Funkatronic Rex - Games & More
For those of you who are not familiar with Funkatronic Rex, we are a friendly local game store located in Phoenix, AZ. However, we are quite unique.
We tend to be the goofy, gregarious, and non-grindy gaming geeks of the community.
With a humble staff of 4 friends, we love our customers dearly and many of them are like family to us. Our social interactions and goal of a warm "Cheers" style vibe has a direct effect on our niche community.
As with any community, we have an abundance of hilarious stories and insight.
Our aim is to bring you in, share the vibe, and bring the love of the Funk to you in our podcast!
We hope you enjoy!
https://funkatronicrex.com/
http://www.patreon.com/funkatronicrex
http://www.instagram.com/funkatronicrexstore
Funkatronic Rex - Games & More
Funkatronic Rex Podcast: Season 2 Episode 10 Life With Kids and Star Wars
🎙 Funkatronic Rex Podcast: Season 2 Episode 10 — Life With Kids and Star Wars
This week’s episode takes a lively detour through the chaos of parenting, baseball season, and family dinners before landing squarely in the galaxy far, far away.
We kick things off with stories about kids dodging showers, sneaking bubblegum onto the ballfield, and testing their parents’ OCD triggers with sticky popsicle faces. From sunscreen battles to late-night snack raids, it’s all the highs and lows of raising kids — equal parts exhausting, hilarious, and heartwarming.
That family talk flows into gaming, with reflections on siblings, only-child dynamics, and how growing up with brothers, sisters, or solo shaped the way we play. Food quirks take center stage too: picky eaters versus adventurous ones, kids putting ranch on salmon, and the joys (and horrors) of seafood.
Then it’s time for the stars. We dive into Star Trek movie trivia tangents (yes, the whale one was IV), before shifting to the main event: a thoughtful look at Star Wars Destiny and how it paved the way for Star Wars Unlimited. We dig into what Destiny got right, what made it unsustainable, and how Unlimited refines the formula — making the most of the IP while avoiding past pitfalls.
It’s part parenting confessional, part geek culture roundtable, and part TCG deep-dive — all wrapped in the usual Funkatronic Rex mix of snark, laughter, and community vibes.
Are you stepping an acid?
SPEAKER_02:Like, like, are you are you only using the hot water here in Arizona or I feel like my my mom would have taken me to see like Bambi or something in the theater, but I would have won!
SPEAKER_04:But I did all the work for you.
SPEAKER_00:Traveling to another dimension. A dimension not only of plastic and paint, but of games. A journey into a wondrous land where people become real and cardboard cuts like a fight. That's a side post up with that next up. The funk zone.
SPEAKER_03:Welcome back, Links and Traveler! To another episode of season two of Funatronic Rex Podcast. Uh we are here at the Funk Lounge with Mike's good friend. And Hi! Hi!
SPEAKER_02:We're gonna we are uh joined by Mike. Our first sec our first special guest since the first episode. Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Well yeah, because Michael was on the case. Michael was on the first episode.
SPEAKER_02:But we have Mike, which means this is gonna be our first R-rated episode of the new season. So uh shit is gonna be like the motherfucking tits part turning.
SPEAKER_01:Let's go!
SPEAKER_04:I was so satisfying. You guys are so naughty. Oh man, he knows how to put a smile on my face.
SPEAKER_03:As some podcasts say, uh, if you listen to listen to this podcast with your kids, turn away.
SPEAKER_02:I fucked your mom.
SPEAKER_04:Man, do I need to give you a Red Bull? Oh, maybe. Half asleep.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's good. Your water's nearly.
SPEAKER_04:That's gonna be a spicy one. It's gonna be spicy. I'm gonna spend a few hours editing this video. I feel like I made it worse. Better? I haven't said anything yet. No, no, it's just spicier.
SPEAKER_03:There's no good or bad judgment. It's just it's just spicier, guys.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man.
SPEAKER_03:Sometimes you accidentally order the Thai food level for hot as opposed to Canadian. You're like, oh, this this is spice. I can't eat this. Why am I bleeding?
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, so let's talk games because that's what we're here for. Are we okay? We are here to talk games. Well it's life, liberty, and the I I'm gonna start us off. Yeah. Because last night the D-Bax Wait beat the Dodgers. Best team in baseball. That's twice. That's it. We like to beat this best teams in baseball. Let's take this series, is what I'm saying. We need two more.
SPEAKER_03:We beat the Dodgers and then if we take the series from the Dodgers, it would be I think it would be uh a serious boost to momentum, right? Yeah, like just get it going and for whatever reason. No, I didn't watch it last night because life and stuff like that. So I'm gonna go back and watch the highlights, which I use with the kiddo. When he comes home from school, we go, watch the highlights. Oh, it's gonna be so good.
SPEAKER_04:So it's it was a good one. It's a good one. We're starting to lock in. We're starting to lock in. Mr. Brandon Fott was on the mound. Fought was killer, went seven innings. Yeah. Seven innings. I don't know if he gave up uh a run. I think he went no.
SPEAKER_03:So if I may, I don't even know the final score. All I heard of this morning was We win. We won. And I'm like, that's so what was the I couldn't.
SPEAKER_04:The final score was 5-3. I want to say Fott left the game scoreless. 5-0. Uh next reliever, I think reliever gave up one, reliever gave up one, and then our closer gave up uh show a solo homer. I mean it was it was like small ball home run and then another home run, I believe. But let's the takeaway, 5-3, we still win. Yeah bats locking in. Yeah, Goriel's turning it on, his average is coming up. Nice. Uh Carroll got a hit and got on base, I think walked twice. Suarez got hit by a pitch. Dude, I just want Coral kind of base. Oh, it's a grand slam, Montero, grand slam, yeah. Gabby. Grand slam. So we're we we have five grand slams on the year. We're leading the majors in that. Dude. And then Mr.
SPEAKER_03:Gino Suarez, who hits four home runs in a game. Yeah. Like, now, sadly, of course, we go into lose the game, and I'm like, what the D backs, man? Like, uh, but offensive wise, I'm like, come on, this is this is what we have to hear. Just start building momentum. Like you, like I tell Cal, it's it's a uh it's a marathon. Like, oh my gosh, it's not. So if you keep going to build build, just just don't plateau or or womp womp suck. Just keep going. Yeah, right? Yeah, yeah. No, we're we're building Steam right now. And and oh God, we're a fun team to watch. Yeah, that's great. That's great. And tonight is the new uh tonight's it's Friday, and tonight's the City Connect jerseys. New unit new unis. I know it's a it's a great time to talk about this on the radio, but uh Mike, you're looking resplendent in purple. We're bringing back our colors. I love it.
SPEAKER_02:I love that we're talking about this, and this episode's gonna air like years from now.
SPEAKER_04:Three, four weeks from now. We just could go spicy and just like, let's upload it today.
SPEAKER_01:No evidence. Fuck it!
SPEAKER_03:We're doing it live! We're doing it live! We'll do it live. I do I do have the live on, so we're fine. We're we're good. Oh my god. Uh that would make my life a little easier. Just be like, here's your episode, upload it. I've been um I've been time. What's time? It's all right.
SPEAKER_02:I've been like so with my literally one hour of free time I've had for the last week uh at night. I have been watching American Idol, so getting caught up. We're almost through the auditions.
SPEAKER_01:Good, good.
SPEAKER_02:Miss Carrie Underwood. Oh, yeah. Uh Scary Underwear is she uh we she revealed in last night's episode that we re-watched that at Eric. She has Scary Underware several weeks ago. That was her nickname growing up, was Scary Underwear. Okay. And uh I guess that would be. That's where my life's at. That's an interesting.
SPEAKER_03:All right, that's good. But also, dude, you went on vacation? I did do on the show.
SPEAKER_02:You did have a little vacay, which is nice. I came back. Uh it turns out I'm allergic to the sun. Oh, you look you look a little redder, but also it's looking better than than it was. That is that's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:You put some color on your arms.
SPEAKER_02:This is a sun rash that uh occurs when you do not spend enough time in the sun, and your body develops a allergic reaction to sunlight. Yeah, that is what that is. Last night I discovered, well, apparently it's cleared off, but I discovered I'm starting the peels, the peeling process.
SPEAKER_03:So extra kids, that's what you gotta do.
SPEAKER_02:But I'm I'm looking a little bit more closer to my uh Lebanese heritage right now.
SPEAKER_03:You gotta look slightly more than usual. You spent some time in the sun, it looks delicious.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, a little bit more Middle Eastern, a little less French Canadian.
SPEAKER_03:Hey, okay, there is stuff wrong with French Canadian, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_02:I mean my grandmother was from French Canada, my grandfather was from Lebanon, so there you go. This is where we're coming from.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, this is great. Well, I get it, because when I walk out in the sun, I too go, do you guys smell that? Is that is that me burning? Is that me burning? Like when we go to play baseball with the kiddo, you know, now there's a lot of pasty white kids on this team. Like it's it's Central Phoenix, right? It's that's kind of how it works. But so there's one of the coaches and him, he goes, you know, hey Cal, uh, have you put on your sunscreen? Uh nice because coach is like, you and me, bro, you got we I got your back. And Cal's like, I don't need no sunscreen, and then you see some guy catch fire in the outfield, and you're like, Dad, can I get my sunscreen? You know, and I'm like, you know, the guy like shhh shows and spray it. Shh, he's just like, oh god, I hate you guys. But he's yet to get that like gnarly burn, especially across the face of the arms. I'm like, dude, this just listen to coach. He he he puts on like the protective gear, like the sleeves and stuff and everything, but I'm like, anything above the neck, man. I you gotta put on some sunscreen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I do not want you to come home after four and a half hours in the sun. Like cherry tomatoes in your ears and your nose is like a blister, like you're you know, been drinking at schnapps all day or something.
SPEAKER_02:Like, come on. We had that issue with Luke. Uh he were on the the cruise. We're we're sunscreening him up every day. Um, but I guess I didn't get his nose well enough or whatever. So oh gosh. At the end of the trip, he comes home. He's not like sunburnt anywhere else, but his nose is like splitting. Oh like it looked like looked like just like his nose had just split in several lines down the the front of his nose. I felt so terrible for the kid. It's all healed up now. He's fine, yeah. But he's fine, they bounced.
SPEAKER_03:It's fine. Yeah, that's way quicker than me.
SPEAKER_02:But it was like that was that was my responsibility. I was I my wife did the sunscreen like maybe a third of the time I did it two-thirds of the time. Yeah, whatever. It's important. It was her day that that has been.
SPEAKER_03:Well, no, because well, well, just because kids, right. I mean, like I if I could say they're on the field, they're like, you know, wiping nose, they're hanging out, you're like, and I'm like, Kyle, you're not and he's just like, What are you talking about, Dad? Are you doing cocaine in the juggernaut? Hey Dad, can I get some more of that? Uh can I get some more of that bubblegum, bro?
SPEAKER_04:And you're like, No, I just want to. Man, bubblegum, right? These kids, they get the bubblegum and they lose track of what they're doing. Oh, gosh. Guys, you're playing baseball, you're playing softball. Get it's not about blowing bubbles. Mina finishes a game last week, comes off the field, and doesn't realize just the bubblegum. She's got more bubblegum on her face than I have facial hair. Like, just like what all over her face. That's awesome. And it started to mix with the dirt from being on the field. Yeah, of course. And I'm like, Mina, you gotta go wash your face. What dad of? I'm like, no, baby, you gotta go wash your face. It's kind of looking gross to me. Like, I love you, baby, but you gotta go wash your face. The bubblegum and the the baseball calls. All coming together and then and like they gave her popsicle after the game, too. So she just got the the concoction of gross on her face. And you know, she's oblivious to it. Just like, oh man, that game was rough. But I got this popsicle, I'm happy. I'm like, yeah, baby, just go go finish the popsicle. Finish it. I your face is driving me crazy.
SPEAKER_03:Looks like you got attacked by a muppin.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man, my OCD triggers, which is like bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.
SPEAKER_03:It's so weird sometimes. Like you don't even know you have these triggers. Yeah. And you go, and then of course, a child comes along and goes, Hey, what does this button do? And you're like, ah, what does this button do? Ah! And like, because Corey walks up and's like, Are you okay? And I'm like, I just I don't know. I don't get it. I I I don't I just don't get it. But and then copy with the moment. Yeah. And then the same thing happens to her, and she goes, ah I'm like, I see, I get it, yeah, I get it. Yeah, yeah, that's that's what kids do, man. You know, if there's one thing my parents always said is like, you guys always hit the button. It doesn't you guys don't usually do it on purpose, but kids and like after a while, like as you get older, my mom and dad are like, just FYI, if you do decide to have kids, just try to prepare yourself. You're never prepared for it. You don't like you mentally think you are, but then this ball of insanity rolls around and we're like, I'm gonna mess with you now.
