Any% NG+ Info + Route

SRAM file (find your emulator's SRAM/battery save folder and put this there with the same name and extension as the existing TCG save file there, and the emulator should load it):
https://www.speedrun.com/saves/TCG_NG_nz6cu_5almr.zip

Personally I have kept the same decks as in the Round 2 run, so those strategies still apply:
https://www.speedrun.com/pkmntcgext/guide/iexl5

But of course you could use any decks that you wish. 000aj has been using a Char family deck (including Charizard!) instead of Ponyparas, for instance.

The route is the main difference, as having all of these peon duels to get through means having to minimize deck swaps as much as possible. 000aj came up with this route that, aside from poking into the Water Club an extra time, is pretty tight and has very few deck switches.

Another difference is using Magnemite to Self-Destruct to lose against Ronald consistently. The Electabuzz deck starts off with 4 Magnemites instead of 4 Electabuzzes; edit it after Ronald 2.

Zapdos: Brittany, Michael
Hitmonchan: Heather
Ponyparas (or Char): Kristin, Nikki, Gene
Magnemite: Ronald
Hitmonchan: Chris, Lightning Club, Amanda, Fire Club, Psychic Club
Magnemite: Ronald
Electabuzz: Water Club, Joseph
Zapdos: Rick, Mitch, Dome

Original work not done by Raagentreg

Any% Round 2 Info + Route

(formerly Any% NG+, until I found an ACTUAL NG+ glitch using save corruption)

SRAM file (find your emulator's SRAM/battery save folder and put this there with the same name and extension as the existing TCG save file there, and the emulator should load it):
https://www.speedrun.com/saves/TCG_ROUND_2_mhp9l.zip

Any% NG+ is a short meme category I made up that beats the 8 Club Leaders in any order, followed by the Pokemon Dome, from an existing save file. This lets you use any 4 premade decks you want, with an insane power level allowing crazy plays not possible in normal runs.

DECKS/ROUTE
======
You can use any decks you like in this category, but the four decks I used in the record all have a 36 card base of the best trainers in the game:
4 Professor Oak, 4 Bill, 4 Energy Search, 4 Energy Removal, 4 Computer Search, 4 PlusPower, 4 Item Finder, 4 Gust of Wind, 4 Full Heal

The four decks and the route go hand in hand, to minimize deck switching while also minimizing world map movement as much as possible, so I'll just talk about both at once. You could shorten resets by moving the harder clubs sooner, at the expense of more deck switches or longer world map travel.

Deck 1: Electabuzz (For Amy)
4 Electabuzz, 2 Lass, 2 Defender, 4 Gambler, 12 Lightning Energy

Being the first fight, I reset heavily on slightly slow Amys. Except for Lapras, all her basics have 40 HP, so I like to get 2 PlusPowers on turn 1 to get a Thundershock kill; the Gamblers are there to help with that.
The 2 Lasses I have in these decks can be used in a pinch to shuffle the opponent's deck if they suddenly pull an Oak right when you were about to win. Frankly they aren't of much use here, since I'd just reset if she pulls out an Oak or too many basics.
If she has a Goldeen out, it's a good idea to Gust of Wind to Squirtles/Horseas and kill them instead, to avoid Bubble and Smokescreen.

Deck 2: Ponyta/Paras (For Nikki and Gene)
4 Ponyta, 2 Parasect (deck edited to 2 Paras, 4 Parasect after Nikki), 2 Lass, 4 Defender, 2 Potion, 6 Fire Energy, 4 Double Colorless Energy

As opposed to safer methods like Magmar or Scyther, Ponyta and Paras are the highest turn 1 Fire/Grass damage dealers. In NG+, I try to get a kill every single turn if possible, to try to prevent the opponent from drawing more bench Pokemon and getting a 2-4 prize fight.
Ponyta and Paras share a deck slot since their decks have a similar theme of using DCE, and needing a decent amount of recovery/protection trainers to keep their flimsy bodies alive.
For Nikki, Oddishes are your top priority; however, leaving an Exeggcute alive could result in an Exeggutor evolution. Bulbasaur is mostly harmless; I've never seen an Ivysaur, though she might Breeder to a Venusaur. After a DCE on turn 1, get a Flame Tail ready for turn 3, to be more ready for her evolutions and not run out of PlusPowers.
For Gene, going second against Rhyhorn is the worst start. First against Rhyhorn with a DCE can be nice; if he doesn't Potion or Energy Removal you, he won't attach an energy to Leer. Later, be sure to Gust of Wind to benched Rhyhorns and Parasect PlusPower Slash them.
With this deck power level, you could go for a triple PlusPower kill on Onix, although the time it takes to get all of those might not be worth just 2-shotting it.
Be weary of a surprise Mud Slap, Horn Attack, or Graveler Rock Throw kill. Be sure to Gust of Wind or Energy Removal these threats, or Potion/Defender when necessary. He has no PlusPowers luckily.

