Brent 0:01

I thought I'm a little more nuance around this whole sports podcast thing. Like I know myself and I know Brit is the same way. Like in some ways where we're fueled by like a Conan, the barbarian ish, like crush our enemies and all that stuff. And like, you know, like I'm a big 76 or span. This is Australia related. Hello. And Ben Simmons is like the plague of the 76 ERs because he doesn't shoot the basketball for some reason. And like it's easier to associate this podcasts to be like, we hate that guy or we love that guy. Or like they could even change every podcast. They'd be like today, we hate the guy today. We love the guy. And like, that's very common in sports podcasts, but like it's a our pods not really. Our thing is not really like that. And I realized it's because the Pokemon community, generally speaking people are pretty nice. Like there's no, you know, like it would be great if there was some like enmity and like, you know, the Crips and the bloods, like hating each other. And like, maybe for a while, there was that thing where like, I felt like Jimmy pen Darvis and Igor were against like Azule and you know, somebody else, like every week, like, you know, in every regional they were like fighting each other and, and, you know, I'm sure they felt like, but then they were like, you know what, we should just play together

Mike 1:27

Yeah.

Brent 1:28

and be all like DDG and, you know, boom problem solved. So, like, it's a, it's a funny thing how we don't have that element of like I don't know, like personality weirdness that you see in other sports, for some reason that I think there's still more for me to explore there as I, as I think about the problem, but it's a, it's a weird thing.

Brit 1:49

I think like it's just difficult to navigate. I think that like, you know, like a lot, a lot of that is just gonna like, from the round, like the wrong person, that's just gonna like, look like here kind of standard, bad actor, Burbank, toxic masculinity kind of person. Like it's, it's just, I think, difficult to execute in a way, like in the parameters that you're describing without it, like just immediately figuring up being problematic for various reasons. Like that would be that's my like, answer. Like I, I do think there are. of people beefing, but it's, again, these, these very bank sort of trolls

Brent 2:26

Yeah. Yeah. Like the, the, the, the people that have a beef with their notes. Like, like when you look across the, I feel like when you look across the arc of Pokemon content, creators, generally speaking, they're all delightful people. Like they're weird, you know, but like, I'm weird too. Like it's a weird Like Pokemon fans.

Brit 2:46

I mean, even just thinking about it, even comparing it to like other medias that I'm hooked up, then, like there's, there's, content creators that are sort of like in the fighting games that I follow or that are just sort of known for stirring. The pot are sort of known for their they're drunk, like inciting drama and things like that. Yeah, definitely all the, and maybe, maybe a lot of that also has to do with the fact that it's Pokemon and sort of understanding the, you know, how to navigate being in the good graces of TPC. I probably requires you to be. Affable, like, you know, like there's, you know, you know, Gino started streaming and was, you know, let's say it was immensely popular. I don't, I don't think there's any world where he, you know, is getting sent free product from the, the, the influence manager or what have you like, it's, it's just all part of it. It has to do with the branding too. And so I guess, like, it makes sense and again, sports, this is such a classically masculine space and then, you know, fighting games or shooting games. They're violent. They're again for guys, what have you, and like that just kind of par for the course, whereas Pokemon is so family-friendly and so forth. That would it be weird to be like a family friendly content or like a content creator for a family friendly game? That's, you know, terrible.

Brent 4:03

Yeah. I like, maybe it's like the act of being a Pokemon content creator. You're like, kind of in, in some way you have to be like getting in touch with your inner child. And then that way, how can you not be a somewhat lovable, you know, it's a lovable.

Mike 4:18

I didn't know that Ben Simmons was from Australia.

Brent 4:22

Duplo pod just dropping knowledge people. What up?

Natalie 4:26

more than me. I don't know who Ben Simmons

Brent 4:28

Oh,

Brit 4:30

I didn't think it was Australian either. I just always have the time, like, after remind myself that he's not related to, um, I'm blinking the sports writers Simmons, but you know, I'm talking about Brent

Brent 4:43

Yeah. Yeah. Bill, bill Simmons, bill Simmons. Ah so, so what's crazy is you know, I live in Washington DC and I don't want to spring for NBA league pass. So like from time to time, like during the, the, the Sixers playoff run and I did this, you know, kind of halfway through COVID thing where I cut the cable and became like a millennial or something. So, so when I wanted to watch the NBA playoffs, I had to like go into the dark interwebs of the universe to like find the streams of the 76 there's games. And the streams that they would post were like Australian television streams. And they would run these Australian, these commercials for Australian meat pies. And like, if you asked my kids, they could probably sing the whole song right now, like dot, dot.me, pause, like and it was like, it was like everybody gets a meat pie. Every time Benson has makes a shot. And yet, like the playoffs was a legacy to have Ben Simmons is like the basketball player with the most like mental roadblocks around shooting the basketball of any basketball player in the history of basketball So it was, it was like a little bit of weird thing, but I became very familiar with Australian meat pies, which is apparently a thing in America. We don't have any pies.

Natalie 5:53

Oh, yeah, That's definitely a thing.

Brent 5:54

Yeah, me pies. That's my pies at Ben Simmons that my that's that's my Australia touchstone prior to prior to this podcast. It's amazing, Natalie. Thanks for getting up early. Oh, okay. Well that's, that's pretty reasonable then

Mike 6:11

Yeah, actually I think are the daylight savings time was good. It push change for us, but she got an extra hour.

Brent 6:21

I was going to say, I, I, I I'm sure a Brit has been absolutely wrecked by daylight savings time. Cause I'm just, I feel like I'm tired all the time.

Brit 6:28

Oh my gosh. Don't even get me started. Sunday was like the longest day of my life. Like, I, I, I don't, I don't know what happened, but I, I knew and I knew I would wake up and it was just like, I woke up at like four, which is actually three. And I was just like, I did everything. And then I did even more and it was still like two o'clock. I was just losing my mind. It was awful. Now that I now it's, it's the workweek busy enough that time just sort of flies by until it's the end of the day. But the Sunday was rough for sure.

Mike 7:00

Natalie, are you familiar with how the U S changes their time twice a year?

Natalie 7:04

Yeah, we have this daylight savings in different states here. My state doesn't do it

Mike 7:09

Okay.

Natalie 7:10

because I know Sydney is either an hour ahead on our, behind my can't. Remember which one it is.

Mike 7:16

Um, okay. Where? Yeah. So where are you? Exactly.

Natalie 7:21

I'm in Brisbane, that's in Queensland. Do you know what that is?

Mike 7:25

Uh, is it the east coast of Australia? Okay. North, south that I don't know

Natalie 7:32

Like metal, I guess

Mike 7:35

Okay. Okay. I had a 50 50 shot on the first one, so that's pretty good.

Brent 7:41

Yeah. And then, and then, so is where, where is it relative to Sydney and Melbourne.

Natalie 7:47

it's pretty close. Like it's a one hour flight to Sydney,

Brent 7:51

Gotcha.

Natalie 7:52

is very close for Australia standards.

Brent 7:56

Right, right. I mean,

Mike 7:57

take to drive?

Natalie 7:59

Uh, it's like 15 hours. I'm not doing that.

Brent 8:04

yeah. I, I think, I think it's kind of like a, at the United States with apologies to Britt where like, you know, you, you fly pretty much from like west coast to east coast and east coast to west coast. And there's, there's very few reasons to stop anywhere in between. It's just a wide open space in the middle. I want to add one more agenda item. Somebody told me they felt, they felt very confident and this was somebody who had no reason to think so, but, but they felt very confident that there would be like lead cups and stuff like that. Starting up in January,

Mike 8:31

Ooh.

Brent 8:33

like.

Mike 8:33

In Australia.

Natalie 8:35

I mean, probably not In Australia. but

Mike 8:39

What is

Natalie 8:39

January, maybe

Mike 8:40

how, um, yeah, I know you got your,

Natalie 8:44

okay. So I think, uh, Sydney is out of lockdown finally because they were in it for like three months, but I'm pretty sure I still can't travel over that.

Mike 8:55

oh, interesting.

Natalie 8:58

yeah, Australia, because, um, that was just an outbreak that we're getting like a thousand cases a day

Mike 9:05

Oh, okay. Okay. That's nothing compared to

Brent 9:07

Yeah.

Natalie 9:09

yeah,

Brent 9:10

another day in any city in Texas.

Natalie 9:12

first, Raylea standards, they dropped the ball completely, but

Mike 9:17

Do they know how that outbreak started? Was it? Cause, cause this country has been in lockdown pretty much. Right.

Natalie 9:23

yeah. So I think it was because they just didn't lock down and fast enough and then just, it got out of control very quickly. Yeah. So most people are actually vaccinated now, which is pretty good.

Brent 9:38

Well, through the Trashalanche Brent Halliburton, Mike Fouchet, Brett Pybas, Natalie malar, 133% attendance. We are delivering the goods once again, our average must be like 105% right now that it seems like it's fairly impressive. Um, we're sponsored by channel fireball. I, I reached out to, uh, Caitlin to get, uh, some new things we could talk about with respect to channel fireball. And I thought the most interesting one he sent me was toward is now doing the weekly power rankings.

Mike 10:07

I did see that I went actually to look at the video, so I went to fireball, looked at that and I was like, oh, well I guess, towards doing it now.

Brent 10:18

Yeah.

Mike 10:18

It was a good video. I watched it.

