Player of the Week 32: ZoroarkForever

GOAO

Banned deucer.

Favorite Pokémon: Darkrai
Most used LC Pokémon: Cottonee
Most known for: 34k on LCPL, currently 3-1 in SPL and awesome builder.
Tell us a little about yourself.

I'm a college student studying chemical engineering and originally from everybody's favorite state, New Jersey! Outside of schoolwork, I spend a lot of time watching movies, listening to music, and playing soccer. Other than that, I guess I'm a pretty normal guy doing normal guy things.

How and when did you get your start in LC? Do you remember your first team?

I started playing LC way back in the early days of Pokemon Showdown. At the time, they held ladder challenges in different tiers and if you met the requirements, you would get global voice. I missed the weeks for all the tiers but LC, which was the last tier on the list. I picked up the metagame in order to get voice and, lo and behold, actually enjoyed playing it. For the rest of BW2, I was an LC ladder hero, competing with Kingmidas / Axisotaku for the top spot. I got a lot better at pokemon in general by doing this.

My first team was Evio Mienfoo / Curse+RestTalk Lickitung / Evio Larvesta / Sash Abra / Scarf Cyndaquil / RestTalk Duskull. In hindsight, it was really bad, but it served its purpose of getting me into the meta.

What is your favorite aspect of LC?

At the moment, I really like the diversity within the metagame. There are so many viable pokemon and different team structures. You can build around anything, even C-D ranked mons, and still have a team that can win vs most playstyles (see Mambo for lessons).

As for the tier itself, I like that items add another layer of depth that can't be found in higher tiers. Keeping certain mons from being knocked off takes a lot of strategy and skill. Item choice completely changes how certain pokemon play during a match (Evio RestTalk Chinchou vs BJ Chou vs Scarf Chou). It's something truly unique.

Is there any mon, playstyle, etc that you feel is underrated in LC?

Shellder for sure. It's one of the most potent sweepers in the tier and isn't stopped by most conventional shell smash checks, like fighting-type priority, Cottonee, and Sash Abra.

Anything you find overrated?

Personally, I think Pawniard is overrated, but I think I'm in the minority here. By no means is it a bad mon, but it can struggle to break past common checks like Mienfoo, Timburr, and Ponyta and doesn't provide enough defensive utility for my tastes. I can go more in-depth at request but I think this will suffice for now.

If you could change something about the current metagame, what would you change?

I'd ban Diglett. It puts a lot of strain of teambuilding, more so than any other mon in LC. Not being able to rely on anything weak to ground as a sole check to a pokemon is more than annoying. In a competitive tour setting, it's niche moves come out and you have to watch for stuff like LO Sludge Bomb for Cottonee. Beyond that, it's insanely fast and relatively strong, so it can clean lategame and trap most weakened mons (60% Mienfoo / Snubbull, etc.). The meta would be healthier without it.

What players do you look up to / are good friends with?

I could list a lot of people here (mad0ka, tahu, levi, etc.) but I'll just say ThatCrazyRussian and keep it short because we've been friends since before either of us were on smogon; he even got me to make a smogon account in the first place.

Whats your favorite tournament, Official or Unofficial, that you’ve participated in?

SPL's been pretty fun so far but I've got to give it to my first LCPL. I was really motivated and our team dynamic was really nice.

What's your favorite playstyle and why?

I prefer teams that aren't passive and have some semblance of a defensive structure. Naturally, I guess I lean towards bulky offense and balance in general but I've dabbled in just about every playstyle extensively since XY. If I'm playing with a fat stall-ish team, expect spikes+spinblocker to make up for the do-nothing nature of the team. If I'm playing with a hyper-offensive team, expect it not to autolose to anything while still maintaining high pressure.

How do you go about preparing for tournament matches? Does the process differ depending on the tournament?

