Episode 1: "Pilot" - Meet the Crew

The first episode of Fact or Fiction is all introductions. Neal Sacks and Chris Roy lay out who the Squee's House of Pizza crew is, how a group of friends playing Premodern turned into a registered crew, and where the name came from. If you've seen S.H.O.P. near the top of the Crew Clash League standings and wondered who these people actually are, this is the background before the deck talk starts in later episodes.

Chris walks through the founding members and how the crew came together, then gets into the name origin: Granite Goblins was the early idea, then Squee's House of Pizza won out, tying together Squee, Goblin Nabob, the New England "House of Pizza" convention, and Squee's cameo on the original Fact or Fiction art. The back half is a roster rundown of who plays what across the crew: Replenish, Stiflenought, Terrageddon, Psychatog, Sligh, Oath Ponza, Stasis, and a red-green Fires-nostalgia Survival build. Along the way there's the mystery pizza box charity raffle, how the Crew Clash League got started, and why the group decided to make a podcast in the first place.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:16 Welcome to Episode One
01:16 How the Crew Came Together
02:16 Getting Pulled Into Premodern
06:16 Forming a Crew and the CCL
19:16 From Granite Goblins to Squee's House
25:16 Roster and Deck Specialists
40:16 Why Start a Podcast
45:16 Where the Show Name Comes From

References and links:

Crew members mentioned: Neal Sacks (host), Chris Roy (host), Brian Siu, JP Phelan, Sam White, Carlos Pearman, Andreas Damaskos, William Damaskos, Scott Wassmer

Fact or Fiction is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Transcript

Welcome to Episode One

Neal 0:17

Hello and welcome everyone to episode one of Fact or Fiction. I am Neal Sacks joined today with the one and only Chris Roy, and we are from Squee's House of Pizza. For a while we've wanted to make a podcast. Been talking about it in the works for a little bit. With the regional coming up, the timing made sense to kinda just dive in and get ready to go. Chris is one of the founding members of Squee's House of Pizza, with myself being newer to the team. I've learned some history that I didn't know, and I think some other people might not know as well, too. So I think, Chris, if you wanna just walk us through who the founding members are, how that came to be, and how we came together as a crew. I, I think that would be pretty interesting for everyone. Obviously we're pretty new to podcasting, so bear with us as we get through this. And after we do these introductions, we'll get more into the pieces of cardboard that might be a little bit more exciting

How the Crew Came Together

Neal 1:16

for everyone

Chris 1:18

Thanks. So the members of Squee's House of Pizza, it actually didn't start out as a crew. It was more just myself and a few friends that you know, to get into premodern and enjoy the gameplay just as a break from modern magic design and everything. So that was myself Andreas Damaskas, his brother William Damaskas, John-Paul Phelan Scott Wassmer, who, you know, from a historical standpoint he's part of the crew, but he hasn't played in nine months or so. and also Carlos Pearman. So that was the original group. So there were six of us, I'd say.

Neal 2:09

The "A" team. That's pretty cool, but I'm sure everyone's wondering 'cause there's a name that's missing from that list.

Getting Pulled Into Premodern

Neal 2:16

Some guy called Brian Siu, maybe you've heard of him. Replenish God, Lob ster con Champion the accolades go on and on. How did Brian join the team?

Chris 2:28

So got into premodern, and the first tournament I was able to attend was the Summer Regional 2024, where was the lone stasis pilot in the field, and I was able to come out on top. And that actually was the first streamed event by Duress Crew, which was really cool because after the tournament, I was high on adrenaline and everything. I got home, I heard it was on Twitch, so I didn't really know what to expect. I'm just thinking, "Okay, I'll just go on and s- Not sure what it's gonna look like." But I was so blown away by the awesome coverage the commentary, the production value, and I was all excited because I, yeah, I just won. And I sent, clipped my matches and sent that over to Brian Siu and some of my other friends from way back in the day, like the old early 2000s PTQ era. And I was like, "Brian this format's amazing. I think you'd really enjoy it. It's like the old extended decks that, that we used to play like stasis goblins and everything." And first he was hesitant because he hadn't played really in a number of years. It

Neal 3:49

seemed

Chris 3:49

like every couple years I tried dragging him back into a tournament or two. but I'm pretty persistent, so I had printed off like eight different decks, proxied them, painstakingly cut them all up, sleeved them, all that stuff, and we were attending a cube draft at a mutual friend's house And I decided "Okay, I'm gonna introduce everyone to pre-modern, and people can just try different decks." So Brian picked up... He was most interested by Replenish because that was actually, I think, if I recall, one of the first standard decks, or back then it was called Type 2. I think it was, like, one of the first tier one decks that he had played. So decks were all randomized, but as fate would have it, he actually got Replenish to play with, he also got Stifle Nought to play with. So he had he had great pleasure in stifling one of our friend's fetchlands and, could tell

