The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast

Bad audio pod: Palkia, Palkia counters, Palkia, Palkia counters, and more!

June 08, 2022 Brent Halliburton Season 1 Episode 89
The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
Bad audio pod: Palkia, Palkia counters, Palkia, Palkia counters, and more!
Transcript
Brent:

Welcome to the Trashalanche podcast. Attendance is 66 and two thirds percent. It's me and Brit holding it down. Mike is going to apparently see Malcolm Gladwell recorded his podcast live. So he is on another podcast, right? He will join us for a brief conversation. Uh, hopefully, uh, later tomorrow we'll pull it all together into an amazing super pot. And then people will say that was a super pod, um, responsive by channel fireball channel fireball is currently telling everybody that Isaiah Bradner disorder, a nice article about dark rye. So you could go and read that if you were thinking a dark rice seems terrible, why would I ever play it? Apparently Isaiah will try to convince you that that is not completely the case. So it's. Um, Britt, you're going to be excited to hear that. Of course, this is the week where somebody left us a five star review, be top 2012, wrote my favorite pod and the Pokemon TCG. Each host brings a wealth of knowledge and thoughtful analysis of the Pokemon TCG. Not only that they are great writers, Britain, Mike have written some great articles on six prizes, even though the articles cover older formats. They're interesting to read. Plus Brent wrote a book about the Pokemon TCG, which I think is the only one in it. Be top 2012. That's a fantastic review. Although I think obviously it opened the door wide open for me to make the joke that like the nicest thing he could say about the podcast was, were great writers

Brit:

kind of funny, but uh, welcome compliment nonetheless, for leaving your views. We're always grateful for them. That's interesting. I was wondering, I don't know. Yeah. I don't have a sense of how often people are like going back and like reading like six prizes, especially now that it's all free, but like as a player, when I was like coming up or what have you, like, that's what I did. I would just, I read like every tournament report by every good player that was ever posted on Pokegear and things like that. And I like, you know, obviously there's kind of like a fanaticism to it, but at the same time too, I do think as strange as it might sound. Later just wax poetic or something. But I think understanding the, you know, understanding the history of the game really can help you improve as a player. Like, and again, it's something we say on the podcast all the time. Like it's sort of fallacious to assume that something like a concept or an architect that used to be good as reprinted. It is therefore going to be good again, like that's not, that's obviously not true, but I think it helps. I think it, you know, it helps you grow and helps you learn and just maybe sort of like appreciate the way the game has changed and things like that. It's just start contrast. So that's cool. Just cool to hear. And then, you know, maybe players who have joined us throughout COVID or relatively recently that they're still able to, you know, parse through all, you know, all six prizes, which is years, and you kind of almost the whole story of the game, at least for, um, you know, kind of the modern iteration before we sort of shift to the like 2016 and onward. Sex crimes. Those were just such a core part of the game from 2010 to around, around a similar time period. Even a little longer, I guess, too.

Brent:

Yeah. And maybe top 2012 for me. Like I know. Yeah. He, he touches a piece of my soul as well, because I know like, like reading six presses, how we got into the game, like how do Britain? I know each other people. So I was reading this stuff on six prizes and I was like, this guy is the guy.

Brit:

And then I might actually, I guess I could Octillery on that. And now I haven't, I didn't end up tweeting. It had just sort of fun. So I guess like obviously I studied philosophy and one of my interests in philosophy is Confucius and Confucius is just sort of known as like the great teacher or something like that. And what kind of, one of the things you're always aspiring to as a good Confucian is to learn from your students. And I'm just actively testing. Uh, Liam now. So if that's just, I was just having, you know, just kind of like a really sort of like thankful, grateful moment, but that's just kind of an experience that's happening. And I was just like, ah, I've done my job. I'm learning from someone I used to teach and I've succeeded as a

Brent:

Confucian. I mean, I, you know, like, uh, uh, uh, we've known each other since you were like in college, you've known Liam since he was. Nine years old.

Brit:

It's ridiculous. Talk to me about that. That's the, that's something that dates me.