Brent 10:20

Excellent. Excellent. May I? I do believe the, uh, uh, he's like Frank for six, a twin. Every time I see him on video, uh, it just seems like the thing, um, uh, you, people should leave a five-star review. We didn't get into reviews this week, but if you had left a review, we'd read it on the pot. Or if you sent us an email like Mike at Trashalanche dot com, I think works Brit Trashalanche dot com Brent to Trashalanche back up. So many email addresses. We are just dying to interact with our millions and millions of loyal listeners. Um, uh, there was a, uh, EV like every. Somebody posts either on Burbank or on like the Reddit Pokemon channels where they're like, are there podcasts or something like that that people should listen to, to learn about Pokemon. And these days I'm always surprised at the sheer number of podcasts. People mentioned, like they mentioned the Metapod, like, and then, and tag team. And those are like the ones that I think of, I guess, off the top of my head when I think of other podcasts, but apparently there's like 30 other podcasts and it made me want to, uh, change our intro to something like the worst podcast about Pokemon or so here's, here's what, this was always my dream. I think when it came to a podcast like this, that our tagline would either be the worst spoken Mon podcast and people would love it, or the only podcast about Pokemon. And we just like, whew. So hardcore to it. Like we are the only podcast I wish there was another one, but. Um, but I just don't think I have it in me as it turns out, even though I like want that to be a thing. I just suspect we're not, we're not quite those people. All right. Anyway, let's get through the important stuff. We have Natalie, all the way from Brisbane on, on the pipes. That's going to be the best podcasts, uh, around the world, uh, this evening. Um, and, and in some places in the morning, there you go,

Natalie 12:17

I'm sorry. It's pronounced Brisbane, not Brisbane.

Brent 12:20

Thank you. We, we, we, we, uh, uh, these are the things that podcasts listeners need to know. Brisbane.

Mike 12:28

that was actually the only thing we wanted to know from you. So now you

Brent 12:31

Thank you. It's

Natalie 12:32

Alright. Say.

Brent 12:32

you on, we look forward to having you on a future pods. All right. Ah, um, so most important thing, I, we, we got to get an update both from you and from Mike on vaccination status. Mike booster.

Mike 12:46

I still have not gotten the booster, but I found a place where I can go pretty much whenever and get it. So maybe this weekend, maybe next weekend,

Brent 12:56

All right. All right. You know, we're in the race to be the first fully boosted pod. Your, your you're the, uh, what's the, what's the last person in the, uh,

Mike 13:06

out from the holdout.

Brent 13:08

no, I was thinking the last person to relay race,

Mike 13:10

Um,

Brent 13:11

to find the leg. Thank you. Although that doesn't really sound right.

Brit 13:17

The anchor is your fastest person though.

Mike 13:21

Yeah.

Brit 13:23

I think.

Brent 13:24

when you say anchor, it sounds like an albatross thing. Like, it sounds like he's, he's dragging us down and, and he is, but we don't. We were trying, I was trying to look into the optimistic spin

Mike 13:34

Yeah.

Brent 13:35

Natalie, tell us about your vaccination and tell us how vaccinations in Australia work and all that stuff, because we're, we're always interested. This is mostly a vaccination podcast.

Natalie 13:45

well, I think that's pretty similar to America. I would just delayed, like I got my second shop two weeks ago,

Mike 13:51

Okay.

Natalie 13:52

three weeks ago, I think. And I got my first shot in August, which was pretty alley.

Mike 13:59

that's pretty early. Okay.

Natalie 14:00

Yeah, it was, yeah, we definitely dropped the ball in terms of COVID.

Brent 14:07

I mean we're we're from the United States.

Natalie 14:10

Sure. But in terms of vaccines, we, uh,

Mike 14:13

Yeah.

Natalie 14:14

we were pretty

Mike 14:15

which vaccines are available in.

Natalie 14:18

Uh, I think it's just, FYSA that's available now. I got AstraZeneca because that was the only one at the time.

Mike 14:24

Oh,

Brent 14:26

Right. And so you had a really long gap between your first shot and your second shot is, is that, uh, a structural element of how it's working in Australia or was that just like rough scheduling for you? Or like, how did that work?

Natalie 14:42

was,

Brent 14:43

two weeks, right.

Natalie 14:45

That was The vaccine I got. Cause with asterisk, it's supposed to wait 12 weeks.

Mike 14:51

oh, wow. Okay.

Brent 14:53

maybe. Yeah. Maybe I'm just unfamiliar with, uh, that I, I got the J and J like the ultimate ghetto vaccine, but then, but then you got the booster move with Madonna and my wife says I'm now in vulnerable. So it should be really, really good.

Natalie 15:10

yeah. We just have different vaccine brands that are here.

Brent 15:13

Right. Interesting. And so, so boosters are not even on the horizon in Australia, right? Cause like everybody's still getting their first shot. So who needs to prove anything? Right?

Mike 15:25

Um,

Natalie 15:27

You know, you can't be something if you don't have the actual vaccine.

Mike 15:31

yeah.

Brent 15:33

absolutely fast. All right. Why don't you, why don't you give us the whole, how I got into Pokemon story? Because like, that's the story everybody has to tell when they talked about again,

Natalie 15:45

Okay. Um, yeah, I was kind of just always into Pokemon. Like most kids, I think I got into playing the card game when I was like 13, I think. Yeah. I ended up going to the legendary treasury relates.

Mike 16:02

Yeah.

Natalie 16:03

So for most of you, that's like pretty new. I think it was eight years ago.

Brent 16:09

that, that is, that is older than me.

Mike 16:12

I'm

Natalie 16:13

I'm talking about like Mike and Brett. Cause I know you've

Brent 16:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I

Mike 16:17

try to think like what's that was that legendary treasures was

Natalie 16:20

That was black and white. The last one.

Brent 16:23

Yeah. It was like,

Mike 16:24

okay. We've got plasma. Lugia is in that set. Dark gray. He X came out.

Natalie 16:29

Yeah.

Mike 16:29

Okay. Got it. But I mean, that's still like, I mean, yeah, I've been, obviously I've been fighting longer than that, but that's still like a while. That's like almost it's close to 10 years.

Natalie 16:41

it feels too long. and then I just kind of played at local tournaments because Australia didn't really have any big tournament. So we had nationals and then that was it. Like we had regionals, but they were held at a store. So it didn't feel like a big event until like 2017, which is when we started having internationals and regionals of actual venues. So I wasn't really good Ava for ages. Like the first time I actually tried in Pokemon was like 2018 where I got a Welton fight

Mike 17:21

Yeah.

Natalie 17:22

after I didn't, I didn't have a very good season either though. Cause I miss CP had a regionals, miss safety at the ICU. And then got points at the last regionals, but that's enough cause uh, invite barriers really low. So I just kept playing, I think the year after that I had a really good year. Um, I missed the top eight invite by 30 point setting. So that wasn't great. But then I played the, after that and I was doing even better. But then COVID happened.

Mike 18:04

It's top paid is what you need for day two in that, waiting zone.

Natalie 18:08

Yeah. I think the cutoff in 2019 was like nine 70 or something. Um,

Brent 18:17

So in, in Australia, did they have, besides the regionals, did they have like cities and state championships, like they did new states or did they have a different structure?

Natalie 18:27

Okay. We didn't have states, so we had cities, but every city got like one or two cities a year. Um, that's pretty similar with lake cups. Recently

Brent 18:44

Yeah.

Natalie 18:45

we had like one or two leak challenges a year as well. So there were barely any opportunities to play.

Brent 18:52

And so, so when you, when you started playing, like what, what made you decide to go to that first? Pre-release

Natalie 19:01

Um, I think it

Brent 19:03

how does someone end up at a pre-release

Natalie 19:05

think I was just watching YouTube videos and it was from like J wits and the top car. I remember those are the big YouTube channels at the time. Yeah.

Brent 19:16

that's still like the big channel, right? It's I mean, honestly, I have no idea what he does, because like, he's like a real content creator now,

Natalie 19:24

Yeah, he's pretty

Brent 19:25

but like he's actually a big deal, right?

Mike 19:28

Yeah. he doesn't really do much with the card game anymore, but yeah, he does a lot of other stuff. It's like a general video gaming, I think.

Brent 19:37

So you, you saw, you saw the video and you were like this seems spawn and you. Go to pokemon.com and you find that there's a pre-release and you just like show up.

Natalie 19:45

Yeah, that was a,

Mike 19:47

Um,

Brent 19:49

So I assume you had a really good experience and someone taught you how to play the game and all that

Natalie 19:54

Yeah. Like I knew how to play the game, but I just kept going. Cause it was fun. And like, I kind of met a group of friends around 20 14, 20 15, and they're all still playing now. It just kind of weird.

Mike 20:09

So this group of people, do they live near you or are they further

Natalie 20:14

that pretty spread around, but we all kind of need each other. Actually, I have a pretty good story. so I remember I went to originals in 2014. Again, this was a little store and I didn't know that people actually traveled into state for these. So I met someone and played a fun game with them. And I remember his deck was really good and we just kind of played, I was playing like a round Jack at the time. So it wasn't much, but this person was Henry.

Brent 20:43

You're like this Henry Brown guy. He seems good.

Natalie 20:46

Yeah.

Mike 20:49

Where does, um, to like where does Henry for example, live in comparison

Natalie 20:54

Henry lives in Melbourne,

Mike 20:55

Okay. Um, and then,

Natalie 20:58

which is also on the east coast.

Mike 21:01

I have a map up. Well, as you say, these plates, um, and then is, uh, the guy, uh, the person that you had the player's cup run with. What's his name?

Natalie 21:13

Oh, that's Matt. Yeah. Matt lives in Queensland as well.

Mike 21:15

okay. So is he still a good friend as well?

Natalie 21:20

We met like five or so years ago. of like the same group. I think the other people in the group are like, is pretty good. Um, he's been playing for that long as well. Uh, try to remember who else was in it. Um,

Mike 21:42

That's

Natalie 21:43

I remember Christian joined the group recently. Christian has Bonnie.

Mike 21:46

Oh yeah, sure.

Natalie 21:48

Yeah. But

Mike 21:50

is like become a ridiculous Hearthstone player.

