8-35. Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam!

Foreign. Welcome back to Tag Team, the Pokemon trading card games premier podcasting duo. My name is JW Crew and I am joined by my good, good friend Andrew Mahone. In today's episode, we are going to be covering the new reveals from the 30th anniversary set. We are going to be looking at Andrew's regional championship run in Indianapolis and we're looking at the results from that tournament, including a major dub for Alakazam. But before all that, Andrew, how are you doing? I'm chilling, bruh. Chillin. I'm excited to be home. Okay. After a long weekend in Indianapolis. Yeah, I always, always miss my family when I'm out. Just I'm kind of a softy like that, but just love them very much, miss them and don't like being away from home. Turning into a little bit of a homebody. But it was just a three and a half hour drive so really not bad. And had a great time in Indianapolis. I did got to hang out with a bunch of friends and had a good tournament experience. So overall feeling good. Yeah, dude. What about you? Yeah, dude. Oh, we, you know, we had a baby last week, so just been keeping up with that, you know. Yes, nothing, nothing too major. But the third crewall daughter. I know the third crewall daughter, so yeah, really hasn't been much of an issue in terms of like feeding or, you know, being awake at night. I think the key for all, you know, new parents or prospective parents is just make sure the baby is fed enough. And this is what we missed on the first baby is that we didn't feed the bottle immediately. You gotta like just go immediately with the bottle so you can like, you know, supplement with mom. You got the bottle ready to go. So like I'll take a feeding shift in the evening and we just kind of like back and forth. So like, you know, I get about, you know, five hours of sleep roughly and then I do the feed and then I get another couple hours of sleep. My wife gets a five hour sleep window because I'm doing that middle of the night feed. So like it's all, it's all kind of working out. And so she's sleeping great, eating great and I get to keep teamwork. It's very important. Every time I have a child I'm like, I can't imagine being a single parent. Oh my goodness. And then having multiple kids. Like I know impossible stuff out there, man. I know. Crazy. Yeah, it's tough. No, I definitely, yeah, teamwork is huge. For sure. For sure. Well, congratulations on the birth of your third daughter. Welcome back. Happy to have you back. I know we missed last week, dear listeners. We did. And it's because Riley and I are not competent enough to record an episode. Well, that's. That's not. That's not entirely true because Riley did it, you know, for the longest time. We just. We just need to get. Yeah, we do need a little bit more. I don't know, what would they say, like compartmentalization or reproducibility? I suppose it's not that hard to set up. You could do it, the process. I'm sure I could do it. You know, it's a matter of doing it, you know, jw, it's like JW has his workflow, you know, just is what it is. Like, you know, so if he's not producing, it's like, well, oh, am I going to learn the whole workflow for one week? To what end? Anyway, we got a big one today. We got a big one today. Do I know? There's a lot of cards that were revealed through a lot of reprint cards and a couple new. We finally figured out what the MEWTWO and MEW cards do, right? Those are kind of like the first teaser reveals from the 30th anniversary. So we're going to cover that and then, of course, dip into the mail bag and then get into your regional run in Indy, which, you know, was a lot of fun. It was. It was looking sketchy there at the beginning, but you able to. You were able to turn it into a, like a really solid finish. Top 64 in indie, which was great. So let's get right to it. I think as. And, you know, as more of a retro head than me, I think we're both, you know, solidly grounded in the retro scene, but. But you certainly have a bit more reach there. You saw some of the. Well, you saw all of the 30th anniversary reveals. Which card are you most excited for? And then we can break down kind of what. What we're seeing from the. For me personally, in my collection for Natalie, and I should say, because it's not just me and the retro decks are not just my collection, but for. For our family, the SC from Unseen Forces, Easily the most exciting reveal. We didn't get any of these, like, mid-2000s Pokemon EX in the last celebrations. No, we did not. Not a single one. So to be getting one in the first place is very exciting. These are also some of the most expensive and hard to obtain cards for anyone building old decks or any fan of, you know, Past formats. And for us specifically, we have a Scizor Ex deck that we are working on and we only own two of the four Scissor Ex that we need. And we actually just bought another Scizor Ex recently, but it's like almost $300. So it. And it happened. The one that we found happened to be like a nice one. Right. So we were like, ah, well, it feels like really bad to put this, you know, what would be probably a play Scizor Ex into a retro deck at this point. Right. Because you're just giving it more wear than it needs. It's kind of an antique. Right. I mean, this card's like literally from 2005. I mean, it's over 20 years old. This. This card can drink. Right. It's like 21. So it was pretty old card. Yeah. So we were going to feel guilty, like we got a second Scissor out of the four we need, but I feel guilty because it's two dice, Right. And this is like two weeks ago that we're like, you know, talking about Scissor Ex and then to have it like revealed as a card as a reprint was like, pretty freaking sick. Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. So I'm not really that in tune with 2005 meta. Is the scissor deck a popular archetype or is it just an archetype of that era? It's a better deck. It's a better deck. It is. It is like your. It's like a quad kind of beat stick style deck. Okay. That's what it is. It's not like, doesn't have like a bunch of fancy abilities kind of comboing off. It is like a beat. It is a beat stick deck, but it did. It did. Natalie, what did Scissor accomplish? It's an RSPK deck. Okay. Do anything in 2006? Oh, it's just an RSPK deck. Okay. Is. Yeah, but it's a pretty good RSPK deck and you just like, you know, you shut things down and. And you swing for big damage. That's what. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, obviously that poke body is like pretty insane. Right? Doubling the. Doubling the attack power of that first attack. So, yeah. Interesting stuff. I was watching Jesse, I think on your stream, he's like, yeah, I just picked up the Scissor and you were kind of geeking out about it. Yes, for sure. Well, and it can use special metal. Right. So it could be bulky and just start swinging as early as turn two. Right. A lot of Decks from that kind of era are more, like, setup heavy. But when you just evolve Scyther into Scizor and just start swinging quickly, the pressure just mounts up. Right. I mean, Scizoria is a pretty beefy stage one Pokemon, right? Yeah. Well, this. Yeah, let's go through all the. All the reveals. We had talked about this on the podcast a while ago, but it seems to be the trend, and I think this is an overall good thing of including base set Charizard in every anniversary set. Now, some people may roll their eyes and they may say that, you know, why do we need another Charizard? But honestly, this is like the quintessential Pokemon TCG experience that they want every single person to. To relate to that and, like, pulling a cool Pikachu, right? They want everyone to be able to have that. I pulled the Bayside Charizard experience no matter when they come into the franchise. So by reprinting it every, you know, presumably five years, right, they're giving fans that chance once again to have that. To have that experience. And then obviously for, you know, the nostalgia, the millennials and boomers that are nostalgia baited by that, it's just even more reason to buy the product. But we got the base set Chariz, Pikachu, and Zekron. I can't believe there's a base at Charizard. I'm sorry, jw. No, dude, I think it's great. I think it's great. I cannot believe it. I'm just. No, dude, it's awesome. Not believe it. It's awesome. And I see the vision. Well, I'm glad you do. I mean, it's. It's the card, like, we're talking like. Like, what's the card that. That exemplifies the Pokemon tcg? What is it? Yeah, it's that one. But you don't need to print it every five years, do you? Yes, dude. Yes, you do. Yes, you do, bro. It's the card. Ten years. It's the card. It's the card of the game. I guess I. I see it a little bit, but I also. I mean, like, could have been totally fine without it. I mean, don't you want Pokemon fans to experience more than just base at Charizard? Yes, and they do. And that's why they're printing. They're like, okay, they're printing Erica's Jigglypuff. Like, that matters to no one except people that played back then, right? Like, it's not like they're just doing, oh, here's all these. You know, nostalgia cards, I mean, to people that play, I guess a lot of these are nostalgic cards, but they're really kind of tugging on that heartstring with the Charizard and not a whole lot else, I don't think. Like, by and large, I feel like a lot of these reprints and they did a good job of this in the 25th anniversary too. They're for the players. Yeah, a decent amount of them. Some of them are for the history, some of them are for the players and some of them are for the collectors, which I think is like a very fair mix. Right. So that, that seems to be the kind of angle. And some of them, I mean, I just don't know. Some of them, I'm like, yeah, let's. What are you on? Yeah, let's. Let's get into that. Let's get into that. Let's go through. I'm going to list them all kind of one by one here. So we can just let audio only listeners know what is included in the set. By the way, quick plug. If you're not over on YouTube or watching on Spotify, we do post it as, you know, visual video over on Spotify, go over to one of those platforms and watch the episodes. But we have the Pikachu and Zekrom GX Big card for, for us, I would say you especially Pikachu the Base Set Pikachu Misty Erica's Jigglypuff Sneasel from the Neo Shining Celebi Lugia Crystal Lugia. Very interesting reprint. Delcatty Dark Tyranitar Scizor Ex Delta Species Metagross Palkia Level X Uxie Big card for Retroheads. Crobat G Similar vein. Gengar Prime. Very excited about this one. This is my first deck. The Darkrai and Cresselia Legend, both halves. First reprints of a Legend card. N Rayquaza Ex Genesect, Ex Mega Gardevoir Ex Greninja Break Solgalea GX Buzwell GX Zacian V Raku Amazing Rare Mew Vmax Arceus V Star the Shinji, Konda Magikarp. And I think, yeah, that. That does it for. For the card reveal so far. So yeah, talk to me a little bit more about kind of overall thoughts of what you're seeing from. From the reprints so far. Yeah, one thing, one thing that I. Not just one thing. I mean there. There are multiple things that I had actually kind of called for and wished for in a video that I released a couple months ago on YouTube. The cards that I thought that they absolutely ought to reprint and kind of opinions on what they should do for their reprints. One of them was that I thought that they should not shy away from printing art rares, reprinting art rares, re releasing art rares as we see with this Magikarp. The Magikarp is just here for collectors, which is really cool. And I think that Pokemon should not shy away from re releasing some of their most beautiful art rares, like this Magikarp. I mean, this Magikarp's worth like hundreds of dollars right now. Yes. The original one. Yes. And it's not even that old of a card. So pretty crazy that people can pull it and enjoy it again. It's pretty cool. I mean, and this card is only a few years old. I mean, it was released in 2023. So I was really surprised by the modernity of many of these reprints. Like getting a reprint of Magikarp, Arceus, V Star and Mu vmax. Yes. Amazing, right? Everything from the Sword and Shield block. I actually was very surprised that they reprinted stuff from the Sword and Shield block because that stuff to me is like, that's. That's from the block. I mean, the block we just experienced, really. But I guess right now we're in the Mega Evolution. Blocks are really the. You know, the block we just experienced is Scarlet and Violet block. So I guess sword and shield is two blocks ago. I guess. Yeah. I mean, we're getting. We're getting, you know, a card from every. Like a card of every classification, I guess. Right. So you have the art rare and like the modern Magikarp, the V Star V Max Amazing Rare V. You know, regular voice GX Tag team gx. Regular. Like a stage two gx. We have a break in here. Megas. So, you know, going and on and on. Right. We have outside of, I guess, stadium gimmick. Yeah, almost every gimmick outside of a stadium. We have like every. Yeah, exactly. Every. Every mechanic or every type of card, which I think is really interesting too. Owner's Pokemon Level Shining Pokemon Crystal. Pokemon Owner's Pokemon. Yeah, all. So that's pretty cool. From my video that I released a couple months ago. Some of the hits. Let's talk about the hits, because I did have. I had one complete called shot and that was full art. And I was like, yeah, full art end is going to be in the set. So that was just. How'd you know? Because it was the first ever full art supporter. And I was like, they ought to celebrate and re and do that and kind of celebrate and reprint the first ever full art supporter. Full