Project PU Player Of The Week - TSR (Week 11)

TJ

Banned deucer.
is the Smogon Tour Season 34 Championis a Past SPL Championis a Two-Time Past SCL Champion


TSR
Favorite Pokemon: Typhlosion
Most used Pokemon: Clefairy
Most known for: Being a UU guy, occasionally tearin it up in GSC OU and PU
TJ: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself outside of Smogon?
TSR: I'm almost 21, major in chemical engineering and live in Colorado. Between school and working 30+ hours a week, playing Pokemon is really the only hobby i regularly enjoy, but I enjoy anime / manga, longboarding (mostly high-speed stuff), and outdoor stuff like fishing, hunting, and hiking but again, don't get to do that very often.

TJ: Where did you get your name from?
TSR: I first joined Smogon in may 2015 after graduating high school, so keep in mind I was almost 18 at the time. I somehow decided the name ShiningFire08 was a good choice, needless to say, I quickly realized this was pretty silly of me and I decided that I needed to change it ASAP. So looking around for inspiration, I began getting accustomed to the Smogon community as a whole and saw many exceptional players with 3 letter acronyms such as PDC, BKC, and TDK. I was pretty new to internet communities as well, so I decided it must be a cool idea to emulate their epic coolness by changing my own username in a similiar fashion. To this day, TSR doesn't have an offical meaning, though most of my friends on this site regularly call me The Shit Rag

TJ: How and when did you get into competitive Pokemon?
TSR: Nothing all too special really, I had been playing Pokemon since I was a kid, and eventually I wanted more out of the game. I searched the internet, found Smogon right away and gave it a spin, and since then have managed to stick around for almost 3 years now.

TJ: You had a strong individual record in Smogon Exhibition, how do you usually prepare for tournament matches?
TSR: For most games I play in tournaments, I usually try to analyze exploitable tendencies in my opponent's teambuilding and use them to my advantage. I honestly think I'm pretty shaky in the playing department, so I often find myself trying to push advantages in the teambuilder before the game even starts. A good example of this was in my second ever team tour game in UUPL IV, in DPP UU vs my now self proclaimed anime rival Kushalos, where I decided to lead with a Choice Scarf Houndoom with HP Rock, since I saw him leading Moltres literally every week prior (https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4uu-165197 - I lost from being thoroughly outplayed later as well as me not bringing Curse + EQ Registeel). As far as Exhibition was concerned, I didn't really prep hard for any of my opponents outside of Raiza, in which both games I brought some form of offensive Electric-type that could beat Lanturn, since he was often extremely weak to them very often. For most of my games, I decided to work some creative sets into otherwise fairly solid builds since I knew that the rest of the PU pool in the tour didn't have very consistent data on me, and using stuff like Electrium Z Electivire or offensive Articuno could put me in a good position from team preview.

TJ: What were some of the most/least enjoyable aspects of playing in Exhibition?
TSR: Playing in exhibition was really fun on Finch and Kratosmana's team. Despite the army memes, I think they actually ended up drafting a pretty solid lineup. We took a couple weeks to realize that there was a big chunk of people who didn't really care for the tour and we mostly solidified a regular lineup despite us expecting everyone to play in the beginning. The team environment was a lot of fun for us, since with 35+ people in a discord channel there was always someone to cheer you on whenever we were playing. On the other end, no one else really cared about PU on our team, so a lot of the tour I was on my own for building and testing. I never really hopped outside of my comfort zone because of this, but I ended up doing pretty well regardless.

TJ: Do you consider getting back to playing soon, perhaps in PUPL?
TSR: I'll definitely sign up for PUPL, team tours are a lot of fun for me and I tend to try harder during them than I do in individual tours or casual play. Because of me having RUPL, RoAPL, POWC, and soon to be UUPL lined up, I haven't had a lot of time to play other a lot of other tiers outside of ORAS RU, GSC OU, and various (not garbage GSC) UUs. PUPL looks like fun if I can get drafted since I've enjoyed DPP and ADV PUs a lot as well as SM.

TJ: Is there anything you’d like to see freed from BL4?
TSR: Not particularly, I was pretty impartial to the Passimian ban and I don't think PU would be fun in the slightest with Charizard and Gallade running around. On the flipside, I wish PU would get Altaria and maybe Malamar back. Altaria was my go-to glue mon for 90% of my teams if that wasn't obvious from before lmao, and Malamar was pretty good in alpha, very versatile and strong but I never found it too ridiculous to play around (though Quagsire was in the tier at the time too).

