All right. Welcome to the Trashalanche. It's the only podcast about the Pokegear trading card Game attendance is a hundred percent. Mike Fouchet, Brent, Pybas, Brent, Halliburton. We're all here. We're also on Twitter. Um oh, I didn't look and see if we have any five-star
Brit:reviews. We did. There was one.
Brent:Oh, ho ho. You are correct. There is one. Let's look at this. Five star review. From Poiser, Polzer, something big fan. Been listening for about 45 months now and really enjoying the pod, love the crew and content on the meta. Nick. Nick. Nick.
Mike:Okay. Thank you Nick. Thanks Nick.
Brent:That's super great. We appreciate the five stars. We're always looking for more five stars. If you leave a review, we will read it on the pod. Uh, many. Uh, Mike, it sounded like many people came up to you and spoke with you. In, uh, a beautiful Milwaukee.
Mike:This was the most, at any event that I've heard from people, which was really cool. Um, like Hartford a couple weeks ago, I don't think I actually got any comments. Maybe one, uh, London, I got a couple, but this one there was like, I dunno, 5, 6, 7. Um, the funniest interaction was I was walking back from the Starbucks. That was like a, you know, a block away. From the convention center and I was with my friend Vik, and we were, and, and this woman, she, she was also waiting on the corner to cross the street and she looks me in the face, doesn't say anything, and then Vik and I start talking, and then she whips her head around again. And says, Hey, are you Mike Fouchet? And I was like, yeah. And she said, oh, I recognized your voice. Really appreciate the podcast. Thank you so much. Like, uh, and that was just a, a really funny interaction, um, that I hadn't thought about that, you know, some of these people don't really know what we look like, but they might know us from our voices. So, uh, I didn't get your name, but shout out, uh, to, to the woman that, uh, that said that, that that kind of made my whole weekend, cuz it was pretty funny.
Brent:You know, I, I had the exact same thing happening to ha happened to me. I was, uh, uh, standing there watching Liam wrap up a disastrous round four. He was as traumatized as I think I've ever seen him. And, uh, um, and I was talking to my friend Dan, and I think Michael Hopkins, uh, uh, walked by and yeah, he like, he kind of head whipped around and he was like, are you Brent Halliburton? And I was like, yeah. He is like, I recognized your voice as I was walking by. And I was like, money. Yeah. He was also a fellow guardian player, so, uh, we appreciate
Mike:him. Yeah. Actually Michael Hopkins was one of the other people that came up and chatted with me as well. So, uh, yeah. Thanks. Thanks for, thanks for coming up and talking to us. We, we always appreciate the, uh, the feedback that we get. Yeah. Yep. Super
Brent:good guy. Super good guy. Um, excellent, excellent stuff. Alright, uh, we, we should dive right in. Um, Liam, before we talk about Mike's run, uh, do you wanna talk about, uh, your experience?
Liam:Um, nothing really notable to it. I, I got
Mike:popped. Um, get a little bit close to the computer. Uh, yeah, I,
Liam:I don't, I don't really know. I just floss rounds, tied rounds. It
Brent:poorly. Alright. He, he played, he played Gardevoir and I thought he had a couple of interesting takeaways that, that we can discuss after this. Uh, um, but Mike, congratulations. It all paid off. The decision to spontaneously rise up in a 10 Milwaukee, uh, I got you at least, like 75% of, of like the
Mike:objective. Yeah, so I, I did exactly the minimum that I needed for it to be worth it. Um, I got top 64 again, I, I forget exactly what place. 50 50 something. Um, Started 7 1 1, uh, from day one, which was super awesome. Um, had some really good games that day. My only loss was to Christian label with Aldon Abri. And honestly, one of the games I made like a huge, huge, huge mistake. So I feel like I even could have won that match. Um, my tie came from Ugia Mirror against, uh, grant Matthew, who is featured often on. The Lake of Rage podcast. I think his username is like boo. C k, something like that. Yeah. Um, we like split game one in game two of the Lugia mirror and had maybe like 10 minutes or so left. And at that point I was, um, 6 1, 6, 1, 5, 1. I think. I think we we're both five one and like both of the, one of the games was really good. But the other one wasn't as good. And we had like 10 minutes left and I was just like, dude, I don't wanna play Lugia mirror for, for like, this is an important game. Like if we just tie, then we just have to win one more. Um, and I feel like with my goal of needing 64. I think that was the right decision. Like not banking that game, uh, on just kind of the Lugia mirror, which is a, can be a crapshoot. Um, I think if I didn't need top 64 so desperately, I probably would've just played the game three. Um, but, but yeah, so that was my tie. Uh, and the last round was kind of cool. I played against the Arceus Aerodactyl clunky deck that, uh, I think two or three of them made day two Christian Fauna being one of them. Uh, and I beat that to one. Um, it seems pretty f it seems favored whoever goes first. But, uh, I lo I, I lost, or sorry, I won a game where he got there at Actel off anyway, um, and the other game that I lost, I felt like I also had a shot at winning. So, uh, I feel like Lugia is probably, uh, overall favored into that Arceus, aerodactyl clunky deck. But, um, that was a cool, you know, new deck that, that popped up. Um, maybe we can talk a little bit more about that later. Uh, and then, so 7 1 1 coming outta day one. Uh, day two did not start out very well. I tied a guardian round one. Uh, I lost to a Kyo lost box, round two. The player was quite good. He ended up tying, I for, uh, I forget his name, Daniel Jao. Um, he tied his winning into top eight, so he ended up in top 16. Um, he played Kyo very well, so shout out to him. And then I played. Two Lugia mirrors where I just dead drew like all four games. Um, and then I beat a Lugia mirror in two very, very close games. Uh, the highlight of one of those was that I won the game. I won one of the games because he had used all of his colorless energies. Three gift energy, three V guard, three d t e, and then I just boss up an Archeops and passed. Um, he didn't really have another option though, like he had to do it in order to, you know, keep, keep the tempo going. Um, so I think he knew it was coming. Uh, and then I beat, uh, an Arceus dura. So just enough I got two wins on day two and a tie, uh, in order to lock up the top 64. Um, so played against a lot of Archist X I went five one against Archeops. I played, I went two one against lost Box and then a couple other random games. But I played against six Arceus and went five one. So,
Brent:uh, uh, the final list you played, how similar to the, uh, list that Reagan has been playing.