Natalie 21:54

yeah,

Mike 21:55

That's pretty cool.

Natalie 21:56

whenever I hear from him, it's just like, hello. Hey, I got ranked Clinton on this sub or recently.

Brent 22:02

That is definitely one of the weird things about Hearthstone is like, like you're, you're not good. If you can only get ranked one on one server, you have to get ranked on all the servers. Like you have to hit.

Natalie 22:11

I remember in quarantine, like Brenton, I would tell king and I said, Hey, you should come play Hearthstone. It's pretty fun. And he said, no, I've got too much. you knew what to do. And then a month later He messaged me, like I got legend on all three

Mike 22:22

Yeah, too funny, man. Um, okay. So you were saying that before COVID you were having a really good year. What it, what does, that. mean? Give us some of the details.

Natalie 22:33

So I had like 1000, 100 CPA when it shut down.

Mike 22:38

Oh, wow. did that, where did those, where did all of those points come from?

Natalie 22:43

I try how to quite a bit. Uh, I went to both ICS. I went to our originals in Malaysia. And I went to all the special events in Australia. well? all the regionals in Australia. So I've been to like four regional level events, turtle,

Mike 23:02

Nice.

Natalie 23:03

which is quite a lot for here.

Mike 23:05

Yeah.

Brent 23:07

Yeah, well, and, and the second you say, you're going to go to another, uh, Intercontinental life outside of Australia. It's just a monster Trek, right?

Natalie 23:15

yeah, Well, luckily I had the travel to go, but it was still like really expensive and two long flights.

Brent 23:23

Yeah. It seems since. So, so you want to talk about the players come a little?

Natalie 23:30

Okay. So just place a cup on all of them.

Mike 23:35

Well, so w which one was the one that you did really well? And was it the,

Natalie 23:41

That was the first one. Yeah,

Mike 23:42

was F it was the first one for some reason. I thought it was the second one. Oh, no, no Zack one the second one. Okay. Right. Okay. Well, yeah, let's start with the first one And then, uh, we'll see where it goes.

Brent 23:51

Yeah, we, I mean, we definitely have to hear about the first one. but then we should also hear about the rest of them. Right.

Natalie 23:55

all the rest of them are gonna be pretty short. Don't worry.

Brent 23:57

There you go. Problems.

Natalie 24:00

the first one I remember, I just saw the tournament and I played for the first section. it, was the rebel clash format. And I remember I just played Pika room. Like Matt ended up just making this peek from lists that, it wasn't his list. He just saw it on Twitter and changed two cards. And then he sent it to 10 or so people. So since I think it was 1 28, but only 90 people actually played. So something like 10% of the field was this one peak from? list.

Brent 24:35

Nothing like nothing like, uh, there's like 60 card mirror mattress for days.

Natalie 24:40

Yeah. Matt and I were the only ones that got through though. I think actually I remember my match-ups, it was like two Blacephalon, an ADP and a Dragapult, but pick It up that pickup was very good. We were getting ton one Full Blitz very consistently. Like,

Brent 25:01

those sound like a pretty favorable matchup.

Natalie 25:04

yeah, I remember I played against a Blacephalon and then got turned one Full Blitz twice or something, because if you true tackle and lightening energy, you basically had the Full Blitz.

Mike 25:19

Yeah, Right. We'll make sense.

Natalie 25:21

Yeah. So then the finals, I think Matt and I, once we learned what the format was, we tried every deck because I think we thought Eternatus was really good. Like we want beating a 10 assist with any of us. Cause we tried like ADP into it and we lost every game. Then we tried like Blacephalon and that was also losing then sent a sculpture, was losing as well. So he kind of, Matt realized that Zamazenta ended up just beating a tennis, tennis, cause I didn't have a counter to it. Then he also realized that Centiskorch decks went playing a counter. So bronze zone. So you just put those two together and then that works out, I guess the two big

Brent 26:10

I mean, I, I remember us talking about it at the time and incredible medical, just absolutely. Uh, or wreck the Metta.

Mike 26:18

Yeah.

Natalie 26:18

was completely mass idea. He came up with bronze songs Zamazenta and like everything.

Mike 26:26

And then.

Brent 26:27

and much like much like so much like the, uh, decidua decks. Like it was one of those things where like a week later, totally not viable because people knew it existed, but like incredible medical, right.

Natalie 26:41

I mean, that was a way that Centiskorch beat bronze zone. I remember we worked this out afterwards. It was like, if they played elder GOs and Victini V I think those, yeah. And Centiskorch fee, so they could loop Victini and Centiskorch and run us out of energy. And then you loop Victini and elder GOs to Dennis out because so Centiskorch fee has an attack that discards and energy from both active folk Amman. So you could discard all the bronze on Dex energy with Centiskorch then you use Victini V to leap elder GOs. so you never take out.

Mike 27:21

Oh yeah. Okay. Okay.

Natalie 27:23

Yeah. Um, Matt played against the Centiskorch and it's like, we realize it's actually an oil loss, but the Centiskorch place just had no idea. They sold Brunswick. It just went non

Mike 27:37

Yeah.

Brent 27:38

Yeah.

Mike 27:40

That's like, Uh, in general, I feel like that can be the danger of when you have a, like a, uh, a rogue deck or a secret deck. You like, overthink things too much And you're like well, our opponents, Like they're going to play this, this and this to beat us and know like well, no, they're not actually going to, or even if they do, they're not going to think about it.

Natalie 28:01

Yeah. I remember until like the night before we were playing three Zamazenta cause we were going like, oh my God, what if we play against Eternatus and we prize as Amazon data, if we played what did you play against the 10? I says, prizes them as into, and start Bronzeville so they can knock out Bronzeville, knockout. Lucario Melmetal then they only have to get through one Zamazenta, but it turns out most of the time they can't even get through

Mike 28:24

Yeah.

Natalie 28:24

So

Mike 28:27

Yeah. It's

Natalie 28:28

I think, yeah, I don't think ADP was a good matchup, but all the ADP lists at the time were garbage CERN,

Mike 28:36

Yeah,

Natalie 28:36

tons out. Yeah.

Brit 28:39

I remember from the players, the first players cup, I remember a lot of like heavy tag call. They were, they would play Zamazenta sometimes still

Natalie 28:48

Like I remember it was still a debate at the time. whether or not you play full boss.

Mike 28:53

right. Yeah. How the times change so quickly. Uh, all right? so that's, that was, that was the good players cup. What happened in your other, not as

Natalie 29:05

the next play is cup. I played ADP, so silly me. It goes in thinking, oh, I have four, I have four chairs full for quick poll for energy spinner. There's no way I'm going to denture. And I like dead your four out of five games and lost. So that was my play is cup to,

Brent 29:25

there's nothing quite like going on a big run and then drop passing it the next tournament in year out. Right field.

Natalie 29:32

Yeah. I remember I was hurt, like squared it up by the ADP list at the time, because they would play like, no cherishable and still set up. Whereas I had to play like four cherishable and I'd still drop Haas every game, like what's going on. So that was my place up to then by players cup three, I'd realized that peaker was a good deck. So I played Pikarom.

Brent 29:59

And as do all listeners to

Natalie 30:01

Yeah.

Brent 30:02

all this.

Natalie 30:03

Yeah. I remember it was the full Boltund deck. And so I, I'm going to talk about two rounds. I think around two, I, played against Matt and it was a 60 Cod mirror. Yeah, we had a pretty good deck. So the matchup was very interactive in terms of Paycom era. Um, game one, Matt started Boltund and I didn't say he won and then game two and three, I started bowls into mountain, so I won.

Mike 30:35

Sounds about

Natalie 30:36

And then, yeah, so I ended up losing the round off of that. Then I went to the Winan foot, the global finals, and I ended up losing a peak of marrow. So I got close, but whatever,

Mike 31:01

Yeah. I remember two, two of the Australians, because that was the one that I made it to the global finals and two of the uh, w which person did you lose? Do, do you remember?

Natalie 31:12

I lost him, Mitch.

Mike 31:13

Okay. Okay. He was, he didn't play Pika in the global two other people did though, from

Natalie 31:19

Yeah. So Jeremy was another mutual friend of

Mike 31:22

yeah. Jeremy, right?

Natalie 31:23

and I remember I didn't actually practice, uh, battle styles that much. So I just kind of assumed peaker would be good still. And so I just told him to cut the stadium for a second meeting and then.

Mike 31:39

Yeah. That's pretty good. Um, Yeah. I have very much regret not playing Pika for that tournament. Uh, like, I mean, there's food is great, obviously as all one with the list that we

Brent 31:51

I mean, it's a, yeah. I was about to say, it's ironic you it's him. Cause I remember like the day after it was a little one, you were like, there's no question, right? Because like Urshifu is the best deck.

Mike 31:59

Yeah. I mean, and it was, I think at that time, but like two weeks later I was back to playing Pika because I figured out how to play the match up and make it at least close to 50 50. I mean, It was close to 50 50, once you figured out how to play the match up. So, um, if I had more time that it would have been nice to play Pika, cause I was much more comfortable with that deck.

Brent 32:23

And I know you were telling us every time when Azula was playing Pika, he was like, this is free. This is

Mike 32:27

Yeah. Right here. Right. Like at the time nobody knew how to play the matchup. Exactly.

Natalie 32:33

So,

Mike 32:33

And then did you play players come forward to,

Natalie 32:36

I didn't. I, so I was scheduled to have an exam that Saturday,

Mike 32:41

um,

Brent 32:44

Yeah, obligations on that weekend. That's Mike feels your pain.

Mike 32:48

yeah.

Natalie 32:50

I ended up getting sick for that exam anyway, but by the time I got to defied, I couldn't sign up. So I just kind of sat there and watched everyone

Mike 33:01

Oh man.

