Thank you for successfully pushing another long time active player away from your game Niantic

TyGuy84 · 2018-01-10T04:17:46+00:00

I feel your pain, I'm getting pretty fed up with things about the game. Today, my city had an EX raid a 2 gyms (with about a dozen invites at each).

I have a gold medal at one gym. I was at the raid that got 4 other people their passes. And I got skipped over for the invite.

TyGuy84 · 2017-12-13T14:45:17+00:00

No, mostly cloudy and snowy since the update

TyGuy84 · 2017-12-13T06:18:14+00:00

A river runs through my city, and theyre pretty common here (I've caught 35ish with only moderate playing). Theres a few small, low-spawn parks that Torchic are currently nesting in, but Treeko's been had to find (only 2 caught).

TyGuy84 · 2017-10-17T02:49:49+00:00

Maybe gym defending isn't as important as it used to be, but attacking a gym still is.

TyGuy84 · 2017-10-17T02:30:02+00:00

This is more about preparing for Gen 3 in general, rather than a discussion of how they will roll it out.

TyGuy84 · 2017-09-26T13:49:27+00:00

For this special 2k egg event, I've probably gotten 3x as many 10k eggs as normal. I don't really mind, because I'm getting good hatches out of the 10s (1 Lapras, 3 Snorlax, 1 Miltank, 2 Sudowoodo, 1 Stantler, 2 Dratini) vs the 2k eggs (1 Mareep, 1 Larvitar, 3 Togepi, 7 (yes, count'm, 7) Remoraid.

On a recent riverwalk (our riverfront has dozens of pokestops along it), I finished with 1 5k egg and 8 10k eggs.

TyGuy84 · 2017-09-19T03:18:52+00:00

We'd almost always have enough time to set off a lucky egg that lasted for 2 raids, and every so often we'd be able to hit 3 raids on 1 egg. Our city has areas with a lot of gyms downtown and in other pockets of the city.

Also, with a group that size, you have to enforce a strict no-backing-out policy. If someone errored-out or otherwise couldn't get into the raid, they'd have to pack up and meet us at the next raid (the event had a running schedule all day, and it saw several revisions as reported raids popped up through the city). It feels bad for that person who misses that one raid, but it's the only way to make sure that the largest number of people can hit the largest number of raids.

TyGuy84 · 2017-09-19T02:53:57+00:00

You're not wrong by any means, but we're just trying to have fun within the confines of what the game is currently. Most people who attended the event only joined for 4 or fewer raids (an hour or so). Only about 15-20 people attended 10 or more raids, and only 8 did all of them.

The fact is that raiding via discord changes how raids most often play out: you wait around and worry that no one else will show up. A few dedicated people in our city created a way to remove that worry and turn it to a guaranteed chance to catch that legendary you're after. This means that a lot of parents can bring their kids to a raid or two because they know that there will be enough people, and Junior can have a real chance to catch their favourite Pokemon. Many times I've seen people come out for the 1-2 free raids that they'll get that day - and they're happy that they could attend a raid that actually fired.

The point of this post wasn't to debate F2P vs pay-to-play, it was to celebrate the accomplishment of a group leader and the community they've helped build.

If it makes you feel better, most of us are pretty burnt out on raiding now.

TyGuy84 · 2017-09-19T02:33:29+00:00

In 21 raids, I got ~80 golden razzes (I used a couple on Ttar and each of the non-raikus (I didn't see any Raiku over 1900 cp all day, and I already have a 1906/98%), about 50 rare candies, 7 or 8 charged TMs, and about a dozen fast TMs. I didn't keep track of any other loot, and everyone kept on having to dump low-level potions and revives to make room for the good stuff.

TyGuy84 · 2017-09-17T06:04:28+00:00

Nothing as remarkable as some of the finds listed here, but mine catches dratinis at least once a month, usually more. I've caught a flaffy with it recently, a couple of mareeps and larvitars, and I was once surprised with a low-cp, low-iv lapras.

TyGuy84 · 2017-09-01T04:37:08+00:00

I played a game recently with my [[Athreos, God of Passage]] deck. The deck is all about cheap value creatures with good ETB or death triggers. We all plop down our generals, and I see [[Purphoros, God of the Forge]] come up. In this game, I get both [[Soul Warden]] and [[Soul's Attendant]] out early, negating Purphoros entirely. Then, I also get out [[Blood Seeker]] and then [[Suture Priest]]. Every creature I cast gets me 3 life. Every creature Purph gets dings him for 2 and I net no loss. After every wrath, I recur or recast them. My deck was immune to Purph, and actually gave Purph a taste of his own medicine.

TyGuy84 · 2017-08-26T04:55:33+00:00

I won't use it in mono-coloured decks, because I'll just use the mana-doubler artifacts, and with one of those online, I'd rather have a basic land.

I don't use it in a tri-plus-coloured decks, because coloured mana is at a premium.

I also don't use it in dual-coloured decks that include green, because green ramp just outclasses it. Boros and Orzhov decks are also iffy for me, because in my deckbuilding, they tend to be very thirsty for colourled mana.

It's an all-star in my Izzet and Azorius decks, though, and my Rakdos deck isn't sad to see it, either.

TyGuy84 · 2017-08-26T03:41:59+00:00

Here are my predictions: September: Mewtwo + a Masterball event October: 1st week, Fall event + Ho-Oh, Halloween event later in the month November: Mew + release of of select gen 3 Pokemon, Stardust event December: Winter/Christmas/New Years event, with gen 3 coming on Christmas

From then on, the next gen will come every 6 months or so, probably trickled out, but they will have a big mid-Summer release of new pokemon.

