Brent: 0:04

Alright. Welcome to the Trash O'Lanche. It's the only podcast about the Pokemon trading card game. You'd think there would be more? There is not. We're all on Twitter. My Twitter is b halliburton. I I wanted to just take a moment to acknowledge that I think it was Will Rowe and said our audio was not good. I've been trying to improve it. Send me a tweet if you have thoughts or ideas or or if you just wanna tell us that we're winning or not winning. I appreciate feedback. If you leave a review, we will read it on the pod, and then we will discuss it from time to time throughout the rest of our lives Even when we're not on the pod. So we appreciate all the reviews people leave. Dragon Shield sponsors us. They just sent us a bunch of Please, we very, very much appreciate that as always. I recognize people tweet how they got bad dragon shields and pictures of, like, miscut sleeves from time to time. But I think the nuance it's missing there is like, that's the squeaky wheel because the subtext is everyone buys tons of dragon shields because Dragon Shield sleeves are awesome.

Liam: 1:06

Dude, people also be complaining about the, like, the sides of the dragon shields, how they're, like you know, some sometimes have, like, these, like, little markings. And, like, they're there, but I I've used Dragon Shields to have those same markings, and I've I've never had any issues with it. Like, it's such a small thing. I don't know why People make a big deal out of it.

Brent: 1:25

Yeah. You know, 1 1 thing that is not Frequently discussed. But, Mike, you can validate that that you do this because I know we do this, and I know I feel like everyone we know does this. Like, If you sleeve a deck and you have not both shuffled the sleeves and shuffled your deck before you sleeve it up, you're, like, kinda doing it wrong. So the idea that, like, you get a weird miscut thing where, like, all your Ultra Balls end up, like, with the same, like, weird sleeve corner or something, that should never happen.

Liam: 1:51

Yeah.

Mike: 1:51

Oh, yeah. So you're you're you're saying sleeve it up in a in a random order. Yeah. Yeah.

Brent: 1:56

Yeah. Like, if you if you sort your deck and then just, like, sleeve it top to bottom, Like, you're you don't understand how to play the game. Right? Like, that is part of the exercise of, like, making sure nobody thinks that you've marked your cards or anything. And, like so so, hey. If that's a PSA for people, an absolute news flash, then I'm, you know, glad I could help. It's an incredible service we offer

Mike: 2:18

Yeah. That's a good call out because it's, like, something that is just so obvious to me that I

Brent: 2:24

Yeah. You

Mike: 2:24

even think to really say

Brent: 2:25

thing to talk about.

Mike: 2:26

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. True.

Brent: 2:30

Speaking of things to talk about, let's go Ryan Antonucci. Knoxville and Melbourne this weekend. 2 relatively small tournaments, but bigger than tournaments we have coming up prior to Vancouver, I think. Liam, Mike, what what do you guys gotta say about Melbourne and Knoxville?

Mike: 2:48

I mean, the first thing that you Said. Big shout out to Ryan. Ryan's a a Philly local. Known him for a while. You guys have probably known him a bit for a while as well. Great player.

Brent: 3:00

stuff. He's awesome.

Mike: 3:01

Yeah. I don't think he I think this is his first regional win. He's made some top eights before he top aided And I see once for sure. But Ryan's really good, and he's been he's been pretty much just playing Garde since At least since worlds he might have played at n NAIC as well. I don't know. But he's just been grinding Garde. He won 4 cups around here with Garde. And, like, I've talked to him a bunch. He understands the deck. He understands the matchup. So he finally had his Run hot tournament. To see. He's such a chill dude to play against as well. Like, round we played I talked about this on the pod before, but we played round 1 of worlds. And it was so chill. Like, he he wasn't cutting my deck. He was like, I I don't think we ended up having any, like, take back stuff, but I'm sure, like, if 1 of us asked to, like, take something back, we would have been okay with it. Like, I don't know. Ryan's just a really, really chill dude to play. So it's really cool to to see him do so well.

Brent: 4:05

Yeah. Absolute, homie. And how how it sounds like you guys have talked about the Garde deck a ton. Because that was not the only guardie shout out for for Mike over the course of this past weekend.

Mike: 4:18

Yeah. So Natalie,

Brent: 4:20

Natalie Miller also said yeah. Friend of the pod.

Mike: 4:24

Friend of the pod got top 4 at Melbourne regionals with Gardevoir, and a bunch of their friends played it as well.

Liam: 4:33

little testing group or

Mike: 4:34

Yeah. Like,

Brent: 4:35

Kaiwan testing

Mike: 4:37

Kaiwin, Christian Hassebani. I don't know Max Prescott, but I've heard the name a little bit. So they all played it. They did pretty well. It was a couple cards off what Arjun and I played In Charlotte, the the main, like, call out is the third reversal energy. They continued to play that, changed a couple other cards, No VIPs. So that's pretty sweet to see. I'm glad we we got to inspire them and to do well. Natalie did message me after Charlotte, and we talked about the list a a little bit. So happy to happy to give some give some help there For sure.

Brent: 5:13

So, basically, I'm gonna give us credit for winning 2 regionals this weekend.

Mike: 5:18

Yeah. The the trash land's basically won

Brent: 5:20

Yeah. Mike Mike picked up, like, 800 CP this weekend. It's an incredible weekend. A hell of a run for a guy that is taking some time off.

Mike: 5:31

I wonder if when Nucci gets to 600 points, I wonder if he can just gift me his second invite.

Brent: 5:36

Oh, man. There you go. There you go.

Mike: 5:40

While we're talking about Gardy, Gardy had a good weekend overall. 2 top eights In Melbourne, 2 top eights in Knoxville. Ryan getting first, Raymond Long making top 8, and then I don't know exactly know how to say this name, but Gitano Pisani also making top 8 in Melbourne. So pretty good weekend for Gardi. A lot also in kind of the the top 16, top 32, general day 2. I think already had the highest like, the best conversion rate from day 1 to day 2 in Knoxville at least. Not the most popular day 1 or day 2, but really good conversion rate. So maybe that kinda is a good starting point for talking about just the meta game and how it shifted a little bit. Like, why did Garde Do so well this weekend. Liam, what you got?

Liam: 6:28

They got blessed. I

Mike: 6:30

God bless.

Liam: 6:32

Dude, it was like like, 40 percent of the meta was like Zard and Moon, bro. Like yeah. I don't know. And then there are obviously a lot of good players playing it. Lot of high rolling happening. Some good matchups because Moon was 20 percent of day 2. And, like, we we've always known that the deck is good, So good players are playing it. Medi game was good for it. Deck's good. Good results

Mike: 6:56

Did you watch Ryan versus Ian in top 4?

Liam: 7:00

I wish a little bit of that came.

Mike: 7:02

Dude, there was I think game 2 was I was just cracking up, like, the whole game because both of them, every single turn, if you could imagine the best possible thing that they could do, they were hitting it. Like, every single turn. Like, Ian Ian went first, got a turn 3

Liam: 7:19

usually wins in those situations.

Mike: 7:21

Yeah. Yeah. That's the the Yeah. Yeah. Ian did win that game. Like, Ian went first. Maybe only got 2 cards in the lost zone, but then got a turn 3 Sableye. And then Ryan had 1 card in hand going into his turn or, like, 1 card plus his draw. And then just, like, hits 2 energy off his arcana, so he doesn't need to hit a path bump. He hits he hits a iono off the off, Like, a couple cards. Like, it was just so insane. Just like back and forth, like, hitting the nuts. It

Liam: 7:51

energy are kinda hit.

Mike: 7:52

Yep. Like, it was so it was so funny because, like, you know, Ryan draws the 2 with Arcana, just kinda looks at them, And, like, gives the look gives the look like, alright. I guess. Like, sounds good. Yeah. So Ryan definitely definitely had some fortunate luck in the finals as well. Aiden made a really big mistake where He attacked with his Pidgeot v and well, first of all, sucks that Aiden had to attack with Pidgeot v. But Second of all, he thought that the attack did 80 plus 80 if there's a stadium card in play, but it does 80 plus 80 if you have a stadium card in play. So Ryan had a stadium in play. They did the 1 60. Ryan started his turn. They did a couple things, and then they realized so they were able to rewind the game state back, but he got a double prize penalty in a game he probably was gonna win. So definitely some plot armor there.

Liam: 8:51

It's insane.

Mike: 8:53

Yep.

Brent: 8:53

crazy. That's crazy.

