The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
Everybody testing for Worlds! Gardy, LostTina, meta shares & More!
welcome to the Trashalanche podcast. It's the only podcast about the Pokemon trading card game. Many other podcasts are about Pokemon, but the trading card game. Pokemon that is us. We are the people that do it. Attendance is. 133%. Me. Mike Kayden Liam. Uh, we're all here. Brit is not a, and that's mostly because of my scheduling difficulties. So a shout out to Brit. Um, guys. I think the breaking news is that there was a review. Uh, on July 18th, Aaron left the following five star review. Good knowledge and goes in depth, been listening for the past eight months and enjoy their banter. I appreciate how in-depth they go into match-ups and tell their stories. Only issue is dragon shields. Aren't the best leaves. Katana's are Supreme have tried dragon shield, six different times and all have been trash. I went to a lot of trouble to get my son on the pod, because I felt like he would really want to give the sponsor's perspective on that. Liam. Opinions on dragon shield versus Katana's.
Computer Audio & Screen:Um, because tiles are like, they're so flimsy. They're, they're really, really thin. Um, like the, the cards, like, you know, they, they don't feel like they have like any power behind them. Like your deck just feels a little bit worse. It feels like pretty flimsy. Like Yeah. it's, it's flimsy. They're too thin. Uh, they're, they're too thin, they're too small. Uh, like Yeah. the way I've always talked about it is Dragon Shields a hundred percent do not have the best first shuffle out of, out of all the different sleeves out there. However, I do think they have the best round nine shuffle, like round eight by round eight, round nine, I think you're gonna be getting the best shuffling from Dragon Shields. Dude, I swear, man, dragon Shields fresh outta the box. I love them. So, like, you know, uh, like other sleeves aren't that durable, so like, you don't have like 15 year old whatever, like katanas, like those just don't exist.'cause they, they fall apart too quickly. But like those 15 year old dragon shields, like those ones are crusty, man. I, I like the ones that are really fresh. They, those feel amazing. Like, I mean, of course, but I gotta say, I, so a few years back I bought a case of Black dragon Shields that I slowly worked my way through playing them Pokegear tournaments. And recently I've been building a card game and, um, I'm building a, a deck building card game. And I've been reusing those old sleeves and they have worked great. They've worked really well, even though they're probably three, four years old at this point, and all have been used at at least one or two tournaments. They still work great. It's actually soap facts, like real testament to Dragon Shield. You talk with anyone who's ever built a cube, they build it using Dragon Shield because cubes are like meant for longevity. Like you're trying to run it at multiple tournaments over and over and over. Yeah. Everybody who builds cubes uses Dragon Shields. Yeah. It's funny you guys say that.'cause I also, I've been saving my dragon shields that I use throughout this season. And I have, I have world, I have the, like, the four worlds decks that come out every year from every year from 2004 up until, you know, 2022. And, but I've always had them uns sleeved and so I felt like that needed to change. But I don't really wanna buy sleeves just for those. So I've been, you know, taking my sleeves that I use for a tournament and then putting the world's deck slowly sleeving them up. Um, and I never felt like I could do that with something like Ultra Pros. And I did like Ultra Pros a lot actually. Um, but I didn't feel like, I felt like they were dead after, you know, a tournament and a half. Yeah.
External Microphone:Oh, Liam. I don't know about you, but it hurts me to hear you say that Mike. Uh, uh, at just any anytime world's championship decks are brought up, I get
Computer Audio & Screen:I know,
External Microphone:I'm like there's, there's just, uh, Of terrible. Wrong has transpired.
Computer Audio & Screen:I, I will say I never looked at the, the Palkia list that did get did get, um, printed over Liam's until I sleeved up that deck the other day and it's not quite as bad. Well, it's still not great, but it's not as bad as I thought. I thought it was like a Palkia ice Rider bi deck, but it's still like Palkia Inteleon just with One One Ice Rider. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that one got second. the like, hard Palkia Ice Rider got second place in juniors, if I remember correctly. No, I, I I think they were both in town. Okay. It's still like pretty whack list though.'cause it has like Leon. And, uh, we won a game with that in the finals. Yeah. Like, it had, it had way too many, like bad one ofs, like a Leon, a rare candy. Like not, not, the good one. Not the big one. It's like abominable. I mean, we had, we had the optimal, we had the optimal Palkia list. Our Palkia list was, was just gorgeous. Yeah.
External Microphone:Yeah. I mean, that's like for all that, every time, every time people sit down to play. The 2022 worlds format. Like the guy who gets the Palkia deck is the guy that got the short end of the stick. Right.
Computer Audio & Screen:yeah,
External Microphone:Although, although maybe there'll be like, oh man, putting that Leon and that ice rider in makes this Urshifu. Match-ups so easy. As that, Does that, does that swing it? Maybe.
Computer Audio & Screen:I don't think, I don't think it does, but,
External Microphone:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Mmm. Re regardless, Aaron very much appreciate the five star review and. I appreciate that you enjoy the banter. The banter. That's really, that's all I bring. So that's good. The banter. Uh, guys onto the, uh, the next thing. Um, It's important to let let's cover. Uh, A couple of Japan, um, things people got to cover. Uh, really quickly first. Mike you were on the mellow. You were on the lake of rage podcast this past week.
Computer Audio & Screen:so I was on it this time last year and myself and Charlie Lockard did an episode with, with Kevin talking about, uh, day one of Worlds because both Charlie and I have done historically quite well in day one of Worlds. Um, and it's, you know, it, it does talk a little bit about the. From last year, but neither Charlie or nor I played worlds last year. So we really approached it as a bit more of an evergreen, um, interview. And so there's lots of, uh, good chatter on there about different ways that you can approach, um, playing day one. A lot of it we've talked about over the last couple weeks anyway. But, uh, if you're curious and maybe you wanna hear Charlie's perspective, go give a listen.
