Hello Finch. I actually do have some questions I'd love to ask, and conveniently you're an avid BW player so I do have some questions geared towards that. I'm sure some of these you've been asked a lot, so apologies in advance if these are rather annoying.
Dw man, glad to answer :D
I saw you detailed a lot about how you enjoy BW in spite of some of the metagame decisions in the very beginning. Being as one of those people that witnessed a lot of these decisions from the beginning (Sleep Clause, Swift Swim + Drizzle Ban) I felt I would like to ask what your general opinion is on the weather wars within BW? To rephrase the question if necessary - would you make any significant changes to BW OU if you could i.e. banning / unreleasing?
I wasn't around until Aug/Sept 2011, but I still witnessed most of BW and I have a recollection of a fair amount. I think that weather wars are an aspect of BW that are overrated as, unless they're decided pre-maturely due to a misplay or a lure getting a kill on a weather inducer that is necessary for a player to continue having a path to victory in the match, then they truly do not decide
that much. I mean, sure having rain up to spam Hydro Pump with Scarf Keldeo late game is nice whereas having sand up to neuter that prospect is also nice on the other side, but at the end of the day a lot more emphasis is put on general optimal play and game-planning than merely preserving weather for the sake of doing so. If it is necessary and optimal to keep your weather for as long as possible, so be it, but there is no direct relevance/importance of weather wars and optimal gameplay should be the approach, like any other metagame. Weather tends to actually be a really controversial, polarizing factor about BW OU in the heads of so many people, but I just view it as another aspect of the metagame that makes play more interesting and potentially diverse, so it doesn't stand-out as much to me and I think that's the right way to look at any element in any metagame barring few rare exceptions. Anyway, I probably went on too much about weather wars and not about things that should be banned/unbanned/etc., which was clearly the focus of your question, so I will say that I think Excadrill should be banned again from BW as the Sand Rush sets on non-sand teams are insanely difficult to deal with when using fairly standard sand teams with the speed it has, balloon to grant immunity to spikes and the ability to spin freely early on generally, and swords dance. Also, it has the sand force SD set on sand teams which is ridiculous, but a bit easier to deal with due to lack of comparative speed. Besides from Excadrill, Latios is objectively broken and banworthy, but it's too late to make such a radical change to the tier and god knows what kind of impact it would have when we cannot actively tier generation five without changing things a lot, so I do not expect anything of this magnitude to be implemented at any point in time even if it might improve things if we removed numerous things from the tier or something along those lines. Also, I would like to note that I am still sort of in favor of my vote on the banning sun freeing excadrill matter as I am glad sun no longer resides in the tier with chlorophyll and I am glad that we at least gave Excadrill a try, but as it has developed into the metagame, it proves to be a bit much for the tier after a lot of thinking (I know M Dragon thought this from the beginning and other people like BKC think this currently, too).
Another question I have is about Tornadus-I. I remember you talk a lot about how great Latios is, and I definitely agree that BW Latios is damn good. I always felt that, once Tornadus-T was banned, Tornadus-I would secretly become a rather annoying Pokemon to deal with for a lot of teams since it has rather limited switch-ins. I'd like to know your opinion on Tornadus-I if possible?
I mean, every team has some sort of "real" flying resist or it is way too weak to Tornadus-I as a general rule of thumb. Some of those being Chople Tyranitar, Rotom-Wash, Jirachi, Specially Defensive Skarmory, etc. and one of these essentially has to be on your team in building. If you do not prepare for Tornadus, then you will be very weak to it, like any other threat, but it is not particularly brutal singlehandedly. However, if you give it Rain and spikes from Ferrothorn and other strong special attackers to weaken the aforementioned pokemon and the opposing team in general, then Tornadus becomes much more potent in the context of the game and that is where a lot of the appeal to it is found. I feel like the ban of Tornadus-T only made Tornadus-I 'better' than it currently is for a month or two until the metagame became stable and now it's still quite good, but it's sort of just the threat on rain offense that you'd expect it to be and nothing more. I prefer Sharp Beak Hurricane/Focus/Uturn/Filler, but the same can be used with Specs to do more damage with Hurricane in all honesty, so yea it has a very solid moveset to use in the tier that fits onto rain often, but again it's nothing insane or too much for the tier - solid A- pokemon I'd say.