Brent 33:03

Yeah, that's lame. That's lame. So, so, uh, they published a schedule now do you have like big plans to go to in real life events?

Natalie 33:13

Uh, well, they haven't actually published our schedule, so

Mike 33:17

So you were talking a little bit about, you were talking a little bit about, um, the travel restrictions earlier, are you allowed to leave? Like,

Natalie 33:29

So by December, if you're, if you've gotten both vaccinations, you should be allowed to

Mike 33:34

okay. Gotcha.

Natalie 33:36

hopefully

Brent 33:38

Yeah, but honestly in America everybody's like, I do what I want. So like, like people do go other places. Like there's no such thing as lockdowns in the United States. Uh, because we got to make sure we spread the virus evenly amongst all people. Otherwise it would be.

Natalie 33:55

yeah, no, we're in like a little bubble here.

Mike 33:59

Yeah. Um, so, so you have a lot of championship points already, like built up. Do you think what you have is enough to coast into like, obviously you could play day

Natalie 34:11

pretty confident.

Mike 34:13

do you think you will be day two?

Natalie 34:16

Well, I was first before the cutoff, but with the seniors getting added in, I think I wait, we got very lucky actually. I only bumped a second,

Mike 34:26

oh, wow. Okay.

Natalie 34:28

so yeah, I think I'm pretty safe with like another 200 points,

Mike 34:32

Okay.

Natalie 34:33

but I think I'm still going to go to regionals to try and get the travel award. And also just because it's fun,

Mike 34:40

Yeah. Yeah. Um, do you think you'll go to the, either of the ICS that are planned?

Natalie 34:48

Yeah, I think I'm probably going to go to Germany depending on PhD stuff. And then same with north America, because not even for the CP anymore, it's just like, I don't know what I'm going to get such a flexible schedule because I graduate next year. So I'll just take this opportunity to go to Germany.

Brent 35:12

That's why I'm so, uh, you know, uh, I mean, I guess this is my eldest son's last year as a senior. And we were like we had so dialed in that we were going to go to Australia for the IC cause we, we, had, we had not done that thing any of the previous years. And I recognize like it's such a big travel commitment and he needs, you know, he's a sophomore in high school now. And like you know, in two years it'll be like incredibly difficult. If I say, Hey, we should just take two weeks off from school and do something incredibly stupid. like, it'll be, it'll be wildly impractical as opposed to just, uh, impractical today. Uh, that's a super good idea, right? Like you'll never, you'll never look back on travel and say, oh, I really regret having done that

Natalie 36:00

Yeah. Cause it's like, yeah, it's pretty flexible here. Cause you don't have to attend anything so you can technically still do all your stuff externally.

Mike 36:14

Did they like post lecture?

Natalie 36:16

yeah,

Mike 36:17

all like on mine, but they have like in person, if you want it, is that kind of okay. Okay.

Natalie 36:22

yeah, It's like that. So like, I remember it's happened before. I've been like doing assignments in hotel rooms or something.

Mike 36:31

What's funny. What are you, what do you study? And by the way,

Natalie 36:35

I'm studying psychology.

Mike 36:36

cool.

Brent 36:38

I, you know, I I've been wanting people to write in with like, uh, uh, like philosophy questions. We haven't gotten philosophy questions yet, but I think that that'd be a really good thing for us to cover during the pod. No, I don't know, like, like three Pokemon or strap to a railroad track. Like I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to, to delve into a broader selection of math, philosophy, psychology, all that stuff.

Brit 37:06

I've been saying I wanted to push us in that direction for so long. If anything, because I'll be useful.

Brent 37:12

right. You that see you, you gotta, you gotta read in those questions under

Brit 37:16

Yeah. Yeah. I'll just start ghost writing. I'll I'll, I'll be, I'll be some anonymous contributor, but it'll just be me deciding the agenda the whole time.

Brent 37:26

One of the things I was thinking about this week, I just want to put it out there. Um, I felt like this thing came and went, the union cards are all bad. Right?

Brit 37:36

Yeah.

Brent 37:37

How'd that happen? Like they introduced a whole new mechanic and for like, like, they basically never saw play.

Natalie 37:47

'cause they're all bad.

Brit 37:49

I mean, I don't, I don't think they were designed. Sorry to interrupt you there, Natalie. I don't think they were designed to be good for sure. I don't think, I don't think that was ever part of the intention. I think they were just always going to be a novelty, but maybe I'm wrong.

Natalie 38:05

like, this are hard to get into play, that they better have the text. You win the game for them to be pliable.

Brent 38:13

Yeah,

Natalie 38:14

for that much effort, for something that doesn't win the game, it's just bad.

Brent 38:19

it is absolutely wild that they could like go to so much trouble to introduce this like, whole new mechanic. And yeah, like, so I went digging around and at the expanded Sunday open, somebody played Zacian V union and they got seventh place. It makes me a little bit sad that like, that was never.

Natalie 38:41

I actually don't think it's that bad. Like, I think it's fine to just make mechanics that aren't intended to be super competitive because Like it's not made for the super competitive player. Right. You know, when you see a union card it's made for like kid is like, oh my God, it's four cards for one Pokemon.

Mike 39:04

The beacon V. Union is super cool. Like when you see them all together, like visually it's really sweet.

Brent 39:11

Is it as hard as in Australia to buy Pokemon cards as it is here in the states.

Natalie 39:17

I don't really buy Pokemon cards. So

Brent 39:20

All right,

Natalie 39:22

they're pretty available from what I can see. I mean, like celebration sells out pretty quickly, but I remember I could like walk into the game store and buy an ETV. Sorry.

Brent 39:36

There's no, there's no signs up at your local, uh, um, like selling everything store where they play. We don't sell Pokemon cards on Fridays because people fight.

Natalie 39:47

No, I've never, I've never tried to buy them at target before. So.

Brent 39:53

All right. Let's talk about fusion, strike. Cause fusion strike is the new, new thing, and I'm sure at some point, people want to hear us talk about, put them on cards.

Mike 40:01

Yeah. So last week we kind of gave, uh, went through a bunch of different cards. We gave like an overview of the set we'd dug in a little bit to the good cards, but not like super in depth. So I figured to my knowledge, really, the only, there's probably gonna be more things that come out, but really the two big superstars are, uh, the Inteleon V max and U Genesek. I feel like those are going to be the two decks that actually have an impact. Maybe gang are mixed impact. Maybe control becomes viable with some of the new cards other than that's probably the same format. Um,

Natalie 40:39

I'm not really sure about Ganga

Mike 40:41

no, why not?

Natalie 40:43

what does it do? It's like three energy for two 50.

Mike 40:46

Yeah. and it's two energy 50 for each V. They have on the board, I

Natalie 40:51

Yeah. Let's turn it off. like, is it better than single strike out shirt?

Mike 40:58

I mean attacking for two energies. Pretty nice. But yeah, you lose the, you lose the one-shot potential that the

Natalie 41:07

You also don't get laser focus, right?

Mike 41:11

correct? Yeah, I guess that's, uh, that can be a big deal, but I mean, like, there are lots of lists that, well, I don't want to say lots of lists. There are some lists that don't play fighting energy as though, or like, not a lot. Yeah.

Natalie 41:25

don't really know.

Mike 41:26

I agree. I agree that, that I don't think there'll be super impactful. Um,

Natalie 41:30

I haven't. sorry, I haven't actually played in a games of single strike because the cards are too expensive online and I refuse to buy codes. So this is just a fairy, but it. Just doesn't seem to fill the decks problem. like the next biggest problem just seems to be consistency. And I don't see how another stage one line helps that.

Mike 41:56

Yeah.

Natalie 41:57

Like you already have all the options. You just need to make it work.

Mike 42:03

Yeah, I think I agree. So with that, let's dive into, uh, what do you wanna start with new or Inteleon people? What do you

Natalie 42:11

probably all. Sorry, go ahead. Oh.

Mike 42:18

Okay. Let's start with mute. So I well, and the other reason that I wanted to talk about these is that like, people have actually started to post list now and there's like differing opinions on what the, uh, optimal way to build them. These decks are. Um, so I, uh, there's two lists here. I don't know if you guys have seen any other lists floating around, um, but. one of the engines that you can play mew with is heavy pot. Oh, that was the other person I saw, like, uh, the guy that plays with Andrew, Mahoen posted a list the other day. Let me see if I can find that too while I'm talking. Um, but so there's like a peony engine, um, that has definitely some synergy with Genesek obviously gear like discarding your hands or should have some good cards and then just refill with Genesek and also helps you find, uh, counter stadiums very easily, which is really big because pat, the beak is kind of the major thing that's going to disrupt, uh, the draw handwritten and your deck. So that's one way to play it And then I've seen just lists that just don't play pod at all. Um, and then there's like debate of, do you play the new item battle pass battle VIP pass, which is, I think it's surgery deck for two basic Pokemon. and put them on your bench, but you can only use it on your first turn. Um, does end your turn. It doesn't end your turn right

Natalie 43:50

No, I've got it here.

Mike 43:53

So you can use multiple ones on the first turn. I guess, which is cool.

Natalie 43:58

Oh, wow. Yeah, you can.

Mike 43:59

Yeah.

Natalie 44:01

Yeah. Wait, that sounds really good.

Brent 44:04

but you can only use it on your first term. Is it like, it's like really good.

Natalie 44:09

Yeah. I mean, I'm

Brent 44:10

going first, you don't, you can't play a supporter, so you can't get you. Can't like P only for.

Natalie 44:15

Oh, true. Would you go second with the steps then

Mike 44:19

wait. I th

Natalie 44:19

if you play battle VIP pass nine,

Mike 44:22

think you have to be going. First though, right?

Brit 44:26

It's just your face.

