Hello and welcome back to Illumination, the Disney Lurkana podcast.
My name is Max and I'm Sam.
And we are joined today by two very special guests, folks that are in our testing group,
folks who are fans of the podcast.
I'm just going to go out on a limb and say I'm getting mixed response on that one.
Our friends Cliff and Olivia, who recently got back from their first DLC in Las Vegas.
So with Seattle coming up here in just a scant few weeks, we wanted to get their opinions,
their thoughts and some advice for all of you who may be attending your first ever Disney
Lurkana Challenger event.
So I will kick it right over to them.
If you want to give us a rundown, just a quick brief overview of what you did through the
tournament, through the event itself.
What did you do?
Would you play?
How'd you spend the days and introduce yourself?
Say hi so that everybody can get to know you as well.
Cliff, I'll send it over to you first.
Hello, I am Cliff Lurkana-er.
That's you.
This is a large chunk of our practice group.
Yes.
So yes, it was my first Lurkana challenge.
I'm Olivia.
I'm a big fan of the podcast, by the way.
Thank you.
I'm Cliff's wife and I went to the thing with Cliff.
Excellent.
So we found out that the Friday pre-signup started at like 10 o'clock.
We ended up getting there around 1130.
So it was stand in a long line, get our promo, which was the Kristoff, and then just get
a feel for the room.
Near where the registration signup was, was the prize wall and on-demand events signups.
There was six vendors and the artists and where the main stage was set up was on the
opposite side.
So Friday, I did not sign up for any of the large competitive events because they were
like 256 or 500 players.
So they were like the majority of the day and we had dinner reservations.
So I didn't want to risk doing well in the tournament and then having to drop out to
go eat dinner.
Yeah, that would be kind of terrible for your bonus that you beat.
Most surprisingly about that was that that large event was the biggest amount of prize
wall tickets you could win.
So first place at the 11 and 1130 were 300 prize wall tickets.
Whoa.
So that was like, if you did well, the best return on your time.
Awesome.
So we did a bunch of on-demand instructeds and I was just doing that to get a little
bit of last round practicing in for the main event on Saturday.
I was playing blue red popsicles and was at the lowest point of the whole event leaving
there Friday because I got destroyed every eight man.
It was not even close.
Lost two decks.
I should not have lost two.
I mainly just lost to myself, got stuck on three inkables, multiple games and it just
felt terrible.
But for the events, they fired rapidly.
They did a good job with where they were being held, having judges on hand and keeping them
in like a timely manner.
How did they inform you that your event was ready to fire after you signed up?
So they gave you an entry ticket and you just walked over to the Emerald or Ruby or Sapphire
banner wherever they were having those events being held at the time.
And the judges walk up to you and depending on the color of your ticket, they knew if
you were doing pack rush, draft or constructed.
And then they gave you a bracket to write your name on.
And then when it filled to eight, they just asked you to hang out in that general area
because they were filling up in probably what?
Every 10 minutes.
Yeah, it would depend on what group was signing up.
Sometimes it would come in rushes.
Sometimes not.
Sometimes you'd be waiting for your eighth person and you'd be waiting for a while.
You got one prize wall ticket just for entering and then you ended up getting 10 if you won.
So getting 11, one for entry and 10 for winning.
How much did it cost to enter?
15.
Yeah, Friday we were paying $20 to do the constructed and we didn't realize until Saturday
whoever was taking our money had a confusion about it because they were like scrolling
through their price list.
And then he had a question like, is this 15 or 20?
He was asking someone else.
Oh, it's 15 because I had noticed on the banner behind them.
It's like, oh, constructed 15.
They were charging 20 yesterday.
Luckily someone stepped in and they handled that right away.
As long as you had the credit card you used when you paid, they were able to look up your
transactions.
That's awesome.
Yeah, that's really cool.
And the refund went through like right away.
So I checked my credit card statement.
I had a $30 credit within five minutes.
Oh, that's great.
So even though there was confusion, at least they handled that right away.
Yeah, you love to say it.
Everybody's allowed to make a mistake.
It's about correcting the mistake and how you handle it.
It's the important thing.
And it seemed like it got corrected without any issues or anybody having to cause a scene
or arguing or fighting with anybody for the right thing to happen.
Fair enough.
That was largely your Friday.
So Cliff, you played in the main event on Saturday.
So give us your rundown.
How did it go?
What did you think?
Because this is your first time really at this point playing heavily in the two game
format.
Correct.
So we did spend a lot of time testing the two game format for like the month leading
up to it because we had to do a lot of extra testing because of the Bucky ban.
Whatever you want to call it.
And then just a lot of practicing.
We came to the conclusion that you wanted to go first, second, because your third breaker
is game two is weighted more heavily than game one.
Right.
The concern that you would run into while playing is if your opponent wins game one,
you have to make sure you're paying attention that they're not slow playing.
Not that I think my opponent in round four was intentionally slow playing, but he took
a minute and 30 or 45 seconds to figure out what to ink on turn one.
