0:00 – Intro
26:16 – Spilled Ink (Listener Question Section)
50:00 – Main Topic
This week on Podcana we breakdown the metagame and top performing lists leading into the Lorcana Challenge in Bochum.
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CCS 10k Lists: https://inkdecks.com/lorcana-tournaments/ccs-10k-final-standings-tournament-decks-1009
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
Podcana Discord: https://discord.gg/J3YT2SdZKt
[Music] hi everybody and welcome back to podc episode 59 this week we’re going to be breaking down our testing process for baham the upcoming Disney Lana challenge happening in Germany this weekend it is a very interesting met tournament to prepare for because we don’t have access to pixel Barn which has been the case in the past so definitely a different approach to testing because of that I’ve had a chance to play in person preparing for set championships which is also coming up and definitely have some thoughts on what deck I might be playing for that and why um how is uh how you guys feeling now that we’re kind of closing in on this tournament and how does it feel in comparison to the previous tournament in Leo due to the resources that you have access to for for testing I think I personally do feel the impact of it believe it or not for for not having that resource to do more testing I feel like I was a lot more prepared for for Le that could have just been to do with the fact that before Le we actually had the set champs as well which really helped cuz I think nearly every weekend like you’re just playing more and more so if you were kind of testing decks in those tournaments that kind of helped maybe that’s the deck that you chose to actually bring to to Le but not having Pixel born has definitely been um I felt the impact at least personally um I guess the other difference it doesn’t really um like when we talk about testing it probably doesn’t impact testing but so far I don’t I’m I’m not really a fan of this uh this meta I don’t know about you guys it’s it’s it it ain’t the one I think if you compare this meta to set three meta I would I’d actually I I think I would genuinely love to just have another challenge with set three meta I think it would be super super interesting um cuz this one so far for me ain’t ain’t the one but um I’m excited to try and see some more uh decks being innovated upon or like it’s it just maybe it boils down to to like what we were talking about like you remember when war was here and like you mentioned it last week Brandon week to week we were having like not entire deck changes but like constant adaptations to trying to uh you know make a deck better and stuff like that I’m sure people are doing that but obviously like we as a community are not seeing that half as much so those get give an advantage to players who are really really good Innovative deck builders and are constantly trying to do that that testing and have the the testing groups and stuff like that as not to say you know we we aren’t testing together but um yeah I I at least have felt but so what do you not like about the The Meta in particular I I just don’t like the decks in The Meta but what do you not like about the deck specifically I don’t like the deck that I think I’m going to be playing if that sounds like yeah I feel like you’re playing the deck that makes no decisions and then you’re like I don’t like the meta why don’t you just play the deck that makes decisions uh like I understand green Steel’s powerful but that deck [ __ ] sucks to play in my opinion in my humble opinion it is painful to play like it is a terrible TCG experience like it is I I don’t know I think it has some like front loaded super interesting decisions and then after that you just play it out I had the worst experience of L I’ve ever had which was I actually played an inperson green Steel versus green steel and it was abysmal it was honestly I think the the worst time I’ve I’ve ever had playing this game cuz it was just like and I think I had two bookies on the board my opponent had two bookies on the board so it’s literally the first person to play Flood borne wins the game because then forever the hand is just not there so it was a it was an awful experience Ruby Sapphire mirrors are like that as well now I think you still make more decisions but due to the list becoming a lot more streamlined uh most lists are not packing any form of interaction so it feels quite quite dependent on um lucky dime but also I mean it’s always been dependent on finding the draw engine when your opponent doesn’t but I would say but lucky like early lucky dims can feel particularly punishing and painful and not you like the ability to interact with your opponent’s threats is definitely less than before that being said I mean that’s an that’s a choice that’s being made by players that are playing that deck um but I would say on the aggregate that the experience in the Ruby Sapphire mirror is significantly less enjoyable than the previous set but it’s not painful anytime I play Green steel like yes sometimes I get the you know I get the draw and it’s like oh man I see my opening seven and I’m just going to win the game and I get that you know that quick hit of dopamine but I feel like 90% of the time I’m playing that deck I’m like oh my God I’m either slowly losing or my opponent is just like it’s the game is already over it’s just I don’t know I just think that that it’s such a bad it’s kind of a bad TCG experience for me I mean I obviously have a proclivity towards a certain type of deck that Mak I want to that’s why I’m inquiring I’m kind of like drilling down like what exactly do you not like about the meta because I would say overall I do like the meta the def the meta is definitely a lot more narrow there’s four good decks and the other decks I mean especially one with a an off meta deck they exist but I wouldn’t put them really up in that sort of higher Echelon of our of our top four but I don’t mind that you know sort of deck diversity and the deck uh sort of pie you could say at a tournament for me is not necessarily directly correlated with health of a metag game so if there’s a top four decks and it’s a bit more narrow than the previous SE four you know for me it’s very like it’s very possible that could be actually a better metag game and I think from an enjoyability standpoint I’ve actually enjoyed the set 4 metag game a lot um and yeah I I haven’t played it as much so I haven’t had as much time F get to get burnt down but I’ll would say overall I like it I like the Innovations to Ruby amethyst I like I especially like the Innovations to Ruby Sapphire I think that deck is a lot more fun I also think that blue steel is like an awesome deck now I’m not going to play it but it’s it does really cool things like yesterday I was playing a game I was at uh my blue steel opponent had like a dime out and you know they had this huge board and I was was at six I was at six lore passes over to me I had some ridiculous amount of ink I mean I basically didn’t prioritizing card advantage and ink up until this and I played you know I had Tam on board and then I absolutely just like uh you know I went had a you know had a few how far it goes Drew through my deck and I had you know few popsicles and end up gaining 16 lore in that turn just like just that’s fun that’s fun it’s funny how we get to this like we’re at this board stalemate we’re both at like less than 10 lore and it’s like okay we’ve come to the inflection point where one of us is going to sort of combo out and win the game and I I enjoy that to be honest yeah I think seph Steelers is very for missing of a deck in terms of the the decisions that you’re able to make with it not just when playing the the the deck but also there’s three major versions there’s do you play Whole New World do you not play it and then if you don’t play it do you play one jump b or Mickey and then even in all of these versions The builds are like vastly different so I think that that’s that’s really fun um in general the the the is a little more narrow as you said with like top four decks and I think lots of people don’t find Emerald steel particularly fun to play or to play against um so personally I Alo much prefer set three meta but I think this meta is good it’s just we’ve been a bit spoiled because I think set three meta was one of the best metas I’ve I’ve ever seen in a card game and I just want to uh I want everyone to remember that was maybe like uh cuz we had this opinion floating around before the first challenge events that people like oh no I want to play with the new set not the boring old set but I think again I I think I’ve said this quite a bunch but I’m so happy set three at least got one big tournament uh because it it really deserved that yeah and I agree with you and I think and we spoke about it on the Pod that set three metagame was U I think it was better than set two and set one metag game I don’t know if I’d be comfortable making the choice right now that to say you know definitively that set three was better than set four i’ would say let a few challenges happen and then I would kind of decide but I would say overall um I I do like set 4 metagame for sure better than set two and set one um and and I think green steel is potentially like one of the best if not the best deck and I dislike everything about that deck at this point but I’m willing I think that the other the other decks and the other archetypes are very competitive and there’s reasons to bring them um and you know like we’ve had in the past of Lana a lot of the reasons why you bring a certain deck uh is actually metagame dependent so there’s a lot of metagame going on I think the metagaming aspect of the game has gotten a lot less interesting since Pixel born left but overall you know looking towards that Champs a lot of my deck decision is based off of metagame which I think makes the game a lot more fun there’s not just objectively super powerful deck I I have to throw the question back over to call real quick because I gotta I got to get an answer to this when are you GNA [ __ ] start playing the Decks that Mo me and mo play you always playing like I feel like any time me and mo play a deck it’s like it gets this it gets this uh it gets like blacklisted by you like I’m not playing that deck no way no it doesn’t get blacklisted it’s just uh and again I’m I’m not this is not an excuse or whatever but it tends to be that a lot of those colors and stuff are what my partner tends to play oh yeah yeah I forgot you had that limitation and it’s not and I honestly like the the amount of time I’m like I’m not really feeling this deck and she’s like oh you can just play Ruby this if you want I’m like no no no it’s fine like I want to just try and play other other stuff cuz I like I and I also want at least I also want her to play powerful decks and red blue is the deck that she’s been playing for the past like two sets and uh I think as someone that’s a lot newer to tcgs I think it’s really important to try and practice and if the deck is still powerful like every single time she plays with it she gets better so that’s not to say if I if I really wanted to I like I could just buy the the few Ruby cards I needed to you know do Ruby amethyst or or do something like that but um yeah I don’t know like I I was really happy with my deck Choice last uh last set because it was like a little bit unusual yet I still felt it was kind of competitive this set right now in my mind I’m like after doing this green steel stuff of either it’s just absolutely nuts or I want to die playing this deck um I don’t know like I’m I’m maybe trying to make my way back to amus Steel but then I’m really not confident that that deck is as powerful