1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:03,360 Hello there, it's Clark, your favorite host #2 back with 2 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:05,440 another re release episode this week. 3 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:08,039 I wanted to feature an episode we did pretty early on in our 4 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:10,680 podcast when our community was a bit smaller. 5 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:15,160 I pushed for this episode after getting tilted at an Armory that 6 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:18,160 week and discussing why with some friends afterwards. 7 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:21,200 Re listening to this episode, I'm reminded of how important it 8 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:23,720 is to have a healthy mindset when going into an Armory. 9 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:27,520 Fuzzy and Joel also absolutely killed their sections discussing 10 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,680 how flesh and blood engages with the problem of variance in card 11 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:33,920 games. Fuzzy also did an incredible job 12 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:38,040 on his turn 0, so even if you don't listen to the rest of the 13 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:39,600 episode, just listen to that section. 14 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,880 It is truly hilarious. We could not stop laughing when 15 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:46,080 recording this episode. With all that being said, I'm 16 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:48,920 going to get out of here and leave you with the episode. 17 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:57,880 Thank you and see you in 2025. Welcome to Pitch It to Me 18 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:00,880 podcast, a show about the subjective past, present, and 19 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:03,640 potential future of flesh and blood design, where we're 20 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,400 consistently bringing you the best flesh and blood podcast on 21 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:09,600 the market. User experience may vary. 22 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,200 On Red Pitch, Clark will opine about the eternal struggle that 23 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,120 trading card game players face every time they sit down to 24 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:18,480 play. On Yellow Pitch, Fuzzy will go 25 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:20,960 over the ways that variance is handled in the fundamental 26 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:23,720 design of the game. On Blue Pitch, Joel will give 27 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:26,320 you some tips for how you can make choices that increase 28 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:29,880 consistency and variants. You can find us across all 29 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,680 socials such as TikTok and Instagram at Pitch It to Me 30 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:49,000 podcast. Very hands. 31 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:53,720 It was a cruel mistress, her soft, velvety hands caressing 32 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:57,240 you as you draw the most cracked hand in the world to take the 33 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:01,480 tempo, only to suddenly strike you across your face as you draw 34 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:05,200 4 Blues in the very next turn. Say Lovey. 35 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:09,360 That worked away better. That was crazy, you know that? 36 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:12,440 Worked way. Better than I worked up and it 37 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:15,800 seems fuzzy. I just saw an 1840s French 38 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,120 maiden. He was smoking a cigarette to. 39 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:20,760 Cockle page in the middle of the night. 40 00:02:22,640 --> 00:02:24,600 That's crazy. In the wrong career. 41 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:27,760 No stutter whatsoever, just fucking nailed it. 42 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:31,040 Had the accent up too for yeah that's what I'm saying. 43 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:33,280 That was crazy. Thank God we don't have any 44 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:37,960 listeners in France. I want to shout out my dad for 45 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,400 listening to our podcast. He doesn't play flesh and blood 46 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:43,520 but he loves me so he listened to a few episodes and you might 47 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,440 listen to more. So Papa Dope, if you're 48 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:49,720 watching, I love you too. That's sweet. 49 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:51,960 That's sweet as hell. I don't have any special shout 50 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:53,280 outs. I don't think any of my, I mean 51 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:55,840 my brother listens because he mixes the podcast every week. 52 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:57,760 He doesn't have to listen to Mix It. 53 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:01,000 I mean, I think he does because like every so often he'll text 54 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:03,080 me about it, so, you know. He listens by choice. 55 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:05,440 Chris, thank you. He's a real 1. 56 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:09,000 He is honestly. Our podcast episode today is 57 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:13,920 about variance and consistency. And in order to perfectly frame 58 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:17,280 the subject of variance and consistency, I'm going to hand 59 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:19,160 things off to Clark for Red Pitch. 60 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:23,600 He's going to talk about the omnipresent chaos of card games. 61 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:26,840 Yes. So for red pitch today, I want 62 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:30,080 to talk about how card games are very capricious. 63 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:35,200 They're just, they're so random inherently by nature. 64 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:39,120 Like it is a random thing in In the Flesh and Blood. 65 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:43,000 Ever since Gregorian Tome did his video on fighting games, I 66 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,440 think, and even a little bit before that, people love the 67 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:48,160 fighting game analogy for Flesh and Blood. 68 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:52,520 Yes, but fighting games you can control every single thing that 69 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:54,240 you do at every point in the game. 70 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,280 That's true you. Cannot do that in flesh and 71 00:03:57,280 --> 00:03:59,200 blood. As much as you want to. 72 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:03,720 Yeah, you, but it's crazy because Flesh and Blood is one 73 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:06,960 of the lowest variance card games, but it's still a card 74 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:10,320 game. You still need to draw random 75 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:12,440 cards from your deck to play the game. 76 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:15,880 And because of that, there is always going to be variance in 77 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:19,920 every single game. And so I wanted to talk about 78 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:26,120 that element of variance and consistency because you're never 79 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:30,120 going to escape it. It's it's going to happen and I 80 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:35,360 think a lot of players maybe have a different frame of 81 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:37,800 reference when they come to flesh and blood. 82 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:41,360 They come from some other game that felt higher variance and so 83 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,320 they go, well I love flesh and blood, it's such a low variance 84 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:47,600 game. But I still find myself having 85 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:51,040 the same feelings in a game of flesh and blood when I draw 4 86 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:53,560 Reds as I did in magic when I was mana droughted. 87 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:58,520 Sometimes I even feel worse about it because when I play 88 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:01,640 Flesh and Blood I'm thinking, oh this game is super consistent, 89 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:03,120 this shouldn't be happening to me. 90 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:06,080 Well in Magic the Gathering it's like, yeah, sometimes you just 91 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:08,920 get 7 lands buddy. Sometimes you just RIP nothing 92 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:12,160 but lands off the top and you're used to it because you expect 93 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,440 it. You feel better about it. 94 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:20,200 I feel like I'm going to give you a counterpoint and then a 95 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:21,600 counterpoint to that counterpoint. 96 00:05:22,280 --> 00:05:25,520 And magic, If you Magic the Gathering, if you start the game 97 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:30,400 with 7 lands in your hand, you do have a Mulligan, but like a 98 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:31,960 Mulligan feels bad in its own way, right? 99 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:35,400 So let's just say like you are not able to find lands in your 100 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:39,600 opening hand despite mulliganing whatever, and you lose that game 101 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:42,360 because you aren't able to play much of anything, right? 102 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:44,720 You're so out of the game you're not able to get a foothold and 103 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:48,840 you lose, and that sucks. It's a little bit tempered by 104 00:05:48,840 --> 00:05:52,040 the best of three aspect where you're not running ruining your 105 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:54,760 entire match, you're just ruining one game. 106 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:58,560 In Flesh and Blood, when you draw a bad hand, you can block 107 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:00,240 out with it and it's just one bad hand. 108 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,600 You're not ruining your entire game. 109 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:06,960 Except Flesh and Blood can be really tight because these games 110 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,240 can be so close. Every game of Flesh and Blood 111 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:13,840 can feel very close, and when you have one bad hand, that's 112 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:15,560 the one that you're going to look back at and you're going to 113 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:19,760 be like, man, I lost with and he had one life. 114 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:22,560 If I had one better hand, I probably could have taken it. 115 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:25,880 And there's a lot more in the game that goes on than that 116 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:27,920 often. Like a lot of different things 117 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:30,400 would have changed if you had drawn a better hand at that 118 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:32,080 point. Like they would have played more 119 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:34,400 defensively and maybe they could have played defensively and came 120 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:40,280 back, but it can feel really punishing because it's a best of 121 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:44,320 one format and every hand feels like it matters so much in flesh 122 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:46,480 and blood. Yeah, seeing less of the OR 123 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:50,000 seeing less variance in a game can also make you pigeonhole on 124 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:53,560 the few instances where variance like really screwed you out of a 125 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:58,840 game or like created so many like different paths of decision 126 00:06:58,840 --> 00:07:02,760 making that there's so many wrong ones and you're more 127 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:07,000 likely to choose the wrong one. Or a wrong one and get punished 128 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:08,080 for it. Yeah. 129 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:12,160 And ultimately, that's sort of that leads really well into like 130 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:17,200 my main point, which is we have a really hard time as humans 131 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:21,600 dealing with probabilities. If you guys don't actually know, 132 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:25,600 I was a math tutor, specifically a statistics tutor for multiple 133 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:28,160 years while I was. That was my job up through 134 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:30,520 college. It's also a job that Fuzzy did 135 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:32,560 as well. So we've like talked a lot about 136 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:38,160 statistics and probabilities. The hardest chapter in 137 00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:42,240 statistics was probabilities. Like that's the one I always saw 138 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:43,840 the most students struggling with. 139 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:47,840 And even students who were very good at math always struggled 140 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:50,360 with probabilities, I think because our brains are. 141 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,120 So it's not designed for it. Sure. 142 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:58,400 I've always said to my students that the human brain is designed 143 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:01,920 for lines, not numbers. Like we are designed to 144 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:07,360 understand spaces, not numerical representations of things. 145 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:12,080 And so reality often doesn't make sense when it comes to 146 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:16,360 things like probabilities. And I just want to remind 147 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,440 everyone that like as long as there are 4 red cards in your 148 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:23,160 deck that you don't know where they are, you can draw 4 red 149 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:29,200 cards or Blues or Blues. Like unless you know for a fact 150 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:31,720 what your pitch stack looks like and that is the rest of your 151 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:36,480 deck, there is a chance that you draw bad hands and that is 152 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:38,600 always going to be present in every single game. 153 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:44,800 There is a really fascinating experience actually that 154 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:48,880 happened when in the trading card game world that I want to 155 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:52,520 talk about here, which is when Magic Arena came out. 156 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:57,560 So when Magic Arena came out, it was probably one of the biggest 157 00:08:57,680 --> 00:09:01,360 online card game playing platforms I feel like. 158 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:06,680 Definitely a big deal. And so a lot of people will say 159 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:11,880 that it mana screws you or mana droughts you way more often than 160 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:14,280 IRL play. I haven't heard that before. 161 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:17,320 And I've heard similar things about Teloshar actually. 162 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:21,600 Like Teloshar will roll you way more sixes and way more ones 163 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:24,560 than in real life. But The thing is that they're 164 00:09:24,560 --> 00:09:27,840 using actual real random number generators. 165 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,920 No it isn't. There is no skew in Teloshar or 166 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:34,560 Magic Arena for these things. They are. 167 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:37,680 Usually not true in Magic Arena when you're playing a best of 168 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:39,880 one format. Oh, I did forget that they 169 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:41,720 added. That yeah, it'll actually give 170 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,880 draw two hands and it'll present to you the one where you had a 171 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:49,000 better balance of lands versus cards, so you're less likely to 172 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,800 draw on all 7 in hand of all lands or all non land cards. 173 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:55,360 Because Magic Arena does actually like it favors you. 174 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:58,680 It gives you slightly better draws than you normally would. 175 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:02,160 And yet colloquially when you look online, people will still 176 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:06,440 talk about be like getting more mana flood or mana drought based 177 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:09,080 off of these things. It's led to conversations like, 178 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,400 should we be changing shuffling rules to make sure that like 179 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:15,240 these cards are actually random? Stuff like that, 'cause if you 180 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:18,840 think about it, we're not doing like casino level random 181 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:22,800 shuffles. We're doing push shuffles most 182 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:24,720 of the time, sometimes pile shuffles. 183 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:28,400 These are not the most accurate ways of shuffling a deck to make 184 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:32,160 it properly random. And are those even like 185 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,680 optimized for 60 card decks? What about 65 card decks? 186 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:38,920 70 card decks that we can end up with in flesh and blood, right? 187 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:45,200 Like it's so weird that the variance is both very high and 188 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:48,760 also not perfectly random in these ways. 189 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:52,200 Yeah, we we like to think of our shuffling as being random, but 190 00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:54,640 really it's just random enough, you know? 191 00:10:56,680 --> 00:11:01,920 I've heard when I first started, I was or when I first started 192 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:06,120 card games in general, I didn't know how to shuffle properly. 193 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:08,040 And this is something I've gone with like new players who are 194 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:10,440 new to TCGS as well. They just don't matter. 195 00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:14,160 Like they'll power shuffle or pile shuffle, excuse me, or 196 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:15,760 they'll just kind of like do this number. 197 00:11:17,160 --> 00:11:20,880 I don't know how to. It's the it's for me. 198 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,560 I was introduced to that shuffle as the Yu-gi-oh Shuffle 'cause 199 00:11:23,560 --> 00:11:26,320 it's what they would do in the Yu-gi-oh anime. 200 00:11:26,680 --> 00:11:29,080 They. Would take them, they would cut 201 00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:34,000 out the middle of the deck and then they would play essentially 202 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:38,560 small cuts of that larger portion on top of their other 203 00:11:38,560 --> 00:11:40,040 hand. Yeah, that's a really good way 204 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:42,520 of explaining it. Not great, but. 205 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:45,200 What it's better than what I had in mind because I was just doing 206 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:46,720 a hand motion. They didn't say anything. 207 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:51,440 Yeah. So with that in mind, I've, I've 208 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:54,480 heard like you have to shuffle a minimum of like 7 or 10 times, 209 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:58,280 like taking like splitting it in half and like combining them 210 00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:01,360 together, making sure that, you know, it's kind of evenly 211 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:05,080 distributed across the piles, 7 to 10 of those, like make it 212 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,320 like more random than just like one or two. 213 00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,800 And they're still like really good chunks of power cards with 214 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:13,520 Blues or, or whatever the case may be. 215 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:17,200 Like I don't, I seriously doubt there's a lot of stacking going 216 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:21,280 on in in Flesh and Blood. But that can't happen, you know, 217 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:23,720 Especially if you are drawing 4 cards a turn. 218 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:26,000 Like eventually you're going to have like these big clumps. 219 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,480 So I've heard 7 or 10 is the magic number. 220 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:32,120 Yeah. But like we've just heard that, 221 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:37,640 right versus what, what the reality of what we think things 222 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:41,560 should be, what we hear and then what the actual probabilities 223 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:45,000 show are so wildly different sometimes. 224 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:47,680 Like have you guys heard of the Monty Hall problem? 225 00:12:47,680 --> 00:12:48,880 I. Don't think so. 226 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,080 Yeah, yeah, I'm familiar. Fuzzy, do you want to explain 227 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:53,800 the Monty Hall problem? OK, I'm gonna do my best. 228 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:55,560 I feel like you do a very good job of it. 229 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:00,600 If you can hear this, it means that Fuzzy, while editing, took 230 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:03,880 the multi hall problem and put it at the very end of the 231 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:08,760 episode after the credits. If you want if you want to hear 232 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:12,000 our explanation of the Monty Hall problem, you can either 233 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:15,120 wait till the end or skip over to the end and hear Fuzzy 234 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:17,480 describe it. Or you can pause right now and 235 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:19,760 look it up on Wikipedia. One of the two. 236 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:24,920 All right, back to our episode. A lot of the times people will 237 00:13:24,920 --> 00:13:29,080 get very upset about the Monty Hall problem, like they'll 238 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:31,600 either get either statisticians will get pissed off that people 239 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:35,120 like don't understand the reality of the probability, or 240 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:37,440 people will be like, no, that's dumb and wrong. 241 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:40,360 It's 5050 and people will get very emotional about it. 242 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:43,240 And if you've ever played at a flesh and Blood event, you've 243 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:47,480 probably seen people get very emotional about things not going 244 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:50,080 their way. The car, the hand's not working 245 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:54,000 out. So I think that's something that 246 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:57,240 every flesh and blood player is going to have to struggle with, 247 00:13:57,400 --> 00:14:02,320 is going to have to manage. How do you behave when you have 248 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:05,800 shit luck? It's a great question and it's 249 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:07,800 something that like we all kind of need to be thinking about, 250 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:09,520 right? I don't want to use the word 251 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:14,400 responsibility because we're all just trading card players, and 252 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:16,960 if you enjoy the game or don't enjoy aspects of the game, 253 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:18,560 that's entirely your prerogative. 254 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:22,480 I'm not going to say you have to have the emotional labor of 255 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:27,440 handling variants, but I do kind of feel like it's almost 256 00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:29,320 something you have the responsibility for. 257 00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:32,560 Because you can't put that on your opponent every single time. 258 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:35,160 Absolutely. We've also sat across the table 259 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:39,160 from people who have gotten really pissed off because I 260 00:14:39,160 --> 00:14:42,800 happen to have a good hand. Why is that my responsibility? 261 00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:46,440 I drew good and you're getting pissed at me about it. 262 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:49,160 Bro, I didn't do anything. I shuffled. 263 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:51,360 I drew. I played the hands that I drew. 264 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:53,400 But you're upset about it. And I don't want you to be 265 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,840 upset, fuzzy, because you're my friend and I love you and I want 266 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:58,440 you to keep playing. I want you to keep showing up to 267 00:14:58,440 --> 00:14:59,920 Armories. I enjoy your company. 268 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:06,480 But when you're getting upset because I got lucky, I'm now at 269 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:08,920 least somewhat responsible for that as the person sitting 270 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:12,280 across the table from you. So we should be thinking about 271 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:15,880 how can we manage our own emotions to not put that onto 272 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:18,880 our fellow flesh and blood. Player so that speaks to two 273 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:21,760 interesting points. Number one, just like the 274 00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:24,640 emotional maturity of players, I think in Flesh and MUD as a 275 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:27,840 whole, there's a lot less of that than what I've experienced 276 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:29,920 in other trading current games with more variants. 277 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:33,640 Like it seems like the more variance a game, the more people 278 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:36,480 that are attracted to it that don't have that same level of 279 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:38,800 maturity in my opinion. Are you saying that people 280 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:41,600 complain about variance more in high variance games? 281 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:46,400 Yes, because they they kind of use it to their advantage and 282 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,080 then they're just going to be more affected by, I guess in my 283 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:50,720 opinion. Whereas in Flesh and Blood, 284 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:53,880 because it's on a lower scale and if you play a lot of games 285 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,320 like especially these pro players, like you'll see their 286 00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:59,880 mental state like unfazed by these stupid turns and still win 287 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:02,880 because they just buckle down. Like OK, they don't tell. 288 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:07,240 They don't tell, right. So if you play thousands of 289 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:12,640 games, like probably 10% or more are gonna be insane. 290 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:14,320 And those are just have the outliers. 291 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:17,880 And as a regular player, as a casual player, you might go 292 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:22,040 against these insane draws like, man, you're just gonna feel a 293 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:24,960 lot differently about it than the average pro player would 294 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:28,520 because you don't see the regular games as often. 295 00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:33,840 One way to impact your mental ability to affect these things 296 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,800 is to change your mindset and thinking long term or thinking 297 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:42,000 about moments when the variance went another way is a very good 298 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:43,800 way of doing that right Thinking. 299 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:47,480 If you are so focused on that one bad hand that you drew that 300 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:51,680 game, think about well, what was a very good hand that I drew 301 00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:54,480 that game and it'll help emotionally balance you. 302 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:58,440 You may also view things maybe a little inconsistently with your 303 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:00,800 deck, like maybe you do need to be thinking, oh, is my deck too 304 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:01,960 high variance? Is it? 305 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:06,000 So like there's still a little bit of be careful not to get in 306 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,520 the way of your objective accuracy, but in terms of 307 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:13,040 managing emotion, just automatically thinking of a 308 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:15,800 counter. So what you're thinking is a is 309 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:17,240 a good way of managing it. Clark, you're. 310 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:22,280 Talking about how you can emotionally react to variants 311 00:17:22,319 --> 00:17:28,440 and by thinking more about variants and IA 100% stand by 312 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:30,840 everything you said. But as an alternative, I also 313 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:33,520 want to mention you can also just focus on the things that 314 00:17:33,520 --> 00:17:36,280 were in your control. Focus on the plays that you 315 00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:38,920 could have made yes. I just lost this game when I 316 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:41,840 drew a bad hand and they were at one life was there maybe 317 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,160 somewhere else in the game I could have squeezed out a point 318 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:47,280 to value that was in my control That way I could have won the 319 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:49,880 game before I drew into this bad hand and I think that's what a 320 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:52,200 lot of pro players get their reputation for. 321 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:54,800 They focus on what's in their control and things are in your 322 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:57,240 control. Might be making deck choices 323 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:02,520 that lead to you having these low rolls less often, or putting 324 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:04,960 cards in your deck that are specifically for this matchup. 325 00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:07,760 Things that you can do before the game starts, as well as 326 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:10,600 things that you can do during the game, lines of play, 327 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:13,040 etcetera. Choosing to block instead of 328 00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:14,760 play a card. Expand. 329 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:18,040 Expanding your mindset outside of that one turn I think is a 330 00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:20,720 great strategy. Think about could I have? 331 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:25,720 How can I change my strategy on turn 0 and turn 5:00 so that 332 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:30,200 when I draw a super bad hand on turn 12 it doesn't mean as much? 333 00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:32,120 Exactly. I think that's a great point 334 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:35,400 because flesh and blood, more so than any other TCG that exists 335 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,080 right now, has more opportunities for you to look 336 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,640 back and this micro decision makes a huge impact later on. 337 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:44,600 It's just like a domino effect. And there's so many of those you 338 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:47,320 can find and discover just waiting for you in the game. 339 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:49,200 That's part of why we love the game so much, right? 340 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:51,920 And I want to want to specify on the word focus. 341 00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:54,240 Focus on the things that are in your control. 342 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:57,280 Focus on the decisions you can make, focus on what you like 343 00:18:57,280 --> 00:18:59,360 about the game. If we if you like that word 344 00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:03,120 focus, you could say that anytime you spend too much time 345 00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:06,880 thinking about how luck screwed you over, that is a distraction. 346 00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:09,800 A distraction from the things that you like about the game, A 347 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:13,200 distraction from you being able to make better choices and 348 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:17,880 improve. And if you think about bad luck 349 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:22,200 as a distraction, it might be able to help you focus in the 350 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,440 future. And because I don't want you to 351 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:27,840 get gotten, I don't want you to. Don't get gotten. 352 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:30,520 I don't want Lady Luck to come over here and distract you from 353 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:33,840 being a good, healthy player. Love that. 354 00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:38,120 The final thing that I'm going to to say about this is that I 355 00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:39,640 do kind of want to return to that. 356 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:44,200 Like, how do we behave? Let's take this moment to 357 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:48,440 actually reflect listeners and us here recording today. 358 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:53,680 Let's take a moment and reflect on how can we behave better when 359 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:57,440 faced with these moments. I think so much about improving 360 00:19:57,440 --> 00:19:59,800 your behavior is actually being able to think about it when 361 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:03,120 you're in an emotionally stable state before you reach the 362 00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:05,800 actual emotional state. Or we're getting deep therapy 363 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:07,800 today, boys. I'm a psycho major. 364 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:12,120 I'm going to do it. So think about it now. 365 00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:13,400 Think about it when you have downtime. 366 00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:15,840 Think about it as you're driving to your Armory. 367 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:19,560 Hey, when things go wrong, what do I want to do? 368 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:22,240 What do I think is the right thing to do? 369 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:26,040 And also think about what is the right thing to do when you are 370 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:28,520 looking at a player across the table who is having that hard 371 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:31,320 time, right? Chastising them is probably not 372 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:33,800 going to help. Telling them that they're that 373 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:35,720 they shouldn't be emotional about it is probably not going 374 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:40,120 to help. I have noticed that I've done a 375 00:20:40,120 --> 00:20:42,480 lot better at managing my emotions in flesh and blood 376 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:45,640 because there are very nice people sitting across the table 377 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:49,040 from me who will commiserate. Yeah, that hand was super rough, 378 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:51,560 man. You lost the tempo, and then 379 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:53,840 that just led to a snowball and you just lost the game. 380 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:57,640 I'm sorry that that happened to you and that helps so much. 381 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,640 Rather than lamau get good, lamau get good. 382 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:07,600 Well, correct doesn't help the situation that the person is 383 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:10,160 currently in. They can think about how to get 384 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:15,120 good later. Focus on your community. 385 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,720 If you are playing a high variance hero and you're losing 386 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:21,840 a lot, or if you're just having bad armories week after week 387 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:26,440 after week, talking about improving is nice because you 388 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:28,040 think oh I get to win more, but guess what? 389 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:31,200 Someone's going to go 04 at your Armory. 390 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:34,880 You might be that person. When you are that person, try to 391 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,160 get something out of the game that isn't the victory, that 392 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:43,240 isn't the like super good game. If you are getting value out of 393 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:46,120 going to your card shop and talking to friends and doing 394 00:21:46,120 --> 00:21:51,200 trades and having fun, I think that it will bother you less 395 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,040 when those big moments of variance happen. 396 00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:56,880 That was beautiful. The community, man, It's about 397 00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,240 the community. It's about the people that we're 398 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:01,080 playing with. The cards are secondary in my 399 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:03,320 personal opinion. Yeah, I've said similar things 400 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:05,320 and I 100% agree with that sentiment. 401 00:22:05,360 --> 00:22:08,680 And I'll, I'm already thinking of like ways I can use that 402 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:13,160 advice too, because I have the tendency to roll scabs or do a 403 00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:15,960 risky play with too many misses and graveyard for my deck or 404 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:17,800 whatever and get punished for it. 405 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,800 And then I can see how it would sour the experience for the 406 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:22,520 other people. So you know. 407 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:25,040 Yeah, it's something that we can all improve on. 408 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:30,800 So now that we've talked about our capricious mistress of 409 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:35,280 Variance, Fuzzy, can you talk about how I'm going to hand it 410 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:37,000 off to Fuzzy for our yellow pitch? 411 00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:42,600 So I wanted to talk in yellow Pitch today about the decisions 412 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:46,240 that Legend Story Studios has made to reduce variance in their 413 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:50,440 game and maybe talk a little bit about how they allow or 414 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:52,840 increased variance compared to other trading card games. 415 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:56,120 To start off with, I think the most obvious one is the resource 416 00:22:56,120 --> 00:22:58,320 system coming from Magic the Gathering. 417 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:02,440 You had cards that were lands and cards that were not lands 418 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,400 and you needed the lands in order to play the not lands. 419 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:09,000 And if you do all of one type, uh oh. 420 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,120 In a game like Hearthstone, at least when it comes to the 421 00:23:14,120 --> 00:23:17,000 resource system, is much less variance. 422 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:19,920 Because in Hearthstone, you always get your resource every 423 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:22,440 turn. Turn 1 you have one resource, 424 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:25,640 turn 5 you have 5 resources. You can rely on that. 425 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,440 Hearthstone has less variance than Magic the Gathering in that 426 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,080 sense. In this game, Flesh and Blood, 427 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:35,800 the resource system is baked into the cards and you don't 428 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,840 need to rely on drawing expensive cards late in the game 429 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:43,120 and cheap cards early in the game because it's all depends on 430 00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:45,360 what else you draw. So this can have a lot of 431 00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:47,960 variance to it. If I draw like an expensive card 432 00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:50,520 and all Reds, I can't cast the expensive card. 433 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:56,000 If I draw all Blues and 0 cost cards like 0 cost Blues, I don't 434 00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:58,040 really have A use for the Blues so I can't get a whole lot of 435 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,640 value out of them. Because each card can be used in 436 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:04,560 multiple ways, I would say it has lower variance because you 437 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,600 always have something to be able to play or block. 438 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:10,560 Do you guys agree? I do agree. 439 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:12,160 I really agree with that last point. 440 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:17,000 I almost take not issue, but I almost disagree with the fact 441 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:20,560 that the resource system is what reduces the variance. 442 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:23,120 OK, I feel like that's almost higher variance than something 443 00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:26,760 like Hearthstone or Legends of Room Terra where the resources 444 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:29,120 are this very consistent crawl up. 445 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,960 Because it's going to be the exact same way every single 446 00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:34,040 game. I think I agree with that, 447 00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:38,080 except like in Hearthstone or Legends of Rune Terra, on the 448 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:41,520 first turn after Mulligan's you can sometimes wind up with 449 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:43,240 really expensive cards and nothing to play. 450 00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,160 In those games you have cards that are really expensive that 451 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:48,560 you don't want to draw early, and you don't want to draw the 452 00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:51,720 cheap cards late game unless they're really good cheap cards 453 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,000 that are flexible. But it leads to a higher 454 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,520 variance game because you're still dependent very much on the 455 00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:58,840 single card draws and hoping that it's relevant to that 456 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:02,920 situation. I suppose I still feel like it's 457 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:06,160 more consistent because you literally game one mana every 458 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:08,560 single turn. Sure, and that feels more 459 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:12,120 consistent to me. Sure, definitely less agency. 460 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:15,040 Yes, yeah, I was just going to bring that up like it's more 461 00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:17,720 consistent in that it's built into the game and you have no 462 00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:19,680 control over it. So eventually you're going to 463 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:21,840 have an off mana. The issues lie with what you 464 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:23,680 draw as you're building up that mana. 465 00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:26,600 Like if you draw a bunch of cheap stuff, then you're never 466 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:30,680 going to be able to make full use of the like mid game, I 467 00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:32,600 guess because you have these cheap spells. 468 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:35,920 Whereas flesh and blood, it combines the fact that you're 469 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,600 always going to have some type of resource in hand and that you 470 00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:41,320 have a lot of agency over what you do with it. 471 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:44,320 And you can even go over what like let's say you compare it to 472 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:46,640 Hearthstone. On the first turn, you can have 473 00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:50,640 access to a lot of resources to do a big spell or big card. 474 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,480 And in the mid game maybe you want to trim down your hand 475 00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:56,040 block a little bit more and focus on these smaller stuff. 476 00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,920 And you have that agency, I think is what makes it more 477 00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:02,160 consistent than just saying Oh yeah, Hearthstone gives you a 478 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,400 man at every turn and therefore is the most consistent game. 479 00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:08,160 Like that's technically true, but in practice it's way 480 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:10,640 different in. My opinion yeah for me I would 481 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:14,360 say flesh and blood is the drawing at end of turn and 482 00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:16,320 always drawing a new hand every single turn. 483 00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:20,880 That that is what is the main driving thing that increases its 484 00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:22,760 consistency above every other card game. 485 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,760 Sure. And drawing, drawing 4 cards 486 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:31,240 like always, drawing a brand new hand like in these other card 487 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:34,200 games that we mentioned, there's one drive for single turn and 488 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,400 that is higher variance than drawing 4 cards. 489 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:39,960 Drawing 4 cards, there's a higher chance of you getting a 490 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:43,800 playable card. And because there's multiple, 491 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:45,680 there's consistency in that too, right? 492 00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:49,760 Any variance card to card is going to be reduced when you 493 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:51,680 draw four of them at the same time. 494 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:55,720 But that's also that consistency is mitigated by the fact that 495 00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:59,600 you only have one card in your arsenal by default that allows 496 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:02,400 you to carry over any momentum from the last turn. 497 00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:08,760 Like if I have 4 cards that don't work very well in magic on 498 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:10,400 their own. Like with Magic, you have a 499 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,680 board state and you draw cards into the context that you set up 500 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:16,520 previously and that can help with the variance. 501 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:19,200 Like if I have something that like a creature, when I attack 502 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:21,720 with it, I discard a card and draw a new one, that helps with 503 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,240 my variance because I can use the context on the board to 504 00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:26,960 improve future draws. And Flesh and Blood doesn't have 505 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:28,760 that as much. You're really just stuck with 506 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,640 whatever you draw other than having your arsenal down. 507 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:33,920 Which is why, like in Briar, it would be a really good play to 508 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,840 leave a ravenous rabble in your arsenal because you can always 509 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,160 if you draw nothing but pumps, you can pump the ravenous 510 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:40,840 rabble. Or if you want to be able to 511 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:43,720 swing with Rosetta Thorne, having one attack is a lot 512 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:46,400 better than having zero. You can't have 0 if you leave 513 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,440 one in arsenal and drawing at the end of turn. 514 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:52,360 Like you were saying, Clark, it allows you to look at all of 515 00:27:52,360 --> 00:27:55,520 your options and decide whether you're blocking or playing cards 516 00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:00,320 at the beginning of your turn cycle in a way, and make all 517 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:02,760 those decisions at the front so you can see it all play out in 518 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,960 front of you instead of like relying on what your opponent 519 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,520 does after. Yeah, I also really like that 520 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:11,840 you brought up the arsenal of creating turn to turn 521 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:16,040 consistency, because that is something I've noticed about 522 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:18,400 flesh and blood. And like, when Viscera doesn't 523 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:23,240 work, it's because I was running well and then I drew a bad hand 524 00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:26,520 and I lost all my tempo. And it's hard to gain that tempo 525 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:30,400 back without sacrificing something, equipment, health, 526 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:35,280 whatever. But with Arsenal, you're able to 527 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:39,480 increase that consistency turn by turn by turn and try to keep 528 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:42,360 it rolling together. But you still have to make a 529 00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:45,240 sacrifice of not playing all four cards that you drew. 530 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,520 You need to always leave one back. 531 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:52,480 I want to talk a little bit more about how cards can be used in 532 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:54,600 multiple different ways. They can be pitched, played, or 533 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,360 blocked by default with some exceptions of course. 534 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:02,640 And I think that can lead to consistency in your game plan. 535 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:06,360 Because if I block with like Command and Conquer Versus, if I 536 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:10,240 block with like Sift, both of these parts block for three. 537 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:12,000 One of these doesn't cost anything. 538 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,040 The other cost $80.00, but both of them block for three. 539 00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:18,040 And when you have that block 3 mode on lots of your cards, your 540 00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:19,680 game plan can be really consistent. 541 00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:21,520 And the way that you interface with your opponent can be 542 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:23,960 consistent because you have a lot of different cards that 543 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,480 basically do the exact same thing blocking for three. 544 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:28,960 Or you have a bunch of Blues in your deck that I'll pitch for 545 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:31,360 the exact same amount. And until you see them a second 546 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:35,280 cycle, in a way, the difference of like what text is actually 547 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:38,400 printed on that card has not affected that game at all. 548 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:41,840 If you're pitching it, I mean, it might affect your decisions 549 00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:44,520 and such. Like I pitched the card that has 550 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:48,520 worse text, but the actual text on that card hasn't had a direct 551 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:50,360 impact on the game. Wouldn't you guys agree? 552 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:55,680 So when you pitch a card or when you block with a card, the text 553 00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:58,000 on it has not actually mattered yet. 554 00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:01,040 And in a way that improves the consistency, because so many 555 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,960 cards are doing these like, for lack of a better word, generic 556 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:09,320 interactions within the game. I agree up until you get into 557 00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:12,760 these slower matchups with which with pitch stacking, yeah, with. 558 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:13,680 Oh, sure, yeah. Yeah. 559 00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:16,400 With pitch stacking, yeah, I think that's where it gets or 560 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,080 where the text means a lot more because it can matter. 561 00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:23,200 Again, I may want this later on for a specific turn by turn 562 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:25,960 cycle, but. It gets another opportunity to 563 00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:28,240 have a direct impact on the game, but even then it might 564 00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:30,000 not. If I have a blue that I pitch 565 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,560 1st and then I block with second cycle, the text still hasn't 566 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:34,760 mattered directly. But all of them have the 567 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:38,040 opportunity to. And I think that actually can 568 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:42,480 increase game to game variance. When I have one game where I 569 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,040 blocked with my Command and Conquer and another game where I 570 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,480 swung with it. Now this Command and Conquer has 571 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,360 done 2 completely different things in two different games. 572 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:53,000 And that makes every game of Flesh and Blood feel unique. 573 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:55,120 That's kind of why we want variance in games, right? 574 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:58,960 Variance makes game to games feel very different. 575 00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:02,000 You want it to go differently every time you sit down to play. 576 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:03,760 That's the whole point of a trading card game, right? 577 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,840 So true. One thing that I think really 578 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:10,440 increases the consistency of your games is how you start with 579 00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:12,680 equipment on the board. Flesh and Blood doesn't really 580 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,400 have a board state outside of your equipment, and that board 581 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,080 state is there at the beginning every game. 582 00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:20,160 It's there because you chose for it to be there. 583 00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:23,000 You there's no card right now that's like you start the game 584 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,960 with a random equipment, right? And imagine if you were playing 585 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:29,480 Magic the Gathering and you just got to pick a 2 drop. 586 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:31,680 Just start on the board every game. 587 00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,000 That would be absurd. It would get a little 588 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:34,840 degenerate, right? It'd. 589 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:38,040 Get so degenerate. And in flesh and blood, it kind 590 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,960 of is. Lexi gets to start with New 591 00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,960 Horizons. That's true, she should have to 592 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,160 draw and play it. Voltaire. 593 00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,840 You just always have access to Voltaire every game all the 594 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,720 time. Like this equipment provides so 595 00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:58,480 much strength and consistency to your game plan, and that's why 596 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,880 some games with Flesh and Blood can feel really similar all the 597 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:02,520 time. And it's something that 598 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:03,760 definitely works in Flesh and Blood. 599 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:05,760 I'm not actually complaining about it. 600 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:08,280 I love the equipment and it allows you a lot of skill 601 00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:10,680 expression in your deck building and how you use this equipment. 602 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,560 I get the most value out of it, but I wanted to draw that 603 00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:16,240 comparison of like we do have a little bit of a board state. 604 00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:18,560 It's sitting right there ready for us to use whenever. 605 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:22,120 Sometimes it's stuff that helps like every turn, like making a 606 00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:24,480 Seismic Search every turn or getting a third sort of a 607 00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:27,720 resource with with tunic. Flesh and blood allows you to 608 00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,560 have up to three copies of a card in your deck in classic 609 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,200 instructed and two of in blitz. I would actually say this number 610 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,800 is fairly low. In Magic the Gathering, you can 611 00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,080 have four of a card for your 60 card deck. 612 00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:44,120 In Yu-gi-oh for which is a 40 card deck game, you can have up 613 00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:47,840 to three copies of that card. Ratio wise that's a lot more 614 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:52,200 consistent than Flesh and Blood where that majestic you have to 615 00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,640 find one of your 3 copies in order to pull it. 616 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:57,680 It makes up for the fact that you're drawing 4 cards every 617 00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:00,000 turn. And in Flesh and Blood you often 618 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:04,160 do see your entire deck in a game, or a large portion of your 619 00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:06,840 deck through the game. Compared to Magic where I'd 620 00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,040 probably say the average is maybe half your deck with lots 621 00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,960 of give and take there. Yeah, even even that I would be 622 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,760 like, wow, that was a nice grindy game. 623 00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:20,120 I saw most of the cards that I. Saw that in my deck. 624 00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:22,280 I saw the top 20 cards in my deck. 625 00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:25,000 That was a doozy. Yeah when you see the top 20 626 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,120 cards and you still don't draw your like 4 of insane crack card 627 00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:30,280 that your deck is built around, you can be like this game was 628 00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:33,440 fucking bullshit. So in Flesh and Blood, you have 629 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:37,440 fewer copies of each card to increase variance, but you see 630 00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:40,240 more of your deck, which I would say increases consistency. 631 00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:43,200 You get to you have a much higher chance of seeing any card 632 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:45,920 that you put in your deck. Although there's a little 633 00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:50,080 Asterix there because for a Majestic, you literally only get 634 00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:53,720 to see 3 copies of that card. But for comments that could 635 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:58,000 actually be like 6 or 9 copies of that card, they're just in 636 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,440 different colors. Yeah, I I mean Mavri and Sky is 637 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:03,640 I think is the perfect example for Rune blades. 638 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:07,320 We want to give our cards go again and we want to play non 639 00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,280 attack action cards. Wait a minute, this does. 640 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:14,239 Bold even in blue. Even in blue. 641 00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:18,159 So you can run all 9 copies because you want 9 copies of 642 00:34:18,159 --> 00:34:21,560 something that gives your room blade cards go again and that 643 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:25,000 improves the consistency of this or I because nine of your cards 644 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:26,880 in your deck do almost the same thing. 645 00:34:27,199 --> 00:34:29,199 Yeah. I like the design. 646 00:34:29,199 --> 00:34:33,800 Too, if the effect really matters to you, then you get to 647 00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:39,600 run those full 9 copies, right? So whether that's give an attack 648 00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:43,880 action card go again, or like go tutor out a minimalism with your 649 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:49,080 belittle, you want to run nine of those because that effect is 650 00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:53,760 so strong that you want to see it very, very regularly, and 651 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:55,400 that's what makes it so powerful. 652 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:59,600 And when we talk about seeing your entire deck, right, in some 653 00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:02,760 games, maybe most of your games, if you really dedicate yourself 654 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:04,920 to this plan, you can pitch stack your deck. 655 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:08,400 So like the whole idea of trading card games is the cards 656 00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,200 you draw is random, right? That's like feels like the whole 657 00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,240 premise is, look, you can pick what cards you might draw, but 658 00:35:14,240 --> 00:35:15,640 you don't know what order you'll draw them. 659 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:17,240 You don't know when you're going to draw them. 660 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:19,920 But at a certain point in Flesh and blood, even that goes out 661 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:23,120 the window and you can start drawing cards that you pitched 662 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:26,320 and put there. And you did decide the order 663 00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:29,280 intentionally or not, whether you've been paying attention to 664 00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:31,280 it. You decided the order of the 665 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,640 cards that you drew. Even that gets less random and 666 00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:37,760 it starts to be everything is potentially inside the control 667 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:40,720 or at least awareness of the players and it the game stops 668 00:35:40,720 --> 00:35:44,280 being random at all. And it continues to be such an 669 00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:49,720 amazing analogy of like a real fight because number one, you 670 00:35:49,720 --> 00:35:51,320 start at your healthiest, your strongest. 671 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,600 At the beginning of a fight, you have all your armor, like 672 00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:56,320 assuming it gets knocked off or broken in combat, right? 673 00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:01,000 And the more time or the longer the fight goes on, you start to 674 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:04,720 learn your opponent, OK, I know what he's gonna do. 675 00:36:04,720 --> 00:36:07,840 I know what I'm gonna do. And then so the more the longer 676 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:10,080 the game goes on in the Flesh and Blood game, the more 677 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:14,120 information you have about what decks, what cards are left in 678 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:15,880 their deck and what cards are left in your deck. 679 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:20,240 And then you kind of figure out, OK, I need to like parry this 680 00:36:20,240 --> 00:36:23,160 attack or dodge this attack and then go in with this one to 681 00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:26,000 finish off or, or or whatever. It's just, there's so much 682 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:27,960 flavor there. It's really appealing to me, 683 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:30,880 like the pitch tagging aspect. And that's how Flesh and Blood 684 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:32,400 feels like a much more consistent game. 685 00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:34,920 Do you 2 think there are any ways that Flesh and blood 686 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:38,240 particularly increases variance that I have made me missed? 687 00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:42,120 I think there's higher variance in limited for flesh and blood 688 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,800 in other card games. Definitely interesting you 689 00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,520 really want to find certain cards in booster packs and you 690 00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:50,280 just might not. I say again about about the 691 00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:52,960 Monarch draft that we ran. I mentioned this in the in the 692 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,120 nationals episode. We did a practice draft to 693 00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:58,400 prepare for nationals. I didn't get my hopes as Leviah, 694 00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:01,760 but three prisons got their entire perfect suite. 695 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:04,640 I think Monarch especially is a high variance draft. 696 00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:07,600 Yeah, I call it swingy. I think that's a good word for 697 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,320 it. Or like Soul Reaping versus Soul 698 00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:13,000 Harvest, right? Like are there enough Soul 699 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:14,920 Reaping is to go around for the chain players? 700 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:17,800 There's there's variance in that too. 701 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,520 It's just what ends up being in your pool. 702 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:22,600 And you're like, well, I'm the one person in Leviah. 703 00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:24,960 Oh, but there aren't any good Leviah cards in the packs. 704 00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:27,560 Or like how much it matters that other people are in your same 705 00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:29,560 heroes. Yeah, whereas like with Magic, 706 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:31,800 you can have other people in the same colours and it's not that 707 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:33,400 big of a deal because you have two colors. 708 00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,640 But like in flesh and blood, you're almost at the whim of 709 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:38,160 what the other players decide to draft. 710 00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:40,520 You can send signals perfectly and they just completely ignore 711 00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:42,960 them. My God, it's time for us to go 712 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:45,080 on to blue pitch. Joel, what do you got for us for 713 00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:49,480 Blue Pitch? OK, so we've talked a lot about 714 00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:52,360 variance and consistency, how much 1 sucks and how much 1 is 715 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:53,840 good. And we've talked about how we 716 00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:55,400 can't avoid it. That's true. 717 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,960 So is there ever a point where you lean into variance or you 718 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:01,880 try to dumb it down, like down to the one percentile? 719 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:05,000 Like what would you say would be the the correct decision? 720 00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:09,360 Is there ever a moment? Like how much consistency versus 721 00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:12,000 how much variance in our decks? Yeah, like as. 722 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:17,480 A player or as a game designer. Because it's different, isn't 723 00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:17,640 it? I'm. 724 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:21,160 Going to need more context. Because as a player, we want 725 00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:24,280 consistency, don't we? We want to be like My Deck does 726 00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:26,200 the same thing every single game. 727 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:29,280 But a game designer is like, people aren't going to play my 728 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:31,240 game if it's the same. No, because it's so. 729 00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:32,680 Boring. Exactly. 730 00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:34,800 Like we say that we want consistency, but we don't 731 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,120 actually want consistency. It's like. 732 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:40,000 I'm surprised you didn't bring that up in your section, Clark. 733 00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:41,960 But I didn't even think about it. 734 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:47,160 This episode could have been longer listeners, that's all I'm 735 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:48,720 saying. It's a big. 736 00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:54,120 Topic Yeah, Fuzzy, you had a really good point in one of our 737 00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:58,040 previous episodes about why you chose Briar for your like 738 00:38:58,040 --> 00:38:59,600 competitive hero, which I really liked. 739 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:00,920 So if you wanted to reiterate it. 740 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:04,800 Yeah, it was basically the first hero that I ever chose to play 741 00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:07,680 competitively. I never played competitive Magic 742 00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:10,560 because I didn't think I was man enough because I literally was a 743 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:11,880 teenager and I couldn't afford it. 744 00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:16,480 I know. And now here I do feel like I am 745 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:19,680 an adult playing Flesh and Blood and I have this opportunity to 746 00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:22,480 get into the competitive scene for the first time in any game. 747 00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:25,680 And I picked Briar as my first hero because I really like her 748 00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:27,320 ability to have explosive damage. 749 00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:29,080 She was a really solid hero at the time. 750 00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:33,480 And one thing about Briar is she has a high variance hero that I 751 00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:36,160 can get lucky and draw. Chenamen Heroic and a bunch of 0 752 00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:40,200 cost attacks take the agency away from my opponent and really 753 00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:43,040 myself as well. Because when I sit down against 754 00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:45,480 a player who is better than me that it basically means they're 755 00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:48,120 making better decisions. So I'm like, OK, neither of us 756 00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:49,480 are really making decisions here. 757 00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:53,600 I'm going to play Channel Heroic and a bunch of 0 cost attacks 758 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:57,160 and win just from the insane value there that I can luck into 759 00:39:57,520 --> 00:39:59,880 because luck can be something of an asset. 760 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,760 But the downside to that is I also have turns where games 761 00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:05,280 where I don't draw it at all right? 762 00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:09,560 Like I leave myself open to drawing really badly. 763 00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:14,400 Because I'm making these deck building decisions to that could 764 00:40:14,720 --> 00:40:18,080 go in my favor sometimes and I was just hoping to get lucky and 765 00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:21,360 not find the downsides, not find the low rolls, so to speak. 766 00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:24,480 So that's how variance helped me as a competitive player. 767 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,120 And eventually I got tired of it because I want to play a more 768 00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:31,280 like agency hero in the future, but that was the idea. 769 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:33,760 Now that you're good enough. I like to think so. 770 00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:36,280 And Clark, you had a similar point. 771 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:37,600 I'm thinking I'm just gonna steal it from you. 772 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:42,200 Yeah, I do. But you mentioned how when 773 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:45,640 you're a new player or you have a bad deck that you really like, 774 00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:47,320 you can use variance to your advantage. 775 00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:51,320 Sometimes you can get so absurdly lucky, set up a huge 776 00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:54,840 cache in turn or some other power card, and just blow the 777 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:58,040 other person out of the water. Even if they've made objectively 778 00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:01,160 smarter deck decisions or objectively better plays, 779 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,200 sometimes you just leak so much damage it's impossible for them 780 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:06,280 to come back. Not sex to suck buddy. 781 00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:08,600 I high rolled you. Yeah. 782 00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:10,960 And so I wanted to highlight those two examples because they 783 00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:14,840 really exemplify how you can use variance to your advantage, 784 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:18,440 because variance has a pretty bad content, a pretty negative 785 00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:20,720 connotation to it, rightfully so. 786 00:41:20,720 --> 00:41:22,400 But sometimes you can use it to your advantage. 787 00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:25,440 Even the way we're describing it, it's like the worst player 788 00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:28,920 one, yeah, like, and that's like, if you are the worst 789 00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:32,160 player, it can be an asset. But if you're the skilled player 790 00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:35,520 and you're like, damn it, I fucking lost because he high 791 00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:37,400 rolled me. I shouldn't be losing this game, 792 00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:39,960 but. But I also think that like, it's 793 00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:44,120 cool because when it comes to playing, you can play for higher 794 00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:46,520 variants. You can make the plays that say, 795 00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:49,000 look, I know I'm going to be down in life, but I'm going to 796 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,560 be chipping you down to my kill range. 797 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:55,280 Yeah, so true. And then you can try to pivot 798 00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:56,960 later on and take the game away from somebody. 799 00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,320 And then also recognizing the opportunities for it, 800 00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:02,280 recognizing when you should combo off, maybe when you should 801 00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:03,920 slower play. Like I think there's still a lot 802 00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:07,240 of skill for sure in playing into variants, right? 803 00:42:07,240 --> 00:42:10,640 So you can still get better. You don't have to be like I'm a 804 00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:12,600 bad player and I'm gonna play the cheap strategy. 805 00:42:12,760 --> 00:42:16,120 Don't let people tell you. No, if you get the dub, you get 806 00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:18,400 the dub buddy. You take that W and you go to 807 00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:25,280 the bank, get your packs. So at the beginning of this 808 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:29,240 year, I had a terrible, like, Proquest season because I tried 809 00:42:29,240 --> 00:42:31,480 so hard to lean into the variance. 810 00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:33,200 And I was like, man, why am I losing so bad? 811 00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:36,320 And my confidant at the time, Del Taco, he was like, dude, 812 00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:38,600 you're playing. The man, the missile legend, not 813 00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:39,680 the restaurant. Right. 814 00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:42,160 The man, the missile legend. Excuse me, let me reiterate. 815 00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:45,480 That's a person, the. Nicest asshole I've ever met. 816 00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:48,000 Yeah. Yeah, he was like, dude, you're 817 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:52,880 playing the worst decks, not playing at all prior and leaning 818 00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:56,640 into a very, very like the best people playing right now are 819 00:42:56,640 --> 00:43:00,040 playing non variance heroes. So I was like, OK, let me switch 820 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:01,720 it up. So I I made a lot of really good 821 00:43:01,720 --> 00:43:04,400 decisions on how to play better, how to deck build a little bit 822 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:06,840 better. It got to where I am now where I 823 00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:09,920 feel like I'm like definitely a contender at any event. 824 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:12,480 I'm not like out from the get go like I used to be. 825 00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:15,880 That being said, there are some ways you can increase 826 00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:19,200 consistency in your deck, help you understand the fundamentals 827 00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:24,200 of the game, and then later on you can either make hero choices 828 00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:27,640 that are skewed to be more consistent, or you can try to 829 00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:32,200 use variants in unique ways to steal wins or steal like Tier 2 830 00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:33,600 events. Whatever the case may be, 831 00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:37,200 starting off, what I really like about Flesh and Blood is the 832 00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:42,520 limited but very specific use tutors, which means cards that 833 00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:46,280 can search for other cards at any given point. 834 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:50,520 Yeah, cards like less than the lava, which I think says it's a 835 00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,640 one for three arcane and whatever damage a deal you can 836 00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:57,040 search for a card which is less the amount you dealt and put on 837 00:43:57,040 --> 00:43:58,640 the top. And then there's cards like 838 00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:01,600 Mugenci Release, which on hit searches any number of Lord of 839 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:05,320 Winds from your deck. These are just ways to get 840 00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:07,840 exactly what you need at the time, and I think they're very 841 00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:09,600 unique. So if you're able to utilize 842 00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:12,560 these cards in one of your favorite heroes, do so. 843 00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:16,840 They take a lot out of the legwork of Oh, I need to I need 844 00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:19,560 this exact card or I need I really need a spike turn right 845 00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:21,720 now. These are ways to get closer to 846 00:44:21,720 --> 00:44:24,000 those turns. Tutors is a very powerful 847 00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:25,640 effect. We see that in like Magic the 848 00:44:25,640 --> 00:44:28,840 Gathering it and like Commander, specifically how powerful tutors 849 00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:32,040 are, because the larger your deck is, the more you just want 850 00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:34,920 to find what you need at any given point so you can get your 851 00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:37,160 game off to a strong start instead of having to deal with 852 00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:41,200 the variance of drawing into it. Yeah actually straight up 853 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:46,280 competitive Sri lists often times run one of read the runes 854 00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:50,800 only one read the runes so that on turn 0 you can become the Ark 855 00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:52,720 knight. Find your, read the runes, start 856 00:44:52,720 --> 00:44:54,880 the game with fiver and chance. And then you never have to worry 857 00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:58,160 about drawing it when you need a go again card or an attack 858 00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:00,400 action. Yep, it's it never makes the 859 00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:04,320 rest of your hands awkward ever because you get it out turn zero 860 00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:06,720 with your become the arc knight which is the best turn to play. 861 00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:08,720 Read the runes. Right, that's really cool 862 00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:11,920 because it's it's kind of like you have 4 of read the runes 863 00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:13,480 until you don't need them anymore. 864 00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:15,400 Exactly. Yes. 865 00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:19,160 Thinking of it that way really, really dumbs down your variants 866 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:20,560 in a deck. So I just wanted to bring that 867 00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:27,360 up, and we talked about it a little bit already, but finding 868 00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:30,960 your perfect ratio of pitch values in your deck is extremely 869 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:35,680 important too. Like ideally you want a lot of 870 00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:38,480 Reds because it's going to give you the most offensive value, 871 00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:41,680 and you want a good amount of Blues to support paying for 872 00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:45,040 those Reds throughout a turn. So that off of 1 blue you can do 873 00:45:45,040 --> 00:45:47,920 several attacks or several activated abilities, whatever, 874 00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:52,200 whatever the case may be. But I've noticed in my own list, 875 00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:55,160 like playing with the via in this competitive season, I have 876 00:45:55,160 --> 00:46:00,120 like a 402040 split where it's like I have a lot more yellows, 877 00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:03,280 Blues and Reds. So it's a really good pitch 878 00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:05,200 curve. And all of my power cards are 879 00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:08,400 like in yellow. So if I'm not ready to use them 880 00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:11,440 yet, I pitch them away. And I find that flexibility to 881 00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:14,360 be really nice. Fuzzy, you already mentioned it 882 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:18,120 like having more yellows increases the flexibility and 883 00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:19,720 therefore the consistency of your deck. 884 00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:22,880 And that might be bad advice, but I'm going to keep giving it. 885 00:46:23,720 --> 00:46:27,040 I also want to shout out February here. 886 00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:30,560 There's a little tab on the deck builder titled Stats. 887 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:34,520 When you go to stats, it can show you how likely it is for 888 00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:38,960 you to end up with 0123 or four of any given color. 889 00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:43,840 So you can see what your probability distribution is for 890 00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:46,520 your deck of getting how many Reds, how many Blues. 891 00:46:47,240 --> 00:46:50,560 Sometimes that's bad because you're like 0.17 chance of 892 00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:53,280 getting 4 Reds. That'll never happen. 893 00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:55,400 It's going to happen. Yeah. 894 00:46:55,400 --> 00:46:57,800 Well, when you're drawing so many hands a game and then 895 00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,920 you're playing so many games, like those tiny chances add up 896 00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:03,200 to inevitability, you know? Yeah. 897 00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:05,760 So just keep that in mind when you're when you're brewing like 898 00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:09,440 there's always a non zero chance of drawing four of the absolute 899 00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:12,360 worst case scenario. I get lazy. 900 00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:16,960 I'm like, well, no matter what I do, I can still drop that hand. 901 00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:19,040 So what am I doing? Trying to optimize? 902 00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:23,520 I'm just not gonna worry about the ratios. 903 00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:26,800 And I'm so glad you said that Fuzzy, because that goes into my 904 00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:29,400 next point, which is having consistent costs in your deck 905 00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:34,280 like you prop like it's not a good idea to just shove a bunch 906 00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:37,400 of these tall attacks or these attacks with Gogan for 0 like. 907 00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:39,120 I feel. Attacked. 908 00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:43,440 Well, you shouldn't, because I've seen your list. 909 00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:47,440 Just kidding. I'm just kidding, Laverne. 910 00:47:48,040 --> 00:47:49,160 Just kidding. Joel. 911 00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:52,760 Joel. Like anything that costs above 2 912 00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:56,600 is just disrespectful in an. Aggro attack like. 913 00:47:57,120 --> 00:48:00,760 What are you doing? So he's a pitcher's earth. 914 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:02,880 Blues. Because like ice exists, do you 915 00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:05,840 not? Understand like. 916 00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:09,200 When you build your deck, have a plan for like when you get 917 00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:14,120 discarded from like a pummel effect or something, or if you 918 00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:16,640 get a frostbite, or if you're blocking the prior turn. 919 00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:18,400 Like if they have an insane turn on their hand. 920 00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:21,520 Like your dream hand is still probably worse. 921 00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:24,680 You may want to block to conserve life and then still 922 00:48:24,680 --> 00:48:28,720 come out you with come out your opponent with your best two or 923 00:48:28,720 --> 00:48:30,160 three card hand. Yeah. 924 00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:32,000 And I think that's what's lost on a lot of people. 925 00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:34,560 Like they're thinking about their best, juiciest hand and 926 00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:38,080 like that's gonna happen like maybe your first four turns and 927 00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:41,520 then you get below 20 or you get disrupted and you're like, oh 928 00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:44,800 wait, my deck sucks without the exact perfect five card hand. 929 00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:49,520 Yeah, this is what I. We're going to do an Iraqi 930 00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:53,280 episode eventually. I, I'm like, man, I know exactly 931 00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:56,000 what I want my hand to look like when I have a 0 cost attack, 932 00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:59,160 when I have A1 cost attack, when I have A2 cost attack, when I 933 00:48:59,160 --> 00:49:03,000 have a zero and A1 cost a zero. And like, if you know what you 934 00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:05,680 want your hand to look like and how to play a version of your 935 00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:08,960 hand with every single cost in your deck, with every single 936 00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:13,080 resource possibility in your deck, then you have a very good 937 00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:16,880 idea of what to do every single turn. 938 00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:19,920 And that's going to make you feel more consistent through the 939 00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:22,440 variance. Yeah, and that comes with reps, 940 00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:26,480 but I also think like paying attention to how often you're 941 00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:29,600 able to utilize your full hands. Like like let's say for 942 00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:32,320 instance, there's this really nice like 3 cost attack or 943 00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:36,600 whatever and you really like it, but it ends up being a block 3 944 00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:40,240 most of the time. Like across 1020 or 30 games you 945 00:49:40,240 --> 00:49:43,480 might be like, this card kind of sucks, maybe there's another 946 00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:47,080 three block that does that's actually playable in more hands 947 00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:49,920 than not. So understanding like when to 948 00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:55,080 drop your pet cards or these more expensive attacks is also a 949 00:49:55,080 --> 00:49:57,920 good sign of discipline on your end as a deck builder. 950 00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:01,320 Drop your pet cards. Yep, you got to do it. 951 00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:05,440 That's that's growing up, baby. I will run eradicate and you 952 00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:06,320 can't. Stop. 953 00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:08,240 Drop your pet. Cards. 954 00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:11,920 Yep, no more meeps. Joel's laying down the hard 955 00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:13,880 facts. Today, these are the lessons 956 00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:18,400 that I've had hammered into me already that I want to offload 957 00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:20,680 onto you as well so you grow more as a player. 958 00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:24,240 My last way, probably the most important way, is as you get 959 00:50:24,240 --> 00:50:26,760 into the competitive scene, don't tech for everything. 960 00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:30,640 That's that's targeted. Oh, that was the one. 961 00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:33,560 That's when you that's when you turned your faces towards Fuzzy 962 00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:37,880 and you went and you and you pointed them at me. 963 00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:39,560 Because it's so easy to do like you well. 964 00:50:39,560 --> 00:50:40,880 I want to plan for. Everything. 965 00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:44,000 Yeah, you'd love to win every matchup because of the the three 966 00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:47,280 key cards you add in for that specific matchup, but it just 967 00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:50,480 muddles everything up it really. You just have sideboard the 968 00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:52,400 deck. Yeah, seriously, you have like 969 00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:54,840 like you can't, you know, wish board into everything. 970 00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:57,520 Like you don't have enough tutors for that just yet, so 971 00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:02,800 definitely avoid that. I mostly agree, so many of these 972 00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:06,280 feel like they both improve your consistency in some ways and 973 00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:09,800 hurt it in others. It's true that you can't have a 974 00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:12,920 plan for every matchup, you have to choose if you want your deck 975 00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:17,440 to be consistent. Except now you're rolling for 976 00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:19,480 who you get paired up against in the tournament. 977 00:51:20,560 --> 00:51:22,680 If you're like, well, I have a plan for Dromi. 978 00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:26,680 Let's cross our fingers and hope that I've prepared against Dromi 979 00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:29,200 and not the matchup that I didn't Tech for well. 980 00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:34,200 I wanna I wanna respond to that and say there is building for 981 00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:37,920 your game plan and building for others game plan. 982 00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:40,920 But it's a game where you have to fight against other 983 00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:43,520 opponents, you know? Yes, there's always going to be 984 00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:50,280 some of it, but I would still say focusing on your game plan 985 00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:52,600 is going to make you more consistent than focusing on 986 00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:53,960 others game plan. Probably, yeah. 987 00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:59,520 And so saying what is the most optimal version of my deck is 988 00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:03,440 not going to be a bunch of sideboard cards into all these 989 00:52:03,440 --> 00:52:05,160 different matchups. And I totally agree with the 990 00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:07,800 message that like, focus on your game plan. 991 00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:10,760 How much can you deviate? How much can you afford to 992 00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:13,360 deviate before your deck starts getting whack? 993 00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:17,480 Yeah, if you have a 40 card main board and a 30 card sideboard, 994 00:52:17,720 --> 00:52:22,000 something is wrong. Go back to the drawing board. 995 00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:24,200 I will follow up with two points and then we'll move on to 996 00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:27,800 variances. So number one, there are certain 997 00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:31,240 matchups or certain decks in the meta game that will always take 998 00:52:31,240 --> 00:52:35,520 a sideboard space. For instance, any deck that has 999 00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:38,200 Phantasm, you're going to run like maybe. 1000 00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:40,640 We need to have. Six power cards, Yeah, three to 1001 00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:45,600 six cards to deal specifically with auras or allies or 1002 00:52:45,600 --> 00:52:47,760 Phantasm. One of those three you're going 1003 00:52:47,760 --> 00:52:51,680 to have some cards of those just don't make it like so much that 1004 00:52:51,680 --> 00:52:55,960 you're just having these like big chunky 6 powers that mess up 1005 00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:59,440 the rest of your turns. Secondly, there are some 1006 00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:04,200 matchups that are so bad that no matter how much teching you do, 1007 00:53:04,840 --> 00:53:07,760 it's gonna suck no matter what, so you might as well. 1008 00:53:07,760 --> 00:53:11,200 Just like Clark said, make your deck as optimized as possible 1009 00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:16,320 and try your best and see if you can stick to your explosiveness 1010 00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:20,000 of your main deck and blow over the traditionally bad matchup or 1011 00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:21,320 whatever once. Again, there's that high 1012 00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:22,800 variance actually being valuable. 1013 00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:26,560 Absolutely. With that being said, Clark, 1014 00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:28,440 would you like to take us into our Arsenal zone? 1015 00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:30,480 Sure. So our Arsenal Zone is the 1016 00:53:30,480 --> 00:53:32,920 section of our podcast where you like to shout out cards that 1017 00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:36,600 we've been thinking about, maybe playing a lot, brewing with, or 1018 00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:40,640 just have an appreciation for. And I'm going to talk about a 1019 00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:42,960 card that I have a brand new appreciation for. 1020 00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:47,520 We've mentioned on this podcast how we aren't the happiest with 1021 00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:51,600 the storytelling in flesh and blood cards, especially when 1022 00:53:51,600 --> 00:53:54,240 compared to Magic the Gathering, which I think is the gold 1023 00:53:54,240 --> 00:53:56,920 standard for storytelling in in trading card games. 1024 00:53:57,840 --> 00:54:01,320 I want to talk about a card that I think does a much better job 1025 00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:02,560 of this, and I want to acknowledge that. 1026 00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:06,360 I think that Legend Story Studios is getting better at 1027 00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:09,320 this. Visit the Imperial Forge. 1028 00:54:09,720 --> 00:54:13,040 Visit the Imperial Forge is not a good card. 1029 00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:17,760 It gives your sword and dagger attacks piercing it's rainbow 1030 00:54:17,880 --> 00:54:21,280 321 and it blocks for three and it has go again. 1031 00:54:21,280 --> 00:54:26,480 It costs nothing. You're spending a card to give 1032 00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:30,680 yourself value if they block with equipment and you're also 1033 00:54:30,680 --> 00:54:35,440 doing it before the attack. So they get to then make the 1034 00:54:35,440 --> 00:54:37,600 choice of whether or not they block with equipment and even 1035 00:54:37,600 --> 00:54:41,240 give you value for that card. Like, it's not a great card, but 1036 00:54:41,240 --> 00:54:44,880 when you look at this card, like really look at the card, I think 1037 00:54:44,880 --> 00:54:46,520 it's incredible. I think there's so much 1038 00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:50,720 storytelling happening here. And I know at first glance 1039 00:54:50,720 --> 00:54:55,040 you're like, no, it isn't because it's a guy working on 1040 00:54:55,040 --> 00:54:57,840 the forge, but like, look at what the forge is made of. 1041 00:54:58,480 --> 00:55:02,120 Look at what the background is. Look at how there's running lava 1042 00:55:03,080 --> 00:55:06,800 and then read the flavor text. The sharpest blades of Wraith 1043 00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:10,760 are forged within molten rivers that flow through the heart of 1044 00:55:10,760 --> 00:55:15,000 Mount Volcor. The Imperial Forge is in Mount 1045 00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:18,040 Volcor. It's telling you where something 1046 00:55:18,040 --> 00:55:19,400 is. It's showing you the type of 1047 00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:23,640 people that work in this forge. Common average citizens in the 1048 00:55:23,640 --> 00:55:27,280 world of Wraith. It's showing you also the kind 1049 00:55:27,280 --> 00:55:29,640 of weapons that they make. Yes, you see the sword there, 1050 00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:35,560 but you also see glaze. You see hilts, you see people 1051 00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:38,440 working in the background. You can imagine what it's like 1052 00:55:38,440 --> 00:55:40,720 to be here. You can see the sparks flying 1053 00:55:40,720 --> 00:55:45,880 off of the sword. There is some action in this, as 1054 00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:48,680 well as a lot of environmental storytelling. 1055 00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:52,320 There's like even a little chain hanging down from the ceiling in 1056 00:55:52,320 --> 00:55:54,160 the upper leftover by the pitch tack. 1057 00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:59,840 And those are the little details I think people can miss a lot of 1058 00:56:00,080 --> 00:56:01,880 when they're looking at these cards. 1059 00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:05,840 But I think that this is good world building on a card. 1060 00:56:06,560 --> 00:56:11,280 Is it great? No, but it's definitely a step 1061 00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:13,400 in the right direction. I love to see the Legend Story 1062 00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:18,120 Studios is doing more of this rather than just showing 1063 00:56:18,360 --> 00:56:20,640 character doing an action, character doing an action, 1064 00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:24,160 character doing an action. With the whole lore of Flesh and 1065 00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:27,920 Blood being a fight between 2 heroes who encounter each other, 1066 00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:31,000 there's a tendency for, I think, for a lot of cards to look like 1067 00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:33,680 that and I think it's very boring. 1068 00:56:33,960 --> 00:56:35,760 This is way more interesting to me. 1069 00:56:35,760 --> 00:56:39,600 This tells more of a story to me and so I I like it. 1070 00:56:40,080 --> 00:56:44,360 I really like this card. I completely agree because when 1071 00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:47,000 I first saw that card and I think it's everfest right? 1072 00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:50,200 Dynasty Dynasty. Dynasty I thought it sucked. 1073 00:56:50,200 --> 00:56:53,840 I'm like wow, OK, another card that word can't play move to the 1074 00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:56,160 next. So you seeing that world 1075 00:56:56,160 --> 00:57:01,960 building aspect of it is exactly the change in mindset that we 1076 00:57:02,240 --> 00:57:06,920 I'd like to see more of in LS S s design and not reserving these 1077 00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:10,560 bad cards for. Storytelling. 1078 00:57:10,720 --> 00:57:13,600 Yeah, for my card shout out today I want to talk about a 1079 00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:15,160 card that I don't think is very good. 1080 00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:19,000 I don't even know if it'll ever be good, and that's Tome of AO. 1081 00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:25,400 Tome of AO is a blue Majestic from Dynasty. 1082 00:57:25,920 --> 00:57:28,960 It says at the beginning of your action phase, destroy Tome of AO 1083 00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:31,040 and then draw a card. It has ward one. 1084 00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:33,600 It does not have go again. It costs one resource. 1085 00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:37,600 So it's kind of like a really long term ponder token that you 1086 00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:40,600 can't plan around. It costs a card and a resource. 1087 00:57:40,720 --> 00:57:43,120 It only blocks for two. Wait at end of term. 1088 00:57:43,720 --> 00:57:45,600 At the beginning of your action phase at the. 1089 00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:48,240 Beginning of your action phase. That's better than Ponder. 1090 00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:53,320 You're right because it allows you to like have a six card hand 1091 00:57:53,960 --> 00:57:59,160 and I suppose that's not bad, but if you take any damage this 1092 00:57:59,160 --> 00:58:01,120 card goes away because that is ward one. 1093 00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:04,720 Maybe you can stack it with your other ward effects to make it 1094 00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:08,200 like you get rid of your other ward effects first. 1095 00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:10,800 Like I just don't quite understand how you're preserving 1096 00:58:10,800 --> 00:58:13,600 this card and keeping it up. Maybe it's supposed to synergize 1097 00:58:13,600 --> 00:58:16,640 with like other cards? Like isn't there like a kimono 1098 00:58:16,640 --> 00:58:19,080 that like gives you extra spectral Shields or something if 1099 00:58:19,080 --> 00:58:22,320 your words go away? But is this good enough to 1100 00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:24,960 warrant paying a resource and your action point in order to 1101 00:58:24,960 --> 00:58:28,280 drop this aura down? Well, you see, I think that's 1102 00:58:28,280 --> 00:58:34,040 the thing, Fuzzy. I think that this card is 1103 00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:36,840 designed for because. And what class is it for 1104 00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:39,760 Illusionist? Yeah, I think this is for an 1105 00:58:39,760 --> 00:58:42,680 Illusionist build that just nobody's running right now. 1106 00:58:42,680 --> 00:58:46,200 I just have a hard time seeing this card ever being good. 1107 00:58:46,600 --> 00:58:49,680 And you know, I love tomes. It says draw a card on it. 1108 00:58:49,880 --> 00:58:50,520 I'm there. Well. 1109 00:58:51,600 --> 00:58:55,840 Fuzzy here's Here's where it's good and it may seem weird but 1110 00:58:55,840 --> 00:58:58,880 like I've I have thrown this in a brew or two I've been doing. 1111 00:58:58,920 --> 00:59:01,400 OK, I'm. Doing a lot of brewing, if you 1112 00:59:01,400 --> 00:59:06,880 throw a bunch of go again attacks to strip all the cards 1113 00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:10,520 from their hand, then you play this at the end of your chain 1114 00:59:11,200 --> 00:59:17,120 and you start your next turn with A5, maybe 6 card hand. 1115 00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:20,280 That is what it is for now. We don't think of Illusionists 1116 00:59:20,280 --> 00:59:24,160 as the deck that does that, so we don't see this card being 1117 00:59:24,160 --> 00:59:27,240 very good, but I think it's surprisingly good. 1118 00:59:27,240 --> 00:59:30,280 I think you can. Also if you can do some action 1119 00:59:30,280 --> 00:59:35,000 point shenanigans with Lead the charge you can end up. 1120 00:59:35,040 --> 00:59:38,120 I know, I know, but red and yellow Lead the charge. 1121 00:59:38,120 --> 00:59:42,160 Both trigger on this to give you an action point, and you can 1122 00:59:42,160 --> 00:59:47,120 then chain it into throwing something like Miraging Phantasm 1123 00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:50,560 where if they destroy it, if they pop it, you get to create a 1124 00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:55,400 copy of this. OK. 1125 00:59:55,640 --> 00:59:57,680 There there are worlds where this is playable. 1126 00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:02,240 Is it good? I'm skeptical you could call me 1127 01:00:02,240 --> 01:00:05,760 a non believer Tom of a yo. I like your name. 1128 01:00:06,600 --> 01:00:12,960 I like saying a yo. But I brought 2 copies to sign 1129 01:00:13,000 --> 01:00:14,360 and give to you. You know what? 1130 01:00:14,360 --> 01:00:17,160 Thanks for giving me a copy, Fuzzy, because I like. 1131 01:00:17,160 --> 01:00:20,560 This so you can each own a copy of Tom of a YO. 1132 01:00:21,080 --> 01:00:24,240 Here you go, You too. Thank you Fuzzy, I can't wait to 1133 01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:26,320 put this in that can beat you with it and then be like. 1134 01:00:27,280 --> 01:00:30,200 My fuzzy I'd be so impressed. My fuzzy card binder is slowly 1135 01:00:30,200 --> 01:00:33,000 growing. What about you, Joel? 1136 01:00:33,560 --> 01:00:36,160 So I already talked about it a little bit and I'm going to talk 1137 01:00:36,160 --> 01:00:40,160 about it some more. I'm shouting out the original 4 1138 01:00:40,160 --> 01:00:43,920 tutors for the Welcome to Raith Heroes Being Sand, Sketch Plan, 1139 01:00:43,920 --> 01:00:46,480 Showtime, Singing, Steel Blade, and Mugenchi release. 1140 01:00:46,680 --> 01:00:52,400 Because tutors are so strong in other card games it really makes 1141 01:00:52,400 --> 01:00:54,880 me excited that they were included now. 1142 01:00:55,160 --> 01:00:59,680 They're so the first 10 heroes of the game got them. 1143 01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:03,760 The Welcome Wraith heroes, the Arcane Rising heroes, and Bolton 1144 01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:07,560 and Leviah all got one, and then we kind of stopped seeing them. 1145 01:01:07,880 --> 01:01:09,800 You know, actually I've noticed something. 1146 01:01:09,800 --> 01:01:11,280 It's when they brought in talents. 1147 01:01:11,480 --> 01:01:15,000 Yeah, like the larger a carpool a hero has, like maybe they need 1148 01:01:15,000 --> 01:01:18,720 less support in a way, or maybe they decided that these 1149 01:01:18,720 --> 01:01:20,520 searchable effects are really powerful. 1150 01:01:20,520 --> 01:01:23,160 But either way, I'd like to see more of them. 1151 01:01:23,160 --> 01:01:26,480 I think it's a really good way of expressing more of a 1152 01:01:26,480 --> 01:01:29,120 personality with these heroes and their play style. 1153 01:01:29,680 --> 01:01:33,320 They're all very tuned and none of them are outrageously 1154 01:01:33,320 --> 01:01:34,520 powerful. It's just really good 1155 01:01:34,520 --> 01:01:38,000 consistency pieces, especially with Levi and Bolton. 1156 01:01:38,000 --> 01:01:41,120 Like they're they're like a necessary evil. 1157 01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:45,360 Like Beacon Victory is like really good Shadow Blobsfed 1158 01:01:45,360 --> 01:01:48,960 being really like mid and the original. 1159 01:01:49,200 --> 01:01:53,520 They can go into any build with these heroes and just be really 1160 01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:56,520 solid cards. So this design, I really like 1161 01:01:56,520 --> 01:01:57,760 it. I wanna see more of it in 1162 01:01:57,760 --> 01:01:59,960 feature sets. Just wanted to shout it out. 1163 01:02:00,120 --> 01:02:04,360 Yeah, tutors are great. I think it makes sense that 1164 01:02:04,360 --> 01:02:06,960 they're printed in the first couple sets, especially because 1165 01:02:06,960 --> 01:02:10,360 the card pool was so low, right? You want the tutors in order to 1166 01:02:10,360 --> 01:02:13,080 help you have a more consistent deck when you're working with a 1167 01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:16,080 far less card pool. That's a great. 1168 01:02:16,080 --> 01:02:18,440 Point, which is why I'm not sure we'll see a lot of tutors in the 1169 01:02:18,440 --> 01:02:19,880 future, but I would be really excited. 1170 01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:22,480 Tutors get more and more powerful the more things that 1171 01:02:22,480 --> 01:02:25,440 you have to search with that's. True, I don't think they'll ever 1172 01:02:25,440 --> 01:02:28,720 be banned because of their silo design, but I would like to see 1173 01:02:29,240 --> 01:02:30,960 like more of them as specializations. 1174 01:02:30,960 --> 01:02:33,360 Yeah, again, she released only finds Lord of Wind. 1175 01:02:33,400 --> 01:02:36,200 It did kind of get a little bit stronger because of the surging 1176 01:02:36,200 --> 01:02:38,600 strike line having like a new branch kind of all. 1177 01:02:39,360 --> 01:02:42,360 Right, with that, we're going to close out our episode. 1178 01:02:42,360 --> 01:02:45,400 Thank you guys so much for listening and we'll catch you 1179 01:02:45,720 --> 01:02:47,000 next week. OK, bye. 1180 01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:50,520 Have a great one. Pitch It to Me podcast is hosted 1181 01:02:50,520 --> 01:02:55,720 by Fuzzy Dope, Clark Moore and Joel Racinos, executive producer 1182 01:02:55,800 --> 01:03:00,640 Talon Stradley, logistics coordinator John Farkas music by 1183 01:03:00,840 --> 01:03:07,000 Dylan Holtz logo by on V sound mixing, Christopher Moore Last 1184 01:03:07,000 --> 01:03:09,760 but not least, you Thank you for listening. 1185 01:03:10,200 --> 01:03:12,960 Please give us a follow on your favorite social media platform 1186 01:03:13,040 --> 01:03:45,080 at Pitch It to Me Podcast. So I want you to imagine that 1187 01:03:45,400 --> 01:03:47,360 and you as the audience can play along here. 1188 01:03:47,760 --> 01:03:52,800 I have 3 doors, AB and C. I've hidden the keys to a shiny 1189 01:03:52,800 --> 01:03:57,200 new car in one of these 3 doors. I've even picked a letter. 1190 01:03:57,200 --> 01:04:00,640 OK, so I have imagining one of these doors as having the key. 1191 01:04:00,640 --> 01:04:04,360 OK. Behind the other two doors are 1192 01:04:04,360 --> 01:04:07,440 useless donkeys. You don't want a donkey. 1193 01:04:07,440 --> 01:04:09,920 That's a lot of responsibility. You want keys to a shiny new 1194 01:04:09,920 --> 01:04:12,880 car? Joel, can you pick one of these 1195 01:04:12,880 --> 01:04:17,200 3 doors? You say it out loud A awesome. 1196 01:04:18,200 --> 01:04:23,880 I can tell you Joel that I did not pick C to have the keys. 1197 01:04:24,080 --> 01:04:27,480 I'm I'm I'm opening door C and it has a donkey. 1198 01:04:27,880 --> 01:04:34,240 OK, OK, now I will give you the chance to switch your answer to 1199 01:04:34,240 --> 01:04:39,040 door B knowing that there is a donkey in door C. 1200 01:04:39,960 --> 01:04:42,840 Do you hold with A or do you swap to B? 1201 01:04:42,840 --> 01:04:44,560 Yeah. Do you think you were correct 1202 01:04:44,560 --> 01:04:47,840 the first time or do you think you have maybe a better chance 1203 01:04:47,840 --> 01:04:53,520 if you switched doors to door B? Good question. 1204 01:04:53,600 --> 01:04:56,320 I don't know if it changes a whole lot because there's still 1205 01:04:56,320 --> 01:04:58,680 a donkey and so it's a 5050, so I'd rather stick with my 1206 01:04:58,680 --> 01:05:00,960 original, right? And that's the paradox I see. 1207 01:05:01,440 --> 01:05:05,760 So I will tell you just for the sake of the thought experiment, 1208 01:05:05,760 --> 01:05:09,200 OK, I had shows in door A. So in this case, switching would 1209 01:05:09,200 --> 01:05:13,520 have LED you to another donkey. But the chances, if we played 1210 01:05:13,520 --> 01:05:17,200 this experiment out many times, the chances are actually not 1211 01:05:17,200 --> 01:05:20,640 5050 anymore. And that's because if I always 1212 01:05:20,640 --> 01:05:24,360 reveal a door with a donkey, then it consolidated the 1213 01:05:24,360 --> 01:05:28,240 probabilities. So if you pick door A, you have 1214 01:05:28,240 --> 01:05:31,000 a one third chance of being correct, right? 1215 01:05:31,480 --> 01:05:35,880 But if I say I will always reveal a door with a donkey, 1216 01:05:36,240 --> 01:05:40,400 then like let's say there was a donkey, let's go back a little 1217 01:05:40,400 --> 01:05:45,360 bit and say that there was the keys in the car was in door C 1218 01:05:45,680 --> 01:05:49,200 and you had still picked AI would have revealed B, right, 1219 01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:51,320 Right. So if I'm always revealing a 1220 01:05:51,320 --> 01:05:54,760 door with a donkey one of the wrong answers, and you had a one 1221 01:05:54,760 --> 01:05:58,960 third before, it kind of means that Like if the keys were in 1222 01:05:59,000 --> 01:06:02,720 any door other than the one that you picked, then the only door 1223 01:06:02,720 --> 01:06:05,640 that's left for you to switch to will be one with the car. 1224 01:06:07,440 --> 01:06:10,120 And since you have a one third chance of being correct at the 1225 01:06:10,120 --> 01:06:13,680 beginning, it means you have a 2/3 chance of the only remaining 1226 01:06:13,680 --> 01:06:16,600 door having keys. That's my best explanation for 1227 01:06:16,600 --> 01:06:18,200 the multi hall problem. Yeah. 1228 01:06:18,560 --> 01:06:21,640 And again, we are people who like have had to explain 1229 01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:25,280 probabilities before and we're still not great at it, right? 1230 01:06:25,280 --> 01:06:28,440 Like probability is just so hard to understand. 1231 01:06:29,240 --> 01:06:31,600 So it's 66. Percent, yeah. 1232 01:06:31,600 --> 01:06:35,360 If you switch you have a 60, you have a 2/3 chance of getting the 1233 01:06:35,440 --> 01:06:38,560 prize, and if you stay it ends up being 1/3. 1234 01:06:38,840 --> 01:06:39,840 Really. Yeah. 1235 01:06:40,200 --> 01:06:43,480 Not 5050, which is what everyone would think. 5050 is such a 1236 01:06:43,480 --> 01:06:45,360 natural instinct. You're like, OK, you got rid of 1237 01:06:45,360 --> 01:06:48,000 one of the chances, now there's 25050. 1238 01:06:48,000 --> 01:06:49,360 But. Kind of bum because now I know 1239 01:06:49,360 --> 01:06:52,400 I'm like thinking like the rest of people, but that makes a lot 1240 01:06:52,400 --> 01:06:55,640 of sense and it's also very. Super logical to think of it as 1241 01:06:55,640 --> 01:06:58,560 A50 50. I would say that the most 1242 01:06:58,560 --> 01:07:01,280 logical way that it's been explained to me is that your 1243 01:07:01,280 --> 01:07:05,440 first selection has a 2/3 chance of being wrong, so why wouldn't 1244 01:07:05,440 --> 01:07:07,920 you want to switch the moment that you're given a chance? 1245 01:07:08,880 --> 01:07:11,320 I think it's kind of interesting too, because the core of the 1246 01:07:11,320 --> 01:07:14,680 problem is whoever is controlling what doors are 1247 01:07:14,680 --> 01:07:19,520 opened is making an influence on the probability, right? 1248 01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:23,400 Like he's opening the wrong door and kind of influencing your 1249 01:07:23,400 --> 01:07:24,280 decision there. Yep. 1250 01:07:24,440 --> 01:07:26,440 Right. Instead of it being like a one 1251 01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:29,760 and three or 5050. That's why it's not 5050, right? 1252 01:07:29,760 --> 01:07:31,760 Yeah, got it. Because we'll never reveal the 1253 01:07:31,760 --> 01:07:33,200 correct door that you didn't pick. 1254 01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:35,360 Got it. Now that doesn't have a direct 1255 01:07:35,360 --> 01:07:38,600 relationship to flesh and blood other than hey, probabilities 1256 01:07:38,600 --> 01:07:42,040 fucking hard to understand. Yeah, I'm certainly confused. 1257 01:07:42,160 --> 01:07:42,520 Yeah.