Finally, what do you think is a rather underrated and overrated threat in the BW OU Tournament scene?
Underrated? Sub Toxicroak and Thundurus-Therian have been seeing a lot more usage on Rain lately and I find each of these Pokemon to be cool, but they are not seen as full-on 'standard' Pokemon on Rain in the eyes of everyone, so I suppose these two. Overrated? Alakazam was hyped as some broken, anti-offensive powerhouse when it's simply kind of mediocre-to-ok right now and while it can excel with support in many match-ups, it still is far from consistently potent and it's a bit weak without LO and with sash being by far more common and arguably more reliable, it just has less appeal currently.
I also do have one question pertaining to SM OU.
Considering your favorite Pokemon is Garchomp, what are your current thoughts about Mega Garchomp in general and within the current metagame? Personally, I've viewed the current underrated mons in C+ on down to be Mega Chomp, Mega Aero, and Primarina. Knowing that you've built a team with some success with Mega Garchomp, I wanted to know what you generally think of it otherwise.
I think Mega Garchomp is a great measure against stall on teams that either build around it or can integrate it on due to lack of another mega. The speed tie is lowkey irksome, but you have to keep in mind how much damage it does -- I personally love SD 3a with Fire Blast and I am also a fan of SR variants, but it doesn't fit onto too many teams as I mentioned above and while I think it might be B- material, I wouldn't see it going any higher than that.
This is the team alluded to in the question, for those wondering, by the way.
Speaking of underrated - what Pokemon do you think are overrated and underrated in SM OU?
Mew and Mantine are underrated. Garchomp is (slightly) overrated and Mega-Sab is overrated and should never be used outside of stall.
Finally, I do have a question pertaining to Hockey. What are your favorite teams to watch in hockey, and do you prefer college level, semis, or professional level?
I mean on TV, I can only watch professional games really. I watch most Ranger games and I enjoy it quite a bit. With that said, when I get to go to the Binghamton AHL team games, it's always enjoyable for me, so I suppose both of these. Never watched college or other levels, however.
Subject 18 said:
What is the mulch/dirt threshold for you these days?
Salutations United States Central substitute number five. How are you doing?
What is the best game you think you've ever played in a tournament setting? Worst game?
I will give five best and three worst with some detail, but they will only be from the big two team tours SPL/WCOP.
Best: 5.
Week 3, SPL 6, ORAS NU game vs FLCL - my second ever SPL game where I played around some threats pretty well and managed to get myself into a very good position come mid-late game with some solid risk-vs-reward heavy reads that kind of worked out, but this was nothing too outstanding or special as I also probably had a slight MU advantage and I did not have to overcome too much come the middle of the game.
4.
Week 2, SPL 7, BW OU vs Peachy - my second ever BW SPL game where I used something a bit different for my standards, in bulky rain, and it worked out very well and I also managed to avert any potential threats from Peachy's end to take a pretty routine win home for my team in a relatively clean game.
3.
Quarterfinals WCOP 2015, BW OU vs Lightchu - my playoff game of WCOP vs Spain's Lightchu. I lost this game due to the infamous Stone Miss + flinch combination and I hesitated to list a game that I did not win, but I felt like I handled turn 1 and then the mid-game very well, taking the right risks and prioritizing all of the right things without a doubt. Sadly, lady luck was not on my side, but I liked my gameplay and prep during this game a lot.
2.
Week 7, SPL 8, SM OU vs p2 - my week 7 game against p2 where I pretty much throttled this poor motherfucker. Nah, jokes aside -- I had a clear match-up, but I gave myself a huge lead in the early stages and then ran away with it while preventing him from getting anything going with his win condition and this ultimately resulted in a pretty comfortable victory that I feel I handled quite well.
1.