as like so we’re going to dive into it during like the headlines and stuff like that but essentially this past weekend I was invited to the uh early set Championship uh media event at the Disney HQ in London it was an absolute blast got to meet Lo people 16 player event uh and R to i i f i faced spey who’s a great friend of the podcast and uh the games were incredibly fun the it was it was like my most fun I’ve ever had playing lorana because the games were so tight I’m always happy weirdly enough like I’m nearly happier to lose a game when it’s really really close and just get absolutely rolled I think most people usually are um but I still don’t know if that deck is the the at at the power level or at the consistency that I kind of feel like I’d be happy at um but yeah it’s it’s it’s a weird one I I think uh it’s pretty bad that I’m at this stage I’m feeling a little bit less confident on Deck Choice especially this close to to botom and unfortunately that makes me think that at this stage I might just have to stick with green steel and hope that I can get my draws and and do the deck’s most powerful thing cuz I was I was even considering Emerald amethyst I did a lot of experimentation with that I think as an aggro deck it can kind of outpace through be amethyst can get past red blue pretty easily and as powerful as that deck is and as fun as it is I do think it’s a little bit weaker to steal matchups but I’m like if you just compare like a kind of aggro deck not like not like hyper Agro but an AGG grish deck that quest for a lot and you compare it to bookie green steel if you just if you quest for a lot sure that’s okay but if you do bookie green steel against majority of decks they just can’t win if you have the opener so it’s like it’s like this deck that just has the most insan saying insane opener I think some people will find it hard maybe not to choose that deck because it is just so powerful if it does the thing that it does so yeah me personally I’m in this weird limbo space where uh I need to figure out something that um beat up on green steel a lot and also has game into some other stuff so like potentially Sapphire steel uh I know that’s something that Mo specifically has been testing recently so it could be kind of kind of that route and I do think you’re right I think I need to I think I enjoy this game a lot more when I have uh decisions to make let’s let’s just put it that way yeah most most people like decisions to some extent you you say that but uh when I walk up to my locals there’s a lot of green steel players there I’m not saying green steel doesn’t make decisions it’s uh it’s an interesting we talked about it as soon as they sort of spoiled those uh the discard package it was it was a really interesting choice for them to go with that as like an archetyp like a the finding archetype for Emerald was this turbo discard kind of stuff very much feels similar to like what was going on in Magic some of Magic’s formats with the um I think they like renamed them because they didn’t want they basically called them scam decks they would play cards for free that would make you like turbo discard your hand it’s just absolutely miserable experience and yeah it’s basically the same thing as green steel um I don’t know why they did that hopefully Emerald can evolve into something that’s a bit more interesting in the future I’m happy I’m happy for aggro decks to exist but uh discard decks I think I’d be happier for aggro decks to exist than for this deck to be where it is right now the discard thing yeah I mean discarding just I I I think it’s kind of I think it’s like a almost a net negative game experience where it’s not particularly interesting to execute and it’s definitely not particularly interesting to be on the other side of where it’s just like okay all of my game decisions have been uh deleted anyway um another on other headlines we do have the T-shirt giveaway so I have a t-shirt here um this one’s at XL I think I have XL large in medium so for our winner is e- bacillus they say Brenan is a this is from a review by the way it said Brendon is a wee little man but the podcast is amazing great content insight and key guests highly recommend thank you illus for anybody listening to this the number one thing you can do is leave us riew on Apple podcast or Spotify really does help a lot for epilis just message me most likely um wherever in the Discord right honestly the Discord is the best I Twitter changes so much I don’t know if like you can I don’t think you can actually DM me because I think you need like Twitter premium or something like that um and obviously I don’t know your Twitter account so yeah just just tag me in the Discord we’ll get it sent over get EXL large or medium available all right last a we little man I I don’t understand O A we little man have you ever seen Lord of the Rings yeah you know the halflings mm the hobbits right those would be we little men okay yeah yeah so yeah I mean call him Brandon a leprechaun basically yeah makes sense all right um obviously you played anything else you want to say in regards to the set Champs you were you didn’t make it out the first time but you’re able to make it out this time like well the first time wasn’t oi set choms the well the first time there was a set Champs event I was actually previously invited to like the launch event for set 4 couldn’t make it out to that unfort but I did make it out to this one what is the laun event by the way the launch event is pretty much uh for a few of the sets now within Disney L they’ve just invited a lot of the UK influencers to uh like the London Disney Store and you get to open packs and play and do stuff like that right um which is great like I think them actually recognizing content creators a lot more and inviting us out to these events is really really good for the community I mean I’ve already seen the traction that spey stuff was picked up which is absolutely amazing the biggest thing about this one was they actually gave us space to film which was huge right yes we we did have to bring our own equipment and stuff like that but to be able to actually showcase these these games was an absolute blast um yeah we went to the Disney HQ which was awesome uh they showed us around saw some really really cool stuff um so Disney HQ not Ravensburger no Disney HQ the Disney HQ which was really really cool um I one of my highlights honestly like like a little bit separate from the set Champs was I got to play against Tim who’s uh the game development manager at uh Ravensburger in the in the the German team and he does this fun little thing that when you play against him if you beat him he has this playmat that he rolls out and he has a 12 slots or 10 slots 12 slots that are like numbered and he’ll put a promo on each slot and then he’ll like roll a roll two d6s and whatever it lands on you get the promos everyone uh he plays some really interesting ones he played Sapphire steel which I beat using green steel and then he played uh he had a green steel deck I didn’t play against them for that thank God cuz I would have hated the mirror but I know he won a few games he show me this really cool interesting deck it wasn’t the I don’t think it’s competive by any level but it’s kind of kind of cool so it’s a sapphire Emerald deck and the goal is it’s kind of like this really top end combo combo thing so uh on turn two you play one CH ahead on three you play the new Emerald Hades legendary that when it Taps you can sacrifice a character and you can bring out another character with the same name uh so the idea is you do the Hades on turn three on turn four you play like the two cost green tamatoa and then on turn four you basically bring a tam which is kind of kind of cool so uh he didn’t play that against me but that was one deck that he showed off um and that was really fun just getting to chat with him I know he did a game design talk on on lurana and was just discussing you know the whole kind of velopment cycle with me and stuff like that so I found I found that really really fascinating especially with the pace that they’re they’re releasing sets right it’s like every 3 months so um yeah that was that was really really cool everyone there was was amazing to see uh and it was run really really well so I hope to be invited to more of those events in the future I hope they expand that to not only the to EU but you know I hope maybe Mo gets an invite in the the the German Branch Brandon can can go over to I was I I I’m I more hope that something I say on this podcast is get you not invited Let’s uh let’s let’s let’s set the bar somewhere we can achieve let’s keep getting invited but uh yeah it was fun it was a lot of fun all right cool yeah for sure I’m I’m interested to see how those play out um in the future and yeah it’s really cool that they actually that they set they set something up for Content creators um last thing is is Pixel born connect that that’s actually really funny we spoke about in the podcast we’re like yeah they took down Pixel born connect and you know there’s only real playay Network and then as soon as we release the podcast Pav’s like oh by the way Pixel born connect comes out on the 1st of July which is today that’s when we’re actually recording this um I haven’t had a chance to try it have you all had a chance to try it I hav’t tried it it’s yeah it’s l been out for hours I think at this point um I’m Keen I’m Keen to give it a shot uh to be honest and that’s probably how I’ll test mostly for set Champs I’ve been testing a bit locally um with some people around here but uh yeah I mean maybe maybe it’ll be good what what do you thinking like Mo this is you’re kind of a previous Pixel born like out of the three of us you are the Pixel born grinder how you feeling about uh like pixor connect and playing on webcam is that is that like is that something you would do for practice or would you more try to do internal testing and then you would play a webcam if it was like a tournament that had good EV um so internal testing is the try hard thing you do if you like if it’s like very high EV tournaments um cuz it’s like you need to set it up and it’s it’s much more of a Hass work um but then something like pixelon connect would be the everyday practice you get in just to stay on top of the game um I don’t know will pixel one connect have ranked or no I looked like it um connect is not launching with ranked yet it should be coming next week okay because as soon as it does have ranked you usually if the ranked system is good you can grind to the top of the ladder and have get decently good practice there um and when it doesn’t it’s like lab from old pixel Bond the where that Almost Doesn’t qualify as practice but if if you get ranked I uh I think it’s extremely likely I will try to get to the top okay cool I’m I’m Keen to see that I’m interested to see high like the ranked or high level uh webcam gameplay definitely will be some Kinks to iron out and I’m sure there’s going to be a couple a couple turs on there but likely they’ll get uh we’ll get something smooth going quickly I’ll probably be playing too I think that I actually prefer playing on so it’s it’s it’s a tossup right like I prefer playing on webcam because it’s more it’s more engaging for me like I actually like enjoy the playing aspect of it more that being said I don’t enjoy you know like getting together physical car trying to build a deck like having you know like not being able to switch it out quickly not being able to switch X quickly I don’t enjoy that aspect so a little bit of a push and pull there but I I fully expect to be playing on Pixel connect um and yeah I’m excited anyway you know what else actually I I just want to mention really quickly