Mike:Um, so I continued to play the impact over the third urn, which I think is. I still think that's good. I did see Connor Fitton play both Impact and three Earn, which was cool. Um, and then I dropped the second Nest Ball, which I had dropped already for the Thornton in Hartford, but Thornton sucked. Uh, and I put Stone Jer in instead. And Stone Jer was okay. It, it was. Very good in exactly one game against an archist. Uh, and then like, it was moderately helpful in other situations. Uh, the other, like, the other only other thing that stands out to me, uh, Of Stone Joiner being useful was just being able to fill my bench against Kyo with single prizes. So like towards the end of the game to play around echoing horn. Uh, cause I have double Archeops evil, tall Stone Joiner, and Radiant Serena.
Brent:Yeah. I was gonna ask wa was the stone joiner useful at all in the Lost Box
Mike:games? Right. I mean, just literally just to be on the bench? Not, uh, not as an attacker. Fair. Fair.
Brent:Um, and, and God forbid you were going to Fresno, what would you change?
Mike:Um, I saw Connor drop the radiant Serena from his list, which I think is considerable. Um, It does open up the lost box players to go the gringa Sableye route to kill, to KO two Archeops. But maybe they'll just respect you playing Serena as long as you keep a bench space open. Uh, and they just won't go for it. Um, cuz it is like, other than that, it's like not a super great card to have. Um, I don't know if I would change anything from my list, but that would be like the only thing. I would consider, uh, I saw Conor played the Thornton over the penny. The penny is so good, like the penny. I got a lot of value off Penny, uh, the whole time. Um, pumpkin kaaboo is not super great, but it won me my first two rounds of the tournament and then it didn't do anything the rest of the tournament. So it was kind of interesting. Like I, it won a bunch of games right away and then nothing.
Brent:Was that, I mean, I, you know, like I, I want to be like, I, I guess the difference between your early games and your later games is like, your earlier games are bad players, but like, I don't know why a penny would be better against bad players.
Liam:Uh, the
Brent:Pumpkin Kaaboo Pump Kaaboo.
Liam:Oh, pump Kaaboo. Sorry. I don't know. I think it's just an indicator that it's like a good tech. Like, I mean, it depends if you like, hit the same magic over and over, obviously, probably is not like a super hard tech for any, like, I mean tactics I guess. Um, but like, Yeah, like the, that's what like polarized tech cards kind of do, they're good. Like one to two rounds and then blanks. I just,
Brent:right. It sounds like you didn't play against a lot of m
Mike:I played against Zero Muse. Yeah, that's, so I, yeah. Yeah. Right.
Liam:So I, that's a, that's an indicator, I
Brent:guess, right? Yeah. Like, like if you, if you had not been seven 11, maybe that's, maybe that's where all the Mees were hiding out, right?
Mike:Yeah. I played against, I played against six Archeops and only two of them had Path, cuz the other four were aldon. Um. So like against the two Archeops with Path, I only, and one of them was the Aerodactyl one. So like, uh, so like I only used it against the one Archist with Path and then, and then I used it against Temple of Syno. Right. Yeah. But yeah, you're right. I didn't play against any muse, so it, it is quite good against me.
Brent:Um, any other conclusions about, about, uh, the format or, uh, Milwaukee
Mike:in general? Um, I mean, Kyo is, um, clearly Kyo is like the best deck, right? Um, Azul Grant Danny or Azul Grant, Caleb all making Tapi, Danny. Not making top eight, but losing a winning in. Lost a win in, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like there could have been four of them in top eight. Um, but it's also an indicator of just how hard that deck is to play. Like the two, I played against two Kyo lost box the first day. Um, one of the players was clearly. Uh, not super experienced, and that was a pretty easy win. The second one I played against, he was a bit better, but I still think he probably made, uh, I think you're always gonna make mistakes with Lost Box is just kind of like the number of mistakes, j like slight mistakes. And I feel like he played it pretty good, but like probably made just a couple little small. One or two, too many small mistakes and it kind of cost him. Uh, and then my day two opponent, um, was very good, uh, and made less mistakes and was able to, to beat me. Um, and I just feel like if you can play that deck as cl pretty well, like you're, you're, you're, that's just what you should play. Um,
Brent:You know, I, I talked with Azul. I was talking with Azul and Grant, uh, right before round one, and, and they were telling me how like Chip was practicing so much more than they were with the deck they were gonna play. And like, he was really on the grind and all that stuff. And, and he went, he went 5 22. It was like props to Chip for like, uh, uh, shaking off the dust and having a nice finish. But like, yeah, I, my immediate reaction was like, I was like, did they change decks? And the second they didn't change decks, I was like, I mean, of course, cuz I mean they literally have played a million games with this deck. Yeah. Like, yeah. If, if I heard that they weren't testing hardcore in the days before Milwaukee, like, I'm not stunned.
