The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
NAIC results! Mike/Kaden/Gardy/ArcTina & More!
welcome to the Trashalanche. It's the only podcast about the Pokemon trading card game. We know because people say to us that every time we go to, they listened to the podcast and we appreciate it. Very much. Attendance is a hundred percent. But it's a different 100%. We got Kayden. We got Mike we've got me, Brent. We're all here. We're on Twitter too. Uh, no new five-star review updates this week. So if you leave a review, we will read it on the pod. It'd be great if you did. Uh, we're sponsored by dragon shield, which was good because we got some new dragon shield sleeves, even though there were some sleep issues that, uh, that people talked about extensively. This weekend at NAC. Speaking of in AIC. Let's kick things off. Right. Mike.
Computer Audio:Oh,
External Microphone:People, this is the moment you've all been waiting for.
Computer Audio:No.
External Microphone:It's the part where Mike talks about how he got his invite.
Computer Audio:I got there. I got my invite. I finished, uh, I dunno, 300th something. Um, I decided to play Gardevoir as I talked about the last couple weeks. I was kinda be between Gardevoir and Lugia going into the event, but Gardevoir seemed like the safest deck to get points with. Uh, and it's, you know, between that and lure are the decks that I played the most, so, Um, it was the most popular deck by far. Um, I didn't see the day two metagame breakdown. I assume it was, uh, I think Guardi war did pretty well overall, obviously got third and fourth. It didn't make the finals, but, uh, very good deck. Almost all the top testing groups ended up playing Guardi war. Um, the Azul play, Guardi War, some of the Bradner group played Gardevoir. The, the European group played Gardevoir. The South American group played Gardevoir, the Australians played Gardevoir. Um, so a lot of people, a lot, a lot of really, really good players just said, you know what, Gardevoir is the best dick, let's just play it. And I was definitely one of them. So I, um, I started off really hot five and oh, uh, and then unfortunately, I. Just started like dead drawing completely for three rounds and I, and I lost three, so dropped to five three. Uh, and I got an ID in the last round to guarantee the points. I did see afterward that even if I'd lost the last round, I still would've been fine. Um, cuz enough, five fours Got it. And my resistance was good since I started at five and oh. Um, so definitely a little annoying and frustrating to start 5.0 and then not even make day two. But consolation, consolation, prize of a world's invite is not too bad at all.
External Microphone:Congratulations, Mike.
Computer Audio:Thank you. We got another world's invite to you as well
External Microphone:And. Indeed Kidd and Hyatt. He needed a top 2 56 to get his world's invite and he made the magic happen. Kid. You want to talk? For
Computer Audio:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, For sure. So yeah, I came in needing a little more than Mike. I needed top 2 56, which I realized about Maybe, uh, three or four days prior to, um, prior to NAIC, that meant I was gonna need to get day two, which is always a little spooky. Um, top five 12 isn't, isn't, uh, top five 12 felt very reachable to 2 56. I, it. felt like it was gonna be a little bit of a challenge with a lot of room
External Microphone:Kayden, Ken's done 5, 3, 1, many, many times.
Computer Audio:Mm-hmm. I have done 5 31 plenty of times this season.
External Microphone:It was like 5 31. We can do that. 61 that's harder.
Computer Audio:Yeah. Mm-hmm. I, I have, I have for some unknown reasons, struggled to hit 6 21, um, this, this, this past season, but we ended up getting there. Um, I decided to pick Arceus Giratina. Um, I was between Arceus Giratina and um, ow BCA for this tournament. Chem p BCA being sort of a, a Melmetal. If I thought the medal was gonna be, I was gonna hit a lot of lost box and guard. Um, But I ended up kind of switching over to Arina for two reasons, cuz Gentile back Scalor felt like a little bit of a high roll deck. Um, and I kind of just wanted something that I knew I could pilot well over the nine rounds and try to get some wins. So I ended up picking Arina. Um, I was very happy with my choices. I ended up hitting what I think in all of my, um, 15 rounds. I hit two guard and two lost box. So Chen Pybas Caliber would've been a pretty rough pick. I ended up hitting a ton of rcs, um, which went pretty well. So to kind of go through my run, um, I hit guard round one, um, which was kind of, kind of a blowout to be quite honest. Um, the guard player drew pretty poorly and frankly, judge path Judge. I mean, judge Pat is the only reason Arceus Giratina works as a deck, um, trying to slow down your opponent and can just cause them to brick. Um, I hit, I hit, uh, three Lu Lugia over the course of this event, and I did not, honestly, I did not realize how favored this matchup is going into the event. Arceus, Giratina, stomps, stomps, Lugia. It is not close. The, the amount of cards Lugia needs to Rod draw in order to, like properly function under Path Judge and Spira Tube is in incredible. Um, and that was another reason why I picked Arina is Spira Tube helps the deck so much, both, both with Lugia and Mew. Um, I didn't hit any Mew, but both Lugia and MEU become substantially better. Um, so yeah, I, I, here I I can do the full turnaround rundown. So I hit Guardian run one, um, 2 0 8.
External Microphone:you do the full tournament rundown,
Computer Audio:Okay. All.
External Microphone:Correct me if I'm wrong. I feel like you were like right before the tournament started, you were asking Liam to run Lugia at you because you did not have confidence in that matchup.
