Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the IP2 Podcast.
Speaker: I'm Shay Ashby, and as always, I'm joined by Felix Chung.
Speaker: Felix, how's it going tonight?
Speaker: Hey Shay, I'm doing really well.
Speaker: I'm really excited to boot up the time machine and take us all the way back to January for the start of our year in review.
Speaker: Dynasty was the meta and the only three heroes that were LL'd were Prism and Chain and Starvo.
Speaker: So Oldham was legal, Lexi and Icelander and Briar as well.
Speaker: Still legal at the time.
Speaker: And man, it feels like a long time ago, doesn't it?
Speaker: Yeah, it does.
Speaker: I think was at the time when like Crown of Seeds was a problem.
Speaker: Okay, some would say Crown of Seeds was always a problem and it's still a problem.
Speaker: Like, so living rent free in people's heads.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, it's always been there.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it's true.
Speaker: It's stuff's always around until somebody figures a way to abuse it.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, like I enjoyed that meta.
Speaker: I'm an Icelander player.
Speaker: So I was quite fond of that meta was also pre Ammute of Ice and Hypothermia bands.
Speaker: I remember listening to Michael Hamilton's deck tech for Bull Lander after his win, just on his MNR podcast and sleeving up the deck.
Speaker: And man, that was fun.
Speaker: Slinging spells, stopping people in the middle of their turn with hypothermia.
Speaker: Oof.
Speaker: Oh man, it's, it, it's a high.
Speaker: I mean, I've told this story before.
Speaker: Um, I probably even told it on the podcast, but I don't really remember.
Speaker: Um, at one of the, um, pro quests, we, um, I was playing Icelander and my round five opponent was Katsu.
Speaker: And he, I think he was on like, um,
Speaker: Like a crouching tiger katsu.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And he, I had disrupted him a little bit on his turn and his follow up, or sorry, on my turn.
Speaker: And then, so his turn was very kind of mediocre.
Speaker: So I took a bunch of damage and I had a hypothermia.
Speaker: I chose not to play.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And then he ate whatever I did on my turn and had a five card hand played art of war.
Speaker: I think one predatory streak, maybe a roar of the tiger to make like a shitload of tigers.
Speaker: And they were going to come in for like a plus two legit.
Speaker: This was probably a game defining moment.
Speaker: Probably would have won the game, not specifically like in that moment maybe, but.
Speaker: I would have been on the back foot and he did the age old start of the combat chain.
Speaker: After playing all of his cards, he went Kodachi for one.
Speaker: And I just sat there for a minute.
Speaker: I felt like the awfulest person in the world, but also I was like a little child inside.
Speaker: I'm like, Oh, this is amazing.
Speaker: And you know, he had like five, six, seven tigers that were going to come at me.
Speaker: And I'm just like, Oh,
Speaker: hypothermia and it was just like oh that hurts man shouldn't have kodachi'd nope know what your opponents outs are oh man so brutal yeah yeah i did feel bad i mean it was like round five of the the pro quest though so i don't i don't remember if it was a win in it or not yeah that's my cat yeah um yeah yeah he is he's being mouthy
Speaker: All good.
Speaker: All good, yeah.
Speaker: And, I mean, January, we started off in PQ season.
Speaker: Do you remember that at all?
Speaker: It feels like ancient history.
Speaker: I had to dig through Jem to figure out what happened.
Speaker: I remember I played Uldum.
Speaker: Turns out I got top eight and I lost to Travis.
Speaker: Travis has kicked me out of a lot of events in Top Cut over this year.
Speaker: Big shout out to him.
Speaker: He started...
Speaker: posting to his YouTube channel actually really great analysis of art in Flesh and Blood and getting in touch with the artists and all of that.
Speaker: We'll put a link to his channel in the description.
Speaker: But yeah, that's what I remember about PQ Season 3.
Speaker: feels so long ago.
Speaker: What about you?
Speaker: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker: When you would kind of mention that we should do this, I was like, I don't know.
Speaker: That was so long ago.
Speaker: Like you, I went back into Jam to see sort of what events were happening.
Speaker: I do keep track of
Speaker: deck lists that I do well at events with just I like I like stats and numbers and stuff it just also sort of like a snapshot of what I was playing two years ago like oh wow like these cards like amy advice or seeds you know um and also looked at photos on my phone I try to take pictures of people at the event the standings at the end of Swiss kind of thing to see see where things were at and
Speaker: But yeah, like like you, it was it was it was hard to figure out what happened in January.
Speaker: I know I did judge one of the pro quests.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And went down to Lethbridge where I finished.
Speaker: That was the Katsu example that I was giving was there.
Speaker: I made it to the finals with Icelander there and placed second to Karl.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Oh, that's sweet.
Speaker: And I remember right after that PQ season, just rolling on a little bit in the year, we saw a bunch of bands, Belittle, Winter's Wail, and that was the last big event I got to say Frosty Hammer.
Speaker: Because it was nothing but fist from there on out.
Speaker: Fisting for four.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: And Amulet of Ice and Hypothermia ate it as well.
Speaker: Maybe they heard about what you did in Lethbridge and
Speaker: Yeah, I doubt it out of there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I think the stories rang across the game that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How impactful those two cards were and what they did.
Speaker: And like that's those cards were like the reason I was so.
Speaker: Drawn into somebody like Icelander.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like you have a plan and I want to hose your plan like that.
Speaker: I like I always said it felt bad to play against my friends in practice.
Speaker: I felt like a bad person.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But against, you know, somebody in a tournament of meaning, I was like, yeah, I want to ruin your day.
Speaker: You are a thief of joy.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: There was a moment that I didn't expect that happened and it was truly an honoring moment.
Speaker: You had concocted some really cool stuff for the Ogres ProQuest with like prizes.
Speaker: I think that's where we started doing the loser gets two tickets or whatever towards prizes at the end of the event.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I think.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Do you want to explain that a little bit more?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You guys at Ogres would have a bunch of door prizes and the loser of each round got a ticket that they could put in.
Speaker: towards one of the door prizes at the end of the event, which I thought was a really cool and engaging way to keep people playing the game and not just like X3 scrubbing out or whatever and then leaving.
Speaker: It gave some incentive to play.
Speaker: And like we always talk about, not always rewarding the top end people of the day.
Speaker: So people that were struggling could still have something to look forward to.
Speaker: So I thought that was a really cool thing.
Speaker: Yeah, and the prizes from LSS at a PQ or RTN are very top-heavy.
Speaker: So it's reasonable to us in our community to have a little bit more of an incentive towards random pricing, just to keep people engaged, to give people more of a chance of walking away a winner.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Um, I also remember we had a community vote, uh, trophy and you won Shay.
Speaker: You were voted as a member of our community.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so that's kind of what I was alluding to at this, at the start of this was that, um, never would have saw it coming.
Speaker: Um, the idea was really neat that you came up with.
Speaker: I thought that, but to get an award from the community.
Speaker: I guess speaks volumes to how people perceive you.
Speaker: Cause like, I don't know what people think of me and to have, you know, the most votes of the people's choice for the community was yeah, really honoring.