Brent:

That's the rough stuff like that. Well,

Brit:

there's a good player, a good player from where my parents live, where I used to live and did undergrad and stuff. And he was like, um, he was like seven. I think when I, you know, I went to the local game store the first time. So I've known him his entire life, basically. And you're out of tournaments and stuff, man.

Brent:

Exactly. But it is. It's interesting. The other thing that I thought was interesting about this review was, um, I mean, I know like it's just weird how the modern era completely at some level kind of devalues the written word. And that's an interesting change that like the internet has brought to us.

Brit:

Yeah. I mean, I think at two, like I'm not just the internet, which just, doesn't kind of the trajectory of content creation. I think, I think that's very much tied in to that too. Cause I mean, I mean, even to like, you know, not just content creation in terms of like Twitch and YouTube, but even like journalists and things like that too. I was like, I mean, Alex, Szymanski you and does it too with his own sub stack and things like that, like it's just the way it's kind of information technology has progressed that it just becomes. You know, you can't do it on, you know, you can do it on your own, but you just have to know the, sort of the way to navigate whether that's a YouTuber or, or a journalist, but at the same time, too, like able to just don't consume the news the same way anymore. And I guess, you know, that's always true. That's always something that every generation is saying, but like, I dunno, just like I, you know, I don't want to talk about anything current event wise, but just like, I understand that like tons of people get their news from like Tik TOK now. And like the people they're listening to on Tik TOK or. Remote. Like, I would probably be more competent at like commentating on the things that they're commentating on and like have to pay to have been paid in the second thought. It's just like, that's just normal now too. I mean, I know

Brent:

when I listened to, like, when I listen to ESPN podcasts and New York times podcasts, they're always talking about like, well, the aggregators are going to take this and say, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, it's, it's implied that the aggregators are not real journalists. Right. But, but yeah, there's, there's this, uh, concept that like, people want more snackable content and people want like, uh, uh, and there's this pressure on content creators to create more and more content. And it has to be like easily digested. And I, you know, like this idea of Twitch streaming and YouTube videos where, you know, there's, there's just not that much, like, quote, like kind of editorial in this going on. I mean, how long did it take you to write a six present? Um,

Brit:

it's really pretty fast. Usually they, well, it would usually take me like a solid afternoon. Like it would be something that would kind of like really plan the day around. Like if I wanted to get an article down, it would be kind of like the core feature of that day. But like, probably not like four or five, six hours, something like that. Usually I'm not, I'm not like very. One of my biggest flaws as a writer is self editing. I just really struggled to do that. I just w there's just like embarrassing amounts of titles. I fail to catch on myself. And so some of it would depend on how sort of strongly I would scrutinize my own work sometimes. I'm sure I had them just kind of had to deal with it himself. Yeah. But

Brent:

that's like, like, I think like you, and I think of, and I'll put myself in the back of myself as like good writers. I recognize, like there were other guys who like had agonized over cranking out a couple of thousand words. For you. And I like, you know what I mean? You're a grad student like sitting down and saying, oh, I have to write 2000 words on one of my favorite subjects, Pokemon, like relatively speaking. It's easy. Right?

Brit:

Yeah. It always came here. Came pretty easily. Like I was always good. I always just kind of have this weird. The way I take notes or the way I sort of like outline my papers and my articles and stuff are like probably incomprehensible to anyone other than me just kind of my own like chicken scratch all over the place. Just like little notes and parent medicals and things like that. But I don't always just like fill in the blanks. And like the outlining was usually the hardest part or at least what would, would take the longest, just figuring out like my sections and things like that. Like, what's my argument. Like what's relevant to the argument. How do I want to come about it? Um, yeah, it usually too, like if you had a tournament report or something, those ones always wrote really, really fast. And that's kind of, I think when I tried to stop writing and tournament reports, because it was kind of cheap content. Right, right. It's just like, yeah. I think, I think we get generally speaking. I think we get what we need out of tournament report, tournament reports from the way that Twitter. Um, Mike wrote them down and to just like, here's the matchup, here's a colon. And then three letters. When last, when it was more or less all you need this, I get part of that too, is we just have so much more information now. Cause like in the past too, like that tournament report might've been, you know, like to reference your favorite Don fan article like that, might've been your Bible of the playing Don fan. Whereas now it's just like you get the deck list and then we have the data and you can, there's just other ways to fill in. Story by yourself. And sometimes that just wasn't the case. And again, just like the more information there is, the more kind of like avenues are out of figuring out, um,

