Pokémon Thread XXVIII: Get. In. The. BAG.

[Aotrs Commander]

M-Lopunny is coming from the Little Cup (Any 1' or under), along with M-Gardevoir and M-Gallade.

When and what would I have to do?

(As if if all I have to do is go and lose horrible a few times, I might be prepard to do that.)

[Vaz]

Just checked, it's actually ended now, you were a few dates late (ended on June 25th). For reference you needed to create a team that was 1' or under in height, so Kartana, Shedninja, Follow Me Clefairy, Eevee, Porygon 2, Chandelure, Rotom etc. I fought like 8 battles, and I didn't fight one of the battles that didn't have at least 4 of those.

Now, you just need to wait. M-Steelix/M-Pidgeot was announced for Kanto-X Regional Rumble in late Feb (28). Competition happened mid-March (17). Win or Lose, doesn't matter, but just complete 3 battles, and M-Steelix/M-Pidgeot was released soon after, with a download link for a month (Apr 27). 2 weeks later (May 12), AZUL code was announced. Give it two weeks and there'll be a giveaway Code.

Sorry mate, but keep an eye out on the Pokemon Global Link website for up to date info on comps.

[Aotrs Commander]

Just checked, it's actually ended now, you were a few dates late (ended on June 25th). For reference you needed to create a team that was 1' or under in height, so Kartana, Shedninja, Follow Me Clefairy, Eevee, Porygon 2, Chandelure, Rotom etc. I fought like 8 battles, and I didn't fight one of the battles that didn't have at least 4 of those.

Now, you just need to wait. M-Steelix/M-Pidgeot was announced for Kanto-X Regional Rumble in late Feb (28). Competition happened mid-March (17). Win or Lose, doesn't matter, but just complete 3 battles, and M-Steelix/M-Pidgeot was released soon after, with a download link for a month (Apr 27). 2 weeks later (May 12), AZUL code was announced. Give it two weeks and there'll be a giveaway Code.

Sorry mate, but keep an eye out on the Pokemon Global Link website for up to date info on comps.

Doesn't matter, I'm not in a rush; they did say they were going to release the megastones after they were used as prizes. I hae made some sort of effort it is was upcoming or ongoing, but otherwise, I'm content to keep my eyeglows open; but knowing that, it suggests that they'll be next, which is nice. (After that, I'm not really bothered about any other megastones; I'll pick 'em if I happen to spot them,. I just REALLY want to use a lopunny/bunary for a playthrough (because I always liked the design and Dawn's was awesome), but without Mega, lopunny is just too pants statistically.

Unless we get an alolan bunary with decent stats or something with UltraSuMo, but I find that highly unlikely (if we get more alolan formes, I'd imagine - given teh bias of megas - they are more likely to be early gen, probably gen IIs).

[danzibr]

Getting back into PoGo. It's a lotta fun. With the recent event, I got a fully powered Houndoom, Arcanine, and a whole ton of Charmander candy (not enough to get him to a Charizard... put him as my buddy, it's another like 110 kilometers :P).

Also, I'm really liking the raids.

Also also, any good websites for events and updates and just general pointers? I'm looking at a couple websites (imore and silph road) but the information seems quite scattered.

EDIT: Having a closer look, silph road seems really good.

[OracleofWuffing]

Edit@ Wuffing; hope to have it fixed tomorrow AM, sorry!

Sorry I've been more obscure than usual lately, been getting the short end of the stick with work schedules lately. I'll have this Sunday and Monday off, and looks like they're sticking me with morning shifts on other days, which don't seem to match up well for us, so it'll probably be either of those days if you can make it work.

[Vaz]

You let me know what time you're free, and I'll make myself available. I only have a few things on in the mornings, otherwise should be free :).

[OracleofWuffing]

Swell, I'm getting a message that the servers are undergoing maintenance. Sounds like it'll probably be tomorrow, then.

[danzibr]

Whelp, lost my first raid.

First raid, 3 skull Muk, got it no problem. Followed by 3 2 skulls, no problems with any of them. But this 3 skull Gengar handed my donkey to me. It was brutal.

[OracleofWuffing]

You let me know what time you're free, and I'll make myself available. I only have a few things on in the mornings, otherwise should be free :).

I'll try to stay online now for about an hour, after that, I'll probably need to get some six hours or so of sleep and try to hop on right afterwards.

[Vaz]

I'm busy in town until 12, sorry! Get some sleep mate, call it 6pm BST?

