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Vegas Nationals - Episode 23
23 Plays18 days ago
We return from Vegas in good spirits and talk about our experience. Stevo's Top 8 Jin deck: https://youtu.be/19jmEyke7OE #grandarchivetcg #grandarchive #tcg #anime
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Transcript
Steve's Comeback and Tournament Experiences
00:00:00
Speaker
Steve's not washed anymore. Oh, shit. Steve's not washed anymore. In the day two room, every time I kept reporting each win, and I think once I finally made top eight, all of the Eastern PA or like East Coast judges like Arvin, Jacob, and everybody was like, oh, my God, Steve, you're not washed.
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello adventurer. Have you come to the Grand Archive for careful study? Yes, well you're in the right place for knowledge on the world of Cambria and beyond. Come with me and we'll get you started. Welcome back everyone.
00:00:34
Speaker
Well, not Corbin. You didn't go anywhere. Welcome back Steve. here Welcome back. um You had a great Vegas run. i was, I was also there.
00:00:46
Speaker
with a not so but you're wrong i will say this i felt like one of the most proudest dads i've ever felt when you told me you were like four and oh at one point i was four and oh before lunch yeah before one i'm just shedding a tear and i'm just like and then i come back from lunch and lose four and row oh my goodness that so david uh um My previous Ascent runs, every time i was undefeated going into lunch break, I didn't make day two.
00:01:19
Speaker
The two times I made day two at Ascent was when I got got a match loss before lunch. You've got to come with us so you take that crap luck with you and don't foist it onto me.
Impact of Corbin's Absence and Deck Strategies
00:01:31
Speaker
yeah think about it. we We kept joking that this was David's year to go to Worlds. Had you come, Corbin, you might have shaken up the entire tournament and David might have actually made it.
00:01:42
Speaker
So this is all Corbin's fault. I think it is. I think we can blame Corbin. Oh my God. Corbin. Get off this Pantheon kick. Get back over here and do the real work. yeah Honestly, Corbin, I understand and and can sympathize with like you know lack of enjoyment with the game for the time being, especially in the current meta.
00:02:06
Speaker
But like hear me out. ah I just took a deck that I had like five hours of practice with in top eight. and I'm pretty sure you can do it with anything at this point. and And it beat Shenju. the The things that you don't like. Beat Shenju.
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah. I'd rather just not play against Shenju. Just drown them instead. I'd rather just never see a Guoja again in my
Vegas Impressions and Gambling Insights
00:02:28
Speaker
life. Drown them. Drown them all. I would be okay right now if Guoja level 1 hit Cat 3.
00:02:34
Speaker
speaking Speaking of, I'm going to play Suzaku now. Back on Suzaku. Oh, yeah. there's ah Was it Suzaku or Fire Slimes that also top-aided?
00:02:46
Speaker
Taco took Suzaku to the tops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fire Suzaku. Yeah. yeah I always love his decks. um I don't know if I've mentioned this, but like when i when I first started playing, his...
00:03:02
Speaker
his um His wind assassin decks were the inspiration for a lot of mine as well. um And I pulled a lot of what he was, because he was doing things that were very off meta at the time. And I thought that they were very, very interesting. And that's where I started building from based off of a lot of things that he was doing. So very cool to see ah see him back ah in the in the in the top.
00:03:27
Speaker
um And I'm also excited to see the chicken still riding high. Hate the chicken. Don't hate on the chicken. Hate the chef. Hate the chef, not the chicken. Okay, yeah. Peppered Chef was kind of busted. I hate the chef i can get down with that.
00:03:42
Speaker
Anyway, that was my first trip to Vegas, by the way, guys. I've never been to Vegas. No way. Seriously? really I thought you've been for work events. No, no. those weren't Those weren't Vegas trips. Those were Florida trips. Oh.
00:03:56
Speaker
Yeah. I can't keep track of his Illuminati stuff. And you shouldn't. I'd have to have you removed.
00:04:07
Speaker
I'll call off the helicopters for now. um No, I have never been to Vegas and I will say it was not what I was expecting.
00:04:18
Speaker
um It was a lot sadder than I thought it was going to be. what What were you expecting going into this? I think something fancier. Really? Yeah. Yeah, a lot less. I didn't realize that you could still actively smoke inside the concedos as well.
00:04:34
Speaker
So like there was like seeing ashtrays at every single slot slot machine yeah was crazy. um The amount of like old people just sitting there like in a stupor. Yeah.
00:04:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah, dude. The old people on vacation or retirement. Oh, man. you know And they complain about iPad kids. These these these elderly slot jockeys are the original. okay um i I just never saw the allure of slot machines whatsoever.
00:05:13
Speaker
um You have no agency um whatsoever. ah If I want to see flashy Bing Bang lights all going all over the place, I'll just play some like Candy Crush or something.
00:05:26
Speaker
um or Genshin you play some Genshin right right Corbin yeah at me you can gamble yourself in your gacha games um I think on like I had a i had a red eye flight on on Monday which was awful we'll talk about that in a minute um but like I was hanging out in the casino and I like I had zero drive whatsoever to like even try any of the games um The only one that seemed vaguely interesting to me was the blackjack. I was watching people play blackjack and there were some people who were actually like looked like they were enjoying themselves playing it. And I'm just like, OK, I could see getting getting lost in that. That seems a little fun. But at the same time, I just don't like the idea of like losing real money.
