Pokemon Shuffle

[The Warden]

I used M-Ray plus Arceus, Slaking, and Regigigas for the timed battle, and scored around 56000.

[Flame Dragon]

I used M-Ray plus Arceus, Slaking, and Regigigas for the timed battle, and scored around 56000.

I used Ray, Arceus, Xern, and Kyu-B and got like 44K. Again, I'm trash at timed stages and while I likely should have done a practice round, I don't think it would have been enough to get me into the 3 tier.

 

Anyway, gotta love Mew. Just got +15 for its rage. Make sense that you can jump tons of stages since they have prize payouts that go super deep.

[evilfusion]

Okay, here's my update on Shuffle activities.

 

I raced through the Main stages as fast as possible, purely to get M-Salamence. After all, apparently there's going to be a special Salamence stage this coming update, and a M-Competition that will be weak to Flying, making me suspect that M-Salamence will be a major factor. It took me a little bit because I was still kind of broke from previous stuff, but the free prizes on check-in helped out, because I didn't need to save up for a Complexity -1.

 

M-Salamence, if you didn't know, is the flying version of M-Mewtwo Y (removes up to 10 of a Flying icon).

 

I've also heard that M-Salamence is better for Sunday Meowth than M-Mewtwo Y and possibly Rayquaza, by Skill Swapping it to Mega Boost, and leaving the fourth Pokemon slot blank, causing the game to auto-apply Pidgey as the fourth support. Pidgey is Flying, and it's not technically a Support Poke, so Lugia and such can Eject it.

 

My test on the validity of this strategy is still inconclusive, but I definitely see the POTENTIAL. It might be easier when Salamence is fully candied, but I used most of my candies on M-Beedrill. Even disregarding the potential use in Sunday Meowth, it'll be a huge boon for Skyblast teams, especially considering that Psychic doesn't have a "Boost damage of this type" ability, and M-Ray can't erase dragons, preventing you from easily comboing with Dancing Dragons.

 

Which leads me to M-Beedrill. This is one of the most potent Megas now that I've used it enough to really see exactly what it does. When fully candied, it only needs 1 match to M-Evolve, and when matched, you tap 1 spot, and nuke every adjacent space (a 3 x 3 area, centered around the tapped space). I see that Tyranitar is more powerful, since you hit 3 spots, but only hit the non-diagonal adjacent spaces, but again, you hit 3 spots like this. Although T-tar is probably "better", Beedrill is phenomenal, and a lot easier to use,  and I've been using it in the Mew Escalation Battle to great effect.

 

I did manage to get 1 RML from the special Mewtwo stage, which isn't too hard to beat with my Mew Escalation team, but it doesn't like dropping stuff. I've applied my RMLs to Salamence and a few to Mewtwo. I'm at Stage 150 in the Escalation Battle, but apparently it goes as high as 500. O_O

[The Warden]

That it does. I've surpassed 300 now myself.

[evilfusion]

Did a run of the M-Mewtwo X competition. Got a score of 91098. And probably could have gotten even higher if Skyblast actually had triggered more than like...twice.

 

I was in THIRD place. Now I'm in 5th, but I doubt I'll be there for long. I'm pretty confident I'll be getting some yummy prizes this competition. Maybe not top 300, but we'll see.

[The Warden]

*Sighs* I'm way too far behind to even have access to M-Salamance, so looks like I'm screwed out of this competition.

[Flame Dragon]

Really wish I knew Sal could get RMLs. I had 4 and was looking for another Pokemon to train for Victini (once again forgot to buy the 1.5 EXP) and gave some to Talonflame. I don't regret the choice, but I would have totally done Sal to make it more likely I get better prizes in the competition.

 

Anyway, nearing the end of the main stages. If I'm not done before Sunday, might just rush it so I can use Mega Sal in the competition.

 

As for Mew, got up to 200 ad decided to stop there. Might go for 250, but want to focus on the main stages for now.

