Guys it's never happened before, but it is finally happened. We talked for 20 minutes without me hitting the record button. Welcome to the Trashalanche. It's the best podcast and Pokemon because we have the best technology and the best, big ideas route Pybas Mike Fouchet me from Halliburton. Attendance is 100%. We have everything except the recording. Here and we've completely broken down Brisbane and Utah. We completely solved everything, but we're going to summarize it for you briefly. We know all the answers, everyone else's wrong. Um,
MIke:There you go.
Brent:yeah, absolutely fascinating discussion you guys missed out on and we're gonna, we're gonna bring it back. Uh, Brisbane happened. Mike went on vacation. Utah happened. Mike is back. We're ready to break it down. We want to start with Brisbane. Uh, Mike say everything you said before and repeat it all back
MIke:So, um, yeah, my thoughts when I first saw Australia's results were that all the best players played new. So therefore you did quite well. probably a little more complicated than that, but it seemed, it seemed kind of straightforward to me, Henry brand being the only person only really well-known player that didn't play music. Um, and didn't do that well. And then kind of the reverse of that, we saw this past weekend in salt lake where a large number of very good players did not play music. And then you didn't do that. Good. I don't want to say no good players. Didn't play you like Caleb get Umer, uh, got 10 or 11. Then he played me. You. I knew it was all played in you. And there's lots of other good players that did play you. But, um, AMU was also a huge, huge Mehta share of the day to mitigate was over 40%. Um, so music was successful in some way, but not in, not in top 18 or, or winning the tournament. Um, We also talked a little bit about the, just the, the distribution of player groups and their choices when comparing Australia to Utah. So Utah had 627 players and Australia had one 50. So not that Australia was easier in any way, but when you look at, uh, the percentage of. How'd you say it the
Brent:Yeah. If you look at like the top 10% of players and you say the top 10% of players are probably like equal in skill across Australia and America, like top 10% in Australia is 15 players at that tournament. The top 10% in Utah is.
MIke:Right. So, so if, he's think, if you think about the top 10% in Australia, been 15 players, if you know, 40% of them played mew, that's what like seven, six or seven people playing you and the rest not playing you. Whereas those six or seven. know, could easily make top eight if they're, you know, the top 10%. Um, and that's pretty much what happened, where in Utah, top 10% all of day two. And it just so happened that, uh, the 40% that were AMU lost, kind of lost to the rest of those decks, that made day two. So.
Brent:Yeah. Well, and if you think about like, uh, if there's some normal distribution of like decks that get played, when you, when you have that normal distribution, like if a bigger pool of players are scattering across the distribution, whereas. You know, in, in Australia, maybe you get one person who's just all out hard countering you, you know, here, you're going to get like six or seven people who are like all out hard countering you. And, uh, and, and whereas you might have one person, like, like if you look at Europe, like you say, okay, doesn't matter what the best, I guess, Sanders probably playing control. Like him. That's just how it's going to go down. Uh, you know, at Utah you had people like drew and Finn. They could have told you before the tournament, zero chance, they're going to play me. Those guys are not playing you. It doesn't matter how great that deck is. They're going to hard counter it. They're never going to play it. Right. Like it just happened.
MIke:Yep. Very true. Um, and then we had just kind of started to talk about all the different RCS variants, which I want to dig into in detail. But Brent, you go with what you were saying again.