SPEAKER_04:Oh god, the the the injuries, the weird like hospital visits, all that stuff. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Now, knock on wood, like we've only had one of those. I think I've had one per kid. Yeah, yeah. So we're I'm pretty happy he's taken after me. Yeah, my brother went to the hospital, like broke his foot, his leg, his arm, like broke his just all the stuff. Now it was he would blame me all the time, but I'm the younger brother, so I don't know how it's my fault. Okay, like we're all playing tag on a set of stairs. I don't know how that's exactly I don't know how that's my fault. Why didn't you do the math better, bro? Right, right. I'm the small, short, skinny one who can fit through and run fast. You guys are like six, seven inches taller and can fall farther, you know. I'm the one who like fell and cracked my head open and and just did the one major injury, and that was it. Like I got it out of the way.
SPEAKER_04:I'm so jealous of both of you on the sibling tip. Because like, again, talking games. Yeah, I played a lot of solo games. Yeah. I like just oh, it's just me. I guess I'm gonna have to figure out how to uh how do I play Monopoly by myself?
unknown:That's it.
SPEAKER_03:That's it. We need to invent a solo monopoly. No, I mean I did a lot of that.
SPEAKER_02:No, but like But yeah, I did have many hours crushing my my brothers in uh Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64. Having siblings for that, for that just like making them feel miserable about their life's choices. Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_04:I'm I'm excited for when Sassy is gonna be old enough for Mina to have those moments, and even more excited for when Mina has like started to age out, and Sassy's in her prime of whatever video game or game system we're playing, and Sassy starts to win. Yeah. I'm excited to see those moments. Where the dynamic shifts just a little bit. It's weird though, because an interesting thing. I just realized. Okay, so both of you have siblings, right? But both of you only have one kid.
SPEAKER_02:Correct.
SPEAKER_04:Um I'm an only child, I have two. Oh, we've traded places.
SPEAKER_02:So when when I always said that I wanted two kids, that was what I wanted. Because I wanted them to be able to play together. Yeah. Right. I didn't want the only child syndrome.
SPEAKER_03:Or to leave us alone, you guys can play and mess with each other. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Uh built-in babysitting. And then eventually Luke comes along, and it's like, no, I can't do nothing.
SPEAKER_01:No way.
SPEAKER_04:I feel like boys have got to be a handful. Like girls are are gonna be a handful later.
SPEAKER_03:But both of you have boys, and I feel like boys are just well, they're just so it it is it is totally true. Like the the uh what's what's the phrase, the the uh the the term of art, whatever. It's like boys get easier as they get older, but girls get harder as they get older. And you're like, uh I was like, come on. I mean, we're all kids are crazy. Oh no, it's that's kind of true.
SPEAKER_04:Well, my girls are good, like they listen, they're they're good. I don't have to I'm a hard ass and I don't have to be much of a hard ass anymore. Oh yeah. Because they're like they're good, and I I would imagine if they were boys, I'd still be barking.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I'd still be barking. Oh, there's definitely sometimes. So here's obviously uh uh the the crazy thing is is I I don't remember this as a kid myself, which is why I would you know I wish I could call up the parent unit and be like, did I do this? Right, you know, uh but like just take a f shower, like for the love of God. He's like, you at the end of the day or the morning, you like take your choice, like I like it at the end, great, right? Perfect, cool. And you're like, hey Kyle, take a shower. Oh no! Are you stepping in acid? Are you only using the hot water here in Arizona? Or technically, are you only using the cold water because it's so freaking hot right now? Like, what is like, dude, just it's okay. It you take the quickest shower, so sometimes I'm also wondering if you actually get in the shower. Right. Do you just turn it on and be like, shh, done? Like, did you actually do anything? They don't like it.
SPEAKER_02:They don't do anything.
SPEAKER_03:So it's crazy. And then also the fucking.
SPEAKER_02:They just get wet enough and put a tiny bit of shampoo so that when you spell check them, that they pass the smell check. That's it. Are you serious? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You've got Luke doing this? Yeah, absolutely. 100%. All right, all right, smell check. You know, like you lean in and you give him a hug tonight. You're like, oh, I smell shampoo, and then you go right up what bro, did you actually shampoo your hair? Well, of course I like the spot, the unicorn spot like that's what the next time. Do you want me to hang out in the shower with you?
SPEAKER_02:Like, now do we need to go back to me bathing you? Right, right. Because we we can. We can. I'm gonna get out and show you. You're not you're not double digits yet.
SPEAKER_03:Right, although although Kyle being like he put up a fight, like I'd have to, it would be, you know, no, not don't get me wrong, I'm like, I'll just get in the shower. No, dad. I don't want to what you're 12. Shut up, dad. You know. But he's getting better. Now, the the crazy thing is, so the flip side happens, he's in he's in there. And then he doesn't want to come in. He's just there for an hour and a half. Yeah, but I'm like, you still gotta actually clean and scrub. I fell asleep in here. He's just sitting on the tub like this. Yep, yep. Just dude, it's it's not spa day. Come on, I'm not bringing you cucumbers, I'm not bringing you cucumbers.
SPEAKER_02:When when I was a when I was younger, when I was a kid, um teen young teen, my stepmom used to be like, all right, we need to we need to wash your hair. And she would like take me to the kitchen sink and like shampoo my hair. But she always did it in such a way and that I loved it. Like I was like, sure, let's go.
SPEAKER_03:Like it's it's body, we're just relaxing, just sitting back, just letting you know how you when you know you go get the haircut, you leave it in the sink, and you get in there. So, oh my god, we totally did this the other day with with Cal. I was like, Cal, how do you wash your hair? Because I got questions. Yeah, and Corey's like, like, what do you what what do you mean you have questions? Like, so do we so I like how do you wash your hair? What do you do? For those listening at home, like he just goes like he's just you know that's that's it on a digital scrubble. I'm like that bro. No, let me no no So I I do this, I do the the the the thing like come here, come here, turn around and like this is how you're this is how you're you remember he's like oh dad, that feels good.
SPEAKER_01:Well yeah, now you do it for yourself.
SPEAKER_03:Like, now you do it. He's like, no, Dad, can you can you wash my hair? I'm like, no! Damn it! And Corey's like, yeah, like, how have you been? I don't want to know. I don't want to know. Like so we need, like, I, you know, obviously we revisit these things, and it's we're building a foundation, and sometimes you gotta revisit and like do a little like structural reconstruction or whatever, and you're like, all right, just get in there with your fingertips and actually give yourself a scalp. Oh, it feels good. And he's like, You're you're right, it does feel good. I'm like, Yes! So what are you doing tomorrow? And like, of course, today he's just like, Hey Cal, how was it? And he's like, Oh. I just go, let's go. All right, well, it's a learning, it's a process, right? It's a learning process with the children and the girls. I got the inverse.
SPEAKER_04:Right, right. Like, I get the girls' tub ready, and then I have to fight them to get out. Okay, girls, we're done. We're done. Yeah, yeah. Again, it's not spa day. Let's go. We got homework to do. You gotta get ready.
SPEAKER_03:No, like help a dad out. Like, please. I love the fact that you're getting clean and like this is good. This is good, again, good hygiene and all that stuff, but you just it's been an hour.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Like, come on. We like we don't have any hot water left, and we we wanna like do some laundry or something, but yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's easier right now because it's baseball season. I can judge it. You guys got an inning and a half, and then you're out, right? No, no, exactly. Because an inning and a half could be long, and you guys got to luxurize, and like sometimes they come out on their own. Cool. You guys finished up, good. I'm still watching, you just still you we're under time still, so we're fine.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh. It's it's it is it's crazy, but I do think like having one kid, because originally that was the idea, having two kids again, right? They can play with, hang out, and then Corey was like, I don't know, man. It's it's uh and I was like, oh, okay, you know, it's a handful, it's a handful, you know. And Cal, I mean, Cal's definitely turned on, like, I don't know. I think he would have made an awesome older brother, like an awesome sibling. Oh yeah, but it's fine. You know, it obviously we can be like, oh god, yes, we only have one. You know, the amount of baseball families, they're like, we have a basketball game, then a soccer game, and then a baseball game, and then we had this, and like I dropped the kid, like the wife would drop the kids off, go pick up them, the dad shows up and does this, and then they both take them to this, and they have to show up at the game later on. They're just sitting there like shocked at a Red Bull as they walked in, they're like, guys, anybody got any cocaine?
SPEAKER_04:Right. I I can't imagine that lifestyle because it's crazy. I had both girls in gymnastics, right? But because they're different age groups, one's got four hours of gymnastics three days a week, the other one's got an hour and a half one day. Yeah. So, okay, I still gotta occupy the little while the big ones in class, and then they both get out, and then you gotta figure out dinner. Except one of them got hungry while she wasn't in class, so she already ate dinner, so now I gotta okay, happy meal? Yeah, right. Um how are we gonna get food in your I don't know. What are you gonna eat?
SPEAKER_03:What are you gonna eat? I don't care, just eat something. And Kyle's always like, get home, and her acts like, I dad, dad, I'm hungry. Wait, it's 412 though. He can eat. Go to it.
SPEAKER_04:No, but he can like handle himself again. Yes. Like he at least knows which munchies he can deal with without having to prepare anything. Right. You're hungry, go handle it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I'm like, five o'clock's kind of the around 5, 5:30 is kind of the shutoff ish. Like, that we're approaching right, we're approaching a landing zone of dinner. Let's not ruin now. Of course, sometimes it doesn't really matter because he's just like, oh, like Corey and I, we had a pretty good size dinner, and we're like, oh god, I'm kind of stuffed. And Kyle's like, is there more? I wasn't expecting this to happen until like like end of junior high into high school. Like no, but you think your your son's big though. He's he's a big dude. Like he's stocky, like ready to rip that baseball.
SPEAKER_04:Like, yeah, yeah. He's he's hungry.
SPEAKER_03:So he's he's uh he's got a lot of mass to energize, as it were. So yeah, it's it's great. But I was I'm I'm looking forward to, but also worried about the day when he comes in, if he hopefully continues to play baseball or in the sports ball. Like he comes in and he's like, hi guys, I brought my friends over. And we're like, So we ate the fridge. Literally, I ate when he brings the team, you are screwed. Like I remember, you know, uh, because being in band, like I was in the marching band, so some of our friends would show up. Yeah, geek geek, thank you. We were I wasn't that bad. I did have uh uh we ran the gamics, but we were band bandy geeky, but there was only like five of us, and usually for game night when we came over to play DD. Five's reasonable. And uh sometimes it went up to ten. Like we sometimes had like a parte. Okay. Uh but my mom would be like, you could see her eyes kind of go, oh okay. I've got five to six high school seniors going, uh. Is there anything? Guys, oh, we're gonna play DD and then we're gonna eat. And mom's like, oh, oh, oh, so she would make this like I can make spaghetti. I can't make like two boxes. She get two of those pound boxes of spaghetti, make it up, whip up a little sauce, whatever, put a little ground beef, da da da da da da da. Like, and she'd be like, Oh, okay, there'll be a little leftover for my dad and her. Nope, no, it was gone. Gone. It was gone. And I was I was never a huge eater, but like there were some friends who were like, Hey, hey, is there are you gonna eat are you gonna eat that? I'm like, bro, like that.
SPEAKER_02:That was me. Like, I'd go over to my friend's house and his his dad would be there and be like, Oh, Paul's here. Time to make an extra meal.
SPEAKER_03:That's true. So, so since it's just three of us, when we're looking at you know, dinner ideas and recipes, you know, it serves four. Yeah. So we think that should be fun. A little left over for lunch, so we can do it. And I swear, I think like 75% of the time it serves three. Yep. Because Kyle's like, uh, I'm st I'm still I'm still hungry. Like, dude, you put that like two steaks in a burger.
SPEAKER_02:Like, I wish I could get Luke T like that.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man, I wish I could get the girls see.
SPEAKER_03:It's crazy.
SPEAKER_02:If it's not Takis, that kid's not interested in putting it in his mouth.
SPEAKER_03:Well, there is that. And we we definitely had that. Like, Corey and I are like, we need to have a ground plan because ain't no way we're making special meals. Like, dinner's dinner. Yeah. This is what we're gonna make. Yeah. And how do we, how do we like make sure that he's okay? So as we start, you know, like, hey, try this, try this. And there's some feuds. This is the best. Corey's like, hey babe, we're having Brussels sprouts tonight. And I'm like, We're having what?
SPEAKER_02:I because I bro, Brussels sprouts are good.
