Consider the Coconut

This week, we’re joined by our teammate and resident Coconut aficionado Nate to dive into Lorcana’s growing multiplayer format! We break down how Coconut works, some of the newly revealed leaders, the joys of singleton deck building, table politics, and why this might be one of the best ways to bring a little more casual fun back into Lorcana.

Of course, we can never stay completely on topic. We also chat about Set Champs, the ever-changing meta, experimenting with new decks, the importance of knowing what your opponents are playing, and our thoughts on the newly announced DLC formats for Season 3.

Whether you’re grinding competitive events or just looking for an excuse to pull some forgotten cards out of your binder, maybe it’s time to… consider the coconut.

Happy Questing!

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_04 0:08

Hello everyone and welcome to the Lorcana Muses Podcast. I'm Brittany. I'm Leslie and I'm Nikki. And joining us today is our teammate and coconut aficionado, Nate.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Well, hello. Good morning. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

Yeah, so we are again recording on a Sunday morning as we have changed our schedule for recording. So we are here bright and early after grabbing some coffee at our local coffee shop and are gonna enjoy a little friendly coffee Lorcana chat this morning.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Coffee talk. Coffee. We're having some coffee for uh Lorcona talk. Yes. Let's get into the coconut.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

Yeah, so Nate here has a bunch of coconut decks already put together, and we've had a lot of coconut news lately. So we decided there was lots of requests for Nate to be on the podcast to talk about this lovely new format of coconut. So Nate, can you give us a little bit of rundown of what coconut is?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

And coconut is the official multiplayer format that Robinsberger is testing for uh to see how this works out for everyone. So it's a lot of fun. Basically, you pick a coconut or your your leader, and they have special effects that affect how the game works, and then you can build a deck around that. It's a singleton format. So one card of each in your deck, 60 cards is the minimum, and it's a ton of fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:24

So are there differences between the way this game coconut style works between than just like a normal competitive Lorcana?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

One of the main differences is you start at uh sorry, you go up to 25 lore instead of 20 lore. So it makes it a little easier and it's all about uh politicking around the table and having fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Yeah, my favorite format is multiplayer because of the politicking. It's really fun. And like as people are learning coconut and some people haven't been exposed to the multiplayer format, they they don't quite get the threat assessment part yet. So sometimes people will be like targeting someone who is normally a really good player, but they're not really being impactful at the coconut table. It's really fun. You draw attention away from yourself, you're like that person is the threat.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

We played last Friday and we had someone who there was some an item they were playing the Robin Hood coconut. So one of the unique pizza parts of the Robin Hood is you can bring a Robin's bow into play, the item that uh you can exert to do one damage to a damaged character. Well, somebody got rid of that item, and that was really important to get rid of other characters, and so the item no longer was in play and helped help me greatly. I appreciated that getting rid of it. But it didn't help the table. If we just kept it in play, it would have been a lot harder for some people to win.

SPEAKER_04 2:33

Uh yeah, I haven't played much Coconut, but I did play, you know, Magic Commander, which is a similar formatting, right? And I was it's pretty much the only style of magic that I've played on a regular basis, but I always played super meme decks that way and never really super casual versions of decks. So I like the idea of these being casual more for a multiplayer because with the competitive mindset all the time, it does get a little draining sometimes playing Lorcana, which, you know, still there for the grind, still there for it. But I would like to have the official support for a more casual format.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah, I really like to get together with people and just sit around and play. It's just fun to play with with you with friends and not have to worry about who's gonna win that match necessarily. So it's it's all about the journey to get you there as opposed to what the final outcome is.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Yeah, the friends we made along the way.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Right. Well, you've been really you've been a really big driver of building coconut here because every week you're like, I'm gonna be there early, and I have four. I don't know how many you have now, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

I think we're up to seven. Seven coconut desks.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Come join us, come play. And so I think you honestly, like in our local area, you've been like the big driver in getting coconut to be more popular.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

It's just it's just a lot of fun to play with people in that.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

It is, it is more social too, like you get to have a more of a fun conversation while you're playing versus like competitive or even locals, you're just playing against one person. Um so yeah, it's it's so fun.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

Is there a certain coconut leader that you think is busted or is like the lead coconut?