Neal 4:53

As is tradition

Chris 4:55

Yeah, so he wasn't like "Okay, I'm like, I'm definitely gonna do this," but he, was I could see that his, know, his interest was piqued. And a week after that was the LobsterCon 2024 that Brian Selden won with Stifle Nought, with a tide package in the sideboard. And Brian surprised me. He's "Oh, I just ordered all the cards for Stifle Nought and I got it on Magic Online," and all this, and he was ready to go. He's been playing with us ever since, attending all of these and,

Neal 5:32

Yeah. From picking up replenish at a cube draft to winning the finals of LobsterCon full hero's journey story arc, so Awesome. Yeah, so that, that's cool. I'm sure everyone local to New England is aware of our team. Hopefully some new viewers, episode one, don't know how many new viewers there are right off the bat, but hopefully get a little bit of background on our team. If you're in the North American premodern Discord I'm sure you follow the, CCL, the Crew Clash League and you've probably seen our name at the top of that spreadsheet. Now hopefully you can put some names,

Forming a Crew and the CCL

Neal 6:16

faces to that as well too. We are only human, except for Brian. He's the replenish god

Chris 6:23

I will say even before we get to the Crew Clash League, there's a part that I left out. So we started just as a group of friends playing pre-modern, and that lasted through, the second half of 2024. When it came to the Winter Regional 2025, this was-- We had found out that Duress Crew was gonna be running the LobsterCon event that year, and they were splitting LobsterCon between pre-modern in May and I think old school sometime later that year in September. Something like that. And we were able to pre-register, and we noticed that there was, like, a crew affiliation that you could list. So we were thinking about different names and stuff, but also we were considering why should we even have a crew? It-- we're just a group of friends playing you know, th- there are a few reasons why we were interested in doing that. It seemed like all these crews were just popping up, and it was fun. People were giving out swag, and they had shirts and so participating in that was fun. Another thing was there-- Not to be-- I'm not trying to be negative, but there were a couple times when some of my friends they got paired against people at regionals and, I'm not gonna name names, but there were some potentially shadiness going on. I'm thinking to myself, I wonder if those opponents would have tried pulling that stuff if they knew so and I were teammates or were friends or whatnot.

Neal 8:09

Not just a random person who maybe they'll never see again, something like that. Strength in numbers

Chris 8:14

exactly. So there's like a protection, so to speak, offered by the crew, and having teammates to watch your back, make sure the game's on the up and up. That was another kind of appeal to it. And I'd say those were the two reasons initially. But then when LobsterCon 2025 came around, was my first time at the Dante, just it seemed like this, a cliché in pre modern. Everybody just says they love saying vibing and all that, but I've embraced it now. I... And I like saying vibing and I'm there for the vibes and all that. a lot of fun. Just seeing what the community was able to bring together, all the charity that was raised for Room to Grow by the Duress crew and everyone else involved. I think Jared Doucette all the old school guys that helped out as well. It's a wonderful thing to be able to play a game that we enjoy, but also make a positive impact on our community. So I would say we really acknowledged that after LobsterCon '25, we were shifted into the summer and thinking, "Okay what can we do to be more engaged with the local community and be more involved?" And then I had the idea of participating in the regional charity raffles. My idea was to have of a pizza-themed Squee's House of Pizza mystery pizza box. I think it's a... Yeah, it's a mystery pizza box, right? So we did that for the fall 2025 regional and been doing it ever since. And it's just, it It was well received. the

Neal 10:14

People love it. When before I was part of the crew, I saw that first regional I went to and said what could be in there?" Anything and there's pretty awesome things in there

Chris 10:24

I just figure everybody loves a mystery, and if you see a box there and it's like mystery pizza box, it's kinda, kinda quirky, but you have a buck, probably gonna throw it in. Why not? What do you have, what do you have to lose

Neal 10:36

It could, be anything. Could be $2. That's 100% return on investment.

Chris 10:41

Yeah

Neal 10:41

200%

Chris 10:44

So we did that, and it was awesome. Like the first the, fall regional when we first participated in the raffle and we did the Squee Mystery Pizza bundle, Brian and I both happened to top eight that event, and that was awesome. It felt like we went back in time like 25 years or something and we're both top eighting events together. That was really cool. And shortly after that, there was a buzz in the New England Pre-Modern Discord about crew challenges or crew clash. It just, the idea proliferated from that it just grew into the Crew Clash League we're very lucky. Hodge, I think somebody nominated him because he was giving a lot of feedback and ideas and stuff for how the league could be run. So

Neal 11:44

Have to go to the tapes for that.