I I spoke to Mo about this earlier today and uh just you’re saying any other thoughts on set Champs um yeah I played very badly in one of my games like very very badly and I think it’s I I kept like just being mad at myself and this is just some something important to kind of recognize especially when we’re coming into like webcam games and stuff cuz it’s kind of a prime example of the the difference when Pixel born existed and now Pixel born doesn’t EX was I was just playing against Ruby amethyst and my God that stupid three drop cesu where it cares about how how many cards your opponent has in their hand when I look at that card I’m like it’s a one 14 it’s just a one 14 I’m like oh I’ve got like one or two cards in my hand oh it doesn’t really matter so like the amount of times where like I thought I was like hitting into it to kill it off and my per my dude was surviving with a certain amount of Health I’m like God just wasn’t I’m like oh yeah the C’s dead like that’s [ __ ] that webcam games I’m hoping at least will will help me with and just more iners practice and and and and stuff like that right it’s the cards that it’s not so obvious what’s what’s there like you know what I mean you need the plus Ang strength tag yeah oh yeah yeah yeah was Brian telling us that his opponent kept like stacking them or something like that in the in the challenge because on the webcam games in in Lana of challenge obviously they have like those little tokens that you can say oh it’s evasive it’s rush and I think his opponent just wanted to keep stocking plus one strength plus one strength plus one strength yeah I played a physical tournament uh yesterday it was a winner box um I went I went xx1 so yeah you have to go UND defeat to basically to basically anyway I definitely made a couple mistakes not like uh I mean mostly in the in in the same vein that you’re talking about where they were like mechanical mistakes like for instance I have an ice block on board um it’s been on board for a while like I’m going to kill something and it’s not going to kill my character but I forget to activate ice block and actually reduce the damage by want to take an additional damage counter sounds like no big deal that stuff really irritates me I’m like what the [ __ ] D I start actually like when I make mistakes I usually don’t tilt but when it’s something like that I’m just like I when I know it’s due to me just not taking my time really irritates me it really frustrates I’m I’m the same yeah like when you know that it’s something so small that like you’re like the weird thing about that cisu is like I know I’m kind of thinking about it but then I’m I’m not at the same time cuz I’m not really I don’t really care about how many cards in my hand usually I’m just caring about removing something right or like what’s the most efficient way to do it and then when I execute it I’m like oh [ __ ] I needed to actually think about what was in my hand like you know when I sequence like a very long Ruby Sapphire turn like towards like mid or end game and then I ever encounter a scenario where I could have drawn cards you could have something else first yeah no it’s not even that yeah when I could have drawn cards earlier in the sequence for more information yeah I mean that that is extremely tilting yes it is extremely tilting last last Saturday I played a one piece event after my main leader got banned so I played a new one I think I played overall pretty well but what what I’m getting towards is so at one point I was 61 and the only loss I got my opponent had like their cards off this off the frame for about like 5 seconds in in one instance and it happened like two or three times so I submitted the footage I was like you know I I don’t know that these are still the cards that they that they had in the hand previously and I I still they didn’t overturn the match results so that I felt like that could have been deserving but uh I assume my opponent must have just gotten a warning um and that maybe maybe I could have done something if I like reported it in the moment but then I I just reviewed the footage draft Awards I was like okay this is a little much yeah the Jo the joys of competitive webcam gaming yeah everybody’s cheating kind of not really but yeah it’s just a nightmare yeah no it’s like um even all things considered I was like my Pro my opponent probably didn’t cheat but how can I know yeah I really cannot yeah I mean best case scenario is you just don’t play web competitive events just like never works out but any let’s go into our spilling section The Listener question section I’m cutting it short this week cuz I want to talk about the meta game and specific list and lead up to Bam so we just have a few questions here if you want to get a question around on next week’s podcast you can Sho us a comment on YouTube I’ll pass over to you Kaa yeah so first is from grundle uh 46 minutes and 50 seconds of the previous podcast in regards to maybe more people go to locals I was going fairly regularly until the shutdown but haven’t played a constructed game since S 4 dropped I did do drafts for a few weeks the thing is I’ve never played a single game of Pixel born what the shutdown did was make it so I’m no longer watching cev stream while I play Runa we’re checking out new off meta deck someone posted to YouTube on my lunch break I simply don’t really engage with the game outside of the weekly local this makes it so when I’m uh deciding what to do at my Saturday I’m way less inclined to go play lorana when I fully haven’t thought about it for a week I’m just saying the loss of Pixel born content removes the game’s day-to-day engagement which will hurt overall interest and attendance with locals yeah uh yeah I agree with that I think like even even myself with the less kind of content that’s there like uh I think grund made a great point of just like General deck inspiration even if it’s like off meta stuff um that’s always interesting to to watch and think about and like your mind is uh how do you say it’s like your is it like you’re unconsciously thinking or subconsciously whatever it is like in the back of your mind you kind of like you have L can in your in your brain when you’re doing your other daily tasks and stuff like that and maybe when it comes to your Saturday and you want to build a deck or whatever oh like I saw this video I was thinking about this like it’s just kind of on the Forefront of your mind but I think uh a lot of people have slow down content because it’s yeah I I didn’t I did not fully appreciate the impact of uh pixel being taken down in regards to content because you know for us like we’re going to do the weekly podcast no matter what like maybe dect tchs are more of a pain in the ass but we’re probably still going to do the tier list uh you know pre pre- bam like it doesn’t impact us too much but then I go look at sp’s Channel espe he’s posting right now because he’s got gameplay footage but it was like hadn’t posted in 3 weeks I go look at sevia Channel hasn’t streamed since Pixel born went down streamed h on Arena the day after Pixel born went down and then stopped streaming I’m just like damn because that was actually honestly the way I engage with Wana the most on a day-to-day basis and I’m sure a lot of people can empathize with this was actually just watching Sev like that was like that was like always in the background like I really enjoyed that that was like part of my day pretty much every single day and uh yeah I feel it that’s gone there there is there’s other reasons for those as well I think saas on holidays and then uh spy’s PC broke down but I think even if those things wouldn’t have happened they would have still struggle to create content I’m pretty sure s is now looking for a new main game to stream again has to rethink the way he does content for for spey right think about it like if spey didn’t have the the set champ stuff I I know he went to locals and he recorded some games as well but when I saw spey Rock up to the set Champs my man had like two full bags of like lights camera gear he’s like I hate this I absolutely hate this but it’s like has to be done right so and that’s that’s like a huge cost as well like he was telling me how much he spent on this equipment as well he’s like oh it definitely be worth it in the long run which I do agree but um overall it’s like I I don’t know if spey has many people he can practice with um in close proximity so either he’s going to locals or he has to have like a really really clean nice webcam setup and like all of this is it’s not as easy as just loading a game on your PC opening OBS and then start stream right there’s a lot more to itst yeah post processing is like where post is way way very it’s very tedious right it’s like up one L up one L discard discard showing the card like the card doesn’t visually display what it’s doing like it’s nightmare mhm also spey is now putting in all this effort and he he’ll be fine right but he already has this platform what if someone that hasn’t done content before wants to now start doing content and suddenly there’s this barrier of Entry where you have to buy all this stuff and put in this much more effort it’s I think that there’s an opportunity actually like I do agree that the bared entry is much higher but I actually think there’s an opportunity because I would say at this point and the I’m just pulling this number straight out of my butt that 90% of content creators have been absolutely clipped like 90% of content creators in lanao were relying on Pixel board as a way to do content so it’s a huge void and I think I’ve seen a few people take advantage of that void like I did film an inperson video with the explor Conor channel that did pretty well like they were at like 400 subscribers when they filmed it I think they ended at almost 800 the video did almost 10 like it’s like 6 or 7K right now I saw like another channel do the same thing it’s like that versus mode be keep in mind that the explor Conor Channel probably has I I mean it could be it could be anywhere between 5 and $110,000 worth of cameras like very very expensive but it’s OB it’s used for other things as well and the other video I saw I can’t remember who did it so I’m sorry but it was like a versus style as well the production quality was pretty high so I think there’s an opportunity if you have those resources and you you know how to execute that kind of content I think there’s an opportunity to sort of come in and become one of those content creators and grow um but first of all you need friends and then you need cameras and then you have to know what you’re doing because like uh getting that all set up and not making audio mistakes video mistakes and then having to edit in all the cards like it is just so much harder but uh I do sort of my point here is I do think there’s an opportunity for people that you know maybe weren’t having success in the previous cycle when Pixel born was the thing or weren’t content creators to actually come in and uh sort of become content creators in Arana and be very successful it’s just a lot harder I will uh I will say keep an eye out guys for uh content will be coming to the podc channel I actually haven’t spoken to brenon their MO about I was speaking to Mo about this briefly but I just finished setting up like a really nice uh it can be for streaming and for over and for overlays and stuff like that but when I say it’s crisp I mean it is it is crisp so uh you guys missed like dect teexs and just gameplay and stuff like that I finally have the facility to actually make that stuff look really really good so stay tuned set up in your house yeah so believe it or not I used to have it set up literally right behind me but my room is so small