Electabuzz and Magmar Community Days

Community Day in November came with a twist this year! Instead of the normal one community day, we got two! November’s Community Days featured Magmar and Electabuzz, as well as shiny babies and shiny evolutions. It was both a pleasant change and, well, a bit of a drag. But at least we got two cool shinies out of it!

Straight to the point, Magmar Community Day was better than Electabuzz Community Day

These community days ran one week after the other. Electabuzz Community Day was on Sunday 15th and Magmar Community Day was on Saturday 21st. Which meant most people could probably do one or the other. But, quite obviously, Magmar fared better than Electabuzz. While Electabuzz’s shiny is cool, its baby and evolved forms, Elekid and Electavire, aren’t nearly as interesting. Magmar’s bright pink on the other hand is incredibly obvious and actually works quite well with the flaming tendrils.

But, more importantly, Magmar Community Day was simply easier. Both days had the same 3-hour incense and lasted from 11am until 5pm. But Magmar was far easier to catch and its ‘community day tasks’ were far better. Electabuzz’s day came with a brief one-panel research that gave 5 Sinnoh Stones, and a free bundle of 30 Ultra Balls in the shop. Magmar’s day had 4 Sinnoh Stones and the free Ultra Balls bundle, but it also came with 60 Great Balls.

Magmar was also way, way easier to catch. Electabuzz was supposed to be easier to catch, but even middling-CP ones required multiple Pokeballs. Frankly, without the 60 Great Balls, I would have struggled with Magmar Day a little less than Electabuzz Day.

These were our only days to easily get shiny Elekid and shiny Magby

What’s also interesting is that Elekid and Magby were both as boosted as their adult forms were. Unfortunately, both were ONLY available in 2km eggs. And with most places going into lockdown again, there’s no way to hatch them. Even with egg distances during the event being reduced to 1/4, it’s still not enough. Sure, you can try and use Adventure Sync, but it’s finicky at best, and requires having Pokemon Go tracking your location all the time.

Apparently, the chances were pretty good when it comes to shinies, but I simply couldn’t even TRY with these. On both events, I’ve been unable to go out, and was stuck with a 5km egg and a 7km egg that wouldn’t hatch before or even during the event. And since I was full of slots (because how DARE I spin a Pokestop or open a gift in desperate need for berries and balls), I couldn’t even grab one egg to hatch later.

Really, these two should have been in raids as well. Because at least you can do one raid from home using a remote pass.

The moves though are kinda crap.

Sadly, the only good thing here was the shiny. For both Electabuzz AND Magmar. Their evolutions, Electavire and Magmortar, got moves that… kinda work for PvP, I guess? Magmortar got Thundershock while Electavire got Flamethrower. Thematically, this sounds pretty cool. But it’s not hugely useful. Magmortar at least can use Thundershock to pick on Water Types but it does nothing for his other enemies, Ground and Rock Types. Electavire could maybe use Flamethrower on Steel Types and the omnipresent Togekiss, but requires a lot of investment.

Again, these are niche uses. But Electavire is actually a good Electric type for PVE, so, really, he’s better off with electric moves. Okay, sure, Electavire isn’t the best, but he’s cheaper to acquire than something like Raikou or Zekrom, and doesn’t require a magnetic lure like Magneton.

All in all though, nice Community Days.

Sure, the moves are rather niche, but the spawns were great and the shiny chances were excellent. Shame about the baby forms, but, honestly I could do without wasting the backpack space holding on to them.

Hopefully though, we’ll start getting some Community Days for non-Kanto Pokemon. Because they’ve been almost non-existent this year…