All Gens Ruins of Alph Player of the Week: Fear

leremyju

Banned deucer.
1. What are your thoughts on the Giants magical runs each time they win the WS?
2. Do you think Padres and Dodgers are the NL West favorites or are the Giants always in it despite what it says on paper?
3. Favorite to win it all this year?
4. Do you think we should make plays (in DPP) such as Earth Powering with Celebi on an unrevealed Heatran or would it be better just to make an obvious play?
 

Atticus

Atticus
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnuswon the 10th Official Smogon Tournamentdefeated the Smogon Frontieris a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
good interview :o

1. do you think there have been any recent trends in dpp
2. do analyses serve as a good enough reference atm or do you feel like they are outdated

I personally have trouble building in DPP due to the tier being hard to learn, but it seems like a fun tier o_o
1. The question is too vague but no, not really. For the most part there is a large diversity of teams. At times there have been trends like people using PSplit Gar everywhere but at the moment I don't think there is anything noteworthy floating around. Maybe Zapdos leads?

2. If you're talking about the DPP ones onsite I think they do a fine job of giving you a general sense of what to use. As for being outdated I guess some EV spreads are but at its core the sets are fine. The funny thing is the best sets are tailored for their respective metas. So while some sets may be bad today it might have been amazing at a prior time. (cough ChestoKingdra sucks balls now)

It's a fun tier but the ladders are all but dead (I've tried playing on PO and showdown). If you really want to learn it your best chance is just joining the smogon tour

Who is the green dude in your avatar?

Talk about in as much detail as you can remember your run in the frontier you won.
Colby Rasmus

I'd rather not but if you a question that's more specific I'd be glad to answer it. I don't want to sound rude but there are literally tons of stories and it would literally take a couple pages to go through all of it. Also keep in mind this happened like 6 years ago so there's a lot of stuff I have forgotten about.

So pretty much everyone agrees Gen DPP OU on Shoddy was the pinnacle of competitive pokemon? Damn I'm glad I played during that time then. Too bad I stopped doing it around the time Johto was confirmed.

Did you ever do Wifi battles on Serebii? Did you ever feel like you were the best evah owning 9 year old scrubs on there? Be honest, because I did. Smogon/Shoddy humbled me really fast

And last question, did you ever qualify for a vote for Garchomp's suspect test? If so what did you vote?
I never played on the Serebii forums, I only used the site for the dex and some guides. Not really, I mainly played wifi on Marriland and GFaqs and I was never really the best on either site. I guess you could say I've forever been a student of the game.

I did actually! I voted to keep Garchomp unbanned but I'll be real with you, I only did it because I loved Garchomp. My voting decision had nothing to do with Chomp being broken or not because I've always felt it was. It was just a matter of me being too lazy to build new teams since 99% of my DP ones were based around Chomp sweeping.

What is your opinion of the move Stealth Rock being present in basically every DPP OU team? Do you think it is good or bad that a move is so dominant? And how do you think the DPP metagame will be without Stealth Rock (and obviously Focus Sash)? More balanced perhaps?
Personally I don’t like one move having so much impact on the metagame. I don’t recall any other move having that big of an impact in gens before and gens after DPP, except maybe Stealth Rock in later gens lol
I don't think it's that bad. Just because a move is good doesn't necessarily mean its broken. I mean sure SR makes mons like Charizard unviable but it also gives a lot of Bulky Ground/Rock types some time to shine simply because they have access to SR, it's a two way street. I think it takes skill to lay down rocks optimally. I mean obviously some people in DPP like to just get rocks down via a suicide lead but if you're using a bulky SRer it does take some prediction and understanding of the game to bring it in at the right time. A meta without SR wouldn't be better imo, it would just be different.

whats wrong with pert? hes always served me well so im curious as to why using pert is a mistake (dont take this the wrong way -- if theres a legit reason to not use him then itll only help me in the long run).
That was more tongue in cheek by me. Pert is fine but personally I think he sucks. Too much shit sets up hazards on him, it's just so free being a Forretress/Skarm against Pert.

1. What are your thoughts on the Giants magical runs each time they win the WS?
2. Do you think Padres and Dodgers are the NL West favorites or are the Giants always in it despite what it says on paper?
3. Favorite to win it all this year?
4. Do you think we should make plays (in DPP) such as Earth Powering with Celebi on an unrevealed Heatran or would it be better just to make an obvious play?
1. Lucky as shit. Never has a team taken advantage of the horrid MLB playoff system as the Giants have. I mean I'll give them 2012 since they legitimately just outplayed on the Tigers and had a good team but last year? Really? Bumgarner, Vogelsong, Hudson, Peavy is not a good rotation by any means. You've got an ace, an average guy in Hudson and 2 garbagemen. They were just fortunate enough to go on a run at the right time.

2. Dodgers are the team to beat, that rotation is just filthy. I think the Padres will stay around .500 but I don't see them as a legitimate threat. Also I'm sorry but I don't see the Giants making the playoffs this year, they're honestly meh and without Cain and Pence things are going to be really tough.

3. As I've stated before the current MLB playoff system is a fucking joke. Best of one wildcard and then a best of 5? Like wtf is this shit. Anyway it's a total crapshoot. If you want me to predict who will finish first in the regular season I guess my favorite would be the Dodgers. If the Nationals can just get healthy they're definitely in the conversation.