Brent:

it's the most popular tournament reports where people like winning regionals and stuff. And now like you got the Pokemon stream. And I think one of the things that always impressed me about tournament reports was how people just had like such encyclopedic memories for like turn by turn the cards in their hand, the cards that were played. All the sequencing that happened, but like now you just watch the video. That's fine. You can watch it at Dunsparce.

Brit:

I think that's a skill that like we developed two or it's one, I think too, like this came out in a study, like a Stanford study a couple of years ago. And then like people, people that know Pokemon there's like a particular part of their brain. That's like dedicated to like, um, recognizing the silhouettes I believe, or something like that. And similarly to like, I don't know, you just live and breathe this like one sort of conversation for so long. Part parts of it that, you know, you might, you know, might just sort of like, never think about are kind of just being internalized. And I think that's part of it too. And what I always joke about is that I like, I could, I can give you a pretty, pretty good play by play of like a random round, had a random nationals, like still, like right now, it's like not something I actively think about, but I could tell you how. Around six. I can say Nelson Lin in 2012 nationals. No problem. But I, I forget to take my medicine or I forget to brush my teeth half the time, or I can't remember those little things.

Brent:

Yeah. 100%. And, and like, uh, I mean, I know you have mean casuals that ask us about our program and experience one of the questions they ask us all the time. It's like, when we talk about our world's experience, they're like, well, you know, like they don't speak English. How do you do it? And I'm always like, I know it sounds hard for you to imagine, but everybody, yeah. Right. Like card cards is not written the language, you know, it's fine. You know exactly what the card does when they wave their hand, you know exactly what attack they did. Like everybody knows. Right.

Brit:

That's always, that's always fun too. I like just the whole, several rounds of just nods and shakes, especially, especially if you don't have to, if they had just sort of, if it flows naturally the whole time, like you're not, you're not interrupted by needing a job. You're a translator or something like that. It's just like, uh, you know, music or something. It was that universal language, but we're still sort of able to capture it and our little game in that way sometimes.

Brent:

Yeah. Yeah, it's nice. All right. Let's let's uh, um, let's talk about Astro radiants. Uh, you've been, you've been testing a bunch. Um, I'm playing a fair number of games too. Uh, but why don't we start with you? Where, where are you at as we gear up for Milwaukee?

Brit:

Um, not to spare where I've had. Over the weekend. And, uh, my, my assessment kind of was then I found a lot that I didn't like or a lot that didn't feel great to me, but I haven't found anything that feels good. I found things that I, I think I've written off that I don't want to consider anymore. That I think are like maybe in a weaker position than we notice, um, with not this testing, but not that nothing is screaming to me. And I guess with the caveat of like, I have copy as now, but I haven't played with. So there was no copy of that involved. I don't know my play of this weekend. I surveyed for that. That's just, I haven't, I haven't tested that out yet.

Brent:

Yeah. You know, when I pulled together the show notes, I, I thought I'd pop over to trainer hill and just grab like their Metta matchup stuff and see what was going on. And I thought it was interesting was that they were like, uh, Palka has a pod Palka is the only deck that has a positive matchup against literally. It is one, at least 50% of his games against every single deck in their database. Uh Palka is a good, uh, objectively good deck. Um, you know, what's interesting is I started with like one of the lists that did well at full grip, but like I'm, I'm a little bit unsure of, uh, I know last week we talked about playing like Crobat versus the whole like Lumion and do a RIMTA into battle VIP and how kind of cute, adorable that was. And I felt like when I was looking for the list that I wanted to build, I kind of liked that cuteness and wanting to play it. But I got the impression, um, uh, as, as the week went on and you looked at the stuff coming out of like limitless online tournaments, very few people are playing the arena there, like so many more people that are playing the. And

Brit:

