Pokemon Masters |OT| Gotta Gatcha Em All!

[---]

It took a hour but I finished Latios.

Used Lance/Sabrina/Skyla to get Latios to 40% on bar 3. Finished it with Acerola/S Steven/Misty and did a bit of chip damage to the rest. Debuffed/brought into killing range with Oak/Roxanne/Glacia with Blizzard/X Regan All/Power Snow spam. Finished with Iris/Agatha/Lyra for damage/sleep/Light Screen.

Latios definitely isn't as strong as Cobalion or Entei, and thankfully isn't as fast either. Lance's Hyper Beam & Sync drain his bars ridiculously fast. The real battle IMO comes down to taking out Dragonite/Salamence who are both surprisingly bulky and spam nothing but Heat Wave/Rock Slide. They don't become immune to stat drops until they take enough hits so there could be time to use a debuff team before taking them on.


Lance's grid is also out now and honestly if I had him at 3/5 I think I could have maybe 3v1'd this arena. I am very tempted to use my 5* Striker candy on him to find out. Healthy Healing, Build Up, Potion MP Refresh x2, and Special Reserves are all fantastic.

 

[Pokelego999]

Dang I want to try this game but my phone's too outdated.

 

[---]

Guess the social thread has taken what little traffic this thread has seen.

Got lucky this time around and was able to get both Fall Hilbert & Acerola within 9k Gems; a complete reversal of my luck from Summer event. Was also able to 5/5 Elesa & Caitlin with these pulls. Looking at the leaked information, it's going to be a long wait for the November data mine to occur so we know what characters are coming next month.

The Full Force Battle this time is kind of tough as the opponents are bulky and Gengar immediately uses Poison Gas to put your entire team on a timer. Wallace was nice as he can reflect it back. Otherwise Fall Hilbert is a very solid unit and fills the long needed niche for a physical Dark Striker.

Kind of a bummer they're making the Battle Villa more of an event, though it did kind of get boring after a while with none of the teams really changing. Hopefully they keep the Battle Villa co-op section as even though I use the same team each time it's one of the few remaining social hubs of the game. Not sure what they plan to do to make up for Lucky Scrolls/Cookies & Gem rewards.

Sucks that the Entei Arena event gives no new rewards for players who already beat it. It's not the end of the world, but it is kind of insulting at what the rewards offered are should you choose to try it again. Hopefully they can fix it in time for the Cobalion/Latios reruns later this month like they updated SS Blue's Sync Grid. 5* Power Ups feel like they're harder and harder to come by.

 

[Z25]

Guess the social thread has taken what little traffic this thread has seen.

Got lucky this time around and was able to get both Fall Hilbert & Acerola within 9k Gems; a complete reversal of my luck from Summer event. Was also able to 5/5 Elesa & Caitlin with these pulls. Looking at the leaked information, it's going to be a long wait for the November data mine to occur so we know what characters are coming next month.

The Full Force Battle this time is kind of tough as the opponents are bulky and Gengar immediately uses Poison Gas to put your entire team on a timer. Wallace was nice as he can reflect it back. Otherwise Fall Hilbert is a very solid unit and fills the long needed niche for a physical Dark Striker.

Kind of a bummer they're making the Battle Villa more of an event, though it did kind of get boring after a while with none of the teams really changing. Hopefully they keep the Battle Villa co-op section as even though I use the same team each time it's one of the few remaining social hubs of the game. Not sure what they plan to do to make up for Lucky Scrolls/Cookies & Gem rewards.

Sucks that the Entei Arena event gives no new rewards for players who already beat it. It's not the end of the world, but it is kind of insulting at what the rewards offered are should you choose to try it again. Hopefully they can fix it in time for the Cobalion/Latios reruns later this month like they updated SS Blue's Sync Grid. 5* Power Ups feel like they're harder and harder to come by.

That’s a really good set of pulls for that amount. I really want Hilbert but I am at 2 out of 3 for SS Blue and I’ve been getting lots of shoes for sync grids from his banner, so I’ve just been pulling Multics on that till I’m 3/5 for him.

 

[---]

It's been a few weeks.

Was able to beat Tapu Bulu fairly easily with gridded Blue, Acerola, and Skyla. Am currently sticking to daily pulls for Alder, as while he is a fantastic unit, there are plenty of other Bug unit strikers to fill his void. The datamined events for later this month seem too good to use on him, which is saying a lot. It's a good bet that when the Champion Stadium resets for the first time next month it'll be Unova themed.