Mike: 8:56

Yeah. And that's a that's a pretty tough matchup for for Ryan. Lost box with mobile mobile.

Liam: 9:04

I think it was just 1 mall out,

Brent: 9:06

Yeah. 1 Mawile. But 3 super odds, I mean. You got unlimited access to Maw Wiles. Right?

Mike: 9:12

Yeah. And Ryan didn't play a turo, So he basically couldn't play Manaphy or Jirachi or Radiant Greninja the entire set. And Ryan's, like, starts weren't that great, but they were really good specifically for that matchup. Like, he started Zashi in both games, which is, like, typically not great. Right? But, like, really good when

Liam: 9:36

get, like, your best starter. Right? And

Mike: 9:38

right. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. Like, really good for for that matchup in particular, and Aiden wasn't able to just get the quick dragon eye either game.

Liam: 9:46

Yeah.

Mike: 9:48

So, yeah, really, really interesting really interesting games on stream for sure. While we're talking about the the lost box, my wild deck, that is the deck that Azul and company, uh, played as well. Their list was a little bit different. They played also played 1 mile while, but they played an echoing horn to, like, really get people. And they didn't play any bosses order. They just played 2 counter catchers. So and I know I know, Liam, you watched the Azul's game on stream. Right? His When in May being

Liam: 10:23

Yeah. Yeah. I think I I watched a good chunk of that.

Mike: 10:27

yeah.

Liam: 10:29

Yeah. I I know he said in the the interview after, he he didn't wanna play the deck, But but crank out to make the call. So

Mike: 10:38

Yeah. Yeah.

Liam: 10:39

yep.

Mike: 10:40

It's kinda cool. That game was really that game was really interesting. The ending of

Liam: 10:45

To the the cayoga rib was was super unlucky. I know we were talking about how there there was maybe something he could've done to to make it a little better, but I'm I'm also not completely sure.

Mike: 10:58

Yeah. Maybe he'll go back and Avad review his own game because even just that 1 turn was super, super complex.

Liam: 11:06

Yeah.

Mike: 11:07

So, yeah, it was pretty cool. So that deck, the kind of the lost box my wild deck is, I don't know. That's kind of like a standout for me from this weekend. Like, doing pretty well. It seems like a pretty strong deck overall.

Liam: 11:22

that looks pretty cool. If Gardy's at Turo, though, it should be really bad. Right?

Mike: 11:27

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true.

Brent: 11:31

What was crazy to me was I felt like like it seemed like Lost Box was kind of everywhere, and there were a lot of different builds.

Mike: 11:39

Mhmm.

Brent: 11:41

yeah. I mean, Aiden Aiden played that. Azul played, as you said, a slightly different list. Eleventh place Michael Ginchero Played the Radiant Charizard build. And the Piper Lapine, top 30 two'd with an iron hands. So was that

Liam: 11:56

Yeah. I've never played, like, a really weird box.

Mike: 11:58

She played, like, the super effective

Liam: 12:00

super effective boxes.

Mike: 12:02

And then Dean's right behind Piper with just kinda like a a Rory Moon Hands deck. And that also got top 8 in Melbourne.

Brent: 12:11

Right. Right. He played the exact same list as Tim Franklin who got fifth at Melbourne.

Mike: 12:15

Yeah. Well, I think Tim played the same exact list as Dean from Charlotte. then and then Dean also played the same list here.

Brent: 12:25

Yeah. Like, it just seemed like there was a lot of, Like, lost box decks instead of people playing like Tina. And, uh, that's that's like, I mean, it just goes show it's a strong engine. You can do whatever you want.

Mike: 12:39

Yeah. And Kyogre is kinda back a little bit. I think, like, maybe a big part of that as well is, As Liam said, Roaring Moon had a really huge weekend. Second most played deck in day 1, most played deck in day 2. Kyogre is very good against Rory Moon.

Brent: 12:59

People see Ross, and they just wanna be him.

Mike: 13:03

Ross. Yep. Yep. Speaking of that, Ross's 60 got how many more entries on limitless? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 5 more. 1 of the top 8 roaring moons was his exact 60, Kamal Crooks.

Liam: 13:18

I I think it's pretty crazy that, like, people arrived at, like, I I guess, like, the optimal Roaring Moon 60 so fast because, like, so many people ran it and and did super well with, like, Absolutely 0 change. And it's it's been, like, 2 tournaments since, like, Ross, like, brought out the idea of Like, full research or whatever.

Mike: 13:40

Mhmm. And there's lots of people that did well that, you know, maybe it's not the exact 60, but it's really close. Right? The other the other top 8 list cut 4 cards for 4 Pokemon catcher. JW Coming in tenth, I think is 2 cards off Ross's list. He put in 2 counter cat or 2 Pokemon catcher for for 2 other cards. So, yeah, it's pretty

Brent: 14:04

Yeah.

Mike: 14:05

interesting.

Brent: 14:06

There was a lot of other weird stuff too. Top top 8 Iron Valiant.

Liam: 14:13

Yeah.

Brent: 14:15

I mean, is that is that catching people off guard, or is that just absolutely high rolling the whole

Liam: 14:19

Yeah. I I saw that stream game against Moon, and that matchup looks like it's, like, heavily, heavily favored. Because, I mean, you basically just throw the the Moltres and the Radiance Art at them, like, every turn.

Mike: 14:32

Mhmm.

Liam: 14:34

Yeah. Anything with radiance are should really stop moon, probably.

Brent: 14:38

Right.

Mike: 14:38

And And he played a spiritomb as well. And spiritomb is really good against Roaring Moon.

Liam: 14:45

Yes.

Mike: 14:46

And that's a kind of a good talking point too. Both of the Giratinas that made Tapia in Knoxville both played Spiritomb. So I know Bradner had played it at Charlotte. And we it's kind of been like in and out of Tina Decks over time. But I think now that Roaring Moon is such a prevalent deck, like, Spiritomb, I think, is probably a staple in Giratina, and it should see some play in Some other decks as well, like, is really good against Rhoyne Moon. And it's really it's obviously very good against Mew. So

Brent: 15:21

And then in Melbourne in top 8, there was a Archeops deck.

Mike: 15:25

that on our deck.

Liam: 15:28

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Mike: 15:31

They were unlucky enough to play against Natalie in top 8, which Seems like an very unfavored matchup when she has 3 reversal energy.

Brent: 15:42

mean, I I would assume that there's lots

Liam: 15:44

That's all the Guardian players would say, but, you know, Pretty adamant that Aldegard is, like, really good matchups that involve hitting an Arcana on 4. Even if she plays for reversal, we're not that good Because, you know, weird stuff just happens. And that's that's why Guardian is always so hard to play. You, like, have to somehow navigate, like, you know, you missed your, like, fifth psychic energy on turn 3, and, like, you don't know what to do anymore. And you have to somehow not lose. And you're only getting 1 game and it, like, let's just ah, Garde. Garde.

Brent: 16:19

The the other thing that I recognize, Caden couldn't make it today, guys. It's it's just Mike and Liam and I. But FKaden, we're here. Chen Pao. was

Mike: 16:29

a chin pow.

Brent: 16:31

frightening amount of Baxcalibur that seemed like was okay.

Liam: 16:36

To admit.

Brent: 16:36

I don't know. There's 1 there was a a sixteenth. Jared Grimes played it. Regan Ratzlaff played it. Lucas Singh played it. Man,

Liam: 16:47

Yeah, dude. It's all the teams who are, like you know, we already know they're really good players, and they have, like, Good placements. I'm like

Brent: 16:55

I mean, are are are the Gardevoir stand?

Liam: 16:57

like they're winning in front of it. Like like

Brent: 17:01

it to a 50 eighth place. Like, there's a lot of Chen Pao in day 2.

Liam: 17:05

Yeah. I mean, the there was there was a lot of, like, you know, they go 6 2 1 against, like, the the day 1 players, and then They go, like, 3 3 in day 2. And, like, 4 2 in day 2. And these are, like, really, really good players. So you know? And, like, everybody knows that's not bad, but seems like a pretty pretty average deck when you look at it like that. Like, good players have, like, solid placements with it.

Brent: 17:28

I mean, all all those guys outperformed all of the Cluff and then go players in day 2.

Liam: 17:33

Yeah.