Gambling Tactics and Casino Comparisons
00:06:18
Speaker
So the trick is, right, you go to the $5 minimum table and you bring $100 and then you just do not put any more money in.
00:06:30
Speaker
Because if you think about it, you spend more sometimes for entertainment like movies. sure. that's like That's the thing that I think people struggle with with gambling addiction, which legally I think now you have to put a ah disclaimer on gambling addiction hotline or whatever. yeah yeah um But I think like the thing people struggle with is just knowing when to stop.
00:06:49
Speaker
And the best way to tell yourself to stop is you take a hundred dollar bill and that's it. You do not have come with any more money in your wallet. You do not bring your credit card. You leave all of that in your room. Oh, you you better because like there's a f freaking ATM machine next to almost every single one of those slots. Absolutely.
00:07:07
Speaker
I mean, there's so much social science in what goes into the casino. Of course. and When you were in the casino, did you notice the the lack of sunlight, the lack of clocks? i yet There was no windows. yeah they never They never show you what what time of day it is outside and they never put a clock in there. because the door The doors were glass, but they were tinted glass. And you could only see out of them when... like So the fire alarm accidentally went off at one point.
00:07:34
Speaker
And the the the the the the tints... ah ah kind of went away, not like fully, but it wasn't as dark so that you could actually see the exit, obviously, you know, for fire safety reasons. But otherwise, those things were blackout.
00:07:51
Speaker
I remember getting to the Palms Casino because that's where the event was and going into the venue. ah I thought, man, I can't even see through these things. And then I got into the casino and i turned around. was like, oh, shit, that's right. I remember they tint these things because they don't want you knowing what time it is. No, they don't. I mean, i thought there was a lot of like crazy predatory things there too. When I was looking at the ATM, like you could literally do, you could take your paycheck and put it into that ATM and cash it.
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah. Like people knock gotcha games for being predatory, preying on FOMO and all this other stuff, which they are. Casinos take it to a whole new level. I mean, the casinos have had like 60 years of working on this stuff. What do you think the model is based off of? Right. You know, the gotcha system. Oh, yeah, I know. i know what off absolutely Absolutely. Yeah.
00:08:39
Speaker
Anyway, just one more pack of cards. Exactly. I'm going to my non-gambling addiction. partnership just Just one more. Just one more pack. yeah here Here I am playing for Sylvie Bucks so that I can go and get more ALC altar so that I can hope, just hope that I pull Niko CSR.
00:09:02
Speaker
I've got six of these. I've sold two so far for $20 to $25. Both times people opened Training Dummy. Should I open one of them? Should I gamble? You should open them all.
00:09:14
Speaker
Steve, how many sealed Merlin Masteries did you sell last season? Shut up. I heard about that. it was the same thing i opened it like even i lost so much from selling them yes you did okay counterpoint counterpoint this one unlike the merlin one there's no like return to the archive i have like like what on here is actually good terraferring maybe sort of seeking maybe training dummy definitely
00:09:45
Speaker
ah Any of the Mordred lineage, maybe. There's a lot of alt art versions of like... I likeed like Frostbind and Dredging Streams. They have the new Gildas on it. Yeah, the dredging the Dredging Streams one is probably pretty good. There's no way opening these things are good and worth Alright, how's this?
00:10:05
Speaker
Pick one and open it right now on this pod. Shit, we're gambling. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, live on the Careful Study. It's not live, this is pre-recorded, you idiot.
00:10:17
Speaker
okay ah pick Pick one. there How many do you have? Six. the I'm going to roll a die. True gambling. And
Upcoming Tournaments and Insights
00:10:27
Speaker
roll a die.
00:10:28
Speaker
It says three. So that's this one. Yeah. Alright. We're gambling, boys. I'm going to rip this thing right now. I'm going to rip it in a half. Here we go. We got it.
00:10:46
Speaker
right Alright, what do we got? Don't look at it, just reveal it to the camera. put a reveal it to the camera because I'm looking at the back. Alright. What is it? It's garbage!
00:11:00
Speaker
don't even safeguard Paragon. This is why we don't gamble. Damn it. Now you know the other five have like the hits. Best stuff in them.
00:11:15
Speaker
Best stuff. Plenty of dummy trainers in there. should just hold on to the five of them and like the beginning of every podcast from now on, I just crack one open. Well, if you don't sell them, yeah, we're to have to start cracking them. Oh, believe me, they're going to get sold at the next regional. What is the next regional that we're going to? New Jersey, I think. Is it Jersey? Yeah, I think it's in like two or three weeks. Yeah. all right but The Banish Jones is right after Jersey's. Yeah, it's it's a a June 6th.
00:11:44
Speaker
yeah Yeah. but oh yeah junior Doing another three k Another 3K. Yeah. So all you have to do is place 32nd and you will pretty much get your money back for the entry.
00:11:58
Speaker
um And, you know, we have 1 through 16 for prizing for the ah points, the net the Nats cards. um And we're also giving the first 50 people to purchase a ticket a unique a queen token.