In bad news though, the new Time Trial event seems rather limited in how you can approach it if you want to get all the medals & clear rewards; might be the first event in which you can't succeed without gacha units. The multipliers for the rewards aren't very high and you only have 18 days (with 3 attempts per day) to use. Getting the medal for beating the stage in under 2 minutes might be possible, but I have a hard time thinking of a F2P striker who could do it. Most runs so far seem to be with gridded Blue or gridded SS Red with Sun support.


In good news at least the newest datamine is amazing both in terms of potential new content and what we're getting for free:

Spoiler

Looks like Gloria will be the first Gen 8 character to join the game, and based on the rewards we'll be getting with her (Steel tomes & Buff Blends) there's a good chance she'll be partnered with a striker Zacian or Zamazenta (potential new Legendary Event?). And on top of all that, we're getting 120 5* Scout Tickets for 4 free guaranteed 5* units.

Would personally prefer a new Fairy or Fighting striker given we already have Steven & Solgaleo, but it's kind of hard to complain. Will be very interesting to see if they keep Gigantamaxing as sync move only and if the eventual Leon will get Charizard.

 

[Z25]

Well I had 100 paid gems leftover and got crazy lucky:

Makes up for no Alder. I’ll probably save for Skyla but I’m tempted to pull for units I don’t have off of pole fair rates.

 

[---]

Pretty much the farthest opposite for me. Ended up using all my gems and got nothing. As I was close enough to scout points, I ultimately resorted to whaling and got her 3/5 during the last few hundred gems. Have never reached the the scout point limit before and I hope to never again.

Decided to use my 5* Candy leftover from Silver/Cyrus to get her to 5/5, and with all of the power ups I got, got her to 13/20. On the bright side at least I got Jasmine 3/5, Guzma 3/5, Glacia 5/5, and Morty.

Probably won't pull on the Holiday units unless the daily rewards are solid (10k gems they promised) and if I can get into the top 6k/12k of the Prestige Event. Am curious though to see how many whales go for the Tiered event (20k paid gems vs. 40k paid/unpaid gems).

 

[---]

Hopefully they won't do another prestige event for a long time as it was very much pay to win. There are some disputes regarding the top ranked player whether they were hacking or if it was someone who had a barely used account but had stockpiled daily free gems/stamina for a long time. The fact that Dena didn't take them down makes the latter for likely, though I'm not sure if the math adds up especially with how little they were leveling up and how large the gap was compared to other top players.

That said, at least due to the extra gems I was able to pull Skyla in 6k. No luck for Erika thus far yet. After playing the Full Force battle for this event, she seems like the more useful of the two. Spoiler: has opponents with AoE 100% Stun Spore & Toxic, a passive that causes -4 Special Attack, and On a Roll to more easily lower stats.

I really hope N is not a gacha unit. After multiple Pokefairs, Gloria, and Seasonals, I can't imagine most players will have any gems leftover going into the New Year.

 

[---]

Been a while since this thread was bumped, but given the recent update datamine it seems like good a time as any.

Was finally able to beat the Villa with a Day One team. SS Red/Serena/Skyla as a team is no joke. I honestly can't wait to see how broken it is now given the recent datamine and on-going free EX Skyla event. Spoilers: The datamine still has nothing on a EX Skyla model. lol

Blew most of my Gems trying to 2/5 May but only got her once, though I got my first Serena duplicate. I still kind of wish there was a more conventional Water striker but it's hard to complain with how powerful she is. MP Refresh on Rain Dance at 2/5 is pretty much all you need to sweep most stages. I of course immediately got her EX to revel in the unintentional Manga reference it is.

Champion Stadium is a fantastic new mode for veteran players, though I'm still kind of shocked to see just how many are able to get all of the rewards each week even with F2P teams. I myself can barely get to the 3900 points to get all of the 5* power ups. lol

It's a very good month to be a F2P user, though if you should probably save your gems for the 1.5 & 25th Anniversary unless you really like Serena/Dawn.

