Approved by Hacker, real logo coming straight from your house!
Welcome one and all to the very first episode of Draft Player Interviews! I'm your hostess with the mostess, the superstar of your screen, Tidal! And today to kick things off we have a very special guest! Renowned for his placement as a Top 5 Draft Player, multiple successfully captained teams, and a very major weakness to Choice Band Alomomola, We have jscurf on the show tonight!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
A pleasure to have you on the debut episode of the show! First question, and most importantly, tell us a little bit about yourself for those at home who may not know!
Hi everyone, I kinda figure most will know me but I’m jscurf. I’m a university student and I’ve been playing draft since 2022. I love to compete and I’ve been playing draft tournaments just since they came to smogon and I was therefore introduced. I’m known for farming individual tour and being farmed in team tours. Generally I’d say I love to help others and my door is almost always open. I love basketball, music, messing with people and my girlfriend.
I'm sure many will be tuning in to hear more about you! What originally got you into a Pokemon, and from there Draft League?
I got a DS when I was about 6 years old and Pokemon was my first game, my older cousins were big into the games and I came to love them too. I maxxed out the hours on my copy of Heart Gold at 999:59 which is crazy in retrospect. I watched Draft right around its origin as I had discovered the competitive side of Pokemon, and I was a big fan of Shadypenguinn and the GBA days. I took a break from mons covering almost the entirety of Gens 7 and 8 when I was in middle and high school but as I was graduating had a nostalgia kick. I joined my first league, PGL, a VGC draft on the DLNL website and have played religiously since.
Everyone's Pokemon journey is always so sweet to hear about, it makes me feel so nostalgic! HeartGold was my very first as well but I didn't get anywhere near the time you put in! Recently, you ended up winning the Sword and Shield cup, which is quite an impressive feat! How do you feel about the accomplishment and what's your general drafting and prep philosophy?
Honestly it felt great to win the tournament lol. Last year I was so close yet so far countless times, I think I lost 2 semis and 3 quarters, and it was like I finally made it over the hill. I had not played any SS besides mocking my teammates in tours since 2022 when I was only just learning draft. I really like how that meta has changed and it suits my style much better now, I definitely felt a big sense of accomplishment winning and can’t thank friends like Addison and 100p enough for teaching me their ways. In general my philosophy’s come from all over. From my team tour experience I’ve learned from so many better players than me, for sure at the times at least, to develop my own style. Drafting wise I like to always start out just drafting whatever best Pokémon are around and loosely fit together. You can always tie a draft together later but you can’t skip top end Pokemon. I also like really looking for undervalued options and getting to use unique stuff. For example, I got insane output from 5 point Entei and 4 point Aerodactyl, Aero was the finals MVP. Prep wise I'm a pretty aggressive player. I am still working on honing my style but I like to play very offensively and throw as many threats at my opponent as possible. I will test my builds a bit but for these tours I tend to go off the intuition I’ve built over the years. I’m a huge believer in the concept of needing to win first. Your plan should always be about how you win not how to stop your opponent from winning.
Really interesting to hear the perspective of a pro, As expected from Mr Top 5 himself! Speaking of winning, you and Pandaa have had a pretty solid streak going through DLWC and DPL, and while Make A Wish didn’t quite Make A Final’s Position, I’m sure DCL was a lot of fun! What’re some of your favourite memories as a team tour captain so far?
I love captaining. I really like to lead and nothing really feels better than getting a championship, especially if a lot of the reason you play is to keep a competitive hobby like me. I would not be here today without my husband Pandaa who I had an enemies to lovers arc with the first DLWC to now which I am sure you did not know. I think for me I end up really enjoying the social aspect. You get to know everyone on teams really well by the end, at least in my experience because I try to foster activity so much. The DLWC roster has met up multiple times and there was so much fun with our constant VCs, bullying me for losing to CB Alomomola which strangers still message me and friends abt to this day, it was so cool getting to know a group of people who love the same game and live mostly nearby. The DPL run was awesome, whether it was the Beso tutorial vc, the legendary Jimmy G prophetic self mock, tiebreak Blitz and Agent, that season had so many amazing moments. I feel like it’s also the non Pokemon stuff that makes the experience and everything feels fun when you’re winning. DCL was a step back success wise but I’m proud we went from last to 5th in just the last 3 weeks. In another timeline make a wish could’ve competed I believe and we still had plenty of fun, especially after we started sharing a server with the Yarn Yoshi’s post mids.
I think the fact that Draft League is able to bring together so many people for such a fun time is one of the best things about it; since joining the community with DPL I feel like it's overall a pretty nice place to be! I'm sure we'll see you manage again in the future from the sounds of things, and you'll want to pick up another chip as long as you have good fun along the way. What are some of your favourite drafts you've made and why?
Favourite drafts is a tough question. I feel like once you play in so many tours it can kinda start escaping your mind and blending together. That SS cup team was pretty special, a good psychic like Mew with Kartana is a really broken structure in SS I believe and due to some nice role compression in the middle that team got to fit so many fun guys like the aforementioned Aero, Entei, and also goat Scrafty. Winning something memorable helps for sure. For that reason I also did quite like the DUI Maboma team I used. That season individually was a bloodbath for me in a rough oras pool and with the worst luck I’ve ever experienced. That team did manage to defeat probably the best player I’ve faced and also felt pretty stacked when using it, Chomp, Zapdos, Skarm, Starmie, Infernape, has not really been possible in tours around then, before, or since lol. I also have a soft spot for teams I made early in my career before I played any tours just having fun trying stuff. The team I won a first championship with I’ll have to find for you but it was some crazy natdex spect team and that was just a blast.As for team tours, although there will be a break in order I will certainly be back to competing as a player and eventually captain. Definitely the level I enjoy playing the most and I should hope to be a mainstay for a while.
The Mega Abomasnow team is a personal favourite of mine as well, it's one of those teams that looks so impossible to ever happen so being able to see it was a sight, and I think I speak for most people that when I hear Spectrier get mentioned I get a little bit scared, so I'm sure it's something monstrous. Any closing words for the fans before they get to ask their questions? Some shoutouts maybe?
Sure. Shoutout my husband Nick6564, couldn’t do these tours without you. Shoutout LOQP, the goat, for putting me into the scene. Honestly the entirety of Canada deserves a mention because it’s just such a fun an strong group. Addison and 100percentpureheat are like my mother and father of SS so they deserve that credit. Shoutout FlutterFliss, that’s my number 1 glazer and I wouldn’t be top 5 without them. Honestly there’s just too many friends and people to count but you all know who you are. Thanks for chatting with me Tidal, it’s been great since you played for my D.I.T.T.O team and I’m glad you are doing these.
Very lovely stuff, and thank you Jscurf for joining us tonight! We'll see you all next episode, but don't forget to vote for who you want to see next, your wish might come true! (or at least, it'll make the decision easier for me!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's all for now! I'll see you all again in two weeks time, so stay safe, take care, and happy drafting!
And please, fire away those questions!
Last edited:
