I’ve thrown winning with just recruits out the window. I’m just too impatient. I went to bring in my Delphox just to get the stone, but actually, I forgot I had transferred it in before and forgot to look at my items. Anyway, I also am bringing my Tyranitar, Emboar, Aegislash, and Tyranitar from ZA. And while I don’t have a Pelipper, I do have a Drizzle Politoed on Violet. So that will have to do. We are bringing in a lot of mons, so it’s a good thing I bought that Starter Pack to get the extra 50 spaces… but again, this is why I want to bring in so many from HOME, because I can just bow them out when I don’t need them and bring them back with their existing training later.

Unfortunately, these Pokemon I brought in, outside of Emboar, need to be completely retrained. Even Emboar to a certain degree. But I decided, screw the prep, I’m just going to spend a ton of VP since I have it. No more dawdling around. I’ve been really sick for the first week of this game’s existence, and now that I’m finally on the mend, it’s time for me to start trying to actually win. But I’m taking it easy the next couple days to ensure I don’t fall back into illness yet again. That being said, the pieces are in place for some serious shenanigans.

So, the rest of this Monday (April 13) is going to be game planning. I will do a few battles with that Rain Team I’m putting together built around Mega Manectric and Politoed as my rain setters (I really need a Pelipper and I somehow just don’t have one. The game will give me one at some point, right?) I have sweepers in both Basculegion and Palafin. I just need to figure out the last two mons. I’m thinking Wash Rotom and maybe Empoleon? Yeah, I’m going all in on the rain theme. I’m thinking Whims might be good for tailwind… the last slot should be Pelipper, so I’m just coping right now.

What I like about Politoed is that I can easily make it into a Perish Song setter, too. We have Mega Gengar after all. So that’s an option for later. But for now, I want it to have the Leftovers with a moveset of Whirlpool, Helping Hand, Encore, and Hypnosis. Cost me 1580 including full defense investments and Bold nature.

For Tyranitar, I chose a bulky offense set, since I nearly had max hp investment anyway. But I had to switch to an Adamant nature and three of its moves. I kept crunch, and added rock slide, low kick, and protect. Another 1270 VP spent.

Also, I’m thrilled to see Pikalytics has Champions data finally! This is how I’m going to finish the rest of these Pokemon. Especially the Aerodactyl we got today. It already had Rock Slide and Dual Wingbeat, so I needed to add Tailwind and Protect. I think we want Jolly Nature here. 1160 VP to train. (I’m saving the 3 remaining free tickets for mons that require total rebuilds.) 

Aegislash I add Wide Guard and Iron Head over Protect (lol, we have King’s shield) and Screech. Yeah, I could’ve fixed that in ZA previously, but I am lazy. For stats I go full HP and Attack investment (for Blade Forme as its base stats switch with Stance Change). I also choose Brave nature. 1330 VP later we’re good. 

I’m gonna wait on Emboar. I’m not sure what set to use, as there are no guides for it. I may just leave it in the box for now back in ZA.

Gardevoir that we got today is already Modest nature, so that’s a plus. It had Hyper Voice and Calm Mind, and I’m giving it Psychic over Psychock and Moonblast over Focus Miss. I kept the HP investment. This as a Mega doesn’t need to be fast. Probably going to be a focus of a future Trick Room team. We just need good setters like Farigarif. So that was a quick 500 VP.

I decided to spend another 2500 VP to permanently recruit Feraligatr to be another Mega option for us. I think it could work wonders on our Rain Team. Again I’m keeping it bulky with an Adamant nature. It already has its two best moves in Double-Edge (which becomes Dragon type when it Megas) and Liquidation. I decided to keep Brick Break and drop Psychic Fangs for Protect. Only 260 VP for that one.

I also need to fix my Glimmora. Originally, I was going for an entry hazards built, where it swaps out Toxic Spikes and Toxic for Stealth Rock and normal Spikes, plus Solar Beam goes for Explosion. The entry hazard setter seems the best choice, and Toxic Spikes is unnecessary thanks to Toxic Debris. However, looking at Pikalytics, it seems going all in on it as a Mega is the better option. So I’m doing that. I decide to go full HP and Special Attack, making it Modest nature. I use a training ticket to cover that.

As we’re at 35 box spaces, I decide to send back Alolan Raichu which I’m likely not using, as well as the gift Machamp (I don’t think we ever use it). I’m also sending Emboar back for the time being. Unfortunately, it now has the bad moveset burned into champions for good. It may even be worth just drafting a new one entirely…

And I didn’t forget about Mega Floette. I just didn’t have good partners for it before.

As for the rain team I’m building, I have Mega Manectric and Mega Feraligatr (I did have to eat another 2K VP for the mega stone so I’m down to 30K!) Sitrus Wash Rotom, Choice Scarf Palafin, Leftovers Politeod, and Focus Sash Basculegion round out the team. This is the first rain team I think I’ve ever built. It sucks I need Manectric to run rain dance as I have no Pelipper, but I think the 100% accurate Thunder will be worth it.

