byulharang
formerly Holy Ghost
Approved by Nayrz with idea from Arii Stella
Banner by my good friend Six
Welcome to Ubers Player of the Week! I'll be interviewing top Ubers players that have had success and are respected in the community. You will be able to ask questions to the player I interview by commenting on this post. Everyone cannot be interviewed but you can VM me or DM on Discord suggestions, hope you enjoy!
Icemaster
Favorite Pokemon?
I like Kyogre's design a lot and it's just very broken. My first battles on PS involved me loading up scarf kyogre and battling in the 1100s on the XY ubers ladder. I didn't win many games but the ones which I did were generally Kyogre hard carrying me. Pokemon ORAS was a bit of a letdown, but Primal Kyogre was added which is basically kyogre but dialed up to 11.
Most known for?
Winning UPL with the Dapper Dracovish, being on Ubers Council and participating in other Ubers tournaments
Any backstory on your name?
Not much of a back story, I simply made this account when I was young and thought the name Icemaster was cool, but Icemaster was already registered on PS so I used icemaster523 instead until I gained enough smogon points to claim the name Icemaster :sunglasses:
How did you get into competitive Pokemon?
I played pokemon quite casually up until the 6th gen. It was easier to get competitive pokemon in gen 6, and so I started getting interested in competitive battling and played online battles quite a bit in game. In 2014 I found pokemon showdown and started by mainly playing the OU ladder, and a few others, which was a lot more convenient as training the pokemon you use isn't required. I stopped playing after a few months though until late 2018 when I started playing again when I got into AG, and in late 2019 I got into Ubers.
Favorite and least favorite Ubers generations?
Favourite: Gen 8 ubers. There's a very large variety of playstyles - 3 viable weathers, hazard stacking, balance, screens and webs. I think that it can be difficult to build as a result of having to account for so many playstyles, but with careful key plays, bad MUs can be completely turned around which really keeps the meta fun and fresh.
Least favourite: I haven't played Ubers prior to gen 7 much, but my least favourite is probably oras because of how powerful offense is. Threats like Xerneas, primal groudon, mence, rai are just too powerful. The tier isn't too accessible to new players imo, I think it really takes a lot of skill to build your own good ORAS teams rather than just grabbing broken HO.
SS ubers is in a decent state right now. Dynamax is broken though, oftentimes you just have to outplay them in order to beat their dynamaxers, as it is impossible to prepare for them all. KB, gyarados, cinderace, pult + the weather abusers are scary, but with DLC 2 it'll just get worse with kart, lando, zyg. I think DLC 2 will be a pretty unbalanced meta without Support Arceus though, and might turn out extremely offensive but hopefully I am proven wrong.
Definitely. It's definitely consensus between ubers players that Dynamax is broken - even with a banlist and I think it's a matter of when it will be banned rather than if. There's only really two acceptable things to be done imo: expand the banlist enormously, or ban the entire mechanic. The first option is largely not very possible due to the number of suspects which will be required. DLC 2 will just overwhelm that system.
My favourite playstyle in all tiers is balance. It's the most flexible playstyle and has nearly no instant loss matchups (even the worst MUs are outplayable). Balance containing breakers such as Lunala or Dracovish is just really nice as either is able to pretty much dismantle any defensive cores given you predict well, which makes winning with them really satisfying.
The greatest difference between USUM AG and Ubers is definitely the presence of multiple Arceus formes, and Rayquaza-Mega. The effect of these can be seen in pokemon like Primal-Kyogre (A+ Ubers, A- AG) and Yveltal (S- Ubers, A- AG) being far worse than they are in Ubers. This gen there are 2 AG formats really, Galar AG and National Dex AG. Galar AG's main difference compared with Galar Ubers is Dynamax, which is just so broken. Necrozma-Dusk-Mane is broken beyond belief and imo is better than Mega Rayquaza ever was. National Dex AG is a completely different thing, and is more comparable to USUM Ubers but + Zacian-C, Eternatus and Dynamax. Ironically, National Dex AG is more balanced than Galar AG. When most people think of AG, they probably think of Spore/BP/OHKO/Evasion, but these are extremely uncommon strats to find in tournament games or even just above 1700 on the ladder because of how inconsistent they are.
