LC Player of the Week Revival #5: Ninjadog13

taranteeeno

levi premier league of the decade
is a Community Contributor
182369


Ninjadog13
Favorite Pokemon: Physically Defensive Jolteon
Most Used LC Pokemon: Vullaby
Known as: levi alt, LC Council and VR Council member, Assistant Manager of the Taillow Swifts, 5-3 LCPL 7, 5-3 Smogon Exhibition II, Semi-finalist of the $500 Prize Pool BW Doubles OU tour, 2019 WCOP Oceania

taranteeeno back with another LC POTW. I am releasing this a week early because I will be spending the next two weeks on a special LCPL winner's edition. This week, we feature new LC Council and VR Council member, Ninjadog13! Please help me welcome him.​

Well well well.. Look who it is. The original Corporal Levi alt, Ninjadog13. Some may say this interview has been a long time coming, but not me. You’ve probably been interviewed many times in the history of Little Cup... Anyway, why don’t you start off by telling us a bit about “yourself”?

Hey I'm Ninjadog, I'm a 20 year old university student from Sydney, Australia, outside of playing Pokemon I'm into playing/watching sports, mainly Australian Football and Basketball, and also anime largely due to the influence of trash.

Ah a weeb. just like Corpora- okay I'll stop. What are your favorite shows right now?

Ongoing shows I'm currently watching/enjoying would be Have You Been Paying Attention? (weekly comedy 'quiz' show here on current affairs), Attack on Titan, Hitoribocchi (with troat ;w;), I watched the newest Black Mirror season as well recently though that was largely a disappointment. My favourite show of all-time is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is also what my avatar is from.

Now, how did you get into competitive mons? I know you worked your way up to RO in trivia. Did trivia come first or did you happen to find this community while getting into competitive mons via Smogon?

I first played competitive mons back in like 2011-2013 on Serebii (I was afraid of getting banned for being 12 on smogon lol) and played BW OU there, for a few years after that I only really came on PS sporadically. In mid-late 2016 I got back into PS through the Trivia room where yes I eventually became RO in late 2017, as for competitive mons I got back into it via the tournaments room in early 2017.

I only discovered recently that I enjoy trivia after winning a trivia night at a bar and winning a $25 gift card + nice beer glass. Okay, so you played some BW OU and later on found the tours room. How did you get into Little Cup?

Wow, I'm sure that must've been one of your greatest achievements alongside becoming one of the LC Elite.

As far as getting into LC, I played pretty much every tier in the tours room and LC was what I enjoyed the most so I started laddering and joining forum tours. In terms of joining the community, at first Spaceworm who I met on the ladder was really the only LCer I talked to, until Fille invited me into MDL a couple months after I started playing. I became friends with Levi around like March of last year, and it was around that time I made quarters of Swiss and got drafted by Levi in LCPL which led to him hyping me up non-stop giving me the reputation I have now.

LOL I don’t know what you’re talking about. My greatest achievement was most certainly trapping a Ferroseed with a Geodu- ah nevermind...

So LCPL 7 was your very first LC team tour. What was it like being new to the tour scene, getting drafted onto a stacked team with the likes of levi, kingler, teal, and quite a few other known tour players, AND being a lineup starter from Week 1? What were some lessons you took from this experience?


I was definitely nervous at first, we had myself, Zebra, and Simbo but aside from that everyone on our team was a pretty well known tour player. Outside of the LC players, Finch and rozes especially were good in helping us newer guys adapt. It was pretty hard starting 0-2, though when I got benched for w3 levi told me not to worry and that I'd be back in the next week, and I was able to go 5-1 playing every week from w4 onwards, including 2 wins in playoffs. I guess the first couple weeks I was overthinking everything and getting too nervous, I was basically shaking during my debut vs. trash lol.

What changed between Week 2 and Week 4? How did you manage to turn that LCPL around?

Hm, I don't really think 'changed' so to speak, I guess I just didn't panic as much in-game. Levi had a chat to me during w3 saying that he knew I was better than what I'd shown and that he still had faith in me which helped a lot, and I think another thing that helped is that our team was winning every week anyway despite me losing so I didn't feel pressured to perform.

Let’s fast forward to LCPL 8. You were an assistant manager for the Taillow Swifts. What were your overall thoughts on the season, your performance, and how did you feel your role changed from last season to this one?

Well it was a pretty disappointing season in all aspects really, from my own performance to our team's overall, I guess 3-3 isn't awful but I definitely felt I should've won my first 2 matches. Pretty much nothing went our way in the first few weeks and then it all started falling apart, we were expecting to have our top few players needing to carry but we didn't really anticipate our SM4 + SM5 being 0-12 through 6 weeks, at least we found Gareth though. But yeah looking at our roster, really only Serene, Heysup, and Gareth performed at or above expectations which is never going to work out. I enjoyed the managing aspect and support in that sense compared to last year but being completely honest I don't really enjoy playing games I'm expected to win that much, I find it far more enjoyable to play when you're predicted to lose, so I didn't enjoy playing as much compared to last season.

Interesting. The pressure of being relied on for wins is definitely a different experience from being a newcomer that has a stacked team to win regardless of how you perform.

Well, let’s talk more about the SM LC metagame. You were just added to the LC council so congratulations on that! How do you feel about the current metagame? Which cores or individual sets are really good right now in your opinion?


Thanks, and hm tough to say. I think it's probably better to play than the pinch meta was but I don't think banning Pinch has opened up building like I would've hoped, largely due to the dominance of Vull. Personally I would support a Vull suspect test, it's incredibly overbearing with its number of sets, and is the number one mon to consider when building any team really, and I don't think you can justify not using it unless it's on a webs build or smth. I don't particularly like the argument that it's a glue mon or whatever, yeah sure it's versatile defensively and is the best defogger in the tier, but it's also the main threat offensively in pretty much every match which I don't think can be said for other mons that have been considered glues in LC or other tiers. It would undoubtedly shake up the meta but I think that's a risk worth taking.