00:12:19
Speaker
See, Steve's going right now to buy his ticket. See you, Steve. You too could be the proud winner of one of these playmats. That's right. We're going to be giving away all of Steve's playmats as well.
00:12:34
Speaker
The mass amount of them continue to grow. Yeah, we're just going giving all those away. I actually still have ah an actual box of those tokens to the little. What was it? DTR. when They had those tokens like the imbue token. the Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:12:51
Speaker
have a box of that to give away. all right. We're going to be giving away some tokens to those are those are fun. People like those tokens. Let's go back to Vegas outside of the fact that it was depressing and sad out on the casino floor.
00:13:06
Speaker
The metal was all over the place, man. It was wide open. Yeah. Wide freaking open. We had, I saw Razorgale, Fire Slime, Suzaku, Serio, Fractals, gin of all flavors.
00:13:22
Speaker
Genbu, Aetherwing Diana of both the Fire and Water variant. I even heard that there was a Wind one somewhere. um And then there was a fair amount of Wind Crux Lorraine, too, of both you know Crux Knight and Spirit Ruler. So like there was
Tournament Structure and Experience Critique
00:13:40
Speaker
all kinds of decks.
00:13:41
Speaker
There was even a Rai who made Day 2. Was the Rai Huka or not Huka? Who was the Rai that made Day 2? I don't know.
00:13:52
Speaker
But yeah, so why don't we look at the ah why don't we look at the conversion rates for day two by archetype right now? um So I'm looking, that is a cent. Let's look at look at okay, so we had there was a very large representation Razorgale, Exeodex in general.
00:14:16
Speaker
um and Crux Lorraine. Those all had over 30 decks represented. Of those that had 30 decks represented, Crux Lorraine did the worst.
00:14:30
Speaker
um Lorraine has a really rough matchup into Jyn. So with so many Jyns wandering around, that is a problem for Lorraine. um Of the 31 Exeodex, only four made it into 2.
00:14:46
Speaker
day two of the 30 Razorgale decks, seven made it to day two. Razorgale had a pretty decent conversion rate. The best conversion rate went, of course, to Woodr Aetherwing Diana.
00:15:04
Speaker
How'd you feel about Woodr Aetherwing Diana, Steve? I played against it like four or five times. Thank God two of them almost didn't matter. i mean, one of them was on stream where I got... You got demolished. Dude, I got... Oh, well. Dude, my face, when I when like i played the Enchanted Fett game two, and I drew the only like playable card outside Fracturize, I drew a Regenerate into memory. I'm like, yes, we get to level three this time.
00:15:33
Speaker
And then I proceed to banish it on level up. I'm like... Oh, well. I'm dying. it so It was not good. Yeah. Corbin, as someone who didn't go to Vegas, cause you're not a winner anymore. How was the home experience for you watching the the the stream? ah Like what did you get to see that, you know, those of those of us involved didn't because I didn't see a lick of the stream outside of like a few minutes periodically on the, ah that was like broadcasted on the wall for us.
00:16:06
Speaker
Yeah. I thought the stream was really good this time. um one of the things that the stream usually does is they show like the interesting decks while this time it seemed like they were showing more of the top tables, which as a viewer and also like being familiar with all the players, I enjoyed seeing that more.
00:16:24
Speaker
And I think that makes a lot of sense for Nationals is to focus on like yeah those types of players and and and and like the the the winning and popular decks as well. Because that kind of that tells a story, right?
00:16:37
Speaker
I saw that there was ah a huge amount of like from just like behind the scenes, there's a big effort like that looked like that was going on on the stream on the outside. So it it seems like it showed on the productions from the results that you're you're saying there, Corbett.
00:16:51
Speaker
Yeah. um Very little downtime. There was something like Once in Love was always doing something um to keep content going, which is... Boy, was he. Yeah. I know that was like a huge initiative starting with Worlds 2025. So I'm excited to see you what Worlds 2026 brings too, because I'm sure they're just going to try to like one up the production
Streaming Challenges and National Tournament Reflections
00:17:15
Speaker
again.
00:17:15
Speaker
Yeah. And well I think, I think that he does is like single-handedly the best production decision that they've made for these big events, because you feel so much downtime with stuff like that. And like you and Corbin were just saying, it's actually entertaining and you get to learn about people, you know, the community.
00:17:35
Speaker
So it's nice. Yeah. And especially after a game that, you know, goes quickly, like the one way you were on stream there. you I was dead in like 10 minutes. Yeah. Need to fill that space because, man, there was nothing interesting going on during your match. I will say the one thing I don't like about the streams is when Steve gets 2-0'd in five minutes, they go to a backup stream, but they'll start the backup stream at the start start instead of live. In progress. Yeah. yeah So then 50 minutes into the backup stream, they're just like, oh and we're going into live now. This person won two to one. So we don't actually get the conclusion. There's no way that that's a good or bad. Like, it's kind of difficult because what would you rather have start at the beginning and then not see the ending or start live and have no clue what happened prior? i'd rather start life
00:18:25
Speaker
I'd rather start in progress and let the and and just let the shout casters like bring us up to speed. um I know that other other card games do that. I know that Magic has done that before, where they go to the backup stream and they... I've seen it in multiple ways. I've seen them, one, just break into the game already in progress, um and then they catch you up into what happened in the previous matches. And then I've seen other ones where they will start it from the beginning, but they're doing it at 2x speed.
