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

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My name is Max.

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And I'm Sam.

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And we are here yet again with you fine listeners to discuss some Lorcanah.

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This is a little bit more of a foundational style episode for episode 17.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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And if you've been tuning in, thank you so much.

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We appreciate you being here and hope that you keep coming back if you're new.

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Same thing, no notes.

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This week we are here to talk about ways that people tend to play the game or quote methodologies

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that you can use to improve your game.

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And before we dive too far into it, I just want to preface everything and I will mention

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it again to bookend the episode because that's just good writing that you should play the

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way you get enjoyment from the game.

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One of what we're about to go over is more correct than another way.

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It's all about what you prefer and we don't want you to think the way you do it is necessarily

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the wrong way.

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And you may do it one of these ways.

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You may do it a little differently.

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There's no right or wrong way.

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Having played different trading card games for quite a long time, I have found that there's

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generally about three buckets that people tend to go into when we're talking about ways

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they approach the metagame, deck building and deck choices.

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So that's really what we want to highlight in this episode.

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Sam, do you want to walk us through the big three categories of deck choices?

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Sure.

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We got our generalist, our specialists and our hybrid players.

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Yes.

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There are three buckets there, a generalist, a specialist and kind of the mix with your

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hybrid style player.

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Most people, if I had to take a stab in the dark, are going to fall into that hybrid category.

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I think a good testing team would encompass many of those things.

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And I think that most people tend to be one of these styles.

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So let's start off with the generalist.

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What is a generalist?

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This tends to be a player who builds many decks or plays many styles of decks, especially

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the quote unquote most powerful meta deck choices in the format, irrespective of what

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they play.

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So some archetypes we see a lot, Sam, what do we got in the mix for usually some of the

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best decks in Lorcan?

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We got Ruby Amethyst, Steel Song.

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Popsicle of your choice.

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These are all disparate, right?

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You just named a kind of controlling tempo style deck with the Ruby Amethyst style deck.

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You named a very large swath of possible ways to build a Steel Song deck.

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And you also named controlling style decks with the Popsicle style of decks, Hyper Agro,

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who you're starting to see a lot of the green purple tempo decks, things like that tend

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to flare up, but they're all different styles.

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A generalist will play whatever one is quote the best or one of the best choices, right?

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You'll see this a lot in tier lists where it comes to S tier or back in my day, we called

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it tier one to whatever your ranking system of choices.

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So would you say that the generalist is typically playing like whoever won the latest big tournament?

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Maybe not playing it, but definitely building it to play against it.

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They're the person when you're play testing comes with a pile of decks built and are like,

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I'll play any of these you want me to play with, which is an amazing person to have on

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your testing team.

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The generalist is going to be the person who will run you as one of the other two categories

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through the most testing.

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They're going to bring a lot of decks.

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Everybody will bring a couple of decks, usually that they're excited to try.

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The generalist will come with a pile of these different decks.

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They are definitely interested in that.

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They don't care about the play pattern.

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They don't care about the color combination.

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They just care about the strongest decks in the metagame.

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So they're going to have that big giant pile that they're hoarding around with them.

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And I think that they'll have the widest knowledge pool.

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And by that, I mean they will know the most about all of the decks.

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They'll know how to operate every deck.

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So the cons there is while they have a wide knowledge base, they will not have a deep

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knowledge base for any particular deck.

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Definitely not for about more than a month if they get it at all, just because they're

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so focused across the board and saying, we've seen this and I'm sure you've seen this out

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there listeners, if you've gone on your set championship for Ursula's return, I've seen

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people show up every single set champs.

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They were bringing a different deck with them.

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They were just like, okay, this one overperformed or this one put up the best results the week

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before based on all of my research and they'll do the research.

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They'll get your data.

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They do all kinds of great things.

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If you have a generalist on your testing team or you are a generalist, bless your heart

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because you do a lot of heavy lifting for any team.

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So hats are off to you.

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They're also one of the big benefits to being a generalist is they typically are not surprised

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by any deck because they just know, oh yeah, that placed eighth in this 5K that was three

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and a half weeks ago and is slowly ticked up in popularity over the past couple of big

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tournaments.