Speaker: And I was shocked, honestly, I never saw it coming.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's very, very well deserved.
Speaker: Yeah, we always have a good time with our Tier 2 events.
Speaker: We try to make them a celebration of the community and give back to everyone, not just the winners.
Speaker: So yeah, I think Season 3 ProQuest was definitely a highlight for a lot of those reasons.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: We'll move on to February.
Speaker: A couple of things more in my realm.
Speaker: This is where I managed to go to The Calling Indianapolis just to judge in my first big event.
Speaker: Met a lot of cool people there, including Fred, including Ryan and so many others.
Speaker: So that went really well.
Speaker: Man, I love traveling down to the USA.
Speaker: The food is so good.
Speaker: Maybe I just don't know where to look the best when I'm traveling around Canada, but I always eat well down in the States.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: did that and i became a level two judge um in february as well because you know out of the two of us i am more of a serial exam taker and certification taker so you know i get i get anxiety from exams man uh it doesn't matter what it is even if i'm i know what i'm doing i'm still nervous it's a challenge that you can overcome put it that way
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I'll try and look at it the next way.
Speaker: Next time I come to an exam.
Speaker: Can you quickly describe to us what it was like?
Speaker: So first of all, what prompted you to do it?
Speaker: And then a little bit of what the process was like.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: A couple of things.
Speaker: What prompted me to do it?
Speaker: I just wanted some more experience at large events because whatever you learn in those events, I can take back to my local community and just see if there's anything better that I can be doing.
Speaker: And of course, share those lessons with you and everyone.
Speaker: Like that was the number one reason why.
Speaker: The second reason was to get that level two certification because I heard in the long term,
Speaker: a level two certification would be required to judge tier two events.
Speaker: Now, I just wanted one of us, frankly, to have that so that one of us could help the other and we could continue to, you know, serve the community and spread that knowledge to whoever wanted it.
Speaker: So that was the big push for me.
Speaker: And yeah, the event itself was awesome and really
Speaker: really grew a love of judging within me much more than I would have thought and was really in a way one of the big reasons why this podcast got started.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: And then March, Outsiders came out, which came with two new heroes, Ripide and Azuri, along with mainstays like Benji, Katsu and Azalea and Arachne.
Speaker: I guess we did kind of get a second Arachne, Arachne 1.5.
Speaker: Still a little bit sad that Solitary Confinement is not in CC.
Speaker: They are such a fun hero.
Speaker: Just so many reactions, attack actions with Go Again.
Speaker: I love that playstyle.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I haven't delved too much into it.
Speaker: I definitely should try Solitary Confinement because it does look easy to go again.
Speaker: It's pretty nice.
Speaker: And then kind of like I was really interested into Arachne when they came out.
Speaker: Just again, my kind of gameplay of taxing my opponent no matter what I do.
Speaker: I get a card from you, whether you block or you let me hit you.
Speaker: We're getting cards.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Yeah, I remember also a couple of things.
Speaker: I remember Codex of Frailty hitting primetime and a lot of people upset about Codex of Frailty.
Speaker: Yeah, I saw this meme.
Speaker: I think it became a copy pasta on Facebook from like, I'm quitting the game because Azalea is the best hero.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: These random things stick in my head.
Speaker: Azalea became very good, but a little bit off the mark about what the real best hero was from Outsiders forward.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely later in the year we find out who really got some fire from the set.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: I mean, April rose around.
Speaker: That's when we started our podcast.
Speaker: I mean, we started talking about it in March, I think.
Speaker: And it's been 31 episodes in since April.
Speaker: Again, doesn't feel like it's been that long.
Speaker: It feels like it's been longer and shorter at the same time.
Speaker: Yeah, it's kind of weird like that.
Speaker: I feel the same way that I can't believe we've done 31 episodes and I can't believe it feels like it's we've been doing it for a long time.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Did you want to tell our listeners?
Speaker: I don't know if we've ever told them how we got started with the podcast.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Why we're here today?
Speaker: I think.
Speaker: OK, so there's the real story is that PT Baltimore had announced that.
Speaker: there would be something about the collation of the packs between the Belgian print and the Japanese print.
Speaker: And, you know, I forget the specifics, but what I do remember was that...
Speaker: every single podcast that I was listening to, whenever this was, January or February, whenever they made the announcement, all I could hear about was how certain people were not happy that the collation of the packs at PT Baltimore were one way or another.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: I could not get away from it.
Speaker: And all I could think was this is an issue that has an impact on maybe 500 to 700 people, but there are thousands of people that play Flesh and Blood.
Speaker: I am usually not very motivated by negative things like, you know, hey, I'll show you or you really pissed me off.
Speaker: But this is in a strange way, like just because I couldn't find content, like even casual content,
Speaker: podcasts were weighing in on the issue.
Speaker: Like, hey, what do you think about LSS's response to the collation issue?
Speaker: Do you think they should commit to just one pack or another?
Speaker: Is that fair to people from one region that can't get the other printing?
Speaker: How are these pro players going to practice?
Speaker: Like, I understand it's very important to those players.
Speaker: But to me and to many people that are not competing in the Pro Tour,
Speaker: it's not, it's fine to listen for a little bit, but you know, to have every single podcast talking about it was a little bit much for me.
Speaker: So yeah, I guess is a great movie.
Speaker: Our podcast was founded out of spite.
Speaker: So that anger continues to drive us to this day.
Speaker: How long have you been sitting on it before you had reached out?
Speaker: Cause so Felix reached out to me one night and he was just like, do you want to start, start a podcast?
Speaker: That was it.
Speaker: That was the line.
Speaker: And I was like, sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Honestly, once an idea gets in my head, it doesn't take long for...
Speaker: it to gain some momentum.
Speaker: And I did a little bit of sketching out just in Google Drive before reaching out to you.
Speaker: And from there, it took off.
Speaker: We talked about different names.
Speaker: You were the one that really liked IP2 podcast.
Speaker: I think my first idea was like Heralds of Erudition.
Speaker: Erudition is like knowledge and stuff.
Speaker: But I like IP2.
Speaker: Yeah, I like IP2 as well.
Speaker: It's catchy.
Speaker: It's fab specific.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that happened in April.
Speaker: Any other memories from April?
Speaker: No, I mean, I think PT Baltimore happened in April.
Speaker: It did.
Speaker: And we had three ProQuests.
Speaker: So we sent three people from Alberta.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: They all happened to be from Edmonton, I believe.
Speaker: I think it was Andrew, Adam, and Brandon that went to PT Baltimore to play specifically in the PT.
Speaker: I know a bunch of other people went to play in The Calling that happened as well.
Speaker: but neither you nor I went, so it's not much of a memory for us, I don't think.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: We also had a skirmish season in April.
Speaker: I do remember this one because normally I bomb at skirmishes.
Speaker: I'm really bad at blitz, especially, but I did make the finals of one of them, and then I lost to Travis, as usual.
Speaker: He's a very good player.
