The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast

One Star Review! Mew, Hoopa, Control, Brilliant Stars, Utah, CP & more!

February 23, 2022 Brent Halliburton Season 1 Episode 76
The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
One Star Review! Mew, Hoopa, Control, Brilliant Stars, Utah, CP & more!
Transcript
Brent:

The good news is where we're not lacking for content today.

Brit:

There's a lot. There's I've been, I think, I mean, I go to the it's like March 12th, it's like a three K event, the card trooper one, like, I think I'm going to end up going to that. So I've, I've been thinking about decks and talking decks a lot more. So I have, I have brilliant stars, thoughts, at least on like relevant metal stuff

Mike:

Okay,

Brit:

on top of everything else.

Mike:

When is, or, uh, where is that tournament in relation to you?

Brit:

Uh, it's in Kentucky, it's like a sizeable drive, but, um, that I got time off and I'll just take it and do it. And I think I'm. Uh, waiting to see if they've announced anything CP related. Like, and if I like, if it's like really good, like sort of what what's been speculated, um, if, if they'll do something about the invites that it'll just be like top beta regionals and you go to worlds, like I probably make Utah work, but I think I'm planning to sit it out now. I think just a lot of what we talked about last week, like, yeah, I don't, I don't want to be part of the trial run. I'll I'll go to the next one.

Brent:

It's the Trashalanche podcast. Brett Pybas Mike Fouchet me. Brett Halliburton attendance is always 100%. Uh we're on Twitter. Mike crochet, his wife be Halliburton. You follow us on Twitter. We're sponsored by channel fireball. I spent all this past week agonizing about how last week. I forgot to say we're sponsored by channel fireball. Shannon fireball does help pay the bills and channel fireball is delightful. Uh, trip rich, you just went live with a whole bunch of comments on PTCG Live on channel fireball. So obviously it's a good place to get all kinds of fascinating content and they have like deals to help you buy cards when you subscribe to the strategy stuff. And in that respect, it seems really good. We appreciate, uh, their desire to sponsor it's. Uh, it's good mojo and good vibes all the way around. Um, five star review update guys. We got a hell of a week to talk about. I thought we should kick it off by just saying Dan, we have not forgotten you. We forgotten you a little bit, like not fully forgotten. Where we were like talking about trying to do the first live stream pod, and we'll have you on for the first live stream pod. And there was like a bunch of moving parts and, and frankly, I think the real issue is, uh, this has probably been like the busiest two or three weeks of work for me, maybe since the pandemic started. Uh, um, I just have not been thinking about the pod when I'm not doing the pod. So the result is those things have been slow to, uh, uh, come together. Uh, sorry about that. We're gonna try and make it happen. We will figure it out. We're committed to figuring it, making out, do not worry. You have not been forgotten. Um, but, but let's get to the real meat of the five star review update guys, one star review, and it is a heck of a review. Uh, what was an inviting the Pokemon TCG podcast turned into a political agenda. This is from since first episode listener. Um, Between the mumbling pokey, dead, Brent Halliburton, a washed up Pokemon TCG veteran who rarely even plays the game anymore, but Pybas, you'd be lucky to even get any meaningful Pokemon TCG, meta analysis or card discussion out of one show. These days, Mike Fouchet who really is the only talent of the show gives good insight and should honestly be running the show on his own. He's the only one who actually plays and has current results to back it up. Brett and Brett love to go on tirades about their left-wing COVID agendas or how the game is just not that good anymore. Like the good old days. I wish the show would go back to talking about Pokemon, leave the political nonsense out and stop trying to push your agenda on a Pokemon TCG podcast. So far also the fact that you had to go out of your way and apologize to roll ready for something so dumb because how dare you think that he's an unsafe individual is laughably farcical. I'm writing this to hopefully spark synopsis to induce some sort of. Keep it about Pokemon PS. I wouldn't be surprised if you had this review somehow, but if you do, you're going against the first amendment and clearly don't want constructive criticism stop living in fear. Stop spreading it. Let the heavens deal with life and death. Even the most fearful lose to that let's live for another moment.

Brit:

I just don't know where to start, I guess, I guess it might be worth stating with the first amendment is just about the government and what the government can tell you. Not to say it doesn't really have anything to do with private actors. Um, that was the best part of the review, frankly. I was a little, I guess, one of my initial reactions to is I think I'm more of a mumbler than Brent. I feel like I, I I'm in just a mumbler in general, but.

Brent:

I thought it was interesting. I was like, am I a mumbler? Well, let me be clear. So the editing software that we use, we use the D script we talked about on the show before. One of the features it has is a thing that lets you delete the UHS and ums. And let me be clear as I flipped through the UHS and ums on any given podcast, I I'm literally guys, maybe 20 times more than you guys. Do you guys have such clarity of thought it is a delightfully pleasure to podcasts with you? Uh, so I spend, I do, I honestly go through and delete like half of my arms and I leave everybody else's in there and it like sort of kind of balances out. I still am way more than you guys, but, but, uh, uh, I find like Mike's ums happened in a logical flow of conversation. Me just like 10 seconds ago. I just, um, I'm to fill assignments, et

Mike:

Interesting. I, when I was first reading this, I like the first sentence where it says a washed out Pokemon, TCG, veteran. I definitely thought that that was going to be describing me. Um, if you think Brits a washed up veteran and think I'm not, I feel like you are misguided. Um, maybe I've played a little bit more in the last couple of years, but I don't, I do not play nearly as much as I used to. And not as much as many of the actual top players, um,

Brit:

I mean, frankly, I thought washed up was a little generous for me. And they're like you to go, I'll let you go a little farther. And I would still probably be true. I don't think I've ever, uh, you know, I I've said verbatim these things on the podcast numerous times

Brent:

Yeah. I, I definitely, I, I definitely. Uh, uh, the part that I liked best about this is the, uh, Mike Fouchet, who is really the only talent show. I was like, man, that's been bred, nice talking point for like 75 episodes.

Brit:

Yeah. I mean, I guess I could just go to show and you can be a little self-deprecating it's just harder to hurt you. I mean the same time too. I mean, I don't know how much we really want to spend on this or what will go in the episode. Like, I don't know if we really have an agenda in so far as, like, I think it's more that it's just w the, the comings and goings the current events of COVID are just like relevant to the Pokemon scene. And that's like, obviously we have our leanings. I also am not terribly left-leaning either, which I thought, I thought that was funny. Um, but. Yeah. Like, I, I feel like it's more of an like news coverage, which, and we've dipped into just like anecdotal takes on it rather than like, I don't know. We're not like giving you vaccination numbers and telling you to get vaccinated any more than like Pokemon also too. Like, I don't know. It's all just an agenda that upsets you. I suppose

Mike:

I did learn a new word as I was reading this. I've never, I've never heard the word farcical before.

