Flesh and Blood | Energy Potion | Episode 6

Toby and John chat competitive Flesh and Blood TCG.  Including discussion on Super Armoury results, Project Blue, Canterbury Gaming Convention, the Auckland Callings and planning for the upcoming season of Pro Quest: Yokohama.

We are back with a THUNK as we UP THE ANTE this week with TALES OF ADVENTURE from CGC and a BLOW FOR A BLOW account of what it takes to give your opponents the HEAVE HO!

RECOIL in horror as Toby's SAND SKETCHED PLAN for CBAS chat is EXPOSED!

Avoid a NASTY SURPRISE as we discuss every TWIST AND TURN of planning for the upcoming PQ season.

Recorded at the Cracked Bauble Appreciation Society (CBAS) HQ in front of a live audience.

Transcript

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because yeah, I played against the Teklo Yep. Uh the Teklo player in which Yeah. Uh I've immediately forgotten their name (sorry Gary). So I'm really sorry about that. Um especially because obviously Well, this we're going to plug this to them to then listen to Oh, I see. That's why we're going tonight as advertisement. I see. We should get cards. Um anyway, play against him. Um, I was on Katsu. He was on Teklo. Would you like to guess the final life totals? I'm going to go 40. That's well done, John. Would you like to guess how many turns it took? Three. Wow. Wow. Three turns. It took three turns. Very nice. And then the the the young person who was doing the Pokemon Learn to Play. Yeah. Who's played at DICE (Dice and Destiny, Canterbury, UK) before? Uh do you remember the High Seas pre-release? They were dressed as a pirate, which was sick, by the way (remembered Andy's name too late). Um and you know, two of them. They were very nice, very lovely. Yep. Um and I said I would come over to the Meeple. Yep. Um to play VGC at some point. Oh. And um yeah, and I was like, "Oh, but also I want to come play FaB. I want us to, you know, to to start venturing out again as CBAS (Cracked Bauble Apprecition Society) to go play at locals and stuff to to make Kent FaB a thing." Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And and you know, they're doing very well with a small crowd. Yeah. You see the same they they post their results in the Discord. I'm on their Discord. I'm now also on the Discord. Good. It's a very good Discord actually for a store. Welcome to Energy Potion, a Flesh and Blood podcast where we chat about trying, failing, and sometimes succeeding to play Flesh and Blood as competitively as we can. We are now available beyond our YouTube channel and can be found on all good podcast apps. In fact, that's how you can tell it's a good one. Please don't smash the like and subscribe or follow buttons just yet. We are still learning and don't need that kind of pressure from the algorithm. You can comment whenever you want though because we can't resist talking about our favorite TCG. This episode was recorded in the Cracked Bauble Appreciation Society Headquarters in OG Canterbury. We did end up taking a swing at the Mug and Meeple Armory, but it turned out to be a little reckless. The issue with having a store Discord is that someone has to run it. Yeah, I know. And and we've tried getting off of chat and onto Discord and with mixed results. I mean, I might I'm still really tempted to just explode that, but I I don't actually know what that means. I don't know. I will delete the CBAS chat. Oh. Oh, really? That's almost a reasonable option. almost a reasonable option because we're now it's now so big. Exactly. It's now so big. And um there are like at least four splinter chats, but the Cuppers (Cup of TCG, check out their channel on YouTube) have a chat. I know there's I believe it's the Spectrum Nexus. Um the what? It's literally it was a chat that was made. I think it was like me, Pip (CBAS Founder, Skirmish winner), Charlie (CBAS Memeber, renowned local Judge). It was it was for an event. Oh, right. And then it's kicked off. And then gradually we just added like a few other people. To be fair, you should probably be in it. Um I don't get invited to stuff, Toby. I'm well aware. Wow. Well, you should. It's it's a it's it's a thing. I have two in life. This the cup chat is obviously always going because they talk about but the the the the Nexus doesn't really go off because all the chat that happens would happen in the thing. Yeah. Um and obviously that would be rectified if we just had the Discord because then people would just talk in there in respective chat and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I I know. And actually when the Discord was sort of on the way up, it was going really well. Yeah, it was. And and and honestly with a Discord is a lot easier to get people who aren't locals in. Yeah. Cuz I get to go, here's a Discord invite. Yeah. Come on in. Yeah. And it's a lot less intimidating to post in a Discord channel and more subject specific chat with 40 people where we post mainly about Nutella and Magic the Gathering. Yeah. and Pokemon. Sometimes Pokemon occasionally somebody has to ask Charlie what a card is and then he eats it. He eats it. Don't ask Charlie about illusionist cards. Everyone is up Charlie Wallace's habits. He eats eats cards and he drinks from puddles. I don't know about the last one. Okay. So, we have a huge competitive weekend of Flesh and Blood. a huge competitive weekend of FaB that I could not attend, which is is a crying shame. You did have prior engagements. I'm I'm absolutely gutted. Um first of all, the least of the events, did anything good happen at Calling Auckland? Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten there was something going on. Yeah, exactly. In the wider world, some smaller event. Some small event. Yeah. Um I think Yeah, I think some FAB was played. I think there there were some relatively big names there, give or take. Um, I saw that and this is in the in the sealed I'd like to preface. Yep. In the sealed calling. Sealed calling. Two callings. Katsu won. Um, Katsu won the sealed calling. Uh, no. No, you didn't. I lied. Oh, what? Dori won. The one of Dori in the top eight draft won the um the top eight for that. Fine. Three cats in that pod. One Dori, one Rhinar, two Bravos. I'm not saying Welcome to Rathe is the best set. Except I Fair. Peak drafting experience. I I can't argue with you. I didn't exist then. Well, you did, John. We don't talk about that. Dark dark times. So, that was good. That was interesting to watch. Jacob Clements, obviously UK player, got to the finals. Very well done, Jacob. Um uh probably be seeing him in this upcoming maybe skirmish with some but probably might see him around on ProQuest season. Yeah, we need to talk about ProQuest season. We'll get to that. That's that's at least 20 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Um might see him playing at Battle Hardened Copenhagen coming up soon as well. Yep. Course which we have a local going. Isn't that Calling? It's Calling. Calling Copenhagen. It's in It's in Denmark. It's Calling. It's a Calling. That's all I know. It's a Calling. It's recording and it's really soon. And and Lucian (CBAS Member), the player who we're sending, might even decide on the deck before that if we're lucky. I think he's set on Ira. He's liking Ira. Um I beat him last night um playing Kano as Ira and I shouldn't have. Okay. Um so I think I think is a good sh I think I think good luck Lucian with Ira. Although the other Calling at Auckland Yep. um didn't have any Iras in the top eight. No, it didn't. It had some very cool decks in the top eight. It did. It did however have many other decks. Yeah. Many other cool decks in the top eight. Um including but not limited to two wizards. I know neither of them runs. I know. I'm really pleased about that. Two slippies, one gravy. That's your meta. That's your meta game. Yep. Slippy uh a dash io. I probably don't have to I don't have to preface io anymore. It's dash. It's one dash. That makes me sad, Toby. So, can we please call her dash io? Okay. Okay. Um one do um one DIO who apparently I've not finished catching up made some absolutely amazing calls on null time zone. I mean if you can read souls that's a card to play. Yep. If you can if you can peer into the abyss of your opponent's mind and see what's in their arsenal or in their hand I suppose. In their hand. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think there was one where they they called a card and it was the card in their arsenal. But uh so it's Yeah. A turn off turn. Yeah. Turn. Um Oh, and that does imply there were two more heroes, John, that I've forgotten. That's right. Because I've already I've already looked at the Kano list and the Kano list is really really interesting. What the other two what the other two days? Um, while you're looking at that, I have actually bought a card off the back of seeing that Kano list because I don't have any I didn't didn't have any of the new amulet amulets. The new amulets I've sort of held off from because they all look fun, but I'm not sure what's good. But there's one that is basically an E Pot. So Kanos are playing. Yeah, the Ruby one. So Kano's playing three E Pots and an amulet that is an E Pot. Yes. So four E Pots. Honestly, all those amulets are just like they're just essentially buffs for um Kano. Yeah, exactly. Just choose choose your buff for Kano. Prism was in the top eight and Fang was in the top. Fang is a bit scary, isn't it? Fang is very scary. Yeah, let me tell you, Fang is pretty good. I think yeah, very recently it was the first time ever playing against Fang that they didn't get online in like two turns. And it was still a very close one, I'd like to point out. Um, but no, uh, Auckland very good, very very good to watch. Very good, good to watch. Lots to learn. I bought a card because of it. That means it's work. It works. We'll we'll talk about we'll talk about why when we when we when we when we get to that bit of the show to the wizard portion of the show. Well, to the PQ portion of the show, I think, which might become the wizard portion of the show. Um, but it wasn't anywhere near the top three events of the weekend. No, no, obviously not. Well, one, it was on the other side of the world. Yeah. And was actually quite hard to watch live, which Well, if if you have a premium streaming team, that doesn't happen. Well, more I was in I was asleep when it was streaming, John. But Oh, right. Fine. Um whereas I was wide awake, glued to my screen watching uh the Cup of TCG coverage of this weekend. you were also on watching the coverage of Canterbury Gaming Convention's very own Flesh and Blood events this weekend um which I signed up to uh judge and help run smoothly um and swimmingly in the shadows of the background and then on the day was told actually you know what Toby um we've got this covered you can probably play if you want. Oh and so I did. So you did just with whatever goblin chaff you had in the bag. Literally. Literally whatever chaff was in the bag. Callum (Cup of TCG, CBAS Member, PQ winner) came up to me and said, "Oh, I kind of want to play um in the in the in the armory. Um do you have any decks I can borrow?" And I've got I was I got five and I've got gravy, but it's got like the tricorn has even got like Crown of Providence in it. And he was like,"I'll just do the coverage. Fine." And then 20 minutes later he's like,"Are you going to play then?" I was like, "Well, probably not. I'll judge it." And Charlie was like, "I'm judging it." I'm like, "Well, well done, Charlie. I'll just do the booth." And then there was like no one at the booth. I'm like,"You know what? Fine. I'll play it." Okay. With with your trihorn engrav. Yeah. Yeah. Sad times. Sad times. So, how was round one for you? I round one had um I believe it was Sam (CBAS Member) who borrowing Callum's Levia deck, which is why Callum was looking to buy. Sam's good with Levia. Yep. Sounds well practiced on Levia. Um playing Sea Legs was a recent upgrade. Yep. Um probably the weakest of the brutes to use Sea Legs because obviously while she has the draw discard, she also has the banish stuff too. Sea Legs can turn up at the wrong time. Um a lot more than it turns up at the right time. That being said, go again on on call in a brute always pretty good if you can get it get it lined up. Uh, and also with a bit of luck, you you'll get that that discard when you need it. Um, probably I think I think a relatively balanced matchup. I think Levia is one of the heroes that on average has access to pretty decent um action point generation. Like she can go again like she can do the wild. She she does the she does the she does all the she can go big and wide sometimes at the same time. sometimes at the same time and obviously like if she's if she's turning the corner and you're at that kind of like in the danger zone life total and she decides this is the turn that I'm I'm popping off with a blood rush. Gravy's not renowned for his blocking prowess. So I you know I played it's been a while since I played Sam but it's been a lot longer than that since I saw him die to blood. M yeah it's very I mean again it it does sometimes just catch you but um y in this game it didn't um he I got him and it's Callum's levia deck so we know we know we know it's only going to be a good liar deck yeah it's not it's not too too free too spicy um it was it was pretty solid um it was a close one I mean all all my games on the night were were a close one I played quite aggressively as I think gravy decks have sort of moved to now and I think you have to really because it becomes more of a presenting pressure presenting disruption playing aggro decks are good aggro decks are good and gravy is I think gravy gravy's closer to dramai than than he is to enigma for example in terms of board place decks um anyway through my aggression I very tactfully and skillfully put him to 14 um in a matter of turns um now obviously 14 as we all know is very different to 13 y um and so I then had to deal with uh four turns of Levia consumed um following that, right? Um one more point of damage. I would have felt a lot more comfortable. Um so yeah, he obviously he turns the corner, it becomes a very different game. I was very much pushing pushing pushing. We were trading quite nicely. I felt quite quite in in driver's seat. Then I'm coming back with these four to five card hands um with obviously dread screamers and uh the other one I forgot should really know that as the brute player. Um but no lots of lots of go again into into claws into more go again. Um but again gravy does have the benefit of making every match up a 3v1. So through the overwhelming power of me limpit and rigger mortise. Yep. We did manage to overcome uh overcome the the wall that was Levia. Probably one of the more favored matchups of the day for me. Yeah. Um favored being again, like I said, if he draws the right side of his deck, I probably lose. Yeah. Um and again, I'm not saying I didn't make any mistakes, but Gravy is a deck that does feel like you can play not perfectly and still do quite well. Yeah, it's it's I'm hearing it being banded about as the highest skill ceiling deck at the moment, which means that there's got to be room at the top for making some small mistakes. Certainly at at, you know, still a local level, right? If it's the highest skill ceiling deck, then it's still got to do well with a few mistakes. Yeah, I think I I would I I'd posit that it's got quite a a relatively high skill floor. I mean, that being said, I I'm not not the the sharpest tool in the shed, John, than I'm I can play it. So, maybe it can't be that high. You played brute for many years. That is actually very cerebral, don't quite correct. Um, but yes, I agree that there's a reason the best players in the world are playing it is because the skill high which rewards low mistake play, but it means that there's got to be space for for the occasional mistakes, the occasional unforced error perhaps. Um but no, thankfully uh got the the the right side of the of the luck um in that matchup and then proceeded to then play on stream for round two. Yeah. uh against my good friend Jess (CBAS Member, I've lost track of her event