The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast

New Year, New Pod - just when you thought you were out, we pull you back in!

• Brent Halliburton • Season 1 • Episode 198

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Liam:

What's up everybody, this is the Trash Life Podcast. We haven't recorded one in a while, but uh, you know,

Abaan:

New year, new year, new year, new podcasts.

Henry:

It's not the new

Liam:

New year, new podcast. New year, new podcast. Well, almost new year, new podcast.

Abaan:

new year, bro. Henry, you're like ruining the, like, the vibe. New year, new podcast.

Henry:

You

Liam:

year, new podcast. New year, new

Henry:

1125 now. Yeah,

Abaan:

What if the viewers are like, not in like, America, bro? Like, what if they're in Hawaii? Oh wait, no, I'm an idiot. What if they're in Europe?

Liam:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Europe. Yeah, right.

Henry:

and Kywin.

Abaan:

No, even Europeans, it's like the new year, bro. Come

Liam:

Literally, everybody except for like, people in America.

Abaan:

Yeah,

Liam:

exactly, right?

Henry:

in the world? Hmm.

Liam:

Oh my god.

Henry:

bad.

Liam:

yeah, new year, new podcast. Uh Birmingham's just around the corner. We haven't we still haven't talked about Toronto yet, so I guess we'll start with that. Big Henry, bro.

Abaan:

said new year, new podcast, but we're like, doing the same shit we always do. Like, where no clue what we're doing.

Liam:

for sure. For sure. Uh, let's start off with Henry.

Abaan:

but it's the side. Alright, yes, Toronto.

Liam:

Was able to get, after getting the entire extended family on his list, he was able to get him and one other person into top cut. They unfortunately lost, but they were both able to get to top cut. They were both able to get top cut.

Henry:

Yeah, I'll,

Liam:

Henry, do you want to tell us about this list?

Abaan:

Like, brutally. Like, Cal said it was over in 15 minutes.

Liam:

No, no, no. Cal first gave him, Cal first gave him a game for having like, uh, bad sleeves or something like that. Like, you know.

Abaan:

no, no. I heard, like, this is from Cal, that it was, um, he had the, like, Ogre Pawn, he had the wrong art. And so he got a then he just didn't do anything. Like, he, like, didn't go and get the right ones.

Henry:

Oh, that's how it works? Okay.

Liam:

Oh.

Henry:

That's kind of trolled, anyway.

Abaan:

I

Liam:

Yeah, no, I

Abaan:

like, he got a warning already, like, I don't know what he thought was gonna happen going in the cut, like, he can just go by.

Liam:

agree, this is like, this is not a crazy thing to happen, but it's more like, this rule, that like, you have to have the right arts, is like, crazy to me. Like,

Abaan:

I mean, I

Liam:

just a crazy rule.

Abaan:

you the first time they notice, and, like, I do that moment change your list, but, like, if that's their rule, that's their rule, like, I I told them, like, this is a warning, but, like, dude, if we see this, like, if you don't fix it, we're gonna, like, penalize you, like Like, I don't know. It's like,

Liam:

I agree with this.

Abaan:

both sides. It's like, ridiculous that it's a rule, but they gave him a warning, so like, I don't know, I think it's

Liam:

Yeah, no, if they tell you that it's a rule, you should just, like, go with it, right? Like, just go fix it, right? Um, but, either way, Cal, I assume he didn't bother because he knew he was going to get the reverse sweep, uh, and top cut,

Henry:

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Liam:

which was unfortunate.

Henry:

Okay, uh,

Abaan:

then MD, the other guy on the list, well, 58 of the 60, he um, you can actually check out how his game went, on like, Pokemon. com, or like, Pokemon

Liam:

Haha, indeed.

Henry:

so, I don't know, I sent Slowgurdy. still don't know why we sent Slowgurdy. Like, I actually still try to justify it. I actually have to justify it to, uh, the people I'm giving the class to. Like, I don't know, like, when you actually think about it, it doesn't necessarily have better matchups. I mean, the main thing is that it's, like, way more fun than TurboGuardi, if you start Evo 1. Otherwise, you're just trying to put out, like, 15 fires, you know, I

Liam:

Dude, I think that, I think that Drago matchup is actually better. Like, I, I think for fast Guardi that Drago matchup's close. Like, for slow Guardi, bro, that's not, like, does not feel close at all, bro. Like,

Henry:

I agree with that. I think

Abaan:

Well, I think, I think now we're like at a level of stuff where it's like, now it's good again. And the

Liam:

maybe, bro. Like,

Abaan:

right? Like that helps a lot.

Henry:

the only thing that

Liam:

yeah,

Henry:

you play it. But like, without the Noctowl, I'm not like, cutting the Noctowl also helps Skadi a little bit. Like, the Noctowl is still annoying for the fast Skadi, so I don't know. think the,

Abaan:

It's annoying in a whole different way, which is kind of funny, right? Like, it's annoying because like, they're gonna be jamming you, for sure. And like, with Slowgoddy, it's like, they're gonna Cologne, for sure.

Henry:

Yeah, yeah, and obviously for slow Skadi, it's way worse. Like, the guaranteed Cologne play is like, horrible. Um, but overall, I think both the matchups are like, slightly favored, but like, for completely different reasons, in terms of guarding your Strega.

Liam:

no, I, I think what I'm saying more is, is not even like that the, the high level matchup spread is, is way different, but it's like, The um, poor Drago play is like, punished way more often. It's much more easier to like, make mistakes against slow Guardi with Drago, I think. Like, it's like, way harder to convert, bro. Like, basically anyone except for Drek. I, I think like, they make a lot of mistakes. Sure, yeah.

Abaan:

Nick Moffat.

Liam:

and Necrophos, sure.

Henry:

Oh, you got Frank, right,

Abaan:

Frink? What? on Pokemoner. com, I actually have a similar link, just scroll down a bit.

Liam:

Yes. Yes. Like, yeah. So, like, you can make, um, I think it's a lot easier to make mistakes against that build.

Abaan:

ton, actually, that get you, but

Henry:

Yeah,

Abaan:

with the narrative, Liam, sorry.

Henry:

agree with

Liam:

I'll continue by saying, like, Drick gets you the most. Like, Drick, Drick, Drick. He's

Henry:

Yeah, I don't know, like,

Liam:

insane. I mean, he's insane.

Henry:

that, uh, like the TurboGuardi is, like, for Drago to play against it, which I

Abaan:

Wait. for the viewers, by the way, I want to point out that we made an agenda and it was very clear that the Toronto discussion and Guardian analysis was going to go before the Drick Glaze, but Liam has like, kind of like, thrown that to the wind, and um,

Henry:

Anyway, you can always segue into the conversation. Like, I've learned this from him in the past no I could say, like, you know, I'm, like, thinking about having Froot Loops and Cheerios for breakfast, and be like, trick trick trick trick trick trick would have Cheerios in the

Abaan:

Drick already had that. Drick had that, and he actually decided that like, uh, Cocoa for Cocoa Puffs was optimal.

Henry:

Oh, sure, sure.

Liam:

I don't know, bro. It's just like, I guess there's something about me, right? Like, some people are like, like, oh, dude, like, you're, like, glazing everyone. But, like, dude, I, I'm constantly thinking of, like, you know, how I can be better and when I'm thinking about, like,

Abaan:

Oh,

Liam:

what. What you can do to like get better at Pokemon, I'm like, how do I play more like Drek? Like, that's like a very natural Natural jump, right? Like, I'm like, okay, well, you know, who can I watch to get better? Oh, like, Drick has a bunch of stream games. Like, let me go watch this Chempai Dialga game, bro. Like, cooking up something crazy, right? And I'm like,

Henry:

anything from watching a Path format, bro. Like, I'm sorry, that shit is sick

Liam:

well, nah, nah, nah,

Abaan:

I, I disagree with this concept, Henry,

Liam:

Yeah, I completely disagree as well.

Henry:

can learn, like, something, but, like, the comparison of, like, watching, like, a year old VOD versus just, like, hitting a Game of Ladder, bro, like, there's no way, bro. Like, oh,

Liam:

No, bro, like, every time, every time I watch, like, one of these games, I, like, you get some insight into, like, the way their mind works, right? Like, I, like, I, I watched this Chen Padialga game, and I'm like, oh my god, Drek is, like, he's not even thinking, like, the same way I am. He's not even, like, approaching the position in the same way. He's on, he's on, like, a separate plane. He's, he's looking many turns beyond. I agree. I, like, I agree.

Abaan:

understanding, I think it's like, always valuable. As long as you understand, like, what's happening. Like, obviously, I can't gain anything from watching, like, the Henry Brand games from, like, his worlds, because, like, I didn't play that format. I have no clue what's happening. I'm, like, learning the cards as I'm watching. But, like,

Henry:

yeah, I understand.

Abaan:

I think you can learn stuff from any format you play.

Henry:

I don't know, like, I will say, like, maybe my memory just sucks, bro, like, I just tried queuing up this TurboGuardi deck today, like, I was already, like, fumbling every single game, bro, like, I already forgot all the lines, and I had to figure it out again, so, like, just watching a random VOD from, like, what, like, 8 months ago, I don't know, I don't know if I would, uh, really be able to, like,

Abaan:

It's not a random bot. It's Strick. the way,

Henry:

sure, sure. And, like, oh, also, like, I've been playing, like, Liam and, like, ParadoxGuardi versus Tina, bro, and, like, I remember how locked in on that matchup I was when it was, like, standard legal, but, like, ah, we were playing that, I had no

Abaan:

like, I

Liam:

then I took Henry outside, bro. Like, oh my god.

Abaan:

think, Henry, that, like, in the future, like, let's say one year from now, some guy who's, like, who was pretty good at Draugr comes down and assists with you, and, like, wants to play slowguard you could cook them a year from now?

Liam:

No.

Henry:

I think, uh, skill level would be significantly lower, I'm not sure what my opponent's

Liam:

No, Aban, I think there's a necessary caveat that like, this, this like, guy is A, like, at least somewhat good, and B, it's like a current player right now, right? Like, it's not like a player in a year who's also pretty washed at the matchup, but like, somebody right now who's playing the matchup like, every single day, like, they would probably, probably beat you, right?

Henry:

It's

Abaan:

Maybe. I think, I'm not sure, I think certain I've, like, I, like, obsess over so much, like, if someone made me play, like, Pidgeot for CPOW in, like, two years, think I could still, like,

Henry:

I'm that like, really

Liam:

dude, that, that, that's true, but like,

Abaan:

they were good.

Liam:

The issue is, when, even when you do something like that, you like, lose a lot of the subtlety, right? Because like, when you're, when you're thinking back about the matchup, you're like, oh dude, I remember this like, one like, random principle that like, nobody else, nobody else knew about at the time, and then like, you kind of like, over lean into that principle when you're playing. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's something that I've like, experienced a lot when I've played past four months.

Abaan:

No, I agree, I agree. I, I think that, like like, if you had to play someone who's like, in it, like, let's say like, Time Traveler Henry had to play like, current day, um, I don't know, some good Drago player like Moffat or something? Like, I, I don't know, like, one year from now, Henry versus current day Moffat, I'm pretty sure, it's, it's a close, it's a close game.

Henry:

First of like, Muffet is, like, really good,

Abaan:

No, I was just thinking, I know, I know, I know, I'm just, that's why I was trying to pick someone really good that wasn't named Rick or Cal, well, if I pick Cal, then like, someone would make the obvious joke, like, current day Henry couldn't beat current day Cal, so then I didn't want to like, open that up.

Henry:

Good one, good one, good one, good one. Uh,

Abaan:

trying to protect you, and then you like, started correcting me, but like, my bad.

Henry:

for calling Moffat good bro, my bro, my New York local, I call him good. That's not allowed these days. Then I just,

Abaan:

Oh, he's from New York, I didn't know that.

Henry:

yeah, well it'll lick up far from me, but I've seen him I guess.

Abaan:

Okay, anyway, so we're getting sidetracked as usual. Tirana, Tirana,

Liam:

yes.

Henry:

won't go through all my rounds, but uh, yeah, day one I went 7 1 1. Um, my loss was round three against Turbo Moondeck with Scramble Switch and Water. He was on stream as well. That was pretty cool. He got top

Abaan:

He went 8 1.

Henry:

yeah, end of top 32. Um, yeah, I played pretty bad. Well, game 2 I got rolled. Game 1 was pretty winnable. Didn't play great. Um,

Abaan:

think that guy might actually have suffered from stream nerfs, like, I think, like, I don't know, I'm like, more and more opening up this idea, like, I haven't really been on stream, so, like, I just have to, like, imagine what it's like, but, like, I totally accept that, like, the stream games are, like, not the same as, like, sitting on a table, and it's, like, so much different that, like, you shouldn't, like, you should almost not judge, like, bad or good someone plays on stream.

Henry:

excuses.

