0:05

Welcome to the Trash Launch

0:07

Podcast, the only podcast

0:10

about the Pokemon Trading card game. It

0:12

is crazy how there are no others. You would think

0:14

there would be more. It's a hundred

0:17

percent attendance. As always. Liam's

0:19

here. Mike's here. I'm here. I'm

0:21

no new five star reviews, but if you

0:23

leave a review, we will read it on

0:25

the pod and then. The 100 percent of

0:27

us will discuss it. That is your chance

0:30

to do a thing that you could do. And

0:32

people say it's super, super good for podcasts

0:34

when people leave reviews because the algorithm

0:36

does stuff. Dragonshield

0:38

continues to set the sleeves and we appreciate

0:41

it. You guys probably saw Mike's

0:43

awesome a tweet of a zillion

0:46

old school decks that he has pulled together.

0:49

I am sure those will be a Dragonshield sleeves, because they're

0:51

the best.

0:52

All sleeved up in Dragon Shields, and

0:55

I think the big thing, especially for these older

0:57

decks, is Dragon Shields just, they

1:00

shuffle, they keep shuffling well,

1:02

even after like a hundred games,

1:04

which is like ideal for the

1:07

old format stuff, and just kind of like evergreen

1:09

decks, you know, I would change

1:11

them after if

1:13

I was playing in like one or two tournaments, but

1:16

they're still good, they're still great

1:18

Yeah, I know everybody complains

1:20

about Dragonshield and other sleeves with like,

1:22

like they're like, they're slightly miscut

1:24

out of the box, all that. You never hear anybody

1:26

complain about the incredible durability

1:28

of Dragon Shields. And,

1:30

like, yeah, to your point, even, like,

1:33

you might feel like, from a tournament

1:35

quality, you gotta change out the sleeves,

1:37

like, you know, after Regionals, you

1:39

played, like, 20 rounds with them, you're like, okay, we gotta resleeve

1:41

this deck. But, you can keep

1:43

playing with them for a long time. I

1:46

mean, I know for us, like,

1:48

after we de sleeve a deck

1:50

and say, oh, we gotta put, like, fresh sleeves on this, we

1:52

keep the old sleeves and then use them on, like,

1:55

test decks and stuff because Dragon

1:57

Shields are, like, good forever. It's

2:00

For sure.

2:02

Guys, let's jump right into it. Mike, you

2:04

wanna kick us off? We're gonna talk a little about the Nerd

2:06

Rage versus what's the LZK

2:09

stand for? Lost Zone

2:10

Lawson Kitchen. Yeah, yeah. So

2:13

yeah. So, Dan Hugar. Friend

2:15

of the pod messaged me to

2:17

see if we could promote this a little bit, and it's a really

2:19

good cause. So Nerd Rage Gaming,

2:21

which is a store out of Chicago,

2:24

or Chicago, greater Chicago area, they

2:26

are running a charity event and charity

2:29

stream on Saturday, where

2:31

a bunch of the Nerd Rage Gaming

2:34

players who are sponsored by the store,

2:36

are playing against players from Lost Zone Kitchen,

2:38

which I guess is kind of like an unofficial

2:41

team. A lot of great players though, on both

2:43

sides, and they're going to be streaming their

2:45

like sort of

2:48

conquest money match

2:50

type of thing but the money match is just

2:52

for raising money for a

2:54

charity that is called Chicago,

2:57

I think Greater Chicago Food Depository.

2:59

Basically I think they help feed.

3:02

People that, you know, can't otherwise feed

3:04

themselves, which I think is obviously a good cause.

3:07

So they're gonna be streaming on twitch.

3:10

tv slash nrgstore.

3:12

They're gonna have giveaways throughout

3:14

the stream as they keep

3:17

hitting different donation marks. Things like

3:19

booster boxes, world's merchandise, stuff like that.

3:21

There's gonna be seven rounds, I believe,

3:24

of different formats. Some standard,

3:26

some old ro Old format, some

3:29

post rotation format, some, maybe

3:31

some wacky funny stuff, like that Magikarp

3:34

splash format, which I know nothing about.

3:36

So If you are around

3:38

Saturday and want to check it out, go for

3:40

it. If you can donate, donate. I actually

3:43

will be home most of the day Saturday

3:45

watching The Dog because my wife is

3:47

going out of town for the weekend. So I'll probably tune

3:50

in for a bit and give a little bit of

3:52

money myself. So, yeah,

3:54

should be fun.

3:56

So are they all playing? Like, I know I

3:58

had seen the tweet that said they're

4:00

playing here, here's, here's

4:02

the thing. These amazing players will be playing in a Conquest

4:05

format series with decks from NAIC 2018.

4:07

So is it, like, a bunch of different formats? Oh,

4:11

eh, eh,

4:12

Yes, I believe,

4:13

yeah. So, are they changing the formats

4:15

every round as different people get different decks?

4:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So,

4:21

so like, yeah, so for, for example,

4:23

I think like Dan is playing against Nick

4:25

Robinson in post rotation. And

4:27

then like another two players might play,

4:30

you know, a game of 2016 Worlds or something

4:32

like that.

4:33

So is it not just best of

4:36

seven or is it like actual conquest, like?

4:39

I'm not sure. I mean, I, presumably

4:41

they have to stream this for a while, right?

4:44

Like, I don't know, I can't imagine

4:46

they're doing all this for, like, a two hour stream.

4:49

It's probably gonna be, like, an eight hour stream. And

4:51

so maybe each thing has, like maybe

4:53

each matchup is, like, a best of three

4:55

or a best of five or something like that.

4:57

That would actually be pretty cool if you did, or

4:59

like, if you were able to make

5:02

like cross format conquest

5:04

kind of by like balancing the decks

5:06

out somehow, like, you

5:09

know, just to see interactions I guess that like you'd

5:11

never normally see

5:12

That's true.

5:13

any point. I

5:15

don't know exactly how that'd work. It'd take a lot of work,

5:17

but.

5:18

well, it's funny, we were actually talking in

5:20

my, in, in, like, the Philadelphia

5:23

Discord the other day. Because

5:25

next week, and this is a plug too, if anybody

5:27

is in the Philadelphia area next Wednesday,

5:30

March 13th and wants to come

5:32

to my league at Red Caps, I'm going

5:34

to be bringing all of my Worlds decks

5:36

and people are going to play with them. So we were

5:38

talking about that a little bit in our Discord, and

5:41

someone mentioned, imagine like,

5:43

Mew VMAX versus a deck

5:46

in like 2004. And

5:48

I said that like, you could probably just

5:50

play Like, Mu V, like,

5:52

you don't even need Mu V Max in the deck, you could just

5:54

attack with Mu V, and you probably would

5:56

not drop a prize any game, against

5:58

any deck, in 2004. But

6:01

you could probably,

6:01

can be Psychic Leaping only, and like,

6:04

be taking KOs, streaming KOs,

6:06

it's just like, completely unstoppable,

6:08

right? Yeah,

6:10

so, but maybe something like, you know, like,

6:13

a 2015 deck versus 2017

6:15

deck, so maybe you could, like, somehow balance that,

6:18

right?

6:19

Well, I mean, you just have to take the absolute

6:21

worst decks from future formats,

6:23

like,

6:23

Right, right, right, right, right.

6:26

ones.

6:29

Power Creep is a real thing, I do not know

6:31

if even like Zorogarb

6:33

would be able to be competitive in the current format,

6:36

just

6:36

Absolutely not.

6:38

Yeah, 20 times anything

6:40

is not enough anymore. It's gotta be 30.

6:42

Yeah.

6:42

Dude, it doesn't even one shot a Mew

6:45

VMAX, so

6:45

Yeah.

