Brent: 0:05

Get to it. All right. Alright. Welcome to the Trashalanche. I tried to get my kids to attend this episode because I, I think we have a lot of great stuff to talk about, uh, uh, this week. But they would not. It is, uh, uh, Mike Brit and me. Attendance remains 100%. No five star review updates this week. Guys. If you leave a review, we will read it on the pod. I know a listenership has been increasing dramatically. That means that there's a whole new host of people who have not listened to the pod. You could be leaving a review and we could be reading it. Just imagine, uh, dragon Shield is our sponsor. Very soon I will see Brit in person and give him a bunch of Dragon Shield sleeves. Uh, the Dragon Shield guys had an interesting like tweeter announcement the other day where they acknowledged. Um, manufacturing issues and offered to replace all the sleeves. I think the fact that they offered to replace all the sleeves speaks to the, uh, standup nature of the Dragon Shield guys who, uh, historically manufactured, uh, virtually in vulnerable sleeves. So, uh, I'm glad they recognized when they got

Mike: 1:12

issues. The, the post was really funny cuz it was like very. I don't even know the word, like in character

Brent: 1:22

I am, I am a big, big fan of like, uh, uh, having a corporate personality. You know, nobody likes the corporate A memos. So yeah, I thought, I thought the announcement was extremely well done. Really, really good credit to the organization if they can turn a problem into, uh, you know,

Mike: 1:42

hopefully something good. Yeah. Like I'm almost a marketing opportunity Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It seems like a

Brit: 1:48

little bit from not just like relating to Dragon Shields and these, you know, these few that have been manufactured incorrectly. Just reading through, just like, which sleeve do you swear by? And just like the general consensus, consensus seem to be that they all have problems, that they all are not perfect. Like even, even people are just like, yeah, I would recommend Katanas. They still stink at times. You know, something to that effect. So it seems. You know, if you're gonna, you're gonna rip sleeves one way or the other, at least. Like, it's nice to see the company be like, yep, we messed up. Here's

Brent: 2:18

some free stuff. Uh, you know, I, while I have no direct experience, I can understand how like I, yeah. I've talked with people at like Ultimate guard about the manufacturing process and I can understand how it must be quite difficult because you want the, seem to be as small as possible and yet it's gotta be like iron, right? Mm-hmm. that's like, uh, you know, it's probably hard technology. It's interesting problem. Guys, let's jump right into it. I think the first thing we should talk about is, is Mike. Fouchet Twitter has leveled up with amazing photos,

Mike: 2:51

Um, so Pablo reached out sometime before. Or Orlando regionals. And I don't know if you guys saw, there was a, a, I think a, a woman from Spain that posted that she was making polos with, you know, little Pokegear on them and kind of put it out there. It's like, if anybody wants. Then you could commission with her. And I guess Pablo saw it and Pablo was dating this girl and the girl saw it and she's like, oh, I could do that. And so they, they made one as like a proof of concept that Pablo wore. And then he reached out to me, um, cuz Pablo and I are very close and he asked if I wanted one. Uh, and so I said, yeah, Gardevoir is one of my favorite Pokegear, like, get me a Gardevoir one. So then he gave me one. He gave me that shirt in Orlando and I've been meaning to post it on Twitter. Uh, and this past week I really tested a lot of post rotation and the Gardevoir, so it just kind of all clicked and made sense, I think, to, to post that. All that to say, uh, It's, it's a really nice polo. Um, and if you are interested in getting one, you can message Pablo on Twitter. And if he and his girlfriend are available and they don't have that many people, um, they may offer to make you one as well. So you get to pick pretty much the Pokegear. Uh, there are different like qualities of sprites that they can make. Um, like mine was fairly pixelated. Uh, but some of them are not as pixelated, and you, it's a little bit more expensive. But yeah, so it's a, it's a nice shirt and it's nice to have like a, a, a decent shirt that is Pokegear related rather than just like a, you know, the stream play Pokegear shirt that I'll wear to bed every once in a while.

Brent: 4:45

It looks great. Very, uh, I, I assume so is, is it actually like

Mike: 4:49

stitched? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hand stitch. Ooh, that's fancy.

Brent: 4:54

Yeah, that sounds, uh, that sounds very impressive. People should, uh, should get on that. I, I obviously need a t Trish shirt. What up? Ooh,

Mike: 5:06

yeah. T Trish would be great. Holy.

Brent: 5:10

Alright. We, I mean, I guess the real question is, can't she manufacture a hundred t trumpish shirts?

Mike: 5:16

Alright. That might feel a lot, but we could, uh, we could inquire potentially.