Liam:

No, I, I agree with the bottom. The way I think about games is, it's like a, it's a conversation between you and your opponent.

Henry:

Oh, and when

Abaan:

And then, like, the stream is like,

Liam:

And when, yeah, no, but like, no, bro, it's like, it's more about like, um, You and your opponent, yeah, like when you're on stream in that sort of environment and there's like gray noise like the conversation gets a little bit disrupted and you both go kind of like delusional like it's the delusion like it kind of affects everyone bro there's nothing really to do about it bro

Abaan:

I like to think about it is, like, people who play great on stream still, they should be praised, but the people who play bad on stream, it's, like, kind of a wash, like, like, whatever. Like, we can talk about the

Liam:

agree with this i i know i i just think bro henry i'm i'm blown away bro your stream games have been like incredible bro yeah

Abaan:

Yeah, like,

Liam:

i'm blown away

Abaan:

is, like, a testament to just Henry being good, but, like, everyone, like, throwing on stream, that's, like, not, like, they're not bad players, like, that's, like, a different, it's just a different skill.

Henry:

is whether people are actually throwing on stream more, or like, people just are throwing all the time, but no one's watching, and no one knows, and they never know, and the

Abaan:

No, no, I truly don't believe that, like, some of the games I've watched, like, people played that bad, like, there's no way, like, that guy can go 8

Henry:

I don't know.

Abaan:

Henry, that guy went 8 1, like, I know he was playing Turbo Moon, but, like, the way he played in his loss on stream, it's, like, he wouldn't have, he would have probably gone 0 9 if he played like that, and that's not Flame, he truly played, like, terrible on stream, but he went 8 1, so, Like, and I mean that, like, I don't know, it sounds like Flame, like, the more I'm saying it, the more I'm thinking this is Flame, but, like, it really seemed, like, uncharacteristic. He got you, bro, and after he got you, he got, like, someone else, like, who was good, I

Henry:

he got, uh, he got someone, I think,

Liam:

Yeah, like,

Abaan:

Lashmid, Zard, versus Moon. You think that guy played, like, like, literally somebody played the deck for the first time on stream, like,

Henry:

he got got by the Petra, and killing something going into his turn, that's how he swung the prize trade. Oh, oh my god, dude, nasty

Abaan:

yeah, masterful, that, the guy on stream would not have pulled that off, but that guy, like, in, on, over the board, off stream, he's

Liam:

I agree with this, I agree with this, like,

Henry:

like, I don't know, I guess I can only speak for myself. Like, the white noise is, like, a little annoying, but besides that, I mean, it's literally just Oh, oh,

Abaan:

Wait, how does the peck round thing work? If you take a KO, can they just promote it and you take eight?

Liam:

uh, yes, yes.

Henry:

oh, wait, what are you, no, no, do I, what are you saying?

Liam:

No, like, if you're poisoned, you take a knockout, and they promote the Pekka, and you die, yes. Yeah, like,

Henry:

if there was already poison on it, you mean.

Liam:

yeah, yeah, yeah, if there's already poison.

Henry:

that's not what happened. He,

Abaan:

Oh.

Liam:

Yeah, no, no, no, he hit with the attack, he hit with the attack, right? Mm

Henry:

like, that's the reason why it's in the deck. The, see, the attack.

Abaan:

No, I understood that part. I know, I was just wondering if, like, maybe this promote thing is what happened, but okay, sure.

Henry:

yeah, yeah, no, no, he's just, like, shot going random, like a, you know, like a

Abaan:

So everyone's just basically playing Mawile, and they're playing Dark Mawile. Okay.

Henry:

Yeah, sure, you can take it like that.

Liam:

hmm. Yeah, I'm, bro, yeah, like, the stream, bro, so, the stream is so cooked, bro. It's, it's really hard to play on stream, bro.

Henry:

had in Masters, and do you think you play better or worse?

Liam:

Uh, I've only had one in Masters, and that was at Orlando.

Henry:

only streamed me on the in stream on Swiss at all?

Liam:

Nah.

Henry:

9. 0? They didn't

Abaan:

Henry, when did you go? No, no, it's different at regionals versus NAIC. Like, ICs, like, the 9 0 is guaranteed stream, like, the first round of the next day. In regionals, they don't stream until round 12, and by then the 9 0 is, like, typically has, like, already made cut,

Henry:

Or they first few rounds of the day and had to struggle to get back on top.

Liam:

Indeed.

Henry:

But they did get back on top, which is all that matters.

Liam:

Indeed, bro.

Abaan:

No, but I, at that event, I don't want to mean to glaze him too much, I watched a set from him and Memma, which is Caleb Rodgerson, because I was, it was cooked. Basically, I had to ID my last round because, like, I I don't know, I, I prized a lucky Heavyball versus Lax, and so I was like, okay, I just, I'll take the ID, whatever, and then I watched, uh, like, Liam's game, and I was like, this guy, like, understands the matchup at such a high level, like, oh my god, he's, like, goaded, and I watched his stream game, like, on the, like, ride to the Uber, or, like, Uber to the, like, airport, or whatever, and I was like, this is not the same guy, so, that, like, started my, like, theory about stream games being, well, at the time, I just thought Liam was terrible, and, like, this was, like, crazy, but now, like, looking back, I was like, oh, maybe this stream thing is, like, cooked.

Henry:

is not

Liam:

Oh my god, bro.

Henry:

Pretty sure Vodafone, everyone

Abaan:

No, Drick, I think Drick's not terrible, I think Drick's goaded.

Liam:

DRAKE! DRAKE! DRAKE! DRAKE! DRAKE! So good, bro. Oh my god.

Abaan:

Henry, that was a great question, though, out of you.

Henry:

I was

Liam:

He has it.

Henry:

but you guys beat me to the punch before I could even say that.

Liam:

Oh my god. Nah, bro. Yeah, like, this guy's actually him, bro.

Henry:

Okay.

Liam:

I've literally never seen I've never seen someone punish plays the way he does, bro. Like, I This is what I was telling, I was telling you guys earlier, bro, I like, I,

Abaan:

had, like, a GOAT collab. Like, we've got Henry and Drick just playing, like, game after game. And, like, I literally feel, like, honored to watch. Like, I'm, like, sitting and, like,

Liam:

I swear to god, bro, it's like, yes,

Abaan:

to see this or something?

Liam:

bro, yes!

Abaan:

allowed? Like, I just got to watch,

Liam:

It's literally, it's like,

Abaan:

What?

Liam:

this is what I always say, bro, it's like Courtside 2016 Warriors Cavs, bro, like, oh my god, bro, it's like the best thing to watch, every, every single night, bro, I like,

Abaan:

But imagine if after the block by James, they, like, played, like, 10 more games. Like, that's how, like, that's how

Liam:

exactly, bro, every single night, bro, like, oh my god, bro, it's, it's so good, bro. Yeah, Drake Force Henry is just insane, bro.

Abaan:

Okay,

Liam:

back to Toronto.

Henry:

Okay, Day 1, I went 7 1 1, lost to Moon, my tie is in last round of the day against Lost Fox. I also terribly in this set. Didn't play very good overall.

Abaan:

for the viewers, Henry at this point, at 7 1 1, like,

Henry:

I

Abaan:

I actually commend Henry for this, because like, I, no, no, I understand, because I was like, like, I feel the exact same way, it doesn't matter what my record is, like, when something like that happens at the end of the day, you're just like, sad, but like, I mean, even as recently as SAC, I was crashing out for my tie in my last round at 6 0 2, but like, damn, Henry's crash out at 7 1 1 was just unbelievable, it's like, you would have thought he like, went, got in at X 2 1 or something, like, it's respectable, but it was like, level to crash out.

Henry:

I don't know, dude. It's just like, the difference between going into Day 2 at 8 1 versus 7 it's not even comparable, dude. Like, the fact that you get allowed a loss is just like, increases your chances so much. Like, you almost feel like a lo I think if I went into 8 1, I

Liam:

Dude, really? Yeah, I agree,

Henry:

7 1, it's like, just one thing goes wrong. Luckily, at this event, you were allowed to tie, which I wasn't 100 percent sure about going into Day 2, but that is what ended up happening, um,

Liam:

it really does affect your chances a lot. Oh

Henry:

an insane amount. Um, yeah. Day 1, like, my wins were not very impressive. the tournament, I chalked my deck to lax by cutting a Bravery Charm, so that when I paired it into Nucci at 4 1, I was really, really scared. But then he flipped it over into a pile of red jeans. And that's, like, genuinely, I've ever played against at a Major, dude. Like, I

Abaan:

Dude, someone asked me, how do you beat the Regis with Guardi? And then, I like, didn't know what to say. I was like, uh,

Liam:

Bro, who was that, bro? That was somebody in the chat, bro. Alright, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, no, I

Abaan:

think

Liam:

bro. I think it was Caleb.

Abaan:

it. and I will see you in the next video.

Henry:

for him to do something, and he got down to, like, ten cards in deck before he was able to attack, dude. Like, it took him, like, seven turns. He couldn't find the area zeroes, and he just, like, was researching, and I felt so bad, bro, like This is actually pathetic. And then, like, he finally goes in and I just stamp him, and then I got him with the Maw Isle, but, I mean, I could have easily got him on the Prime Trade, but, like, it's actually so bad. Oh,

Liam:

Bro, like, the, yeah, bro, I mean, I think that's the most important thing, actually, that I've, like, come to realize is, like, make sure you have, like, a serious deck, right?

Henry:

as a, like, sort of corollary of that, maybe don't take advice from Grant Manley on the deck choice. No flame.

Abaan:

Dude, we're only 18 minutes into the New Year podcast, and we are flaming Grant Manley already. That's like, I think that's record time, like, let's try to get it down to 17, maybe 15.

Henry:

I mean, bro, like, I mean, respect to Gran if he still believes in this Regipyle, bro, you know, if he shows up to San Antonio playing this, I'll respect it, but this deck is, like, unbelievably terrible, like, I don't, like, I know I'm playing Guardia, which is a bad matchup for it, bro, but, like, was just sitting there, if I were playing any other deck, the same thing would've happened, bro, he would've literally just

Abaan:

No, that's not true, Henry, because the round before that, Nucci beat our friend Cameron Kawasaki on Archeolodon.

Henry:

Really? Oh, well that, okay, well, that matchup sounds pretty good for him, I would think, but,

Liam:

Oh my gosh.

Henry:

you need a third game because your deck is just guaranteed to shit

Liam:

No, the deck is like, yeah, it's like actually not that terrible at beating out like some, some random, but like this is, this is always a trap with like non serious decks, right? Like you think they're good because they, they have some like solid matchups, but they're, they're not serious. So you end up losing, but like,

Henry:

like, the

Liam:

yeah, right?

Henry:

not reasonable with that deck in a, like, a major event, bro, like, I don't even know.

Liam:

Hmm. Hmm. Oof,

Abaan:

not to, not to sidetrack, but back to your day two, because I need to talk about all the, there's only like four rounds, right, so, so

Henry:

okay, Uh,

Abaan:

that report,

Henry:

match in day one, real quick, is that I had a, we agreed to best of one with Benny Billinger, and, um, got him with a little

Abaan:

oh, Benny B Squad.

Henry:

this is day one, this is like, uh, maybe six one or something, got him with a little Clefki shove, uh, killed his

Liam:

oof. Oh,

Henry:

and, uh, I had, I had been sort of focusing Curly as his game for the majority of the game, so his draw on board was Greninja plus Fez to an Iono plus a Clefki kill, and then he was not able to find, like, uh,

Liam:

I'm in love with that play. I'm in love with that play. Yeah,

Henry:

7 1 1, uh, Day 2, I hit some really sus matchups. Uh, so, first I hit, uh, the Turbo Tropico stack, like the, the Tim Franklin variant with the 1 1 Drago V Star, and like the thicker Dusknoir line. Um, so this matchup seems like Talk for me, I never even tested it, like, I kind of forgot Tropicus was a deck, um, like, like most people did, I think. Um, but yeah, I just get my EX up both games, like, yeah, start of slow starts, uh, and I just get completely bailed out. I remember game one, I was staring down, like, a horrible hand. And then he Iona'd me, and then I had a really good hand, and he had a terrible hand, so I just won the game for free. Uh, and then game two, like, he got to, like, attack, but I just, I got my Guardia, because I'm, like, turn three or something. And I managed to get, like, a Monkey Darkdown early, and, like, the moment you get double Monkey down, it's, like, you can, they can be, like, three prizes, as long as they don't, like, already have a Dusknoir on board, like, they have, like, no pressure on you.

Liam:

because you can, like, loop that Duskull spot a little bit, right?

Henry:

Yes. Yes! You were given complete prize trade. That's an excellent point. Um, round two, I hit Zard, and I get him with a mawile both games. Uh,

Abaan:

I get him, what was his response to Mawau Pidget? Did he turn up?

