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

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My name is Max and I am here solo with you this particular week.

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Sam is not available for recording.

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That will not deter me from getting you all your episode of Illumination.

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Thank you all of the support. Appreciate you listening to this episode.

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And we are talking about the Azure 8c metagame.

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Last episode we talked over the Emerald Amethyst aggro tempo.

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Tempo is probably more correct.

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Deck.

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This week we are talking about the meta from a little bit of a higher level.

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And there are a couple key points that I really wanted to bring up in this episode talking

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over the meta.

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So first and foremost, the metagame.

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We've done a metagame episode.

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We have done evolution of a metagame episode.

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We have done a couple talks on this.

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So please do go back and listen to those episodes if you have a chance.

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And you haven't already.

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If you have, thank you so much.

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We are in a Rock, Paper, Scissors meta.

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That means that there is no particular best deck, right?

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We are not in a tier zero meta, which would mean that there is one deck that is just better

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than the rest.

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We saw a tier zero meta more back towards the days of like Rise of the Floodborne when

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Red Purple was just dominating everything.

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Or a little bit later you could argue that the Bucky decks started out as a very strong

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tier zero deck.

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And I wouldn't disagree with you there either.

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That is not the case for the Azure 8C meta right now.

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We are in a very Rock, Paper, Scissors meta.

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What does that mean?

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Very simply put, you have aggressive decks, control decks, and mid-range decks.

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Right now, the aggro decks are beating the control decks, right?

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You are going to bring a fast deck.

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A control deck is going to struggle to control the game quick enough to stop an aggressive

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deck.

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Control decks are going to beat down on the mid-range decks, and the mid-range decks are

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going to beat the aggro decks.

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The mid-range decks are the decks that are able to get fast starts and also have elements

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to grow a little bit in size and pressure to be able to play a little bit of a longer

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game.

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So these you tend to see picking on the smaller creatures, outclassing them very quickly by

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way of better static characters and removal.

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And then they are able to play a longer game with better characters.

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Control beats them because they have more time to set up and they have the ability to

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handle all of the better static characters with mass removal, unconditional removal,

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better synergies, things that control can set up in the late game.

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So what do those decks look like right now?

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Give me examples, you say.

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You didn't say that, but maybe you are.

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I don't know.

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If you are, great.

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I sound really smart.

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If not, it just sounds like a guy rambling.

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Either way.

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So these are the aggro decks that you may be familiar with.

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Kind of the elephant in the room on this one is going to be your Amber Amethyst Hyper

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Aggro deck.

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Of course, you are going to have versions we are seeing now of Amber Steel that are

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much more aggressive, dock style decks that are using these low end characters to quest

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aggressively, be able to refill their hands while playing just enough of the steel removal

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to be able to offset the opponent if they are on a similar game plan.

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And then you get into stuff like the Emerald Amethyst tempo style decks, which fall more

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under an aggressive style than a mid-range, I would say personally.

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And that is kind of the classic aggro decks we are seeing other ones come through.

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Amber Sapphire Heroes, things like that, are making waves.

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There is no shortage of them.

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The mid-range decks are going to go a little bit bigger.

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They are going to go a little bit more interactive.

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So you are going to have things like Purple Steel, Amber Steel Song.

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You are going to see your Emerald Steel decks fall into this category.

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They play a much longer game, right?

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They are not looking to close the game out super quickly.

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They do have the ability to either lock a board and a game out.

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Emerald Steel, I am looking at you.

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Or they have an ability to start with very quick style hands.

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Amber Steel Song very much falls in this direction, right?

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You can go Daisy Duck into Mr. Smee into Lawrence into Pluto and close out a game without ever

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actually needing to use a song in some circumstances.

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And Purple Steel, kind of the new kid on the block, so to speak.

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You saw Purple Steel starting to gain popularity last set with Pete, Games Referee, being involved.

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And this is another deck that will commit permanence to the board and then use Pete

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to lock it out and not allow the opponent to play another action while they use their

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good, static Purple characters to just take them across the finish line.

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Now on the control side of things, obviously we know some of these characters, right?

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These are your Sapphire Ruby, your Sapphire Steel, your Amethyst Ruby decks.

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All of these are your controlling decks.

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They're decks that are very well suited at playing a long game and they only get better

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as the game goes on, right?

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If you think about it like a line graph in your head, if you start with aggro being at

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the very high peak and then a line going down to the right, so it's just a downward slope,

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control decks do the opposite, right?

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Where they start at the bottom and then as they move right, they go straight up.

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So it looks like a big X, right?

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If you compare an aggro deck to a control deck, it's a big X.

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At what point in the game, they're doing better.

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The controlling decks are obviously destroying everything, drawing cards, playing key critical

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threats that can win the game one to two turns in the late game, but they're struggling to

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hold the game down in the early game where the aggressive decks come out of the gates

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hot but they often fizzle out and are looking to close out with the last few lore they need

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to end the game towards the very end.

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So that usually how that goes.

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Mid-range kind of plays as opposed to going like an extreme curve.

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They slowly nicely slope upwards where they get a little better and then flat line out

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from there where their threats only get so good.

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We're talking about Tinkerbell Giant Fairy.

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The cards like that, Robin Hood, Champion of Sherwood, we've seen a lot of these cards

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in this style of deck.

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So those are kind of what the meta looks like.

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And again, just to recap that one, the aggressive decks are going to take advantage of the control

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decks beating them before they can assert control.

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The control decks are going to beat down on the mid-range decks and the mid-range decks

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beat up on the aggro decks.

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So what the heck should you play then in this Azure Raid Steel meta?

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And I think if anybody is telling you to play a particular deck, they're being a little

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bit hyperbolic right now.

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I do not think there's anything close to a good recommendation.

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And I think in this style of meta, the what should I play question is much more personal.

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So I would say, what do you like to play?

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What do you feel you are the best at playing?

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What style feels the most natural and well suited for you?

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And I would say to start there.

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I think from there, you need to break it down.

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You need to go, okay, what deck?

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All right, let's ask a better question.

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In what category that I just went through, would you want to play a deck in?

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What do you feel like you're the best at?

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Are you a good aggro pilot?

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You're good at starting off and knowing how you can preserve just enough in the game to

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be able to finish out a longer game or be able to kind of claw back as all of your characters

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are banished.

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Do you get them with the last couple gathering knowledge and wisdom?

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Are you more of a mid range player?

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Do you like the flexibility of being able to win quickly with certain hands, but also

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use the cards to be able to grind out a much longer game plan?

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Or are you a control player where you want to play a lot of value cards in the early

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part of the game as well as pinpoint style removal for fast characters and then assert

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a very, very powerful end game plan for those very late turns that just allow you to feel

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unbeatable?

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So, whatever one of those categories sounds the most attractive to you, is the deck you

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should be looking to play?

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Then from there, breaking it down to which one of the sub categories, which one of the

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sub decks do you like to play?

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Let's break down control for an easy example.

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Do you want to play a Sapphire ramp style strategy or do you prefer to play something

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that looks more like the Ruby Amethyst decks where you're using the Madame Mim bounce package

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in concert with the Merlins as well now as the Genie to be able to generate a lot of

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card advantage over a game?

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Which do you prefer to play?

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Would you prefer to ramp heavily on your ink or would you prefer to gain a lot of cards

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in your hand but keep an even keel of ink ability?

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Depending on what your style is, I personally would lean more towards a Ruby Amethyst control

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deck because I am not a good Sapphire pilot.

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So if you ever see me across the table from you and I start playing Sapphire cards, I

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think you're advantaged because I don't know what the heck I'm doing with those cards.

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Other people feel differently.

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Other people in our testing group, very gifted pilots with Sapphire ramp style strategies

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while I'm not.

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And that's okay.

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There's no right answer right now.

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I'd be just as happy to sit down across the table from them playing either another controlling

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deck or an aggressive deck.

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I'd rather not be playing a mid-range deck but I do know how to play a mid-range deck

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against a control deck to try to maximize my win rate.