Spoiler: Datamine Stuff

Valentines Serena - Probably not as broken as regular Serena, due to Sleep > Para, but she still seems very very strong. AOE Speed lowering and AOE Para on top of benefiting from lowering opponents speed to power her attacks. A trainer move that raises Sp Attack, gives her a gauge free attack, and sharply raises her team's speed (which she also gets benefits from).

Valentines Dawn - Definitely not as good as Serena, but still solid. Not mandatory pulling in terms of strength, but if you do pull her you don't really need any more stat debuffers in many regards. AOE Attack & Sp Def debuffing, power ups from lowering stats, can buff an ally's Attack/Sp Attack and Regen Heal them like Misty. Oddly enough doesn't come out until a few days after Serena is released. Will be interesting to see who Opal gets when she comes to the game now that Alcremie is taken.

Sycamore - Easily the best of the Legendary Event units thus far and one of the best F2P units. Has very well rounded stats even for a Support Unit so he'll be able to do a fair amount of damage. His Geomancy Sync is like Leaf's in that it doesn't do any damage, but gives you gauge and boosts your Sp Attack/Sp Def/Speed based on if he's 5/5 or not; one Sync from him can you get +6 for each of those stats automatically. His trainer move excellerates the gauge and heals status conditions/gives Regen Healing for the entire team. Fairy Boost passive means his Moon Blast will hit even harder and has Team Shout like SS Blue to help boost Attack/Sp Attack. Also he's the first Legendary Event unit to have a Sync Grid! It gives him accesses two Master Healers on Horn Leech, has Recuperation (!!!), Force Field, and Impervious (!).

Lysandre - Surprisingly a Flying type like New Years Lance. Not sure how good he'll end up being, obviously good, but I'm not sure how much of a priority over the Holiday units and upcoming Anniversary event will make him especially if you already have Blue. He can heal himself in just about every way except for Potions (Oblivion Wing hits like a truck/Recuperation on Sync/Healthy Healing Regen) but his defenses are pretty poor with his trainer move lowering them even further. Honestly might skip him for now as if you have Blue, it really depends on his Sync Grid.

Piers - He has an interesting gimmick with Obstruct but he's pretty much the hard pass for this month unless you really like Team Yell. I will give credit that they thought out on rewarding successful Obstruct(ions) with ally Attack/Def/Sp Def boosts, having access to Endure with his trainer move, and not really needing to do much else in battle aside from Obstruct. Otherwise, however, his defensive stats are just okay to above average, Obstruct can only be used twice per battle bar Sync Grid, and that there are just so many other units who can boost or take damage better in more straightforward ways. Crossing my fingers they'll have him with a hard British accent and fully make him a Punk Rocker. lol

No new Sync Grids sadly for the remaining 5* Units: Leaf & Hilbert. Serena is getting her EX outfit, in case she needed to be any more game breaking. SS Cynthia & Lance return for a dual PokeFair that may or may not be bait for the 25th Anniversary, but they at least get their EX outfits. Also seems like we're getting a lot of Log In bonuses leading up the Anniversary: 6000 Gems & 60 5* Scout Tickets.

RIP my gems as I don't have SS Cynthia.

 

[Oracle Link]

Is Pokemon Masters EX still a Game with MicroTransactions?

 

[Pokelego999]

Is Pokemon Masters EX still a Game with MicroTransactions?

It has microtransactions, but isn't dependent on them.

 

[---]

Is Pokemon Masters EX still a Game with MicroTransactions?

It has microtransactions, but isn't dependent on them.

Pretty much. There are videos of people beating most aspects of the game with just F2P units. I think only one or two events thus far can't be completed without certain gacha units. You do need to put in effort but the game is a lot more accessible than it was previously and there is/will soon be a newcomer exclusive daily sign in event.

The game gives a lot of really solid F2P units such as Skyla, Iris, Misty, Barry, Korrina, Acerola, Koga, certain Egg Pokemon, etc. While the gacha rates, at least so I hear, are better than most.

Right now easily one of the best units in the game: Professor Sycamore, is free and free to max out to his full potential. You can also get and max out Giovanni right now too.

Skyla might still be free to max out out though, chances are there isn't enough time left now. There's a good chance Professor Oak and Cyrus might be re-run again in the coming months.

 

[Pokelego999]

Pretty much. There are videos of people beating most aspects of the game with just F2P units. I think only one or two events thus far can't be completed without certain gacha units. You do need to put in effort but the game is a lot more accessible than it was previously and there is/will soon be a newcomer exclusive daily sign in event.