4. Good question. I think making some aggressive predictions early can be good. Take for example a frontier game i had vs ToF. I knew he was running a stall team and I had an LO Heatran out. Now the normal "flowchart" so to speak as a stall player facing Tran is to go to Blissey to scout the Heatran since nobody Explodes that early in the match, and then go to Latias/Gyarados after once you've scouted the LO. What I did was Explode right off the bat as Blissey switched in and it paid off huge as with her out of the picture my LO Starmie went in.

So backtracking to your question I think aggressive predictions are fine as long as you have a backup plan if things go horribly wrong. If you're facing a Scizor with the aforementioned Celebi then it would probably be better just to HP Fire it. But if you're facing a Swampert and pretty have a free shot at hitting whatever, then yeah go for the Epower, why not.
 
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Favourite pokemon?

Gengar :)

How did you get involved into competitive Pokemon?

When I was younger, I always played the video games, but I never got to serious with them besides training up my Alakazam to level 100 and trying to beat the elite four with it. Turns out that is pretty hard to do when the only non-psychic attack you have is zap cannon and it never seems to hit against the dark leader. Once ruby came out I stopped playing and took a break from Pokemon. Cue sophomore year of high school when nostalgia hit and I took my game boy advance in to play during study hall. One of my friends saw me playing and started teaching me about competitive play. He introduced me to IV's, EV's and the like and I bought a used DS and Pokemon Platinum and jumped into wifi battling. My first team was a semi-bred rain dance team with something like Bronzong/Azelf/Kingdra/Ludicolu and a few fillers. Suffice to say I sucked at it and gave up Pokemon for a little while. Over the summer I was pretty bored and decided to get back into the game. I found out about simulators and downloaded shoddy battle and tried laddering on it. I built a legit team using smogon analysis's and preceded to get my ass kicked repeatedly.

Once again I took another break from Pokemon, since I just wasn't finding success in it and fucked around on COD for the rest of the summer. When Pokemon BW came out I decided to give Pokemon one final try. I downloaded PO and built the most ridiculously broken teams for BW OU. I managed to ride the luck of Shaymin-S flinches and actually got up to 2nd on the ladder on PO. This was super surprising to me, since I was absolutely awful at the game back then. Despite that I still went and got requirements for the first few black and white suspect tests by abusing all the broken Pokemon. When SPL 2 rolled around I decided to put my ladder peaks in my signature and locopoke noticed me and I got picked up by the BIGS and the rest is history.

What past gen tier are you most known for playing, and what are some of your greatest achievements in playing (in either this tier or in general)?

I really made my name playing BW1 OU. I vastly prefer it to BW2 as I feel the metagame was much more balanced back then. I think my high point was achieving a 9-2 record in SPL 3 and leading the BIGS to the finals where I then preceded to get bopped by xtra and his stupid ass choice band ferro. Not salty at all. I'm also relatively happy with the past few world cups where East has put in extremely solid performances. Even though I didn't contribute as much as I would like to, I will always be proud of my boys and the trophy we earned. Now it's time to get it ungreyed this year. Finally, I am always extremely proud of the Ruiners this past SPL season. We were predicted to end up last, and even though I don't put much stock into those predictions they still stung a bit. Thankfully we were able to prove everyone wrong and end the regular season as the first undefeated team in history!

What are your favourite old gen tiers and why?

Lately I have been very into playing GSC and RBY. Both those tiers take an entire different way of thinking and play style than modern OU. I have been slowly drifting towards them and I think my undefeated GSC record in the past SPL and my recent win in the RoA Olympics RBY tournament proves that I'm making strides in them.

I also have a big soft spot for BW OU, but I really dislike the way the meta-game has shifted. Currently it's all about getting hazards up and then using magic guard users to fuck up opponents teams. I feel like the meta has stagnated a ton and it is extremely unfun to play now.

What are some of your most often used Pokemon in the tiers that you play?

I tend to play extremely offensive no matter what meta-game I'm playing. I tend to have a much more offensive playstyle than a lot of the other top GSC players and focus mainly on using boom teams with Zapdos. I really love egg in GSC and I don't think I've ever made a team without it. Sleep combined with Explosion is so powerful and I also love running HP fire to fuck up Skarm.

With regards to BW, I think whenever you think of my teams, the mind goes straight to drag spam. I have been using the same drag spam style team since the mid part of BW1 and it's become the arch type that most modern Drag Spam is based off of. As a result I run a bunch of Dragonite, Latios, and Garchomp as they are just beasts. Mamoswine is super fun in BW as well, and against the right teams he can fuck things up.

What type of playstyle do you enjoy using the most in these tiers?

As a mentioned in the previous question, I generally go full offensive. I don't think I have ever brought a stall or semi-stall team in a serious tour and instead focus on trying to blow holes in the opponent before they can blow holes in me. In GSC this is quite literal :) My typical GSC team is lax, 3-4 boomers, zapdos, and a filler. In BW I go much more offensive than the average player and I love trying to figure out ways to make offensive teams work. Unfortunately I don't feel like offense is super viable in the current meta so I have been utilizing more balanced teams lately.

