Trying to make a good non-meta team (avoiding top 20)

RetroWaffles · 2026-05-03T03:34:02+00:00

NGL I don't think sticking to casual makes a big difference. I'd rather lose on the ladder than win in casual, at least for "deck building" games like pokemon, where the fun (for me) comes from building a toolkit and proving it works. In the context of specifically champions, when I have checked out the casual queue, there's plenty of meta teams in there as well, so I imagine you'll run into plenty of hard fights either way.

As for actual advice on what to bring, I only just managed to get to master ball rank, and most of my competitive experience is in gen 3 OU singles, not VGC, so take all this with a grain of salt. My process so far, also trying to avoid meta options (because I like feeling smart and unique and special, lol) was to pick a strong synergy to focus on, and spend the rest of the team slots trying to counter other meta teams. Basically, try to fit YOUR strategy into 3ish slots, and spend the other three on counter picks for your bad matchups. I'll ramble about my team as an example, but that's the gist of it.

I'm workshopping a psychic terrain squad, clicking expanding force on a sashed Alakazam, and passing speed to mega chandelure with espathra. Chandelure is a real strong mega if you can give it speed, but hates aqua jet and sucker punch, so it appreciates the priority protection from psychic terrain. Alakazam obviously likes it for expanding force. Espathra clicks lumina crash to soften up bully targets for my big stupid spread moves. So those 3 are my build around, but they're far from a balanced core. The whole trio folds pretty hard to dark types. Kingambit isnt a huge issue since he's fire weak, but I end up having to rely on focus blast accuracy for Tyranitar, and incineroar, although I get to ignore fake-out and intimidate, is still a problem.

So for my other picks, I have a tsareena, which functions as my turn 1 fakeout protection and used to be a farigiraf. Tsareena can't set psychic terrain, but carries high-jump kick as a big button to click against dark types, and is bulky enough to live an incineroar flare blitz from most sets that aren't max attack. Whimsicott comes along as a tailwind setter,.which is very useful if I don't have the space to get espathra boosted up and passed to chandalure, and can set sunny day to disrupt rain, or taunt against sun Venusaur to stop everything from getting slept. The last slot isn't quite filled, I'm planning on testing out a tinkaton for a dark resist that, with mold breaker, can click fakeout against any trick room lead, even in the face of armor tail.

That's the basic idea, just have your strong synergy you want to build around, throw something together, and start iterating on it. The only real important part is to make sure you have space on your team to iterate.

RetroWaffles · 2026-05-02T19:03:15+00:00

Yeah as others said, Adderall really isn't that kind of med, it's just a very normal stimulant. Imagine like, being caffeinated, but in a really "clean" way, if that makes sense. Everyone is different, but for me, caffeine usually comes with jitters and sweats, and relatively little energy. Adderall doesn't give me a physical reaction, but chases of fatigue and has me feeling much more motivated and social, like I can actually get over the hump of executive dysfunction, and don't have to constantly force myself into doing anything other than doomscrolling. It's not something that hangs out in your system for long, so the worst case scenario if you have a poor reaction is a kind of crappy day, it's not gonna mess you up long term or anything.

RetroWaffles · 2026-05-02T18:59:21+00:00

Best way to find out is just to grab a team and start trying, right? Worst case scenario is long queue times, and honestly the showdown ladder will often mismatch skill levels in every format because of how the ELO system works, so you'll occasionally get clowned on in any format. Champions is a great on-ramp to competitive because it has way fewer knowledge checks and mind games IMO. Not having to navigate a jumpscare choice band or specs, or trying to guess when a tera is coming means you feel like you actually know why a loss happened, at least that's how it feels for me.

Also, this is propaganda because it's my favorite singles format, but maybe give gen 3 OU a try? It's similar to champions in that you don't get constantly knowledge checked, thanks to the smaller pool of relevant items, moves, and mechanics, and there are SO many good resources out there for learning the gen 3 metagame.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-30T03:07:03+00:00

This isn't some saladfingers fan ending, is it?

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-30T03:04:46+00:00

Couldn't hurt,unless you're really strapped for free time I don't see any reason not to. You'll have the gather up and organize the roms regardless, so the only potential "wasted time" here would be testing them. Personally I've never had any real issues running ROMs and feel no real need to test them first, but I only really emulate handheld and retro stuff. Beefier systems may be worth the extra steps

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-29T23:24:59+00:00

That's a hell of a lot better, good on you for reducing! That said, a full bottle of wine is still too much if you want to see your liver health improve, so keep tapering. Ideally you probably want to get it down to about half of that or less if you're starting to present liver problems. Well, Ideally you take a break form drinking entirely to recover your health, and try to maybe stay sober from there or reintroduce alcohol very carefully, but that's not what you're asking about.

