LC Player of the Week Revival #4: Luthier

taranteeeno

levi premier league of the decade
is a Community Contributor

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Luthier’s opponents as their mons drop.

Luthier
Favorite Pokemon: Charmander
Most Used LC Pokemon: Abra
Known as: 8-0 LCPL8, LCWC NA Central starter, 2018 Grand Slam Playoffs Qualifier, USUM RU Cup winner, 2018 RU Open Semi-Finalist, creator of innovative sets like Pussog, unknown Poketuber

I am back with another LC Player of the Week. This time, we have Luthier. He is 8-0 in LCPL and looking to make a historic run in finals alongside the Shambled Shellos. Please give him a warm welcome.​

Hi Luthier! Glad that I have the chance to interview you. You’re currently on an LCPL hot streak right now with a 8-0 record! Before I get into mons-related questions, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?

Ya sure. Hmm, I’m 18 and going into my sophomore year of undergrad. I’m majoring in neuroscience and criminal justice with a minor in math and psychology. (praying to get into med school). I love sleeping and I also love making YouTube videos :p. I play tennis and I need a new TV show to watch since GoT ended.

I’ve honestly never met anyone who double majored and double minored. That is insane lol. You mention that you make YouTube videos. What kind of content do you like to make and do you have a channel you’d like to plug? :blobpex:

LOL sure I have a YouTube channel that I upload content to for fun. It really isnt anything spectacular but its something i picked up because i enjoy making videos for not only myself, but also for those few who actually end up watching the content. Here's the channel for anyone who wants to take a look/subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMluKOuvY8uOXE7lsa6YqOQ

That’s great. I’ve watched a couple of your videos and definitely enjoyed them. Hope you keep it up. Now let’s get into mons. How did you start playing competitive mons and what was your introduction like to Little Cup?

So i started off with competitive mons when my friend from school showed PS! to me during class. Class was boring enough to the point where id just sit next to him while the lecture was going and watch him play. Then after, i started off playing in the tournaments room where i basically got all of my competitive background from. Although I played early pokemon games like leaf green and a couple of sinnoh games, i had no clue about IVs, EVs, etc until i started to play on PS!. After about 3 months of playing on PS!, i didnt see myself getting any better so i just quit lol. About 3 years later i joined back to see some random gen 7 mons and obviously struggled to learn them. i think i was at work and i didnt have anything left to do, so i was just messing around on the internet when i stumbled back onto PS!. As i kept on playing, i slowly started to relearn how to play and eventually i found myself in an LC tournament in the tournaments room. I think I was talking to serene since he was on my BLT team and he passed me a webs team for LC. Keep in mind this was in early SM so the team was absolutely nuts. I started to play LC simply because I had one really good team lol. tbh thats the only reason i even started it. obv its fun and all but if that team was never passed to me, i dont even know if id be playing mons rn.

Ah so you got into LC through involvement with BLT. That’s cool. I can vaguely recall another young LCer getting into the meta with a webs team, but I can’t recall his name.. I think it was Jose.. no wait Felipe.. Pabl- hmm no that’s not it.

Okay so fast forward from BLT to LCPL 7, how did you find your way onto the Stuntin’ Stunkys?


Jeez that was a year ago. hmm being honest i was quite full of myself back then. I thought i was guaranteed a spot in LCPL since i had pretty well in the most recent seasonal. But i do remember being one of the like last 5 picks of the draft lol. a couple of my friends were like "wheres Luthier" in the LC room and ig a manager saw it? not quite sure but quick shoutout to Sken for drafting me

ngl it was a fun experience tho. got to get close to some boys and met some new people that i 100% would have never known if i wasnt a part of the team. even though the team wasnt that impressive in terms of standings it was really fun

What was the experience like compared to LCPL 8 where you’re now a 8-0 SM starter?