SPEAKER_03:Like, like, well, I I have when they're prepared correctly, they're really good. They can be good. So I did not. You can easily F them up. Oh, yeah. Well, it's like it's it's a 1% ratio. Like they're turned to crap instantly. But she's like, I'm gonna make Brussels sprouts, and you better eat them in front of the kid. Yeah, right. Because he needs to learn to like them and eat them, and I'm like, Okay. Okay, so but she she roasted them. So she put them in the oven, roasted them just to get them olive oil, salt, and pepper, delicious. And they came out. I'm like, what the fright? Right? Sorry, sorry, there this is really and Kyle's like, Dad, language. I'm like, these are Okay, these are actually pretty good. Right. Like, I was like, she's like, you like them? Like, okay, the the there's still the Brussels sprouty bitterness. Like, this is it's but I can eat like these crispy, delicious potato cheapy typey thingies. Right. I was like, so I was like, oh, okay, so there's a method of cooking called roasting I I need to be aware of now. So I'm like, roast some veggies. Yes, yes. So we went like, so luck, we're lucky Cal. Whenever he goes to a friend's house and stuff like that, most of the parents are like, you guys are so lucky.
SPEAKER_04:He eats anything.
SPEAKER_03:He just he'll just kind of eat it. Yeah. Most for the most part, obviously he puts ketchup on his ketchup, so he loves. But he's just like, oh yeah, our kid just only eats Takis or only eats chicken fingers. And Cal's like, hey, do you guys got any like flamignon or beef wellington or whatever? And they're like, Do you got any fresh, uh, what is it? What uh like uh like free-range salmon with a tail of lemon? And they're like, Your kid's awesome, he eats everything.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's good. We we tried to do the same thing. We we we encourage him to eat uh all the things, try a little bit of everything. Um we were on this cruise. Turns out my kid loves seafood. Oh he will put seafood away. Okay. My wife and I hate seafood. I will never cook a salmon in my household.
SPEAKER_04:That is too funny. I love it.
SPEAKER_02:He loves fish, shrimp, all the shit.
SPEAKER_04:Of course he does. Yeah. Oh, that's too funny. Dude, my Mina is is if I don't cook whatever meat perfectly, like in a way that she's gonna like it, that kid's gonna be a vegetarian. She's told me I want to be a fruititarian. Can I no? Can't afford to buy you just fruit. You're crazy. I love protein. But like, yeah, I'm like, eat eat a string cheese, something, man. Like, I'm not buying tofu, no. Like, I don't want to eat.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you can do some cool, like, there's some there's some proteins, but yes, like she'll starve in our house when she can't eat meat.
SPEAKER_04:It's that simple for real. Oh my god, we got those houses, it's barbecue all the time. Let's go.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is, I love that, Paul. That is awesome.
SPEAKER_04:That's the funniest thing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's it's wonderful.
SPEAKER_04:I will specifically tell him next time we go to Joe's crab shack, I'll be like, hey, Luke, you're coming with us. Yeah, yeah. So we go ahead and pick you up.
SPEAKER_02:That's just it. I like I like shellfish. Okay. My wife doesn't care for shellfish. But like she'll eat it every now and then. Yeah. But like fish fish, I hate. I I'm just not unless it's sushi. I like like raw fish. Yeah, yeah. I like that. Um, but like I love shellfish. I can't eat shellfish anymore because of my my gout. Oh, it's it's it's on the no list.
SPEAKER_03:It's on the no fly list.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, dude. So yeah, so it was it was really cool, like being at the fancy dinner every night on the on the cruise ship and like looking at all the three-course meal. Well, there's there's that, but like I would take the menu, and normally he orders exclusively off the kids' menu, it's cheeseburger and french fries, and he just eats the french fries with ketchup on his ketchup. Um but this time I hand him the the adult menu. I'm like, hey, what do you want? He's like, the fish, the fish, the shrimp. All right, let's go. Let's go. Hey, cheese nothing, the adult, oh my gosh. And he was jazzed. Hacked it all the way. He loved every minute of it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's a good size. Nice. That's really good. It was really cool. Yeah. Now, I I loved because Corey loves that stuff too. Like, Corey's into the seafood and the fish. I can do fish a little bit. Like, if it's deep fried, obviously. Okay. I just taste the deep fried goodness. Is there a protein in here? I don't know. I'm just learning deep fried. You know, like shrimp tempura, stuff like that. Oh, I hate I hate shrimp, but I'll eat some tempura. Like, that's good stuff. Uh, but she loves the seafood and so does cow. Okay. So when we go to sushi or whatever, right? They're like, she's like, I know, I know you love me. When we go to a seafood restaurant and you like order the chicken fingers, and I'm like, get whatever you want, babe. Yeah. Like, like I'm wearing a mask, like this, it's the smell, it's everything about it. Yeah, when I like when I was a kid, I came home in Florida. Uh, there were two moments in my life I knew I hated it. Like coming home to Florida, my mom's making a boat like Shrimp, like fresh from the ocean. Yeah. Like like not even 10 minutes from water to plate. I walk in, I almost throw up. Like I pass, like she looks at me and she goes, Do you gotta lie down? I'm just like, I don't say it was weird. Like I had such a visceral reaction. And it was crazy. And then we're uh back east visiting uh Corey's friends when they were in Boston. Again, lobster. Ten minutes, water to plate, done. This is gonna be she's like, this is gonna be the best. This is the best lobster you'll ever have. It was amazing. Just lobster and butter. It was so disgusting. It was the most like I like the smell. This this well, the smell was bad, but like taste, and it was like how can you like what are you that? And she goes, don't worry, babe, we made you a steak. And I'm like, all right, like steak or chicken or whatever. I'm just give me the tuna of the sea or the steak of the land. I don't give a crap. Just oh god, this is disgusting. But they're they were all just like, oh, this lobster is amazing.
SPEAKER_02:See, I'm the pure opposite. Give me give me lobster, give me crab, give me shrimp, I'll I'll eat that out. Pack that stuff away, diet willing. Right. Uh when you can. My wife my mom came over right. It was either right before my wife and I got married. Yeah, it was right before it was like one of the first time my wife, uh Beyoncé then met my mom. My mom comes out to Texas and she's like, I'm gonna make you guys this delicious dinner. And she spends all day in the kitchen. We're we go to work, yeah, we come home, the house just reeks like of fish. Yeah, yeah. And she pulls out this like fancy salad with this like baked salmon that she put on it. I took two bites and I can't, I can't do this. Oh god.
SPEAKER_03:Fish, like it's it's it's it's a little touchy. Like, there's sometimes I'm like, like salmon. I'm like, I could uh but sometimes and I've tried to find recipes like we make a fried fish at home, like a fake deep fried fish, really good. But again, it's breaded, deep-fried delicious.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, I mean, as kids, we like fish, the frozen fish sticks. My parents would make those. Yeah, we were six, seven kids in a household. So it was like fish fish sticks for dinner was like one of our go-to's. Yeah, yeah. And I ate the crap out of that stuff with ketchup and ketchup. And then uh as an adult, it's like I can eat a couple of fish sticks, but then by the end of it, I'm like, no, it's funny because so, so uh the in-laws, Corey's mom made uh uh a salmon dinner.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, you know, we're like, ooh, had a cow over hanging out, like one time date night, and they were having a dinner, and she made salmon. A cow's like, that was amazing. That was so good. That salmon was so delicious, grandma. And so Corey and I are like, oh, we can let's expand our horizons, let's make a dish, we can do some fish. And he was like, uh, where did you guys get this salmon? This salmon tastes weird. And Corey and I like salmon, salmon, bro. Math is math, salmon, salmon. And he's like, uh, is this free range or is this farm? And I did you not? He was like, uh, yeah, I don't like farm salmon. Like, it tastes weird. And we're we're both like, uh, well, that's dinner, bro. So eat it. He's like, salt on it or something. Right, right. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out the ketchup or ranch, one of the two. Uh but he's like, no, ranch on salmon?
SPEAKER_02:No. Somebody call CPA.
SPEAKER_03:He will come out with the salmon. Like, I've made, like, Corey and I will make, like, we're not like even I have limits. We'll make some delicious food. And we're like, all right, just try it. He's like, he comes out with the condiments. He's like ranch and salmon with sorry with the ranch and ketchup. And he's like, no, no, no. Try it. You will try it first. Yeah. And then he's like, okay, it's good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Just slathered me.
SPEAKER_03:And Corey's like, all right, I guess, I guess you do need to go buy the Costco size ketchup and ranch. I'm like, I told you. Like, this kid is gonna go through it. Right. Like, I swear he wakes up and just drinks ranch in the morning. Like, what are you doing? Just dipping them off. Is that a protein shake made out of ranch? What are you oh my god, this kid. Kids are awesome, guys. If you're wondering if you should have kids, you should have kids. It's just it is the craziest freaking thing ever. They're awesome. They're so gross and fantastic. And yes, I like to describe it as the most insane roller coaster, the craziest thing you will ever do. Like, I've hiked mountains by myself, which is stupid. Right? Like, no one knew where I was. Right. I had I didn't talk about it. The hiking by mountain does seem pretty dumb. Yeah, and it was like I'm in the middle of Scotland. I could just no one would know. They'd find like a little orange little jacket, you know, that's fine. But but having kids is even crazier and funner and stupider. It's nuts. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's so worth it, but also so insane.
SPEAKER_03:So insane. But speaking of kids and games, at some point, we should probably get to the namesake of our Funcatronic Rex babysitting in more, so you know.
SPEAKER_04:That's right.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. Yes. Where would you like to go? Oh my gosh. To school? To school, back to school. To practice.
SPEAKER_04:It's great.
SPEAKER_03:Home.
SPEAKER_04:To school? To practice. That's it.
SPEAKER_03:Tossing the stuff.
SPEAKER_02:I hear this is there's this game. Oh. That's pretty popular in the store. I was wondering maybe you guys could talk, tell me a little bit more about it. What game is this? Uh I think it's like Star Trek Rebellion. And it is.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, yes. Star Trek The Final Frontier. Wrong. Yes, Star Trek The Final Frontier is great in the original Klingon. Star Trek.
SPEAKER_02:Not uh uh Super Complete Edition? Yes. Is that what it was? Yes.
SPEAKER_03:The set the con set was awesome because it's just William Shatner's face going, oh it's great. Yes.
SPEAKER_04:What was Star Trek VI? Was it the final frontier? It was like the last frontier.
SPEAKER_03:Was it I thought it was the last front? Final Frontier. I thought it was Final Frontier.
SPEAKER_04:Is that what Six was called?
SPEAKER_03:I think so.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, we'll have to go back and look.
SPEAKER_04:That's the one with the weird, like, the guy who's like the God planet thing.
SPEAKER_03:Who thinks he like the God movie? Yeah. They're searching for a higher BA.
SPEAKER_02:Three was the one with the whales, right? Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Search for Spock is whales.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. No. No.
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, no. Three is Search for Spock.
SPEAKER_03:Three is Search for Spock for the Space. Whales is next. Four is Wales. So is it? If I remember right, it's the odd ones in the Star Trek.
SPEAKER_04:Four is the Voyage Home. It's the Evens that are good.
SPEAKER_03:The evens that are good and the odd ones are funky.
SPEAKER_04:With then searching Spock.
SPEAKER_02:Four can't be the one with the whales, because that one's like bad, right?
SPEAKER_04:Well, no, it's pretty much. Is Wales. Hold on. I know my God. The two doesn't go back in time. Two is rats of con. Three is Search for Spock. Yes. Where they go back in time with the bird of prey. Oh. Did they go back in time and search for the time? They give the past transparent steel technology so they can be able to do that. I'm looking for nuclear weapons. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, Chekhov walking around San Francisco talking to police. Nuclear weapons. I'm looking for the nuclear. The cops like, bro. What are you? That was three.
SPEAKER_04:Before is the voyage home. That's where taking Spock to get like put back into his body. Yeah. Because he's like baby Spock at the beginning or something. Don't they like fighting? Well, no, no, no. Spock's brain back in.
SPEAKER_03:Spock's brain slash ego. Soul is in bones' brain. Remember? Because wherever he died, he goes.
SPEAKER_04:He does the mind meld.
SPEAKER_03:He does the mind meld.
SPEAKER_04:And he puts his brain into bones. Right. And then bones is kind of getting a little off. Right. Because Spock's in there making him crazy. And so they get the baby Spock. He grows up real fast. Because he's.
SPEAKER_03:Then they mind meld him back when they get back to the Because I think the Whales is the next one because it's still. Because they have to go to the planet where Genesis blows up, and that's where they find the torpedo tube that's open in Spock's life. That's that's and been reborn or whatever. Well the torpedo tube was the end of two. End of two. So I think three. Three is the search for Spock. Alright, you guys in the all you guys in the comments and the discords and the and the stuff. Let us know.
SPEAKER_02:These nerds don't know what they're talking about. We just lost like 18 listeners. We did.
SPEAKER_03:I know, I know. We're Star Wars. No, no, it's all good.
SPEAKER_04:We love all the stars. Five is Undiscovered Country. Right.
SPEAKER_03:In the original Klingon.