Do you consider yourself having innovated or popularised any sets throughout your time playing?

Like I said, I believe that my teams had a huge role in popularizing dragon spam in BW. The most unique set that I used on those teams, that seems to have stuck is my Sash Mamo with SR/Endeavor/Ice Shard/EQ. Endeavor is such a great move on Mamo and allows it to at least trade with almost all other Pokemon in the meta.

I also claim partial credit for one of the most annoying Dragonite sets in BW. Before my match up against ironbullet93 for World Cup 2011 Lamppost played him on the ladder on an alt and got shit on. Immediately after the game ib93 went and asked if I wanted to play for world cup so we quickly threw together a counter team to his squad. I noticed that his team was mad weak to Roost, Dragon Dance, Dragon Claw Dragonite and didn't need a a second attack, so I just threw sub on for the hell of it. Turns out the set was actually super effective and I also used it to beat IPL since I knew he loved to use stall. Stone then commandeered the set and made the rest of Smogon hate it :)

Are there any specific games you've played that you consider really great?

My favorite game that I ever played is probably my match against Ojama for Week 1 of SPL 3. I brought a counter meta team to that game with stuff like scarf Medicham and mix Mence, trying to counter style the typical offensive team he used. Turns out he brought fucking rain stall and I had a pretty much unwinnable match up. Some how I was able to out play him and pull off the victory starting my SPL off strong. Unfortunately for Eternal, Ojama wasn't too happy with the result and started telling people about how he was ghosted by Eternal and confusion between them caused him to make a few bad plays that led to me winning the game. The tour directors ended up hearing about it and Eternal got banned for the rest of SPL and Ojama got a few week ban iirc. We then traded for Ojama and he helped us get to the finals. So overall not the worst turn of events.

Are there any changes to older tiers that you think would be beneficial?

I think that BW2 OU needs a bit of an overhaul. Their was a recent proposal about it in Inside Scoop that I am not sure how much I can discuss, but I approve of the general premise of it. Something needs to be done about the meta-game as I feel like it is suffering now.

Who do you look up to as a player and/or person, and which players are you close friends with?

I feel like I have met so many amazing people through Pokemon that its too many to mention them all. Trust me you know who you guys are :)

In terms of players that I look up to, I have also considered BKC to be one of the best players I have had a chance to know. Whenever we test it, seems like he is able to consistently outplay me and I rarely take a game off him. Recently I had the opportunity to play him in the semi-finals of Pokemon Online's Old Gen Tournament, which is very similar to the new Smogon Classic. We had an extremely close set of matches that came down to the wire. The series was very tight, but it wasn't meant to be. It seems like every time I play Kevin he teaches me to be thrash in some new way and is an awesome guy outside of Pokemon as well.

Are there any old players who you wish would come back, either to play again or just to talk to?

I feel like I joined at a time where I didn't have the chance to meet many of the old greats, but I definitely think all the people who skipped out on mons to play league need to come back! I'm looking at you Earthworm, Folgorio, Bluewind, Lamppost, etc. League is definitely a fun game, but there is time for both :)

How do you feel about the comparatively larger successes of newer players recently, for example, in this year's OST?

With the games getting more and more popular I think it's totally understandable that some new players have been finding success. At the same time I have my doubts about the integrity of this past Smogon Tournament. I don't feel like now is the time and the place to get into them, but suffice to say I think this tournament has been tainted. Also McMeghan should have subbed me in because it was my year this year, so you can't really call anyone OST champion if I didn't get to play right? :o

How do you feel about Smogon as a whole right now?

I feel like there has been a general shift lately from individual skill to working with a group of people for victories. I know that in a lot of team tournaments players are constantly on Skype with each other discussing moves and the like. I feel like this has led to a situation where, especially in team tournaments, success relies more on your ability to work as a team than it ever has in the past. I think Wifi clause has played a large part in this, since now that you see the opponents team from the start. The game relies much more on developing a solid plan from the beginning than winging it like I like to do.

Any teams you feel fit you as a player particularly well?

This is my favorite team from my favorite meta of BW OU. This is from the point where Blaziken and Excadrill were still around and the meta-game was extremely fast paced and fun to play. The team focused on special Blaziken blasting holes in the opponents physical walls, opening up huge gaps for Excadrill to sweep through.

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Atk / 160 Def
IVs: 2 Spd
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake

Excadrill (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Frustration
- Swords Dance

Blaziken (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 44 Atk / 252 SAtk / 212 Spd
IVs: 30 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- High Jump Kick
- Protect

Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Atk / 64 SDef / 72 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Fire Punch

Rankurusu (Reuniclus) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
- Recover
- Calm Mind

Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt

The other team I am going to share is my standard Drag Spam team that I have been running lately. It is super fun and still works in the current meta if you play it correctly.

jirachi (Jirachi) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Healing Wish

Garchomp (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Fire Fang
- Earthquake

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 32 HP / 252 SpA / 224 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute

Mamoswine (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Endeavor
- Stealth Rock

Latios (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Trick
- Surf
- Psyshock

Dragonite (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Superpower
- Extreme Speed
- Fire Punch​
Final question - are you still going to continue playing in tournaments?

