The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
NAIC Preview: Gardy, Intele/Urshi, Mew, 2010 format deep dive & more!
That box behind me is also a giant pile of dragon shield sleeves, guys.
Computer Audio:nice. Yeah, I think I'm actually starting to run out. I didn't expect to, uh, but I went to so many tournaments, you know, in the past six months that, uh, I actually only have, I think one, unopened, one, maybe two.
External Microphone:Mike, what was the last time you were this? Try-hard.
Computer Audio:Um, you see, like even since I came back to starting to play in like the 2015 season, the 20 14, 15 season, I never found it very hard to get my invite. Like, I don't know, like between local events and I only went to like two or three regionals each year, but I just did like good enough and maybe that,
External Microphone:if there had been eight lead cups this year, You to breezed your invite, right?
Computer Audio:right, right. Exactly. So like I feel like I haven't really ever. Gone to this many events in such a short time span in my whole life. So,
External Microphone:All right. Guys Le uh, let, let me get started. Welcome to the Trashalanche. It's the only podcast about the Pokemon trading card game. We've got attendance at 133%. Me. Mike. Kayden Hyatt, Liam Halliburton. Uh, the gang, generally speaking is all here. And, uh, it is now Mir. Hours before an AIC. Ours. It's Tuesday afternoon, we're recording this.
Computer Audio:we can call it ours.
External Microphone:I mean, if it's less than a hundred and it's less than a hundred, right. We're like, we're there guys.
Computer Audio:yeah,
External Microphone:yeah, I'm sure it doesn't feel like a, were there given how much you guys probably plan to test between now and then, but like where are there. Um, Guys quick, quick note, five star review update. We got a review from V grew to us. In the Netherlands. Five stars. I really enjoy this podcast, especially its unique style blending. What's going on at tournaments in your own local scene. And the thoughts about the Metta 10 of 10.
Computer Audio:Nice.
External Microphone:Vigorous appreciate the 10 of 10 review. And the five stars it's it's uh, uh, I guess it attributed to how the 10 of 10 meme is just important that you can rank something five stars, and also, still feel like you have to say it's 10 of 10.
Computer Audio:This is, this is not, uh, an official review, but I did get a message from a listener, I don't know his real name, but he is Hendrick X on Twitter, and he messaged me and the first sentence was, hi Mike. I was listening to some old Trashalanche episodes and then he said a bunch of stuff, but I was like, you listen to old Trashalanche episodes. And I was like, thank you so much, blah, blah, blah. So, uh, shout out to, uh, Hendrick. Uh, we really appreciate it.
External Microphone:We are we. We are slowly growing the, like, The inside jokes at, at a pace there where people have to like go back to, to really be on top of the game. I
Computer Audio:Yeah, sure.
External Microphone:All right. Um, before we dive in, in AIC, Mike. You want to talk about the league cup this weekend? And I think with two lead cups, right? We should talk about the Lee cup you played in, and then we should talk about the other league cup.
Computer Audio:Yeah, sure. Well, before we do that, we should say, if you're following me on Twitter, you know this, but I did get into NAIC, which
External Microphone:Oh, yeah.
Computer Audio:Um, and Yeah. so, and preview, I, I didn't win a Elite Cup this past weekend, so I, I need NAIC to be able to get my, my invite. So I'm really excited that I'll be able to go. I'm flying in tomorrow, Wednesday, uh, and I'll be there until Sunday, so, pretty pumped to play. Um, Kind of having to learn the format pretty fast, cuz I wasn't putting any time into it before about a week ago. Um, luckily things didn't change all that much, but, uh, but yeah, so yeah, so I went to a leak up down near the DC area in Virginia on Saturday. It actually had a really good turnout. Um, there was about 28, 29 masters, but then like 25 juniors and seniors. Uh, so almost, almost equivalent juniors and seniors to masters, which was pretty cool. Uh, we had five rounds, top eight. Uh, I played Gardevoir, um, very similar to the list that Stefan posted a couple days ago that he won his league cup with. Um, I beat a mirror all Lugia and. A say Bullard lost box in Swiss. And so I started three Oh, and going in three oh and a five round league cup is the best thing you can do because then you can just, ID twice. So idd twice into top cuts. Top eight. Top eight. I played against, uh, Archies, Giratina. Um, I actually got a prize, double prize penalty going into the first game of top eight because, uh, my grin, my radi Greninja had some dings on the sleeves and it was the only one.
External Microphone:I was about to say, if it's leaves, it's kills me, it kills me the
Computer Audio:yeah. Yep. So I should have looked at my sleeves. before I handed the, the, the deck in for sure. But it was like, just the radiant Greninja kind of had a ding on it, so understandably it, they actually said that they could have given me a game loss for it because it's a unique card. Um, and I was like, that would make sense. But they gave me a double price penalty, which is basically a game loss anyway. Um, So I, I lost the first game against Arge Giratina with the double prize penalty, but I would've won that game if I didn't have the penalty. Uh, but then I won two games in a row, uh, so I won top eight. Um, in
External Microphone:Truth and justice prevail. That's nice to
Computer Audio:yeah. Then top four I played against Harris, nor, uh, who is a friend. Um, he was playing Fusion Mew, but he, uh, Getting top four was the only relevant amount of points for him, uh, to like bump him into a lower threshold for like an NAIC finish for his invite. So like, he didn't, it didn't matter if he made finals or won the event, so he just scooped me in top four, which was super nice of him. Um, and then in the finals I played against another arch Giratina. Um, this person definitely did not scoop. Um, and so game one, I, he won the coin flip. So you're, I think you're like a little unfavor, like the match ups pretty close, but I think whoever goes first is, um, favored. And so I lost the coin flip. So I'm, so I'm a little unfavor. Uh, and then I prize both of my arcana, uh, Gardevoir. Um, And I'm like, okay, as long as I draw one of them off my first two prizes, I'll be fine. So, you know, I take a two, two prize KO. With Ashian. I take two prizes and no kind of guard DeVores. Um, and so like if I had gotten one, I think I would've been able to keep up with the prize trade with a reversal on the Gardevoir, uh, and, and whatnot. But alas, I did not. So I lost that game. Game two, I won. And then game three, I am going second once again and I prize two rots. So, you know, I get two rots down on my first turn. Key goes Boss CAOs, one of them, and I pretty much just lose from there. So a little unfortunate, um, surprising in games one and three. Uh, so I took second at that lead cup, um, putting me at 340 points. So, um, not really relevant for points. But still good to get some experience playing the deck. And then I, and then I ran a League Cup on Sunday. It, uh, it went pretty well. There was only masters at, at my event. Um, there's about 26 people I think. Um, and Sammy Allen, who I know is a listener, he won the event with Bax Gall Chin p with a one one Al Volpi. Um, second place was a local kid named Bryson, who I'm friends with. He played Rapid Strike Inteleon Urshifu. And then the other top four w uh, decks were a lost box and a Gardevoir order.
