1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,320 Hello and welcome back to Illumination, the Disney Lurkana podcast. 2 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:15,320 My name is Max. 3 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:16,320 And I'm Sam. 4 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:19,080 And this episode, we're looking at Shimmering Skies. 5 00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:21,640 We got eyes in the skies for this episode. 6 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:27,440 And we want to talk about how we decide and make an evaluation if a card is going to be 7 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:31,820 playable or how competitive a card might be. 8 00:00:31,820 --> 00:00:37,680 So I wanted to get a quick disclaimer in there before I start going through our process. 9 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:39,800 Also an announcement before the disclaimer. 10 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:47,680 Announcement, we will be doing our usual set review coming up on this coming Sunday. 11 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:53,060 If you're hearing this at the time of release, that would be August 4th of 2024. 12 00:00:53,060 --> 00:00:56,700 We will be doing that at 8 o'clock Eastern over on our Twitch channel. 13 00:00:56,700 --> 00:01:02,760 If you want to watch it is twitch.tv slash Supra Liminal Films. 14 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:06,200 All one word Supra Liminal Films. 15 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:08,080 If you can spell it, you can find it. 16 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:10,280 And of course, we'll be in the Disney channel. 17 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:13,600 If you go to Twitch and look under Disney, we'll be there as well. 18 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:19,140 Doing that review as always, we will release a recap here for you beloved viewers who listen 19 00:01:19,140 --> 00:01:20,800 to our long set reviews. 20 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:22,440 And we wanted to give you some background information. 21 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:23,480 We haven't done this yet. 22 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:29,520 And since we're going to be evaluating another big load of cards, it would be a good time 23 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:33,340 to probably give you some insight onto how we evaluate cards, how the testing group we 24 00:01:33,340 --> 00:01:34,680 work with evaluate cards. 25 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:40,320 And I think in general, how a lot of people tend to come to a decision on cards, especially 26 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:41,320 sight unseen, right? 27 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:45,460 Like these are generally untested or the first card you want to target to start testing. 28 00:01:45,460 --> 00:01:50,560 Now we're going to play with our paper proxies and our testing versions of cards to try to 29 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:55,120 see if these cards are in fact as good as we think they are, or where does this very 30 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:57,200 good card have a home if at all. 31 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:02,080 So now that I've done that announcement, disclaimer, not every powerful card is going 32 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:04,200 to be a playable card. 33 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:08,440 We're discussing playability in core constructed for Lurkana. 34 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:11,080 That is the sole evaluation we are making. 35 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:12,320 We're not talking about limited. 36 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:13,980 We're not talking about multiplayer. 37 00:02:13,980 --> 00:02:17,520 We might mention them as that might be a possible home for a card every now and again, because 38 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:21,280 everybody gets to play this game the way they wish, which is very important. 39 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:25,320 But our evaluations and the way we look at cards is specifically through the lens of 40 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:27,120 core constructed. 41 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:32,540 Now that being said, not every card that looks underpowered is going to be unplayable either. 42 00:02:32,540 --> 00:02:36,840 There may be cards that look a little like what is this card doing here, but it serves 43 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:39,280 an important part of a deck. 44 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:43,920 We see this from time to time with cards that now in this day and age of almost five sets 45 00:02:43,920 --> 00:02:48,840 in at time of recording, and we still see people playing cards that are stats. 46 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:54,400 We saw this with the red yellow location deck that Towelman Purple made popular playing 47 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:55,580 card soldiers. 48 00:02:55,580 --> 00:03:02,760 We saw this especially towards the very end at the Challenger event with purple steel 49 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:04,520 making a big breakout event. 50 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:06,680 And that was on the back of big boy Chen Po. 51 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:11,000 Argus, 4-1 that's shutting off Flynn Rider got pretty popular at the end of the set. 52 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:12,880 Right at the end of set championships meta. 53 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:18,640 Yeah, 4-1 for two inkable Titan just shut down a lot of Flynn Rider shenanigans out 54 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:22,600 of the gate and trades up pretty effectively with that four strength. 55 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,040 So yes, great call out there as well. 56 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:28,640 So we're going to try our best to determine what is good, what's different, what is going 57 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:29,640 to be playable. 58 00:03:29,640 --> 00:03:31,840 And I just don't want anybody to be like, well, this card's crazy powerful. 59 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:36,680 And you may be right, but there may be reasons why it does not get core constructed play. 60 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,760 And goodness knows we'll probably miss some because none of us would have put Argus on 61 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:46,360 the very playable side except for maybe Steadfast who was playing it with weight set like right 62 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:47,360 out of the gate. 63 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:51,080 So shout out to Steadfast for being so far ahead of the curve that he was at the end 64 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:52,240 of the meta at the beginning. 