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It's all about picking the style you like first and foremost.

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You need to make sure you test the deck thoroughly.

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The very first thing you need to know is what are the micro sequencing pieces of the deck

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that you need to understand the best?

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What order do you need to play things in?

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How do you arrange a turn really strongly?

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There are some really cool things you can do in some of these decks that don't seem

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obvious.

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A call out here would be in something like Amber Steel's song, being able to put damage

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on your own character with a little Stormrage on to then be able to play a Rapunzel and

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draw two cards so that you can gain card advantage in the matches where you need that to win.

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Those are non-standard plays that a lot of pilots who have only played the deck a couple

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times or even a few dozen times won't truly understand.

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And maybe they understand that it's a thing you can do but they don't understand when

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you need to.

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So those are certain things.

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The whole new world decks on themselves are some of the most skill testing in the game

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in my opinion.

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The play design in this game is very elegant and there's no benefit so strong to playing

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a whole new world that it feels unbalanced.

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It's crazy that they've managed to balance such a powerful effect which is normally something

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that you can make asymmetrical very easily even though you're both drawing seven cards.

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Me being able to draw seven cards, you losing four and then drawing a new seven is very

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detrimental because you didn't use as many resources as I did which means I am ahead

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in the game most likely.

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But they've made a lot of headway to not make that card feel as oppressive as it has in

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other games i.e. Magic the Gathering which is why I referred to it as a wheel because

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it's named after the card Wheel of Fortune where both players discard their hands and

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draw seven cards.

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So that card is very unbalanced in Magic the Gathering.

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Typically if somebody has it in their deck they're doing something extremely unfair where

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Lurkana we haven't seen that yet which I think is amazing in terms of the game design.

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So shout out to the game designers for that because holy cow that is an absolute task

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and I know early on that was one of the cards that was most commonly pointed out as one

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of the most unfair in the game because you could eke out an advantage certainly in something

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like an Amber Steelsong or a Sapphire Steel but it was hard to really leverage the advantage

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as hard as you can in a game like Magic the Gathering.

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But you got to practice you have to know how you have to know when you're using your wheels

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you have to know when your wheels are useless and they need to be fishbone quilled away.

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Those things you only learn in time in testing against multiple different decks.

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So just be aware the practice is everything so one of the big reasons I wanted to talk

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about this subject even though it like butts up adjacent to some of the previous episodes

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we've had is a Azure 8 is still a very unknown meta so there's a lot of deck choices and

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I want to say this if there's nothing else this is the thesis statement for the episode

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that I wrote down.

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Experience is worth more than finding the best deck or the best deck of the week.

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There's so much more value right now.

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I'm picking a deck you are good at playing and well versed at playing and understand

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the sequencing of very well because not only do you play the deck at an optimal way you're

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making it the most efficient and best possible choices with the deck you are also focusing

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on your game plan through the lens of what the opponent is doing.

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That makes you much more dangerous than stumbling and trying as hard as you can to operate the

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deck adeptly and ignoring the opponent because there are going to be times you need to abandon

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the most obvious line where it's going to be hey most of the time shooting their character

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with a let the storm rage on is going to be the right choice.

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There's going to be one time in 50 where shooting your own character with let the storm rage

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on is correct but there are going to be those times and knowing when to pick up on that

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is going to win you a game you might not otherwise have won.

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So that's why I say experience here is so much more important.

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Are there going to be bad matchups?

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Yes of course it's a rock paper scissors meta.

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Your deck is not going to just steamroll everybody or else everybody will be playing the deck

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that steamrolls everybody and figuring out the cards you need to change to steamroll

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that deck.

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That's a tier zero meta not what we are in right now.

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So experience and knowing a deck even if you feel like that deck is not as good as some

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of the other deck choices perhaps that experience and that ability you have to play that deck

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so well and not think so much about what you're doing but what your opponent's doing will

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give you wins that other players of that deck might not be able to get or other players

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who are chasing the best deck might not be able to get.

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So I can't emphasize that point enough.

