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Hello and welcome back to Illumination, the Disney Lorcona podcast.

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I am Max and I'm Sam and we are back to a two-hander for this podcast.

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Sam has no longer abandoned me for all of you to be stuck listening to me.

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So we're just getting back from SCGCon, if you're not familiar, that is Star City Games

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out in Virginia.

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It is their con.

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They kind of go up and down the East Coast and do a little Lorcona magic and flesh and

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blood, which was pretty fun.

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It was our first big Lorcona tournament.

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They had two 1Ks and a 5K over the course of the weekend.

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And we did one of the 1Ks because Sam, you've never done a tournament before.

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Nope, it was my first tournament.

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Nope, it was my first tournament.

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Yes, it was an experience.

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If you've never done a tournament before, it can be pretty intimidating.

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It's not any different than your locals event where it's going to be a core constructed

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event most of the time, but there's a lot more folks, there's a lot less space and there's

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a lot more attention to time and your mannerisms.

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You need to play cleanly.

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You need to play efficiently.

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So it can definitely be nerve wracking.

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I think I shook for like the first half of the day.

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I still do.

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I've been playing trading card games in a tournament setting for probably 15-ish years and I still

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get nervous at different points in the day.

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Not unusual.

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I think that's part of the fun, right?

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Is it allows for players to make mistakes.

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It allows for you to be able to jump ahead and make better plays because you see an opening,

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especially in Lorcona, a very chess-like back and forth style that it has.

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So Sam, what did you play at this 1K tournament?

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I played Ruby Amethyst.

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I also played Ruby Amethyst.

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And why did you play Ruby Amethyst?

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I played it Ruby Amethyst because one, I played it the last set.

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So it was the deck I was most comfortable with, with going into this SCG con.

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Pretty much brand new out of the new set into the Inklands.

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We only got two short weeks to figure out what we wanted to play.

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So I felt like Ruby Amethyst was my best bet at doing well because I understood the play

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patterns already and not that much got added to it.

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And also because I felt like it was one of the strongest decks that I could bring.

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That makes sense.

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I think one thing you'll hear a lot of when you start to get into tournaments with any

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trading card game is you'll hear a term referenced.

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That term is metagame.

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And that's what the episode's about today.

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It's not just a recap of our tournament.

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So if you hung in there through that, thank you so much.

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But it is about what is a metagame and how can you excel at different points during different

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metagames?

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So the first thing we kind of got to figure out is what the heck is a metagame?

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Sam, have you heard of the term metagame before we started playing trading card games together?

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No.

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It's not super common in most circles to hear this term, but this term Wikipedia, I found

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the definition of that is a game within a game or the way to play a particular game.

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So it's a pretty interesting term when you apply it to a trading card game.

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Generally, the use case when it comes to lingo of metagame is what decks are the best suited

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for any particular point in time.

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So during this tournament, there were quite a few different choices, as Sam alluded to,

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it was brand new for Into the Inklands.

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So some people were testing out new things like the new green purple tempo style decks

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that were coming out of Europe.

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There was the always classic steel song deck, always classic Ruby Amethyst control deck.

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We have the blue steel deck, which is a popular choice towards the end of Rise of the Floodborne

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and had gotten some good tools for the matchup.

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The brand new purple steel Jafar style combo decks, as well as a slew of different steel

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emerald variations that are all pretty much solid choices to be playing, not to mention

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other homebrews and rogue decks that people felt like may have had an edge during the

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metagame.

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So that's generally what we're talking about when we apply the term metagame or when you

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hear somebody say, I'm metagaming or I'm trying to pick the best deck for the meta, you will

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hear turns a phrase like that, typically what it means is they are trying to select the

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deck that they think is the best one or the best positioned to pick on the best one.

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That's kind of the concept of a metagame.

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So that is what they're trying to unpack.

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And then the next thing you got to ask yourself when you're considering a metagame, typically

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you'll hear a metagame referenced as healthy or unhealthy.

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Sam, do you want to walk us through what healthy versus unhealthy meta might look like?

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So a healthy meta would be when you have several different decks that have the potential to

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win unhealthy is the opposite.

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You have one, maybe two decks that might win and they just win all the tournaments and

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you basically have to play that deck if you want to stand a chance to win the tournament.

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It's a difficult time when there's an unhealthy meta because there is usually one, maybe two,

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maybe it's one and a variation of the one best deck.

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And one of the things you really have to do is try to figure out, am I going to just learn

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to play this deck?

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Am I going to take that deck and make a couple changes so that it's very good in a mirror

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style match?

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Or am I going to play a completely different off meta deck that I built entirely to best

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this particular one deck?

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That's a little tougher to do right now in Lorcan because at time of recording we've

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only had three 204 card sets.

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So we only have about 612 unique options.

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So you can only get so honed in on beating one particular deck.

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Now an unhealthy meta example coming out of Lorcan is probably what we had in Rise of

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the Floodborne where Ruby Amethyst was just the best deck, kind of bar none.

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It was the deck you saw placing at tournaments.

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It was heavily infected in the Pixelborne meta, only breeding a couple options like

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Blue Steel out of the absolute dominance that that deck had.

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And the reason people started moving towards Blue and Blue Steel specifically was to try

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to leverage the power of ramp and a whole new world to stop the red purple Ruby Amethyst

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powerhouse style decks from controlling everything.

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Since Inklands, at least initially, and with any new set, you tend to see a general healthy

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meta game because cards tend to come out that answer previously troublesome cards.

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In this case we have cards like the Bear Necessities and the new green two drop Ursula which allows

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you to take out various different songs and or anything not a character in the case of

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the Bear Necessities and be able to attack the game that way.

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So aggro decks or the Steel Song decks have a bit of an advantage in that they can get

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a little bit more information early in the game and try to have a better game plan going

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into the mid game or just, you know, snipe that always pesky be prepared.

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So lots of deck choices that we faced when we played over at SCGCon and we both won and

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lost to a variety of different decks.

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One of the things you can ask yourself is kind of what, how does a meta happen?

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What is going on here?

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Like why did this suddenly happen?

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Well as I alluded to with the case of going from Floodborne into the Inklands, there was

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an already established best deck and that was the Ruby Amethyst control deck.

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So a lot of people were going to play that deck out of the gate.

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They were also going to figure out how can I leverage some of these new toys in the way

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of things like Bear Necessities and Ursula and well as three drop Ursula to try to take

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over the throne from the Ruby Amethyst decks and that's kind of how this particular new

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metagame started was the Ruby Amethyst decks were kind of, okay, this is going to be the

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big target of the format.

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So everybody started to build around and play around with things that took advantage of

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it and we saw the green purple deck kind of spawn.

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Oh, repeatable Ursula as you say.

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That sounds pretty good to me.

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Very cheap interactive characters.

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They also impacted the board.

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Cards like Klaugkicker could bounce.

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The two drop Kuzco's and slow down the production of Madam Mims and that really gave the tempo

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deck the extra couple of turns breathing room they needed to get ahead and then cement staying

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ahead by taking good songs out of the Ruby Amethyst decks hands with Ursula and then

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inevitably singing something like Mother Knows Best with the three drop Ursula to return

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two characters and just cement the victory for them.

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So lots of cool things can develop out of a metagame.

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Traditionally, and we saw this in the first chapter, the first kind of significant play

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pattern that we saw in Lurkana, the cards that people were just like, I don't know if

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you can handle this or we need to be able to handle this or we're going to be in big

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trouble and that was first turn Lilo, second turn Simba, protective cub.

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So you could quest for two out of the gate and then protect it with the two, three stat

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line that ended up being very good in the first chapter meta so that you can protect

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your Lilo and continue questing and build up a quick amount of lore so much so that

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your last few characters could get you over the finish line if your board got wiped or

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your characters got challenged off the board.

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So that was kind of the first major thing and that's not uncommon for an aggressive

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deck to begin to cement things, right?

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You need a proactive deck that's trying to win the game.

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First question you're generally asking a game is how the heck do I win?

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That is what the aggressive decks have started to do is go, okay, we're just going to take

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the simplest route to winning the game.

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Then you have to develop a deck that beats it and that's kind of where the Steel Song

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decks and the initial builds of Ruby Amethyst started to come through.

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We're just like, you know, we actually can interact in the early game with the steel

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removal package or with some of the smaller, cheaper characters that we don't really care

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what happens to early on and we just generate a bunch of card advantage through something

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like a magic mirror and then just play a be prepared and they can't answer it.

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And then we follow up by just controlling the board with expensive finishers like Elsa

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and Maleficent Dragon.

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So it was a really popular way to do that and Steel Song, of course, singing songs like

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grab your sword way ahead of schedule to wipe three or four characters off the board very

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quickly against an aggressive opponent.

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So then we started to see the decks that beat it and then we started to see changes to those

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decks because now those two decks started to become more popular in the first chapter

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meta and they had to figure out ways to tech their deck out to beat the opposite one of

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those particular decks.

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So the mid rangey decks either adopted a bigger strategy or a bit of a smaller strategy to

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go fast or a bigger strategy to try to control things a little bit more effectively and try

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to play around, be prepared by having one or two characters on the board or shifting

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to smaller characters early on like Lilo and Simba, who was also doing double duty to protect

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her singers and using the steel removal suite to take care of opposing characters or be

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able to give yourself cards back in hand through a whole new world after you depleted your

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entire hand very quickly.

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So there were a lot of ways that the metagame started to evolve.

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Even in Lorcan we saw it.

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It usually starts at step one, which is the aggro decks.

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I think that's the one strategy you and I never really like jumped on that was kind

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of the first deck you played weekly.

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First chapter, I think it was one of the first decks we built because it was an easy deck

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to play and the lemon lime aggro deck.

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It was just easy to figure out.

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There wasn't much thought to it.

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You didn't like it because it was too easy to play.

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Too easy to play.

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It was still think the ones now.

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I mean, they're a little bit more thought provoking, but still too easy to play.

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They can be and they've definitely lost effectiveness, especially with things like Madam Mim Fox,

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teeth and ambitions, the very effective line of first turn Cinderella, second turn, let

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the storm rage on or strength of a raging fire to be able to answer threats early and

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then go aerial and to grab your sword, which we saw since first chapter.

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Pinocchio, purple Pinocchio, pick it up, re exert another character, smash into that first

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character, pick that character up, refresh it.

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It's very easy to answer aggressive decks that you're not always going to have the right

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hand for it.

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I definitely played against a lemon lime aggro deck at the SCG con and lost my first game

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because I just didn't have enough heavy hitters out of the gate.

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My one threes aren't good in a tournament structure when you don't know what you're

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going to be playing against.

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They definitely have the best chance on that opening game because you might not have your

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teeth innovations or your low drops that you kept in your hand because you're not expecting

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to play an aggro deck.

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So I do think it can catch you off guard.

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Certainly.

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And with the tools to strip you out of late game effects or those removal spells, they

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can catch you.

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Bear Necessities can take your one removal spell you were hoping to use.

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It can do a lot of work to leverage those advantages.

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Or take your card draw.

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So now you're kind of just stuck.

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Stuck one card a turn is a lot worse in a control deck.

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So there are a lot of options that you can do now.

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And that's kind of how a meta tends to grow.

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It starts with that seed that is aggression and then grows from there because aggro tends

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to be the first, best, and most consistent deck just because it's the most obvious question

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of how do you win?

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And then they figure it out very quickly.

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Oh, I can just turn these things sideways and until you stop me, I win.

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Okay, stop me.

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Then it's figuring out what the best way to in fact stop them actually is.

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And then you start to see the decks that can deal with it begin to evolve from there and

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they have to then start to fight each other.

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And then what are the tools that are effective in that matchup?

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So that kind of all brings us to one big question.

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We talked about an unhealthy meta, right?

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You can either play the deck that is very, very good or you play specifically to try

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to leverage an advantage against that deck that may weaken you to other people who are

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doing similar.

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But what do you do in a healthy meta game?

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What do you do then?

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How do you pick the best deck during a healthy meta game?

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So Sam alluded to it earlier when she was talking about selecting Ruby Amethyst as her

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deck of choice and that was familiarity.

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That's really important, right?

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You can gain an advantage over somebody else because you understand the deck in a more

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intuitive way than they do.

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Even though you're both playing the best deck, you have learned how to play the deck, but

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I truly understand how to play the deck gives me a significant advantage.

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Whether if we're playing the identical 60 cards or not, maybe slight variations.

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That's when you also start to see variations in the deck.

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We talked a lot about Sorcerer's Spellbook getting back into the deck for SCG Khan because

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it was just so darn important in the mirror.

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Harder to protect the Queen's Castles when your opponent's deck has Maui's and Madame

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Mim Fox's and Maui's Fish Hooks.

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So we talked a lot about including Spellbook because the mirror is stone cold to it.

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It can't interact with that item at all.

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I heavily debated putting in two.

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Yes.

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We played a lot of different little micro variations of that and then from there, after

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you've decided what's healthy, it's what are you comfortable with and learning how to play

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against the other decks.

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So that's just rigorous amounts of play testing.

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So we are fortunate enough to have a bunch of folks from locals come over and we play

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tested many days to make sure that we understood, A, what the heck do we want to play?

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Which took too long to decide.

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It took a very long time to decide.

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Also figuring out what was good.

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What was a flash in the pan?

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There were some decks that were just like, no, no, no, this is not a real deck.

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This is not, this is too cute of a strategy or doesn't do enough.

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I don't know how to play this.

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I don't know how to navigate this.

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So I don't think that's going to work.

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So you got to learn all those things, especially early in a meta changing like we've seen here

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early with Into the Ink Land, especially adding in a whole new card type that is Warp

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things with locations.

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You have to then try to figure out after you've gotten comfortable with it, what are the optimal

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choices and what are the optimal play patterns when you're playing against specific decks.

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And this will come down to an episode about inking.

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It's inevitable we're going to get to an inking episode.

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And I know that's one of the more requested we've seen over on YouTube.

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Thanks everybody for the comments.

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Really appreciate those.

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We see you.

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One of the ways to succeed at inking is understanding what cards are good or bad in the matchup.

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So you have to immediately start to understand quickly, this is not an effective card in

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the matchup or this is my best card in this matchup.

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This does not get inked at any cost, even if it is inkable.

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So you have to start to learn how to leverage those things.

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How do you mulligan effectively?

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Everything changes going into games two or three because now you have a lot more information

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than you do in game one where you're going, I'm going to keep a hand that is okay against

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just about everything.

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Right.

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You want that borderline playable hand.

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So picking the right deck is definitely a matter of personal preference.

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It's definitely a matter of play style, especially in a healthy meta.

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Are you more of a mid range player like me who would rather play something like the Amber

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Steel song decks?

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Are you more of a controlling player like Sam and you'd rather gravitate towards something

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like Jafar or the Ruby Amethyst style control decks.

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It's all about personal preference.

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It's rare that you're going, you are going to be the one who breaks the game in half,

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especially with a digital client like Pixelborne around for so many people to test so many

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different cards so quickly.

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So I'm not saying you shouldn't try, but definitely make sure you're paying attention to everything

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that's going on.

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Don't get laser focused on one thing or another.

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Make sure you're considering everything.

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Stack has to function against three or four or five different deck archetypes at times.

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So you want to make sure that you're not stone cold to any one of them because we're not

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just focused on one thing.

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We're trying to spread ourselves as much as possible.

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And then a game that doesn't have sideboards that makes it really, really tricky.

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It definitely came down to comfortability for what I ended up choosing for the con.

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And it went through three iterations of different cards here and there to what it was best against

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everything.

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Never would have thought we would cut all four surfer mini at the beginning of testing.

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But now surfer mini looks kind of like a joke in there.

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Maui's fish hook definitely cleans up a surfing mini or two.

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But Pinocchio was not in my original 60 cards for this set.

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And I think he really just changes the deck completely with what he can do.

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It's an aggressive, offensive weapon that the deck hasn't normally had access to.

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And it's good against everything.

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It's good against aggro.

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It's good late to take away their big threats.

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Absolutely.

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So he's MVP for me in this new deck.

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He is quite strong, definitely showing off that he is in fact somehow the most played

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Pinocchio in the current meta.

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So that's pretty cool to see.

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Definitely unexpected.

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So hopefully this little discussion has helped you understand what the heck is a meta game?

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What is a healthy versus unhealthy meta game and how can you take that information and

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actually apply it to your times in testing, in playing, in whether it's locals or going

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off to a big tournament.

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How can you take the application of a concept of a meta game and actually apply it to your

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actual practice?

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I think it's pretty cool.

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And one of those things that you learn over time, what's good, what's bad, how good are

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they?

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How bad are they?

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How do I handle everything?

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It just takes a lot of time.

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So don't be afraid to invest, like we say, and I think we said it almost every episode,

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try everything, certainly.

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And remember, it's not a waste of time.

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It's an investment of time.

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Information and learning is just as important as winning or losing, especially when you're

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getting ready for your tournament.

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Sam, do you have anything else you wish to add?

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I don't think so.

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I think the only thing I would add is don't be afraid to go out there and try the tournaments.

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It was my first one.

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It was really nerve wracking, but I think next time I'd probably still be very nervous,

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but a little less so.

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It was very, very nice.

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It was fun.

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I had great opponents the entire day.

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And I think the saltiest person in the room was probably me.

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I probably agree.

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Keep questioning.