Chris 11:47

You what?

Neal 11:47

We're gonna have to go to the tapes to see who who, who did that nomination

Chris 11:51

Sure, yeah. So- somebody nominated Hodge and he very graciously accepted, and I'm so glad he did. Yeah he's wonderful. He's very organized, and, he gets back to you just... I feel like I, I don't wanna take advantage of Hodge, but sometimes I feel like he's almost a human search engine or something. He really knows everything

Neal 12:15

He's the oracle. With his notebook, he's got e- he's got everything broken down. Can you draw? Who are you playing against in the top eight? What's the meta game breakdown? Except for one time when he was stuck in the the wonton bracket, but we'll forgive him for that one

Chris 12:29

Yeah anyways, so the CCL came about and one of the rules was you could have eight people. at the time we had... there were seven people in the crew, but one Scott being of inactive, so we had six people who would mostly attend events, but of course, lot of hobbies to juggle and, life happenings and all that. so we were looking to add two more members and Brian and I had teamed with Sam White for a unified event. Just a bunch of stuff happened where it ended up that it was Brian, Sam, and I. And so we teamed and kinda got along with him, and he became our seventh member. I think it was December 25 where we noticed that you were talking to one of our friends, JP, a lot, and you knew him from back in the day, so it just seemed okay, this is perfect. We have our eight, have our crew, we're ready for the CCL. So yeah

Neal 13:45

Yeah, no, it's going back to just real quick with teaming with Sam. Am I gonna go out on a limb here and guess that he was playing a deck that had Terravore in it?

Chris 13:54

Yeah. So is pretty much I'd say if Brian's a replenish god, Sam's like the Terrageddon master or something i, think he's been working on... sure it's nearly done. He's been working on this elite primer that is somewhere up- upwards of 200 pages.

Neal 14:13

Yeah.

Chris 14:14

And,

Neal 14:14

Seen a couple sneak previews from that. A lot of information, a lot of detail breakdown. Sam's been running pretty much the same list with a few tweaks to the sideboard for quite a while. He's definitely the Terrageddon master and if you're looking to master that matchup as well too, when that primer comes out definitely be on the lookout for finding a way to get a copy of it

Chris 14:39

Yeah, so we kept him on Terra Vore We're like, "Okay, just Sam can be in his wheelhouse." what the heck did we do? This actually backfired on us, so just a quick side note. So when you have the... It's a little tricky, right? So there's overlap between Terrageddon and Replenish and also, I think Dreadnought potentially. So this was pre-Tide ban. I ran Stifle Naught with no Tides on the board because we had the Replenish god on our team in Brian and he had the Tides, and we thought "Okay, Sam's gonna be on Terrageddon He'll have Swords of Plowshares, and Brian can just figure something out with Chain of Vapor, Key to the Táurs' Desire or whatever as Swords substitutes." in the end, I think the changes were a little weaker, but we struck out on the matchup lottery. The, every round it seemed like two of the three matchups were unfavorable. But not to make an excuse. We had a good time. It was a fun event and everything, just sometimes it's how it goes.

Neal 15:53

Yeah, so that's cool. And then obviously I joined as the last member of the team. Familiar with friends with JP for quite a while back from testing during like the PTQ days circa the early 2000s. Familiar with both you and Brian, seeing you around the PTQ halls all the time always at the top tables aspiring to, to get up there and challenge you guys as well too. So kinda coming full circle and all of us working together is pretty, pretty cool, and I just wanna kinda continue on what you were saying with the mystery box and how the community is such a big part of this with the vibes and all that, and just being part of a team, being part of this kind of challenge with everyone, it's pretty awesome. Like, when I first got into pre-modern I really got into it because I was playing at ELD, a lot of the legacy opens. Some people were saying, "Oh, you should play premodern. It's what legacy used to be. It's pretty good." So put together Oath Ponta, started playing that, and was hooked right away. But in those early tournaments, I didn't really know anyone. I talked to Brian a couple times, said hey. Met Hodge, a couple other people. I think Justin won the first one I watched with Dreadnought in the finals. But most of the time I was just sitting in the back reading a book. I was just like, "Oh, this is cool." I'm enjoying these games, but I don't really know anybody. And then with the, Crew Clash League really opening up, oh like now everyone's talking to each other. Everyone knows who's-- what's on-- who's crew. And now I felt really embraced by the community, and I think that's pretty awesome because just everyone's has a deep love for this game, has a deep love for the causes behind it with all the different charities, and just a lot of positive vibes. I'm another guy who doesn't really say vibing or vibes or anything like that, but it's just, there's no other way to describe it other than it's just positive vibes, and everyone in this community is pretty awesome.