External Microphone:Yeah, the, the dope don't play a deck last box. That ties a lot. It's the stuff that was missing from a year ago that like you really get violently, I think, in this format, right. When, when the best deck ties a lot, you're like, oh, that's strange. We're in a weird format now. Um, Two other things that I thought were notable from last week relating to the upcoming world's first, we said last week, we'll say it again. No pods for like the next two weeks, probably two
Computer Audio & Screen:three weeks, probably. Yeah. Two or three. Yeah. Maybe even maybe you guys. I like, I won't even be back until like one month from now is the day I come back, so,
External Microphone:think we fly. Our flight arrives on, on. Tuesday, or maybe it's Monday. We, the depart on Monday, we get back on Monday, but we were in the air for like 13 hours. It's hard to imagine. There'd be in a pod the week after worlds. It's going to be a little bit of a show.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. so we'll see. You guys might do one episode without me. Maybe not. Dude, Mike, you get in like, like hours before the tournament starts, right? Like I get in uh, no, no. The Wednesday morning. Doesn't the tournament start Thursday morning? No, the tournament is Friday. It's not like last year. Oh, okay. Yeah. The tournament starts on Friday. Are they doing day two on Saturday then? Yeah, And then all the top cut rounds Sunday or just finals. Right. that's what isn't, that's what they did last year, right? Yeah. Just finals on Sunday. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But they did top cut rounds on Saturday, day one, day two, Thursday, Friday. Oh yeah. That's the only time they've ever did that though. Like every other world. It's been day one, Friday, day two, Saturday top cut. In the middle of the night, day two.
External Microphone:Yeah, well, that's that's but they, you know, they only had admitted a flare of today too, to know that they can. Uh, do seven rounds so they can get top eight in easily.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yep.
External Microphone:Ah, you know what, here's a question. I haven't heard anyone make a peep about any word on whether or not there should be asymmetric cut again.
Computer Audio & Screen:Did They do a symmetrical last year?
External Microphone:do asymmetric
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah, They did.
External Microphone:round because
Computer Audio & Screen:Oh yeah.
External Microphone:was one guy who was a ninth through. Got it.
Computer Audio & Screen:Oh, that's right. Cal. Okay. Right. It was Cal. Um, I don't know. I think so. I don't think they made an announcement, and I'm surprised no one's actually talked about it. Oh, Yeah. Hmm.
External Microphone:Mm. All right. We're we're a little bit on the cutting edge there. Uh, the it, so the other thing I wanted to talk about quickly was, um, I almost said we should have an emergency pod. For the Yokohama closed.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah, that's, uh, It's definitely unfortunate. I mean,
External Microphone:It's
Computer Audio & Screen:like, I
External Microphone:It
Computer Audio & Screen:very, yeah, like, it, it sucks. I, I mean a lot of it's already been said on Twitter, but like, why announce it if there was even a chance? Like something ridiculous must have happened. Right. I think, I think it was, it's just staffing. I think they just don't have the staff for it. Um mm-hmm. Like judges and whatnot. I just think they don't have the people to cover the open and someone messed up and didn't do the calculus on correctly, on whether they would have enough people. Mm-hmm.
External Microphone:I mean, can't they just do a smaller, like, does it really work like that? You know? I think I'd always say, okay, we're only going to have a hundred people in the, uh, uh, Yokohama open.
Computer Audio & Screen:I mean, I, I think that would've faced similar backlash anyways. Yeah, the open is wild, bro. You just give everybody who like didn't make day two points or something. Like what? Crazy man. There's like, we're just punishing people who do well this season, next season. Like that's insane. Uh, I think there are distinct bene, I think aios goodbye in general. The opens a good thing. But
External Microphone:I
Computer Audio & Screen:just cube.
External Microphone:we should always err, on the side of more Pokemon, like
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah.
External Microphone:that that is better.
Computer Audio & Screen:exactly. Encourage people to cube more, encourage run side events. Do something. Liam's super happy so people will cube with him on Saturday.
External Microphone:Yeah. Yeah.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. Yokohama open, getting canceled was the best thing for Liam. Not that, not that he'll actually be able to cube himself.'cause he'll be, yeah. We're making, we're all making day two anyways, so it doesn't matter for us.
External Microphone:Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is, this is all just setting, setting you guys up for, uh, um, Whatever like stipends success. Next year.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah, so
External Microphone:That was always the challenge with these opens is the fact that like, whoever does well, there basically is like, ah, I got a stipend. Yay. Go me. And
Computer Audio & Screen:literally, literally if, if you're in, if you're in top eight, you can't play in the open, and then the person who wins the open gets a stipend to a I C who gets a stipend to O C I C, who gets a stipend to every ic, and then they get 5 million championship points and it completely locks everybody who makes top eight out of it. Outrageous stuff. I don't think that, I just don't think that's true. Yeah. I mean, it didn't really happen this past year. Like No, I, I mean, like one of the, the, like Jake Santiago won one of them And like, you know, he just like used those points to get his invite and then chill the whole season. Uh, and yeah. Yeah. And then you can always shell out the money to just go to L A I C anyway, and then get your stipend to O C I C from that. Right, right, right. Geez. Yeah, I, I guess we should do a quick, you know, check in on how our testing's going, um, for
External Microphone:but wait, before, before we talk about testing, Uh, let's talk let's I want to just take care of all of the other stuff. Um, Let's talk about Dylan busser for a second.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. yeah, yeah. I've been meaning to mention this, the, the last week or two, Dylan Buster, uh, shout out to him. Uh, he's been in Japan for at least a week, maybe two weeks, and has been posting a lot on Twitter. A lot of really, really great information about his travels. Um, and it's really useful, uh, for, I think definitely for me and I think for a lot of people that are going to Japan, like the first thread was just about if you're worried about how to get from the airport to wherever you need to go, here's exactly what I did. Um, and it covered like, uh, sim card, pocket wifi stuff. It talked about the train, it talked about, uh, you know, a bunch of like logistics, stuff like that. His more recent threads have been, uh, reviewing the different places that he's been to, what he liked, what they didn't like, um, giving some general. Tips on the culture, differences between Japan and the US and what to expect. For example, he said, you know, there's not a whole lot of coffee places there. It's mostly tea. And that might be a shock for some people. Um, so I think it's, uh, it, it's, it's a lot. Uh, it's a, he has a lot of tweets from the last, uh, couple weeks. But I would definitely recommend, uh, if you're going to go take some time to read some of the stuff he says. Uh, especially if you're feeling a little bit anxious about logistics, uh, and, and that type of stuff.'cause that is very helpful.