External Microphone:So. Does the three 40 changed your math at all?
Computer Audio:No, I just need, I need top five 12 and I need a top five 12 before I got the second as well.
External Microphone:Gotcha. Gotcha.
Computer Audio:So just gotta go like, so we were, we were doing like the, the math unlimited list, 5 31 is like almost certainly safe. There will probably be a couple five 30 ones that don't make top five 12, but, um, almost all of them will make it. And if the T rate is a little bit higher than expected, than probably all will make it so five through one. Obviously the goal is to do better in that. But 5 31, uh, would, would get me there for sure.
External Microphone:Right. Um, Guys from mez. We'll talk about, uh, the format and prepping for an AIC. Uh, uh, Liam you've been at Cayden's house all week. Uh, Uh, testing a lot. Do you guys have like a bunch of secret sauce now?
Computer Audio:Um, nothing really works as well as like the Medex do right now? Uh, Inteleon Urshifu, I, I've been playing around with it a little. It's pretty fun. I've gotten it to be like, I think, like optimized for, uh, choosing your opponents really well. I'm basically playing four for Inteleon, no Urshifu. And I can actually pretty consistently hit like two Inteleon and Alakazam Mecham turn two like every game. Um, which is really good. If you go first against B, you lose If you go second, um, not enough versus Lugia, you lose versus Lugia. Um, but you can definitely cheese, um, guardian lost, which is pretty cool. Um, and use Squa ability as well, of course, which is like super key, but yeah. Mm-hmm. You can, you can do some, uh, like pretty cheesy stuff with. Just like a bunch of Italians, it's like better Mewtwo serrata for all the players on Twitter.
External Microphone:Yeah, I think I was going to kick it off with the like, is Inteleon rep. His fingers feel a real deck. And I feel like the answer is still unknown.
Computer Audio:I, I mean, I think it's a, I think it's a real deck. I think it is definitely tier two. Um, I think it's better than Mewtwo. Serrata not saying much. That's how, that's how I would frame it.
External Microphone:I mean the way you guys say that makes it sound like you guys have now tested me Oscar Radix.
Computer Audio:Well, we've put a lot of in Inteleon and um, I think if you needed to hit Rare Candy to evolve and you did 10 less damage with each energy, that would be worse. So, but that doesn't work right now and I think it can only get worse. Yeah. And there, there one of them, um, a local kid. In our area who's quite good, um, in top 16 for seniors right now, who is playing SRA at a cup this weekend Did not do well. The deck was bad. So,
External Microphone:Uh, you know, I, I felt like, I felt like I was planning for you guys to be like, yes, we have super secret decks. And then I was going to say, okay, so in the interest of not leaking the best deck. What is like the absolute, like what is the deck that people think is good, but it's actually bad, but maybe we've already skipped right to this.
Computer Audio:right to that, I mean, I think, I think one, uh, a deck that has been taking up a lot of my testing time has been back scalper. I've been playing a lot of back scalper, um, this past weekend, and I think I've gotten It to a point where I think I, I have sort of the, the optimal list, at least fif 58, 59 of the, of the optimal cards for back scalibor. Um, and. I, I don't know. I, I don't, I still don't know if the deck's strong enough. Um, my current feeling with Bax elbows, it's definitely a little bit of a high rolly deck. You really have to sort of hit your pieces. Um, I've sort of built the deck more angled towards poke stop, um, and be, and kind of r quite reliant on poke stop to hit your pieces. You need, um, every turn, which has its pros and and cons, but I think it's the only way for the deck to have enough firepower to consistently beat, um, decks like Guardian Lugia. Um, so yeah, I think, I think back style are pretty good, but I don't know if it's quite, quite good enough
External Microphone:is all that code for after they Iona, you can poke a stop into an SCR and hit your numbers.
Computer Audio:Um, Yeah. a little bit. I mean, you have, you have tools like Birol that, uh, you have tools like Birol that let you try to get out of the Iona and on. Honestly, the deck does a, with chivalry chill and the amount of resource burn you have, um, the deck that's pretty thin by the end of the game. Uh, so I've found Iona to be less of a problem than, um, one might expect I'm running it with no Palkia and four seal stone, which also gives you a little bit of a boost if you can throw a forest seal stone on a lumen. Um, going into the Yo no turn. So Oh yeah, the Dex Man issue is just that like lost KO backs is, it's, it's too much. You can't consistently respond to that. Yeah. Yeah. The Bo Bosque backs is certainly a very real threat. Um, and that's sort of what I found where I, I really needed to build. That's sort of the balance I've found with Bax is you have to sort of balance this trade off between having enough explosive firepower to deal and get like Ninja cologne off consistently while also not just conceding if your opponent boss CAO's. Bax. Yeah. Um, for anyone listening who's thinking and that's why you play the pechi up. No. Palkia sucks. No. Try that. It doesn't fix. Palkia is not a substitute for bs. It's really not. It's factual.
