The Math Will Math

This week, Lesley, Brittany and Nikki recap a packed Set Championship weekend across Arizona, from Team Muses top cuts and tough matchups to dogs, toys, Blurple and surprise tournament math. Then we look ahead to Attack of the Vines, early reveals, rotation prep and our hopes for Monsters Inc., Up, ward answers and more location support. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome back to the Larcana Music Podcast. I'm Leslie. I'm Brittany. And I'm Nikki. All right, let's dive on in today.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

All right, weekend update. So this weekend we had League, we had Set Champs, and we had a whole lot of Lorcana. Um played a little bit at League. I only played three rounds and I went home because I was tired. But I played well. I think it was really fun. It was definitely a smaller crowd than it had been the last few weeks, or I hadn't really been to League in a few weeks. But it was, it was nice and it was just pretty chill evening. And then on Saturday, I played in a set champs that had I want to say 23 people. Good ground. And I did okay in that. Uh I think I ended up getting 11th. So like about mid. About mid. Yeah. Right. And then, but I think I still played relatively well, especially since I got 11th after playing against two different blurple players. And the Ruby Amethyst is like that's a that's a tough match. That's the matchup you didn't want it. It's that's the one I I know. I was like, talked about it last week. Um it is the Cope Tonight. Uh and then on Sunday I played at Meeples and beyond and had a really great time and played very well. And it was a smaller set champs, and so we only had four rounds, and I ended up getting top four because it was four rounds cut to top four, so I got got top four. There was three of our teammates in the top four. So shout out to Team Muses. We're doing really great this weekend across the city, not just at the one, not just at the set champs I was playing at. Our team did well playing all over. Um I heard really good things about the camaraderie and how everybody was being so supportive and so proud team captain here. And then so I ended up in top four and I played against Mikey, and he beat me with his toys deck, which was surprising because most of the time that match goes in my favor with Ruby Am at this, and he just had really, really fantastic playlines and it played super well. And so he uh beat me in the top four, and then he ended up winning the mat. And awesome. Big shout out to him for winning. He had a really great time. He we all we also carpool all the time, so he was part of the carpool, so you know, carpool got got lots of lots of prizing. Daryl got top eight there, so we ended up doing very well throughout the weekend because he had gotten top eight at Gamers Guild Tempe the day before. So we ended up with three woodies for the household over the weekend, which with the pricing right now wasn't a bad call. Yeah, I feel like the set champs, the set are more busy because of the crazy secondhand market of cards right now, and it's a lot more competitive in the It does feel that way, but I'm also just impressed that even though it feels extra competitive, everybody is still playing nicely. That's what it feels like. I was expecting it to be a little bit more cutthroat.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Um, but I think people are still playing with that level of camaraderie that we have come to know and love. And so I I'm just impressed that even with the increase of the pricing for how the pricing is so expensive now, it everybody in the community is saying, no, like we'll we'll be more competitive, but we're not gonna, you know, stoop to a level that and we're gonna make sure that we're all playing by the same rules.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah. I mean, I I say this every single episode, but I love the Arizona community of Lacana players because that's just how we are. And even if we have our teams and we have our, you know, groups that we hang out with and play with a lot, it's like everybody still supports everybody. And if you walk up and ask, you know, one of the great players here for help, they will help you regardless of whether you're on their team or not. Or, you know, or if you need to borrow cards to make a deck, or there's always people willing to help out. And I think that's one of the things that makes Arizona such a great place to play beyond the competitiveness and the resources.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, and I think that we support a lot of the different styles of play too. I will say we have a really big Arizona Discord, and there's conversations both for like helping people get ready for set champs or getting ready to play at Indy for, you know, Infinity. There's also like new players who are asking, hey, what are the stores that are a little bit less competitive and things like that, so that everybody feels that they can go and play and learn and you know continue to have fun with this game at the various levels that people are playing.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, and last week when we were at Mox, there we were having our set champs there, and somebody came in and was like, Hey, can I learn how to play Lorcana? And uh Mitchell, who's the person running Mox's set champs, was like, sure, I'm sitting here just waiting for the tournament to be over. Let me teach you how to play. And then he like learned how to play right then and there, and that's pretty cool. So I think that's just the type of people we have in our community, which is why it's grown so big and it's been so great.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Yeah. And I'm I'm grateful that while Toy Story has brought a lot of, you know, the collectors to the game. Yeah, it's also brought new players to the game. And I I'm always wanting this game because new players means that the game is continuing to be healthy and has that turn it does have turnover just like every game. But when we get new players, that means that that turnover means that we're gonna continue to have players and having a community that's growing.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Yeah, that just means we need to get rid of all the degenerate decks. Throw them away. We do try.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

We we do try to try, we need to try and balance out yeah, the decks that feel that they're dominating the meta. But I will say I felt like every room I was in this weekend felt like there was a balance of decks. I know we talked about last episode, we talked about there was a lot of dogs, but I think that was only one set champs, and then the rest of the set champs have felt more balanced than that. Yeah. Um, and I don't know if everybody was so nervous after that first one showed so many dogs in the room, or if it was just a fluke for the one store, you know?

