Project National Dex POTW #3: Taka

[ezra]

approved by national dex moderation
hosted by ezra, Dead by Daylight

Welcome to National Dex POTW! In this project, I will interview prominent and influential players every week. Players often keep to themselves, with this fun project, we hope to make players more recognizeable; they will be asked about their thoughts on the metagame, what they do outside of Smogon, etc.

Interviews:

• Oculars & Michael213

 

[Dead by Daylight]

First interview with the winning managers of NDFL, Oculars and Michael213!

What do you both do outside of Smogon?

Michael: not that much i go to school, i work and i like to read a lot

Oculars: I do a load of shit outside mons I recently moved to bali so a load of partying, spear fishing, I drive motorcycle and I work online most of the day and alt tab to mons lol, I also play chess a healthy bit

What inspired both of you to start playing National Dex?

Oculars: I personally played a load of SMOU and it was my favourite tier id played but then one day game freak decides to just go and thanos snap half the mons, I basically was a day 1 natdexer and played it side by side with SSOU for a few months until I realized that early SSOU was legit the worst meta ever seen with everyone loading the exact same mons so I just mained only natdex tiers from then on, I still think dexit is wrong and natdex is the true version of mons.

Michael: Back in generation 8, i hated playing regular gen8 ou because i thought the meta was horrible and really boring along with team building not being fun at all. In response to this, I decided to try nat dex which I was told was similar to gen 7 ou which is my favorite meta to this very day. I then decided to main nat dex for the remainder of the generation as it was a great way to use a lot of my favorite pokemon that did not make the cut

What are your favorite archetypes to build / to play in this metagame?

Michael: my favorite archetypes to play are definitely hyper offense(glim lead stuff) or balances that are primarily 2 walls and 4 mons offensively oriented

Oculars: I build a crap load of HO, screens with grimmsnarl is definitely #1 but im also a huge fan of building weather, webs and trick room. Im not much for building balance but ill build hard stall too. I feel like screens minimizes a lot of the bullshit in the tier and does well into a variety of archetypes.

What unranked mon do you feel has potential in this metagame?

Michael: my real answer is Azumarill, although it does struggle with one of the top mons in the meta (ogerpon), i enjoy using the belly drum set and CB set to cleave away at certain teams and be able to pick off weakened mons.

Oculars: Uhh for me id have to say firstly mega bannette should be ranked, its encore sets provide a load of outplay opportunity and I feel like council not ranking it was just them being salty over the fact it wasnt dropping, its a legitimate proven mon in the metagame and deserves credit for it. A second UR mon id like to shoutout is zydog, the tier right now has a severe lack of defensive grasses that can take ground hits and its banded thousand arrows set can 2hko almost every switchin especially with tera ground, it might be frail but there are a load of strong slow pivots to bring it in and force progress almost every time it hits the field. It also has the free slots to run both glare and toxic spreading a lot of status if there are any switchins that can eat thousand arrows.

What mons do you think are the most underrated and overrated from the DLC?

Oculars: For me overrated is probably iron crown, I think its av sets are a bit hazard weak and people are just coping for a lele switchin when spdef jirachi has much more utility in this role. I find pecharunt to be the most underrated, when people talk about it they often mention bad sets like parting shot or hex nasty plot when its real best set imo is a ghostium z modest nasty plot set, that lets you beat the large majority of obvious switchins like defensive steels and poisons

Michael: for overrated prolly gouging fire as it faces steep competition with mega charizard and is more tera reliant which can force you into bad positions. for underrated prolly pecharunt as it has great support moves and an ability + stat distribution that can help against many of the physical attackers in nat dex. Also it can more effectively run offensive sets bc of the ability to use z moves to help muscle pass things

How was your experience in NDFL as co-managers?

Michael: I had a lot of fun; it was my first time managing in a team tournament so there were a few things I was not great with in the beginning but I adapted over time as I got use to it. A big shoutout to adem who was basically our co-co manager and was a huge help at times when oculars or I were busy. It was also great meeting everyone on my team, i liked every single person and all of the people who joined the server to help support us by team building. It was great to be able to meet more people within the community.

