The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast

Bling decks, rogue decks, BST decks: Duraldon, Mew, Entei, & more

February 28, 2022 Brent Halliburton Season 1 Episode 77
The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
Bling decks, rogue decks, BST decks: Duraldon, Mew, Entei, & more
Transcript
Brent:

Well, let's, let's do it so we can feed my welcome to the Trashalanche. As always a hundred percent attendance, Brent Halliburton, Mike Fouchet bread. Pybas we're on Twitter. You can find us. We're sponsored by channel fireball, which is producing a wave of new articles about the brilliant stallers format. We encourage you to, uh, uh, go and buy stuff and use code trash, and then they'll know that we help contribute value to them to help pay the bills. So they truly value to us. And we appreciate it. Um, a couple of factoids guys. Yeah. Uh, as we just discussed Pokemon podcast, we are like just a leading search term for Pokemon podcast. I don't know what that means. I also thought that, uh, we are 14 in apple games, podcasts in the Czech Republic now. So when you go into chartable, which is the tool that I used to get all these podcasts analytics, um, they don't have the Ukraine Czech Republic was as close as I could get. I don't know what that means, but I thought that it was important that we somehow say doing our part to help, uh, support the people in the Ukraine with amazing podcast material. Um, all right. Five star review update guys, real movement. I feel like the review energy from last week, maybe, uh, uh, energized some people. Um, also Dan, we have still not forgotten you, but, uh, but we have two reviews, uh, since then people, and, and what's interesting is, um, I tried to go in and find the one star review again, and I can't find it. So one start of you listener. I want you to know, I mean, maybe you deleted it. It wasn't me. I don't know where it went.

Mike:

That's funny.

Brent:

I like, I tried to scroll through all the reviews and maybe I don't have the right sorting algorithm or something, but like it was gone. I would like to think it was just buried by all the five-star love and all, you know, the apple podcast algorithm was like, people need to see these five star reviews. This is where it's at. Anyway, five star reviews. We got two of them.

Mike:

Oh,

Brent:

one is Dr. Keith. Right. Love the cast. This podcast is killer. I'm a dad who pick up the game when my daughter wanted to learn and then got obsessed with it. After she moved on as a casual player who probably thinks about the game almost as much as a competitive player, I find these weekly discussions super helpful in working on the Metta and making deck, building decisions with, with PTCGO just around the corner. I'll look to you guys to help me decide what cards to spend credits on the guest appearances by Natalie, Kai and others have also been great listening. Keep up the good work.

Mike:

Nice. That's great. I, uh, what's your daughter kept playing,

Brent:

Yeah, that's the real truth is, is we're sad to hear that a child should move on as you know, I'm not a believer in children ever moving on.

Mike:

but yeah. Glad, uh, glad you're enjoying it. Oh, this is from Canada. that.

Brent:

All right. Um, this brings me to the one PTCG Live question for you guys today. Uh, So apparent. So I guess people have dust and they can use them to craft cards and nicer cards are more expensive. Will people feel the need to bling their PTCGO decks given that like, that's literally just throwing money at the problem.

Brit:

Yeah. I mean, people will still do it well, will bless people do it? No, just, I'll just say no, I'm going to say that the people that are out their PTCGO accounts are like already going to be like, invested enough, playing enough to such that, like, they'll just have the resources for it. I would think. Or, you know, on top of that, there'll be interested in accruing those resources. Um, yeah, I don't, I think like, I don't know. I've I have these, these opinions on like, just like legacy formats in general. Like I just sort of like, like, it's cool to have a ton of old decks, but me just being like, I'll just go to the library and print a few out. Like I just can't fathom spending money on, you know, Lluvia IEX. Expensive old card when I can functionally it's all the same. I'm not, you know, like the only thing I would lose access to, I guess, is tournaments anyways, tangent back to live. Um,

Brent:

there's no metaphor like this in other card games, right? Like there's no rare version of the exact same car. And then

Brit:

Hearthstone Hearthstone's sort of, I guess, has the precedent for that, which has existed since, excuse me, since the game launch, which is like the golden card, um, which you have a, I guess in this, this would be, I guess, a key difference. You can actually, you can pull the golden versions through, um, the normal avenues, the normal pack opening, which, um, which I guess is true for these cards too. Like you can, you can pull the ultra rare mew art if you want. Um, and then, and then yeah, you can, but it does. I guess in Hearthstone too. It's cool. Cause they're animated differently. Um, so it's, it's I guess the, uh, the digital part of the art is different rather than just it being a different piece of art entirely or a different hollow foil for the same piece of art.

Brent:

Uh, you know, I'm a believer that PTCGO could bring like different animations and sound effects for different cards. Like that's not, that's not a stretch. They could, the, they could easily deliver the.

Brit:

I mean, yeah, like we said that too, and like, I don't want to, you know, we don't want it to be another, just like let's rag on

Mike:

Okay.

Brit:

live for an hour, but like we said it last time, like, I'd be much more interested in just like that. Seeing the Pokemon in the animations, like what we said about the avatars, like I'm not after these, you know, real or cartoony avatars, like I would just be the happier just to have, this is a Rua avid avatar or something like that. And similarly, I think that like the ultimate fantasy of the TCG is like being able to see. The card games happen, like as if it were the video game or something like when you click attack for turn and you use Knight spear, it looks just like, you know, how it animates and sword and shield or the DS game, something like that.

Brent:

Totally. Totally. I like your idea too. Like, I mean, when they introduced, uh, uh, having a friend in Pokemon go, I was like, that's the most natural thing in the world. Everyone wants to have a friend. So the whole point of Pokemon, right?