Chris 17:52

That's a good point you made. I didn't realize that, yeah, the Crew Clash League potentially was an opportunity for people who they played, but they weren't with a group l- like such as yourself to pair up and Or team up rather yeah, get to know each other better and that's really cool. So I hope that was the case for others as well. I'm sure it probably was

Neal 18:22

Yeah, no, definitely. And like people messaging all the time in the Discord people staying towards the end of the tournaments now. I know obviously if people sign up for the day, like there are a lot of people who, regardless of record, are gonna play the whole tournament. But there are some people who would probably drop after being 0-2. "Oh, I can't top eight, I'm gonna go home." You don't really see that anymore. There are a lot of people in the wonton bracket well into the late rounds of the tournament and even people staying and watching the top eight. So it, just, it really has become, I think, bigger than what it was. And mind you, I've I'm a little late to the party relative to everyone else, but I think at least in the year and a half that I've been playing I've definitely seen everyone kinda get a little bit closer, and I think that's a direct result of the Crew Clash League, which I'm gonna stumble through saying that every single time. The alliteration is not my strong suit.

Chris 19:15

The CCL.

From Granite Goblins to Squee's House

Chris 19:16

Yeah

Neal 19:17

CCL, there we go. Much better. Everyone knows what it is at this point. We'll just say CCL moving forward. So that's everyone in the crew. That's awesome. But I think something that people are wondering about, at least I'm wondering about as well too where did the name come from, Squee's House of Pizza? It's it does feel like iconic at this point. We got Squee Goblin Nabob pull up, awesome card. But where did, where'd the House of Pizza come from? And what, where did that name originate from?

Chris 19:51

Yeah, you're right. It does seem iconic at this point. I can't picture any other name. when we had to come up with a crew name, originally were just like throwing a bu- bunch of different ideas around, and one of the Carlos had observed that of crews, they have like a location and then a noun. So you have something like the Rochester Royals, and we were thinking about different possibilities, and one was this is gonna be funny. So it was actually just Granite Goblins, which, sound That, that name sounds super lame, Granite Goblins. But at one point we were thinking like, oh, you have GG as the,

Neal 20:36

Okay

Chris 20:39

So we just went with that. But as it turned out, hadn't publicly announced it, and the Granite State Grinders captained by Drew Lesmeris they came out and they said "We're a new crew," all that stuff. And we're like, okay, there's not gonna be two Granite teams, so back to the drawing board. And at this point, I just said to everyone just throw names out there, even if you think it's ridiculous. A- anything, we gotta come up with something." And I said, "Maybe it could be like don't know, like something with Squee and And JP actually ha- is pretty nostalgic for the card Squee, Goblin Nabob, because I think that was like the first card he ever opened in a draft back in Mercadian Masques, which is really cool, and also it connecting back to the goblin part of the first name that we were gonna do. And the Squee's House of Pizza, it came about because back in the old PTQ days, there was a Knights of Columbus hall in Brighton, Massachusetts, where

Neal 22:02

Familiar

Chris 22:02

a pi- yeah, there was a pizza shop that it was It wasn't healthy, but we'd go there. Getting there was ridiculous, a- and I'll just, I'll save that for another episode but we'd get to the tournament hall, and around lunchtime we'd go get some pizza, and play some more rounds of Magic in this packed, sweaty, hall, and then go back for dinner, get more pizza. I guess we could do this when we were, like, teenagers and whatnot. I can't do it now.

Neal 22:33

Pizza was a vegetable back then, so it was healthy

Chris 22:37

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So there's like the pizza connection there, but also not all from New Hampshire. So the name Granite Goblins, like we're not all from New Hampshire. Brian has roots in New Hampshire, but he lives in Massachusetts. JP's in Massachusetts, you and Sam. So we're like split between New Hampshire and Massachusetts

Neal 23:01

Much more Massachusetts than New Hampshire. I'm just gonna say it, I think Granite Goblins

Chris 23:08

Oh, yeah. I

Neal 23:10

is a terrible name. I think, I thi- I think having the Granite

23:10

State Grinders and Squee's House of Pizza, it's

Neal 23:10

a good thing we didn't register Granite Goblins.

