December 18, 2024 • 40 mins
In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Justin Keller, A Pokemon Trainer who specializes in the TCG, and is the co-host of both Special Conditions and Sleep it Off.
Justin Keller starts his Pokemon journey from both watching the Pokemon anime and purchasing Pokemon cards. Justin Keller shares his interest in dogs and how that led to his favorite Pokemon, Arcanine.
Justin Keller dives into his experience with Pokemon GO, starting with his time in Kansas. Thank to Pokemon GO, Justin Keller finds his interest in the Pokemon TCG, starting initially as a collector before transitioning to attending locals and regionals for Pokemon TCG.
Finally, Justin Keller talks about why he wanted to become a podcaster. He started his podcast journey by becoming the new co-host for Special Conditions, a Pokemon TCG podcast where they talk about Pokemon cards and how the cards affect the new meta. Justin Keller next dives into his interest in Pokemon Sleep and becoming a co-host with PureLighter, where they talk about events, updates, and their experience with Pokemon Sleep.
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with Justin Keller: Website
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
Join Our Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Justin Keller (00:00):
I'm Justin Keller, host of Special
Conditions and Sleep It Off, andthis is my Pokemon story.
David Hernandez (00:44):
Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we
interview people about theirexperience with Pokemon.
My name is David Hernandez.
Today, I'm joined by JustinKeller, co host of both the
Special Conditions podcast, aTCG podcast, and Sleep It Off, a
Pokemon Sleep podcast.
Justin, welcome to the podcast!
Justin Keller (01:04):
Hey, long time coming.
David Hernandez (01:06):
It has been, Justin.
What we were talking aboutbefore, I said, I've known you
haven't been on the show for awhile, but you've had a lot of
life experience.
activities go on, you know, forexample, you just got married.
So congratulations on that.
Justin Keller (01:16):
you, thank you.
Booked the venue in August oflast year, if that tells you
anything, this is now Decemberof the following year.
And so, you know, it was likeover a year of planning and all
that stuff.
So it was quite a long endeavor.
David Hernandez (01:31):
Absolutely.
And you know, weddings areimportant, you know, they're,
you know, very necessary, butit's also the anniversary of
when you started on specialconditions, it's going on two
years.
And I got to ask, how has thatjourney been just going into
talking about TCG with Adam toeven now?
Justin Keller (01:47):
You know, it's kind of wild to think that it's
been two years.
It, I learned about the TCGreally through listening to
special conditions with Adam andJosh Brown as the hosts.
and then I was like, you know,this is kind of fun, you know,
listening to it.
I already liked Adam throughlistening to him from Lure It Up
and the Pokemon Go podcast.
And.
it kind of like spoke to melike, all right, this could be
(02:07):
fun.
And this was also a formativeyear for a lot of people.
It was 2020.
We didn't have a lot of thingsto do.
I was currently unemployed.
So like, Hmm, let me see what Ican do about these cards.
And so like, you know, I'mstarting on TCG online.
I'm trying to like learn thethings and listening to Adam
talk about the stuff, gettingexcited about the cards.
And this was like right beforethe whole crash of Logan Paul.
(02:31):
That's kinda like, how I gotstarted into like, learning
about it, learning about thecard game.
And then like I caught the bug.
I was buying the cardboard.
I was wanting to play the game.
I was getting all the codes.
This was back in the day whenyou had to pretty much buy
codes.
You had to pay money for thesecode cards just so you could
redeem them for individual cardsSo like, if you wanted a,
(02:52):
Giratina V for example, youmight have to redeem 20 code
cards worth just to trade forit.
Or you can try your luck at likeopening the packs manually.
yeah, so I was learning thatway.
And then I was like, come on,locals open up now.
We're getting into like the 2021timeframe.
There's not really like peoplearen't really like playing in
(03:12):
person yet.
But I finally did find a storenear one of my friend's house
that had locals.
So I was able to start buildingdecks and going and playing in
person.
And that's when I really likestarted to appreciate the game
and what it was about.
Fast forward I noticed thatspecial conditions is getting
like fewer episodes and fartherbetween, and all of a sudden it
(03:33):
hadn't like, they hadn't postedin, say a month and a half, two
months.
And so I talked to Adam like,Hey.
I'd hate for you to have to quitthis podcast.
I will help you host if that'ssomething you're interested in.
And then he was me like, yes.
And it's like, you know, wetalked to Ken cause he's like
grandfather of the Pokemonprofessor network.
and then that's how we started.
David Hernandez (03:54):
So basically special conditions started your
interest in the trading cardgame of Pokemon.
And at that time you didn't playthe card game or you didn't
collect at all.
Justin Keller (04:02):
I didn't.
I hadn't touched cards since Iwas in elementary school.
David Hernandez (04:07):
That's crazy.
So at the time when you werelistening to the podcast, you
were just collecting.
Cause of course things wereclosed down.
What were you trying to do?
Were you trying to get like thewhole collection completed?
Were you trying to just getspecific ones you were going
after?
Justin Keller (04:20):
I mean, at the early days, I was just learning,
like, what even the differentrarities were.
Within the first, let's say, 15packs I opened.
I got this rainbow card.
It was a rainbow Eternatus VMAX.
I'm like, I don't even know whatthe heck this thing is.
I've never seen a rainbow card.
I had never, I don't even, Ibarely knew what a VMAX was.
(04:40):
I just knew it was a biggerversion of something.
I didn't know about secretrares.
I knew about the main set.
I didn't know about TCG player.
I didn't know about so manythings and I was just like,
let's get the cardboard.
Let's watch Leonhardt and all ofhis opening videos and all the
nostalgic videos of like, TeamRocket, Base Set, all that
(05:01):
stuff.
David Hernandez (05:02):
And, you know, before you became the co host of
Special Conditions, while youwere just listening and you were
collecting the cards during thepandemic, what was it about
Special Conditions that played arole into you getting involved
with Pokemon?
Like, what was it about thatshow specifically?
Justin Keller (05:16):
So, at the time, I wasn't familiar with a lot of
TCG podcasts, and they justweren't, they didn't seem as
prevalent at the time.
And, podcasts are my thing.
That's how I consume a lot of mymedia.
for work I'm a mechanicalengineer and, at the time I was
designing air conditioningsystems for school districts and
they, while can be technical attimes, can also be very mundane
(05:40):
tasks doing a bunch of draftingon the computer.
And so I consume a lot of mediathrough podcast form because I
can listen to it while at work.
And, that was one of the things.
Pokemon specifically as well assports and other things, but I
really just enjoyed the podcastformat because you really feel
like Friends you feel likeyou're part of the group.
(06:02):
You feel like you know them evenif you don't know them.
David Hernandez (06:05):
you know, that's such a good way to say it
because, you know, it's alwaysbeen said, you know, we get to
develop a deeper connectioncompared to visual formats and
you actually remind me of when Iwas working because I was
essential.
I was a caseworker.
So I'd have to drive aroundeverywhere, all over Dallas for
those, you know, shout out toyou guys, cause we don't get
paid enough, but you know,basically lived in my car.
I got tired of just listening tothe same music.
(06:28):
I love the songs, but they wouldjust become repetitive and
that's how I got introduced topodcast because it allowed you
to kind of consume differenttopics.
It you got to hear differentsubjects being talked about, you
know,
Justin Keller (06:38):
yeah, At one time podcast seemed like a dying art,
but you know in the last coupleyears especially from the
Pandemic podcasts have made thishuge resurgence.
It's crazy.
Everyone has their own podcastnow, which I'm all for
David Hernandez (06:51):
Yeah, it's a new rap album of 2020.
That's what I call it.
But on that note, so, you know,we fast forward to when you
asked to be the co host ofspecial conditions.
It's one thing to be justsomebody who consumes the
podcast.
Meaning it's another toactually.
be part of the whole Format ofhaving to develop a show of if
(07:12):
you decide to do editing and allthat What made you want to step
up to become the co host specialconditions?
Justin Keller (07:17):
I just felt like it was time.
A, I wanted to return the favorfor like, what that show
specifically had done for me.
B, I also just wanted to giveback to the podcast space at
large.
I enjoy them so much, and Ienjoy so much about them.
I just wanted to give back.
It felt just like I consumed somany, so ferociously, if you
(07:38):
will.
I just wanted to give back.
And so I was like, this is myway to give back.
it was the thing.
It's not necessarily that I knewthe most about, but I had the
desire to talk about it.
And, you know, if people want tolisten, they want to listen.
David Hernandez (07:52):
now when you came to record your first
episode, what was it like, youknow for me I recorded I had no
idea what was going on.
Were you still kind of scared?
Were you kind of comfortable?
Justin Keller (08:02):
Definitely anxious, kind of intimidated,
but you know, it's pretty easywhen, I'm joining a longtime co
host.
Adam's been doing podcasts foryears and years now.
Even though he would say he's noexpert.
He was an expert compared to me.
So it made it like smoothsailing.
David Hernandez (08:22):
So having Adam as a co host made it really easy
for you to transition into thatpodcast role, it sounds like.
Justin Keller (08:27):
Yeah, I wasn't paralyzed, huh?
Special conditions pun.
Or
David Hernandez (08:32):
flip a
Justin Keller (08:33):
another one.
David Hernandez (08:34):
Yep.
Yep.
and he didn't get burned either.
Oh, I'm trying to
Justin Keller (08:41):
right.
Now, now I think the joke ispoisoned.
David Hernandez (08:43):
Yeah, I can't think of he found he found one
guys.
I couldn't think of one.
Now
Justin Keller (08:51):
He's just confused.
See, we got there.
David Hernandez (08:55):
we got it.
We got it.
Yeah, we got them all.
But you know, it's great thatyou know, you came into the
podcast space and you know,started with TCG.
And now that you've done thepodcast, I know you got a chance
to 10 regionals.
And you actually go into likelocals playing the TCG.
how did you transition frombeing a collector to becoming
like an active player and tryingto go out to these tournaments?
Justin Keller (09:15):
First, to help seeing a friendly face there,
wink.
That was the first time we hadmet in person, right?
David Hernandez (09:21):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I forgot about that.
Yeah, that's true,
Justin Keller (09:23):
Yeah, Arlington 2022.
In December, right?
December 22.
David Hernandez (09:28):
Man, something about that month and year was
just special, I guess.
Mm
Justin Keller (09:34):
no, I just like, a, it was convenient because it
was really close by B, since Iwas pretty involved in my locals
at the time, I knew a bunch ofpeople going.
So it made it easy.
see, I really just wanted toexperience what a huge
tournament was like.
Now, I had been in some like boxtournaments or local star
tournaments that pushed like,60-80 people, but you know, this
(09:56):
tournament was pushing, 1500 andthat's masters in TCG
specifically.
