Approved by Sweep
Based on other Player of the Week threads
Shoutouts Gunner Rohan for leaving me alone with this project
Based on other Player of the Week threads
Art by NicoReaper
Welcome everyone to Ubers Player of the Week! n_n This will be a weekly project where I interview well known players to try and see into their mind a bit. If anyone has any suggestions on who I should interview, feel free to shoot me a PM. Anyways, lets get to it!
absdaddy
Favourite Pokemon:
Garchomp, both competitively and in general. Like many other people, I got my butt handed to me on a silver plate by Cynthia's Chomp back in the day so I had to get myself one aswell. It's a mean beast and it's viable competitively in my favourite metagame, Generation 4 ubers. What's not to like about it?
Most Known For:
Playing excellent in team tournaments performing well at gen 4 ubers in Ubers Premier League, being the cutest Ubers room auth(that's what he said) but he's also a person who have been in community for a while and have been through a lot of changes!
Tell us a little about yourself.
I'm your typical 24 year old guy, employed, good looking, that kinda stuff. My hobbies include Motorcycle Speedway (a niche sport, check it out!), tinkering with various Android smartphones, collecting videogames and reading military fiction books. I'm also an audiophile - can't imagine myself living without any sorts of music but like any other audiophile i tend to put too much emphasis on the actual sound quality. I also play 3D fighting games competitively (tekken, soul calibur - never really won anything big other than one regional SC2 tournament but that's where my competitive spirit came from)
Where did you get your name from?
It's kind of an interesting story since it has nothing to do with 'abs' muscles. My original name was actually Abstract Daddy, and that's a monster from one of my favourite games/series of all time, Silent Hill 2. The monster and its symbolism are actually pretty gross so I'll leave that for readers to look up.
How and when did your get start in Ubers?
I wouldn't exactly call it a 'start' per se, but I did have a brief period of playing ubers on Shoddy Battle - one moderator on a polish pokemon forum was the go-to guy for in-game movesets, and it turned out that he was a competitive Ubers/OU player back in the day. Now that I look back at it, he wasn't very good himself but he taught me some basics, though i got bored with pokemon and forgot about it quickly. That was the case til 2013 when PS! was still kinda fresh and XY was just about to come out, I liked the looks of our new simulator and with a new generation, I figured my chances to 'get good' were better since nobody was familiar with the new metagame.
What's your favourite generation in Ubers, and why is it DPP?
Mostly its inner balance and the fact that while playing, you need to think in a kinda different way due to lack of team preview (single best thing about oldgens). You have to predict that Jirachi switching on your Ray without actually knowing if it's there or not - that makes games much more interesting. I guess you could say the same about older generations, but I'm not very good at those so I can't really say. The balance thing - I think Gen 4 Ubers hits that sweet spot between a balanced metagame where everything is viable, and a metagame with super broken stuff that's so overpowered its actually fun to just spam mindlessly. There's lots of mons from lower tiers which are viable in G4, and stuff that's most commonly seen isn't nowhere near as defining or game breaking as say, Primal Groudon. The metagame just feels right. Also, nostalgia.
If you could change two things in the Ubers metagame, what would those be?
I would stay true to the Ubers' spirit and unironically free Mega Ray. That's the only thing I'd change since I'm that kind of guy who enjoys playing Ubers across all generations, ORAS included.
Favourite DPP lead?
Kinda hard to pick just one but ones I tend to use the most are Kyogre and Tyranitar (Deoxys-E doesn't count). Kyogre isn't used all that much and it has some issues with Deo-E since it just spikes all over it, but I like the fact that it's useful mid and late-game too, luring and paralyzing its checks which tend to be problematic to face (Palkia, Latis). Tyranitar is the opposite, depending on the set it can potentially lose to things Kyogre beats but it has zero problems dealing with Deoxys formes. Haban berry Giratina-Altered lead deserves a mention, it was the MVP in my UPL game against Tomahawk.
What's your favourite play-style and why?
Bulky Offense(any generation) or Weather HO(gen4) - the former is a failsafe way to play almost against anything, the latter is my preference for quick games since it's not really a playstyle people tend to prepare for - you can't really say having a Rayquaza means you're gonna beat Kingdra Rain, especially when the Kingdra isn't revealed and Rayquaza happens to die.. That's the magic of DPP.