Speaker: As you do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: yeah that's right i also um i made second in one of them uh at this point i feel like i'm a a bridesmaid and never a bride at this point always getting second well at least you're you're up there pretty consistently um sometimes for skirmishes especially um
Speaker: Rolling into May, RTN season.
Speaker: No, looking back at results, there were none.
Speaker: So not well.
Speaker: I don't think I generally perform well at RTN season, but I do get to judge them.
Speaker: So I get to provide that service for the community so that we can have those events.
Speaker: And that's totally what I'm on board for.
Speaker: So I got to judge one of the one RTN that we had because we only had one here.
Speaker: Only one in Calgary, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker: And what happened at that one, Artie and Felix?
Speaker: I made it to Topcot and then I lost to Travis.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: This is the theme of the year.
Speaker: Very good player.
Speaker: But then went up to Leduc and I was carried by Oldham in that one.
Speaker: I just got paired into nothing but Lexis.
Speaker: And turns out crowd of seeds and 9D reacts is pretty good.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, sure, maybe you got carried by Oldham, but you targeted a meta with a specific hero and deck and it panned out for you.
Speaker: Yep, for sure.
Speaker: I miss Oldham.
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: And yeah, very thankful to be on the roll of honor there.
Speaker: What happened next?
Speaker: June, I don't think we found much.
Speaker: It was July, Dusk Till Dawn dropped with Prism and Vincet.
Speaker: Do you remember anything about that set release?
Speaker: I remember all the prism stands being super excited that prison was coming back.
Speaker: Uh, myself included.
Speaker: I'm not gonna, I'm part of that club.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Um, so, and the marvels that came out for the set, absolutely gorgeous pieces of art.
Speaker: Uh, some of the best cards I think they've ever produced in flesh and blood, uh, as far as style.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah, I think there were quite a few people quite we have quite a few rune blade players here.
Speaker: So I think a lot of people were super excited with Vincent as well.
Speaker: Yeah, it's kind of like what I remember.
Speaker: How about you?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Very similar to you.
Speaker: I know Prism and Vincent both came out.
Speaker: They both seemed very complicated.
Speaker: And it was during a time in my life where there was a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker: So I unfortunately didn't end up getting too invested in either of them, especially when it seemed like both of their power levels were not going to be right at the top at release, which is fine.
Speaker: So yeah, it was a little bit quieter for me.
Speaker: I completely agree, though.
Speaker: The Marvel's really nice, including the equipment, too.
Speaker: You know, the Marvel equipment, the Rapture, and the... What was the other one?
Speaker: The Diatic Carapace?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, the extended arts.
Speaker: Yeah, that's so good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think also in July, Oldham LL'd.
Speaker: Yeah, rest in peace, Oldham.
Speaker: Can't wait for new Oldham.
Speaker: I don't know if he's going to come back.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Or if he'll be replaced by a less toxic Guardian.
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: Yeah, who knows?
Speaker: We'll see if we get a young'em.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Also at the time bullseye bracer gets banned.
Speaker: I think, uh, Lexi, uh, was already on a tear.
Speaker: Um, but they, I think LSS saw the writing on the walls with, uh, Lexi and they banned my gold foil.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I tried to sell it for tens of thousands of dollars.
Speaker: Cause you know, powerful.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: I know what it's worth.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, uh, so no takers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That was pretty much about it there.
Speaker: Then we roll into August into skirmish season seven.
Speaker: Yeah, and I don't remember much about this.
Speaker: I remember Andrew came down and no one thought to tell me that he was going to come down to terrorize us.
Speaker: And I brought Prism.
Speaker: Yeah, I brought Prism to a skirmish.
Speaker: He brought Chain.
Speaker: And as soon as I saw him walk in the door, I'm like, man, someone should have told me about this.
Speaker: How did I not hear about this?
Speaker: I would have brought something differently.
Speaker: Yeah, you and me both.
Speaker: I didn't really have anything on the docket, so I also played Prism.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And speaking of prism simping, CF Genesis was the card du jour at the time.
Speaker: So I really wanted to try and get my hands on three of them.
Speaker: My favorite moment, I guess, is the photo we took at the end of the day with me kind of choking him because he got the Genesis at the end over me.
Speaker: You and I had a really fun game that day too in the top four.
Speaker: Yeah, we did.
Speaker: You always beat me somehow.
Speaker: I don't think so.
Speaker: That's not what the numbers show.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, man.
Speaker: Oh, boy.
Speaker: Did you end up getting your three Genesis's?
Speaker: I did get my three Genesi.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: I ended up, I did get the one from Andrew.
Speaker: We made some trades to happen.
Speaker: So I got the one to Andrew.
Speaker: And then I think we went down to Adrian and Thomas and I, we went down to a Lethbridge.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: And I don't know if that's where two of them came from, but it definitely got one of them from one of them.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So that was sort of, sort of what was the run was to go get some more Genesis and have some fun and,
Speaker: take more prizes from lethargic as we do it seems like sorry very unkind of you i know it is andrew comes edmonton comes down and steals ours so we go down to lethargic and steal theirs yeah sometimes sometimes um yeah august was also vegas which was top highlight probably well one of them for me um of the year so
Speaker: We did a whole episode with Andrew on that, so don't need to go into it too much.
Speaker: But yeah, amazing time.
Speaker: The highlight was the food, right?
Speaker: Oh, so much food.
Speaker: Yeah, September was Canadian Nationals, which you also went to.
Speaker: Yeah, awesome, awesome event.
Speaker: My first head judge gig for a large event as well.
Speaker: So all and got to, yeah, just really get hands on and get stuck in there with a great team there with Fred.
Speaker: Got to see a lot of people from all across Canada and
Speaker: All in all, really, really great time there.
Speaker: Another highlight of the year for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker: And at this time too, I think, what was it, Briar was sitting at 999 LL points or 998?
Speaker: Something like that.
Speaker: Something like that.
Speaker: Was it Briargate or something?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: No, Briar was almost, yeah, 998, but she had already been LL'd at US Nats.
Speaker: You remember Fatigue Briar?
Speaker: Yes, that's right.
Speaker: Briar was already LL'd, but not banned.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: We also had the Professor Tolarian Community College Round the Table box release in September.
Speaker: Would you say that was Flesh and Blood's first big...
Speaker: like supplemental product.
Speaker: Like I know there's been some like Blitz Dex and the RVD stuff, but this was like a big like release.
Speaker: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker: RVD, I think, was their pilot, right?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And I think they took a lot of feedback from how that was received and what it offered and what people got.
Speaker: And they redesigned.
Speaker: I think they came back to the table with RTT and they did a really good job.
Speaker: So, yeah, it seemed to fit the bill of what they're trying to market better.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I think they put out a really good product.
Speaker: This go around, people are really excited about it.
Speaker: Yeah, and we've had the chance to play a few games of RTT at community days just casually.
Speaker: It's a riot.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Oh, man, so much fun.
Speaker: I am not a Guardian player and I don't save people.
Speaker: I save my chivalries for hammer for four at the end of the game.
Speaker: You are a thief of joy.
Speaker: You play your play your aura.
