8-40. Festival Lead is Certified Broken

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Welcome back to Tag Team Pokemon Trading Card Games Premiere podcasting trio. My name is Riley Hulbert, joined as always by my good, good friends Mr. Andrew Mahone and Mr. J.W. crewall. And folks, today we got some fun new stuff. We got the newest card revealed from the Pokemon 30th anniversary collection. We got the Mailbag. And then we'll be talking about Hitch Black, the tier list from Pokebook, and the just general state of things as we look ahead towards the world championship and the 3K at full grip games. So lots of fun stuff today. But boys, how are you doing today? Well, I'm glad you asked, Riley. Doing fantastic. Picked my little buddy up from school today. Starting school three days a week. He's going to, you know, going to a little daycare school. It's like a preschool, pre preschool and so his first time. What kind of stuff do you learn today? Well, I think he's learning about, you know, like, like numbers and reading and painting and stuff, you know. Yeah, today I think he was like, do you know they do a lot of playing outside or like recess style stuff too, but they also, they have like a curriculum and they do like, you know, they have lesson plans, which is crazy considering my. So it's not even two yet, but it's, it's cool to see. And it's his first time being cared for by people that are not his immediate family. So there's like an adjustment period there as he gets used to that. And then also but it's only three days a week. So it's like, you know, he's very manageable. He's easing his way into it. It is, it Is. And it's every other day. So he's, you know, he still is with, you know, with our family the other days of the week. And then he's also learning. We got him a little scooter. It's got the. It's got the two front wheels and the one in the back. Yep. The. What do they call the micro scooters. Micro scooters, yes. Yeah, dude. Yeah, we got him one of those. Oh, it's fire, dude. He's like, it's. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, we got. I saw that. Like, I wasn't hit really, but then I saw that, like, one of our neighbor kids has one, and I, like, saw her kicking around on it. I was like, wait, like, he could do that. He could. Like, my son could surely do that. So we got him one of those. And then because we're like, his birthday is coming out, we're looking for things to get him, and he's gonna be two. And then my parents got him a balance bike, so he's gone. I was gonna ask about the balance bikes. Those are big now. They are big. They are. It's the right way to learn a bike. Yes. Training wheels was not it. Yeah, yeah. So a balance bike is. It's like, basically a bike without pedals, and you could sit on it and like, Fred Flintstone it. My dad was asking. He's like, so how does it, like, work? You just. Fred Flintstone, that thing? I'm like, yeah, dude. Dang, that's sweet. Yeah, so it's been. It's been. Been a lot of fun as he's getting into, you know, like, action sports now, you know? Yeah, yeah. Next. It's a skateboard, right? Oh, well, I brought my skateboard home because I figured, you know, I think he'd think it would be funny to watch me ride it, you know, while he's doing his scooter. So we'll follow somebody time. What about you guys? Dude, Fourth of July happened this weekend. Am I right? Am I right? World Cup. World cup football happened this weekend. Am I right? Pretty cool stuff, I think. I don't know. Andrew, you were watching that game, right? Oh, we played miserably. Yeah. United States is not a good soccer nation. We don't have the culture for it. No, it. The really sad thing was that this. It felt like this year, it felt like the, like. Like the hype was driven, like, so much with, like, marketing and all of that, and it just, like, we just didn't really do well at all. Right. But it really felt like that there was a ton of marketing behind this team to. To try and, like. And then you have, like, Donald Trump like, intervening for no reason and all of. All of this mess. Right? Yeah. And then. And then, like, the team is still not good because we can't just, like, you can't just flip the switch and turn the United States into a great soccer nation. That's just not how it goes. It's a generational thing. Oh, yeah, it's a generational thing. It's going to take time and a lot of effort in order for us to catch up on the world stage with where other countries are at with soccer. Parents got to care. They got to instill that care in their kids. Well, see, I don't know, though. Youth league's got to be more widespread and. And affordable. I mean, to be honest, like, in Europe and stuff, youth leagues are free. They're free soccer. But that's a cultural problem in all youth sports in America. So I don't think that's a really valid argument. We pump out plenty of good athletes. I think that for soccer, that's a part of, like, you know, soccer is played in other countries much more seriously, I think, than, like, in our country. Maybe we have the structure to support other sports more so than in other countries, but, like, it's. But for soccer, Soccer is the world's most popular sport, so making it, like, free to participate leagues, I think, just help you. It's a numbers game. You're like, you know what I mean? You're getting more kids obsessed with soccer at a very young age. And when you have such a highly competitive sport such as soccer, which is the world's most popular sports, you do have to play the numbers. You, like, have to get. And you have to start kids 2, 1. You know, they have to be ball in hand. I mean, Messi said he's. He can't remember a time when he didn't have a ball at his foot. Like, that's just what you're trying to do with your son. Well, if that's what he wants. He doesn't seem very interested in the ball. You got to take pictures with the ball now, just in case. You got to get one with every. Every potential avenue for him. I know. Well, not. Not American football. And that's another thing is that, yeah, my son is not gonna be. He's not gonna be allowed to play American football. Do brain damage, bro. It's. It's bad. You know, don't they have. Don't they have a lot of brain Damage from soccer, though, too. Like, they have. No, I'm. I'm pretty sure it's real because they have. I mean, I understand, obviously, like, football is gonna be much more contact, but. But there's a lot of shame. Yeah. Let's see. Let's see. Soccer, head injuries. Statistics. Statistics. As many as 22% of all player injuries are concussions, with reaching 8.2. That's the AI. No, it's like. It's from publication from the National Institute of Health. It's the AI overview, isn't it? In that thing? No, I'm reading the National Institute of Health, concussions and soccer are currently. Oh, you are. JW is on the AI overview? No, well, yeah, of course. Of course. Yeah. But it's pulling from. It's pulling from sources. It's pulling from sources. Anyway, I just. I don't think you can give. Give soccer a free and clear pass. So I'm trying to say it's getting. It's getting the pass. I'm just saying somewhere. The line exists somewhere, and it exists somewhere between soccer and American football. Okay, that's. I'm just telling you that's. The line is somewhere in there, you know, and hockey. That. That one. Hockey. Actually, you're more likely to get a concussion playing hockey than you are playing American football, but at least you're getting concussion. Letting, like, a fight. And it's not because. It's because. It's not because, like, each individual game, you're more likely to get concussed playing football, but there are more hockey games per season than there are football games per season. So you're more likely to get concussed in a season of hockey than you are in a season of football. Sure. Interesting. That makes sense. Yeah. But anyways, I mean, like, whatever he wants to do, just probably not. Not American football, though. Yeah, that one's off the table. But then I think that's going to be a huge issue for American football in its next 100 years, is that youth football numbers are way down. And obviously the studies are kind of out showing CTE and brain damage and stuff like that. That comes with playing it. So, yeah, it's kind of like an existential issue for the sport in general. The NFL is clearly trying to figure that out as they expand into different countries, because they're like, okay, well, we develop youth leagues in other countries, we'll have a wider PO to draft our gladiators. I mean, players from. And then then also, you know, we're experimenting with flag football. Is this watchable Will people tune in? Will people watch it? I think the answer is probably no. So, like, yeah, they're trying to figure it out. I feel like it's basically impossible to reconcile, to be honest. That's what I'm saying. A huge part of it is watching big, meaty dudes, like, slam into each other. You know? That's what I'm saying? And, like, if you're not going to have that, then what's even the point? That's what I'm saying. So we got to start getting good at soccer. Well, your son may be part of that, though. That's what I'm. Maybe. Maybe he will. Right now, it's hard to get him to focus on the ball. You know, I'm telling him he wants to be messy. He's going to have to. He's going to have to really start showing that drive right now, dude. Right? Yeah, but he's. Messi knows when to lock in and when. When to hang back. Okay, maybe there's some of that going on. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe he actually is channeling messy by just not paying any attention and not exerting any effort whatsoever until the precise. Until the critical moment. Yeah. Come on. Come on. We get to watch Messi score. There's also another major sports tournament happen. Yeah, I. I don't know how many concussions happen in tennis, but I can't imagine too many. I. I think few concussions, but probably many debilitating arm injuries. Tennis elbow. Well, honestly, the pros don't get tennis elbow that much because tennis elbow is mostly you. You have bad form and, like, use the wrong muscles, which is my problem and why I got tennis elbow really bad. But they do get a lot of wrist injuries, stuff like that. And arm pain just develops chronically. If you've ever read Andre Agassi, who dealt with a lot of pain, especially at the tail end of his career, in his autobiography, which is quite entertaining. Wimbledon's fun. Sadly, my favorite player is not playing right now because of a wrist injury. My dad played soccer his whole life through college and played college ball for University of Maryland. I mean, he's got two fake hips and two hip replacements and a knee replacement from a lifetime of playing soccer. So, I mean, it's tough. I'm pretty sure just athletics in general, like, if you play them for too long, you're destined to be cooked. Oh, for sure. Right? Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. Riley, how was your Fourth of July? It was good. We actually saw fireworks. The city put them on on the second, but then it was like, it was weird because it was like how to post a time, but there were lightning strikes. And so they did at a different time, but didn't announce it very well. So we kind of missed a lot of it, but we still saw some fireworks. And then we actually went and saw a play on the 4th of July at that same outdoor theater that I've mentioned a couple times. Nice. And that was super fun. It was called Matchmaker, and it was just like a zany. All these characters whose lives are connected and crossing paths at inconvenient moments type of situation. It's fun. Yeah. And then just built a new TV stand for our lovely home and Sick man. Yeah. Crazy. Does it get much better than that? It doesn't. You'll learn. And if, you know, you're a listener and you're out there and you think that sounds like some of the most boring stuff you've ever heard in your life. Nope. Just wait. Just wait. Well, I tried it out. Just wait. Okay, so here's another. Here's another. Riley Lore. So we got our Costco membership this weekend, which was so sick. And we mostly got it so I could buy a sound bar because the one I wanted was so cheap at Costco relative to everywhere else that it was, like, paid for the membership. And the sound bar itself is awesome because it's not just like a rectangle in front of the tv. It's actually like surround sound speakers. Beast. Wow. You guys are gonna love it. I know true audiophiles won't buy into that, but it's plenty good for me. And it's really fun having audio behind you for movies and games and stuff. Dude, Costco, Natalie and I, we go all the time. We love it. It's like an event. I mean, it's a whole thing. Yeah, it's like a whole thing. And evening activity for the grandma. The vibe being there is just phenomenal. Always, never having a bad time. Well, it's. Cause it's a gated community. Right? It's a gated community for people like us. Right. And I think that's a big. No, I'm just saying a lot of people. There's a lot of people. A lot of people shop. What's not really because it's affordable. It's like you're actually getting, like. I mean, you could save money by buying things in bulk. Right. But I do think that there's like a certain amount of, like, kind of. Yeah. Working class people who are educated like to shop at Costco because it just, you know, it's Affordable for family stuff. Just say it. But it also. Okay, I thought you were going for the classism angle, but no, no, it's, like, logistically, I mean, because, like, Natalie and I don't make a ton of money. Like, we're. We're not. Like, we don't. But I. And I don't feel like that a lot of people that shop at Costco. It's not, like, an upscale thing. I really don't. I don't think it is. I don't think Costco is an upscale thing either. I think that's what JW is trying. He called it a gated community. He's trying to. Literally. It's a gated community. Like, it's a country club. No, there's a. Yeah, it's basically a country club. I mean, technically. Okay. Yeah, yeah. The gates are pretty wide open. I'm just saying whenever I go to my Costco, they are constantly handing me free things. Okay. Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's part of the point. That's part of it. Yeah. I'm getting discounted items. Like, they. They are handing me a pamphlet of. Of things that I can buy on a discount already on top of the bulk discount that they offer. I mean, it feels very catered and geared toward me specifically. And so that's kind of. There's no one else but me who would possibly find this appealing. Yeah. Yeah. So I. I just. The. The level of care that Costco gives to me personally is. It does not go unnoticed. Let's just say. Yeah, shout out Costco for sure. I had the chicken bake, and I kept making the voice of that. The Costco kid say the chicken bake, and Jill did not like that. So you're talking about. What's his name? Costco? Chicken Bake. Chicken, yeah. Yeah. Big justice and. Yeah. And aj. Aj. Yeah. Man, that's so sick. I'm glad they're still. They're still alive. I think they bring a lot of joy to a lot of people. I feel like they kind of fell off. The Rizzlers rise has been. Well, the Rizzler kind of just completely, like, mogged them all out of existence, to be honest. But once they started making, like, collab videos with random schmucks, that's. That's how I knew they were kind of done. They kind of passed their time in the limelight. Yeah, but I mean, that maybe. That maybe is like, you know, they just need one of those videos to go super viral, and, like, they're right back in the thick of it. They're. I feel like they're done for. They're done. I don't know. Has potential. So I think. I think the Rizzler star is definitely the brightest right now. I don't even know, but like Loki. Have we talked about. Have we talked about Ashley? That. That's deep Costco guys lore. If you're digging into the ash, the Ashley Pyle. That's crazy. That's a guy who, like, has seen many Costco. That's awesome. I think there's a lot of potential there. Anyway. All right, well, should we get into it, fellas? We said this wasn't going to be a mega episode, and yet here we are. Yeah, yeah, here we are 20 minutes in. All right, let's get to it. Let's get to it. We got new cards. And by new cards, I mean one new card. That's the Jirachi Ex. A couple of attacks here. Wish granter for a colorless draw cards until you have seven in your hand and swift for three colorless. This attack's damage isn't affected by weakness or resistance or by any other effects on your opponent's active Pokemon. New card from the 30th anniversary set. Our first glimpse at kind of just a general set card. And I'm