Deck 3: Hitmonchan (For Isaac, Murray, and Ken)
4 Hitmonchan, 2 Lass, 4 Defender, 2 Potion, 12 Fighting Energy

For Isaac and Murray, I would PlusPower Jab a lead Kangaskhan so that (barring Potions/Energy Removals) he doesn't use Fetch on his turn. I would probably not keep going second against Kangaskhan; it lowers your chances of having a good fight drastically.
Isaac is pretty straight forward, although Electabuzz lead can be a pain if you don't have Full Heals. You might be able to triple PlusPower Jab one, or double PlusPower Jab a Tauros.
For Murray, if he has Snorlax or Chansey lead, try to Gust of Wind to Abras to PlusPower Jab them while you're building up a Special Punch. Unfortunately, Mr. Mime and Chansey both are gonna take 2 turns to kill; Murray is horrible as always.
Mr. Mime will do 20 damage if you have 0 damage already, but 60 damage if you have 20 already. Be sure to Defend/Potion/Energy Removal appropriately. Same goes for Abras that have 2 Energy; a Super Psy could be on your way if you don't stop it then.
For Ken, try to be aggressive in Gusting and PlusPowering to get early kills, especially if he has Magmar or Growlithe lead with Jigglypuffs/Tauros on the bench. Keep Chansey from Scrunching no matter what you can do.

Deck 4: Legendary Zapdos (For Rick, Mitch, and Dome)
4 Zapdos, 2 Poke Ball, 4 Scoop Up, 2 Super Potion, 12 Lightning Energy

Zapdos' Big Thunder does 70 damage per turn starting turn 3, which is great output, especially against Pokemon like Mewtwo, Hitmonchan, and fossil Moltres/Articuno. And having 4 Zapdos and 4 Scoop Ups also makes Peal of Thunder strats possible!
Since you'll often be leaving Active Pokemon out for a while, you want to Gust to a relatively harmless or slow-to-attack one, like Porygon, promo Mewtwo, Growlithe, Voltorb, Ditto, Seel, and legendary birds. You do NOT want Confusion or Paralysis coin flip attacks coming at you every turn! It's not only slow to get through the animations, but requires extra work to Full Heal the effects! The best active Pokemon is a non-attacking one.
Peal of Thunder's 30 damage can take out Porygon, Mankey, and Magikarp, and also bring the Legendary Birds or Kangaskhan/Lapras/Zapdos into Big Thunder range. Trying to get these kills is good to save a turn, as long as you have a Scoop Up handy; you don't want to risk Big Thundering your bench! Don't soft reset to manipulate them if it's not worth it; I've lost a lot of time like this.
It's important to understand a bit about how Peal/Big Thunder's RNG works. Obviously, coin flips and deck shuffles change what the target will be. The target is just a location, so if you want to kill their active Pokemon but Big Thunder is targeting bench 2, Gust of Wind the active with bench 2. It'll still hit bench 2, which is now the threat. Peal of Thunder will usually hit the same target Big Thunder would, although sometimes it hits your active instead.
PlusPowers will increase the damage done by both Big Thunder AND Peal of Thunder. (shoutouts to 000aj for telling me this oddity) However, it only increases damage done to an Active Pokemon. This can make it advantageous to have 80 HP Pokemon like Lapras out in front (or Gust them to the front when Big Thunder will hit the front) to save a turn with a PP'd Big Thunder. It also means that, against a 2 Dratini Rod, you could beat him on turn 1 with just 1 extra Zapdos, 1 Scoop Up, and 1 PlusPower. If you get lucky and both Peals target their active Pokemon.
Aside from Rod, it's possible for a Grand Master to have only 1 Pokemon out; this means they have their Legendary card in their hand, waiting to place it on their turn. Do whatever you possibly can to get a turn 1 Peal kill in this instance!