Of course. I don't plan on stopping any time soon. I need something to procrastinate on.

Also, subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to see a bunch of old gen matches. I am going to be pumping out content once the summer starts!
 

McMeghan

Dreamcatcher
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis the 5th Smogon Classic Winneris the Smogon Tour Season 14 Championis a defending SPL Championis a Past SPL Champion
Big Chungus Winner
Nice interview IFM! I remember playing you at your peak in Spl and you used sd uturn roost scizor (could have been iron plate too?). I remember it was the first time I faced this set and it got a lot more popular afterwards!

I really loved BW1 and I wish we coulda played it longer and more :)

Get rekt @ Ost
 
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Nice interview.

[...]
Are there any changes to older tiers that you think would be beneficial?

I think that BW2 OU needs a bit of an overhaul. Their was a recent proposal about it in Inside Scoop that I am not sure how much I can discuss, but I approve of the general premise of it. Something needs to be done about the meta-game as I feel like it is suffering now.
[...]
I agree. "It's an Old Gen so that's how it worked and it works" can be a logical thought but it could be wrong.
 
Ifm remember when I used to feed you teams in every tier and you won a bunch of tours, on PO and smogon, with them? I miss being able to play OU decently

What happened to your Reuniclus fetish? You used to run one in every team

Will you ever be able to win against my team in an SPL playoff? You got literally trashed with Bigs, Classiest, and Ruiners.

We should Skype again someday, but only if you get drunk.

Drink another shot
 

idiotfrommars

HODOR HODOR HODOR
is a Tutor Alumnusis a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Four-Time Past WCoP Champion
Nice interview IFM! I remember playing you at your peak in Spl and you used sd uturn roost scizor (could have been iron plate too?). I remember it was the first time I faced this set and it got a lot more popular afterwards!

I really loved BW1 and I wish we coulda played it longer and more :)

Get rekt @ Ost
Yeah we should definitely have more BW1 stuff on the forums. Maybe the fix to BW2 is to just make all the official tournaments BW1 instead :o

And yeah I think I remember that match up. I'm pretty sure the log of it is floating around on one of my old computers and I managed to find the team in my PO folders helpful labeled "Team Against McMeghan"!
Tyranitar (F) @ Choice Band

Trait: Sand Stream

EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 Spd

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Crunch

- Stone Edge

- Pursuit

- Superpower



Latios (M) @ Life Orb

Trait: Levitate

EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Draco Meteor

- Psyshock

- Surf

- Recover



Scizor (M) @ Leftovers

Trait: Technician

EVs: 252 HP / 96 Atk / 160 SDef

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- U-turn

- Swords Dance

- Bullet Punch

- Roost



Salamence (F) @ Choice Scarf

Trait: Moxie

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Outrage

- Dragon Claw

- Fire Fang

- Earthquake



Mew @ Leftovers

Trait: Synchronize

EVs: 40 HP / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Nasty Plot

- Psyshock

- Aura Sphere

- Ice Beam



Heatran (F) @ Air Balloon

Trait: Flash Fire

EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd

IVs: 30 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Fire Blast

- Hidden Power [Ice]

- Earth Power

- Stealth Rock


That was a fun set to use. Since early game it could function as a typical Scizor set and late game you could fuck things up with SD Bullet Punch.

Ifm remember when I used to feed you teams in every tier and you won a bunch of tours, on PO and smogon, with them? I miss being able to play OU decently

What happened to your Reuniclus fetish? You used to run one in every team

Will you ever be able to win against my team in an SPL playoff? You got literally trashed with Bigs, Classiest, and Ruiners.

We should Skype again someday, but only if you get drunk.

Drink another shot
So you are saying the key to recapturing my glory is to start stealing teams from you again? Do you mind pastebining your showdown team list then and hitting me up with a PM :)

It started to go away when it stopped being called Rankurusu. Seriously that was a much better name. More realistically I just started switching to a more dragon centric playstyle in BW2 as I felt like that was the best strategy in early BW2 and I was super lazy with my team building at the time. Either way, you can see my early BW team would fit the current meta-pretty perfectly minus the fact that Blaziken and Excadrill got banned. It's pretty much the same general core that is extremely popular right now.

I think I am cursed in SPL because I convinced the managers of the BIGS to go back on their promise with The Chaser and pick you up in SPL3. We then traded you anyway so their wasn't a huge point to that, and now I am destined to lose to you in every single SPL that my team makes the playoffs. Obviously the only solution to this is to make a sacrifice to the Pokemon gods, or team up next SPL :)

What is getting drunk? I'm always drunk!

what spawned the HODOR
So back when Game of Thrones first came out, I watched the first season in a day over the summer. I quickly came to the realization that the show was fucking awesome and that HODOR was an og beast. Plus he is only put to shame by Tormund's member. I started using the name as a ladder alt and slowly started to use it for tournaments too. Then GoT completely blew up and I had no choice but to HODOR!

hodor
HODOR!
hodOr?
RODOH!!