00:18:59
Speaker
I like that. Yeah. Which is interesting. And they do it to 2x speed until it catches up with it being live. Yeah. that that That might be the best of both worlds.
00:19:10
Speaker
Both of them are like logistically difficult, obviously. So I'm glad that they're experimenting with all these things. I think it's fantastic. Yeah. But like a drop at at least they're doing it.
00:19:22
Speaker
Yeah. like But rather that than nothing. Yeah. One of the things that both I've seen Pokemon and Riftbound do now is they'll like have someone with like chunks from the stream and going over like an analysis of like the play by play, like post gameplay.
00:19:38
Speaker
So like seeing like pointing out pivotal turns or something like that. So as as someone who was involved in, you know, TV production and live TV production way back when to do those types of things is so intense because you have to so you have to have multiple people dedicated to grabbing that footage, editing it editing it live, and then having someone edit in all the commentary on top of that as a package that you then put at the end of whatever just happened.
00:20:13
Speaker
And that is rough. You need a big team for that. So maybe eventually. Maybe they'll get there eventually.
00:20:24
Speaker
um
00:20:27
Speaker
how How would you rate your experience, Steve, at this Nationals as far as just like the variety of decks you played into, how the the event was organized, and so forth? Yeah.
00:20:43
Speaker
In terms of the the decks that I had to play against in the event, like from a competitive perspective, totally fine. um I think that everything was, at least from the competitive integrity standpoint, kind of held for the most part. The only gripe I'll have is like, I'm getting tired of day two deck checks and like would they check our deck and then give it back to us. And I'm just like,
00:21:09
Speaker
So the sleeves that you had an issue with, I can just replace them and then carry on about my day. Like the tournament was run really well outside of those like oddities. Um,
00:21:20
Speaker
That's actually interesting. I remember they kept our decks for Nationals 2025. They did, yes. They did not this time, which was very weird.
00:21:31
Speaker
um But the meta was pretty wide, but like that was that was pretty fine. I think the event as a whole came down to more matchup lottery than anything, which I knew going into it would be the case.
00:21:45
Speaker
um But I felt like the event... you know, competitively was fine, played against matches that felt like, you know, people that were there for nationals were there. They were competent players doing the right thing. You know, it didn't feel like some ascents, you know, sometimes like round one or two, you play against little Timmy who just started his ascent.
00:22:04
Speaker
um It felt like every single player was there to win, except for day two where all the cowards dropped out and didn't play for top 16. Yeah. No shade, huh? I'll throw shade at it. I'm 100% with Taylor on this one. If you drop day two, you're weak.
00:22:17
Speaker
You're weak. and And funny story about that. ah thirteen Round 13, right? I'm table three looking at Korax and I'm like, we ID, I'm top eight. Cool.
00:22:28
Speaker
Right next to me, Pro-An, his teammate, is able to ID and get top eight as well. But there's another guy next to me that is the Fire Slimes player who got ninth. um he He could not go to Singapore.
00:22:42
Speaker
Korak, Sporana, myself all just looked at him and said, well what do you play it well, what are you here for? And he said, well, I'm here for the three hearts. So we were explaining to him that if you ID'd, you'd be guaranteed one three of hearts because nine through 16th gets one.
00:22:55
Speaker
But any if if you played it out and he lost, then he would get none because he wouldn't have the the top 16 record. So that's a guy who couldn't even go to Singapore who played for the three of hearts.
00:23:06
Speaker
All these other cowards went and played the ascent thinking, ah, more EVP. You know, i'm more, more, more value. No, it turns out when you get a three of hearts that snap sells for 1250,
00:23:18
Speaker
way better than whatever the hell you're getting out the ascent that's pretty good value though the ascent had like 20 more people than the gnats did which is because 20 people dropped day two of that's that's funny that is so funny the the tournament was was pretty cool pretty fine i will say the the the structure of the gnats and ascent together I think they need to learn from this because if you remember, i don't know if we said it on a different podcast or if this was like a off podcast, a lot of players had issue with the fact that I'm going to nationals. Therefore, my expectation is day two nationals not play in the ascent.
00:24:04
Speaker
Therefore, I will not buy an ascent ticket unless of course I wanted the goodies, but you know, maybe like that's part of the reason you would buy the ascent ticket. What they should have established from the get-go was telling players, if you do not day two nationals, there will be generic admission tickets available because you had players that did not buy ascent tickets because they wanted to day two Nats and they didn't want to pay money for something that they might not have used.
00:24:35
Speaker
Sure. They also didn't feel comfortable that if I don't buy an ascent ticket and I don't day two, how am I getting into the ascent? I remember the night before or the day of, we got an email that said they would have more ascent tickets at Friday at 9.30 p.m. for the players who did not make day two in Nationals.
00:24:57
Speaker
That should have been disclosed like months in advance. It should have been on the Eventbrite page with Nationals. And read
New Set Release and Game Impact
00:25:04
Speaker
I'm glad that they did it. But again, it's like a learning curve for Weebs is like, this should have been disclosed like months ahead of time.