You can edit the decks any way you like; I went low on recovery trainers, but you could go even lower and add more Gamblers, or play it safe and take out some Lasses. Hope this helps anyone wanting to run this insanely fast, fun category!

Original work not done by Raagentreg

Bulbasaur / Squirtle & Friends / Hard Mode route

Please note ROUTES ARE PERSONAL PREFERENCE

Based on A.K.N.'s Scyther-first approach to Bulbasaur & Friends: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmntcgext/guide/j7cpg

This is basically the RTA route, but with using Scyther to beat the Fighting peons and Gene first, then switches to Fire/Fighting and proceeds as normal. Using Scyther is fairly straightforward, and gets you some great packs. Bulba/Squirt also have access to Electabuzz and Hitmonchan, which can help with Lightning and Water Club.

Remove 2 Bulbasaur/Squirtle, add 2 Energy, get free Energy
Fighting Club, Rock Club side room, blindattempt or manip Scyther (top-right of TM)
Scyther-only deck (max Grass/Trainers except Revive)
Chris, Gene, Jessica, Michael (optional), Amanda (optional)

DEPENDING ON THE CARDS YOU OBTAIN, DO WATER, LIGHTNING, OR GRASS AS YOU PLEASE
With default cards, Lightning should be the safest. Michael and Amanda might be better fought with a Fire/Fighting deck if Water is delayed

DECK EDIT: Pikachu/Raichu/Electabuzz only
Sara, Joshua, Amy, EDIT BEFORE LEAVING BECAUSE OF RONALD IF WATER SECOND
DECK EDIT: Fire/Fighting as per usual, or Fighting-only and do Lightning first
Lightning, Grass
OPTIONAL: Open mailbox packs 2-7 using manip

DECK EDIT: Dugtrio only (hopefully more than 1 of them)
Fire Club
DECK EDIT: Add Rattata (or add it in the previous edit)
Psychic Club
DECK EDIT: Mewtwo only
Science Club, Fighting Club
DECK EDIT: Dew/Gya for Courtney, Dugtrio for Steve, Dew/Gya/Dug as preferred for the rest
Pokemon Dome

Personal notes after playing Bulbasaur%:
I tended to use mono-color decks for Water/Lightning/Grass, particularly because my Fire types were so sparse. (I had 3 Charmeleons but 0 Charmanders once.) This didn't work too well on Jennifer, Brittany, or Amanda, who are best done with a Fire/Fighting deck due to weaknesses/resistances.
I always did Electabuzz-only for Water and didn't run into any trouble, except trying to use it on Amanda. (I'm not sure if Scyther-only or Electabuzz-only is better if you do Water second)
I didn't get much value out of adding the Hitmonchans... I've always been on the fence about Hitmonchan in Lightning Club...
Michael with Scyther works well, as long as you don't accept a start where you'll die. Don't be too afraid of Magmar/Electabuzz; make sure he has the correct Energy first!
Watch out for using Electabuzz-only against Ronald! Edit first!

Personal notes after playing Squirtle%:
Surprisingly, both of my runs were faster than Bulbasaur, despite the starting cards being weaker. The trainer base is quite weak, you lack Grass and Lightning Energy, and don't start with a Dugtrio. I just got lucky with my packs and duels I think...
Both times, I did Water, then Grass entirely, then Lightning. Electabuzz only, then Fire/Fighting, then Dugtrio only. I fought Amanda with Electabuzz, and fought Jennifer and the left boy with Fire/Fighting, so Dugtrio was only for right boy and Isaac (and of course, it then goes to Dugtrio-only Ken strats). If I hadn't gotten a Dugtrio by the end of Water Club, I would have reset.

Personal notes after playing Hard Mode:
One nice thing is that you start with 20 of each Energy, since you can talk to the Energy guy twice.
For the start, I'm open to Scyther, Electabuzz, or Hitmonchan. Regardless of what you pick, you need to be very lucky in the first fights, as very few duels are even winnable with your deck. Amy is quite difficult for solo Electabuzz with no Trainer support; I didn't try Hitmonchan yet. Scyther can beat the 4 duels it does in the other categories, with some luck.
From there, based on your card pool, just try to get Rock/Water/Lightning/Grass dealt with. Get the mail packs ASAP to do the pack 2-7 manip (like, fight just Kristin or just Brandon (right)). The top 2 Lightning bois are very easy fights to do, and get you 4 valuable Colosseum packs.
Probably open Mail Pack 12 before Dome.