art and also just an iconic card, not unlike Iono. And N had been reprinted multiple times throughout the years though, unlike Iono and its legality had been reset multiple times. So N was legal from like noble victories in 2011, like all the way up until like so like, I mean, later, dude, because 2017 n was legal. NAIC 2017 worlds was legal. So we're talking till like 2018. No, it was legal in 2018 too. We're talking like later, dude. I mean N was legal for the longest time. Yeah. So yeah, it had just been reprinted so many times. So to reprint full RN to me felt like an obvious move because it's your first ever full art supporter. Full art supporters are such a huge part of like collecting in the game now. And to kind of like pay homage to that first ever full art supporter to me felt like a no brainer. So that was an absolute called shot. I also called out that they should reprint a plasma Pokemon because I thought that the plasma mechanic was one of the best done villain mechanics that they've ever done. So I really wanted them to replant a plasma guy. And I think Genesect, this is the perfect one. This is the perfect one. Yeah, well, because I think of the. Think of the. Yeah, think of the application, right? Like, yeah, you have Arisian Genesect. Right. Of which this was a. Like a three or four of. In some cases you have like a Romatis box, right. Where Genesect played kind of a supplementary role. You have it in plasma, like Lugia decks as a way to switch. It's like the most versatile plasma Pokemon they could have printed. Yeah, it's a really cool card. Incredible card. One worlds, you know, multiple worlds, top finishes. So great choice there. Another card that I. And then there were like a bunch of mechanics that I asked for and got. I mean, obviously like. Yeah, because we didn't really wanted there, right. I really wanted there to be a Pokemon break. And I called for there to be a Pokemon break. I called for it to be Zoroark Break, but Greninja Break is the other one that they could have chosen, right? So like, yeah, there weren't that many options. Yeah, I have a little bit of a favoritism for Zoroark Break, but Greninja Break, actually it might have been that I called for Greninja Break. I don't know either one of them. It's like one of those two. I called it. You know, certainly they were going to print one of those two because those are the two best break cards that I felt like. Break cards were such a cool and, you know, maybe not impactful, but cool and well designed. Part of the XY block of the Pokemon tcg. I really wanted them to print a Pokemon level X. I wanted Uxie level X. They gave us another cool one, Palkia Level X. So that's cool. And then they gave us Uxie, the regular one. Right. Which is fine. So still gave us a piece of Oopsie, right? Yeah, exactly. And that's just like, a very iconic setup. Pokemon consistency. Pokemon from that era. I wanted there to be a legend. I called for Entei and Raikou Legend. They gave us Darkrai and Cresselia. I would have preferred Entei Raikou. I think Entei Raiku is, like, better. But, you know, Darkrai, Cresselia. Very cool. Probably. Yeah. I think if I were hoping for a legend, it probably would have had to have been Rayquaza Deoxys. That one's really cool, too, because, I mean, this one, I wanted to be a Ray in the set. Yeah. This one just never. Well, there is a Rayquaza in the set. I know there is. And I wanted there to be a Rayquaza. I wanted the shiny Rayquaza from Dragon. Dragon Ball. Yes. Yeah. The problem I have. But they gave us Rayquaza Ex, which is like. Like, very closely, you know, released cards like they were right next to each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have such a horror story about this Rayquaza ex. But anyway, yeah, the Dark Rider Sellia Legend. I. I just. This was never good. Like, I think, competitively, if I'm looking at all of these cards, that's the one that stands out as maybe the weakest from a competitive standpoint. I know. Shot. You're ignoring the elephant in the room. What? Mega gardevoir Ex. Are you gonna say that one? I guess. No. Tell me the worst card of this set. Come on. Don't say it's so Leo. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, bro. What are you talking. Okay. O. Okay. Okay. All right, fine, Misty. Fine. What is this card doing here? I mean, I love Misty, my favorite gym leader, but, like, what is this card doing here, dude? Like. Yeah, I wonder how they. How they justified it. Right? What were the. What were the execs in the boardroom thinking? I mean, it's a gym. Like, what? A gym heroes card. Sure. So it's. It's the debut of trainers. Pokemon. It is a nostalgia piece because it was the first time that the gym leaders got printed as cards. You know, you think of Base, Jungle and Fossil. You don't have like, you know, a Misty card. You don't have Sabrina card or anything like that. So you're like, really bring the characters from the video game into the card game in Gym Heroes, which is pretty exciting. Misty's obviously an iconic trainer. I mean, my favorite one. Sure. So, like, it's cool. I love this card from Jim Heroes. I own one. I very much like it. But did it need a reprint? Like, I don't know. I don't necessarily think so. You know, and you could have picked like, Giovanni or Sabrina probably would have been like, yeah, maybe more, you know, stronger choices. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, I'm not complaining, but it is one that, like, is in the set. And I'm like, huh? I'm definitely not complaining. I like Misty. I'm happy to have Misty carded there for sure. But like, I just. But it is one that I was like, really? We got Misty from Jim here would not have put that on my bingo card. Okay, all right, fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah, that. That's probably the weakest. Let's look at some of these older cards then. You know, standing out to me is the Shining Celebi and the Lugia. I mean, these are these. This aesthetic is probably my favorite of any card printing that, that, you know, that, that, that we have, that we have in the game. Honestly, like, I really love, and some people hate this, the off centered nature of the E readers. I love it. I think it's totally unique. Very interesting. I love the kind of like white, you know, background. Just like, it's like a very, like, it's just very unique, right? It's just very unique. I'm a textured fan. Big, big look how textured, like the background is on that card and just how cool. Like all the scratches, all the different kind of color palettes you got in there. It's really cool. Cool card. I mean, just. Yeah, the whole design of the whole thing is awesome. And then the artwork is incredible as well. Just not like anything that they've done, you know, in 25 years. I mean, they really haven't done anything quite like this, so really cool piece. The crystal Pokemon are extremely rare. Aquapolis and Sky Ridge are two of the rarest sets ever in the Pokemon tcg. Because this was during a low point in Pokemon's popularity, right? Because Pokemon had kind of weathered the viral stage, the Pokemania stage of like 99 and 2000. And then you had the Fall off where people were getting out of the hobby. And it wasn't as popular as it was. Right. So people are asking like, is Pokemon dead? Is Pokemon falling off? Was it just a one hit wonder? Right. That's like the era that Crystal Lugia gets released. Right. And they're like Skyridge Aquapolis, like Wizards of the coast is losing the license to print the Pokemon cards. Yep. Right. These are Wizards of the coast last two sets. They are basically clearing out their warehouses of all these cards because they don't care. They've lost the license, they cannot keep them. Right. They need to get rid of them. So they're just like handing them out, you know, but nobody wants them. Like, that's. It's crazy to think that that was like a part of the game's history, but it just, it is. And where we are now is like, since Pokemon collecting was at an all time low during these era, during these years, these couple of years here, from like 2002 to like 2003, you know, that was like a. Certainly a low. And, and now these cards are some of the rarest cards that exist. And also you could just see the passion and the, and the effort that went into designing them. They're just really incredible pieces. So I was really excited to see a crystal card get a reprint. I'm also really excited to see how they handle the shining texture on like the shining Celebi. Because these shining Pokemon are really cool. Neo Destiny. I mean, awesome. But like, sometimes the Pokemon themselves can be like a little shadowed, like a little dull because of the way that they do, like they handled the gold printing, as you can see, with this skin. Right. Like, it literally looks like a silhouette of Celebi there. Right, sure. Yep. So I'm wondering if they're gonna like, brighten them up a little bit for the modern reprint, like if it'll look a little bit different or how they're gonna handle that. Kind of like making the Pokemon itself. Holo. So I'm really excited about that. I think that that's gonna be a fun thing to see. Another thing that I'm really excited about is just to see the difference in techniques between Pokemon Japan and the Pokemon Company International when it comes to printing these cards. Yes. Because there are always differences. If you looked at the 25th anniversary set, the hollow patterns and the textures, and none of that was the same. It was all different. But they, they have noted, notably, they have unified on the logo. I don't know if you caught that, but Pokemon Japan is using. They're using the Pikachu head. The Pikachu head. Yes. They did not do that for the 25th anniversary. So if you, like, look at the commercial. If you, like, run the commercial, you'll see the Japanese cards all have. So they're not doing the block. Like the 25th. They're not doing the block. But look at the pack arts. So it's like, look at the pack arts for both the English and the Japanese pack arts. They're at the top of the thing. Let's see. Yeah, yeah, look at. You can compare them both, I think. All right. No, no, this is just go to the other article. The other article. There's, like, an article that's, like, before this one. Right? So, yeah, if you go to just poke beach homepage. Yeah, yeah. And then look at that. That one. Right. And you can see, like, the English and the Japanese pack art. They're both using that kind of, like block 30. Right. But they look very similar, too. Are we gearing up. Are we gearing up for, like, global releases? Oh, and scroll down, scroll down. There you go. You got the Japanese Charizard right there. Okay. And Japanese Pikachu. Yeah, this looks great, doesn't it? But you can see the difference between the Japanese one and the English one. Like, even right here, you can tell the Japanese they're going to have that sparkly gold border. The English ones are not. They're not going to have that sparkle texture, but they are going to have a different border. Look at that. It is a golden border. It is gold. It is gold. That is. Which is not how the original print was. That is different. But, like, those sparkly gold borders on the Japanese cards. I mean, those are their next level. Yeah, they're next level. Their next level. Well, and look at the sparkle. The sparkle hollow behind the Pikachu Zekrom there. Right? Now go to the English one. Does it have that? Probably not, no. So you know what I'm saying, like, the Japanese ones are kind of looking like they're gonna be a little sexier, just like they were for the 25th anniversary, to be honest. And that's just from a collector standpoint, I'm really gonna want to get my hands on the Japanese ones. But I don't know if you've seen, like, all the efforts they're going through. Oh, top international buyers. Yes. Yeah, yeah. It's a big thing from buying Japanese product. Well, so, yeah, so I heard there you can't get into Champions League tournaments anymore. And then on top of that, they are cutting down at international resale, at TPCI events of, like, international product. And then obviously out of Japan, they're curbing foreign. Well, you can't buy cards without a license now. Like an id? Yeah, that's crazy. You need an id. So you need an ID to sign up for Japanese tournaments. You need an ID to sign up for or to buy Japanese Pokemon TCG products. Yeah, all that. And you can't sell Japanese Pokemon TCG products at TPCI regionals or internationals anymore. So, yeah, that's a crazy crackdown for sure. But, you know, as someone who's been collecting the cards since the very beginning, the Japanese cards have always had an allure to me, even from the very beginning. So, you know, to me, that's very cool. I love that. But I'm excited about the English ones, too. I mean, it's just excited about the whole set. Another one that I'm really excited about is Dark Tyranitar. I just love Tyranitar. I love, like, the Team Rocket expansion. This is from Ex Rocket Returns, which is also one of the rarest Pokemon TCG expansions that there is. Ex Rocket Returns was only printed in three languages, which is crazy to think from today's standpoint, right? This set was released in 2004. It was only printed in English, Portuguese, and Japanese. Wow. Funny, isn't it? Like, that's. Those are the three very weird English, Portuguese and Japanese. So I have a Portuguese Rockets Mewtwo EX from. From that set that I purchased in Brazil. But yeah, I'm really excited about the Dark Tyranitar Delcatty. Also, just a great card for the 2004 format. Sneasel. I mean, gotta shout out my dude. Sneasel. This is my favorite card of all time. Like, right up there with Team Rocket, Rocket Zapdos from Gym Challenge. I mean, like, Sneasel and Rocket Zapdos from Jib Challenge. Like, my two favorite cards ever. This card right here is why Sneasel is my favorite Pokemon of all time. Because when I was a kid in year 2000, right? So when this card was released, I had heard that Sneasel was so powerful that it was banned from the Pokemon tcg. And I thought that that was so cool that Sneasel became my favorite Pokemon. And when I got this card, I was like, you know, because I ended up getting it. Yeah, because it's only. I mean, it's just a rare card from Neogenesis. So I ended up getting it, and I was like, I have the most powerful card in the Pokemon TCG to be a 12 year old, you know, I mean, that's like captivating. Right? Like to be 12 years old and be like, this is the strongest card that there is. Yeah. So overall, I mean, very excited about the set. I think my key takeaways are that I'm very happy that they didn't shy away from reprinting art rares. That was one of the things that I wanted the most. Yes. So very happy to see that on the magic card. And they're. And they're doing it, I think tastefully. Right. It's like, it's not, you know, we're not. We're not going to see multiple art rares, I don't think. Right. Like 12. Just like one. This one. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, yeah, I'm very excited about it. They're also gonna be a bunch of unique new cards too. We didn't even talk about those, bro. So let's talk about the MEWTWO and the mew. Yeah, we got to do it. We got to do it. I mean, because these are like brand new rarity cards. I know, I know. These are. And they're like 3D model. I. Dude, I love an ugly Pokemon card. I think low key. They look very good. I think these. Well, they do look good in an ugly kind of way. They've been polarizing. I think the mewtwo is probably my least favorite. But. But it's still. To me, it's. Aesthetically, it like hits something. Right? Just this like neon kind of a chromium. I love style. Yeah, it's. It's interesting in the Hollow, like 30th stamp. The fact that it's not just yellow, right. That they like neon iFied. The 30th anniversary stamp, even the energy symbols look weird. Like, what's going on with those? Did you notice that? I know, I know they do look weird. I mean, you can kind of see. You kind of see. Why are they squished? Yeah, why is the psychic. Why is it squished? I don't know. Psychic symbols, squished. I don't know what's going on means. Do you think it means something? It like has to. Because, like, why would it be like that? Why would it be like so different? Yeah, I don't know why it would be like that. Well, and the thing is, it's not just like that on the background. It's like that in the energy symbols for the attacks. Yeah. So like, what is going on there? Yeah, it's weird. It's weird and then it's weird. You cannot deny that it's weird. We get a very cool sneak peek, too, at kind of the bulk of the set as well. These are rare cards at, you know, 158 and 157. The base set will have 128 cards. So a pretty sizable set at that. Like the 30th or the. Oh, my gosh. That's without the reprints. Yeah. The 25th anniversary had, what, 100 cards or 50 cards. Right, because it was 25 reprints. Yeah. And then 25, you know, base set cards. Right. 20. 25. This is a much bigger set. This is huge. Yeah. This huge set. This is a real mini set. I mean, really, it felt like the 25th anniversary set was, like, kind of like a special exception. You know, more like a. More like a Dragon Vault. More like a. Like a double crisis. Like a. Just very small. Very small, highly curated. This is feeling more like a real mini set, like your, you know, whatever set your Dusknoir came out in. Shrouded Fable or something, right? Sure. Well, this has. Shrouded Fable is a pretty big mini set. It certainly has opportunity. They're doing something that they have confirmed, which is adding a holo Pikachu to every pack. So I wonder if they will also do something similar with the reprint cards, where they'll include a reprint card in every pack. That. That's kind of a hope of mine. Right. Just so that, you know, you're not also trying to chase down those reprint cards for. For those that, you know, for those that want them. But look at how good the holo patterns look on these Japanese versions of the cards. I'm sorry, tpci, why don't you make your. Your scans look this good, bro? Like, come on. Like, you can't just put the English scan up here next to the Japanese. Where. Compare it. Look at. Look at them. The Pikachus. Like, on the same page that you're on. On. On the 30th. You're on Twitter. Why are you on Twitter? Yeah, on the 30th. Just look at the Pikachu side by side. Yeah, dude. Like, tpci, why are you gonna let Pokemon Japan do you like this? Like. Like, here's my English version. Looks like it came out of a McDonald's Happy Meal. Here's the Japanese version. Coolest card you've ever seen. Yeah. No kidding. No kidding. Oh, yeah. The texture looks sick on the Japanese. Look at that, too. I'm saying, dude, like, why. Why are you going to let TPCI do you so dirty? Or why are you gonna let Pokemon Japan do you so dirty like this? Like, come on, guys. Well, let's talk about these cards from a competitive standpoint. We got the Mewtwo Ex, the Mewtwo and the Mew Ex mewtwo with a couple attacks, photon bullets for two psychic. This attack does 50 damage to each of your opponent's Pokemon Ex. So a bit of a spread attack there. And then the second psychic powers 230 damage base during your next turn. This Pokemon can't use attacks, so just flat out can't use attacks on the next turn. And then the Mew Ex. This is a spiritual reprint to many other Mew Ex cards that we have seen. Mew cards, I guess generally that we've seen in the past. 160 HP psychic Pokemon, the Ability Memory Helix. This Pokemon can't can use the attacks of any of your benched Pokemon, although you still need the necessary energy to use each attack. And then a teleportation burst kind of throwaway attack for a single psychic does 30 damage. And you may switch this Pokemon with one of your bench Pokemon. So from a competitive standpoint, the Mewtwo doesn't stand out to me as particularly viable. But you know, historically I know the strength of a card like Mew Ex, especially when you have, you know, powerful dragons. And we have the Lily Skull Fairy. Right, like this. This seems like an obvious card for. For something like Dragapult. This thing could one shot. This thing could one shot a dragon Ball. It could Phantom Dive a dragon pulp for weakness. I mean, just to kind of give you a taste of the, of the power level of a card like this, it's also got Free Retreat. The Free retreat, it's got 160 hit points. The Free Retreat is absolutely ridiculous. And Teleportation Burst, being able to attach an energy, get itself, you know, somewhere else, do a little poke for 30 is also just a nice kind of versatile attack to have on the card. I mean, this is obviously exactly like Buex from Dragons Exalted, which is exactly like the Uex from the early Ex era. So very similar. And just knowing that the what the Mu Ex was played in Jason Kleczynski's 2006 World Championship winning deck. Mutric obviously was incredibly powerful there. And then you had the Mu Ex from Dragons Exalted was in all of the Night March decks. Yes. That ended up doing well at 2015 World. Yeah. Not even. Amongst other things. Well, yeah, I was going to say not even that, because I think about the Mewax from Dragons Exalted as being particularly strong in Zoroark decks. Right. To. To have an answer to Buzzwole Golisopod decks just as a way to, you know, do damage without, you know, leaving your Golisopod vulnerable in the active spot. So there are a lot of use cases for MEW in the era that the Muse. In the eras that they were legal. I mean, you're literally talking about 2018. I'm talking about 2015 because this card was legal for like four years, five years during, like, the. Longer than that. I mean, it's printed in Dragons Exalted, dude. So like that. We're talking like 2012 to like 2018. This card was legal like so long because they didn't used to have regulation marks on cards. So every time a new promo of a card got re. Released, it was printed in. Yeah. Reset the legality. So this card was legal in like, you know, Dragons Exalted format, but then it was reprinted in Legendary Treasures. But then it was reprinted as like a box promo. So like, this card just got reprinted a ton. And. And now to see it, the. The concept come back, I think is really cool. Allows for a lot of neat things to happen. Specifically being able to be a basic Pokemon that can use the attacks of an evolution Pokemon. Your bench. Yep. That's a really cool thing. Big deal. And it can also change the type. Right. Of the attack because you could be copying a fire Pokemon's attack and making it hit for psychic weakness. Right. So like, that kind of. That kind of thing is really neat. Yeah. Very important. Very important in the game. Absolutely. So cool card. And I definitely want to pick one of these up when the set releases. I mean, I. I think the aesthetic of this card is great, so. Oh, amazing. Have a few. Have a few other reveals. We're not going to go too, maybe too far into them. But another Greninja I think is the fourth or fifth legal Greninja Ex, which is interesting to think about. This attack does 30 damage to one of your opponent's Pokemon for each damage counter on that Pokemon. So it has, you know, a bit of a snipe attack. You can see kind of the. The synergy with the, you know, with the Mega. You have Espeon. We have a Sylveon and Umbreon. So they are leaning into the Eeveelutions. Have a Lapras. Not. Not quite sure here. On some of these, the Drifloon Lycanroc was revealed. Hisuian Zoroa. These are just. I don't know. Nice looking cards, I guess. I. I don't quite see the vision on those particularly, but a few more card reveals for the main set. Yeah. And still you see 122 out of 103. Yeah. So these are also kind of in that IR, you know, past kind of main set numbering, so got that to look forward to as well. Interesting stuff. Any final thoughts here on the 30th anniversary reveals? No tropical beach. No tropical beach. Devastated. I know you wanted it. Devastated. I wanted it real bad also. Just not a lot of trainers. I mean, I guess they had N and Misty. That's it, right? Yeah, I think. Yeah, and Misty. So I feel like they could have done. They could have done more on the trainers, I think. But I get it. You know, collectors don't like the trainers. They just don't. You know, it's crazy. Unless it's a Florida supporter, I guess they'll kind of tolerate those. That's right. But yeah. So no tropical beach. That's sad. I could almost guarantee that there's some red tape surrounding that from Pokemon Japan. Just saying, like, it's a world's promo. Yeah, we don't want that reprinted. Yeah. I could just imagine them just being like, no, just because it was like, just some sort of thing. Like it was a world's promo as a world's gift. Like, absolutely not. You know, like, I could just see them having that opinion. I hope that's not the case because now the cope begins for 35th anniversary world, you know, beach. That's. That's where we got five years to make it happen, folks. Five years. Well, maybe you can talk to somebody at. At Worlds this year. Oh, I'm gonna be talking to anybody who will listen for sure. The campaign starts now. See, the problem with my last campaign is I didn't start early enough. That's right. I really started the cart. The set was already decided when I started my campaign. So now if I. If I start the beach campaign now, we could get beach in the 35th anniversary set. I believe it. I do believe it. So everybody submit your support tickets. We literally just have to start now. Like, have you ever seen, like, the surge people who are, like, campaigning to get surge like, permanently brought back to grocery stores and stuff? Like surge soda. No, I have not seen this. Well, there's like a whole campaign. They're like a whole group on, like, Facebook and social media and stuff, and they're like. And all they do is campaign Coca Cola to, like, reinstate surge Surge soda. Well, that would be really interesting. I mean, that. That could get some traction, right? It's like. Well, they have before. I mean, they, like, brought back surge. I don't know, maybe like, eight years ago, 10 years ago, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, like, a couple years. And then they kicked it away again. And, you know, now. So they're still on their campaign. Like, unfortunately, I'm not passionate enough about tropical beach. Like, I think it'd be cool to have. But they kind of did reprints, right? With. It's in. It's in world stacks, so. I know, but they don't even allow those to be played at, like, regional side events. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Like, literally, they will tell g. They will sell. They will tell Gym Leader Challenge players that they have to take those out of their decks at side events. That's crazy. At regionals. That's crazy. So just reprint it. It's like, not even, you know, like, if you're gonna be that. If you're gonna be like that about it. There's nothing on the. There' on the side event wall that's even worth, like, cheating for. No. So. All right. Yeah. So that's my one. My one kind of. All right, well. Well, yep. Five years to make it happen. I. I'll join you. I'm. I don't think I'll be your most vocal supporter, but I'll. I'll try to help, you know, chip in where I can. I appreciate that. So. All right, let's get into the mailbag. Here we are over on Spotify today. Two Chair asks who's back after Saris just won with Alakazam. Dude. Yep. We got to talk about this. We're not going to talk about it right this moment, but, bro, Alakazam win. Not only winning, actually. This is interesting. We'll look at the breakdown. Not only winning, there were four in top 32. So it was, I believe, the second most represented deck, obviously. Dragapult just, like, went gangbusters, as we would expect, but Alakazam had four in top 32, so. So very sizable representation from the deck. And. And finally, we are seeing the power. Nathan asks. This is. This is for you. I ask this to you. If you guys were out in a boxing ring, who would win? Have you seen this? Like, celebrity chess boxing. Have you seen this? It's like Twitch streamers. They'll. They'll play a game, and then, you know, for a round, and then they'll box each other for, like, a minute or two, and then they'll go back to the Game that they were playing. You know, chess. Right. And you never seen this? No. No. Okay. Yeah. Probably ask Jesse about it. He's probably seen. Of course he has. Anyway, who's winning? What do you think? I feel like. I mean, Riley's. Riley's like the fittest of us. Like, let's just. Yes. You know, Riley's the fittest. He doesn't have reach. I've. He doesn't have the reach, but I've got the endurance and the reach. So I'm gonna have to put it on me. You got the endurance and the reach, huh? Yes. Okay. Because. Okay, I. I'm running like. Okay. I ran six miles at eight minute flat pace. Hilly. Six miles at eight minute flat mile pace like last week. And I also ran 10 miles at like 9 minute pace last week. Yeah, but. Okay, give me something physical. You've done on that line. But, but in the past. Counterpoint, counterpoint, counterpoint. What do you need stamina for when I'm knocking you out in the first round? Dude. Right. Way too agile for that. Really? Way too agile for that. Yes, bro. Okay. And I also feel like quick on my feet. You may be. Now, if I get hit by you, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. I know that you're swinging more weight around. I get it. Well, I feel like you may be underestimated, underestimating my athletic prowess. Although I don't think we've ever. I don't think we've ever sported before, but like we have played on the same football. Football team. Yeah, the football team. That. And that was big. I think that was. That was a good, good experience for sure. But give me like a paddle sport. No, because you threw me a great. You threw me a great touchdown pass. So like, I knew from that moment that JW was actually kind of a baller. I am. Yeah, I know that. So I'm not underestimating you. However. I know you are. I know you are. JW knows ball. He is not just a schlub. Okay. He's a dad. Okay. But he's not a schlub. That's right. And I respect that. And Riley is incredibly physically fit. He is, you know, takes care of his body. Yep. Takes care of his body. He's a great shape. I'm not underestimating either of you. However, I gotta bet on myself. I just have to. Well, that's just a winner's mentality, obviously. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. So I mean, as I would expect I would expect all three of us to bet on ourselves that. Because that's just how we are. Got a couple commenters talking about the. The retreat that we talked about. The Pokemon TCG retreat. Giving it some. Giving it some love. So, yeah, I mean, that sounds like a content idea. I think Luke Dalton says JW always be doing laundry during the cast. I don't know. Is that me or is that you? Because your laundry room is like right behind your. It's mine. It's gotta be yours. It's mine for sure. Yeah. Cause my laundry room's like, you know, it's a split level house, so I mean, like, the steps are only like six steps at a time, so laundry room is not too far removed from here. Yep. Yep. Kristen says card price is going crazy. My wife and I are collecting psyduck cards only English. They bought the Reverse Hollow from the legendary collection for $50. Now it's at $400. I don't know if you saw. I saw a tweet just to kind of like wrap this into the 30th anniversary set. I saw a tweet about Pikachu and Zekrom, how it was a $50 card before the reveals this morning, and now it's like $150. Are you serious? I'm serious, bro. I'm serious. It's crazy, man. Pokemon cards are crazy. The market is so volatile, dude. I mean, just like, I don't trust anything. I don't trust anything modern for collecting. Not a single thing. Because there's too many. It's. There's too many of those cards floating around to where it. And it's also kind of being hype. Beasted and stuff. Right? So as soon as, like, the sneaker heads and the in the crypto bros decide to, like, get out of Pokemon cards and move on to their next thing, I feel like those cards are not going to retain the same prices. Yeah. But maybe that's just me. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's shift gears now into Indianapolis. Andrew, you were messaging me the night before what to play, what to play. Sent me some. Liz. Yeah, I was. You were kind of in the tank and I was like, bro, just play dragapult. Like, let's be honest. This is the best deck in the format. Just like, play dragapult. You know what to do. And I was pushing for, hey, you could either go the hammer's way. You could go the dusknoir line. You were thinking like, well, do I play the blaziken? You know, to try to combat Hammers. And the consensus among the group was like, the Blaziken doesn't really do enough against the Hammer variety of Dragapult because they could just, like, stall. That Pokemon has to retreat. Like, we were really trying to push you away from the Blaziken, which is what I felt like you were testing on the, on the right over. So kind of like walk me through prep for this tournament because it felt like you were in the blender up until the last moment. I was. I was. And you know, if, if you're listening, definitely check out the vlog that I'm working on, because you'll kind of get to be in the passenger seat as I take you through all the kind of mental that goes into being uncertain about a deck, but, like, you know, making, ultimately making a choice and how sometimes that choice could just be whimsical or sometimes it's calculated. And I think this time it was kind of a funny combination of both. I, I, I had won a league cup with Dragapult Dust or so, like, obviously Dragapult Dust Nor was like a kind of comfort pick for me as I have played it. I've played it quite a bit. I kind of have my own list for it, right? Like, just have my own working list. It's just my Pultener list that I've been working on here for like a, for, for about six weeks or so, you know, and it's like, that's my deck, right? That's just my deck that I've been playing. I know why the cards are all there. I'm there myself. Right? That's right. So, so that's like kind of my comfort pick and deck that I very much enjoy playing. I'm excited about the lines that you get when playing this combination of cards. And I, you know, I told you that I was, you know, when I won the cup with this deck, I told you I was like, dude, I think Polt Nor is insane. And then you came to the same. You were like, dude, Polt Nor is absolutely insane. It is. And you kind of came back with that reaffirmation and tweet it out on Twitter. You're like, dude, if you want to dominate this format, Pult Nor, it's like the best way to do it. And I think that there was definitely something that we saw in Pult Noir. I mean, maybe like six weeks ago, they were like, this deck has all the answers, really, because anything that your opponent is doing to try and check you as a Dragapult player, the Dusknoir can pretty much sneak you around it just, you know, and that's why it's so good. Now, the kind of wrinkle in that maybe the only reason that I even started questioning Pultener in the first place was the rise of Dragapult hammers. Because I was like, okay, well if you're playing the Dusk Nor, which maybe isn't as high impact of a card or maybe even in some cases a liability in the mirror match and your opponent is playing crushing hammers in those spots, which are just cards that can like win a mirror match. Right. Like, so aren't you just unfavored by playing this version? Right. By not playing more cards that focus on energy acceleration and things like that, or energy denial, by not playing into the Energy game, aren't you just putting yourself in a disadvantage? So that was kind of my big existential crisis with this deck. And so then I started barking up the Pulp Chicken tree and ultimately kind of fell flat on that. I mean, because like a good Dragon Ball player is not going to let you set up the Blaziken anyway. Well, in the Blade, like in the Blaziken line, I feel like, yeah, it just has. You're devoting more slots than you would a Dust or generally. Right. If you're playing a two one, two and it's doing, I think less in more matchups. Right. The Dust Nor is pulling more weight in more matchups than the blaze can. 100. So 100% it is. And I think that the Blaziken being able to get stuck was an issue for sure and one that I actually was able to exploit in the tournament because I think that like it was one of you guys in the Discord was just like, oh yeah, just stick. That thing gets stuck. Yeah, Lance probably said that. Lance probably said that. And people are kind of, I hate to say it but like people are kind of stupid with. With the Blaziken where they'll just like rare candy it without having energy in the discard pile. So then, yeah, you can just bring it up and then, you know, do it or just smack it with Dragapult or something. I'm sure you're gonna tell that story. Yeah. So it's. Yeah. So like the Blaziken, the more I actually played Pulp Mirrors, I was like, this thing isn't actually doing enough. So I was off that. So then the day of the tournament, I or the day before the tournament, I had been testing like some extra games with Raging Bolt and I've been testing games this is in the car ride, like on TCG Live on my phone. I'm just running games with like, with Raging Bolt and I'm running games with Dragapult on the car ride because I was talking in the discord on the car ride to you guys and Lance Bradshaw, you know, who top 16 Milwaukee, with Dragapult this year. He was like, andrew, if you don't have 100 games of Dragon Ball, don't even play it. Right? And I think he said a thousand. He said 100. He said 100. All right, anyway, he said 100. He's like, if you don't have 100 games of Dragon Ball, don't play it. And I was like, realistically, you probably do. I probably have between 50 and 75. Realistically. I was like. So then I was like, I gotta get playing. Because I was like, I got 20 games tonight for sure. Was like, literally my thought. I was like, if I start now at the beginning of this three and a half hour drive, like, you know, I would get at least like, you know, maybe 15. Like, that'll get me even closer to the hundred mark, right? And then maybe I'll hit 100 games somewhere in the middle of the Indianapolis Regional Championship. So, like, that's okay. And you know, I'll be where I need to be. And so. But I did, I did. I grinded more games and I kind of. I felt like I had learned more and more and more about the matchups and about how the deck just kind of operates in kind of the gritty situations in the trenches. Right. Because that's kind of why you're getting all those games and you're not getting all those games in just to see how the deck does. Its A plan or its B plan. You're getting all those games in so that you can win games in the trenches. Because you've seen more of like, the weird stuff, right? Yep. And that's what helps you to kind of find those marginal plays that get you out of tight situations in tournament play. And that's what separates the good players from the great players. So I felt like I got a lot of extra games in, which really helped in the car, which, you know, shout out TCG live, right? Because, like, you could actually do that. So that's pretty cool. And then I. In the car, I ditched Raging Bull. I was like, this deck just. It just sucks, man. It just. It just sucks. I just. I couldn't get over it. The fact that, like, sometimes you start hot and like, your deck looks good and then Sometimes you're like, I'm using Serrano. Turn two, bro. Like, I went first, and then I'm. And then on turn two, I'm, like, using Serrano, and, like, I'm, like, just not doing anything, and my opponents got, like, you know, fully built up board, and it just. You just feel like. Like, my deck could have such a higher power level to, like, manipulate things. But anyways, I. I just don't like the way that Raging Bull plays. It felt too flat to me, so I. I was off that. And then Jesse, of course, is talking on Ponchkrow. So it's like, between Honchkrow and dragapult at the convention center. By the time Jesse and I get to the convention center, I'm all for aging bolt. I'm like, all right, it's either Dusk nor. I'll join you. Jesse playing Honchkrow. And then as Jesse and I are checking in, it dawns on me that, like, you know, my only hesitation with Honchkrow is that I don't think it actually beats Dragapult. Right. Like, I don't believe it, but seeing is believing. So I'm like, okay, Jesse, if you could beat me in a best of three tonight in the hotel room, you know, me playing my dragon ball dust nor deck, and you playing your honchkrow deck, then I'll join. Yeah. Yep. He absolutely annihilates me. Game one, bro. Like, wipes the floor with me. Every time I have a dragonfold active, it's six at a knockout. Like, I stamp them. It's like, ariana, Ariana knock. You know, Honchkrow draw to eight, Rocket tower. It's knockout. I'm like, oh, my God. So I'm like, I guess I'm freaking. I'm like, that's enough. That's not how the deck works. Every