide Storm, Armor Cannon, V-Create, Fusion Flare and Pyro Ball have significantly boosted power to make up for our most-likely-meager attacking stats, although i wouldn't necessarily say they're NEEDED.

    Outside of power, Moves like Lava Plume has a threatening 30% chance to burn, although none of our checks really mind it. Mystical Fire and Spirit Break are also options, but I feel they are too weak to rely on as STAB.


  2. What coverage types would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
    In my opinion, Ground and Psychic are our best options. Ground hits the only type our STABs resist; Fire, while Psychic hits the poisons that check us.
    As for specific options, there has been significant talk of Lumina Crash being used as Psychic coverage, and I couldn't agree more. Lumina Crash not only compliments our STABs near perfectly, it also plays into our role as an Offensive Pivot by forcing switches on the opponent. Even reisists won't want to switch into a Lumina Crash and get their Spdef halved, putting opponents in 50/50s where the options are either take extra damage or switch yet again. Lumina Crash ALWAYS makes progress against the enemy team unless they have a Dark type, which we have SE stab for anyways.

    and then theres earth power i guess EP is strong ya


    Most mons tera for defensive purposes or to boost their STAB. Getting STAB on a coverage move is usually an afterthought when Tera-ing. For example,CAP32 may tera Water to get rid of its weakness to other Water types, and consequently getting water STAB to hit Fire-types. The primary function of the Tera is to bolster the mon Defensively, not get STAB on a third type for coverage reasons.


  3. For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?

    I think our strongest utility options are Spikes, Knock Off, Toxic, Parting Shot, and Strength Sap.

    - Spikes plays into our role as an offensive pivot Perfectly. We force switches and get layers of Spikes up to make progress against enemy teams. It also helps that we threaten a great deal of the hazard removers such as Libra, Corviknight, Great Tusk, and Tomohawk.
    - Knock Off is more of the same. instead, we knock the items off of our checks, making them switch in on us less freely. This is exceptionally useful since most of our checks are Fire types and Venomicon, who do not want to get their boots knocked.
    - Parting Shot is here for obvious reasons. No Pokemon benefits better from a pivoting move than a Pivot itself. While any form of pivoting will be highly beneficial to CAP32, I choose to nominate Parting Shot over other forms of pivoting because, like Lumina Crash, it forces the victim to switch. This works in conjunction with Spikes, where Parting Shot weaknes a pokemon, forcing it to switch, causing the next pokemon switching in to take Spikes damage.
    -Strength Sap has the same reasoning behind it as Parting Shot, but with the trade off of having reliable healing instead.
 
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What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?
No need to get fancy with the Fairy STABs, just Moonblast/Play Rough is fine. With Fire we can get a bit more creative though. There has been talk about Armor Cannon, which is stronger than Fire Blast and doesn't have a miss chance, and while weaker than Overheat still doesn't drop our Sp. Attack at all. As such, it is a pretty good option. Bitter Blade is also cool because it's quite strong for a draining move, not to mention the draining itself is quite handy.

What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
Given our lower power level we should not be afraid to give it any coverage it might need. Anything to hit Skeledirge and Venomicon stands out, especially Skeledirge due to resisting both of our STABs. Rock is great as it hits both of these super-effectively. But I would also say that Electric, Ground, and Water are effective coverage options as well. There's Dark too, but should only be considered if we have a good secondary effect like Knock Off or Ceaseless Edge.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?
Gonna echo others and say that Strength Sap is cool for allowing us to get away with less physical bulk and also healing us. Hazards are also neat for an offensive pivot to have, and we almost had offensive hazard setter as our role even, proving how effective Fire/Fairy is at it.
 
What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?

As mentioned by a couple other people, Bitter Blade is a great STAB option that provides recovery. Something like Fire Lash, which lowers opposing stats, can also help with encouraging the opponent to switch out. For fairy stab, Play Rough and/or Moonblast are hard to go wrong with. Spirit Break would also provide some ability to encourage switching ala fire lash.

What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?

As I covered in an earlier post, Fire is the only type that can't be hit for at least neutral damage, and we're weak to Poison, Rock, Ground, and Water. Providing access to Ground type moves would allow for strong hits against all types except ground and water, which can both be hit hard with Grass. Providing some coverage from these two types would give it a strong face against types that would otherwise be big threats.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?

Parting Shot is an obvious choice as a solid pivoting move. In addition to that, providing some scary status options such as Will O Wisp, or Thunderwave - as well as hazards such as Spikes - will provide a lot of direct utility.
 