6:47

And Guard probably doesn't hit hard enough either. Like,

6:49

it's

6:51

Yeah. I don't know. Trashland. Eh,

6:53

Guard, Guard,

6:54

Trash. Trash Ranch is al, I mean, trash

6:56

Le is always

6:56

Yeah.

6:57

Trash Ranch is the goat, have

7:00

no doubt. So I went, I went and looked at 2018

7:03

NAIC format because I, I saw

7:05

them saying like Sawyer Melbourne

7:08

and Ryan Prussack were gonna be playing that format.

7:10

And I was like, what are the decks of people were playing? And

7:13

Zoro Garb won NAIC,

7:16

Stef Ivanov played it. Tord

7:18

Reklev came in second with just

7:20

straight Zoro work. And

7:23

then Jimmy Pandarvis got third with Zoropod.

7:25

So it was just all Zoro all the time.

7:28

Fourth was Malamar.

7:30

Yep. Malamar. Buzzrock was like

7:32

pretty good.

7:33

Zoro Rock, Ryan Antonucci,

7:36

top 8 ed.

7:37

Nice.

7:40

deck to play, but probably not like

7:44

not good enough, but you could tell,

7:46

like, they were right on the verge

7:49

of realizing that Oranguru was

7:51

a card that was gonna break

7:53

the game. Like,

7:56

Tord is like, four Zoroark,

7:58

four Tapu Lele, Oranguru.

8:04

And you're like, like, he's like right on

8:06

the verge of saying,

8:08

oh, yeah, he plays the Delinquent,

8:10

he plays 3N, he plays

8:12

three Enhanced Hammers, He plays two

8:15

max potions, like, you're right

8:17

there to be just like, Zoro

8:19

control everything to death.

8:21

Yeah. Well, people really thought

8:24

going into that wor So, going into that Worlds,

8:26

we got the some new

8:28

set but it was still the same format,

8:30

just with the new set, and Zorro

8:33

Macargo Control was, like, touted

8:36

as, like, maybe BDIF, but then it just,

8:38

like, was worse than Zorogarp,

8:41

right, you do not have to, it turns out that

8:43

a lot of the decks where you put one

8:46

card on the top of your deck, and then enable

8:48

all your draw engine off that, you can just draw lots of

8:50

cards and it's probably fine.

8:52

exactly.

8:53

It's Pokemon, if you just draw lots of cards, it usually

8:55

works out. Yeah, what was, what was the

8:57

deck, oh, we played, um what

9:00

was the Seismitoad deck we played, Liam, that had

9:02

the stage 2 that you would

9:04

Archies out to do the same

9:06

stupid thing?

9:09

I have genuinely no clue. Everyone

9:11

likes

9:11

It was, it was

9:12

there was

9:12

was the deck you played at Pennsylvania States

9:14

in, like, 2015.

9:19

right?

9:19

Yeah, it was Slurpuff, but there was

9:21

a water

9:22

Oh, Swampert? Yeah, Swampert.

9:24

thank you.

9:24

Swampert, yeah.

9:26

Liam got the Swampert out zero times the entire

9:28

tournament, never dropped it around. It

9:32

turns out if you just do the Slurpuff

9:34

thing, you draw plenty of cards, it's fine.

9:38

yep.

9:38

we put an Arceus

9:40

in there anyway because apparently

9:43

we like to only play with 58 good cards

9:45

and then see how it goes.

9:48

Hey, I mean you could, you could Archie the Seismitoad

9:50

out.

9:51

Not a thing that happened. Not a thing that

9:54

happened. Alright.

9:56

Alright, let's let's talk about local results. You guys,

9:58

you guys both played in some tournaments,

10:01

Alright, Liam, you start, what'd you do?

10:03

I played in one event it was a

10:05

League Cup, and I decided

10:07

to play Mew with It

10:10

was like, I wouldn't even say too teched

10:12

out, like I reverted it quite a bit, but

10:15

I went down to two power tablets I

10:17

played Luxray, I played Penny, I played

10:20

Pal Pad and I honestly

10:22

liked the deck, I played one Crushing Hammer as well,

10:25

you know, just for

10:26

Not too teched out, sure.

10:28

but well like,

10:31

yeah, it started off with like, you know,

10:34

it started off with two Penny, and then like, Bravery

10:36

Charms and all that stuff. I really

10:38

like the Bravery Charms in Mew. Well, not

10:41

really, I cut them all, but they're

10:44

okay for putting on the Genesects. If you play like

10:46

a lot of them, you can put them on Genesects for Gardy.

10:49

And, like, just generally make your stuff, like, tankier.

10:52

I like Charms. Tools

10:54

are really good. I played instead of the

10:56

third and fourth power tablets, I played a Defiance

10:59

Band and a Justified Gloves. So

11:01

that lets you go through two moons. And,

11:04

they're, the items

11:07

are trash. Because you basically just have

11:09

to hold the tablets the whole time when you're playing

11:11

the deck. Or you give up on them

11:13

forever, whereas the tools, you can just drop them

11:15

early. And. They

11:17

stick really good. And

11:21

I really like the theory for this deck. The

11:23

deck sucks, don't play it. But the

11:25

idea was pretty cool, which is that by

11:27

playing the Luxray you can you can like

11:29

always force your opponent to take the first prize. And

11:32

in that case, like, the first two prizes, and you're able

11:34

to target the bosses, so you're, like, you're

11:36

able to put them onto a really bad prize map by

11:39

giving them the Luxray first, getting

11:41

rid of their bosses, like, against Gardevoir or

11:43

something, if you get rid of their boss, you give them the Luxray first,

11:45

then you give them the VMAX And, like, when

11:47

you give them the VMAX, you're not even really giving it to them,

11:49

because or, like, you never actually activate a reversal

11:52

so, like, you give them the Luxray, you give them the VMAX,

11:55

and then you go like, Iona, Path to 1.

11:59

So it's, it's, like, cool for throwing them on a bad prize

12:01

map, but, yeah, and the deck's trash. Like,

12:03

like, Mew just sucks. It wasn't even, like, the deck was, like,

12:06

I was, like, missing the tablets, or, like, I wasn't drawing

12:08

well. It's just, like, the deck's

12:10

just trash. It's just trash. Like

12:13

You know, I got, I got hit with the

12:15

like, the Roaring Moon, just like attack three times,

12:17

then I lost I got hit with the,

12:20

the Guardian, I lost the Guardian, I was gonna beat

12:22

the Guardian, but I had to, I had to speed up and,

12:26

because it was only 30 minutes best of one, and

12:29

so I, I couldn't slow roll, I, I also played an Aura Choreo,

12:31

so like, After

12:33

they take the Luxray, you don't ever

12:35

go ahead, you just start hitting with the Aura Choreo attack

12:38

and start spreading. Yeah,

12:41

I had to speed up because there was only like, you

12:43

know, a limited amount of time. And

12:45

yeah, so I lost that and I lost to a Roaring Moon. Yeah,

12:48

Dex Trash.

12:50

Oh well, well I I applaud your

12:53

attempt to try something a little bit different.

12:55

would, would you ever consider playing that to a regional?

12:57

I mean, you, you said deck is trash, but it

12:59

sounds like you had time problems, but yeah, I don't

13:01

know if like,

13:02

Yeah, no, of course, of

13:03

minute one game deck is like the strats

13:06

either even at a regional, like

13:08

No qualms with that. I, I

13:11

played pt

13:12

Yeah. I mean, I, like, I recognize maybe

13:14

that's totally fine. We Wouldn't be the

13:16

first time, but also wouldn't be the

13:18

first time it's made us sad.

