#2 Magnemite: The PU Master
Hey
Hi
How did you get into competitive battling?
When I was younger, I always lurked Smogon for general Pokemon information. Since soon after I started playing Pokemon at the beginning of DPP, I always wanted to get into competitive battling, but never got around to breeding ingame and was never aware of how easy it was to battle on simulators. Eventually, about two and a half years ago (towards the end of BW), I found PS and started to get into competitive battling. As with just about everyone, I was really bad at first, but I eventually started to become active on Smogon a few months later and everything just went from there. In XY I started out playing OU, as it was the only XY tier that existed at that point. Eventually I found C&C, which is where I met a decent amount of the people I know today. Eventually, I got a ladybug through C&C work in OU, and then once RU came out I started playing that a lot. I got quite into RU from then on, until early August when TRC told me that PU was just coming out, and that we could both get into that. A few of my other friends also got into it, and then we were picked for the PU council.
What attracts you to PU?
Probably how open it is to undiscovered things. Higher tiers have already long established what's good and what isn't in the tier, and PU has too for the most part, but there's still a decent amount of unexplored stuff to use. Note that this doesn't mean that everything is viable, far from it in fact, but if you know what you're doing there really is a lot of untapped potential. Also, PU is a really balanced tier in general, with only one Pokemon that could really be considered broken at this point (Tauros) and only one particularly centralizing Pokemon (Poliwrath). If you're looking for a balanced tier where just about every playstyle you could use is viable, PU is a good tier to choose.
What's your favorite playstyle?
The only playstyle I really use commonly is offense, both hyper offense and just standard offense. I don't really have anything against using other playstyles, but I'm terrible at teambuilding with them so I haven't used them much. I might try and get decent at another playstyle at some point though.
Who's an underrated PU Player?
PU's playerbase isn't really that wide, so it's hard to go that under the radar if you are good and contribute, but I'd say that Kushalos is a bit underrated within the general community, as he doesn't really post much or talk that much in the PU room but is still a good player and goes a bit under the radar in parts of the community.
Any innovation in PU or any cool sets you want people to use?
The thing I really like about PU is that it's a new and relatively unexplored metagame, so it's easy to stumble across something good that not many people have used yet. A good example of this is special Rain Dance Poliwrath, which I originally just tried to be funny, but turned out to be actually really good and is now one of the sets on Poliwrath's analysis. As for underrated sets that I think people should try and use more, I'll just list a bunch: Jumpluff, SubSalac Simipour, SD Lickilicky, Fast Stealth Rock Torterra, Clefairy, SubRoost Articuno, DD Fraxure, Choice Band Luxray, Seviper, and plenty more things.
What advice would you give to players who want to get into PU?
Probably to be active in the PU room. The PU room is a good place to go if you have questions about what's good in the tier, want your team looked at, or just want to get acclimated to the tier. Also, we have quite a few forum resources to help you get started in the tier.
What's the most influential thing you've done regarding PU?
Probably moderating the PU room, sometimes it can out of hand, since with such a new metagame there are a lot of people who need to be helped at once, and sometimes it can get a bit out of hand trying to explain things to a bunch of people at once. I also run the Next Best Thing and the CCAT, and I also made the PU Speed Tiers and PU Role Compendium in terms of resources. My favorite is probably The Next Best Thing because it allows you to examine a specific Pokemon and explore all of its options, possibly leading to the discovery of good sets that no one had thought of before.
What do you have to prepare for to make a successful team in PU?
There are quite a few things you have to prepare for if you want to have a good team, but some main ones are Tauros, Poliwrath and Throh, Water-types (there are a lot of them), Electric-types, Ninetales and other Fire-types, Scyther and other Flying-types, fast / speed boosting setup sweepers, and defensive teams in general. There's a lot more to prepare for than that, but if you cover all of that decently well you should be relatively well off.
What should you definitely NOT use in PU?