Brit:

I was a good one. I like, I like farces, that's a good thing to use.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

Uh, you don't, you don't. And I thought this was like, this was one of the fascinating things about this particular view is, uh, um, use of the phrase laughably, farcical. I found absolutely delightful, eh, probably the highlight of the review. And like when you're busting out a real kind of like reference to literature, kind of turn of phrase like that, I enjoy and respected very much. And then they turn around and they kind of say, you're going against the first amendment. And I was like, well, that's such a like low brow and incorrect turn of phrase. It kind of takes away

Brit:

almost wonder, like, I'm not even sure like that. I don't even think that laughably farcical works. Like, I think it's a little redundant. Like, I don't think a forest is inherently comedic, but like, I think, I think there's, there's elements of both implied. I think there could have been like a better word choice there, like to be saying like laughably, comical, almost like, it sounds it's a little adjacent to that. Like where the forest is, like, you know, something well-intended but gonna fail, like there's, you know, it's like adjuster or something. I'm not sure

Brent:

Yeah. Uh, now I would, I differ from Brit. I mean, guys, I'm super left-leaning and like, uh, uh, you know, you re you, you recognize only part of my, uh, wildly left leaning agenda here. Um, you know, I'm not just an advocate for safety in a time of pandemic and, and my wife practices medicine, and I have strong feelings about safety in a time of pandemic. And I'm concerned for people who have. Uh, a preexisting conditions or weakened immune systems and a lot of this, like I'm okay. Risk in my life. So you should be okay. Risk in your life. I, uh, uh, strongly disagree with, because I don't think it's nearly that simple, but I also am an advocate of like the LGBTQ community and advocate for women in gaming. There's so many liberal things that I could spend hours talking about and, and the podcasts just get the fraction of that. Um, uh, hopefully it won't feel like it's too much politics, but, but, uh, conversely, um, you know, uh, hopefully you feel like some of those left wing things reach out and touch you because I think they're super important. And you're gonna hear about a more, the pilot's not going to stop talking about that stuff. I love it to death.

Mike:

Yeah. That's kind of how I feel about it as well. Like we, we could very much highlight that type of stuff all the time and we don't, we kind of touch on it here and there and make it known that those are our opinions and our thoughts. Um, but yeah, we could definitely go further a lot of the time.

Brit:

Yeah. I mean, I I've taken classes, read books on like feminist epistemology. I can make it so much worse for you. You don't even know.

Mike:

Um, w well, let's wrap it up. I just want to also just quickly mention, I appreciate that you've listened since the first episode, and I hope that you, uh, will continue to lessen.

Brent:

Yeah. I, I definitely, I, I definitely, he, uh, um, or she definitely had the, uh, um, I understand what's wrong with this podcast vibes that I think all three of us feel. And I know, I think all three of us are acutely aware of how we got to talk more Pokemon. And as we said, last week, we are going to talk more Pokemon this week. And, uh, you know, I'm hoping to play some more brilliant stars games. So we can actually like really, really get into. As actual physical place starts up, which would be great.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

Yeah. I, I hear the need for more Pokemon. I feel it also. So, so in that respect, I do take it really constructively. Cause I know, um, in that respect, you're not wrong. We have talked more Pokemon.

Brit:

Yeah, let's get into it. I'm playing.

Brent:

So I thought where we should start this week is a so-so Mela Magikarp had a big, a sword and shield two brilliant star tournament with big 23 players. People who had brilliant stars decks. I thought we should talk about the lists that did well there and talking about what's going on. Cause I think this gives us some insight into where the med is going sound reasonable.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

Um, the med is gonna, people are gonna play me.

Mike:

Yep. That's the baseline and it sure seems like it's So, far.

Brent:

so so first, first through fourth in, in this was mew with four double turbo energies is a double Turbo. Is that

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

that's right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, um, uh, mew and, uh, Urshifu Moltres. Um, and then, and then it, a top eight that everybody was talking about was Whaler V um, why don't we start by just talking about the winning deck, uh, mew with double turbo energies instead of fusion, strike energies, and then like, so I thought this was actually a really interesting list and indicative of where the format's going in a couple of ways. First didn't even play Alyssa sparkle and fusions that just played the double turbo and said, we'll give you the 20 energies in exchange for being able to power up attackers in one turn. Um, you know, they played to escape ropes because to escape ropes is awesome and they play the Oricorio. And that's how they win the single prize deck that beat the other mew in top four. And they play the pumpkin boom to get rid of stadiums and a scoop of net. If they need to get that off the board. All that seems cool to me.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. no, I like this idea a lot. It is just, I'm not sure if it will be the better way to play Muna, but it is something that I have been thinking about as an option, the big loss by not playing fusion, strike energy And Elisa sparkle is not having access to I would say that is the biggest difference. Um, but maybe that's okay. Uh, clearly it worked out in, in this tournament, but we'll see how the metagame kind of evolves. I don't think the 20 damages, the minus 20 is terribly relevant between having choice belt and

Brent:

Yeah. And that's the ran three choice belts too, which was. Uh, I thought they were really fun and interesting.

Mike:

Yeah. Um, the, the bigger deal and I guess. This version is not any worse in this regard than the fusion strike one, but Darale, add-on seems pretty annoying for this, but I guess It's probably just the same thing with the fusion

Brent:

thing. Right? You have to find your two psychics like you just do, right? Yeah. My reaction was that, that was probably not a problem.

Mike:

Yeah. Interesting. That they still play battle VIP pass when you have ultra ball and chromatics too, I guess there's a lot of space saved when you don't have to run Alyssa sparkle.

Brent:

Yeah. Well, I mean, what's funny is like, they can't really add Pokemon. Right.

Mike:

Right.

Brent:

So, so they were just like, they were just like, let's put in more choice belts. Let's put in more towards.

Mike:

there is one Pokemon from the new set that. It's interesting. I'm bringing up the page now, but it's a fusion strike Pokemon that does damage to the bench or something like that. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? I don't actually think we mentioned it the last two weeks. like a basket. No, no.

Brent:

It's the, uh, um, ice skew skew,

Mike:

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. I skewed to the standard four times. Oh, uh, you need, so you need future energies for that one. Okay.

Brent:

Right. It's like a, it's like a mellow.

Mike:

Yeah. Okay. So that doesn't work in this version.

Brent:

And would you ever play that instead of just like playing Melita?

Mike:

Probably not.

Brent:

Yeah. yeah. So, so maybe we could skip and talk about the third place or other top four, like Mueller list. So this mute plays the three, uh, Alyssa sparkles plays, fusion energy, and as a result only has room for one choice belt and they play three road town phones. I guess you could cut three rows on phones for you, just for like one more choice belts. They don't play Oricorio and I assume that's why they lose to Hoopa and top four, but they played to mellow at us.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

They play one double Turbo.

Mike:

Yeah, Oricorio has really good. Um, I feel like same thing with this one from The drought on stuff, I feel like three psychic is just going to become standard. I think you probably need it.

Brent:

The relevance to popular, right?

Mike:

Yeah. Or, well, I mean, we'll see, but it seems like drought will be quite popular. Um, you do have the, the other attack on me V max, the swift attack, but that this version can use, but the, the double collar this energy version can use or, I mean, they could, but if you have two psychics on your, you're not gonna use that instead of Janice X attack. Um,

Brent:

Yeah. I was thinking the other day that like, how could you not bump into a drought down over the course of a tournament? Like it's just too easy to play.

