Last weekend the first Gigantamax Battles left me feeling disheartened, frustrated, and like potentially, this might be the first part of Pokémon GO that I might not be able to partake in. We were woefully unprepared in terms of counters, didn’t have the numbers, and in general, it was just kind of disaster.
With the news from Niantic that they were going to make Gigantamax Gengar a little easier, whispers began in my local group chats that maybe, just maybe, we could turn it around within the space of a week. People began to realise they had to put work in, they couldn’t just expect to be carried by others like you can for raids, and that the lower tier Dynamax Battles were important to be able to do these more difficult level Max Battles.
I gave as much feedback as I could in terms of what preparation we needed to do, sent over Zero’s excellent Gigantamax Guide, and we got to work. Questions on movesets and priorities flew back and for, and a plan was made. We would meet in the nearest town centre at 1pm, and we would ensure that we saved our Max Particles from Friday, in the hopes that we could do two Gigantamax Gengar, if we could indeed defeat one at all.
As Saturday grew closer trainers names I hadn’t seen in a while reappeared, and it became clear that we might actually have a plan. After the barely-there turn out the weekend before, and seeing Grookey and Wooloo in Max Battles, we began to feel hope. Unlike the week before, we also weren’t expecting any rain, which would be a big help!
As I headed to the meeting spot the group chat was a flurry of posts from people on their way advising us of ETAs, and I was happy to see I wasn’t first there even though I was fairly early. As I waited more and more trainers appeared, some I knew, plenty I didn’t, and I started to get excited.
We hit 1pm and waited for a few stragglers, and then it was time. We entered the first lobby and the numbers just kept going up until we were at 30 trainers. Considering on our first attempt we had a whopping 8 trainers, this was a huge improvement. Metagross was a popular choice, with Gengar, Blastoise with Bite, and Greedent other popular choices. The younger trainers of the group were our attackers as most had less opportunity to invest in the teams compared to us adults, I opted to play the tank role. I led with my Blastoise, with two Metagross ready to be Dynamaxed. Once the first Dynamax cycle hit I stuck with my Metagross, using all level 2 Max Guard moves for each round, so that I would draw the Gengar’s attack away from my fellow attackers and healers.
We had cracked it this time! Success was ours and to our delight, the youngest of our group got a shiny Gigantamax Gengar on his first raid, and the vast majority managed to catch their Gengar! With one down, some of the group didn’t have enough Max Particles for round two, but feeling confident our now smaller group headed to a second Gengar.
Round two was trickier, we failed with 16 trainers, but we didn’t let it get to us. We rearranged the teams, and went back in, this time with 18 of us. Having a dedicated tank in the heavier hitting groups was a major part of our strategy, and even with a lot less of us, those of us had optimal teams didn’t lose a single Pokémon with our second successful attempt!
Some great IVs were caught, and once we had all caught our Gengar (with those who had missed out on their first being successful on the second), we all began adding each other as friends in game and nattering Pokémon generally. I realised with delight that one of the trainers there was someone I had been lucky friends with for a while, so we swapped Gigantamax Gengar and I got a 96IV!
I felt so proud seeing us all come together and work to develop our teams and use strategy to take down a totally different sort of battle in Pokémon GO. We’ve already started discussing tactics for Toxtricity, and the importance of the Max Out Monday Max Battles on November 18th for Drilbur as a counter for it.
I hope that Niantic considers keeping this ‘easier’ difficulty level for future Gigantamax Max Battles, our small community still managed to be successful, and it gives rural communities a chance if we can all develop our counters over time.
It felt fantastic for us all to see our hard work pay off, so little in GO requires real hard work these days, but this did! We put the work in, and it worked, and it was wonderful. I felt so proud of our community coming together like we did after the previous weekend failure. We can do this, and with time, these tricky battles should get even easier! What a difference a week made! For a moment this weekend it almost felt like the first Mewtwo Ex Raids, and it was an incredible feeling to get back.
