The Glass Cannon Podcast - Glass Cannon Radio #18 – Magic: The Gathering, Mission Impossible, Matthew Capodicasa

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Special guest Matthew Capodicasa joins the show to discuss the many facets of Magic: The Gathering. The good, the bad, and the expensive. Also, a look into the Mission Impossible franchise in preparation for the release of The Final Reckoning!⁠ Access exclusive podcasts, ad-free episodes, and livestreams with a 30-day free trial with code "GCN30" at ⁠⁠⁠⁠jointhenaish.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join Troy Lavallee, Joe O'Brien, Skid Maher, Matthew Capodicasa, Sydney Amanuel, and Kate Stamas as they tour the country. Get your tickets today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hubs.li/Q03cn8wr0⁠⁠⁠⁠. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hubs.li/Q03cmY380⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network. This is Glass Cannon Radio with your hosts Jared Logan and Joe O'Brien. Oh, damn. Coming at you in your morning commutes. Ha ha. It's glass, can and radio. You're on your way to work. Traffic's looking bad on the 405.

But we're here to keep you company. I'm Jared Logan. This is Joe O'Brien. Yo buddy, here with you on the road on the 405. Yeah, you got your sound effects board ready? Because it's time to do... Yeah, I gotta add that into the show. I gotta get it more dedicated. I gotta learn from the master, Skidmar, and get some good drops going.

I could do that. I could do that. You already have a lot of things you're keeping. I know there's, you should see what I'm looking at right here. And I'm keeping track of almost nothing. I'm only speaking into a microphone and it is all I can handle. I cannot take on more than that. Welcome to glass cannon radio, the show where you get to sound off on what you think of things in the geekosphere, the realm of nerd culture, which we define loosely. Maybe one day it'll be interior decorating.

That's our prerogative. Right. I mean, getting too into anything is nerdy, right? Yes, exactly. Yeah. There are, there are professional football nerds. Professional baseball, certainly lots of nerds. So like, anything you wanna dig into too much can be nerdy.

The only thing we'll never, ever, ever do is sports. We'll never do it, right, Joe? Ha ha ha! I try to wedge it in there every once in a while. So far, we've only spent, we've spent about five total minutes on the largest global sporting event of the year. The Superbowl. We did five minutes on that. That was, that was all we could make time for in sports.

I was on another project this week for kind of a completely different job I had and I had to learn about Travis Hunter of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Yeah. Why? Why he, you know, I, I, sometimes I do some writing in the advertising realm and, um, I'm not sure how much I'm able to reveal, but suffice to say, I really enjoy his end zone victory dances. Okay. All dances. Okay.

All right. Yeah. I didn't like watch a game, you know, I didn't need to do that. That would be crazy. I skipped right to the entertaining part. Anyway, check out, uh, Travis Hunter's victory dances. If you're a huge sports fan, like I am, uh, good morning or afternoon as the case may be today. We have got a big show. First of all,

we're going to wish happy birthday to someone. We'll get to that in a minute. Then it's on to magic. The gathering a gigantic topic gigantic. Where do you start fill five podcasts on its own. We're going to do our best to tackle it. We really want you to call in because I know a lot of you guys have opinions on magic, the formats, et cetera. And a special guest as part of that.

Oh, that's right. We have a special guest as part of that. You'll find out who in a minute. Then we're going to get into money versus your hobby, your money versus your hobby. How are you managing your money? Everything's more expensive, but you still have those nerd obsessions. Uh, then after that it is on to mission impossible. Bump bump bump bump bump.

Oh, let's go, baby. We're going to do that song a lot. The final reckoning comes out this week. Uh, I just watched the dead reckoning. Uh, and I kind of recapped, I had a recap of all of the mission possibilities. So we're going to get into the mission impossible movies. And, uh, then finally, uh, what's really exciting is we have a listener

question today. So you guys can win a really cool prize with our listener question. So, uh, if you'd like to call in, you just need to be on our Discord. You need to subscribe and then be on our Discord. And you can raise your hand in the glass cannon radio stage. We'll call on you. You can sound off. And then once you've done that, we're ready to go.

You might need to join in order, you might need to subscribe. So just go to jointhenage.com and you can subscribe and be on the show in literally minutes. And you can do it for free. If you using code GCN 30 for free. That's right. If you want to try it out, right. Joe, I'm just checking my microphone because I'm hearing that my microphone might not be ideal right now. So let me just make sure. great to me. Where are you hearing this in discord? No, I think our friend on the ones and twos McD has told me I sound a little tinny Maybe that's just my personality McD. Huh? Interesting. It sounds totally normal to me. Okay, sure But yeah, we'll keep an eye on it. Thanks guys. Thanks. Hey guys, we just want to apologize for the audio quality in this episode.

Uh, we've looked into it and it'll never happen again. There. I got that out of the way. Uh, yeah, happy birthday. Yeah, let's say happy birthday to a very special happy birthday today. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for a little segment. Happy birthday to a very special happy birthday today. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for a little segment we call happy birthday nerd today. We'd like to wish a very happy birthday to Lawrence to road known to all of us as Mr. T. Oh yeah, he's turning 73 years old today.

Oh man. Now I grew up with mr. T He was a cultural force Some of my earliest memories are watching the a team with my dad I didn't know what was going on on the a team. I just knew that I liked mr. T Yes, the pure visual of him was just appealing to kids. Um, maybe because he's, he was kind of silly if you, if you think about it, but the Mohawk, the gold, he was like an action figure come to life. Now, yes. And in case you were born in the two thousands or in some later area

era, you should know Mr. T was famous. Okay. He was like one of the most famous people ever instantly recognizable all over the world. He was on the A team. He was also in movies. He was in commercials. He had his own cartoon show. Mr. T had his own cereal.

There was Mr. T cereal. That's as famous as you can get. Okay. Yeah. And how did he get there? I mean, I looked this up. I read about him. This is a man who never said quit. All right. He got a college football scholarship to a place called Prairie A&M. He got expelled like in his first year. All right. Then he went into the army. This is in 1975. He didn't stay in the army very long. He tried out for the Green Bay Packers. He didn't make the team and he ended up being a bouncer at nightclubs in Chicago in the late seventies, early eighties. And that could have been it. This is the part that I know is that he was a bouncer.

I didn't realize before that that he had tried a career in football. He was a bouncer. And according to the legend that I read, the gold chains kind of originated from people would leave stuff at the club, jewelry and stuff at the club, and he'd just put it on. So if you wanted to get your stuff back that you lost while you were drunk, you just wouldn't talk to the bouncer, Mr. T. He'd be like, Oh yeah, here's your ring. You know, um, he was a walking lost and found. He was a walking lost and found. I don't know how true that is, but the thing to remember is that he was just a bouncer. He, he, you know, he had tried and maybe you might characterize it as failed a couple of things and then he became a bouncer.

But from there he got on an NBC, like one time show called America's toughest bouncer where there were all kinds of sporting events for bouncer. It's like one was throwing 120 pound guy. You had to throw a man and Mr. T made an impression because Sylvester Stallone watched that program. And from that, he cast Mr. T in Rocky three. Yeah. Yeah.

So the, the, the story that I hear from that is he said something. He did not say I, the iconic, I pity the fool, but he said something on that show, that bouncer show along the lines of like I Genuinely feel bad for the guy who has to box me like there was like yeah Like a boxing thing or a fighting thing and he was basically like I feel bad for the guy who has to box me I really actually feel bad for whoever it is and Legend tells it that Stallone saw that saw that line was like I like this dude's style legend tells it that Stallone saw that, saw that line and was like, I like this dude's style.

Yeah. And that line is in Rocky three or the, the actual catchphrases in Rocky three. That's the first time you hear it. Uh, they asked him if he hates Rocky Balboa, his character clubber Lang, they asked him if he hates Rocky Balboa. He says, I don't hate Balboa, but I pity the fool. And so from then on that became the iconic catchphrase of Mr. T. I pity the fool. Now Mr. T's ex account says that he's a footballer, soldier, bodyguard. We, you didn't, we, we just skipped over the fact that he was a bodyguard for like very famous people, very famous people.

Yeah. But he's a bouncer, Diana Ross, I think was one and yeah, it might have been Michael Jackson Michael Jackson Yeah, absolutely. So so he was a bodyguard as well now He's all those things but if you listen to him talk for just a minute You can also tell that mr. T is a nerd. There is just something So dorky about Mr. T. There's an undercurrent. Yeah.

Yes. Mr. T's appeal, I think, is that he projects strength, but with the heart of a poet. You know what I'm saying? Like- I do. I do. I thought that it was one of the most... So I loved the A-Team, grew up watching the A-Team, watched it over and over and over again.

And I... While my memory of those things is definitely faded, I remember the thing I loved most about BA Baracus was that he felt so real because as strong as he was, as tough as he was, as bad as he was, he was like, he also had like the fear of flying. I remember a big thing. It was, and it would get to the point of just comedy of him being like, are you taking me to the airport? Like freaking out. And it was, they would have to trick him into doing things cause he was so scared. That was this multi-layer character stuff that I thought was so endearing. And, and uh, yeah. And the way he pulled it off, you could tell he was, he was a nerd inside for sure. A reporter one time, and a lot of this is just from Wikipedia, but I did some other research.

A reporter one time asked him if he's as dumb as his character, B.A. Baracus, and Mr. T. said, "'It takes a smart guy to play dumb.'" So there you go. There you go. Now, I really think that Mr. T.'s personal brand was one of empathy. You know what I mean?

He was always like really kind, like yes, he was ridiculous, but he was also kind. Like in everything he ever did from his cartoon show to his special guest appearance on different strokes, his entire career was centered around helping kids to be safe, to be themselves, and to stay off drugs. His entire career at some point was really about helping children. So Mr. T kind of comes from a different era when even the dumbest stuff in pop culture could also be kind of sweet. And wholesome.

Yeah. And wholesome, exactly. Even the catchphrase, I pity the fool is a positive one. He doesn't hate the fool. He's not going to kill the fool. Yeah. He pities the fool. He has empathy for the fool. What if we all pitied fools instead of attacking them? You know? Yes. Yes. After all, aren't we all the fool at one time or another? That's right. So, um, B. A. Baracus may have been a friend afraid to fly, but Mr. T. Sword to heights few of us can ever

imagine. Maybe not in the realm of acting because he was not good at that. But in terms of being a positive role model. So let's all listen to Mr. T stay in school, keep off drugs and be yourself. Yes. That's my happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Mr. T. Yeah. That's awesome.

We're going to use Mr. T as a little, a little inspiration for today's listener question. So we got a listener question we're gonna throw out there. And when you call in, whatever you call in about today, we got a great show, like we said, with Magic the Gathering. We've got talking about hobbies and money, Mission Impossible, all this fun stuff. But while you call in, at the end, we're gonna ask you a question, and the best answer

by the end of the show in our last segment is going to get a sweet reward. In fact, with magic being the inspiration, we're going to give away to whoever wins, we're going to ship you 10 magic booster packs. 10 magic booster packs you're going to get for whoever has the best answer today. That's a sweet prize. It is a sweet prize, courtesy of your good buddy McD. So the question is for today, what fool do you pity?

What fool do you pity? What fool do you pity? Now there's obviously a lot of ways to interpret that question. And I leave that to you audience. I'll tell you what won't win. I'll tell you in advance what won't win. Do not start a five minute story about your brother-in-law and what they did and how stupid they are and why they're a fool. Use something that other people know what you're talking about and that doesn't

need a long explanation. An elevator pitch answer is what's going to be best. Again, like you said last time, some, someone that everyone knows, but nobody thought of. Right. That's true. But the other thing I'll say is it doesn't have to be one person. It could be a group of people that do a certain thing or something. Right.

Like, uh, and there's the other interesting thing to me about this question is like, you can interpret it as an actual fool that you actually do pity, or you could interpret it as like somebody that needs to get their ass kicked, like, you know, or somebody that is up against a challenge that they are not ready for, right? That kind of thing. And it could be a fictional fool, right? It could be a fictional fool. The one that I thought of immediately is a fictional character.