Mike:

Yeah, I'm really not sure. Chromatic should still be being played. Now that ultra ball is out. It seems weird to me to play it. Like it was already like, not that great of a card in the list.

Brit:

Yeah, I'd only ever, like, there's nothing too useful, like the best, like the best use case for chromatic and my experience, or at least playing against it is getting your stadiums back against like Path to the Peak and like losing that, um, could be relevant. Like not to say that that's all that reliable, of course. And like, like we said, that the winning list had a pumpkin, so like there are other cards you can play if you're, you know, just trying to win the stadium more. Um, but yeah, I've, I've thought similar things like it's like, it was almost just useful to discard, like just to have more ways to discard battle passes and things like that.

Mike:

Yeah. Like Ronan.

Brent:

And the winning was placed for fog crystals. This top four list only plays two like punk, Brussels, or outs to your basic energies.

Mike:

Yeah, yeah, fine. Crystal. You definitely should. Max fog, crystal over battled VIP pass, like five crystals, way better. Um, and what else I was going to say. Oh Yeah. Wrote them phones also, I think significantly better than creme nomadic. So like from the winning list, I would immediately drop crema Maddix for ROTEM phones. Right. And phone's really good. And it helps even in the case that Brit you were just talking about with finding stadiums, something that I can often do with ROTEM phone is towards the end of my turn. If I think that I might get Path to the Peak up, wrote them phone and just try and put a stadium on top of my deck, you know, whether I get Marnie Path to the Peak or just Path to the Peak in general, um, to guarantees that I have in the next turn. So I think Rhoda.

Brent:

Uh, so the other card I wanted to ask you about is the winning list played one echo in horn. So let's you, your opponent's discard. You get to take a book of mine from there and put it on their bench. Understand how that sets up. Cutesy plays, where, you know, you're, you, you know, they, they get out a bunch of BMX maxes, and you're like, I can't one shot these with my movie max. So I'm just going to do this thing.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that's probably exactly at the. Well, you win some match-ups has killed three V's rather than two V maxes. So, I mean, I think it's probably why I keep bringing up there out on, but it's probably especially good against or out on which I, cause I believe the way Daryl Don wants to go is they want to go our CSV star into double a drought on BMX. And so, and to force you to take a prizes, but if you're able to echo into born and you know, you killed the V star, you kill wander out on BMX, then you get an easy Kao on a V Pokemon. So Yeah. I mean, I think the echo in horn probably makes sense.

Brent:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like that more than playing the fourth. MADEC like the sport kinematic three roads I'm phone. You're just like putting cards in your deck to burn it. When you can put cards in your deck that like help you win games, right? The, the classic microchip politically.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

All right. Second place was a hoop, a Moltres Inteleon list that had, that was, uh, it was like on the one hand, pretty heavily tacked. On the other hand, obviously divergent from the kind of wheezing, Hoopa thing that I think could kind of taken over the Metta previously for, for decks like this.

Mike:

Yeah, I think wheezing it has was cute, but I don't think it was ever like, it was good ish because it had more even match-ups against across the board, but it was significantly worse against mew itself. So with McAfee and the format now, I don't really see a reason to play wheezing because rapid strike and JLT on are going to be significantly weaker. Um, but like we play manifest ourselves in the deck still just to help against those match-ups. But just the fact that those decks are going to be less popular. I mean, this. deck, the more straight dark deck is going to be in a better position. So I really liked this idea. Um, there's definitely a couple of things that I'm not sure about in the list, but I think this idea is going to be very good in this format.

Brent:

So talk to me about the things you weren't certain about, because we probably agree on at least like three.

Mike:

Um, energy retrieval doesn't really seem that good to me. I'd rather just play another training court. Um, I feel like you probably need at least one more draw supporter, maybe even two, like three research to Marnie's pretty light. Um, I think if you're just playing one Sableye you can just play one Reihan so that's a pretty easy change. Drop a Reihan for another draw supporter. Um, what else we got. The list is kind of tight. I don't really know what math choice belt really helps with, but it's a good card. So it'd probably continue to play to, um, does Aptos and the fighting energy is pretty cute. My guests, I, I assume that's for RCS. Vistar I'm not sure if it's necessary, but it's, you know, if it's not all that good, then it's just two spots that can be, you can use other cards, uh, that are better for other match-ups. Um, but if it's good enough, it might be good enough. I don't know. Um, but yeah, I think the supporters is the biggest thing that I would change.

Brit:

mean, sort of my biggest question about the deck is just like, what does I, I mean, I even even thought of the, the zap dose, but like, it just, doesn't, I'm curious as to see if the deck can really reposition itself in the game, um, with RCS, just, I just think RCS is going to be in a ton of different decks and like, is self-sufficient enough particularly against these one prizes. So like the trailer, you know, it's such a one price deck is playing the trade game very well. And that's why it succeeds. And I just, like, I sort of am curious if it will be able to do that against RSCs and like, at the same time to like, We think stopping RCS, like it might be worth considering it again, I'm not sure. It just seems like for a lot of decks, just seem to be wanting to add it. Just kind of almost purely for the consistency and like, if that leads them to playing less supporter cards, which I've, I've seen some lists sort of go that direction. I think there are some decks that can kind of pursue like a Pokegear kind of approach with RCS. You don't necessarily need as many, um, like it's just not like an Inteleon where you're fetching your supporters in a different way. It's just kind of like the one-time thing. So it's, um, like just better but less useful later on, I guess. Um, but yeah, it's just, and it's, it's just difficult also being a two Prizer it's just like will make your game harder and has, has a good enough, HP isn't particularly hurt by the Moltres until super late.

Mike:

Yeah. Um, well, so one point I agree on one point I don't really agree and I don't think the reason is going to be that helpful against Garcia is because like you said, it's only once a game. So, you know, they'll just boss it or escape rope at some point and use their ability. Um, but I guess I didn't really think about how good RCS is going to be against single pressers. That is very true. Um, cause you're giving them. Like, you're not doing anything like RCS has just does nothing. And has this 280 HV two Prizer that's also powering up like the next RCS two and the single Prizer deck is like, okay, I got to replace a Pokemon and attach a bunch of energies. And yeah, that is very true. So I think then probably if RCS decks are significant forces in the format then does Aptos is probably necessary. Um, and with that, I mean, we'll see like what the variants are because they can, depending what they are, they may or may not be able to play around zap dose only attacking for one energy. Um, cause if they are then maybe you do need to Reihan because you like Clara it back and then you have to, but that's also awkward. So you'd have to, you know, use those Aptos and then it gets killed. And then you clarify it back, but if they don't have three V's in play, then you have to wait to Reihan to it and then attach, I dunno, it seems, seems awkward. Maybe you have to play like an energy switch that steams. Now we're now we're getting too deep probably. Um, Hmm.

