December 13, 2025 • 25 mins
CovertGoYap is back and this time with a Magic the Gathering x Avatar the Last Airbender Jumpstart Booster Box.
Use promo code CGBPOD to get a discount at CoolStuffInc.com and show love for the audio podcast.
If you'd like to see the video version of this podcast, check it out here!
Credits
Written and performed by Daniel Wagner, aka CovertGoBlue
Edited by Roman Milan
Logo design by HolyMTG - HolyMTG@gmail.com Twitter @HolyMTG
© CovertGoBlue Entertainment, LLC
Use promo code CGBPOD to get a discount at CoolStuffInc.com and show love for the audio podcast.
If you'd like to see the video version of this podcast, check it out here!
Credits
Written and performed by Daniel Wagner, aka CovertGoBlue
Edited by Roman Milan
Logo design by HolyMTG - HolyMTG@gmail.com Twitter @HolyMTG
© CovertGoBlue Entertainment, LLC
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The cover Go podcast is now on iHeartRadio, Spotify, and
Apple Podcasts, and is proudly sponsored by cool Stuff Inc.
Dot Com. Use the promo code CGB pod at check
out to get a discount and show your love for
the audio version of the show. Do Do Do Do
Do Do Do Do Do Doody Covo podcast. Hello, it's me.
(00:26):
It's CGB. Today. I'm going to open this booster box
of Avatar Last Airbender, jumpstart and rant about standard let's
get it. I've got the headphones in, I've got the
lo fi synth wave beats on, but I don't know
if those will get claimed, so I might be listening
to something a little different from you guys on my headphones.
(00:48):
Don't mind me. But first and foremost, new camera you
see it? Do you feel it? More importantly, new top
down cam cam that actually matches this cam. It's the
same brand. It's a Sony zv one And originally this
(01:13):
camera tip came from Talia Ves so thanks to her,
and I think they're great and my god doing it.
It looks so good, it handles the lighting so good.
But yeah, I amazingly We're gonna try something new today.
I'm going to open packs. I'm gonna sort the rarest
(01:35):
because I have to do this anyway. We all this
pack sing around. We got plastic inside plastic. Well it's Jumpstart, right,
You're supposed to play these against people. I don't. I'm
just here to I'm just here to collect. I'm just
here to collect the stuff. I can. I assume this
(01:55):
anybody there, we go. It's the first time filming on this.
Let's get let's get a nice, nice view. What do
you guys think? Warmer closer? That's probably pretty good, right, So, uh,
just I don't know, man. We have the fire Nation drill,
that's a good little rare. The jump Star cards. I
(02:19):
definitely need a lot of them for my collections, so
I have to open these anyway. So we're gonna do
those somewhat turbo speed. But really, guys, I want to talk.
And are two things I don't feel I do particularly
well or special on this channel. One is open packs.
I think my box opening content's just kind of okay,
(02:41):
and at the same time, I'm still getting asked to
sponsor box opening content. And two, I just want to
let you know what's going on with the channel, with
my life. Maybe it's also podcasting as don't expect me
to read off all the cards I open until I
actually open something. I want Salvagers is okay, nothing good
(03:03):
yet we really want the cabbage merchants do blacks in
a row? Is this whole box is going to be black?
That would be weird? So what's going on with me?
It's a holiday season. It's been a hell of a
twenty twenty five. I've been traveling so much. I've done
so many more appearances than I ever did before. And
every time I think I'm done, I get another call like, hey,
(03:26):
we need you another part of the world this week.
And every time I think like I don't have more
sponsored content to work on, like hey, here's another job offer,
and it's it's It's really cool, no doubt it is
the coolest job in the world. But just having no
(03:47):
idea what you're going to be doing next week at
any point really is a lot to get used to.
I gotta tell you, if you've never lived this life,
it's a very strange one. It's a tough one to
get used to. And it's taken as tolls here for
me down And in the meantime, I've been trying to
(04:11):
keep the arena content going, keep making the standard videos
that really my channel is built on a lot of
you guys have been watching for years. Thank you so
much to everybody who sent me their youtubeer recaps, you know,
showing how much of me they watch, Like that's you
guys are MANIAX. How do you watch me so much?
(04:35):
I have no idea, but thank you. I appreciate it.
And now, dude, standard USCO just a bear. I think
I needed that one standard you guys, can you believe it?
(04:55):
So this weekend holidays of course December, right, so social
engagements for me, it was the team party for the
roller derby team and you know what Worlds, So I
have Worlds on, you know, I'm just hanging out at
the roller derby team party with a whole bunch of
(05:15):
gals and some of them brought their significant others. And
we do have a few other guys in the league,
and like we had Magic on on one of the screens,
some people watching it, and I got to answer a
lot of questions about like, you know, what do you
like about Magic? A eco face stealer and things like that,
and trying to explain to them what was great about
(05:38):
Magic while watching is it lesson meal? Or after? Is
it lesson mirror? After? Is it lesson hear? I had
people who knew nothing about magic saying is it all
the same deck all the time? Yes? And no and no?