time I've seen it. I know it, Right? Yes. And then in game two, I was able to, like, do this insane three prize turn to win. Sure. With a combination of, like, monkey dory shenanigans and dust noir. Yep. And then. And then game three, he dead draws, and I smack him. So, yeah, that. That was decided. Ended up on Dusknoir. Now for the list. It was actually really hard for me to, like, settle on the exact cards that I wanted to play. The biggest concession to me felt like two boss. And that's the one thing I don't like. Yeah. Want a third boss? Yeah. That's the one thing I don't love. But I know from experience that I. I Can win with two bosses a lot. Like sure, sure. Like I know that it doesn't. Well, yes. It's just a card. I want. I do feel like with the Dusknoir builder or I guess traditional in this format Dust nor build with like the rare candies, you can be a little bit more greedy with the boss because you're trying to go through the active In a lot of cases, right. You play against the mega decks. You're just trying to blow up the active. You're playing against Hydrapple. You're just trying to blow up a dust nor and pop the active. Right? So in a lot of cases, like you just need the boss one time in a game to clean up. It's literally where we're coming from. Yeah, I see where you're coming from. And in a lot of pulp decks with the play the three boss, like when you're playing the three boss, you could just throw one away early on, like burger play. That's like people do all the time. Like you just are like, I'll just boss that just cuz. Right. You know, or whatever. But in this version of the deck with like the rare candies, you could be more aggressive with your dust noise. Because all the time you'll blow up like two full dust ors in a game and you'll do it like rapid fire. You'll go like blow up dust nor. Night stretcher. Blow up dust nor. Yes. You know, so like what do you need all the bosses orders for? You really only need one to win you. The game is kind of what I feel like when playing this deck. So two is like fine. Three Crispin. That was something. That was an ad from my earlier league cup list. And I think that that's just like. Yeah, three. Three Crispin just has to be. Yep, yep. Because it allows you to just come back in games where you're like down those energy attachments. It allows you to be more resilient to hammers being able to just recoup those energies at a moment's notice. You pretty much always want to have access to Christman. You want to have access to that card at all points in the game in case you need an extra energy juice. It gets you a dragapult out of nowhere. It gets you that extra energy to the monkeys so that you can start doing the adrenal brain and and all that. Now obviously Justin Neudorf, you know, world's finalist, ended up finishing in the top four of Indianapolis with a dragapult dusknoir deck that also played crushing Hammers. Yeah. This is cool. This is cool. I mean, so he basically swapped out. It's not a one to one obviously like the bear. Yeah, he swapped out the rare candies for the crushing hammers and then he played the rockets Watchtower. I was really trying to get you on this card. I think overall for this weekend this was a very powerful card. But. But yeah, the crushing hammer. Yes, the crushing hammers for the mirror I think would have been a difference maker. I definitely see the vision there and I like that a lot. But I, I. The Risky Ruins. I mean I won so many games because of those. It's really hard for me to say that the Watchtower hold even half as much weight as those. The Risky Ruins won me countless games. So yeah, let's talk about the, the run just a little bit. Absolutely. I won't go through every single match in excruciating detail, but I did start off weak. After feeling kind of good about the deck going into the day, I got absolutely annihilated. Game one by a Starmie Mega Frost last deck. It's one of those games where you just like only get one Dracloak out and your opponent just knocks it out like, you know, because they're playing Starmie, so of course they did. And so I was like already starting to think about dropping because you like go, you like go to the regional and round one, you're just getting absolutely wrecked by like some deck that you don't really respect that much. You're like, it's just, it's just over. Talk about your mental being good and then you're like after one game of the first round, I'm ready to drop. Like, dude, tell me you never, you don't get like that. I never. Well, okay, Worlds 2014 or sorry, Worlds 2024. Maybe when I, we were playing Miraidon and my opponent flips over a Koraidon Ex. Maybe that, maybe that was 2023, right? Or 2020. Whatever. Japan. Japan. Yeah. 2023. 2023. Yeah. Anyway, no, bro, my brain, I have to. Well, that's why you see me when I play. I like, I get like hyper focused, right? Yep. I get really intense. It's because my mind wanders too much, right? I. I start daydreaming, I start thinking about stupid crap. So I start thinking negatively about myself and about like the run. So like I need to, I need to lock in extra hard so that I don't start, you know, wandering away mentally. But yeah, we end up coming back games two and games three. So that's, that's a freaking dub. And then I play against an Alakazam deck that plays the Rabsca, the Genesect and Psyduck all three. So they and the force of vitality to set the Rabs and the fans. Yeah, this and the fans, dude. I'm just saying like I really got away with murder on game one because I was able to sneak out of win game one. But game two, game one took like 30 minutes, right? And I like barely won. So game two was like, I'm not gonna scoop game two, bro. Like I have to try and win this thing because it was like kind of a long drawn out game too as well of course. But like he just drew out of the unfair stamp when I stamped him and, and it's like, okay, well you know, had you not then I win, but you did, so I lose. So that's just kind of how that one went. And then game three just didn't have enough time. Then I played against Brad Curcio in like so like when you're 10 and 1, you're like, okay, maybe since I've got a tie, like I'm not gonna face any like, you know, stone cold killers next round, right? And then like I just do, right? I just play against Brad Curcio who's like a regional champion. He's like finished in the top 16 of the US player base. Before just like was a real grinder like pre pandemic 2016 to like 2019 was like a big, big tournament grinder who tested and played with some of the best players in the game back then. So then I'm like playing him in like a straight, you know, just a pulp mirror and he's playing pull hammers and I'm like, okay, here, here's a real test of how this is going to go. And game one, I literally don't get a dreepy down like before item lock comes down and it's just like, it's one of those like you lily to eight and there's no buddy buddies, no, no nothing. And you're like, yep, that's just an elf, right? And there's like no amount of deck building can fix that. You're like, that's just an L, right? So like you just lose that one. And then game two things just got away from me. I mean like I, I, at this point in the tournament, I'm still not sure whether first or second is correct in the pulp mirror. I have come to the conclusion that second is correct. I think second is Correct too, bro? Yes, second is correct. But. But that was not before this event. There was still a lot of up in the air about it. I mean, is there everybody that I talked to? Is. Is there. Is that the consensus now? Because I feel like I was. Yes. I was going crazy saying, you go second so that you can get, you know, you have meowth access. You can go get, you know, lilies and, like, see that extra, you know, you were inflicting the item lock. Yes. Yep. Okay. Second is better. That's the consensus from every good player that I talked to at this event because I. I felt like I was crazy, bro. Me and Brad had the table conversation where both of us are joking about. No one knows, like, what the better, but we're like. But having, like, the honest conversation because we're both like. Like, we're experienced, like, played forever. So, like, we're having honest conversations at the table about, like, what's better? Because we know it's early on in the event. You know, whoever wins this one, wins this one. But, like, we're going to. Either way, we're going to have to go on and, like, you know, play good Pokemon the rest of the day to have a good run. So, like, we're having an open conversation about what's better, first or second. Right? And I think, like, both of us kind of like, second more, because when I'm down game one, I'm like, I'm choosing second because I'm trying to, like, get in the game and have like a. And have a real shot. And getting to play the supporter gives you a smoother ride to do that. But then all of the mirrors that I ended up playing, and I played some pretty good players in the mirror. I played against Nick Robinson, his 2016 US national champion. I played against Isaiah Cheville, who's a good player as well. So, like, after talking with all them, and then not only talking with all them, but then after talking with Justin Neudorf, who I happen to introduce myself to and get to chat with for a moment. Justin Neudorf said that going second is absolutely correct, but Justin Neudorf said that coming into today, he thought going first was correct, and he was choosing that for a while, and that halfway through the day, he determined that that was incorrect and that second is actually correct. Yes. Okay. But he came to that realization, like, mid tournament today or, like, you know, at Indy. I think many of us were, sure, sure. Yeah. That's so funny because, like, on TCG Live, you're like, I don't Know, like, you're not playing a best of three with anybody. See, that's why you need to track your stats on something like training court dot app. And then you can see the win percentages going first and second. Because I was doing kind of that same thing. It's like. And I was looking back at my stats and I'm like, I am about 50% win rate going first and then in the mirror specifically, and then, you know, bumping that to like 65% going second. It just is crazy. It is crazy. And it's so, for me, second. It's correct. It is correct. I know Tord said first in his metaphy class. That's where a lot of that was coming from. It is because my chatters were all telling me towards this. That gets around, you know, But I think that that, that did not age well. I do not think that that's correct. So. So yeah, the. The mirror goes atrocious against Brad Curcio and I'm like, wow, I'm. I'm set to have an absolutely terrible day. I can't win the mirror with this list that I've brought. So, like, sure, whatever, man. Go. My one, one and one record. We'll see how it goes from here. Then I play against Hydrapple and I'm immediately relieved that I have the Dusk Roar in my deck. It allows me to create some, like, really crafty plays. You can math out the Meganium really well. You can math out the Hydrapple really well. You can knock out a Meowth so easily with a Dusknoir and a Snipe. I mean, it's just awesome, right? It flips that matchup. It does. It flips it up. It felt straight up. It felt slightly favored with the dust nor it felt. It should be. Yeah, it should be crazy. It was. It was. But it was still scary. I will say, like, not a comfortable favor, but favored. I won two. Oh, but like, every one of those, like, both of our games were these crazy, like, I would do like this nuts play where, like, I'd punish him with an unfair stamp for like taking a cheap knockout on Badoo and absolutely, like, destroy his board, right? And then like, he'd like stamp me back, build up a Hydrapal out of nowhere and like, knock out my dragapult and I'm like, holy crap. Right? Like, oh, my God. So there were some very high velocity plays happening in those games. But again, it was like, things, you know what won me that set was the Blood Moon. Dude. Nice. Okay. I was going to Ask because you. You opted to include that in the list and I. That's something that I don't necessarily agree with. But again, this is your brew and you really liked, you know, the Ursaluna Latius combo, similar to how we had it in, you know, past formats. So you're saying that, yeah, the Ursaluna was pulling its weight. Oh, it won me that matchup just straight up because, like, when your dragapults are getting fried like that, you know, the. Keeping the energy on board is just very difficult when they're chasing it down every single turn. So when it comes to, like, the make or break play at the end of the game, not having to have two energy on a dragapult to like, Boss KO win was crazy. I could just go like Dust Nor Pop with, you know, with a Blood Moon game, zero energy needs if I put them to one prizes. So, like, that play was nuts against any deck that plays like, like Ex Pokemon, basic Ex Pokemon that, like, the Blood Moon is just absolutely insane. So that felt good. I felt very reassured playing the Dusknoir against that deck. Then I played against Pulp Blaziken and got another huge confident boost because I was able to win. And in game one, I just board wiped him, which was like, awesome because he wasn't able to get the Badoo going during his turn. So that just opens the door for me to go rare. Katie Dusknoir. Like, I item locked him. He wasn't it. I'm locking me because he went first. Right. I went second. Exactly. So, like, he went first and just had like two drippy pass and I go second and I start item locking. He, like, evolves into two Drew Cloaks. But there's like, no way you're getting Beau. Right. Like, under item lock, you're not finding