Pokemon Shuffle General Discussion

Mega Blastoise is not so great for combos (Mega Aero is better for disruptions at least)
It looks like I'll be eating some humble pie. M-Aero might just be the better choice over Gengar for the competition in a similar vein to Double Normal teams vs. SE teams (ie. highest potential for someone in need of a higher skill ceiling). Apparently the top JP player has a 134k score with Double Normal + M-Aero. Heck, even one of my suspicions regarding M-Audino being beastly with a Double Normal team is above 100k, and in 2nd place no less.
 
What makes Mega Audino good for Blazikenite ? I think Mega Aero can really help Normal team for clearing disruptions but Gengar offers a C-1 at least
 
Is Mega Blaziken worth it? After struggling to stay in the top 20000, I've slipped up and manged to be last time I checked somewhere about 23000. Should I just get the jewel at this point, or keep on trying.
 
What makes Mega Audino good for Blazikenite ? I think Mega Aero can really help Normal team for clearing disruptions but Gengar offers a C-1 at least
Arceus's Double Normal Ability gives a 2.5x boost to Normal type damage. Assuming both mons are maxed (Audino 70, Aero 90), their damage would be fairly similar with the respective boosts, while Audino has benefits such as Mega Evolving faster, taking less time for its effect (which means less time waiting to resume comboing compared to Aero taking 5 seconds to eat the blocks), etc.
 
And with what I thought was the last 10 minutes left I secured my place in the top 5k with all of the items + mega gengar, my team wasn't even fully maxed and I got 4.1k place or something.
 

zero2exe

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I was considering going for level 200 on Cresselia but after failing 4 times in a row at level 107 I decided I'm done with that bullshit, not gonna spend a single coin on it if it isn't on level 160 yet.
 

skylight

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I checked in too early therefore I don't get to know my rank :( Kind of sucks that I have to wait til tomorrow :/
 

Xen

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There were apparently a lot of last minute participants. I checked before I went to bed, which was about an hour before the event expired, and I was around the 9,000 mark (which was a 1,000 point drop from that morning). This morning when I checked in, I placed around 11,000.

But anyway, I managed to get a hold of my Blazikenite. Guess now I should actually catch Blaziken. LOL

On a unrelated note, I finally managed to get past that absurd Mega Glalie stage, and finally got my hands on Mega Gengar as well.
 

Darkmalice

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Anyone tried Mega Blaziken?

I tried it today. Its ability is different from what the description suggests. What it does is, if there is another Fire-type Pokemon on the field, it replaces three tiles of that Pokemon with Mega Blaziken. The tiles are selected at random. If there is >1 other Fire-type, it only selects one of those Fire-type Pokemon.

It proved underwhelming when I tried it on the Mega Heracross stage, both with just Heatran as a paired Fire-type, and with an all Fire-type team. Unlike Slowbro, the pairings aren't necesarily close to other Mega Blaziken, which means you usually don't get a combo off. You need a large amount of Mega Blaziken to get it working, but that is a slow process. Whilst theoretically you could pair off Mega Blaziken to have more form, it's usually 3 for 3, and as Mega Pokemon tend not to form right after pairing them, you tend not to get more. The main upside to Mega Blaziken is that it Mega Evolves quickly.
 

Hulavuta

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This competition was really stupid about having Attack Up allowed. It basically just doubles your score so the score curve is the same but you need to use coins to actually compete. I literally went up more than 10,000 spots after using Attack Up, it's so silly. Even if you're good enough to not need it to be in the top 20,000, there's no downside at all to using it and your score will never be as good as it could be if you used it. Yeah I know, great way to make money and all that.

Not complaining too much as I only needed to use Attack Up once to stay in the top 20,000, so I got the Blazikenite. It's a bit underwhelming right now but I haven't played much with it yet. It seems like it has potential though a lot of set up required.
 
It does, the only nice thing about it.