Brent: 5:21

That's the business people. Alright, uh, uh, good stuff. What is, uh, so, so you tested a lot. This, uh, you, you test a lot, a lot of E U I C. This.

Mike: 5:34

I did. Yeah, I've been playing. Um, even when I come home from school, uh, I got about an hour or two before my wife comes home. And so I'll usually play one or two games. And this weekend I played a bunch. Um, Nothing too new from what I've been saying. But, uh, there there's pretty much clearly six best decks, uh, Giratina, lost Box, Gardevoir, Lugia, Mew, and Maron. Uh, there, I think there is potential for other decks to be in the. In the format, but those six seem to make up 90 to 95% of the Meta game. When you look at, uh, results from Japan and there was a, there was a regional in. I don't know if not a regional, but a very large tournament in Taiwan this weekend I had about 12 or 1300 players and very similar results to the Japanese tournament that happened a couple weeks ago. Um, so those, those are like the six decks I've played. Mostly Giratina, lost box, Mew and Gardevoir, all of the matchups between them. All very close. Um, I think the loss decks are, Favored against M but I think besides that, like Gari verse M is very close. Gari verse, the lost box decks are very close. The lost box decks versus garia are very close. Um, the lost box mirrors are very close, so it's been fun to really get a feel for the format,

Brent: 7:03

uh, um, and Gar. But Gardevoir EX is still the best deck, right?

Mike: 7:09

I hope so.

Brent: 7:12

I like that. You're like, well, we're committed so it doesn't really matter. But

Mike: 7:15

yeah. The hardest thing with Gardevoir is getting around Greninja. Like if they, if they just grin, injure, you turn two or turn three because you couldn't find manife or you prize Manife, like, you instantly lose the game. Yeah.

Brent: 7:32

How many Gardevoir exes are you trying to set up in a game? Like are you worried that they like kill the Gardevoir EX and then you're like unable to power up a attackers after that? Or is the point that they have to pretty much attack whatever you powered up because it's hitting

Mike: 7:44

so hard? Yeah, it depends on the game because sometimes you do go in and attack with Gardevoir EX, so if you do that, you need to keep a alter, a Kirlia, ready to evolve in case they do hit it back immediately. But usually when you're attacking with Gardevoir EX, you're kind of in a situation where we're, you're like, if they kill it, I lose the game And if they don't, I'm still in it. Uh, so. Sometimes you have to take that gamble, like especially against the loss index because it has the highest hp, it's the thing that is least likely to get a return KO. And the thing about Gardevoir is it's quite consistent actually. Um, but you always give up two prizes, so you have to make up the prize trade at some point. And one of the ways you can do that is by killing something with the Gardevoir X and them not killing you back. So, yeah, so usually you're just setting up one. But I would say,

Brent: 8:44

so tell me if I'm asking dumb questions. Cause I played zero games with the deck, but like is uh uh, like turn two, what's your strategy like? Are you trying to set up like. Assuming you don't have an infinite number of Kirlia, like are you trying to prioritize the big guard of war? The little guard of war? Because you can kind of power it up potentially without the Gardevoir EX because you can just like flip over cards and pray. Or like, are you trying to get the guard of war and foundation because you can't necessarily get a second, like get a baby guard of war online. Like how do you think about that problem? And I'm sure it, it varies from Yeah,

Mike: 9:22

yeah, yeah, yeah. It definitely varies. But like, so Zacian is, I found that you really don't wanna use Sahi in early, in pretty much any matchup because that is one of your ways of coming back in the price trade. So like against me, you need it to take four prizes. With Sky Seal, stone versus Giratina, you often need it to take three prizes with Sky, seal, stone. Um, it's not bad. Early against Lost Box. That's like the one matchup where you can kind of go in with it early. Um, But in terms of set, which, which things to set up? I would say usually, so it a lot depends on if you go first or second. I would say if you're going first, then you usually prioritize the, the baby Gardevoir because you don't need to attack as fast. Um, but if you go second, you're a little bit behind in the, in the tempo race. And so you more often have to go for a Gardevoir EX, um, But again, very match up dependent. Um, like against Mew, you, you're, you're trying to win the game in two attacks basically. So you'd often, you often don't need to do to evolve to any Gardevoir. On turn two, your most common turn to play is to use the, uh, water duplicates Kirlia to set up the other curls. Like that's if you go first and get that on turn two. You're chilling, like you're really in a good spot against pretty much every matchup. Um, if you go second, it's like you can go for it, but uh, it's a little sketchier. Um, just cuz then you're like kind of far behind, but you're pretty much always giving up two prizes. So like turn two, you're usually just not doing much at all. It's turn three where you start to actually attack with stuff. The Gale is also some, lets play Gale, some don't. I've been playing it because I think Gale is pretty good against Lost Index. It has 20 more HP than the baby Gardevoir, and it preserves an energy. It does one 60 and moves the energy to the bench. So it's really good at k a Cramorant having enough HP that it can't always be killed by a Cramorant back. Like if you only, like if you set up Galle and a Gardevoir EX, then you put two energy on it with the Gardevoir EX ability. Plus one extra energy that from hand, the galle stall is 120 HP as opposed to baby Gardevoir, which would've a hundred HP left. So then they can't Cramorant coyo it, so then they have to either use like Snorlax or they have to start saline. So it makes it a little bit more awkward and it preserves an energy. So you get to move an energy back to another Pokegear. And so that's 20 less damage that'll be on your board, uh, at that point in the game.