Mike: 17:35

Not saying much. 1 interesting thing about Gimpao is we are seeing more and more of a split between people playing iron hands and not playing iron hands. Lucas and Regan both decided to just play the straight waters. Jared and Kieran played the iron hands. So I think it's still up for debate which which version is better. Maybe they're just about the same. But I was talking to Bradner a little bit this weekend, and I think we we agreed that we we think that the iron hands version is worse. So, like, optimal might be to just play waters, but it's just an an optimal deck, so who cares?

Liam: 18:20

Sucks. Oh the the other big news to come out of this weekend is if you haven't already seen on Twitter yet, Jared Grimes got absolutely baked by Grant Shen. She goes to her account. The the post is hilarious. Yeah.

Mike: 18:35

Grand Grand Chen's got some good stuff. The the Nucci cuts are also Quite

Liam: 18:39

I do. And Grayson's a funny guy,

Mike: 18:43

Yep.

Brent: 18:43

So so next weekend there this coming weekend Is the Dortmund regionals in Germany or Denmark or something? No. Germany.

Liam: 18:54

You're right.

Brent: 18:55

Any advice for all of the, uh, people who are flying from Melbourne to Dortmund, I guess, or Knoxville to Dortmund.

Mike: 19:04

well, 1 thing we should say, Uh, 1 other, like, general thing is Charizard did really bad in Knoxville. There was Zaya got twelfth, and then there's not another 1 until 30 third. And then there's a handful in top 64, and then, like, a bunch of them are at the bottom of d

Brent: 19:26

Yeah. This is the the Liam, you know they they showed up at day 2 with the wrong deck and got blown off the board. Right?

Mike: 19:33

Yeah. I guess so. Like, Tina and Garde were both pretty big. The Roaring Moon matchup is, like, It's not bad. It's not great. It's, like, pretty 50 50. If you're not playing Radiant Zard, then it's definitely worse. So, yeah, I don't know. The matchups maybe just weren't very good.

Liam: 19:50

I I think Azul was, like, carrying the the deck to its only placements to keep it relevant for, for, like, the last few months or whatever, however long. He's not doing that anymore. Deck's falling off. It's terrible.

Mike: 20:02

The in in

Liam: 20:03

is so insane. Like, comes in at 6 2 1 every time and still delete top 8 is brew. In the top paper, you bubbled out. You got Ignite, I think. Right? Yeah. Like, I

Mike: 20:16

The

Liam: 20:16

know when the data environment is crazy.

Mike: 20:18

In in Melbourne there was 2 Charizards that did well both by the Japanese players, Haru and Kito. Kato is just like I don't know, man. His he's played 4 events in in the west this year. He's gotten tenth, eighth, seventh, and ninth. I don't know about that. That seems a little sketch to me. But but I mean, if he's if he's doing it legit, that's cool.

Brent: 20:46

Wow. That that went that went different than I expected it to. Wow.

Liam: 20:51

Yes, sir.

Mike: 20:52

I mean, I don't know. Like like, if you have 4 major events in there and you're getting top 10 in all 4, that's like that's kinda nuts. Right? Like, All these top players that do really well, like Azul, like, he's done super well, but he's played in, you know, double the amount events that he's Top tended. So, like, there's that's some variance right there. I don't know. We'll see.

Liam: 21:14

personal testimony.

Mike: 21:16

Sure. And then you look at you look at the other Japanese guy, Haru. He's done really well as well, but he's played in a bunch of events, a bunch of Western events over the the past year, and he has 2 really good finishes, 2 seconds. But then, like, you know, 6 64 is 1 28, whatever. So this seems more reasonable to me. May maybe har maybe Haru showing up to some other events that he just didn't even date to, and they're not on here. I don't know. We'll leave it at that.

Brent: 21:47

we go. There we go. So so Dortmund Regional's advice, guys. Should they play Guardie? Should they play Lostbox? Should they play Roaring Moon?

Mike: 21:57

I think if you play guardi

Liam: 21:58

is, bro. It's all

Mike: 21:59

Yeah. Yeah. It's all

Brent: 22:01

I mean, it's see, it's I feel like when we look at the the results week over week, there's no, like, oh, here's the strats. Here's the strats. It's like,

Liam: 22:07

bro. Because,

Brent: 22:08

be a good be Azul and play a good deck.

Liam: 22:11

Yeah. Like, If if there was something that was, like, really, really good and just, like, you know, beat the entire format, like, people would have played it by now. Like, you know? So,

Brent: 22:22

Yeah.

Liam: 22:23

like, you know, all the all the lists have gotten to a point where, like, they're not bad. They're they're competitive with the rest of the meta. And So now you have a whole meta of lists that are good. So just pick 1 and play it. And if you play it well, probably do well. Almost to it.

Mike: 22:40

I think if I was, like, playing in EU, I would a hundred and 50 percent be playing Spiritomb in Almost any deck that I was bringing, like,

Liam: 22:49

I'd just play a hard counter to me. I'd I'd do something like like like, even a harder counter because, like, you know, I think people do that, and they just, like, plot armor their way through the spirit room every time, like, clearly, because you

Brent: 23:02

Right. Right. Spiritomb is not enough to just destroy it.

Liam: 23:05

Numbers aside, they just always win.

Mike: 23:08

But but I mean, I guess I guess what I'm saying is, like, yeah, it it's it's Mew in the EU, so big reason. But also Roaring Moon, like,

Liam: 23:16

Yeah. Yeah. Spirit seems just really good right now. It It's it's obviously best it's ever been, because it's not just 1, but 2 minute accident absolutely cobbers.

Mike: 23:26

Yeah. Like, I would even consider running it in Garde. And both of those matchups are already the like, you and Roarin'Mid are already good matchups, but, like, you're Pushing your good

Liam: 23:37

Now the guardy effect, you know, 1 bad whiff. So, you know, I need a spirit team to get back into the game. Mhmm.

Brent: 23:45

Here, I I feel like Liam was Liam was trying to tweet really hard to enrage people today. And I think Liam has a strategy where he's like, I like to unleash my spicy tweets during lunch when I'm at school. So then, like and then, like, 3 hours later, he's like, oh my god. People are still tweeting about this. People are insane. You know, that was a tweet I wrote in 30 seconds between classes. But, yeah, I you were you were, like, trying to explain to people Teching for matchups versus consistency. And I felt like you were all over the place. But I recognize that's a tweet written 30 seconds in a hallway.

Liam: 24:19

Yeah, man. That like, Do people just love their text? Like, because a lot of the innovations at this point, it's not even like, you know, They add some, like, random super super awesome card. Right? Instead, it's like an innovation. Like, wait. Screen tail is not actually that good. I can save a spot by doing that and play more consistency, and now my deck's better than yours. Like and then, like, you know, you just get all these, like, random players. Like, Dude, I can't win a game without using screen time. And it's like, you know, like, We have a few weeks before the or, like, we have 2 months before the next NA regional. Like, we should just try to learn our deck and and learn how to win games without screen tail. Like, You you like, learning to live without cards is, like, something that can be really hard to do, but, like so, like, you know, if it's, like, the night before tournament, can obviously be hard to make a cut like that. But, like, when you have time to prepare and you see, like, a top player get, like, top 16 without screen tail, it's, like, Probably a sign that that card's just just not that good. Or, like, you you you can obviously do well without it. So, like, You know? As opposed to, like because, you know, you you already know that there's gonna be a bunch of people who still, like, force screen tails into their decks. And, like, that might not be the worst decision, but, like, Constantly, you see bad players just, like, literally put everything into their deck. Like, you know, somehow You're, like, fitting what? Turo, Crest, and Screentail and, like, you know, just all this random junk, and you, like, look over at the item cards, and they're playing, like, 3 VIP, 3 level ball, and then they're like, ah, I bricked my way out of the tournament. The dead draws got me in round 9. It's like 2. Like, Of course. Of course. Look at the deck. But you know?

Brent: 26:07

But but you're ready to cut consistency for Spiritomb. I just wanna be I just wanna be clear. Just wanna be clear.

Liam: 26:12

I and exactly, man. Because pea people just, like you know, their their instant reaction every time they dead draw is that, like, the bad luck got them or something, bro. But, like, your dead draws are, like, literally part of your control. Like, you control every single card that you see every game. You choose the 60. And then you see the 60, and you're like, oh my god. My hand sucks. Like, what? You just make your deck better, bro. So you draw better cards. And then, like, Sometimes there's an anomaly. Like, if you play, like, 10 cards that you don't like to see on turn 1, you somehow see 7 of them. Like, you can just accept that's an anomaly. But, like, When you accept that, it's so much easier to, like, move on, and then it doesn't happen the rest of your, like, 15 rounds as opposed to, like, these people are like, dude, I bricked, like, 10 times over the course of, like, 9 rounds. It's like obviously, your deck has issues if you're breaking that often. Like, It's either that or you're, like, a 1 in a million tournament run. It's just

Brent: 27:05

You know, it it the good news, Mike, is that he's very consistent. Like, he's he's both he he here he is. You control the outcomes. There's no randomness in the game. And he's also like, prizes should only be for the winner. Right?