00:25:11
Speaker
Because I know Corbin, part of the reason you didn't even go was because why would you go and then fail to get day two and then not have an ascent ticket to get into the ascent? yeahp like you'd You'd feel bad, basically.
00:25:23
Speaker
um Which, by the way, did not end up necessarily being the case. Pantheon is a hell of a drug and it was really fun playing that. There are some logistics that definitely need to be ironed out and streamlined because everything that they are trying to do, especially trying to like just the, yeah the, the very concept of trying to limit what you can and cannot purchase. I respect and understand because i think the punch cards is a great idea.
00:25:49
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I think that's a good idea, but the fact that it leaves those at Nats in the lurch kind of sucks. Yeah. It was funny in concept while waiting in line because I think Logan was right behind me and he had his punch card. And I just kept joking with the staff. So I'm like, so you're telling me in order to spend $50, I have to pay $60 to get a ticket.
00:26:11
Speaker
Yes. It was like, yeah. I'm like, that sounds so dumb. You could get a $25 spectator ticket um and then you could um purchase things, I believe. If they give you a punch card, the key was if you had the punch card. I believe the spectator ticket ticket came with a punch card. I'm not a hundred percent on that, but I don't know either. Like I said, there was someone in line that, that, you know, helped pay purchase the the thing for me.
00:26:34
Speaker
Big shout out to the guy who I'm horrible with names. i think it's the guy who does the TCG architect thing. Anyone know that guy's name? Connor? ah Yeah, probably. Again, I'm horrible with names, so I apologize if you're watching the stream and I like i butcher your name.
00:26:49
Speaker
Relax. I am just bad with names. Steve's just dumb. I'm just dumb. Yeah. Yeah. ah Corbin, again, as a spectator, seeing um a TCG here that has such a wide open field, does that like appeal to you as someone watching it and, you know, wanting to play as well?
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Like, especially with Grand Archive, there's like people get attached to specific champions. Yeah. so a wider field like you're going to get to see your champion represented on stream which i think is great for viewership i mean i i would agree like there was let's see uh there was ah guoja arish arisana diana guojas big ba can fast cl jinn lorraine dalchan tristan xander
00:27:45
Speaker
There was Sylvie's, there was Ryze, there was Merlin, Tenaris, Vanitas, Kongming, and even four Alistax. So there was representation.
00:27:58
Speaker
Not all of them made day two, but there was there was representation from almost all of them. So like I could see if this had been like a broadcasted ascent, we would have seen a much more varied group of people on stream as well.
00:28:14
Speaker
um as As a competitor, how does how how how does this change how you prepare for an event like this, Steve? What, just the meta? wide open field.
00:28:26
Speaker
ah On one hand, I want to say the the answer as always is just play what you feel comfortable with playing. But if I listened to that advice, I would have taken Oblation CL and probably just lost my mind.
00:28:40
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, three out of the seven Umbra Guardian decks did make it to day two. I know. And one of them, shout out to to ja Jason, um the New Jersey guy who runs the Final Turn store. Yes. He made top 16. I remember day one playing against him, and he was he was mortified because he knew the matchup was just cooked completely. um And we i was just we were both rooting for each other because I know he he was like,
00:29:07
Speaker
I think this is like his first big top and he, he, he just could not be more ecstatic. That's awesome. It was actually like a, a tender heart moment watching um the final round conclude in the day two room and seeing, cause he knows Andy K who does the tournament organized. Sure.
00:29:24
Speaker
And they're really close friends ah back from like Pokemon. And it was just heartening to, to, you know, I remember going up there and then seeing him go up there with his match slip or whatever, and then just double checking at the end. and It was like,
00:29:36
Speaker
hugs all around. like We were all so stoked for him. That's awesome. But yeah, i would have I would have followed Oblation if that was my my my advice. And sure, maybe it could have worked out.
00:29:47
Speaker
um But the other advice that I have is when it's such an open meta, just try to pick a deck that... you feel confident in across the board um that that has just a higher win rate across the board. um There's kind of like a big asterisk there because you have to figure out what deck does that.
00:30:10
Speaker
um But You know, like, what's what's a couple of decks that generally across the board do pretty well? Like Razorgale is obviously one that did pretty well. Razorgale was well. are wing Yeah, Gembu's not ah not a bad one. Merlin's not a bad one either. Like, we saw Alice Merlin on the Ascent, I think going into Day 2 was like 7-1-1.
00:30:30
Speaker
Unfortunately, Crash and Burn Day 2, but like, they're killing it, man. So, it's... it's It's a difficult question to answer, but somewhere between play what you like and enjoy and are confident with and then play what you feel is just the best into most of the field.
00:30:46
Speaker
So yourre you you went with your Whirlpool Gin. world gym worldn Your Whirl Gin deck. um you have Since Whirlpool came out, you've been trying to make that a thing. I know you tried to make it a thing with CL.
00:31:05
Speaker
a lot of other cle players yeah Oh, actually, important question here. We all know Steve bought CL CSRs. Are you going to get Gin CSRs now? Okay, so I was thinking about this today. I think I might.
