After the crazy day we had yesterday, today I want to focus on getting some of our weekly quests done with our singles team. Then, of course, we will go back to our 2-0 Meta Team.

Also I wanted to say, Wolfey broke mega Drampa: https://youtu.be/zZERi6o97Hg?si=MuCp4ow1VYYp4NX-

Supporting it are Sinistcha and… inner focus dual screens speed swap Alakazam? Plus technician mega scizor and the obvious Pelipper and Basculegion. 

Last night, I had a crazy insane trade on Pokemon Home, a random Nacli for a level 100’shiny umbreon. Yeah I don’t believe it either. And it’s already visited champions. Have people actually lost their minds?

This is now the second useful Pokemon I’ve gotten from catching random pokemon on go, trading them in wonder trade three at a time and checking the GTS each time to see if there are crazy potential trades. We got our Manectric this way. Will this Umbreon be good?

Well, we’re at 36 Pokemon in the storage now. Yes I have 50 more slots that I paid for, but I think for my own sanity, I was going to try and limit myself to 40 as best as possible. This is why I’ve been so picky with the recruitments. I’m going to send back the Skarmory I took on a rental basis, since it’s a mon I can easily replace from my own games. 

The original challenge here was to see if it’s possible to win with what the game gives you for free, and I do think it is. But as Champions is how I’ve been dealing with some stress in my personal life, this arbitrary handicap of not spending a penny just isn’t for me. I’ve decided, I’m going to just purchase the Battle Pass and the Membership. It amounts to basically $15/month. Honestly, for an online game that I play daily, that’s worth it to me. Then I never have to worry about storage slots ever again. I could make a separate account when the mobile version comes out, but I have nothing to prove to myself anymore. I’m still going to be picky which roster ranch recruits I keep, but only to save on tickets and VP. Also, now we’ll get membership missions to claim, so that’s fun. And now I’ll allow myself to use the teammate and training tickets I had in reserve (even then, sparingly.)

OK, that shiny Umbreon I got from Home? It’s got full HP and Defense investment, an Impish nature, and a move set of Wish, Protect, Foul Play, and Toxic with inner focus as an ability (great against fake out). Dreamtank the Tower Master she’s nicknamed. Not sure yet how we will utilize her, but wow, you really CAN find great mons.

I’m still sending back the Skarmory merely because I don’t plan on using it. But now, I’m purchasing both the pass and the membership. This gives us a new Emboar and Feraligatr, the latter which may replace our existing one. I’ll be out the 2700ish VP though. Let’s see which one is better (the acquired mega stone will net us 2K VP from the pass, which makes up a lot of it.) We also net a ton of cosmetic items, which we can check out later.

If the nintendo eShop wants to load… it is 4:30am EST as I’m typing this. Funny that people have had crashing issues with this game. I’ve only had one this whole time (when I went to send Pokemon back to home) and now I’m unable to actually give them my money? Hmm. It worked the second time after I quit out.

So we claimed: Emboar, Emboarite, an Emboar trainer icon, 6 extra teammate tickets, that 2nd Feraligatr, 2K for the now unneeded mega stone (glad they do this), Feraligatr icon, 6 training tickets, a cute new half-up chignon hairstyle I may actually use, blue canvas sneakers, simple white quarter socks, wide-leg jeans, a really cute white off-shoulder shirt, a team MZ blouson jacket (they really are pushing ZA like mad here), a striped trilby hat (from ZA), and that’s about it. Is that worth 10 bucks? Honestly, I earned it with all my play. And frankly, the Feraligatr they give you is better trained. So goodbye the Feraligatr we spent the 2700 VP on… this is just a thing that will happen. The Emboar they give you, by the way, is really good for trick room. So it’s a potential Mega option for us. 

OK now the Membership. Not only do we get the 1000 box spaces and 15 battle teams (having 3 is pretty stupid, honestly), we also get the membership missions, some of which we can already claim. (interesting that they claim the mobile version has issues claiming it.) I’m putting it on automatic renewal as I don’t plan to stop playing this game any time soon.

The missions we get to claim have to do with taking part in ranked battles and recruitment. This is how you get extra recruit and training tickets. We got 2 teammate and 3 training tickets, plus 1 more teammate ticket if we play two more ranked battles. So it seems they reset weekly (or every 5 days), since obviously we’ve played crap tons of battles.

As I want to go back and try to sleep a bit more (thanks insomnia waking me up at 3am), I’m going to just do my free recruit now and another in the morning when we actually go to battle. I did need to use 2 quick coupons, whatever. 

Our lineup gives me two very difficult choices: Starmie and Venusaur. We obviously don’t need Feraligatr, Farigarif, or Garchomp at this point. Emolga’s cute but not good. Snorlax and Arcanine can be good, but it really comes down to Venusaur and Starmie. As I can just bring in a Venusaur from ZA, although this Starmie needs to be trained (this one has Analytic, and it gets Huge Power when it megas, so that’s a bad synergy) for moves, nature, and everything, I think this is the pick. I use a recruitment ticket on it. Hopefully Venusaur comes back around soon, as it’s a great mon in this format. Although I can just train my own.

Be back after I get a bit more shut-eye, hopefully… Well, when I did get back up, I was in such a horrible mood I didn’t even want to play Champions. So I’m forcing myself to play two ranked battles just because I want to finish a couple goals and move on for today. Nothing to do with the game; I’m just not having a good morning.

The notes will be limited, because I’m just not up to it today. So I’ll just give a breakdown of what happens. We ranked up almost to Ultra Ball tier 3 in doubles, so I really don’t want to go backwards. Well, I got off to a bad start; Sinistcha took a ton of damage setting up trick room so I had to switch out. I did fake out their sneasler and nerf their Aero big time before getting in Floette. Sneasler crit my Floette. I had a bad turn where I used iron head on Aero and it protected. Just not playing well. Clearly, my head really isn’t in it. I lost kingambit to a close combat from mega T-Tar. Although dual wingbeat missed which is nice. I’m now playing from behind. And I’m not feeling it. I couldn’t get any pressure. And they set up tailwind. I had to throw away sinistcha. This was clearly just going badly. I just forfeited. Battle number one was just never gonna go my way. There goes a ton of rating points. That’s enough for me today in doubles. I completed some quests. Today is just a lost day for me. 

However, since I want to feel like I at least got SOMETHING done today, I did play one more battle in singles, just to get the last remaining membership mission for now. I’m still in Great Ball tier 4 in that, due to me not really playing singles at all. And I was up against a literal eevee team, not sure what to bring. They led Vaporeon against my Incin. Yeah not a great start. BUT,  I do have Fake Out and Parting Shot. Surf almost one shots… ouch. Yeah I should’ve led Farigarif probably. Kingambit uses Sucker Punch but they use Rain Dance? Interesting. Sucker does a ton. Its weather ball does a ton, but I live and knock it out. Next is Flareon, and since I still have Floette… they use Weather Ball? How interesting. I decide to switch in Incin, who’s kinda low but can intimidate its flare blitz. I actually live! It has a quick claw, but my fake out cancels that out. Darkest Lariat gets it down to TWO PERCENT. Fortunately, because they Giga Impact, that gives Floette an opening. So Incin WAS the right bring. Their last mon is Sylveon. What can it do to Floette? I use Calm Mind. Alluring Voice does confuse, which sucks. I do hit through though.  AND KNOCK IT OUT! Hurray for OP pokemon… cute team. I’ll take the win, grab a training ticket from the membership mission, and call it a day. I’ll come back fresh tomorrow.