And he had won game one.
So after that, when I was like, Hey, I just need you to play a little faster playing blue,
red.
My deck does not end the game quickly until it's ready to end the game.
That's right.
But that could take 15 or 20 turns a little bit.
Yeah.
Even trying to quest aggressively.
They did the normal for large events where they had player meeting, everyone sat down.
And for me, like the big frustration with that was seeing so many empty seats, knowing
like you guys and so many other people that wanted to go to see that 150 people know showed
the event.
Yeah, that sucks.
But the ultimate feels bad.
I guess I can talk about that more of what they did kind of on Sunday when we get to
that.
After the player meeting, we had some rounds and my first two opponents were green purple
and that felt good.
And melee does update immediately because I submitted my results for round one and I
got a text from Sam.
You did a good job as like I hit submit and the text message came through.
So I was being stalked and that's okay.
Yes.
Yeah, I'm a little bit of a stalker.
We are keeping an eye on you.
I played green purples.
Then I played a blue red mirror and my deck failed me.
It was just poor on my side.
Then I played against the lemon lime deck and that was the slower player.
And I understand that it's a little complicated in its play patterns or like that.
But I feel like if you've practiced enough, you should be able to play any deck at a reasonable
pace from what I was gathering.
He was like recounting everything I did every turn and counting the number of cards I should
have had at every moment because in between the one round, there was like a 40 minute
delay.
I think it was in between rounds four and five where somebody had marked that they won
and they didn't.
So the judges had to find all the players that were playing in that area to corroborate
stories.
There was a guy that did well in Texas that was drawing extra cards and pretending to
be new at the game.
So there was a bunch of cheating that went on that slowed the event down a little bit
and that was also happening Friday during the big constructed events that were being
run.
I ended up with a bunch of draws because the two game format's a little tough and just
like the being on the play being on the draw, there's so much of a difference.
But the odd thing was I lost both games on the play against green purple and then beat
them on the draw.
So a bunch of the games that I won, I was on the draw and not on the play.
So like I was winning the games I shouldn't be winning and losing the games I should be
losing.
Right.
I ended up playing all nine rounds.
Somebody had said there was a statistical probability that if I had won the last round,
I could theoretically have made the top 128 with how breakers ended up.
But what I did in round nine, since I'd reached the 30 point threshold, so what they do in
the main event is you don't get the dragon fire until after round three or around three
starts.
They give everyone the dragon fire.
Then if you want to drop, you can.
If you get to 10 match points, you got five prize wall tickets, kind of like a low rate.
It is.
Yeah.
You're playing three hours to get five tickets.
We'd let you get two first chapter packs.
Yeah.
And like a shimmering skies pack.
Not a lot.
Then you needed 20 match points to get like 10 prize wall tickets.
And then you needed 30 to get, I got 20.
20 for 30.
So I had to play.
I got to, I broke the 30 point threshold in round eight.
And then at 33 points, I had already known going into it that if I lost game one, I was
just going to concede to my opponent because there's no sense in me winning game two, both
of us getting to 36 points.
And nobody having a chance whatsoever.
Correct.
Yeah.
No matter how small the chance was, it's better to have that.
It took some explaining to my opponent as to why I did it because I stood to gain nothing.
So I think if anybody's listening, isn't sure what to do, like if you're in that situation,
just do the right thing.
If you don't stand to gain anything from playing that last game, just concede.
Cause I wasn't losing anything.
Right.
Sportsman like conduct.
Right.
So if I had won, instead of being like the top 21%, I'm in the top 17%.
Right.
It doesn't matter.
The difference between like 400th and 350th.
Exactly.
Through all that, I ended up with the 20 prize tickets.
And for myself, I had had high expectations.
I told Max beforehand.
My expectations were to day two.
I've got a lot of gaming experience in Dutch.
It's where I set my goal was to day two.
I really wanted to let it go, but I really wanted to be playing for something.
Absolutely.
Since like so many of my friends could not make it.
I kind of wanted to do well for the team just to show that like we do well.
Right.
I don't think that we are in any way, shape or form like outclassed.
Didn't feel like anybody there was so much better than any of us.
Sure.
So it feels good knowing that like I haven't played card games in a while and through testing
and like grinding with like you guys and the other friends of the podcast that were, you
know, we're kind of at that level that felt good.
And you guys did a great job trying to make me feel better about my frustration.
Yeah.
You finished pretty darn high, especially for your first outing, especially for your
first outing in the two game format.
I think ultimately the two game format is a detriment to the game because it just feels
terrible at the end.
I would rather have lost than been like, okay, I got three points and I already know I'm
effectively out.
Yeah, it's rough.
I know that the ideas they had in the theory behind it makes sense, but it seems like the
more of these events that get put under our belts, the more the statistics are pointing
to too many negatives as a result.
At least I would think my observation again, just me, not anybody else.
It doesn't make the rounds any faster.
