+#### _Meta-ish Dair_{as=cite}
+
+{as=details}
+::::::::::::
+{as=summary}
+teamsheet
+
+* Dragonair \
+ 4/14/15 (rank 40/4096) \
+ Spark, Surf, Thunderbolt
+* Sparkblub (Lanturn) \
+ 5/15/12 (rank 68/4096) \
+ Spark, Surf, Thunderbolt
+* Snampy (Froslass) \
+ 5/14/14 (rank 472/4096) \
+ Powder Snow, Avalanche, Shadow Ball
+::::::::::::
+
+fur the final week of gbl i decided not to worry about laddering, and
+ in fact almost decided not to play any gbl at all.
+then i remembered that stardust rewards fur the last week of gbl were
+ inflated, so i decided to try out dragonair and see how it worked,
+ especially given that it would be somewhat buffed in world of
+ wonders, just enough that early PvPoke simulations were giving
+ dragonair a just barely pawsitive weighted battle record
+
+it may be clear from the teamsheet already, but this team _struggled_.
+i dropped to 2200 elo trying to make the team work.
+
+at furst i used dragonair on the lead with my lanturn/umbreon core that
+ i used to climb ladder, but after getting punished enough fur the
+ double-weakness to fairy i switched out umbreon fur frosslass.
+this left the team without anything of a real safe swap, and made it
+ difficult to play around lost leads.
+it definitely did not help that both dragonair and froslass are quite
+ frail.
+
+more than anything else, i fuond from playing this team that
+ familiarity with the mons on your team is very impurrtant to this
+ game.
+i think it even bigger deal that i did not know how to play dragonair
+ well that made this team, than that the team has obvious weaknesses
+ (hell, my most tryhard laddering team has obvious weaknesses).
+
+if i were to try a team like this again, i might simply accept the
+ double weakness to fairy and run the umbreon/lanturn core until i
+ have better mons to suppurt dragonair with
+
+#### timeless travels: some unfocused closing thoughts
+
+it is really too bad that i have struggled to even find a skarmory this
+ season, not to mention one with good IVs!
+
+the rough end to my season, as well as the chaos inevitable from a
+ ladder reset, has shaken my confidence in the game more than a little
+ bit.
+this is somewhat unfair, i suppose, given that even the best purrformance
+ i have managed out of a team still has some very obvious weaknesses,
+ but it is still unnerving to face the fact that i still have a long
+ way to go in this game, and not just in getting the mon fur good team
+ compussitions
+
+something that has also become clear to me is that i simply do not have
+ it in me to consistently play all my sets (the fact that my team
+ needs a lot of work sure does not help!);
+i have simply come to expect this.
+frankly, i am surpurrised that i have played all my sets so far in the
+ season at time of writing{% 2024-03-02 %}; but this streak will
+ surely end soon enough.
+
+as a side note; it has been fun that M and J have seemed to pick up gbl
+ since the end of the season with evidently some expectation to play
+ at all in the current one.
+i do wonder how much my teams would struggle against theirs!
+