It doesn't even include, youknow, all the VGC or the, the
juniors and seniors or any ofthat stuff.
David Hernandez (10:08):
Now, you're competitive in TCG, and you
know, the other ones people arefamiliar with are with VGC and
specifically also Go.
Why did you lean towards beingmore competitive in just the
trading card?
Is it just your experiencebecause of the podcast, or is it
just more of you like the cardgame more?
Justin Keller (10:22):
So like, I like Pokemon Go.
I like VGC.
But their play styles are moreremote oriented.
You're not really going inperson to these things.
I enjoy the in personexperience.
So.
TCG is largely in person.
Granted, when I startedlearning, it was TCGO and a lot
of online only.
(10:44):
But it's largely peoplededicating their time during the
week to travel to their localstore to play.
And there's just somethingdifferent about the in person
experience.
I'm sure, like, you experiencewhen you go to the Pokémon GO
events in the summertime.
the reason why people go to inperson GoFest, it's, or just
like even remote GoFest, but youmeet up with a bunch of people.
(11:05):
It's just that in personpersonal connection.
It's just can't be beat.
David Hernandez (11:09):
So if you're going to like play a fun deck,
what would you play?
Like what's a fun deck forJustin?
Justin Keller (11:17):
hmm.
everyone enjoys what's calledlike a beat stick deck.
I do big damage.
So like Roaring Moon, fun deck.
You can hit big damage.
Any HP you want, it has a, ithas a move called, frenzied
gouging where you just like, Iknock you out and then it then
does 200 damage to itself, butit doesn't matter.
I knocked you out, so
David Hernandez (11:36):
think of Charizard base set.
Basically.
Justin Keller (11:38):
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Do the most damage possible.
Another one that was really funthere was an Eternatus deck that
I really enjoyed because, youdidn't need a lot of energy to
power it up.
It had a special ability whereinstead of putting 5 Pokemon on
your bench, you could put up to8 Pokemon on your bench.
And you just got to play morecards than the other person.
(11:59):
And you just played faster andit just was so much fun.
And then you could also, therewas a Galarian wheezing that
turned off their abilities.
So you could basically stallwhile you set up everything and
they like, can't use theirabilities.
So it was fun.
The other people didn't enjoyplaying against it, I certainly
enjoyed it.
David Hernandez (12:17):
You enjoy being on the, uh, giving it, but not
the receiving.
Justin Keller (12:20):
Yes,
David Hernandez (12:20):
what they say.
Yeah.
Do you ever try to play a deckbased around your favorite
Pokemon at all?
Justin Keller (12:26):
you I try but like man, so my favorite Pokemon
is arcanine.
He doesn't have a lot ofcompetitively viable cards now
the Hasuian Arcanine Did see asmall amount of rogue deck play
but really He just doesn't see alot of play right now.
Now, we did just in TCG Pocket,there was like an event, and you
(12:47):
can play the Arcanine in likeregular PvP in TCG Pocket and do
okay.
But, as far as a trading cardgame goes, not really.
David Hernandez (12:55):
Now you said Arcanine is your favorite.
How did it become your favoritePokemon?
Justin Keller (12:59):
So like many things, Foundation from
Childhood.
the year is 1998.
We're in a blockbuster.
I'm like, come on, parents,please let me get a pack of
Pokemon cards.
I think I'm in the first grade.
they're like, okay, if you sharewith your brother, cause they
didn't know what it was, theydon't know what they're buying.
And just like a little piece ofcardboard for three or 4.
Why?
And so in that first pack thatwe open, there's an Arcanine
(13:24):
card in there, which I had neverseen before.
I didn't know about thisArcanine.
And At the time, I really wanteda pet dog.
I was trying to convince myparents that we should get a
dog.
And so I immediately gravitatedlike, Oh, this Arcanine is a
dog.
It is now my favorite.
So
David Hernandez (13:41):
was the card out of curiosity?
What set was it from?
Justin Keller (13:43):
The good old Base Set Arcanine.
David Hernandez (13:46):
Oh my gosh, the legendary Pokemon.
Justin Keller (13:48):
Heh heh, I think that's what it says on the card.
The Legendary Pokemon.
David Hernandez (13:52):
So I want to close off this section with
something that y'all do onspecial conditions.
It's called art of the week.
Well, how about you explain whatis art of the week real quick.
Justin Keller (14:01):
Art of the Week is something we do from time to
time where we focus on a certainPokémon and it could be a
Machop, it could be a Articuno,it could be whatever.
A lot of times it's likerandomly generated and then we
go through, before the show, wego through all the art and we go
through some honorable mentionsand we rate like our top three
(14:23):
and we just visually talk aboutthe art and some of these crazy
cards you may have never seen.
And some of these Gen 1 Pokemonhave an obscene number of cards.
Like I'm trying to complete myArcanine set and there's like 60
cards or something crazy.
I don't even know the numberanymore.
There's, there's like variantsof cards and some of these cards
(14:45):
are like 200 and I'm just like,I'll get it eventually, but it's
not high on the list.
David Hernandez (14:50):
So for the sake of time, I didn't prepare that
much, but we're going to just doone card.
Justin Keller (14:55):
Ah, this is Blaine's Arcanine.
So, this is from back in the daywhen there were Gym Leader
Pokémon.
So it's an Arcanine and he'sopening his mouth like he's
about to breathe a fire blast.
And the background is aholographic, you know, with a
Cosmo holo pattern.
And it looks like the fire blastis just directly behind him.
(15:18):
It's a first edition.
He's a legendary Pokemon it'sjust very classic late nineties
Pokemon card.
David Hernandez (15:26):
It is.
So the reason why I brought thisup is this was actually when the
gym sets basically came out.
this is the first set that Iever got.
I got the Blaine's deck'cause Isaw this Aine and I saw it.
So for those who don't know, ithas an attack called Firestorm.
It deals a hundred think bigdamage 120 damage.
And I'm like, dude, that'sstronger than jars are.
(15:47):
And that's the only, it was, butthat's the only reason why I got
it.
I think it was a blockbuster aswell.
And so I card.
Yeah.
Justin Keller (15:55):
Hold on, hold on one second.
I'll be back
David Hernandez (15:57):
All right.
While he's looking for stuff,follow the podcast, Spotify,
Apple music, YouTube, whereveryou get your podcast, follow as
the pokeball turns, do it now.
Give me five stars.
Justin Keller (16:14):
Dang, I must have put it away.
But what I was gonna do is Ihave a sealed box of that deck
David Hernandez (16:19):
Oh, wow.
Dang.
Justin Keller (16:21):
Yeah, a friend of mine had it from their childhood
and they knew how much I lovedArcanine so they gave it to me
There's sealed collection
David Hernandez (16:28):
Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
Justin Keller (16:30):
as you were saying
David Hernandez (16:31):
so I have my car.
I still have that car.
It's a little bent,unfortunately, but I still have
it.
And the fact that, you know,Heim was your favorite, I had to
bring it onto the show.
It's like, I haven't had achance to talk about Now it's
not first edition guys.
It's not first edition.
Trust me.
Justin Keller (16:44):
Yeah.
David Hernandez (16:46):
arc and I
Justin Keller (16:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Luckily you can like get areplacement for like 20 bucks
now or something.
David Hernandez (16:51):
Yeah, I don't wanna replace it.
It has, uh, nostalgia
Justin Keller (16:54):
Well I meant like a better one like, you know,
think about now that youwouldn't, you would never
replace the original.
I finally, after like, I don'tknow, 15 years found my original
Arcanine card.
It was buried behind anotherArcanine card in my childhood
binder that I didn't know about.
It was buried, it was in myparents basement.
David Hernandez (17:15):
really?
You didn't even know about it?
Justin Keller (17:17):
Well like I knew, there, but I don't live in
Kansas anymore.
And so my chances to, like, whenI go back to remember to go find
the, I mean, put the binder inthe basement was like slim to
none.
So,
David Hernandez (17:31):
So that's the first card.
The second one is my favoritePokemon.
And I decided to pick this one.
for those who don't know, it'sactually the promo Articuno,
which came out during the powerof one.
It had three legendary birds.
And what you see here isArticuno shooting like a ice
mist.
It's only probably an ice beam,but it's ice mist kind of
attack.
It's called
Justin Keller (17:51):
ray or something.
David Hernandez (17:52):
Yeah, exactly.
And the reason why I chose thisis I feel like this is Articuno
is my favorite and I'm trying tohave a binder full of Articuno
cards for those who don't know.
And I feel like this one is sounderrated.
Because it just has Articunowith movement.
It's not hollow.
I know I get it, you know, it'snot shiny, I guess, but I've
always just appreciated justkind of how they get Articuno in
(18:13):
a very serious pose.
And it's actually has a whitishcolor, which I really, really
enjoy.
So,
Justin Keller (18:19):
yeah, it's like the Articuno is like the
Articuno is charging up for thatblast.
That's why he's whiter.
And, uh, another reason I thinkit's cool is it it can paralyze
the other Pokemon, a specialcondition.
Oh
David Hernandez (18:36):
but
Justin Keller (18:37):
but very cool.
I had not actually seen thiscard.
I familiar with this Bromo.
Yeah.
I've seen a lot of the olderArticunos, but I don't remember
this one specifically.
David Hernandez (18:46):
no, this one's came out during the, it was a
given out when the power one wasin theaters, you would get a
random one.
I don't think, I don't think yougot all three and they had
Articuno Moltres.
I think they had one other.
So I've always appreciated thisone.
They all have pretty cool art,but this one, I just always felt
like it was the most underratedbecause it's not holographic.
It's not EX or it doesn't havethose fancy big numbers that,
(19:06):
you know, all the other currentones have.
(19:55):
So, Justin, we dived into, youknow, your experience with TCG
back in 2020.
And you talked to briefly abouthow you got a Pokemon cards in
blockbuster.
Was that kind your firstexperience with a franchise?
Did you dive into the games atall?
Justin Keller (20:07):
so I Would say a typical for Pokemon people.
experience was the anime.
I was all about the anime I Iloved it, you know every day
after school gotta watch itgotta see what Ash and Pikachu
were up to now I thought Pikachuwas a little a hole back then I
Was like no you gotta raise theCharmander.
(20:27):
Come on.
Keep the Charmander But yeah, sothat's like that's what started
the interest and everything andthen you know it evolved from
there There was you know, we'regoing into blockbuster because I
wanted to rent Pokemon snap.
You know, we get some of thecards.
I collect some of the cards, youknow for like base set up
through I Kind of dabble in likegym heroes gym challenge, but
(20:49):
really like team rocket and likefossil and jungle or my sets My
first video game was Gold.
