Welcome to the Trashalanche. It's the only podcast about the Pokemon trading card game. Mike, I didn't ask you. What did you think of the sweater that I sent you or sweatshirt? Did you like it?
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I look pretty good.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:All right.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I would wear it.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:All right. All right. I'm gonna try and make it happen for like, oh, I mean, are you done now? Are you retired from Pokemon for the year?
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I'll do local stuff, but yeah, the Charlotte was my last major event of the year, for sure.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Ehhh. and I were plotting how we could try to go to Vancouver earlier today, because that is the first weekend of his spring break.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Oh, that'd be fun. You gotta get in first.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:have you ever been to Vancouver, Mike?
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, I went to, I went there once, uh, when World was there in 2013.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Mid
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I didn't, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was sweet. I didn't play at that World, um, but, so I got to see the city a little bit, and it was, it was great.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Mid Vancouver is, like, one of my favorite cities. I had never been to Paris the first time I went to Vancouver, so for many years, Vancouver was my favorite city in the world. And then I went to Paris, and I was like, Paris seems awesome.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, it's
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:about Vancouver Regionals, if I can figure out a way to get there in a way that is not completely unrealistic. But, it's gonna be a struggle.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I think, I think the big barrier of entry is the flights there, presumably from the east coast, are quite expensive. Um, you could fly to Seattle and drive? I don't know if that's any better.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:You know, I've taken the train from Vancouver to Seattle before, and that was a surprisingly chill thing to do. Highly recommend it, if people are thinking about doing that. That's, uh, yeah, you know, that's a fair question. Maybe I should check how much flights to Seattle cost and see if they're cheaper than the exorbitant flights to Vancouver. I showed Liam and he was like, oh my god, uh, it's definitely a thing. Um, all right. Attendance is a hundred percent. Aidan's not here. Brit, not here. Mike's here. Liam's here. I'm here. We have all the people that are important because these are the people who, uh, uh, competed in Charlotte. We're going to hear all about it.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Ruff
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Dragonshield is our sponsor. They sent us a bunch of sleeves, Mike. We're gonna have to try to figure out how to connect with you to give you the sleeve handoff because sleeves be happenin
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:That's great.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:They sent us a bunch of Rick and Morty sleeves. I don't know how we're at least gonna have to use those for like test decks or some crazy thing like that. Uh, it was a, on the one hand, a care package with a ton of sleeves, which is awesome. On the other hand, a couple of sleeves that cannot be used in Pokémon tournaments.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:That's funny.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Um, no new reviews, but that's okay, because we got, we did two reviews last week, and we're feeling great about reviews. If you leave a review, we'll read it on the pod. Reviews are always appreciated. Um, guys, let's talk about Charlotte. Two things that I, I feel like we should talk about before we talk about your run. First, uh, last weekend, er, last week, I predicted lots of tweets about travel problems, but I feel like that was dead wrong. It seemed like everybody kind of got there. Yeah,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:too bad, uh, coming out of Philly, it was snowing the whole day on Friday, uh, and I think some of the flights in the morning got delayed, like there was a bunch of Philly people Uh, that were supposed to leave at like 8, 8. 30am and they didn't end up taking off until closer to 11. But my flight at 6. 30 got delayed 20 minutes. So, yeah, I don't think it was too bad.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:I feel like Cal Connor was the only person I saw tweeting that he was having problems, and he still somehow attended the tournament and destroyed the tournament.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, and that had nothing to do with weather or anything, that's just like a freak incident.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Um, the other thing that, I had a tweet that I was thinking, oh man, this is some good tweeting, when Jake and Isaiah were both like 4 0 or 5 0, I put out the tweet that like, if there's a Jake and Isaiah finals, it would like, destroy the internet. And we were like, kinda close, kinda close. Isaiah did what he had to do. Jake, not bad. I mean, he day tuned like he was getting there.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, he bubbled out of top 32, he did really good.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Yeah, yeah, we could have easily had a Jake and Isaiah finals, and that would have been the craziest thing in the world.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I wish we saw Isaiah play Gustavo in Top 8 on stream, because that was the
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Oh, yeah, yeah, that would have been great!
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:that would have been really sick. I was hanging out around the Top 8 area because Ross was playing, and so I was hanging out with like Rahul and some of those guys that were kind of trying to keep updated with Isaiah's game, and so we were getting updates from Sable House and Jeremy Allen every few minutes. Uh, it sounded like they had a pretty intense set, uh, where Isaiah won game one, Gustavo won a close game two, and then I think game three might have gone to time, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it sounded really close.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:We, we know Isaiah's, uh, uh, better at best of nine than he is at best of three.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:That's true.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Um, alright, why, why, Mike made day two, and, and, uh, did us proud. Liam did us Uh, almost, uh, proud, but not quite proud enough. So, why don't we start with Liam. when you were 4 0, I was like, this kid's had the hardest draw at this entire tournament. He's the GOAT. And then things kinda came unglued a little bit. Do you wanna talk about that?