Week 3, SPL 7, BW OU vs Marth - this game was a slaughter from once things got going and it was against someone that a lot of people viewed as one of the top BWers for a number of years, so I am proud of this game and I was just on top of things throughout -- nothing too special to say otherwise.
Worst: 5.
Week 5, SPL 8, SM OU vs Hector Hard Mode - I played the early and mid-game quite well, actually, but then I choked by keeping Tapu Fini in late game and nearly lost myself a match I should have nearly 100% won otherwise. Needless to say, I was disappointed with my play regardless of the result still ending in my favor.
4.
Week 6, SPL 6, ORAS NU vs Teddeh - I also got into a good position, sort of, early on in this game, but then a combination of playing passive, not thinking things through fully, and getting outplayed mid-late cost me a game I was at least favored to win coming into the middle of the game and as a player in a team tournament, losing a game like that I find to be unacceptable, so this makes the cut. Too long ago to go into many specifics, but from rewatching, I did not do anything too blatantly wrong, I just did not execute properly when I needed to.
3.
Qualifying round WCOP 2016, ORAS OU vs Mencemeat - I mean honestly, I did not play this too poorly and I really struggled with his team from a match-up perspective, which is still my fault as is for bringing the team I did, but I did get outplayed consistently and I screwed myself off by letting Keldeo lose Specs, I suppose, even if I personally believe that did not alter how the game transpired much at all. Regardless, I got bodybagged in this game and it still haunts me to this day, so I suppose I have some obligation to include it and..bop here it is xd
2.
Qualifying round WCOP 2014, XY OU vs Unbirthday - meh, this game was so long ago and I am nowhere near the player I currently am, but I surely outplayed myself and got outplayed a significant amount in this match and lost a game I surely deserved to in an arguably very winnable match-up. I regret how I handled this on various fronts, but, again, this was from long ago, so I will refrain from going into specifics.
1.
Semifinals, SPL 8, SM OU vs Tricking -
Oh and I switched a Keldeo out of a Heatran into a Specs Gengar and got Lava Plume'd when he lacked a Ghost resist, for those wondering! This was probably the most important game of my life and also easily the most disappointing for me.
If you could ban/unban something from a past gen, what would it be and why?
Excadrill from BW because the Sand Rush set on Rain/Weatherless with Balloon, SD, Iron Head, EQ, Rapid Spin is a bit much and also the Sand Force SD set on Sand teams itself is potent as shit, but I got more into detail on this in my answer to CM's question in this post, so feel free to read that for more. Also, I would "consider" banning Clefable from ORAS, but I do not think it is broken, not banworthy. As for unabns, always wanted to see Latias in DPP, but unsure of how it would actually go and if it would be worthwhile, so just curious on that front. Mega-Sableye ban in ORAS was a huge mistake and should have never happened and it belongs in the tier, too.
What's the worst pickup line you've ever used on Tinder? Best pickup line?
Any up and coming users people should keep an eye out in future tours?
Obliviate made it in SPL, but he's still very much a newer player and I expect huge things from him in the near future, perhaps even becoming one of the top 3-4 OUers by mid-late gen7.
dukevesper is an SM OU player who mainly played ladder in the past, but I see as a very good prospect for the future if he is patient and continues to try his hardest.
Not Troller is easily one of the top 10 RBY players and deserves to get picked in SPL without a doubt, in my mind.
ItzViper482 is one of my favorite up-and-coming LC players who is on my LCPL team -- this dude really knows what he's talking about and keeps impressing me, even if he lacks a ton of experience in big tournaments currently.
ayevon is another newish player who impresses me with his teambuilding, but he needs more experience playing in bigger situations like most of these other dudes.
Marcop impressed me with his vast old generation knowledge for a fairly new player and if he focuses on a tier or two and calms down a bit, I can see him being a high-level tournament regular in the future. There are various others, too, but I do not want this to go on forever and these dudes either were on my mind or specifically stood out to me recently, so I listed them. Also, no, I will not list you on your own question -- good attempt tho xd
Which player do you enjoy watching the most?