that it literally it got so hot in here that it was uncomfortable to play so I moved it down to a separate room separate PC uh and M it honestly like I spent the past month working with someone to try and get an overlay and make everything work I even have it set up so that editing and stuff like that is less tedious in terms of I have like real time lower counting lower tracking all that type of stuff so yeah if you guys missed the gameplay and stuff like that let us know if you want to see that because I’m I’m excited to do that and like Brendon mentioned I actually enjoy playing like that as well I I just think it’s more enjoyable playing in person stuff that content is going to do very well because there’s uh I mean it just like I would say I vast majority of people do just cannot cannot do that I mean it just takes so much not only does it take the cameras but it takes a lot of knowledge space everything right and then the hardest one is you have to have someone to play with you got to have a friend um so cool I’m excited for that anyway next one is from yeah next next one’s from uh Stuart yeah says it would be cool to see you guys build deck list together and come up with the optimal build of decks in real time on dreamborn start with blue red LOL that would be interesting uh I’m going to put this question to Mo only because I do think that would be an interesting video to watch however there’s also the the difference of like I don’t know it could be a good thing could be a bad thing right like oh we’re doing a live stream of building like the new red blue deck we cracked the meta and like it’s I I think it is generally a good thing because I mean let’s bring it back to set one when Brennon and Moy introduced to vasive into Ruby amethyst they were going to just sit here and be like oh well we just know what to do we’re not going to share this right I think for the most part we want to share content we want to share deck list and stuff but I guess I’ll pass it over to Mo how would you feel about doing like live deck building stuff um I’m I’m right now I don’t know if I get the point I guess if I if I put in the card’s life what does it change in comparon to seeing the final deck yeah takes longer right that’s what it Chang it’s also not really how the process works like a lot of those processes like first of all so the one thing that we do that you might not be familiar with or that might be cool to watch is like often we’ll be like okay let’s build blue red here are the 40 to 50 cards that we would never take out we build a shell and then we add in you know the next 10 so I guess I guess that could be interesting showing like what is the shell and then what what is like maybe kind of still the shell but could be thought thought about and then what what are the options for the other cards what are they better against what are they worse against but like all of that takes like lots of iterations of testing and then even at the end you have an imperfect uh or not an imperfect deck but it probably is imperfect and you’re you you never know that it would be perfect plus it is also contextual very itative process like you said like it is uh if we don’t really just build a deck and we’re like yes it’s we build a deck and then it sucks and then we go back and we change some things and then etc etc and honestly a lot of the the things like invasives um I remember we added bell back in the deck at one point like sometimes those are just like random me like okay there’s like 10 ideas that come out there’s like there’s like nine [ __ ] ideas and there’s one that like is sneaks in there it’s like what if we added like this card in and then nothing happens nothing happens and we try it and it works but like for every one that works there’s like nine that don’t work so it’s just I don’t know it’s just kind of random of trial and error yeah speaking about that Garrett says also be very interested in hearing about how you guys would do a proper test so do a testing session and stuff uh most of the time I think we’ve all been kind of busy over the past few weeks but if we really want to test we just kind of do like uh gauntlets most of the time um every day I I I love it by the way because I should be practicing more but every morning I start my day off by checking the group chat on just like all right who’s ready to play let’s do this let’s do this so I mean that’s that that’s great I think honestly that actually motivates me as well I think that like if you guys have that little internal testing group and stuff and there’s people that want to be practicing even when you’re feeling like a little bit down like I you know I felt a little bit [ __ ] coming off of my atrocious set Champs run but I need to be brought back up right I need to get get get back into the the swing of things and uh start practicing again but is there anything else you want to mention or Brandon about like uh what you guys do to like properly test like if you guys okay let’s say you guys had like two hours uh this evening you guys wanted to test right you you’ve been playing a list you just say Okay Brandon uh says to Brandon I’m playing red blue and I want to run the gaunlet play x amount of games against me with this deck that deck are you changing cards you trying different things like this’s how would you best utilize let’s say like 2 hours in the evening to do testing um so two two hours is actually believe it or not is very little so I wouldn’t even try to really test multiple matchups in that time and then for the matchups that I I and I also don’t think I would be changing my deck in these two hours um but for these two hours we could specify a matchup that we want to learn more about what C what cards being in my deck impact the matchup in what way but also what play lines work against which play lines and then um really like really really pay attention to um what openings do well against what openings how in what spot do you get after the first five six turns if I did XYZ you did XYZ um and also what’s an even for this type of testing that’s not just that doesn’t focus on all the details and nuances of each game you could go a step further to make it even more efficient where um you manipulate your starting hands uh to pause certain openings against certain openings to see what needs to happen for me to get into which position yeah I also think that uh doing something that like I’ve I’ve done when I was I can’t remember who I was testing against but like talking through the hands of both players sometimes helps so like I’ll be like oh I think I misplayed and most of the time my opponent like oh like how do how do you think you misplayed I think asking those questions is good not just like I [ __ ] up and then moving on right like talk about okay I think I misplayed because I uh I didn’t ink this card in case I drew this or maybe this or that like it’s it’s important to like maybe not play with open hands but like semi open hands if that makes sense cuz if you play with Open Hands then you might run the risk of like sometimes always like playing like two perfectly when you you won’t always have that information right it’s like your opponent tells you oh I have three cards in my hand they happen to all be three unable medusas you know what I mean like that’s rarely going to be the the case so um I think practicing with open hands is more efficient if you are good enough to um offset any biases that you that could you could potentially encounter um so where you still try to make reads based on your opponent plays okay these two three cards could be any of these four or five cards and then making a play based on that and not what they what cards they actually have I agree slightly different question um that I would answer but for me by the most interesting thing when it comes to testing process is like how to curate the correct group how to build the right group how to in Institute discipline how to sort of actually make sure you’re you’re Focus testing towards a specific goal how to collect data how to how to visualize and understand said data and yeah how to basically get a group of nine nerds or nine 10 15 nerds together and actually come out with a reasonable result that’s a lot harder than you think it is it’s really tough and like honestly with these groups as well like it’s it’s hard to have Direction like nobody wants to be the person that’s like policing the group you know um giving direction and trying to understand like the macro of everything and trying to come to specific results but you just like you need to be super organized and I find that the groups that do have that organization are extremely successful um but the sort of the the logistics of getting just getting people together and testing and definitely more specifically focused testing towards a very specific goal it’s actually extremely challenging like it’s h it’s very very hard yeah it’s it used so in something like hone it used to be so easy you had like monthly lad results to uh know who’s actually good at the game you had all these Tournament results and then you could curate a group from there but also now um it’s much more difficult you don’t really know who is good at the game um for most players yeah get all these get these early game egos so like early in game big egos in the game and also for me personally I’ve been I’ve been asked a lot from people that wanted to prep with me and I always felt bad because I can’t say yes because I don’t know the player like and that’s and that that’s not their fault but like I can’t really say I can’t really agree to practicing with someone I don’t know and so I always kind of have to say no even though I looking for players to practice with yeah uh that’s where like uh and I I don’t want to say this as if it comes off as a as a bad thing but like uh that’s where like the coaching stuff kind of comes in in a sense that like you know I don’t want to say this in a bad ways like oh pay me money and then you can prep with me like that’s that’s not what M does when he does when he does coaching like yes there’s a there’s a monetary thing of course like you mean you’re kind of paying him for his time and stuff but I also agree with him right like if if there’s someone that I’ve seen that has got a good result and I feel like I either I know them through a friend or I reach out and they’re willing like that there has to be that kind of like connection I think the best thing is in like for your average person I think like you know you see oh there’s the rat he want Chicago let me just message him in his Discord he’ll definitely reply to me and I’ll have the best player to preparate right like it’s not it’s not going to work like like that you know what I mean so like I think there’s people within your groups if you’re going to locals and stuff if there’s people who are a little bit more competitive like you know you see them week to week try to take advantage of the people that you interact with on a daily basis that doesn’t just have to be in your local vicinity right like join join competitive discords join the 20 L Pro join join our Discord the amount of people that I’m sure that have started to prep together from just messaging in Discord servers and stuff like that is is immense so like that’s the the things I would recommend you guys doing like uh it’s it’s the best way like like Brandon said the hardest thing is finding the people to do it but joining communities like like that is the way to do honestly I have two things one Mo makes us pay us pay him to to play test if you guys didn’t no I don’t yes he does yeah yes he does yes he does he sends heend he sends the invoice yeah sends the invoice at the end uh yeah yeah anyway uh I think people get