LSS Rewrote the Book

Stay tuned for some outtakes. Welcome to Pichitumi Podcast, a show about the subjective past, present, and potential future of flesh and blood design. So when James White wrote an article all about the past, present and future design principles, we jumped on it faster than Zen left the Blitz format. On Red Pitch, Joel will hold back his tears of joy post ban list.

On Yellow Pitch, Clark will give LSSA performance review of their founding principles and on Blue Pitch, Fuzzy will sign off on LSS plans for the future of the game. You can find us across all socials such as TikTok and Instagram at Pigetoon Podcast. I'm fuzzy. I'm Joel and I'm Clark, so this is our first chance to record

since Battle Hard in San Diego, and I feel like you guys have some stories to tell since I wasn't there. You guys want to share something? Yeah, we were one. We were really sad that you weren't able to make it out, Joel, but we also completely understand because like it, it was a. Long weekend. It was pretty exhausting. And this tournaments are crazy because only top 8 get pricing. So like, you're going to have a good time, right?

Like you're either going to enjoy the whole trip and probably not making any money back or like that doesn't sound fun to you. I totally get it, you know. Yeah, and even if I went down there and spiked a GE, it wouldn't have it wouldn't have got me a spot in the top 16 anyways. So I'm like, there's literally nothing for me to do there. Yeah. And honestly, I should have taken the lesson for mutual because I spent about $100 that weekend to go 1, three drop, 13

drop. Let's go I. Had the worst luck. This battle hardened. Like I'm pretty sure I failed to win more clashes than I won on my victor. No joke. Like ties and just like outright losses. It was ridiculous. My Azuri opponent had two gold at the end of our game like that shouldn't be happening like the the look was in fucking sane and it really peaked when I played also for the very first time a victor mirror in the last game to get into the top eight of a side tournament.

Now I did pretty good in the side tournaments, right? Pretty good in the few side events that happened. This was a super Armory with a bunch of cold foil pricing for the top. So I really want to get into top eight. I'm in this victor mirror when I tell you I I. Here's how I'll explain it. The opponent threw Spinal Crush for 21 at me. Jesus Christ. And the way he did that is by

having 9 gold by the mid game. By the time he cast his first visit the Gold Main estate, it was fucking insane. But the you were standing. Right. There the 1st. He didn't, he had eight gold when he casted. It for the first time, yes. Ohh, that changes things. And nearly all of those were from my own Clash cards. What? He flipped a golden son twice. I was watching that game. One both times like. God, because we were kind of waiting for you because we were done with our flesh and blood

games for the day. So we're waiting for you to finish the Super Armory. And so I was walking over. I'm like, oh, Clark's fucked. I'm looking at this game. There's like a 10/20 point life differential. He's got 8 gold and you had like 0. I'm like the game. Clark is losing this game. I feel bad for my buddy and Co host. Right. Yeah. I tried to keep it as light as possible while also trying to manage my incredibly tilted emotional state, but I ended up winning that game. Now you.

Fucking locked in. It was insane. I locked. In and I took an insane fucking line where IE striked with go again into CNC pummel, betting that he had AD react in hand and AD react in Arsenal 'cause he had been holding it 'cause he knew I was getting the second cycle for my golden sons. Wow. And I fuck it, I dropped to two life. He has a four card hand. I go E strike, go again. He goes takes it, goes from 11:00 to 6:00. I go CNC, he blocks 3. Pummel baby, I win the fucking game. What?

Wait, he didn't block the E strike at all? He. Didn't block the E strike, he was holding on to a macho Grande turn in hand with 2D reacts and he wants to hold the D reacts for what he thinks is a golden sun overpower. Oh wow yeah that's actually crazy dude I played that so fucking cool. Wait so at what point was this after the the spinal crush for 21? A good 8-9 turns.

Oh wow cuz I just one I blocked very efficiently and I think I played a great game knowing exactly when to throw damage and he never really got to see his other. Visit the Goldman Estates to play them. The pop off was really kind of funny. I think I saw Clark doing like ice a whole lap around the

building. I definitely fist bumped him first and I said good game and I waited a little bit and then I popped up like I made sure that I didn't like go like pummel and he's like you got me. And then I like immediately jumped out of my seat. I wasn't a fucking asshole about it, all right, but. There was a lot of celebration over with this game of flesh and blood, but. It was really big for me, you have to understand. Like, I had lost so many fucking clashes that day.

Oh my God. That's almost as funny as when you died to blood that team Blitz. Of Oh yeah, where I'm just like, good game. And the guy's like, what do you mean you just win? And I'm like, I can't turn on Blood Day. I miss somebody, Bandit. Oh my God, that's so funny. What a what a Clark way to end the day, you know what I mean? Man, it was wild. Fuzzy. Do you have any stories? Yeah, what I thought was going to be the emotional story of two of us.

I knew going into it that like I had to have a good record at The AGE open that weekend in order to secure my spot. I was already in the top 16, but my place was not guaranteed and I did not make any qualifying points in The AGEI went like 2-3 drop. I did. Not have a good record. Wow. So I was like, oh man, it's completely out of my hands at this point, whether or not I made the AGE.

It depends on exactly who makes top 16, top 12, top 8, and eventually when they made the announcement I was 17th so I was out of top 16. Oh shit on tiebreakers, right? Yeah, on tiebreakers there was like someone with the same amount of points as me, Zayn, but he had like better top eight runs, so he like was above me. But Justin announced that I was the 16th player because one of the people in the top sixteen were confirmed unavailable the entire month of September

basically. So I scraped by on a technicality. I'm the first alternate for The Players Championship. Wow. So I'll still get to compete and maybe even score a little cash money. But so like, it was just like that cut cut. It was that close for me to like not get the entry to the championship that I've been like kind of working towards for the whole year. But either way, I had a really good time playing. I actually kind of enjoyed playing Zen at the battle hard

end. I enjoyed playing Zen mirrors. I enjoyed like the matchups that were like challenging me. I wasn't like winning as much as like best deck in format might expect, but I was learning a lot. All right, there was a lot of talk about 130 go. Let's get to the Meet the Juicy bits of the podcast. LSS wrote a whole article, James White from the man himself. Yeah, about design. And we did a whole bunch of crazy bannings. Joel, why don't you talk us through it? So for this pitch, I titled it

No Books, No Blocks, and certainly No Bitches. That's because we. Got a lot of. Fucking action with the ban hammer. Mostly for cards that are books and also draw you cards at absurd rates that other cards don't allow you to do. First and foremost, Art of war. Also, cuz it starts with an A, it's a first on the list. Yeah, for so many reasons. Fucking God finally it happened. Art of where it gets banned. This has been abused by pretty much every single Tier 1 aggro

deck since its inception. I don't understand how this wasn't gone a long time ago. I love art of war as like the idea of this like flexible card use on offense use on defense. I like it as a generic source of go again. I even did some weird guardian brews as like a way of giving my attacks a go again with art of war. But you're not wrong. Like it just gets be used by

these topped acts. It's hard to imagine a fair version of Zen using Art of War. What I really enjoyed about reading the article was that they highlighted that, you know, Art of War used to have a pretty big cost number one, with the pitching of the resource and number #2 losing a card. And as they printed like these fake tokens like Phoenix Flames and Crouching Tigers like well, those are both ninja examples,

but there's. You know other ways of like I mean being able to to banish cards, shadow cards that are then playable out of banish sound right? Exactly. You're right, Joel, it's a very strong card. And I think like the big kicker is that it's a generic card, right? That it has a far reaching effect on the game at large since any hero they designed in the future could be an Art of War abuser. Yeah, your child hero could be an art of war. Abuser.