Brit:I just think that, I guess the sort of, I guess one, like, I think that like RFCs in ganger winning. Interesting. I just don't think that's a pairing. Anyone really would have thought about, which is, which is interesting, I guess, cause like when, when we think of dark Pokemon or at least dark Pokemon, that counter mute, it seems like we're just like all we've got us glary and Moltres races. Like there's two, thankfully, but that's just like the only dark Pokemon seemed to have. So it seems really ingenious of drew to just be like, what about Ganga? Like forget, forget, you know, forget the. Forget all the other single strikes synergy, like maybe we don't need that at all. Maybe just like these two attacks are good enough to be carried with RCS and just kind of the rock consistency that it's has. Um, and I think that's really interesting, but I think for me, at least the star or what I think will be the star of the. Is the just RCS Inteleon deck. And I know too, I feel kind of good about this. I don't remember how many weeks back it was, but I remember when we were, it was maybe the episode when we were looking at brilliant stars. I remember just thinking, thinking, like, why wouldn't just like RCS with Justin, Inteleon be a deck. Like why aren't people talking about this tech? So I feel the podcasts ahead of the times it was always predicting these things, but no, like, I just think that like the deck that they played in. Just very, very good. And just like can be tacked in very, very different ways. My gut is that that is straight RSCs Inteleon will continue to adapt maybe for the, the entire time these cards are illegal. So I think. Part of Inteleon we'll cycle eventually. Um, but RCS is here to stay. Um, and so I just think that like, like, not just like in Dunn sparks, but I think there's other ways to just like play the straight version that ended up being like a little more control, heavy control focus, like in one of the cool cards from their lists from the past week and to Sydney. And I think Sydney is an incredibly brilliant card to play right now. Um, definitely a really wise choice. But yeah, I think it just, it's just so consistent that I think it has a lot of space that even with like changing 5, 6, 7 cards, like would be fundamentally a different deck than. the one that they play it and could perhaps like solve the problem. Like, I'm not quite sure I didn't watch Zander's top eight matches. I'm not quite sure. Sort of like what the, what went wrong or if they're just like, if they are unfavored against this RFCs gang guard version. Um, but I think too, that like, Decks that will kind of like counter RCS on like a general level. I think we'll, I mean, they're both weak to fighting, so like, um, I think that will be a problem moving forward for RCS ganger. And I think like the straight version can, I mean, obviously they can both play dumb as far as, but that doesn't affect your game guard, but I just think, I think that. The straight version with Inteleon will always be more consistent and more tackable. So I think it just has like a little more promise, um, moving forward and kind of in the same way that, I mean, I think the analogy is pretty good in that, uh, It could just be adapted so well in a pretty small amount of cards that like you would never lose just like the basic power of the deck. Um, so I think that just like RCS, self fueling, um, and being able to just batch cards will just like keep it super relevant. Um, and it's just too, another thing, I guess the last thing I'll say on this too, is that. Looking at like Ian Rob and his friend who both made top eight with the deck, like they're playing a pretty thin RCS slime. Like they're getting away with like only two, two, um, was kind of interesting. It's like, almost like they're playing like the wheezing, like dark box tech, but instead of using the play hard skills.
MIke:yeah.
Brit:and so like, I think that that might be part of the answer too, is like, because you're playing Inteleon and RCS. You just have so much consistency that may be like you just end up at this two, two RCS lion that gives you space for like, even more texts to potentially answer. You know, control or like just like beating you in a particular way. Not having a gang Berry answer. I don't know. I don't know, sort of what's out there, but with RCS being colorless, um, you don't commit yourself to a color. So there's plenty of plenty of things to try and lots of just like interesting little Pokemon floating around. Like there's like the more Pico there's a single strike Hitman Chan that I saw in some lists going into Utah as a potential option for RC. Um, I don't know if there's like a good, like psychic Pokemon that can, um, like hit Urshifu for relevant damage. But I think some sort of like tech counter box will be kind of the evolution of the RCS Inteleon is definitely like, I dunno, I bought cards today. Like I haven't bought cards throughout the entirety of the pandemic and I finally finally caved and I bought, I bought like RCS cards and a couple other things.
Brent:Nice.
MIke:Yeah. Okay. So we're pretty much caught up to where you're at. So let's dig into some of these RCS decks a little bit. So I think like the, the most straightforward version out of all of these was probably. And it's kind of funny to say this, but the most straightforward version was probably like Zander, Rahul, Bradner, Jon Eng their group. Um, cause their deck was just you four, three RCAs and Italian line. They played a one, one Fibber role as well. And then as Britt said, the. They played the Sydney tech along with three Path to the Peak. So the Sydney, for those of you listening is a supporter that says your opponent reveals their hand, discard up to two Pokemon tools, special energy or stadium cards from it. So I think when people first look at this card, they think about discarding, the special energy, like, um, because. There's so many special energy in the format. Um, new in theory might only be playing special energy now, so it's pretty good. But the real reason to play this card in this deck is to discard stadiums and then more easily stick Path to the Peak. Um, that's the main function of this card. I'm sure it gets other random little uses, but that's the main reason for it. And, uh, Sam played this deck as well. And I I've only talked to him a little bit, but he said that it's pretty solidly favorite against you. Um, just because of the Sydney Path to the Peak. And then they have a Marnie as well.
Brent:Yeah. You know what, that's what I think one of the other things that we didn't really talk about is I didn't one of the ways that we saw. Like really evolve from Brisbane is I feel like everybody was like, we're going to Fort Path to the Peak. Let's go, like Natalie's build like, played to a meta-game where there wasn't strong, like for Path to the Peak stadium, counter play and, and took advantage of that. And I think people looked at that and said, well, this is, this is where she cut cards to put all the spices.