External Microphone:All right. All right guys. Let's let's wait. Brett has logged into the chat because I told him Brit, we need you. The your time. And I have to tell you, if you guys went back and looked at our show notes for like two years, we've had the same show, note that we were waiting for this very moment to come. And, and Britt was like, guys, I haven't been testing for an ASC. I'm not going to, I'm not going to log on for this one. And I was like, no, no, no, we need you. There's a, there's a moment here. And lo Britt has appeared. So here's the situation. Brit last week on the pod, we discussed how they have announced that there is a 2010 retro tournament. Happening at NAC on Sunday. And. When we asked Mike for a hot takes, he was like, I played Gardy the top 16 finish Lux champ was also good. And that was like, I'm pretty sure. Brett has an incredibly strong opinion on what the best deck is in this format. And if we don't give and we've, we've literally been waiting for two years to hear Brit. Explain to people, the best deck of this format.
Computer Audio:I mean, I don't think it's Dialga. I think any Dialga player would tell you it's not Dialga. I feel like UCA and I are just sort of masochists. I'm trying to think of other sort of prolific Dialga player. I don't even, I mean, I don't think I would even count as one Back in the SP era. I just happened to be a kid who qualified for worlds with it that year. I, I was not a, a named SP player or anything like that. Um, yeah, I mean, there's merits to playing Dialga. I don't think it's the best deck by any means. Um, I personally played it because my meta game, my state's meta game that year was so gang gar heavy and I just like, I just. Couldn't deal with that matchup and Dialga was so strong against it and I just, I played so many other Gengar techs too. Like I played rosary gl in my list, which was very, very key to making sure gang Gar never flipped for fainting spell. And that was always, that was like my biggest thing. So many of the gang gar matchups, I felt like were just a coin flip. I have for, I guess for players that don't know. Stormfront Gang, one of the best cards I ever printed. Had an ability, a actually it was a poker power back when there was poker bodies and poker power. But when it knocks out, you, when you knocked it out through damage, you flipped a coin. And if heads it would just knock you out with it. It was very good. Um, but anyways, my meta game had a ton of that. And so rcs Spiritomb, which just had a poker body when it was active, you couldn't play trainer cards and Dialga g shut off all other poker bodies except for this one that shut off all the other poker bodies. Um, and so you could just play trainers and so the, the spirit tune was, Difficult to deal with for Lux chomp sometimes, like if you had Luxray at the right times to bright look gust of gust of wind around it, um, you'd get your turn of trainers and that would be good. But I, like, I played, I played Rosary gl, I played two Bebe's search, and Bebe's was a supporter where you put a, you put a tra a card from your hand under your top of your deck and then search your deck for any Pokegear. And like, sounds pretty bad by today's standards, right? Like that's just so much worse than every trainer search card we've had for like, also over a decade now. Uh, but that was just like back in the day you didn't have, you had targeted search and then like Pokegear would do the drawing for you. But anyways, just another trainer card that would get me my Dialga level X, so then I could play trainers and just not lose the Gengar matchup. Um, you have some pretty good matchups across the board. I think. I'm trying to think of like particular cases where you're just like, you're definitely better than Lux Chop. And not a lot of matchups are coming to mind where like you're, you would definitely wanna be the Dialga player other than this gang gar sort of, and like random stuff. Other decks that would play spare too. Like, uh, there was the, I guess this would be the next year cause it would be using magone Prime, so it wouldn't, it wouldn't be relevant for 2010. Um, trying to think, but I just can't think your, that's, I mean, all your sp matchups are pretty even. I also played a lot of, I played Amba Pom and Dragonite and tutu guard chomp as well. So like, I was, I feel like I just tech, tech really, really, really hard for everything. And so, like to contrast my Dal list from PCA's, like, so the main thing that like PCA's, um, famous Dialga list did was Snow Point Temple. And, um, Lin fb, I did not play either of those cards. Snow Point Temple just was a trainer, uh, a stadium that gave basic Pokegear 20 more hp. And so you're Dialga, you've got choice. No expert belt. That's what it was called. Right. You have expert belt, you have your special medals, you're, you're kind of a tank deck in theory, at least in a lot of your game plans. And so Snow Point would give you that much more HP and then Drift Blim could snipe the bench and you could kind of close out your game with some big drift blim knockouts. And it was kind of big, I think, relatively speaking, everything was a single prizer back then. Um, yeah, I could, I feel like I could talk a ton about the sort of intricacies, but I'm failing to come up with any sort of arguments of why you would play the deck other than like, you just want to play it cuz it's good, but like, Yeah. I'm just sort of hitting a wall where I just like, I think Lux Chomp is better in that matchup. I think Lux Chomp is better in that matchup. Um, you're probably better against Guard for sure. Like the Guardian matchup isn't, isn't, it's pretty even because like you have resistance and the tank, this like, sounds great in the Guardi war, but you have to really sort of figure out how to deal with Gade cuz the, the Gade is just basically a free One shot. on any of your things. And that's really bad as a tank deck. Like if you're one day I'll go with three special metals goes down, you probably lose the game. And so g delayed. Um, just, I guess for those you don't, that don't know, it's just always a big sort of audible attacker In the Guardian Gade deck, it did six, I, I don't remember the damage that it did. 20, I think it was 60 plus three. Yeah, that sounds right. And you would, you would flip over your prize cards and for each prize card you flipped face up, you would do extra damage. So it was kind of cool actually, cuz it was, it's a really good attack early game, but as the game goes on, it gets worse because you don't have prize cards to flip up anymore.
External Microphone:That is crazy. I've never heard such a thing.