McMeghan,
Obliviate, and
KratosMana as they all have unique takes on things and are not afraid to look outside the box while still remaining optimal, which I view as a really respectable and effective way to approach things.
Have you ever thought about playing any other competitive game? If so which games?
No, I am too addicted to this shit as is and I do not plan to give up on this, so that'll be all for me.
How would you fix the lack of parity in the NBA?
There isn't much they could legitimately do in the immediate future or present that would solve it unless it's genuinely unfair, but they can start promoting competitive moves by teams as opposed to the tank for a couple years and rebuild line-of-action that creates an insane temporary gap between top and bottom, I guess, but then one could argue that many teams will just be continuously mediocre. Overall, there is not much of a solution and I think it's inherently going to be like this sometimes, but it still is somewhat enjoyable, so I do not mind much.
If you could own a sports team, what sport would you pick and why?
Baseball (Yankees) because it is one of the bigger market sports (second to football), it is my favorite sport, I know so much about the game itself, and I feel like growing an in-depth farm system and having so much hinge on long-term development is huge. The Yankees' current team is basically a product of this being done properly in the short term with results being extreme for a first year, but still it shows the fruits of long-term thinking based labor in an MLB franchise and I find this general dynamic to be quite cool and I would like to involve myself with this if it ever became possible (it won't, but we can always dream and theorize).
1. Control
2. Drive
3. 100 Letters
4. Young God
5. Heaven in Hiding / Gasoline
top 5 builders in sm ou rn?
In no particular order, ABR/TDK/KratosMana/Obliviate/Ben Gay (Ben only when he isn't too wild tho)
player you look upto the most?
I don't look up to too many players currently, to be quite honest, but it used to be McMeghan and Bloo mainly -- I guess these are generic answers from my generation of tournament players.
do u watch anime?
why wont u love me?
no.
your thoughts after game 3
edit: Cavs in 7??????
I wish the Cavs would win this series, but it is nearly impossible at this point tbh. They really screwed themselves over at the end of game 3 and they simply cannot win multiple games @ GSW, let alone one to begin with. They will need to play insane offensively once again just to make it to game 6, to be honest.
Quick ranking of wcop teams from most likely to least likely to take it all (omitting central if you want)
1. East
2. Spain
3. France
4. Brazil
5. Germany
6. US West
7. Canada
8. US Central
9. Oceania
10. Europe
11. Italy
12. UK
13. Asia
14. US Metro
15. LA
16. Greece
17. India
18. Bangladesh (RIP)
what's the meaning of life?
what is your favorite old gen? what's your favorite non pokemon game?
Generation five. Most sports titles because that is all I have really played outside of Pokemon, but I am not sure specifically which -- probably Madden.
mfk: latios, landorus-therian forme, a real girl (w/vagina and breasts)
Marry: Landorus-Therian forme, Fuck: a real girl, Kill: Latios
Congratulations, Finchy :).
Do you love me?
No.
What's your favorite Pokemon?
It's literally at the top of the OP.
If you made it does that mean I can?
Given your forum presence, no chance.
What is your opinion on the current SM meta? What are some changes you would make if you could?
Also literally in the OP.
No thanks.
Oh, yeah, make sure to draft me next time, and one more question:
What's your favorite Lady Gaga song?
No. Bad Romance.
Which is faster Greninja-Ash or Tapu Koko (asking for a friend)?
"Tapu Koko" - esteemed user
meepsvictory
How open are you about your pursuit of internet pokemon glory to your friends and acquaintances IRL?
I am pretty open to this, actually. My family and best HS friend know and have even seen me play, asked basic questions, and hope for me to enjoy the time I spend playing. Additionally, my roommate in college, of course, knows I play and I suppose he told my neighbors. Well, sure enough, they came in one night and asked a bunch of questions because they're all big Pokemon fans and had even heard of Smogon once or twice before. I told them what PS was and we played a really basic, funny (to me, at least) game of early Pokebank OU and their ideas/moves actually cracked me up. It was a fun night or two when they went at it and we discussed stuff and it was surprising how cool it was with them -- made me feel quite happy for a bit, actually.