Favourite UPL/Seasonal/Open game?
My favourite UPL game would have to be a match vs Jirachee last year, it was my hardest battle against an opponent who's known to be stupidly good in DPP. I was surprised since I expected to get steamrolled but the battle was very even all the way til the last turn, with some quality plays on both sides. I also liked my Ubers Open game vs Afro Smash in 2014 I think? We were 1-1 and I brought a stall team i really liked to our third game and somehow won - win itself wasn't the best part of the experience, it was the fact that people accused me of using Hack's team while I built it all on my own. My newb self felt quite proud when my team was seemingly good enough to be a 'Hack team'
What do you think about Ubers getting removed from SPL? Should be back in Gen 7?
I'm all in for Ubers in SPL. The more recognition our tier has, the better. I think many people just automatically assume PDon completely breaks the metagame and renders it unplayable, or that there's no creativity of any kind involved while playing ORAS. It's still fun and competitive, as proven by some Ubers players tournament records - better players usually win or go really far in tournaments, with control over matches being in their hands (see bogus shadow tag argument). If that's not 'competitive' enough to be in SPL, then I give up.
What are your expectations from Sun&Moon based on what we have seen "Solgaleo, Lunala, Zygarde"?
I wasn't really following leaks so I'm pretty behind with all this stuff. That being said, I'm pretty disappointed with typings since our soon-to-be Ubers had lots of potential. Look at Solgaleo, it doesn't even look Steel to me and it's basically a Metagross on steroids. It would be much better if legendaries' typings were something brand new (Fire/Fairy, Fairy/Ghost for example). Instead, we got a Metagross v2 and a flying Hoopa. Stats are the only thing that can save them but at least the designs are cool. Hyped for Zygarde, I really hope its gonna bring some necessary balance to our metagame and from what we know, it looks like it'll definitely shake up some things among Ubers - perhaps bringing Ubers back to SPL?
What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
There's different players i look up to for different reasons;
My DPP "idols" would be iris, Kevin Garrett, -mind-, Jibaku, locopoke, Jirachee, Zak91, ibojangles, panamaxis and Heist, in no particular order.
These guys define the generation for me, they're all very solid players and the amount of experience and skill they have in various DPP metagames is just intimidating.
Out of more recent people, I definitely look up to Sweep and Steelskitty team-building wise, their teams simply 'make sense' to me.
Then you have Problems, hyw and Level56 for their ballsy, aggressive plays and finally Astounded / Hack / Mr.378 and especially Blim for their ability to mix both building and skill, all that while being hella cool and approachable people.
Friends? Not gonna pick names cause i consider all of you to be my pals although hyw , WreckDra and user php deserve special places in my heart.
Not gonna forget my LC people either, Jac and Corporal Levi are among the most genuine people I've met on this site.
Any advice for new players getting into Ubers?
Don't be afraid to steer away from the standard stuff once in a while, ask questions if you're not sure your team is good and the most important advice of all : play, play, play. Doesn't matter if it's ladder or roomtours - you'll eventually get better, making it possible for you to compete at a much higher level. For newcomers to older gens of ubers, I'd say do what I did: lurk, try to find yourself a partner or two who also play oldgens and just keep playing. Lurking is a much bigger factor here compared to ORAS, since metagames are mostly dead and you need to 'learn' them on your own. Speaking of people asking questions about their stuff in Ubers room, i feel like these questions are ignored most of the time, making some players give up on Ubers. It's not hard to open up that pastebin link and tell the guy what to change.
Finally, can you provide us a team with a brief explanation of how it works?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks again to absdaddy for taking the time out to complete this interview.
Be sure to ask him any questions you have below!
I'm your typical 24 year old guy, employed, good looking, that kinda stuff. My hobbies include Motorcycle Speedway (a niche sport, check it out!), tinkering with various Android smartphones, collecting videogames and reading military fiction books. I'm also an audiophile - can't imagine myself living without any sorts of music but like any other audiophile i tend to put too much emphasis on the actual sound quality. I also play 3D fighting games competitively (tekken, soul calibur - never really won anything big other than one regional SC2 tournament but that's where my competitive spirit came from)
Where did you get your name from?