If you're new to the tier, you should probably stay away from anything in the C ranks or below in the viability rankings, but as you get better at the tier some of the stuff in C and C+ ranks can be good if you know what you're doing with them. Some standouts that newer players tend to gravitate towards that are really bad are Slaking, Regigigas, Meganium, Gigalith, Ninjask, non-CB Dusknoir, non-CM Dusclops, non-CB Luxray, Lumineon, Swalot (not really that terrible or infamous but kinda high in usage fsr), Glaceon, physically defensive Avalugg (note that Avalugg itself is good, but using 252 defense EVs on it is a HUGE waste of EVs compared to investing in SpD), Assault Vest Regice (actually assault vest on anything that isn't Kecleon), any Electric rodent that isn't Raichu, Persian, Magmar, Gourgeist-Average and Large, Wartortle, and Scarf Raichu. (the last two aren't that bad but i have a personal hatred of them). Just as a general rule, use the viability rankings and don't try to be too innovative until you know the meta well enough.Gourgeist-Average and Large, Wartortle, and Scarf Raichu. (the last two aren't that bad but i personally think they're way worse than everyone thinks they are lol). Just as a general rule, use the viability rankings and don't try to be too innovative until you know the meta well enough.
PU was based on making a UU of NU, now PU got an UU itself in FU. What'd you think of a UU of FU after this month's usage stats?
I'd probably play a few games of it, but I wouldn't get too invested into it. At the very least it would be cool to see what funny things end up being top threats there. I never thought I'd see a tier where Machoke and Vigoroth of all things were broken, so a tier lower than that tier would be kind of funny. Also it's worth mentioning that such a tier would make NU the middle tier, lol.
Which OM would you like to play other than PU?
I've wanted to play FU since I have a few friends who play it, but I haven't really had the time. Other than that, AAA seems kind of fun. I've never been a fan of OM's that try to change too much since they're often hard to get into, but AAA seems like a good balance between too too different and too similar to what I already know.
Do you have any final words?
ban chatot
That's our interview! Feel free to ask questions to Magnemite
Hey
Hi
How did you get into competitive battling?
When I was younger, I always lurked Smogon for general Pokemon information. Since soon after I started playing Pokemon at the beginning of DPP, I always wanted to get into competitive battling, but never got around to breeding ingame and was never aware of how easy it was to battle on simulators. Eventually, about two and a half years ago (towards the end of BW), I found PS and started to get into competitive battling. As with just about everyone, I was really bad at first, but I eventually started to become active on Smogon a few months later and everything just went from there. In XY I started out playing OU, as it was the only XY tier that existed at that point. Eventually I found C&C, which is where I met a decent amount of the people I know today. Eventually, I got a ladybug through C&C work in OU, and then once RU came out I started playing that a lot. I got quite into RU from then on, until early August when TRC told me that PU was just coming out, and that we could both get into that. A few of my other friends also got into it, and then we were picked for the PU council.
What attracts you to PU?
Probably how open it is to undiscovered things. Higher tiers have already long established what's good and what isn't in the tier, and PU has too for the most part, but there's still a decent amount of unexplored stuff to use. Note that this doesn't mean that everything is viable, far from it in fact, but if you know what you're doing there really is a lot of untapped potential. Also, PU is a really balanced tier in general, with only one Pokemon that could really be considered broken at this point (Tauros) and only one particularly centralizing Pokemon (Poliwrath). If you're looking for a balanced tier where just about every playstyle you could use is viable, PU is a good tier to choose.
What's your favorite playstyle?
The only playstyle I really use commonly is offense, both hyper offense and just standard offense. I don't really have anything against using other playstyles, but I'm terrible at teambuilding with them so I haven't used them much. I might try and get decent at another playstyle at some point though.
Who's an underrated PU Player?
PU's playerbase isn't really that wide, so it's hard to go that under the radar if you are good and contribute, but I'd say that Kushalos is a bit underrated within the general community, as he doesn't really post much or talk that much in the PU room but is still a good player and goes a bit under the radar in parts of the community.
Any innovation in PU or any cool sets you want people to use?
