TRAINER'S EYE #147 - "Gible After the Sandstorm" ft. DragonTamerTom - As The Pokeball Turns

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
DragonTamerTom (00:00):
I am Dragon Tamer Tom, and this is my

(00:02):
Pokemon story.

David Hernandez (00:42):
Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns, where we
interview people about theirexperience with Pokemon.
My name is David Hernandez.
I'm here with Dragon Teamer.
Tom, you may know him as maybe adragon teamer.
Other of y'all may know him astwist streamer.
Tom, thank you for coming on.
As the poker ball turns, whatdo, how do people know you?
Maybe let's start there.

J mostly just chaos.
I'll be honest, there is just somuch Just like you said,
mentioned in for Twitch.
There's so much chaos in regardsto that.
So mostly my community and Ilove it.
yeah, I just, shiny hunter, openup Pokemon cards, build models
as well, but mostly just shinyhunting.

Ooh, hold on.
I want to know what these modelsare like.
what kinda models do you like?
build, I'm kind interested inthis.

So, you know, gunplay, right?
Or Gundam,

Oh, of course.
Yes.

they all like, Bandi also makes Pokemon models
one piece.
Digimon Yugi.
I go for everything but theactual gunplay because I am not
that insane.
Yeah.

I think I did a yuchi one and I've done a one
piece one, but unfortunately itwas like to the point where you
have to paint it and I'm like, Idon't want to deal with all
that.
So it just stuck as.
The non-colored louy one piece,I think it was the Go Mary, I
believe is what was named if

yeah, the going Mary

the Go Mary.
There we go.
There we go.

YI think I have that one I'm looking back at on
my shelf behind me.
Yeah.
'cause I have the going merrymodel, or the model kit.
But the thousand Sunny actuallike.

What made you want to do, what makes you wanna
do those?
Like, do you just like doingbuilding stuff, puzzles.

I like building things and they're just
relaxing.
Like, I'll put a anime on.
I'll just build, just go totown.

It's like, those who like color in their
spare time or, some people liketo do, make puzzles, like
they'll get like one of them athousand piece puzzles and just
like start, just lose track oftime, you know?

And just shut their brain off.

Well, you know, we got a lot to talk about, but
I wanna start like, where's thebeginning?
Because you were named DragDragon Tamer, so I'm guessing
you have some affinity forDragon Pokemon.
Where does that start?

So it all started back even when I was a
kid.
I've always loved dragons.
I've just had always a fondnessof dragons.
There's figures, dragon figuresall around my room I've had a
lot more, but I've packed someaway so I could put models up.
but I've always loved dragons.
Then I started creating contentI looked at it, I'm like, I want
to.
have something that is Pokemonrelated, but also at the same

(03:05):
time generic enough.
So if I go to do Variety, Idon't have to worry about any
issues there.
And ironically enough, a DragonTamer is actually a trainer
class in generation three,

And then lo and behold, you got Dragon Team Tom,
and I think the Dragon team.
It was like a, I always, I thinkif I remember correctly, the
model back in gen three was likea superhero.
It reminded me of,'cause I thinkit had a cape and then it was
like in a little weird,something like that.

Yep.
I should really do a cosplay ofthat one time.

You should do that.
You should do that for Stream.

maybe for the, my fifth year, remember five
year anniversary,

Mmm.
Is it coming up?

2026.

chat if, for anybody listening, if you want
Dragon Teamer or Tom to ju up asthe, cosplay, as the dragon
teamer, you need to tag himincessantly and just remind him
nonstop and chat and go to hishouse, dial his phone number,
send him letters if you know howto do that.

I ironically, some people that have won
giveaways and stuff like thatactually do have my cell number
or a way to get ahold of mepersonally.
Also, my, all my mods do aswell.

Ooh.
Hey, mod, make sure to bug thisguy.
I extensively.
Okay.
We, we gotta make it happen in2026.

Oh no.

you said you love like Dragon, so does it
also come to the Dragon Pokemonas well?
And if so, what Dragon Pokemoninterests you,

Dragon Pokemon are a big fascination of mine as
well.
honestly, my favorite isprobably the Gibble line, not
because of Guard Chomp, butbecause of Gibble.

Hmm.

my love for it fell in the anime just how I
just loved to eat everything andhow it was so obnoxious and just
chaotic, and I loved that

Just like you stream.

pretty much.
Yeah,

I'm trying to remember, wasn't that the one
where, I guess Ash was trying torescue it and then they had to
transport it or something likethat?
I can't remember.

I can't remember that far

Or was it actually Ash's Pokemon,

I think it,

I think?

Ash hatched it.
one thing I always remember

remember.

it trying to either eat constantly, didn't
matter what it was eating, or itwas trying to use Draco meteor
and it kept hitting PIplup.
Poor

Piplup....

Piplup would be running and you see the little
Draco Meteor ball of energy toslowly fall down and just hit
the Piplup.
up.

I think there was a, that was the whole
gimmick ride.
'cause I think there was onescene that where Piplup was just
tr saw it powering up and ittried to run away and it just
wind spiral in the air and stillhit hip hop, even though despite
it trying to run away.