Mike:

The, uh, the only thing, the only thing I'll add to that too, I actually think more people might bling out in PTCG Live because I don't think the difference between crafting the, all like the highest rare version and a lower reversion is actually that big of a difference. I'd have to look at the numbers,

Brit:

Oh yeah.

Mike:

like there was a big difference.

Brit:

yeah. I think some of the, some of the like conversion rates are not probably where they should be, but yeah, like, yeah, if it's just like couple more packs then sure. Why not?

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

That's that's a fair point. That's a fair point. And, and, uh, uh, it's just a matter of like whether or not you want to click the button versus going to all the trouble to trade and like having to find these like wonky deals, RNC. All right. I'm on the train. More people are going to blink out decks. I dig it.

Mike:

I will definitely still intentionally do minimum rarity to try and match what I will do in real life.

Brit:

No.

Brent:

Amen. That's what we like to hear. Alright. Alright. Second, second. Review from Kevin Abernathy. Amazing podcasts, extremely fun and informative podcast. Thank you for the hard work you put in. I've always enjoyed rogue decks and have ironically worked on road decks with both Mike toxic croak, squeezer and Brit, and Polian drift bloom in the past with, or without us knowing about it. How ha what's your favorite road creation of all time? Kevin, you're doing it right? You ask a question. That's how you're supposed to do these reviews guys.

Brit:

I want to add a caveat. I'm just to make it interesting. And Mike, you just can't say the truth. So you gotta go for a number two.

Mike:

Yeah,

Brent:

a great caveat.

Mike:

fine.

Brent:

Brit G.

Mike:

Yeah, that, that is true. Kevin's a Brit maybe you'll know for sure. I think he's from Colorado, right?

Brit:

Yeah,

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. I've definitely seen and talked to Kevin on and off quite a bit over the year. So great for the comment. Thank you for that. Um, my favorite. Rogue deck besides the G I don't even know if I'd pick the trees. The first thing that comes to mind is flag on memory Berry. Um, I think that is super, super fun deck that we were able to create for world's 2011. It actually came out of a deck that I, I didn't go to nationals that year, but if I went, I would've played flagon Gliss core level X, um, and it was the same general idea Gliss score, um, glitz core love blacks. When you played it, it Paralyzed and poisoned. I think just paralyzed. I dunno. It did.

Brit:

and some, because the, the attack was on the legends awakened Gliss court. And it was, it was you pick burner, poison didn't you, and went back into the hand.

Mike:

So it was, yeah, it definitely paralyzed when you played it, but then the lower Gliss core, I had an attack for free that you got to pump it back to your hand. Um, and so in theory, you could like infinite paralyzed, um, and that wasn't like really enough to like win games though. Um, so you would paralyze and then set up flag on level X, which milled a card in between turns. And then you could go like infinite paralyze and deck them out. And it was like not the greatest deck, but it was pretty good and fun. Um, and then. Sometime between nationals and worlds that year Tyler, uh, Nina Maura was like, well, trap has an attack, like a quarter attack 10 and they can't retreat. So let's just play memory Barre and then gust up clay dolls and make them never be able to retreat and just act them out that way. And I was like, that sounds way better than my deck. So, um, Yeah, that was, that was a really fun broke deck to Oregon.

Brit:

Yeah, for me, nothing is really jumping out, which is strange. I played a lot of rogue decks, I would say probably like for like bigger tournaments, probably more rogue than non RO, but I don't have any like super memorable finishes. Like the, one of the states I won with like executor. Executor was already at deck, sort of like, I guess the, the lineage of that before it sort of took off about the time that I won with it was that like Ross played it at a winter regionals, like in this was the state's format. So I like had that existed for awhile, but people didn't just like piece all the puzzles together until about the state's format. But like, I like that deck a lot that executor was really fun to play. It was not fun. Like, I don't, I didn't like where the format like went after it became like a relevant enough of a deck. It was not very fun to play against. Um, the mirror mirrors were pretty lousy, but that one stands out. Um, I don't know. I think, I think of a lot that just don't seem like, like I would, I would love to talk to you in person about them. They don't seem like, were worth about, um, taking up the podcast, like all a bunch of little silly ideas. I like maybe top ADA, a city. Is there something with, but I would just go with, I'll just go with Los Gar gang Gar, um, pretty well, like, is it sort of interesting? Cause that's not super rogue. Like, I guess it was fairly road going into the, the like early rotation format, the 2011. Um, I don't think anyone really talked about it. Like I remember like there were sick people wrote about it in six presence articles, and like people like understood that it existed. And like, I think someone other than me, like topped nationals with it that year. Um, but it's like a really unorthodox stack that I, I may talk 32 at nationals with that. And it's like the only one of the only decks ever that's been like. Um, within the meadow, no matter defining anything that like basically wins on an alternative wooden condition, like, which I guess is true for like mill decks in control. But that, that here is there's like an actual wind condition in the loss zone stadium. So I, it's a, it's a deck that you don't ever take prices with. So I guess to explain for anyone who doesn't know, uh, the loss zone still exists, even though we don't ever really have cards to like interact with it anymore, but it's just Pokemon is like removed from play. And there was a stadium card called loss zone. And if you, if, how did it go if you or your opponent had like six, six or more Pokemon in the LASA and you could just declare yourself the winner, like on your turn, the winner of the game, if your, if your opponent. Like sex. And so what you would do with this gang, Gar had an ability that for like each psychic energy attached to it, you could look into their hand and put Pokemon to the losses. And so you would just try to like snatch six Pokemon and then there was a mule that could copy that attack as well. And, um, there was a lot of fun. I like, I don't think like, it's interesting. Like I, I have played the deck in, in like people have 2011 texts and occasionally they'll have this built and I've played it. And it just like, it never does very well. Like it was definitely like, not a good deck, but it's probably better than you think it is still. Like, I lost, uh, like Jason Harry and top 32. And we had like a really good three game series. And I think I got unlucky to lose, like, but, um, Yeah, it was just, I ran well with it. I guess I'll say it was not really a particularly good deck for the format. I think a lot of it too, has the nationals was people didn't have their deck lists figured out. And so when you're only playing against like world's top 16 deck lists that are super optimized and stuff, uh, again, it gets a lot harder, but I like it has some good match-ups even still, like, I don't think you can lose your, the truth for instance, like I'm some ran some random ones out there.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

