Did you end up playing on Sunday?
Brit:Yeah, I did. I lost my I lost the last, the winning in. I got an, I got an auto loss. I played Urshifu with fighting energy in the last round. It was Johnny. It was Johnny Ray bus rabbits too. So he's a good player. And he, he took six prizes and three turns. He got like, he got like a turn to rapid strike for like, with an escape rope for three prizes. And then he killed a jolty on VMX the next turn.
Brent:Yeah, Johnny's a local for us. So I, I know the
Brit:Yeah. I put some good players. I beat Zander and I played Johnny.
Brent:a, that's the tough draws right there.
Mike:Yeah.
Brit:Yeah. I've
Brent:that's an actual, real tournament.
Brit:Mike and I, I guess we could save this for some of the podcasts, Mike and I played a lot of the same people for whatever reason. I just kept, I was looking at his standings a lot. I think we played like two or three of the same people in many ways. One of those was like a Shadow Rider player. You'd be to Shadow Rider, right? Yeah. That's Shadow Rider got turned to one 90 on my, on my, like one jolty on and I lost. And then my other loss was I went first and Sabal passed it against to coughing. Never gotten going.
Brent:It's time for the Trashalanche everyone's favorite Pokemon podcast tenants, always a hundred percent revive. This sprint Halliburton, Mike Fouchet we're all on Twitter. If you're looking for people to follow, I feel like every once in while I should say that I wanted to recognize that I got one of those updates of like, here's how your year when podcasting went and, and the salient Heidel highlight from that was that Chicago, Illinois was the top city for our pod, more downloads than any other city, We salute you.
Brit:At all.
Mike:Interesting.
Brent:I would like to think that that means that Xander Pero just listens to us nonstop. He plays it again and again, and again, he's that good where that good combined we're even better. It's amazing. We salute all the Chicago listeners. They're fantastic. They should leave a review and we'll talk even more about how fantastic they are. We're sponsored by channel fireball. You're talking about it. Every pod, they help pay the bills to keep the doors open. So we appreciate that. and you know, they print interesting articles and stuff. So if you joined, you could read those articles and that's like a good thing. All right, guys, I got to get into it. The first thing I said, I said, I was going to do it on the Twitter. I'm going to do it now. I said, I was going to apologize to roll last week. You felt like so there's no question. I identified him as an example of the kind of person that might decide. If cups were only in Florida, then they might have to travel to Florida. And when I say I used them as an example, what I mean is people heard me say that, and I can understand that people might have heard me say that. I actually said Rob rent, because everyone knows that I'm as hardcore as they come. And really I'm the example of a person who would probably take my child to travel down to Florida if there were cups. Cause we can't be having those other seniors get ahead of my kid just because they got tournaments that we do not. I haven't said that apologies to star rule as everyone knows, if you're friends with. Or you follow him on Twitter. He is both a very safe person and a very safe person. And if it seemed like anything other than a poor attempt to be funny it was not intended. They're all to make him sound anything less than a super safe person who loves to play some Pokemon. He's a very safe person and I'm sure everybody that knows him knows that. And everybody that heard the pod hopefully recognize that that was a trustful commentary, not intended to slander people. If we were looking to slander people, I'm sure we would've thought of more slanderous people to slander. Although, generally speaking, I think as I think we saw on Twitter over the last couple of days I think the Pokemon community generally speaking, is a fairly safe community. Like most people are safety first, just kind of people it'd be hard for me to come up with somebody who was like really, really, really slim.
Mike:Yeah.
Brit:Yeah. I mean, I think that's right. And it's also sort of the point where like, you know, the community at large doesn't necessarily subsume like everyone who appears at tournaments. So there's always going to be, you know, the, the bad posters. You know how Burbank places like that, you know, I don't, again, not on those groups, but
Brent:Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Brit:there's always, there's always sorts of drama. I'm sure you can't really get get any threads that aren't, you know, at least a handful of people, you know, trying to quote some terrible, terrible pseudoscience. So I have use all, you know, I guess, shout out to all the mods who were patiently, tried to maintain those groups in the best way possible, you know, very bank with like will post and people like that. I know it's a whole lot of work and I'm sure it takes endless amounts of patients, but yeah, like I, I do think that's right. I do think like generally speaking the community is all sort of like, at least as, as we exist, like on Twitter and places like that, like and I guess that's part of Twitter, Twitter being an echo chamber too, I suppose. But like, it's, it's rare that everyone just doesn't seem totally on board. Like, you know, events might be getting postponed here again pretty shortly. And I don't think people are going to be like angry about it, or if they're angry at. For other reasons, not just, you know, the sheer fact that they're, they don't have events or something like that. Like we want events, but we want them to be safe. Like we want the game to, you know, come back roaring bigger than ever before and got to do it right for that to happen, I think. And so you know, just patients and yeah, I don't think, I don't think any top player, really any of the players at the very least that we talk about on this podcast very consistently players like Raul players, like as well. Like I do think, you know, they're good sort of pillars of the community because they do reflect this way. You know, I don't think any of them, at least, again, a really good example too. Like all, I think just like good spirited people with the best of the game and the spirit of the game in mind. So.
Mike:I don't really have much to add. I agree with you guys.
Brent:Yeah. Yeah, so role, hopefully that that is a enough eating Crow for you. We record most of this pod just for you, it's targeted at the roll audience. So we hope you enjoyed that, that particular segment. And we hope everyone enjoyed that segment. It's a great. Hopefully everyone heard that and thinks, man, I got to go leave a five-star review because that kind of safety first eating Crow commentary is the kind of Crow kind of reasonably listened to podcasts. It's fantastic. Should we talk about the EU pulling events for a second since I think that's on topic,
Mike:Sure.
Brent:Our, our, as we discussed last week, all of this is about this our north American events going by by soon. It definitely seems like a slow March in that direction.
Brit:Yeah. I mean, at least again. I mean the hopefully sooner rather than later, but at least just like, sort of playing off. I think it just to go right back to her, I will rule had a thread that Christian Mansky was commenting on. And I, I guess I don't want to sort of him on this, but he seemed more optimistic, like, like his overall sort of response sounded like, you know, it wasn't all gloom and doom. Like definitely things are getting canceled. His he's his same sort of big premise, like under, like it could get delayed, you know, sort of within that realm rather than just like no events for the year, no matter what. So that's, you know, maybe, maybe some sunshine, a little bit of optimism to have. It might not be, we might have a season of some kind still, like, I do think that the, the general sense is that like, if events get canceled, then it's going to be like another whole year without them. So there's, there's alternatives potentially, depending on what's going on. I, you know, I personally. I wouldn't get my hopes up. I'm a little bit cynical and pessimistic, I suppose.
