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Episode 285: The 8th Anniversary!
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Welcome back to the Goblin Lore Podcast and the celebration of 8 years of doing this show (first episode was posted 6/18/2018). The goblins gather to celebrate 8 years for the podcast and this time the gathering is literal. All three hosts were present at CommandFest Tacoma recently and decided in true Goblin Fashion to record in a hotel room with a poor recording device. That's our way of saying that the audio might be a little... well... off. We hope you enjoy and please come join our discord (link can be found in our linktree)
We also finally have a Linktree with all of our discounts/resources
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As promised, we keep Mental Health Links available every episode. But For general Mental Health the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has great resources for people struggling with mental health concerns as well as their families. We also want to draw attention to this article on stigma from NAMI's site.
If you’re thinking about suicide or just need someone to talk to right now, you can get support from any of the resources below.
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
- Veteran's can Press 1 at anytime to be taken to the Veteran's Line
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741-741
- International suicide hotlines: A comprehensive resource list for people outside the US.
- IMAlive: Click Chat Now to access a live online network of volunteers through instant messaging.
- TrevorLifeline, TrevorChat, and TrevorText (LGBTQ+ crisis support): 1-866-488-7386, or text “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200
- Trans Lifeline (US): (877) 565-8860
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Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael (@SteveRaffle)
Recommended
Transcript
In-Person Reunion After Years
00:00:28
Speaker
Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome to a really hilarious episode, fun episode. We are all together in the same room. Finally, actually recording for once. I've been saying we do this every time we've been together in the same place. Yes. Yeah. I was just thinking, I think the only time we've ever done that was when we recorded our panel at MagicCon Minneapolis like three years ago. Seven years ago, yeah.
00:00:56
Speaker
And it was like, oh yeah, but we've never actually just sat in the same room and recorded. Yeah. We always have the best of intentions. Every time we talk about it. And then every time it doesn't happen. Well, because we get distracted by having, you know, playing magic and yeah having fun. and Yeah. Yeah, I remember Tay and I were going record in Vegas one year. And just, well, at one point, I think we thought about it. It like, well, we're going to Fogo instead. Yeah.
00:01:21
Speaker
Fogo was good, though. Yes, it was. It was worth
Celebrating Milestones at Luffy Dragon Command Fest
00:01:24
Speaker
it. but we are all here in Tacoma Washington at the Luffy Dragon Command Fest in Alex's hotel room. Yes with a wonderful view of of Tacoma and Mount Rainier.
00:01:39
Speaker
Yeah it completely cleared up and we just mountain is just standing in the background. Barely saw it all weekend saw a glimpse of it yesterday and now it's just full view the clouds are gone.
00:01:51
Speaker
So we're here and we are going to record. this is We hit in June our 8th anniversary. Yeah. Which is just absolutely mind-blowing to me. And we're closing in on 300 episodes.
00:02:04
Speaker
Yep. We'll see what last second thing we come up with. we are We're going to talk about our our
The Joy of Smaller Magic Events
00:02:15
Speaker
eight years. and Yeah, well we'll talk about the the one that's in front of us first. We'll deal with the future and the future. Those are future Goblin Lore problems.
00:02:24
Speaker
Yeah. So I did not come up with a good question. No. i've been I've been thinking about trouble. think of Well, what's been the best part of being here so far of this weekend? I like that. That's...
00:02:38
Speaker
That's a good question. um I think it's's it's really funny, but it's it's the the cheesy answer, but the gathering in the sense that we're here doing this. We played a game. We got a game in, the three of us. We've gotten a hangout. We went out to dinner last night.
00:02:53
Speaker
I went hiking this morning. I went on like six and a half mile hike, and it just feels so much less stressed than any other magic event outside going to shoeboxes local, right? It just is so much less stress.
00:03:06
Speaker
Yeah, I realized this was, it didn't even occur to me until you yesterday, this is the first magic event I've traveled to since Vegas in 2015. Like, they started doing magic GPs in in Minneapolis, and for a few years, that's just all I went to, and then we stopped having events.
00:03:24
Speaker
and You've also had a string of bad luck to wanting to travel for events. I was supposed to come up for the Laughing Dragon doing the Command Fest last October, and i literally i woke up the morning of my flight with a really bad sore throat.
00:03:41
Speaker
And so I had to message Taya and be like, I'm not coming, I'm sorry. And so it's... and And I've kind of been thinking about taking a trip out here This is my first time out to Seattle. the first time to the Pacific Northwest at all. The closest I was was Vegas. There's like it. very subjective. So I've been kind of thinking kind of planning on this trip and thinking about this for a long time. And so maybe i'm slowly rolling into mine. I'm glad you said the gathering, i mean and because I feel like, yeah, the people is the most important thing, is the best thing here for me, but just getting out here, finally.