Original work not done by Raagentreg

Bulbasaur & Friends Route by A.K.N

memes

This assumes you have extended knowledge of the speedrun, if not please refer to other guides here for learning:
https://www.speedrun.com/pkmntcg/guides


bulbasaur deck tcg route

tutorial get energy
talk to mitch
rockclub sideroom, manip scyther from mail 1, scyther only deck
chris gene jessica michael 

deck edit add pika/raichu electa (optional remove scyther now, or adding electmons after amanda)
waterclub 
amanda, deckedit remove scyther,
sara joshua amy
optional deck edit, take out elect mons add ponyta diglett/dugtrio

ronald, grassclub
deck edit, check what fire mons you have, pref magmar ponyta charmander, add diglett/dugtrio

heather kristin brittney nikki

deckedit, remove firemons add ratatta (optional add ratatta after ken)
fireclub, ken

psy club, maurry, ronald, sideroom (optional read mail 5 and 6) pickup mewtwo

sci club, deck edit mewtwo only
joseph, rick

fight club then light club,

jennifer, nicholas, 
deckedit, diglett/dugtrio

brandon, issac

grandmasters, gg

Original work not done by Raagentreg

Bulbasaur and Friends - New Route (Aug 2020)

This guide is available, and probably more readable / up to date, on Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b2UATVUbDX_scfwut9rG4Da8jAibN2hxBTqxck8R05Y/edit?usp=sharing

==What is Bulbasaur and Friends / Bulba%?==
This route is a category extension for the Pokemon Trading Card game for GBC. Essentially, this category is identical to Any% Glitchless, but you are required to start with Bulbasaur and Friends. Typically, Any% Glitchless runs start with the Charmander and Friends deck.

==Why is Charmander and Friends preferred for normal Any% Glitchless runs?==
Charmander and Friends is selected for normal runs because it has the best Trainers and the collection has everything you need to tackle the two easiest gyms in the game (Grass and Lightning). Both of these gyms give you several Colosseum packs, so you get more of the best cards right away. Because of this, Charmander runs are easier and a few minutes faster on average.

==How do the cards you start with differ between the two decks?==
For a comprehensive list, check out this guide: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmntcg/guide/g6wln
Both starting card sets mostly contain cards we don’t really care about, so let’s focus on what cards are actually useful to us in a run.

===Important Pokemon===
====Charmander and Friends====
1x Nidoran M^
2x Charmander
1x Charmeleon
2x Ponyta^
1x Magmar
2x Seel
1x Dewgong
2x Pikachu
1x Raichu
2x Diglett
1x Dugtrio
1x Machop
1x Machoke

====Bulbasaur and Friends====
2x Nidoran M
1x Nidorino
1x Seel
1x Dewgong
2x Pikachu^
1x Raichu^
1x Electabuzz
1x Diglett
1x Dugtrio
1x Hitmonchan

^Not typically used in runs of this category

Other than some increased or decreased quantities of particular Pokemon, the important differences are bolded. Bulbasaur and Friends gets to use Hitmonchan and Electabuzz from the beginning of the game, whereas Charmander and Friends gets access to Fire types immediately. The Bulbasaur deck also starts with Nidorino, but that isn’t too hard for either deck to get. 

This isn’t all bad news. While the Fire types are sorely missed (and essentially prevent us from starting with the Grass gym), Electabuzz makes the Water gym much more consistent, and Hitmonchan is a welcome upgrade from Machop for Electric fights. Hitmonchan also does a very good job against the Fighting minions which are typically handled with Scyther in most Charmander routes - this reduces the run’s dependence on Scyther significantly.

===Trainer Cards===
====Charmander and Friends====
1x Professor Oak
2x Bill
1x Switch
1x Computer Search
1x Pluspower
2x Potion
2x Full Heal

====Bulbasaur and Friends====
1x Professor Oak
1x Bill
1x Switch
1x Pokeball
2x Pluspower
1x Defender
1x Gust of Wind
2x Potion
2x Full Heal
1x Revive^

^Not typically used in runs of this category

The big drawback for the Bulbasaur run is that you aren’t guaranteed a Computer Search. This is perhaps the best Trainer in the game, so it’s a huge bummer. The Bulbasaur deck also starts with one less Bill. To make up for it, Bulbasaur gives you a Pokeball, an extra Pluspower, a Defender, and a Gust of Wind to start. While these trainers are great to have from turn 1, they are obviously less useful if you can’t search for them at any time. In any case, the extra Pluspower in particular is hugely valuable for speeding up early fights. 

