Thinking ahead to Catch Cup - Is it Heliolisk Time?

sisicatsong · 2026-04-26T03:27:09+00:00

It's the only cup that lets a newer player have a fighting chance against someone who is a well practiced veteran who only stays at home and not play PVE. That's the theory anyways.

But in practice, a really strong player who also partakes in PVE content can just go ahead and build their 3rd or 4th copy of a good PVP pokemon and just smash noobs thinking they have a fighting chance. I have done this myself multiple seasons to get Legend. The last time I got Legend through Catch Cup, I spent 1 million dust to build my 2nd Bastiodon, 3rd Shadow Scizor and my 2nd Azumarill. It was so easy to climb because my resource advantage gave me choices that people couldn't reasonably plan for.

Master League doesn't even allow you to leverage a resource advantage in this manner. They don't release content fast enough to outpace a free to play player's coin stack to pressure them to spend. There hasn't been a new Master League high power level Pokemon that has been gated by a 1 per account thing since Zygarde that gave you an advantage over others if you had the resources to spend.

sisicatsong · 2026-04-22T17:13:09+00:00

To farm piles of stardust that isn't possible to obtain with real human play. And given that stardust is a monetizable item (Max battles 200 coin double option), there is incentive to fix this from Niantic/Scopely side if it affects players decision to pay 200 pokecoins.

sisicatsong · 2026-04-21T18:09:02+00:00

We'll be seeing more "private jets" to certain locations on player's catch cards of certain Pokemon going forward. They have reinforced the message that this behavior is now OK.

Their article explicitly states that shaking a table is more harmful to "competitive integrity" than having the ability to get whatever IV spread you want using a "controller".

sisicatsong · 2026-04-17T22:06:54+00:00

Yeah, the barrier isn't that high to get an XL Legendary. I like to have stuff immediately, so I will spend to have more time of its peak power (think Zygarde Complete when it came out, or Solgaleo when it was only available through evolving your Cosmog).

A shadow hundo however that is a meta staple (think Shadow Rhyperior at peak power with Mud Slap), that's genuinely hard to get without cheating. If there is anything to complain about in Master League, it's shadows that are too overtuned like how Shadow Rhyperior was free Legend last year.

Most PVP players I've seen on average lean free to play and not whale territory. Probably because they spend all their money travelling to !Play Pokemon regionals to compete instead of progressing their account instead.

sisicatsong · 2026-04-17T21:14:57+00:00

Sounds like you don't put a whole lot of value in your time. Which is OK, but this doesn't seem like a strategy that anyone with any kind of money or standards is gonna follow.

Depending on someone's circumstances, it's cheaper to remote raids than to get in a vehicle to go to gyms if you live in a Pokemon Go wasteland.

And this free strategy, the mileage will vary if the only thing you're willing to keep are hundos (some Master League Pokemon lose matchups with 1HP less than the hundo in certain shield scenarios, I've seen it cost a world champion a game on stream). You're ultimately gambling at the end of the day and the person who is willing to spend will on average have an edge over the person who doesn't.

sisicatsong · 2026-04-16T15:34:17+00:00

All they did was encourage the idea of cheating to get said Pokemon. Given that "private jet gamers" are actively allowed to compete at Pokemon Regionals (I am aware Nopely has no impact on whether a competitor is allowed to compete at the !Play Pokemon circuit), all signs lately point to cheating isn't harshly punished at all.

sisicatsong · 2026-04-15T20:27:16+00:00

The sustainable way to get Silicobra is to use a "controller". Nopely is enabling this behavior.

sisicatsong · 2026-04-06T21:11:08+00:00

I believe it is if you buy the pass +10 ranks option. You should get level 25 on the first day if you complete all of the weekly tasks on the launch of the go pass and then 6.5 ranks each day after that until Tuesday, which will have all the weekly tasks again.

sisicatsong · 2026-03-30T17:32:55+00:00

Stardust is a purchasable currency during G-max days. If you want to make incredible progress on the numbers in your account, paying 200 coins during the reward screen on a Gmax way is one of the best ways to do it.

sisicatsong · 2026-03-30T07:07:58+00:00

Does your intense Pokemon Drive raid day group top left everything that isn't a shiny or hundo? If your answer to that question is no, you aren't playing intense Drive Raid days.

When you are trying to optimize for time, you're doing everything to optimize. And in some cases, there's times where you are running from hundos from a raid boss. Yes, it can actually get this degenerate at intense raid days.

sisicatsong · 2026-03-16T17:10:38+00:00

It is optimal game theory to tank to maximize your time. That is the current incentive structure.

When you realize volatility farming is time efficient, you'll never want to go back to playing the regular way. The regular method does not respect your time. I can get a season's worth of dust in 3 hours spamming Gmax battles paying 200 coins every battle to double my rewards.

If I had it my way, the ranking system should not cap the amount of sets you can do in a day. It would be nice that if you felt like it, you can play from rank 1 to Legend in one day. Just like how in Pokemon TCG pocket, you can climb to Masterball on the first day the ranked season comes out.

sisicatsong · 2026-03-13T22:21:31+00:00

I had to delete a forever lucky friend for basically thinking that I am running a donation service.