Brent: 12:06

Gotcha. And, and are you, uh, uh, running Radi Greninja two, just to give you like more draw? Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, um, And how many of the water duplicates, uh, Kirlia are you running? Just one. Just

Mike: 12:21

one. Just one. Yeah. Um, yeah, so like prize in a Kirlia is also like if you prize a Kirlia, you pretty much never go for that. Um, because it's just more economical to just evolve through ROS then than use that attack.

Brent: 12:37

Right. Are there any other questions I should ask you about your list? Uh, Are you gonna spring for any of the new crazy supporter Arts

Mike: 12:50

No, I don't think so. The only new supporter that I'm playing right now is Arvin. I think Arvin is pretty good. That's the one that searches for a tool and an item card. Um, a lot of the lists play Miriam, which is the Shuffle five Pokegear in your deck and Draw three. I haven't played a ton with it because, you know, The, the, the list, the list that have been doing, well play one Miriam and one Clara usually, but I played like two or three games with Miriam. Miriam at the beginning, and it seemed really bad to me overall. Um, so I switched out for a rescue carrier quite a while ago and I haven't really looked back. Maybe I'll try it again. Um, but rescue carrier just kind of makes more sense to me. It's not a supporter. Like the main reason that you want to get Pokegear back is because. They killed something early or they kill Manaphy. Um, and you need to protect against Greninja again. And so rescue carrier kind of just made more sense to me. Um, but yeah, I'm not gonna, not gonna try and search for the, the, especially the Miriam, I think is like one of the most expensive cards.

Brit: 13:56

Yeah, I think so. I think it is the most expensive.

Brent: 13:58

I mean the, the support that the, the, like what do they call those new art support?

Mike: 14:04

Like Illustrator character gallery

Brent: 14:07

or something like that. I mean, the, the Miriam looks insane. Yeah, I like, I could, although it seems like all of those cards look absolutely insane. It's incredible. Like, yeah, normally I've, I've never been a guy who's been like, oh, I need that rainbow card, or I need that gold ultra ball or anything like that. But like, I admit, I see a difference between like, just straight bling of like making it rainbow or making it gold and the actual like, artistic value of these like illustrator cards. It's

Mike: 14:38

crazy. The, the one card that I think that I'm probably not gonna splurge for it, but like this card is sweet, the Gardevoir EX, that's kind of like the illustrator. Totally, totally thing like this card's really cool, but you know it's gonna go for a hundred to$150. So,

Brent: 14:55

Yeah. They, they. Yes. So is it special illustration set? Is that what it's called?

Mike: 15:00

Yeah, something like that mean.

Brent: 15:02

Yeah. Totally agree. I saw that and I was like, the guy that's rocking those Gardevoir is rocking the correct Gardevoir. Yeah, Because, uh, yeah, yeah. Like all the other ones are playable cards, but that is like the card. It's crazy.

Brit: 15:21

Do you have any thoughts on, I was reading some, I mean, you posted some of it too, the wink alone deck. I think that's how you would say it. The, I've seen some sort of murmurs of it as being sort of a frier option in post rotation. Do you think, do you have any thoughts if, if it's good, is it real