The game gives a lot of really solid F2P units such as Skyla, Iris, Misty, Barry, Korrina, Acerola, Koga, certain Egg Pokemon, etc. While the gacha rates, at least so I hear, are better than most.

Right now easily one of the best units in the game: Professor Sycamore, is free and free to max out to his full potential. You can also get and max out Giovanni right now too.

Skyla might still be free to max out out though, chances are there isn't enough time left now. There's a good chance Professor Oak and Cyrus might be re-run again in the coming months.

If only my phone would actually let me download the game.

 

[---]

Took another hour but I finally got Cresselia done. Possibly the hardest arena since Entei (which mind you was before a lot OP units were introduced).

Serena with Trouble Maker to basically spam Hypnosis and occasionally set up Fire Spin. You just have to be careful as during the second half of Bar 2, Cresselia puts up a status reflect barrier. Beyond that though, you pretty much have to spam only Hypnosis as Cresselia recovers almost instantly. Overheat can also be useful for damage.

Grimsley 5/5 I had with a sync nuke build in mind and max refresh on Snatch. Thankfully Cresselia doesn't buff herself after the first half of Bar 1, so Snatch only needs to be used once or twice. He can't do as much damage as true strikers, but is able to do more with less set up than Karen and can survive better than Halloween Hilbert. Is also immune to Paralysis.

Sycamore is the MVP. I gave him Vigilance and used a Master Healer Horn Leech & Healing Hand build. After one Sync he was able to tank everything Bar 3 Cresselia threw at him quite literally as he was the only unit I had left, not to mention buffing his attack with his Team Shout passive. He took at least 5 Sync Moves from Cresselia and was able to mostly shrug it off, occasionally syncing to regain lost speed from Icy Wind. He's the best unit to deal with Cresselia's AOE Toxic & Thunder Wave.


In terms of recent pulls, I blew all my luck on Valentines Serena as I got her in a single daily pull. I had to blow the rest of my gems to get Valentines Dawn.

Unless you don't already have a Dark type, don't try to pull on anything else until we know what's coming next week with the new Master Sync Pair tease. Though based on a trailer uploaded today, you gotta watch until the end, there's a good chance a certain someone (still not Diantha lol) is coming MUCH earlier than expected.

https://twitter.com/PokemonMasters/status/1362280745818066945

 

[---]

Time for a new datamine and it looks like the leaks were again true. Also ouch for the upcoming seasonals, talk bleeding us dry with how soon they're coming after Iris/Diantha

Spoiler

Bunny Girl May (Spring) - A slight let down IMO, was really hoping to see them they and make a Normal Striker viable rather than making another Fighting Striker. In terms of being a Fighting Striker I would assume that both Wally & Korrina have her beat, but we'll see. She probably requires accuracy support to make sure High Jump Kick doesn't miss, but it doesn't take that much to get her going thanks her passive that maxes her attack upon Sync.

High Jump Kick doesn't hit as hard as some of Wally's/Korrina's moves, but she doesn't have to worry about stat drops when attacking, and X Defense & Potions make her much bulkier. Compared to Pikachu, she's probably the Striker/Support hybrid done right. Her grid isn't great but it gets the job done. Her EX Outfit looks clean and her poses are adorable. Was leaning towards making Wally my Fighting type EX unit, but May might change my mind.

Willy Wonka Burgh (Spring) - RNG the unit. Probably more hilarious than useful, spamming Metronome is very much the name of the game and if you're lucky you can really boost your team while tanking damage. He has a fairly solid grid including Master Healer x2, Team Grand/Fierce Entry, Vigilance, etc. I can see him being useful in theory, as he can buff a lot of stats and heal his team, but so much depends purely on randomness. He has the best EX outfit of this latest group IMO.

Selene - She shares a LOT in common with Brendon. I'm kind of surprised they included Spirit Shackle as it's restrain ability is kind of lost in Masters. I think compared to Brendon though, a lot will depend on how big the new restrain multipliers will be as she seems almost reliant on them for dealing damage like a Tech unit. To her credit though, both her Trainer move and grid make it look like she'll have much higher bulk and can heal, nor does she need to worry about Stat Drops and can take better advantage of Critical Strike 2 as a lucky skill.