My brother had Blue.
Even though my brother wasyounger, we both got the games
at the same year.
He got Blue, I got Gold.
I enjoyed Gold because you gotto experience Game 1 in quote
unquote better graphics.
And you got the second gen,right, to go along with it.
(21:11):
I didn't have to switch, myaccount.
I didn't have to start over.
I didn't have to do a lot ofthese things.
Sometimes I forget that, Johtowas not the first generation.
Like, I know the Pokémon aredifferent, but, like, it was the
first game for me.
David Hernandez (21:24):
So did you keep, collecting over time?
Did you keep watching anime?
Like how
Justin Keller (21:27):
No, so
David Hernandez (21:29):
Mm
Justin Keller (21:30):
like, you know, hot and heavy for a bit.
I still continued with the animeup through the Orange League and
then through Johto.
but then it kind of died off.
I really kind of got out of thePokemon space.
It was all about Lego.
It was all about Star Wars.
I kind of got out of Pokemon fora really long time.
Now what do you think brought meback?
David Hernandez (21:48):
Oh, I, uh, is it something, I think something
big happened in 2016.
It's to sunrise.
That's gonna.
Justin Keller (21:55):
Yeah, yeah,
David Hernandez (21:56):
Is it?
Okay.
Justin Keller (21:58):
that's what it was, Pokemon Go in 2016.
Now, like, I am not a jump onthe bandwagon person.
I'm a, we'll hold off.
And then, okay, fine.
If enough people are doing it,I'll do it.
And so that's what happened.
I didn't want to play.
I was like, I don't want allthese people playing this game.
Fine.
I'll do it.
And at that point I was, Iwanted to be an instinct player.
(22:19):
I wanted to be yellow.
I liked Zapdos better, but allmy friends who now no longer
play were Mystic.
So I joined team Mystic.
And so, and so that's how,that's how it was.
And I played it.
Oh man.
You know, you remember the 2016.
It was crazy.
Everyone and their uncle wasout.
It was crazy.
It's crazy how many old peopleplayed the game people was like
(22:40):
gray and white hair old people.
David Hernandez (22:43):
Hey, I'm, I'm, open in an age, my friend.
So I can't really say anythinganymore, but
Justin Keller (22:48):
and then this like went on through like the
november time frame We juststill would see like hundreds of
people at the park and then likeone day in january of 2017.
I'm like I'm freezing my buttoff out here.
There's not even really thatmany spawns, even though I'm in
a park.
I'm just gonna quit.
David Hernandez (23:05):
Now, was this while you were in Fort Worth or
was this while you were inKansas?
Justin Keller (23:08):
This was when I was in Kansas.
when I say it was cold, therewas frost on the ground.
And like, my hands are likefreezing as I'm like this, as
I'm taking the dog for a walk.
But you know, I have a husky, sohe loves being outside in the
cold and we would still takedaily walks, but it just, it
wasn't worth it anymore.
And I kind of stopped playing.
So I stopped playing fromJanuary of 2017 up through June,
(23:30):
2018 is when I joined backagain.
one of my favorite memoriesthough of a community day that I
played was Totodile communityday.
I'm out, I'm out there with my,it was a January community day.
I'm out there with my friend whoalso has a Husky and it's just
snowing these big fatsnowflakes, you know, like the
snowflakes that are like aboutthe size of a quarter
David Hernandez (23:51):
Dude, I'm in Texas.
No, I don't.
Justin Keller (23:52):
ones.
Okay, the ones you see inmovies, ones that you see in
David Hernandez (23:58):
the white Christmas movies.
Justin Keller (23:59):
yeah, yeah, the really big obnoxious ones.
And so, like, my friend outthere would like, our phone, our
phone screens keep getting wet,so it's like really hard to
throw balls, but it's still fun.
It's just like, really just meand my friend out there playing,
and like maybe two other peoplein this entire park that's known
for having tons of people toplay.
And so, it was, it was prettygood.
David Hernandez (24:19):
Oh my gosh.
I must been young has beenfrozen playing in that
Justin Keller (24:22):
it was so cold.
I mean, I think we lasted likean hour and a half, more like an
hour and we're done.
don't, I don't need any more.
David Hernandez (24:29):
Last an hour and a half, dude.
I wouldn't last even half anhour.
Justin Keller (24:34):
Well, you know, the dogs loved it and we were
there for the dogs.
They were both huskies enjoyingthe snow.
But yeah, so, when I came backin June of 2018, that's when it
stuck.
I haven't put Pokémon down sincethen.
So, like, that led up into Swordand Shield releasing.
If it wasn't that year, it wasthe next year.
David Hernandez (24:52):
What made you come back specifically at that
point in 2018?
Justin Keller (24:56):
Like one of my best friends still played the
game.
He played it during all thattime.
it would just be like, we wouldmeet up for D and D at a
different friend's house.
And he was like, Oh, there's aPidgey outside.
And like, they would just likesay this every week about the
stuff, the Pokemon that he'scatching.
And I'm just like, fine, I'lldownload it again.
And then I download it, youknow, with a year and a half
off, obviously things havechanged.
community days now happen.
(25:16):
Shiny Pokemon are in the game.
Raid bosses are a thing.
I'm like, what the heck is thisthing?
I sent him a screenshot of a,Omastar three star raid.
I'm like, what is this thing?
It's like says 17, 000 CP.
What, how am I supposed to beatthis?
David Hernandez (25:33):
And so what's your kind of way to play?
Do you just play to kind of walkyour dogs casually?
Or do you like try to completestuff?
hunts?
Justin Keller (25:40):
so, we'll start off with my hot take.
David Hernandez (25:42):
Let's go.
I love
Justin Keller (25:43):
I, uh,
David Hernandez (25:47):
Let's not get
Justin Keller (25:47):
I'm, you know, like, I like shiny Pokemon and
everything, but I do not carefor 100 percent Pokemon.
know a lot of people, that'stheir thing.
They love a hundred percentPokemon.
Adam might shoot me if he hearsthis, but, I just like it.
I like people are like, Oh, Igotta get a hundred percent.
Cause it means they had the maxstats for this.
No, it means the max stats.
If you're doing a raid andyou're trying to get max damage
(26:10):
output.
Sure.
But if you're not doing that,then.
The 100 percent doesn't meananything.
It's a waste of time.
You'd be better off suited usingyour 96 percent that you got
forever ago.
And just powering that upinstead, instead of waiting for
forever for this magical 100percent Pokemon that you're
never going to get, or if you doget, it's just a complete waste.
(26:30):
I, Oh God,
David Hernandez (26:31):
Justin, being so toxic right
Justin Keller (26:33):
Pokemon.
David Hernandez (26:33):
just poisoned this podcast.
Justin Keller (26:39):
Oh, yeah, I tell Adam all the time.
I tell Adam all the time.
He should just stop looking forthe hundred percents.
Like you could save so muchtime.
So much time.
If you, that you could dedicatetowards playing the, the trading
card game instead of hunting forthese hundred percents.
Really?
I'm just trying
David Hernandez (26:57):
right now, man.
Justin Keller (26:58):
yeah, I'm really just trying to get him to play
more trading card game, lessresearch tasks for a hundred
percent Pokemon.
I mean, that's, that's the realthing.
Because I need him to bring thespice and the decklist to the
show.
So yeah, so my actual way toplay.
I really love in person events,but you know, outside of in
person events, you know, I'llshiny hunt, I'll still, I fast
(27:18):
catch everything with theaddition of the Go I use that, I
wouldn't say daily, but multipletimes a week I'll run it.
I'm pretty much a solo player.
I connected more with thecommunity when I lived in
Kansas, and I just haven'tconnected with the community
here in Texas, so I kind of ebband flow with the game on how
involved I am basically.
Is there an event that's likereally fun?
(27:39):
Like sometimes the Halloweenevents are great, and I'll play
like really hard for two weeks,and then there'll shift to some
other event with Pokemon that Ieither have a bunch of, or I
just don't care, maybe I'll openit every couple days.
I don't really care at thattime.
I still follow the news, and Isee what's happening.
David Hernandez (27:54):
because I know you've had a chance to go to
some live events for Pokemon Go.
I know you also, you know, wetalked about Regis Arrington.
you remember what your first,live event you titted for
Pokemon Go?
Justin Keller (28:03):
It was Philadelphia Safari Zone.
I met up with the Pokemonprofessor community.
You know, this was a make upevent from the Safari Zone that
was supposed to happen in May of2020.
So, it was a very limitedattended event.
I would say maybe 3, 000trainers.
Maybe.
Most people, a lot of people hadasked for like their refunds and
(28:25):
whatever and they didn't sellnew event tickets.
They were just carrying out onesfrom the previous event.
And so, you know, I met up withAdam and Ken.
I met up with Mythical Hitch,Jamal, CasadeCubone A.K.A Raber.
Yeah, and that's when I met alot of them for the first time.
also met JTValor there, prettymuch just like a bro hangout
session the entire weekend.
(28:47):
even though I had never met anyof these people in person.
It was like we had been friendsfor years and years.
Cause you know, on the network,we do the zoom calls on Monday
nights.
So we had like that face to faceinteraction,
David Hernandez (28:59):
Now, you also said you went to Seattle the
following year.
Justin Keller (29:02):
Uh huh.
David Hernandez (29:02):
What was like, to go to Seattle for your first
GoFest?
Justin Keller (29:08):
So we had so much fun.
The eight of us that went toPhilly, we had so much fun that
we wanted to make sure we couldorganize a large group outing
for Seattle.
And you know, we kept talkingabout it, like, Oh, we're going
to do a house.
We're going to have like all thepeople there and everything.
And then like this list justkept growing and growing.
I think at one time the listgrew to 30 people.
David Hernandez (29:29):
30 people, my god! Well, I guess
Justin Keller (29:31):
And so,
David Hernandez (29:32):
yeah.
Justin Keller (29:33):
And we keep talking about booking the place.
And I'm like, you know,someone's got, we got to do this
if we're going to do it.
And, uh, no one was set me up toplay.
It's like, all right, if, if wefound a place, I'll put forth
the money, for the Airbnb andthen you guys can pay me back.
so that's what we did.
We ended up having, we had somany people.
the max people you could book atan Airbnb that I could find in
(29:55):
all of Seattle was 16.
So we just said we had 16, eventhough we had like
David Hernandez (30:00):
Twice as
Justin Keller (30:00):
23.
David Hernandez (30:02):
okay.
Justin Keller (30:03):
And then I added a second house.
So that way the other housedidn't get too crazy.
And then we only had eightallotted for that one.
were within walking distancebetween each other.
David Hernandez (30:12):
Oh my gosh, that must have been wild to have
all the people in there.