SPEAKER_04:I like that movie. That's the one that has um But that's an odd number. You're right. Maybe it's that the Evens have the good music. Because Wrath of Khan has James Horner. Yeah. And so does Six has James Horner. Yeah. It's two.
SPEAKER_03:Oh well, we got phones that we can look this stuff up on.
SPEAKER_04:I would be cheating. I'm trying to use my my what's left of my white cells. Right? Come on. I love white cells, gray cells.
SPEAKER_03:Wow. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, of the three of us, you do have the least of those. This is true.
SPEAKER_03:That is true. That is true. What? Wait.
SPEAKER_02:What?
SPEAKER_03:Hold on. Huh? Excuse me? Baking powder? Oh my gosh. No, no, no. So I think we're talking.
SPEAKER_02:We're like bringing up the Star Wars. Unlimited. Contained. Contained, yes.
SPEAKER_03:Hard defined at times. Star Wars LTD.co.
SPEAKER_02:Star Wars Destiny.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I still grabbed the device. I still cracked a little bit with that.
SPEAKER_02:I still have all my destiny cards.
SPEAKER_03:All in storage right now.
SPEAKER_02:I have them all sitting in my garage and the closet.
SPEAKER_04:You know, I feel like that's a game that's just because the fact we're going to talk about Star Wars Unlimited. But because Unlimited very much does a lot of the same good things, I don't see Destiny as a game that's ever going to come back in like the even in like a cult space.
SPEAKER_02:Well, no, I think they did have a fan following for a bit. I don't know if it's being supported after Unlimited.
SPEAKER_03:It's not being obviously technically supported, but there's definitely like several of the podcasts and YouTube guys that did stuff about Star Wars Destiny content. Right. They're still producing Destiny content. Um in a mixed twitch level. Yeah, on a fan level. And there's still like a Star Wars Destiny group thing. They go, hey, we've just created a set. The sets are small. And they say, like, here's some stickers you can print to because we have so many extra dice. Yeah, it's easy to do that. You just put the sticker on your dice. And I was I was kind of floored when I went, like, wait, there's a you guys have made a new Destiny podcast. And there's some cool cards and people are having fun. But again, it's more of a it's more of a cult thing.
SPEAKER_04:That feels more like, yeah, me. Fandom. My 16-year-old brother and my 14-year-old brother. Like, we we were all playing this when it was on shelves. It aged out. We didn't have a budget. So cool. We had by default an internal playgroup. But who's the rest of the world playing with? Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_03:No, it's it is it's just that. It's just like, hey, it's free online, download, play with your friends, and have it. Yeah, that's uh and that's and even there. Which is fine.
SPEAKER_02:I I will say that like in today's age, those types of that type of support, fan-based support, it's a lot easier now than it's ever been because now you can go to like tabletop simulator. Yeah. And you can download the mods and play the games with with people on the internet.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, God, I was terrible at that. Uh, but there's a company out there when it because I got a set when it first died, and somebody was trying to do a like a uh crowdfunding thing. It's like, hey, if you buy um a couple packages or whatever, I will include for free, because you can't sell it, a set of cards that you can you design it, put it online, and it's a print on demand. And they were they were solid, they were pretty cool. Uh, and again, came with a few stickers. And I was like, this is kind of fun. This is an interesting Darth Vader. That's an interesting this and that. But again, small print, it's print on demand, you can put them out. And that's what I did for my Star Wars legendary cards. Like I downloaded them and I sent them to a print shop online.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, the legendary is a closed set, which I think that's the difference in my mind, is like a closed set, legendary. I made one set, it plays internally as opposed to I made stuff as an add-on to this game that I wasn't in the room while they were playtesting or designing it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I haven't play tested this. I don't have the resources by default to play test this across all the different ideas that are out there. So inevitably, like, it's gonna be controlling a little different level of like I don't know. I I would never want to play against that set, and and again, like who's he playing with other than his brothers?
SPEAKER_03:It's it's definitely a homebrew hangout. Hey guys, let's go let's do a little nostalgia run and roll some dice.
SPEAKER_04:It's like speaking Klingon at your game table. Yeah. I I mean that's cool for somebody. I don't see the value.
SPEAKER_03:You really want to geek out.
SPEAKER_04:I don't see the value. Right. But that's that's me.
SPEAKER_03:Uh so I was very sad when obviously uh Destiny went away. Yeah, all three of us were were big into Destiny. It was a good game. So it was it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed, like I frankly enjoyed the fact that I could build a deck and the dice will just a little bit of chaos. Like you can make it as as fine-tuned as you want, but the dice are still gonna dice. So you still have a as I like to, I still had a chance to do stuff because I can roll hot or not. Um, so I was very sad when it went away. And then a few years later we finally get another Star Wars game.
SPEAKER_04:All the things minus the the chance of the die roll. Right. I miss the chance of the die roll, but at the same time, I get where the chance of the die roll by default makes it less feasible as a competitive game and less feasible to grow a competitive game because ultimately chance has as much a say as my strategy. And like nobody wants to lose to chance when they've done all the things right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and I'm gonna I think a counter uh and I don't disagree, sure, you know, but a counterbalance that is we have stuff like Sigmar and 40k, which is definitely heavy on the dice rolling. Like, yeah, I'm gonna roll 46 sided, but I still might not hit you.
SPEAKER_04:So I think there is a way to yeah, but I think that works differently though, because there's so much X factor in a table game, in like a miniatures game, there's so much X Factor. Your army, how does it counter my army just by default? Oh, right. Beyond that, deployment, beyond that, terrain, like there's so much X factor that putting one more X Factor multiplier doesn't affect the game. Card games, there's the X factor of my opponent and their deck, and then the shuffle.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_04:When you throw another X factor on there, it it it like it's a it's a much bigger multiplier.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, I agree with that idea.
SPEAKER_04:Like the the it has a bigger effect because you can fine-tune your deck for days. Like I've I've I've tuned this out that like it's consistently draws what I need, it does what I need, I can play it the like it comes out the way it's supposed to. Oh, except for this die roll, and my die rolls are off, and all day I got the exact wrong thing. I kept hitting the blank side of the die or whatever that you know. I think that's viscerally against a notion of how competitive TCGs play. Right. You know, I agree. In a competitive TCG, my design of my deck should be what comes through, what what shines the design times my play versus the design of yours times your play. If we add in die rolls, you could be playing with the deck that wasn't plotted outright, but you just keep lucky of like a hot roll, you're beating up my tuned, I took time on this deck, or the net deck that like because even in in Destiny, there was still a concept of net decks. This is the deck that mathematically should win.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's the meta deck that came around.
SPEAKER_04:Like, I it it doesn't neuter that, but it it makes that a lot less effective and a lot less consistent. And like, well, what's the value of having my playset if it's not going to be consistent?
SPEAKER_03:And I do think it affected people like I want to focus on like magic players. Like, this is I have tuned my deck, these are the cards, I don't want to have an X Factor coming in. Like people with 40k and Marvel Crisis Protocol and stuff like that, all the dice games, they tune the list to take out as many of the variables as possible to focus on that, but they still have that chance.
SPEAKER_04:I I feel like Destiny as a whole was a huge win for Fantasy Flight, and I think it was a good, you know, Fantasy Flight and Asma do have had a lot of uh collectible card games come out, and most of them fall by the wayside within a year. Right. They don't go anywhere because it's hard to get an audience. Destiny had a lot of things going for it that were smart. It took a good IP that already has a built-in audience. Yep. The audience is has some overlap with whoever would be playing card games, whatnot, but at the same time, it's a different enough skin. Sci-fi and fantasy are different enough worlds. I want to play sci-fi. I the skin of Star Wars is endlessly sexier to me than the skin of magic, even though magic has cool ideas going on and whatnot. No, I want to fly around in space.
SPEAKER_02:Destiny had a have I got good news for you.
SPEAKER_04:Is Star Wars coming to magic?
SPEAKER_02:No, but we're going to space in the next like in universe.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I did hear about that. I did see that, yeah. Sci-fi magic. But uh I I think Destiny was good for the design of Unlimited, and if it weren't for Destiny's Fails, I think Unlimited wouldn't have the success that it has now in that. I think they they came up with a bunch of good mechanics that they've carried over to Destiny or to Unlimited, but they also tried a lot of ideas that were good ideas, okay. Other ideas they're like, okay, that was a niche, like like the die. It was a good idea, it was a unique mechanic, it was cool, but you see the backside of it's not sustainable because the die made it so expensive to ship. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like the actual production of the game was so hard. You know, where and and had they been a little bit smarter up front, they they would have been smarter to say instead of charging five bucks for a pack that only has one die and five cards, why don't we charge five five bucks for a pack that has fifteen cards, and then the cards, the the rare card that would have the die just has numbers one, two, three, four, five, six. Have this effect. And you have your own. You can just bring your own die. Right. And you can still sell the accessory dice. Here's the hot Star Wars. There's always great accessories to sell, but no, just print it on the card, then we could have more cards. I don't know what their thought process was beyond, like, no, if we do this, we can have less cards in the pack, we can justify having less cards, so then they have to buy more. Yeah, but you killed the game because of that. Right.
SPEAKER_03:You know, I'm not sure. Well, no, take a page from Games Workshop or they when they built those games, they're like, everybody's got six set of dice lying around. So if we just make a miniatures game and you guys grab all your Monopoly dice and all your stuff, we can you just roll six side, you know. And I we thought about that too. It was like, oh, I forgot my dice. Well, just grab a six-side and just it's one, two, three, four, five, six. Exactly. And it's fine. You know, uh, oh my gosh, and I totally had a flashback to another game, that car game that came out that came with tiny little dice. Uh it was like a Dice Masters did it, and it was Dice Masters and there was like it was a build your own pirate ship. I know what you're talking about. I yeah, we had those two. And I was just like, okay, A, putting together those small ships was fun for 30 seconds, and then you're like, this sucks. Yep. And then it's like, this tiny dice, I'm gonna lose this dice because I'm gonna accidentally like eat it with my chips or something because it's stuck on my finger. Like, how do I nowadays with my peepers? I'd be like, I can't even read that damn thing. Yeah, right. Those dice were tight. But that idea of like, listen, you know, you need, you know, everybody has six set of dice. Make it a dice box with an extra dice or two included. You can make them blue, green, all that stuff.
SPEAKER_04:They they I I again I think they tried ideas, they they found out what ideas didn't work, they found out what ideas will work, and I think a lot of unlimited success is based on what they already saw with Destiny. So I give them props for that. Uh Unlimited is surprisingly fun to me. Yeah, I'm still good like interested. I I was wanting I didn't play the game till set three. Right. Because I was like, dude, I don't want to get in another game. I don't want to get into another game. I don't want to get into another Star Wars game run by a company who lets their games just fizzle. I don't want to do any of that. I already had a bunch of Destiny shit and I sold it at a loss because like I waited too long to sell it all. I don't want to do this again. But I think the fact that it's just cards makes it instantly much more accessible. It opens it up to a larger market. It's still the sexy IP. Yeah, yeah. I personally liked most of the art from Destiny more than most of the art from Star Wars. I don't like the card or from Unlimited, I don't like the card design. I think the actual card is too busy, like the layout of the cards, the units. Right. Numbers, numbers, colors, colors. The actual physical design of it. I just don't see I can see that. I don't like the layout. I've grown to like just whatever. I'm looking past it. We have to deal with it. I'm dealing with it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I do and don't like the alternate art. Like I love the hyperspace. Every card should be hyperspace because it just looks cooler. It just looks so good. But I get why no, that's gotta be the chase card. You gotta be looking for those hyperspaces to fancy out your deck. Yeah. I get it. That was a smart move on their part. Well, having the Pokemon. Like the showcases, they Pokemon the game from the jump was really smart on their part. The last set, collector boxes, was like, hey, let's steal a page from Magic now. And that was also a good move.
SPEAKER_03:You know what's funny? I thought they were only gonna do that like for that set. Like every now and then we'll do a collect. Now it's like, oh, by the way, it's you know, Legends of the Force comes up with the colour.
SPEAKER_04:Why wouldn't they say that's gonna sell everybody that we were gonna sell a hundred and twenty dollar box or a hundred and forty dollar box? Now we can sell them a three hundred dollar box and a hundred and forty dollar box because they still need the cards.
SPEAKER_02:But the cards don't cost that much more to print at all. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it's the same print run, and then you go, well, here's like different art and make them foil. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I gotta say that the the prestige. The prestige with baller. Oh, it was like I would say like 90%, because that's 95% of those things were like sweet alt art cards. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04:Even the bad cards in Prestige art still look red. And it's in space and it's Star Wars. Like I I'm very impressed with in what, we're on set four? Yeah. In only four sets, they've widened the game enough with both mechanics and new cards and whatnot that in in the first couple sets, as I was looking at the game and I was thinking back to the mistakes they made with Destiny, like the card rulings and stuff, there's some questionable verbiage on cards where I'm like, man, they're gonna rule on this the wrong way, and this game's gonna be the same bullshit as Destiny, and I'm gonna get frustrated with it and not want to play anymore. I think they've done a really good job in set three and four of opening the game up with new mechanics instead of like doubling down on like let's go with this thing that was questionable. No, let's just open, add more stuff in general.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And make the pool bigger, make the pool bigger so that these interactions are less common and less dangerous because there's more answers to them and just more other threats.
