9-4. What not to do at a Regional Championships

Tag Team Pokemon TCG Podcast · Ep 4 · 2d ago · 1h 13m

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About this episode

<p>In this week's episode, the boys break down the top storylines from the Baltimore Regional championships, including the crazy finals match, yet another Top 256 finish for JW, and Andrew's interesting deck choice.</p>

This episode is published by Tag Team Pokemon TCG Podcast.

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Transcript

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How's it hanging, everybody? Welcome back to Tag Team Pokemon Trading Card Games from your podcasting trio. My name is Riley Hulbert, joined as always by my good, good friends Mr. Andrew Mahone and Mr. J.W. crewall. And folks, we got a rousing episode ahead. We are fresh off the Baltimore Regional Championship, the very first of the 2026, 2027 competitive season, and lots of interesting stuff to talk about. JW and Andrew both played there this past weekend, so it'll be interesting to hear how you guys did as well. And I think with that said, we can start to dive into it. But before we Topps, how's it going?

Chillin, dude. Chillin. I attended Baltimore briefly for exactly four rounds. Yep. Close to the minimum. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Close to the. I've never gone.03 at a tournament. I would like to say that that is still true. That is still true. Even, even today as I stand here before you, sit here before you. He's like testifying in front of court right now. I had one other event where I went 13 drop and it was the 2016 World Championships. Yu-Gi-Oh maybe there was like a regional somewhere in there where I think at Indy I was playing like a dark box deck. Maybe had like a 13 or in there too. But like, not often do I just like really crash and burn right out of the gates. But mega star me, Dusknoir. Yu-Gi-Oh Served me up that, that experience. And it's crazy because it like, I'm, I'm like from the Baltimore area. My family used to live there. I have a lot of extended family that still lives in the area. So I was visiting with them. I was Actually staying on the Eastern Shore and got to visit with them. So I was like driving an hour and a half in to the regionals. It's the first time that I've ever been to the Baltimore regionals and, you know, didn't end up going great. But that's okay because I did get to go to like a cousin's baby shower on Saturday after I Tribute which the rest of my family was at. So, you know, I kind of felt like, good about that. It was like a one-of-one one-of-one Like, if I do well, then it's like, all right, I missed the baby shower. But like, you know, I'm doing well and if I did bad, then I'm like, I'm at the baby shower. And the baby shower was nice and I got to see a lot of family, which felt. Felt really good. So I had a great trip regardless. Got to meet some people at the venue. You know, big shout out to everybody who said hey. Shout out to Skynet Gaming. Ryan, who got today two with the Starmie deck. Okay. Repping the Star Me Dust nor deck. Me and Jesse both played it and yep, neither of us did great. But Yu-Gi-Oh we'll.

We'll talk about that. You're not getting away without talking about star. You don't. No, I felt like. I felt like I could just kind of like cover it here and then we wouldn't have to talk about it for the rest. No, we gotta talk about it. Yu-Gi-Oh we gotta talk about. And we gotta talk about it in depth too, because I think the lead up is interesting as well. Like kind of like a what not to do when preparing for a regional. Yu-Gi-Oh There was a megastarmy in top 32. I don't want to hear it. I know.

We'll talk. We'll talk about it. Yu-Gi-Oh You were not close to this. Yu-Gi-Oh we're. We're not. If we're not avoiding that part of it. I was like, basically right there, dude. That was right. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh If, like, if, like, you know, if you both included mega Star me in your decks, it was basically the same deck. That's the only metric that you look. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Huh. So. Yu-Gi-Oh Well, man, Riley, glad to have you here. Obviously you're going to be gone next week. Down to the tropics. Yup. For the honeymoon.

Yup. Yup. Has it set in? This weekend was more calm for us. We were doing like life event stuff at work to transition insurances and getting certificates and everything. And I feel like we've kind of settled in this actually this past weekend. Was kind of nice. We just mostly relaxed. I've been playing a lot. An unholy amount of the new Fire Emblem game that just came out. I basically all weekend played that and watched Baltimore Regionals and it was awesome. Nice too. Yes, Very, very cool. But we're leaving for the honeymoon and actually just a couple of days as we're recording this. So I'll be in lovely Aruba this time next week. This time next week, actually, thinking of our sunset dinner.

Send us a pic. Will do. That'd be awesome. All right. Well, Jimmy, though, you were in Baltimore. Any. Any highlights for you before we talk about your run? Highlights in Baltimore, I mean, it's always good to see family. So we got some. We got some like, severe family issues coming up, health wise. So, Yu-Gi-Oh don't know what. Don't know what that's going to look like here for us, but good to see family nonetheless. It was nice to go to a regional where I could take the bus. So it was like a 15 minute bus ride Downtown to. To get to the regional, which was awesome. So Yu-Gi-Oh just had the whole family there as well. Got to, you know, see my kids.

Lots of familial ties to Baltimore, day one. I know, I know, it's great. Give me the Baltimore stat. What a great city. Baltimore is like an amazing city, honestly. Like, I know people, amazing city. Have give it a bad rap, but it's very historic. I think it's very charming. It has kind of a. People give it a bad rap because they're racist. It's like a big town, small town type of vibe, I think. I just really like the city a lot. Yu-Gi-Oh it's a great city. Yu-Gi-Oh A lot to love about Baltimore and the venue. Phenomenal, dude. Biggest regional, I think of all time, right? Masters, I mean, basically say that every year, but they need to keep. But they need to keep coming back. And it did not feel cramped.

No, it didn't feel cramped. And that's what I was gonna say. It was the only regional that I ever attended in the last few years where I was like, Yu-Gi-Oh there's like enough space for all of us here. Yes, like the only one. Yu-Gi-Oh Yes. I was like, Yu-Gi-Oh I'm not like shoulder to shoulder and there's like plenty of space. Were very reasonable, you know, you could step out. Like, I felt like they had a really good system. They had a really good system with like coming in and out of the venue. Like there was a little like overflow area that you could go out that it wasn't you know, it was out of the venue hall. So, you know, if you didn't, like the temperature of the venue, you could, like, kind of get some air outside, but then come right back in. Like, it just worked really well. They had, you know, a lot of places to eat Downtown if you needed a quick bite. Obviously, everything inside the convention center, they had a lot of food options. So I felt like it was, dare I say, maybe like a premier, perfect regional location.

Dude, the. Perhaps. Perhaps. Yu-Gi-Oh It was really great. You've got the harbor right there. Dude. You've got the sports stadiums. So, like, dude, if you wanted to, like, do stuff, there was an Orioles game on Friday night and there was a Ravens game on Sunday. Let's not talk about it. There was a Ravens game on Sunday. Who did they lose to? And, dude, let's. Let's not talk. Literally, I. We're not gonna talk about it, but we're gonna dig into megastarmy. So, Yu-Gi-Oh many such. I'm actually looking for a save safe space right now. Yu-Gi-Oh But, yes, there's like. There's lots of great stuff going on. Personally, I love Fells Point. So if you were, like, feeling adventurous, you know, make your way out to Fells Point, there's like an awesome little strip of, like, bars there with, like, historic kind of cobblestone streets. And you've got, you know, right across the harbor, you could see, like, Domino Sugar. You could see the Under Armour headquarters, which Under Armour from Baltimore. Okay. Just saying, there's a lot of great stuff going on in that city. Domino Sugar, all that seeing all the ships and everything. You see Fort McHenry. It's just really cool, right? Star Spangled Banner literally written out there. Dude. Composed. Yu-Gi-Oh Francis Scott Key. Dude, I'm just saying. Yu-Gi-Oh a lot of cool stuff, A lot to love. You could even, like, pirate. You could hop on a pirate ship and, like, you know, do shots, you know, on a pirate ship and, like, shoot, you know, water cannons at, like, a rogue pirate, if you want to. I mean, they have, like, lots of. Lots of entertainment, you know.