External Microphone:I, the one thing I wanted to contribute to that conversation is I find these tips useful and then I start to read them and then Twitter throttles me. And will it let me read like his entire thread. I do not understand what Twitter is doing. It seems like it's completely insane.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot of bad Twitter stuff. Like you can't, whenever like a blue check person posts a really long tweet, if I'm looking at it on my phone, can't look it on my phone. Really annoying. Uh, I can't send links to my brother who doesn't have a Twitter anymore. You just can't open
External Microphone:Right.
Computer Audio & Screen:Twitter if you don't have an account anymore. You can't look at anything. It's crazy.
External Microphone:Oh, that's Dylan started to post links to his tweets on Facebook. And I liked Luke was clicking on them and it like didn't really work. And I was like, it's insane. insane. All right, I'm sorry, uh, for cut you off. But I feel like that that covers all the logistics portions, Kayden. You want to talk about how testing is going?
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. I mean, honestly, not much has changed for me since last, uh, not much has changed for me since last week. Um, to be quite honest, I am still between, I. Chio and Aina. Um, I think for me, the way I'm sort of thinking about it, aina is sort of the safer pick, I would say. Um, it feels pretty solid into other Arceus decks and has a, you know, good match across the board. It's hardest probably being Guardy, um, but I think, and then Chi Pow is more of a sort of Turbo aggressive, high Rollie. I think no matter what I would play Chi Pow in day two. Um mm-hmm. I think for me the question is whether, whether or not I play it day one. Um, but Yeah. I don't know, not much else feels good for me'cause I, I'm not gonna play, I'm not gonna play Lost Box or Guardi just because of time and Lugia is bad. Um, Lugia is bad and I prefer Arina over Arceus dura. So, Yeah. that's, that's sort of where I'm at. I don't know. Okay. I, I, I said the last two weeks that I wanted to play some Lost Giratina and I finally did, and it seems like everyone else in the world had the same idea that they would also play Lost Giratina this past weekend. Um, I think the deck is good for sure. I don't know if it's as good as Twitter thinks, um, like people are, I don't know. I felt like every other post that I saw from Challenges or cups this weekend was a lost Giratina deck. And maybe it's just because people are like, oh, we can actually play this deck. It's like kind of, it's like, not new, but it's kind of new. Right. Um, so maybe that has a little, it's feels completely different with Jet. It's like Right, right, right. Like it's definitely a lot better now. Um, the jet energy is pretty nuts. Um, so I like the deck. I think it's, I think it's pretty strong. I don't think it's like, Insane or anything like that. Uh, it is a little bit faster to play a game, to, to play and finish games than like a lost box. So time is a little bit less of an issue. Um, it has, uh, really just kind of close matchups across the board, I think. Um, so I like it. Uh, uh, I guess I'm considering it. Uh, I also still like Gene power a bit. Been thinking about Gardy again. Uh, Gardy, Hass always kind of been like my backup, uh, play, I guess. Um, so I've been thinking about that. Um, I will definitely, I, I think I said this last week, I would, I'm not gonna play an Archist deck. Uh, just not really my cup of tea. Um, but yeah, I think, I think pretty much anything except you and Lugia are pretty reasonable plays. I just, I don't think, I don't think those decks are terrible, but I just don't think they're, there's, I don't think there's any good reason to play either one of those decks over like. Giratina, Arceus, et cetera. I'm ready for thoughts on Giratina. Okay. Yeah. I I, I already know what's coming.
External Microphone:this is, this is a
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. This is the most predictable thing. All man. Yeah. Anyone playing was, and Giratina, your win rate is negative unless you're Henry Brand. Henry Brand is the only one who can play it and have like a positive win rate. Like you will mess up and it's bad. Anybody who's changed Henry Brand's list for their loss Giratina list. If you added Manaphy, if you added Third Rod, if you changed any card in that list, you're doing it wrong. Henry brand, he is, he's a genius. He's the only one who knows anything about Lost Giratina. He's the only one who should play it. And if you're gonna play it, don't change his list because his list is optimal. He's the only one who like knows what he's talking about with the deck. Um, so yeah, that's, that's what I think about. Lost Giratina. Don't, don't play it if you're not Henry Brand. Like you're just, you're not that guy. And like pe you know, I've told that to a few people already and they're like, oh man, I'm gonna give it a shot. Like maybe I can do it. Maybe I can play like him. You can't, nobody can. Only Henry. So yeah, that's, that's my thoughts on Lost Stone Giratina now, like I'm, I'm comfortable literally just coming in. and straight auto losing to it because I think a bunch of people. are gonna play it and they're all gonna mess up. Like they just don't know what they're doing. Like, Yeah. man, I, I told you all, I played that control deck, like, um, or on my Twitter, I played that control deck with the V-Union and like all this junk man. And kids were just, they were so bad. Like, they're just like, they don't even know what they're doing. They're just Giratina the cri, like, they're just all over the place. They like, nobody knows what they're doing with the deck except Henry. Um,
External Microphone:Let's be clear that you would like went through with that deck, right?