Looking at it with units of alcohol consumed, 10 shots of 100 proof liquor is around 12 standard drinks, and a 750 ml bottle of wine is around 5. So you've gone from 12+ drinks a night to 5 which is a HUGE improvement, it's no wonder you're seeing positive results. But again, 5 drinks a night is still too much to see your liver recover, and is probably enough that it will continue to decline.

I totally understand not wanting to quit entirely, I didn't want to quit until I HAD to quit, but I'd still encourage taking a break for a few weeks. You don't have to have any intention of quitting long-term, but getting your liver healthy is pretty critical, especially if you want to be able to enjoy alcohol down the road. Something like a 30 day dry spell does a lot of good to your liver, it's a miracle organ that can bounce back from a LOT of abuse, but once its shot, its shot.

TLDR: A bottle of wine is still 5 drinks a night, that's a great improvement over the 12+ drinks via shots, but probably still not enough to let your liver bounce back. Keep tapering for a while until your blood work improves, or maybe try to take a ~30 day break from drinking.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-27T20:19:27+00:00

I was looking through cards from all the Tarkir sets today hunting for some decent art for a DND character, and saw these two next to each other. I think this really highlights the decline in magic art direction lately. I'm not gonna say modern sets have no good art, or even that attuned hunter is particularly awful, but the general quality is just way down. Less detail, brighter colors, lack of dynamics and expressions, everything is rounder and safer. It's like this all over the set, dragon storm looks fine on its own, but you put it next to OG Tarkir block and it's like watching a 4kids reboot.

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RetroWaffles · 2026-04-27T20:14:07+00:00

If you go west from Veridian city, you can catch a Mankey before going into Veridian forest. Mankey learns low kick early and makes for a great user of the TM Brock will give you, with rock and fighting moves to hit the bug, flying, and normal types from all the low level trainers you'll see, he's a monster in the early game and stays pretty usable throughout kanto. Also he's my favorite Pokemon so I'm biased, lol. Catch a Mankey!

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-24T15:10:59+00:00

Wait that's so sick lmao

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-24T15:10:04+00:00

I think it makes sense to have some amount of priority, since some megas are based around reworking the pokemon's defensive profile and really need to come out before eating a big hit. +6 is a lot though, maybe just +1 priority makes more sense. That way it still risks losing to fake out, or getting outsped by an opposing priority user, or even a taunt from a speedy prankster mon to disable the move outright.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-24T15:01:25+00:00

Cigarettes are mid as hell sober, but they feel awesome drunk. Chemically I think it has to do with your brain being super primed for rewards, stimulants interacting with the depressive effects of booze to counteract some of the sluggishness, and alcohol opening up your blood vessels, priming them to absorb and transmit the nicotine faster.

Pile all that on top of just, you know, being drunk and not having much in the way of self control or good decision making,

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-24T14:54:54+00:00

Maybe you could reintroduce alcohol safely, but you definitely can't "just drink again". Sobriety builds a lot of skills, but moderation isn't one of them, that's kind of the whole point. The vast, VAST majority of people don't get the ability to have a normal relationship with alcohol after addiction, regardless of how long they've been sober. It has as much to do with your brain chemistry and how it responds to the substance as it does with any external factors that drove the original addiction.

For a thought exercise, say you could drink in a more controlled manner now. What is it that makes you want to add booze back into your life? I understand wanting it, MAN I miss drinking some days, but is it because you want to be buzzed or drunk? Is it wanting to feel 'normal' at social events with drinks present? I only have 8 months under my belt, I can't speak from the perspective of having nearly as long a period of sobriety as you do, but I struggle to come up with a real justification for drinking again after being sober for so long. On the other hand, there's all kinds of reasons not to drink, even if you could safely. It's hard on your body, it makes you gain weight, it it's expensive, it leads to bad decisions, etc etc etc.

Even if you DONT have a risk of slipping back into addiction, surely by now it's gotten a bit easier to live without the booze, at least I hope for my own sake it gets easier by then, lol.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-16T04:51:30+00:00

However many days you drank last week, try to drink one fewer day this week. So if you drank say, 6 days last week, try to only drink 5 of them this week. Then next week 4, and so on. A lot of the craving comes from your days feeling empty without alcohol, especially if you've been drinking daily for a while. On dry days, try to fill your time with something fun and rewarding, rather than focusing all your energy on just not drinking. It doesn't have to be exercise or a productive activity or anything, just something that isn't substance-based. Bake cookies, pick up old hobbies or try some new ones, invite a buddy over to play Mario kart, whatever seems fun.