Computer Audio:Well, Yeah. it was a matchup that I just had not tested. I had not tested enough go, or I hadn't really played many games at all going in. Um, and when I picked the deck, so I sort of woke up, I woke up day of, I think, and I realized like, wait, I don't think I've played a game of Artina versus Lugia. And, and while, while like I had thought about the matchup, of course, and I understood what I had to do, I was like, you know, I should probably do that before I, I entered into the event. So I played one or two games against Liam. Yeah. And it, it worked out. It was very, very good. Um,
External Microphone:All right now, run
Computer Audio:is massive. Spiritomb is massive for this. Um, so yeah, guardian run one, two, owe it. Um, wasn't really close. I ran a box of disaster in my list over the cleansing gloves, cuz in my testing I found that cleansing gloves really just weren't, I never found. a situation to use them. Very rarely did I ever actually get the boss KO on a guardian EX. So I ended up running box of disaster. If I were to go back and play a tournament again, I would probably change that to a panic mask. But, um, I didn't think about panic mask at the time. I box ended up not triggering once over the whole tournament. Mm-hmm. It was a completely dead card. Mm-hmm. Um, which was unfortunate, but honestly, rcs, it's kind of fine if you have dead cards in your deck, it doesn't matter that much. Um, so round two I hit Arceus Giratina, um, the mirror match, and this was sort of the first Giratina, uh, uh, the first RCS deck of, I think it was four, four RCS decks or three or four rcs decks that would hit over the course of the tournament. Um, And this one I won in three games. I won the coin flip, which is of course always massive in the RCS matchup. And, uh, he also bricked pretty hard game three that, that gave me the game. Then hit single strike Lugia two Ohd, not even, it was not close. Um, he couldn't do anything under Judge Pass and Spiritomb, uh, couldn't get going either game. Then I hit a Arceus. Arceus is a very interesting matchup for this deck cuz it's pretty favored in my testing. Um, largely due to the fact that they have no way to one shot you and you are dealing exorbitant amount of damage with, um, Giratina. So you can kind of almost gust around the VMAXs or, Uh, usually how the game would end up going was I would gust and chip the Dura, um, with rcs and get a kill with rcs on the Dura. And then just finish, finish the game off with Giratina. So that one went to game three. I I win loss win versus Arceus Dura. So I am four oh at this point and I'm feeling pretty good about my deck choice, of course, cuz I'm I'm four. Oh, um, I remember sitting right near Mikey and then I hit, uh, lock who was playing rcs, Reggie Drago and I Hard brick twice, just a complete stomp. And I did not this matchup, even if I hadn't brick, this matchup is completely abysmal. Um, I definitely rcs Reggie Drago was not a deck I had on my radar and I thought about much. Um, but it's pretty interesting. I'm definitely gonna try it out. Uh, I'm definitely gonna try it out for worlds, give it some testing. Um, I mean it won, it won juniors, um, so, seems, seems worth trying out. But Yeah. so Locke bodied me. It was not close. And then I hit a Carlos Lugia who I, it went three games. Win-loss, win. He won game two largely because he Roger Burnett, uh, in his opening hand. So mm-hmm. The Spirit tomb didn't stop him. He didn't have to fish for Burnett. So that, that, that sort of was a little unfortunate, but I won game three. Um, and so now I am five and one. I need one more win to guarantee my spot in day two. And, um, and my invite and I hit Liam. I hit Liam Halliburton. Um, and he decides to give me the game, um, which honestly I was not, I was not really expecting him to do. Um, I know how much Liam cares about making day two and playing and about his results, so I was not expecting him to give me the game, but he did. Um, so that guaranteed my spot in day two and my invite. So much, much love, much thanks. And, and Yeah. that was, That was a very heartwarming moment for me, although I really, really wish I didn't hit Liam. That, that, that would've been fantastic. I would've rather played against really anyone else.
External Microphone:And for people who are following along, I mean, at that moment, Kayden Mike Liam. You're all five and one, right?
Computer Audio:yeah, yeah,
External Microphone:It was a, it was looking like a very strong performance for the Trashalanche.
Computer Audio:Yeah. And then Liam and I hit and it's, it's, it's a shame. Um, and then I hit a guard. Uh, I hit a guard in my second to last round, and I'm, I'm six and one, so I, I'm, I don't take an id, I don't, I considered taking an ID there, just in case my round nine opponent didn't want id, but it didn't really seem worth it. I would rather just try to win, um, go into day two with a better record. So I hit gardy and it, it was a weird match. Gardy versus Arceus Giratina. It's kind of just a weird match all in all. Um, the match ups kind of, I don't know, it's sort of just a game of, of pacing in tempo and how many times the guard withs the one shot. Um, cuz guard can theoretically win the game in three turns and you have to win the game in probably six. So it's, it's a very odd matchup. Um, and again, box of disaster had not come up once sadly, but I ended up losing this match. Um, I bricked game one, game two, I ended up getting a strong lead and he couldn't come back. And then game three went really long. Um, but I, I wasn't able to close it out largely due to going second. Um, going second with RCS just always sucks. So then round nine I and I decided to take the ID so I could compete in day two. I didn't, uh, thinking back, I don't actually think I. I would've, I'd if I could go back and do it again, cuz it, if I, even if I lost that match, I still would've gotten, I would've been six three and I still would've gotten 2 56. And at the, besides getting top 2 56, um, I, I needed, I don't know, like beyond getting my invite and top 2 56, I didn't really care about my result besides like going, going for like top 16. Top eight. So I probably should have played it out instead of IDing, but I don't feel bad about the ID to just guarantee my spot in day two. Um, Yeah. it's hard to know for sure at that point if six three is guaranteed too. Yeah. right. Yeah. it's tough. I mean all, all six threes at UIC made 2 56, um, which was loosely what I was using as a, as a proxy as whether or not I should, ID, um, Yeah. but this tournament was like 50% bigger, right? Like E U I C was like 1300 and this was 1900. Yeah, Yeah. No, uh, I know which is why I ended up taking the ID and deciding, okay, I'm not gonna risk it cuz I would feel really, really bad if I played it out and lost and then bubbled 2 56. Yeah. So I decided to take the id, um, going into and going in, going to day two. Um, this is my third day, two as a master, um, after a very long dry spell the season since Salt Lake Regionals. Um, and my second time making day two at NAIC. Um, both naics I've competed as a master. I've made day two. Um, so, but also The other big thing. is that both of my, uh, day twos that I've played in, I have completely bombed and done absolutely horrid. So I was, my goal for day two was really, Because I was going in 6, 2, 1, I wasn't really expecting to get like top eight or anything, but I did go, I did go in like, Hey, I don't want a bomb day two this time, which I don't know, I, I ended up going, I mean, I'll, I'll go into the matches. I ended up going, um, what was, I ended up going, I ended up getting three ties in. My first three rounds, largely due to, um, the first two I was gonna lose game three. So, so we didn't, but luckily we didn't end up having time to finish the match. Uh, and as soon as this was a weird tournament where sort of as soon as you got one or two ties, all of a sudden you were hitting like way more, um, you were hitting a ton of loss box. Yeah. So I had not hit a loss, single loss box going into this, um, go or throughout all of day one. And so I hit a closed Lugia in round 10, um, which he. Game one, he started Rob Burnett in hand. Um, so I ended up losing, he got very, a very quick, um, he got very quickly, got his Archy Alps on the board and I couldn't do anything. Um, I stomp him, stomp him in a pretty long game. Two. Um, and then we don't end up having time to finish game three. Then I hit, Uh, Turbo Loss Box, my first loss box of the event, and I get a DPL L in game one, um, for forgetting to draw a prize off of Trinity. Nova, um, knockout. And then, And then playing Judge the following turn. So I, that ended up losing the game one. I won game two, but then of in Lost box matchup, we didn't have time to finish game three.