Um, so true, true story is true. Story Lawson. I have, I have a funny Lawson story for you. Uh, um, so my oldest son is in the second grade. He has no idea how to play Pokemon. And so the very first time I'm ever going to take him to I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to take you to a local league and we're going to learn how to play Pokemon, like. This was the inception moment for Halliburton family Pokemon. And he had, he had like, had some cards and, uh, traded a bunch of cards with his friends and I'm like, okay, just bring all those cards. Like, we don't know what to do with these cards. Just bring them all. So we like, he like puts them in a shoe box. We take all these cards. And I mean, I recognize some kids they've been collecting for a long time and they show up with like a ton of cards. We showed up with like a hundred cards. Like not a lot of cards because I didn't love my child that much. Right. And we, we get to the store and the league leader, who's fantastic. Kind of sits down with us and she's like, okay, let me help you guys build your first deck. What's your best card. He reached into his box, whips out copy of loss zone. It's like, if you get six focus on the last one, you just win. This is my best card. And I was like, actually I think has absolutely no idea what his best.

Mike:

That's funny.

Brent:

Like, obviously that card was long out of rotation. Cause this was like, uh, I mean, we, we started playing, uh, like plasma blast. Like there were no cards that could be like, he didn't have any cards that could put anything in the law.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

it was a car that was like five years old, but he was like, I get six cards that I'm fucked. The last one I just win. This is the best card I got. Exactly. This, it sounds easy. I just do it. So, uh, and then she, yeah, she like looked at it. She was like, yeah, it's not your car. You don't have any good cards, but that's not your best card. In fact, it's completely unplayable. Good luck with that. Uh, uh, but yes, we have a, we have a deep fondness in the Halliburton family for the Lawson is a card. It's a, it's a super good, super good. All right. Um, guys, let's talk about Pokemon tournaments.

Mike:

Yeah,

Brent:

I feel like we should start with.

Mike:

Okay.

Brent:

Uh, props to, uh, tag team podcast are, are not nearly as cool competitor. Wow. They're really good at Pokemon though.

Mike:

oh Yeah. I was thinking that too, like Riley one and then JW on the gym leader. One. That's crazy. That's awesome. Good for them.

Brent:

Yeah. Very, very, uh, impressive. And, and Riley won it with like the deck that I feel like is the go-to deck. We talked about it last week. It just seems so good. Darale it on?

Mike:

Yeah. So the lists seem pretty straightforward, right? It's kind of just consistent. Does what it wants to do.

Brent:

I love, I love this, uh, list. The, the two, three Daralyn Don with one monster.

Mike:

Um, so I I'm actually messaged this to you guys in the chat. Like the day after we recorded our last podcast. The thing that I didn't realize about RCS until I saw it played one game was that you basically can't whiff the double colorless energy because you just, you know, you get an RCS downturn, one, it attached to energy, you evolve it, you use the V star ability. If you don't have the energy in your hand, and then you get your turn to 180 and a bunch of energy on the board. It's pretty sweet. Um, so, okay. I got it up now. So he's got. Oh, yeah. He plays two, three drought on with the, with the mustard. Cool. What do you guys think about the four stadiums before a collapse, but does it Collapsed something stadium

Brent:

stadium.

Mike:

Yeah, that's what it's called collapse stadium.

Brent:

it is,

Mike:

And that's funny. Um,

Brent:

I mean, it's, it's perfect for a deck like this. Uh, I mean, you know, it, it is, are there really stadium wars? If you're, if somebody is playing music, like, I guess it's good against mute because he wants, he doesn't want to only have three Jennis X down. Right.

Mike:

yeah, that's true. Is it the stack doesn't really get, does it get messed up by Path to the Peak? I guess like a little bit, but it's not that big of a deal. I don't know. That's really interesting.

Brent:

I am going to build this deck and play some games this week because I feel like I got to know. I just don't understand. Like, I feel like the new matchup is super favorable.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

I feel like that is the dark matchup.

Mike:

Um,

Brit:

I've heard that. And so I guess this is like one of the interesting points about Riley's list or at least compared to, I don't know what the standard is, but a lot of like the list I've played with and, um, several of them without their like, play hyper potion, but Riley's, wasn't like really playing any heel at all. And I think, I think the healing is like, can be relevant in the dark matchup. Like particularly like, I think you just like need to live a little longer sometimes against like the, like the dark, but dark box. Excuse me. Like I'm not, I don't mean gang Gar or something. I think that the healing is really, really helpful to just try to like. I mean, it's just such a slow deck. It's a slow deck where like every, every number counts like you, you you're passing your, your six prizes, like very, very meticulously when you're playing like a one prize deck like that. And so being able to offset them like the 60 damage multiple times is a big deal. Um, and I guess based on the online results too, is like the dark dark box, mostly with wheezing is like doing very, very well and they sort of cursory events of the format. Um, but yeah, I think healing is I think a question, whether it belongs in the RCS stir Elden list or not.