Computer Audio:yeah, I mean it was clutcher at least, I know, correct me if I'm wrong here too, I've always sort of heard the stories, the legends of how Guardian delayed came to be as like when the first broke. People thought G it was gade. You, you, you were heavier into Gade. And Gardevoir was sort of the support Pokegear. And then people realized, oh wait, so, you know, psych lock is broken. But I just, I remember hearing from just my friends who played at the time that, like, going into states that year, their lists were like way more Gade centric than they ended up being by nationals or something like that. And they, that could have just been a local, you know, area thing. Um, Yeah. I mean actually just like for for 2010, I actually think I would maybe recommend Palkia Lock. I really loved that deck and always, always thought it was super favored and some matchups that people just thought it was terrible against, I guess Lux ChuChu being the, the most prevalent one. People just like have always assumed like, oh, you're weak to Luxray. It's Palkia you must lose. And like that matchup was so good. It was like so unusable. Usually just because of AMU and mass parrots and things like that. I just, I know a lot of Palkia because I was like, calm. That deck for like two years straight and like did stuff that no other Palkia players could do. And so I just like, I think that would probably be what I would take to a 2010 tournament. I feel like my Dialga list was kind of in, in more so into the next year, um, MD on, um, and things like that. Um, Yeah. I don't know what more we can pull apart here, but I don't,
External Microphone:So, so Mike D do you hear any of that and think. Maybe Gardevoir is not the play. Or are you still like it's Gardevoir. I mean, I know you just have a soft spot for Gardevoir. Maybe the answer is this
Computer Audio:yeah, I got a soft spot for Gardevoir, so I'd probably just play that the, uh, by, by 2010 Nationals time. I think the format had shifted enough where this deck would not be great. But, um, I played at a regional that season, so maybe, maybe April or so. Um, and I got top four. I lost to prime a lot. With Gardevoir Primo was playing Gardevoir and it was a, my deck was kind of a cheese deck. It was four four Don fan prime for sp matchups, so you would just use that against Luxray and stuff. Um, but then it played the, this combo of cards, um, to deal with decks like Garridos and Jump flu, which are pretty good decks in 2010. Um, they're kind like aggressive decks. Uh, that attack for Zero or one energy garridos attacked for zero jump flu attacked for one. Um, and so my combo to deal with those was there was a Mr. Mime that its Pokegear body was, it couldn't be damaged from Pokegear that had less than three energy cards attached to it. So, uh, like the Garo and Jump left would have to attach three energy, uh, to, to do anything to it. And so it's a tax suck though. So you would play, um, a. You would play a Dun sparse that did 20 damage for one color this, it did 20 damage and put it back into your hand. And at that time, plus power acted kind of like a Pokegear tool. So you would play four plus powers and then if you used Dun Sparse to attack the plus powers would also go back to your hand. Um, so you go Dun sparse for 60 damage and all those cars go back to your hand and then you go into Mr. Mime and you just get two Mr. Mimes out and they basically couldn't do anything. Um, so my deck was literally just four four Don fan dun sparse two Mr. Mimes. And then like a couple other random things like you had to run, uh, the unknown queue, which was kind of like a air balloon tool. Um, And I got top four at regionals that year with this gimmicky deck. But the thing was that the guard of our matchup was not very good because, uh, Don fan's not, not a terrible attacker into the matchup, but uh, the hand disruption, uh, was really bad for, for the, for the deck. So, um, if I was like, just kind of trying to have fun, I would try to recreate something like that. Um, but yeah, I think like decks, like Gardes and Jump Left are also very strong in the 2010 format. Yeah. Dustin Zimmerman's 2010, I think Kyle ERs and Dustin Zimmerman is very good. It's one I've always been very impressed with. Um, just like playing 2010 games. I, I never ran into them at events or anything like that, but it, like, it played a bubble coat, which may have been more common than I remembered. No one, no one in my area was playing bubble coat and Garridos. Uh, but I just like so often can't beat them with Lux Trump because they have like, it's. The bubble coat and like expert belt, which gives you, you can, so you can get out of the like Lucario Luxray range. They need like an extra flash bite or something to do that. And like combining that with super scoop ups and things, it can be really hard. But yeah, there are a ton of very good decks in this format. Right. It's a great format. I think like, uh, she don the Dunsparce stuff like that was good. As Will won regionals that year. I think. I think it was 15. I think that must have been his first year in Masters or maybe Gino in the finals. Um, yeah. And a lot of decks kind of just get wall off by that Mastermind jump off and Guo. Mm-hmm. So there's like, I remember at least when we started the podcast, at least one of the main things I thought we would get up to is exploring these old formats and figuring out like, Ways to do them. Cause the whole combo, the Mr. Mime stuff, I think could have been a lot better in like other decks. Just as like a one one tech to beat something like, I don't know how garridos like beats it if like, cause you could use SIE and uh, SIE of course every deck plays so you can kind of just get away with it there. Um, but yeah, we weren't as good as players. There were deck builders back then, so I've always been relatively certain that things would look a lot different if the community just time traveled to 2010 and like that's the, that was NAIC this weekend or something like that. That would be crazy. That sounds like that sounds awesome. That big of a tournament for an SP format. Uh, everyone's going to time. Um, yeah, I'm trying to think of anything else. I remember at Nationals that year was a, had a pretty big showing for Gardevoir just in general. There was like, um, the Utah crew that year played a pretty interesting guard devore list with a M u I don't know if that's been talked about, but. not every, not every Gardevoir played that. Um, so a u a was a, refers to Asil from mysterious treasures. And if you had. Um, the other two, Mees, Brit and Sie in play alongside with it, all of your opponent's, basic Pokegear, all of their attacks cost one more colorless energy. So you would play that, um, already with Mees Brit. So Mees Brit, when you play it from your hand to the bench, basically like Garbodor is your opponent for a turn or hex maniac, something like that. And so, and then, then of course Sie is just, uh, draw to, you have seven cards in your hand as a basic. So that was the ma probably the biggest consistency card, uh, with Clay. Do. Um, yeah, like Garridos is really good. Gardevoir is very good. The flag decks are very good. And I think probably underrated in a lot of ways. Like there was this really interesting flag on Torra one German nationals that year, and I think top 16 world, same player, slightly different, like two cards off list wise. It's just like, let's a deck that. It's never made a lot of sense to me, but it's good. And I think it's done well in the 2010 events here and there that have existed since then. Um, but Yeah. flagon did, I don't feel like really showed up until Worlds, oh no, I'm sorry. That would be, that's a different year. I'm getting 2009 and 2010 blended a little bit together now too. Um, since, Yeah. there just wasn't rotation for a year and then the, the next rotation was just only four sets away, so it kind of, a lot of the same decks were around for a really long time when I started playing.