Natalie 44:27

Yeah. so you don't have to go

Mike 44:29

Yeah. Yeah. So if you go, yeah, if you go second, that is fine.

Brent 44:33

Yeah. If you go second, it's totally fine. Totally agree. I'm

Mike 44:36

But I mean,

Brent 44:37

of the time. You're not. So if you don't naturally pull it.

Mike 44:42

well, but most people want to go first though. Right? Most decks want to go first? So like you, if you want, you can go second pretty much whenever you want, because my guests.

Natalie 44:52

Okay. So I'm looking at a bunch of the lists right now. I think I like Joe's list more than I like, for holes because I actually really don't like rules list. It doesn't make much sense, like three Pokegear and then three of all the supporters or is Joe's list. I like a lot more, let's go full pod in it. I don't know the history capture energy though. I'd want four of those.

Mike 45:21

the, the fusion. Okay. So the other main difference is wait, w Elisa sparkle that's um, is that the energy attachment?

Natalie 45:33

Yeah, it's too cold Russ machines.

Mike 45:37

Okay. Okay. Hey, but you only gets the fusion energy. Yeah. Okay. Okay. They both, they both play that, I guess all the lists that I, I wasn't, I kind of assumed that that card wasn't necessary, but I've seen all the lists play it. guess that's probably just too important. Um, in case you missed the energy attachment or.

Brit 45:59

I mean, I

Natalie 45:59

that would be the reason why. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Brit 46:02

like all the, this is like the power of genocide, I think is the it's. I mean, these, these support accounts just look so drastically different than basically every other deck now. And that's just because, because of genocide, but I think, and so like, I think in a world where like, you didn't have such reliable built-in draw power card, probably isn't very good. But when you can use that, I mean, that's three energies on a turn, and then you still get a draw with your, with

Natalie 46:24

I mean, yeah. First reading Genesek was like, did they, did they make a typer? Cause this cottage just,

Brent 46:34

you just want to have a zillion items in your hand and you sort of burn them all turn out to turn left or turn. Right.

Natalie 46:39

because it just looks like Zacian except Intrepid, so it can't get energy and it doesn't end your turn.

Mike 46:46

Yeah.

Natalie 46:47

So you just sit there and you draw a billion cards. So.

Brent 46:53

So one thing I want to talk about, cause I feel like we've kind of gone the other way on this. And I look at these lists and maybe I feel differently, but like people seem to be, uh, or Joe at least seems to be loving cross. and I think his theory is he's running for PO and he's seeking grab to cross, which has been needs that. And otherwise like it's items. And you're just trying to like grind through your hands is that as for CrossFitters to bosses and then four PON is like a really good way to play this.

Natalie 47:29

well, I actually hear any kind of has anti synergy with CrossFit show. Cause

Brent 47:37

if you could turn it into a boss, if you want, but obviously yeah, like you risk the starting a random CrossFit shirt, but you can also mean you're running for cross richer. So like, if you want it, you can get right.

Natalie 47:49

Yeah, but I mean, it's Like cause I, I freaked out the Pironi discarded your hand. So I was thinking, oh, if you have a CrossFitter in hand, he just peer any for the other one and then another card. Okay.

Brent 48:03

Yeah. Like, I, I assumed that approximately was only good for one boss again, but you have the option to be like, if you have a pony in hand, you can boss something and then use genocide, throw more cards. Right.

Mike 48:15

right.

Natalie 48:17

Yeah.

Mike 48:17

The other thing with CrossFit straight, and I did mention this last week is it also has some, a little bit of anti synergy Genesek too, because if you have one kind of caught in your hand, you're drawing like one less card, but using Genesek two or three times, it turns, then you're drawing like two or three less cards. Every term, maybe like.

Natalie 48:34

I mean, I kind of thought of that as a positive

Mike 48:37

Yeah.

Natalie 48:38

cause like you can leave one cross switcher in hand and Jenna to the other one.

Mike 48:43

Okay. Yeah. That's like the, that's the other way to look up the shirt.

Natalie 48:47

So I'm kind of looking at this list now I'm looking at Joy's list. I don't think he played full CrossFit.

Mike 48:56

Just probably like three or so, just like try and get it off once the game.

Natalie 49:02

Yeah. Cause there's no single effect and you have boss and if you're just going to appear any for them anyway, that actually probably need full. Yeah.

Mike 49:12

I guess you also have the, uh, the creme amatic to,

Natalie 49:16

Yeah, that's very true.

Brent 49:18

That's. If you have the krama Madison, you can flip into another CrossFitter or you could flip into random stuff, right?

Natalie 49:24

I can't believe cramming medic is good. Like this, this shouldn't make sense,

Mike 49:29

I, I ranked on chromatic pretty hard last week. And I feel like it is a pretty bad card, but like, this is the only deck. This has to be the only deck where it's viable. Right?

Brent 49:43

You want to be able to use burn items and you're like,

Mike 49:48

Yeah.

Natalie 49:50

Wait, why are these decks playing old cemetery?

Mike 49:53

Um, well,

Natalie 49:55

don't just play for Stony mountains?

Mike 49:57

what does old cemetery do? You It's like Heald 20 or something?

Natalie 50:01

one of a, You attach an energy to a non psychic Pokemon UDL to

Mike 50:06

yeah.

Natalie 50:07

Yeah. Stoli mountains just seems like an infinite amount of times better.

Mike 50:11

Um,

Natalie 50:13

Because you stole my mountains.

Mike 50:15

yeah. But I guess like, I guess the thought is with the power tablets, sometimes you're getting close to one shot things and maybe like an extra 20 or 40, like actually gets there. I guess that's the thought, I don't know if in practice it matters.

Natalie 50:31

I mean, it might just be the past the stadium problem.

Mike 50:34

yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. Um,

Brent 50:38

You know what? I am sure that the reason why Joe was playing three different stadiums is because sometimes he just needs to burn stadiums.

Mike 50:46

oh yeah. Just like swap with them.

Brent 50:48

He's like I have a stadium and we got to play a stadium. We got a dump a card. Here we go.

Natalie 50:54

I mean, definitely stole me. Mountains just seems like the best stadium

Brent 50:58

Yeah.

Mike 51:00

Can you

Natalie 51:00

because, sorry.

Mike 51:03

know, I was gonna, I was thinking chromatic, You have to discard an item, right? You can't discard a stadium to use

Natalie 51:09

Oh, it's an idea. Can use this code of an item from your hand. Oh, that seems a little worse.

Mike 51:15

Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Natalie 51:17

Yeah. That's a lot worse.

Mike 51:18

like if you can discard stadium, so I think you're right, Brent, then like playing a couple of different stadiums

Natalie 51:26

Yeah.

Mike 51:26

good.

Brent 51:27

I'm sure. Role is like, oh yeah, I run these battle VIP passes. Cause it gives me more chances to throw items. I'm like

Natalie 51:34

Yeah.

Brent 51:35

I don't know

Natalie 51:35

For Hills, this makes a bit more sense.

Mike 51:38

I

Brent 51:39

I don't know if it actually works like that.

Mike 51:41

I mean it, so I get the combo. The combo makes sense. Like you play battle VIP pass, you ditch it with krama Maddick you get a lot of cards out of your hand. Um, you just don't have. So Cramorant Matt, it gets way better if you play a battle VIP pass, but also gets better if you play cross switcher, but you can't really fit four of all these cards, right? You can't fit for VIP pass for chromatic and for crossword chair everything else.

Brent 52:14

I think, I think I dig the high mean and I would actually have to play Pokemon, but no, but like I feel like the high PNE high cross, which are low boss count thing, like I hear that and I think it sounds reasonable.

Natalie 52:31

Yeah.

Brent 52:32

think Joe's list in that way. role's list is like four, four battle VIP for krama. Maddick like no fusion energy. We're just going to high roll our way to victory. Here we go.

Natalie 52:45

For this is so weird. He has three Pokegear, three Alisa three boss,

Mike 52:52

Yeah. like, what are you Pokegear into?

Natalie 52:57

yeah. So I liked Joe's idea of, instead of playing battle VIP policy, you play capture energy and Stony mountains and we'll IDs, because I think getting energy attachment with attachments with this deck is going to be a problem as well.

Mike 53:10

Yeah, I

Natalie 53:11

Like, especially going first, I'd probably want 15 outs to energy. So captured. it seems perfect.

Mike 53:17

when you play. Yeah. The fond crystals help with that. So like high five crystal count makes sense. some other stadium that I've seen people play as well. That has something to do with. Retreating or switching or something like that. I'm trying to think what it is.

Natalie 53:38

Oh, my God music has free betrayed,

Mike 53:39

Yeah. I had that same, uh, so last week when we were at

Brent 53:44

what I said a week ago.

Mike 53:46

when we were, when we were talking about the set in general, I was like, oh, um, I need to look up all the cards in this set that have zero treat costs. And so then I like control after on the polka beach page. And I was like, oh, this has free treat. And then I like immediately went to view. I was like, oh wow, this is really stupid.

Brent 54:05

Must be nice. Right? Oh, so yeah. You know, that's I was noticing that I wrote this role and put in the two escape routes and jumping in the two switches and there's got the four cross switchers. I don't think it matters that much because

Natalie 54:18

so

Brent 54:20

crazy.

Natalie 54:20

I don't know why they're playing escape or cost CrossFit shot. Let's switch over just Avalon.

Mike 54:27

Well,

Natalie 54:29

isn't Avalon. just set up.

Mike 54:31

I mean, I guess the thought is maybe you won't always have to muse to attack, so you need to be able to go into the

Natalie 54:38

Oh, yeah,

Brent 54:39

you have to reset the attack.

Mike 54:42

Yeah.

Natalie 54:42

true. Cause I remember I had this problem with Shadow Rider where it was like, why would I play switch? Everything is to retreat.