curious what you guys thoughts are here. Well, so I came across this card. If real tag team listeners know I have pretty strict social media time limits set on my phone. It's like 20 minutes a day that I can have any social media app open collectively. And I wasted precious seconds of my social media time scrolling past this on Instagram. I was like, oh, new card. Let me look at this. And by God, this card is. This might be one of the stinkiest card we've seen outside of like one of those starter decks and Lord knows how long. And I think what baffles me is why did they think. Did they think they were cooking with this Instagram post? Or wasn't it? Was an intern, like, playing a joke on us? Or like, what's the. What's the story behind this Instagram post? Right? Like, that they thought this was worth sharing. It's not the full art, you know, it's just a regular. Like, who is this for? Who scrolled past that? And it was like, that was fire. Like, more of that. I gotta repost that. Yeah, I got. I gotta go back for seconds. That one's going on my story right now. Who said that? In response to this card, it's got 160 hit points. Also, like, what the Heck, what are they thinking? I know. I was saying we needed to get a Tropical beach reprint, and this is a spit in the face of that request. I mean, absolutely. A heinous card. It's horrible. You know what. What is going on? An attack to fill your hand. Why even reveal this? Why. Why even. Like, let it just be. Excuse me. Let it just be the bulk ex in the set of no Note. Right. There are many of those. This would be like revealing Lapras Ex or whatever. Like some horrible card like that that I just can't remember what it does. Right. Yeah. Is there even a Lapras Ex? I think there is, yes. Like Lapras. Yes. Yes. This would be like revealing a Lapras. Exactly. No, there's another. A non terra one which is even less of note. Dude, that's the one I'm referencing. I mean, we need to take this card to pimp my card and, like, make some changes here. I think that the I. You know, this is not. This is not playable. Like, let's be. I don't even. I'm not even envisioning what the game designers could have been thinking with this card. It's got Meowth. That's. I'm saying, like, less HP with Meowth. It's got no usable text on the card. It's insane. The art is not good. Like, we're not getting. You know, they got five Band. Yeah. Intern at five Band doing this one. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Chat gbt. Make me a jirachi real quick. I mean, it's tough, right? I. I think maybe there's. There's a world where if the first attack was an ability, like, now we're talking. Yeah, now we're talking. What? Well, I'm just saying, like, that's an easy fix, of course. That maybe everything. Maybe they could take our feedback. Maybe this is what they're actually looking for, is feedback on the. Maybe that was the design notes for this card is ability wish granter. And it's like, set up for seven. And that would explain the 160. And then someone fumbled the bag, printed it as an attack. Yep. I see no use for this. It's. It's like, supposed to be tropical beach. Like, we have tropical beach at home. This is the best. This is the best we could do. It feels to me like this is a note from the game designers that we know you want tropical beach, but we cannot give it to you. And it's like, almost like a dangling it. This is your wish. Wish granted. Idiots. Dang. This is all you Get. Yeah, it's like ironic too, for the name that it doesn't actually, like, search out specific cards. It feels like a wish, maybe, or because you're just drawing off the top randomly. Like how you know my wish is going to be granted for my next turn. You don't know if your wish is to fill to seven. Okay. Well, that may. Okay. I feel like that would be a waste of a wish, though, to be. To be fair. All right. Crustle counter consistency card plus crustle counter. Okay, but not even. Right. It's. What are you gonna do? What if they print batang? What if they print some. Some card like that is really good if you're, like, behind on prizes. So you sacrifice your jirachi to drop to seven. All right, and then. And then. Okay, Jirachi can't even KO itself. Dude, stay with me. Stay with me. Okay. And then we're going to put the tool on the jirachi that gives you three cards if it gets knocked out. Oh, the amulet of hope. See it up. And you wish grant with the amulet and set up behind it. Yeah, now I see the vision. Yeah. You use the amulet of hope with the wish granter. Then you'll have 10 cards in hand, three of which you hand selected when your opponent definitely knocks this thing out. Bill also had 10 cards in hand. Doesn't touch anything. Doesn't touch anything on your bench. I can't even justify it with that. Man. That's just horrible card. Maybe this is a sign of things to come. I'm worried about that too. You know, 30th anniversary. This was the reveal. I have very low hopes for this set. No, it's going to be. I mean, but think about the 25th anniversary set. It was like flying Pikachu, Vmax. And I guess that's a world. That's a world championship winning card. First of all. First of all, iconic, like Easter egg plus world championship winning card, plus Nationals winning, like. Well, you know, Naic winning card. Like we're talking about among cards ever printed. We're talking about like an upper crust type of card. Plus I had the mew in that set. That was a very good card. That was world's runner up right in. In towards deck. Trying to think other 25th anniversary cards. That was a good. Oh, the radiant Charizard, obviously. Very good card. I don't know. That's that kind of slapped. Yeah, that set was fire for sure. I just feel like sets these days just, just aren't hidden competitively. They're just not. No, they're absolutely not. But this is the consequence of trying to unwind Power Creep. But they're not getting. The problem is that they're not getting punished. Right. It's like people are going to open this set and collect the set and hoard the set and buy the set out. And so there's maybe like the strongest argument if you were ever going to power creep back or reverse power creep of doing it now because the cards are so popular. Exactly. You should just be, you know, from a competitive aspect. Just do it now because your product is going to sell no matter what. Yeah, man. Well, if. Here's the thing, it feels like they're doing anti power creep, but then you look at how things might be post rotation, right? And you got Rayquaza and Darkrai and Absol. Like all three prizers one shotting each other. It's like, wait, this is somehow worse. Well, all you need is the single prizers to be able to trade with them and then you have a good game again. So the three prizers actually suck because all the single prizers are good and interesting to play against each other. That's where we need to be. Well, and I think we're getting there. And we'll get there later in the. In today's episode. Let's take a look at the mailbag, fellas. I think there were. Oh, yeah. Someone is. Is commemorating here with you, Andrew. I didn't think I'd get Guess who content on my Pokemon cast. Yeah, dude. Did you listen to any of their other discography this week? No. I've been actually on a huge Led Zeppelin kick. It did get me to think about. You're into classic rock now. Yeah, it did get me to think more about classic rock. And I mean, guess who are cool and the show was cool, but they're not my favorite classic rock act, of which my favorites are Led Zeppelin and Tom Petty. So I'm just a lot of those lately. You said that. I'm just like thinking about you, Andrew. You know, you got the. You got Led Zeppelin on the. On the boombox. Right. Outdoors and you're doing some yard work. Right. I'm just like backwards cap maybe. Maybe, you know, no T shirt or perhaps sweat glistening off my body. That's kind of just like where I'm at with. With you when you said that. Yeah, that was accurate. Except like instead of a boombox, I was using these air maxes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was doing yard work. Yeah, yeah. Hayden Botcher says there have been a lot of wild takes on the cast in the last few years. But JW's overdog take is undoubtedly the craziest thus far. That is. I do love a good stop. Like, just again, a pummeling. I do. I do love a good pummeling. You