Congratulations to me though, finished all current stages today! Now to resume S-Ranking... because Mega Mawile hates me.
 

brightobject

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Damn, it was crazy how many people entered last minute :( I was comfortable with my 11,000th or so placing the night before, and when I checked in today I was dismayed to find I'd been bumped down to 21 k-- so all I got was a Comp -1 and not the Blazikenite I was expecting.

But from what everyone is saying here about how underwhelming it is, I guess things aren't all bad.
 
You'll have time after Blaziken if you change your mind.

Level 100 50 is quite doable. Level 51 - 99 are all easier than level 50. 55, 75 and 95 are also like regular Meowth stages but with many more coins. Level 100 is a bitch though, but it's only one level that requires power ups.
I took on your advice and went for it. You were right. I made it to level 100. At the moment I'm waiting for some hearts, and hopefully I won't have to spend too many coins on it. Thanks for encouraging me earlier :)
 
Any tips for S-Ranking Mega Mawile? I've tried a Mega Start and Disruption Delay, but I've still only managed to get an A at the most. I also tried to use Eevee as well, but the game decides to throw Pidgey in as well.
 

Darkmalice

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I took on your advice and went for it. You were right. I made it to level 100. At the moment I'm waiting for some hearts, and hopefully I won't have to spend too many coins on it. Thanks for encouraging me earlier :)
No problem.

Sadly, from what I'm seeing on online discussions, you may need a lot of coins. I'm seeing a lot of people saying they used +5, DD, Attack Power and Mega Start. At least Mega Start we can get free from Cresselia and the recently released passcode (it's on Serebii).

I'm going to wait for Saturday, after the Victini event to level Giratina up to level 9 before spending coins. Probably won't need the extra level but just in case.

Any tips for S-Ranking Mega Mawile? I've tried a Mega Start and Disruption Delay, but I've still only managed to get an A at the most. I also tried to use Eevee as well, but the game decides to throw Pidgey in as well.
I've managed to get A rank without items, but no S rank yet. Mega Lucario I think is the best without items in order to deal with disruptions. Some more info is here.
 

Psynergy

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Gotta wait for Blazikenite because of that check-in bug but from what it sounds like Blaziken seems good, but disappointingly underrated. The only real flaw I've gathered is that you need a bit more luck than Slowbro/Heracross (and they already need some luck anyway so not really too bad) to get a good match but is otherwise the same thing with a plus of being Mega Evolving just about as fast (and faster after Mega Speedups I believe) than Gengar. I'd definitely say it's one of the better Megas out there (about as good as Lucario, Glalie) though it doesn't sound like a complete standout like Banette/Slowbro/Gengar/Mewtwo/Heracross. Guess I'll wait and see when I try it myself though it certainly sounds much better than people are making it out to be.

EDIT: Tried it out now and this thing is easily capable of combos that lag the game so hard. Had Ampharos at basically half health before its first disruption. Definitely getting a few dud combos but this thing is far from disappointing, I actually like it way more than Lucario or Glalie. The thing has so much synergy with itself that even if you don't get a killer combo it can set itself up with an awesome one next turn.
 
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zero2exe

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Tried out Blaziken while training up a whole fire team on Ampharos. I think it's a good Mega, and it's awesome when the screen goes nuts and clears twice during the same combo, however I find Blaziken to be way too random to apply damage consistently, for example I have been able to beat the ampharos stage as soon as having 24 turns left but at other times I've barely done it with 3 moves left. The main issue I see with Blaziken is that it doesn't really clear up any disruptions since it only replaces pokemon from the same type, in that sense I'd rather pick Slowbro or Heracross as far as explosive abilities go. But for those stages with low disruption counts? It's amazing how the game lags at so many combos at once.
 

Darkmalice

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I took on your advice and went for it. You were right. I made it to level 100. At the moment I'm waiting for some hearts, and hopefully I won't have to spend too many coins on it. Thanks for encouraging me earlier :)
I just completed level 100 today - couldn't be bothered waiting for Victini.