Chris 23:14

It's, yeah, that would've been so bad. The, funny thing is, yeah, the D- the Drew did us a solid by coming out announcing his crew because it made us go back to the drawing board, get a little more creative. But the funny thing is that William, when he signed up for Lobstercon, he put Granite Goblins because we hadn't he, yeah, he wasn't up to speed, so he put Granite Goblins for the crew affiliation. And at the time nobody knew who William was, so we were like walking around and hear like people from the Grinders, they were saying, "Oh, there's like another Granite team." And I was kinda like, yeah, I was just like walked right on by, just "Yeah, but I didn't hear that," gonna...

Neal 23:57

The Succession meme of putting the phone right back in the pocket and just keep moving.

Chris 24:02

Yep. Yep, pretty much. In New England, there's this naming convention of you have some town or city and it's something House of Pizza. yeah, just the Squee's House of Pizza, get like the New England thing going on. You get the connection to the goblins, the Squee connection that JP, you know. And Squee himself, he's like a fun, he's a beloved character in Magic lore. He kinda keeps coming back sorta like we keep coming back to have more fun playing Magic and Premodern and everything. So many levels it kinda fits

Neal 24:47

Meta. And by that, not meta game Yeah, no, Squee's it's an awesome name. Pretty cool card. Surprisingly expensive. I wouldn't have guessed that just by having multiple reprints. But the prices with all the pre-modern cards keep going up 'cause people like the old original ones. Unless you're like me and I have my Final Fantasy art and infinity lands that everyone else doesn't really seem to like. But I- that's what the whole format's about, playing the cards you like

Chris 25:15

Yeah. Yep

Roster and Deck Specialists

Neal 25:17

I see you cringing there. But everyone hates that VV's Thunder Magic lightning bolt, but I might have to get that printed up and put that behind me.

Chris 25:23

God, stop. I'm glad you can't use that stuff in AAA, I'll just say that.

Neal 25:28

I wouldn't wanna risk losing them. They're too precious. I'm too busy losing all my chain lightnings in triple A. Every time I ante, it's tr- chain lightning. I've gone through four of them so far All right, so now we get the roster our kinda eight team members. The great thing about having all eight of us is we all specialize in different decks and different archetypes. Maybe run through what everyone likes to play, what we're a specialist in. I think it makes sense to start with someone that people might not know what they're playing, so that we can get a little bit more background. So I think the logical place to start when it comes to mystery of what people are playing would be Brian, if you wanna go through that, 'cause I don't think anyone knows what deck he plays

Chris 26:13

Yeah, so I was able to look up on MTG Top 8 back in September 2024 and also October 2024. He actually top eighted with Stiflenought

Neal 26:27

Ah!

Chris 26:28

are, those are a couple of his key finishes

Neal 26:30

That makes sense. Yeah, no, definitely. What he's known for, Stiflenought master

Chris 26:36

Now in all seriousness though Brian we, can start with him. The Replenish god, he's won a couple monthlies I think January and March of '25. He was a finalist in the winter regional, also in the January '26 regional, and he's the new Lobstercon champion. that is pretty awesome. And he's pretty much our Replenish expert, although William also has played Replenish a ton, and he just, know, had a heartbreaker in the online the MODO Championships they had during that pre-modern championship week. he bubbled out sh- he could have top eighted that event with Replenish. But yeah, so we have a couple good Replenish players. since I mentioned William I'll talk about him. He tries out a bunch of different decks to learn about everything, see how they work. tried puzzling out HFeb on his own without even knowing there was a primer. So that's that's wild. he has... Let's see. He won a MODO challenge with Stiflenought and also finished in second place at an ELD monthly. For non-US listeners, the ELD Time Vault Games in Bellingham, Massachusetts, it's a store where they have a monthly event. The winner gets a championship deck box, m- like a wooden deck box, very nicely done, custom-made etched, that. very coveted trophy if you win at one of those. Yeah. Next person I guess we can go to his brother, Andreas. Andreas started playing out Sligh lot. He top 16ed a couple regionals and pretty much shifted to different Terravore style decks. So he's played Oath Ponza. He played that to a top 32 finish at the I wanna say side event in quotes, th- for 2025 LobsterCon. This is a 200-person side event tournament huge. So he made top 32 of that, which is really cool. Yeah he enjoys Terravore as well. Of course, another big Terravore enjoyer would be John Paul Phelan, I think... Yeah, he and Brian are the two crew members who I've known the longest. I actually met JP back in either '99 or 2000, I wanna say early 2000, playing the Pokemon card game when it was the first three sets Base, Jungle, Fossil. It was so awesome. But so we kinda came up together and played in the standard with Fires of Yavimaya and everything. despite JP playing pretty much solely Terravore for the first almost year and a half or two years of him playing Pre-Modern, decided to brew up a nostalgic Fires-themed deck. So he played a red-green survival build with double Anger, I double Deranged Hermit. No, three Deranged Hermit Blastoderm Term, just as a nod to the old Type 2 Fires deck that we played when we were coming up during the JSS qualifiers and everything. JP actually took down the most recent monthly in June, which was just so awesome. this actually incredibly followed up the May winner, Teddy Lockman, who also won with a different build of red-green Survival, which is really super cool. But