SPEAKER_00 4:07

So far, I think Sisu, the Sisu one has uh has a quite a bit of uh advantage.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

That one's so fun.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Basically, whatever player has the strongest, the character with the most strength out on a turn can quest the turn they come in. So uh you get a couple strong characters down and quest early and quest often.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

Like Mr. Incredible or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Any one of those ones that can get them early strong lore or strong strength and nice.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

You probably like that one, Brittany, because you play Maximus in there too. And so and with Sisu, like it's really easy to get, you know, the 10 plus strength or whatever to get well I would I would and yeah, you combine you combine the Cisu with the Alice growing girl that gets plus more lore whenever she has 10 strength or more.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

Yeah, that definitely sounds like joy. And play the Flynn Rider, all of that. Yeah, it's really fun. Mumier.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

It's it's it's for it's the home for uh Ruby Sapphire players.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Yeah, there we go.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Who miss who miss that environment?

SPEAKER_01 5:00

I I so miss that. And then in that deck you you built, there's also like uh Amethyst too. And so I said this, I think we talked about it last time, but I played the fox for the first time in like forever, and I was like, I missed this card.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

So and I guess that is one of the other important things is it can be three ink colors. Yeah. So you can have more than more than two.

SPEAKER_04 5:20

Yeah, no, you were saying that, and I was thinking, oh, you could play that Ruby, sapphire, and emerald and play like the Mulan um that game you can play a Snowfort and things like that. I was thinking, like, so I like that you can kind of work out different ink combinations to make that work. Now, are there any dual ink leaders?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

There are, in fact, they just revealed six of them last week on the lore cast.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah, this week or the last two weeks have been the week of coconuts.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

So one of the new ones that I built is the uh Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Um, and so this one is once during your turn, you may give chosen character evasive until the start of your next turn. Or if they're already evasive, you can give them plus one lore. So I I built that and played that on Friday, and that was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 5:58

So I'm kind of curious. So, like, that's an additional ability, right? Do they keep their original ability?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yes, they do.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

So they already so that card already gives all your characters evasive? So that my understanding is that mechanic is always active. So even if you don't have Peter Canon Tinkerbell out, you can still give a character evasive or plus one more, even if you don't have Peter Canon Tinkerbell out. Okay. Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Yeah, your coconut essentially your leader is their effects are are throughout the whole entire game.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah, it's kind of like equivalent to an emblem in magic where you say, like, this is always active regardless of what's on my play.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Okay. So are there any other coconuts that were revealed this week that you think are gonna be super fun to play with?

SPEAKER_00 6:39

The Vine was all about Floodborne characters. So I'm I built a Floodborne deck with the Vine. Um and so basically it's once during your turn for each Floodborne character you have in play, you pay one ink less for the next floodborne character you play this turn. So it's all about getting your floodborne characters out fast. The more you have, the less cheaper your bigger ones cost. So if you can get your 10 cost uh vine down or shift on top of any other ones, that one seems fun. I haven't played yet, but I built a deck.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

Did you make it like amethyst steel and I'm assuming steel because steel has the steel? Well, and the vine is steel.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

So it has to be has to be uh the ink.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

And I feel like all of the vinyling's support is in amethyst.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Yes, amethyst is there, steel, and I think I did emerald as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Gotcha. Yeah, well, because a lot of the flood older floodborns were all shifts, right? Yeah. So like that was uh what I heard a lot of people talking about where they said, Oh, we can do a lot of like the am the steel and the emerald, because that's where a lot of the shift floodborns are. Claribel's thing.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Clarabell, yeah, and Fred. Fred. You can finally finally play Fred. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

That Fred card, I was like, oh, everybody's gonna play this when it got revealed and then nobody played it.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yeah, I know. There's so many, and that's another thing I really like about Coconut is you get to play cards that nobody really plays. Yeah. Because it's a singleton format, so you have to put something like and and there's different synergies.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

Well, and then if you're playing Emerald and Amethyst, you can play with both morphs.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Yep, both morphs.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

Yeah, I feel like I didn't think about that. Yeah, and so like if you have so many things that need to shift, then you can do that.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, there are both morphs or are in the deck.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

I was thinking about the I want I've always wanted to make the hero, the emerald sapphire hero work, where like if you have a him shifted, then like all your floodborns have warden evasive. So I when I saw that come out, I was trying to think of how to do like an emerald sapphire steel, but I don't know. There's just too many choices now, which is awesome. I'm really glad that they're doing it.

SPEAKER_04 8:34

Yeah, singleton definitely like opens the field. And three colors. And three colors.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah, and really be able to build the deck how your playstyle is so you can do that, whatever works for you.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

Yeah, no, you you you were saying how make the big biggest characters, and I'm like, yes, that's my favorite.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

The biggest characters cheaper. This is true. Yes, yes. That has to be discounted. But yeah, I got to play the C Sue deck that Nate built, and it was so fun. I was like, I miss Red Blue so much.

SPEAKER_04 9:00

Oh, so I miss Red Blue so much that I'm gonna play a uh Ruby sapphire kind of princess jank deck today.

