The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast

Ep 22 - Another dub for Mike! Lululemon, Three-Body Problem, Non-math Pokeskills, Hammers, ADP bans, playing the best deck, Pikarom, Cramcephalon, The Gauntlet, "If you want to play ADP, just don't think", How to qualify for Team Challenge

January 06, 2021 Brent Halliburton Season 1 Episode 22
The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
Ep 22 - Another dub for Mike! Lululemon, Three-Body Problem, Non-math Pokeskills, Hammers, ADP bans, playing the best deck, Pikarom, Cramcephalon, The Gauntlet, "If you want to play ADP, just don't think", How to qualify for Team Challenge
Transcript
Brent:

All right. You guys ready to do it?

Mike:

Yeah.

Brit:

Happy, excited.

Brent:

All right. Welcome back to the trashy and share new year new podcast. It's sprint Halliburton here as always with Mike crochet and Bree fibers. We've never missed an episode except when we all take off. Attendance is 100%. I am sad to report that we have no new reviews over the holidays. Santa Claus did not bring me the reviews I was looking for. But new year new reviews, if you leave a review, we will read it on the pot and discuss it. uh, The first thing I had on the agenda guys was to ask if you've figured out any new year's resolutions despite the fact that I put on the agenda, I haven't gotten there yet. No worries,

Brit:

I have quite a few, I can talk about, you're

Mike:

Go for it.

Brent:

dude.

Brit:

Well, I, I, I, maybe this will become clear now the, the more we do these, but I just, I am the habit guy. I'm a creature of habit. So on and so forth. And the way habits work is that, you know, if you want to, if you want to take on a new habit, you can't, or at least for the most part, I'm sure there are exceptions, but you can't, you can't just start out of nowhere. You have to, what works is like replacing old habits with new habits, so on and so forth. But anyways, so anytime I have a new year's resolution, I always try to start it like in November, that way it's a habit by new year's by, by the first or something. So you're not, you know, you're not, you know, living a diet starts January 1st. I'll just do whatever I want. But anyways, so my, my big ones for this year that I started a little bit before the new year's is that I want to spend less money on clothing. So I'm going to try to go the whole year without buying any new clothes. I have everything I need. I think I have plenty of pants, plenty of shorts. And I just sort of, I'm just a sucker for Instagram, I guess. However they know, however, they, they S they send me various ads and things like that. I I'm a victim. And so sometimes I just can't help, but, you know, purchase any new, especially if it's related to working out, I just love my workout, hoodies and stuff like that. But anyways, so no new clothes and then no like no Uber eats. I think a lot of us can probably attest to that. Maybe spent a little too much, especially in the initial parts of quarantine last year. And so that, that's my big one, just to try to budget a little better and save money. And so it's, you know, it's always, it's an easy task because you know, what do I want the food or not? It's like, well, if I actually have to go get it, the answer tends to be no. And so that way we'll. You know, it will be a twofold thing. Maybe eating a little better on top of budgeting and not spending$40 on a taco bell order or something.

Brent:

All right. All right. So got a couple of questions first. I worry that the pandemic will end and you'll feel like you need new wardrobes post pandemic, because I feel like, well, I wouldn't want to sign up for that because I feel like if they tell me I have to start going back into the office, I might be like, well, I've got to rev the wardrobe a little bit.

Brit:

Maybe my position is almost the exact opposite in that I. I've always sort of prided myself and being maybe not private, but I've just enjoyed fashion and dressing, dressing up and things like that. But now I don't have a reason for them any anymore. I have all these expensive sneakers and stuff and I wear Crocs now every day, you know, like I don't have to go places. And so that's the thing is that I've, I've got plenty of stuff. I'm good. I'll be good to go. And the pandemic ends and you know, maybe later down the line, we'll do some more shopping, but for the most part now, now I just have. I just live in sweatpants and stuff. Now I don't have, I just feel like such a slob and things like that. So I'll look forward for a change, but I don't know. I don't foresee anything really changing on that front this year. I'll continue to be a slob in my habits until next year, probably.

Brent:

All right, Matt. My other question is, is there a workout hoodie brand that you recommend?

Brit:

You know, I always swear by Lululemon's stuff. For the most part, people complain about its price points, but

Brent:

It's price point is ridiculous.

Brit:

well, I mean, you make good money friends. I don't, I don't understand that. But so the, the CA the stuff lasts. I have my, my very first, you know, tank top I ever had from there and great pristine condition still. So like, it's not like you're paying money for garbage, which is what I find a lot of these Instagram brands are like, Similar prices for just stuff that does not hold up. And so I feel a little better. I mean, again, at the end of this conversation, more or less tacitly endorsing slave labor. So maybe there's a better hoodie out there for you. But that's my defense of the price point. It lasts it's comfy.

Brent:

That's fair. That's fair. I mean, it's the, the price point feels you're serious, but the quality is does seem strong. How about you, Mike? New year's resolutions.

Mike:

I've never been a big person for new year's resolutions, I think because I think of them as a change of habit and it kind of like, as Brett was talking about, and I feel, I don't know. So instead of, instead of. Resolutions. I kind of give myself goals and maybe they're the same thing to some people, but to me they feel different because a goal might not be a regular thing that you do. But so the, the one, the big one that. Ironically, I also, I feel like started a couple months ago and to kind of maybe warm myself up is just to read more. I read a lot when I was a, in high school, like books, both for mostly for pleasure. I want to read more cause I, I do do a lot of like nonfiction and academic reading and whatnot. But in the past couple of months I've started reading for pleasure much more again, and it's. Really great. So I want to keep doing that. So I've, I've kind of like made a list of books that that I want to read and whether I get them at the library or buy them, I don't know yet. But I think that's also been part of it is that I wanted to read, but I didn't know what to read. And now I have kind of like a list to go down, which

Brent:

So, so two questions first. What, what is like Mike Bouschet pleasure reading.

Mike:

Mostly sci-fi type of stuff.

Brit:

you should read. I mean, this was before you even said scifi, this was probably the first thing I was going to recommend you, but have you heard of the three body problem by shape?

Brent:

I know you were going to say that I got to tell you, I read like the first two chapters and I just found it impenetrable.

Brit:

So good. So have you seen have you, have you seen or heard of the movie arrival?

Mike:

I have heard of it, but I haven't seen it. It's is that the link? Is that the linguist alien one?