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:yeah, yeah, Liam, before you started, like, I did not realize your strength of schedule, oh man, these rounds are insane. I don't want to
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:four rounds, it was like, this is the cra this is the, like, hardest draw you could possibly have. He's doing, he's doing, like, super difficult mode.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:In the first five rounds, you played two people that top 8ed the event.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Yeah, and, and, he was the only loss Gustavo had day one.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, crazy. Alright, a little bit of spoilers, go for it.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Um, I don't know, I played Snorlax this event, um, the Pidgeot version. Um, there was nothing really crazy in the list. I played the Radiance Ard for Tina. Um, and Moon. I didn't hit any Tina, but I hit some Moon. I still lost, so it wasn't great, but I think that was, I was happy with it. Um, let me go find my rounds. Yeah, okay. Um, so I had a strong start to the tournament. My first round I hit Chen Pao, which is a pretty good matchup. Um, the Radiant Zard actually won me a game, um, in that one because my opponent, uh, like, started, like, superioring away the rare candies, and then I went countercatcher KO the backs, and they didn't have a board. Um. And Round 2, I hit the Strong Axe Myr, um, but it was the non Pidgeot version, which is like, just an auto win. Um, Round 3, I hit Gustavo, who was playing Guardi. Um, that matchup is just, just really bad. Um, he
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:had Turo, and
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:it's not enough without the Palpatine. It's just, yeah, the matchup is just terrible. Um, round four, I hit,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Dylan.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:hit Dylan.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:I hit Dylan, who's playing Zard. Um, again, that matchup was terrible. I, yeah, I just kind of did the thing. The one funny thing was game two, he opened, like, absolutely horrendous and just went, like, draw pass, Iono pass again, and then I hit turn two Pidgeot Switchcart, um, to donk his Charmander.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Hell yeah.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:So, that was pretty cool. Um, like, I always tell people the matchup is like a little bit stressful, if they know what they're doing. Um, Dylan knew what he was doing, but his list wasn't optimized for the matchup. Like, he didn't have the tooljammer, the lost city. Um Yeah, he didn't have either of those, so it was much easier. Um, but yeah, he started the Charmander, so it was nice to get a free win like that. Um, Round 5, I hit Maridon. Um, so it was Ryan Miller,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:And it was the yep, yep.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:I made a horrendous misplay. I, the matchup's like, not actually, actually great, I think. Um, even if they like, aren't like, um, playing it like perfect, it's, it's just not great. Um, but it's like, it's Pretty much an auto loss if they know what they're doing. Um, I, I got really, really lucky though. In games one and two, I basically hit, like, all three switch cards in, like, the first, like, few turns with Luxray, um, before my opponent was able to get set up. And game two, I threw that advantage away because I, I, I decided to play around fourth switch card instead of, and banked on hitting a countercatcher or Arvin or something like that in the next, like, I had, like, five or six turns. Um, but Yeah, I ended up just just eating garbage for like six turns straight. Um, it was only off the top deck I didn't benchrode him for boss. So like yeah, I was just draw passing. I just didn't find anything until My opponent wasn't close to the Raichu, um, but I hit the Pidgeot and he had two boss in his hand, so then it just, yeah, it didn't work until I got benched out. Um, so that was a really, really bad mistake. And in game three, um, I decided to get up the Pidgeot because I had the Luxray active and my, um, And I just got, uh, ran off the board. So that was like, really, really unfortunate. Um, I think like, like after that misplay, I think my whole tournament kind of just went off the rails. Round 6, I hit Moon. Um, and this matchup is like, supposed to be pretty good with the Radiant Sword, but like, I like, won Game 1, I got Donned Game 2, and then Game 3, I just like, missed the Pidgeot. Um, Round 7, I'm gonna go look on Pokestats. I think I hit another Moon. Um, yeah, yeah, no, yeah, it was another Moon. Um And that, that one was like, just pretty much the same. Like, I won a game, got donked a game, and then like, the other, I just
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:I won. We gotta
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:it wasn't, it wasn't a terrible game, but I just, I didn't set up. Um, I, I think I won like, basically every game
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:A little bit of that Tord mojo, right? It's like, the important thing is playing