As far as sets or cores that I think are good rn, I think memento dig + clam and other sweepers is rly good rn, especially with a sucker punch user in pawniard sinking in usage for onix who is largely set-up bait. Scarf Abra I think is quite good too because Dig usage is really high and most people will just mindlessly go to trap Abra after it gets a kill.

Interesting takes. Not a single mention of Porygon. Levi is really working hard to convince us that Ninja isn’t one of his alts.

Anything you’re looking forward to most in Gen 8? What are your expectations for the next LC generation?


If your awful Ideal LC meta proved anything it's that Porygon is still a top threat even without conversion.

Next gen I guess just having a new meta with more room to innovate will be interesting, as a lot of the SM meta is already played out. I hate the idea that not every mon might be in Gen 8 to be honest, in-game I get it and don't really mind that they won't be available but it kinda sucks for competitive. Dynamaxing idk what to expect with that.

That was a collective fuck up…

Anyway! I have a new segment just for you, the former Trivia RO… Teeeno’s Trivia! The following questions will test your knowledge of Little Cup history, playerbase, and mechanics. I fully expect you to do very well in this challenge.

Which typing was not allowed in the infamous #littlecup Challenge Pacifist Cup?


Er… Flying. I have no idea what this is LOL.

Wrong it was Fighting! During BW LC, a now banned user, Crux, started a thread called #littlecup Challenge. The challenge died literally as soon as it was started as users were left hanging on questions regarding the challenge.

Which LC Open winner got his start in Little Cup using this webs team?



Pablo.

Ding ding ding! Correct. The prodigious young talent ggggd was indeed the user of this webs team in the early days of his LC career.

Okay.. Who was the only winner of the LC Good Noodle Award for Excellent Posting?


Um.. idk let’s go with Levi.

It was Celestavian! The LC Good Noodle Award for Excellent Posting was a short-lived attempt by mambo at encouraging users to post in the XY LC forum. Only one of these was awarded.

Who was the first ever LC TL?


Oh er.. the guy w a Solrock as his smogon avi? I think lol. I can’t remember his username. (Ninja was thinking of this user).

Does this look like a Solrock to you?
182367


LOL

Incorrect! V was the first ever LC TL. You may also know him as Vader

Last question. This one will rely on your technical knowledge of Little Cup...Which non-Water-type pokemon must Omanyte breed with to learn Toxic Spikes?


Er… yea idk LOL. I’ll guess Roselia. That’s def wrong.

WRONG! The answer is Skorupi; a mon affectionately known by the MDL community as Appels.
182368


This isn’t testing my technical LC knowledge it’s my nonexistent Pokémon egg bree-

Yeah yeah yeah. Anyway, wow this was rather disappointing. I expected more from the former Trivia room owner... Regardless, thank you for participating in this segment.

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


Slugma @ Eviolite
Ability: Weak Armor
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 116 Def / 196 SpD / 116 Spe
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
- Guard Swap
- Memento

Diglett @ Eviolite
Ability: Arena Trap
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 156 Atk / 76 Def / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Memento

Clamperl @ Deep Sea Tooth
Ability: Rattled
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 248 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Surf
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Shell Smash

Abra @ Psychium Z
Ability: Magic Guard
Level: 5
EVs: 240 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Psychic Terrain
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Mienfoo @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 236 HP / 196 Def / 36 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 29 Spe
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Shellder @ Eviolite
Ability: Skill Link
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 36 Def / 196 Spe
Impish Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Liquidation

This is a pretty fun team that utilises Memento into Shell Smashers which a lot of teams are not prepared for rn, and actually has a very strong record vs top LCers (and taranteeeno) in tests. Guard Swap Weak Armour Slugma is a fun set i was messing around with and has a nice lead mu vs foo and vull as well as adding a second memento user, but if you wanted to use this for more serious games you could probably replace it with like Cottonee. It's pretty simple to use, basically just memento into the smashers as much as you can or when the opportunity presents itself, though this isn't the only way to win. Z Psychic Terrain Abra is pretty cool and helps out this team a decent amount as its pretty prio weak, and Mienfoo gives the team some defensive utility and something for Pawn as well as slowturning stuff in.

Nice team... Thank you Ninjadog13 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
Now for the questions, what is your opinion about the LC elite? Has your fellow managing partner serene grace turned into one?
Pizza or burguer?
Favorite drink?
Opinions on the LC metagame (gay) traps? are they gay or there's something else?
What mon except vullaby would u ban from LC and why?
Favorite meme mon/set?
And for last question, what was the origin of your name? :psywoke:
 

ninjadog

levi of the decade
is a Tiering Contributoris a defending SCL Champion
Now for the questions, what is your opinion about the LC elite? Has your fellow managing partner serene grace turned into one?
Pizza or burguer?
Favorite drink?
Opinions on the LC metagame (gay) traps? are they gay or there's something else?
What mon except vullaby would u ban from LC and why?
Favorite meme mon/set?
And for last question, what was the origin of your name? :psywoke:
Serene is the embodiment of LC Elite.
Burger but i prob have pizza more bc leftovers are good for breakfast the next day
Beer
lc traps are great
Not a mon but veils, it isn't broken but i don't think they contribute anything positive to the metagame.
Manual Sun.

favourite BBL and IPL teams?
ur Top 4 for this wc?
Sydney Sixers in the BBL, IPL don't really have a favourite team just whoever the players I like are on.

Australia, India, NZ and England are the pretty clear 4 best sides, would love to see England miss the semis but I can't really even that happening even with 3 tough games to come.
 

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