Mike:Right. Yeah. I think I, I don't know if you guys watched the Caleb Azul top four, but that was super, super interesting to watch because. There's, there was just so many times where I would think about, okay, what decision am I gonna make now? And then they would do something different. Or like, the flower selecting, uh, was, was really interesting. Like, for example, um, in all three games, Azul had echoing Horn plus another card up of flower selecting. And in game one he prioritized keeping it over something that I thought was really important. I think it was, he had already lost on two Mirage gates. And then it was a mirage gate and an echoing horn. And he mir and he lost him the third Mirage gate to keep the echoing horn and then never ended up playing it throughout the game. Uh, and then game two, he lost, owns the echoing horn to keep a psychic energy. And then game three was something else where he lost on the echoing horn. Um, so just like things like that where it didn't seem consistent to me, like what their choices were, but I feel like. That's just my lack of experience with it because they see, oh, okay, this is kind of like how the board state is and this particular law zone mirror game, and so I need to prioritize this over that. And, uh, I just thought that was like super interesting. Um, someone hasn't played it as much. My, my reaction
Liam:to that. I, I think that's just like, Principles, I guess. And like the lost mirror, like the Mirage Gate doesn't really do anything except like, I mean, yeah, it's, it's kind of just like throwing saveway at each other as many times as you can, right? Because that's the way you can go, like three for two, um, provided no switch cards, um, or even into one switch card because man, if he has to stick around, but the only reason man, if he has to stick around is as long as you have one mirage gate to constantly threaten gringa. Um, So like, you know, you have to make sure you have one Mirage gate. The Echoing Horn's, better Psychic Energy lets you stream save by Psychic Energy's better. Um, I don't know. I, that, that makes sense to me. I think like, there weren't very many plays. I think when, when I watched that game that stood out. Um, it was just like, you know, they, they, they just didn't really make mistakes. Um, I, I didn't think it was like anything too crazy, but besides the fact that like, you know, everybody else makes mistakes, but they were so well, um,
Brent:yeah. So in that, in that final round in, in game in, in the finals, in game two, uh, uh, Caleb goes like, nest ball, seal, stone, v i p. And like, I mean, one of the things, and, and I think the commentators there were like, You know, uh, when he, when he plays the Nest Ball, they were wondering if he was just gonna grab the comfy and be like, this is fine. As opposed to,
Liam:uh,
Brent:um, the more complicated line he plays. That requires benching a v and. I couldn't tell if that was a situation where he was just so paranoid about how badly things had gone the prior turn, or if that was like the strategy and he was playing it correctly. I, I think that's
Liam:something they do. Or like, so something that I, I have never seen another lost box player do. But uh, obviously like that whole group is like completely fine with doing, which is getting dragonite out. Turn one, um, Yeah, like both in the lost box mirror and when they play Guardy and my gaming against Azul, um, he got the, the dragon eye out turn along like every game. But that's because it's like really hard to punish things, your deck and like it contributes to a better setup. I, I, I think that's like a really, really good play. Um hmm. And something like you, you should almost always go for if the, the opportunity is available. Um, like you thin your deck. You get the dragonite out. So it's like a constant threat. Um, and then in the, in the Pac Mirror, it's also a target for a escape route cuz pre you switch cart and it's still not being threatened by Sableye. Um, I mean, like, it can still get like too hit by save, like if you cal Comy and then ship it. But yeah, I mean I, I think it's just a good thing to get out. It, it helped him get a much better setup. Like V Ip there was was really good. He got too comfy out. He, I don't think he opened comfy, so No, he didn't. Yeah, like. Um, you know, it, it just helps you like get off the ground and then from there, um, like I said, it was much better. Like, I think if you like, play that turnout in your head, like what happens if he only gets one 20 feet down and then like, choruses into like not a V I P or something like, His just turn goes like so much worse. But instead he gets like a full set up and a full board. He's completely ready and it comes at like no cost. Like it's not like he's saving the seal stone for anything. Um, like once he's going, he's not gonna get judged and need chorus or something. Like he just has to like, um,
Mike:And the dragonite is like, so you mentioned that it can get double sli, but if they commit like one whole s eye attack to dragonite, you can also switch cart and then it basically negates that whole tur. Yeah. Yeah.
Liam:I mean, I mean after like, like if you send it up off crown and it gets switch cart, it, they can like chip it after they chip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but it's also like, yeah, it's not like a, a liability much because like if they go for the KO on it, like, Especially if they dragonite it, like they hit their whole bench and then you can just take two prizes back with the save eye and like they committed a ton and just gimme.
Mike:I will, I will say though, another thing that contributes to the safeness of it though is that they know each other doesn't play boss. Yeah. Right. So, so they, they can, they can pretty safely know that. Like, unless the dragonite has a lot of damage on it, it's never gonna be taken for the last two prizes.
Liam:Yeah. Um, It like, it's still, I, I think it's still liability, like in innocent that there's like some risk attached, but it's, it's just so much better to get the um, like the, the boosting set, right? Like there's definitely worlds where you're not able to like car a Manaphy or something, or they just can Manaphy too many times for you to get it back. However, that, like in doing so, they kill all your comfy and you can try to play to like, um, Just avoid, uh, giving up two prizes even without Manaphy or something. And it's like a, a liability into Kyo. Uh, I mean, I don't, I don't know if that ever happened. I, I think it does. I, I can't remember exactly how, but I, I feel like that has happened in some games I've played. Um, and it's a liability into Kyo that way. And similarly with Guardi, like the Guardian does play Boss, um, and they can't pick it up for the last two prizes at the end, but just going really fast and like making sure you're set up super clean. Um, I think turns out to be better than slowing down a bit.
