CAP 32 Prevos - Part 4 - Ability Discussion

[Quanyails]

Hey all! now that we have all abilities for CAP 32, let's decide on abilities for its pre-evos!

When submitting abilities:

• You must submit abilities in the format Ability 1/Ability 2/Hidden Ability -> Ability 1/Ability 2/Hidden Ability -> Ability 1/Ability 2/Hidden Ability, representing abilities for CAP 32 pre-evo 1, CAP 32 pre-evo 2, and CAP 32, respectively.
• The final set of abilities must include Pixilate, Intimidate, and Own Tempo in some order.
• Pixilate/Intimidate/Own Tempo -> Pixilate/Intimidate/Own Tempo -> Pixilate/Intimidate/Own Tempo will be automatically slated.

This thread will be open for 72 hours.

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Stage 1

Main design:

Typing: Fairy
Stats: 42 / 35 / 27 / 35 / 35 / 38
Name: Ababo

Sprites:

Stage 2

Main design:

Typing: Fairy
Stats: 75 / 74 / 87 / 62 / 90 / 63
Name: Scattervein

Sprites:

 

[Ayecrusher King]

Healer/Cute Charm/Pixilate -> Own Tempo/Intimidate/Pixilate -> Own Tempo/Intimidate/Pixilate

Explainations:
Pixilate as the Hidden Ability is the same as the Alolan Geodude line - another three stage line with an -Ate/-Nise Ability - with Galvanise. Currently, the other legal user of Pixilate is Sylveon, who also has it as its HA.
Most dex subs ATM - mine included - favour the Veinbrain as an unintentionally scary mon, so Intimidate stays on it. I debated between Tangled Feet and Own Tempo, but after looking through the mons who get the former (Birds), I decided to retain My Pace.
Ababo is most likely going to be our first bouncing Baby Pokémon, and so Cute Charm is most fitting. I decided on Healer based on the idea of the line being a little helper who heals their friends, and the blood cells are the most fitting stage, given that they help fix wounds and such.

 

[Da Pizza Man]

Pixilate/Own Tempo/Friend Guard -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate

Went with Pixilate as the primary ability because I don't really want to ever find myself accidentally forget to change the ability in the builder and losing as a result, and we have the Aurorus line as precedent for not making it a Hidden Ability as well.

Pixilate and Own Tempo both work fine for the entire line, and Intimidate works fairly well on Scattervein as well, so I decided to only change Intimidate on Ababo. I decided on Friend Guard since it's fairly common on Fairy-type Baby Pokemon, and I made it the Hidden ability since I don't think it has ever been a regular ability on anything before.

 

[Brown4Sides]

Plus/Minus/Own Tempo -> Pixilate/Oblivious/Own Tempo -> Pixilate/Intimidate/Own Tempo

This was brought up in the Discord, but Plus and Minus are incredible flavor on Ababo due to the abilities further enhancing the references to blood types. I kept Own Tempo as the hidden ability because it still fits with the flavor that Hemogoblin has.

Given that Hemogoblin's secondary was decided after the art, Intimidate was not chosen with flavor in mind. As such, I am against prevolutions getting it because I don't think it works on Hemogoblin well. I think Oblivious works well on Scattervein because I mean look at it, it is silly and carefree. Scattervein's abilities are otherwise the same.

TL;DR intimidate more like intimidon't

 

[HydrogenHydreigon]

Cute Charm/Rattled/Friend Guard -> Cute Charm/Oblivious/Friend Guard -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate

Friend Guard HAs (same as Clef/Wigglytuff preevos) -> Intimidate (instead of Own Tempo, since I felt that was better as a non-HA)
Preevo's don't give Pixilate vibes imo so replaced with Cute Charm
Rattled => Oblivious => Own Tempo is scared babo to oblivious less-of-a-babo to full evo that came into its own

 

[Blue glass]

Anticipation/Pixilate/Cute Charm -> Berserk/Pixilate/Intimidate -> Own Tempo/Pixilate/Intimidate

I just wanted to make a reference to ABO blood system with Anticipation, Berserk and Own Tempo. Scattervein is scary looking so Intimidate is fitting while Cute Charm makes more sense to Abobo and Cute Charm turning into Intimidate is funny.

