Singles Streaking

With my limited cognition bandwidth today, but still wanting to keep the grind going in Champions, I decided to return to singles. Frankly, I prefer singles to doubles, as much as I love the strategy. The more competitive players play doubles, naturally as that’s the primary VGC format. I did get a really nice Ursaeing on Pokemon GO today, but it’s not in champions, so, not useful. I seriously think I can get my in game rentals to great ball. I’m not returning to roster ranch until tomorrow (April 9th) so this team we ran with earlier is our best bet for any progress today. I’m in no rush. Champions is gonna be around awhile. 

Notably I’ve stockpiled over 30,000 VP already. Going into my first single battle of the day, not sure I brought the right mons. He let off with Pikachu; I’m assuming with light ball. Fortunately I led with Steelix. And they went Volt Tackle? Fun stuff. Bye Pikachu. Garchomp comes out into my Azumarill. And garchomp used Dragon claw… Well, then, I got a throw. Thanks for the free win? I still got Gengar to contend with. Steelix takes a Shadow Punch… they use Venoshock like a champ and get 3-0’d… that should’ve been a lot better battle. I’ll take it though. And I got tons of achievements.

Next round. Volcarona vs Steelix. Not a great matchup. But I have Azu as a switch-in. Aqua jet did 87 percent. So even with all the recovery it got from giga drain and leftovers, Azu just went for another aqua jet. The burn sucks though. Maushold’s bullet seed finished him off. Let’s go Dragonite. After an extreme speed they went into… DRAGAPULT? Thanks for the free kill, buddy! Go Draco Meteor. They forfeited. Another achievement down, and it’s Poke Ball Tier 3 finally! And another teammate ticket from the battle pass. See, these are fairly numerous.

OK, we’re gonna go until we lose I guess. They led Incin like I suspected. Azumarill gets in there, but Incin went for will-o-wisp. Not fun. The burn prevents superpower from killing. My switch into Gallade works perfectly for Greninja… Sacred Sword boosted by Sharpness and Black Belt is nuts. Charizard comes in and I go back to Azumarill. I was correct that he had Charizard X. Play Rough is great here, even if cut in power and only neutrally effective. But that Swords Dance (mine has that too) Azu just needs to get some damage in for Dragonite to clean up. Can Mega Dragonite finish off the charizard? Is it fast enough? Unfortunately, no. I’m toast. Outrage KO’s, and I’m finished. So I’m done for now. What a terrible way to go out. I underestimated how fast Charizard X was. Maybe that should be my way to go with my own Charizard? That was deflating. I’m good for now. I may do a few more battles before bedtime.

Double Trouble

I did come back for a bit more doubles action in the evening. I’m still in the bottom of the Poke Ball tier, unfortunately. The battle didn’t start well, with my Whims getting crit by air cutter. So I went for memento on their empoleon since Whims is toast anyway. And i forgot it had competitive. So I threw BADLY. Not a good start to the evening. I did take down their Chandelure. Mimikyu is a defensive nightmare against me. Air Cutter got another crit on my dragonite. I did take out the empoleon with super power, but ouch. Hippowdon is something I can deal with, doubling it with aqua jet and ice beam. Fortunately I still had Steelix in the back, and Mimikyu used trick room. Somehow could I pull this out? 1V1 Mimikyu VS Steelix in sandstorm with an almost dead Dragonite. I mega evolved for fun, but Steelix’s Heavy Slam is more than enough to put this away. Yet another game I badly misplayed that my pokemon won for me. I’ll take it. Finally I’m in rank 3, meaning that was a higher ranked player!

The next team was very interesting. I led Steelix and Whims and they led Steelix and Charizard. This time memento was going to offer value against Charizard. Phew, finally that move was useful. Steelix went down to fire blast and my multiscale held versus outrage. Now Gengar comes in with Steelix switching in. They hit Gengar with outrage which got disabled by cursed body and moonblast does so little to steelix. Played this perfectly! Their last mon is Rrotom wash. So I switched steelix back out to Dragonite and went for shadow ball on charizard. That’s the end of him. Rotom MISSED THUNDER. Didn’t matter because I was up 3-1. I mega’d for funsies, as Draco Meteor plus Shadow Ball should be enough. And it was, even through a Wash Sitrus. That was a much cleaner win! I ranked up AGAIN!

The third battle was a dedicated rain team with Alolan Raichu. This should be a challenge. Here’s a chance for Gallade to shine. They have a Mega Feraligatr with their Pelipper. Brought their pelipper down to sash with thunder punch too. Liquidation one shots my Gallade sadly. The good news is that Feraligatr is part Dragon when it Megas. I have Dragonite. Unfortunately, it also has a body slam that’s dragon type and paralyzed my dragonite. I did KO the pelipper and the Gator fortunately. Can these guys hold and can Gengar clean up? Raichu missed Giga Impact! This is gonna be close. Impact hit Whims and Gengar went down with a whimper. Should’ve chosen Destiny Bond I guess. But it’s a 2 vs 1 now with Mega Dragonite coming back with full Special Attack. But I went E speed, hoping Moonnblast would be enough. It wasn’t, but Raichu was only at 15 percent after leftovers. So one more extreme speed would do it. Didn’t get the full paralysis, so game, set, match. Three in a row! Tier 1!

I decided to permanently recruit Gallade. That’s because I want to change its move set slightly. Leaf Blade is a must and so is Swords Dance. That’s 500 VP well spent and I used that recruitment ticket I got from the battle pass earlier. I’m hoping those changes carry over into that event tomorrow. I’m sure they will; it seems to only be the item slots that get wonky.

So, can I finally get out of the Poke Ball tier today? Gallade is gonna get a big test here. Gallade and Azu face Palafin and Beedrill. Azu switches out immediately for Dragonite as the Bee Mega evolves. That poison jab hit SUPER hard. This isn’t a great start for me. Can Mega Dragonite help me turn the tide? Beedrill used U-Turn; damn, that thing hits hard! They are just out positioning me like crazy. Gallade just got nothing done because they just out manuevered me all over the place. Fortunately their Hydreigon messed Draco meteor so that was some good luck for me! I just am having so much trouble with this team! Whims got wrecked, but it was that or my Azumarill. They bring out their own Dragonite. Fire blast finally deals with Beedrill. Geez this is gonna be close. Palafin finishes my dragonite, so it’s 1 against 2. Dragon cheer powers up Palafin. Yeah, I just got outplayed badly. But all Palafin has is Wave Crash. So Azu hung on through a Crash and a Heat Wave, eating the Sitrus to make it a 1V1. Come on my favorite blue guy. Can I outdamage the Palafin? YES! I WON! GREAT BALL TIER BABY! And you get five more storage slots. That’s neat. I got 1K VP then another 2K VP for the achievement. I’m balling right now!

To celebrate I bought Gengarite and Charizardite X. I haven’t decided which I want to be my alternate Mega because Dragonite has been so superb. I may end up having two teams, a fast hyper offense and a trick room team (Whims can learn trick room). We’ll see what I end up recruiting tomorrow and each day going forward. I think I’m going to stop on that high for today. What a great run there!