(05:58):
You see is it less absolutely dominated the pro tour.
I haven't even looked up the numbers. I'm sure this
is Monday. I'm sure the numbers are coming out and
I'm sure they will be out there and I'm sure
it's gonna look good. They were saying that the isn't
lesson stack on broadcast had a sixty eight percent win
rate against the field on day one and two in
(06:19):
the Swiss. That is a bit too high, guys, in
a world championship event. Now, it did, in a sense
come out of nowhere, so nobody was really TechEd against it.
There weren't a lot of people playing ways to remove
(06:40):
the Monument to Endurance artist talent. Monument to Endurance appears
to be by far the superior list after watching god
knows how many mirrors between the Eddie Mark Krab version
and the monument version on camera. Just dude, So Derek
Davis just losing round after round on camera, talk about
(07:02):
a dream slash nightmare, if ever there was one, and
in the same matchup over and over and over again too,
is absolutely insane. So when this deck in the hands
of the great, already world champion, now two time world
champion Seth Manfield rolled the opponents down, mode them down
(07:27):
and became the champion, it's another is It deck. It
is a different ish is It deck, and in a
sense it's a new or it's a new archtype. That's something.
On one hand, you can say that the bands helped
(07:47):
standard new decks were present. The avatar cards shone brightly,
whether the lessons in the is It Deck, the Lesson
package or Badger mol Cub, I mean the second most
played a new strategy. And we can talk about the
cub in a minute, because I still think we have
a problem when it comes to that CUB. That said,
(08:12):
the is It Deck is going to get a lot
of headlines and a lot of attention because, oh my god,
it is a pretty toxic deck to interact with and watch.
And there's no question it's the year of visit twenty
twenty five. Twenty twenty five saw three different is It decks,
(08:34):
two of them had to get banned, and then a
third one still rose up right afterwards and dominated the
next event. Of course, if you have a short memory,
we're talking about Corey steel Cutter. All right, yep, I'm
going to keep some of these. I remember. I want
to build an aang deck and have it around Corey
steel Cutter VV Cauldron. That's a combo. And now we
(08:58):
have the lessons package, lots of lessons grand grand to
make them cheaper, and then artists talent monument to endurance
for the just endless goberer to turn it into a
wind con. You just cast spells until they die. And
this is going to be an absurdly popular deck, both
because the rare count required to play it isn't too high,
(09:22):
because a lot of lessons are not too expensive, and
it is an addicting deck to play. That's that's the truth.
It's an utterly disgustingly addicting deck to play. Dude, Seriously,
there's so much just casting spells, looting, drawing cards, drawing
(09:46):
three cards here, drawing three cards there, accumulated wisdom, what
a card. You have to play counter spells in the
form of quench. You have to play. This is the
important part, because this is what put it over the
top against cup. There's no good cheap removal in black.
There is no good cheap removal in white unless you
want to count like seam rip. It's fine, but they
(10:10):
can bounce or remove it and they get their thing back,
which is absolutely brutal. So what do you have? You
have Red? Right? Obviously Green is not gonna have great
cheap removal. Air bending Master and airbending Master is here.
That's cool. And so with note with Red having the
(10:33):
only good cheap removal because the lessons that are cheap
and remove things also scale like combustible technique or flexible
like IROs demonstration. And then on top of that, they
feed accumulated wisdom into a cart advantage machine, and they
feed grand grand into a man advantage machine and you
got it all. It's all there, unbelievable. So Badgroom Old
(11:00):
Cub probably would have absolutely destroyed this tournament if several
teams hadn't found a deck that can play this arsenal
of cheap removal. And it's the only good cheap removal
in the format. That's the truth. Like Black, what are
(11:21):
you gonna do? Stab? Have you guys played with stab?
Really it's not great or the babble, grim babble, Oh
my gosh, even grim babble and uh, boomerang basics isn't
good enough. The closest thing that good is nowhere to
run in boomerang basics that's not bad. And the babble
(11:41):
the bottle just kind of medium. But have you ever
like not drawn the bottle right after they played an araboroid?
Not good? So this combination is what led is it
to be the absolute monster yet again because it can
actually deal with cub and if they deal with is
it this time, they're gonna have to also think about
(12:03):
cub because the cub draws and the cub impact on
the format is also sickening. It is disgusting to watch out.
There's your fire bending lesson, there's your combustion technique. You know,
these are the cards that are going to drive standard
for a very long time now, and they're the best
ways to compete with cheap creatures, and they're common and uncommon.
(12:24):
So people are going to craft the hell out of
this on arena and you're going to see it on
ladder every day until something gets done about it as well.