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Well, I think it's really funny because I think people thought dogs or toys, like the Amber Emerald Aggro decks, would be the ones topping. And most of the set champs, Amber Emerald has been winning, but less people are bringing it because more people overcorrected for it by bringing anti-dogs or anti-toy aggro essentially. And the fun it had a funny effect of some rooms had so many anti-agro decks that they were playing each other and knocking each other out, and then in the finals would be the aggro amber emerald dogs list, and they would win the tournament because they didn't see any aggro or any anti-aggro decks. Yeah. So it's just, I think, you know, the first weekend everybody showed up with dogs, and obviously that was a grind. And then uh the next weekend everyone overcorrected, and the people who stuck with dogs kind of had better success, I think.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, so in the top four, we had Amber Emerald, Ruby Amethyst, Emerald Sapphire, and Amber Amethyst. So we had four vastly different lists all playing in the top four.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

That's crazy. Uh amazing discoveries this weekend where Chris and I played set champs. We had two dogs in the finals and very phenomenal dog players. Um, Andy, who has made the has gotten a nationals invite, and then Logan, who got his first mat this weekend on Team Mises. So shout out to Logan for taking first at one of his tournaments. He's a phenomenal player as well. And I had to face him in the first round. And then in top four again, when I I squeaked my way into top four this weekend on my degenerate deck list, which was I switched to blue green this weekend. Yeah, I hesitated to do it. So Blurple was just letting me down. So I decided to take a plunge and try blue green. And when I got to the room and I saw Andy and Logan there, I said, I brought the wrong deck because that deck is unless your opponent bricks and everything goes right for you, you that deck just does not beat dogs. It's like how Blurple is for you. And so, of course, my first round, I got paired against Logan and I said, Well, I think I'm just gonna go home today. He handily beat me in like 10 minutes, and then we called it. Goodness. But you kept at it, and you still made top four. Yeah, well, I think actually the way the math worked out was really funny because there was only I think 15 or 16 people there, and 15, it was 15 people, and uh and losing to Logan in the first round actually secured my way to the top four, I think, because all the other dog players were sitting in the top bracket and I didn't have to play any of them in the bottom bracket. Not to, I mean, the So sometimes losing first helps you in the long run. It depends, right? If you can win the rest of your games, because if I had lost a single game, my opponent win percentages, which is what determines tiebreakers, would be too low. But because I lost my first game and it happened to be a person who also made top four, and then I won the rest. Well, I got a buy, and then I won the other two, then that secured me enough points to make top four, even though my opponent win percentages were very low. So I wouldn't recommend that path. But just because you lose the first round, a lot of people say, Oh, you lose the first round, like it's really hard to climb out from there. It's if you lose after that, then it is a little harder. But if you do get the points for it, I think it's still fine, which is what happened to me. Fortunately, I got matched into another Sapphire Amber. It was really interesting. Um, it was puppies and the shift uh bolt, super bolt with Dale on the board. So he hits first seven. Oh, that's interesting. And it was a terror. I was sitting there sweating the whole time, and it was piloted by a local uh six-year-old or I guess seven or eight-year-old prodigy. I always say I call it caller prodigy, but I think to have the attention stand to sit through a whole tournament at that age and be able to read your cards and blend, not just simple decks, is pretty darn cool. And uh so she was making me sweat and work for it the whole time because she had and I won the first game, the second game, she quested to 20 before I could even get my Claribel on the board. Wow. And it was it was I was sitting there shaking. I was like, oh my goodness, I'm I'm gonna get knocked out right now. And then the last list I played against was a blue steel player, which is a great matchup for me, unfortunately for him. But the biggest thing that I'm proud of myself of this weekend was I didn't apologize for anything I played. Good. Except to Leah, because I feel like, you know, bullying a little kid to get away to top four was a little cruel, but No, we do not apologize. Yeah, she was really cute because I said, Oh, I it was I played my Prince Philip combo, and then the next turn I played my Prince Philip combo again, and I was like, I'm so sorry. And she was really sweet. She's like, Why are you apologizing?