What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?
In terms of fairy STAB, while the standard Moonblast and Play Rough are useful, if we wanted to go all in on physical attacks we could potentially try Magical Torque. 100 base power with no downside and a chance of confusion is powerful, perfect for making a low-BSR mon stand out.
As for fire, while Flare Blitz is one of our best options on the physical side, I agree with other people that Armor Cannon could make for a powerful special STAB option.
What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
Unilaterally the strongest coverage type we could give this pokemon is Ground. hitting other fire types and Toxapex for super effective damage, ground covers almost all of its resistances, and has powerful options of Earthquake and Earth Power. If that ends up being too much, Psychic also works well as a coverage type.
 

ausma

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What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?
Fire Blast/Flamethrower/Moonblast are a given imo, so for the sake of discussion I'm going to +1 Armor Cannon and Lava Plume as other STAB options. Armor Cannon is excellent hugely because it provides us with a fully accurate, high BP Fire-type STAB option with a drawback that is generally offset by our role, while Lava Plume provides us with simultaneous damage and status, making it an excellent midground option that lets us apply safe pressure. I'm also very intrigued by Eruption, as it effectively means we have an insanely high BP option that we can spam unlike Overheat/Fleur Cannon, and that can possibly propel CAP 32 into a dangerous offensive threat by itself. A very common thread of these moves is that they are easy clicks and don't come with much of an opportunity cost; I think playing into that is important.

Overheat and Fleur Cannon I'm alright with, but I don't feel very strongly about them. I feel they lend a bit more naturally to Choice sets by nature of their burst damage and subsequent drawbacks, and oftentimes to extract the most value out of them we would really need to lean into that, especially since we lack much immediate power. They can work and Overheat feels fine to add to our kit anyway, but I don't really think they're worth emphasizing as primary damage-dealing options.

Sadly though I'm going to have to argue against Torch Song. It is a powerful move, no doubt about that, but I feel it is both counter-intuitive given that we are going to likely have lacking immediate power and because it works against our role. Torch Song's primary draw here is snowballing for an endgame, but given that we need several boosts to get to that point of potentially cleaning with it, alongside the fact the boosts reset when we actually do our job as a pivot, it can fall flat imo.

What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?
I'm going to +1 snake's post by arguing for Electric- and Psychic-type coverage. Both of these types lay pressure against some of our better checks in Toxapex and Venomicon, and while that's great and very important by itself, I'm mainly intrigued by the offensive options that utilize these coverage types. So, I'd like to briefly cover them.

Volt Switch I've already talked about, but I would like to really double down on it. Being able to compress pressure into our best switch-ins and momentum on an offensive pivot is truly phenomenal. Denying Toxapex of Regenerator recovery that it may attempt to gain by exploiting CAP 32 and potentially getting Venomicon in range of a Fire-type STAB later is really useful, and the main counterplay of Volt Switch's momentum in immunities are moot as we pressure all of the tier's primary Ground-types with our STAB combination. It's pro-concept, lets us pressure switch-ins to our STABs and ideal coverage options; I think it is an elite choice.

Additionally I am a monumental fan of Lumina Crash and I feel it's worth serious consideration. The merits of it have already been discussed somewhat, but the fact that it gives us legitimate threat factor with our STABs alongside slapping common bulky Poison-types as a whole allows us to not only force switches more readily and hit several of our checks, but makes it easier to pressure bulkier structures as a whole by giving our STABs more of a kick and making them easier to click. Lumina Crash synergizes very strongly with Volt Switch as well, not only augmenting its damage output and accruing more chip, but it also gives us the ability to take advantage of the switch Lumina Crash forces with our momentum move at the same time. It becomes much easier to build momentum and exert pressure simultaneously because we threaten far more damage as a whole with a Volt Switch at -2 SpDef. Also note that both of these moves, together, pressure our primary checks while pairing naturally with our primary damage-dealing moves.

Yet again, the common thread of these moves is that they're fairly easy to click. The less we have to predict and less progress necessary to truly exert pressure, the more value we will find in spite of our middling BSR. This is why I find Ground-type coverage to be solid, but not great. It ofc pairs well with Electric-type coverage and Fire-type STAB, but the fact Earthquake and Earth Power don't come with an easily applicable secondary effect makes it a bit more of a tough sell to throw on a set as it doesn't entirely conform to CAP32's gameplan without just being a dedicated coverage option, which is fundamentally more situational due to our likely disappointing damage output. That said, it undoubtedly has its merits.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?
I would like to advocate for Taunt yet again, as blocking recovery is really useful for ensuring chip damage can stick on non-Regenerator switch-ins like Venomicon or Skeledirge, especially alongside hazard support. However, I'd also like to add some support for recovery moves; specifically, Strength Sap. Having automatic recovery allows us to extract defensive value out of our typing, providing offense with an ever-coveted offensive check to several massive threats like Meowscarada and Jumbao. Alongside the fact we are an offensive pivot this has extremely useful applications that could more readily allow CAP 32 to find its way onto offensive teams. A huge reason I like Strength Sap specifically though is that Attack drop. Being able to use the Attack drop to subdue Pokemon like unboosted Kingambit can mitigate our inevitably mediocre bulk and let us use our typing more flexibly overall.
 