know, we saw that. The US And Belgium. Like, I kind of enjoy that. Right? It's like, I wish that there were maybe more goals from. If somebody was gonna win in that way. I wish it. It just, like, piles on. Right. Just very demoralizing for the loser. This summer. Say I do. I am marrying a stranger like never before. Am I crazy? It's a whole new Married at First Sight on Peacock with new experts. My name is Dr. Lisa. My name is Paul Brunson. More couples. This could be the start of a very successful marriage. And more surprises. Or maybe not. Everything is just not enough. You're a little bit crazy. I don't know what's gonna happen. I want my fairy tale ending. Married at first sight. Streaming July 12th only on Peacock. This summer, serve up the cookout classics craft mayo and dressing. Toss green salads with delicious ranch dressing or zesty Italian. Serve smooth, craveably creamy potato salads with mayo. We all know it's not a cookout without Kraft. I mean. Yeah, you told me that you, like, love watching a dynasty happen. I love a dynasty, dude. I know you told me this. I know you do. Yes. Well, because it's greatness. It's greatness encapsulated. Right? I think that's beautiful. Like, I hate what they've done to the NBA over the last decade. It's been a mockery of what made the NBA great. Like, give me, I don't know, four or five rotational champions, you know, every few years. Like, give me the Lakers for this decade. Give me the Bulls for that decade. Give me the Celtics for that. Like, and just rotate. I don't care. And then basically, like, the other 25 teams, they're just, you know, they're playing for second. They're just NPCs. Yeah, they're NPCs. Right? It's like the Knicks winning. Did that really need to happen? Like, we could have had a second. The start of the second spurs dynasty. That's much more interesting, in my opinion. I'm surprised there's so much confusion about the Mega Rayquaza thing. It's in the ability, the Delta stream. Come on, guys. We did get a lot of flack for not knowing much about the video game, but I counter that by saying I don't have enough time to play video games, bro. Like, I have a job. You had time when Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were coming out. No, that was college. Was that not 2010? Was that 2010? That would have been like 2016. I don't know. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire is 2016. Yeah, I was definitely not doing. Doing the I don't have time, I have a job defense in the same episode where you quoted deep lore from the Costco guys is like, pretty insane. If you just spent an hour less watching Costco guys, you'd have a time. Don't you take that away from me. Don't you take that away from me, bro. Don't you take that away from me. All glory to God says Handheld fan deals with Festival Lead easily. Andrea, we're going to get to what you've been testing here in our next segment. Is this a thing? Is this real? Have you tested that? I mean, handheld fan is certainly annoying for Festival Lead. Yes. Because it is basically a one hit KO Denier. Right. If Festival Eat is not playing away to remove the tool, you can't hit twice because the first hit bounces the energy off. And you could hit twice if you have two energy, I guess on your guy. And then you lose both energy, though that would suck. You do lose both energy. Yeah, it's, you know, that's a meta call. So, I mean, are you going to find it on the turn that you want it? I think there's things to talk about with Festival Lead. I mean, I got to play a set today against Thad, who, like, had a tech in his deck for Festival Lead and it just doesn't matter. I mean, there's a lot of so much pressure being put on on key points of the game that if you don't have that tech on the key turn that you need it where you need it, then you might still just lose. So. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Jesse says treasure tracker finally getting to shine with the Rayquaza cap. Go get your treasure tracker, search out all your caps, and then accelerate a bunch of energy. Treasure tracker? Tracker? You never heard of a treasure tracker? Is it an A spec? A spec? Search out five tools. I picked mine up. You got to be kidding me. I picked mine up from the LGS this last week. You saw Jesse's comment and you're like, he was cooking with. I gotta go. I gotta go out to my LGS specifically, pick up this one card before it jumps to $3, because, you know, I'm not paying more. You get bought out for a treasure tracker. Well, that's your. That was the next opportunity. No, There's a treasure Tracker listed on TCG. Player for 2cent. Who are these people selling cards for 2 cents like you guys are. Plus shipping, dude. Plus shipping. That's how they beat you. It's so stupid. Yeah. Plus 9.99 shipping. It's a dollar fifty shipping. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They got you, in fact, so. All right, well, thank you to everybody that has commented this week. Please make sure to like and subscribe. We could really use your help in that regard. We're going for. I think a good ballpark is about 2000 likes per podcast episode. So if you're willing to help us out with that, I think that's a really achievable goal. But it starts with one, right? How do you eat an elephant? It's one bite at a time. So let's get those numbers up, boys. Let's get to 2000 likes so we can review the latest Costco guys episode live on the cast. 2,000 likes. We will. Can we actually get to 2,000 likes, dude? Yeah. Yeah. I don't believe that we can. If every single person that watches the episode likes the video, then we can get to 2000 likes, dude, easily. My main channel. My main channel doesn't even get, like. People don't be liking, dude, that. And that's. They will. Right. With the promise. It's called. It's called. It's called a call to action, Andrew, you need to actually ask people sometimes. I do, and they don't. They don't act. Well, let's start. Listen, let's. Okay, let's reframe it. Right. What is this gonna give to you as a listener? Right. That's. It's not all about us, because obviously, would we like 2000 likes on an episode? Sure. But let's think about what it would mean for the listener. Right. If you like this episode, that you are actually contributing to a society of gratefulness, to a society of giving back to your community. Correct. Yes. A side society that helps one another, and I think we've moved far away from that, as you know. I feel like there's still a distant incentive model, though, right? Like, it's like being a good person might convince other people eventually to be a good person, but you don't benefit from that right away, like. No, I think if we can hit 500 likes on this video. I can't think of anything besides the Costco guys. They're, like, stuck in my head now. Okay, I'm listening. 500 likes. Meme review. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or 500 likes. I'll do a giveaway. Okay. Oh, whoa, Giveaways. Whoa, Giveaway. That's a whole other level. Yeah, well, I never said what I'd give away, but Treasure Tracker giveaway at 500 likes. Actually, JW giveaway run purely by JW. You don't want. All right, yeah, 500 likes. We'll give away a treasure tracker. That sounds good. I think that's. That's enough incentive. Oh, I guess one of my most recent videos is a thousand likes. I don't know, man. I guess. I don't. I feel like we can hit you. I don't know how many. Twice as likable as you are. I don't know how many likes videos be getting, you know? Well, yeah, and. And that's actually. That actually maybe plays into our call to action, right? Because if you, Andrew, are getting, you know, 1,000 likes and you figure that Riley and I are maybe, you know what, as popular or perhaps slightly more, there's three of us. We should have three times the likes. Exactly. That's. That's what I'm saying. Well, I think it probably doesn't scale entirely linearly, but I think we should get at least double. Right? Like, 20 people wouldn't be worth 20 times the likes. Right? We can agree that on that. So it can't be completely linear. Okay, well, we'll see. I still don't believe we can do it. We get a week. We get a week to prove most people are scrolling social media while listening to the pod while working remote from home while also doing a load of laundry. Okay. Like, That's. That's the exact person. That's