 

[StarFalcon555]

Anticipation/Cute Charm/Pixilate -> Oblivious/Intimidate/Pixilate -> Own Tempo/Intimidate/Pixilate

This serves as a bit of environmental storytelling for the line, going from a scared yet cute little baby to a scary-looking but dopey teenager and finally an easygoing yet dangerous adult. Pixilate is the HA for the reasons Ayecrusher King gave.

 

[Palosaks]

Rattled/Own Tempo/ Pixilate -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate

So we all agree Ababo shouldn't have intimidate right? It's just way to cute and baby like to get an ability like that, so in it's place I suggest rattled as a perfect baby flavor that pairs excellently with ababo's constant look of fear, it's also means it goes from being scared of others to scaring others which I thought was cute, plus plenty of babies get it like toxel and bonsly, in addition to similarly baby esc 'mons that aren't babies like whismur or snubbull. Intimidate works well on Scattervein as it's a huge vein creature with no real way to tell what it's thinking, at any moment it could strike. I feel like own tempo works across the line in a similar way to the ludicolo and tinkaton lines. Then as for pixilate I made it the hidden ability for flavor in the same vein as alolen geodude with galvanize, similarly the only pokemon to have pixilate has it as their hidden ability so it works along with that too, plus if we're thinking of this line as a early route 'mon then pixilate would be way to strong early game with all the early normal moves it'd probably get.

 

[IceNovice4163]

Cute Charm/Flare Boost/Misty Surge -> Intimidate/Flare Boost/Misty Surge -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate

This ability spread is kind of an elaborate pun (At least Abilities 2 and H are), as it's designed to be like a real circulatory system. If Hemogoblin is the heart, then it would replenish nutrients in the blood with Pixilate and keep pace with Own Tempo. Scattervein and Ababo are the arteries/veins and blood cells respectively, so they would get the surges of blood from Hemogoblin with Flare Boost, and distribute the nutrients with Misty Surge. This also lines up with the first two evos being pure Fairy type, while Hemogoblin is Fairy-Fire type. Intimidate and Cute Charm more-so just have to do with the actual interaction between this evolution line and other pokémon. I just wanted to give my two cents of ideas and personality to these pokémon, literally and figuratively, and I hope you guys consider it while you're doing the final evaluations!

Scrapped Ideas/Abilities (Extra Stuff)

At first I had trouble with this entry, because I had too many ideas related to its interaction with other pokémon. The problem here is, well, that it's a circulatory system. Treating pokémon battles like immune reactions didn't feel natural, and set a weird narrative for pokémon that seem designed to interact with each other. So, I focused on those interactions and set aside the first set of ideas. However, here is what that first set could have looked like:

• Anger Point (Ababo)
• Anticipation
• Bad Dreams
• Battery (Ababo)
• Chlorophyll
• Contrary
• Curious Medicine
• Defeatist (Scattervein and thank god I didn't)
• Filter
• Flame Body (Ababo)
• Friend Guard (Ababo)
• Hustle (Scattervein)
• Infiltrator
• Innards Out
• Klutz (Scattervein)
• Natural Cure (Ababo)
• Prankster
• Rattled
• Simple (Ababo)
• Skill Link (Scattervein but idt it would do anything)
• Surge Surfer
• Swift Swim (Ababo)
• Synchronize
• Unnerve (Scattervein)

*Bold abilities were the more likely ones. Please don't ask about Bad Dreams; I honestly don't know why I put it there.

 

[Quanyails]

Modpost: Don't forget to post in support for the options you want to see on the slate! There are a lot of submissions currently but not much support for each.