13:20

I mean, the, the deck would've to be better. It, it

13:22

would've to be better. But I, yeah,

13:25

I, I like xray. I like me. I,

13:27

I I think me's really underutilized as

13:29

like a, a slow deck. Like, it, it's always built for maximum

13:31

aggression. But I like. You

13:33

have a, you have a 310 hitpoint Pokemon,

13:36

and it, it self heals. It's like, it's pretty

13:38

good and like, you never bench anything

13:40

that dies to Iron Hands or anything, like, you're,

13:43

you can slow down games really well with

13:45

Mew, and I, I, I think that's a, an element

13:47

that I, I

13:50

wasn't really exploring this format. It kind

13:52

of sucks, but you know that's an element of Mew

13:54

that I like. If I could somehow

13:56

make it work, there's

13:59

a world I'd play it, but yeah,

14:01

it sucks right now.

14:03

Yeah. There's a lot of truth to what you're saying, though. Like, I mean,

14:05

I recognize when you first came into

14:07

the format, it was like the most aggressive deck,

14:10

and then it bizarrely turned into

14:12

a deck where you were like, this is a deck

14:14

we play for Path to the Peak with, even

14:16

though, like, all of our Pokémon are,

14:18

like, have abilities, and

14:21

they all get turned off by this. But, like,

14:23

The opportunity, like, just the fact

14:25

that you can use it to draw a lot of cards is kind of

14:28

sort of working since it was top of mind

14:30

for me just now.

14:31

Yeah, and

14:34

Mew has a lot of stuff going for it, outside just the

14:36

aggressive.

14:39

Yeah,

14:41

So,

14:41

played, oh,

14:43

more question. What's the strats for this

14:46

coming week? I recognize there's, I don't know about

14:48

your area, Mike, but I guess it's pre release time.

14:51

But there is one challenge

14:54

in our area this coming weekend.

14:56

I'm already like, I'm already fine for challenges, bro.

14:58

Dude,

14:58

we're not going to this challenge? Nice!

15:01

like five points, man. If I win, I

15:04

go XO, I get five points.

15:06

yeah, hmm, yeah,

15:08

there's no there's no cups or challenges

15:11

around here this weekend because of pre releases.

15:14

So that's how Redcap could be drawing the crowds, yo.

15:16

But, is this your second

15:18

pre release? I feel like you've done pre releases before.

15:20

Exactly.

15:24

the second pre release that I have been, I

15:26

will be going to in the last 15

15:28

years.

15:30

Do you feel like you've learned anything about, like is, I

15:33

mean, I feel like as

15:35

an outsider, my impression of pre releases is

15:38

take people's money, declare victory.

15:40

Is it any more complicated than that?

15:42

Or like, are there things that you took away from running a pre

15:44

release that you're like, this is the best practice when it comes to

15:46

pre releasing?

15:48

Not really, it was super, super

15:50

chill compared to running a League Cup.

15:53

Like, like I ran,

15:55

the last League Cup that I ran, I did it almost

15:58

entirely by myself. 60

16:01

players, whatnot, and then a pre,

16:03

you know, it lasts all day. Registration started

16:05

at 12, we left at like, 9pm,

16:09

pre releases are like, two and a half hours.

16:11

Right. Right. Well, and

16:13

like, super chill, super casual, nobody

16:15

yeah, and that's if you're like, you know what,

16:17

I've decided to not do this last round anymore because

16:19

it's taking too long. Like everybody's like, okay, I

16:21

guess that's fine.

16:23

yeah.

16:23

like, nobody's that invested, right?

16:26

It was, the one thing that was cool

16:28

about it is a ton of people showed

16:30

up that had never been there before, and

16:32

don't go to like, any League Challenges

16:34

or League Cups, they just came

16:37

for the pre release and they, like, knew how to play

16:39

enough that they could do the pre release,

16:41

but you know, they have no interest

16:44

in a more competitive thing. They're more collectors,

16:47

but still know how to play the game, which I

16:49

think is, which is, I think that part

16:51

is cool.

16:52

That is nice. That is nice. Alright,

16:55

tell us about your challenges. We buried

16:58

the lead. Sounds like you actually had some interesting tournaments.

17:01

yeah, so I went to 1 League Cup on

17:03

Sunday. I played Giratina.

17:07

I have been playing Giratina to challenges,

17:09

but I

17:13

have mostly played Gardevoir to cups

17:16

but all of the very good players

17:18

in our area have been playing Gardevoir

17:20

historically. Ryan Antonucci, Luke

17:22

Smith KC Benik

17:24

some other people. And

17:27

I didn't I really want to play Gardevoir and Mirrors,

17:29

so I said I'd switch to Giratina. Lo and

17:31

behold, Antonucci, Luke,

17:33

they both switched to Giratina as well. We all

17:36

independently did it. So we all,

17:38

we all played Giratina pretty much. I had a

17:40

couple interesting games in Swiss.

17:43

I I started 4. 0,

17:45

yeah, I started 4. 0 and then I

17:47

was the only 4. 0. somehow

17:49

because Ryan and Luke got

17:51

paired against each other around 4 and

17:54

I deed. So then I got paired against Ryan,

17:56

he was 3 0 1, and

17:58

then I just like, dead drew, so

18:00

I was 4 1, and then I, I,

18:02

I deed into cut. In top 8,

18:04

I played against Ryan, again, in

18:06

the Giratina mirror. It was really cool there was

18:08

actually a small stream for for the event.

18:11

So if you can go find it it is some

18:13

pretty interesting games. Game one

18:15

I went up for

18:17

know the, do you know, I, I recognize that you obviously

18:20

don't know it off the top of your head. Or, you would have said it just now,

18:22

but like, do you know it off the top of your head?

18:24

it is on Twitch and I

18:26

probably could find it.

18:28

Yeah, it's a Goed

18:31

Twitch tv slash goed twitch.

18:34

Go and Twitch, alright.

18:35

Yeah. 'cause the store is called Garden

18:38

of Earthly Delight. So Go Ed

18:40

so go Ed, Twitch. So yeah, top eight Play

18:42

against Ryan Gu Amir. Game

18:44

1, I go up 4 prizes, so I'm

18:47

up 2 6 but I,

18:49

like, whiffed the second V

18:51

Star, like, setting up the second

18:54

V Star, going into the Roxanne turn, but

18:56

I have to, like, I felt like I just had to take the KO,

18:58

because, you know, his Giratina was active and so

19:01

he Roxannes me, and then I, like, just

19:04

With the V Star on the next turn he busts

19:06

it up, and then I can't close out the

19:08

game So I lose the game after going

19:10

up 2 6. Game 2 almost

19:13

exactly the opposite happens Where

19:15

Ryan goes up, and

19:18

then I'm able to Roxanne him, but we had a really

19:20

interesting very ending to the

19:22

game, so I

19:27

tie up the game 2 2 But

19:29

the way I do it, I have to attack with my Giratina

19:31

V Star, with Lost Impact,

19:34

and Lost Zone 2

19:36

energy on my Giratina V Star, to leave it with only

19:38

1 energy. And I'm out of switch cards.

