Hi Drampa!
Hi!
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m a 23-year-old dude with a bachelor’s degree in theater (writing, not acting). I work at Staples part time and hang in the om room full time. My favorite color is purple, I’m obsessed with Terry Pratchett (he’s an author if you’re not familiar, although he recently died), and my favorite movie I’ll admit to in a family-friendly environment is probably
Tangled. My favorite non-Pokémon video game franchise is Fire Emblem (Radiant Dawn is best game).
How did you get into Pokémon and OMs?
One of my earliest memories is my dad bringing home the first Pokémon anime episodes (on VHS lol). I got hooked and have never really left Pokémon. I’ve played every generation as they’ve been out since either gen 1 or gen 2. I got onto Smogon in 2013, when I started to google something along the lines of “good sets for [insert mons name here]” for in-game use and naturally found Smogon analyses. I played a bit of OU in gen 5, got bored of weather, moved down in tiers (UU then RU) and eventually over to Other Metas, where I stuck around.
What OMs have you been playing recently?
My main OM is STABmons, so I play that whenever able, but my most recently I’ve been playing a lot of OM Mashups (check out the Mashup Megathread hosted by moi
here). What’s always attracted me to OMs is the way there’s constantly new oms and undeveloped oms where you can try new Pokémon and find new sets. I feel like the more standard oms lack that creativity unless you work at a high level, and I’ve never cared to hone my skill or meta knowledge in any one meta to that degree. Out of the mashups I play my favorites are AAA Ubers, STABmons Mix and Mega (or Stab n Mega) and Camomons AAA or CAAAmomons.
If you could pick any OM to give a permanent ladder slot to, what would it be?
STABmons would be my first choice. It’s been a ladder before, and is my favorite ‘real’ OM. My first choice that isn’t a current ladder of any sort would probably be
Drampa Cup 1v1 Inheritance. I find Inheritance to be fun, varied, and inherently friendly to lots of playstyles with appropriate bans in place. It’s also popular, so I think activity wouldn’t be as much of an issue as it would be with most other metas; and it’s sort of like BH in that it doesn’t really get stale that easily due to the extreme numbers of potential sets.
Thoughts on OMPL VI?
Go
Kois Heliolisks! While I’m sad that we’re out, I enjoyed the journey. I think the memes weren’t as good as OMPL V, but on the flip side there also seemed to be relatively less cancer. Being a manager gives a very different perspective from being a player though.
Were you happy with the draft?
Mostly. Over time the realization dawned that we had bought a few too many AAA players, which didn’t help either the team or their personal feelings of being necessary. We also didn’t have enough subs. That being said, I’m really happy with the people we did buy.
If you could redo it, what would you do differently?
Honestly, no offense to Adrian, but I would have bought someone else at that point in the draft. It wasn’t an efficient use of our funds to buy another AAA main, especially not for 9k when we had… I think 13.5k left. With that money I woulda liked to buy help building for Stresh, in his first big team tour, and they could preferably have worked with Gl Volkner and played during his biweekly breaks, and possibly shored up our lack of AG subs as well, but that’s asking a lot for one person. I suppose we could also have bought more than one person there, as I sort of underestimated the value of having large teams, lots of subs, and lots of teammates to bounce ideas off of.
Are you happy with your performance?
I think it can be improved upon. But I know I tried as hard as I could to keep the team motivated, in a winning spirit, and having fun, so I can’t be that unhappy. Hopefully I learned some lessons from this time if I decide to manage again. I did my best, I have no regrets.
The long wait between OMPL and OMGS is about to begin, if you could choose a third tour to slot in here, what would it be?
There’s been talk about the OM version of a World Cup of Pokémon, and that sounds cool. But what I would really like to see is a tour that gives some of the ‘second tier’ metas a chance to see some real competitive play. All our major tours feature the same selection of metagames, and I think it would be great if we gave some of our less played metas a chance to have an actual competitive scene beyond OMotM / LCotM and small forum tours.
Can you provide a niche set from your favourite OM and describe what it does?
I’m going to pretend mashups count and drop and AAA Ubers set here
Code:
Xerneas @ Choice Band
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Night Slash
This isn’t your normal Xerneas set and shouldn’t be your default. Special Geomancy or Choiced sets are still generally more effective with abilities like Tinted Lens, Mold Breaker, or Magic Bounce. What this set does is lure in common checks and ko them, allowing other Pokémon on your team to take advantage of the holes its broken to sweep. Besides its potential for luring threats it’s also just a good band user, thanks to wide coverage options and having an actual stab option in Pixilate Return.
252 Atk Choice Band Xerneas Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Necrozma-Dusk-Mane: 188-222 (47.2 - 55.7%) -- 78.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Xerneas Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Blissey: 782-920 (120.1 - 141.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Choice Band Xerneas Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Magearna: 175-206 (48 - 56.5%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Xerneas Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Ho-Oh: 400-472 (96.1 - 113.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Pixilate Xerneas Frustration vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Arceus: 256-303 (67.1 - 79.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
GL Volkner asks: Why Drampa as opposed to another Pokemon?
Honestly the name came first. I liked the alliteration, and then the running joke started, and I never bothered to stop it. <3 Drampa tho. It looks doofy and silly and I like being silly.
jasprose asks: What's your opinion on ligma?
The more I Google it the more confused I get so I’m going to pass.
innovamania asks: Do you think boneless wings are just chicken nuggets?
No. Nuggets are lumps of meat that don’t come from an identifiable part of the chicken, and I am aware of how hyper-processed they are with every nibble of their tender flesh. Wings clearly belonged on an avian creature at some point in their history. There’s also usually a difference in size, which effects my experience in consuming the perfectly burnt bird carcass.
That being said I don’t really eat boneless wings much.
Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions!
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
Feel free to ask Drampa questions below!