What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?

First of all, Fire is packed with good moves, it's incredible.
I strongly feel we should on special offence. Our best common STABs are there (Fire Blast / Flamethrower / Moonblast), compared to Flare Blitz's recoil and Play Rough average-ness which we don't want. I will develop on this on the next question but I think it our bet.
Other notables STABs include:
  • Lava Plume as mentioned before for that sweet 30% burn. Spreading burns bypasses our probably not-so-great offensive stat and improves our own longevity. It's a strong deterrent to most bulky Ground-types wishing to eat a Volt-Switch, even if they are bulky enough to stomach the hit. And it's just a nice move to spam overall if Fire Blast is too risky for a set. I think it's an improvement over Flamethrower tbh.
  • Magma Storm is so interesting for our concept. A (very) strong trapping move is a godsend for any pivot, especially if we give it Taunt / Encore (or Snatch lmao) and once again, passive damage don't care if we are not very strong. It immediately gives us a niche against bulkier teams, it blocks double-switches and it applies heavy pressure. All of these are very important for a pivot, especially as we are not probably not going to pressure through brute force (well, Sheer Force is still on the table I guess). The last nice thing is that it still has significant drawbacks: I hope Magma Storm, while a potent option, will not define CAP32.
  • Eruption is nice. A conditionally very powerful move to nuke things into orbit is good, especially as, once again, it's not a 100% improvement over Fire Blast. It plays well into the "punching above its weight" theme, I just fear that it's going to take over the concept a bit: we will obviously try to do everything to leverage Eruption as a 150BP is just something you want to take advantage of, perhaps at the expense of the rest. But I still like a lot.
  • Torch Song is not the best as we usually don't want to stay, but I do want to note that the +1 can go a long way depending of our stats, even it's just to improve Volt Switch. Still a second-choice at best IMO.
  • Armor Blade has one problem with me: it's Fire Blast 2.0 which... is not bad by itself, but is not really interesting. I understand why we would want it, it's just not a direction I like a lot.
  • Overheat / Fleur Cannon are OK I guess? They don't lend themselves too well to a pivoting mon, though with Taunt I can it working not be badly as they have to take a hit and can't do whatever they won't after that.
  • Lastly, a quick mention to Inferno if we want to go the No Guard route. It is pretty defining though (and very poll-jumpy) so it's not something to treat lightly, but its power can not be denied.

What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?

Ground
and Electric are the big options as far as coverage goes. Psychic warrants a mention too.
Ground has Earth Power aka Earthquake's little brother which might not be always be enough juice by itself unfortunately. It's good ol' reliable. I guess Sandsear Storm exists but I don't see it as necessary (and probably a bit worse than EP?).

Electric has more colourful moves: Volt Switch is obviously the main move we will be looking at. The nice thing about Volt Switch is that it perfectly fits our probable weaknesses: obviously, pivoting away is a good way to do some damage even if we are not too strong.
Strongly damaging any Water-type (Toxapex being the big one) trying to eat our Fire STAB is great and applies great pressure: once again, allowing us to punch above our weight and once again, as already said, I don't think many immunities (even you Cawmadore) risk taking our STABs.
This is why I feel we should focus on special offence: we do need at least some power if we don't want Volt Switch to hit like a wet noodle and I don't believe we can pull off mixed offences within our current framework (it's not impossible but it seems really hard).

I just want to show a quick calc with a 100 base SpAtk which everyone considered as pretty mid as far as attack goes:
252 SpA CAP (100 Base SpAtk) Volt Switch vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 72-86 (23.6 - 28.2%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery
While good (for a pivoting move, that is), it does mean we need to invest a little bit in our special attack if we want it to be effective.

Again on Electric, any alternative Volt Switch should be really strong. Thunderbolt is not going to cut it sadly. Thunder has accuracy issues, which leaves us with Rising Voltage with Electric Terrain (but once again, it pidgeonholes us on one archetype which I don't like much) and Electric Drift which... well, apart from being a cover legendary move is fine? I mean, it's 133 BP against weaknesses, which are Water and Flying. It's plenty strong, don't get me wrong but I think one strong coverage move is OK, especially as it's not really strong neutrally (and we are not Miraidon).

The "bad" part is that none of these are interesting defensively for Terastal. The best Tera is probably Grass, turning our Water and Ground weaknesses into resistance. Some Grass coverage (Energy Ball or perhaps Apple Acid) should probably be an option to consider while we are still defining broad strokes.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?

As I have said before, any disruptive move is great. Taunt (and Encore / Torment) is the big one. It is helped by having a decent speed stat, at least to get the jump over most passive mons. Much as been said about it.