What more do you want? That's what I'm saying. I know. Beautiful city. Give me their stat. So anyways, I hope they keep coming back to Baltimore. I feel. Did they skip last year or was it also Baltimore last year? No, I think they skipped last year. I feel like Baltimore is a pretty good spot. It also is, like, a Southwest Airlines hub, so if you're, like, flying a budget airline, they definitely did not skip last year. Am I crazy? No. Last year I Think it was last year. Yu-Gi-Oh they skipped a year.

Didn't they skip? I think you skipped a year. You skipped it last year. But, Yu-Gi-Oh because I. I think. I feel like I've been in Baltimore the last three years because I remember, because they were. They were all like soul crushers. Well, the last two, and I lost to freaking. Oh, my gosh. My main op, who now is playing vgc. All right. Yu-Gi-Oh there was. There was a bolter. Well, Yu-Gi-Oh it's been. It's been a mainstay, I feel like, in the 25 last couple years. The last two years in Baltimore to Rowan. That's right. Rowan. Stamina.

All right. I guess there have been regionals in Baltimore the last few years. All right. Anyways, I'm. But you did miss some of them, Andrew. So there wasn't one last year. Natalie says there wasn't one last year there. And it was Pittsburgh last year. This episode is brought to you by PayPal. You know how a mom's bag has everything? Sunscreen, snacks, a stapler. The new PayPal app is like that, but for your money. Shop, pay, manage your account, and earn rewards all in one place. And with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security, and pass keys, you're protected at every step. Download the new PayPal app. To get started, see paypal.com protectionterms.

This message is brought to you by Apple Card. With Apple Card, you earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases like groceries, merch, or tickets to the game. Plus, it can be used anywhere. Mastercard is accepted no matter your team, no matter where you shop. Apple Card is here to help you tackle game day. Apply in the wallet app on your iPhone today subject to credit approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch trans terms and more@applecard.com okay, you guys are gaslighting me.

I feel like, wait. Oh, maybe it was. So I was at Baltimore two years ago. I know that. Played Lugia there. Yes. Was it Pittsburgh? That was two years ago. Last year. Okay, well, regardless, anyways, they should keep bringing it to Baltimore, but also Pittsburgh's wonderful, so I. I love Pittsburgh. Why not both? I'll. Why not both? I would just both great American cities right there and also, like, you know, Zebra close to me, so they should keep doing this. I imagine they're diversifying their. Their, like, northeast portfolio or Eastern.

Yu-Gi-Oh They should also pick, like, Philadelphia. So we could do, like, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Just like all three of those. Yu-Gi-Oh Philadelphia would be a good city to come back to. I feel like that's what I'm saying. Extremely major airline. I think of everything in terms of airlines now. Like what we're gonna get a direct flight from Madison, Wisconsin. So Philadelphia, big high on the priority list. Absolutely. Yu-Gi-Oh Well, let's talk a bit about the Baltimore regional results. We had what some would consider one of the most epic finals of all time. Dylan Kristen beating Ben Dauberstein. Ben playing the teal mask Hydrapple Meganium deck. Dylan on a big basics clefairy box style deck. Winning with a triple heads flip. Well, not winning necessarily with the triple head flip but essentially guaranteeing the basically with a triple head flip on a hero's caped mega kangaskhan to take out Ben's main threat is one high drapple in play. Yu-Gi-Oh Again securing essentially that victory. If he flips one tails, Ben's got it almost assuredly but doesn't do it. Finds the kind of unusual line double E switch into the Kangaskhan and gets it done. So Yu-Gi-Oh really well played there. A couple other dragapult in top eight. You got Rohit Potty and Liam Halliburton playing dragapult and then slow king Alakazam and some more slop to round out the top eight. What were some of the storylines that you guys saw from regionals or the regional championships? Like what were some of the decks that impressed any matches, feature matches toward the end of day two or into cut that you were really impressed by?

A couple impressions. For me it really felt like at the upper ends that the big basic decks were kind of everywhere. I would say they outperformed our expectations as a collective. We had previously ranked the big basic decks in kind of that B tier. But those decks, if you just find the right string of matchups, you chain together those dragapults and dodge the crustles, you dodge the honchkrows. Zoroark's also a really favorable one. You know, dodge the alakazams. Like you could just plow through everything else.

I mean dude, look at this, look at this. So like right, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 dragapults on the day for Dylan. Dude, which isn't like statistics. No. 9, 9. There's not that on. Like okay, that's starting to like maybe. But it's not impossible to imagine a world where you do, you know, seven, eight, nine dragapults in a tournament. It's unlikely maybe, sure. But that's exactly the run that you want to put together with the basic box deck. You know, you want to be Checkmating the Dragon pulse on turn three. So, you know, it's in that way. I guess it's not a surprise. What honestly was more surprising to me was, was seeing hydrapple make it to the finals. I was personally kind of rooting for hydraffle as a little bit of an underdog deck. Jw, I was also thinking of you seeing eyedrople in the final.

Well, so. And my boy needs this. This. Yu-Gi-Oh you were. You were wrong, jw. No, I was. I was actually right. No, no, no. Here. Here's the thing though. You were wrong, dude, about hydrapple. Chill, chill. Just let me. Let me finish. Let me finish. Look at the losses. I'm just putting it out there that you were wrong. Look, look at. Look at the losses. So. So played five Dragon Ball decks lost twice to. To Dragon Ball. Like that was the three and two. I think favorite favor favored. It's not a favorite. We've played it, dude. We played it. You saw it with your own eyes. It's not even like you.

I mean, let's ignore the fact that, you know, at a crucial. At a crucial point in the tournament after losing round number five hit back to back Zor. You're like, holy crap, dude. You're like, yep, I'm going the distance. Yep, back to back Zor a sharpedo. I mean, like you're. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh dude. That's a final fake. Okay, but jw, would you not concur that you're right would have probably been superior if you had played Hydra Apple versus Dragon 100. It would have. It is certainly possible. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh it is certainly possible.

I Zora, I'm. I'm sticking to my guns. That I don't think. I don't think Pult was like that good at this tournament. It's like the best deck. It's the best deck, but it didn't feel like the best medical. I mean, in the grand scheme of things like straight dragapult plus straight dragapult by itself was like 20% of the meta and it still had a 50% one-of-one rate. And I feel like when decks are that popular, still rocking with a 50% one-of-one rate being heavily countered, being played by noobs like, that's pretty impressive still to me. Two in top eight. Like, I don't know. Still really good choice, I think.

I think, you know, I think a deck like Starmoon is probably just a better. Let's put in. Let's pivot into that. Certainly. So, Andrew, talk to us a little bit about the week leading up to the event and why you were so head, like, head, head strong about trying to find a wrinkle in the meta and why you were convinced it was mega stormy. I think I was just having fun playing Mega Star Me is what it like boiled down to. And I really didn't want to play Dragapult because I kind of foresaw this kind of thing. I was like, somebody's just gonna, you know, people are just gonna play something that beats Dragapult. That's gonna be the decks, you know, that's what's gonna happen. So I was like, I don't want to be out there playing pult just getting farmed every round, like by people who are just testing only against straight pult with like you said yourself, you were like, dude, you said yourself, you said the whole tournament, Mr. Top 256, okay? You said the whole tournament was just so hostile to Pult. You, you said that.

But. And that's exactly what I foresaw. But I don't, I don't want. Top256 is on my limitless page, bro. That's not what I'm going for, okay? I'm going for glory, I'm going for Topps going for big finishes, okay? I don't care about nickel and diamond. Like the barely you think I care about. This is what you got last year. You got it. You're lucky they don't put the top 2781 on your limitless. Jeez, dude. Like, this is. I have never had a result like this ever, ever, ever. I've, I've never, I've never had a top 256 regional finish. So I don't know.