A Lego Connection Across Continents
00:04:17
Speaker
And I've had a list in Google Maps of things I've wanted to do and see, and I've gotten to do some of it, and certainly not all of it, because it's a lot, and we're coming out for the event mostly, but it's like I've gotten to actually get out here, do some things, and then also see folks and play Magic, which I don't do a ton anymore.
00:04:35
Speaker
I'm ah going to buy Lego tomorrow morning. Nice. Off of Robert Schuster. Oh. Because he's moving to Germany. oh Where his whole family is moving to the like to Europe. And they're trying to downsize stuff.
00:04:48
Speaker
And he sent me some photos. And i we brought a second suitcase knowing that we might be doing this. Because if I'm going to get them from him anyway, ship them? So we're doing it tomorrow morning. i get to see him. Never gotten to meet him in person. But i'm also buying Lego. Nice.
00:05:04
Speaker
oh Well, I mean, yeah, obviously hanging out with everybody has been great.
Unique Formats and Family Fun
00:05:10
Speaker
One thing I really like about these small events is they have a lot of weird formats and stuff like that. that um what One thing I've been doing with my son is the pre-con sealed events where you get some kind of random pre-con. Yep.
00:05:24
Speaker
ah you know So far I've gotten a Modern Horizons 3 one and a Final Fantasy one. We've got one more to do tomorrow. Oh nice. Which Final Fantasy one to Final Fantasy 10 counters. I posted a picture on my blue sky earlier where I had a bunch of creatures at the end of that game.
00:05:45
Speaker
Because ah Seymour just got out of hand who you know copies his strength in the counters on everybody else and he monstrouses for the number of counters you have total. so my gosh. yeah That's amazing. It just kind of blew up. And you did a random event too. I did. um i also Something else just randomly occurred to me. We have not once, not one of us has introduced themselves so far. 100% correct.
00:06:09
Speaker
I mean, I do feel if you're jumping into our 8th anniversary, probably go back and listen to some others.
Meet the Hosts and Social Media Notes
00:06:14
Speaker
I am HopsQ, you can be found basically everywhere on the internet as HopsQ, mainly Blue Sky and our Discord. And our Discord did not get hacked, so we're doing really well lately.
00:06:27
Speaker
ye I'm Alex. I'm not really found on the internet other than the Goblin Low Discord, which is currently not hacked, which I learned is a thing to be worth. I mean, I knew Discord's been hacked, but didn't know that there was an epidemic going around. Yeah, you missed it. A lot of lot of prominent magic people got their Discord's hacked, and they were spreading malware. Oh, I wonder if... So there was a there was a Discord for... I'm derailing the
Discord Security Concerns
00:06:54
Speaker
introductions that I introduced... My work has a but um i'm I'm part of a ah North American company owned by a a company a German company and the global global corporate has... We have some like employee like different research groups. So like we have our local pride but then we also do stuff with global pride.
00:07:16
Speaker
Well there's a global like gamers league which so much It was like a Discord and basically like a chat thing in in Microsoft Teams, but it's fun kind of chatting with some folks from like Europe about games coming up. But that's, I did notice ah the the Discord there had like messages in all of the channels, including the chat channels. And I've seen that pop up for other Discords. I was like, you know, i don't need to be in this one. So I just left the server. So...
00:07:42
Speaker
I did see that too recently of just string of at every everyone messages and all my discords but this was just flat out a, hey check out this game that me and my friends, hey can you do me a favor? My friends have been working on this game, can you check it out real quick? And then it unfortunately because it was basically everything that discord had access to it so people lost their Gmail accounts for a period of time. They've been able to get back a lot of it. There's a cookie grabber on malware. Yeah. Okay.
00:08:10
Speaker
Well, hey, yeah, I'm Taya. Taya transcends on blue sky. What is this? We're 10 minutes in, we finally finish introductions. That's pretty good. Yeah, that's all right. For an anniversary? Yeah.
Podcast Focus: Community and Storytelling
00:08:23
Speaker
So, yeah, if you don't know us, we we are a podcast that records and talks about the, not necessarily the specific playing of magic in the sense of we're not talking about the cards, we're not going be talking about decks in terms of I don't know metas or anything like that. um Talk about a lot of stuff around the game. i Talk about the community, we talk about story and characters and and and occasionally we'll we'll look at cards but less through a what's good to play lens and more what's an interesting design or cool flavor.