Yea the experience is completely different. obviously i was on the bench then, and now im not but i remember spending a lot of effort into helping others prep. tbh that was quite an important step in learning to become a better player. i remember scouting for tcr against jox and that was prolly one of my more successful attempts at helping someone teambuild. But in terms of the difference between now and then, I would consider the time i spent on the stunkies as a foundation for getting to the place where i am now. even when i had started during my time in the stunkies, it was kinda of like a "uhh yea ur in bro. go get 'em". Nothing against the team but it kinda felt like "we arent expecting you to really win, but if you could that would be nice". Now, the expectations are completely different, and you can attest to that yourself Mr.Manager, but being sitting in the back of the wagon is completely different than helping you steer it. Weird analogy, but I think it gets the point across,

Yeah for sure. Okay so you mention being on the Stunkys as setting a foundation for your development. What else did you do to go from 1-2 Stunky to Grand Slam playoffs qualifier to severe underpay star player of the Shambled Shellos?

ok first of all: "underpay star player of the 70% ban rate wingulls"

Who?

I think its fairly obvious who you can attribute my "success" in LC to. There are the 5 people that have consistently helped me through this process of getting better. And they would always give me advice when it came to understanding proper plays. It really all started with dundies. Really the only person in the LC community that would bother talking to me at the time. He would help me understand the meta and eventually started to teach me how to play better. We would just walk through play by play and turn by turn to try to improve my play. he was essentially a tutor to me. Then came dcae and shrug. lol these two are the dumbest people i have ever met on this site but i think its quite obvious that my teambuilding is a direct reflection of those two helping me. And then there was OP lol. This man was probably the reason i didnt quit. After a while i got kinda annoyed at certain aspects of the community and really just wanted to scrap mons as a whole. (Keep in mind this is right after i went 1-2 in LCPL and didnt go drafted for smogon exhib a year ago).

We walked through multiple replays and went into in depth analysis of them. And when i mean in depth, we had like 2 page discussions on an LC match. and we did this for about 2 weeks, just going back and forth talking about LC games - finding mistakes, misplays, sources for improvement. Not only in my games, but looking into high level gameplay just to understand where things couldve changed. So thank you OP for that. I am incredibly thankful for that. And lastly lol lucksup. I think when i started to learn to teambuild was when i was with heysup on the firedogs for exhib. Whether it was out of being lazy or him actually urging me to learn, i will never know. But he forced me to teambuild on the firedogs, which is where i probably noticed me climbing over the hill of being an average player to possibly being something better. Although i still had a lot to learn at that point the progression of being handed to different people to learn different aspects of LC was probably the basis for my development. Of course, whatever playstyle i had learn from these 5 people in LC could be similarly applied to other tiers - the risk vs reward aspect, the need for aggression aspect, and much more.

You did well in Smogon Exhibition II if I remember correctly. It would be hard to refute that learning to build didn’t contribute to your success.

So now that you’ve developed into a builder, give me your take on the SM LC metagame right now. Which mons or sets do you think work really well currently?


heh watch the video later this week to find out.

You only get one channel plug.:mad:

I think something thats incredibly good in the meta rn is probably z sunny day ponyta. I also think that something really good rn is corphish, and then of course gastly is amazing. gastly + evio dig is a really cool core that i have had success with but i havent built too many teams around that.

Yeah I can see the effect all of those mons have on the meta right now, especially gastly and corphish. Do you like how SM LC has developed over the past year with all of the recent suspects? Do you agree with the suspect results?

Well i do believe that the baton pass on torchic was justified. Maybe im just saying that cuz i could never beat it, but i absolutely despised playing baton pass.

Wingull indeed was a deserved ban. mon was too good for the tier. would be interesting to see how the tier would change if we had like a week to play around with wingull.

And uhh i think there was a mistake with trapinch. I was the only person who posted in the discussion for the trapinch ban and i voted that it should be banned. aaaand seeing the meta after trapinch ban, i dont really know how i feel about what i posted. I think the meta was in a much nicer state before. maybe im saying that cuz its harder to build now since you can just make a core out of like Doduo vullaby pinch and easily win. But i do think that meta pre-trapinch ban was nicer than it is now.

Abra i really dont know how id feel. its funny cuz i think my usage on abra is higher than mienfoo or something ridiculous like that but im not really sure how i feel on abra not being banned, as in i really dont have a stance on the matter anymore.

Thanks for sharing some of your meta takes with us (unlike Serene who refused to comment on suspects).

Now, I want to put the focus back on you. I feel like the last year has been a trying time for you. Between not getting drafted for RUPL because managers “forgot to nom you” and being a severe underpay in LCPL8 despite positive results in Exhibition II and LCWC, how has this left you feeling?