Mike:Yeah, yeah, for sure. So some of the other takeaways from the event, obviously Guardi. Wins the event. Pretty cool. Henry coming in, Henry coming and winning. Uh, Liam, I think you were there with us when we were talking to Henry, maybe like round three or so. Round four. Yeah. And he was just like, yeah, you know, uh, I kind of came over. If I, if I, I'm, I'm just gonna win. And then, Post about it on Twitter for the rest of, uh, the week. Like, uh, like a lot of people, uh, were talking throughout the tournament. Mwa played Guardi, for example. Uh, I think the sentiment as the tournament went on was that the Guardi verse lost box matchup is not as, uh, bad as people say it is. Um, And clearly we saw Henry win. Granted, Henry did get turned to Gardevoir X both games. So I'll give that, uh, to take it. For what it's worth, I do think the matchup is not like, You know, 80 20 for gari, but I, I still think it's unfavor for Gari. Yeah. I feel like, I
Brit:mean, we've, we have talked about this a good amount, at least me personally, I feel like I've been tooting this horn for a long time that like, I, you know, I'm not gonna say that it's Unfavor for Lost Box, but it just, like, I think it's just been overstated for so long. You know, even since E O I C I don't feel like anything has really changed, but the. Sentiment is always so strong, you know, that it's a bi, an abysmal matchup or something like that. And like, you know, I have a good example here. One of my friends, uh, one of these players was close to an invite. He played Guardian in Milwaukee and he hit seven Lost Box. Mm-hmm. And he went like four, three and two. Dang. Or something close to, I mean, he was like very close to day two. And then like the last three rounds just all went horribly. And just like, even that like. It's like not that bad. Like, you know, you hit your worst matchup seven times and you still like, almost eek it out and like, you know, maybe with a little better variance. And I just like, I, I mean, I don't really have too much more to say other than that, but I feel like I. And what, what am I looking for? I definitely agree that the community sentiment seems to have shifted over the course of the weekend. Like I, I've seen that consistently myself, but I just like, I don't know why, why it took this long. It just felt like people stopped playing Gardevoir and it wasn't as much the case at Gardevoir was just losing so consistently to lost box. I'm, you know, if anything Gardevoir has sort of struggle in it throughout the format is, you know, much more likely to be. You know, because of embryo's, uh, uprising and so on, more, you know, more particular things like that. Not just that, like lost boxes, pushing it out. It's just like, I mean, there's, you have to get a good start to be sure, and like your prizes really matter. Like a lot of luck has to fall your way as the Gardevoir player, you know, in terms of what you prize rots and things like that. But like, If you get a good first, uh, like a, a good four Pokegear on your board, four, five Pokegear, turn one, like, it's just, it seems very easy to, to go from there. Um, stabilize only have a very limited time to ruin your day. And like if they get to stabilize fast and you have a lot of Kirlia, I'm sure you lose. But I just like, They just need s very, I think, faster than you need to evolve, essentially. And so I just, I've always felt that the, the cadence is just there for the Garbodor player. If they have like a V I P GR Ninja opening, like, I'm not even saying they have to have the nuts. I'm saying they just need to have a couple rolls in play and then a little other support. And then just trying your best to not lose to at the very
Liam:end. Yeah, I, I don't know. I, I think it's pretty bad. Um, like, okay, so
Brit:there's scenarios like we're just talking about where it just, like, if you hit this, then it's not bad. If you turn too candy like then you can't win. Like, these scenarios are just not all that implausible like that. I just, I just think that it's
Brent:so close. Yeah. I mean, I remember two weeks ago, You were like, I was, I was this close to beating azula. I misplayed, uh, otherwise I could've beat him. And you were like, I don't think that match up as bad. So here you come out, come today and be like, eh, you know, it's not as, it's not as not bad as I thought it was. Well, no,
Liam:I mean, like I, I said I was close to beating Azul, but that, that was more like, Um, you know, just like playing good decks, your matchups aren't that bad. Like, you know, like when I'm, when I'm like building a control deck, when I'm like, oh, I'll just like take a bad matchup. It's like, it's like a hundred zero. Like, I have like, oh, options against it. Like, yeah, there, there, there's like nothing I can do to like, stop them from attacking or take prizes faster. I just like, you know, might as well like go get lunch or something. Um, but like, yeah, I think the match, the match ups still bad. Like Guardi just. It has like, um, like weaknesses against one prizes. Um, especially, especially Lost Box like you, if you hit turn two candy, you're certainly like going much faster. You don't have to give up two prizes, um, before you start hitting it. Like, you don't always have to like give up, uh, a prize. If you do like Grin Ninja Joe plus they're like Kirlia or something so that you don't give up a prize to Cran. But like even then, if they hit like, uh, Sableye after that, they clean up and take like a Kirlia with it. Um, But you also like don't hit candy very often against lost box. Um, like I, I think the deck hits candy, uh, like very high percentage of the time in most matchups if you want to go for it, but against lost box like benching, Mew, and, um, Being forced to like commit bench base and like search cards to Manaphy turn one means that you're like usually only getting like one, maybe two Kirlia down. Um, turn two. I'm like going for two Kirlia is also a little bit scary cause you can't evolve them both Gox, although our content is usually fine. Um, but yeah, just the fact that you can't go from you in that matchup and like that, that's the main way that you find rare Candy is. It's pretty difficult, um, to hit candy turn too. Uh, aside from that though, I, I think like, yeah, like if you just like play the matchup in your head, like Guardi is like no real way to get ahead. Lost Box starts off ahead. They have ways to take multi prize turns and Gardy just like, kind of hits with Gardevoir hopes. There's no response. Um, I, I mean, do I have to go watch those stream games back? I don't even know how Henry won when I'm thinking about it now.