Yeah, like basically your child playing Art of War. Ten ways to know if your child is banishing. Crouching Tigers to Art of War. And it also like the fact that Art of War is no longer and the game allows them to create more little cute token fake ephemeral shit in the future. Yeah, and I'm glad they decided to get rid of Art of War the like the broken card instead of like making it so that the tokens function in a different way.

Like I think a lot of people were saying like, oh, you can't banish like ephemeral cards to like art of worst cost or whatever, which is a a fine worker on. But ultimately I think they finally were like art of war has been the crux of the issue for a lot of aggro decks because like if you think about it, the most you could ever block with this 5

cards. And so if you're drawing like 2 cards or like 3 cards in one turn, like of course you're going to have problematic aggro decks, especially ones like Ninja, which creates more value the longer the chain goes. Specifically with another car that got hit.

Bonds. Events History, which sees no copies in CC now Bonds. Is weird because I don't know if I ever really did this on the pod but like I was a bonds hater when I first saw it and when it first came out and when Fuzzy played it against me for the umpteenth time. Yes. Because I always saw it as why does a card say combo get another free card to throw and that always felt weird for me and it didn't make Katsu broken. Yeah, Katsu wasn't exactly like tearing the meta wide open.

You know, I do kind of agree that like, Bonds of Ancestry is a really strong card and maybe like Katsu can see some other really cool tools now that his quote UN quote power budget is lower. Like there's a huge gaping hole in Katsu's play pattern that is left by Art of War and Bonds of Ancestry going away. And they did specifically tell us, hey Katsu players, you can expect some cool expansion slot

cards in the future. Although we just got one that I already can't play because the whole point of that card was to play Bonds of Ancestry after it. That feels really bad. There is now an essentially unplayable card coming out in the next set just because Bonds is gone. But I will say that they can give that card a ton of relevance by just printing another thing that combos off of anything that says Gust Wave after it.

So I encourage everyone to pick it up early because I really think they're going to take that Bonds line of like this combos off of anything with Gust Wave in the name, and they're going to put that on a different effect. I also just want to point out that like if you compare Bonds to I think another ninja counterpart in Lava Burst, Bond just gives so much more fucking value, right?

Sure, like Lava Burst has to be played on this long chain versus like after just one single card, but it starts at 2 power for zero and it gains +3, right? It's kind of arguably just as unplayable as Bonds of Ancestry, right? A2 for four at base with no go again versus A0 for two with no go again. But Lava burst ceiling is five damage. Like that's it. Sorry. That's like it's baseline where Bonds's baseline is 8 damage because you go get a 0 for four

from your deck. So like, I really saw Bonds as like a very unfair card from the get go. I'm happy that it is gone. Ninja needs to go in a different direction than just, well, what if I just gave you more numbers and just higher damage amounts? I one thing I did like about Bonds and the design of combo cards in general is the disparity between the floor and the ceiling. That's like the whole idea behind a combo card, right? If it's not triggered, it's bad, and if it is triggered, it's

good. And the disparity between those is pumped to the extreme in Ninja, right? Like Bonds was perhaps the worst rate. So if if the combo isn't triggered, it was a 2 for four, no go again. Awful right? It does block for three, but it also had the best rate out of all the combo cards when it was turned on. It was kind of like they were experimenting with like driving that rift really wide and you'll know like Katsu will have hands where Oh, I drew 4 bonds of ancestry.

Not my hand doesn't do Jack shit, but it also isn't A0 cost and ninja kind of likes to have the 0 cost. So it doesn't fit in with that game plan. Now I granted it's a really strong card, but that's kind of what I saw in the design that they were experimenting with. And maybe we can think of this as a lesson as we need to have higher floors, lower ceilings, which is kind of where that new expansion slot card was. 0 for four is like a pretty like high

floor. I'm like OK with playing a 0 for four and then like it only gets a little benefit off of combo. I sort of disagree. I think the direction that Ninja needs needs his finality to its combos. I think the biggest issue with Bond is like, you could keep going. I didn't say anything like this is the chain. This is a powerful effect and you're like, that's it, You don't have to go again.

Like Lord of Wind, for instance, like it's not super powerful, but it's, you know, like what, like 5 links wide or 4 links wide with surging walming. Yeah, 4 links with Mcginchy and the Lord of Wind. But Bonds event. Like if Bonds event, so she said, and that car loses, go again, we wouldn't be having this would be a completely.

Different timeline. I mean, I, I still think I mean their whole comment of offensive overload, a single card that can present 2 cards of value seems like the exact thing that they're banning here. And as we get into the as we talk about these other bands, I think we're going to see that one card that can present 2 cards worth of value or a card that requires a pitch. But then it gives you 3 cards

worth of value, right? Like that seems to be the repeatable pattern that we see here and Bonds fits that pattern. It is one card that gives to value. And I think we've kind of honed in on like why Bonds of Ancestry was. I mean, we're all feeling very vindicated, I should say, and that Bonds is gone now, but I wanna move on to some of the other, some offenders and some like to be offenders that they're like kind of nixing now. Yeah. The first being cash in. I love cash in so much.

Not on anybody's radar. I think that was a big surprise for a lot of people. And they did it now they said in the article, right? They said cash in is not causing problems, but if gold tokens get more common in the future, it could be. And we have to be strict with our design principles, right? This does not align with the new game that we are trying to more flesh and blood into.

So we got to Kick It Out, even if it's not doing anyone any harm or even just just sitting on the corner twiddling its thumbs. Notably, one thing that they said, Fuzzy, it wasn't just if gold becomes more prevalent. They say as gold becomes more prevalent, Yeah, they're looking to expand gold and keep gold as this thing that stays in the game. Why wasn't Victor running cash in? OK, continue a second. Yeah, surely that's what they're honing against.

What I mean, I think Cash and has similar issues with Art of War in that. And Clark, I've kind of seen that actually both of you in your Rude Blade builds. Vistray and Breyer would try to run Cash in to be more aggressive. Like whenever you see it, you get to draw two extra cards and maybe you extend your play lines. And rune blades loved playing a non attack action and then continuing with the rest of our

turn. I'm not saying like rune blade was gonna like break it this upcoming metal with Rosetta because I don't think either of them like would really want to. Oh, I would. Have Aurora might have she she might have sure, but I think the fact that it was generic and it just equates to two cards like on the first time you see it was also like something that they noticed in previous play patterns, which is like let's yeah.