External Microphone:Oh, that's I was stupefied. I told Mike last week that like, Yeah. I was like, okay, 2010 nationals. Talk about it. He was like, he was like, I was like, it's amazing that you could have, uh, even one 10th of the encyclopedic knowledge, uh, that, that. I just like heard for 10
Computer Audio:Oh, more's coming to mind. So there was, I remember, and some people, they did well at nationals that year with like Kingdra amp, um, not a whole lot of synergy. They were just good stage twos that were efficient. Kingdra Prime had just come out, which has, um, sort of like quick shooting, but just for one, one damage. And AMP was very good against SP because it had an attack called takeout, which would just, if this opponent or if the defending Pokegear is a basic, just knock it out. Um, so like that's very good. Just as a Don deck as well against sp of sp Pokegear, of course, all, um, basics. There's just, there's like a ton of different ways to play Lux Chomp. You can play it with nt Riku legend. You can play it with like a Mewtwo counter. You can play it with Blain. There's of course, The Chen lock decks, um, you know, which also can play Blain, which also can play like big Daddy crow, the Hunch Crow as Conley won nationals with. Uh, what else? Something else just came to mind. Oh, 2010. Oh yes. Uh, Gengar, Gar ChuChu. That's also a day. Um, that's actually what I played for NAIC for Nationals at 2010. That was my first nationals, I think. Um, but yeah, not a lot of synergy there. This was actually a Michael Kendall deck who is just one of the players. I came up with a Lafonte guy and just like, it's the Gengar I was talking about earlier with fainting spell in Shadow room, and then it's just kind of a snip deck. So gang gar for one psychic can put 60 damage counters on anything with a a poker power. And so most Azo, sperate, oi, all those Pokegear only have 70 hps. So with Crobat, which is, uh, Crobat G, which was just Zigzagoon, you got a lot of free prizes just picking off little guys. And Clay do had h p so it wasn't too hard to do the same thing to Clay dos as well. Um, and then Gar chomp of course, just does 80 discard two energy. And so you're just, you're sniping things down. I don't, to think if there was any sort of bench barrier Pokegear, Um, nothing. Oh, there was the metric. There was, yeah. Maybe wasn't there wasn't there in a metric and rising rivals. Yeah, that sounds right. But it, it would, it would get damaged, but it would prevent everything else. You could kill it. Mm-hmm. Um, the bench. But yeah, that was, um, not as prevalent. I think people played that a a little bit at Worlds. Like Carter was actually really, really good too. It like had a 30 spread attack and like could be played with Obama Snow, which was another really good spreading Pokegear. Um, well I feel like there was one other thing to mention. I remember a lot of stuff from that nationals, I guess just cuz it was like my first one and everything is so like storybook ask, I don't know, I remember the like Palkia and Alex Brusso played in like round eight of Swiss and like it was a really good mirror match. Um, just thinking of all these PE people who did well and made, uh, the big top cut bracket I lost to Palkia That year in top 16. Very unfortunate.
External Microphone:That guy's going to Pokemon.
Computer Audio:He is very good.
External Microphone:Um, so, so, uh, speaking of. Uh, remembering specific rounds. I don't know if you guys saw the like breaking news today that apparently Pokemon updated its rule book. And now best of one, is it an acceptable format for our regionals?
Computer Audio:Hmm. Yeah, it says that, but I don't think that like will actually happen. I think it's just, yeah, they're giving a little bit of leeway maybe for SPS or something like that. Yeah. I mean, that, that was my thought that just like if these non big, big to-do ones can be a little more efficient if you want, um,
External Microphone:So.
Computer Audio:know if any organizer will actually pivot to best of one for me, though. There were two other bits of the rule ch of the rule book changes today. That more caught my eye.
External Microphone:Yeah, talk
Computer Audio:those being one. Um, finally, thank God, uh, Pokegear has officially stated that knowledge of how much time is left in the round is public knowledge. Um, and you are, you are free to check it. You are free to, and ask a judge about how much time is left and they should give you a time as accurate as they possibly can. Um, So it's, that is for me, something that I know the community has sort of been asking for, for a while. Um, because previously it's sort of just been, I'm pretty sure, kind of just like a vague, um, kind of, it was up to, up to the judge or up to the organizer whether or not they had public clock clocks available or whether, or how specific judges were about how much time was left. Um, and so now, now the rule book officially states that they, judges are supposed to give you the, the exact time left. Um, so Very positive change. Um, and the other big one is, uh, you can now be penalized for, um, you can now be penalized for taking legal actions with the atten. With the intent to, um, guarantee a match result. So this, so for example, this could be, you know, every turn I'm primal Turbo with my Archeops and failing over and over with no energy left in deck. A judge could see that in pen penalize you for basic, for slope, for slow playing. And, um, and they also added now a, um, match loss penalty. So higher than a game loss, lower than a dq, but a full match loss. And one of the, one of these sort of circumstances on under which this would, with this could pop up is, is for slow playing. So, so this is a big one. Um, seems like Pokegear is really trying to crack down on slow playing and also sort of the more common form of slow playing, which is sort of take really taking your time with, with legal actions to just try to absorb as much time as possible. So, yeah, I feel like the time one is one that's just like, it's never been consistently enforced. Like sometimes you'll be like, they'll even, they'll have the time posted and just like one player can't see the time, and even then they have to just be like, I don't know, less than 50. But then sometimes, I mean, I was just reading some threads from like, players in Europe are just like, oh, didn't even know it even worked like this in the first place. Like, I just think there's been lots of variants, just, I mean, through the history of the game in terms of how this has been dealt with. So it's definitely, I think, a, a good change and like, as, I guess as it ties into, Uh, you know, at least the hope that they're looking more into slow play as sort of a means for penalizing it. And obviously this, I think is a, is a system that goes hand in hand with that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think they're really trying to crack down on slow playing and for be, for better or for worse. I think there are definitely pros and cons, um, to cracking down on slow playing. And because in some ways, uh, in some ways, like slow playing is a skill, and knowing when to play fast and when to play slow is like, it is a skill. It objectively it takes skill to, to manipulate time. But if Pokegear doesn't want that to be a thing and wants to crack down and penalize people for it, like that's, I understand why. Agreed. Yeah.