Brent:

All right. So here's, here's the question that I want to ask you guys. So, one thing that I thought was really interesting about this deck was he plays the cast form and the. And the cast form is like, it's interesting because they go for level ball. They don't play any ultra balls in the deck. They go for level balls for quick balls. And so the nice thing about cast form is it the free retreat or that you can get with level ball, whereas type of cocoa, you can't, the attack is obviously like, I mean, theoretically, if things were terrible, the attack is worse and it has less sip points. Like it does get code more easily cast form really good.

Mike:

I have played around with it a little bit when it first started seeing play. And I think it's fine. I, think I would prefer to Tapu Koko still. Cause I've used the draw tech a lot. Um, but

Brent:

I, I feel like, you know, when things are bad, you have a draw attack.

Mike:

yeah, and well, just the nature of the deck in a lot of, not in a lot of match, but in some match-ups especially view, like you just don't do anything for a while. Like you, you know, you let them kill a Sabal, you let them kill a Hoopa. You let them kill a Tapu Koko. And if you're not doing anything for a while, drawing two cards while you're doing nothing is pretty good. Um, but. You know, level bobble is pretty significant. Um, and it's not like you're using the attack every single game on Tapu Koko. So I dunno, I'm fine with it being one, one, I would never go double cask form and I probably myself would just buy two Cocos, but I think it's fine to play

Brent:

With a list like this, would you, would you ever cut any of the four-level balls, three incidents for, for like Mora to throw ultra balls in the mix

Mike:

no, I don't think so. Um,

Brent:

expensive, right?

Mike:

yeah, exactly. it's too expensive, The cards in this deck are too good. Like there's even times where, uh, just a quick ball discard is really, really, really hard. Um,

Brent:

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think the whole point you made of like, if you're against something like you, you're just going to sit there and give prizes until you're ready to go. So if you're having a discard, a bunch of cards from your hand, while you're chilling, it's expensive

Mike:

yeah. Yeah.

Brent:

implant, same time.

Mike:

I do like I do want to mention, I do think Sableye as a one of and with w one Reihan is probably really good. I have this suspicion that control is going to be a force in some way, shape or form in this format. And Sableye is a way to have an out against control at the very least, you know, you can cycle stadiums or the scoop up nets, or what have you against them. It may not win you the matchup, but it'll at least give you like, otherwise you literally can't be a control deck with this deck. So.

Brent:

Uh, you know, it's, uh, um, obviously you guys know me. I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Like, I feel like it might still not quite be there yet, but man, like if you think 30% of the Metta is mew, that's like just free dubs. I just don't have enough energy to win the, win the game in a world with manifests. Um, it seems like you can make it so hard. All right. Let's talk about the, the fourth place list was rabbits, right? Urshifu uh, Moltres B um, uh, any reaction to that stuff, guys?

Brit:

I mean, not like it's not surprising. I can never quite like place where like, how good that deck is. It's difficult. Like the, the more like, streamlined, like rapid strike with like Octillery and, um, like to CHAM like that, I have a good understanding of how that fits in the meadow. Like, it's good. It can beat me up, but it's hard, but it's pretty good against everything else. And obviously it does really well against the little, little things. Um, but yeah, like the Moltres is very, and I'm just like never sure up because like I just said, like the normal version can beat you. So I'm just, I'm just not sure, like why. I guess, I guess that's a second question, but with which of the two is better, but similarly I, because I can't answer that question. I can't place how good Moltres races, but it just definitely just seems like wishful thinking to me a lot of the time, like, it's one of those things that like, yeah. Yeah. I just play a couple of dark energies. You know, our, our decks, every single deck naturally plays a handful of cards. That'll help me discard them and that'll lock out my new mantra. Like that just sounds like, um, like spacious logic or what have you, like, not again, the decks are good and, but like, I just feel like we'd see the Moltres pairings, like a little higher in our metagame standings. Um, then we have sort of throughout the history of the format since mule has been. Um, and it just really doesn't quite seem to find this way, like solid, low tier two deck or something like that. Um, like it can probably beat me with running well. Um, but I wouldn't expect it a field, a field of view to do terribly well.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think this tech is very good. It wasn't very good. This past format. The addition of vulnerable is not enough to make it a very good deck. I think it was probably just a small event. And I actually remember the beginning of both of the last two formats. This deck did well at like a very early tournament. And I feel like it's just some effect of like the beginning of a format. He play some powerful cards together. They do. Okay. But I don't think this deck is going to be very good.

Brit:

Definitely.

Brent:

Uh, exact same reaction. I mean, a man, if he makes the metagame for this deck wars, uh, and, and it was like not great before. How could it be so good. Interesting. Uh, I guess props to the, uh, driver Christian T you know, the man do some that made that happen. Uh, the last thing we should definitely talk about guys is, is this a whale or list of the top? I know just last week, uh, we were talking about, uh, how, uh, frost mouth is the way people should fit power of water decks and low.

Mike:

It looks like this plays exactly zero cards from brilliant stars. So it's not very exciting to me.

Brent:

Yeah. I was trying to figure out like, what it, why, why someone would be like, you know what, this is the,

Mike:

Yeah. It's just the cars that they owned at the time.

Brent:

I mean, somebody, you know, I mean, I recognize getting place sets of physical cards is like a little bit of an interesting thing, but, um, uh, I am sure that regardless of how things went, this person knew they were going to have a super fun time because using Whaler visa tech and playing for Glen with tangles is just a recipe for having a fun. Hi there. They're like, we're just gonna, uh, I mean, I feel like the thing that's missing from the deck list that, uh, Kevin shared is like where they flipping real coins. Like, I mean, I feel like if you know that you're going to flip like 30 coins a game, you must have a plan for flipping coins where you're just going to have a bus the time, you know, where you was, he rolling 10 dice at a time? Was he rolling? You know, like it was a lot of, uh, I guess three at a time over and over and over again. Like there's a lot of, a lot of good stuff going on there, but not a real Beck. Apparently that story, um,

Mike:

have you guys see, so that's kind of the end of Kevin's tournament. Some other things that I've seen on Twitter, do you guys see Sanders initial control list?

Brit:

Yeah, I think so.

Mike:

So I'm looking up some of the cards to make sure I know what they all do.

Brent:

I know what they'll do. I'm ready to talk about this list.

Mike:

Um, okay. The only one that I don't know is what does that do?

Brent:

Oh, geez. Uh, all right. You got me, you got me,

Mike:

Okay. Let's see. Per bird ERs or,

Brent:

uh, search your deck for two basic energy cards and attached with your program. No, I think it's the other prison workers when

Mike:

slip three Queens. If any of them are ahead, you're putting their hand for each heads. Discredit trainer cards from you're putting 10. Okay. Okay. That's gotta be it.

Brent:

yeah, yeah. That that's, that's the one. And then, and then, um, I had asked him, so this is like some real breaking, uh, uh, Twitterati news. Let me, let me just find, I had a question for him about that card when he and I exchanged some emails about the, um, Oh, so there there's a stage one. We vile now that that is similar, but, uh, um, let's you do any card, but instead of three it's two.