And it's a very hard deck to fight. It can
win through graveyard hate. Although graveyard hate is important to
disrupt it, it can win through a lot of counter
spells because all your stuff is just cheaper and everything's
(12:45):
a threat. Pinnacle starcage was the answer to badgroom will
cub from a deck like Blu Light Control. Well, now
it's not. It doesn't hit artist talent or monument to endurance.
In fact, what does? Why is it such a crime
to have a flexible removal spell that can get rid
of enchantments, artifacts, and some kind of creature some It
(13:06):
doesn't have to get rid of all creatures, that would
be too good, but it should remove some type of creature.
It should be able to affect some kind of board. Okay,
are we going to get a big hit here? Off
the Cabbage Merchant. Let's find out we got another bosco
of the bear we got there is mass carding Commander
(13:31):
Now the Cabbage Merchant chi ching sweet anyway, makes a
lot of foods, makes a lot of manna. Is not
standard legal, thank god? Definitely an amazing commander card. And
I have a lot of decks I need them for
so happy to see it standard. Where were we? The
(13:52):
cub is cub is sick and the decks you're putting
CUB in. You see them on a green deck or
the Green Red deck online a lot. The green Blue
deck like all of those, or boroid decks are very fast,
incredibly powerful, excellent best to one decks can absolutely just
win the game because they went first with the right hand,
(14:12):
and then at the tournament level you're seeing the cub
slot into like these flexible decks, combo decks like teamer Otters,
toolbox decks like Gulguri those. You know, you can look
up those lists because people are very excited about them
over the weekend. So I one hundred percent do believe
(14:34):
that the CUB is still a serious problem, a serious
problem that will get It'll get addressed someday somehow. That's
just what happens when you print cards that are too good.
I just I have died on turn three and standard
more times than last month than I can remember, even
(14:56):
back when, like lay Line of I guess lay Line
of Residence. Another recent band, by the way, only band,
invested one Mono Red. Apparently they were leaning on screening
Nemesis so much they headed straight to the garbage bind
the Mono Red deck that people play now in best
of three is a lay line of resonance deck and
in best of one it's really, for the first time
(15:18):
in a long time, disappeared from meta, which in a
way is a good thing. It's been the dominant deck,
just the only deck for so long. I'm down with
seeing something new. I wish it weren't. Is it in
terms of it being badgera mole club like this screen deck.
That's fine. I think that's pretty cool. At least it
(15:39):
dies to boardwifes. Let's go control players. But now this
is it deck like it also oppresses Mono red because
again you have that cheap removal suite that then goes
on to absolutely fuel these card advantage machines. So every
deck gets to have cheap removal and card advantage and
(16:00):
a ridiculous endgame as long as it is it. So yeah,
there is a deck is gonna change the format quite
a bit for a while. It's not it's nonsense. It's nonsense.
It's gonna be everywhere. There are gonna be decks in
the format like my Blue Black Mill deck that I
(16:20):
just don't think matter anymore. There's gonna be a lot
of decks like that. I'm not sure that Jesski control
for color control or blue white control matter anymore. Maybe
they don't. It's they just don't have the answers to
those permanents. If one monument resolves, you could be cooked.
(16:42):
Maybe the pour color control deck at least it has
inevitable defeat. But god, that's still trading down in manna,
which is not ideal. I still have a Jesski revelation.
Maybe they can run some other pieces to deal with things.
We'll see, But it looks like this deck isn't just
the is a lessons deck, isn't just the truth. It's
(17:03):
probably going to be the best deck until something's done,
and it will again because if this deck is probably
going to be a seventy percent meta deck at some point,
at least forty, I'll go with forty. It's probably going
to be a forty percent meta deck at the next
open tournament that anybody can sign up for. Again, the
affordability and how it plays, the draw threeness of it
(17:27):
is just addicting to competitive magic players at its core,
Like that's the truth. They're not going to stop playing
it until you take it away from them. So between
that and CUB we got a format it's a nonsense format.
The best solution to it specifically and have a tar
Kyoshi earth Bender Big one. The best solution to it
(17:49):
specifically seems to be the Reanimator deck, and that's what
I found on Ladder as well. If you are going
to play the Uh the Bringer of the Last Gift,
Bringer of the Sumping Gift, if you're gonna play that
and Superior Spider Man or Reanimate it, you can be okay.
(18:09):
That deck gets the job done, and it does be
up on the Lessons deck by going way over the
top of it, so that deck was already popular. If
you want to dunk specifically on Lessons, that's the deck
for you. They will start running Graveyard Hate. It's actually
really good in the Lessons deck to run Graveyard Hate
for the opponent like Soul Guide, Lantern and Ghost Vacuum,
because when you get the cost reduction off of Grand
(18:32):
Grand or off a leveled up artist talent, it's literally free,
like you get a zero man of artist talent monument
trigger that goes man a positive when you make the
treasure that also hoses their strategy. It's actually amazing. It's
the best zero Manta play in standard there you go,
what A It's really funny to do. So those decks
(18:56):
are locked in. I think you have your decks for
a while. Are going to be Reanimator is it? And
cub decks, And I like, if people want to keep
running that modo white aur A deck, bring it on
all day. Let's go. If people want to keep running
like Jessky Control or for Color Control, I think they're
going to have a hard time. I really do. I
(19:16):
don't see Team Otters decks making the jump to best
of one. They didn't in the Bass, so I'm not
that worried about that. So that's what's going on with Standard.