65 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:53,240 Well done. 66 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:55,440 So let's first talk about one of the things we look at. 67 00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:59,760 I think it's one of the easiest ways to evaluate the cards or most obvious I should say. 68 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:05,640 And that is when a card comes out that fulfills a need in a pre-existing archetype. 69 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:08,560 And when I say archetype, I mean a strategy. 70 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:14,000 So for example, a couple versions of an archetype might be the blue item based strategy. 71 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:15,640 So we see this a lot with blue steel. 72 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:18,040 We see this a lot with Ruby Sapphire. 73 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:21,920 These are the decks where their strategy is to ramp up in ink very quickly, generate a 74 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:26,760 whole bunch of ink and start playing very powerful, expensive cards way ahead of schedule. 75 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:27,920 Another archetype, Sam? 76 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:28,920 Agro. 77 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:32,520 So you're talking about cheap and aggressively statted characters, perhaps. 78 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:33,520 Yes. 79 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:36,280 Things that give us the ability to come back from behind. 80 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:39,720 Things like Arthur is a good example of something that helped the aggro decks along, especially 81 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:42,280 the quote unquote hyper aggro style decks. 82 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:43,280 Yes. 83 00:04:43,280 --> 00:04:44,920 Or like Piglet was a good one for the aggro. 84 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:45,920 A great one. 85 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:46,920 Yes. 86 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:48,400 Pooh Pirate Captain, one of my all time favorites. 87 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:49,920 There are also tempo style decks. 88 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:53,920 We see this a lot with the very popular green purple and a little bit more controlling with 89 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:56,160 the Ruby Amethyst style deck. 90 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:58,360 So there are a bunch of different strategies. 91 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,120 What does this card fill a need in one of those? 92 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:05,040 So for example, blue decks in chapter one were struggling immensely. 93 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,120 Blue wasn't a super playable color. 94 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:10,360 We also saw the potential in cards like Tamatella and one jump ahead. 95 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:14,600 But until a little item that came out in cost one was printed in Rise of the Floodborne, 96 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:16,360 the color struggled pretty badly. 97 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:21,440 And that card was popsicle and it definitely filled a need that that deck had. 98 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:23,040 It put a cheap item on the board. 99 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:27,360 It also refilled your hand by replacing itself, which was excellent. 100 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:31,600 And the card is an absolute staple of the color at this point. 101 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:32,600 Right. 102 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:34,600 And I think Hyrum goes right along with that. 103 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:35,600 It really does. 104 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:38,560 We're going to call out that particular card several times during this. 105 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:39,860 Does it fill a need? 106 00:05:39,860 --> 00:05:43,240 Does it improve over an existing card? 107 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:48,760 I think we saw one of the biggest improvements possible when in the first chapter meta, especially 108 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:54,680 in the Ruby Amethyst decks, we're playing the three cost uninkable Rafiki. 109 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:58,440 So three three for three uninkable with rush, quested for one. 110 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:04,000 Then in Rise of the Floodborne, we got one of the most defining cards of the entire game 111 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:05,080 of Lurkana. 112 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:11,600 And that was the three cost uninkable for three rush, Madam Mim Fox, which is an absolute 113 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:16,480 contender for one of the if not the best card printed in the game up to this point. 114 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:19,780 This card is extraordinarily format and game defining. 115 00:06:19,780 --> 00:06:22,600 And that was an extreme upgrade over Rafiki. 116 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:27,560 And finally, when you're looking at filling a need, does this card help the deck win the 117 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:28,560 game? 118 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:36,760 I think that we got another big up for Sapphire in into the Inklans when we got a little item 119 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:37,760 by little. 120 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:38,760 I mean, gigantic. 121 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,880 It's a little item, really, if you think about it, though, it's a dime, but it costs seven 122 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:43,720 because it's so darn lucky. 123 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:47,880 And that card ended up really defining how these decks won the game. 124 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:52,980 Now it wasn't long and grindy and they just exhausted everything and won with a couple 125 00:06:52,980 --> 00:06:54,900 cards in deck that can still happen. 126 00:06:54,900 --> 00:06:59,040 But now with the redundancy of Tamate and the ability to play Lucky Dime and activate 127 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:04,680 Lucky Dime when your Tamate can casually add six or seven lore to your lore total, that 128 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:05,680 card became a win condition. 