Approved by 5gen & S1nn0hC0nfirm3d | Amazing Art by Albatross
(Interview Date: Friday 10th of September 2021)
Hello everyone and welcome back to "ZU Player of the Week"!, the project where some of ZU's finest community members are interviewed about their Pokemon and personal lives. I am grateful that I have already had the chance to interview so many amazing ZU players and I hope that you'll continue to enjoy these as much as I do. This time around we have one of the best performing SM ZU players in ZUPL so far...
(Free better gifs for Perrserker)
Greybaum!!
Pokemon with best aesthetics:
(PU RO and Council Member, Former ZU %, Former NFE @, QC, and Council, Butterfrees SM ZU Player)
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Perrserker!
*perr*
Howdy Greybaum, how are you doing today?
Going well thanks, always love a Friday. what about you?
I'm doing well myself, just had a nice dinner :>
Did u have work today? Is that why you're happy that it's Friday since you have the weekend off?
Yeah, that about sums it up. another long day but now I've got the weekend to chill
I've got a few tours to plan for too, so it'll be nice to get those out of the way
Ah that's great haha. good luck on those tours as well
Thanks :) I'm actually down to 3 tours now including ZUPL so it's a lot less hectic than it was a week or two ago
Drud is letting me do my own thing with ZUPL for the most part which is nice, I'm having a lot of fun going back and exploring the meta again with some of the knowledge I lacked back when it was a current gen tier
Ah ye I never got how players manage to play in so many tours at once
Drud's strategy definitely seems to be paying off, since you're already off to a great start in SM ZU
How did you first get into SM ZU back when it was the current gen tier?
Honestly that's such a distant memory, I'm really not too sure. back when I started playing Pokemon competitively, Pokemon Showdown didn't even exist - at the time we were all on a largely-forgotten website by the name of Shoddy Battle. I casually played NU with a bunch of people nobody except me remembers like XMellllorX, and after a 2 generation gap (I didn't like a lot of the gen5 mechanics changes) I came back and found myself in PU, so while I can't say for sure how I found ZU I imagine I started playing it for the same reason a lot of people do. i was probably curious about what it was like to play a metagame where "the worst" Pokemon were used.
I've pretty much always found myself playing the bottom tier, whatever it is at the time
Ah that's neat. Nowadays I assume you play a fair bit more current gen PU since you've did pretty well in some of the recent tours but you still dabble in ZU. Does that also mean we get SU main Greybaum in the distant future?
Yeah PU is definitely my main tier - I'd hope so, too, seeing as how I'm council on it now.
In truth I probably won't ever play SU - I think it's great that people are experimenting and finding new ways to use traditionally neglected Pokemon, but I personally don't think there's enough juice to enjoy when you're scraping that far down the barrel, if you get what I mean. even if you look at official tiers, they all have 10-30 less Pokemon than they did last generation, and getting a chance to go back to Gen 7 ZU has really reinforced this idea in my mind; building feels so much more free than it does in current gen, and I don't think I can bring myself to try a tier with even less options when it comes to role compression.
I think Pokemon like Skuntank, Tangela, Rotom, and the other Rotom are starting to become good examples of that - SSZU has a real longevity problem. there aren't any consistent ways to deny voltturn, status that might be a minor issue in other tiers become debilitating here, and so on, but that's a bigger conversation to have probably haha
Wow quite a lot to digest here.
I wasn't aware you were on PU council now, grats! Was this recent?
Happened this Monday! it came out of the blue but I'm honoured I was chosen
Ah it must have been well deserved tho
I very much understand that opinion on lower tiers, admittedly I've kinda just been playing a lot of the lowest tiers since that's what my friends end up playing but from what I've seen you do have significantly far less options due to the reduced pool of Pokemon. I think SS ZU kinda has a problem where you kinda end up forced to run a lot of the same stuff in order to cover everything. A lot of our ideal breakers lack recovery, Tangela is a Pokemon that can cheat a lot in builder since it blanket checks things especially if you have a knock absorber, and our grounds are kinda awkward against pivot spam.
