Mareep Classic Community Day
On November 25th, we had the Classic Community Day of the season. This classic community day though wasn’t the most interesting one as it featured Mareep, the little fluffy electric sheep. Mareep is actually a pretty common Pokemon, regardless of season, and has been around for a long time. It also had a research weekend event where you’d complete research tasks in order to get Mareep. Still, Mareep Community Day is what we got, and, weirdly, it came with quarter egg-hatching distance, again.
Personally though, I’ve been wanting this. Despite all my years of playing, I never managed to actually CATCH a shiny Mareep. I’ve been traded one, and I actually remembered to evolve it, but catching one has always alluded me. Well, this was finally going to change. It took me nearly an hour, but I FINALLY caught my first shiny Mareep. I did manage to catch six shinies total, and I caught four on my second account.
As for the move, Dragon Pulse isn’t worth it. It’s an expensive move that doesn’t do much damage. Sure, Ampharos does have a Mega Evolution, and that Mega Evolution IS a dragon type, but Dragon Pulse is so bad that you’re better off using a different dragon completely. Mega Rayquaza is stupidly strong, and Mega Salamence is also far superior. Ampharos also lacks a dragon fast move, meaning you won’t ever be doing any damage. The weird electric sheep monster is best off used as an electric type Mega Evolution, but it’s not super important, you can always use Mega Manectric if you don’t have Mega Ampharos. In hindsight, I don’t know why I bothered evolving a shiny Ampharos today. The move is that bad.
That being said, Ampharos does have some use in PvP. Weirdly though, it doesn’t really get used as a classic electric type. Ampharos has EIGHT charge attacks, including not just staples like Thunder and Zap Cannon, but also Thunder Punch, Power Gem, Focus Blast, Trail Blaze and Brutal Swing, as well as Dragon Pulse. With so many moves, you’re basically spoiled for choice. I’d say that the best moves are Thunder Punch and Trail Blaze, which covers your ground type weakness very nicely. Volt Switch is the fast move of choice since it does double the damage of Charge Beam and somehow also gives energy faster. I’d recommend giving this analysis of Ampharos a read, it’s got a lot of useful information.
What was annoying though was that the showcases were for Squirtle again. People assumed that the showcases for the Wooper Community Day were broken because of the two different species, but nope, it just seems that Niantic fucked up. The showcases for this community day were for Squirtle, yet again. And I don’t have a large Squirtle I can use, because I foolishly evolved an XXL Squirtle into a Blastoise for the Squirtle Classic Community Day ages ago. It’s doubly annoying because I caught multiple XXL Mareeps which would have been perfect for showcases.
Overall, not a very interesting day, even if it was a Classic Community Day. Sure, I may have finally caught a shiny Mareep, and it IS a nice shiny, but it’s not a particularly useful one. There are better options, and it would have been nice to end the season with something interesting. I bet a Beldum or Bagon Classic Community Day would have been way, way better. We’ve been waiting a LONG time for those two.