[OracleofWuffing]

Sorry for the wait, online now.

Edit: Well, rats. Looks like I'm getting the morning shift for a while. I can come in on what's morning to me on Saturday the 8th, then off Sunday and Monday again if you're still up for this. Sorry for dragging this out. Otherwise it looks like I'm open after 8:00pm CDT Thursday and Friday.

[sonofzeal]

Still playing Pokemon TCG with my 5-year-old nephew, and have another Theme Deck question. In the category of "Theme Decks that use Fighting-energy", which is best for the Theme Deck meta:

Mewtwo Mayhem
Roaring Heat - already have.
Stone Heart
Earth's Pulse
Battle Ruler


...alternatively, is there a reasonably authoritative and up-to-date tier listing somewhere?

[OracleofWuffing]

Alright Vaz, gonna try to be online this morning for you if it works for you.

---

Well, again, I don't have the time or funds to keep up with the current meta, so take everything I say with a grain of salt as I come from a world where a TCG's maximum HP is 120.

Spoiler: Mewtwo Mayhem

Show

The pitch:
Mewtwo is ready to dish out the chaos! With Hitmonchan and Onix delivering quick hits, this deck clobbers both body and mind. You'll be right in the thick of the action!

The good:
- Hitmonchan was the archetype setter in the Base Set One days, and he's simply been buffed since.
- Nidoking is good at dealing main damage and bench damage.

The bad:
- Nidoran(M) and Nidorino both rely on attacks capable of dealing 0 damage as their heavy hitters, and Nidoran's not exactly heavy hitting. Same goes for Machop.
- Sleep is not a good status condition and Haunter relies upon it to do any damage at all. Ghastly is arguably stronger unevolved.
- Machoke has the option of not doing damage if it's damaged, or damaging itself.
- Drowzee just doesn't do anything for this deck except hope he can plink away unpunished. Sandshrew's got similar problems, but at least doesn't need two energy to throw out his delay tactic.
- Go ahead and call me out on this, but this Mewtwo simply doesn't dish out chaos. Psychic only does damage if your opponent wants it to do damage, and the default strategy for any card in the game that deals damage is to do as much damage as possible with the lowest amount of energy. Mewtwo is a wall. He's there to eat hits that should have happened, not make hits.

The meh:
- Onix really wants to be a wall, but Harden's not gonna help him. Consistent damage and solid HP, though.
- Dugtrio is suicidal, so you really only want him when you're already in the lead or when your opponent has no bench. This is only gonna happen if Hitmonchan or Nidoking come out early and wreck your opponent.

Overall personal opinion:
Almost every Psychic card in this deck needs to be replaced before it starts throwing down hard, and the Fighting cards benefit a lot from re-thinking, as well.

Spoiler: Stone Heart

Show

The Pitch:
Strength of Spirit, Strength of Stone! This deck’s got heart—the kind of prizefighter’s heart that never quits! With the Stone Heart theme deck, your Pokémon can poison, paralyze, and trick opposing Pokémon in many ways—and the mighty Regirock leads the way, with its Unyielding Rock attack perfect for taking down Pokémon-EX! Add in the Legendary Pokémon Virizion with the power to hit harder if you’re behind, and the Stone Heart deck is full of fighting spirit. This is one contender that’s never down for the count!

The Good:
- All those trainer cards look pretty solid.
- Provided your opponent isn't running Grass pokemon, Ariados gets your opponent poisoned and keeps them that way.
- Virizion and Regirock at least deal consistent damage when they're not dealing their secondary effect damage.

The Bad:
- There's someone in TCG design that really overvalues the ability to look at your own deck and shuffle it without putting any cards into your hand or any other manipulation. At least Porygon can deal damage, but Data Check is useless- either the card you want is in your deck, or it's a prize card and if it's a prize card you have no idea which one it is.
- Porygon2 and Vespiquen are still tossing coins to deal their "good" damage. Yes, it's 3 coins so the chance of dealing 0 is lessened, but wouldn't you rather have a pokemon that does 40 damage with 3 energy?

The Meh:
- Vileplume locks you out of using yoru good trainer cards, as well. Good when you finally take the lead, bad when you're trying to come back from behind- which is what the deck was supposed to be themed about!
- Uh... Does this deck really count as a Fighting deck? Only Regirock uses it.