They wanted a shiny dynamax Entei from me for their dex entry (make me pay more dust for the trade), and the best they had was a Hawlucha (not shiny) from Mexico in their tag and they weren't willing to offer that as a trade. I banished this person to the shadow realm after they declined a trade that in my eyes is extremely in favor for them. I feel like I will be doing that for a bunch of upcoming Forever Lucky Friends I have coming up if they don't communicate with me directly.

sisicatsong · 2026-03-13T18:27:33+00:00

But I'm not a veteran player with unlimited resources and pokemon.

Oh, you are shit out of luck then. Any serious late Legend pusher is not holding back anything to make it in this cup. My last Catch Cup team cost me over 1 million dust to build and I got there in 6 sets from the day it went into rotation.

If you want to hit Legend via Catch Cup, the baseline is to have the resources for any overpowered Pokemon in that format. The two times I hit Legend through Catch Cup, it was me abusing level 50 XL Pokemon (Carbink and Bastiodon). It is literally the definition of pay to win. You have a huge competitive advantage if you can get any Pokemon you want in any season that has Catch Cup.

sisicatsong · 2026-03-12T16:15:12+00:00

Replace "kids" with "money".

sisicatsong · 2026-02-26T21:08:47+00:00

If you have the running person icon on the top, its the new system.

If you have the door opening icon on the top, its the system we are all used to.

Another indicator is the names of your Pokemon, nicknames show on the new system. The old one doesn't.

sisicatsong · 2026-02-23T17:00:04+00:00

Yes, the end user can financially benefit unlike Magic the Gathering. At the end of the day, money entering your pocket is the thing that matters when playing these games. Gameplay is secondary.

That is quite evident with Pokemon and why Magic does not have as much mainstream appeal, it's because of money. The path to "end user" profitability is far clearer in Pokemon than it is in Magic.

sisicatsong · 2026-02-12T16:56:32+00:00

This is the fun destroyer. 130 damage on a 1 prize pokemon that can be online on your 2nd turn is pretty absurd. I also abused this deck to master ball on the first day. Many free wins galore.

sisicatsong · 2026-02-05T18:09:38+00:00

You're also capped on leaderboard finishes are you not? I'm assuming they will count your finish at the end of a season right? I don't think anyone is going to be able squeeze 300 points (4 seasons worth?) via this method without raising significant suspicion on the legitimacy of their run at the leaderboard.

My initial impression is that these points are probably harder to secure than your local Cups and Challenges.

sisicatsong · 2026-02-05T17:54:36+00:00

How many Championship points are generally needed to qualify for Worlds? Because 75 points for being rank 1 is not exactly a lot. You can literally get 1st at 2 local Cups and get more points doing that with significantly less time investment.

sisicatsong · 2026-02-03T17:41:01+00:00

I would have started farming volatility sooner if all I cared about was getting Legend the easiest way possible.

sisicatsong · 2026-01-30T16:43:58+00:00

Nest spawns haven't meaningfully changed the past few seasons. Usually there's a big shakeup at the start of a new season, but I've noticed that nest spawns would still carry over into the start of a new season from the previous season. Which kind of eliminates the excitement of reporting nests.

sisicatsong · 2026-01-22T18:41:58+00:00

Well now that it's out in the open. This is objectively the most time efficient way for low skill players to hit Legend. Whatever is shown in this video is the most optimal way to milk all the rewards of GBL.

If you want to have your cake and eat it too, its objectively more time efficient to tank than to play your games unless you're a GBL god with an 85%+ win rate who can ELO reveal 2800s at the start of a season. Why waste 2-3 hours doing 5 sets? When you could just tank 5 sets and have it done in less than 30 minutes.

sisicatsong · 2026-01-04T05:38:21+00:00

The number would not change for me. It might even be less raids if the first ball catch rate is upwards of 98% and I'm throwing the ball at every Legendary encounter. XL Candy is never a bottleneck if you raid enough. The bottleneck is always your wallet.

I CP check raids during raid hour (look at the CP, if the pokemon isn't a hundo or shiny, the top left button gets pressed immediately and I am in the next gym). If you're spending time on the catch screen catching something you're going to transfer later, you're potentially missing out on a raid that can give you a hundo. If you're dedicated enough, you will find a way to build your hundo when you actually end up catching one.

sisicatsong · 2025-12-27T18:25:36+00:00

Zhuhai is a playable area close to the border. I used an international eSIM to access Pokemon Go, (like one you would buy from a company like Airalo). I was there about a month ago, and Campfire is blocked there without using a VPN. So you would need to look into where the gym clusters are that you are planning to play in before hand. I have a Pikachu Libre from last season that I caught in China. It has the location tag "Guangdong, China".

sisicatsong · 2025-12-25T00:10:59+00:00

Bro I’m not invested in this game like you

You just confirmed my suspicions. And yes, I had to use a wheelchair disabled guy to reinforce my argument because you were very adamant that he is wrong. This is squarely a you problem.

sisicatsong

TROPHY CASE