For SPL, late rounds of the LC Open, and other serious tours, I scout my opponents and look for trends in their teambuilding. I try to find pokemon / cores that look troublesome for their usual playstyle and build something solid around that. For example, in my week 4 SPL match vs OP, I built around Scraggy+Goth because he hasn't used Fletchling once in the past 2 months and relies heavily on Foongus to check fighting types. On the flipside, I also analyze my own teams in the same way, looking for weaknesses / trends in my own teambuilding to make sure they aren't exploited.

For subforum and other less serious tours, I just try to bring a solid team and play well.

Is there any advice that you'd like to pass on to new LCers?

1st: Play and teambuild a lot. It's how you learn what works and what doesn't and what's good and what isn't.

2nd: Don't be afraid to ask good players for matches or teambuilding help. Most of us are pretty nice people and don't mind too much if you're polite.

3rd: Don't be a jerk. Nothing sucks more than having to shake a bad reputation later on.

Lastly, do you have a team you'd like to share with us?

Here's my week 3 spl team which features the standard core of Shellder+Diglett:
endgame (Shellder) @ Eviolite
Ability: Skill Link
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 156 Atk / 116 Def / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard
- Shell Smash

graceless (Magnemite) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Analytic
Level: 5
EVs: 240 SpA / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ground]

runaway (Foongus) @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 124 HP / 160 Def / 160 SpD
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Spore

uprising (Timburr) @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
Level: 5
EVs: 116 Atk / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Careful Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Mach Punch
- Bulk Up

young blood (Diglett) @ Eviolite
Ability: Arena Trap
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Stealth Rock
- Memento

royals (Vullaby) @ Eviolite
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Roost
I started with Shellder because, as stated earlier, I think it's really potent in this metagame. I added Diglett next because it can effectively trap nearly every Shellder check (Magnemite, Chinchou, Pawniard). From here, I added Vullaby to cover the shared grass weakness and provide a U-Turn lure to help get Diglett in safely vs steels. At this point, I still needed a fighting resist, pawn check, and shell smash check, so I added Foongus+Timburr. I filled 5/6 team slots and had no flying resist, so a hard-to-trap bird check was needed. I went with Scarf Magnemite because it pairs well with Diglett and really helps against Abra and Gastly, which could be problematic. After some testing, Diglett was switched to Eviolite because it allows it to trap Magnemite and Pawniard much more easily.
 
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Berks

has a Calm Mind
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Thanks for the laddering team

How does one get v good at building?

Why Zoroark? Is it really Forever??
 

Melon

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Opinions on Noibat beating your ass?

Good luck in SPL friend
 

tcr

sage of six tabs
is a Tutor Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
What's your favorite BW OU core? who do you think the best BW OUer on serebii was?

do you still remember the day we smashed creamery command? xP

why DID you choose ZoroarkForever as your name? I don't think you ever told me that

Congratulations friend : ) This is extremely deserved, and I look forward to watching your spl matches!
 
How does one get v good at building?
i'm not the best teambuilder out there, but imo try to cover everything from a defensive standpoint enough that you don't autolose vs anything while trying to fit mons that have good synergy together to accomplish a goal. this goes into smaller choices that delve more into the team's focus and archetype. for example, choosing between foongus vs cottonee. they have very similar roles and typing, checking fighting types and pivoting in general. foongus is a lot harder to wear down, is bulkier, and has spore to punish switch-ins. cottonee resists ground, is faster, can hit fighters for SE damage, and has encore and knock off. from an offensive standpoint, cottonee can "lure" a lot more than foongus, hitting a lot of bulky mons with knock off and can drop a memento to support sweepers. defensively, it's going to get worn down very quickly and is prone to dying to random coverage moves with it's 4x weakness but it can check most potential sweepers with encore (or stun spore). playing the long game vs something like a chinchou or mienfoo w/ cottonee is a losing battle, whereas it usually isn't with a foongus. you have to make sure cottonee is best fit for the role you're using it in (do you need encore? do you need foongus knocked off for carvanha? can you afford to play the short game? etc). this goes for just about every decision on the team, from mons to their sets to their spreads. and hey, sometimes i fuck up too (see w1 spl for example, although i played p bad and screwed up pory's ability in the import)

after you make a team, you'll notice some weaknesses from testing or theorymon. more optimization needs to occur after that (sometimes a complete re-build around the same concept)


Opinions on Noibat beating your ass?
it's a great mon, almost as good as ekans.

