UU Player of the Week #13: dodmen

Approved by Sam and Hikari


dodmen
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I'm a 20 year old third year mechanical engineering student in Illinois. I enjoy biking, swimming, playing Pokemon of course (especially teambuilding), and Cory in the House is my favorite anime.

Most Known For:
Probably having a ton of numbers in my name previously lol, I'm relatively new to competitive 'mons so I'm not too known outside of UU.

Favorite Pokemon:
Gengar

Most used UU Pokemon:
Krookodile. It's such a great mon that can do so much for a team. It can set Stealth Rock while simultaneously pressuring every hazard clearer (can even shut down Mandibuzz with Taunt), Pursuit huge threats like Chandelure and Reuniclus, spam Knock Off to remove items from annoying things like Crobat and Whimsicott, or it can just destroy 95% of things in its path with a Choice Band. Good ability, good movepool, good stats, good typing, just an all around great Pokemon.

Where did you get your name from?
I tried to take the name "Dudeman" when I first went to register an account on PS, but that was taken, so I button mashed my number pad. Later, my friends helped me realize how disgusting those numbers were so I changed to just dodmen :}

How and when did you get into competitive battling?
I found out about competitive Pokemon around the middle of 2013 as BW was winding down. At first I was your average "low-ladder" player just messing around with monotype teams and shit like WoW/Wish/Bulk Up/Drain Punch max SDef Gallade on the ladder. Eventually I read up on a lot of stuff on Smogon, made an account in the beginning of 2014, and somewhere in the past year or so got better at playing haha.

Opinions on ORAS compared to XY?
For UU, I love ORAS compared to the shit that was the end of XY. After all the new Megas settled into their tiers and Zygarde and Mega Alakazam got banned, UU became a /lot/ more fun to play and build in. I love the UU we have right now and feel that it's relatively balanced, diverse to the point where every playstyle is at least somewhat viable, and just fun to play. Can't say the same for OU unfortunately, but the lower tiers definitely enjoyed the change.

What is your favorite playstyle and why?
Probably balance or bulky offense. I like the synergy and combination of offensive and defensive presence that balanced builds bring, and a well-built balanced team will generally have the chance to outplay/outlast most other teams in the hands of a good player. Although I do enjoy using heavy offense too

Do you think any mon is suspect worthy atm? If yes, which mon and why.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I think Mega Pidgeot stands out as the most suspect-worthy right now. Its great speed, power, and coverage allow it to bust through offensive and defensive teams alike, and one badly-timed confusion on a "counter" such as Mega Aerodactyl will most likely leave it unable to switch in again. Even if it chooses to go for like a Work Up/Refresh variant, it hardly loses anything in its matchup against offense since none of Heat Wave's usual targets (Mega Aggron, Doublade) really enjoy taking Hurricanes and don't have reliable recovery. Maybe I've just been unlucky enough to see Pidgeot confuse through Aerodactyl, Florges, and Cresselia too many times though idk.

Do you prefer public suspects or the council suspects? and why?
Both are fine, the council suspects system led to an amazing, balanced tier (eventually) but the fact that public suspects attract more people to the tier is cool too.

What’s your most successful ‘innovative’ set that you have used?
Hm, I guess SR + 3 attacks Life Orb Azelf. Since most people play around the Sash, this set is usually able to get some nice surprise KOs/damage. My favorite combination of moves is Psychic/Thunderbolt/Explosion, with the first two moves being able to threaten every spinner/Defogger in the tier (and turn 1 Pidgeots which is amazing) while Explosion has often allowed me to get a nice damage on a Florges or something that the opponent brings in after seeing Life Orb and special attacks as well as a free switch to an offensive threat.

If you weren’t on a team who would you be rooting for UUPL?
Delinquents would still be the cutest

What is some advice you can give to new players who want to get noticed?
Make sure you actually know what you're talking about before you post stuff on the forums, first impressions are pretty big on this website. Don't hesitate to ask questions though, as most people here are happy to help new users learn. Don't get into petty arguments consisting of one-liners that add nothing to the actual discussion, it just makes you look bad. The best way to get noticed is to make thoughtful (but concise) posts in the np/viability/etc thread, get involved in the various projects we have directed at new users, and do well in tournaments when they come around to get your name out there.

Who are some of your favorite people in the Smogon community?
IronBullet93, radianthero156, Sam, and everyone else on the UU council. Meru and Bouffalant for being amazing teammates that I've had a lot of fun building/discussing/battling with over the last several weeks and bouff's kinda been my unofficial mentor since I've been here so thanks :]. kokoloko for putting me on council in the first place and for leaving us with, in my opinion, the best tier of this generation. fatty for having enough faith in me to buy me for what I still think is a ridiculous price even though idk if you knew who I was at the time.

fbc, dingbat, DMT, DatLatias, Hairy Toenail, newfren, everyone else there's too many to list but yeah shoutouts to all of you.