Overall Personal Opinion:
The deck's weak links come from supporting pokemon dealing 0 damage as a result of bad luck. That's not the worst of things, not everyone can be the best pokemon ever. The strong links, however, are strong in that they are consistent, and not necessarily powerful unless certain conditions are played. It's a low floor, high ceiling deck. There's also a Sheep in the Big City sketch that has something to say about "having heart" when a ham sandwich goes up against the heavyweight championship boxer known as The Killinator.

Spoiler: Earth's Pulse

Show

The Pitch: Shake the pillars of the Pokémon world with the Earth's Pulse theme deck! The Continent Pokémon Groudon leads the charge, breaking ground on a massive scale, while little Linoone rushes your opponent's Bench with a Dash Attack! Medicham's Ω Barrage Ancient Trait brings an extra hit every turn, while unexpected allies like Eelektrik and Electrike turn up the voltage with Buzz Flip and Charge! Smash 'em with Fighting, zap 'em with Lightning, and leave your opponent shocked, socked, and pulverized!

The Good:
- Medicham gets to attack twice and can choose to heal itself with one of it's attacks.
- Manectric has good HP, can attack while switching out, and lands (an admittedly energy expensive) paralysis with no coin toss and high damage.

The Bad:
- *Points at signature* Attacks that require four energy by definition cannot lead a charge. In actual play, you will be relying on Groudon's Rock Smash to do 20 or 40 damage, and that is just sad.
- Rhyorn and Rhydon are gonna be harming themselves a lot. By the time Rhyperior gets out on the field, he's gonna be hurt, and then he's either wasting 4 energy (see previous point) to do 80 or 120 damage, or dealing damage to your opponent's benched pokemon. Frankly, I'd argue the bench damage is for once the better option here, even when it can zero out.
- Trapinch just kind of showed up to this deck and hoped he would be useful.

The Meh:
- Eelektrik and Bibarel will really throw out the damage if the coins flip your way.

Overall Personal Opinion:
What they really wanted this deck to do, and said it in the most roundabout way possible in the pitch, is deal bench damage. Groudon's bench damage is too low and overpriced that he is better off focusing on dealing damage to the defending pokemon directly. Meanwhile your Thunderlightningelectric pokemon aren't dealing bench damage. The deck is themed on Fighting pokemon pretending they're electric pokemon and electric pokemon pretending they're fighting pokemon and it all just lacks focus.

Spoiler: Battle Ruler

Show

The Pitch:
Order from Chaos!
Rule the battle with the Legendary Pokémon of order and control: Zygarde! With Lucario's fists of justice and Serperior's crushing coils, you'll bring order to chaos and seize the moment with the Battle Ruler theme deck. On to victory!

The Good:
- Hawlucha brings good draw and stall attacks. Shuckle can do those, too, in a pinch.
- Wormadam throws area healing to everyone.
- Lucario's got good damage for a low amount of energy.
- Zygarde throws a lot of damage out for 3 energy.

The Bad:
- Lucario requires Riolu.
- Larvitar and Pupitar wanna hurt themselves.

The Meh:
- Chinccino can mess with your opponent's hand, but can also do 0 damage when you've already messed them up enough.
- Deerling has draw power, but no damage. I think this deck has enough draw power without it.
- Once it gets going, Serperior's only gonna do damage every other turn.

Overall Persional Opinion:
Wait, Zygarde is the pokemon that Groudon wanted to be in the last deck. While this deck has damage options, your big numbers rely on very few specific cards. Admittedly, the deck offsets that by having so many support pokemon to help you get cards into your hand, but there's not much in-between "Heavy hitter" and "Support card for piddle or unreliable damage" in here, and there's a lot more piddle than hitter here. Having all the support in the world is not going to help you if you need to do damage.

So- and again, this comes down to a lot of ignorance and personal preference, I'm going to order something like Mewtwo Madness as the weakest due to its selection of Psychic pokemon, and Stone Heart for strongest based on its consistent damage and fallback poison strategy. Earth's Pulse and Battle Ruler both could be stronger than Stone Heart when the coin flips in your way, but I'll take Battle Ruler over Earth's Pulse just for the amount of draw power.

[Qwertystop]

Alright Vaz, gonna try to be online this morning for you if it works for you.

---

Well, again, I don't have the time or funds to keep up with the current meta, so take everything I say with a grain of salt as I come from a world where a TCG's maximum HP is 120.