Brent:

And now the dark decks don't play a lot of counter stadiums. And I feel like they also would be very unhappy if somebody plays down.

Brit:

Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. They've got so many Italians and all the other little things they're trying to do.

Mike:

I watched, I didn't watch the full top four and finals because each time I tuned in Riley was dominating the dark decks so badly. It didn't really seem very close to me. Um, and this kind of brings me back to, I don't want to get too off topic of this deck right now, but I still don't really get why wheezing is like the go-to dark version right now. Uh, I don't know. I feel like these decks would just be better off playing Sableye and, you know, like using the space for a Sableye ends Aptos and things like that. That's that's just me though. Um, but the Riley totally dominated the dark decks in top four and top two, like it wasn't even close and he looks like he played at once in Swiss and also to ode it. So.

Brent:

Yeah. Uh, the fact that our CSV star is only a two prize attacker, like, it seems like you'd be able to trade really well. Like

Mike:

Yeah,

Brent:

it seems like you have a lot of opportunity to just like do stuff and grind up at three,

Mike:

right? Yeah. exactly. The big terms are interesting. It gives drought on BMX a lot more, just a lot more tankage against stuff you said before that the music, but natural is good. And I do think it's good, but I'm still like, would be a little scared of it, I think. Um, just cause they can do so many cheesy things early in the game. Yeah, it looks like he didn't lose anything. He just tied two things. He tied against a Mallomar And he tied against a Turnitin. Seems good. Kind of boring to me, but

Brent:

Uh, you know, I, I assume you just have to find your own fun by playing mustard. Like once a game, like every time you mustard you're like, well, that was fun. You know, there was like a sequencing challenge every game to like, figure out if you're going to do the thing and how you're going to do it. Right. Um, so I thought, I thought the thing that really stood out to me about a full grip versus the online games that started brilliant stars is obviously like mew absent from thought form.

Mike:

that's true, but it did make what two, it was two of the top eight, right?

Brent:

Yeah, it was two of the top eight, but that's, I mean, the, they had a couple of the cut and then those immediately get bodied.

Mike:

There's three dark next to muse Riley with their Don.

Brent:

Baxter with her Alvin.

Mike:

Okay. The last

Brent:

Sorry. Yeah. I mean the top, top four is gang Gar two darks and DRL done.

Mike:

oh again, car,

Brent:

yeah, I mean, I guess, uh, the moral story is a, like, you could say tough Mehta from you, but like obviously it was the most played deck of the tournament, I guess that's why those mute X got as far as they did just like law of big numbers. Right.

Mike:

right? Exactly. So I was super into, uh, Frank per six deck, the RCS flagon Beedrill I think And I really liked that and I like, um, prem Watts deck.

Brent:

Uh, what was, what did pram play? I have no idea.

Mike:

pram played, um, warm Madame Zoroark liberal, and I don't think his list is online anywhere, but I watched, he was, he was streamed round one, and that was like the only round that I watched pretty much the whole thing. Um, cause prime was on and, and I had the time then, uh, but it was really cool. Um, it was like definitely for, for Zoroark some combination of warm and Dan, I don't know if he had a full four for Warmerdam, but I assume so. And then he ran of the Galicia pod that does for a double color list. It does, um, like 30 plus 50 for each of the opponents of the Pokemon in play. I think that's what it does and played some liberals and other random Pokemon and whatnot. Um, it was really, it was cool. He beat him, you around one, he should've tied, but would have won. Like, it was weird. Like the mew player could have guaranteed a tie for themselves, but then didn't. And so pram one, but if the game would've played out, pram also would have won. So it was fine, but, uh, I don't think he ended up doing quite that. Well, um, I'd have told you at five, three. Okay.

Brent:

Yeah.

Mike:

But it gave me some hope and I built my own lists last night and I, played some games. Um, seems really cool actually. And I know we like crapped on warm banana a couple of weeks ago, um, the glycerine had really good though, because, so if your opponent has five V Pokemon in play, which mew can often do that, uh, you can one shot of Emacs with a choice belt because it does two 50 plus 30, like it's base attack is 30 plus two 50 for there be Pokemon. So you're up to two 80 And. then choice bucket two to three 10. So it's pretty solid. Um, and then we're, Madame never really gets to a warm, uh, one shot, but so you're really just like a two-shot deck. Um, I'm still like pretty skeptical of Mallomar. I feel like Mallomar has gotten a lot of hype this week, but he hasn't really put up any results. So I'm, I'm interested in single pricers always. And so this seems like a pretty cool one prizing deck. Um, did you guys see Frank per six deck as well?