00:31:18
Speaker
Because of the amount of money that I've spent on the foiling of the deck, like the main deck, I'm like, you know, now that I look at this, if I sell all this, this is effectively like another lineage CSR.
00:31:30
Speaker
Sure, fuck it. Let's just do that. Let's just play with CSR main deck or mat deck. ah Yeah, i'm I'm telling you, man, the the best way to bling out a deck in in this in this in this game is just the material deck.
00:31:42
Speaker
Yeah. Bling out the material deck. Like I said, it was a bucket list idea to bling out the main deck and then RDO hit and the ablation just kind of changed completely. And I thought to myself, I can't justify constantly changing these cards and then also paying $500 for a main board angelic channeling foil.
00:32:00
Speaker
Like, whoo. Yeah, screw that. Like, I'm just going stick with the material deck. I look at my champion the most of the time anyway. So. Your deck has an obvious disadvantage into Aetherwing Diana, the water version specifically.
00:32:15
Speaker
Yeah. How are you going to shore that up? ah Went over that in the YouTube video. obviously Check out the link below. at that shameless plug. And Steve will discuss everything about his World Gin deck.
00:32:31
Speaker
There you go. Look at that layup into the dunk. Boom. Yeah. ah But no, for people that are here, just for a quick TLDR, put Eventide Spear in put either Inundating Clash in and or Sunsay, go to Relentless Outburst instead of Rend, cut Shade Mistpriest, and that's that's enough that I think it'll sway the matchup.
00:32:51
Speaker
ah In my games that I played against Water Diana, I remember vividly a lot of times if I had Relentless Outburst instead of Rend, i would have won because I can't Rend into Water Diana. They just play Tactical Retreat.
00:33:02
Speaker
So you have to play Relentless Outburst and it it also clears everything. um it does like At 18 damage, you don't care about the bonus point damage to the champion. You just care about clearing the board.
00:33:14
Speaker
And Diana does not have a lot of cards that buffs her allies. So if she's got Frostworns, Get to 24 health if she's got anything but Frostwarnes. Get to 18 health and you're fine.
00:33:26
Speaker
I do remember ah waking up Friday morning and just little peek behind the curtain. The main deck discord, we have each champion set up like with their own channel.
00:33:37
Speaker
And I remember waking up and Steve had posted his list in the Jyn channel. And I clicked on it. And the first thing I thought was, it's weird that there's no relentless outburst in here. it was the I think that was probably the biggest mistake that I did with the entire deck.
00:33:51
Speaker
Because Rend, like, no joke, Rend came up, like, once. That was it. Funny enough, it was the one where I won the day two against the Seru player. But if it was Relentless Outburst, I would have done the same thing.
00:34:06
Speaker
So, ah speaking of main deck, a lot of main deck people did quite well. Um, how many people remind me, how many people did we have day two for, for Nats?
00:34:17
Speaker
Uh, that would have been me, Tony, Alex, Taylor. And I think that's it. So, and then of those who are now all qualified for at least um the big old grudge match at Worlds.
00:34:32
Speaker
Well, Taylor already has his invite. By default, because yeah because of the world champion thing. He's the champ. So Tony managed to get in. Alex managed to get sixteenth which meant that he had to play the 17th place person for that asymmetrical bracket. It was only just the two of them.
00:34:47
Speaker
It was against fire Suzaku and they seeded it. So Alex got the Kachuzo goes first. So Alex won that. So he got top 16. So of the four of us that made day two, Taylor was the only one that didn't get top 16, but because he already had a gauntlet invite effectively, we still have four people that are going.
00:35:04
Speaker
Right. Yeah. That's amazing. That is absolutely amazing. And then of course, the re breakout for the event,
00:35:15
Speaker
is none other than Matt g during Ascent bringing back the erupting.
00:35:26
Speaker
You're going to try and get him on a on ah on a cram session episode so that we can go over the process to new erupting. There's been a massive amount of talk about New Erupting. um And ah he went and got third place at the Ascent with this deck.
00:35:47
Speaker
And boy, oh boy, has he been working on this thing nonstop. I can't like it would be like two in the morning and there'd just be his thought process going through the discord.
00:35:58
Speaker
And it's amazing. It's amazing how much work he puts in. I watched him practice so much during the month leading up to Nats in Ascent, like from the day he joined ManeDeck up until that event. i Watching him on the stream, I pretty much knew what cards he was going to play next because I had watched him practice so much.
00:36:21
Speaker
It was second nature, right? Yeah. yeah I remember, yeah was it Sunday? yeah Yeah, it was Sunday. I was playing Pantheon. I remember playing Pantheon, and in the back of my head, I just kept thinking to myself, like there's not a doubt in my mind that he's going to get first.
00:36:36
Speaker
like I honestly think he he could like he should have gotten first, I think, because his his stream match in the quarterfinals, Yeah, in semifinals. His stream match in semifinals, I mean, his opponent just had everything.
00:36:50
Speaker
And it's just like a bad... be that way sometimes, man. Exactly. It is that way sometimes. But honest to God, I think if you ran back Ascent a hundred times, I think he gets first in like 90 of those.
00:37:03
Speaker
Well, it's ah it is... it is An incredible creation. um and And one of those things where, as we've said before, only he could pilot it the way it's piloted, man. but So many people were trying and man, it is not easy.