You brought this on yourself, man. This is like insane work. I like, I think I gotta, I can't, I can't actually. I can't actually like put up with this. I. I'm gonna have to stand my ground as someone with three children, okay? I have so three children, so. Well, no, let me, let me, let me say this, let me say this. What do the kids got to do with this? So, okay, we're, we're. Well, it's, it's the least amount of time I had. You know, Again, I'm gonna defend my season last season and really my season over the last couple years. The least amount of time of any, you know, high level player. The least amount of tournaments attended of any high level player. And that even extends to like cups and locals, which I like, basically maxed out.

Huh? You know, one at a Time and. And the least amount of help from the. From the testing group. So, like, that mean. What do I mean? Better regional finish than you recently. Hey, let's. Yu-Gi-Oh Since January 1st. Since January 1st. I have a better retail finish than you this year. Hey, Andrew, you want to hop on and get ready for Baltimore? Yu-Gi-Oh man. I have a star me Dusk Nordic that I'm trying to test out. Like, what are we. I have a better finish than you this year. I have a better finish than you have a better.

Okay, great. Top 64 at the Indianapolis Regionals. Like. Yep. I know. I wish you could talk to me like that, but you can't. You can't. Like, you just can't. I can't believe. I can't believe what's happening. You did. You chose to pay 80 bucks to enter this regional day and sleeve up mega star me confidently. Yu-Gi-Oh you are the one that has egg on your face. And I think that the listeners will agree with me. I mean, look at this. No, look at this list. This is what you. I hate to be put on JW's side, and it's in an argument, but, like, I feel this deck. This deck beats Dragapult, I'll tell you that. You know what? It doesn't beat. Okay, round one.

Dude, your placement number is, like, higher than most regional championships have attendees. Yu-Gi-Oh man, I went 13 drop. What are you expecting from me? What do you want from me? Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh it was. It was not good. Like, what? What do you want? We lost to a hop stack. Dude, that hop stack. Okay, we all lose the hop stacks now and again. Okay? That hop stack had hands. All right, first of all, there was a psyduck in there, okay? And just saying, mega star me gives up three prizes, and my legacy was prized at. Gave three. I'm just saying there's a lot. There's a lot that went wrong there, okay? But this is indefensible.

Yu-Gi-Oh the hops guy went on to get one more one-of-one by the way. Okay, maybe so let Yu-Gi-Oh who has never gone 1 and 3 for the throw the first stone. Dude, they went. You never had a bad event? No. You never had a. No, no, never had. Well, I mean, we're talking about the last three years. I missed day two one time. Okay, Naic. What? Two years ago, when I played the deck that you suggested, man, you're just, like, really good at finishing middle of the pack. What can I say? Reggie Bolt was a fine choice, by the way.

It was a fine choice. I. It was fine with it. It was I was fine with it. It just like. I'm. I'm just saying that's. That's where we're at. I'm just saying you can't put that either. So here's the. Here's the thing with me as a player. I just have no qualms making a risky play. I have no qualms with it. I'm not embarrassed by it. I'm not embarrassed by one. 3. You're clowning on me. Like. Like sleeving up Mega Star army and, like, going out on a limb to try something different is embarrassing, but pull up. Pull up my Limitless page. Go ahead, pull it up. I've got some really cool decks on there. I've got Snorlax Vmax. You don't. I've got Snorlax VMax on my limitless pages. Really freaking cool, you know, I've got some decks on there that people don't really play. I was playing Flying Pikachu in my Mew VMAX deck. That's really freaking cool. Not a lot of people were doing that. I'm just saying, like, I'm an innovative player. I do different things. I try different stuff. I've got Raikou Electric on my Limitless page. Dude, I'm just saying that tick was good. I got unique decks.

This is, like, one of the. I think this might be one of the lowest tier. This is certainly one of the worst podcasts. No, no, no, no. This is one of the worst decks I've ever played. Well, yes, this is. And everyone tried to. You're clowning on me for taking a risk, and I'm saying I don't care. No, no. I'm not clowning on you for taking a risk. Let's get out of hating on each other for a moment. Let's get out of hating on each other for a moment. Andrew, I'm so curious, like, how you actually landed, like, not even trying to be spiteful or hateful. Like, but how did you actually land on this? You know what I'm saying? What exactly had happened is that I asked JW for some games, right? And he's playing pole hammers, and nothing I was trying could be poled hammers. The only deck that went positive versus JW with Paul Hammers with Starmie Dust, Nori, and I think I went like 3 and 2. So I was like, okay, that's fine. And then on, like, Thursday before Baltimore, I was like, I'm going to try this deck right on stream. And it was like, going, okay, like, There were some things I was, like, working through, and then people were clowning on me for playing it, and I was like, fine. All right. If any of you could beat me in a best of three with. Start with. With pull, then I'll. I'll Tribute, right? And I played, like, three best of threes, verse polt, and I want all of them. So I was like, okay, the deck, like, theoretically beats Paul, and that's really all I was trying to do was be Paul, right? And I didn't really do too much thinking about anything else. And then I told Jesse. I was like, you know what? I'm good to play this. I just don't really. I don't really care. Like, I have I family stuff going on in Baltimore this weekend. If it. If it's cool, like, legendary I day two with Star meat. That's gonna make a fun video, right? And if I don't, then that's cool because I got family stuff going on, and I'll go do that, right? It's not like I'm visiting some random city, and the only thing I'm there to do in that city is to play Pokemon cards. I was visiting my hometown. I had a baby shower. I was visiting my extended family on the Eastern shore. I had a lot of other stuff that was going on. So for me, it literally was a one-of-one one-of-one I either day two with Mega Starmie, or I drop early and spend time with my family. That is how I mentally got there. And I'm not, like, ashamed of that.

I don't. I don't really care. Like, it doesn't faze me at all because I was making that trip to Baltimore that weekend regardless. Like, not just for the Pokemon tournament. I was, like, in town for a baby shower. And, like, that's what I was doing that weekend. So, no, it wasn't really that deep. I guess, like, I kind of just thought that the Vegas army deck was fun. I was having. It literally boiled down to, like, I was having fun playing it on Thursday. So I said, sure, we'll send it. And if you want to, like, clown on me for that or you think it's like, you know, I totally preposterous that you would play a silly decade at a major event that cost $80. Then, like, sure, man. That's fine. But, like, I'm also not, like, blown away by your result. If you'd like top eight, it. I'd be like, all right, jw, you got the freaking sauce, bro. Like, you're right. Like, I'm an I'm a moron. But, like, you, like, wagging another top 256 in my face and being like, look at you, idiot. Like, that, like, doesn't really do it for me, you know, it just does it, so.

Okay. But I feel like I did like your list, though. I'm not going to lie. I like the inclusion of the Dunsparce. I told JW that I would want to run to Dunsparce Ex if I played Luke Giffen was doing that. Luke Giffen played it at his second place Worlds list, and I got to play some games with him last week. So, Yu-Gi-Oh I liked. I like that. That was sauced up for sure. Well, I guess it's not the weekend for tag team. What can you do? No, JW got points, bro. Those matter. JW loves top 256 finishes. He's really proud of them. Just look at the way he's acting. Come on. That's a lot to be proud of.

I don't know. JW got placement mogged by friend of the podcast Adler Pierce versus 201st. Yu-Gi-Oh man. I mean, if I could, you know, you're basically talking about, like, hey, if I could choose my matchups, I bet you, you know, did beat Paul. But you got to make it out of, you know, the first three. And I did it first. And I. And I did not know, so. And Jesse also. So, like, Jesse went on. Jesse went on and, like, asked. He's like, are you seriously gonna play Starmie? And I was like, Yu-Gi-Oh sure, I'm gonna play Starmie. And then he, like, stayed up till 6am grinding, like, hundreds of games. Probably a hundred games. Hundreds with, like, the deck? Yu-Gi-Oh probably 100.

