Ruby/Amethyst BACK ON TOP | Podcana Ep55 | Competitive Lorcana Podcast

0:00 – Intro/News
29:01 – Spilled Ink (Listener Question Section)
1:01:37 – Set 4 Metagame Analysis

This week on Podcana we dive into updates in the Set 4 constructed metagame and break down the top 16 lists from the recent Pack tournament!

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Top 16 ‘The Pack’ $10,000 Tournament: https://x.com/ThePack____/status/1797248799263359167

S4iler Blue/Red: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/RzsVErDpVzX8YnLokMbn

Savjz Amber/Emerald: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/4ZARP71Ed1NiQ7j1Ih3b

Savjz Emerald/Amethyst: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/nIsigM67CL533irC3ykN

Savjz Amber/Steel: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/ocGQW7hR5Ilx2ICOlncn

Savjz Blue/Steel: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/3MxpjLInNNfu5T3ekzhz

Moyen Blue/Red: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/JWZuNJWCBg9qMMQDeUeD

Green/Steel: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/zL3oui9n3oziUdF533LK

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Twitter: https://www/twitter.com/podcana
Twitter: https://www/twitter.com/BrendanAPG
Twitter: https://www/twitter.com/Moyen_HS

[Music] hello everybody and welcome back to Pod canana episode 55 this week we’re going to be talking about the meta breakdown for Chicago updates in the set for metag game upcoming tournaments we have an upcoming turn how do you pronounce this this European city is it bochum is that how you say it B B all right so that one uh which they’re doing a very interesting tournament structure for we’ll get into that um we also had some new news in regards to Pixel born which I’m sure a lot of you were surprised that we didn’t talk about in the previous week’s episode that news dropped right after we finished recording um I did pin a comment giving a little bit of update from us basically our take on it is that we are sad to see it go um we all obviously utilize that software to test and play the game uh quite a bit at this point but we do not plan to let it impact the podcast and the weekly uploads at the very least there’s also been additional updates on top of that in regards to a sort of MTG spell table derivative so basically Pixel born but with webcams ranked play pretty much all of the sort of the facilities you’re used to while playing uh Pixel born in the online client going to a webcam and sort of inp paper client we’ll see how that goes we’ll see how it’s executed I’m ultimately excited for it I played a lot of webcam based uh games in the past like flesh and blood did this in the beginning it’s h it’s clunky it has its faults you know there’s a lot of is really really clunky to be honest but ultimately I had a good time like that was some of the most fun I had playing flesh and blood was like back in the day they would do these skirmishes online I remember me and the boys we’d hop in these like tournaments we get on Discord at like 6:00 a.m. we play these 12-hour tournaments you know just these massive tournaments and just grind all the way through um and it was just those are really the golden days for me I don’t think this is going to be that but I will say that I am optimistic at the least I want to pass over to you guys to get your y’all’s thoughts on this because I don’t even think we’ve had a chance to talk about it really uh yeah I don’t know it’s uh it’s interesting everything Pav’s done clear has been amazing for the community um in regards to the webcam stuff um I know a lot of people already in the comments section are probably going to be like oh but like how do you stop cheating from happening all this type of stuff so you don’t it’s going to happen um the best things that will probably um be put in place to try and prevent it is that I assume that you’ll have to show your hand at all times but as Mo showed myself and Brenan a few weeks ago you know there could always be a dude hiding under your desk passing a card up into your hand um so you know you can’t stop that from happening but yeah those those one piece players are hiding their their like their trap cards in their prison wallet just [ __ ] flipping them out cheating yeah um but yeah I mean the saddest thing about it obviously it’s it’s the whole card accessibility thing because um like I I’m I’m I’m interested cuz M I know you have a lot of cards now I would say a lot of cards you have a decent amount of cards now but as someone who mainly utilized Pixel born for um obviously the practice but also the accessibility um how do you specifically feel about um Disney finally putting the the ban hammer on Pixel boor because I I do want to say before I passed over we all knew it was bound to come sooner rather than later and I know pav did say as soon as it happened he would happily um shut it down out of respect um but also there’s definitely a reason why it’s it’s been going for this long because I I think we all know that dis know that it was a benefit for such a long time like pav made the game accessible when the game was inaccessible and that that is huge so but yeah I’m curious Mo on your thoughts since I think a lot of people use the plat platform not only for practice but if you don’t have have the cards so yeah right I personally couldn’t be more sad about it I think think Pixel born was great for the game the the amount of people I met for example in Le that were openly talking about how they always play on pixel and how much like how they got into the game because of pixel Bor um is absolutely incredible I think there’s a lot of um and I I don’t think the it’s really the case that PE there’s people that only play Pixel Bor I think at the end people still want to play tournaments people still want to play in person it’s just it’s not always possible to play in person it it was a great testing platform it it allowed people to play the game that where the game or the product was wasn’t really accessible there’s lots of um let’s let’s say players they they have a family they have a job they don’t get to um go out and play locally they don’t all the time and the only real way for them to regularly play the game was with something like pixel one so I I I am personally really sad and while while we always knew it was a possibility and it it was going to shut down eventually um it still kind of hit out of nowhere um and now also now now that it is shutting down soon um the coaching interest I’ve gotten is like at an all-time high because everyone wants to do it before it shuts down but um I’m not even sure if and how I will continue the coaching as soon as it does shut down because like everything about the coaching just gets less convenient and possibly less efficient as well um and I I just I just hope that that the that there is an official client in the works that that it begs a question right because it’s clear yeah it’s clearly just a terrible strategic decision um I think there’s a clear distinction you should make between Disney and Ravensburger as well because you said Disney knows it’s good for the game I don’t believe that I think ravensburg know know good that’s yeah I I I meant to say that I did mean to say that you’re correct yeah I’ll give you a little bit of insight on the back end there’s been a bit of a delineation between Ravensburger and Disney and a lot of these decisions that don’t make any sense get that Disney title attached to them Disney made this decision Disney made that decision it seems that Disney’s taking a larger interest in some of the game um some of the facets of the game right now we saw this affect casting at some of these events um and I believe this is exactly what’s affecting pixor so it could just be Disney taking a larger interest um and you know kind of Shoring up things on the legal side or changing the strategy you know this kind of decision does beg the question you know you think obviously they have a digital client because let’s be real you would have to be an absolute idiot to not realize that Pixel born was the best thing that ever happened in Disney L you would uh maybe there’s more things I don’t understand in regards to the legal side where it’s not it’s not really safe to operate moving forward etc etc but Pixel born was a net positive for Lana in my opinion saved the game grew the game number one contributor to the game success and I think if you if you cannot appreciate that you do not deserve to have whatever job you have so I don’t think that they’re ignorant to that I think that they’ve made this decision decision because they probably needed to for reasons that we don’t understand um or it’s just we’re at that life cycle maybe there is a digital client coming there is a lore cast coming up a lot of people are speculating that there will be some announcements there I would say don’t hold your breath um I do think that digital kli is coming to dig to Disney Lana eventually we just live in a dis in a digital world uh Lana is not like flesh and blood flesh and blood is a game they’re trying to differentiate by not having a digital client and nevertheless I think flesh and blood will have one eventually because that is just a huge Revenue Source um for these companies so I think it is coming to look on eventually the sadness for me is that it might take a while it might take a long time and that is going to drastically hurt accessibility to this game the one thing I was surprised about more than anything else was like all of these comments on Twitter and we even saw them on YouTube with people sort of I don’t know reving or just being happy about the downfall of Pixel born it’s the weirdest thing to me the weirdest thing cuz yeah I I don’t understand very very sad miserable people um that were doing that it’s never hurt anyone I don’t think I would like I’m probably going or I’m very likely going to stay playing Lana but I would have never started playing the game without Lana I wouldn’t even be part of this podcast and also um just I think one moment that’s totally deserved where we we just just to shine a light on all the good that’s been done through pixel one um it’s wait from from when was this it’s like uh 1 month ago uh there was already 6 and a half million games played through pixel B um over $60,000 have been donated to Charities everything else was just used to to keep up the servers um no profit was a g and the Discord was already bigger than half Stone’s official Discord that the all of this is incredible and while I am very sad I can’t imagine how sad pav must be now that like this entire project is coming to an end yeah for sure and you know looking forwards toward looking forward towards that digital client um it is it is obviously it’s going to be monetized I hope that in 2024 2025 whenever it comes out that they take a appropriate approach to monetization because there are currently games in the industry right now that are top performing Mobile card games or sort of digital card games that are not setting a good precedent I really hope that we do not go in the direction of Marvel snap um Marvel snap has set a terrible example and I really hope that they do not follow suit that is an incredibly inaccessible and expensive game and unfortunately right now they are making a lot of money doing that so I just I hope that they give us something that is reasonable is reasonable to acquire because everybody I see these comments are like oh you know pixel born’s going I’d be happy to pay for a digital client you know what me too but there’s levels there’s levels if we’re Marvel snap level [ __ ] no I’m done with that I’m not spending two grand on another card game and then getting ripped off after you know I can’t play it in four months or something like that one reasonable way to monetize it I think um correct me if I’m wrong but it’s just to have every pack like container code where you also get a pack online um where where it’s also connecting those two words I don’t think they’ll do that I’ve seen games tried to do that in the past and it hasn’t really worked