I used Mega Gengar (max), Giratina (8), Heracross (9) and Yvetal (9). I used +5, Disruption Delay, Attack Power, and Mega Start. This is the usual combo I've seen on the net that peopel use to complete the stage. I finished with 1 turn left. Even though I practically wasted my 1st turn, I would strongly recommend against spending anything less than that. You could use a C- instead, but it's more expensive and the DD is really really helpful. DD + C- would essentially be a guaranteed success but not needed.

Tips with my items:
  • Clear the initial barriers asap. Mega Gengar can help here.
  • Get as many points as you can before Cress uses disruptions again. Things will get a lot harder then, and you may be forced to get only 1 comboper turn thanks to Cress making the entire top row barried. and I would have failed if I didn't proc Crowd Control twice with 3 Heracross.
  • Thanks to Solosis, don't be surprised if you can only make 2 comboes at a time. However, you should always be aiming to make at least 2 at a time when the barriers are gone, preferably more and/or trying to proc Crowd Control at the same time.
  • Have high level Pokemon when attempting it. Could mean the difference towards a pass or not at the end.
Not going to attempt going higher than 100. Both because I don't have the coins to use items once Solosis appears at level 160+, and because it'll take up too much time.

EDIT: As Antihaxxer said Banette > Gengar for Mega choice when using Mega Start. Looking online, it's safe to not use +5 when using Mega Banette.

Tried out Blaziken while training up a whole fire team on Ampharos. I think it's a good Mega, and it's awesome when the screen goes nuts and clears twice during the same combo, however I find Blaziken to be way too random to apply damage consistently, for example I have been able to beat the ampharos stage as soon as having 24 turns left but at other times I've barely done it with 3 moves left. The main issue I see with Blaziken is that it doesn't really clear up any disruptions since it only replaces pokemon from the same type, in that sense I'd rather pick Slowbro or Heracross as far as explosive abilities go. But for those stages with low disruption counts? It's amazing how the game lags at so many combos at once.
I've heard it's more effective at stages with few disruptions and no extra Pokemon. However, these stages are easily passed anyways, and the stages people tend to struggle on are those that Mega Blaziken functions poorly in.
 
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Psynergy

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I've heard it's more effective at stages with few disruptions and no extra Pokemon. However, these stages are easily passed anyways, and the stages people tend to struggle on are those that Mega Blaziken functions poorly in.
It is definitely more effective in stages with less regular disruptions, but really so is almost every other Mega not named Aerodactyl. It doesn't necessarily perform too poorly in stages with them though (also hi Disruption Delay and Complexity -1). Its fast Mega Evolution (12 icons, and 9 with Speedups which is faster than Gengar) also helps it try and deal massive damage before disruptions become too problematic, such as in the regular Heracross stage where disruptions normally become obnoxious if you take too long. You can beat Genesect, arguably one of the hardest and more disruption-heavy stages in the game, itemless with Blaziken so it's definitely capable of being effective even with disruptions. And handily too, I managed to have over 20 seconds left when I did Genesect with any failed attempt being literally one move away. Disruptions do definitely give it some trouble, though not enough to make it a liability in stages that Fire is good against.

It's honestly probably my favorite Mega so far despite its flaws, and has a really unique balance of board clearing while also boasting some of the highest damage potential, if not the highest. I do think it's a better Mega than some people are giving it credit for though. It's not a perfect Mega but I'd say it's at least as good as Lucario and Glalie.
 
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I'm soooooooo close! Level 194 Cresselia. I was hoping to be done today, but it seems I miscalculated the coins I'd need by one stage, including the free Attack+ passcode we got today (07073180), so I won't be done until early tomorrow (assuming I get all 530s on the last 5 hearts for today, I'll need 4 more tomorrow and then to attempt level 200).

I'm glad I'll have two full days to replenish my coins, because we've got some new content coming Monday. Pignite, new regular stages, a safari (that I think will be new), and I've heard that a new competition is coming but I'm not sure which mon it'll be. Then there's the anticipated Rayquaza appearance next Friday... Figures we'd get a bulky update the week I go on vacation... >.>

Edit: 8th speedup GET!
 
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