External Microphone:All right guys. Why don't we take it back around to, uh, an AIC testing. Mike. Uh, you want to talk a little about where you're at and any, any hot takes you've gotten.
Computer Audio:Well, okay, so, so Caden talked a little bit about Chio. I haven't put that much time into that deck. I played a couple games. Um, probably won't play it just because it's the deck that I have the least experience with since it's, uh, uh, a newer deck. But I do kind of like the list that, uh, Caden and some of the other people I've been playing. I guess I could be convinced if, if I get there tomorrow and it's testing really well. Um, I would say like before we get into any specific deck, I. I think almost all of the tier one and tier two decks are very reasonable plays at this event. Um, there's not that much that has changed going into this format, and if anything has changed, it's actually equalized a lot of the matchups, I think. I think a lot of matchups are extremely close. Um, and so you could really make a, a pretty good justification for playing almost any of like the top five, six decks. Um, that said, personally I think fusion, I think Mew and in particular Fusion Mew is like the, the worst play out of all of these decks, um, because it takes like. like all of the other decks. I feel like the matchups are really close, like anywhere between 40, 60 and 60 40. And Mew takes like a really bad loss box matchup. Um, and that's just not something I would wanna do. Like it takes good matchups, uh, de like a solid matchup into Guardi. Uh, it takes a good matchup into Arceus. Giratina takes a decent Lugia matchup, but like it's lost box matchup is, is pretty bad. Um, and so I guess that's the only deck of the top ones that I would be a little, uh, that I'm definitely not gonna play. Um, But Gardevoir, Lugia, um, lost Box and Arceus, I think are all super, super reasonable. Um, and I, I really don't know. I, I think if the tournament was like in 30 minutes, I'd probably play Gardevoir again, but, um, but I really don't know yet. So that's kind of like broad picture of, of where I'm at. Um, Liam, Caden, you guys wanna give your broad picture? Cause you didn't seem like you were agreeing with some of the stuff I was said. Well, I mean, I, I honestly, I absolutely agree that I think a most of the top I can make, I can see a good argument for playing most any of the top decks right now. I think they all, I absolutely agree that more than most formats lately, um, almost every matchup feels very close and very winnable for either side. Um, I think for me, one thing that's been kind of circling in my, in my mind was, um, Know Puerto Rico there were by, by round four there were only three threes. Yeah. because the tie rate was so high. Um, and that has made me, especially, I I need day two, top 2 56 for my invite and I, so I'm very scared to take ties and take a high tie rate, which has sort of been something kind of scaring me, um, scaring me off of playing, uh, either Gardy or Lost Box, although I do think they're both very strong decks, but I am very worried about ties. Um, yeah, I agree with that for sure. The T rate, I, I don't I don't know what the overall T rate was at Puerto Rico, but I did see, I was watching, um, chip and UL's podcast and they like, look, they could see the T rate for the different rounds. Round, like round one, two, and three had like an average of like a 25 to 30% TIR rate. Like that's insane. Like the regionals, uh, the last few regionals, the average TIR rate was like 14%. So like 25%, 30% is ridiculous. Yeah. And this is, this is why that alone is I think why I will not be playing Gardy or Lost Box come, um, come NAIC, to be honest, lost Box, uh, Turbo in particular was my top choice prior to Puerto Rico. But see that that tirade alone was what. scared me off. Um, cause I was like, I, I can't pilot this deck well enough to well enough to play at the speed I need to play at, to finish, to finish games in time. Um, so I. I will not be playing either Guardian or lost box. I, cuz I'm just too scared of ties. Um, I'm cool like one game. So I don't, I don't think, like the T rate doesn't scare Mewtwo much and I play pretty quick. Um, also say, I guess since you brought up Fusion Mew, I really hate Fusion Mew, so I'll give my little rant. Um, I'll tell you, y'all told everybody for like the last two weeks, which is, think about the Scarlet Violet meta fusion Mew. Mew in general wasn't even in like a great spot, like guardian loss box are pretty bad now. Guardians reversal loss box is super odd. They're pulling off like all of their wind conditions way more consistently. And then on top of that, you're also trying to make like a meta call that you're not gonna hit much spirit tomb because like, you know, half the decks right now can just drop Spirit tomb. Then you'll draw passing a good percentage of your games. Why? Like anyone would consider this deck is beyond me, uh, that the deck just not good. Um, ok. Right. So you agree with me? I thought that face was like that you were disagreeing that you liked me, but you agree with me. I was surprised that you like lumped it in when you were like, oh, here are the top decks. They're all pretty
External Microphone:Uh,
Computer Audio:fusion. I was like, what? So,
External Microphone:Liam's like fusion tier three. It doesn't even deserve mention as a deck.
Computer Audio:I didn't know considering this, I think, I think. Urshifu is a better play than, than Fusion Mew. I agree. So. yeah, SFU's got like a decent matchup into it. Cause you just bench tomb and then see what happens. Yeah. That's the thing that's, that's the biggest problem is like any deck can just bench tomb and all of a sudden they have a pretty, a decent win rate versus I think Gardy tomb's gonna be like popular too. I've
External Microphone:Yeah. So what, what, what's the, give me a ballpark percentage of what. How likely do you guys think you will be to play to. That's one car.