I think, I mean, I think some of you, or at least like, even though I haven't played it, I've been in plenty of conversations about LBGTQIA and I think it's the, it's like the VIP pass, I think, or Rita is like kind of a miss. If you're, if you, if your entire engine isn't just sort of structured around it. I think if you're only playing a couple or if you're just kind of still playing the Inteleon version or something like that, I think it's like at least the old version, I think Inteleon and Rita can work also with VIP pass. I think that's just, that's the package together is Irena and the ID pass a very

Brent:

strong. Yeah. Uh, and, and, you know, I think the thing that I was thinking about last night and talk with Liam a little bit about it today, and he thought there's something to it is like everybody's playing the, the like Kia and Inteleon because like, you're like water, water, water, water, like, this is all great. Like played buckets, like do all this stuff. But I wonder if there's more of a like Palka and friends counter boxy thing. You know, you don't play a whole bunch of other water Pokemon and like

Brit:

it's not bad. I think. I mean, I think that that might be it. Like, I don't think kalkia like really needs all that much. And I think like almost all the way this is your view star ability is going to go towards Greninja like more often than not certainly. Um, yeah, I think there's just ways, ways to get around. Maybe people are like tunnel vision. Um, The color and like, there's not any Indian, any, anything water in the deck other than Taqiyya I think like something like Chino could be interesting. Like, I mean, that's, that sounds intriguing to me as something that I've made, says, mention, wanting to test.

Brent:

Right, right. Like Jolteon is Jolteon seems better in this format and it was getting, it was getting really, really popular coming out of the last format, right?

Brit:

Yeah, I think so too. And that's just kind of, I've heard a lot of. Like swirling thoughts on that note, just like, thinking about, Jolteon thinking about, um, just kind of how like late meta games tend to develop and, you know, just thinking about garbage or like how, how does Garbodor tend to like show his face and a lot of the times, um, that tends to be like, Garbotoxin, it's can kind of like it'll it'll. Not being played for a little while and then it'll win a tournament or something like that. And so I, I have this sort of sneaking suspicion that Jolteon was going to be a very concern, um, for any IC I don't, which is strange. I have less thoughts about the Milwaukee Medicaid. I think for whatever, for whatever reason, it seems to just feels way more predictable to me. Like, I feel strongly just being like, there's going to be some, you, there's going to be some calc, you know, there's gonna be some Urshifu there's going to be some RC. And that, that seems like a sound in a fan answer for now. Like I think just with that without kind of more data, I think just like assuming a little bit of everything is at least a good place to start, but then when you start thinking, thinking about Milwaukee, you think, uh, or not Milwaukee, but then moving, moving the next week to anything I see. It's not just that we'll have more data, but we're on that. Just like that final tournament, I think. Oh, players. Um, and this is probably true for any actually not particularly the north American one, but like, I think a lot of players will have a go bigger go home for the tournament. Like they're going to, they're going to play some spice and it might be really good and it might be really bad, but it's going to be kind of off the radar and not something you can predict, but I don't really, I don't really foresee those kinds of debts being as popular.

Brent:

You know, I, that was one of the things I wanted to ask you is I recognize, like, I think a lot of people who have stipends for NIC are coming in and going to Milwaukee the prior week. Like I think the Australians have big contingent that are planning on hitting the walkie and then rolling down in AIC, stuff like that. And I wonder, um, Our people. Are there going to be people that go to Milwaukee that have a secret deck that they can't play at Milwaukee or, or do they, do they say if the secret decks actually good, I should just play it in Milwaukee in one Milwaukee to prove that it's good. I would, I

Brit:

would guess more of that, but I do think in general that we're just kind of past the secret deck. I think I, I think, and I've had conversations about this recently. Secret teams and all that stuff too. And actually that does still exist. But in terms of just being like, you know, the secret decks, like we used to me and like, we used to see it and it's, you know, 2006, 2007, um, like, you know, the 2006

Brent:

right here.

Brit:

Right. So it's a big sort of, uh,

Brent:

sorry, uh, at any rate, um, I've

Brit:

lost my train of thought

Brent:

2006 national filled with secret decks, or you forgot that. I think you were starting to say 2006, a nationals was a time of secret teams with secret decks.