Neal 30:49

I think of, note for both of those decks is the card Squee, Goblin Nabob is in both of those. I'm saying that definitively for JP. I don't know off the top of my head if Teddy had it, but I'm gonna go ahead and assume Squee was in that deck as well, so

Chris 31:05

I'm sure. I'm sure it was, yeah. Yeah, so aside from the Red Green Fires deck that he brewed up, he also had a very strong finish at this year's LobsterCon. He came in 11th with Terrageddon, perfecting his play with it over the last year and a half or so. So that was really cool. Another Terrageddon player, the Terrageddon master himself, Sam Sam White. He won a Moto Challenge with Terrageddon. He won an ELD monthly with Terrageddon. He much knows everything about it, and any time I play him and he's on that deck, it's just the match is so hard, I was able to get past him once with Psycha Tog, but I got I got pretty, pretty fortunate. And the next time I played him I just got curb stomped. He just has a game plan for every match up it seems. So when that primer is done and he says it's just another, week or two from what I understand it's gonna be pretty, pretty sick. So looking To that

Neal 32:15

the key to that Psychatog Terrageddon matchup, at least from what I gathered, is I think for the Psychatog player to win, you have to extend the match past two hours, and then as time goes on you become more favored. It's like a curve, so

Chris 32:33

Oh my God. Yeah, so top eight is untimed at the ELDs and most events, and it's play at a reasonable pace, which we were. I played against Sam in the top four of an April ELD monthly. I was on Psychatog, he was on Terragon, and happened that the match took two hours. But perhaps that is the key. And even though I'm older than Sam, I, yeah I got stamina for these long tournaments, and maybe I just outlasted him or something. Who knows?

Neal 33:08

Yeah, that was one where I was like I looked, it was like 6:00. That tournament got o- the Swiss got over so quickly. I was like if I got, if I left now, I could get home like, and get a couple things done today." And I was like, "No, you know what? The team's here." I lost very quickly in the top eight and my two team members were playing. One of them was guaranteed to be in the finals, so I said, "You know what? I'm gonna stick it out." And then two hours later I was thinking, "I've made a huge mistake." But no,

Chris 33:38

"Why did I sign up for the CCL? This is ridiculous.

Neal 33:42

but no, no kidding aside it was a,

Chris 33:43

Yeah

Neal 33:44

awesome matchup. And I remember game three being crazy with a, cursed cursed totem and a Psychatog just attacking for one over and over again. So not to get too off on a tangent, but,

Chris 33:55

Oh, hey. We got Andreas, JP, William. Oh, Carlos. Carlos, one of the founding members. Carlos pretty much loves all things Ravenous Rats and Hypnotic Specter. So he had a really strong finish at the side event, again in quotes, this 200 person side event at LobsterCon 2025. Made top 32 with a really cool Jund Rack deck that he was inspired by Jared Doucette, who I think of brewed that deck up and it was just it appealed to him, and we tested it out and he just loved it. So he ran that. most recently, Carlos top four'd a tournament at Gen X in Portsmouth New Hampshire. He was our top point earner for that day. So that was awesome because he doesn't always get out to all the monthlies, but he shows up, supports the team, and he puts up some good finishes here and there. So-

Neal 35:01

And in that top four he was he was playing Money Ball and he got paired against Sligh, and it was, like, a l- a little unconventional Sligh list, so not 100% standard. But Money Ball versus Sligh if you're the Sligh player, you're usually licking your chops at that, just, "Oh I'm gonna feast on this deck." And he was able to get through that matchup into the top four, so that was, pretty awesome to see that.

Chris 35:24

Yeah, that was great. Let's see. We got two, two last people to cover. I'll talk about myself briefly, so I would say my two favorite colors in Magic are blue and red, and they're very different. Blue's controlling, red is aggressive, but those are the kinds of decks that I like. So I love control decks. Love prison decks like Stasis, I was very fortunate to win my first pre-modern event ever, the summer 2024 regional, which incredibly top eight matches are now being uploaded to Duress Crew's YouTube. Now, I've been wa- I've been waiting for almost two years for this, and as a Stasis player, you know I'm very patient, so that's fine.