victories) um on her arguably favorite deck outside of perhaps Club Levia um in Hatchet's Dori um a deck that both of us have been working on and think is well positioned in the metag game um in a metag game dominated by Cindra and um and Gravy Bones. Uh I I can see hatchets into gravy pens. Although although now this is a bit of the the cupers coverage that I was able to catch up on so far. They were saying that actually it's Dawnblade Dori that's more favored into into the old well Dawnblade Dorman pirate is favored into Gravy because one he he probably can't block Dawn Blade himself regardless and two if you give her something to swing at um she'll she'll take down the ally and then threaten the Dawn Blade counter. Um and she won't need the attack reactions to to get through on the allies. So she gets to keep them for you too. But Hatchets, I can still see him because Hatchets attacks from a different angle, right? So Dori with her Dawn Blade is very much looking to to kill Gravy to put him in the ground um fast and quick before he really gets to space of anything he wants to do. Um because something like Sawbones, for example, or Chum is very useful in that matchup. hatchets um are quite uh quite content to take their time and threaten life total obviously as as you should, but also um it's a deck that is very capable of literally killing every ally in that deck. Yeah. Um and I think there's a there's a point in the in the game where that becomes the game plan if you think you you're not going to be able to push the life total. Um, now obviously the key difference between Hatchets and and Dawnblade um is that uh Hatchets gets access to Cleave. Oh, cleave a card that I guess initially was to keep Dromai in check and Dromai's allies in check. Um, but against Gravy is obviously fantastic as a way to kill two birds with one stone, kill two allies with one swing. um and also take out some of the more annoying one toughness, one health um allies that you wouldn't usually want to dedicate a full swing to um and and sort of catch them in a sweep um if you will in a sweeping motion. You can swing the six into um charum, take out rigger mortis as well and then present the second one at face and then obviously if you have that one go give that one go again as well. Dori still kicks in. ing the the third hatchet um face again. So again, it's a lot of pressure and obviously a deck that blocks well too, a deck that doesn't need to necessarily have a full fourcard grip to present a good hand. Um so yeah, an awful awful matchup I think. Um I think luckily and one that Jess is very well practiced with and Jess has been playing that deck for a very long time. Certainly not the matchup of the deck. Exactly. So I think I I got again as you have to to win any tournament. I think I got quite lucky um in that I think she wasn't able to track down two of her three cleaves. Um, so they weren't in the list, which I did afterwards, obviously. Yep. And the one cleave she was playing, uh, I managed to threaten with a conqueror of the high seas quite early on, and she crowned a providence it to the bottom. So, by the time we got back there, she wasn't able to keep the hands to present it. A good long grindy game then. Uh well, anyone who might have watched the footage will see that we did utilize the full um the full width of the the round time. I I haven't finished yet because I was listening to it whilst exercising this morning and I don't have that much stamina personally. Yeah, it it really will test the stamina of one's mind. Um but obviously in the in the moment is it was it was very close. It was time. Obviously, we have a good time. We have fun playing. Um, there were a few turns where And in the commentary, you were even accused of playing quickly as well, both of you. Well, we we played fast at the beginning because we knew we'd go to time. Um, and there's actually a quip in the later game when I'm streaming where they're like, "Well, it'll probably take a while cuz Tobyy's playing Gravy." Like, actually, I play Gravy at speed. I play Gravy very fast. Thank you very much. Difficult deck. Difficult deck. Difficult deck to play fast without mistakes. Y um again a deck that requires um a great many deal of reps that I personally probably don't have. Um getting there. Well, unfortunately to get reps, you don't have to play the deck. Yeah. Um and and there aren't there was an armory every night which there were I don't know. You're you're you're you know, as a side note, you're about to rack up hopefully four solid days of fab. When you put like that, John, I suddenly become incredibly tired. That's the plan. That's the plan. Yeah, I I'm I'm not surprised that the uh the turnout for last night's on demand fab locals was a bit bit smaller than usual. Um I I understand a lot of players are probably quite fab. Four events in three days after after a weekend. So, round two, Jess. Round two, Jess. I won't spoil the result for you um as you're going to watch the rest of it later, I'm sure. Uh but it was a real real nailbiter final. Uh and again I stopped I stopped listening to the game and actually just the commentary was very entertaining. So yeah I mean I usually just listen to commentary. I very rarely actually watch the game itself on the second monitor or on the earphones or something while I'm working. Um which is why as an aside commentators please please mention every card being played. Please please in in assume that people aren't necessarily watching the stream. Yeah. And they're just listening because that makes it a lot easier for me to do just that. Yeah. And you need to tell the color as well, even even if Toby's watching. Especially if Toby's watching. Um, and also for what it's worth, they obviously did fantastic with the coverage. The commentary was fantastic. The audio quality was fantastic. The video quality um was the best that they could do with the situation they were given. Yeah. Because of the nature of the way the hall was set up and the nature of the space they were given, they did not have much control over the lighting. No. And so at some points that some of the cards were quite hard to see. It's really hard. We've tried, you know, we have tried the the lighting the cards is uh is hugely painful. You need like a small a cave of sorts where you can control light on every level. Um so again, so that would also help us if you're listening. $5,000 would go a long way to helping us get a cave. Thank you. It would I could rent a cave. That would be lovely. And we'd share it between at least two teams of That's true. of content creators. You think we'd get three? Maybe we can get five. Maybe even three different teams of content creators would use would use this kit. It' be nice. It would be nice. Um but no, so that second game ends. Uh it's very exciting. So I'll I'll let you enjoy that in your own time. Okay. Okay. Um because then game three comes along. I'm banish back down to the depths of the regular tables of the regular peons. Um, and no stream, no stream for that because instead the game streamed is Fang versus something else. Who was on Fang? Um, Cameron was on Fang. Okay. Um, and I want to say Callum on Boltyn was the opponent. I thought Callum was streaming this game. This this I think convinced by Boltyn. All right, fine. Yeah. Okay. I will catch up. I will see. Well, you can tell me how it went because I haven't watched it yet. Okay. Evidently, because I can't remember who was playing. I'm also struggling to remember who I played. John, can't help you there. What people do we know from CBAS? There was quite It was quite a big 20 people. There were 20 people. We're going to list 20 people. Yeah. Um, was Noah (Cup of TCG, CBAS Member) playing? No. Finley (Cup of TCG, CBAS Member, 2nd place Battle Hardened on Boltyn) playing? No, Charlie. Charlie Charlie was judging. No. Um, Pippa. No, she wasn't there. Uh, Christian (CBAS Member, winner of a 26 person Armoury) was playing Pokemon. Uh, Christian technically was playing, but not but no, it wasn't Christian. Um, Ross (CBAS