Henry:

he did not tarot. He just passed. And then I went kill and take the duskull with double monkey. Like, he didn't develop his board enough. He went aggressive. I mean, I

Abaan:

Oh, did you, you failed? Did you try to, um, did you charm Drifloon, or, because you double monkeyed the Duskull?

Henry:

No, no, sorry, I killed him with EX. Sorry, did I say Drifblim? No, I killed him with you don't have the board space.

Abaan:

oh no, no, I was just asking,

Henry:

I you kill with EX, yeah. It's like very funny, well, this segues into like a broader discussion of the Slowgardy deck, but like, Gardevoir EX is like the main attacker, and like, even against Tarzan, you're attacking with Gardevoir EX a lot of the time, which is really funny, right? Um, so yeah, I got him with the Gardevoir EX plus Kill Duskull, and then I'm just kind of winning on price trade. Um, yeah, I, I mawiled the Pidget game too. I think game one I was like mawiling a Rotom for a long time. I forget exactly how that happened. Um, I think he had already used, like, his Thorn Nurse. So, Yeah,

Abaan:

Yeah, because that's the most frustrating thing. If they Thorin, like, not only is the like, the Rotom's gone, the Tarot's still alive, and like,

Henry:

and they can

Abaan:

uh, it's like, everything's in play.

Henry:

Like, it's pretty

Abaan:

Yeah.

Henry:

Um, yeah, so that was pretty fortunate. I, uh, I don't know, the Zard matchup, obviously the mawile sort of attacked for the Zard matchup, but even with that, it doesn't feel, like, amazing, so getting a clean two on that felt pretty good.

Abaan:

You know that's lost on a lot of people? A lot of people think it's like, it's purely a Draco tech, which is kind of funny to me.

Henry:

Yeah, the

Abaan:

But like, maybe they don't think it's purely a Draco tech, but like, that's what they think, like, number one Draco.

Henry:

messaged you about it in the group chat, like, yeah, the idea was, like, completely for Charizard, like, the inspiration for it was to fix the Charizard matchup, and that was it.

Abaan:

Dude, that message was so much aura. Henry literally goes, I went on a walk. I have it. Let me just come home and draft it up real quick. I'm like, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat. There's a mawile in there, bro. It made perfect sense immediately.

Henry:

sure, no fanfic, no fanfic. Um,

Abaan:

a non fiction. This happened, like, what? No fanfic.

Henry:

um, and then, second to last round, I hit Michael Davidson, who is playing a very similar list. I mean, we had obviously talked a lot about the deck before the tournament. He opted for, like, a Fezrod package, which, uh, we had talked about for a while, um, where I had the stretchers. Uh, game one.

Liam:

Do you recall what he said after the event? Do

Henry:

Wait, wait, wait, wait, what are you referring to?

Liam:

you recall what he said after the event about that package?

Henry:

Actually, didn't like it? He my list was better?

Liam:

Yeah, bro. He said, oh my gosh, I messed up at Sopranos.

Abaan:

he said that I want second stretcher.

Henry:

Okay,

Liam:

Yeah,

Henry:

think, yeah, I, I,

Liam:

yeah. I know he was saying he liked the Fez. He liked the Fez, right?

Henry:

you have to pick between the Fest and the second stretcher. I don't think there's really a way to work it in otherwise. yeah, game one, I, okay, so yeah, so we're in a, okay, so for the round we're at, we have to get one win, one tie to make it into cut from this point. Obviously, two wins gets us

Abaan:

Were you guys aware of this, like, for sure? Like, a fact? Or was this like, still speculation? Okay.

Henry:

everyone knew that X1 2 would make it. Um, cause yeah, we had seen like, People were talking about ID'ing, pretty much everyone was just in a group, like, talking about what the situation was. Um, so like, yeah, in this situation, like, I first thought about ID'ing, but I was like, eh, like, a little too sketchy. Then we thought about doing best of one, but it actually

Abaan:

That's not what Henry thought, bro. That's literally Henry's, like, lying for free, bro. He thought about IDing and he's like, no, it's MD. I'll just get the win now and ID next round.

Henry:

professional instigator of bottom end going at it, once again, generational

Liam:

then what happened, Henry?

Henry:

Uh, yeah, so then, yeah, we were also thinking about doing a best of one, but that made no sense, because the tie is fine for us. We just had to play it out normally, which thank god I did, because game one I prized triple rolls. I, uh, just popped in for one roll casually on my turn one going first, uh, hope he doesn't notice anything. Uh, and then the moment he dropped Arvin on his turn one, I decided to pick up my cards, because, uh, it's not plus EV to continue playing that game, that is for sure. And then, game two we have a Giga Banger, where I'm just kind of sitting there chillin and he's chillin and so I'm gonna have to make the first move, and he decides to make the first move with a Turo Triple Monkey play to take two, is, uh, yeah, definitely a good way to start the game off, but I'm just able to target his

Abaan:

I think it's, don't know Henry, I think it's a good way to start the game off now that we play second Turo, but I mean, we'll get into this more later, but I think with just the pad, it's like, he lost, right? Like, it's kind of scary using your Turo and like having to pad later, then you have to either commit the pad to get the Turo back, or like,

Henry:

uh, is there a better way to start the game off?

Abaan:

he going to deck out first? Is that what happened?

Henry:

so I, I, I stopped refining things at a certain point, just sitting there, I think.

Abaan:

Did he not pick up on this? Did he just keep refinementing? Or was he just, it was too far gone?

Henry:

in both the Benny B and the MD stats. I just stopped refinementing because I'm like, I just can't make the first move here. Well, I remember the Benny B game for sure. Like, I prized boss, so I knew that there was absolutely no way I could make the first move, so I just chilled. Um, the MD, I don't, I prized something, but it wasn't the boss. I forget what

Abaan:

What were your boards? I think, I think that's like interesting for people, like, what were your boards were you like, were chilling on

Henry:

yeah, like, uh, it's somebody active and three Curlios, two Monkeys on the bench, that's pretty much it, uh, with Darks on them.

Abaan:

Is Manaphy the best one, or do you think, um, anything is, like, fine? Like, Screamtail or any random guy is fine?

Henry:

what they've crafted on their board. It depends like how, like, if they already committed the Manaphy, then you don't need to commit your Manaphy, because they can't have Manaphy and Screamtail on their board, right? But if they don't have anything committed and the Screamtail's acceptable for them, then you probably want to have the Manaphy active. So that's sort of like, uh, How I think of the chessboard is looking like, um,

Abaan:

Yep.

Henry:

so then he takes two, and then I'm just able to, so it's like interesting, without the flutter main, it's actually okay to leave double monkey on their board, as long as you keep your board clean, because like, you're both, both of you have two monkeys, and they kind of just cancel each other out, and you can never actually push for the double kills, because you don't have the flutter, um, and he'd already used his trio, so he had never I didn't have Troublemonkey threat for a while, so it allows me to just go for his Curlia and stamp him. So he has two Curlias, I go for a Curlia, stamp him, and then like, you know, he benches a Ralts, and then I kill a Curlia, Iono, and then like, he just misses Curlia, and like, is in like a really tough situation, right? Um, but so yeah, even when starting down to like, if you can just get the Curlias, you can do stuff. He did do a really interesting play, which, should have thought of it before. He did the thing where he mawiled the Guard Axe, which is really, really strong. Um, but he didn't have enough energy to convert on it. If he had enough energy and converted on that, he might have just too much pressure on the price trade and got me. It's like, definitely possible. Um, but yeah, that

Abaan:

How'd he do that? Because he went up two. Did he just boss it, or did you attack? Oh, you attacked with Gardea soon after the contest, man.

Henry:

like how you have to offset the price trade if you throw it off down too. And I thought there would be no good response into it, cause I knew he could like, pimp Drifloon that turn. Um, and also, yeah, even if he did Drifloon, I think it would have been pretty sketchy for him, but the Mawile is like a nice way to like, pressure me without having to draw any price cards, right? Um, but yeah, no, that's He just had no Kirlia, so he just eventually kind of bled out the game. Uh, and then game three, we don't even decide to play because the only way to finish it is if someone just, like, full bricks. Um, so yeah, at this point, I'm 9 1 2, and I'm winning in 2 8 7, and in my pool is just like some Draegas, um, yeah, I think it was pretty much just Draegas, so I was feeling

Abaan:

No, no, it was a ton of Pidgeots, I remember. It was at least Dylan Gunn,

Henry:

one Pidgey, right, right, right.

Abaan:

uh, Jeremy Gibson, I think one other.

Henry:

Okay,

Abaan:

Gibson was your bracket, or one of you was for sure getting down paired.

Liam:

Yeah, I think that was his last one.

Abaan:

paired,

Henry:

so maybe it was three Draegers, or something like that. Um, but then I get downpair and then, yeah, so I think I'm sitting with like, uh, with Frank or something, and he's X2 1, and I'm like, oh man, I hope you don't hit Stefan, like that, that would be pretty terrible, because he's like the one Palkia Duster in the entire tournament. Um, I wasn't even thinking about playing him myself, but then of course, when the pairings go up, I got downpaired, I hit Stefan, which is, uh, yeah, like, it's a, it's a sketchy matchup, like, sort of been consistent well, I definitely said this when I played TurboGuardian, like, this matchup is not that bad. With SlowGuardian It's like, not ideal, but like, definitely winnable. I mean, it's sort of the same thing with Tropico, it's like, if you

Abaan:

If a Guardian EX hits the board in any of these matchups, you win.

Henry:

but uh, can be a little tricky to get that. Um, but game I do sort of an interesting play where I had prized one Evo, and I Arven turn one, and I get a bunch of Ralts down, but then I don't rip the Evo because I know I need to Evo directly into Gardevoir React. So I just pass with a board of like, Greninja quad roll. and he didn't get an energy on his Palkia V, is the key, on his turn one. So he's in a really awkward position because the only way for him to attack this turn is he has to commit the star portal. But like, using Moonlight Shuriken on just two rolls feels like really underwhelming. Um, but that's what he has to do, because I don't think there's any other way for him to advance the game. He could do something where, like, he attacks with a Palk and, like, gets two on the Ninja. Um, but then I think he's at

Abaan:

Is it crazy? Maybe he can, like, evolve a bunch of Dusknoirs and, like, try to, like, get you, like, get everything, all the Kirlias at once.

Henry:

is I

Abaan:

Or, like or, like,

Henry:

maybe, even, right?

Abaan:

yes, yes, I I I understand this.

Henry:

but

Abaan:

sketchy part for you, though, is getting the Kirlias without evo ing ever, right? Like, you have to get two Kirlia's raw, essentially, in that plan?

Henry:

Yeah. Part of the reason I make this play is my hand is pretty strong. Um, but then he does I me the next turn and puts the Evo on the bottom. But I managed to rip the Arvin for like stamp plus Evo. Yeah. I, I, I drew really well. Like the, the only way you can like win convincingly in this matchup is like you have to have like Arvin plus another piece kind of starts. Um,

Abaan:

what did Henry what did, um, Stefan have to say after this game? Do you remember?

Liam:

I think he said that Henry was the best Gardevoir player in the world and an inspiration to us all, which I won't disagree with.

Abaan:

I wanna I I can't I can't disagree with this either. This is Stefan was, like, saying something extremely factual.

Liam:

I agree. I agree.

Abaan:

jest. actually, like, that was, like, dude,

Liam:

Yeah, I, I mean,

Abaan:

someone and having them say, like, wow. Like, I was just masterclass. Like, oh my goodness. Like, that's so

Liam:

no, I mean, bro, it's like kind of the same way that like, maybe,

Abaan:

I got you?

Liam:

um, yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe like that, where like, you know, going into the event, you're like, you know, this is probably like a, this is a pretty good matchup for me, I'm like, happy to hit it. And then after you're like, Hmm, this is like, this is a lot closer than I thought. And like, maybe it's the same way that Henry was feeling like after those first 10 games against Drick. Uh, Bolt vs. Guardi, something like that. But like, you know, I think we're all like, sort of familiar with that feeling, right? When you see someone like, actually start, start cooking you in like, a matchup for the first time. That's how I was feeling earlier today, when Drick was getting me with Draco, bro. I like, oh my god.

Abaan:

Once again, Liam, please check the agenda for where the Dricklaze is supposed to be scheduled in. Thank

Liam:

my bad, my bad, my bad. I was playing, I was playing Pidgeot decks. I was, I mean, I was playing tons of different Pidgeot decks, and he was getting me every single time. I was like, I, I, I don't even know at this point. I think I might have to just play Drago, bro. Like, uh, Drix is too insane. I, like,

Henry:

you on Guardi. Um, yeah,

Abaan:

sorry, sorry for interrupting, I just wanted to really I really wanted to bring that Stefflon quota in, that was so fun that

Liam:

for sure, for sure. pull.

Abaan:

masterful.