Computer Audio & Screen:I'm, I'm, I'm cur, I'm curious cause I haven't played, I haven't played enough against Lost Giratina yet. How is its Arceus Giratina matchup. It's R T N I match ups really good. If you're Henry Brand, it's really bad. If you're not, like, if you're not Henry Brand, you're gonna get one prize. This is more directed towards me, four prizes, and then you're gonna lose the game if you're Henry Brand Easy Class, bro. Easy. I think it's, uh, I haven't played that matchup that much, but it feels favored for Lost Giratina, not like crazy. Um, I think the, I know like you guys were like back and forth on V Guards. I don't know where you're at right now with V Guards. Oh, I'm running V Guards. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I feel like without V Guards it's like really bad. Um, with V Guards, it's, um, close, but I still think slightly favored for, for lost Giratina, but not like ridiculously favored. Yeah. My experience has been, Chen Pow has been pretty good against it. Um, against, against what? Uh, lost Giratina. It's felt, it's felt quite good. I, at least for me, in my testing, um, yeah, he hasn't been testing against Henry Brand, but, okay, great. Yeah, I haven't been, this is true. This is true. You're right, Liam. I haven't, the, the issue I've, I've come, I've, I feel like I've gone pretty, even in that matchup, that's actually a matchup. I've played a good amount. Um, I feel like I've gone pretty even, it's so threatening against Chi and Pat to go, um, path, Roxanne Savely, the bi, like that is a really, really, really hard play to come back from and lost. Giratina is like the only deck in the format that can do that. Like other decks can Boss Kabal and then the next turn, like Iono Path or Roxanne Path. But Giratina does it all in one turn and mm-hmm. It's, that's really tough. Hmm. So You have to like, kind of beat them before they can make that play? I, I feel like, yeah. I will say I am. I am pretty heavily considering whether, whether or not to run Arceus and I,'cause I think Arceus s helps with that quite a bit. I mean, you just, they have to boss kill the Arceus at some time prior, um, prior to the Rox turn, which can be hard, but Yeah. I see what you're saying. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, yeah. And then I just need one piece. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if they're pathing early, it is like you, you have pretty good odds of hitting your stop. Yeah. Early. Um, I also, I have the vacuum as well, so that gives me. That's true. Plus four outs. I feel like I, I, I've been wondering if like,'cause I've thought of, I've played a little bit of Arceus, like a little bit of one, one bi, one one Arceus, just to kind of see, and I feel like maybe two, two BI is just better than that. I don't know. Like, might be trying to, yeah, I don't know. The list is so tight. It's tough. Yeah. Yeah. yeah, for sure. Um, lost Giratina verse. The matchups that I play the most of, of Lost Latina are lost Giratina verse Chi Pal, which feels pretty close. And then lost Giratina, first Gardy, which also feels close. The more I play it though, the more I think it might be Gardy favored. Like, uh, the first couple times that I was playing it, Giratina know was winning, and now that now I feel like guard's winning more so. If we don't think guardian's like gonna be that big though, then maybe it's fine. I dunno. Again, I think Giratina, I think Tina's fine. It's just, uh, it's like not super easy to play. I will give you that Liam. Uh, and I just don't think it's, I think it's Matchups aren't like a great, they're like fine. Every matchup is fine, but not no Matchup is amazing
External Microphone:So why is lost? Doing so well, if it's really hard to play, is it just
Computer Audio & Screen:because nobody else is playing anything else. Everybody's just playing Lost Giratina
External Microphone:So.
Computer Audio & Screen:lost
External Microphone:does that is. Is that how world's good is going to be? Is it just going to be like lost everywhere?
Computer Audio & Screen:No. people are playing it online because they know they can't play it. But online there's no stakes. Like it's, it always happens, bro. Like lost box runs the lines. It's, it's just how it always works because it's 90% of the player pool. Like anybody, anybody who like, you know, obviously the really good players, they don't play in the lines. And then the players like one tier down, they play in the lines. And all those players, they know they can't play Lost Box. Like they're really good players. But they played in the all lines where there's no stakes so that they can, you know, have some fun, put their brain to the test. So all, all the, like the good players, like the best players in the all lines, they're all playing loss box and they went on the all lines and then like, oh, it's so good. And then like 10% at a major'cause only the good players play it. Um, and then like the, like, you know, I don't know, hundred zero. I think there's gonna be a good amount. Yeah, I don't think this is gonna a good amount of lost Giratina. It'll, I think it's gonna be like 10 at least. Yeah. I agree. I don't think the players who play it are gonna be playing it super well. I, I'm caught. I could be with Arceus Giratina like any day of the week because you know, like they just won't set themselves up for Iono because they don't know the Henry brand secret, like reverse iono sauce. Right. And then they just don't set up for Iono and bam, I just roll their board. Um, so like, you know, I'll just play whatever beat the players. This means if you're thinking about playing Laina, I. Doubt yourself, bro. Doubt yourself. Also, this might be some crazy meta manipulation from
External Microphone:that's. That definitely had like a lot of bed manipulation vibes, right.