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That's what a generalist will pull out of their brain.

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And this is an insanely important thing.

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You're going to see generalists, if you're familiar with content creators in the space

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like ourselves, Zan Sayed is one of the big generalists and pushes a lot of people to

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become generalists because one of the big benefits to being a generalist, Sam, is if

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you know how a deck works, even if you're not playing it, you can play against it inherently

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when they're struggling.

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What to expect.

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What's a strong like, oh, that's their best line.

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That's their best opening move.

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I'm in trouble or oh, that means they got that opening line.

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That means they got nothing.

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That is the power of a generalist.

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So it's really important to know that and to kind of keep that in the back of your mind

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and they have such a best 10,000 foot view of the Lurkana meta have their hands and their

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eyes on everything.

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So what do they not do so well?

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They are prone to making play mistakes because they don't have a deep knowledge and they

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often don't have the finest interactions and the most subtle interplay in their deck.

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You'll see somebody often miss sequence a turn on occasion who tend to be generalists.

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They've taken their 10,000 hours and divided it across the thousand decks versus taking

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their 10,000 hours and putting it into one deck.

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So that is definitely something that works against being a generalist.

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And having been a generalist, I think at the beginning of Lurkana and every set I tend

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to try something new and push my boundaries.

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I can definitely see that and I definitely know when the first dozen, two dozen, five

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dozen times in with a new deck, I'm still seeing places I can improve the hallmark of

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a good player seeing where they could play better.

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Our next category, which is a specialist, a specialist is pretty much the exact opposite

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of a generalist.

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So if a generalist has a wide view and understands everything, a specialist has an insanely deep

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view, but a very limited width of field, right?

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Like they have a huge depth of field, but a very narrow width because they're absolute

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masters at one color combination or two colors.

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That is what they do.

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We've seen this a lot over time with players, especially with the color combination of Ruby

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Amethyst.

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No, I'm not.

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Kendall Burnett, very, very specific specialist in the Ruby Amethyst archetype.

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And the reason I think we see that archetype yield specialist, Lurkana Brawa is the same

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for Amber Steel Song.

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These are two of the oldest archetypes in the game.

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They've been around since the first chapter meta and they continue to evolve and continue

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to put up results.

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And I think that these color combinations have a lot to offer in the game and they have

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a lot of really powerful card choices.

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And we see these people who become master craftsmen of this one archetype and one color

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pair where it's like, Oh no, it's really important.

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You understand that I switched out this random two drop for this random two drop because

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you need the inkable now that Prince Navin's around, you need to be able to go like two,

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three, four, and that needs to be a good line.

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If you don't have your one, three shift line, like they understand all of these inherent

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things.

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Kendall Burnett very good at calling out cards that might fly under your radar as just a

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generalist to put into your Ruby Amethyst decks and really increase the power levels

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within because that's something that somebody may just bypass that card.

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It's a common that I didn't read because it's kind of a draft card where no, I'm not is

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digging deep into it and going, you know what, if you look, there's this a very fine interaction

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here with these two other cards that are already in the deck.

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So putting this card in actually is crazy.

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Those are the things you start to pick up as a specialist.

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They see things that generalists don't generalist are looking for the most powerful cards typically,

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right?

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Cause they're looking at every card in Lurkana that comes out in every set where these specialists

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are like, well, I'm just focusing on two colors of six.

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So they have a much narrower field of view and they become master pilots of their deck.

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They're not going to be playing mistakes made.

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They're going to know those very deep interactions.

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If I top deck this, I can then do this, do this, and that'll result in putting me in

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not necessarily in the lead, but it'll put me closer to parody.

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They know that.

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And I have two of those in my deck total.

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I haven't seen any, I haven't inked it.

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They're just master pilots of their deck.

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One of the cons though to that is they don't have a lot of knowledge of the other meta

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decks.

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They're aware of them and they kind of know the deal.

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Oh, it's control deck.

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Oh, it's a combo deck.

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Oh, it's an aggro deck.

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But the way they understand their deck, they don't understand other decks as well because

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they've put all of their focus into their deck.

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They also are restricting the card pool they're looking at.