SPEAKER_00 11:12

And I'm like, Okay, I can't do that anymore. Oh my gosh. I told her the last time we played, I'm like, Leah, do not apologize for winning. Yeah, do not apologize when you're losing. Yeah, you play the game the best you can every time.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah, yeah. I know she's really sweet. Um, but yeah, so that was really fun to do that. Um, that was just Sunday because Chris and I were only able to go to one set champs this weekend. We went to the Ed Sheeran concert on Saturday night, which was phenomenal. Um, and that was really fun. Just danced a lot. And man, that man can play a guitar.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

I heard a there was a lot of local players that went. Yeah. We have a bunch of Ed Sheeran fans that play Lorcana.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Yeah, we didn't see each other there. So the next day, a lot of us were at Amazing Discoveries, and we were all like that Spider-Man meme where you're like, you, you. We're like, you went there too. So yeah, there was a lot of people there, and I think the show is just amazing. I I think I've told you this before, but he's one of my favorite artists, and it's like if you've never heard him build a song from scratch, it sounds just like his studio album because that's how he records a lot of his music, and so his live music sounds exactly like he does on his albums because that's how he records his songs, and absolutely amazing. What that man can do with a guitar and new pedal is blows my mind.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

I I'm always thoroughly impressed by musicians that can do all the things, right? Yeah, absolutely. We're just like, wow, that's impressive. And then they write too, and I'm just like, Yeah, how much talent can one person have?

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Right? Save some talent for the rest of us. No, but that's the that's what makes him like that's what makes me so impressed with him because I always appreciate good artistry and good songwriting. But the fact that he can then take what he imagines and build the entire thing by himself because most of his concert is just him, a guitar, and a loop pedal on stage. There's no like band, there's no production. I mean, obviously there's production because it's a show, but it's not like a big, like, you know, I love Taylor Swift. The heiress tour was absolutely amazing. So amazing. But it takes like three trucks of things to get. Oh, of course. Yes, of course. It is a it is a full show. It is a one, yes. And for him, it was just every once in a while, somebody would come up on stage and hand him a new guitar because it would go out of two it or something. And that was like the show, which is really cool to me, I think, to have like a whole entire stadium filled with people just admiring that. I think is cool.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

And it's just fun to know that hey, they're friends, like they and and well, it's true. And then and they all they appreciate each other as artists. Yes, that that's my favorite part. Oh, yeah, that's what I is like when musicians like appreciate that their artistry is different, but are like help each other.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah, I don't I mean, I wasn't doing the comparison just because I was like, oh, one's better than the other. No, I think they're phenomenal, and I think that it it's so so cool that everybody has their own approach to it and find success in what they're comfortable with. But yeah, he I like him a lot too, because he's really down to earth. At one point in the show, he missed the loop pedal and that the music completely stopped. And he's like, see, that's how you know it's live because I just missed the loop pedal, and then he like continued singing, and it was just like really funny. He's such a dork.

unknown 14:11

That was great.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

But yeah, that was our weekend. We went to Ed Sheeran. Chris was playing a meme deck. He said, We meme a meme deck. We said, Don't let your memes be dreams. And he brought a red steel locations deck that's been making its rounds, and he said, I lost my way into the top eight somehow because he lost his first round, he lost his no, he got a bye, he lost his first round, he lost his second round, and then he won his fourth round and made top eight because the people he lost to were Logan and Brad, who both made top eight. And so it was like, he's like, I didn't even play today, I lost my way into the top eight.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Sometimes the tournament math is just wild. It's wild, yeah. Sometimes it's wild in bad ways, and then sometimes it's wild in good ways. And you're just always a mathful math.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, I don't ever do the math. I see like a lot of people sitting there, like, oh, if I make this and I tie and I do this, and I'm like, I'm just gonna play because like I don't, I don't want to think about the math. I feel like thinking about the math makes it like more stressful for me.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Yeah, and and for me, I don't ever do a full calculation, but I do like try to, you know, see where things lie in the whole room just because I think, you know, turn two two two turns ahead. I do that in the game too, but like I think about that for tournaments because I want to play well at really large tournaments. So I feel I always practice at the smaller tournaments doing the math there.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

That makes sense. I think in general, it's like we know three ones usually make it in. You know, like you play enough of the tournaments that you kind of have a general idea of what the points are, but the math, the tiebreaker stuff, like I just don't bother because it's really disappointing when you do the math and you're like, there's a really good chance I could make it in, and then you like bubble out at ninth or something. It can be really disheartening. And actually, I didn't even know I was gonna make top four until I was in my last round playing and it looked like I was gonna win. And so Brad came over and was like, Well, he didn't say anything to me because I was in the game, but I heard him telling Chris, he's like, Does she know? And I'm like, that sounds like they're talking about me. Not that I'm like, you know, self-centered thinking everyone's talking about me all the time, but I was the only person left playing. So he's like, Does she know? And I was like, No what? And he's like, Nothing, nothing. And then as soon as I finished my match, he's like, I think you made top four. And I was like, What? I was ready to go home after round one today. I told Chris, I was like, I think I brought the wrong deck to this room. Yeah, I mean, you just never know.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