That's what the future holds once you if you haven't
played against it yet and you play against this Monument
Talent deck, you will see that just like VV this,
(19:36):
these things just devolve into these long turns. Like Tiger
Seal did its best to actually end games, but it
couldn't compare to the Lesson package, and these games turn
into just these turns take so long. Many of you
(19:58):
are going to hate it, you really are. I hate
to tell ya some things about Standard haven't changed yet.
As we get down to our final three packs, I
want to say this three year Standard with twenty one
potential sets in it. If they're going to release seven
Standard sets a year, I will never love it. I
(20:20):
will always say Standard was better before, and I will
always feel like I'm right. That's okay. It's okay for
me to like the past and the way things used
to be. I don't have to love what's going on
and the Wizard's approach to Standard now to still play
(20:41):
it and still make content around it and still find
enjoyment in it. Same with Magic. I don't always love
what's going on in Magic. There are sets I'm not
gonna love. That's okay. I can still do my job.
And I've talked about this with people, other content creators
going through going through it. If if I retired tomorrow
(21:09):
and we're done and didn't have to do this as
a job, and what would I do? I mean, once
I'd relaxed for a week, done some work around my house, traveled,
spent time with the family, done all the things on
the list that you never have time for, what would
I do after that? Would I be on my iPad
or phone or PC at the end of the day
(21:30):
playing Arena? Yeah? I would, I'll admit it. I would
still do it. So to all of you guys say,
and I just do it for the money now or whatever? Nah, Nah,
I know I would. I know I'd be right back
here once I got some of that out of my system.
(21:52):
So maybe I'll maybe I need to take breaks sometimes
to get that out of my system to feel better.
But I'm still going to play Magic no matter whatever
I think of standard, I'm gonna still play it. I'm
gonna still try to beat it, and hopefully you guys
want to come along for the video rides. Probably still
gonna make videos because at this point it's like locked in.
I just I want to share it with the world
(22:13):
because why not. It feels good, it's an awesome job,
it's an amazing career, it's a great life. Why not.
I don't have a good reason not to. At the
end of the day, I'm still gonna play Magic. Why
not share it. Maybe someday I'll take a vacation for
myself if I start actually going crazy. These are just
some nightmares and daydreams, which is apparently also a card
(22:34):
that I've got off almost off camera. I'm so not
paying attention to this as we go into our last pack,
but guys, don't worry. Just because I rant about Standard
and that I don't like the year of is it
and I don't like three year Standard and I don't
like twenty one sets in Standard doesn't mean I am
not gonna play Magic. Doesn't mean I'm not gonna content.
(22:56):
I have my preferences, that's fair. I also like get
a little salt, just kind of the nature and my brewing.
I will say I definitely went through a period in
the last few weeks where I was exhausted of building decks.
I didn't want to build decks anyway, and that was
really frustrating because deck building has always been something I've
(23:17):
fallen back on and it's something that's very much a
part of the content. So I got burnt out, I
would say, specifically on deck building. This was shortly after
the bands in Standard and the band so around November tenth,
also the bands in Bral, and I just haven't it's weird.
I just haven't pulled together the energy to go back
(23:39):
and update my Bral decks. So I haven't played Brawl,
not one game since the bands, and I do want to.
I love Brawl, but I haven't had the energy to
like build the decks, and I think some of the
deck builds in general for the videos on the channel
haven't been as inspired as my work in the past,
so I need to get back to that. It's good
to have a public enemy number one, Like, is it
(24:00):
to fight something that you want to defeat that other
people are struggling to defeat. That really is a good
driver for me. So I think I'm getting through it
because the last couple of nights I was definitely like
the wheels were turning again where I'm like, Okay, I
should combine this in this, but then I need an
answer for this, and I need and this card could
fit in the deck, you know, things like that. Right,
(24:22):
So it's coming back, and I've built a few more
Commander decks. I haven't played many Commander Worse Possibles in
a while, but I just a spark for that is
igniting again. So I'm I'm still here and some things
might flux, but I'll be back. I'm still enjoying this
(24:43):
a lot. I enjoy the ride. I gotten to do
so much cool stuff. The next box Eye open, I'm
going to talk about all the absolute nonsense I did
this year. At the time I'm recording this. I just
found out another episode I was in has just got
released on Proft's channel where I got to play against
and joshle Quiet and Foxy. What what a sweet pod? Right?
(25:08):
Oh my god. So that's a game I'll never forget.