[The Warden]

Y'know, one thing I love in this game is how often very high chance abilities fail when you really want them to work, and then you have low chance abilities working when you REALLY don't want them too. I'm training the last smidgeon of exp for my Mewtwo in the Meowth stage, and they have reaptedly ruined the attempts by eve 3 matches activating freakishly often.

[evilfusion]

Yeah...I always hate when I realize a good Pokemon could get RMLs when I have them to spare, only to miss the chance. Salamence is different. Because I had the forewarning that it'd get a special stage this week and probably be useful for the M-Competition, I poured in a ton of my stuff to make it good. It helps that M-Salamence is actually good.

 

Heh, I was the same, though. I stopped doing the Mew Escalation for a while to just push through the Main Stages to get M-Salamence. You will definitely want it for the competition.

 

And I spent a Jewel to play Victini twice to level up some of my powerful, but underdeveloped mons, like Salamence (got him to Level 13, then did the Competition run. Afterwards gave him 2 Level Ups to make him Level 15), Tornadus - T (you ALSO want this for the competition. Mewtwo makes Tornadus - T disruptions), and stuff like that.

[Flame Dragon]

Caught and S ranked everything at the cost of most my money. Lucky for me I had plenty of time to grind back some gold and am back at 40K. Sadly I thought Meowth was Eevee so I missed out on a nice amount of money from that. Also forgot to use x1.5 EXP for Vic. I'm very dumb. Even so, finally did the Mega Comp and even with only level 11 Sal, SL2 Brav, and level 9 Tor I'm currently in the top tier and ranked 210 with 133921. Scary to think how much higher I would have been had I had Sal at 15.

 

I also used 10 of my Mega Speed Ups on Sal. I do not like the "tap to destroy" abilities and I'm also trash with them. Figured combo happy Sal was a better use for my candies.

[The Warden]

Sadly I only recently beat M-Scizor, so I'm at a major disadvantage here.

[evilfusion]

Caught and S ranked everything at the cost of most my money. Lucky for me I had plenty of time to grind back some gold and am back at 40K. Sadly I thought Meowth was Eevee so I missed out on a nice amount of money from that. Also forgot to use x1.5 EXP for Vic. I'm very dumb. Even so, finally did the Mega Comp and even with only level 11 Sal, SL2 Brav, and level 9 Tor I'm currently in the top tier and ranked 210 with 133921. Scary to think how much higher I would have been had I had Sal at 15.

 

I also used 10 of my Mega Speed Ups on Sal. I do not like the "tap to destroy" abilities and I'm also trash with them. Figured combo happy Sal was a better use for my candies.

 

Nice job!

 

I managed to get a score of about 124K earlier in the week, but today, I noticed that put me in place 295, which was too close to the line for my taste, so I did another run, and got about 135K. I had a REALLY good run with that one, too, as I had around 65k with 12 turns left, due to a large combo with Sky Blast active. Could have been a little higher, but the Tornadus-T disruptions didn't combo as well as almost all my previous runs (meaning, only like once or twice did it actually make a match upon disruption, compared to the usual 2-3 times, usually trigger Risk Taker in the process).

 

My Salamence was at 15, my Braviary, Tornadus-T, and Lugia all at 10 (Lugia's ability is literally useless here, but it's the strongest Flying type without using RMLs on things like...Staraptor or something).

 

Just checked. I had just over 135K, putting me in place like 205, with less than 10 minutes to go.

 

I've given 7 Speedups to Salamence, but I plan to fill him up with my winnings. The RMLs will probably go to Mewtwo, or I'll just sit on them in anticipation of the next Competition requiring me to buff something.

 

Sadly, my second test this week of thinking M-Salamence might be better than M-Mewtwo Y or M-Ray for Sunday Meowth has still proven to be less than satisfactory. I consistently get about 5000 coins (only about 4000 profit after the +5), whereas M-Ray usually netted me about 6000, due to the Quirky+ activating sometimes helping with combos, something that Flying-types can't replicate.