Brit:

Yeah, arrival is probably one of my favorite movies of the past five, 10 years. It's aliens and language, but it's a short story by the same author that was adapted in the movie. And this is his kind of like series is Epic. So he's a Chinese science fiction writer who sort of has a kind of cool relationship with the Chinese NASA. I forget what it's called, but th their equivalent sort of space program he's sort of been able to help them out. And, you know, at least their work has been related, which I always find really interesting, like, you know, with I think it was interstellar sort of the, the, the science behind that actually came up with some, some new, new stuff in relation to, I mean, not, not that this time travel stuff was real, but they, they figured out some new stuff about black holes, I think, as a result. But anyways, very, very good. And I think maybe it's too danced. Like Brent says, but I think in terms of. Like S fiction for a smart person, science fiction for someone who's smart and enjoys math numbers and probably language too. I think it would be up your alley.

Mike:

Okay. Cool.

Brent:

I, I, you know, I recognize everybody says, Oh my God, I love three body problem. But I think of myself as like somebody who likes all different kinds of books, I just could not get into it when I tried so hard, because everybody says, it's so good.

Brit:

I don't really consider myself a scifi guy, which maybe is just wrong. I like star Wars. I like star Trek, but I've never been sort of, it's never been my genre of choice. I've S I guess I've always liked Lord of the rings famously a bit more.

Brent:

So, so second question, Mike, how, how are you generating this list where where's where's this list of prospective books coming from?

Mike:

So I read it. Do over the last few months. And I finished that, like the end of November, that came from a recommendation from a friend from home. So I'm currently reading the second one and I intend to read the third one. There's like 20 books. I'm just going to read the first trilogy, I think. So that's where that one came from at least one of my. One of my favorite scifi TV shows of the last five years or so is just the expanse. And they are currently in season five and that ends, the season five will be the last season, but it only encompasses so, and it's based on books. And the first five seasons encompass five or six of the books, I got to do a little bit more research, but there's like 10 books out there. So while I. If I was a truly devoted reader, I would go back and read all of the, all of the novels, but I'd probably just pick up wherever the TV show leaves off. Since they're not gonna make the TV show. So that's where those ones come from. And then finally, there's a couple books from Neal Stephenson that I want to read. Snow crash is the first one on the list for that.

Brent:

crashes, the absolute goat of books.

Mike:

Okay. All right. Good, good to know. I read. And so that came from a different recommendation from a different friend. Cause I read seven Eves a couple of months ago. Which was also, which was very good. And by him.

Brent:

Oh, and you like seven Seveneves. I find, I find his new stuff. Much more grindy to get through is like, like, I feel like the first couple of books that he wrote were. Oh my God. I could write a book. And like, now he's like, I'm this famous author, here's my Opus. And like, every book has the next great Opus for him. And it's just like, there's so many words and like so little stuff, but like snow crash is like action plot, like movement. It's easy to imagine the movie that was never made. In that respect, it's good. I've I really liked that as a goal because I definitely feel like, I mean, I read so much less than I did a decade ago, and I know that it's this, like, there's always something new to watch on Netflix. There's always like some new podcasts to listen to some short, shorter form writing on the internet somewhere about something like professional, not professional to read. And like reading long form novels is, is probably it makes you a better person, like farmer. So any of that.

Brit:

I read more fiction. My brain has sort of been poisoned by philosophy. I just don't really. I mean, I still like it, like obviously three body problem is probably the most recent fiction I've read. I really haven't read very much since I started my undergraduate. And since then, it's just been like game of Thrones. So I just lost the attention span for it as weird as it sounds. But I think some of that is like even a long article is only 60 pages or something like you still get through it in a day or something. So, I mean, I imagine it's attention span related more than anything. I feel somewhat similarly, like I just don't, I don't read enough and I just can't can't get it, get back into it. Like I did when I was younger.

Mike:

Well, and it is hard if you're doing so much reading for your responsibilities, like that's, I think that's a large reason why I didn't read when I was in college, in grad school as well. And then kind of over the last, since I started working, I feel like. For some reason, I was like, I'm only gonna read nonfiction books and I read some really great ones. Like I think Malcolm Gladwell books were really good. Read a couple of math mathematical books that are like some math philosophy and they're all really good and interesting, and I'm glad I read them, but No, no, no. I just want to go back to not having to read a chapter and then spend three days thinking about it and then read the next chapter.

Brent:

All right, guys, let's, let's talk about Pokemon. One thing I wanted to talk about for like hopefully not too long, but I felt bad when I reflected on our discussion two weeks ago, about what makes a good Pokemon player. I felt like we ended up fixating a little bit on like a mathy penis and your ability to kind of like grind the probabilities in the analytics to like generate a little marginal utility. But I thought that there were like two things that we didn't talk about that I wanted to get you guys' reaction to. One is like linear versus non-linear play. the, the ability to like, it's the ability to spotlight, Oh, I should attack with the Denny or something like that. Like, I think there's some aspect of like recognizing the full scope of the opportunities that both your opponent has and you have that, like, it's not really mathematical at all. It's it's about your ability to like see the board or, or something I've always thought of it as like linear versus non-linear play. I don't know if that's that's the best way to describe it or not, but. I recognize that's something that I'm really bad at. And like, my son Liam is good at, and that's why he's like so much better than me at Pokemon is he's like, Oh, you can attack with this thing and you can attack with this thing. And like you have these other six attacks that like, you've never used in a game before, but like they're useful in this like one random situation how important or not important is, is that kind of thing.

Mike:

Well, let me, let me ask a clarifying question. So with an example, so I played a game last night where I was against Luke metal and I was playing peek around and I got my. And I went to second and I got my turn to Bolton using electrify, which was great, but I didn't have any target on my bench to electrify, to accepted to Denny. So I did that. And then the following turn, he knocked out my Bolton. So I had a DNA with two energies. And then I, you know, I found some other Pokemon I found on YouTube or whatever. I started attaching to that, but I still had to either end the turn with the DNA active or do something else. And so I ended up just using the DNA's attack for 50, where you site could have. And I feel like it is that the type of situation that you're thinking of, where like, you know, I'm in this awkward spot and I, and I kind of had a bunch of options that right. I could, I could do 50 with the Denny. I could use tingly return. I could retreat the DNA into something else that maybe can take a hit. Are those the kinds of situations that you're thinking of, where it's not obvious what you're supposed to do?