the one of Badoo in your deck or the two of Bidoo in your deck. Right. Like, it's. You're not going to find it and be able to retreat into it. So, like, once I start inflicting the item lock and there's no Badoo on your board, I could pretty much say, like, okay, I'm going to set up my Dust Norse and I'm just going to destroy your board. And so when you're the one inflicting item lock when your opponent isn't, it gives you the flexibility to be able to do that. Use your rare candies and blow up their board. So, like, I board wiped them on, like turn three. Yep. Like, before the Dragon Pulse came into play, like, I. I knocked out like, it was like a. Two dracloaks and a. And a chicken in one turn. I just took three prizes. One turn, one. And then in game two, he sets up an extremely scary board because I'm talking with him and he's like, I think I gotta choose to go second. Yeah, dude, we're all having the same conclusion, right? So I choose to go second. And he sets up this really intimidating board to my, like, very kind of anemic looking board because I freaking went first. And. And he's got, like a blaziken. He's got, like two monkey dory, all this stuff, and I have to go for this, like, hail Mary play. After he takes, like, this huge knockout, knocking out, like, both my Dracloaks, right? He, like, takes the double knockout. Knock out both your cloaks on the bench. Exactly. Like, I got a single dragon ball and he just cleared my dracloaks. So, like, I have to unfair stamp and hope for, like, psychic energy. Boss to, like, try and stick the blaziken. That's all I could. Because that's all I could do. It's like, try to stick the blaziken. So I find the. I get the unfair stamp. I fez and I fez into boss, and I boss up the Blaziken, and I'm like, all right, we'll see if it sticks. And he didn't find the energy. So, you know, he only had one recon directive because I was able to knock out the other one and he wasn't able to. Wasn't able to get it. So the Blaziken stuck. Took a three prize turn. The following turn, just one. So that felt good. It felt like I. I really didn't know that the blaziken, like, sticking the Blaziken was even a strategy if it wasn't for you guys talking about that in the chat. Oh, it's a fat. It's a fat guy, dude. Yeah, it just. Huge. That fixed it. That fixed the matchup for me. I mean, it literally won me that game. So that was cool. Just knowing that I was like, you know, I'm back against the wall. We're going to try and stick the Blaziken, just see if it works. And it did. So that was. That was crazy. The mega lopunny deck again, just another Dusknoir win, right? So at this point, it's like every matchup that I'm facing, I'm like, cool. I'm using Dusknoir effectively. I'm using Dusknoir effectively. I'm using rare candies effectively. These all feel amazing to hit, like, back to back to back. So. Yep, that was awesome. The megalo punny, like, obviously you could just like pop the megalopony. Game one, he prized his psyduck, so I never saw it, but the game two, he whipped out the psyduck and I'm like, oh, this is getting like a little more sketch. And you know, I have to. You have to like, just play thoughtfully around the psyduck. It's actually not that bad. It's. Well with the risk. This is why you have to play Risky Ruins, because you can just have to play Risky Ruins. The monkey. Because you just do six to it. Yeah, you do six to it and then you Risky Ruins monkey it and then blow something up dust north. So like it. That's why the Risky Ruins is like so important because you just cannot deal with psyduck without it. Like, you have to take multiple phantom dives to not. Well, the thing is, if you can't knock out the psyduck during your turn before you attack, then that always gives your opponent the option to night stretcher or bring it back. Right? Sure. So, like, if you do double phantom dive to knock outside, they could just nice stretch or bring it back. Yeah. I mean, I guess the. The argument there is like, right, you just. You just stamp them on that turn, you know, because either they're. They're hitting into your dust nor and you have the damage to monkey back, or they're knocking something else out and then you just knock out the. But it's so much better to be able to do it and stamp them. It's so much better to give your opponent no play around. Yes. Yeah, agree. You give them no play. With Risky Ruins, you give them no play. I am not. I mean, the other. The other argument that I might throw out there is like, let's say you were playing the Watchtower. I have to imagine that Watchtower is pretty good against the Dunsparce decks, you know, so they. They're. They're giving you, you know, it's, it's. It's. I. I understand where you're coming from. Absolutely. I do think Risky Ruins, you know, there's nothing wrong with playing that, you know, Is it better than the Watchtower? I'm not sure. Well, I won without the Watchtower. Heck yeah, man. Hecky Ruins, the Risky Ruins is better versus more decks. So I would say the Watchtower is good, but it is. Is it a 100%? I need this card to win the Matchups. Like, no. I would say no. So that's why I didn't play it. Then I get paired into Crustle, and in my mind, I'm like, okay, Crustle, cool. You know, I'll use my dusknoir. Oh, my God, dude. Like, no, it's actually miserable because in game one, he actually. I'm, like, working. You see the dust nor coming from a mile away. It's not like, you know, I have to, like, crisp into it and, like, attach to it. It, like, actually start attacking. Yeah, he's. He's probably playing a list that's. That's more built to beat the dust nor because the crispins allow him to actually, like, attack on the turn on the side. Oh, yeah. So he's, like, miserable. Like, he gunned my thing down, dude. Exactly. He literally. He literally played Switch and, like, bossed up my dust nor and attacked it before my dust Nor could attack him. So, like, in game one, I couldn't believe it. I was like, dude, your puzzle just hit my guy first. Like, are you kidding me? Like, so I lost that game because it's like, there's not really anything I could do. Like, you hit my. I don't have enough recursion to bring the dust or back, like, three times. Yeah. And I don't have enough energy to really power it up twice. Right. So, like, it. So I lost game one, and game two actually was extraordinarily tilting because I'm actually kind of smoking him in game two because he has, like, a little bit of a slow start because he opens the dwebble instead of opening. A king is gone. So, like, he's kind of going through the motions in the first couple turns. Sure, sure. And then. And then I am able to chase down. He's got a two energy cross soul on the bench, and he's got a growing energy on it too. Right. So it's got 170 hit points. And then I'm able to bench Monkey under risky ruins, move the energy, move the damage over with a dark and actually boss, and knock it out with Dusknor for 150, plus the 20 for monkey. Perfect math. Knock out his 2 energy crustle, leaving him with no energy on board. I was like, I win this game 100%. Like, this is the one that we win. And then I have to, like, chew through the Kangaskhan while he's, like, building up a new. A new crustle, Right? And he brings up the car. He brings up the crustle and is able to, like, swing into my dusknoir for like 120. So the one opening that I have is that my opponent's crustle, the new crustle, does not have a mist energy on it. So I'm like, okay, I have 120 damage Dusknoir. Instead of swinging, letting it die, I'm gonna blow up the dust nor for 130, right? And then I'm gonna promote my monkey, and I'm gonna confuse this thing because it's his last Pokemon in play. Last one. I have one prize remaining. This is it. Like this. You cannot bench anything else. So I'm like, I'm gonna. And this, this crustle does have the heroes cape on it. So it's got 250 hit points because if it didn't, I just win, you know? So, like, whatever. It's got the heroes cape on it. So I pop it for 130. But before I do that, I monkey Dory 30 damage over to it, right? I use the damage that's on my dust nor monkey 30 over, pop it for 130, right? So that's 160. And then I bring up monkey dory and I mine Bend for 60. 220. Guess what he does got to be the Bianca's. The Bianca's devotion. I have never seen that card. I was looking at the, the amount of tilt that I had when he slammed the Bianca's devotion on his 220 damage crustle, bro, that like, I, I, I nearly tilted off the face of the earth. I was like, wait, wait, hold up. He just did it so fast. I was like, let me read that, bro. I was like, wait, wait. How much damage was even on your guy? He's like, it was 220. I'm like, are you sure, bro? Like, are you sure this worked? And it like, I did the math in my head again, and I was like, yeah. Oh, my God. It just felt like I was being. It felt like I was being scammed. I just felt like I was. You got memed on for sure. Well, insult to injury, I'm still in a great spot. He's got a confused freaking crustle, right? So I'm like, I'm still not out of it. Then he flips heads to knock out my monkey with the confused crustle. That's tough. And so, like, now I just lost the 3 energy on dusknoir. I just lost my 2 energy on my monkey. And you fully healed your guy. So I'm like, okay, I could still do this. I just need to power up a drecloak and start Swinging at it. Right? Sure. And hope that he flips a tails or two. Right, sure. But then he uses petrol and guess what he finds off the petrol? The jumbo ice cream. No, bro. The festival grounds. Because Mist energy doesn't heal a confused Pokemon, of course, but the festival grounds does. So he petrols for festival grounds to heal confusion and wins the rest. So like, yeah, man, I mean I got completely scammed. If he flips tails on that, I'm like very confident that I win because I still had enough like night stretchers to bring back and rare candy another dust storm to play. So I had another 130 damage coming to this thing. And if like my monkey gets to swing more than once, like I'm feeling pretty good. Sure, sure. But man, yeah, so I just got absolutely bodied there and that was like pretty. That was pretty crushing, right? Because like I'm already like, I'm starting to like finally build myself out of the like trenches and then to just get like freaking crustled in the middle of like your ascent. It felt pretty bad. But I did know that there was pretty much nothing with the deck that I had that was going to be able to do more than I did. I really gave him a run for his money in game two. But it still was just such an unfavorable matchup that we like couldn't overcome it. And then I did feel somewhat validated by my loss to Crustle. Watching Rahul get second place at it, you know, with it. Sure. The tournament, I was like, oh well, Crustle actually was just a kind of a crazy call, a bit of a different play. But yeah, I think, you know, a lot of that is like a lot of people were cutting dead on sparse ex. Right. The, the popular US parlance was not to play that card. Maybe saw more play in Europe and so yeah, I think the rise of Crustle is. Is pretty obvious there for this metagame. But talk to me about round eight. That must have felt amazing going against festival lead for the winning dude in my winning into day two. So like at this point I had back to back win and insta day two, right. And then I play against Crustle and I'm like freaking just whatever, man. Like this sucks, bro. You know, I haven't made a day two this year. Well, it's only my third regional of the year but really I'm kind of just getting back into the swing of things. I'm like, I really like to just break through and just get this monkey off my back. Just like get back into day two. Would be my first time in day two since, I guess, since Nat Naic last year. Yeah. So, like, love to just get this monkey off my back. And I play against Festival Lead and I. I just kind of sigh a sigh of relief. Like, this is a good matchup, but the Dust Norris, like, there's not a lot you could do about it. You know, all I have to do is kind of get rolling. And to be perfectly honest, the Latius is also just, like, really good in this matchup because what the Latius allows you to do is just put it down, right? And then when your opponent, like, knocks out maybe a badoo or like a dreepy, and then they go to attack a second time, you could promote a monkey and then you could free retreat it, like, to the next thing. Right. You like lot. Or you could promote Latius, who could just soak a hit and then you free retreat it to the next thing. Now the problem with kind of like promoting just a random guy to soak a hit when you're not playing Latius is that then you're like, either wasting an energy to retreat it or like, whatever, but with Latius, like, you actually just can send up those walls kind of like willy nilly, and it really helps. So that matchup was especially good for the list that I brought. So that was my winning end into phase two. So I was really stoked about that. That was just a nice, breezy kind of dub. And then I play against the 2016 US National Champion Nick Robinson. Round number nine, last round of day two. It is pulled hammers. So I kind of get another crack at Pult Hammers, and we end up having another really good discussion about first or second being optimal. Right. Because he's able to win game one going second, and then I'm able to win game two going second. So, you know, he was asking, we were talking about it while I was choosing, and I'm like, I'm going to choose to go second. I feel like. I just. I just feel like it's better. I get a chance to be the one inflicting item lock. I feel like I'm the one that gets to take control of the game. And then I won game