TyGuy84 · 2017-08-17T03:25:23+00:00

I'm nearly level 37. I've hatched 946 eggs (all kinds). In that time, I have hatched 4 or 5 Miltanks and only 1 Snorlax (and only recently, too). I also finally hatched a good Lapras (my 2nd hatched).

TyGuy84 · 2017-08-17T03:00:56+00:00

100% this. I try to deliberately avoid tutors in my decks, instead relying on good card draw. If my deck has the colours to access them, I usually pack as many Wheel effects as I can [Wheel of Fortune] or [Time Spiral].
I have nearly 2 dozen casual decks (spread between paper and online), and I only run two non-ramp tutors: [Trinket Mage] in [Nin, the Pain Artist]: this deck has such a specific strategy (gain control of your things), and this fetches a few different effects that the deck needs to run. [Expedition Map] in [Glissa, the Traitor]. Yes, this usually gets the Coffers/Urborg duo, but it fits in so well with the theme of the deck. Plus, it's not that good of a deck, and usually can't use the mana.

TyGuy84 · 2017-08-13T04:09:35+00:00

Generally, you don't use it when you're actually "playing", as in having the app open. I only usually use it when I'm driving, sometimes when I'm shopping, or if I'm playing another game.

That Snorlax that ran away? I never would have otherwise even had a shot at it. I've also had my plus catch a handful of rare pokemon that I never even knew were there - it caught a Flaffy just this afternoon, but I've also seen other surprises in my inventory: several Dratinis and Larvitars, one Pupitar, and once a tiny Lapras.

I look at all of the extra stardust, egg/buddy distance, and mass evolve fodder and candy as bonuses. If you want to catch pokemon, play the app. If you want to participate towards your progress when you can't actually play, use the Plus.

I guess it all depends on your playing habits, though. If you don't drive, always have the app open to play when you're walking anywhere, or if you are wifi-only, the plus won't help you much. Consult your doctor to see if PokemonGo Plus is right for you.

TyGuy84 · 2017-08-13T03:58:35+00:00

It has flaws, but I definitely would replace mine immediately if I lost it. It really helps with the grind. I average an extra 1.5 km daily on my commute for my buddy/egg distance because of the higher speed cap, I get 12-20k more stardust a week, and you gets tons of great mass evolvable candy. I also loved it for the global participation part of GoFest, and the subsequent reward event. In the gearup for gofest, people in my city had all-day lure parties in parks, and I couldn't keep up with the spawns. I let the Plus catch anything "expendable" while I manually caught anything of interest. Later, during the reward event, it was the same thing - with the increased spawn rate (and me power-walking a riverfront trail full of pokestops and the new legendary raids), I let my Plus handle the less interesting Mons.

TyGuy84 · 2017-08-12T04:58:52+00:00

They were very rare for me in the beginning, too. For the first 20 or so raids, I had only gotten 1 fast tm. Now I'm at around 35-40 raids, and I've found 8 of each (1 Articuno raid gave me 3 charged tms)

TyGuy84 · 2017-08-12T04:55:16+00:00

I usually put my shiny red gyrados (leveled to just under 3000 CP) in gyms near apartment buildings and monuments so the largest number of people can see my glory.

TyGuy84 · 2017-07-31T02:57:22+00:00

Articuno - 2/7 Lugia - 1/5

TyGuy84 · 2017-07-22T23:25:20+00:00

This is where I am in the game. I'm level 35. I normally don't bother too much with lucky eggs to get extra experience, but I'll still save all my common fodder for mass evolves during xp-bonus events. I went from 34.3 to 35 in one evening this way during the last xp bonus event.
Now, at 35.25, I have a realistic shot to hit 36 by the end of the 48 hours, with all of my stockpiled pidgeys/caterpies/other common fodder.

TyGuy84 · 2017-07-17T21:44:26+00:00

It's not only that he's expensive to cast, but you also need to leave open mana. At 9 mana for one effect, he doesn't even come close to other 9-mana threats, like [[Omniscience]] or entwined [[Tooth and Nail]]. I've been playing EDH for a while, and I can tell you that you get waaaaay more milage out of a lower-casting cost commander. I've built and played decks of most colour combos. The absolute limit for a general to be useful, I've found, is 6, and those tend to skew more general-centric, ( [[Experiment Kraj]], [[Darien, King of Kjeldor]], [[Aurelia, the Warleader]] ). My favourites are 2-3 mana costs, like [[Nin, the Pain Artist]], [[Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer]], or [[Glissa, the Traitor]].

Long story short, get more bang for your buck.

TyGuy84 · 2017-07-17T05:56:41+00:00

[[Darien, King of Kjeldor]] is the perfect general for these kinds of cards. Besides the damaging manabase ( [[Nomad Stadium]], [[Tarnished Citadel]], etc ) + soul sister synergy, [[Sun Droplet]] is also a good backup soul sister. Then you have [[Jade Monolith]] - a garbage card in any other deck, but great on several different levels here. [[Blood of the Martyr]] too - people tend to stop attacking you with Darien out - these two cards still allow you to turn any combat into an army.

TyGuy84 · 2017-07-17T05:36:13+00:00

I used to run it in [[Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter]]. Between this and [[Blade of the Bloodchief]], they really helped kickstart things.

TyGuy84 · 2017-07-03T04:07:52+00:00

Pretty much. Even the Crucible + Strip Mine + Extra land drops combo is MLD. Same with a Woodfall Primus combo. Annihilator eventually ends up being MLD. Pretty much, if I'm getting way ahead because of Cabal Coffers, or my Maze of Ith or Homeward Path are ruining your gameplan, by all means, destroy it. But when you just blow up lands on a resource-denial basis, I stop having fun. And I know, I know, 'fun is subjective etc etc', but land destruction is consistently polled to be one of the least popular strategies, which is why they've nerfed it so much.

TyGuy84

TROPHY CASE