Project OU Player of the Week #28: Valentine

[Clone]

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Welcome to OU's Player of the week, a project where I interview well known players to gain insight on how they battle, as well as get to know some things about them. The goal of this thread is to have these high level players give insight to other players in this community in hopes of creating a better overall experience in the OU environment. As always, if there's someone you'd like to see interviewed, feel free to shoot me a PM. So without further ado, lets get to it!

Valentine
​

Most Known For: being an ebeast alt

Favorite Pokemon: my top three design-wise are milotic, flygon and ralts/gardevoir (i'll fap to either). my favorite mons to use are dpp infernape, bw sash zam, deo-s and mega mawile in xy, mega beedrill and weavile oras, just fast and strong shit

Most used Pokemon: landorus-i and keldeo

Where did you get your username from?
similarly to christthecomforter, i got my name from ender's game. there was also faye valentine from bebop. i've often thought of changing my name to Space, but my february 14 join date and heart badge keep me holding on

How and when did you get into competitive battling?
i joined marriland forums in 07 to find more opponents for wifi battles. from there it was easy to stumble into shoddy, xats, teamuber, and smogon.

How do you feel about how ORAS compared to XY?
i'm not going to say XY was balanced, but i felt like we were finally getting some resemblance of a tier towards the end. then ORAS dropped, and everything went back to shit. i'm not sure if singles can truly be balanced anymore. there's a power creep with every new release, and ORAS is way past the point of being able to cover everything with one team. that leaves every game matchup reliant, and there's not much to do about it.

To add onto the above, thoughts on the team matchup issue?
matchup is a problem, and has been for a gen or two. it's a consequence of adding 100 new mons every release. eventually, you can't cover everything. the only thing to do is scout your opponent beforehand and do your best to cover stuff he uses, and use stuff he's weak to.

What are your thoughts on the Aegislash suspect test currently going on? What about the proposed King's Shield Ban?
i think aegislash is perfectly fine in the metagame, especially without king's shield. the biggest issue with aegi in XY was it's ability to force 50/50s. without the -2 attack drop and ability to revert back to defensive form, non ks aegi has a lot of counterplay. aegi seems nice enough for the meta since it makes metagross, latios, and most fairies less mindless to spam. any strong bulky steel is a welcome addition to most balance and offense, we'll see what the voters think.

What's your favorite playstyle and why?
in BW i liked balance a lot. having walls to take hits for my offensive pokemon felt really good, since i didn't have to lose a pokemon when i was in a bad situation. then my walls could get up hazards to help my offensive pokemon score KOs later in the game. that worked for awhile until i realized, using walls this way is just begging to lose momentum. if you control the pace of the game, if you keep momentum, if you dictate to your opponent instead of responding, generally you're going to win. you can dictate the pace of the game with any playstyle, but the easiest to do it with is offense. so now for the most part i play mindless offense. i respect people who dictate the pace of the game with controlled stall and whatnot, i just don't have the patience for it.

What's your favorite generation of OU and why?
playing DPP is probably my favorite since it's where i started competitively so it feels nostalgic. it's also pretty balanced, so it's refreshing. if i'm watching a game, longer GSCs are my favorite. GSC is generally played on PO, so if you don't watch it live, the next best thing isn't a replay, it's a log. that makes live GSC games a treat to watch. on top of that, it's a ridiculously balanced meta with a handful of players that have mastered the tier. catching two elites playing GSC at it's highest level is some of the best pokemon you will ever watch.

How do you go about preparing for tournament matches? Does the process differ depending on the tournament?
the only thing that really changes with preparation tour to tour is how much effort you put in. if it's an official tour, you're going to spend lots of time solidifying your build. if it's some PS tour, you're going to load a random import and play. when i prepare for an official tournament, i try my best to counterstyle my opponent. you look at what they like to use, and make sure you're prepared for it.

Favorites to win OST and Smogon Tour?
i'm excited to see my boy blunder get another shot at some pixels. in a perfect world it's probably him or kevin, but bae is lookin fit

Thoughts on the newly introduced Smogon Classic? Favorite to win?
a tournament like that is made for players like M Dragon or McMeghan who can play every tier at it's highest level. Floppy, Fakes, reyscarface, maybe like BKC could all do pretty well, but we'll have to see.

If you could change one thing about OU, what would it be and why?
i'd put ppl that actually play the tier in charge of deciding how to run it, haunter.

Do you have any advice for newer players for playing, and for Smogon in general?
quit while you can

If you could change one thing about Smogon as a whole to make it better, what would it be and why?
i'd make RODAN the owner

What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
FLCL FAJI Soulgazer blunder Rumor Blim ben gay chimpact aim

xtra$hine's da real homie, almost never see Blightbringer but he's a fuckin goon, Floppy's pretty new but he's a fast learner.