What's your favorite BW OU core? who do you think the best BW OUer on serebii was?
I love any core that fits in a Moltres, Kyurem (regular), or Mew in it. From an offensive standpoint, Starmie+Volc+Dragonite, ChainChomp+Terrakion, Gyarados+Flying Gem Scizor, there's quite a few i like a lot. defensively, skarm+amoonguss but stay away from that aids SAND.SPIKES.SKILL shit. it ruins the metagame for most people.

I always respected Psilo back in the day. He was consistent and always had interesting builds, plus he taught me a lot about risk v reward and mons in general (you could give this to mcdanger, blues, dragonuser, etc tho. there were a surprising number of decent players there iirc).

Evuelf is definitely my favorite modern day BWer tho. We always have good matches and he brings the coolest teams.

do you still remember the day we smashed creamery command? xP
How could I forget lol. we ruined their 19(?) - 0 streak that day. Twas a big moment in serebii history.

why DID you choose ZoroarkForever as your name? I don't think you ever told me that
Why Zoroark? Is it really Forever??
These are basically the same question imo. It goes way back to the voice challenge thing I mention earlier. At the time, I was playing a lot of UU and was using a Zoroark team. Some guy on the ladder told me it wasn't viable after beating me, so to spite him I made an alt called "ZoroarkForever" and decided to peak #1 with it using Zoroark. When the LC ladder challenge rolled around, I used the same alt to get voice. I was voiced for a while before I made any account on forums and figured people would know me from PS! because I was an oh-so-important voice, so I used the same name here. It has nothing to do with my "love" of Zoroark, just me trying to get "revenge" (lol) on some ladder random. My main, oldest PS alts go back a year or so before this one even existed.

you're a chill dude.
Good luck in SPL friend
Congratulations friend : ) This is extremely deserved, and I look forward to watching your spl matches!
thanks :]

keep the questions coming, i'll do anything to procrastinate my work!
 
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What do you think the biggest differences between how you play Ubers and how you play LC are? How much of your Ubers prowess can be translated to the LC metagame?
 
Yo I miss axis, he was always fun to play against. You missed hondoge or whatever his name was, apt, and icicle fish sugarhigh and kush.
 
What do you think the biggest differences between how you play Ubers and how you play LC are? How much of your Ubers prowess can be translated to the LC metagame?
to be completely honest, i don't think too much of my ubers playstyle translates over to lc. from a teambuilding standpoint, i tend to be very creative in ubers and a bit less in lc, although my general ideas behind building still stands in both tiers. from a playing standpoint, i know i used to play much more aggressively in lc than ubers up until recently and probably still do, but that was from getting conditioned in xy ubers after losing many a match to risky doubles.
Yo I miss axis, he was always fun to play against. You missed hondoge or whatever his name was, apt, and icicle fish sugarhigh and kush.
those were good times
What was your username before zoroark forever
on PS, i think i used the alt "man" a lot, as well as "scuba steve." on simulators before PS, i mainly used my friend's computer and his alts, which were mainly his name with a string of numbers.
would you use goldeen
yes.
 

Rowan

The professor?
is a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
"SPL's been pretty fun so far but I've got to give it to my first LCPL. I was really motivated and our team dynamic was really nice." - was this the time you were on my team?
 
For a recent returner to the showdown/competitive scene, whats a tip to become more active and less of just anoter Joe Schmoe (my yt name lol) laddering and trying to be the next ash ketchum in lc?
 

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