Computer Audio & Screen:Nah, dude, because I can tell, man, like right now, like, people are anxious, bro. Like, you know, they, they think they've got something, but like, it's hard to beat everything. And like the, the, the meta's evolving pretty quick. Like, I, I just want them to doubt themselves, you know what I'm saying? Like, no, Liam's, Liam's just building his control. Deck's not gonna work. right. Guard's just working on his control deck. It's not gonna work. And he's looking at Star Requiem and he's being really frustrated that there's a deck that can just use Star Requiem. There are, there are answers in like, control as an archetype too. Tino, like Arceus, Tino, especially now.'cause it's not playing Ian or, uh, Snorlax, like, it doesn't have the same options that it had during the lost origin format. Like, it's not as scary of a deck right now. Um, yeah, for, for like control to deal with, um, like as an archetype. Yeah. Um, okay. Two things. One, another interesting thing that I feel like I've seen a trend of the last week or so is Arceus. Umbrian is still very much a deck, but I feel like there's been a shift away from Dodon to other stuff. Now, most of, mostly that other stuff is like flying Palkia, kind of like what Catron had. But we saw some list that played Lucario VStar, I think, uh, as well in there. So I feel like Arceus, Umbrian X is, uh, kind of like in, in an interesting spot going into world. Flying Peak is so mid, like the lost box player you hit has to be awful if you're using in that matchup. Like it doesn't be anything, bro. Like there's, it doesn't be anything like why are you playing it? Don't play it. I mean, I think it's like it's good against Gen Pal. Yeah. No, it's good. No. It's good against Ow. It's good against Lugia. It like, I mean, dura is better against Lugia. I like looking at that cross switch or boss in my hand and I'm like, Oh, no, my opponent might beep be. Oh, I'm not saying it auto wins. I'm not saying it auto wins. Oh, it is good cooked. It's mid buying. Pika mid. Don't play it. All right. So how about we go through the decks and just say what percent of the day one meta game you got? Well, we think it's gonna be, so I got how many decks I got. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Um, one of them is not a real deck, but I wanted to get to 10 instead of nine. Um, you guys good with that? Yep.
External Microphone:This is great.
Computer Audio & Screen:Wait, what? So I'm gonna say a deck and we'll say like, percentage of day one. Meta we think sweet about. You can give like a small range if you want to. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Uh, we'll start with Guardian. I'm not first. I think guardian's gonna be like 10%. That's my feeling. All right, we'll, we'll go like Kate and Liam and then back to me. I don't, Brenda, I don't know if you wanna do this as well. No. All right. Liam, what do you think? Dy? Huh? This is a tough one. I can't tell if people are gonna try to be nice or if they're just gonna like send it. I'll say, I'll say 8%. Mm-hmm. 8%? Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna agree with Caden with 10. Now that's crazy though, right? Think about that. Yes. Like NAIC had 24% and we're all like agreeing that it's like 10 ish. Um, yeah. I mean people are, I think people are just spooked of ties and that's gonna bring it down a lot. It's also like, it's kind of mid into the deck that did well at NAIC. Like Yeah. RC ian RC is Giratina, Intel Urch. Like it's not very good against those. Uh, all right. Lost box Turbo. Yeah.
External Microphone:Either very at both. Right. You didn't break him out. Did you.
Computer Audio & Screen:Oh, like Ard you mean as well? Yeah. sure. I mean, charar is so low that it's basically negligible.
External Microphone:Yeah. Every everything with comfy that doesn't have a guarantee in it.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. Well I think there's gonna be like almost no cuo. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I think there's gonna be like, also like 10% Turbo, maybe 15. You think maybe you think add Gardy or more than Gardy? Yeah, it has. I mean, Turbo has way less time issues than Gardy does, at least in my experience. Um, I'm gonna go, the deck just goes faster. Yeah. Maybe I'm gonna go with 10 as well. Liam, what do you think? Seven. Um, the reason for both of my, my opinion is, I've told you all this before, but the average day one player is going to be somebody who sent RCS to every regional and barely placed top 2 56 after IDing their last round or something. Um, Like, these are not the kind of players who are going to pick up, guard your loss box because it's too many brain cells. It, it's not a hard, I think you're wrong about that. Players. I think you're just wrong about that.
External Microphone:Where are you coming in, Mike?
Computer Audio & Screen:which part? I am somewhere in, between. Like, I agree a little bit with that sentiment from Liam. Like I was listening to, and I don't want to throw these players under the bus, but I was listening to, uh, the Lake of Rage that was this week. And there was four players that were kind of, it was actually a cool episode. It was, uh, Locke Boo Sack and Goof who, I don't really know who that is Um, but they all got their invite for the first time this year. And so they were kind of, and they're all buddies and so they were all kind of like giving their stories. They were going through their, the different tournaments throughout the year. And like as they're saying, like the Ds they've played all year, it's kinda like, oh, Archeops, Lugia, Archeops, Lugia, Archeops, Lugia. And I was like, are players like that really going to play Arceus and Lugia all year and then not play one of those for world's? Probably not. Like they're probably just gonna be anarchist and Lugia. So I do feel like there is a subset of players that that is true.
External Microphone:I mean,
Computer Audio & Screen:Oh, I agree. That's the day one, Bulu.
External Microphone:like the. And everybody knows, lock lacks, get a binder drop Archaeus like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Computer Audio & Screen:I mean we can, we'll, I'll give my percentage on Arceus when we get there. Yeah. Okay. Well let's do those next. Let's do those next. Let's, And Liam, you start us off. Arceus, Ryon, Arceus, Ryon. And then with anything 15%. 15. Okay. Alright. Okay. Didn't wanna use it. I agree with 15. 15. All right, I'm gonna go a little lower. I'm gonna say 12. Um, I'm gonna say 12. Yeah. Okay.