Mike:Yeah. I dunno, man. I I'm Right. now, my assumption is things are not happening, but there was a thread like Right. before we started I forget who it was, Kayla Rogerson I think kinda like just asking the community, like why they thought things wouldn't be coming back and someone did bring up The point. Like all these other things are open, you know, like sporting events and,
Brent:Right. Right. The Caleb post I thought was an interesting Twitter thing today.
Mike:Yeah. So, which is not a bad point. The, I guess like the counterpoint is that for Pokemon, there's not a huge upside publicity wise for a holding events. They don't make a ton of money. If any money, I don't think they definitely lose money actually. And so like the only reason that they're doing it is for PR more or less from a, from a very high level, at least and the PR of having an event that leads to a lot of people, getting sick is not good PR.
Brent:That's a that's fair. That's fair. You know, although, I mean, at some level I mean maybe this is the kind of thing that would engender PR. I feel like Pokemon was always trying to be a PR and there was never like that much local news coverage or whatever about like Pokemon event.
Mike:it's true.
Brent:Mean you know it was like ma maybe to Caleb's point being all these other people are having events and like, I'm not seeing the articles about like how you Yeoh is spreading doom and gloom across America. That's strange, man. There's no there's no one winding this stuff. All right. Let's talk about, should we talk about online tournaments?
Mike:Yeah. the tournament's been definitely do exist.
Brit:I was trying to think before it started, like, have I played tournaments since like the last players cup? And I think I did. I think I played a little bit here and there and chilling rain. They definitely had all the decks. So I don't know, I wouldn't have been playing in tournaments, but I can't remember whether or not I did, but it was the first online tournament in a very long time. I'm pretty sure they all Sunday open.
Mike:Yeah, You want to talk through your stuff first?
Brit:Yeah, sure. So I've just, I've been a pretty vocal supporter of jolty on, on the podcast and the, there was a tournament, I think it was Wednesday or Thursday, I'm forgetting the name. But at the finals was Kaia our favorite guests and Yesper Erickson both former world champions and it was adultery on mere in the finals. And so I just kind of I forget when I decided I would play a tournament, it was fairly spontaneous. I think I just decided. There's something I wanted to do. I hadn't done it in a while. I liked tilty on so forth. So yeah, there wasn't. And so I guess to try to highlight the main differences in their lists, there's not a lot it's generally speaking, the guilty on list seems to be settled on for the most part. Like the Pokemon lines are almost always the same. And so really the energy counts can kind of vary and like the supporter counts, mostly the dry ones. Can kind of vary. And so yes, for his list was like a lot more focused I guess not a lot more, just a difference of a card, but it was like, it plays for Marnie. And so and then compared to Kaia, which plays like an ha plays like an extra research instead. And then I think the kind of floating cards after that, or things like tool scrapper, how many, the badge count can vary. One or two fan of waves are both very popular right now. I actually, I didn't change any cards. I was debating if I wanted to try to meld their list together, but I just ended up playing Gaspers. As again, another thing we've talked about a lot on the podcast and for Marnie and Path to the Peak can make any deck functional, I think any, any V max with, for Marni and for Path to the Peak conditionally, assuming you're not ruining yourself with those stadium cards going to be pretty good. So that was just my line of thought. And I liked it. I do definitely have seen more, some other Joel tan lists that played in the like less supporters than either of them than either of their lists do. And it doesn't seem right to me. I did have some games where I felt like not terribly on the consistency side. And also as I think Brent talked about last week going over. The real games you know, chill as children played over break and sort of lamenting the lack of options and Chelsea on, I definitely felt that across the tournament and it's just like, not a whole lot. I can do, I'm going to do a hundred, a hundred every single turn and hope that's good enough. But it was like, it was a good tournament. I had fun. I, I definitely I made some mistakes for sure. Thankfully it was like a, a never punished scenario. I pulled out those games anyways, very luckily at least one of them, I liked forgot that the fusion energy stopped Zigzagoon and like really needed this executive in that turn. And just got lucky on the morning, the morning peak, essentially. But I didn't, I didn't make any like glaring errors. It was like that. Definitely still shaking some rest off, but overall happy. Like I think my matchup spread was pretty good. I, I B oh, every move that I played, which was two or three, and all of my losses were. Felt like pretty standard. I just like I lost the wind, so I went five and three. I got like 20 nights which is okay. I could like, sort of sell it a little better. It was like my first tournament forever. But like, obviously I'd like to win something like that you want to do as best as you can. No matter what, but like, I felt really good about it. Like, oh, my loss was real. Just sort of like expected, but like not on the lucky side, I would think, or like a, to my disadvantage. And so like I lost two, I Sabal passed against a coffin going first. And so I lost to the Clarion and wheezing Inteleon deck was Sableye. It actually ended up being like somewhat of a close game, like such that, like, I'm pretty sure I would, I would like, it doesn't seem like a bad matchup sort of, I think. Well, no, I think, I don't know if we talked about that last week, but I've thought before that, like wheezing decks, like if you're sort of like low. Like maintenance, like say like Sui, Coon and things like that. If you're a deck that like, even if your ability to shut down, if you're like attacking efficiently and of course, like jolty on has free retreat as does the regular V. And so that's very useful to manipulate the poison damage and things like that. It really didn't think that bad. I like it ended up being somewhat of a close game despite my like pretty horrendous start. So I think like, just if you can just evolve and attach energy. Yeah. Try to just not get bopped by Sableye I suppose, like, it felt pretty good. Definitely the weakest part of that natural for me. And this is something I think I would want to change about the deck in general is that it always plays a very low boss' count. And that's kind of at its best and we're, it's a worst against wheezing because he, like, you essentially only have like one turn to get out of it and maybe, maybe use some key drizzles and things like that. So I definitely think I would add a second boss only having one, like stunk throughout the day, for sure. Like again, like you do the same damage to the active as the bench. So it's like, not as impactful as like, you know, say you knew or something, these decks that play three or four Boston they're more or less winning all their games based around boss' plays. I do still think that another one. Could be helpful. It's just a useful card use. There's all sorts of scenarios and damage. You, you might not know, you know, it could be useful if you ever have to in the attacking with like pen missile or something like that. Like, though that's when it could be useful and to CA TKO Isabell or something. But yeah, so then after that, I lost to a Shadow Rider that just like hit the stones. They, they went first and got turned one turned to like one 90 on my jolty on it was crazy. It was just, they only had one Shadow Rider. Two was like the weird, this part. They had like several Articuno was, and like the Zacian for a turn of the Zacian attach and like, I'll create an eight. So it wasn't like they got like three shadow writers on the board, the first turn and drew a ton of cards. They like got there with only one underworld door, which seems I mean the deck is obviously plays a lot of energy. It's meant to do that, but I felt pretty unlucky. I don't know. I was thinking that it was probably not a great matchup anyways. I'm not sure how it goes. I guess Path to the Peak is really good. So maybe it's fine. And then in the last round I lost to a rapid strike that even played fighting energy. So I just got destroyed.