I played on smogtours against you on smogtours a couple days back, you with your subRost Dnite(really rude set :/), and it was really fun. Looking forward to play again ;]
1) Are you the only idiot Martian? If no, are there other idiotsfrommars on earth?
2) Why did you come to Earth?
3) I read that water may be found on Mars. Would you let us take it?
4) How red are you?
5) Since you're considered an idiot by Martian standards, yet you thrash so effortlessly here, are 80% of humans idiots by Martian standards as well?
6) When does your stay on Earth end?
7) Are you fed up with my questions yet?
6) Why did you lie to previous question?
9) Did you notice previous question is numbered 6 as well?
10) Why did you answer "Yes" to previous question when you actually didn't notice?
11) I wanna go to Mars, what's the best mode of travel and what should i pack?
1) I was created in a lab based off DNA found on an asteriod. I have three tube siblings, but they are all vastly more intelligent than me. So I would say I am the only idiotfrommars.
2) Born here in a lab :)
3) I don't feel like water is a huge issue. We seem to have enough here in Michigan, but maybe that makes all the California people on the site jealous.
4) 8
5) BKC taught me the way of the SLAYER and THRASH is all I can do
6) Whenever they put me in a rocket and send me back home!
7) That is a possibility.
6) Lying is such a fickle thing
9) Yes
10) Would I lie?
11) I prefer teleportation, but apparently that method has been lost to time. I would pack a lot of Oxygen and Fiery Hot Cheetos.
 
hey ifm :)
i've only ever talked to you when you say you're playing your games for roa olympics in #newworld but i think you're a p chill dude n_n

other than bw1 ou what is your favorite metagame?
dog sized elephant or elephant sized dog?
thoughts on curselax in dpp?
 
Favourite pokemon?

funnily enough it is actually haunter.

How did you get involved into competitive Pokemon?

heard about some IRL tournament which i wanted to prep for so i found serebii and set out my squad. unfortunately on the site it said it was a level 50 tournament, so i brought my level 50s but when i showed up everyone was using hacked level 100s. so obviously i didn't win the tournament although i beat this lil guy with quad regis which was neat. haven't played an IRL tour since and don't plan on it. haven't touched cartridges since i found shoddy either

What past gen tier are you most known for playing, and what are some of your greatest achievements in playing (in either this tier or in general)?

DPP & BW1. maybe ADV too. during the first adv/dp/bw tour no one knew how to play, and me and GS played all the time, so we were slightly worse than everyone and kinda owned. now I don't play it enough to be particularly good at it.

my greatest achievements are probably my performances in team tours, although I've never been particularly proud of them cause I have always failed in the big tournaments (ie late rounds of official individual tours). I'm probably most known for losing official tournaments (quarters of OST twice, semis of slammer, semis of VGC, getting an activity loss in frontier while still in with a very realistic chance of winning etc... and thats not even considering smogon tour)

What are your favourite old gen tiers and why?

BW RU. ADV UU. DPP OU sometimes. RBY OU is pretty cool. kind of like poker but that comparison is probably pretty overused.

What are some of your most often used Pokemon in the tiers that you play?

DPP I use Blissey a lot. nothing else can switch in and pop sr up as well as it IMO. starmie unfortunately. don't use it as much as some dudes but there is an awful reliance on it for a lot of players (something I tried to break away from). BW reuniclus maybe?

What type of playstyle do you enjoy using the most in these tiers?

I always love watching a classic stall v stall match-up, and can sometimes enjoy playying them. DP games where the better played forretress won was really cool cause thinking about how u are gonna utilise forretress over dozens of turns is a lot harder than thinking about whether u are gonna dm the pert switch or fire blast the skarm. i just love when i have momentum. nothing better than being in complete control all game. check out my game vs fortune in OUPL r1 for a good recent example.

Do you consider yourself having innovated or popularised any sets throughout your time playing?

yeah... definitely. i also owe a lot to pana and eworm for popularising their sets as well.

Are there any specific games you've played that you consider really great?

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-ou-47371 - recent XY tour game vs shoka. pretty much a mirror match but his two 'extras' alakazam and kyurem could do way more damage to my team than my two (altaria and conk who were both pretty useless on paper vs his squad). no offense to shoka but he should be winning the match up 9 times out of 10. really feel like this is one of my greatest games ever.

http://pastebin.com/tCb9mUsS - probably my favourite BW game. up against krack. we both have trappers and know that as soon as i trap his tenta/magnezone or he traps my scizor/skarm then the game is probably up. was especially intriguing cause his magnezone had volt switch so i cant knock it out with dug after it traps skarmory. i also kept ice beam unrevealed on my starmie even though i had multiple chances to use it in the hope the end game would play out like so. this is a good response to people who say trappers are entirely mindless.

both of these games have me kinda tooting my own horn but i remember them distinctly for how well i played in both. a few games in frontier 2013 stick out but I don't have the replays of them thanks to aesoft being permanently down. the BW game I had vs crash bash in smog tour finals was neat too cause my team executed itself exactly as I had designed it to. I've had a lot of good losses too but I generally forget games where I've played well and lost. I either remember games for playing well and winning or playing poorly and losing.

Are there any changes to older tiers that you think would be beneficial?

yeah there are a lot of things u could change about BW. mold breaker excadrill is something that needs to come down I think. i don't want sun+chlorophyll banned. i feel that would be a bad decision. scald should go in every tier. BW i think is kind of just the generation nintendo used to test different ideas out (sleep turn alterations and permanent weather being exampled). and a lot of these ideas were just disasters and were probably not dealt with correctly in tiering.

i also have some kinda radical thoughts as well. i think a lot of the older tiers would play much better with the move spikes being banned for example. ADV would be very well set up without that move i think.