Mike:Um, I mean, so ga in a nutshell, game one, Caleb had no cards in his lawsuit at the end of his second turn. Yeah, he just, he just absolutely bricked. Yeah. Yeah. So nothing, so Henry and Henry got a turn two Gardevoir, so, uh, he won that one. Game two was pretty close. Um, but Caleb also had a slowish start, uh, and Henry got the turn to Gardevoir. He got. I think Caleb might have made, I feel like, I don't know. I feel like Caleb made a, a, a mistake at the point where he got his first Sableye off. Um, oh, yes. Kirlia, he, yeah. Yeah. He put all 12 on a Kirlia, but there was a Kirlia on the bench and a Gardevoir EX on the bench. Those were the only. You know, rots things. And so if he just kills the Kirlia, then that shuts off. Like Henry gets minus two cards basically. And, and Caleb gets a free prize. Um, and so what ends up happening is the Kirlia stays alive, Henry gets two extra cards from our refinement, then evolves that to a second guard of Orex, and then the game plays out in such a way that. Caleb's able to set up one of the Guardian exes, uh, to get KD by a dragonite, but not both of them. So he's safe to attack with the second one, um, and then, uh, blah, blah, blah. He ends up winning with a boss on the Dragonite. And I feel like if Caleb had just sli that Kirlia, yes, Chris Elliot gets like kind of another turn to, to remove some damage, but I just don't think that matters very much when, uh, there's only one Gardevoir. EX in play. Yeah. Yeah.
Liam:The Elli is good in that matchup.
Mike:Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, the only other interesting thing that I wanted to mention is the, one of the Mew players that made top eight, Brian Ochre, he was the number one seed pretty much the whole event. Uh, we don't have his list, his exact list, but I do know he played, uh, crystal Cave. It was a D T e Mew, but he played either one or two. Crystal Cave, a penny and a manife. So he was really, uh, beaten up on lost box. With all that stuff. Uh, he played against Grant in day two at some point, and I heard that, you know, grant did all the stuff to like set up the Kyo play to win the game, and then the dude just dropped Manife at the exact correct time and then Grant immediately scooped. So, uh, that, I feel like that could be a, I, I think I had mentioned it actually on, on the podcast last week to maybe play Manaphy in Mew. So I feel like that could be, Uh, you could see that, you know, at, at Fresno for sure. I,
Brit:I thought, man, if he was an incredible playing Mew this weekend, I told, I told two people to play it and they didn't. And honestly, I don't know why they didn't. It seems, it seems so strong. I knew Kayur was gonna be a, a very big presence this weekend. Yeah.
Brent:So, so any advice for, uh, uh, people going to Fresno? Caden's not here. So I think in the big scheme of things, we don't really care about Fresno, but
Liam:maybe I should ask the question.
Mike:Um, I think so. I think if you can play Kyo, play Kyo. If you can't play Kyo, then I think your choices are basically, um, Guardi Mew with Manife or Lugia. I feel like Arceus is like not really great. Um, I dunno, maybe I'm just biased because I beat up on it all weekend with Lugia, but I feel like it, like, I feel like Lugia is just kind of like, It does, how do I say? It has most of the advantages of playing Arceus, but it's just better, so I don't really understand why you would play an Arceus deck over Lugia.
Brit:Yeah, they, it seems like they sort of dynamically in the matchup between the two. They're functionally sort of doing similar things, but like you're just cheating with Archeops compared to, uh, Trinity, Nova and Star and things
Mike:like that. Yeah, like Lugia is better against Mew. It's better. Lugia is better against Archist than Archist is against Lugia. Maybe the archist EX least the judgments might be a little bit better against Kyo, but like not really. Uh, you could even play a mane and Lugia just like you, uh, could play a mane and Mew. So that's actually something that I was thinking about in that last spot that I played stone in. Um, I feel like it's pretty considerable, but yeah.
Liam:Um,
Brent:Palkia, should we, should we plan on doing a set review next week? I feel like, I feel like it's about that time. Yeah. Yeah. I, I recognize, uh, uh, people be turning their brains towards NAIC
Mike:in the next set. Yeah. I'm down to do that next week. I've like looked a little bit at the set, but not that much. I pretty much know IO Luxray scramble energy. I don't even know what Scramble Energy's actually called. And the and, and the, and the, the Jet Energy. Those are the cards that I know. Yeah.
Brit:Honestly, I'm like cautiously or maybe not cautious. Um, Adamantly pessimistic. I, I don't, I don't feel like the cards are gonna shift the format, like, like getting admin and back is, is crazy huge. Like in these cards, the cards that Mike mentioned, I think are gonna shift the game. But like Pokegear wise, I kind of don't see anything really competing with the, the top decks right now. Like, They just don't seem good
Liam:enough. Oh, I think Spiritomb is pretty big. Um, yeah,
Brit:Spiritomb too is like a, yeah, definitely like, like, uh, I mean, not Luxray. I mean the Japanese seem to love the Luxray card. I don't know if it's actually good or not, but it does appear all over Japanese lists. Um, BPI Touma as well is one of these sort of smaller cards that will make a big impact, but just kind of the headliner exes and decks and stuff. Bax, caliber Chio, I just like don't think will be anything but tier two we will
Liam:see. Um,
Brent:Mike, what, tell us about your League Cup schedule. I assume you're on the grind now.
Mike:It's happened. So I ma I mapped out today all the possible league cups that I can go to in the next three weekends. So one of them, I'm running my own league cup. So that's, uh, so I basically have five
Liam:days. Uh, I
Brent:was, I was gonna ask you if I have to come up and run it for you. So you,
Mike:um, well, so I got five days. I think I can get there in five. So, um, And
Brent:you need, you need a one win and, and a second or a top four, or do you need two wins? What's
Mike:two wins? Two wins. Two wins maybe. Um, so, uh, there's two, there's two that are very, is there a bfl? Like
Brent:I just frankly haven't followed
Liam:that closely.