Go watch it if you're looking for some more of me,
and let me know if you enjoyed this little video.
Thank you for watching. Check out the sponsors. I got
my jumpstart boosters from cool stuff ink dot com. Use
promo code CGB five to get yourself a discount and
you'll get a sweet covid Go blue token. And I've
(25:30):
got my dragon shield sleeves over here to sleeve up
my cabbage merchant to protect it. Link in the description
promo code CGB five at that site as well support
the channel. Thank you guys. Cool
The cover Go podcast is now on iHeartRadio, Spotify, and
Apple Podcasts, and is proudly sponsored by cool Stuff Inc.
Dot Com. Use the promo code CGB pod at check
out to get a discount and show your love for
the audio version of the show. Do Do Do Do
Do Do Do Do Do Doody Covo podcast. Hello, it's me.
(00:26):
It's CGB. Today. I'm going to open this booster box
of Avatar Last Airbender, jumpstart and rant about standard let's
get it. I've got the headphones in, I've got the
lo fi synth wave beats on, but I don't know
if those will get claimed, so I might be listening
to something a little different from you guys on my headphones.
(00:48):
Don't mind me. But first and foremost, new camera you
see it? Do you feel it? More importantly, new top
down cam cam that actually matches this cam. It's the
same brand. It's a Sony zv one And originally this
(01:13):
camera tip came from Talia Ves so thanks to her,
and I think they're great and my god doing it.
It looks so good, it handles the lighting so good.
But yeah, I amazingly We're gonna try something new today.
I'm going to open packs. I'm gonna sort the rarest
(01:35):
because I have to do this anyway. We all this
pack sing around. We got plastic inside plastic. Well it's Jumpstart, right,
You're supposed to play these against people. I don't. I'm
just here to I'm just here to collect. I'm just
here to collect the stuff. I can. I assume this
(01:55):
anybody there, we go. It's the first time filming on this.
Let's get let's get a nice, nice view. What do
you guys think? Warmer closer? That's probably pretty good, right, So, uh,
just I don't know, man. We have the fire Nation drill,
that's a good little rare. The jump Star cards. I
(02:19):
definitely need a lot of them for my collections, so
I have to open these anyway. So we're gonna do
those somewhat turbo speed. But really, guys, I want to talk.
And are two things I don't feel I do particularly
well or special on this channel. One is open packs.
I think my box opening content's just kind of okay,
(02:41):
and at the same time, I'm still getting asked to
sponsor box opening content. And two, I just want to
let you know what's going on with the channel, with
my life. Maybe it's also podcasting as don't expect me
to read off all the cards I open until I
actually open something. I want Salvagers is okay, nothing good
(03:03):
yet we really want the cabbage merchants do blacks in
a row? Is this whole box is going to be black?
That would be weird? So what's going on with me?
It's a holiday season. It's been a hell of a
twenty twenty five. I've been traveling so much. I've done
so many more appearances than I ever did before. And
every time I think I'm done, I get another call like, hey,
(03:26):
we need you another part of the world this week.
And every time I think like I don't have more
sponsored content to work on, like hey, here's another job offer,
and it's it's It's really cool, no doubt it is
the coolest job in the world. But just having no
(03:47):
idea what you're going to be doing next week at
any point really is a lot to get used to.
I gotta tell you, if you've never lived this life,
it's a very strange one. It's a tough one to
get used to. And it's taken as tolls here for
me down And in the meantime, I've been trying to
(04:11):
keep the arena content going, keep making the standard videos
that really my channel is built on a lot of
you guys have been watching for years. Thank you so
much to everybody who sent me their youtubeer recaps, you know,
showing how much of me they watch, Like that's you
guys are MANIAX. How do you watch me so much?
(04:35):
I have no idea, but thank you. I appreciate it.
And now, dude, standard USCO just a bear. I think
I needed that one standard you guys, can you believe it?
(04:55):
So this weekend holidays of course December, right, so social
engagements for me, it was the team party for the
roller derby team and you know what Worlds, So I
have Worlds on, you know, I'm just hanging out at
the roller derby team party with a whole bunch of
(05:15):
gals and some of them brought their significant others. And
we do have a few other guys in the league,
and like we had Magic on on one of the screens,
some people watching it, and I got to answer a
lot of questions about like, you know, what do you
like about Magic? A eco face stealer and things like that,
and trying to explain to them what was great about
(05:38):
Magic while watching is it lesson meal? Or after? Is
it lesson mirror? After? Is it lesson hear? I had
people who knew nothing about magic saying is it all
the same deck all the time? Yes? And no and no?
(05:58):
You see is it less absolutely dominated the pro tour.
I haven't even looked up the numbers. I'm sure this
is Monday. I'm sure the numbers are coming out and
I'm sure they will be out there and I'm sure
it's gonna look good. They were saying that the isn't
lesson stack on broadcast had a sixty eight percent win
rate against the field on day one and two in
(06:19):
the Swiss. That is a bit too high, guys, in
a world championship event. Now, it did, in a sense
come out of nowhere, so nobody was really TechEd against it.