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Your skill will give you a higher win percentage in this kind of a meta than just trying to

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find whatever deck did well at the last big tournament and playing it.

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Somebody seeing right now that Ambersteelsong is doing really well might want to play Ambersteelsong.

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It is one of the most skill intensive decks in the game as is the Sapphiresteel decks.

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The whole new world decks are some of the most skill taxing decks in Lorcan.

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Knowing how to play them well is an art and it is not easy.

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It takes a lot and a lot a lot of time the true 10,000 hours right of practice to get

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there.

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That is important.

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Having the skill to play that deck is awesome.

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Just picking it up and trying to win because you saw that people have been winning with

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it lately.

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You're going to look at that deck and it's going to bewilder you.

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Sam, myself and our friend HyperHippo from the podcast Previous Cliff are on a three

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person team coming up at the Pax Unplugged Lorcan events that they're being held by

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past time games and we have to represent the six ink colors across the team.

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I am playing Ambersteel because after we arranged everything together felt like that was probably

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the best combination and layout and I have the most experience playing that color combination

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so I am the one playing it.

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Could we have had any of us played?

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Of course I could have played a deck I wanted to play more and left somebody else playing

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the Ambersteel deck but why would I do that when I think that that deck is really well

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situated.

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The deck choices we made are really strong and I think that Sam and Cliff are better

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at those decks than I am so we're taking the decks going what did we evaluate the best

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breakdown of the colors to be.

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It would be these three decks and then we decided who was going to play each deck based

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on their prior experiences.

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There's no way I'd be able to play that Ruby Sapphire deck very adeptly.

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As I pointed out I'm miserable a lot of the times with the Sapphire decks because I don't

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enjoy the play patterns so I haven't play tested them a lot.

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I have in the past but not enough to where I'd consider taking it to a tournament but

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I have played Ambersteel in many different iterations many different times so I understand

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it and even getting back into it now with little additions to Ambersteel which got probably

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some of the very fewest cards in Azure 8c right now like Pluto basically being like

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one of the only cards that you got in some cases I'm still here maybe perhaps if you're

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into the Simba stuff you got the Shift Simba now but there's not many options and no one's

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quite sure what the right configuration really looks like for the deck but I'm learning the

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little play patterns I'm learning the power and like the sequencing to optimize my Plutos

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things like that I'm learning my role in each matchup I'm learning the optimal keep on the

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draw versus the optimal keep on the play.

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All those little baby things are super duper important so I can't point out enough experience

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is king in this kind of a meta.

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Play the deck you like even if you think that deck is not as good as another deck you could

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be playing if you have hundreds of games under your belt with it you're probably honestly

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going to do better in a tournament setting than you would playing the deck that quote

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finished a little better the past couple of weeks saying all of that of course everybody's

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eyes are going to be very acutely affixed on the continentals in EU that's really going

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to be our first big layout of the metagame right we're getting this at the holidays before

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store champs this is going to define the top eight decks here even the day two decks the

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top big decks are really going to be what people start playing and play testing to beat

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even if they stick with their decks that they're experienced with these are the things they're

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going to have somebody a buddy sit across the table from them and try to play against

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it's going to really define what the metagame starting to shape up to be so if anybody's

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got any cool tech it's going to come up at one of the biggest stages in lorikana history

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the biggest to this point in lorikana history for sure so I think that that's really really

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important to make sure you're watching that but don't lean too hard look at the other

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things that are happening around those top eight decks around those day two decks what

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else is in that meta the European meta and the North American metas look distinctly different

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at any given time so it is definitely worth keeping an eye on it but don't fully invest

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see what other decks are out there look at all of the day two decks look at the data

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carefully as you evaluate the metagame and I recommend you you evaluate the metagame

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take some time and look at it and try to figure out how things look and how things are going

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to shape up if you want to get a leg up if you want to make a couple alterations or you

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want to try a brand new deck completely there's no wrong answer but just know as of right

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now as of time of recording here and as we approach the EU continentals there's no right

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choice which means that your experience is everything and in order to win a game of lorikana

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that way you have to keep questing