Mike:There is a BFL of two. Yeah. Oh, this is BFL
Liam:two. So, so they, they both absolutely have to be wins. You can't. We can't, like top four, two. Yeah. There's no,
Brit:there's no combination to 100 otherwise.
Mike:Yeah. Yep. That's it. Okay. Only, only two wins. So you're gonna get five
Brent:shots at two
Mike:wins. Yep. So I got two that are close. One's it right in Philadelphia. Uh, that one's will be pretty small. That's also Sunday, June 11th, which has. I don't know if you looked at the Lee Cup schedule, but Sunday, June 11th has four Lee cups that are all within like two and a half hours. Like the two furthest ones are two and a half hours apart. There's one down near you guys in Baltimore. There's one in Delaware, there's one in Philly, and there's one in North Jersey. So like that one in Philly. I'm kind of banking on that one as like a win because it's gonna be small as everyone's gonna be spread out that day. So I'm hoping that one's definitely a win. So I got that one. There's another close one the weekend after that. Palkia Pop runs in, in New Jersey. Uh, so those are the two close ones. And then the other three days, uh, I gotta drive at least three or four hours. So there's one in, uh, like halfway to Albany in kind, kind of like between Westchester and Albany and New York. That's like three, three and a half hours. That's this Saturday. So I'm gonna go to that one cause that's the very first one. Um, then if I don't win two by Sunday, June 18th, there's one in Connecticut that I can go to that's about also three and a half hours away. And then Saturday, June 24th, there's one down in Chantilly, Virginia. So maybe I'll come down, uh, to you guys for that. Hopefully, hopefully,
Liam:uh, you do not need to
Mike:hang out with, hopefully, hopefully I don't need that one. Wait, wait, wait. So,
Brent:so there, there's BFL at two that, uh, uh, can you, can you league challenge your way to some like points?
Mike:I already have two League challenge wins. All right. All right. So it's, it's, it's wind two cups or. A miracle happens and NAIC opens some more spots. Right, right. I'm feeling optimistic. I'm feeling optimistic about cup wins though. I feel like I've always done pretty well at cups, so I think I could get there. Uh, um,
Brent:is, is is there any spice or have you done too well with Lugia to look back now?
Mike:Oh, no, no. We're definitely not playing Lugia at any of these tournaments. Lugia I think is a much, much better best of three deck, um, than it is best of one. So I will be playing almost certainly Gardevoir or Lost Box for these events cuz I think those are much better best of one deck. They're more consistent. You have plenty of time to play the games, your brain doesn't hurt by the end of the day. Uh, so yeah, I'll be playing. There are those,
Brent:and yeah. So, you know, one, one of the things I wanted to ask you is, is you said if you're, if you're able to play Kyo, you should play Kyo or Fresno. Mm-hmm. Um, I recognize, uh, uh, like are, do you think of yourself as somebody who is able to play kyo or are there things that you think are like the tricks when it comes to playing those, like you were just talking about how you were watching Caleb and Azul play it, like, I have no idea. What they were thinking as they made decisions.
Mike:I think I can do it. I just haven't, like, given it, I, I've played a bunch of non Kyo Lost box, so like I, I'm okay with that. Uh, I just, I'll probably play some games this week with Kyo against myself slash a little bit online and, uh, see how I feel. But even if I don't feel comfortable playing car, I still think like playing a, just a Turbo lost box is still, uh, Pretty good, especially in these League Cups where I can, you know, throw on some Pokegear or something like that and just be super consistent. So I always get to play the game and best of one. Um, and I feel like, like I said, I've even, even in weaker matchups such as like Archeops or Lugia, I feel like you can kind of just get there sometimes, especially in cups when people are taking them a little more casually.
Liam:Yeah. Yeah. I think one of the like harder things about playing lost Box at a regionals is like something like trying to do well in like the day two environment is like, like really hard because like every game, like people are trying, like pushing you to hit as much as they can, right? So like all of your resources matter like much more than in like a cup or something where um, they're
Mike:a little easier. Yeah. That, that, I agree with that.
Brent:Um, what was the, uh, uh, I had some. Oh, so, so you were talking about how you're, you're gonna do some, uh, uh, practice rounds with category. And that leads me to the next question I wanted to ask you guys. One of the things that Liam said to me today that I thought I would love to get you guys reaction to, she said he, what he took away from, one of the things he took away from this weekend was, needs to get better practice.
Liam:I, I think it was fine like before this weekend, cause I was playing with myself more, but, right. It, yeah, I, I have like, I haven't built other decks recently, so I haven't been able to like, play it myself. I'm just gonna like plant, like ladder and like some online testing.
Brent:But yeah. So, so is the secret to high. So, so I, it sounds like Liam, you would say the secret to your like best reps is you have to just play yourself.
Liam:Yeah, I think that's like the best practice you can do. Like I think, you know, be being able to see like what your opponent's looking at as you're playing the matchup like. I think just like gives you like the best understanding that you can.