Mike 54:50

Right, right, right. Yeah. And that deck yeah. You just play a bunch of air balloons. Yeah. Um,

Natalie 54:54

Yeah. That makes sense. Especially cause you can cure any for switch.

Mike 54:58

yeah. Um, and the other thing, and I, I think escape rope is much better in my opinion, uh, because just because of the mirror match and like getting around lobbyists. So

Natalie 55:12

Yeah.

Mike 55:12

I think escape road big

Brent 55:14

But, but, but if you have, if you're running for CrossFitters, you get the scape real perfect. Plus some

Mike 55:19

Sure. I guess.

Natalie 55:24

Yeah. This is probably the

Brent 55:25

you could run a four across into ropes instead of two switches. And like, maybe that works out the same, but probably probably you, you want like just a ROS, which affect, like, you don't always want to have them have the choice.

Mike 55:40

Yeah.

Natalie 55:40

can probably play a split with PID

Brent 55:43

That's what I was thinking too. Like why run to escape ropes in rolls lists when you can run one-on-one.

Mike 55:48

Yeah. It's

Natalie 55:49

because he only has two pony. That's why I assume.

Brent 55:53

There you go. three Pokegear so you should have find it. So another difference between a role's list of Joe's list, this role goes for the two gray balls versus two evolution. Incense. Is there a right answer there?

Brit 56:10

I didn't ever like great ball. I think that cards are usually bad. I

Natalie 56:16

Yeah.

Brit 56:17

tested. Like I just, like, usually it's been a minute since It's kind of been a, a metagame staple, but like, I turn into this plate for A while and back, um, just when I was battle styles, only like I was playing around with like an early version of single strike or they got it from like Israel Sosa and it played great ball and it's just, it's just so bad. I've never, I Like I understand the logic for like an alternative, but it doesn't seem great here. I they're like, you don't play that many Pokemon. Like, it's not like you don't, it's not like a 20 plus Pokemon deck where I think like, you know, conditionally speaking, like great ball is good. You know, you're when it serves its function by getting a Pokemon, not by getting the, a particular poking on. And that just seems like awkward here. I would just play something more reliable, I would think.

Natalie 57:08

Sorry, what I think. is you just want to vomit Pokemon into play. Like you want to an LA 10 get six fusion strike Pokemon, and just draw a billion cards.

Brent 57:21

Yeah. I mean, the best thing is always that you just couldn't burn your hand size. Right?

Natalie 57:25

yeah, I would play evolution and sentence, I think just because of PRD.

Brit 57:29

Yeah.

Natalie 57:32

But yeah, I just think looking at Virgil's list, it just doesn't have captured energy or, uh, the Stony mountains, both of those cards seem so good,

Brent 57:44

does training court do? Why is it planned training? Training part is actually car.

Mike 57:48

It's back in energy. A basic what's your hand?

Natalie 57:53

but why is he playing that?

Mike 57:55

Yeah, I mean

Natalie 57:57

Surely you just won the lottery as such.

Mike 58:02

yeah, I mean, in theory, you can run out of energy. Like you might be like burning.

Natalie 58:06

true. I only

Brent 58:07

yeah. Yeah. He's running away. Fewer energies.

Brit 58:09

Why is stormy mountain. Good. I feel like I've missed something here.

Natalie 58:13

Uh, you stole me mountains to let yes. Unless he has his patient strike.

Brit 58:17

Got it. Just the one? Yeah.

Natalie 58:20

Oh, you probably played too loud ass. I think if you play stormy mountains,

Mike 58:24

Yeah. I'm not sure if Oricorio is like worth plane. It seems like it could be okay. But that, that's just something that I feel like you'd have to figure out once you play some match-ups and see if the math actually matters.

Natalie 58:40

the reason I think he play it is just a fusion struck Pokemon

Mike 58:44

Yeah.

Natalie 58:46

and the attack

Brent 58:47

Yeah. Yeah, no, keep going.

Natalie 58:50

The attack is also decent. It's like spread five damage Konas. So that could clean up after a two 10 or like, it doesn't really work with all two 70 plus 50 lower. Yeah. So if you attack with me with double power tablet, you can clean it up with a require.

Mike 59:10

Yeah, that's pretty good. I wonder how much you use or you probably don't use it a lot, but the, uh, the movies attack, which is 70 and shuffled the Pokemon back into your deck, like I wonder how often that all end up coming up to like heal your guy essentially.

Natalie 59:28

But that makes Alyssa Beto.

Mike 59:30

Yeah. Right, right. Right. Exactly.

Natalie 59:32

Yeah,

Mike 59:35

So,

Natalie 59:35

probably come up to be honest, just having the option would be nice.

Mike 59:40

And like you could, in theory, like, let's say your opponent has three prizes left, you remove, like, you're only V max off the board, like, and you just have like, two movies out. Maybe they kill one of the movies, but then the next turn you have opted the VMX Elisa. And then when the game or something like that,

Natalie 59:57

Yeah. Well, anything's possible. If you control 20 cards of 10 without playing a supporter.

Mike 1:00:04

that is true.

Brent 1:00:08

Real moments at Pokemon history.

Mike 1:00:10

Yeah. So I think like, this is definitely the deck that's going to go, like through the most refinement. I think it's like the least obvious of what the correct 60 is. Um, it's just it's built so differently from any of the decks that we currently have, so it'll be really cool to see the evolution of it.

Brent 1:00:34

Yeah. Should we talk about Inteleon V max for a second?

Mike 1:00:37

Yeah, let's do some Inteleon. This is the card I am definitely the most excited for.

Brent 1:00:42

Yeah. Like this is the deck that Mike's gonna play. So people gotta pay attention. What's going on with Inteleon.

Mike 1:00:47

Um, so the list that I. Uh, so like one of my friends made a list and I kind of like have used that as my basis. It's similarly constructed to this, but there are definitely some differences. Um, I didn't have any water energies in my initial list. Maybe it's Maybe it'll be worth it to play a couple of waters. Not really too sure. Um, the bat, the one card that I didn't meant that we didn't mention last week, that I think is actually really good, could be really good is the basket. And I think it's from this set. Yeah. Yeah. So basketball is a, a is a rapid strike Pokemon for water colorless does 30 damage, plus 10 more damage reach counter on your opponent's active. So it, uh, It has really nice math with the Inteleon. So the Inteleon does one 40 and then basking, Lynn's doing one 70, right. 30 plus one 40 at one 70. So you're hitting three 10. So with an extra 20 damage, somewhere from like an Inteleon thing, you hit that magic number of three 30. Um, and it kind of gives you a single price attack or your, it just takes a rapid strike energy, which is pulling back to your hand anyway. Um, so that's like, I think a really nice card.

Natalie 1:02:13

it seems pretty good.

Mike 1:02:15

Yeah,

Natalie 1:02:16

Probably.

Mike 1:02:17

yeah, probably just a one-off, but, um, it seems quite good. Uh, I'm not sure if you need for Cheryl. Maybe you do. Maybe you don't.

Natalie 1:02:28

Did you have your list? Anyone?

Mike 1:02:31

Um, let me see if I can find It It's like on a weird place.

Natalie 1:02:36

do you have Octillery

Mike 1:02:38

I do. Yeah.

Natalie 1:02:40

okay. Yeah, I was thinking that that comes pretty necessary because you need some defense to Mani.

Mike 1:02:48

Right. Yeah. That's, that's the thing, I think Brent, you were saying last week. Oh, you could play Like three rapids Drake energies. And you can, if you play like the double Octillery, I think

Natalie 1:02:59

I actually actually think the Sheryl count is too high. I'd probably play two or one

Mike 1:03:08

know. So like, I feel, I feel like the whole strength, like the whole strength of the deck, right. Is you get to do like one 40 and heal.

Natalie 1:03:15

okay. Please tell me if I'm wrong, but like, my theory is I just don't see how you're going to repeat the Cheryl. because, you have nerve inbuilt draw, right. You only have drizzle, so you can dress off the Sheryl. And then if you can dress all again for Cheryl, but then your hand is just dry. so it seems like you're going to have to go like Cheryl then research then Cheryl's and research. So it just doesn't seem as good as like a full three such I guess still probably play three, so you can not really draw it.

Mike 1:03:56

Yeah, my list had three. Um, so what could we, like, let's say that we did want a stream, Cheryl, like pretty consistently, what could we do to help with that? I mean,

Natalie 1:04:06

I mean, you'd have to play like Cinccinno or something.

Mike 1:04:10

Um,

Natalie 1:04:11

Something that like draws cards for you basically.

Mike 1:04:17

like the, the counter argument, I guess, is, do you need to draw cards? like if you're like you have your energy, you have your attacker, your search in Cheryl, like maybe

Natalie 1:04:30

Yeah, maybe I'm maybe I'm totally wrong. And you just play this as a stole deck, but

Mike 1:04:36

the, my, my, my th the list that I had also ran three scoop up net. So like the idea being

Natalie 1:04:43

yeah.

Mike 1:04:44

shady dealings Inteleon and then you scoop up and then you can easily find either Cheryl or draw. Um, so I, mean, that helps a little bit, too, but yeah,

Natalie 1:04:55

a problem. Yeah. A problem was seeing is also just money

Mike 1:05:01

Yes, Marnie, I think is a huge problem. I agree.

Natalie 1:05:07

Because so I, was playing a lot of rapid strike, asked you to in person cause like the only deck I had for awhile. and So I was just having so many hands where I could get 10, three, I managed to get one to zero.'cause I just couldn't draw the such con cause you don't have enough. So I ended up having to play in capture, play, capture energy in the deck, and it's like that's the other problem because it's Cheryl just a win war card because the stack is like the same consistency as the ashy food that Carl's playing, which is you only have the full, quick bull on the foreign tele on. So

Mike 1:05:48

that's true.