Mike: 27:17

Yep. That's true.

Brent: 27:20

So so I like at least it's, like, internally consistent, the whole thing. Yeah. You're right

Mike: 27:25

That is

Liam: 27:26

Right. The the dead draw complaining is, like, the absolutely most insane thing I've ever seen, Rope. Like because you could you control all the cards you see, bro. Like,

Mike: 27:35

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I knew like, I knew when I was playing no VIP in Charlotte, there was, like, a decent chance that I would have some games where I drew poorly. Like, that that was just something that, like, I accepted going in. Right?

Liam: 27:48

Mhmm.

Brent: 27:49

Alright. So last question before we go back to the set review for temporal forces. I haven't heard or maybe I just haven't been paying enough attention to, like, the grumblings and the rumblings, but I recognize so we got Dortmund coming up next week, And then we have Utrecht 3 weeks after that. And then we have the Goania in Brazil a week after that. And then 2 weeks later, we have Vancouver. In my mind, I I don't know. Is is Dortmund, like, quote a real regional, or is that gonna be a small, like, Knoxville sized regional, quote, unquote?

Mike: 28:25

I don't know. That's a good question. I mean, if it's Knoxville size, that's big for EU. So

Brent: 28:32

Yeah. Yeah. So I so I I feel like where we're going is there's gonna be, like, 3 kind of smaller tournaments, like A regional in twos a a regional in Brazil, Dortmund regional, and a special event. How many North American players are gonna go to those tournaments and try to farm points?

Liam: 28:53

Around 8. 1 of them is pokeydools. The other 7 are competing for the top 16 race right

Brent: 28:59

But but it is top 16 worth it these days? Like, are I I feel like I haven't

Liam: 29:03

They're going anyway. They're going anyway.

Brent: 29:06

heard people saying, oh my god. A top 16 grind. It's so horrible this year because they took out all the incentive to, like, top 16 at some level.

Mike: 29:13

Right. It's just like it's the stipends to the ICs.

Brent: 29:16

Yeah. It's it's

Mike: 29:16

That's, like, the big prize.

Brent: 29:18

Yeah. Well, that you could you can fly to Europe and Brazil Still, if you wanna get a free trip to Europe.

Mike: 29:24

Right.

Liam: 29:25

Yeah.

Brent: 29:27

They've they've figured us out, guys.

Mike: 29:29

Yep. I do know there was a handful of Americans that went to Melbourne this weekend. Like, Gabe Smart got top 16. Camp Shenoy was there. I know

Liam: 29:39

to Melbourne is such a cheat code, bro. That's what Cam was saying. He was like, oh, dude. I bombed out, but, like, I still got more championship points than some people in, like, US regional day twos.

Mike: 29:49

Yep. True.

Brent: 29:52

But but it it is definitely not the same as the OCIC cheat

Mike: 29:57

Yeah. I mean, that was insane.

Brent: 30:00

The OCIC cheat code was like, do you like getting your invite? You can come get your invite here. We're just giving them away, kids. Like and it was, like, 400 points last year, and you get, like, a hundred points for doing nothing at OCIC.

Mike: 30:11

For sure

Brent: 30:12

Yeah. Like, that

Liam: 30:13

I look forward to you. I see that.

Brent: 30:15

It was like, go to League Cups and OCIC. Get your invite. It's amazing. Alright, guys. Vancouver's after that. Vancouver is a long way away. We're, like, 6 weeks from

Liam: 30:28

Like, 2 months. Right?

Brent: 30:30

2 months?

Liam: 30:31

It's, like, at the end of March.

Brent: 30:33

It's a long way away.

Mike: 30:35

7 weeks. Yeah.

Brent: 30:36

Yeah. And and that and then the week after that, temporal forces or temporal forces legal when is temporal yeah.

Liam: 30:44

Commercial forces is legal at EUSC. Right?

Brent: 30:47

the week after that is EUI or 2 weeks after that is EUIC, and temporal forces will be illegal. Let's let's talk about the trainers in the temporal forces, guys. This is the return that so, obviously, where we should start is Ace specs are back. But not the same ace specs, so we can't pull out our, like, old school super warped cards and be, like, flexing on people.

Mike: 31:11

Yeah. So let's start let's just start with and do all the ace specs. So Prime catcher. By now, everyone's heard of prime catcher. It's Guzma on an item. You gust and you switch. That's kind of the the bar that every ace pack has to be compared to at this point. Because if you can't make a good case for pay playing another 1, then you should just play that.

Brent: 31:32

Yeah. And and it's worth saying if God forbid you you did not play during the ace spec era, you get 1 ace spec in your deck. It's like the radiant cards. Right?

Mike: 31:42

Yep. So we have, Let's start with the worst 1 is probably Master Ball. Master Ball is the only 1 that is is a reprint indeed. Search your deck for any Pokemon. Put it into your hand. It's not terrible, but it's not Prime Catcher.

Brent: 31:59

I mean, I don't even know if I have I have an 1 of

Liam: 32:01

I think if PrimeCare wasn't a thing, I'd I'd actually like Master Ball and, like, try to put it in something because compared to the other aspects, it's, like, Not actually that bad. It's like it's a good card to draw, but prime catcher's too

Mike: 32:17

what what do you think is worse than master ball?

Liam: 32:21

Worse than Master Ball. We could start with a reboot bot in any deck that's not playing future Pokemon.

Brent: 32:26

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's obviously, there's a couple that are designed for specific kinds of decks.

Liam: 32:30

Yeah. Like, I don't know. Like, maximum belt, I probably wouldn't play over master ball in some random deck. Hero's cape, I wouldn't play. The energy. Like, Master Ball is, like, the the most general ace spec, Obviously, of the of the mall except for Prime Catcher,

Mike: 32:46

Yeah. That's true.

Liam: 32:47

which, you know, completely outclasses

Brent: 32:49

Yeah. Yeah. But the moral story is Prime Catcher exists. Prime Catcher is completely disgusting. It's amazing card.

Mike: 32:56

The

Brent: 32:59

You you anytime you're thinking about putting Master Ball in your deck, you should put Prime Catcher in your deck. It's play the good cards. Play the good cards.

Mike: 33:07

So some of the other ones that Liam just mentioned, maximum belt It's kinda like a choice spell type of card, but you do 50 more damage to your opponent's active e x. So they're not counting v's, only e x Pokemon. Has seen a little bit of play in Japan so far. I think this card is I I I I'm not sure if it, Like, is ever better than prime catcher, but, like, the math does help some decks more than others for sure. Like, for example, Guiratina doing what'd you say?

Liam: 33:44

50 is a ton.

Mike: 33:46

50 is a ton. Like, Guiratina can now lost impact for 3 30, Which means

Brent: 33:51

a meaningful mod.

Mike: 33:53

Yeah. Right. So if your deck If the math works out for your deck, like, this could be worth playing for sure.

Liam: 33:59

Then that does 80. It's a lot.

Mike: 34:01

Okay. But you're definitely playing hero's cape in Banette. So hero's cape is a plus 100 HP tool card. Yeah. I mean, that that's the Bennett card. Right?

Liam: 34:13

No. It's PrimeKestar.

Brent: 34:18

It's so true, though. Prime catcher too good.

Liam: 34:21

Yeah.

Brent: 34:23

Yeah.

Liam: 34:23

about actually biggest issues is, like stuff on the bench. Like, you wanna play. At least right now, because you wanna play fog crystals, so maybe this is different after rotation. But you wanna play fog crystals. You wanna play routes for Kirlia. It's the best draw engine. And then you have, like, this guy who says on the bench that they embossed to break the lock. So you have to play a switch effect, which ends up being, like, a really sucky card, but you have to play it, which is on principle.

Mike: 34:49

So you get to play the broken card.

Liam: 34:51

Yeah. Exactly. Prime picture is

Brent: 34:53

You know, 1 of the other janky decks I wanted to talk about was Melbourne, I think was it eighteenth place, something like that? There was a Gardevoir Mewtwo v union deck.