Brent:

Yeah. Maybe like, like I'm trying to think of what a good example is like. So one good example is Like I mean, this is so esoteric. It's like almost irrelevant, but like, I remember situations where like I've seen people playing Sable garb, and, and they reach a moment in the game where it turns out like the right thing to do is to use stabilize second attack and try to just confuse the other guy to stall out the game and like, I think, I think there's a lot of other players. There's like a lot of bad players. I would put myself in that bucket who like, they would just never think, Oh, the strategy in this game is to like, not get these two hammers into my hand. It's to go for the confused, because like we got to the, the only way that we can win is confusing at this moment. And like, I think there ISIS, I suspect there's this whole swath of Sable guard players that never used the confused attack in their life. Maybe it's, maybe it's the people who, you know, had never attacked with anything other than quaking punch you know, in all their days with seismic toad and like the time came where you're supposed to what was the other thing

Mike:

I dunno.

Brent:

exactly right.

Mike:

well, and I think, and I think like using the seismic code example, also, I felt like. And maybe this isn't exactly the same thing, but I felt like oftentimes there were situations where you could do a lot of other things with the seismic codec. Like you could Juniper, you could chorus or you could laser, but really all you had to do is just. Quaking punch, save your stuff. Just quaking punch. Like you don't need to do anything else. And, and people tend to play card. You see it even now in this format where, you know, people will kind of get their, everything that they really need to do on their first turn. Like if you're playing set a score, for example, you have the Volcani inactive instead of scored bench. And then they only have two cards in their hand. They're like, you know what, I'm going to Crow bat right now and draw out a six. And you're like, well, you don't need to do that because you're not really looking for anything. So I think that's like another potential example of the same type of thing where you don't have to play, you don't have to do everything that you can do.

Brent:

Right, right. Once you've achieved your goal for the turn, you can stop.

Mike:

Yeah. And so I think that kind of speaks to the more general question that you're asking is like, you got to constantly be asking what. Am I trying to do what is my overarching game plan in an order, you know, 99 out of a hundred times, I have to do X in order to achieve my game plan. But. In this scenario, you should always be asking yourself the question. Is it one of those 99 times? Or is it the one time where I got to be doing something else? Cause it's still always contributing to your overall game plan, which is to win, but you know, and various ways, but there are, yeah, there are different paths

Brent:

Right, right. You know, you know, it probably is a good example maybe, or maybe a more accessible example is using taboo cure, like, or like, like a primal ground and deck that runs like the one psychic and then bust the type of cure on people. Like if the opponent sees it coming, they're way better than me. Cause I would never see it coming. Like I would always be like, well, you know, this is going to happen and this is going to happen. This is going to happen. And that's that. But, but yeah, I guess I've always thought of it as like you know, I've always described it as like a, non-linear play this, like, you know, seeing more esoteric attacks and reckless recognizing their utility in specific situations. And that, I don't think of that as like a purely like math grindy thing, because there's, there's this like awareness of all of your attacks and like the board state and the city game situations and recognizing like, you know, in this situation, I should quick ball for this thing and do this thing. And like that's the maximum utility play. And I don't think that's. No, when I say maximum utility, it sounds mathematical, but I don't think of that as a mathematical thing. So, so on a related note, I wanted to ask a Brit, like if, if we had Dustin on the pot, like, I dunno if Dustin thinks of himself as like a mathy guy, but it made me wonder if like graphic designers think of a Pokemon in some like, like like visual way that somehow makes them good. Like what makes him good at Pokemon? I don't even know.

Brit:

That's a good question. And I don't, I don't really have a sense of how he would answer. I would agree that I, at least my sense is that he wouldn't consider himself a math person, but he's a smart guy. I'm sure he's pretty good at the math still, but yeah, that would be an interesting conversation to have. I can't imagine there's really any sense. Sort of I guess aesthetically motivated that would make someone good at a card game, but you never know. There's a lot of just, you know, different kinds of cues out there, different kinds of digitals, but I don't, I don't have a good answer for that. I do think though, just kind of in regards to your initial question towards Mikey, I think I've been thinking about this a lot. Since we recorded last too, and kind of what I've. Come up with, at least for the moment is that I think that kind of being a good Pokemon player is, you know, you need to have. You know, let's, let's, let's think about it. Think about it in terms of like a D and D character building a character and an RPG. You have, you have these handful of skills. So I think all like the math of the skill, the sequencing is a skill, they're all individual skills. And then if you have so many of them at appropriate levels, you're a good player or something like that. And so I think certainly that. Nonlinear being able to recognize us scenarios as something really important. And I think definitely something that I feel like I have as an older player, that it just doesn't ever quite seem as relevant to newer players. Like, I don't know these like deck out strategies and things like that. I just feel like I'm always a little more aware than my opponents or at least when I was playing these league cups last fall, last winter and playing against You know, more, more middling level of players. And I remember being in top cut at a cut and just, just to like notice how terribly my opponent used their switches on their first two turns or something like that. And in my head, I'm just like, I've won. All I have to do is custom capture twice. Things like that. And I don't, I don't think people recognize these alternative wind conditions enough, but again, it's questionably relevant and these newer formats like, well, like right now, I think really the only one that matters is, like I said, is sometimes people are, you can run them out of switches and things like that. But I think another kind of an important thing to mention, and maybe we could compartmentalize both of them is skills. And there, it's the kind of the, the, the distinction between playing to win, knowing when to play, to win versus playing, not to lose. And so sometimes you have to, like, you have to, you have to play to win. You have to make this terrible play that has. A 10% chance of succeeding or something like that. But you have to, you know, you're a good player. You've analyzed the board properly and you recognize that's the only chance you have to win the game. So you have to go for it. Whereas the safer, more conservative player might say, ah, I only 10%. I'll just play it safe and play the Marnie here. And we'll figure it out later. But like, You know, sometimes those decisions are just that it's that, you know, almost, it seems a little it's on the favorite. It might even seem like a bad decision, but it's being able to analyze the board properly and sort of figuring out your, your roadmap to victory and things like that. And so even that, that itself is a skill sitting down. And, you know, let's say we're playing an online tournament or something, and I've just checked in. I'm looking at my opponent's list. Like from there, just thinking to yourself, like, how am I going to win this game? And you know, I was playing games earlier today. I had an interesting one. I was testing mad party and I played against an IntelliJ on frost moth. And I just tend to sit there and think like, how do I want to win this game? I'm not sure. Like, His board state was weird. It didn't, it didn't look like I was good. I would have been able to just select gust three, two prizes or something like that. And it just like, I think I have to attack into the Italian. Okay. Well, if that's true, then that's going to be three prizes at some point of time. How do I win the game from there? And then it just. It seems like I can't like, unless, unless they give me another IntelliJ on or something, it's just seems like a way. So I had to, you know, great catcher and things like that, but just being more meticulous, not in you, kind of in the long game, I'm not just scared the exact turn you're playing on. You have to kind of, I know some of this is I'm sure, very obvious too, but I think just like all of it adds up. To being a good player. It's not, it's not one singular thing. I could be really, really good at math and not good at Pokemon. There's there's other things going on here too. But I, I liked my kind of take that. It's a bunch of skills at once. Then if they're, if they're a high enough static, you might be a good player.