Justin Keller (30:17):
Oh, it was, it was so much fun.
It was so good.
And I really liked Seattle causeit felt like more small town.
I mean, Seattle's not a smalltown, but it felt more like...
David Hernandez (30:27):
interconnected.
Justin Keller (30:28):
Go.
Yeah.
It felt like connected andPokemon Go was the big thing to
do.
I enjoy New York city, butPokemon Go is not the thing to
do.
Pokemon Go is like the thing youdo on the side of the actual
thing that you do in New Yorkcity.
David Hernandez (30:39):
Like, I feel like Pokemon Go is actually a
huge celebration coming inSeattle compared York.
It was just like another eventthat they're used to
Justin Keller (30:44):
Yeah, yeah.
And you know, and they embraceit more because there's all the
ties to Seattle.
the Pokemon InternationalHeadquarters is there.
there's also like Nintendothat's there.
And so like I remember we would,like as groups, we would rent
the scooters and ride thescooters around town the
different
David Hernandez (31:00):
fun.
Yeah.
Those scooters were a blast.
Especially because you had todeal with the heels a lot.
It made it so more easier.
Justin Keller (31:07):
Yeah, and then A lot of us, like after a while,
after you did enough riding, youwould unlock like the top speed
Instead of being locked at eightmiles an hour and so but always
inevitably we always had someonein the group That's locked eight
miles an hour.
I was like, well, we'll see youthere.
Bye
David Hernandez (31:21):
So the last thing I want to talk about is
actually the other podcast.
And it's my first time evertalking about it on this podcast
is Pokemon sleep.
Pokemon sleep for those whodon't know, it's a mobile game
to where you actually put itdown.
You kind of plan it.
And I guess you catch stuffafter you wake up.
Is that kind of how it works?
Justin Keller (31:37):
Yeah, so, you can put as much into pokemon sleep
as you want Really, it's kind oflike how Pokemon Go is intended
to like help you exercise andget out and explore.
Pokemon Sleep is to help youfocus on healthy sleep habits.
Like it offers tips andeverything, but really you get
better scores by practicingbetter sleep hygiene.
And so You can track Your sleepeither with the phone, with a go
(32:00):
plus plus, or with a smartwatch,like an Apple watch.
And you track it.
And then when you wake up in themorning, you connect it to your
phone and it'll give you ascore.
And your score is based off ofhow well you slept, how long you
slept, and like how much youlike toss and turn in the night.
And so it'll give you a type.
So, like, dozing, snoozing, orslumbering, after that, based
(32:24):
off your score, you encountercertain Pokémon that come to
your place like a picnic.
Think of like a picnic in, themain series games, where you,
make a sandwich and all thepeople come.
Or you make a curry and all thePokémon come.
So it's kind of like that Andthen you have biscuits and so
you feed the Pokemon biscuits Soyou want to quote unquote catch
but really you're justbefriending them.
(32:44):
You make them nice biscuits andthey become your friends what I
enjoy about that game is it'svery casual and very like low
stakes, if you will, compared tosomething like Pokemon Go.
It's you building a relationshipwith the individual Pokemon that
you catch, and you keep usingthem time over time.
And so you're only catching one,two, maybe three Pokemon a day
(33:08):
Not unless you're a whale andyou spend a bunch of money.
the average person is reallyonly going to catch one or two a
day.
And so It just helps like give anice break from like all the
other games or catch everythingthat you can catch everything
inside.
And this is like, no, let mechoose what I want to focus on.
And let me really experience thegame and the collecting and
(33:29):
building the relationship withthe Pokemon on your team.
David Hernandez (33:31):
I could see that because, like I said, you
only get two Pokemon a day.
So it's whatever you get in themorning and after that, you kind
of leave the game alone for yourentire day until you come back.
Right.
So you can't really like becompetitive, I guess, in a way
outside, unless you pay for the
Justin Keller (33:42):
I mean, the competitive is all like self
imposed, right?
So the other portion of the gameis your, cooking.
Pokemon gather berries.
So like think of all theberries, from the regular games.
The different types of Pokemon,so like a Water Pokemon gets an
Oran Berry.
a Ghost type Pokemon gets aBluckberry.
Uh, a Fighting type gets theCherry Berry, and so on.
(34:03):
So, you have berry specialiststhat can gather two berries at a
time.
And they have ingredient Pokemonthat can gather two of an
ingredient at a time.
And then you have skill basedPokemon that have like a special
skill that triggers more often.
And you alternate those, and youinteract with those, and they
either gather a berry, aningredient, or activate the
skill based off a certainfrequency throughout the day.
(34:26):
And then you feed Snormax threemeals a day.
And that's kind of the gameplay.
David Hernandez (34:31):
And, you know, you love this game so much that
you and your co host Louis sleeptogether.
On a
Justin Keller (34:36):
Yes, exactly.
We sleep together and we tellother people about how great it
is.
David Hernandez (34:41):
And what made y'all want to do a podcast?
Like just because Pokemon sleepwas just so entertaining for
y'all or just
Justin Keller (34:46):
So.
Luis and I, we got the bug.
We, we, we knew we were suckeredinto this game.
We're paying for the premiumtrack and there's just so much
information that is not outthere.
Remember like the early days ofPokemon Go where there just was
not a lot of information outthere?
It's like that.
and even though there's a lot ofpeople that play Pokemon Sleep,
(35:07):
there's not a lot of content outthere for Sleep.
You can find some YouTubers, butI could not Find a dedicated
Pokemon sleep podcast.
So I was like, why don't we bethe first ones?
And so that's how it was born.
David Hernandez (35:21):
That's awesome.
How do you like trying to dopodcasts?
Now you got two podcasts.
How's it been to kind of balanceboth, right?
Because I do one and I'm busyenough as it is.
I can't imagine trying to do twoshows.
Justin Keller (35:32):
you know, sometimes one takes precedence
over the other, based off oflike how the scheduling is
going.
and really it's not too bad.
now that I've taken over editingfor both, it gets a at times.
David Hernandez (35:45):
You want to edit my podcast next?
I mean, you want three.
Justin Keller (35:48):
Yeah, you know what?
Yeah.
Uh, luckily being part of thePokemon Professor Network,
there's other people that help.
So like, Ken, he really showedme the ways, showed me the ropes
on how to do editing.
like, when I was leading up to,my wedding, I did a, uh,
Interview episode on specialconditions with Lane from Good
Morning Johto.
And so, you know, a three personpodcast, you know, that's 50
(36:09):
percent more editing you got todo.
But, Jamal was nice enough tooffer to edit that episode.
So as I was doing wedding stuff.
So it's kind of nice to, youknow, have other people to help
you out and fall back on whenyou need it.
David Hernandez (36:24):
It's kind of crazy because you know initially
just started just doing an offerwith special conditions because
you know You said you consume somuch that you want to give back
and now you're becoming more ofa a really pro podcaster I know
the rule is, know If you've donefive or ten episodes, you're a
professional at that point Butyou really are kind of diving
into it.
Like do you see yourself kind ofdoing this podcasting thing for
a while?
Justin Keller (36:44):
You know, unless like life takes over, you know,
I start having children thatlike takes up too much time or
whatever.
Maybe I take a break.
I don't see myself quitting likeforever.
If I do quote unquote quit, itwould be take a break, reset my
life and then come back to it.
David Hernandez (37:00):
So for maybe those who are like interested,
just doing content creation ingeneral, whether it be
podcasting or YouTube orwhatever, what piece of advice
would you give them?
Justin Keller (37:08):
Hmm, you've heard it a thousand times, just start.
David Hernandez (37:11):
All right.
Justin Keller (37:12):
You don't need, you don't need the fancy
equipment, you just need tostart practicing, doing.
Hmm.
Yeah, don't get paralyzed.
Don't get poison thoughts.
David Hernandez (37:26):
Don't worry about getting burned online.
Justin Keller (37:28):
and if you're, I mean, likely, if you want to
start a podcast, you probablylistened to several already take
down some notes, write somethings down from your favorite
podcast about what they do thatyou like.
Now, don't copy them verbatimwhat they're doing, but you
know, start pontificating someideas of what you could
incorporate into a podcast andthen find your niche, what gets
(37:50):
you out of bed in the morning?
What are you excited about?
What could you talk about forhours on end?
Cause that's what we're doing.
That's what we're podcastingabout.
a lot of times it's like, youknow, an hour a week, but we
could talk about it for 10 hoursa week.
We just don't want to edit 10hours a week.
David Hernandez (38:05):
Nope.
Unless we're getting paid forit, which we aren't.
Justin Keller (38:07):
Yeah.
Nope.
David Hernandez (38:10):
Well, very cool, Justin.
I want to finish this interviewon one last question.
And I'm gonna make it a littlespecific for you because you
like dogs.
I want you to give me your sixPokemon dog dream team.
What six would you pick?
Justin Keller (38:22):
obviously, know, we're going to throw typing up
out the window.
I'm not to go for a balancedscene.
I'm just going to choose myfavorites.
Arcanine, easy.
Alright, a new favorite of mine,Zacian, the legendary from Gen
8.
Houndoom, another favorite ofmine.
if we're doing Megas, I loveMega Manetric.
(38:42):
He's just a giant dog lightningbolt.
He's incredible.
Oh, Lycanroc, Duskform, theorange one from the anime.
Incredible.
Orange favorite color plus he'sjust amazing in the and then
Okay.
We're going to say Mightyena.
David Hernandez (39:01):
Oh, I love mighty Anna.
Let's go.
Justin Keller (39:03):
Yeah, he's, he's great.
Oh, I love using like the icemoves and like PVP on Pokemon
Go.
Just like the crunch, crunch,crunch.
David Hernandez (39:10):
So I was excited when Poochy on a debuted
in Gen 3 I'm like I'm using thisPokemon no matter what it was
alongside me and Trico and I'mlike, those are two boys We're
gonna start we're gonna takeover the lead together Justin,
thank you for coming on As thePokeball Turns.
Before you go, if people want tocheck out your podcast, if they
want to check out your content,if they just want to connect
with you, where can they go?
(39:31):
By all means, please plug away.
Justin Keller (39:33):
You can follow me on on x.com, aka Twitter at
special con tcg.
That's the Twitter handle.
And then, for Sleep It Off, itis at Sleep It Off Pod.
And then we have on the PokemonProfessor website, we have a
link tree that you can find allof our socials and everything.
And real quick on Entei So, youknow, I'm going through Gen 2,
(39:56):
and I'm like, I had beaten the,Johto region.
And for some reason, I neverknew what the dogs were.
I'm back in, New Bark Town.
And I'm in the grass, you know,there's a bunch of like level
two Pokémon and stuff.