Computer Audio:Uh, I think it, I think it depends on the deck. I think that Mew, I anticipate most guards running tomb. Yes. And I think that alone for me would, is enough for me to just not play Fusion meal. Like it's, it's such a good fit. And it also helps guard's Lugia matchup that like, I, I don't know. I would be running, I would be running SP two in my gardy list and I'm, I'm worried other people would as well. I. I disagree that I, that most guard, but I would say somewhere between one third and one half of guards will run spirit two a sizable amount. But I wouldn't expect it to be more than half, but I could see it being close to half. And I think, so I think Gardy, uh, is one of the decks. And the other deck that will play it is Arceus decks. Like I feel like more than three quarters of Archeops decks will play spirit tune, cuz that's historically one of a's, uh, toughest matchups. Yeah. And I don't think any other deck really plays spirit such a natural fit that like, it's not, there's not a real downside similar to Guardian. It's very easy to just slot in without much downside to yourself. Yeah. Yeah. So I. I think Mew not a good play. However, I think stuff that is a good play. Um, I think Lost Box, of course, very strong, both Kayo and Turbo. I personally prefer Turbo version. I think one, it's a little bit easier to pilot, um, and you can pilot it a little bit faster. The games will be shorter, um, with the Turbo variant, so it's easier to get through two to three games. Um, I also think that it kind of, it frankly it has better matchups, especially against the, how the meta is trending right now. Um, so I think, I think turbo's better. Uh, I think bax is pretty good. I think bax is maybe the deck that takes the best guard and loss box matchup out of the top decks right now. Um, but it definitely has some trouble against Lugia. I think Lugia is also very strong. Most of its problems just come with itself and its internal inconsistencies in engine. Um, I played, I was playing a best of three earlier against, um, I don't remember what deck, but it didn't matter because I just drew, I drew attached past two turn, two games in a row, um, with Lugia, and it was just a complete blowout. So it, it Lugia definitely has some in inconsistency troubles. I think if I'm playing Lugia, uh, I'm probably going with the single strike variant. Um, I think that while the Coli variant is more consistent, and I think frankly just a objectively like better deck, um, I think that you need the dark attackers that the single strike variant has in order to, um, Be good enough to beat Gardy. And I think that the one shot potential of Tiar is kind of good, too good to pass up. Um, so I think I would go with the single strike variant, but it definitely has something, has some consist consistency issues. Um, yeah, and I, Gardy is very, very strong. Um, I, I think I, I love guard. Um, I think my, my personal biggest fear with guard is honestly time. Um, I mean, it has some tough matchups, but I think time is, I think most guard players biggest problem going into this event. Um, so I, yeah. Yeah, that's the, that's the biggest thing that I, is making me hesitate to play Guardian is the time, well, actually two things. One, the time, uh, three things. So the timing, the, the mirror match. Is a little like, like it gets pretty favored wherever it goes first. And, um, just that, you know, there's always an inherent risk when you play the best deck, when the best deck is not like leagues and leagues better than everything else. And I don't think Gardevoir is like leagues and leagues and leagues better than other decks. Um, so expecting to play against a bunch of guard DeVores so everybody will know how to play against it. They'll maybe slightly tweak their list to be more ready and more prepared to play against guard Devore. So there's always a little bit of risk when you do that, but I mean, it's, it's extremely strong, it's extremely consistent. It has answers for everything. Um, Liam, sorry I cut you off. Um, I guess, yeah, really quick on the, the two decks that Ken was talking about primarily, which is Lu ga and Lost Box on Lost Box, I think, I think you just have to be playing boss. That's the, the thing that the Turbo variant always has, that character oftentimes doesn't, um, Boss is just like, it's really, really good right now. Um, and primarily against bs. Uh, but also just like and Guardian Against Guardian. Yeah. Uh, it's good against Guardians Boss is really good right now. Um, I, I think you have to be playing it. Um, and then on, on Lugia, I, I think one of the biggest issues is honestly just that like, Spiritomb shuts off wordier, which means like a lot of decks that you need one hits against just like for Spiritomb in, and then you're no longer taking one hits with the Carlos Lugia version. Um, so yeah, like the, the only way to really get like guaranteed one hit potential is with the single strike version. But I don't like single strike, so I probably won't be playing Lugia. Yeah. Yeah. One other, one other deck I wanna sort of throw out there is, uh, Arceus Dura Ryon, um, as a pretty interesting choice, especially in a world where sort of traditionally this deck's hardest matchup has been gardy. Um, you sure you have the Ryon, but it ac it definitely has trouble beating, um, beating guard consistently. But in a world where guards are cutting penny, um, if Gardis ever throw down, uh, a Greninja or a Manife, you sort of, you kind of just instantly win the game with, um, UMBR v's first attack. So I, I think, I think Arceus Ryon is in a, in is in a interesting spot right now. Um, yeah, I don't, I don't vibe with that sentiment. I think if, if you're, if you're willing to count on the, like, the mean look lock sticking, just throw a penny or mole and whatever you're planning on playing and beat everything.
External Microphone:That's what I was about to say. So, so would you, would you play petty in your list MC.
Computer Audio:Probably, yeah, I haven't been playing it, but it's good against lost and it's good against, uh, you know, this random crap. So yeah. So I think I'd probably find a spot for it. Yeah, I think a lot of people won't. Um, so I think like Ma Wild Strats are reasonable, um, to at least like win a couple rounds, but I don't think, I don't think it'll work as the, the tournament goes to like day two and stuff. I think a lot of the top players that choose to play Guardian will probably include Penny in their deck.
External Microphone:And would you play Spiritomb?
Computer Audio:I would probably not play Spirit too.
External Microphone:Okay.