129 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:11,320 And we saw similar with the Queen's Castle, which is now how the Ruby Amethyst decks tend 130 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:15,520 to win the game if they're not just goading, which is another thing that helps that deck 131 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:16,520 win the game. 132 00:07:16,520 --> 00:07:19,500 That's gotten a lot of tools, it seems like over time. 133 00:07:19,500 --> 00:07:21,400 And it's definitely changed in the first chapter. 134 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:25,200 Tamate or Ruby Amethyst was a straight up long game control deck. 135 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:26,200 You played Magic Mirrors. 136 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:27,200 You went to time. 137 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:29,120 Time decked out. 138 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:33,220 Literally the tech was befuddling your magic brooms so that you didn't mill yourself out. 139 00:07:33,220 --> 00:07:35,400 That's how long and grindy these games were. 140 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:40,160 Cut to now, the preferred line of play is Flynn Rider, friend of me on two, Sisu and 141 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:43,640 Bulban Warrior on three, Queen's Castle on four to try to close the game out in a couple 142 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:44,640 of turns. 143 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:45,640 Right. 144 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:47,800 Explosive power like we hadn't seen previously. 145 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:49,080 Quite a bit different. 146 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:51,760 All the cards we just talked about fill a different need. 147 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:54,080 And I think that's an important step in evaluating a card. 148 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:59,360 And it's obviously easier to do or at least more obvious to spot because a lot of times 149 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,800 you're playing the deck, you're going to go, oh, if only I had a card that did this. 150 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:04,640 Oh, if only this card did this. 151 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:09,040 And then they print that card for you and it's like, oh, my prayers have been answered. 152 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:10,720 This is exactly what the deck needed. 153 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:11,720 Yeah. 154 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:14,920 My hope is that we'll get a good Ruby or Amethyst item removal. 155 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:15,920 Yes. 156 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:17,680 I know we got some bounce to set, but. 157 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:22,000 Yeah, it definitely knocks them off tempo when they play lucky dime too fast. 158 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:25,080 That's usually how the game spirals out of control for Ruby Amethyst when they're playing 159 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,600 against the blue decks, because then they just get value every time they play something 160 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:29,920 before you can be prepared. 161 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:31,700 And that makes it very hard to win. 162 00:08:31,700 --> 00:08:36,440 So if it's not filling a need in a current deck, then maybe it's a card that'll make 163 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:42,960 a whole new archetype or fill in parts to create a strategy that was a fringe playable 164 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:44,160 strategy. 165 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:48,880 One of the most obvious examples of this would be, again, going from Tamatoa to Popsicle, 166 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:49,880 right? 167 00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:51,080 We knew Tamatoa was going to be awesome. 168 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:52,720 We knew this card was going to be very powerful. 169 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:53,720 Right. 170 00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:54,720 But in the set one, there was nothing. 171 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:55,720 There was nothing to do. 172 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:56,720 Right. 173 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:59,360 So is this card opening the gate for something brand new? 174 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:01,400 So is it something crazy powerful? 175 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:05,080 We saw this in our most recent set at time of recording, which was Ursula's Return, 176 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:07,840 a little three cost birdie called Diablo. 177 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:10,700 This card completely warped the metagame. 178 00:09:10,700 --> 00:09:17,200 It made it to where one could argue it was a major contributor to Bucky being errata-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t 179 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:22,440 and changed over to the point where it might most likely not be playable anymore because 180 00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:25,200 Diablo is just so darn powerful. 181 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:30,720 Hiram Flavisham completely created what seemed like an unbeatable archetype for the first 182 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:34,040 four to six weeks of flood-borne core constructed. 183 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:36,620 It was extraordinarily powerful. 184 00:09:36,620 --> 00:09:40,360 It was baffling that a card that powerful could be printed levels of baffling. 185 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:42,760 I was concerned about the game's health when I saw that card. 186 00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:46,560 It seems like when a new set releases, we definitely have that one deck 187 00:09:46,560 --> 00:09:48,600 that just beats everything for the first couple of weeks. 188 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:51,160 And in Public Enemy number one, that is definitely we talked about that 189 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:53,360 in our metagames episode, so a good call out there as well. 190 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:56,800 For sure. There's one strategy is just like, oh, this is real good now. 191 00:09:56,800 --> 00:09:58,720 And then takes us a few weeks to figure out how to beat it. 192 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,880 Green Steel was the bully of the format up until very, very recently, 193 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:05,920 probably like second to third week into set champs. 194 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:08,680 We started to see finally a bit of a decline there. 