The thing I really like about PU is that it's a new and relatively unexplored metagame, so it's easy to stumble across something good that not many people have used yet. A good example of this is special Rain Dance Poliwrath, which I originally just tried to be funny, but turned out to be actually really good and is now one of the sets on Poliwrath's analysis. As for underrated sets that I think people should try and use more, I'll just list a bunch: Jumpluff, SubSalac Simipour, SD Lickilicky, Fast Stealth Rock Torterra, Clefairy, SubRoost Articuno, DD Fraxure, Choice Band Luxray, Seviper, and plenty more things.
What advice would you give to players who want to get into PU?
Probably to be active in the PU room. The PU room is a good place to go if you have questions about what's good in the tier, want your team looked at, or just want to get acclimated to the tier. Also, we have quite a few forum resources to help you get started in the tier.
This is a decent team built around SubSD Bouffalant. Basically, the goal of this team is to sweep with Bouffalant against slower teams and with Regice against offensive ones. Everything on my team is pretty standard and is on the team to cover as many important threats as possible. Also I actually run different spread on two of these Pokemon but they're sekrit!
What's the most influential thing you've done regarding PU?
Probably moderating the PU room, sometimes it can out of hand, since with such a new metagame there are a lot of people who need to be helped at once, and sometimes it can get a bit out of hand trying to explain things to a bunch of people at once. I also run the Next Best Thing and the CCAT, and I also made the PU Speed Tiers and PU Role Compendium in terms of resources. My favorite is probably The Next Best Thing because it allows you to examine a specific Pokemon and explore all of its options, possibly leading to the discovery of good sets that no one had thought of before.
What do you have to prepare for to make a successful team in PU?
There are quite a few things you have to prepare for if you want to have a good team, but some main ones are Tauros, Poliwrath and Throh, Water-types (there are a lot of them), Electric-types, Ninetales and other Fire-types, Scyther and other Flying-types, fast / speed boosting setup sweepers, and defensive teams in general. There's a lot more to prepare for than that, but if you cover all of that decently well you should be relatively well off.
What should you definitely NOT use in PU?
If you're new to the tier, you should probably stay away from anything in the C ranks or below in the viability rankings, but as you get better at the tier some of the stuff in C and C+ ranks can be good if you know what you're doing with them. Some standouts that newer players tend to gravitate towards that are really bad are Slaking, Regigigas, Meganium, Gigalith, Ninjask, non-CB Dusknoir, non-CM Dusclops, non-CB Luxray, Lumineon, Swalot (not really that terrible or infamous but kinda high in usage fsr), Glaceon, physically defensive Avalugg (note that Avalugg itself is good, but using 252 defense EVs on it is a HUGE waste of EVs compared to investing in SpD), Assault Vest Regice (actually assault vest on anything that isn't Kecleon), any Electric rodent that isn't Raichu, Persian, Magmar, Gourgeist-Average and Large, Wartortle, and Scarf Raichu. (the last two aren't that bad but i have a personal hatred of them). Just as a general rule, use the viability rankings and don't try to be too innovative until you know the meta well enough.Gourgeist-Average and Large, Wartortle, and Scarf Raichu. (the last two aren't that bad but i personally think they're way worse than everyone thinks they are lol). Just as a general rule, use the viability rankings and don't try to be too innovative until you know the meta well enough.
PU was based on making a UU of NU, now PU got an UU itself in FU. What'd you think of a UU of FU after this month's usage stats?
I'd probably play a few games of it, but I wouldn't get too invested into it. At the very least it would be cool to see what funny things end up being top threats there. I never thought I'd see a tier where Machoke and Vigoroth of all things were broken, so a tier lower than that tier would be kind of funny. Also it's worth mentioning that such a tier would make NU the middle tier, lol.
Which OM would you like to play other than PU?
I've wanted to play FU since I have a few friends who play it, but I haven't really had the time. Other than that, AAA seems kind of fun. I've never been a fan of OM's that try to change too much since they're often hard to get into, but AAA seems like a good balance between too too different and too similar to what I already know.
Do you have any final words?
ban chatot
That's our interview! Feel free to ask questions to Magnemite
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