==What route is used?==
As with any TCG run, the exact route you use is to some extent up to personal preference. Changes can be made to this route and you’ll still be in contention for a top time. That said, here is what I have been doing, and I’ll also try to explain the decisions I made when designing the route. This assumes you have a working knowledge of the “standard” Charmander and Friends route (“Any% 2018”).

===Beginning of Game / Initial Deck Edit===
Right from the start, we do something different - we go straight to the computer in the upper left corner of the lab, prepare to open Pack 1, back out, and do a fast mash booster pack manipulation. The reason for this is because we don’t start out with as many good cards in the run as a Charmander deck, so we need all the help we can get. If you fast-mash properly, the string of possible rares you can get looks like this: (Item Finder, Kangaskhan, Hitmonchan, Hitmonchan, Item Finder, Computer Search, Electabuzz, Dugtrio, Scyther, Electabuzz, Dugtrio). All of these except for Kangaskhan are extremely useful to us in the run, especially Computer Search, Hitmonchan, or Dugtrio. 

After this pack manipulation, we go back to Energy Guy and remove 3 Colorless Pokemon from our deck, and add 3 energy of a type other than Grass, Fire, or Water (so, Lighting). This is just enough to trigger the Energy Guy to give us the extra energy which we desperately need to make this work.

Now we make our Deck Edit. Remove all the Pokemon from the deck, and put in all your Diglett, Dugtrio, and Hitmonchan. You can also add Machop if you happened to get one, but Machop is strictly worse than Hitmonchan. Now go to the Trainer section and add the remaining Trainer cards (they don’t all start in your deck), then max out your Fighting energy. You will then need to add a substantial amount of almost useless Energy cards to your deck. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid this would be to add other Basic Pokemon, which would make getting the right matchups in battles harder. When battling, feel free to reset if your opening hand has 1 or 0 Fighting energy and no obvious way to get more (e.g. Oak).

From here, I like to go to the Grass gym to take care of Michael and Heather. Michael is a tough fight, so I like to be able to restart the run if it goes poorly or takes several attempts. Michael has some Normal and Lightning Pokemon that are weak to Fighting, as well as a few very low HP Pokemon, so it’s worth resetting a few times for a good matchup. The Heather fight is done here just to save a deck edit much later when we come back to the Grass gym, plus she gives you Colosseum packs.

===Lightning Gym / Issac===
From there, we go to the Lighting gym and battle through it basically as normal, just without the Fire types you rarely wanted to draw anyway. Jennifer is trickier when only Dugtrio can substantially damage Flying Pikachu, so be sure to do a deck edit before her fight, and reset if you get Flying Pikachu without a Dugtrio. When you do this deck edit, if you had any Machop, now is the time to take them out. Machop does more harm than good from here on out.

===Fire Gym / Ken===
First we battle Jessica in the Fighting Gym side room. She can be tough, but she has several Pokemon vulnerable to Diglett and Hitmonchan, so it is not too hard to reset for a good frame against her. Run away from Doduo, and look for single Pokemon, Mankey and Rattata especially - or Machop if you have a Pluspower and go first. 

Then we fight Ken - you can do a quick deck edit here if you’ve gotten any more Dugtrio and Hitmonchan, good trainers, etc. This is fairly similar to the normal Ken fight, just a bit harder since you don’t have as many support cards as you’re used to. Watch out for Magmar starts.

===Rock Gym / Gene===
First, you have to lose to Ronald. This sucks, because you have a 70 HP Basic you have to hope to not draw. Reset out if you get Hitmonchan, or if you’re extra careful you can Edit Hitmonchan out and put it back in later.

Next, you fight Chris in the Rock Gym lobby. If you happened to pull a Scyther, you can battle Chris with Scyther, but otherwise Hitmonchan is your best bet. Hitmonchan (with a bit of help from Pluspower) can deal with a bunch of 50 HP basics in 1-2 moves, and has a very high HP to take Low Kicks and Jabs. 

From there, go to Gene and perform your next major Deck Edit. Max out on Nidoran M, Nidorino, and any Scyther you may have pulled. Swap your energy out for max Grass (and DCE), buff your Trainers again, and throw in necessary filler. Now you’re good to battle Gene. If you have never battled Gene with Nidoran / Nidorino - the tradeoff over Scyther is that you are more vulnerable to attacks in exchange for having a chance at T1 / T2 damage, and guaranteed OHKOs on everything as early as Turn 3 (with DCE or coin flip luck). While it’s not a completely automatic fight like with Scyther alone, it does tend to go more quickly.