00:37:21
Speaker
It's not. It's really not. even ah Even in testing, so many of the main deck members made the comment that they're like, I do not have enough reps on this deck. Like like watching Matt, it's like secondhand nature to him. But when I try to play it, it just it just doesn't work. That's like the comments that a lot of people had.
00:37:38
Speaker
And yeah, you just you you need the reps, man. It's one of the most skill intensive decks in the entire game.
00:37:46
Speaker
We got other announcements out of Vegas. The abandoned restricted did not change. Nothing. I mean, it's probably not going to change until until national season is over. It might not even change until after Worlds at this point.
00:38:04
Speaker
um when When is the next one? The one is in the end of June. ah Is it the second week of June? It might be, yeah, because EU is like two weeks away from last weekend. So maybe end of May, beginning of June.
00:38:17
Speaker
thought it was yeah closer to end of June. For EU or for the next BNR? Next BNR. No, I thought the BNR was after every single nationals.
00:38:30
Speaker
Data scientist Corbin is checking in. Yeah. Please hold.
00:38:41
Speaker
The next ban list is June 29th. Ew. o I don't think we're going to see um a certain pair of boots get banned ah until after national season is over. I hope they ban it. I really do.
00:38:56
Speaker
I imagine it could. or there is a answer to it in the next set. Yeah. um so quickly i'm saying this right What? next set They could do like the next set with an earlier proxy as Volt card, like they did with Nullifying Mirror. They could, um but we did get an announcement of the next set, which is being released August 21st. I hope I'm saying this right. Esphodel Paradise.
00:39:25
Speaker
think it's Asphodel. Asphodel? Asphodel? let me Let me go to the Google pronunciation here. Not loading.
00:39:36
Speaker
Asphodel Paradise, then. Here we go, here we go. Asphodel. Asphodel. Okay. Asphodel Paradise. With a Z. It's like Asphodel. Asphodel. All right. Asphodel Paradise. we are We are saying, what if we had Phantasy Star Online or.hack in our grand archive? yeah And I'm there for it.
00:40:03
Speaker
um They revealed a new character. We're getting Dante the Hemomancer, who is an Exeum Mage. Type.
00:40:14
Speaker
Lots of healing going on there, I bet. ah Concern. I mean, is this where we see like a drain life type card? I mean, listen, we're already kind of close there with Jyn.
00:40:27
Speaker
I could see a drain life. I could see a drain life with this guy. um i think this is pretty cool. I'm excited to see these advanced elements go into other classes.
00:40:38
Speaker
And then we see the return of Lorraine. And she's Arcane this time. Which is very interesting. that So we are now getting yet another champion who does Arcane better than Rai.
00:40:53
Speaker
Pull him out to my boy. Holy moly. I'm going to get a Rai in day two. One. Was it Hyoka? I don't know who it was. It was freaking Hyoka. Oh, hey, Hyoka made top 16. Nice.
00:41:09
Speaker
So Lorraine, Arc Lightsaber starter deck. This is going to be very interesting. So I assume it's going to obviously be very lightning based. There's going to be a lot of lightning type of attacks and stuff like that. But I bet she, too, will be able to play Arcane Blast easier than Rai does.
00:41:27
Speaker
Yeah, Hyoko was the only Rai player to make Day 2. That's it. Amazing. um i i like the I like seeing the heroes adopt the new, so like existing heroes adopt the new style of whatever world we're visiting. I think that's very cool.
00:41:46
Speaker
um We are back to ah the old price for ah booster boxes and cases. So the RDO ah pricing was, as promised, a one-time thing. So happy to see that as well.
00:42:04
Speaker
ah They have announced that... did I forget, did they say what these Grimoire cards are going to be? I don't know. I didn't hear much about this set, to be honest with you. It's a small set of like 20 cards. I'd imagine it'll be like the Quicksilver foiling. Probably. yeah yeah So 21 SRs are labeled as Grimoire. So that'll be interesting to see what those actually are. The set is 254 cards. So it's a regular sized again.
00:42:37
Speaker
So, yeah, I'm ah i'm pretty excited. I like this type of setting. It's one of my favorite types of settings. I love um fantasy tech type mashups.
00:42:49
Speaker
i I love fantasy star type stuff. I love that hack. I love all these things. So it's it's pretty cool to see something like this. You left out the big news. It's draftable.
00:43:00
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's good. is draftable, which is amazing. Which means if we get provided the draft packs with the set, we will be able to have a release day draft. Eight draft packs included in every case. Yeah. yeah Hell yeah.
00:43:20
Speaker
Yeah. So hell yeah. So that means we'll be able to do a release day draft. I'm very excited about that because I think those are some of the best type of events to have on a release day.
00:43:31
Speaker
Um, and we, I feel like it's one of the best ways to get new players into it because there's real layers. Yeah. Like, you don't go into it. You don't go into a new set and you have like somebody like me who buys all these cases the night before and then has everything he wants to play with. then Yeah. You give people time to build and brew. And then also you get newer players with a new set where it's not just a standard, uh, mosh fest, I guess. Yeah. We're going to have the nerf you, Steve.