Yep, a hundred percent.

You said you love the Gibble line, so is that
your favorite Pokemon or likewhat is it about the Gibble
line, I guess specificallyGibble, that you really enjoy?

Honestly, a lot of my favorite Pokemon come from
the anime, like how they'reportrayed in the anime.
So like Gibble was one of those.
I've seen a lot of other Pokemonthat I'm like, okay, these are
cool.
I've also seen a lot of other PEcreators that they're like, Ooh,
guard, jump.
They always want these big,powerful Pokemon, and I'm just
like, gibble

This ple.
Yeah.

But Gibble is not my original favorite.
My original favorite is actuallyAlakazam, so OG Alakazam.
So Alakazam is my secondfavorite because Gibble,

Gibb's kind of hard to, I, I can't blame you.
Gibb's actually pretty cute.
I ain't gonna lie.
And actually even its MiddleEvolution.
Goodbye.
It's not that bad either.
It's actually a very solid kindof middle evolution, appearance
wise, you know?

oh yeah, for sure.
even the shiny is not bad too.

Mm-hmm.
Until in terms of guard chomp,then it just, I know, I forget,
exist.

other Pokemon, they got saturated or
desaturated or whatever whenthey switched over the 3D
models.
Guard, chomp has just beenterrible since gen four.

Yeah.
And a lot of them, especiallywith the newer ones, I felt bad
when scarry, they really didscarry wrong.
It used to be such a very nicegreen color on the Sprites, and
then all of a sudden it just,you can't even tell it's green
anymore.
It's kind of sad.

I have yet to see a wild or Shiny Skarmory in,
Scarlet Violet.
So,

You probably have.
You just wouldn't know itactually.
Hell us.

uh,

Oh

yeah,

yeah.

up images.
Yeah.

Yep.

that's a.

The reason why I know that one of my friends,
he was shining hunting and I waswatching his stream and the only
reason why we knew it was theShining was because I think he
happened to see the inside ofthe wing.
If it wasn't for that, neverwould've seen it.

Oh yeah, that's what I've heard is you have to
look at the inside of the wings,just like, Sandy shocks.
You have to look at its feet.

you said your relation to Gibble was through
the anime, so was that kind of abig part of your experience
through Pokemon?

Growing up.
Yeah,

Oh,

percent.
Growing up was a lot through theanime.
I remember to date myself alittle bit.
I remember watching the veryfirst episode on TV as it aired,

so it goes back to what?
19 0 6, 18 47, something likethat.

1643

Oh, okay.
Man, man, or way back in theday.
Yeah,

it's okay.
My, my community calls me oldand ancient all the time, so,

I call everybody old names all the
time, so don't worry.
I don't discriminate.
But you know, think about theanime though.
Like that's such a very keypart.
'cause you know, you go, for me,I remember growing, going and
running and trying to get hometo see what adventure Ashe is
on.
Right.

yep.

But did you stick with the anime, like
through all four generations?
Because clearly you haveconnection with Gibble.
So did you watch like Jodo, theHoen and stuff like that?

Hoen not so much because at that time that's when
we were switching from satelliteto cable

Mm-hmm.

and we didn't have it here, but at my
grandma's we did.
So I'd only watch it a littlebit, because my love for Pokemon
was already deep seated ingeneration one and two, I still
love Gen three games.
I still played them.
I didn't collect too much of thecards, but yeah, it was just
deep seated, mostly'cause of genone and two, so I'm glad that
that stuck.

What was it about the game specifically
compared to the anime that'sreally kept you hooked?
Like what got you engaged intoplaying the games?

at the time it was mostly just a escape, like
yes, it was only elementaryschool, but it was still an
escape away from just everythingand it still is for me.

so it'll let you kind of just go into your
own world kind of thing or just.

Yep.
That's all it is.
Just get away from basicallylife, which was at the time I
was just like, Ooh, I'm playinga video game now.
It's okay.
Stress, no Pokemon childhoodmemory.
Nostalgia.
Yes, please.

Especially during, you know, you got
responsibilities and all thisother stuff.
It's like, you know, I kind ofneed to escape the world a
little bit so I can kind of seethat.

Eh, don't remind me what responsibilities.

Oh yeah.
I try not to as well, but it'shard.

Yeah.

when it came to the playing the Pokemon Games,
what was your first game andwhat do you remember about
playing it?
Uh

was Pokemon Red.
And I remember having my friendsoverplaying it cause at the time
I had Pokemon Red, but I didn'thave a way to play it, so I was
boring.
My cousin's game boy, theoriginal Game Boy.
And then I think that fallingChristmas, I got a yellow game
boy color with the golden wormlight too.

Ooh, aren't you fancy?

I know, right?
I don't have to depend on thestreetlights.

you know, it's kind of crazy to think of that.
There was a time where we playedthese games and we didn't have
LED backgrounds.
It's kind of wild, you know,when you think about it.
Mm-hmm.

I got a paper out just for, just so I could
get this game, and as soon asthe light turns on in the
background, I was just like, ohwow.
This is so cool because I gotSapphire and my one friend got
Ruby and we're just like, thisis so cool.