There weren't a lot of people playing ways to remove
(06:40):
the Monument to Endurance artist talent. Monument to Endurance appears
to be by far the superior list after watching god
knows how many mirrors between the Eddie Mark Krab version
and the monument version on camera. Just dude, So Derek
Davis just losing round after round on camera, talk about
(07:02):
a dream slash nightmare, if ever there was one, and
in the same matchup over and over and over again too,
is absolutely insane. So when this deck in the hands
of the great, already world champion, now two time world
champion Seth Manfield rolled the opponents down, mode them down
(07:27):
and became the champion, it's another is It deck. It
is a different ish is It deck, and in a
sense it's a new or it's a new archtype. That's something.
On one hand, you can say that the bands helped
(07:47):
standard new decks were present. The avatar cards shone brightly,
whether the lessons in the is It Deck, the Lesson
package or Badger mol Cub, I mean the second most
played a new strategy. And we can talk about the
cub in a minute, because I still think we have
a problem when it comes to that CUB. That said,
(08:12):
the is It Deck is going to get a lot
of headlines and a lot of attention because, oh my god,
it is a pretty toxic deck to interact with and watch.
And there's no question it's the year of visit twenty
twenty five. Twenty twenty five saw three different is It decks,
(08:34):
two of them had to get banned, and then a
third one still rose up right afterwards and dominated the
next event. Of course, if you have a short memory,
we're talking about Corey steel Cutter. All right, yep, I'm
going to keep some of these. I remember. I want
to build an aang deck and have it around Corey
steel Cutter VV Cauldron. That's a combo. And now we
(08:58):
have the lessons package, lots of lessons grand grand to
make them cheaper, and then artists talent monument to endurance
for the just endless goberer to turn it into a
wind con. You just cast spells until they die. And
this is going to be an absurdly popular deck, both
because the rare count required to play it isn't too high,
(09:22):
because a lot of lessons are not too expensive, and
it is an addicting deck to play. That's that's the truth.
It's an utterly disgustingly addicting deck to play. Dude, Seriously,
there's so much just casting spells, looting, drawing cards, drawing
(09:46):
three cards here, drawing three cards there, accumulated wisdom, what
a card. You have to play counter spells in the
form of quench. You have to play. This is the
important part, because this is what put it over the
top against cup. There's no good cheap removal in black.
There is no good cheap removal in white unless you
want to count like seam rip. It's fine, but they
(10:10):
can bounce or remove it and they get their thing back,
which is absolutely brutal. So what do you have? You
have Red? Right? Obviously Green is not gonna have great
cheap removal. Air bending Master and airbending Master is here.
That's cool. And so with note with Red having the
(10:33):
only good cheap removal because the lessons that are cheap
and remove things also scale like combustible technique or flexible
like IROs demonstration. And then on top of that, they
feed accumulated wisdom into a cart advantage machine, and they
feed grand grand into a man advantage machine and you
got it all. It's all there, unbelievable. So Badgroom Old
(11:00):
Cub probably would have absolutely destroyed this tournament if several
teams hadn't found a deck that can play this arsenal
of cheap removal. And it's the only good cheap removal
in the format. That's the truth. Like Black, what are
(11:21):
you gonna do? Stab? Have you guys played with stab?
Really it's not great or the babble, grim babble, Oh
my gosh, even grim babble and uh, boomerang basics isn't
good enough. The closest thing that good is nowhere to
run in boomerang basics that's not bad. And the babble
(11:41):
the bottle just kind of medium. But have you ever
like not drawn the bottle right after they played an araboroid?
Not good? So this combination is what led is it
to be the absolute monster yet again because it can
actually deal with cub and if they deal with is
it this time, they're gonna have to also think about
(12:03):
cub because the cub draws and the cub impact on
the format is also sickening. It is disgusting to watch out.
There's your fire bending lesson, there's your combustion technique. You know,
these are the cards that are going to drive standard
for a very long time now, and they're the best
ways to compete with cheap creatures, and they're common and uncommon.
(12:24):
So people are going to craft the hell out of
this on arena and you're going to see it on
ladder every day until something gets done about it as well.
And it's a very hard deck to fight. It can
win through graveyard hate. Although graveyard hate is important to
disrupt it, it can win through a lot of counter
spells because all your stuff is just cheaper and everything's
(12:45):
a threat. Pinnacle starcage was the answer to badgroom will
cub from a deck like Blu Light Control. Well, now
it's not. It doesn't hit artist talent or monument to endurance.
In fact, what does? Why is it such a crime
to have a flexible removal spell that can get rid
of enchantments, artifacts, and some kind of creature some It
(13:06):
doesn't have to get rid of all creatures, that would
be too good, but it should remove some type of creature.