Elio - The best of the new units IMO and at the very least a new high tier support unit. Can boost Sp. Def, Speed, Attack, Sp. Attack by solid amounts. Can potentially put an opponent to sleep with Sing (terrible accuracy but only one bar and can potentially heal the team). Sparkling Aria is an AOE move that deals solid damage, but with his grid can also potentially lower Defense, Sp. Def, and Speed, but also raise team Speed, and if the opponent is asleep, Critical Hit rate. He'll probably need some accuracy boosts or Troublemaker as a Lucky Skill but I can see him being very useful.

Leaf (Grid) - The wait was worth it as she's very much now a Top Tier Support. She's basically now a mix of Skyla & Sycamore. Tackle MP Refresh 9, Let's Go! now raising team Sp. Def, TWO Potion MP refreshes & one Master Healer, Endurance, Stoic Tackle, Staggering Tackle (Flinch), Potions also act a Full Heals, Power Flux 5, Recuperation, and Adrenaline. Given her Sync Move, she probably gains the most out of any unit when reaching EX.

Zinnia (Grid) - She gets better for sure but nothing amazing like Sycamore & Cyrus. It's cool she gets Clearheaded so you no longer need to worry about Outrage, and when mixed with Dauntless she'll also be able to Spam Draco Meteor. Grand Entry is nice and the Weather Boosts could allow for some interesting team options. There are just too many other Dragon units including F2P.

 

[Pokelego999]

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Pretty cool stuff here.

 

[Pokelego999]

Spoiler: New Update Spoilers

Pokémon Masters EX - Ghetsis Battle Theme (HQ) - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea2fYlGAp6M
Pokémon Masters EX - Galar Gym Leader Battle Theme (HQ) - YouTube
Pokemon Master EX - Battle! Giovanni - #ポケマスEX #PokemonMastersEX #PMEXSpoiler - YouTube

Lots of new stuff.

 

[---]

For those who've complained about lack of content this week has been nothing of the sort. lol

Last night, I spent two straight hours playing through the Ghetsis event, Time Trial*, Battle Villa, Daily Battle Villa Co-Op, and Champion Stadium. Tonight I just spent a hour playing through the new extra missions for the Time Trial* and Azelf Legendary Arena.

*Time Trial still sucks though and gets very repetitive.

I ended up spending 9k gems on the Alder banner to get a copy of him. It was well worth it though as I also got Nate, Elio, and Mallow, and duplicates of SS Grimsley & Phoebe. Best luck I've had in a while. Thanks to all of these events I've been able to make back a fair amount of the gems I ended up spending as well as get one of each 5* Candy. I have no idea who to use the Strike/Tech on, but I finally got my SS Blue to 3/5.

Also looks like the new Weather Event Phase 1 just got a LOT more important. Based on the Japanese Twitter account, it looks like the rewards you get from playing the event each day will eventually result in the chance to redeem for Gems/5* Candies/5* Power Ups.

 

[Pokelego999]

New variations of pre existing trainers will appear via a new system. Only reason I'm bringing this up is because

 

[---]

Finished the Groudon/Kyogre event for the most part aside from the Prize Pool. It honestly kind of made me want to go back and replay ORAS; decisions haven't gotten most of the Legendaries and I have the Shiny Charm & Eon Ticket from back in the day.

I was able to get Maxie in 9k gems thankfully but Archie completely shafted me and I had to use all my gems/slight whaling for the scout point pull. I was able to get Bea, max out Lusamine, SS Grimsley/Clemont/Burgh x2, Morty/May/Mallow/Piers x1, and was able to get SS Blue & Alder to EX. Plumeria I should have reach EX come the time it unlocks.

Probably the worst luck I've had since Gloria, but even then I had gotten her once after 30k. Was hoping to have a least a few pulls on the Champion Pokefair banner but oh well. Time to save for the inevitable Summer Seasonals.

I have no idea who to use the Candies we received on as I'm partially worried about another Prestige Event. Picked LT Surge & Raichu as my first BP unit.

 

[---]

Seems like a decent time to bump given all the news today. 100 free pulls is amazing along with an extra 3000 gems for another 11 free pulls. I'm not that familiar with other gachas but from what I hear I doubt they're as F2P as Dena has made this game at this point (not that the game doesn't have issues). I was able to get a 5* Power Up from today's free pulls.

