Welcome to the Trashalanche podcast. Attendance is a hundred percent. Mike Fouchet is here. Liam Halliburton's here. I'm here. We're looking forward to getting Ka and Brit back, but some people are just doing off doing other stuff. It's crazy how people have other stuff because this is the only podcast about the Pokegear trading card game. We're all on Twitter. If you leave a review, we will read it on the podcast. No new reviews this week, but the Dragon Shield people have said they're sending us some more sleeves to get us ready for Peoria. And in that respect, all is good here at the pod. Uh, um, all that stuff is super good. Guys. Uh, let's jump right in. Mike, you wanna talk about, uh, uh, your current grind to Hawaii. I, you know, I've seen that kind of thing happen at League Challenges before, like whether you only do like three rounds or something. And, and as it turns out, like just the way it worked out, those guys played the exact same people or some nonsense like that, you know? And, uh, it, I think, uh, there is a coin flip thing that is like the last tie break. So 50% of the time it would've actually turned out totally. Right. Right. So, uh, that's just, that's bad breaks. Uh, you know what's unfortunate, obviously is that if Carlos had been running the term, he would've just gone into Tom and fixed it, right? Like, like, like the, the fact that it's, uh, you have to be a wizard to go in and manually adjust it if it does something weird like that. But yeah, I recognize they're trying. I mean, theoretically you wanna discourage it because usually going into manually modifying things is the wrong thing to do. But in that instance, it seems like it'd be good.
Liam:I, I already mentioned, um, the last round in, uh, our chat, Mike. Um, that was, I, I probably had like one of the best, I think, positional plays that I've maybe ever made, uh, at this cup. But, uh, I'll start from the beginning. Yeah, I'll start from the beginning. Um, I played Gardevoir. The only change was I cut the Lumin for a penny. Um, and I basically regretted it the entire tournament. Um, I should have played towards list. Everyone should play towards list. Towards list is really good. Um, the only. I played a lot of Lugia, that tournament. Um, I played gibby four times, uh, because best of, or top eight was best of three, and I played'em once in Swiss and once in top eight. Um, and we went three one. Um, oh, I, I was playing a temple of Cino over the lost as well. That matchup feels like incredibly favored with, uh, I, did manage to run'em out of energy one game as well. Uh, I think, I think Lugia actually has, I, I didn't really realize this. Um, but I, I think Lugia does have like real issues in that matchup with, uh, like its colorless energy, especially like if they have to like dump one on turn one for no reason, they just, like, they, they run out of like retreats and stuff because they can't like pre prevent attackers that efficiently, um, or that safely. They have to like, keep going into dark attackers and won prizes, uh, because Lugia is like, not, not the greatest attacker once you hit the mid game. Um, so yeah, uh, in a lot of our games there were a lot of issues with, uh, energy from the Lugia side. Um, so yeah, those were like the most significant Um, or I guess like the, the parts that stood out to me in my, my run, all the. I played against Christian Franco who's playing, um, Turbo Loss Box. I think it was something really similar to Nick Moffitt's list with two Han and four Super Rod. Um, and GA games one and game two Go Go. Pretty typical. Um, I have an amazing start game one. I hit like four routes into turn two Guardi and, um, Franco misses, like, yeah, misses a turn to attack with cram and stuff. So I just like run him off the board and he scoop really fast. Game two I, I opened really strong. I opened with like double v i p io, but I prized two of my routes and I miss, I miss uh, the turn to guard EX and he hits turn two stable Eye. And he was going first that game. So I lose both my routes on turn two and just concede, um, because there were, there were like 35 minutes left at that point. And sudden death, I didn't really think, or like hitting time I didn't think favored me, so I just scooped. Um, and then in game three, I, I opened pretty strong. Um, But I make what might've, might've been a poor decision. Jesus Christ. Oh, Uh, what might've been a poor decision and I, I bench locked myself out of Manaphy. Um, in order to, I benched Shinx, I benched M three routes and GR Ninja. Um, All of that, uh, like in order to like boost my consistency, um, because it, it means that four seals and out two, uh, to draw two cars, four