Mike: 35:03

Oh, yeah. Sixteenth. It's like the Guardian Reversal deck with YouTube union.

Liam: 35:08

Like, what can you actually get that out against that it helps? Except for, like, mirror on the very last turn. And,

Brent: 35:14

was my reaction to it. I was like, I don't think this Makes any match ups better? I'm trying to think of 1. Nothing comes to mind.

Mike: 35:21

Yeah.

Brent: 35:22

Like, you you go you go to all this trouble, and then they're like, dude, I'm playing Tina.

Mike: 35:26

Yeah.

Liam: 35:29

Right.

Mike: 35:29

worse for it's worse for Christina. It's worse in against other guardies. It's worse against Charizard.

Brent: 35:35

against a roaring moon. Like like, how could it like, what does it do? Yeah. But But you could slap a hero's cape on there and have just a lot of hit points. could have all the hit points.

Liam: 35:47

I I was talking about this a little bit with Charlie Locker earlier today. And we came to the conclusion that it was because of It was basically they got they got to top 16 because they're playing 3 reversal plus 5 dead cards in their guardian list,

Mike: 36:01

Yep.

Liam: 36:02

0.4. But, yeah heavy reversal was basically, like, all of the upside and Maybe it'd act like pretty good, but you should just do that without the me too.

Mike: 36:11

Yeah. The last, like, nonspecific a, uh, a spec is the neo upper energy, which is if it's attached to a stage 2, It provides 2 rainbow energy. It can be attached to other Pokemon as well and it provides 1 colorless. This card seems really bad. I don't think it's gonna see play in almost anything.

Liam: 36:34

think that card is sick. Like, that card is sick. It makes more stage twos viable. It's a cool card. You're right. Crime catcher stuff is gonna obliterate everything that runs this card.

Mike: 36:47

I think this card could be a could not be an ace spec, and it would be very good, but not too good if it was not an

Liam: 36:54

Dude, stage 2 is, like, probably suck after a level wall rotates. So, Yeah.

Brent: 37:00

Yeah. I mean and I think when we were going through the set, there were no new stage twos that we were like, oh my god. That's gonna be a thing.

Mike: 37:07

Right.

Brent: 37:08

So like like, when you look at the existing stage 2 decks, you're like, does it make Gardevoir better? No. No. It does not.

Liam: 37:15

I think if you could play 4, the Feraliator thing would be pretty cool. And I'm I'm sure there's a bunch of other stage twos.

Mike: 37:21

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we got the ancient and future a specs. The ancient 1 just says draw card for each of your ancient Pokemon in play. And the future 1 says attach a basic energy from your discard pile to each of your future Pokemon in play. Future 1 good, ancient 1 bad?

Liam: 37:43

The ancient 1 seems sick.

Mike: 37:46

You think? Draw,

Liam: 37:49

more engine pieces. I love more engine pieces. Like, well, like, I feel like there's, like, some way you could build some sort of, like, Maybe, like, slower deck with, like, Regieleki or something that recycles trainers, and you basically just play this card, like, 6 times a game and draw, like, 30 cards. Card's sick. But, yeah, I don't know if it's it's all that good. And definitely seems cool in, like, the ancient decks. Like, Whatever the the single prize stuff, like, drawing 6 cards when you're, like like, a heavy hitting single prize deck is, like, really, really good.

Mike: 38:26

That's true. Like, I think the Roi Moon is probably the best single prize ancient attacker. The karadon is okay. I don't know if you have room to play both, like, both energy types, basically. Like, Roar and Moon takes double dark, which is

Liam: 38:43

Yeah. I think you just have to build fully for the the dark thing if you're gonna go for that.

Mike: 38:48

Yeah. And so I guess, like, I guess, like, even once a game, if you, like, draw 5 or 6 cards and then you just research it away, like, that's pretty good.

Liam: 38:59

Yeah. Yeah. I know. Like, that that much draw power is, like, really good. Item draw 6 is, like, definitely a spec power in, like, the right spots.

Mike: 39:11

And then the future 1, attaching a basic energy card is like It's good, but

Liam: 39:18

It's corny. It's so corny. It's just gonna be for iron hands,

Brent: 39:22

the only thing that that's good for is the new Iron Lee z x.

Liam: 39:27

It's good for the the iron hands, Ruel. Iron hands is a new thing to accelerate to it, bruh. Like and whatever. The the whole future box. Yeah. The the iron leaves Like but the irony sucks. So

Brent: 39:38

the iron the iron leaves has has that has that ability. When you switch it to your active, you can move energy

Liam: 39:44

know. But you get all the energy to it, and then you do a hundred 80

Brent: 39:47

Right.

Liam: 39:48

Pretty bad.

Brent: 39:49

But you could drop it down and power it up in a turn and be like, oh, okay. We did a thing.

Liam: 39:54

Yeah. Yep.

Brent: 39:56

That that seems like its primary value. Hey. You could put a belt on it and hit for 2 30.

Liam: 40:03

Yeah.

Brent: 40:04

Is it a belt? What is it called? I forgot.

Liam: 40:07

Yeah. The Maximum bill.

Brent: 40:09

Alright. I'm like, I assume everything's if it does more damage, it's a belt. Any

Liam: 40:12

I mean,

Brent: 40:13

Or a band. It could be a

Liam: 40:14

Oh, dude. You can't you can't belt if you're playing the The feature

Brent: 40:18

Oh, yeah. Darn it. What we need are 2 ace specs.

Liam: 40:21

too. I mean, like, it it doesn't even matter if you get max value off of the iron least thing, like, hitting for you go 2 for 2 after you, like, you know, invest, like, all of your energy into this 1 thing. It's, like, pretty mid. I know. Oh, like, the XP shares and stuff make it maybe better. I have no clue. Mhmm.

Brent: 40:43

bad. I mean, I don't think that's a good deck.

Liam: 40:45

That's that's all the a specs. Yeah. And the rest of trainers. I I have the Justin Basil list open. So you wanna start at Bianca in Saturday? Yeah. Oh, wow. That card's amazing.

Mike: 41:00

What? I was about to say it sucks.

Liam: 41:05

It's full here, bro.

Mike: 41:06

Yeah. But only if your dude has 30 or less HP. Like, if your opponent Puts you to 30 or less HP, they deserve to get Bianca's dude. Like

Liam: 41:18

You know? Any card that reads heal damage from 1 of your Pokemon um, you know, has use cases.

Brent: 41:24

What what what are the ways that you can move your damage counters around on your side of the board right now? Or or post rotation, I

Liam: 41:30

No. That's that's very limited. It's it's the slow, bro.

Mike: 41:33

rotates. Right?

Liam: 41:35

a slow, bro.

Brent: 41:36

Yeah. Alright.

Liam: 41:38

I mean, The slow, bro, doesn't matter. It it's it's it's very limited in in what it moves.

Mike: 41:43

Oh, that Gengar already rotated.

Liam: 41:45

Yeah. It does.

Mike: 41:47

Yeah.

Liam: 41:48

Yeah. Okay. This Yeah. The card won't see a ton of play, but Maybe at some point, it'll be really, really good in,

Mike: 41:56

If there's, like if if the 1 hit KO decks don't exist, like Jinpao, Goldengo, Raichu V, that type of stuff. Like, if they don't exist, then you can probably force some deck that had just has a ton of HP and, you know, you you you just create a deck that just can't be 1 shot and maybe, like, the math works out that You can get it to 30 or something like

Liam: 42:21

How do they not just, like, 2 hit you, though, by going, like, a hundred and then,

Mike: 42:24

Right.

Liam: 42:25

you know? But I I think you'd have to find some way to, like yeah. I don't know. This card's good. It it says healable damage. It

Mike: 42:35

Potential. It has potential.

Liam: 42:37

some point.

Brent: 42:38

Yeah. And you don't lose all your energy. Like, the the the the the mechanism is slightly different than the historical mechanisms. So in that way, it's interesting.

Liam: 42:45

That's like something you can play on, like, Guardi right now. And, like, that would suck. You shouldn't play this in Guardi if you could. But, like, you know, something that can self damage or, like, whatever to to try and get value out of this card. But it's it's it's a strong effect if you can make

Brent: 43:01

Yeah. But that card is not as good as Buddy Poffin, which is the next card and is a very good card.

Mike: 43:08

Buddy popping is very good. So check for up to 2 basic Pokemon with 70 HP or less and put them right on your bench. This is very good. I don't know if it's, like, a 4 of index.