MIke:I'm interested to see. There's not too many lists up from the tournament yet since none of them were in the top eight, but I'm interested to see how much people deviate. From Natalie's list. Like, did they still stick with No. basic energy? Is, did they put a third or fourth stadium in? I know Pablo played new and he, I think he played Natalie's exact list minus two, wrote them phone plus two stadiums. Um, but maybe a way you can adapt for Sydney in particular. Uh, in addition to this Path to the Peak stuff is we have a, they played pumpkin booboo with, to scoop up. And two stadiums, something like that. So they can't get screwed over by the Sydney. Um, so that'll be interesting to see if and how you can adapt to that. Um, but yeah, so like this RCS Inteleon is like pretty much The most straightforward version that did well liberals like the other interesting inclusion, um, The guys seem to be pretty Intuit. I dunno. What do you guys, I mean, obviously it's pretty good, but did you guys watch any games and see how the liberal was good?
Brit:I don't think I saw that they were all really shy and I did watch, tried to watch the stream kind of as I could all weekend. Um, the, I don't, I don't recall seeing the liberal shine. I'm like, I'm not surprised. It's interesting. Like, I don't know. I think w as deck builders, when we play something like Inteleon. inclined to just think, okay. And no more events, sitters, like I've got my bench that are in my deck, but obviously like these things like work all the time. Like Octillery plays well with Inteleon even still. Um, so yeah, I guess one of those things that I, I don't think I would've ever thought to try, like, certainly not like in tandem with Inteleon, but like what's, what's a little more consistency for your deck.
MIke:Yeah.
Brent:Yeah. You know, another thing I felt like I saw a lot of was people putting Crobat back in and, and, uh, uh, I mean, that's just another nod to like more outs to draw. I mean, they, they play so many, like get a Pokemon card. Uh, like ball search cards. That's the word for that? Um, uh, having that out to Crobat if you're just like, I don't want to just like, get a sample and pass, you know, like that, that seems, that seems like a really strong play.
MIke:Yeah. And they are playing for ultra ball. Like not a lot of RCS Inteleon are playing for ultra ball before this. So like that's a reason to play both Crobat and liberal. Right. You're defending out a lot more cards. Um, so there's that version. And then probably the next most similar version is, uh, as Brett mentioned, Ian, Rob and Nicholas. I want to say his name, right? Nicholas Moffitt, maybe. Um, so I mean, them getting top four and top eight with basically the same list is super impressive. Um, The big outlier here as Britt mentioned is that only runs a two to RCS, uh, runs pretty standard and tele online. And then it runs To baby glaring and Moltres. This one, bald Tris V, and one zap dose would be, and then it has, uh, the Clara's to help get back some of those Pokemon in the energies. And then other than that, it's got a bunch of one-ups here and there, but pretty standard cards for the most part. Um, This was like really impressive. To watch and like fun to watch and I've played against it. I played a couple games on ladder and I've played against a couple of times. I'm always surprised at the, like I get through the first RCS and I'm like, man, they, you know, they didn't RC us to anything I'm in a really good spot. And then they just dropped the Moltres and kill something and then they go Clara Moltres again, I'm like what the dynamic of the game shifts so quickly because RCS is pretty. Bulky hard to kill and you take only take two prizes from it. And then the deck can become a single prize deck after that. Um, which is, which is really cool. Um, obviously Zappos is in there for the mirror, which is really good. Um, I don't know. I was really impressed watching this. It's definitely a little less consistent than Xander's version, but. Yes. One was really cool.
Brent:Yeah. To me, this strikes me more as, as the future is Britt was saying this, this idea of like an RCS counter boxy kind of approach. Like the weird thing when I play in RCS Inteleon is I feel like it's just pure consistency and I'd like it to be slightly less linear, you know? And, I feel like this shows like, and when you have RCSP star, Like ability you could theoretically be super non-linear and yet achieve the goal pretty consistently, because you can just do
Brit:maybe, maybe that's like something that the top eight list Sanders list is like missing. Like it it's like, it's like, it's almost like the deck wants to be like a checkmate deck. Like it's, it plays this kind of like meticulous control game and then sort of creates a scenario where it wins and just, you know, it can't possibly be. And it does all of that, except for, except for this, create this scenario. And then that's your end game. Like, it's just like, it's very survivable. It's very consistent. You know, you have like things like the Sharon and Sharon's care that used to roll up, but it just, doesn't, it's missing that like final ingredient. I think that just sort of like guarantees you a, when should you, you know, jumped through enough foods, which. And then that's kind of what, like maybe Ian's deck has maybe even a little closer to that. I think, I think I saw a tweet, maybe that's where this was pulling from that they want to call it like checkmate, which don't like in my, in my head, like the checkmate decks are a little bit different. This is just kind of like a toolbox stack. Um, you know, when I think checkmate, I think like Zanders, um, see what your, a worlds was that I guess was that the last worlds? Cause he won, he won the, he, I forget. One, the open with it.