Spoiler: Mewtwo Mayhem

Show

The pitch:
Mewtwo is ready to dish out the chaos! With Hitmonchan and Onix delivering quick hits, this deck clobbers both body and mind. You'll be right in the thick of the action!

The good:
- Hitmonchan was the archetype setter in the Base Set One days, and he's simply been buffed since.
- Nidoking is good at dealing main damage and bench damage.

The bad:
- Nidoran(M) and Nidorino both rely on attacks capable of dealing 0 damage as their heavy hitters, and Nidoran's not exactly heavy hitting. Same goes for Machop.
- Sleep is not a good status condition and Haunter relies upon it to do any damage at all. Ghastly is arguably stronger unevolved.
- Machoke has the option of not doing damage if it's damaged, or damaging itself.
- Drowzee just doesn't do anything for this deck except hope he can plink away unpunished. Sandshrew's got similar problems, but at least doesn't need two energy to throw out his delay tactic.
- Go ahead and call me out on this, but this Mewtwo simply doesn't dish out chaos. Psychic only does damage if your opponent wants it to do damage, and the default strategy for any card in the game that deals damage is to do as much damage as possible with the lowest amount of energy. Mewtwo is a wall. He's there to eat hits that should have happened, not make hits.

The meh:
- Onix really wants to be a wall, but Harden's not gonna help him. Consistent damage and solid HP, though.
- Dugtrio is suicidal, so you really only want him when you're already in the lead or when your opponent has no bench. This is only gonna happen if Hitmonchan or Nidoking come out early and wreck your opponent.

Overall personal opinion:
Almost every Psychic card in this deck needs to be replaced before it starts throwing down hard, and the Fighting cards benefit a lot from re-thinking, as well.

Spoiler: Stone Heart

Show

The Pitch:
Strength of Spirit, Strength of Stone! This deck’s got heart—the kind of prizefighter’s heart that never quits! With the Stone Heart theme deck, your Pokémon can poison, paralyze, and trick opposing Pokémon in many ways—and the mighty Regirock leads the way, with its Unyielding Rock attack perfect for taking down Pokémon-EX! Add in the Legendary Pokémon Virizion with the power to hit harder if you’re behind, and the Stone Heart deck is full of fighting spirit. This is one contender that’s never down for the count!

The Good:
- All those trainer cards look pretty solid.
- Provided your opponent isn't running Grass pokemon, Ariados gets your opponent poisoned and keeps them that way.
- Virizion and Regirock at least deal consistent damage when they're not dealing their secondary effect damage.

The Bad:
- There's someone in TCG design that really overvalues the ability to look at your own deck and shuffle it without putting any cards into your hand or any other manipulation. At least Porygon can deal damage, but Data Check is useless- either the card you want is in your deck, or it's a prize card and if it's a prize card you have no idea which one it is.
- Porygon2 and Vespiquen are still tossing coins to deal their "good" damage. Yes, it's 3 coins so the chance of dealing 0 is lessened, but wouldn't you rather have a pokemon that does 40 damage with 3 energy?

The Meh:
- Vileplume locks you out of using yoru good trainer cards, as well. Good when you finally take the lead, bad when you're trying to come back from behind- which is what the deck was supposed to be themed about!
- Uh... Does this deck really count as a Fighting deck? Only Regirock uses it.

Overall Personal Opinion:
The deck's weak links come from supporting pokemon dealing 0 damage as a result of bad luck. That's not the worst of things, not everyone can be the best pokemon ever. The strong links, however, are strong in that they are consistent, and not necessarily powerful unless certain conditions are played. It's a low floor, high ceiling deck. There's also a Sheep in the Big City sketch that has something to say about "having heart" when a ham sandwich goes up against the heavyweight championship boxer known as The Killinator.

Spoiler: Earth's Pulse

Show

The Pitch: Shake the pillars of the Pokémon world with the Earth's Pulse theme deck! The Continent Pokémon Groudon leads the charge, breaking ground on a massive scale, while little Linoone rushes your opponent's Bench with a Dash Attack! Medicham's Ω Barrage Ancient Trait brings an extra hit every turn, while unexpected allies like Eelektrik and Electrike turn up the voltage with Buzz Flip and Charge! Smash 'em with Fighting, zap 'em with Lightning, and leave your opponent shocked, socked, and pulverized!

The Good:
- Medicham gets to attack twice and can choose to heal itself with one of it's attacks.
- Manectric has good HP, can attack while switching out, and lands (an admittedly energy expensive) paralysis with no coin toss and high damage.