Brent:can you talk a little about your magic and Zander? I know Xander's been circulating this list. That's like, it's kind of like Ross deck with some rapid strike Urshifu thrown in or something. I mean,
Brit:Well, I docked him, unfortunately, so there's not a whole lot to it. It was dead. I did, I, it was like careful. I had to really, really think about it. Like it was a long sequencing, turned for me to pull it off and like, I just, and I had like one, one of the, I think I had a net prize. One of my nets was prized and it would have been very easy if I had both nets, but I had. I mean, it was probably obvious to like toward her as well. They would have just like snapped on it. I'm sure. But as me playing for the first time, I'm just like, I think I have, how do I do this? How do I do this? But yeah, I just, he Moltres passed and I double pinged it and jolty on turn to,
Brent:nice. I mean, we take the.
Brit:yeah. I mean, I guess to talk about that deck for a second, that doesn't seem very good. Like they, like in theory, maybe like, I don't know. I have definitely built a lot of decks over time that. Like w you know, what's my worst matchup. Like, you know, a card that's tweaked to this. And like, I have tech tech for it, like very, very, very softly and just like, ah, matchup solve, no problem. And then of course you play in the tournament and they still, they still beat you. Like, that's kind of the vibe I get from the deck. Like, I don't think the, the small Urshifu line is going to carry you in the matchups carry you enough in the matchups where it's supposed to. And it's probably just like, undermining your consistency at the end of the day. Like, I know I forgot how many, any other play in it. Like, I know Zander played it in at least like one other tournament before Sunday. And I think it was a well played in a tournament as well. And to my knowledge, I don't think anyone did well playing it.
Brent:Yeah. I don't know someone that I saw a tweet there. They were like, got this list from Zander, went like one, three drops.
Mike:I think it was, yeah. I think it was Slutsky.
Brit:Yeah, Yeah, but he played, he played it to the first tournament that
Mike:Yeah. I also played it in a, in an event. Cause I saw Zander posts that he was like gonna play this deck. And I was like, I messaged you. And I was like, what are you, what are you gonna play? And he sent me the list and I was like, well, I guess I'll try it. My changed a few cards, but yeah, that was kinda my impression after I played it as well. You're taking out a lot of cards that are good in the sense that they help your deck when the games that it's supposed to win and you're putting in cards that will maybe help in match-ups that you're supposed to lose. But yeah, I agree. It's probably not enough. I kind of want to mess around with it a little bit more. But yeah, I agree. It's probably not enough. And like I lost to AMU because I started the Urshifu right. So and I would win that game otherwise. So, so yeah. I dunno, I can talk a little bit more about it later, but. So I, so the night before the Sunday open is when I played this dark deck with the Urshifu line. So also just to give a little more history. So as played the one rapid strike Urshifu and one rapid strike energy, and that was all he changed. So you only changed two cards really from the straight Hoopa Moltres deck. So no wheezing, no Sableye as far as I know. So that's like the, basically the minimal change and I think as will actually did. Okay. Changing two cards doesn't seem that bad, but then Zandra took it a step further and was playing an Urshifu V max as well, and an extra rapid strike energy. And I think he played a one finding energy To and the thought. So the idea of the VMs is that it helps a lot in the mirror and wheezy matchup, because you're able to kind of jump ahead in the prize trade pretty significantly by taking two prizes and the in theory seems okay, but I think it's just, you're trying to make the deck duo a little bit too much. So I didn't have a great experience playing that on Saturday night. And I mentioned on the podcast last week that I thought you could adapt a little bit to all of these dark decks by changing some counts and maybe playing some cards that you normally wouldn't, but they're not. Overly hard counters. They're they're soft counters. So that's Oricorio to make your mellow out is not be one shot by who buzz that's a Marnie or to to just disrupt the Inteleon decks from essentially checkmating you, because they can just build up a hand towards late in the game where they're able to like Clara for Moltres and energies, but not play them and just wait for you to take like your fifth prize and then they'll just kill you the next turn. So a Marnie in theory could be really good for disrupting that just at really at any point in the game, but in particular later in the game and then three wheezing has gotten so popular and it is quite good against mute. But if you play escape ropes, that's also really good against wheezy. So a lot of them, you list for playing maybe like three switch and want escape, rope a lot. We're just playing for switch and no rope. So some of the changes that I made to the deck is I included the Oricorio. I fit in one Marni and I played three escape rope, and only one switch. Other than that, it was a pretty standard turbo new list. I didn't play great balls. That's a little bit different. I guess I, I played for road on phone for chromatic. But other than that pretty, pretty straightforward. And it worked pretty well. I ended up getting top four. I B a couple mirrors during Swiss. I beat a gang Gar, which they didn't really do very much. So that's why I beat that beat a Sandaconda, which was not very good deck B to single strike, which. It was pretty close. I beat the Shadow Rider that Brit played against. He did not have that matchup is very good from you, but he did not have the turn to one 90 against me. And so I played against wheezing dark twice. The first time, turn one, I had to discard Marnie and my Oricorio his prize. So I was pretty bummed. Like the first time that I played it, both of the cards that I was, even if they didn't work out, I just wanted to see if my theory was like, correct. And, and like, I just didn't even, I didn't get any data essentially from that first game. And I lost and then the second game I had to, I never used the Marni, but the Oricorio was great. Stopping the Meltwater from being one shot.
Brent:Assume the Oricorio is just a slam dunk in that match up. Like I recognize Ross designed that deck to just have perfect numbers for that one thing.
Mike:yeah.
Brent:And, and Oricorio just Brexit, right?
Mike:right? And, and the fact that like Brett Brett was saying, he forgot about the fusion strike energy. Like I always forget about the fusion strike energy, but that's the reason that Oricorio actually works is because fusion, strike energy prevents the the Inteleon ping from actually finishing that Kao very nicely. So Yeah. I won that game then. So I was swept seven and one going into the second phase. I played the Zacian Zamazenta deck. I feel like in theory, that should be pretty good against you. And I see it beat me all the time. It feel, it felt pretty easy to me. I do think the, I did use the Marni in that ad. That might be the only match where I effectively used Marni. Like, you know, they Intrepid sorted up to like nine or 10 cards, and then I hit them with the Marni and that was, was really good. The escape ropes were actually really good in that matchup too, because what they will often try to do is hide behind Oranguru and then you can escape rope it and still have your supporter for the turn, which was pretty cool. I beat Mike Reynolds with Joel Deon. I don't know if you guys know Brett, you must know
Brit:Yeah. Oh yeah, no, that's, that's, I'm glad you mentioned. I remember I saw him, he was playing Johnny on it and it was doing well very well throughout the day. And I like, yeah, I mean, I, I sort of remembered, I don't even know if you, I don't know if he's still in the UK, but he had the UK flag, so I assumed it was him, but he as sort of an old school, real school, North Carolina player, like I can't even remember the last season. He competed and qualified for worlds and it was like 20 12, 20 13. It was a super long time ago. Like he's before my time, really, but just a super solid player from North Carolina.