MIke:Yeah. I'd like the Negan Adele. Yeah, the Negan. I don't check me
Brit:right? Yeah. And that's what I be, that's
MIke:Yeah.
Brit:of like creating, creating the kind of lock scenario that you come back from. Um, but yeah, just like, I think it's, it's like that, like, it's, it doesn't have, like, it's missing something. Maybe, maybe it's not Brendan. It might be talking about different things, but like it's I see, I see what you mean, sort of the linear linearity being a problem.
Brent:Right, right. I mean, when they were able to surprise Mike, I feel like. That's kind of like people are looking for.
MIke:Yeah, Yeah. Um, and it's cool. Like even like the list, it only plays two double turbo, cause it's not super RCS focus. It's just trying to, you know, get the RCS attack off once at the beginning of the game, um, I placed the one water energy, which is sweet. So you can attack with Inteleon, which we saw. Quite a bit have been, not just with this deck, but just in general. I think on the stream we saw people attacking with Inteleon a lot, I think, um, I've I think a lot of good players have known for a while that getting in an attack with Inteleon is very strong and can make the prize trade significantly harder for, uh, your opponent. But I think that's going to. Be more common now, just with all different players, they've seen these plays. Now they see how decks are being built, you know, to play Reihan, to play a water, energy, even index that don't necessarily always play them. Um, so I think that's really cool as
Brent:I, you know, I mean, and part of, what's interesting about this idea of like the tool, the consistency of your toolbox, the deck, when you play RCS is, and you can get away with playing two double turbos because you're like, I'll just use my restartability as long as it'll prize it, I'll get it
MIke:Yep. right. exactly.
Brent:Like it's so consistent. All I, you know, I need to find a basic. And then I need to find the V star and like everything will work itself out. Right,
MIke:Um, I'm interested to see if you could take some of the consistency from a Zander and branders list. Like work that into in and Nick's deck, you know, maybe you can, uh, go up to four ultra balls and fit in a one, one big girl and a Crobat and then you kind of have, maybe have the best of both worlds then. Um, Yeah. you certainly, the other thing to mention is that all of these RCS decks chose a different way to approach the mew matchup. So Ian's deck is, you know, I'm going to use dark Pokemon to beat me and. Branders deck is I'm going to Sydney Path to the Peak lock and then. You know, Drew's deck, it's just like, I'm going to hit him with the big dark VMX and hope they don't kill me. And then they'll other RCS deck from this, a good segue into the last one that I wanted to talk about. Charlie lockers deck. So Charlie, uh, bubbled out of top eight. So like effectively top-rated I would say with a list kind of similar to at Frank played at the. Full grip tournament a couple of weeks ago, whereas RCS B drill, it did play on V but the other interesting inclusion with Sandaconda V max. Um, and so this doesn't have as straightforward of a way to beat you as the other variants add, but, um, Flagons like pretty good trades with the movie max quite well. Um, you know, Beedrill that can just straight up kill AMU. I don't think Sandaconda is from you, but, um, so between Beedrill though, And flagon B, I, suppose you could probably get there. Um, Sandaconda.
Brent:I thought the Sandaconda and the flagon, I thought it was interesting. I think they were expecting a much more RCS Inteleon metagame
MIke:yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is the RCS deck to beat RCS decks first. Um, and not only is the Sandaconda, VMX really good against RCS, but the regular Sandaconda B is also very good against RCS because it's impossible for it to get. One shot by NRCS because it effectively has 250 HP with its ability to takes 30 less damage and its attack one shots, uh, RCSP star, as long as they don't have a big term. So probably really good in the mirror.
Brent:Yeah. I mean, I I'm sure he mowed down our CSS Inteleon index. And I think when you're talking about how they each have different ways to beat me, I mean, I think another thing that really jumped out at me is, uh, like the stadium player. Uh, obviously as Andrew's group is playing Path to the Peak and, uh, all these counter decks are playing training courts to get back there, like very few basic energies for types they need. And then, uh, drew was playing the collapsed stadium and he would let them hit into one of his Pokemon and then he would retreat it and take it off the board.
MIke:Right.
Brent:That's the sweet play right there.