Oculars: For me it was also my first time managing but I had a blast, took some getting used to at first but adem and also R8 were a great help having had lots of team tour experience previously. Both me and michael went in with the mindset to win pretty much right from the draft. I think we got the best draft out of everyone with a load of good value and steals so it would have been a failure on our part if we had lost. Definitely looking forward to managing more tours with michael.

Anything else you want to leave us with?

Oculars: give us a sick outro question

Alright, then - how do you teambuild? What is your philosophy?

Michael: ill keep my answer quick but i teambuild by starting around one mon then going from there, and i test my team through trial and error. Constantly using it, different variations of it to get the perfect fit

Oculars: Ill take you through my process of building an effective screens team as an example, Firstly you need your setter which 90% of the time will be grimmsnarl unless youre running eterrain. Then I fill out the team structure with two bulky and heavy hitting breakers I can use to trade and get chip, that im fine to sac in the midgame for progress and arent going to be involved in any win condition later in the game, this could be ursaluna, Medicham mega, sd urshifu, ogerpon, specs lele, zardy, etc. I then fill out the last three slots with a variety of different setup sweepers that can all abuse tera, I normally like to have one physical, one special and one anti-stall/fat sweeper, On the physical side this could be something like Booster iron boulder, dd dragonite, dd kyurem or sd mega scizor. On the special side youre looking at stuff like volcarona, nasty plot taunt torn-t and calm mind raging bolt and for anti stall theres a huge variety but stuff like Mega Gyarados with taunt or calm mind reuniclus or rain dance manaphy generally will ensure an easy win vs stall. On top of this you want to ensure you have good switchins to common priority types like grass and normal, along with having your setup sweepers built to abuse common defensive mons, for example something like substitute and tera flying on iron boulder will let you turn lando-t and gliscor into fodder and you can get up 2 swords dances easily.

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

I'd like to thank both Oculars and Michael for their time. If you all have any questions, feel free to ask them in this thread.

 

[anique]

Ban sleep or darkrai?
Is stall the most dishonest playstyle? thoughts on stall players?
If you had to buff grimmsnarl, waht would you give it
If you had to ban a mon rn what wld it be

 

[sealoo]

would ursaluna or gouging fire win in a death battle

 

[Oculars]

Ban sleep or darkrai?
Personally I would go with banning sleep, as darkrai with hypnosis doesn't seem like a massive threat, the only thing ill add tho is I'd want any sleep ban to include rest as well.

Is stall the most dishonest playstyle? thoughts on stall players?
I wouldnt call stall dishonest as its very clear in what its trying to do, I also don't find stall particularly challenging to play against in this economy. Ditto stall however is dishonest in my opinion and is basically admitting that your stall sucks and you're gonna need to copy a mon to be able to beat offense. Stall players themselves are pretty chill I find and most of them just want a consistent play style however I do feel they have outsized influence on how tiering is carried out where we ban a lot of breakers to make sure stall is always a valid play-style but other archetypes don't get the same treatment. Offense players are forced to adapt to meta changes almost every other month while stall players would rather just ban good breakers so they can keep running the same stuff.

If you had to buff grimmsnarl, what would you give it?
I think grimmsnarl has basically everything it needs to be the clear cut best screen setter in any tier even ubers where it competes with deo-s, If i had to give it a buff ive got three support moves I think would all be impactful. One is Topsy Turvy allowing it to priority check setup sweepers very easily, another is encore to lock in stuff like volcarona trying to quiver dance, and a third would be toxic to make it harder for special attackers to come in. As is tho grimmsnarl is already struggling to fit the many great moves it has in the 2 slots you have left after screens and doesnt really need a buff.