the exact archetype that we're targeting right now. All right, let's go to Pokebook. Let's do it. Pokegabook has their latest tier rankings, and it's looking pretty bleak. If your name is not Dragapult Ex and you're not doing 200 damage for a fire and a psychic energy and also spreading six damage counters on your opponent's bench in any way you like, it's not. You're not having a good time in this meta game. We got Dragapult at S tier, and we have pretty much any other named archetype in a tier below that. So in. In that B tier, in terms of representation, Dragon Ball Blaziken, that's probably the, you know, second most popular dragapult archetype. If you say that, you know, Dragapult Hammers is most popular, you're looking at Blaziken in that number two slot has some viability, right? If you talk about Jeepers. Has some viability if you talk about the, you know, the popularity of certain grass decks. So then we have the Slop Box, big basics deck, Ogre Pond deck, the Excadrill deck. That feels like, you know, pulling the, pulling the slot machine. Without a doubt, Festival lead, which we will talk a bit more in depth on the cast here today. Lucario, which doesn't seem to be dropping. Doesn't seem to be dropping the worst deck of all time. Tiered it up. I know, I know. Slow King Alakazam. And then perhaps I would say maybe under Meta Shared. So looking at this tier list from the latest local tournaments in Japan, what are we thinking? What do we make of this and where are we headed in the Pitch Black Meta? I mean like at its core, right, Dragon Ball's going to be the deck to beat at any tournament for the foreseeable future, I think. Yeah. Are we even seeing cards from, from the next set that would put Dragapult in its place? Not really. So Dragapult is just going to be top dog from until probably rotation. Realistically like that's kind of the path we're heading down. So it doesn't surprise me to see Dragapult in the S tier. And I think from there you're trying to figure out what has a reasonable shot at beating Dragapult while still being able to manage the field. Unfortunately for decks like all out Blitzels, there's a lot of like single prize nonsense floating around right now in comparable rates to just like straight Dragapults in, in Japan, which is like the exact opposite of what that deck wants to see, even though it has a really good Dragonfold matchup. So it just ends. I think the Meta ends up kind of washing out in a way that just favors Dragapult. You know, you play your mirrors, those are going to be relatively even. You beat a lot of random single price crap and then you fare even in, in my opinion, even or better in basically every multi prize matchup. So I think that's the tricky part is the, the fact that the rest of the Meta all kind of preys upon itself. Works out in Dragapult's favor in the long term. I think Zoroark is honestly a deck that maybe could be a contender, but every time you see a Teal Mask Ogre pun or a Festival lead, like that's really disheartening for Sorak. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah. I've been playing quite A bit of this format. I've tested three full length streams with it. Four actually. I think I've done two with Jesse now and two with Thad. So I've got Jesse coming back next Wednesday for another deckbusters and then we've got the pitch black 6k. So I've dug my heels into this card pool quite a bit. Festival Lead is impressing me. Did win Indonesia Master Ball? You were being such a haterball. Yeah. What is it? Indonesia? Some. What do they call their tournaments over there? Yeah. Master Ball. League is Masterful league. Yeah. For being mean. Yeah, sure. I would like to offer a full throated and heartfelt apology to Festival Lead for being mean. No, no, no. Say, say that their region is real. Yeah, yeah, of course, of course, of course Indonesia is real. I didn't say anything to the contrary. Good. No, I just want to make sure that. That. Nor. Nor would I. Right. Nor would I ever. Yeah. So Festival E. It's been impressing me quite a bit lately. I think the Gladian changes the card, changes the deck quite a bit. Gives you just a one piece card that allows your Diplin to one hikao pull. I mean I guess the stadium's a given. So you got the stadium and then Gladion Diplin bang is doing 360 damage which is a lot and it's pretty easy to orchestrate. But I think the thing that really sold me on Gladion in the Festival Lead deck is that it actualizes seeking before seeking. Seeking was so me. Almost as if that's the combo that JW and I were high on last week and that you were being a hater about. Oh wow. Do I need to apologize again? Yeah, I would like to apologize to jw. Doesn't hurt. I would like to. I would like to offer Riley and JW a full throated and sincere. Let's go. Yeah. For me being in a dummy and not respecting the festival. The king, bro. The king. Yeah. How many takes can we make Andrew retract before Worlds? The Seeking is really good now and can knock out like a lot of stuff including a dragon. The seeking kind of goes insane. So now you can just actually lead Seeking and seeking can actually do good stuff. And previously like if you're. If you had seeking on board and your opponent like gusts and knocks out your diplons or whatever like then you're, you're seeking can't do anything like you're cooked. But no but like now like. Okay, well seeking is, is just a third diplon. Basically it's like another diplin on board that you can take the biggest knockouts you need to with. So it's, it's really actualized with the Gladian and I feel like playing the two gladian in the deck makes things a lot smoother and there's just a whole bunch of different numbers and ways that you can hit things now because you've got like the Bengal and the Gladion. You've got the Bengal and the Kieran. You've got just Gladion. It's. I'm really enjoying it and I think that I've played it against Poltnor in like a couple of sets now and I've won both the sets that I've played and that has impressed me. We played Festival Lead against Excadrill today. It did struggle against Excadrill because Excadrill is like milling your resources early on. And then does Resist grass too? Not that that really matters. You could still hit the combo with I think a Bengal and a Gladion. You could still hit it but the mill was like kind of annoying. And then also trying to get through a single prize metagross is like annoying because it's resist grass. Yeah, it resists grass. It's got 180 hit points. So it's like, it's tough. But that deck is fraudulent in my mind. More fraudulent. We'll get there. So the festival Lead deck, if the Festival Lead deck can contend with Dragapult then it beats everything else. So that's kind of a crazy. I mean that's the promise of all the single prize decks, right? Is that the single price decks they will farm your like all out Blitzel lists, all of your, you know, two prize decks, your zoroarks, all that stuff, they will beat those decks. But the, the gatekeeper for the single price decks has always been Dragapult. Right. And I do think that the Gladian improves your Dragapult matchup pretty considerably as the Festival Lead deck. Which is something that I think that all players are going to have to take notice of because I think it turns Festival Lead into the premier single price deck if you're asking me. Yeah, that's interesting. That's interesting. Go ahead, Riley. Oh no, I'm just trying to think through it myself. Slowking has a similar element of being able to have like big swingy turns but obviously it's a lot less consistent because you don't have computer search on board two or three times. So that's just so insane. Right? Having access to that and Festival that's always been the promise of Festival Lead. But the damage cap I think was ultimately not to its benefit. But now that Gladion could just burst through that and then other single prize matchups. Being able to like Slow King with Gladion and just one shot, whatever single prizers in the Active is crazy. Yeah. I really like the way the Festival Lead Deck is shaping up right now. My personal take is the same as last time in that if Festival League can just shoot like 5050 versus Dragapult and crush everything else. That's a pretty reasonable tournament deck at that stage, right? Totally. Totally. Are there any ways that you're seeing