Hi, I’m Tyler Magruder, or sorryjzargo as I go by on the internet. I am going to hopefully complete a 30/30 this month. If you don’t know what a 30/30 is, it is a blog series where you write one blog a day for a month (on months with 31 days it is called a 31/31). If I miss a day, I will make it up, but hopefully I won’t miss any days and can call this a success.
If you missed my first blog, you can find it here: http://sorryjzargo.com/2014/06/02/3030-day-1-world-of-pokemon-part-1-the-very-best/
(picking up directly where my last blog left off)
…or so I thought.
Years passed and I entered high school. As a typical teenager, I felt that I was too mature for Pokémon. I mean, they’re kids’ games! I took pride in being “too mature” for kids’ stuff, including anime, cartoons and Pokémon. However, that began to shift when one of my friends showed me the cartoon Adventure Time (I’m certainly going to write more about AT in the future), and I realized that I was not too mature for cartoons. Instead, I was too immature to enjoy them like an adult. With the dawn of Adventure Time, it was only a matter of time before I returned to my childhood passion.
Fast-forward to my freshman year of college. My first roommate was an anime devotee and a serious nerd in practically all aspects. It was him that brought about my return to Pokémon. I saw him playing Pokémon Black or White, and something in my mind clicked. For the first time since I was a kid, Pokémon looked fun again. At first I wasn’t willing to invest any money, though, so I downloaded a DS emulator and the ROM for Pokémon SoulSilver, hoping to relive my glory days of Pokémon. However, my laptop was too slow and the ROM ran at half speed, so I reluctantly opted for buying a used DS and a copy of SoulSilver. I chose SoulSilver even though Pokémon was currently into the 5th generation because it was a remake of a game I was familiar with. And I played the heck out of SoulSilver. I never managed to beat Red, but I completed a majority of the content in the game. Then, I decided to move forward.
This coincided with the release of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. I decided to skip Black and White and bought a used copy of Black 2. My only regret about this decision was choosing Snivy as my starter. I powered through Black 2 with my underpowered starter and compensated with the event legendary Genesect, and managed to beat the Elite Four rather quickly. Once I reached that point, my interest in the game waned briefly. I didn’t know about the massive amount of postgame content in the game, so I didn’t have a lot left to do besides try to complete my National Pokédex. I didn’t come anywhere close.
Then came the announcement for Pokémon X and Y. Everything about the games seemed fresh and exciting, so I eagerly bought a 3DS in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. I filled the time with playing Animal Crossing, Pokémon Black 2, and working full-time at Walmart (even though I specifically applied for a part-time job, still bitter about that). As the game grew closer, the hype grew even more intense, and I ended up pre-ordering it at the campus Game Stop and picking it up the day of release. Little did I know, I would soon fulfill my destiny.
In all the prior Pokémon games, I had at least beaten the Elite Four, proving that I was the very best, like no one ever was. However, that was just half of the song’s mantra. Embarrassingly, I never managed to “catch ‘em all.” So, with that in mind, completing the National Pokédex in Pokémon X became my top priority.
When I first started Pokémon X, I planned on choosing Fennekin as my Kalos starter because it was so cute. However, I realized that I would have too much type overlap. With the event Torchic and the Kanto starter that would inevitably be Charmander, I needed a different type. So, I chose Froakie. This was the best decision ever. Froakie quickly grew on me and became my favorite Pokémon of all time, surpassing my previous favorite Charizard. With Froakie and Mega Blaziken I stomped through the Elite Four and conquered the challenges the Kalos Region threw at me. With the game completed, I had but one goal left, to catch ‘em all.
I began with the in-game legendaries. Xerneas was easy; I snagged him in two Premier Balls. Mewtwo was slightly more difficult, but with Thunder Wave and significant damage I managed to catch him with a Premier Ball as well. My final challenge was Zygarde, who I hunted down through the depths of Terminus Cave. With a bit of luck and some hard resets, I managed to capture Zygarde in a Premier Ball, completing my collection of major Kalos legendaries in Premier Balls.
With that out of the way, the real challenge began: the trading game. By the time I completed the game and captured Zygarde I had accumulated roughly 200 Pokémon on my National Pokédex, an impressive number for just wild catches and evolutions. However, I made it my objective to trade my Pokémon for everything I didn’t have. This required breeding; lots and lots of breeding. I bred starters out the wazoo and then traded them away. Then the Pokébank released and all of my Kalos starters suddenly became obsolete in the trading game. I had to reconsider my strategy. Fortunately I managed to trade for a single Gen 2 starter, and through breeding and trading managed to acquire every single starter. From there, I bred Turtwigs until I managed to collect every single non-legendary Pokémon available.
Even with this great accomplishment, I was faced with the seemingly insurmountable challenge of getting all of the legendaries. I was about to give up for a time when I hit a stroke of incredible luck: I caught a shiny Chansey. Seeing my opportunity, I traded it for a Rayquaza, then traded that for another legendary, then down the line acquired every legendary before trading it off for another. In the end, I managed to get every single legendary in a day. And DING! I completed my National Pokédex!
I had done it! Gotta catch ‘em all no more, I was the Pokémon master! With this victory fresh, I thought that I would simply put down Pokémon X and wait for the next Pokémon game, but I was wrong…
sorryjzargo 