Cut it off right there, especially with money where your mouth is Wage Gold and Crown of Dominion. All of those can be run by every single hero in the game, and that's almost enough of a package right there to justify putting cash in in every deck. But next I want to talk about another card that Zen was a abuser of Orion of Mystic tenants. Was that really on anyone's

radar? I mean, it fits like kind of what they were like mass banning, which is the you're drawing more cards that you're playing with. And I like their analysis too. Like, even though it's legendary, it's just not what we designed it to be or what it ended up being. Yeah, I like how they call it out, Like if some of these tome cards were legendary, we might

consider keeping them. But the fact that you can run some of these other ones in multiples is part of why they're removing it from the playlist, right? And yeah, Oreon was definitely strong. Like you double transcend your Kasaiya gives you your 4th resource on a silver platter and being able to play Oreon off of it and your new cheat card was like really strong. And I can see why they wanted to get rid of it. And they even mentioned like Kasaiya is part of the problem.

If Kasaiya wasn't in the game, they would consider keeping Oreon. Yeah, what was it? They said we were fine with it being 2.33 for three cards, right? You had to spend Orion to play the Chi to pitch and another card. They were fine with that and like technically you got to net some resources on that because you spent two to pitch, you played the card and then you draw 3, so you do have some resources floating. They were fine with that.

It was with Kasaya, meaning you didn't have to pitch that extra card, which then meant that you could play it on. Leaner hands, and it allowed you to have essentially plus one card value. Yeah. And then this on top of like an essential turn or an art of or turn or both. Like it's just disgusting value, Yeah. And if I can jump off of that and say I think they banned Tomo Divinity for a very similar

reason. Yes, right. Tomo Divinity, another card not really on anybody's list, but like if you look at their principles of what Tomo Divinity was doing, it was like. All right, this is the tone turn. Let's see if Prism wins. Yeah, it. And it's funny you bring that up too because I didn't think it was like that bad of a band or necessary of a band until the prison player started reacting to it. Sorry Alice.

But like I can see it now. Like the the Domo divinity turns to set up double aura or to just send like 2 heralds with like being able to pay for the phantasmal footsteps trigger.

Like this card is a really big power piece and losing it like like being able to, you know, pitch a a light blue with your vestige turned on is like the same shit as the other cards that we're talking about it. Really felt like deck building had never really put vestige I've sold next to blue cards before and the moment that that became the build it became 2 card draw three yeah next I think something that I'm really happy about and a lot of kind of.

Players are like really dooming about is the tone of Aether Wind Band that and bravo find all yeah and tomo final bravo like this is. Exactly. Like that was how they just stole games. Yes yeah, that was how they just ripped games out of everybody's fucking hands. Like I'm swinging for lethal and I got a 20 life lead. Oh, you hit aether wind off the top and drew 2 Blues? Guess I'm fucked.

Yep. I just find it so interesting how they decided that like the Kano play style is one that they no longer want to see in the game. You know, in the same way that they don't want to see Artiford Ninja in the game. Yep, and they specifically call out pitch stack Kano as a healthy way of playing the game, and I think it might be their original intent for the game as well, that Kano is memorizing his pitch stack and showing off his memorization skills in order to obliterate an opponent.

Right. It's very flashy and it's really easy for Kano to blow up in your face now, especially if your deck doesn't run a lot of Blues or if you get just a little too confident for just a little bit. Yeah, and I, I like that it still allows Kano to use his hero ability to have like an extra turn, quote UN quote. But instead of like killing you on the turn you're threatening lethal.

It's like I'm reaching my pitch stack one turn earlier that I meticulously planned ahead of time and kept track of. And I'm rewarded for it by using this all these cards in in tandem to kill you, you know, versus Yeah, the casino Kano. I think it's also it does suck for Kano players because, again, Kano was one of those decks that was always a force in the meta, but never the meta demon. It's not like people were like pivoting to Kano to win tournaments.

Yeah. Like Kano always kind of got his points when everyone else kind of forgot about Kano and he was able to show up as this, like, meta sniper. Yeah. Or just you have incredibly talented players. Majin Bay battle hardened San Diego shout outs and actually shout out is just all the Kanos from San Diego. They did so wonderfully that tournament. I played against two first time Kano players. Never played the game before. First major tournament, playing the game for like less than a

couple of months. Incredible Kano players, a lot of respect for them, yeah. I think some really talented people gravitate towards Kano, so hopefully with this band they take some time to recover, grieve a little bit, but with the space that LSS has bought themselves to design around Kano now, like they should flourish in like a year. Or so with the new tools in Rosetta. We're about to see Wizards, right?

You know Ether Arc dot deck. Yeah, I'm actually a little concerned about this because this announcement was originally designed for October 1st. This was moved up because they saw sentiment really dipping going into a new set release and said I think we have to do this now to. Keep making money, yeah? I literally keep people's spirits up about the game. Right. Like. Why would I invest in a new set when the meta is not going to support anything in that set,

you know? Yeah, I know a lot of people who are very vocal about like, if this set just doesn't do anything, I'm done, you know? Yeah. And so I actually think that based on their original intent to not release this until October, I don't think Kano's going to be at the same power. Like I think Kano is getting a straight up nerve because of this. Oh for sure. Unless. Unless Kano. Players completely reimagine how they play the deck. I don't think Kano's in the same

place now. I think we've got some really good conversation going on in this pitch. I do want to wrap it up though with some notable exclusions to the Banhammer, first being blood or spells. I think that was on a lot of people's minds. Like why do brutes get to keep this sick ass card? It's almost literally Art of War, except it blocks for three instead of giving plus one, it gives you +2. It's like better Art of War. Yeah, and it like if you discard

a beast within it's 100% better. Art of War it doesn't go over rate until you have played a third card because it's a yellow one for four. With go again when you played two cards it gives +2 and +2. I'm kind of loving this because you guys are such brute apologists right now. You guys are trying to explain to me why this card is not as good as Art of War, and that's crazy.

Like the way that I see it, all the sass is fine with a class having Art of War, They're fine with Brute having quote UN quote Art of War. And if Art of War was a ninja class card, they would have thought really hard, probably a lot harder about whether or not it's the right ban. But the fact that Art of War is generic is part of why they banned it. And Brute, they were like, okay, you can have this one tool because it's OK.

And brute for whatever reason. But then how does that explain Toma Divinity or Toma Firebrand where there are these siloed cards that have been banned that provide that intense card drawability? I think they decided Brute can have this one and there is a restriction around it right?

Like it, The restrictions you're talking about do exist and they do lead to a slightly healthier gameplay pattern, but I think like Blood Brush Bellows gives you a lot of the same negative agency that they're talking about in this article. I think they're just willing to allow this one even though it is an example of what they're talking about.

Tomo Divinity being like these crazy prison combo turns where you can turn 2 cards into three almost straight up with the Vestige of Soul. Like that's really strong. Tomo Firebrand. They mentioned the main reason they're banning it is for future Draconic cards, so that doesn't get crazy in the future, you know, movie through and you already know is crazy and it's the ease, right?

Yeah. I also think like Brute in general is such a good breaker of control decks that this is a good way of leaking damage versus the hyper fatigue decks or the the decks that just like want to sit back and block all day like it makes. And you're playing fair most of the game as brew other than like KO and Levia pre art of war band. And so like this one turn, we get to break parody and get a little bit more value for your for your car, just like fine in out in my opinion.