195 00:10:08,680 --> 00:10:13,800 If it's doing something new, does it allow a deck maybe to play around 196 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:17,040 things that are in the meta or get an edge in these cards? 197 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:21,000 So, for example, Ursula, Deceiver, Bear Necessities, two cards 198 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:24,520 that kept the control decks down because they were so much faster 199 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:25,800 than Be Prepared. 200 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:31,160 But we got a huge boost when Sisu came out, the big legendary Sisu. 201 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:34,440 Wow. Now we have a way to play something on eight that's untouchable 202 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:38,600 in our hand, unless just purely discarded or conversely shifted on six. 203 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,920 So it can even come out ahead of schedule and very ahead of schedule sometimes. 204 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:46,920 Or if you do Sisu on three, ramp again and then you can get the big Sisu 205 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:49,960 down as early as turn four or five. It's very, very oppressive. 206 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:54,960 So that really helped and became such a playable card because it played around 207 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:58,200 a lot of the hand disruption that was very, very popular, 208 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:01,280 especially at the beginning of the Ursula's Return meta game. 209 00:11:01,280 --> 00:11:03,240 So that's making something new. 210 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:06,640 Same as any other card you want to call out in the making something new category. 211 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:08,600 Just making sure I didn't overlook anything. 212 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:10,680 The only thing I can think of is maybe like locations. 213 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:13,680 We did see some location control decks. Absolutely. 214 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:16,560 We did see a few of those, again, Tauman Purple coming up 215 00:11:16,560 --> 00:11:19,360 and making some cards like Tiana's Palace and the Underworld. 216 00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:23,600 All of a sudden, very scary. Brought back Jim Hawkins and the card 217 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:26,680 that was somehow very good in that deck that I don't think is very good 218 00:11:26,680 --> 00:11:30,400 just in time. It was just very powerful, very quick to the ground 219 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:32,480 and just created a lore advantage. 220 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,240 Ruby Amethyst ended up kind of replicating in a lot of ways. 221 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:38,840 Yeah, that deck, if you get caught off guard with it, nothing you can really do. 222 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:41,800 Some other things to keep in mind that don't really like fill out 223 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:43,840 an entire category on their own. 224 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:48,880 The major contributor, I would say, above all else, is the cost. 225 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:50,800 Cost is everything. 226 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:53,600 The sooner you can do something, the more powerful it is. 227 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:57,280 We saw this with Diablo, the big play pattern for Emerald Steel. 228 00:11:57,280 --> 00:12:00,360 We talked about it a lot on the podcast is turn one Diablo, 229 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:04,000 check their hand, coast is clear. Turn two Bucky, 230 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,720 shift Diablo and then sing something. 231 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:09,840 The Lemon Lime decks really take pretty obnoxious advantage of this 232 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:12,640 because you replace Bucky with Ursula, strip out their song removal 233 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:15,160 and then sing Bear Necessities with the shifted Diablo 234 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:16,720 and then strip out like their baboom. 235 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:20,000 I've just beaten Green Steel several games where it's just like, 236 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:22,880 I've taken all your removal now, so I'm going to have Diablo out 237 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:24,440 for the next multiple turns. 238 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:26,880 It's very, very oppressive against Ruby Amethyst. 239 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:30,440 You get to strip out their brawls and then it just you guarantee it sticks around. 240 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:33,960 The cost is everything in a lot of cases. 241 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:36,560 A good example of this when it comes to flexibility, 242 00:12:36,560 --> 00:12:38,640 especially we're talking about ink ability. 243 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:40,960 We're talking about options on the card. 244 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:42,200 These are very important. 245 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:45,080 So cost and flexibility really are the hallmarks. 246 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:50,520 The new Pete, Pete game referee is really quite a bit different. 247 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,880 He's a three, three, one for three inkable that when he comes into play 248 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:58,480 until the start of your next turn, your opponent can't play actions. 249 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:00,360 That is absolutely insane. 250 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:03,640 And it's very similar to a card we had previously, which was Tiana, 251 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:07,360 the four cost uninkable that required you to have no cards in hand 252 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:08,560 and her to be exerted. 253 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:13,480 So you can see the cost and the flexibility are so much less for Tiana 254 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:14,400 than they are for Pete. 255 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:16,760 Pete, if it's not going to be useful, I ink it. 256 00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:18,440 Tiana stuck in my hand. 257 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:21,560 If I draw two Tianas and I can't play them, it's going to be even harder 258 00:13:21,560 --> 00:13:23,040 for the first Tiana to go off. 259 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:24,560 Pete doesn't have that problem. 