It was life changing in those days.
Right?
'cause you know, the strugglewas, you know, that there was no
light at all.
You were reliant on either anactual light or you were
threatening your eyes, which I'msure a lot of us did.

Yep.
Yep.

there was one time I was coming back from a
road trip.
And you know, I'm bored.
I'm like, it's like a four orfive hour road trip.
I don't remember where we wereand I'm trying, it's like seven,
eight o'clock at night.
The sun's already out or it'sdark, fully dark, or I'm in the
back of the seat of the car andI'm trying to like use the
streetlights as we're driving tosee what's going on.

(11:09):
Like looking so closely, he'slike, I think that's an attack.
I think that's a eradicate.
Or it's either eradicate or aZac.
Obviously I'm facing Team Rocketand I'm trying to make sure I'm
not using an attack thatactually works.
I don't know, but it is just sodifficult and there's a little
fondness when it comes tothinking about, you know, those
time periods.

yeah, the good old days and then it's like, oh,
why can't I have those daysback?

you know, you said you played Pokemon Ruby,
you played gen two.
What were like your favoritegeneration like that you enjoyed
playing the most and why?

Honestly, I, I, yes, generation one was my first
game, I have a huge fondness forgeneration two because at Gen
one I didn't really know whatwas going on.
Gen two, I knew more what wasgoing on.
I was a little bit morecoherent.
but also it was the fact thatyou could go back to canto and
face everybody back in canto aswell that so generation two,

(12:04):
like gold, silver.
I didn't play Crystal growingup, but I it recently.
and then Hart Gold Soul Silver,I'm a huge advocate of can we
get, let's go Jodo.
'cause I would absolutely loveto go there.

I know right?
What to Pokemon.
Do you think they would useoutta curiosity?
Because I've thought of thistoo.

Probably peach chew and toga pee.

Yep.
That's, that's my leaning too.
Although I've always, I've heardpeople say that, that that would
be too weak.
But I'm like, it's either thator it would be Let's go on
Brianna or Ion.

Yeah, I could see that.
I could definitely

Yeah.
I know you said that you andyour friends played, the Pokemon
games.
Like what was that experiencelike?
Would y'all like go to eachother's houses and play battle?
Like what was that connectionduring that time?

It was a lot of, either we would take turns or we
would try to see who could havethe strongest teams or who could
have the most get to completingthe polka deck as fast as
possible.

Oh, wow.

'cause at the time also, there was no, shiny
charm, right.
So it was try to complete thedecks, get that little
certificate in the game, andthen start it all over again.
So, yeah, and just use differentPokemon the entire time and just
be like, okay, this is fun.

So it sounds like y'all were, I guess, very
competitive at the time to wherey'all would either battle each
other or y'all would try to raceto the polka decks and y'all
just do it over and over.

Yep.
We also kind of did, we did sortof nuz locks as well by making
sure we didn't do use the sameteam as well.

How did that work?
the fact that y'all were noselock rules, or did you like to a
draft?

so it was more like a, okay, so this time, I
used, ah, my starter.
So I, I chose Squirtle to startoff with the very first time.
So it was, I chose Squirtle.
we go p we go this Pikachuthing.
and then we just chose those.
Okay, next time we can't usethese, we

Oh,

that way.

okay.
I guess to make sure Iunderstand, so say for example,
you did one play through, I dida team of Pikachu.
Nita ran six Pokemon.
Right.
And then after that, I can't usethat the following time.

correct.

That's interesting.

It was a lot of fun, especially for how slow red
and blue were compared to now,where you can run.

Oh God, I forgot about, yeah, you forget
that you can't run.

But yeah, it was just something that we could, we
the game fresh with.
Right.

Did you and your friends stick with Pokemon
throughout the entire time?
Like how deep did this fandomkeep going with you?

For me, I've played Pokemon ever since I was
a kid, like, ever since Red andblue.
but my other friends, they didfade away a little bit.
elementary school was like, Ooh,Pokemon.
Junior high, high school.
Ooh, Pokemon.
Then AF after high school.
Oh, Pokemon this.
This is a really cool thing.
I'm just like, yeah, I alreadyhave the game done.

(14:44):
Like, shut up.

You're late.

Yeah, exactly.

But that must have been kind of odd though, to
see your friends.
I don't.
Well, it's an odd period rightto where your friends just leave
and you're kind of just stuckwith your own passion kind of to
drive it through.
And this is like during the timewhere I'm assuming if you're the
same age I am that.
We didn't have social media.
We didn't have like that manybig online communities.
It was all just scatterbrained,you know?
Yeah.

Yep.
that's a hundred percent what itwas.
And then that's why like whenBDSP came out, like brilliant
diamond shining pearl, peoplewere just like, Ooh, it's just a
cheapy reco, like reskin of thesame game.
To me, BDSP is a great game.
For the simple fact that when Iwas growing up, of my friends
played Diamond Pearl, so I wasplaying by myself.

