Approved by Sweep Fireburn
Banner by NicoReaper
Omfuga
Most Known For.
4th place in both Ubers Seasonals, 5-1 in ORAS upl, the mastermind behind Faji's SPL record, 5th place in both OLTs, double r1 exit from smogtour playoffs, strong records in wcop, and overall lower tier player. Pretty much I'm known for playing every tier. And also being smogon'smeanest nicest and most charismatic user.
Favourite Pokemon
My favorite pokemon is a tie between Jynx and Starmie! The first and second Pokemon games I owned as a kid were Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Blue, respectively. I beat all of Pokemon Stadium (including night mode) with exclusively rental pokemon which was actually extremely hard and took me a few years. The main thing I remember about Pokemon Stadium is that Jynx was by far the best rental pokemon, and in the 3v3 battles you should almost always pick Jynx. There's no sleep clause and it got strong dual STAB unlike most rental pokemon, so Jynx was really good.
I used Starmie in my first pokemon blue run through. I used surf/thunderbolt/ice beam/psychic and solo'd the elite 4 with it a bunch of times. I never had to switch out of starmie because of its broken coverage and even in-game I realized how busted it was.
Almost all my favorite pokemon are from RBY due to Stadium and Pokemon Blue. Some other favorites of mine include Magneton, Dodrio, Exeggutor, and Mewtwo.
How did you get into competitive Pokemon, and the Ubers tier?
I watched this guy on Youtube called thekillernacho. He played almost entirely DPP OU and due to my inherent competitive nature, after watching him for a few months (and eventually other youtubers), I had decided that I wanted to play competitive pokemon as well. So after a bit of watching those youtubers play competitively, BW had come out and there were many new changes to the game. I figured this would be a fresh start for me to compete. I heard a youtuber mention pokemon-online, where you could play without a DS and flashcart. I was enticed by the idea of playing competitive pokemon without spending a bunch of time and money, so I downloaded PO and became a ladder fiend in all the tiers. I was 12 years old at the time.
Fast forward a few years and I was more actively playing tournaments. I was already familiar with ubers due to topping the ladder in XY and BW, but when seasonal and upl came around last year, I decided to join them and get a better grasp of ORAS ubers. I performed really well in seasonal and UPL, most notably beating hack in UPL finals tiebreak. I got a lot of flack from the ubers community, I guess because ubers wasn't in SPL and I represented the tournament players who delegitimized the tier. Either way, I stuck around and ended up having a lot of fun in ubers, especially in SM. And i'd like to think most ubers players have given up on denouncing me.
What is your favourite playstyle, and what's your stance on team match-up in SM Ubers?
My favorite playstyle in ubers is bulky offense! I like the ability to maintain offensive pressure while also having a good defensive backbone. It can often be difficult to deal with certain variants of geoxern, mega gengar, and yveltal, but with stall and HO falling more into favor, people have shifted more towards using "stallbreaker" sets and anti-offense mons. This gives balance teams a unique position, where they might not be challenged as much, due to the misconception that balance isn't very good in ubers.
Honestly I believe match-up is overstated a lot in SM ubers. The main reason people feel this way is that it can be extremely difficult to break stall and also keep enough anti-offense strategies on your team. I agree that stall is overpowered and by far the best strategy in SM ubers, however stall has 1 massive flaw. Almost every stall is 6-0d by something. Even if stall can counter or check every common threat, it can't check everything viable in the ubers tier. For example, any stall without ferrothorn is bound to have trouble with waterfall Primal Kyogre. Depending on the team, stall can be 6-0d by sub sd arceus-ghost, arceus-flying, whirlpool arceus-dark, taunt yveltal, and many other threats. The issue is that there aren't many pokemon that beat every stall, and there are many many variants of stall in the ubers tier. The best pokemon at killing all stalls is specs kyogre, and its very difficult to fit specs ogre on a team, as it will be worse than primal kyogre 90% of the time. Stall is too difficult to combat when building in SM, but with a good team and a valid stallbreaker you can still overcome most match ups in the tier.
What are two of your favourite things of the Ubers metagame?
