Pet Mod - [Gen 1] RBY CAP - Revived! [CAP4 - Concept] (2024)

Approved by Pet Mods Staff here!
This project is in no way affiliated with the official Smogon CAP Project.
Partially adapted from DuoM2's original RBY CAP intro.

Welcome to RBY CAP, revived! This is a project to enhance the RBY (Generation 1) metagame by slowly creating new Pokemon to fill unexplored niches and add new options to the RBY Overused metagame. Some of the CAPmons may be aimed for higher or lower power levels, but the vast majority will be aimed at diversifying the RBY OU metagame without destroying its basic principles. This means Tauros, Snorlax, and Chansey should still be the central Pokemon, Psychic-types should still be very strong, and new Pokemon shouldn't totally invalidate the roles of existing OU or OU-adjacent Pokemon.

Slates of new additions will consist of multiple Pokemon developed in tandem so that we don't have situations where a Pokemon is made too weak due to no counterplay existing yet (for example, a Bug-type developed before the addition of any good Fire-types or Flying-types to help check it) or too strong out of an expectation that counters will be made later. Slates may vary in size. The council will review submissions for each slate and provide comments, suggested edits, necessary edits for submission, or outright vetoes as needed.

Components of a slate:

Concept:

define a (ideally unique) concept for a CAPmon that could provide something unique and balanced for the Gen 1 OU meta. These should be broad and based on role, not something specific like "Bug/Electric type Pokemon with high Attack and Defense but low Special." Think in terms of roles and niches - physical wall, setup sweeper, status spreader, coverage mixed attacker with poor STAB, check to Water-types, PP staller - and leave room for typing/stats/movepool to come later.

Typing: the CAPmon's type; it can be single or dual typed. This defines much of its possible matchup spread. Ideally, within each slate the types should somewhat balance each other out, especially when adding CAPmons of types that could disrupt the type balance, such as Fighting- or Bug-types, since these directly impact some of the strongest OU Pokemon.

Stats: the CAPmon's stats should support its role and typing while fitting within RBY stat distributions. Please don't give a Pokemon 160 Attack to compensate for a lack of physical STAB, and don't minmax their stats, such as giving them 10 Attack but 150 Special. Most Gen 1 Pokemon were not minmaxed and they didn't always have stats that fit with their STAB types. They also did not have the absurdly high stats of later generations.

Competitive Learnset: moves that are relevant to the CAPmon in competitive. High Base Power moves, strong utility moves, anything that would reasonably be run on the Pokemon's set goes here. Powerful moves like Surf, Thunderbolt, Body Slam, Thunder Wave, and Recover should ALWAYS be in this section and are definitely not flavor, even if the Pokemon lacks the stats to use them effectively. Keep in mind what is reasonable for the Pokemon to learn in Gen 1; many Gen 1 Pokemon only get moves of their own type(s) and Normal-type moves, and while we can bend the rules, we don't want to bend them too far. Also note that moves like Growl, Leer, and even Tackle can have competitive use depending on stats and role; take context into account for generally lower-power moves and consider if they might actually be relevant. In general, any move you could imagine being viably run in a serious match should be submitted in this phase rather than as flavor.

Name/Art: name the CAPmon, and submit art or general design ideas. You can submit a name without art or vice-versa, and if this happens we'll have a separate discussion and vote on the missing component. Ideally we'd like sprites in the Gen 1 style so we can directly have them added to the playable mod, but concept art is welcome too!

Remaining Flavor: this includes things like weight, height, unimportant/useless moves, and tradebacks moves. Basically, this slate and the one before it are for everything that will have no bearing on the battle. Each of these will be discussed through around a week-long slate before final voting for a given slate begins.

Other Notes:

• Signature moves may be submitted, but will be subject to increased scrutiny. Please don't make a signature move just to have one - only add one when it genuinely adds something unique and valuable to the CAPmon, whether as a competitive choice or as a useless flavor move. No new moves may be distributed to existing Pokemon, and signature moves may only use effects that already exist in RBY. No backporting moves from later gens, either!
• Evolutions or pre-evolutions for Pokemon can be submitted if they are 1- or 2-stage Pokemon. No reusing Pokemon from later generations - you can give Magmar an evolution, but it can't be Magmortar!
• Pet mod discussion should take place on the RBY CAP Discord - https://discord.gg/VE3az4p9D2- or in the #pet-mods channel of the RBY Discord.

  When designing a CAPmon, here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Make the power level reasonable! Ideally CAPmons should be somewhere in the range of 9th-20th in power on a theoretical viability rankings rather than overtaking staples like Tauros or Starmie, unless we are specifically doing a slate for an Ubers or low-tier Pokemon.
  • Some types, such as Ghost, are objectively fantastic in RBY, so CAPmons given these types should be balanced accordingly (bad stats, hindering secondary type, etc.). Similarly, Pokemon with Fighting or Bug STAB need to be balanced in a way that ensures they don't completely destroy the tier's balance by crushing Normal- or Psychic-types.
  • Keep the general RBY metagame in mind. For example a strong physical attacker with a sleep move could warp the metagame by pushing sleep past Chansey, making turn 1 paralysis more viable and changing the lead metagame. The council is here to help with vetoing or modifying ideas with far-reaching effects, so don't be afraid to take a shot at it or ask for help/second opinions on a concept.
  • Don't directly outclass an OU or OU-adjacent mon. For example "Jolteon but better" will be vetoed, but you can make a Swords Dance user that is more viable than existing C- or D-rank options, so long as it has its own unique upsides and downsides compared to existing ones. Similarly, don't make a CAPmon that completely deletes an existing OU Pokemon from the metagame by being valuable on every team and completely exploiting/walling said Pokemon.
  • Current staple OU teams should remain viable in RBY CAP. Players should not be forced to use CAPmons to have a viable team, though CAPmons should fill roles that make them worth bringing for team diversity.

Council:
gastlies
Sabelette