External Microphone:you were at 10 for Gardy and 15 for
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. Uh, 10. I was at like 10 to 12 with lost. Yeah. Almost 7, 8, 15 Mm-hmm. Uh, okay. What about Arceus? 10, 7, 7. I'm gonna give it all. Yeah, I think it's like a, I I'd also like to add something, I guess. Um, or Yeah, you give course. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go eight. Just a little bit more than lean. What do you wanna add? Um, like, I, I don't think you're gonna do it, but I think there is like this, like subset of players too who are also like the r c s day one fiends, Um, that are going, that are gonna play like aact hammers or something. Like, Ooh, this is the spice. Like, no, it's gonna be like four or 5% of them. I'm like, what do we do? We need a other Arceus category. You want that? Uh, I'm Oh, you bro. It's, we don't have to, we don't have to do that. I agree. There will be. And they're like, oh, I beat them Mirror hammers. Can we all agree that Luie is just not even gonna be on the list? No, I don't, dude, I think Luie Luie is people's like sleeper pick right now. Like I've seen, there have been like multiple people who have come to me last few days and they're like, Ooh. Lugia because it beats Arceus so good right now. Like how does it beat? I don't think it would be non-existent. I feel like, I feel like Lu, I feel like the rise of Arceus is a huge reason why Lugia sucks. Like, yeah, Arceus. Giratina is not great. It's bad. It's bad with Tomb, with, yeah. Yeah. Bad two Path for judge for io. Like it's pretty bad. And then like Aldon, I mean, maybe if people are not playing Dodon as much, it gets a little bit better against Arceus. Ryon. But like Dodon, even if you play Sie, it's like not a good matchup. He could win, but it's not good. I, I agree. But I think, uh, like I've definitely thought this myself. People have come to me and told me they think it, like there were. Um, there's an idea to try to build a Lugia that's like custom tailored for r c s by jamming as many stadium bumps as you can in and trying to make your neck as consistent as possible. Because when people think about the meta, they think about what fighting attackers most. Splash Bulu, glaring Zappos obviously has, um, spto issues and there's not a lot of other very good splash attackers. So when you think about what fighting decks are good, the first thing that you come to is Lugia. Like you power up Palkia and you run through their board. Um, so like, it's, it's, it's not a completely, uh, like outlandish idea to say, maybe I can try to get Lugia to work. Yeah, I agree. I, I don't think it's outlandish. I just don't think it's. Personally, I don't. And, and I played Lugia a bunch this year. E even in this form, almost this format, right? Scarlet Violet format. So I like Lugia, but I don't think it's super well positioned. But I understand what you're saying, Liam. So, Okay. so Liam, what, what do you think for, uh, Caden, you wanna real quick thought? Yeah, sure. I mean, I think Lugia is gonna be in the, like, three to 5% range. Okay. I'll write four down for you. I'll give it six. Six Lugia, seven lost eight Gardy. Mm-hmm. I was gonna give it, uh, five. So we're, we're all kind of in a similar spot. Um, while we're talking about Lugia, let's talk about the other deck that I think sucks. Mew. Uh, what, what do you guys, what do you think for, for from you two
External Microphone:Did you guys are like people that got a guy, he could just keep full sending the thing. They were sending before and you're like, but also they're not going to play mew.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. I, no, I, I stick by my sentiment earlier, like 10. I like, you know,
External Microphone:That was going to be.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah, on mute here. I'm gonna give my sob story right now. Last time NAIC, I hit some guy playing Fusion Spirit Tune turned one, well sitting on v i p Alyssa Switch Power Tablet Fusion. Well, and of course this guy's gonna play like world like what? This guy's just ripped like the, the God in like twice in a row against me. Like why would this guy put the deck down? And there's so many kids like that because there's tons of mew. like over the course of the year, there's been tons of Fusion Muse in day two when you look at That deck and you already know like the only way they got a single win was turn one cheese kids. And why would they put that deck down? It's like a drug. I, uh, I, I think Mew has always like literally every single storm the whole year it's been in like the nine to 12 range. It hasn't left that maybe eight to 12 range. It hasn't left that range. So, uh, I will put nine because. I still don't think it'll leave that range. It'll be. on the lower end, but it's, it's gonna be in that range, I think, for sure. Uh, all right, let's talk about two decks that have kind of been springing up the last couple weeks. Oh, another note on, on Fusion actually though, is, Yeah. like Fusion is another deck that, Uh, I, among many others, I assume, uh, have considered. Because when you think about what's good, this format, it's term one Ks, right? Like that's just a way to beat R c Ss r c s. We've all agreed so far as the number one, uh, deck to beat. Um, that's a way to beat r c s, uh, like as a general theme and Fusion does it pretty well. Yeah, that, that seems reasonable. All right. The two decks that have caught some fire the last couple weeks, lost Giratina and Chi and pa well, we've already talked about them quite a bit, so let's just give percentages, uh, Chi and pa 10. 10 seems reasonable, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I think like ten eight, eight. Yeah, I was gonna say, I was gonna say in the eight to, 10 range as well, so I'm gonna write nine for myself. Uh, and, uh, and lost Giratina. I think same, I think it's like 10 for me as well. Yeah. I don't know if I crossed a hundred at this point, but I'll, I'll check, I'll check once we are 10. I'm gonna, I'm gonna also write 10 for myself. You're saying 10 too, Liam? Yeah. All right. That's the one that we're
External Microphone:I'm just going to, I'm just going to come out and say it like the thing you guys are doing wrong is like, I mean, you guys are ending up at 10 for everything. Instead of thinking, people are gonna like try to have a Metta strategy. There's going to be so much more Gardevoir. So much more Gardevoir.'cause like it was 24% of the day. I see. That was the last big tournament. And like, And people are not going to say. I'm going to play. Inteleon. Urshifu now and like,
Computer Audio & Screen:All of the best are so bad. All of the best decks coming out of NAIC, just dunk on Gardevoir. That's why they're the best decks, because Gardevoir was 24% of the minute and they dunk on it. So like, you know, like I, I think like public sentiment and like, just like thinking about what's happening right now, like people are Lele, like leaning away from Gardevoir because all of the best decks beat it. And it's really hard to make it, uh, beat the best deck. Like the lost vacuum isn't gonna save you for anyone thinking they're nice.
External Microphone:I don't know. 50, like your average. Uh, um, person who got, who had a good record in AIC probably got their invite. And they probably played Gardevoir because it's like everybody played Gardevoir and they're going to be like, I did. Okay. At
Computer Audio & Screen:you wanna hear some Gardevoir horror stories.
External Microphone:my six, three record was like, you know, two bricks and one bad batch up. And like, it's all going to be fine. And day one. It'll be totally cool.
Computer Audio & Screen:Guard of War horror stories, two best testing groups in NAIC, both play Guard of War. I'm pretty sure like good majority of the people there all wiped out. Like I know Isaiah missed, I think, I think Danielle Tvia missed Grant. Manley missed like Yeah. Boari and Bokar. Boari and Caleb were the only two too. Danielle Tia played, um, yeah, he played lost. But of those, of, of like the top, you know, yeah, those two groups, Boari and Caleb were the only two to make day two.