It takes, like, 20 minutes to play a game. Yu-Gi-Oh that's insane. All right, he probably got 40 games in. All right, they probably got maybe 30. I'm guessing we're talking, like, top tops. We're talking 20. Yu-Gi-Oh All right, maybe it was like 20, you know, but he got a good amount of games on the high. He stayed up till 6am Playing the deck, and he gave My House notes on it. Let me. Let me remind you, all right? Someone did day two with it. Tricky gym viewer Ryan Skynight Gaming did. So I'm just saying, it wasn't that crazy.

This episode is brought to you by PayPal. You know how a mom's bag has everything? Sunscreen, snacks, a stapler. The new PayPal app is like that, but for your money, shop pay, manage your account, and earn rewards all in one place and with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security and passkeys. You're protected at every step. Download the new PayPal app to get started, see paypal.com protectionturnms. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. With Apple Card, you earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases like groceries, merch or tickets to the game. Plus it can be used anywhere. MasterCard is accepted no matter your team, no matter where you shop. Apple Card is here to help you tackle game day. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more@applecard.com Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh I mean like I've always said to make day and he finished with like one less one-of-one than you. Dude, you've got to get to day two whatever, man.

To make day two. Whatever, man. I don't, I don't know if I'll have to go back and listen to this episode. I don't know if I brought this on, but I think we have really triggered you and that is like, that is crazy. The sure fire way to calm someone down is to point out that you think they're triggered. That's like Flawless execution on your part. Definitely, dude. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh I think we've triggered you, which was my motive from the jump. So we can move on now to be triggered. I don't know your motive. I'm talking as if I was you. You definitely were camping into the episode. You're like, all I need to do is clown on Andrew to the point where he gets triggered and then we can move on.

I never said that in the pre, in the pregame before this Obsidian, but I know you with your diabolical mind was thinking it. It was. What is going on? I, I am not proud of like the, the, the finish. I guess like I'm trying to one-of-one every tournament I Whatnot you know, that I go to, that I enter into. Like, that is, you know, where we're at. It's like, but that makes two of us then. I don't want the same boat. That's fair. That's fair. You know, it's like I had put, you know, I had put so much time into dragapult heading into worlds. Obviously it just made. I Goldin find anything in my testing that did anything better than Dragon Ball the Hammers. Like, sure, I could have mixed something up. I really don't vibe with like the basic box decks. I knew Slow King was not the deck for me. Like, I was not gonna touch Crustal so that Zoroark was out of the questions that like really limited what I felt comfortable playing. Like maybe I could have put together Alakazam. You know, maybe I could have put together some other dragapult variant, but ended up with dragapult and I, you know, I don't love like the matchup spread. Kind of looking back at it, I did end up playing like Jesse or like Riley was saying, I did end up playing the dead on sparse ex. Felt like that was good. The judge was fine. Like, I don't know that I would have had any different result if I had played red card versus judge. And then I played the nine energy with the cut being one night stretcher for the dud bars, which I don't think really ended up hurting me overall throughout the. Throughout the days. But Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, pretty unfortunate. I think in this round seven, this is like a. I don't want to say a turning point, but I had a really great set here in round seven against the Mega Lucario and where there were two separate times in game three that my opponent was a top deck away from losing the game. So he goes start Soul Rock pass. I have Badoo. I have one Dreepy on the bench. So there's like a number of scenarios that save me. It's, you know, he just top decks nothing and passes and then I get a free evolve or it's, you know, he top decks something, gets a Soul Rock down, gets a knockout on the active and I'm still in a winning position. Instead he top deck Sol Rock draws three, finds the boss, knocks out the only Dreepy and then from there I just get down too many prizes. Like he's able to just knock out badoo after badoo after, you know, Dreepy, like with one prizers essentially before building into a final Lucario that just sweeps. So that was like really heartbreaking. I have a chance to one-of-one where I like Hammer Hammer stamp and like, so long as he doesn't draw every dragonfold player describing their game ever.

No, Yu-Gi-Oh totally. No, no, Yu-Gi-Oh I have a chance to one-of-one if I could totally one-of-one if I go double hammerhead stiff. Well, no, no, but. But it was playing out that way and it's like, okay, as long as he, you know, just doesn't draw out of this. And he's like, looks at the top. Okay, I got nothing. And then he top decks the ultra ball and it's like, oh, God. Okay. Well, it was just funny that it happened twice in the same. Twice in the same round. Yu-Gi-Oh Just kind of weird. Though like 3 sloke or sorry, 4. Slow King ended up beating 3. I actually really love this matchup. Just, it's. I think it's really fun for Dragapult because you know you're getting neutered almost immediately. Like a board. Your board status neutered. Yu-Gi-Oh So you have to. You have to just build it back up from, you know, from nothing. And you have really good lines, I think into the Slow King deck, which makes it a really fun matchup. And you're just kind of like holding on to your. Holding on to the edge of your seat every single game you play against Slow King, which, which I actually think this is one of the premier matchups of this format for, you know, as. As uninteresting as some people think it is. Yu-Gi-Oh Another Lucario that just like wiped the Fleer with me and then ended up losing to a crustal on essentially a coin flip in. In multiple situations in game three, I have a chance to like flip off the growing energy on a crustle that already had 150 damage. And then if I get rid of that, it knocks out the crustle and then I got a free hit on his second crustle with my dead on Spark cx. So I like have a one-of-one there potentially. And then I don't get it and then I judge him. I need him to not draw boss and he draws boss off the judge. Sepia, that was that. To take out the only dead unsparse on the bench or sorry, Dunsparce on the bench. So that was the run. Pretty unfortunate. Felt like I didn't, you know, I had one single Prizm matchup. Yu-Gi-Oh the round six. And that felt great.

Yu-Gi-Oh you had to. You had to like lose your first couple rounds to really find all those. As I like and I. And the other thing. So like the other thing that I. The other, the other reason that I played. I know where those were. The other reason that I played dragapult was that I felt like pretty good into mirror. I had played a lot at Worlds. You know, the mirror. A lot of worlds and you know, a lot. But three. Three of the rounds I worlds, I played a Dragon Ball variant. So I felt very comfortable into Dragapult. Like that's, you know, certainly the. The matchup that I attest the most. And of course, as you can see, played a single Dragapult despite starting.

They were busy playing Dylan despite starting 7 and 1. So it's just. It's so funny. Like you just need to. It reinforces the idea, I think probably, you know, you. You Share this rally. And you as well, Andrew. Like, you just got to play a very good collection of cards and you can't focus in on any one matchup because you're. You're really not guaranteed to hit that one matchup. Yu-Gi-Oh I. I definitely kind of like felt that at this event. And that was certainly the flaw. Right. I was like, oh, I got a deck that beats Paul. Let's send it. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh No, I didn't play any. Right. And didn't even play any of the other. I was like, all right, I beat Pulp, I beat Crustle, and I could beat Basic Box. I was like, those are three, like, big matchups.

Those are big matchups. That sounds great. You know, and you know, the tournament is more than that. I think I got like a reminder of that, especially at an event with like 3,600 players. Like, dude, you're just gonna, like, you're gonna have to play against the kitchen sink. So I. Right. I think I definitely was reminded of that. And I'll let that inform me going forwards. Like Stormy Dust Nor. I'm not mad I sent it. I've sent some silly decks to regionals before. This is probably one of the worst decks I've ever played to an event. But like, it's not that serious. We'll just go in a scoop. Go next. You know, that's just how I'm looking at it. Yu-Gi-Oh I'll play a better deck next time.