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:my, my losses just came from, from not getting to Pidgey it out. Except for that Maraiodon game. Um. Yeah, like, I mean, like, your deck obviously has to be good. My deck was like, it's a box deck, so I had like, a lot of stuff in it, and I just, you know, if I was able to set up and use it, I was always in a good spot, but I didn't, I didn't set up like a good chunk of the time. Round 8, I hit Aiden Coos, who's playing Lostbox with like the double Mawile, um, and that matchup is really good. I didn't get a Pidgeot up either game. Um, I like, it wasn't even like I had terrible starts, um, I like, got the Rotom out, and then like, I'd Rotom and I just, like, wouldn't hit anything, um, for, like, three or four turns and then he would get a Sableye up and, like, start Pidgeot holding me, um, and the matchup's only, like, really good because I don't, um, I don't have the Heavy Sisters, it's only really good if I can get into the Luxray, and to get into the Luxray I need the Pidgeot, so I just, like, I just never got set up. Um, round nine I hit Zard, this was, um, the funniest match of the event because my opponent was a Zard. Um, they had like a really weird strategy, um, both games, they went, the first game they like benched everything, and then turn two benched Radiant Sword, attached fire, switched into it, and like put three more energy on with Infernal Rain, and then devolutioned by Pidgeot, and I was like, oh my, this is like, kind of scary because the Radiant Sword one hits everything, um, except for the Pidgeot with the right modifiers, and If there's, you know, if this guy plays enough switch effects, this is just like a good strategy. Um, so the next turn I went Rare Candy Pidgeot, Pidgeot for boss, boss up the Charizard DX with no energy. He instantly concedes and we go to the next game. Um, game two, my opponent starts Charmander, they go draw a pass, uh, do whatever, then they go Candy Zard. And, take a knockout. I throw up the Mimikyu and then they concede again. Um, and then, after that, my opponents said like, a bunch of stuff. They said, that deck is toxic, play a real deck, and the goal of the game is to take prize cards, uh, before storming off.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:uh, I saw on Twitter a couple of similar posts of people, like, ragging on Stahl after
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:That is all the rage.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Yeah.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, man. This is, yeah, dude, you played one, two, three, four, five people that made day two. Two of them made 32, or like bubbled top 32 potentially, or Dylan was just out of top 32, Aiden made, might have been in top 32, and then Ryan Miller top 4'd, and Gustavo top 4'd. It's crazy.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Yeah, he definitely was, like, heartbroken.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:sacked. Yeah.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:But, Mike! Show people how it's done! Oh, wait! Actually, I had one more question I wanted to ask
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I wish I did,
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:I'm sorry. Uh, Liam, I warned you this question was coming. Let's do it. Last week, you said, I'm gonna play whatever deck Vinny tells me to play.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:heh heh heh.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:On the one hand, the underlying message there is, Liam knew Vinny had the sauce, props to Vinny, the sad news is, you did not do that.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Yeah, man. Vinny could tell that I wanted to play Lax. He was like, man, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna play Tina. That was like kind of a last second call on his end. He'd been playing Tina a little bit before, but, um, you know, he only really committed to it like, I think like Thursday night, maybe. Um, it was like, you know, you've been playing like a ton of Pidgeot recently. You should just, just play Pidgeot again. Um, and I, I, I liked my deck. I thought, I thought it was pretty good. Um. I managed to jam in a bunch of consistency cards, um, I managed to fit the three Pokegear back in, but I don't even know if they're that good, bro, like, cause I, yeah, you just whiff off them all the time, man, like, In my game against Koose, I had, I had double Pokegear after Rotom, and I like, gear, gear, and I miss Arvin, um, like, it's just, it's just like, not, not good, because you know, you always whiff, even if you don't. The method, you just always miss. It's just, it's just no good. Also not, like, a great draw mid game. Like, I'd rather just play better cards. Um, and I cut really low, I think, on some of the raw counts. I went down to, like, two penny. Um, and I cut the ye cheer, so like, uh, I think maybe just third. I don't think Yale cheers needed, but third penny I'd add back in just because like, I guess I'd, I'd just count on like trying to draw the raw pieces more. Um, that's what I have right now. I've like added way more of the raw pieces back in as opposed to trying to like search them out, um, and just trying to draw it or like the, the straight wax version.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:But props to Vinny for getting it done. Very impressive. Alright, alright, Mike, talk to us about Garty. You said, you said Garty's probably the play? Low? Garty.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, well, it's funny, I asked, I kind of said the same thing to Liam on day two at some point, and he threw it right back at me, he's like, should've listened to Ross, man. Ross top 8 ed with the moon, so that's kind of true, I'm really happy for Ross making top 8. If someone was going to make top 8 with that Roaring Moon type of list, happy it's him because he popularized it, and there was a ton of Pretty good players that adopted it, you know, made a couple tweaks and whatnot, but that was probably, at least 50 percent of Roaring Moons were inspired by
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:I think, I think everybody was like, Ross is finally solved War and Moon. He's the, he's the goat.