It may be cheesy, but my favorite thing about ubers is that you can use almost any pokemon in the game! I've used a variety of pokemon like Bronzong, Scizor, Xerneas, Slowbro, and Rayquaza. It's interesting to see how OU, UU, and sometimes RU pokemon are able to shine in Ubers due to specific niches.
Another thing I really like about ubers is the unique style of teambuilding. Covering threats in a non-traditional way compared to other tiers is interesting to me.
Why do you hate Mega Gengar?
Because trapping should be removed from all smogon tiers. It's uncompetitive and I really hate it. Also gengar often relies on focus blast to be good, and I hate that. Unlike Scizor/Metagross/Salamence, Gengar doesn't bring much utility to a team. Also, radical opinion, but I believe arena trap and shadow tag should be claused out of smogon for good. They have caused too many problems in every tier for too long.
Favourite game from any tour and who was the toughest opponent that you've faced?
This was from MUTE last year. The restriction was that your teammates could not use any pokemon that you used. To help my teammates give as much room to build as freely as possible, I used mostly pokemon that were unviable in ubers. However I didn't expect doublade to completely sweep my opponent's team LOL. This was a pretty sick game. Doublade + spikes are broken.
The toughest opponent i've ever faced is hyw. Because he alternates between ho-oh stall and ratchet deo-s HOs, aka my least favorite things on the planet. Im 1-1 vs him, with both series occurring on seasonal. I beat him in ORAS but in SM I got rocked. He used HO in all 3 games in ORAS, and stall in both SM games. I have some new techs coming though so I hope to see him in ubers open!
Did you support the Swagger unban and, do you believe there is anything broken or suspect worthy in the current metagame ?
I have no opinion on the swagger unban. The whole situation was pretty silly. I think geomancy should be banned or at LEAST z-geomancy. The strain these 2 put on teambuilding, especially z-geo xern, is absurd. There's really no good way for balance to beat geoxern + gengar, except the occasional magearna. And z-geo is extremely silly as it invalidates the best check in the tier, and forces awkward sets (112 attack zong, SD on scizor, weird celesteela EVs, psych up arc-poison, etc). Geomancy getting banned would also inadvertently nerf stall, as it gives offense and balance more leeway when building. Yeah basically I just think geoxern is too restricting on teams that aren't stall, and it isn't balanced. Also I think shadow tag/arena trap should be blanket banned from all tiers.
Even though Ubers isn't your main tier, you have a solid knowledge of the metagame and you're a well known tournament player, would you like give Ubers a chance and play it for Smogon Snake Draft?
I'm considering it! I put ubers in my sign up post as well. I'm willing to play whatever my team needs me for :)! I'm trying to stay away from building though lol
Who are some of your favorite people in the Smogon/Ubers community?
blunder, ABR, -Tsunami-, Poek, all of Hikari's Palace, Joey, teal6, Kiyo, Tesung, new breed, Trosko and TDK.
As for ubers community: Pohjis (my son), Level 56, benbe, Nayrz, Keys, Mazar, obii, chop, Thimo, HunterStorm and The Trap God (sometimes).
sry if I missed someone.
Are there any other hobbies you have outside of playing Pokemon?
Not really! I work out pretty often but that's it. I'm trying to get back into sports but it's been a while since I was athletic enough to play.
Any advice for new players getting into Ubers?
If you intend to get better, don't make the typical Ubers excuses when you lose a game. For example, if you believe match-up is too difficult to overcome in the tier, you'll be too tilted to win. And make sure not to get too 1 dimensional! Remember to switch up between HO, Balance, and Stall. I'm a hypocrite because I don't switch up as much as I should, but it's a good thing to keep in mind.
Lastly, could you give us a team with brief explanation of how it works?
Sure!