===Grass Gym / Nikki===
I am debating if this fight should be pushed back a bit more (by moving Amy before the Rock Gym), but for now it’s here in order to smooth out a deck edit in the Water gym. Go to the Grass gym side room and perform a deck edit. Check what Fire types you’ve pulled so far. Ideally, you would have Charmeleon, Magmar, and/or Ponyta. Charmander alone is a bit risky since you are working with fewer Fire energy than you’re used to. I would only include Charmander if you have a Charmeleon. Ponyta is okay because they can do 20 damage turn 1 with a DCE (OHKOs most things with a Pluspower), and both Ponyta and Magmar can do 30 damage with 2 Energy. 

===Water Gym / Amy===
The first fight is Amanda, who is weird. You want both Fire and Fighting Pokemon in your deck for this fight, so do a quick edit to splash Diglett / Dugtrio back into your Fire Deck, and roughly balance the energy between Fire / Fighting. Good luck here, this fight can be annoying.

After fighting Amanda, you’ll want to edit your deck down to just Electabuzz. Even just one Electabuzz can handle the whole Water gym by itself, much more reliably than Pikachu can. Don’t even bother with Pikachu, seriously.

After defeating Amy, make a quick detour to the Science gym and battle Joseph with your Electabuzz deck. It’s generally faster than battling him with Mewtwo later.

===The Rest Of The Run===
Now the run will return to the normal route. Go to Murray and build the standard Diglett / Dugtrio / Rattata deck, beat Murray, get Promo Mewtwo, beat Rick and Mitch, and go tackle the Elite Four!
Before tackling the Elite Four, consider picking up the other 3 Colosseum packs if you want more good cards. They are packs 3, 6, and 12. I’m sure with time there could be a manipulation designed to guarantee a Dugtrio, Dewgong, or whatever you might want here, but for now either make the 30 second detour or just press on as normal. Just wanted to put a reminder here since it is not done in the middle of the run like usual.

Card Duplication Info

Card Duplication is a save corruption glitch that lets you gain extra copies of any card you already own.

The basics of how it works is, when the game is saving, it saves "copies you own of each card that are not currently in decks", followed by your decks.

So if you remove Dugtrio and Computer Search from your starting deck, you'll have 1 copy not currently in decks. Then, if you interrupt the save process at just the right time, it doesn't reach overwriting your deck, so your deck will still have a Dugtrio and Search as well. And whatever you added to fill the gaps, will be gone.

Trying to duplicate trainer cards, it's about a quarter-frame-perfect trick. The fadeout on reset on Game Boy Player (and emulated in GSR) makes it particularly different to time correctly.

The basic plan is to remove some key cards (like Dugtrio, Oak, PlusPower, Search), then have the reset happen just as you press A.
If you save too late, your cards won't change at all. Sometimes, you'll get a partial dupe, which if too early, would likely mean the cards you added are gone (since Grass cards get their quantities written earlier than Fighting/Trainers do) but nothing is duplicated.
If you save too early, obviously the save will complete and you'll just have your 1 copy outside of your deck.

Original work not done by Raagentreg

Imakuni% Information

Imakuni% is a simple meme category, where you just obtain the Imakuni promo card from the No Tutorial start point. I thought that, since it's essentially a 1 duel run, it'd be interesting to manipulate it, so I looked into the most commonly hit Imakuni frames from a soft reset, and made a deck edit that makes a lot of them fairly quick wins. Here's the route:

Blindly fight Imakuni 1
Step outside the side room, deck edit:

Tweak (remove/readd):
Lightning
Charmeleon
Bill
Lightning
Comp
PP
[Add any card. If you got a PP or Oak from Imakuni's packs, just add the second one]
Oak
[Remove Meowth]

Save, soft reset, exit title screen when energy ball is on right half of N (aiming for a triple frame cluster where Imakuni will be in Fighting Club), fight

Basic fight strats: Always lead Diglett over Rattata, otherwise they might not attack while confused, and lead Lightning types over Fire/Fighting
If no free retreat Poke, and no Lightning type, go with Machop, then Charmander (unless no Fighting Energy)
If Machop and Machoke and Fighting Energy, set it up
Always prep Pikachus and other lightning types if possible to use their 2 energy attack
Try to do as much damage per turn as possible (Bite while setting up a Charmander, don't Scratch Scratch Slash)
If he has 4+ Pokemon after turn 1, or 3 Pokemon and you have bad resources, reset