out but maybe um maybe I don’t think that they have to do that um and that probably wouldn’t be like the you know the highest EV play for them I mean is they’re going to be money first I just hope that they take more of a hstone approach than a Marvel snap approach because Marvel snap is like egregiously expensive and you get so far behind it sucks um funny funny story about that and I do not believe this but I don’t know if you saw there was some people trying to speculate that apparently second dinner got the license to like they keep talk so secondly they have this up upcoming upcoming game it’s a they keep saying secret project whatever and someone looked at the description was like oh this sounds very disney-esque um I personally do not believe and I have no idea I genuinely don’t know if they are you know come back to this in a year’s time and tell me but I have no idea but I highly highly doubt it but sorry Brandon but I’m getting PTSD that would actually make sense oh my God I hope not uh second dinner has a unfortunately extremely smart people on the monetization side that are absolutely driving their player BL into poverty so I hope that just not what happens here um anyway let’s talk about some other headlines I picked up uh I picked up the flu like influenza I guess at Atlanta I guess right because I I met a lot of people you know other people were getting covid getting sick I thought I had Co initially but uh it’s just the flu it doesn’t really make sense because it would have been like an over week incubation period but yeah right now I’m like super sick um I started getting steroid medicine a couple days ago so I’m starting to feel better but yeah it was rough I need to change my standard operating procedures at these events I need to have some hand sanitizer with me I think I I kind of laxed on that um again there is that lore cast upcoming do you guys have any other speculations for the lore cast you know people are going are they going to ban Bucky are they going to talk about the digital client what do you guys have I know oh I have an idea okay what’s coming I don’t know anything I actually don’t know anything but it’s very it’s very uh appropriate to assume I think that they’re going to talk about set five stuff because it was kind of at this stage like what we’re we’re I think we’re officially four weeks into Seth 4 but we only kind of feel like we’re two weeks into it because of uh Atlanta and Le but I think it was around the the four- we mark from the last one from when when set 3 launched that they did the the lore cast and stuff like that so cuz if if you think about it I actually I think the LC if the L cast didn’t announce set for then it talked lot about set 4 and stuff like that so I would really hope that they reveal some more information about the um the European championship and the American Championship na Championship after you know so some of these players have already qualified for this but they’re like what have I what have I qualified for what what am I actually going to so I hope they I basically I I hope they they keep this kind of uh cycle going of each L cast they kind of dedicate time to a specific thing and I really hope competitive is kept in there I saw a tweet from uh relle I believe it was yesterday or or or two days ago who was the community manager for Disney Lana and it was just a quote tweet saying how happy she is to see that we finally get to see tweets of uh you know they they they mentioned the winner of Le and Atlanta and I I’m very very happy to have um people like herself and uh Tim from the the the Germany Ravensburger team uh working on Disney orcan because it seems like they really have a true passion to push the competitive scene and push it to the next level and I think uh what people like this on the team Lana could have went in a completely different direction if the organized play System wasn’t there set championships and stuff like that so and again I I have to reiterate I’m truly grateful for uh the the Ravensburger team I think they’re doing a terrific job for a company that has literally only come into the kind of trading card game scene previously just worked on like board games and uh puzzles and stuff like that so really really impressed by what they’re doing and I keep I hope that they H continue that going forward yeah yeah let’s talk about this uh European event the tickets are going on sale on Friday so I think it’s actually before this podcast will probably released so hopefully you get a ticket um very interesting tournament structure you spoke that uh you we spoke about this before you hopped on the podcast this is very much Logistics related to the event but basically there’s going to be two different days of Swiss there’s a day one and there’s a day two so there’s a Friday event with 1,24 players there’s a Saturday event with 1,24 players top 32 individually from each event respectively mutually exclusive events is qualifying for the the sort of day three or the top cut of that tournament um I’ve never heard of that being done before I when I first saw the structure I was like oh they’re finally doing day one Swiss and day two Swiss no they’re just doing day one Swiss nine rounds 10,24 players um you know this is from what I understand it’s somewhat venue limited because the venue can’t really support 2,000 people what are y’all’s thoughts on thiss players that are going to be attending that I’m going to clarify it can support 2,000 players because they stated that anyone with a main event ticket can come and play the side events so side events will be running from on Friday on Saturday and on Sunday we know how much everyone enjoyed those last time so feel free to to clean up on the side events as everyone did last time but basically the the the venue the quote unquote venue limitations I believe is uh they can fit 2,000 players but it’s kind of like a two floored venue so it would mean everyone playing in the main event if there was 2,000 players imagine a lot of people running downstairs trying to get their table probably a safety hazard that type of thing but uh I think I’m still happy with the decision because it does mean that’s not just going to be okay the event is C to 1K players it will be 2K players it’s just a bit of a weird structure because it’s going to be on two separate days um I know before the Pod myself and and Mo and Brandon we were talking about oh what’s the best day to actually go and try to to compete on we all very quickly came to the same the same conclusion Friday it’s Friday y yeah what day is the what there’s going to be so obviously you can’t really make an educated decision on this but theoretically um Friday should be the softer day Friday should be the easier tournament um that is because good card game players um usually have jobs so they have to actually work for a living um and can maybe not change their accommodation their travel last minute and they can also not take time off work that being said you know it could go either way but if I was a beton man I’d be playing Friday I think most people would have expected that the first day was going to be Saturday anyways and if there if if anyone like myself has somehow booked accommodation of flights before and they’re hoping that that they’re going to get a ticket it’s like oh fine I’ll just play on the the Saturday and also I will I will say if you actually make it on the Friday yes you can play side events on the Saturday Saturday but you could just like actually rest you’re not you’re not literally okay I’m playing on a Saturday it’s the event ended at like 11:00 p.m. I have to go straight home make sure I sleep and then play next the next day can you enter the tournament on the Friday not do well drop and then play you you you buy a ticket for either the Friday or the Saturday so I still do think that the Saturday tickets I think they’re going to sell out way faster maybe not way faster but definitely faster than the Friday tickets go on like a Sherlock Holmes disguise change your name a bit you’re playing both days you I I’ll I’ll I’ll be honest do that I feel like do that so I I have to give a shout out to some of the the Irish Lana boys we have a group chat and some some dude was literally like but like yeah what if people have different IDs from different countries so like I bring like my bra Brazilian passport and then I bring my German passport but uh the one of the organizers within tournament Center did say that they are going to be really really scrutinous when it comes to this they’re going to be checking a lot of different things people said oh well I could just register with one M account and then register with another mle account but I know a lot of people in the like tournament Center Discord just said just be aware because a lot of people will try and do this like lots of people will try and abuse this system so hopefully they they catch everyone I mean we might find we might hear yeah they would just DQ if there’s even hint of like oh yeah you you were here the last time yeah hey but you get a you get a good disguise like I mean respect what can I say I don’t know get that little mustache going you know like you know yeah you’re so yeah you’re so into it just like so on the Friday come with full full long hair full facial hair the next day shave your head shave your beard hey we’re talking we’re talking like 50k EV that’s worth y mhm yep 50k EV how good do you have to be to 50k Eevee pretty good um anyway also in the headlines we had the last pack uh the pack online tournament um we’re going to be reviewing those lists in the main topic uh I’m assuming the pack will be hosting webcam tournaments sounds like that they’re going to be involved in all this I saw retweeted um stuff like that so that’s that’s what we can expect but we did see this sort of last big online tournament last big $10,000 tournament happen and we have top 16 list from that in which we’re going to extrapolate the Chicago metag game and talk about what we think think is potentially the best deck for that tournament um and then last thing I want to pass over to you guys to give us a little UK games Expo recap playing all the different card games winning all the different card games how’d it go uh it was really fun uh it was three days of events we quickly realized that the best way to win the the play mats so uh there was the exclusive uh promo event play mats uh there was one last year I believe for like Gen Con and packs and that one right now is worth a hefty uh $1,400 so uh the mat that myself and as you can see Mo won we reckon it’s probably roughly worth about $500 uh dollar at the moment but the funny thing was there was a main event which was 64 players it was just six rounds of Swiss uh top four got the playmat and then the winner got a signed playmat um and basically to get top four in that format you obviously you have to go undefeated or if you lose one game even if you lose one game you have to get incredibly lucky with your tiebreakers to make sure you guaranteed top four so it was really tough format so we quickly realized that they also ran side events where the winner of uh eight man constructed pods also got a playmats so we kind of went that direction and uh myself and my fiance started farming though so I got a play mat she got a playmat Mo and spy faced off a little bit in some finals of the Side Event so it’s funny cuz I actually found the side events way more enjoyable than the main event honestly so the the big reason why I found them more enjoyable too was just I I love the Expo I love games I like card games like games there was so many it was it was literally heaven for me um so while I do love playing Lana I didn’t want to spend the entire day playing Lana and I wanted to actually get to check out the booths um so for that reason I also much preferred playing the side events and in one of the drafts I actually got to play with uh with Emily Abida and and she she’s she’s the that also designed King Undisputed and wait pan and whatever this card is something magical right I think