Brent:I, I know back in the day Sam Chen told us that's the only way he feels like he gets good practice because he doesn't trust anyone else to play the other side of the game well enough. See,
Brit:I always felt that I would subconsciously bias the result that I wanted when I tried. Well, I mean I used to do that all the time, is when I was, you know, an early player. Or at least like after my first world, like that was mostly how I played. And I just like, I, I just noticed more and more over time that just like my new decks would always beat my old decks and things like that, and I'm just like, there's something going on. On here. Right, right. Yeah. And I, you know, you could be more diligent in it, I'm sure. I don't think all sort of self-testing lens this way, but I, I think that you have to be a little cautious. I, no matter what I would think, um, like, you know, I think the best practice is limitless simulator against yourself. Like that seems like the fast, the most optimal way to do it. Um, but yeah, I mean, Pokegear has always just had this problem because, It doesn't have, at least in their online clients, it's just like inherently accepted that the ladder is not quality testing and that's just like, I don't think that's really applicable to most of the other digital games. Like you play a high ladder and you'll probably get the right experience. Whereas Pokegear, you play like 10 games or something sometimes before you play a real list, like you're getting archetypes and stuff, but so consistently it's just like junk and things like that. Like it's just always such a Pokegear problem, at least as I. See things that quality testing is just that much harder for some reason. Like, I guess, I guess part of that problem too is just like in pricing and things like that. Like how do you, how do you, you just, you play, you, you test against yourself and it's just one of those like, oh, I prized all four routes. Like, again, like other games don't necessarily like run into those kind of problems, like you get land screwed and so on. Like somewhat comparable, but still just like, not to the same degree as like the, just things that can happen to just like, no a game results wise and just like astronomical prize odds or something
Liam:like that. I, I have a funny story about the, the testing like bias. I, I, for sure do that when I'm playing against myself. I, this was like, I think before, um, at least a few months ago. I don't, I don't actually exactly remember. Um, but yeah, I was playing Lugia against like, I think it was like one of my combo controlled decks. So yeah, this would be before Arlington. Um, I was playing like a combo deck or whatever, and I was like, oh my God, the ugi players drawing so bad. I guess the deck just sucks. I'm like going so fast, I'm gonna hit my combo in like no time. And like, like a few turns went by and then I looked at the hand and I was like sitting on an ultra ball the whole time.
Mike:Yeah.
Liam:Uh, dunno why that happens, but it did. Um, so yeah, I, I know I definitely, um, Play worse when I'm playing the deck I'm trying to beat than when I'm playing
Brent:my like pet deck or whatever. And, and yet you still, you still think of playing yourself as the best reps. Like I, it just speaks to how it's really hard to get good reps.
Mike:Yeah. I do think though, Brit what you said about, uh, the playing against yourself using the limitless simulator is like the most efficient way to do it. So you have like one deck in person and one deck on the computer, and then you just play like that. Yeah.
Liam:Yeah, it's really good.
Brent:Interesting. I, I've never tried that. I should, uh, I should try. It
Brit:sounds crazy. I think for some reason, at least in my head, this might not make any sense for some reason, like it's in the slowness of playing, having to like do a, shuffle your deck, shuffle the other deck. Like, I think that is just like also sort of like muddles your decision making processes. Like you're just doing more physical labor the whole time. And I, again, to, to. To the result where I don't think you're perhaps thinking as clearly as if you were just like paying attention to the game you were playing on live or something like that. It's just a lot of Yeah. And you're, you're, you're thinking, you're trying to, like, you're having to figure out the best play each turn for, you know, you're doing, you're doing double the work. I have to figure out the best play for this deck and the next turn for this deck, you know, as opposed to just the deck that you, you personally are playing each turn. Um, yeah, and just again, not to say that it's not. Useful. It, there's definitely parts of it that I think are useful, but, um, I don't know. At a certain point I wonder just like, I mean, I'd be curious to learn like what really goes on in like, say the, uh, Bradner group
Liam:or, um, grant and
Brit:Azul and Danny and so on, like, I would do, they practice nonstop. My sense would be that they probably don't play that many games that they. They're just that competent that they, they're more or less kind of grinding out the, the meta level or the sort of macro level concerns. Figuring out the, the meta game and the list and things like that, that could be wrong, but that's just my hunch. I, I would say outside of Isaiah, maybe I would also, I also sort of get the impression that like, that not everyone in that group grinds. They just like show up and get the list and then play it well. But it was based in nothing. So please correct me if I'm wrong, if you're listening.
Brent:Yeah, I, I, I kind of assume that Azul does not quote unquote, like practice a lot because he's just playing so much.
Brit:Yeah. Well, when you're a streamer, I think that that's obviously your practice. You just, you just Yeah. Endlessly are playing and your, your game's always on point as a result.
Brent:So I, I assume that like, if Grant is playing, he's testing with like Danny or, uh, Caleb and like, that's how they refine their lists. And then I, yeah, I assume that like, Bradner is testing with John Ang or something like that, and like those are probably good
Liam:reps. Um, yeah, I, I, I've talked with Bradner a little and he. At least tells me that he tests a
Mike:lot, a lot. So, yeah.
Brent:Yeah, yeah. Now I, you know, obviously he's, he's less on the ground these days than he was. I assume he is testing a lot less. Um, uh, and yet, you know, generally speaking, I would say that that team still, that the team shows up with a, um, with a broader diversity of decks now. Which is interesting and, and maybe the moral story is like Isaiah's not at their Airbnb, like drumming them all with his deck and then they all say, okay, we should play his deck
Brit:seems, seems to track in these events that he hasn't been at. For sure. When they do, they do split up so much in their deck choice. Yeah.
Brent:Um, anything else we should cover guys? Hmm.
Mike:There was other tournaments this weekend too. I didn't really look too much into their results. I know there was one in, uh, Latin America, or like somewhere in South America. And then, uh, the one in Europe, Reno, right? Say that again? Yeah. To Reno. Yeah. Yeah. I, I know Lugia won that one. I didn't really look too much into the other top eight, but I knew, I knew Lugia won. So this is like the best Lugia has done pretty much in Europe, by the way, which I think is interesting.