Played against the two highest placing Lucario Hariyamas. Just for what it's worth. Yu-Gi-Oh like just insane variants. Yu-Gi-Oh that's worth. That's worth a lot. Yu-Gi-Oh that's worth a lot. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh they were plus 20 cloud. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh that's right. Yu-Gi-Oh Cloud clout. Clout points. So that's cp. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Look at that, dude. And some aura you got. Did you guys see Rahul's tweet that, that he said people were just coming up to him, like, just like hating on him for being a cross up player. Like all. Yu-Gi-Oh dude, like, absolutely insane, right? He's like. He like tweets. He's like, Yu-Gi-Oh you know, thanks to everybody who like came up and said, hey. That they like the content and like, that's all great. But he's like, dude, it's like, it's so messed up that people are coming up to me and like being like, you're a terrible person. I hate your tech. Like, crap. Like, I could not believe that that was happening. But I also definitely can believe it because, like, Pokemon players. Right? But like, Also, like, what in the world, man? Like, it's just. It's a gay. Like, it's not that serious, guys. Like, it is. It is a game, right? And Rahul is like, picking the strategy that he wants to play in the game, which is like, allowed by the game. It's not scummy. No, it's not like any type of way. It's not breaking the rules, bending the rules, none of that. Like, this is a card designed by the game designers. Like, it being played to its intended purpose, mind you. Like this, right? Like, so, like, I just want to put out there that I think, like, anybody who. Anybody who thinks less of a person's character for the deck that they are playing, that is completely ridiculous. So, like, let's. Let's not do that, okay?

Let's just. This is attempts to wash away Mega Stormy, by the way. Hey, don't forget something. Yu-Gi-Oh just. I'm looking for space, actually. Yu-Gi-Oh I'm feeling like a little bit of a snowflake. I need a. I need a safe space, dude. But. But I think your point is. Is valid, gw, in that, like, even in the most centralized metas, right? And I think this is one of the more centralized metas that in recent history, at least that I can recall. Like, you can miss the matchup for a bunch of rounds, you know, so your deck needs to be well resilient against the breadth.

The breadth. Which is. That's part of why I've kind of resigned myself, like, I'm just gonna play like the actual best deck basically at every tournament now. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh exactly. Or like top one of the best, like, two or three decks. You know, I don't need to try and solve the meta. You know, someone else already did that for me, so I'm just gonna play the best deck instead. Yu-Gi-Oh it was crazy. I like both the decks that made finals. I do. I like both those decks. If I. If I didn't play megastarmy, I felt like I was on basic box was like the deck that I was kind of liking.

Yu-Gi-Oh I was kind of surprised he didn't end up on basic box, but. And I. And I could have predicted play basic box. That's. That's like what I was gonna Blue Ice basic box. I kind of wanted to play hydrapple, but then I felt like basic box was like, safer and more consistent. So. So basic box was like the deck that I kind of wanted to play, but I. I just was feeling spicy, you know? So, I mean, hey, I think that's admirable. In a lot of ways. Like to have the cajones to like pick something up the week before. I think that's not something that I would recommend to most players. And that's again, this is not like, I'm not. This is not a subtle jab. This is just a general advice of like. I'm trying to be better about this because in years prior I was a player that would, you know, the night before swap decks entirely or have you ever done well doing that?

I mean, there have definitely been times where I've like changed cards the morning of. No, no, the deck, the deck, the deck. I. I'm trying to remember an exact. I don't have an exact example. I do. I chose to play Evil Tool Garb the literally at like 1am the night before. I was choosing to play the BIF. Yu-Gi-Oh But still like I never, I'd never like tested with it. Really? Yu-Gi-Oh And was like I had only ever tested it in the capacity that I was like playing it as the deck for other people who wanted to test against it. That was like the capacity. I never like tried to take ownership of it. I was just like, sure, I'll. I'll play it just to give somebody test.

I think that. I think that maybe a difference. I played it to a second place finish after picking up the night before. Yu-Gi-Oh And then Snorlax Vmax. Snorlax Vmax was another deck that it was like, you know, I had kind of been like running it a little bit like the. But expanded was different. You could kind of like do a little bit of that. I think that expanded. I think the difference here in current standard is that I Gudra, dude. I Beckett up Goodra like right before tournament for sure. Yu-Gi-Oh I was not a Goodra man.

Yu-Gi-Oh But that, that wasn't like a banger. I feel like. No, no. But it was fine. Had some fine results. I tossed 40 UIC with it and I think I did something else with it. I don't know. That was fine. Yu-Gi-Oh I was thinking of good or myself. But I was like, fine. I feel like. But like to me, I'm not scared of it. I'm not scared of it. Right. That doesn't frighten me picking up at this point. I've been playing the game for a decade, bro. Like I feel like I'd be more comfortable doing it if I was like really locked in to the overall metagame. Like I was playing like lots of decks often. I just, you know, I just don't think I have that capacity anymore to even keep up.

Yu-Gi-Oh I don't, I don't think that a lot of the, I don't think that a lot of the game's best players are thinking like that though, is my kind of counter argument there. Well, the best players right now are just playing the best decks, so I don't know if that's, I don't know if that's even necessarily true. Like, I think the best players are maining a deck. Right? Like we brought up Rahul, like, he's just main in Crustal and we can all think of how many great results he's had with that. Let's even look at Ben. Like, Ben had a top 32 at NAIC following. You know, he had a pretty, I don't know, above average world's performance, but didn't cash at Worlds. And then here's a second place at regionals with this high travel deck.

Right. Like, Josh has been on Alakazam for a number of, a number of major tournaments and doing very well. You know, Cali White, I mean, we could talk about Jackson Ford. This is another cache with the Dragon Ball Blaziken deck. We could talk about. Obviously Hedrick, like just, just a stream of, of top 32s are better over the last number of regionals and, and Worlds. Yu-Gi-Oh whatever else. Yu-Gi-Oh whatever else he achieves. Yu-Gi-Oh exactly. So Henry Chow, right? I mean, so like ultimately though.

Well, Henry Chow. Henry Chow's not. That's a different list. But are you having fun? So like. Well, that's. Yu-Gi-Oh I feel like I have the most fun when I'm playing like the most strategically engaging, like highest level games possible. That's when I feel like I'm having the most fun. I don't really have fun playing like lower power level decks, personally. I know a lot of people do and I think there's fun to be had in doing that in like spaces with my friends, like on a tabletop. But like at a regional championship. I'm having the most fun when I'm playing, like really interesting games.

This episode is brought to you by PayPal. You know how a mom's bag has everything? Sunscreen, snacks, a stapler. The new PayPal app is like that, but for your money. Shop, pay, manage your account and earn rewards all in one place. And with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security and pass keys, you're protected at every step. Download the new PayPal app to get started. See paypal.com protectionturns. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. With Apple Card, you Earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases like groceries, merch or tickets to the game. Plus it can be used anywhere. MasterCard is accepted, no matter your team, no matter where you shop. Apple Card is here to help you tackle game day. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more@applecard.com I guess like for me, I had a pretty decent run with Pulse already at a regional. I like Pult Dusknoir. If I'm going to play Pult, I want to play Pulp Dust Nor. That's my favorite way to play it. I like Dustin or as a card. I really did want to play Dust Nor at this event. And Yu-Gi-Oh like I just, I think that to me mixing it up sometimes is part of the whimsy and fun of playing the Pokemon trading card game. Like I guess, you know, I could just mean one deck for the entire year, but I do kind of like trying new things and that's, and that's good. And that's fine. And that's fine. I just like, from an outsider perspective, to me, for you to have put in so many hours into Dragapult and specifically having your last major event, you know, where you got a top 64 with Dragon Ball Dusknoir, like it seems like a no brainer to me. And again, you're thinking about this differently. But the advice that I would give to someone who's like, hey, what should I have played for Baltimore? I'd be like, well, you know, what do you have the most reps with in.