yeah yeah so that that was also really really nice yeah in general I will say the go ahead oh I just say I don’t think people understand how much of a freaking fiend MO is like if I even whisper card game to him he will just he’s just he’s just in he’s just in he’s down to play he’s in like oh yeah it it was I could tell it was it was it was Heaven for him but yeah there was so many cool games we got to we went through and we wanted to test out uh one that we actually didn’t do a little side note Brandon was uh I was telling Mo about this so apparently there’s like this new Marvel trading card game but it looks it bro it literally it looks like it was designed for 5-year-olds it looks very very basic which is it’s a bit weird to me cuz like for trading card game there’s so many things that go along with that right like you want like collectibility you want really really cool art and you want organized play so I went up to this dude and I was like oh uh you know oh you’re working with Marvel this company whatever I’m like oh do you guys have organized play in the world works and he’s like H I don’t I don’t think so I’m like okay that’s how that’s how it should be 2024 you know in this this age of the TCG bull or whatever because we got new tcgs coming out all the time they don’t have organized play don’t pay attention to them now you can play for fun but like I mean seriously I’m not even going to think about your game if it doesn’t have op and you’re not taking yourself seriously cuz like a lot of this stuff is just very pump and dumpy people realize that you know people are putting up kickstarters for card games and making a million dollars like that like um you know these companies are getting IP licenses and they’re making tens of millions of dollars just right off the bat um the first sets like always sell out there’s tons of fomo so you’re going to see a bunch of [ __ ] com into the market like you are I’m not saying that game is bad but it’s going to happen um and then ultimately this whole cycle should cool down and you know 90% of these card games are going to die and that’s just how that’s just how it is me me I particularly enjoyed uh Alat which we’ve also been been jamming you and I played that online a bunch it fun it was it was really really really fun I can’t wait to get my boxes for that Bo had some critiques when we played online did they I didn’t I didn’t love the the card design of the the starter decks but also now we’ve got to see some more cards than that and the deck building restrictions where you only get to put in like 15 rares three uniques and then some com so okay but I still have my my my thoughts about it but the game game play was really really fun it’s just I I wanted to talk about because you said about the Millions on oh yeah they they are the most funded card game on Kickstarter 6.2 million but what’s funny yeah we’re we’re actually going to go off a little bit of a tangent but I do think it’s it’s important to talk about all these other card games as well there’s another uh card game wonders of that one actually looks sick though like see I played I played um yeah I played uh I played what the [ __ ] altered and I was see I was a little bit unimpressed with the card design I think that the the game system is really cool where you it kind of feels like you have decisions sometimes there are some plus EV plays you kind of always make and I like that you’re playing on a board but wonders of the first looked I didn’t get into it I want like I didn’t back the project because I basically told myself I’m never going to back another Kickstarter because every Kickstarter I’ve backed has been delayed by years and it just it sucks but uh yeah I didn’t I wanted to play wonders of the first online before I backed it and I couldn’t do that did you hear about the the [ __ ] that went down with wers at the no I did not I did see the kickstarter went down and came back up though what happened they nearly got kicked off Kickstarter because they’ve got nfts is that what that is is is it not allowed on okay yeah so I read a lot of the the verbiage sounded like it was it so this has happened before I’ve seen this I can’t remember which game it is but I’ve seen it happen where a card game was clearly developed like two years ago when the whole nft card game thing was very popular and then they sort of re I mean that’s what altered is yeah that’s what Al altered is that altered is if you altered isn’t though but it is designed it is designed exactly like an nft card game would be where you have these you have these I do I do agree that if you if it wasn’t specified that like the online Market is just like you’re just buying and and trading and unique cards and stuff and it sounds it sounds like it was an nft game and then they took it out because the nft thing kind of cooled off right that that’s what it sounds like to me um so what I’m assuming one because I read the Wonder stuff and I was like this yeah it sounds like that but all I know is that they got taken there and it was a big thing about that and then it is back up and uh they also said that they’re they’re not going to reprint their cards they’re like a huge like collectible kind of type of thing that’s like the big thing for them um but yeah I mean the the ultimate conclusion for this kind of tangent is that there’s a lot of card games coming out better have organized play better have good systems it’s tough competition it’s tough competition out there but then also like the example of altered where they they said they’re not going to have like this dedicated digital client but they’re basically using board game arena which I’m pretty sure that’s where you played it Brennon right like that’s going to be open to use so the the idea that they’re going for is they want a place where people can play all the time online they said they probably won’t host tournaments on it but they said the idea is you can practice there online and then you can uh when you get your cards and stuff like that on the marketplace for for the print and play stuff is you just order as many cards as you want and they just have to check that it’s in your collection online so yeah yeah I I’m interested to see how that system you know ends up working out and is executed because it sounds kind of clunky with you know getting it mailed to you and like the actual logist I’m assuming they thought a lot about it the logistics of like printing on demand mailing to people sounds hectic um one last thing for card games coming out you guys are like talk about L the [ __ ] bizaar is coming out oh finally bro what this okay that is that one of those is that one of those games you were talking about that you that you backed ages ago I thank God it’s one I did I did the bizaar is a game that’s created by Rad owner I believe of tempo storm OG hearstone player the infamous creator of Handlock um yeah he’s talked about the bizarre I mean it’s been like a decade and there’s been all these videos the whole the whole entire ethos of the game has changed like they came out at one point with like a Dev update like oh it’s going to be PVE only you’re like what um but it it was one of those games was never going to come out and it’s coming out in October yeah it’s crazy then other card game or other games came out with like their concept of a auto and they they didn’t like that what was it super Auto Battle Pets or some [ __ ] like that super Auto no it’s a good game don’t don’t [ __ ] talk Auto also what the the one non-card game I really enjoyed at UK games Expo was crol was like some flicking game with rules that were similar to curling was very very fun but okay just one last thing about Expo because to me I might even visit it even without any of the tournaments because it was such a good atmosphere where everyone was so passionate about their KNE Hobby and like very open-minded that was like super enjoyable to to try out all the games yeah sure yeah yeah no I mean those things are super fun and if you’re in enjy of games I I I’ve I’ve sort of had this stance since the very beginning um this whole like card game bll Market thing where we’re going to get like a lot of these games are going to be trash but as a consumer as long as you don’t buy into the some of the BS that they’re selling you where it’s like collectibility collectibility and it’s like new IP it’s collectible and you like put money into it to try to invest more games better because like you just get to have like it’s so fun to play a new game sometimes and the best is the best should rise to the top so it’s a great time to be a player for sure um anyway let’s head into our spilled Inc section it’s our listener question section if you want to get your question right on next week’s podcast or just a comment on YouTube we’ll get it queued up over to you guys all right first one’s from Jo hey guys just bit recovered from games Expo what a great event Good Times had and it was a pleasure chatting with C about the state of the game with the addition of aeriel into blue steel they seem to have flipped the match up against Ruby sofware I decided to play aiel in my own Ruby software list on Saturday and Sunday and she did a lot of work in several matchups maybe this is the way along with the return of Tain to get the matchup back in favor of Ruby sofire I do think the list needs to evolve going forward to main to maintain control of the Forma will be interesting to see how it does so um this is something I really agree with this is something I got my ass whooped by over the weekend was this uh it’s the six cost unable aiel with Ward you use aiel and and and dime and suddenly it literally becomes a two- turn clock especially I was playing um yeah I was playing Emerald steel so in my hand I thought okay anything they play I pretty much have an answer for cuz I had we don’t talk about Bruno at least can bounce it back to their hand not when the card has Ward so uh that that really really sucked but I do think yeah interestingly enough you play that card in the in the mirror match then suddenly train kind of comes into play again even be king Undisputed which I saw not all of the Ruby sofware players were running but I do think it’s a very very good card and I also think that card is very good within um Ruby amethyst because you can see with like your uh Merlin rabbits and stuff like that so I do agree that aiel is a very very good the issue is and I I will say it is an issue but it’s it’s just as the game evolves and as there’s more cards to come out like it is trying to fit in that card and take out other cards in terms of there’s already so many great unable six drops that go into that deck such as Madam Medusa and uh Tain so yeah but I do think it’s definitely a two of you could slot in there and suddenly it becomes like a much better win condition I don’t know I want say much better Wing condition better condition cuz the [ __ ] Ruby Sapphire deck could be prepared like the Ruby Sapphire deck could be prepared didn’t have King disputed we I mean didn’t have Tain so like you L put on the battlefield with d what are they doing nothing yeah nothing yeah that’s true what you saying go ahead Mo yeah it’s just so it’s it’s much easier to fit it into safire than it is into Wu sappire because we has so many un incubates that it already needs to play so I think because when when I posted the the rank one list from last week it was uh zero B prep zero true people like yeah but how do you answer this it’s just it wasn’t a matter where that was barely played so of course if if now people want to beat Ruby Sapphire with with ARs then we can start thinking about okay beep’s a decent card and it helps me for that train could help us for both sappire matchups and we can adjust the the deck a little bit but it just doesn’t need to be adjusted before people tech for them for the deck at all um and but I I don’t think we really want to play it as our own win condition I think as long as we can answer they are really like decently well that’s good enough also the other problem is against Saphire steel it