2023 WAS FOR SUCKERS 2024 IS FOR DRAGONS

On 31st December 2023, 2016 VGC World Champion Wolfe Glick tweeted the following:

2023 WAS FOR SUCKERS 2024 IS FOR WOLVES

It’s been a running joke for the last few years (see his tweets for 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020). As a Wolfe fan, I’ve enjoyed them all but having deleted my Twitter at the end of last year, and feeling particularly awful this month because January is always a crap month for my mental health, I needed a pick-me-up and remembered that tweet. And that’s when I decided to make my own version:

2023 WAS FOR SUCKERS 2024 IS FOR DRAGONS

Is it a rip-off? Yeah, probably. But it’s a topical rip-off because 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, according to the Chinese zodiac, and what better way to celebrate than to tie all my mental efforts into dragons and Pokémon. After all, Chinese culture has featured heavily in the franchise, with Pokémon such Emboar, Reshiram, Zekrom, Altaria, and the Treasures of Ruin.

For the last few weeks, whenever I thought about that mantra, it put a fire in my belly to keep going and power through the darkness. Then tonight, I went on Pokémon Violet for a draft league match (spoiler alert: I lost) and noticed there was a Shelgon outbreak. My mind went back to that motto and I knew what to do:

1. I’d catch two shiny Shelgon
2. I’d evolve one, and keep the other unevolved
3. I’d transfer up an event shiny Bagon from Pokémon Black
4. I’d take photos with them and reinforce my 2024 goals, for the aesthetic

So after the match, I spent the next 3-5 hours searching for a shiny Shelgon. I even tried the Academy Special meal with Level 1 Sparkling Power as I was low on Herba Mystica, but to no avail (unsurprisingly). I also tried to do some 6* Raids to see if I’d get any drops but luck wasn’t on my side this time and after a few defeats, I felt like I was wasting precious time and eventually went back to the hunt.

Minutes went by with nothing; spawning and respawning the same regular degular Shelgon…

And then, it finally appeared!

I saved and tried to figure out what ball to use. I tried a Quick Ball first, just in case but nothing.

Maybe a Dive Ball? No. Not an Ultra Ball this time… how about a Dusk Ball? That’ll match because Salamence is green and I’m in a cave!

It required a Spore + False Swipe combo from my trusty Breloom but I got it and I named her Charlotte (as a pun on ‘shallot’, since I decided to give both Shelgon onion-related names.) It was an ordeal to get one shiny Shelgon—how was I going to find a second? Well, the shiny gods threw me a bone and I found a second one minutes later. I saved, threw a Dusk Ball first time and got the all-important critical capture. This one was male so I went for Rap Scallion as its nickname.

Now, all I had to do was transfer the Bagon into my Violet save, evolve Rap Scallion, and set up a picnic to get the photos.

And here they are!

2023 WAS FOR SUCKERS 2024 IS FOR DRAGONS!