I was able to save enough stamina in advance to finish the Cyrus event/prize box again in one go as well as enough to make decent headway with Ghetsis and Sycamore. Thankfully each of the Prize Boxes are about half the size of what they normally have been. Be sure to try and clear them far enough so you can take advantage of the Once-A-Day Ultra Hard fights and save some time. You can also get one of each the three main types of 3* & 4* candies.

Was able to get enough resources to finish getting all of my units to Lvl 135 and have enough 5* Power Ups now to EX at least one of the in-coming Anniversary Units. Time to start saving for the eventual Lvl 140 cap.


Also it looks like Mega Mewtwo Y might be apart of the upcoming new Story Event based on the new Trailer from today. For a brief few frames it appeared in the Spanish version of the Trailer. We also have Rose to obviously look forward to as well in the coming weeks/months.

 

[---]

What a cool trailer. lol

N & Reshiram
Lillie & Lunala (Nebby?!)
Steven & Shiny Mega Rayquaza
Misty (FRLG) & Psyduck (Free)

I think everyone called Lunala, though Mega Rayquaza is out of nowhere. I really hope Lunala is a striker as that's something that is sorely lacking among the Ghost types. Mega Rayquaza is Flying so there's a good chance it'll take the new top spot from Blue/Mega Pidgeot & Lysandre/Yveltal; though if it's physical Flying I can still see the other two having important niches.

Misty being in her FRLG is a long time coming. People had her model datamined since the game came out so it's cool to see it put to use, although I think most were betting on Mega Gyarados.

I got 50k gems stored away and 40 5* power ups so I'm ready.

EDIT: Allister is also shadow teased if you pay attention. He's standing among the other trainers. No doubt he'll be in tonight's datamine as well.

 

[---]

Sweet. I was able to get Red in a single pull! Only 100 paid gems! Time to save for the Halloween Seasonal.

It looks like he's quickly growing on people who were doubting him at first. The ability to give the Super Effective bonus multiplier to units who don't have that ability is huge for Master Mode. With his Dynamaxing ability, he also gets free MP Refresh on his Trainer making him also amazing in Battle Villa. He's probably only a top 5~10 Support Unit but his niche is a very powerful one.

Blue seems very good as well but he doesn't seem mandatory if you already have Olivia or Emmet. Being a Special Attack focus Rock unit is cool though.

Is shocking to hear the new title screen music after two years of the same theme always playing. The remix of the Game Corner Hideout theme is fantastic.

The new title screen art was again done by Hitoshi Ariga. Again, if there is on person I'd want to take over for Ken Sugimori someday it'd be him. Only two more weeks before ArtFX Cynthia gets released!

 

[---]

Finally completed the first round of Battle Points. Considering how long it took, it might not be a bad idea to lump them in with Pokefair and Seasonal Units for candy priorities.

Evelyn is probably the worst of the three, in terms of the metagame, but she's also the least bland. Not bad by any means, but she has competition and needs to be 3/5 to work. Would have probably gone for Regirock if not for it being partnered with the MC. Ironically she's the only other Kalos support unit aside from Sycamore.

Hopefully it won't take another half year to complete another round. Fingers crossed for someone to get Latias or Latios.

 

[Pokelego999]

Finally completed the first round of Battle Points. Considering how long it took, it might not be a bad idea to lump them in with Pokefair and Seasonal Units for candy priorities.

Evelyn is probably the worst of the three, in terms of the metagame, but she's also the least bland. Not bad by any means, but she has competition and needs to be 3/5 to work. Would have probably gone for Regirock if not for it being partnered with the MC. Ironically she's the only other Kalos support unit aside from Sycamore.

Hopefully it won't take another half year to complete another round. Fingers crossed for someone to get Latias or Latios.

Yeah I really wanna see more BP Sync Pairs

 

[Pokelego999]

Specially costumed Sync Pairs will debut! Some really weird pairings, but here they are.

Spoiler: Special Costumes

Hilda and Diancie/Mega Diancie

Jasmine and Celesteela

Guzma and Buzzwole

Diantha and Keldeo (Resolute)

Grimseley (Alolan Attire) was also found in the code. He's an NPC, so not a useable sync pair yet.

All BGM 2.14.0 Update (Pokémon Masters EX) HQ - YouTube
There's also new tracks in the game, one for the event, but also 8 new themes, which are arrangements of Wild Battle Themes.