The Bad:
- *Points at signature* Attacks that require four energy by definition cannot lead a charge. In actual play, you will be relying on Groudon's Rock Smash to do 20 or 40 damage, and that is just sad.
- Rhyorn and Rhydon are gonna be harming themselves a lot. By the time Rhyperior gets out on the field, he's gonna be hurt, and then he's either wasting 4 energy (see previous point) to do 80 or 120 damage, or dealing damage to your opponent's benched pokemon. Frankly, I'd argue the bench damage is for once the better option here, even when it can zero out.
- Trapinch just kind of showed up to this deck and hoped he would be useful.

The Meh:
- Eelektrik and Bibarel will really throw out the damage if the coins flip your way.

Overall Personal Opinion:
What they really wanted this deck to do, and said it in the most roundabout way possible in the pitch, is deal bench damage. Groudon's bench damage is too low and overpriced that he is better off focusing on dealing damage to the defending pokemon directly. Meanwhile your Thunderlightningelectric pokemon aren't dealing bench damage. The deck is themed on Fighting pokemon pretending they're electric pokemon and electric pokemon pretending they're fighting pokemon and it all just lacks focus.

Spoiler: Battle Ruler

Show

The Pitch:
Order from Chaos!
Rule the battle with the Legendary Pokémon of order and control: Zygarde! With Lucario's fists of justice and Serperior's crushing coils, you'll bring order to chaos and seize the moment with the Battle Ruler theme deck. On to victory!

The Good:
- Hawlucha brings good draw and stall attacks. Shuckle can do those, too, in a pinch.
- Wormadam throws area healing to everyone.
- Lucario's got good damage for a low amount of energy.
- Zygarde throws a lot of damage out for 3 energy.

The Bad:
- Lucario requires Riolu.
- Larvitar and Pupitar wanna hurt themselves.

The Meh:
- Chinccino can mess with your opponent's hand, but can also do 0 damage when you've already messed them up enough.
- Deerling has draw power, but no damage. I think this deck has enough draw power without it.
- Once it gets going, Serperior's only gonna do damage every other turn.

Overall Persional Opinion:
Wait, Zygarde is the pokemon that Groudon wanted to be in the last deck. While this deck has damage options, your big numbers rely on very few specific cards. Admittedly, the deck offsets that by having so many support pokemon to help you get cards into your hand, but there's not much in-between "Heavy hitter" and "Support card for piddle or unreliable damage" in here, and there's a lot more piddle than hitter here. Having all the support in the world is not going to help you if you need to do damage.

So- and again, this comes down to a lot of ignorance and personal preference, I'm going to order something like Mewtwo Madness as the weakest due to its selection of Psychic pokemon, and Stone Heart for strongest based on its consistent damage and fallback poison strategy. Earth's Pulse and Battle Ruler both could be stronger than Stone Heart when the coin flips in your way, but I'll take Battle Ruler over Earth's Pulse just for the amount of draw power.

Additional notes:
I don't know about those decks as a whole, but that Medicham has done some really good work for me - the Fighting-type Special Energy gives +20 damage, and there's a PokéTool that gives another +20, and Medicham can attack twice. And it's a stage 1 with a max HP in Level Ball range, so it's really easy to get four out in one go.

That Vileplume is a staple in some pro decks, too - if you plan your deck around an Item lockout, it's excellent. And since it's Grass-type you can go from nothing on-bench to Vileplume in one turn if you get the Stadium out.

[sonofzeal]

Fantastic info all! That was way more than I was expecting!

I should point out though that Serperior's "Coil" can be used serially for 100 each time, putting it on par with the damage output of most Stage 2's, but more energy-efficient. You only need to use Slashing Strike if you really need to push that extra 40 damage through.

[OracleofWuffing]

Oh, sorry, misread Coil's entry and thought it didn't do any damage of its own. My bad there.

[danzibr]

PoGo question for you all.

Is dodging currently glitched? My wife and I went to take down a Machamp recently, and I had 4 bars, and when Machamp did his charge attack I went to dodge it would say "Dodged!" yet I still took a truck load of damage. So either it's glitched or there was some lag problem, but I had good service so I dunno.

Thanks!

Oh, and by the way we lost. Got him down to a sliver of health, couldn't quite do it in time.

[noparlpf]

Personally I've been having some lag in gym battles since the update but my phone is over three years old so that might be a factor.

[Vaz]

S/M get the shiny Koko available as an Internet Mystery Gift.