So I'm, you know, I'm going to just going to give it. I'm just going to give my answer right out of the gate here and give you of immediately is a fictional character. So I'm you know, I'm gonna just gonna give it I'm just gonna give my answer right out of the gate here and give you a full a fictional fool that I Actually do pity and I found it hard to watch at times and that is mr. Jerry Lundegard in My god, Joe that character that's who I was about to say are you serious? I'm dead serious with you Beforehand we just like googling the character name. Oh my god. Oh chills. Oh chills It's the perfect answer it is I mean it's just a guy who as a movie progresses every scene you watch I mean, it's just a guy who as a movie progresses every scene you watch you get more cringe more cringe more like Oh my god, dude. Oh my god. Pull the ripcord. Pull the rip kit out of there. It's so Amazing amazing amazing

Has been mentioned on this show before but Anyway, let's get into the meat of today. Let's talk about Magic the Gathering. Let's talk magic. Our guest is on deck. Why don't you introduce our guest as we get into magic now. This man is a role player, a playwright, a raconteur, a gentleman scholar. Please welcome a expert magic player, Matthew Capodicasa, everybody. Yo, dude.

What's up? How's it going? Oh, we're doing well. We're doing great, buddy. Glad to have you. I have to ask a quick question because I missed the beginning of the previous segment, but Jared, I was very moved by your tribute to Mr. T,

but I'm equally moved to ask the question, is he okay? He's fine. People don't have to be dead for us to wish them a happy birthday. Around here, the last person we did wish happy birthday was dead, so. Um. Um.

Um. Hopefully Mr. T doesn't die right after this, or I'm gonna think, uh oh, do I have powers? But um. Okay, I mean, I'm relieved. I'm relieved to know that he's okay. Absolutely. Matthew, thank you so much for coming on, buddy.

We're gonna get into Magic the Gathering here, of which you will self-proclaim, say you are no expert, but you do love it. You've recently gotten back into it. Can't wait to talk to you about it, but mainly I wanted to have you on because we haven't seen you in a while, man. You haven't been on the Glass Cannon podcast. You have an amazing opportunity going

on. We're busy. So catch us up. How's it going? How's the Netflix show going? How's life? Get us all up to speed. I mean, it's wild. Jared, you sent me a very kind email with some very good advice about being in a veteran's room because I know you're a veteran. It's just like, I mean, I've said versions of this before, so I apologize, but it's just, it's super cool, right? You're in, it's like, it's a little bit,

it's a little bit like, where has this been all my life? You're just sitting in a room with other really smart people and you're just talking story. You know, it's like, it's, I don't know, it's just exactly the things I love. This particular show has a really great room, the writers are all awesome, the material's really great. It's not like, you know, I think sometimes you,

I don't know, I feel like with adaptation jobs, they kind of fall into the two categories of like good material or bad material. And that has no bearing on whether or not it will be a good or bad thing at the end of the adaptation. And this one is very good material. So it's just fun to talk about it. Well, we look forward to seeing your show problem child the series. Yes

That is the good film and I love great material like that. So The I've always imagined in a in my imagination where one day I am a writer I've always thought it would be so cool to be in a writer's room. I've never imagined myself as like sitting alone and you know, on a long writing project. I love the idea of collaborative writing and it sounds like it's working out on your end that it's really fun.

The most important question is, do they have good snacks? Oh, you're zooming, I bet. No, we're in person. We have great snacks. Oh, beautiful. Great snacks. Are they getting you lunch? Yes, I bet. No, we're in person. We have great snacks. Oh, beautiful. Great snacks. Are they getting you lunch? Yes, I'm gaining so much weight. It's, I'm like, it's, it's, it's terrible.

They get you lunch at some of these jobs. They just give you lunch. Well, they don't want you to, they don't want you to leave. So they're like, right? They'll just like stock snacks and seltzer and lunch will come to you every day. Yeah, they want you to work through lunch,

but little do they know writing is mostly 10 minute breaks. Jared, why don't you introduce us to Magic the Gathering? How did you want to bring it up today? Obviously it's a huge topic. It's a huge topic. It's a huge topic and we don't have a hard angle on it today, but we thought, how have we not talked about this before?

So I thought I would just, you know, introduce, uh, Magic the Gathering, a game we all know and love by Richard Garfield, debuted in the 90s, still going very strong. We would like people's opinions on what they think of the formats, what their favorite format is, or their opinions on the different formats. What do you think of Magic Arena? You know, the sort of online component where you can play online.

What kind of deck type do you use? What, and then also I always like it when people go negative. What type of deck types suck? What formats suck? Sound off on that. And we could even get into, you know, who you're, what your favorite sets are, you know, cause they, you know, a different set, a couple of different sets debut every year. I think I'll start with this and I'll start by asking Matthew, Matthew, I know you're not hardcore, hardcore, like it's not your

life with magic, but um, recently they released the Lord of the rings set. Now there's a final fantasy set coming up. There's a spider-man set coming up and they just announced that those sets can be used in like competitive play. Is, is this a betrayal of the real magic? The gathering to have spider-man cards in your deck? Would you play with spider-man cards? I would not play have Spider-Man cards in your deck. Would you play with Spider-Man cards? I would not play with Spider-Man cards. Would you pity the fool that came to a table with you?

Well, you stole my answer. With a Spider-Man card in their deck. Joe! Joe, you're stepping up. I could have won 10 booster packs, man. No, I mean, I don't pity any fools. I think it, I was okay with the War of don't I don't pity any fools. I think it I was okay with the Lord of the Rings one that felt a little fun to me. It was like, Oh, yeah, again,

doll. Oh, look, you know, you can play with Sam as your commander like that felt right of fun and within the realm of the kind of high fantasy. I know magic. The world is very adaptable with the different planes and everything. But I don't know. They also did a Warhammer as a set. I feel like it's supposed to be a very good set, but even that felt a little bit of a stretch to me. I like the kind of high fantasy with adaptability setting personally. I love that they come up with their own worlds.

That's really exciting to me that they come up with their own worlds, you know? Like, uh, that's really exciting to me that they come up with their own. You know what I like more than anything, I think? I don't play magic. You know what I love more than anything? I love seeing iconic Lord of the Rings characters in a magic card. I just, because I love magic cards.

I love the way they look. I love the way they're laid out. I love the way. And then to put mechanics to a character, I love the way they're laid out, I love the way. And then to put mechanics to a character that I love and know already in my own way or whatever, be like, all right, what are the numbers on this person? What's their special ability? I love that.

I think that that's so fun to do in these crossovers. I want all the Lord of the Rings cards as a Lord of the Rings fan, and I don't really play Magic. Can I tell you why I don't? Please. Because I get killed on turn three every time. Wow. We haven't talked about this. I'm so bad.

And that's exactly how I feel. I'm so bad. I'm so bad. So bad. But Matthew, you, did you play it in the 90s and then returned to it? Okay, so talk about your intro into the hobby and then reintroduction into it. Yeah, I played in the 90s.

I mean, I was young. I think I started playing when I was in fourth or fifth grade, and I didn't, but it was, it's cool. I mean, I was saying my personal, the art is always amazing, but my personal favorite element of a magic art is the flavor text. It's like, who can do, who can accomplish the most storytelling in one to two lines of italicized,

you know, something. I think there was, and there was, and also referenced the narrative, because each of the sets has a story that's part of the narrative and the lore, I got very into the lore and, you know, the middle school years. I years. I thought it's a cool setting. And also, yeah, so I played, end of elementary school into middle school, and by the time I got to high school, I kind of fizzled out on them being able to afford it, which was the thing.

And actually, I know it's a topic for later, so I'll stay with you. Save it, we'll talk more about that later. Yeah, but that is a huge component of the hobby and something that people bring up within five minutes if they are, if they're not as into it or if they have those negative feelings about it. One of the first things they'll throw at you is money,

you know, in terms of how the game is structured. Yeah, so I didn't break with it so much as I just kind of stopped being able to afford it. And also I was like, I was, I was up when I was in high school, Yeah, so I didn't break with it so much as I just kind of stopped being able to afford it. Also, I was like in – I was up when I was in high school. I had more things in my life to distract me from my echoing vacant hole in my soul. So then recently, I mean like during the pandemic, I remember we – as we were meeting folks like Jared, like who were just kind of coming into our world through the gaming avenues,

it came up in conversation. I would see people playing it, they were doing shows about it, and I was like, oh, right. That scratched a niche for me that I haven't really scratched since. I very slowly got into it again, and I discovered when I played in middle school, it was very cutthroat and a lot of machismo. The it wasn't like the environment wasn't very fun. And the social aspect of it was kind of very competitive in a way I didn't particularly enjoy even then. But then I kind of now as an adult, like the way I got back into it was Commander,

which feels like a completely different experience. Right. It's more- It's a different game. It's a different game. There's a narrative aspect to the game itself. Not like, you know, all I like, it was like, oh, we made that alliance and then that fell apart and then we thought this person was winning. Like the story of the games themselves is actually really compelling to me.

Yeah. I feel like you can you take a second and talk about what commander is and how it changed the game? Yes. And I apologize to the people who actually know the full story for what I butchered. But Commander is a four player variant to Magic and you have a hundred card deck and one of your cards is your Commander. So it's a card that has to be legendary and that card kind of it doesn't go into the deck. It exists separately and you can play it from the separate thing called the Command Zone, which is basically an extension of your hand.

And if your Commander dies, that card goes back to the Command Zone. You can recast it with a little bit of attacks on it every time. So you theme your deck around that commander and its abilities and what it can do. What I think I found also really exciting about it is the creativity in the deck building. It's like, oh, I'm going to build a hundred card deck around this theme and this particular character that allows, that brings that theme out. And sometimes that theme is mechanical. I think sometimes people have

fun and the theme is more, you know, an extended joke. But it just feel it's, yeah, it's become, it started as a fan thing. Like it was people who were playing at tournaments would bring their commander decks to kind of kill time when they weren't playing in the actual the actual tournament. And then it became it was a fan administered thing that then got kind of folded into the official wizard thing, which is a whole thing.

Ever credited to anyone in particular? Was there like a person that came up with a rule set for this? I'm sure. I don't know off top my head, but I don't either. Yeah, I don't know. It was such, but it's, I think the thing that always, it was such a fan organized thing that has now been folded into wizards. But yeah, it also, I mean, I remember talking to Matt Brody, our cinematographer on Glass Cannon podcast, and he was talking about the reason he got into

commander was, you know, in a standard set, you can have multiples of the same card. And you know, if you're optimizing, you sometimes want to have the multiple, like crazy, good card. And he was like, in college, like we couldn't afford to get four, you know, $40 cards. You could just, but if you were playing commander, you can only have one. It's called singletons. You can only have one of each, one copy of each card in your deck. So it was like, yeah, you could get, you could buy an expensive card and bolt into your deck. And it just weirdly became a little more cost effective for them, which I thought was interesting. Is that all you play when you play right now? Commander?

Do you play regular? Do we call it regular magic? What's the name of just kind of standard magic? Standard. You just play standard. But there's a there's a bunch of different variants and different games you can play. I've done so I mostly do command because I feel like that I like the social aspect of it. I feel like I like the social aspect of it, I like and I like the narrative aspect of it. Wait, is it always four or more players? Can you play it with three or with two? You can play with three.

There are variants where you can play with two. You can also play two decks at the same time. It's called Two-Headed Giant. So you can do, the math is not quite right if you don't have four, but you can do it. I've done it in front of you. You know, I've been doing it on tour sometimes. But yeah, I'm mostly just playing commander.

I like it's just it's it's it's scratches the itch for me in a way that feels achievable. It's more like a party with four people. Like, it's more like a party than like the silent battle of wills that a standard one on one duel is. You know, yeah. And I mean, it is what it is. It is a silent battle of wits. Have you ever gone and watched a magic tournament where everybody's playing like a standard

game, a standard duel against each other? The smell of sweat and tension is incredible. I also feel you can buy the pre-con, when I was playing in middle school, like the pre-constructed decks were terrible. I remember like you, sometimes you would buy them to get one card or something, but the decks on the whole were bad. I mean, the pre-constructed commander decks that they release are great and then they have great cards and sometimes you can get really good value.