Liam: 43:21

Depends on the deck.

Mike: 43:23

Yeah. But, like, so let let's think about, like, guardian charge art. Because those are the

Liam: 43:26

about lost box. I'll place 4 of those.

Mike: 43:29

okay. Yeah. Lost box is gonna play 4, For sure. But but it only finds it only finds Kofi.

Liam: 43:35

And Manifee and Ditto.

Mike: 43:38

I guess, yeah, Ditto Ditto does become a lot more interesting with this garden format for

Liam: 43:43

Yeah. But it has to be a deck that has a lot of switching. So

Mike: 43:49

Yeah. That's true.

Brent: 43:51

And and, hey, after that, you can just be lost owning it just like VIPs, man.

Liam: 43:55

Yeah. Exactly. In fact, with a lot

Mike: 43:57

you can yeah. And you can just and you can just burn it at random times too, which is good. It's just like like, it's nice that you can play it past turn 1. But, like, past turn 2, this is not gonna be a card you play that often even, Like, in a in a stage 2 deck. Like like, you can go super rad and get 2 dudes back, I guess. Like, that's gonna be the biggest use case past turn

Liam: 44:20

Yeah. No. If you're playing this, you should already be on, like, 4 or 5 bench, basically, the entire game already. So we're not

Mike: 44:25

Right. Right. It'll just be interesting, I guess, like, what the split is between Ness Ball and Pathan in the different decks because there's probably a split.

Brent: 44:35

But I like how it seems like

Liam: 44:36

looks like so sauce, man. For ball cards, like and ball cards, they do the same thing. Like, obviously, there's some you know,

Mike: 44:45

but, like okay. Okay. So so Charizard. So Charizard. Right? Like, Charizard still probably wants to play Rotom um, but maybe not. I don't know. Maybe they don't now. And so, like, What do you play? Do you play, like, 3 poffin, 2 nest balls? I don't know.

Liam: 45:01

Like, that makes sense. That's probably what it comes to, but I you're gonna have to give me some some of that you know, Veteran logic right now. Like, how do you come to a split? Like, if 1 card is on average, a ball card is on average better than another. How do you come to a split if you don't play search cards like Arvin? And, like, if you do play search cards like Arvin, how do you end up on, like, a 3 3 split? And, like, I mean, like, I I I guess you would say that, like, having 1 of each in your hand, like, 1 poffin, 1 nest bowl is, like, optimal, so So you end up splitting, but the logic seems like really sketch

Mike: 45:41

Right. Yeah.

Liam: 45:42

a 3 2 split somehow.

Mike: 45:44

Well, I mean and you make a you make a good point though of, like, a deck like Charizard. Do you just Switch how you build the deck and not play a card like Rotom and just go for Poppin then. And then you do you just don't worry about playing this ball at all. So

Liam: 46:02

That's something I consider.

Mike: 46:04

yeah. We do lose mu though, and, like, Puffin would be significantly better with mu in format. But mu is yeah. Mu rotates.

Liam: 46:15

Mhmm.

Brent: 46:16

I mean, replacing VIP with Puffin, it I think I like the idea because it, like, it puts a little more emphasis on the viability of stage 2 Dex versus, like, a deck like Muradin just popping off and going crazy.

Mike: 46:29

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And

Brent: 46:32

Big, big fan of the

Mike: 46:32

like, it it just makes it more like, even like a deck like Giratina you wanna you're probably gonna play Fort Poffin. It's just worse than VIP because it can't find the Tinas, can't find the Greninja. And, like, that's good. Like, it's

Liam: 46:45

just a healthier card, like, all around. The slower decks, smaller stuff.

Brent: 46:50

and and if you don't find it until turn 2, you're not you're not like, oh, it's the end of the game.

Mike: 46:55

Right. Right. Right.

Brent: 46:56

the the emphasis on popping off Goes down just a little bit.

Mike: 47:01

Yep.

Brent: 47:01

obviously, the guy who finds 2 Buddy Poffets turn 1 is gonna be doing better than the guy that finds 0. But, like

Liam: 47:06

it's the terminal and iron

Brent: 47:08

Yeah. But if you find them turn 2, like you're like, oh, okay. Okay. Let's try and, like, stabilize the situation. You know?

Liam: 47:16

Mhmm.

Brent: 47:17

So

Liam: 47:17

Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, your circuit doesn't turn off after turn 1. That's pretty cool.

Brent: 47:21

Yeah.

Mike: 47:22

Makes like yeah. Being able to get back or stay in the game much more likely if you didn't have a currency turn 1, which is great. Okay. Let's move on to the next card. This is another very talked about card in The set, Cryptomaniacs Deciphering, a reprint of Oracle and Mallow. Search your deck for 2 cards. Shuffle your deck. Put them on top. I've seen a lot of people pretty hyped about this, and then I saw Mahone's, like, little clip. I don't know if you guys saw that. And he was just he was destroying

Liam: 47:51

She's right.

Mike: 47:52

So you you agree with Mahone? You're on the Mahone side?

Liam: 47:55

I did. After I heard that, like, tell me what tell me what you grab off cryptomaniacs deciphering after you got turn 1 iron hands, bro. Like, you're you're baked. It's like the card is, like, probably fine. We'll see playing some decks, like, Mohammed said. But, like, it's it's so much harder to run a card like that in a slower format, or in a faster format

Mike: 48:21

In a faster

Liam: 48:22

when we've had those cards in the in the past. And, like, I I would assume that's what everybody said because the format's always speeding up every time about these cards, but, like, games just end so, so fast. And, like, it's it's not a good card to draw in turn 1. Like, it's it's not a good card to draw in turn 1, like, in isolation.

Mike: 48:43

Yeah. I agree. I think I agree for the most part. Like, even Zorak just played 1 of these usually,

Liam: 48:52

Yeah.

Mike: 48:52

As just kinda like a nice card to have in the mid game.

Liam: 48:56

That's also because you could bench tab Leila, and it wasn't, you know, like, a huge liability, so you could play Leila for it. You bench the minion now, and that's, like, the major major liability and, like, a few decks. So, like like, you know, It's already benching the Lumenion. I know I know the Lumenion enjoyers, of course, will disagree, but it's it's pretty

Brent: 49:18

Well, I mean, you know, everybody accepts. The nice thing about Limineon is if you really, really, really need a supporter, you could get 1.

Liam: 49:27

Yeah.

Mike: 49:29

Yeah.

Brent: 49:29

Alright. I don't think we need to talk about dangerous jungle. We talked about dangerous jungle a bunch last

Mike: 49:34

Fairbank City Gym.

Brent: 49:35

Furbank. It's a great card. Assuming you're poisoning people. The without Hypnotoxic Laser, much less awesome. Emergency board, this is a very good card.

Mike: 49:48

Yeah. You talked about this a little bit last week, Brent, but it's a tool, attach it. Your retreat cost is 1 less. And then, randomly, if you have 30 HP or less, then you have no retreat cost. They they're really doing the

Liam: 50:02

dirty.

Mike: 50:03

yeah. Yeah. They're really they're really doing the maybe there's gonna be some card in a future set that, like, puts itself to 30 or something like

Brent: 50:10

Yeah. Yeah. If if the next Roaring Moony X's attack is, like, sets the opponent's Pokemon at 30 hit points, people would be like, oh my god. a whole new deck. Here we go.

Liam: 50:21

the Serena counter, the Serena EX.

Mike: 50:23

Yeah. This card is good in lost box.

Liam: 50:29

Yeah. It will see play throughout its lifetime. It'll only see plumbing decks that I don't wanna play because I fucking hate that stuff. The, like, the teeny tiny, The coffees, the doraches. I don't like it. I won't play it probably. Well, like, if I do play it, it's gonna be in Some weird weird stuff, but

Mike: 50:53

I do think it's funny. They, you know, they Printed float stone. Obviously, float stone, a little too broken. Then they printed air balloon, which is, like, pretty good. But they were still like that's still a little bit too good. Let's make this a little bored only 1 less.

Liam: 51:10

Yeah.

Brent: 51:11

just wanna make sure that Lostbox was able to win worlds. You know?

Mike: 51:15

Sure. I mean, we have had other boards before. Right? A skateboard, that was the 1 you could retreat when you're asleep and paralyzed. That 1 was just, like, good though because of Jirachi mostly, like you said. And then the u-turn board was same thing, but that card wasn't really played in in much. So I would

Liam: 51:34

really good comparison. Yeah. If that card is kinda trash.