TJ: Who do you think will win PU Seasonal?
TSR: Taskr, HJAD, and Teddeh are all super heat, I'd say one on of them has the best shot at winning the whole thing. I know you're still in too, so you've got a pretty good shot as well, best of luck! n_n

TJ: Thanks! Who do you love in Smogon?
TSR: First off, my guys that I talk to pretty much every day: Ark, eden's embrace 's, CKW, and Kreme. They all live on the opposite side of the planet as me or have equally screwed sleep schedules, so talking with them's always nice to unwind after I've been at work and school all day. Obviously can't get everyone in this short blip either, so other guys that have made my time on Smogon a lot better in no particular order: Pak, Sacri', Amaroq, Shiba, Aquadext, YABO, Accelgor, Trace, Bouff, HT, Snowy, ADVANTAGE, my new Italian friends LuckOverSkill , H.M.N.I.P, Renny, amber lamps and the whole Umbreon EGL crew. I am also Eyan 's #1 fan!! Sorry if I forgot anyone!!!

TJ: Favorite movie / tv show?
TSR: I actually don't watch a whole lot of TV since we haven't had any service in my house since I was like 12, but off the top of my head, I will be bingeing the next season of Trailer Park Boys on Netflix as soon as I get the chance.

TJ: Finally, can you provide us a team with a brief explanation of how it works?
TSR:

Eelektross @ Choice Band
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wild Charge
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Miltank @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 172 Atk / 84 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Fire Punch
- Power-Up Punch
- Milk Drink

Mesprit @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Healing Wish

Palossand @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Water Compaction
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Shore Up

Swanna @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Hurricane
- Defog
- Roost

Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled

This is a team I've been screwing around with on ladder and casual roomtours etc lately since I didn't join the current PU seasonal (and probably woulda lost by now anyway). I rolled off an idea 49 had during exhibition of Power-Up Punch Miltank, only I took it one step further and used a fully offensive variant, though gave it a chunk of SpD since Aurorus and Hail in general is super fun to play against. I decided to experiment with CB Eelektross since I find this thing criminally underexplored since it has stupid good coverage and really good offensive stats on both ends of the spectrum, and I've never been a fan in general of the standard Assault Vest set with Volt Switch as its only STAB move. I have Swanna as a solid offensive Defogger that doesn't give up any momentum to Magmortar, which I struggle with defensively (though what team doesn't lmao). Running Pallosand and Clefairy fills out some general defensive roles such as the Rock Resist and catch-all fighting checks. Unfortunately this team requires Clefairy to blanket check things like Drampa and Pyroar, which it's perfectly capable of doing but can get dicey sometimes. It helps to have rocks on Pallosand since I can afford extra utility on Clefairy reminiscent of Clefable's disgusting DPP OU and UU SpD sets. Mesprit is another really spammable mon in the tier too, and Scarf Healing Wish is a great offensive glue for this team since I have Fighting checks out the ass and didn't need it to be a defensive set. No U-turn seems kinda funky to most, I'm aware, but gotta hit those Alolan Sandslash ya feel.

Thanks for your time! As always, if you guys have any questions feel free to ask them below! :blobthumbsup:







 
You own a body pillow, though, TSR...
long story but he's not wrong :blobshrug: probably can't post it here but it's just a cover actually, pm GC#9292 on discord if you wanna see it
He actually owns my heart too, Ark
I love myself a thinkingman :heart_eyes:

favourite exhibition game?
As far as my own, my first game vs Raiza was my favorite since it was the best I played all tour imo, though the favorite team I built was the Substitute + Charge Beam Lanturn squad I used vs Neo, though that was also my least favorite game of mine for obvious reasons. Overall, HJAD vs Kush week 2 was a great game to watch, came really close in the end but it did look like Kush mostly had control of the game in the later stages.
what do u think is underrated in pu?
Alolan Raticate, Electivire, Shiftry, and Normal Silvally all need some more love; I was surprised to see Silvally all the way in D rank since I think SD / Z-Double Edge / Flame Charge / Crunch had some noteworthy potential but maybe less so with Spiritomb around now. Thefatrat is always broken if it hits moves, and Shiftry is pretty versatile as I've run SD, NP, Scarf, and mixed sets (with or without Defog) to reasonable success throughout the generation. Electivire's got strong offensive stats on both sides with a pretty good speed tier and just the coverage it needs to bust through a lot of the tier. Woulda won vs Raiza in playoffs if I was running HP grass imotbhjs.
favourite pu mon to use in UU?
Golduck n Zangoose
In all seriousness, I actually have teams in my builder (albeit old) with Articuno, Pallosand, and Jynx. Loading up Lead Aurorus + Alolan Sandslash veil is always nice for free wins on the ladder too!
pBrit Used
British people use Raikou / Skarm / Miltank / Rest Marowak / DrumLax / Starmie in GSC OU way too much man (more than 0 times)
Tea, Coffee or Hot Chocolate
Tea!!
who do you fuckin hate in smogon
tough one to say who I legit hate on the site but there's a lot of annoying people that blow up their egos on Pokemon Perfect and then think they're hot shit like my favorite man ever Lord Ninjax, and a user named Contact, though he's kinda dead now :blobshrug: there's also Chillshadow who is a friend but lucks me in every game we play all while saying "lmao ez xD" the whole time and it's kind of annoying but I found he does this to literally everyone so I can't be all too mad. When I was a new player, believe it or not, ict actually gave me a lot of encouragement, and I used to really look up to him as a player but since then he well, y'know.
whos the shittiest player uve played
Nothing against the guy but user: WLI was easily the worst player I played off ladder in 2017 (for the USUM UU launch tour + ADV slam thing). These were some pretty frustrating games for me since nothing he did made any sense and he only won a game by using super balanced ADV UU Baton Pass.
 
Do you think the Smogon Exhibition was a success or a failure?
While I do think Exhibition was a pretty quality team tour as a whole, I think that the attitude of the general community didn't really change toward any of the underrepresented tiers, especially PU which is the furthest from any official tour representation since Ubers and LC have been SPL staples for much of the tour's history until recently. Despite the fact that PU is a mostly great tier this gen and has a fairly capable playerbase, it still gets written off as the joke tier a lot of the time, and I can't help but feel that the hastily planned and "throw in all the untiers that aren't in SPL" mentality that Exhibition was certainly didn't help the case. I do hope these tiers, especially PU, can get some justice in the representation deparment soon, but I can't see that happening easily any time in the near future. It's more of a problem with the Smogon community at large, since a huge portion of people on this site take pride in taking time to make themselves feel superior to other groups, and PU has really been the butt of the joke since it's official inception.

Any up and coming PU players?
I acutally think you, allstarapology, and TJ have both made some giant improvements since I first started checking out PU this gen n_n also I've heard LST was robbed in Exhibition too and deserved the slot :< if I could go back and convince my Finch and anti to buy him instead of like, shaneghoul (that completely died and went off Smogon / Discord the day after the draft), I would.

Thoughts on the talk of Mag/Aur/Arch/King/Py?
Magmortar: Good God I hate playing against this thing. Fight Z with or without Taunt tears any defensive mon not named Sliggoo that's slower than it to shreds and with Altaria gone it doesn't even have to bother running HP Ice anymore and slaps bulky waters around for free with HP Grass. Like, the team that I shared above basically relies on offensive pressure to take it out and if someone plays it well it mutilates the main defensive core or decimates Swanna or Miltank on a switch. God forbid I play Specs and it clicks Fire Blast and claims 3 kills (since Clefairy and Miltank don't get OHKOed!). Get this bastard OUT of this tier.
Aurorus: same deal as Magmortar, this thing is plain stupid to try to play against defensively. It shreds most Ice resists either with its sheer power or its essentially perfect coverage with only Earth Power and a Rock STAB. I know it's defensive typing is pretty lackluster but it has a gigantic HP stat with good SpD and passable Defense, so I literally never find myself OHKOing it without rocks damage unless I have a pretty strong 4x SE move to use on it (and that's if i can hit it before it nukes something with Blizzard). Not AS riciculous as Magmortar due to the lack of fancy coverage and Speed but it really makes Hail super riveting to play against and trying to revenge kill a +2 Alolan Sandslash under hail is pretty fun for offense.
Archeops: While I haven't doubted that Archeops is pretty strong in the meta with it's OU-worthy stats, I can't help but feel that it's a little overrated in S rank. Reason for this being is literally the definition of an S-rank Pokemon:
"S Rank: Reserved for Pokemon who can sweep or wall significant portions of the metagame with little support, and Pokemon who can support other Pokemon with very little opportunity cost ("free turns"). Also the home of Pokemon who can easily perform multiple roles effectively, increasing their versatility and unpredictability. If the Pokemon in this rank have any flaws, those flaws are thoroughly mitigated by their substantial strengths." I can't really see Archeops's great stats and wide coverage as enough to really overcome how crippling Defeatist is as an ability. My typical preparation for it usually comes naturally when building and on offensive teams I typically can fit one to three mons that can tank its hits and get it under half HP or cripple it with Wisp / Twave or something of the sort, and from there it's usually never a very constraining threat in theory or from what I know of it in practice.
King(ler? I'm assuming its Kingler since its the only PU-relevant King mon I can think of): lol. Is this mon serious up for potential suspect discussion? I don't know exactly why it suddenly got a ton of hype as soon as USUM gave it Liquidation, since Crabhammer is stronger and still gets the Sheer Force boost ?_? Seriously though, the SD sets don't have any useful priority to keep them from getting forced out by anything that can hit kinda hard and is faster than it (not hard), and Agility sets don't actually bust through defensive cores as well as Kingler supposedly does. Let's not even talk about the problems that occur if you try to run both :bloblul:. All through Exhibition I was admittedly pretty weak to it almost every week but I never once felt the need to go out of my way to prep for it and I never lost specifically to it. Hell it never even crossed my mind as a big threat when building most weeks and I've legitimately never struggled against it. I'd probably say the most consistent set is the Sub 3 Atk set but even then I would say that has its fair set of flaws like trying to midground the offense and balance matchups while not excelling at either, and if I had a say I would rank the mon even lower than it is in B+. Catch me never usin this garbmon lmfao.
Pyroar: Arguably even more annoying for offensive teams to handle than Magmortar thanks to its stupid good Speed tier and strong Normal coverage. Unlike Magmortar though, it's coverage is a lot more constrained, to basically just Hidden Powers and maybe Z-Solarbeam / Z-Sunny Day + Solarbeam and you can actually manage to check Pyroar with Pokemon that are slower than it (even though I didn't do this for a fourth of Exhibition).
also I can't believe I forgot to add this in the part where TJ asked me what mons need to be freed but PU NEEDS SCYTHER BACK
 