Here's a team that I built a while back that ttg edited recently. It was initially whirlpool arceus-dark>arceus-ground but I think that arceus-ground works best paired with salamence (to dent lugia) to break stall. Spdef pdon is pretty much a must with celesteela, as checking geoxern/specs xern is always extremely difficult when using celesteela. Xerneas + waterfall ogre is pretty much a necessity as well, because I believe waterfall ogre is nearly unviable without aromatherapy. The team at this point would have had trouble with offense, so scarf xern was the obvious answer to me. The last 2 mons could've been any combination of defog arceus + mega (gengar, dd salamence, even mewtwo), or wallbreaker arceus + defog salemence. I opted for the latter, with whirlpool arceus-dark, because I feel salamence is a much more reliable defogger vs offense, and the team required a ghost resist (at the time, lunala and gengar were really popular). Trap god revitalized the team, using arceus-ground over arceus-dark, which I agree with completely. The core of toxic mega-salamence + SD arceus-ground is really nice for breaking down fat teams. Jolly m-mence is also super useful for offense/balance, and scarf xern is great for HO with a really reliable defogger. The team has no ghost resist, but I don't think it's a huge deal with scarf xern, spdef pdon, and kyogre.
==============
Big thanks to Omfuga for taking the time out to complete this interview, cya'll next week!![Heart :heart: :heart:](/forums/media/emoji/heart.gif)
![](http://i.imgur.com/MHRXK8P.png)
Banner by NicoReaper
Yes I know it's been a long time since I posted the last interview, my apologies, I'm gonna try to keep this project alive=)..
Welcome everyone to the Ubers Player of The Week! For those who don't know what this is,it's a project where I interview top Ubers players who are well known and respected by the community, and have performed consistently well at a very high level. In addition to that you, will also have the chance to ask some questions to the interviewed person. If you have a suggestion as to who I should interview, feel free to shoot me a PM. Anyways, lets get to it!
Welcome everyone to the Ubers Player of The Week! For those who don't know what this is,it's a project where I interview top Ubers players who are well known and respected by the community, and have performed consistently well at a very high level. In addition to that you, will also have the chance to ask some questions to the interviewed person. If you have a suggestion as to who I should interview, feel free to shoot me a PM. Anyways, lets get to it!
![](http://i.imgur.com/KDzZcRo.gif)
![](http://pokestadium.com/assets/img/sprites/misc/trozei/starmie.gif)
![](http://pokestadium.com/assets/img/sprites/misc/trozei/starmie.gif)
Most Known For.
4th place in both Ubers Seasonals, 5-1 in ORAS upl, the mastermind behind Faji's SPL record, 5th place in both OLTs, double r1 exit from smogtour playoffs, strong records in wcop, and overall lower tier player. Pretty much I'm known for playing every tier. And also being smogon's
Favourite Pokemon
My favorite pokemon is a tie between Jynx and Starmie! The first and second Pokemon games I owned as a kid were Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Blue, respectively. I beat all of Pokemon Stadium (including night mode) with exclusively rental pokemon which was actually extremely hard and took me a few years. The main thing I remember about Pokemon Stadium is that Jynx was by far the best rental pokemon, and in the 3v3 battles you should almost always pick Jynx. There's no sleep clause and it got strong dual STAB unlike most rental pokemon, so Jynx was really good.
I used Starmie in my first pokemon blue run through. I used surf/thunderbolt/ice beam/psychic and solo'd the elite 4 with it a bunch of times. I never had to switch out of starmie because of its broken coverage and even in-game I realized how busted it was.
Almost all my favorite pokemon are from RBY due to Stadium and Pokemon Blue. Some other favorites of mine include Magneton, Dodrio, Exeggutor, and Mewtwo.
Hai omfuga, could you give a little introduction of yourself?
Hey :). I'm 19 years old and currently trying to figure out what to do with my life. I'm taking a break from college at least for this year because I hate school. I mostly just hang out with my friends (except I have no friends now that I'm home and they're at school), work out, and watch TV.
How did you get into competitive Pokemon, and the Ubers tier?
I watched this guy on Youtube called thekillernacho. He played almost entirely DPP OU and due to my inherent competitive nature, after watching him for a few months (and eventually other youtubers), I had decided that I wanted to play competitive pokemon as well. So after a bit of watching those youtubers play competitively, BW had come out and there were many new changes to the game. I figured this would be a fresh start for me to compete. I heard a youtuber mention pokemon-online, where you could play without a DS and flashcart. I was enticed by the idea of playing competitive pokemon without spending a bunch of time and money, so I downloaded PO and became a ladder fiend in all the tiers. I was 12 years old at the time.