And you guys are right that like a random discard is a lot less abusable than a banishing of a token Crouching tiger. Yeah, if lutterish fellow said beat chest on it. Way different, holy shit, way different cooking, but I think that's about it. I think we covered most of the bands other than like Telma Firebrand. But like, who the fuck was playing that anyways? But now I want to hear about Clark and his analysis of Fab's old design principles. So why don't you take it away,

Clark? Yeah, So James White, thank you

for coming in. I'm just going to be sitting here in the back of the room with my little clipboard. Pretend like I'm not even here. Just do your thing, baby. I'm not even here. So I'm going to do a little performance review of the past five years. Now I have AI know I haven't been playing for the full past five years of the game. You're a new hire. I'm a new hire and so it's a little weird for me to be the one in this position with the clipboard, but we're going to

get through this together, OK? There's going to be a conversation afterwards. It's going to be OK. So in the article they talk about taking a long term look at their guiding design principles for the game and they started with their initial game design principles. Literally a sheet of paper that they sent to every single LGS with the starter kit, probably also with like the IRA starter decks, I would imagine, right? Like this is this is the

beginning of flesh and blood. And therefore starting design principles were start full, reduce variance, every card counts and reward good decisions, not good luck. So we're going to be talking about these four, how I think they started and how I think they've changed to today. And the first thing I want to put out there is this is really more of a sales pitch, right? I think so. To me this reads as a sales pitch if you go read the article. Which by the way, certified

banger. But when I read these, it really sounds like it's trying to tell an LGS, hey, this is what's good about the game. This is how you sell the game to other people. Me, I'm not like other card games. And it's not. It's not, Yeah. I would say just about every single one of these is fulfilled by two rules in the game, the pitch system and drawing at the end of every turn. Like all four of these principles, I think, are fulfilled by those two things. I feel like the equipment.

The equipment did with the start full, yes. Yeah, but like reducing variants, making every card count, and then like having to win the game over multiple turns rather than like a single turn or a single draw. I think all of that is dictated by those two rules. The fact that your cards that you play are also the cards that you pitch, and they have this color scaling system, right? More resources, less power, more power, less resources that trade

off the pitch system. It reduces variance because it means every single hand that you draw, you have the ability to play something or block, right. Every card counts. You're going to see every single card in your deck because you're putting it back into your deck. No cards are wasted. They're always either interacting in the game in some way on the combat chain. You're playing it for its effect or you are pitching it to play other cards, so every single card in every single hand matters.

You're never going to have a dead draw like in Magic when it's turned 20 and you're like, oh boy, my 16th land. What a top deck. That's never going to happen in this game, right? Every single draw is going to be important to your game plan and the way that the game shakes out. You all like if there's an out, you can draw to your out and you can do that every single turn. And I love how in the article they don't say Magic the Gathering but you can like feel it coming from their

description. Oh yeah, yeah, like fuck that bitch in particular, but we're not gonna. Compared to some other game systems that load variants onto the ability of players to access base resources plans. Often when a player lands on the wrong side of this variance, it's right there in the Wow. Actually fuzzy, now that you've said it. Like a catty little bitch. Like I didn't see the magic reference, like I didn't see that, but the moment that you're like Lance, it's right there in

black and white these. Are the skills I bring to the podcast as the token gay? And then finally, I also think drawing every single turn means that like no one single hand is going to make the difference in whether or not you win or lose the game. It's it's going to have to happen over multiple turns because you're seeing your entire deck, you're having at least what, 15 turns? Yeah, there's not going to be one single turn that wins you the game, right? It's going to have to be an

accumulation. So one is I think they accomplished these four things from the get go, and I don't know if that has been like guiding design principles ever since, if that makes sense. When we also talk about like the eras of the game, there was like Fab at the beginning, which was what? Welcome to Wraith and Arcane Rising. And then there was like Fab one point O, which was like Monarch and Tales of Aria. And then there was Fab 2 point or no, it probably went past

that, right? Was dynasty. Would we include dynasty in this dynasty outsiders. So like I, I started playing the game in Fab 2 point O. But if you look at Fab one point O and then look at the cards that they're banning. I'm just saying. I'm just saying you. Know I have always felt like they should just ban like a bunch of fucking majestics for the first couple years of the game because they're just. They're just getting more powerful the more or the larger

the card pool. I think a lot of players in this game, especially a lot of the storied older voices, really need to be aware of how much nostalgia they have for the beginning of this game. Yeah, a lot of these broken cards and cards that are breaking the game are these older cards. Like I remember how many times someone said, like, Oh my God, Living Legends, the best format right now. Like, that's the, that's the best. That's real flesh and blood.

That's the flesh and blood I fell in love with. And I'm like, that's just as fucking broken, if anything, more broken, right? When we talk about our degeneracy episode, Zen is the only like current hero that we are really spending a lot of time talking about. Apart from that, it was all the heroes that living Legend out. So I think the game's always kind of had issues with balance and adhering to like healthier game principles.

I think it's because when they looked at these four points, start full, reduce variance, every card counts and reward good decisions, not good luck. I think that it was already being accomplished as long as you had cards that could pitch and not win the game in like a turn. Yeah, so take that, LL enjoyers. Moving on. I do want to talk a little bit about the every card counts because they gave another really good insight.

They repeated this insight. We've heard it before from LSS, but I want to reiterate it. Not every game, not every hero is looking to go to second cycle, nor should they. But it needs to be a very important part of the meta game and happen often enough that players are always having to think about it. I think that's the right sweet spot. It's a very specific sweet spot,

but it sounds right, you know? Yeah, if it, if it becomes every single game, you have to pitch stack or if it becomes every single game, it doesn't matter what you're pitching because it's going to be over in the first five turns. It's not a healthy game. Yeah, like at some point the the core mechanics who you're playing with, IE pitching like that has to matter beyond just like getting just enough Blues to play your powerful cards and the and then the game's over.

Like you have to face the consequences of your actions at some point. And that's why I like control decks because they force you to go to second cycle and test like the mettle of the aggro player or the the person like putting on the aggression. 100% and I love that we do have those decks to do that too because as an aggro player, I do enjoy having to think about my pitch stack and plan it out accordingly. I really enjoyed doing that for Victor for the past two months.

It's like paying attention to my pitch stack and making it all work nicely. But really it's that fourth point that I think there was the most conversation on. It's also what they wrote the most on. Reward good decisions, not good luck. Do we think LSS has been doing that?

I don't know if we're looking across the whole game's history, I think there have been definitely times where aggro decks have been at the forefront, and those can be very swingy based on what cards you draw and at what time. You know, like if Briar gets Chinaman Heroic, that's pretty good. But also like there have been control decks along the way that reward that really tight play style. Like you're talking about Joel. And it's not like every Meadow was always dominated by a brain

dead aggro hero at the top. And there's even a lot of skill expression in those decks. Maybe I'm biased because I like to play aggro decks, so I like so and I feel challenged when I play aggro decks at tournaments. You know, I think there's a lot that I'm trying to think about and there's ways that my plays been increasing in skill over the last time.

