We have a special episode for our listeners! Kyle Sabelhaus, Ciaran Farah, and Mo Ideis joined Rafal to help diagnose the issues with the Pokemon TCG's tournament structure, how it could be improved, and why we all want the best for the game we love.
Today’s guest is JW Kriewall. While many of you may know him as a member of the Pokemon Trading Card Game's premier podcasting trio, JW is also a three-time Regional Champion, having taken the gold at Fort Wayne 2013, Richmond 2019, and most recently Toronto 2023, where he achieved an automatic worlds invite with Miraidon. JW is also a Youtuber, Twitch streamer, and a prominent figure in the Pokemon TCG community on Twitter. JW's Twitter - https://x.com/RealJohnWalter Tag Team Podcast - https://x.com/tagteampokemon
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Today’s guest is Cyrus Davis. Cyrus is an incredibly talented player, who is perhaps best known for winning NAIC 2023 with Urshifu Inteleon. They also have several other incredible achievements, including a Regional top 16 and top 4, as well as a 9th place finish at the 2023 World Championships. Cyrus is also known for playing several unorthodox deck archetypes to great success, and has also written several high quality guides and articles for the Shuffle Squad, Metafy, and Schemanske’s Corner. Cyrus' Twitter - https://twitter.com/CyrusDavisTCG ----------------- Follow the Podcast!
Today’s guest is Rahul Reddy. Rahul is a player and content creator who has been playing the Pokemon TCG for over 10 years. Rahul has several incredible achievements as a player, including multiple International top cuts, almost a dozen Regional top cuts, and many strong finishes at Worlds, including a top 16 finish in 2018 and top 32 in 2019. Rahul has had success with multiple deck archetypes, perhaps most famously with Bee Revenge Vespiquen in both the Standard and Expanded formats, as well as innovating the Regis deck during Lugia Vstar’s dominance. Rahul's Twitter - https://twitter.com/thefleeee ----------------- Follow the Podcast!
Today’s guest is Kyle Sabelhaus. Kyle is a veteran player who has seen success in the Pokemon TCG for two decades. Today he is best known as one of the incredibly talented members of the Pokemon TCG commentary team. Over the years Kyle has had great success across all levels of the Pokemon TCG, winning regionals, placing high at Nationals, and finishing as high as Top 16 at the World Championship. In between stints on the commentary desk, Kyle has continued to attend events to this day, making it to day 2 at several regionals in the past few years. Kyle's Twitter - https://twitter.com/KSabelhaus ----------------- Follow the Podcast!
Today’s guest is Toine Lay. While Toine may be best known in the Pokemon TCG community as the first Twitter that players go to check for translations of cards coming out in Japan, they are also a very talented player with incredible achievements. Toine splits their time between France and Japan, and placed top 4 in two Champions Leagues, as well as top 16 in the 2021 Japan National Championship. They have also achieved top 32 and 64 finishes at major events in Europe over the past year.
Toine's Twitter - https://twitter.com/ToineLay ----------------- Follow the Podcast!
Today’s guest is Aneil Saini. Aneil has played the game on and off for over a decade, returning in the past few years without missing a step. Placing top 16 at two regionals with Mew Vmax as well as top 16 at LAIC 2023 with an innovating Turbo Miraidon list, Aneil has shown that he is among the best players from the competitive Toronto area. Aneil is also one of the hosts of the Shift Gear Podcast. Aneil's Twitter - https://twitter.com/TCG_Aneil Shift Gear Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@ShiftGearPodcast ----------------- Follow the Podcast!
Today’s guest is Kevin Clemente, also known in the Pokemon community as Mellow_Magikarp. Kevin is an incredibly talented player, achieving a Worlds invite in 2019 - just his first season playing competitively - as well as 2022. He has had multiple strong finishes at major events, including 2 Regional top 16s. He is also the host of the Lake of Rage podcast, where he’s interviewed Regional, International, and World champions as well as content creators and other important individuals in the Pokemon TCG community. His Youtube channel is a valuable online resource, providing players with decklists, meta predictions, and lessons on how to improve as a player. In this episode we discuss his rapid growth as a player, how he feels about achieving a Worlds invite this season, the development of his online content, and more. ----------------- Kevins's Twitter - https://twitter.com/Mellow_Magikarp Youtube and Lake of Rage - https://www.youtube.com/@MellowMagikarp Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz
Today’s guest is Steffen Eriksen. Steffen is a player from Denmark with almost 2 decades of Pokemon TCG experience, and he will be joining us for the next two episodes. He has multiple Regionals finishes, Nationals finishes, and has 11 Worlds invites. He is also the host of the Youtube channel Steffen's Classroom, where he makes videos diving into the statistics and math behind the Pokemon TCG. Steffen is also an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and will also be judging at Worlds in Japan this year. In this episode we focus on Pokemath, the odds of starting the Basics you want, do some fancy calculations, and more! ----------------- Pokemath Videos Referenced Pokemath Episode 1 Pokemath Episode 2 Pokemath Episode 5 Pokemath Episode 57
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Steffen's Twitter - https://twitter.com/steff5001 Steffen's Classroom Youtube - www.youtube.com/@SteffensClassroom Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz
Today’s guest is Steffen Eriksen. Steffen is a player from Denmark with almost 2 decades of Pokemon TCG experience, and he will be joining us for the next two episodes. He has multiple Regionals finishes, Nationals finishes, and has 11 Worlds invites. He is also the host of the Youtube channel Steffen's Classroom, where he makes videos diving into the statistics and math behind the Pokemon TCG. Steffen is also an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and will also be judging at Worlds in Japan this year. In this episode we go over his history as a player and how involved his family has been to his passion for the TCG, what it's like to transition from playing to judging, and begin our discussion about Pokemath, which will be the focus of part 2. -----------------