Brent:

Yeah. And your examples are really, really good when it that's that ability to like suddenly completely switch gears into a deck out strategy, like taught you, see top players do it and you see bad players not do it. You know, that that is the thing, right? Bad players walk into it.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

All right, let let's. I know you've got a diatribe on hammers, too. Britt. You want to hit us with it?

Brit:

Oh, I wouldn't go, Oh, the diatribe necessarily. I just, you know, we, we have a lot has happened since we took our little week off. We have some tournament's running officially now where ADP is not legal. And naturally Turnitin is. A big sort of target for these crushing hammers, but I always, I always felt a lot of them too was for the ADP matchup. But now that ADP has gone at least in a certain format. So I thought it might be an interesting time too. Maybe reevaluate things. I know we're still seeing, you know, colossal plays crushing hammer. Sometimes they're still kind of a toss up, not only for peaker rom decks, but LMC plays them. Sometimes they still needed to be playing them in these ADP formats. Yeah. What about the regular four minutes? Things like that. I know we've talked about them quite a bit. And peek around and Mikey, who's had some more success with the debt, continues to play them. And I'm sure it will probably defend them some too, but I'm not sure. I mean, if your deck really has a bad matchup against the alternatives, they're probably worth playing, but I don't know. It's kind of hard to talk about in the sense of that. I just wonder how much time, like, if it's worth our time to really sort of figure out the ADP. The ADP less formats for the moment we've got the players cup coming up. So I just sort of, haven't been thinking about it too much, but I think if ADP was part of why they were being played, it should seem to follow that they could be played less now, but I'm not sure. And we still people see people on Twitter, hating them, hating on them every day. And I think they are, at least some of the sentiments are fair and flipping is never quite fun or rewarding. That sort of thing. But I'm not sure. Like I, again, like, because peek around seems good. I think still in this ADP less format.

Brent:

Yeah. I mean, I feel like, I feel like I mean, hammers, I assume, are good in a format where it takes multiple energy attachments to attack. And I think we're kind of there right now, like outside of med party, I don't know how many decks there are that are like kind of one energy attackers Bolton's kinda gets you there. But and, and I recognize like, well, decks can, can kind of bypass some of the effects, but puts pressure on them. Right.

Mike:

So the only deck that really consistently plays hammers is peaker. You see, I would say the next most popular is probably Luke metal playing hammers. And then third is actually ADP, I think. So if we disregard the ADP, then it's really just Piqua and Luke metal that would potentially play hammers. Luke metal. I actually think the biggest reason to play hammers in Luke metal is for peek around. That seems at least as the peak around player. I'm much more worried going into that match up. If my opponent plays hammers, cause even just one or two heads in that is a really big deal. Cause you're already discarding two or three energies from the GX attack. And so an extra, like even one or two energy can be the difference between like bolting getting a one shot late in the game or not. And you can really run them out of energies. So if peak her arm is still very good in the ADP lists format, then it would make sense then I think, to still play hammers in that deck in peaker it also probably still makes sense to play hammers, at least some lists because of the alternatives matchup, like your attorney, just matchups really, really bad if you don't play hammers. So yeah. I think hammer still makes sense, even in the least in those two decks, even without ADP, but I could see the arguments probably stronger in peek around not to play hammers and try and figure out some other way to deal with the Turnitin. Maybe you can just play multiple yell grants and get there. Yeah, that's kind of my thoughts.

Brent:

Then, I mean, I, I hear that and I think why would I play multiple yoga when I could play a hammer and a Marti? And like, you know, maybe in the game, right? Like, hammer sound, Sam or something. Good.

Brit:

Yeah, I think so much of their power is I think more rooted in. Just the card pool. Like it's not that they're a necessity or anything in any deck per se. I mean, they'll never be because in theory they'll only fix your problems some of the times never all of the time, but I just, like, it just feels like there just aren't better cards to play. And I think if there were, there would be a lot less decks with, I'm trying to think of good examples. You know, there's no like stadium combo card, like laser bank or anything like that floating around right now. There's just nothing else. We don't have electro power anymore. That's, you know, obviously a big, a big thing for the peaker arms specifically. But yeah, that's, I think were some of my opinion on the card is, is that. It doesn't feel great to play, but what else are you missing? You know, all these decks that play hammers already are already rocking for boss from RNA for the most part LMC and Baker at least. So again, it's not like they're cutting consistency there. And then again on top of that, There aren't other supporters worth playing either. There's a lot of supporters I learned. I feel like I find out what a new one does almost every day. But there's always a reason why I hadn't, I'm learning about it that day.

Brent:

Now big, basic decks. They just have a lot of room in them.

Brit:

Yeah. I mean, not to these cards here. Big basics, they're efficient. They have their own acceleration or ways to accelerate energies through a trainer card. What else is there? Cause I, again, I think just to compare, to expand to that might make my case a little bit stronger. Not only are like none of the decks really playing them, but for the most part, hammers have only ever been prevalent in a really, really controlled acts. I've never been sort of in your mid range or arc or anything like that because there were much, much, much better cards to be playing. Right.

Brent:

do speak of banning ADP. Do we want to talk about like this, these increasing amounts of tournaments that ban ADP? Is there stuff that we want to say there?

Mike:

So there's only been like w w at least. Recently, obviously there was a couple of few months ago, but there's only been one so far, recently, I think that was had ADP band. But the real thing is just limitless deciding that all of their tournament's going forward, all of their standard tournament's going forward. We'll have ADP bands. So, you know, in the next couple of weeks we'll have multiple of these events cause they run one every week. It just so happened that. The first week that they came out with this decision, they ran an expanded event instead. So there will certainly be people exploring this format somewhat seriously. I really don't know what it's going to look like. I think a good place to start is shout out to channel fireballs. Isaiah Bradner did a, did an article kind of laying the groundwork and he thinks that Luke metal is the best deck. It'd be, or at least it's the deck to beat now. So that's kind of a place to start. It will be interesting to see if single prize decks are able to. Find a stronger footing. I'm a little skeptical. Because just a lot of the other reasons that we've kind of touched on here and there on the podcast, they just require so much more, so many more resources, every single turn compared to these big things. So we'll see.