MIke:Yeah, I have to go so that, like I did, I watched most of, I saw like most of top eight and top four, but I didn't catch the finals at all. I need to go and watch that between him and Finn. Um, cause I really am curious that matchup might not be like super indicative of how he uses hyper potion, but that's like a card I'm really interested in how. She made use of it.
Brent:Um, I know I heard, I, I know a little bit about it. I don't know how much you already heard, but like, so my understanding of how he like, kind of played the game, generally speaking in, for example, like immu matchup is get the RCS setup, do your thing, attach three darks to your Ganga. they, then, then you're you like retreat the RCS and taken off the board with collapsed stadium and hit into them with the gang guard, they hit the gang Gar, and then he attaches a double Turbo again, guard and hyper potions, the double Turbo off
MIke:Okay.
Brent:because you need that because again, God requires three darts.
MIke:Right. So two 10, if you do two, 10, twice, that's four 20 minus one 20. Does it resist psychic it doesn't right. You have a big term, I guess. I don't know. It feels like they just need a power tablet to get around that, but I don't know. Maybe I assume, did you watch the video? Is that where your.
Brent:not.
MIke:Okay. Um, I know drew just made a video with someone's PC, him and Russell made a video and I haven't watched it yet, but I am going to definitely watch it. And I recommend listeners to go watch it too, to get more insight into the deck.
Brent:Absolutely. There's no question. Uh, I think Russ historically does a good job of breaking down how match-ups work when he thinks about these things. And I know obviously drew super analytical about this stuff, so I'm sure the video is all.
MIke:for sure. all. right. So that's a lot of RCS talk. I like, like you guys, I am interested to see kind of the evolution. It could go this more tech tout route. I also wouldn't be surprised. If for Liverpool toward shows up with like 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 RCS.
Brit:Yeah, I think that was like date had a joke on. It's just like the Germans will show up with, toward in the Germans are going to show up with RCS Inteleon that only has four.
MIke:Yeah.
Brent:Yeah. Uh, uh, yeah, obviously it's like a running theme to say towards going to show up with this like super consistent list.
Brit:I mean, he had a, he had a list for it before, I guess it solidified itself as clearly at this point, but like a week or two ago he was playing it on stream. Like he, I remember he played, uh, the Altaria that fetches a supporter for you. Like he played that. I think it was pretty standard otherwise.
Brent:Yeah. I mean, it's easy to have a super consistent at Inteleon RCS list as, as we saw in Utah. And it's easy to imagine a super consistent new list. We do a lot of things, right.
MIke:Yeah. Hi. I will maybe finally be able to test out some of these RCS decks. I opened up a bunch of like locked codes that I had a brilliant stars and I pulled one, our CSV, and now I have enough codes to trade for one, our CSV star, like 45 codes for that. But I was very lucky. One of our. Listeners. Um, it was very kind and messaged me and sent me some, uh, one, one RCSP star line as well. Um, so, um,
Brent:got an RCS V star from one of our listeners. And if it's the same listener props to you listener, I appreciate it.
MIke:Yeah, it. was very nice. Um, so I won't be able to test out all of them, but any RCS tech that only runs two to RCS, we can give it a shot starting tomorrow. I think so.
Brent:Uh, um, I could probably trade you a third. I think we have a 43 line right now,
MIke:Ooh, nice.
Brent:but, uh, yeah. You know, the, the, the sad story is I forked out. I broke down and forked out for the RCS and then, and now I'm like, Hmm, I really, I, you know, I guess I'd like to get some gang guards and try that list. Hmm. I guess I'd like to, as it turns out, I don't have sweet Coons. Dang it, man. They're so expensive. Now you can never win. You can never win.
MIke:I know gang guards are expensive. Rice weekends expensive too.
Brent:Yeah.
MIke:It's so funny. Cause sweet goons in real life are dirt cheap or at least they were, um, I was going to. Yeah, well, so I actually bought them. This is really funny. I was, we were like traveling around Arizona. Um, I was just in the car and I see that fin top eights and I look up TCG player and I see that sweet goons are still a dollar 50. So I just buy for like, while, while we're going around in the car, now they are up to three whole dollars in real life.
Brit:Okay.
MIke:So.
Brent:Anyway, props, props to your attempt to arbitrage this weekend market. I record. That's one of those things where like somebody like Michael K Tron would be like, I'm buying all this weekends.
MIke:Yeah.
Brent:So speakers, we could, we should talk about, we can, because I feel like you've been pushing sweet Coon for, for weeks and low. It turns out the weekend's really good.
MIke:Yeah.
Brent:As, as Brent said, podcast.