Andrew to counter the Festival Lead Deck? Anything obvious or hypotheses that you have coming out of playing the matchup against Dragapult that you think, you know, hey, I need this card and I, I, you know, auto win the Festival League matchup or at least give myself a better chance into it. Yeah, the handheld fans are annoying for sure. I think that the Chi Yu is less good. I was playing against one. I guess it kind of like goes one for one. Ish. It's got 110 hit points. So maybe, maybe you're not even getting return KO'd, but you are getting return KO'd by a sea King. The Sea King like the thing, right? So like the Sea King can actually. And when you're attacking with the Sea King, your opponent can't chi you the Seeking. So the Seeking is like a difference maker. The Rabsca is important. You. You kind of have to play the Rabsca. I'm into that. And I think Handheld Fan is like probably pretty annoying. You're basically saying that. I don't think that the Festival Lead decks will play Tool Scrapper. Obviously if the test is the Festival Lead deck wants to play a Tool scrapper, it can. It's got the engine that can search out any singleton card out of the deck on any given turn. So it's kind of like a meta call at that point. And I would say that Handheld Fan probably the best card that you could play in like a Dragon Pole deck in order to give yourself the extra percentages, percentage points in that in that matchup. If you're anything else. If you're like a two price deck like Zoroark or you know, like all out Blitzel Box or like things like that. I really don't think that you're aiming to beat Festival. I don't think that you're necessarily going to. Yeah, like I don't. Definitely not. Slapboxy. That's what I'm saying, like you really can't. You can't like patch that match up up? I don't think so. So why, I mean why do you think that, you know, again, we're going off of Meta shares of another country that we, you know, we're not particularly in tune with, you know, on. On a. On a ground level. But why do you think Festival just hasn't increased in. In Meta share? You're saying, okay, it has a. A good or at least even a Dragapult and then it has. It's beating everything else. Look at it. I'm looking. I mean it's like right in there with like the, the next most popular decks. Yeah. But if we're saying that it beats Dragapult and it's. And it beats everything else, then that should elevated in terms of play rate and tier. I think it's in the mix. What's gatekeeping? This what we're talking about, really good. You have to be the best festival lead player that there is in order to win those matchups against Dragapult. I think also is it a popular enough archetype quite yet? Has it caught on enough in the Zeitgeist to start to move up in the ranks? You know, Japan plays best of one. I think Festival leads better in best of three. Okay. Yeah. Are you fine. It's still one game still. Same same issue. Same consistency issues. At least in the early game. Yeah, I imagine Brick, one game problem. Item lock is not good if you don't open like hot. So it's. Yeah. You could certainly like best of one could contribute to that. But I think in best of three, when you have two chances to, you know, you just have to establish your board two out of three times. That seems fine. Yeah. Are there any. Yeah, I like, I like it. I think Festival lead to me is for the world championships, which I would expect a lot of Zork because I think that good players will gravitate towards Zorark. It is good. The metafy players saw towards tweet and bought that class for sure. I mean I played some Zork today. It's good. I mean the deck is good. The tomes are good. Towards list is good. I just was running towards Naic list. It's good lists. It's got a lot of thought into it. There's like reasons for all the things that are there and that's good. You know, you're riding by the skin of your teeth most turns. That's just kind of the Zoric way And that like you're trading, you're like well gonna have to find, you know, second tome of the boss, you know, like that kind of crap. Or like I'm gonna need to find my idiot Darumaka this turn to discard so that I could tome into. And then I have to find the ultra ball so that I could get the Darmanitan so that I can pull off this. But, but like those lines are there, right? So that's cool. And the fact that the lines are there, that, that kind of like the carrot on the stick with the Zoroark deck, like there's always like a way hypothetically that you could win. And it's the same draw with Dragapult too. There's always like a line with Dragapult, right. That you could hypothetically like pull this one out. Zork is a very similar deck. So I expect Zork and Dragapult decks to be very popular at the world championships because there kind of is away. So then you are trying to find. If you're expecting the world championships to be Zoroark and Dragapult, which I very much do, then what deck are you going to bring to put yourself in the best position into that field? Because I expect Dragapult and Zoroark to be two of like the most popular decks. Is it the Excadrill deck? Isn't the. I think Excadrill could put you in a, in a good spot against those two decks. So I think Excadrill is actually real. Okay, interesting. Okay. Yeah. I mean the, the. I, I don't hate it as a concept. I, I think that the resource discard is, you know, maybe, maybe slot machine esque. Right. That seems like a strategy that you don't necessarily want to be relying on. But I guess against the one prize decks, maybe that's, you know, really all you have. Right. Just be able to discard crucial resources at the right time. I feel like in general, one prize decks historically have always been more vulnerable to resource discard like random attacks like that than multi price decks because they, they need to recover guys more often. They need to play more guys onto the board over the course of a game or as a multiverse attacker, you only get a couple of them. Two or three. Sure, sure. In any given game. Yeah. And from my testing with the Escadrill deck, I was really unimpressed with early lists I was getting from Japan. They were all basically trolley lists that were using precious trolley to go get out a board full of guys. You know, your Your Drillbirds, your Metangs or Beldams or whatever. And. And then the Genesect crucially. Right. The Genesect Ex, which goes and gets all your evolutions. So a lot of lists were playing that. The ones that you'll see on Pokecabook, the ones that are doing well in Japan. But Thad had been testing the deck with a secret box and just playing Buddy Buddy Poffins because both Drillbur and Beldum have 70 hit points. So, like, why are we playing trolley again? Because, like, you have Buddy Buddy Poffin which can just go get those guys. So really you're playing your A Spec to go get Genesect. That doesn't really make any sense either because you could just play Ultra Ball to go get Genesect and Ultra Ball is like a fine card to have in your deck. So that frees up your A Spec to be whatever you want, really. And then a lot of these trolley builds were like, barely playing Lily's determination. Like, almost none. Right. And we're just saying, like, I'm gonna go all in on like the turn one petrol and just set up my board and play off the board entirely. Like. Yeah, yeah, play off the board entirely. I have found that that kind of deck sucks. And I was not into those builds. They were not very good. And now that I'm playing a like a Lily's determination draw focused Excadrill deck. The deck actually it cooks. It works. Like you get the turn two excadrill all the time. You don't even need Metangs to get the turn two excadrill one energy to a Drillbird energy again. And you're like doing 90 milling two, which is knocking out a lot of things that are going to be leading the way in the format. And you're presenting a 340 hit point stage one with the grass resistance. It's. It's pretty good. So I don't. I think extra. I don't think Excadrill is bad. I think if you play it with like the ice cream cones, like Dragapult just can't beat that. Like an Excadrill doing 330 damage and healing with ice cream cones like that. Dragapult like this does not beat that. So what was the thing that I found? What. What's the A spec then? You're using. Did you say secret box? Secret