Are you aiming to do well in the Smogon Classic?

yeah, I'll try to win it

Who do you look up to as a player and/or person, and which players are you close friends with?

panamaxis and earthworm (obviously). think the former would be undoubtedly the best if he invested the same amount of time into the game as the latter, but its hard to argue against eworm being the best of all time. hip was another guy I liked to watch play. him and IPL were very similar in the way they approached their games, but hip liked to overwhelm dudes with offense whereas IPL speaks for himself

yeah I'm friends with a lot of dudes now but I'd prefer not to mention names cause naturally I'll forget someone. i only really talk in one chan tho

Are there any old players who you wish would come back, either to play again or just to talk to?

yep. always curious to see how old timers would perform against the new crop. oceania had a lot of good players and it would be nice for these dudes to come back.

How do you feel about the comparatively larger successes of newer players recently, for example, in this year's OST?

I think it is time that OST was played over more matches. e.g. from last 32 it becomes bo7 and then semis onwards bo9. but not many people share my opinion on this. XY just has too many variables for the better dude to come out on top in a bo3 game and I think that is what we are seeing here.

I also think newer dudes are playing way more aggressively and maybe arguably stupidly than newer dudes of the past, so there's a lot more room for upsets due to their unpredictability. its also hard to approach games where u know nothing about the other opponent.

this year's OST is prob not a good example tho cause the two finalists have both been playing since 2009.

Any teams you feel fit you as a player particularly well?

Landorus (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 30 Def
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Breloom (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / X Atk / 68 Def / 160 SpD / X Spe
Careful Nature
- Spore
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Drain Punch

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 244 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
- Toxic
- Protect
- Stealth Rock
- Flamethrower

Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Protect

Reuniclus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 2XX HP / 252 Def / X
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Recover

Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Stone Edge / Ice Beam
- Superpower
- Pursuit

yeah this one is well known enough for me to share it. not to the point where I'll share how much speed I invest in reun tho. its keldeo weak but being weak to pokemon is just something u have to accept sometimes. i pay dice out a lot for being too reactive with his building, and this is what a lot of newer dudes do. they just build looking at opposing threats. sometimes its better to accept being weak to something (as long as u can play around it) so u don't compromise ur overall team strategy. i think this is part of the reason people find some of my teams hard to use and why some of my most successful teams are the ones people dont usually steal

Final question - are you still going to continue playing in tournaments?

right now, no. but if i dont perform to a good level in tour/classic then i will be tempted to continue playing until i win something meaningful. i got a pretty big ego and the only way to feed it is to win something important. unless my life has taken a complete turn for the worse then u won't see me around this time next year.
 
LOL amazing points bab

Do you intend on playing WCoP this year?

Opinions on aegislash's retest? Would you fully unban it, unban + banning KS, or keep banned?

What do you feel should be done in order to make ORAS OU a good tier?
 
LOL amazing points bab

Do you intend on playing WCoP this year?

Opinions on aegislash's retest? Would you fully unban it, unban + banning KS, or keep banned?

What do you feel should be done in order to make ORAS OU a good tier?
probably not man. you are going to have to ask me closer to the time. if the classic is still ongoing then it is more than possible.

there's no problem with retesting stuff but this poke would be one of the last i would have chosen to retest. banning kings shield would be neat but it sort of sets a precedent which allows other stuff to be banned in a similar way (which i don't really have a problem with, but i know a lot of people who do). i agree with the gr8bastard's opinion which he expressed during the original test about how it forces 50/50s that favour the aegislash user and punish the opposition substantially more if they guess incorrectly

i honestly don't know that much about ORAS OU to really understand why it is a 'bad' tier, but there are two approaches we can take here. the first is to just accept that it is going to be a lot different from past gens and to stop comparing it to those gens and stop trying to make it play like them. the second option is to go full-on kokoloko and ban landorus, clefable, every mega and scald, and start from there.

scald is something that should definitely be considered regardless of what happens. too many times during that OLT period were xy ou games decided on whichever keldeo burned the slowbro/venusaur/latias first so that it could sweep. the annoying thing is that this move was deciding balanced games with pretty even match-ups. without that move, the games would largely have been decided on which guy played better.

