hey everyone thanks for the questions!
hi hi hiii can you tell the ice cube man story on forums
alright im gonna do it. for those who havent seen it this story is pretty crazy so be warned
so at the end of my senior year of high school, the school had this party for all the seniors (some ppl said it was to avoid the kids having their own parties with drugs/alcohol, which makes sense to me). we all got on a bus and we weren't allowed to use our phones on the trip (unless emergency), thought this was kinda weird but in retrospect it made sense
we went to this 1 place that was like a casino except it didn't use real money so we could play like card games and stuff without it being illegal. i remember the music was rly loud and the lights were very erratic so i could barely see or hear the dealer. anyway, after this was over they brought in a hypnotist. he hypnotized 12 people and put em in chairs at the front of the room for the rest of the class to watch. i wasnt one of the initial 12 picked but i followed along with his instructions and became hypnotized so he brought me up there to replace one of the people in the chairs who didn't want to do it.
i know u guys might be skeptical but this guy was the real deal. he could genuinely alter mental states and people's actions by just saying some words. a lot of wacky stuff went on in those chairs, i'll just say that it's a pretty good thing that no one in the audience had their phone. for 1 of the acts, he was like "you have become a superhero. tell us what your superhero name is and what your power is." my answer was "ice cube man" and my power was, quote, "i have ice cubes". after it was over a lot of the guys were like high fiving me and saying they really liked the show, so that was cool. told hba about it and zovrah gave me the "ice cube man" role, it's been on me ever since
What are the best and worst SM BH replays you have saved?
love this meta cause there are so many good games with interesting lines and a lot of different paths. its more fun now than its ever been imo
best:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-1192831495 this was a neat game vs chessking. the key turns here are diancie being traded for yveltal. before that i'd outplayed a bit w getting rocks up and stuff, but taking out yveltal was actually brilliant for chess and gave him a route to victory aided by good calls like keeping fc chans healthy for lategame. chess made terrible pokemon like ultra and chansey look really good in this fast-paced game of trades, i was impressed by him.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-1157270846 gen 7 bh cup vs pdt, g1. i think this is a great example of how to beat a fatter balance team, in this case by dominating the hazard war with pixilate xern while using imposter to force the opponent to be aggressive with their own xern. i kinda screwed around a bit with kyub letting it get burned, but it wasn't a super important mon in the endgame anyway especially once pdt was unable to defog without taking away his only wincon.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-1201699218 semi-serious bo3 vs anaconja. i'd post g2 here (which he won) as well but the replay for that was unfortunately lost even though i specifically remember clicking save replay. pretty textbook with playing to set up a lategame sweep, but what made this game stand out imo was how i played around girao here
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-1182122887 i always love playing vs lazzerpenguin, esp with immortal smoke cause we always talk about all the possible lines after and it's so much fun, but this team was also really fun to use here. it's inconsistent but the matchup was good enough to allow ~mystery arceus~ to unveil itself lategame and win in a stylish fashion
worst:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-1199050466 this is from a roomtour. my opponent had the youtuber team but made a couple modifications so it was actually really dangerous to me and the game turned out really close. my viable mons did nothing so i was forced to rely on the unviable ones lol. entertaining watch but this was such a stressful game to play
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-1173770465 this was kinda gross, also from a friendly. the team i was using was just not fulfilling or good at all, similar to the icespam except i dont even get to use cool mons like aurorus. i just couldnt do anything vs mmx longterm and had no gameplan especially cause yveltal sucked
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-1173199886 speaking of the icespam, here's it winning in a blitz roomtour except it doesn't win because i choke and don't think thru trick enough (kyuw won if he got tricked). gar getting confused from the figy berry was really funny though
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-1182082356-enid5j4m32wbcatxvi4z5mi1df2b5lppw i dont hate om but i wonder about him sometimes
see also: any replay from before mray ban. pre-mray ban sl42 has 2 moods: popping off cause breaker got a good matchup, and getting mad cause breaker got a bad matchup
What are the best and worst SS BH replays you have saved?
best:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1186962555 ok huhshrug actually did outplay here, ive seen him win from much less impressive playing so that was a bit refreshing for me.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1193857226 buttons
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1116065084 it was fun to play around with drum null here, pretty neat mon although i wish the team was just a bit more consistent
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1128080301-mzvxu1va494spd397fyciy08yt3q9tzpw pretty epic game, this is what the semis game vs hl wouldve looked like if he didnt bring an actually good team
worst:
quick claw chronicles
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1186425439-uh1t5mrpaxgbtqf7y21ottcwfl009d1pw this was just a really boring game. even if My Prejudices did eventually pick up a win, this game kinda embodies many of the issues i have with ss bh. playing rps for 100 turns is fine on its own, but when offense is bad and that's the only way to play, it's stupid.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1116041110 on the other end of the spectrum, here's this game. although i was glad to take home the w for my team at the end of the day, this game was just brutal for me. it was really just about 40 minutes of absolute stress and feeling a lack of control or understanding over the game. i had no idea where the accumulated advantages from both sides were coming from. even mamp clicking x at the end was completely out of the blue for me cause i saw etern lava plume as something i possibly couldnt handle. in retrospect i think i played it really well, but for me this is where fun and competition diverged.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1187696722 this was iirc g3 vs andyboy in seasonal. im not about to claim that he didnt outplay me or that there was nothing i could've done in like builder, but this just felt really hard to play for me with zekrom just being near unbeatable lategame no matter what i did. i think one of the ugly truths of bh is that sometimes the "optimal" stuff isn't used a lot in environments like friendlies, but when it is used in high-stakes games it can lead to a one-sided mess, like that ompl 7 game where i lost to mamp's specs ray + shed cause my counterplay was spectral ice beam chans.
What are the best and worst NDBH replays you have saved? Imagine playing this meta haha
ok so a few days ago i created
natdex bh wishkiller and instantly ran into dimrah on ladder. he was using stall so the game lasted like 220 turns. he was like 10 turns away from winning with judgment fireceus when the server crashed so i didnt lose any elo. dont have the replay for obvious reasons but that was by far my best natdex bh experience
not really, my dad and brother (2 years younger than me) followed the nba playoffs a lot more than i did. i like playing very casually with my friends/brother and a while back i did fencing for a couple years which was fun.
What will you study if you go back to school?
my original choice was computer science cause im really interested in artificial intelligence + game design which both use it. that said im also interested in math as a whole as well as some other stem things like chem so i might consider those as well
Why do you think we were the only matchup in BH OMPL to do a best of three?
we are both very handsome and wished to have more time to admire each other
What is one BH OMPL matchup that you wish would have played a best of three?
maybe the week vs df shock? idk. i went into that ompl with the mindset that bo3 is better, but in practice it was nice having less stressful games and less unique teams to have to come up with (although that applies to both sides tbf, so if you can get it working youre in good shape). theres definitely a case to be made for bo3 though and theres prob an alternate universe where i faced off with pdt in a bo3 that was awesome
If I'd managed to win the bo3 SM BH friendly we played a while back, what is at least one of the interview questions you would have asked me?
yo being honest i was gonna ask you questions anyway but just procrastinated directly to hell so my bad on that 1 lol. starting is definitely the hardest thing to do when writing up interview questions for me, once i have my brain in that space of writing em up its much easier. anyway heres some questions i got
how would you describe your own playstyle?
what culture shifts did you notice in the bh ladder between gen 7 and gen 8?
in gen 7 bh, what do you think is the most traditionally "wall"-like mon that you would run without a recovery move? like where would you draw the line
did you really call user What How a "cringe beta cuck" when asked about a potential right-wing bias in the balanced hackmons council?
how do you be cool in natdex bh?
is there any bh player that you actively dislike? (you dont have to specifically name them)
what are your thoughts on the future of bh/oms? do you care whether or not the community grows?