And all of a sudden this level40 thing called an Entei
appears.
I'm like, what the heck is this?
And then I accidentally one shotit with my Charizard.
and I'm like, oh, didn't mean todo that.
Huh, that's weird.
(40:17):
And then I just go on with myday.
Only later to find out it was alegendary and it doesn't
respawn.
I was like yeah, forever.
I'm pained by myself killingEntei and, uh, could never catch
it.
David Hernandez (40:30):
That is pain on steroids.
The only way that could havebeen worse is if it was a shiny.
Justin Keller (40:35):
oh man.
I'm Justin Keller, host of Special
Conditions and Sleep It Off, andthis is my Pokemon story.
David Hernandez (00:44):
Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we
interview people about theirexperience with Pokemon.
My name is David Hernandez.
Today, I'm joined by JustinKeller, co host of both the
Special Conditions podcast, aTCG podcast, and Sleep It Off, a
Pokemon Sleep podcast.
Justin, welcome to the podcast!
Justin Keller (01:04):
Hey, long time coming.
David Hernandez (01:06):
It has been, Justin.
What we were talking aboutbefore, I said, I've known you
haven't been on the show for awhile, but you've had a lot of
life experience.
activities go on, you know, forexample, you just got married.
So congratulations on that.
Justin Keller (01:16):
you, thank you.
Booked the venue in August oflast year, if that tells you
anything, this is now Decemberof the following year.
And so, you know, it was likeover a year of planning and all
that stuff.
So it was quite a long endeavor.
David Hernandez (01:31):
Absolutely.
And you know, weddings areimportant, you know, they're,
you know, very necessary, butit's also the anniversary of
when you started on specialconditions, it's going on two
years.
And I got to ask, how has thatjourney been just going into
talking about TCG with Adam toeven now?
Justin Keller (01:47):
You know, it's kind of wild to think that it's
been two years.
It, I learned about the TCGreally through listening to
special conditions with Adam andJosh Brown as the hosts.
and then I was like, you know,this is kind of fun, you know,
listening to it.
I already liked Adam throughlistening to him from Lure It Up
and the Pokemon Go podcast.
And.
it kind of like spoke to melike, all right, this could be
(02:07):
fun.
And this was also a formativeyear for a lot of people.
It was 2020.
We didn't have a lot of thingsto do.
I was currently unemployed.
So like, Hmm, let me see what Ican do about these cards.
And so like, you know, I'mstarting on TCG online.
I'm trying to like learn thethings and listening to Adam
talk about the stuff, gettingexcited about the cards.
And this was like right beforethe whole crash of Logan Paul.
(02:31):
That's kinda like, how I gotstarted into like, learning
about it, learning about thecard game.
And then like I caught the bug.
I was buying the cardboard.
I was wanting to play the game.
I was getting all the codes.
This was back in the day whenyou had to pretty much buy
codes.
You had to pay money for thesecode cards just so you could
redeem them for individual cardsSo like, if you wanted a,
(02:52):
Giratina V for example, youmight have to redeem 20 code
cards worth just to trade forit.
Or you can try your luck at likeopening the packs manually.
yeah, so I was learning thatway.
And then I was like, come on,locals open up now.
We're getting into like the 2021timeframe.
There's not really like peoplearen't really like playing in
(03:12):
person yet.
But I finally did find a storenear one of my friend's house
that had locals.
So I was able to start buildingdecks and going and playing in
person.
And that's when I really likestarted to appreciate the game
and what it was about.
Fast forward I noticed thatspecial conditions is getting
like fewer episodes and fartherbetween, and all of a sudden it
(03:33):
hadn't like, they hadn't postedin, say a month and a half, two
months.
And so I talked to Adam like,Hey.
I'd hate for you to have to quitthis podcast.
I will help you host if that'ssomething you're interested in.
And then he was me like, yes.
And it's like, you know, wetalked to Ken cause he's like
grandfather of the Pokemonprofessor network.
and then that's how we started.
David Hernandez (03:54):
So basically special conditions started your
interest in the trading cardgame of Pokemon.
And at that time you didn't playthe card game or you didn't
collect at all.
Justin Keller (04:02):
I didn't.
I hadn't touched cards since Iwas in elementary school.
David Hernandez (04:07):
That's crazy.
So at the time when you werelistening to the podcast, you
were just collecting.
Cause of course things wereclosed down.
What were you trying to do?
Were you trying to get like thewhole collection completed?
Were you trying to just getspecific ones you were going
after?
Justin Keller (04:20):
I mean, at the early days, I was just learning,
like, what even the differentrarities were.
Within the first, let's say, 15packs I opened.
I got this rainbow card.
It was a rainbow Eternatus VMAX.
I'm like, I don't even know whatthe heck this thing is.
I've never seen a rainbow card.
I had never, I don't even, Ibarely knew what a VMAX was.
(04:40):
I just knew it was a biggerversion of something.
I didn't know about secretrares.
I knew about the main set.
I didn't know about TCG player.
I didn't know about so manythings and I was just like,
let's get the cardboard.
Let's watch Leonhardt and all ofhis opening videos and all the
nostalgic videos of like, TeamRocket, Base Set, all that
(05:01):
stuff.
David Hernandez (05:02):
And, you know, before you became the co host of
Special Conditions, while youwere just listening and you were
collecting the cards during thepandemic, what was it about
Special Conditions that played arole into you getting involved
with Pokemon?
Like, what was it about thatshow specifically?
Justin Keller (05:16):
So, at the time, I wasn't familiar with a lot of
TCG podcasts, and they justweren't, they didn't seem as
prevalent at the time.
And, podcasts are my thing.
That's how I consume a lot of mymedia.
for work I'm a mechanicalengineer and, at the time I was
designing air conditioningsystems for school districts and
they, while can be technical attimes, can also be very mundane
(05:40):
tasks doing a bunch of draftingon the computer.
And so I consume a lot of mediathrough podcast form because I
can listen to it while at work.
And, that was one of the things.
Pokemon specifically as well assports and other things, but I
really just enjoyed the podcastformat because you really feel
like Friends you feel likeyou're part of the group.
(06:02):
You feel like you know them evenif you don't know them.
David Hernandez (06:05):
you know, that's such a good way to say it
because, you know, it's alwaysbeen said, you know, we get to
develop a deeper connectioncompared to visual formats and
you actually remind me of when Iwas working because I was
essential.
I was a caseworker.
So I'd have to drive aroundeverywhere, all over Dallas for
those, you know, shout out toyou guys, cause we don't get
paid enough, but you know,basically lived in my car.
I got tired of just listening tothe same music.
(06:28):
I love the songs, but they wouldjust become repetitive and
that's how I got introduced topodcast because it allowed you
to kind of consume differenttopics.
It you got to hear differentsubjects being talked about, you
know,
Justin Keller (06:38):
yeah, At one time podcast seemed like a dying art,
but you know in the last coupleyears especially from the
Pandemic podcasts have made thishuge resurgence.
It's crazy.
Everyone has their own podcastnow, which I'm all for
David Hernandez (06:51):
Yeah, it's a new rap album of 2020.
That's what I call it.
But on that note, so, you know,we fast forward to when you
asked to be the co host ofspecial conditions.
It's one thing to be justsomebody who consumes the
podcast.
Meaning it's another toactually.
be part of the whole Format ofhaving to develop a show of if
(07:12):
you decide to do editing and allthat What made you want to step
up to become the co host specialconditions?
Justin Keller (07:17):
I just felt like it was time.
A, I wanted to return the favorfor like, what that show
specifically had done for me.
B, I also just wanted to giveback to the podcast space at
large.
I enjoy them so much, and Ienjoy so much about them.
I just wanted to give back.
It felt just like I consumed somany, so ferociously, if you
(07:38):
will.
I just wanted to give back.
And so I was like, this is myway to give back.
it was the thing.
It's not necessarily that I knewthe most about, but I had the
desire to talk about it.
And, you know, if people want tolisten, they want to listen.
David Hernandez (07:52):
now when you came to record your first
episode, what was it like, youknow for me I recorded I had no
idea what was going on.
Were you still kind of scared?
Were you kind of comfortable?
Justin Keller (08:02):
Definitely anxious, kind of intimidated,
but you know, it's pretty easywhen, I'm joining a longtime co
host.
Adam's been doing podcasts foryears and years now.
Even though he would say he's noexpert.
He was an expert compared to me.
So it made it like smoothsailing.
David Hernandez (08:22):
So having Adam as a co host made it really easy
for you to transition into thatpodcast role, it sounds like.
Justin Keller (08:27):
Yeah, I wasn't paralyzed, huh?
Special conditions pun.
Or
David Hernandez (08:32):
flip a
Justin Keller (08:33):
another one.
David Hernandez (08:34):
Yep.
Yep.
and he didn't get burned either.
Oh, I'm trying to
Justin Keller (08:41):
right.
Now, now I think the joke ispoisoned.
David Hernandez (08:43):
Yeah, I can't think of he found he found one
guys.
I couldn't think of one.
Now
Justin Keller (08:51):
He's just confused.
See, we got there.
David Hernandez (08:55):
we got it.
We got it.
Yeah, we got them all.
But you know, it's great thatyou know, you came into the
podcast space and you know,started with TCG.
And now that you've done thepodcast, I know you got a chance
to 10 regionals.
And you actually go into likelocals playing the TCG.
how did you transition frombeing a collector to becoming
like an active player and tryingto go out to these tournaments?
Justin Keller (09:15):
First, to help seeing a friendly face there,
wink.
That was the first time we hadmet in person, right?
David Hernandez (09:21):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I forgot about that.
Yeah, that's true,
Justin Keller (09:23):
Yeah, Arlington 2022.
In December, right?
December 22.
David Hernandez (09:28):
Man, something about that month and year was
just special, I guess.
Mm
Justin Keller (09:34):
no, I just like, a, it was convenient because it
was really close by B, since Iwas pretty involved in my locals
at the time, I knew a bunch ofpeople going.
So it made it easy.
see, I really just wanted toexperience what a huge
tournament was like.
Now, I had been in some like boxtournaments or local star
tournaments that pushed like,60-80 people, but you know, this
(09:56):
tournament was pushing, 1500 andthat's masters in TCG
specifically.
It doesn't even include, youknow, all the VGC or the, the
juniors and seniors or any ofthat stuff.
David Hernandez (10:08):
Now, you're competitive in TCG, and you
know, the other ones people arefamiliar with are with VGC and
specifically also Go.
Why did you lean towards beingmore competitive in just the
trading card?
Is it just your experiencebecause of the podcast, or is it
just more of you like the cardgame more?
Justin Keller (10:22):
So like, I like Pokemon Go.
I like VGC.
But their play styles are moreremote oriented.