You just never know.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

You never know. Well, I mean, as soon as we matched in top four, I I matched against Logan. And Logan, we, we, you know, shuffled up. I was like, I there's no way I'm gonna win this. So because he's been hot for like two days, he we shuffled up and then he's like, Let me show you the hand I'm keeping and I'm gonna scoop. He's like, I know also know how this goes, and you could just go home. Yeah, well, and I mean we did play it out, but it didn't last much longer than the house. I told him I have to make you work for it, okay? That's fair, that's fair. But yeah, so that was our weekend. What did you do this weekend?

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yeah, so I'm sure our listeners are like, Does Nikki actually play? I do, but I'm still getting my feet wet and back into the game. So I have opted not to play any set champs just yet. Yeah, because I'm still trying to find my footing again and learning, you know, some of the the card mechanics that I really didn't familiarize myself with being away for well, probably just one set. So, what did we do? We saw the Mandalorian movie, which was really good. However, oh, okay. I I just feel like it could have been like a miniseries instead of a movie. So, like how it is now. Yeah, but I feel that they could have incorporated the Boba Fett storyline into it, as they have before in the series. I think there was so much more they could do with the the film that it was just lacking the storyline. There was a lot of action, but I think there could have been so much more with a story, and it could have been a really nice mini stri series to kind of close out both ends of Mandalorian and Boba Fett, because I feel like Boba Fett left on a cliffhanger in the series. So I just think I think it would have worked very well. Okay, but I enjoyed it, I did enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

So I'll watch it again on Disney.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

That's not the first that is not the first time I've heard that.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yeah. So I'm I I was impressed, I wasn't wanting to hear because I haven't finished the series yet, so I haven't gone to see the movie because I want to finish it before I see it. Yeah. And so I I'm getting a lot of opinions on it, but everybody's opinion is basically like there's not enough story for it. There's not like it's but it blows up real good.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

It does. I mean, yeah, there's plenty of action, there's plenty of, you know, combat, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

But yeah, I just so cool creatures. We talked about before where like I'm not a big Star Wars fan, so I've never seen any of that. But shockingly, I've also heard that feedback about they were like, the Mandalorian is this, and I'm like, what's the Mandalorian? I'm just kidding, I'm not that ignorant. I know what the Mandalorian is, I've just never seen it. But yeah, it's I've heard that feedback too.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Yeah, I mean, I yeah. Will I watch it again? Sure. But will I go pay to see it again? No. I guess I'm paying for Disney Plus anyway, but whatever.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

The mouse gets our money. Uh-huh. In all ways, in all ways.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Before the weekend, though, Brittany and I went to the theater. We did the theater of the theater. And uh, we saw the Wizard of Oz, which was so cool.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

It was really well done. Yes. I love so we went to the Hale Theater, which is a local theater, and they do an excellent job every time I've been to a show there. But the singing was phenomenal. Beautiful. The young kid that did the puppetry for Tono, he was so impressive.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

He was, he was like in character. Didn't really need to be in character. Wait, wait, wait, no, spoilers because Chris and I are gonna go see at this very acting was impressive.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Okay, yeah, I was like, obviously, everybody knows the story. Yeah, with stories, but I just um I don't want to know, like, yeah, because we've seen we love the Hale Theatre so much, we bought season tickets to them, and we've seen a lot of shows there, and it's always so, so well done. The what the cast can do with such a small cast and the limited space is just mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

It was my first time, so it was like I'd just think that the 360s stage. I thought it was really cool, and I'm like, okay, well, we were in a section where like characters were coming down, like right next to us. So I was like, I don't know if I want this new time I come here because it was it would it was a little hard to be like turning and looking and you know, trying to like Especially when they stop and sing right next to you, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

This is a little bit too immersive of a theater experience.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Um the cowardly lion, but it's a bit close.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

But yeah, it was and the audio quality, I feel like improved since the last time I went there, and it was not bad the last time I went. Yeah, so I'm wondering if they like upgraded their audio system because I think their their screens got upgraded too. Oh, interesting. I know that they recently did renovations, so I don't know if that was part of their renovations. Probably was, but I it was great. It was great, it was it was super fun, and I didn't mean to forget. I was just not a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

No, no, it's just something I hopped into my head. I didn't write it down on my list. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like technically it was Thursday.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