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, we did see still like, you know, a bunch of players even that that finished quite well still played something like the Iron Hands version or a Greninja version, but yeah, I do think Ross's build will Increasingly become the most popular way to play it. It's just much more consistent, uh, at doing what it's supposed to do, while also having a bit of a late game with some disruption to fall back on, uh, and Ross, um, he cut one of the Ionas for a judge for this tournament, and I think, you He was really happy with that change. It gave him a little bit, um, early game disruption as well, especially against stuff like Charizard and Gardevoir, um, which are tougher matchups. You can just slow them down a little bit, and even if you delay them attacking for just one turn, that's usually enough to build an insurmountable lead in those matchups, which is, which is cool. So, yeah, props to him. Uh, but yeah, I played Gardevoir, um, It's the deck that I played the most, it's the deck I have the most fun with. Um, the day before, a couple days before, I was talking to Arjin, who is part of our group chat, and we both wanted to play Gardevoir, and we decided to We were kind of just playing the Bodhi Robinson list with a second research, and then we decided we might want to fit some other cards, so we cut the VIPs, put, uh, some extra ball cards in there, and And we kind of had like one tech spot that we were working with, maybe Palpat, maybe Professor Turo, but ultimately we decided to play a third Reversal Energy. It was mostly for the Charizard matchup, which I think is, like, barely favored for Guardi with 2 reversal. Uh, the matchup always comes down to, as long as they have a decent start, it always comes down to at 4 6 prizes, you know, Charizard takes their, their second prize, do you have the Arcana reversal to respond, and if you don't, you immediately lose the game, basically. You have, like, a little bit of an out, but, like, pretty much, pretty much. Nothing that you can do if you whiff that, so having the third reversal increases the odds significantly of getting that. And it's a good card in other matchups as well at times. It's good against Mew to hit for those big numbers. It's good against any V star type of deck. I ended up hitting a Palkia. Um, and it was good against that just to hit 280 a little bit easier. Um, it can be good against Tina, but it, like, in situations where they, like, hit you with a Cramorant and path you early, and you can just respond with Arcana Reversal, and you don't need to, to bump the path, which is pretty good. Um, also just lets you not put as much damage on yourself if you are responding to a Giratina V Star, um, which is not as relevant with Jirachi, but, uh, it can be. Uh, so, we, we ended up, uh, playing that. I also did win, I forget which round, but there was one game in the tournament where My opponent saw all 10 Psychic Energy, 2 Reversal, and 2 Super Rod, and they, uh, bossed up like a Manaphy or Jirachi or something to try to win the game. And I just hit him with the 3rd Reversal to retreat, which was pretty cool. Um, so, yeah. I mean, the list is super similar to what Jeremy and Cheren played at LAIC, just a couple cards different, uh, based on The text that we wanted to play. Um, so that's kind of how we ended up on variant and list that we were working on. Um, I don't want to go through every single round. The first round was misreported on Pokestats, uh, dude played Maraudon, he was a newer player though, didn't
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Do we need to talk about whether or not misreporting on Pokestats is good? I don't think we do.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:no, we can, we can skip that for now. Um, but he, he, he,
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:A quick question about the list, um, yeah, do you think that nest ball was
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:the Nespal was not Spice. I shouldn't have used Spice, Spice was an incorrect term, for sure. Yeah, that's a, that's a, that's
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:research a
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:callout. Yeah, Research is a good card, uh, unbeknownst to some of my opponents, that It was so funny when the, when the first guy asked me, like, how I liked Research, I was like, uh, yeah, I mean, it's a really good card. And then when the second dude asked me, I was like, what is going on, man? Like, like, yeah, Research is really good. Um,
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:It's a good card.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:um. Yeah, so I started the day 1 1 1, so not great, um, I beat a Maraad on round 1, uh, I tied a Giratina round 2 that I was probably gonna lose game 3, um, and then round 3 I played a Mirror where he played a Turo, so game 1, He took away my win condition at the very end with the Turo, um, unexpectedly, um, cause I was playing, he, I was playing down the whole game, which is usually fine, I don't mind being in the down position, um, but at the very last turn, you know, when I was Basically ready to I was playing around the Iono, right, of course, to try and maximize my odds of hitting the countercatcher play to win the game. Um, but he Turo'd the Guardiax and I couldn't win. Uh, and then game two, the Turo also made it so that the game was not able to finish. Um, like I would have won the game with like maybe two more turns, but he was able to Turo and like stall me enough. Or he stalled me enough. Then Turo was able to make me not able to close out game two. So Tur won him, Turo won him that series that was, and that loss was, uh, my only opponent that actually made, ended up making day two from day one. Uh, so not quite the, uh, crazy schedule that Liam had, day one. Uh, but so I started 1 1 1. So I wasn't feeling super great, to be honest. Um, but then I won three in a row. Uh, I beat a mirror. I beat a, uh, a Rapidstrike in three games, and I beat Brayden Alfert with, uh, Cherim. Uh, I, I get paired against Brayden at 1 1 1, and I'm like, oh man, like he's a really great player, getting paired against him at 1 1 1 sucks. Uh, and then we're talking before the match, and he's like, yeah, I'm just kinda memeing today. He's like, he's like, you're probably playing Gardevoir, right? I'm like, yeah. And he's like, this is, I haven't played this matchup, but it seems really bad. And then he flips over like a Bidoof and Benshin's Cherubi. And I'm like, I mean, I know your cards do, but yeah, he actually would have won our second game if he had a little bit more time as well, but both, you know, we were just two single prize decks and we were both playing pretty fast, but. slugging one prizers at each other for two games straight, sometimes it just doesn't finish. Uh, so,
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:lot of actions.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:what'd you say?