Are there any metas that you are not familiar with that you wish you were?
SM UU, mainly, but I am slowly getting a grasp on that.
Are people who only know 'Closer' the best Halsey fans?
No and they should listen to all of her own actual songs!
What is the worst pokemon that you regularly use (any gen)?
Tentacruel in BW OU.
Best/favorite tournament games you have played and witnessed? Don't skimp on the details
I outlined the best/worst games I played in my answer to Subject 18's question earlier on in this post, but I think I will focus more on high-quality/close games as opposed of my own and in general as opposed to my most well-played games in response to this. I will try to find five of these (these are in no particular order and I'm unsure of how many will actually be my own as opposed to general games that have interested me).
1.
SPL 7, Week 1 - BW OU, Finchinator vs LuckOverSkill - This was my first ever SPL BW game and it was insanely close when it was all said and done. I got off to an early advantage, even if it wasn't too large of one, by trapping his Jirachi when he only got Stealth Rock up. Then, I also nailed a pivot to Landorus-T on his Tyranitar and Earthquake'd into his Choice Banded Pursuit, allowing me to keep Landorus-T and essentially get rid of his Tyranitar from that point on. However, through some smart reads and pivots that included chipping my Heatran with consistent Stealth Rock switch-ins to give his Volcarona some leverage, Luck slowly clawed back into the game to lead to a very closely contested end game where I barely edged him out with my offensive tank Gastrodon (epic set, by the way).
2.
SPL 7, Tiebreak - ORAS OU, ABR vs GeeMick - This game gets a lot of shit and even I acknowledge that it was far from the best played game, but it still is one that I personally enjoyed so much and have rewatched a solid dozen times since it has happened because it was of such importance and it was between two fairly new players to the tournament scene, at the time, yet it was so closely contested and hyped up beforehand, during, and afterwards. I was also very fond of both of the teams used, especially ABR's as my favorite type of ORAS team at the time was Nidoking bulky-offense/balance, but what really got my attention and made me enjoy it was how close the late game was and how it came down to Crunch defense drops against CM TBolt Clefable with a Tyranitar and Keldeo on Clefable in a last ditch effort for Clefable to sweep against a last ditch effort for anything to possibly break through the Clefable -- this game was just really tense, close, and even if there was some RNG and GeeMick arguably handled some mid-late things suboptimally, it was one of my favorite games to watch and easily one of the most memorable games for me.
3.
SPL 7, Finals - ORAS OU, Blunder vs Reiku - I'm not an ORAS player and I actually am not too fond of this tier currently, but I have to admit that late in SPL 7 there were a lot of cool, closely contested games between solid players and this certainly was another one of them! Two bulky-offensive teams with threats to each other being used by solid ass players in form at the time who both made various high-level reads/predictions to sway things situationally in their favor or give them momentum...this is just a classic really good SPL game that I wish we saw a bit more of on a consistent basis in high-level tournaments, but hey maybe I'm a bit picky/selective in this regard myself.
4.
STour 20 Finals - BW OU, McMeghan vs Tesung - This was an insanely close game for one of the most important individual tournaments in recent history given that one of these two was going to become a two-time STour winner. McMeghan, down to his last loss, was playing for his life in the tournament and just to get to g3 and he did not disappoint, using a cool bulky-offense with Sash SR Tyranitar. Tesung himself used an interesting team with Shaymin, a Pokemon I'm not too big a fan of, but I still liked seeing it in this match and it was surely something else to add to the already high level of interest. Overall, this was another nailbiter that required a lot of long-term thinking and hard plays to execute for both, with McM barely coming out on top.
5.
WCOP 2016 Qualifying round, DPP OU - Jirachee vs McMeghan - This was a fantastic match in my eyes. Neither player really misplayed and Jirachee made a handful of aggressive plays he probably needed to ultimately win this game while McMeghan didn't give things up too easily himself. I do not recall too much specifics about this game, but I do know that McMeghan brought an interesting balance with Fable and Nape whereas Jirachee had a seemingly generic FWG offensive team that had the tools to win the match-up and the tools were utilized properly. This game is one of the many, many examples of why Breloom owns.