This is why I normally leave this kind of thing to people like you and kay. you're far more eloquent than I am. but yeah, that pretty much sums it up for me
I think that's a good that while we obviously do have our differences in opinions, we're often roughly on the same page for our debates lmao
Backtracking to SM ZU quickly I wanted to ask if you had a favourite metagame when it was current gen, and right now you've already mentioned you enjoy the freedom of the metagame, are you willing to share some of your favourite Pokemon/styles to use in the tier?
When SM ZU ended, I think my favourite metagame was just before Exeggutor got unbanned and Shiftry got banned. the funny thing with Shiftry is, while it was absolutely broken, there were a lot of defensive answers but they also happened to have to use a z move to answer it. this indirectly meant my Shiftry counterplay was almost always the first thing I looked at and something I built into my offensive core; if I'm building around Rockium Crustle, Flyinium Swanna, for example, I knew I'd have to use a Silvally form, or occasionally something like Mawile to answer it, and if I wanted to build around something that didn't benefit from a z move like SubSD Bouffalant or CB Komala i'd always have more flexibility with, again, Silvally etc. but also with z-users like Rapidash, Altaria, Rotom-S, Leafeon etc. and it'd always be the next thing I'd look at. Eggy in comparison is a slow breaker and never winning games in the same way, but defensively there's pretty much nothing you can use except Bronzor and a few really niche sets like AV Bouff, spdef invested Pawniard/Mawile, or just pokemon like vullaby, so Exeggutor ends up feeling way more unhealthy despite being a notably worse Pokemon.
Going back to the actual question, though, my favourite metagame nowadays is the current one. as I mentioned earlier, I consider myself a better builder and a better player than i was back then, so exploring all these cool pokemon like power up punch Trevenant, SubSD Silvally-Dragon, and defensive Wishiwashi has been a blast. there's also all the old staples people might know me for, like bulky Shell Smash Crustle, CB Furfrou, and physdef Sandslash which i love to use because of how much pressure they can output beyond just being a generic breaker/wall
I think Furfrou in particular has had a fantastic transformation. to this day it still has a line alluding to being what is essentially noob-bait on the VR: Posts like ‘Furfrou should go to B because it can use Cotton Guard and has Fur Coat’ will be deleted and possibly infracted." but ever since people realised it could run CB and chunk things while also blanket checking half the physical attackers in the tier AND acting as psuedo-speed control by outpacing some of the scarier breakers in the tier (Swanna, elemental monkeys) it's been seen in an entirely new light
h that's really cool to hear, glad ur enjoying current SM ZU though. I've never really played it much but it's always interesting to see Pokemon/strategies from a newer gens being used in older ones; maybe the resources for SM aren't the most updated but I remember when I had to write the Wishiwashi analysis for current gen. Th qc team were debating whether TR was an oo for this gen whereas it seems to have been one of the main sets back in gen 7 but nowadays it seems like defensive is being used as well so i wonder whether the increased experience and building knowledge played a factor in the advancements in the metagame this PL. It's also pretty funny a mon like Furfrou is great in the tier. There have been numerous Pokemon in different Pokemon which are noob baity (i know this from my experience as an NFE TL and Pikachu) and how Pokemon can often get overlooked because of the stigma around them or how they tend to be one of the first Pokemon newer players tend towards.