SPEAKER_05 9:08

That's okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:09

Yeah, so I'm gonna pull I'm pulling together. I wanted to really play the Beauty and the Beast card. Nice. And so I'm gonna pull together that. I don't have any beast characters in there, I only have bells to shift onto. There are red beast cards. Yeah, there are movies. Yeah, there are, but almost everything else in there is a princess. So I have a lot of princess synergy in there. Um playing the Mulan that you can when you quest, you can search for a princess, and then playing Cinderella for ink and things like that. So when you play a princess and then you draw, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

So Fasa's a princess. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

I mean Fossa. He's not, but okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

But yeah, I I I have decided that like for set champs, since I've gotten a you're like, I already got a mat. I got I got a mat and then I got a top eight. So my goal was to get top eight twice over the whole month, and I've done that. So now I'm gonna play a different deck every set champs for the rest of it. Yesterday I ended up playing Mouse House and did not enjoy it, but then it's definitely not our style because you talked about that before. No, it's not. And I really tried, I was thinking, oh, maybe that'll be fun. And it was not my style, it wasn't for me. There was also 11 people in the room that were playing.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah, it was actually 30 players. 38 player set champs set champs and 11 people were playing Mouse House. It's that's insane. Well, Mouse House is really taking over the meta now since uh it got it was so successful at a lot of like the nationals and yeah, um, you know, big CCQs and stuff like that, which I'm not excited about because that deck is a menace.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Yeah, it definitely is. And I was like thinking, what decks do I play to combat this deck now? Like that's that's what I where my mind was at is after we're after I played it, because I'm like, I did not enjoy playing this. I'm not playing this again, but how can I beat it? Is my question all the time. And I totally got us off coconut, but I was I was important. I I was thinking about that because you were talking about Ruby Sapphire. And so like I am gonna build a princess deck for today.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

I think you know Ruby Sapphire Princess. Catch people off guard for sure. I mean, they're not gonna expect it, they're not gonna expect it and it's probably not gonna play well. That's okay. That's okay. You're there to have fun.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

I mean, you could bring your iconic beauty melon. I will bring it. I'm not gonna put it into it.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Yeah, I was like, I'm not I could bring it, but it's not going in the deck.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

You could sleeve it up and and play.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Put it around your neck, just awareness and network.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Right. It'll be fun.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

It'll be fun. I still haven't seen the iconic Lelo and Stitch in person, and I'm so sad about that. See, I haven't either. I feel like we saw a lot of the Beauty and the Beast get open, but not that many of the leaders. I've heard of one, no, two Lilo and Stitches iconic being opened in Arizona. One, I was not brave enough to go ask them to look at it because I didn't know who they were. And then the other one I think was Brandon and Cheryl opened one, right? Or some or they were at Gamers Guild when they when somebody opened it. So I wasn't there, obviously. But I'm like, I just I just want to see the shiny in person. I don't even want it because it's an expensive card, but yeah, no, I I I haven't seen it in person either.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

Yeah, I haven't sought I haven't sought it out, but I haven't seen it. But okay, I guess back to Coconuts. No, I've the one who got us off track. I really liked when we played the Mickey Mouse because it plays everything for a discount, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Yeah, the Mickey was the first one that I saw. So the Brave Little Taylor card, first of all, that was my absolute favorite card that I've ever seen. I love the artwork, and that's what got me into Arcana in the first place. When I saw that card at D23 in 2022, I saw that that artwork and that hooked me from the instant. So that was the first coconut deck I built, was that Mickey Mouse Brave Little Tailor. It's fun. So being able to shift on uh turn two by your giant 1010 Mickey, that's a lot of fun to do.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Ridiculous. It's so fun when it happens. Um yeah, I really like that Mickey deck when we were playing, and it just like shifting on two, like you said, and shifting the 1010 on two is so fun. It's gross. It's so gross.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

But then you feel really bad when the neck when the a player on you know turn four does uh drawing a blank.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

I lost the card.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

The uh where you choose each opponent chooses and discards or banishes when they're gonna be. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That card comes out and you have to discard your or get to banish your Mickey Mouse and you feel really, really bad.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

But then it like, well, I guess if because of if somebody else is playing like the Winnie the Pooh deck, right, with a high grow, that banishes basically their whole board, too.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Well, you're just picking one. Each opponent chooses.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Oh, yeah, but when the 1010 Mickey goes for damage to everything.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

So again, that goes back to the politicking around. So you don't want to play on turn four when maybe there's not many characters out. Yeah. But if you talk to everybody and say, hey, next turn, I'm gonna banish this Mickey so people you can catch everybody off guard and get rid of everything.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Yeah, politicking is the best part of multiplayer format. Chris is gets mad because he says, I'm always so like I always come across as so innocent. So I'll be like, I'm not doing anything, not me. And then people leave me alone, and then I'll be like, win out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

That's what happens when you run. You you won out of nowhere. All of a sudden, we were like, We're thinking you're gonna win. We thought Chris was gonna win, and all of a sudden you win on that turn.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yeah, Chris was not, like, I mean, he when I say upset, he just like you know, jokingly. But yeah, he was in a really good position to win all of a sudden, so everyone was targeting him, and I was like, Yeah, yeah, he's the threat. And then all of a sudden I was like, and I quest and I quest and I quest with Sisu and I win.