00:08:58
Speaker
Yeah, we talk about a lot of commons. Yeah, we do. There's a lot of cool stuff going on in commons. long as you don't care about winning games, I guess. But as as Tay mentioned, my my cool event, as we're physical and it's easy for me to see the box over there, I did something that I've never seen at an event before called what they call Chaos Full seek full Set Sealed.
00:09:22
Speaker
And so they gave everybody... a a Magic Online like Redemption full set, sealed full set, just a random set. I got Murders at Karlov Manor, which means I got... Not Markov Manor, just so you know. Don't... So got a full set of of the Surveyor Lands, that's the one, thank you. Which is nice, those are growing right in decks. Got some other interesting things. I don't know what most of the cards do, so I'm still flipping through them, figuring it out.
00:09:56
Speaker
But there's some got Eldritch Moon, um some of the Eldrazi sets with the Brothers War and stuff like that. A couple of people got Neon Genesis, the I would love some Neon Genesis Secret
Thrill of Chaos Draft Events
00:10:14
Speaker
Layers. Oh my god, that would be good. Apparently there's a new show, which I didn't know, and they announced it in February. I didn't know that either. just One of my other discords that is not hacked. I was on the anime channel today, and they were talking about that.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, so it was a cool event and it's it's fun getting to, like you say, tale like some of these in-person events where you have more people than would have at a at local store, but still fewer than you'd have at like a Vegas. They can run some of these things where they're like, yeah, we have, i think this one was a 32 player cap and they ran three of them. So they're like, all right, we got 96 for the weekend.
00:10:49
Speaker
Let's just set this up. That's cool. It was like um one of the first events that I actually the first event that I ever traveled for was Grand Prix um Orlando 2014.
00:11:01
Speaker
And that had an Ice Age seal. it was two packs of Ice age four packs of Cold Snap. and that, a I played Ice Age when the set came out, and it was 17 of us who all, I think I was the youngest person there at the time, who all had been playing then.
00:11:19
Speaker
And so it was fun to just have a bunch of us hanging around, and then one judge for the event, and he just, you know, so we're all just chatting about stuff. One guy got a card with Auntie in it, and he had to talk to the judge, and he's like, sorry, man, I can't let you play. So he didn't get to play that. And then like halfway through the event, I realized i'm flipping through cards. I'm like, wait a minute.
00:11:38
Speaker
Christopher Rush is here. And then I see everybody else just really going through and finding the cards they had that Rush did art for. people are signing, giving him sign like Goblin Ski Patrol. I mean, just like random things from both of those sets.
00:11:53
Speaker
That was the other thing that's been cool here. They actually have a really good artist selection. They do. Because it's a lot local. Yeah. um And it's also, you know, they're not as busy. It's not like Vegas where they're so slammed they can't talk to you for a minute or... Or take commissions. Or take commissions. Yeah. Where here you can, you know, I spent a couple of minutes talking to Julie Dillon earlier today while she was signing cards for me and...
00:12:19
Speaker
um She's been very busy this week I know because she has the the promo card from the event is her R of FinCornel. Yeah.
Personal Engagements with Magic Artists
00:12:29
Speaker
Yeah. So she's been very busy signing those.
00:12:33
Speaker
I went to Izzy's booth and Izzy is just now starting to come to events and has not been sketching for a very long time and I was able to drop off two cards. He did the Chanclas Relampagos for the Spanish um lightning greaves from that Spanish set and he also did the Sol Ring with the Aztec like theme to it. And um I was able to get the Chanclas and then I have it the Swords to Plowshares Bloomboro. Oh right. The one with the scythe in in and both of those are in my Sheldon deck. and I was able to stop by and he just looked down and he's like, those tattoos look like fresh. What did you get? like it was just like, I got to have a conversation with them about my tattoos, right? yeah That's what I think of it a lot of the events that's what I loved going to. And the big ones, it's just not possible. yeah yeah They don't have time Great for the artists, they're getting paid and you can't have a five minute discussion about something. Yeah, yeah even some events in Minneapolis were,
00:13:28
Speaker
The GPs even were were not, they they were big enough, it wasn't quite as bad as like like the Vegas, especially the Vegas these days. But I remember I did, I commissioned something from RK Post, but it was like the morning, he's like, I have just a couple slots. So it was like, just, I get went in there and right away and good thing I did. And yeah and he's like, all right, I can get get you a token, like a quick sketch token yeah at the end of the day.
