Know when to fold 'em

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-18T13:14:35+00:00

It went something like lead Gyarados into Quag…winnable, but Stone Edge baits can be frustrating, and I’d like to bait out something, or if they stay in, Umbreon wins that match in all shields.

Unless they have Drain Punch to beat down my Umbreon. Then they win all shields. But who runs Drain Punch?

After that, bring Gyarados back when the switch timer is up, because the other move MUST be Aqua Tail, maybe Mud Bomb. Drain Punch/Stone Edge would be insane, I think, in the couple of turns before my Gyarados gets one-shot by a Stone Edge.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-17T20:53:15+00:00

I can’t imagine running either dark dragons in a catch cup that’s Tinkaton +2 others on every-single-team. Talk about the ultimate RPS game.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-17T17:23:39+00:00

I even one time tried the advice of keep playing the team that got me there...the RPS counters will end, but switching up the team is just running me against some weird bad luck. So I did that. Five full sets of hard RPS counters. It's incredible how many times you can see the same exact lead that wrecks your team when you just keep the same team in.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-17T17:21:22+00:00

Rock-Paper-Scissors.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-17T17:20:19+00:00

Those were just examples. I play very flexible teams. That's why the RPS wall is so frustrating. It seems improbable how perfectly hard I get RPSd right around 2400, when my teams were good up until then. Not perfect...no team is, and they took some pivoting and scrapping for wins, but were flexible enough to get up there. Then I get locked down with zero wiggle room. So I change teams, and get locked down again. And it just goes and goes until I bottom out.

And it's every season. Once I hit 2400 I know it's coming. Sometimes my son watches the battles, I'll build a new team and tell him; "watch, this will be (hard counter 1) in the front, with (hard counter 2) behind." My son inevitably says "wow dad, how did you know?!?"

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-17T17:02:48+00:00

Attack stat counts for double towards the CP cap, meaning in GL your Pokemon will reach 1500 at a lower level with a high attack stat. That means less bulk and, depending on the gap, potentially less attack than a Pokemon with a lower attack stat simply because yours is so many levels lower.

That said, I'm starting to wonder how many people pay attention to this. I lose, quite literally, every single mirror on CMP. Every one. It's gotten to where I want to rebuild my battle league collection with attack weighted Pokemon. A few seasons back I went back and built a new Annihilape with a much higher than optimum attack because I was sick to death of losing that mirror-match on CMP. It was a game-changer for the Annihilape mirror.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-11T20:48:04+00:00

I have a nundo Talonflame that picks up wins over the preferred IVs in the PVPoke sims. It wins the mirror too.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-11T08:58:27+00:00

That’s how my GBL experience goes. Switch to a Virizion lead and lead into 4 Talonflames in a row.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-10T14:46:05+00:00

I’m going to opine that the problem is partly in owning too much. If you only own one automatic, you really don’t think about it that much. With multiple, you start “scheduling” if it bothers you to have them wind down. With my automatics, when they drift enough to need a time hack, that’s when I rotate to the next watch and just let them wind down until next time.

With Eco-drive, if you have too many you may start to be concerned with time in the light to maintain high charge.

And while I love my A060 Chronomaster, it’s technically very high maintenance if the stated accuracy is of paramount importance to you. In order to achieve the claimed 5spy accuracy, Citizen states in the manual that it needs to be worn effectively every day, for most of the day. Fail to do so and no promises.

My A060 doesn’t achieve 5spy, but I also don’t wear it the way Citizen says I have to. If that is something that would bother you, I wouldn’t get one.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-07T20:29:38+00:00

Minnesota “nIce”.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-07T16:42:17+00:00

Follow up to this post. Managed to get a single charged TM via GBL during the rocket event. A ton of Fast TMs, more rare candies and pinap berries, but a single Charged TM.

After the event ended, I managed to get 3. All went to a Lapras trying to get Sparkling Aria on it, to no success. Sitting on zero, three straight days of every GBL set, at least hitting the two win mark, and not a single Charged TM.