Speaker: for plus five or plus six or whatever it is and then you smash somebody for like 13 or 14 on the next go around but like mostly auras don't have go again like who are you blocking for nobody so i'm saying i saved all my chivalries till the end of the game i think at the end of the game at the last community day i had like eight chivalries in my deck still and i think you start with 12 i see it
Speaker: okay we learned a few things that game yeah yeah yeah we're gonna move on before i i pop a blood vessel here sure uh bright lights yeah came out in october so dash dash io max teclo what did you think like
Speaker: So as I mentioned before, I'm not a mech player and kind of didn't really care for the constructed side, but I was super excited for the limited side and we're not limited.
Speaker: I'm not a limited player, but I thought what this set could do for people that aren't into limited was going to be really good.
Speaker: That fact that every card is playable and
Speaker: Sure, I think if you play limited enough, cards will start to feel like for certain heroes.
Speaker: But if you know something's going around the table, you can take it from somebody and still use it.
Speaker: It's not a wasted pick.
Speaker: Travis always gives me a hard time about hate drafting, which is fair, I think.
Speaker: But in this set, you can kind of take stuff and still get some value out of it, which I thought was really cool.
Speaker: So I was super excited about that.
Speaker: as well as mech had been sort of denied for like three years.
Speaker: So to see a full like 200 plus cards get devoted to them, happy for those mech players.
Speaker: So that's kind of like my thoughts around it.
Speaker: What about you?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, bright lights, just seeing how creative they can get within a single class between Dash, especially Dash with the mechanic of looking at the top of your deck and playing at instant speed on your own turn.
Speaker: And just seeing how different they can make mechs.
Speaker: Like, it's not just three copies of Dash.
Speaker: It's very unique mechanologists that all feel like mechanologists.
Speaker: but at the same time are very distinct.
Speaker: It makes me very excited actually for the possibilities of the other classes as well, just to see how much design space that there is.
Speaker: Now granted, mechanologists are quite unique.
Speaker: They have permanence.
Speaker: Like I'm not expecting that every single class is as broad or has as much design space, but still it's more than I thought, way more than I thought.
Speaker: So that's my big impression of bright lights.
Speaker: yeah so november pq season four man a lot of a lot of um op this year like local level op so and they're ramping it up as we know for next year too yeah can't wait um i mean this this was not that long ago you must have some memories of this
Speaker: Um, yeah, I, I don't know.
Speaker: Not really sort of the whole Riptide deal.
Speaker: I think we've spoken at.
Speaker: Top four with Riptide.
Speaker: You're not, I'd still be yelling that from the rooftops.
Speaker: Like if that was me.
Speaker: Man, I'm still excited to play this hero.
Speaker: I, uh, yeah, I just want to build him in Blitz and in CC.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, I'm, I'm glad that he's actually not actually he's playable and viable.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: into the meta again you know bad matchups but whatever yeah so I yeah I'm super proud of making a top four with with Riptide an underrated hero at this time your top four with Riptide my top four for Dromai showing that we are equal skilled players are we are we are you comparing Riptide and Dromai on the same playing field
Speaker: Yes, I am.
Speaker: I'm not taking any further questions.
Speaker: We also had the Battle Harden in Vancouver in November as well, which I think we had 13 people from Alberta go to.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Which I think was an awesome showing.
Speaker: You know, some really good performances.
Speaker: Again, you hear Andrew's name all the time.
Speaker: Travis made top eight at the Battle Harden, which is
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: Just unbelievable for him to get there.
Speaker: It was a lot of fun, man.
Speaker: It was probably one of my highlights of the year.
Speaker: It was the first and only time that I got to travel outside of Alberta for an event.
Speaker: And getting to just hang out with Arthur and Adrian and all the people that went.
Speaker: And Travis, first time I ever had Korean barbecue.
Speaker: hot pot sorry it was hot pot yeah this this fact is unbelievable to me like we we live in a city with so much good hot pot and korean barbecue like yeah big fan of korean barbecue hot pot it didn't do it for me but i'm not against trying it again we're never gonna speak again
Speaker: Okay, that's fine.
Speaker: This is also the final episode of the IP2 podcast.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: I mean, I talk about it all the time.
Speaker: I play this game for the social aspect of it.
Speaker: It is a fun game, but the memories are made with the people and going to Vancouver and seeing...
Speaker: you know people play well and meeting people again that hadn't seen a long time and spending time with people uh members of our community was community was yeah like i just so grateful that i got the opportunity to go yeah so we also had barcelona in november i think a couple people locally managed to go make a vacation out of it
Speaker: I didn't, unfortunately.
Speaker: How could you?
Speaker: Remember anything about that?
Speaker: That world championship?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Phi won.
Speaker: That was the big thing, right?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, that's right.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, so I thought it was a really amazing story.
Speaker: I don't know much about Alexandros, but you and I had a discussion a long time ago.
Speaker: We were talking about, I don't know, performing...
Speaker: yeah uh in the game i was around the time that sean won i was kind of talking about you know what does it mean to have somebody like sean win a game or to win a rtn yep twin rtn something that isn't as dedicated as a lot of people gets games and when he can plays a little bit of talishar but there's people out there that put in way more time and what does it mean
Speaker: and really turning me on to the idea of how beneficial that is and how being like a hero specialist, how impactful that can be and how you can get away with not putting as much time into the game if you don't have to, because you can still find success.
Speaker: Because my initial thought around something like that, you know, is like, well, what does that mean for the community?
Speaker: Are we, you know, maybe not as good as we think we are?
Speaker: And that's totally not true because, like, you take a look at Alexandros who I think won his first RTN a few months before.
Speaker: Then he goes on and wins Worlds.
Speaker: Like, that's an amazing feat.
Speaker: That's really awesome to see that people can achieve such an amazing feat in a short amount of time.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: I think the biggest thing is that you don't have to be a famous player or have a ton of results.
Speaker: Any day could be your day.
Speaker: There's so many very good, very dedicated players that are just one break away or an unlucky hand away from putting up a huge result.
Speaker: That's the difference maker on a lot of days.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's the big story for me.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Remember seeing, or in November, we also had Lexi and Icelander leaving the format.
Speaker: So the end of the ice age, sad times for, for some happy times.
Speaker: For both of us.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, my ice hero left a while back.
Speaker: A little earlier.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But one year, all of the ice gobs.
Speaker: Yeah, truly, truly climate change.
Speaker: We're seeing the effects on Wraith.
Speaker: You know, I was super, I always try to be positive of change.
Speaker: Like change is good.
Speaker: And I like change.
Speaker: I like when new heroes come out.
Speaker: Like I've said that most of the time I'm always jumping on a new hero.
Speaker: But I have felt lost a couple of times this year when I signed her went LL and Blitz and then later in CC just to not have the option, I think is part of what gets to me is like, yeah, maybe I wasn't actually towards the end of adult.
Speaker: um icelander i wasn't playing her yeah but after she yelled i was like well now i can't and that actually impacts me more because i like i just can't do it so yeah it's kind of kind of sad but also i do i do appreciate that we have the rotation and that it forces to play something new man and learn new stuff you'll find something new out there
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: I do have a soft spot for Lexi from the pre-Outsiders era as well, because when she was not the best deck in format, she was a very good targeted tool.
