Pokemon Emerald: Holy crap the betting man rules. 16+ BP per successful run through an event? You can just forfeit to reset the enemy trainers back to crappy stuff too, so any facility except the Battle Factory or Battle Pyramid can work so long as you're willing to give up whatever streak you have going. I have nearly 300 BP now, and that's after spending 128 on Choice Band and Brightpowder.
My Battle Tower streak got snapped at 40, a Heracross killed Metagross with EQ and easily swept the remainder of my team with Megahorn. It's looking like an insoluble problem unless I change my team around, and I can't think of any good Heracross counters that'd be a good fit (well, there weren't many good Hera counters to begin with...). Dunno if I feel like going for a longer streak anytime in the future.
Got to 5 runs through the Battle Pike, but it took some lucky breaks with healing. Problem is that I usually pick the trainer battles when available, but now the enemies are getting good enough that my team gets worn down over time, especially Metagross. It took healing rooms to get through that fifthj run, which means I can forget about the Gold symbol here.
Lost 3 times while trying at the Battle Arena; got swepted once each by a Gorebyss and a Kingdra, and another time a Kingdra weakened me to the point where a Steelix could finish off Metagross. Water types are a huge problem for me here since Latias doesn't fare well in the fast-paced format and my current replacement for it (Swellow) is horribly frail. I'm thinking that using a Heracross in place of Swampert would do the trick, but I dunno if I feel like training another Pokemon just for one more symbol.
Battle Dome I got my first and probably only gold symbol at. The game threw a ton of Water types at me in the later rounds, probably due to Metagross being in the first slot. Latias managed to take on all of them except one Starmie who outsped it and got a freeze on the first try. Luckily it apparantly lacked Surf so Metagross could come in and Shadow Ball it fairly safely.
On the tenth run the game opted to pull out the big guns and gave me a Latias/Regice/Metagross team for the opening match, which was O_o. "A team with average potential", indeed! That took some work to beat, especially since the trainer even bothered to switch for once. Next two opponents I was better suited to handle (Tyranitar/Claydol/Flygon and Salamence/Altaria/Flygon), Swampert would've swept them both if the latter team's Flygon didn't be a dick and randomly know Giga Drain. As for the Dome Ace, I correctly predicted he'd lead with Swampert but accidentally sent my own Swampert out instead of Latias as I was planning. Luckily the AI opted for Mirror Coat first turn; my Swampert was faster, but 3HKO'd with EQ and got 2HKO'd back. Next came Metagross, who Protected as my Swampert Chesto-rested, sealing my victory, as Metagross will never ever get past full HP Swampert. Three cheers for Gatewalker the Swampert! He did most of the work against the last two brains I faced, Anabel and Brandon, as well.