Why did you change your name from Heist?
stock response is: my favourite anime character + my year of birth = why not?

but neither of those are really true. people just take themselves too seriously here, and i felt like a change. people with numbers in their name are always at a disadvantage as well so i'd thought i would help battle alongside them. think of the dragonboy52 fiasco or how long it took phil to earn everyone's respect.

bab face volcarona bab do what
bab where heist
bab fat
bab
volcarona is one of those pokemon that would just be awful to face without team preview. rather than worrying about counters to different versions, i'd rather just focus on keeping up sr (and ideally any other hazards) for most of the game. if u keep sr up then it is always taking 50% on the switch in and becomes much easier to deal with cause it basically has to set up there and then, or else it just gets forced out and dies next time it comes in. so in the team i provided i can just stay in with breloom or ferro or reun and leech / or cm+shock. the bigger problem is when they have a healing wish jira and u have to face two volcaronas.

thoughts on this tour season, and who's gonna be your strongest rival looking at whos in playoff range now (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15JhEG4PcoFiv07stS9SVZtLbDwyOOCUsDCLgZgeADa0/edit#gid=8)

why do u use gastrodon in dpp, what strengths does it have over quagsire?
everyone is a threat at this stage. the fact that guys like mcmeghan and tesung have played almost every week and are miles off playoffs (whether or not they have been giving it their all) is a testament to the toughness of this one in particular. however it is gonna be interesting to see how a lot of these guys adjust to playoffs as the regular season is more like a ladder situation (since u don't get time to prepare for each opponent), and the playoffs will be much more of a tournament environment. i don't wanna get ahead of myself as i always make that mistake (last year i had already built my dp and xy squads for soulwind for example, and should have been concentrating more on my xy squad for rey), but the guys who have proven themselves in tournament environments already are gonna be threats. bad ass, ojama, leftiez, malekith etc.. i don't like fighting unknown quantities tho.

gastrodon plays a bit differently to quagsire. it is more like a sdef pert with recover (or occasionally phys def pert if i use def evs). the spread i usually use is not 2hkoed by starmie hpump or +1 cune but obviously those guys are heavily countered by quag. it is better for taking on other special attackers though. in particular scarf rotom (immune to trick) and cm jira (+1 gk does not even ohko for example). it also has other uses like kind of taking on gengar, mixnite and mixgon whereas quag doesn't have the bulk to do that. for example mixgon can't 2hko gas with any move whereas dm+eq beats quag pretty easily. gastrodon is like clefable in xy. it sort of 'just' walls pokemon. just barely avoids the 2hko from a lot of pokemon.

my top 5 adv players beginning with G?

uhhh tough question man. giga punch, gouki, gorgie, go10 and uhh ginku
 
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forgot the details for my old acc but just wanted to say that it's been pretty cool checking in every now and then and seeing how far you've come since we first met on sppf however many years ago.

gl with winning a solo tournament one day, in my eyes you've always been one of the most turn-by-turn perfect players and it's just clinical to see you play

try cb gyara
 
do you have any dpp games where you think you played particularly well? i think i've seen your spl games but it would be cool to see others
opinion on shaymin in dpp?
 

Bedschibaer

NAME = FUCK
is a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnus
What does your teambuilding process usually look like, do you prepare for certain opponents more, do you try to build according to what's popular atm or do you roll with old but proven concepts?

What is more dangerous, randoms or tour players?
 

Atticus

Atticus
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnuswon the 10th Official Smogon Tournamentdefeated the Smogon Frontieris a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
I never really understood your 'vibe.' You're usually so quiet and reserved and then out of no where you'd post some mop styled callouts.

Anyway I'll move on to the real questions.

Any underused Pokemon you think could be OU with a minor stats tweak?
Favorite SPL game of all time with you playing/without?
Favorite/least favorite person to face?
Favorite Oceania team?
If Pana and EW faced each other in a Bo5 consisting of Chess, Pokemon, LoL, CS:GO, and a rl fistfight who would win?
 
I never really understood your 'vibe.' You're usually so quiet and reserved and then out of no where you'd post some mop styled callouts.

Anyway I'll move on to the real questions.

Any underused Pokemon you think could be OU with a minor stats tweak?
Favorite SPL game of all time with you playing/without?
Favorite/least favorite person to face?
Favorite Oceania team?

If Pana and EW faced each other in a Bo5 consisting of Chess, Pokemon, LoL, CS:GO, and a rl fistfight who would win?


Hahaha, amazing question
 
what's your thoughts on subsplit starmie?
truly an innovative set. something easily capable of sweeping the infamous lizardman rain. ps we gotta fight for adv cup bro

b a b

Will you ever use a balls deep offense squad?
yeah man, use them all the time. it is just easier to use balance vs noobs ;)

forgot the details for my old acc but just wanted to say that it's been pretty cool checking in every now and then and seeing how far you've come since we first met on sppf however many years ago.

gl with winning a solo tournament one day, in my eyes you've always been one of the most turn-by-turn perfect players and it's just clinical to see you play

try cb gyara
cheers man. I think I know who you are. at times I get pretty sad to be the last remaining guy from our original crew. kinda sucks to have wasted way more time on this game than i really anticipated but the finish line is on the horizon definitely. sometimes I forget about all the dudes we hung out with, and how much fun it was being bad at this game. it is also weird thinking back to how young we were at the time.....

do you have any dpp games where you think you played particularly well? i think i've seen your spl games but it would be cool to see others
opinion on shaymin in dpp?
hard to find good replays of past games, but some good ones which replays are probably still around for are: my game vs reyscarface in tour playoffs last season, the two games i played vs goaotwo for DPP cup, and my games spl5 with ojama and dracomalfoy. for a few of these games it looks like i don't do anything impressive, but the truth is that sometimes u play well enough that u don't have to make bold predictions. one of those games vs goaotwo was won from basically turn 3 from me recognising that i didn't have to risk anything to win that game very early on. another battle that i am sort of proud of/disappointed with is the game vs liberty32/roscoe last spl. i absolutely shouldn't have let him spin early but i made some very good moves during that game (both early on and near the end when the game was heavily against me) that i think a lot of people would not have anticipated/considered, and narrowly lost after forcing a few 50/50s (which i guessed incorrectly). it was also a shame that i completely forgot about aero when building.....

shaymin is a neat pokemon for sure. it is probably my #5 most used grass type tho lol. sometimes i get paranoid about tspikes or loom and select venusaur or celebi. when neither of those two things are present then generally shaymin performs much better than those two. he is especially good w/o sand

What does your teambuilding process usually look like, do you prepare for certain opponents more, do you try to build according to what's popular atm or do you roll with old but proven concepts?