doesn’t really low for five in Ruby sappire because they often have at least the same amount of items as you do yeah the blue steel deck is really interesting right now I find that you know at least you know the meta The Meta adapts very very quickly but for an extent there I felt like it was actually favored into Ruby Sapphire and it was actually unfavored into green steel which is like very paradoxical from the set three understanding of the deck matchup um but uh but yeah I think that card is great it it might it might Fade Out of the metag game as as Dex adapt but it uh it absolutely did flip the Ruby Sapphire match up for some amount of time yeah and and even even when Ruby Safi attacks I think it will still be a close matchup as to before it was like an almost unwinable matchup um against Emil steel funnily enough even if they can answer the Diablo so well I think they can a time to time just fall behind against like Robin hoods and Beasts where they’re just so beefy and they’re lacking removal for those um and then all they’re doing is like ramping drawing some cards and they can quickly um fall behind in lore and then it’s really hard for them to really catch up on the board against specifically Robin hoods yeah I’m surprised in how that match up went because I mean I’m a little bit surprised in general at the start cuz like initially when I was like okay what’s green Steel versus Ruby software going to be like I imagined it would be extremely extremely favored because as as it was pretty much in set three I do think that it is still favored but within Ruby software specifically like if they just ramp and they get their C out and they can deal with the bookies and they just keep having the medusas and trains it can definitely still be a tough match up and same way I thought sappire steel would be able to easily deal with the the discard stuff but yeah like you mentioned some of the beefy units are quite difficult to um to get rid of so probably it’s probably a good thing though right that like a lot of these things are happening that we expect we expected it to go one way but it’s actually going a different way yeah the thing that really describes Ru Sapphire for me right now is I think it’s a super powerful deck but I think often times it’s facing matchups where it needs very specific answers and it also needs multiple very specific specific answers to very different things so for instance against something like Ruby amethyst they go one drop two drop Flynn three cesu and then they go Castle you’re like uh as a Ruby Sapphire player you’re trying to deal with the castle and the flame that’s gaining um three low turn and then you play against Green steel it’s like oh I need the early brawler I need the early cesu for the Diablo but then I also have to have like the the Medusa and sometimes the ramp for the Beast and it’s like you’re just getting attacked in like multiple different angles all the time and then you run this high on inable count just feels like the deck super powerful super powerful but the margins can be really thin so I’ve actually kind of personally I’ve started to move away from Ruby Sapphire a bit um mostly in Li of Ruby amethyst which we’ll talk about in the main topic but I feel like the Ruby amethyst is a lot more powerful than I expected because we had some cards sneak in there and the new Flynn is just ridiculous oh my goodness such a good card uh all right next one’s for bble Hera I often think of cards in terms of packages of cards with similar roles or effects from there I Cho I choose the ratio of cards I want within that group it often results in uh 42 or 31 type splits of cards the reality is that we just can’t actually get the Reps needed to determine optimal card counts so you’re always going to be playing it by feel or theory on some level yeah I think I I agree with that makes sense yeah it’s it’s a hard it’s a hard thing I always wonder because so let’s say you have you have a deck um let’s say it’s four ofs it’s like it’s a very strong build and you play against you play a couple matches and you’re like ah feels like I need the Tain right feels like I need the train I’ve ran into multiple blue Reds in in a row and I’m just getting owned by this tatoo or something like that I’m getting owned by the Ariel you add in the two train and your sample size was like three it’s like when is it correct like when in the deck building process is actually correct to go back reconfigure the deck and like try to Tech for this meta game you’re just like currently queuing into and how much of it is just like recency bias and is actually moving you towards a less consistent actually worse deck and kind of skewing your sample size for for understanding the true power level of the deck that’s where I it’s just something I struggle with because I think that we’re just we’re naturally inclined that when we you know we queue into something a few times even if it’s an outlier experience where you like double queue into like a Ruby Sapphire when it’s not popular in the metag game or something like that like okay maybe I go add this Tech card in my deck but it’s like if you look at the agre to the metag game maybe it’s not the correct decision it’s tough uh next one’s from nintend bro question for spilled ink when do you buy your cards way a week after big box stores get product or what um I am definitely not the best example to follow for this I buy I just buy boxes I I buy boxes I open packs but if you guys want to buy Cards efficiently uh just wait until the singles Market comes out but I actually do do like this question because uh specifically Brandon do do you like oh I’ll just buy singles after a week will you wait a little bit and and now especially with Pixel born and you know imagine you don’t have pixor to test stuff sure you can use other stuff like maybe like tabletop simulator whatever to try and do some stuff like if you just want get some testing on the ground would you like okay I’ll actually just wait two weeks until singles are relatively okay or when would you think is the most appropriate time so I don’t really speculate too much I think that if you understand like the card power level Matrix in lorana you can probably buy some cards earlier rather than later before they go up in price because sometimes it’s a bit predictable for me I kind of just buy them whenever I need them and actually wait as long as possible because the metag game is so dynamic um and I usually buy them from my local game store because uh yeah I mean they they price them competitively and it’s just easiest for me um sometimes I buy them from locals as well but but yeah I don’t really have a super strong strategy the thing is for me like after playing card games for a few years now physical card games I’m so over the cards like I’m so over like my freaking closet back there that is just cards and cards and cards and cards and cards it is such a weight so I am just done buying boxes I do have a bunch of cards behind me because I ended up winning a bunch of set three boxes in the store championships from prizing but other than that I don’t think I’m ever buying another sealed product again in my life dude like it has become such a a burden of just clutter yeah for for me I also just like if I know what I’m playing like probably like two weeks before the tournament I will order every single that I need um which is not which is not always the perfect time value wise to buy the but I really want to know that I actually need the card to buy it yeah um yeah because I I mean it’s it is very expensive to like let’s say now I want I I want to buy Emerald steel Sapphire steel Ruby Sapphire Ruby amethyst all the cards just to have everything available it is it is quite expensive well yeah I mean if you want to buy a meta I mean right now the most expensive deck I do believe is Emerald steel and it’s about $700 roughly yeah it’s crazy yeah people told me one piece was expensive 700 bucks 700 Bucks play Emerald steel they deserve it those Emerald steel players they deserve it they deserve the poverty all right next one is uh from Mr Ram question for spill L do you guys think especially in context of the Disney IP which should be familyfriendly that ravensburg will make some kind of code of conduct what I mean by that is enhancing some ways of interacting like being kind and polite for example in large events of miniature games like mid alert SB G there are even prizes for best sportsmanship Behavior as always a pleasure to listen to you um I think they will always encourage this type of behavior I don’t know if they will enforce it upon people um did you see the controversy on mag of the gathering this past week in regards to something like this I did not so what happened um there was a IDW so basically they had IDW I forget what they exactly stands for but they like there was a mistake in terms of like they thought they were trying to determine the of a game in some specific way that they’re not allowed to and then there was a bad judge ruling like an incorrect judge ruling and the player was dced or the player had a game loss double game loss but then the player like slammed the table and got dced and there was like you know there was a lot of controversy because first of all the judge ruling from what I understand was not correct but then like they were also trying there was a lot of like post like trying to justify acting like this and in my opinion there not only is that DQ absolutely warranted and you should never act like that ever your emotions are 100% not valid in the case of you acting out like that there’s no validity to acting out in a violent way for me the biggest Flex at a at like when playing card games is just pure stoicism like it’s professionalism it’s being graceful in defeat being graceful in Victory like people that get emotional and get nasty I I lose 100% of respect for them because for me they are just children like I cannot stand it and I think the biggest Flex as a player is just to be super professional super clear and just not emotional at the table I just I think that there’s no room for it but yeah the the tldr was like there was a there was an incorrect ruling and then the player had ultimately like slam the table with their fist and gotten DQ and it was like you know they don’t think they deserved it because they think they had a they deser you know there was like they were justified in being upset but it they’re not right you’re never Justified to act like that even on a wrong judge call like that’s that’s other way to go about it but uh I you know what if you have code of conduct where it’s it’s unforced that we use the the proper uh the proper wordings if you go like okay I play Mai attack and kill your castle dute for saying attack dute for saying kill yeah I don’t think they’ll ever had rewards but um I do think like for me for me to gain true respect for someone as a player it’s actually less about their skill and more about how they behave themselves at the table I think that shows like a true veteran and show has a true player and for instance if I like I do basically own part of a flesh and blood team um and pro probably what is I mean what is statistically right now the most winning team in flesh and blood if if we ever got word for the people that are that are part of the ownership of that team we ever got word that anybody acted in that way like even close like even was Sour about loss they’re 100% gone instantly instantly gone it is so embarrassing um so yeah Grace you got to be graceful and defeat graceful and victory and I believe that like professionalism is Absolut the biggest Flex yeah I agree and next from Jackson what are your thoughts on adding a sideboard to lorana um we’ve talked about this for quite a while honestly yeah how do you feel about it now this deep into the game cuz we talked about it you know back in the early days and I feel like in set one you know set one gameplay was lacking a bit so yeah maybe it kind of felt like there should be a cyber how about now like in this is like Prime Lana I don’t know I