And I, and it also creates a kind of, I mean, obviously the, I feel like the creative aspect of commander is the deck building, right? You're like, I'm going to, and you also, you can express your knowledge of the game in a way I can't compete with. Right. You know, the, the, the pre-cons are actually pretty strong as you can play them right out of the box. Like I played a tournament at, uh, Pax Unplugged where it was like, they gave you a pre-con and you didn't choose it. Like you randomly got a pre-con and you had to play it, which felt, and you can then spend a little money to enhance them. Um, but you can, you know, to kind of heighten, you know, hone the strategy

of the deck, but it's, it just feels a much more accessible game to me now than it, also I have a job that can allow me to buy cards, so there's that too, but I think there's something about the commander aspect that feels very kind of congenial and you know and more cooperative even though you are playing against you. Very interesting.

I don't know if Jared is getting reset here, but we just lost his video for a second. He'll be back shortly. Why don't we take some calls here? I'm curious to hear what you guys have to say about Magic. Do you love it? Do you not love it? Are you not a big fan?

Where do you fall on the whole situation? Let's get Ms. Kritz up here. Ms. Kritz, join us. Your thoughts on Magic. Hello, can you hear me? Yeah, we got you. Hello. Awesome, cool. Yeah, long time listener, big time fan.

Awesome, thanks Ms. Kritz. Appreciate you calling in, Brett. I hope you guys liked the spotted cows. Oh yeah, oh they were awesome. They were awesome, yes, thank you. Yeah, so magic. So most of my magic time, I'm 30 years old, but I have a full-time job and family, and most of my magic time has been on arena.

I know, scandalous. I've no full-time job and family and most of my magic time has been on arena. I know scandalous. Um, no, no. I, what do you think of arena? I want to hear about it because it is controversial. The way you play has changed by being on a read. Yeah. Um, it's, it's very accessible, right? Like I've been playing on arena for as long as it's been a thing, I think.

And I've spent maybe 20 bucks and you know I got a ton of cards just from like the end game currency. But mostly I just kind of want to talk about like it is it's been a way for me to kind of connect with my with my boy he who's almost 10. My brother bought him the Foundation Starter Set, which is really cool because it teaches the game in bite-sized chunks, and it comes with a bunch of 10 different theme, 20-card sets that you can kind of mix and match. Wow, okay. It's really fun, yeah. That's cool, and so you play, your son, you're saying, is nine? Sets you can kind of mix and match Wow

That's cool and so you play your son you're saying is nine Yeah, and so you guys play just traditional together with cards or do you play on arena? with the cards with the cards He's trying arena, but the the beginning color challenge It can be a bit of a grind. And he is adamant about not wanting my help. He wants it. What does that mean? What is the beginning color challenge?

Can you explain that to me? Before you can go play online with other people, you have to go through this tutorial, they call it the color challenge. We have to go through a series of games against the computer. Gotcha. I can tell you that my daughter who's six, she is playing Pokemon cards. Now we're not playing the full rules yet, but we're kind of teaching them as we go.

She's doing really well with cards, but anytime I give her a video game, she's kind of, she kind of struggles for 45 minutes to remember how to jump like in Mario. So it's just me going a button, the a button, the a press the a, and I much prefer playing Pokemon cards with her because she kind of gets, you know, it has a similar mechanic to magic. You put energy on the creature and then the creature is able to do things. She gets that. So, yeah. Miss Critz, give us a fool that you pity. Enter this contest today to potentially win 10 magic card packs.

When you when you said this question, my heart drops. I'm like, who the hell, who the fool do I pity? I had to think hard about that. No, the fools that I pity? I had to think hard about that. No, the fools that I pity are the people who just love to hate everything. People who love to hate. People who are pitting to haters. The haters, man, who just can't stand to see anybody just enjoy anything. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you, Ms. Krenzler. Like I said, it can be a group of people. So yes, interesting

answer there. People who love to hate everything. The haters. Let's just call it the haters. And the words that Taylor Swift. The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. As they say. Jared, what happened? You left us for a moment. There was a comment in Twitch. Somebody thought that Gucci may have gotten you. I hope you're okay. No, I was just fixing my audio. Oh, okay. Yeah. People are asking if you want to hop out and come back in because it fixed my audio. Oh, great. You should try that.

I'd love to leave. I'll take over the interview for a minute. All right. Sounds cool. Do you want to get a caller before I go or do you want to just talk to Matthew for a second? I'll get a caller in a second. Go ahead and go. You go, sounds cool. Do you want to get a caller before I go, or do you want to just talk to Matthew for a second? I'll get a caller in a second. Go ahead and go. You go ahead and leave. Everything's fine here.

Don't worry about what's about to happen. Okay, I'm nervous. All right. I'm the captain now. Yeah, I'm the captain now. Bye, Joe. Everything's okay. So when Joe comes back,

I think you and I should be arguing about Palestine. Just like angrily shouting at each other. Uh, but then he'll be confused. But then it turns out we're fighting about where it's located. We're talking about, yeah, we can talk about my, uh, my grandfather's hometown, East Palestine, Ohio. Exactly. That's what we're arguing about. They need a five guys. Um, okay. So, uh, we're talking about magic.

We can take another caller in a minute, but, uh, Matthew, I want to ask you, have you ever done tournament play? Have you ever like done that? I did. So just recently at last year's festival, where was the pre the pre-made deck, right? And it was very, it was, it was not the true tournament thing. It was very, you know, gentle. You paid your entropy, you got a deck, they gave you some sleeves, you sleeved up,

you hung out with your group. It was fun, but I was playing with a literal 13-year-old who was incredibly serious. Oh yeah. I would like try to make some jokes, just to lighten the mood every now and then. He was not interested. Every now and then his dad would come check in. And then I did kill him.

I didn't win the whole thing, but I didn't take him out. I was trying to take everyone out at once to make it more egalitarian. I took out, I only managed to get two of the three and he was one of them. He was unhappy with me. Dude, that is so funny. When you play in tournaments at your local gaming store, you have to crush the dreams

of children. That is our magic tournament experience. That's that's rough, man. That is rough. I felt bad. That's so funny. I can tell you that my brother, Adam Logan is a big tournament guy and he's really good, right?

He's like really, really good. Pretty good. Now he moved on from magic a while ago. He felt like that got so competitive and so complicated that he wanted to try out some other games. So for a while he was working really hard on the versus Marvel card game and he was going to gen con. And I think he won like 800 bucks and he wasn't first place, but he like, but he cashed as we say, he cashed out, he cashed. Exactly. So, you know, um, I, I always wonder about that because he would test his decks over and over and over and like three weeks into testing it, he would switch out a card, you know? Um, but the thing that he would always bring up to me, and I think this is very true in magic is the meta.

The idea that people all sort of come to a consensus on what the best cards or combos are in the current sets that are legal, and then they play those. So if you go to a tournament, you're playing nine of the same deck that have just been maybe slightly tweaked here and there. And I would like to know what the callers feel about the meta. Cause that to me really, okay. So I used to play hearthstone, which is a very similar game online. Um, and I hated the fact that over and over when I would play with players online, they would play this exact same deck and defeat me with it.

That was the main thing that annoyed me. But the fact that how boring that everyone goes, oh, these are the best cards. I've mathematically perfected it. I mean, it's not worth all failure of the system in a way. If there even exists an unbeatable deck, I would say nearly unbeatable. This is my off the cuff interpretation. I think you could have a very balanced system that works very well where all of

the different factions or whatever are equal and people will still analyze it with an inch of its life and all come to a consensus and all play the same thing. I think that's how human nerds work. But I love to hear what callers think. Let's get a caller up here. We haven't seen her in a few weeks. Verducai is here.

Verducai! Verducai! How the hell are you? How's it going? It's going great. We've missed you. I hope you're well. I'm doing good.

I've just been so crazy with work the last couple of months that I haven't made it to the last few recordings, but I'm still kicking. I'm here. You need to make us a priority. Okay. I'm trying, I'm trying. Kids come second.

Yes, kids come second. Dink kids and livelihoods. Do you play magic? I do a little bit. My husband was a big Magic the Gathering guy. In high school, it was kind of like the greater two below me was like really exploding with magic back in the day. And so I was like, those guys are nerds.

I'm off watching Star Trek. But when Commander came out, he has tried to like show me how to play. And I've like beaten once or twice. But yeah, I'm I'm kind of a Magic the Gathering baby. OK, well, what's your opinion of the meta of the game? Verduckai, did you just call in to say hi? We're like, hey, it's Magic the Gathering. Verdukai's like, yeah, played a little bit one time.

How are you guys? No, I've played several times. Like, we've got all the Lord of the Ring decks. We got those goofy crap, the cyber people decks. We've gotten like, we want to get the Final Fantasy decks. Like, I do enjoy the decks and the art and a lot of the like different ways that they interplay with each other. Um, and I do have a couple of decks that are my favorite because I finally figured

out how to make that synergy work. Um, but yeah, for me, it's just like, so, so complicated compared to, you know, like I want to play halo. So you ever, do you ever feel like your husband spends too much time on it or no, cause he doesn't want to play as much unless we're playing together. Um, he was on like the magic, the gathering, um, the video game like interface for a while and he was trying to get all sorts of achievements and stuff there. But now he's back to playing his normal video games.

But yeah, every once in a while, like a Saturday will be like, okay, we're going to play magic and I'm not going to get mad. And he's not going to get frustrated at me for asking the same questions. Famous last words from a spouse or partner. I can't believe, I think that's so lovely that your husband will play, you guys will play Magic the Gathering together. My wife would never, like my wife would rather have sex with me than play Magic the Gathering. would never like my wife would rather have sex with me than play a match at the gavel. Think of how sexy you'll be if you let her win.

She doesn't want to have sex with me. Anyway, you'll be so sexy. Veruca, give us a fool that you pity. So randomly, the first person that jumped into my mind when y'all asked that question was Grima Wormtongue from Lore of the Rings. Oh yeah, that's a great answer. Great answer. A fool and like stupid and like totally didn't know what he was getting himself into. So yes, I'm getting the fool. He is, he's pathetic and pitiful.

Good answer. Although, who kills Saruman? In the end, it's old Grima. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. I think when it comes to pitying the fool, you pity them at a moment in time. It's not, you know, you don't necessarily have to say, well, by the end- I pity him even after he's killed Saruman.

I mean, what are his career prospects? Well, because I mean- He killed his one boss. Yeah. But you also get the sense that Grima had like, people liked him at one point, right? It just like went down the road. How well did they like him?

Cause they call him worm tongue. Um, yeah, he seems like someone who was never liked by anybody. Yeah. Managed to find his, find his angle and take his shot. Okay. Yeah. Okay. You got to shoot your shot.

If you learn anything from Grima worm tongue, it's you got to shoot your shot. That's the takeaway. All right. If you want to talk magic meta, I think we gotta, we gotta see if Jen with two ends can. Oh yeah. Jen loves some magic. Jen, welcome back. Jen, are you responsible for getting me back in? I, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and say yes, yes, I am. Because I think it was Gen Con two years ago is when I was really obsessed. I'm like, Matthew, you want to play? You want to play? And then a fan gave you a commander deck, I think last year.

And then we played a ton together and stuff, you know, so yeah, I'm so proud of you, man. Thank you. Jen, are you familiar with the meta? Yes. Well, so I got into it like two, two and a half years ago. So I don't know a lot of it. But I will say what kind of did get me into it was the Lord of the Rings set. So I was really excited about the Universes Beyond stuff. But as more and more and more traditional sets came, like Tarkir, Dragonstorm, the one

that just came out, is awesome. And I was texting Matthew, I'm like, bro, you gotta get in on this, let's play. And it's so fun now to get back to to it because now it's like with all the universes beyond it's like we have Wolverine fighting SpongeBob fighting Deadpool with cloud. Like it's just, it's like, yeah, that doesn't sound like a game. I personally want to play, but no, no shade to people that do, but I don't personally want to play SpongeBob versus cloud.