Speaker: If you suspect that the meta is going overly aggressive, it's full of decks that don't handle disruption well.
Speaker: she would just go in and mop everyone up.
Speaker: Yeah, so I do have a soft spot for that playstyle.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Guess we round out the year with Skirmish Season 8 and a whole shwack of Blitz LLs.
Speaker: Yeah, when they doubled the LL points per win, as well as the update happened every Monday.
Speaker: So it was an interesting decision by LSS.
Speaker: And again, in the end, I really enjoyed it.
Speaker: I liked it.
Speaker: as stressful as the unknown was of what you're going to walk into.
Speaker: It was also refreshing.
Speaker: I think as a, as a person who's like well entrenched into the game, I really liked it.
Speaker: Cause you just didn't know.
Speaker: And anybody could have their day.
Speaker: I do feel for those that people that are less, um,
Speaker: entrenched in the game i guess where you know they want to show up with a chain or kasai and all of a sudden they're being told that they can't and they're like well i guess i'm not playing this a game anymore because this is the only thing that i like and the only thing i have so i do feel for that side but um yeah i don't know you got to make a decision somewhere right
Speaker: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker: And what's the balance between people in that situation versus people that are saying, I'm not going to play at this event because it's week three of being dunked on by Chain and Kasai.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: So it's all a balance.
Speaker: It's no win.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So any standouts for Skirmish Season 8 for you?
Speaker: No, I'm terrible at skirmishes.
Speaker: How about you?
Speaker: Um, yeah, again, we covered this before, but, uh, went down to Lethbridge and I won a skirmish, uh, on Riptide.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Uh, again, I took a bunch, a bunch of prizes from the guys in Lethbridge, the people in Lethbridge.
Speaker: Are you the only person that has Riptide LL points or?
Speaker: No, I am not.
Speaker: There was 28 LL points gained in season eight.
Speaker: So seven people, you are one of seven.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Isaiah is, Isaiah took my list, uh,
Speaker: like the next day or next weekend in Kelowna.
Speaker: And he won a skirmish on, on Riptide with my list.
Speaker: Okay, so your lists are two out of seven.
Speaker: That felt pretty good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's pretty funny.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: We walked through the whole year there.
Speaker: 41 minutes.
Speaker: That's all right.
Speaker: It was a big year.
Speaker: A lot happened.
Speaker: I mean, anything besides what we covered that stands out to you?
Speaker: Yeah, way back in December of 2022, I embarked on a project with my daughter, Elora.
Speaker: It was the holidays.
Speaker: I was just looking for something to do with her.
Speaker: And I asked her if she wanted to help me make my Icelander deck by making her own drawings.
Speaker: And she said, yeah.
Speaker: So I spent a bunch of time measuring out card and cutting 50 some pieces of paper to the size of a card so it would fit over top of a card and drew a border and all the pitches and the text damage on 40 Icelandic cards plus equipment.
Speaker: And she drew, had her draw on all of them.
Speaker: So she didn't understand something like this is where the Coronet Peak story came from.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: She didn't understand what a word was.
Speaker: I would describe it to her.
Speaker: And she took her own interpretation of the cards and drew on them.
Speaker: And that was a really fun project.
Speaker: It finished in sometime in January.
Speaker: Uh, we did a bunch of cards and then put it down for a couple of weeks and then I wanted to get it finished.
Speaker: So we finished it out and it was a lot of work.
Speaker: Um, and posted it to Twitter and one person said that he really liked it and he's offered to commission her services.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it was a really interesting time.
Speaker: So that was probably one of the biggest highlights for me of the year was, um,
Speaker: getting that kind of engagement with my daughter and flesh and blood at the same time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like it's so appropriate because you, your family is incredibly important to you, uh, your wife and your daughter.
Speaker: And it's very appropriate that your top highlights or the one that stands out to you is something that you did with her.
Speaker: And yeah, those cards are adorable.
Speaker: Like yeah.
Speaker: Irreplaceable.
Speaker: We'll, we'll make sure they're on the thumbnail or something like that.
Speaker: Um, late and,
Speaker: uh later in the year she actually when she asked if i was still using the cards i had to tell her i was like no the heroes banned i can't play her anymore in this format and she's like well what about the other format and i was like i guess we could do another 40 cards but why not we we haven't um so but i have been thinking about maybe taking on the project again with maybe a different hero and so yeah we'll see
Speaker: Yeah, that's sweet.
Speaker: How about you?
Speaker: Was there anything else that we didn't cover specifically in the review?
Speaker: Well, I'm sure for both of us, countless armories and hanging out in each other's houses and other people's houses and after and before events in stores.
Speaker: So that's super important to us.
Speaker: But for an individual highlight, just again, getting my L2 certification for judging and just being way more involved with the overall judge program, including presenting at a conference and
Speaker: you know, going to three tier three plus events.
Speaker: And yeah, that community just as positive and lovely as the player community.
Speaker: And yeah, just really looking forward to getting more and more stuck in with that community as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There, there was one other thing that I was thinking about too, that was sort of a highlight.
Speaker: And again, it goes into with community and social aspect are the road trips between these, between Lethbridge and Edmonton that, that we do that I'm grateful that I get to go to.
Speaker: And, uh, you know, we've talked about that.
Speaker: You're a big proponent of getting people in vehicles, making sure we're carpooling with as many people as we can.
Speaker: And, you know,
Speaker: creating new friendships and bonds with the people that we're traveling with.
Speaker: It's been a lot of fun.
Speaker: That's another kind of highlight that I kind of, I don't want to say forgot, but sort of missed when we were talking about this.
Speaker: The best thing about all of our trips is win or lose, just getting together with the other cars, making the trip somewhere halfway and having a dinner.
Speaker: Doesn't have any fancy.
Speaker: It's not about that.
Speaker: It's just about 12 nerdy card players just roll up to a random pizza joint and...
Speaker: having a good time and just recounting the day you know that's that's a really good opportunity where you know if you got a chance to watch somebody else's games like really sort of like pump them up you're like oh man i watched you do this thing and it was awesome or congratulations on whatever you know result you had for the day like it's just i don't know it's just a great bonding experience so much fun absolutely so looking back at the year three sets outsiders dust till dawn and uh bright lights
Speaker: Favorite, least favorite?
Speaker: Do you want to rank them?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: For me, I mean, I think it's pretty easy to rank them in that order, actually.
Speaker: I thought prior to actually getting Dusk Till Dawn, I would have said Dusk Till Dawn because Prism was coming back, but...
Speaker: the amount of fun that I've been having with Riptide throughout the whole year.
Speaker: Uh, I'd have to say outsiders was my favorite set of the year and then dust till dawn because it did support illusionist, which I'm a big fan of it as well.
Speaker: And then Evo, uh,
Speaker: For constructed.
Speaker: But, you know, I think I really enjoy the bright lights, limited aspect over outsiders.
Speaker: They're, they feel very similar in that they're very fatiggy.