Mike: 51:38

yeah. I would expect that this card would probably see as much play as you turn board outside of comfy decks. Like comfy decks will probably still play 1

Liam: 51:48

I hate comfy, bro. Oh my god.

Mike: 51:52

You know, what

Brent: 51:53

it'll it'll see like, a little more play until Mawile rotates at least something like that? Like, just the idea that this is a switch effect if you have if you're if you're running a deck that has, like, 1 energy retreaters. Like, it's a switch effect.

Mike: 52:07

Sure. You know what card you do love, Liam? Aery.

Brent: 52:12

Yeah. We basically we basically did not do trainers, so you could talk about this card,

Liam: 52:15

Don't even say that because, like, I hate all the on Twitter, we're like, oh my god. It's control save. It's like, bro. Like, you don't have to be corny about it. And then this card is, like, probably worse for, like, Slow decks than than good. Like, of of course, it will be strong, but, like, it's just it's such a bad card for the game, bro. Like, just a, I mean, obviously, if you could imagine a world where we could play supporters on turn 1, if somebody used this card on turn 1, You would probably lose the game.

Mike: 52:47

Probably.

Liam: 52:48

What if they do this card, like, every other turn of the game? It's probably pretty bad. Like, this card is just, like, way too strong hand control, way too strong disruption. It'll be abs insanely toxic. You know? It's like, at some point during its time standard, my card is terrible, bro. Mike got out at a good time. Mhmm. That part is disgusting. Absolutely

Mike: 53:17

in case listeners, in case you don't know what Aery is, it's your opponent reveals their hand, choose 2 item cards you find there and discard them. So yeah. This reminds me of, like, I never I didn't play competitively during, you You know, the very, very, very early days like base set. But you hear some horror stories of turn 1 lass. And lass was like both players shuffle all their trainer cards from their hand back in their deck. Like, this is kinda reminiscent of that. Like, if you're going

Liam: 53:46

didn't know 1 cube we did at classes.

Mike: 53:48

yeah. Right. Like, uh, I don't know. This this could

Liam: 53:54

I I was thinking about it in terms of delinquent, bro. And this card, I think, is better than delinquent, bro. So, like, it's

Mike: 54:00

Yeah. I mean, the 1 to say like, at least it doesn't say trainers. Like, it says items. Like, if it was trainers in general,

Liam: 54:07

it'd be

Mike: 54:07

Game over.

Liam: 54:08

Yeah. It it'd be, like, the worst card it reprinted.

Mike: 54:12

Yeah.

Liam: 54:13

And, like, we're definitely moving away from, like, powerful items. It's, like, basically just lost box at this point that's actually playing, like, utility items. Everything else is just playing ball cards for the most part. And, like so it's know, maybe maybe it won't be, like, too destructive right now, but, like, dude, it's It's hard to imagine that you never ever end up sitting on, like, really good items where, you know, if they if they get hit, you just lose the game. And, like, consistency can even be included in that, like, you know, random ball cards. So, like, I think this car will win games, and it will win games in a disgusting way. So yeah.

Mike: 54:57

Yep.

Liam: 54:58

not be meta dominant for its, like, entire entire span, but, yeah, it'll be good at 1 point or some point.

Mike: 55:05

Alright. Let's talk about some others. Some of these other ones are a little bit faster. So next, we got Explorer's Guidance. It's an ancient supporter. It's a reprint of Hapu. Look at the top 6 cards of your deck. Put 2 of them in your hand. Discard the other ones. It's Fine. It'll be be played in ancient decks for sure. I don't know if it'll be played in other stuff.

Liam: 55:26

So I would absolutely buy this card right now. It shreds the deck, while building hand size a little bit, I guess. Like, it lets it lets you add to hand

Mike: 55:36

Better or worse better or worse than colrus in a, like, a random deck. You

Liam: 55:40

better? at anything that's not trying to get lost on stuff.

Brent: 55:43

I mean, obviously, you look at you look at 6 cards.

Mike: 55:46

But you have to, like, get rid of, quote, unquote, an extra card. Right?

Liam: 55:53

It's.

Brent: 55:54

But, obviously, it goes it goes

Liam: 55:56

know, like, like, you you just have to live with that to get, like, deeper dig. So it's just better. And, like, discarding is obviously so much better than lost zoning for every deck that's not lost zone. So

Mike: 56:05

true.

Brent: 56:06

And and the new Roaring Moon, like, which is the new Flareon. Like, you you can discard ancient cards And then keep your dark patches and dark energies and do the thing.

Liam: 56:17

Yeah. I I know this card sees a lot of play in those those decks already.

Brent: 56:20

Yeah. I mean, discarding energy is almost always good for, like, 90 percent of the decks in the format. You're like, hey. We're look at us. We're doing that thing.

Mike: 56:28

Yep. Solid. There's a metal stadium. Your metal Pokemon all metal Pokemon take 30 less from attacks.

Brent: 56:35

I feel like there's 1 of these cards in format at all times.

Mike: 56:39

Yeah.

Liam: 56:40

We don't we don't have 1 of those right now. We have a crystal cave, which is heal, but this is better. This card's

Mike: 56:45

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Reducing is always better than healing.

Brent: 56:48

Yeah.

Mike: 56:51

Hand trimmer, another control or anti control card, depending on how you look at it. Item, each player discards until they have 5 cards in their hand.

Liam: 56:59

This card's filthy. Filthy.

Mike: 57:02

Do you think it's better in control or anti control or maybe about the same?

Liam: 57:08

Probably about the same.

Mike: 57:12

Yeah. Nothing, like, jumps out immediately of this scene play, but it'll see play.

Brent: 57:18

When they when they play the hand trimmer, are you assuming that they're gonna play the Yuri right after that? Or Or discard all your items, or do you keep the items and just high roll it?

Liam: 57:26

been well. It's

Mike: 57:29

Heavy baton. Heavy baton. Wait. What does it say?

Liam: 57:36

It's a it's the wishful baton, but it only works on stuff with 4 or 3.

Mike: 57:40

Oh, okay. Great. So unplayable.

Brent: 57:42

Yeah.

Liam: 57:43

on hands. So

Mike: 57:45

Works on hands. Does the wishful baton rotate? Is that why this is being

Liam: 57:48

it was rotated, like, 2 years ago

Brent: 57:51

Yeah. Dude.

Mike: 57:53

0, 0, 0, this card. 0, 0, 0, I was thinking of a different card for some reason. Okay. Yeah.

Brent: 57:59

Yeah. It's thinking of XP share or something. But

Mike: 58:03

it works on iron hands. That's like that's it. That's pretty much it. Alright.

Liam: 58:08

sure there's something else that's, like, kinda cool for that I'll try out, but it will suck. But, you know, Cool card.

Mike: 58:17

We got Morty's conviction, not not Morty from Rick and Morty. You can you draw a card for each of your opponent's bench Pokemon, and you have to discard a card from your hand before you do it. Probably outclassed by other supporters. Like, The 1 that the ancient 1 we just talked about is probably better.

Brent: 58:36

Yeah. It seems like a perfectly mid card.

Mike: 58:39

It's, like, really bad turn Like, probably bad turn

Liam: 58:44

slightly better than. Right? Like

Mike: 58:46

Yeah. Well, Zinnias, you draw an extra card. Right? Because you draw for their

Liam: 58:49

Yeah. But I I think the discard cost with Zinnias is, like, 1 of the big things that holds it back. Like,

Brent: 58:55

why if you're building a deck, why would you not play another Iono instead?

Mike: 59:00

Right. Right. Yeah. We got order box, which is maybe the worst Trainer we've seen so far. Search your deck for 2 item cards, put them in your hand, and then your turn ends.

Liam: 59:13

It's always nice to have stuff like that in format. Good ways to end your turn if you're not gonna planning on attacking.

Brent: 59:19

Right. Right. Yeah. If you if you're going first, you could

Liam: 59:22

card obviously sucks. But

Brent: 59:23

run this order box and get 2 item cards for the

Liam: 59:26

Yeah. It's it's it's nice to have this stuff in format. Oh, something that's really funny too is, like, if you play this card and then get, like, airied Or whatever. But well, that's funny.

Mike: 59:39

Just a couple more. We got Salvatore. We talked about this Last week is kind of like it's basically Wally. You can search your deck for a Pokemon and evolve 1 of your Pokemon even if it's the first turn. It just can't be a Pokemon with an ability. So as we've mentioned last week, Liam, this gets Banette Turn 1.