External Microphone:And
Computer Audio:so that was, that
External Microphone:about that was Kayden and Liam were talking about before the tournament about how they would forget to take prices because you're like attaching energy from your deck. After you take the knockout. So like there's like stuff you do. Before you take the prizes, but after you take the knockout and it causes you to lose focus. And that take prizes. So he. We, he knew that devil prize loss was coming all tournament.
Computer Audio:Yeah. it, it was, it was really unfortunate. Um, I did my best to always try to really focus on remembering to take the prizes after Trinity, Nova. Um, and, but I did, I forgot it once, which ended up costing me the game and ended up turning what would've been a win to a tie. Um, so that sucked. I hit a loss on Giratina the following round, which I, he bricked game one, game two. Uh, he ended up bench locking himself with four comfy Aluminion and a Greninja. Um, so I sort of just, Uh, I, I sat there and sort of built up my board thinking I had him in sort of a Checkmate scenario, um, where I had four prizes left. He had two. But he had no Giratina, Giratina, Veen play. So I didn't think he would be able to, you know, get the, get the game. So I build up my board so that I have both a, both a Giratina VStar and an rcs. Um, and without taking any knockouts, so he can't build up a Giratina. And then I go gusts, kill the Lumin to bring myself down to two. Um, knowing that even if he, uh, benches another Giratina, I would be able to gus kill that the following turn. Um, and then he, um, but what I did not realize was that he played Thornton, so he ended up going Thornton into Giratina V uh, well he super running back VStar, um, grass. He ended up super running back VStar grass, uh, and psychic Mirage Gate two to the comfy attach, uh, Thornton into, into. V and then evolving VStar and knocking out my rcs. So he, I did not realize he played Thornton, so he got the game. Um, I don't know if there was really a way I could have played around it. Um, I think I was just gonna lose the game, but either way, but that ended up, that game ended up taking a really long time. So we didn't have time to finish game three. So now I'm oh oh three, uh, I'm oh three in day two, which is not where I thought I would be playing Arceus Giratina. Um, and so I don't really know what to do at this point. I'm just like, okay, whatever. I don't have a chance of making like a, getting a really good record anymore. Um, but that's fine. I'm just gonna play it out, try to win. Um, then I hit Nathaniel Kaplan playing Chen p um, back Scalibor, which I have, I have probably played more of the Chen p Arceus matchup than I would, I would say, honestly, any other aina. Mm-hmm. In that room, um, as they were the two decks I was considering. Um, and Liam loved to stomp me with Arceus, Giratina with me playing Chen pal to try to convince me not to play the deck. Um, I had played that matchup so much, and what I found was honestly against Chen POW's. Arceus Giratina, you don't really wanna play judge. Um, Chen P is a deck that doesn't, that very much relies on seeing new cards every single turn. So even if they have a large hand, most of the, if they didn't play the cards, the turn prior, most of those cards are probably gonna be dead. Um, of course that's not always true. Sometimes you have to try to read the hand, figure out whether you wanna judge, but what I've found against Chen Powell is oftentimes it's just better to th to throw down a path and boss kill the back sca and they will rarely ever be able to respond. So that's what I did, um, against Nathaniel Kaplan. And, um, Yeah. I, and I ended up, we ended up going lost win-win for me. So, So I took the game. Um, I then hit a mirror match, which I won the coin flip. Um, he double bricked, so I beat him. Um, and then my final round, um, which at this point I didn't have a, i I didn't have a great record. It was, I mean, it was fine. I was, uh, 2 0 3 on the day and I, I know, I knew that if I lost the match, I would get top 1 28. If I won the match, I would get top 64. So it wasn't a super important match. There wasn't a ton riding on it for me. But, uh, I ended up hitting another Arceus, Giratina Muir. And this one, game three, we ended up going to game three. Uh, I was, I was going second and it, this had to be one of the most comedic arcena matches I have ever played in my life. We both had comically slow starts. Um, where neither of us hit v hit Arceus VStar for like three or four turns. So we were just Trinity charging and power edging each other. And we got to a point where both of us were at two prizes left, um, but he was out of grass energy. He had no grass energy left in his deck. He had no way to attack with Giratina. Um, and I had a powered up rcs, undamaged Power Up, rcs VStar and Giratina v Giratina VStar. Um, so I was in two s left, so I was feeling pretty confident. And then he goes in, throws Birol in the active and attacks with Birol, um, to try to chip me so that he could follow up with, um, so that he could follow up with an r uh, rcs, the following turn to knockout. Um, and I make my second major misplay, besides the DPL that I got in round, um, in around 11. Um, Which was, I, I owned him and then I kayo the birol. And I kayo the birol largely because, you know, I just, I own IOed him and, um, I didn't want him to get the card draw cause I was worried that he would be able to sort of build up a hand. But the truth was, there was no card that he had that would really win him in that situation. I could just wait and dig for my final boss in deck to win the game. Um, but I, so I made the misplay of taking the kale and the birol and then he topped X Ray ha, um, for game. Mm-hmm. So that was an unfortunate end of the tournament, but we were both laughing about it. And it was because the whole game was, was just, uh, one of the weirdest Arceus Giratina mirrors I've ever played. Um, so I finish, I finished the tournament, um, I finished the tournament. What would my final record have been? It was 8 34, um, 8 34, which was, again, way more ties than I thought I was gonna have going to the event. Um, or 8 34. Was I 8 34? What was I, yeah, I was 8 34. That was right. And, and it was not the record I expect to have, but you know what? I got my invite and I had a good time, so that's all we can really ask. Thanks.
External Microphone:I have a couple of questions first. Um, uh, Let's talk about your deck for two seconds. Kayden. Uh, how did you end up on arc Tina? And I think the one other question I wanted to ask, cause I know you played V guard energies and Liam did not.