You're not really going inperson to these things.
I enjoy the in personexperience.
So.
TCG is largely in person.
Granted, when I startedlearning, it was TCGO and a lot
of online only.
(10:44):
But it's largely peoplededicating their time during the
week to travel to their localstore to play.
And there's just somethingdifferent about the in person
experience.
I'm sure, like, you experiencewhen you go to the Pokémon GO
events in the summertime.
the reason why people go to inperson GoFest, it's, or just
like even remote GoFest, but youmeet up with a bunch of people.
(11:05):
It's just that in personpersonal connection.
It's just can't be beat.
David Hernandez (11:09):
So if you're going to like play a fun deck,
what would you play?
Like what's a fun deck forJustin?
Justin Keller (11:17):
hmm.
everyone enjoys what's calledlike a beat stick deck.
I do big damage.
So like Roaring Moon, fun deck.
You can hit big damage.
Any HP you want, it has a, ithas a move called, frenzied
gouging where you just like, Iknock you out and then it then
does 200 damage to itself, butit doesn't matter.
I knocked you out, so
David Hernandez (11:36):
think of Charizard base set.
Basically.
Justin Keller (11:38):
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Do the most damage possible.
Another one that was really funthere was an Eternatus deck that
I really enjoyed because, youdidn't need a lot of energy to
power it up.
It had a special ability whereinstead of putting 5 Pokemon on
your bench, you could put up to8 Pokemon on your bench.
And you just got to play morecards than the other person.
(11:59):
And you just played faster andit just was so much fun.
And then you could also, therewas a Galarian wheezing that
turned off their abilities.
So you could basically stallwhile you set up everything and
they like, can't use theirabilities.
So it was fun.
The other people didn't enjoyplaying against it, I certainly
enjoyed it.
David Hernandez (12:17):
You enjoy being on the, uh, giving it, but not
the receiving.
Justin Keller (12:20):
Yes,
David Hernandez (12:20):
what they say.
Yeah.
Do you ever try to play a deckbased around your favorite
Pokemon at all?
Justin Keller (12:26):
you I try but like man, so my favorite Pokemon
is arcanine.
He doesn't have a lot ofcompetitively viable cards now
the Hasuian Arcanine Did see asmall amount of rogue deck play
but really He just doesn't see alot of play right now.
Now, we did just in TCG Pocket,there was like an event, and you
(12:47):
can play the Arcanine in likeregular PvP in TCG Pocket and do
okay.
But, as far as a trading cardgame goes, not really.
David Hernandez (12:55):
Now you said Arcanine is your favorite.
How did it become your favoritePokemon?
Justin Keller (12:59):
So like many things, Foundation from
Childhood.
the year is 1998.
We're in a blockbuster.
I'm like, come on, parents,please let me get a pack of
Pokemon cards.
I think I'm in the first grade.
they're like, okay, if you sharewith your brother, cause they
didn't know what it was, theydon't know what they're buying.
And just like a little piece ofcardboard for three or 4.
Why?
And so in that first pack thatwe open, there's an Arcanine
(13:24):
card in there, which I had neverseen before.
I didn't know about thisArcanine.
And At the time, I really wanteda pet dog.
I was trying to convince myparents that we should get a
dog.
And so I immediately gravitatedlike, Oh, this Arcanine is a
dog.
It is now my favorite.
So
David Hernandez (13:41):
was the card out of curiosity?
What set was it from?
Justin Keller (13:43):
The good old Base Set Arcanine.
David Hernandez (13:46):
Oh my gosh, the legendary Pokemon.
Justin Keller (13:48):
Heh heh, I think that's what it says on the card.
The Legendary Pokemon.
David Hernandez (13:52):
So I want to close off this section with
something that y'all do onspecial conditions.
It's called art of the week.
Well, how about you explain whatis art of the week real quick.
Justin Keller (14:01):
Art of the Week is something we do from time to
time where we focus on a certainPokémon and it could be a
Machop, it could be a Articuno,it could be whatever.
A lot of times it's likerandomly generated and then we
go through, before the show, wego through all the art and we go
through some honorable mentionsand we rate like our top three
(14:23):
and we just visually talk aboutthe art and some of these crazy
cards you may have never seen.
And some of these Gen 1 Pokemonhave an obscene number of cards.
Like I'm trying to complete myArcanine set and there's like 60
cards or something crazy.
I don't even know the numberanymore.
There's, there's like variantsof cards and some of these cards
(14:45):
are like 200 and I'm just like,I'll get it eventually, but it's
not high on the list.
David Hernandez (14:50):
So for the sake of time, I didn't prepare that
much, but we're going to just doone card.
Justin Keller (14:55):
Ah, this is Blaine's Arcanine.
So, this is from back in the daywhen there were Gym Leader
Pokémon.
So it's an Arcanine and he'sopening his mouth like he's
about to breathe a fire blast.
And the background is aholographic, you know, with a
Cosmo holo pattern.
And it looks like the fire blastis just directly behind him.
(15:18):
It's a first edition.
He's a legendary Pokemon it'sjust very classic late nineties
Pokemon card.
David Hernandez (15:26):
It is.
So the reason why I brought thisup is this was actually when the
gym sets basically came out.
this is the first set that Iever got.
I got the Blaine's deck'cause Isaw this Aine and I saw it.
So for those who don't know, ithas an attack called Firestorm.
It deals a hundred think bigdamage 120 damage.
And I'm like, dude, that'sstronger than jars are.
(15:47):
And that's the only, it was, butthat's the only reason why I got
it.
I think it was a blockbuster aswell.
And so I card.
Yeah.
Justin Keller (15:55):
Hold on, hold on one second.
I'll be back
David Hernandez (15:57):
All right.
While he's looking for stuff,follow the podcast, Spotify,
Apple music, YouTube, whereveryou get your podcast, follow as
the pokeball turns, do it now.
Give me five stars.
Justin Keller (16:14):
Dang, I must have put it away.
But what I was gonna do is Ihave a sealed box of that deck
David Hernandez (16:19):
Oh, wow.
Dang.
Justin Keller (16:21):
Yeah, a friend of mine had it from their childhood
and they knew how much I lovedArcanine so they gave it to me
There's sealed collection
David Hernandez (16:28):
Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
Justin Keller (16:30):
as you were saying
David Hernandez (16:31):
so I have my car.
I still have that car.
It's a little bent,unfortunately, but I still have
it.
And the fact that, you know,Heim was your favorite, I had to
bring it onto the show.
It's like, I haven't had achance to talk about Now it's
not first edition guys.
It's not first edition.
Trust me.
Justin Keller (16:44):
Yeah.
David Hernandez (16:46):
arc and I
Justin Keller (16:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Luckily you can like get areplacement for like 20 bucks
now or something.
David Hernandez (16:51):
Yeah, I don't wanna replace it.
It has, uh, nostalgia
Justin Keller (16:54):
Well I meant like a better one like, you know,
think about now that youwouldn't, you would never
replace the original.
I finally, after like, I don'tknow, 15 years found my original
Arcanine card.
It was buried behind anotherArcanine card in my childhood
binder that I didn't know about.
It was buried, it was in myparents basement.
David Hernandez (17:15):
really?
You didn't even know about it?
Justin Keller (17:17):
Well like I knew, there, but I don't live in
Kansas anymore.
And so my chances to, like, whenI go back to remember to go find
the, I mean, put the binder inthe basement was like slim to
none.
So,
David Hernandez (17:31):
So that's the first card.
The second one is my favoritePokemon.
And I decided to pick this one.
for those who don't know, it'sactually the promo Articuno,
which came out during the powerof one.
It had three legendary birds.
And what you see here isArticuno shooting like a ice
mist.
It's only probably an ice beam,but it's ice mist kind of
attack.
It's called
Justin Keller (17:51):
ray or something.
David Hernandez (17:52):
Yeah, exactly.
And the reason why I chose thisis I feel like this is Articuno
is my favorite and I'm trying tohave a binder full of Articuno
cards for those who don't know.
And I feel like this one is sounderrated.
Because it just has Articunowith movement.
It's not hollow.
I know I get it, you know, it'snot shiny, I guess, but I've
always just appreciated justkind of how they get Articuno in
(18:13):
a very serious pose.
And it's actually has a whitishcolor, which I really, really
enjoy.
So,
Justin Keller (18:19):
yeah, it's like the Articuno is like the
Articuno is charging up for thatblast.
That's why he's whiter.
And, uh, another reason I thinkit's cool is it it can paralyze
the other Pokemon, a specialcondition.
Oh
David Hernandez (18:36):
but
Justin Keller (18:37):
but very cool.
I had not actually seen thiscard.
I familiar with this Bromo.
Yeah.
I've seen a lot of the olderArticunos, but I don't remember
this one specifically.
David Hernandez (18:46):
no, this one's came out during the, it was a
given out when the power one wasin theaters, you would get a
random one.
I don't think, I don't think yougot all three and they had
Articuno Moltres.
I think they had one other.
So I've always appreciated thisone.
They all have pretty cool art,but this one, I just always felt
like it was the most underratedbecause it's not holographic.
It's not EX or it doesn't havethose fancy big numbers that,
(19:06):
you know, all the other currentones have.
(19:55):
So, Justin, we dived into, youknow, your experience with TCG
back in 2020.
And you talked to briefly abouthow you got a Pokemon cards in
blockbuster.
Was that kind your firstexperience with a franchise?
Did you dive into the games atall?
Justin Keller (20:07):
so I Would say a typical for Pokemon people.
experience was the anime.
I was all about the anime I Iloved it, you know every day
after school gotta watch itgotta see what Ash and Pikachu
were up to now I thought Pikachuwas a little a hole back then I
Was like no you gotta raise theCharmander.
(20:27):
Come on.
Keep the Charmander But yeah, sothat's like that's what started
the interest and everything andthen you know it evolved from
there There was you know, we'regoing into blockbuster because I
wanted to rent Pokemon snap.
You know, we get some of thecards.
I collect some of the cards, youknow for like base set up
through I Kind of dabble in likegym heroes gym challenge, but
(20:49):
really like team rocket and likefossil and jungle or my sets My
first video game was Gold.
My brother had Blue.
Even though my brother wasyounger, we both got the games
at the same year.
He got Blue, I got Gold.
I enjoyed Gold because you gotto experience Game 1 in quote
unquote better graphics.
And you got the second gen,right, to go along with it.
(21:11):
I didn't have to switch, myaccount.
I didn't have to start over.
I didn't have to do a lot ofthese things.
Sometimes I forget that, Johtowas not the first generation.
Like, I know the Pokémon aredifferent, but, like, it was the
first game for me.
David Hernandez (21:24):
So did you keep, collecting over time?