Liam: 1:00:00

Dude, I mean, obviously, people don't really know, Like, haven't put in much time with Bennett, but there's so many people on Twitter when this card was released. It was like, oh my god. Is Bennett saved? As far as I can, Bennett I mean like, but Bennett Bennett doesn't work as just like an item lock deck. Just getting the item lock does doesn't win the game. And, like, it it it's not a speed thing. It's the fact that, like, it does 30 damage, and, like, item mark doesn't really do anything because there's so few decks that have, Like, actual powerful items that they're reliant on. Like Gardevoir, they literally just wait, like, 5 turns until they eventually, like, drawn to a curly, and then they refine it, like, a few times. And then they EvolveGuard EX and they start smashing for 1 90 and you're doing 30 damage. You always lose. It doesn't matter

Brent: 1:00:48

them with the hand trimmer.

Liam: 1:00:49

Yeah. Like, yeah, the the speed of the Bennett doesn't matter. And if you wanna play for Salvatore, you suddenly have to play a bunch of switches. You have to squawk, And then all you do is you get a fast Banette. Your your cards have to go other places. If you're trying to win with games with Banette, like, this 30 damage item lock doesn't win a game. You you have to you have to play for a different endgame and just use the item as, like, a lock.

Mike: 1:01:15

Seems spot on to me. I don't really know how this sees play. Being able yeah. Not being able to get ability Pokemon is like

Liam: 1:01:24

Like,

Mike: 1:01:25

It it turns off all the cheese, basically.

Liam: 1:01:27

Yeah.

Brent: 1:01:28

Right. The the the the the Pokemon you wanna get out, get those out. But all the other ones go

Liam: 1:01:34

Yeah. No. Exactly. Yeah.

Mike: 1:01:38

And to round us off, we have mist energy. Colorless energy, prevent all effects of attacks from your opponent's Pokemon done to the Pokemon this card is attached to.

Liam: 1:01:50

Cool card.

Mike: 1:01:50

if this

Liam: 1:01:51

like this

Mike: 1:01:52

if this came out

Liam: 1:01:53

desperately lacking effects right now.

Mike: 1:01:55

well, here's like, if this came out 1 year ago, Even, like, right when Lugia rotated, this card would be insane. Right? It would be so good. You'd you'd play it for sure to get around Sableye, to get around Star Requiem, like a bunch of stuff would play this. Now? I don't know. Yeah. Roi Moon.

Liam: 1:02:14

exactly.

Brent: 1:02:15

I mean, you'll you'll put 1 in your Lugia deck Because apparently Lugia is more playable than I thought it was. And like and you know, you'll find some situational use and you'll be like, we did that thing. But

Mike: 1:02:30

Yeah. Seems okay. Yeah. It'll see some play, but I'm not, like, super hyped about it.

Liam: 1:02:36

It will impact the format, I think but small ways, of course.

Brent: 1:02:41

Yeah. Like, it's it's a fine card.

Liam: 1:02:44

Mhmm. It's it's a good effect to have in format. This format doesn't have 1 of those, and we're feeling it every day. Absolutely sucks that we have play with Giratina and Ring Moon FX, um, with, like, literally 0 counters in format. But, you

Brent: 1:03:01

feel compelled to bench both Jirachi and Manaphy to survive, like,

Liam: 1:03:05

Yeah.

Brent: 1:03:06

crazy.

Mike: 1:03:09

Yeah. And it seems like pretty solid in some type of control deck where then you can get around those effects. Cool.

Brent: 1:03:18

a set.

Mike: 1:03:20

That's the set. I'm excited to play it. Though, I do like this format. This format is pretty fun overall. It's always good to get new stuff, but this is a this

Liam: 1:03:31

No. This format this format's, like, objectively just a good format. Like, every format so far that's had Guardian as the number 1 deck is a is a good format. But

Mike: 1:03:42

That's true.

Liam: 1:03:44

oh, dude. Last night, I saying control x reminded me at the end row. I I was in the the Alessandro stream, as always, Today. And somebody, like, asked them, like, something about control decks. I think it was like, There's no control decks. Control is a mindset. It's actually so facts, though. Like, it's it's it's facts. Like, It's like Charizard's a control deck. Muse a control deck for the paths. Exelible, this is true. So

Mike: 1:04:20

I mean, you can, like I I like that because there there is a There are games with every single deck where you need to adopt the control mindset. Right? Like, change how

Liam: 1:04:32

Yeah.

Mike: 1:04:33

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where you're like, oh, I can you know, the against Charizard, they they're down 6 energy and 2 rods. Let's boss up that Lumineon v.

Liam: 1:04:45

Yeah. Exactly. Right? Like, It's it's it's like the way you play the cards and, like, how you implement them. But the the terms whether or not they're, like, control cards.

Mike: 1:04:53

Yep. Exactly. So, yeah, that's a that's a good that's a

Liam: 1:04:57

The mindset. The mindset. It's the goat.

Brent: 1:05:02

Alright, guys. Quick would you rather because it's been a while since we had 1, and I got 1 for you. You have a choice. Would you rather have a hook for a hand or a peg for a leg?

Liam: 1:05:14

Holy.

Brent: 1:05:16

What kind of pirate do you wanna be? This is a question before the court.

Liam: 1:05:20

Has to be your non dominant hand for sure.

Mike: 1:05:23

Even so, that's close.

Liam: 1:05:25

Right.

Mike: 1:05:28

Like, I don't wanna be I don't wanna be, like, wobbling around all the time,

Liam: 1:05:32

Yeah. Like like, look. The peg is, like, properly sized. Right? Like, It's and, like like, I don't, like, have to lean towards the peg side. Right?

Brent: 1:05:41

mean, you're walking on a peg leg. I assume It's properly sized,

Liam: 1:05:45

don't I don't

Brent: 1:05:46

walking on a peg leg.

Mike: 1:05:48

Yeah.

Liam: 1:05:48

be that bad? Like, you basically lose your your, like, Toes. Not even, like, your foot because you still have a little little click and paste to stand on. Right? Like, basically at least your toes. And, like, who is your, Like, the face of your foot, if you wanna play soccer, but, like, you know, we're talking about peg leg or a hook here. We'll have to live without soccer. That seems pretty easy. You're basically saying my leg works the exact same. Like, does it? Wait. Sitting down with a peg leg is crazy. Right?

Mike: 1:06:19

It just sticks straight out.

Liam: 1:06:21

Yeah. Oh, boy.

Mike: 1:06:24

I think I'd probably go with the peg leg as well. Like, the big things that I would be missing kinda as Liam said, like soccer, just general physical activity. I guess I'd be like trying to ride a bike somehow much more since I can't run and stuff like that. But

Liam: 1:06:40

jump. Right?

Mike: 1:06:42

Can't jump. I mean, you could, like, jump

Liam: 1:06:45

if you have to, like, bend your knees to jump, you have to jump off 1. Wait. Wait. That's not even jumping.

Mike: 1:06:49

I assume you can take off the peg leg.

Liam: 1:06:53

If you take off the peg leg, how are you

Brent: 1:06:55

Dude, though, I think the thing you're doing is jumping.

Mike: 1:06:59

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Liam: 1:07:02

Yeah, man. Okay. Like,

Mike: 1:07:05

hook would suck though, man. Like, having 2 hands is so

Brent: 1:07:11

Opposable thumbs is a crazy

Liam: 1:07:12

I was thinking about what you could do with

Brent: 1:07:14

a payslip

Liam: 1:07:15

Like, what if the hook was a cool hook where, like, You could you could shoot that thing out, like a like like a a little wire and, like, just grab stuff. Like, you just grab the remote with your with, like, a a hook. Grab a remote. You know, you're just sitting on the couch.

Brent: 1:07:28

would go on the all apple diet so he could be flexing his hook on people. Just be like, whap. Taking a bite out of this apple now.

Liam: 1:07:36

I feel like there's something there's some cool stuff you could do if you could turn your hand into, like, you know, So so some type of, like, crazy mechanical arm. Like, talking about that kind of hook, not like the you know, It's like throw a throw a little.

Brent: 1:07:51

You're you're like, you're you're imagining that you've lost your hand, but you've become Batman.

Liam: 1:07:56

More like Iron Man, but yeah.

Brent: 1:07:59

Fair enough. Fair enough. Alright. Guys, John Pauls are our outro. It's another pod of the books. We'll be back next week to talk about Dortmund regionals.