Neal Coomer ("It's Always You and Me") interview following tomorrow's Top 25

I recently conducted an interview with Neal Coomer, one of the performers of "It's Always You and Me", the opening theme for "Adventures in Unova". As usual, we discuss his background as an artist, the song itself, and his other work. This 2-part interview will debut following tomorrow's Top 25 Countdown. The countdown starts at 5pm Eastern/4pm Central, so be sure to tune in.

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New Pokemon TCG States interview before tomorrow's Remix PIRN

I conducted an interview at the recent Pokemon TCG Wisconsin State Championships, and that interview debuts right before tomorrow's Remix PIRN (11pm Eastern/10pm Central). We discuss the player's Pokedex/Ether deck, and his experience using it at the tournament.

Anime Milwaukee 2013-Pokemon Video Game Tournament

John William

Me: Hi, I’m Steven Reich, here at the Milwaukee Hyatt Regency in downtown Milwaukee at Anime Milwaukee 2013. I’m here with John Williams-no, not that John Williams-one of the participants-he actually placed second-in the “Elite Four” Pokémon video game challenge here. First off John, this is sort of a specialty tournament-it doesn’t strictly follow the VGC rules. What were the basic rules for this tournament?

John: Well, they banned [some] legendaries, like Palkia, Dialga, Manaphy-you know, the casual legendaries that you’ll meet in game. They did allow Keldeo however, which I thought was pretty cool-I didn’t really use it, but going on, some of the rules were you couldn’t have a Drizzle team-you couldn’t have Drizzle and Swift Swim on the same team. Also, they didn’t have an item clause, which I thought was pretty interesting, and I did take that into consideration. Another thing is that you could use as many of each Pokémon as you like-you could use a full team of Tauros if you wanted to.

Me: Definitely some interesting rules there. So basically there was a preliminary stage where you had to battle against some of the [convention] staff members. What was that like and how did that go?

John: It went pretty well. I did have a close encounter with the psychic Elite Four person. It actually came down to me having [Impostor] Ditto. I ended up copying his Reuniclus, and my Ditto is Scarfed, so I ended up going first [and taking his Reuniclus out]. After that, we were both down to our last Pokémon, his last Pokémon Gallade had Shadow Sneak, but it didn’t do enough to KO Ditto, so I ended up Shadow Balling him and winning that match. I think Ditto was probably my VIP for this tournament.

Me: And after you finished off the convention’s Elite Four, you then had to face off against other people who had beaten them, how did that work?

John: Yes, what had happened was there was actually only one other person who had done it, so we had to face off for the champion’s spot. It could have gone better if I had led [with a better Pokémon]. He led with a Salamence with Intimidate, and I led with my Therian forme Landorus which also had intimidate, and it just got kind of messy.

Me: If you had a chance to do it over again, would you change anything on your team or something like that?

John: I probably should have led with my Zapdos, because it has Hidden Power ice, and I almost guaranteed would have been able to take out both of his Salamence with it.

Me: Well, all right, thank you very much John. This has been Steven Reich, at Anime Milwaukee 2013, with John, one of the top finishers of the Trainers Rendezvous  Pokémon Video Game Tournament.

John’s Team:

Landorus ~Therian Forme~
-Intimidate-
Outrage
Earthquake
Protect
Stone Edge
Item: Lum Berry

Zoroark
-Illusion-
Protect
Sucker Punch
Counter
Flamethrower
Item: Focus Sash

Gastrodon
-Storm Drain-
Stockpile
Recover
Earth Power
Scald
Item: Brightpowder

Zapdos
-Pressure-
Hidden Power -Ice-
Thunderbolt
Thunder
Heat Wave
Item: Choice Scarf

Infernape
-Blaze-
Fake Out
Close Combat
Mach Punch
Flare Blitz
Item: Focus Sash

Ditto
-Impostor-
Transform
Item: Choice Scarf

Daylight savings time starts today

Daylight savings time starts today in the US, meaning that the station has moved from -6 GMT to -5 GMT. As such, if you don't use daylight savings time where you live, programming has moved one hour earlier.

Ode to Arino (Parody of “Angry Video Game Nerd Theme” by Kyle Justin)

Notes:
-Song is referring to this.
-For the unaware, “Nihon” (pronounced “knee-hone”) is the Japanese word for Japan (much like how “Deutschland” is the German word for Germany).

Ode to Arino
Parody of “Angry Video Game Nerd Theme” by Kyle Justin

With new lyrics by Steven “PokePress” Reich

He’s gonna take you back to the past,

To play the classic games he #*! at.

He’d rather fight a buffalo

Than watch Dhalsim getting punched in his ear

He’s gonna fall for every trap hole

If you think he's sunk, I guess you're new here

It’s the gamiest center you’ve ever heard,

He’s the Nihon Nintendo nerd

He’s the Nihon Konami Sega nerd

He’s the Nihon video game nerd

Don’t you turn off your TV

He’s gonna make it-wait and see!

Arino’s thumbs may hurt, he may break a sweat

Although he’s cornered our guy will never back down

He’ll grab a cooling pad, no he ain’t done yet

Armed with his helpers he will take these games down

It’s the gamiest center you’ve ever heard,

He’s the Nihon Nintendo nerd

He’s the Nihon SNK Capcom nerd

He’s the Nihon video game nerd

He brings the worst game of all time

Pitiful annihilations blow my mind

But when he starts each marathon, he says:

Arino: GameCenter CX! Kacho-On!

From eight on up to sixty-four bit

This show is huge you know it’s a hit

Where did he learn to swim?

Why can’t he land a plane?

What were they thinking when they gave him this game?

His strategy’s always wrong

Let’s help him get along

Come on now ADs go do your thing!

It’s the gamiest center you’ve ever heard,

His game #*! so bad-hey watch out for that bird!

He’s the genkiiest most retro gaming nerd

He’s the Nihon Irem Namco Tecmo Sunsoft Hudson Soft

Sony Neo Geo Falcom Quintet Data East Vic Tokai Game Freak Nintendo Nerd

He’s the Nihon video game nerd