Henry:

I mean, I was not happy to hit him in the last round, obviously, but, uh, yeah, like, he, he played my, uh, my Turbo Guardi deck for multiple events, and he had, like, DM'd me, and we had talked for a while, so it was really cool to hit him. Um, yeah, so game one, I get him on, like, a damp CC Squawk, and just, like, Put him in, like, an energy deficit kind of thing, and, like, he drew so bad off the stamp, he couldn't even, like, get the energy to move the squawk, so, I just kind of got him that way, which is pretty fortunate. And then, Game 2, he just didn't open well, and I had the Arvid, and I just got the Guard of Reacts up. So, like, Game 1, I had to brick him off the stamp, Game 2, he just kind of bricked

Abaan:

Did you choose second Game 2?

Henry:

No, no, no, he opted first. Which, I think is, I think it's correct, because if I go first, I have threat of Evo Direct and DX, like, naturally, right, which is a little sketchy. But, I don't know, the, the,

Abaan:

Wait, but if you Henry, then we're in a conundrum. If you think it's good for him to open first, does that mean if you were going to Game 3, you would've opened first?

Henry:

yeah, I think so, yeah, yeah.

Abaan:

Oh, you would have. Okay, okay. That's what I was gonna ask. Okay.

Henry:

opted first. Um,

Abaan:

Did he win the flip? Uh, sorry, like, did he win the flip in one? Okay, yeah, yeah.

Henry:

is the one where I got, like, the four rolls out, no Manaphy. Um, I actually milled the Manaphy off my stomp, uh, but it was, like, fine, because, like, I don't even want Manaphy in that situation, really. Well, I mean,

Abaan:

The Manaphy is literally the most

Henry:

Like, it's

Abaan:

he's like, okay, like, obviously, sure.

Liam:

exactly. It's just another route.

Abaan:

sits there, and he just gets blown up, like, every time you put him down. Like, okay. He's like, like, it almost feels pointless, right? But it's like, it directs a Dusknoir away from a Kirlia. So it's

Liam:

Yes, yes.

Abaan:

do, but it's like, kind of funny that he doesn't All he does is like, hit that like, Amoongus follow uh, it's not just Amoongus, but like, follow

Liam:

Yeah, yes, yes. Great pull, boy, great pull.

Henry:

Yeah, he's embarrassed, babe, right? That's true.

Abaan:

I don't know why, like Amogus sticks out to me. Or the Sage and Park Pachirisu, that one

Liam:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Abaan:

me.

Henry:

There were spots where, the game was already like, I was already pretty much a blowout once I stabilized, but there were like spots where the Manaphy I realized like, got a lot stronger, because like, you start taking away the Dusk pieces, and then you bench the Manaphy, and then obviously it's really good, and then also like, once you get like some force on the Prize Trade, and then you drop the Manaphy, it's like, you're forcing them to commit to Dusk, then it's like, okay. These are for like, the game plans where they're sort of like, Don't want to burn their star portal early and maintain this ninja threat, um, which I think came up one of the games. So it's like, it's like the game was like, completely chalked for him, but it was like,

Abaan:

Is there any mawile pressure? Is it prime multiple switch? Or the fact that Dusknoirs are too much? Yeah, okay, okay.

Henry:

and Switch and all the Dusknerfuse. I mean, it was like, in the very back of my mind, but I had, luckily I had much more robust ways to win the game. Um, but yeah, I definitely would not count on that strategy in this particular matchup. Uh, yeah, then I like, when I was winning, like, I was just converting with like, my typical bullshit of like, putting 160 on the Mew and like, having this four turn. Four price turn pressure, which just instantly wins the game. Um, so yeah,

Abaan:

I love the fact that if you walked over to any one of Henry's games and let's say you like didn't look very closely, you'd like think he's losing every single game. He's like, that guy's still on six? The other guy's on three! What's gonna happen next? And then like, everything blows up at once, always.

Henry:

pull. Another great pull Vauban, the resident great pull

Abaan:

What? Bro, I was just saying like, you know, like, like, if you're not like, you, like, when you walk by a regional most of the time, like, like, you walk by a board state, you just like, you don't have to look very hard. You're just like, oh, prizes. Oh, there's like an attacker. It's probably fine. But like Henry's boards, it's always like, uh, Huh, looks like, looks like he's gonna win the game in, like, one attack, but like, if you're not really paying attention, he's at six. What's the, like, what's the big danger?

Henry:

at how empty the opponent's dice bag is, right? If all the dice are on the board, that's when

Abaan:

Yeah, yeah.

Henry:

you know it's lit, bro.

Liam:

Henry's favorite

Abaan:

own I, like, I'm a, I think, like, this is, like, a minor thing, but when I play Guardi, I really like having my own dice on hand, because, like, I don't know, like, you have to put so much damage on your board, like, just yourself to move around. I hate those, like, number ones, the ones that, like, say, like, 100, 110, 120, all that, I hate that. I need the dice.

Henry:

just have the sixes. Um, but like, I don't use my dice for my opponent's, unless they like need me to, right? Like, you just use your dice for your board? Or no, you're saying

Abaan:

Sure, sure. No, no, I need it I use it on my own board, but I'm just saying like, it's really important that I have my like, specific like, set, because like, I need the pips.

Henry:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, I do the same, for sure, yeah. Um, okay, so, I speak in a 1012, oh, it just turned, uh, New Year, by the way. Happy New Year. Um.

Liam:

Oh, Happy New Year!

Abaan:

I'm in Seattle, so I'm cooked. Three hours.

Henry:

Um, I go ten one two. I'm in Asim and I hit Cal. The Asim bracket is like the, the, the top cut's pretty good for me. There's like a, a pitch it, a bolt, a bunch of Dragos, and then MD on Gardy. If I win my set, I hit, if I, if I beat Cal, then I'll hit Hassan on control, which is a pretty good matchup, or like a really good matchup. And then I'll hit, uh, a bolt in top fourth. Like I, I've,

Abaan:

Did you think it was that good? At the time, you were only on Turropad, right? Like,

Henry:

Yeah, I

Abaan:

definitely losing out since then, right?

Henry:

out to it, like, Liam was to me, like, he was telling me the matchups were pretty good, and I know BennyB got Hassan really convincingly earlier in the day, um, or the day before, maybe. I don't know, it's just like, if they, they just have, like,

Abaan:

I never feel comfortable when they have Eirikas, and like Bad things can happen.

Liam:

It's literally like a 95 5 matchup for a Tauro pad, bro. I'm not even gonna bat, bro, like, it's The only way you win is by getting a Fang Snipe on the Tauro or the pad early, or somehow donking them. Like, that's actually the only way.

Abaan:

Sure, sure. I mean, it's frustrating, or not frustrating, but it's like, any matchup like that, where like, man, I could start Ninja, and like, my Turo, or anything like that, like, like, it's like, the first deck search is stressful, I think. And then like, after that, you're like, oh, okay, nice.

Henry:

of, but think, even if you have, like, one liability, like, that's why the pat is so crazy, right? Like, one liability, you're

Liam:

No, I know what you mean, and even though it's a really, I think it's a really good matchup, it's one that like, you don't have a lot of room for mistakes in either, right? Like

Abaan:

I had that exact situation against a Pidget, where I like, started a Ninja, prized Turo, and like, that first deck search was just so, like, so heartbreaking. I was like, wait. But then I got on the next two, but, like, I don't know, that, that was so stressful. Like, game two and three, I was like, bro, what if this happens again, and I lose the set to this matchup? But anyways,

Liam:

I think the matchup is

Henry:

Pidget, bruh.

Liam:

Into the blue though, this was actually pretty good, bro. I think.

Henry:

for sure, yeah. That, that list was thin on, like, everything, dude. Um

Abaan:

Sam Tran.

Liam:

Jesus. Oh my lord. Oh my god.

Abaan:

Anyways, Henry, sorry, sorry, not to get sidetracked. Hey, Sam, 15 minutes. But

Henry:

Ace him, he has a game loss, game one, so I'm feeling pretty good, right when I show up to the table. Kieran grins at me when he hears about the game loss, cause he was already talking about the plot armor, cause I got

Liam:

No. Oh my god.

Henry:

cause he bricks, so it's like, okay, well, looks like

Abaan:

was reading, like, the wrong, like, Wikipedia page, like, different plot.

Henry:

Yeah, well, I think I heard that had a very similar experience to me, where, I mean, he just got completely shit rolled in two games, like, I just, like,

Abaan:

Oh, was Cheren was that's what you're talking about, I like didn't I like didn't peep this.

Henry:

uh, there, but he, apparently he didn't get Lugia V down until turn three of both games, which is

Abaan:

Cheren had like such a monster start to the season, and then he had like a terrible like string in the middle, like, like, no flame, like I'm just saying,

Liam:

Bro.

Henry:

It was just ST and

Liam:

was like, yeah, it was literally two events, bro. And like,

Abaan:

two?

Liam:

yeah. Yeah, it was like, it was Dude,

Abaan:

back to back, and it was like, the tweets were just like him like at the beach or whatever, or not I but like talking about the beach, like, ah, I lost to Thorins and now now I'm here, exploiting the rest of the city, I'm like, damn,

Liam:

he had um, he had his run in his top 8's, he had, and then he went to, I have no idea, but like the SB, yeah, yeah, yeah, he had a bad run there, and then I think he had a bad run at LAIC, and then,

Henry:

right? He also skipped

Liam:

this one, right, yeah, and then he went to this one,

Abaan:

yeah. Yeah, like, like, that was like a crazy take, and it just, because he was on such a heater, it was like, so, it was like such a crazy, Like,

Henry:

though. Like, literally in top cut, or he's, like, hard day one, right? Like, I think he got hard day

Abaan:

Yeah,

Henry:

in, uh, in both

Abaan:

twice, yeah.

Henry:

yeah, like, I think he was, like, 3 3 drop or something in both these events.

Abaan:

Yeah, it's only crazy, it's like, it's not crazy flame, it's more just like, compare, like, the juxtaposition, you know? But anyways,

Liam:

It's juxtaposition!

Henry:

Um, yeah, so I literally, like, dude, it's actually so bad. Like, it's, this is, uh, well, I guess it's funny now because Cal is promoting Tatsu, but both my hands, they're like, hands where I really wish I played the Tatsu. It's like the all energy Poth in hands. It's just, like, unplayable. Um, game

Abaan:

know, I've been talking to Cal, he's the biggest Tatsu glazer ever, he loves Tatsu, like, literally every conversation I have with him Tatsu.

Henry:

Yeah, top 2's pretty good, I think. I think I'm maybe adding top 2 to the bag. Um, yeah, game 1, or quote unquote game 2, I managed to like, kind of fake a comeback attempt because I draw the stamp one turn and I'm able to like, Evo, and then he like, aggressively rips a V Star. And I actually managed to get to a point where like, if I Iono him and he misses switch, think I'm actually going to get him, but then he just raw rips the switch. So that was pretty Pretty sad.

Abaan:

Like, Cal's V Stars, like, extremely clean? I've, like, no one gets, like, disproportionately lucky, but I swear, like, Cal's V Stars are always, like, the most, like I don't care about those seven cards, I just thinned. Like, I don't know.

Henry:

Yeah, his V Star was definitely pretty

Liam:

bro. Shenoy2, bro. I literally look at his V Star every single time, and I'm like, I mean, I guess if that's your V Star, you can still, like, get it done here, somehow. But, like, I guess?

Henry:

sounds to me. Um, but he didn't have like terrible hits besides the switch, and he, he managed to keep the switch, but it didn't really seem like he had to V Star in that

Abaan:

Dude, I swear, like, when you rip V Star, though, it's like, you didn't know that there were hits like that until, like, you do it, and you're like, wait, I'm out of, like, fire energies, like,

Henry:

mean, because like when you

Liam:

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, bro.

Henry:

sometimes you hit like a three card combo that just like fucks you over,

Abaan:

yeah.

Liam:

Mm hmm, mm hmm.

Henry:

sure that was open there, like he could have like fired

Liam:

I know, but every single time you V Star, and like, at least the TCG Live experience, you're like, scrolling through it, and you see like, two under the super rod, and you're like, oh my god, bro, like, oh,

Abaan:

Or, like, you look at your E Switches, and you had, like, two left, and you're like, huh, if I don't grab an E Switch, I'm like, and then you, like, mow both, you're like, if I don't grab an E Switch, I'm gonna have to show him exactly where my energies are going for the rest Hmm.

Henry:

up. I see.

Liam:

I know, bro. So bad.

Henry:

Yeah, and then, three, I just, I don't even refine it a single time. This game, oh no, I do refine it once, I make like a pretty bad mistake

Abaan:

told me you raw opened Klefki both games, is this true?

Henry:

true, but I did rock

Liam:

Bro, we were, we were literally talking about this, though, and like, opening raw Clefkit that matchup is actually like, like, probably like a disadvantage, bro. Like,

Henry:

that is not true.