Like I'm always learning a lot in this game and I feel like those good decisions are rewarded as I'm learning and I'm ready for them to pay off in the future. And I can feel when I'm making bad decisions and I get punished for it more so than just like I know my tournament is because I'm not lucky, you know? So it's a so it's a half and

half answer. Yeah, I think rewarding good decisions has become so baseline that when good luck happens and when the variance happens, people really pay attention to it. And then they're like, oh, this game was decided by luck. When in reality, I just think there's some really, there's some good fucking players at this game. And a lot of players know how to take the right lines very often. And so like, I think that a lot of people is just making the right decision after making the

right decision. And then like, oh, you had the good luck. You drew the three Blood Rush fellows in the top half of your deck, and games like that happen, and they should happen, right? Like that. That's another thing that they mentioned. Variance is good and important to the game, right? You don't want a game with no variance because then there's no reason for anybody to play it. There has to have different things have to happen.

And if you're playing a deck that is not favored into a match up, don't you want to be able to win that match up? There has to be some variance. You have to be able to have a draw, or the opponent has to be able to draw worse enough that you can win those games. And everybody wants that because you will eventually be the deck that has to do it. You can't pretend like you're always going to be playing the top deck and then want to win every single time except the

mirror or based on deck choice. Variance is good and important and healthy, but I think we are so often forgetting that and focusing on when it works against us. I definitely did. That really resonated with me, I'm not going to lie. But also, sometimes it just fucking sucks to play the 3070 matchup or the 2080 matchup. So like, I don't completely disagree. LSS did say, you know, like a big thing of rewarding good decisions, not good luck is like agency.

That was that's a new word that they are adopting. And I'm sure we'll talk about that in blue pitch with you Fuzzy. But like when it comes to agency, there are different kinds of agency and different levels of agency that is acceptable and unacceptable. And it's going to be interesting to see how they shake that out over these next couple of sets. The very last thing I want to talk about is parody. A good part of this good decision idea that they discussed was this idea of

parody and offensive overlap. Ultimately why they banned all of these cards is because they said that it provided, and this is an exact quote, extreme offensive overlap. This is the part of the article that resonated the most with me across the entire thing. I mean the bans are a big deal but it's kind of like those 3 words kind of guide to me why they chose each of those specific cards to ban.

Yeah, so there's nothing wrong with some offensive overlap being able to deal more damage than the opponent can block because it means that life will be ended, go to zero, and then it will end. And that is the way that game should be ending. I know that our good friend Trent, with his fatigue bravo, would prefer it that he's like, ah, yes, by one blew in hand and you have nothing. I win. Hammer, Hammer. Hammer. Hammer.

Hammer, hammer. True. Flesh and blood, true flesh and blood or talons. Always joked about winning the game with one plague hive in hand because he just gets to pitch it over and over to the bow to give like random blood. So funny. So like, I'm sure some people love the idea of that, but that's not where the game is supposed to end.

The point is when it's extreme. And one of the ways that they intended for parody to be broken was through being able to Arsenal an attacking card so that your 5 attacking cards go against their four defending cards and you guarantee to leak some damage. Well, that's not enough because there's defense reactions, right? That you can put in Arsenal and then play from Arsenal. And they're also overrate blocks, and if I recall correctly they were printed. And welcome to rate.

So this has always been a fucking problem in the game. Oh my God, we've heard we've heard literally James White, like maybe he complaints not the right word, but he was like we think printing sync below and faith for scene like in the first couple of sets was kind of a mistake because they they break this parody. It makes it harder for the game state to end when you can block with cards in Arsenal.

And so we'll if, if this continues to be an issue and if they find that like, oh, we don't want to push the power too much, but games aren't ending fast enough, I'm going to say this and this might be this may not pay off for a couple of years. I can see them banning fate for seen In Sync below. 100%, yeah. Specifically because of this, because they're like, look, we tried pushing the damage to go over those tools and it didn't matter.

So like now if the game starts just getting too slow and that's a big problem, I can very easily see them cutting these two insane staples. Especially off the backs of banning all these really powerful cards, like there's got to be some course correction, some sometime down the line where the defensive officers are just too great. Yeah, I know we talked to, I've heard talks on our Discord. This is might be conversations I was more of a lurker for than a

participator. But people have wondered like, are we going to keep ratcheting up aggro so that it can get over the defenses of control decks? Are we going to keep ratcheting up control decks so it can meet the blazing power of these new aggro decks? And it seems it's like LSS is taking this opportunity to let's all cool down a second and slow the arms race so we can get back to a more healthy state for the game. Yeah. And ultimately, I like that their guiding principle is

agency. The last thing that they mentioned in this section is that there are cards that take away agency in very powerful and meaningful ways that they are keeping their eyes on but they have currently deemed acceptable. Ren, the Ledger, Warmongers, Diplomacy, Sirens Call, and they often complained about Arclight Sentinel. All of these cards have their own conditions and difficulties and counter play that I think so far makes them all right. Match up dependency.

So many things go into these cards being fair or not fair, but as it stands, I think that those are also cards that could be looking on the complete ban list in the way that these cards were banned simply because they take away that agency too much. And that's it. That's all I got for yellow pitch. I'm going to look down here and check the little boxes. You got 5 here, only a three there. You know what? James White. That's a passing grade.

Flush and blood is saved. This game has been pretty fun in the last five years. We have been. We love it so much we did a podcast about it. Joel's like I'm going to reserve con, let's talk about in blue pitch if we think the game will be fun for the next 5 years.

So I'll read off the four main principles and we'll talk a bit about like the different aspects that they think make up each one. Flesh and Bloods design and development principles 2025 edition are class talent and hero identity, empowering agency, having every card count and having paths to victory. OPA. Do you guys think they put this in a specific order of like priority to them? Oh. That's a good question. I. Didn't tell. Right now I do think there needs

there. There's a lot of work to be done with class talents or specifically talents and hero identities for sure, so that wouldn't surprise me if it was an order of priority. Well, I don't know if the class talent, hero identity is the most important principle that LSS has, but if you're trying to think about like, OK, what am I going to put on my flesh and blood cards, it's a very easy

one to look to 1st. You know, you want your cards to feel good, embody a certain flavor, and the specifics can be guided by the other principles. So I wouldn't be surprised if this first one is the the most dominant in how they come up with new cards to add to the game. Yep. Also makes it very easy to sell the game. I want to play the game by being a fancy ass wizard. Good for you. Here's Icelander the ice wizard. Does she cast spells?

You're goddamn right she does. And notably, this replaces the start full aspect from before. One thing we didn't quite touch on before is nowadays James White and LSS don't consider start full to be a functional principal. Instead, it's just true, which is different. That that's kind of what I was saying about like how the like original principles were just kind of like the rules of the

game make. That happen like you don't need to design a card in order to make your hero start full because it's just how the game works, right? And I also think that's part of why they're able to ban cards like cash in now cash in if you'd like have it like look, it says in our book here that you wrote James, like it says start full cash in. Does that Crown of Dominion cash in embodies that design principle of the game.