It's kind of an interesting story since it has nothing to do with 'abs' muscles. My original name was actually Abstract Daddy, and that's a monster from one of my favourite games/series of all time, Silent Hill 2. The monster and its symbolism are actually pretty gross so I'll leave that for readers to look up.
How and when did your get start in Ubers?
I wouldn't exactly call it a 'start' per se, but I did have a brief period of playing ubers on Shoddy Battle - one moderator on a polish pokemon forum was the go-to guy for in-game movesets, and it turned out that he was a competitive Ubers/OU player back in the day. Now that I look back at it, he wasn't very good himself but he taught me some basics, though i got bored with pokemon and forgot about it quickly. That was the case til 2013 when PS! was still kinda fresh and XY was just about to come out, I liked the looks of our new simulator and with a new generation, I figured my chances to 'get good' were better since nobody was familiar with the new metagame.
What's your favourite generation in Ubers, and why is it DPP?
Mostly its inner balance and the fact that while playing, you need to think in a kinda different way due to lack of team preview (single best thing about oldgens). You have to predict that Jirachi switching on your Ray without actually knowing if it's there or not - that makes games much more interesting. I guess you could say the same about older generations, but I'm not very good at those so I can't really say. The balance thing - I think Gen 4 Ubers hits that sweet spot between a balanced metagame where everything is viable, and a metagame with super broken stuff that's so overpowered its actually fun to just spam mindlessly. There's lots of mons from lower tiers which are viable in G4, and stuff that's most commonly seen isn't nowhere near as defining or game breaking as say, Primal Groudon. The metagame just feels right. Also, nostalgia.
If you could change two things in the Ubers metagame, what would those be?
I would stay true to the Ubers' spirit and unironically free Mega Ray. That's the only thing I'd change since I'm that kind of guy who enjoys playing Ubers across all generations, ORAS included.
Favourite DPP lead?
Kinda hard to pick just one but ones I tend to use the most are Kyogre and Tyranitar (Deoxys-E doesn't count). Kyogre isn't used all that much and it has some issues with Deo-E since it just spikes all over it, but I like the fact that it's useful mid and late-game too, luring and paralyzing its checks which tend to be problematic to face (Palkia, Latis). Tyranitar is the opposite, depending on the set it can potentially lose to things Kyogre beats but it has zero problems dealing with Deoxys formes. Haban berry Giratina-Altered lead deserves a mention, it was the MVP in my UPL game against Tomahawk.
What's your favourite play-style and why?
Bulky Offense(any generation) or Weather HO(gen4) - the former is a failsafe way to play almost against anything, the latter is my preference for quick games since it's not really a playstyle people tend to prepare for - you can't really say having a Rayquaza means you're gonna beat Kingdra Rain, especially when the Kingdra isn't revealed and Rayquaza happens to die.. That's the magic of DPP.
Favourite UPL/Seasonal/Open game?
My favourite UPL game would have to be a match vs Jirachee last year, it was my hardest battle against an opponent who's known to be stupidly good in DPP. I was surprised since I expected to get steamrolled but the battle was very even all the way til the last turn, with some quality plays on both sides. I also liked my Ubers Open game vs Afro Smash in 2014 I think? We were 1-1 and I brought a stall team i really liked to our third game and somehow won - win itself wasn't the best part of the experience, it was the fact that people accused me of using Hack's team while I built it all on my own. My newb self felt quite proud when my team was seemingly good enough to be a 'Hack team'
What do you think about Ubers getting removed from SPL? Should be back in Gen 7?
I'm all in for Ubers in SPL. The more recognition our tier has, the better. I think many people just automatically assume PDon completely breaks the metagame and renders it unplayable, or that there's no creativity of any kind involved while playing ORAS. It's still fun and competitive, as proven by some Ubers players tournament records - better players usually win or go really far in tournaments, with control over matches being in their hands (see bogus shadow tag argument). If that's not 'competitive' enough to be in SPL, then I give up.
What are your expectations from Sun&Moon based on what we have seen "Solgaleo, Lunala, Zygarde"?