Is there a particular mon in SM BH that you've tried to make viable but never succeeded? If so, what held back its success?
the one that definitely comes to mind first here is naganadel, i really liked his design (i even have a plushie) and all the other ultra beasts had at least some development, so i wanted to give it a serious try. used sets like specs adapt and dazzling tg but neither really worked (i almost beat lance with tg tho cause he sacked 2 mons to it but then he got 2 1 turn sleeps lategame to win which was very frustrating).
outside of that, got a few guys. mawilite mawile stands out as a mon that kinda works on some teams, but has a lot of issues with lack of bulk and speed and getting stopped by steels/don/imposter depending on ur coverage. at best the mon kinda works. lunala is also a mon i tried with qd dazzling, but it's just so hard to make it work when you absolutely have to set up first (unlike gar) and your opponent knows that. also played around with some xurk sets but didn't really get anywhere, hes slow and bad and resists nothing. finally, magic bounce articuno looked really cool on this 1 team, but it kinda didn't really work in practice, although snow warning is a fine set imo so idk if that counts. in general most of the guys i try are viable somewhere, although sometimes not on the initial team, like bugceus and aurorus
something that might surprise you is a couple years ago i had no idea how to use pdon cause i hated running breakers that got walled by anything. i actually requested a team w it in secret santa and got this very slow team with moldy rocks/judgment resh + anchor don + 4 walls (
link). it was still very confusing to me but i was able to work things out eventually
Dumbest tech you’ve used that’s worked?
if you have higher standards for "worked" it's probably a game like
this, where my stupid tech worked and everyone just stopped taking the game seriously (game vs sugarhigh in ompl7 is prob also a decent example). outside of that heres some really, really stupid stuff ive used recently out of context
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Entrainment
- Extreme Speed
- U-turn
- Recover
espeed has won me 2 separate games out of less than 10 total with this team. pretty good track record id say
Volcarona @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Mystical Fire
- Roost
- Acid Spray
very funny set. mystical fire is for xern, acid spray is for xern, rocks are for everyone else. this guy is mainly a kyuw improof but he can get things done in his spare time, like beat xern
the dog (Houndoom-Mega) @ Choice Band
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- V-create
- Knock Off
- Ice Hammer
the dog. niche is that you pursuit trap fire/fairy/psychic mmy. he has base 90 attack which is hilariously bad but you can pretend he doesn't if you click the funny cb tc stab 180 power move.
Shaymin @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Grass Knot
- Leech Seed
- Power Gem
hooh is typically the only guy that can threaten this offensively and defensively simultaneously, so you run coverage especially for him. leech seed is surprisingly strong if you land it on a steel or something that wants things to go a bit differently than they currently are
Dumbest tech you’ve used that didn’t work?
Darkrai @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Knock Off
- Venoshock
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder
this guy. this guy right here. it looks like it has coverage but it actually doesnt, you lose to ogre, gira, zyg, and many others
Firefly Phenomenon (Arceus-Fire) @ Buginium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Sunsteel Strike
- Megahorn
- Swords Dance
"i wanna use bugceus, bug stab is cool especially boosted, but he has to beat xern! i'll just sacrifice recovery to run coverage for him and shed. good thing there are no other pokemon in the game, and if there were they would never resist bug"
Most desperate tech you’ve used for the broken shit in gen8 BH?
zamac. never wanted to use st*el types again but alas they have forced my hand
(my prejudices probably takes the cake, in ompl for smash it was scarf snow warning kyuw + scarf zekrom. in general i havent been building seriously too frequently cause it isnt very rewarding for me. imagine building a team and it loses to zekrom anyway. shoutouts my prejudices)
How do you come up with the ideas for your innovative builds?
- what unique things does this mon do?
- are these unique things worth running this slot? (basically, slow mons and ones with less defensive utility/longevity get punished here)
- he might be good in the builder but is he good in the game? like when you send him out, what situations can you expect to encounter? how much can your opponent restrict this guy?