Computer Audio:Yeah. So, um, I, I ended up on Arceus Giratina largely because I, I felt like decks were sort of, Sort of almost like forgetting about Judge Path, um, and not running, not running good answers to Judge Path to try to get them outta situations. So I I, it was also just testing really well, and it was a very, of course, it's a very simple and straightforward deck that kind of just works. Like, it's not super overpowered, it's not doing anything crazy. It's not placing 12 damage counters or one shot, or like one shoting you with Arceus guard, but it kind of just works and it does its thing and it's gonna try to disrupt you. And in testing it was beating almost every deck in format, um, pretty fairly consistently. So it felt like kind of the Perfect. play if I just wanted to make, you know, make day two, um, and try to do decently well, if I was going for, uh, top eight. If I, if I was, if I already had my invite and I was going for top eight, I probably would've played Shemp Pal BCA as sort of a more high rolly deck. That probably gave me a better chance of, um, making it all the way,
External Microphone:And did you guys look at like Arcta Umbria?
Computer Audio:Okay. We, we looked at Arceus Ryon, I tested it some. Um, I ended up deciding not to play Arceus Umbr largely because I really wanted Judge Path. Um, and Umbrian of course doesn't, doesn't run Judge Path. It, it goes more laity heavy. Um, and I really, really wanted the. judge path so that, that was sort of, that ruled out Arceus dura in, in my mind. Yeah.
External Microphone:So
Computer Audio:it's Arceus is a very good deck. Also, Arceus Giratina beats Arceus Dura pretty consistently, so
External Microphone:Right, right. So I know you chose to play the two V guard energies. How did you feel about that?
Computer Audio:Um, they were fine. I didn't use them at all until the final two matches of the event where I hit back-to-back Arceus mirrors the other Arceus mirrors. I didn't use it and it's very situational. Um, I think a lot of people take V Guard as sort of a staple of the deck, um, which it really isn't. Um, I don't think it should be thought of that? way. I think that if you're not expecting a lot of Really. it's just Arceus Giratina. Um, if you're not expecting a lot of Arceus Giratina, uh, you should not run the V guard energy. I think the V guard would be much better as jet energy. Um, and I probably, if I could run the term back, I would probably add jet energy over the V guards, uh, as this deck does struggle with switch outs, um, in the early turns.
External Microphone:Gotcha.
Computer Audio:having, having not needing to Starr for a switch out is a massive, a massive bonus. Swove also completely like, almost completely useless. Um, I would've definitely cut Swove and Probably. added Rhan. Um, and yeah, cuz I, I had cut the rhan just cuz in testing it didn't come up enough. Um, but I, I had, I cut the Rhan for a fourth VStar and I, because I wanted just the added consistency across all games rather than like the little buff Rhan game Rhan gave in those like select few matches.
External Microphone:Right.
Computer Audio:and I don't
External Microphone:know the B guard energies were a late addition for you. I wonder if the Reihan is better when, when you cut the two basics and then you're like, we need more grass, energy or whatever it is, right.
Computer Audio:Maybe. I don't know. It, there was not, there was only one game I. The whole event where I wished I had rehan, but that wasn't on a turn. I could Starr for it. So like the odds of me hitting Rehan on that turn were would've been very low. Um, so I, I don't, I'm totally fine that I didn't run Rehan. That's not something I regret. But I do think probably the V guards should have been Jet, the box of disaster should have been Panic Mask and the Quave. Maybe it should have been Ray. Ha. Maybe it could have been like a second panic mask. I'm not sure.
External Microphone:So, so the, the, the last Arceus question I have is for Mike, Mike. Based on your tweeting, it sounded like Kay Tron sent you his arc pile list right before the tournament. But you chose not to play it.
Computer Audio:Well, so. I've talked with a lot, uh, on and off throughout this year. Like he's, he's had me test some weird stuff. Uh, like sometime during the last format, I played a bunch of more Pika v that he, uh, sent me. Uh, yeah, he did, he did send me the, uh, the Arceus deck beforehand. Um, a bunch of people played it that had never played any games with it, like Primo wa played it and it played zero games with it before the tournament. Um, but yeah, I, I wasn't gonna switch it. For me, switching to anything weird was not worth the risk when I just needed any points. Um, I really did like the chi pad deck that we. Had worked on. Um, but again, that was a deck that I was just like not quite as comfortable playing with, just to get points. Um, our friend Jeremy Gibson did end up making a pretty deep run. Uh, he was, he, he finished day 1 61, but then started day two, four, and oh, so just had to win the last two to, uh, to make top eight, but didn't quite get there. Um, but yeah.
External Microphone:So I think that that begs the question. So Liam is now played out and Liam's not here. Hopefully he'll, he'll be back in the pod sometime soon to, to give us his perspective. But I recognize he, he got to six, two, and, uh, decided to play it out and last again. It's like a broken record on the pod. I wonder, like I recognize Cal Connor with six. Oh, like. Is the expectation that you shouldn't take the ID at 62. Because it's too hard to make a top eight run. Like. Does it turn out that, that, I mean, I assume it's really, really hard, but like, is it less hard that people imply it is or something? I dunno, like, it seems like it's happened a couple of times this season.
Computer Audio:Yeah. Oh. I mean, it's really hard. Someone will do it. Someone will do it, but it's, someone will do it almost every event, but it's really hard.
External Microphone:Yeah. I mean, there's many, many, many,
Computer Audio:it just depends what your
External Microphone:it's a lot of numbers, right.
Computer Audio:Yeah, yeah. Right, Exactly. And I don't, I like, like Liam playing out a six two makes a lot of sense to me because like, you need, you're gonna need six wins out of the next seven rounds, regardless. And you know, if you lose that, then you don't actually have to play the extra six rounds. Like if you make it into day two and then you just lose round one, like, uh, like you're in the same boat, right. You, you've
External Microphone:Right.
Computer Audio:top a, you might as well just try as long as like you didn't need it for points or something like that.
External Microphone:Yeah. Yeah. All right. So I think the one other victory we should talk about before we talk about a couple of the other, uh, Uh, things that I had thrown on, there was a Brit. And, and people, I didn't know what he hopped in, but Britt's here. Yay, Brett. Brit, I assume you saw the tweets. The 2010 tournament that we deep dived extensively on a week ago. Hookah one with the yogurt shop.