I personally don’t think I I I don’t want to say I don’t I wouldn’t like to see it but I don’t think I don’t think we need it right now to be honest I’m very h i I’m personally very H happy with how the inking system it can be kind of thought of a little bit as as the sideboards are using uh certain cards when you need to and then like in inking is like one of the hardest decisions in the game honestly is like and I even I even talked about to Mo a little bit on the weekend and this comes all this this comes all the way back to uh set one Brandon that you mentioned it where like you know some players when when they look at like their ink um say they have you know quite an unlinkable hand and they say oh I still want to play like my one drop on one or my two drop on two my three drop on three and I think players have a Ed but there are still some players that are like hm I will just keep playing this on curve and you know oh well if I draw I I should I should draw this inkable card so maybe it’ll be be okay and this is kind of the decisions but there’s some players that they don’t realize okay if I just ink a card maybe I have to pass this turn I can kind of get my game game rolling and stuff like that so I I’m still very happy with the thinking system I think that kind of is is the sideboard over Rana personally but let me know what you guys think I I’m uh usually a big gtic when it comes to sideboards I know people love them and in Magic but often the cards that will end up in your sideboard are like hate tech cards like say Rise of the Titans or maybe Avalanche or maybe the new card that destroys all items and I generally think that these type of cards make For Worse game play so for that reason I am I’m not sad that do not have a sideb yeah um I would say in lorana I would probably agree with M that being said like one thing I do like about sideboard in some other games is like things like transformational sideboards you can see mid-range decks transform into control decks um like sometimes that can be really cool I also I also like having answers but the thing is in Lana because it doesn’t have a land system like MTG um you can add those cards into your deck at an opportunity cost that’s why we talked about the distinction between inkable and unable tech cards you can add things like inkable tech cards into your deck and if you think the metagame warrants that um like it’s a it’s a completely reasonable deck building Choice like part of me wishes there were sideboards in Lana because it would make content a lot better for us because you know we would be able to provide a lot more content in regards to dect teex um because that’s a huge part of dect teex that’s a huge part of providing value as a as a competitive content creator is things like sideboards um but nevertheless I really like the system and I find that we are I think part of the reason we spend so long deck building and that my change is Pixel born because way this part of the reason we we’re engaged with the set for so long is because that we are limited to that deck we are limited to what should be 60 card count um we have to fit the cards we want in there MH uh next one’s from Dad gamer life have you guys been trying the two drop 3-2 Cruella along with brawl in Ruby sofire as the tech against Diablo and Pegasus this past week as long as I hadn’t answer Diablo I was not worried about bookie because I had Shear draw and scry Power in Ruby sofware oh that’s just the um that’s the car that they used to run in yeah it used to be running Sapphire steel right to deal with Mini Mouse a lot I think that was the first reason we kind of saw that played on Sapphire um it’s just another card if you’re really really struggling against the ybl But ultimately that’s the type of card where I mean I I kind of it’s it’s weird like I’m coming back to set three I remember I just I was considering putting like a the two drop three to 32 Jafar into my deck that has a vas of my turn to like deal with Minnie Mouse and stuff like that but ultimately I’m like okay this this card is only good against this exact card in this exact situation I prefer to have cards that are much more flexible throughout the game that can maybe also deal with that kind of kind of card and it is also kind of interesting cuz I’m going to move move away from the Corella I’m going to bring both of your guys attention to to brawl as a card cuz I’ve seen a lot of people saying they actually don’t really like including braw on their deck too much but they think it is necessary to include for the Diablo so I think that that’s a better better card to keep your de okay I might need this for the Diablo Butella I don’t think yeah cu the 32 is a body the conquest and braw is something that has limited options so like you spoke earlier you said Undisputed King is a really good card I actually think it’s a bad card the problem like I think the thing is is like we just are we we in a meta game where you have to answer things like there are cards that are overwhelmingly powerful that are not interactable things like Diablo things like Bucky um that you just have to be able to interact with or you just lose the game and I think that’s a big difference between mini and Diablo mini was okay you want to answer the mini because it’s a really powerful aggressive threat it can also sing um but you know ultimately you’re not really make or break on do I answer the mini this turn feels like with a Diablo you answer it or you’re just losing like I just I don’t know how dexs win and actually leave di do you think do you you guys ever think there’d be a situation where you could leave a Diablo on the entire time and win unless you were playing like a more aggressive deck I would think it would just acree too much value seems like a must answer card you’re prob you can keep it a few turns ramp and then maybe weep cisu or midus but it’s like you still have to answer it like quick yeah um I think I think King Undisputed isn’t like the most amazing cut but I think it’s a very decent cut um especially in a ruby amethyst deck that has a great F singer so it’s much better than the te and Ambitions that saw some play in the last sets um but I I think the main reason why I don’t don’t like buella or Jafar as Diablo answers is so they help the consistency of answering Diablo somewhat that that is true and when they do they’re completely fine I think the biggest issue with them is they you can even get more punished against Diablo if they have let’s say shift Diablo plus let the storm rage on or they just any just playing an an entire card that’s the storage on target that didn’t do anything else for you can make you fall behind even more and um for that reason I think there’s a big risk in trying to Diablo with a 32 evasive and uh that’s why I don’t think that’s really an option I would like to take what are your thoughts on Peter Pan shadow it’s uh was brought up I think before this podcast I’m actually quite interested in it I mean it’s a two three evasive rush card in amethyst well there’s right there Peter P Shadow and then there’s what what’s the other one Mo like Peter P Shadow finder finder what is that that’s it’s a three cost two three evasive that doesn’t give um Rush cards evasive it gives evasive cards rush and it only C for one so it’s like not a on Baseline it might not be look like a better card than Peter Pan shadow but it’s the much better card in answering Diablo because the shifted out Diablo you want to answer a turn earlier and it’s very important and I think I think that card is a very valid Tech Choice um I’ve tested the match up into amethyst a lot and it still seemed em Ste favorite even when we were testing with with a few Peter Pence Shadow finders so we’ll have to see if it would be enough to like somewhat even out the matchup but and it’s not like it’s really not a great card against like the the sappire decks it will just be an unable mini that Quests for one it’s three yeah um which which will definitely hurt but it is I think it’s a completely valid choice to attack Boo for yeah the the amount of anti Diablo tech cards I saw on I was playing against rubyan player I believe it was on Friday or might have been on Saturday at the UK games Expo and like you know I kind of expected the brawl maybe Peter Pan shadow my guy had like bra Peter Pan shadow had teeth and Ambitions had me’s Fish Hook had so much to try to try and answer this uh this Diablo like you do you think there’s levels that okay we we have a certain amount of answers or do you think that a lot of your early game really has to be teched against Diablo do you think it is literally that powerful that you have to well I don’t know if it’s that much but I think that if you do not Diablo I think you will lose the game more often than not the card is absolutely busted like it’s it is a must answer threat it’s crazy MH so that’s one thing but I think the next thing that should help out our fellow Americans playing in in in the Chicago event is I think um people automatically just like to shift Diablo whenever they can but especially because the one cost diao gives the information let’s say you know they have a brawl I think there’s a lot of value to be gained in shifting out the Diablo not into your opponent’s turn three but for example against Ru amethyst into their turn four where suddenly now they have to play Brawl instead of a rabbit and not just brawl instead of a crab and utilizing the the timing of your shift Diablo in that way I think makes em steel a significantly more powerful deck and Diablo an even more powerful card than it already is yeah the thing is when you brawl a shift to Diablo like it’s pretty good right cuz you two for one them it it’s technically a three for one but the the Diablo is going to can Tri the card that you draw on the turn but so you two for one your opponent when you do that because they have to discard the action card yeah unless unless they were on the play and they shifted out turn two which means it’s stuck two turns then one for one but you used three and they used one um if they Bucky then you still got two for one yeah that’s that’s why people hate that freaking squirrel because so annoying damn squirrel damn squirrel you know people I’ve never seen more discourse on Twitter about a card than the freaking squirrel people trying to ban bookie I think that’s that’s what I’ve seen a lot of people saying is is Ban bookie but I don’t know like how do you got do you think it do you think it is like so bad that that should be the bonable card yeah I don’t know yet you got to let some tournaments happen to be honest like it’s should so the thing is I do think it’s a toxic deck like I think green seal is like a pretty toxic High rolly deck not that you have to High Roll to win I think it’s very Dynamic very very powerful deck but it does do some absolutely toxic highroll things on the play where it’s just like okay it’s just it was always toxic it’s just now it’s on top of that it’s a very good deck and so we we see the toxicity more so I would say BBB is not bib B bu it’s better B Bucky yeah and better B bookie you know it’s Eye of the Beholder you know one man’s trash is another man’s treasure but uh you know some people think Bucky’s toxic I think a lot of people who have a reasonable head on their shoulders but you know some people are like you know flavers Shams toxic yeah which which you know those people can just shut up but all right uh next comment is from Jacob what’s your opinion on keeping or sending back One Jump Ahead when playing Ruby sappire on the draw versus an emerald steel deck had a debate about this reason you were friends W jum ahead on turn two is the best possible opener but Ursa is a threat through in your day do you keep one JP ahead if you open with it in hand um I don’t know any world where if you’re playing Ruby software you’re throwing one J ahead even if there’s an Ursa because they have to have the Ursa if they don’t have the Ursa you’re playing the one jump and I do I do think that it’s the best thing that Ruby safer does like the