seals and out. And I also searched battle level ball and turned one, uh, with the Mew and then I wanted to get three routes down. Um, so I'm not sure if that was correct and like the down later, because I. I end up benchmarking myself. And the idea is like, if I just like hit candy guard, maybe two candies, that'd be amazing. I'm not really as vulnerable to Greninja Um, and then I, I was playing the penny as well, so maybe I could create a bench spot, um, like fix my mane issues later because I was like, if I, if I don't do anything next turn because I can't find supporter or withdrawal, I just lose the game anyway, um, to like stabilize on turn three. Going first. Uh, but then, yeah, I end up getting punished. I don't hit a single candy. And on turn two I get Greninja and I lose two of my Kirlia. So I basically just have one Kirlia, uh, Zacian mute Greninja going into the, going into turn three. But what I is that he's benched three comfy, the open manin. I, I don't make this like realization immediately, but I, because he's benchmark, I realized that I can actually just like stall him out to deck out, because at this point he had like 15 cards left and that's what, that, what actually made the position like so difficult to play. Um, if I was going for like an attacking strategy is that I. Like he had just pal padded two chorus into like a 10, 15 card deck. So I was like, I'm never sticking. I know he is never missing attack. He's already up like two prizes and like I'm really gonna struggle to stream attackers. So I looked for something else and I realized that basically the most that he can do on all of his turns is hit from one 10 so I can Shinx retreat. Tank it with, um, CLIA heal it back up, right? I can take like two Shinx hits with Klia and then I can penny this Shinx and I might have enough healing retreating through Guardi exes and such that I'm, I'm able to maybe like deck him out. And I, I messed up the execution a bit because I didn't get that Manaphy, so he was able to have like 180 damage turns by using, uh, Greninja. But I, I did end up winning and. Uh, yeah, it's, it's pretty sick that I was able to, it's a win by deck out, um, with guard EX off like this, like turn three, like bench lock realization, I think. Um, yeah. Yes, I did. Um, find, find the penny again. Yeah, I, I got pretty, pretty thin on my deck. Like obviously I think if I had, if I hadn't found the second penny, it was like the, the last part of the deck off the pal pad, I, I probably would've lost that game. Um, but yeah, I was able to, to find the penny. I, I messed up the execution a bunch. I like, I. Uh, yeah, I, I didn't bench the Manaphy because I thought I was gonna go for, like, an attack. So I ultra balled it away for clia, uh, before I researched that turn. And, and then I was like, like even if I hit CLIA here and knock out like bench comfy, like, I, I can't win. I'm, I'm down too many prizes and I own, it was like never gonna stick. So, and like I, I've lost my entire, and so I probably hurts me more than him, honestly. Um, but yeah, I hadn't made that realization before I researched. So, dumped. Yeah, I wasn't like as focused on my drawing engine as I like should have been. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You got down to one. Yeah. I like you. You actually have like so much time. I like that actually feels like a super legit strategy if they don't get a stable eye down because Yeah, like Zacian eats two hits if you ce it in the middle. You get Penny, you get that twice. So you eat like six turns and then yeah, you could, like, you can sack prizes all the way down to one prize so you can just like feed the Shinx over and over Super ride, um, or whatever. And, but buy like honestly a ton of time
Track 1:I, I, uh, I'm still amazed that it, it did work out though. I mean, 15 cards is a lot of cards.
Liam:and. It's, I, I mean, like the, the hard part is the Super Rods too, right? Because Super Rod, like 10 cards back.
Track 1:Right.
Liam:Um, but yeah, it, it worked out, which, uh, like, it, it was really sick.'cause I mean, I was, I was like completely lost from an attacking standpoint and like, I, I just realized like I can just win by soaking hits. So, couple, couple of questions for you, Liam. First, um, uh,
Track 1:Why not play, uh, Charizard? I know coming out of Pittsburgh you felt like Charizard was underrated, and if you go back and do it all again, you might play Charizard. Uh,
Liam:To this cup, you
Track 1:yeah.
Liam:Um, I think charge are like pretty expensive and I.
Track 1:I.
Liam:I had Guardi built and Guardi really good. It's a cup, so I just played what I had
Track 1:Um, would you play guard again?