Mike: 15:38

Yeah. It's a two 60 color of this Pokegear. For one color. It does 10 plus 30 for each of their benched. And then its second attack is like one 60 for three, something like that. But so you can play it with um, V guard energy and the full face guard, which is minus 20. If the Pokegear doesn't have an ability, I think. Uh, so you can do that. You play like Cheren's Care. They've seen like different draw engines. Some play bi, some play Kirlia. Um, I haven't tried it yet, but I I I'm gonna give it a shot. Uh, I think you probably beat Mew if you just get set up because they can't really, they can one shot like one of them. Uh, my issue is I don't think you're gonna be able to beat the loss index like either one, especially Giratina, like Giratina seems really bad because, um, with you need to have V Guard energy to survive a two 80 from Giratina. But they can like just Sableye and put a couple counters on all of your winka loans. And then they set up all of them to be KOD and what you can't like share in all of them. Uh, and then they obviously get the one free KO with the VStar anytime they want. Uh, and they can KO like at least two easy prizes in the early game with Cramorant or Greninja or stuff like that. So the Giratina matchup seems really bad to me. And then Lawson box, like their damage output is not quite as high. So you might be able to beat them, but they still have, like Zamazenta can do some pretty big damage if they need to. Um, and then Gardevoir is, could go either way. Like it's hard to, you know, like you need a lot of energies to one shot them, but you can one shot them So, I don't know. It doesn't seem like it has great matchups. Like you beat Mew and you might beat Lawson Box, but I don't think you beat Giratina and garde seems kind of sketchy, so, but I'm gonna give it a shot.

Brit: 17:44

It interests Mewtwo, but I, I have some similar reservations just like on paper of how it would play, but it's, I mean, I think I just have this like natural tendency to look for fringe options. Like first, for some reason instead of like trying the medex. So I, I think that's part of it too, just this player tendency of mine. Yeah,

Mike: 18:02

that makes sense. Yeah, that sounds good. Oh yeah, the other deck. The other deck, I haven't built it yet and I've only played a couple games against it. My friend had it built is the Lugia single strike. Like that's also gotta be a terrible matchup cuz Stone Joiner one shot you, uh, Tyranitar Tarkin one shot you pretty easily. They just need enough single strike energies, so it's gotta be pretty bad. That deck is like pretty good. The Lugia single strike deck, um, it's much less consistent than. Current Lugia obviously, but you just play four of every single draw card or every single search card and you usually still get there pretty quickly.

Brent: 18:39

does it play, earn or

Brit: 18:40

anything to like get multiple uses out of the single strike

Mike: 18:43

energy? Yeah, they play two earn usually. Yeah, it seems strong. so ironically like the strategy of like four evil tall. Actually doesn't really beat Lugia a single strike like it does current Lugia, cuz they actually have like 20 energy in their deck as opposed to 16.

Brent: 19:12

Oh. Someone call me now. That's ridiculous. All right. It was good that we had a dramatic pause right there. Yeah. Um, man. All right. Uh, any other big conclusions, anything you should say about, uh, uh, about Mira or other aspects of the, uh, lost, boxy, uh, world for, uh, for uh, next set? Um,

Mike: 19:40

I'm the next like big matchup that I'm going to test a bunch is like the lost zone mirror, so I'm gonna play Giratina versus Lost Box a bunch. My first impressions, I've only played one game. My first impressions are that like Manife is the highest commodity card in the mirror. If you're able to kill Manaphy, then you. Kind of open rain with radiant caria and recovering manife is not trivial like it was in the past format with without ordinary rod. Um, you have to use Clara and committing your supporter for the turn is not ideal. So I think Giratina has like some really good plays. Like in theory, Giratina is weaker against other law decks. They play Roxanne and most lost, most lost box decks do not play Roxanne. So you can go like Sableye Roxanne, and then like you can set up a, like a great radiant gringa play to win the game, which is, uh, pretty cool. So I think running like two, I, I think running two Manife might be a, uh, a way to get an edge in the mirror that is not immediately obvious.

Brent: 20:54

I was about to say, I recognize there was a moment where playing two Manife seemed like a thing. Uh, do you think there's, there's room in the deck to say we're going to, we're gonna bring back the double manife. Yeah,

Mike: 21:05

I think so. For sure.

Brent: 21:08

Um, what's the best argument against playing, uh, Guardi?

Mike: 21:14

The best argument for not playing guardy is that, You work pretty hard. We've said this about other decks, like you have to work pretty hard to have 50 50 match-ups. Like, that's kind of how I've been feeling about the deck, like Giratina and Lawson, like they're just, they're, they're fast, they are powerful, and you are not gonna be much better than 50 50 against them no matter what you do. Like I'm playing Roxanne, multiple judges, emergency jelly, croce, Kirlia. Like I got all these cards in for the lawsuit matchup, and I'm. Is still 50 50 at best So you gotta work really hard to, uh, to be better. And like you're still 50 50 against me. Like I think you're probably Mew more favored against Marra than a lot of other decks, but like, Mira's not that big of, of Meta share. So yeah, you gotta work really hard to be 50 50.

Brent: 22:15

That sounds, um, I, I, I think, I think we've come to the conclusion, uh, that at least in this format that was.