Mike:Yeah, it was maybe like a year ago. I think he was in like the team art discord or something and like was getting back into the game and then he's kind of like been playing on and off since then. So that, yeah, that was cool. We had a really nice game where he like locked me with Path to the Peak for awhile and I think he needed just one more turn to get off the, so what he did is he bossed up a Genesis. Hit to Genesis X, then I wasn't able to get the GeneSight guy to the active. So then he bossed up my third genocide that had no damage on it, did a hundred K one of them and then had it set up so that he would win the next turn. But that turn, I liked drew switch card, or I drew something where I was able to dry out a bit. And then, then when the game so yeah, we had a really nice game really close. And then I got paired up against sack. I don't even know what's his, what's his first name? I don't know. He's like the team carps rats guy, know who I'm talking about. Right.
Brit:I don't know. There's a couple of people that I would have that fit the rats parts and raps people. I don't know them very well.
Mike:Okay. So anyway, he ended up getting second. We, we ID cause we didn't want to play the mirror and we were both like in a good spot to make cut. And then I played rapid strike. I beat that pretty easily fight against, we can move to colo who I w we started playing and I was like gonna win. But then I realized I could just scoop to him and maybe he would make cut and maybe I would play him in top four. So I, so I did that. He didn't end up making top four, but it was worth the try. And then yeah, and then I played the, the mirror and top four against a really good Japanese player. We split the first two games, both not really close. We, each of us kind of dominated one game of the other. And then in game three, I had such a sweet, starting hand. I was going to get a turn one, knockout going second with Melita. But I use Elisa sparkle and two of my fusion energy are prized. So I did not do that. And then I, lost but I got lucky and some other games, so it's it's okay. And then that guy ended up going on to win the event, beating sack in the finals. So one, two and three were all mew. Janice act.
Brent:So I, I recognize one of the things that like, like one thing my grandkids did was he played a fan of waves and jolty on, and I assume that that's too like are more people gonna play fan of waves because they see Oricorio counts going up and they're like, I'll find a way to fix this problem.
Brit:I think they are already doing that sort of, regardless of Oricorio like my list to again, I just met DECT Jasper and I think Kaia played one or two. So I think it's just standard to play at least one in jolty on right now. And I mean, I think it's just good. Like, I mean, obviously I guess it does, I think does have more sort of like cases of use within jolty on compared to other decks. Like, because that the pink stuff is a little more important to you. Not like, oh, I'm being annoying. That that energy is, is always good, especially against mew, that sort of relies on them. And they have like their, their supporters in ways that like rapid strike, doesn't kind of.
Brent:Yeah. Yeah. That was a better answer than the question
Mike:Oh, wait, wait, wait. So let me, let me, I'm trying to understand the question a little bit,
Brent:I like. So, so I mean, we talked about how like you throw in, you throw an Oricorio as a tech for dark and like all of a sudden that match up is fixed. But if they start taking like heavy fan of waves, that's how they tech for like more oratorios right.
Mike:oh,
Brent:the Inteleon things.
Mike:wait, So, Oricorio is minus 20 damage to your guys. so what do you mean.
Brent:like so the, so the problem is there, they, like, how does, how does the math work? I mean, as I recollect, I feel like the Moltres bus, they
Mike:Oh, yeah. I thought you were talking about
Brent:short of killing a mew, right?
Mike:I thought you were talking about guilty now.
Brent:Yeah. Well, I mean, I saw, I recommended jolty on that, as I said, he did a better job of answering the question that I didn't ask him the question I feel like, I guess my question was is this fan of waves make its way into other decks?
Mike:Oh,
Brent:Like those Ross does the, does the dark deck start playing it? Does everybody start playing it? Because like they have to deal with this Oricorio and they're like, well, we're just going to have to like deal with fusion, energy more.
Mike:Yeah. that's a good question. At least in that matchup, the dark versus new matchup, it's, it'd be questionable if it was worth It because like on mellow Veta, sometimes there's just two fusion energies. What are you going to do? You're going to double fan of waves and then ping it. That feels like such a waste. So not sure, but actually now that I'm thinking about the guilty on matchup, maybe Oricorio wait, wait, so don't tell, does it a hundred hundred, right. And Genesek has one 90. So if you subtract 40 damage, that's actually pretty good. Right. But I guess you're not putting the fusion energy on Genesek I mean, you do sometimes, but like they could just ping the Genesis X for the last, like, even if you're doing minus 20, they can still ping the gender sex for the last 20. So what, what, what, what did you find the fan of waves is most useful for. Just to slow things down or you didn't find much
Brit:It never really came up. To be honest, there was like one game where I drew it and I was in like I had them peaked and they were just like, if they topped out of it or I mean, honestly, I can't remember like if it were every game against me or just one, but there is at least one, or I just like flat out lost if they flipped better on krama Maddick, which is good as like feels good in the moment, but just like feels bad from a larger perspective. The deck is just like, so, so good that it just like, I only want online. You know, in theory, my matchup is pretty good, but I only want on these like flips even still, but now it never came up really. So, yeah, I guess to finish that thought, I just like, it helps me like checkmate, AMU under peak. And so they basically, they needed a two top decks all of a sudden, but I like, I never, I never got it after his isle. And I don't think I did it didn't meaningfully matter in the other games, I'd be with you all the other ones were, they just got peaked basically.
Brent:I mean, if you flip heads is really powerful card, like people flip heads with camera Maddix, they're like, that's a victory, right?
Mike:Yeah, there was, there was definitely a couple of times I didn't flip heads that many times on crema MADEC, but there was a few times where I flipped tales, where if I flipped heads, they like immediately won the game. And there was definitely a couple of times that I did flip heads and I was like, ah, that was really important. And other times you're just doing it to burn cards out of your hand and you don't care.
Brent:So did you want to talk about how dark decks evolved?
