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Welcome to OU's Player of the week, a project
where I interview well known players to gain insight on how they battle, as well as get to know some things about them. The goal of this thread is to have these high level players give insight to other players in this community in hopes of creating a better overall experience in the OU environment. As always, if there's someone you'd like to see interviewed, feel free to shoot me a PM. So without further ado, lets get to it!
KratosMana
Most Known For: Winning world cup with a 3-0 record on playoffs, getting to grand slam playoffs, being a proud member of the well-known [VoD] clan, playing all tiers and last but not least loving cats a bit more than i probably should.
Favorite Pokemon: Absol
Most used Pokemon: Latias
Where did you get your name from?
From my favorite game Tales of Symphonia and a character of it named Kratos.
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
It all started in 2009, when I didn't even know about wi-fi battles so i searched for a way of playing online. I found the Pokémon Online Forums and downloaded PO. I made a nooby squad and hopped into the biggest server of it(po main or w/e) and started playing on the ladder and all that stuff. I found it too complicated tho, so i stopped playing.
Then, after BW came out at like 2010 or something, i tried coming back and actually learning all the stuff, reading some articles on PO's forum. I didn't know anything of english at all tho, so it was pretty hard for me. After signing up with the nickname FTT and doing stuff on the forums in general, i met another brazilian with the username Blue_Star . He taught me everything about competitive mons and pretty much all i know of this game. We would talk all the time and ladder and all that shit, even watch some SPL games but i couldn't tell half of what would be going on. He also introduced me to this one brazilian forum that I only started being active on about like 2 years later. From that forum i got the opportunity to meet more people but I never liked smogon because my english was so bad. Then, years later, i got the opportunity to play for smogon world cup, at which point where I was taking english courses so I was pretty confident with it, so I decided to give it a go, and here I am now I guess.
How do you feel about how ORAS plays compared to XY?
I feel like ORAS made balance an even better playstile than it already was, with new tricks like Mega Slowbro, Mega Altaria, Mega Metagross, Mega Gallade and the list goes on. It also made full stall a really hard playstile to work around with, because it's honestly too many megamons and move tutors(mainly Diggersby's move tutor moves) on the game at this point, so stopping most of them on one team is really difficult.
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the Metagross suspect test? Is there anything else you feel is suspect worthy?
I'm not sure if I liked the outcome to be honest. I just feel like it makes teambuilding in ORAS a bit annoying, due to the low ammount of real counters to it, but it does balances the metagame a bit. I've always supported a Landorus-I suspect test. It's strong, diverse and just a stupid Pokémon in general. The only real counters to it at this points are like Cresselia and Mega Latias, since people started using Rock Slide for stuff like Zapdos and Tornadus-T. You can play around it though, so it's not like stupidly broken, but it just limits teambuilding when you start theorymoning about it(which you will catch yourself doing a lot when making SPL teams probably). I can also see Diancie getting a suspect soon.
What’s your favorite playstyle and why?
Offense. Because you can find a way to beat any team matchup-related most of the time, as long as you can make some plays and stuff like that.
What's your favorite generation of OU and why?
DPP, due to the ammount of different strategies you can use on it, making it fun and with an unpredictable outcome most of the time.
Favorite and least favorite moments of SPL?
Being on this call when we were testing teams for the tournament. I never laughed so much on Pokémon as i did on this video, and i do it everytime i watch it again.
Least favorite obviously has to be my ban because i was just trying to help a friend w/ scouting because the guy was playing w/ his nick on the br server while i was online. Then he passed the teams i scouted to his team chat, so they could see if there were any weakness against it. He ended up getting snaked though, and for some reason the guy was testing his spl team on the known server. So i guess i messed up without even knowing i did, when i turned on my computer everyone was calling me a "snake" when what i did wasn't even snaking, and it was just a horrible feeling ya know. Getting haxed to shit by soulgazer also sucked because a 5-1 record would be cool, but that is just the game.
Favorite to win OST and why?
I'm hoping and praying for my main man blunder to do it, but i think either SoulWind or fren Ben are gonna win. They have amazing teambuilding and a bunch of skill in this game.
If you could change one thing about OU, what would it be and why?
I would ban Baton Pass. Even if only one Pokémon can use the move, it's still really stupid and some matchups against it are impossible to break through. It's uncompetitive and there is really no real reason to keep it lol, at least people have common sense and try to have fun with the game, meaning you don't see it that often.
Do you have any advice for newer players, and for Smogon in general?
Do not by ANY.CHANCE. try to look like an arrogant bitch on the tournaments part of the forum while your new to the community. If you think you're good because you got "x" points on the ladder or just feel like talking like you saw some other player do, you're gonna get shit by doing it. You should also probably never complain about hax, because your opponent doesn't control it, you gotta move on and accept that the game is like that.
If you could change one thing about Smogon as a whole to make it better, what would it be and why?
I think smogon would be way better if the best players of the community did some of the analyses or if they participated of the viablity rankings thread, that kind of stuff. I'm not sure about the other tiers, but I don't see many(if any) of the OU players on SPL helping out in the OU viablity rankings thread or the discussion one. That also goes to the tutor system of Battling 101, because that seems to be pretty lackluster as it is at the moment. By getting them to do it, maybe smogon could give money or something(i'd do those stuff for money hehehehe).
What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
Blue_Star for sure. He teached me everything and never stops to amaze me with his skill in the game. Unfortunately life is a pain to him so he comes back to play this shit on like July or something(when he has holidays) every year, and even when he comes back from the devil he manages to still be a beast on the game. I also love playing with my buddy tesung, I can always learn a thing or two, he's an amazing player and a cool guy to talk to. Blimlax and I talk a ton and i've learned a lot from him, he also pretty much saved me on the ubers metagame on grand slam lol, love this man. Thanks to being on UK's team on powc, i've also been talking a lot to marth and he's an amazing player and a great guy, been learning a bit w/ him lately.
I also look up to bro fist, mcm, heist, bkc and hugo as players.
Finally, can you provide us a team that’s a good fit for this metagame and reflects your playstyle, with a brief explanation of how it works?
Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Bug Bite
- Swords Dance
Scolipede @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Endeavor
- Megahorn
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Normal Gem
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 104 Atk / 152 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Latias (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Trick
- Healing Wish
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Scald
- Secret Sword
Ability: Technician
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Bug Bite
- Swords Dance
Scolipede @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Endeavor
- Megahorn
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Normal Gem
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 104 Atk / 152 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Latias (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Trick
- Healing Wish
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Scald
- Secret Sword
This team got an 8-0 record tournament-wise, with me using it on OST rounds for 1 and 2, blunder using it for 4 rounds of the tournament, while chimpact used it for 2 on OLT(he also made some videos with it). OH AND ALSO SOME RANDOM CALLED HEC STOLE IT AND GOT TO FINALS OF MARCH 14TH'S SMOGON TOUR LOL. I was dying when i saw it.
It's a pretty simple team that should win most of the matchups you see in the metagame(most annoying mon being Sableye). You just gotta lead Scolipede, lay down hazards according to your opponent's team, and play around it from there on. The scizor + bisharp core pressures a lot of teams, because for example if your opponent has a keldeo as his Bisharp check, he can get weakened by the Scizor, or vice-versa. Landorus lays down stealth rock while checking a ton of annoying physical attackers(check out my rmt for in depth explanation of the evs). Scarf Latias helps out stopping a ton of set up sweepers as well as providing the team Healing Wish support, while Keldeo helps out getting momentun with hard hitting moves + hazards.
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If you have any questions for KratosMana, leave 'em down below. I'd like to thanks him for doing this. See y'all next week!