They gave us 45 minute rounds and obviously judge calls and stuff.
You get time extensions at big events.
I had a three minute extension when I had an issue with, I think it was around five,
only drew six cards after his mulligan.
The result is everything was randomized at that point.
He just failed to draw his seventh card.
So we just called a judge over the doors.
Like, do you know where anything is?
We do not.
We were just resolving mulligans, draw a card.
He got a warning and we got a three minute time extension because we had to wait for
one of them to walk over.
Sure.
With the 45 minute rounds and two games, your pace of play can be a little slower because
you have a longer time for each game.
So like it's incentivizes more thought, which is good because then you're less prone to
making mistakes, but it also does the day just as long.
Yeah.
So Olivia, what were you doing while Cliff was playing in the main event on Saturday?
I know I did at least one constructed event, side event, and then I did a scheduled sealed
event.
Okay.
And what were you playing during the constructed events?
What's Jack?
Yellow, purple, super aggro-y deck.
Yep.
The classic hyper aggro.
Everybody's afraid of Daisy Duck and you were bringing the Daisy Ducks.
I'll say that there's been a few opponents of mine that were not happy I was playing
there.
That's fair.
You definitely can win a game fast.
We're not going to time in a room full of Daisy Ducks.
That's for sure.
And what did you think of the sealed event?
This was your first sealed event, correct?
Yeah.
And did you like the format?
I was a little intimidated by doing it because I know I've never done it with Lurkana before.
Right.
I mean, I've done it years ago with Magic, but that was a long time ago.
Basically it's just like, I've got a few pointers from Cliff.
Just don't take so many uninkables.
Just get big, statted characters.
Just look for things like that and nothing too specific, nothing too niche.
You just want a good mix of big stats and as little uninkables as possible.
Big butts.
Good curve.
Yeah.
Good curve.
Escalating threat every turn.
That makes sense.
That's good deck building principles in general, right?
Limited in this game is I think how the designers want the game to be played because it's so
combat intensive.
It is.
And it's where all that stuff matters.
It does not translate into constructed.
What matters in limited, which is weird because it doesn't really at all yet in constructed.
Yeah.
I think support is awesome in limited.
That and all the little heal items.
This is shimmering skies.
There's the lantern that taps and heals something for two is ridiculous in limited and sealed.
Right.
And then even the amber chromicon that heals all of your dudes for one is a reasonable
thing to put into your deck.
I agree.
We got through Saturday.
Now what about Sunday?
Yesterday we weren't entirely sure if we were going back other than to trade in all our
prize wall tickets on Saturday before we left.
When I conceded they closed the prize wall at eight.
I would say I think that they can work on in the future for sure because round nine
was still going on and there were still events to be had and keep the prize wall open.
And I think until everyone is done kind of forcing people to come back on Sunday if they
didn't get a chance to spend it.
They were also only giving you prize tickets when you were done the event.
So at round eight I had 33 points.
So I was guaranteed the 20 tickets.
If I'd wanted to get them then I would have had to have dropped from the tournament.
That's weird.
And not gotten to play around nine.
I can't go back below the 30 point threshold.
Right.
So why aren't they just provided at that point?
So as soon as I was done you had to go get in line and show them the melee app, show
them how many points you had for them to verify.
And then they gave you the prize wall tickets.
So what we ended up using our prize wall tickets on Saturday was a first chapter booster box.
So they were 38 tickets more than the Rapunzel's and Cinderella's but I feel like it's a worthwhile
thing to hold on to or have.
That makes sense.
So Sunday we ended up going back and just doing two.
We did two of the on demand constructed events because I had looked really early in the morning
Sunday that there was a first chapter sealed that still had like three open seats.
Okay.
But it was like 5 a.m. and I wasn't sure if we were going to make it there for it so I
didn't sign up.
I was like yeah we would be able to make it there.
It had filled up because I would have done that just to do a first chapter sealed and
maybe open an Elsa and enchanted Elsa and make the whole event totally worthwhile.
Free.
Yeah.
But we ended up doing the two constructeds and when we were signing up we were fortunate
that we were able to put ourselves on opposite ends of the bracket.
So the only way we'd play each other is if we got to the finals and we happened to get
to the finals both times.
Awesome.
Which made those events fly because it was like game one, round one, round two, oh round
three Olivia wins.
Right.
Get in the next one, put us inside, win, win, oh Olivia wins.
So by doing that it was $30 but we were getting 17 prize wall tickets.
That's awesome.
So we had a couple left over from the day before so we ended up getting a second first
chapter box and one first chapter pack that was not very good.
I see.
No enchanted Elsa.
No it was just bad.
Checked out the vendors a bunch.
I was able to get a bunch of the foils I was looking for.
In general all of them were very nice.
The one vendor table kept all their cards in a binder alphabetized.
Oh weird.
So it was like hard to look at what they had if one person was looking at that binder.
You couldn't see cards A through F. Can you just go back one page?
Well pretty good extensive run down.