SPEAKER_04 14:27

That's pretty good. I like being able to come from behind and like just like oh yeah, sneak, be a sneaky, right? That's why I like to call that that then that dumbo the sneaky dumbo, right? Because that'll be sneaky sneak. The sneaky cheeky dumbo? The sneaky cheeky dumbo, yes. Somebody played that at the table next to me yesterday, and I was like, Are you playing a sneaky dumbo?

SPEAKER_03 14:48

And they're like, What do you mean?

SPEAKER_04 14:51

I'm like, doesn't everybody call it the sneaky dumbo? Oh, for our listeners, the sneaky dumbo is the amethyst dumbo that's the uncommon that's wearing the clown makeup. Yeah, and that gives a basin when it comes in. Yes. So he's the sneaky dumbo. Because he's a clown.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

I know Chris calls it cheeky, so I like now we can call it sneaky cheeky. Love it.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

Are there any coconut cards you feel like are like not like as balanced as they could be? Or like they don't feel like they're gonna see play.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

I think one of the ones that hasn't worked out that great for me so far in in playing has been the Donald Duck. So it's the Fred Honeywell. So it's you pay one ink less to use boost abilities and to play characters or locations with boost. I've tried a couple, I played one deck and it just didn't seem to do anything. Not much.

SPEAKER_04 15:36

I feel like that card even in like the competitive decks has never has not ever seen enough impactful play. I've seen it like splashed here and there in some decks, but overall I feel like people just use boost characters without the additional boost options.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

But maybe maybe I'm sure maybe somebody will figure out how to build a really cool deck with this, but I haven't found uh it to be as great against other decks so far.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Well, and like in singleton, the boosting, you could be boosting away like your win cons and stuff because you don't have the consistency that you would in a like standard deck, essentially. So I'd be a little afraid to like boost in hit in coconuts.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Yeah, I think that that's one that I that I tried that hasn't been great so far. I'm curious to try the John Silver. This is the greedy treasure seeker, all about locations, right? So each relocation gains resist one for each character there. So that could be beneficial, but you gotta be able to get characters out fast. And to the locations. And to the locations, right? So you gotta play them and you gotta move them. So I don't know how well that will work.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

Yeah, I mean because they're there are items and actions and characters that move things for free, like tuck tuck, and but again, it's a singleton format. So if you don't have it, like what is the additional win conditions, right? Like outside of those locations. Vault door.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

You know, and if you can get your John Silver out, because the the coconut you can have four of in your deck, right? So it's a singleton format, but your coconut allowed to have four of that character. So John Silver can get in there and then have all those locations and then quest for a lot. That's the idea, right? But I think I'd worry about the number of locations in play and all everybody else trying to get rid of them all. Because they know that's your way you win. So everybody just challenges all the locations and they're gone.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

Yeah, if somebody's playing the Sisu deck, well, all those characters are giant, they're just gonna take the locations out in one shot. Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

And and you you have characters with support, and so support and boom, most of those locations could be gone.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah, could be like maybe in the next couple of sets there might be some more location support. We saw that with this set where they are was it this set or last set where they had like Carl's house? It was last set. I don't know what sets we're on anymore, but there's a lot more location support. So maybe next set they'll be doing that too, and then that will be well.

SPEAKER_04 17:46

We know at least there's gonna be at least one location for every ink color. Yeah, based on Hyperiousity, like right, yeah. Right, yeah, we've seen some of the things that we've got. So we've seen some of those. Like, and they they mentioned that that was gonna be like parts of the map for Hyperia City is gonna have one. So I'm hoping there'll be some additional location support outside of just having a location.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Yeah, the thing is we have really, I mean, in Coconut, especially because it's infinity format, so we have a lot of options for good locations, but there isn't anything like in the range of far where there's obstacles. Like I'm still waiting for them to print obstacles because that would be so cool.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

Well, it'd be kind of neat if Coconut allowed you to use the cards from I would love to be able to use those from the quest.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yeah. I would love to be able to use some of those cards. Um, some of those mini with Ursula and just be able to use some of those ones. Those are super cool cards.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, those ones are so hard to deal with when we were playing, especially when we play on like hard or higher difficulty and we're just like, how how is this possible?