box. Okay. Yeah, I. I've been liking secret Box, man. There's just so few supporters that you want to play in a turn. So if you're not playing dragapults you know, I think stamp is pretty appropriate for Dragapult, but in most other decks they're, you know, you're really looking at lilies, maybe Crispin. So, like, having a fifth copy of Lily's in essence off that secret box has been feeling like, you know where you want to be. I think for a lot of decks it feels like computer search used to feel like they're in the original ASPECs run, where it's just like it's a feel good card every time you see it. Sure. And that just means so much over the course of a tournament over, like countless games played. It's like every time you see that card, you're like, yep, like the good play is happening. You know, I'm, I'm putting the piece together to do the thing. It's such a huge enabler. You see a turn one versus item lock, you're golden. Right. Like, if your opponent's like queuing up a badoo and you open Secret box, you're like, yep, well, I'm getting everything that I need. We're going to be good to go. Feels really good. So I like that. And I think that secret box is a card that I'm playing in more and more decks, which is great because it just got printed in the Lucario deck and it's cheaper now. It's like only a couple bucks. Yep. There you go. There you go. Yeah, I kind of wrote off Exadrille is a fraud. But I do agree drawing cards is good, so doing more of that can't hurt. Yeah, I guess. Like, what are you, what are you thinking of with Excadrill as being your main difficult matchups? Right. You're probably looking at Blaziken, obviously being able to one shot festival lead. But you've got. You can play Metagross. You can play Metagross into Blaziken. And if you're playing the stadium like Gravity Mountain, you play Gravity Mountain Metagross. And you can like one tap that thing. I mean, like, it's not, it's. It's a little sketch, but you can play. You can build your Excadrill deck to have a single price board. You could play like the Heatran. You could play Metagross. So I think that there's options there to deal with like an Ex Blaziken or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. I mean, so, so what are, what are the bad matchups then? I mean, it still has to be Blaze, right? That, that's like, you can't you have no game plan versus like Alakazam. You're probably getting smoked versus. I mean like I, I lost his festival lead because like you can just have. I think we played five games. Festival lead versus Excadrill. I think festival lead won two, Excadrill won three. So it was close. I mean that was a close one. Alakazam seems pretty bad. Blaziken can be bad. I think your decks like Raging Bolt are probably going to be bad matchups if Raging Bolt is like any of the meta. I do think that Mega Excadrill is like the premier Mega deck right now though. I think it's better than Lucario. Well, yeah. Oh wow. Yeah. So I would put Mega Excadrill, like, I mean that's, that's like to me it's like, it's like in that role that Mega Lucario and like Cynthia's Garchomp are in. Whereas I think Mega Excadrill is better than both those decks. Yeah. Again, that's like not high praises for some people. That, that means a lot. Okay. Because Cynthia's Garchomp and Lucario were their decks. And Meg, I'm telling you, Mega X Control is in that same kind of vibe tier. Okay. It. Except. But it's better. It's better than those. What about. But you still put energy on Guy and go bang. What about Mega Venusaur? Mega Venusaur is just right in there with me as like a Meganium deck. It's kind of like just which flavor of Meganium deck do you want to play? Yeah. How do you feel about. I've actually been grinding a lot of, of Meganium high drapple. To no one's surprise, JW is grinding the Meganium again. I'm, I'm trying. I got some, I got cool stuff that I'm brewing up with that list. But I've been grinding a lot on the ladder with, with Meganium and so I'm curious your thoughts there. I know you know, you were talking a lot about Hydrapple. Jesse's been talking a bit about Mega Venusaur that got top four at the, you know, pitch black Japanese Champions League tournament. Hydrapple just has to be better. It just has to be bad. I think so. Right? I think about it this way. Think about it this way. Okay, so you got Venusaur. Right. Venusaur is a three price Pokemon and can move the energy anywhere on the board. Okay. Hydrapple is a two prize Pokemon with like a little bit less hp. But instead of moving the energy anywhere in the board, it Actualizes the energy anywhere on the board. So it doesn't really matter where the energy is because it uses them. But then it also has a bonus ability that Venusaur doesn't have and that it can heal and get more energy into play itself. Where Venusaur doesn't actually get more energy into play, Hydrapple does. And then Hydrapple can also be your main attacker because it's like a big guy only gives up two prizes is your main attacker and it's tough to knock out. And then when it does get knocked out, it only gives up single energy. I think like the Hydrapple has to be better than the Venusaur. So that is, that is kind of my assessment. Yeah. Of it. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't think you're ever. The problem that I'm foreseeing. Right. Is like you're giving a lot of praise to Festival Lead. I just can't ever see either of those decks overcoming a deck like that. I. So the, the place that I put like the Hydrapple deck is that like Hydrapple Meganium is I would say your prem like two prize one hikao deck. So I would put that deck in the same realm as like your all out Blitzel box. In the same realm as like your, your Raging Bolt dx, your Teal mask decks that are playing, you know, maybe like slot box style decks. I, I lump Hydrapple in with those kinds of decks. And I think the Hydrapple is the best one of all of those right now given like what I think the Meta will be. But those, the problem with a lot of those, those kinds of decks is that they do sometimes struggle with single prize decks. I mean all out Blitzel played against one single prize deck in his Naic win. It was one Crustle deck and he lost to it. And then so those are calls you have to make. Those are just calls you have to make. Right. I mean Blitzel went in saying, I'm not going to beat any single price decks. Not slowking, not Festival Lead, not Crustle, not a Alakazam, not a single one of them. He thread that needle? He did and he just did it. Right. So like you have to make that kind of call if you want to win a tournament. That's crazy call. Yeah. In hindsight, I mean that like looked like insane. I'm not the type of player who like is usually going to make a call like that, honestly. Yeah, but yeah, it's interesting. All right, well, we got a 3k coming up. Not this weekend, but next. What do you think is winning that based on what you've, you know, what you've tested with what you've seen? I mean like the easy call, just dragonfold, right? Like the easy call is dragonfold. I could also see highest placing non dragapult deck. Thank you. I could see drag. I would guess that we're going to get probably three dragapults in top eight. I'm going to guess we'll get an end Zorc in top eight. I think that we will also see a single prize deck or two in top eight. So like, I would, I would expect a festival lead. I'll expect maybe an alakazam. So I'm saying like three pulse, a Zorark, a festival lead, an Alakazam. And then you've got another couple spots. Maybe like a slot box, maybe like a. Maybe like a fourth pulse. Maybe like an excadrill. Tossed. Gotta make room for a fourth pole in there. You do have to make room somehow. We gotta fit a fourth one. It's just that good, man. It's just that good. Yeah, right. It could be half a top eight. It just very well could be half a top eight. Right. Like that's like. I don't even think that's like a, like a hot take. Right. Like it could be a dark. Right. Where's Mega Zero in the mix? Am I right? No, Yeah, I do think. Okay, so this is also something that I talking point that I wanted to bring up from my testing is that I think that the, the Hide and sneak deck is terrible. Well, yeah, that was a notable kind of omission. Right. We saw Hide and sneak do quite well in that initial Champions League format just on release. And now it's, it's pretty much fallen off in terms of what we're seeing from their, their general tournament play. So you, you think it can't compete? You think it's just a one trick in that it beats dragapult but nothing else. What's the, what's the vibe? Dragapult? Sometimes I don't know. Jesse and I were running it up. I was beating Jesse. Like, I think I beat Jesse four out of five games that we played. I was playing Dragapult. Dusknoir, he was playing hide and sneak. Yeah, Fancy Polt nor. Yeah, Dustinor is pretty. I mean, you gotta say, like, probably at least 40% of Dragapult decks are going to be Dustnor variants. Like, I don't know. Is that an overestimation? 