If you had to ban a mon rn what wld it be?
Far and away the most oppresive mon in the tier right now is zama, where between its iron defence sets, sub or rest, along with choice band, rockium z sets and even boots one wrong prediction can easily lose you the game against zama and its a bit overpowered now due to the lack of ghosts in the tier. I think the last zama suspect was carried out way too early and now that weve removed a lot of the splashable checks to it like gholdengo and infiltrator dragapult we should definitely consider it as #1 on the list for tiering action. Zama is way too fast, bulky and strong for what it does and how much set variation it has.

 

[Oculars]

would ursaluna or gouging fire win in a death battle

Ursaluna confirmed W about15guys

 

[Chilli Dewd]

First interview with the winning managers of NDFL, Oculars and Michael213!

View attachment 599270 View attachment 599271​

What do you both do outside of Smogon?

Michael: not that much i go to school, i work and i like to read a lot

Oculars: I do a load of shit outside mons I recently moved to bali so a load of partying, spear fishing, I drive motorcycle and I work online most of the day and alt tab to mons lol, I also play chess a healthy bit

What inspired both of you to start playing National Dex?

Oculars: I personally played a load of SMOU and it was my favourite tier id played but then one day game freak decides to just go and thanos snap half the mons, I basically was a day 1 natdexer and played it side by side with SSOU for a few months until I realized that early SSOU was legit the worst meta ever seen with everyone loading the exact same mons so I just mained only natdex tiers from then on, I still think dexit is wrong and natdex is the true version of mons.

Michael: Back in generation 8, i hated playing regular gen8 ou because i thought the meta was horrible and really boring along with team building not being fun at all. In response to this, I decided to try nat dex which I was told was similar to gen 7 ou which is my favorite meta to this very day. I then decided to main nat dex for the remainder of the generation as it was a great way to use a lot of my favorite pokemon that did not make the cut

What are your favorite archetypes to build / to play in this metagame?

Michael: my favorite archetypes to play are definitely hyper offense(glim lead stuff) or balances that are primarily 2 walls and 4 mons offensively oriented

Oculars: I build a crap load of HO, screens with grimmsnarl is definitely #1 but im also a huge fan of building weather, webs and trick room. Im not much for building balance but ill build hard stall too. I feel like screens minimizes a lot of the bullshit in the tier and does well into a variety of archetypes.

What unranked mon do you feel has potential in this metagame?

Michael: my real answer is Azumarill, although it does struggle with one of the top mons in the meta (ogerpon), i enjoy using the belly drum set and CB set to cleave away at certain teams and be able to pick off weakened mons.

Oculars: Uhh for me id have to say firstly mega bannette should be ranked, its encore sets provide a load of outplay opportunity and I feel like council not ranking it was just them being salty over the fact it wasnt dropping, its a legitimate proven mon in the metagame and deserves credit for it. A second UR mon id like to shoutout is zydog, the tier right now has a severe lack of defensive grasses that can take ground hits and its banded thousand arrows set can 2hko almost every switchin especially with tera ground, it might be frail but there are a load of strong slow pivots to bring it in and force progress almost every time it hits the field. It also has the free slots to run both glare and toxic spreading a lot of status if there are any switchins that can eat thousand arrows.

What mons do you think are the most underrated and overrated from the DLC?

Oculars: For me overrated is probably iron crown, I think its av sets are a bit hazard weak and people are just coping for a lele switchin when spdef jirachi has much more utility in this role. I find pecharunt to be the most underrated, when people talk about it they often mention bad sets like parting shot or hex nasty plot when its real best set imo is a ghostium z modest nasty plot set, that lets you beat the large majority of obvious switchins like defensive steels and poisons

Michael: for overrated prolly gouging fire as it faces steep competition with mega charizard and is more tera reliant which can force you into bad positions. for underrated prolly pecharunt as it has great support moves and an ability + stat distribution that can help against many of the physical attackers in nat dex. Also it can more effectively run offensive sets bc of the ability to use z moves to help muscle pass things

How was your experience in NDFL as co-managers?