Neal 36:13

Exactly

Chris 36:13

up there, and people can enjoy them, and yeah. I also, was a finalist at the fall 2025 regional. I played blue-black tide control, losing to Jonathan Phillips excellent player. He was on Goblins. And yeah, but aside from the control decks, I also like aggro decks like Sligh and Zoo. So I took a break from Tog recently and tried out Zoo did pretty well with that. So those are the kinds of decks I enjoy. Oh, lastly, Neal. Last but not least, definitely not least, Neal, you... Out- outside of pre-modern you probably have you have a really strong pedigree. I think you've played on multiple pro tours, really high Grand Prix finishes and all that yeah. So a- as, as far as pre-modern, when I looked at your results you're always at at the end, at the top. You're consistently top eight. I think you have a second-place finish Oath Ponza at one of the ELD monthlies. Came in 18th at this year's LobsterCon with Sligh. was insane.

Neal 37:37

No boy

Chris 37:38

that tournament was so fun. Oh, my

Neal 37:40

Yeah. Oh yeah, no, it was awesome. I got to play against Moneyball five times, went 5 and 0, got very lucky in one of those where the top two cards in my library had to be Fire Blast, But that's why you play Burn. You just always have it. It's always off the top.

Chris 37:55

Yeah. And oh I know, you're humble, you won't bring this up, so I will say that

Neal 38:00

I won't bring it up, but I know where you're going.

Chris 38:02

Yeah, so we yeah we looked at Hodge's spreadsheets for the CCL, and it just so happens that Brian ran the numbers in two ways. Whether it's just the CCL events only or the CCL events plus LobsterCon results, you are the player of the year. So keep that up, 'cause we need those points for season three

Neal 38:25

Yeah, of course. I was when I hear that, it doesn't register in my head. We're halfway through the year, more work to be done. But also if you had asked me to guess, I would top five points, I probably would've rattled off five other people other than myself. So it's cool. I, like playing, and we're gonna keep trying to get more points and hopefully make it real by the end of the year. But the team first, and we'll go from there. Yeah, I really I got two favorite things, and they both begin with L, lhurgoyfs and Lightning Bolts. So I like to play Terravore decks and Sligh. I've been dipping my toes in a couple of the blue decks as well too, just to try and figure it out know your enemy. I've played Money Ball a few times. I personally don't really like that deck. On paper it looks pretty cool, and then you Dark Ritual into something and get two for one. I'll leave my Money Ball thoughts. This is what we call a teaser for a future episode when we go into that. But if I had to pick a favorite deck, it's 100% Sligh. There's just something about playing two ones and aiming spells at face, and getting your card advantage by being the cards left in your opponent's hand. That's just that's your draw spells right there. So yeah, I've been playing burn style Sligh decks for pretty much my my whole life in Magic. My first tournament I ever showed up to, I had a Simic deck. It was an F&M. I lost. My opponent said, "Hey, let me look at your collection. Let me see if I can make this deck a little bit better." So I handed him everything. It was a stranger. I had no idea who he was. And he handed it back, and I start thumbing through my deck, and there were mountains in there instead of islands and forests. And I was very confused, 'cause I thought he was just gonna tweak my deck, and he's "This is better. Trust me." And we haven't looked back since.

Why Start a Podcast

Chris 40:23

That's awesome. I just real quick on Sligh because it's one of my favorite decks too. so funny, like seeing the opponent crack a couple fetch lands. Like in my mind I'm like, "I just drew a card."

Neal 40:35

Exactly

Chris 40:36

that, that's how I think about it

Neal 40:38

You got Wooded Foothills, Windswept Heath, Flooded Strand is like some of the top cards played in the format. So you're just getting like extra cards. It's like having Loras, having a companion. It's awesome But yeah, no, so that's just a overview of our whole team the quick Chevy Chase tour, so to speak, when it comes to what we like to play.

Chris 41:01

Maybe the next point we wanna hit on is why we decided to make a podcast, because we've been a crew for, don't know just over a year now, and know, why. So Neal any reasons why you're interested in this?