I wasn't really following leaks so I'm pretty behind with all this stuff. That being said, I'm pretty disappointed with typings since our soon-to-be Ubers had lots of potential. Look at Solgaleo, it doesn't even look Steel to me and it's basically a Metagross on steroids. It would be much better if legendaries' typings were something brand new (Fire/Fairy, Fairy/Ghost for example). Instead, we got a Metagross v2 and a flying Hoopa. Stats are the only thing that can save them but at least the designs are cool. Hyped for Zygarde, I really hope its gonna bring some necessary balance to our metagame and from what we know, it looks like it'll definitely shake up some things among Ubers - perhaps bringing Ubers back to SPL?
What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
There's different players i look up to for different reasons;
My DPP "idols" would be iris, Kevin Garrett, -mind-, Jibaku, locopoke, Jirachee, Zak91, ibojangles, panamaxis and Heist, in no particular order.
These guys define the generation for me, they're all very solid players and the amount of experience and skill they have in various DPP metagames is just intimidating.
Out of more recent people, I definitely look up to Sweep and Steelskitty team-building wise, their teams simply 'make sense' to me.
Then you have Problems, hyw and Level56 for their ballsy, aggressive plays and finally Astounded / Hack / Mr.378 and especially Blim for their ability to mix both building and skill, all that while being hella cool and approachable people.
Friends? Not gonna pick names cause i consider all of you to be my pals although hyw , WreckDra and user php deserve special places in my heart.
Not gonna forget my LC people either, Jac and Corporal Levi are among the most genuine people I've met on this site.
Any advice for new players getting into Ubers?
Don't be afraid to steer away from the standard stuff once in a while, ask questions if you're not sure your team is good and the most important advice of all : play, play, play. Doesn't matter if it's ladder or roomtours - you'll eventually get better, making it possible for you to compete at a much higher level. For newcomers to older gens of ubers, I'd say do what I did: lurk, try to find yourself a partner or two who also play oldgens and just keep playing. Lurking is a much bigger factor here compared to ORAS, since metagames are mostly dead and you need to 'learn' them on your own. Speaking of people asking questions about their stuff in Ubers room, i feel like these questions are ignored most of the time, making some players give up on Ubers. It's not hard to open up that pastebin link and tell the guy what to change.
Finally, can you provide us a team with a brief explanation of how it works?
Kyogre @ Lum Berry
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Thunder Wave
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 8 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Surf
- Ice Beam
Giratina-Origin @ Griseous Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 192 Atk / 64 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Thunder
- Dragon Claw
- Shadow Sneak
- Earthquake
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 216 SpD / 36 Spe
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Iron Head
Palkia @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Spacial Rend
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
Garchomp (M) @ Salac Berry
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Thunder Wave
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 8 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Surf
- Ice Beam
Giratina-Origin @ Griseous Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 192 Atk / 64 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Thunder
- Dragon Claw
- Shadow Sneak
- Earthquake
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 216 SpD / 36 Spe
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Iron Head
Palkia @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Spacial Rend
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
Garchomp (M) @ Salac Berry
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
This is my all-time favourite Generation 4 build and the one I'm seen using most often. It's a different approach on Weather offense since instead of a Kabutops or Kingdra, I'm using a Manaphy (terribly underused mon). None of the mons are SR weak, though there is a slight Tspike weakness. There's an updated version of this team but I figured I'll just use this one since it's more known.
Lum Kyogre puts me in a good position if opponent's lead is a Darkrai which requires some prediction to beat but it's manageable. It does have some trouble with Deoxys formes allowing them to stack hazards against it, unless you're as lucky as me and go for Thunder turn 1 and para every time. That's how real players do it. It's main use though is luring those pesky Latis and Palkias and paralyzing them easing setup for either Garchomp or Manaphy, since these two guys are my winning conditions. EVs are pretty standard, maximizing bulk and power allowing Kyogre to take hits and hit back hard. Lum berry is the item of choice used almost exclusively for Darkrai - be it a lead Rai or a Life orb variant revealed mid game. That's the good thing about this Kyogre, if your lead matchup isn't the best you can just switch it out and use it later. Speed IVs are lowered on purpose to underspeed Lead Groudon and win the weather war(lol). Turn 1 rain also helps...