Member), no. Uh, Lucian, no, don't think so. Uh, Aidan 2 (CBAS Member). No. Ayden 3 (CBAS Member). No. Testing our knowledge of CBAS now without getting our phones out. Without getting our phones out. I have my phone. I can just check. Just check. This is This is also finding its own way. But keep keep going, John. We might get there before we get there. Um, uh, I know Kyle (Cup of TCG, CBAS Member, Skirmish winner) in one and Ryan (Cup of TCG, CBAS Member) were casting because I saw them. Exactly. Uh, Dave (CBAS Member), if Cameron was there, Dave was probably there. I have misremembered the order of games, that's why. Round one. Yep. I had Josh (CBAS Member) on Puffin. Oh, I had Josh on puff in round one. Blew up all my bloody equipment with palunteers. That's why I'd removed it from my memory because it was a traumatic experience. Traumatic experience removed from memory. Then round two, Levia, round three. No, round two was was Jess on stream. Round two was Jess on stream. Round three was Sam. Round three was Sam. The other way round. Okay. No, the game the We'll we'll Okay, we fix it in post. I mean, we won't. Um, we won't. We'll we'll quickly rewind in time. We'll do a flashback. So, all the equipment got blown up. Um the game was very very good. I did enjoy it very much. Um so, sorry Josh because you're going to get here now after having complained been like,"Well, I played in round one, but we're here now. We're acknowledging that I played you round one." Um and it was a really good game and it was fantastic. And as we all know, Josh's um uh Puffing Deck is beautiful. Like all like gold for all Yeah, he's gone to town. Lovely arts of it. All the gold for cogs as well. Um, very hard to to stick an ally against Puffin because she has that that pesky gun that only requires two cogs to fire and she's quite happy to throw um an ally. So, I'm having to throw as much as I can at him, throw disruption, and obviously like just essentially eat anything he throws at Gravy because uh I can't afford to give him cards in this race. Yep. Um, and if he can can finagle the uh the the cogs in a way that make them disruptive, so be it. I'm ruined. Yep. Um, so that was very good. Very close. And I get to a point where I do start to stabilize and get to start pushing like um pushing for lethal and taking cards out of hand that he probably wants to keep to get rid of allies. Yep. Um, Chum and Sawbones as ever prove that they are they're basically the only two that I know from the allies because they're they're horrendous. as in you play them all the time against me. I have a main board of gravy I think of like 48 to 51ish cards. Um and the nine allies that are always in are Sawbones, Chum, and Rigle Mortis. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everything everyone else is on the backup team. Everyone's on the bench. They come in as and when they're needed. Those nine um well those three times three are are the are the real the real front liners. Um, but no, game against Josh, really, really good. Fast forward to the end of round three where I just finished being Sam. Yep. Yep. We talked about that already. We don't want to We don't want to revisit that. I know. I know you won. That one back. Um, we get to the finals. I'm back on stream again. Playing against Cameron on Fang. So, there we go. The finals. Yep. So, round four finals, Super Armory. Thus far, undefeated, I'm assuming. Yep. Two three 0's being Cameron. two, you and Cameron. Well done, Cameron. Well done, Cameron. A player Cameron is still I was was seeing as still a relatively new player in comparison to the grand scheme of things. Um floated around on a few decks. Played a bit of Y, played a bit of um some various other guards as well. I think he might have played Bravo for a little bit. I may have missed that phase, but I know the phase because that was horrendous. Um and is now on Fang, is now having a good time with Fang. Yep. Good. Well, apparently so. and and playing very well with them and is a bad match up for gravy as it seems a lot of warriors are. Y sounds like if you can swing your weapons to good effect, allied decks aren't as good. No. Um which is funny when you consider that illusionists and stuff loved playing against warriors. So it's funny how they have in in theory fixed fixed ally decks to to a degree. Okay. Anyway, Fang. Fang. Um a deck that can get online very quickly. Yep. can pressure face um very emphatically and has the ability to essentially sculpt the size of the attacks of his daggers as as he wants. Does Fang fear the ripple away? Um I think ripping away does that does that stop a fieldalty generation says actions? Yeah, I think so. And most of the things that make fieldy are either the on hit Yeah. on hit mark or or attack reactions. Yeah. So maybe not if card then maybe. Fang scares me. It should. It does. It does scare me. Fang. Fang is a very strong deck. Obviously, another local um and Kappa Noah plays Fang um to great effect. Uh it's a deck with probably quite a brutal learning curve. I think a deck that really forces you to you don't have long to learn it because it's it you got sort of the two phases of Fang and that first phase is either short or you you did it wrong. True. Yeah. Either you get online. Well, this is the thing. So, obviously going into the game, um, this was one of the ones where Fan didn't immediately get online. Yeah, he took a few turns to get online. Obviously, you are at the mercy of the hands who draw. Um, he took a bit long to get online. Had to sometimes use although that's what the fridge is for cuz this is the other advantage to warrior. You got the fridge. Well, exactly. And dynamos. So, it's not like a long game isn't necessarily beneficial to a dynamos. um he got a lot of extra block value out of those boots and obviously swinging two daggers is well within his his abilities um even having to pitch to swing with them. So resetting the the the minus one counter on that happened a fair bit. Um but yeah, he had he had to crack a few fields to just present decent turns to like make non-draconic attack reactions draconic to make sure they smoothed out quite nicely. Um and so I think by the time he gets online we're looking at about like 26 piece around then like 25ish. I think we're pretty much on level still in that we've talked about this before that level where you've got space to eat a turn almost and and and and come back hard and fundamentally obviously with him taking so long to get online. I would have liked very much to have been further a deck's working essentially from from the get-go and his is working at half speed till then and he gets online and there's no real way for me in Gravy to get him offline. Yeah. Um, and I don't and he's very online and he starts pressuring me a lot. Um, quite early on actually he makes a decision which re-watching it the commentary found confusing and I fundamentally thought was correct and was the game plan for the game which was to ignore the allies. Yep. And go for the face. Fair. Um because there's only so if I draw the right allies there's an argument to to taking them out. Like there's a point where like sore bones is down and like this might bait a bit of damage for him, but like fundamentally Fang is capped to the damage his deck can do and it can do a lot of damage. Um and gravy blocks badly and gravy blocks and fangs fast. So the idea is I think once you're online and even before you're getting online looking to go at phase and if he had if he had gone through the allies I would have got that life leader that I wanted. Yeah. I would have felt a lot more comfortable in the end game because there were multiple turns. Skipping ahead a bit when we get to the end game where I'm like I'm at the mercy of his draws. If he draws the right set of attack reactions, there's not much I can do about it. That's a fang thing. I find it is a fang thing where you've got to you've got to play around that one last really big attack reaction they've got in deck every hand. And you can't do it. You can't do it. No, you can't. Um you get put in the