40% of Dragon Ball decks after the results from. After it Getting second place at NAIC and top four at Indie. You really think so? People are still going to be not favoring it. You think like I know that it wasn't 40% at NAIC or Indy, but I'm saying like going off of those results though at Olli we've got wellness down to a science. From PMS to pregnancy to menopause. Our women's wellness line offers science backed support for every stage. No judgment, no shame, none of the stigma. Just supplements designed to meet you wherever you're at. Ollie, choose science over shame. Find support at a retailer near you or on ollie.com that's o l l y dot com. Yeah, yeah. At the World Championships. I'm saying at the World Championships where you have the best pulp players in the world saying less than half but 40% will be pult nor I would say. Yeah, that's where I'm putting it. Yeah, maybe. I personally think that Pultener should be like 60% or 70% of all Dragon Ball variants. I think it is the best one. I think people are kind of going nuts for not playing that in their Dragon Ball deck. I disagree with it with that, with that way of thinking, not playing it. But alas, people still are clinging to their straight pulp and to their pole blaziken. So it is what it is. So I have 40% I feel like is a fair estimate of what it'll be. Maybe it is fair. Maybe people are converted now. I would expect them to. Especially with Nettie getting second place and then Justin Neudorf getting top four at Indy. Like it's. I think the cat's out of the bag with it. Like people have seen what it can do. And I think that playing the 2:2:1 line is kind of with the hammers. You don't have to sack the hammers. You could play the Hammers, play a 221 line and then you get, you are reliably getting Dusknoir action in play in the mirror because you have the two clops to reliably evolve up the Duskull. So it's. And it's a huge difference maker in the mirror, I think. Yeah. Mirror. Well, it's tough right, because you need it on very specific turns. Right. It's like the Duskull has to evolve on the first turn it can into the dusclops. Right. And I think that's the, that's the argument maybe against, against the dusknoir line is that Duskull has a lot of utility that the dusknoir has a lot of Utility. But the Duskull, if it gets, you know, if you're not making it out of those first few turns into at least a Dusklops, you know you have wasted deck slots. Right. Because you're never going to bench a Duskull without it getting picked off in the mirror. Well, you can. I mean, I guess you could use it as like a deflection, I suppose. I'm just. You just do. You just do. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you bench too, at a point in the matter. Sometimes. What I'm telling you is that sometimes when a Dracloak has 30 damage on it, you could bench two Duskull and it doesn't matter. That's true. That's what I'm telling you. That happens all the time. You know, when you actually average it all out, though, I think over time the Dusknaur variants have proven to be worse in the mirror. Yes. You just have that less consistency. Also, you're both getting bedewed and getting those guys online early on just isn't always happening is what it is. Yep. I think over time the numbers do slightly favor the straight variant in the mirror, which is I think the primary argument at this point for the straight variant, like the current list, like the one GW has on the screen right now. If excluding the mirror, it's not like the Dust Star line is taking away anything from the deck, really. So it's just. Yeah. Are those five slots contributing in the mirror consistently? Yeah. And maybe not. And maybe you're still okay with that. Right. Dragapult's, what, 40% of the field right now? So there's still 60% of your matchups are against other decks. Yep, yep. And I think this, you know, does give you the best shot into the single prize decks. Right. Dusknoir is still just whatever you might face. Very strong equalizer into those single prize matchups. So, yeah, I think the Dust Nor helps you into. Into, you know, just the random stuff. I mean, it helps you into unpredictability if you don't know what's going to show up. Like the Dust nor probably going to help you handle whatever kind of like strategy shows up that might be unaccounted for. Right. It gives your deck a little bit of less predictability. So, I mean, I'm still saying that the majority of PULT decks won't be Dust or. But I do think that a significant portion of them at Worlds will be Dusknoir, so. Yeah, but I don't think that the. I mean, all of this to say I don't think that the Hide and Sneak deck is real. I think that the spread game is not like enough to consistently win. I think that the Delmise angle we saw the list that got second place at the Japan Championships was a Legacy Energy variant and that just straight up sucks against a Pult Hammers meta. Right? Like that. Like an unusable, a spec that could just get, you know, hammered away in our Western metagame. So. But the problem that I've seen is that the Dhelmise deck actually kind of needs that Legacy Energy in case it misses a step somewhere. And when you're not playing that Legacy Energy, if you do miss anything, you actually just lose because you're two hit koing like two prizers and stuff. So it's just underwhelming. I just don't think the deck is very good. I think that the other single prize decks all just feel so much better than the Hide and Sneak deck, which is funny because they gave all those Hide and Sneak Pokemon, like, you know, the dragapult counter thing. And it's like the deck is still just kind of not that great. Yeah, it's MEW all over again. That's right. We've been here before, folks. That's right. It's like when they printed mightyena to counter mew. That's what it feels. That's what, that's. That's what this deck feels like. Like the mightyena was like supposed to counter mew. Like this card is unplayable. Well, I think for next week we should get some of our kind of polished decklists, dissect those. We have obviously the 3K coming up and people getting ready for their mid year tournaments and ultimately worlds in this format. So I think that might be a fun thing to take a look at. But any other final thoughts for, you know, the, the episode today? No thoughts world, folks. We're living it. I know. Always happen. Playing with that today, it was just, it was just and like seeing like Thad's face light up as he's playing Dragapult after playing like a different deck for a couple hours, he's like, oh man, it's just, it's just so good. And I'm like, I know, dude, I know. It's like, it's just the, the, the pool of cards that you're working with is just so much better than the pool of cards that every other deck is working with. It doesn't matter if your cards in theory or on paper beat pulse cards. They don't actually, because Pulse card pool is stronger than yours. It's just like having Recon evolve into that attack is crazy. You know, that recon directive could just be a standalone solid card, and it evolves into the best attacker in the format. So, yep, yep. Easy as that. Wild stuff. So that's going to do it for today's episode. Remember, if you're on YouTube to smash that like button to help us reach 2000 likes, do think we can do it? I do believe in us. And you know the prize once we get there. If you want to go plug into Tag Team a little bit more, you can find us over on x. Com@real John Walter for myself, at Smiles with Riles for Riley, and at Enjoy Friend or Andrew, of course, the podcast at Tag Team Pokemon. Thank you all so much for listening and for your ongoing support, and we'll catch you next time. Peace.