I really dig Strength Sap, especially as having a low-ish BST actually helps here: a lowish HP will recover more proportionally. Rotom-W was often mentioned and is a perfect example with Pain Split (which is worse here). It fits thematically, as we turn our opponent strength against itself, it combines well with the probable burns we will try to spread (either with our STABs or Will-o-wisp) to really improve our physical longevity and provided that much coveted healing. Any kind of recovery is important but I like Strength Sap the best.

No problem with any status. Sleep can even be considered but we need to keep in mind it's a large part of a power budget, even if we probably won't get big set-up moves.

Court Change was mentioned before and fits well to our theme. It plays into the Hazard control role that was discussed earlier and brings something new to the table. Any kind of hazard control is fine by me though (whether as setup or remover).

Suicide moves are pretty decent, especially Memento / Healing Wish. No strong sentiment about them but I don't see any mention and they do fit the concept of pulling our weight even with middling stats.

And lastly, I want to talk about Super Fang / Nature's Madness (the latter being a straight upgrade as it does not make contact). It allows us to always make some progress, especially if we combine it with Taunt or a trapping move (it might even be a tad too strong with Magma Storm uh). These moves are rarely a first choice, which is fine but they are strong options whenever we fear about not making enough damage and can slot nicely instead of a coverage move.
 
What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?
I'm a big Bitter Blade enjoyer, mainly if it gets some sort of offensive boost through its ability or other means. Tying recovery to potentially big damage would make this Pokemon significantly more threatening for something to stay in on, since being able to recover HP allows us to pivot more often, as well add an extra layer of threat to taking a hit from this move. I also think Magma Storm is an interesting pressure move, mainly for reasons already stated by others.

What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?

I do like Psychic and Electric coverage quite a bit. With regards to signature moves under this category, I definitely want to second ausma on Lumina Crash. I think this would definitely cement CAP32 as a solid option on a team due to its strength in forcing switch-outs alone.

Apparently only Pincurchin gets Zing Zap this gen so if we go the physical route and we want an electric type move then this is probably that.

In general, I think having access to a pretty decent range of coverage definitely fits in well with some of the other examples of Pokemon that have somewhat low stats -- both Clefable and Nidoking have very wide range of coverage without being too overwhelming, and if we're leaning into that style of design we definitely have leeway on our moves.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?

I think pivoting moves are definitely the play here, Parting Shot is a very solid option for us. Toxic is also a very threatening move that makes it difficult for opponents to stay in, is potentially very forcing, and synergizes with our Fire typing as we have STAB against the Toxic immune Steel-types.
 
I don't have the energy right now to go back over moves that have already been discussed a bunch of times, but I want to mention a couple options that I'd like to see included:

Eerie Spell is not nearly as nuclear as something like Lumina Crash (I believe one of the strongest moves in the game), which in my opinion would be tough to balance and would eat up a lot of our power budget. It is a signature move which is sound-based (which gives it an interesting ability interaction or two). It offers really nice coverage for Venomicon, Iron Moth, Toxapex, Clodsire, etc., it bypasses substitutes, and it drains PP from recovery moves, which I think is more valuable this gen when they have 8 PP. You can fully drain the PP of Recover/Roost/whatever after the opponent uses it twice, which is useful. It's just a really interesting and balanced tool to have in our kit and it's my psychic coverage move of choice.

Fire Spin is not an amazing move, but it's an option we should have available. Trapping sets in the vein of Whirpool Fini from last gen should be possible, and it's also nice on pivot sets because you can freely bring in a check afterwards knowing the opponent cannot switch.

Leech Seed on a Fire/Fairy type, which can threaten both Grasses and Gholdengo, is a really neat option. Leech Seed to force something out and then pivoting on the switch-in is a really appealing combination (or giving the switch-in Leech Seed recovery if the opponent does not switch). It is admittedly harder to make work when we don't have Leftovers recovery since we're mostly locked into running boots, but multiple abilities offer ways around this, rocks-weak mons occasionally run leftovers anyway, and it's still a usable option with boots.

I think ground, electric, and psychic coverage are our best options and should all be allowed here. We shouldn't be limited by our coverage types when we're already limited by our stats.
 
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Since our stats are going to be significantly below the norm of CAP’s high BSR totals, there has been talk about freeing up signature moves. Is this something we would feel comfortable doing? Should we have an idea of what the move(s) could be?
I know I'm a bit late to answering this question, but I would like to push back against signature moves, not for any competitive reason, but because I personally feel signature moves (especially legendary ones) go against the spirit of this particular CAP. If you ask me what it means to be "Bang Average," I would observe that these average pokemon are not characterized solely by middling stats, but also by only having access to common moves. Clefable, Nidoking, Rotom-W, Corviknight, and pre-nerf Talonflame all excel or excelled in OU without access to unique moves. Many had extraordinary abilities, but in terms of movepool, none of them had anything particularly special--rather it was the diversity of their movepool and/or how it synergized with their other unique attributes. The closest to an exception is Breloom with Spore, as noted earlier, but this isn't exactly signature, just narrowly distributed. I just think that the moment we give it extraordinary moves like Magma Storm or Court Change, to give some examples, the mon stops being average in a way--its usage would derive largely from the unique properties of these offerings rather than from a special combination of factors that allow it overcome its averageness. Finding a way to synergize average traits (with ability being the established exception) just seems more interesting than giving CAP32 special move candy in order to overcome its stat problems.
 

memesketch

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What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?