(15:28):
So that was, that kind of ruinedit for me in that aspect.
But I still loved the games.
When Brilliant or BDSP came out,I had a community, I was part of
a bunch of differentcommunities.
I had friends again to play itwith.
So for me, that's why Iabsolutely love BDSP.

and I would say that I think a lot of people
really take for granted how easyit is to now do a lot of the
features that you can dotogether.
Because you know, you talk aboutGen four, I even think about
just one generation before thatwith generation three.
You had secret bases where ifyou did mixed records, you could
see that unless you had somefriends, you really not get, you
never really had a chance toexperience that.

(16:06):
And then of course you had thebattle tower where you could
battle, and then there was a lotof interconnectivity that was
really kind of never exploredbecause Pokemon was at a point
to where not everybody playedit.
To compare it is now and, butthen, like you said, you know,
now we bring it to PokemonDiamond Pearl and bring it fast
forward.
You have the underground, youhave all these other extra.

(16:26):
things that weren't reallyexplored back in those days.
And yeah, and then I think bythe time those, those games
came, I think the online, I knowthere's a way around it, but I
think at the time the online wasalready shut down at that point.

Yeah.
So when like Diamond and Pearlcame out, you had to get an
extra dongle to connect to theinternet, so then your

Yes.

could connect to that and then go through the
internet.
I got sort of a flex.
I got one of the, honey treesthat I got a Munch LA in.

Oh damn.
Yeah.

And I exploited the crap outta the fact that I
had a munch laks, and I filledmy entire decks with legendaries
because nobody wanted to hunt,munch, munch, laks.
So I'm just like, okay.
Hey.

That, that honey tree was horrible.
'cause that was, it was Munchlax, and I think she, Ruby, were
the ones I never really got fromthose generations because of how
difficult, and I did not wannadeal with those.
I just, no, I'm good.
I,

Yep.
So I exploited people in thatcase.

He's basically the tax collector.
It's like, Hey, if you want thisMunch X, I'll trade you an RCS
for you.
I don't care if I have 30 ofthem already.
I want 31.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm trying think what was on the GTS at the
time.
It was dark, right?
RCS You saw Muse.
Obviously

Yeah.

those was just all those, you know, hard to
get.
They would boo, they would bewilling to trade that for Munch
la.

Oh yeah, a hundred percent.

Mm.

People are trading their mu, their
legendaries, their mythical, allthis other stuff for a munch
lax.

Now I was curious because you know,
obviously you're a Dragon teamerTom.
Now, did you already haveinterest in dragons at that time
when you were playing Pokemonbefore gen four, or did that
come later?

A little bit yeah, like when I was playing,
Red and blue.
I, I used to dragonite mostly'cause A, it was very powerful
and B,'cause it was a dragon,And then generation two came
along and we met, Claire and Iwas like, okay, this is really
cool.
And I, we met and I found outabout Kingdra and I was like,

(18:21):
this is really cool.
A sea dragon or a seahorse thatis actually a water dragon type.

They only had one weakness technically at the
time.
Yeah.
Yeah.

And I was just like, this is sick.
So it was a little bit of genone, but mostly gen two and
then, yeah, it just blossomedfrom there.

I was wondering, was it kind of
frustrating at the time to haveso little choices between
dragons?
'cause I don't think we reallygot a lot of dragons until, I
would say maybe Gen four tofive, honestly.
'cause gen three you had AltaSolomons and Flagon Plus of
course the legendaries, but.

Yeah, no, it was, it was, I made sure that I
had a fly gone on my team when Iplayed, gen three, when I played
through Sapphire.
But other than that, it was justyour typical Gen three team.
'cause that age, I didn't knowany different.

You make it sound like it's a bad thing,
like, I mean.

Ooh, this damage does no attack.
Ooh, that's a useless move.
We were all there.
I don't care what anybody says.

Mm-hmm.

all at that one stage at one point.

Yep.
We all did the for attacks, oneelemental type, you know,
resistance be damned.

Yeah.
Resistance.
What's that?

Yeah.
I just saw Ashley to try to usethunder shock on a peek at you.
I'm trying it right now.

Mm-hmm.
Yep.

You know, obviously since those
generations you've had moreDragon Pokemon come into the
game.
You know, what do you thinkabout all the dragon type
Pokemon?
Like, do you enjoy seeing themor do you kind of feel like the
mystique is kind of missing atall?

A little bit of both, honestly.
I like the, like for example,Aplin, I like the lo behind it

Mm-hmm.

is a worm.
It's not a typical, like whenyou think when most people think
Dragon, it's either two or fourwing or two or four legs with
wings or the typical, like,Sheron kind of thing.
Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like Yeah.
Yeah.

similar, like those, kind of like a serpent
dragon, that's the word I waslooking for.
Serpent

Okay.

or on all fours or on two legs with wings.
Like they're coming out withdifferent designs and it's
amazing.
But then you get things,honestly like Alolan Exeggutor.
Why is that a dragon?

I would think 'cause of its head, I guess, or
I'm sorry, it's neck.
You know,

But that doesn't make any sense.

I never said it made sense.
That's the best reason I got so.

I think there was a, some sort of, what was
it, like a origin story kind ofthing for it Because in Hawaii
there's the type of trees thatthey're based off of, like, they
look like dragons and they madeit a palm tree and it,

Hmm.

something like that.
I was like, okay.
I don't understand.
I'm, I'm smooth

Okay.

but Okay.

