#1 Adrian Marin BH, the crazy staller!
Hey
Hi
How did you get into Pokemon?
I played GSC at an early age and played Pokemon ever since. I learned about competitive battling through a friend and have played in Net Battle, then Shoddy battle. At the time I wasn't very serious. Afterwards I went to PO and tried to get very good at the OU metagame, but failed miserably due to not being able to fully understand the fundamentals of it. I heard about Sharkmons from there. That's the Hackmons of a long time ago. I was rather fed up with how the metagame worked, so I tried Balanced Hackmons. I really, really liked it, and I got good at it. I started to contribute to the Balanced Hackmons thread shortly after I joined the Smogon community
What is your favorite playstyle and why?
My favourite playstyle is stall! Ever since I played GSC, I loved how epic the battles were! Long battles and the creativity needed to innovate and understand defensive structures really excites me! One of the biggest mistakes users make is to prioritise defensive type synergy. Defensive type synergy is important, but it's not everything. You need to wall every relevant threat reliably, that's the priority. Everything else comes after, but walling every threat is what stall is all about. Defeating opposing stall teams, supportive synergy, type synergy, etc, is not as important as the very core of stall itself.
What is your favorite OM?
It's still Balanced Hackmons of course! Otherwise I really like Tier Shift, Almost Any Ability, PU and Inverse Battle. Recently, I have not been able to play PU and AAA much, but I have been playing (and mostly teambuilding) in Tier Shift and Inverse Battle.
Who helped you get into BH?
Flint was like a mentor to me in BH at first, and later a rival, which I think is better. I always lost at the beginning, so I wanted to get better! Flint helped me become the crazy staller I am today, so I'm really grateful for his insight through battling.
Any underrated BH player?
AWailOfATail! He is an innovator! He's one of the best stallers I know in the BH metagame!
What Pokemon do you use the most in BH?
The Pokemon everyone uses, Chansey. It's still the same old Imposter set. I wish there would be another possibility!
Has there been any cool innovation in BH lately?
Seriously, I'm trying to find recent innovations, but I don't really see anything I truly like. There have been the AssistDon teams, but I don't really like it. My favorite recent innovation is my very own new variant of Poison Heal Primal Kyogre. It's a set made to defeat Imposters by sapping away its HP with Leech Seed, which gives you the HP advantage. It weakens their Water Spout.
What do you think is most important in BH: Anti-Shedinja, Anti-Ate or Anti-Imposter?
Well, if you're running offense, then Anti-Imposter is definitely the most important. You can outstall Imposter and Shedinja with stall, so I guess Anti-Ates are much more important for stall teams.
Do you have any tips for players who want to get into BH?
Research, don't play. I offer insight to get into the metagame using the Paranoid Stall playstyle if you want!
What have been your biggest achievements in OM's?
Getting % in the OM room, peaking multiple OM ladders repeatedly, and being a part of multiple councils in the OMs. Oh and of course creating the Paranoid Stall playstyle and innovating in the Balanced Hackmons metagame with the invention of sleep with Poison Heal to defeat Imposters. I've also ran the Victim of the Week thread and in gen 5 the creative BH sets thread, but I contribute mostly in councils.
What is in your opinion the most forgotten, yet good metagame?
I hate to self-promote, but that would be Suicide Cup Doubles. I just love how sadistic and unique it is. Otherwise it'd probably be Ability Shift, I don't know why it died out.
Last month there was a large battle between FU and Classic Hackmons in the OMotM voting. A lot of people were upset about it. What do you think of the winner: FU and which did you want to win?
Since I started as a Hackmons player, I really did want Hackmons to regain its ladder. I love PU, but I honestly find making 'an underused version of it' silly already.
Lately creative OM ideas have gotten scarce, or at least that's the general opinion. Most metagames exist already and the new ones are usually farfetch'd, over-powered, not different or just not fun. Do you have anything to say about this?
I guess it can't be helped, as most ideas have been made already. I think it's time for us to resurrect some of our great classic metagames, a project could help make that happen.
What do you think about Pet Mods?
I think pet mods need to be taken a little more seriously. The problem is their lack of simplicity makes them seem less official than OMs. It almost appears like a barren place! There's only one old rules thread and there are no other stickies. It almost appears like they're worse than OM's this way, even though it's great that they got a sub-forum. Pet Mods deserve much more, you place A LOT of effort into making most Pet Mods.
Apparently you wanted to say something about Infinite Battles?
Yes, Gtfo and Cry% and I founded it. As in we made it lol. I first thought about it way back in gen 5 BH, I used a simple Harvest Arceus set with Fling and Recycle. Gtfo and Cry% (a great stall player at the time) took an interest in it. I learned a lot from him, and we theorymonned a lot together, and I love theorymonning! He invented a better version, which is the Heal Pulse set we all know today.
Any final words?
Yeah, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE STALL AND HATERS DESERVE TO BE STALLED TO DEATH
Feel free to ask questions to
Adrian Marin now! He'll try to answer them in this thread.