Welcome back to OM interviews, the yearly event! This year we're back with everyone's second favourite AG room owner, Megazard!
#9 Megazard | I Am Zesty:
really does not like memes
Hi Zard!
Hlelo.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am a college sophomore who likes having no life. I am into many different areas of Smogon (PUTL, AGL, OMs, BS, and team rating mostly) and am on PS and Discord a lot and do a lot of Nuzlockes. Aside from the ludicrous amount of time I dump into Pokemon, I like following the Smash 4 and Chess scenes (all about those un-sports). I'm really introverted and don't have much of an outside life which makes all of these fake hobbies a really good time sink. If you knew me, you would say "I'd like to have a beer with someone else".
How did you get into Pokémon? What about AG?
Pokemon was my very first video game! Specifically Emerald, I've still got that cartridge and my Gameboy Advance actually. Kept playing the games, eventually ran into the Nuzlocke forums, from there someone mentioned Showdown, and started on there. My history isn't exactly stellar, but you can just about map my progression of self awareness by my common username progression which goes Bippy (yes really) --> Megazard Z --> Megazard --> MZ. I was a bad user™. Now I am a self-aware bad user™. Anyway, AG was sort of something I got into right at the creation because every noob was trying it out but it seemed fun. Graduated from 6 keys to building teams in the groupchats and from there worked my way up into an indispensable position of "guy who has experience in any real tier that isn't ubers"/
What's your favourite way to play AG at the moment? (Which playstyle? Which Pokémon?)
I like more balanced teams, I see them as the hardest to pull off but also the teams that give the best reward. It's not easy to make a team which checks all the stupidly large threats in the meta well enough, but teams which put out enough offensive pressure to stay scary and have enough defensive synergy to cover their bases really just end up working better than ones that go harder for one or the other. As for mons, lots of ray and arceus .-. I'm trying to win here people. I like to think I've used fairly varied stuff overall and my seasonal teams have been fairly different other than all the arceus formes as far as I can tell. AG isn't the most varied metagame by a long shot, but there's enough cool mons to mix it up with a Skarmory or a Lunala on most teams.
What other OMs do you enjoy?
I don't really like other OMs. Except Fail Cup. It's still great. Seriously though, I liked AAA/MNM/Sketch/mono back during the last OMGS but the metas are either not fun anymore or dead and have been replaced with something that isn't particularly fun either (camo whyyyyy). I'm only half joking when I say the best OM we've had for a while was Inheritance when it was all broken and had legal ubers. The best OMs are broken in a fun and varied way. AG does it, AAA comes closest right now (and mono but OM no more rip), but MNM has gotten a bit oversaturated and Camo/BH/Stabs are broken metas in ways that don't especially appeal to me. I've been quite consistent in repeating my opinion on not especially liking most OMs right now mostly because I do feel like some kind of shakeup would be much appreciated, but we'll see. Maybe Stabs will ban a lot more stuff and be worth trying again. And no, just because I won stabs open doesn't mean I play it.
If you could add any other metagame as a rotational ladder from any generation, what would it be?
Gen 6 AAA is a very quaintly broken meta. There's no Magearna to keep every special mon in check, no Dazzling setup sweepers, and Gale Wings is still broken, which means it's just a really busted and nutty meta, love it. Gen 6 mono was also a lot of fun. Honestly the most enjoyment I've had recently out of a non-AG OM has been with Monotype AAA in their team tour, WPL (s/o torkoals). Actually being able to build and innovate in a semi-stable environment was a feeling I haven't really gotten in most OMs recently. I'd also free sketch over stabs/camo due to liking it a hell of a lot more, but I respect the need for stabs to be the next thing (no respect for camo tho). I think that's it really? If I wanted to play stable, serious games I'd go back to more PU or LC but OMs should really lean into the wackiness and work on keeping out elements which force sameiness or are really outright busted imo, and Sketch has definitely been the closest to that in gen 7.
Do you think you'll win back to back OM Grand Slams? If not, who do you think will win?
No I won't win back to back OMGS's. Last OMGS I built for most metas because I liked them and wanted to do well. This one I didn't even expect to qualify for playoffs, but
Betathunder,
GL Volkner, and
Quantum Tesseract passed me teams that were too good so what're you gonna do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But seriously, someone more invested in these metas will probably take it. Would've certainly said Fardin before he's maybe quitting or taking a break so like, all the rest of the competitors save myself are fairly close now. Jrdn is favorite from experience but nobody else would be especially surprising except maybe ham if he fails to get passed/build (idk which he does) some better stuff than he was using in the opens. On a side note, I do think the players that don't despise BH have a noticeable automatic advantage because so many people successful at all the other OMs rightfully cannot stand that meta. Almost everyone dropped it last OMGS and this time it's a little more manageable but it's still a boon for competitors like Jeran so that's something to look out for.
Who are your good friends within the AG/OM community? Is there anyone you look up to?
I am mostly frens with
Chloe,
Quantum Tesseract, and
Racool. Even on PS/Smogon I'm a relatively introverted dude so it becomes hard to know where one draws the friend line, but I've always kept to a relatively small group of people so yeah. I don't really look up to anybody anymore, I'm just not the kinda guy who creates role models or anything. I'm close to the top of the 2 metas I main, and ,while I might've looked up to the tournaments community when I started, getting Smogon-savvy has really just absolutely obliterated that feeling. The person I've probably looked up to the most is Galbia, but he ain't even OM related.
Can you provide a niche set that you have created and explain how/why it works?
Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore / Magic Coat / Nuzzle / Whatever your heart desires
- Sticky Web
- Whirlwind
-
Baton Pass
I've created other things recently, but no lie this has to be my favorite. It just goes really nicely with the whole leaning into jank mentality I have with OMs. Smeargle is a perfectly fine webs lead, but adding Moody BP to it can lead to plenty of dumb crap because you just so happen to get the right boosts and bam game over. If you get bad boosts, 99% of the time it won't hinder you at all because you'll set webs and die like normal.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-714992562 I don't think your slurpuff can do that
PurpleGatorade asks: If you could only be staff in one room, what would it be?
I'd be staff in the staff room and hang out in all my current rooms as a global Or, if that's cheating, probably AG just because it needs the manpower more than anywhere else. I'd still hang out in other places so this is really like "where do you need to have the ability to ban people most" and that's ez
Arushii asks: How old are you?
I am 19.
Catalystic asks: How real are fake tiers?
Fake tiers are less real than real tiers, but often much better.
Thimo asks: Do you miss me?
No.
Cheese asks: What is your favourite type of cheese?
I am lactose intolerant. Fwiw I also have a gluten intolerance. Being a college kid seriously allergic to pizza is a fun time.
TJ asks: Why haven't you added me on Nintendo Switch yet?
I did add you .-.
If you have any questions for Megazard, feel free to ask them below!!