I was so tired.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Oh my god, so was I. I ended up taking two naps, cat naps, but like I was so wiped. So wiped.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

How old can you be when you you stay out till eleven thirty and you're tired of the stuff? No, it's the next day. And we still had to go to work the next day.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Yeah, pretty ugly. So yeah, I was glad when my boss canceled our five AM meeting because I was not prepared. Also, why are you having 5 a.m. meetings though? That's when I start my shift and my boss is in Scotland. So for her, it's lunch. Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

I guess that's understandable, but I I mean, even when I was working corporate, I'm like, dude, don't schedule meetings before 6 a.m.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Like, I'm not big. I often have 5 a.m. meetings. Well, I guess it makes sense because I work in construction.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah, that okay. That's fair. I'm just I'm just a spoiled uh corporate girly, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

I was like, I took you I technically work in corporate, but it's the construction, it's the construction side of corporate.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

So I'm a spoiled ex-corporate girly, usually. I wanted to pick up on something that you said earlier, which is like because you're getting back into the set, you're not really sure about doing set champs. But I guess my question is, is it because you're just not confident in like your playlines or are you just nervous about coming to like competitive scene?

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Yeah, I mean, a little bit of both. I mean, I, you know, I did a league night already and it went fairly well. I'm still trying to familiarize myself with the deck that I put together and trying to make changes to it. And then I feel like, oh, I shouldn't have made those changes. So I'm constantly questioning what I'm doing. Yeah. And yeah, right. So I I feel I do need to build up my confidence. And part of me is like, maybe I should just do it and put myself on the line and just see what happens to just dive headfirst into it, um, which might not be a bad idea. It's a thought. But it's a scary thought, but it's a scary thought because I know what kind of players we have in our community, and not like they're like scary and they're mean or anything. It's just they're good. Yeah, they're really good. And we've already talked about them. So I think, you know, for me, it's just yeah, building up that confidence again. Because I know I can play the game. I mean, the first time I ever did a set champs, I did make a top eight. We didn't have prizing gun like we do now, but but still, I enjoyed it when I did play. So yeah, it's kind of a thought that I've been teetering with just maybe just jump in, hiding.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

I think just do it. Yeah, honestly, I Rebecca Quests, who's one of my favorite people in this community, like larger Lurkana community, she's fantastic. She recently posted, I think this weekend, about how she was a loser. And but she like she like took it on and she was like, because there's honestly, there's more of us than there are winners. And she took it on as hey, we're here and we're still playing, and we might not always be the most competitive players in the room, but there's a space in Larcana for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah, that's uh I was gonna say was like, I don't know. I mean, this is now a team uses therapy session, apparently, but yes, are you charging me for this? I do you take insurance? Yeah, right. I was just gonna say that, you know, I don't think there's anything to be so intimidated by. And I think that's like a good message to not not to say that it's not scary, right? Because even I play it every set chance and I still show up and I'm like, oh my gosh, I better leave. Like, what am I doing? Yeah, but I there's people who show up and they're like, they're playing their cards, and you're like, wait, what does this card do again? I'm like, it's your deck, why are you asking me? Oh no, I do it all the time. But like, that's a but I think our community, and we talked about this, is so great that yeah, it it's fine, you know? And I think the thing that keeps a lot of people from trying is they come in with the expectation that it's like, hey, I'm a smart person, I should be able to win. But it's like the game is a lot more competitive than you think it is, even if it is a Disney quote unquote card game. But if you come in and say, I'm just here for the experience and I'm here to hang out with friends and learn, like I think you're gonna take a lot out of a set champs that is more than just, you know, going for the top eight cards. And I've seen a lot of players, like, I mean, on our own team, Tony and Nate were like that too, where they're like, Well, I don't want to play well, Tony wasn't like that because we didn't really know him that well, but Nate was like, I don't want to be competitive, and then he jumped in and just started showing up, and now he's kicking butt. It's awesome. And so, and Tony too. Tony just showed up, and the first time I ever met him was his third or fourth time playing in the wild. And he showed up with a deck that was homebrewed, and he lost every single round of the set champs, and he he came back the next day, and I was like, wow, that's awesome! And now he's kicking butt as well. Just I think it's just putting yourself in situations where you get a chance to practice and you get a chance to see what other players are doing and how they run the same 60 cards you're running, because I think that's how we learn, right? It's just yeah, seeing how other people who have put more practice or have had more experience with something like run the deck differently. That also helps you learn.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Yeah, I agree with you. And that's actually something I thought about too was like, would I be like a weird creeper if I just went and watched people play?