Well, that's right. Yu-Gi-Oh You ever ignore your own advice? You never do that. What a, what a rush. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh dude. You never like, you never like do something, you know, you shouldn't do that. See like that's, that's the difference between you and me, jw. I do stuff I know I shouldn't do all the time. I even get a kick out of it. That's verifiably true. So that's funny. Like, just as a person, I do that. Do you? I mean, I, I don't know. I suppose. Yu-Gi-Oh I suppose I can't be like hypocritical in that way. I just thinking about these major tournaments as less of like a one off and more of a cumulative, you know, for me, I think is, is where I just got a risk taking personality. I think.

Yu-Gi-Oh you know, certainly there's, there's room for innovation. I think that this, you know, even this tournament we kind of saw that too. Right. Like I want to take a look at Henry's dragon Ball dust or list. I want to take a look at, you know the, the hide and sneak deck. I think, I think there's room there but hide and sneak deck. Pretty cool to see that show up at top 32. And also there was a megastarmy in top 32 and I would have been over the moon if I, you know, top 32 with MegastArmy. I would have felt like that would have been so sick. You remember how much of a risk Miraidon was at Worlds 2023. That was a huge risk. You know, like it just what a cool play at that Worlds too. And then Miraidon went on to become like this, this deck you want to regional with it. I mean Jesse got second like top four at Worlds. Like you know, Miraidon went on to be like the it deck but we were next year we were testing that like multiple weeks in advance and I think that's where we were, you know that that's the difference.

Right? Like I got it out of my system. I got it out of my system. Okay. And that's, that's great and that's good. And I think like as again like as the testing dynamic, like and as you say, you know, hey, I'm really trying to unbelievably stunlocked by Starmie right now. I'm trying to like make a, you know, make deep runs and like I'm trying to do something in you know, the, you need more serious testing group who's not going to be doing things like mega star me the three days before. No, I don't, I don't mind. I don't mind thinking.

Are you breaking up with me? No, I know you're breaking up with. I just, I don't mind thinking outside the box. I really like thinking outside the box. I don't want to be thinking outside the box. You know, less than a week out from the major. Like that's not what I want to do. Right. Because I do think that knowing ideally the parameters of the box have been defined by the week of the tournament, knowing the matchups at least for like the first, I would say six rounds are probably more important than whatever deck you play. Like playing to your outs against the, you know, in the initial stages of the tournament before day two or phase two, like that is much more important in my opinion than having like some great meta call or playing some, you know, unique out of the box deck. Now maybe that does matter. Obviously the longer the Tournament goes on. That does have more impact. But you know, it's almost. To me, you know, there's. There's these kind of like two separate tournaments. Right. Where like in the first part of the tournament, you're trying to make the second part of the tournament where your deck choice will have more of an impact because players are going to be playing it much more optimally than they will early on in the tournament, if that makes sense.

I agree with that. So. Yu-Gi-Oh for sure. one-of-one Yu-Gi-Oh Here's the mega star me deck. That was basically what you played. That got top 32. Yu-Gi-Oh Three three star me. Hardly tell the difference. I was also on a three. Three star me. I also played three ignition energies. Well, a lot of similarities here. Three bosses orders. I had that. Many, many fez meows. Both of us had that. I too played a bubbly energy in my deck. Yes. Many, many such similarities between these decks. Both of us had a supplemental draw engine. Yep.

We also had hide and sneak in the top 32, which is pretty interesting. This is. I feel like, Andrew, this would have been like a build that I could have seen you creating. And we were just talking about this before the cast. Yu-Gi-Oh How the explorer's guidance. Like, where have we all been? Have we just been sleeping? Like, Darien's the one ball knower that recognizes Explorer's guidance. Like, is the perfect card for this type of deck that you're trying to discard specific Pokemon in. Like, where were we, dude?

Do we feel like this is actually like, is this a one one trick pony like a one? Well, let's take a look. Let's take a look. I mean. Yu-Gi-Oh The matchups certainly seem to indicate that, you know, you're looking at playing a deck like hide and sneak and ideally beating a lot of Dragapult. Now going 311 is, you know, beating the excadrill deck is insane. I feel like that should be tough, but I guess not. Like, they have all the ice cream cones. Right. So like that's. I mean, this. This extra only played one ice cream.

Oh, okay. Okay. Okay then I'm then sure. Yu-Gi-Oh I'm just assuming four, I think. Okay. This one play three. Yu-Gi-Oh This. I mean, maybe this is harder. Has the heroes cape as well. I guess that's pretty standard these days. But you can start swinging from turn one. So there's. There's probably some element of like early aggression. You're so aggressive that it's like hard to keep up. Yu-Gi-Oh I would be curious to know how many terminal attacks they got because in my experience with the. With the hide and sneak deck, it was like turn two at best was what you were swinging. But.

Well, the explorer's guidance. You're more likely to hit a couple. A couple you are. And all them are maxed out. I mean, you got the 44 sinister line and you've got the 44 Panini line. I like that. It's good. Yu-Gi-Oh very cool. I mean, between the prison tower, the ultra ball and the guidance, I feel like you're hitting four turn one pretty often. Right in the Gwyn. The Gwyn. Never forget about the Gwyn. Solid. So something to think about. Also bear in mind the heavy Sinisha line is probably good against the Exadreel as well.

You're spreading to everything. Yu-Gi-Oh How many times do you think they use the Zebra Tomb? I would wager not very many. But it feels like a card you have to include. It's like the threat of it. Yu-Gi-Oh the threat of it. Well, the Sinister is really not doing anything without the Spiritomb threat. You're like. Yu-Gi-Oh right. Like you're not just. Well, the spirit tomb is also like. I don't know, I could see it like being useful. Like if you. If you're like swinging with Adelmise and they ice cream cone a couple times, you can spiritomb to like quadruple what's left and KO it or something.

I don't know. I'm just saying. I see the vision. See the vision. Let's take a look at some of the top eight lists. We have the basic box from Dylan. I think the unique Illusions the Enamorous, which we did see from the world's top eight list. Iron Crown Ex has been gaining in popularity being able to snipe low HP Pokemon, namely the Abras in the Alakazam matchup, which is otherwise incredibly difficult. Dude. And the fish and the apples, the dips and the fish. Yes. Yes. Yu-Gi-Oh dude, you kind of COVID two single Prizm matchups with that, which is not nothing. So. Pretty good.

Yu-Gi-Oh I mean the. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh I think festival lead. I don't know how many festival lead he played. He didn't play any festival lead and he only played one Alakazam Zebra early on. So I mean, this is just like. This is exactly the matchups you're hoping for with a list like this. Right. You're just playing dragapult after dragapult. Hit some zoroarks along the way. Yu-Gi-Oh You know, you got the Enamorus to try and make Crustle better. It's probably pretty decent. Against Crustle. Because you have the cape too. So you like cape and Enamorus.

Lost a Crustle on there? Well, sure. Right. Like you could still lost in a one-of-one though. Like, I mean, one. Yu-Gi-Oh So one basic box against Crustle. I feel like you take that. Yu-Gi-Oh it's. Right. It's probably heroes or without the Enamorus. Right? It's like go early Raging Bolt or early Kang. 2 shot their Kang or 1 shot their Kang and then clean up with, you know, one Enamorous. Maybe two Enamorous. I guess you have that stretcher. You know, you're doing 200 if you have an ogre pond down, so. Or sorry, you're doing not 200. Yu-Gi-Oh 200. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh That seems not bad.