So by kind of removing it as like, hey, this is what we want to see and making it more like, if you happen to do it, that's great and natural. It allows them to look closely at like, what's really healthy and unhealthy, you know? I know it's a little bit of a tangent. We're supposed to be talking about the future. Class talent and hero identity does seem like a really good way for LSS to center themselves and focus on what makes the game fun

to play. And I'm looking forward to the future where they make more solid class talent and hero identities. Do you feel like they've been able to preserve a unique mechanical identity for each class and talent so far? I think some of them, some of the classes are struggling more than other classes because I don't think they're quite delivering on the fantasy. I think that's a term you'll hear a lot in game design, especially like board game, card game, video game design, right,

is like delivering on a fantasy. And I definitely think that like Warriors right now have a pretty weakly defined fantasy. I don't know what a big fancy warrior turn looks like. I just don't know what it looks. I know what a Guardian 1 looks like. It's called throwing spinal crush for 21. And it happened to me the other weekend. I don't know what warriors, big, flashy, Oh my God, they did. The warrior thing is. It's usually just blocking. That's my big turn.

Bro I blocked 8 and then I threw a yeah I. Won that turns like gold in the Art of War. What? It doesn't buff weapon attack. What the fuck am I supposed to do with this card? Warriors attack with weapons looks at every other hero in the game. Moving on to point #2 empower agency notably replacing reduced variance. The nice thing about this transition to me is that reduced variance is like, Oh yeah, I love a game that's going to reduce variance because it's going to give me more agency.

And here they're putting it right there in the design principles. We want to empower agency.

That's the the, the end goal they're looking for, not the means to the end, like how their principle is now focusing on the positive things that they can put into their cards to increase that agency versus working to provide to themselves as a counterexample to other TCGS at the time, Magic the Gathering Lands, and we're focusing here, they say create, curate a card pool and meta games where players have choices that allow them to meaningfully engage with the game plan of their opponents

and victories earned through an accumulation of many good decisions. They want that agency to be the source of victory and what makes players feel good. Yeah. And I would say the first and most obvious thing they need to do is give some classes more tools to deal with Spectra. Yeah. Especially if they're gonna like, not do anything about the Spectra that exists. Yeah, they've said they're not printing it more. It still exists.

And notably, in the article they do say Guardian and Warrior will be given tools to help increase their agency in upcoming sets. I've heard that before. Well, hopefully they're able to hold to that design principle and give us that empowering agency in the future. They also double down on every card counts. They want meta games to have archetypes where every card in a deck plays a meaningful role in determining the outcome of the game, something they stayed a

little bit before. We've kind of talked a little bit about what that looks like, right? Going to second cycle sometimes, not necessarily all the time. I also really like the wizard cards that have been printed, specifically that ones that say instant discard this amp one.

Yeah, but I think fixing the problem with your Blues being shitty in Wizard, like they don't really do all that much unless they're being bumped by some other anthem effect, like being able to scrounge at the last bit of arcane damage to close out a game or maybe get a surge going off or whatever. I think that's really cool design and I love the modality of these utility Blues, specifically in the wizard class. More to come, obviously or

hopefully. Yeah, they they first sit in heavy hitters and it was such a rousing success that they they brought it here. Yeah, I haven't thought about it like that, Joel, where like my shitty blue block threes in my deck that served that sort of function can also have intentional card choices that can help my game. And that could be one way in the future that they explored this

design principle specifically. Let's go on to their 4th tenant, Paths to Victory. I like these parts because they sound kind of legalese like they're like, OK, here's what we intend. Specifically, offer players strategies and card synergies that can create game states slanted towards offensive advantage so that most games end with one hero being reduced to zero life.

What does that mean bro? It means they're OK with generally aggressive plans doing better than defensive plans in general and that people will lose as opposed to like getting decked out. If you get fatigued to death then you would say the game did not really end with one hero being reduced to zero life or skill issue. True true. Like it could be the result of like misplays, but that in general they're OK with strategies being overpowering slightly.

It's these extreme offensive overlaps that they don't like. I think for this first line I will measure their success on how well they're doing in this with what does Talon's riptide list look like? Because if he thinks that he has to be throwing attacks to win the game, then we are in a healthy spot. If you can just run trap dot deck, then this is not healthy, right? All I have to do is block every single turn and I have 70 cards in deck and three remembrances so I will win the game.

Talon is the Canary in the coal mine. He I legitimately think fatigue riptide decks are the Canary in the coal mine for this strategy. That's funny. Now, it does say slanted towards offensive advantage, which is doing a lot of work here. But in general, we're expecting offensive decks to be the the default in the game, right? Well-being able to block out until your opponent stumbles, I think that's an important part of the game and like games going

for a long time, right? The ability for them to just be like, I'm throwing 10 and you're like, who? Block 12? Yeah, yeah, like I know I'm on one life, but like who? I get another turn and then they're like, oh man, I didn't draw any attacks. And you're like, this is it. This is my chance. Yes, very important part of the game, I'd agree.

This also, and I'm going to leave it here, this also kind of means that they're not going to print alternate win cons anytime soon, which is kind of lame in my opinion. Yeah, that's kind of like what I'm hearing. But they do have something to say about like Otks and one turn kills. Yeah, which are like our version of alternate wing cons and flesh and bled the watered down version their second bullet point.

Again, I think this tempers what they're talking about with this positive victory primarily disperse offensive advantages across multiple turns rather than in single bursts of output so that victories are in through the accumulation of many good decisions. They're trying to focus on good decisions lead to a win, not good luck, quote, UN quote.

And when you think of like Blood Rush Bellows being like, you need to see two or three of them in order to win the game, I think that would kind of be an indicator that it's an OK card. Yeah. If you're if you're like ever forced to block with it. If you think of like Prism or Zen entirely winning the game bust based off of 1 power turn, then that would be a little bit counter to what they're trying to make the game look like, yeah.

Another thing that I kind of love about this is we already see it in their rune blade design. So initially they were printing a lot of cards that gave you power on the turn itself, but then they start shifting in. A lot of the rune chance generators give you rune chance

over multiple turns. Room Blood Incantation and Malefic Incantation being 2 specific cards that I can point at and be like yes this is a red that gives you 3 value 3 rune chance over three turns but they still have go again so that you can keep playing your game plan on the turn that you play these

cards. Kind of like have been set like probably isn't going to have any OTK times anytime soon, whereas chain used to, Yeah. And lastly, for Paths to Victory, they want us to know that they're going to require combo and one turn kill decks to complete a meaningfully difficult quest. That's the literal word. They use quest to execute their fundamental kill turn. So they're OK with having these crazy combo decks.

And they specifically say examples include Viscerae or Florian OTK requiring many turns to establish the quantity of rune chance required to OTK, or a Kano player completing and memorizing their pitch stack over many turns. Yes. Now this was something that we talked about in our degeneracy episode as being unhealthy for the game. And they kind of said psych bitch. This is perfectly. Fine in LSS opinion because it takes a long time to set up.