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah, I feel bad because they're just sitting in in a box or in a binder right now, and we can't use them in any way other than maybe playing, you know, a couple games. But for multiplayer, the coconut format has has taken over my favorite way to play as opposed to like Jafar or Ursula quests. So I I wish we could play with those cards somehow.

SPEAKER_04 19:03

Yeah, that'd be cool. Well, I we can house our own tournament and let them be played.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

That would be wild. That would be a 60 card. Uh only use cards from the quests. Yeah. So now that we have funny rescue, we have additional cards. That could be kind of fun. Okay. That'd be interesting to see what could people come up with and dream up with that.

SPEAKER_04 19:24

That one we would definitely allow, they would it couldn't be a single ten.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

We would have to allow you four of countries.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Okay, yeah. I'm always like trying to think of like creative tournaments for us to put together.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Although it'd be probably hard for a lot of people because you know, usually people buy one box of the So maybe we have to allow like allow proxies for for that tournament. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

I mean, it's a casual tournament, so totally and the singles are really cheap.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

I'm sure you can get them for pennies. I'm sure they are. It's just like, you know, I'm thinking of like if Chris and I were both to participate, we'd have to get like and then never be able to use it again.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

So it's like it it'll it'll take some brainstorming, but I'm always like let's try to think of something creative, something that's fun, that's casual. I like to balance casual and competitive tournaments. Which are hosting coconut tournaments.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

I don't know. Tournaments, you begin to take away some of the yeah, no, I was like, like we're taking or make it too competitive. Yeah, like that's one thing I like about it. Is it's not competitive.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

I love to compete. I love to play. I usually just compete only if there's promos involved. That's the only time I I do competitive events. So I like just having the non-competitive nature of so we need to make Muse's promo.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

That would be fun. Yeah. We can have nationally qualified player promo. Well, we technically have three nationally qualified players on our team. We do.

SPEAKER_04 20:45

So we can make three of them.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Yeah, exactly. I didn't say Chris. You guys we have to like specify season one versus season one. Yeah, season one, season two. It was really funny because uh our teammate Cheryl texted me. I wasn't able to play yesterday or Friday night, and she was like, Don't worry, I got you covered. I'm embarrassing Chris for you and telling everyone he's a nationally qualified player. And I said, Thanks for covering for me, girl. That's just a joke now because Chris he would never brag about it himself. So I take it upon myself to brag about it to everybody. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

Yeah, I didn't end up playing on Friday. I came and said hi before before I went home, but I I had worked until right before League had started. I didn't wouldn't have even had time to go home to get my cards and come back. But Daryl and I went on a date, which hasn't happened in a hot minute. So nothing wrong with that. Yeah, no, so we went on a date instead, and it was nice. And then we played yesterday at a such amps. Yeah. The j biggest set amps in I think so far. Like not so far for ever, but like so far this area this area.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Yeah, 38 people is a lot. I don't think I've ever been to a such amps with 38.

SPEAKER_04 21:58

I think I went to a such At that same location a few sets ago that like hit Cap, but which is crazy. Yeah, the Terrace. No, the Gamers Guild North Phoenix. Um they have the space to host tournaments that large, so it works, but it was still kind of wild.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Yeah, I mean, and they usually do like a 1k sealed at the beginning of every set to and we don't even get that many people for that. So 38 for reset chance is crazy big.

SPEAKER_04 22:25

Yeah, no, it was it was really fun. It was six rounds. It was cut to top eight after six rounds, which is kind of like that math was with 38 people was kind of wild. But it it was really fun overall. I didn't quite enjoy my deck, but I enjoyed the environment. So, but yeah, I don't know. I I like set champs. I like set champs this meta specifically. Yes. Because I feel like anything goes.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

I seriously, like like you said, you were playing six rounds and you played six different decks. I did. And that's that's so cool to me, where it's not like, oh, I know exactly what I'm gonna play. I'm gonna be playing purple steel.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Or I'm sorry, amethyst steel.

SPEAKER_04 23:04

Yeah, no, I played against emerald steel, I played against Amber Steel, I played against Ruby Steel, Sapphire Steel, Amber Emerald, and Ruby Amber. Lots of steel though. Lots of steel. Yeah, I played against four different iterations of steel, and then I played the other two decks were kind of like an aggro amber emerald, but that was using Rapunzel support to then boost because that Rapunzel gives support, and then that character doesn't take damage from the next challenge. Yeah. Or the first the next time that they take could take damage, they do not. So they were able to support those characters and then challenge into my big bodies that I was playing with Mouse House and take no damage. And then so they just kept their board, and my board was it's a slower, big, bigger body board, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

And so I was like, I can't do anything against this, they went so wide.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

I I love that Rapunzel and I wish that her stats were a little bit better because she's so easy to get rid of. Yeah. But if you are playing a full support deck, you can like support your whole board and basically have to make every like challenge twice.