Yeah, so you kind of don't accept a little
executor.
The drag, you're kind of like,you're, you're gonna be over
there, kind of rejection kind ofthing.

I think it's a great Pokemon.
Is it a drag to me?
Is it like a traditional dragon?
No.
Is there probably a lure behindit?
Maybe.
Do I care to go into it?
because effort.

It reminds me kind of, back in, during gen
three, I tried to get my frienda dragon team, and as we said,
there's not many dragon Pokemon.
So I also went into the dragonegg group and the one that
always threw me off was ARBBach, because I, at the time, at
the age, I didn't understandwhat arb buck was, a dragon
type.
I was like, why is it a dragon?
Why is it in a dragon egg group?
But then, like you said, it'ssurfing.

(21:32):
So, but yeah,

I

I think some,

I didn't

I think.
Mm-hmm.
It was a dragon egg group.
'cause we had to do arb a, I hadto do char art obviously.
I think Errol DTA was also init.
I wanna say C Viper as well.
I could be wrong on that one,but I had to get very creative
to get him a Dragon team.
And it was kind of cool to, I'dnever used an Arbaugh before,
but it was still kind of cooljust to see the different

(21:57):
Pokemon that were, I guess notofficially dragon type, but
still kind of, I guess a dragonegg group.
I guess.
I don't know what the differencewould be.

Now that makes me question.
So people always criticizebecause he didn't have a lot of
dragons char's in the Dragon Egggroup.

Yes.
All mm-hmm.

no Aridol, but.

Yeah.
I think Eric Axle's a monsterand.
I forgot what the other one was.

I am on BP Pdia, so I am looking, oh, it's not
even a monster.

Oh, is it okay.
It could be in.

Now I'm curious.
now that is big question.
flying.
That's the only one that's in isflying,

Only flying.
Really?

Yeah.

I would think he at least be something else.
That's wild.
I think he at least be mineralmaybe, but just flying.
That's crazy.

Yeah.
You would think it would be insome of those other ones, like,
like you said, like mineral ordragon, It fits both, but no,
just flying.

Yeah, because here's what we had.
We had Charizard family Arbok.
Gyarados was included.
This is bus by the way.
I'm just listing the non dragontypes.
they're also the Dragon egggroup.
Sceptile was one.
Milotic.
It's a viper.
There we go.
And that was it.
Everything else.
That's what we had.
That's what I had to add to histeam to just get him a Dragon
team, because I was trying todo, I was trying to avoid doing

(23:17):
Legendaries, obviously.

Yeah.
'cause it kind of tough as well,right?

Yeah, I mean, that's all that you had is, za
and, Ladia.
And Ladia.
So It's fun, but it gets oldafter a while, beating people
easily, so,

Yeah.

yeah.

Scragg, he's in the Dragon Egg group.

Oh, is it now?

I don't even wanna know, I, I don't want to
know.

I kind of wanna do, let's see, let's see what
else we got.
I haven't looked at the dragongroup since gen three, so let's
see what else we got.

Oh, it, it is in the Dragon Egg Group, but it
just makes me question like,why,

it's tough to say.
I, IBE makes me wonder if theydo like a regional form to where
Scragg is a dragon type inPokemon Zi.
You got Helios.
Helios is a dragon type two ordragon egg group.
Sole

So as all I can see honestly,

Santa Conda, of course.
And that's all the surprises.
Yeah.

hmm.

I, I, uh, we're all learning today.
I haven't looked at the egggroups since the, that, those
generations after that, I justalways use ditto.
So I've, like the egg groups arekind of something people forget
about nowadays.

I honestly have never looked into them.

Mm-hmm.

thing I've really looked into for breeding
wise is, oh, what natures breedwell together, like, which ones
produce the most amount of eggs,and that's really about it.

Okay, so you don't get into the whole iiv EVs
like

No,

side of Pokemon at all.

no.

Hmm

closest I've come to that is, going to the
Toronto regionals.
And watching competitive, or, Iwas part, I did take part in a
gym leader circuit at one pointwhere we all specialized in one
type

Oh, that must have been fun.

and then, it just started to fizzle out'cause
people were losing interestafter a while.
But it, it was a lot of fun.
It definitely was.

Do you just not have the time for it, or is it
just more you prefer a differentway to play Pokemon?

I just like shine, shiny hunting, honestly,

What do you like about Shinies in general?
Like what do you, what, whatdoes, what does it appeals to
you?

The

Dopamine.
The dopamine.

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah.
Getting going that hunt for thatwhole time and then all of a
sudden, Ooh, different coloredpixels.
Let's go.

what's the, I guess first time that you ever,
I guess, tried to shiny hunt orwhen did you discover that you
enjoyed shiny hunting overanything else?

Probably generation six.
So like X and Y,

Mm-hmm.

chain fishing with my cousin, he was racing to
get a clocher.
I was trying to get a scalp andhe ended up winning.
And I gave up, but it was stilla lot of fun.
I ended up getting a horseyeventually.
It's, disc.
There's another one that I gotas well, all from chain fishing.