Mike:

And it goes to the bottom of their deck, right? It doesn't discard, I think.

Brent:

That what it does,

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. Bottom of the deck. Yeah.

Brent:

right, right, right. Okay. So the Berserkers objectively much better,

Mike:

Yeah. I mean, I don't know like any card versus trainer is certainly interesting, I think the fact that you get to play, I think they get the fact that you get to play the me out as well is, um, It's quite good because it thins your hand for liberals. So you get to draw more cards. Uh, you get to actually just search your deck for the Parker, which is cool if you want. So,

Brent:

Yeah. I mean, obviously because you're playing the Zoroark line, you don't have to play the me out. You play the me off because of me off is great.

Mike:

Yeah. Right, right. Exactly. Exactly. Um, same with them in Chino, I guess. Uh, the men Chino has called for family and it's pretty good.

Brent:

Yeah.

Mike:

Um, what else we got? So is 20 moving energy, I think from the active to the bench, which I guess you play that against things that can recover energies. So like against me, for example,

Brent:

Yeah. I was about to say, I mean, if you just, if you get that attack off against me, they just lose, right?

Mike:

right? Cause you just throw energy on act and Yeah.

Brent:

your psychic energy is now on genocide,

Mike:

Yeah. And for the fusion energies, you just have the evil tall to discard them. So that, yeah, that's cool. Um, then you have seeking, which is just more energy removal. We're Madame, I suppose is for RCS question mark. Is that right?

Brent:

Um, I should have the answer to this question. I feel like I knew what the answer to this question was.

Mike:

How many Pokemon do you need your discard to kill? An RCS is 30 plus 10, right? So,

Brent:

Yeah. Yeah. So that is, that is a late game one, hit RCS, uh, Australia.

Mike:

so you need 11 Pokemon or discard. How many phones even play? 10? 1820s plays like 25 or 26. Okay. So that seems reasonable. Okay. And then you have floats. So obviously I'm kind of surprised you only play one float soul. that seems like something you'd want to be doing very

Brit:

that thought, but I was like more on like weasel too, like

Mike:

Um,

Brit:

Chino, like, it seems like probably one of the most useful cards in your deck. Like.

Mike:

yeah. Hmm. Because you don't have any other way to really recur stuff. Right. You have a single palpate, a single ordinary rod.

Brent:

And this is much more about just aggressive energy removal, right. That the, uh, the, uh, and you know, I think we should talk about it later in the pod. They all hope for like true hand block is next.

Mike:

And then Gorebyss to shut off Inteleon pings and dusk nor to shut up like single strike and rapid strike, I guess.

Brent:

Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's another route to special energy destruction.

Mike:

So, I mean like anything that plays special energy is loose to this. Um, it's just other decks. Well, and that might not even be true. So something like mad party, you know, they play eight special energies essentially. Now they might not play the full eight, but seven or eight. And if they take a Kao with all of them, they win. Right.

Brent:

Right. But if you get the Dusknoir out, you fine.

Mike:

Oh, right, right. Yeah. That's no word just makes everything one energy, one colorless.

Brent:

Yeah. It takes the special out of special inner. And that gives you time to engage. You're like, whatever it is you're trying to do to get all the energy off the board, right?

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah, this is cool. I'm interested to see how this ends up ferrying. Um, but kind of going back to your point about RCS before even this does have the word Madame, which may be as good enough to beat RCS, but otherwise kind of just like ADP was good against control because you just could just throw a bunch of energy on one ADP and you'd be fine. I feel like RCSP star has at least the potential to kind of do the same thing to a deck like this.

Brent:

Yeah. Obviously it's in a much, much better place than it was. Pre brilliant stars because it cuts the Zacian to go all in on the Snorlax is because it's too easy to with the choice bands, but then he, uh, and then he's got the manifest to like slow down the game, but you're like, you're like really, really, really all in on man. If he giving you the time to like, get everything set up right.

Mike:

Yeah, I know you said you've been thinking a lot about decks. What steps have you been thinking about.

Brit:

Uh, yeah, well, miss has been playing again or he's like, there's a regionals up in, up in his neck of the woods. I don't know if it's in the Netherlands or just like in Europe somewhere, but we've been talking and I'm sort of just in one of the old groups that I used to build decks when we it's always, it's always sort of talking, but it's only talks about Pokemon here and there. Uh, and he likes, uh, RCS, Darrelle, Don, a lot, which just like, there's a lot of buzz, um, on that. So like nothing too surprising going on there, but it's like a lot of holes in a strategy. Like it's gonna, it's gonna set up and just tank and hope that the, like the, energy hate on Geraldo on demon VMX and just kind of the general goodness of RCS. Um, Can do the way. And it seems like super safe. I don't, I, I, I'm not convinced, like, I, I think it's good. Like, like I just said, I think it is like, plainly has some very good things about it going on, but I just think, well, I don't think that it'll end up being like the best version. I'm really curious about like, well, for one, just like on the Sander topic I, he had forever ago. There's like, there's like the Sheryl loop strategies now that you can do with elder GOs. And like, those might be okay. I think, like, I don't think, I don't think you could just like, that's it, like, you just play for Cheryl and that's your strategy? Like, obviously that's not enough damage. I think you'd have to combine it with like some control strategies. Like maybe given like the Zoroark stuff, like goes into it. But like, I, I think something like that, um, like could be interesting but more I think, um, would be just like. Like RCS. Inteleon like, that just seems really good to me. Like you play cause you, you power up. Lots of RCS is you're just even more consistent. Um, on top of that, Uh, you're on tele online's. Like, I'm not sure if there's any like avenues that that would open up for like, there's like the basket in or something. I don't know any sort of won prizes you could, you could make to like, find that. But that just sounds like to me, like a pretty reliable, like tank strategy because of the, the Sharon, uh, a Serola card, um, like maybe like our season was pretty good damage. So like, if you're just playing like a two shot game with everything, like against V Max's, You'll win because you're two prizes and they're three prizes. So like in hopefully just like you can make the math work and boss and Inteleon, and it'll all just line up. Um, I guess you'd lose the Urshifu so maybe that's bad. Maybe that's why RSCs needs a partner. Um, but yeah, I just think like, something like that seems interesting. So, so early into interested in anti fire, like seems good. I was, was trying to consume like all the live content today. So I had a lot of streams, um, on, at one point and like a was playing, um, it was playing NTA with Luda

Mike:

Um,

Brit:

and like the celebrations muse. Um, which seems interesting. Um, I don't know why you wouldn't just like stick with Inteleon Luda colo, but, um, I'm sure he had his reasons. Um, and I don't think I really saw any other like two new decks because I was flipping through streams earlier. Um, but yeah, I just think RCS is really good. I don't think we've named miss necessarily found its best partner and like the, just kind of conventional pairings that are floating out there. I think we mentioned a little bit last week, but like, I'm really skeptical of like ice rider. RCS are just like, doesn't seem good to me. Like maybe you play like a 1, 1, 1 or two, two RCS, but like these lists, I see that like play like a heavier RCS line with like the, the DTE, like, and Inteleon just kind of seemed like a mass. Like they don't, it doesn't, it seems like roughly the same level of consistency that like our ice right here Inteleon like already has. And so, like, I just don't think you wouldn't really need to sacrifice your deck too much to make it work. Like maybe the, again, maybe the small RCS line is worth playing, but I'm curious an ice rider more so just for choice band and trying to see if like that in Leon. Might make things interesting. I'm not sure. I just like that card a lot for whatever reason. And so like, I have it on, on my PTCGO currently, so all I would really need to test it are the bands. So like that'll definitely be one I'm one of the decks I'm playing around with. Um, probably won't be any good, but I'm curious to try it. They get like, probably about as good as Shadow Rider, I would guess, which is all right.