It should be able to affect some kind of board. Okay,
are we going to get a big hit here? Off
the Cabbage Merchant. Let's find out we got another bosco
of the bear we got there is mass carding Commander
(13:31):
Now the Cabbage Merchant chi ching sweet anyway, makes a
lot of foods, makes a lot of manna. Is not
standard legal, thank god? Definitely an amazing commander card. And
I have a lot of decks I need them for
so happy to see it standard. Where were we? The
(13:52):
cub is cub is sick and the decks you're putting
CUB in. You see them on a green deck or
the Green Red deck online a lot. The green Blue
deck like all of those, or boroid decks are very fast,
incredibly powerful, excellent best to one decks can absolutely just
win the game because they went first with the right hand,
(14:12):
and then at the tournament level you're seeing the cub
slot into like these flexible decks, combo decks like teamer Otters,
toolbox decks like Gulguri those. You know, you can look
up those lists because people are very excited about them
over the weekend. So I one hundred percent do believe
(14:34):
that the CUB is still a serious problem, a serious
problem that will get It'll get addressed someday somehow. That's
just what happens when you print cards that are too good.
I just I have died on turn three and standard
more times than last month than I can remember, even
(14:56):
back when, like lay Line of I guess lay Line
of Residence. Another recent band, by the way, only band,
invested one Mono Red. Apparently they were leaning on screening
Nemesis so much they headed straight to the garbage bind
the Mono Red deck that people play now in best
of three is a lay line of resonance deck and
in best of one it's really, for the first time
(15:18):
in a long time, disappeared from meta, which in a
way is a good thing. It's been the dominant deck,
just the only deck for so long. I'm down with
seeing something new. I wish it weren't. Is it in
terms of it being badgera mole club like this screen deck.
That's fine. I think that's pretty cool. At least it
(15:39):
dies to boardwifes. Let's go control players. But now this
is it deck like it also oppresses Mono red because
again you have that cheap removal suite that then goes
on to absolutely fuel these card advantage machines. So every
deck gets to have cheap removal and card advantage and
(16:00):
a ridiculous endgame as long as it is it. So yeah,
there is a deck is gonna change the format quite
a bit for a while. It's not it's nonsense. It's nonsense.
It's gonna be everywhere. There are gonna be decks in
the format like my Blue Black Mill deck that I
(16:20):
just don't think matter anymore. There's gonna be a lot
of decks like that. I'm not sure that Jesski control
for color control or blue white control matter anymore. Maybe
they don't. It's they just don't have the answers to
those permanents. If one monument resolves, you could be cooked.
(16:42):
Maybe the pour color control deck at least it has
inevitable defeat. But god, that's still trading down in manna,
which is not ideal. I still have a Jesski revelation.
Maybe they can run some other pieces to deal with things.
We'll see, But it looks like this deck isn't just
the is a lessons deck, isn't just the truth. It's
(17:03):
probably going to be the best deck until something's done,
and it will again because if this deck is probably
going to be a seventy percent meta deck at some point,
at least forty, I'll go with forty. It's probably going
to be a forty percent meta deck at the next
open tournament that anybody can sign up for. Again, the
affordability and how it plays, the draw threeness of it
(17:27):
is just addicting to competitive magic players at its core,
Like that's the truth. They're not going to stop playing
it until you take it away from them. So between
that and CUB we got a format it's a nonsense format.
The best solution to it specifically and have a tar
Kyoshi earth Bender Big one. The best solution to it
(17:49):
specifically seems to be the Reanimator deck, and that's what
I found on Ladder as well. If you are going
to play the Uh the Bringer of the Last Gift,
Bringer of the Sumping Gift, if you're gonna play that
and Superior Spider Man or Reanimate it, you can be okay.
(18:09):
That deck gets the job done, and it does be
up on the Lessons deck by going way over the
top of it, so that deck was already popular. If
you want to dunk specifically on Lessons, that's the deck
for you. They will start running Graveyard Hate. It's actually
really good in the Lessons deck to run Graveyard Hate
for the opponent like Soul Guide, Lantern and Ghost Vacuum,
because when you get the cost reduction off of Grand
(18:32):
Grand or off a leveled up artist talent, it's literally free,
like you get a zero man of artist talent monument
trigger that goes man a positive when you make the
treasure that also hoses their strategy. It's actually amazing. It's
the best zero Manta play in standard there you go,
what A It's really funny to do. So those decks
(18:56):
are locked in. I think you have your decks for
a while. Are going to be Reanimator is it? And
cub decks, And I like, if people want to keep
running that modo white aur A deck, bring it on
all day. Let's go. If people want to keep running
like Jessky Control or for Color Control, I think they're
going to have a hard time. I really do. I
(19:16):
don't see Team Otters decks making the jump to best
of one. They didn't in the Bass, so I'm not
that worried about that. So that's what's going on with Standard.