Finally can you provide for us a team that you think reflects you as a player with a brief explanation of how it works?

Pidgeot @ Pidgeotite
Ability: Big Pecks
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Work Up
- U-turn
- Roost

Krookodile @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Superpower

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 208 Def / 52 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Qwilfish @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Scald
- Pain Split

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 144 HP / 188 Def / 176 SpD
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Body Slam
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Florges (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Symbiosis
EVs: 248 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Synthesis
- Aromatherapy
- Moonblast

Pidgeot balance that I made for my week 6 UUPL game. Basically it's got two huge threats in Mega Pidgeot and CB Krookodile backed by a sturdy defensive core that stacks hazards and checks the majority of the tier. CB Krook is an amazing Pokemon to use on balance, especially on spikestacking teams, as it's able to put huge pressure on hazard clearers. One early double switch to Krookodile on something like Empoleon or Tentacruel will often put me in a favorable position for the rest of the match. Work Up>Heat Wave on Pidgeot for reasons stated above. As for how it did in UUPL, well my gameplan from turn 1 was exactly how the game ended up playing out. I caught his only ground resist (Hydreigon) with a Superpower from Krookodile early on and just destroyed the rest of his team with Spikes + CB Earthquake.

---------------

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions for dodmen, feel free to leave them below. See you next week!
 

nv

The Lost Age
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Staff Alumnus
Obvious incoming question, but what mon from OU should we steal next?

But for reals, what is your dream job? Mechanical Engineering is a bit broad (hell I could do it yet I want to be a geneticist / genetic counselor lol)

What do you think of Steven Universe (yes I have to ask)? And if you haven't heard of it / seen it, I suggest watching it. Good music, good characters, etc.

Also rip on me getting tagged for shoutout. Just got the general one :(

Anyways, glad to see dodmen be in one of these as he deserves it. He is a great player and a great friend. #GiveDodHisROBack
 
Hello dodmen I have a few question I hope you can answer:

1. Do you think it is a viable strategy to use identical pokemon to sweep (such as scarf meishoa and scarf infernape) as one say comes in on an Empoleon and clicks high jump kick and forretress comes out to take it. Then instead of switching out you go for it again risking death by Gyroball. If he descides to gyro ball you have infernape to come in and do the same job. Then his team may or may not have anything else for scarf infernape as he has stuff like Hydregion and Maero. Like can people have two late game sweepers that are identical to make the sweep easier? I dont know if I am wording this right lol. I thought about this after last gen when I could not beat entei+victini+darmanitan on one team because they kept wearing down my walls until one of them could sweep.

2. Where do you see mamo ending up?

3. What would you want to see in a new pokemon game?

4. What do you think of making a tier where you can have 8 pokemon on a team?

5. What do you think makes you better than other UUPL player?
 
The fact that 12 other noobs were picked as players of the week before him shows how underrated he is haha. Also, I can confirm Steven Universe is amazing indeed.

Who do you think is the most underrated UU player?

Who are your favorite battlers to watch, all tiers considered?

Have you ever considered picking up OU so you can play tournaments like WCoP?

What are some of your favorite tv/gaming series not counting pkmn?

If Sam and Hikari were to fist fight for the title of dash space UUTL, who do you think would win?
 
Obvious incoming question, but what mon from OU should we steal next?

But for reals, what is your dream job? Mechanical Engineering is a bit broad (hell I could do it yet I want to be a geneticist / genetic counselor lol)

What do you think of Steven Universe (yes I have to ask)? And if you haven't heard of it / seen it, I suggest watching it. Good music, good characters, etc.

Also rip on me getting tagged for shoutout. Just got the general one :(

Anyways, glad to see dodmen be in one of these as he deserves it. He is a great player and a great friend. #GiveDodHisROBack
I miss Raikou, I think the CM set would be amazing in UU right now. And it'd be great to have another strong Water check and also an electric type that can actually take a hit from Mega Pidgeot.

I like the manufacturing side of things when it comes to MechE, and I have an internship this summer at a company that makes aircraft parts so that's pretty cool. Don't really know 100% what my dream job would be but I guess something like this is up there!

Have heard of it, haven't watched it but thanks for the suggestion!