Natalie 1:05:51

yeah, maybe I'm too paranoid as well.

Brent 1:05:54

Great. Great ball is the answer. Ball is the answer.

Mike 1:05:57

This, that can, I mean, in theory, this deck can afford no debt can really not afford to get their V down turn one, I guess.

Natalie 1:06:08

but that might, I might just be a Inteleon deck problem.

Mike 1:06:13

Right, right, right. and like, yeah. How much can you really fix it? Um,

Brent 1:06:18

Yeah. I mean, I, I totally understand what Natalie's saying, right? Like, like this is obviously not the right thing, but conceptually, if you had the ability to like, say I'm going to do this phone replace Cheryl, and then I'm gonna slap down a Crobat, you'd be like, oh, that's real. Right. Like that's completely busted. Let's go.

Natalie 1:06:36

what I'm trying to mean is Cheryl doesn't do anything if you don't accomplish something in the ton,

Mike 1:06:43

right.

Natalie 1:06:44

because yeah, because if he just Cheryl then pause, well, you're just doing is undoing your opponent's tone and then you're not doing anything. So I guess that's where the synergy with rapid strike energy comes in.

Brent 1:06:56

Yeah. Well, yeah, you bounce the energy and you heal it all up. Then you hit them again.

Natalie 1:07:01

Yeah. I guess what you could do is play more. Octillery like three, two Octillery. Cause it's so important to get run right down. And I guess they just knock out your Octillery

Mike 1:07:15

Yeah. that's Yeah.

Natalie 1:07:16

that's the other

Mike 1:07:17

yeah. The good thing about that though, is that most decks can kill Octillery and Marnie you in the same period. So you got that going on, but you know rapid strike can GLT on can, uh, I guess from you, if they play the CrossFit switcher.

Brent 1:07:33

You can move.

Natalie 1:07:36

to be fair, you're not beating jolty on anyway. So

Mike 1:07:39

That's true.

Natalie 1:07:40

scratch that home. You probably don't beating rapid striker. You feel Riva cause they just rapid fire your samples then the game's over.

Brent 1:07:50

Yeah. I, I was just thinking, like, it's weird that if you say, you know, I'm going to try to get to REM rates down early, like you got to get two or three Sabas down or they got to get three problems that are really like, what

Natalie 1:08:01

I mean with three memorize, it was

Brent 1:08:03

to be amazing.

Natalie 1:08:05

I was thinking with three of them, right. To just drove him a ride.

Brent 1:08:09

Right,

Natalie 1:08:09

So you can like have a higher chance of drawing it.

Brent 1:08:14

right. Because you have to, you have to spend all your bulk cards, either getting Italian bees down because there's just nothing else to do. Right.

Natalie 1:08:22

I don't know. The stack might be just too fiddly alike too much.

Mike 1:08:30

Yeah, it might be you're right. but I'm still excited to try it. It's like, definitely not like, it's definitely like my kind of. BEC. Um, but here you're absolutely right there, there might be just like a little bit too much needed, like every, like over the course of a game to really be what it's trying to really accomplish what it's trying to do. Um,

Natalie 1:08:57

I'm I'm kinda, I don't like Cheryl that much though.

Mike 1:09:02

um,

Natalie 1:09:03

It's just.

Mike 1:09:05

yeah, it feels like you're not like advancing your board state or like

Natalie 1:09:09

I feel like every set people, high pop Sheryl with something, and then it just doesn't work.

Brit 1:09:15

Yeah.

Mike 1:09:16

Yeah.

Brent 1:09:16

yeah. that is, that is actually it's me. I'm that? I'm that person, uh, EV every episode, Cheryl, it could be good. Maybe a time when Cheryl is good. There may be an archetype where you play Cheryl's repeatedly.

Natalie 1:09:34

I can't even just get max potion back.

Brent 1:09:37

Yeah,

Natalie 1:09:39

Like if we have max potion, this deck is insane.

Mike 1:09:41

Yeah, it's true.

Brent 1:09:44

yeah, yeah. You're going to a tremendous amount of trouble to get a, max potion. Right. It's a it's hard other people. Um, the one other thing that I want to talk about from a fusion strike that I, in retrospect, I was like, oh man, we, I we didn't really talk about that as dreamboat. Did you guys see this? Uh, did you guys see, I think grant Manley's a dream ball. A list

Mike 1:10:10

Yeah. Yeah. I did.

Natalie 1:10:12

Yeah.

Brent 1:10:13

is rainbow. I mean, call me a Sheryl advocate. Uh, is there a world where a dream balls,

Brit 1:10:21

I would've played great ball first. I think.

Brent 1:10:24

um, is, is, uh, we'll we'll sand or publish a list? That's focused on putting three bullet in his presence repeatedly and then like getting out stage two Pokemon very soon.

Natalie 1:10:34

But that means checking prices.

Brit 1:10:36

Yeah, that's what I was going to say too.

Brent 1:10:39

All right. Darn it. There's no place for DreamBox. Yeah, I guess it, if it doesn't work in control lists, then the dream boss was probably not really a thing. Right.

Mike 1:10:49

It seems so dumb to me. Like my, some of my friends were talking about it in a, in a chat. And I was like, I mean, if, if it ever became a thing, it'd be so, so easy to play around. Because you like a rapid strike deck would just need to play like one fighting energy. And the only reason that I like got it's even viable at all is because toward me, this Melanie rapid strike deck become a thing and which doesn't play any basic fighting's. But if they just play one fighting, you can't ever beat them. And then like, if a single strike deck plays a couple of ideas, energies, it, you can't beat them either. So like, I don't know. It's like, it's, it's kind of a funny meme if nobody's expecting it, but if it ever became a thing. Yeah.

Natalie 1:11:37

This is drained bull with Tuscano, right?

Brent 1:11:39

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This was great. It was getting out the spectral breach, left dinner with three.

Natalie 1:11:45

So I actually kind of don't know what's going on. Like toilet has some sort of power that we don't have

Brent 1:11:53

He makes the equivalents every week. He makes the thoughts that let's say

Natalie 1:11:57

he can Just, make a post saying, I think, I dunno. I think Greta VMX the best I can format. And then two weeks later, I didn't feel max is going to be the most popular deck.

Brent 1:12:08

that is a thing.

Natalie 1:12:12

like I think this has just proven to what has control over the format.

Mike 1:12:15

Yeah,

Brent 1:12:16

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, he's not trying hard to be an influencer, but he was like the Kardashians of the internet. Um we'll so I recognize a spectral beach. Dusknoir is the obvious partner for dream up today? Is there, is there a possibility, could you imagine them printing the card that would make you change your mind?

Mike 1:12:44

I can see. Yeah. I could see something that would change my mind, but right now it's only a partner is Dusknoir. Um, yeah, I don't know what it would be, would have to be like some type of. Gamed stage too. So I don't know what it would look like, but if there was a late game stage do and sure. I could change my mind.

Brent 1:13:05

Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I guess, uh, uh Vileplume and all Dusknoir has ever printed are like the people that fit back a criteria.

Mike 1:13:19

Sure.

Brent 1:13:21

I mean, I always think of swapping damage counters when I think of late games, stage twos,

Mike 1:13:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's something good to think about.

Brent 1:13:34

but, but once you're swapping damage counters, then you're there, then you're like, so you weren't, you weren't taking any prices before you started swapping damage counter. So you like, once again, As Natalie said it doesn't work.

Natalie 1:13:45

it's got to feel like an IWiN card

Brent 1:13:48

Yeah.

Mike 1:13:49

Yeah.

Natalie 1:13:49

again with the union. Like it's so hard to do that. It probably should just have I win the game on it and Dusknoir is, uh, I wouldn't the game cards, so yeah.

Brent 1:14:03

All right. Should we, should we talk about anything else or should we declare victory? I feel like, I feel like we went awhile.

Mike 1:14:09

Yeah, I think it's been a while since I've been

Brit 1:14:11

Um, one just general question. I meant to ask earlier. I just curious. I wanted to ask. Kaia too, but Natalie being like an international player, I just, it's always strange to me. It just seems like, I mean, even talking now it is obviously not an American player, but I feel like so much of the discourse is like always just kind of controlled. It was centralized around like north America and particularly America. I'm just kind of curious, like what you, or, and like other Australian, like, what is your impression of American players, like in terms of skill? Like, do you think? Cause I think like you asked like your average Burbank member, you know, say they're just pretty average player. Like they probably haven't really thought about it. I, bet they'd probably say something like north America is the best or something, but I'm always curious as to like where like other parts of the world where they think of us in terms of like our playability and especially too, like obviously Henry is our most recent world champion coming from Australia. Like how do you think, um, like Australia stacks up, like in terms of your. Tell your caliber, like overall. And like, I mean, and just as a general question, I hope hopefully, um, you know, maybe you can be insulting or something too. I just always curious as to how the rest of the world views Americans. Um, but yeah, if that, if that makes sense, what do you think?

Natalie 1:15:24

okay. So I think America was the west performing region, uh, just before coven. I remember an ICS, America was just doing terribly, Like LAYC you guys kinda didn't do very well because, and then in our CIC, it was just two people playing ma who made day two and then like no one else.

Brit 1:15:53

Sounds like we fell behind,

Natalie 1:15:55

So yeah,

Brit 1:15:57

I wonder, is that, is there anything that I have to do? Like, I would also think we travel the most, so there's like probably still the most of us at least have like non-locals

Natalie 1:16:06

mean, in terms of skill level, So in terms of skill level, I think all four regions, a similar at the top. I think so the impression I got from all the American players is that their old bone town. So like they had played full billion. Tournament's that point didn't care anymore. like, well, from what I had, all of DDJ went to Australia and half of them were just given the deck and just played it without practicing because there was so burnt out. So that would explain probably the performance, because the system in reactor is just by less forgiving than in Australia. know how,

Brit 1:16:52

no, that was a really good answer. Thank you.

