It's your favourite ezra here, and for this week of POTW I will be interviewing the captains and champions for National Dex: USA v RoW,
Isza and
sealoo!!
Hey Isza and Sealoo, what's good?
Isza: Nothing much bro how about yourself?
Sealoo: hello i am well hru
I'm doing fine as well, I just got my winter break so I'm pretty free right now. What do you both enjoy doing outside of Smogon and tournaments?
Isza: Some of my hobbies are reading and painting. I've always loved books since I was a kid, and painting is something I've picked up recently. I'm not great at it ill admit but it's cool to learn as I go. I also enjoy trying new restaurants with friends when I'm not working
Sealoo: february winter break is crazy, im a hs senior and big dog person outside of that, ive worked at a veternarians office for the past yr outside of summer and its been v enjoyable
That's good to hear, now onto the topic of this interview, can you give us a quick summary of what you’re most known for in National Dex?
Isza: Is it strange I'm not sure? I wanna say being a good tournament player, although I'd also say being the US Northeast+Canada captain. I've won NDWC 2 years in a row since my introduction to the tier, so I'm assuming I'd be most known for that
Sealoo: i only got back in nd after playing during 2020 in around july 2022 (didnt touch it during 2021), but since then ive been p active across the community as a whole via forums/cord/room. Despite how unserious this tier is claimed to be, it's definitely my favorite to be around across ps/smog. tour success is worrywhirl but maybe one day..
Speaking of Natdex, how did you get into the tier ?
Sealoo: I played ss around feb/march 2020 and that Seismitoad v Dracovish dynamic got to me enough to the point where I wanted to try smth new. Think I got into natdex around ~april 2020 with a small group of friends in another server and enjoyed it as a breath of fresh air compared to cg ou
Isza: EZ and jonfilch(now known as fade) linked me NDPL and said we should all sign up because it had a custom and it was just like SM OU. We wernt bigshot tournament players at the time so we joined to have some fun. We ended up winning the entire tour and while they both moved on, I really enjoyed my experience and decided to stick around in the tier/community. Till this day SS ND is my favorite tier on the website
Ah, I got into Natdex during Dracovish meta as well, and yeah you guys were dominating that season of NDPL. How is the state of the tier right now, in your opinion?
Sealoo: i think its p fun, you can get away with a lot of different archetypes viably and i thought ND v RoW provided good insight into how the meta was atm. Overall fun despite the volatility inherently present with a meta that has tera & so many threats. Has a lot of room for creativity that im sure we'll see in NDWC.
Isza: I think the tier has a ton of offensive threats, although I wouldn't say it's in a bad state. There's a ton of diversity ATM, although I will say sun/rain are both really great and should be used more. I'm definitely a fan atm.
I agree, there is a wide range of mons to choose from that can win you games in this current meta. Are there any mons that you feel are overrated or underrated by the community?
Isza: For Overrated I'm going to say Skarmory and Mola. I think skarmory really gets taken advantage of in this meta, and Mola Is a great pivot but not as hyped up as it should be. For underrated I'm going to say volcarona and Archaludon. There's so many volc sets that I feel haven't been taken advantage of yet, and arch has only been used on rain but not abused to its full potential.
Sealoo: fs, as for overrated idt there's a ton but namely I think TornT, Clef, dnite, mola, and msciz are a bit overrated. As far as underrated goes I think mmedi, speed bu tusk, Garganacl, sd scale dice chomp, sd trailblaze shifu (very broken), and Cornerstone r some of my favorite picks. Oh hawlucha too, lucha is very very good ^ rillalucha structures (that empoleon one u built is super neat and i took inspiration from it) should be explored.
Yeah, a lot of mons are not utilized to their fullest, hopefully, we can see some development in the future. Now, what is your favourite mon to build around and your favourite playstyle to use?
Isza: In SV raging bolt. I think it's one of the best mons in the tier ATM on sun and just its cm/whatever tera set. Hits very hard and has good priority. Definitely bulky offense, makes it so that I have an even match uo most of the time vs anything.
Sealoo: I have always been a huge fan of offense (not ho, not bo, but somewhere right in between) as they tend to reward aggression and playing bold. At first esp in tours i stayed with fat as I was usually playing to not lose out of apprehension, but branching out more as of lately has been great. As for building around, I think mons that force almost guaranteed progress if you click/position right are rly good picks to start teams like that with (ursaluna, mmedi, specs val, specs lele, cm bolt)
Do you mind sharing a team that reflects this?
Sealoo: ive used this in a few individuals to some good success, really fun team with limited longevity on ur main defensive pivots so rewards aggression and getting your breakers (sd kart, av lele) into position
Isza: A prototype rain I made although haven't been in any tours in a few to test its success. Meant to be good into offense via swift swim+scarf bolt, and be able to break balance with torn
These teams are cool, I'll be sure to try them out. For the last few questions left. what do you think of the community?
Isza: I think the community is cool, and has lots of potential to grow more. One of the things I'm trying to do is to get some of the other tournament players to try nat dex and get involved. That will hopefully shine some light on how fun the tier is
Sealoo: i think the nd community is very unique is comparison to any other community on the site. Obviously there r the ash ketchum larpers in 1200 but ive also met some of the most driven people ive ever seen through here. I also think getting more tour players into the scene is v cool, seeing all the ppl i would think have no interest in natdex come out to play USA v RoW was fire
USA vs RoW was fun to spectate for sure. Now that I've mentioned it, how was your experience being captain for team USA?
Isza: I think sealoo could agree with me when I said we had a blast. Me getting players together alongside him, and his knowledge of who was good in what tier was why we were so successful. Plus having everyone in a chat that otherwise wouldn't interact with one another was very wholesome lol
Sealoo: it was incredibly enjoyable, got the chance to speak with a lot of ppl i wouldve never gotten to otherwise and assist in prepping tiers with this amalgamation of mainers/tour players that turned out rly nice in the end. That last Sunday esp when sabella and splash couldnt figure out when to play and saturday morning where we had like 5 games in succession was hype
Isza: You mean when splash dodged us and went to stream val
Sealoo: LOL
That sounded incredibly enjoyable for you both. And I think that's it for our interview, anything else you both would like to say before we end?
Isza: Make sure to join NDWC this March, and if you're laddering use raging bolt. Have a goodnight everyone
Sealoo: i am very much looking forward to ndwc and hopefully the NE v South rematch, think a lot of regions have potential if the managers just reach out to some ppl. Ty for your time, cool project
If you have any questions for Isza and Sealoo, feel free to ask them anything in this thread