Mike:I feel like we've talked about it a little bit. I guess I just meant like Azula was trying to the, the Urshifu in his deck and then Zander, you tried to go a little bit further. It does seem like though that nothing is really better than the wheezing version. It seems like that is solidifying itself as the best version. Maybe, maybe the, the regular straight, but Moltres is just as good. It just, we talked about this at length last week, so I don't want to belabor it too much, but the wheezing deck is taking a more central focus. More central focus in its match-ups, if that makes sense. Like it's, it's, it's good. Match-ups aren't as good as the regular straight pummeled treads, but it's bad. Match-ups are better than the Hoopa Moltres. So like it's, it's beating GLT on like somewhat consistently, which I think is really impressive. I think it's rapid strike. Match-ups still not very good, but it seems like it's Jody I'm after is actually like very close 50, 50 ish. And that's super impressive. Like Cooper Moltres never beat Jodie on pretty much so, but I think wheezing loses to me more often because especially if they start playing escape ropes, like, I, I just think you're less consistent in getting the knockouts less consistent and getting the, the Moltres knockouts when you need to, and like wheezing, it's good to slow me down, but it doesn't do enough damage to really matter at all. So so Yeah. But. I think it's cool. That dark has a lot of, it still has a lot of room for innovation because there's so many good. I don't even know if I'd call them good. Like, I don't feel like hoop is that good of a card? I don't think Moltres is that good of a card, but just like, they're good enough in the format. They, it has enough good enough cards that you can kind of innovate and in a flexibility in its spots as like a single prize or type of deck that you can, you can keep fiddling around with things. And I think we'll see people keep fiddling around with things and maybe something else cool. Will pop up.
Brent:You know, as my son continues to play horrible decks and attempt to break the format I think as a response to people playing like lists more like yours in the last week on a PTCGO he's going like heavier wheezing line because the people that playing more scape ropes, he's like. I have to be able to get out multiple weedings early because people are going to rope to be able to do their thing. And I got to have another reason on the bench when people are playing a three, two wheezing line, the men, the odds that you get roped, and you don't have that wheezing, it's pretty high. That's why you're doing it right.
Mike:Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah. Yeah. Did so I know He didn't end up playing that tournament next Tuesday. did. he ever play that deck in a tournament?
Brent:He did. And it went, it went to poorly.
Mike:Okay.
Brent:And then he came back like two days later and tried again, and it went poorly. It turns out we're wheezing. Dusknoir is not a deck people in case you're, you're tracking how the med is evolving putting a wheezing upfront and then try to build a Dustin or very slowly behind it in the current meta-game is, is a horrible, horrible play or, or you know, I think the problem is you know I mean Pokemon, when you're, when you're like, Hey, let me build a deck with like multiple stage ones and stage twos and see how it. you know, like the only way to kind of make it happen is say like, let's play multiple Corvettes. And once your, once your deck strategy is like benching multiple Crow beds in this meta you're, you're like single prize lock. That thing is probably terrible. So yeah, that's how that goes. You know, like, like you have to, if you're saying my strategy has set up multiple weedings so I can manage escape ropes, and then I have to bench multiple dusk schools to get the Dusknoir up, man, man, you need a lot of stuff to go right in your first starter tip that, that as it turns out, never happens. So the one other question I want to ask you guys about that the current matter is I feel like people are going away from sweet and Luda colo to this like big birds, a deck, and any thoughts that you guys play any games against that stuff or, or generated.
Brit:No. I mean, I definitely have seen and sort of observed the slow and steady decline of Sydney so we can lose a close, like placed within power rankings and data datas and results and so forth. And yeah, I definitely just seems to slowly been edged out and I think it makes sense, like, I mean, Some games, like I remember cash posted a screenshot on Twitter where he like, killed him. You on turn to like, it got the like max damage, a Sui Coon, like with Lou to colo, like on the second turn. So like share you'll win, you'll win those games every time. But yeah, I just don't think it's like up to par and consistent enough, I think like the way Tate's been playing, I don't know too much about the birds I had. Didn't see it. I don't know how many people are playing it in the Sunday open. And if there were very many, but yeah, I think like tastes just hammer strategy. And again, it just kind of ends up being a peak deck rather than like a combo deck is the way the main way to play Sui Kuhn right now. But I don't have too many thoughts beyond that.
Mike:haven't played it or played against, and I saw grant maybe debated or did somewhat decently with the deck. I think in Zack's event is aquacise event last night. Seems cool. Doesn't seem like it's a very good deck. It just seems like it can beat a lot of good decks.
Brent:You know, I recognize it's like, it feels like a smart idea when you're thinking about how to build your toolbox, but the fighting zap those. I just can't imagine that ever quite worked out the way you think it's going to work in this meta, you
Mike:Yeah. There's not like it's not like a against Eternatus where it turned. This would have seven V's on the field all the time.
Brent:right. Fred jolty on just plays around it and then you're like, oh, darn it. I lose. Right.
Mike:Yeah. like you need to like, don't you and I have two V's out. And so that still means you need to energy Right, To, to attack. So you're forced to Reihan but Joel Deon does really good at playing around Ryan. So yeah. What are you doing,
Brent:We should talk about team challenge three for a second.
Mike:Oh yeah.
Brent:You know, I thought, I thought the big breaking news was the state registration, but, but you conveniently wait, so are you not in New Jersey? So you can't do the thing, Mike?
Mike:Yeah. I'm in New York. So I, I might be able to find a league. I don't even know if I really feel like doing it, but it does suck because yeah, like I probably, if, if I was in New Jersey, then maybe I would have hit up drew Gretzky and done our team. Again, at least we could have gotten me in Bukari and figure out two other people, but we definitely can't do what we did before.
Brent:Yeah. Yeah. That like, like their, their attempt to stop American super teams is like almost too effective. I know as a Marylander I mean, I think if if I was going to do. I would, there was like a Northern Virginia league. I would do, I would do the fantastic store and I'm like, oh, well, I guess that's out.
Mike:Yeah. Even though it's like probably closer to you than many other things.
Brent:exactly. It's like my closest active league. Okay. I guess we won't do that.
Brit:When they're state locked. Now I miss that.
Brent:locked now.
Brit:Oh, shoot. Well, I've been having serious discussions of just like, okay, let's do this. Let's all queue for one. And then, so I guess that's out the window.
Brent:I mean, I recognize your, your, a residency is like vaguely, somewhat transitory right now. Right? Like you could you know, probably
Brit:mean, I mean, as for the one, I, the first one that we did that I did, I represented them Missouri store while living in Oklahoma, but now I'm in Missouri again. So I'll probably just do the same story. Well, actually, I don't really want to do it. I would want to do it with the group, the group plan I would like. And whether, whether it panned out or not, like say none of us ended up qualifying like that, going through the motions of trying, like that's what I was down for it. And then anything after that would have been icing on the cake, but yeah, just doing it on my own again. I don't think so, like maybe, maybe Yeti gaming is doing it. And like, I would potentially, I would be with like people, I know they, at least players who are good, it was just kind of, I just had a bad team last time and like kind of the frustrating ways, like not good players who, who thought every, everything that happened was they were just screaming about getting unlucky and it was, it was not pleasant things. And you know, that player lost every single game. They played things like that. And so I just like, no, I'm okay.