Mike:

Yeah, I just a quick agree on the ice rider thing. Like I think the deck probably fine, but I just don't think it's going to be the best way to play

Brit:

cause like another thing too is like you don't. Like the, the acceleration that RCS provides, like, it doesn't do anything for your ice rider because of the way the attack works. Like you don't, you don't get to just like, your damage is kept awkwardly. So like the more energy you have in play is kind of like, like embarrassment of riches. Like, so being able to accelerate that much energy doesn't really matter. Like all the ice rider ever needed was the three energy, like attach and then discard. So you aren't like fully, um, like naked on your energy, the next turn. But I, I just think the other cards are there and like Leon, I guess, has been out for like over a year now or however long, and hasn't really found any use cases yet. So like it's probably still bad, like in the same way that like Iris was really never good, even though like in theory seems like it probably should have been okay. Um, I'm not sure if there's any other decks that have my interests. Like some of it is definitely like me waiting on like the community to do some testing for me. Like mad parties seems fine. Um, things like that. I'm waiting, waiting for, um, just some results to sort of pit her out, to see if any of my fringe ideas seem worth pursuing more. Um, but yeah, the, a stir out on deck definitely seems I would, I would probably put it up there with you, um, at least in like preliminary thoughts and testing as just like a deck that you're going to have to beat, or that's something you have to consider and do your matchup spread like at a pretty high level, um, earliest high, um, high frequency in terms of how often or how often you're probably going to play against it.

Mike:

The, um, the RCS Inteleon idea seems pretty cool to me. What is the card that lets you found something back? Oh Yeah. Sharon's Kara. attached it and you can play big charm too, if that helps you get out of range of stuff. Um,

Brit:

like, cause and like the artiest or album doc plays playing like, uh, a decent amount of hyper potions right now. And like you could do that in there too. Like certainly like, cause you have, I think, I think the sort of logic there is just because you're accelerating so much energy and playing enough of it, that the discard is sort of not inconsequential. And like, I think that could be the case here. Like I dunno like RCS is color lists. It seems a lot of different ways to pursue playing it.

Mike:

yeah. Yeah, it. seems, that seems pretty sweet.

Brent:

Yeah. I certainly add the logic of saying like, Inteleon has attack is like a good, like non-linear pairing as opposed to just another thing that like, just bangs away at stuff.

Brit:

Um,

Brent:

Uh, it, you, you say it and you're like, oh, that sounds like a real bad. But yeah, I feel like, well, we need some online tournaments to happen in brilliant stars formats. We can get some real data here.

Mike:

Yeah. which will happen now over this next week since released today, early on PTCGO, which is cool. I think there's actually a tournament. I was just looking on limitless. Cause I was curious there's one at nine 30 tonight. That started so well already start to get some data going in. Um,

Brit:

That's funny. I didn't know. I haven't seen like any screenshots of it on PTCGO because everything is alive today. I wasn't sure if it was on there, honestly.

Mike:

Yeah. Um, mad party is probably the deck I'm most interested in trying, I don't know if it'll be good enough in this format, but I'm certainly interested in it with ultra ball and the format. It seems like it also seems like the easiest deck for me to try day one besides mew, uh, cause I'll need to find is probably the choice belts. Like that's really the only a hundred percent necessary card

Brit:

What about Mallomar like is Mallomar sort of in that same vein and it's like better. I don't do play. Would you play the bands in there? I don't really know what that list looks like in terms of space or the map, but does that help you at all? I guess probably not

Mike:

Probably not being right, because you just,

Brit:

map. Yeah,

Mike:

yeah, And you're just like one more rapid strike card is just basically the same thing.

Brit:

yeah. yeah. That's, that's what I thought.

Mike:

Yeah, but I have seen people, I have seen people talking about Mallomar being better though. So I don't really know what Y

Brit:

I guess, I guess the Cynthia's card is, is better than Bruno.

Mike:

Yeah. Okay. That's that's fair. Um, but it'll be interesting to see, like, there are a lot of potential single prize decks, you know, there's mad party. There's, Mallomar, there's the Moltres deck. It'll just be interesting to see which of them, if any, or all of them are actually good in the format. Um, my guess is not all of them are going to be good, but we'll see.

Brent:

Yeah, obviously, I think it's exciting for the game. If, if somehow magnifi enabled a world of like single price attackers that are suddenly a Bible against these three prize, uh, Yay. More of that, less that other stuff. These games go too fast. Uh, should we talk about, PTCG Live for a second guys.

Mike:

Yeah. So the beta, the beta started earlier today, um, that we are we're, we're recording this on Tuesday. And so, yeah. Uh, there've been different content creators streaming it for the past few hours. There's been some YouTubes YouTube videos that have come out, showing some of the features. Hi, um, Kinda just very mad on it. Like it's not the worst thing that I've ever seen and it's not nearly everything that I would hope for in a new client. So it's fine. I think it'll be, I think it'll be a gender, somewhat positive impact, but I don't know if it will be significant. I don't know. That's kind of like my general outlook on it.

Brit:

Yeah, I've got, I dunno, express this in a variety of ways. And I don't, I don't want to just feel like a Debbie downer about it, but like at least the big wins, the big wins that I think everyone is agreeing on is that, um, like the currency, the dust system, all that is like, great. I think like there's a lot of, a lot, a lot of sort of like waves have been made in terms of just like accessibility. Like I think you're given decks. I think that like, it's all easy to handle, but just like everything else is just like, Like, it's just not, for me, it just begs the question of why even make this. It doesn't even, it doesn't even look better than PTCGO and like, most of the way it's like, it's like this very empty space. Like it's like the, when for this kind of like very sleek, like polished design, but there's just like, it's just space. Like there's so much space between like the player and the decks. And it's just kind of like white, big, bright, like geometric shapes and things like that. And I'm just curious, like, Like to the way, the way it just looks as you're playing it, like your, your cards on your bench looks like GameBoy cartridges or something like that. Doesn't look like they don't look like cards and you, you can't breed them very well. Like I don't, I don't know why they're they, they get condensed for some reason on the bench. It's just like, PTCGO, it's kind of difficult to always sort of tell what was going on on the bench. If you weren't like really, really paying attention to yourself, like the UI and the visual indicators, um, weren't there and they just still just kind of don't seem they're like, I know like the answer, the answer to. Questions is just money. And that like TCI is like not a game company is not Konami. And so like, I, I, when we've said this number numerous times on the podcast, like anyone expecting anything in shouting distance of the Yu-Gi-Oh game that just came out was like just barking up the wrong tree and not, not a chance that was happening by like, we'll see, like, I think it's, it's, it's a beta, it's a beta with like, I don't think like the real version is like anywhere on the horizon necessarily. Like, I don't think it's like definitely coming out soon. I think that could really, there could be a good chunk of time for it still. And like, again, I don't know how much you can like change the UI without like a lot more money. So like, I, I really wouldn't expect that to change at all. Like, I don't think the avatars look that bad. Like I would, I don't think like the realism route is the way to go. Like I would rather just be a Pokemon than like trying to make myself as a real person. Like, let me just be pick a peek at you, avatar a little animated Pokemon that way it's instead of these kind of like weird people, um, yeah, like good for the game. Um, I'm sure it will be like, uh, a marginal, like uptick in content. But for me, I, there just seems like the, the change is motivated entirely and the currency swap, like there's, there's something about the PTCGO system that like this new system is going to make them more money. And I think that's just like the entire story. Um, the, I don't know there's cause like, I don't know, the code cards are weird. Like if it were like an app store, like I know that like it's difficult being an app on apple because they get to dictate all the prices. And so that's why games like use their own currency because when you use your own currency, you get to decide what it's worth. But if you're just like purely using money and on the apple store, apple gets to apple, gets to tell you what it's worth. Um, so yeah, I don't know how that, but it just seems like some, something, something to that effect, I think has to be the case. Um, it just doesn't seem improved enough. And even to people talking about the rank ladder, at least as it is now, it's just the same. It's just like ranked or not, but no like sort of incremental climbing system or leaderboards, like there's leagues. Like I know at caps that like the RSC asleep or something like that, but it's just kind of like a nominal version of what people are after, when they want to rank.

Mike:

Yeah, it's a rank. ladder without a ranking.

Brent:

You know, I have a guess. I think, I think I have a slightly more optimistic take. Like maybe you guys saw some of the different, but I felt like everything worked, like people play the game and like,

Mike:

is that our bar, everything

Brit:

Oh, I mean, I, I I've seen it's very slow. It's like I saw someone, someone replied to like one of Tate's tweet. That's just like they would have been, they would have like finished being beaten by MEO and the time it took them to start a game.

Brent:

so, so definitely what I saw was getting into matches is slow, but I assume that the function of like number of people playing and like, I mean, this is what beta is all about. Maybe, maybe there were, uh, you know, uh, maybe they were overwhelmed with like servers are crashing, left and right. And like, that's what it's all about, you know? Like, Uh, have they scaled to something like this before? I don't know. Yeah. It's a, it's a different thing kind of handling it. I'm sure. They're like, they're seeing unprecedented traffic in their mind and they're trying to figure out, you know, what will it be like when it's 10 X this in the United States or, or whatever, right. A hundred X this like, as we roll out to other places, but I was happy to see, it seemed like everything worked. And I feel like, I think there's two really, really good things that are exciting for me about this one is, um, I'm sure. Uh, uh, one of the biggest reasons for them to move was like, they were just like, we've got to get to a new code base, you know, uh, when, when we say, Hey, we want to run CP tournament's on this. And the engineering team comes back and says, it's going to take us two years to do that. Like, it's, there's so much coding, so much work, so many problems, uh, you know, like moving to a fresh new, clean code. Hopefully it allows them to be nimbler and move faster and be more agile. And, and in that respect, I have optimism. Uh, the other thing that I think is really exciting for me is like, I don't know. I looked at it like one of the things that always amazes me about building a house is it seems like it takes months and months, and months and months for them to like lay a foundation and put up like, you know, the framework. And then they can like drywall the house and build the whole kitchen and paint everything and put the windows in and like a week. And they're done. And yeah, I mean, I look at all this and I thought, I feel like

Mike:

Um,

Brent:

an interesting design decision they made for better, for worse, uh, that I felt like I really saw in the demos was they were designing with like a mobile first kind of mindset and all that white space was about like, well, we weren't really making this for a PC right now. We were really focused on like, how's it going to look on your phone and trying to make it, so it was playable on your phone. Because PTCGO like, there doesn't work, can't just can't do it. And I assume when they were like, we need to make PTCGO work on people's phones so we can give them daily challenges and do all that stuff. Their current, you know, engineering team and PTCGO code base was like, it's just impossible. It can't be done. And they, they have a clear path to like more accessibility for customers and like giving people, all that kind of good stuff. And I felt like so much of the other stuff that was like, people complain about it. I was like, that's the stuff that you do really fast when you build the house. Like, you know, I mean, if they want to start selling playmates in the store and like now you can get a playmat and like custom Chrome it up. No problem. Like hopefully they have a really clean code base and they can just add playmates to the store and like allow people to completely customize the visual look and feel of their game. Uh, you know, the animations are a little slow. That's what a bid is for. Like, guys let's just make all the animations happen 50% faster. Like that's probably not a computing cycles problem. It's probably like they set it to take that long. Cause they thought it looked pretty and they get the speed back and they're like, okay, people don't value. The pretty look let's make them go a little faster. I feel like they, you know, it, it kind of worked like people were able to get into matches and play games. And I always felt like, you know, everybody knows like one of the problems with PTCGO and it's going to happen with PTCG Live too is as, as these cards that are built for a cardboard mechanic have to get digitized, like weird stuff happens and you get like weird bugs where like cards interact in ways you didn't really expect and stuff. And you know, I know that, I assume that's why they started by saying, Hey, it's only going to have these couple of sets of. one, because you have to code for each set, like so many weird custom things, but seemed like it was kind of working.

Mike:

Yeah, that's true. And I do agree with you about their design philosophy, probably being mobile. Heavy, um, for better or worse. I mean, hopefully it will bring in it a really cool market and hopefully the experience, hopefully the experience on mobile is very good. Um, that was actually going to be a question that even though the beta's out, it's not out for mobile. Right. I think it's just beta for desktop. Okay. Um, so I'll be really interested to, I mean, I play so like I play Hearthstone almost, almost exclusively on mobile because the experience is really good. Um, but I will say that in LA, in Hearthstone, the difference between playing on mobile and your computer is different. Like they emphasize different things and they shrink different things down and different, um, meters or numbers go to different places depending, you know And so I guess I just wonder. If there could have been more intentional design of like, okay, this is what the mobile is going to look like. And then this is what the desktop's going to look like. Um, because it looks better rather than, you know, just kind of doing them both equally and maybe, and maybe that's an easy fix. Maybe that's something that they can get feedback on too. Like you said, Brenda.

Brent:

And I know one of the things that I I've talked with you guys about, I've talked with tons of other people about that, like is great about Hearthstone is the way they have the live API that allows you to like, have plugins that feed you deck information and like probabilities and things. I mean, if they built all that into the underlying architecture already, and like that work is done, you know, I mean, people will be able to like re Chrome the user interface, like you'll be able to do so much stuff, you know? So I I'm just super duper optimistic that if we have a good foundation and like card interactions, all work and like gameplay at its core works, you when people are like, these cards are low Rez, these interactions are too slow matchmaking too slow. Like that sounds like the easy stuff to fix.