Yeah. It's a little too much. Like I appreciate that it's getting new people and people back into it, but it's a little too saturated right now. I think the SpongeBob set really killed me. Do you, in order to really enjoy the hobby, in your opinion, Jen, do you have to play Strangers? Like, do you have to play strangers? Like do you have

to play tournaments? Is that part of enjoying this hobby to its fullest or can you just keep playing the same friends over and over again or does that get too boring? No I think playing with friends is much better. I hate playing with randos which is why I didn't play in that tournament with Matthew because I was like I know I'm too scared to play with random people. Like I play a lot with the same people. I play a lot over spell table, which is basically you just point your camera at your board and it can identify cards so you can play remotely. And I do a lot of that. So I like playing with the same people because like then you can be like, all right, I'm going to play my, my dumb deck right now.

It's just for fun. Other games with strangers, it's, it's a little more political. Like you're like, Oh, I don't want to play my really softy deck and make the 13 year olds fry, but I'm gonna, you know, so I like my same people. If they want to learn, right, Jen, if they want to learn, Jen if they want to learn you have to teach them The How often do you among friends when you're playing with friends like how often do you change or make new decks? I buy a lot of the pre-con decks like you can go and it means Pre-constructed it's a hundred card deck ready to go and I play a lot with those and then slowly swap out singles so I have about got eight decks now but I usually end

up playing the same three or four but that's why I like playing with different people because that's when I do kind of change it up a bit so I like to yeah, like now I've started to proxy cards, which is just print out the cards I want and put them in my deck with a little land behind it. Because then I get to try new cards. And then that's how I'm like, you know, boosting my pre cons to get a little better or just making up brand new decks. Like I don't construct my own decks. Like I don't, I'm not good. You're printing the cards. You're a counterfeiter. It's quite controversial. People do this.

It's a controversial move. I only do that with people I know and play with. I wouldn't go to a game store and do that. Right. Yeah. It's kind of like trying out, it's like trying out mechanics, right? You see if this works in your deck, the way you think it will kind of like trying out it's like trying out mechanics, right? You see if this works in your deck the way you think it will kind of thing a little trial run. Yes, yeah, you could do it that way to try it if you like it, because some cards, I mean, you're talking hundreds, thousands of dollars like I will never do that the most I paid for a card was like 35.

do that. The most I paid for a card was like 35, but it's a way to try it. It is also a way if you do want to build a $5,000 deck to play with, you can just print it, you know, but certain groups have rules against it. Like one group I play with says you can only proxy it if you own the original card and that way you're not taking out the same individual card and popping it around to, you know, different decks. So it's called a rule zero, you know, kind of just like with a tabletops, you just agree on what you're going to do. Interesting. I want to show up to a tournament with all printed cards and be like, what, just proxy. I own them there at home.

It is an interesting controversial topic. They would do that with Pathfinder Society. I remember with Pathfinder Society, like if you build a character and you had certain feats, like you weren't allowed to use certain feats unless you had bought the book that feat came from. This was part of the regulation. Yeah. That's wild. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because you're trying to support the publisher that made the game. Like, I don't think anybody feels bad for wizards of the

coast, but like, you know, in the early days of piezo, you're kind of like, I think we got to try to support these guys as much as possible. All the entertainment we're getting, uh, Jen, before you look at great product at an affordable price. Paizo, Paizo everybody. Paizo everybody. Jen, give us a fool that you pity. Um, deep cut here, but Troy LaValley? Why do you pity Troy?

He's got to put up with you guys. Oh, wow. Diplomatic. Trust me, I am the least of his worries. Thank you, Jen. Man, I'd say it's the reverse. I think we should have to be pitied for after to deal with Troy. Let's get somebody else up here. Let's get Rodith up here. Jensen, some controversial things. Let's see where rodent stands on, on these various, the meta, the, the proxying, the whatnot, um, can't get road. Tell us what type of deck you play. Whatever. Tell us whatever.

Yeah, exactly. Tell us what combos you like. All right. We're not getting rodent right now. How about, uh, chasm, chasm, chasm. Oh, now rodent comes in a second. Joe, it's pronounced Jism. Jesus. Chasm, I'll come right back to you. Rodith, what's up?

Not much. Just in rural Tennessee talking to you. Hell yeah, Rodith. Hey, man, I lived in Tennessee for a long time. I lived in Tennessee for like eight years. What part? I'm actually outside of Chattanooga. Chattanooga. You can say you in Chattanooga normally, but I'm at my folks place right now. I spent more and more time in Knoxville where I lived in Memphis, where I went to school.

Right. Uh, I've been spending some time in Knoxville too. So nice place. Yeah, it's a nice place. Yeah. It's a great, but getting on to getting onto the magic tip. So I managed a hobby store in the nineties up in, uh, Oak park, uh, Illinois. Oh wow. And, uh, it was, it was intense how different it was pre magic and after magic.

The, the gaming community was radically changed by it. And it's pretty- Militarized. That's a really good way to put it. Yeah. Cause you know, we were used to this cooperative gaming, right? Cause even back then, even the miniature stuff was,

usually it was a club that got together and did their gaming. So miniatures were kind of spread across the families and everything that were into the hobby. And these guys came in and they were cutthroat and competitive and all the things that we kind of mocked the jocks for. And again, it was just after the 80s. So all of us had grown up in the 80s and going, you know, peak white guy was, was the jock. So it really was kind of one of those things that totally changed the hobby for a number of years. And because, you know, chasing profits, a lot of game stores only went down that rabbit

hole. And then when magic kind of fell off in the mid nineties, it caused a real retraction in the, in the market. And we're only now, I think recovering from that 2020 was the big benefit for everybody in gaming. And so did you, did you get into the game? Did you like the game or do you have a bad taste in your life? you get into the game? Did you like the game or do you have a bad taste in your game? I hate it. I was a Palo Kasulu player and a Warhammer player, D&D, you know. And so when these guys, and it was usually younger folks, and because it was an affluent community that we were

in, they had the money to buy the cards that you were talking about originally. And I'm glad to hear that they've changed the you know The commander stuff sounds like it's a much more reasonable kind of thing But back then it was it was played pay and it was it was seen as whether it was right or not It was pay to win If you had the money you were gonna win and that was one of those things that you know As a hobby store, you know, as a hobby store, you know, guy running the hobby store, he had the last thing he wanted was two, you know,

nerds getting at it, they're going to cutthroat of each other across the table because one of them won and they wagered something they shouldn't have, et cetera. So yeah, it was, it was interesting. Their wedding ring. That's a great point is that those that was not preview That space was not properly trained to handle that kind of interaction, right?

Like if you were talking about a poker room Those people were built to deal with conflict and to deal with these kind of people betting things they can't afford Game stores were supposed to be yeah, just a haven of where nerds could, you know, get together and not get into that kind of stuff. And we had, you know, it was a multi-genre hobby store. So we had RC guys and they were the closest ones to the A-holes that we would occasionally find at the Magic table was the RC guys that were racing, you know, their remote control stuff. Oh, right. Interesting.

You know, my brother was like an athlete who got into magic. So he was like, he dressed in like starter jackets and like, you know, he would, he would roll up to the game store to do the magic tournament and everybody would, you know, I mean, other people looked like stereotypical nerds, you know, and, uh, and they would see him and they would, at first they would be really dismissive and then he would beat them. And then they would be about five times as angry as if their nerdy friend had beat them. So they were like, even here, like it was, um, yeah, that was part of the, you know,

early two thousands and up and up until recent history. That was a lot of the pushback against anybody that was different, right? Because this was where we went to feel included because we were nerds, right? And now we got all these people that, you know, you're an attractive woman. Why are you invading my space? Oh, why are you making me feel things? Exactly. Exactly.

Stupid woman. Are you making me feel things? Exactly. Exactly. And again, is that same? That same mechanism that you had with your brother was like, this is just wrong. You're winning at life already. This is the one place I go to win, especially for the competitive magic player. Rodith, give us a fool you pity. I can't remember his exact name, but the one from a game of Thrones, uh, Florian, Sir Florian the fool. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Florian the fool. Florian the fool. Yes. Uh, that, that is, uh, the classic tale. Uh, um, a fool in love. Game of Thrones is probably full of fools to pity. I'd say.

Oh yeah. I've got another one in Game of Thrones that is a great one, I feel. All right, let's get Chasm back up here. Thank you, Rodiff. Rudely cut them off after we had that little mistake. Chasm, you're on. Oh, hello. Perfect.

Chasm, can you hear us? Oh yeah, I can hear you loud and clear. Can you hear me? Hopefully I'm not too echoey. Yes. No, you sound great. How do you pronounce your name? Just Chasm. Chasm.

All right. It was an old, old, when I was a kid, gamertag sort of thing, spelt Chasm like a hole in the ground Chasm wrong. So I am Chasm. But anyway, for Magic, I've always played off meta. I played back in 2011 when I was at university with whatever pocket change I could scrounge together to buy packs. I always found that meta was always very difficult to play with because exactly like what Rhoads

was saying, it's super hard to stay up to date with the meta, especially with the way Standard used to roll out. But nowadays I'm playing mainly just tabletop commander with a bunch of friends that I've corrupted into the ways of magic. And I mean, I'm loving it. I'm loving the way it plays. I don't mind universes beyond and how crazy that's become.

It does kind of feel like every possible universe is now going to be in this. And it can be fun depending on how you take it as long as you're not playing too seriously I find it's it's a okay. When you face up against my George Costanza commander deck you're going to feel differently about universes beyond. No because then I'll just bring my SpongeBob and something else. I don't know. There's always enough insanity there Insanity to go around let me ask. Let me ask you all a question all you guys the Because I'm just still trying to understand so you never anything that magic has printed

anything Is legal to be in a like a commander deck that you're playing with your friends? No, it's very unserious sort of thing with the exception of silver border cards to my understanding Matthew you said no, I'm sorry. I missed it your friends I mean like there's the what's what's what's legal and commander is more expansive than what's legal and standard, right? And then but that's the way I understood it, because I studied all this yesterday. So Commander is more expansive, but not totally expansive of every card ever published.

I mean, that's, yeah. Yeah, but if you're playing with your friends, like to Jen's point earlier, like whatever you agree to, right? Sorry. So Chasm, are you saying that when you play Commander with your group, these Universe Beyond cards are getting into their decks and you're kind of like, nah, it's not my favorite. Is that safe to say?

100%. I would say, yeah, you know, like, uh, I just played against, uh, the new Deadpool one that came out. One of my buddies came, hidden commander sort of thing, and was surprised it was Deadpool. And I mean, okay, it's fine to have it. It does sort of feel like it's wearing on me personally, but I can understand now that it's there. I know it's coming up. It doesn't feel like as much of a surprise because if you don't know every card ever released in commander, it can kind of, it doesn't feel like a rug pull, but it feels

unstable. It feels not as much fun, but once you start to learn what the cards are and what's going on and how you can kind of play around it, it's, uh, it's okay. It's, it's not my favorite, but it's okay. Okay. Uh, Chasm give us a fool that you pity. A fool that I pity. I'm going to have'm gonna have to go with what was his name Vesic the Sicilian from Princess Bride oh great you know the best thing is the

giant oh no the Sicilian from Princess Bride he might just be called the Sicilian does he have a name I think he has a name. Barzini, right? Or no, that's Godfather. Barzini, yes. Bizini, Barzini is the Godfather. Bizini? Yes. Yeah, you know, never go up against the Sicilian when death is on the line. That's what I say before every commander game I play. Thank you, guys. Thanks for the call. Matthew, do you consider,

I might be sliding into the next topic a little bit here, but we'll keep talking about Magic with Callers, whatever you guys want to talk about, but do you, Matthew, think that Magic is known and accepted among its fans to be pay to win? That's just the reality of the game? Or is that like a fringy opinion? It's pay to play, but is it pay to win? That's just the reality of the game? Or is that like a fringy opinion? It's pay to play, but is it pay to win? I mean, I, I would, I can't, it seems like that's definitely

an element of it. And it's something I struggle with. It's like, I'm like, why am I so into this right now? I mean, maybe this is our next topic, but like having, I sometimes have talked about in the past, like having not played a TTRPG as a youth, I think actually was good because I think I would have been too competitive at it. And like coming to it as an adult and recognizing it kind of as a narrative game, I felt was really a gift.