00:13:52
Speaker
No, like I said, almost everybody stopped by today. that people And people, you know, Elena Danner had pre-sketched and was also taking some stuff. And it's like, you can't even get in her line in Vegas. you can't. Her line is hours long in Vegas. Yeah. And so it was, and I got to, you know, I finally got to meet her and I talked to her a bunch online and when was getting stuff for like charity events. And so I've like gotten to know her, but I was able to actually get to then say hi, introduce myself and talk. And so I don't know, it's just like, I really do like these smaller events. Yeah. Yeah. we impossible I mean, I went to Vegas
Preference for Intimate Events
00:14:26
Speaker
this year, but I'm having a much better time here. I'm enjoying this much more. Yeah. I feel like that with the SCGCon in Minneapolis. Yeah, that was a lot of fun last year. yeah was a similar, maybe a little bigger, but a similar scale relative to you yeah to the actual magic conventions that they're doing these days. So hopefully if they're continuing to offer these yeah is is options. i mean it's This is a weird one with the being 4th of July weekend. weekend then yeah yeah today was Today was definitely quieter than normal Saturday. i figured it was either gonna be quiet or slammed that was about everybody being off for yeah yes
00:15:00
Speaker
so I did run into to one guy and I haven't had a chance to tell you guys this so this would be fun to tell this story online not wildly fancy big or anything but ran into somebody from Belgium who's here for the World Cup but Then when Belgium, like, won and is now playing the the U.S. yeah on on on Monday, he he extended his flight and is now flying home on Tuesday, I think, because he's like, well, then I get to watch the game. And then he just happened, I think he just happened to go into, like, a local store somewhere, and they mentioned that there was the the Command Fest coming, so then he came over here to do the Command Fest today. Oh, yeah. And it was like, that's just really cool that this guy is like, he's here for the World Cup, but then he gets to play some Magic and hang out and...
00:15:44
Speaker
That's super fun. Yeah. i um i The stories like that, like i when I lived in San Diego, we once had a guy randomly show up to our store that was in town from Wales. And he ended up going back, ah we he came with like a group of us because the shop was closing for the night. We ended up that came and just joined us. He's like, can somebody drop me off somewhere? Or like...
00:16:06
Speaker
Near downtown later, I'll come play more. We just had this guy from Wales hanging out with us all night long playing Magic in the in the United States. like I love those stories. i just yeah
00:16:19
Speaker
So we talked about what we wanted to do for our eighth anniversary, because we are notoriously bad at playing for anniversaries. like we Last time we did our top seven top sevens, yeah something data it yeah we're just i got whats are no know We're not. planners we're not no We really are not. And so, kind of going to this, we had a rough We have idea of an outline. We have a sketch of rough outline. have an idea of an idea. and idea of an idea. Talking a little bit about what the show has meant to us in individually as as the host. And so, yeah, in in true Goblin fashion, I did not plan anything or think ahead. so and And you're looking at me, which you can do now because we're in the same room. Yeah, because typically you sketch out something. Typically you're the one who least has...
00:17:09
Speaker
A skyfall window open? i understand we don't have that here. There's no skyfall windows open now. And not relevant. Yeah, not relevant. Yeah. don't know. I can start yammering. I'm good at yammering. So, well...
00:17:23
Speaker
I think it happens a lot for, I know we've talked about it in our podcast and i think a lot of others, but like for me, the big thing with the show is it it's really kept me connected and part with the magic community. I have just, I'm not playing magic all that much anymore. I'm not going to, i'm not, It's not convenient for me to go to a store for a long time. I couldn't with with COVID. And so that i kind of got out of the habit of it. And now I've kind of doing other things. And so this is a, this has been the thing that has kept me connected to magic. And so long I'm still, you know,
00:17:56
Speaker
doing so you know updating some Commander deck, so I'm not reading all of the cards in all the sets, so when I go and get a random set from that's relatively recent, no, I don't didn't know what most of those cards were. You didn't read all 900 new Marvel cards or how many there were? I didn't even know what the mechanics were in Murders at Reload Man when I sat down. I had to I know Disguise, I can't name the rest of them. Well, part of it is because they're all real words. Investigate we had before, but then it's like, suspect this guy, or collect evidence. I'm like, what are you talking about? And of course I started reading rares and mythics that don't always have reminder decks, and that didn't help. I was like, I assume I need to look through these 300 cards, look at the bombs first, and that wasn't helping me. But anyway, I do have some commander decks that have been updating, but it's like...
Staying Connected Through Podcasting
00:18:46
Speaker
Solve something? Like you solve the case? Yeah, that's right. Case was the whole thing.
00:18:51
Speaker
I genuinely just removed all those from the files. I don't even know how this works, and I don't think it's going to matter. All of these are gone. Anything that says case, I throw back in the box. It doesn't matter.
00:19:04
Speaker
Yeah, so it was... But the a podcast, I mean, and kept me connected to the magic community, but also to to you guys and to other folks. I've gotten to have conversations with people that I never would have. Obviously, artists and stuff, people who are part of magic, but even going on further back, you and I talked to Irfan, the creator of the Rope Runner, just sort of as a random... like should i Sure. Like, it's relevant. We've mentioned the planners who have introduced me to them, and yeah reached out to this...