Shouldn't be too long until M-Lop etc is available from Mystery Gift either.

[togapika]

So I could use help with filling in my pokemon team. For reference, it's for the tabletop, but you don't need to know about the tabletop to help me. I'm running a Ricky Bobby type character who likes winning and going fast. He works for Victini who in this case is the Lord of winning and the god of heroism and bravery.

My current team includes my starter Tyrunt, a Nincada, Taillow, and a Rotom. The Rotom is a special case, as he turned out to be a kid who's family worshiped Zekrom before a freak lightning storm hit their house killing the parents and making him a Rotom somehow.

I considered Sneasel, but apparently one of the other players was asking about one, and Greninja is probably out both because one of our players is using the Ninja class as well as the fact that it would make my team heavy weak to electric.

I have a master ball, and plan on eventually trying to capture a Deoxys for Speed Form, but that is quite a ways down the road and I need a plan until then

[Spore]

Normally I would advise for a tanky addition to the team (Steel type, Rock type) but I think that would go against your general character. So go for a flexible special attacker. Probably not fitting enough but you could use a normal type. Maybe a Loudred/Exploud? A shouting pokemon would be fun for a hectic and carefree character like yours.

[OracleofWuffing]

A Bobby type character? You mean like that propane salesman's son? Kingdra any good for this?

[togapika]

Normally I would advise for a tanky addition to the team (Steel type, Rock type) but I think that would go against your general character. So go for a flexible special attacker. Probably not fitting enough but you could use a normal type. Maybe a Loudred/Exploud? A shouting pokemon would be fun for a hectic and carefree character like yours.

Sounds good. I think I might look for a Whismur and a Ponyta, since I need something to ride till I can get Tyrantrum

[togapika]

A Bobby type character? You mean like that propane salesman's son? Kingdra any good for this?

No RICKY Bobby. As in "If you ain't first you're last"

Though I suppose I could do some weird hybrid who loves kicking people in the balls and wants to drive a car that runs on propane...

[Spore]

No RICKY Bobby. As in "If you ain't first you're last"

Though I suppose I could do some weird hybrid who loves kicking people in the balls and wants to drive a car that runs on propane...

I suggest you get a Butterfree then.

Or should I say....Bobbyfree?

[Vaz]

SABLEVOLANT

Type it into your Mystery Gift. I dare you.
M-Aggron, M-TTar, M-Mane, M-Snow
Also,

Shiny Tapu Koko available for one and all. Guaranteed 3 Random IV's @31, and Guaranteed Timid. Comes with Energy Seed for the Def boost. L60, Cherish Ball. Melemele OT.

[Aotrs Commander]

SABLEVOLANT

Type it into your Mystery Gift. I dare you.
M-Aggron, M-TTar, M-Mane, M-Snow
Also,

Shiny Tapu Koko available for one and all. Guaranteed 3 Random IV's @31, and Guaranteed Timid. Comes with Energy Seed for the Def boost. L60, Cherish Ball. Melemele OT.

Much obliged.

Lopunnite's gotta come at some point, right? With my luck, it'll be aboiut the last blasted one out...!

[Blackhawk748]

Ok, so i finally got Pokemon Go, and im super confused. Im trying to figure out which mons are worht investing in, but the CP calculators i keep finding a) ask for their IVs (and the IV calculator is freaking confusing) and b) ask for level. Where the hell is level??

Also: Max out their upgrades before you evo them or Evo first then upgrade?

On a less hysterical note, i have a 1200 CP Weezing im very proud of, just goes to show you can contribute to a Raid boss by just throwing a legion of chaff at it.

[danzibr]

Ok, so i finally got Pokemon Go, and im super confused. Im trying to figure out which mons are worht investing in, but the CP calculators i keep finding a) ask for their IVs (and the IV calculator is freaking confusing) and b) ask for level. Where the hell is level??

Also: Max out their upgrades before you evo them or Evo first then upgrade?

On a less hysterical note, i have a 1200 CP Weezing im very proud of, just goes to show you can contribute to a Raid boss by just throwing a legion of chaff at it.

Eco first or power up first doesn't matter.

Also, click on the Mon then appraise. The best is wonder, then caught attention, then above average. Personally I keep stuff if both it's gauge is high and it's at least above average.

[Ogremindes]

Hey, there's a Pokémon charity gaming marathon going on now, for 6 days, at pokethon.net. You should check it out.