Mike: 22:22

Yeah, but there's no good argument against it. I guess There's no Lugia in this post rotation format. So, um, but I do think the deck that is quote unquote easiest, that has at least 50 50 is, is Giratina. Um, it's not easier to play than Gardevoir, but it just like feels. Naturally very powerful. Like every turn you're like, wow, I can do some really strong things and I didn't have to get very lucky to do it. And it's not like Gardevoir has to get very lucky. It's just that it's so easy to miss the one, the one out of four things that you needed that turn, uh, to keep up. And Giratina is the one that's like the deck that's forcing you to keep up, if that makes sense.

Brent: 23:11

That makes sense. Alright. Should we talk about this past weekend and Charlotte are, there are still, uh, for, for all the people tweeting from Europe, there's still two more, two more tournaments in this format. Hey, conversation on this pod. There are still two more tournaments in this format.

Mike: 23:34

Then there was some interesting stuff. I guess it doesn't seem like many people played Lugia at this event. Like just overall,

Brent: 23:45

uh, yeah, that was gonna be my first question was like obviously, uh, uh, you know, if you'd asked us four days ago, we would've said Lugia, Lugia, Lugia, Lugia, Lugia. And like, uh, besides Tord, I don't know that we would, you would say that the good players played Lugia, Andre Football. He's the best player.

Mike: 24:04

Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's the thing I just don't think Lucia did as well, is be because a, a lot of good players just decided not to play it for whatever reason.

Brent: 24:14

Right. I mean, uh, uh, but I, I assume they did not play it because either A, they didn't wanna play the mirror and they were willing to take, uh, worse than 50 50 matchup to avoid playing the mirror over and over again. Or they thought they had a plan. Right. All right, let me let, lemme take a step back and contextualize this discussion for you guys, cuz this is, this is really what I want to talk about on the pod. in a surprise turn of events. This, uh, uh, since our last pod, my youngest son has announced his intention to come out of retirement and play at Charlotte. Ooh,

Brit: 24:50

nice.

Mike: 24:52

And there's still spots for, I guess there's still spots for everyone, but in particular seniors, right?

Brent: 24:57

Yes. So he will be a senior, uh, seniors has been a wash inDon. Uh, Aldon is probably like the most popular deck in seniors. Okay. Because I, I, I think it's because, uh, if you're not a good Lugia player, you're gonna take a massive L to Aldon. And if you're like a good aldon player, like you feel like you have a good plan for Lugia, right? Mm. Mm-hmm. so, so, Given, given the results of Urich, maybe you want to contextualize it with, with what we saw last weekend and the information I just gave you about the senior. What deck should he play? because I'll give you a hint. He probably shouldn't play the deck. Liam's gonna play

Brit: 25:46

I mean, I was gonna say that as like, just rule number one, just he should not play what Liam is on Um, Mew. That's what it's sort of, it's difficult cuz like on paper, I think Mew is. One of rcs DDoS worst matchups. But it's, it's really very close. Like I, if you go first as the RRCs DDO player, you're like in a really good spot because you can take two prizes on your second turn usually. Um, and then from there you just kind of, you, you, you, you play four bosses and you just are trying to hit two of them. And that's, that's it. Like you can beat you, but they, they have to do it on top of like, they need the path plays, they need the, you know, energy at the right time and things like that. But if you could, like, if you're confident in his ability to like learn Mew well and like maybe played an a random tech that's never been played before in Mew, like just to have a better dal on matchup, like I feel like that's a pretty good option. I'm not sure what that card would be like if you even really need one still, but like double horn or something like that probably works.

Brent: 26:48

But my impression is that like aerodactyl is a, a good technical Yeah. Or, or just that, of course, but an lala matchup as well. If you were like, you're like just playing the same deck. Everybody else has been playing historically, right?

Mike: 26:59

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mew makes the most sense to me as well. Like, especially for coming, you know, and starting to play the game again. Mew is, it's, it's hard to play perfect, but it's easy to play well. You

Brit: 27:17

know? Yeah. I mean I think it's more just like, do you think he would be up to task to place just sequence for 15 rounds, you know, just nothing but And discard.

Brent: 27:29

Oh yeah, that's true. He's sequence for like seven rounds,

Brit: 27:33

even still it's a lot.

Brent: 27:37

Yeah. That's fair. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there, there, there's definitely gonna be some, some like, uh, you know, attempting to teach himself how to play the deck in round one and two. Right. Although he was grind a PTCGO when I came upstairs to do the pod guys, nothing

Brit: 27:53

else is really coming to mind in terms of just like his 10 easy deck and it will have a good dal on matchup or. I mean, I'm sure you could make something that's not very good, that has a really good matchup. Again, as Jake Gearhart does once a week with his decks,

Mike: 28:13

I mean Reggie is like with four Path to the Peak. It's a pretty solid matchup. Reggie's also like a fun deck to play and not ridiculously hard.