Liam:Uh, yeah, that deck is so good. It's so good. Like it's, it's insanely consistent, especially if you play a mini, like there was like not
Track 1:a list different than the list Liam played. It is so
Liam:Yeah, yeah. Well, like the, the, the only like, Bad hands you can get with a list is like, you don't play Lumin and you open like just ultra ball as your like only search card. Every other search card you just like turn into like a completely fine start. And basically your, your entire deck is basically search cards and supporters like deck is so good and so consistent. Um, and like, it's like favored into the whole meta too. I don't like, I don't know what it's bad against, uh, except for Chen Pal. Uh, that's, I've been saying that for a minute.
Track 1:So the, the other question I wanted to ask was, uh, Liam, you played a meta deck after taking Bennet to multiple cups and challenges. Anything
Liam:S a really good.
Track 1:Uh, it was, uh, obviously it's, it's easy for me to, uh, uh, imply that you should play Medex, but I recognize this is not the first time you played Guardia. You took Guardian to multiple tournaments and had just okay outcomes, and that was why you, I think, came off Guardia, right?
Liam:Yeah, eh, I played pretty badly at those tournaments.
Track 1:Uh, um, and, and do you think that that was due to. Uh, poor exercise routine, poor diet routine or lack of practice. or, or annoying, uh, parent All are, all are equally likely, equally likely, I think. Alright, let's talk about Brazil. Uh, speaking of what a great deck chars art is. He, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like, it was like three guys at the top eight all with the same 60 or some nonsense. Right.
Liam:It was just the. Um, I'd say that Arceus is bad. There's not much more to it, I guess. Like I, I feel like it's an investment of like two cards you invest. Um, yeah, you, you get a, you get the basic, you get stage one, then you get two cards back. Um, and it's not like a particularly strong attacker. Um, and makes you like more vulnerable to path, uh, because like all your setup is riding on turn two. Whereas I think Forest Seal makes you like more resilient to path because it's obviously it doesn't get turned off by path. Um, forest Seal is. So, so four c I think is like a, a more natural pick for me. It also, it lets you play cards like Ian. Um, and also like, I like the, I really like the V attackers and tastes really good. I also really like Del Fox. Um, I, I think Delf Fox is good. It's, it's definitely hard to use because the energy drawback, but at 1 20, 1 20 is, uh, you know, something that's been proven to be really, really good. Um, in like recent formats. Um, I think what, what this list does with the four Arvin is that it really leans into pt. I didn't, I didn't lean into my list or my, my list Don't lean into Pigge yet as much. I think I'm playing a one, one PT this list or like, these lists are obviously playing two, two and four Arvin. It's basically just trying to get Pigge turn two and then play the entire game. I'll it from there. It doesn't have any other like semblance of a engine. Um, I. Deemed that this strategy wasn't reliable off of one game I had where I got a turn to Pigge and then it got Boss K by a Ryku versus lost box. Um, so I said, pigge, it's no good, but I I guess it is good. Um, and, and it is good enough. I think it's also, it's definitely like really good in, really good in this meta. Um, there's something like, there's something about this meta that just like, makes it feel a little bit slower. Like being able to just like throw three 30 at them, um, seems, seems really, really good. I, I, don't know exactly why, um, may, maybe it's because Chimp Pal has like, been, been phased out of the meta a little bit, but yeah. Um, the, the tanks feels like it's a little bit more valuable than it did like a few weeks ago. Um, and yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I, that is probably what happened. Um, Giratina dying down and dying down a bit, I think are good. I, I think what would make the ante good, at least what Vinny told me from, um, his game against, uh, Was that like he, he basically threw it up and then, uh, and then the penny allows him to heal it off and, and they play Lost City as well. So like if you drag an ID ante, then you get lost city and you just never deal with the R D X. And if you try to hit the ante, they play penny and then you lose the game. So it's like really good attacker, I guess first loss box. Um, drawing an extra card is also really good for something as like ultra ball, heavy as chars are. Um, like you sometimes have like card shortages. An attacker that gives you an extra,
Track 1:Right.
Liam:um, it's also like a two energy attacker, which means that you don't have to hit chars already, EX turn two to hit an attack. Um, they're playing like the escape rope. So if you just find energy, turn one, you can attack turn two. Um, yeah, it's, it's a solid attacker. Its just solid.
