Hello and welcome back to Illumination, the Disney
Lurkana podcast. My name is Max. And I'm Sam.
And we are... back once again to talk to you
for the 32nd time, to be exact. That's how many
times we've done this. Wow. Yeah. Appreciate
you all being here. Sam, appreciate you being
here. And we are going to jump right in. We've
got some news to cover. Illumination's been hitting
the tournament scene local to Southern New Jersey,
Philadelphia, Greater Philadelphia area, and
Delaware, the tri -state area. A couple things
to report. We did a case tournament. Very local
to us. Shout out to Phenomenal Games. Really
appreciate you all putting on a really fun time.
Myself, mystery teammate, and newest teammate,
the real CJ, managing to split the top four with
another kind player at that tournament. And we
did pretty good there. Pretty happy with that.
CJ was on Blue Steel Oswald. Our mystery teammate
was on the deck they are always on, and it is
always Purple Steel. And I was on... green steel,
emerald steel, if you prefer. And that was a
pretty fun little tournament. Really appreciate
that. Then this past weekend, we went out to
the, what was a 1K at Safari Zone Collectibles
in Smyrna, Delaware. Shout out to them, put on
an amazing event. So many people interested in
playing Lurkana out that way that they actually
turned it into a 3K tournament. I believe they
had about 70 people out there for that one. I
did abysmally. Mystery. teammate did quite well.
Our own Cliff did really a nice job hitting 16th
out of all of those people. And Sam, you did
even better than that. Yeah, I topped eight.
Top eight? What were you playing? I was playing
the Kiwi Bird style of Blue Steel. Yeah, you
got the deck list, I believe, from one of our
favorite content creators, Tarkana Deck Lists.
Yeah, really cool deck, the Kiwi Bird style Blue
Steel aggressive deck. Our own Cliff was on the
DKP list. of the Ruby Sapphire variety, and Mystery
Teammate was on the deck they are always on.
Again, that is always Amethyst Steel. I was also
playing the DKP list. I didn't have as good of
a time with it as Cliff did, but Cliff is much
more experienced with Ruby Sapphire than I am.
All of you out there know I am a Sapphire not
enjoyer, so I did that despite my reservations,
thinking that it'd be pretty good in the field,
and it really, it was. I think every match I
win or lose was pretty darn close and it often
came down to if the opponent had it or not on
a critical turn most of the time so it was a
great time the store was great really appreciate
it and they're already set to have a very large
projected 5k and they've proven that if the attendance
is good enough they'll up the prize ante so definitely
check them out safari zone collectibles really
really awesome store both them and phenomenal
games really put on a great time and we Appreciate
the opportunity to go out and play. Also a shout
out to our friends from afar who now we actually
got to meet in person, Glimineers. They are a
fantastic group of folks. They were together
for their first ever team event as a collected
ensemble of players. All of them extraordinarily
kind and supportive. If you follow them on social
media, you get the idea that they are very, very
much caring about the game and the community
first. And while that seems nice on social media,
I can assure you after meeting them in - in person,
they are 100 % authentic to their message that
there's no hidden anything. It's not just hammed
up for social media, both incredibly kind and
the whole team, a great collection of people
who are extremely kind throughout the entire
day, very exciting group of folks, and we all
got to hang out and have a ton of fun there.
That event was also streamed, so you can go back
and check that out as well. If you so choose,
I believe Myra Madness was the one who streamed
that, also got to meet them in person. very very
kind tons of fun to be had by all it was a blast
sam anything you'd like to add about the tournaments
that we have been attending nope just i agree
with you it was a fun time got to meet a lot
of great folks yeah that's what it's all about
at the end so your deck has one particular card
in it a one drop that has a certain nickname
and we were talking about it at different points
during the weekend so it brought on the idea
of the topic this card in question is mickey
food Fight Defender. And he has a cute little
nickname. Sam, what's his cute little nickname?
Sticky Mickey. Sticky Mickey. So that kind of
got us talking about the idea of how the metagame
is shaping up and what are good sticky threats.
And what does that mean? What are you guys talking
about? This sounds like a gross episode. I assure
you it's not. And we want to get into all of
that today in the episode proper. So what the
heck is a sticky? Threat. Sam, what's a sticky
threat? Sticky threat is a card that is hard
to remove. It's going to stick around for a while.
Oh, okay. So it's not sticky because it's gross
or nasty. It's sticky because it stays on the
board. Yeah. Yes. The card stays in play. It
is hard to remove, generally needing some form
of very predictable removal, like a challenge
from a much larger character. So it's a calculated
risk. Is the lore worth losing the character?