SPEAKER_00 26:49

We actually have a few people who have done that. Yeah. And we've had like community members come and be like, I just want to watch because I want to know what I should be doing. Yeah. Right? Or like what it could look like, what decks might be interesting to me. And seeing gameplay in person, I feel like it's so thoroughly different than watching games on like video and things like that. Like watching DLC play by plays is always interesting, and it's good to watch that high level of competitive play, but especially when you're still like wanting to learn at a more like local level, right? Seeing how you know regular everyday players are playing.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Yeah, I wouldn't buy a ticket to a DLC just to go watch somebody play for the first time. No, that's a big investment. No, exactly. Yeah, but but locally, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

For sure. Um, and then honestly, I just feel like the the environment feels a little bit different because you're there longer than it's a normal league day. It's a daytime start. Most of the time, it's a daytime start. And it's just like people are in a different environment. Like for me, I play so much better on the weekends because it starts in the morning than I ever do at league nights because I am not a night person. I'm like, I am I am my brain is cooked. Yeah. I have been working all day, especially by Friday night. I I go there and I do not expect to do well because I still want to go and practice, but I have not had enough sleep by that time. I haven't had enough, you know, caffeine to to help the world, but I play so much better when I play in the morning. And so like I feel I'm always excited when the tournaments start early.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

As everyone collectively groans at like 8 a.m. Yeah, I know. No, I'm like, please, let's do the floor 8 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

CRTM year before noon. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Yeah, I want to be able to have the rest of my day.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Yeah. I agree with that. So well, back to the watching thing, because like even I do that when I'm in the set champs. If I finish my match early, I will go around and watch. And especially the nice thing about I mean, we have our teammates who allow this as well, but don't obviously you don't say anything during the match, but after the match, sometimes I'll be like, hey, I have a question, like, why did you do that instead of this? Right. And it's like not a challenging their decision, it's me to like learning reasoning because I'm like, oh, that's a really good point that I didn't think about. Or I'll say something like, actually, I didn't, I don't know why I did that. I should have done something different, and here's why, because they know their deck better than I do. Um, and so it's just like really interesting to see. And and I haven't run into any players that have had any issues with me like asking questions after the fact. Yeah, sometimes there are ultra competitive players. You're like, I don't want to talk about my deck before the tournament's over, which is totally fair. And that's fine too. But they've never ever been rude about it or like, you know, they they just say, like, I don't feel comfortable talking about it right now, but after the tournament, you're welcome to ask me. And like that's that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

That's fair too. Fair. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Yeah. Uh the first time in a long time, because Daryl ended up with the bye in round one in our set champs, which for some reason happens.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

He is the luckiest man often. And I if there's a raffle, he's winning it.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Yeah, like if there's a buy, he's getting it. He's super lucky. And I I I mean, I luck out all the time because he is so lucky. As the one who was married to him. I totally understand it. So I I benefit from it very often, but he got the bye. And so he was walking around and he wanted to watch my gameplay, and he stood behind the other player, and and that guy was like, Oh, can you like go watch from a different angle? Basically, and it was the first time anybody'd ever asked, and he was like, Yeah, for sure. But I think the other guy was worried that he was gonna like tell me things as the game was happening. Well, first of all, I would like not even look at him because that is so not like me. I would freak before I ever had even like the inclination of cheating. I would yeah, I would be like, judge on myself. I looked at his size, he told me what to play. Um, but also I also I ask him to leave watching me play all the time because I just don't enjoy having hovering. Only him. I don't mind other I don't mind other teammates, but it's just different when it's your husband. Yeah. Uh but yeah, that was the first time and I was like, yeah, totally. Like makes complete sense. Yeah, but it was just funny because we have people that watch gameplay all the time and nobody has ever said anything before.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Yeah, yeah. I sometimes I'll get in those moods where I'm like, man, I'm just not playing well. And so I'll ask Chris to like watch me play, and he's learned very quickly to be like, no, because like, you know, we get in arguments about it, but it's like he knows me and he knows like I know what I'm doing wrong already. And it's sometimes I just get into those streaks that are like, I'm just tired, like he said, not thinking, making mistakes left and right, and then I get really down on myself. So him being the wonderful partner that he is is not like I'm not gonna add on to that because you already know what you're doing wrong, and I think you just need to relax. And I'm like, what's that?

unknown 31:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

So yeah, what's relaxing? But yeah, so I think he also does like we don't we watch each other play, but we don't ever, you know, like post mortem the game or something.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Yeah, I I I try not to analyze too much during the tournament because I feel like it psyches me out for the next round. But I always write down my match and like what they were playing after I play so that I can think about it after the tournament. I've gotten I I was very good about it.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Before in previous sets.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

And this set I've kind of Yeah, it's your it's your uh set.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

