Art by Kalalokki
Mr. Aldo
Favorite Pokemon: Aggron
Most used Pokemon: Virizion
Most known for: Being one of the biggest contributors RU has ever seen, playing in official tours and having really cool looking builds all around
My next journey would send me to New Jersey to meet with my agent, however there were some miscalculations and I ended up in Panama.
Now I am broke and have to beg for money to afford a ticket to my original destination, but oh well, no better time to check out the canal and meet new people.
On my way there I spot a few people playing football in a park, where it goes to penalties. After the goalkeeper blocks a shot, the shooter, livid, storms off screaming: "Block me ever again and I will S L A P you" and leaves in a quite respectful way.
My felisenses were tingling, I had to interview this dude, so I rushed after him...
Hey aldo, how is it going?
Doing ok, could be better but cant complain really
How about u?
Doing alright, thanks for asking sir
Been reminiscing due to all these interviews, so obviously your name also crossed my mind as one person I'd like to know more about
Would you explain to me who exactly is MrAldoPls?
MrAldoPls was the first name I ever used when on PS! I registered on smogon the MrAldo name with no problem but then I learned soon enough on PS! that getting some names is tough business and MrAldo wasnt available at the time, used by someone else. So had to settle for something quick. I tried GoodMrAldo, MrAldoNumbers but looked silly. Cant say pls doesnt look silly but I liked it so I used it until I could ger MrAldo
And what was the origin of the entire "MrAldo" thing?
There is quite a stort behind it. I have been on the hobby of "internet travelling" for many years now, like 12 years since I went around mugen forums and I always used Goodaldo cause despite my youth I always found names like Xx_DBGod_xX13 to be silly looking. Many years passed and I discovered smogon at the start of XY, as an adult, so I thought portraying the image of an old internet guy was suitable cause it is true, plenty of experience going through different websites and stuff. In the end just used the Mr then my shortname cause it looked simple and cool, the rest just went on.
Interesting, mind telling me about yourself?
Yeah, sure. 26 years old man living in Panama, living with the family cause boy living alone fucking sucks, and thankfully a job to earn some money for myself, close to a year in it. I have the mind of a curious collector, saving interesting stuff I can find and learning a bit of everything without even knowing if it would be useful one day but boy... it is so entertaining to me to learn something I didnt know, you would see me jump from cars and mechanic to pre-renaissance literature in a blink of a eye but I cherish every bit of information I can learn. Im a loner, not afraid of being alone and dont depend of anybody to go anywhere and despite me being pretty anti-social I dont see an issue in going somewhere with someone of trust (a friend, family). And I LOVE Fighting games, best genre ever, that I enjoy playing a lot, and been surfing through the internet for many years so it is a favorite thing. I also really love sports by playing and talking about them. Football/Soccer, Baseball, you name it.
Ah another fighting game lover, what's your favorite game? Also favorite football team?
Being a fighting game enthusiast you really gotta keep up with the times but thankfully the fighting game selections are phenomenal. Right now I like Dragon Ball FighterZ and really digging the recent Samurai Shodown. Other fighting games I enjoy a lot to this day and consider favorites are: King of Fighters 98, SvC: Chaos, King of Fighters 2000, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Street Fighter 3; Third Strike, Samurai Shodown 4, and Capcom vs SNK 1 Pro.
Favorite football team would be Barcelona FC, for countries besides mine would be Brazil
Hella epic and generic, like me rofl
So when did your love for pokemon in general started growing?
To be honest, when I discovered PS! Im not into wi-fi battles much tbh, they can be tacky and god forbid you disconnected for some reason. I always liked strategies and competitive but getting those is a hassle (either legally or illegally) so when I discovered you could just pick the mons and a webpage could do the rest I went super in into the hobby, and the rest is history
I see, and how did u stumble across PS?
If I am honest, I cant really recall exactly how. I was looking for some news about XY, then with that I looked at serebii then there somewhere mentioned and somehow connecting the pieces I found PS! My first team had a chandelure, a deoxys speed, and a noivern
Classic noob using legends
How did you end up in RU?
Massive tryhard from the beginning, lol.
Well, I ended in RU thanks to a friend that sadly retired a while ago. His name was the bravest birds and he was pretty good at it so he invited me to give it a try. Posted a team for a teambuilding competition on forums, interacted in chat and the chat had a cozyness UU didnt offer with Leer and compant being hella cool, I just stayed and will most likely keep staying.
Yeah I remember bravest birds
How has your RU experience been? You are known for always being a workhorse and taking care of a lot projects, a bit less as of lately
The RU experience have been very nice tbh. The community albeit small, is very close so that had made easier to satisfy most people instead of trying to reinvent the wheel and contributing was always a joy cause I do what I can to project the best possible image of the metagame I can provide. My tour outbreak is very recent and I am glad people didnt pressure me to do fine, altho could have done a lot better if I pressured myself a bit more, so I will try to work on my questionable plays to improve and bring a better image to the table. I love being part of this community so this snake, if I get drafted, I will do what I can to improve the record.
You can be a workhorse when you have time but not as much lately due to irl responsibilities. Still doing what I can to keep most stuff active (rip ru cores tho)
RIP never remembered thread
So you plan on playing in snake? Who else do you expect to get in?
Absolutely, went 3-4 without much prep in mind so I think if I put more of my mind on it I can end up positive, I will do my best to make that happen. Ajna and Nat are 200% in, they are the image of competitive RU at this point. I think alpha rabbit is an excellent pick for a starter, one of the few that defeated kw and builds his own stuff so that is always an advantage (and excellent builds too) for any manager. The rest is a tossup tbh, since it doesnt depend on me but the perception of the managers. Think Averardo, the leprechaun and roman deserve a serious shot for fresh slots. Yjh is very solid too but I think he is a given from previous tour experience.