Or oftentimes more cards than the - character
so mickey food fight defender is a great example
because for one cost you get a one two body and
you get resist one yeah playing this card this
weekend was really nice because i was not afraid
to play a one drop on one even in the face of
a bell or anything that could sing a removal
spell and just you know before he got any value
just remove it yes and that is the important
thing and part of the reason why we wanted to
talk about these for Cinderella, Ballroom Sensation,
Diablo, Devoted Herald, or Belle, Inventor's
Apprentice? Apprentice Inventor? The new Belle.
To all be able to come down very quickly and
either shift or immediately on turn two sing
Let the Storm Rage On or Strength of a Raging
Fire. So as much as two damage in most cases
to one of your characters. So anything that's
too small in terms of willpower can be removed
very, very easily. So having... the ability to
stay on the board despite the powerful opening
lines that are presented in the first turn or
two out of certain decks is extremely important
right now in the Lorkana meta. So it gave us
a good chance to talk about something and kind
of turn this into a bit of a foundational episode,
but with a very current meta lens. So if you're
not familiar, the current decks of the day are
the Ruby Sapphire deck, as well as the Sapphire
Steel deck, the old blue steel. Zoolander special,
many different flavors of both of those decks.
And there is a lot of requirements for a character
coming down in the first couple of turns if your
opening line isn't something super duper powerful.
So it really requires a lot of demand. So for
the steel meta, obviously we're going to want
certain things like the sticky Mickey card. We're
going to want things that have four willpower.
We're going to want something like a bell of
our own, perhaps. Even a one drop with three
willpower, something like an Olaf or a Minnie
Mouse. Those kind of things are really nice to
have. Madam Mim Snake is a nice early drop to
recover your one drop before they can sing if
you're on the play. That's a little bit different
than what was a little bit stickier a couple
sets ago when red kind of was the overwhelming
menace in terms of removal. We kept talking a
lot about things that would die to Brawl, things
that would die to Madam Medusa. These cards.
Little Sisu. These cards were extremely impactful
at that point. They still are, but they had other
cards come to the forefront at that point, right?
We saw a lot more other Sisu, Emboldened Warrior,
because of the high potential. And this card's
still quite good right now in this current meta.
One of the few cards with high strength and willpower
early. We had a lot of Smee, Bumbling Mate, everybody's
favorite, Steel Two Drop. And we also saw cards
even like Argus. The reverse 1 -4, this was a
4 -1. Not only kept you free, from Flynn Riders,
but was not brawlable. So depending on what the
removal looks like, that is going to help define
what cards can stay on the board, hence become
these stickier threats. So that's kind of what
we're looking to delve into and what we're looking
to tackle. So all that's lovely, but we have
steel removal now and we have ruby removal. What
card am I supposed to play? It's a tough question.
It really is. I think that one of the first things
you need to start to understand unpack is the
deck you're playing. Which type of removal is
worse in this case? Like what removal do you
really not want to see? The ruby removal is so
potent in a lot of cases because it's either
stapled onto a character or it's on a non -song
action like brawl where we can't disrupt that
card very easily or that kind of style of card
very easily. So we have to lean more into something
as far as something like bare necessities goes
to take one. of these non -song actions out of
a player's hand or be able to have these additional
bumps like Lumiere is a good example, two drop
Lumiere that gives you additional strength, something
to help you shield yourself from at least low
strength characters that are so susceptible to
the ruby cards. You also have to learn if your
deck is more susceptible to that or is it more
susceptible to the steel removal. So we're talking
a much more lower willpower card. So there are
cards that kind of dance in the middle and they
are just proving themselves to be, I think, a
little bit above rate right now. I think there's
a certain keyword that helps us all a lot, no
matter what kind of removal it is, because early
on, it's going to have to be a chosen character.
And Ward lets that character not be chosen. So
we're seeing a lot of early Ward characters.
Sam, your deck played one particular early Ward
character that has become kind of a menace in
the metagame right now. Who is that? Yeah, Alice.
I am not sure of her subtitle. Some kind of sailor.