Finally, can you provide us a team that's a good fit for this metagame and reflects your playstyle, with a brief explanation of how it works?
haven't built anything in a hot minute so you get this untested offense. in theory, goth targets mega venu, ferrothorn, keldeo, chansey, and unaware clefquag, which makes it easy for you to spam water set up mons. goth can force a scarf onto an opponent, making it easy for a teammate to set up. scarf thundurus-t absorbs grass and electric attacks aimed at your waters, helps vs talonflame, and acts as a revenge killer. you generally lead with azelf to get hazards and light screen. looking at it now, a ground with SR probably works over azelf, but taunt is nice to keep hazards off and dropping azelf makes you even weaker to lati. a bisharp or jirachi somewhere prolly help but fuck it.

oh, and everything is blue. even chomp if you want to try it over azelf.

Hide

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Waterfall
- Earthquake

Gothitelle @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Shadow Tag
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 80 HP / 208 SpA / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Trick
- Rest

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Play Rough

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 24 HP / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: null Atk
- Tail Glow
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball

Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: null Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Light Screen
- Explosion

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 24 HP / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

---

As always, leave any questions you have for Val down below. See you next week!

 

[Snowy]

Hey, cool issue as always. I have a few question if you don't mind answering them Valentine.

1. Who do you believe to be the best up and coming player(s)?
2. What do you hope for in the next game?
3. What's appealing about the name "space" to you?
4. Do you believe there is anything currently suspect worthy atm?

Edit: Congratulation -Clone- on 1.5k posts, keep at it man!

 

[BlueLobster]

If you could change one thing about Smogon as a whole to make it better, what would it be and why?​

i'd make RODAN the owner

why has no one done this? anyway:

Your thoughts on Alakazam?
Favourite offense lead in this meta?
Your thoughts on trapping in general?

 

[Clone]

Why do u like valentine enough to the point where u named urself after her? Did u like, dislike, or are indifferent on the acress that played her?

Why are u such a shit driver in OU? voice* Does this translate to ur driving skills IRL?

Would you ban anything from Ubers if you could? What about BW OU?

Were u ever on Serebii?

 

[asdfCookie]

who is sunchipps

 

[Sunchipps]

who is sunchipps

Me nigga.

 

[Rumor]

out of all the alcohol in the world whats ur favorite?
on average how many girls run away from you before they finally agree to go out?
do you smoke and roll and smoke and roll and smoke and roll and smoke and roll?
out of all the shit users in ou room, who's the most shit?
opinions on rotom-w and defog scizor?

 

[Haruno]

Yo my nigga Valentine, as we all know Aegislash is obviously a very potent Pokemon as seen from the ou suspect, being easily the best spinblocker, the best fairy check, pivot, etc. All of that, and it has the ability to spam kings shield to fish for coinflip victories akin to swagger. Some would say that it is overcentralizing and should be banned, others would say that it shouldn't be because it's a fucking garbage mon and isn't broken because your opponent can use it to. And unlike other shit mons in the overused metagame like clefable, you outright wall scarf lando-i locked into sludge wave, a feat clefable could never do. You've been in Overused forums long enough that you've seen this forum at its absolute best and worst, not to mention getting hax'd out of a fucking gold trophy in OST10, all this shows is you're a real fresh nigga, kinda like tokyo tom not to mention you of all people know how skill based this game really is. Now my question to you is, who would you fuck, marry, and kill between the lovely choices of goddess briyella, leremyju, and whitequeen.

 

[Valentine]

1. Who do you believe to be the best up and coming player(s)?
2. What do you hope for in the next game?
3. What's appealing about the name "space" to you?
4. Do you believe there is anything currently suspect worthy atm?

1. i haven't been paying close attention to the scene since spl ended, but there's still a few people i can think of off the top of my head. i think Bomber92 is a very sturdy GSC and RBY player that will continue to do well in upcoming tournaments. PDC has been good for awhile, and has been getting some deserved attention lately. JeyTheGrey is a solid UU player that would be top five if he put more time into smogon. xray has already kinda put his name on the board, but a lot of people talk about him having a lot of potential. i really like the way xtra$hine plays ORAS and i can see him doing well in future tournaments. SteelJackal and Fireburn are well known at this point, but they're the only ones trying to break the barrier for top five ubers in my mind. atomicllamas and FAJI will continue to be strong forces in RU, if they aren't considered so already. Rumor and Alexander. are probably my favorite players to watch ORAS, but other than that i can't think of any upandcomers i'd want to mention.
2. i don't even own a 3ds.
3. there's a lot of things i like about the username space. for one thing, it has multiple meanings, which is an underrated feature in a username. is it talking about the spaces between words? outerspace? it's also short, which is great for logging in, and it's easy for people to remember. it's one syllable. but the main reason i like it is because i've always thought about outerspace. even my original username, Valentine, comes from characters that have to do with space, ender's game or bebop. i've always found myself thinking about the universe, dimensions, space.
4. ORAS OU is such a shitty tier, it's hard to think of a place to start. so, i'd rather not try.

