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maybe this is heaven
Welcome to the SM version of OU Player of the Week! This project will feature interviews from some of the most accomplished and influential users in the tier so that we can learn more about them.
If there is a user that you would like to see interviewed be sure to let me know.
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Eo Ut Mortus
most known for: Performing decently in a lot of tiers, notably DPP UU, BW OU, and SM OU. Formerly, TDing.
favorite pokemon: Gliscor
most used pokemon: Landorus-Therian, but everyone uses that, so Clefable or Chansey.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself outside of Smogon?
I'm a 24-year-old software engineer from St. Louis who recently relocated to Boston. Right now, I'm mostly focused on developing my career, so my current hobbies are stereotypical tech ones: programming, studying, attending meetups, etc. During my undergrad, I also majored in English, so I enjoy writing short stories and reading fiction, particularly postmodern literature. I hope to publish one day (alongside my literary idol, iris), but at the moment, I don't have the time or drive to produce work I can be satisfied with.
I'm a competitive person and usually have a hobby that reflects that; when it hasn't been Pokemon, it's been chess, Melee, or League of Legends (9 months clean).
Where did you get your name from?
It was the name of my RuneScape pure from when I was 13, which, by convention, had to be both edgy and pseudo-intellectual. It roughly translates to "I go to death" in Latin.
How and when did you get into competitive Pokemon?
I frequented the Serebii forums when I was 12 and learned about EVs and competitive movesets through their vaunted Pokemon of the Day series. Occasionally, I'd also see chaos troll the RMT boards, making references to NetBattle, which Serebii had a blanket ban on mentioning at the time. I downloaded it and began to play ADV, and when DP was released, I signed up for Smogon proper and became involved in WiFi and later ShoddyBattle. In 2009, I gained recognition by reaching and maintaining #1 on the DP UU ladder and the Suspect ladder throughout various tests, and I went on to land a WCoP spot for Team Central (at the time, I was too intimidated by Asia to even try out for them) and place top 4 in Smogon Tour 7, solidifying my involvement in the tournament community.
What’s your favourite generation of OU and why?
It varies. I don't really have an affinity for any generation in particular. For as long as it's practical, I'll always try to focus on the current generation and practice whatever's necessary to succeed in the official tournament circuit. More than anything else, I enjoy being able to contribute to the active development of a metagame and participate in the arena that draws the most competition.
Right now, it's probably SM. Various mechanic changes from past generations are very much welcome, including nerfs to burn, Dragon-types, and most importantly, Thunder Wave and paralysis. After playing a bit of ORAS, I'm so glad paralysis is unviable in SM (please don't make Glare Zygarde a thing). There are now at least four generations of OU where para-spreading strategies are a key component of the metagame, and it's especially disheartening to see what DPP has devolved to as of late.
What’s your favourite playstyle to use and why?
I tend to just spam good Pokemon, which usually ends up as some variant of bulky offense or stall. I rarely build with concrete offensive win conditions in mind, so I tend to avoid Pokemon such as Hawlucha and Kartana who are used almost exclusively for breaking or sweeping and instead use offensive Pokemon that offer some form of defensive coverage or other utility as well.
What are your thoughts on the current metagame?
It's not bad, but it's hard to be satisfied with it. There are too many threats to account for, so you have to let yourself be weak to the Volcarona or Suicune that nobody uses or use something suboptimal to account for them. There are Pokemon that aren't "broken", such as Zygarde and Greninja-Ash, that force you to use the same types of checks all the time. There are a limited number of viable Stealth Rockers and Scarfers, so I find myself using Landorus-Therian on every team. And at this point in SM, it's hard to foresee any of this changing organically, not without bans or releases. It doesn't appear that this is going to happen, though; the metagame is stable enough that people are willing to maintain it for fear that the alternatives are worse or inachievable within a practical timeframe. There's a reluctance to suspect anything because nobody can agree on a clearly broken outlier, and banning something will inevitably lead to other things becoming broken.
Having said that, I do wonder if we're beginning to see our suspect framework break down. Landorus-Therian's overcentralization is a problem in itself, but it's symptomatic of a larger one for which we don't have a current answer: We can't achieve true balance with this volume of diversity. Either it's impossible to make a team that adequately covers everything, or we have to rely on these overcentralizing Landorus-type Pokemon to do so. To solve these issues, we need to ban things more liberally or exercise complex bans, neither of which are presented as desirable options under our current framework. At some point, I hope we reconsider some of our self-imposed restrictions or else consider different approaches.