Sorry ;[ like I said there are just way too many people to list individually haha, but anyway thanks man :}
Hello dodmen I have a few question I hope you can answer:

1. Do you think it is a viable strategy to use identical pokemon to sweep (such as scarf meishoa and scarf infernape) as one say comes in on an Empoleon and clicks high jump kick and forretress comes out to take it. Then instead of switching out you go for it again risking death by Gyroball. If he descides to gyro ball you have infernape to come in and do the same job. Then his team may or may not have anything else for scarf infernape as he has stuff like Hydregion and Maero. Like can people have two late game sweepers that are identical to make the sweep easier? I dont know if I am wording this right lol. I thought about this after last gen when I could not beat entei+victini+darmanitan on one team because they kept wearing down my walls until one of them could sweep.
I understand what you're saying; on offense, you've got the right general idea, but in practice having two Pokemon that have the /exact/ same roles isn't really gonna work out for you. For example Scarf Mienshao + Scarf Infernape might be able to wear down stuff that doesn't have any recovery like Swampert, but you're still gonna have tons of trouble with fat mons like Cresselia/Aromatisse/etc which can just come in and recover on you until you're forced out. What you could do instead is use one 'mon as a lure and/or wallbreaker to muscle past these fat mons, letting your sweeper come in afterwards and clean. To use your example, you could use Swords Dance or Nasty Plot Infernape to break through Cresselia, Slowking, Florges, etc to the point where Scarf Mienshao is able to clean up. Other examples of this could be Specs Hydreigon with Flash Cannon to lure Fairies in order to facilitate a Scarf Heracross sweep, or Swords Dance Feraligatr to weaken Mega Sharpedo's counters, or CB Tyrantrum to take chunks of health out of Slurpuff counters.
2. Where do you see mamo ending up?

3. What would you want to see in a new pokemon game?

4. What do you think of making a tier where you can have 8 pokemon on a team?

5. What do you think makes you better than other UUPL player?
Mamoswine - comfortably UU with an A or A+ rank :]

Tough question, if we're talking actual game features then I want Pokemon to walk behind you like they did in GSC/HGSS although I've heard doing that in the current generations would be difficult memory/storage-wise. If you're talking about mechanics then get rid of freeze and confuse, maybe flinch as well. In that case Outrage-type moves would leave you with lowered attack or speed rather than confused :]

That would be interesting and would probably get really crazy, and 8 team slots would probably allow for more crazy gimmicks.

I don't think I'm better than any other UUPL player.
The fact that 12 other noobs were picked as players of the week before him shows how underrated he is haha. Also, I can confirm Steven Universe is amazing indeed.

Who do you think is the most underrated UU player?

Who are your favorite battlers to watch, all tiers considered?

Have you ever considered picking up OU so you can play tournaments like WCoP?

What are some of your favorite tv/gaming series not counting pkmn?

If Sam and Hikari were to fist fight for the title of dash space UUTL, who do you think would win?
Uhhh tough question probably your host Hairy Toenail :o he's 6-1 in this tournament I believe.

Another tough question, I like watching Omfuga fight in any tier cause his teams and battling style are very unique. Edit: I also enjoy watching DMT double switch 5+ times in a row.

Yeah I'm actually in the process of trying to branch out from UU, I don't really enjoy OU right now (although I've only really played on the ladder for the two most recent suspect tests) but I'm more focused on getting into the lower tiers of this generation as well as DPP OU and UU which I've found to be tons of fun.

Favorite TV series are Arrested Development and Parks and Rec. Don't really play any other games haha.

The fight would keep getting rescheduled and postponed till everyone forgot about it imo.
 
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First off, congratulations on being player of the week. Probably doesn't mean much coming from some random unknown; but you are easily one of the players I most respect in UU, and on Smogon in general because you're just really fuckin good. Good job, you have a fan. Now on to the actual questions:

What are some of your favorite non-UU mons to use in UU?

How do you feel about teams built around non-standard strategies such as weather, and tailwind and such?

Have you ever considered signing up to be a tutor for Battling 101?

Do you plan on participating in Grad Slam in the summer?

What approach do you take when you go about rating teams?
 
Sorry that last question could have been seen as a trap. Wasnt trying to. I got more question though!

1. Do you have "folders" like aim does to c team?

2. Do you play aggresively or more conservative... or does it depend on your opponent?

3. Can you explain the rise of Teddeh
 

LilOu

PO poopyhead
I wanted to ask this to you all this time. What did you do to handle Mega Pidgeot and Mega Aero with the team you used to #1? Just making good plays and keeping offensive pressure doesn't seem enough, as those things outspeed almost your entire team and you have 0 switchins. A well played early game with those mons on your opp's team seems like gg.
 
First off, congratulations on being player of the week. Probably doesn't mean much coming from some random unknown; but you are easily one of the players I most respect in UU, and on Smogon in general because you're just really fuckin good. Good job, you have a fan. Now on to the actual questions:

What are some of your favorite non-UU mons to use in UU?