SPEAKER_04:Like I think every color has gotten a little bit like has gotten better. Like, like I feel like in the first couple sets, those double color cards, the double pips, like the cunning and vigilance and all those. Dude, if you're if you don't have a play set, you're just losing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Sometimes I haven't used them in a while, but I agree.
SPEAKER_04:I think you don't need them anymore. I think there's enough other stuff in the game, and there's enough other value cards, and there's just enough different decks that you can build now that like I don't need those double-colored bangers that I don't have. I don't need, I still don't have I think the only expensive cards I have from the first set are Vader. I have a play set of Vader and that's it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I mean, I don't even have a play set of Vader yet, so it's fine. Like, you know, but I because I, you know, do the hero stuff and then eventually I trade away my villains. And I do the opposite. Yeah, yeah. So it works out great, you know. So I'm like, okay, I'll get it eventually, eventually.
SPEAKER_04:Um, I keep pulling Luke Skywalkers.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Dude, shut up, bro. No, but like I trade them all away or sell them like, hey, get go. Yeah, go. I'm not playing this.
SPEAKER_03:Do it while you sell them while you can. Yep. You know, uh until the new loot comes out or you know, whatever. Uh no, there's an interesting question, because I know that Destiny, when it came out, had like the usual logistics issue. We've made let's say we made a million units, and if there's one thing to count on with Star Wars fans, is they are passionate and rabid, and they will absolutely jump on a train, like, hey, there's a new Star Wars thing, and we're gonna they're gonna, you know, there's blood in the water, we're gonna go for it and eat it up. So Star Wars Destiny like disappeared, right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it was hard to find. It's because that print room was so small, and once it caught fire, just like any other game, well, now everybody's chomping at the bit to get some product to sell it themselves.
SPEAKER_02:We saw the same thing happen with Lorcana.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. And and and then the same thing that happens with all these games is sure, all these different stores want to sell the product, but it's hard to coalesce an audience in an actual organized play group. So cool, there's 15 stores in town where you can buy Loracana. Right. Three of them are actually firing any kind of organized play. There's 15 places in town you can buy Star Wars Unlimited. I think we're one of three that consistently fires. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So there's now because I know at the beginning, because I I was like one of the things I was concerned about when I heard about Unlimited was please don't let it what happened to Destiny happen unlimited. Like you guys need to make a metric, just one shipping container ship. Just fill it all with because it will be gone. It will be bought. People will eat it up. And it felt like it, while not as bad as a big thing. They're not they hedged their little bit of a hiccup, and they're like, okay, we're gonna do a reprint.
SPEAKER_04:I think they were scared. I think whoever's at the top of the food chain there at Asmodee is like, hey, this is we're a collectible card game. I I don't know. Maybe like maybe, but like we we haven't had a lot of success. I think somebody should have manned up and been like, yo, it's a Star Wars IP. Exactly. We've already had success across the board with Star Wars IP. People are getting frustrated with magic. Why wouldn't you go whole hawk? Something new. If they printed a million units of that first set, they should have printed two. Yeah. Because they would have sold. And more to the point, if they knew, if they had done their homework correctly, they'd know, okay, if we're really going to go in on this, even with Destiny, Destiny went four or five sets?
SPEAKER_03:I think it was I want to say it was six or seven, if I'm a five.
SPEAKER_04:So okay, they know the longevity in the game is its longevity. Right. Okay, you print enough of set one so that when set two comes out and people are chopping to the bit for set one, you've already got it to sell.
SPEAKER_03:Or just ship it with it.
SPEAKER_04:I I feel like either it's they're they're chicken to pull the trigger on those numbers themselves because they need to show return on investment, or they're trying to like uh manufacture hype, manufacture demand.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly, like, oh my gosh, we're and oh we're getting more in and it's a great game, and it's can't so people will want more create that new mind.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I feel like the only line that that needs to be balanced against is the secondary market of how many of these, how many units are we selling to people that are just gonna box break and sell the singles, as opposed to how many units actually get in end users' hands. Right. I'm sure that whatever that X amount that's just going to box breakers is a hefty enough amount that it's hurting the game. And that's where Asmode and whoever these game makers are, Magic, Pokemon, as who you're making a collectible card game, you need to do a better job of making sure that the product's actually going to brick and mortar, that's selling it in-store brick and mortar, and not just cracking packs to box break for finging singles. Right. And we have had to back off of box breaking for singles because we don't have it to sell the customers.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. Well, that's that's the balance, right? Like we want to get if you give it to the people to play, you're gonna create a bigger base of players and hopefully thus create a bigger base of collectors.
SPEAKER_04:The way allocations are done is our are allocation is the biggest issue there. Allocation is is what's hurting all collectible card games, and in in general, is hurting this just the table. Industry as a whole. Yeah. You've got somebody who doesn't know the reality allocating based on numbers. Right. Yeah, but this guy gets to buy the most because he has the deepest wallets, and then he gets to continue having the deepest wallets because he gets to set the market by box breaking.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:What the like, come on, what about every like and again, everybody else, like the the idea of getting it out to people to play? Like if this is it's still a game. Yes, the words collectible are in it, but it's a game you want to collect a set so you can play with your friends, come to a store, play an event, you know, and if you're missing some of the high-end cards, you're like, uh the distribution model is silly.
SPEAKER_02:Like, why do we even have distributors like distributing the product?
SPEAKER_04:Why not just the product go directly to the Watsi did some math and realized, oh, we can we can stop going direct to stores, which they were when we first opened, and instead just push it to the distributors. We we just push pallets to the distributors, make them do the work of actually cutting it up. They don't have to have warehouses, so they save on warehouse, they save on shipping, yeah. They they offload a lot of their costs because their product has gotten big enough that now the distributors, yeah, I just want to glom on. And now the distributors have gotten to the point where this year, your first run, like, hey, there's a new set of magic coming out. How much do you want? I want 36 boxes. Okay, cool. When I go to restock, it's not the same price as a third. That first run, I got my wholesale price. The wholesale price, right. This when I go to restock, even as a brick and mortar who supports organized play, the distributor is now selling to me at a jacked up price based on the market. And the market has been inflated because of two months of there's no tark here. There's three sets that are out that are out at the distributor level. So they get to just let the market price keep climbing, climbing, climbing, and then the distributor gets to charge me based on the market price. It is such a it's a racket. Yeah, yeah. And uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's rough. It is what it is, it is what it is, and hopefully, you know, you're still you're still around. By the way, it's been eight. I just want to drop this in here because I don't know. Right, because it's eight years arrived. Like a week ago, May first made eight years. May 1st made eight years. So this is awesome. Like, I am we're two of things again. Like, I found the fact that you're here and I'm like five minutes down the road brings me so much, honestly, brings me so much joy. Like we're like, I just want to hang out. And Corey's always like, uh, so you got a mics, aren't you? Like, yeah, yeah. That's where I go. So where are you going? Go to the game store and hang out there. But you want to see me, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. But I but I also want to just you know play with my pew pew mini.
SPEAKER_03:That's right. I want to play with my pew-pewed minis and my little cardboard crack. I mean, come on now. I see you all the time. Wait, no, wait, hold on.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, if not, you would be out of the bar. If you would just learn how to play the games and make logical choices and not get overwhelmed by rules, you'll be fine.
SPEAKER_03:We'd be fine. Right? Or stay home more. Right? And she's like, I read stuff all day. I just don't know. I don't want to have to think that much. I just want to relax.
SPEAKER_04:I don't have to think that much. Just don't invest yourself in winning. Right? That's fine. Just make moves. Let the game progress. Here's the current, you can be my tester. A, you don't have to win every game. B gaming isn't fun for the win, in my opinion. Gaming's fun for the interaction. Yes. Yes. Throw a game. Yeah. Throw a game. Make a choice. Make a move. Do something.
SPEAKER_03:And we've we've talked about that on the on the podcast previously. The idea of like, well, why do we play? It's like, well, because we want to hang out with our homies and have fun. No, obviously it doesn't hurting doesn't, or sorry, winning doesn't hurt. You know, we also love to put that W on, but it's more importantly, if I show up here on a Sunday for the Star Wars Unlimited like playgroup, since I can't make the Wednesdays, but I know I'm gonna hang out, I'm gonna hang out with some cool people, I'm gonna have some wacky moments of gameplay and have a good time. Hopefully I win. You know, usually I'm out of three. I'll I'll win two out of the three. And that for for me, I am totally fine with that. I don't expect to take top. I'm like, if I've won two out of the three, my red I'm great. Because I know one of those games had an epic moment where I got to do my, and we'll talk about this in my current deck. I got my Luke on my red five. I played my trench run card and I did 14 damage to your base and I blew you up! In one move. In one move. 14? No, it's crazy. It's nuts. It's stupid. Now, it's awesome. And of course, the next game, because I win that one. The next game, guys like, well, I did this and this, and I just knew and I'm like, well, I just got my teeth kicked in. Yep, yep, yep. But you did your thing.
SPEAKER_04:You did your I gotta say, that's one thing that's been surprisingly satisfying to me about Star Wars Star Wars, especially compared to Magic. The the way the turns work in Star Wars, where you get one action, one action, one action, one action, it makes it so much more satisfying that like, you know what? Yes, you won off, but you went off a turn before I was gonna go. No, exactly. I was gonna go. It's never like I'm not that far behind. And and the games that you lose real bad, like I've had games where like I didn't put a single point of damage on your base, not a single point, and I and I lost. Yeah, those ones get frustrating to me. But those are also games where like I know I'm not going in with a I'm going in with a mediocre deck. If I go with my good deck, I don't get shit off the board to where I'm frustrated. Right. You know, like like I still, like you said, I got to do my thing, I got some tricks off, I got some moves. Okay, I see I gotta look out for that now. Magic, I've I have a lot more salty moments of like, I didn't do with that game. Right. I sat here every thing, and somebody's poor targeting, poor threat assessment made it that much worse. Where like I should have just scooped on turn four. This I feel like so far I haven't faced a game with that kind of potential where like I'd want to scoop like that. Right, right. I especially and like so in Magic we've we primarily play commander. I I can't remember the last time I played a non-commander game of magic.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I I play on occasion, I have my Dan Dan deck, but that's even that's own magic.
SPEAKER_03:Because I know hanging out here, you guys are like always like, hey, do we have a pod of four to play commander? So that is your y'all's uh that's our thing preferred format.
SPEAKER_04:And I think it's because magic heads up, like constructed I did do a draft or not a draft. Yeah, but limited doesn't limit limited magic is different to me. Right.
SPEAKER_02:That's not constructed standard or modern any kind of constructed format.
SPEAKER_04:Right. Like I'll play limited of any game except maybe Pokemon and like have fun. Yeah. Because like, hey, you got even chances. We open packs right now, we built something right now, we're playing right now. Right, exactly. All right, that's a balanced playing field. You happen to pull the hot, good for you, man. That's the way it works. I happen to pull the board wipe. You know, like there's there's a limited I'm always good with, but in a constructed format, the way magic's turn works, where on my turn I'm gonna do all the things, right, and then on your turn you get to do all the things times a deck of 60 cards with play sets of four, there's just too much dependability on on getting your pieces to where net decking is very real, right? And in a constructed format in magic, if you're not playing one of these three decks, why bother? Right. Because you will lose to one of these three decks endlessly. Mathematically, you will always lose to one of these three. Why bother? Whereas Star Wars, by the both the design of it's your base times your commander, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The the way the colors work, the way the colors aren't like kind of like magic and constructed, I can still play outside of my colors. It's just harder to do.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_04:Um, commander doesn't allow you that at all. You can't play outside your colors, which I like in magic, but I also like in Star Wars in either format, in either Twin Suns or uh Premiere, you can play outside your colors. You can play whatever you want, exactly. I'm playing a light side deck, but I want to play a dark side card because I am your father is funny as hell in this deck. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:If you want to pay for that, you do you, bro. Right, right. You want to drop the like we're like we're all the rebels, but yet we took over the Death Star instead of blowing it up, I'm gonna blow up a planet. Like, I want to drop that super laser blast on you. It's gonna cost you.
SPEAKER_04:Right, right.
SPEAKER_03:Like, go for it.
SPEAKER_04:I I really like that, and then also in like I think that opens the game up a lot more. In constructed magic, you don't have a commander, your decks trying to do a thing, but you have four copies of it of whatever is worthwhile to get your engine going. And again, if you're doing one of these net decks, it's gonna work. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Um in and the game will be over in four turns.