Brit:

Yeah, I've known about that deck for a while. And I like, I like it's cool. I like, I'm not basically, I don't know. I don't, I don't have a way to say this delicately, but Franco always has these like busted, busted, busted decks, you know, quote unquote. And then they just go like five, two and one every time, you know? And it was just like, they have their results as flag on deck. And I've just been hearing for weeks how unbeatable this fire on deck is. And every time I look at the list was just. Let's just, I mean, as RCS really just equal consistency, this looks like a mess. Um, and yeah, I just like, it's cool. Like it's finding cool combos and things like that. It's just always a little shy of being like, actually, like it's again, like on paper, like I think it seems great. It's one of those decks. So like, yeah, it has answers this, this and this, but like a lot of moving parts in, you know, particularly flagon takes for energy. Right? That's just so many, so many things that just so many things I have to go, right. Otherwise, like he'll just get blown up by me, like muse just too fast and too consistent. You can't miss a beat. And so when your deck is like on the, you know, the. In cloud era, like a decline slide, exciting rates of similar levels of consistency. You just have so much less room for error. Um, but it's cool. And like, I think Beedrill, as we've talked about a number of times, like is our sort of Leafeon idea and things like that. Like the drill is like on paper as a really good car and against a lot of these decks and like RSE has sort of solves that problem before. Whereas in the past, like I know like Mikey had lists and things like that, like it turns out it's really easy to get the beetroot. It's easy to make that combo, but then you also needing the grass at the same time was the difficult part and RCS sort of solves that you can, you know, probably pop the pop the ability and you kind of, you complete the puzzle, whichever, you know, whichever of the various pieces you're missing, you grab two of them. And there you go. There's your, your free prize knockout.

Brent:

So, so here, here's my question, Brit, uh, um, I, I hear that, like, I think the challenge with any like road deck builder is, um, uh, it's a little bit like, like an entrepreneur. Like if you don't believe in your idea, nobody's going to believe in your idea more than you. Like, you have to believe in your idea. Like the whole point is they kept looking at ideas until I found an idea they could believe in. But how do you tell a difference between like an idea that they believe in, but it's like not good enough. And like, obviously the counter is like guard chomp, guaranteeing a Roxy actually was the best deck. That could be everything. Like, it was incredible medical, like absolutely destroyed the entire a tournament. Right. Um, is there, is there some, like, do you just have to, is it just testing, testing, testing, or is there like mojo that you can use to tell, like that's the.

Brit:

Um, I mean, well with like total certainty, I don't think there is anything, but at least, like, I think the litmus test I would just use, it's just kind of the general simplicity to it. And so like the Roxy chomp deck was really, really simple. I think like there wa there wasn't anything. Sort of like weird or bizarre, um, in there it was just like, we made this tier one standard deck and they expanded. And like here here's the, you know, by virtue of being an expanded, we found all these cool shortcuts that make it work. Like it's like, oh God Trump, you know, Dell, Dragon's great. What do we do about that extra energy to be like a ha type of cocoa. And so, you know, you're just filling in the blanks with like the various, um, sort of good cards that expanded has to offer. And so like, that would just be my thing. Like I just think on paper, like there, it was pretty obvious what the Roxy chomp would do. Like it's just going to take three prizes. It's going to do, um, you know, a ton of damage just for the double dragon energy. And then the rest is just like general consistency. Whereas here it's just like, maybe it's not doing a good job of explaining it, but yeah, I think like the good road decks are still just like simple ones at the end of the day. They're not the ones that are. Looking at my rogue deck. I've got an answer for, you know, I play 20, 22 different Pokemon and five of them are an answer to a different. Or something like that. And there's just a lot of times where that's the case. Um, but I think some of the two is definitely just testing. And so one of the decks that like, like not so like out there, conceptually, but a deck that just didn't turn out to be so good. That Frank liked a lot that we talked about and tested. Um, I mean, not like directly tested with each other, but just sort of were floating ideas around was I'm like Inteleon DMX, like the rapid strike one that came out last set that we talked to him, uh, here on the podcast, the timer two and thought would end up being pretty good. Um, and it just like, wasn't the just sort of wasn't there. Um, I think it was solidly like tier two or tier three. You know, never really made an impact in that. Metagame um, and so that will, then that's an example of just like, I think there's no way to know there other than just testing it, like that was sort of an archetype, um, you know, sort of just given to us in the, in the setlist itself, it was just like, here's the new card and here's sort of the most obvious way to play it. Um, But, yeah, I don't know, like the question of when to play rogue or when to explore rogue is such an interesting one that I like, I don't know. There's just so many different, like precept, presuppositions, I think you have to answer and accept. And like, I think like the best road player like knows, like I think, I think the, sort of the, the, the paradigm of a rogue player is the one who sort of, there they go big or go home and every tournament, like, it's not that like their deck is going to, it's going to do well, or it's not, it's not, it's not, you know, stretching itself too thin trying to tackle so many match-ups it has a sort of Orthodox approach to the matchup spread. It's just like hitting, hitting ones differently than like mew, you know, then the, then the meta decks are like, I think that's the best rogue deck, not one that sort of just like has, you know, are the answers. And I think RSCs has kind of like a card just like in and of itself that like lends itself to that kind of. Uh, eclectic like buffet debt building, where it just like it's colorless. I can play with whatever I want with it. And I've seen, you're not, not to say that these decks are necessarily bad, but I've seen from I'm like shy in some other videos, just like, here's like a grass fighting RSCs deck. There's a lot of cool ways you need to pair it. But all that to say, just like, I think RFCs is so consistent that you can play it with anything and it'll be, it'll be exactly that consistent. But like beyond that, like I think your deck has to do some other things for it to truly be competitive.

Brent:

Yeah, that's that's, uh, I think it was pretty a good insight both into road deck building and an RCS, like I'm sure at some level, I'm sure I'm gonna hear this from my son. Like if you can computer search for two cards, you're like, whatever crazy combo I had, it sounds super viable. I could do this. Like every game it's easy in my testing. I hit it every day game. Like it was easy, like, well that doesn't make it good. Um, so, so where are we with the Metta guys? What's the, what's the, what's the correct answer?