Brit: 28:23

Yeah, Reggie's is fun and could be less of that sequencing, but like similar. Play patterns, I think. Mm-hmm.

Brent: 28:31

And like, does it,

Brit: 28:33

does it, can Reggie's beat the parasol though? I mean, I guess you can play removal for parasol, but isn't that like a, a big part of it? Uh, or I guess you just have path to, if you, if you can keep the path locked,

Mike: 28:44

you're fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. You're just trying and like path. Reggie Gigas. K.

Brent: 28:51

Yeah. You know, I, my, my fear when I am try to imagine him playing Reggie's is that there would just be a round after round where he comes back and he was like, I made a little mistake and realized I lost halfway through Yeah. Realized that I was gonna, uh, pass this turn because there was no way on earth I was gonna attack, even though I could easily have attacked if I had just done things slightly differently. Mm-hmm. But, but yeah, that's, uh, that's, that's all, uh, fair. Yeah. Any lost box engine, that's way too hard,

Mike: 29:21

right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't do that. Um, what was the, did he give a reason why he wants to

Brent: 29:27

play? Uh, you know, I think, I think the moral story is they just wrapped up the last round of Fortnite, uh, uh, like the Fortnite Championship for the season. Mm-hmm. and he has. Two or three weeks off until the season starts up. The next season starts. Gotcha. And his fist friend Liam Hyatt is coming out with our, our friends, the Hyatts to uh, Charlotte. And he was like, that seems like a great idea. I'll totally

Mike: 29:52

get that Nice.

Brent: 29:56

Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. There's still plenty of time for you guys to decide to come to Charlotte

Mike: 30:03

Not this time. Um, one thing that I do wanna say about Charlotte is I, I have this feeling that I feel like, like Pablo's lost box, the ri Raku rayquaza list, I feel like that's gonna come back at this tournament. Like nobody's really played it recently. It just feels like it's in a pretty solid place. Yeah.

Brent: 30:28

The, the a a deck that can take monstrous, one hit knockouts with basic. Would seem like, like, I don't know, coming out of Urich, it's weird because you, it was like, so there's like a whole bunch ofan and a whole bunch of guru, like that's the format. That's weird.

Mike: 30:43

I mean, Lugia is obviously still, especially like there's always this like slight differ, differing Meta game between America and Europe, and I feel like we really saw that this weekend. All the best players were like, I don't wanna touch Lugia, but I feel like we're gonna come back to the US and all the top players are gonna be like, I'm just still gonna play Lugia.

Brent: 31:07

Yeah. I mean, Lugia is still the best deck. Like despite the fact that Darrell and Audra come in one and two, I'm like, well, I mean, Lugia could beat those decks, right? Yeah. You could tech a little harder if you said, if you said, those are the matchups I have to win, versus like lost box. Like you could add one or two cards and like make significant inroads.

Mike: 31:32

Yeah. Well and it's funny that like Tor did as well as he did in the sea of. you know, these, these decks. And he didn't have any of the counters. He didn't have a vacuum. He didn't have any stadium. He just had a one. He had one pumpkin. That was it.

Brent: 31:48

Tor had such a tour list. Yeah, it's crazy. I know. It's crazy. Brit, I don't know if you, uh uh, looked. But like four Lugia, four research, four quick balls, four instance, four ultra balls. Like the only items he's running are ball carts. Crazy.

Mike: 32:07

This is the shortest trainer list that I've seen in a deck in years. Yeah, he has six different trainer cards. That's it. Yeah. Hilarious.

Brent: 32:18

It, it, it is absolutely cra like, like I'm sure the list is a joy to write, but. It, it is, uh, bonkers that you could, uh, I mean, power consistency. We've already said that's the tor thing. Yep. He does not want to throw a game due to inconsistency. But like the four three LucMetal line, the, like, that's absolute madness. Wild, wild. Focus on consistency. Four captures. That's a mad man.

Mike: 32:53

Let's see, what did he, he still beat a bunch of Gures, which presumably had a bunch of tempos. He didn't play against any archist or Aldon until the finals or the top four. Yeah, he just played against Lu's, gures and Reggie's, which he didn't need. He didn't need any techs really against those

Brent: 33:19

Yeah, absolutely. Uh, absolute bon. But yeah, also shows the importance of, uh, of, of just like drawing the right matchups, right?

Mike: 33:28

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Brent: 33:34

Alright, uh, what else we got? Let's talk about, um, uh, you, you guys wanna talk about the side boarding video? Somebody put that in the uh, uh, I wondered, or usually I'm almost terrified to

Mike: 33:46

talk about it. I don't wanna talk about the video. That's actually not what I wanna put it in.