Fast forward a few years and I was more actively playing tournaments. I was already familiar with ubers due to topping the ladder in XY and BW, but when seasonal and upl came around last year, I decided to join them and get a better grasp of ORAS ubers. I performed really well in seasonal and UPL, most notably beating hack in UPL finals tiebreak. I got a lot of flack from the ubers community, I guess because ubers wasn't in SPL and I represented the tournament players who delegitimized the tier. Either way, I stuck around and ended up having a lot of fun in ubers, especially in SM. And i'd like to think most ubers players have given up on denouncing me.
What is your favourite playstyle, and what's your stance on team match-up in SM Ubers?
My favorite playstyle in ubers is bulky offense! I like the ability to maintain offensive pressure while also having a good defensive backbone. It can often be difficult to deal with certain variants of geoxern, mega gengar, and yveltal, but with stall and HO falling more into favor, people have shifted more towards using "stallbreaker" sets and anti-offense mons. This gives balance teams a unique position, where they might not be challenged as much, due to the misconception that balance isn't very good in ubers.
Honestly I believe match-up is overstated a lot in SM ubers. The main reason people feel this way is that it can be extremely difficult to break stall and also keep enough anti-offense strategies on your team. I agree that stall is overpowered and by far the best strategy in SM ubers, however stall has 1 massive flaw. Almost every stall is 6-0d by something. Even if stall can counter or check every common threat, it can't check everything viable in the ubers tier. For example, any stall without ferrothorn is bound to have trouble with waterfall Primal Kyogre. Depending on the team, stall can be 6-0d by sub sd arceus-ghost, arceus-flying, whirlpool arceus-dark, taunt yveltal, and many other threats. The issue is that there aren't many pokemon that beat every stall, and there are many many variants of stall in the ubers tier. The best pokemon at killing all stalls is specs kyogre, and its very difficult to fit specs ogre on a team, as it will be worse than primal kyogre 90% of the time. Stall is too difficult to combat when building in SM, but with a good team and a valid stallbreaker you can still overcome most match ups in the tier.
What are two of your favourite things of the Ubers metagame?
It may be cheesy, but my favorite thing about ubers is that you can use almost any pokemon in the game! I've used a variety of pokemon like Bronzong, Scizor, Xerneas, Slowbro, and Rayquaza. It's interesting to see how OU, UU, and sometimes RU pokemon are able to shine in Ubers due to specific niches.
Another thing I really like about ubers is the unique style of teambuilding. Covering threats in a non-traditional way compared to other tiers is interesting to me.
Why do you hate Mega Gengar?
Because trapping should be removed from all smogon tiers. It's uncompetitive and I really hate it. Also gengar often relies on focus blast to be good, and I hate that. Unlike Scizor/Metagross/Salamence, Gengar doesn't bring much utility to a team. Also, radical opinion, but I believe arena trap and shadow tag should be claused out of smogon for good. They have caused too many problems in every tier for too long.
Favourite game from any tour and who was the toughest opponent that you've faced?
This was from MUTE last year. The restriction was that your teammates could not use any pokemon that you used. To help my teammates give as much room to build as freely as possible, I used mostly pokemon that were unviable in ubers. However I didn't expect doublade to completely sweep my opponent's team LOL. This was a pretty sick game. Doublade + spikes are broken.
The toughest opponent i've ever faced is hyw. Because he alternates between ho-oh stall and ratchet deo-s HOs, aka my least favorite things on the planet. Im 1-1 vs him, with both series occurring on seasonal. I beat him in ORAS but in SM I got rocked. He used HO in all 3 games in ORAS, and stall in both SM games. I have some new techs coming though so I hope to see him in ubers open!
Did you support the Swagger unban and, do you believe there is anything broken or suspect worthy in the current metagame ?