Supposing we have Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Moonblast, Play Rough, and maybe Flare Blitz as the basic locks, we can explore some different options here. I might be in the minority on this one but I actually really like the idea of Fleur Cannon. Sure it's not needed per se, but considering it's such a powerful option coming off of our arguably more potent STAB typing, I think we can implement it well to the hit-and-run style of play that seems to be the likely course with CAP32. Armor Cannon is a really interesting option too, gives us a STAB move that's both powerful and spammable and we don't really mind the stat drops. While Lava Plume is intriguing, my initial concern is that it might end up as a peripheral option, since it just may not be sufficient on a mon that we're designing to have middling power in the first place - this is the reason we opened up sig moves, after all. If we want to spread burns, the alternative could just be leaving the superior option of Sacred Fire open. Staying on the topic of physical moves, I agree with the importance of Bitter Blade to physical sets - that recovery is a game changer. On the other hand, I do like Fire Lash if we already have sufficient recovery, but if we want to seriously differentiate this mon from Astrolotl it may need to stay out of consideration.

What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?

+1 on Volt Switch and Lumina Crash. Volt Switch is both good coverage and likely this mon's best pivoting tool; our STAB coverage is good enough at deterring Ground-types that we can employ it pretty successfully in a Krilowatt-esque way. Lumina Crash would be the perfect way to push this mon into an offensive niche, as it gives us a move to seriously pressure and force out walls like Toxapex, Clodsire, and Skeledirge that we otherwise might lack. I also like that it gives us a leg to stand on against Volcarona and just generally helps create situations in which we can make full use of our STABs and Volt Switch.

On paper, Lumina Crash lessens the need for coverage, but it can only benefit us to add certain coverage types that fit CAP32's kit and remain situationally useful. I've seen Ground and Grass thrown around a lot here and I'd agree that those are probably our best options. Moves such as Earthquake, Earth Power / Scorching Sands, Energy Ball, and Leaf Blade / Petal Blizzard could be worth including but we can honestly go with or without them since they don't add too much utility or spice to our movepool. I'm also a fan of throwing in some miscellaneous stuff like, say, Sparkling Aria or Close Combat, but it's the same situation as the Ground and Grass coverage.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?

Spikes and Stealth Rock are appealing options, but I think we can go a different route - it again runs a bit close to Astrolotl for me, and hazards would probably be difficult to fit in our moveset with the wide range of valuable utility moves we're considering already. Strength Sap is a winner for me, recovery is really important to this mon and Strength Sap is about the best recovery option a weaker mon can ask for. Taunt is another winner - a disruptive tool that helps us keep chip damage and stop tomfoolery from stuff like Clodsire is an excellent addition to our kit. Knock Off is a good idea to force progress. Lastly, Korbe brought up Nature's Madness, which I agree would be a really cool, if niche, option to apply some consistent pressure and force more switches.
 
Woo hoo moves

What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?

Fire-type moves:

I like Bitter Blade, Fiery Dance, Lava Plume, Overheat and Pyro Ball. All of these are strong in their departments. Bitter Blade allows CAP32 to gain recovery from its STAB, allowing longevity. Fiery Dance allows CAP32 to snowball should it need to. Lava Plume gives CAP32 a 30% chance to burn the opponent. Pyro Ball and Overheat both have high BP, and while Overheat allows a stronger move, Pyro Ball has little downsides. Also, their’s nothing wrong with Flamethrower.

Fairy moves:


I only like Moonblast, Fleur Cannon, and ig Play Rough. All are strong moves due their BP, Fleur Cannon specifically is like Overheat that it synergizes with our role as an offensive pivot.

What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?

PSYCHIC, PSYCHIC, PSYCHIC


I also do like Grass coverage.

Psychic and Grass target the types we’re weak to the best.

(One might say Ground and Grass but um Venomicon)

Anyway, I don’t think there are really any types we should avoid. I also don’t think there are too many specific moves that are too strong for CAP32 to be using that are worth talking about. I will say that obviously strong moves that aren’t STAB, Psychic, or Grass, should be avoided for coverage. Tera, Tera, Tera, Tera Blast gives free coverage with the right Tera type, and unfortunately, we can’t avoid that.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?