Also I feel like Z moves while arguably broken in the eyes of some, definitely opened up a lot of freedom and kinda distinguishes gen 7 and gen 8, where you have a lot more options and this really cool way to make progress in a battle, whereas current gen can sometimes feels kinda clunky
Oh absolutely. I think HDB removing our ability to progress through hazards is a massive change too, although we've seen some variations of offense like kay's classic triple bug team from Centiskorch meta playing around with this concept and focusing on how people often have gaping holes in their defensive options if you're able to knock off said boots
Personally I quite liked z moves and I wouldn't mind having them back. hidden power can absolutely stay dead though.
lol it'll be interesting to see what they would do with unown
and ye the triple bug team was wild, shame Centi's gone lol
haha yeah, hidden power is probably coming back unfortunately - i read some speculation that the cut moves were all linked to how their power was variable and possible conflicts with dynamax moves. obviously couldn't say for sure but that'd suggest it wasn't a stylistic change and they're probably ready to bring those cut moves back soon
In a perfect world they'd just give Unown Psywave
loool
It'll for sure be interesting to see how it changes the metagame along with the new Pokemon, hopefully it'll shift it in the right direction
As for current gen, Rotom-Frost was a topic that's on the rise given how well it breaks a lot of defensive cores at the moment, do you have any thoughts on the matter? Not sure if you experienced the Rotom-Frost metagame back in SM ZU, wondering how much of a nightmare it must be for players who have been around long enough to see it again lmao.
Thankfully I dodged the Rotom-Frost/Stoutland meta last gen and never had to experience it. to be honest with NFEPL, ZUPL, and now building PU teams for SCL I've not had much time to play ZU since Grilvally got banned so i'm afraid i don't have much of an opinion to share - but I will say I definitely forgot it had base 105 spatk until I calc'd how much tbolt did to spdef Miltank earlier, whoo boy. part of me struggles to think any Pokemon that relies on blizzard for its secondary STAB can be considered unhealthy, but honestly i have so much faith in kay and his knowledge of this tier at this point that if he thinks it should be banned I'm de facto inclined to agree.
ah ye blizzard not hitting is always fun and that's fair enough lmao
Honestly, a lot of Rotom-Frost being problematic has to do with us not having many options for defensive cores in the first place so the standard grass-ground-water get torn apart
That's my take on it anyways
Yeah I agree with that, that and boots, anyway. I keep bringing it up but that item really did so much for our voltturners
Crazy how it's become as generation defining as z-moves were
Ye it's kinda insane items have become better than something like leftovers over the past few generations
You kinda touched on it earlier, but overall how well would you say your ZUPL experience is going so far?
After this week it looks like we're out of playoff contention, but honestly it's been going great. Drud lets me do whatever I want and I've got beksel to double check my builds to make sure I haven't missed something stupid. it's been a real nostalgia trip getting to play this tier for the first time since the very first ZUPL. I've had to throw out about half of my amazing ideas since I couldn't get them into a team I felt comfortable using but I plan to revisit them and I have a few other cool techs still to bring out. there's also been the fun rivalry with kay where it looks like I'm ending up helping the flamencos soon but I'm hoping we get to be on the same team from day 1 eventually. also durza's a clown for those upbids. s/o Drud for picking me up.
Ah ye that's slightly unfortunate but I'm still excited to see what you end up bringing in future weeks
and ye I'd say I'm relatively well informed with durza's draft plan and how that went down loool
aha yeah, figures you of all people would be
mhm works out well since im the local journalist and the local basketball spending time on 3 different teams
If trades were allowed past w1, who knows how many teams I woulda ended up on LOL
And seems fun to have that kinda rivalry/banter. kay is also willing to adopt me again if my team ends up going out before playoffs
Drud made it pretty clear early on he wasn't going to trade anyone on the Butterfrees unless he was given a ludicrously good offer. he seemed to get pretty much everyone he wanted
Ah that's nice, especially for the team environment
Yeah I'm a bit of an exception but a lot of the people on the team have worked with each other in other PLs so there's some nice chemistry going on
I see, that's pretty cool.
Moving away from mons now, could you tell me a bit about yourself (in general)?