MIke:Yeah. I think if I I'm a little disappointed, we didn't have the podcast. last week. Cause I think I probably would've, it would've seemed even more apparent that, you know, I was on the sweetcorn train. Um, but yeah, a couple weeks ago I said that I really enjoyed playing sweet Kuhn. Um, Now I will say, give credit where credit's due. Fin has a certainly a different list than the standard one. The big thing being that he plays for cross switcher and zero boss, um, everything else is pretty standard. He has the echoing horn, which I did see kind of in and out of lists. So it's. Nice inclusion, but it's not super novel. Um, but the big exclusion I would say is he doesn't play any of the rapid strike Inteleon. Um, so that's a pretty interesting non-inclusion as well as no boss,
Brit:I mean, isn't it just like no supporters is that standard? Like, I mean, I, I, I that's surprises me as much as no boss. Like there's no research, no Marni,
MIke:Yeah, the list that I was playing. Yeah. The list that I was playing before, ran three Melanie. one Reihan one research, one Marty to boss.
Brent:And I think that's the common, it's the
Brit:Yeah, he just kind of has like more trainers, uh, you know, he has like the extra rare candy, the extra scoop up net, like things like that instead, mostly. And obviously the crossword shoes.
MIke:yeah. Um, I'm. I would like a Marnie. I think there are, there's just like enough times where you don't have any water energy in the discard And your hand kind of sucks, but you have a drizzle and like not being able to do anything about that is a little unfortunate. So there are certainly things that I've, I don't know if you guys saw my tweet, but I was just like, before I saw Finn's list, I knew that there was going to be stuff that he cut, that I disagreed with. Um, so I think like I would probably include a Marnie, especially now that people I'm sure it didn't affect him too much in this tournament, but now that people have seen the list, they know there's no Marnie, they know there's no hand disruption and just that knowledge is a huge, huge deal. So I think at the very least I'd probably fit into Marnie. Um, I'm pretty okay. Actually, without the rapid strike Inteleon because you play the echoing horde. So think of echoing Hornet. Plus 20 whenever you want. Um, and may and potentially more than that, right? Cause you're getting plus 20 over at least a couple of turns. Um, while also serving utility of maybe they go to two prizes and leave their board with no to Prizer or you go to two prizes, they don't have any two prizes out, you actually inform their Crobat back or whatever, and then cross switcher and kill it. So pretty interesting.
Brent:And th the echoing horn and the hyper potion are both examples of, uh, uh, cards that are fantastic and closest to.
MIke:Yeah, river. Exactly. That's very true. Um, the one thing that I want to mention about why I think sweet Kuhn did so well was, I don't know if you guys remember, but a few weeks when we talked about squeaker and one of my big hangups with it was that. I thought the RCS match-ups were pretty hard because RCS doesn't have to bench a ton of stuff, especially RCS Duralon on, which was kind of like the big RCS deck a couple of weeks ago. Um, but even like the list that patron played, where he was just RCS with texts, but he didn't play Inteleon so he could limit his bench quite a lot. But one of the things that has changed is all these RCS techs are playing Inteleon, which means they have to play a bigger bench, which means squeaking can actually, and consistently two shot and one shot with alluded Cola before that was not a guarantee. Um, sometimes you'd only be able to hit for. One 20 or one 40, maybe they have the big charm. You missed the two head knockout and that's really bad, or you're not able to lose a colo for a one-shot that's really bad. So I think just the shift in the way that RCS techs were being built, led to an opening for to be much better than it was before.
Brent:Yeah, there, there's definitely not a lot of decks where they can try to, uh, uh, play around this. We couldn't now, but, uh, and I heard, I did not watch the top eight round against us Zander, but I heard the Zander was trying really hard, not to bench things, but it kinda, it, it impacted him almost as much as it impacted.
MIke:right. That's absolutely true. I will say the first game. I am so surprised that fin was able to win that first game. Zander Zander was in a really, really good position and just kind of like whiffed cards for a couple turns that if he didn't with like a basic. Like, I think he like researched and didn't hit in our CSV star or any way to get an RCS V star. And if he did, he pretty much just won the game. Um, something like that. So like game one was like pretty unfortunate presenter to lose. Then game two, uh, fin kind of won pretty solidly, uh, But so I'm not, I'm not sold that sweet is like super heavily favored against RCS or anything. I mean, and I want to go watch the finals. I'm sure. A big thing in the finals was the stupid collapsed stadium. Like that's so big against weaken, um, limiting both benches to four that limits your damage output significantly. So I'm sure that was a huge deal.