Brit:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's just like, I just, I, especially too, I think now there's just so much more like you want to win every tournament you go to. I don't, I don't think anyone is really going to be like, oh, I think I could win Milwaukee, but I'll, I'll just save it for next week. I think those, anyone in that sort of in that, like they thought they had that kind of debt. I think they would just play it in Milwaukee.

Brent:

Like, um, Yeah. Yeah. I, I feel like, uh, if you thought you had a really good plate, you would want to gather some data and like Milwaukee is the best way to gather data. Right?

Brit:

I mean, uh, I got a lot of, I think a lot of too, like secrets and expert, just better, the smaller the tournament with, and we just grown so large then. It's just so hard to just like really metagame an entire tournament successfully without just like having your day ruined around, wander around to buy that fringe deck that you just don't be.

Brent:

Uh, um, yeah. Uh, so how, how common do you think, um, like RCS Inteleon, we'll be going, going into Milwaukee, like, uh, you know, what's interesting is obviously RCS was like, quote, like the best deck coming out. The last set. And I feel like going into this, it's a little under the radar because I feel like all people talking about is Neo and Kia, but RCS is like a big deck, right?

Brit:

Yeah. I don't really, I mean, that's, that's probably what I played the most with over the weekend. And frankly, anecdotally, I was very underwhelmed. I, I think I, I don't think I was playing a bad boy. I played quite a few. And I just, there was something about it that just felt offered just general thoughts about the Inteleon engine imagery. Some of this is fairly obvious I'm sure. But just like you have those games where you're just like always a beat behind, like, you're just always, you know, sometimes you just have those games where you're just like, oh, Hey, I'm really close to this combo. I have two of the three puzzle pieces. I have, I have a couple of live top decks that will finish the public for me. And you just happen to drive into them. And then you sort of pop off from there and then there's games where that that's the case, but your top decks people with thing or something like that. And then you're just like, there's just so awkward. Sometimes if you're not just like hitting all the beats with your, your turn on evolutions and things like that, they're not turning on evolution, but just getting your basic sound turn on. I had a lot of games like that and it just feels. It feels weak. Like in comparison to me, you are powerful, you know, that just like, you know, this is something we come back to a lot. They just need less. Like RSCs, even though it doesn't really need very much, like, I think comparatively, or at least compared to like the draw or just the built-in power with kalkia to guarantee the attack quickly and things like that. Um, it just felt the tempo never felt great to me. I did play a lot of games like censorship, um, and. Not liking that matchup. Like at all, like I felt very good, further should be a player. Like I think, I can't remember how many times Liam and I played it, but I'm pretty sure the only time I won was the promised land of like me going through this and just bossing Urshifu two times in a row. It's just so awkward. Like these, like you just get into these, pick your poison scenarios where you have Manaphy, you get Manaphy down and they think. They max flow or I forget forgetting the attack name. Um, and then you, or the new halves Manaphy down or you'd get Avery and, and there's, they just, th they manipulate you one way or the other, no matter what it seems like, um, that just

Brent:

like, yeah, Avery just puts a lot of pressure on that deck, right? Like you have to make really hard decisions about whether or not you ever wanted to see cards again. Like, if you want to get rapid flood. Right. One

Brit:

of the things too, is that the, any, also anytime the Sheryl play hits, you just lose like immediately. Like I just sort of, at least after testing this weekend, I think RCS is still good. I'm not writing RCS off, but I would be much more I'm much looking much more looking towards like core of, and I kind of, um, skeletons or who I was frustrated with. Inteleon. Um, and I want to, I want to do something like that instead. I think just to be like a little more versatile, cause he just straight, like it was, so what I did was I took Stefan's list that he wouldn't regionals with and I just took the cross witchers out for like, I was just testing some type of Oman. I was testing their good ninja, which wasn't any good. I didn't know. You could like keep forgetting that RCS can't attach to it. Unfortunately, you also can't Melanie Tyler sodas, obviously pretty bad. Um, but yeah, without like a Hoopa or something you just need, like, it just felt like I was missing something I wanted, like, I wanted that other attack. I wanted that something like, you have to like be generally useful, but like not, not a liability for me. And certainly I had in like a flag NetApp, like RCS. It is that's where I think some sort of toolbox like that is what I would like to try next. I don't know. I would pick, I know people, um, there's the big, not the big pink achieved the flying pick at you that has the safeguard that safeguards basics on its attack. And it's, it's lightening at the same time. So like, it seems strong if, um, that's also just an ICU that does the same thing that I was testing. Just a water, double colorless for the same attack and that, and the thought there, I was like, oh, I don't have to play picket here. I can just play. I can play this instead. And like wall, the red, red, red, the deck, and other things like that. But it's just hard. There's just like a lot of variables right now, too. Cause you have to wear like beating mill tank cause something except to be, have to worry about too. I think the bluesy mill tank is not tier one, but like, I think it's good enough to beat the terror tier one decks every now. And I don't think it's probably solidly tier two to her. So