two. And so then he's like, okay, I think I'm choosing second for game three. And we were kind of like learning there in the heat of it. Game three ends up being absolutely insane. I play out of my gourd and I'm like, I'm on the back foot. I am the one getting kind of smoked Right. Yeah. But I make this like big gambit at the end of the game where like my Dracloaks are getting knocked out and you can kind of like do this in the mirror when you say like, okay, it's really getting down to the wire and I'm going to basically make you choose between knocking out Dracloak or knocking out Duskull. Right. And you could just like bench the duskull at the end of the game and say like, you can't actually move that much damage. That's right. To like take up a four prize turn. So like now I'm going to bench these and just say like, if you don't deal with it, I am going to like win the following turn. Right. Because with the rare candies, they just allow you to go bang bang. And then like, I won. Right. So I did that. I was like back against the wall in like a really tough spot and you know, he's got the advantage and I'm going for like an. I'm going to unfair stamp and like bench two duskull and put the pressure on, ask the questions and see like if you could do it. And when I unfair stamp him in game three while benching my duskulls, all he needs to win is a crispin. Because I like clean. I like take the. Because I'm able to. I'm able to do this play where he didn't answer one of my duskulls. So I go rare. Can he dust nor and phantom dive the active dragon pult. Just punch it in the face for 330, right. And then I clear all his energy off the board. So, like off the unfair stamp, he like has to find Crispin, right? And he ends up like drawing out and like he's got two Crispin left in the deck. He like absolutely could have it, but he ends up whiffing it because he drew into too many energy off his festendipity. Oh, my God. So he like can't crispin. He like can't crispin for win. And then all I need is. All I need is boss's orders for game. And I am able to find counter save because he had watchtower and play. Oh, yeah. Yep. Then I just go get boss game. Congrats. Yeah, it must have felt great. It was crazy. It was crazy. Yeah. It was like a real nail biter. And especially like going into day, like being at that point where you want it, you want so badly to have six wins going to day two rather than five. Three. One. Like I saw like Sean Foisy dropped at 5, 3, 1 because he was like, I don't want to play day two with, like, five wins, bro. And, like, I get it because, like, you can't even cash. You can play. You can't even cash. You absolutely can't cash. You're playing all day for a booster. For a booster box if you, like, win out completely. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So getting that six win felt really good. I was very thrilled about that. And to get, like, kind of a redemptive win against Polt Hammers, where, like, I used to. I used Blood Moon to win one of my games. I used Dusknoir a lot in that set, and it felt really good and kind of like, okay, like, my list has a lot of play into this tough mirror match too. There are things that I can do that I could leverage about my build to, like, really compete in the mirror. So that, like, felt really good and reaffirming to win that, especially using the different pieces of my deck to come out on top. I used Latius multiple times, too. It was just like, there were situations where it just came up where, like, he would, like, think that I couldn't, like, retreat on a turn and, like, get the energy I needed for to do something. And, like, Ladius would just give me the flexibility to do that. Sure. Yeah. So that felt good. Immediately get paired into another Pole Hammers list. First day of day two, first game of game two, Isaiah Cheville. And it just game three, the magic is lost, you know, and we're having the same conversation. First or second? We both land on second. The magic kind of dried up in game three, where I just need him to, like, not have a game winning play there at the end. He's got boss for a game, and it's just. Yeah, just a tough one back and forth, but ended up taking the L. Then I play against a Pult Dusknoir mirror, which is very exciting. But again, I think just choosing to go second really helped me in that one. In those margins, being able to be consistent going second felt really good. So I was able to win that one. And then also being able to be explosive with my rare candies. As you saw, my opponent there was only having, you know, two rare candies. Having the third one allows you to do these crazy plays where you just whip up the, you know, the dragapult out of nowhere. Whip up a Dustin out of nowhere very consistently. Then I played against Flareon, which the most disgusting game of Pokemon that I think I've ever played was in game two of this Set Game one, I kind of just win handily because my opponent struggles to set up. And then game two, my opponent's setting up like, a boss, and they get a quick flareon, you know, Burning Charge, Knockout power up. They're powering up Latius. They've put two energy on Latius and benched a Lilius Clefairy. They've got, like, hoot hoots on bench, like, everything set up and ready to go. So I have three. I have, like, three Dreepy in play. That's it. Because, like, they went first and got a turn two Burning Charge. So, like, I have three Drippy. That's all I have, right? Like, the board is. Our board's already looking crazy. So I promoted Drippy with one fire energy, and I attach a psychic energy to it, and I play unfair stamp, right? I unfair stamp into rare Kitty Dragapult Lily. So then I go rare kitty Dragapult, you know, and lily myself to eight cards. I set up double Duskull and I swing for 200 damage into Flareon, right? And I sprinkle damage counters all over my opponent's bench. Sure. Put them to two cards. Nothing. They couldn't even attack because the flarehounds kind of retreated too. I know. So, like, they couldn't attack with Latius, they couldn't attack with Clefairy. They didn't find Noctowl. So they just have to burning charge my dragapult again and I win that following turn. Of course, all six prizes. Of course you do. I use rare candy Dusknoir, blow up the Flareon, Then I use Dusclops to knock out an owl that I had set up. Then I used boss's orders to bring up Latius Ex, which has one damage counter that I had placed from Phantom Dive. And I knock it the other hoot Hoot out with Phantom die for game as a six prize turn. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the only archetype that can really, you know, that can do that pretty reliably, right? Getting all that damage on from the dust store, it feels so good. So good, dude. I just. The way that you're like. I'm, like, looking at it, I'm like, yeah, I win the double. The double the dopamine hit. When you realize that you have it all, it's just. It's just. Just. Just turned three guys out of this world. Yeah. Yeah. And then my final round against Jose Marrero, I thought he'd be playing some sort of Turbo deck, because those are the kinds of decks that he likes, and he's playing Ethan's typhlosion, which I was not expecting. And honestly, I thought this was kind of going to be a dog walk matchup, and I win game one handily. So, like, I'm like, all right, yeah, you know, we're in there. Let's go. Top 64. Like, I, you know, win this one, and I get a really respectable finish. Like, let's go. Let's just put it in here. This is a good matchup with the Dust Norris. Like, I'm feeling very confident. And then game two, he just spanks me, dude. Like, he just gets all four. Ethan's into the discard pile very quickly. Going first. He, like, gets a. I start Latius, which I'm pretty comfortable with because Latius is free. Retreat. And I'm like, okay, like, you know, I'll just pivot to, like, my dragapult. I don't know, on, like, turn two or something. You're right. Like, because I'm going second. Sure. So, like, I'll pivot into a turn two dragapult and start putting on pressure with a rare candy or something. So I just, like, leave my Latius in the active so that I can, like, go into a turn two dragapult, and he gets the turn two, three. Ethan's in the discard pile. Rare candy typhlosion, knockout on my Latius, and I'm like, oh, my God, this is. That's crazy, man. Yes. And kind of just, like, rolls me that game. But then in game three, I noticed that he prizes one of his Ethans, right? So he. He gets a quick typhlosion. He prizes one of his Ethans, and that's big because he plays redeemable ticket, right? And takes a knockout on an ex Pokemon. So he's, like, cooking, right? And he uses redeemable ticket to put the final Ethans at the bottom of his deck. And I know it's at the bottom of his deck. And he's got two quilava in play. And this turn, I'm like, okay, I lose. If he gets that last. Ethan's in the discard pile. I lose because he's got a good board. He's got Dracloak in play, and he's, like, drawing and all that. All he needs is Bengal and, like, Victini, and that's like, a instant knockout on a dragonfall with. With the four Ethans in the discard pile. So I'm like, okay, I have to prevent him from getting the fourth. Ethan's in these in the discard pile. So I pop a dusclops on his bench quilava boss up the other quilava and knock them both out. And I'm like, do you just have to not have that? Four seasons in the discard pile and I frickin win. And he like is digging. He's like fezendipity draw three. He's going, you know, Dracloak recon directive. Recon directive. He like doesn't find it right. And then he's like okay, I have to Cynthia or I have to Lily's determination for it. So like Lily's determinations and like draws the six cards and he's like I just needed ultra ball because he found the Ethan's off the thing. But he didn't have ultra ball or secret box to discard it because either one of those gets it for him. I know. So like I. I barely get away with it. He's not able to want to kill my dragonfall and then I just win from there. So. Man, that's how close, right? That's so close. Crazy one. Crazy one. So. Well that's. I mean that's a good. Yeah, that's a Good finish, man. 51st. That's you know, and especially for a deck that probably even you would admit, like you're a bit under practiced with. Right? Like heading in, you know, I don't think you would say that you were an expert by any means, but 51st place, that's. That's a great spot to you know, respectable finish like you're talking about. Yeah, no, I'm really, I'm really stoked on it. Like now it's not my best finish ever, but like it's super solid, you know. Do you. Are you. Is this. That's like a 100 points, 80 points. Can you get. Can you still do. Can you still get ace training? I. I missed ace trainer by 30 points. Yeah. So that's a cup top four. I know, but cups are over. No, no, no. You actually have two more weeks. Natalie told me cups are over. I thought cups ended when Naic hit. I thought so too, but I think they might be over already. They're over. Dune has no cups. Yeah. Oh, I must have looked at July. I must have looked at the wrong thing then I thought, I mean it doesn't matter for me, but yeah, if I could go to. Yeah, it wasn't 30 points. I would love to get a shoot, dude. Yeah, you should have just gone to like one more comp. I guess missed out on 100. Well, I didn't think that I was gonna be going for ace trainer this year. Right. You know? Yeah. I guess I'm closer than I thought. I should have played out one of those regionals that I dropped, but. Oh, well. Dang. Dang. Oh, well. Oh, well, indeed. Okay. Well, congratulations, Andrew. Thanks. It was fun. It was fun. It was fun. And I do truly believe that Dragon Pulse is the best deck and format. I think it'll still be the best deck and format. Come, Naic. I think that. Okay. Obviously, Alakazam won. All right, you want me to address the elephant in the room? Let's do it. Yeah. We got to get to it, man. We got to get to it. Congratulations, Caris. I'm so proud of. You Did a great job. You had a great Alakazam deck. Brilliant medical for the event. Absolutely amazing. Yeah, the list was awesome. I just want to. I just want to highlight this, too. Yeah, you were wrong. You were wrong. And. And it's. And it's, like, really fun to, like, just. Just have the egg on your face, because not only did Alakazam top eight, you know, not only did it get to the finals, like, this won the tournament, you know, it. It beat, you know, this deck. Like, Charis beat a ton of Dragapult on the weekend, obviously. Oh, yeah. And I just want to highlight, you know, for those that haven't seen the list, a couple of things here. The LGM is. Is big. The Nighttime Mine is. Is huge for the Dragon Ball matchups, and being able to win that stadium war is a really big deal. Right. Attacks used by each Terror Pokemon play cost a colorless more. Obviously, Dragapult is really banking on only having to allocate two energy to attack. You got the Knight of the Handheld fan to combo with the Nighttime Mine. I mean, there's just a lot of things that are really frustrating for Dragapult to deal with. You got the Genesect, which is annoying. Psyduck. Obviously, would be annoying for. For Dusknoir. So a lot of things in this list to combat Dragapult. Oh, yeah. And I know because I played against a Alakazam deck with, like, similar text in it. I mean, with the Rabs go as well, obviously. No Nighttime Mine. The Nighttime Mine would have been disastrous. But, yeah, I mean, playing against an Alakazam, that's, like, kind of teched out for you. Feels bad. It does feel bad. So huge props to Karras for kind of figuring out how to win those games in the margins against Dragapult containers consistently and not