Brit:Mm-hmm. It was interesting. I saw just reading, uh, Stefan's report and just like an interesting feature of his Gardevoir list is that he played, uh, Clara over Miriam and like Palkia commented, just like I've been wondering for so long why people don't do this. And I, I'm not a guardian player, so like I, I could, you know, I know what the logic is, but I, I haven't played it enough to have a sense of what I would think between the two. I have
Liam:to read his comments on that. I, my dad was just talking. No.
Brent:Yeah. Uh, Lele. Liam, Liam made the wholehearted defensive. Miriam, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna hand him the mic so you can get into it. I mean, he essentially was just like, it seems like nobody ever recovers more than two Pokegear. Why, why don't you just run Claire and put'em right in your hand?
Liam:Yeah. Okay. Um,
Brent:that, that wasn't true. And I think, I think that's because, I think that's because watching Henry the, like the one time Henry played Miriam, he essentially recovered Manife and then had a dig for Mane. I
Liam:remember he had like Roger. Um, yeah, but no. Yeah, like Miriam, I. Car, car is not good. Um, MIRI, Miriam like, alright. It's like early game, consistently consistency. I, I, I had multiple games this weekend where I opened like Ball Kirlia and Miriam and like, bang, um, uh, draw support there, um, beyond just like, search one I, I get for all three and then like, you know, your whole game goes much better. Um, Those are like the dependable situations where it's better. Um, early game consistency. Uh, yeah, I guess it's also just like better to draw cards in the mid-game. There's nobody real cost for it going into your deck versus your hand because you play so many search cards like. Mostly the three Ultra Ball. Uh, just have wasted like film cards and also just cuz like ultra balls are good, um, you need to find your, uh, stage twos or whatever. Um, it's also the best way to search out Lugia. Best way to search out Ninja. If you can't be a v i P for turn one. Um, so you're already playing like all these ultra balls. You can find whatever you need off Miriam. Um, and then yeah, for any other card, uh, you, you, you have tons of search. Of course. Um, third, Miriam, once you get back five. I, I think that that actually came up like quite a bit. Like if your curls are getting like murdered in the Mew matchup or something, getting back more than two is like pretty important. Um, like if a Shinx or Congar goes down, um, getting back more than two, let's get back like a whole line and is ashian. Um, that comes up a lot when you're like really aggressive with research. Like it lets you research turn one discarding like multiple stage twos or multiple stage ones. And then just like Miriam, everything back, um, mid-game. Um, so, so getting back five is like, I, I like definitely better, obviously getting, getting back too. Um, I also don't play judge on my list, um, so that I play more research cuz consistency on top. Um, but yeah, what that means is I don't have a great way to shuffle cards back into my deck if I like run through it really fast and my opponent's not down to three for Roxanne. So Miriam like, gives me a way to do that. Um, which definitely has come up like quite a bit, or not quite a bit, but a few times. Um, that's four, I think. Um, and then, uh, what is that? I think, I think there was one more, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
Brent:So believe
Liam:Miriam. Yeah, I,
Mike:well, and uh, getting five back in the mirror I think is probably pretty important. Um, The biggest oh, oh. Uh, one funny thing that happened in the finals was game one. Caleb had a really bad start, but Henry also had a really bad start and Caleb had played Palkia Stop. Uh, and Henry Palkia stopped and hit two Pokegear or one Pokegear, and his only supporter in hand was Miriam. And so then he was able to drop cards and set up, which was, uh, really funny. Um, And I had, oh, oh, and the main reason that Stefan wanted to play Clara, I think, is because he needed to fit Espeon, Espeon, VMax. So he cut one of the energy and he wanted a way to recover energy, which I think is fine, but probably not enough of a reason to play Clara. I
Liam:don't like, I, I think I, I also play, yeah, I play 12 Energy, but yeah, if you, you manage your energy well, you should be fine. Um, like usually when you go May maybe also cause I'm playing the Sky Seal. Like when I go, when I like fully send all my energies on this Shinx or something, it's usually, usually like win the game so I don't need to recover as much. Um, there was another thing. I, I just keep forgetting. I, I don't know.
Brent:You know, the, the most interesting thing I thought about Tyranitar was 540 masters show up for a special event. That's a lot of people, man.
Mike:There's a lot of
Brent:people like, like for a Pokegear tournament where they took away all the pricing because of, uh, rules. That's a
Liam:lot of people. Um, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. This was the other thing kind of goes with like getting back five. Um, but yeah, but because it gets back five, it's much better at like playing around echo morning lost. Um, you can like pull back way more, uh, way more one prizes, um, as well as like attackers you need and like throw back bees, um, like if, like Echo horn,
Mike:anything if you need it. Mm-hmm.
Liam:That's fair.
Brent:Um, yeah, it just underscores how however much space they thought was, uh, they, they could use for NAIC man. Like, take a lot of people, 500 people show up to a special event. It's just a lot. That's so many. Alright, guys. Absolutely fantastical. Let's, uh, let's run it back, uh, next week and we'll hear how, uh, league Cups go for, uh, for Mike. It, it is the, uh, it is the countdown.
Mike:Counting. You gotta, would you rather or no. I do not,
Brent:I do not. I gotta get more organized. What can I say? I, I've just trying to get back on top of the work grind after, uh, much like you, we flew back from Milwaukee early Monday morning. So it's been a grind. Yeah, been a grind. Alright guys. Uh, yeah, I, I will, I will fix the wood You rather problems. And, and we'll be back next week with, with some, some high quality wood you rathers to let Brit engage in the philosophical conundrums of our day and age.
Mike:Sounds good. All right.
Take
Brent:it easy guys. See ya.