Sure. I'm 24, work remotely from home doing tech support, and most of my spare time is spent indoors especially since we've got a pandemic going on now. when I'm not playing mons or talking about mons I'm usually listening to music, reading manga, or watching pro wrestling. there's also the odd twitch stream or two I tune into on occasion. I've also kept in touch with a handful of people from a previous job I worked at and we hang out weekly on discord watching anime, playing games, or just chilling in vc which has been a pretty nice way to get the social engagement up
There's also obviously the people from smogon like kay, durza, specs, sketchy ecchi etc. who are all great fun to be around
Ah that's pretty neat, what sorta music do you tend to listen to?
I really like to spread it out based on my mood for the day. some of my favourites include punk rock (Jeff Rosenstock, Dollar Signs), folk punk (Days N' Daze, AJJ), indie pop (The Japanese House, Whales Talk) and synth pop (Porter Robinson). I'm sure as you remember I'm a big fan of sea shanties and Forebitters too. I think the human voice is a really beautiful instrument and sometimes the minimalist style of a simple vocal melody with maybe some drums or an accordion exemplifies that better than anything else can.
Wow, certainly quite the variety. I'm also well aware that you like sea shanties cause u used to name a fair few of your teams with sea shanties lmao.
Pretty cool take tho on the minimalism
Absolutely. I've branched out a bit more this PL but I'll bring them back
lmao looking forward to it
In general do you prefer reading manga or watching anime, what are some of your favourites from each?
I think the best anime is always going to be better than the best manga, but most of the time I'll go with manga. There's a lot more out there and it's also way more digestible when I can sit down for 5 minutes to read a chapter instead of dedicating 30 minute chunks. I'm also a fast reader, so it's nice to be able to blast through 60 chapters of something new in a single evening if I feel like it. When it comes to my favourites I could talk for ages but I'll try to narrow it down to 3 of each
For anime: samurai flamenco is an anime-original show that had a massive impact on me as a person a few years ago. the story is pretty simple and the anime itself had a low budget resulting in a few production errors (mostly fixed in the blu ray release) but it'll always have a soft spot in my heart and if I ever get a tattoo it'll probably be related in some way. for the synopsis, it's about a regular guy that tries to become a superhero, and his policeman best friend trying to dissuade him. there's also barakamon, a story about a calligrapher who visits a rural island to reinvent himself, and kaiji, a two-season anime about a gambler who gets thrusted into an awful amount of debt and has to go through... I guess you'd call them survival games? But they're all centred around game theory and human philosophy, and as you can tell I've got a bit of a theme going with anime that look at human behaviour/self reflection. also a special shoutout to pui pui molcar, a series of 3 minute claymation shorts I've fallen in love with recently about guinea pig/car morphs.
For manga, I've been using a specific image from fire punch as my avatar for a while now and while it means nothing out of context, in context it's the most meaningful manga panel I've ever come across. a cult classic manga created by the same dude who made the more-popular chainsaw man and I'll forever love it. in a similar vein there's oyasumi punpun, which I think is better read going in blind so I won't talk about it, and "I sold my life for ten thousand yen per year.", a self explanatory manga about a guy who literally sells away his lifespan for money and tries to make the most of three days he has left
I'd highly recommend everything I mentioned here. sorry about the extensive answer haha, I've got a lot of love to share for these though
No worries, love the detail in this answers. I'll definitely be sure to check these out once i finishing watching a bunch of other things but they'll be for sure added to the list. I actually haven't read all that much manga personally since im extremely lazy and even reading mostly drawings is too much effort for me when compared to anime LOL
I felt the same but trust me when you get into it it's way easier to just lie back and read
ah fair enough
I'll give it a go
I've never really watched pro wrestling so I've always wanted to know from a fan, what parts of it appeal to you the most and is there anyone you're a big fan of?