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:A
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, a lot of actions for sure, because he was playing Bibarel, I'm doing Curlia stuff, like, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff going on. Um, so, after round six, I'm now 4 1 1. I get paired against Azard. And it's my first Zard of the tournament, so feeling good. I lose game 1. I probably should have scooped a little bit earlier, but I waited until I was down 3 6, and I didn't respond. But I wasn't drawing super well. I think I Prize Mirage Stepped that game. Maybe I should have scooped a little bit earlier. Because then I win a pretty convincing game 2. And then game 3 we have like 15 minutes or so, so I was pretty confident that we were going to be able to finish. But, uh, turned out that I would have won with one extra turn, so like, on turn three, when he was turn three, uh, I'm down at two prizes, he's at three, I have the Arcana with a bunch of energy on the board, so if he boss kills my EX, I win, if he just kills my Arcana, I have Zacian to win the game, uh, but I did not get the extra turn, so we tie. So 4 1 2, I get paired against the Palkia, and this was a really interesting game. Uh, I play against Palkia, I have a pretty good setup, uh, actually we both have a pretty slow start, game 1, um, but eventually like I'm just winning the prize trade, blah blah blah. I have Manaphy on, uh, on the bench, and at some point he escape ropes? And I only have Ralts dudes on the bench, and so I just send up Manaphy, and he has, he had already played a supporter, and he just has raw Cologne in hand, um, it was like a 4 or 5 card hand, and he just has raw Cologne, so I'm like, okay, yeah, so, so he hits me with Greninja, Which ended up being fine, I was able to, like, countercatch her around the Greninja and still take a two price KO the following turn. And my Manaphy's then on my bench, and so then he goes, he benches Mahwile, and countercatches my Manaphy back up, but then doesn't have an energy to use Mahwile. And he would have lost the next turn, like, if he didn't do this play. So he's just, like, banking that I don't have. An energy, and then he can find an energy the next turn, uh, but I do have the energy, uh, to retreat, and I win the game. Um, but, that was also a really weird play, because then he shows me the WoW Isle, right? So now I know he has WoW Isle. And, so game two, like, turn three, I just lost Vacuum the Manaphy away, and he looks at me really confused. He's like, kind of like, why would you do that? I'm like, I don't, I don't want to get mawiled, man. And so it creates this weird situation where he goes like pretty aggressive with Greninja then. He turned to like V Stars to Greninja, KOs two Ralts, I then Mirage Step. He whiffs a KO the following turn, like attaches a second energy back to Greninja, I don't even kko the ninja. I think I like counter catcher up a V and kko it. And then he ninjas me again. KO's too cur as, but then he is like, he's out of energy. He's used basically all his resources. I owno, I own, uh, I, I owno him to two. Uh, and it's just fine. So, uh, I feel like it was a really weird
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:was a little bit chess y, like, you were like, okay, let's play a game you've never played before and see what you do. And he was like, I don't know what to
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, yeah, yeah, kind of. Yeah, yeah, he was like, you're just letting me Greninja? Um, but it was fine. Like, part of the reason I did that was because, like, I had the Mirage step lined up, and I had all the Ralts in my deck, so I could really easily re establish my Curleas if he did go that aggressive route. Um, and so, like, it was fine. Like, after he killed two Curleas, I just immediately evolved two Ralts, like, Super Rod. You know, because they don't play much disruption. He played a Roxanne. Uh, but no Ionas or anything, so like, I could confidently just, uh, re establish all my dudes again. So it was totally fine. Um, so yeah, really interesting, uh, series of events. Uh, so that was yeah. Yeah, sure. Um, so that was round 8, that was cool. Uh, round 9 I get paired against a Charizard, um, Game 1 was, he got a super, super slow start, um, just really wasn't doing anything, so I just kinda like, set up and chilled, like I could've taken a knockout, uh, like turn 3 or something like that, but there's not really any reason to, so I just kinda like, chilled, chilled, chilled, got energy in my discard, Pass, pass, pass, until finally he did something, and then I was just, you know, taking two prize or, two prize KO, two prize KO, and it was, uh, totally fine. Um, but since it was so slow, since he waited for so long to attack, I don't know if, I don't really know what was going on, um, if his hand was just bad or, or what, but, uh, I don't know, game one took like 35 minutes, so, uh, that was around where it was just one game. Um, so yeah, so I ended day one, six, one, two. Feelin pretty good. My only loss was to Mirror. Uh, Day 2, Round 1, I get paired against Christian Chase. Uh, he's a dude from Florida. I think he lives in Nashville now. But Christian is the guy that, remember when I, um, made the Players Cup Finals? Uh, in that double elimination bracket, the very last round to, like, winning into the Finals, I played against Christian in the Peak of Rahm Mirror. Um, so we had played once then, and then He beat me also one other time this year. We played round one at Pittsburgh Regionals. So, uh, this was like, we were 1 1 against each other, and we get paired round one, day two. Uh, he's playing Las Ventina. We play two really great games, uh, game one and game two. We each take one, and then game three, uh, time is called like at the end of game two. So, we just tie. So, we're 1 1 1 against each other now. Um, so, two ties against La Sentina in this tournament at this point. Uh, round 11 paired against Darren O'Meara, great player, he's playing DT Emu. Uh, I win both game 1 and game 2. Uh, game 2 was a bit closer, he, they could have maybe made a different play at the very end of the game, but, uh, like, They, they, I KO'd the first VMAX for three prizes, and they had four Genesects out, and two Mews, so the second VMAX, for their second to last KO, they could have Psychic Leaped away, uh, but then they would only have the single Mew out, so if I have, like, Countercatcher KO that Mew, they lose, but if they don't Psychic Leap away, I can just also win, by taking three prizes, um, so, it was, uh, I don't know, kind of a lose lose situation, but uh, they didn't leap away, and then I won the game the next turn. Uh, round 12, I get paired against another mirror. I played four mirrors in this tournament. Um, all four of them, we pretty much just finished one game, it was like 35 minutes, and I was on the losing end of that one, round 13, opposite, another mirror, I was on the winning end of a long game one, round 14, I played a game once, um, and so that was the case in round 12, uh, just a really long game one, and It's Jack Carter, Lawson, Tina, uh, we play two games, um, both two pretty good games. Game two he drew, uh, definitely more poorly than the first game, um, but both games were pretty close and, uh, and I took both of them. So 1 0 2 against Giratina, feeling pretty good about that matchup.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:How