OK, let’s go for a couple double battles at Ultra ball tier and see how they go. We’re up against a Mega Frolass team. Not bad for us. I think leading Politoed and Palafin makes sense with Feraligatr and Rotom in the back. Let’s see if I got this right. Alolan Ninetales sets us Snow Warning but my Drizzle counters! We go Hypnosis and Flip Turn on the froslass. As expected they switch ninetales for Maushold. They Mega their froslass, so let’s see what happens. Remember, this thing is my kryptonite. The snow comes back up. But we tank a shadow ball and put the mega to sleep! The toad now uses helping hand as the froslass snoozes and maushold super fangs rotom. We do a boatload to Froslass. As I expect, the Maushold goes for follow me, thunder bolt does a ton to it, and puts the mice to sleep too! We helping hand thunderbolt again, and do they both stay asleep! Nope, Froslass wakes up and protects. Unfortunately lost turn for us there. And I don’t know what move I picked on poltoed… I do take out the sleeping maushold as Kingambit switches in… I chose encore for some reason. I misclicked. Ugh, hope that doesn’t wreck me… Snow is set back up. I go for Hyponsis on kingambit, and their ninetales gets up aurora veil. Kinda unfortunate, BUT! We have Mega Feraligatr. And hypnosis misses… OK, Feraligatr, let’s brick break the crap out of this kingambit. Do they switch back to Froslass here? If they do, it blanks my turn. Alright politeod, helping hand time. Dazzling gleam hurts but it’s not nearly enough. Kingambit falls to sash. Their veil is gone though. Politoed goes down but it’s more than done its job.Hero Palafin finally comes in. So I flip turn on the kingambit and protect Feraligatr. Sucker pucnh fails and Kingambit is down. I go back to rotom wash. Gleam makes the washing machine eat a berry. I thunderbolt the Froslass and switch my Gator out into Palafin. We tank blizzard just fine. Froslass is down! It’s a 3 v 1! Thunderbolt and Wave Crash? Well, Rotom won’t get an attack off. This one is gonna be close. Palafin is gonna outspeed here no matter what… but it will die from recoil. The ninetales goes down anyway and our Gator is left standing.  I could’ve played better, but that was a nice win. The team DOES work, but man it does need that second rain setter.

I decided to play one more for this morning before I move onto other things. I do plan to come back later, though. We lead Mega Manectric this time with Politoed (who was amazing last game). Hopefully I just make better plays here. They lead Whims and Heracross. I decide to mega and Hyper Voice, with Helping Hand from the Toad. We also get intimidate on their mega Heracross. They do set up their tailwind, which isn’t great. And rock blast hits 5 times on our mega! We are in a terrible spot. Our Mega goes down. This is looking like an easy forfeit for me. But we still have two in the back. This is a BAD START. We do put the Heracross to sleep. But I’m so far behind. Palafin isn’t a hero yet so it’s up to Basc. The Heracross stays asleep and last respects crushes it. Now Whims is asleep too! What can we do to Sinistcha? We will helping hand last respects again.  Whims stays asleep and Politoed escapes Matcha Gotcha, which unfortunately burns. Sinistcha doesn’t die either. This is bad… however, their tailwind died. I target down the whims, which sets up tailwind again as it wakes up… so matcha hits Basculegion before it can attack. Uh oh. Whirlpool doesn’t even KO Sinistcha. But it does on the backswing fortunately. Unfortunately, Palafin can’t hero mode now. This is absolutely tragic. They do have Garchomp as their last mon though. However, we’re just too far behind. And they have tailwind on their side. I guess this was a loss pretty early, but I’m glad I played it out. Politoed gets crit by rock slide, although it survived. Whirlpool doesn’t do nearly enough. 4 percent short. This game was a lot closer than I thought it would be… I needed that one more sleep turn. We get double KO’d for the loss. What a deflating loss that was.

I’m playing one more before I break. I just can’t stop with that sort of horrible loss. I’m back in the basement anyway, so I have nothing to lose. This rain team is good. I’m just not playing my best. Manectric was just the wrong lead there. That unoptimal positioning cost me that. The next one I don’t bring either Mega. I’m gonna try to win on sheer power alone. They do bring Sylveon and Whims, so good I didn’t bring Gator. No way I stop their tailwind so I have to play from behind. This time I get Palafin out quick and do a ton to Sylveon to bring in the washing machine.  It then explodes a hyper beam on my Rotom! Holy crap… I put the Sylveon to sleep but not after that horrible loss. This may seem like an odd move, but I’m helping hand on Palafin for ice punch. There’s a method to this madness. Unfortunately they do have a sash on Whims.  BUT I FROZE! With Sylveon asleep, I can whirlpool the Sylveon to trap it and safely switch to Basculegion to reset the Choice scarf. I’m now in the driver’s seat suddenly. Whims thaws out unfortunately and mementos on Basculegion. That puts me at -2. Not great. Aqua Jet still kills Sylveon though! Their tailwind is gone and I still have Palafin in the back. They send out Hawlucha and Garchomp. I go for Hypnosis on Garchomp and Last Respects on Hawlucha. That happens to be their mega. Throat chop does a crap ton to my fish. Outrage went into Politoed though. MY LAST RESPECTS CRITS AND KILLS HAWLUCHA! And the land shark is asleep. Wow, the luck went my way! I switch Politoed out as the rain ended, so I go for last respects on Garchomp. He has the guaranteed sleep turn. It only does ⅓, but Palafin is coming in for ice punch as Basculegion brings the rain back in with Politoed. Ice Punch connects and we win! HURRAY! This team is good! I just have to learn to play Pokémon better. We got two achievements and I get to take a well-deserved break!

(BTW we maxed out the battle pass already and got about 5K VP from just achievements, so I’m back to 35K again. See, not hard to just win a few games and be right back to having plenty more to spend!)