amount of times I’ve heard from ru sapper players oh I didn’t get my ramp so my game plan was pretty like was pretty bad um and also if you send the One Jump Ahead back you’re literally just saying okay well oh yay it didn’t get WR but now I played nothing on turn two and I’m just like you know oh you can play Scuttle yeah you could you could I saw some flints in the top cut but so last set I think Ursula was always their preferred play and still you always kept One Jump Ahead because there’s a few scenarios there’s the scenario where your opponent doesn’t draw the Ursa and you just get to go one jump there’s the scenario where there they they get to draw Thea but you you kept one one jump ah B and you drew into another suddenly you can still play One Jump Ahead on two and it’s this is an incredibly important card to play on turn two so even before I think one jump head was always a keep on in Ruby Sapphire but now it’s even more the case because now your opponent optimal playline is buak on 2 and first of all if they have both the options to play Ursa or buak on 2 they might just decide to play the Bucky because it fits their curve incredibly well um and from their perspective they not that URS is heading anything let’s say we would we would um okay this is just a hypothetical top players would come to the conclusion that you throw away One Jump Ahead which would never happen but then they could even just never or like nevera on two over the Bucky always play the Bucky on two and you’re still always passing on two I think um I hope I speak for all three of us I think keep One Jump Ahead yeah I wonder if ursul every falls out of the deck um because they’re turn two is so contested no I I don’t think it I don’t think so because they don’t like it’s still a very good turn two play if they don’t find Bucky and then it’s also incredible against Ruby Sapphire and then it’s also incredible uh to protect yourself against like grap swats against saire steel be prep later in the game um it’s a great card I don’t think it’s going anywhere it also synergizes with uh some of the discard stuff like if you happen to be playing Prince John I know that doesn’t happen too often but um I love I love the Ursa I think getting it specifically against Sapphire steel or sorry sappire Ruby is really really good because if you’re not hitting the one jump you’re probably going to hit how far I’ll go I mean I I think I did that over the weekend where they got their one jump and I got rid of their H far I’ll go and they they had no other turn four play and that felt like really really good like if they’re doing nothing on turn four or sorry they’re turn three but they have four in it it still felt pretty good you know I think if there’s Anya that falls out of the deck it would be the three C SL because of how congested the three uh ink turn is and of how much removal that is in the meta for something like usway I’ve liked putting that card down on turn three to like kind of bet a brw sometimes because that carard can still do really powerful things it kind of has to be dealt with the reason why Pinocchio was running a lot of the time in the the previous Set uh was was to deal with the the Ursa and the green deck so sometimes playing that baiting the braw getting Diablo out or even if that Ursa sticks like I I am a fan of that URS in the deck currently because I think it synergizes so well with obviously that the storm I John and Es especially St sh but I do also agree that if there’s room to just maybe go a little bit more full on into like the flood borne bookie Synergy or whatever maybe you kind of take that out cuz like turn three is your most contested uh turn in terms of what things you want to be doing maybe you play your Diablo maybe you play Prince John maybe you play Ursa maybe you just play the three drop Aladdin foodborn to synergize with your bookie so there’s a lot of different things you want to be doing um and I I I could see the card falling out but it’s also super powerful card so maybe it’s those all right next comment is from when crew when are you sending t-shirts out sadly didn’t get mine in time for Atlanta I got my ship shipping not notification let’s go yeah they’re shipped they’re shipped so um we’ll probably be doing that giveaway for so there’s a giveaway currently going on if you leave us review on Apple podcast giving away a large medium or XL I actually got an extra XL uh to one lucky reviewer so yeah it’s when I get those shirts in hand which going to be in a couple days so probably when this podcast releases we’ll have them in hand so we’ll do it for next episode so they should be out for Deanie bam and what’s the next uh it’s Fort Worth brenon right for yeah for but it’s like a while it’s like a a month and a half or something away you say oh it’s like a while but you guys got like a challenge two weeks after the first challenge which is just insane so lucky American privilege right there all right uh our last comment is from fens uh what’s the best way to improve your game if you have limited free time number one play the game number two watch High skill players play the game number three listen to high skill players talk about the game for some mix of the above um I think the things that you’re doing they’re very very good I think if you rank it how would you rank it higher high hierarchically little um I think honestly I think I’d put um oh I think I’d put watch High skill players play the game depends where you’re at in my opinion depends where you’re at but I do think that watching High skill players and just mimicking the patterns that you see because you don’t even need to know necessarily the methodologies behind it like all the theory uh it’s like the quickest way to get better but you also have to play the game for me it’s watch High skill players play the game and then and then the other two um but when watching High players SC the game um I would I would say not just mimic what they are doing it’s like before I think so this is what I would do if I was wanted to get good at a new game um just try to make the decision of their turn before they are going to do it and then once they do their decision see if you’re correct yeah but and then also question why do you think that they do something else and um and really because I I think only if you understand the why you’re actually going to be able to replicate good decisions yeah there’s I guess also if you don’t know why then you could also just ask them if they do yeah just be sure to backseat them and um there’s this concept called the poo principle uh which is the 8020 rule effectively you can get 80% proficiency or 20% of the work that’s what the pattern recognition would be just like coping what they do and the last 20% takes the 80% of the work um and that’s kind of where that would come in where you sort of try to understand what goes in behind the lines but you will get super far I Believe by just watching people that are really good and have consistent results just watching what they do and like it will just develop these sort of you’ll get this these solid fundamentals um from that even if you don’t understand the theory behind it it’s absolutely the way that I try to level up the quickest because you don’t a lot of people will go to these games try to reinvent the Wheel by themselves um and that’s by far the slowest way MH all right we’re on to the main topic now Brandon take it away with your your favorite deck remains it has not ad died all of a sudden I know I feel like I’m going to get you know like I don’t know like I have to repent or something because I was I pocked down on it but anyway we’re going to talk about the set for metag game as we lead into Chicago which is happening this weekend happening the day after this video released pieces and Mo and I are going to be doing a tier list as well uh all these lists are taken from the pack the pack tournament this is the top 16 there will be a link to that in the description so check out if you want if you want to follow along with the list first I’m going to be talking about is Ruby amethyst Ruby amethyst pretty good um could be a result of some decks being pretty clunky decks being Dynamic trying to respond to each other my sample size isn’t huge but against Green Steel in particular I’ve doing really well and I found that green steel without Prince John is a much better at match up for Ruby amethyst than it was in the past you still have pesky things to deal with like you have to deal with the early curve need Dan to the Bucky and then you got to be ready to answer the Beast that comes down to five which is a it’s a tall order but I think you can do it I think Ruby amethyst’s match up into Ruby Sapphire is so much better than it was in set three um we talked about already one drop two drop Flynn three drop honestly whatever but three drop cesu four drop Castle your Ruby Sapphire opponent has got to have a lot of things going for them if they’re going to deal with that uh I believe the the worst match up for this deck is probably blue steel haven’t faced it yet but traditionally that’s what it is and I can’t imagine that matchup is much much much better at this point especially when they’re teching in all the early removal for Diablo which will also hit your flynns the Ruby amethyst mirror is probably miserable like at this point because the way that Flynn works as an on theplay sort of character you get so much more Equity with it on the play cuz if you are if you match your opponent’s curve you know Flynn into SE you being on the draw you’re pretty much screwed but your opponent’s going to farm you with the fln so that’s that’s kind of rough and I wonder if we’ll see some tech choices make it into ryst as a result but uh the deck is very powerful additions to the deck from set four are the Flyn R the Flyn Rider that gains three lore if you have a character with higher attack the three cost in cisu um some of these four cost madals the ones that can trip if your opponent has an exerted character four brawls to deal with Diablo uh and then some of these Undisputed what what is the name of this card it’s like Undisputed B King Undisputed B King Undisputed uh just one for one edict removal to deal with some W threats and uh yeah about two be prepared you know that’s flexible so it’s very similar to the set three deck I think it got some decent upgrades and its ability to be an aggressive deck I think the equity of that has increased drastically which was already something that Ruby amethyst was doing very well being able to Pivot between the control game plan and the aggressive game plan I think it’s Equity to have that aggressive game plan has gone up significantly right now you know after the testing we’ve done after the Pixel born I’ve played say that for as long as I can now um this is land is my my my favorite deck right now the um I I will say yeah it seems like this deck on the play is is disgusting because the am the am of equity gain so you go one drop you go two drop Flynn you go three drop cesu which should be like pretty big and then like this kind of reminds me of um the whole thing that you’re doing with the rabit and the B the be king Undisputed it was the same in the amethy steel deck that I played last set so like if you went first you could nearly guarantee if you get your four dropped down you can just sing Zeus and remove something pretty easily so I know being be king Undisputed is a little bit differently but I even had like Ruby ameus players against me doing like lady Tain to kill my bookie and then uh or sorry L like my prince Sean and then sing be king on disputed to get rid of the bookie and stuff like that so this deck seems like it could do some pretty powerful things and a lot of the versions I played so far they didn’t seem as optimized as this so the inclusions I see in here in terms of s four cards I think I’m I’m pretty excited to see them in in the list Mo what are your what are your thoughts I mean I I think the deck still loses to to Emerald steel and if that’s the case then it loses to two of the big