First, I wanna bring up Teleport. Teleport wasn’t brought up, and maybe it’s because we are going to be an Offensive Pivot, but pivoting last to gain the right advantage against the opponent is super duper helpful. Next, Knock Off and Taunt have been beaten to death, but I agree with them. Strength Sap nearly always recovers more than 50%, but Recover and Company have their merit, if not to keep the Power Budget up. I like Encore and Perish Song, as they both force switches. I find Spore intriguing, as we can target Grass types that block it.
 

Wulfanator

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I will once again state that I am firmly opposed to the inclusion of legendary exclusive moves. Suggestion of these moves is a gross overstep of standard CAP practices, and I have yet to see a meaningful argument as to why any should be considered. Fleur Cannon is the worst offender of the group. Moonblast is already a strong STAB option and is assumed by default. If users desire more power out of CAP32's Fairy STAB, I recommend using the ability stage to improve it. Further talk about legendary exclusives should be extinguished.

Given the haphazard listing of signature moves present in the thread, I recommend using the precedent set during Saharaja's defining move stage. When we discussed set up options for Saharaja, we could not decide between Swords Dance, Dragon Dance, and Shift Gear. As a result, the decision was left to stat submitters but they were required to select a singular option. From the final defining moves list for Saharaja: "one of (Swords Dance/Dragon Dance/Shift Gear)." The same method should to be applied when we consider signature moves. Using examples already present in the thread, this would look like "one of (Bitter Blade, Pyro Ball, Torch Song, Lumina Crash, etc)"

Edit: It should go without saying, moves that are not released and that have ZERO precedent for distribution should not even be mentioned. Thus, moves such as Magical Torque and Springtide Storm have no place in this conversation.
 
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I want to throw support behind Eruption. While Armor Cannon is a great move in its own right, 150 BP over 120 BP is a noticeable difference in power, and I believe that CAP32 can be tailored around trying to maintain full health to abuse Eruption's power. Given CAP32's role as an offensive pivot, it's not hard to see from threats like Boots Meowscarada that staying at full health the entire game is not a particularly difficult task, especially if CAP32 also gets access to healing options. While both of these moves are pretty similar and effective, I find Eruption far more interesting.

Assuming that we do have access to a high-power STAB, coverage should really not be necessary for CAP32. For starters, a neutral high BP STAB would be as strong, if not stronger than supereffective coverage; for instance, 150 BP Eruption does more damage to Venom than Thunderbolt would. Nor is it a requirement for CAP32 to be able to muscle through the opponent's team- if we are acting as an offensive pivot, all we need to do is force defensive switches from the opponent, which our STABs should be able to accomplish on their own. Like with every other Pokemon, CAP32 ought to have answers it can't break past on its own, and we shouldn't try to scramble for jank coverage options to muscle through. As such, CAP32 should get little to no coverage. The only coverage I'd really consider is Lumina Crash, but that move sort of defines a playstyle in itself and needs deeper thought than just slapping it on as coverage anyway.

I'd much rather see CAP32 use its remaining moveslots for other purposes, such as pivoting and recovery. Like many others in the thread, I am intrigued by Strength Sap, but at the same time, I don't expect it to be much better than a simple 50% recovery move. Regardless, recovery will likely be a boon for CAP32.

In terms of pivoting, I actually dislike Volt Switch here. The move just isn't very useful into any of CAP32's checks that aren't Venomicon, and has the added possibility of being blocked. While our matchups into the tier's grounds aren't set in stone, this is still counterplay that makes Volt Switch a weaker option than other pivoting moves. Instead, I'm much more interested in Parting Shot. While this too can be blocked, in this case by Gholdengo, this is much more limited counterplay by a mon that is weak to Fire. Furthermore, the attack drops of Parting Shot allow CAP32 to bring in its teammates more aggressively, making it a more effective pivot overall. While there are other pivot options to consider like Chilly Reception, U-Turn, and Teleport, I believe Parting Shot is the most effective.

Lastly, it should go without saying that general utility moves like Knock Off are useful, but I don't find that any of them need to be Defining Moves.
 
What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?

Moonblast
and Flamethrower should be no-brainers for this project. Both are incredibly reliable, solidly strong STABs that can consistently get the job done even with meager stats. Fire Blast, Overheat, ans Fleur Cannon are also pretty easy picks for this thing, both being incredibly powerful, but definitely a lot less reliably that Flamethrower. Still, the extra power could make all the difference here.