blender a little bit. It's just like playing against Dawn Blade Dori back in the day where like once you get to a certain life turtle that there it's damned if you do, damn if you don't kind of situation. Um and once he gets online, we very rapidly approach that situation. Yeah. Uh I end up making what one might call an unforced error. Um where I I eat essentially a full turns worth of damage to keep a four card grip. Um which honestly is also like three red, so there's not much I can do with it. Yep. um if I give him the cards, I probably still take a fair bit of damage and don't do anything back. Whereas, if I keep the four card hand, I at least present some damage. Yeah. Start getting to that point where I'm pressuring um the life total, pressuring the the win instead. I end up activating gravy to discard a conqueror that I sees, right? Because I need the blue that's on top of my deck. Yep. then proceed to use the blue to play a golden temple, discard an ally, and then have to throw a conqueror um for seven because I needed a second blue off the top of the golden temple draw. Okay. And sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. Um that time I didn't. So we end up throwing uh again a hand with a bit of damage, a bit of disruption, but again like a four card 10 is not where we want to be at that point in the game. Um I end up having to I think pitch a red swift water sloop as well which is again another card that I would have liked to have thrown for again but um so we end up losing a lot of tempo on that sort of turn and then we get into the the nitty-gritty of the end game where I am at the mercy like I said a minute ago of those attack reacts turning up at the right time. Yeah. Uh he could very much just throw the first dagger. I respect it to a degree with a three block and he just pumps it all the way up to 11 and dead. Exactly. Yep. Um, I'm sitting on a blood in the water for a while to sort of mitigate that. I haven't seen any of them, so I know there's like three in there. So, I'll have one, another one's going to turn up soon. So, I'm hoping to play around those to a degree. Um, and my board state is charm saw bones for the vast majority of this. I do end up then finding a second charm and resolving a second saw bones before the games end, right? Which so I start feeling very comfortable on the board and obviously he's dedicated himself to throwing at face. So, I get to keep those. Those are my boys. Um, and I think it's the second saw bones that starts the actual like is it the minus one off the saw bones then that starts to prevent one. Yeah. So so two saw bones down starts to feel really painful. Obviously the more times they stick around the more especially with attack reaction type decks. Exactly. The more preventing damage like like a like like dynamos but now you got two of them. Exactly. Got two of them. And obviously even when I I don't use one I get to swing the other one for six. Um which is pretty handy. I think there was only really one turn where I didn't actually use the saw bones to prevent damage and that was because ideally I would have drawn that blue like I said and then done the conqueror into the sb. Um but no we get to the real nitty-gritty. Um it's getting very very close. I know he's still got two hunts ends in the deck. Um uh and then there is a turn on camera which um the casters I think enjoys to a degree. I check my compass. Um, I see what's top of my deck. There's an attack coming in for for one. I give it a a cursory uh three block. He pumps it. Uh, he pumps it again. It's pretty high. And I block with a um blood in the water. Discarding the top card. And it's my oneoff red fiddlerless green. Ah, the value, the huge value, huge value. I get to immediately gain three life off of putting screen into the bin. I get to block um efficiently with the D- react um instead of like losing block value on on a lower thing. Um so I end up starting the turn I think on five and finishing on six. Yeah. And still presenting some attacks with allies. And then from there it's like he can't get rid of the allies. No, we can't keep enough cards. The the problem with that that game plan of going for face is in the end game, you've still got to be at full tempo going fast. And well, yeah, if you if you don't manage to seal the deal, you burn a lot of resources getting there, right? Yeah. And also, you let me like we said earlier with the saw bones, prevent a lot of incremental damage otherwise would have been at my face. Yeah. On subsequent turns. Um, there was another interaction as well where I got to block the first dagger relatively well, um, activate charm, force the next attack to come in, and then essentially force the attack after that to come to Chum as well to finish him off. And then even then get to use the saw bones to prevent that damage. So Chum stayed around. Yep. So I got to essentially eat a full turns worth of tempo by doing something like that, which is pretty handy. Um, but again, there's there's all kinds of clever tricks you can do with gravy, which is why we were saying earlier this skill C. Yep. Exactly. Cuz yeah, there's there's plenty of things I definitely did wrong in that game and I kind of got bailed out by just the raw power of the deck. Um, but then that's the kind of deck you want to play. If you want to play a high level, yeah, better lucky than good, John. Always, always, always. That's why I just play red cards. Wow. But no, I had a very good, very good weekend. Uh, very enjoyable weekend. I did. Congratulations. Congratulations. Spoiler for you. I did win that game. Winning a super armory. Winning a super armory. and genuinely more importantly winning the Flickflack playmat. Exactly. That was my exact response. Um, Flip Flack, as some might know, one of, if not one of my favorite cards. My favorite card. Possibly your favorite Nonboo card. Um, yeah. Yeah, your favorite Non. Yeah, I think so. Certainly one that I've heard you talk about a lot. I I love love loved still love um playing defensive katsu tattle katsu. Um I would play him again. Yeah, although I think perhaps Ira is a better call. Um f uh just think lack of combo cards in fi but flick flack. Gorgeous art, gorgeous card. Um fantastic utility. uh and a and a playmat that has only very recently I've been told being a playmat despite existing things to race apparently is now a convention special. We got two of them to give out of these super armories. Wow. I was probably going to attempt to pick up the flickback mat from whoever won it anyway. Um so very glad that I don't have to pay the excess to pick it up. And and obviously I now have a fantastic playmat for Katsu. Yeah. Again, one of my favorite heroes. um a hero that I wish was half as good and forgiving as Graveyard is. Uh a deck I have been working on in the background though. I did Yeah, I did subsequently the next day also get a chance to play on the other super harry that I was supposed to be judging and it was a lot quieter so I was like I'll play anyway. And I did play Katsu on my new flick black play map. Uh, and I went 3-1 with my only loss being to uh Ryan on Victor, which and fair enough. Which is fair enough, right? If you're gonna if you're going to lose to one of the best players locally, might as well be on the deck that is custom built to beat Ninja. Yeah. So, so I already getting use out of that, Matt. Um, and I will be getting subsequent further use out of it, too. I I imagine. Maybe even tonight. Maybe even tonight. Maybe even tonight at Muga Maple. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Um but okay we go all sorts of places from here. Um but so we had two superies. We did we also had the cracked bble appreciation society project blue invitational. Invitational. We did the seabbass PBI. Yep. For sure. Was that fun? It was incredibly fun. Yeah. I did also get to squeak on camera for that one too. um playing one of my favorite decks of all time in Ravenous Meax Rhinar. Cool. Um a deck that again I would very happily play in CC and I have recently been working on again in the background as a result of PB. Um but a deck that is exactly how I like to play the game. Blocking well, playing good numbers, swinging me ax for five or six. Good fun value fab, which is something that we've lost in the last year or two. Fab. I mean to a degree like heavy hitters um was was the metag game of numbers. Yeah, MST has flipped that on its head and then since MST we've kind of had more of a mishmash myriad of of strategies. So, we're hoping for silver age to be that other format that we can play at things. Well, I am. Yeah, I am very much I I do think that PB is is very much that chance to either find a different side to your hero or play another hero. Yeah. without having to invest in the expensive cardboard. That's what we were saying the other week, wasn't it, John? Is it is it's a it's a format for everyone really. for established players who want to maybe relight uh the old flame with some of their LLD CC heroes or perfect format for newer players who want to get into the game on a budget. Yep. I do think competitively it has the depth and and if they if it if it Yeah, exactly. If it becomes a competitive format, competitive local crowd, we will probably end up playing it competitively. If it becomes a format that is a these big events that is a a skirmish format possibly even I see calling I see a battle hard a calling battle hardened for really. Yeah I could I mean I if it is if it ends up being a format that is legal for skirmish uh it it would be silly to not have it as a battle hardened. Fair enough. I mean you've got LL battle hardens. You had battle hardens back in the day. Okay. I think there was a common battle harden like ones. Um, so but again that that's that's what I hope is that PB or Silver Age becomes the new entry- level format kind of to replace Blitz to a degree and then they can take Blitz off the rotation for a little bit, work on it a bit in the background, make some big sweeping changes to it and represent it if if Blitz I mean Blitz has had so many problems. Yeah. And that's that's what I don't I'm not saying like that Silver Age or Project Blue at least seems to fix. don't know anything about Silver Age, but if if it's that if it's based on Project Blue, Project Blue fixes a lot of those issues. I'm not saying like take Blitz out back behind the sheds, you know, and do away with it. But I do think it needs to be taken out of the limelight a little bit and work. If we've got Project Blue, then we can call Blitz old Yellow and I wouldn't mind. Yeah. Yeah. Sending him to the farm, maybe. But um but again, we don't know until until we know more about Silver Age. It's all speculation. I can only hope that they see the the good response that PB's gotten and respond to it in turn. Um, obviously we got big numbers. We did have a representative of LSS there at um at the booth. Um, and I heard that they were entertained. They had a great time. I hope I hope they had a great time. I hope Alex had a really nice time and I think he was impressed with with the turnout for PB and and the subsequent armories as well. Yep. um especially considering it was a a gaming board gaming convention for the most part. Yeah. Having a card game do well is is is good despite those um conditions. Um and I I I've heard stories of uh support from the the the local the local players for various photo ops and and other little things where it's made it clear that Flesh and Blood is a popular game locally. Yeah. I mean I've been saying it for a long time. I think our community is one of the strongest. I think we do a lot of stuff um to maintain that strength and do well with it. I mean I mean not just me personally but obviously other members of too like mod and the cupers as well. Mod the cupppers the archives the chat the very active chat all add to it. The fact you can play twice a week locally all adds to it. Obviously that's again we have to we have to thank DICE Dice and Destiny uh as our local game store y for supporting us like for giving us those nights. Obviously sometimes we butt heads but you know it's all from a place of love. Y um and so and so yeah like it's Fab's in a good spot locally for us. I think Fab's looking to be in a good spot everywhere else as well. Um the hope is that it goes from strength to strength. Keep on rolling. Well I mean look we've had we've had a number of new players this year. Um certainly locally new players beats attrition. Um and and attrition is a weird one because I've only seen a handful of people completely step away. People they tend to come back. They tend to downsize if they're leaving to a point where they can play occasionally and then they still play occasionally. Mhm. Um uh and obviously, you know, we we mentioned Muga Mele. They've got their army now. They're not too far from us. We're going to check them out. Yep. Again, it's not just um here in Canterbury that we play Fab. Like other places have tried it and not all of them have like settled. Like sometimes they pop up a little bit and come back and sometimes they pop up again in the same place. Like I know Port at Home was trying to boot theirs back up again recently and sometimes you just you just don't have the local players like it happens. It's not the end of the world. Well, their their core local crowd moved to Canterbury, which doesn't help because we did essentially snipe them. Yeah. And poach them and Chaos Chaos Cards. I was talking to Chaos Cards last week. Yeah. they actually still have Flesh and Blood on their their schedule. They just don't have any players for it. So, they would they would still happily host a Wednesday game if people showed up. But again, the key difference is that unless someone at the store Yeah. is a member is a player, it's very hard to to get a community start going because no one no one's pushing it, right? No, no one's pushing it. Um and I think they do have a store member who plays, but it's like a second or a third even card game for them. Yeah. Um uh although they do have, if you ask nicely, some Dynasty out back that they are selling at a slight discount. It's not on display. We won't be there for much longer. Tell you that for free. Tell you what, we're going to put we're going to turn these mics off and we are going to Chaos Cars and I'm going to buy and and and as I've demonstrated recently, just buy packs, kids. Singles are singles are overpriced. Yeah, singles are overpriced when you could just What was your most recent um haul, John? Uh so I went in went into dice, had a nice chat with Mod. Uh and then someone else came up a regular uh of other card games asking about um what's the what's the what's the what's mod hoping to pull from this set? Mod Mod may have mentioned, you know, base the mountain, which is the the chase generic new equipment. Chase generic equipment piece. Uh and mods then. So what does what does Base the Mountain do? Base Mountain's got quite a bit of text on it. So, a lot of tips for a card game player who can't read. Mod mod. Well, even for the ones who can read, it's a lot to remember when you have the card handy. So, mod was halfway through trying to remember when very helpfully uh I opened a pack of um um and uh cold foil one fell out the back. There you go. So, they could just read it there. They just read it there. And then there you go. I found this for you. Yeah, I found it's this one. It's this one. Yeah. Here, read this one. No, don't worry about sleeving. It's fine. Yeah. I'll just put it put it in my pocket. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. So, um, so yeah, that was, uh, it's not a bad one. That that was one of my my the ones I wanted for Guardian Fi. Um, quite, um, T just rolled his eyes in a really big They probably heard on the mic, actually. Yeah. Actually, I'm surprised we didn't hear the uh the sockets going. Yeah. Um, who is um, one Arcanite Skull Cup away from testing? I mean, I have one, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. So, it's on the way. Okay. It's on the way. It's on the way. bought that alongside the amulet. They're quite they're quite cheap at the moment. They're quite cheap at the moment. It was like it was like 20 cockaps kind of pointless now, isn't it? Um so, well, not in not in Guardian F. Well, um who has very limited access to AB, it turns out. Um well, yeah, you don't want to give up three equipment slots, would you? Um and then I mean the other thing is PQ season, but I think we might save that for next week now. I mean, we can mention it. Well, it's coming up. It's in two months. It is. It's in two months. I was listening to the Arsenal Pass podcast. Oh yeah. Friday hosted by um calling Auckland top eight player Hayden Dale. Yep. Um and renowned assassin enthusiast punkers Bwani. Um one maybe my favorite podcast um by this one. Y of course. Of course. Um to listen to uh probably one of the highlights of my Friday. It has been for a very long time. Um, and they were discussing in this particular episode how to get to the Pro Tour, maybe your first Pro Tour. And obviously, as players who, you know, are trying to take things a bit more competitively seriously, need to listen to that. We'll probably stop playing RER a bit more and maybe start playing good decks a bit more. In my own personal case, for example, y um one of the key tenets was um Hayden pushing this idea that um you should, and this is crazy to me, pick a deck and stick with it. Well, this is what I want to talk about next week, but seeing as we're here, I disagree. Well, I think I think there are I'm close to that, but I disagree. There are there are there are benefits to both sides. And obviously, well, no, there's a third side. I've got a third side. I've got a third option for you which which actually I think we're hitting upon. Okay. And so we've discussed before play that can stick with it or just attack the meta and and trust your game skill on some random 80 you thrown together that attacks the meta. Yes. I've got a third option that I am going to be experimenting with. Okay. Is it guardian five? That's option That's option four. Three and a half. Option 3.5. Yeah, zero. Um, but uh but there's a deck list and there's cards. So, Guardian 5 might be coming to a a game store on AU soon. But no, the the third option I feel is pick two decks. Pick what you hope will be a fairly strong meta deck and pick something that attacks the meta and maybe maybe plans for a particular event as well. Yep. So go look if I can spike the first event of the meta on Kano. Um that's a good play any more progress. That's a good time to do it. You don't have to play more progress. You can't. So so so I think I'm going to look at that going forwards is I'm going to pick two decks. I'm going to pick my I know you're strong in the meta deck that from weeks well okay I'm probably only going to play two progress. I'm probably going to play spellbound and dice. Um to be honest at this point although I haven't seen the full list. We had a full list. We need a full list. There is a there's a gamut of we can do four back to back. Oh, I know we can do what in the same weekend? No, two weekends. In the same weekend. No, in four weekends. I know in four weekends you can do four back toback. I don't think I can do that, but I want I'm afraid you might have to jump. I want to see I want to see the list. I want to see the list. Um uh and plan I think spellbound and dice. Yep. Pretty certain on and spellbound's fairly early. Yep. So maybe Kano, maybe Kano, maybe Kano. I'm fairly confident at this point that not enough people at Spellb did get its own special mention as pick a deck. Like the argument was pick a deck that's good. Yep. Play it. Start playing it now. Yep. You have eight weeks. Yep. To play that deck religiously. Get all the pers you can with that deck. learn all the matchups with that deck and be 100% sure with your 80 or like your your 90 with your 10 flex slots that rotate in that kind of thing. Yep. Um and the counterargument to the two deck thing was well if you spend 50% on both of them you could have spent 100% on on one. That's true. That kind of thing. And then it was if you play Kano, it could just be the correct thing to play Kano. Yeah. Yeah. Um because all Kano players again the argument I think it was from Punkers was you should always sort of have your reps for for Kano and be ready for that first week of is it could be the Kano time and then everyone brings their biases and the things so and then back in so potentially now the question for me is obviously what do I lock because there is a correct choice is the best deck in the format and I have experience playing it and I have experience winning with it. And I did last night pull two Fearless Confrontations. Um, which is the new Chase Chase M Chase M. Yeah. So, I'm already three two parts of the way there um to playing to having the the new blue for Gravy, which is the answer for Gravy, right? Um, however, there is a set release. Oh, yeah. before ProQuest. And I, as our some of our listeners may already know, despite being an avid flick flag fan, actually started the game playing two different classes, those being Guardian and Brute. Yep. And so if ever there was a set that was a love letter to me, it is Super Slam. And if ever there was a set that might put those archetypes, those decks back on the map, I'm not necessarily talking about Rhinar, although new blue six by the way. Um, it might be that set and it's why last night I played Kano and I had a good time playing Kano because I do feel that we might see enough support for Kano to put him back on top of an otherwise relatively attackable meta game. I actually think you make a really good argument especially in that first week in that first you know if if it's an now I don't know and this is the problem I don't know if spellbound is week one because if spellbound isn't week one even though it's the first event I'll attend that changes things but if spellbound is week one and I need to check that then I could very well see the correct answer being your preferred brute out of superlan because people won't know what they're doing with the new stuff. You will you will get all those advantages of people aren't sure people don't know. I mean there's even an argument for Rharks. People just don't have into rh. I think it's a see what you get piece but I think there's there's a strong argument for yeah kick off with get the reps on gravy now because we don't know what's in superstam yet. Get the reps on gravy now. You've got reps on brute one or two. So for this PQ season if if spellbound is the first and if it isn't the first week we need to find out what is the first week in the UK. It might be Darkville. No Dark is after Spellbound might. So might be dice saloon. I don't know. Dice saloon is after Don is after Dice I think. I think we're the last week again. No I think we're week three. Nope. Week five. I need to check my calendar. The last week because we changed it so Kyle could play. Oh, is it moved? Yeah. In that case, spellbound is first. There you go. So, spellbound is first. Um. Oh, well, in that case, we need to find out what's week three. We need to put down a plan. We need probably do one, three, and five. We need to be fair, we need to do a full se level plan. Um, but get as many people playing these events. Spellbound then is a good place to play that that brute that comes out of Super Slam that people don't fully understand, people don't know how to play into, people are scared of. People won't have like too many paper reps in. No, exactly. And actually, there just won't be a solved deck yet. But yeah, you've got reps and boot. Well, this is all under the implication that there's going to be something released in Super Slam that does give those extra points to Brute because right now Brute isn't in there's a new Vine spec coming. Didn't that get revealed? That's in the thingy deck. That's not till October. Okay. Or November. Oh, November. Yeah. October is the Okay, fine. Um, my my my my theory my my my my understanding is that it's going to be very hard to print anything at the M slot in generic brew without it being very good in Kano. Yeah, unless it very specifically interacts with intimidate and then I don't mind because I get to play in R. Yeah, obviously I feel a lot more comfortable playing like Kano at a high level event than Rhinar, which I know is surprising to those at home having seen register Rhino many times. It won't stop you. You're happy to be uncomfortable on Rhino. We've seen it. It's kind of like a it's like it's like a it's like a hug in a way, you know? But but if ever there was if ever there was an event, Toby, to do it, it's it would be that it's it's it's that. And then you've got Gravy in the back pocket for two or three more events that season. Well, this is then this is the thing, right? Is is that I could I could just lock in the Kano now and essentially bet my marbles on there being enough support in Super Slam, but that that I think is I think that is a mistake because we haven't seen the cards yet. Well, because even Kano as he stands right now, and this might sound quite forward, John, I think I could win a progress with Kano. Don't do this, Toby. because UK nats, we're going back a little bit now. Um, 2Kano is made top eight. 