Did you keep watching anime?
Like how
Justin Keller (21:27):
No, so
David Hernandez (21:29):
Mm
Justin Keller (21:30):
like, you know, hot and heavy for a bit.
I still continued with the animeup through the Orange League and
then through Johto.
but then it kind of died off.
I really kind of got out of thePokemon space.
It was all about Lego.
It was all about Star Wars.
I kind of got out of Pokemon fora really long time.
Now what do you think brought meback?
David Hernandez (21:48):
Oh, I, uh, is it something, I think something
big happened in 2016.
It's to sunrise.
That's gonna.
Justin Keller (21:55):
Yeah, yeah,
David Hernandez (21:56):
Is it?
Okay.
Justin Keller (21:58):
that's what it was, Pokemon Go in 2016.
Now, like, I am not a jump onthe bandwagon person.
I'm a, we'll hold off.
And then, okay, fine.
If enough people are doing it,I'll do it.
And so that's what happened.
I didn't want to play.
I was like, I don't want allthese people playing this game.
Fine.
I'll do it.
And at that point I was, Iwanted to be an instinct player.
(22:19):
I wanted to be yellow.
I liked Zapdos better, but allmy friends who now no longer
play were Mystic.
So I joined team Mystic.
And so, and so that's how,that's how it was.
And I played it.
Oh man.
You know, you remember the 2016.
It was crazy.
Everyone and their uncle wasout.
It was crazy.
It's crazy how many old peopleplayed the game people was like
(22:40):
gray and white hair old people.
David Hernandez (22:43):
Hey, I'm, I'm, open in an age, my friend.
So I can't really say anythinganymore, but
Justin Keller (22:48):
and then this like went on through like the
november time frame We juststill would see like hundreds of
people at the park and then likeone day in january of 2017.
I'm like I'm freezing my buttoff out here.
There's not even really thatmany spawns, even though I'm in
a park.
I'm just gonna quit.
David Hernandez (23:05):
Now, was this while you were in Fort Worth or
was this while you were inKansas?
Justin Keller (23:08):
This was when I was in Kansas.
when I say it was cold, therewas frost on the ground.
And like, my hands are likefreezing as I'm like this, as
I'm taking the dog for a walk.
But you know, I have a husky, sohe loves being outside in the
cold and we would still takedaily walks, but it just, it
wasn't worth it anymore.
And I kind of stopped playing.
So I stopped playing fromJanuary of 2017 up through June,
(23:30):
2018 is when I joined backagain.
one of my favorite memoriesthough of a community day that I
played was Totodile communityday.
I'm out, I'm out there with my,it was a January community day.
I'm out there with my friend whoalso has a Husky and it's just
snowing these big fatsnowflakes, you know, like the
snowflakes that are like aboutthe size of a quarter
David Hernandez (23:51):
Dude, I'm in Texas.
No, I don't.
Justin Keller (23:52):
ones.
Okay, the ones you see inmovies, ones that you see in
David Hernandez (23:58):
the white Christmas movies.
Justin Keller (23:59):
yeah, yeah, the really big obnoxious ones.
And so, like, my friend outthere would like, our phone, our
phone screens keep getting wet,so it's like really hard to
throw balls, but it's still fun.
It's just like, really just meand my friend out there playing,
and like maybe two other peoplein this entire park that's known
for having tons of people toplay.
And so, it was, it was prettygood.
David Hernandez (24:19):
Oh my gosh.
I must been young has beenfrozen playing in that
Justin Keller (24:22):
it was so cold.
I mean, I think we lasted likean hour and a half, more like an
hour and we're done.
don't, I don't need any more.
David Hernandez (24:29):
Last an hour and a half, dude.
I wouldn't last even half anhour.
Justin Keller (24:34):
Well, you know, the dogs loved it and we were
there for the dogs.
They were both huskies enjoyingthe snow.
But yeah, so, when I came backin June of 2018, that's when it
stuck.
I haven't put Pokémon down sincethen.
So, like, that led up into Swordand Shield releasing.
If it wasn't that year, it wasthe next year.
David Hernandez (24:52):
What made you come back specifically at that
point in 2018?
Justin Keller (24:56):
Like one of my best friends still played the
game.
He played it during all thattime.
it would just be like, we wouldmeet up for D and D at a
different friend's house.
And he was like, Oh, there's aPidgey outside.
And like, they would just likesay this every week about the
stuff, the Pokemon that he'scatching.
And I'm just like, fine, I'lldownload it again.
And then I download it, youknow, with a year and a half
off, obviously things havechanged.
community days now happen.
(25:16):
Shiny Pokemon are in the game.
Raid bosses are a thing.
I'm like, what the heck is thisthing?
I sent him a screenshot of a,Omastar three star raid.
I'm like, what is this thing?
It's like says 17, 000 CP.
What, how am I supposed to beatthis?
David Hernandez (25:33):
And so what's your kind of way to play?
Do you just play to kind of walkyour dogs casually?
Or do you like try to completestuff?
hunts?
Justin Keller (25:40):
so, we'll start off with my hot take.
David Hernandez (25:42):
Let's go.
I love
Justin Keller (25:43):
I, uh,
David Hernandez (25:47):
Let's not get
Justin Keller (25:47):
I'm, you know, like, I like shiny Pokemon and
everything, but I do not carefor 100 percent Pokemon.
know a lot of people, that'stheir thing.
They love a hundred percentPokemon.
Adam might shoot me if he hearsthis, but, I just like it.
I like people are like, Oh, Igotta get a hundred percent.
Cause it means they had the maxstats for this.
No, it means the max stats.
If you're doing a raid andyou're trying to get max damage
(26:10):
output.
Sure.
But if you're not doing that,then.
The 100 percent doesn't meananything.
It's a waste of time.
You'd be better off suited usingyour 96 percent that you got
forever ago.
And just powering that upinstead, instead of waiting for
forever for this magical 100percent Pokemon that you're
never going to get, or if you doget, it's just a complete waste.
(26:30):
I, Oh God,
David Hernandez (26:31):
Justin, being so toxic right
Justin Keller (26:33):
Pokemon.
David Hernandez (26:33):
just poisoned this podcast.
Justin Keller (26:39):
Oh, yeah, I tell Adam all the time.
I tell Adam all the time.
He should just stop looking forthe hundred percents.
Like you could save so muchtime.
So much time.
If you, that you could dedicatetowards playing the, the trading
card game instead of hunting forthese hundred percents.
Really?
I'm just trying
David Hernandez (26:57):
right now, man.
Justin Keller (26:58):
yeah, I'm really just trying to get him to play
more trading card game, lessresearch tasks for a hundred
percent Pokemon.
I mean, that's, that's the realthing.
Because I need him to bring thespice and the decklist to the
show.
So yeah, so my actual way toplay.
I really love in person events,but you know, outside of in
person events, you know, I'llshiny hunt, I'll still, I fast
(27:18):
catch everything with theaddition of the Go I use that, I
wouldn't say daily, but multipletimes a week I'll run it.
I'm pretty much a solo player.
I connected more with thecommunity when I lived in
Kansas, and I just haven'tconnected with the community
here in Texas, so I kind of ebband flow with the game on how
involved I am basically.
Is there an event that's likereally fun?
(27:39):
Like sometimes the Halloweenevents are great, and I'll play
like really hard for two weeks,and then there'll shift to some
other event with Pokemon that Ieither have a bunch of, or I
just don't care, maybe I'll openit every couple days.
I don't really care at thattime.
I still follow the news, and Isee what's happening.
David Hernandez (27:54):
because I know you've had a chance to go to
some live events for Pokemon Go.
I know you also, you know, wetalked about Regis Arrington.
you remember what your first,live event you titted for
Pokemon Go?
Justin Keller (28:03):
It was Philadelphia Safari Zone.
I met up with the Pokemonprofessor community.
You know, this was a make upevent from the Safari Zone that
was supposed to happen in May of2020.
So, it was a very limitedattended event.
I would say maybe 3, 000trainers.
Maybe.
Most people, a lot of people hadasked for like their refunds and
(28:25):
whatever and they didn't sellnew event tickets.
They were just carrying out onesfrom the previous event.
And so, you know, I met up withAdam and Ken.
I met up with Mythical Hitch,Jamal, CasadeCubone A.K.A Raber.
Yeah, and that's when I met alot of them for the first time.
also met JTValor there, prettymuch just like a bro hangout
session the entire weekend.
(28:47):
even though I had never met anyof these people in person.
It was like we had been friendsfor years and years.
Cause you know, on the network,we do the zoom calls on Monday
nights.
So we had like that face to faceinteraction,
David Hernandez (28:59):
Now, you also said you went to Seattle the
following year.
Justin Keller (29:02):
Uh huh.
David Hernandez (29:02):
What was like, to go to Seattle for your first
GoFest?
Justin Keller (29:08):
So we had so much fun.
The eight of us that went toPhilly, we had so much fun that
we wanted to make sure we couldorganize a large group outing
for Seattle.
And you know, we kept talkingabout it, like, Oh, we're going
to do a house.
We're going to have like all thepeople there and everything.
And then like this list justkept growing and growing.
I think at one time the listgrew to 30 people.
David Hernandez (29:29):
30 people, my god! Well, I guess
Justin Keller (29:31):
And so,
David Hernandez (29:32):
yeah.
Justin Keller (29:33):
And we keep talking about booking the place.
And I'm like, you know,someone's got, we got to do this
if we're going to do it.
And, uh, no one was set me up toplay.
It's like, all right, if, if wefound a place, I'll put forth
the money, for the Airbnb andthen you guys can pay me back.
so that's what we did.
We ended up having, we had somany people.
the max people you could book atan Airbnb that I could find in
(29:55):
all of Seattle was 16.
So we just said we had 16, eventhough we had like
David Hernandez (30:00):
Twice as
Justin Keller (30:00):
23.
David Hernandez (30:02):
okay.
Justin Keller (30:03):
And then I added a second house.
So that way the other housedidn't get too crazy.
And then we only had eightallotted for that one.
were within walking distancebetween each other.
David Hernandez (30:12):
Oh my gosh, that must have been wild to have
all the people in there.
Justin Keller (30:17):
Oh, it was, it was so much fun.
It was so good.
And I really liked Seattle causeit felt like more small town.
I mean, Seattle's not a smalltown, but it felt more like...
David Hernandez (30:27):
interconnected.
Justin Keller (30:28):
Go.
Yeah.
It felt like connected andPokemon Go was the big thing to
do.
I enjoy New York city, butPokemon Go is not the thing to
do.
Pokemon Go is like the thing youdo on the side of the actual
thing that you do in New Yorkcity.