Computer Audio:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was paying pretty close attention, at least relatively, to the, the bracket as it was going on. Um, yeah, it seemed like a really good tournament. I was talking to Amelia too, who played in it as well, and my friend Sax Amora, he is, uh, you, you'd know him if you played around, but he, he doesn't ever, I mean, he does, he has a couple top eights actually. But anyways, he play has like this glow score deck in 2010 that he did pretty well with too, that I, I knew he would play it like no matter what. Um, but yeah, I mean, I guess too this, I think it was, it was DP Block, not quite 2010. Yeah, it was like the, it was like cities 2009, 2000. Right, right, right. Yeah. So it was the city's format before Hart Gold. Cuz Hart Gold outside of like Don Fan didn't really change anything obviously other than getting double colorless Energy and Oaks New Theory. Um, so yeah, it was, it was that city's format basically, which was really cool. Like a lot of, a lot of decks like Lux Chomp existed in that format, but like, obviously it wasn't like the way to play SP yet because of DC not being out yet. Um, but yeah, it seemed like a really, I mean, it just, I just had, I mean, I guess just to put it clearly, like I didn't have any FOMO from like the main event, but like seeing all these other tournaments and stuff like that, that seemed like fun. There was just lots of very, like hundreds of people for glc. Like That's awesome.
External Microphone:Uh, I saw Dylan Buzzard's tweet and I thought it was a pretty good and made me think. Yeah, maybe they're doing something wrong on this side events there. I assume that that's what you're talking about, right.
Computer Audio:Yeah.
External Microphone:For people who weren't following along. Uh, apparently they had like 300 people sign up for the GLC side of it and they played three rounds. No top cut.
Computer Audio:Yeah, That's crazy.
External Microphone:the weak sauce, right?
Computer Audio:I, uh, I did stop in at the DP tournament a little bit. I think it started at noon on Sunday, and it did not complete until almost 11:00 PM uh, because the, its structure was just double elimination, bracket untimed matches. So, uh, there was a lot of decks apparently, like Britt said, the GLIs core deck, which is a, which is a lock deck. As well as, um, some other lock decks, maybe like a Flagon thing. Uh, and Dialga Chomp is not all, not necessarily a lock deck, but it's slow. Um, so like Kyle got to the end of the winter's bracket at something like, uh, six o'clock, five o'clock, six o'clock, and then had to wait until like nine or nine 30, uh, until the losers bracket caught up to him. Um, it was really, it was really funny. Um, but I looked, I, I caught the very end. It was Jimmy O'Brien versus Kyle in the finals, and then Jimmy beat him in the first game to like reset the bracket. And then Kyle won, uh, uh, the second game. Um, so I got to watch a little bit of, of Kyle and Jimmy's last game, which was, which was fun.
External Microphone:Uh, so the breath you feel like you betrayed Dialga chap by saying you would've played Lux Trump. When you think about it.
Computer Audio:Uh, I mean, no, like, I don't think I understood. The question like I, it being a different, I, I had a different format in mind. I think when I was talking last week, or at least just was not focused in on LuxS jump existing, but without double color lists. So like that, that definitely changed. Like the matchups, I was like, I, I just ended, I was just thinking like 2010 Nats the entire time, which obviously had double colorless, so I was
External Microphone:Why. I may, I may have misrepresented the format that and that restorative, but I feel like I've had Brits. Favorite deck is the Dialga. Shop in the show notes for like three years. And then I was like, finally, like, this is the bubble world, discuss it. And you're like, I don't know, man. Maybe Luxray.
Computer Audio:Yeah. So, definitely like Lex Trump, I don't actually think was like great. Like it, it was a deck. People played it, it would've been a Lele legitimate choice. Like for a tournament like this. But, um, without double color list, it was a much, much different deck for sure. Which makes, and also too, like a lot of the matchups I talked about last week, like all revolved around double color lists, or at least using it to some degree. And like, Dialga was cool because like, it, it could use them, but like you really didn't need them. Like, it was more just so you could kind of keep up in like our chomp wars, like the, the core strategy of the deck didn't really want them. Like, if anything, you wanted like four special medals and so double color don't do anything for you like in those contexts. so like, I think DA that's definitely a lot stronger here. More, more particularly like KO's style with Snow Point and potentially like SCU Tank G and things like that.
External Microphone:So, so did you have any reaction to, uh, his list? Are there things you would have changed?
Computer Audio:Uh, I don't, I don't think I've actually seen it. Um,
External Microphone:he tweeted, he tweeted it out. He treated it.
Computer Audio:let's see, let me, lemme pull it up.
External Microphone:Ah, Um, Mike, I wanted to ask you a similar question. I know. Uh, As it turns out the format was slightly different. Would you have played. Gardevoir or would you have played something different?
Computer Audio:No, you can't play guard devore without double color list. So, um, wouldn't have played that. So the, I I, I didn't really play that year all that much. Um, it was my first year of college. Um, but so when I did play, I played a lot of gimmicky types of decks that all revolved around the same core. So there was a Mr. Mime at that time that had a poker body ability that said if the opponent, if the, you know, if the attacking Pokegear has. Less than three energy cards prevent All damage to it. So they needed three energy cards to, to do anything to this Mr. Mime. Um, and there was a lot of decks in that format that just didn't play a lot of energy. Like Garridos attacked for zero energy. They played some energy, but, but so Garridos really couldn't do anything to the Mr. Mime. There was a jump left deck that attacked for one energy that, you know, only played six or seven in their deck. So, um, kind of walled that as well. And so what you would do is, uh, you would use Shut it and shut it did 20 damage and pop back to your hand. And the way Plus Powers worked at the time, they basically got attached to the Pokegear. So you would play four plus Powers attack with shut it, do 60 damage, and then the plus powers would also come back to your hand. Uh, and so you would do shut it into Mr. Mine and that pretty much beat like half of the format just by itself. And then I would play that like combination, so, With something else in order to combat some other matchups. So I think I got like top eight at two states with two different decks, uh, based on that combination. And then there was a regionals one, uh, har Gold sell server I came out that I got top four at with, uh, a Don Fam Prime Deck that had had that combination of cards as well. So I was like looking to see what, uh, what things that I had in that format, and they all basically revolved around that. So I probably would've played something like that. I've looked at the list. I can talk about Pukas list now.
External Microphone:All right. Talk, talk about focus list, man.