But yeah, Alice, which also when she quests,
gives another character ward which is really
powerful yeah she's a one four with ward and
she quests for two when she quests she gives
another character ward and the ability to quest
for an additional lore when they in fact quest
really really powerful card i think it's savvy
sailor i think you're right okay so that is a
really powerful one we're seeing the three drop
emerald prince philip start to get played prince
philip's just a three two two for three inkable
with ward starting to see all up tick in prince
john stocks right now he's looking better than
he ever has in a lot of cases and of course we
have the old stalwart on four is the muses right
we love the prince john muses perhaps we sing
a sudden chill line here draw a card bounce the
prince john back to our hand sometimes to save
us or something that could challenge our prince
john over on the other side so lots of ability
to get around these things with something like
ward all of these cards very very much stick
to the board after they're played another good
niche of is something along the lines of Lawrence
and Pluto, who has bodyguards. So these characters
have generally less stats, but they get a big
bump. when they are not damaged so they come
down and they're very hard to remove so they
have to either if they even if they eat a let
the storm rage on to shrink them they still might
get a quest off before anything else happens
to them requiring a character challenging them
and the card out of their hand it's all time
so in an aggressive strategy that's exactly what
you're looking for is another turn where you're
allowed to quest and gather lore in addition
to that we're seeing an uptick in the new two
drop queen of hearts in ruby she's a one four
two inkable that when she's damaged she gets
plus three additional strength she's very very
above rate i think a card that flew under everybody's
radar but she's really doing a nice job of helping
fill that two drop gap alongside of the old kuzco
that replaces itself in the ruby amethyst decks
that are still being played which is really cool
we're also seeing pete as well as the new space
pirate pete who both pete just stops your opponent
from doing anything with an action which is very
convenient and then the space pirate Pirate Pete
stops them from exerting to sing songs, so it
slows them down and really taxes their ink supply,
making them choose to either advance their board
and add more threats of their own, or answer
your opponent's board. But you can't do both
like you normally could with the power of singing
a song. So these cards really help a lot. Play
patterns like Diablo into Ursula, for example,
in the green deck. It's a powerful place to be
because a lot of the times you might have a bell
and an item and a song in your hand. The Ursula
comes along kind of... of wrecks that plan, make
sure that Diablo can get shifted in quest and
start to gain back some card advantage. So there's
a lot of cool things going on here. I think right
now another card with stocks that have never
been higher is Calhoun. Calhoun is a nightmare
card for many a deck right now. Very good at
using that resist mechanic like the Mickey did.
We also have the shift steel Mickey that can
go on top of the food fight defender. That's
the maybe apprentice wizard or something like
that, but it's the steel one, the classic Fantasia
Mickey. And that card is seeing a home in some
of these kiwi bird style decks. Playful sorcerer.
Playful sorcerer, of course he is. And that really
helps a lot. And of course we have the mighty
Cogsworth Grandfather Clock, who is just absolutely
hard to deal with having Ward himself and giving
everybody else resist just as a benefit for playing
him. So lots of sticky threats that we can all
choose from, which is pretty awesome. Sam, anybody
out there you'd like to call out in card land
who we didn't touch on here? that you think was
pretty good and pretty hard for your opponents
to take out? I don't think we missed any cards.
I think just along with what you said, just having
a couple different options in your deck could
help. Like for example, me playing this weekend,
I had Ana, a two drop, and I also had Mr. Smee.
So if I was playing against a red deck, I was
more likely to choose Mr. Smee because it didn't
have the one strength as opposed to playing Mr.
Smee who had a three. So in order to take him
out with like a little Sisu or a Brawl, they
needed another card. a coil in order to remove
them. Right. And Ana better against the steel
decks because she can take a couple song hits
and keep on questing. Yeah. And on the same turn,
they're both aggressives. They both quest for
two on two. Very good cards that bring strong
presence out of the gate. Seeing an uptick in
a lot of the cheap. purple or amethyst locations.
We're seeing fairy ships. We're seeing forbidden
mountains. Shout out the forbidden mountain.
And we are trying to figure out how to deal with
those. Those little small amounts of incremental
damage can't be hit by songs. And even with Bell
out there playing a fairy ship, playing a Smee
and then saying, well, if you hit the fairy ship
with your Bell, I'm going to take it out with
my Smee or any other Calhoun even worse, right?
Like in the purple steel decks, you can definitely
slam a fairy ship, slam a Calhoun and go. bring
it on. And they have to go, okay, this is bad.
I can't just simply let the storm rage on the
Calhoun. She's got resist one. I can't just run
the bell into the ferry ship because it has four
willpower. So there's a lot of really good strategic
choices that your deck can make right now in
the metagame. So how important are these sticky
cards really in my deck? I think there's a couple
of key questions you need to ask. And I think
the first one is how proactive are you? How much
are you valuing characters on board? Something
like Kiwi birds, that's a pretty important part
of the puzzle. You don't draw cards as efficiently
and it's not as inherent as something like Amethyst
is where your characters are questing and gaining
you lore in some cases and drawing you cards.