 

And the only "Tap to nuke" Megas I really like is M-Beedrill, and while it's less precise than M-T-tar (precision matters if you want to create combos and such), it M-Evolves upon a SINGLE match when fully candied, and its effect is quite potent. I gave SOME candies to T-Tar, before focusing them instead on Beedrill and Salamence.

 

Haven't gone back to finish the S Ranks and capturing yet, but I will later. Another reason I really wanted M-Salamence is that some of the Main Stages before its stage probably could make use of him decently.

[Flame Dragon]

Nice job!

 

I managed to get a score of about 124K earlier in the week, but today, I noticed that put me in place 295, which was too close to the line for my taste, so I did another run, and got about 135K. I had a REALLY good run with that one, too, as I had around 65k with 12 turns left, due to a large combo with Sky Blast active. Could have been a little higher, but the Tornadus-T disruptions didn't combo as well as almost all my previous runs (meaning, only like once or twice did it actually make a match upon disruption, compared to the usual 2-3 times, usually trigger Risk Taker in the process).

 

My Salamence was at 15, my Braviary, Tornadus-T, and Lugia all at 10 (Lugia's ability is literally useless here, but it's the strongest Flying type without using RMLs on things like...Staraptor or something).

 

Just checked. I had just over 135K, putting me in place like 205, with less than 10 minutes to go.

 

I've given 7 Speedups to Salamence, but I plan to fill him up with my winnings. The RMLs will probably go to Mewtwo, or I'll just sit on them in anticipation of the next Competition requiring me to buff something.

 

Sadly, my second test this week of thinking M-Salamence might be better than M-Mewtwo Y or M-Ray for Sunday Meowth has still proven to be less than satisfactory. I consistently get about 5000 coins (only about 4000 profit after the +5), whereas M-Ray usually netted me about 6000, due to the Quirky+ activating sometimes helping with combos, something that Flying-types can't replicate.

 

And the only "Tap to nuke" Megas I really like is M-Beedrill, and while it's less precise than M-T-tar (precision matters if you want to create combos and such), it M-Evolves upon a SINGLE match when fully candied, and its effect is quite potent. I gave SOME candies to T-Tar, before focusing them instead on Beedrill and Salamence.

 

Haven't gone back to finish the S Ranks and capturing yet, but I will later. Another reason I really wanted M-Salamence is that some of the Main Stages before its stage probably could make use of him decently.

Yea, I had a stupid high score early which told me the run was going to be a good one. Got lucky and only need the one.

 

My plan for my RMLs is likely going to be maxing out Sal and Talon. I love the combo Megas and having Talon at high power will make Mono-Fire teams super good.

 

Wow, that a bad run. I did think I got pretty lucky, but I got like 4500 with my optimize team. I normally use Mewtwo Y for Meowth (mine is max candies) and get around 6K-8K.

 

Yea, think I'm going to start saving the candies I get from this for Beedril. Its more a destruction Mega than a combo one and the speed it evolves at is insane. T-Tar can do both, but the small window to pick points just makes it too hard for me to use.

[The Warden]

By the way, safari is up. It's a repeat, except that it also has Ledyba and Ledian in it.

[Flame Dragon]

Placed 228th. This is super sweet. Especially since it means I have enough RMLs for both Talon and Sal.

 

Anyway, side from the Safari not much new stuff. Just a winking Cyndaquil. So if you need to do main stages, grind money, or want to grind PSBs for Kingdra or Ho-oh nows a good time.

[evilfusion]

Ooh, I forgot about Talonflame. That's definitely a worthy option for RML use. I'm currently going to just sit on them, but it's an option for me to keep in mind. Fully candied Salamence, and gave the remaining 2 Speedups to T-tar. I also find him a bit unwieldy, and can't use him at remotely the skill that masters of him can, but he's still very good, and partially held back by his terrible Evolution speed, similar to M-Ray, actually.