And then that whole experience is what led you
to become the madman you aretoday.

Yep.

Do you have particular, any favorite shiny
Pokemon that you enjoycolor-wise

the two that caused me the most in dynamax
adventures were Reza and Garina,those are probably my two
favorite.

you can't go wrong with the black dragon.
I think your Tina turned silver,I think.

silver and

Yeah.

beige.

What's the, I guess, most heartbreaking,
shiny, experience you've had sofar?
You know, I'm sure you've hadsome,

the fact that I did 672 Dynamax checks, not even
the, not even the counting thefails for Reza.
That's a lot.

That is your over odds.
Big time.

seven times odds just last year.

do you ever think about going for a
thousand?
That would've been kind of cool.

I was hunting Reza since the beginning of das

Mm-hmm.

and I probably would've, I probably have done a
thousand if I had been counting,

Oh, geez.
See, I don't know how y'all doit'cause that's just a lot of
dedication to keep trying and Iapplaud y'all for it.
'cause like I said, it's just adifferent skillset or I guess
different mentality.
I mean, it's just the hope thatyou eventually is like it's
gonna be the next one thatyou're gonna get that.
Can I keep you, keep going.

that and the fact that I have my commu,
that's such an amazing communityaround me as well to help with
that.

tell me about the community that you've built,
like, when we haven't talked, wehaven't talked about your Twitch
yet, but like, what is it aboutthe community that you've built
that motivates you to keepplaying Pokemon.

They're just amazing individuals.
Like my MOD team, it started offwith a couple of us that I, I
knew from other individuals thatI'm like, Hey, you're a good mod
for this person.
do you want mod for me?
Like, okay.
then just slowly building upfrom there and it's just.
All been amazing.

Hmm.

is just amazing themselves.
I don't know how else todescribe it.
Other than that,

And then they've seen you grown into the
streamer that you are today.
Did you ever see yourselfstreaming this long?

I will be a hundred percent honest.
No, I, um, when I'm caught mysub badges, made, my friend
commissioned them for me forfree.
she was just starting out as anartist, so she's like, okay,
here you go.
Here's some free ones.
I'm like, okay.
I broke them up, so it only wentup to a year and I was like,
okay.
And, I haven't updated themsince.

what got you into streaming?
Like what made you wanna startrecording and be making an
audience?

So my very first YouTube video was actually of a
PSA submission that I'd sent in,and that was unboxing that if
you wanna watch some cringe,watch that video, it is very,
very bad.

Ooh, I love cringe.

I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
But it shows how far I've comefrom.
Then same thing with my veryfirst stream.
I put that as a highlight justso I can see I came from to
where I am now.
but I did that, I did that firstYouTube video, then once a week
typically I was uploading likeme opening up a pack.
'cause this was before tick,this was before I discovered

(29:28):
TikTok and YouTube shorts andall that stuff.
But yeah, it was opening up oneor two packs every week.
Then it got to the point that itwas getting very expensive to do
that.
And at that point I was alreadyin a bunch of different
communities of amazingindividuals.
three of which for sure, two ofthem no longer stream very much,
if at all, and one is no longerwith us.

(29:51):
All three of them.
Huge shout out to them.
But they are like, Tom, gostream.
It's not much, it's not hard.
just build a pc, get everythingtogether.
We can help you set things up.
I was like,

Okay.
Wow.
So they believed in you.

Oh yeah.

It must have been, I guess, kind of
motivating to see that, right?
Because.
it sounds like you wereresistant to even doing it, but
then you hear these three guyswanting to see you do it, they
see something in you, I guessyou didn't see in yourself at
the time.

Yeah, and at that point, as far as I know,
none of them had heard, well,maybe one or two had heard my
voice.
Other than that, it was just allthrough text, through, Twitch
chats.

what was your resistance to it?
Was it just the fact that youwere gonna go live?
Was it the fact that you weregonna have Perform.
Like what is it about, you know,were you resistant at the time?

I think it was just'cause it was something new,
something different than thetraditional like, and I'm using
air quotes, but the traditionaleight till five kind of thing,
and it was different and I justhad no idea what I was doing.
I still don't, but I know how tohit that.
Go live button and then I'm good

Yeah.

make sure everything works beforehand.

I think that's kind of everybody who does some
type form of a creation, right?
Because you know, we're ourheart, we're our harshest
critics.
And you know, you mentioned howyou have your first stream up.
I still have my first episodestill unedited.
I've always wanted, I can editwhenever, but it's just like
something about just keeping itraw.
Lets me kind of remind myself ofhow far I've come to just doing

(31:18):
a podcast to now the change isnoticeable, but.
It's just hard for me to kind ofwant to take that away, you
know?

Oh yeah, it shows you it.
It is very humbling too.
It shows you where you camefrom.
It shows you, okay, this is howfar I've come.
This shows how I've grown as anindividual, as a creator,
whatever.
my mannerisms have changed aswell just because of that.
if you go if you actually watchit.
I was in a voice call withprobably, what, half a dozen
people.
I didn't have that audio sourcegoing through my stream,

Oh, no.

for the four hours that I was live for the
very first time, nobody heardanybody else but me, so I was
talking to myself, yay.