Liam:

it's, it's an advantage.

Abaan:

did he out of it both games, or Prime out of it, or what?

Henry:

it, well, game one he got out of it, and then game two, he drew pass, but my hand was unplayable and I had Ryono, and then I had Ryono unplayable, then he got

Liam:

dude, Henry, I, I, I actually think that's like, that's pretty defensible, like, bro, every single time they open Klefki, I like, I'm like, thanking God, bro. Like, if they don't find the Turo quickly, bro, just like, win every single time.

Abaan:

okay, it's only, you're thanking God if you look at your hand and you're like, okay, I can play the game. You know what percentage of hands that is? It's like, not that, it's not that many.

Liam:

Bro, bro, bro, like, which outs are affected by Klefki that like, you can't play the game, bro? Because like, if you have ball cards, you just grab the Klefka, and you're like, you're fine, bro.

Abaan:

okay, let's I mean, this might be like, Data 2 into the

Liam:

Yeah, yeah, bro, we have to go like into the fanfic, bro. Like, oh, we're starting the Drago, and then like we need the Squawk or something, bro. But like, it's like crazy work, bro.

Abaan:

fanfic because this Draconek is like, opening hands going first are kind of fragile without clefki. So like, there's like definitely a lot of hands you can draft that are not good. And like, having, having a hand that's a clefa hand going first into a clefki is like, they, they see an Arven, they win the game. Like what?

Henry:

I agree, I completely agree. I mean,

Liam:

Yeah, no, like,

Henry:

like amazing.

Liam:

I know, I know what you're saying, but I mean, yeah, I don't know. I go second a lot, so like, um,

Henry:

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Liam:

it doesn't affect me as much. Uh, and like, bro, I, it like actually gives you like a real chance to like, like beat them by like going slow, bro. Like,

Abaan:

Yes, yes.

Liam:

The khaki on the board is so good.

Abaan:

the Klefki promote is horrible. Going first, and like, dude, that was like, that was the, we like, did watch the Frank game with um, I don't know if we watched it with Frank, no, we watched it with MDE, but like, we talked to Frank about it, the retreating into Klefki on your first turn is so bad. Like,

Henry:

already

Abaan:

it's like, it's like,

Henry:

double, triple, quadruple bad. But um,

Abaan:

there's two problems, right? Like, your board has no room for anything good, and then you're also turning off your Ninja, and you're like, wasting energy that could have been used for Ninja, and like, I didn't want to get, like, there's like, ten reasons it's not good.

Henry:

the board is just completely poisoned. You just have no space for anything. Like you can never get double monkey involved. It is double good. Um, yeah, he, I just, I'd just get completely rolled this game. I, I, I make a mistake where I, I should have held an energy in my hand too. Pivot off, uh, a boss up my ralt so I could retreat it before I evolved into Kirlia, but I decide I want to I decided I wanted to attach the energy first in case I get Ionode, but it's like, clearly a mistake. So I do get like, punished for this, because then I just like, draw nothing. I mean, theoretically, like, didn't matter, because like, you pretend like the cards I drew would have came from the refinements, like, the cards I drew for like, the next six turns were all garbage, so it didn't really matter. It's like, a pretty bad mistake. Um Yeah, that's pretty much it. I just, like, kind of bounced out of the tournament. This is, like, I know I've mentioned this to you guys, like, this is, like, the first time I felt like I crashed out of an event where, like, I didn't really feel like there was anything I could do. I mean, I did just talk about a glaring mistake I made, but, like, this one

Abaan:

I mean,

Henry:

Yeah,

Abaan:

not sure if this is helpful to you, but I think the mistake is that you should reflect on is like, round 9, allowing that tie, which like forced you into Ace Sim in like a very long winded way. I mean, obviously everything's different, your whole bracket's different, but like, I'd say the takeaway, I think taking your last game losing loss and being like, well, this one was truly forced, I don't like doing that.

Liam:

I agree with BonBon.

Henry:

yeah,

Abaan:

But yeah, anyway, uh, BL, BL, BL. It's unfortunate.

Henry:

Yeah, so that's pretty much it for me. It was, like, alright. Like, the deck was, like, really, it felt really good going into the tournament, so I was, like, a little disappointed that it couldn't go deeper, but I don't know, I guess like, yeah, like, and also like, bouncing on an Ace invention is just like so awkward, like it feels so weird, like it's just like, like a top 16, it's like, I don't know,

Abaan:

Yeah, right? Because when you get top 16 naturally, it's like No, no, I actually know what you mean, because when you get top 16 naturally, it's like, it's a different feeling than, like, making cut and, like, losing, but then you get top 16 prizing. Like, what?

Henry:

exactly, exactly. Um,

Abaan:

Like, it feels like you get a better event than, like, a top 16 event, but it's like, the scoreboard doesn't care. You got top 16.

Henry:

well, um, and yeah, I think he was out of cut contention for like quite a while, um, but he managed to squeak in, he's like, damn bro, you got the same, same as me, but, it's all good, it's all good, it's all good. So I guess there are three Guardies in top 16. Zero in top

Abaan:

I think the important thing, important thing we should talk about, uh, we could talk about Liam's Pidget List, but I think before we get to that, I think the people want to know, Henry, like, maybe like mawile uses that you got out of the event, like potential other mawile uses, and like maybe some more, like, just like mawile thoughts. I think that's like the thing that stands out, right?

Henry:

actually didn't use Mawile that much in the event, but everyone else who played it used it like a ton apparently, and I maybe underutilized it a little bit. Uh, especially like, as I said, like, I thought of it as a tech for the Zard matchup, specifically as like a tempo card against the Zard, where you pull up the Pidget and you lock it for a turn and force it off the board. Um, and, um, while also having like some resource pressure against Drago. So those are like the

Abaan:

Yeah, I guess, by the way, in those matchups, if you have both your tarot pad open, you're typically not trying to deck them out. Like, I mean, you can.

Henry:

Yeah, you on just Raw, Turo, and do it again. And you should have enough to just win on the prize trade. Um, obviously these stacks

Abaan:

and it makes it less stressful, because, like, especially against Maraudon, like, if you know the tarot pad's in deck, you don't have to, like, tweak out it, like, making sure you, like, don't get below them in cards while you're trying to find your mawile. Like, you can literally, like, refine it with ease, and it's like, okay.

Henry:

Oh yeah, I don't think you were there, but I had Drake and a Mawile lock in one game, but I somehow didn't even realize until this

Abaan:

No, I watched that. No, I watched that, and I was telling you. Yeah, yeah.

Henry:

Oh yeah, you were there, you were there, yeah, that was bad. Yeah, I prized double EX, so I can

Abaan:

I've won I've actually won surprisingly well, surprisingly as in twice, I've won two different games against Drago when I didn't have Guardiax in my deck. Like, just by, like, mawiling. And, like, I don't even know how it's possible. Like, how do you even feel like, they see the Kirlia's, and, like, I know that there's it's cooked, but, They just, like, freak out. Prime, like, Cologne, like, I need to kill these guys, like, they are, like, they'll, they'll, oh, I know how it happens. It's like a Prime, the first one, and then I just, like, barely, like, like a confuse off, like a mind bend, and they switch out of it. And then it's already, like, looking kind of bad for them.

Henry:

Yeah, yeah, I don't know, I don't know, how many games have I won with double the XP? I think I like used to get people with just like turn to your mind and try to draw it, but besides that I don't think. Oh, actually, I've got

Abaan:

I think nowadays we can only mind bend, right?

Henry:

up their Duster and then I draw my EX and I'm like, let's go. I

Abaan:

At least on that, in that case, they're not making a mistake. It's like, nothing really to, there's, like, yeah, they can just think you're whiffing it. Like, it feels nice when your opponent is playing optimally, like, in the unknown information, and then, like, it actually works out in a way that works for you. Like. I don't know, it feels like less good when they're like, they're just trolling.

Henry:

Uh, what's next on the agenda, guys? Let's take a look here. Um, we got Yeah,

Abaan:

Um,

Henry:

almost got, oh yeah, in my tournament I could have got the instant, or sorry, the Roaring Moon guy by, because he had a board with no pets around, so then like I bottom decked my CC, so that was one of the ways I lost game 1, but I think I could have. More optimal when we got into the play. I only realized after one action on my turn that he didn't have space for the Petra run. So, yeah, that was my bad.

Abaan:

I mean, I guess we don't have a good answer for this, but I think like the main question, we addressed it a little earlier, is like why do we go off TurboGuardi? And like, you're kind of right. I like, I remember one day we had this like conversation where it was like, the point is that going second is like broken, so we're just like trying to like make it so that we're making the most, playing the most powerful deck that we can go second and like, we win like every time versus like TurboGuardi, know, like, I feel like somehow, because we've gone off the deck, like, we're like, re revisionist history, and we're like, oh, Termagardy, like, it's not that powerful, like, doesn't have all the monkeys, and like, it's kind of like, Hyrule y or whatever, like, at least, I never thought this, but like, I feel like this is, like, the narrative that, like,

Liam:

The narrative.

Abaan:

it, right? Like,

Henry:

less powerful. The monkeys give the power of, like,

Abaan:

sure, sure, but like, I feel like the like, consistency of how lit TurboGuardi was is like, completely being lost now that everyone's switching. That thing is still lit. It's the problem is un unfortunately that now it leads to SlowGuardi, which is like a real deck we must know.

Henry:

Which, uh, yeah, I have some power over it, and I don't really know what to do. I kind of want to play TurboGardy, but SlowGardy's also good. It's like, you know, how do I?

Abaan:

Unfortunately for dude, I can't believe this, but like, Japanese players, they're immune to our narrative shifting. So like, Haruki was on SlowGuardi when everyone's on Fast. And I got cooked.

Henry:

has always been very consistently on Slugarty,

Abaan:

We need to might need a Japanese translation for the Trash Lynch to like, really control our meta better. I next thing is the Birmingham, right?

Liam:

Cheren, don't worry. Um,

Abaan:

so,

Henry:

Yeah, Liam, thinking, bro? You, uh, you sound like you might not be playing PGDX for this one.

Liam:

uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Great layup! We skipped over one thing on the agenda. That was trick plays. That was supposed to be right here. Um,

Henry:

That was, that was worked in throughout.

Liam:

well, okay. But, we can get that in here now, too. Um, up until like, maybe like 12 hours ago, I was like, you know, I was basically the same as always. I was like, I'm gonna play this Pidgetty X card. It's so so good. It has something. Dog everything, I just gotta figure it out. Drick was getting me with like every single deck I tried, bro. Like, I played so many different lists, and like, every single one, right? Like, you have to take some stuff out, add some new stuff in, and like, he's right there with the punish.

Abaan:

or was he just feeling it?

Liam:

Um, I was like, I was kind of telling him, but like, like, it also kind of like, plays itself on the board, right? Like, I cut the slacking, and then like, he's like, bro, you don't have like, a way to one hit my guy. And like, he's like, just egregiously abusing that fact that like, ways that like, I wasn't even ready for. Like. Oh my god. Um,

Henry:

Oh, like, he wasn't taking to use the double turbo, like you couldn't use the counter again, you mean? Oh,

Liam:

Like, no, okay.

Henry:

the

Liam:

Yeah, yeah, I had no slacking. I had no slacking in my deck, so, and then he managed to get down to like a solo Drago board and then go behind on prizes while still having a threat to win that like I couldn't stop, and um, so my Defiance band wasn't active so I couldn't Radzard him because I was playing a Radzard build, and then, Yeah, I like, I just couldn't do anything. Like, he had the V Star still up, it was, it was just shocking. Like, he's, I mean, he's, he was there with the Punish every single time. I, like, I don't even know, like, what 60 cards I can, I can create, um, with, uh, Senna to run the Pidgeot Yaks to defeat Drek on Drago. It's, uh, like,

Henry:

you don't think that the, the Tyrannolith is not a favorite into that? I feel like,

Liam:

Maybe, maybe the

Abaan:

And

Liam:

around list, like maybe the

Abaan:

I is so annoying. Like, this 110 on Toad's Cruel into Hawlucha V Star is so anno is, is really,

Liam:

I mean, like, uh, the attack, like trying to attack, trying to attack. Um, but like, like trying to attack. I don't, I don't know how to beat him when he is using Drago. I'm trying to attack with the, with the Pitch IX and like, I mean, dude, it is just, he's so. I like, I feel like I have to play D Drago, like the Drake is too good and like he plays the Draco. Gotta play a Dr. D. That's, that's where I'm at right now.

Henry:

Okay.

Abaan:

did

Liam:

s for Birmingham.

Abaan:

I think it was like, less of a stretch when we were saying like, Henry's NAIC list was like, the best list in the room because he top aided. Yeah. Like, I truly believe Drix, like, Tyranno less is, like, the best Drago less, for sure, in the whole room, and, like, it's kind of funny that he got, like, 27th, and, like, it, like, feels like a hot take to say that, but, like, it doesn't even feel close, like, it doesn't feel like other Drago less.