Brent: 33:50

Yeah, that's just wanna talk about whether or not there should be side board at Pokegear.

Mike: 33:53

Well, it did like create a bit of a discussion on Twitter. Um, cuz one of the content creators posted that he, you know, he's much more into magic and, and Yugi and he is like, I don't understand why Pokegear doesn't have a sideboard, blah, blah, blah. And I have a pretty strong opinion. Like I think side boarding in Pokegear just as is right now would be really, really bad for the game. And like, pretty much. For the whole history of the game as we know it, it would've been really bad just because like Pokegear, you have access to almost any card in your deck at any point, and that's just not how yugi and magic work. So side boarding is just way less impactful, I think in those games compared to Pokegear. Like imagine if you had a 10 card side board in Pokegear in this format. Like you would just put three drap. In your sideboard, and then you would never, ever agree to mute. Like it would just, it's silly. Like there, when

Brent: 34:49

people wouldn't run four researchers, they'd just run four skyless, be like, I'm just gonna get the card out the win game and then we'll be done.

Mike: 34:54

Right? Like, you can, like, you could put two or three cards in your sideboard that turn, uh, any matchup. and not every single deck as, as easily, as counter as Mew is. But the, the, the point is you can play like two or three cards in almost any deck for almost any matchup and, you know, increase your win percentage by 40 to 50% just because of the nature of how Pokegear is designed. And, um, like your sideboard would have to be like two cards for it to really not be that way. You've thought much more about game design than I have in general. Do you?

Brit: 35:29

I truly don't think I have anything more to say here that that's my take. And like the only thing I think I could maybe add to that, which is I think implicit in what Mikey said, but maybe we just bring it out here anyways, is that it would also just so plainly favor toolbox decks that like in any format where even like the Vegas toolbox is possible, it would just almost certainly be the best stack. But yeah, just more so that like. I mean also too, like again, you know, 15 cards or something say Packed Pokegear and magic, were still dealing with the same deck side, but magic obviously doesn't have search and draw like Pokegear does. So like it's still like I, I remember when I played magic side boarding was like hard. I, I didn't understand what cards I was supposed to take out cuz I would just. I need these cards to win all of these cards I feel like I need. And you know, if I take a card out, what are the odds of me even seeing it? You know, that sort of thing. And so I, you know, as a skill, I think side boarding is very difficult. You know, it's another Meta skill on top of, you know, the stack that, that, you know, it takes to be good at magic or something like that. And yeah, I mean, I think that's a large part of it. Uh, you have to, you have to play the, like, consistency of the game engines into sort of what's affordable here, what have you, and obviously with Pokegear where even you're not necessarily like a, a fast tag, say Arceus Aldon or something like that, like. Sees most of its cards, like when it played research and like, uh, chorus, things like that. Like, again, not just Turbo, not Turbo, adex, like get to the bottom very consistently and like there's rarely mild decks and people consistently deck out in mere matchups and things like that. But yeah, I would just be finding the balance, like how many cards it would take to make it work is probably just not worth it. Even still like, yeah, yeah. Like I just, and again, let's, as. Um, it could be used potentially for like these malicious reasons or something like that. Just goes to show how powerful it is if you can, you know, I haven't, I haven't watched the video in question or anything like that, so I don't know if they have specifics on how much or how little they're,

Brent: 37:39

you're, you're very lucky to have, uh, not watched the video. Uh uh. The, you know, I, I, I guess the only thing I would add, Mike, is probably your, your point is so accurate that like, I think actually the way people would describe Pokegear is like you almost have an anti side board in that there's prizes. Hmm. Like if you wanted to, if you wanted to fix the side boarding problem in Pokegear, give people access to 60 cards, you know? Yeah.

38:06

Yeah.

Mike: 38:06

That's actually the way to think about it. But you can, yeah. That's funny.

Brit: 38:12

So the, the question I have for you then that I got in a job interview is if. If you had to design a fourth option to rock paper scissors, not just what would it be, but like how would you start and then, and then where do you go from there? Like what would you, what's your option? But again, sort of your methodology is important here too. What would your sort of, your goal, your aim be to do with this fourth option? Hmm.