SPEAKER_04 24:05

No, and and that's what they were ended up doing. And I was like, I was very impressed. I was like, I really like your deck. Yeah. I was I was I was I I love good deck building, right? Yeah, I love creative deck building, and so I was like, oh, I really liked, I really enjoyed playing against you, even though you kicked my butt the whole time. Right. But it was fine. By that time, I was like totally out of the tournament anyway. So I was like just there to continue to have fun. And uh Gamers Guild does a really good job of having like well, Caitlin specifically, who's the ambassador for Gamers Guild North Phoenix, she always makes sure there's lots of raffles for everybody that is not necessarily a top eight. So they were there. So I I got a really cool bell cup from her. So that was really nice.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Um yeah, she makes a lot of really cool stuff too. I don't know what her Etsy shop is, but she does like buttons and like uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:52

So yeah, so she like makes like lore lore counters hand tokens that t tokens to like hold your hand and things like that. So she does great work. So we really like seeing she made little card holders that were keychains that I put my card on when I dressed up like Cruella the Traveler card. And I wore that card on my purse while I was dressed up Cruella Traveler so that you could know who I was. Um so she did that. So she does like kind of neat stuff like that. Well, it's very and she makes she makes keychains and stuff for every set and all of that.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Our community's so creative.

SPEAKER_04 25:27

Yeah, but she's awesome. So big shout out to Caitlin. She's one of the best, you know, store ambassadors around. For sure. We really I feel like that that's part of the community, right? Part of the bit the base, the backbone of our community is each of these, you know, people that are championing store and running this the Lorcana for each store really helps keep our community active, especially as we move forward into this more into that system where like the the ratings having good quality support people in those roles will help keep those stores, you know, active.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Yeah, for sure. So Nate, have you what's your favorite deck you've seen this set champs like?

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Favorite deck. I I've been playing a lot of the Amber Emerald Aggro. I really enjoy that, but it wasn't winning anymore, so I stopped playing it. Uh like I said before, I own I play competitively to win promos.

SPEAKER_05 26:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

So I switched last weekend to Amethyst Ruby, evasives, and had a lot of fun and got a top eight. So uh that felt good. Uh that's my favorite, one of my favorite decks to play. I love evasives. I love just that idea of evasives, it's so much fun. And so I probably will play that again today.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Nice. Yeah, I I that's one of my absolute favorite decks. So I I totally, I totally feel you.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Ruby Amethyst. I know. I uh today I'll be playing Song, the Circle of Life Songs deck, but I threw a lot of spice in because I'm like, I'm tired of the era, the amber amethyst, like taker bouncing stuff. So I have some extra ward stuff in there. I can say this because no one will hear this till after time, but threw in the shift Merida. Yeah, posted on to be like, Leslie's set list.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Oh, you you and I get paired today, I'll know what to do.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Well, what can you do about it? Because the two drop Merida has ward and then the huntsman has ward, and then I shift Merida and sing circle of life.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Nothing, I'll just question my basic.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

She's like, did you put any alert characters? No, but the ward really helps because then you can't bounce it with Tigger. Yeah. So I'm playing my Psalms deck with no Ursula in it because the two slot got taken up by the Merida. So we'll see how it goes. It's a little spicy, and I tested it a little, but I haven't played Paper Lorcana in like two weeks. So I I'm gonna be like, how do I play again?

SPEAKER_04 27:46

Nice. Yeah, no, I outside of Set Champs, I haven't played at all. So I I played Mouse House and that was the first time I'd played since last weekend. It was the first I hadn't even played it when I I sleeved it up and I had never even played the deck. And I just picked a I picked a deck off of ink decks of a Mouse House deck. Didn't even I didn't make any changes from it. It was one of the ones that was in a top top tournament. Yeah. I would make changes to it now, but I don't think I'm going to because I'm not playing. Because I'm not gonna play.

unknown 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:14

It's like I would make it more to my style, but I didn't I didn't enjoy it enough to even try.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Yeah, I mean it's really cool that you're able to just like pick up decks and play it because for me, I'm like I I what I can pick up a deck and play it, but I always want to change it to how I play, like my playstyle. So I always test it first before I take it to anything.