the the priorities wrong actually I think that people focus way too much on if someone is good or not when really what I actually need is is somebody humble or not because if they’re not humble um I don’t care how good they are at this game because honestly nobody’s really that like there’s so many people that are good at Lano right now that are not actually that good and that’s including us um but if people are not don’t have the humility to sort of try to set aside their biases whether that’s toward an archetype towards a deck towards a result towards a string of results like those people are so ridiculously useless and toxic to a testing process like they actually they’re worse than useless they actually H testing process yeah so I care so I actually care so much less about results um than I do about how somebody approaches a process and you know their ability to sort of humble themselves and you know try to find the objective result rather than oh I I’m known for this deck and I got this result and I want this deck to be good in the testing process because I don’t like control decks and it’s like those like that might sound ridiculous when I say it by the way that is definitely more common than not it is more common that someone has you know these results biases these ego biases and they’re just terrible to test with because of that um also you you get those people that you test against them and they’re trying to [ __ ] win like they’re not trying to test they’re just like trying to win and they get upset when they lose they start to tilt and you’re like what is like it’s just the weirdest Timmy thing and it’s super common super super common and uh yeah so I I really care about people’s uh mentality and their approach more than I do about their their sort of you know are you 1% better than the alternative option if that makes sense yeah I mean optimally you’d have both and yeah I guess de the them being humble and not having an ego is also difficult to judge um yeah but what what tends to happen is that if you are humble and you’re able to objectively look at results and you’re willing to learn guess what you actually tend to be pretty [ __ ] good at the game as well because what makes people bad is not doing that yeah the the next comments from Michael says first off let me start up by saying you guys are great and I wish you all the best my question is what are all the different ways you guys would go about teaching lorana to newcomers to the game God we have aot how many episodes talking about card game fundamentals and stuff now uh we talk about that as as often as we can in our episodes but we do have dedicated episodes to that as well honestly the answer to this to is like not necessarily listen to this podcast not a very beginner beginner podcast and people pointed out they’re like oh I don’t understand this reference and you know that’s fine maybe we could explain things a bit more but this is not the best podcast to start with um and yeah there’s tons of resources out there we’ve done we’ve done more beginner level podcasts and beginner level content but you just kind of I think you have to get a foundation understand the metag game and then once you’re kind of at the like medium sort of like starting to compete level um then you should like that’s where our resources come in and I actually think that if you are a hardcore grinder if you’re doing well at Lana challenges like our L our content is for the most for some for some part not actually for you it’s not for like the world class top like top players like they’re they’re in the same kind of thought prees as us like I mean they’re they’re testing you know horizontal or alongside us um yeah we kind of Target that that just like that com you know beginning competitive player intermediate player uh but there’s tons of there’s tons of beginner content out there honestly before this if this comment had come out two weeks ago I said go play Pixel born it it resolves the rules for you like it’s got everything you need and there’s a ranked ladder um but no for for a beginner there’s there’s some content out there and honestly he’s got to get out there and start playing your local game store and yeah you get better next one I I love this comment this is from pug says hello thanks for your content always interesting I’m looking for a coach to prepare for championships and balone your challenge what’s the best way to contact you m you’re coaching right here yeah okay so it is like Twitter and Discord DMS but I must apologize because to today I replied to all of them but there has some coaching requests that I hadn’t replied to in like two over two weeks um so yeah it’s I just haven’t gotten around to it until now um but yes it is my my Twitter my Discord DMS all fine I to people reach out to me um I haven’t replied yet I don’t do coaching I just I do not I do not have the the time to do coaching so and I have had zero people reach out to me so I’m not a coacher either absolutely not I changed uh I changed up some of like the twitters to put like a email address on there for business inquiries because I had done in the past I was like okay that’s clearly not a good idea so I had some people reaching out like via email there and I yes I had wait was were you the reason why I got emat what was it no I don’t know I don’t I put I put the I put like some aggregate email on there for everything okay it’s just like my name but uh yeah I don’t coach I do not here’s an interesting one next comments from balding says looking forward to another Ruby ametist Deck Tech before set Champs if possible I have to edit another Ruby on this no I’m kidding I’m kid no I don’t know like I actually don’t think we have time now unfortunately but um possibly again it’s it’s a lot of the time when it comes listen when it comes to riby and stuff it’s on these these boys it ain’t on me but I think a format especially without Pixel born at the moment in our current setup I think the tips and tricks thing that Brendan did for the previous Ruby Amethyst in set three went down a treat so if you guys wanted to make even something short like that if listen I’ll say if a lot of people want let us know in the comments and we’ll make it for sure I think our priorities right now for content is we will most likely be doing a tier list before botom I think that’s going to be quite good um and anything else in between but if you guys want to see specific stuff just just let us know in the comments we’ll be be sure to hop on it tips and tricks AKA turn on the camera and wing it for 30 minutes that was a good video yeah did well R I guess regarding the T I don’t think it would be that different I yeah it’s not it’s not going to be that different okay reuploads the same video it’d be pretty accurate to be honest it’d be pretty accurate I think green steel will go down a little bit but that’s about it yeah about it yeah we we got tons of other questions from this building so keep bringing your questions in but for now we’re going to move on to metag game talk cuz we do have a lot to talk about leading into to Bam and so thank you so much uh as always actually I I will say to you boys now we should definitely check out the Discord for some more spilling stuff cuz there were some interesting questions I saw in there the other day so we’ll take a look there as well so starting off I guess we’re going to start off with Ruby amethyst Mo uh oh sorry not Ruby amethyst Ruby sofware is the first deck list I see here have you switched off that item list that uh everyone was so eager to to look at uh I believe it was last week or the week before are you still on that list or have you changed it up um I mean it looks less and less likely that that will be the deck that I’m bringing to B mhm um I think it’s all right it was fun it was very inov uh Innovative is that how you pronounce Innovative yeah yeah Innovative um and like it’s fine but I don’t think it’s quite good enough in in comparison to the other top four somebody is playing next to me I feel like or something very close to it so the main if if you make the weat that there will be little em steel because I think it kind of sacrifices that matchup to get better in the other matchups if you make the we that there’s very little em Ste it might be a valid bring because it does improve this saire mat drops a decent bit I have some question the stock list regarding Ruby Sapphire so honestly I’ve been sitting with your rank one list quite a bit it’s kind of like my default that I that I worked on by the way list in the description if you’re listening but I have questions I have questions now so green steel good matchup mirror yeah rough but fine you know mirror’s bit flippy fine blue steel fine I think it’s a fine matchup I think it’s fine F Ruby amethyst not fantastic so we I think we need to Tech this deck for Ruby amethyst I think Ruby amethyst is going to show up in force and I think we can Tech the deck actually I want to ask about additions of things like scar and potentially Shield of virtue into the deck also want to ask about the fourth B prep I know we looked at list last week that we’re not including fishbun quill I think that fishbun quill is actually very good versus Ruby amethyst and I think it’s particularly good against sappire steel but that comes as no surprise to anybody um yeah what do you think about Scar and shield of virtue I I I honestly think that we can fit them in um I’m not sure Shield of virtue does more I’m not sure sh V does more than vsphere um because vsphere enables like your your seus and T TOS to rushan to castles which is very good mhm but falis is also a little bit of a mediocre card because there’s like sacrificing entire card for the swash action I guess it’s also an in item so it’s like always okay but it’s not great G I don’t think has been tested all that much and I think there could actually be a spot for it it’s yeah um Castle is just an absolute beat down right now it’s it’s yeah and it’s it’s not like it’s much different than Mari and also even if scar doesn’t banish the castle even if it can just like banish one or two characters and then hit six into the castle that’s that enables you to win some games that would otherwise be unwinable so the unable slot is because the deck has a great amount of really really good ANS that it can include but I think it would improve the thethy match up uh what do you think about this is this is real stretch but what do you think about like scuttles and I know the list is tight I’m not a fan of scuttle but be king Undisputed and Lady traines are everywhere right now it seems like it would behoove us to be able to put another cheap character that doesn’t f isn’t absolute dog [ __ ] onto the battlefield to sort of insulate some of our Tam and higher value sort of you know higher curve characters what do you think I like it didn’t feel detrimental to me but I just you know I was I kept encountering scenarios where you know we would B prep my my opponent would uh B prep or I could B prep I had myato to which is usually my hay maker and I’m like [ __ ] this gets one for one by a three cost like this is a I think tough so it also it also only has one strength which is not a lot um and I think on the yeah 12 items that rate is quite low um but if you want to play a character that plays around be spe doain I might just opt to play the the evasive Pegasus I was a I was literally thinking about the same which one is that1 evasive 31 evasive because it gives you maybe a bit of game into the Diablos but besides that cuz not that you really need it with this deck but I was actually so this is a bit of a a weird crossover but like I was saying to you guys I was testing Emerald amethyst and I actually put two two or