00:19:32
Speaker
and asked him I reached out and asked him if if we could get some for charity events that we do and he said would you like me to be on the show and I said absolutely and he came on and it's like that was fun too and yeah it just it's been beyond just being kind of connected to the game but the the folks the people that I've gotten to talk to and the but perspectives I've gotten to see it's it's been a lot and it's all been good Yeah, well, I mean, obviously getting to hang with the two of you is a reason that I really enjoy doing this podcast. And I don't know, I ah can't say exactly when I started joining it, but I think it's been like...
00:20:12
Speaker
more than four years now yeah i think it's been more than half the time yeah absolutely because it was sometime earliest in covet when i joined the podcast so the years have gone by yeah no that and and i can't remember what the exact breakdown but i realized and it's not even close but the era with the three of us now is the longest like cast roster that we've had um But yeah, I mean, and and like you said, this is kind of keeps me in magic too. I don't do, i don't play a whole lot outside of big events and I play, I might stream once a month.
00:20:46
Speaker
You know, I'm on the Jose's stream a fair amount, usually at least once a month on there. Chase will occasionally have me as a fill-in on a stream if they need someone.
00:20:57
Speaker
But, you know, I don't play a whole lot of Magic outside of weekends like this when I get in like most of my Magic for the year. Especially these smaller events, you can actually get to play some Magic too. Yeah.
00:21:10
Speaker
Vegas, I think I got four games in the whole weekend when we were there outside of the unknown events that took up most of my time. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, no, it really is a way to stay connected to the game and I've...
00:21:25
Speaker
I've been a lot more disconnected from recent sets. You know, one, most sets lack stories, so that, you know, it disconnects me from the sets. And then, um...
00:21:38
Speaker
I just haven't I haven't been collecting them anymore like I used to so that is a disconnection kind of the one thing I'm still really tuned in on is I buy like all the pre con commander deck still because I love pre con commander decks and I love playing them.
00:21:55
Speaker
a So the growth of complexity and damage even just oh yeah no there they're so complex the um i like ah I was playing the the counters Final Fantasy X one earlier today and just my board state was ridiculous. I just had dice everywhere. it was you know i had i had three or four on like five five or six different creatures its just i wrote know This was even going back now, yeah, year couple years ago when we did a, with the Goblin Lore Discord, we did a Doctor Who game. Yeah. And you were playing the, tiny whiny one. Yeah. And the number of upkeep transactions
00:22:41
Speaker
that you had like with suspend and time counters and this i was like house is a precon i be bird keep on like for snake it was it is yeah that it That deck in particular is probably the most complex pre-con they've ever released. yeah Yeah. It was so many triggers.
00:23:00
Speaker
Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think you's you're both alluding to the, the, the pace of game is, I've lamented this for a while, just the the pace of product, uh, it's very hard for me to keep up with.
Challenges with Magic's Rapid Product Releases
00:23:13
Speaker
And then add in that, you know,
00:23:17
Speaker
the the split between in world versus universe beyond, the shift in that, and you know yes they're saying that this is a rare year that we had more universe beyond standard legal sets than we did in universe. Yeah. And the fact that there's seven standard legal sets in one year. Yikes.
00:23:41
Speaker
It's just... used to be four? It was four for decades. It was four. Yeah. yeah yeah that And that included a core set that is intentionally simpler to help board players? Yeah.
00:23:52
Speaker
three and keep things in standard yes and then three to tell a year-long story in some ways but yes and there was a lot of ways to there were struggles to deal with small sets and yeah yeah how to use mechanics and all of this now it's just we're the greatest hits of each playing one by one yeah but then and we get this more comic book storytelling that we talked about, right? That's an overarching story that's that's dragging, that's going along.
00:24:18
Speaker
But we just left Strixhaven and we're not even going to be at Reality Fracture for months. Yeah. I still need to finish reading the Strixhaven story. You still need to see a the other colors of magic show up.
00:24:38
Speaker
Well, the hints at the things like Blue Chandra. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I saw Blue Chandra and I'm like, I don't know if I want to read reality. This is wrong. Garak has the chain veil on? Yeah. That's awesome.
00:24:54
Speaker
derickk has the chain veil that
00:25:01
Speaker
it would consider a bad thing. My first thought was just, oh, they're bringing back Planner Chaos, I guess. Yeah. thought you were going to say they were bringing back Garrick, which thank goodness. But yeah, I mean, it's hard because we We hadn't even a lot about this story up to date. you know Historically, we've done old story because we've done you know we did Karn to talk about a lot of mental health because poor boy is depressed. I did get to see the, ah who who is it here who has the art for the, is it Karen Yanner that has the art for Karn on the beach?