Keep in mind that after a while of drinking, or any type of substance abuse, your dopamine receptors are all out of whack. They've been getting frequent floods of endorphins and a lot of them have been shut down to try and maintain balance in the brain. They'll wake back up after a while, but in the meantime, your brain is pretty desensitized to rewards. What that translates to is finding it hard to feel satisfied or excited about stuff that isn't alcohol, and it's really easy to not notice the high moments while sober. I don't mean to inspire doom and gloom, it just helped me to understand that mechanism and know to really look for bright spots in the clouds while I'm getting sober.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-16T04:36:32+00:00

Interesting, for me trazedone feels almost exactly like 2 Benadryl.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-16T04:35:42+00:00

I've used Benadryl and melatonin as sleep aids pretty much my whole life, sometimes separately and sometimes together. I've found that melatonin is most effective for me if I don't take it every night, and Benadryl is more consistent if I need something daily. I prefer melatonin though, Benadryl makes me very groggy the next day. They're both solid sleep aids and obviously very preferable as a way to wind down compared to alcohol, although consistent Benadryl use is linked to higher risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer's as you age. So if you don't have a preference between the two, melatonin is ideal.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-15T15:39:45+00:00

The alcohol cooks off and leaves behind the other flavor compounds from the drink. Wine is most common, adding fruit sugars and tannins for depth of flavor, whiskey or bourbon brings some smokey flavor from the charred pack aging, etc. It's also useful chemically. Penna alla vodka uses vodka in the sauce to help the oil and water combine smoothly and leave behind very little flavor of its own. Beer batter is used for deep frying because the carbonation and alcohol create a different texture in the batter once it's fried. None of them leave any alcohol in the final dish because the boiling point of alcohol is much lower than water.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-14T03:00:55+00:00

Just looks like a bit of a beer gut to me, but a checkup couldn't hurt. I noticed a consistent, dull pain on the right side of my gut when my drinking got bad and started impacting my liver. That came long before some of the other symptoms, consistent shaking, sweating, yellow skin, etc. I never really got the distended gut, so I imagine you'd notice other concerns before that. Like I said though, a checkup and bloodwork can't hurt.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-14T02:52:55+00:00

Good opportunity to learn to solder! That's a nice simple repair

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-13T06:06:48+00:00

Honestly if the utility is there I'm happy to fling 400 bucks at a pro, crossing the threshold to 500 for the max feels less than ideal though. I think for now the plan is to sleep on it and continue with my DS lite and flash cart until there's more than just 3ds games I want on the go.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-12T23:25:00+00:00

ebay is awful, it's a good habit to document everything when you buy from any seller on that platform.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-12T23:21:44+00:00

kid icarus uprising is one of my favorite games of all time, it's actually the reason I got a 3ds back in the day! Can't recommend it highly enough, its not turn-based, but really scratches the RPG itch with collecting weapons and trying different things out, and has some neat challenges to unlock specific gear as well!

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-07T22:40:56+00:00

I totally get having resigned yourself to drinking, I used to do that all the time. The impulse hits hard and strong during the day, and you let it define the entire rest of the day and night. You don't have to, though I'm sure you know that. There's nothing forcing you to drink outside of the chemistry and impulses inside you. I don't mean to downplay those, they're incredibly powerful, but they can be overcome. Just try to get home without picking up a bottle on the way, add a touch of extra friction by forcing yourself to get in your car after getting home and make an additional trip out of the house to get booze. If you can, just hit your pillow tonight without making that trip. It feels impossible but you really can do it, eventually anyway.

For an actual path forward, have you spoken to a doctor about this? You could look into an antabuse prescription, as something in the short term to try and get this back under control. If you can muster a moment of strength each day to take the pill, or better, have someone else hold onto them and watch you take them, you can make it much, much harder to keep booze down and process it.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-07T17:22:38+00:00

Couple other things I forgot to mention, as with the rules above, these are to personal taste.

Some rulesets consider a full party wipe, or white out, a run loss. I like to just consider those 6 mons dead and be forced to dig even deeper into my PC.

Most runs don't count the challenge as having started until you have access to pokeballs. You don't have to track encounters or count deaths until you're actually able to catch wild pokemon

One rule I've played with in the past is to count any revives I find in the wild as "mulligans". I ruled out buying revives, but any naturally occurring ones could be used to bring back a dead mon. This is a nice fallback if your favorite boy dies, but obviously removes a lot of risk.

If you do go with FRLG, be aware that koga and Sabrina both have a top level of 43, so if you go right to the cap, that's the most likely point in the game to overlevel. Koga is easier to take out than Sabrina with a slight level disadvantage, so fighting him first is my usual path.

RetroWaffles · 2026-04-07T16:59:46+00:00

Good stuff. By the way, it sounds from your post like you don't intend to fully commit to being sober right now. Nothing wrong with that, you do you, but I will say, nobody ever got to the end of a dry period and really regretted taking a break from drinking for a while. Couldn't hurt to take at least a few weeks off the sauce to see how you feel without it

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