260 00:13:24,560 --> 00:13:27,640 Pete can play with Madam Mim very well because you pick it up, put it back down. 261 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:29,200 Tiana, not so much. 262 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:30,760 No actions turn after turn. 263 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:32,960 Right. You can see kind of the flexibility 264 00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:35,160 and the positives and negatives. 265 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:39,400 Another example of cost being a major factor is sometimes we see an effect 266 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:42,280 that's big and grandiose, but it's expensive. 267 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:45,320 So we'll see this usually attached to like rares or super rares 268 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:48,400 where like a very stripped down version will be on a common. 269 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:54,160 So a good example of this, two very playable cards would be Elsa versus Pinocchio. 270 00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:58,280 Pinocchio is all two drop that's uninkable that comes in and just exerts. 271 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:01,320 It doesn't freeze or keep something exerted, just exerts. 272 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:04,960 But on the other hand, we have Elsa, who's a gigantic eight drop 273 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:06,800 that's uninkable at quests for a lot. 274 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:10,200 And it comes down and it exerts two characters and keeps them exerted. 275 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:12,200 Huge difference in what you're getting. 276 00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:13,640 Huge difference in cost. 277 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:16,320 Cards that are typically on the Elsa side of the spectrum 278 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:18,320 are the ones that tend to be less playable. 279 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,960 A good call out to represent this would be a card like Friends on the Other Side, 280 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:25,160 which is probably one of the most defining cards in Purple, 281 00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:30,200 versus Second Star to the Right, which is extraordinarily expensive card. 282 00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:32,880 It draws over double the amount of cards, 283 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:35,280 two and a half times the amount of cards as Friends on the Other Side. 284 00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:37,640 It also costs over three times more. 285 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:41,560 It can be sung, but there's just so little going on over here. 286 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:42,440 It's not uninkable. 287 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:45,720 It just doesn't check enough boxes to see play. 288 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:50,360 And it only saw fringe play in certain Jafar style decks, 289 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:53,720 where Friends on the Other Side, if you're playing Amethyst, 290 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:57,520 probably one of the reasons you are is because of Friends on the Other Side. 291 00:14:57,520 --> 00:14:59,280 So that's kind of the difference there. 292 00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:04,120 Another good indicator of if a card can be playable in core construct, 293 00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:08,280 is it an effect that's stapled onto a character card? 294 00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:12,480 What I mean by that is, is it an effect that takes an entire card, 295 00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:14,880 or is it part of the card? 296 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:17,800 I'm going to, again, go to an example that I made a little bit earlier 297 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:20,640 with one of the cards, and that was the two-drop Pinocchio 298 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:23,000 that exerts a character when he comes into play. 299 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,640 Compare that to first chapter action, Freeze. 300 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:28,960 Pinocchio is not uninkable, Freeze is. 301 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:30,880 They both exert a character. 302 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:32,560 Freeze keeps it exerted. 303 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:33,840 Pinocchio does not. 304 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:37,680 But Pinocchio is a 1-1-1, so he can quest for one. 305 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:39,760 He has one strength and one willpower. 306 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:43,000 Pinocchio saw infinitely more play than Freeze. 307 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:44,640 Yeah, you can pick him up and do it again. 308 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:46,120 Repeatable effects, right? 309 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:47,760 We talked about Madam Mim already. 310 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:50,400 There's a whole plethora of cards, and we're getting a new one, 311 00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:53,040 a new Madam Mim in the upcoming Shimmering Skies. 312 00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:54,600 Picking things up and putting them back down 313 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:57,600 is going to be a color identity thing for Purple. 314 00:15:57,600 --> 00:15:59,320 Like, that's what Amethyst wants to do, 315 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:01,440 is pick things up and put them back down. 316 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:05,800 That is extremely powerful with comes-into-play style effects, 317 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:10,280 wherein one-time use actions, you're using an entire card. 318 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:12,400 Pinocchio, I'm using part of a card. 319 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:14,640 Now, imagine Freeze said, gain three lore. 320 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:16,480 All of a sudden, that's a lot more powerful of a card. 321 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:17,840 Pinocchio can kind of do that. 322 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:19,600 Pinocchio can trade with something. 323 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,280 Pinocchio can get buffed and smack into something. 