00:25:36
Speaker
I think it's from that one secret lair that's Card in like a Speedo sitting on the beach. Cause I looked at the secret lair art, but I was just Card deserves that. Cause he's depressed boy. He really does. um well like We would talk story through that as we went through backstory, because but we were also getting so much up-to-date story.
00:25:54
Speaker
yeah um And now it's it's like if that's gonna be, if if we've been doing that a lot, there's just huge months. And so finding what we're gonna talk about, doing some of the Melto stuff that you both were doing when I was on break and filling those in it does become a little bit harder when we at least use story, even if it was to talk about our own world or our own lives or our mental health.
00:26:16
Speaker
yeah we had this like framework that we don't get as much of anymore.
00:26:24
Speaker
So I know that for me, the what the show has brought was I think intentional connection to the community. um I think that without it, I would probably have moved on to something else or or moved sideways or or just adjacent in some ways because it's the same thing. I got two kids, I don't get to play that much anymore.
00:26:45
Speaker
These weekends like this, yes, maybe I get two. Yeah, and I'd have taken a more serious break. like like i've I've had gaps, and I think it happens for a lot of Magic folks, where you'll play a lot, and then you'll take a break, and you might come back and play more. um I've definitely had some gaps historically, but I haven't.
00:27:02
Speaker
really since I started in Gilpack 2013 maybe? And part of that was then I got really back in and I was playing a lot. Then I started to write for a little while, which was also like stuff that kind of pulled me into the community.
00:27:17
Speaker
but then the podcast, when when we started we started this, this really has kept me involved with the community, both talking to the fellow hosts and talking to other folks and going to events some, but particularly the last few years when I haven't really gone to any events. Obviously there was the the COVID years where there really weren't events, but even there I haven't done a whole lot since then. I guess I've done a couple local Minneapolis ones, but really haven't traveled.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:55
Speaker
It's just, I mean, it's expensive and it takes time and know I've already been wondering whether I'm going to do Vegas next year after this year was... It was a lot. It was expensive. you know i had fun, but yeah I'm like, kind of you know is magic that of important enough for me to do that? And everybody went to Shoevox instead of Vegas this year, so all the cool people were at Shoevox. Yeah, that was that was fun.
00:28:24
Speaker
I do think that it showed that there maybe there is more of a... a place for something that's smaller. yeah And if I'm, think you're saying, Tayev, gonna spend the money at this point, maybe events like Shoebox or this type of a command fest is where I'm gonna target, where You know, so Jen's here, she's yeah she went to Shoebox, that was her first time ever going on magic to a Magic event, has already gotten to play a handful of games, but if she went to like Vegas, I just think it would be... Yeah.
00:28:55
Speaker
I'm not sure she would have cut wanted to come back, right? Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, Dylan went with me last year, and yeah, it was just really overwhelming for him. Yeah. Yeah. But if we can, but if we go, if we can target these, these events in more of a purposeful way and hopefully they keep having more ones like this, yeah then it's maybe the same expense, but I'm getting to see other people or I'm able to plan like, well, I also don't have $350 admission fees like Vegas does for, for the, you know, regular weekend admission. Yeah. Yeah. We're not talking about the black clothes badge and no not at 350. That's like, yeah.
00:29:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it's true that you know that cost being might be that it's I'm going to need to rethink and actually like these smaller ones. Yeah, and za and I'm thinking I'm starting to watch on the schedule for the for the Command Fest and they do more of these like the big ones in part because the big ones take so much more work. um But these, you know, are are a lot more like the old GPs that I used yeah like to go to because those were smaller events handled by more local TOs who could kind of set up what worked for them.
00:30:06
Speaker
And if there's a yeah there's a bunch of these, like maybe that's how I start traveling for magic again, finding some command fest somewhere I want to go to anyway, as you were going to say. As I mentioned in the opening, like i I've been wanting to come up to to the the Seattle area for a while. and so now i I took some extra time on both ends, which turns out to work out really well with the 4th of July and the World Cup going on, which i I didn't factor into my planning, but it helps now. Yeah. World Cup was not on my radar. And I watched soccer. It was not on my radar until was just funny when the U.S. won the last game. Jen and were like, oh, yeah, what is there next? one
00:30:41
Speaker
Oh, in Seattle today we're flying out. yeah Cool. Yeah. Yeah. And so like I came in Wednesday and well, my flight was full, actually. It was over full. They offered um to, if if somebody wanted to take a later flight, they were they were offering $500 gift card.