SPEAKER_04 28:34

Yeah, no, I can I can pick up a deck and pretty much play any deck. Yeah. There's a few decks that I think I think like the items deck would take a few reps to get really like under my belt, like just know exactly which sequencing to do.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:47

And then maybe like a retro deck might take a little bit more practice. But some of those decks are just pretty straightforward. You play the cards on curve and you know, work from there, right? Use their abilities as needed. And knowing knowing all the decks that are in the meta right now, like that's helpful. Like I just feel like knowing those, knowing what other the other decks are, I feel like is almost more important than knowing what's in your own deck.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

Or equally important. Or equally important.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

But I just like I feel like that's part of at least I feel like I've grown a lot as a player knowing those things about like I because like I feel like that Amethyst Steel deck that I played for the first time, like I the deck itself was great, right? Like it did all the things I wanted to do, but knowing what everybody else's deck did, yeah, I feel like is the only reason I won that set champs is knowing how to play against others.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yeah, I feel like that's one of the things that our team did really well preparing for the LCQ was bringing a bunch of different decks to play against, practicing into every color combination. Um, and yeah, I I feel like I too could pick up a deck and play it, but that's because I watch Chris play like 17 different combinations of decks every single other week. But it's it's just like that flexibility we've talked about before, I think is is like the new bar for players to like cross.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

Yeah. And I mean, and I and I know that that's definitely more of a competitive mindset thing. Like it's not as casual as the coconut deck. But yeah. I I like that our team has both, right? Like we have that balance and we try to build it out that way. I have like, because we're talking about like keeping more people on our team or adding more people or you know, changing. And I was I'm very hesitant as like the team captain to like make big overarching changes to their team structure because I like the balance that we have between casual and competitive. And so I'm always like, okay, yes, this person's a great community member. I really like what they do. I have no hesitation for them as a person, but what are they gonna bring to our team for both sides of our team? Right. Like, are they a balance? Are are they only hyper competitive? Do they communicate well? Like all of those things. And so I I'm probably over-analyze every time every decision that gets made.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:59

But like just like the game, I feel like is trying to really figure out the balance between supporting casual players and family, and then you know, building out like the kids' lorcana section and things like that, while also balancing a very competitive mindset. Yeah. Um that's why we play coconut. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

That's social.

SPEAKER_04 31:22

Yeah, and then and then I mean, and I know that they're doing all of those like quests at the parks and things like that. I think that that's really building out that casual community side that I feel like is really important for the game's longevity.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Oh, yeah. I mean, I also think like doing all that stuff brings in people who don't might not know what Lorcana is, yeah, right. And they're like, oh, I just want to collect these really pretty Disney cards, and then eventually they find out a little more. Um, and then then they get sucked into the cult.

SPEAKER_04 31:49

Well, and I mean, and like we have a community member, Caleb, who like specifically was only a collector, right? And now he's starting to play more. And so it's one of those things where it's a trickle effect, right? So sometimes you start as a collector and then now you're deciding, oh, actually, maybe I'll play with these really shiny cards. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

I mean, for sure, that's how I started.

SPEAKER_04 32:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Very first, you know, I didn't come out to any stores until set five Shimmering Skies, right before the Vegas DLC. Um, I had been a collector only in my house and playing with the kids and and having fun. And then um I said, Oh, this is kind of fun. Let's see what else is out here. I haven't been to a local game store in 20 something years. So let's go see what there's out there. And so here I am today. But yeah, collector is how I started.

SPEAKER_04 32:30

That's that's I mean, and we're very lucky to have a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Yeah, we are very lucky. Yeah, when you introduced him, you should have said, and a gem of a human Nate Nate the Green. Nate the Green Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 32:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

I mean, you do so much for the team and and just the community, I think. Like honestly, you're you're like a cornerstone of our Glorcana community for sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

We appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Yes. Have a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

Well, we hope so. We have a lot of fun with you. Um so we kind of mentioned a little bit of competitive circuit, right? Yeah. So along with all the introduction of new coconut cards and the at the lore cast this week, I also talked a lot about how the DLC formatting is gonna be in this next season. There's been a lot of debate. Yeah. I'm gonna use some really diplomatic words in the community about what that formatting looks like and how it's going to impact the game.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:26

Because they have two very different main events, and then they have an infinity CCQ also built in to that whole weekend of events. So Daryl and I are like debating on whether main event one or main event two are better. Right. And then and then we both are like, oh, we're not playing in Infinity.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

Yeah, the Infinity meta is like so wild. We already knew that.