That doesn't happen as much. You have to kind
of work for it a little bit harder. So giving
up these characters very easily or for nothing,
like play Mickey Go if it didn't have resist.
Like you said, I play Bell, sing my Let the Storm
Rage On, you're Mickey's con. That's really bad
for me. I'm now down a full card. You have played
the bell and your storm replaced itself. So you
have a big character on board, I have nothing
and I'm behind now very much on board immediately.
Right. Which is why when I was playing Amethyst
Steel, I was waiting till turn two to play anything
most of the time in the face of a bell. Right.
You could play maybe a Diablo, the purple Diablo
and be like, well, at least I get a card if they
have it. Yeah. Although like you were saying,
having options like fairy ship is definitely
a different way you can approach it to where
you're getting that lore. Right. There's a lot
of cool ways people are starting to overcome
the steel. and especially the Strong Sapphire
Steel opening line, which is really cool. Other
questions you need to ask yourself, if you run
character cards or you run win cons, I guess,
win condition cards on the lighter side of things.
So looking more at like the DKP list that tend
to run like Maui Shark as a win con. If that's
kind of the only win con, you definitely want
something that will be able to stay on board
as long as possible. If you put down a Maui Shark,
this is what kept happening to me over the course
of the weekend, put down a Maui Shark and they
along came. Zeus it immediately it's very hard
to win a game it's very hard to win a game so
you want something that can stay on board when
you're late on win conditions because if they
remove too many of those win conditions you get
stuck in an awkward position I know this happened
to Cliff too going uh how the heck do I win this
game yeah like he only had what one Maui shark
left or something like that or one man or left
to try to yeah you're trying to like just juice
every little lure out of everything you can I
hope they quest so I can smack it and give up
my goofy just for two lure there's all kinds
of little things you can do but you can run out
of cards so sticky important end game cards need
to be as big and as hard to deal with one for
one as possible obviously not going to be as
important for the combo decks outside of maybe
like very very specific cards reasons we see
like prince john having ward for example because
the discard deck needs the ability to actually
start to do something and if you play prince
john Prince John immediately gets answered. That's
a lot harder for you. And obviously mid -range
is kind of predicated on this concept, right?
Every turn in a mid -range deck, I want to play
a card that costs all of my lore and is the best
character on the board. Turn after turn after
turn. That's kind of the style. of true mid range
so having these very hard to answer cards is
great and when it really comes to these sticky
cards there's always going to be a card that
answers everything right be prepared in the format
this could get dragon fired because it simply
doesn't have ward the idea is you want your character
to not be answered by a card that is cheaper
especially a lot cheaper so if i spend six or
seven ink i don't want my opponent to be able
to answer that with a let the storm rage on i
would prefer they have to answer it with like
a maleficent dragon because at least they are
spending more ink to answer my board than I was
spending to build my board. Now, if I play this
very expensive card and all of a sudden they
just go brawl and then they follow up with one
or two more cards, that's how I get back footed
very quickly. So when it comes to the idea of
analyzing a card, don't just go, oh, well, it's
gonna, of course, there's gonna be a piece of
removal that takes care of that character. It's
just the nature of card games. But what you want
it to be is something that's relatively reasonable
costed. I don't mind losing my two drop to a
three cost brawl, but I do mind losing my...
seven drop to a three cost brawl so it's very
important when you're analyzing these things
to make sure you get value and that's why when
you see cards that when they come into play they
do something they're so coveted in trading card
games. Like Baymax that I was playing this weekend
could come in and heal Smee for two and gain
two lore immediately. Right. That's worth being
able to get brawled. There are definitely times
I'm sure that you were able to pay five and win
the game or put yourself in a very close to winning
position because of it. And that's huge. Now
imagine that Baymax had to quest to do that.
Much worse, right? Because now you have to just
sit there and go, well, please don't kill it.
Don't brawl it. Don't kill it. Don't brawl it.
But at least you're getting something out of
it. You can choose to ink it if you're not going
to get anything out of it. Yeah. Yeah. Being
able to, one, you're saving your Smee because
it had two damage on it and it can keep questing
and two that was not the end of the episode you're
gaining the two lore which in the aggressive
strategy is really important any lore matters
yeah yeah we see this all the time there's a
reason why when medusa came out everybody was
like oh my gosh what's this card do it's three
cheaper than maleficent dragon and it takes care
of most of the things that matter before it in
the game yeah so these enter comes into play
style effects are very very strong because it
allows you to immediately get value and when
you're playing cards and your opponent is just
taking them out for free and you're losing board
position while they're gaining or maintaining
board position, that pretty much stops you from
winning the game. It certainly stops you from...
Keep questing.