External Microphone:All those, all those guys came to the conclusion that Gardevoir was the best deck in given the current card pool. And all these other guys are going to be like hardcore testing for the next week. And they'd be like, yo, Gardevoir beats these decks.
Computer Audio & Screen:I just don't think it's true, but that's okay. Yeah. I mean, Gar Guard war, like Gar guard war's also, like, it's too hard for like, all, all these like r c s players, bro. It's too like, it, it's not even a hard deck, but like, it's, it's too hard for them. One thing I will say, if I was playing Gardy, I think I would heavily consider going back to sort of the Turbo variant with two Zacian and four seal stone. Um, I think, I think that gives you a substantially better matchup versus, I don't know, I don't know why you think like that gives you a better, like, Arceus kind of guard is literally the best attacker. Like it has the most value across the entire meta in the r c s matchup. I'm just trying to increase, I'm just trying to increase your chance of getting turn two KO. What Play, play choice belt in three guard EX then like turn two Shinx six energy, bro. Joy belt actually seems kind of interesting. I think Joy Belt's good as well. Yeah. Don't, don't, don't go for like two Zacian, six energy or something. Like, and I think our kind of guard is a fine way to fine way to win the matchup. Like I, I think like, especially like especially versus like the, the okay. R c s players, right? The guys who like, Top 2 56, like you could easily win like multiple sets in a row against um, R CSS with Guardi. Like you just hit reversal arcana and then that thing goes like you, four prizes take arcana, KO. They can't boss around. Throw the arcana, goes again. They kill the arcana, Shinx arcana again, or Well, yeah, but I mean, hitting the reversal is the big if there, that's the hard part. Yeah. Let's finish this up. So all of us, all of us are like somewhere in the 70 to 75% range and we've pretty much covered all of the, the top, top decks. Uh, I had two other decks written down. The first one, UR, she and Inteleon. Will that see much play at all? No, I think it's gonna be like, I think it's also gonna be like two, like there, it'll, there will be some people playing it, but I think it's biggest upsides, at least in my mind, or, or it's. Pretty solid guardian loss matchup, and I just don't, with those two, at least in my mind, being on the downturn, I don't think it's worth going. Has anyone here actually played that deck first r c s in the last like two weeks? Nope. It's something that I want to do tomorrow or the next day, though. I do feel like, uh, Pika might actually be worse for Che Intel than Dodon because Yes. Right, because it means, like You we talked about it a little bit actually. Like we, it just like Blowns up your Inteleon. You have no way to deal with it. So Yeah. So if that's like a trend, that's not great, for sure. Um, okay. So yeah, like probably like two to three. I agree. And then the last deck ride on.
External Microphone:You know, I think back to when, when Nick Robinson won. Uh, with like that vest. like, I don't know that the deck that wins in AIC and seems kind of janky. Get to see any play at worlds.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah,
External Microphone:you know, like, I, I just, I'm trying to think of instances where that in AIC winning deck has been like a leading indicator of something.
Computer Audio & Screen:I feel like, yeah, I agree. I feel like from what ride on, I think it's like probably like three to 5%, certainly less than it has been at the regionals. Right? Like I feel like moron has always been overplayed at regionals. Like it's always been like in a, in the five to 10% I feel like. And I feel like, come on, we're at worlds people like, don't play that. I mean, I'll say, Uh, I don't think moron is that bad. Yeah, I was just talking with Kayden like once again, you're looking for deck. That one hit r c s on turn one. Right on. That's fair. It can also, like, there's been some lists with four path, which also seem like not terrible. That's funny. So, but yeah, I agree. Probably like two to 4%. right. And um, there's gonna be other decks as well, like Liam, you mentioned like other Archies decks. Um, there will be people bringing Gura and, and the absolute secret sauce I'm cooking right now, there'll probably be a couple Tinging Lus in there, maybe a United Wings or two. You're right, Mike. Like people gotta be serious, man. Like wow. People are weird. I feel like, by the way, I don't know if you guys have given thought to like the decks, like United Wings, stuff like United Wings, Ora Box, but like those decks are. Like not good. I feel like if people are thinking that those decks are gonna be like a sleeper pick for worlds, I think they're like really not good. Just because lost zone might be a little bit down, like lost. We talked about Los Santina. You can't beat those decks. Chi pow. You're not beating that because Cologne, Uh, I don't know. Like they're not downs. Like Arceus, Giratina and Gardevoir are both hard to beat'cause of Yeah, like the CREs io and then just r c s io, like both of those are hard to beat. So like, you're like taking an auto, like a an unwinnable loss and then like your other matchups just aren't even that great. Yeah. Trust me, I tried Xbox.
External Microphone:Uh, that's a sad story.
Computer Audio & Screen:You try, you tried this format? Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. You try it? Like post RRCs hype or no, not, not that much. A little bit with the, I talked with Elliot a little bit with the, uh, with the gold duck stuff, but
External Microphone:All right. So. Did we get through everything there?
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. Yeah. yeah. I'm good. I'm good.
External Microphone:So. Any, Any, league challenges or cups of late that are worth discussing?
Computer Audio & Screen:Not for me. I haven't gone to anything.
External Microphone:How was the big red cap or red caps corners? Lead challenge.
Computer Audio & Screen:It was a great size. There was like 15 people, we had four rounds. We were out of there by 8 45, 9 o'clock. It was a good night. Actually. The deck that won, that went 4.0 Mariah on, but it had, it had a really easy path. Um, but the player running it was, is also good though too. Oh yeah, I had a cup or I had a challenge. and it was best of three. Pretty awful. I would've just left, I think. Yeah, I shoulda.