Speaker: But I like that.
Speaker: It's a lot harder to read the table, I think, in bright lights, and it's way more dynamic than outsiders.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Nope, that's very fair.
Speaker: My own order would be Bright Lights, then Outsiders, then Dusk Till Dawn.
Speaker: Dusk Till Dawn, unfortunately, just is a supplemental.
Speaker: The ramifications of that set, I'm sure, will be felt...
Speaker: years and years down the line.
Speaker: So maybe less of an immediate impact for Dusk Till Dawn and really looking forward to see how Vincet and Levia Redeemed and Prism will grow and expand in the coming years.
Speaker: So this could change.
Speaker: But yeah, super impressed with the limited format in Bright Lights, some of my favorite games.
Speaker: Again, I love how every card matters, how the attack, the defense, and the value of each card is relevant.
Speaker: And Outsider's just a solid set, amazing set, a very amazing design for a hero, so much fun.
Speaker: It's hard to pick between Outsiders and Bright Lights for me, but I think the very tight, limited gameplay of Bright Lights just pushes it a little bit over for me.
Speaker: So as a like a primarily Guardian player, and then once you lost Olden, you picked up Dromai for quite some time.
Speaker: This year at its surface doesn't look like it had a lot to offer you class wise.
Speaker: Did you still enjoy the sets and the games from what the sets did provide you?
Speaker: I think that's that.
Speaker: Well, first of all, that's a great question.
Speaker: I don't think I'm a primarily Guardian player anymore, although I do enjoy disruptive decks and decks that make my opponent guess and force them to play in ways that they don't want to play.
Speaker: Guardians accomplish that in one specific way, but one thing that I've realized is that I've been playing a lot of Azuri lately.
Speaker: Azuri does that in a pretty obvious way, because you're not sure how she's going to disrupt you when she comes in.
Speaker: Dromai does that in another way, because she presents you with a lot of threats that you may not be able to handle, and Old Prism, in retrospect, did that really well as well.
Speaker: That's something that I didn't really appreciate until playing more illusionist.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: I think as I continue to evolve as a player, I'm personally becoming a little bit less class-specific.
Speaker: And it's been a good year.
Speaker: Oldham leaving the format did do a lot to help me grow as a player, even though it made me very sad.
Speaker: How about you, though?
Speaker: Anything like that for you?
Speaker: Like, Icelander left, but has Riptide completely?
Speaker: Yeah, like, I was...
Speaker: I was an Azalea player for a little bit in the early days.
Speaker: I really enjoyed the.
Speaker: All the things that you could do as a Ranger.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, you eventually come to the conclusion that you're basically jumping through a bunch of hoops to do the same thing that another hero just has to play a card to do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it was fun and I enjoyed that because it was totally different than everybody else.
Speaker: Way different feel.
Speaker: So this, as we've kind of talked about this year had two sets that had heroes or classes that were really interesting to me in Illusion and Ranger.
Speaker: So I quite enjoyed the first, you know, two sets of the year because they gave me a lot to think about and a lot of things to tinker with and try.
Speaker: And I am a big fan of new things.
Speaker: So I had a lot of fun with a lot of fun with those.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: So we'll move on from here and just quick look back.
Speaker: And is there anything that in particular that you're especially thankful for as you look back at the year and all the great memories that we had?
Speaker: There's a lot to be thankful for.
Speaker: You know, we have a great community.
Speaker: I'm thankful for how positive and supporting our community is.
Speaker: I'm thankful for yours and mine friendship that's grown with the advent of this podcast that we get to spend a lot of time.
Speaker: And, you know, you teach me a lot of things all the time and I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker: But, yeah,
Speaker: the biggest standout for me, I keep harping on the, on the family thing, honestly is my wife, Yvonne, uh, without her support and my acceptance of what I do in this hobby, not just playing it, but, but supporting the community, um, judging without her and what she's, um, and her support, I wouldn't have been able to play as much fab, enjoy as much fab, um,
Speaker: create these friendships with these people that are playing this game, go on these road trips, you know, I wouldn't be here without her.
Speaker: So that is what I'm truly thankful for the most at the end of this year when it comes to fab.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How about you?
Speaker: And for myself, just to echo what you said, incredibly thankful for the great community that we have here, for the community that briefly adopted me when I was traveling out east.
Speaker: So to the community of Moncton, incredibly thankful for being so welcoming and
Speaker: and becoming very good friends of mine as well.
Speaker: And incredibly thankful that the game is around, that it continues to grow, even though it could be growing a little bit slower than it did, that it seems healthy, it's going to last for a long time, that we can continue to play weekly.
Speaker: and sometimes give us an opportunity and an excuse to travel together and do fun things wherever that may take us.
Speaker: So yeah, yeah, really, really awesome.
Speaker: I guess for our next topic, what are our plans for the IP2 podcast next year?
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's been quite a year of learning for both of us for the IP2 podcast.
Speaker: So we have quite a few different ideas bouncing around.
Speaker: We have been asked, are we going to go to video?
Speaker: I think we can get there.
Speaker: Both Shay and I being new to making podcasts, we do rely on edits quite a bit in post-production just because we mess up and have to restart stuff.
Speaker: And once you add in video, too much jump cutting and all of that, it's a little bit of a pet peeve of mine.
Speaker: I don't know about you, Shay.
Speaker: As we've been talking about it, I've noticed it more and more in stuff.
Speaker: Oh no.
Speaker: And yes, I'm like, oh, I'm like, it can be fixed with better transitions and stuff.
Speaker: But yeah, it's a crutch.
Speaker: The editing is a crutch.
Speaker: We're not professional.
Speaker: We're hobbyists.
Speaker: And I'm a trial by fire guy.
Speaker: So the only way we're going to get better is if we change and force ourselves to get better.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: There's also the fact that Shay's computer points in the middle of his house.
Speaker: So we'll need to figure out something because I have a nice basement.
Speaker: Like no one bothers me, but Shay is getting harassed by his cat.
Speaker: Like there's all kinds of stuff going on here.
Speaker: We'll need to figure something out for that.
Speaker: Which people like Adrian have mentioned before.
Speaker: They can't wait for the cat to be on the podcast.
Speaker: So maybe, maybe it'll happen in the, in the new year, but yeah, it is, you know, I brush it off at the beginning, like, Oh, it's no big deal to the family.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: But it, it, you know what, it does impact them and what they can do for this, you know, hour to two hours to sometimes three hours that I'm taking up a big portion of my house.
Speaker: That's very open here.
Speaker: So the living room bleeds into the entranceway and into the dining room, into the kitchen.
Speaker: And, you know,
Speaker: asking them to not access those areas so that we can have as quiet a recording as possible to has, you know, has some consequences to family life.
Speaker: And again, that's another one of the reasons I'm so appreciative of Yvonne and what she allows me to do.
Speaker: And sometimes, you know, we record pretty late at night and so it makes it a bit easier.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, so that's on the docket.
Speaker: And just thinking about the pace of episodes, like do we want to keep it weekly or do we want to make it more of a bi-weekly thing and focus more on the interviews?