And nothing changes'cause you still talk to
yourself.
You just hope people arelistening or watching, so,

Exactly.
Exactly.

yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And I don't mean as an insult, Ijust mean that that's kind of
the reality.
Sometimes it's kinda easier forme'cause now I could just have
people and I can kind of bounceoff.
But back in those days when Iwas doing solo, I had a little,
plus she was a peach.
Two plushy in front of me justto kind of get over the idea of
that I'm talking, you know, justhave that kind of face, you
know.

Yeah, I know, I can't remember who it was, but
years ago when they firststarted creating content, they
had, at the time it was theircat, put their cat's bed on
their desk

Oh,

So it looked like they were talking to their
cat.
And I was like, that's cool.
And that's when, when you saidabout the plush, that reminded
me of that

As you, kept going with Pokemon, you know,
now you're streaming on Twitch,you know, you're having people
share your experience.
I know you've branched out ofPokemon as well.
when they watch you on Twitch,what do you hope people kind of
get out of your stream?
Do you ever think about that?
Sometimes?

That basically if this smooth brain can do it,
anybody else can.
Like,

Come on, Tom.
You mean.

I know you said we get, we're our so.
person that I was talking to,they at, like, about two years
ago,

Mm-hmm.

were a big variety streamer.
they would, let's say forexample, play the last of us.
They the first game.
They played the second game.
they had the community built uparound that.
Then they switched to play amongus, or Zelda or something else,
and their community dropped.
Mostly because I do mostly playPokemon with, at the time, it

(33:39):
was once a month playing MarioKart because, my late friend,
the true turbo he used to hostevery Friday a Mario Kart or
every Saturday.
in the later years, he used toho hold Mario Kart with his
community.
I said to keep that honor alive,once a month.
Because once a week is a lot forpeople.
Like, it doesn't make it asspecial in my opinion, having it

(34:00):
once a month does.
and then, I hosted the modappreciation type of stream
where we just played stardewfor, well, apparently four and a
half hours.
And I looked at my, I alwayslike to look at the numbers
after stream.
Not during, but just after.

Mm-hmm.

average viewer account was actually higher than
usual, and I'm just like, okay.
So that means that I'm notlosing viewership because I'm
playing a different game.
I'm playing a variety versustraditional Pokemon, which I
usually always do.
So that was very amazing andvery humbling as well, that
they're there to see me, notjust the game.

It is tough because you know you have to
niche you yourself down, andthen it's kind of hard to break
yourself out of it.

Yep.

is it kind of hard to kind of figure out what
kind of game your audience wouldlike or like do you use it just
like a trial and error, like,eh, let's see if they stick
around for this, or if theystick around for this or,

Well, mostly it.
I'm very lucky that Pokemon isvery copy paste.
It's mostly

Hmm.

right now, it's either playthroughs or shiny
hunting.
That's all it's, and I'm verylucky that it's.
People still wanna come aroundand see me.
Shiny fail, mean shiny hunt.

Mm-hmm.

And by fail I mean not get the Chinese,

I wanted to know,'cause I know that you and
Turbo were very close and thathe had a very big impact on you
as both as a creator, as well asa Can you like, give insight to
us, like how important Turbo wasfor you and what he was like
from your perspective?

Well he was the one, one of the three that it
helped inspire me to begin with.
Turbo was a huge inspiration tothe channel.
He was an amazing friend.
his disability didn't hold himback from anything He.
pushed, he was a fighter.
He pushed everything like asmuch as he could to get as much
as he could done.
He wanted to get partner thisway he could get, awareness out

(35:44):
to people with disabilities toshow that if he could do it,
anybody could do it.

It sounded like that resonated with you a little
bit.

Oh, exactly.
why when we play Mario Kartnight, I still have a bow tie
for that.
his mom is a huge mem a bigmember of our community as well.
joins us for every Mario Kartnight as well.
She's in almost every stream asof mine as well, as well as all
the other friends which isamazing.

What is it, like to have the moms still
involved even after all thistime?
Because it seems like y'all are,were more than just, you know,
online friends.
Y'all are almost wanna sayfamily to a degree.

Yeah.
At, at this point, like, buther, and like the Turbo, his
brother, the J Scorp, or J

Mm-hmm.

and Mama Turbo, I've never physically met them
in person.
Only heard their voices over acall.
over a discord call like yousaid, yeah, they're family.
I've called Turbo and JayBrothers that I never had and
that I never met it was a hugeloss to the community, to my
community, his to Turbo'scommunity when he passed.

Do you remember the last thing you and Turbo
talked about before he passed?

Honestly, not really.
because

It's okay.
No,

and outta the hospital multiple times near the
end.

Was it difficult for you to see Turbo
having to go in and outta thehospital?

Well, of course, 'cause I'm, I was used to seeing
him go live.
Six days a week like there'seven days near the end that his
health, he couldn't streambecause he, like, he was having
a bad day, so wasn't able to.
And I was like, well, I'm usedto hanging out there that night.
Guess what?
I can't.