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So they often at times will be limited on cards that can answer certain meta staples.

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So it's like, oh, this archetype got really popular.

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I think we've seen it.

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Lucky dime.

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When we're speaking about Ruby Amethyst specifically is a nightmare card for Ruby Amethyst historically

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because you don't have any item interaction.

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None.

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The two colors do not interact with items.

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A little bit more now, but the cards are kind of fringe, but not even cards that interact

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specifically, but how do we undo this strategy, maybe get under them before they can do it?

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Seen this a lot last set in the Ursula's return meta where Ruby Amethyst played against Blue

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Steel.

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Blue Steel had to bring in Argus to counter the Flynn Rider frenemy into Sisu and Bolden

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Warrior into Queen's Castle line, which wrecked Blue Steel.

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And it was really hard for them to do anything against it.

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It was so lightning quick.

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So they didn't bring in a card to counter Lucky Dime.

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They just went, no, it's three cards.

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We'll just win the game first.

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How about that?

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I'll just counter it, right?

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I'll just win.

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Great concept.

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This is what deck specialists are really, really good at.

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And that's why they're very, very powerful to have on a testing team because they're

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going to be sitting over there in a corner stacked up with these cards of these two colors

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only and they're going to understand these fine little interactions that come up and

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they go, oh, well actually, and push up their glasses and tell you that there's a card that

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was a common from three sets ago that also gave a card exert in addition to this other

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thing.

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But now that's playable because then they go into this long rambling scenario about

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how that interacts with this and that that Charlie Day meme of him connecting all of

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the crazy yarn together and looking insane.

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That's what the specialist is over in the corner doing, trying to explain to you how

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they can get the cards of these two colors to work together.

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Really, really neat and really fun.

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And they just have such this strong intuition and knowledge of these colors.

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It makes them a real weapon on a testing team.

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You can see why they work hand in hand with the generalist, right?

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Because now the generalist is going to sit there with a pile and play them with the best

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decks in the meta and that's going to teach them how to respond to those decks in kind.

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And then the specialist is going to say, I think I could pilot this deck really well.

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I don't know if you generalists will have the best shot with it because it's not inherently

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the most powerful.

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I think this is the most powerful version of this deck.

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And I think if you put in more time, you can get very good with it.

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But I think where you're at right now, you might just want to pick this deck.

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That's just a more meta strong out of the gate meta choice specialist.

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Like I said, no, I'm not great call out for a specialist there.

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Lorcanabro, a big believer in the Amber Steel song deck.

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We see a lot of specialists who put out content and generally we tend to gravitate towards

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the specialist that put out decks that do the thing we like.

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And that kind of leads us into the third and I think probably the most common play style.

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I think Sam and I both fall into this category more than the other two.

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And that's the hybrid of the two.

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And this is kind of like if you mushed them both together.

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So the hybrid player tends to prefer a play style or a series of play patterns over a

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specific color combination.

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But they also like one play style and tend to gravitate towards that.

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I think a really good call out for a content creator who's very good at this is Artebax.

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Artebax loves the purple surrounded decks, the ones that tend to be more tempo oriented.

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They're capable of controlling the board just long enough to give them an edge in the lore

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lead and then take over the game.

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Or just keep their foot on the gas and just win the game like an aggro deck.

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That's what the tempo deck does, right?

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Tempo means playing to the board or playing to in play for Lor'Kana versus in the hand,

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which is more the hallmark of a control deck trying to gain card advantage versus tempo

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deck trying to really push down board advantage.

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Both through putting highly-statted characters into play ahead of time, like Madame M. Fox

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being the hallmark card in Lor'Kana for a tempo card versus friends on the other side,

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which grants them card advantage and they can turn that into board advantage.

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So they're not putting down things like Daisy Duck.

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They're worried about putting down Madame M. to deal with the Daisy Duck and then quest

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with their Curse Merfolk.

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Knock you down in cards while they go up cards and keep that advantage, right?

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They have the steady stream of cards going from the hand to the board and trying to limit

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your ability to do both.

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And Artebax really I think highlights that I've seen him play.