Well I was obv kinda frustrated about the RUPL thing but its w/e. its kinda funny how people will continue to bash on those they see unfit to do well. And its not only with me: this has been happening to multiple players. Prime example of user that talks the talk but can't walk the walk can be seen in LCPL_all-time_overall_records.doc. Anyway, at the same time it's really cool being seen as a dark horse. ive always been told that I wasn't good enough so it feels really nice to surpass expectations. ig for anyone that keeps getting crap for not being good enough, just keep at it. Whether its a stroke of luck or perseverance, the opportunity will eventually hit you

Just this past week you triumphed over LC’s hero, 067jox, in a highly anticipated bout between two LC PokeTubers. This win puts you at 8-0 as you join an elite group of LCPLers including tko, TUO, and kingler12345. I think you’ve surpassed dark horse. What do you think of this season overall and is there anyone you want to shoutout?

Ya s/o to madoka for being the best manager I could ask for. Super enthusiastic and super... uhh "loyal" lol. Also collective s/o to all 4 of my managers who went a collective 1-11 by the time I was trade.

lol but if im being for real, thank you to Corporal Levi for being the best tester/building help I could ask for.

Nice host-player collusion. Also, for the record, I was the one win in that collective 1-11.

Before we wrap this up, do you have a team you can share with us?


Abra @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magic Guard
Level: 5
EVs: 240 SpA / 200 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Energy Ball

Diglett @ Eviolite
Ability: Arena Trap
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Beat Up
- Rock Slide
- Pursuit

Onix @ Groundium Z
Ability: Weak Armor
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 36 Def / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Blast
- Curse
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake

Foongus @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 124 HP / 156 Def / 156 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb

Timburr @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Atk / 156 Def / 156 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off

Vullaby @ Berry Juice
Ability: Weak Armor
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 76 Atk / 80 Def / 160 SpD / 40 Spe
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Knock Off
- Defog
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Scarf abra is a p interesting form of sweeping in the current, especially with the incredible rise in the Vullaby usage. That being said, i think this a p fun team to play around with and it isn't too bad. running eviodig for pawn and abra/gastly. you can also run sucker punch > rock slide if you like. The z Onix is a great lure for annoying stuff for scarf abra to break (since it has to lock itself into one move) - gets rid of stuff like spritz, foo, mareniae etc. z on the Onix is nice because it punishes vullabys for coming in on the abra. im running the spdef Timburr to help deal with nuisances to the team such as gastly and then Foongus + Vullaby for defensive pivot. Also important to see that the HP fighting on Vullaby is a nice lure for Pawniard, which makes the sweep with abra significantly easier.

Thank you Luthier for your time and thanks everyone for reading. Feel free to ask any questions to our guest. See you soon!
 

Ampha

"They don’t call me Greed for nothing!"
is a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributor
What you think of the current LC elite members? Is esteemed interviewer tyranteeno one of them?
Talking about pinch, what are your opinion on the gay traps LC metagame has? How they can stop being gay?
If you were a lcpl/LPL manager what would be your dream team and why?
Favorite food?
If you could unban a LC ubers mon what mon would it be and why?
Whats your favorite meme mon/set?
Favorite LC community emoji?
And to finish what new mon would you want nerf/buffed in SWSH?(#freenatdex)
 

Luthier

Don’t get mad, get even.
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Two-Time Past SCL Champion
What you think of the current LC elite members? Is esteemed interviewer tyranteeno one of them?
Talking about pinch, what are your opinion on the gay traps LC metagame has? How they can stop being gay?
If you were a lcpl/LPL manager what would be your dream team and why?
Favorite food?
If you could unban a LC ubers mon what mon would it be and why?
Whats your favorite meme mon/set?
Favorite LC community emoji?
And to finish what new mon would you want nerf/buffed in SWSH?(#freenatdex)
1. not really sure. I dont mind them lol. uhh no. he is not
2. I do not like the concept of trapping. it is broken. but at the same time, if u can't beat em, join em right. u can stop trapping by banning trapping. its a genius idea I know.
3. all the tours room goons. cuz were un-defeatable
4. tiramisu
5. wingull. I miss it
6. oof gotta be wynaut. Heysup really has done wonders to my thought process.
7.
:shellos:

8. someone please nerf Vullaby
 

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