And it's a way, like if you play Pokemon,
imagine if you couldn't play agame again, or imagine if you
couldn't watch tv.
And I guess from what Iunderstand with Turbo, that was
kind of his life, you know, togo stream and to both, you know,
be there for an audience as wellas to provide.
Visibility for visibility,

Yeah.

and it's still important.
And to not to be able to dosomething that you enjoy is one
of the toughest things to evergo through in life.

Yeah.

I, I went through that with my, dad a long
time ago.
he couldn't control his fingersanymore, but he loved playing
the guitar.
And the saddest thing he said ishe couldn't play the guitar
anymore.
And he always found joy in that,you know, so.

Yeah, that's where Turbo was very lucky that
his mom was there

Mm-hmm.

for example, he couldn't physically.
do the coordinations words, forScarlet and Violet for Pokemon
Legend's.
Archies for Mario Kart becausehe was very limited with his
mobility, but that's where hismom, his mom came in and she was
doing that kind of stuff forhim.

That must been like a very wholesome family
kind of thing to do.

For sure.
And that's why like when she'sstill stuck around, I was like,
yes.
'cause she knows what's goingon.
She has a knowledge of what'swhat to do as well.
And yes, like when it comes tolike Mario Kart nights for
example, like, not many of usare good.
There's a couple of us are thatare really good.
I'm not good.
I'm

Right

the.
I'm not,

chaos.

there like, people give me crap because I
have the little, antenna on, soit doesn't allow you to go into
off the course.
But I'm sitting there, I'mstreaming it, I'm focusing on
chat.
I'm focusing on theconversations and the jokes and
the laughter.
I'm there for the fun.
I'm not there for the carts.
It's, it's mostly a fluke when Iwin, so I'll be a hundred
percent honest.

(39:01):
is.

It is like, how did I win?
I was in last place.
Did y'all stop playing orsomething?

Well, usually what we've started to do the
last course or last cup of thenight for all four cup or all
four uh, races, 200 cc blue,shell only baby

Oh God.
Oh my.

all.

man.
Not that car.

All you're doing is driving in a

Oh,

Try to stay at about fourth until the last lap,
and then you want to just try toget into first.

you know, baby, Parkinson's experience that is.
Utter torture.

It is.
really is, and it's amazing.

Oh my God.
This is my last question onTurbo.
what was his favorite Pokemon?

Pikachu.

really it was speaking to you.

because Pokemon Yellow was his first, one of his
first games other than that, itwas like the typical like hound
doom.
Like he loved pound doom, heloved his dogs.
it wasn't Hound doom after PLAcame out, it was the Ian Groweth
line,

Well, dragon Trainer, Tom, that's an
interview.
I'm gonna finish on this lastquestion and in honor of Turbo,
each Pokemon you choose is gonnahave a Pikachu on top.
I want you to give me your DreamDragon Pokemon team.

my Dream Dragon Pokemon team.

Yep.
Any dragon type.

Well, it might be a little stacked.

I never gave you restrictions, my friends, so
take it as you will.

aware, but I'm just saying it might be a little
stacked because Reza Garinachump.
I'll be a hundred

You seem so confident.
I was okay.
He's got it ready and it's, ohwait, hold on.

options, right?

I know right.
Options are the flavor of life.
Why do you think I host apodcast?
I get to live y'all's experiencethrough my head.
It is like the joker says, whylive one life when you even have
multiple choice?
This is me.

That is fair.
Yeah, definitely.
Re Reza Garina chump.
Ra.
Thrum for sure.
I'm either torn between Hydro orRaging Bolt.

Ooh,

People

a tough choice.

but I'm like, I like the design, honestly,

You like raging bolt, but you hate a little.
And ator.
Please explain this one to me.

I, I I've, so where's the end?
Where's the leave session?
No.
outta the three beasts I'vealways liked Riko the most,

Okay.

kind of a little bit of bias there.
I liked all three of the paradoxbeasts.
Honestly.

Mm-hmm.

I don't like them.
They're ugly.
They're, they're nice.
I love them.

dragon tamer.
Tom, thank you for coming on Asthe pickle ball turns, before
you go, if people wanna watchyou stream, if they wanna
connect with you, if they wannawatch your content, where can
they go?
By all means, please plug away.

On all socials, I'm on, Instagram, Twitter, blue
Sky, Twitch, YouTube, mostlyTwitch.
And Twitter, blue Sky are themost common ones.
before I even started creatingcontent.
I even claimed all the names ofDragon Tamer Tom.

See you were smart.
I feel sorry for the sad bastardyou took as to pickle.
Ball turns.
John never gonna be able usethat one.

I actually learned from a bigger YouTube
creator that he wanted to goback and try to get a Twitter
handle of just his name,

Mm-hmm.

new.
YouTube handle, and he couldn'tit was already claimed by
somebody else.
I'm like, okay, before I doanything else, before I upload
my first video, Tamer Tom,dragon

Right?

Dragon, Tamer Tom, everywhere.
I claimed it.

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TRAINER'S EYE #147 - "Gible After the Sandstorm" ft. DragonTamerTom

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}TRAINER'S EYE #147 - "Gible After the Sandstorm" ft. DragonTamerTom