Track 1:Yeah, and it's not mute, but it's obviously like if you start it, you're like, this is fine. Right.
Liam:Yeah.
Track 1:That, that, that's just, I don't wanna take a loss to Bonnette. I heard Bennet's so good.
Liam:Yep. Uh, seems fine. It's. I think it's like 50 50. I played some games of it today. Like if the Guardi goes a little bit slow, if you can never boss Kay with a pigge, and they like it, just hit boss every turn. Um, it can be a little bit weird for Guardi. Um, eh, like, it's hard to say. I, I had a funny, um, a funny game in one of my games against it today. There was a funny thing that happened. I, I was testing out the new Mew e or whatever, and like yeah, I got them on odd prizes and, yeah, can't. Yeah.
Track 1:I mean, I, I assume if, if they get a Pidgey out, like turn two then, and, and you don't care the Pidgey, it's just, uh, eventually you're just like, this is overwhelming, right? I mean, computer search every turn, it's super good. I can't let people just get cards outta their deck.
Liam:Although the term alien's also an interesting attacker, like it's it.
Track 1:Yeah.
Liam:Which can definitely be useful, at least for me. I, I really disliked Artisan and um, Charles Art,'cause I was playing the Dell Fox. So like, I was trying to gain like, set up advantages, um, because like, you know, if you can stretch your opponents search with the Dell Fox, you can cause them those Manaphy. Um, as for vacuum, I like, the only reason I can see is that lets get a stadium bump.
Track 1:No, that seems, that seems quite credible. So I thought the other thing that was interesting about Brazil is, uh, Gustavo Water played eight different lists than just playing towards Gardevoir List. Yeah. He came in 13th. He, he, he, he cut a research, uh, uh, he played two research instead of research worker, right.
Liam:Uh, yes.
Track 1:Yeah. And he is got like a little bit of differences in the bald line, I think.
Liam:He's playing two Pokegear League headquarters. The, the ball line this, I was, I was holding the stadiums.'cause the stadiums obviously the wild, the wild, the stuff. I, I think that's the only major difference. Um,
Track 1:Yeah.
Liam:I actually think they're probably like insanely favor in the loss that you play two headquarters, like back to back. I dunno. Headquarters is probably like game ending. They just cannot HitPoint. I, I think it's like, Yeah, definitely something three, but yeah. Yeah.
Track 1:I, I also wonder if at a, at a, at a regionals where like, everything's best at three, if you run into a Turbo loss box, like after the first game, they're like, okay, I'm not going for the turn two, uh, save a light anymore,
Liam:I, yeah, I, I think it also creates like tremendous pressure on their lost zones, like generally like lost vacuums, maybe after turn two or. like pokey stops, they're like cards. You're able to like say like, I'm just gonna loss on this and like, I'm able to preserve the super rod, um, when you get into the late game. But like, yeah, if, if you have to hold like every stadium bump that you hit off of your coms, like that puts like a ton of pressure on, on your resources in general that
Track 1:Yeah. Well, and, and if you, if you draw an energy in something else, you're like, am I gonna lose some this energy, man? Am I need this energy?
Liam:might be like equally strong in the Mariah on matchup as well. I.
Track 1:Um, yeah. And, and, and even, even beyond influencing like the guy you're playing in game two and game three, I feel like at a regional, at like top tables, all of a sudden, like all the lost boat boxes next to you are like, okay, don't wanna play that guy Uh, does, does any of this shape you guys thinking going into, uh, next weekend Cups? Yes, yes. There was a guaranteed in second place. It is great to have a to on here to, uh, walk us through this, these, uh, technicalities. No, I, I, I think there is a, is it a cup or challenge on Saturday? Liam Cup Challenge.
Liam:I have no clue.