Mike:Yeah.
Brent:It is interesting to hear that. Like, I mean, I guess that's how it is, but like it seems like in two short team challenges, we've gone full LeBron and like, It's not a, it's not about the, it's not about the store anymore. It's about the super team. And like, these guys want to play together and you gotta figure out how to make that happen. Right. And yet, and yet Pokemon is like, no, no, no. We want to bring it back to the store. But like some of the people want, the people probably want super teams and playing with your friends is fun.
Mike:So one other quick thing about online events, not team challenge related, but. One apparent, I was just looking at what is going on this week. There's actually a, like a regional style event this weekend. So that's cool. I think Zack massage was running it. So that's something to look forward to. I might play in that this weekend. But the bigger point that I, and the reason that I even saw this in the first place is I was looking, I was trying to look at registration numbers and people that have played in tournament recently, I feel like the numbers are back up. I feel like there was a lull for a long time during the fall and whatnot, but now a tournament's are regularly get hitting a hundred and the bigger tournaments are regularly hitting, you know, 2, 3, 400, which is we, we were seeing it, you know, last year, probably around this time and through the spring. But I think the fall there was a big drop, so that's pretty cool to see
Brent:Yeah, I, I definitely mean there's like a a hundred percent tournament. Every.
Mike:right.
Brent:And you can just, you can just pick up a deck and decide you want to compete. And to your point, Brit, if you like, just get a hair-brained, I feel like playing on a tournament today. You can like you, there's no question you can play in a tournament today. I had texted my son, like there's a tournament at six o'clock today and there's tournament at eight o'clock today. You can go play your bad deck. And when you go to drop, you could like those go right back in and do another one to go to drop it's a
Mike:And, and when you have like events that are anywhere like above 50, it just feels more competitive. Right. And so it it's really nice that these events are getting that amount because it didn't, it's a snowball effect. It entices more people to play because they feel like they're actually getting a real good experience.
Brent:yeah. Yeah. I definitely win. When you're the winner of like a tournament, you went three against like six people you're like, Hmm.
Mike:Yeah.
Brent:Before we talk about I think w we have some original, some more design ideas, but I want to just ask you guys about manifests for a second. I know historically we're not people who look ahead, but I look at that and I was like, ah, let me just ask. If they look ahead at all, have you guys thought about how your life will change when they give you a manifest card? Have you seen this Brit bench barrier? It's back? Yeah. Bench barrier is a I think that that would be a big card. Like if there was a bench barrier today, people would say, I'm gonna play that card.
Brit:Yeah. I mean, I, I had the, kind of the same thought. I've definitely said it on the podcast before, but like, all those people were just like freaking out all those cards last week. And I just like, I'm just like, it's just, it's everything I complaining about the game can't be good. Unless it just reprints, like it it's just like, I was like, oh great. There's muscle band, like, oh great. There's bench barrier. Like, oh, great. There's giant stumps. Like, I'm just like, you know, it's hard because I want the game to be better. And like, I certainly will, you know, sort of play whatever iteration that might, may be. But I just like, it's just reprints. I don't know what to say. Like maybe, maybe I'm misjudging things and sort of the area that I like are equally just reprints, but I just don't have any thoughts beyond just being disappointed. It's like, nothing's new.
Brent:I don't like how I, one card splash, double tech can take like multiple decks and just remove them from the med again. Yeah. It seems like, it seems like on the one hand you know what? I like to improve my match up against the snipey decks. So I was playing like a single prize deck for sure. I'd love it. But you know, just, just rewarding people for like punching the active harder seems like a kind of, I dunno.
Mike:do think that. For rapid strike. Won't really care about this very much because they might actually like it to be honest with you because they can use Metta CHAM and Inteleon pings and like, that's pretty good. It's a pretty easy free turn for them. I think Joel Deon is the deck that really gets hurt by this the most. So I, Yeah, I'm not sure. Like I could go, I could see it both ways. Like I like it in theory. I saw some people say that they would really like it if it said all like a non rule box Pokemon, like that would be great. I think that would be like the best compromise. But alas, that's not the world we're living in.
Brent:I liked it when, I mean, and sniping was the less, a part of the Metta when these cards were printed, but then there was, there was the mew that was bench barrier. And then there was a stage one that was like stops damage counters from being placed also. Right.
Brit:Yeah, it was
Brent:And that was much less played. What was it
Brit:a joke, right?
Brent:Mature? That's right. Yeah. And like mew was very widespread and my choke was very rarely played, but I think placing damage counters was like a really like only a thing. So you can never get them a choke at any way cause you were travelog readily.
Mike:Yeah. That would be like if they made that again. Now that would be pretty interesting if it also, like, if it said like your bench Pokemon can't be hit by damaged from attacks counter from attacks or counter through the ability is, but it was on a stage. I think that would be like, that would be cool. I'd be down for that. Getting to stage one out is not the easiest thing. And the reward for it should be more.
Brent:Right, right,
Mike:And I feel like placing counters from an attack is not a huge gain right, now, but abilities from or pings from abilities would be super great right now.
Brent:And, and it would go right into Sanders legs are working deck, right.
Mike:Yeah.