Henry:

Yeah, but the

Liam:

I dunno, I think it feels kind of close.

Henry:

and the is really good. Everyone should play the countercatcher.

Abaan:

I think the Holy Tree's at a high level, like, it's so good, too. The Hawlucha plus the CC. Like, it's a package, but yeah.

Liam:

I think it's fine. Like, I, I think, I think Drake plays like any of the other Dragos that like, or like, not any of them, but like. A good chunk of the Drago lists, um, and like, he could still probably do, like, top 32, whatever, like, it's, like,

Abaan:

Like, somehow he always, like, tries to, like, guide you into the CC like, ah, this is so annoying.

Liam:

I'm aware, I think this is, like, the best list, but I think, like, the punish for playing a bad Drago list is, like, it's pretty small, like, I,

Abaan:

I agree with this.

Liam:

yeah,

Abaan:

So, I guess more into general Birmingham thoughts, I think one deck that, like, has been popping up on ladder after the Japan Championships, which I do normally take other list formats with, like, I, like, kind of ignore them. Because, like, There, every list is like basically addressing like what's going on right in the in the room and like in the room there's Bidu so like I thought like all these lists are kind of poisoned but I was playing the Japan Ancient Box list and like so does uh all right well we we change one card under the guidance of our uh of the latter warrior Togikisu. I

Liam:

he's,

Abaan:

I don't know, I was talking to some Ancient Box players, and it seems like common knowledge, but like, using the backpack guy, like, spamming that guy, and, and just one shotting you after, did not realize, like, how powerful this is, until I saw someone, like, it to, like, a fault, you know? I,

Liam:

no, but, like, also, guess what, bro, we were telling Drick about this, and he says he's been on this type of timing for months, and,

Abaan:

to be fair, I've heard this from other people who play Ancient Box, so, like, it seemed like this was not common knowledge, but, like, everyone's saying this, but I think it's, like, the, it's, like, what we say about the V Star, like, everyone loves saying they're, like, the maturest V Star holder, until, like, You're sitting there, and you're like, man, I'm gonna lose the game next turn, or like, in two turns, and you still hold it.

Liam:

Yeah, no, exactly, right? Like, you're like, mm, they're gonna get the first two prizes unless I V Star here, so like, let me just rip that joint, and like, I don't even have any bad discards, right? V Star! Like, oh my god. And it's just always full troll, right? Um, the other thing is too, I

Abaan:

don't know. Drik does it, he does it slightly too often. He, like, he is the closest to the true V Star usage needed. It's still too, too passive. Like, if you lose this many games with V Star

Liam:

really, dude?

Abaan:

you could have done something with, and gotten lucky, right? Like, you're not realizing your equity. Like, let's say, like, when you're V Star, like, you

Liam:

Oh, bro, I don't know.

Abaan:

Like,

Liam:

I don't know, dude. In like, all the games I've played against Drik, bro, and like, watched Drik, there's been like, maybe like, a single time where I'm like, oh, he can hit the V Star now, and like, That would be pretty chalk for the opponent, bro. Like, his V Star, his V Star

Henry:

He

Liam:

usage is like, I agree, I agree he leans too far towards being passive, but like, it's so close to optimal, it's like, it's almost, uh,

Henry:

the correct is like

Liam:

like,

Henry:

of the time, like on the last turn of the game and he does it like a hundred percent. Right. So whereas everyone else is

Liam:

yeah, yeah, exactly, like, it's like,

Abaan:

The correct piece of action is not always on the last turn of the game, but it's like, it's like when you're about to create, like, no, no, there's sometimes where the game continues, but it's like a

Liam:

yes, this is perfect.

Henry:

Yeah. Yeah.

Liam:

Exactly, right? Like,

Abaan:

over.

Liam:

you can V Star for like, boss, prime, and like, the game's over. Right? Like, you prime, and then like, you have the boss, and you just win.

Henry:

is that the usage is always when you have less than like seven cards in deck. Right. Feels, you winning the game, one or the

Liam:

it's once you have a win shot, right? Once you have a win shot, I think is, is like, actually, like, genuinely, like, the best way to describe it, right? Um, like,

Abaan:

shot, you like this turn, but like

Liam:

yeah. 100 percent win, right? Mm hmm. Yes,

Abaan:

exactly. I know, I just want to make that caveat because I felt like, like, It's like overgeneralizing. Like, literally, if I told someone like, oh, all the way you do is like, only V Star when you win, I think they wouldn't, like, they would not come close to, like, the right percentage. It's like, or maybe they come close, but like, there is definitely V Star spots that everyone agrees is good, makes it so that you win the game, but you don't, like, You don't win that turn.

Henry:

like, yeah, I agree, like, you're making a little less dinner, but like, you know, when I say win on, like, winning on this turn of the game versus, like, win shot, I mean, most of the times, like, a win shot is on that turn, and, like, I agree there are, like, turn sequences, but, like, like a minority,

Abaan:

I disagree with this, like, I find a lot

Liam:

Those are pretty common, those are pretty common, right?

Abaan:

a lot of sequences where you grab the CC and the Prime, and you CC, and you do your thing, and you're like, you have no hope, because my deck is like three cards, I have a Prime in hand, my hand is like three cards, there's Gamu on board, like, and I have Prime left. Good luck.

Liam:

Yeah,

Henry:

yeah.

Liam:

you already have, like, another Guston hand, and, like, yeah, it's just locked up, right? Yeah, I think those spots are actually pretty common.

Abaan:

The Birmingham, Birmingham, Ancient Box. So I think Ancient Box, like,

Henry:

I I

Abaan:

I think the monkey tech is lit.

Henry:

Oh, the monkey, yeah. I thought you were going to bring up Archuleon, because you were talking about Champions League. I was surprised you brought up the Ancient Box, but now it makes sense because you were talking about it before, but when I heard about

Liam:

I agree with this, Henry, I was on the same page as you.

Henry:

yeah.

Abaan:

I

Liam:

Yeah, the Ancient Box does

Abaan:

Archealdon list right away, because I didn't think like, it's that good. It's like, it is what I'm talking about with the reflection of like, Bidu, right? Like, it's like, I don't know, it's like, It can't be more like this or more like Scramble Switch like combo build because

Liam:

Dude, I, I felt like, um, me and Henry, I think we're already working on this Archelodon list before the Champions League results, right? And like, I like saw it and I was like, oh, like, everybody else like thinks this is lit too, right now, like, like, like a mass enlightenment, you know? Um,

Henry:

I mean, it has a

Liam:

obviously we don't, we don't know if it's actually like, You know, the sauce or whatever, right? But, like, what I mean about, like, I think it's coming out more about because people are, like, seeing, like, its potential, as opposed to, um, like, being, like, specific attainment for the more.

Abaan:

is so obvious, but anytime an attack utilizes an X Return tactic, like, all the like, there's like, obvious stuff where I take you, you take four prizes or whatever, right? But like, using two supporters before your opponent gets to respond is actually like one of the most broken things ever, like, I don't know. You're, like, looking at all these, like, checkmate spots, and you can get, like, Ionode and, like, Thornton, or, like, you're, like, all these spots where you're, like, oh, I can't get, like, boss Thornton, and then it's, it's just possible now, like, that's ridiculous, you know? I think that's, I think that's, like, one of the coolest parts of the deck. I, that's why, like, I love Rapidstrike 2, where it was, like, There's just seems like spots where it seems like it's impossible for you to lose, but it's so hard to build a board state that's robust to like, two things dying, an Iona coming, bossing your most annoying target, and I can fix my board with something, or like heal something with Turo maybe, or like, all these, like, how can you build a board state that's like, robust to that unless you're up like 6 1 or something? Even then, who knows?

Henry:

True, we talk about supporter debt all the time, but Dialga lets you have,

Liam:

Yes.

Henry:

you're

Abaan:

Next, yeah. Supporter Debt Relief. The new, um, yeah, new campaign. Supporter Debt Forgiveness.

Henry:

Yeah, I I mean, like, I know everyone knows this by now, but like, the craziest thing to me is like, the double fez thing with the dialogue over, like, that thing is like,

Abaan:

Oh, yes, yes.

Henry:

ridiculous.

Liam:

double, double Pidgeot, double Pidgeot, too, if you wanna play that.

Henry:

we'll see about that one. Double Feds, for sure, is broken. But yeah, the deck is pretty good. I mean, the, the Draco, I mean, dude, just, just the fact that HP, bro, like, that makes it, uh, this deck a lot better. I mean, like,

Liam:

Dude, I, I actually think that's, like,

Henry:

But, like, yeah.

Abaan:

Do you really think this is Henry? I actually like the, uh, I like the Draco side of the Archeodon, like, the current, like, the super singularness.

Henry:

I think that, I don't, I don't, I think that Draco is favored. But, you can't deny that the matchup would be a lot worse if the Duraludon had 110

Abaan:

Of course, of course. Yeah. I, I like, I like the Gardy side. I like the Drago side. I think especially'cause if they're gonna transition to a more poy stock list and it's start jamming tower, then uh,

Henry:

Well.

Abaan:

very comfortable. You

Henry:

Yeah, I don't know.

Abaan:

what I gonna say? So

Henry:

I've played it a couple times. I don't know. Well, I

Liam:

really, dude. I, I feel like,

Henry:

list for a

Liam:

I feel like the Artanon deck is, like, really good into Drago. I think, like,

Henry:

Well, the base one or, like,

Abaan:

I think

Henry:

sauce one?

Abaan:

Oh

Liam:

The, whatever list I'm playing, uh, whatever list I'm playing, bro.

Abaan:

list that Liam place has pitchy, right? So the, the new sauce list name is a DP, you know, ar, or not r what is it? Aladan dga. Pitch it like, I don't know. I think that, uh, that deck has more potential in d Drago.'cause like. You can pull off crazy combos.

Henry:

Indeed, because you have Quicksage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So,

Liam:

Yeah, I guess that's actually what Drix says too, he's like, he says the normal one's pretty good for him cause he just keeps spamming Iono and then they miss a Gus and he wins. And then the Pidgeot builds.

Abaan:

with this 100%. And the problem with the Guardi matchup, by the way, oh, I think one thing that we should talk about is Guardi, I think that we fully transitioned, I don't think I'm ever playing Palpatine on the deck again. I think second Turo,

Henry:

yeah, I agree.

Abaan:

I remember this concept first when I saw Rowan's List a long time ago in like, Paradox format, I think, with Gardee. He played oh, not Paradox format, right before Paradox when CC was

Liam:

Three boss? No Turo? Or no pad? Yeah.

Abaan:

single time I see this pad, I was like, I'm gonna pad in these bosses and help to draw them. Why are we not just like, playing a third boss, like And I think, one day, I was like, playing with like this I was playing tarot pad and I was like every game I'm like taroting and padding and hoping to see this tarot in the next six cards like this is ridiculous like I should just play second tarot.

Henry:

Yeah, I mean, I

Abaan:

I think like I will never play pad again probably.

Henry:

right now, yes. Right now, because the pad is so focused on the Turo, but like, I mean, even like with Rowan, like, in the Paradox format, towards the end, when they were playing the no VIP list, they played the pad because, I mean, you wanted flexibility between the boss and other stuff, and like, there's definitely utility for the pad, like, in general, but I agree that right now, it's so frequently for the Turo, and it's not for the boss, that like

Abaan:

Okay yeah yeah shouldn't have said a general like the word never was like very wrong. I meant like in the specific format in a specific slow guarding list two tarots lit.

Henry:

with that.

Liam:

it's so good, bro, like, you always draw it on the Turo turn and there's like a Turo turn in every single game, like.

Henry:

literally just double chances of having the Turo at

Liam:

Yeah.

Abaan:

it's it's so funny when you have two tarots and like I feel like so many game plans are revolved and they do something and they're like man they've got a tarot here I feel like so cut then like I don't know, I feel like I never miss when I have the two.

Liam:

Yeah, exactly, right?

Abaan:

Uh, Henry, I didn't tell you about this, but in like, our flex spot in our current list, I've been trying to research again, and I have really enjoyed it. I'm not sure if it's

Liam:

Really?

Henry:

I play

Abaan:

I like it, I like it.

Henry:

because I don't take prize cards, so I

Abaan:

It's not that, it's like the, um,

Henry:

like the discarding

Abaan:

like, I like having a supporter. No, no, I like when I stamp them, and I want to draw more cards. I don't have to, like, Iona them. It's, like,

Liam:

Bro.

Henry:

the research though, right? Like,

Abaan:

it's like, of course, of course, like, that's like,

Liam:

It's like a comforting thought he has before he uses the stamp.