Durza... durza can be a very good asset given he keeps his cool but thats a gamble, dunno if many managers would like having someone that volatile, but if he keeps himself in check he would be a remarkable sub or even a starter depending of the pool. Bouff could be cool for him to see him back, he has been doing cool. Do you remember that Feliburn guy? Yeah, it could be cool for him to get picked again. UltraBallz is on the same boat as Yjh, and Arifeen could get in assuming he gets back on his groove. Z+V could have been a thing if he didnt shoot himself in the foot but oh well
Interesting take
What do you think about the current metagame?
The current metagame is very compressed but still rather balanced where you can pull off a different variety of mons well enough. However, it is far from perfect. Its current state makes it a bulky offense vs bulky offense fest which makes other choices risky. HO can work fine but balance... boy, balance took a huge hit. Too many good breakers to reliably check all of them
But overall I think it does a good amount of things right, there are very decent glues finally but still not good enough like gligar or doublade (I miss doublade A LOT) but overall I think it is pretty good and it a better state than other metas, not so stale and not so frustrating. Id give it a 7/10
Thoughts on Salazzle?
In my eyes, the only S rank right now. Incredible speed, excellent typing to grab setup opportunities despite its typing, packs a punch and can cover a huge portion of the metagame by itself which makes it a super-effective wallbreaker, and easily the best scarfer. A premier pokemon that gets many things right, the nasty plot set is one of the scariest mons to face by RU standards, and something that you always need to keep in mind, THE titan of this generation without a doubt imo
Yea ofc u'd say that mr I wont ban lazzle cause it beats stall
Would you mind dropping a team that represents your style and explain the process behind it?
Man, I dont know what to put here LOL Gimme a moment
:angry:
My bad, been having some serious teambuilding block that I hope I can shake off in time for the tour and tbh not really satisfied with something to showcase, but here I got something
This is pretty much how I see the metagame, possibility of niche mons paired with well established and really good pokemon, which is what makes teambuilding on this such a hassle since many things are needed so many things end up looking same-y, it is possible to vary quite a bit but that requires investing some time in order to reflect on all options, something that I cant sadly do due to this block
But anyways, lets not get too depressed. Espeon! I like this mon despite the shitmon reputation it has. Outspeed virizion is huge and having an electric nuke is phenomenal where many teams arent well packed for strong psychic + electric coverage since the psychic resists end up being metagross or mandibuzz, all demolished by +1 electrium. Virizion is a no brainer and an excellent partner to Espeon for the resistances and LO SD is much more dangerous initially in terms of power. The rest is pretty much bulky offense in a nutshell, defog mandi isnt my favorite cookie in the jar but paired with magic bounce on espeon is workable. Gastrodon is a fine pick that I gotta thank EviGaro for showing to the masses, interesting mon that checks many annoying things in one package like Mega Blastoise which is important given the virizion has no synthesis.
Last 2 are no brainers, Metagross is a mon that I dont put on the regard of a S rank but I would lie if I say something does the things better than him atm (which is kind of sad) but I end up using stealth rock much more than banded or any other set for whatever (and I didnt want to put another team with diancie on the front) but Occa Berry is a nice set to help with Salazzle/Ninetales which can be really annoying to face. Lastly, Scarf Salazzle is the best scarfer in terms on what it has to offer. Nice speed, efficient coverage, and just revenge kills most things I need to. Isnt perfect by any means, but I always believe that in order to not get bored of the meta you gotta make some compromises... cause in the end the one that makes the meta stale arent the pokemon, are us.
Always try to keep things fresh, and it feels much more reward than trying to always pull off the same Goli Meta Donphan bulky offense and what not. Linoone going away helped a lot in providing more freedom but still I invite to be a bit more ballsy with their options, which is something I always respect from other builders like EviGaro and col49.
Dope looking, I used to be an Espeon stan myself
Are there any players you look up to? And any new faces you have noticed are on the grow lately?
In terms of building, I admire what EviGaro and col49 can come up with. The sand team she pulled for spl was phenomenal, I peeled my eyes the first time I saw that and col49 is definitely the best in seeing all the options and making the best use of the niche of some mon, and I like how crazy the combination of MoP and alpha rabbit. In terms of battling... no one really, I know I gotta improve on many aspects of my gameplay but Im stubborn and will do stuff my day. Gotta have more of a competitive drive, thats for sure, and I will grab some inspiration for that.
New faces... mmm, well we gotta divide this in new potential tour faces and community faces. For tour faces, we covered this before but to recap, Averardo, roman, and the leprechaun (he really isnt new per say you know) deserve a serious shot at bigger tournies. In terms of new community faces people like dbw, bkdrew, ponyo, among others (excuse me if I cant remember all names) are really welcome additions to the community that I hope stay for a while. JustoonSmiths too! They can be a bit annoying but please... thats part of the package, and Im glad they are like that to keep things active and they remain interested in the meta. You are doing great boys, you main not notice but we do appreciate you all.
Any last comments for the fans?
Well, thanks a lot to the interview and for taking the time, and I hope to keep seeing everyone soon. I know Im not going anywhere soon enough. Thanks a lot to the community and hope everyone have a blessed rest of the month and year
Cheers!
No problem, thanks for your time
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Feel free to ask MrAldo any questions you want!
If you have any reccomendations I'll be more than happy to read them, just PM me!
Next time on FeliInterviews...
Feel free to ask MrAldo any questions you want!
If you have any reccomendations I'll be more than happy to read them, just PM me!
Next time on FeliInterviews...
