UU Player of the Week #9: Bouffalant

[HT]

Approved by Sam and Hikari

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 certain aspects of the metagame.
If there's someone you want to see interviewed next week, shoot me a PM!​

​

Bouffalant ​

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I'm a high school sophomore in NY (no not the city i fucking hate that), I like food and mons and sports and music and stuff. I also stutter on the internet.

Most Known For:
Choking in SPL Games, being a Drake fan (I enjoy most music though).

Favorite Pokemon:

Bouffalant (obviously), as well as Regice and Magmortar i guess.

Most used Pokemon:

Swampert and Crobat (Victini in XY)

Where did you get your name from?

I made it up myself!! But I had an old youtube channel that I never use anymore that had Bouffalant in it so I just shortened it lol.

How and when did you get into competitive battling?

I first found out about competitive mons and Smogon around 2007, when I was watching some DPP battles on YouTube (I always liked Mukubird's videos), although I had no idea simulators existed and the concept of EV training baffled me till like 2010 so I didn't really do too much. I really got into it, however, when I found out about PO back in like November 2011 after using the Wifi Battle Finder a lot, and I was hooked for about 6 months before I went back to playing mario kart competitively lol. I kinda strayed off competitive mons for a while too until around XY came out, and then I started posting around February of last year when UU was still in its beta (was kind of my favorite meta to be honest, haha)

Opinions on ORAS compared to XY?

I think it's a lot more fun in my opinion, since pretty much all playstyles are viable, even HO which a lot of people think is strained a lot by Mega Aerodactyl, but there are pretty viable answers to it like Megapert, and stall is pretty viable as well, although there are some mons that are extremely annoying to it like Reuni or Lax which means you have to be prepared for them.

What is your favorite playstyle and why?

I guess balance, since you can cover most other common bulky offensive builds and fare well, although I do think that with the rising popularity of stuff like Specs Chandelure, Kyurem, and Alakazam, it's not as viable as it used to be. I also love hyper offensive builds since it's not that hard to keep up offensive pressure and with ORAS it got a lot of nifty stuff like Drain Punch Puff, Mega Swampert, while new things for it are gaining in popularity, like Sash Aero.

Do you think any mon is suspect worthy atm? If yes, which mon and why.

Nah, I think the metagame is fine at the moment, there are a lot of really good mons right now like Aero and Pidgeot but they still have reliable answers that aren't mediocre. The only one that sticks out as a sore thumb to me is Feraligatr but even then that's not impossible to beat on most playstyles.

Kind of similar to the last question, but do you think Scald should be suspected?

I wouldn't exactly be opposed to it, but I don't really have too much to say on the subject that hasn't been said by others, and it's also a subject that a lot of people hate discussing so I won't get into it too much.


Favorite moment of SPL?

Uhh...I choked a lot of my games so I guess my favorite moment was winning Week 1 (not 4 because I got insanely lucky that game), but I enjoyed SPL the whole time so there wasn't really a defined favorite moment for me. I would have liked to win though : D


What is some advice you can give to new players who want to get noticed?

The first thing I'd definitely say is be active on IRC, even if the uu chan is dead most of the time (although it's more active than it was during SPL, I think). Other than that, I guess doing consistently well in tournaments or contributing a lot works as well.


How do you go about preparing for tournament matches?

I usually look through my opponent's replays to see what they commonly use, then brainstorm and think of some ideas that do well against them. I've played more RU tour matches than UU lately, but I have more fun preparing for UU as there's a lot of underrated stuff that can plow through standard builds (think Porygon-Z, Mega Sharpedo, Toxicroak), although RU is fun as well (although I hated it until molt and panda got banned).


Who are some of your favorite people in the Smogon community?

Meru, Sam, dodmen, IronBullet93 and everyone else in the UU council

Pearl.SilentVerse atomicllamas Molk galbia and a few other ru peeps

everyone in VoD, mmm, gravediggaz, club penguin gang : P and all the other skype groups im in

everyone on ruiners

bleve, todd, zvz

Mazz for being my general mentor

cute user ium

and last but certainly not least NIGNOG JOHNSON aka psychotic, shame u had to go Down

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

since im in a good mood ill give you guys two :)

cadallactita

angels (Moltres) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Roost
- Hurricane
- Hidden Power [Grass]

pay attention (Blastoise) @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 224 HP / 252 SpA / 32 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam

soul food (Florges) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy

king of the south (Krookodile) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock

cadillactica (Toxicroak) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 28 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch

mind control (Hydreigon) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn
- Fire Blast

alright, i was interested in building a team with moltres since it seemed to do well against the common fairy / water / steel cores that are pretty common right now, and isn't terrible against offensive teams either cause it has amazing coverage + large ass SpA and good Spe. i pretty much needed a spinner with moltres so i decided to go for mega blastoise, since it takes care of rock-types and appreciates florges being weakened. florges is there because i needed a solid answer to electric-types like mega amphy and helio, also gives me a solid cleric, wish passer, dragon answer, etc.. krook + water type seems to be the rage nowadays, and i think it shows since sr krook is one of the best hazard setters for bulky offense / offensively inclined balance nowadays. i put on rocky helmet since it punishes volt-turn strats and just offers nice residual damage which i may or may not need sometimes, plus i dont really like black glasses as its never accomplished anything too notable for me. you can put stone edge over pursuit if you'd like to punish mega aero but specs chandy is getting more popular nowadays so i like to trap it since it fucks my team sideways if fire blast doesn't miss. bulky sd toxicroak is a cool little thing that Hikari posted in the uu set dump thread that i wanted to use, and it works p well since it pretty much destroys slower balance teams if you can get rid of pert / hippo, and moltres + stoise wears down the fuck out of them so it's not too hard to set up a sweep with them. some people like ice punch in the last slot but i prefer sucker punch so im not as weak to offensive threats like bee and such. hydrei is there as a good revenge killer that puts a lot of pressure on most offensive builds, also gives me something to pressure cress before it sets up since cm cress is annoying for this team