Neal 41:19

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so I've always wanted to do a podcast in some form or another. Obviously never did it until now. But I think with the pre-modern community it's a really good place for it. I know everyone who's a part of this wishes there was more content for it and consumes everything that they can find. I know I do it. I know there's a bunch of podcasts that I listen to. So I figured why couldn't we just contribute to that as well too, and share that information. To me the most important thing about this game to keep it going forward is that information sharing. I-- after every match I play I, always try to talk to my opponent, see what went through with the game, what their thoughts were, my thoughts were. And sometimes you get opponents who they just wanna pack up their bag and get up. So you respect that. But more often than not, you find that people just wanna talk about the game, 'cause guess what? We all love Magic. We're all in the same room. We're all taking time out of the weekend during the summer sometimes where it's like beautiful weather to go to the beach or do stuff around the house, but we're all in a sweaty room slinging cardboard being able to contribute to that information share and collaborate with other people that you can get different points of view for and share things that could lead to potentially the next innovation in this game. Could potentially lead to a change in your own thought process. I think that's something that's very important, and it keeps everything moving and not stale and interesting. So that- that's something that I really am very passionate about, is just talking, building community, and just I think what's logical than starting a podcast

Chris 42:59

Yeah. I, couldn't agree more. I'm all about information sharing. I'm a librarian in my professional career, actually that's one of the reasons why I think I get along with Hodge so much, because he's all about information sharing. He's always organized and gets all the results posted, does a play-by-play for the finals. So can't say enough good things about Hodge, but, know, information sharing, just another way to engage the community. And also I'm with you. Like I... There, there's not enough pre-modern content for me to consume, and I really look forward. It's every two weeks, I think, Hardcast. I'm like come on." Like every day I'll wake up, I check my phone. I'm like, "Ah, is there a new episode from Spike Colony? No. Hardcast? No. Just Monster of the Week." And then there isn't, and I get bummed out. It's I supposed to listen to on my drive to work, I guess being the change that I wanna see maybe some of the team discussions that we have on Discord, kinda opening them up a bit more in a form of a podcast as a way to be more involved in the community help it grow and just maybe some of the conversations we have that I think are interesting, others might find interesting as well. And potentially just with that sharing, like there could be additional conversations that are had people after they listen to us, like amongst themselves, their own communities, et cetera. yeah

Neal 44:45

That's awesome. And I think we're all really excited to move forward with this and start talking about the cards. I know this episode we appreciate everyone bearing with us. A lot of housekeeping letting you know who we are, talking about us. But I promise you more to come especially with the regional coming up.

Where the Show Name Comes From

Neal 45:07

So obviously we've got the team name, the team members, podcast name, Fact or Fiction. Now you might think, "Why'd we go with that?" Chris, I'm sure you can let everyone know there's some method to the madness and there's some fact to go with that fiction

Chris 45:26

So we went with Fact or Fiction because it- in the interest of information sharing and having conversations and kinda like talking about card choices, different deck types meta games for upcoming events, we thought maybe as a podcast we can go through it together and decide what is truly fact, what is truly fiction. We could potentially, this is just, in the future, we could potentially have five of us get on here or on the side and vote on it. You get a 5-0, you know it's a fact. You get a 3-2, eh, take it or leave it. but also in referencing Squee's House of Pizza, not have known this, but the character Squee is actually on Fact or Fiction, OG printing of course.

Neal 46:20

That is a fact

Chris 46:21

Yeah, that's fact. That's why we want to go with that. And yeah.

Neal 46:29

Awesome. Cool. I actually like the idea of the 5-0 factor fiction. Get five people in here and do a factor fiction round, and then we'll see what the piles are. If at 5-0 you get a good pile. We gotta... I'm interested to see if we get some one fours and have that one person defend themselves and,

Chris 46:46

w- right. People could even I don't know, if pe- if five of us couldn't get on the actual video and, Portion of it, maybe they could vote ahead of time. We could have topics ahead of time where people voted, and then you and I are like, we cast our votes live, right?

Neal 47:02

Yeah. And then we can

Chris 47:04

do

Neal 47:04

flip everyone else too in there. Yeah, you're hearing us brainstorm it live, folks. So maybe we have you send questions in as well too and we weigh in on that. So again, we- we're very early in this process. We're trying to figure it out as we go, and I'm sure as more episodes come out, we're gonna evolve into your favorite premodern podcast, of course. That's a wrap on the first episode of Fact or Fiction. Appreciate you all taking the time to listen. We're gonna release these on a every two-week schedule with the next one coming up right after the summer regional. So we'll have a fresh tournament that we can talk about maybe talk to the winner get a tournament report on how that went from some of our team members, and we'll keep going as we evolve this process and move forward. Appreciate everyone taking the time to listen, and we'll see you next time

Chris 47:58

Thank you