Whereas Magic is, you know, commander and the congenial nature of it aside. It feels, it's still a competitive game you're trying to win. I, yeah, it's complicated. I don't like when Jen's take on proxies, like sometimes I'm like, Yeah, why would you pay if you're just playing a casual game with friends? Like, why would you pay a couple hundred dollars for a card that you could print for, you know, 50 cents? I it's hard to justify it. It's hard. It's hard

to argue against in a certain way. Obviously, you want to, you know, you play, you play a game, you want to actually make sure the game continues, but obviously Wizards has market dominance. They really need, you know, I don't, it's a complicated, it's a complicated question. Yeah. This is why I like LCGs and you know, the games where you, you know what an LCG is Joe, where it's like you buy sets.

That's what I like, where it's like you get the whole set. Yeah. And you can buy supplements, but they're like whole game, sort of like, like almost like buying an expansion. Yeah. And you can edit the interest is in how you build your deck with a finite number of resources and then you play. I love. To me, that's a nice balance, you know, like, uh, between actually having

to hunt down $50 cards. Yeah, I could be wrong, but I believe you said it's Richard Garfield is the name of the creator, right? Of the credited creator for magic. And I mean, I believe it's Richard Garfield that goes off and creates Android net runner, right? Right. I was always told that that was the same creator and that is a living card game.

At least as I define it. And it's original, it's original incarnation. It was a CCG, a collectible card. It was. And then I think, yeah, they changed that. And then, you know, it, they stopped supporting it and fantasy flight sort of let it, let it die, which I thought was strange because I thought it was such a great game. Anyway, interested to people say on that. A lot of people have their hands raised. So let's get Poop Scoop up here and see what Poop Scoop thinks about Magic the Game. Easy to pronounce. Thank you. I try to keep it easy for you, Jared. Thank you. Are you a Magic player? I am.

I only have been playing for about a year. My buddy was begging me to get into it and I was like, no, Magic is for nerds. I'm going to go play Pathfinder instead. It's not like you're some kind of loser. Yeah, I love it. some kind of loser. Yeah, I love it. It is it like hits that itch of building a path finding character all the way out but like to the max when you build a commander deck. So enjoy that and then I really enjoyed the the social aspect of it. Let's say oh you guys been asking like what decks do people like to play? You can see in my profile I have a little bear. I always end up building animal themed decks.

It like, I will always try to build something else and it always comes back to like a frog deck or a bear deck. And are these going to be green? Primarily is that, would you say it's a green deck? Yeah, a lot of green. I like green, red, and blue a lot. You said you play commander, so what are you finding? Like a legendary badger or a legendary llama? Yeah, my favorite commander is Descana the Rage Mother, which is all about getting a lot of bears on the board and making them stronger. It's not super optimal, but it's really fun.

I know. Is your Pathfinder character an awakened platypus or is it... No, I always joke with my DM that if he kills my character, I'm going to bring in an awakened animal and ruin the campaign. So usually my characters last pretty long. Good threat. Your character would live forever in my game. And ruin the campaign.

Yeah. Well said. If memory serves, I once played a game of magic. Matthew was trying to get us all into it. This is a few years back. And a fan gave us some pre made decks. And we played in the green room in Boston. And Grant played a green deck. And he kicked the living shit out of me with like an animal with a bunch of animals. And I had like dragons out or something.

And he just like in one round did like 30 points of damage to me. And I had like eight hit points left. Like it was crazy how much he annihilated me. So I always think of boys like green, so powerful. As I recall, you reacted with a serene level of calm. Yes. I was like, this was inevitable.

It was always going to happen. Poopscoop, give us a fool you pity. Oh, the fool I pity are the people on Reddit that decide to take time out of their day and respond on the Glass Cannon subreddit and say, I'm never going to watch this again because they're not playing the way I would like to play. Also, I think those people trickle over to the magic

subreddits as well because they're giving up magic forever because Deadpool and Spongebob are now on pieces of cardboard. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Poop, yeah. And I think, uh, to, to further, uh, specify that answer, I think it's, uh, it's those, uh, those folks that also clearly keep coming back and listening or keep coming back and playing magic after saying they never will again, uh, because they, they, they stay up to date on what they don't like. Um, let's get, you know, the idea of a themed deck is really tricky because I feel like the way I used to lose a lot when I was younger making decks

was I was like trying to write a story into my deck and I wouldn't use certain cards because I'd be like elves would never ally themselves with dwarves or something like that. And then my decks would always lose because my brother did not care. He just did what was, you know, most mechanically expedient. So I think it's cool that poop scoop

is using like an animal deck and giving it a theme. That's cool. I dig it. I dig it. Bad syntax wants to join in the conversation. Bad syntax. I like that name too. And the, and the photo bad, are you there? Can you, can you hear us? If not, let's just move on to a Weedle. Oh, wait a low. Oh God. The second I move on, everybody always clicks. Be ready to click when I call on you. Weedle. Oh, you were ready. I'll be, I'll get right back to you. Bad. What's up? Hey, how's it going?

It's going great. How are you? Pretty good. So I started playing the magic together. I'm 47. They started playing magic together. And back in like 2000, I always saw people in in college playing and I was like, what the hell is this? I don't know what it is. But then I decided I was going to figure it out, try it out. I enjoy the game. I really like it. I really like respect the design behind it. But I just couldn't, I couldn't justify paying all that money for it. That was my big problem. So then I switched over to like they had at the time, Magic the Gathering Online, where their business model was the same, where you would just, instead of buying physical cards,

you'd buy digital cards, but it was the same price. And so I played that for a while, and still it was the cost that just, I was a young kid and have a lot of money to spend, and then kind of fell away from it. But then a few years ago, Magic the Gathering Arena came and I play all the magic that I want now. So it's like 15 bucks every three months when a new set comes out. And I play as much as I want and get all the cards that I, you know,

want to use. And it's great. So Arena is not a subscription. You just have you buy the cards that you play with and you play for free on the platform? Yeah, you can play for free if you want. But that's kind of like with Fortnite, they've got, what do they call it, like some kind of, not a pack, but a pass pass like a season pass and so you when a new set comes out you can buy the season pass it's like $15 and then as you play you unlock different cards and different bonuses and that sort of thing and if you if you play enough you can just kind of keep playing perpetually and then you get bonus cards that are like blank. So you can trade those in for any card. And you know, you don't, I can't imagine paying, you know, somebody mentioned $35 for a card. I would never do that in my entire life. You

know, so yeah, I play, I play a magic arena and it's, it's great. I'll, I'll sit there in the car if I'm on a long drive and play one game and realize, Hey, 20 minutes just went by. Wait, you're playing while you're driving. Yeah. Don't do that, man. No, no. If I'm in the passenger seat, Oh, all right. I'm in the passenger seat. Bad syntax, give us a fool you pity. I would say Wile E. Coyote. He's just trying to eat. Wile E. Coyote.

That's a good one. What a fool too. Especially because his movie got shelved. You guys know about this? That's the real set. There's an entire Wile E. Coyote movie with Will Forte and Warner Brothers just shelved it to take the insurance money instead of putting it out. Sad.

Matthew, do you have any interest in dabbling in arena? Have you dabbled in arena? I've dabbled and I enjoy it, but I just kind of I love the nostalgic feel of the cards, you know Yeah, sure So so how often do you get to play Matthew? Is it like you're playing once in a long while like when I see you play basically like at the studio or on tour Is that the only time you play? No, I'm playing I would say I play every every couple weeks every few weeks You know

I I got my my friend and agent Sam, who you know, I got him into it, and then turns out we both have a mutual friend who had played five, six, seven years ago, but then fell out of it, but then he was like, and he's more in board games, but then he's like, oh, you guys are playing like a move, and we get together and we play.

Sydney sometimes comes and plays, it's a, and then I play, you know, Jen has been trying to get me into the spell table, and I do wanna do that, because that feels like, you know, an easy way to play with folks who I play, you know, I'm Jen has been trying to get me into spell table And I do want to do that because that feels like you know easy way to play with folks who don't You know, I have both worlds. Yeah, you I have a child, you know, it's easy. It's harder to justify going out to play magic That way but yeah, I play I play about as often as I feel like I want to play which feels like without Which prevents me from spending too much money on it. Yeah. Right. Speaking of which, let's move it on. We got a lot to discuss here and

callers keep your hands raised there. We're going to get you on and we'll get you in this contest, but let's keep, let's transition a little bit and talk about that money aspect. Money always comes hand in hand with any conversation about magic, but the reality is all hobbies, most hobbies cost something. And you know, it's an interesting question of how much you're willing to invest into something like that. Jared, what are your first thoughts when you think of the kind of money it takes to play these kinds of games? Well, you know, I think about a couple things. One is, you know, money is tight for a lot of people right now. Um, you hear that a lot from people.

I think it's absolutely true. Uh, and we always think of our nerd hobbies as sort of this, uh, luxury, something that we don't absolutely need. So sometimes it can be hard to justify the expenditure on, especially on things that can get quite pricey magic, maybe being one of them or, uh, video games, you know? Uh, and then we've touched on IP on this show before and how everything feels like it's a subscription service now. So you end up having 22 different subscriptions and one day the credit card bill and owning

nothing. And one day the credit card bill comes in and you're like, and owning nothing. And one day the credit card bill comes in and you're like, wow, I spent a lot of money on nothingness. Yeah. Which can be kind of a wake up call. Um, so, so I, I just want to say, like, I totally get it. And I'd really love to hear how people are managing that or, uh, if they're just angry and want to sound off about it, that's one thing that I think is think is really funny though, if I may, is when I'm looking at socials, and I do not just mean socials for the Glass Cannon at work, but socials on any of my nerd

hobbies, comic books, you know, I'm heavy into comic books. I see people going, like posting all the time, like, due to changes in my circumstances, I can no longer justify this expenditure. And it kind of feels like they're bragging that they don't have money. It's kind of like, okay, bye. Yeah, you don't have to quit. No one hired you. Right.

Those posts crack me up. But goodbye. So there is that aspect to it as well, but I would love to hear, uh, how people are doing this. I mean, I have a thing that I have a way that I manage sort of, uh, my situation, which I will share, which is just some things had to get cut. Some things just had to get cut and they got cut a while back. Yeah. And those things are, uh, video games, board games. I don't really do a lot of board games, even though I love them and

drinking, which is a hobby in and of itself. So I, and an expensive one, I quit alcohol and that, that added some things to my bank account too. So, I mean, I think, you know, that's another discussion we can have. If you're cutting something, how hard is it to cut it? Or, you know, what do you cut? So would love to hear what the callers have to say.

Among the hobbies for me, I'd say I probably put the most in video games still, and it's unwise expenditures, but it's not crazy for me. It's usually Steam sales and stuff like that. I'm trying, you know, what, it's just a genius business model because you don't really own anything, but they show you a thing and it's this, this is 85% off. You're like, I have to buy it just because it's so amazing up. And then I don't even play the game. Like, it's just hilarious. But not backbreaking, just kind of stupid.

But you know, in the aggregate for Steam, it must be amazing. Or for Valve. And so I will say, there's a variation of hobbies that cost different things of different levels, right? Like one of my favorite hobbies that is extremely low cost is hiking.