324 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:23,800 Pinocchio can quest for the win. 325 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:25,160 Freeze can't do any of that. 326 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:26,880 It's always one-for-one in a card. 327 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,200 Pinocchio can be one-half for one, 328 00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:30,560 and that's a huge difference. 329 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:32,040 When we're talking about cost of cards, 330 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:35,920 the biggest increase in a game is from zero to one, 331 00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:37,440 nothing to something. 332 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:39,400 Something that costs one is way worse 333 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:41,000 than something that costs nothing. 334 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:44,120 The next biggest jump is two, from one to two, right? 335 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:46,400 Because two is twice as much as one. 336 00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:48,560 Two to three, that's not twice as much. 337 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:50,800 Zero to one is infinitely more. 338 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:52,520 One to two is twice as much. 339 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:54,840 They're the two biggest costs in a game. 340 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:56,240 So when you're evaluating cards, 341 00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:57,840 a card that costs three or four 342 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:00,720 and a card that costs one or zero or two, 343 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:02,840 there's a lot different evaluations going on. 344 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:05,600 So cost, the ability to be stapled onto a card 345 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,720 and do something essentially as part of a card is huge. 346 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:10,680 Multipurpose is another thing 347 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,000 that makes a card very playable in Core Constructed. 348 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:14,680 A card that we're hemming and hauling about 349 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,400 on our set review for Into the Inklands 350 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:18,840 was Rise of the Titans. 351 00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:20,640 How important are locations gonna be? 352 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:22,800 We didn't think Lucky Dime was gonna be as impactful 353 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:23,720 as it ended up being, 354 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:25,720 and it ended up, because of the combination of things 355 00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:28,080 like McDuck Manor, Queens Castle, and Lucky Dime, 356 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:30,840 Rise of the Titans was insanely playable. 357 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:32,480 It had technically three modes 358 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:35,160 because it was inkable on top of destroying a location 359 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:36,000 or an item. 360 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:37,360 Banish things or ink it. 361 00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:39,880 Perfect, you don't play items or locations, 362 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:40,720 we're inking it. 363 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:41,840 I play the third mode. 364 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:43,200 Same with like Baboom, 365 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:45,320 with it being able to target a location 366 00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:46,640 as well as a character. 367 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:47,720 Absolutely, or being. 368 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:48,560 Yeah. 369 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:49,600 Three modes, we love it. 370 00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:51,520 That makes it very, very playable. 371 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:53,960 What makes a card hard to evaluate 372 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:55,440 is how I wanna close this out 373 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,360 because I think it is worth calling out for sure. 374 00:17:58,360 --> 00:18:00,520 Is it a brand new card? 375 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,040 Is it something we've never seen before? 376 00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:03,880 This happened to us, 377 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:06,680 and into the Inklands, when locations were introduced, 378 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:11,040 we had no idea if they were gonna be playable. 379 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:12,880 How important was it that they were inkable? 380 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:16,560 How important was the actual willpower of a location? 381 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:20,320 How important was the cost to move to a location? 382 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:22,640 How important was how much lore it generates? 383 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,280 All questions that we're still asking to some extent 384 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:26,680 today, we're starting to learn things. 385 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:28,520 We know like some baselines now. 386 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:30,000 If it has seven willpower, 387 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:31,760 it means it can't be one-shotted by Maui, 388 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:33,280 so that's very important. 389 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:35,800 We've seen cards like Hercules start to come to the forefront 390 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:37,280 to answer cards like this. 391 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,000 That's another card that's just stats. 392 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:40,040 Never in a million years, 393 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:42,160 where I thought that a bad looking Maui 394 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:45,320 that was uninkable and only had three willpower 395 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:46,520 ever be played, 396 00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:48,960 but it was being played like a Bad Rise of the Titans 397 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:51,440 in the Ruby Sapphire decks towards the end of Set Champs 398 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:52,280 because it's like, 399 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:54,280 I just need something that can one-shot a Queen's Castle. 