three sir into the deck because it was like oh maybe it ansers Diablo it’s like wait a minute a 3-1 evasive is really good at hitting certain locations like it’s a car that will just hit a location if they don’t really have an evasive it’s not really going to answer it so like those High attack evasive cards they don’t actually don’t like and again it could also help answer the castle potentially if it sticks a little bit so and it can Quest For What like quella can also maybe contest this stuff but it usually has to wait until it does it while Pegasus gets to like T until you do it it’s not like Pegasus is great and when they play like Diablo plus let the storage on you actually get punished for trying to contest it with Pegasus but I think I would rather go there if I would want an extra two drop Pegasus as well yeah I want to note that even though yes it is vulnerable to the Diablo let the storm rage on um having a 31 evasive is really good cuz like uh a problem that a lot of people face if you’re playing Sapphire steel or whatever you know they do Diablo and they play Hidden Cove they move the Diablo to The Cove you can’t like you know your baboom your stuff doesn’t work whereas with a 31 Pegasus it can still deal with a a Diablo in a Cove right so it’s it’s actually quite interesting I like it I like it I didn’t think about this card I actually like this card way more than this SC on it seems it seems very uh congruent with a lot of things we’re trying to do so obviously Diablo is a problem Our Deck is tech for Diablo but um a lot of other things that are problem are locations like I Haven had my blue steel opponents dropping locations on me and a 31 is a pretty good stat line uh for for said locations so I’m into it to be honest I really like that card I really like the idea of that card we should definitely test that um coming back to the scar like I feel like we need some sort of top end to because I just felt like constantly throughout the game and honestly through a lot of the game I like damn if my opponent just drops freaking Castle I lose that’s what it feels like I have uh in regards to Ruby Sapphire I have a question in regards to specifically Ruby amethyst so in the opener against Ruby amethyst and I guess ask you this question both on the draw and the play do you keep the Brawl for the Flynn like how important is it to get rid of the Flynn because it does feel like if the Flynn activates multiple times that you’re in a really really really bad spot because now you get into this critical Min or critical maximums of floor where they can kind of goat bounce you out of the game what are your thoughts about brawl in the Ruby amethyst matchup um did you did you say whether you’re going first or second either or you can answer on both ends okay um I think going second you’re kind of forced to ball it because otherwise you’re very bad against the Flyn Flyn cisu while on the play you can totally afford to Mulligan it away because You’ much rather if if you go One Jump Ahead on two they go Flyn on two you’d much rather just play tala which is actually often the preferred follow up to one jump against Ruby amethyst because it immediately stops the three low um and it doesn’t get balled so it like also does a very good job contesting um um and then you can also do stuff like Inari or maybe you after the one jump you just play fishbone quill you let them get three lower then you Medusa um their seu because you in you um in so many cards out of your hand and then the Flyn doesn’t do too much but I think going second uh you should keep the ball but going first there’s much more powerful stuff you can do okay what do you think about the fishbone quill obviously we saw list do very well without fishbone quill my immediate experience you know playing with fishbun quill yesterday was that uh it felt actually felt quite good against Ruby amethyst and it’s amazing versus Sapphire steel I can’t I I can’t see cutting it what are your thoughts I also cannot see cutting it um it is it has gotten less important mm definitely to how the deck functions and especially because hand size is so important in the mirror and Emer steer but it’s very good against Ru with this it’s the main reason saire still often wins against wub safire is by beasting your quill because that’s how important it is to have a quill up against the whole new world lists and then when you just don’t play a quill they wouldn’t even need that or I guess they could if they were to Beast a great Stone dragon that would be even worse because he didn’t even get anything out of it yeah yeah and my thoughts on a great ston dragon is that I think it’s good versus green steel but I don’t think it’s uh necessary like at all um yeah and I don’t think it’s as good as people make it out to be it’s like it makes it like very slightly better maybe like it’s it’s fine against em Ste but it’s really nothing groundbreaking yeah I I totally agree all right let’s talk about Ruby amethyst this is the list so uh there’s one last thing I have to say about Ruby Sapphire and that’s that I for the most part do not plan to play it in set championships or store championships and that is because some of those are going to be best of three so in any best of three format I am extremely unlikely to play Ruby Sapphire because it is very hard to finish games it was hard to finish games in set three like it’s harder in set four um so paing into an opposing Ruby Sapphire or pairing into a blue steel I think that it is absolutely you very likely not very likely but it’s a huge risk to actually have an unintentional draw which I would like to avoid and I think there’s another deck in the format that is very very competitive um that will not encounter that at least it’ll be extremely unliking that’s Ruby amethyst is a deck that I’m looking at for for the set championships I might uh switch up my deck you know with when I go play the Dallas loron challenge here coming up in a couple weeks because that’s going to be best of two but right now ruus is is my sort of pick for this upcoming um store Championship circuit y’all thoughts on the deck my first question I have is is this list good enough for screen steel like how bad does that match up feel cuz I’ve heard people say hey it’s actually not that bad hey it’s actually pretty good and then the same person said that to me came up to me after round two was like I just got [ __ ] by Green steel that deck sucks I was like I like bro you said it wasn’t that bad um no they said that their opponent had like the the double Bucky draw but how bad is the green steel match up I mean this deck beat me yes I made one or two mistakes but uh it felt it felt rough and again like it’s it’s just variables and stuff like that but both games uh when I played against Ruby’s player I did my uh bookie discard stuff it was turn six they I got them down to one card in their hand and uh they were on I think it was 5 in yeah they’re on five ink one card in hand and I’m like the one card in their hand has to be in Medusa they have to top deck in in incab I think it was like to kill my Robin Hood or whatever same opener pretty much two games in a row and it was the Medusa twice so it’s like sticking certain cards like uh like Medusa and stuff is like really really good some some be king Undisputed can be really good it just depends on like the opener I think if if a green steel player has the nuts opener there’s I mean yeah there there’s no deck that can really beat it but I think that this deck can beat Green steel I still don’t think it’s like favored but do you guys like do you guys think there’s anything that this deck should be doing to maybe try and Tech against Green steel a little bit more or should it just focus on kind of what it’s what it’s doing there’s one thing I want to say is I actually think that uh Ruby Sapphire does beat the Green steel nut draw like if it has if it has if his pieces so it has its ramp and it also has it brawl to deal with the Diablo like I think that Ruby Sapphire can actually beat the nutraw out of green steel I think if Ruby Sapphire goes first their nutal beats em steel n but I think if em steel goes first and they and they have the nutal I’m not sure even the nut can beat that but I actually think this version of R amethyst that we’re talking about now with the less One Drops including the Maleficent forb preps which like the the very default core of the deck is basically as good as the deck is going to get against uh EMD steel this is they’ve done everything to improve this match up while still being very good deck against the the seire decks but I think it’s still unfavored against em steel um if if the EMD steel player is at least somewhat competent they’re going to still be favored but I think now deck building wise everything has been done to mitigate how unfavored the matchup is my last or one of my last questions here for Ruby amethyst is will there be enough blue steel in the metag game to discourage Ruby Amethyst from being played that’s another bad match up but blue steel out of the top four out of the Four Horsemen of this format is definitely the least played deck yeah but I don’t think that’s like I’m not sure that’s the correct question to ask because I think the sapphire steel matchup is very close and depending on those saire steel list either favored for them or favored for Ruby amethyst um so I’m not sure that the main thing for you to worry about I would still if I so for me if the question I ask myself um to know if I’m going to play Ruby amethyst at a tournament it’s like how much Emil steel am I expecting because I still think that’s the worst matchup of Ruby amethyst okay say you were if I were to answer your question and say it was that was the most played deck in the room what what deck would you be looking at um that’s the most so either of the sapphire decks I think they’re they’re both favored into em steel while but Sapphire has the worst match up against Ruby amethyst so let’s say em steel is the most played deck that would mean I play one of the sapphire decks and then if Ruby amethyst is played a lot I would play sappire steel if Ruby amethyst isn’t played a lot I would play uh Ruby Sapphire yeah that’s kind of where my thesis comes from that if we can add you know some very impactful Tech pieces to the Ruby Sapphire deck against Ruby amethyst that I think we end up with the best deck in the room I also wonder about tech cards for the Ruby Ruby Sapphire mirror you know like the one of Judy hops or something like that like how impactful that can be you know in terms of tempo like I’ve kind of been a Judy hops hater in the past but I mean the card is nonzero impactful in the mirror so I’m just wondering if at this point we can tweak the deck to sort of sh up some of those matchups and we can end up with the the best deck in the room on the day because we’ve done a lot of work on the Ruby Sapphire M and set three and I I I still think me du Mana if you want to Tech for the miror is the better Tech than Judy hops could I could absolutely see that I mean I I posing fire decks in the form of sapphire steel playing MC Buck manners against me um but that being said like like for the cards that we’re adding into the deck to deal with Ruby ameth specifically a lot of those are antioc cards like that’s kind of what we’re looking to do to shore up our some of the deck’s weaknesses at this point how do you feel about that from like a high level do you think that we could tweak the deck in a way that it would be a lot better versus location still be extremely powerful as a core and that we could sort of take Ruby sappire to I don’t know the next level of uh Power in this metag game with some of those changes or do you think it dial with