19:41

Completely. I have, I have like 3 jet

19:43

energy left, though. So I Lost Impact,

19:45

go to 2 prizes, and Roxannum on

19:47

that turn. He doesn't have a Giratina out,

19:49

so he can't win the game that turn. But

19:52

his best play, then, is to not

19:54

play a

19:56

Giratina down and just kind

19:58

of like and just Sableye

20:01

my bench Cramorant because otherwise

20:03

I can just jet up my Cramorant take a

20:06

KO and a Sableye and then he's like

20:08

pretty much out of attackers he has a super odd left but

20:10

I'll just Roxanne him again and it's pretty unlikely that

20:13

he'll hit another attacker. to take

20:15

his last prize, so he Sableyes my Cramorant, which is

20:17

100 percent the best play. And then it leaves

20:19

me in a really awkward spot, because I

20:24

can't, I don't have a switch card, so I can't

20:26

switch into my Sableye and attack

20:28

with it, and my Cramorant just died, I have

20:30

one Super Rod left, but it's in my deck, and so

20:32

I'd have to Roxanne And

20:35

then, hit the super rod, and then like,

20:37

flower selecting into the Cremorant, which

20:39

is pretty unlikely. So, my

20:41

best play ends up being, jet

20:44

up my Sableye, countercatcher

20:47

his Manaphy on the bench, Roxanne,

20:50

him to 2, and Scratch. So

20:53

Scratch puts his Manaphy at 50, and

20:55

then he has a Comfey on the bench, so I can loss

20:57

mine for 120 for 2 prizes. If

20:59

he just, but If he

21:01

hits just an energy off the

21:04

Roxanne, then he can just retreat and Sableye

21:06

me for the win. But he does

21:08

not hit that off the Roxanne.

21:11

So the scratch damage comes in Clutch,

21:14

and I'm able to Lost Mine for the win, and

21:16

then we only have about five minutes

21:18

left for game three, and I just

21:20

drew a little bit better than him, and able

21:22

to be up on prizes at the end.

21:26

So, it

21:28

was really fun. Playing Giratina was great. In

21:30

top four, I play against

21:33

a local Pokka

21:35

parent. Maybe you know them,

21:37

Brent, Liam, I don't know Amy Jones,

21:39

who has a daughter named Karis Jones. Karis

21:42

is a pretty strong senior player.

21:44

I don't know, did you ever play against her, Liam, in seniors?

21:47

No, I don't think so.

21:49

No, because she, I think they're from like Delaware

21:52

or even maybe even Pennsylvania.

21:54

I'm not a hundred percent sure But

21:56

they come to some of our events not all of

21:58

them, but I play against Aimee and

22:01

Aimee has been on a tear recently.

22:03

She Day 2'd She's

22:06

only played two regionals this year. She decided to start

22:08

playing kind of like halfway through the year I

22:10

guess and she Day 2'd one of her

22:12

regionals and she's won like

22:14

two or three other League Cups And

22:18

got in like a couple seconds, so

22:21

I decided earlier this year that I was not

22:23

going to go for the World's Invite. And

22:25

so I just, I gave the win

22:27

to Amy, so that she could

22:30

have a chance at winning the event. And

22:32

also, she ended up losing in the finals.

22:36

Also worth noting, this is the League

22:38

Cup that got a little bit famous on Twitter this weekend,

22:40

because the winner of the League Cup

22:42

was a player named Cody, playing

22:44

Chiempow, who's had

22:47

a decklist error. And

22:50

was not able to play his Bidoofs

22:52

in Top Cut, and he won

22:54

the event with no Bidoofs in

22:56

Xi'an Pao. So

22:59

shoutout to Cody for

23:00

It's great to draw like fire. Ha ha

23:02

ha ha ha ha ha.

23:05

I think if you go watch that, I didn't watch

23:07

the finals on Twitch, but I heard

23:09

that he was just hitting

23:11

everything in the

23:13

finals, so.

23:15

That's

23:16

And Liam, we talked about the

23:18

Chi and Patina matchup last week

23:20

or two weeks ago, whatever. Cody beat

23:23

two Tinas in Top 8 and Top

23:25

4 without Bibarel! So

23:27

maybe, maybe I'm just cooked, man. Maybe the

23:29

matchup is just so incredibly favored.

23:32

Obviously. Obviously, there's no other explanation.

23:36

So I had a good time. I, I really enjoyed playing

23:38

T9, some really fun games, and

23:41

I was able to help someone

23:43

get closer to the world's invite, which

23:46

How close is she?

23:46

kind of I'm not 100 percent

23:49

sure. I'd say probably at least 300 points. And

23:51

she's only got the one regionals finish. So,

23:54

and, and Kairos pretty much goes to everything.

23:56

Well, I was about to say, obviously, the next question is,

23:59

Did she, did she register for EUIC?

24:02

She did, yeah, yeah, yeah, she did.

24:04

Ahhhhhh!

24:06

She got in there.

24:08

Absolute betrayal. Betrayal.

24:12

So that kind of got me thinking actually

24:14

when I was coming home from the League Cup. Who

24:17

are some of the Best

24:20

Poke parents that play the game

24:23

right now, and historically.

24:28

I think the answer for right now is probably

24:30

Carson Washer's dad?

24:33

Hmm.

24:33

Hasn't he day tuned like twice this year, Liam?

24:37

Yeah. He's

24:39

pretty good.

24:40

Yeah, he's really good.

24:42

James Washer. He

24:45

dated once this year at Charlotte,

24:48

twice last year.

24:49

Gotcha, gotcha.

24:51

That's pretty good. Do you was he,

24:53

like, going for a Worlds invite last

24:56

Yeah. I think he got it last year.

24:57

you think he got it? Okay, nice. That's

24:59

cool. Where are they

25:01

from?

25:03

I have no clue.

25:05

Not sure.

25:06

Are

25:06

I know

25:07

Down south somewhere.

25:09

down south Cliff

25:12

has, is he still going for his world to vote

25:14

this year?

25:14

sir.

25:15

Yeah? Okay.

25:17

He farms me in all the locals, bro.

25:19

I'm like 0 4 against him or something,

25:21

man.

25:22

Cliff didn't die. Okay,

25:24

he's got the, he's got one day, too, this year, but

25:26

hopefully he could, he can get there. I

25:29

know I would, Brent, when I brought this up,

25:31

Brent asked, like, who are you? Some of the old

25:33

people, I think probably the, the GOAT,

25:37

Pocodad, or Pocoparent ever,

25:39

is probably Jimmy Ballard. He got

25:41

second at the World Championships in

25:43

2006 and he

25:45

got, what,

25:48

you didn't know that Liam?

25:50

No. No. No.

25:52

Do you know who Jimmy Ballard is now in the game? Okay,

25:56

he is the organ, him

25:58

and Vince Krekler are the organizers

26:01

of all of like the, the

26:03

Midwest. Events. So like

26:05

what are they? Day 2? Day 2. Yeah, Day 2 events

26:07

is Jimmy and Vince. So

26:10

they like run, run all of those. But Jimmy, Jimmy

26:13

was a a really good player. He had two

26:15

kids that played the game back when I was a kid.

26:17

His daughter is my age, and he has a

26:19

son that's a, a bit younger. And

26:22

so they got into the game first, obviously,

26:24

and then Jimmy started playing and was really,

26:26

really good. Yeah, like, fantastic

26:29

player. And the way that I'm defining

26:31

Pokeparent is any Parent

26:34

that got into the game 'cause of their

26:37

kid. So like Chip Richie does not

26:39

count as a poker parent in, in,

26:41

in this discussion.

26:43

So, I guess the question is, when

26:45

he's over 40, will

26:47

it count? Like, you know,

26:49

how many world championships does this kid

26:52

have to win before he's considered a Pokeparent?

26:54

That's a good question.

26:56

yeah, we're, we're gonna, let's defer that,

26:58

that question, but I, so I do have a special treat

27:00

for you though, Mike.

27:02

Hmm.

27:02

While, while he is not here, because

27:04

as we all know, he is a recurring slacker,

27:08

Brit Pybas saw you put out the cry, and

27:10

sent me a long note. And,

27:13

I have some, I have some old heads for you,

27:16

and you gotta tell me if you know these people. So,

27:19

here's what Brit said. Roberto

27:21

Arenas is always the sleeper dad

27:23

pick for me. Top 16

27:25

2010 Nats got a Worlds invite on ELO that

27:27

year. Florida player at the height of Florida

27:30

is the hardest area with Chuck and Jason also

27:32

moving to Florida that season. Both the Suns

27:34

placed at Worlds multiple times. Juan

27:36

Pablo got second in Juniors. LuxChomp

27:39

player, which as you know for Brit, that's

27:41

code for you're the GOAT.