Track 1:Uh, Why, why do I text you this? Uh, there's a challenge on Thursday and a couple on Saturday, uh, for us. Very exciting. Uh, So I was gonna ask you, so, so did, did attending your first cup after running your first cup like shape at all, how you thought about how it went? Or no? What? Uh, both like, like did you think differently about how they were running the cup now that you've had to be in the driver's seat, or, uh, uh Was it all fine? I. Uh, um, Liam, I don't know if you, uh, observed this, but, uh, here, I'm trying to pull this up. Um, the cup that is happening on Saturday is at, at a, uh, Local place that, that Liam really likes called, uh, player One. Uh, it's like, it's like a local, it's super local for us and, and a very, very, uh, nice, uh, place. Um, do, do, do, do, do. The, the highlight of the weirdness was, uh, let's see. All you need to, uh, so here, uh, so they have, they have this like registration thing. players can register in person or online starting two weeks prior to the tournament. Uh uh, all you need to compete is a 60 card deck and current standard rotation and identical non-transparent sleeves in a deck box. These decks will need to be checked by a staff member to ensure all cards and sleeves are tournament legal before the tournament. A printed deck list is required for players not arriving prior to 11:30 AM for deck check. Final deck changes must be made before 5:30 PM. That like doesn't make any sense at all. Right? like, I was like, these are people who are like, it's a very Pokegear focused store, but like weirdly, that did not make any sense at all To me. There could be up to five total rounds with no less than three rounds. Uh, I'm like I don't know how true any of these things are. Uh, starts at noon.
Liam:Yeah, did it'cause they do like in-person deck, like they just have you, like they, they just have you like give your deck to one of the people who like run the tournament. They just look through it. They're like, this looks good to me. Boom. Done.
Track 1:that's a weird thing.
Liam:Um, Yeah, I, no, I I think they also say that it's gonna be like a five round max because the,
Track 1:The cap
Liam:places, um, is, yeah, it's, uh, it's like pretty humane with their seating, so, um, yeah, there's not gonna be too many people.
Track 1:Yeah. Uh, um, but yeah, that, like, I, I think it's a mitzvah to offer a, like complimentary pre tournament deck check. Like anybody that wants to get their deck check canned, like new players, stuff like that. Like that's a very friendly thing to do, right. Uh, um, I, I've seen situations where like new juniors actually really needed that to be able to successfully compete because they were about to find out that they had to go buy five cards because like, it just wasn't gonna happen for them, right? They, they were turning in a deck list that was not a real deck list and like somebody had to prop'em up a little. But, uh, uh, yeah. It's always concerning when you read instructions at the local that like, don't make any sense at all. I. like, like that. That's something where I was like, my immediate reaction to that was this tournament's running two hours behind before it starts Alright, anything else going on guys? I. Yeah, I, I gotta agree. It seemed like, it seemed like a relatively, uh, quiet week. Um, let's see. Do I have a good, would you rather this week? I don't think I do, guys. I, uh, nope. I got nothing.
Liam:What, what heck.
Track 1:Arceus Reon Duran
Liam:Oh, oh.
Track 1:anticipating a lot of Archist, Ordon, Reon, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought, I thought that that was a, a super weird, I mean, you know, like the whole thing made me question like, what the heck is going on at this regional, because that was like such a weird, uh, thing and I thought that guy did better than Gustavo. Crazy.
Liam:Arceus magical powers.
Track 1:Yeah.
Liam:Yeah.
Track 1:Have you booked a last minute flight to Chicago, Mike? Yeah. Oh, is it? No. Yeah, you know what that is? Uh, that is marked as Canadian Thanksgiving in my calendar because I don't have that day off, but my Toronto based engineering team does. Does he? My God. That is, that, that is the madness.
Liam:I deserve it.
Track 1:So we are, we are, uh, uh, meeting people and renting a van and driving down to Peoria. Mike, all you gotta do is get to Chicago in a timely fashion Friday morning. Yep. Look at that guys. We got him from a hundred percent to 5%. We got him from zero to five in just 30 seconds. That is how ready he is to take down Peoria. We are gonna make it happen people so close. So close. Alright, awesome guys. We'll be back next week with the, the quick Peoria preview. We'll find out whether or not Liam, uh, feels compelled to play Medex, uh, by winning another cup this coming weekend, or if he is compelled to wander into the crazy. What are the odds, Liam? What's the over under on on Metaverse? Crazy.
Liam:Um, I don't know. We'll see how the ideas work out.
Track 1:All right, guys. The John Paul Zoroark outro. We'll be back next week.