"Everything" is the cliche answer, but it's the truth. the theatrics, the athletics, the characters, and the stories that go into it. like all things, it's bad at times, but when pro wrestling is good, it's the best. I think a big part of it is how it's a constantly evolving medium, where stories and characters will cross paths in epic moments that rarely ever happen outside of marvel movies. it goes beyond the one show as well - in the past year we've had some of the bigger companies in the world making talent exchanges and creating something really special. for my favourites, I want to go with the Lucha brothers, a pair of masked, real life brothers who put out some of the best wrestling I've ever seen. they won the AEW tag championships last Sunday in a cage match and if someone wants to try out pro wrestling i think that whole show is a great place to start. while we're on the subject of pro wrestling I also want to make a point that WWE is synonymous with pro wrestling in the same way UFC is synonymous with MMA, but to be blunt it's been awful for years, mostly on the writing side, and I would've quit pro wrestling if not for AEW starting up 2 years ago now. i really can't stress enough that if someone reading has tried pro wrestling and didn't enjoy it, that they should probably make sure they just didn't dislike WWE. back to AEW though, some of my other favourites include Jon moxley, Pac, Thunder Rosa, Cero Miedo, and "hangman" Adam Page, an alcoholic cowboy going through a self-discovery arc right now.
Ah ye, for sure as an outsider WWE is definitely the main one you'd hear about but it's definitely good to hear that AEW picked up the slack
thanks for such a detailed answer
A weirder question now, I'd like to say you're pretty well versed when it comes to bakes (mainly because of the cornish pasty stuff avatar stuff). Do you have a top 3 favourite when it comes to savoury foods?
Cornish pasty, pretzel (only the small ones, big ones are awful)... does pizza count? I think it's too sweet to count so I'll go with sausage rolls. If we were talking about sweet pastries it'd easily be a cherry bakewell though, they're a perfect dessert
No idea if pizza counts loool but regardless all you answers are delicious
Haven't had a lot of them in a while tho haha
All in moderation :)
Yes indeed
Towards the end of this interview now, would you mind dropping a team that best represents your style? And explain some of your thoughts when making it.
Sure! Here's the team I used for week 2 vs rav3ndan -
So for a quick backstory, back in ZUPL I beat Durza's player with a pretty nasty team centered around Curse Trevenant with Toxic Spikes support - I think most people reading this will be familiar with it by now, but if not, check out a fruitshop owner's player of the week interview - he posted it there. anyway, the team was 90% me, but I got some help on it from rav3ndan (and sketchy ecchi). Seeing as how I already beat a durza player with Trevenant once, and I knew Rav would immediately fear the tree when he saw it, I wanted to try and do something different by using natural cure to take advantage of Pokemon I know Rav likes to use like Bronzor/Mareanie/Torterra. I mulled over Nasty Plot for a while but was convinced by sketchy ecchi to swap to power up punch since the difference in initial damage was so huge. I also wanted to bring Poliwrath because I feared Rav would bring nasty plot taunt Simipour or something to abuse how often I used Mareanie. the rest of the team fell into place pretty quickly; Electivire was my speed control and lured in ground-types like Torterra and Golem for Trev to switch into, Komala is a weird semi-offensive set that can spread knock off and spin away hazards without dying to Tspikes, bronzor is my Eggy answer, and my traditional fat Crustle rounded off the team by giving me another softcheck to Electivire, Spikes to help out Trev & Poliwrath force switches, and some additional breaking power. the team went pretty well I think.
Awesome team, looks like a ton of fun and I think you showcased it really well in your game last week. There are a lot of interesting and unique sets here and I just really like the way you kinda put it all together.
I also cant wait to beat Toto again in a SM ZU roomtour with this team :D
Last but not least, any shoutouts that you'd like to give or any final remarks in general?
Yeah, shoutout in no particular order to DurzaOffTopic, kay, sketchy ecchi, Quagg, LPY, and of course yourself for being great pals to me. also s/o to Drud for drafting me
Oh, and last but not least Specs, for reminding me to brush my teeth
Thanks n~n for the s/o
and thanks again for taking the time to answer all these questions
No problem! have a great evening!
Feel free to ask to Greybaum any questions you want!