Desperately wishes it was 210. But I like this deck. I like it. I like this deck a lot. I mean, I was. I was testing some basic bucks. I like the deck. It's good. It's really good. It's consistent and it's really smooth. And the fact that you just have the Latius. Yu-Gi-Oh The Kangaskhan, it's just a nice core, right. Yes. Feels good. You're using Crispin. Still unbelievable. Yu-Gi-Oh Latius is pretty insane, especially with like a Pokemon like Kangaskhan in the format that just is. Is pretty nuts.

Yu-Gi-Oh it is. Without a doubt. So this is Rohit, third place finisher. I don't know too much about this player, but I think it's been around for a bit here. Yu-Gi-Oh Also has a very. Let me. Let's check them then. Okay, I will, I will, I will. Pull it up, Pull it up. I'm gonna. Where they're smattering of dragapult finishes from the last couple years. Yu-Gi-Oh Just taking a. Taking a look here. Their matchup spread, I mean, you know, good into the mirrors. They played three and disrupt cards, which I think was the interesting thing. Cutting an energy from the Hedrick world winning list to play a judge and then. Yu-Gi-Oh Beating a couple's org. So like, good on them for that. Beating a basic box here on the way to the top four finish. So, like, really, really solid work here. Yu-Gi-Oh Three Zoroark wins. That's. That's great stuff. Let's take a look at this player profile from Rohit because I was really impressed with their play. Yu-Gi-Oh Dragapult, I mean, they're just Dragon ball main. That's great. Congrats to them because I felt like when I was watching the. I think they showed. Well, they showed the top four match, of course. And then I think he was on the top eight as well. I was just really impressed by the play. So this was, this was a really great finish for that trainer. And then rounding out the top four. And this is like, oh man, it makes me so like sick to my stomach because this feels like it could have been Jesse. Like he swaps off the slow king that he had been grinding for months at this point onto Starmie and the allure did.

I didn't even have to sell him on it. Well, and that's the thing too is like he's like he's looking for the out. He's like in his own head a little bit with this too is like he knows he should be playing the thing that he has the most practice with. He just knows that intuitively. But then he, you know, he wants the spice. Right. Like if there's a way he can gain a matchup percentage by playing a weird deck, like he's going to look for that something new, unique that people aren't thinking about. And I think that was slow king for this event. Like three in the top 16. We'll take a look at Mars list. Nothing too crazy here.

Not what Jesse's list was looking like. This is not. No. But how much different is going to be? You know, like it's, it's, it's slow King. We all know what's going to happen. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh that's fair with this kind of deck. And so Yu-Gi-Oh you're going to sling off some kyurems. You're going to sling off some kyums. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh This, this list was actually pretty well built I think to beat the Hydrapple. Like you look at the double metagross and the brave bangle. So you're not. And the bangle.

Yu-Gi-Oh you're not prizing the metagross as often and then you're, you know, obviously able to hit for 330 with the brave bangle. So I, I feel like this. Yu-Gi-Oh I'm surprised that I guess the slow starts ultimately were the difference there. But you know, losing in top four to Hydrapple. But I feel like this list, if you're looking for a way to beat Hydrapple is probably what you need to be playing. You got the brave Bengal here. I guess you could play a Kieran maybe it's like the other out a very straightforward list from Mark top four finishes.

The other two lists were like monkey dory, Dark paralyze. Yu-Gi-Oh I don't, I don't get that. I, I don't think that that is Particularly good. I did end up playing this top 16 player, Bradley Delaire. I don't want to say it was like a particularly easy match because none of the sloking matches are but I never really felt threatened by that package. And in fact I never saw the monkey dory in the games that we played. Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Looking at his list like I didn't see the Zork. I didn't see the monkey dory. So interesting. I didn't feel like that was a big factor but clearly was good enough for him to include in in his list. Top 16 there. Let's look at. I really wanted to make sure we looked at Henry's list. I know this was played by a few other players but the Dragon Ball Dust nor deck swapping in the A Spec typically Dragon Ball decks will play the unfair stamp swapping it in for Neo Upper and then a just a absurdly thick Dusk Nor line with rare candy. Now this also looks like a deck Andrew that you would love to play. Like this looks like your kind of thing, you know, popping multiple dusclops Yusaka Badoo or sorry Dusclops or Dusknoir sack of Badoo. You go down three on your opponent and then you special red card them rare candy into dragapult Neo Upper and just start going to town like this.

This is really cool. Like I like this idea. Slam the watchtower. Slam the red card Neo Upper on the dragon. Problem is if you're playing. If you're playing a pulp mirror, if your opponent hits one crushing hammer on that Neo Upper, you're just sitting there like Yu-Gi-Oh so you do have special red card is not. You do have telepathic. Does not work on the pulp, bro. Yes it does. No it doesn't. Yes it does. Well, you can't search your deck but it is a psychic energy. Yu-Gi-Oh it's still a psychic.

Yu-Gi-Oh it's not like those old really attached. Oh, it's not like the old ones. Bro. You played a Wash Energy. I just assumed. Did you not read that one? They all do the same stuff. Well, the Wash Energy. I just thought that Wash Energy would be a colorless I washed. I just assumed it would be a colorless attached to a non water Pokemon. Let's read the card. It'll actually explain the card. Oh, that's crazy. Okay, never mind then. Never mind. All right. I can see I should have read it. I just didn't.

I didn't think to do that. It is. I love this list. It is. I think it's very cool. Yu-Gi-Oh I love this list. I think it's very cool and I wish that I had come up with it. I did have this thought, this exact thought that kind of like, that got Henry to this list. The exact thought of telepathic psychic energy with Dusknoir and how good that combination is. Right. Because I tested the Alakazam Dusknoir deck from Worlds pretty thoroughly. And my takeaway from that was that I didn't like Alakazam as the main attacker, but I liked having a draw engine and I liked having telepathic with Dusknoir and I felt like that was very good. So this list here is kind of like those ideas, right? That, like, having a draw engine with dust door is good. Having telepathic with dust door is good. And then you just like have a pulse that you could like Sepia up with. This is like almost what I wish I had come up with instead of the Starmie deck. Like, I wish I was here instead of. Because one of the biggest ailments that I had with the Starmie deck is like, when push came to shove and I needed to get like a Duskuller to turn one, I was missing them. Yu-Gi-Oh Which is like, not okay. Right. I'm playing four Duskull four Poke a pad for Ultra Ball and for Buddy Buddy. And I was still missing them, which is like craziness. And the telepathic just gives you like that additional search out for them, which feels really good. Though this list is not playing any Ultra Ball, so, like.

Well, but you got four Hilda, though. Yu-Gi-Oh you got the Hilda. Right. So you do have a telepathic, you know, and I think that this is a. This can be a pretty effective deck. Even kind of, you know, if you only. Well, you're really only trying to get, I think one Dragon Ball. I think you're probably lucky if you get two. With the idea being that it's one. It's one pole, dude. No, I know. That's what I'm saying. Like, like, the idea here is like, you know, you're a pretty effective deck just with Dusknoir and Badoo and then you have Dragapult to like, you know, clean up things, finish the game out.

What I love about this deck is that you really only have to take like three prizes because you're gonna blow up three of them. And then like, you just figure the other three out with a single dragonfall and that's like, pretty easy to do. Yu-Gi-Oh So I love that about this and I think that's really neat and that's kind of what I like about Dusknoir is your ability to, like, shorten the game and take control of the game by wiping out your opponent's board pieces, like whichever one you want. I like that about the deck strategically. That's what I've always liked about Pult Noir. So I like this direction that Henry took. I think Henry is like one of the best deck builders in the game right now, so always going to be looking with, you know, whatever he's doing, especially with. With Pult Nor is like one of my favorite ways to play Pult.