Just that. But also carrying good matchups against everything else with the energy Denial, the Dedenny, the lgm. I mean just coming out swinging with those techs for those special energy. Being able to remove those. We saw obviously beat Rahul in the finals. Dude, being able to remove the mist energy. Right. And there was no hope for the missed energy. The missed energy were always going to get removed because of the double enhanced hammer and the Algum and the handheld fans and the Dedenny. Like those energies are just not going to. Yeah. So yeah, just an absolute nightmare matchup for Rahul playing an all special energy Crustal. Well, okay, I suppose one basic fight fighting but predominantly special energy crustle deck into a deck that has a way to recover 2 crushing or 22 enhanced hammer. I mean it is. It is pretty crazy. Yeah. Crustal as the second place finisher. Rahul of course, Justin Nudorf, we talked about him earlier, got some top four at this event as well. And then Kira Melville, a name I don't recognize, but getting top four with Dragapult. So congrats to her. Carrison and Kira, both. Both in top four here of this event. Very fun to see Dragapult absolutely dominating. You have the top two finishers, but then three through eight, all Dragapults. Yeah. Right. I mean it's, it's. It's no surprise here. I mean we are in Dragapult's world and I mean, yeah, I think like the, the sooner you come to terms with the fact that Dragapult is the best card pool to build the deck out of, the happier you'll be. There are other decks that you could play, but they all must be 100 reactive to Dragapult's dominance. You better be playing a deck that is built specifically to answer Dragapult. That is the world you're living in. Do not try to have any whimsy in your heart. Do not try to play the deck that you think is silly, like Festival Lead or whatever that like maybe could sometimes be Dragpole. Don't even be like Jesse Parker and play Honchkrow. Because you think it could be Dragapult sometimes. No, it cannot. Stop playing your silly decks. Get real. You know, be like. Be like Charis. Be like Rahul. Play the decks that just actually beat Dragapult as proven by their finals run. Right. Because they both had to just march through an army of Dragapult to get there. Exactly, exactly. And it's not even just like, oh, I can. I think I can beat Dragon or It's like a 50. 50 matchup. Right. It's like, it almost feels like you have to be, you know, 70, 30, you know, 90, 10 into Dragapult. If you're really 50 to Dragapult, it better be a mirror dog. I was gonna say, if you're. If you're taking a 50, 50 into Dragapult, like, you're. That's not actually a good matchup for you. No. It could only be the mirror. That's the only one that you're allowed to, like, run is a 50. 50 to Dragon Ball. There's the only hero you're allowed to choose. Crazy man. 43, day two. 43, day two. Yeah. Just wild stuff. Absolutely wild stuff. How do you think with the, you know, finals, how the finals shaped up Crustal against Alakazam? Obviously two counter decks to drag a pult. I think Crustal probably is a bit more of a, you know, of a medical. Right. You definitely have to have. Have a certain metagame for that. Right. The Dragon Ball decks can't be playing to dunsparce. You know, there are certain other, like, meta game factors that make Crustal either a really good or really bad play. But Alakazam, like, give me some thoughts on how Keras winning with Alakazam and specifically, like, how this build is formed. The Alakazam deck was made. Like, give me some thoughts on how that carries over into the next couple of tournaments. Because we have one tournament in Turin this week, and then it's Naic, and then that's the season. Right. So, yeah. What are the effects of this? You know, I'm a little bit of an Alakazam hater, but I cannot deny what my eyes saw this past weekend. And I think Kara's kind of figured it out. Karis figured it out because she figured out how to make the deck beat the things that it has trouble beating. Figured out how to make your opponent slow down to your pace as the Alakazam deck and let you control the pace of the game. Right. And Karras was calling it Alakazam control because you are controlling the pace of the game. You're slowing your opponent down. And you're saying, I don't need to take like the fastest big one hit kos. I can actually just take them on my own time. And I think, like, retooling the deck to do that makes it so much stronger because you don't have to be the fastest deck to in the format. You don't have to try and race your opponent down. You can actually disrupt them. So I do think that obviously the big existential threat to Alakazam is the special red card which comes out in the Chaos Rising expansion. And special red card cannot be stopped by Genesect. So that is maybe kind of a tough thing for Alakazam to deal with because your opponent could play two special red cards if they wanted to really check you as an Alakazam player. Now maybe they play one special red card, one judge, and that frees up their ace Spec to be kind of whatever other ace Spec they may want in their deck. And I think that a spec flexibility is going to be a big thing. Another thing worth noting though is that Alakazam can also use the special red card. So if Alakazam wants to have some one sided hand disruption, Alakazam could play that well. Not something that it really had access to before. And just just to highlight that. Yeah, I agree with you. Right. It's like there is, there is that flexibility on the a spec choice what we saw out of Japan and that initial tournament of this format where Alakazam, I think it was either second or first. I think it won. Yeah, I won that tournament. They played airy as a way to. Yeah, to remove that. Yeah, to remove them. Right. And so I could also see that here too where you're, you're maybe playing like a slower Alakazam, right. And you're just setting up for a good area to at least either remove the stamp or the, or the, the red card. Right. And then you're only dealing with, you know, maybe one form of hand disruption. And so anyway, so there is like counterplay that Alakazam has to kind of what you're talking about here with the special red card for sure. Right. So Alakazam could continue to be an existential threat. It is of course a deck that can be teched against as well, but it is more of a high risk choice to dedicate deck spots to teching against Alakazam when it is a deck that is maybe less than 5% of the metagame. Right. Like for me, I was kind of upset that I hit it Alakazam in round two. I was like, what are you, are you kidding me? This deck is non existent. Why am I up against Alakazam? But like, why shouldn't Alakazam be higher? Because it's a little inconsistent. I mean when you evolve, you draw cards. That's like, yeah, but your deck doesn't play. Lily, my guy. Yeah, but you got dawn. You go dawn to draw. Meow. I don't care, dude, I don't care. The dragapult deck barely functions and it plays four ultra ball four Lily and Meowth. Okay. And it plays the best draw engine in the game. I. Dude, I don't care, bro. Like I'm telling you, not having Lily is extremely sus. So what do you think? What do you think the dragapult decks do now against Alakazam? Because like this, this tournament, you know, the. The hyperbolic reaction is to just say Dragapult's the only deck except for Alakazam, right? So like now it's kind of like a duality. Right? So then how does dragapult accommodate for Alakazam? Is it like freaking judging your deck? Playing more stadium? You're just talking about special red card is the only thing you can do. Like is there, you know, is there, is there anything else? I think, you know, the four nighttime mine is really concerning. I think probably three stadium is an obvious, obvious include for the Dragon Ball decks. Do we see them play something like 06 to limit the hand as well? Like yeah, you could play a card like 06. Catch him slipping with the 06. Why not? Right? Like, like put a tech card in there, you know, I mean, dragapult lists frankly have been kind of boasting with how much space they have for fun activities. I could play a 1:1 to Dunsparce in my deck. I could play Crushing hammers. I could play, you know, God forbid they actually have to, you know, allocate some spots to dealing with your tough matchups. They could play a tool scrapper. They could play a third stadium most definitely. Right. And I think that the stadium of choice, obviously you've got rockets Watchtower, but I also think that you kind of need a risky ruins in order to deal with the Psyduck. If you're playing Pultener. I do think the Pultener is better into Alakazam than straight Dragapult. So I think bringing the Dusk nor along helps considerably with the matchup. It allows you to knock out the Genesects. It allows you to knock out a bench Kadabra and the active Alakazam or knock out your opponent's support Dudunsparce, you know, and it allows you to just take these multiprise knockouts that you otherwise otherwise wouldn't be able to take and really attack your opponent's board state aggressively. So it allows you to end the game faster too, which is what you want, right? You don't want your opponent to have that opportunity to take a two prize knockout to win. You want to take an additional Prize card during their turn and then win. Right. Like so that's what the Dusk Nor allows you to do that on that turn where your opponent would win for taking two prizes. You could allow that turn to never happen with Dusknort by forcing them to one prize. Right, sure. So I think that there are certainly things that you can include in your deck that would help. And for me it's like, okay, maybe you have to take a little bit of pressure off of your mirror teching to actually handle what Alakazam is doing. Yeah, yeah. That's interesting. Well, it'll be fun to see. Yeah. Like I said, we have two majors left on the season. We have turn regional and then we have Naic over the course of the next two weekends and that is it right. Until Worlds. So very fun to see what the effects of this are going to be, what the effects of this tournament and these builds will have. You know, obviously we are getting for Naic the new Chaos Rising set, but gotta figure Dragapult is still gonna be that, you know, 30, 40% meta share that it has been recently. So interesting stuff. Any final thoughts on your event in Indy or how it all shaped up? Nah, dude, it was sick. I'm stoked that I decided to play Dragapult instead of Honchkrow. Jesse ended up having some really bad beats playing Honchkrow. Lost many of the Dragon Pults that he played just barely. So. Which is exactly how it goes from. Well, you're on the. Yeah, you're on the Razor's Edge, right. You just can't really miss against Dragon Ball. I know he thinks that it's maybe slightly favored or 50, 50, but you just can't, you know, Dragon Bolt needs so much. He knows it's slightly unfavored. He admitted it to me. Yeah, well. But he still expects to win, you know. Yeah, it's tough spot to be. I know it's slightly unfavored. So does this mean that the world's grind is back on for you next year, Andrew? Did you get that fire lit under you? Do I. I'm not in a. I'm not in a kind of space where I will start sacrificing to try and qualify for Worlds. Just to qualify for Worlds. No. Well, that's not really though I. I do have the fire lit under me though. I am, you know, going to try and win a regional next year. That's always the goal. That's my goal now. That's my mindset. Win a regional. Right. So I am probably going to go to all the, you know, regionals in my region. I'll go to. I'll try to go to Pittsburgh. I'll try to go to Milwaukee. I'll try to go to Toronto. I'll try to go to Indy. Like, if I hit four regionals next year, like, that's a. I feel like it's a good year for me. So, you know, that gives me, like, a lot of points throughout the year to test for and to compete for. So that feels like a healthy number now, kind of depending on how those regionals are going. I don't know if, like, my four regionals of the year, my first two are looking, like, hot, then, like, maybe in the back half of the season, I go to some league cups, you know, and, like, you know, we. We put it together, but, like, it's never going to be like, I'm going for it this year. It's always going to be like, well, I'm going to four regionals this year. We'll kind of see what things are shaping up, like, in the back half, right? And that's kind of like, how I'm going to go about it, because, like, to be honest, like, how. How sustainable is it to be? Like, every year I'm gunning for it. I'm gonna. I'm gonna do it this year, every single year. Like, it's not. Well, it's a long life. You know, we got that. What, am I gonna do that every year for the next 25 years? Are you kidding me? No. So there'll be years where it makes sense, and there'll be years where it doesn't. So we're gonna kind of let the first couple events of the year determine if it's a year that makes sense or if a year that doesn't. That tracks. That tracks well. Good stuff, Andrew, once again, proud of you for repping the cast. Proud of you for the finish in. In Indie. And that'll do it for the episode. So if you want to get more plugged into Tag Team, you can find us over at x.com@realjohnwalter, for myself at enjoyfriendforandrew and tag team pokemon4 the podcast. Please make sure if you're on YouTube to like and subscribe, that helps a great deal. And follow us if you listen on Spotify. That's apparently a big metric that they're telling me. I should say to our audience, in any case, that will do it for today's episode. We thank you all so much for listening, and we'll catch you on the next one.