four um and that that would be rough so it’s really for for me it’s really can you be able to make EMD steel a close match up for this deck to really have a spot like near the top of of of these four decks M um um cuz I I I still think that the EMD steel checks you for so much removal with the the Diablo and Beast that it’s like super easy to miss out on one of them yeah that um I I think they they still largely come out on top um there’s the the option to to te for the Diablo a little bit with the the Peter Pan shadow finder that’s an option the king Undisputed helps you a little bit um the more thing about the be king on the sh though as well though is that two drop Ura is is because is an unable card and you’re try to hold it for the appropriate time I think the Ursa deals with that really really well as well so yeah i’ say the match up is close I think the castles probably help out on the match up a lot because from playing Green steal I mean that’s that was been the toughest thing I often had to like I might have used like an Ursa to clear the board and I literally had to swing every single one of my characters into a castle and I mean like exert my bookie exert my Prince John to perfectly clear off the castle so that sucks a little bit so that’s probably the best thing that the deck did against me at least so yeah it might so Flyn Ryder and cisu are great um and I I mean that but still Castle might be the the best card of the new set it’s just all all the decks have gotten the best card of the of the of the new set yeah just because it’s it’s gotten so much better because uh so the Ruby Sapphire had to like stabilize the board occasionally with scar dealing six damage plus killing some um or banishing some characters um and they’re no longer playing scar em Ste has has always been bad against this uh sappire steel is right now often not playing item uh not not playing location removal and they were always inherently bad against Castle so I think uh Castle it’s the same card but it’s it’s gotten a lot better yeah yeah although that being said I will say for Castle maybe there’s that weird thing of if you leave the Diablo up right and then they do castle and they draw a few cards and then you draw you just draw cards as well off of the off the Diablo this is just insane but I don’t know how how often that that’s going to happen right yeah I mean I you might just opt to not draw the card because it’s a m trigger and the Diablo is just a must answer like but I think you will if you C if you right now Diablo sticks and you have like draw triggers I think they’re still generally more beneficial to you than to them because also you still need to find an answer so I feel like both of you drawing a card is probably better than than that not yeah one thing I messed up and like it’s it’s not something that’s going to happen too often but for some reason in my head I remember I was playing as Ruby amethyst and they had a a rabbit out on board it was my term and I had an exerted Diablo and I they actually had to call out judge on me for this cuz I was just an idiot and uh I killed a rabbit and I I I drew they drew a card and I drew a card my with my Diablo but Diablo it’s only on your opponent’s turn when the card is exerted that you can draw a card so on my head I just thought oh Diablo is just absolutely so busted that whenever my opponent draws a card be that on my turn or or on their turn I’ll get a card as well so um I got I got a big a big warning for that I will say um but yeah card is still very very very good yeah um I’ll have to test more in green steel I just I rolled a lot of green Steel on ladder so so we’ll see it just felt like can I can can I ask Brandon s to interrupt are all these decks taken from the the pack tournament yeah y they’re all Tak for the pack tournament and I was playing card card for card the Ruby empis list that shows up first there this is day 9,000 of uh of Bron overing Ruby amethyst because he keeps crushing everyone on ladder overvaluing no no it’s been always been good but I feel like it’s at least there was always some small bias because you’ve been winning every match up on L yep yeah but hey one game one game goes different ATL Ruby amethyst Champion right here got serialized Mickey you know I one off um as as as soon as Ruby amethyst goes to the dumps Bren will be like I remember back in my day deck was good hey I said that at week one of this set that’s why I feel like I you’ve been a bit Blasphemous I’m not lie I did toss between um blue red blue steel and green steel and I was getting a little depressed like I was like oh [ __ ] I was just not feeling it to be honest um particularly I was not enjoying my matchups into green steel and then I just don’t like playing Green steel it’s probably a deck I need to practice a bit more but uh then I found my Lord and Savior Ruby amethyst and I was like dude this set is great this is awesome so yeah we’ll see we’ll see maybe overrating would be amethyst I do love blue red go into that next I think blue red is a fantastic deck it’s a deck that Mo has already hit rank with one with twice uh in this season uh did get a lot of upgrad short up its aggressive weakness in the set and yeah I mean the deck just is more powerful a lot of the builds you you can there’s some differences made with the build I think your build was not playing Inc cesu I do believe incable cesu in blue red would increase your Equity against the Ruby amethyst matchup um Bo almost probably significantly right because not only is it insulating you against the Flynn uh potenti but is also giving you more Equity to clear that castle um it’s not like Ruby mthis can remove your freting pisu yeah yeah so I mean it is there’s some interesting deck building decisions to be made there um cisu is like an awesome card it’s only three cost characters is are awkward curve wise for the deck but yeah nevertheless it might still find its way into into res fire builds and then it’s like the late game removal um how many cesos how many B prep do you play how many ice BS do you play I think the unable C is pretty bad I don’t think should really it really W the in slot um and then in even in the top cut i’ I’ve seen some people like not have four copies of how far go or something I think like for develop your brain one jump at how far go grandar are like absolutely core to how the deck functions and shouldn’t be taken out just because you want to you want to fit in some extra card um but yeah that the deck uh it’s it’s also it it has the answers for Diablo early but it can also uh basically it has these huge Tempo swings in the late game with the cus where now it canot just stabilize the board but like it’s quicker in setting up its own game plan when it wipes the board with with the eight cross cisu yeah I was um I was really not having a lot of fun in the blue red mirrors uh because it was just like okay I draw my two cards I Flav sham you kill my Flav sham you play your flavers sham you get your two cards I kill your flavers sham and then we both like kind of just like start really struggling for card draw and then whoever gets the tamatoa first is just absolutely juicing um that was my limited experience with it and I was kind of getting a little bit tilted uh I just have to play it more to be honest but uh yeah I actually played this at locals I played a blue red at locals and I did Super well I I beat everything except for red FAA which oh my God I lost like we we we finished so fast that we decided to play like five six games I won one out of six or something like I got farmed by Red fosta it was so bad it was such a rough match up for me I I played against that deck as well over the weekend and the game one oh my God they wiped me they wiped me game one and the only reason I I got it back on the other two games was I think I had um one of the games I opened with double bookie which was just insane and then the other game yeah they just didn’t draw their their appropriate cards but that deck got a lot a lot more powerful that is insanely more powerful more cards it’s like yeah I I I say that but also I I don’t think I mean listen you guys are going to be doing a tier list video soon so you will be ranking that somewhere just because of results or something I don’t know the deck looks really powerful I just haven’t play the deck myself so I’ve only seen it from the blue red perspective so maybe the deck is just too weak against like green steel and if you have a deck that’s super weak against Green steel I think you’re going to be in a tough spot uh for Chicago I think green steel would probably be the most represented deck at Chicago uh it is just a it’s just really strong right now to be honest okay so what’s what’s the deck to to beat Green steel right now if you were bringing the deck to beat it um I think that blue red can beat it I don’t enjoy playing the blue red side because I feel like it can it feels pretty swingy it feels like I need multiple different kind of answers I need the answer to the Diablo I need answers I need an answer to the turn five beast but I also need to be able to ramp fast enough to get there once I get out of ahe I feel okay but um yeah I mean it just it does feel like it can a bit rough again this is small sample size and bias but I found that my Ruby amethyst match up was feeling okay into green steel because I had you know quite a bit of answers for the Diablo I’m not no longer getting punished for drawing like previously previously against screen steel you would opt to not draw because the prince jaw was was acre too much value for the green steel player now it feels like I can prioritize drawing as the Ruby amethyst player and attrition my green steel opponent out nevertheless um also on the play sometimes you can aggro them with things like Flint ryer which is crazy uh but it does do feel like the matchup in my opinion is better Castle again is still powerful does feel like it I think it feels better than set three set three I was really not a fan of it as Ruby amethyst I always thought Ruby amethyst was like slightly favored in set three and I now I don’t think it’s the case anymore but I think both Sapphire decks actually have really close matchups against EMD steer too um yeah well like let’s talk about let’s talk about blue steel yeah let’s talk about S Steel yeah I want to talk about green steel last because because it’s just uh I think it’s the most I think it’s probably like the deck in the format but also it’s just being built in so many different ways a lot of these other decks aren’t blue steel we talked about it at the beginning of the pot how it’s kind of flipped this match up against um blue red because of those Orioles the deck is also it plays a lot differently it’s it’s like kind of combo esque it’s crazy the amount of draw you can do in that deck and you can just absolutely kind of do these like endgame combos with Toma to gain insane amounts of lore like super fast um it’s really fun deck to play Just surprisingly what what took me off the deck is I found my I found my green steel match up to be bad like I was really struggling against Green steel and that’s what took me off of the of the the blue steel deck to be honest I mean mo mo you have a lot of experience against that that deck right from the weekend initially people um I think it was the idea of this deck was just oh wait I can I can Sapphire steel used to be good against em steel and I can play bab booms just for on the Diablos maybe if you fire the Cannons I can play while ramping I’m chilling and I have eight popsicles but I’ve I’ve also I think it needs more testing but I’ve also felt like it can struggle against em steel when the robin hoods come out um it’s like it’s no longer this type of deck that just uh overwhelms the board with characters Al after ramping in h World it just overwhelms the board with like characters in Co it’s it’s a little more like it plays a little bit more removal and a little bit more items so it’s like it can Quest quicker with the Aral and T towers that it plays now in time so it can like