Bonus: three tournament games I have played that I don't think would make the cut here, but I found to be especially cool/close:
vs McMeghan for ST 18 Playoffs, BW OU,
vs Giara for SPL 6 Week 7, ORAS NU, and
vs Poek for SPL 8 Week 8, SM OU.
What BW teams of yours are you most proud of?
This rain I used against Jayde was a bit of a departure from my norms and I find it to be especially good nevertheless. I am mainly known for using Sand bulky-O, but I also sort of use Rain offense a fair amount of the time when I feel comfortable doing so. The thing is that I have legitimately never touched Thundurus-Therian before in a tournament game and this set especially is cool for so many 'standard' sand teams, so I felt like properly integrating it into the context of this team was cool and it enabled the two strong waters, in Keldeo + Starmie, to function especially well. Sadly, this team lost vs Jayde in a game I got outplayed in, but was still fairly close on both sides, but I did happen to do insanely well with this in the most recent season of Smogon Tour and this really opened up my eyes to a lot of possibilities with building rain teams in the current metagame.
This is a fairly standard Sand team, but with a few things that I especially like right now that aren't overly common and make it especially effective in the current metagame. Sub Toxic Magma Storm Heatran (or just Sub Toxic in general) is really good and it weakens all of the right things that you want it to for a team like this, especially with Spikes support. Passho Tyranitar is also an underrated set that never really sees usage and it is cool to safely switch into things like Surf from Latios and absorb hits from Pokemon like Politoed when needed. Generally, there will be Water type moves and Tyranitar is often encountering them, almost every game I'd go as far as saying, and this helps with numerous specific ones offensively and defensively when used properly. It's not a Tyranitar set I would necessarily slap onto teams, but I built this team specifically around the Tyranitar (and eventually the Heatran) set(s). I have been toying with Counter over Whirlwind or Brave Bird over Taunt on Skarmory because of Excadrill and a few other things, but unsure of which I like better, but one of the two should be used. Overall, the rest is fairly straightforward/standard, but still effective nevertheless. I will admit that I am vulnerable to Volcarona with HP Ground, by the way, but I find that rare right now and even then, some lack Bug Buzz and then they are slightly manageable if I play my cards right.
Finally,
this is a bit more of an unconventional, risky DragMag esque weatherless HO team revolving around an anti-metagame Magnezone set that I took quite a liking to ever since SPL, when I created it in trying to build for Vinc (ultimately didn't use anything remotely similar vs him, but I had a lot of ideas so yea not too shocking I suppose). Anyway, this team has the generic Scarf Chomp and Latios (it can be Specs, by the way, but I've been preferring LO lately just because of all of the Shed Shell steel types and the ability to have longevity against rain thanks to Roost) paired with Magnezone. Magnezone's set is meant to specifically take advantage of the match-up with Ferrothorn on Rain teams, being able to Sunny Day to change the weather and then OHKO the Ferrothorn with HP Fire. This is especially nice if I kill Politoed off early game, but regardless it gives me an added element of momentum as it forced them to get up Rain soon if they still have a Politoed anyway and it also helps for Tornadus-Therian as it can take Focus Blast thanks to Chople Berry, too. This Magnezone is also sort of nice later in games if it gets a free turn against rain as a single Sunny Day can prevent something like Scarf Keldeo from cleaning and I find having a spare Sunny Day against Rain can never hurt you, so yea why not, even if the main purpose is for Ferro early game and having the utility of Chople Berry. Mamoswine fits here nicely as nothing really switches into it, it grants me priority, and it opens holes for Chomper later on in conjunction with Mag/Fire Latios. Finally, ungood Rotom-Wash and Jirachi simply fit on defensively and offensively for various reasons that I do not feel the need to get into, but they provide me, more or less, with what I need. This team runs into trouble if it encounters a bulky team with the right Mamoswine and Latios counterplay in the long haul, but most of the time it is quite manageable and it is one of my favorite teams to play right now, even if it is a bit risky for my normal taste.