 

[---]

I definitely want to pull for them all as I like each of them, although in hindsight it might have made more sense for Diantha & Hilda to have swapped Pokemon/outfits given their respective regions.

Diantha looks like a solid Fighting Type Tech unit. It's super weird though to make her Special Attack based but then give her moves that target Defense; a Special Attack using Fighting unit that doesn't use Focus Blast would have been interesting. Her Sync Grid has lots of multipliers so it'll be very interesting to see the calculations on her.

Guzma is also kind of a meme unit like SS Misty, but he can definitely do more and gets rewarded at least when he misses. His trainer move is also very nice.

Hilda would have been more interesting if she was a Special Attack Rock user, but Diamond Storm is still fantastic and gives her great bulk.

Jasmine might be the best of the new units and fills a much needed niche as a Special Defense/Crit buffer. It's a shame she can't raise her team's speed but being able to max Special Defense/Crit, potentially maxing Special Attack, and offering healing is nice. Having Absorb as a 1-Bar move is great as a support unit let alone the fact that it also heals you a little bit. A very solid Sync Grid as well.

It's funny we're not getting any new Sinnoh units next month, but at least we're getting a free 5* pull.

The QoL changes they announced are also great. Coop has already been sped up by at least twice the speed it was previously and feels much more natural.

 

[Pokelego999]

Diantha looks like a solid Fighting Type Tech unit. It's super weird though to make her Special Attack based but then give her moves that target Defense; a Special Attack using Fighting unit that doesn't use Focus Blast would have been interesting. Her Sync Grid has lots of multipliers so it'll be very interesting to see the calculations on her.

I remember reading she had Aura Sphere instead of Focus Blast.

 

[Pokelego999]

We got our datamine!
4 Star Gachas can now get grids, Sophocles, Brycen, and Candice got grids, and Candice even got an EX.
Alolan Grimsley will come in a few days time with Bisharp, but we also got our new units!

Spoiler

BW Elesa and Emolga
Sonia and Yamper
SS Lusamine and Dusk Mane/Ultra Necrozma
Christmas Leon and Calyrex Ice Rider
Christmas Nessa and Eiscue

 

[---]

Still no new Sinnoh units. And still no EX for Holiday Siebold. lol

Was able to get all of the Special Costume units in about 38k gems. Guzma was the most costly at about 20k gems. Diantha was about 9k. Hilda I got lucky in only 400 paid gems. Jasmine I got especially lucky and got her 3/5 in only 9k gems. My bias is strong so I'm glad I had the most luck with her; I even splurged the support candies I was saving to get her to 5/5.

SS Lusamine was basically the opposite as I ended up having to whale for the scout pull for a single copy of her. Easily the worst luck I've had since Archie back in May. She's looking like a Top 5 unit in the game at least so there's that. Was able to at least get enough duplicates while pulling to max out Serena/Lisia/Clemont/Plumeria/SS Elesa and get Falkner.

At least the new Holiday Seasonals are coming a little later than normal this year so there's time to build back up the stock of gems. I really want to pull for Holiday Leon so I can have a Ice Striker to EX; Hala is awesome but is tougher to make a team around.

The new 100k limit for Master Mode definitely has me nervous. They're at least starting with the Kanto Elite 4 as opposed to the newer regions who've arguably power crept them. I get the feeling that you'll really need have a large number of EX units to survive.

 

[---]

This month has bled me dry of my gems. Hopefully there will be more skip weeks going into the 2.5 Anniversary at the end of next month as so far this entire month session has been nothing but limited time units. Two Master Fairs in less than a month followed by a Seasonal Fair...

Spoiler: Gacha Pulling Salt

I somehow got lucky and got Renegade Cynthia to 2/5 after about 20k gems (got her twice on a single 11x pull). Considering how she's here for two months, I'll probably focus on daily pulls to try and get her to 3/5 as I'll be close to a pity pull by the time she leaves.

Ended up whaling both New Years Seasonals because of Cynthia. I only got one copy of Volkner but was able to get two copies of Sabrina on my last 11x pull just before I hit pity points and got her to 3/5.

Used some gift cards I got at Christmas and did the paid PokeFair Select Scout. I was lucky and was able to get both Ingo & Lear for the first time.