Computer Audio:uh, no, this list is like basically perfect. Like there's really nothing you want to change, like he's fit at all basically here, which I guess without trying to fit double colors into the deck, um, it's not so hard to do that anymore. But like, I mean like very, very sort of small things. Like I would cut, I would cut an energy game for like something. Um, but everything else is like basically perfect. And he is playing the resume that I talked about last week, which was like, that was like one thing I, I just love that card. That card was so, so, so good. And it was just not all that never sort of as ubiquitous in lists as it was in my local. Like everyone played it in Luxray, everyone played it in stabilized and things like that. But like worldwide it was just never terribly popular. Um, but it's really cool to see. Um, but yeah, like otherwise, like you could play the, my, my only other like takeaway is I also really like, like it's different cause the format I talked about in the list that I've come from doesn't have play all. Um, but I feel like I would still also want UI level X here. UI level X is really, really good against my champ, which is can be tough for you, especially like with only one. Unknown G. And so like the list could, maybe without an MQ XI is also worse. So like that's, that was really the only other thought is just like playing that card or playing more IES in general. Like one ES is, is pretty low. Um, but Yeah. like otherwise, like, no, this list is like basically perfect. It, it has like all the answers and there's just, there's nothing like on paper I feel like you would be like super bad against, it's like very solid into everything for the most part. Although like the OSes matchup is kind of weak. Um, that's about it. But, and you can win that with SCU tank and stadiums. But he's ob he's not playing that. But he did play that in his state championship lists.
External Microphone:So what did Jimmy O'Brien play?
Computer Audio:He played of some kind? No, he played Garo. Garo, okay. Yeah. Hmm. Interesting. Then yeah, I would've been curious to watch that those sets, like, I guess they went one and one. I, I don't know if they played in the winners bracket. Like, I don't know if Kyle sent him to Losers and then they played in the finals again. Yeah, that's actually exactly what happened. I think they played like three series. Yeah. I'm trying to think. Like, that seems pretty tough. I just like, the problem I always had in that matchup is just like Garridos does enough damage to the point where like, you run out of tank, you run out of like tank tanka, hit heal with guard champ, like that loop. Mm-hmm. Like that's obvi, that's the sort of core strategy to the Dialga tanks kind of part of the deck. Um, and I would, that was my problem is I would, I would run out of those eventually. It's like warp energies, Poka turns, poka turning those warp energies and so on. Um, but it's, it seems like, it seems like you got a good amount of value out of the lin from what I saw. Yeah. And then I never played that. So that, that's always a big, sort of huge difference between me talking about my game experiences versus Kyle's never having that card. I mean, it makes sense. You're cleaning up, you try to like go even with Garridos for a little while and then you end the game by killing an oxy in an result or something like that. Yeah,
External Microphone:All right. Uh, um, so before we, before we talk about how, uh, what you guys felt like you may have learned from any IC, let's just like, I'd just like to kind of housekeeping things that I wanted to talk about first. Mike, I got to watch you play. When you were five, three, I watched your ninth round. And one of the things I had not realized is are you a person who keeps your discard pile up above your deck?
Computer Audio:I am. Yeah.
External Microphone:How does such a thing come to pass? That's like, I feel like that's what people who didn't start out playing Pokemon. Do.
Computer Audio:For some reason I. Was convinced that that's how it was when like base set and stuff first started. But then like a year or two ago, I actually went back and saw like a, a play mat from those early days and the discard was below the deck. And so honestly I have no idea. Um, cuz I just, because that's, that's what I always thought it was. And then, then I realized that was not the case. So Yeah. I really don't know. It's just kind of how I've always played. Um, maybe I should go back and, Uh, play the, uh, the, the, the, the game boy game a little bit more because that's really how I learned to play. Maybe on there. That's how it's, I dunno that, that probably not, but that would be my next place to look for some evidence. Um, I've gotten in trouble with it, the, the one or the couple times I've been on stream, cuz I always like do it and they're like, please switch it. Like constantly they're asking me.
External Microphone:That that was my next question was, was how many times have you been streamed in cost chaos?
Computer Audio:Um, before we, before we talk about anything else, I do wanna mention, I don't really wanna go into the details, um, but I do wanna shout out Christian label Bella. Uh, during our round five match, we were both four and oh, and we got into a situation, uh, where I kind of broke the board state a little bit and he was really awesome and allowed me to kind of fix it. And the shout out to the judge too, again, I don't wanna go into the details because I'm not even sure the judge made the correct discretion call there. I'm not sure if there was actually room for discretion, but they, she did kind of leave it up to us to fix it and, uh, and Christian was really awesome about it. Um, and I did end up winning the game. Uh, so like he didn't have to do that. And I could have easily have gotten either a prize penalty or a game loss. Um, But like it was, it was very, very kind of him. Um, and, and it kind of set off, uh, him to go eight one on day one and then make top eight. So I think he got a little bit of the karma, uh, back too. So, uh, very pleasant opponent. It was like the, I dunno, it's funny, he's also like the person that I've played against the most the whole year, and this is like the fifth or sixth time that we've played just this season. Um, and I haven't even gone to that many events, so it's like funny to to say that. Uh, so I wanna give a shout out to him.
External Microphone:Awesome. Awesome. So, um, the one other thing I wanted to talk about was big regionals announcement. Uh,
Computer Audio:Yeah.
External Microphone:people acted like it was not a big deal, but I thought it was pretty big deal. Congratulations Pokemon on kind of like pulling it together before the tournament. For the season actually starts.
Computer Audio:Yeah, this is, this is definitely the earliest we've heard anything about, like, Uh, you know, uh, a future season or, or tournaments and whatnot. Hopefully this is like a good, I would say like the announcement itself is cool and maybe not earth shattering, but I am very optimistic that this is a precedent that they're setting, that it's like, okay, we're gonna share some information early. We're gonna keep sharing information when we, as early as we can when we get it. and things are gonna come out, uh, as, as soon as, as soon as possible. For real. Maybe that's hopium, but we'll see.
External Microphone:Uh, uh, and any particular feelings I, uh, I assume you're going to go to Pittsburgh now and you can put it in the book.
Computer Audio:Yeah. Pittsburgh is like the only one of those that I'll like, definitely go to. Uh, it's, you know, whatever, four hour drive. It's not that bad.
External Microphone:Yeah. Yup. Brit any reaction to the early originals announcement?