Mike 1:16:55

Do think that's true. I think that's true as well. And like, I talked to will Jenkins and Justin Bokhari a couple of months ago. And they were like, they're both in top 10 or were in top 10 before COVID and both of them are like, now that I've had, you know, about a year since then to kind of reflect on that time, they were like, what we were doing was insane. like were like, it was way too much. I don't think I would do that again. Um, like it was fun in the moment, but like not really healthy. Um,

Natalie 1:17:33

In Australia it's a lot more sustainable because we have one, regional is a quarter then like four linkups then the IC

Mike 1:17:43

right.

Natalie 1:17:44

and that is the maximum you can play.

Mike 1:17:46

Yeah.

Natalie 1:17:46

So.

Brent 1:17:49

Yeah. I mean, I recognize like the people that were like really, really grinding it out in north America. I mean, they were so busy going to regionals. They couldn't get to the league cups and league challenges.

Natalie 1:18:00

Yeah. Yeah. Like that just felt insane to me. Like a completely different world.

Brent 1:18:06

Yeah. Yeah. There's literally so many regionals. They can go to that, that they have no time to, uh, um, max out their cups and challenges. So they're like, here we go.

Natalie 1:18:17

It's a lot more

Brent 1:18:18

I'm going to, because there was a cap there, like you felt obligated to, if you had a free weekend between regionals, you're like well, we gotta go and get cut points here.

Natalie 1:18:26

Yeah. You can't just take a weekend off.

Brent 1:18:29

Yeah.

Natalie 1:18:32

So I kind of hope they just remove Lee cups from the stipend system.

Brent 1:18:38

Uh, you know what I recognize if they would just take up the challenges that would be like halfway there.

Mike 1:18:43

yeah.

Brent 1:18:44

I don't, I don't wanna, I don't ask too much, but, but the, uh, Yeah.

Natalie 1:18:50

Just X, X, all local tournaments. Like this is a point that I just can't get my head around why that's still so important because I also can't imagine something more uninviting for a newer player than like going to a league cup and you play against someone who's like Frank three in the world and you get absolutely smashed.

Brent 1:19:12

I was just about to say the exact same thing. That's how, like, they always tell you leave challenges are the entry point for people to play competitive. Um, but like, but then they also tell my son, if you want to get a stipend, you have to go and smash every kid that shows up at that lake challenge. And you're like,

Natalie 1:19:31

yeah, It's so uninviting for a casual player.

Brent 1:19:35

yeah, like he is not going to have a good time, like playing my son, playing fricking Pidgeotto control. Like whatever you thinking is going to happen, it's going to be worse.

Natalie 1:19:48

Like I remember back when I Herald tournaments for a thing and I went to a lake challenge and apparently a bunch of the local people just gave up because they were like, Well, how are we supposed to play?

Brent 1:20:02

Yeah,

Natalie 1:20:02

Like, we can't win. What do we do? What are we supposed to do?

Brent 1:20:05

right. Totally. Totally.

Natalie 1:20:08

And whereas Matt and I would go in, cause we're like, well, a traveler, well, it's in the line. We probably should go.

Brent 1:20:13

Yeah. Well, I mean Pokemon. Yeah, but we want to send a clear signal that you got to go crush every one of those tournaments, right?

Natalie 1:20:21

Yeah. I think that would just make it so much healthier for the place as well, because you'd only have to play regionals.

Brent 1:20:29

Yup. Yup. Um, you know, uh, it's, it's weird because on the one hand, I want to increase attendance at lead challenges and lead cups for like juniors and seniors. I mean, I think equally bad for like new players who are junior seniors coming into the game is if they show up and they're the only 10 year old there, or 12 year old there, and it's like, okay, you gonna play with seven 20. Five-year-olds now good luck.

Natalie 1:20:59

Yeah. I remember at that purely. So I went to that were like 10 seniors or something.

Brent 1:21:05

yeah, like that's really healthy. Right. And, and, you know, certainly the flip side of my comment about, about my son doing at smash and all his kids is like, I, I, always tried to like comfort myself by saying, oh, of my son's smashes that kid. And who's got his first tournament ever. Like his dad looks at his son and says, you know, get good. Like, I mean, yeah, they smashed. But like, like you could imagine a world where like, oh, well, you know, the difference between him and you is that he's practiced and worked at it and all that stuff. Whereas, you know, uh, uh, I mean, you know, with, in our locals, like he could have sat down across from Michael K Tron or will Jenkins or Mike, and then like, I'm sure when I'm sure Mike would probably be the nicest of all those people to be thinking. But like, like w when, when K trying to, uh, defeats him, I'm sure he's like, I could never do whatever just happened to me. Like the, the gap between me and him is so big. Uh, you know, why would I come back here next week?

Natalie 1:22:14

it's probably just intimidating as well.

Brent 1:22:17

yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Natalie 1:22:19

Like even just playing against someone so much older than you would be so intimidating.

Brent 1:22:24

Yeah. So Mike's Mike's got the good, uh, child interaction, so he would be apologizing, But he would also be like, also I canvas this room.

Mike 1:22:32

Yep. Yeah, I'd give it to them, but I'd be nice about it.

Brent 1:22:37

you. would try to make him feel really good. like you know. so sorry I have to do this to you, but I'm just going to kill all your good times. All right. And, uh, Natalie are there like shout outs? I recognize people say like, you should do shout outs when you're on things like, this. We should ask you if you got,

Natalie 1:22:56

Uh, I'll shut up my Twitter. It's Natalie, and then four nines.

Brent 1:23:07

uh, I got to tell you when, when you're trying to tag a Natalie and tweets, it's extremely.

Natalie 1:23:13

I just kept adding nines until it wasn't taken.

Mike 1:23:18

love it Nice. We'll follow up. Follow her on Twitter and uh, yeah. Thank you so much for, uh, for joining us. It's

Natalie 1:23:29

Yeah. That's okay.

Mike 1:23:30

Yeah. it's great. It's, I'm glad that we've been able to get on some, uh, some non north America people on here to talk, to give, give, different perspectives, which isn't it.

Brent 1:23:43

Awesome. Our outro is the John Paul's who provide news. We appreciate them. And another podcast is in the books.

Mike 1:23:51

All right.

Brit 1:23:53

yeah, thank you.

Brent 1:23:54

Now, Lindsay was fantastic. Have you I'd appreciate it so much and a good perspective on all the decks. I feel like we actually talked about this this week,

Mike 1:24:03

I know. Imagine that

Brent 1:24:05

as I said, one of these days, what we should do is play some Pokemon.

Mike 1:24:09

I will, once fusion strike comes out, I will play again.

Brit 1:24:13

We didn't even, we didn't even talk about the, the live delay. We'll get that next week.

Brent 1:24:19

Oh my God. I had so much to say tune. Yeah. Geez. I, I meant to put that, you know, and put it on the list right now to make sure we talk about it next week. No, I recognize, I feel like we were ahead of the curve calling that there would be a massive live delay.

Mike 1:24:34

Yeah. It says 20, 22, December, 2022, who knows. We'll see.

Brent 1:24:38

The problem when you're doing a rewrite. It has to have less bugs than the current thing. And that's such like, like kind of by its nature of hard, especially because with PTCGO like they are adding new stuff to it. Every set, like there's new features, like stuff like the unions, like they have to code it for PTCGO and then they have to code it for PTCG Live and it has to work as well or better. And there's just this like, grind of like, you have to crank if you're writing the same code and it has to be less buggy. Plus you have to like the law of stuff that they built over the last 10 years. Plus you have to like add whatever new features that they want to add. And like, if you release it and it's harder to play Pokemon than it is on PTCGO they're like, okay, we should hold off releasing it. And you just hold off more and hold up, hold up, hold up more. It's going to take so long for. Feel like they're comfortable releasing it.

Brit 1:25:41

I just

Natalie 1:25:41

I mean,

Brit 1:25:42

this, like why it's been delegated to like TPC. I, and you know, I forget the name of the studio there, the name of the group That's working in house with them on it. It's just like, it's Pokemon. I just don't get why they're not spending a billion dollars on this. I don't understand

Natalie 1:25:59

probably because PTCGO doesn't make money,

Brit 1:26:03

Yeah, I know. But even still, I just feel like there has to be the, I mean, again, it's because it's, TPCR who doesn't have that much money compared to the Pokemon company. Um, but yeah, I just, I just, I mean, they could make a phone game that has. Predatory. Gotcha. Asked, give X to it. That just, that is still functionally the Pokemon card game. And it would make a billion dollars. I just, I don't get why, like those sorts of options aren't on the table. Instead we get, you know, these like mid tiered north American studios, making something that works looks worse than the Yu-Gi-Oh phone game. And just doesn't make sense to me. I feel like that could, it could be huge. It could be some, it could be so big. It can compete with their arena. It could compete with Hearthstone and things like that. That, that, I don't know. But yeah, you're right. I know a lot of it has to do with, you know, the fact that the card game is not the major mover in what makes Pokemon money, but

Natalie 1:27:01

I

Brit 1:27:01

yeah, I mean I can dream,

Natalie 1:27:02

I'm pretty sure the card game makes a lot of money, but no, it's not the game. It's the car.

Brit 1:27:07

right? Yeah. Fair. A good

Natalie 1:27:09

they can just get the funding. My printing chars on never

Mike 1:27:12

Yeah.

Brit 1:27:13

Yeah. That's what I mean. Gotcha.

Mike 1:27:17

Yeah. There you go. Hey guys, I got to go.

Brent 1:27:21

Yup. Yup. Good times. Good times. Take it easy everybody.

Mike 1:27:24

Natalie have a good day.