The Cake is Not a Lie

With only one week away until the release of Pokemon X and Y, I have contacted the President of the Pokemon club at Cornell University, Kristin Murray, for an interview.  She gave me some great insight on some general Pokemon stuffs and what it’s like being the President of the Pokemon Club at Cornell University.

Kristin Murray, President of the Pokemon Club at Cornell

Cakeisnotalie: So, what do you do as leader of the Pokemon club at Cornell?

Kristin: Well, I come to all the meetings every Wednesday.  We play the card game, and the video games. We talk about strategies.  And of course x and y, coming out pretty soon.

Cakeisnotalie: Are you excited for x and y?  Which game are you getting, and what starter do you want?

Kristin: I’m very excited!  Should be a huge change, compared to the disappointing change from black to black 2.  I’ll be starting with Fennekin; pretty much just because I like fire. Fire is awesome.  I chose to get Y, but it doesn’t really make a difference, both legendaries will be unusable in the meta anyway.

Cakeisnotalie: Is fire your favorite type then?

Kristin: No, actually. Well, my favorite type is different in the cards than in the game.  I’ve recently really liked steel in the cards, I have some very good steel cards.  Currently in my Pokemon club I am the Elite four Water trainer, so water is my favorite in the game.  Very hard to win mono-type in the game, though.

Cakeisnotalie: Elite four leader! That sounds cool.  Something in your club?

Kristin: Yes!  My other officers in the club represent the other elite four trainers, and our club members will try to beat us all straight through, just like in the games.  The current winner stands as the Champion.

Cakeisnotalie: What is your team, as the elite four water trainer?

Kristin: Currently my water team consists of Cloyster, Milotic, Starmie, Swampert, Kingdra, and Gyarados.  For the elite four you are not allowed to use Dream World abilities, otherwise I would have Polytoad.  His dreamworld ability, drizzle, is like the main component of a water team.  But for the elite four gym leaders we are not using dreamworld abilities.

Cakeisnotalie: And what about your main team, when you really wanna beat someone?

Kristin: Generally my main team, Singles team, is Cloyster, Volcorona, Scizor, Tyranitar… well, for the OU tier.

Cakeisnotalie: What’s OU?

Kristin: You don’t know the tiers, man??

Cakeisnotalie: I’m sorry.  I’m so sorry.  I play and battle online a lot but I don’t get into the meta so much.

Kristin: Okay, so, in the meta game, Pokemon are placed in tiers depending on how much they are used.  When a Pokemon is released it is placed into a tier depending on how much they are used.  OU means overused, one tier down from Uber.  Most Pokemon are in OU.  Pokemon in Uber are like Mewtwo, Deoxys.  You can always use a lower tier in a higher tier tournament.  Like, you can use a UU Pokemon, which is underused, in an OU tournament.

We use the Smogen tiers.

There is actually a borderline tier between OU and UU, but there are only 6 pokemon in it, so no one fights in just that tier.  But you can’t use them in UU.  Kyurem-B, black, for example, is in that middle tier.

Cakeisnotalie: So all ledgendaries are in uber?

Kristin: No, not all of them.  Like the birds aren’t; some are in lower than OU even.  Before I battle someone, it’s customary to talk about tier usage and dreamworld abilities before battling.

Cakeisnotalie: So, what else is going on in the club?

Kristin: We made these shirts this year.  Some people have purchased them, which is exciting.  We are all very excited for the Pokemon Origin series!  Which will be following the storyline of the video game series, which is very cool.  They will be following red, through Kanto.  That comes out sometime in November.

Cakeisnotalie: That sounds great, I’d love to watch them too!  Before we wrap this up, I have to ask you: what is your favorite kind of cake?

Kristin: Red Velvet.  Like those pokeball cake pops you made for me and the club once.  Fucking delicious.

Cakeisnotalie: Thank you, haha!  I’m flattered.  Actually, I’ll be posting the recipe for that pretty soon!  Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your time!

The Pokemon League club shirts, designed and printed by Kristin Murray