...Manaphy! The main gun of the team, its goal is to make use of Kyogre's eternal rain and Thunder Waves, then setup and recover due to Hydration - you'd be surprised how much it can take at +1 or even unboosted, essentially outstalling 90% of the metagame if rain is up. Kyogre's luring ability is very helpful here since both King of Ubers and Manaphy share checks and counters, making the sweep a lot easier. Evs are tailored to give Manaphy some needed bulk but at the same time allow it to outspeed Rayquaza, the bane of weather teams. They don't usually expect to be slower than a CM Manaphy so you can surprise your opp and go straight for the KO. Regarding moveset, there's an option of running Grass Knot over Ice beam to hit opposing Kyogre but i prefer Ice Beam more, simply because it hits more things.
I went for mixed offensive Gira-O here since you can't really go wrong with it, it blanket checks half of the meta even uninvested and you can't really predict what it's going to use until it's too late - Thunder, Sneak, EQ + physical dragon stab gives Giratina a way to hit virtually anything that's used in Gen4 ubers regardless of weather (cept skarmory in sun), again helping both Manaphy and Garchomp in removing their checks. It's immune to Spikes and Toxic Spikes making it easier to battle stall, and mixed coverage allows it to hit any stall mon that can come on it, be it a Skarmory or a Blissey. F Ludicolo though. Max speed for those opposing Giratinas and Dialgas (Non-choiced Dialga are rarely that fast and Giratinas usually hit 305/306 anyway, the era of Giratina speed creep is over so go max or go home!). I went for -Sdef nature simply because I want to live Garchomp/Ray Dragon Claw more than I do Spacial Rend.
Classic SDef Jirachi is my special dragons answer - it doesn't like taking repeated Thunders or rain boosted Surfs from any dragons but it does its job just fine - those moves can be played around since i have a solid Thunder immunity. It's also my Stealth Rock setter, often winning a free turn against a Choice locked dragon making it easy to setup. Moves and EVs are again bogstandard, speed creeping mainly slower Groudons and Dialgas, among other less important things. Not much to say about this mon really since everybody knows what it does.
Scarf Palkia is my revenge killer and main Kyogre answer (albeit shaky). I dropped Thunder on it since I want it to be more consistent in any weather and I've never felt like Thunder on Palkia is a necessity for dealing with Kyogre. Outrage smacks Blissey and Lati twins hard, Fire blast gives me a way to deal with steels if somehow Ogre is dead and sun is up, Spacial Rend is the mandatory STAB move (95% accuracy is a lie, same goes for Draco Meteor) and Hydro rounds up our coverage, hitting like a truck if rain is up. Surf is too weak and doesn't kill anything.
Last but not least, there's a Garchomp. Back when I've built this, SD Salac Berry wasn't used at all so it had that surprise factor going for it. Nowadays it's actually used more than Scarf Chomp but it still remains a viable threat. Basically all it needs to get at least one kill is a free turn, especially if its a hardswitch on a choice locked Thunder. (risky play) Its main enemies are Bronzong, Groudon, faster Latis and Skarmory though teammates provide multiple ways to deal with those. It's really useful even outside its sweeping role, taking care of Jirachis and the like since its typing and speedtier are so good (wish it was faster though) Our current DPP tends to 'cycle' between most used Pokemon/teams alot, and from what I've seen recently Chomp checks aren't as common as they were few months ago, so try to abuse it while you can!
I know my team has issues with Ludicolo or SD Ray if either gets a free turn (on paper these two should be able to 6-0 assuming perfect conditions for both) but while playing I found that Ludicolo is barely used while SD Ray gets weakened surprisingly quickly, making it hard for it to set up or kill more than one mon so don't worry too much about seemingly bad matchups.
Lum Kyogre puts me in a good position if opponent's lead is a Darkrai which requires some prediction to beat but it's manageable. It does have some trouble with Deoxys formes allowing them to stack hazards against it, unless you're as lucky as me and go for Thunder turn 1 and para every time. That's how real players do it. It's main use though is luring those pesky Latis and Palkias and paralyzing them easing setup for either Garchomp or Manaphy, since these two guys are my winning conditions. EVs are pretty standard, maximizing bulk and power allowing Kyogre to take hits and hit back hard. Lum berry is the item of choice used almost exclusively for Darkrai - be it a lead Rai or a Life orb variant revealed mid game. That's the good thing about this Kyogre, if your lead matchup isn't the best you can just switch it out and use it later. Speed IVs are lowered on purpose to underspeed Lead Groudon and win the weather war(lol). Turn 1 rain also helps...