Brent:

obviously I would, I would ask about spirit to them and I assume that's why, as it says LMC is a very.

Mike:

Yeah. I mean, I think spirit tune down fan after playing it up. A decent amount is like really bad. I think it's like a really, really bad deck. I don't think it beats most things, especially the new, like the new blissed F on lists that run to Craemer and you are never beating two crammer at with, with Don fan spirit, Tim, because you have no way to ramp up your spirit to him without using Don fans and Don fan doesn't even to shout at Kraemer. And so like not, not good. So there's just so many bad match-ups I think for that deck I don't even think you'd beat peek around consistently, which is terrible.

Brent:

All right. So are you guys going to be playing in any of these limitless tournaments or is it about testing for players cup three and like looking for other tournaments now? Like what, what's your sh do you guys have a strategy there?

Brit:

I played in the first one. No, it wasn't the last one. I forget what it was, but there was, I think it was on new year's day. Maybe I, I don't even remember. Just, I was just curious. I thought it would be fun. Wanted to see what decks people chose. I, I played the. Kramer and heavy April, Cephalon sort of the hybrid of the two decks and I dropped it two and two. I don't, I don't even remember looking at what did well, but yeah, I, I think I don't, I don't see much point in them, at least personally. I think I really interested in these other formats later down the road, but the sword shield on one that Pablo has been running is a lot more interesting to me, but I want to focus on the players cup. So I'm, that's where my preparation is at the moment. And it's really not all that different if, if we're being honest, like I. You know, you hit, like you play the ladder and as long as you don't hit ADP, if you're testing the ADP list format. So it's not too much different and you can just quit concede if you're playing a deck that loses the ADP, that might be competitive in a format without it, but until there's official reason for it, or like every online tournament switched or something like that, I don't really. I'm not interested. I should say I don't. I don't, I don't, I can see why someone wouldn't be interested, but I've got, I've got a chip on my shoulder from players cup too. I'm going to do, I'm going to do well in three. So that's where my mind is.

Mike:

Nice.

Brent:

Yeah, like got like that. Got like that.

Mike:

yeah, I probably won't do any specific testing, but I might play in a couple and just kind of theory, Mon we'll see.

Brent:

Fair enough. So let's talk about, I want to talk about like players cup three, and I guess we're gearing up for that in a second. So let's talk about the meta game and stuff from the last two weeks. We should start by saying Mike congratulations.

Mike:

thank you, sir.

Brent:

So actually before we dig too far into results man, I want to note like this second big tournament you've won in a relatively short period of time and like a like a 30 days, 40 days window. Like, I feel like you're having like a little bit of a run here in terms of like putting up good results of tournaments. Are there Do you think you did something that like, like I'm sure. I, I think every Pokemon player said like when they kind of get on a hot streak and you kind of see this, like, do you view it as a hot streak? Did you do something different? Is it you know, RNG and you're just flipping heads all the time now, like.

Mike:

Well, I do think part of it is I started playing the best deck. And I learned how to play the deck quite well because I've been playing it a bunch now. I'm still not confident in some of the match-ups in particular. I think the mirror match is very hard to like gain an edge and I'm still trying to figure out how to gain an edge there consistently. But yeah, I think, I think I'm playing the best deck. I think I'm playing it well, I think I've learned all the match-ups pretty well. And I think that's all just kind of coalesced into. Into the results. I've played a couple different decks in random tournament. And you know, I think I is specifically like in the Sunday open, I've taught aided twice with other decks besides peak, but yeah, whenever I don't know what to play and it's funny, you get to, like, this started almost. It started very soon after we had this conversation about like sticking with the deck or switching it up and just maybe, maybe some of that subconsciously gotten to my head and I was like, I'm going to learn how to play this deck really good. And I think, I think really that's, that's, that's most

Brent:

You know, interestingly, I, I think I mean, this is definitely painting an overly broad strokes, but I would say like, historically you are kind of that guy, like you were at that point with spirit to him, the spirit to him was a stack, right?

Mike:

Yeah, you're too Mazda. I think Spurgeon was the best deck in that format. At least in the, in the, in the whatever rebel clash format. I think it was

Brent:

Right, but, but you were not, but you were not getting these kinds of results. Is that, is that like, because it was a higher RNG format or like

Mike:

Well, so if maybe

Brent:

or

Mike:

probably wasn't actually the best deck. But it's actually something that I think Brett you've mentioned in our chat with Danny maybe a week ago when we were talking about mad party that, you know, mad party is very strong. When you play it very, very well and you draw decently. And so like, do you want to have to play a deck that you need to play perfectly and draw decently well or play a deck that you can just play pretty good and kind of have the same results. And I feel like to some extent that was like the same thing with spirit tomb. And you're like, peek, you still like in order to like, do really, really well, do you have to play it almost perfectly? But there's more wiggle room in there because just inherently, everything is more powerful.

Brent:

Right. And it feels to me like Same phrase, like, it feels to me more like a it's a more linear deck.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

Like, I mean, you, you know, before you even flip over the card, you're like, okay, what I'd like to do is attack with Bolton electrify. Let's see how it goes. Right.

Mike:

said compared to a lot of the other decks in the format, it has a a ton of options.

Brent:

That's fair. That's fair. All right. All right. What else are we seeing in the Metta? Do we are there things we should say about peek around besides what what's been said?

Mike:

I mean, my list has changed two cards in since my big win. I do think the list is now at a more stable part. So I, in, from, from the list, like many weeks ago, I dropped the yell grant and I dropped the beak of all very second care addicts. Well, and a second MuTu. And I feel like the list is. Just probably gonna stay there now. Seems very, very good. Nothing really else to say. The big thing that has happened though in the last two weeks in terms of the meta-game, in my opinion, is the mixing of blood Cephalon and firebox into, I think the makers of the deck or clinic Chris Cephalon, they were on two crammer ants, two only, two baby Blount, two rashes ARDS as their attackers. And then otherwise it's pretty much a baby blond shell that has this polka gears, which you didn't typically see runs cherish balls and poker, Pokemon communication. So it's really like a perfect marriage of firebox and baby bliss Cephalon decks. And I feel like that variant is significantly stronger than either straight, maybe blondes or regular firebox. So I think finally like welder decks have kind of come up with. Perhaps the optimal build for the deck. It still has weaknesses. It still has a really tough match and his pick around him in particular. But I think the deck is very strong and that's kind of the big, in my opinion, the big story of the last few weeks.