Computer Audio:Um, not really just, I mean, as always happens a lot, but really nothing more to say than Mikey's like, and like how you put it too. Like, it's not, not a huge deal, but I, I, I, I hope that it is indeed, you know, the turning of the tides, that it'll be better communication-wise moving forward. Um, yeah, I mean, location-wise kind of same old, same old. Like, even though we've never been to those places, it's kind of just like, oh, it's strange place or could be elsewhere, you know? But yeah, I mean, that's all, you know, we've talked about why events are where they are all the time, but, so nothing surprising there. But yeah, hopefully, like, hopefully that means more, more at worlds maybe, hopefully still too, uh, competitive restructuring in some shape or form. There's just lots of, I mean, things, things that could be better. But then it's also sort of perhaps worth mentioning too, perhaps giving TP c I a little credit to like, You know, now that we're finally, I guess, about to have our first, like, full season without any sort of like covid considerations anymore, like we'll be able to qualify for world and may, maybe they'll figure that out early. Maybe it will start this season at a lower threshold. Um, but just to say that like, if, if we have a whole year, like at three 50 or something like that, and like hopefully they make that clear and announce it, but like, I, I think we'll get announcements on that. And, but I guess more, more still that hopefully there's something in the works that a shakeup, like a, maybe it's just entirely different for better or for worse, but just a new system from 2016 and now maybe it's just time to try something else rather than try to like iterate on what we've been doing, perhaps like be curious to see what their intentions are, or at least as we can perceive them. But I don't expect more announcements at worlds, I guess is the, the long-winded thing I'm trying to say here.
External Microphone:I felt like the one thing that could have done with this regional snow, it's been a kid and I want to get your hot take in a second as well. Eh, as you'll be a freshman in college in Chicago. So like, uh, uh, it's a, it's a brave new world that living on the west coast. The thing that was missing for me from this rituals announcement is they could have easily just told us the convention centers. I spoke with a friend this morning, who's already booked three hotel reservations. All over the Pittsburgh Metro area.'cause he's like, I don't know exactly what's going on, but it's a, it's a Steelers home game that weekend. So the hotels downtown are already priced through the roof.
Computer Audio:Hmm.
External Microphone:And like they know the convention center, right? Like they know they could just tell us. And like, maybe it's not quite as stylish to say. Pittsburgh convention center, but like, you got to put that in the small print underneath you. We need it. We
Computer Audio:Yeah. Or you don't have it in the main announcement and then have like a side on the web. They also release
External Microphone:Yeah. Just put out the press release. Right.
Computer Audio:Yeah.
External Microphone:Ain't nothing. Anyway, Kayden. How are you feeling about the next season?
Computer Audio:Yeah. I mean, well, okay, so here's the deal. Going into freshman year in college, um, my plan was, and I mean to some degree still is to sort of take it easy on Pokegear. Um, at least for the first, you know, few months while I get my footing at in, in university and figure out sort of how much time university is, is really gonna take up and how much time I can, I reasonably can dedicate to Pokegear. Um, and then these regionals got announced and I, Pittsburgh happens prior to me actually leaving for university. So I will absolutely be going to that. Um, I'm also gonna be in New York the weekend, the week prior. Um, so it's a very short hop over. Um, so I'll certainly be doing Pittsburgh and then Peoria is like two hour drive from Chicago. So, Those two. I will definitely going to Sacramento. I, I, funnily enough, definitely can't go to, I have a, mm-hmm. I have a conflict that weekend. Um, but the, and then Toronto, I think is the tournament that's, it's really gonna come down to how I'm feeling about school. Um, once we get closer, I'll end up making a, making a call on whether or not I think I can feasibly go. So, Uh, I don't know. It's really positive. All of a sudden I'm loving Peoria regionals. Um, I think it's a fantastic location choice. Um, I think actually every regional should be in Peoria or anything within like two hour drive from Chicago, Fort Wayne, also top tier, you know,
External Microphone:Uh, I think it's a delightful, delightful, delightful stuff. The getting, getting a little ahead of the announcement is a bold new step for Pokemon and I'm on the train. Yeah, I think. Brett you make a good point. Hopefully this heralds a new, we're going to try to do the right thing in all these situations, uh, approach what should be absolutely wild.
Computer Audio:Yeah. Also to note local events, uh, start this week for the next season. Challenges cups can be sanctioned and played starting today.
External Microphone:No God, this is what's amazing about having a legal leader on the call
Computer Audio:Yep.
External Microphone:Jeez.
Computer Audio:Yep. Yeah, I know there is a cup in Toronto today that, um, Yeah. cuz some folks were talking about potentially going straight from NAIC to Toronto, play in the cup. Um, that's so funny. Yeah. so quarter one goes from today until September 30th. So, uh, I'll definitely, there's like enough league challenges here that I can just go to those basically on weekdays, which the, I think the Philly scene is pretty cool. We've started to do a lot more weekday challenges, which is really nice. Not having to give up a week, weekend day just for a challenge. Um, and then if there's cups before worlds, I'll, I'll go to'em mostly for, for practice. Um,
External Microphone:So w when, when is the next Mike Fouchet, uh, league? Uh, tournament. Point point rewarding event.
Computer Audio:we have, we have regular league this Wednesday and I'll probably just do my July challenge, uh, in two weeks. That'll probably be when I schedule it.
External Microphone:Very spicy.
Computer Audio:Nice. Yeah. May probably a cup. I'll probably do my cup after worlds, um, sometime in September. Does each, so, so, sorry, I don't know how this stuff works. Does each store get one challenge per month and then one cup per quarter? Yeah, that's exactly right. As long as okay, you can be eligible to run challenges but not cups though. Yes. Yeah. So that was, that was our problem last quarter. Most. I will say though, that almost every store that was able to run challenges should be able to run cups now as long as they did run the challenges, you know, during this last quarter. Mm-hmm. Because you really just need the one quarter of challenges to be eligible for cups.
External Microphone:All right. So.
Computer Audio:okay. Awesome.
External Microphone:So, so what'd you guys learn from NIC? Like, I guess if you're going to a cup this weekend, what's the.
Computer Audio:Well, I would say like, I would say for me, the. absolute biggest surprise of the event was the lack of lost box. So Gardevoir, I I haven't seen the day two meta breakdown yet, but Gardevoir was by far the most popular deck at almost 25%. That's not that surprising to be honest, but the second most popular deck being lost zone at only 13% is surprising. I think that, um, I thought that would be kind of like in the 18 to 20% range. And so to see that so far down is a pretty, pretty interesting, um, so taking
External Microphone:like we were part of the people who were selling, you know, that, that Gardevoir match up against last box is not as bad as people think it is like the whole time. Right.