In an ideal world, I'd like to experiment with more esoteric options. I've opposed complex move bans in the past, but perhaps they'd be warranted now; unlike with Pokemon bans, it's easy to convey that these moves are unavailable within the teambuilder. We can also work within the constraints of the current system: hold more frequent iterations of suspect bans/rereleases or start with a huge banlist and gradually release Pokemon (the kokoloko method). I don't know. I get that these are big paradigm shifts that might not even work, and if you're a council member, you'd probably want to err for more conservative options to avoid upsetting the userbase for no guaranteed payoff. But I don't think the current response to the Landorus-Therian usage situation is tenable in the long run and possibly even in the near future.
Are there any Pokemon that you believe are overrated/underrated in the current metagame. Why?
Not really; my opinions of the metagame align with what ended up being used in SPL. I pegged Gliscor as overhyped on USUM's release, but turns out it wasn't used all that much in SPL. For underrated Pokemon, I think Mew deserves more usage, and it probably will resurge if Zygarde and Medicham continue to rise.
What were some of your favourite moments from SPL9?
My favorite individual moment was my game vs. Sabella. It was the final game of Week 3, and we were down 6-5 vs. the Classiest, so I was feeling the pressure of a deciding match against a team we'd initially dismissed. Inexplicably, I felt more energized than usual during the match, and I ended up winning off a hard read mid-game that got the chat hype. And I love that kind of thing; for all the gripes about Smogtours chat, what with in-chat ghosting and speculation, the atmosphere generated by people reacting to plays and gassing players, whether ironically or unironically, is one thing I'll always enjoy.
On that note, the spectator experience is something I really like about SPL. People will link battles in Discords with players who quit Pokemon long ago, and they'll log on and watch and comment about how the meta has changed. A lot of my favorite moments from this SPL are just calling with people and for games on a Saturday or getting hype with my teams for Kushalos's crazy in-game antics or windsong's RU displays.
You seem to have a penchant for unorthodox sets. Could you give some insight into how you come up with them?
Half of them are me trying to actively subvert common player expectations, and the other half of them are me trying to salvage a team that's weak to something with as few changes as possible. You have to like your teams enough that you're willing to make some nonstandard accommodations instead of starting from scratch when a weakness crops up, and from there, it's just being willing to defy convention and consider all options. I don't think I'm too unique in this regard, though; there are plenty of equally creative people in the playerbase, and I'm sad nobody else posted their sets post-SPL like everyone used to. They always made for interesting reads, and I hope we'll see some reflections after SPL finals.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone trying to break into the tournament setting?
Treat this game like a discipline rather than a competition. It's fun to revel in the public eye when you're doing well, but focusing on self-development will get you through the days when you're not at your best or when your opponent has your number. Whenever I feel the need to make excuses for a loss, point out to everyone watching that I was haxed and that I'm actually the better player, that's when I know I'm too focused on public perception rather than actual improvement, and that's when I need to take a step back or a short break. There's so much churn at the top because everyone knows how to play the game, and there comes a point where skill is defined by consistency, and consistency is affected by so many factors. Losses are inevitable; what's important is your drive to better yourself.
Who are some of your favourite people in the Smogon community?
I enjoy the company of my fellow past and current League of Legenders, including elodin, HSA, yohoE, whistle, Earthworm, Lavos, Rumor, and SilentVerse. I'm also glad to have had the opportunity to meet newer up-and-coming players through team tournaments such as ayevon, z0mOG, and Finchinator. Special mentions to danilo, tama (rip), Sogeking, pre-runoff/post-SPL 5 Jayde, dekzeh, HANTSUKI, Ciele, and iris.
Finally, can you provide us a team that you think reflects your current playstyle, with a brief explanation of how it works?
I made this team in Snake and had tamahome use it in an infamous game vs. Kickasser, and I later brought it vs. Cdumas in SPL. At the time, I was playing around with Clef/Pex/Zapdos builds, and this was the best one I came up with post-Dugtrio era. Basic idea is Toxic Spikes + Zygarde + solid defensive core, with some techs like Heart Swap Magearna to try and mitigate bad matchup issues. Of course, both times it sees use, it runs into Reuniclus and half its premise is immediately invalidated.
It's easy to just pick up and play, and I think that's a trend with all of my teams. They're fairly straightforward, not easy to break, good for grinding your early rounds of Smogon Tours when people aren't cteaming you. At the same, there's still a bit of depth; the team has its fair share of matchup struggles, and you'll need to be aware of tactics to exercise in certain matchups, such as preserving Payapa on Pex to trade Toxic vs. M-Latios and Medicham.
I've gone back and forth on the sets. I think some other Zygarde set, possibly DD/Protect, might be better now. Knock Off on Landorus over Earth Power helps break fat stuff. Volt Switch on Zapdos hasn't turned out to be exceptionally useful, and I think Discharge/Thunderbolt might be better, especially vs. Hawlucha.