the deck too much so right now I’m on the fence about it I think it’s possible that that is something we could do but um again I’m not I’m not really sure it is possible but it’s something worth trying out mhm yeah that’s that’s where my head is at right now all right let’s talk about uh blue steel so we have har Harland sweet’s deck here I pulled up um I haven’t been playing a lot a lot of this deck I think this deck has gotten quite a bit better against Ruby Sapphire in particular in set 4 and we’ve talked about that at least since the Inception of the set so it shorted up one of its you know worst matchups I think in the metag game still I don’t think it’s a fantastic match up there is a a dichotomy between a lot of these blue steel lists it’s to play the wheel or to not play the wheel um the list we’re looking at is playing the wheel what are your overall thoughts on where this deck is positioned currently I I mean I think the deck I think the deck’s great it beats em steel and while not being bad into be amethyst so it’s probably the deck right now with the most even matchups it doesn’t really have a weakness against any of the top four decks um but also doesn’t really have the greatest strength against any of these decks except maybe against Emerald steel um regarding the versions even in no new world there’s a big division between one jump and and Mickey Mouse lists because one there it’s not just this one card that they’re changing if you play one jump suddenly you want to maybe play four copies or like more copies of Zeus you want to play grar Tas to follow up the one jump that can sing the Zeus and then if you don’t play it maybe you have to play uh a few extra one or two drops like hook or on now that we’re talking about in a bit is the Argus um because if you can play Zeus to be a bit better against location maybe you need to contest the board a little bit more early game so that you can challenge better into the locations maybe it means you play more R of plans and then there’s there’s like lots of incredible amount of deck building decisions in for the deck how many let it goes do you play because Let It Go is pretty awful against Ruby amethyst but it’s it’s decent against em Steelers hard removal for for the beasts and Robin hoods and then they just run out of cards the ink doesn’t matter it’s it’s pretty good in the sapphire matchups to um deal with the Tam Tower without losing too much Tempo then there’s I guess uh you play three or four grap your spots how many arel or Bell as win conditions for the late game not not even everyone’s playing forat so there like incredible incredible amount of decisions which which answers for Diablo do you play do you play baboom F the Cannons how many of of each do you play do you play Smash so you also have something for the The Cove Diablo and the the UR Ursa deceiver of O um but the okay so the two main developments in the deck or not developments the two main new things people are trying out in saire Ste I want to talk about um are one the two cost Argus which is a for one quest for one which is basically being run as an anti- Ruby card especially Ruby amethyst because it’s a two drop with so much strength it doesn’t doesn’t get medus set it doesn’t get bed that’s one thing um the next thing is Ruby amethyst plays Four C of the three cost but even Ruby Ruby saire plays like a few copies but Ruby amethyst plays like four copies um and if you play this on two the C is going to be very sad you usually cisu would chiping for a lot of FL but now if if now if they do arus can immediately challenge the cisu and also later in the game having for strength into a castle it means arus plus me can take out a castle or arus plus h can take out a castle so it has these use cases there but at the same time it’s awful in the mirror it’s awful against Emerald steel um but it’s something people are trying out the other thing is the the lawence which is a three cost 04 that has four strength at this if it’s not damaged basically for a very similar reason but because it’s a three three drop it’s um unlike Argus it’s not one in the Mickey Mouse list it’s instead usually one in the one jumper head lists for similar reasons but it can also um also Quest decently well if it’s not SE I’ve seen that card actually being run we’re seen too many of them running around at the moment but I’ve actually seen Lawrence pop up in a few Amber Steel lists believe it or not um I think the card has potential it’s a really really interesting card so um be cool to see it make its way into some decks yeah so it sounds like a lot of this metagame is actually pretty weak to locations and is uh definitely trying to compensate for it like even if you look at the Modern or the current editions of Ruby amethyst they’ve opted to cut the crab which was you know critical in dealing with locations at points um obviously Ruby Sapphire is weak with locations a lot of our conversations been like how do we sh this deck against locations so I wonder if um you know any additions of Jim Hawkins into the Ruby amethyst deck would give you a lot of equity to kind of scan people out you know Jim Hawkins actually made it into some of the high performing list at Atlanta just because people are started teching away from being able to sort of deal with locations there’s there’s also another spicy deck that oh yes I know this list that did well recently it was so the main way I tried to Cheese games is you go it’s it’s Amber Ruby and you just go just in time on three Jim haw no RS Legacy and run away with the game um I haven’t actually gotten around to testing it myself it sounds very stupid and very fun yeah apparently the deck has a very very very bad matchup against the emerald steel but I don’t know what it’s like against on El that’s all that’s all I’ve heard so far yeah I do wonder if we could add Jim Hawk like any like a couple Jim Hawkins into the Ruth this list and if it would be very power CU it should be quite powerful in the in the mirror especially like now that I think that you could potentially SA King Undisputed as well to sort of one for one eat your opponent to kind of take away board if you if you add the jyes in do you do you have to add any more locations or do you just keep the Four Queens Castle Four Queens Castle it’s just the four queen’s castle yeah um but I guess one big downside of Jim is like you have to get to turn five while having a good turn four while keeping two Inc Jim C in head probably not going to help ver green steel yeah and then was often you would rather just play queen’s castle on four so you you need like rabbit on four so you can afford to keep JY wait that that Legacy location doesn’t that give cards evasive maybe that’s that’s like the late late game answer to Diablo after they’ve drawn so many cards although if you’re doing the gy the just in time cheese like I don’t know that just sounds funny to me I think yeah all right let’s talk about the amethyst steel here so oh no let’s not please I have PTS so spey brought like some sort of more aggressively oriented amethyst deck it’s like it’s like $100 he’s like this is what we win 100% win rate yeah let’s win the first set Champs so so like he kind of talked me through the list I think one like honestly the most interesting addition to this list and I do actually like it a lot is the five cost Bell so he runs two two of these cards so this is the card that’s five cost inkable four for Quest for two you move three damage from one of your characters across to one of the oppos characters and the reason why this card gave me a little bit of trouble was it it was a very specific scenario but it can kind of force your opponent to not want to Quest sometimes depending on board States because if you quest then your opponent hits into your card then they play the bell and they get like a really really good exchange there so Bell is an interesting tool of like dealing damage in a way and like again I think it’s actually probably better in the sense that if they don’t know it’s in the deck then it’s like really really good I was fortunate enough that I was just playing like Diablo so I saw it in the hand and I knew to like play around it so I guess maybe it depends like if if you know to play around the card it’s like a little bit different but that was like one of the most interesting occlusions the other thing as well is this has the the shift Tinker Bell line which honestly I haven’t seen since set one I haven’t seen anyone realistically be running this but like it’s still extremely powerful against these Emerald steel decks it’s really good to like you know you get rid of the bookie on turn four and stuff like that so um I think this is as much as this is anti Emerald steel I know spey still really wasn’t happy with with with facing me he said Emerald steel was still one of the toughest matchups but yeah I think this is just a kind of Go Fast deck you’ve got the one cost unable maleficence there as well and so a little bit different to the an the steel deck that we were playing in the previous set but similar at at the same time I think it’s just aim to go a little bit faster and be a little bit better positioned against like Emerald steel and stuff I think this deck would Farm Ruby Sapphire too yeah yeah very much I I play that play tested a lot with him um because he didn’t know what to play for for that tournament mhm um and I I just told him you know just play any of the top four decks but that was out of the question for him so we had to bring up something else um and yeah this this deck goes very quickly Maleficent on one is extremely difficult to beat with potential castle and gold fall Ops for a deck like Ruby Sapphire and then it’s still unfavored against em steel but the Tinker Bell on three can be nice because that that suddenly means even if they don’t have the shift Tinker Bell on four if you quest play I had to play around it he he said every every time he was like I don’t like oh I didn’t have it and then he be like oh I top decked it exactly when I needed it of course you did FY of course it’s like as soon as you exert a character that’s not evasive they can challenge it and deal two to the DI which you cannot really afford to L so it does a decent bit oh it’s like what we spoke a bit with that like with the Mulan stuff early on like with the with that Mulan shift like even if there’s no even if it’s not in the hand like you really do have to respect it a lot of the time and then it’s not like you can remove the small Tinker Bell easy it’s a two four body like un unless like okay unless you’re playing brawl which sure Ruby amethy on the other the other decks are so that helps a little bit but so yeah so it does multiple things because because it has four willpower it’s actually a decent body to sing friends but also it can bump into characters for the Bell activation pretty nicely MH all right last list we have here is a is green Steel stock standard green steel I don’t know what more we can say about this list I’m sure that there have been s just to interrupt this is not stock standard I believe this is Mo’s original list which is including a card that is not very standard in which oh yes yes yes yes yes I don’t know why it has my name on the list says Brendan green steel yeah I was like I I I’m not going to lie guys I opened up the notes for today’s podcast I saw a list that said green steel with brendon’s name beside I was like there’s no way Brandon was playing Green steel absolutely no way yeah check my uh yeah check my dreamborn I’m clean I’ve never I don’t think i’ don’t have any green steel Builds on there what do you what do you you think that Prince John’s the still the way to go M um to be honest I thought it was the be the way to