Michael: I had a lot of fun; it was my first time managing in a team tournament so there were a few things I was not great with in the beginning but I adapted over time as I got use to it. A big shoutout to adem who was basically our co-co manager and was a huge help at times when oculars or I were busy. It was also great meeting everyone on my team, i liked every single person and all of the people who joined the server to help support us by team building. It was great to be able to meet more people within the community.

Oculars: For me it was also my first time managing but I had a blast, took some getting used to at first but adem and also R8 were a great help having had lots of team tour experience previously. Both me and michael went in with the mindset to win pretty much right from the draft. I think we got the best draft out of everyone with a load of good value and steals so it would have been a failure on our part if we had lost. Definitely looking forward to managing more tours with michael.

Anything else you want to leave us with?

Oculars: give us a sick outro question

Alright, then - how do you teambuild? What is your philosophy?

Michael: ill keep my answer quick but i teambuild by starting around one mon then going from there, and i test my team through trial and error. Constantly using it, different variations of it to get the perfect fit

Oculars: Ill take you through my process of building an effective screens team as an example, Firstly you need your setter which 90% of the time will be grimmsnarl unless youre running eterrain. Then I fill out the team structure with two bulky and heavy hitting breakers I can use to trade and get chip, that im fine to sac in the midgame for progress and arent going to be involved in any win condition later in the game, this could be ursaluna, Medicham mega, sd urshifu, ogerpon, specs lele, zardy, etc. I then fill out the last three slots with a variety of different setup sweepers that can all abuse tera, I normally like to have one physical, one special and one anti-stall/fat sweeper, On the physical side this could be something like Booster iron boulder, dd dragonite, dd kyurem or sd mega scizor. On the special side youre looking at stuff like volcarona, nasty plot taunt torn-t and calm mind raging bolt and for anti stall theres a huge variety but stuff like Mega Gyarados with taunt or calm mind reuniclus or rain dance manaphy generally will ensure an easy win vs stall. On top of this you want to ensure you have good switchins to common priority types like grass and normal, along with having your setup sweepers built to abuse common defensive mons, for example something like substitute and tera flying on iron boulder will let you turn lando-t and gliscor into fodder and you can get up 2 swords dances easily.

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

I'd like to thank both Oculars and Michael for their time. If you all have any questions, feel free to ask them in this thread.

Adding it to the natdex lore.

 

[Boomenheimer]

Oculars

1. Waterloo or UofT?
2. What’s the worst mon you’ve put on one of your patented HO teams?
3. If you agreed to a gentleman’s rule for a tour game/series, what would it be?

Michael213

1. 2020 idm boomer or Djwaot?
2. What does 213 in your name mean?
3. Which mon would you have as a pet?

 

[awyp]

oculars and michael aka 2 of the best managers ever:

1. favorite food?
2. most underrated mon set (give us some heat)?

 

[thebestever543]

Question for Miguel Michael213 what is your favorite book and what is your favorite genre? And what are you currently reading right now :3

 

[Michael213]

Oculars

1. Waterloo or UofT?
2. What’s the worst mon you’ve put on one of your patented HO teams?
3. If you agreed to a gentleman’s rule for a tour game/series, what would it be?

Michael213

1. 2020 idm boomer or Djwaot?
2. What does 213 in your name mean?
3. Which mon would you have as a pet?

1. Not Djwaot that guy haxxes me in gen 7 battle factory
2. the 213 in my name is from an old ps4 tag i had and when I was choosing my ps name, since i am indecisive, i just combined my name and those numbers
3. a pichu

 

[Michael213]

oculars and michael aka 2 of the best managers ever:

1. favorite food?
2. most underrated mon set (give us some heat)?