I was debating about pulling for Lucas but wow is the Vs. Cyrus Round 2 with Dragon-only not very F2P friendly. All non-Sinnoh units basically die in a single hit, there are only 3 Sinnoh Dragon units (two of which are limited) and none of whom are great at tanking hits. Granted you only get a single Tech Coin as a reward, but it is still surprising given how good the game normally is about that stuff. You need to get really lucky with flinch units and landing critical hits with Cyrus. I was able to get Lucas in about 9k gems, but even then it's a challenge you'll have to take seriously.

I only have about 11k gems right now so I hope things will pick up soon. Aside from the new Valentines Day seasonals, it's definitely looking more and more like Dawn & Cresselia and Cyrus & Darkrai are inbound at the end of the month/early February. Unlike Kanto, the Sinnoh Villain arc has now been confirmed to be a two-parter.

I also finally got EX Strikers for each individual type. I feel like I can finally relax a little bit when it comes to Master Mode now and just focus on favorites or metagame units. Also I got to Rank 130 so no more stamina boosts for me.

 

[---]

Legendary Gauntlet definitely lives up to the hype of being the hardest new mode. There are a few individual battles in Master Mode that I think are harder, such as Master Mode Koga, but managing this mode to take full advantage of the rewards puts it on top. Arceus help us should the next Gauntlet feature Cresselia or Regirock or both.

I was able to get my win streak to 28 before I gave up. I think I could have better managed a few things, but the rewards after 10 wins can take up a LOT of time and aren't really worth it for the most part. I really regret not doing more with some of my Eggmons beyond Shinys as several of them really surprised me or saved by butt. I've been farming the arenas when I have time to stock up on the guaranteed 3* Lucky Cookies.

Entei is pretty straightforward, the biggest issue is Fire Spin messing with your tank and Heat Wave on Bar 3 causing an unblockable burn. You can auto it though if you have Hilbert/May/SC Jasmine at decent levels.

Cobalion is also straightforward but basically requires a unit who can consistently get status effects. Silver/Anniversary N/Skyla can auto this.

Azelf is probably the hardest as it's attacks change mid-bar so you need mixed units (Lusamine/Brendon/SSR Cynthia) to keep up and tank damage. I read Classic Misty/SC Diantha/SS Blue can auto this but I haven't been able to get it to work personally as I lack the set up.

Spoiler: Datamine Time

SS Cyrus is basically a more broken version of Serena as many were expecting due to Dark Void. At the very least, he seems to have taken the title of Dark type unit from Halloween Hilbert. Definitely the unit to pull for this month if any.

SS Dawn seems like she may be built for long battles like Legendary Arenas as her gimmick is really based around her healing herself with Moonlight from half HP. I have no idea how well in practice, but she's definitely made to tank hits.

Valentines Marnie seems solid (arguably she might be the most straightforward of the new units this month) and has a heavy focus on debuffing Attack/Defense. Given she has Mega Mawile, her sync nuke will naturally be weaker. She has Steel Wish at least, so she'll go well with the many Steel type Galar units.

Valentines Bea seems like a new high tier support and might be the best new Hail setter (auto-Hail at the start/on-sync!). She seems to a mix of Acerola and Ingo: having access to Astonish Flinch spam but can also heal using Potions. Sadly it seems that she might require 3/5 to be truly reliable but she's basically made to be teamed with Holiday Leon.

Also a free version of Blue & Arcanine. Nothing fantastic, but Fire type Hyper Beam is always cool to see and has several ways to debuff opponents like a pseudo-Tech unit. Also comes with an EX outfit, but it sadly just reuses his Mega Pidgeot colors.

Also grids for Siebold/Bruno/Grant. Bruno seems to be the big winner when it comes to his grid, but he already had the most solid kit of the three of them anyway IMO. It's hilarious that regular Siebold got his EX outfit before his Holiday variant.

Regular Cyrus also gets some grid buffs, but I'm not sure how much they'll affect his viability as I have no idea where they'll be placed. He at least gets a free +20 boost to Special Attack/Speed.

 

[Pokelego999]

The 2.5 Datamine hasn't come yet, but May and Latias are slated for release on the 28th as part of the celebrations. We have no idea who else is coming, so we'll have to wait for the datamine more likely than not.

Victory Road has also been announced as a new mode. Not sure what it does in particular.