go week one but I haven’t confirmed my suspicions because I couldn’t get myself to play too much of em yeah what a polarizing what a polarizing deck what a polarizing deck I think there’s no other deck where it’s like people are just like I dogmatically refuse to play this deck I mean I’ve played it Mo’s played it we’ve played this deck online but uh yeah just it’s so different than the the rest of the options in Lana it’s very it’s very polarizing yeah it’s interesting I don’t I don’t know like I I haven’t experimented with the Prince John since I’ve literally just been jamming The Rats list and I found it to be quite good um I liked the inclusion of like in Mo’s list here there’s just not any four drop flood borns I’ve liked I’ve actually liked having them so the Jafar and the um flynns I think have been quite nice I think the car that’s been a little bit underrated has been the we don’t talk about Bruno I think that’s like really really good obviously per is super well with the Prince John but like can like it’s it’s weird like can can be a really good removal tool at times or Like A disruption tool most of the time it’s just a nice Target for Diablo for like shift Diablo you just get rid of the Bruno or you just ink it as well but um yeah I think there’s there’s only so much Innovation you can kind of do with the green steel list but maybe Prince Sean is that little bit that might like take the deck in the in a slightly different yeah that card makes I think a ruby amethyst match up into this deck a lot harder at least that’s been been my experience all right I got to ask you guys um store championships tomorrow what are you playing when best of three I don’t know I but I don’t know maybe weu be amethyst because it’s best of three so I get my games too yeah Ka green steel yeah probably green steel you’re like you’re like a c he’s like captive to his he he plays his game on own accord he likes this game he just hates [ __ ] green steel and he’s just like I feel like you’re just like captive to the deck or something like bro just let it go let the deck go it’s I no bro it’s pretty good deck I mean to be fair it’s it’s a good deck I think that you know you you might have a bit of results biases or results bias to your uh your run at the recent set Champs like this is still a great deck it’s just uh yeah that’s that’s what it is I already set up the mo I was like I just felt super bummed after it and like I think I just have to quickly realize like this deck is still absolutely ridiculous it’s just it was four games that I played and that was it did no no no no no I went 2 two like if I beat Bessie which the games were Incredibly Close I would have made I would have got like an Ursa probably so and yeah I don’t know I I just had a bit of a downer but I think it also comes comes down to the fact that this set it’s the only deck I’ve played as well I’ve literally not played a single other deck from day one I’ve played this deck and I just keep playing playing it not not that which is funny because you would think that oh like you’re on it like you’re triggering Diablo all the time I’m not ashamed to I’ve missed one or two Diablo triggers you yeah so make sure you remember those guys because they are they are very important they stock up but yeah when is that a miss when is that trigger missed so if I get to my turn that’s a good question actually yeah I I would love people in the comments any people that are like deep deep into the rules let us know I guess just come to the Discord and let us know before before we read out the comments for the next one because I’d be very curious cuz there are times when usually if I’m very much on it my opponent draws and I’m like trigger but then if my opponent draws and it’s like 5 seconds later I’m like oh yeah trigger like when does your opponent say no no no it’s like very much uh it seems like you just kind of whenever yeah I would assume it’s when they do the next game action like or the next game action has passed then yes I would assume that as well yeah yeah if you play Green steel a store Champs don’t expect any favors from me yeah so Brandon’s going to be like draw play this in instantly going to do it yeah he’s not going to say he’s not going to say draw he’s just going to draw the card and then instantly play in in instant ink actually yeah that’s the play that’s that’s the game action yeah I feel like lurana is probably it’s probably some LAX thing where it’s like ah they missed it [ __ ] 10 minutes ago why don’t they want just give it to them oh we five turns later oh just let him draw the card that’s been my how many CS did they miss okay let’s just just draw the rest of your deck draw 15 why not that’s been especially it’s door Champs like yeah but no like as much as we’re meing I do would actually love like from anyone that’s going to be present at challenges or whatever CU it is very important to know um for for sure not only for if you’re playing the deck but also if you’re playing against the deck because like brenon said if it’s like literally the end of your turn and your turn’s been going on for like a minute and your opponent says oh I forgot to draw that trigger and it’s a high leges tournament like you’d be like come on yeah and bullying green steel players doesn’t count you know you’re no don’t do that I’m joking I’m uh anyway anyway sweet good luck at uh bahum guys and be sure I’m interested to see what list you land on I’m interested to see like what the game you’re not interested to see what list I land on brenon come on you’re not talking to me you’re talking you’re a big you’re a big deck switcher though I could I could you know what you know what I I I’ll give a bit of insight you know what I was thinking last night I was like What if I just play Ruby amethyst but the Agro yeah yep y yep yep yep I know this the classic Ka bring back arur yes bro let’s do it I’m interested to see to like hear about how the games go because I do think that you know on average people are going to be much less practiced than they were for the set three tournaments so I’m Keen to hear like how it goes for you guys and how the early rounds go because I don’t know at Atlanta I don’t want to say this but you know I had some I had some easier matches to be honest uh some were easier than others so I’m me just how that scales into bam now without the online resource anyway yeah you see us if people see us there please come and say hi and definitely form an orderly orderly queue in front in front of M and he’ll take your contact details for coaching he’ll take your paypals he’ll take everything yeah takes tips they give you like a ticket number so you have to come back and actually talk to him later yeah he’s that busy he has a surge pricing enabled on his coaching if you guys know anyway uh also if you have a t-shirt definitely wear your T-shirt um yes unless you’re Mo and you don’t have a t-shirt don’t have one when you come to the US Mo I have a t-shirt for you perfect yeah all right cool well if you listen this podcast number thing you can do is leave us riew on Apple podcast or Spotify really does help a lot video version of this on YouTube but youtube.com podan podcast hit that subscribe while you’re there we’re at like three and a half th000 subscribers Twitter brand APG Moore HS and CCH CG EG CG thank you all so much for listening I’ll see you next week [Music]
26 Comments
Oh thank heavens more podcana!
4:41 this is what i think of the deck as well, i just thought i was playing it poorly, so i stopped playing it.
How do we join the discord? I don’t see a link in the description
Havnt watched yet but damn I was trying to keep Pegasus under wraps for set champs! 😂 I’ll forgive you since I love you guys 🤘🏻
I'm one of the people who hit up Brendan and then got directed to Moyen lol! I'd love an updated Ruby/Am Deck tech profile like last time, you helped me reach a few top 8s and I even won a stitch! So thanks so much, and definitely requesting 😀
Id be interested in maybe have 1 -2 cards that you all need to build a deck around and see what the others come up with. Show your deck building skills.
Y'all should record or show one of those tests where you pick your start.
I feel like average draw vs average draw ill take my chances with ruby amethyst vs emerald steel. If e/s gets 2 buckys its still possible, i find it tough into 2 diablos. Ruby amethyst is so consistenly drawing cards by turn 3+, i just hope to have brawl or they miss diablo basically
Love the podcast since you are talking about scar do you think its a good play to pair him with the snuggly ducking so he could gain lore while clearing threats from the board.
Blue/Steel: run items and ward aurora, Maurice Workbench, and Smash / Avalanche as your actions.
Avalanche kills Bucky and Cove, Queens Castle, ward Aurora to help make your Smee and other Big Steel cards immune to Medusa.
Podwars Unlimited Podcast when?
Hi Kawa, was fun meeting you as my last opponent yesterday! And thanks for pointing me towards the podcast; just subscribed and will definitely check them out during my work commute.
Also looking for the discord that is mentioned
I have G/Steel built for the play group but no one wants to play it. lol
The Ward Ariel really doesn’t seem to great idk. Belle is just better especially when you wheel with Belle on board and hyper ramp.
Here's the Discord link everyone https://discord.gg/J3YT2SdZKt
Added it to the description as well!
Pegasus Flying Steed is the key for Sapphire Ruby vs Ruby Amethyst. It halts Frenemy, stays on board vs brawl, acts as fodder for Be King Disputed / Tremaine. To top it off can take out Diablos and helpful vs locations.
Im not seeing this amethysts steel deck. What are they takllking about?
I was a PB grinder top 25 and did decent at atl (44 points) Although I don’t necessarily learn anything from these you guys are just nice to listen to. I tune in every week and really appreciate the content. I think this could really give an intermediate player some nice direction.
How pathetic Ravensburger and Disney have become. They are now at the point where in their Twitch Stream, they have moderators manually deleting comments that say Pixelborn. I said it once and a mod deleted it, then I said it like this PIXEL BORN and it took a few seconds longer and I was soft banned for 10 minutes. LMAO I think its safe to say that not only is PB not coming back in its original form, yet they have no intention of releasing an online client as they want no past reference of it to exist. Glad I quit the game when I did.
played against kawa round 1 games expo in birmingham, definetly boring as a mirror match until you top decked me game 3 lol
As always awesome podcast guys.
Recently you've been talking about how important openers are and how they've impacted some of your playtesting. Is there significance in an opener being 4 turns? For example is it related to what you can hold in mulligan or about playing on curve?
Also do you feel like these openers are usually static such that you are only making ink decisions the first 4 turns if you have the appropriate opener for the matchup?
I was at Table 40 Rank 11 for BOCHUM was flying at the start, made one small error by accident, and it throws me off for the rest of the day. Had a chance to at least go 5-2-2 which woulda been still pretty damn good, but yea major disaster Hated playing R/S too , wasn't feeling it that much . Either way I am probably quitting after Birmingham in september, don't even touch my cards outside set championships and the odd league every other week . Did meet some nice people out there !
I love that ‘policing’ member of the group. That and getting together I think that’s one of the problems in my group.
E/S killed the game for me.
Bucky needs a ban