I love hiking. And that's just like, you just go hike. Doesn't cost anything. One thing that I love to do with my buddies, especially it's harder with kids right now, but I love to do that just costs too much for me is golf. I love golf. And that hobby is so expensive that I've basically shelved it. I mean, it's, it's basically just for rich guys. It's so freaking expensive and it's not just the money out of pocket to do the thing. It's also like the expense of time. Like it is so time-consuming and you know it takes an entire day where you can do nothing else and you're spending all

this money and I love it but I've had to basically give it up for almost two years now. I haven't played around and that's why golfing is famous for doctors doing golfing is a whole thing because that's who can afford to do it. The guys that are doing the best and most golfing are saying things like, yeah, we took the eldest over to Sarah Lawrence and helped her move in last week. Like it's, it's a very, uh, it's a very effete, uh, hobby. I feel like Matthew, how do you manage your, uh, your hobbies versus, I mean, with magic, what do you even do with magic? Do you give yourself a limit? Do you just not, are you not interested in buying single cards? And so you're not, you don't struggle with that, uh, uh, impulse? No, I mean, I have bought single cards. I, I, you know, I built a deck for myself. I then, you know, I built a deck, I bought a couple of pre-cons and I've enhanced them a little bit.

I think for me, I have my, I'm also in the comic books, you know, Jared, with Jared. I also, I ever since the writer's strike, I've gotten into kind of physical media. So I've been buying Blu-rays. Yeah, I have Blu-rays. Yep. And so for me, it's like, you know, looking at my discretionary income and seeing, like, okay, well what, like, I'm going to spend, I'm going to spend some money to entertain myself regardless. Right. And it's like, what am I going to do with that money? And if this month it's, you know, the, the criteria and sale, the 50% off sale is happening, it's going to be that. And I'll hold off on them. It's just kind of like letting one hobby take the primary seat, you know, the criterion sale, the 50% off sale is happening. It's gonna be that. And I'll hold off on them.

It's just kind of like letting one hobby take the primary seat, you know, at any given time for me. Obviously, I feel like I'm in a privileged position that I can do that. Yeah, it is tricky though, because with magic, I don't feel this as much, but like, but definitely with, you know, with criterion and Blue-rays in general,

I'm like, I want this to continue to exist. So I feel like I want to be able to watch this random movie that is amazing that otherwise, you know, it is going to go out of print to people to buy it. So I feel like, you know, that feels like I feel like I can morally justify that a little bit. You feel like you're doing something to help the world by But like, you know, yeah, no, I'm 1000% in that boat with the criterion collection I'm like we've got someone's got to buy these things so that we can keep this going like

Because there's so many genius beautiful films out there that so many people are just not interested in So many people are just not interested in You me and Matthew and Jimmy are moosh Sidney's into it Let's take a caller real quick. We'd allow I had cut you off before wet alone. Please come back How are you? Hi guys, can you hear me? Hi? Yes. Yes. You sound great. Yeah, long time listener first time caller Really excited to be here. Kind of going back a little bit to the magic thing. This is kind of a bridge between the money and hobby.

As I approach it from a different standpoint, it's a collectible card game. I'm kind of more on the collectible side of it. And I use the cards that I have collected since the mid 90s and I was playing to help fund more cards for that hobby because they have gone up tremendously in price since that time. So I can take I think it's Gen Con 2023. I think I met you guys during a live show. I think it was the 10 whistles live show.

But I paid for my entire Gen Con 2023 trip by selling magic cards while I was there. Well, that's awesome. If you can find a way to like have your hobby beat itself, I think that's probably the major goal of it. Yeah. I mean, that's the tricky part is when you get into like, there's an element to it and I, uh, I argue with Troy about this cause Troy, uh, got into sports card collecting and there's an argument

of it that it's an investment, right? That you are going to turn these around at some point for more value. I think it's more on the gambling end of things, but like- Absolutely. Absolutely. It's gambling. But I'm not sure if you would say that same thing about Magic cards. Sure, with athletes, you never really know, but Magic cards, don kind of like an assigned rarity price that's gonna stay that way until years pass and they will always generally increase in value no Matthew you disagree no there's a there's a there's a reserve there's a thing in magic called the reserved list and it's a it's a list of these really extremely

powerful cards that they printed during the early days of magic before they realized these are breaking the rules and everybody wants to have them so they put them on what's called a reserve list and said we'll never reprint these cards ever again those cards the reserve list cards especially have done nothing but climb in value you take a card like I have some experience with an unlimited black lotus I'm sure most of you have, most magic players probably know what that card is. It's one of the most iconic cards in magic history. I don't play magic. I know the answer. Yeah.

So in, in early, the early nineties, that card was like, if you wanted to buy it off somebody off a secondary market, what they call it, it'd cost you 150 bucks. And that was high in like 93, 94, 95 for a piece of cardboard today. They're selling for 10 to $15,000. And with sales happening, you know, not, not often, but they are out there happening, I think two or three have happened earlier this year. And, uh, like I said, as a collector, I'm watching those kinds of markets. Those are the cards I'm targeting because it's kind of like a treasure hunt for me to go out and see if I can get my hands on some of those cards.

Interesting. So I just want to understand. So you basically regularly buy new booster packs and then you find the most valuable cards and then you turn them around, you sell them like you did when you went to GenCon in 2023, is that right? Correct. So like you were talking about the meta, that meta is driven not only by a desire for, oh, I want this neat card that came out, it's kind of neat, but the meta is also driven

by the competitive tournaments you're talking about. So if a certain card is doing well in a tournament, it could be worth $25 to $30 to somebody and you opened it in a $3 to $5 booster pack. So that's instant profit right there. So you sell that and you put that money back into the hobby. Again, like Joe said, it's, it's definitely a form of gambling because you're never guaranteed anything, but it allows you to maintain your hobby without breaking your bank.

How much is Deadpool going for right now? Uh, let's see. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I can pull it up. There's so many resources online and everything for those. So you can find out any of those kinds of prices. Weedleow, this has been fascinating.

And it's cool because I'm glad you're right. You bridged the gap perfectly between the two topics because in looking into this topic, I did a little bit of research on, you know, just some hasty research on where general hobbies fall into and in large general segments of how much they cost. What are more expensive hobbies? Top of the list, something you might not think of as a hobby, but it is for people is travel. Like traveling, seeing new places. That's the most that's the most, you know, it's the second most. And now this is very general, but it's collecting. And it's just that's what magic is in a lot of ways for a lot of people. It is collectible card game. It's collecting any any hobby that you were you're targeting rarity of items that you're trying to collect like treasure hunting is it's going

to be very expensive. But it's interesting if you can be smart about, you know, how you turn things for a profit and then feed that back into the machine. It sounds like a really fun hobby to me. It's just, it's not something I think I'd be good at. It's hard to- Yeah, I enjoy it.

And it does require a lot of like upfront thinking and making the right decisions in the moment. You have to try to make your value going into the trades as opposed to coming out because nothing is ever guaranteed on the, on the outside. Yeah. Uh, we'd look, give me a, a fool. You pity. Uh, I pity the fans of Roddy Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff because not only did

they have to face Mr. T, but they also had to face Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania one and they lost. So, okay. The fans of Roddy Piper, the fans of Roddy Piper. Uh, thank you for the call. We'd love those great friends. Thank you. We'd love Roddy Roddy Piper.

Good point about making your hobby pay for itself, which, you know, uh, we've done with our role playing game hobby, you know? That's true. And as you can all see out there, we are now multi millionaires. Oh, my God. All right, let's take one more caller and then I want to move on to our next topic. And believe me, we're going to get as many people in here as we can, regardless of the topic because we want you entered in on this contest, this contest in honor of Mr. T.

We're gonna give away 10 magic card packs to our winner today. Best answer, what pity or what fool do you pity? Bloom, join the show. Bloom, you there? Hey, hey, how are you guys doing? Hi, Bloom. Good, good to talk to you again. How are you guys doing? Hi, Bloom. Good, good to talk to you again. How are you?

Good. For hobbies, one of the things that I do is look for alternatives. Joe, did you bring up Android Netrunner earlier? I did, yeah. There's actually a third party called Null Signal Games who updates the meta and releases on-demand cards that they're not called Netrunner anymore anymore but they are compatible with the game so I'm very

into that and like I go to my local card store I have extra decks it's on bloom I'm sorry what was the company name again the publisher no no signal games no signal games okay cool yeah I can put a link in the chat too, but so it's still alive There are still people who play it. That's one of the way I get around. I have some commander decks. I play a Elf the Leno Lenoir Elf Lana war. Yeah, yeah Or else my deck is all about just making elf tokens

I remember when the meta was everybody playing those Lanoir elves decks, because it was, um, it w what do you call it? A weenie deck. You just put out as many. Yes. Yes. Yeah. One creatures as you can.

Yeah. Dude, that is exactly what I do. I love net runner. I have a great time playing net runner. And so I, and I, it hasn't been supported for a long time. It looks like this third party company is like, you know, making new stuff. So I just land on the site.

I'll let me tell you why I love Netrunner. On this site, it says, what is Netrunner? And then it starts to kind of explain the game. There's a picture of two cards. One of the cards is one of the mega corps, evil mega corps you can play. NBN, N as in Nancy, B B as a boy and as a Nancy. It's the news network of this fictional world and it is an

evil mega corp and there it's NBN and then the subtext under the title is reality plus and then the little flavor text at the bottom just like a magic card. And it's Alex is just for this card is why settle for real question. And like I have such a great time playing this game because it has great mechanics, but then also just reading the flavor text on these cards of this dystopian future are so enjoyable. Anyway, Bloom, so you do do you not play as much magic these days?

Do you play more Netrunner type stuff? If I'm going to like a card shop playing with random people, I will bring Netrunner decks because I like to introduce people to the game. I do play a lot of commander with my friends. Like you guys talked about the meta is it's expensive and It's constantly updating My biggest problem that nobody's brought up is there are too many key abilities nowadays abilities that are only on one card and like so you don't know exactly what it does it's not like, you know death touch or whatever and So they have to read the entire card and you're like, wait, what can you repeat that? Like, you know, so there's too many key abilities. Now I, I 100% agree with you. You know, if you get out of magic for a while and you get back in,

you suddenly are like, what are all these key abilities? Like you, and you have so many to catch up on. Yeah. Uh, bloom, give us a, a fool. You pity in honor of Mr. T's birthday today. Very surprised. No one said it yet. Beyond Greyjoy. That was what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking when

we brought up Game of Thrones. I was like, there's a great Game of Thrones answer. And that was the one now. Let me cut off his penis. They cut off his penis, right? That is true. And a lot of people could say, Oh, I pity that fool because of his horrific

full season of torture, basically, that he went through. And yeah, there's that. But I mean, this guy is just hit after hit from childhood of just absolutely everything, making him so pathetic. Like he's a hostage, first of all, it's like a living hostage his whole life. Then as the family starts to like get to like him and stuff, it gets to know him better or whatever,

he's still always not one of the main kids, right? Like he's still just kind of an outsider all the time. Then finally he comes of age and can go home because of events of the story. And when he gets home, his father wants nothing to do with him. He is embarrassed in front of his sister who he doesn't even know is his sister. She gets everything and is in charge. Anything she has him do, he fails at.

Like he's just George RR Martin starts writing chapters about her instead of him. Right. Exactly. He's just pathetic hit after pathetic hit. Love that I'm going gonna go ahead and say it I'm gonna go ahead and say it favorite involuntary unique in fiction. I'm gonna I'm gonna call Love it. Love it. I Spent I think the most money that I've ever I just want to show that share this real quick

I think the most money I ever spent on a video game not Recommended actually, I don't want to say that I want to say I think the most money I ever spent on a video game, not recommended. Actually, I don't want to say that. I want to say, I guess I regret doing it in hindsight is League of Legends. I spent a lot of money in League of Legends because that game you had to pay for characters. Basically, you had to pay to unlock characters.

You had to pay to expand the breadth of what you could play with. And yeah, over and then skins and stuff like that, which don't really impact the game, but are just cool and interesting. I fell down that rabbit hole and spent a little too much there until I had to like pull the plug on that hobby. League of Legends, are you into Arcane?