SPEAKER_04 33:52

We were like, and we're not playing an infinity. But we have to we've been deciding because it does mi impact your travel plans and impact like how many people are playing the event and the ability to go so far, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:07

So, and like my thought was like, hey, if my goal for season three is to make a day two, well, what does that look like depending on which main event you're in, right? Yeah. So I'm curious what everybody's thoughts are on like what that formatting looks like.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

Well, it's really interesting to me that they're doing a second main event, but you don't get a chance at the like the golden card and things like that. Cause I feel like if you're it is a smaller group, right? There's only 200 and or how much is the so the main event one is 4,000.

SPEAKER_04 34:36

Right. Above like the typical DLC. Well, it's still larger than yeah, because they expanded it. Yeah, it is. So it's 4,000. It's like just over 4,000 for the first main event one.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

And then just double what the capacity was for last insane.

SPEAKER_04 34:53

So that's just main event one, and then main event two is like basically what main event like it's just like over a thousand. So definitely different capacities, right? Yeah. Um and the top cut is different between the two. So that part is where you're like, okay, what's the percentage chance of getting top cut for either one? Yeah. And I am of no notion that I can make like super high top cut, right? At least where I'm at right now. But I feel like I'm at that point where I could possibly make a day two if I really grind, right? But that formatting looks different now. And like that that 18 points or whatever to get to day two from main event one is like that's that's a high threshold, right? That's more points than you needed than from previous events to get to day two, but it's also more round.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

I I like that there's multiple types of main events. I think that allows people to pick what works for them and what works for their schedule and their life. I get that people may be frustrated that the second main event doesn't offer the chance to win the golden Hades. Yeah, I get that that's upsetting. But at the same time, this is opening the pool of people who can play and and have different opportunities. And so maybe you only can make it to one DLC where you play main event one and not main event two, and you only can get one extra day off that week. Well, that's the DLC you do main event one. And the other ones you do main event two. You can get much of the same prizing, just not that golden Hades at the top. So I like that they opened and expanded that to more player schedules and lives.

SPEAKER_04 36:18

Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, I I think it's kind of I don't know if they're gonna hit that capacity on the main event ones with with it being on Friday. Who knows?

SPEAKER_01 36:26

Well, and like you're not if you do main event one, you can't do main event two, so you can't do both main events, right? So you're right, like it is opening up, so now 5,000 people can c essentially compete at a DLC for uh a chance to to win their ticket to nationals, and that is really cool because you know, in the past when they put tickets up for sale, just like sell out immediately, and then like people who really wanted to go just couldn't. So hopefully that ticket sales will be a lot easier to get a like easier to get a ticket this time because there are over 5,000 slots for people to compete.

SPEAKER_04 36:59

Yeah, I'm I am hopeful about that too, because like I know that that's been a gripe from previous events, right? And very understandably that was something.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Yeah, I'm curious how they're gonna fit like what kind of venue they're gonna have to fit all those people in there because that's just the competitive side.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

They're still gonna have attendees with side events and vendors and artists and I am curious if they're going to lessen the amount of attendee tickets because they've expanded the competitive side so much. Yeah. Because a lot of these venues I don't think have that capacity past certain spots.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Yeah, I mean, there are some of the DLCs we went to where like they only rented half the venue, for instance. So maybe they would do like the entire venue. But I I'm excited that more players can compete. I'm a little worried from a stimulation standpoint, like because I get overstimulated with how many people will be there potentially because it is it it can be overwhelming.

SPEAKER_04 37:54

Yeah, I cannot recommend loops enough, right? I I use those for even just our local, right? Like those noise canceling earbuds, right?

SPEAKER_05 38:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

Which I mean, they're that's the only thing they do, right? They don't do anything else, right? Is they just like help filter out the sound. It's so helpful to stay focused because I also just get like as as for for that much sound. Um and I think that probably comes from being a teacher for so for like certain like just like the amount of noise. I'm like, and I'm done with that. Yeah. But yeah, I can't. As someone who's like, I feel like those are like the best things ever that for any event that's in that capacity, but extra event, like you can still hear your opponent, but you don't necessarily hear everything else. So it's very helpful. All right. Well, consider the coconut. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

That's right. Go out, find it, make a deck, and have fun and find a group of people to play with.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

Yeah. And we we often have groups playing. Well, you're often at Games Outpost before weeklies on Friday and looking for people to play coconut with.

SPEAKER_04 38:52

So well, and I know that there are other stores that are planning on building out coconut communities here moving forward. So if you're in Arizona or in your local community, if you want to have this happen, start building up like a not a league, but a coconut night, yeah. Coconut community.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

And you can come play coconut with us at Games Outpost and play with the person who played coconut with Steve Warner and the artist with one of the coconut cards. Your besties.

SPEAKER_04 39:20

All right. And with that, everybody, uh happy questing. Happy questing.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

Happy questing.