Brit:I mean, there's such gaps. I mean, I guess there's the you stuff coming, but I was like, there's, there's such gaps between events. Like we can have. Well, like in a later week, we can highlight, we can pilot, like, Hey, this tech is really cool. And like Nick Robinson stack, like, I don't know if we need to talk about it here, but you know, like next week or something, when we, we need time be like, Hey, this top 32 deck looks pretty cool. Like, let's see if we can make it better. Like things like that. No, not Nick. Nick is the only deck that I know of. That's like interesting of the, kind of like top, top decks that there isn't much of a narrative behind it just like played RCS with one, one Garrett which I'm not sure. I think it, I think it just hits big numbers. I don't think it's really for anything else, but it has an interesting attack. Like express attack is a discard, this special energy or just any energy, I think.
MIke:Um, I'd like to highlight the very much lack of dark box doing well. I think. that deck is kind of dead.
Brit:I mean, I think it's just adapted, right? It's just our RCS
MIke:Right. Very, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. And there was still some people that were playing the more traditional version, but it just, you know, it, it's not even beating you consistently. It doesn't do enough first RCS So I don't think that deck is going as, as it was before going to hold up. Um, saw it didn't, it didn't make top eight, but it. Pretty good. I think I lost like two of them, like lost winning ins or something like that, but the RCS Mallomar V max, like that's another way that people were playing RCS to help beat mew, which is pretty cool. Um, could have easily made top eight if things had gone a little differently,
Brent:Oh, you know, we should talk about guys, speaking of things that almost made top eight. How about Joel, Tina?
MIke:Dalton as well. Technically it did make top eight after the DQ, which I don't want to go into the DQ cause I don't know anything about it. Um, But yeah.
Brit:That's funny. I liked, I liked that. And we're just like, you know, whatever are, you know, probably a cheater who cares moving on.
MIke:Yeah. exactly. Um, I mean the jolting, unless that did well is like basically vanilla drill Dion that we've seen. Um, but again, it's just like Marnie Path to the peaks. Pretty good. And it is worth saying. That Path to the Peak against RCS is not bad, right? Especially these RCS Inteleon decks that are plain path. Like if you, as the jolt Dion player put a path down, turn one, that's really bad for the RCS decks. Um, cause especially if they start like cutting down double turbos, like it just shuts off their early game. Pretty significantly.
Brent:what was I going to say? Something absolutely fascinating. Oh, they, they, I think the thing that really jumped out to me is, uh, I think part of what made, uh, so I'm interested in, you guys have to take on this, obviously, part of what fueled the success of the, the guys that played Joel on is, uh, uh, I mean, none of these techs played, man.
MIke:right.
Brent:We'll we'll people bring manifests back we'll jolty on over-index next week will manifest be more popular next week because people saw that, you know, very few people, adults, I think they all did well.
Brit:I think, well, The answer. Well, it might take some time, but at least not because of jolt, but I think Urshifu has, has a real place in the meta-game just depending on where things go. And like, I think our shoes just going to body decks without manifests. So I think that's definitely like it's we were talking about potential texts for like RCS. Inteleon like, I can see that as a current, they might need to play on there. I mean, maybe you just lose our shift for you to say just like, I'm not playing man to feel like I'm done versus it even going to get me there. Why bother? But like that, that's kind of where my head. In my head is at, in terms of just like, trying to think of what goes next. Cause just like a mule, like just doesn't pick back up and play or people's like remain hesitant to play it. Like I think it doesn't, Urshifu just like beat everything else. Like pretty easily. Like shouldn't it just like dumpster almost every deck other than view. And I guess like, Mallomar like, you'll use the rapid strike Mallomar things like that. Well, I mean, oh yeah. They'll they'll play. They'll play man. No matter what, so yeah, we'll count that one as a loss. In my head, that just seems like all of your metrics should be really good. Really good.
MIke:Yeah. I agree. And so maybe for the next tournament, McAfee is like the secret tech that could be, but here's the thing, right? If you play manifests in your deck for the next tournament for Liverpool, um, like you're not going to get a lot of use out of it, but you might. Like you use against good players, but I don't know, like, I don't think you're going to get a lot of use out of it, but if you do it, it could like when you a couple of games where maybe after the next tournament and these decks come back, then it gets more useful. Um, I will say though, Brett, you mentioned rabbits strike. Mallomar briefly. And I did want to just highlight that for a second as well. Gabe Shumway, almost top aided as well with rapid strike Inteleon I think he got 11th or 12th or something. He did not play manifests. So, um, they're not necessarily playing man, if he, uh, and I think that deck is pretty good now, Lamar Intel Mallomar Inteleon as well. Um, I assume Inteleon is better than ginger Chino. I know people have talked about it, but I think, I don't know.