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Ruby Amethyst I've seen him play obviously really broke out on the scene during Into

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the Inklans with Emerald Amethyst.

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That was really his hallmark and premier child, if you will, in the game.

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And I think he did a great job of championing it.

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And we still see people playing that color combination.

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Now two sets later, it's one of the big color combinations.

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Brendan Candio is a good call.

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Plays Mufasa, plays Steel Song, like generally plays something in that range, tends to be

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like in the amber range, like wants to be proactive and typically a little bit more

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mid-rangey.

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I think that is a really good example, but the hybrid player is willing to play anything

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that fits into that style.

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It doesn't matter what the color combination is per se, so long as it fits in that style.

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Is it a mid-range deck?

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I'll try it.

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Is it a tempo deck?

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I'll try it.

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Is it a

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tempo deck?

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entire day with this thing.

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I don't typically like the decks that you play.

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Right.

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I like decks that operate on typically lower resources,

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and often decks that will put opponents in a position where

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they are working off of limited resources.

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But if your deck is designed to draw a bunch of cards,

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or we're both drawing a bunch of cards,

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that's when I struggle.

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Because there's so many choices, and I get analysis,

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paralysis.

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And that's what I like.

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I like having a bunch of cards in my hand,

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playing to the board, bouncing.

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Yeah, you like the tempo style decks.

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You really want the big hand with a lot of options,

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and you want to always have the upper hand

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on your opponent on the board.

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And that is the comfort zone a lot of people play in.

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I only like this kind of deck.

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I only like that kind of deck.

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And it can extend all the way into things like,

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I only like playing decks I make.

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And if you get outside of that comfort zone,

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it can get a little scary.

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And that definitely makes sense.

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I think it's a really neat way to kind of set the balance

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between them is to do that.

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The pros kind of land in the middle, right?

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You're not going to get caught off guard very often,

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because you know what a lot of the decks are.

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But you will often kind of look at a deck

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and go, not for me, and just move on from there.

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Respect what it can do.

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You get more card choices, but again,

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you are a little bit more susceptible like the generalist

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to fine errors in your play, less so than a pure generalist,

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but you will often make very small micro,

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miss sequencing mistakes, things like that,

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just because of the nature of the fact

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that you will play larger swath of cards

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than the average specialist.

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So that's the three different buckets that we see

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or I've seen and Sam has seen over time

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as we've learned and tested.

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And our play group has all of these.

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Sam and I are in here, we have another one.

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We have a hardcore generalist

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and we have a hardcore specialist in our play group as well.

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And it's really fun when we get together

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and kind of argue with each other

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about who's doing the right thing, the wrong thing,

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the right way or the wrong way.

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Because what's fun about having everybody together

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is you all offer a different perspective on the game.

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And that's why I keep saying the strength of a team

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or a group of friends, whatever you want to call them,

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playing together are gonna make you think about the game

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a way you haven't before.

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Even though this is a one-on-one game

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at a competitive level,

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the benefit of having people behind you

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and knowing that you have a support staff,

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you have a group of people

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who have all put their conscious effort

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into making sure everybody on the team

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is going to a tournament with the best deck

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is really, really heartening.

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And even if nothing else, it's a great morale boost.

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And from an analysis perspective,

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you're not gonna beat it.

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A generalist gathering you all this data,

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a specialist telling you why this color combination

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can do something you might not imagine

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just because it's not high on a meta deck list.

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And the hybrid players looking at the ways

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they like to play the game and bringing those decks

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for even further, deeper enrichment is just fantastic.

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And again, to bookend at the beginning,

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at the end, like a good writer would,

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none of these are the right way or the wrong way.

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You can switch roles over time.

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I've been different in different trading card games

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I have played.

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I've been different at different points in my life.

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I can't afford to get entirely into this game.

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I'm gonna become a specialist and just get cards

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00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:51,840
that do this because then I can afford to play the game.

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I'm not saying you have a choice in the role you get.

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And I'm not saying there's a right or a wrong choice

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with any of it.

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It's literally making the best of what you can.

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00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:01,840
And in order to win Lurkana,

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the one thing no matter which one of these you are,

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you have to keep questioning.