Brit:

mean, it seems like it's a cursory glances, mew, RCS, stir Aldon and dark box, but it seems to be a, and so like, are there decks that can beat all three, like as this, like a pick two sort of scenario. Beat to lose to one. And that's, that's sort of how you establish yourself on the tier list. Um, but yeah, I'm not sure, like, at least in my own testing, I've kind of at this point where like with NTA that I feel pretty good. I could be in those first two mew and DRL, Don like, feel pretty confident about those match-ups, but the, not just the dark Bock Bock, dark, not just the dark box one. I haven't thought about that one too, particularly, but I think single pricers in general are pretty tough or not good for Um, and so that's like, and then of course, like water, I'll just skip to water. Um, and so that's sort of where I'm at, like, is that a good enough, like spread at least in theory? Maybe worth considering. And I like think so at least at least where the meta-game is for the moment. Like, I think I could in theory, go into Utah and just be like, you know, I might go like, uh, you know, best case scenario, 1, 1, 1 against single pricers. And then if I go like X and O it gets me under, out on, like, that sounds pretty good. And, you know, let's just say I lose the one, like, you know, RCS, uh, ice rider that I play like that doesn't sound too bad. I don't think any of the one Prizer decks, you know, for the moment represent that large of a share of the meta gain. Like I think it's mew at a nice percentage followed, you know, second pretty modestly under that with RCS or on Lego, at least that's what kind of full grip indicates to me, but I'm sure there's, there's, there's more time for some other decks to sort of, I think, establish themselves within that hierarchy.

Brent:

Right. Do you think there's a reason why we haven't seen any people bringing entail?

Brit:

Uh, no, I just don't think anyone has a good entail list. Yeah. I mean, not to say it, not that there's anything interesting about mine, it's basically, um, you know, as simple as it can get, but like Luke Morse's has one that I just, that, um, is just sort of focused in the wrong direction. It's like all about heat energy and like, um, Cape and being big. And I, I don't care about being big. I'm going to die as, as soon as I take my, as soon as I take my knockouts. Um, and then there was one, um, I'm forgetting the name, Gabriel, maybe one of the, uh, channel fireball writers. He had one like last, like last week or two ago that had like a lot of like weird stuff in it. Like it played like wrote them phones Oranguru it had played. I think it's a glary and Articuno to discard, but it only played for fighting or for fire energy would seem, which is just wrong. Um, and so that was sort of the main thing that was wrong with that list. Um, it just had a bunch of other just like cute cards in it, but it just wasn't good. It was just playing like, it was just kind of a way to make entail. Cool. And so it, but like it played for energy search and only for fire energy, which I think you want to be attaching and accelerating basically every turn, if you can. And you just, you can't do that if you only play for basic fire. Um, but yeah, I think that's it. I just don't think people have sort of streamlined the intake yet. I saw as Google playing it a little bit on his stream, through the colo, which I think is interesting. I just don't, like I've said before, I just play auntie and chars art and kind of know no secrets beyond that, just, I don't think people have tried the charts hard, I guess is my answer. Like I think it's pretty good.

Mike:

Yeah, that makes sense. Um, hi, played a bunch this week. Mostly various single prize decks. I played a bunch of mad party, played some Mallomar rapid strike, but I wasn't super into it, even though I don't know if you guys saw. I was talking a little bit with Alex Szymanski on Twitter. Cause he said that he thought Matt rapid strike Mallomar was the best deck minus time. And I was like, what? That doesn't make any sense to me. Um, and basically his response was the Cynthia card is incredibly good in the deck right now, which is sure that can be true. But I just, the argument is that it's, you can actually hit three 20 on a BMX two times in a game, which means you need eight rapid strike cards in your hand, which just still doesn't seem super realistic to me. And I don't think I ever got it in like the five games that I played. So, I'm not maybe, maybe my list. Wasn't perfect. So I don't know. I I'll be interested to see if someone comes out with a really good list with that. Um, so it wasn't super into that mad party was pretty strong. Um, but also. I don't know, maybe, maybe, probably not, definitely not a tier one deck could be tier two. Um, but it's pretty fun. I enjoy playing it. Um, I played a little bit of the, the woman damn deck, like I said, I'm really interested in biblical. Um, I think I really underestimated how good being able to use multiple liberal and the turn is, so I feel like there's an engine and I don't know what to play it with, but I feel like there's an engine where you play for, for liberal, like 16 or 20 balls search cards, just like for ultra, for quick ball, for evolution, incense for great balls. And you don't play any draw supporters and you just like do something crazy where you just like burn through your deck. So the, the thing that I initially tried it with was. rapid strike and Cheryl and the idea being like, okay, I can actually just play Cheryl every turn, if I want, I've only tried it a few games, so I don't know how good it is, but, um, it didn't feel that good because it's actually possible for a lot of decks to one shot you at some point, you know, given enough time, like movie max can just one shot you once or twice a game, or maybe they just one shot. One of them and boss Kao three liberals throughout the game. And so, but I feel like there's something there. That role is actually really, really interesting to me. Um, so I feel like there's something, there's something that's gotta be there. So that's kind of where I am and just like exploring the format where like the meta-game is, I think brick kinda like said it, right. Like where we're at is kind of like new RC is straddled on the dark decks and there's some other interesting decks that are kind of around, but those are kind of the main ones. And I think people are just going to be trying weird things to see and figure out and figure out what sticks. I do feel like the format is pretty generally.