Below here is all of the remnants from my routing, they could be useful. Also, I used this Lua script while routing; most usefully, typing 'A' will advance RNG once.

https://pastebin.com/qjLdDteJ

deck edit results:
53: Lightning
54: Charmeleon
55: Bill
56: Lightning
57: Comp
58: PP
59: whatever
60: Oak

Instead of tweaking Lightning, what about tweaking 3 pre-Pikachu pokemon?
(Put something in slot 53/55?)
Tweak Charmeleon, tweak 2 Growlithe? (or Charizard/Growlithe)

Remove 3 Lightning?

208: [6+ TURN] Use Magnemite, set up Zapdos
Frame 26 (214): he turn 1 kills his Slowpoke, set up a Magnemite, Magneton in prize 2

212: [6+ TURN] Pikachu good, but lots of basics
213X: [1 TURN] Drowzee Imakunis himself [uses 24 char]
214: [6+ TURN] Ponyta, set up Magnemite
215: [NO] FIVE POKES
216X: [2 TURN] Just Slowpoke
217X: [3 TURN] Bill -> Search for PP, lead Rattata, build up a Charmeleon [Charmander 24?] [Bill 47]
218: [8+ TURN] Diglett die, set up Pikachu, Hypno
219: [2 TURN] Use Pikachu, finish off Imakuni Drowzee, Psyduck
220: [6+ TURN] [might be a no now] Charmander, Scratch Drowzee, Comp Search for Charmeleon, Oak
221: [4 TURN] Diglett lead, Mud Slap Slowpoke, Self-destruct Farfetch'd
222: [NO] FOUR POKES, Don't even
223E: [4 TURN] Diglett lead, retreat to Pikachu, Comp Search a Lightning, you'll survive Jolting
224E: [5 TURN] Diglett lead, kill Imakuni'd Drowzee, finish off with Rattata
225E: [3 TURN] PP Low Kick turn 1, set up Pikachu to kill Farfetch'd
226E: [3 TURN] Three turn a Slowbro with Rattata; Full Heal in 52! (SO WE CAN ONLY REMOVE A FOURTH CARD (THE MEOWTH) NO MORE)
227E: [1 TURN] Magnemite 10 damage, self-kills turn 1!
228: {HE HAS 3 POKES SO MAYBE DONT BOTHER} would be ok if card 54 was Charmeleon? or 58
229: bad??
230E: [2 TURN] Growlithe -> Arcanine flamethrower (Faster with a reshuffle? 56 trainer?)
231: [4 TURN] [EITHER 17 or 23 FIGHTING] Machop/Machoke to kill psyducks (42/43/45)
232E: [5 TURN] 54 Charmander, 26 Charmeleon? (or 23/26 Charmander, 54 Charmeleon)
233E: [2 TURN] Rattata, Comp for PP
234: [NO] FOUR POKES, Turn 1 Leek Slap through Imakuni, NO
235: [NO] THREE POKES, Turn 1 Leek Slap
54/56/57... turn 1 Leek Slap success bad. Magnemite lead, set up Growlithe -> Arcanine? (Growlithe 56?) (no Fire Energy)
236: [2 TURN] Magnemite Thunder Wave or self-destruct
237: [EH] Would need Charmander in 55, still not that good (no fire)
238: [8+ TURN] Comp Search Charmander, -> Charmeleon, he keeps getting basics
239: [NO] Zapdos that can't get energy
240: [2 TURN] Pikachu, Oak to Search to PP
241: [NO] 4 Pokes turn 1
242: [5 TURN] Use Ponyta on Farfetch'd/Psyduck, set up Magnemite to Self-Destruct Slowpoke

Original work not done by Raagentreg

Name	Author
Any% NG+ Info + Route	Raagentreg 5 years ago
Any% Round 2 Info + Route	Raagentreg 5 years ago
Bulbasaur / Squirtle & Friends / Hard Mode route	Raagentreg 5 years ago
Bulbasaur & Friends Route by A.K.N	Raagentreg 5 years ago
Bulbasaur and Friends - New Route (Aug 2020)	pinecone606 4 years ago
Card Duplication Info	Raagentreg 5 years ago
Imakuni% Information	Raagentreg 5 years ago