cbrevan
spin, spin, spin
As the concept suggests, Aurumoth was built to embody risk, specifically the risk vs reward aspect inherent in setup sweepers. Their attempts to do fulfill this concept resulted in the pseudo legendary bug we have today, that for better or worse, has a decent stat spread, a wide movepool, impressive abilities, and access to some of the most powerful boosting moves in the game. Now, I don't want this update process to become a debate on what they did or did not do well. We're not here to past judgement on what our predecessors did; we're here to evaluate Aurumoth in the context of the current metagame and address any issues it has in the context of present times. What I mean by this is, I don't want people to be arguing for changes because they did not believe they were pro-concept at the time of its creation, but because the changes are relevant today. I also want to stress that Aurumoth's concept was a very difficult concept to realize, especially through the methodology they used which skirted the line between high risk high reward and low risk high reward.capefeather said:Name: Risky Business
(formerly "Living On the Edge")
General Description: This Pokémon is very risky to play, but very rewarding if played correctly.
Justification: Many of the Pokémon that are successful in OU are relatively easy to play or have great "safe" options (e.g. U-turn). Yet, many other Pokémon look very powerful, but are less successful than they could be because of some large risks involved (e.g. Hydreigon), and some aren't successful at all (e.g. Honchkrow). This self-balancing concept intends to explore what it takes for a risky Pokémon to be successful, and how much inherent risk a Pokémon can get away with. It should be emphasized that this concept is NOT about luck management, but rather, it is about what the user can afford to do given his/her opponent's options, and vice versa.
Questions To Be Answered:
Explanation: This concept has been a rather long time coming. My main inspiration actually comes from obi / david stone and his battling AI, Technical Machine. Part of me imagined Technical Machine playing in a metagame containing this kind of Pokémon to see how it would play it, and by submitting this now I risk never having that come to fruition, but it doesn't seem like it will be finished for this generation any time soon. My other inspirations mainly comes from examples of risky Pokémon in other metagames. Honchkrow in UU, for example, has a deadly combination in Sucker Punch + Brave Bird + Pursuit, and with enough balls (or a good opportunity), it can use Roost to keep on trucking past Life Orb recoil. Another arguable example is Ursaring in Glitchmons. It is successful for having an extremely powerful priority STAB move, but at the same time, its other priority moves aren't quite as powerful, and sometimes it has to resort to a move like V-create, which punishes its low Speed.
- What is the relationship between risk and potential consequences, both positive and negative?
- What kinds of inherently risky tactics are successful in the OU metagame?
- Do risky Pokémon need some form of safe options (e.g. switch-ins) to be successful in OU, or can it get away with having few really safe options?
- How does Substitute, a well-known "safe" move with nearly universal distribution, impact how this Pokémon is built and played?
- How do existing Pokémon use and deal with risky situations?
- Can risky Pokémon be played well in the early game, or are they better off put into action later on?
- How do different playstyles interact with risky situations?
Now, some may have noticed that there was no mention whatsoever of the term "prediction" throughout this submission. This was intentional. I feel that "prediction" has very much become a sort of buzzword even among seasoned battlers, and people get the heavily simplified idea that Pokémon is just about predicting your opponent's move. Yet, as anyone who's played poker or even competitive rock-paper-scissors will tell you, there is an inherent risk in every read, and these risks have to be considered to be successful. The aforementioned Technical Machine has no inherent concept of "prediction" at all. Hopefully, by making a Pokémon that embodies risk and reward, we will have a better understanding of the long-term implications of risk in a Pokémon match.
I know bugmaniacbob said he wants a concept focused on how to build a Pokémon more than what the metagame does when presented with a certain Pokémon. I know that this concept is pretty heavy on the latter, but I definitely chose this concept with the former in mind as well. There are a lot of good possibilities for making risk happen, and I am eager to see what people come up with.
In regards to fulfilling the concept today, I don't think we'll have to go out of our ways to do so. As one can reasonable expect, the higher the risk of use for a Pokemon, the harder it is to fit onto a team. From that, increasing the risky nature of Aurumoth will most likely go hand in hand with addressing the competitive nature of it, and will be something we address as we go.
Regarding Aurumoth's present issues, I believe many of them stem from it's ability to close out games with any of the large number of boosting sets it has available to it. This is compounded by Aurumoth's access to a movepool wide enough to hit most of the metagame for significant damage, as well as three abilities that all have synergy with its boosting sets. I don't think any of this is going to be disputed; I think we can all agree that Aurumoth is a fantastic setup sweeper. Really, our job is to discuss to what extent should Aurumoth be viable in its roles, and what changes will be necessary to bring it down or up to the level of ability we've identified.
Again, I'd like to stress that this isn't the place to try and fix what many believe is a mistake. We aren't here to mold Aurumoth into what we believe it should have been, but to address any issues it presents to the current metagame.
To help jumpstart discussion, here are some questions I'd like to pose to everyone:
What does Aurumoth excel at, and what do you believe it does too well, if at all?
If you think it does something too well, what do you believe is the reason for that?
Similarly, what does Aurumoth do poorly, and what do you believe it does too poorly, if at all?
If you think it does something poorly, what do you believe is the reason for that?
Basically, I want us to start by identifying what Aurumoth does and does not do well, and from there we can get a real sense of its power level, how risky it is, and other crucial aspects we need to establish.