Brent:

uh, is there a reason why you're not spending more time? Like, like, I mean, and maybe it's an exaggeration, you'd be like a lot of credit, but I would say you were, you were early on the single prize, dark bandwagon because Ross was pushing it so hard.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

Uh, is there, is there a reason why you're not working on that? I mean, it's obviously it's a bit part of the meta-game right. It's theoretically, one of the two or three best exits.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I did play some games with that too, but I just understand the decks so well at a fundamental level that I don't feel like I need to play it that much to understand where it is in the metagame. I should play the wheezing version a little more to try to understand that a little bit better, but, um, I just don't, I don't get it. I don't understand why people, why wheezing is better than playing just other cards. Um, like I know for a fact the wheezing version is not that good against me. Like, I mean, it's good, but it's like, not much better than a 55 45 matchup. And so I don't really, I don't get it.

Brent:

You know, the thing that jumped out to me, like when I looked at the wheezing list versus like the straight dark list, like we can just takes up a lot of space. I mean, it seemed like most of the lists I looked at, like the first count card ended up being choice belts. And I was like, man, should I spell? It seemed like good.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. First of all, it's really good.

Brent:

Yeah. Like, like saying, you know, I, I want to I'm okay with doing 30, less damage at every turn when I attack it. But like I got this wheezing man wheezing better be really good.

Mike:

Yeah. There is this other interesting deck actually. So we messed up. There's one other deck that top aided, uh, Kevin Baxter got ninth. The deck that updated is like a sweet Coon box. It's like sweet Coon mattress. These Aptos V

Brent:

It was it's it's the birds, whatever.

Mike:

yeah. Yeah, yeah. Which seems kind of cool as well, like a little tool box, the deck, I don't know where it fits that. Great. Didn't really gain anything. This said as far as I can tell, I played the choice belt, but

Brent:

Uh, you know, uh, I felt like a choice belt. It's it's like, uh, people going to splash that into a lot of old decks. Like you, I feel like we see sweet Coon, Luda Cola. Like we see there's still a lot of decks that people were playing last format that they're like, you know, if you throw a choice belt, then it gets a little better. It reminds me of, of like when, when they printed choice band in, uh, X, Y like a lot of people were just like, okay, I'm gonna put this into my plasma decks. And like, it's really good card, extra damage, people like that.

Mike:

they do.

Brent:

So, uh, any, any predictions for the week ahead, guys? I feel like at some level we've covered that we've covered the meta that's. What's going on guys.

Mike:

Yeah, I dunno. I, I think I hope people start, like, don't see all these results and just lock into these decks because I feel like there's a lot to explore. Like I saw actually I saw cash, um, when an event last night with ice rider, like a really standard ice rider deck, and I think that's cool that he was able to just, you know, check that out. And so I feel like the way this would,

Brit:

That was sort of the interesting part

Mike:

yeah, that's true. That's true.

Brit:

is less.

Mike:

Um, like this format is going to be interesting because of all of the utility cards that we've gotten in this set. So I think people shouldn't, uh, ignore. Old decks that could see like new and interesting variations on them, because with all these new cards,

Brit:

Yeah, I think too, that just like, at least I have these kind of, a lot of the decks we just talked about. Like, I mean, I'm just like, this is not a task for me. This is a task for someone with just like a better mind. I don't know how to build control decks, but I controlled the seams. Well-positioned still, I think we've kind of hinted at this already, but like between like a sing. I just think the, the one prize tax you'd always probably be fine against as a control player. They're just, you just have so much more time to run them out of their resources. Um, but then like RCS they're out on, like, doesn't like, isn't aggressive, like, like it can take pride, started taking prizes fast, but it isn't like, it doesn't do a whole lot, like once it's set up. And I think that just like control will pretty easily be able to deal with that. I think, um, I guess maybe not maybe the kind of acceleration, it's just an answer to all the kind of shenanigans that the control players going to want to put you under. Um, but yeah, I just think, I think there's, there's definitely a list out there that can cover a lot of these meta meta IDEXX for the moment. And. Unless the meta-game just stays like to open. Like, I feel like it can definitely do well. Yeah. There's a ton of ton of things we're investigating right now. Like Vinny a really tall, solid top online players playing like RCS Zacian in a tournament right now, um, with fighting energies in zap to still like it's just RCS counter box kind of thing, I guess. And like, it's probably fine. I don't know. But

Brent:

Uh, you know, I wanted to ask you guys, so did you see the top editors and Sunday open Taylor lo played this like RCS Moltres, zap dos box deck.

Mike:

Oh yeah. I saw some of these lists running around as I was checking stuff over the weekend. Yeah. It was just like throw, throw a bunch in different colors plus RCS in the deck. Yeah. I think Eternatus is pretty interesting. Interesting spot. I've seen some people trying that. I think ultra ball probably gave that a huge boost because you want to be able to Crobat quite often. Um, you could even play, uh, the, the light part, the new trade card. Um, so I think Eternatus is worth exploring, um, think, oh, oh, this is not an old bull kind of is. Um, I think Durant is in a pretty interesting spot. Uh, cause you get to play eight energies. You can mill quite a lot of cards. Like a lot of decks need to move through their deck to be competitive. like new has to draw, you know, decent amount of cards on the first turn to really set up and start pressuring you and you pressure their energy. Pretty good. You can even play like one of the evil tos potentially in a Duran deck. Uh, so I don't think Duran will be like top tier, but I think it's probably solid. It's probably just a good deck. Um, yeah, I think there's, I just think it's, it's a cool time to be playing Pokemon. There may be a time in a month from now where the meta-game gets a little bit more centralized, but I think for the next few weeks, people should feel empowered to try whatever they think is good, like choice belt and ultra ball give a lot to a lot of different decks.