400 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:56,720 I need something that can be vitalisfeared 401 00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:58,800 and smack into an answer a McDuck Manor. 402 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:00,320 I need something like that, 403 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:02,320 which is really, really surprising. 404 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:05,040 And that's what makes these cards hard to evaluate. 405 00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:06,680 There's brand new cards. 406 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:09,560 There's maybe a new effect that we've never seen before. 407 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:12,600 This set has a legendary card, it's Sapphire Merlin, 408 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:14,160 that actually lets you search through your deck 409 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:15,640 for any card you want. 410 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:17,320 We have never seen that in Lurkana. 411 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:18,160 That's brand new. 412 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:19,480 Searching your deck is not something 413 00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:21,840 that's commonly done in Lurkana, period. 414 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:24,840 That is uncharted territory for us. 415 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:26,600 So maybe it's gonna be really good. 416 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:28,320 Maybe it's too slow and clunky. 417 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:30,040 Maybe we have to wait for the cheaper version 418 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:32,040 of the legendary Merlin to come out. 419 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:34,560 And then of course, there is the powerful, 420 00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:37,680 but expensive aspect to a card. 421 00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:39,360 We saw this with Jafar. 422 00:19:39,360 --> 00:19:40,960 It was very expensive to play, 423 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,200 but the ability could win you the game. 424 00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:44,440 So there's other things like that. 425 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:45,920 And in tandem with Jafar, 426 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:48,480 is it reliant on other cards to be good? 427 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:50,280 Because that can also be a trap. 428 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:52,200 Jafar, we've seen, I think, missed the mark. 429 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:53,040 A lot of people put it out. 430 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:55,840 A lot of people put it as completely game changing 431 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:58,440 and defining like Madame Mim and Madame Medusa were. 432 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:00,960 That card ended up being a little bit of a misfire. 433 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,360 I think it is still a build around card that's okay, 434 00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:05,920 but it's a build around card that's okay. 435 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:07,840 It's not a card that's so broken, 436 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:11,000 it was the first card to receive a Ratta for the game. 437 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:12,120 So that's the difference. 438 00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:14,120 Cards that reward you for doing the thing 439 00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:16,640 you already want to do, on the other hand, 440 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:19,920 are very dangerous, which is why we see a Ratta for Bucky. 441 00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:21,160 That's a card that just goes, 442 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,000 oh, are you already playing cards in the game? 443 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:23,840 Oh, cool. 444 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:25,440 Then have your opponent discard a card 445 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:26,880 every time you play cards in the game. 446 00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:28,160 That's insane. 447 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:29,520 Oh, are you trying to win with Lore? 448 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:31,040 Are you gonna play characters to quest? 449 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:32,760 Cool, when you put this one into play, 450 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:33,920 it's gonna gain you a Lore. 451 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:34,760 You know what? 452 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:36,800 As an added kicker for no additional cost to you, 453 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:38,200 when it leaves play, you gain a Lore too. 454 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:39,720 That's why it's the GOAT. 455 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:42,160 So it's really hard to evaluate cards 456 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:43,760 for a plethora of reasons. 457 00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:46,440 So hopefully, these little check boxes 458 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:48,480 will help you with your evaluation. 459 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,200 Hopefully, it'll stop you from shouting yourself horse at us 460 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:55,000 when we do our evaluation, which by the way, 461 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,880 at time of recording will be this Sunday, August 4th, 462 00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:01,920 at eight o'clock p.m. Eastern time on twitch.tv 463 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,680 slash supraliminalfilms. 464 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:06,520 And of course, we'll put it on here 465 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:09,400 for all of you to consume if you prefer your podcasts, 466 00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:12,600 mono aural and no video, but it'll be in stereo, 467 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:15,880 not mono aural, which is the old mono versus stereo track. 468 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:17,640 It was a joke if you're an audiophile. 469 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:18,720 Hope you enjoyed that joke. 470 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:21,640 Hope you enjoyed us giving you some insight. 471 00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:24,640 And we hope beyond hope when you're playing Lurkana, you. 472 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:47,640 Keep questing.