How do you feel about teams built around non-standard strategies such as weather, and tailwind and such?

Have you ever considered signing up to be a tutor for Battling 101?

Do you plan on participating in Grad Slam in the summer?

What approach do you take when you go about rating teams?
Wow thanks man, that means a lot :) appreciate it a ton. For non-UU mons, I love Cobalion and Escavalier as offensive Steel-types, both are really underrated in UU and both have a lot of potential to do work against unprepared teams. I've been messing around with SD Escavalier and it's crazy how much work it puts in against fat teams that don't really have a way to beat it 1v1 with any Pokemon. Other than that, Reuniclus is an amazing Pokemon to use, both CM and LO are insanely threatening. Tyrantrum is also a really fun one for HO teams. Other underrated mons are Tornadus, Mega Glalie, and Kyurem.

Weather/Tailwind/etc teams are really fun to use but you have to play them exactly right and one mistake will probably cost you the game. No denying that when they work out it's amazing to see teams crumble. Trick Room is another fun one.

Considered it but never really got around to it or had a whole lot of interest in the first place.

Hell yes! Really lookin forward to Grand Slam.

Well the first thing I do when rating a team is to make sure it's fundamentally solid: does it have Stealth Rock? Is it enormously weak to something fairly common like Mega Aerodactyl or Scarf Mienshao? Assuming that's all good, the next thing is to identify the focus of the team. For example this team's "purpose" is to overwhelm opposing teams with the combination of all its wallbreakers and sweepers, taking advantage of the team's offensive synergy to create setup opportunities. When I rated this team, I tried to think of changes that would retain the focus, but would still help the team with the small inefficiencies that it had. One mistake people make when rating is to make a bunch of changes without considering the negative impacts it would have on the team or how it would change the overall purpose of the team.
Sorry that last question could have been seen as a trap. Wasnt trying to. I got more question though!

1. Do you have "folders" like aim does to c team?

2. Do you play aggresively or more conservative... or does it depend on your opponent?

3. Can you explain the rise of Teddeh
No idea what "folders" means but I don't really have enough tournament experience to counterteam individual people. The closest I came was building the team shown in the OP to do well against the teams that reyscarface had been bringing to UUPL.

Definitely depends on the matchup. If I have a balance team that generally has an answer to everything the opponent can do, there's no reason to take risks. On the other hand if the opponent has a big threat that I can't give free turns, aggressive playing is required. I swear there's nothing more rewarding than double switching Krookodile into something it can Pursuit though.

Something something Hariyama...idk?!
I wanted to ask this to you all this time. What did you do to handle Mega Pidgeot and Mega Aero with the team you used to #1? Just making good plays and keeping offensive pressure doesn't seem enough, as those things outspeed almost your entire team and you have 0 switchins. A well played early game with those mons on your opp's team seems like gg.
Previous answer is a bit relevant, yes usually it requires aggressive playing and keeping up offensive pressure, and knowing what to sack when the time comes (assuming you're talking about the Sharpedo team here). Against Pidgeot and Aerodactyl teams, I have to focus on making sure Sharpedo can sweep at the end since that's the best way of beating them, so I just have to keep my hazards up and force them out with a healthy Dragalge/Gatr/Crobat early on.
 
godmen n_N

How have you been enjoying this UUPL?

Will you ever build a team without krookodile?

When are you getting RO back seriously?
 
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godmen n_N

How have you been enjoying this UUPL?

Will you ever build a team without krookodile?
*-* really fun, feels great to do well for my team. Not gonna lie I was extremely nervous before my very first match against koko, but overall I've really enjoyed all the building, testing, planning, and playing in this tournament.

I did once and I got swept by a Chandelure
When are you getting RO back seriously?
thoughts on rugrats?
yeah I thought you liked rugrats so much you gave up RO for it
Rugrats has never flinched, crit, or frozen me
 

YABO

King Turt
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Don't get into petty arguments consisting of one-liners that add nothing to the actual discussion, it just makes you look bad.
Don't tell me what to do kid
Anyways, grats on POTW :]

or CB Tyrantrum to take chunks of health out of Slurpuff counters.
HA! Found my shoutout kinda, suck it NV

But forreal kinda like Joltage said you were one of the first players I saw and was like damn he's really good. When I was a nobody (still am :/ tbh) I would watch like all of your ladder battles trying to learn and soak up anything I could. I remember once I beat you in a roomtour or something and was legitimately stoked that I beat someone I rated above the rest. You're still better than me but I'm pretty sure you cheat whenever we battle because you win every 50/50 and it's not fair. I digress, you're good I'm shit, congrats on POTW! n_n
 

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