If we do end up wanting to go Physical (which I personally don't), then Bitter Blade and Magical Torque are absolutely our best options. I don't think I need to tell you why Bitter Blade is a fantastic move, especially for a Pokemon with decidedly low stats, and Magical Torque is, technically, the strongest Fairy-type physical attack in the game, though flavor might be a botch later down the line. If so, we can settle for Play Rough, and while that's still a fine move, it's still a bit weak considering the accuracy. Fire Lash is also pretty cool - it's part of why Astrolotl was so great - and it helps a ton

The biggest one that I'm thinking about though is Lava Plume. For an offensive utility Pokemon, being able to spread meaningful damage with an 80 BP STAB and status with one moveslot is an outstanding trait to have. I've talked about this earlier, but I think that allowing CAP32 to compress as many roles as possible would be a great boon for its viability, especially when stacked up against the tough competition it has.

What coverage types would CAP32 enjoy access to?

Ok, I'm gonna make a pretty radical call here and say that maybe - and hear me out on this one - we should consider giving our Fire/Fairy type Ground coverage.

Jokes aside, having Earth Power or Earthquake would be really really goos for this thing, letting it break through it best checks with utmost ease. I mean, just looking at the metagame as it stands, Pex and Dirge wall you to shit, you let Iron Moth in for free, and Garg, Plasmanta, and Clodsire all dominate you pretty hard. One Earth Power and all these guys are sent packing (well maybe not Clod but the others get absolutely destroyed). Not to mention that, from a coverage standpoint, Fairy/Fire/Ground is only resistent by Talonflame, which is to say that very little is resisting those three moves, letting us fit in moves like Spikes, Knock Off, U-Turn/Volt Switch/Parting Shot, or anything else.

Of course, there's other options to explore, as well. Electric hits Pex and Venom really hard, Grass smacks Garg and Washtom, Water slams Dirge, Garg, and Unaware Clod, and Psychic shreds every Poison in the tier.

Of all of these, Ground and Electric are clearly the best ones in my opinion, maximizing our neutral coverage, hitting most of our common checks reasonably hard, and opening up space in out moveset for utility.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively?

I've been very vocal about my support for Spikes in this project, and I still think it's the best thing we can give this thing. I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but I can't help but stress how much our matchup into the best hazard removers means. Not only does it mean that we can easily make progress on predicted switches, but it also means that we can maintain our Spikes very easily into the best removers. Being that we want CAP32 to be some kind of pivot, supporting your offensive teammates with easily maintained Spikes and free entry points is not merely a function that no other Fire- or Fairy-type can serve in this metagame, but also a hugely important niche in and of itself.

Parting Shot is another one that I'm really interested in. As it stands, it's a move that's very rare, criminally underexplored, and incredibly powerful in the right context. Sure, Volt Switch provides you with amazing Electric coverage, but I think that Parting Shot does the best job of safely bringing in your offensive teammates out any switch move we have. Consistently forcing out some of the best Pokemon in the tier and bringing in monsters like Roaring Moon, Iron Valiant, and Jumbao on debuffed switch-ins would be a huge boon for CAP32's efficacy as a pivot, and - again - since Parting Shot is so rare, it would undeniably help it stand out amongst its competition.

While Spikes and Parting Shot are absolutely the best tools we can give this thing, giving it access to options that let it mess with fat shit would he invaluable. I've seen a lot of support for Taunt recently, and I wholly get it. Letting our damage stick on walls and disallowing them to remove hazards or inflict status helps us maintain our advantage far better than without it. Other moves like Encore and Trick can cripple walls by locking them into a move that, being a pivot, you'll be able to exploit with you offensive teammates. Will-o-Wisp is also fantastic here, letting us ruin Moon and Tusk, put Libra on a timer, and disallow Snael from coming in for free.

I'm really curious about Morning Sun, however. Might seen like an odd choice given our typing, but since our typing lets us check Jumbao really nicely, taking advantage of its own Sun gives us a really good tool that other Bao checks like Venomicon or Skeledirge can't replicate. Might be a little unreliable in practice, but letting us so thoroughly abuse the presence of opposing Jumbao could be huge in carving out a niche for ourselves.
 

Da Pizza Man

Pizza Time
is a Pre-Contributor
What STAB moves look promising? If so, is it because of their secondary effects, high base power, or strong matchup into top threats?

I'm mostly just going to talk about Fire-types moves, since most of the Fairy-type moves honestly don't have a whole lot to talk about here.

Support:

Eruption: A very solid choice that is fairly self-explanatory here. Having access to such a strong attack is a very effective way of making up for our lower stats. My only major gripe with it is that it sort of can't be relied upon as our only source of Fire STAB, since the move simply just cannot be relied upon as a main source of damage after we have been worn down enough.

Magma Storm: shnowshner never really made clear if Legendary Signature moves are on the table, since those tend to be treated a bit differently than Signature Moves for non-Legendary Pokemon, but if this is on the table then it would be a superb option. Trapping Moves in general help an offensive pivot tremendously thanks to their ability to deny the opponent the ability to double switch and apply further pressure on any Pokemon who switch-in. Plus, unlike Fire Spin (Which I'm not entirely sure is being talked about here in all honesty), Magma Storm is more than strong enough to serve as our main choice of Fire STAB. I don't really have to many major gripes with this, the most I can say is that the bad accuracy is a bit annoying.