David Hernandez (30:39):
Like, I feel like Pokemon Go is actually a
huge celebration coming inSeattle compared York.
It was just like another eventthat they're used to
Justin Keller (30:44):
Yeah, yeah.
And you know, and they embraceit more because there's all the
ties to Seattle.
the Pokemon InternationalHeadquarters is there.
there's also like Nintendothat's there.
And so like I remember we would,like as groups, we would rent
the scooters and ride thescooters around town the
different
David Hernandez (31:00):
fun.
Yeah.
Those scooters were a blast.
Especially because you had todeal with the heels a lot.
It made it so more easier.
Justin Keller (31:07):
Yeah, and then A lot of us, like after a while,
after you did enough riding, youwould unlock like the top speed
Instead of being locked at eightmiles an hour and so but always
inevitably we always had someonein the group That's locked eight
miles an hour.
I was like, well, we'll see youthere.
Bye
David Hernandez (31:21):
So the last thing I want to talk about is
actually the other podcast.
And it's my first time evertalking about it on this podcast
is Pokemon sleep.
Pokemon sleep for those whodon't know, it's a mobile game
to where you actually put itdown.
You kind of plan it.
And I guess you catch stuffafter you wake up.
Is that kind of how it works?
Justin Keller (31:37):
Yeah, so, you can put as much into pokemon sleep
as you want Really, it's kind oflike how Pokemon Go is intended
to like help you exercise andget out and explore.
Pokemon Sleep is to help youfocus on healthy sleep habits.
Like it offers tips andeverything, but really you get
better scores by practicingbetter sleep hygiene.
And so You can track Your sleepeither with the phone, with a go
(32:00):
plus plus, or with a smartwatch,like an Apple watch.
And you track it.
And then when you wake up in themorning, you connect it to your
phone and it'll give you ascore.
And your score is based off ofhow well you slept, how long you
slept, and like how much youlike toss and turn in the night.
And so it'll give you a type.
So, like, dozing, snoozing, orslumbering, after that, based
(32:24):
off your score, you encountercertain Pokémon that come to
your place like a picnic.
Think of like a picnic in, themain series games, where you,
make a sandwich and all thepeople come.
Or you make a curry and all thePokémon come.
So it's kind of like that Andthen you have biscuits and so
you feed the Pokemon biscuits Soyou want to quote unquote catch
but really you're justbefriending them.
(32:44):
You make them nice biscuits andthey become your friends what I
enjoy about that game is it'svery casual and very like low
stakes, if you will, compared tosomething like Pokemon Go.
It's you building a relationshipwith the individual Pokemon that
you catch, and you keep usingthem time over time.
And so you're only catching one,two, maybe three Pokemon a day
(33:08):
Not unless you're a whale andyou spend a bunch of money.
the average person is reallyonly going to catch one or two a
day.
And so It just helps like give anice break from like all the
other games or catch everythingthat you can catch everything
inside.
And this is like, no, let mechoose what I want to focus on.
And let me really experience thegame and the collecting and
(33:29):
building the relationship withthe Pokemon on your team.
David Hernandez (33:31):
I could see that because, like I said, you
only get two Pokemon a day.
So it's whatever you get in themorning and after that, you kind
of leave the game alone for yourentire day until you come back.
Right.
So you can't really like becompetitive, I guess, in a way
outside, unless you pay for the
Justin Keller (33:42):
I mean, the competitive is all like self
imposed, right?
So the other portion of the gameis your, cooking.
Pokemon gather berries.
So like think of all theberries, from the regular games.
The different types of Pokemon,so like a Water Pokemon gets an
Oran Berry.
a Ghost type Pokemon gets aBluckberry.
Uh, a Fighting type gets theCherry Berry, and so on.
(34:03):
So, you have berry specialiststhat can gather two berries at a
time.
And they have ingredient Pokemonthat can gather two of an
ingredient at a time.
And then you have skill basedPokemon that have like a special
skill that triggers more often.
And you alternate those, and youinteract with those, and they
either gather a berry, aningredient, or activate the
skill based off a certainfrequency throughout the day.
(34:26):
And then you feed Snormax threemeals a day.
And that's kind of the gameplay.
David Hernandez (34:31):
And, you know, you love this game so much that
you and your co host Louis sleeptogether.
On a
Justin Keller (34:36):
Yes, exactly.
We sleep together and we tellother people about how great it
is.
David Hernandez (34:41):
And what made y'all want to do a podcast?
Like just because Pokemon sleepwas just so entertaining for
y'all or just
Justin Keller (34:46):
So.
Luis and I, we got the bug.
We, we, we knew we were suckeredinto this game.
We're paying for the premiumtrack and there's just so much
information that is not outthere.
Remember like the early days ofPokemon Go where there just was
not a lot of information outthere?
It's like that.
and even though there's a lot ofpeople that play Pokemon Sleep,
(35:07):
there's not a lot of content outthere for Sleep.
You can find some YouTubers, butI could not Find a dedicated
Pokemon sleep podcast.
So I was like, why don't we bethe first ones?
And so that's how it was born.
David Hernandez (35:21):
That's awesome.
How do you like trying to dopodcasts?
Now you got two podcasts.
How's it been to kind of balanceboth, right?
Because I do one and I'm busyenough as it is.
I can't imagine trying to do twoshows.
Justin Keller (35:32):
you know, sometimes one takes precedence
over the other, based off oflike how the scheduling is
going.
and really it's not too bad.
now that I've taken over editingfor both, it gets a at times.
David Hernandez (35:45):
You want to edit my podcast next?
I mean, you want three.
Justin Keller (35:48):
Yeah, you know what?
Yeah.
Uh, luckily being part of thePokemon Professor Network,
there's other people that help.
So like, Ken, he really showedme the ways, showed me the ropes
on how to do editing.
like, when I was leading up to,my wedding, I did a, uh,
Interview episode on specialconditions with Lane from Good
Morning Johto.
And so, you know, a three personpodcast, you know, that's 50
(36:09):
percent more editing you got todo.
But, Jamal was nice enough tooffer to edit that episode.
So as I was doing wedding stuff.
So it's kind of nice to, youknow, have other people to help
you out and fall back on whenyou need it.
David Hernandez (36:24):
It's kind of crazy because you know initially
just started just doing an offerwith special conditions because
you know You said you consume somuch that you want to give back
and now you're becoming more ofa a really pro podcaster I know
the rule is, know If you've donefive or ten episodes, you're a
professional at that point Butyou really are kind of diving
into it.
Like do you see yourself kind ofdoing this podcasting thing for
a while?
Justin Keller (36:44):
You know, unless like life takes over, you know,
I start having children thatlike takes up too much time or
whatever.
Maybe I take a break.
I don't see myself quitting likeforever.
If I do quote unquote quit, itwould be take a break, reset my
life and then come back to it.
David Hernandez (37:00):
So for maybe those who are like interested,
just doing content creation ingeneral, whether it be
podcasting or YouTube orwhatever, what piece of advice
would you give them?
Justin Keller (37:08):
Hmm, you've heard it a thousand times, just start.
David Hernandez (37:11):
All right.
Justin Keller (37:12):
You don't need, you don't need the fancy
equipment, you just need tostart practicing, doing.
Hmm.
Yeah, don't get paralyzed.
Don't get poison thoughts.
David Hernandez (37:26):
Don't worry about getting burned online.
Justin Keller (37:28):
and if you're, I mean, likely, if you want to
start a podcast, you probablylistened to several already take
down some notes, write somethings down from your favorite
podcast about what they do thatyou like.
Now, don't copy them verbatimwhat they're doing, but you
know, start pontificating someideas of what you could
incorporate into a podcast andthen find your niche, what gets
(37:50):
you out of bed in the morning?
What are you excited about?
What could you talk about forhours on end?
Cause that's what we're doing.
That's what we're podcastingabout.
a lot of times it's like, youknow, an hour a week, but we
could talk about it for 10 hoursa week.
We just don't want to edit 10hours a week.
David Hernandez (38:05):
Nope.
Unless we're getting paid forit, which we aren't.
Justin Keller (38:07):
Yeah.
Nope.
David Hernandez (38:10):
Well, very cool, Justin.
I want to finish this interviewon one last question.
And I'm gonna make it a littlespecific for you because you
like dogs.
I want you to give me your sixPokemon dog dream team.
What six would you pick?
Justin Keller (38:22):
obviously, know, we're going to throw typing up
out the window.
I'm not to go for a balancedscene.
I'm just going to choose myfavorites.
Arcanine, easy.
Alright, a new favorite of mine,Zacian, the legendary from Gen
8.
Houndoom, another favorite ofmine.
if we're doing Megas, I loveMega Manetric.
(38:42):
He's just a giant dog lightningbolt.
He's incredible.
Oh, Lycanroc, Duskform, theorange one from the anime.
Incredible.
Orange favorite color plus he'sjust amazing in the and then
Okay.
We're going to say Mightyena.
David Hernandez (39:01):
Oh, I love mighty Anna.
Let's go.
Justin Keller (39:03):
Yeah, he's, he's great.
Oh, I love using like the icemoves and like PVP on Pokemon
Go.
Just like the crunch, crunch,crunch.
David Hernandez (39:10):
So I was excited when Poochy on a debuted
in Gen 3 I'm like I'm using thisPokemon no matter what it was
alongside me and Trico and I'mlike, those are two boys We're
gonna start we're gonna takeover the lead together Justin,
thank you for coming on As thePokeball Turns.
Before you go, if people want tocheck out your podcast, if they
want to check out your content,if they just want to connect
with you, where can they go?
(39:31):
By all means, please plug away.
Justin Keller (39:33):
You can follow me on on x.com, aka Twitter at
special con tcg.
That's the Twitter handle.
And then, for Sleep It Off, itis at Sleep It Off Pod.
And then we have on the PokemonProfessor website, we have a
link tree that you can find allof our socials and everything.
And real quick on Entei So, youknow, I'm going through Gen 2,
(39:56):
and I'm like, I had beaten the,Johto region.
And for some reason, I neverknew what the dogs were.
I'm back in, New Bark Town.
And I'm in the grass, you know,there's a bunch of like level
two Pokémon and stuff.
And all of a sudden this level40 thing called an Entei
appears.
I'm like, what the heck is this?
And then I accidentally one shotit with my Charizard.
and I'm like, oh, didn't mean todo that.
Huh, that's weird.
(40:17):
And then I just go on with myday.
Only later to find out it was alegendary and it doesn't
respawn.
I was like yeah, forever.
I'm pained by myself killingEntei and, uh, could never catch
it.
David Hernandez (40:30):
That is pain on steroids.
The only way that could havebeen worse is if it was a shiny.
Justin Keller (40:35):
oh man.
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