SPEAKER_04:In Premier, the game is really open because there's such a number of commanders of leaders. There's there's enough bases that are playable that like you have a lot of options there. I feel like Premier is very open. Yeah. I feel like I lose to similar concepts, but not necessarily the same.
SPEAKER_03:It's not gonna be the same deck.
SPEAKER_04:It's not the same deck. Yeah. Um and conversely, I can beat this like similar concepts. Oh, I'll always I'm an aggro deck. I can beat stall decks. Right. I I can beat them because they're taking too long trying to no, I'm I will outspeed them. Um I can beat that kind of deck consess consistently, but there's lots of versions of that deck. I lose to this, like yell I lose to yellow. I use to yellow consistently. The trickery of like extra resource, cheating shit out early. They all have ambush, they bounce back to my hands like that. Well, that's the bounce back or the removal. Yellow plays like blue bounce magic.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's like it's it's got tricks that let you pseudo-ramp like green. Yeah, it's got all the bouncy tricks of blue, and then it's got all the like there's no counterspelling, but it's got that kind of like trickery that blue represents as a whole. So it plays like blue and magic, and it frustrates the f out of me, man. It frustrates the f like.
SPEAKER_03:No, no, I on this Saturday I played against uh uh somebody who's doing uh the the Han Yellow deck or whatever it is. And it's definitely like, oh, I'm gonna play my card. I'm just gonna I'm gonna put you in uh carbonite so you don't restore, so you're gonna be lose access to this guy for two turns, or I'm gonna steal a resource, which means you're putting me behind a round and you're ahead around. So suddenly I'm that far behind.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, and now that I sold the resource, I'm gonna play the card that lets me de sack a resource.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Somebody destroy your resource. Destroy yours, and then it'll replace off the top of my deck. So I'm still up and you're f Yeah. Oh my god. But it's like it's so wrong.
SPEAKER_03:And there's definitely some some cards in my uh in the sideboard. I'm like, I have I need I need those cards here. So if I see the Han Yellow or something like that, I'm like, oh, I gotta play enough.
SPEAKER_04:I have ineffective sideboards because I don't really know. I haven't played enough matches to know what I'm really going up against.
SPEAKER_03:Me, okay. I'm not I'm in the same boat. Like, at least I think these are gonna work. I don't know, because I am very much a this is my like I uh when I'm making decks in this, I like I like a theme. Like, for example, the one I'm running right now is the the trench run Luke deck. Like I'm doing episode uh four, the new hope. That's what it seems. The trick, it has some so I try to have a few things to do, but it's one trick is my goal is to get Luke on my Luke on a ship. Hopefully it's red five. Yeah, play trench run and do a boatload of damage to your base and kill a couple of your units at the same time, if I can, because his interaction with when he's on red five, he can do eight damage to somebody. Okay. Just off the off the rip. And you're like, hmm, that's that's tasty. Now the rest of my deck can hold on. Like uh, you know, there's some Chewy in there and some Millennium Falcon, but it's that's that's my goal. That's the whamma jam.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's the whamajam. I'm trying to think, like, I don't think I've really been able to I've pulled off my big thing maybe one time, and it's when you put um you can put Vader on one of the I think it there's like a it's one of the red ships it's like punishing eyes. Oh no, okay. You can put Vader on on uh Von Reg's tie fighter and then he gets overwhelming raid. That's not but that doesn't that's not the one I I want. There's one that lets you so you put him on something and it puts it right at six. Yeah. And then when Vader swings, he gets to shoot things. Uh-huh. And then there's a card that says you can use it to ready a fighter or a transport. The coin you can turn.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. And you just go ready.
SPEAKER_04:And then you ready Vader up again, you swing with him again, you shoot something else, and shoot something else. It's like you can kill something, you hit something for two damage, and if you kill it, you can put two damage on a base. Yeah. Or you hit something else for a damage, something like that. Yeah. And then I'll ready him up and I'll swing again. So you can conceptually put six into base. And then there's another spread two, there's another combo where you can put there's something that has raid. Yeah. So you put it on, and it's not that Von Reg's tie though. There was something else in the deck that has raid. You put it on, and okay, I'm swinging for six, except the raid makes it seven. Right. And then I can ready it up and swing again for seven. So I can get a similar 14 hit out of one thing. But my problem is it's not all one shot.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_04:Like, so I it's still got to ready up and live.
SPEAKER_03:It's yeah, you gotta re- or if I, you know, if I uh shoot shot of the sky or whatever that card is, shoot down or whatever. Yeah, bounce it to my hand or whatever. Uh no, I I was able to pull it off, I think against uh I can't remember who I was playing, but it was like I first built the deck, put it together, and like, here's my trench run. And uh oh, it was probably Maria. And she was like, Oh, that's fun. This is great. I'm playing you're at my hand deck, and I'm like, okay. Yep. She didn't bounce it back. I was able to do it. And I played that card, ready it, yeah, and then got Luke on it. Yep. And then I played my trench run, and she's like, How much damage? I'm like, Well, I do eight to one of your guys, and then like it might not have been four, it might have been twelve, but a lot, like a lot. And she's like, dang. And then I claimed, and then the next turn, I'm like, well, I'm gonna just do it again. She's like, ah, that sucks. Now, the next game we played, she of course was like, Well, I'm not gonna let that happen again. So trying to get Luke as a pilot is the main thing. On the ground, he's fine, but that's that's the thing. When he's a pilot, he does a little extra zhuzhing, a little extra damage. Uh and that was my thing of figuring that deck out. Is what do I that's my trick, that's my goal, that's my theme. What what do I do? What do I need to put in here if it doesn't work? Like if all my ships get uh bounced back to my hand or destroyed before I can do it. What can I do? How do I build that? And that's to me been the fun part because I love the Star Wars. I'm like, oh, I've got this, this TIE Fighter and this one and that one, and that's great. Wait, I don't have lightsabers in my deck? What is wrong with me? Oh, there's like a bunch of them coming out in the new set.
SPEAKER_04:They spoiled Canon was telling me they spoiled like 15 lightsabers, 14 lightsabers.
SPEAKER_03:Allegedly, there was a like a code leak, so someone posted it, and they the way it looked, it just listed cards, just and like this lightsaber one, lightsaber two, lightsaber three, lightsaber four, lightsaber five, lightsaber six.
SPEAKER_01:It was like uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:I'm looking forward to this new set because it's gonna have like the Carbonite and it's got Qui-Gon. Like the I'm hoping the There's gotta be a Vader. There's gotta be a Vader. Oh no, I bet there's a new Luke, so it's there's gotta be a Vader, though. Uh at the end of New Hope.
SPEAKER_02:Didn't they just spoil like Young Anakin? Yes.
SPEAKER_03:They spoiled a young Anakin and it's like pre-Vader or like baby Padawanakin. Padawanakin. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Like episode two Anakin. Yes, yes. Christian Haydn.
SPEAKER_03:It might have been actually Christian Hayden. Oh no, it's no, it's it's episode one. Christian Haydnson? What's that? Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Haydnson. Haydnson.
SPEAKER_03:Hayden Christensen.
SPEAKER_02:Hayden Christensen. There you go. That's the one it was. Christian Basementon. There we are.
SPEAKER_03:We have not slept.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't think that was right when we said Christian Hayden.
SPEAKER_03:I love that. I was like, that sounds great. Wait a minute. No, that's not it. Well they do have a young they do have a young Anakin from episode one. And he's got a he's got the new hidden uh uh keyword, which is what's hidden do. So when you play it, it's hidden, so you can't attack it when you play it.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_03:Doesn't need a shield, it's whatever. But there's some bad guys like uh some of the Inquisitors and I think Martha Maul that come out like oh we can. Martha Maul? Martha Martha Maul. Uh my mom. Uh and my mom. Martha Dahl. Oh my god, but I like that. Martha Doll. Martha Doll. Martha Maul. Uh but they come out hidden. So I'm like, great. So next I can't attack them. Now, whether you can use card effects on them or not, I don't know. But I'm like, I don't want to I don't want to see these inquisitors coming out to hit me hard, and I can't, you know, what's what's gonna be the trick to get around it? But you can't see them, they're hidden. Right, they're hidden. Who are you? I smell inquisitors, but I can't see them. I s like Vaders walking around, Obi-Wan, I know you're here because I smell your bacon, right? Like, how do you know, bro?
SPEAKER_04:But yeah. Yeah, see, I I haven't made any of my decks thematic, really. I guess my Vader twinsons deck is, but it's just like Vader and ships and just Imperial stuff.
SPEAKER_03:It's I mean, that's kind of it's not that thought out. That is pretty thematic.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, that's I mean, it's just like here's here's all the bad guy stuff. Yeah, yeah. There's one of everything. Right. All the ships. It says Imperial, it's in there. But like my my good deck is it's like bounty hunters with Vader and like random other individuals.
SPEAKER_03:Is that the one with like the four billion droid ships in it? No. Okay. No, no, no. When I read that card, I was like, I don't want to face that.
SPEAKER_04:I put that in most of my decks, the the Vulture Droids. I didn't put it in in my good deck just because I didn't have the spots. I want to build a first order deck. There's Captain Phasma is good for first order. She's she's like gives beef some all, and then there's good first order stuff right now. Is there? Yeah. Yeah. You can build a good first order deck, but the money cards are like Kylo's Tie Wren. They're the blah blah blah. Rylo's Rai Ren. Kylo Wren's Tie Internet. Kylo Wren's Tie Interceptor. Is that what it's called? Yes. That card, it's like 25 bucks. Damn. Yeah. And like it's one of the bangers.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because it comes. If you because Kyler's trick, if you discard something, you know, he can then play it from a discard property. Oh, that sounds delicious. So you can kind of get it in there. Excuse me. I'm going through puberty again. Get it in there. Guys. That's what she said. I'm glad you called it that. But there was a he his he cycles through his uh discard pile, if I remember right. Which is kind of fun. One thing that I have enjoyed about Unlimited, and I think uh and also not enjoyed too, but I think is common about all of the collectible card games, is it seems like there's no there's uh people will disagree with me, but I think there's no like total bad card. Like when you see it, you're like, this is terrible, it will never get used, kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02:Um every card is playable.
SPEAKER_03:I think every card has a viable option. Leaders, on the hand, there's obviously tier one, tier two, tier three. There's good and bad. But even so, you can like, gosh, I want to play Dr. Aphra, and you're like, well, what is what the heck does she do? I don't know. But you can make something fun and have fun with it, and still, I think be viable when you come play.
SPEAKER_02:Can I have a Dr. Vision?
SPEAKER_03:Dr.
SPEAKER_02:Avizon is not a leader.
SPEAKER_04:He's not a leader, but you can't fail. Like, no, you you he's he's he's like I'm out. He's a unit, he's a cunning uh bounty like drawing.
SPEAKER_03:Bounty hunter, yeah, yeah, yeah. But again, I do think you would like the uh magic. Yeah, you would like the yellow, whether it's yellow hero, hero, yellow hero, yellow. You're not allowed to play bad guys. What's graveyards? You're not allowed to play graveyards.
SPEAKER_04:I'm telling you right now, you're not allowed to play bad guys. But you don't play first order. I do. No. Incidentally. Incidentally, exactly. You can play for a sorter. I approve. You can play for a sorter. You're not allowed to play Empire.
SPEAKER_02:What's the graveyard deck?
SPEAKER_03:What is that? Well, what's the graveyard deck in magic though? What is that? What does that mean?
SPEAKER_04:Endless, like stuff that lets you play with your grave.
SPEAKER_02:Let's let you play stuff from your your discard pile.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, gosh. Uh I'm sure.
SPEAKER_02:Or get things back from the discard pile. I don't think there's enough. I don't think that that mechanic's been explored from what I've seen.
SPEAKER_04:There's not enough. There's there's cards that let you do it, but not enough. Not enough to build a viable deck in my mind.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think I don't think there's anything specific out there. Again, correct me if I'm wrong out there in the nether world, interwebs, things. There are cards that allow you to pull stuff from your graveyard.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, turn it into a resource, which is a heroic card. Um, if it's in your graveyard, you may play it from your hand for cheaper or free. You know, discard something. Yes. Uh, and then if it's if there's a copy in your discard uh in your graveyard or discard pile, it gets a bonus if it's on the table. But I don't think there's anything yet that is like we're gonna focus on the discard pile engine yet.
SPEAKER_04:There's no engine you can build.
SPEAKER_03:Although I I bet somebody's figured out like with those cards, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I just need to wait for the force ghost set.
unknown:Ah!
SPEAKER_03:Well, Legends of the Force is gonna have it. Oh my gosh. Like, if they have like Force Ghost Obi-Wan and Force Ghost Egghead Anakin versus regular Anakin, like, oh my gosh, that's what I want. I want the prestige force ghost.