They're OK with it. They have to make many good decisions along the way, like doing efficient blocks and keeping their life total up in order to maintain the strategy. Yeah, I think for Florian it makes a lot more sense than for Viscerae, because with Florian you first have to turn on your hero ability and then you have to spend the turns building your room chance. And it's I so far you can't do the same thing with the same card.

I guess you could argue Germinate kind of does that, but it doesn't decompose so it doesn't get you any closer to your hero ability. But that is an earth card that both makes ruin chance and helps delay the game by making embodiments of earth. So aside from one card, Florian looks like the healthy version of this. I think for this or I the argument is that you need to keep a lot of cards in hand, which means that you are then taking a lot of damage to efficiently build the ruin

chance. But I've been doing some building and there are some turns where I can build 20 run chance in a turn. I don't like hearing. That it is. It is doable, so I'm a little concerned on what visserie, OTK and the turtle burst strategy is going to look like. And when they say complete a meaningfully difficult quest, that's kind of subjective, right? You know, like what defines if, if, if a deck is doing really well in the meta, that's kind of a sign that it's not that difficult, right?

And this is the kind of the first hint maybe that they've talked specifically about what strategies should be at the top of the meta and which strategies should not. Well, I will say now that the conversation is on Rune Chant stacking like when it was the premier deck in the format with Bloodshield Skeletta, I think we had a lot less tools to deal with life gain and really defensive decks.

And now some examples of decks that I think could really punish strategies like that is Kasai specifically because she has one of the only like long lasting allies that you have to like declare an attack to kill because room blade for Rosetta has already seen some support where they can destroy auras with non attacks. So like Prism really isn't going to be like the standout destroyer of these decks.

Also like Victor being able to play cast homes to make a really fat CNC maybe with a pummel to like stop all D reacts to destroy whatever combo card you have in arsenal. And I think wizard 2 like if you give Kano enough turns, like if he you know churns through his deck quicker than the viscera or Florian Cam. Like they can obviously set up the perfect kill turn and kill you.

So I'm excited to see how we deal with these decks with the tools that we have now, if these strategies become like more powerful than they used to be. Yeah. I feel like they can really offset these, these concerning OTK decks by following that second principle of empowering

agency. Yeah, If we are able to give most reasonable decks agency into these strategies, because obviously not all the decks will have the agency, but if you give enough decks the agency into these strategies, then it will be OK. Yeah. I think my biggest take away from these new principles and the biggest contrast I see from the old ones that they published was that like the old principles read to me as a fresh new idea.

You know, like if I go to you tomorrow, Clark, and I'm like, I just had the best idea for our trading card game. I'm going to talk about it in these terms, right? I have this new idea where like it'll feel like you start full, every card's going to count. It'll reduce variance and reward your good decisions. It's like a little like elevator pitch, right? No room blades? What Fuzzy? I never said that.

And this is literally used as marketing material for new LGSS, right, To get them excited about the game and encourage them to run more events. But now they're like, we need more mature design principles. We need something that we can hold ourselves accountable to so that we know we're creating a fun, healthy game that's going to last a long time. That's what flesh and blood needs now. We had the buy in. They they sold it to us, right? Like, we're all in. I bought it.

Yeah. So now it's good that they can communicate to us. Hey, we understand our game. We're ready to have a healthy and enjoyable game for the long term. We're in it for life with AY life. This is season 2 season finale and season 3 is going to be a fucking banger. Exactly, they're going to stick season 3. They fixed some some plot holes. They killed off the the hero with the plot armor. We're Gucci. We're getting there. And I'm excited for the future.

Ned Stark lost his head. Yeah, whatever that means. Oh, maybe this will be a good time to just talk about little tangents, little footnotes. In the end. For instance, they mentioned that for Blitz, they're looking at the format and they recognize that it can use a couple changes that could make it like an actually good format. And they said that they could be implemented prior to the next scrimmage season starting N30, which is like really soon. Wait another. Scrimmage season.

It's the only time we can get blitz LL points. It's part of why Zen rotated so fast, because we only get like two or three of these a year. So you only have a couple opportunities to LL. You have to like fucking pump those LL points into the system and Zen took them all and gobbled. Them. God I wish this was video recorded. Were there any other like ending things that anyone wanted to mention? I'm finally excited about flesh and blood again like this. Gave me a lot of hope for sure.

Yeah, Miss, Miss Bailey, you've been pretty, pretty down on because I think you had heavy hitters. You saw the resurgence of your class. Yeah. You saw them get some points but still struggle. And you were like, man, you really could have done more for Warrior. And then literally the very next season, they took what little Warrior had away. Yeah. And I think that. I think it killed your energy

for sure. And I think, I mean there's a pattern too, like when I want to like grind for an invite and I'm playing the top deck in the format and I'm bored stiff and I don't and I like stop playing that deck like I did. I did the same thing for Starvo. I played Starvo for a while and like gave up on the deck because it was so boring. Like it's just not what I want for flesh and blood. I want grinder games. I want longer games. Done. It's also not what you like about Flesh and Blood. True.

Yeah, I think that's gonna be so important that people start communicating and the way that they start talking. The games I like in Flesh and Blood. Yeah. Because you will have games that you don't like in flesh and blood. Because guess what? Different people like different things about flesh and blood. Holy fucking shit guys, there's a difference of opinions. Wait, people don't like fatigue mirrors? I liked brain dead at grow mirrors. They didn't feel brain dead to me. Yeah.

But if he means people stop complaining, I'm willing to ditch him, you know? Yeah, I'm willing to let them go. It, it reminds me of how like during heavy hitters, there was a lot of complaining about this is just a numbers meta, man. No one's doing anything cool anymore. Then Miss Vale. Everyone's like, why is the game so broken, man? Why can't we go back to the good meta hitters? It's like, motherfucker, I saw your tweet.

Yeah. I think you need to get off Twitter, Clark, when you're noticing how the different complaints don't line up with the same people. Twitter is just not the place for sane people, I swear to God. Well then, lock me up, baby. All right. My last aside that I want to mention all of these cards except for Bonds of Ancestry, our legal and living Legend, and

I actually like this. You can play your one token copy of Bonds of Ancestry. Sure, but I love this because it means that when heroes Living Legend out, people are going to be excited to go play them in the Living Legend format. Because right now, if Leviah was the LL, I would not give a shit about playing her in Living Legend and I would never play her in Living Legend even if I love that deck with all of my

heart. I'd be like, why would I bother playing against all those broken old decks? But if someone goes well, you get to run Ardivor and I'd go, what? What'd you say? Come again? I get to I get to play Ardivor. All right, hold on. This changes the entire way I've been playing this deck. OK, wait, I can run Slytherin Shadow Pede now And like, Deeper and Evil get so much better. And like, wait a minute, they printed this other card into future set that I don't know yet.

And like, that's so much. Better with Ardivor, Yeah. And you can play Blood Rush Bellows too. Let's go. And Ardivor. And then people get excited about taking their deck to the next format. Yeah. And that that is going to be meaningful for the health of the game because Magic has had that standard went out. And then you're like, wait a minute, let's see if I can turn this into a Modern deck. Or for the big boys, vintage. Sure. Wait, is it legacy that I like?