00:43:58
Speaker
You get, you get a Dante starter deck. Turns out Dante is just like the most broken thing we've ever seen. his level three just says each turn take five, draw two.
00:44:10
Speaker
ah you should give Steve the Dante starter deck next format and see how much he can do with it. and Like only upgrade with the packs that he wins. Ooh, that's a good idea for a series. If only David was not able to edit like all the crap that I have in the back burner for him.
00:44:26
Speaker
I do have a full-time job, guys. I'm sorry. Yeah. For those of you that are still missing out on like the Recollection Series Episode 2, more cram session, I think.
00:44:36
Speaker
more No, I got all your cram sessions. did you? Yeah. yeah there's There's so many videos that David has not edited yet because unlike True Champion Gaming, he is not stuck in the basement. No, no. I am not stuck in a basic basement like Isaac is. Yeah, it it bothered me so much that they hit they sent out the Alice Merlin deck before we did. Because i'm like we were one of the first people that came up with it. Justin was one of the first people that came up with it. I was like, man, we were like, yeah we're to make a video on it. This will be really cool. And then I see True Champion. New video.
00:45:08
Speaker
Alice Merlin. like Darn it. Yeah.
00:45:14
Speaker
It's all good. It's all out there. Great minds think alike. So I feel that, ah you know, like we didn't talk too much about my performance, but like I said, like I was there just to have fun. I had difficulty picking a deck um the whole time. I was playing Wind Crux Lorraine. I think that there is still something very much there to her right now.
00:45:39
Speaker
I don't think that she is solved in any way. But she is very fun to play, to say the least. um So I'm going to be playing around with that some more. i'm going to have some fun with Suzaku again. i had a very good time. I had an enjoyable time, regardless of the fact that I didn't make Day 2 for either Nats or Ascent. But I think that the RDO season is going to be very fun, especially all of the the regionals that we're going to be going to, because I've found some decks that I enjoy. It's always nice. Yeah.
00:46:12
Speaker
Anything you guys want to say in closing here? um I guess if you're going to other nationals, good luck. um Obviously, it's not easiest to travel around the world, and it's also not easy to top these events. So good luck.
00:46:27
Speaker
Try your best. Don't get too discouraged if you don't make it. um Like David just said, that you there's just so many good decks in the meta right now. many. you know You could pick a deck that maybe you have a winning matchup into the main decks like Razorgale and Water Diana, and then you just don't play against any of them, and they all go to the top tables, and you're left there fighting in the dirt with the other pigs. um But like don't don't stress yourself out over it. I know I went into Nationals not feeling like I had any expectation. It was just...
00:46:59
Speaker
I mean, hell, I picked a deck like the night before with eight hours left before submissions were due. um Just go in, remind yourself, have fun with it. I think this is definitely one of those those current metas and seasons where if you are playing something that you're just going to enjoy, you're going to have a better time regardless, both in statistics like winning and also in just enjoyment.
00:47:21
Speaker
So as you can see, because Steve is no longer washed, Corbin, you are now washed. Oh yeah, that's right. It's turn to get the nice jacket.
00:47:33
Speaker
Sorry, Corbin, but you're washed now. I've been washed. It's fine. Well, good luck to you, Steve. We need a report from Singapore when you're there. You'll have to do some footage for me since I will not be there.
00:47:46
Speaker
ah You're going to do footage. You're going to do footage. even i have a full-time job. i don't care. You're going to do footage.
00:48:01
Speaker
Give that or pack Corbin in your backpack so that um he can do the footage for you. Do you think Teresa would let me? I don't want to go. i know i didn't ask that question. It's not about if you want to go or not, Corbin. It's, yeah, that's not my point. Yeah. we're We're scared more of Teresa than of you. Yeah. I show up to his door. was like, hi, Teresa. I'm taking Corbin. Yeah.
00:48:26
Speaker
He doesn't want to go and she'd probably she'd probably be like, eh. yeah
00:48:34
Speaker
Just bring him back eventually. Just get him through customs. We'll mail him back. Yeah. Might be cheaper.
00:48:45
Speaker
What's that? Might be cheaper. To mail you back? Honestly, yeah. the What's the tariff on a Corbin? 25-hour flight to get to Singapore. that's that that's a That's with a layover, right?
00:48:57
Speaker
Oh, there's like two stops. Yeah. you If you fly out of JFK, there's direct flights. Oh, really? Yes. No way. Yes. Fly out of JFK, direct flights. For me personally, I can't stand a layover, especially for something that's going to make the entire day a travel. Like it is 100% worth a few extra hundred bucks to get a straight flight.
00:49:21
Speaker
I'll have to definitely take a look. and You know anyone that's willing to drive me to JFK? Just take a bus. I don't like people. Oh my God. No, I don't know anyone who's willing to drive you to JFK. Hey Corbin.
00:49:37
Speaker
ever yeah Call Justin. What you do is you drive to North Jersey and take a train directly into JFK. Justin was supposed to pick me up, but he didn't.
00:49:49
Speaker
Well, he fell asleep probably. Anyway, thank you all for joining me today. um We'll be back probably after some regionals.
00:50:02
Speaker
It's crunch time, man. right. Thank you all. See you later. You want to hear more of careful study? Make sure to subscribe and ding that bell to be notified when we post.