The Hunt for Shiny Golden Bacon

Reward? You want a reward?  Contact me for details...

By this point in time, I really should have finished the majority of Pokémon White.  I mean, I defeated the Elite Four in its fifth iteration.  I caught my version mascot.  I now have access to all of the post-Elite Four locations and side quests.  New locations have now opened up.  But what's taking me so long?  One thing: a craving for delicious, shiny, golden bacon.

Current Team

Before I delve into my obsession with all things shiny and bacony, an update on my team!

Deevine/SERPERIOR - She's still fast and serves to hit the opponent before it can make a move.  Again, it's a rule of mine that I must use my starter, so Deevine isn't getting switched out for anything.
DaruMama/DARMANITAN - So the shiny that started my current obsession is still kicking ass and taking names.  Really... all she does is hit things hard.  Punching is all she knows how to do.
Redunculus/REUNICLUS - The token guy on my team evolved since last update, and his ability Magic Guard has proven its worth on numerous occasions.  And he's cute in a weird way.
Zeeba/ZEBSTRIKA - I like the electric zebra, so it's still on my team.
Natalie/SWANNA - I ended up switching out the water monkey for the water bird.  It's serving the same purpose as Pelipper did in my Emerald as a utility Pokemon for flying and surfing.  Of the Pokemon in my team that have been there the longest, she's the lowest leveled as her stats are not all that impressive.  She may get switched out for something more useful down the road, but she's staying for now.
ZeebaEata/SANDILE - A new addition to my team, ZeebaEata hasn't been trained that much, so it didn't evolve yet.  It'll get more of a chance once I get on with the game.


Shiny Hunting
  
With the appearance the shiny Darumaka in my game, and it being the first random shiny Pokemon that I ever encountered, I began a quest to acquire more shiny Pokemon.  While the odds are greatly stacked against me (you have a 1/8192 chance of encountering one in the wild), I was determined that Darumaka would not be my last.  I heard of the Masuda Method of breeding (cuts the odds to 1/1366; outlined here) as a more reliable way of getting shinies.  I picked one that has an interesting alternate coloring (as most just have a slightly different shade of their normal color).  Target: Tepig.  Success? Not yet... almost 1000 eggs hatched so far with none being shiny, but I've gone too far at this point to give up.

Forgive me for a crappy cell phone pic, but that's all you're getting.

HOWEVER, I did have better success in random encounters.  Over at the Serebii.net Forums, a group organizes weekend "Shiny Hunts" in a given location where everyone just battles random Pokemon in hopes of finding a shiny.  I decided to participate in the Pinwheel Forest hunt and after just 151 encounters, a shiny Swadloon!  Granted, I wasn't as lucky in the hunts since, though there are more dedicated hunters out there than me that will do thousands of encounters before giving up.  And now for my ten favorite shiny Pokemon of this generation:

Emboar looks pretty cool with the blue flames, hence why I'm hatching so many Tepig eggs just to get one.  The blue looks pretty cool on Gigalith as well.  Seismitoad gets some golden warts.  Swadloon looks pretty darn creepy in its shiny form, and I'm glad that I own one.  The patterns on Scolipede are nicely highlighted in aqua blue.  Continuing the blue theme, Zorua with blue tufts of hair is a nice addition.  I prefer this dark version of Haxorus.  Mienshao in pink is fabulous, as is Virizion.  And finally, Genesect looks even angrier in red.

Hopefully soon one of my Tepig eggs will finally shine so I can move on with the game and put more time into something else.  With E3 soon approaching, there will be plenty more things to be distracted by in the coming year.