Will you ever get into GSC, the pinnacle of OU Pokemon?
I mean I play GSC for fun on-and-off and have a basic understanding of the tier, but I'm far from competent and I have to get a grasp on the long-term thinking process and general guidelines to that if I truly wish to excel. I do not see myself doing this in the near/immediate future, but perhaps next summer if I have time and I am doing well enough in classic to where I can make playoffs -- if that's the case, then I will at least get to a level where I feel comfortable and competent even if I do not necessarily "master" it. But only time will tell here.
Do you think you'll put forth the effort to become a better ORAS player--as in so you'd be worth putting in a starting spot in WCoP/SPL now that it's a more specialized past gen? What holds you back in it now?
Yes, actually. I very much need to do this over WCOP with the help of my good friend HSA, who is playing it for Central, as I want to make a well-rounded SmogTour run for once and for all and this is necessary to do so. I hope to be at an SPL/WCoP level when it is all said and done, but as of now I am very raw and inconsistent in the tier with my builds lacking the level of sophistication that might distinct an average player or a high level ladder player from that of a consistent, top tournament player (with me being in the former of the two categories in ORAS, to specify). It's not even that I do not get the tier, per se, but I simply lack the grasp that I have in BW and SM and it just isn't clicking quite yet. I plan to watch a lot of the WCOP games and test/build a lot with my team and hopefully the time I invest will correlate to an improvement, but we shall have to wait and see how this works out.
Some underrated BW/ORAS/SM sets you don't mind revealing?
SM: Z-Fly Smack Down Landorus-Therian, Dark Pulse Protean Greninja, Sub Coil Zygarde, Gigavolt Havoc Tapu Koko, OTR Z-Shadow Ball Cofagrigus, and Z-Stone Edge Automize Celesteela
ORAS: Sub Endeavor Mega-Diancie, Pursuit utility Mega-Scizor, SD + BP Gliscor, and Tailwind SD Zard-X
BW: 4a Lefties Thundurus-T, Passho Tyranitar, Sunny Day Chople Magnezone, Shuca 4a lead Jirachi, Fighting Gem Focus Blast Politoed, Life Orb Sub Alakazam (idk why Sash gets like 95% of the usage tbh), Ice Gem Terrakion, offensive tank Gastrodon, OTR Slowking, SubPass Mienshao, and Shuca Counter Tyranitar (or Counter Tyranitar in general)
Thoughts on the increased prominence of "cheese" in the tournament scene, and how many respected players claim it ruins otherwise great metas, starting in ORAS and now very much appearing in SM? What would you do about this if you had the power to?
Well, it became evident to me during SPL that there is way too much cheese in SM OU and while I wanted it to be minimzed, I understood why it was used as much as it was and that we should prepare for it like any other element of the game/metagame trend. It is, unfortunately, quite hard to do so, but things like Baton Pass have at least been banned by the council and Webs has been dying down, so that's good. I feel like people need to be a bit less lazy and stubborn in prep, but I also feel like as metagames develop, cheese generally becomes less consistent and effective and, therefore, see less usage. For example, Rain Stall in BW is worse than the best stalls in ORAS or SM, in my opinion, and, therefore, you see less of it unless you're a noob like Posho or Dice (no flame). In general, there's minimal "cheese" in BW and this is actually a big part of the personal appeal to me, but I am actually warming up to SM again and the cheese is, thankfully, dying down. I feel like trying to regulate it or discourage it beyond natural tiering means is simply something that isn't realistic and shouldn't be done no matter how lame it might seem to have cheese present in the metagame, I suppose.
Thoughts on
this song? Must be listened to at maximum volume.
Cannot listen bc 4:30am and earbuds in my care, sorry :x I'll try to remember to later
You've come a pretty long way lol good work
Thanks man. It has been a long time and I'm glad to be where I am and hope to stick around for many years to come.
sorry roro/njnp/others, but this post is too long and it's really late, so I will get to these later this weekend x_x