00:31:03
Speaker
for the for the airline and i thought about it. I genuinely thought about it. If I hadn't had plans with a different friend Wednesday night, I might have done it. But then flying home, I've got an early Tuesday flight, so even if things are a little busy, I can't imagine it's going to be too crazy at the airport before the sun. yeah um So I think that'll help to dodge some of the travel issues there.
00:31:32
Speaker
But it's been nice to just see other things and Tacoma's been nice too. How we find some good food around here? It's it like it's it's like the um the city itself becomes more important because like Vegas is to possibly visit. Sure. So no offense to people who live in Vegas, I'm sorry for you.
00:31:54
Speaker
Yes, I mean, it's it did they they have been going there for since 2013. I was at that very first one and it, wow. Just shocking how the explosion has been from there now. and So they need some big venues, but right, like if you go, i feel like if you go to Chicago, you're not necessarily gonna do Chicago, you're gonna be the magic hall for most of the event, because that is what people are oftentimes paying to do, maybe so. But like this, I feel like you go to a Command Fest, you can choose it based on the city and wow, like, yeah, the food for me is, like, we've been looking for restaurants around and where we go and...
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah, i mean and that was the thing that I started going to events out out east because I have a lot of my old World Warcraft friends I used to play with are all out east because You play that game, they had West Coast servers, they had East Coast servers. I'm in the i'm in the Midwest.
00:32:50
Speaker
East Coast is one hour difference, West Coast is two. So i just I was playing on East Coast servers. But I started going out to the DC Baltimore area because there's an anime convention I went out to out there a lot.
00:33:02
Speaker
Started Baltimore, moved to DC. They're pretty close. But that was a thing where it's like, a it was fun to fun to see my friends. That was the most important part. The event was great. I i love that anime con.
00:33:15
Speaker
But then I discovered that the food was incredible because I ah love crab and there's some good crab out in Maryland. And so that that's kind of become a thing too that I found I thought i love when i when I do travel for events like this, trying to find places. and and try things there. Stuff that I can't find elsewhere, even if it's weird stuff. Like, there's a bunch of fast food chains out here. For some reason, I'm fascinated by regional fast food chains.
00:33:39
Speaker
And so it's like, well, I'm out here. I've got to... We've got this discussion where we're going to buy a food. Oh, yeah. So it's like, I've got to find... I've got to eat at... Jack in the Box. Jack in the Box. got to eat at LL BBQ. So it's been fun to try some of that stuff. Genuinely, some of the first items that were on my list, because those are right next to the airport.
00:33:58
Speaker
But I mean think it just shows that...
Podcast as an Anchor in Changing Times
00:34:00
Speaker
um you know like the decision to keep doing the show at least for me is because even as being as inconsistent as it's been this last year it gives an anchor or it gives kind of something to pull me or tie me to the community and more importantly keep me tied to you know like you all because yeah um like we've grown I think very close over this. Yeah yeah absolutely and I know like for myself too i we talk this is not necessarily about cognitive distortions but to mention cognitive distortions oh i can blame myself for everything i genuinely was blaming myself for the weather earlier this weekend um for something yeah and and so it's it's like when you know you talk about the the show hasn't always been consistent and it's like so somehow through that maybe just through years and i've gotten better but you two have both been very supportive as as co-hosts and our community has also been very supportive as listeners and the and the community and so i don't feel i don't feel that guilt if we need to take time off i don't feel that guilt if we miss something i don't feel that guilt if something comes up and so that also has really helped me to continue to do this yeah i think it's the nature of we've talked about this before for us this cast is we can do it for as long as we feel that we're loving it and doing it because we're not
00:35:22
Speaker
you know, it's this weird thing like that that what box do we fit in if you want to try and put us into a box, right? Like sure, we're content creators. At the end of the day, we we do. I mean, not according to Wizards anymore. Correct. but yeah well and Yeah, and not according, you know, that's... We don't wait we don't make yeah Instagram videos and TikTok videos. We're not creators anymore. Right. So you see these shifts, right? And then I think that it's that interesting thing is...
00:35:48
Speaker
You see unfortunately how that's impacted a lot of people that shift that maybe took away a revenue stream um or people whose livelihood that it it is. yeah And you see why decisions maybe is made by some people to take on certain projects because they have to get paid. yeah so i'm very
00:36:11
Speaker
I think that that's what's made it for those breaks to be okay for me. Yes, and that's the thing too. When I talk to folks, my friend I sat down and had dinner with on Wednesday, he was asking about the podcast. like, haven't talked to you about it for a while. it's going good and and but it's like our you know we have this you know a sort of consistent listenership that's you know small compared to the very very top you know 0.01 percent or whatever but it's like but that's fine we don't need to do that no because that's doing this as a job and we've we found this nice place where we get to do this as a hobby it's cost neutral for us
00:36:49
Speaker
and that's And so then we can keep it as something that is, as long as we're enjoying it, as long as we can kind of, we have the capacity to do it, then we can do it. And there isn't the pressure to try to turn it into something else, to try to monetize it, to try to do anything else with it. We can just kind of leave it as its own thing and and participate with it as we can.