1. how would you vote on a lando-i suspect
2. if anything, what would you be interested in retesting
3. least favorite mon (competitive and otherwise)

1. i wouldn't
2. i actually really enjoyed the giratina-o ladder, i'd be down to retest any semireasonable uber just for a month or so of fresh teambuilding.
3. i mean, it seems like a dick move to call out a specific mon for being shitty design wise or competitive wise, so i'll just mention a few pokemon i dislike seeing in team preview. skarmory is actually a mon i don't like playing against much, since i like to spam attackers that have problems with it. garchomp, diggersby, azumarill, lando-i, tons of stuff just gets shit on by skarm, so it's annoying. lead skarm is a lot easier to deal with, since it's going to be dead turn two so it can't wall anything. uh.. slowbro is pretty annoying, chansey obviously, and on that note, fucking snorlax, god dam ben gay

1. Your thoughts on Alakazam?
2. Favourite offense lead in this meta?
3. Your thoughts on trapping in general?

1. i'm assuming you mean mega zam. i think alakazam is an underrated mega that can put in a lot of work against offense. it's ability to trace sand rush can put you in some really clutch situations, as if it wasn't fast enough already. it's only problem is that depending on your set, you're not doing anything against bulkier teams, so you need to pair it with teammates that can help out with that. most teams need a psychic (generally turns out to be lati), and alakazam can do the job just fine.
2. i'm assuming you mean suicide leads. love the idea of salac skarm, but it's such taunt bait i can never bring myself to use it. if i ever use it i'm running mental herb, which tends to be underwhelming. i often end up with azelf or aero, just mons that can taunt opposing setters, get up rocks, and die. i think azelf is the most consistent, since explosion ensures you get into one of your offensive mons safely. but honestly offense leads are often voided by your opponent's starmie or defogger midgame, so they're hard to use successfully.
3. i think some of the best teams of all time have been trap teams. for example, for some time in bw, dugtrio rain was ridiculously broken, because you could just trap the opposing ninetales or tyranitar and spam rain boosted water moves. magnezone can still be used successfully today to trap skarm and ferro for stuff like azu to have an easier game. there's obviously the very common pursuit trapping of lati that you need to be careful of every game. trapping is always something i try to include in my builds, and it's because it's forcing. it's strong. you can force your opponent into situations, and if you play them correctly, you come out with an advantage and a win.

1. Why do u like valentine enough to the point where u named urself after her? Did u like, dislike, or are indifferent on the acress that played her?
2. Why are u such a shit driver in OU? voice* Does this translate to ur driving skills IRL?
3. Would you ban anything from Ubers if you could? What about BW OU?
4. Were u ever on Serebii?

1. she had a lot of funny lines in the later books that made me laugh constantly. but i've always liked the concept of girls giving their everything to you. like, you're the reason they live. valentine gave that to ender. i didn't watch the movies in theaters, thank god, i watched it online after release. the actress did an awful job, her performance was cringeworthy to the point that i had to skip all the scenes she was in. it's extremely hard to cast child actor/esses though, so it's not something i was too upset about.
2. i had my voice removed. but for what it's worth, i have multiple speeding tickets, and was recently clocked at 100 mph on my way to a cabin this weekend.
3. i don't pay enough attention to ubers to give a fuck. it's simply just as bad a tier as OU is, there's no real way to fix it. a lot of people complain about reuni, zam, and keldeo in BW, but i think i like the metagame as it is. i mean, reuni might deserve a test, but i'll always like BW as it is.
4. nah

who is sunchipps

Me nigga.

1. out of all the alcohol in the world whats ur favorite?
2. on average how many girls run away from you before they finally agree to go out?
3. do you smoke and roll and smoke and roll and smoke and roll and smoke and roll?
4. out of all the shit users in ou room, who's the most shit?
5. opinions on rotom-w and defog scizor?

1. i haven't experienced enough to have found my favorite just yet. if i'm buying something for myself, though, it's going to be a jager tonic.
2. right now i'm at about a ten percent success rate. but honestly when i feel confident going into it, i always end up with atleast a working phone number, so it's getting really fun now
3. http://a.pomf.se/wakmki.swf
4. i think it's pretty obvious that raik and omega are sticklers that try their damnedest to take the fun out of everything. it doesn't get much shittier than that.
5. you've become quite the memer, nah?

who would you fuck, marry, and kill between the lovely choices of goddess briyella, leremyju, and whitequeen.

i think most people would kill goddess briyella, and then take their pick of queen or leremy. however, since all i know about Leremyju is that he's a shit tier memer and is somewhat related to Bedschibaer, i'd kill him. i've already made love to whitequeen on multiple occasions, and as much as i'd truly love to spend the rest of my life with her, i'm not worthy. i'd feel like an inferior human, destined to fail my loved one miserably for the rest of my life. so, i'd lovingly fuck WhiteQueen, leaving me to marry Goddess Briyella, who i'd actually get along with pretty well.

 

[Bedschibaer]

I have no idea what you are talking about and you are getting infracted for highlighting me there. Enjoy.

 

[leremyju]

awww thanks Valentine <3