Mike: 38:52

Well, my first thought is that the Spiritomb Rock paper Scissors is that it's cyclical, right? Rock beats scissors. Scissors beats paper. Paper beats rock. So do you adapt the rules of the game to fit this fourth one in so that it also fits in the cycle? Like does rock no longer beat scissors and beats this new thing and then this new thing beats scissors and so on? Um, That's like the first, I think, big question that you have to answer, and like, if the answer is yes, then it's pretty straightforward. If the answer is no, then you have a lot more, uh, complexity. to the question. Yeah. Like I

Brent: 39:36

feel like the, the beauty of rock paper, scissors is that, that like, there's three possible outcomes. They either choose the same as you and you push, they lose. Or they beat you. So the problem is if you introduce a fourth option, then there's, um, uh, I, I, maybe a second push dimension, but like, kind of the beauty of the game is somewhat disrupted, so I feel like you would want to introduce something that's orthogonal, but like, how do you introduce Orthogonality to uh, uh, something so straightforward?

Brit: 40:14

Yeah, I think that's right. I think that like, I mean, I think both the, the, the general starting point is right that you, you know, your initial concerns are on parody and balance and you know, is there a way that you can introduce a fourth element that doesn't. Shake up, you know, the existing dynamics while still sort of maintaining the same game. And like, I think the answer there is no. So then you move, you, you move towards what Brent is saying and find sort of the way to shift it to subvert it or something like that. And I think that, I think that's definitely right. Like I talked a lot about, or at least again, I was just, Thinking while I'm talking fumbling for time, I'm like, well, you wouldn't wanna make it, you know, the rock pooper scissors gun where one just beats the other one. You know, talking about just like obvious things. But I, I think the, what I ended up going with is one where, um, it reverses the, the dynamics so suddenly, Uh, paper beats, scissors and so on. But you would, you would lose that round like it's this fourth option that, that adds another layer to the guessing game. But it's a guaranteed loss is, is what I

Mike: 41:21

answered with. Interesting. So I. So like, if you're playing like best at three, you just give up the first one. Okay. May,

Brit: 41:30

maybe you win, maybe you win on just like the initial, the initial throw, and then you throw it as your second option. Something like that. Like, I don't, I don't think it's like the best option, but I, I like the idea of something of some, somewhere to the effect of reversing, reversing the, the stuff somehow. Mm.

Brent: 41:46

It just doesn't, yeah. What I was trying to think of or orthogonality, the, the, I think I started headed in the same direction you went in. Like, uh, I thought of like a mechanism that changes it from best of one to like best two outta three. Hmm. Or something. Right? Like, like instead of just losing right away, you get a chance to come back or

Mike: 42:04

something. Okay. What if you did something like, I understand how you'd trigger that. What if you did something like where, um, If you throw it. Hmm. Okay. I just had two thoughts. One of them, the one of them, I don't know if it really makes sense. It's like if you throw it, then like if you guys tie on the next one, then you automatically win, but you automatically, I'll use that. You automatically,

Brent: 42:35

that seems well balanced

Mike: 42:37

dish. Like that could be one. Um, and what was the other thought? Uh, if you both throw that fourth one, you lo, you both lose. Or if you throw it like twice in a row, then you lose. But if you throw it once, then it always wins. Like it it like that type of thing. Something like that. I don't know.

Brent: 43:06

I actually really like that, Mike. That actually seems pretty, uh, pretty interesting. Like you take a guaranteed loss in exchange for winning on a push the next time. Right. Um, cuz I, I guess you've like, doubled your chances of winning if you do that the

43:22

next

Mike: 43:22

time. I don't know. Like I feel like all of these, like Brits one and that one, I think you just, I, I don't know why you would ever throw it Like, I don't think it actually increases your, your odds at all. Like

Brent: 43:39

you need, I mean, the beauty of rock paper scissors is there's no reason to throw any of them. Like, yeah,

Mike: 43:46

yeah. But you also can't choose, like, you can't, like, the hardest part is you can't create an option that. never worth throwing or always worth throwing. Right. Right. That's, that's the hard, that's the hardest part.

Brent: 43:59

Right, right. He hence in that respect, like throwing, uh, adding in one that's like, would be pointless to do. Um, is, is like consistent with practices, right? Yes.

Mike: 44:11

that's her name.

Brent: 44:14

Uh, so, so was there a correct answer? Did you get any feedback on that after, uh, after you gave your answer Brit? No,

Brit: 44:21

I don't think so. Um, I like that's one there, like you, I don't think you're like in the moment, I don't think you would've been expected to have the right answer. It's just sort of walking through your, your method, your, your thought processes and sort of all the goals and, uh, intentions and things like that, that you would have. Like I'm sure there are wrong answers to be sure, but that, you know, the expectation isn't that you need the perfect answer to succeed. Right. It's just being able to troubleshoot and things like that. Or like we talked about the weather time, we talked about game design stuff. They just like to see that you can deep dive and sort of think about things well and methodically and so

Brent: 45:00

on. Right. We'll be back next week with Charlotte results for both of my children. It'll be crazy.