Zacian-Crowned is definitely more viable and splashable than Mega Rayquaza, but Mega Rayquaza is certainly more "broken". Zacian-C functions as an extremely good offensive check and sweeper, but Mega Rayquaza is a far more powerful wallbreaker and is much more nightmarish in the teambuilder given that no true counters exist, unlike for Zacian. Rayquaza also has a high level of bulk and is a great revenger as well as sweeper. It's like comparing Dragapult and Dracovish in OU. As far as I know, Dragapult is more viable but Dracovish is certainly more broken.
Congratulations on winning UPL with the Dapper Dracovishes! How was your experience throughout the tour and what you think it took getting your incredible 8-2 SS record?
Thanks! UPL was a really great tour for me as the Vishes had a really great environment. The meta developed quite a bit so it was important for me to pay attention to the other SS games which occurred, and take note of what was doing well in order to prepare good teams. Me and Cromagnet particularly noticed how potent Screens HO was towards the later end of the tournament, resulting in us bringing it quite a bit (I think we went 4/4 with it too). In fact, I owe my record in no small part to Cromagnet, for repeatedly giving me useful ideas to build around or what to use (for example he told me to bring Screens HO vs Manaphy in the tiebreaker Semis), which was great. S/O Purple Gatorade and Skysolo too for the test games, and Skysolo for really helping build my finals team.
You participated in Ubers newest team tour Most Wanted, what were your overall thoughts on it? Anything you would change?
I think Most Wanted was a pretty nice tournament. It let noobs like me play higher level tournament games and get my name out there, as team sizes were large and everyone was forced to play weekly (only one benchable player). The biggest issue though was the bounty system being too lopsided and possibly that there were only 3 lives, by the final week we had 5 players left and because we had so many alive, 2 of our players - Catalystic and Goat Heart didn't even get matchups - basically getting punished for having so many survive. We couldn't win the tournament as soon as the final week matchups went up, which kinda sucked.
There has been talk in the community about if we had an Ubers Wcop, what do you think about it ?
I'm quite indifferent about it. It sounds doable, although we have two other team tours. I'd probably play in it but France would be quite dominant, so I guess it's time to apply for French citizenship
Playing wise, for SS Ubers I look up to Goat Heart, Fc04, Crucify KyogreF4N, TrueNora and Cromagnet. These guys really know what they're doing and it's always interesting to see what they're using and the plays they're making. Other figures in Ubers I look up to are Skysolo, the Dracovish Managers and Zenithial. Skysolo was a great manager in MW (and drafted me although I was unproven!), also he helped me build my UPL finals team vs Royal. Stone Cold & abs were great managers, the vishes was just a great team environment. Zenithial (an USUM Ubers player) helped me a ton to git gud in terms of my overall play and building with frequent games back when I was very bad, more so in AG though.
The UPL tiebreaker BW game with Eternal Spirit vs March Fires. It was 1-1 at this point in the semifinals tiebreaker, and so was extremely tense going into the game. It was also a risky play to put Gama in a gen which he hadn't played yet vs one of the best BWers. Gama played really well, landing the +2 EQ on the Ferrothorn on the switch and coupled with an unfortunate missclick from his opponent managed to sweep with Ekiller obtaining a crucial win for the vishes enabling us to make it to the finals. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5ubers-515232
I think the best way to get noticed is to put up good results in tournaments and even ladder. I was fortunate to start playing ubers around the start of a new gen, with Most Wanted coming up which doesn't have a very high bar to get into and allows everyone to play. I did tryouts with a few managers and managed to get drafted as a last round pick, and it ended up being a breakout tour as I went 4-2. So, new players should try take every opportunity they can to play in tournaments, eg signing up for ssnls, doing tryouts and qualifying for ladder tour. With a few solid records and impressive wins over good players and showing building skills and interest in the tier, you'd be able to be drafted for UPL and get your name out there as many players did in this upl.
This is a Kyurem Black balance which I built for UPL, for my Semifinals game vs Reje. Reje was up until this point a balance goon, so KB would perform well vs him in theory. The rationale behind this team is that every (balance) team has one of two Zacian counters, Quagsire or NDM. Teams which have Quagsire won't have NDM, so KB will be able to tear it up, and teams which have NDM won't have quagsire so one of KB or Zacian can setup up to break through NDM allowing the other one to sweep. Washtom is the best fogger imo, to improve the HO MU. In the end, Reje did bring screens and defeated me, but I think if I played more optimally, eg volt switching on Mew with washtom turn 1, this game was winnable.
No I probably won't get into old gens, as I'm quite occupied with both AG and Ubers. If I did play an old gen I'd probably try out USUM Ubers though due to how similar it is to USUM AG.