eyy lmao

homes in jail (Abomasnow) @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Seed Bomb
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard

snifey (Slowking) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off

im in your zone (Florges) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
- Synthesis

double helix (Hydreigon) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn
- Fire Blast

bickin back bein bool (Cobalion) @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 160 HP / 96 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Close Combat
- Iron Head

season (Crobat) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 168 HP / 128 Atk / 212 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

not much to say about this one as it's fairly standard, i used this vs wepwn in uupl and it worked pretty well. maboma + slowking + florges is a pretty nice balance core that covers most bases and gives me legroom against bulky offensive builds, cobal gives me nice resistances, sr, checks p2, lax, and other annoying mons, hydrei is just standard scarfer, crobat gives me a nice hera / mien switch in and clears hazards which is nice cause sr wears down aboma and tspikes are annoying as f*ck

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Thanks for reading! If you guys have any questions for bouff leave them down below :) see you next week.

 

[rural]

how do you feel about the viability of growlithe in oras ou?
best bulky water?
thoughts on lo alakazam?

 

[watashi]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5ou-49680

 

[Afro Smash]

Who the fuck is this imposter

 

[Ununhexium]

I promise I'm gonna do Porygon-Z this weekend but I had to go to NY

 

[DaSpoofy]

I was going to ask whats your favorite answer for ferg but i think your going to say toxicroak. So whats your favorite core?

 

[ZvZ]

bouff ur such a qt n_n

 

[Ununhexium]

If you could drop any Pokemon from OU to UU what would it be and why?

 

[North]

When will you revive Next Best Thing?

 

[Bouff]

ok i was busy but i will answer these now

how do you feel about the viability of growlithe in oras ou?
best bulky water?
thoughts on lo alakazam?

- i despise it

- probably suicune or swampert, they're both incredibly easy to fit on teams and offer a pretty good amount of utility..although honestly p much all bulky waters are good lol

- i think it's a pretty cool balance breaker if you can bring it in safely, but sash is kinda better just cause of the fact that it serves as a soft stop to set-up sweepers like dd mence that can run through your team if you let it set up otherwise

I was going to ask whats your favorite answer for ferg but i think your going to say toxicroak. So whats your favorite core?

- uhh that's a tough one, but something i've liked using lately is p2 + qwilfish, as it gives you a good balance core that help each other switch into a lot of stuff (p2 for mega bird, mence, nidos, qwil for entei, mien, hera if its not running eq i guess) and gives you a decent amount of legroom against offense, qwilfish (and reg spikes setters for that matter) are horrendously underrated imo. i guess you could also pair it with a wish passer like florges or smth so qwil doesn't get constantly worn down and p2 doesnt have to worry about status as much.

Good to see another addition of this awesome thread, keep it up! I would also like to ask some questions:

1. What future additions or changes do you see being made to the UU meta game?
2. Who is your Favourite player to watch and who do you think is currently the best player in the UU tournament scene?
3. If you could change or add one aspect to your competitive battling ability, what would it be?
4. What are your thoughts on both the Smogon community and the tournament community (if you consider them as separate things)?

Can't wait for next week and I look forward to you hopefully getting around to answering some questions!

- uhh...if by that you mean drops / rises, i could see mamo, conk, and mandibuzz dropping while cune or maero rising (ive heard hydrei, reuni, slowking, etc. are being used a good amount in ou too but idk about those). honestly i just want zapdos back but that's probably never happening

- jeythegrey is probably my favorite to watch, he has a weird way with teambuilding but it works and he also uses a ton of cool stuff like magneton + beedrill or shuckle, which i can respect. the second part is a tough one but i guess i'd have to say ironbullet93, sam, meru, radianthero156, or bugzinator, as they're all pretty consistent imo.

- lol i dont think i need to answer this one...but i guess just thinkin through my plays jaja

- i don't like to consider them as separate things but in my mind they kind of are anyway..i think the "smogon community" (which by that i'm assuming you're talking about tier subforums) are improving imo, since both the new players who are makin a name for themselves in tours and old players who've been here for a while (or are coming out of retirement) are contributing to vr threads, analyses, etc. which is something i personally like. idrk what to say about the tour community what with all the ost drama but i think that the playoffs for tour this season are gonna be p different from what they usually are with a lot of new players comin on the scene. rootin for pdc and anti though

If you could drop any Pokemon from OU to UU what would it be and why?

- answered this one above ! ! but basically zapdos or maybe magnezone

When will you revive Next Best Thing?

- i dont know if i will, honestly i think i wouldve closed it months ago but i kinda found it easy to run until i got busy..i might sooner or later or i might just pass the baton to someone else


thanks for asking me these questions, hopefully i will get sum more : D