Brit:

Yeah. Like I, at least for me, like, I guess two things. One is that like as negative as I might sound like, I it's less that like, the disappointment is more than just like Japan. Pokemon is just like clearly not interested in like funding these projects more. And at the same time too, it's just like, again, this is just. This is, this is what the, the people who play the card game, like this is what they are worth to the overall sort of like net worth of the card game. Like if we were worth worth more time, like we would have a better game. And it that's like, you know, I, I wish, I wish I wish that Pokemon, you know, the biggest brand in the entire world, like we could have, we could have the chronometer game if, if the, if there was, if the money was in it and it just sadly isn't. Um, and yeah, but it's just in that too. It's just like the, and then the competitive side, it's just not, what's driving the money, driving the needle for selling the cards. Um, so this is what we get. Um, and so, yeah, I do think it will improve and there's no reason to be like a total sort of writing it off from day zero, whatever day one of a beta is. But, um, yeah, just like about basically not disappointed. It's just what I

Brent:

Do you think, you think that's the case? Or do you think it's just that, like, they don't know how I got I've definitely worked at places where like executing a technology strategy. Like they just don't know how.

Brit:

I mean, I don't know how cause Pokemon and all that as sort of a little separate than Nintendo, but just Nintendo in general just does consistently make what seems to be a questionable business decisions. Like, you know, I guess one of the biggest ones is like, They're their policy on like old games. Like they, you know, the, just like the virtual console doesn't exist on the switch for some reason, which just doesn't make sense to me. And like, they're really against pirating, but they don't, they are not interested in making these things accessible and just things like that. And like, oh, you know, take like melee the Malay community and sort of how consistently, like, Nintendo is like basically tried to stop them from, from playing the game competitively and things like that. So like maybe there is something there too, but I, at least some of that is also the money I would think.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brit:

Yeah. I just, I just don't know, like the, just like games, like mobile gaming in general is just like astronomically larger than gaming. And, you know, especially in a country like Japan, where that's driving a lot of the innovations in like mobile gaming, I just know they could have, I mean, maybe that's all just a fantasy. I'm just people thinking people want what I want, but just like. The game boy color game. And there is a SQL for the game with color game that never came to the west. Like I had just something like that I think would do so well. Like on the switch, I think like, that's, that's your, that's your bridge to casual audiences? Not like not making the real game as accessible as possible with, with the dust system. It's giving them a story with wood that teaches them how to play the card game with like half made decks, like something like that. Um, but again, I think that would just be wildly popular and it Pokemon just can't fail in terms of the games, the, the like major console releases that it makes. It's just always going to be a prophet, always going to be one of the most profitable games of the year. I just know they could do something better and I'll never stop complaining until they do.

Brent:

I, I, you know what, I, I appreciate the inherent optimism in what you're saying, but like, like great things can happen. We just got to keep pushing to make a greatness happen. Um, speaking of not greatness, uh, lead cups and challenges not coming back,

Mike:

Yeah, at least we know though, at least we know they're not come in. I would be pretty surprised if we didn't see some CP adjustments for worlds within the next couple of weeks. Um, or I don't know if I should say it would be surprised, but if I was a running Pokemon organized play, I would have something out in the next few weeks.

Brit:

Yeah.

Brent:

uh, do, do you have a spitball on what it is? I'll give you a, my fantasy. Uh, but, but I thought I'd asked you guys, if you guys have a fantasy.

Mike:

Um, probably. For like masters, just like masters north America, who is 500 before, let's say three 50.

Brit:

Yeah, I don't, I don't really have a thought on it. They'll touch the quotas. I think they'll just what I think Chris Szymanski was the first person I saw postulated that they'll just like, figure out a way to seed you into the various days of worlds based on regionals or I see performances. Like that seems the most likely thing to me. And again, sort of would hit, hit the point that I, I dressed as being important or the invite. And that's just been like getting people in the seats. And if like you have more, more incentive to attend, not like regionals in general, but like the one regionals that's in your neck of the woods. Like if it has that free path to worlds as part of it, like, I think that would increase your turnout for sure. Um, but my dream is still the grinder. Just give me the last chance qualifier. Um, but yeah, like 300, 2 50, something like that, maybe.

Brent:

Yeah. I, I, I, I liked the strategy. Like, I, I feel like they, they probably need to like, quote, prorate, CP in some way, because like, you don't want the people who were doing it to feel like they got excluded because they didn't quite get there. So, so you drop it and I think you try to be on the aggressive side, both because you want worlds to be big. And because like, you know, I think the there's no incentive not to be cool about it. So yeah. I like, I like 300 or three 50, like that seems like pretty aggressive prorating for the season was cut short and then I feel like you, yeah, you throw a bunch of invites on top of that, where you say, you know, it's top, uh, top four and all the regionals and top eight and all the ICS are top 16 and all the ICS or.

Brit:

It just seems really easy to do fairly because of, um, again, maybe the day structure, worlds also needs to change, but like, as it stands now, it just seems like really fair to just be like, yep. Top eight day one, like easy. Like, I don't think anyone's really going to protest that. Like, especially too, like, I don't think it's the case that. Obviously, none of this is permanent. Like I think this is just like, we got to get this season finished at some point. Like we're going to London. No, like cups and stuff will come back. Like I wouldn't be worried about this being permanent. Um, it's just trying to make, make the worst out of an overly long in bad situation.

Brent:

Now, I mean, if, if our, if our track record is any precedent, there'll be a big announcement tomorrow. But like, I, I do think that like, what Pokemon has to do is aggressively get out in front of that train, because I mean, if they wait until the day before Utah and then tell people top 32, a Utah gets free invite the world's people will.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

Don't do that. If you want to see Brit freak out on the pod, like that would be a good way to do it,

Brit:

I don't think I would freak out about it. I wish I had gone to Utah, but I don't think I would get angry.

Brent:

but, but yeah, every day that passes where they don't kind of drive to clarity. There is, is a, a, another litany of complaints in Burbank and like toxicity in the community that, that, you know, the sooner they get ahead of the less bad vibes there will be. And we're all about good vibes.

Mike:

Yep. I agree.

Brent:

else, guys? I feel like everything else can wait till next week because

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

great, great episode next week, more brilliant stars decks. Uh, and, and, uh, Yeah, we are, we are starting to try to figure out the Utah Mehta. I'm I'm a big, big believer that it's going to be all deck analysis all the time. Once like physical, regional start-up

Mike:

Yeah. Probably a lot of that. I mean, next week will be good. Cause like we said, we'll have a bunch of data from limitless events.

Brent:

Yeah. Yeah. Actually this is a little bit of exaggeration cause with the canceling of Orlando, there's a big gap between Utah and the next regional, but like coming out of Utah, like there's definitely a lot of good stuff coming down the pike, which is really, really exciting. All right guys, John, Paul's our outdoor music.