Do you know that show? Yeah, I do know it. I haven't watched it. Yeah, once I- I watched it a little bit. It was pretty cool. Yeah, you know that show? Yeah, I do know it. I haven't I haven't watched it. Yeah, once I a little bit It was pretty cool. Yeah, you know the extensive You call it just the the extensive toxicity of the community of that game Just reached kind of a fever pitch for me

And I was like I have got to quit this entirely and when I did I sort of like I cut it all off So when our king came out and stuff, I was like, yeah have got to quit this entirely. And when I did, I sort of like, I cut it all off. So when our King came out and stuff, I was like, yeah, I don't give a shit. Uh, but I do hear good things. I do hear good things. I should, I should check it out. Um, well, I mean the toxicity of every community, just the legions of negative, despicable commenters. It's the dawn of the dead out there, everybody.

So hold your loved ones close and Keep a shotgun by the door Real it's sad out there Singing zombies. Why don't you join us? And weigh in here before we move on to our oh I'm excited for this segment coming up. We're gonna talk about mission impossible. I have take too, Joe. I have a mission. Oh, I'm sure Matthew does as well. I'm looking forward to it. Singing. Hi. Hi. I was really excited to get into the MTG discussion.

Yeah, I currently I currently play arena. I have kids now. So actually, it was me having to no longer collect cards that really pushed me into that space because you have to store them and my wife absolutely hates how much stuff my stuff takes up, how much room my stuff takes up. So Arena, Arena was really good for that. I play a lot of Magic. I got back in on M15, which was like 2014.

I played Portal when I was a kid. And I- Oh yeah, me too. Yeah, they advertise it as the simplified version of Magic. That was the first that I ever played. That's how I learned. And I followed the Pro Tour community. The competitive scene is a huge part of my life.

I played commander, I totally get all of that. My favorite format actually is limited, which I don't think anyone's brought up, which is you have to either draft or build a deck from freshly opened boosters and build the deck from there. So it's, it's, it, it, it's short, it cuts off the pay to win aspect everyone's on a level playing field there's a bit of chance of. You're opening up a randomized pack of cards sometimes people open better but for the most part it challenges your deck building aspect the games feel very different if you play constructed which is where you get to bring any card within a certain. within a certain meta and Jared mentioned like people bringing the same decklist, it can feel very repetitive. In fact, a lot of times the skill is actually just remembering an interaction or what opponents are likely to play. Whereas in Unlimited, you often, there's a small amount

of meta of knowing what the cards do, but a lot of times you have to look at your hand, look at your opponent's board, try to figure out what's going on and navigate the board, stay from there. look at your hand, look at your opponent's board, try to figure out what's going on and navigate the board stay from there. It feels a lot more interesting. Yeah, that's my favorite format. That's what we did at the Nashville retreat last year. We did a draft, we did a draft.

It wasn't quite, it wasn't actually. I love draft, because that's more deck building because every pick is towards a deck. Yeah, it was fun, it was super fun. Yeah. They tried to get me to do it at the way that Jared means it about high end tournament play. But like, you gotta kind of know how the game work, you gotta be experienced with the game to

have to be familiar with deck building. So my friends refuse to, to interact with that format, because they think it's, it's too much. Yeah, yeah. I try to boost your draft. When booster drafts came in vogue, someone was like, look, you lose when you construct a deck, but this is different. Nobody's going to have an incredible deck that's going to beat you. I still lost on turn three with a booster deck.

You still have to know what you're doing. Yeah, you do. There's a lot of skill to be gained specifically in drag. It's also one of the most skill testing formats. Uh, there's a professional players where that's a huge hole is when they force limited to be part of the tournament. Um, they put a lot of time into mastering one deck, but to navigate limited, you have to be familiar with all the possible decks that you could draft, which is, yeah, it's a master. The format truly. It sounds to me limited, you have to be familiar with all the possible decks that you could draft, which is to master the format truly. It sounds to me, would you agree singing that arena is like the best way to enter the hobby for new players?

Like to start getting familiar with it? Yeah, 100%. You actually can do it free to play. I believe that WotC actually will run into gambling issues if you can't acquire every card for free, possibly. But to save time, yeah, they put it so if you wanted to get every card for free, it takes a lot of time. I actually do play for free because I put that much time into it. But Arena sends me statistics where I'm in like the top 0.1% of people who put that much time into it. But Arena sends me statistics where I'm in like the top

0.1% of people who put that much time into the game. Thanks, Arena, for letting me know. Wow. Congratulations, Singin'. What an achievement. Spend my time, not my money. Before we let you go, we got to get moving here. Give us a full you pity. I'm glad. I was thinking very lord northwood inspired in matthew's here don quixote don quixote great answer that's awesome i actually have been doing something similar to arena called draft kings have you guys heard about this draft kings. Yeah. Are you the king of a draft? Sort of. Anyway, today's GCR is brought to you by draft. King by draft Kings.

Yeah. I actually have no idea what draft Kings is. It's a, I don't know. Let's move on. Jared, let's, let's talk a little mission impossible. All right. We wanted to mention this because for the folks that don't know in the legendary Tom Cruise franchise, the the the film, the final reckoning is coming this week. Film the eighth film in the series, the eighth installment in the

Tom Cruise series is coming and it's going to come out this weekend. We're going to go into it on Glass Cannon Radio on June 4th is our plan. Right. Is it June 4th is a Wednesday is our plan right now. Remember we're live every Wednesday at noon for those of you that want to come and hang with us. We'll talk about it on June 4th. Give you some time to get out there and watch it. I want to go see it. But for now let's just talk a little bit about those those first movies. Jared sounded like you wanted to open with a hot take. Is that I have a hot day to say you want to open with your hot take? Sure. So I really love the franchise. I think it gets better as it goes on. With one exception. I think the, the last film, dead reckoning part one is not great. I think that fallout is way better than dead reckoning. I think rogue nation is way better

than dead reckoning. I think ghost protocol is better than dead reckoning. I think Ghost Protocol is better than Dead Reckoning. I think Dead Reckoning gets kind of, it's a little silly and overly convoluted. Interesting, Matthew, your thoughts. I kind of agree with you. I did love, love, love the car chase sequence in Dead Reckoning with the handcuffs. One of the best ever. Some of them.

In all films. Some knits I'll pick, Matthew. I could go up with the handcuffs. One of the best ever. In all films. Some nits I'll pick, Matthew. Great sequence, great sequence, but kind of already done in the Bourne identity. The Bourne identity has a tiny Euro car traveling along cobblestone streets down steps and things like that in it. It is a prosperous statement. So does James Bond. James Bond also. Jason Bourne is not handcuffed to anybody

inside the car while driving. They added the innovation of the handcuffs. I'll give you that. Sure. I think the seven felt like, I was very into the franchise. I left, I did not love, I like three okay.

I didn't like four at the time. I didn't, I have since come. Those protocols, your appreciating. Might be my favorite. It's not my favorite, but when I got back into it, I was like, oh, there's a, there's so much Buster Keaton in this that I never recognized before that makes, that makes me very happy. And I felt like that car chase felt very Buster Keaton need

to me in a way that I very much enjoyed, but I, it's not my favorite. I'm on board with that. How about the fact that Dead Reckoning steals from the Mission Impossible franchise? They almost protocol a sandstorm. Dead Reckoning also has a sandstorm. I was thinking about it. I was wondering, like, because legend has it that this is just a series of Tom Cruise

and Chris McQuarrie just coming up with crazy shit to do and then sort of filling that back, working that into a screenplay. You can tell. Yeah. And like, I was thinking, especially with the sandstorm, you know, obviously the iconic motorcycle to parachute to the train scene of like, how many, there must be a finite number of like action set pieces you can possibly come up with.

And as you can see, some of them are all already repeating. I don't want to get off on too much of a negative note here to start. No, I love the franchise. I love the franchise. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Everywhere he goes he runs into a sandstorm. Okay, go ahead. At this point he's got to be like two sandstorms in as many years. What's going on? How many movies in a row do they have to shut down the IMF and disavow everywhere? They have to go on the road. I mean it's every movie. He goes rogue every movie. And in Dead Reckoning, they mention how he goes rogue every movie.

Yes. Yeah. I don't think it takes itself too seriously in that regard. In Dead Reckoning, you have the Carrie Elwes character, who's just the director of Intelli- natural director of intelligence, who's just like, wait a minute. So you're telling me when you can't get a job done, blah, blah, blah, you just leave word with this guy? And don't know if you're going to hear back.

It was, it was pretty, pretty funny. Crap. So we just rewatched it in anticipation of the new movie coming out. I actually watched it with Francis and skid and our producer, CJ. We got together and watched Dead Reckoning. And I mean, I love it. I'm sitting there with skid and I can't remember what part it was. There was a part I wish I had the exact example, but there's just a part where it jumps from one scene to another and they're doing this thing. And I just turned and I'm like,

skid, how did they even get there in time for this? Or how did this come to be at the time that it is? And I said, it doesn't matter. It's mission impossible. Like you don't care. Like they don't, you don't care about the You can't do that. Yes you can. Even the silliest movie needed to have a chain of cause and effect. No, it doesn't. Not when the stunts are this spectacular, when the action is this good, the music this good. It is just a pure blockbuster in every sense of the word.

It's an amazing movie going experience that you can't get anywhere else now. Like nobody else does it anymore. It's really a shame. I will agree with you that like Fallout blow by blow better. Like I love it. Fallout is better. It's less convoluted. I mean in Dead Reckoning, the key, the submarine key that they're chasing the whole time. And in the prologue with the submarine, we see it's attached to a dead submarine captain under the Arctic ice. We never find out how someone got it on the surface and why it's in two parts and I think I said that I was like, how did they find those bodies?

Skip. It doesn't matter. Well, I mean, this is the thing, right? I think we're going to find out. Maybe we'll find out. Oh, great. I hope I're going to find out. Maybe we'll find out. Oh, great. I hope that's dealt with. Yeah.

Yeah. I will also say in a negative way about Dead Reckoning, which I love, I will end... Oh my gosh, I'm blanking. I always blank when I'm on here. What's her name? The main girl. Rebecca Ferguson?

Rebecca Ferguson. Or Haley Atwell. Haley Atwell. the main girl I Love Haley Atwell and so strongly dislike slash don't connect to her character this movie I didn't understand the like out of nowhere like global level thief that just like comes in and Let's not even get into the rotating women comes in and is not even get into the rotating women of music. Only one. There can only be one.

I mean, if you bring in a new one, you got to kill the old one. Yeah, it's like, actually, we kind of like Rebecca forks and do we have to kill her? And then every movie, it's like, all right, we'll let you go until the spoilers, by the way. But it's I feel like Ilsa is a breath of like a great injection of fresh air into the franchise. I like Ilsa, I like Ilsa the best. And because her extreme badassery, it makes sense. Like it's backed up in the story.

She's, you know, she is a, whatever you would call it, a world-class special agent. You're right, like that's what she is. They kind of pass Haley Atwell off as like a thief. And I don't know, it just, to me, it didn't quite land, but she's just so charming that I'm like, you know, I can live with it. I saw a thing that Rebecca Ferguson said,

I don't know if she, this might've been an after the fact kind of thing, but I believe that she may have asked to be off. Right. Yeah. She said that, you know, it takes up your whole life, these movies, because they're so big. Yeah.

And you have to travel so much. And it ends up being the only thing you can kind of do in a year. And so I think she parted from them amicably because she just wanted to do other things with her career. And she's great. And she described, it was interesting. She described how fun it is. She's like, it's really fun,

but it is a lot of sitting around. She's like, they don't really have a script. Right. You just sit around for huge periods of time, waiting to see what they're gonna come up with, and then go do it. She's like, it's spontaneous, it's really fun, but I gotta focus on other things in my career.

Right. Which makes sense. And she's awesome in Dune, in Dune Part II. Mm-hmm. And she's great in Silo. And I hear good things about Silo, yeah. Matthew, are you looking forward to the final reckoning? And she's great in Silo. And I hear good things about Silo, yeah. Matthew, are you looking forward to the final reckoning? Yeah, who can not be looking forward

to the final reckoning? That's what I'm saying, Jared apparently comes in here. Let me just nitpick a little for a second. I'm looking forward to the final reckoning. I mean, you know, but not as much as I was before I watched Dead Wrecking. Can I tell you how good a movie, like, this is how good I,

what turned me, got me back into the franchise was that I was on an airplane and someone else was watching Fallout, like on their terrible airplane, back of the seat screen, like two rows in front of me. And I had a movie that I wanted to watch that I was trying to watch, and I just watched their movie in silence, two rows up.