27:43

I don't really. I don't

27:47

really know who that is. I'm sure

27:49

like back in the day, like I would have

27:51

kind of like vaguely known,

27:52

right, I assume Juan Pablo Serenas,

27:55

who got second in juniors in 20,

27:58

at some point, I guess,

28:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just looked it

28:01

you probably know, or

28:03

Mm hmm.

28:05

you're a baller.

28:06

Nuov. Yeah, Nuov. Okay.

28:10

That, the name does like sound

28:12

familiar, but yeah, I don't know, I don't know

28:14

them personally for sure.

28:16

to the discussion.

28:18

Okay, nice. Would you

28:20

ever, like, Brent, you've, while

28:22

we're having this discussion, you've never really played,

28:24

though you do play.

28:26

I've played at a wide variety

28:28

of city championships, and

28:31

locals, where they're like, we needed one

28:33

more to get the top eight.

28:34

Mm hmm.

28:35

Um, the, you know, I

28:37

think the, the last

28:40

moment where I seriously, like

28:43

tried competing, Liam's heard this story

28:46

a million times,

28:46

I love this story.

28:48

yeah, what

28:50

was, what was the, what was the deck that I played,

28:52

Liam, was it,

28:54

I think you're playing

28:55

oh, I, I was, oh, okay, I

28:57

was playing Donphan Raichu. This

28:59

was, I, like, I was playing a list

29:02

that, like, Brit was selling on six prizes

29:05

and, and it seemed like, it

29:07

seemed like a good call for the format,

29:09

and I, I was, like,

29:11

top seed, let's see, I

29:13

was top seed going into top eight, Because,

29:17

I got paired down and had to play it out. So,

29:21

so when I say I got top seed, there's like a little bit of a disclaimer

29:23

there. But, like, I beat Dean,

29:25

I beat a bunch of very good players. And

29:27

I get to, did I win top

29:29

8? I think I won my top 8. And

29:32

then in top 4, I got paired against

29:34

Jimmy Pendarvis. And

29:36

Jimmy was playing defensive Aveltal.

29:39

And

29:40

Mm hmm.

29:44

65 minutes to finish game 1, but

29:48

he absolutely had me in the

29:51

spin cycle the entire game.

29:53

Like,

29:58

yeah, I mean, there was no question

30:01

that Jimmy was obliterating me that

30:03

entire game. It just

30:05

took a really, really long time because

30:08

he was like, making sure

30:10

that I never gotta write you out,

30:12

Like, he was bossing stuff

30:15

and then playing, like, trump card to, like,

30:17

get all his bosses back, like, it

30:19

was the most dragged out, horrendous

30:21

game, because, you

30:23

know, Yveltal was resistant to Donphan, so the only

30:26

way I could win was, like, getting my, like, 2

30:28

2 Raichu line out, and

30:31

Like, the second that he bossed a Raichu,

30:34

he just stopped doing everything and was like,

30:36

I gotta get all my bosses back to the deck.

30:41

So did you, like, come away from that game

30:43

feeling a certain way?

30:45

Absolutely traumatized. Like,

30:48

like, all the other games I was like, we're managing

30:50

the situation, we're managing the situation. But,

30:52

but like. Jimmy absolutely

30:54

put me in the blender. It was brutal. Brutal.

30:58

I just, I'm amazed that you guys

31:00

can, like, handle the stress, you know? Like,

31:03

I think the amazing thing about PokéParents who are able

31:05

to play is I don't know

31:07

how you can, like

31:10

you know, you have to be responsible for your child, you're at, like,

31:12

some event, and you're invested

31:14

in your child's success and happiness

31:17

and, like, You know, making

31:19

sure they're having a successful tournament, and

31:21

all that stuff. And, and

31:23

then you're also able to

31:25

focus on your own gameplay. And

31:28

if you're not, like, 100 percent

31:31

dialed in, like, I mean, what chance

31:33

would a person who's not 100 percent dialed in have against

31:36

you or Liam? Like, no chance. Like, you

31:38

have to be yeah, you can't be

31:40

playing casual. You gotta be, like, really thinking it out.

31:42

And, that regard, I'm like, oh my god, it

31:45

seems like competing is so stressful,

31:47

I would never want to do that. Like

31:49

I look at that, you know, I, I, I

31:51

like, like, Nabil Hyatt's,

31:53

the classic Nabil Hyatt move is

31:56

play four rounds, B2 2,

31:58

and then be like, I'm tired, I'm gonna drop. And

32:01

I mean

32:01

that speaks to me.

32:04

I mean that's like the biggest thing

32:06

in general as I get older, it's just these are like very

32:09

long days, period but

32:11

I think the added challenge

32:15

for parents that have, you know, juniors

32:17

or seniors is that They

32:19

have six rounds or seven

32:22

rounds and you have nine. And so

32:24

like, what do you really

32:26

do? So

32:27

got a little kid and you gotta tell him, you know, wait a few

32:29

hours.

32:29

like, for me, it's not even that, like,

32:32

I think, like, the thing I think about is,

32:34

like hey, if, if I'm hungry,

32:36

and there's a round starting now, like,

32:39

whatever, right? I'm an adult, it's fine.

32:42

If, if my kid says,

32:45

hey, I'm hungry, and

32:47

I have a round starting now, like, I

32:50

have to make a decision, you know? Like,

32:53

like, there are now conflicting priorities,

32:56

like, what am I going to do, because

32:59

it's it's very hard to

33:01

tell a, like, you know, 9 year old,

33:03

suck it up!

33:05

Yep.

33:07

And like, you can tell them suck it up,

33:09

but then if they go and lose, you're

33:11

like,

33:12

Yeah. It's your

33:13

you're like, I just told my kid to suck it up and

33:15

he promptly lost! Like, I

33:18

mean, Liam will tell you the amount of times

33:20

when I was like, Why don't we

33:23

eat some, like, protein or fats

33:25

instead of just, like, fast moving carbs

33:27

before, like, this round? Will you just

33:29

take, like, two bites of, like, beef jerky

33:32

or something like that instead

33:34

of potato chips? Like, you

33:36

know, I mean, as an adult and as,

33:38

like You know, I think

33:41

whatever, evolving society, all that stuff,

33:43

we all recognize, like, nutrition plays

33:45

a really important part in performance, like,

33:48

athletic conditioning plays an important part in performance,

33:50

right? I don't know if I ever showed it to you, Mike, but

33:53

I know I said it to Liam probably a million

33:55

times. There was the ESPN

33:57

article about

33:58

Everyone's doing this.

33:59

and their, like, workout regimen and diet,

34:01

where they were like, chess players

34:04

over the course of a day at a, like,

34:06

top level tournament lose, like, two pounds.

34:09

Hmm.

34:10

And, like, like, they're

34:12

just it's, I mean, you

34:14

guys know, because you guys, we just talked about

34:16

it, right, at the end of nine rounds,

34:18

you can be like, I sat there all day, it's

34:21

exhausting,

34:22

Yep.

34:23

right, you're just beaten down, and,

34:26

like, as a result, like, cardiovascular

34:28

fitness plays a role, like, whether or not your nutrition

34:30

is on point plays a role, as,

34:32

as the, I mean, the most common, like, meme

34:35

y tweet about how do I get ready, I'm going to my first regionals, hydration

34:37

plays a role, Like,

34:41

Mm-Hmm.

34:41

so, like, the problem is, I

34:43

mean, a six year old you're a junior

34:46

they feel fine until they don't, and

34:50

when they don't, it's, like, catastrophic. So

34:52

you have to be, like, managing that situation.

34:54

That's what, like, parents do, you know? Like,

34:57

I don't expect this seven year old to know that he

34:59

needs to eat because he's going to be hungry in half

35:01

an hour, like, before

35:03

he goes off to do this hour thing. Like,

35:06

it's my job to know.

35:07

Right,

35:08

Cause three years ago I knew that like, he's

35:10

gotta take a nap now or he gets cranky. And

35:13

he didn't know that, he kept telling me he was fine.

35:16

Hehehe.

35:16

I knew, I'm the parent, like, it's

35:18

the parent's job. So there

35:21

you go.

35:23

Here we go.

35:25

Mike, any big

35:26

While we're Hehehe, I

35:28

was gonna say, while we're talking about Pokeparent

35:31

stuff good time to announce

35:33

that I will soon be a Pokeparent

35:36

myself. This is part of the reason

35:38

that I've said that I have

35:40

stopped going to Major

35:43

events, or don't plan to go to any more major events

35:45

for the rest of the year, not going for my World's

35:47

Invite. My wife is due in

35:49

May, pretty much right before NAIC,

35:52

so I will be taking care of a

35:54

baby, really excited. Hopefully one day

35:57

they will play Pokemon, and I will go through

35:59

all of these same challenges

36:01

that you went through, Brent.

36:05

So, so, have you thought about, like, what

36:07

your strategy will be for Poki parenting?

36:12

I mean, the first not really, because

36:14

the first strategy

36:17

thing that I have to figure out is how to Convince

36:20

my wife to you know, make

36:22

sure that they play Pokemon.

36:27

There's going to be a lot of conversation about,

36:29

you know, what, what things do we prioritize?

36:32

You know, she wants, she wants the kid to play

36:34

piano, for example. I'm down for

36:36

them to play piano, but I also

36:38

want them to play some Pokemon, too. So,

36:40

yeah. Gonna have to figure those

36:43

things out. Which things do we push? Which things

36:45

do we not push? Or,

36:48

I feel like, I feel like I'm not gonna like

36:50

push too hard, but I want to at least expose

36:53

them to to things and then Encourage

36:56

them, at least a little bit, to continue

36:58

even when things get tough. Which I think

37:00

is the challenge with, with like anything that a kid

37:02

does, is like, when playing

37:05

piano, or playing soccer, or Pokemon,

37:07

once, once you get over the novelty

37:09

of it, and then, you,

37:12

you want them To, you

37:14

know, push through the hard part

37:16

of getting better and not being, not being

37:19

great at it, but wanting to get

37:21

better, like that, like that's the part that I

37:23

think is tough and I, you know, I

37:25

guess you just kind of like learn how to handle that

37:27

and encourage as a parent as you do it.

37:30

So, so, I mean, you haven't, you haven't, like, you're

37:32

not in the thick of it yet, and I'm sure, like,

37:34

it's just like, like a boxer, like, once you get

37:36

punched in the face, all your plans are, like, all

37:39

those plans were great. But have you thought

37:42

about how you're gonna be, like I

37:44

mean, despite the not going for my Worlds invite,

37:46

not going to NAIC, not going to Hawaii, Like,

37:49

I assume you're still envisioning, like, you

37:51

know, the weekly commitment to redcaps, like,

37:54

you got a whole new wave of priorities coming at

37:56

you. Have you thought about how you juggle

37:59

all of those things?

38:01

Well, Redcaps is being pushed

38:03

to someone else. At least for

38:06

the, at least for the immediate, yeah. And

38:10

then, I don't know, I guess we will need to talk about

38:13

what, what the podcast looks like

38:16

and whatnot, because you guys also have changes,

38:18

you know, Liam, you're going to be going off to college and whatnot,

38:21

so we're going to have to figure out what, if anything

38:23

changes for, for that but, you

38:26

know, I'm really lucky my wife's a doctor,

38:29

it's you know, financially it's not,

38:31

like, too much of a burden for

38:33

me to not work if, if that's

38:36

the, Path that we decide

38:38

that's still kind of, kind of up in the air right

38:40

Stay at home dad.

38:43

Yeah I mean at the very least I'll be

38:45

staying home for and not working for

38:47

a bit longer than she is, and, and kind

38:49

of the question is whether

38:51

that's, you know, a year? Is it

38:53

three months? Is it two years? I

38:55

don't know. We're gonna have to kind of figure that out. So.

38:59

Very lucky to have that flexibility

39:02

and kinda to feel how things

39:04

are as we go forward.

39:06

Right, is your plan to really, really take

39:08

time, or are you going to be working from

39:10

home with

39:12

baby?

39:13

We're both planning on, we're both

39:15

planning on taking off this summer. So, baby

39:17

is due like end of May, beginning

39:19

of June. And so, she's

39:21

gonna go back in September for sure.

39:24

And then, I will,

39:26

may or may not go back also in

39:28

September. We, we

39:31

did just look at preschools, daycares

39:34

last week. We're gonna get our name

39:37

on the list for one of them, and then

39:39

you have to get on a list?

39:41

I mean, kind of,

39:42

don't know.

39:43

Wait, like,

39:46

like, kinda, yeah, like, one

39:48

of the places.

39:49

Multiple years out, right? Like I

39:51

Well, I mean, not multiple. Like, if I wanted to send

39:54

them in the fall, for example, like, if I

39:56

Yeah, no, he's talking about like a, a daycare

39:58

that all, that like, like, they don't have like,

40:01

I guess there's still preschools out there, but like

40:03

daycares are preschools, Liam. Liam

40:05

thinks of it as daycare.

40:07

Yeah,

40:07

see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Bro, I,

40:11

Preschool,

40:12

don't know why, I thought you were like, trying to register them for

40:14

like, like the school system for like, like kindergarten,

40:16

you were like, signing up for kindergarten.

40:18

No, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, just

40:21

like, just like for the fall. But, like, the school

40:23

that we would want to send them to in the fall said

40:25

that, like, if we sign

40:27

them up You know right now or within

40:29

the next month or two, no problem. But if

40:32

you know if it was July and we

40:34

wanted to send them in September, probably

40:36

not gonna happen. So we do have to kind of

40:38

like

40:39

Yeah. 22nd, I think.

40:40

Make it make somewhat of a decision in the next

40:42

couple months.

40:44

Super close to you?

40:47

Super close to the house that we're gonna move

40:49

to.

40:49

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very, very exciting.

40:52

I, you

40:54

know, so my, I mean, I, I hear that, and I

40:56

think if, if you're contemplating it.

40:58

Yeah. Mike Fouchet's stay at home dad,

41:01

that's the perfect time to, like, build

41:03

a culture of pokey parenting, because, like, moms

41:06

have pilates and stuff. If you're like, I'm

41:08

not doing pilates, but I am going to this, like, league

41:10

challenge, there

41:13

we go. Now, but

41:15

that's, yeah, yeah, like, you know, the problem is if

41:17

you were, like, trying to run a league challenge

41:19

and the baby cries, this is true

41:22

story. So, like, I used to, like,

41:24

the first year or two, Liam probably remembers

41:26

this, I was volunteering, I was like,

41:29

I was like Rigan WrestleOff's dad, right? I was

41:31

like Steve. Like, I was volunteering

41:33

while my child was competing, and I realized

41:36

I could no longer do a disservice to

41:39

TOs by volunteering,

41:41

because, like, just at the end of the day,

41:44

they were a distant second from a priority

41:46

perspective.

41:47

mm hmm.

41:49

my kids would come over to tell me how

41:51

their round went, and I would be like, I

41:53

know we'd be collecting these slips, but I gotta

41:55

hear this for two minutes, you know?