Computer Audio:Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I agreed. I
External Microphone:All of our listeners played Gardevoir because they're smart. And look at that.
Computer Audio:Yeah. Well, and it's funny, like I talked to Azul a little bit this weekend just to, you know, get their thoughts on why they didn't play Lost Box. And that's basically what they said that the lost zone guard war matchup was about 50 50, but Gardevoir had better matchups outside of that. So like the Gardevoir mirror is 50 50 anyway, so you might as well just play guard Devore then over lost, um, because it has better matchups and the quote unquote mirror or Gardevoir matchup is 50 50 anyway. Um, so I don't really know what happened with lost going from here, like one made top eight, um, but it just kind of did Okay. Other than that. And it wasn't like ridiculously popular. So, and, and the, the deck that won the event is insanely favored against it, uh, RSI and Tian. So I don't know. Um, I think that is kind of like the biggest question mark for me is like, where does lost end up after this tournament? Because. If it's not something you need to worry about as much, the format gets really interesting. Like we saw United Wings from Schlansky's Group, and that's just like kind of an extreme example of something that, um, can flourish in a, in a format that you can kind of ignore Lost box a little bit. Um, but there's lots of other decks that I think people really haven't explored yet, like Zork, um, for example. Um, so there's definitely things to explore going forward if you take that as a, as a premise.
External Microphone:So Mike, I don't know. Have you heard the United wings story?
Computer Audio:No, I have
External Microphone:So this is a, this is a, uh, I don't know if I was still in Caden's thunder because Kayden's dad had this conversation with Alex Szymanski, but, but this is pretty interesting thinking. And I really think, um, this demonstrates like a different way to think about, uh, Uh, like the, the percentage of people playing different decks at tournaments and how to think about matchups apparently. When Kayden's dad was talking with Alex, Szymanski about, about how he came to United wings. He was like, here's what I thought. It's it has a super bad loss back, last buck match up, but it's really good against everything else. If I can just get through the first two rounds. And not tie I'll never get paired against the last box. And if it looks like I'm about to tie, I will just scoop.
Computer Audio:Yep. Yeah, reasonable. I think we had talked about that idea a little bit, um, and here at some point as well. Uh, so Yeah. I, I respect that a lot.
External Microphone:Yeah. Yeah. Like a United wings is super favorite against virtually everything else, except for the deck that won the tournament. And. Uh, and, and lost box. And he was like, the last box guys are, are, are getting ties in the first two or three rounds. So all you have to do is not tie and you'd never get paired against last box guys. And like, I think Kayden talked about how he knew that was the great truth for him. You know, a halfway through day two, right? You tie, you get paired against lost box players. Cause they're all tied to.
Computer Audio:Yeah. pretty much lost box ties. So much. So I, I, Yeah. I think it's honestly, that idea is something I'm definitely gonna keep in mind going into like testing for worlds and thinking about what, what I wanna play. Um, cuz I think it stays true. Yeah. And it's actually, Uh, that's another good point. Think starting to think about worlds like tying at world, assuming day one is the same structure as it's always been. Where you gotta
External Microphone:tie us a loss, right?
Computer Audio:Yeah. Tie the loss. So like lost box maybe even gets worse going into that. I will say guardians also, um, prone to tyin, so, um, a little bit scary to play that as well.
External Microphone:Yeah. Yeah. I think I did. We're going to really start gearing up with the Japan previews for next week's pod. But we've been going for like a little more than an hour. And the other stuff you guys think we absolutely need to cover.
Computer Audio:Hm, not really. There wasn't any like super surprising things besides United Wings and or Intel. I feel like those are the two big things.
External Microphone:I know we talked about this last week. Is Hershey Intel, a real deck, I guess it is.
Computer Audio:Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean, I think it's always been like a real deck. I, I just don't know how I, I still don't know how good it is. So it did get, I do wanna say it got a lot better with, uh, this new set for two reasons. It gets Iona, which is like a much better draw card for it than, um, than research. It still plays a couple of research, but before it had to run like, For research and Ionis just a lot better cuz you get to preserve resources, you get to disrupt their hand a little bit. So that was really big. And uh, what was the other card? Wasn't there another card that I got? Um, no, maybe not. I thought, oh, Cyrus didn't play Super Rod. I thought Super Rod might be good for it as well, but Iona is like definitely really good. But
External Microphone:assumed they played Spiritomb because.
Computer Audio:nope, No. Spirit to just taking the L to uh, to you. Taking the L to Mew and Lugia with this deck. I don't think Cyrus played any Mew or Lugia the whole tournament.
External Microphone:Absolutely wild.
Computer Audio:Yep.
External Microphone:There was very little Lugia, like so little Lugia.
Computer Audio:Yeah. I mean like day one I think it was, I think it said that day one was like 11 or 12%, so decent amount, but I just don't think it did very well. Um, because I think a lot of Lugia opted to not play Urshifu, and then Daran was, um, pretty well represented in the opposite way. I don't think it's numbers were super high, but I think it was overrepresented by good players.
External Microphone:Yeah. Yeah, I definitely felt like a dirty day. One. All right. Everybody I talked to was playing Arceus Duraludon and I was like, oh, this is really good for Liam and Caden. Let's go. Bring on the Arceus
Computer Audio:Yeah, I, played against three. I played against three in the first five rounds.
External Microphone:Yeah, I, maybe I was just talking to you and I'm just a self selecting, a moron. Like I was like, man, it's everywhere. All right. Before we wrap up people who are still listening. I appreciate you hanging in there. If you were going to Japan, I realized I have a hot tip that is worth communicating my wife, who is a doctor, made me and the fam go out and get a COVID booster last week in preparation for our trip to Japan. Get your COVID booster. Nobody wants to get sick while they're in Japan, it would suck. And if you get your COVID booster, then your boosted. Uh, my wife, the doctor confirms that the new boosters are much more effective than any prior booster. They're like rocket science compared to prior booster technology.
Computer Audio:Oh, can you just, you can just go and get one, like at a sequence or something.
External Microphone:That's exactly
Computer Audio:Oh, nice. Okay. And what is this? Like your, I'm trying to think. I don't even know how many I got three or four. this is, like
External Microphone:is my third booster.
Computer Audio:third booster. so like fifth shot overall. Okay. All right. I, I'll go do that. It seems good. Okay.