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Sometimes you just don't have enough time. Like if it goes to three games, you just don't really have enough time. And then round 15, which was like a win in maybe into top 32, uh, I get paired against Snorlax. And it does not go well. Game 1, I like had some outs because he started Spiritomb, so he had like a slower start. Uh, so I had some outs, but uh, didn't quite get there, and then game 2 I started Cresselia and immediately scooped. So, yeah, it was like the very end of the tournament, I'm like, dude, I am not even gonna try to win starting Cresselia against your Snorlax. Um, so, ended 9 3 3, my two losses to Mirror. And Snorlax, uh, feeling pretty good. And Arjan, playing the same 60, uh, also had a okay day 2. I think he finished, he finished in top 128, a little bit below myself. He lost to Aiden Coos with a double mawile.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:And that's going out on a, that's going out on a strong note.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:So, uh, so yeah, so that's my run, uh, had a lot of fun, glad I was able to at least make day 2 at kind of my last major for, for a long time. And I was glad. Finally made day two with Gardevoir after, uh, after all these near misses. Yeah, for sure.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:many Gardevoir are in top 32? No.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:All right, so Gustavo, Raymond Long, Andres, David Torres, and the dude I lost to in round 13, Michael Meals. So there was four, four in top 32. It had a decent conversion rate from day one to day two. It was like seven ish, seven to eight percent day one, and then like ten or eleven percent day two. Tina still had probably the best conversion rate, but Cardi was pretty good. I'm right on the worst conversion rate of the top decks by far. Uh, Zard, not great, but not terrible,
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:So, any locals coming up, Mike?
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:uh, I'll, I mean, like, I'll still be involved in the local scene for sure, um, I'll play some challenges and cups whenever they come up. Probably not gonna leave the Philly proper them though, but we have a lot now, we have like three or four
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Yeah, I think Liam's got, is it, uh, a challenge and a cup this weekend? Yeah. So, so how do you guys think about, like, are there any conclusions people should take away from this tournament as they plan for Knoxville and or Cups and Challenges? Yeah,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Boon will be a lot more popular, I think it'll, it'll continue to be on the upswing, like, uh, I have I don't have the percentages in front of me right now. I don't know if it'll I mean, it might, like, overtake Maridon as, like, that deck, you know, of that, that aggressive style deck.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Aggressive style.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I mean, it's pretty easy for, like, people that were playing Maridon to
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Yeah, no, and like,
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I agree.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:okay, you're like, doing a weird thing. And now, people show up with Moon, that's like, oh, you're doing a thing people do.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Yeah, it's because they play the Sadas, man.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:It's not as not great. Not a great card. Not for that deck. I think Zard probably Is, like, so Caleb Rodgerson got second, uh, he played Azul's Exact 60 that he posted in a YouTube video leading up to the event. And it had Radiant Charizard and Choice Belt, which I think will probably stay in the list, in the majority of lists, because they are very good against Giratina and Roaring Moon. Like, Ross, Ro
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:that's actually a great point. Like, going forward, just Take, like, whatever Azul says you should play and just play it,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:there's no, there's no reason to get weird, bro, just, just play the good decks, bro, you already know what the good decks are, just play, like, the good lists, everybody, there's a bunch of good lists that came out this weekend, just take a deck from top 8, and, you're, you're playing good lists, you have good chances, don't be weird,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Ross, Ross lost to Caleb almost entirely because of the Radiant Charizard in the Charizard deck. Like, the matchup is not better than 50 50 anyway, but I think Radiant Charizard makes that matchup. Like, very solidly favorable for Zard, because what happened Game 3 is, uh, Ross took a two price KO on, uh, like, Lumineon, Caleb responded with a Charizard EX, Ross KO'd the Charizard EX, so he was up 2 4, Caleb responded with Radiant Charizard and had no EXs on the board, and then, what does Ross do? Like, if he takes the KO, then Caleb just evolves to a Charizard EX and wins the game. So, it can
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:And he played Iona and took the KO, rare candy ultra ball, ugh,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Well, so that's what, that's what Ross was trying to do. Actually, he got into an interesting situation because Caleb evolved to a Charmeleon, so it's like one less card than he needs, right? So he evolves to Charmeleon, and so Ross could have KO'd the Radiant Zard immediately, but Caleb had like a five card hand, just took two prizes, and so Ross waited a turn to find his Iono. And then KO'd the Radiant Zard, uh, but he still found it, cause he had a Mew out as well, so. So,
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:play, W play, good stuff.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:what else can we take away from this event? Sablezard? What do we think of Sablezard, Liam?