41:58

And I was just like, I'm the worst

42:00

volunteer, like,

42:03

Fuhuhu.

42:03

on the one hand you know, I mean,

42:05

anybody that's been a TO or

42:07

volunteered or been involved in a

42:09

regional, like, it's great

42:11

that, I mean, the compensation is way

42:14

better than anybody else that doesn't do

42:16

well in day two. Like, you're

42:18

like, we locked in a variety of packs, and

42:20

like, it's a great way to you

42:23

know, I mean, if your kid needs a

42:25

lot of Pokemon cards to make his day,

42:27

do what it does. Like, it's a great way to make

42:29

you feel like you're somehow making

42:32

this trip to Peoria,

42:35

or Charlotte, or Indianapolis, like,

42:37

seem vaguely self sustaining. But

42:39

like, I was just like, man, I

42:42

I've, I don't want them to feel

42:45

like I'm the worst, so

42:47

I can't do this.

42:48

Fuhuhu. Fuhuhu.

42:50

I, you know, like, saying I

42:52

have self respect would be too strong a word, but

42:54

like, it was kinda like that? I don't know.

42:58

Well, it would have been interesting, like, Liam,

43:00

you probably got to the age where

43:03

you were, could

43:05

be much more independent, probably over COVID,

43:07

right? And so, like, you could,

43:11

like, maybe, maybe if, like, there was more

43:13

IRL tournaments there, you could

43:15

have seen, like, more of the transition

43:18

as well, Brent, for yourself. But

43:20

since it's only just been, like, a year, basically,

43:22

you were probably like, eh,

43:23

I mean, his last, his last year as a senior was the first,

43:26

like, non COVID year, you know?

43:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Lost,

43:29

so yeah, you're, you're absolutely right about that. I think

43:31

it was like, there, there was a kind

43:33

of key transitional period that,

43:36

that was like a little bit missed, you know.

43:39

yeah, for sure.

43:40

And, and also I think there's, there's a difference between 1

43:43

and 2. Like, when,

43:45

when it's 1, it's like, it's man to man. When it's

43:47

2, like, you gotta go zone a little bit.

43:50

You know, like, like, right, like, it's, you

43:52

know, I mean, in some ways it's double,

43:55

in some ways it's less than double,

43:57

right, like, lunch is a scalable thing, we're just gonna buy

43:59

lunch for everybody, here we go, but, like,

44:02

there's also, you

44:04

know aspects of, like, it just dramatically

44:06

raises the amount of complication,

44:09

you know?

44:10

Well, and especially, like, if Liam's in Seniors,

44:12

Walker's in Juniors, the timing might not

44:15

be exactly right,

44:16

Yeah,

44:17

that's not always gonna line up.

44:18

Or, or

44:19

I do

44:19

person gets a buy and the other person's competing

44:21

and you're like, okay we gotta like, we gotta

44:24

figure out how to keep this person busy, we gotta

44:26

keep track of this other person, like, yeah

44:29

there, there are, there's a little bit of like

44:31

scale complexity even though like, yeah

44:33

there's, there's some economies of scale too, so it's,

44:36

it's weird.

44:37

One thing that I heard recently

44:39

as a good strategy for Pokeparents is

44:42

to buy that static seating, that,

44:44

you know, like, if you do want to play, then you

44:47

at least always have one place. Where

44:50

your where your kid can go to. And I know you,

44:52

you and Nabil kind of set that up. And,

44:54

and lots of parents just set that up naturally.

44:56

But if you do want to play, it is a way to,

44:58

to kind of do

44:59

right, right,

45:00

cool.

45:01

but, but then, but then you're like, am I really

45:03

spending more money on me for this tournament? That

45:05

shit gets static CD for my kid and then you're getting static CD

45:07

for everybody and then you're like, what are we doing here?

45:10

We've lost our minds. You know,

45:12

I already flew three people to

45:14

Peoria. What am I doing? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

45:21

Alright, well, this has taken

45:23

most of the time. We can, we, we

45:25

were gonna maybe talk a little bit about Utrecht

45:28

and Vancouver. But maybe we can do that next week, cause

45:30

Vancouver is Which weekend

45:32

is 22nd?

45:33

still we still got time. We still got time

45:36

to solve Vancouver thankfully because,

45:38

you know, last report we were on Mew

45:41

with with Lux.

45:44

I sent Liam my Tina list

45:46

and I said, this is what you should play? He's like, eh,

45:49

maybe.

45:51

I I, you know, I recognize Liam's

45:53

like, he sends me like a pretty stock 60.

45:56

No, he sends me the stock 60.

45:58

Right.

45:58

you know, it's solid. Love you.

46:01

Yeah, yeah, Liam is always

46:03

Love you at this point.

46:04

to entertain himself at these tournaments

46:06

Flynn Martin.

46:07

do well at the tournaments. And he's like, why can't

46:09

I have both? It's tough. It's

46:12

tough to do both.

46:15

Did you guys sign up for Orlando, by the way?

46:19

Yeah?

46:20

Yeah, and Indianapolis, Liam

46:22

and I were discussing today whether or not we were going to be doing

46:24

Indianapolis live registration on the pod.

46:26

But, guys, it is currently 5.

46:29

58 Eastern Standard Time. We got an

46:31

hour to kill before

46:32

Okay, that's gonna say, is it in two

46:34

minutes or an hour and two minutes?

46:37

You know, we got an hour and two minutes, so

46:39

we're timing things perfectly.

46:42

very nice. Well, hopefully, it should

46:44

be fine to get in, but

46:46

Alright,

46:47

luck.

46:48

Mike, is there any conversation about

46:50

Pokemon schemed

46:53

names for your child?

46:56

Well, so we are having a girl, and

46:59

I did look at basically

47:02

every single girl

47:04

Pokemon card

47:05

That's what I like to hear, Mike! That is

47:08

absolutely doing it right!

47:10

Melony, Clara, Peonya,

47:13

everything. I looked at all of them. Nothing

47:16

really. I,

47:17

Selina

47:18

did. I did suggest a couple,

47:21

and there was a couple that Kelly was like, that's

47:23

not too bad, but I don't think we're gonna

47:25

end up going with any of them. But

47:27

yes, I very much did that as an exercise.

47:31

did you tell her that they were Pokemon names,

47:33

or did you have to conceal that information? And,

47:39

normal ones, I

47:41

did not. Like Cynthia, for example,

47:43

you know, that's a pretty normal name. But,

47:46

you know, Marnie. Eh.

47:48

She was like, where'd you get that from? And

47:50

I was like, eh, that's a Pokemon name. And

47:53

like,

47:55

how cool, like,

47:56

like,

47:57

impacts of like, if you name your kid like, Volcanian

48:00

or something, like, yeah,

48:02

like, Elon Musk's children,

48:04

yeah,

48:06

yeah, kind of, but like, you know,

48:08

they, they get Musk's

48:11

kids, right?

48:12

they already have enough

48:14

trauma in their lives. Well, I mean, like, I think

48:16

we can all agree, Alex Wilson's a goat.

48:20

What, what did he name, did he name his kid

48:22

His son is Ash. Yeah.

48:26

I didn't know that.

48:27

Oh, that's too tough, that's so wicked,

48:29

oh my god.

48:31

Yeah. Yeah. So you should not, you should not

48:33

think that that is not an absolutely amazing

48:35

opportunity because I've already seen

48:37

people cash in on it and it seems

48:39

like it is an absolute winner.

48:42

The more serious discussions that we've

48:44

had is, you know, Perhaps

48:47

making the nursery themed around

48:49

Pokemon stuff. We're kind of going back

48:51

and forth between, yeah, we're going

48:54

back and forth right now between pandas

48:56

and Pokemon. Pandas is like Kelly's favorite

48:58

animal, that'd be pretty cute and

49:00

Pokemon. So it might end up being a

49:02

mix, we'll see.

49:03

Oh, I think, I don't know,

49:06

I'm feeling, I'm feeling really, really good about

49:08

the making a Pokemon.

49:10

That seems like it's the absolute strats.

49:13

I, I, I can already hear this kid in like

49:15

15 years like, oh my god, bro.

49:18

My first memory? Pokemon.

49:21

But, you know, but, so here's, here's my theory

49:23

though, like, like, Mike was saying he's got

49:25

to kind of navigate how to, how to introduce

49:28

his, his daughter to the game and like when he's allowed to do

49:30

all that stuff, but like, my feeling is,

49:32

this is like, like. I feel

49:35

like you always hear about the children

49:37

of musicians, like, have musical,

49:39

like, have musical skills

49:41

as well, because I feel

49:43

like they're around

49:45

been like, incepted,

49:51

dad might not be cool, so they're like, their dad is

49:54

cool. I mean, no

49:56

lie, like 7 or 8 years ago, my son

49:58

said to me, so, were you like

50:00

really cool back in the day? And I was like, no,

50:02

I was not, but I appreciate the fact that you thought

50:04

that it might be true. I love you so much,

50:06

my child. But, but like, they're

50:09

around this guy that's super cool and he's

50:11

playing the guitar all day. And

50:15

like And, and he's got probably five

50:17

guitars sitting around in his living room because he, that's

50:19

what he does. And the kid is

50:21

like, I want to pick up this guitar, and then he's like, and

50:23

then he like, shows him a little thing, shows

50:25

him a little thing, shows him a little thing. And then they're

50:27

playing together, and the kid is loving it because

50:30

he's playing with dad, and the dad is loving it because he's playing with

50:32

kid. And they're playing together, and they're playing together,

50:34

and like, that's how the magic happens. I,

50:36

I look at that and I'm like It will be just like that

50:38

for Pokemon, assuming that

50:40

you have time in your life for things that

50:43

you take an interest in. I found

50:45

there was no time in my life for anything that I cared

50:47

about.

50:49

Well kind of related Kelly asked me

50:51

the other day, she was like, what are you going

50:53

to do if our kid hates math? And I looked

50:55

at her, I was like, like that's not possible.

50:57

Like it's just actually, actually

51:00

impossible for them to hate math. Like,

51:04

just

51:04

they're going to be brought up learning the joy

51:07

of math.

51:08

Yeah, exactly, I was like, they might,

51:10

math might not be their favorite thing,

51:12

I'm very okay with that, but it's like, actually

51:14

impossible for them to hate it,

51:16

Yeah. Yeah.

51:17

even, not even the realm of possibility,

51:19

they'll be constantly being asked by their dad

51:22

like interesting things

51:24

about, like, how to think about the world and

51:27

from a math perspective, how could they not be

51:29

loving it?

51:30

exactly, exactly,

51:32

Yeah. I mean, they're gonna, they're gonna love math. They're

51:34

gonna love Pokemon. They're gonna be like,

51:37

Hey Dad, let's play a game together, and,

51:40

and you're gonna be like, this is the greatest. session

51:43

I've ever had, even though I learned nothing. But,

51:48

you know,

51:48

best friend. My best

51:51

friend has, my best friend growing

51:53

up, he has a couple kids, and he

51:55

said that one of his favorite things

51:57

is to play, like, they're just old

51:59

enough now to play video games with him, and

52:01

like, he, he, it's like, he says

52:03

it's the most fun thing and so, like,

52:06

if I can do that with video games or,

52:08

or, or, you know, with Pokemon, that'll be

52:10

amazing, for

52:11

My dad gave me a dead controller.

52:13

Yeah, yeah, so here's what

52:15

I'll say, he's got to really enjoy that while he

52:17

can, because it's a narrow window.

52:20

I mean, yeah, my

52:22

children, I knew Liam was going to say that. The story

52:24

my children remember for many years

52:26

is, I would play Madden on the Playstation,

52:29

and they would be like, I want to play too, and I would hand

52:31

them a controller and not turn it on. Cause

52:34

like, what are they gonna do, right? Like

52:38

take control

52:38

And you would think,

52:39

like, he was like four, it

52:41

was just gonna be offside violations every

52:44

single play. Like, we

52:46

wouldn't even play a play, it would just be

52:49

offside violation, offside violation, offside violation, offside

52:51

violation, right? So,

52:53

old were you? How old were you when you found this out?

52:55

Liam? Yeah,

53:00

so, so, then there becomes a moment

53:03

where they can play with you, and

53:05

then there rapidly becomes a moment where

53:08

Some combination

53:09

They don't want to play

53:10

you're over, well, you're over the hill and they're better,

53:12

right? Like, I mean, look at Walker,

53:15

by the time they're 15, be

53:17

better at video games than you. Because

53:20

you'll be 15 years older than you

53:22

are now, which is probably,

53:24

you're no longer at your peak, and

53:27

they are absolutely peaking, and then

53:29

they'll be like, playing

53:32

this game with you is not super fun, right?

53:34

Liam built a bunch of actual physical

53:37

decks. We now have like five actual

53:39

decks in our house right now. Is that post

53:41

rotation testing Liam? Or is it just Yeah,

53:43

it's just, it's just current decks. Yeah.

53:45

Dude. I, I swear to god, dude. Even

53:48

people going to Vancouver, everybody's just like,

53:50

oh, test post rotation, test post rotation. They're

53:53

cooked.

53:53

yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean,

53:54

I'm gonna farm you.

53:55

it's, the moral story is PT CGL is about to be useless

53:57

to us all unless you actually are like testing

54:00

with someone. Right. But like,

54:02

I mean, I think we've talked before about

54:04

how. I used to play a lot,

54:07

and now, I'm going to try to convince

54:09

Liam to play some games with me this weekend for fun,

54:11

because he's built a couple of in real life decks and we could

54:13

play, but like, that's all it will be for

54:16

Liam. Yeah, look at the look on Liam's face

54:18

tells you all you need to know about the quality of

54:20

that testing in Liam's mind. He's like,

54:22

that, you know, he might do it

54:24

as a fun thing he could do with his dad, but he's not

54:26

going to be doing it to get better at Pokemon. Because,

54:31

he's too good, right? Like, Walker,

54:33

every once in a while, will be like, okay, I'll play

54:36

Fortnite with you, dad. And, and,

54:38

we,

54:39

humor you.

54:40

yeah, and what we do is we tell Walker,

54:42

he's only allowed to play with one

54:44

gun, it's the worst gun in the game. He

54:47

can't use any other gun until he finds that gun.

54:50

And like, he still kills like twice as many

54:52

people as I do, because like, what

54:54

do I have to contribute to this, you know? So,

54:57

so, you gotta, you gotta enjoy that

54:59

moment where you're better than them at some things.

55:02

And recognize that the

55:04

moments where you're the same, it's extremely

55:06

fleeting, and absolutely

55:08

the best times. I think,

55:11

I think actually during COVID was,

55:13

so we didn't really get to indulge it as much as we

55:16

might have liked to, the moment where we had probably

55:18

similar basketball skills, and now

55:20

I'm still like, stronger?

55:23

But they're just so much faster than me.

55:27

It's tough. It's tough.

55:30

Oh, wow. Alright guys, we'll be back next

55:32

week, we definitely talk about Vancouver and,

55:34

and how Uhtrich plays into all this, and we'll talk

55:37

about whether or not Lieb and I played some for fun games,

55:39

and what I learned decks that he might play

55:41

at Vancouver from all that the John Palserer

55:43

outro.