Which one has Reckless Reanimator? I don't know. Nerds. Pretty sure that's legacy with Gristlebrand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Legacy. I love legacy. Yeah, all. Right, boys, we're ready to move on to our Arsenal zone. Sorry. I don't think anyone was prepared for that. That's funny. Yeah, let's do it. What's the Arsenal zone though? Arsenal Zone is the podcast. Aren't you gonna bully Joel

about it? I've been trying to like set this tradition of like bullying the person who asks what the arsenal. Arsenal zone is the part of the Joel, why don't you? Tell yeah, Joel, you're asking the question, Mr. Smart Guy. Well, since you asked the Arsenal Zone listeners, is the part of the podcast where we talk about a card A. Card. Yeah, it could be one that we like, 01 that we don't like, oh, and one that we like to not like.

Oh yeah. Either way, we're going to talk about it right now and I'm not starting. So when do you start? I can start. It's like as this tradition. I brought a copy of the card

that I'll be shouting out, ready to sign and give to you guys. You have literally never done this ever before in Are you getting a signed fuzzy? Card. Hey, yo. I'm shouting out a card. Now that I think about it, there's like 4 cards that I'm missing from. I have them. Oh. OK, slave, I have two of them. Good to me. I'm shouting out a card that was not banned, but oh boy did it get worse. You might be thinking OK, spawns of ancestry left the format.

Wait, Crown of Dominion? We're getting Crown of Dominion. Good guess but it is a common but it is an equipment headpiece. You may be thinking Bonds of Ancestry just got banned which means it's a lot harder for Katsu to run Dishonor. Well I mean he can run it, but is he going to do anything if he can't turn it on? Because you can't play Bonds of Ancestry so you can't like actually take away people's hero abilities. So you might be thinking, what if I ran Mask of Many Faces?

But I have bad news for everybody listening to this podcast that was thinking about running Mask of Mini Faces in Katsu. And that's that you're not allowed to name a card that is not legal in the format that you're playing, and that includes banned cards. So you actually cannot run Mask of Mini Faces and use its ability in order to give a card the name Bansif Ancestry.

I'll just read the card really quick because that's a good habit that I forgot to do. It's Blade break, one on a headpiece and it says instant cost one resource. Destroy mask of mini faces and name a card that's legal in the format that you're playing in. The next attack action card you play this turn gains that name, so that card will have two names, which is kind of sick. I kind of love the idea of a Ninja player running this and then like. Totally getting the judge, no? No like.

As they're as they're winning the game, like as they play the last card in the opponent's like I have no cards in hand. You got it. They go hold on instant destroy mask and mini faces naming Gristlebrand, Gristlebrand. And it's like, that's not a fab card. They're like, bitch, it says a card. Not legal. So how does that work for schwum? Can you make? Can you name? You wouldn't be able to. It has to be a legal card that. Card sucks.

Isn't that sad that like Dishonor is so empty but it is a blue block 3 that's 0 cost, which means that if you already have it and you like the art, you could put it in your deck and it can turn on your kanachis. It's playable. Turns on your Karachis, works with, you know, flick Flack. It's a combo card still. That that is a better selling point for it than stab wound. We've talked about this for way longer than I thought we would.

Clark, do you have a card? I do have a card like you, Fuzzy. I picked the card that got so much worse, Cranial Crush. I can't crush and stop people from drawing cards anymore. They're drawing all these cards when no one's drawing any cards anymore. What the fuck? So now it's just a six cost 8 power card I guess. And blue block 3 and a blue block. Three, it's kind of like the the hat balance of justice yeah like when are people drawing 2 cards anymore? A lot of.

Cards got like a lot worse off of this just because they were designed to take care of these things. It's not like like azaleas playing three of a kind, you know? Weakest Link got a lot worse, a lot less instance. I mean, we're getting a bunch of new ones in the schedules, but like we lost a lot of playable instance here. Good. I'm trying to pay less than $20.00 for that, yeah. Nice shout out. Yeah, yeah. Joel, would you like to shout out a card?

Oh, me, Yeah. Yeah. So for my card, I'm shouting out an oldie. Some of you young UNS out there might not even know this card exists. That's so crazy. That's crazy because I see it in the notes and it was my first headpiece. Yeah, and this card also used to cost $200.00 and I was gassed at getting this card for 180. That's probably less than 50 bucks now.

And that's Arcanite Skullcap. So Arcanite Skullcap for the Unanointed is a legendary headpiece with one Battle Warren, but if you have less life than your opponent, it gains plus one block and Arcane Barrier 3. And the reason why I'm shouting it out today is because I think this card might be kind of good because Verdance is going to be

gaining a lot of life. And there's a lot of Amp in the set, which I don't want to be paying more than three for or running a lot of AB slots for this hero. And she's probably going to have a lot more life than me at certain points in the game, like especially for going up and down and trading life. So I don't know, I'm probably coping right now and no one here agrees with me, but I think this card could be kind of cool to maybe experiment with, but I

just wanted to shout it out. You know, like take the life. The conditional AB is like a little bit feels bad because you want to be able to consistently block against them, but it's very efficient if you were trying to. It's one of the only ways that all heroes can get to large amounts of AB, you know. Without sacrificing a lot of their game plan, right? Hannah can block for three still, yeah. I mean how many decks already run the generic headpiece? The Crown of Providence is the

the balance adjustment. There's room for it for sure. There's a lot of room for it in lists. Get your copies now everyone before it's bikes. It's too late, I bought them all. Welcome sneeples to market Monday. Buy your fucking arcanite skull caps. Shadow steeples. Shout out the sneeples. But yeah, that's my card. Wanted to talk about it. Wanted to highlight that I spent 180 on it. So that was an amazing shout out. Thanks. I love this podcast. It was great. We haven't recorded in two

weeks. What's up with that? Yeah, we need to record. Tomorrow. Honestly unironically I was like not looking forward to recording like at all specifically because of like Partha must fail. This game's been weird. Yeah, it's been really bad. No one's liked it for the last. Two, the mood's been down. Yeah, for sure. Now I just have so much I want to talk about. I'm so re energized from this band list so shadow LSS. Plus we're getting 2 new room blades next set. Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

All right. Bye. Bye everybody. Until next time, guys, bye.

Pigeon to Me podcast is hosted by Fuzzy Del Clark Moore and Joel Racinos. Our executive producer is Talon Stradley, music by Dylan Hulse, logo by Han V and sound mixing by Christopher Moore. Last but not least, we'd like to thank you, the listener. Thank you for tuning in. Please give us a follow on your favorite social media platform at. Pitch it to Me podcast. Then you don't. Then I. Still get to play Bonds because I had. It in our school if I. Eat.

Bonds of ancestry from your board state and then call judge. Oh yeah, yeah. Then that's very interactable. So yeah, you could eat the Phoenix farm, Clark, That's the. Assumption. That's the answer to all your problems. Eat this. Can't like this. Can't if I eat it first. I swear it's on the combat channel. He ate it. Where's the evidence? Look in my mouth.