I have no opinion on the swagger unban. The whole situation was pretty silly. I think geomancy should be banned or at LEAST z-geomancy. The strain these 2 put on teambuilding, especially z-geo xern, is absurd. There's really no good way for balance to beat geoxern + gengar, except the occasional magearna. And z-geo is extremely silly as it invalidates the best check in the tier, and forces awkward sets (112 attack zong, SD on scizor, weird celesteela EVs, psych up arc-poison, etc). Geomancy getting banned would also inadvertently nerf stall, as it gives offense and balance more leeway when building. Yeah basically I just think geoxern is too restricting on teams that aren't stall, and it isn't balanced. Also I think shadow tag/arena trap should be blanket banned from all tiers.
Even though Ubers isn't your main tier, you have a solid knowledge of the metagame and you're a well known tournament player, would you like give Ubers a chance and play it for Smogon Snake Draft?
I'm considering it! I put ubers in my sign up post as well. I'm willing to play whatever my team needs me for :)! I'm trying to stay away from building though lol
Who are some of your favorite people in the Smogon/Ubers community?
blunder, ABR, -Tsunami-, Poek, all of Hikari's Palace, Joey, teal6, Kiyo, Tesung, new breed, Trosko and TDK.
As for ubers community: Pohjis (my son), Level 56, benbe, Nayrz, Keys, Mazar, obii, chop, Thimo, HunterStorm and The Trap God (sometimes).
sry if I missed someone.
Are there any other hobbies you have outside of playing Pokemon?
Not really! I work out pretty often but that's it. I'm trying to get back into sports but it's been a while since I was athletic enough to play.
Any advice for new players getting into Ubers?
If you intend to get better, don't make the typical Ubers excuses when you lose a game. For example, if you believe match-up is too difficult to overcome in the tier, you'll be too tilted to win. And make sure not to get too 1 dimensional! Remember to switch up between HO, Balance, and Stall. I'm a hypocrite because I don't switch up as much as I should, but it's a good thing to keep in mind.
Lastly, could you give us a team with brief explanation of how it works?
Sure!
![](http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/icon/383.png)
![](http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/icon/493.png)
![](http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/icon/797.png)
![](http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/icon/382.png)
![](http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/icon/373-m.png)
![](http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/icon/716.png)
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 248 HP / 240 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Precipice Blades
- Lava Plume
- Roar
Arceus-Ground @ Groundium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Recover
Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 24 Atk / 184 Def / 52 SpD
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Heavy Slam
- Protect
- Toxic
Kyogre-Primal @ Blue Orb
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- Toxic
- Defog
- Roost
Xerneas @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 176 Def / 88 SpA / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Aromatherapy
- Toxic
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 248 HP / 240 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Precipice Blades
- Lava Plume
- Roar
Arceus-Ground @ Groundium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Recover
Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 24 Atk / 184 Def / 52 SpD
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Heavy Slam
- Protect
- Toxic
Kyogre-Primal @ Blue Orb
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- Toxic
- Defog
- Roost
Xerneas @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 176 Def / 88 SpA / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Aromatherapy
- Toxic
Here's a team that I built a while back that ttg edited recently. It was initially whirlpool arceus-dark>arceus-ground but I think that arceus-ground works best paired with salamence (to dent lugia) to break stall. Spdef pdon is pretty much a must with celesteela, as checking geoxern/specs xern is always extremely difficult when using celesteela. Xerneas + waterfall ogre is pretty much a necessity as well, because I believe waterfall ogre is nearly unviable without aromatherapy. The team at this point would have had trouble with offense, so scarf xern was the obvious answer to me. The last 2 mons could've been any combination of defog arceus + mega (gengar, dd salamence, even mewtwo), or wallbreaker arceus + defog salemence. I opted for the latter, with whirlpool arceus-dark, because I feel salamence is a much more reliable defogger vs offense, and the team required a ghost resist (at the time, lunala and gengar were really popular). Trap god revitalized the team, using arceus-ground over arceus-dark, which I agree with completely. The core of toxic mega-salamence + SD arceus-ground is really nice for breaking down fat teams. Jolly m-mence is also super useful for offense/balance, and scarf xern is great for HO with a really reliable defogger. The team has no ghost resist, but I don't think it's a huge deal with scarf xern, spdef pdon, and kyogre.
==============
Big thanks to Omfuga for taking the time out to complete this interview, cya'll next week!
![Heart :heart: :heart:](/forums/media/emoji/heart.gif)
Last edited: