Hello and welcome back to Illumination, the Disney Lurkana podcast.
My name is Max and I'm Sam and we are here in episode 12 to talk about something that
has never really occurred to me early on in my career of playing card games, career in
air quotes, but is something that once I heard the term and the ideology behind it really
began to impact in a positive way how much better I was doing in card games.
So a quick shout out to professional magic player Paul Rietzel for putting the term on
my individual radar during some Magic the Gathering coverage probably a million years
ago now.
The term is an inflection point.
This is typically used in mathematics, particularly when it comes to curves and it is the position
in a curve where it begins to change.
So if there's a line and it starts to go down, that's an inflection point.
Then it starts to come back up.
That's another inflection point where those things that change in direction starts to
happen.
This term, doing a little bit of research for all of you, was first coined with concern
to card games for the game of poker, as a lot of things about card games often are,
and it was coined in the book Harrington and Holden, volume two, and an inflection point
is the point or points in a game that require you to change the way you are playing or require
you to play the game differently.
So if you're doing something and then an event occurs, an opponent plays a card or
deals with a card you had out that was winning you the game, now you're in a position where
you may have to change what your initial tactic was.
And there are a couple ways to kind of break this down.
What does all that mean?
And I know it's a little nebulous, right?
Like this is a broad topic we're talking about.
Like a lot of the foundational episodes that we have here, the good news is these big topics
we can explore again and more in depth in the future, but I want to make sure everybody
knows what I'm talking about when I talk about inflection points.
What does it mean?
Well, basically it's the point of the game, something really bad or something really good
has happened and that will change how you are going to play the game.
Sam, what are some cards, individual cards in the game that might change the way the
game is working both for you and against you?
Cards off the top of your head.
The first card that comes to mind is be prepared.
That is a certainly important one.
Grab your swords.
Yes.
Diablo.
Would you say Diablo counts?
I think Diablo is kind of defining the very first and first or second inflection point,
depending on if Bucky's down or not in that particular deck.
Certainly.
Yeah, Bucky's definitely won locations.
Locations certainly can cause you to have to change tactic.
No question about it.
Whole new world.
Whole new world is a great example.
So these are exactly cards that are huge defining cards and it doesn't have to just be one individual
card that causes an inflection point.
It could be a series of cards, a board state.
A good example of this would be like Lilo on one, bodyguard Simba on two or Pinocchio
on two and then a bodyguard or they pick up their quick quest or with a Merlin or a madam
Mim snake or a madam Mim Fox.
Those are the things and you go, Oh, they're creating a very wide board state and they're
intending to win the game very quickly.
That is something that will create an inflection point, right?
When you see a one drop that quest for two come down, some decks play that some different
versions of decks can play those.
But then when you see it followed up by a two cost character that quest for three, now
things look a little bit different.
Now you're starting to get a fuller picture of what you're playing against.
You know, it's aggro deck.
And you know that that's going to create an inflection point where you're going to have
to deal with these fast characters quickly.
Your game plan changes.
That's really important.
So if you are a fellow aggro deck, you may go, Oh, I don't have any of my madam Mim Foxes
or anything like that.
I just have very low static characters who quest really high.
So I'm going to need to race this particular opponent right now.
Or maybe it's different.
Maybe you draw that madam Mim Fox.
Okay.
Maybe I need to pump the brakes a little bit and see if I can control the board this turn
and then get back to questing the turn after.
So that's some examples of what does this mean?
It dictates when you need to be aggressive and change to being defensive.
When you need to play to the board, when you need to play more conservatively, it can change
things or it can solidify those choices.
And you go, Oh no, absolutely.
I got to keep racing.
I drew another Pinocchio.
So we're just pressing on the gas as hard as we can.
Or okay, good.
I drew the be prepared so I don't have to try to challenge the board away.
I can quest and then just go ahead and wipe the board here.
Those things constantly change.
And that's why players who have played trading card games for a long time tend to gravitate
towards decks that create a lot of inflection points.
So some good examples of this would be the Ruby Sapphire style decks, right?
The steel Sapphire style decks.
These decks draw a lot of cards and give the player access to a lot of options.
So a great card that encapsulates the concept of this would be something like develop your
brain.
Look at two cards.
Which one do you need more right now based on the situation?
Do you need something inkable or do you need a board wipe because your opponent starting
to pull ahead or do you need a Tamatoa so you can wrap the game up?
Those are questions that require constantly changing answers, right?
The game evolves.
The game's going to change as more turns are taken, as more resources are put down.
These decks that get favored by more seasoned players tend to generate a lot of inflection
points in the game as opposed to our example of an aggro deck generally causes one large
one, right?
It's right at the beginning of the game.
And that's important to know as well is that inflection points can happen a number of times
during the game.
There's no finite.
There are three in every game that is inaccurate.
There could be as many as who knows in a longer mirror, something like a Sapphire Ruby mirror
match tons, tons of different inflection points where in a shorter game of two aggro decks
just pressing on the gas as hard as possible, there may be only one or two before the game
ends.
And that's really, really important to understand.
Here's an example of one of these things.
And Sam, I'll let you kind of jump on answering this question and I'll walk you through some
other answers or if you have a counter question, let me know.
So you are playing a deck that is more mid range.
Let's just pretend it's like a Mufasa and I am playing a red deck that is more controlling
and you know, I'm most likely on a be prepared or four.
It's going into where I'm going to have seven ink, but you could potentially put down characters
and win the game.
If you put down characters and pressure me.
What are you more likely to do?
Play the characters and try to just make me have the be prepared or are you going to play
more conservatively and go, you know what?
I have enough on the board that they're probably going to need to be prepared anyway.
So I'm going to pump the brakes.
And if it's not obvious, what are the decisions you're thinking of when you're tackling a
scenario like that?
I think you need to look to see how many be prepared, safe played, how many are in their
graveyard.
I think it's very important because if there are four in there, then I'm just going to
play these characters to win me the game.
Absolutely.
If there's three in there and you still have half your deck or so, I might take the chance,
but I also want to make sure that I have enough characters left in my hand that if you do
play the be prepared, I'm not completely screwed for the next turn.
Absolutely.
Cause that's what I'm trying to do, right?
Most likely you're identifying the inflection point is you're going to push to winning the
game by questing and you can either accelerate that or you can continue on the pace you're
at and force me to come up with a response.
Right?
Cause you have to think if you can get away with not playing extra characters and they
have to take their entire turn to be prepared.
If you did not play out all your characters, now you have what?
Two, three characters in your hand that you can just play the next turn and possibly just
win anyway.
And you can see why cards that gather information about what the opponents game plan is are
really impactful.
Cards like the new one drop Diablo, that's Emerald, two drop Emerald Ursula, cards like
bear necessities are really important.
You can also see why it's unique that Lorcan has chosen a method of not allowing notes
so that you have to remember that's part of the game.
It's a mental back and forth, right?
It's kind of in this case, more like a mental tennis match where I'm lobbing some kind of
threat and then you're volleying back with some kind of answer or a more big impactful
threat than what I've put down, right?
Like I could put down a smaller character that maybe doesn't quest as hard and then
you go, okay, well I have Tamatowa and I have six other items out right now.
So you better figure it out or I'm going to win now and go, oh crap.
Well, I was going to win in two turns, but now you're going to win next turn.
What do I do?
That's how inflection points work and they progress throughout the game depending on
again what you're doing and what your opponent's doing.
So another way you may have heard this phrased out there is what beats you versus what can't
you play around?
Things like Sam had mentioned, what beats me in this scenario?
Be prepared, right?
I have a bunch of characters out.
Be prepared is what gets them back.
I know there are other cards in this scenario, right?
Big see Sue, things like that.
But in this particular scenario, that's the big one.
That's the big scary one that can be played is be prepared.
What beats you is that card.
Can you afford to play around it is the opposite side of the coin.
In the beginning, if you're in the lead or just at any point in the game, you have a
healthy advantage.
You should always in the back of your mind think, is there a card or a play pattern that
would take that lead away from me?
So we saw this a lot with newer players and I'm sure all of you who have found us probably
have social media and have looked at either Reddit posts or Facebook groups, things like
that for Lorcan and can see newer players like I don't understand how this card is
legal.
And every trading card game has a destroy all of a character, creature, unit, whatever
it may be.
You just have to learn how to play around it.
Absolutely.
And that is step one to this.
And the question is then you have some characters out, your opponent has none and you're on
the path to victory.
What beat you?
All your characters going away.
So in your head, you have to go, well, what cards do that to me?
Always that precarious situation.
We've had this come up before where it's like, if I play one character, they could
Lady Tremaine my character or now be King undisputed my character.
So maybe I play two, but then the problem is if they use a be prepared, I lose both
of my characters.
So you have to really kind of do these mental gymnastics.
How many be prepared are in the discard pile?
How many Lady Tremaine's are in the discard pile from your knowledge and research?
How many of these cards get played?
I was just about to say, and depending on if you're playing in a competitive setting
where they're playing meta decks right now, we know while recording that the red purple
deck typically only plays two right now.
If you have one to two in your discard pile, there's less chance that you're going to
see another one.
Absolutely.
Their faith in be prepared specifically is down a little bit right now because Ursula
bear necessities, things can come in and interact with the hand to take it away and you want
to mitigate how little that can happen.
So we've seen options like the eight drop Sisu come into play and become a bit more
impactful because they don't get stripped out of your hand.
Some copies of Scar for the same reason.
Absolutely.
It's important at the beginning in a lead situation to know what takes that away.
And then on the other side of the coin, the farther you go, the more inflection points
that have passed, the more maybe negative or less favorable interactions for you.
In this case, the closer you get to a different style of thinking and that's simply, what
can I not afford to play around anymore?
Now things are looking grim.
Maybe it's been a long game and your opponents got to be prepared in their discard pile and
you're just like out of gas.
I have nothing left.
I know I'm light on characters.
I have to put these two characters down.
I'm at 18.
These two characters, each quest for one.
I'm going to pass it back to my opponent and hope that they can't stop me here.
Or maybe you put down three.
So you play around that Lady Tremaine or be King Undisputed you haven't seen any of.
I've already seen two be prepared.
What are the odds that you're going to see three or four that might not even exist in
the deck?
Like Sam said, especially right now at time of recording versus, but if I only play one
and they Lady Tremaine me or I play two and they Lady Tremaine me, I give them a whole
nother turn to draw on a more important card again.
And then generating cards is what's going to beat me.
So you really have to go, okay, listen, I'm going to put all three characters down.
I just can't afford to play around the third or even fourth or whatever it may be, be prepared.
I just have to hope that they don't have it.
In this case, you may have heard that phrase uttered from streamers and other players.
You got to hope they don't have it or I'm going to make them have it because it's the
only way you can win is for them to simply not.
And there's no guarantee, right?
Four out of 60 is what any card is allowed to be unless it's Domination Puppy Tailwagger.
You just got to hope that that is not the case where it's, you know what?
Maybe they haven't drawn a lot of cards in the past couple of turns.
I saw their hand four turns ago.
They didn't have it.
They've only drawn for turns since then.
I got to hope those top four cards, one of them was not the third or fourth.
Be prepared.
That's okay.
The closer you get to what can I afford to play around?
That's when you're going to take bigger swings in the game is when you get more in that ethos
of I got to play this.
I just can't beat it or I got to hope that they don't have it.
Ryan Murphy did a great Yu-Gi-Oh article in 2008.
Yes, this is how deep I've gone on my research where he identifies different zones of the
game that are tied to inflection points.
He starts at the highest being green.
You're in the lead.
Everything's looking great, right?
You got the green light to proceed with your deck's game plan.
The opposite being dead, meaning you are on death's door.
You are about to be finished off in the game.
You have almost no hope of winning.
In between, we go from green to yellow to orange to red, then to that dead.
What's really interesting to think about, and this does actually apply pretty well to
Lorcanah, is you're moving back and forth and you can go up on the scale.
You can make a big play that gets you way back into the game.
Like, whoa, I just four for one my opponent.
That's why we play cards like be prepared.
It's why we play cards like a whole new world.
I didn't have a hand.
I just top deck seven cards.
That's pretty good in a lot of cases.
It can totally swing the game back in your favor where your opponent goes, oh no, I had
six cards in my hand.
My opponent had none.
Now we both have seven.
It's a level playing field now.
That is a really big swing.
So I think that those things really end up mattering in Lorcanah the same way they matter
in this article about inflection points written by Ryan Murphy quite a long time ago for a
completely different game.
And you can see those and it's all about that progressing from, I have the luxury of being
able to play around some cards or some things that this deck commonly does down to, oh crap,
I just got to hope that they don't have this.
And everything else in between is the road from how you get from point A to point B.
Where are you in there?
Are you, I'm about mid road.
Like it's an even game.
Something could definitely break this game open, but neither of us have that option right
now.
So this is where really tight play and a lot of practice and the player who understands
the matchup is going to do the best on the other side of the coin.
Sometimes you have to just make a big swingy play and you go, Hey, neither of us have cards
in hand, but I know you're going to win.
So I'm just going to go ahead and whole new world right now and hope that my seven cards
are just better than your seven cards.
Cause I can't win with the way things are right now that happens from time to time.
As a steel song player, I can tell you what happens a lot.
And that's okay.
That's part of the game is giving yourself the optimal chance to win, which would change
things from what can I play around to?
I got to hope I do this big move and just hope that they don't have the answer.
That's really the key, especially in this game, because there's no quote instant speed
interaction, right?
You cannot interrupt a player's turn during their turn in Lurkana.
You get your turn.
Now other things can trigger that is even more reason to understand what inflection
points occurred, what were the cards, what were the play patterns and what got you here
in the situation you're in.
And are you at that comfortable side of things where it's like, Hey, listen, I can play around
this.
I can play around that.
I'm so far ahead.
As long as I'm just dumped my hand on the board and they be prepared, I'm going to win
no matter what.
And then the other thing I do on the other side of it's just like, Oh man, I really have
to play this really big card and just hope beyond hope that it's good enough that the
opponent does not have it in their hand.
Cause if they have it, I lose and I can't afford to play around it.
So that's really where you're moving through.
And these inflection points are the big moments of the game that cause something to change.
So that's what the idea of inflection points are.
That's breaking them down.
So hopefully this gives you some food for thought.
The next time you're playing where you go, Oh, that was actually a really important part
of the game or this decision is actually huge.
This hinges on whether I'm ahead or behind right now, that is an inflection point in
the game.
And like I said, there's no hard, fast rule on how many you're going to have or how many
is going to occur in the course of a game of Lurkana or any trading card game.
But there is always one absolute when it comes to Disney Lurkana.
And that is that you have to keep questing.