Brit:Yeah. I mean, I think so, too, but purely just because good players are playing Inteleon and not gentiana are just like, they know what they're doing. I don't need to think about this until.
MIke:Yeah. So the thing,
Brent:the kind of deck that I could imagine, like toward shows up with with some like, like it's a little bit of a twist on the list to make it like, whoa, whoa. More consistent.
MIke:yeah,
Brit:And since, you know,
MIke:so the. Uh, Gabe played. W is Brawley, but he played for Brawley, which is a rapid strike supporter. Search your deck for three basic rapid strikes and put them on your bench. So I like his list more than anything I've seen because of that card. The thing that I've seen with, like I saw, I think it was Nathaniel. Kaplan also did pretty good with a Mallomar. Um, but he played He played so few rapid strike cards themselves. I think it was only like 21 or 22 when I counted that I just can't see how you're ever, ever getting eight in your hand to one shot of Emacs where when you're playing Brawley, Yeah, it's not the greatest supporter ever pass, turn one, but at least it's just a bunch more rapid, straight cards to, uh, to use for your attack. So I, yeah. Uh, I don't love Mallomar, but I think it could be in an okay spot in the Metta.
Brent:Uh, no appearance for men.
MIke:No, Inteleon.
Brit:Yeah. I mean, even, even I was just like, eh, obviously I didn't go, but just like, as, as the week went on and after Brisbane, I was just like, I just, I didn't, I had decided that the, let me match up wasn't even wasn't reliable enough. Like it's fine on paper, but me, it was just me. I mean, if you miss a beat, you just get run over. So like, yeah, like I'm, I'm not done on the deck. Like as, as I have more reasons to play and I'm picking up physical cards, I don't think it's something I'll drop. Like I wanna, I want to try RCS with Chinese art, I think potentially, but like there's the old one that just kind of kills anything for five energy and then the new one, the new one too, like seeing the Josh. Um, he had a RCS chars or deck that looked about as good as the concept can be. But I think that the fire stuff, like Mikey had an interesting NTI NTI idea that like might be worth trying. And like, it's not that far off, it could a little Carlo and like, if that's doing well, like NTA something is going to be tier two, I think like pretty solidly. Um, yeah, I'm not sure, like at least another deck to like, I just think that it's like maybe RCS or Aldan could have, has like another opportunity to shine. There's just so much special energy. And like the new players just aren't even trying anymore, like to play, play them in favor of the double turbos and stuff. Like, I just feel like there's something there. And like, I just, I don't think the RCS pairing like was what it needed, but I mean, maybe that's still just the best way to. I just thought that was another thought I had, like looking at all these deck lists, there's just so much special energy. And like, I think there was like a bond or to our CSR Eldon. So like in the top 32. So like there's a fine deck still, but.
MIke:Um,
Brit:It seems like the event ran really well for sort of all the talk we had about it. Like maybe being the slow-go it seemed. I don't, at least it's been the people I follow. I really don't feel like I've seen a single complaint about it, like running Hong or anything, which is, which is incredible, considering all the kind of extra conditions that are required to play now. So like, I think that's worth shouting out. That seems great.
Brent:I, I definitely, I heard the same thing and, uh, uh, my, my, I guess, you know, what's funny is I think my reaction was okay if my first tournament is going to be. I hope they don't like let their guard down because this went smoothly because it sounds like they were like really, really concerned. And the result was they were really, really ready. And I appreciate that very much shut up prompts to the Tio. I also heard that like, the venue was very spacious and the tables were like very widely spaced and it made for an incredibly pleasant playing experience because you were not like elbow to elbow with, uh, uh, everybody else in there.
MIke:Yeah. that's sweet. I'm glad that it I'm very glad that it went well, though. I'm surprised. I'm pleasantly surprised. Cool. I think we still, we still got close to an hour, even with our, uh, Ms.
Brent:People you'll like it even more, you know, that's like, it's going to be like 45 minutes, 30 minutes at one and a half speed. That's the perfect pod in my mind.
MIke:There we go. We finally did it. All we need to do is not record for the first 20 minutes and then we can always have the perfect.
Brit:Yeah, because we know then we know what slots we cut it out on the second
MIke:cool. All right guys, have a nice week.
Brent:Absolutely. Next week. More fun with, uh, Liverpool. I think Liverpool's where we'll really see like how the metagame comes together.