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Terrible. It's terrible! Yeah,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:was the only one to do well with it, right?
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:I mean, Shemesky's a guy who got really far playing United Wings, so You know, like, people should just recognize, if they're thinking, I'll just do what he did, that's not a thing.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:dude, I could tell, like, the way he was handling those cards in that top 8 match on stream, like, you know, he, he was definitely doing, like, some cool hand shuffles, some, like, you know, the way he looks through his deck, it's like this, like, top Down thing, like, you know, of course he's gonna do well with Sablezard, like, you can just tell the way he holds the cards, but like, doesn't make it a good deck, you know?
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:they want in Top 8. It's more about whether or not they're destined to Top 8 than the deck they play.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:It's a little surprising to me that no Mews made top 8, because I feel like throughout a large chunk of the event, Mew was doing really good. Like Xander day 1, Pramowat was up there, like Pram, Pram and Xander played at 7 0, I think? Let me see if that's right. Uh, they played at 5 0, uh, but then, Zander and Darren O'Meara played at 7 0, uh, but then like, both like, like, just looking at Zander and Darren for example, Darren started 7 0, finished 7 6. Xander started 9 0, finished 10 5. So like, something happened late in the tournament where Mew was doing really, really, really good, and then it just fell off, like, drastically. Um, I don't really know if that's just matchups, or variants, or, or what, but um, like, there only was one Mew in Top 16. Uh, three in top 32, or like two more, uh, and so like Mew had this super, super successful event in Portland, uh, and not so much here, um, maybe that's Roaring Moon's, like, increased play, like that matchup is not the worst for Mew, but it's not great, you don't want to be playing against Roaring Moon, um,
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:you didn't talk to Walker, did you,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:don't know, Mew could be an
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Yeah, so, so, Walker played Mew, and he was like, you know, Elevator, just picking up a deck and playing it, and he ended up going 5 3 drop, because his friend, Liam Hyatt and Seniors, uh, dropped after Round 8. Um, and, uh, uh, but, yeah, after Round 1, he, he walks back over to me, and he's like, Mew is a terrible deck, I should just drop down and save myself, like, the pain. And we were like, no, Mew is like a top tier deck, and he's like,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Oh, man.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:a good deck. I mean, I wonder how much, like, Mew's success is powered by, like, I mean, the names you just reeled off are, like, the top players in the game, you know? Like, how much is Mew just riding on Xander's reputation
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:because he, um,
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:play that, like, tricks people into playing it? I mean, I feel like that's the conclusion that, like, the John Eng team came to, right? Like, there was a moment where they were all like, Oh yeah, let's play this deck because Xander's doing well with it. And they're like, no.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:It's pretty funny.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Uh, yeah, I mean, speaking of that group, like, Isaiah and John both did quite well with Tina. Isaiah made top 8, John made top 32, so Tina doesn't look like it's going anywhere. Obviously Vinny won, two more made top 8, uh, probably just the best deck in the format, at least for best of three. I don't know if it's any different in best of one.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:I feel like we knew that coming out of Portland, but for some reason Zard is still like, number one. I like a good margin.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:And that matchup is, like, close ish, but I think it's, like, definitely Tina favored, right?