SPEAKER_04:I have a question for you.
SPEAKER_03:Uh yeah, yeah. We have an answer. Let's see if they match. Purple.
SPEAKER_04:In Return of the Jedi. That's episode six.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Episode six.
SPEAKER_04:At what moment?
SPEAKER_02:That's a third movie.
SPEAKER_04:At what moment does 27 minutes 34 seconds. Is it when he turns back to the light side conceptually by downing the emperor? Is when he throws the emperor over. Is it when he takes his mask off? Is it when he dies to become the ghost?
SPEAKER_03:All right. Well, my opinion is that that that never actually becomes young Anakin because young Anakin killed billions of kids. So he never he should. I think he should come back as egghead because that's when he was redeemed. He wasn't redeemed as young guy. Obi-Wan doesn't come back as O McGregor. I agree. I agree.
SPEAKER_04:I'm with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. No, that that tracks for me. You should come back as old ghosts, not as Anakin. You fell as young Anakin. Right. You don't get to come back and you're like, hey, I'm ready to get married for a giant tick. None of that.
SPEAKER_02:Pygon came back as 70-year-old. Uh, what's his face? Liam Nielsen.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, yeah, yeah. He looks still look good.
SPEAKER_02:Leslie Nielsen.
SPEAKER_03:Leslie Nielsen.
SPEAKER_04:All the names. All of the names. Star Wars. I forgot that they did him as Anakin. Right, he comes back as Anakin.
SPEAKER_03:And I think that was uh I still like I'm a Star Wars fan. Um, that's another thing. I'm like, oh God, that song. Um where he becomes redeemed, I think is the point where Spanish. It's not even Spanish. It's not it's Espanol. Definitely. Um God, that's a great question. I I personally always thought it wasn't when he threw when he threw the Emperor over the railing, is when he started. Yeah. And I think it's finally when he can saw taking off the mask. He took off his mask, and he saw Luke and saw like I have I have been redeemed in my son's mind. Like my son. Let me see you with my own eyes. Did you just fart, Dad? Come on. Um, but no, that's the moment I think when he goes, Shh, you've already saved me, like that moment.
SPEAKER_04:I agree. I think it's taking off the mask. He's conceding. I'm no longer Vader. Exactly. He's still Vader as he throws the Emperor down the ship.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right.
SPEAKER_04:But as he takes it off, when he takes it off, he's like, I'm conceding. I'm going to die by taking off this thing. I think he knows. If he got to the right, like port or whatever in shuttle craft, you could plug him into a chair with all those things and like they're going to re-enter the coma and like get him back to his agon executor, except that crash in the Death Star. So find him back in into a back to tank and Vader's gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I get all that. Why why would Anakin or not Anakin, why would Luke then put the mask back on to burn him in the funeral?
SPEAKER_04:I think it's kind of like a sign of respect.
SPEAKER_02:I I I would take that as like kind of like closed caskets kind of thing.
SPEAKER_04:Ewok, you don't get to see daddy's face. No, no, no. I got to see daddy's face. No one sees this. My sister didn't get to see Daddy's face. Yeah. I'm gonna save her from the trauma of seeing his face. Nobody wants to daddy.
SPEAKER_02:You love him, don't you?
SPEAKER_04:I do. I do.
SPEAKER_02:He's my father.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he's my father.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know if I've ever told you this. I'm sure you know it like kind of by default, but to me, Darth Vader is truly the most complete, full character arc in American cinema. I really strongly believe and feel this.
SPEAKER_02:That like Does that include episodes one, two, and three?
SPEAKER_04:Yes. The journey of Anakin Skywalker is the most complete character arc of anybody in cinema.
SPEAKER_02:I largely agree. I don't agree that episode one, two, and three contributed much to the arc.
SPEAKER_04:You need to see him fall to see his redemption.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_04:No, if you just start with four, he's a bad guy, but you don't get to see what turned him to that. You don't get to see the trauma that like justifies it.
SPEAKER_02:I I I agree with you. I think I think that showing the fall and the the reason for the fall would overall bring value to the character. I don't think that it was handled in a way that was satisfying for me.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I don't disagree with that, but I still don't think it changes the fact that it's the most complete character arc in American cinema. No, no, I agree. I I absolutely agree. Literally from childhood to old man across all sorts of.
SPEAKER_02:It's a curious case of Benjamin Button.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. Uh not as good a character arc. At all. Not at all. At all.
SPEAKER_03:I've seen that once and I it never went back. So I think it'd be good check comment on.
SPEAKER_04:Go better. Godfather.
SPEAKER_02:Check.
SPEAKER_04:Not as good a character arc. You're talking about um the Michael Corp. The Godfather's like Michael Corbyn's character arc.
SPEAKER_03:Uh not the old man, but the new when you see him go into it. Like Al Pacino's character, right? Well, I think Godfather is more of a you see the fall, but that's what I'm saying. Godfather, he doesn't get really redeemed, does he?
SPEAKER_04:I'm more just saying first, you get the fact that it's a redemption arc. Right. That's already like that's great storytelling. But more, like, it's such a complete arc. Yeah. I can't think of another character. Like, you can go to shows. Okay, there's nine. No, there's like 11 seasons of X-Files. I love that show. Right. Mulder and Scully's arc as a character, as a duo, isn't nearly as entertaining or as deep for all the screen time as Darth Vader's arc. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, no, because he felt because Darth Vader, as as much as, you know, we almost say his fall was twice the pride, twice the pride was truly from grace.
SPEAKER_04:He was on the Jedi Council as the youngest member ever. Right. Like but they didn't grant him a seat. He didn't have a seat. I mean, uh He was on the Council.
SPEAKER_03:But it's on the Council. That's outrageous. It's unfair. I don't think we're gonna get him a seat. He's gonna get a milk crate in the corner over there. He's still on the council. He's still on the council. But that was the idea of that. And I agree. It's very to me, it was very like the a classic Western, like the Greek and even the Asian storytelling of like you have someone who is supposed to be a hero who falls so far. How is what's the redemption arc? And it is a family member, and this one is father and son, and mother and daughter arcs are out there too. But it's the the son, it is left to the next generation to help redeem and bring him back. So that character arc I think is awesome. In the fact that I agree, it's like you see him fall so far and be a really, really, really horrible thing in person, a scourge of a galaxy, but this one. One moment, it kind of brings him back. Like he re you know, like that thing. I like again, he doesn't come back as Anakin, he comes back as a head, egghead. But that moment, we all have everybody in the theater when that happened, like, although we couldn't quite fathom it.
SPEAKER_02:I think everybody's like I'm cracking my popcorn, man. Lucas St. Vader!
SPEAKER_03:In the theater? In the theater? What's that? You see a movie in the theater.
SPEAKER_04:You've seen Star Wars in the theater. You've seen Star Wars in the theater.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the special editions?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah, when they re-released the special editions.
SPEAKER_04:I saw Star Wars in the theater.
SPEAKER_02:That's great. Oh, and speaking of the- Return of the Jedi was released in 1983. I saw that in the theater. That was the year I was born.
SPEAKER_04:Well, sucks to me. Because I remember the nyubnub song. I remember it might as well have been live.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I watched I watched it on BHS. There you go, that's fine. I never watched it.
SPEAKER_04:Never got it. No, but you've seen it in the theater on like a re-release or something.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but like I didn't get emotional. I'd watched a hundred times on BHS by that point. Yeah. I wore out the BHSs.
SPEAKER_03:As you sh as you should, sir.
SPEAKER_02:For for those of you that are listening that may not realize at one point in our lives as human beings.
SPEAKER_04:There was no streaming.
SPEAKER_02:When we wanted to watch videos, we had to use physical media. And sometimes that physical media would wear out and get old after enough use.
SPEAKER_03:You're like, dang it! I gotta go buy another copy.
SPEAKER_04:Right now the young people are like, sucks to be you'll actually.
SPEAKER_03:Now they just gotta deal with a commercial coming up with a random.
SPEAKER_04:I have more shit on my phone than I had as a kid.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god, right? Yeah, right. I have oh my gosh, it's insane. Uh I don't know where I was going with that. Or where we were going with that, but I love it.
SPEAKER_02:Um I tend to derail things. That's good. Yes. Well, I mean, that's that's kind of what this podcast is.
SPEAKER_03:That's true. That's true.
SPEAKER_02:It's just a series of TJ.
SPEAKER_03:But I remember but I saw Empire in the Theater.
SPEAKER_04:I didn't see Empire in the Theater originally. I saw it on re-release.
SPEAKER_03:And I saw Star Wars in the theater on the re-release, because my older brother was like, We're gonna see this movie, and he's two, three years older than me, so it came out. So I don't remember seeing Star Wars in the theater. I definitely remember seeing Empire and Return of the Jedi in the theater because that was m like mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_02:I think my first movie that I watched in the theater was uh Batman, Keaton's Batman.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's a good one. That was a good choice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I know my first movie was Bambi at a theater that got torn down. It was on Bethany Home and like 21st Ave. It got torn down like that.
SPEAKER_02:I saw Batman in the Cinecaprie. That's good. Cine computer. OG Cine Capri.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, dude, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:On Camelback?
SPEAKER_04:Dude, I don't even remember what the heck my first movie was. The first movie I I actually remember, though, was Ghostbusters. Oh I saw Ghostbusters in the theater at Christown with my mom. Which was weird because I didn't see movies with my mom, but she took me to see Ghostbusters.
SPEAKER_03:We gotta see Ghostbusters. I was like, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Let's do it. I'm sure she didn't get most of the jokes. I know I didn't get most of the jokes. But we both had a blast. I was like, oh, Ghostbusters is great. The giant marshmallow thing. They blew it up and covered in green.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like my my mom would have taken me to see like Bambi or something in the theater, but but I'm pretty sure it was Batman. That's the first movie I remember was.
SPEAKER_03:I remember like I remember seeing.
SPEAKER_02:I remember crying in uh and getting too scared in Jurassic Park.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah. I saw that in the theater. That was the movie that I had to uh my dad had a good rule of if you want to see a movie and there's a book of it, yeah, you gotta read the book first. Yes. And so I saw that then in the theater. I read the right. I had to read the novel first. I had to read the movie adaptation first. And then I I wanted to see Jurassic Park, so he said, here, there's the book. You gotta read it. Okay, cool. I read that.
SPEAKER_02:Here's your 400-page book with a bunch of like scientific and computer lingual.
SPEAKER_04:I was down.
SPEAKER_02:I like like you're also a bit older than me.
SPEAKER_04:No, it was it was it was more just I read I'm gonna pat myself on the back. I read old when I was young. Yeah, I read Stephen King when I was like nine, ten, because I was like, I'm into scary. Yeah, that's it. And somebody handed me. I was my parents gave me free reign when we'd go to the bookstore. They were like, You're reading. Exactly. Please read. Cool.
SPEAKER_02:I go straight to like, okay, uh, I mean, I was ten I was ten when Jurassic Park came out, and I read the book. I'm pretty sure I don't remember if I finished the book before the movie came out or if I finished it after, but I definitely started reading it before the the movie came out. Because I remember going to see the movie and I was disappointed that the T-Rex tongue scene wasn't in the movie. You remember that? Yeah. Uh so they ended up doing that scene in the third. That sounds right. Yeah, it's in the third. So in the book, there's a scene where um Grant and the kids are the the T-Rex has escaped, it's knocked over the Jeep, they're running. Yeah. It's like between the Bronosaurus, the the veggisaurus, and the uh uh sources. Yeah, the meat the metasauruses and the the fence scene. Okay. So it's like in between there, the T-Rex is still chasing them, and they get to a waterfall, and I think Grant gets separated from them at this point. And the two kids go into the waterfall, and the T-Rex chases them into it, and it's trying to get at them in the waterfall, and so it's like uh described that it's like chomping through the water, but it can't quite reach them, and so it like sticks its tongue out and starts like wrapping its tongue around I think it was Tim's ankle and trying to pull him into it. Oh so yeah, I remember that scene very vividly as a really cool scene, and I remember it not being in the movie and being very disappointed.
SPEAKER_03:Like, what's going on? Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_04:No, they move things around in that movie in that book though, because the compies don't show up until the very end. Until the second movie is when the competitosaurus is written.
SPEAKER_02:No. Are they in the first movie? Oh, you're you're saying in the movie. Yeah, they're not in the movie at all. They're in the second movie.
SPEAKER_04:To the book, but they're only they don't show up till the second book.
SPEAKER_02:The compy the compy is seen on the beach. Yeah, which which is at the start of the second movie. Um that's the start of the book. And then at the very end, Hammond is is killed by Compis.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, yeah. He gets shooted up by a man.
SPEAKER_02:Uh spoiler alert.
SPEAKER_03:The ship sinks. Yeah. And the the old man gets eaten by the book.