...Manaphy! The main gun of the team, its goal is to make use of Kyogre's eternal rain and Thunder Waves, then setup and recover due to Hydration - you'd be surprised how much it can take at +1 or even unboosted, essentially outstalling 90% of the metagame if rain is up. Kyogre's luring ability is very helpful here since both King of Ubers and Manaphy share checks and counters, making the sweep a lot easier. Evs are tailored to give Manaphy some needed bulk but at the same time allow it to outspeed Rayquaza, the bane of weather teams. They don't usually expect to be slower than a CM Manaphy so you can surprise your opp and go straight for the KO. Regarding moveset, there's an option of running Grass Knot over Ice beam to hit opposing Kyogre but i prefer Ice Beam more, simply because it hits more things.
I went for mixed offensive Gira-O here since you can't really go wrong with it, it blanket checks half of the meta even uninvested and you can't really predict what it's going to use until it's too late - Thunder, Sneak, EQ + physical dragon stab gives Giratina a way to hit virtually anything that's used in Gen4 ubers regardless of weather (cept skarmory in sun), again helping both Manaphy and Garchomp in removing their checks. It's immune to Spikes and Toxic Spikes making it easier to battle stall, and mixed coverage allows it to hit any stall mon that can come on it, be it a Skarmory or a Blissey. F Ludicolo though. Max speed for those opposing Giratinas and Dialgas (Non-choiced Dialga are rarely that fast and Giratinas usually hit 305/306 anyway, the era of Giratina speed creep is over so go max or go home!). I went for -Sdef nature simply because I want to live Garchomp/Ray Dragon Claw more than I do Spacial Rend.
Classic SDef Jirachi is my special dragons answer - it doesn't like taking repeated Thunders or rain boosted Surfs from any dragons but it does its job just fine - those moves can be played around since i have a solid Thunder immunity. It's also my Stealth Rock setter, often winning a free turn against a Choice locked dragon making it easy to setup. Moves and EVs are again bogstandard, speed creeping mainly slower Groudons and Dialgas, among other less important things. Not much to say about this mon really since everybody knows what it does.
Scarf Palkia is my revenge killer and main Kyogre answer (albeit shaky). I dropped Thunder on it since I want it to be more consistent in any weather and I've never felt like Thunder on Palkia is a necessity for dealing with Kyogre. Outrage smacks Blissey and Lati twins hard, Fire blast gives me a way to deal with steels if somehow Ogre is dead and sun is up, Spacial Rend is the mandatory STAB move (95% accuracy is a lie, same goes for Draco Meteor) and Hydro rounds up our coverage, hitting like a truck if rain is up. Surf is too weak and doesn't kill anything.
Last but not least, there's a Garchomp. Back when I've built this, SD Salac Berry wasn't used at all so it had that surprise factor going for it. Nowadays it's actually used more than Scarf Chomp but it still remains a viable threat. Basically all it needs to get at least one kill is a free turn, especially if its a hardswitch on a choice locked Thunder. (risky play) Its main enemies are Bronzong, Groudon, faster Latis and Skarmory though teammates provide multiple ways to deal with those. It's really useful even outside its sweeping role, taking care of Jirachis and the like since its typing and speedtier are so good (wish it was faster though) Our current DPP tends to 'cycle' between most used Pokemon/teams alot, and from what I've seen recently Chomp checks aren't as common as they were few months ago, so try to abuse it while you can!
I know my team has issues with Ludicolo or SD Ray if either gets a free turn (on paper these two should be able to 6-0 assuming perfect conditions for both) but while playing I found that Ludicolo is barely used while SD Ray gets weakened surprisingly quickly, making it hard for it to set up or kill more than one mon so don't worry too much about seemingly bad matchups.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks again to absdaddy for taking the time out to complete this interview.
Be sure to ask him any questions you have below!
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