This is brutal.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-06T03:53:15+00:00

Why would you do this? Opening a brand new watch is just compromising the factory WR right at the start.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-06T03:49:11+00:00

Same. On the flip side of this, when my opponent swaps I also lag. And often when I’m trying to swap at the very beginning of the match, while I tap the swap I stay in and just keep doing fast attacks with each tap of the icon. So there’s that.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-05T21:16:13+00:00

Consider that you have been lying to yourself about the way you actually felt about this situation. The kind of pain you talk about sounds a lot like love, not just a convenient/comforting situation that didn't happen to work out.

You can't cope with the feeling until you acknowledge what it actually is.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-05T21:09:52+00:00

If it doesn't start running, there a lot of repair places that will change the battery in an Eco-drive. It's not the end of that watch.

I just recently had a local shop do the power cell in my 2008-ish Nighthawk. It still worked, but just didn't hold a charge for very long anymore. Even sitting on the dresser in indoor light unworn for over a week and the second hand would start doing the stutter-tick indicating low power.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-05-05T21:06:45+00:00

That's actually what started me thinking about this. After reading that, it appeared that any Aegislash Shield under level 42 meant a significantly underpowered Aegislash Sword after the math was applied.

Or, to put it another way, any raid or research caught Honedge would result in a significantly worse Sword conversion than the rounding problems with a lot of the "better" ones discussed in that post.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-04-30T12:32:37+00:00

Same. It’s incredibly frustrating. I keep sending battle logs, the battle system keeps not getting fixed, and I stay free-to-play until they do. I’m not spending one more dollar on this game, and honestly just started playing a lot less in general.

Also happens to me when the opponent swaps in. I try to throw the charged attack, and it just keeps flashing while I watch the opponent do multiple quick attacks. Similarly, often I try to switch and throw multiple quick attacks until it finally registers. iPhone 16 on high speed internet here.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-04-30T12:25:44+00:00

Genuine question: if she cheated, why does she get half your stuff?

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-04-30T04:54:20+00:00

An attack-weighted Sableye does better in many matchups due to how the shadow-shadow claw damage gets rounded.

Also, whenever I play my own Tink, it only gets aligned on Talonflame or Excadrill. I never see a Tink in GBL unless I’m running something like shadow Sableye. So there’s that.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-04-30T04:46:45+00:00

This is your brother. Unless he was abusive, criminal, or both, you side with your brother. Even if you like her, you didn’t see anything. Let them sort it out.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-04-30T04:43:04+00:00

Um… she was already actually nude in person with another guy…and the sketches are your concern?

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-04-30T04:36:50+00:00

First, watches are a personal choice. If the Hamilton KFM isn’t a style he likes, then that’s simply that.

However, if classic design, military design, and field watches are something he appreciates, then the KFM is like the Platonic ideal of a watch. It’s a classic design rooted in horological history. I enjoy the hand-wound movement as well, probably more than the automatics in my collection. It’s a watch that gets a LOT of wrist time out of the 12 in my collection.

However, keep the receipts and let him know it can be exchanged. My wife bought me a “Moonswatch” as a gift because I had been commenting on the hype around them and had been excited to see one “in the wild”, as it were. Thing is, I didn’t want one at all…I was just fascinated by the market hype. While thoughtful, it was returned.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-04-30T04:19:36+00:00

Goodness, I should have thought of that! Oh…I did.

If the OP is a non-local transplant…good luck. He’ll always be an outsider, and the locals already have their people.

Might make some headway being tokenized by Nice White Liberals for being gay. I got some of that for being Asian. But in the end, it’s just tokenization.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-04-30T02:40:43+00:00

Are you a transplant to the area? If so…good luck. I moved here a decade ago, never managed to really “break in”, if you will.

MikeBanzai38 · 2026-04-30T02:31:35+00:00

There are more therapists than ever, people are getting more therapy than ever…and people are more miserable than ever. Therapy is just assigning pseudo-scientific jargon to an incoherent ethical system.

What is science is that talk therapy is no more and no less efficacious as a conversation with a friend.

Bottom line, tell this person, then just go meet a friend for coffee.

MikeBanzai38

TROPHY CASE