What is ur favorite mon in general? Also i love the games I have seen of u.
Listing off some in additon to the Typhlosion line in no particular order, Hydreigon, Volcarona, Grovyle, Ho-oh, Jirachi, Venomoth, Seel and Dewgong, and Murkrow.
Thank you as well! I don't know how many you've watched but I've got a couple embarassing ones too, don't watch those lmfao
 
I'm 100% sure that body pillow cover is of Jotaro's no? NO?

What's your favorite anime?

Do you play any kind of sports?

Aside from the rock songs you suggested me, what/who else do you listen to?

Signup for UPL? Y/N?
 
have you ever worn a durag? if you don't, have you ever considered sporting one?
No, I can't afford to draw more attention to my giant ears by hiding my hair, man.

I'm 100% sure that body pillow cover is of Jotaro's no? NO?

PM GC#2929 on discord if you wanna see it

What's your favorite anime?

Ousama Game hard to pin down a favorite for me and cba to go through I've ever seen, but I can pull a little list of things I think are utterly fantastic like Fate/Zero, Durarara and Baccano! (same author, recommend tf out of both), Shinsekai yori, Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (watched this with friends from smogon, literally :cwl: every episode). There's also some garbage that I can't help but love, like Citrus (the one with the uhh, plot about the two stepsisters, because I read the manga religiously with HT last year and watched the recently aired anime (for the plot) with Kreme every week :bloblul:). Speaking of stuff that aired recently, Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho (where my avi is from atm!!) was amazing and made me really happy every time I watched it. Opting out of a small essay on it for now but I'd highly recommend watching it to just about anyone! I also have a special place in my heart for Golden Time since Kaga Kouko is literal perfection in 2D form, even if the anime itself is impressively mediocre.

Do you play any kind of sports?

Used to play baseball in high school, but that is from a time long since passed... I try to work out regularly but I've been failing at this pretty badly since I started my current job back in September lmao

Aside from the rock songs you suggested me, what/who else do you listen to?

I lowkey don't remember this but I'm usually pretty receptive to all kinds of music except country, I somehow don't get the appeal out of 300000000000 songs about drivin yer truck through the muhd and shit like that. I do kinda have a preference for more chill stuff gerenally since I spend a lot of my time in front of my computer, either doing homework or building playing mons. Not very healthy I know :(

Signup for UPL? Y/N?
I already did and you didn't notice ;________________________;
 

ShuckleDeath

They call me the kign of typos
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnus
also I can't believe I forgot to add this in the part where TJ asked me what mons need to be freed but PU NEEDS SCYTHER BACK
Crabhammer don't get a sheer force boost.

and for my question, who is the best pu ro
 

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