It's my break set. And I just still I got my goal of still getting a top of eight, right? Yeah so like I I did my goal. So now it's just it's still my break set, but um I'm starting to like look look past and try to think about what could I play post-rotation. So I'm trying to think about what in my deck can I take out that is gonna be rotated out, and based on what cards that we know obviously that are staying from sets eight and above, right? Not eight, nine, nine. I was like, no, nope. I was missing in my head and it wasn't from sets nine and above. So I'm gonna, I think, start changing my deck to be all post-rotation or very close to post-rotation. Now we don't know what else is coming, but that is definitely something to think about is like what could there be coming to kind of replace those pieces? So thinking about what's coming.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Well, well, well, we can segue into the very special lore cast that will be Tuesday, June 23rd at 10 a.m. Pacific time or any local time where you are.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Yeah, so there's a special lore cast coming up where they're gonna start reveals, but actually they're gonna start reveals this weekend at the DLC. That makes sense during the DLC coverage. So if you are not in a set champs this weekend, you can watch some DLC coverage to see some early attack of the vine attack of the mine and then some degenerate gameplay.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

And some infinity gameplay. Like I said, degenerate gameplay.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

And we have lots of Arizona community members going to that. So a big shout out to our Arizona crew going out to go play in that tournament. Hopefully, you do well. Good luck. Bring another invite to Arizona Peeps. We need to see that. Yeah, we do. And then I'm just I am thoroughly excited to see what's gonna go on the vine. Also, I'm thinking about what my nail set's gonna look like. I already started looking at my Pinterest board and being like, okay, what kind of vine nails should I look at? Because as as I currently have Atlantis nails, and so I'm like trying, I know it's a silly thing, but I always like try to match what's happening to a story nail. So yeah, we're good.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Yeah, we'd like to theme.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Yeah, I like I like my nails to have a theme, and I want it to kind of go with the theme of the new set, and I think the vine would be cool. Yeah. Uh I know in some of the teasers we've seen, like up is one of the things, and Monster Zinc is coming, and so I could also do like Monsters Inc. nails depending on how many monsters ink characters there are. Uh Sully nails would be so cute. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Sully and Mike Wazalski.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Like just have one Mike Wazowski with half an eye kind of hiding behind something. I'm not a nail with uh Mikey in the car on the drive uh with Mark as well. So like a lot of teammates in the car who were joking about Sully being an iconic card, and but it would be a Sully and Mike card. Right. But Mike is hiding. He's covered by the text box. And I just think that's it's just so on on theme. Yeah, that'd be so funny. Uh but I was, yeah, that's my one of my predictions is that Sully will be an iconic, but not both of them. Or or maybe Mike Gwazelski will be an iconic, sort of. And then probably a princess for the other one. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

What I think even funnier would be if Mike Wazelski was the only thing in the iconic and it'd be like the background of monsters incorporated, and it's just his little like head.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

Oh my gosh. That would that would be really funny too. But we also Mikey had the hope that it would be a Randall card would be there, but it would only be Randall's eyes. Yeah. So you can't, because he's goes invisible. And I was like, and then on the epic version, you can if you turn the foiling, you can see him.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Oh my gosh, that would be so elaborate. I know, but I was like, maybe they could do it. I don't think possibly. Yeah, I mean, they've done some beautiful stuff with the art, so you never know.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

So we're just kind of making some predictions there as to characters that could be on cards.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Well, and boo has got to be a card, right? Like they can't think about Boo. That's how cute. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

I'm just looking forward to the up cards because up is my absolute favorite. Yeah. They're gonna be sad cards. They're gonna be a little sad for, especially for me. Like Carl and Ellie. Carl and Ellie. But uh, yeah, those are the cards I'm looking forward to the most. They're very sentimental to me. So but yeah, I wanna see a Kevin card and and Russell and Doug. I think Doug would be cool.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

That's I think that's gonna be kind of an action part of the card. I just I love the constant feeling of like, hey, we're moving forward, we're having fun, the game is constantly changing. It feels fresh. It feels like I was a little worried that dogs was gonna continue just to be over, over menacing, but it this weekend showed me that there's so much of variants still, and I'm not worried about it, at least on the local level, not sure what it looks like everywhere else. But here I feel like we have a very healthy meta.