Brent:

how, how mean when you say it's tier two? Like, I guess the thing I wonder about that is like, will people be brave enough to play it at a closed list tournament where like, like, you know that like, you know, that perfect example of the like, oh, you lost around one because you. Bumped into a Reggie and now you're, now you're going to go five. It's gonna be great. Right? Like, eh, there's, there's some weirdness there, but I, but I also recognize, like, if you hit the right deck, you could then proceed to Yolo your way all the way to, uh, you know, like nine and oh. And people are like, oh my God, he's just gonna win. He's got the right perfect medical. Um, Uh, do, do you like Corvin better than like Mallomar

Brit:

no, I, I just kind of used court denied to express the heavy support account every Crobat. I don't think I would be playing court tonight in any deck. Um, do I like the Mallomar though? Um, I mean maybe, but that's kind of its own deck too.

Brent:

I feel like that that turned out to be like at the last minute, the most popular, or like most successful RCS build. Right. It's attack gives you like a little, a little, like bit of juice to do a thing that's not just hit really hard. Right?

Brit:

Yeah. And I think correct me if I'm wrong here, but I was Piper playing the tilty on and her list when she was doing well with Mallomar. I don't want to say she wasn't and maybe.

Brent:

I

Brit:

didn't think so either. And we have, she obviously did very well, um, at, at the two or two regionals, I believe. Yeah. Um, but yeah, and then it was just kind of that missing ingredient that would go over into the fall, into year kind of in the following weeks. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think, I don't think like, like now I'm R um, just doesn't I don't think grasses that type to be worried about. So that's all, that's always good for you.

Brent:

Yeah, BDIF Beedrill is going to be much less popular because Palka just rolls through that deck. Right? Like why, why would you ever play Beedrill when you could play something not Beedrill

Brit:

right. Yeah. I hadn't, I hadn't actually, I hadn't gotten to that point yet, but I think you're definitely right. That our seats version is probably dead in the water. Yeah.

Brent:

Yeah. I mean, it was, it was a medic, it was a special energy medical and the special energy medical is like a, it's going to be 30% less of that.

Brit:

I wonder if that means the card is just dead to I'm

Brent:

sure when's the cottage totally dead.

Brit:

When's the cotton dead. I'm sure people will still play it. And it will still like do okay if they get the right man, Whimsicott

Brent:

is dead, dead.

Brit:

I mean, it should probably shouldn't be, but people, people are stubborn. People sometimes just don't switch

Brent:

decks. Like I think the best thing you could say about whimsy cat is runs a skinny bench. But, but like you're still getting a role by pal Kia, right?

Brit:

Yeah. Um, just, I think last week on the podcast, I think we were maybe a little unkind to Samara. I don't know if it's great, but it's a little better than I thought. Um, I think like whether the version I'm more interested in I've, I've seen, I haven't played any with the straight version, but I like it. I liked it more as like this kind of toolbox. Urshifu uh, Metta CHAM. And I just think like the medical center, you just seem really, really strong. Um, and then from there just like probably toolbox Inteleon looking thing. I'm not sure, but like put, seem strong to me for saying it does a lot of damage. I just don't know. I think this is the way that, um, raw, you know, I think it was Robin wrote the like top 10 farms from Astro radiance on limitless today.