Speaker: Where...
Speaker: I guess still discussing a lot of those different things.
Speaker: We're definitely going to move forward and very excited, especially for highlighting more international guests.
Speaker: Some of my favorite episodes are just connecting with people across the world to see how the game's doing in their area, what makes their different countries or regions unique.
Speaker: Because the more we talk to each other, you know, everyone that's interested in the community aspect of the game, the more tips and tricks and lessons we can take from each other.
Speaker: I think, too, that's where we shine.
Speaker: We shine in our interviews.
Speaker: You know, we're trying to not bring boring judge discussions on our off weeks to stuff.
Speaker: So I think, you know, the script writing that Felix does for our guests is
Speaker: is amazing.
Speaker: And we've done quite a few interviews this year.
Speaker: And I feel like on a whole between guest versus not guest, the bulk of our really good episodes are guest related.
Speaker: And so I think that's something that we should definitely lean into as well.
Speaker: I guess the other thing that I'd like to work on personally, and I don't know how, because I
Speaker: it requires more effort than we're already putting into this.
Speaker: You and I are not very good at social media.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: We just, we're not Twitter people.
Speaker: We're not, you know, and being, I think a podcast primarily, it's harder to be engaged with our listeners.
Speaker: So, you know, with maybe doing video that we get more traction on YouTube,
Speaker: that will get more interaction with, you know, people more, more engagement.
Speaker: That's what I'd like to work on.
Speaker: And I'm not sure how to do it because like I said, I know it's going to come with more effort, but I do like to like go in, look to see if there's comments or questions and there isn't.
Speaker: And, you know, I'd like to have more of that level of engagement.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: I completely agree with that.
Speaker: We have, man, we have listers from all over the world, which I'm incredibly thankful for.
Speaker: I take a look at the Spotify and the Zencaster.
Speaker: download regions and we have people from Australia, New Zealand, Germany, in the Nordic countries, as well as North America.
Speaker: And I'm blown away that people all over like that would listen to us and yeah, very interested in having a two way conversation.
Speaker: We have received both individually some very lovely private messages, which is awesome.
Speaker: If there's anything, you know, both Shay and I are very approachable, always, always up for chatting about local communities or swapping different tips or tricks or whatever.
Speaker: you know, riptide, uh, ideas for anything only.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I think we're going to wind it down here.
Speaker: Shay, it's, uh, almost an hour, but before we go, it's a winter break time.
Speaker: We're going to take a bit of time off.
Speaker: What's, uh, what are some things that you're going to do?
Speaker: Uh, well, after I'm done work tomorrow, I'm off for two weeks.
Speaker: So I'm really excited about that.
Speaker: Um, spoiler, my kid's getting skates for Christmas, I think.
Speaker: Uh, so we're gonna, I hope to spend some time on the ice with her to help teacher to skate.
Speaker: My back is going to suffer horribly for it.
Speaker: Um, but she, something she wants to do.
Speaker: Her best friend has, uh, a rink in her backyard.
Speaker: So I think she would like to catch up in skating skill.
Speaker: And this is one part where us being Canadians is very apparent.
Speaker: It's fairly common for people to have backyard rinks here and for people to skate.
Speaker: It's not uncommon at all.
Speaker: I can't.
Speaker: I never learned.
Speaker: Were you a big skater at any point in your life?
Speaker: I play, well, yeah, in elementary school, I would skate a lot.
Speaker: I never played hockey or anything like that, like officially.
Speaker: So all my skating was done, you know, either after school at nighttime or during school.
Speaker: But yeah, I really loved playing shinny hockey as a kid.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Skating is fun.
Speaker: I mean, it's not like it's a necessary skill, life skill to be able to skate, but there are, you know, times in life where I think, you know, friends are going, I don't know, roller skating or Christmas parties where their skating happens.
Speaker: So it's nice to have, but you know, I don't think it's necessary, but it's something she's interested in.
Speaker: Definitely always want to help support her in the things that she's interested because she doesn't ask for a lot of things for something like this.
Speaker: So yeah, definitely want to help, help nurture that.
Speaker: How about you?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, same theme.
Speaker: I'm going to, now that my project is more or less wrapped up and all the traveling, I look back and I realize I've become very unhealthy over the past couple years.
Speaker: And some of that is somewhat excusable because a lot of flying, very tired, time change.
Speaker: But at the end of the day, there's no excuse for just letting one's personal health get into a bit of disrepair.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: I have started biking again just indoors for now and going to transition into it as the weather gets better in the spring to outdoors more regularly.
Speaker: I have to say indoor biking trainers are amazing.
Speaker: I had no idea how sophisticated they were.
Speaker: Now there's smart trainers where you can just hook up your outside bike to and you can play like an MMO game
Speaker: on your computer where if you're going up a hill, the trainer will ramp up the resistance and you're pedaling harder.
Speaker: And as you go downhill, it'll coast and you can coast a little bit and you can race against other people.
Speaker: And it's really cool.
Speaker: It's really engaging.
Speaker: It's no longer just being very bored pedaling on an exercise bike.
Speaker: And the best part, it's my own bike.
Speaker: So when I'm done, I could just take it out of the trainer and throw the back wheel back on and
Speaker: and have at it.
Speaker: So yeah, I'm going to do a lot of indoor biking over the break and hopefully continue that on.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: I think also too, we're going to spend Vaughn and I want to get back into board games.
Speaker: We've been in a bit of a lull, um, for, for that.
Speaker: So board gaming is really important in our family.
Speaker: And I know when my sister comes out, um, next week, sometimes she's going to want to play some board games.
Speaker: She's always asking us to bring board games or what we're playing.
Speaker: So it should be, it should be fun, uh, time to get back into board games.
Speaker: I do miss them.
Speaker: There was, um,
Speaker: uh i think time earlier in the year where it was tough to to set out a board game because like the it's not the commitment of playing the game like that's fun it's knowing that you have to set it up and it takes a while and if you got to refresh your memory on rules there's a bit of rules reading and then when you're finally done the you know hour and a half to three hour board game you got to put it away because it's your dinner table and tomorrow it it's got a function for that so
Speaker: That was a bit of a lull earlier in the year, but I'm feeling better and really excited about getting back into some board games this winter.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, unfortunately for me, Flesh and Blood has completely...
Speaker: replaced board gaming or not completely near completely.
Speaker: So my engagement with the hobby has just been trying to sell my extensive board game collection, which has been somewhat successful.
Speaker: It's still a slow process and, uh, trying to get rid of stuff on Facebook marketplace is like one of the circles of hell.
Speaker: I'm pretty sure.
Speaker: Um, but it's, it's going, um,
Speaker: Do you have like a level of games that you want to get down to or there's just some games you want to keep forever?
Speaker: Like what's your sort of like goal to get to just out of curiosity?
Speaker: I think it's just one of these things to be realistic.
Speaker: There are some games that I am pretty personally attached to for one reason or another.
Speaker: There are games like War of the Ring, which I just have amazing memories playing.
Speaker: Mm hmm.