Brent:Tara, let's talk more about the design thoughts I bred. Cause I think, I think you were, you were doing a great
Brit:thoughts, some of the sites in sorry to interrupt you intended for like last week and we just sort of pivoted around it. So I guess I'll start with that. And so I don't think it's in the document anymore, but I, at one point it was a few weeks ago sort of even remembering or misremembering the gist of it, but it was. You know, like a Danny tweet, you know, essentially, like if I think it was something to the effect of just like, if you're having fun and it doesn't necessarily matter if you're the best player, if you're winning or losing Vermont and something to that effect. And I just, like, it sort of occurred to me that like, that does seem to be like the standard. Like we talk that way all the time. Like, you know, if you're not having fun, don't play or just like, you know, it's about the experience on necessarily whether you win or lose or not. But we don't seem to give that kind of like, you know, credence to like the designers. Like what if, what if designers are not focused on the top 0.01% of the game? What if they're like doing other things with the cards? And I, I just think that's right. Like, I think that like when we, when we complain about the formats and we complain about the cards and we complain about like design decisions, that Pokemon makes, I mean, as I was just doing about reprints and things like that, I think we sort of, you know, we're so narrowly focused that. Like the competitive players, particularly the top competitive players are just like, not anywhere close to the main priorities. I know. I don't know exactly what, what Pokemon is up to, but if I have to take a gas, like. It's not, not a concern, which is something I think that you would think that's wrong. Like wouldn't you think your main focus should be on like the utmost competitive play? And I just, I just think that just totally misses like the casual audience, which almost certainly is a bigger sort of population than the competitive scene. And so there's, you know, not, not to say that the game couldn't be better, that the game couldn't be more balanced, but I just think that like, as competitors, we have this just sort of like this assumption, this want that, like, that should be you know, every single card should be prioritized around being competitively viable. And I, I just think that's wrong. I don't think for one, I don't think that's possible. I don't think you could have 150 card set or what have you. And every single card would be good. I don't think there's a world where that's possible that doesn't just like ruin previous cards or just like. Create drastically Metta games, every time a new set comes out. Like, I, I just think there'd be a lot of other concerns that would prevent that from happening. But then yeah, like at the same time too, like I can only talk about my somewhat limited experience on Hearthstone. And it's just like, I mean, obviously, and obviously to Hearthstone is a game that kind of gets dragged on sometimes or being like, you know, not great, you know, this meta games, terrible, this meta games, all N G like those sorts of those sorts of concerns that we hear all the time and Pokemon are equally sort of applicable across all card games. And I just like you just, I just, you have, you're thinking about it through the wrong lens. Like, you know, I let's say I make legend or something like that. 0.01% of players there. I don't know. It's probably a little higher now, but like it used to be roughly that high. I think it's just like, do you know how many millions of people play Hearthstone every single day? Like the average player is like not, it's not competitive and good. The average player is like, probably not even average in skill level. Like they're probably below that. And so like those players take up a lot of like design space and things like that. And I just think that like, if we stop, you know, I don't know. I didn't mean to like, not here to like give a gospel or anything like that, but I just think that like a lot of, a lot of our like discontent with Pokemon, I think it was just from our attitudes. Not necessarily anything like about the game and just, we just like assume wrong things. And like, I just, again, Pokemon is sort of in a peculiar place cause like they don't have to limit it cards aren't designed for limited or it's. Whereas that is true for like basically other, every other card games. But all that to say that I just don't think that every single it's it's wrong for us to think that every design, every design choice ever made is made with competitive play top level competitive play in mind. And it's made
Brent:So here's my question. How, what kind of design choices do you make if you want the game to be fun? Like, like, I, I think my, my company. That I think lines up with competitive players. And I think we know the Pokemon's ignoring. It is like, I want them to design the cards to like, be more skillful, right? Like, like, like more complicated, more options, more wall of text on cards at like this fun mean no wall of text on cards. Like, like if you say we want to make the game more fun, what design decisions do you make?
Brit:I mean, I think.
Brent:fun, for casual.
Brit:I don't know, I don't have a good answer to this because I think it's so much of it is positional stuff, positional, like everyone's designed philosophy. Like all of our philosophy is politics, science, so forth. They're just grounded and, you know, layers upon layers of like other sort of tacit things. And so I don't like, I think to answer what makes something fun would have to depend on like those answers. And like, I don't know, like Hearthstone is, is an example of something. I actually think, I think Hearthstone has just, I mean, obviously I'm a little biased, but it's just such a well-designed game. I think if, if you pull, you pull your head out of the, just like, you know, the high legend ladder being difficult at times. Like, so I think what makes Hearthstone fun is the sort of, it's like. It's sort of ability to create like one once in a lifetime games off just like the sheer, sheer zaniness of like the RNG and things like that. So it sort of plays a lot with like randomness and generating random cards and like doing random things and things like that. And like, for me, that's fun. Like I think like, you know, even though I'm like competent are stone, I would say like, I, I do usually enjoy it, even if I'm winning or losing because of like, it's always novel. Like there's, it's, it's unique and different and changing. And I think their sort of philosophy is emphasizing those things rather than like, emphasizing, like how do we design an animate chess or something like that. I'm like, but you know, maybe that's what maybe you're looking for. And some of those things like that's how you would design a fun game. That's like, you know, more. You know, something that can be solved in a way like go or chess can be solved. I'm not sure. But for me, I think it just, it had to be somewhere in the middle. Like you, you want, you want skill, but you want sort of something unique to come out of it too. And I, they don't have to be like at a total equal liberate equilibrium with each other. I think that the scales can ever so slightly go one way or the other. But I think that's like where like Pokemon struggles, like I think we we've even talked about it before and some of the tag team format. So we liked, I remember saying something to the effect of like, it's a good format, but it's not fun. Like these games are skill-based, but I don't know how much fun I'm having, like with, with like like Pikarom and things like that. And that's like, I think maybe an interesting example of that sort of like duality in that, like, you can build it, you can build a skill-based game, but like, it might just be sequencing. That's the skill-based part, you know, things like that. So, yeah, I don't know, like, I'd be really, this is what I was saying. Like, I'm so new to all of this and I it's just its own particular way of thinking more than anything. I really need to find like some like a book I would love to read. I'm sure. Like I said, I think last week, like I'm sure some like famous Nintendo executives have, have written a book or something on it. But yeah, I don't know where Pokemon sort of emphasizes, I would guess it's like somewhat adjacent to the way like Nintendo designs, their games. And it's like that even that is like much different than like the big Sony games or Xbox fortnight, things like that. They just sort of have different things in mind when they're there, they're going about it. But like, I dunno, like what does make, what makes Pokemon fun? Like I think we could come up with like a pretty good list of just like, well, this format was good. Why was this format good? Well, this format, it was good. Like what about it was good? Well, it had this, it didn't have this. Like I think we could sort of talk our way through through that sort of question at another point in time. But. For Pokemon. Yeah. And I just, I don't have a good answer right now, but it's definitely something I had think about.
Brent:Yeah. I think like not non-linearity jumps out of me is like one thing that I always like about a format. And like, I think hearing you say that made me realize, like, I think I distinguish like skill-based design from competitiveness. In the, like, if you wanted it to be like more skill-based and more like maybe random outcomes, you can make decks full beer cards, full of beer. Like everything could be flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, right. And like competitive players would be like curses the flipping anise. But, but like, you could still make the cards and the game, like way more skill ish while, while keeping or increasing randomness maybe. Right.