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Yeah,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Um, I do think we'll probably see even more people go with Three Waters, uh, cause this is the second tournament in a row that a Three Water list has won the event. Um, and then, I know Isaiah and John played a Spiritomb in their list, Viddy played Four Path, so I think, like, either one of those is fine. But I think you probably need like four spots dedicated, whether it's Forthpath or Spiritomb.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:And when you're talking about, well, how did Mute do so badly day two? People, people coming prepared.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah, right, right, that's true. We saw two Arceus Gigas make Top 16, Makani bubbling out, and then uh, Joe Turntine also making Top 16. I still don't really understand this deck, but uh, it's a, it's a deck.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:I think it's fine. I just like,
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:How many, how much of those will Liam see at
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:They had,
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Like, are people just gonna show up with these, like, Arceus box decks? People be crazy. Exactly. I
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:some people love their
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:kind of deck that, like, random show up
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:I hope they do. I hope they do.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:random Cups.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Dude, the funniest thing to me is the Arceus innovation, bro. Like, they came this time with the full face guards, and I'm just like And this deck is just judge, pass, pray. Why are we like, oh, we got to fix the numbers. Like, no, just judge and pass. That's all the thing does. Like, your numbers are bad. Like, nothing is fixable. It's, you're just, you're just judge and pass, bruh. There's no way you beat anything else, bruh. Extra, extra 20, I, I don't, I assume there's some,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I mean, it's, it's Giratina, right? You're just, you're just trying to not get loss impacted.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Uh, the full faceguard only goes on the stuff without abilities, and
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Oh, that's true.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Oh no, I guess that is Sina, right, cause you play the Path and you remove everything.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Oh, okay, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Oh, that's cool. I didn't, I didn't think of that. So Path turns off your own Arceus ability and then full faceguard. That's cool. Heh heh heh.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:like You don't beat a good Tino player no matter what, right? Like, you just don't beat a good Tino player. Like, assuming they draw out of the Judge Path. So why are we pretending we're not a Judge Path deck? Like, what? Like, you could probably beat some bad Tino players, especially people who don't see it coming, you know?
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Uh, anything else interesting? Well, Dango had a couple Day 2 spots, one in Top 32. I saw like a couple others going around Day 2. It's not terrible. Not great, but not terrible.
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:I think it's terrible. I think it's terrible. Like, it's kinda cool, but like, you know, any deck that requires you to have like 12 card hand in order to do damage And like, you know, just gets completely bricked by Path is like, not a good deck. Shouldn't play that. Like, it's just not good. Yeah. I
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:all that stuff. Because we are, we are not going to Knoxville and, like, we've, we've reached conclusions here. Anything else that we need to say about, uh, Charlotte?
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I agree. It was cold. It was so cold. Why was it so cold in Charlotte, North
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:a tough weekend, like, globally or something. Worldwide? America wide? Something? Yeah.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Oof. Yeah, like, I thought I was gonna get a little bit of
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:pretty nice. At least compared to where we were. What was happening in the, in DC. I was like
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:I mean, I don't know, man, it was not much warmer there than Philadelphia, like, so, just, it was not snowing, that's true. Uh, the venue was great, the venue was super sweet, um, really big, lots of space, even, I don't know if you guys, did you guys go to Charlotte last year?
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:Yeah,
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Did, did it feel, I assume it was the same location, but I heard
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:yeah, it was. I
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Okay, okay, um, yeah, I, I had,
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:crazy deja vu walking in, bro. That's
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:uh, I thought the convention center was great, uh, food options were always pretty easy to get, you know, you walk, there was the three vendors, like, right up the escalators, um, really easy to get food despite no lunch break, um, I also stayed, like, right near the, like, my hotel was right across the street, so that was, um. That helped as well. Um, but even, like, some of my friends that stayed out near the airport, it was only, like, a 12 minute drive for them, so, overall, like, really good location, and the tournament itself ran super smoothly. If anything, Szymanski was starting those rounds a little bit too quick. Like, they would post the pairings, and it'd be, like, within, like, five minutes, just, like, start, let's go! Heh heh
record_1706051508159_audio_744184d8-e79e-3dff-b59c-0a33755483f9_1706051325433:massive self report. That's a massive self report. This guy's the reason that we always start late. That's why you're sitting down just sitting there and looking at your hand for like five minutes, bro. Oh my god.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:know that the RK9 guys at one point were thinking about, like, offering the ability to, like, get a text message when pairings go up or something like that, but I definitely felt like, like, there gets to be a moment where you, like, you feel like you're supposed to be checking your phone every 30 seconds, you know? And, and, like, so I, I, I'm sensitive to, uh, uh, what you're throwing down there, Mike. Like, it, it can be a little tricky if you feel like you can't leave the venue because at any moment it might go, you know? Like, the fact that there's no, like, this is the time the next round will start, like, he's just gonna go as soon as he gets all the pairings in and like five minutes later the round starts, we could do better. And hey, we're, like, it's not bad, but, we could do better.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:But, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And yeah, so, I don't know, venue, uh, tournament was super well ran, overall. Very happy with my experience, and especially considering it's the biggest tournament ever, right? Like, uh, I think the organizers are really hittin their stride
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Yeah, I mean, for, if you, if you had said, like, what, five, six years ago, there's gonna be a 3, 000 person tournament, it's not gonna be double flighted, and, like, it's gonna run fine. People would say, I just can't imagine that world.
record_1706051508156_audio_5c175722-3ed0-303d-be61-9b746660d985_1706051334675:Yeah.
record_1706051508142_audio_bfce2781-247c-31b6-9a5f-3ec0d0dd5108_1706051242698:Yeah, yeah, super, super well run. Really appreciate, uh, the, the, the hard work that has to go into making something like that be so crisp. Alright guys, we'll be back next week with, like, talking about rotation, talking about new set, talking about all that stuff, and, uh, and maybe we'll have a little bit of cups and challenges action to talk about as well. The John Pulsar outro..