SPEAKER_02:There wasn't there wasn't enough room on the door for the Compis and Hammond. So Hammond fell into the sea.
SPEAKER_03:And he sacrificed himself.
unknown:Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_04:You know, it's funny, I was trying to Does he die in Jurassic World? No, he makes it through. Does he? In the movie, he survives.
SPEAKER_02:In the book, he dies. Yes. In the movie, he survives.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. Is he and he's not in the second one?
SPEAKER_02:Um I think he has a cameo in the second or third movie. Yeah. One of the two movies he has a cameo.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Yeah. And then in the new ones in Jurassic World, it's like the company that he left behind. Correct. Yeah. Okay. And like the granddaughter's a clone or some crap. I don't know, man. There's like there was a clone child.
SPEAKER_02:I think so, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Spoilers. In case you guys haven't seen a movie that's been out for a while. That's right.
SPEAKER_02:The kid kicks off the clone wars. Yeah, yeah. They go, they go and fight battles, and then things happen. Next time.
SPEAKER_03:They go hang out with some Vegasauruses and some Mutasauruses.
SPEAKER_02:I think the Velociraptor named Blue ends up turning to the dark side and kills all the kids.
SPEAKER_04:It's strange though, because he does it with a yellow saber. Yeah. I was very like really bizarre.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, one that has like a Swiss Army knife attachment. Shut up! No, come on! Oh my gosh. There you go. Alright, well, um, back to circling back to back to reality. Oops, there goes gravity. Oops, there's gravity. Hey, don't call it a comeback.
SPEAKER_04:See, I would have gone with a different reference. Uh-oh. Once you said back to reality, it was back to life. Back to it's I like that there's different references from the same line.
SPEAKER_03:Go ahead. It's good. Uh was there anything else about Star Wars Unlimited?
SPEAKER_04:I like that there's two formats. And the the Twin Sons format is very I wasn't around when when Commander was being like brainstormed. I mean Commander's been around now for 25 years. But I wasn't playing Magic when EDH became a thing. When I came back to Magic, it was already Commander. It already come out as Commander. Cool. I loved it right away. This is a great format. But I didn't get to see it develop. Twin Sons. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I mean you're on the ground floor.
SPEAKER_04:I'm on the ground floor because like I specifically want to play it more than I want to play Constructed, because I don't like Constructed in most games, because at the end of the day, in a competitive setting, it's Net Deck to win. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_04:And I don't like losing to NetDX. I want to play my own ideas. So Twin Sons lets me do that. But I really like that A, it's different than a pod of Magic Commander. It's a very different experience. And B, we're still figuring it out. Yeah. Like it is, we are ground floor figuring it out because the decks just got bigger from 50 to 80 with the cards. Right, with the new set just got released. And yeah. And where I was trying to push it at a 50 card format. Sorry guys, it it wasn't ready. You're right. It wasn't ready. At 80 cards, it's like, oh, this is much better because you see the the variety of cards that are in the game. You see the variance based on an 80 card deck. And when the next set comes out, I think it pushes to 100. I don't know. It's either the next set or the sixth set, pushes it out to 100 cards, so it'll effectively be commander. And I'm really excited about that because again, variants. I don't want to see the same deck come out the same way every time. I want to see different. And it's interesting, and I'm really enjoying the notion of I'm helping develop and grow the format. And I've been really successful so far in Twin Suns. I think because nobody else knows what they're doing, they're playing kind of timid. Yeah. Whereas I'm kind of looking at it like I'll just take control of these games, I'll politic them the way I want to. Yeah. I've had huge success by just kind of, oh, nobody knows how this works? Don't worry, guys. This is how it's gonna work. And I just start leading games and eking out wins in weird ways because the politics are very different in the end game. And figuring out the end game is a very, very satisfying situation. Like every every game of Twin Sons that I've played, the end game, those last eight actions or so, are like Table Talk City, where even though I'm trying to beat you, you're kind of helping me figure out how I make it so because everybody is invested in just like playing it right. And like if you're about to do something like you could do that, but then I'm gonna you're gonna do this then I'm gonna do this and he can do this and he can do this, and you're gonna lose for doing that. Right. So you better not do that. And you just kind of out loud politics why you shouldn't hit me or why you should hit him. Right. And then hey, you you can hit me for two because you gotta do something to activate that thing. All but I'll give you that one. It's just really interesting politics, but the second any board state changes, the politics shifts so much faster than magic. Oh, okay. Like magic, it takes like a board wipe, or we gotta pile onto this person for like a couple turns to make the board state really change. In Star Wars, dude, one action might absolutely ooh, you know, Mike, yeah, we were on your side, but you just did that, and now like, no, dude, we can see the win that you're setting up. Yeah. And if we don't deal with that win, if we don't deal with that thing that you just put out there, we can see your win as well as you can. And I like that. Things are telegraphed in a really interesting way. Where I feel like the banger cards aren't the banger cards in Twin Sons. Right. The cards that are rad in Twin Sons are those cheapy one-drop events that say like swing with two thing and then swing with something else.
SPEAKER_03:Come on!
SPEAKER_04:Tandem assault does it, Rebel Assault doesn't like there's all these little cheapy, like common cards that become the most threatening nonsense that you didn't see coming. Because, like, huh, it's funny, because you were only calculating me swinging with Vader, but I got two badasses out here. Yeah, they're both coming at you. Oh god, it's it's holding your cards late game, it's really important, I think. Right.
SPEAKER_03:And especially I I like the fact that it's making all the commons and uncommons, and there's some powerful comments and uncommons in the game.
SPEAKER_04:But they're unplayable in constructed because in constructed they're too slow, but in Twin Sons, they become just gold because like I wouldn't want to play this early, anyways. Yeah, I just need the game to go long enough to give me a chance to play it, and this is worthwhile. In Twin Suns, because of the two extra players, the games last long enough that you can get some of those later cards.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:On the flip side, in Twin Sons, I think anything past a nine drop is pointless. I I can see that. You'll never get to it. Somebody's deck is gonna go off without answers before you get to an 11 drop, before you get to a 13 or something, unless you can exploit it. You'll never get to those big bangers because there's just so much going on, and because of the fact that multiple people can pile into you, right? Your base, it's not gonna last if they see you as a threat.
SPEAKER_03:They'll come at you.
SPEAKER_04:Like, like, oh, you're ramping pretty heavy. You're already at 10. What are you building towards when you're already at 10? And you have a mind. Let's deal with this. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You're gonna have a big gun coming out that we're none of us is gonna want to deal with. Now, the funny now the I think if I remember right, the win win condition of Twin Sons is the moment uh somebody is zero health. So it's so good. Is it good though? It's it's so good. It's there's four people at the table.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. The second any one player eliminates another player by defeating their base, the attacking player heals five damage from their base. So it generally puts them right back into, oh, I'm in position, I've got the lead for health. Yeah. And it triggers the end game where you're gonna finish that round of play and then the game's over. Okay. This is great for okay, the person that just got bumped out isn't sitting around waiting another hour while you guys like board wipe. Just do one times one more, three more. It's it's one more round and that game is over. Right. Also, if you play it smart, and this is where I think I've I've gotten a couple wins that I shouldn't have. If you the action economy in the game is such an integral part of how the game plays, and it's really satisfying. You can slow play things. Sometimes having too many units on board is bad for you because then you're slow to claim. You have to give up attacks, you have to sacrifice, okay, I'm not gonna attack with these four things because I need to claim, right? Or I need to bomb so that you don't bomb, or you know, whatever it may be. But late game, having a bunch of extra actions can be great because if they don't have board state, you finish your turn, you finish your turn, you finish your turn. You all did something, right? Knowing that, oh, I only have like three little droids left. You all claimed, so you can no longer interact. And now if I have cards in hand, I've had it happen twice where I can, okay, I'm gonna play this thing that lets me untap this thing and swing with this bigger thing that none of you saw coming. So that put like X amount more damage on a base, and now these three little guys are just enough to finish off that base. So now I just healed five and I triggered the end game to a round that already finished effectively. You guys have nothing to do. If I calculated it right and I just oh look, I just won. And you guys have nothing to do. I really like that you can really checkmate. You can you again things get telegraphed, but you know, usually the threats that people are worried about are out on the board because things get telegraphed. Right. That card in my hand late game, which late game people are holding one or two cards. It's rare that you see people with like five cards in hand. But that card that I'm holding late game might be one of these little cantrippy things that, like, you know, I did all this other stuff, you saw me tap down and play something else, but then oh, sneaky, right? One little trick. I'm gonna untap, I'm gonna attack with three things. Attack with three things at once. Like, oh man, it it I really the endgame is this interesting new Rubik's Cube of everybody trying to figure it out, and I feel like I'm a half step ahead of most of the tables because most of the tables are coming from a constructed format and stretching into a multiplayer. I'm coming from bro, I only play four-player parts.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. You guys are really into the four-player multiple forms.
SPEAKER_04:That's all I want to do because I love politicking, I love table talk, and I love playing poker in that my hand in magic, my hand is land half the time, and I'm just sitting there just like bluffing that I got moves. I can use the same kind of weird political nonsense from a magic pod in in Twin Suns, but it still works. It there's still enough of a change because of the turn order that like it really is this fun Rubik's Cube that I'm figuring out like what is this endgame situation? And every time you're you're I feel like everybody can tell, okay, this is at least the next to last round, if not the last round. So everybody can kind of see the checkmate coming, right? And it's all about who the f can figure out with what they have.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I mean, now is there a so the person who gets knocked out first triggers the end game. Are they uh is the winner the one with the most life left?
SPEAKER_04:Whoever's got the most health left. So if you're playing one of these bases with extra health, dude, I had a game that I lost. I've had a couple situations where I've lost, and it was the most satisfying loss I've had in years now because I've lost based on I completely forgot that you had two more health on your base to start. Like, like just literally did bad math. I thought you had 30. You have 33. And I would have won, but I did all the work for you. Like I'm like the whole time, oh I got this, I got this, I got this. Oh you had 33! God damn, you know, like, and those are some of the best situations of like, no, that was I did bad math. That was a poker hand where where like he I didn't read that there was a higher straight possible. Right, right. I had the low straight, he had the high straight. Yeah, like I I really like that doesn't happen in the same way in magic. I feel like in a commander pod, it's it's like there's a lot more chance for because of the way the turns go, and one person can just catch that top deck, that right card, and then steamroll. I feel like there's a lot more chance for gotcha andor like feel bad.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_04:You know, like like you get to steamroll on your turn in a way that you can't in unlimited. Unlimited, you there's still a chance for gotcha. I could have that one card that lets me swing with two things, but like it's not a feel-bad gotcha to me because well, you knew I had the card in hand, and you knew that I claimed, so I'm going first. Right. So you were expecting me to swing with one thing that was seven. You didn't see that I had two things that were seven each, and I could take you out on that first move. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know. I I I right now I am very satisfied with where Unlimited's at. And and like whereas I was I wasn't going as far as to poo-poo it, but I was uninterested in getting into it.
SPEAKER_03:Like, like, like, do I really want to invest my time and money into it?
SPEAKER_04:I I I wish I had bought a little bit more of set one just for the sake of not having to hunt for cards and having more options of things that I I might be into, things that I might want to wanna play. Yeah, like right now, all of my decks are based on set three and four, which is fine, which isn't bad.
SPEAKER_01:Because again, I still have good decks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But I I wish I had more of those first set cards just to have ideas. Oh come around.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I think that's about all we have time for. Ladies and gentlemen, we've got to talk too much, Paul.
SPEAKER_03:I know. I'm sorry. Come on, Paul, Mike, guys. Well, we've got to open up a store, apparently.
SPEAKER_02:At some point, I should probably try Star Wars a little bit.
SPEAKER_03:You should probably do it. We'll do it maybe. We have decks in the case. Yeah. Like do a two-player game just to get a handle on some of the mechanics and then jump in a pod.
SPEAKER_02:I'd be playing jumping into a pod. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Four players must be. You're smart. You're a smart smart. You've played magic. You know what's going on. All right. Well, uh, I think that wraps it up, guys. Uh, thanks everybody for listening and hanging out on another episode of the Funkatronic Rex podcast. Paul, it's been awesome. Mike, thank you so much for hanging.
SPEAKER_04:Guys, thanks for having me. It's been fantastic. Uh guys, I'm gonna throw throw out there uh thank you to all our patrons on Patreon. And also, guys, if you're on our Patreon, take a look because we've been uploading different stuff and we keep trying to add content. Take a look. There's some fun stuff up there. If you have any suggestions for more things you'd like to see, send us a letter, send us a note, send us a message. Reach out. You know, reach out. Let us know. We we we would love to have some feedback. But thank you for listening and thank you for having me, guys. You gosh, anytime.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you for allowing us to do this in your heart in your space. That's right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think that's it for the fuck for the clowns. We will check you guys next time.