UU Player of the Week #8: reachzero

Approved by Sam and Hikari

Sorry for the delay, been a little busy, but here it is!



Hello, and welcome to UU's player of the week where I interview
some of Smogon's most accomplished and well knowns players in the tier to give
some insight on who they are and their views on some aspects of the metagame.
If there's someone you want to see interviewed next week, shoot me a PM!​
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is David, I'm the English Congregation Pastor of House of the Lord Church in Flushing, New York. I'm 31 years old, happily married. I speak English, Spanish, and Mandarin.

Most Known For:
I'm probably best known for being (likely) the only pastor on Smogon.


Favorite Pokemon:
Jirachi

Most used Pokemon:
In OU, I don't think I can avoid using Landorus. In UU, definitely Mega-Aerodactyl, it's boring but there's just so much opportunity cost in not using it.

Where did you get your name from?
Before my Pokemon days, I played a lot of Hearts on Yahoo! games. I once made it a goal to try to achieve a zero rating, and I used this nickname. I thought it sounded cool, so I stuck with it.

How and when did you get into competitive battling?
While on a trip teaching English in China, one of my students gave me a Pokemon card. I wanted to know what Pokemon it was, so I researched it and the rest is history. It was a Groudon.

What is your favorite generation of Pokemon competitively and why?
In terms of OU, I think my favorite was either pre-Platinum DP or post-Salamence (i.e. endgame) DPP; there weren't so many threats that you were always weak to something, and they didn't have the absurd Weather shenanigans of BW. For UU, I liked BW the best, since it had a really good mix of fun Pokemon. Victini was really broken though, so I'm sad that it was never really dealt with.

Do you think any mon is suspect worthy atm? If yes, which mon and why.
I think the present UU metagame is really balanced; the only Pokemon that I consistently find really hard to handle are Feraligatr and especially Mega Sharpedo. I'm still honestly not too sure how one proofs a team against Mega Sharpedo; I suppose defensive Porygon2 or defensive Whimsicott are probably your best bets.

If you could change any one thing about any generation of Pokemon what would it be and why?

I still wish the suspect process in BW had gotten rid of the auto-Weather abilities, they destroyed a whole generation of OU for me. I also really wish Donphan had dropped into BW UU, or Tentacruel into DPP UU.

Favorite moment of SPL?
Proving that stall could still be viable in BW UU. There was so much grief about the CressKiss combination, and it just shut down every team that didn't have Swords Dance Heracross.

What is some advice you can give to new players who want to get noticed?
Reputations don't get made on the ladder, they get made in tournaments. Don't expect ladder teams to do well in tournament play, you need to go innovative and specialized.

How do you go about preparing for tournament matches?
I don't really do anything special before tournament games, I usually just play one or two ladder games on an alt with the team I'll be using to see if I missing anything important, reorient myself to the team, etc.

Who are some of your favorite people in the Smogon community?
Many of my really good Smogon friends come from the UU community; I think LonelyNess and JabbaTheGriffin are two good examples of people I have strategized and fraternized with quite a bit. LonelyNess gets a lot of grief for stuff outside of competitive Pokemon proper, but he really had a lot of cool ideas for using new stuff in each metagame.

Finally can you provide for us a team that you think reflects your current playstyle with a brief explanation of how it works?

Krookodile @ Black Glasses
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Crobat @ Black Sludge
Ability: Infiltrator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 104 HP / 152 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Toxic
- Defog
- Roost

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 172 HP / 188 Def / 148 SpD
Careful Nature
- Body Slam
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Curse

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 96 SpA / 160 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Substitute

Aerodactyl @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Taunt

Florges @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
- Synthesis


I've pretty much always been known as a bulky offense player, and this team is a pretty good example of the kind of team I like; defensive enough to cover the great majority of metagame threats, threatening enough to be able to win games against any playstyle. I especially hate losing to stall, and I try not to ever use any team that is weak to stall.

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Thank you for reading! If you have any questions for reachzero leave them down below. See you next week.
 

LeoLancaster

does this still work
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Don't expect ladder teams to do well in tournament play, you need to go innovative and specialized.
Can you elaborate? What exactly is the difference between a ladder team and a tour team? Can a tour team do well on the ladder (i.e. is a tour team simply superior to a ladder team)? Specifically, what do you mean by "specialized?"

Edit: Have you read Paradise Lost? If so, what did you think of it? [/edit]

I applaud you for your profession btw :]
 
Last edited:
Sry uu i didnt mean to be offensive. What i said was biblical and i wanted to hear his thoughts on it. Im sure he would understand but ill ask a different question...

Well can it be a biblical question?
 

Kink

it's a thug life ¨̮
is a Tutor Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Sry uu i didnt mean to be offensive. What i said was biblical and i wanted to hear his thoughts on it. Im sure he would understand but ill ask a different question...

Well can it be a biblical question?
shhhhhhhhh .-.
 

reachzero

the pastor of disaster
is a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Top CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Can you elaborate? What exactly is the difference between a ladder team and a tour team? Can a tour team do well on the ladder (i.e. is a tour team simply superior to a ladder team)? Specifically, what do you mean by "specialized?"

Edit: Have you read Paradise Lost? If so, what did you think of it? [/edit]
Ladder teams tend to use known, proven commodities in relatively predictable configurations--our tiering system works because over a very long sample size, the best and strongest Pokemon show up the most, and their best sets become apparent. More specialized sets appear less on the ladder because there is less value in them as the sample size of their use increases. A good example would be using Passho Berry Krookodile with Stone Edge: this set will lure and destroy Mega Aerodactyl, which is a very laudable goal in a tournament game, one that can break the game wide open. On the ladder, however, there will be far more games in which Mega Aero isn't used, and therefore far fewer games in which this Krook set will be useful. In those games, it would be more beneficial to have the "standard" Blackglasses Krook. In other words, surprise has a much greater value when you are looking to win one game than when you are looking to win many games consecutively with the same team.

I haven't read the entirety of Paradise Lost, just selections of it way back in high school English. It is a very....brainy....approach to the creation narrative, and I appreciate it for its creativity and the beauty of the language; it doesn't resonate with me the way some other early modern Christian works do, though (think Robinson Crusoe or Pilgrim's Progress). A creation story should really feel emotive in a mythopoetic sort of way, beginnings should always feel mysterious and wonderful even when we rationally understand what is going on from a technical standpoint. So I realize that it's a great, transcendent work of literature, yet it's not one of my personal favorites.

kokoloko said:
pidgeot is to mega aero in oras what chandelure was to snorlax in BW yn
Not a bad comparison. Mega Aero shuts down Mega Pidgeot pretty strongly, and the opportunity cost of not getting to use MAero when you use MPidgeot is pretty intense. Since both are Stealth Rock weak and don't offer very much defensively, most teams you could fit MPidgeot into will also fit MAero, and MAero gives you more most of the time, so while I occasionally use MBlastoise, MAggron or MSharpedo, I almost never use MPidgeot even though it is just as good as any of those.

will the antichrist bring peace to the Middle East
I don't think this is a point that the Bible makes very clearly, if at all...it's pretty risky to try to claim precise understanding of prophetic texts that are not as specific from a geopolitical standpoint as we modern readers wish they were, especially when the texts are focused on three different time periods simultaneously (i.e. the prophet's time period, a first partial fulfillment and a later plenary fulfillment). I'm a fan of biblical prophecy, and I have pretty strongly developed eschatology, but this point is one I've never seen really proven convincingly.
 

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