So, Yu-Gi-Oh made it to the winning in with this deck. That's crazy. I was kind of floating around him here in this, like, 789 brackets and. And I. I remember game two. It was either game two. I think it was game two against basic box. He just goes, sorry, man. And I look over and he goes, rare candy dust nor. Rare candy dust nor attach. Neo upper blow up the entire board. Four prizes. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh I think. I think it might have been a six Prizm turn. Like it was six Prizm turn. Yu-Gi-Oh it was. God, that's so sad.

That's nasty. It's so sick. God. So Yu-Gi-Oh I'm playing this. This was what you wanted. I think this is like this. This is what I wanted. This is what I wanted. Yu-Gi-Oh Yes. Because it's just. This is just a much better Starmie card. It's a much better card than Starving Starmie sucks. Yu-Gi-Oh I've done. I've done with Starmie. This is the deck. This is the deck I wanted. This is the deck I wanted. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh So there you go. We fixed it, folks. There you go. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh Henry fixed it. That's what I'll play next. Sure.

Any other decks surprise you from top 32, top 64, any trends? I don't think I should call anything else surprising. What's the deck with a substitute? It's a lopunny dust in our deck. Yu-Gi-Oh dude, it's real. It is real. Yu-Gi-Oh It's not fake. I don't think it's fake. Let's take a look at that with bronzong. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh God. This is the other deck I could play. Oh, there's a blood moon in there. God, that's so sick. Well, blood moon's better in this deck because you got the Latias, so. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh I love Blood moon. I love mega lopunny, dude. And then you're gonna have. Then you could like go mew. You could go clefairy. Like next format, dude. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh You could use Bronzong's Attack Evolution Jammer with mew. And then if it gets confused by Monkey Dory, it has free retreat.

Yep. You could like free retreat into dust clops, blow it up, and then you're back at the active spot. Free retreat into another mew or free retreat into another mew. So Yu-Gi-Oh I think this decks has a lot to gain in the next format and I think it will just get better. One other thing that I've heard some people discuss is that, you know, you play the badoo in this deck. What I was seeing in my round nine when I played against the Brown Song deck was that if you opted to go first, they would go into a badoo lock. And so you know along what you're talking about heading into 30th anniversary set, you telepathic on the mew and then you go get the frillish turn one and then you can start item locking with a psychic Pokemon that you can search out that you don't have to waste a poke pattern or ultra ball to find. So that's another interesting idea. You can maybe even like throw the jellicent in there. I don't know quite how that works, but it. It's maybe another option for you instead of having to play the badoo.

So Yu-Gi-Oh I would like to. I feel like telepathic D store decks. Telepathic is so good. I want to play a deck with telepathic. I want to play a deck with Dust Nor. So. Okay, well, let's brew. Let's actually work on this then because I am kind of in the same boat. This card is, is. I mean, we've already identified like it's very strong, but I just haven't gotten many reps in with it. Like, I haven't played Slow King. I haven't played Alakazam. I guess I haven't played the, you know, any decks with Dust Nor that would utilize this.

So I really played Gym Leader Challenge. Dude, I'm really interested in getting some more reps of this card because it's. It's among the, I don't know, dare I say, like, I mean, this is certainly a top 10 card in the format. Dare I say top five in just the format. I mean. Yu-Gi-Oh it's pretty high up there. Quite good. This episode is brought to you by PayPal. You know how a mom's bag has everything? Sunscreen, snacks, a stapler. The new PayPal app is like that, but for your money, shop pay, manage your account, and earn rewards all in one place. And with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security and pass keys, you're protected at every step. Download the new PayPal app to get started, see paypal.com protectionturns.

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I feel like I don't feel a transformative change. I guess after Baltimore it's done. Or did I expect it? It's done, dude. The last. Last was. Is it the last event in this format? I think so. Frankfurt has the new cards. Yu-Gi-Oh New cards. Yu-Gi-Oh So done. Format, dude. I mean, hack it up. Looking back, like any. Do you guys feel any sort of way? No. Onto the next. It's fine. Yu-Gi-Oh I don't know. Pult will be gone soon enough. Soon enough. We got like seven more months. Yu-Gi-Oh well, when you're almost 40. Okay.

Right. Seven more months just feels like that's like a blip on the radar. That's right. A blip on the radar. The dang near 40 years I've lived. I'll be here before I know it. That's crazy. Yep. Crazy. Crazy. Well, good stuff. All right. Well, I can't believe Andrew's turned into one of those rotation guys. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh Well now, currently, sure. Nah, man, you've been, you've been on this grind for like the last two years. You're. You're a rotation guy now. I am a rotation guy at this moment. Yu-Gi-Oh The rotation guy for. For those that don't know is that one guy. And they're. They're usually a local player, but that one guy that you might see at locals or on your message board of choice or social media who is. Just cannot wait for the next, you know, like, oh man, I had this new deck brewing for post rotation format. I can't wait. It's gonna be so good. I have so many ideas for Mega Rayquaza in the post rotation format. It'd be so good.

Well, okay, I'm not talking, I'm not talking decks yet. I'm just talking vibes. The vibes. Surely the grass is greener over there. Yu-Gi-Oh The Vibes are going to be Immaculate. I think once we get rid of Ogerpon and Dragapult. Twilight Masquerade, actually. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Twilight Masquerade specifically. If we could just, like, X that set, I think we'll be transformative. Change upon Pokemon DCG accent set. Cool. Well, I think that about does it. We're looking ahead. What's a wrap, boys? What's the next event that anyone's going to? You're not doing Louisville, are you?

I might go to Vegas. Vegas. I can't go to Louisville. Get a wedding that weekend. That's right. Yu-Gi-Oh Okay. And, Yu-Gi-Oh I'll probably go to Vegas. Maybe that's, like, up in the air. But I think talking to Natalie, we were saying, I think I'm definitely going to go to. What is the Is. It starts with an A. Atlanta, Georgia. Yep. Think I'm going to go to that one. And I think I'll go to Toronto, and I think I'll go to Milwaukee. So, like. And maybe there's a Vegas tossed in there. Vegas is like a maybe. And then the other three Naic, dude, so you're going to do, like, six events this year. That's great.

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh you got a shot. But a little bit of. A. Little bit of a dry. I'm gonna focus on locals for the rest of the year. Okay. Like, between now and so, I'm gonna get my locals in my cups. Challenges, I'm gonna. I'm gonna start, like, grinding those so that I'm not, like, just sitting here twiddling my thumbs until Vegas. So that's. That's gonna be what I'm on. So. Yu-Gi-Oh Sick. Bowman. Yu-Gi-Oh Flights to Atlanta are, like, cheap, so. Which is crazy considering the. Considering the gas crisis we're in.

Yu-Gi-Oh Okay. Maybe they were cheap two weeks ago. I don't know. Could have to reassess. You could drive it. It's what, only like, 12 hours? That's nothing for a Midwesterner. That's true. So true. Yu-Gi-Oh that's. That's one sitting. My mom would always tell me stories. She's like, Yu-Gi-Oh When we would take vacations down to Orlando, my dad would drive it in one go. Yu-Gi-Oh So did Natalie's parents. Natalie's mom. Insane. To Florida. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh That's that Midwest culture, driving to Florida in one go.

That's right. Yu-Gi-Oh Dude. They would do it every summer, too. I can't. I Goldin imagine. Just straight shot. Yu-Gi-Oh So wild. one-of-one I think that is a wrap for this week's episode. If you enjoyed the cast, please make sure to engage on whatever podcast or listening platform you are on. If you're around YouTube, please subscribe, leave a like. If you're on Spotify, please leave a rating and a review. Thank you all so much for listening. If you want to get more plugged into Tag Team, you can find us over on X the Everything app, Eeljohn, Walter for myself, Miles with Ralph Riley and Njoyfriend for my wonderful co host Andrew.

Thank you all so much for listening and your continued support. We'll catch you next time. Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost Goldin breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.

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