Embracing the Freedom of Podcasting
00:37:08
Speaker
always like to think about it. Every couple of weeks we spend a few hours hanging out and then we publish it for people listen you to listen to. And we get people that listen. yeah And give us feedback that, wow, something within the episode hit a chord. I think it is because we're three people having a conversation and we just kind of talk about what's on our mind.
00:37:32
Speaker
Oftentimes because we don't have any plans. yeah I mean, Goblin Lore was a good name for the podcast. Yeah. But it is true. There's that element of just... because it's but it is truths there's that element of just we don't have to plan and that's okay. And yeah that's the part of the chaotic goblin that I can embrace fully.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. and That was when when we decided to name it that, my very first thought was, well, I guess I'm going to adopt goblins as as a thing. And I'm think that'll be fine. And it's it's worked out well. I have a tattoo now of a goblin. Oh yeah, I haven't actually seen that yet. Yeah, that is. The fling that says, i love hobs and has a little like,
00:38:13
Speaker
Looks like a children's color drawing. Thank you, Andre Garcia. yes see and You also have a goblin on your shirt, and that's what I was looking at as I was saying. Yeah, it's it's it's true. like It's funny. like do i' you' You've got the whole brand going. I have the whole brand. yeah We were joking is always jokeking about that earlier today. like oh you have a goblin deck. Wow. like Well, hilariously, I don't have one goblin deck. I think I did a count one time at my commanders, and it's I only have one true goblin deck.
00:38:43
Speaker
But I got Slimefoot and Squidier aristocrats. I've got Red-Blue Spellslinger, that's both goblins. I have my Rakdos eggs deck, which is an unknown card, but it's slow bad. yeah And as I was like like starting to go through my list, I was like, oh, it's actually like getting close in half my decks have goblins as commanders.
00:39:07
Speaker
I guess have two. Now think about it, because have a Vile Smasher deck these days. So Zotto is my Goblin deck who is a Goblin deck. Yeah, yeah. is deck. And then there's Vile Smasher who happens to be a Goblin and helms a totally different deck. But it's very much the Chaos Goblin, though. Yes, that's very much a Chaos Goblin deck. It just features birds.
00:39:28
Speaker
but it's It's Vile Smasher helping out a different creature type. Yeah. Bringing some Chaos Goblin energy to the birds.
00:39:39
Speaker
But yeah, it's it's impressive to think that we've made it to eight years. Like, it's not something that I ever would have conceived of. Yeah. but we'll start Blew way past the 10 episodes that Chewy used to consider to make an official podcast. Yeah.
00:39:53
Speaker
I remember we talked about in the first 10 episodes. Yeah, in the first 10 episodes. Because he used to work with MTGcast, which was a feed that, I'll be honest, I don't know if it's even around anymore.
00:40:03
Speaker
But it used to be a feed that Magic Podcast could could join. And so it helped a lot of people start new podcasts. And he just said, he's like, buy 10. And and his he wasn't saying real show is sort of a judgmental thing. He's like, but by 10 episodes, the hosts actually know what is happening. They they know how much work it is. yeah How much work it can be to maintain a pace and to continually have new things to talk about and bring and keep coming back to it. And he said there's a lot of shows that would start and end in after a few episodes because people would had an idea, they'd sit down and talk through, and then their idea was done. And then it's it it can be a lot of work to come back. Yeah. And so for him, like that was his thing. He's like, once I saw a show hit 10 episodes, I knew he was probably sticking around for a little while.
00:40:50
Speaker
Well, yeah, we have stuck around for a little while. Yeah, we've hit 10 a few times. I mean, yeah, I was going to eight years for a goblin, that's literally lifespan. Well, we just want to thank you for everybody. Hope you're enjoying our room experience.
00:41:11
Speaker
get together our own little mini goblin gathering which we got cards of right here because remember that you know two's a party and three's a felony you have been listening to the goblin lore podcast goblin lore can be found on blue sky at goblin lore pod or by going to our link tree for all of our links especially to our discord and our discounts we welcome all feedback and through social media, or by joining our Discord, which is very active.
00:41:39
Speaker
And now, goblins, I just want to remind you that goblins, like snowflakes, are only dangerous in numbers.