Steffen's Twitter - https://twitter.com/steff5001 Steffen's Classroom Youtube - www.youtube.com/@SteffensClassroom Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz
Mateusz Laszkiewicz is a player from Poland who recently won the Stuttgart Regional Championship with an incredible innovative Palkia/Vikavolt deck. He has also had strong finishes throughout the past year, getting 9th place in Bremen and Top 4 at the Turin SPE. In this episode we discuss how Mateusz went from a player who mostly played Expanded online to one of Europe's top players. We talk about how he put together the creative list that took down a Regional, how he got into the game, and how he has grown as a player through the help of his friends. -----------------
Mateusz's Twitter - https://twitter.com/Jezyk46
Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast
Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz
Alessandro Cremascoli is a player from Italy who has has success in the Pokemon TCG for over 20 years. He is a multiple-time Regional Champion, Italian National Champion, and World's competitor. He has also started making Pokemon TCG content on Youtube for the Italian community. In this episode we go over his storied history as a player, from learning the game as a small child to taking his son to an SPE this year. We also talk about the importance of the Pokemon community and why the connections you make in the game can last a lifetime. ----------------- Alessandro's Twitter - https://twitter.com/iCaterpie
iCaterpie Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@iCaterpie
iCaterpie Twitch Channel - https://www.twitch.tv/icaterpie
Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast
Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz
Today’s guest is Mo Ideis. Mo is a player from the Chicagoland area who is a member of the Nerd Rage Gaming Pokemon TCG team and is well on his way to his first Worlds invite. Mo achieved his first big finish at Salt Lake City last year, finishing top 16 in the first Regional since the pandemic. Since then, Mo has finished top 64 at Peoria and Ft Wayne, and Top 128 at EUIC last month. This episode we discuss Mo's journey as a player, the importance of choosing a good deck, and rave about our favorite members of our local scene. ----------------- The Nerd Rage Gaming Pokemon Team - https://twitter.com/NRGTCG Find Mo on Facebook by searching for Mo Ideis! Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz
Harrison is a worlds invitee who has recently become known as an expert on deck involving Arceus Vstar. Harrison has half a dozen day 2 finishes, playing both meta and innovative deck archetypes. He has recently gotten into the streaming game, and credits Pokemon for being one of the most important factors for why he overcame great obstacles in his life, which is a subject we will discuss in our episode. ----------------- Harrison's Twitter - https://twitter.com/burchharrison Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz Harrison's Twitch Channel - https://www.twitch.tv/harryburchTCG
Today’s guest is Zander Bennett. Zander recently got top 4 at Ft Wayne Regionals and is on the cusp of locking up his Worlds invite for the year. Zander has over half a decade of success in the Pokemon TCG, making day 2 at multiple Regionals, including top 4 at Phoenix Regionals in 2015. He is also an expert in the Cube format, a fun and alternative way of playing the Pokemon TCG that has been growing in popularity in recent years. In this episode Zander shares how to play some of the innovative decks he's had success with, goes over how to play and build Mew for the Scarlet/Violet format, and explains his love for cubing.
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Zander's Twitter - https://twitter.com/ZanderBennett
Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast
Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz
Kobe Koga - https://cubekoga.net/
Legend Box FB Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/486828845390847
JWittz Cube Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l9-FJZj3V0
Today’s guest is Christian Fontenot. Christian is a self-described Regi expert, a deck whose loss we will be mourning during our talk today. After getting top 64 at Indianapolis with Rapid Strike Malamar, Christian picked up Regis and never looked back. He’s made 6 day 2s with the deck, including a top 8 placement at Arlington Regionals. Outside of his Regis knowledge, Christian brings a unique perspective to the Pokemon TCG. He has lived in both the United States and Europe, and has achieved invites to Worlds as a representative of Denmark and the US. We will discuss the similarities and differences between the EU and NA metagames, as well as touch on the Scarlet/Violet meta and our expectations for EUIC.
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Christian's Twitter - https://twitter.com/SticksPTCG
Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast
Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz
Today’s guest is Drew Allen. Drew is a player, streamer, Youtuber, and overall expert on the history of the Pokemon TCG. He is the host of the Snowpoint Cast, a Youtube channel dedicated to showcasing old formats and decks, and one of the hosts of the Drew Too Many Podcast. Drew is also an incredibly talented player in his own right, having made top 32 and top 16 at multiple regionals through the years and receiving multiple Worlds invites. In this episode Drew and I spend time traversing the past and future of the Pokemon TCG, going over the highlights and lowlights of past formats as well as predicting what the game will look like multiple sets in the future and how deckbuilding will need to adjust.
Snowpoint Cast - https://www.youtube.com/@Snowpointcast
Drew Too Many Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/5R7hX7SVvSInxcaGpTv9L5
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Drew's Twitter - https://twitter.com/Drewgong__Allen
Memory Capsule Twitter - https://twitter.com/MemCapPodcast
Host's Twitter - https://twitter.com/RZGladysz