What is more dangerous, randoms or tour players?
in dpp and to some extent bw, i just put together squads within seconds. its got to the point where i know what the team needs before i can completely remember why i need it. however a lot of these teams end up being disasters. i try to be proactive in my building as well. when building offense for example i don't really consider opposition threats unless they are pokemon that can set-up/annoy me with ease (agility emp/meta, loom etc). i'd rather focus on how i'm gonna get my big dudes in and how i can prevent forretress/hippowdon/skarm from getting layers. using a defensive team forces me to be a bit more reactive in my thinking but it is kind of impossible to cover everything so i just decide to not worry about some strats (as long as i can sort of handle them), and rather focus on strats that are more common, and how i match up in a game against another defensive squad.

some players fall into more obvious patterns than others, so ill always look to exploit those if possible. yeah, i have to pay attention to what is popular, as i like to gamble a little and focus on those particular strategies rather than more uncommon ones. for example, the DPP metagame up until a few months ago was very bulky, so a lot of my squads were designed to beat bulky squads easily. now when i load some of those up, they just get rolled more often by this more offensive metagame. SPL DPP is also a whole different kettle of fish as well. almost like a different tier at times....

depends how good the random is. sometimes u can look at a guy's name and just where they post and how many blue badges they have and u know instantly how good they are. i'd rather face someone who for the most part only is interested in collecting badges instead of facing a completely unknown quantity, cause generally those guys do not have a good grasp of how the game works once it actually starts. great generalisation, i agree. i also like to have a bit of data about how the dude plays. obviously i'd rather take my luck with a random than someone like leftiez for example. not sure at what level i change opinions tho.

I never really understood your 'vibe.' You're usually so quiet and reserved and then out of no where you'd post some mop styled callouts.

Anyway I'll move on to the real questions.

Any underused Pokemon you think could be OU with a minor stats tweak?
Favorite SPL game of all time with you playing/without?
Favorite/least favorite person to face?
Favorite Oceania team?
If Pana and EW faced each other in a Bo5 consisting of Chess, Pokemon, LoL, CS:GO, and a rl fistfight who would win?
my vibe owns G. i decided i would not be a badge collector sometime in 2010/2011, and it is much more interesting to be a divisive figure than someone everyone likes. generally i don't post about stuff unless i get really annoyed about something and know that no one else is gonna pipe up

in which tier bro? i assume u are talking about DPP, so i'll say aggron is pretty good already in DPP. maybe if he had the ability to take some spec attacks he would be much better. drapion with a bit more sdef as well. rhyperior is still sort of unexplored and may be pretty good atm. toxicroak is a cool offensive water switch but u gotta be careful as u cant switch in directly to lo tbolts. of course, mesprit, venusaur, clefable, blaziken and two more are also clearly good enough for OU, and i'd even say that when paired together, they are too strong for OU.

favourite spl game of all time? damn i can't think man. whichever was the final game that the sharks won to completely enrage scofield would be up there. my fav game of all time tho?? man i really can't think of one at all. i know malekith had a couple of good ones last year.... i'm just drawing a blank.

without a doubt the dude i have the worst record against is eternal. never really beat that guy more than a few times whereas he would have beat me 10 times minimum. generally he beat me with these ridiculous stall squads that were so passive that even sweep would not use them. it was a good learning experience though. i used to hate playing the 'whiners' in the past as well but now it doesn't really bother me. now i sorta just laugh it off... or sometimes even bait them into getting even more angry.

if i was in ost finals right now, the last opponent i'd want is bkc cause we talk too much and know all of the other's ideas etc.

i liked playing silentverse in RU, and i always enjoy playing badass/lizzie in DPP. it is always funny to play eo ut mortus cause he is so bad and its basically a confidence boost after every game

fav OCN team was the second year that i was a part of. was the first BW one and DPF/GS were part of that roster. there were also plenty of memorable moments. pana was just innovating stuff every game, me and him both got great records, dpf played one of the best games ever against bro fist with an awful jolteon team, hip spent days trying to think of a new, awesome mew set, phil handed us the win in the end by bringing aron to the tiebreaker etc etc

chess: pana (i think he plays)
fight: pana (eworm is getting smaller and smaller every day. prob doesn't get enough nutrition thanks to league of apes. i know dice forgets to eat some days cause of that game and i bet eworm is the same)
League of Apes: Earthworm
CS:GO: Earthworm
PKMN: just gonna say pana cause he won a tournament recently (nice work man!)

so... 3-2 to panamaxis
 

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