Brit:

I don't think we've managed to talk about this deck once yet on the podcast, but there's also the stove, Jenner, stone Jenner, deck that like as also of any creation, I believe like he top he like got secondary Awana Sunday open, I think with it. And then it's like made a top eight here. There it's just a Stoli deck. I don't know if it really changes with the new cards, but like, it could still be around, I suppose. Like if it beat me before, I'm sure it still beats me now, unless I guess unless the band, unless I can know I'll know. Yeah. Cause it's mere. Doesn't want shot. The band wouldn't be relevant, but I don't know. Yeah, no, nothing in particular. I think there's a lot out there and, you know, for all, I was sort of ragging on, you know, insert RCS creation, like that could just be the best deck. So when there's just seems to be like the zap dose and the Moltres, like both are just very good. Um, both versions of them. In fact, like both the of both of them are very useful and they're hitting like meta relevant types. Um, I guess the only other thing is like where's jolty on like, no, one's really guilty on hasn't been around at all. Um,

Brent:

I mean, if he makes it really, really tough.

Brit:

it seems like it should be fine still.

Mike:

Yeah, probably. I wonder, like I wonder even like, Urshifu, maybe they can play around, man, if you well enough with Metta jam, I'm not sure. I'm like, man, if he is great against these decks, but it's not, it shouldn't kill them outright. I think they're just going to need to find time to adapt, to see what decks end up actually wanting to play manifests and which decks don't and then they can kind of tailor their counter manifests strategies.

Brent:

Uh, you know, what's tough. I feel like is, and it used to be that they boxed out all the single prize decks and, and, you know, I think all of a single price decks feel like it's not boxed out now.

Mike:

Right, Right, right. Right. Exactly. Which is cool, which is cool. I do want to have bench damage decks. I don't want them to be gone, but I just don't want them to exactly, like you said, box a whole set of other decks out of the game, which is what was happening. I do want to mention, I think Luke Morsa is running a somewhat big event next where this coming weekend, it's like a regional style, but it might be best of. on, I forget. But I think I'm actually going to play. It's going to be like one of my first bigger online tournaments in a long time.

Brent:

I think we have decided, uh, we've made the final decision to pull the plug on Utah. I think the, uh, oh, so tell me if you guys actually have heard a story. I saw a tweet that kind of referred peripherally to people showing up with fake VAX cards at the full group tournament. Does anyone know if that was a thing?

Brit:

It not be a little

Brent:

like they kind of said, they kind of said that, uh, you know, if, if people, if people are willing to show up with fake VAX cards at an unofficial tournament, just imagine what it's going to be like, uh, at Utah and.

Brit:

yeah. I mean, I don't know. That seems, I don't know how you would, like, I mean, my immediate thought was just like, how would someone like full graph has been able to tell, like, I don't know how to, I don't, I couldn't, you know, hold, hold, hold off a fake one on a real one. Like, unless it's just obviously fake. Like I was just this something like, I don't know how real mind looks like. They're very, very doctoral. Um, but yeah, I'm sure people will like, even to like the tests and stuff.

Brent:

I recognize other countries have like digital passports and stuff. Like mine's literally a piece of paper. It would take five seconds to forge it. You know, I could make, I could make it more official looking bags card. Then the backstory they gave me, it would be easy.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, so I wonder, like, if those stories are coming out, like how do people even know that they were fake or that people tried fake ones? Like, cause I agree. It should be pretty easy to me. Not that we are advocating, making fake ones, but yeah. I don't know.

Brent:

Uh, our, our liberal selves are all for pro like a vaccination. So there you go. But, but yeah, I mean, I guess hopefully, maybe the stories will come out over the course of this week and we'll talk about it next week. Stories will inevitably all come out tomorrow, but, uh, yeah, I, I saw a tweet that said that and I was like, man, it just goes to show, uh, your predictions that Utah will be absolutely crazy as they try to get people registered for before down one. Uh, it could easily be off the rails, but we are going to be very hardcore, uh, starting with the, the like may tournaments, uh, you know, five weeks later.

Brit:

Yeah, I'm sorry. I guess we didn't even talk about new, new Pokemon game to,

Mike:

Oh yeah. New Pokemon game came out or not came out, but you know?

Brent:

so, so have you guys already figured out who your starter would be?

Brit:

I like them all. I need to see evolutions before I can decide,

Mike:

Yeah, my,

Brit:

my take.

Mike:

yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree with that. My gut instinct tells me I've never gone for the grass Pokemon, but I think I liked the grass cat the most from the, from the basics.

Brit:

I probably liked the crocodile thing the most and tend to be kind of all over the place. I don't have, I don't typically stick to a type of like, just depends on the gen, played a little of all of them.

Brent:

I, I, you know, Brett, I feel like you have the deep inside here because I was looking at the, like how people pick them over time memes that were making their way across Twitter. And I definitely had a couple of generations where I was. I picked this one, not because of this, but because I know what it becomes and it becomes better than these other guys. Um, but I, I agree with the crocodile choice. I feel like a lot of people are talking about that, the like the duck with the hat, but like that crocodile smile is lovable. He's just more endearing than the other guys.

Brit:

I've seen like a good amount of memes, just being like, you know, we're going to be upset. If the cat's on two legs, we went out when this is all said and done people want it. People want the cat to stay on all fours, just be like another blazer can Incineroar thing.

Brent:

yeah. Uh, that, that is, uh, that, uh, that, but I think the crocodile is the correct take. I appreciate the, the, uh, I have not seen other people who are pro crocodile, so, uh, I'm excited to hear you, uh, jump on the bandwagon. He has a big smile, six mile. I like that. Alright guys, John Paul's is the outro, but I'm bunch.

Mike:

All