Brent:

Um,

Brit:

it was up there and he like said it was a good part, but just like, it has to answer the question that all of you starts do. Are you better than RCS? I don't know if that's true,

Brent:

right, right. Where we're at the 30 minute mark. Let me, let me give you my notes on, on plank Talcott. And then you can tell you if you had any other notes on interesting stuff. The, um, here's, here's the big takeaway I learned from playing, like, I don't know, 20 games with palliate over the. Uh, it would be, I would be a much better Pokemon player if I could figure out how to hold off on the plan of the B star much longer. I I've used are consistently too early. And if you could save that for late game, it's so much better, particularly because, uh, if you can read in credential twice, you pretty much always when rating Greninja is completely off. And, uh, um, and I could never consistently figure out how to like, get that attack off twice because I always be starting too early. And, uh, in that respect, uh, reading Greninja is like, I thought it was like the best thing about the whole Palka deck. I

Brit:

think. I mean, I think it, I think it is, I think, and I mean, typed up Jolteon so much, and I don't actually know like Jolteon and it's just so awkward against Greninja now that's like a tough interaction to solve and I think really. It's just when you, when you can power up instantly, like Altaria, it's just like, it's threatening too early. And I just like, you have to do like so much. And then if you have Manaphy out, it just turns itself off blah, blah, blah. Like it's a strange interaction, but yeah, I agree. I agree that I think Britain feels like kind of actually the star of the talkie attack. And I'm curious, I'd be curious to know where Mikey has gone with like the. The frost moth deck, which cause like on paper anytime I see it, it seems really bad to me. It just doesn't that doesn't look focused on hunter something. I'm not sure what my problem is. Or maybe the problem it's like, I dunno, your best attacker is the one-off. And like, uh, there is of course the heavy ball, but like it's kind of awkward. Like even if you get it multiple times, like the fact that you can only have it now that you've just got so much pressure on you to create it consistently. So. The limited. And if it ever dies, like before an attack, like they don't, you know, it's just even a harder to make again and again.

Brent:

Yeah. Yeah. So I would not be surprised if someone like toward does really well with the deck. Like Pachia I know we've talked previously about how I struggled too. Like when, when we were messing around with ice rider for weeks and weeks and weeks on the pod, I would always talk about how I felt like I needed one more energy than Mike did. Like, I felt like that here too. Like I always wanted to play concealed card and just draw cards and, and I was like, you know, it's discarding cards and which is good. And I'm good at drawing cards, which is good. Like all of this seems good early game. And then I'd find myself, I'd find that I have to be star mid game because I prized Melanie or some stupid thing like that. And then like, I kind of run out of juice at the end of the, uh, uh, And I'd wish I'd been able to hit save the V star or have another water or two in deck or concealed card late in the game or something like that. And like always struggled, always struggled, managing energy. I'm the worst player in the game. But, uh, um, what was the other thing that was, uh, interesting and salient? Oh, I know we've talked about this before, too. And it was driven home to me in spades this weekend, man. I wish Melanie could attach waters to non-verbal.

Brit:

Yeah, it's real. It stinks. Um,

Brent:

as, as we complained about the design stuff, like, why not make it the other way? Like, why encourage you to play just like giant Pokemon instead of encouraging me to play the little guys, like when I'd give a little guys some love, man, I hate Melanie.

Brit:

That's exactly what I was thinking testing this weekend. And I'm just like, why. It's like, they just don't want us to play with the non V cards, whether they're good or not, you know, like, that's just my thought. I was like, this card doesn't need to be conditional in this way. Like, why are we limiting our support? So the big basic, so

Brent:

like, yeah, it is completely, completely insane. I, while I don't see any lists in these limitless tournaments to play hon in. Yeah. I could see playing a Rihanna Palka. Like my desire to power up Inteleon is really fast or get one extra energy attachment on a rating. Credenza, um, was overwhelming this weekend. And I wasn't playing with Ryan on my list and there were like, you know, uh, maybe 20% of games. I was like, man, oh man. I wish I had one.

Brit:

Yeah, I think, I mean, that's a good thought. I think brand is just such a, such a powerful card. Um, it's always, always so good.