SPEAKER_03 37:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Um, and so I just want to continue, you know, playing this game, loving the Disney IP and how Disneylor Cana is just being supported, getting excited to ramp up for um the LCQ at the end of the summer and you know, nationals going to Disneyland beforehand.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

Yeah, we had a whole month where it was just a lot of waiting for things to happen. And then now the time has come, like things are happening, right? Set champs is gonna lead into the DLC, is gonna lead into the LCQ, and so things are like a lot of stuff is happening. Well, the new set of movement. Yeah, lots of movement, which is always exciting.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Yeah, I like the forward movement, and I know a lot of people are get frustrated by how often the game rolls over, but honestly, this game moves slightly slower than a lot of some of the other TCGs that you know release new things every other week. Right. We say as Magic the Gathering has a big release this weekend. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Well, I feel like Magic has gotten on the extreme end of releasing things because it used to be about four times a year, which I think is a great pacing because it keeps the game fresh. It keeps the game like alive in the sense that you know it doesn't the meta doesn't get stale. It's not the same two or three decks every single time winning. And I agree with you, like with rotation and the new sets coming out, that like the meta is so healthy right now because even though there are dominant decks, of course, like you know, dogs and blurb was dominating for a very long time, there were always decks that, you know, quote unquote came out of nowhere winning big tournaments, and it made people really excited to try different colors and try different combinations and see if they can crack the next like awkward, like new deck that can win a big tournament too. Uh but now magic is I don't want to say an attempts to money grab, but it's an intenso money grab of releasing new sets uh every single month. And I think I hope Lurcana never gets to that point because it feels too like too much. It's exhausting for collectors who want all the like cards, it's exhausting for players and monetarily like very hard to keep up with getting new product and like they're playing on the fact that people have FOMO and like don't want to miss out on the latest, strongest cards. And it's I think it just makes it really unfair to the player base.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

Yeah, and I don't think the Disney Lorcana will ever do that. I think that they focus more on the pla the player base as it also being a family game and trying to have it be that is part of the focus. They do have the competitive side and all of that, but so I don't think they're gonna increase the like the amount of sets that are getting printed and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

I mean, magic has been around for a long, long time, right? Yeah. So I feel like in the early days, it took them probably 10 or 15 years before they started printing more um sets in a year. Uh but they stuck to the at first it was like two or three and then four, and then they stuck with that for a long time. So I feel like it just inevitably happens with every card game that stays successful, is that, you know, less it's like a cycle, right? So you start out and everyone's super interested. They buy a lot of product and then you slow roll everything out, and then eventually um, you know, there's enough turnover or there's enough uh interest that people feel like they can overcreate or overprint sets and things like that, and then it like becomes a cycle. Yeah. So I mean, I don't know if we can say like Lorcana will never get there, but I think it'll be hopefully a very, very long time before they get to that point. So yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

Um prediction from the new set before we that's an excellent question. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

I because I feel like we don't have enough information yet.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

But this is the time, this is why we make predictions before we have information.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Well, I have one. I it's more of a hope than a prediction, but I hope they print something that takes away ward temporarily. Because I feel like that would be such a great thing for the game to keep the game healthy. So yeah. I like that. Yeah. Could just be like a second item to remove ward or ignore ward or like play this action to to like can target ward characters or something. Yeah. I hope that happens because ward is insane.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Did something with like some kind of like the monsters indoors, you know? Maybe there's something like we can incorporate with that. I don't know what, but just kind of something that kind of popped in my head. It's a scream canister. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

The scream canister removes ward.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Yeah, that would be cool. Um the door thing kind of reminds me of the pull the lever wrong lever, pull the lever. It could be something like that where it's like you walk into like Monster's World or not.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

That'd be fun. Yeah, I like that. I also like want there to be a uh we scare because we care. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Uh that's that'd be fun.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

So, and I want it to have like some kind of unique canic that has to do with locations because I just feel like that I think Monsters Inc.'s gonna have some locations with it because yeah, like they go to different rooms and they have um so I just think this we scare before because we care might have to do like have locations. And I I want more location support in the game because I love locations.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

I was just gonna say that. I'm like, I hope this set is a set they support locations.

SPEAKER_00 42:42

Because I want that to come back. Um I won't I think that they've tried many times, like with the Elsa card that they recently printed with the legendary, and then people still aren't playing locations. So I'm hoping that with this rotation, they're gonna support locations.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

So well, I hope that they put so we recently revisit or played the Reign of Jafar like board game, and they have for the locations on in Jafar's deck, like the obstacles, right? So it's like bodyguard for locations, and I think that would make locations way more viable in this game if there was something like bodyguards for locations, because locations is just basically a sideways character that gains you passive lore a lot of times, and and it's so easy to take out with all these big strength people big strength glimmers that are in the game now. So I think having like an obstacle that could be a great keyword to not introduce to the game because it already exists, but actually in the competitive side of it.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Yeah, because it only exists in the Jafar game. Yeah, I have so like putting it into the main game might be a good idea. I liked it a lot. All right. Well, have a good week, everyone, and happy questing.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Happy questing.