 

Sadly, none of the content this week other than the obvious Cyndaquil and the 2 new Safari mons have any real interest to me. So it'll be coin grinding and maybe getting back to S Ranks when I'm finished with Ledian.

[The Warden]

You know what this game freaking needs? Actual HP values for the mons you're fighting against.

[evilfusion]

You know what this game freaking needs? Actual HP values for the mons you're fighting against.

 

I think that's rather par for the course for Match 3 games where matches deal damage, such as Puzzles and Dragons. They don't display the HP values but you can usually discern them based on score.

[Flame Dragon]

Tried to Mega Sal strat for Meowth. Got 9200. Honestly felt better than Mewtwo Y so I think I'll keep using this. Back to 82K with that so I'm happy.

[The Warden]

This week as been positively godawful for me with money. None of my special stage Meowth runs even cracked 6k with the lowest having been 2800, and I've been hard-pressed to even get 330 coins with normal Meowth because the stage has been comboing freakishly often from even the first move. One day, despite spending ~15 hearts, I only made a measly 1000 coins.

[The Warden]

So how's you guys going with M-Houndoom? I don't have M-TTar, so I made do with M-Rayquaza and got around 69000 points on my first serious try.

[evilfusion]

So how's you guys going with M-Houndoom? I don't have M-TTar, so I made do with M-Rayquaza and got around 69000 points on my first serious try.

 

I plan to do another run later today.

 

My current best score is 71k, and that puts me in like...place 1100 (3rd tier). It originally had me in 2nd tier.

 

EDIT: F*** it. Did like 6 runs, not even breaking my score, and the one time I did, I got 73k, keeping me in well the same tier (have to break 80k to get into 2nd tier). I might try once more shortly before the end, but I really don't see my score improving much. My T-Tar has only 8/15 Speedups, and M-evolving him ASAP is crucial. Tried twice with M-Ray, did even worse.

 

Ah well. I'll still unquestionably get at least the M-Stone and 2 Speedups/RML (with 3 still being fairly likely) I'll probably use my Speedups on T-Tar, since T-Tar is amazing, even if I struggle to wield him to his full potential, unless M-Houndoom has an amazing ability that needs the boost.

 

On another note, I only went up to Stage 125 for the Celebi Escalation because I understand that 150 is pretty much a "use all Items" thing, and timed Escalation Battles feel so needlessly TENSE. Like, you can't relax or think at all, and it's stressful, even if the stage isn't hard. This is also the only Timed Escalation Battle that seems to have ramped up the difficulty so early in. It's just not FUN.

[The Warden]

Yeah, it's a use all items but I still won with 12 seconds remaining. I'm actually on my way to 175 since I read on the reddit that it's easier than 150.

 

The reason it's "difficult" is that they fully expect you to bring Zoroark and trigger its ability early, then keep chaining to beat it. Funny thing though, but for the first four stages I for some reason thought it was grass, so I used a fire team until it hit me why using it was so hard. And I'm all like "I'm so stupid!"

[evilfusion]

Because I have absolutely no impulse control, I did several more runs, with only a half hour remaining. At this point, I was in the 4th tier (2x Speedup/RML)

 

Every single run fell stupidly short of my previous score of 73k. At one point, I was doing good, then got too confident and overlooked my score was 58k (not 68, as I thought), so I fell short, but was starting to get the hang of using M-Tyranitar to make combos.

 

Did one last run. And was doing fantastic. Politoed hit the combos just right. My Risk Taker sometimes gave me huge amounts of points, and I was able to use T-Tar to lengthen my combos and skyfall was merciful in several of these combos.

 

Final Score: 108k. I'm in place 66. I literally jumped from Tier 4 to Tier 1, with 20 minutes left in the competition.

[The Warden]

Not having M-TTar is really starting to piss me off, considering how they're making it WAY too funking vital to special stages.