- if you run into a bad matchup with the mon, how reliably can you cover it with the team? have noticed this is a lot harder in gen 8 but in gen 7 you can go crazy with this, like moldy spikes miracleseed vcreate kart making up for basically all of kyuw's offensive issues
- how well do the mons that synergize well with this synergize with each other? a great example of this is any of my good shed teams where you can take any 2 mons and they have meaningful interactions, another good example imo is
this team. ph thunder/sap ogre obv has issues with like pdon regenvest and gira. the next 2 guys girao and wigglytuff interact well w this, +atk smash gira can provide a strong offensive check to fat dragons, even prank variants thanks to core, and weaker regenvesters like ogre hate dealing with strong spectrals, while defensively you counter pdons meant to stick around and beat mmx. wigglytuff can underspeed pretty much every regenvest, imposter proofs girao, gives secondary ph xern counterplay, switches into core and gira in general, and provides rain for ogre which massively helps it vs soft checks like ph xern, normals, zyg, and yveltal. you can go further with the other 3 mons (dynamics like duskmane potentially landing toxic on pdon and being improofed by ogre) but im sure you get the point by now. the point is, most ideas are garbage by themselves and need good building to actually shine
- in case that was too much, becoming more experienced with the meta will help you determine which ideas are good and which ones are bad. what you see in tournaments are only the very best ideas, 1 in 30 or even 50 and i can't tell you how many ideas get rejected subconsciously. i don't have inherently better ideas i don't think, i just think about bh more. don't try super hard if it isn't fun though, bh isn't for everyone
- in general, my building process aims to balance out everything. running 3 fire weak mons and then having a gira or ff slapped on doesnt really work for me because not only can you run into bad matchups (chicken vs gira, 50% of pokemon in the game vs ff), you have much less flexibility in how you get to play when you're forced to be going into this mon every time. it's much more comfortable when you can afford to lose a mon or two and still have a mostly functional and structurally sound team after. build around not losing the game, instead of not losing pokemon
- bh gives you a looooooot of freedom. use it even if it doesnt work or sounds incredibly stupid. even i still have a ways to go in sm bh building
- just build it's fun as hell when u dont lose
If you could ban one thing from BH (any gen/meta) that isn't broken but you would still like to see gone, what would you choose?
good question. probably drum if im being honest. it feels a lot like standard tiers bp in that it's a very inconsistent strategy, but i've lost to it after making close to zero mistakes in the game just cause of the specific matchup it got. sleep/smash/species spam are kinda similar to this imo but not quite as bad.
Have you played or considered playing any meta besides BH?
i started out as a classic hackmons player back in 2014 cause it was funny and i liked beating ladder players with shuckle and jolteon and i also liked beating ladder players in general (couldnt do this in ou). after that i moved to maining ou in 2016 and trying to get into the tournament scene, i still do smogtours on occasion and typically lose at about r3. have tried a few old gens and built some meme teams for mnm and camo. overall, though, bh is just a lot more fun for me cause i'm already good at it to the extent that i'm aware of a vast pool of things i don't know. all ou would provide for me is funny trophy and more people congratulating me on things, which doesn't really seem worth the effort of playing wish teleport meta
What are some similarities/differences in playing melee and mons competitively?
i wouldn't necessarily say the skill cap is higher in melee, i think the skill cap in mons is waaaaay higher than lots of people think and i believe both are out of our reach. that said, the skill pool in melee is much deeper, even though most melee players are pretty casual they can still get things done, and the overall playerbase is just much bigger than over here. as for gameplay wise, i don't really understand melee super well if i'm being honest, but one notable difference i see is that in melee, your level of control over your character until you die for the last time makes it feel much more free, which sounds good on paper but can be rough when you lose, while in mons you can get away with piloting teams that require only a basic understanding of the metagame and achieve some decent success even without exerting that same level of control. on the fundamental rps level though the games feel quite similar. socially i've noticed melee players care a lot about discussing mentality and there's also the irl aspect, which i do wish mons had more of. we have a lot of cool online social stuff though so im not complaining too much
hope this wasn't too long!!!!!