Brent:

Um, oh, the one other story I could tell, uh, this is a great story. Uh, w we were testing RCS versus a meal and, uh, Laquinn was over and we were so he was playing mew and, uh, he got, he got Marty path and, uh, drew nothing and was absolutely, uh, doomed, uh, And finally draws like draws, like double cram off the Marnie flips tails on the first cramp hits heads on the second cramp goes immediately, grabs, grabs a rose tower, those rose tower, uh, and his board is like mew. And then like Genesek, Genesek on the bench. So he's like, okay, I'm going to draw, uh, uh, no, it's like, it's like new genocide. Cause we killed, uh, one of the genocides. So he goes, you know, draws two cards to, to be at passes, man. Um, so then he's like, okay, I'll rose tower for the third card. It's gotta be good. It's another VA turn to triple VIP pass. Uh, and he goes down and Netflix. But that's a, that's what all new players deserve is to draw dry, just like nothing but VIP passes after turn one. And in that respect, justice was served. Any other stuff that you learned, any things we should talk about from a testing perspective that we haven't covered?

Brit:

Uh, no, I don't think so. Nothing, nothing too interesting. Floating around a lot of likes Robox ideas. I think there's like Astro radiance brings a lot of. Interesting. There's just some good stage ones that make for a good like counter box. We kind of thing that just the Cleaver, um, that, uh, it has just like the route, like to do more damage for the adventure, spoke more like everything else. And there's like a Yan mega and aware deer, um, that hit for grass and psychic. Like there's a lot of the pieces are all there for the door. Attackings were deck to be really good. There's just like, not. If there was a good lightening thing, I believe it would be very good.

Brent:

But

Brit:

the thing was there, or it is that you don't like, that's just like almost a different deck because you're not playing like the Zoroark deck wants to just play like twin energy and double turbo energy. I think it's not really trying to play. Right. Um, and so, and you need right on to which it's also not playing. It's just like a different pet. You would have to reorganize the deck to be built around basic energies and Reihan, and I really don't think that the zero aura is that good. I think that all the, all the calculus have already started playing tool gamer and I'm like, oh, that's just, if they play the tool jammer, then although lightning support just needs like one extra puzzle piece every time. So much for a response, right? Like you don't let your response to be reliable, like a good response. Kao is not like Reihan attach banned scrapper. Like that's not reliable for a two Christmas box. You know, like if they were a three prizes, like probably would be fine, but on, on a two Prizer that sticks.

Brent:

Um,

Brit:

and so, yeah, that's, I don't think the Xero or, uh, um, I've been pretty under what, like it has for your team. But I just, I'm pretty, pretty skeptical of the lightning Pokemon and the right QuTech there, or a tech like really beating path. Yeah. Like it will be Palky at some point I'm sure. Um, but I think the power is just there. And again, it's just like, I just think it's too much to be reliable consistently throughout, uh, throughout a nine round tournament throughout a 1500 tournament. Like you're gonna miss it and like, just get run over by Pompeo, a couple of rounds, no matter. Oh, the guarantee and our thing,

Brent:

uh, we, we tested the czar a bunch this weekend and, um, uh, it didn't seem completely inconsistent. Uh, but, but, uh, for your treater is awesome.

Brit:

Yeah. The fair trade does go. Like, I, I need more games really, probably before I need to entirely write it off. Um, but in terms of like, I think it needs to right home, like, I don't think you could have. Slap, slap it in behind the pre-existing RCS Inteleon was just like two lightening energy or something and like, make it work there, but like there's sticks. Like something that could make it work. Like I think the, the tech company and what's playing the most was like the Urshifu toolbox with it. And, um, which, and he was also playing, uh, elder gas, which helps your energy consistent.

Brent:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, if you get held to guts out, you never have problems finding a, whatever weird one of the energies you have in your deck, right? You can play water and dark and fighting and lightening, and you're like, this is fine.

Brit:

I think I took to him, nothing, nothing secret or anything beyond that. I just need more games. I need to start playing with poppy and myself and probably spend a little more time on samurai. Uh, I'll have to listen to the podcast myself this week to see what he's up to.