I don't use pedals because I haven't the faintest idea how they work. Whenever I've tried it just sounds awful, so I don't bother.
I use a Zoom B1on for headphone practice at home. I use one patch I made myself, it uses an Ampeg sim and that's it. Even then it doesn't sound that great. I used to have a Boss GT6B. Looked good, but was more of a hinderence than anything. The only reason I kept it was that it had this Auto-Wah loop preset that you could just play a short riff and it'd loop itself forever. It meant the rest of my band, at the time, jammed to the loop whilst I ate the cookies and donuts.
I've never understood using preamp pedals when using an amp...buy an amp that sounds like the preamp pedal maybe?