Mike:Yeah. Well, so like, that's, that kind of reminds me one thing that I've always thought about magic, the gathering, and I don't have like a ton of experience so I could be wrong, but I know how to play. I've played in like little pre-release tournaments is that the game is felt more skill-based in some ways and more random than other ways because of the lack of car draw and search. You're so often just playing with like your initial hand and your top decks, and there might be more decisions that you make any given turn, but that aspect always seemed much more random to me, Brent, I think you have a good amount of experience with magic, Right. Does that sound accurate or not really?
Brit:Did you say Brett or Brent?
Mike:Brent, right?
Brit:I do have, I do have
Mike:Do you, do you not have experience with magic?
Brent:I mean, not dissimilar from yours, like we've had decks into vendor like local.
Brit:I played. Yeah, I played a little bit. It was when I was still in high school, I'm more or less just like, had a lot of store credit at my local game store because I like played Pokemon and did it well, I'm more than just kind of like bought like standard decks. I played played standard for a little while. I like played in some like PTQ I like, I like one, I sort of, I guess that was a fun story. Usually at least in my store, you just always would like split top eight. And it just seems to be the case with like all the Pokemon tournaments, the cash tournaments are usually a split. You don't ever play it out. And one time I made top eight and my. I didn't want to split because I was a Pokemon player and they thought I was like bad own crushed them. And I won that Friday night magic. Like I, I, I beat it, beat him in top eight and then the next guy didn't want to split. It didn't want to split either. And I beat him miss playing the whole time too. Like some of these players are like pretty good at magic. So that's the good part. Like I didn't have a full side board and things like that. And then the last guy didn't want to split and I just happened. I won that too, but I, I did, did have some like local level success at magic. But yeah, I think that's right. Or at least I've definitely had like similar thoughts. And like, as, you know, if we create characatures of like a Pokemon player and a magic player, they're just like the magic players, like, can you believe this draw seven cards, this would be band and magic and things like that. But yeah, like at times too, like, especially when you like have to Mulligan to like a lower hand size, she has like immediately on the top deck, things like that. And it's the top, the, the sort of just like the top tech itself is often, far more impactful and magic compared to other games. But yeah, I mean, and maybe this can segue us to sort of my next point, which is just a flaw. I think I'd really identified it's I don't think it's terribly obvious. Plenty of people probably have said set it in less or better words, but. And magic is a good example of this. And so it's Hearthstone, but like for those, like in Hearthstone, it's the classes and magic, it's the colors. I think really all of them maintain a very distinct identity. Like, you know, you could like, I could, you know, I could read you just like I could read Mikey a Hearthstone card and he, you would probably be able to guess what class it belonged to assuming it wasn't a neutral card. Like if I, if I like sad, like, you know, battle cry, gain armor, you'd probably guess warrior, you know, if I, things like that. And a lot of the, like the design tests that I mentioned last week, that they do stuff like that. Like some of the questions essentially are just. You know, here here's a warlock card with things, but clearly don't belong in warlock cards. They're like here, here's a blue card with affects that. Clearly don't go on blue cards and that's something that Pokemon just doesn't have unless I'm wrong. But I I've thought about it. I thought about it really hard and there's just no identity between the colors there just seems to be. I think this is how I put it in the agenda. Just like just a grab bag of things. Like we recycle concepts, we recycle things, but it's, it's rarely that we recycle them within the context of a single type. And so like one example, I guess off the top of my head could be like Eternatus versus in. card more or less colorless versus dark. And I think that's, I don't know if it's necessarily a problem, but it's definitely something compared to other games that Pokemon just doesn't have there types just don't really have identities. And some of that, I, I guess like psychic, psychic, I think has a decent one, like psychic abilities or very consistent, like sort of the doing consistency things like Gardevoir tap Laylay, things like that. So I'm sure we could sort of do a general list, but at least in the way that our stoner magic are very sort of entrenched in these core identities, I don't think that's true. Applicable to Pokemon like at all
Brent:Know, I think the classic example of my mind is always the electric bronze on
Brit:yeah.
Brent:laughy. Why, why does it like rotate among types? They're just reprinting the same ability to get a.
Brit:Yeah. They just seem to choose like a, you know, a flavor of the week and that's, you know, like this Monde grass, Pokemon are getting dark patch, you know, it just seems to be things like that. Like, and like, I, and maybe that would help. Like I think if, if the types had like a better identity that would you, you would lock into the identity and you can meld it and you can manipulate it and do different things like, Like you could do, you know, DynamoDB versus look type closure and prime, things like that. Like there, there are similar similar abilities that are that aren't just sort of regurgitating the same thing every time you can sorta. And that's, I guess too, part of what I'm thinking about, like with the like retreat soft, the retreat cost stuff from last week, like you can design within the do different things within the context of the same space. Like I just, but for them, it's just, it just like, it's the colors that seem to rotate and not really anything beyond that.
Mike:Yeah, I feel like, so there are like some days things, right? Like there's I guess a little so I'm thinking like rain dance is like a pretty popular thing for water. Fire fire. I feel like has some dramatic things
Brent:Although RainDance was printed for inboard,
Brit:you know, rain,
Brent:they didn't probably print that for fire. Cause they're like, why not?
Mike:right.
Brit:on dark too, but yeah, I mean, if you're talking sort of like within the context of
Brent:Right.
Brit:like plastic Pokemon or something, obviously we rethink LDS. We think based that blast toys for rain dance, but as, as time has gone and maybe that's part of it too, and maybe there was more of an identity, like early on in the game and it's just sort of fell to the wayside or something like that as we've evolved and implemented more and more mechanics,
Brent:Although, you know, what's interesting is I think that identity exists more on the BG side.
Brit:Yeah, definitely. I'm sure.
Brent:And maybe it's just cause they're a reprint essentially reprint the same Pokemon with the same attacks over and over and over again, because that's how the video game works. But like you know, there's that consistency.
Mike:Yeah,
Brit:Yeah, and I didn't have too much more than that, but I'm just like trying to spend an hour or so every now and then just like putting on my, my hat, my game designer hat, and just like, trying to think about Pokemon, just like I'll have card designs eventually. I think that's sort of my hope maybe to just like, introduce like a mechanic or something that I think would think would be cool, I think would work and could like co-exist in standard or something. But yeah, I mean, that was just like one of the main problems, at least for me, I think it's. I think it, like I said, like we said, I think it's, it's not sort of absolute, there are specklings of, you know, consistency across types across time. But I do think in general, it's it's like that it's it's dark patch. It's metal saucer it's Aqua patch. It just changes color.
Brent:Yeah, that, that, that is the Pokemon go to move. I like the way you had described the wheel with part design, we, we pick a type, we pick a, one of our go-to concepts and you find out what it is. This a, this season. Here we go. Anything else guys?
Brit:No, I think that was a good one.
Brent:The John Paul's door out from music. All right guys, take it easy.
Brit:you, Brett. Take care.