Brit:

Yeah, I, I completely agree. That was really the only thing I wanted to say in terms of a new deck presence. I'm surprised to see that it hasn't sort of repeat. It had had that good showing in the GG chill event. And then I just sort of, haven't seen it a blast. It's hard to know maybe some of the blood Cephalon lists or more of it. I think it might just be worse. It's more interesting to me. Then bliss Cephalon as more options than the regular bliss Cephalon, but I it's, it's less powerful. Clearly. You just don't have as many energy in that sort of thing. So if you hit it, if you in this, I'll be speaking on this and the, the four games I've played or the four games I played in a tournament with it is that if you, you hit these match-ups. Where like the rushes are isn't enough to carry you. It gets really hard cause rushes are sort of needs to take three prizes or so. And if you hit these match-ups for restaurants, arts sort of struggles to do that, it's a lot harder. And then you're all the more vulnerable to the late game disruption because you have less energy and so on. It's harder for you to hit your big numbers. So I remember I forget what I beat now, but I remember that my first loss was to peaker. And it was a really, really close game. And it was just like a series of really small losses on my part that just added up. Like they, they hit well on hammers. They had the mornings at the right time. I whiffed. I was paralyzed for a turn, like all of those things. And I, I think I would have one had had one more thing on my way. But it didn't that's all right. And then, and then I played against a colossal where, and that's just kind of, the scenario happened. I'm trying to describe ch retros. Art is not good against colossal. I, I was. You need six energies. You can't even one shot in this we're talking. This was a more it wasn't the crushing hammer version. It was a more defensive build. And so they had stone energies and the padding and malice and Ilana's. And so I. It came down to the wire, but I had just had a colossal with the tool and multiple stone energies. And I, you can't kill that with a blow Cephalon when, when you don't have 18 energy or something like that. But I like that a lot and think it could get refine maybe a little bit more and. There's there's lots of fire options. You know, you have things like Vic Teenie or Torcal that kind of get tossed around and maybe something like that would solve the problems that the deck has, but I like it, but I think it's probably just worse than the kind of just typical blood Cephalon build.

Brent:

So, so I have one more peek around question before we migrate away from people I'm completely might get you ended up back at the two Bolton's and I know you would try four, you would try three. You'd try to anything in particular allegiance inclusion, or just cramped for space and like, and ended up being two and three is the 61st card.

Mike:

Yeah. Three would be really nice. I still see a bunch of people playing three. It probably would be the 61st card, but yeah, I think just. You just kind of need all the other cards as well. You could drop big charm, I guess, but big terms really pulled a lot of weight for me. One of the matches last night, I played against mad party against the Juul actually. And I big try my peak, her arm and. He just wasn't able to do two 72 it, and so I just, like, I kind of had to take a gamble. I was in one of those brats that Britt was talking about earlier, where I was like, all right, I'm going to full blitz and set up tag ball at my peak around. And if you can do two 80 to me, I lose. And if he can't, then I went, so let's just go for it. So I don't know, a big charm, I think has pulled a lot of weight. That's really the only spot. You definitely want to meet dues as well. I've co like I started with one YouTube, but it's really, really good. And in particular, I had a game against a mirror yesterday that only played one MuTu and. If you play two meters and they only play one year in such an advantageous position, because you get to just go double MuTu and they can never use their MuTu then, because if they do like you just kill them with your second MuTu and then you win the game. It's, you know, reminiscent of me two Wars. So yeah, so I guess third Bolton would, would be the 61st card, but two is fine.

Brent:

Fair enough. All right. Just, just had to drive to clarity for the fans there.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brent:

All right. All right. The gauntlet's the next thing on the list.

Mike:

Oh yeah. I just thought this would be so funny to talk about. So for the last couple of days, there was a bunch of people posting on Twitter about it. I had no idea what they were talking about. And then it seems like it was mostly just a meme, but I think like 12 or 12 to 15 people played it in the Hexter event last night, it was just straight Zakian. With all the flipping cards. So for hammer, for turbo patch for Pokemon catcher none of them did well, but it was a, it seems like a fun deck to play.

Brit:

I was disappointed in that. Like I knew it wouldn't do well. I was not, I didn't care. Like I basically just ignored it. It was, I was not like getting suckered in your whatever have you, but I was disappointed to see. That it was, it was what it is. I expected it to be some stage two, you know, cards we've never heard of before. Typically when people are flaunting their, their rogue deck that has all the answers. It's, it's got something interesting in it, at the various lease. And so I saw this and I was like, this isn't even worth the fuss that you guys made over it for the sake of making a fuss. Clearly there's a stack is fine. Like it's what do you want on? But yeah, I was, I was disappointed in that and I expect that something kind of cool, maybe a sander type control deck or something. I was looking forward to learning some new cards, but tragically, I did not like, why not just stick a cargo in there while you're at it. They play, the goggles are at anyway. It's just a bad and bad version of that.

Mike:

Okay.

Brent:

All right. See King.

Mike:

Yeah, I think just worth mentioning is the only other new deck that I can think of that came out in the last two weeks. And it did well in one event. And then I think the next event, like five to eight people tried it and everyone did poorly, but it, it seemed like a cool enough concept that at some point I would explore it a little bit. I haven't really tried anything yet.

Brent:

Yeah. Didn't we discuss this two weeks ago and we, it was like done well at like the event right before the bond. Then we were like, Oh, this is going to be the thing that everybody plays while we're gone.

Mike:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Brent:

I mean, the thing that jumped out to me was like, it kind of didn't work out like that because it kind of bombed, right.

Mike:

Yeah. Right. It was, it was popular for like the next day or two and then nothing.

Brent:

Hey, it attributed to the fast moving metagame. But I'm a little sad because yeah, I wanted, I wanted it to be like more of a, you know, a meme that had a little longer lifespan.

Mike:

Yeah, it could actually be a good thing to explore for this ADP list format, because even though you're it's, it can be okay versus ADP because of all the energy removal, it's still probably our hardest matchup because they just win so quickly. So. And energy removal is still pretty decent against a lot of other decks. So it could, could be, it could be decent.

Brent:

Yeah. So, so right before right as we kicked off the holiday season, Mike, you posted this chart of like your perspective on matchups and, and then Robin Schulz replied with like actual data from limitless games that he had pulled together. And I thought we should talk about it for two seconds. Let's talk about the peak around the line specifically, like, so you said, you said the only unfavorable matchup you have is a turn. It does. And Luke metal is very favorable. Or is even I'm sorry.

Mike:

Yeah. Even, even.