Banner by my good friend Six
Welcome to Ubers Player of the Week! I'll be interviewing top Ubers players that have had success and are respected in the community. You will be able to ask questions to the player I interview by commenting on this post. Everyone cannot be interviewed but you can VM me or DM on Discord suggestions, hope you enjoy!
Icemaster
Favorite Pokemon?
I like Kyogre's design a lot and it's just very broken. My first battles on PS involved me loading up scarf kyogre and battling in the 1100s on the XY ubers ladder. I didn't win many games but the ones which I did were generally Kyogre hard carrying me. Pokemon ORAS was a bit of a letdown, but Primal Kyogre was added which is basically kyogre but dialed up to 11.
Most known for?
Winning UPL with the Dapper Dracovish, being on Ubers Council and participating in other Ubers tournaments
Any backstory on your name?
How did you get into competitive Pokemon?
Favorite and least favorite Ubers generations?
Favourite: Gen 8 ubers. There's a very large variety of playstyles - 3 viable weathers, hazard stacking, balance, screens and webs. I think that it can be difficult to build as a result of having to account for so many playstyles, but with careful key plays, bad MUs can be completely turned around which really keeps the meta fun and fresh.
Least favourite: I haven't played Ubers prior to gen 7 much, but my least favourite is probably oras because of how powerful offense is. Threats like Xerneas, primal groudon, mence, rai are just too powerful. The tier isn't too accessible to new players imo, I think it really takes a lot of skill to build your own good ORAS teams rather than just grabbing broken HO.
Thoughts on the current state of SS? Excited for the next DLC?
SS ubers is in a decent state right now. Dynamax is broken though, oftentimes you just have to outplay them in order to beat their dynamaxers, as it is impossible to prepare for them all. KB, gyarados, cinderace, pult + the weather abusers are scary, but with DLC 2 it'll just get worse with kart, lando, zyg. I think DLC 2 will be a pretty unbalanced meta without Support Arceus though, and might turn out extremely offensive but hopefully I am proven wrong.
What do you think about the current Dynamax restrictions? Do you think it should be altered ?
Definitely. It's definitely consensus between ubers players that Dynamax is broken - even with a banlist and I think it's a matter of when it will be banned rather than if. There's only really two acceptable things to be done imo: expand the banlist enormously, or ban the entire mechanic. The first option is largely not very possible due to the number of suspects which will be required. DLC 2 will just overwhelm that system.
Do you have a favorite playstyle to use in Ubers?
My favourite playstyle in all tiers is balance. It's the most flexible playstyle and has nearly no instant loss matchups (even the worst MUs are outplayable). Balance containing breakers such as Lunala or Dracovish is just really nice as either is able to pretty much dismantle any defensive cores given you predict well, which makes winning with them really satisfying.
AG and Ubers are very often compared and its not uncommon for an AG player to find great success in Ubers, what do you think is the biggest difference between the tiers? Any thoughts on the Zacian-Crowned vs Mega Rayquaza discussions?
The greatest difference between USUM AG and Ubers is definitely the presence of multiple Arceus formes, and Rayquaza-Mega. The effect of these can be seen in pokemon like Primal-Kyogre (A+ Ubers, A- AG) and Yveltal (S- Ubers, A- AG) being far worse than they are in Ubers. This gen there are 2 AG formats really, Galar AG and National Dex AG. Galar AG's main difference compared with Galar Ubers is Dynamax, which is just so broken. Necrozma-Dusk-Mane is broken beyond belief and imo is better than Mega Rayquaza ever was. National Dex AG is a completely different thing, and is more comparable to USUM Ubers but + Zacian-C, Eternatus and Dynamax. Ironically, National Dex AG is more balanced than Galar AG. When most people think of AG, they probably think of Spore/BP/OHKO/Evasion, but these are extremely uncommon strats to find in tournament games or even just above 1700 on the ladder because of how inconsistent they are.
Zacian-Crowned is definitely more viable and splashable than Mega Rayquaza, but Mega Rayquaza is certainly more "broken". Zacian-C functions as an extremely good offensive check and sweeper, but Mega Rayquaza is a far more powerful wallbreaker and is much more nightmarish in the teambuilder given that no true counters exist, unlike for Zacian. Rayquaza also has a high level of bulk and is a great revenger as well as sweeper. It's like comparing Dragapult and Dracovish in OU. As far as I know, Dragapult is more viable but Dracovish is certainly more broken.