Speaker: you know, whole day sessions, one game lasting eight hours with a friend, you know, light versus shadow who's going to win.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So there are a few games like that.
Speaker: There's also a few games that I think I can get back to the table with a more casual group.
Speaker: which I think I'll keep.
Speaker: But man, like all of those heavy Euros, like the Lacerda games, the games that take five players and four hours to play and they're only for dedicated board gamers.
Speaker: Those are the games that I'm trying to get out of my collection because I figure that if I'm going to play those board games at this point in my life, someone else is going to have them.
Speaker: I'm not going to be the person that brings them anymore.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In, in my heyday of my collection, I would like to have two copies of a game, not like not the same game, but the same type of game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One that's more casual.
Speaker: So something, you know, we're on a shorter night or it's Friday and we're all tired after like a long week of work.
Speaker: We just play something in 45 minutes to an hour and a half and then have something again, similar that's crunchier, that's got some more depth to it and more choices.
Speaker: But yeah, like fortunately I'm still able to play games, but yeah,
Speaker: even even that goes in waves like you know one of my best friends just had a had a son a couple of days ago at this point and him and his wife were a big part of our board gaming lifestyle and uh i feel like that's gonna go to the wayside for a little bit here yeah so yeah this stuff happens yeah any other plans for the winter break before we wrap up
Speaker: Yeah, I'm going to catch up on some video games.
Speaker: I have not really been able to play much over the past year.
Speaker: I hear Baldur's Gate 3 is really good and people keep talking about certain characters that are really cool.
Speaker: So I am so behind.
Speaker: I don't know anything about the game.
Speaker: I cannot wait.
Speaker: I feel like the board or the video gaming community that's listening to this would be screaming at both you and I, because I also haven't played it and have been really tempted as of late to get it.
Speaker: Cause I'm like, if it's this good, I don't really want to miss out on an opportunity to play a game.
Speaker: That's this amazing.
Speaker: So I've also been sort of like eyeballing it as well.
Speaker: Thinking about getting it.
Speaker: You wasted all your video game money on Starfield and Diablo four.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: I did.
Speaker: And I didn't play them for that long.
Speaker: I mean, I got my money's worth, you know, the dollar per hour.
Speaker: I got my dollar per hour.
Speaker: I'm at 50 cents per hour with Starfield, but I haven't finished it yet.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm over 100 hours or so for it.
Speaker: But I don't know.
Speaker: Maybe if I have time over this winter break, maybe I'll jump back into it.
Speaker: And then I got one other objective on my list.
Speaker: Thanks to you.
Speaker: I have a lot of bulk sorting to do.
Speaker: Earlier in the year, I gave Felix, I don't even know, hundreds, thousands of cards for community cards for the community.
Speaker: He's like, yeah, I'm going to take these.
Speaker: I'm going to make some decks and we'll hand them out to the community.
Speaker: I was like, cool, because they're sitting in my house doing nothing.
Speaker: And he's like, there's too many.
Speaker: Take them back.
Speaker: Yep, there were too many cards.
Speaker: Like 20 plus boxes, like pizza boxes.
Speaker: Yeah, like the 3200 count.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I do have a plan for them.
Speaker: I think I'm going to strip most of the rares out of them and a few commons so that I still have something to offer to people.
Speaker: And there's a couple of people like Alexandra and Carl who are taking bulk for community members as well.
Speaker: So I'll try and maybe pawn off the chaff to them if they'll accept it because it's a lot of cards.
Speaker: I don't I can't store it in my house.
Speaker: It's way too much.
Speaker: Yeah, bulk is a curse.
Speaker: It's great to have.
Speaker: Like 1% of the time, it's horrible to have.
Speaker: The other 99% of the time, it's a real burden.
Speaker: It's funny because I've definitely missed it.
Speaker: Like I hate to say it because I really was like, yeah, it's out of my house.
Speaker: It's gone.
Speaker: I'm like, this is amazing.
Speaker: But there's times where I see somebody like asking for three ravenous rabbles.
Speaker: And I'm like, man, I have like 8,000 of those.
Speaker: I could just give them to this person.
Speaker: Nope, I can't because I don't have any.
Speaker: Oh, I want to build a commoner deck, but I don't want to sleeve it.
Speaker: So I don't want to use the cards that are reserved for my CC and blitz.
Speaker: I would just go grab some bulk, whip a commoner deck together and go riffle shuffle it without sleeves because it's hilarious.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Can't do that because I don't have the bulk.
Speaker: So I'm glad to get a little bit of it back.
Speaker: So it was weird to actually miss it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The last thing on my list is just tinkering with some electronics.
Speaker: I'm not at work.
Speaker: I'm still an engineer at heart.
Speaker: I have to have some weird projects going on.
Speaker: I think the thing that I want to do is a bit of a home server.
Speaker: I've been accumulating a lot of data over the last 10 years.
Speaker: This podcast is not helping, by the way.
Speaker: So I've always wanted to just have a bit of a NAS built up with some dedicated hard drives just to put all that stuff on.
Speaker: So fingers crossed, it's not going to blow up.
Speaker: I've never done anything like this before.
Speaker: So yeah, I like having a project or two going on.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm sure it'll go smooth.
Speaker: You're smart guy.
Speaker: You'll figure it out.
Speaker: Well, we'll see.
Speaker: Linux scares me.
Speaker: So we'll we'll try.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Good stuff.
Speaker: Well, if you're still with us, thank you very much for listening to our podcast.
Speaker: We appreciate all of our listeners, like truly like, yes, we do this for ourselves.
Speaker: And if nobody listened, we'd still be doing it.
Speaker: But we truly do appreciate those of you that are spending your time listening to our podcast whenever you can.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Thank you so much for sticking with us.
Speaker: Thank you for an incredible year.
Speaker: I hope you have an amazing winter break, or if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, happy new year and have a good summer break.
Speaker: And we'll see everyone next year.
Speaker: Check out our YouTube at IP2 Podcast, our Twitter at IP2 Podcast, and Blue Sky at IP2 Podcast.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: You just told me about the phrase, what was that?
Speaker: You got it, Pontiac?
Speaker: You got it, Pontiac.
Speaker: I still don't understand.
Speaker: You'll have to explain it more to me.
Speaker: I mean, I don't think I really know about it myself anyways.
Speaker: We just looked it up, but it is.
Speaker: Origin is a Pontiac commercial, so.
Speaker: Yeah, and I don't think Pontiac exists as a brand anymore.
Speaker: No, they don't.
Speaker: No, okay.
Speaker: Fun fact, my first car was a Pontiac.
Speaker: What kind?
Speaker: Sunbird, 1989.
Speaker: 89 yeah i can i can picture the color was it that like dark blue yes nailed it yep it had like pop-up headlight caps they were awesome i love those things i i remember fondly uh my dad's uh celica from growing up um those those were good cars
Speaker: um don't don't miss having to crawl in the back seat though uh yeah the old the old seat said only like the backrest flips forward like 10 and you have to squeeze through yeah yeah some some things about the old days uh don't miss most things i would say i don't think so it's not where i expected the start of this episode to go what are we going to be talking about today