Brent:

And, and the data that Robin posted, I think agreed with that, but said that Lucara Mel metal is actually pretty, unfavored 40% of the time peak around one. Is there something, is there a way you think about that up that's maybe different than your average peak around player? Quote, unquote.

Mike:

Yeah. I'm like, I'm very positive in the matchup in tournament's. Last night, I beat two of them. When I played in the holiday regional event, I think I went in total like six and three and games or something like that. I played a bunch of that matchup. I just think Luke, I think Luke metal is like a really easy deck to misplay against. And so I think. Peek around players just in general are probably just not playing well. So some of the things that I do is I do not play my cards down. Like I am so conservative with every single card. I very seldomly research away. More than one card. Like if I'm going to research, I want to like do this card almost nothing. I use Marni a lot. Marnie is really good against them so much. So that elder Gus is often grabbing a Marnie. It's either grabbing Martin or boss almost every game. Marty is really good against them because their primary way to draw cards is Intrepid Seward. So. You know, if they Intrepid sword, then you Marnie them to four, then maybe they don't have a supporter. The next turn, they just have to Intrepid start again. Yeah, it's really just conserving your resources and like, not if like, if you can attack, that's probably all you need to do. Switches are super, super important in that matchup. Because. For a number of reasons. One of them is that after they GX you, if you don't have a way to get out of the active, then you're just sitting there doing nothing for a while. If you don't have to switch. Yup. Later in the game switches are useful to reset the riots. You attack you, even if you're attacking them. You too, because that's your most powerful, not GX, not bolted attack rate does the most damage. So it's important to do that. It's important because you can deck out. That's a way that you can lose that mattress is decking out. And so, you know, if they full metal while you're peak from early on in the game and you don't. Put energy back on it, then maybe later in the game, they can just boss your peek around. And if you're at a switch, you lose the game. So switch is a very, very high resource. What else? I think that's, that's like a lot of the general stuff. The amount of energy. So if I was going to tech quote, unquote for. Luke metal and Pete Graham, I would just play more energy. That's like the best thing that you could play, I think so you want to play a 14 or even 15 energies that will make your Luke metal all match up a little bit better. Yeah, don't use taboo cocoa until like don't discard energy cards. Don't quick ball away and energy. If you can. Help it just wait for your energy to get in the discard naturally. And then you just tap a cocoa. It's all like the mattress is a hundred percent just like making the most out of every single card that you can and not discarding things unnecessarily. Crushing numbers are not very useful in the matchup. I mean, it can be helpful, but like I never feel bad about. Like quick balling or, or researching? Well, I guess I would never research away hammer, but like quick ball and away a hammer or radar in a way or hammer or some of your best targets. I usually still attack with Mewtwo even though the cardio resistant because it's just more versatile. You can switch and choose whatever attacks you want. You do have to. Yeah. So I don't know that that that's a lot of the basic stuff. But. I think the match-ups, I don't, I hesitate to say it's positive for Pika, but I think it's like, it's at least even I think, I think that it's one of the more scale intensive match-ups in the format. My CLO, like my closest games in the matchup were against Sosa when I played him in that tournament. And I ended up beating him both times, but like, I feel like I got lucky And yeah, so I it's it's it's I like playing that match, but I think it's pretty fun. And it makes you think a lot.

Brit:

that's a good matching from both sides. I enjoyed it as well.

Brent:

So, so the other question for you guys is why do center scorch people think that their favorite against peek around both, both Mike, his opinion and the data seemed to imply that peek around beats and a scorch every time.

Mike:

I don't know why they think that they're favored. It's. Like it's. So that's another match for him. You choose really good. You force them to have a switch in a particular situation by, you know, using rideshare to paralyze them to clean, to shot if you use your eyes to do twice. It's not too difficult to set up a tag bolt to win the game because it's typically they need a lot of energy to a, you know, a one shot, a Mewtwo. It's another match where a big charm on YouTube is pretty good. I don't know, man. It's just, I mean, going second is like obviously a huge advantage. I think probably the matchup is like, I think the mattress probably 50 50, if they go second. And if peak around, go second. It's like, I don't know. 70, 30 per eco.

Brent:

Jumped out to me about, about both your chart and a Robin's data. And I dig Robin's data a ton because obviously it's data is. It seemed like it seemed like ADP is bad. Like ADP was 50, 50 against everything, except it's unfavorite against peek around and sentence scorch. And it's like slightly favorite against balloons. Why, why is ADP the best I can format? It seems like it's not very good.

Mike:

Well, I guess that, I guess that's part of the reason, right? Well, so typically the best decks have always been decks that are fairly even across the board. I guess the difference is that, you know, a deck like evil, tall, that was 50 50 again was you could make up that difference in your skill. And ADP is like, you don't really make it up in your scale. You make it up in your draws.

Brent:

right. I mean, maybe the moral of the story is just like that. Every other deck's been chased out of the format because if you're not at least 50 50 against ADP, there's no point playing.

Mike:

Right, right. That's

Brit:

I think we've hit on it before too. I imagine. Or at least I think that some of ADP's at least. Not so good data. I think that some of that too, is that our or other lists have just gotten better and better and better over time. And that's like, I don't even remember what Senator scorch looked like the first couple of weeks, but I remember it took kind of a, a minute or two before they've taken off. And now the sort of sent a skort squad on Twitter really have refined the list to what seems like it's best, at least the best version so far with like, The one stamp, the great catcher, things like that. Like they, they have the cards ironed out. And I think that that's part of why ADP has less good results is that other decks just got better. And also too, I'm sure we've talked about a time or two before. Part of why peaker rom is so good is because it has that good ADP matchup. And so like now the year, the best deck and suddenly the deck that beats you is the best stack. And so that just kind of creates an. An unfavorable metagame a lot of the time. And so you're just losing them too. And then also, I guess, similarly in that, now we have a new meta-game we established that peaker rom is the best deck. Good players are playing peek around the good players aren't playing ADP anymore. So the bad players are bringing ADP's down. Statistically, I think things like that are all sort of part of the puzzle too, but it is always kind of curious in that. It's never overwhelming. I can't remember where the Twitter threads started, but there is, I think it was the Wasi. I think, I, I think it was his tweet, but just like DNO questioning whether or not we should ban ADPN. There was just like what would have won worlds and I'm not sure. But I imagine it would have won worlds in the junior division or the senior division, for sure. Like

Brent:

It's easy to play, easy to

Brit:

did look like a little Japanese child in the junior division, unstoppable with ADP, for sure.