1. My favorite food is pasta
2.I don't have much underrated sets in my builder but I love this fast rhyperior set in gen 8 nat dex
Rhyperior (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Solid Rock
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 36 HP / 252 Atk / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Heavy Slam
- Heat Crash

 

[Michael213]

Question for Miguel Michael213 what is your favorite book and what is your favorite genre? And what are you currently reading right now :3

I mainly read manga with my favorite genre being shonen, but my 2 favorite are hajime no ippo and tokyo ghoul. Right now I am not reading anything but I just finished reading ippo for 2 weeks and it was amazing

 

[Djwaot]

Hey Michael213 , why are you so incredible at Pocket Monster Showdown? I want to know what it takes to be an incredible no skill pure luck breed like yourself. Congratulations on your achievements by the way.

 

[Oculars]

Oculars

1. Waterloo or UofT?
2. What’s the worst mon you’ve put on one of your patented HO teams?
3. If you agreed to a gentleman’s rule for a tour game/series, what would it be?

1. Loo all the way UofT eng sucks.

2. Attempted to run this on a screens team on ladder for a while (actually pulled off some sweeps)
Ferrothorn @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Iron Barbs
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Power Whip
- Knock Off
- Rock Polish

3. If I had to GA something right now the three things id go for are probably / Para Flinch cause it causes some crazy bullshit haxxing through mons it shouldnt. Can also see idef body press being GA'd. Can also see myself doing a series where we agree not to bring stall on either side.

 

[Oculars]

oculars and michael aka 2 of the best managers ever:

1. favorite food?
2. most underrated mon set (give us some heat)?

1. Ima give you three for this one.

In canada my go to would be like takeout shawarma on fries swimming in garlic sauce and more chili sauce than whatever weak man ordered this one in the picture. This powered me through uni.

Here in Bali rn my favourite food to get is probably Martabak (Indonesian deep fried pancake filled with egg beef and green onions) that you eat with chilies.

My favourite thing I cook myself is Bastilla (Morrocan chicken and almond pie)

2. A little heat set. Underrated rocker, tera psychic psycho cut ohko's even the most defensive great tusk which is like an obvious switchin 4x resisting stone axe, it also has the power to set rocks without losing any momentum and generally be a menace to slower teams.
Kleavor @ Choice Band
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Axe
- U-turn
- Close Combat
- Psycho Cut

I also think now that dragapult, kingambit and gholdengo are all banned this opens in room in the meta for gen8 natdex's best wincon, mega latias to come back into the picture.

Latias-Mega (F) @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Aura Sphere
- Psyshock
- Recover

This should be able to take on a lot of the meta especially with how easy it is to get spikes support and chip. Only thing is you might want to run it with a cleric for longevity. This mon can be a game changer for a lot of fat/balances struggling to find consistent wincons outside of SD gliscor.

 

[R1C3M4N]

Michael213 oat when will they free the teleport maud in this tier???

 

[Michael213]

Michael213 oat when will they free the teleport maud in this tier???

I will try and free it myself and the grassy glide bulu as well

 

[Isza]

Ban sleep or darkrai?
Personally I would go with banning sleep, as darkrai with hypnosis doesn't seem like a massive threat, the only thing ill add tho is I'd want any sleep ban to include rest as well.

Is stall the most dishonest playstyle? thoughts on stall players?
I wouldnt call stall dishonest as its very clear in what its trying to do, I also don't find stall particularly challenging to play against in this economy. Ditto stall however is dishonest in my opinion and is basically admitting that your stall sucks and you're gonna need to copy a mon to be able to beat offense. Stall players themselves are pretty chill I find and most of them just want a consistent play style however I do feel they have outsized influence on how tiering is carried out where we ban a lot of breakers to make sure stall is always a valid play-style but other archetypes don't get the same treatment. Offense players are forced to adapt to meta changes almost every other month while stall players would rather just ban good breakers so they can keep running the same stuff.

If you had to buff grimmsnarl, what would you give it?
I think grimmsnarl has basically everything it needs to be the clear cut best screen setter in any tier even ubers where it competes with deo-s, If i had to give it a buff ive got three support moves I think would all be impactful. One is Topsy Turvy allowing it to priority check setup sweepers very easily, another is encore to lock in stuff like volcarona trying to quiver dance, and a third would be toxic to make it harder for special attackers to come in. As is tho grimmsnarl is already struggling to fit the many great moves it has in the 2 slots you have left after screens and doesnt really need a buff.