get to to 20 lore once it’s set up very very quickly um but it contests the board a little bit less it plays a little bit fewer characters yeah um this is uh this giv my vote for funnest deck in the format right now uh depending on it’s built but I’ve done some absolutely insane things like can tripping through my entire deck and like gaining like you 10 plus lore to you win on my only out of like a dime that was six cards deep or something it’s crazy I’ve I’ve heard of this really I I don’t like I I just heard of apparently some guy did it really well with this really wacky build of blue steel and from the from the sounds of it I don’t think I want to test it but if for some reason it does cuz this build sounds like it’s way too combo heavy to actually like make a pop off but I suppose if you guys have played the deck a little bit more maybe you’ll you’ll agree or disagree so so basically they played a lot of uh cards that traditionally aren’t in the blue blue steel they played um the five cost Sapphire Tinkerbell that reads when an it when one of your items is banished it goes into your Inkwell face down and exerted they played the seven cost gatala which gains a lore when you when a card goes into your ink well then they also played I don’t even know what the card is called it’s like I’ll I’ll find them and break them or something like that I don’t know it’s forecast Steel inkable song that when you sing it it banish is all items so the idea is that you had like a bunch of like popsicles phospher and all this type of stuff and then that all that goes to your to your inkw well and just gain a lot of stuff sounds way too mey for me but I I I don’t know like maybe if someone had success with it I I I don’t know to what level to what degree they had success with it what success yeah yeah does sound like a lot of fun I think one of the yeah it sounds like fun but I don’t know how how competitive it sounds right one of the biggest Str of the deck is now that it doesn’t need to gain that much low early if if you gain like fiveish low early and then you just play area use the dime on it you at 10 and deck really and once once once you’re at that 10 and there’s an aerial on the board and they have a dime holy [ __ ] you just lose the game if you don’t winning the game in that turn you’ve lost yeah you’re you’re just threatening that 20 super quickly but I just want to point out that this is also a deck where builds are very far away from optim okay I don’t want to it’s not that they’re that far away from optimiz it’s just like there’s a lot of different builds running around and in in the’s event there was also a few that weren’t playing H world at all and then that they were just opting to to even play the great Stone Dragon the three cost item to to ink and then maybe getting some C of Beast because you have so many items now that like you’re less reliant on it there was some others that still opted to play the whole new world and then and and the fork quill to just even if you have that c draw to just ink your entire hand get in your hand and really go off um there there’s a few Chen po that c play now um just as the biggest body to sing five cost songs that still has an effect after it sung the song Because at least it gives uh it has bodyguard um One Jump Ahead is making somewhat of a return um because even post One Jump Ahead the few spare inks you’re very good at using with the with the 81 cost items develop your brain has largely been cut because um you have less spare ink to use if you have more one cost items that you can fit in into these slots I think it’s an extremely interesting deck to play but also to build people are not sure whether to play item removal or which one to play there’s some Beast some be Beast hardheaded there’s some bers running around it’s it’s a deck that intrigues me a lot yeah I like the the MC du Manor inclusion in some of them as well because we just talk about how I do think the the uh location power has just increase dramatically this set because I feel like there’s so many decks that don’t really answer it and it it’s it’s that type of card like the the three C inable cesu that can help into the locations but I think they they’ve definitely increased as we’re kind of moving on to Green steel um as well there there’s a location that was in one of the Decks that I do want your guys opinions on cuz it it honestly when I played it in um I played it in Seal whatever it seemed seemed pretty good but I don’t know how well it fits into this um this green steel package but this is a Hidden Cove right yeah yeah and you can read it out but I’ll tell you some of the use cases of it it’s kind of crazy yeah so Hidden Cove is one cost inkable location uh it costs one to move a character there has six willpower and it basically gives any character there plus one plus one yeah so what does plus one plus one do it Dodges all the Diablo eight basically like takes all the ways you’re killing Diablo you know the Ursula it you know stops your beast from being hit by Medusa it’s it can be strong um I think that I don’t know if it’s going to make the cut eventually because it can be a little bit clunky but that card can be a little bit annoying that being said you know I feel like you know often but every time I’ve encountered this card it’s been so late in the game now hasn’t really been like you know the the the Diablo’s coming down on curve and they have to move it on turn four it’s like by the time they get there like I have access to things like Medusa to deal with the Diablo might have I might have access to things like B prepare in the game to actually clear that uh that beast but plus one plus one is nothing to sneeze at in the format that’s dominated by not dominated but the format is largely composed of two red Decks that are killing Things based off their attack power yeah it sounds sounds like so like the dream open the dream opener is what so it’s diablo on one and the turn two you play Hidden Cove you shift your Diablo and then you move the Diablo to I don’t know if that’s the dream term but against certain Decks that literally they have to have brawl or whatever or they have to have like a two two attack thing to kill it um that seems pretty powerful but like you said at that stage maybe you know you get to your Medusa but the the Diablo is going to stay on the board for at least I don’t know how I deal with that if they did that I don’t I don’t know how I deal with that I’d be in a really bad spot yeah yeah yeah yeah so it’s it’s like this super um I don’t know it’s a super interesting inclusion where yes you get to play around um the ball removal for also the Peter Pan shadow finder unfortunately get by that yeah he just dies right can’t value trade you just you just gets banished um but also you you can you can protect your your Bucky from Tinker but all of these things are somewhat Niche and then I think it might be good but it’s I’m not completely sure because the opportunity cost of developing the cove and moving it there of means you’re doing that instead of developing a character and then only to potentially protect it if they had the remov it and if it if it is on something like Diablo yes it can Rue the game but then also later in the game it’s it’s like a card you don’t want to be drawing so it has this very Niche use case um that can occasionally win your games so it it’s also something that I think will we will see how good it actually is like over the next weeks yeah green steel is a wild deck right now there’s so many different builds so not only the Cove but you know there’s are you playing the tinker tinker bells are you playing you know some people are playing these Jafar um of course you know the Bucky Diablo package is pretty standard but like are you still playing URS like Ursula with the sudden chills in there as well you know some of these have tekan removal I guess for the mirror so playing bab booms and smashes um you know the Robin Hood package is pretty standard but want Robin Hood with the one drop so you’re doing Robin Hood on one Bucky on two shift Robinhood on three maybe sing something um just I’ve seen a lot of variety between the builds which is it’s um I guess blue steel also has that characteristic where there’s a bit of variety between the builds but a lot of variety in the green steel builds which I think is probably deck to beat which is super interesting because you know if we saw you x amount in today two of Chicago I think we could see a lot of diversity in the actual deck list of the green Steels that do show up and I don’t know what’s correct right now yeah so there’s some at the start of I was playing the Prince John which most people opt not to play I think it can be quite good even the Pegasus shift is some people are not playing it I’m not totally convinced it really deserves the slots what I what I do really like is I think the Tinker Bell as as a big flator to also contest like the later stages of the game um because yeah it’s it’s really all you want to be doing after these early turns they just draw to some like midsized flood bonds um like bin Hood Beast stin um some people even even don’t play the Ursula and just say okay if I can sing strength or that the storage on on any of my good flator characters like I’m happy but I don’t really want to um play a three cost in this removal heavy meta with all the balls that doesn’t do anything immediately so that that’s also one one B to go yeah all right well I’m going to make youall put your money where your mouth is we’re going to start with car we’re going to go to mo one with me best deck in the format name one deck you got to pick one what is it gowa green steel Bo or no no no reasoning even I mean you can say it reasoning or no reasoning doesn’t matter this is simply we will hold you accountable and judge your character based off this decision um so it’s not Ruby amethyst okay butd it’s any of the other three I I I’ll go I’ll go with Ruby sappire for now okay goes Ruby sappire all right I’m Ruby amethyst let’s go with the uh results biased he never he never goes off it guys Ruby his best deck right now I think that deck’s got potential I think he’s got potential I was flexible strong I I honestly Brandon I really hope we keep this meme going like through to like set when when the deck when the deck trly when the deck truly becomes unplayable I really hope that you’re still playing it no I’m not that kind of play and the deck is not that cool for me to do that there’s been like a couple Decks that I would do that for but they’re combo decks no I just think it’s a really good deck so green steel I think green steel is a safe safe pick y uh blue red yeah but I also think it’s a very you know like if I had if I you know if I was a coward I would say green steel as well yeah if he wasn’t the the the master of Ruby amethyst you know just about stack H all right um anyway if yeah if you if you order t-shirt they on the way um like we said there’s a giveaway going out right now for people who leave us a review on Apple podcast that does help us a lot so you haven’t submitted your review do it before I get those t-shirts in hand because I will be drawing a winner for that and shipping it out the only sizes available are medium large and XL and we’re thank you to everybody that did buy a shirt it supports us a lot and we’re excited to see people in those shirts at these events um and yeah there’s a video version of this on YouTube at youtube.com/ podan podcast hit the Subscribe you there we’re at 3,000 subscribers I think that’s think that’s new I don’t know if that’s new from this week or last week we’ve been growing a lot um the podcast been popping off which is great so big thanks to all of you again anything we talk about links in the description Twitter Bron APG Moore HS and Kore CG Frank on the next episode stay tuned Frank cars on the next episode we’ll be talking about a lot of fundamentals and math and then we’re going to ask the the question to 60 cards or not to 60 cards anyway thank you all so much for listening we’ll see you next week