Mike:

I think that point of, you know, people that. ADP is a really great deck to play. If you don't think that, and this is not to be a slight against any player, but like, if you don't think that you can play other decks at the level that you need to play ADP, like there's no, there's no shame in that. Like just play it recognize where your skill cap is and play that deck because it can win any game if you, yeah. I saw, I think Tate tweeted out. Yesterday that he taught someone to play recently, like two weeks ago, and then he lost to them last night in the Hackster event. And they were playing ADP. Like, that's

Brent:

I mean, if you, if you like draw well, And the other guy flips tails on his hammers, like ADP. So super good man.

Mike:

Yeah.

Brit:

I think it was funny. If you can just edit his last little spiel to just like, if you want to play ADP, just don't think or something like that. If you don't want to think it just selective editing.

Brent:

So I think the, any other stuff you guys want to talk about as far as the meta-game, anything else like that out there?

Brit:

No, I've got some team challenges. I think finally, I hope, hope to win some and

Brent:

Oh, yeah,

Brit:

think I have two this weekend.

Brent:

that's exciting.

Mike:

to back Saturday, Sunday.

Brit:

is on Saturday and one is on Sunday. I've just learned this actually in this time we've been recording today because I actually saw, I wanted to participate in this one and kind of the, the main Kansas city store. I would be a part of in the Tio sort of a sweet, older lady. Who's just kind of always played with her son, had a Facebook status about it, and I've, I commented on it days ago. And haven't received a response, but I was, I just saw on the Arcanine website, it kind of has them all ready to go. So you can just enter it, enter, find one and enter on it at your leisure. It seems like. So if you're really gung ho about qualifying, I'm sure you can, but I'll probably just play these a couple of these, these one or two, both the stores are close or closer to my heart. So it'll feel. Like a real local game store or something for me. I don't, I don't think I'll play in any across the country or anything like that, but

Brent:

So what what's what's the play this weekend, right?

Brit:

I think I will reluctantly play peaker for the first time. Yeah.

Brent:

Yay. Wait, wait to play the best

Brit:

well, I feel sort of just like, I've just been, I just keep doubling down on the decision to not play peaker on. And I just, I feel so deep. I just I've dug my hole so deep. There's just no reason to play peaker roam. I just gotta keep, keep digging. But for something like a league team challenge, every single one, I see it with some exception, but for the most part, it's like I won another four person one and it seems like the best act to bring. I don't foresee them. Having high turnouts of mostly refined metagame deck. So I like want to be safe. I saw maybe I'll just play my keys last. I've seen, this seems to be common. At least I've seen a handful of them. People for their team challenges are playing a third Bolton. For some reason, they just want. A little, even more extra consistency. For, I guess in theory, the team challenge might be less competitive than the online tournament, or I really have no idea. Why

Brent:

Do our pod two weeks ago. And we were like three Bolton's.

Brit:

maybe, but yeah, just cause the math, at least I I'm familiar with, I'm sure it's different because the number of basics are different, but I remember kind of the math of Playing Brizzy on Genesek like your odds to start with a when you play three versus four was fairly negligible. If I remember. So like probably the fourth one isn't worth playing, but three is, what do you think? What do you think about the third one? Like you've got a perhaps perfect list and are playing when yourself, what do you think of people's decisions to need? The third one?

Mike:

Yeah. I mean, I think it's fine. The only thing. I could imagine cutting is the big term, though. I guess you could cut second swell if you didn't think they were going to play against too many fire decks. Those are really the only two cuts though. Like you don't want to be the guy that cuts the fourth researcher fourth, Marty. You don't want to do

Brent:

There'll be the guy that cuts the fourth morning.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. Third Bolton would be pretty good, but I definitely agree that four is over kill.

Brent:

They're just better cards. Yeah. The value of starting with the Bolton, as opposed to trying to figure out a way to find it and switch, it seems like it's it's, there's not quite enough juice there. But you do want to find it the turn one, right? All right. How about you, Mike? Players cup three preparation. Are you testing? Are you just playing in tournaments and having fun and playing pick around and winning?

Mike:

Yeah, I mean, at this point, I can't imagine playing much else except P ground for most of the players cup stuff. And like I said, last time, this one's going to be interesting because we have the qualifying period, but then the new set comes out before the actual, a single or double elimination tournament. So I will, once we get more information on this set, I will probably like, this is when the single strike stuff comes out. Right. That's the next set.

Brit:

I don't know. There's a, there's kind of a Fillory one first again, but it has. As bolt-ons and Crow bats in it. So it's not all filler, but it's a shiny one, I

Mike:

I think that's where like the ditto stuff might come out.

Brit:

maybe. Yeah.

Mike:

So, yeah, I don't know. I'll probably like, not test too much until new cards come out and just kind of play events and use that as my testing.

Brent:

Gotcha. Gotcha. All right. Should we talk about Stelios network?

Mike:

Oh, yeah. I just wanted to give a shout out to go watch I did a video with Luke on his channel Stelios network the other day kind of talking about car design and we talked a lot about old cards and what What would be some cool mechanics or some times just straight up card reprints. That would be really cool. To see so go, go give that video a view and listen, I think it's a, it was a really cool discussion.

Brent:

Awesome. I, you know, I, I do want to have, like, I feel like there's a couple of like old format tournaments that have gone on. I feel like we should try to capture some of that stuff for next week and

Brit:

Yeah, I wasn't sure if we'd get to it today, but I'd definitely be happy to talk about and excited to talk about the surge of. Popularity in the 2017, 28, 2018 formats. So I was still competing back in 2017. I was doing okay. Back in that back then still. So I think I have some relevant thoughts there,

Brent:

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, we will definitely talk about 2017 and, and I think that, yeah, all the other kind of old school format tournaments that have been going on in a hot second and gives Andrew pero props for, for like winning stuff and proving SPN derives a good deck. All right, guys, anything else? Caribbean on my list.

Mike:

Yeah, this is good. Good to be back.

Brent:

Great to be back. It was, it was weird that last Tuesday, not having a positive.

Brit:

know because I knew Mikey was busy. I just felt, you know, like I said, I'm so habitual. I just felt off because it wasn't part of my usual day. I almost like, cause I knew Mikey was busy. I was like, Brent, you want to just do one? Like. I don't have anything else to do. I'm at, I'm at my computer at four 30, like usual, and I'm just staring into space.

Brent:

Yeah, absolutely. All right guys. Awesome. Another week in the books as always the people, the people love it. I'm eager to get the ball rolling again.

Mike:

Yeah, man.

Brit:

Definitely. All right guys, take care, play some Pokemon over the weekend.

Brent:

right.

Mike:

Okay.