Welcome to Pijotimi Podcast, a show about the subjective past,
present, and potential future of flesh and blood design.
In today's episode, we'll give our reactions to the new Project
Blue. You can find us across all
socials such as Blue Sky and Instagram at Pijotimi Podcast.
I'm Clark. I'm Joel.
And I'm fuzzy. We have a lot to get through
this episode. As a give, I just jump right at
everyone. Yeah, let's just let's power
through this. So last week we talked about
Aurora hitting the legend so quickly and how it might have
left a bad taste in some players mouths, especially new players.
And we wanted to give a little bit of space here to follow up
on that episode because LSS just released a dev talk.
Every single time we record an episode, LSS is like, well,
let's release an official statement about this exact.
Thing we did literally say it was Clark.
Clark was like, guys, they're gonna do a dev talk about this
right before we release, right? And he was totally right.
Did you guys have any new thoughts now that the dev talk
came out about the whole Aurora? Situation.
I don't have any new thoughts, but I do think it was really
interesting how in the dev talk, James and Brian seemed really
dejected in how Aurora didn't have a landmark win.
Like Aurora did get a ton of top eights at a lot of big events at
a lot of the pro tours, a lot of big showings, but she didn't
really win worlds. She didn't win the Pro Tours and
she did win at least one calling calling San Paolo, which was a
pretty big deal. So I think they were really
disappointed in that in how many of her points came from PQS and
RTNS, which is different than what we've seen happen to other
heroes that have LL, like Zen, Enigma, you know, a a lot of
these other heroes that we've considered demons of the format,
that isn't how they've gone out. And that makes Aurora feel a
little different. And I think LSS is bothered by
that specifically. It's going to be interesting to
see how they react to that knowledge.
Yeah, how about you, Fuzzy? I want to give a little bit
credit to the liver from our discord.
He pointed this out to me 'cause I didn't have a chance to listen
to the dev talk directly. I heard they talked about this
there too. But if they in the future put
more focus on untalented heroes which like granted are the
boring ones if you want to get someone to the game, I see why
new players get attracted to like the heroes with talents you
know I get. That just gonna let them talk
about Kasai like that. But like if you put the new
player focus on untalented heroes, then if they rotate out
really quickly, if we have a similar situation, then at least
they can migrate to another class, another hero in the same
Class A lot easier than like a like, what are you going to do
with all of your Aurora cards right now?
Yeah, I mean, the, the the bulk of the equipment is still like
room blade equipment, dyadic carapace, fine dolls, grasp and
face purgatory. That's a pretty big bulk of the
cost. That's true.
Or you could pivot into like a Cilio, take your Lightning
Greaves over there with your fine dolls and like run a lot of
the same expensive lightning cards.
But you're right, it's not easy and it is not great.
It's also true that untalented heroes just rotate out so much
slower because they're not as strong.
You know, like it's, it's, it's a catch 22.
Yeah, that's. Something that's been on my mind
a little bit more lately now that I hadn't really thought
about when we recorded last. Cool.
Want to give a little bit of time to talk about that.
It's OK if we move on to our episode, guys.
Well, life updates. One of us is a year older now.
Since last week. Yeah.
Explain to me this one. I'm well.
You see what happened is that someone was 27, uh huh.
And now they're 20. 80 That's me.
Yeah. Have you oldest fuck boy?
Yeah, my birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday, Fuzzy, Happy
birthday. Feels good.
We should be doing things for like Pitt and birthdays.
No, I think about it. I didn't wanna make a post but
it was 9:00 PM when like it finally settled in for me.
That was Fuzzies birthday and I was like I'm too tired.
You know, the birthday of the show itself is coming up.
I don't know. Two year anniversary, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. We maybe should have done an
episode for it. I think we might have passed the
window. While we figure that out, how
excited are you guys for Project to Blue?
Yo, so excited. I'm so happy we're talking about
Project Blue. Excited enough to make an
episode about it? Well, yeah.
Project Blue is a new format that LSS is testing through this
new sub team they have at the company called Legend Story
Labs. So LSL, we have barely any
knowledge about Project Blue or what Legend Story Labs are, but
like everybody is in love with this thing.
Everyone's play testing it. There's all sorts of little mini
leaks popping up all over the place.
People are chirping about all the time on Blue Sky and Twitter
and I think it's interesting enough for us to talk about what
is going on with this whole situation.
And before we get into it, I just want to take a moment to
ask you, the viewer, let us know what have you been brewing with
Project Blue? It's a little bit more sexy than
commoner, so I want to see all the cool builds you have out
there. And what someone making teclo
work? I want to know if teclo is
viable in this format. One of our viewers wants to know
as well. Yeah, in red pitch, we're going
to go over WTF is Project Blue? That'll be on Clark.
And then I'm going to talk about format as a design and how Flesh
and Blood caters each of their formats to a specific part of
the game. And then Fuzzy is going to go
over our Crucible, which is our own custom format in blue pitch.
All right, with that out of the way, let's go on to Red Pitch.
Clark, would you mind taking it away?
Yeah. What the heck is Project Blue
like? That's what I asked you.
I know, but that's what I'm also asking Legend Story Studios,
James White, Brian Gottlieb, all the Devon design team, as well
as the two of you and whoever is running this Legend Story Labs
thing. So Legend Stories Lab says that
they are the future of tabletop gaming unfolding, and this is
the little snippet they have on their website
whichyoucanfind@lssplayground.com. It says Legend Story Labs exists
to uncover exciting new possibilities and innovative
approaches across all aspects of the player experience.
Based in AO2, I do not know how to pronounce that city name, but
I'm assuming it's a city in New Zealand.
Legend Stories Labs serves as our starting point where
concepts are tested, refined in shape before they reach a wider
audience. This foundation allows us to
work quietly, experimenting with what could change everything.
What's being developed here is just the beginning.
The future of gaming is being written now.
Step into the future with us. Yes or no?
Compelling. Very compelling.
And also explains literally nothing.
Yeah, a marketer wrote that for sure.
Yeah, right. Like, very.
It's very exciting. And I like hearing that there is
an experimental department at Legend Story Studios that is
doing big swings for the game. But what exactly is LS Labs?
What are they for? Is this just for formats or do
they have something deeper going on?
Something more sinister. I, I, I don't want to say
sinister. This goes all over the way to
the top. I mean, I'm, I'm almost certain
it does. I'm sure James White signed off
on this, but it's really weird how hush hush they are about
this. But also, I think they should be
hush hush about this, but it's odd because it is public.
Like when you click on the yes, you are taken to a public
Discord server, a public. Like are they being hush hush
about this? I don't know.
This feels like a very open hush hush moment.
Like people are making lists on February about this format and
they're playing games against each other, but this technically
hasn't even broken into their beta group yet.
So LS Labs is organized into an alpha group and a beta group.
The alpha group appears to be people specifically in New
Zealand, the people in that city where they're based out of right
and it or, or at least people who can like connect with them
there. The way that everyone found out
about Project Blue was that there was an event posted for a
big flesh and blood tournament in New Zealand and they're
promising this really dope sink below promo, which I probably
used for the thumbnail of this episode.
Nice. And that was it.
And they're just like, hey, Project Blue tournament, show up
and play in New Zealand. Everyone's like what the fuck is
Project? Blue, I mean, the sink below
promo is going to get me there. I don't care what the format is.
It's one of the few instances where the FAB like scene is
cooler than it is in America, in Socal.
You know, normally I'm really happy to be a FAB player in
Socal. Yeah, so they say they're being
very hush hush, but they made this really public announcement,
which is telling me that like maybe they've been working on
Project Blue for a while actually, and this is like it
breaking containment. Maybe.
But this sort of extremely soft release feels really weird.
Like, I don't know, does this feel weird to anybody else?
No. I think it's a little unclear
what their motives are and what their intentions are with it.
Motives again sound so sinister. Not that sinister, but like we
don't really know if LS Labs is something that's going to come
up with like new formats every once in a while.
We don't know if like this is just a one off tournament that
they wanted to try and they're having a little fun with it.
So they made a website. Is this something that they're
like going to maintain Project Blue going forward?
No, because there's an alpha and a beta team, right?
Sorry, I don't think I ever actually finished that point.
The alpha team seems to be the people based in New Zealand and
this is an alpha right now. But anyone in the world can join
the beta team on the discord which is a global like playtest
group. It reminds me a lot of the PVE
for League of Legends. The public beta environment
where essentially it's hey we can only test so many literal
games and interactions in office so we need to just have a group
of like 10,000 people everywhere else constantly jamming games to
test all the other interactions. I like this because I think more
effort into balance and understanding interactions is
good, especially in trading card games, especially non digital
ones where you can't just go into code and change a few lines
and like balance a card. When a card is printed, it's
printed, and I think we've learned how weird that is with
Skyward Serenade. I haven't, I've joined the
Discord server so I guess that makes me a part of the beta
team. Quote on what?
But it's really easy. I haven't seen any really
official communication there to be like, this is what we're
looking for. Yeah, you heard it here first.
Fuzzies. A beta tester.
Holy, yeah. I feel like the real beta
testers are the people who are like running armories of project
Blue, like unofficial project Blue Armory and stuff like that.
I'm just really curious where this is going.
Are we going to play Project Blue for the next three years,
or are they going to come out with another format in another
year? Also is like a new format,
really uncovering exciting new possibilities and innovative
approaches across all aspects of the player experience.
Yeah, it actually is, I would argue.
I'm sure we know less than 5% of the total amount of stuff that
they have coming out, yeah. Super, super fair.
And I think that's a really, really good point.
Now let's talk about what Project Blue actually is in
terms of what we know about it. So Project Blue is a format
where it's commoner, but you can also run rare, so you can run
Commons and rares in equipment, weapons and the cards in your
deck. No majestics, no legendaries.
It's a young format, young hero format.
So everyone's at 20 life just like commoner.
It's 40 cards in deck 52 maximum load out.
I think it's actually a 55 card deck.
Oh, is it 55? Yeah, that's interesting.
And it has a new ban list. Notably, on this ban list, there
are no generic D reacts, no sync below, no fate foreseen.
Also, like Commoner, they banned a lot of the extremely efficient
weapons like Waning Moon and Rosetta Thorne.
And they've also banned other cards like Deadwood Dirge, which
sort of implies that they've been doing some testing and they
found that they didn't like those interactions.
So I guess what I'm asking here is this feels small, right?
Like this shift seems pretty unassuming.
The shift from what? Like if this was an update to
commoner, they're literally just saying you can run rares now.
They've banned a few more cards and they allow three more cards
in inventory. That's not a lot, right?
Like that could just be an article on Fab TCG.
But instead, it's the very first project of this new like
experimental wing of Legend Story Studios.
I think there's enough data on Commoner to sort of recognize
that certain classes will always do well in Commoner because
their carpool is stronger at the moment.
And they've also probably identified a lot of writers that
are not as strong as some common.
So they're trying to find a really good blend for a new like
low power format that isn't just strictly Commons only because
that's feels too restrictive. And I think with the public,
with how people responded to like Clash Manson's custom
format, I think a lot of people really liked that.
But it wasn't adopted by LSS, probably because they were
starting Project Blue with a similar similar style to it.
You think they started project blue like?
Years ago, I'm sure this was like in development for a long
time. Really.
Yeah. See, I feel like I could have
put together a lot of this stuff over the course of two weeks.
Yeah. I don't think it takes years to
make a format with a new band list and a couple of new rules,
you know what I'm saying? Well, again, I think the format
that was released is still like a really small fraction of what
they're doing it at Project Blue, OK?
Like the format itself, I think it could be easily done.
Like it's LSS, like they do really large logistical feats
like this all the time. Yeah, I think the resources and
the like, the department itself has been around for a while,
especially if it's based in New Zealand.
Yes. So I want to touch on a couple
things that you mentioned there. Joel, let's start off with.
What is this format actually doing?
Because the first time I heard of Project Blue, I heard of
everyone saying this is a better blitz, but I didn't see it as a
better blitz. I saw it as a better commoner.
And that was something that you had said, right?
This feels like a good place for a cheap entry point.
Rares are not typically that much more expensive than
Commons. You'll see the occasional like
shred be worth like $3. Yeah, but rares rarely go over a
dollar per. So it's still very, very cheap
to put a bunch of rares in a deck list.
So it fulfills the goal of commoner of being cheap because
there aren't majestics and these high synergy legendaries and
majestics, the power level is much lower.
So it fulfills the commoner goal of like extending the game and
playing with lower power tools. It just seems like a better
commoner. And by including rares you're
making so many more archetypes and heroes more playable.
Like I've been playing around with a Vincet list because I
could run Malefic Incantation and Deathly Whale, which just
helped so so much with the viability of playing Vincette.
Those are foundational cards to being able to have a functional
40 card deck. She was never playable and
commoner. So it's a commoner that stays
cheap, stays low power, and lets more heroes have a viable build.
For me this just reads like a better commoner.
Which sort of again takes me to my point of why couldn't this
just be an article of saying hey we're changing commoner?
Like why are they being so hush hush about this specifically?
And I think it's because I don't think this is just a new format.
I don't think this is just an edit to Commoner.
I don't think Commoner has enough fans or players to
warrant this kind of secrecy. I think they could have gotten
everybody way more excited about Commoner by attaching Project
Blue as a Commoner change and by using that marketing
specifically. I think they are being hush hush
because they want to make some pretty sweeping bands in classic
constructed. Interesting, what is the the
most format warping thing about project blue right now?
Like what is the one element of what is missing that completely
transforms the play patterns? The two project Blues?
No sync below, no faith for scene.
People have been talking about banning those cards for a little
bit now. It was a big thing I think
before Aurora, and then it just became necessary to beat Aurora
so all that kind of went away. But I still remember when
everyone was like man it feels like defensive decks have way
too many fucking tools and they just printed shelter as a 0 for
four generic D react and I for me it's just a side grade to
sink below, possibly even worse than sink below in a vast
majority of decks and matchups. So why is zinc below common and
shelter majestic? I think it's because they are
preparing to ban some of these cards on this ban list in
classic constructed and they are testing to see what would the
base low power format look like without these foundational
cards. Right, Does Crush Bravo just end
up taking over the entire game? What about 0 for four dot decks?
Is there enough tools for that to exist?
And without Sink Below and fate for scene they just run over
everybody which is maybe what's happening.
From what it sounds like, the meta right now appears to be
Lexi, Azalea, Oldham, and Dromi. Lots of 0 for fours, lots of big
dominate tools. Really abusing the fact that
those D reacts are gone. What do you guys think?
I was actually having a conversation earlier today about
this exact conversation, you know, talking about the comment
that they made and I bet they were great regret making that
comment about the the sweeping bans or the the bands that
they're going to make on the the 19th.
But I was sort of calling out that I think they're going to
ban favour scene and sync below because the defensive overlap
of. Florian specifically, I think
was the straw that broke the camel's back.
They've seem frustrated with the rise of defensive decks taking
over the meta. I think I remember some reports
of like, James White being upset that Enigma Wan with like Cyb.
Yeah, even. Though that wasn't reflected in
the very next B&R where he defended it.
Yes, yes, I agree. But I think another reason why
they were frustrated with Aurora's lack of Hallmark wins
was her losing to that overly defensive deck at Worlds.
And I think as they're printing more in class synergies, they've
recognized that it doesn't always translate to classes or
people picking up these or people using less of these
generic tools. So they'll just double down and
have the most consistent defensive deck.
So they're not going to just run reduced to run chat.
They're going to run that plus sync blow plus fate for scene,
plus shelter and whatever else they can get their hands on.
So I think this has always been in the works where they want to
get rid of the the generic tools that are clearly problematic and
make way for the in class synergies that they're going to
be printing in the future more impactful.
Yeah, in class defensive synergies sounds way more
exciting and I think they would be able to push it a lot more if
they get rid of things like Sync below and Fate for Scene.
Absolutely. Fuzzy.
I think I'm a little convinced that it makes sense that before
they take away Sync Below and Fate for Scene, they want to see
a format that doesn't have it and see if it can handle it if
it feels unhealthy and too aggressive.
Because that'd be the fear, right?
Like you take away my Sync blow and Fate for Scene, suddenly
only aggro decks can win and it's only aggro decks
everywhere. Because literally I think those
two cards have kind of defined defensive decks for a long time.
You're defensive because you're running like you're either mid
range or defensive because you're running and you're on the
60 reacts what you do, Yeah. It's super interesting because I
think they're also a little terrified of banning sync below
because if you look at every single single seller, their
number one card sold is sink below.
That's funny. Because it's cheap enough that
people will just buy 12 copies and keep 4 decks with three sink
below's in every single deck. Oh yeah, it is the number one
card that is the most reliable to buy and the most reliable to
sell for shops. Like, I don't think it's going
to happen on the 19th July, but it's going to be funny because
when does this episode come out? Before the 19th?
OK thank God, but if they end up banning it on the 19th I think
that would be crazy. Absolutely insane.
When does the Project Blue tournament happen?
A June. Yeah.
Yeah, right. I think, I think if they do ban
it, it's they're going to wait a little bit longer.
That's an interesting thought. That was a big swing.
But I think you convinced me, Clark.
Yeah, you may have some legs there.
And even if it's not intentional, like we are going
to make a format without sync below and paper scene to see if
we can ban it. Like it certainly could be a
side benefit of this really cool project that they're doing, you
know? Yeah, like when they're looking
at the ban list, then they can say, well Project Blue was
pretty fun and it didn't have sync below and fade for scene.
That's a little data point that they can use when they're trying
to figure out if they want to ban it in CC.
Yeah. And if we want to talk about
experimenting with what could change everything, I would say
banning sync below and fade for scene would be exactly that.
And that is more in line with what I expect from this than,
you know, just an update to commoner, which is what it
currently feels like. So those are my thoughts on WTF
is Project Blue. I think what it's true purpose
may be and like how they're obfuscating it with this idea of
like printing and making a new commoner.
And I think that leads really nicely into our next pitch,
which is talking about formats. As designing the way that we
engage with the game. Joel, do you want to talk some
more about that? Sure.
So for my pitch, I want to talk about the different existing
formats in Flesh and Blood. We all know what they are, but I
think what they serve in terms of their purpose for Flesh and
Blood is worth talking about, especially when this hot new
format is coming to light being Project Blue.
And so first I want to talk about, well, that very fact that
all flesh and blood formats serve as a purpose, no matter
the scale, because we have some less than popular formats in
flesh and blood like you mentioned, Clark.
And so I want to bring those to light because even though a
format is not popular, there are options to widen the scope of
play, which I think is very important to flesh and blood
specifically. Because even though I think
objectively it's one of the best TC GS on the market specifically
for the competitive circuit, but I think they're they could cater
new, new players a little bit better and product blue seems
like it's a step in the right direction of what people want
given its popularity. Yeah, I think it also really
helps build that love for the game.
Talking really broadly here, Like when you get used to
playing one format like classic constructed, and then you like
play a different format, Blitz Common or UPF, and you realize,
oh, this card that I liked, but when it's never viable actually
can really shine in this completely new context.
And those moments of discovery being laden throughout the
culture of the game can be really endearing and satisfying.
Yeah. That's been a common theme
throughout our podcast. Throughout the two years that
we've been doing this. We're always sort of saying, no,
you guys should play blitz and commoner and EPF and think about
new players coming into the game and other ways that you can
enjoy it. That isn't jamming to go tint
that your next PQ. I'm not talking about myself.
I always find it a little bit tiring the idea of of like
playing another new format and then I always feel really
rewarded every time I take this to the plunge, you know?
Yeah. And so first, I'll start off
with Commoner because I think that's like the thing that most
people have their sights on in response to Project Blue being
released. And I want to point out that
every TCG that's in existence has a commoner format, whether
it be like Popper, Commoner, or whatever other fucking moniker
you can think of. But I think it's an important
part of the game because we all fall in love with the power
fantasies of games, the lore of games and like the identities
that we associate certain strategies with.
And it can get muddied, especially as cards start to get
power crept. It can be really hard to relive
that fantasy. Like I personally have been
feeling a little bit frustrated with the state of the meta
because it prevents me from playing my pet decks like Bolton
and Levaya. You guys have heard me plenty of
times talk about them. God, I want to play Levaya
again. Me too, but.
And the way that like this has affected you is so profound that
I almost could swear you don't like Bolton or Levaya, you know?
Right, exactly because I have nothing nice to say about them.
There's no experience in Flesh and Blood that I that I've had
in the past like 6 months that I could point to where I've had
fun playing these heroes. It just feels like a waste of
time. And this sort of Harkins back to
our previous episode where I think, Clark, you touched home
with a lot of our listeners when you said that it sort of feels
like you're forced to engage with flesh and blood on a
competitive level because the people that go to your armories
are competing and you have to play against them, even if
you're just, you know, there to vibe or whatever.
And so all that being said, commoner in other formats like
commoner, where it's a lower not only barrier to entry, but also
a lower power level can help you revitalize your love of the game
or your love of certain heroes and let you play those heroes
that you would normally get the chance to play.
And so that base level option of the Commons only, the dirt bulk
cards only format is perfect for a game's growth.
And I think also one thing that I wanted to highlight about
flush and mud is like there's a lot of really good commoner
creators that don't get the praise that they deserve.
I'm thinking of dice Commandos specifically.
Like he does a lot of really good videos about like commoner
tournaments and commoner armories, commoner deck techs.
Like he's probably the most outspoken creator that I can
think of. I apologize if there's others
they, you know, come to light, but people like those like do a
lot of work and I think project Blue is a really good outlet for
them to shine as creators and also like, I guess get rewarded
for their efforts by being on the the front lines.
And the last thing I want to talk about commoner is the value
of a format that doesn't get as impacted by sets release can
also be really refreshing. I know a lot of people that have
come back to flesh and blood after a certain amount of time
and have been sort of overwhelmed with the options,
with the meta changes and shakes up shake ups and things like
that. And it could be tough to get
back into the game. But commoner and other formats
in this arena don't get the same impact because they're not
impacted by the crazy majestics that are used to support a new
hero or the abundance of rares that, you know, make things way
more consistent. Like I think Viscera's Living
Legend ascension was on the backs of really powerful rares.
And so commoner can serve a really good use case where you
just ignore all of that. You go there to have fun with
really low power stuff. And I think that's a lot of.
So to rephrase your point, Joel, it's kind of like commoner decks
are a much more stable meta where you can make a commoner
deck and it's probably going to be mostly a solid as it was when
you made it like a year or two down the line.
Yeah, exactly. Next I'm going to go over blitz.
I think blitz is often overlooked as soon as players
make that switch from blitz to. Classic constructed armories.
It happens really quickly, especially here in Socal.
Yeah, people like show up with a blitz neck and we're like, Oh my
God, blitz decks. So there's this Armory deck.
If only I had a blitz deck to play it with you because I
literally brought commoner CC Alternate CC, No blitz deck,
sorry. And I feel for these players, I
really do. Because you know, when we all
first started, I think for the first few months, maybe even a
year of our playing was only blitz armories at our local LGS.
Yeah. And you just don't see that
anymore, at least not in Socal. It might be different for other
places. Like there's no learn to play
events. There's no blitz armies outside
of I think one in Irvine. Kingsleyer Lake Forest.
Yeah, Kingsleyer Lake Forest is the only spot really close by us
that consistently runs non CC. But yeah, blitz is.
Not popular here in Socal. And I think that does hurt us
with a new player acquisition because as a poor college
student, I really liked only needing to buy 2 Blood Rush
Bellows. And you know, I really liked
being able to buy a $10 Majestic Equipment that was actually best
in slot. Yeah, that was really nice for
me, yeah. I know this is a bit of a
tangent, but I think one thing that does really well for us
with the new player acquisition in our local community is that
we all know how hard it is to get new players in.
So we put our whole heart into it.
Yeah. Like whenever Han comes, he has
like his whole suite of decks. So you can always borrow a deck
from Han, Like, yeah, you always have access to a deck.
And, you know, we're really friendly and encouraging.
We're like, we love you. We like really, we really turn
on like the love volume. We get those bitches to come
back for real when you. Say it like that, Fuzzy.
It sounds a little toxic. They report good experiences
from what I've been hearing. So yeah, even though I think for
the most part, I really think CC is the best way to get people
into the game, like it's longer games, more engaging, it's less
swingy than Blitz. It still serves a really good
purpose in just taking it slow, having really short, short term
goals like, you know, getting someone down to zero life from
20 smaller decks. And also, like you mentioned,
Clark, less copies because even in Blitz, if a hero isn't good
in Blitz, if it's good in CC, the prices are going to be
inflated no matter what. So that can also be kind of an
issue with Blitz. It's like you're using the same
shit that using CC, just on a smaller scale.
Yeah. So if you don't have a local Han
or a local group of love bombers and it can be pretty tough to
get new players involved. So that's why I like Blitz even
though I talk shit about it a lot.
It is a great entry point jam shorter, quicker games.
It feels weird because we talk about how quickly blitz games
can end, how easy it is for just to be like oh I had my 30 damage
of inset turned and now you're dead.
But also, like, it's really nice that you can just shuffle up and
play another game, yeah. Yeah, it really should be best
at 3 in my humble opinion. I would agree with that.
Yeah, but then fatigue. Oh, we don't talk about that
fatigue terror. Exists and all of a sudden, all
of a sudden an hour and a half just.
We find that player in the parking lot and we have, we
don't talk. The last honourable mentions I
wanted to go over before the pitch ends is UPF, yeah.
That's. I've actually gotten a lot of
love recently. I think the what is it called?
Smash Palace? Smash Palace?
Yep. Those actually were revealed
earlier today with a slew of new Guardian heroes as part of their
new crack shuffle play. There's all these new pit
fighters which are UPF only, which I don't think I personally
like, but I think I'm going to wait and see, like what it
develops into because I remember my earliest memories of UPF.
We played it completely wrong because each of us would draw up
to 4 after every turn. So like, I would go, we'd draw
ultra up, Clark would go, we'd all draw up.
So that version of UPF was fun, but I think imagine.
Prism in that rule. I know, right?
Hey, let's draw four. Yeah, yeah.
So I do, I do think UPF is a lot of fun, especially if you can
get like a, a group of people to do like a UPF Armory.
And I'm sure this new product will eventually lead to some
like LSS events, like maybe there's a skirmish surrounded
around UPF. I don't.
Know, I mean the deck was. Great.
Yeah, I think there's a lot of elements of like commander from
MTG that I do like and I think the more that gets incorporated
with flesh and blood, especially if it's like everyone's playing
Guardian, that's really fun. Like I love it does seem really
fun. I love the the turns not turn
zero rule 0 conversation you can have with people like let's all
just do this one thing and have fun.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, they just wanted to
shout out UPF. And then the last thing I want
to give room to talk about is limited.
I've been I've been a known limited.
So sorry. So sorry Fuzzy.
I've been a known limited hater for a long time, but I get its
purpose. Every TCG has it.
Much like commoner. I think there are a lot of
elements I do like about limited.
Like you know, playing with weaker decks and like having to
play with yellow versions of like the best Reds or the best
Blues is fun. I think there's a lot of tweaks
to work out in Flesh and Blood, but it a lot of people like the
format whether or, you know, whatever I think about it.
At the risk of outing myself as a total weirdo to the entire
flesh and blood community. Come on.
I really don't like the experience of opening packs just
to open packs. Like buying a box and just like
cracking it open. Yeah, you're like hoarding your
gym pack. It's actually like a net
negative experience for me where I feel like worse after doing
it. I don't even if I like.
Maybe if I pull like a really really good card I might feel
good about that. It just like gives me a weird
vibe. I think it's because I trained
myself for so long not to like give into that like indulgence,
you know? So like nowadays like if they
didn't have limited in flesh and blood I might open 0 packs of
any set. Yeah, that's crazy and.
Amazing. I mean, you know what, I do want
to say something here. The cost of a pack is also
designed so you can play limited with it.
Yeah, yeah. So like we have seen recently in
the high seas, they have cut out a lot of extra cards and have
removed the ability to play limited formats.
In Japan. In Japan, So Japanese boxes are
almost half the cost of US boxes and contain the exact same pull
rates of majestics and legendaries.
Like the cost of your pack? The cost of your box is baked
into the fact that you can play limited with it.
So actually fuzzy, if you are not playing limited with your
packs, you are not getting your money's worth out of those
packs. Oh shit, I mean I.
Believe that to my core. You're preaching to the player.
Here like it is a big part of the value proposition of opening
a pack. Like if you just want a
collection only by Japanese booster boxes.
If you just need singles, just buy singles.
Like that's been the rallying cry of Talarian Community
College. Buy singles, right?
That is the most effective, yeah.
It's the most cost effective way of getting your cards.
So why do we open boxes? We like because we hit baby,
because we're fucking lottery monkeys and we want the dopamine
that comes from opening up cards.
If we never, it's literally drugs.
It's literally drugs if we do. Not know what hero to build
unless I open the marble in my pack.
Thank you. If we never miss, we never pay
money bro just roll it back. Drugs.
You could theoretically pay for one case and have it pay for the
rest of your fab career. If you're him, you know, just
sing. But of course, it's also
limited, right? Like.
Oh yeah, yeah, limited. Limited.
Yeah, like. Limited formats are are A at
least half of the cost of sealed product.
I just really like I have a limited I.
Just really love the equal playing field.
You know, you can have a newer player come into a format.
I think actually in Flesh and Blood I might take that back a
little bit because there's so much context that comes from
limited and it takes a long time to really build up those
muscles. So a new player jumping into the
game is probably still gonna be a lot worse at limited than than
like an experienced player. But the idea that like, look,
you may have bought a $600.00 CC deck, but we're gonna go play
with some packs and it's gonna be skill against skill, and
this? Yeah, everyone pays the same
amount and presumably gets the same chance of getting the exact
same power cards, right? Like, yeah, I'm aware, Joel.
Someone could just like and open the I'm.
Holding my tongue, I'm holding my tongue.
Yeah, but it's, I will say though, Fuzzy is like I would
say limited is probably it. It severely shrinks the game.
It also helps players build a collection because they're
opening packs. So like it's actually really
solid for the new player experience because it's
similarly low powered like Blitz, like commoner.
We've already mentioned why that's good.
And they get a bunch of chat that they can then go use and
build a deck. They can pull that $40 Majestic
that they can then use as an inspiration to go build a deck.
Let's be real, that new player is getting other people's chaff
too. Oh hell yes, I already opened
two cases please. I'm not taking no fucking bulk
home. That's yours buddy.
Exactly. Like the amount of boy, I've got
some bulk, the amount of times I see a new player be like,
really, you're giving me the cards you've opened and I'm
like. Take it no.
You don't understand. Once or twice I've had to go
full mask off and just be like he is taking advantage of you.
I need you to understand this. They are not helping you, you
are helping them. Oh, that's dark that they kept
him up at night for real. Well, that was fun.
That's pretty much all I wanted to say about the existing
formats. I think all of them serve a
really good purpose. So I wanted to take a minute to
like, you know, push my own motives away from like how I
feel about these formats and just, you know, highlight their
value. But I think now it's time to
talk about the probably the most important format in flesh and
blood of all time, and I want Fuzzy to introduce it.
Would you take it? Take it away.
Crucible, Crucible, Crucible. Crucible Tuesday.
Tuesday. Tuesday.
So for Blue Pitch, I want to talk about Crucible All Caps,
which is our own rotating custom format that we host through our
Patreon and through our Discord for the people who really like
Pitch to Me podcast and playing a new game every month.
To describe it a little bit more, imagine that like every
month Fuzzy comes down from the mountain and he says, dear
players, this is the epiphany that was sent to me from the
heavens. This is the format that will be
playing this month. Then after delivering this
prophetic wisdom, Fuzzy says, and who wants to play?
And he puts all the names into a spreadsheet and then he pairs
them all up against each other randomly.
And then you schedule in your own time with your opponent when
you have the time to play this week.
So to give a little bit more example of like what kind of
formats we do, the very first time we ran this, we did
Singleton CC because people talk about that all the time.
I see so many posts on Reddit, they're like, do you think the
card pool can support like Singleton CC, like a Highlander
format? And the comments are always
like, no, I don't think it's there yet.
And I have to sign into Reddit just so that I could say we
actually did this and it was pretty good.
Yeah, it was fairly well received.
Fuzzy's doing the market research, bitch.
Yeah, I would do that again. Like Singleton CC was fun.
It wasn't just slow. There were some good formats.
It was cool. I like it.
You have fewer copies of Sync below too.
All I'm saying then we also have done uncommoner where you have
to run cards of majestic rarity and.
That one was tough. It was it was rare or majestic,
right? You're right, it was rare in
majestics. Yeah, that one was tough.
I really missed my comments. Because those comments are there
for you. They got your back and then you
they you strip them away and all you have is just like I was.
Sorry for frenetic, high-powered, adrenaline fueled
bullshit. It's it's that it's a fucking
Dracula meme of like, what is a hero without their majestics?
Nothing but a nasty pile. Of Secrets.
So we started doing this like we did Singleton CC as like an
experimental run in last November, last February, 2
months ago we did on Commoner. In March, we did Focus decks,
which is a really uncatchy name, but basically you ran 10 copies
of six different cards in your list.
That one was. Fun with an extra card that you
ran 10 copies of in your sideboard.
All three of us ran in, built the exact same fucking deck, and
we dominated that. So sweaty bro.
I literally just copied brews that Clark talked about and it
worked really well for me. Yeah, I made like 4 brews and
then we tested once where Fuzzy's like, yeah, I was
thinking like Yaro could be really good with like felling of
the crown and channel like Virgin and I'm like bitch just
oaken holding like over and over and over. 10 copies of Oakenold,
10 copies of that bullshit Yarl card that has both of the talent
types. Yeah, and then just like
Stalagmite and Isons and just be like you don't get to play the
game if you're a super Red Line deck, you don't get to play the
game. By the way, here's Oakenold.
And then in April, now I want to be very clear here, I'm ready
emotionally. I'm ready emotionally to admit
publicly this format. Joel get doing man being so
rude. I'm ready emotionally to admit
this format was a stinker. Wait, I'm not ready.
No, listen, listen, I'm not ready.
Hey, for you 2 to say it was a stinker, OK?
I cannot handle my fellow podcast hosts telling me this
format sucked. OK, I know it sucked.
Can you be so tell more about me?
Listen. Yeah, read it.
Get out please. Read the shit.
Out. I was just trying to be funny.
OK, I have to find it. Sorry.
Yeah. No, no, no.
Take your time. We can edit.
Each hero starts with two extra health you must present.
You must present exactly 69 cards and your deck was speaking
Tain up to 87 cards. Oh random number is so funny.
Your hero has to have the letter A somewhere in their full name
or be rib tight Lurker of the Deep, which if you look through
the list of heroes, basically means you can't play Lexi.
Stupid. Fucking hey, hey hey, give a
space. Your deck list must contain and
you must present the following cards in your main main board. 2
copies of Gorgainian Tome, 4 copies of Cracked Bobble, one
copy of Amulet of a Haven Call, one copy of Crazy Brew, one copy
of Lunging Press. 1 copy of Trimmer of a Raphael, one copy
of Rise Above. 1 copy of Yellow Sink Below. 1 copy of
Regurgitating Slog, One copy of 10 Foot Tall and Bulletproof,
One copy of Yanti Yanti, and at least one common generic
Equipment. That seems so easy.
Why did no one play? You also I'm not done.
You also had to run and present a copy of Arclight, Sentinel,
Levels of Enlightenment, Codex of Frailty, and Techno Core.
Now to be clear, those are all from different classes and
talents. Yes.
But we could run that in any deck.
You had to run one copy of those in any deck.
This seems very easy to create a cohesive and interesting.
Deck building experience and I restricted E strike and sync
below because I'm like look, the whole point is you run this
junk. Why would I let you sync it
away? Why would I let you sync away
these guys, you know? Yeah, they didn't ban OP cards.
I did not or sift. Right, which also would have led
us. I'm sure if anybody took the
effort to actually build a deck for this format, they would have
found fantasy to be pretty damn good.
Oh, goodbye Mr. Crack Bubble on top of my deck.
So yeah, I wasn't exactly I could get up to some something
good for this one. But you know what?
You gotta swing. And I still kind of.
That's true you. Gotta swing.
You gotta swing. How else you get hit?
Oh my God, that's funny. So in May today we're just
shipping Project Blue. One of my intentions for this
format is I did want to use it as a way to highlight like
community to run formats like Clash.
We haven't done a Clash month yet, but with Project Blue
coming out, I wanted to kind of like tie in the hype with
Project Blue, give our Crucible format a way for us to showcase
this Project Blue format. So it's only Commons and Rares
for the month of May guys. Holy.
And my intention with Crucible was like, I, I have not been
marketing this enough. That's part of why I feel like
it's OK for me to spend an entire blue pitch just kind of
giving an extended ad. But my intention was kind of
like post about these formats every month online and maybe to
get like a little bit of attention in the greater
community to be like, this is what we're doing.
This is what we're finding. And the data that we get from
our event can be extended into, like, all these people that
have, like, these curiosities about what would happen if flesh
and blood was like this. And anybody can play these
formats. I try to post them publicly
Again. I'm like, not the best at doing
it every month, but sometimes, like, it does get some
attention. Like, people are like, oh, that
sounds fun. Or like, in our main Discord,
even if they're not on Patreon, they'll still, like, play games
with each other. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So it's the reason why we're
talking about Crucible is not just to do an extended edit for
our Patreon, but to connect it to how formats sort of make how
we engage in the game, right? Like every single time that a
new month comes around, I've noticed that players do what
typically one of two things. They either try to make the hero
that doesn't work in CC work in this format.
They or or similarly the hero that they do play in CC to see
what they look like in this format, or they go find a hero
that they think gets benefited by these rules and so they get a
brand new play experience and they explore more of the
cardpool in Flesh and blood. Yeah, that's like, I guess you
could sum it up in two things, like the way they want to see a
hero have this new interesting take, whether that's like, oh,
maybe it's strong here or even just, hey, let's see if it's
strong here in the same way. You know, I also think that one
thing we've seen in Project Blue, part of the reason why
it's took off so much is that it is a simple format.
You know, it just has a simple twist.
You were kind of saying it before Clark that like this
doesn't seem like a huge change from commoner, but I think
that's part of why it's so appealing is because it doesn't
take long to think of like what your deck list is going to look
like. Or you can just jump right in.
You don't have to learn an entire new rule set because it's
not that different from existing formats, but it's definitely
different enough to get interesting.
I think we saw that with like the focus decks, like 6 copies
of 10 of 10 copies of six different cards when we were
doing it, Like people jumped right in because you just pick 6
cards and that's your brewing and yeah, that's really fun to
just try to find 6 cards that work magically together.
Or, you know, 2 that just combo really, really, really, really,
really fucking well, yeah. Yeah.
So I think like that's one thing that I've learned from running
these Crucible games is having a simple format is going to
succeed a lot better than having a complicated format that's way
different than anything you've played before.
Yeah. And I think.
It's it's a barrier to entry thing.
Yeah. Also one thing that you've been
doing a lot of fuzzy that I've really appreciated is not
putting a lot of banned cards for these formats.
Like I think you'll typically try to find something that is
sort of like you probably should have banned oaken old for the
focus to format, because I think that was sort of like real easy
for us to abuse. But I think there were some
super like I don't. Maybe it's because we just have
like a fairly small Patreon community right now, but I think
that it is still pretty exciting to play in a format without a
lot of bands. And this sort of connects to
like what people have been talking about with the Aurora
thing, where everyone's like, we need more bands to stop this
from happening again and like more BNRS and like, do we want
more band cards? Do we want like, LSS constantly
sort of sticking their fingers into formats and like, pushing
and yanking them into what they think the game should look like?
There should be room for powerful, interesting
strategies. You know, people like playing
strong cards. People like playing strong cards
and like, if everything is broken, then nothing is broken.
It's a classic fighting game adage and people compare flesh
and blood a lot to a fighting game.
I don't think we should be banning everything that is like
remotely strong and giving in to the reactionaries on Twitter,
you know? And I think that is also
something that we've learned through Crucible is that in
small doses, it's still probably pretty OK.
And you'll leave yourself open like, hey, if anyone finds
something that they think just should be banned, let me know
and you'll like evaluate it and talk to them about it.
Yeah. And nobody ever does.
I've never had somebody come up in the.
Focus deck there was a Bonds of Agony I remember Daniel being
like. Bonds of Agony is pretty rough
here. Fuzzy.
Oh yeah, he fucking dunked on me in in our game, yeah.
So yeah, that's been our experience with Crucible.
If you want to get in on the fun with us, just join our Patreon
or even just join our Discord and maybe you can.
This month is May, so it's like we're just doing Project Blue,
but in the month of June when I come up with a whole new format
for us to try. You can play along with us in
our Discord or in our Patreon. Yeah.
And I want to once again iterate sort of what I think custom
formats can really do for players, and that is to get you
to think about the game differently.
Like I think if you take anything away from today's
episode, it is that we think that players should be trying to
look at cards through multiple lenses.
And one of the reasons why we made Pichitomi Podcast, a
podcast about the design of the game and the development of the
game is because we were looking at a very saturated market full
of people talking about what is competitively strong.
And it gets very saney and boring to constantly be talking
about what is the most broken thing in classic constructed
right now. And it's a lot more interesting
to take the multi perspective angle that you need to in game
design. Recently an article came out on
Fab TCG written by Carol, which talked about how they designed
Leave no Witnesses and how they need to apply lots of different
perspectives. They need to look at every
single card from a limited angle, from a commoner angle,
from a classic constructed angle, and from a lower angle.
Like, what is the flavor of this card, and is it matching the
fantasy that we're trying to get players to experience when they
play the card? And only one of those is how to
win the game most efficiently. And so custom formats, I think,
help tie in those other ways of looking at cards into that one,
into how do I win the game most efficiently.
And I think custom formats uses silly formats as a way of
getting people to look at cards that they've never looked at
before in new and interesting ways and appreciate the game on
a different and deeper level. It's also an opportunity for
players to be completely original.
Like when you wipe the slate clean and you give a reset,
here's a brand new format. Like, yeah, we're gonna look at
past formats to give ourselves context for what might be nice.
But when the slate is wiped clean, it's kind of intimidating
yet again, really rewarding to build a brand new decadent
format. Test it out yourself, test out
your own ideas. And sometimes we also feel this
like when there's a new set that comes out or a couple heroes
rotate at the same time and you're like, I could do
anything. Yeah, what will I do?
And sometimes I'm like, I can't handle the pressure.
I'm going to wait until other people tell me which decks are
good because I don't think I have like the the
self-confidence to go out there and do my own brews right now
and try to compete in this world.
But I think custom formats also give that casual enough space
that you can, like, put yourself out there, you know?
So yeah, that's why I love Crucible, why I'm really excited
whenever people play with us. And I hope we get maybe some
more people playing with us and enjoying ourselves.
Or maybe if some of our existing Patreon supporters are just a
little bit more proactive about signing up, that'd be cool too.
Yeah, we'd love to see more people engaging.
Yeah, thanks. For letting me rant about custom
stuff, let's move on to our Arsenal zone.
The Arsenal zone, Joel. Absolutely, yes.
Sorry. No, that was great timing.
The Arsenal Zone is a part of the podcast where we talk about
a card. It could be card that we like, a
card that we hate, a card that we like to hate.
Either way, we're going to talk about it now, and we're going to
start off with a Patreon submission.
That's right, it's the other big reward you get for signing up
for our Patreon. And the beneficiary of this
reward is going to be that's real noise, Tim S whoa,
congratulations, Tim. They are a relatively new member
of the the Patreon and the podcast Even so thank you, Tim
for participating and not only Crucible, but also with your
Patreon submission, which is Taloshar.
So Taloshar the lost Prince is A2 handed sword that swings for
four and cost 2 to swing. But whenever you activate this
weapon you have to put a rust counter on it and then attack.
And at the beginning of your end phase, if Taloshar the Lost
Prince has three or more rust counters on it, destroy it so.
You can only attack three times with this weapon.
Yep, and he had this to say about it.
Taloshar generic weapons are always a potential problem, but
why is this the only one? Could we not also get a bad
generic one hander to go with our bloodied Oval or ornate
tessen? I don't even if it's bad, give
me an option to run other bad cards.
So I'm just like, fucking preach, bestie.
What a mood. And I when I saw this, I laughed
to myself a little bit because I'm sure the only people who
knew this existed was like Dash players and Blitz specifically
because that's the only time I've ever seen it used and.
Dad at all players and Blitz. Yeah, you know what?
You got me. You know you got there.
There's also there was a There was a brief moment in time
around Battle Heart in San Diego where people were running it in
Classic, instructed Anthony Pham ran a dash IE build with
Talisar. And I do like Talisar and what
it represents. Like there's always at least one
weapon you can use. It's a really flavorful card
too. I agree.
Like the rust counters and it breaking.
It's called the lost print. Like any sword needs a fucking
title after the sword and. The Lost Prince is so evocative.
You're like, what were you, you know?
Yeah, before the rest the the Prince, the Prince like lost
Prince of what nation the. Swords aren't, Prince is.
Also. Hot take and this has zero.
I'm drawing 0 conclusions from lore itself.
But what if Taloshar is like the arcanite sword?
So like you get the full arcanite suite of armor and
Taloshar is like the last like. Oh, like like Taloshar reborn?
Yeah, dude, but thank you Tim for your submission.
I agree we should have more bad generic weapons so that we can
do our cool Mimi builds. Yeah, I think Next up on our
list. I'll go first.
Clark, how about you go? Oh.
Thank God for my card today. I am doing Remembrance classic.
What? Remembrance.
Oh yeah, I remember that. Card My God Remembrance is a
yellow 0 cost instant that says when you play this, take 3
action cards from your graveyard shuffle it back into your deck.
Spanish Remembrance Remembrance is a really really great card.
I like it. I am running it into fatigue
matchups for my victor so I can cycle my visit the gold main
estate and generate more golds and more mites and I think that
it's really solid. I think if you need one specific
card to win a match up and that card will end up in your
graveyard at some point in time, you should be thinking about
remembrance as a possible one of tech option.
I've definitely had times where I'm like, I can run Remembrance
in Rhiner, right? Just shuffle 3 Blood Rush
Bellows back into my deck like I can't, I can't be stopped.
Yeah, who's going to kill me with I have 6 Blood brush
Bellows in my deck. But I think it's also just like
any time you're you think it might actually be an option for
a deck to fuck you over, like throw throw the cards back in
your deck. Aurora's could have been running
1 of it just to be like hey, let me just take 2 arc lightnings
and a flicker whisp and put it back in my deck so I can combo
in the late game. And like, that could make a
massive difference in some of these matchups.
Or you go Garner Flash, Remembrance, Arclight, flicker,
Whisp Arclight, and then put the Garner Flash in your arsenal,
Yeah. Like, there's really, really
cool shit that you can do here, and I think that's really
interesting and. It pitches for two.
And it pitches for two. Totally.
So it's like pitchable for shit. I'm really excited for Joel's
card. Yeah, let's see, let's get the
Joel's card. OK, well for my card, I have
drawswords and drawswords is a warrior action surprise surprise
and it costs three blocks for three and it's a common so it
comes in all colors and it says your next worry tech it's +32
and one power draw a card go again.
And this card obviously came to light because my dearly beloved
because I want a battle hardened.
Actually, I think there were like 3 Cacais in the top 8 of
that event as well, all on basically the same build with
this drawsword archetype. And it was originally a car that
was written off for a long time because it was mostly fodder for
limited as most cards are. But I think this type of build
is really interesting because you're sort of like front
loading a lot of pumps onto your first Sabre and also just like
sort of condensing your power into fewer turns, which is
really reversed to how Kasai was played in her earlier style
builds where you would play like 9 blade runners and you want the
game to go really long. You extract value that way.
This time you're just getting free swords and you're doing all
your 0 cost. Go again and you're just fucking
slamming face making coppers, making gold and taking bitches.
Such a fascinating set of interactions because when you
look at the design it is come to fight with popping a gold on top
of it. But you don't need the gold to
pop right? Because it's one resource for
+32. One and then the two extra
resources is like popping a gold to draw a card yeah this was
never played before because when you pitch the whole blue to play
draw swords, you wouldn't have any resources floating so you
couldn't play the good one cost go against like run through
Blade Runner. But these decks aren't on those
things anymore because they are now 0 cost go against.
And when you consider Kasai's hero ability, that isn't just a
draw card, it's also four free 2 free resources because you
discounted your sword. So if you can swing both swords
after a draw swords, it is an extremely over rate card.
And that's the math behind it, right?
Yeah, so this is technically a like double sided Arsenal zone
because unsheathed is also like the notable new card from the
old side builds and the new ones.
So the surplus of go against that we have at 0 cost is and.
Trot along. That's so cool, though.
Like you're saying how that these zero costs are so much
more viable, like, or we have enough of them that running a
cost curve with drawswords is a lot more viable because you have
these zero costs to support it. Yeah.
So is that what Clark was saying?
That is what I was saying, but you said in a much more
condensed way, so we should probably keep yours and cut
mine. So that's my card for the
Arsenal Zone. I'm really excited to start
brewing with Kasai again and I think now we should just move on
to fuzzies card. Fuzzy, what's your card?
I've been playing Rhinar. This is the next chapter in
Fuzzy's Rhinar blog for the public.
Everyone could just track your opinions on Brute through the
Arsenal zones. Actually. 6 episodes.
And like I cannot understate how hip and cool romping club is
right now. All the Brew players are like,
oh, now that Aurora is gone, maybe instead of playing high
variance Agra Reinhar, we play low variance club.
Like let's bonk, you know, club. There's two resources to swing
for four. That's so good.
Audience have to pay 3 for conditional 4 power.
Now, granted, that's a one handed weapon you're talking
about if we're doing a no those that's like pitch for three to
swing 4, right? Yeah.
And then sometimes you pitch 3 to swing six.
That does sound pretty sexy, not going to lie.
But romping club, if you've discarded A6 that also deals an
extra damage, it's coming in for five. 2 for five as well, right
as a weapon additional plus one for every card you've discarded.
OK, just the one plus. One OK, but stay with me.
What we can do as brute that guard means can't is play A1
cost before we swing club. Now, this is not the leading
theoretical. This is not the leading like
math theory that brutes are all like publishing in their brute
universities and shit, but it is an idea that I do like exploring
sometimes. So what I've been using in my
sideboard as romping Club Rhinar is lead with speed.
Oh. So if you haven't played heavy
hitters, limited lead with speed is A1 cost 2 block.
It is a brute warrior hybrid. It says your next brute or
warrior attack this turn gets plus three power and create an
agility token. Because look, even though it
blocks for two, you pitch a blue, you play lead with speed
into club, you're swinging for seven.
You might not be discarding anything, but two card 7 is like
not bad, but you also leave an agility behind on the back end.
God, that's so good. Isn't it like it's not
necessarily what we want to be doing all the time?
Because if we're trying to play a really defensive romping club
list, I what am I going to do with an agility?
I mean, I can do things with an agility, don't get me wrong, but
I also really want to be blocking.
And if I'm blocking, I'm not doing a lot of the agility.
So I only bring this in and really like dirtily matchups
where they're not putting pressure on me so it doesn't
make any sense to run D reacts. I bring in leave with speed so I
can convert my whole hand all the time.
I really like the mic version of this card as.
Well. Why not?
Yeah, it's like 1 for four and then you still have your club,
which is 2 for four. So it's a 2 card 8.
It's it's great. Into A1 card 5 the next turn.
And the agility like really tells your opponent like bro
you're giving me so much tempo right now.
I'm fucking leaving behind agility tokens just for swinging
my fucking weapon. Like it's also a card that I've
always loved and limited. This card is so good and heavy
hitters limited and I'm like it can't be that bad constructed.
I do think your philosophy behind this card is interesting
and valid, because like as Rhinar, if you're going against
another nerdily deck, you want to take advantage of not only
your intimidates, but you need some way to go wider without
rolling scap skins and ending your turn preemptively.
So I think this card is a perfect card to test for for
those kinds of matchup for sure. And I feel like I like it a
little bit more than agile wind up because I don't need
indefensive Reinar. I don't actually need that many
sixes. Like they're good to have for
sure. Yeah.
But this lets me convert my hand and makes an agility very
forward like. And I'm I'm getting to put three
damage in agility token instead of just an agility token and an
intimidate. Yes, I I do really like that as
well. It's generating literally more
math value than than the wind UPS.
So that's what I've been playing with lately.
It's a card that's been on my mind, so I brought a copy to
sign and give to each of my fellow hosts.
Oh, I had no idea. So here you go besties.
Lead with speed. Thank you Fuzzy, I can actually
use this in my project. Blue deck?
Oh yeah, totally. You're gonna build a physical
copy of a project. Blue deck?
Fuck yeah dude. Honestly it's king shit.
Yeah. Well, thanks for podding with me
everyone. Yeah, thank you everyone for
listening to our episode. If you haven't already, go to
the YouTube or our Discord and let us know what you've been
brewing, what you've been playing in Project Blue, And if
you didn't hear your card, shout it out in the Arsenal zone.
Don't worry, we're still recording episodes for the
foreseeable future, so you'll have more opportunities to
submit your really cool cards. And remember, in High Seas
spoiler season, we're the only podcast that has spoilers, so be
sure to join our Discord. And did I miss anything?
No, I appreciate you so very much Until nursing guys my.
Pijotumi Podcast is hosted by Joel.
Racinos, Clark Moore and Fuzzy Delp.
Our executive producer is Talon Stradley, our logistics
coordinator is John Farkas, Music is produced by Dylan
Hulse, logo is designed by Han V and our sound mixing is done by
Christopher Moore. Last but not least, thank you
the listener for taking the time to listen to our podcast.
Be sure to give us a follow on your favorite social media
platform at Pijotumi Podcast. Like like I'm talking about in
Crucible, like I make a new. Format every month and I'm
telling you guys like I'm not putting that much effort into it
and it is clear like they've done like a you, you put some
effort into a fuzzy people. Are getting their $5 worth every
single month? I can rephrase that if you want.
Yeah, let's not downplay our Patreon.
I'm going to read it. Hold on one second.
He was trying to pull a Clark. I was.
Gonna and I was like. Don't be a Clark, be a Joel.
Yeah. Don't be a Clark, be a Joel, the
new tagline. For our podcast, it also blocks
for three baby. Yeah, I said that.
Oh, did you? Oh, then I'm just an asshole.
My apologies. And it blocks for three.
That's true. Fuzzy, it does block for three.
Thank you for that.