Congratulations on winning UPL with the Dapper Dracovishes! How was your experience throughout the tour and what you think it took getting your incredible 8-2 SS record?
Thanks! UPL was a really great tour for me as the Vishes had a really great environment. The meta developed quite a bit so it was important for me to pay attention to the other SS games which occurred, and take note of what was doing well in order to prepare good teams. Me and Cromagnet particularly noticed how potent Screens HO was towards the later end of the tournament, resulting in us bringing it quite a bit (I think we went 4/4 with it too). In fact, I owe my record in no small part to Cromagnet, for repeatedly giving me useful ideas to build around or what to use (for example he told me to bring Screens HO vs Manaphy in the tiebreaker Semis), which was great. S/O Purple Gatorade and Skysolo too for the test games, and Skysolo for really helping build my finals team.
You participated in Ubers newest team tour Most Wanted, what were your overall thoughts on it? Anything you would change?
I think Most Wanted was a pretty nice tournament. It let noobs like me play higher level tournament games and get my name out there, as team sizes were large and everyone was forced to play weekly (only one benchable player). The biggest issue though was the bounty system being too lopsided and possibly that there were only 3 lives, by the final week we had 5 players left and because we had so many alive, 2 of our players - Catalystic and Goat Heart didn't even get matchups - basically getting punished for having so many survive. We couldn't win the tournament as soon as the final week matchups went up, which kinda sucked.
There has been talk in the community about if we had an Ubers Wcop, what do you think about it ?
I'm quite indifferent about it. It sounds doable, although we have two other team tours. I'd probably play in it but France would be quite dominant, so I guess it's time to apply for French citizenship
Do you look up to any Ubers players?
Playing wise, for SS Ubers I look up to Goat Heart, Fc04, Crucify KyogreF4N, TrueNora and Cromagnet. These guys really know what they're doing and it's always interesting to see what they're using and the plays they're making. Other figures in Ubers I look up to are Skysolo, the Dracovish Managers and Zenithial. Skysolo was a great manager in MW (and drafted me although I was unproven!), also he helped me build my UPL finals team vs Royal. Stone Cold & abs were great managers, the vishes was just a great team environment. Zenithial (an USUM Ubers player) helped me a ton to git gud in terms of my overall play and building with frequent games back when I was very bad, more so in AG though.
Favorite game you've witnessed?
The UPL tiebreaker BW game with Eternal Spirit vs March Fires. It was 1-1 at this point in the semifinals tiebreaker, and so was extremely tense going into the game. It was also a risky play to put Gama in a gen which he hadn't played yet vs one of the best BWers. Gama played really well, landing the +2 EQ on the Ferrothorn on the switch and coupled with an unfortunate missclick from his opponent managed to sweep with Ekiller obtaining a crucial win for the vishes enabling us to make it to the finals. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5ubers-515232
Any advice to new players looking to break into Ubers?
I think the best way to get noticed is to put up good results in tournaments and even ladder. I was fortunate to start playing ubers around the start of a new gen, with Most Wanted coming up which doesn't have a very high bar to get into and allows everyone to play. I did tryouts with a few managers and managed to get drafted as a last round pick, and it ended up being a breakout tour as I went 4-2. So, new players should try take every opportunity they can to play in tournaments, eg signing up for ssnls, doing tryouts and qualifying for ladder tour. With a few solid records and impressive wins over good players and showing building skills and interest in the tier, you'd be able to be drafted for UPL and get your name out there as many players did in this upl.
This is a Kyurem Black balance which I built for UPL, for my Semifinals game vs Reje. Reje was up until this point a balance goon, so KB would perform well vs him in theory. The rationale behind this team is that every (balance) team has one of two Zacian counters, Quagsire or NDM. Teams which have Quagsire won't have NDM, so KB will be able to tear it up, and teams which have NDM won't have quagsire so one of KB or Zacian can setup up to break through NDM allowing the other one to sweep. Washtom is the best fogger imo, to improve the HO MU. In the end, Reje did bring screens and defeated me, but I think if I played more optimally, eg volt switching on Mew with washtom turn 1, this game was winnable.
Personal Question: Will you ever fully get into old gens?
No I probably won't get into old gens, as I'm quite occupied with both AG and Ubers. If I did play an old gen I'd probably try out USUM Ubers though due to how similar it is to USUM AG.
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Thanks Icemaster for answering these questions! Feel free to ask more in the thread below!
Thanks Icemaster for answering these questions! Feel free to ask more in the thread below!
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