If you had to ban a mon rn what wld it be?
Far and away the most oppresive mon in the tier right now is zama, where between its iron defence sets, sub or rest, along with choice band, rockium z sets and even boots one wrong prediction can easily lose you the game against zama and its a bit overpowered now due to the lack of ghosts in the tier. I think the last zama suspect was carried out way too early and now that weve removed a lot of the splashable checks to it like gholdengo and infiltrator dragapult we should definitely consider it as #1 on the list for tiering action. Zama is way too fast, bulky and strong for what it does and how much set variation it has.

For both of you

Favorite gen 8 nat dex mon?
Favorite flavor of cake?
How do you like the gen 9 meta atm?

 

[Michael213]

For both of you

Favorite gen 8 nat dex mon?
Favorite flavor of cake?
How do you like the gen 9 meta atm?

Favorite gen 8 nat dex mon?
My favorite mon is definitely Ash-Gren and garchomp (mega as well)

Favorite flavor of cake?
Oreo

How do you like the gen 9 meta atm?
For nat dex I am having fun with it, I enjoy using mega pokemon and the ones that were cut from the game. I also like all of the team variation you see on ladder.

 

[Michael213]

Ban sleep or darkrai?
Is stall the most dishonest playstyle? thoughts on stall players?
If you had to buff grimmsnarl, waht would you give it
If you had to ban a mon rn what wld it be

Ban sleep or darkrai?
This is a hard question because unlike in ou, Nat dex has koko which can help block sleep due to terrain. But if I had to pick one I would chose to just ban sleep

Is stall the most dishonest playstyle? thoughts on stall players?
No I would not say its the most dishonest playstyle, players who use it load to play the log game. As for people who use stall, I don't really care cuz it can be effective but people who use stall on low ladder, those people have too much time on their hands. How you gonna ladder up a fresh account with only stall

If you had to buff grimmsnarl, waht would you give it
I would give it swords dance or moxie because seeing more offensive sets would be cool

If you had to ban a mon rn what wld it be
Prolly zamazenta that mon is crazy especially with the ability to use z moves

 

[Michael213]

would ursaluna or gouging fire win in a death battle

Bears>Big ancient cats
ursaluna in 6

 

[Oculars]

For both of you

Favorite gen 8 nat dex mon?
Favorite flavor of cake?
How do you like the gen 9 meta atm?

Favorite gen 8 nat dex mon?

Probably nostalgia hitting hard but I miss ash gren and the original version of it, was so much better then the new battle bond ability. Such a good wincon where all you'd need is some good chip on fini/pex/chansey/ferro vs a lot of common structures

Favorite flavor of cake?

100% chocolate cake with coffee icing.

How do you like the gen 9 meta atm?

Its in a better place that in has been although I still find tera makes it super unstable and prediction reliant compared to gen8 national dex, if theres anything we need to change id say zama is a bit oppressive on the meta right now with its variety of sets kinda like how dd/specs pult was before and possibly ogerpon-wellspring too where its a strong enough breaker that every team is building for it but also because everything is built for it when you actually use it you dont break anything. Its a huge pain in the ass in the builder though. Top 3 things to change to fix the meta would be 1. Ban Tera 2. Ban Zama 3. Ban Wellspring 4. Free +

 

[ezra]

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

 

[Oculars]

Questions for both of you:

1. Whats your favourite foods?

2. Hardest you've ever malded playing mons?

3. Both of you being council members, has your opinion on mega bannette changed now that you realize its never going to drop in usage?

For Isza

1. What are these volc/archaludon sets you think might be underexplored and why?

For Sealoo

1. What is the best natdex om in your opinion?

2. Do you think you've been a staff member long enough for me to name a after you?