Henry:

I know what you're talking about. Like, I have stamped, and then how do I enter in the same turn? And I'm like, wow, what was the point of the stamp? I just gave him five cards now. But, like, on the

Liam:

Bro, those are so, so rare, bro. Those are so rare.

Abaan:

rare. Like, you

Liam:

Bro, it's so rare.

Abaan:

crazy play, like, you need, like, you need to get the monkey down, and, like, this Arven card doesn't, doesn't get you there, like, always. don't know.

Liam:

I like that. I

Abaan:

Like I said, I'm not even sure it's correct. I'm just saying, like, this new, I've been trying research again, and, like, I've definitely thought it's pretty good,

Henry:

Well, yeah,

Abaan:

and, like, I don't know.

Henry:

is like, the research has more synergy with the pad, right? I mean, the padding in the research at the end of the game is, like, very real. Well, this is under the assumption that you're taking prizes. If you're not taking prizes, it doesn't matter very much. But

Liam:

mean, if you play double monkey, you can like do a lot of trick.

Henry:

I agree. Yeah, uh

Abaan:

just that, like, Iona off stamp is like, sure, that's like one of the use cases, dude, in general, I just don't like when my opponent is like, clearly having a bad hand, I'm like, well, if I don't Arvin, like, obviously there's sometimes I have to Turo or boss or whatever, but like, if I want to draw a ton of cards, I'm gonna have to give them a fresh hand, and like, there's no getting around that.

Henry:

like, I get what you're saying, but like, the one off research isn't really fixing that, and also it's like, dude, this deck is like, the resources are so thin, like, you'd have to change the structure of the like, I think you'd have to go to like a double rod package as opposed to the, uh,

Abaan:

Yeah, I was trying, I was playing around with Double Rod in this list too, but yes,

Henry:

but I don't know, dude, the resources are so thin with this deck, dude, like. see it.

Abaan:

Yeah, of course, like, I've obviously, every, if you play, if any deck that plays Research has seen the Tragedy Hands, Wow, there's like both my Rod and a Research. Hmm.

Henry:

I just can't imagine that many hands when I want to play the research. Like, it's obviously, like, I know this from playing Turbo, right? It's like, if you get a clean research, like, you just kind of win the game, like, immediately. Yeah, all your cards in your deck are good, right? It's like, I just Brilliant Blended for free. But in this deck, it's just like, dude, this is like, no

Abaan:

yeah. That's like the funniest way to describe it, yeah, exactly. When you see a hand of like, somehow the only five cards in your deck that are not good and a Research, it's like, wow,

Henry:

game, it's actually

Abaan:

And this region's about to draw me like the nuts, like no matter what happens.

Henry:

and I'm just going to draw the nuts for the rest of the game as well.

Liam:

I agree with this. I agree with all of this.

Henry:

not new,

Abaan:

Actually that is like the part of the Ancient Box decks that I like.

Henry:

Yeah, the Brilliant

Abaan:

That's like the part I like about Ancient Box, the blender, it's so good, yeah yeah.

Henry:

is really good.

Abaan:

It's so weird because I was like, I'm a huge fan of Secret Box, like I love Secret Box and everything I play, and I was like, this is like such a natural Secret Box deck, and when people were playing Secret Box, I didn't like, bat an eye. But like, it's crazy to me that there's an A spec in Ancient Box that's possible, that's better than Blender, or like, better than Seeker Box, right? Like, the card is Blender. But like, I have played with Battle Professor too, so like, I understand why it's lit.

Henry:

yeah, yeah, I think any, well, anyone who's played Valkyrie Crusher surely will understand how powerful this effect is.

Abaan:

Henry, Battle Professor came out, I think, in the same set as VS Seeker, so like, I think like,

Liam:

Obviously, there were so, so many decks that had uh, insane synergy with uh, There were like so many cards that had insane synergy with the Battle Compressor, right?

Henry:

yeah.

Abaan:

I think that's one of the coolest things about Pokemon.

Henry:

What?

Abaan:

Dude, I think one of the coolest things about Pokemon was when they had those, uh, if this is the last card in your hand, play this card and you like get to do some cool effect. I thought those were like the coolest cards

Liam:

Do we have those right now?

Henry:

Yeah,

Abaan:

is that Beedrill card still legal? Like the

Liam:

No, we have,

Henry:

what you're talking

Liam:

we have Brandon. We have Brandon.

Henry:

one, I forget what it is.

Abaan:

What does Brandon do?

Liam:

Oh, oh yeah, there's the, there is the B drill that has, if you have no cards in hand, you auto paralyze. There's the Brandon, where it's, uh, it's like, uh, you draw one for each bench Pokemon in play, if you have no cards in hand.

Abaan:

Liam, you know what's sad? I was not actually talking about that Beedrill. I meant that I watched like some old VODs because I was just interested in what was happening and I watched Bradner's um, his like Arc Beedrill deck that

Liam:

Oh, with the mustard. The mustard.

Abaan:

Yeah,

Liam:

Oh, mhm.

Abaan:

I guess we're it's funny that we're talking about like value watching old VODs. I got nothing out of that because the whole set I was just like understanding what the cards did but I thought it was really cool to watch.

Liam:

Oh, that deck was so sick. I

Henry:

Bangladesh, had to, had to dig deep.

Abaan:

No, actually on planes I'm like a strictly movie watcher, and TV shows when I'm like trying to fill time too, like I like TV shows, like, if there's like 30 minutes till I land or something, or 45, but yeah, anyways.

Henry:

Um, okay, yeah, I don't know what else. I mean, yeah, so Birmingham, it's gonna be a lot of Reggie Drago. It's gonna be a handful

Abaan:

Oh, I think like, we should talk about the, like, bro, where did that guy, where did it go? Has anyone seen cloth

Liam:

think everybody realized it's like a non serious deck.

Henry:

two in

Liam:

It's a non serious deck. At this point though, everyone knows it's

Henry:

good.

Liam:

non serious.

Henry:

the ladder percentage has gone down like, tenfold.

Liam:

Sorry, un serious deck. Sorry, un serious.

Abaan:

I've gotten to the point, by the way, like, for free, I don't betch the second roll. It's because the chance that there's cloth is like next to zero. By next to zero, like, it's so close to zero, like, it'd take like a it'd be pretty hard to distinguish, you know? Like,

Liam:

It's like cloth before, um, whatever the Dalek 1 Regional was, bro. Like, or like,

Abaan:

The one where it came out, yeah.

Liam:

yeah, or like,

Abaan:

is when it came out?

Liam:

nah, or,

Henry:

one, I think, the one

Liam:

before,

Abaan:

No, obviously after Sack.

Liam:

No, no, bro, it was the EU. Or like, there was one like before the

Abaan:

I did

Liam:

EU one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah,

Abaan:

good, I guess, is Australia, but it was like first shown to the world in SAC.

Henry:

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I

Abaan:

Whole history.

Liam:

yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right, yeah, yeah. Before SAC, mm hmm. I would say before SAC, yeah, like That's, that's the rate at which I'm expecting this cloth deck, bro.

Abaan:

Yes. And in that case, like, what is taking its place, I guess? Like, what is like the is Raging Bull back, do you think? Like, Drago got six of the

Liam:

Nah, there's no, there's no real, like, taking its place, bro. It's just, like, yeah, everything else goes up, like, a little bit, bro. There's still, like, 20 decks in the meta, bro, like,

Henry:

think Raging Bull will go

Liam:

it's still so wide.

Henry:

bit

Abaan:

No, but it doesn't matter,

Liam:

You really think so, bro?

Abaan:

specific type of cloth player and like, what are they going to play

Liam:

Oh, oh, like, where do they pivot to?

Abaan:

yeah.

Liam:

That's a great question.

Abaan:

subscribe to this concept more than Liam does, but like, there's a certain percentage of the player base that plays like, the hot new like, 2 2 2 beatstick deck, you know?

Henry:

yeah.

Liam:

Oh my god. are these people? Like, we didn't, we didn't, like, Like, who are these people, bro?

Abaan:

you're like 2 2 2ing, but like, you got a 1.

Henry:

but it's an A to the 2 prize deck. Make no mistake, bro. Like, the uh, yeah, I think that,

Abaan:

Yeah, I don't know who these people are, but I wonder what they're playing.

Liam:

Uh, no, dude, but I was really feeling it, bro. Me and Abom, we had a, uh, like, uh, 14, 15 hour ladder session the other day.

Abaan:

Oh, that was actually the most degenerate thing, I got straight off my plane and literally did not sleep all night. crazy, I tried to fix my sleep schedule the next day, I didn't sleep the next night, and then today, I slept till like 5pm.

Liam:

Jesus, oh my god, bro. Um, but yeah, bro, like, towards the end of that, bro, like, my brain was, like, completely fried, and I was like, let me just hit some of this Turbo Moon, bro. And that, that deck was really hittin I've tried to play it since, it does not hit at all, but, During those, those few hours at the end there, I was like,

Abaan:

Wow,

Liam:

bro, this Turbo Moon pick is lit. Yeah, bro,

Abaan:

and play like 15 hours of loudest

Liam:

no, like, I think that's, that one, I know going forward, Turbo Moon, bro, that's my beatstick of choice.

Henry:

Really,

Liam:

gonna be one of the Moon players,

Henry:

can easily, bro. After our session the other day, Drick was like, I actually kind of like this Raging Bull deck. Mmm.

Liam:

Oh my god.

Henry:

No.

Abaan:

reason, but like, I'm the one who like, offers to play Bolt when anyone, anyone, anyone wants to test into it. So like, I have like, so much like, random Bolt hours, but like, my favorite deck of those like, B6 is Moridon by far. It just feels so clean. Like,

Liam:

I love Maraadon too, yeah, for sure.

Abaan:

and stuff, like, it feels like life is good.

Henry:

Golden Goat the most, bro. If it counts. I mean, Golden Goat

Abaan:

Ah, dude, Henry. Uh, yeah, yeah, okay, fine, if Goldengo counts, I kind of forgot about Goldengo, obviously, um, like, that's my favorite, too. I wasn't, I wasn't considering it, because it's evolution, you know, and that's, like, too much,

Henry:

fake, it's hell, bro. Technically

Liam:

prize board, right? So like, that's like a real, real technique. It's like saying like Charizard's like a beach deck, you know? That's like,

Abaan:

Liam, I like how you called Knick knick, you have to, like, to not present the one price board, you have to, like, go out of your way, like, that's Malthez,

Liam:

sure. No, no, no, but like, That's like a, that's like a more serious strategy. That's a more serious strategy.

Henry:

cannot be serious when you're saying Charizard and Gold Tango, bro. Charizard actually dropped the Rotom Pair one, bro, like, what? But it has flexibility in the price trade in other ways. Golden Goat, no.

Liam:

No, like, against like Bolt, bro. Like, you do the same thing. I don't, I don't think Charizard decks should be dropping the Rotom turn one, bro. All these like Charizard players that are playing the double Rotom, bro, and like the four Nests, they've actually like lost their minds, bro. Like,

Abaan:

should play Cleffa again.

Liam:

uh, yeah, bro,

Henry:

into the Cleffa, dude. You play Pirate.

Liam:

You should be going second, bro. You should be going second, bro. Like, just play like the Tord, the Tord world's list is probably better than like all this four Nests garbage, bro. Like, I

Henry:

I

Abaan:

I mean, I

Liam:

that you, that you would play.

Abaan:

we, before Worlds, we were, like, I mean, I'm not sure how much you were into it, but I, like,

Liam:

No, I, I, I know that we thought, we thought that, like, this, like, 4NEST stuff was the wave. And, like, I understand why, right? Like, this is, there's a reason that everyone subscribes to it. But, like, bro, playing 4NEST, I would say, particularly for this format as well, where going second is so, so, so lit, like, why are you playing 4NEST and then opting first? Like,

Henry:

You

Liam:

choose second, bro. I don't know,

Abaan:

I was just thinking that Henry, if you're gonna play this No Rodent list with Cleffa, an E Board makes perfect sense. Thank you for your second.

Liam:

I think it's fine. Obviously Tord played it at, um, whatever it was, so like, probably good.

Henry:

ID board?

Liam:

Yeah, and his Hydrogon was at whatever.

Abaan:

E Board? Was there a card called a Skateboard before

Liam:

Wait, his Hydrogon, let's use the same engine.

Henry:

Yeah, it's the one that went on the is the one I didn't play, but I like, I've heard about it.

Liam:

yeah, yeah.

Henry:

R Board.

Liam:

Rescue board.

Abaan:

It's

Liam:

board does not hit the same, bro. We can, we can keep saying e board. yeah, yeah.

Abaan:

remembering, like, there is, like, an escape board card, I was like, does that exist right now? I mean, I'm not even sure, Henry, were you on Flowstone, or did you quit before that?

Henry:

I played one format with Blitzen in it, yeah.