Don't Support:

Armor Cannon: To be completely honest, I'm not the biggest fan of this move. While I understand where ausma is coming from when she says that our role downplays its downside, I can't help but feel that she might be overstating just how much it does. Given that we already know that our stats aren't going to be the greatest, it is very likely that we end up in a scenario where Armor Cannon doesn't quite deal enough damage to take something out, and then the drop in defenses causes us to get knocked out by an attack that we otherwise wouldn't. Also, while we are obviously going to be an offensive pivot, I do think that having some defensive merit would help siginificantly here, and putting on a move that reduces our overall bulk makes that very hard to do.

Torch Song: I'm also not a very big fan of this move either. Our role is going to dictate that we aren't going to be staying in for very long, and as such we aren't really going to be able to accumulate Special Attack boosts like how we would want most of the time. Torch Song in general doesn't really shine until you can get at least a couple of boosts with it, and without the bulk to really back this up (Which is how Skeledirge gets so much use out of the move), the odds of that happening consistently are very low.

Physical Fire STAB (Flare Blitz, Pyro Ball, Bitter Blade): All three of these moves have problems that make me not want to pursue them. Flare Blitz has obviously problems of the recoil taking a huge hit to our longevity in the game, which when combined with our (most likely) low bulk, is going to add up very quickly over the game, especially if we end up getting knocked. Pyro Ball doesn't come with recoil sure, but it comes with something arguably even worse, and that is it's a Fire move that is blocked by Bulletproof. This siginificantly hurts our matchup against Equilibra, which is really bad when we are trying to compete with every other Fire-type in the metagame that doesn't have this problem (Except for Cinderace I guess, but even that has another fairly solid way of dealing with Equilibra in High Jump Kick). As for Bitter Blade, I'm sort of just convinced its a bit too weak for it to really serve as our main choice of STAB.

What coverage types/moves would CAP32 enjoy access to? Are there types that we should avoid handing out freely, or moves within certain typings that are too powerful? How does Terastallization impact our potential coverage options?

Terastallization makes the movepool stage of this process (As well as for pretty much every process this generation as long as it's legal) somewhat akward since it technically gives us access to 80 BP coverage lf every type right out of the gate. However, while I do think that this something we should be keeping in mind, I don't think it really affects the outcome of whether or not coverage would be worth exploring. All things considered, 80 BP for a coverage move isn't the best, and having to Terastallize to even make use of the coverage to begin with also isn't super desierable, and for both of these reasons Tera Blast doesn't really see a whole lot of play except in cases where a Pokemon either really needs it to beat something (Jumbao, Gholdengo) or lacks good STAB without it (Choice Band Dragapult). In terms of boosting already existing coverage options, I'm honestly not sure to what extent it impacts this stage, since without an exact number for stats, it's really hard for me to assess whether or not a certain coverage option becomes broken thanks to Terastallization.

On the topic of whether or not we should hand out coverage here, I'm sort of inclined to agree with Darek that I don't really think it's needed all that much. Our offensive typing is already fairly solid, with the only things in the metagame that really resist it being Fire-types and Toxapex, and while we aren't going to beat everything with just our STAB, that's honestly okay. Our job here is not to break through teams, it's simply to just generate safe switch-ins through our teammates by applying offensive pressure, which a lot of times isn't something you nessecerly need to have access to powerful coverage for.

For non-attacking options, which do we have the best chance of utilizing effectively? Are there any caveats to certain moves that might make them less effective than initially thought, or does our typing help us get around such issues?

In terms of pivoting moves, I think the best option for us here would have to be Parting Shot or Chilly Reception. A big problem I have with Volt Switch is that it can be blocked by Pokemon that threat us (Yes we threaten a lot of Ground-types with our STAB as well, but that doesn't change the fact that if we try to pivot out and we get blocked, then we are still losing a fair amount of momentum). Meanwhile, U-turn and Flip Turn just aren't super good here, and I'm not confident we can pull off Teleport without the bulk to really back it up. This leaves the afformentioned two moves, which work quite well, and I think both offer a fair amount of utility (Weaking the opponent and removing weather are both pretty good). Of the two of them, I like Chilly Reception the most personally, since I do think that it combined with our typing gives us a cool niche as a mon that just annoys the shit out of Sun teams, but I would not be upset at all if we went with Parting Shot instead.

Like I mentioned earlier, I think that having access to recovery would be very beneficial here as well. Personally, I think that going with rather simple with 50% recovery is our safest option, but I would not be opposed to Strength Sap either. Also, Stealth Rock would be exceptionally strong with our typing, since we naturally threaten most of the removal that the metagame has to offer.
 
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