2Kano's were very well positioned that some of the English players picked up this really interesting version of Kano that was essentially playing 10 equipment pieces. Was playing stuff like Balance of Justice, Blanch um, and was essentially poised to attack Synindra and Gravy and did so very well. Um, struggled into Verdance, but otherwise, um, did all right. Now, Virgin did win a battle hardened this weekend, so she's not as dead as people are saying, but there's an argument that maybe if Super Slam just gives him something to push over Virgin or something to shore up some of those other matchups, maybe he's in a good spot. Um, there's also obviously the argument that there's two new brutes coming out and maybe Toughnut or RKano are really good, too. But we're not going to we're not going to do that yet. Um, cuz that would be the real one. No one's going to have a cy plan for Rhino or Kano. No, absolutely no one's going to have a cyborg plan for Tough Not. No. No. Well, I do, but that's me. Well, currently Toughnut is a is 60 blues, and I don't think that'll be his final list. No. 60 Blues and rock. Um, but okay. So, um, tune in next week, dear listeners, as I try and convince Toby to do the smart thing one more time, play rhino progress and and and not lock into a brute for the whole progress. Well, and this is the thing. I I want to lock it. I probably want to just play gravy from now. Yes, that's the correct that's the correct answer. That is yes. Yes. Yes, Toby. The the counter argument to that. There isn't one. Is that the very best players are playing Gravy and I don't personally think I'm one of the very best players. Not yet, but with some reps maybe. With some reps maybe. The other issue I have is that the first sideboard plan that anyone makes for a deck they are building this season and for future subsequent seasons probably is going to be gravy bones. Everyone's going to have an exact minute. No, no, no. You always do this. You always do this. You always do this. You always But it's still the best deck in format for a reason. And and and as as the 15year-old we know who is currently on their way to worlds for another card game says just play the best deck in format because that's the one other people are trying to beat. I'm going to lead on from what I'm saying, John, tying it in to other games that I've played. VGC is a good example. There's very recently a video that went up um from Wolfie Glick, a renowned very good VGC player, won Worlds in 2016, in case you didn't know, talking about the prevalence of a Pokemon called Zernius, the box legendary Pokemon X, who during its very limited time in the spotlight was unequivocally the strongest Pokemon available to play in VGC and all teams and the entire metag game was entirely warped around it to that point. But we're not in that season. We're not in that place. for the two seasons it was legal. Yep. It didn't make it to the finals of either one. But we're not in that place. This is this is where Fab Meta at the moment and still as far as I see it after after Master Pack Mastery Pack Guardian after Super Slam I don't see Super Slam changing yet. We are not in that place that I've seen before where there is one utterly dominant force like Gravy is good. People will have a cyborg plan for gravy. people do people cannot afford to just target Gravy at the cost of their meta spread. Well, I'm going to tie in from what I was just saying into the the top eight at Calling Auckland to show you that whilst Gravy is strong and Gravy was the most represented deck there. Yep. One in the top eight shows us that the targeting is working. Not necessarily. Well, it does because one, he didn't win. two, he didn't even make it to the he didn't make it out of the top eight. But and this is where this is this is the but this is the Kano thing of Yeah. So that means now a great time to play Keno. If if if no Kanos make it to top eight, next week is the time to play Kano. And here's the other thing. Those Gravy players are obviously better gravy players than me is the other thing as well. Like I have a lot of reps playing Brute. I can probably figure out on the fly what I'm supposed to be doing a lot more with Brute. I can probably get there with Gravy and he's very enjoyable. Um um but when was the last time we had a set release and one of the heroes wasn't immediately a dominant force. This is true. This is true. Rosetta, but you can't plan for RKano yet. And they became dominant forces the meta after from Rosetta. RKayo is probably the one you'd play out of Super Slam. Actually, I think it's going to be Pleades or Liath. But I Yeah, exactly. That's why I think I think planning for playing Super Slam, we haven't got the time and support to come out the gates like that like you see some of the top some of the people who do this professionally, Toby, can come out the gates with a new set, with a new deck, the way we saw, you know, Yuki Syndra, which I'm still on because it's that good. And and just just the depth is incredible. really is um is is okay. I've changed a few cards here and there, but it's still basically the same plan. And we haven't we can't we that's why they're the best players. They're doing this professionally. We're not doing it professionally. No, I do unfortunately have to pay rent. And so so the correct answer remains get the reps in on gravy and then play a brute week one. play gravy for eight weeks. Play Gravy for eight weeks because you'll then play Gravy for weeks 2, three, four, and five. Well, and this is So, I think what we we'll fundamentally sit on is that I'm going to play a lot of Gravy going forward. Yep. I'm going to play a little bit of Kano here or there, and then when we get the full spoiler set for Super Slam, I'm going to go into the tank with Callum and Ayden, my fellow brutes. Yeah. Um, and we're going to cook up a Kano list that we think is probably the strongest Kano list we could build. It could be we end up looking at the seeing the spoilers and going, "Wow, tough nut is just insane. Let's just all build tough nut, right?" But assuming that regular armed and dangerous Kano is is the is the probably the one who benefits most from a brute set. Um maybe Rhinar, but let's be honest. Um we're going to cook that list and then we're going to we're going to hit it hard and we're going to get as many reps in as we can. I think the two deck plan is and have those two lined up. I think the two deck plan is the plan. And then week one at Spellbound, I will play my red line capture list. Thank you very much for listening to this episode of Energy Potion, a flesh and blood podcast. If you liked it, please like and consider subscribing for more. If you disagree with any of these opinions, please let us know in the comments and we will either defend them robustly or completely cave and agree with you. We can't wait to bring you more of this. Thanks again. 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