That's what the future holds once you if you haven't
played against it yet and you play against this Monument
Talent deck, you will see that just like VV this,
(19:36):
these things just devolve into these long turns. Like Tiger
Seal did its best to actually end games, but it
couldn't compare to the Lesson package, and these games turn
into just these turns take so long. Many of you
(19:58):
are going to hate it, you really are. I hate
to tell ya some things about Standard haven't changed yet.
As we get down to our final three packs, I
want to say this three year Standard with twenty one
potential sets in it. If they're going to release seven
Standard sets a year, I will never love it. I
(20:20):
will always say Standard was better before, and I will
always feel like I'm right. That's okay. It's okay for
me to like the past and the way things used
to be. I don't have to love what's going on
and the Wizard's approach to Standard now to still play
(20:41):
it and still make content around it and still find
enjoyment in it. Same with Magic. I don't always love
what's going on in Magic. There are sets I'm not
gonna love. That's okay. I can still do my job.
And I've talked about this with people, other content creators
going through going through it. If if I retired tomorrow
(21:09):
and we're done and didn't have to do this as
a job, and what would I do? I mean, once
I'd relaxed for a week, done some work around my house, traveled,
spent time with the family, done all the things on
the list that you never have time for, what would
I do after that? Would I be on my iPad
or phone or PC at the end of the day
(21:30):
playing Arena? Yeah? I would, I'll admit it. I would
still do it. So to all of you guys say,
and I just do it for the money now or whatever? Nah, Nah,
I know I would. I know I'd be right back
here once I got some of that out of my system.
(21:52):
So maybe I'll maybe I need to take breaks sometimes
to get that out of my system to feel better.
But I'm still going to play Magic no matter whatever
I think of standard, I'm gonna still play it. I'm
gonna still try to beat it, and hopefully you guys
want to come along for the video rides. Probably still
gonna make videos because at this point it's like locked in.
I just I want to share it with the world
(22:13):
because why not. It feels good, it's an awesome job,
it's an amazing career, it's a great life. Why not.
I don't have a good reason not to. At the
end of the day, I'm still gonna play Magic. Why
not share it. Maybe someday I'll take a vacation for
myself if I start actually going crazy. These are just
some nightmares and daydreams, which is apparently also a card
(22:34):
that I've got off almost off camera. I'm so not
paying attention to this as we go into our last pack,
but guys, don't worry. Just because I rant about Standard
and that I don't like the year of is it
and I don't like three year Standard and I don't
like twenty one sets in Standard doesn't mean I am
not gonna play Magic. Doesn't mean I'm not gonna content.
(22:56):
I have my preferences, that's fair. I also like get
a little salt, just kind of the nature and my brewing.
I will say I definitely went through a period in
the last few weeks where I was exhausted of building decks.
I didn't want to build decks anyway, and that was
really frustrating because deck building has always been something I've
(23:17):
fallen back on and it's something that's very much a
part of the content. So I got burnt out, I
would say, specifically on deck building. This was shortly after
the bands in Standard and the band so around November tenth,
also the bands in Bral, and I just haven't it's weird.
I just haven't pulled together the energy to go back
(23:39):
and update my Bral decks. So I haven't played Brawl,
not one game since the bands, and I do want to.
I love Brawl, but I haven't had the energy to
like build the decks, and I think some of the
deck builds in general for the videos on the channel
haven't been as inspired as my work in the past,
so I need to get back to that. It's good
to have a public enemy number one, Like, is it
(24:00):
to fight something that you want to defeat that other
people are struggling to defeat. That really is a good
driver for me. So I think I'm getting through it
because the last couple of nights I was definitely like
the wheels were turning again where I'm like, Okay, I
should combine this in this, but then I need an
answer for this, and I need and this card could
fit in the deck, you know, things like that. Right,
(24:22):
So it's coming back, and I've built a few more
Commander decks. I haven't played many Commander Worse Possibles in
a while, but I just a spark for that is
igniting again. So I'm I'm still here and some things
might flux, but I'll be back. I'm still enjoying this
(24:43):
a lot. I enjoy the ride. I gotten to do
so much cool stuff. The next box Eye open, I'm
going to talk about all the absolute nonsense I did
this year. At the time I'm recording this. I just
found out another episode I was in has just got
released on Proft's channel where I got to play against
and joshle Quiet and Foxy. What what a sweet pod? Right?
(25:08):
Oh my god. So that's a game I'll never forget.
Go watch it if you're looking for some more of me,
and let me know if you enjoyed this little video.
Thank you for watching. Check out the sponsors. I got
my jumpstart boosters from cool stuff ink dot com. Use
promo code CGB five to get yourself a discount and
you'll get a sweet covid Go blue token. And I've
(25:30):
got my dragon shield sleeves over here to sleeve up
my cabbage merchant to protect it. Link in the description
promo code CGB five at that site as well support
the channel. Thank you guys. Cool
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.