Pokémon Go Community Day, 11/21/2020

During the Pokémon Go Community Day on Sunday, which was greatly assisted by Ash, I noted that things "were not quite done". The reason is because of today: there is a second Community Day for this month with a second featured Pokémon, unprecedented for this event with the exception of certain repeats due to technical issues. The reason there are two of them is because it is to celebrate certain feelings of thankfulness, which I have to say is quite fine (and should be discussed later). Thankfully, the structure of the two Community Days are also quite similar, which also makes for something good to discuss.

In many ways, this second edition within the month is an analogue of the first edition. The featured Pokémon is Magmar, which can be said to be the Fire counterpart to the Electric-type Electabuzz. During the event, when it is made to evolve into Magmortar with a Sinnoh Stone, it gains the Charged Move of Thunderbolt. Like the first edition, the bonus is reduced Egg distance, to allow its baby form Magby to be hatched more often from 2 km Eggs, similar to Elekid for Electabuzz. Already, the analogue is evident: the evolved forms gain each other's type moves and the evolution structure for both is pretty much the same.

As with the editions over the course of much of this year, the event lasts for six hours with three-hour long Incense, there are bonuses that make it viable, and there is an additional paid Special Research, this time entitled "No Match for Magmar". Like the previous edition on Sunday and two months before with Porygon, there is also an additional Timed Research to provide Sinnoh Stones to evolve Magmar into Magmortar, with one slight difference: it also provides a whopping 60 Great Balls in addition to the 30 free Ultra Balls from the Shop and whatever may be gotten from other sources. I suppose lessons were learned from Electabuzz, which tends to be difficult to catch, a fact that became evident last Sunday.

Unlike Sunday, I didn't have a theme event to deal with, so I was free to do whatever it took to make things work. I walked and captured as many Magmar as possible in the region around my neighborhood while going through as many Field Research tasks as possible. In the midst of things, I met a fellow Pokémon Go Trainer who hadn't been active for a good long while, and it was a bittersweet reunion knowing that it might take another long while before the Trainer returns. After using one Incense, I decided to take it easy on the progression of the rest of the event and the day. In the end, I obtained 5 Magmortar - one for Great League PvP, for Ultra League PvP, with the best stats that I possess, Shiny, and whatever came out of the paid Special Research - plus enough Candy stock for different purposes.

This year has been more bitter than it has been sweet, but things like Community Day in Pokémon Go have managed to continue to proceed. This month, it even came in two editions - today and last Sunday - that have similar Pokémon and similar parallels. To have even just one each month is still very nice, but to have two and within a short time one after another is indeed even nicer. For that, it is worth it to be thankful, especially in regard of this month when it becomes pertinent for a great number of people, and in having a moment (or two) of Pokémon solace in the chaos that is this year.

One year ago: The Hype Cycle and Pokémon

Two years ago: Traveling All the World

Three years ago: Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon Uptake