External Microphone:Uh, you know, what. So this is the tension and I'm sure I'm sure many people have this tension with Liam told me best. On the one hand, I was like, ha bye. I'll see you later. But also like I recognize and Liam won that challenge. First challenge is one. Um, Like the best of three smooths out the variants, which for Liam is like a really good thing.
Computer Audio & Screen:Hmm. No,
External Microphone:challenge is always with all these challenges is it's just high roll city, right? Like, you're like, am I going first? Am I winning coin tosses?
Computer Audio & Screen:no, bro. I saw a tweet from, from Miss, and it's complete facts like pe-people who hate on best of one because they think it like smooths out the variance are just playing inconsistent piles. That's What. he said, like, like, If your deck just doesn't work one in three games, and you're like, But I need two others to compensate, like play a better deck. Your deck is bad. Play something that functions four rounds in a row. Like
External Microphone:I mean, wait. It's it's a card game, right? And so I know, and I think everybody agrees that if we switched to best of one tournament's we could all get on that train, but you would want to play an extra route or two to smooth out the barrier. It's like just, you know, apply mathematics.
Computer Audio & Screen:It's not about smoothing out. Well, it's smoothing out variance in matchups, not in No, no, it's it's about like, not in like my opening
External Microphone:It's about not breaking game one, you know? Yeah.
Computer Audio & Screen:that's not, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's not about not breaking game one. That's about how cons, like how consistent are you building your deck? For me, it's about smoothing.'cause Pokegear is a game that's very heavily deter like in. In many ways. So in detriment it's pretty matchup based, like you have in any given format a lot of matchups that are, how does best of three smooth out matchups Pretty bad? Well, no, if you have best of one, but more rounds. Oh yeah, Yeah. That smooths out matchups smooth. So for me, when I I like best of one because it smooths out matchups. And I think that is more important and more valuable from a game design perspective to smooth out than, you know. Did I, did, I was, did I draw a good opening hand in like, yeah. Why Whining About your
External Microphone:other deck construction is different. Like, I mean, Liam, Liam. Uh, told me that he was thinking about, like, I think his working assumption was it was a best of one tournament. So he was thinking differently about the decks he was going to play because.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. Because in best of three you get away with having your deck break one in three games, but you don't invest with one. Yeah. Yeah. uh, encouraging people to play good functioning decks is a good thing. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like when I was playing, uh, best of One Cups, like when I was like trying to get points for my invite, like Gardy, I was like, you know, I'm not playing Penny. Like, we're like, we're cutting, we're cutting like cards like that to, to play more consistency for best of one mess with it. Yeah.
External Microphone:But it. just the challenges
Computer Audio & Screen:I prefer.
External Microphone:the kids beat that deck in and they show up with these high roll decks that you just have to like. Watch them high roll and hope it goes okay. Right.
Computer Audio & Screen:Yeah. bro. Yeah. Those kids are bad. You can beat them. It doesn't matter how good they draw. Like there's no world where they draw good enough to beat. Like, kids are so bad, bro. Yeah. I mean, I, I have historically since Covid. I've done very well at locals. Um, I think out of the probably eight or nine locals or like best of one tournaments that I've gone to, I think I've only bombed one or two. Um, and I don't know, like sure, maybe I'm just high rolling. I, maybe I'm just high rolling best of one every time. But also, also, like I am, I'm very carefully picking my deck around like Portland Cup. I picked Mew because it felt like the most consistent deck and I didn't want to, um, DT Mew mind you. Um, and I didn't wanna just play like Lugia and, and rely on high rolling. Um, like Lugia would not be a deck in a best of one tournament. You just can't play Lugia, at least in its current state. I agree. And honestly, I'm okay with that. Like I'm okay with that. I disagree, bro. Like it's just win rate, bro. Like what? Like if you win 80% of your, like, I, I, I don't, bro, like if Luie is good, it's good at, like, if you win games, you win games in best of one and you win games in best of three. If you don't win games, your deck sucks and you lose games. The best of one, you lose games the best of three. Well, if you have best of one, even if you're adding like two extra rounds, you still can take less, fewer losses over the course of the day. Yeah. Like, like fewer losses over the course of the tournament. Sure. Yeah. But like that's that's what,
External Microphone:a best of one, four round three round tournament, like, do you bet your deck better set up?
Computer Audio & Screen:uh, well, yeah. And even, even if you have like, best of one and then we're doing like 11 rounds. 12 rounds, like you can take three what, three losses. So well like, all right, here, here's an example. I wouldn't have thought like Arceus, Giratina is a. Like quote unquote, like by, by this criteria, like a best of one deck, right? Because like if your opponent just like turned two attacks as guard, you lose if your opponent like, um, or if you miss energy turn one, you lose. Like there's all this random junk that can just go wrong and it's like completely outta your control. But like the logic is, you know, two games outta three very good majority of the time, they're not going to hit like, they're not going to hit that you're not gonna miss energy, blah, blah, blah. But like, uh, cliff Algar, he's, he literally is going, gone like five oh like six times in a row with Artina at our local events. And like, it just goes to show, I think like if your deck wins games, like you win games and best of one, you win games in best of three. And like, that's just how it is. Like if, if you have a good deck, it's a good deck and it doesn't really, like the win rate doesn't change from best of one to best of three. Like Sure. Good deck is good deck. No, I think this was a, this was a good final episode for, for a bit. If there's anything to take away, you're playing the wrong thing at Worlds. Everybody's, everybody's choosing the wrong deck. Yeah. Ian's the only one playing the right deck. Yeah, no, that's'cause I know you're choosing the wrong deck. Like, think about it that night before he knows, he knows I'm picking the wrong thing. Like all those fears and doubts that I have about how my deck will perform tomorrow. Tomorrow they're gonna come true. He's gonna cook me, see, he's saying this, and then I'm gonna convince him to play Arceus Giratina the night before day one. Yeah. All right. Nice. I gotta go feed my dog.