Abaan:

Flowstone is, like, At the time, I saw nothing wrong, but after seeing the light after, like, no Floatstone, like, oh my god, that was a terrible card for the game, like, what the hell? You get to bench this, like, 3 prize Garbotoxin guy, and, like, oh, no biggie, I have Floatstone. Like, what the

Liam:

no, that's crazy, bro.

Abaan:

Oh, I'm gonna put a Vileplume in play, but no Trapstar Lab, because I'm gonna somehow Floatstone Vilepluming up.

Liam:

Bro, you remember that, you know, NAIC match, bro? The NAIC match?

Abaan:

that's my local, Paul Johnston.

Henry:

What, what happened?

Liam:

That's hilarious. Bro, this guy was playing, he was playing like a Vileplume deck or whatever, bro. In both games, he gets the Vileplume up, but he misses the Float Stone, and then the other guy bosses the Vileplume, and he just loses. Like, he actually just decks out. There was like

Abaan:

I think that like, you just don't involve Vileplume there. But there's no like, Henry, there's no Turo or anything. Or I, I don't know, I thought there was AZ in the format, I don't know why he didn't have AZ. Like, did he just not play it?

Liam:

some weird stuff that happened in that game, I think, like,

Abaan:

it wasn't Henry. It wasn't like, Boss, I lose. No, no. It was like, Boss, DTE,

Liam:

it was like boss,

Abaan:

Retreat, and

Liam:

boss again.

Henry:

Oh, okay, okay, yeah,

Liam:

Yeah.

Abaan:

I remember the names. I believe it's Fred Hobon into Paul Johnston, Top

Liam:

Yeah.

Henry:

was

Liam:

Yeah. I think so.

Henry:

Fred Hovind, Vespiquen, 4 DTE, too easy. But,

Abaan:

Wait, there's two AZ? How many Floatstone are in the list? Two. Wait, why didn't he just AZ wait, like, wait for the Floatstone

Henry:

He can go into the Bunnelby and wait. Okay, I must be missing something. I'm very

Abaan:

No, no, I think not kidding, Henry. I think he was missing something. Like, I think,

Henry:

like, this is not a two Bunnelbys, surely that's not a balanced strategy, but

Abaan:

I think, Henry, I think we may have been in this, the game, the concept we were talking earlier. No, no, the, the stream game paralysis. That guy did not make Top 8 playing like that, I can assure you.

Henry:

Oh shit. I'm just looking at this page where I

Liam:

Yeah, bro, I mean,

Abaan:

but yeah, dude, I think Liam, the reason it's so burned in my mind too, like, first of all, he's my local, but I think they keep showing that clip. Isn't it, like, weaved into, like, a lot of montages? like,

Liam:

it might be, uh,

Abaan:

Like, I feel like, I don't know why, I

Liam:

yeah, yeah,

Abaan:

like, multiple times.

Henry:

Y'all

Abaan:

Like the second Lysander.

Liam:

think so, I think so.

Abaan:

We'll, uh, we'll VOD review this game later. I mean, I'm actually fasted in now that we've talked about it again. There must be something else. Cause I thought Paul was a genius at the time, but like, now that you're mentioning there's like Bunnelby's and like AZ's and Floatstones, like, how could this have been a thing?

Henry:

Maybe there's a card in the resting, I don't know. Yeah.

Liam:

Yeah, and saying sidetrack, what were we talking about? Were we talking about Birmingham?

Henry:

coming up, same format. Um, gonna be a lot of Regi Regi Dragos probably gonna go up, cause it's had even more success. I mean, probably not that much, cause

Abaan:

What is Like, what is like, what are people gonna do to respond to this? You think this like, we're not gonna hit, like, SIT, Lugia, Regidrago numbers, right? Like, everyone at the event probably thinks that they're, like, they have a decent Drago matchup, right? So, like, what is, like, the cope? I mean, obviously the obvious answer is Bolton, like, maybe Moraydon, but, like, I don't know, I wonder if there's some, like, higher level, like, oh, I might be

Liam:

Dude, they haven't seen Drick play Drago, bro. Like, no, I'm so serious, bro. If you play against bad Drago players, the deck is going to seem terrible. Like, you literally, you could beat, like, maybe, like, half the players who play Regi Drago at a given event by literally just, like, CC or like a boss after they like do their attack, right? Like that's like actually like a very real win con. It's like a surprising number of Draco players, but like, yeah, but I mean, obviously like when, when a player like Drake plays the deck, it's like, you know, of course you're like, dude, there's, there's literally nothing that can beat that. I can't, I can't do anything. He's going to get me no matter what. Um, and like,

Abaan:

this is actually unprecedented numbers of Drake plays. I don't know if I'm gonna leave this all in.

Henry:

like,

Abaan:

This is actually insane. Like, every conversation is like, somehow

Henry:

like, most V Star holding people, but before we Before we even talked to Drick, like, we knew that, like, Drick was, like, very aggressively supposed

Liam:

this is exactly what we talked about earlier, bro. Every single person, they think they're mature until they see Trick, and they're like, oh, this is what real maturity is. Like, he, he never uses it. I like,

Abaan:

Dude, is Drake gonna pay or something? Like, I feel like Drake could just like, like, some people might listen to this pod, he could like, release a class for like a hundred bucks, and like, I think he could probably get like 30, 40 people in there. Like,

Liam:

I'm pro, and like, you probably should join too. Yeah,

Abaan:

Maybe three times?

Liam:

bro, I like, bro, I mean, I, there's nothing I love more than, uh,

Abaan:

Drake.

Liam:

an incredible, an incredible kid. I've incredibly played the game of Pokemon, and like, every time I watch Drek It's right there. It's like the consistency in which he delivers brilliancy is, is, uh, incredible. I like, similar to Tork.

Henry:

bad this guy ties every so he crashes out. GG's.

Abaan:

That is true, that's like the format, the thing is like, I never thought this about someone before until like Drake where it's like, damn, if you're playing untimed His results would look like so insanely different. he's going to like X one four at everything type shit, like currently

Liam:

Yeah, bro, Trick plays way too slow, bro. That, that is like, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty insane. But like, every single time after he takes like a, a long think, he comes out with something that like, I would have never thought of in like a million years, bro. Like, he's so good.

Abaan:

I wonder like, not to get too deep into this, but like, I wonder if that like psychologically though, like knowing that if like the an, the real answer is out there. Like, does that actually hurt your tournament play? Like play, like, I'm, I feel like Drake does think, like during events, like I, I, I feel like I'm like kind of like a non thinker, which is like, definitely not the best, but like I, I think it's like there's like a middle ground.

Henry:

I know what really funny the way you phrased it, like, he thinks during the

Abaan:

Okay, sure, no.

Henry:

you know, I know it's like, not the best, but

Abaan:

No, no. I thought, like, I thought you were a fellow non thinker. You're just your non thoughts are better than my non thoughts.

Henry:

I think that is oversimplifying it a little bit. Like, I,

Abaan:

Yeah, of course, of course. I mean, obviously everyone is fucking playing the game they're thinking, but like, think, like, I don't know.

Henry:

Like, I tell you that, like,

Abaan:

There's, like,

Liam:

Dude, I

Henry:

and stuff like that. Like, I'm

Abaan:

right?

Henry:

it a lot of the time. I don't think it's worth it. Time wise. But, in terms of like actual game planning, I'm generally in the lap. Like, actually, yeah.

Liam:

Yeah, bro, dude, difference between me in tournament and me on TCU, I've been trying to get better about it, but like, actively, like, trying to force myself to think instead of just, like, going through the motions, bro. But, like, when I'm in tournament, bro, like, oh my god. What can I say, bro? Tournament time, Liam. He's a different breed. Like, I don't speak to him very often, but when I do, I'm like, damn, bro, you actually, you're like, in there, bro. No cap. No self glaze, too. No self glaze, too. Like, we're talking about a different Liam, bro. We're talking about a different Liam. Oh, no self glaze, thank god.

Abaan:

Yeah, that, Liam, I think you and him should sit down for some or something and like, uh, Hey man, I'm sorry for what I've been doing to you recently. I

Liam:

god. No, but like, bro, I, I'm serious though, I like, it's like I'm like, I'm so present when I'm playing in, in tournament, and I'm not, I'm quite as present when I'm playing on, like, TCG Live.

Henry:

definitely play better in tournaments. We had this

Abaan:

mean, like, do you guys not think, like, there's so many, there's like ten actions you have to make that are like, you just have to make them, I don't know, like, you're just going, like, I don't know, I think that like, the best play is like, typically just like, If you play enough, like, the best plays is like, it's like, obvious to you. It's just, you're just doing it, right? Like,

Henry:

between tournament versus like ladder is like when I'm doing these like garbage actions, I'm actually thinking about the game plan as opposed to like scrolling on my phone or something like that, right?

Liam:

Yeah, bro, like, no, yeah, bro, like, I feel like, even once I get to, like, Yeah, these like, um, you know, going through the motion phase, I like, I'm like picturing the end board state. Like, I like, I'm like very actively just like, I like,

Abaan:

What

Liam:

I'm like calculating it all the way out, bro. Like,

Abaan:

I don't know, what I more met is like, I feel like, I like, I overcook. If I like, sit there and like, lab out like, all these like, random things, sometimes I like, I don't know, I feel like I see ghosts. Like, I sometimes just have to like, stop. Like, I'm like, I don't know, I'll just play, I'll like, I do, I know what the best play is, I'm just

Liam:

I mean, we know this from our book Blink, right? This is like There's some merit here.

Abaan:

I don't know, yeah, I think I oversimplify by saying I don't think, but like, I don't know, I think there's like, definitely overthinking what's possible when you

Liam:

I definitely do like a lot of deep things during tournaments though, right? Like, just like,

Henry:

I don't know if

Liam:

take like a minute or two and just like,

Henry:

It's, like, hard

Abaan:

I know one

Liam:

I think I've definitely, I've definitely missed.

Abaan:

of SAC, I overcooked, like, super hard. I was, like, so clearly supposed to kill Charmeleon, and I just, like, overcooked. I was like, what if he gets the Pidgeot out and does this and that? I was like, oh my god, I'm such an idiot. Like, the Pidgey, and then just, like, off I ended up on, like, Evolve's Lizard, and I'm like, ugh, and then retreats with it. He had to do a bunch of other stuff, too, but he, of course, had all of it, so,

Henry:

yeah, well, that's how we've all been there. But, like, yeah, the Zardots are pretty good in these kind of spots, I feel like.

Abaan:

Yeah. Anyways, do we have anything else we want to talk about? I guess we didn't really get into Birmingham, but I feel like we don't really have that much to say about it. It's like the same

Liam:

Yeah, like you should be able to pick up a lot of our thoughts through the From like this entire episode, right? Like, um, I'm probably just gonna run like a Dixie, I don't know, maybe I'll, maybe I'll try to make this pitch out deck work. Like, just on principle, but like

Abaan:

yeah, and then afterwards like EF86 and I will be running the EF8060, EF860, you

Liam:

e, FA 60? Yes.

Henry:

Yeah, that's

Abaan:

good luck.

Henry:

yeah.

Liam:

Yeah, it's like EFA 60 or dr. Or bus basically, like you're, you're kind of trolling if you're not Probably one of the two for sure.

Abaan:

also I don't think we can like promise more regular episodes because like, just knowing us, like, that's not like, it's

Liam:

We we're not built for these kinds of, uh, occasions. Uh huh. Yeah, so I gotta think about what the genie of the moment is. Is it

Abaan:

plan, but I think we're gonna have an episode definitely between Birmingham and San Antonio, like going over Liam's run and like what to do for San Antonio,

Henry:

over

Abaan:

um, yeah,

Henry:

Oh my god, I cannot wait. I cannot

Abaan:

yeah,

Henry:

I and Kooser are gonna be there, bro. You better watch out.

Liam:

Drixti time? It's definitely not the EF86 time. Um,

Henry:

don't even understand, bro. Like,

Liam:

but I, I, I don't like the slow build, bro. I don't like the slow build. It's like, it's too fragile, bro. I don't like the slow build.

Henry:

three Colville, bro. GG's. Or play Turbo.

Liam:

I, dude, like, it may be, bro, but the call builds are so bad. So, like, I, like, I do wanna, like, bro, I was thinking about playing, like, a 4 tattoo build earlier, bro, because every time I start that guy, I'm like, ooooh. So good.

Henry:

don't do that. Do not do that. Viewers at home, do not do

Liam:

Yeah. Yeah, I know, bro. Like, I, I don't know what, what other, like, high impact cards I can, I can add to, like, help, help this, like, draw Arvin on turn one, bro.

Henry:

Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree.

Abaan:

Alright, anyways, Liam, I think we should probably wrap it up.

Liam:

All right. Uh, bye, Drick, if you're listening. Like, bye.

Abaan:

just see Jon Paul's outro, bro, like, what are we

Liam:

Oh, pause our outro. I'll pause our outro.

Abaan:

what the hell? Okay, bye.