#2 - Theorymon
unfixable: Hello Theorymon!
Theorymon: Hi!
unfixable: So, my first question which I will ask every interviewed person: when did you get into Battle Spot?
Theorymon: It depends on what you mean by that. I actually started playing online ingame during generation 4 via Pokemon Battle Revolution. Oddly enough, this is how I met Jibaku. It was a very strange place because see, there were no clauses whatsoever, so you'd see people carrying stuff like 2 Darkrai. I also played Gen 5's battle spot for a bit, but sadly that ladder had a really nasty flaw where you could avoid losing points by disconnecting your wifi router, so I figured I was done with ingame stuff. But gen 6 comes along and not only fixes the ladder, but makes breeding FAR more reasonable That was pretty much enough to get me back into playing ingame!
unfixable: Wow, sounds terrifying! So, tell me about Jibaku? What's he like?
Theorymon: In a way, Jibaku is sorta my mentor. I actually beat him the first time I faced him on PBR's random battle, using Custap Wobbuffet. So about a month later I actually find him on Shoddy, which is the old gen 4 simulator. We were on the Uber ladder and he beat the crap out of me with Skarmory of all things. So I'm like "rememeber me? Im the guy who used Custap Wobbuffet on PBR!" and he actually remembered it lol. He's probably one of the calmest, smartest guys on Smogon and he's damn good at Pokemon too!
unfixable: Awesome haha! So, you're a highly respected Battle Spot player. What advice can you give to new players?
Theorymon: I'd look at the Battle Spot statistics on the Global Link website. They usually give you a pretty good idea of whats popular, and what sets Pokemon are currently using. Reading analyses is always a good idea too. Also, don't be discouraged if you have a bad laddering streak. Sometimes, you're just going to have bad days. One thing I also like to do is to record the matches I actually lose miserably in. Learning from your mistakes can really help you up your game, and the 3DS actually lets you replay the battle with an AI replacing the opponent. The AI isn't too smart, but it can be nice just to try and understand why the opponent built their team the way they did
unfixable: Great advice! So tell me a bit more about yourself, Theorymon. What's your occupation? Some interests? Stuff like that!
Theorymon: Í'm currently a college student majoring in physics. To be honest, physics might be my greatest passion! Every since I was a little child, I've always been obsessed with learning about the mechanics of the Universe. Like instead of reading Dr Seuss, I'd have my parents read astronomy books to me, because I really wanted to learn more about stars and galaxies! Funnily enough, every since 5th grade, I haven't decided on whether or not I'll focus on Astrophysics or Particle Physics. Outside of academics and Pokemon, the thing people probably know me most for is that I'm a HUGE Mario fan. I actually play through the entire series every year, and as you can imagine, I am totally addicted to Super Mario Maker at the moment! I also own around 50 video game systems. Im not really rich or anything, its just that I collect them, so a lot of them are actually older than me! Outside of these nerdy things, believe it or not I love being outside most of the time. I'd say like 60% of the time, when the weather is good, I'm outside while on Smogon! In particular, I really like to hike. Ithaca has some pretty nice nature trails, and I have family in Arizona, which is a great place for desert hiking.
unfixable: Ahh yes, I have heard of your fondness for Mario. How did you get into the series?
Theorymon: To make a long story short, Super Mario Bros on the NES was the first game I ever played. For the first 4 years of my life, I was mostly deaf due to a rare kind of ear infection that requires surgery to cure, so one day when I was 2 years old, my dad got this NES as a hand me down from one of my cousins and he'd crank up the volume really high so I could hear it, and I was instantly hooked. My dad said I somehow managed to beat the game when I was 3. Obviously I don't remember that very well.. but that sounds crazy even to me! Ever since then though, Mario games have just been sorta a major part of my life. I love how focused the level design tends to be in Mario games and I cant think of any game series that nails game control as well as Mario!
unfixable: Fascinating! Back to Battle Spot for a moment. What do you think is an underrated Pokemon that deserves more time in the spotlight and why?
Theorymon: That depends on the metagame. For Singles, I like using Wobbuffet quite a bit. It can certainly be risky at times due to 3vs3's fast paced nature, but with Custap Berry and Destiny Bond you can potentially knock out 2 out of 3 Pokemon in one battle, which is pretty impressive! Plus when its paired with Mega Gengar, it can really screw up annoying stally stuff like Minimize Chansey. As for Doubles aka VGC (well sorta, season 12's lack of pentagons shaked stuff up a bit) I like Clefairy quite a bit. It can be a bit niche since it totally lacks any offensive power, but man I love Friend Guard so much! Seeing stuff like Mega Kangaskhan just barely avoid a KO because of Friend Guard just feels magical! As for Triples... that's a harder question, because I feel like there's plenty of interesting under rated Pokemon there. Such as Clawitzer (who's sorta like a frailer, more powerful Mega Blastoise), and Braviary (who uses Brave Bird and Defiant to really screw up Intimidators) but If I'm gonna give one Pokemon the nod.. it might be Kecleon. Some high ranked players have been catching on to this thing. It's basically a very unique Trick Room support Pokemon. It uses Feint to screw up Wide Guard (which is huge in triples), Fake Out much like a doubles Pokemon would and then it has Foul Play + Protean to actually OHKO Aegislash in its Sword Form! Kecleon is actually fairly hard to KO as well. I've been trying it out lately since I wanted to see why high ranked players were using it, and I'm not disapointed!
Finally, for Rotations. Rotations is actually a fairly unstable metagame, people are always experimenting in that weird land. I think my most successful expairment there has been Infiltrator Crobat. I paired it with Gravity, and would spam Hypnosis to cripple threats. Since Crobat has Infiltrator, not even Safeguard blocks it! Plus it smashes through those annoying dual screens which are so common in Rotations. Having Crobat and Chandelure together sure feels nice against Klefki and Meowstic! Also this may be sorta out of bounds for the interview, but since gamefreak seems to do an Inverse battle spot special every year: This year Mega Sceptile was quite successful for me there. Lightning Rod was actually helpful there, since it got rid of a 4x weak. It let Mega Sceptile screw up a lot of choiced Latios (well except for those annoying Surf ones), and being faster than Serperior was very helpful!
unfixable: Great insight! So, Theorymon, who is an up and coming contributor you've noticed on the Battle Spot forums and why?
Theorymon: You don't see him posting too much on the main forums, but I'm currently eyeing user Psynergy! He recently finished a pretty good analysis on Weavile for battle spot singles, who is actually quite an under rated threat. I'd like to see him write more analyses and post more often, I think he knows his stuff!
unfixable: Awesome! I'll have to keep my eye on him. :) Sadly, we've gotta take this to the end so I will ask you the mandatory final question, what is your favorite Pokemon and why?
Theorymon: Oh man that's a tough question... If I'm gonna go with nostalgia here, it's betwen two Pokemon: Wobbuffet and Arceus. Arceus because its basically the god of Pokemon, and I love using broken Ubers. Come to think of it, this makes me a big fan of Mega Rayquaza as well... But I might give the edge to Wobbuffet because back when I first joined Smogon about 6 years ago, I sorta became notorious because I used Wobbuffet a lot in generation 4 Ubers, and a lot of teams were very unprepared for it. So eventully Wobbuffet became a known threat in Ubers, and people associated me with it. So in a way, Wobbuffet is what got me "into" this community, so I think that's pretty special for a Pokemon!
unfixable: Haha thanks Theorymon. So glad to be able to interview you! Thanks for your time. :D
Theorymon: No problem, was nice talking to you!
Thanks a ton
Theorymon! Ask Theorymon questions below~!