Non-modpost:

I'll second DPM's suggestion of Pixilate/Own Tempo/Friend Guard -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate. I like the idea of Friend Guard on stage 1 if we're going by pink baby 'mons like Cleffa/Happiny/Igglybuff. You could argue it works well since white blood cells protect other blood cells, too. Putting it in the Hidden Ability slot matches these 'mons, too.

 

[Tommaniacal]

Cute Charm/Own Tempo/Friend Guard -> Unnerve/Own Tempo/Huge Power -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate

The abilities are designed to signify the transition from cute to cool. Starts out cute, becomes slightly unnerving, ends up as an intimidating monster. I can't recall a Pokémon with 3 abilities that changes all 3 abilities twice, so I left Own Tempo on all lines. Lastly, I gave Ababo Friend Guard to emphasize its role as baby, and gave Scattervein Huge Power because it has bunny ears

 

[Palosaks]

Adding support for Pixilate/Own Tempo/Friend Guard -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate because I'm not a fan of how other submissions are making ababo and/or scattervein have drastically diffrent abilities from hemo, simplicity is best here and 2 out of 3 of hemo's abilities fit for the whole line, with intimidate vein easily replaced on ababo. With that being said I will admit I'm not a fan of not having Pixilate be the hidden ability but that's a minor thing in the grand scheme of things, though maushold has friend guard as it primary ability so it's not too late, again it ultimately doesn't matter though.

 

[Jewvia]

Supporting:
Pixilate/Own Tempo/Friend Guard -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate
Rattled/Own Tempo/ Pixilate -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate

Pixilate and Own Tempo being at every tier looks good, and dropping Intimidate for Friend Guard for level 1 feels very flavourful. While I prefer Friend Guard as it feels like it fits Ababo more, Rattled as the replacement also feels like it is a fitting option.

As for my own submission:

Own Tempo/Healer/Pixilate-> Own Tempo/Intimidate/Pixilate-> Own Tempo/Intimidate/Pixilate

For this, I think that another good substitution of Intimidate is Healer. As can be seen from my earlier supports, I am very much in the camp of wanting to see Pixilate/Own Tempo at all tiers of evolution. Own Tempo is incredibly flavourful to all 3, and I do not see a reason to exclude Pixilate. However, I think that Healer is very fitting for our little platelet, as the primary function of these in the body is to clot and stop bleeding, helping us heal. It feels rather fitting to me for exclusively that part of the evolution chain. I also made Own Tempo the primary ability because that's also the ability with the most flavour to the CAP overall. It's also a Bang Average ability for a Bang Average Pokemon, so extra icing there.

 

[Ayecrusher King]

Supporting:
Rattled/Own Tempo/ Pixilate -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate
Own Tempo/Healer/Pixilate-> Own Tempo/Intimidate/Pixilate-> Own Tempo/Intimidate/Pixilate
Cute Charm/Flare Boost/Misty Surge -> Intimidate/Flare Boost/Misty Surge -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate

I'm of the camp that Pixilate be the HA, simply because the users who have -ate Abilities not as a HA are two stage lines. The former two lines are similar to my own, while I am intrigued by Flare Boost as the cause of heartburn.
I am slightly against Friend Guard, particularly as a HA, because that's the same as Kerfluffle, and I'd rather not repeat patterns. Also, Maushold has Friend Guard as its Primary and if you're rushing in the builder, you'll probably not going to have just the wrong Ability chosen.

 

[Quanyails]

We have left Misty Surge off the slate due to its potential competitive implications. Otherwise, here are the slated abilities:

Own Tempo/Healer/Pixilate -> Own Tempo/Intimidate/Pixilate -> Own Tempo/Intimidate/Pixilate
Pixilate/Own Tempo/Friend Guard -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate -> Pixilate/Own Tempo/Intimidate
Rattled/Own Tempo/Pixilate -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate -> Intimidate/Own Tempo/Pixilate
Pixilate/Intimidate/Own Tempo -> Pixilate/Intimidate/Own Tempo -> Pixilate/Intimidate/Own Tempo