And I was like, the visual storytelling here is so fantastic. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it really is. I also, I watched- The moment in Fallout with, sorry, the moment in Fallout with Cavil in the bathroom, I watched a YouTube commentator who described it as reloading his fists.

Yes. Sidney calls it cocking his arms. Yeah. Sidney just like, like that scene. I mean, me too. Come on. Cocking his arms. It was amazing. I watched fallout too, come on. Tapping his arms. It was amazing. I watched Fallout on a plane for the first time.

I didn't see it. I had little kids at the time, and when you have little little kids, it's really hard to even just get out to the movies. And so I didn't see it. I missed it, and I didn't care that much. I liked Mission Impossible, but I was like, no big deal. When I watched Fallout on this flight,

I caught myself multiple times with like my mouth just hanging open, like watching some of those scenes. I was so into it and it was so good. Is anybody else also, the whole series, I mean, I really do like all the movies. I think people sleep on three. I think that one's amazing.

I kind of like that. Best villain, best villain. It's got a great film Francis gets three Oh Really interesting personal feeling his park got it's got the brain bomb I'm a fan, but what I will say is like every new movie They're like remember this person and I'm like, no, I don't like there always that reckoning story They all know about John Lark and the white widow. And I'm like, no memory of that.

Sorry. Bring me up to speed, please. Well, I mean, they threw a real curve ball in dead reckoning when it correct me if I'm wrong. I asked the guys when we watched the other night, the opening of dead reckoning, when they're like, you remember how you first came to us, Mr. Hunt. And it's like this story of the Gabriel and the woman and everything.

Yeah. And I was like, I was like, I don't remember this at all. That's because it was never in any of the movies. That's a dirty pool in a series that constantly references a character you don't remember from an earlier film. Yes. Yes. It is dirty pool. That's the best way to describe what they were doing. And also I don't care. I don't care about Gabriel killing your wife because it's, I don't believe it. It's bullshit. And you kind of throw it out for two seconds and move on. Get out of here. Christopher McQuarrie. Do you guys have a favorite stunt from the whole series?

What is your favorite stunt from the whole series? Great question. I think, I honestly, I think it's, I think for me, I don't, it sounds silly, but I think it is that car chase that you were just making fun of. I think it's the roll down the steps and end up in opposite seats. Like I remember when that happened, I was like, that is amazing because they just stopped looking at each other. And I was just totally like, that was hilarious. And then they have to like, you know, pull off and go away again. But that whole scene is a great chase scene, but so many great stunts, of course.

For me, it is a sandstorm sequence. It's not the one from Dead Reckoning. It's the one from Ghost Protocol. It's a, it is a sandstorm car chase and it is a nail biter. I really liked that one. I, I, I love the halo jump. I think it's, it's so cool. I like, and just knowing that they're actually they,

like they did it. And I have a fascination with the, with the filming of those parachuting moments, like the James Bond parachute stunt, the famous one. But I think, I think it's become the Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol. I'll tell you what, it's the it's the moment like obviously, like my entire body wants to sleep out of the seat when the Mission Impossible theme starts, when he's running around the building

to make the jump. But it's when he does the jump and he's like, you're like, he's going to make it. He's going to make it. And then his head just clips the top of the window. I mean, like I've watched it like 17 times in the past three days, because I've been procrastinating. Every time I like my I like seize up here. It's so good. It's so yeah. I can't wait. You know, he I think he's gonna do these films forever. And one day, we're gonna be on our computer, we're gonna see a headline that says says Tom Cruise dead at 78 from accident while jumping off Christ the Redeemer. You know, I can't wait to see that. It seems like he is intent intent on

that happening. Guys, we are, unfortunately we've we've run out of time, but we are going to try to get as many people up here as we can real quick to get entries for our contest today. So I'm going to bring you up. I just want the fool you pity, the fool you pity. That's all we have time for today. And then we'll see if you can win these sweet magic packs. W story, the fool you pity. Give it to us. Are the haters. You're right. Like we have, we have people who enjoy

game story story. I'm sorry. Already been said and, and, uh, and kind of in two different ways, but somebody, the first answer we had was the haters. Uh, and then you have an 18 Murdoch from a team. All right. Murdoch from the 18. That's great. That's great. All right. The 18 love it. Uh, especially arguable whether he's the fool, but okay. Yeah. But I mean, uh, you know, probably pities him side by side with BA. He definitely a fool. Uh, ultimate frisbee who last week I kept saying, all Tim eight fritzitz what ultimate frisbee what's up welcome back peregrine took oh yes peregrine took he's definitely a fool he's a fool of a tuck he's a fool of a token he definitely does demand you know a

certain degree of of pity right now all the all the hobbits do, you know, they go, it's a hard journey. All the hobbits do, uh, Oh, sorry. I'm writing your name down. Ultimate. Uh, all right. We got Peregrine took. Who else can we get in here? Squid squid.

Get in here real quick. Give us a, uh, a John Jamsky. Hey, how are you buddy? Long time. Uh, let's see. Hey, how are you buddy? Long time. Let's see. I think I'm going to have to go with Umlo because man, thanks for that guy. Umlo?

Thanks for the answer. That is a, that is a giant slayer reference. But it's a great answer. Umlo is a great answer. Never listen. Hear good things. Not for me a great listen here. Good things. Not for me. No, it's just not for me. It's just not for me.

I heard that there's just certain things in it that I don't approve of. So not for me. See, Finn, you got a full week. You pity. Eat booty. Eat booty. Yeah, that's a old reference to old reference. The blood. Yes. Card number zero in the tarot deck. The fool walking over a cliff with a little dog. Not paying attention. Ah, nice. There you

go. Card number zero from the tarot deck. Uh, Pilonis, Philonis, Philonis, uh, give us a, a fool you pity. Bolognese. Bolognese. Are you still there? Did we lose you? All right. Let's go to, uh, oh, there he is. Bolognese.

All right. Sorry. Uh, I don't know if it was said yet, but I pity the fool who hasn't joined the niche. Pity the fool who hasn't joined the niche. Good one. Good one. Uh, who hasn't joined the niche.

Hasn't joined the niche. Uh, I feel like kind of like family kids. Go to join't joined the Niche. Hasn't joined the Niche. I feel like kinda like family. Go to jointheniche.com. I gotta send Polonus his payment for a little ad. Bruce! 137, get in here. Bruce, we got time for three more. Bruce!

Bruce! We're only doing a few, if you're not gonna make it, Bruce, we're gonna have to go to literally someone else. Someone else! Hey guys. If you're not going to make it, Bruce, we're going to have to go to literally someone else. Someone else. Hey guys, old man listener. First time caller. Oh, sorry.

We couldn't talk more. We'll call in another day. We'll get more time with you. I know where he's at. Mine is a deep cut skid. We'll love it. Uh, several will, will remember it. Fizz band, the fabulous from the dragon land series.

He was the avatar of the god paladin if I ZB an and he he meted demise like gormley unfortunately because he only got halfway through the featherfall spell oh wow interesting alright thanks someone adding words call us again kill Torres kill kill Torres kill give us a a fool you pity I pity kill Torres for not getting up here faster. Sorry you are I just got finished listening to the giant slayer Finale, I'd say the full I pity is a jimmer just seems like a bunch of bad shit happened to it Yeah, yeah, that's a good one other giant sl bad shit happened. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. Other giant Slayer reference. Thanks.

Kilt, uh, kill Taurus. It's, um, uh, Jim or man, Jim had a lot of bad shit happen to him. I think unfairly in some cases. Spookinny Chan. Hey, has Mr. Kellefane from Chicago been placed? I'm sorry. I couldn't, couldn't hear what you said. I hear you.

Mr. Cellefane from Chicago. Mr. Cellefane from Chicago. Now you're talking my language. You're speaking my language. Let's get into some musicals here. I believe that's Amos Hart is who she's referring to what's his

name amos heart amos heart the number is telophane i i just know the number i will do one more sphen sphen if you're there uh sorry everybody we couldn't get to but we got to wrap the show sphen give us a fool you pity Sven, I see you here. Sven. Oh no, Sven. You were so close. Seems your microphone is not working. Sorry, Sven.

We'll just get Epic Dave. Epic Dave, are you there? Real quick. Ah, unbute. Of course I'm here. There he is. All right. Hit us at Epic Dave. Fool you pity. There he is. All right, hit us up every day.

Fool you pity. A fool you pity. I am going to go with Faramir. Just because he rode all the way out to the death and never could get over the fact that his dad was never going to let him be enough and he was willing to die for it. And it's just not Boromir. Boromir is the one that lets the ring corrupt him. And then he dies on a hillside

with a bunch of arrows in him. He willingly redeems himself in the end without a lot of, I just think Faramir living in the shadow and never being able to climb out. You know, I think that's a harder thing and a more foolish thing where Boromir was willing to try and live up to the legend. It was actually fairly good at it until the corruption, which it's the ring. What are you going to do with humor? Thank you, Dave. I think you make a good case, buddy. I think that the idea is Boromir, whilst yeah, reason to pity him, he lives most of his life as the star. You know what I mean?

As the man. Boromir spends most of his life as the forgotten son, I don't know. I get at Big Dave's point, I get his point. I think Faramir's, but the Faramir resists the ring almost easily, he's like keep it, I don't want when he captures the hobbits, I don't know. I think Boromir's more the force. Boromir's fall to the ring is terrible, yes, as Harry Very sad. All right. If you guys want to take a look in Discord chat, I'm going to post the

answers one more time here. Matthew, get in on this as well. We're going to pick your number one favorite. And if there are three answers, if all three of us pick something different, McDermott will pick the winner out of those three. But let's see if two of us happen to pick the same one. I'm gonna look through this list again. Okay, I think I've got mine. I have mine and I've got a backup. I've got mine and I've got a backup. You've got yours and you've got a backup.

That's interesting, yeah. All right, I have got mine and I've got a backup. All right, Jared, what's your number one? Mine's gonna go, I'm gonna go Wile E. Coyote. Matthew? Wile E. Coyote. That was my number one. There it is.

Landslide! Wow, what a great answer from Bad Syntax. Wile E. Coyote wins it. I think that's just a great answer. It's a clever answer. I did not think of and well done. If you're if you're still in here, bands, it's bad syntax. Great job. If not, McD is gonna Oh, no, there you are. McD will reach out to you

and get your info and we'll get you those those magic packs. Matthew Cabana casa. Thank you so much, dude. Thanks for hanging all show. This was great, man. We always great. We haven't hung in a while. We talked about magic and expensive hobbies and mission impossible. How could I resist? It's a good time.

It's just a flat out good time. Thanks everybody who called in today. We appreciate you guys and we'll see you in a week. Jared, we've got a great topic lined up for next week if memory serves. Oh yeah, we talked about maybe doing this a couple of weeks ago. We're gonna do it next week. Jared, we've got a great topic lined up for next week of memory serves. Oh, yeah, we talked about maybe doing this a couple weeks ago, we're gonna do it next week, come to the show ready to call in, we're gonna do what makes a great

player next week, a great art piece, new player, and we're really going to delve into all the different angles of it. And so yeah, come bring your opinions, call in, let us know what makes a great player. So we'll talk about that next week. Until then, take it easy everybody, have a wonderful week and we can, oh and it's show week, I get to play with Matthew this weekend,

we're heading out to Ann Arbor and then Toronto. I'm leaving tomorrow, you're leaving tomorrow as well. We're leaving tomorrow. Yeah, all right, so we're about to hit the road and we look forward to seeing those of you in the nation that are gonna be there at those those live shows back to Canada really looking forward to it So until next time take it easy everybody and we'll see you next week. Bye. Bye It's time to make your membership official start your 30-day free trial today and become an official member of the nation at join the nation

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