Computer Audio:The thing about Gro Devore right now is that there are so, so, so many cards you wanna play in your deck, um, that it's really hard to fit all of them. So, um, like playing more rare candy increases your, uh, mirror and lost box matchup. So like playing three candy would be great, but, um, you can't really fit three candy if you also wanna play Spirit two and Penny and, uh, and make sure you have enough stadiums and maybe you play, uh, heavy ball. And you gotta make sure you have enough consistency. And like, that's the biggest thing with Gardevoir is like, if it sets up, like it just beats most stuff anyway. Um, so you don't wanna go like too crazy, uh, on text. So Yeah. Second Reversal is also a card that I've seen people try to fit in. Um, and same with like Third Boss because of obviously like how EX heavy this format is. Um, yeah, a well, a lot of good cards in Guardian right now. Mm-hmm. Definitely a deck that would wanna run 65, 70, 70 cards if it could. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I don't think, yeah, I mean, I, I have one, one quick thing, um, which is honestly, I think going into this tournament, as long as it's not like Mew, Uh, I honestly think you should probably just play whatever you're most comfortable with, um, whatever you're gonna be able to pilot the most, the best.
External Microphone:As long as it's not me. You. That's
Computer Audio:as long as it's on, cause I definitely agree with Mike. I think that with most of the top decks right now, like, oh, or moron you, or don't blame Mew or moron. But, um, I think, I think with. Like Mike said, most of the top decks have pretty close to even matchups across the board. Um, so I think just playing the deck that you'll be able to pile up the best and also the, the fastest while still playing well, um, is probably the easiest way to get a leg up over over your opponents. So yeah,
External Microphone:If Mariden is your comfort deck like. We needed to talk.
Computer Audio:you've made some poor decisions up until this point if my right onto your comfort deck. Yeah.
External Microphone:Podcast listeners. I don't know how you found your way to this pod, because if this is your first time listening at brightens with your comfort deck.
Computer Audio:Did you, well, well briefly, did you guys see the sage in Parks winning ride on deck. Dude, the one flying Pikachu V is so frigging funny. Like, what is that for? It's. That is one word to use. That's one word to use for sure. It is funny sometimes you guys, I dunno, this was a guardian tech and you flip from house. Yeah. If your, if your plan for guard is, I'm gonna hit heads on fly, like, I don't know how to say this, but you have a really bad guardian matchup first flip. Oh, they, oh first is 20 paralyzed on a flip. And they said they use that and they try to flip. Yeah. If you're plan against, Yeah. If you're plan against guardian is, I'm gonna land heads on a coin flip. You do not have a good guardian matchup. It doesn't even anything. I dunno. I like 20. You just buy a turn. I'm pretty sure it was playing fluffy too. Like you don't even need the turn for the attachments. You always had, it was playing fluffy as well. You are correct. I, I don't know dude. Yeah. Doesn't seem good enough to me. Maybe, maybe they mispoke. Maybe it was for the fly. I mean, even then, bro, I know what happened.
External Microphone:So, so will a lot of people show up playing that deck.
Computer Audio:No,
External Microphone:and was always there. Comfort deck.
Computer Audio:were gonna play my ride on. Were gonna play my ride on independently of anything in the entire universe that could happen. Good result, bad result, isn't gonna dig them out of that trench. Um, but yeah,
External Microphone:I feel like that's the secret, like, uh, you know, deep, dark, secret, buried deep within PTCG Live. Is there, like we're feeding these people Mariah on decks. And then when they go to locals, they'll be like, I want to play my ride. Cause like that's my comfort deck. It's like, no. That's such a thing happened.
Computer Audio:yeah. It's, it's not, it's not a good deck. Don't play Mariah. Good advice.
External Microphone:All right. All right. Uh, anything else, guys?
Computer Audio:Uh, oh yeah. One, one little final thing. Um, Pokegear is releasing their, like docuseries on the Pokegear competitive card game road to called Road to Worlds. It's on YouTube. Um, they've released the first two episodes. I would recommend giving it a watch. It's pretty, it's pretty awesome. Um, you'll definitely see some, some faces you recognize. Um, it is, Yeah. it was, it was very entertaining. We've been watching it during lunch, um, each day, and it's, it's quite good.
External Microphone:Nice. Nice.
Computer Audio:little corny, little corny.
External Microphone:you know what Liam. So guys, guys, this is, this is actually, this is, this is a good replacement for the, uh, would you rather question here? So Liam has been trying to work on his college essay as you guys might imagine. He's, he's supposed to write a college essay about being the world champion of Pokemon, right? And,
Computer Audio:Uhhuh.
External Microphone:I think he's been struggling because every word he writes, he's like who it's really corny. It's really corny. And, and my reaction to watching episode, one of that show was Liam should kind of study how they tried to kind of introduce
Computer Audio:dude I said, said,
External Microphone:Kayden. You're my homie.
Computer Audio:Brent.
External Microphone:You know, what's up.
Computer Audio:Oh,
External Microphone:And Kayden freezes out for a second.
Computer Audio:he got too excited.
External Microphone:Yeah, they, they, yeah, they like,
Computer Audio:his, uh, his video
External Microphone:We filled the entire internet.
Computer Audio:are
External Microphone:Yeah, you're back.
Computer Audio:back.
External Microphone:Yeah.
Computer Audio:Okay. Um, yeah, but I said that earlier, watching. And, um, at one point was like, man, this is coordinated. This is like, so this is so I can't. And I was like, dude, this is, if you decide to write your personal statement about Pokegear, this is what it has to sound like. And be like, like this is, Yeah. dude, I, this is how you have to talk about Pokegear to a non Pokegear audience. Well, one of those character Arceus, right? Like somebody, uh, I don't even know, like getting their invite or something like, like Oh Yeah. like gratefulness for the game. I think it was John. That was crazy. No, no, it was, it was, it was talking about Return the game post Covid. And I was like talking about returning to the game post Covid. This is how you should talk about returning to the game post Covid. Like It's yeah. There is a specific way you have to talk about the Pokegear TCD two and that knows basically nothing. Um, that will sound a little to, to quote you corny Um, but that's sort of what you gotta do.
External Microphone:Alright guys, was that the John Paul's our outro. We'll be back next week with an AIC results.