Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated, “People only see what they are prepared to see.” Lex Luthor paraphrased Winston Churchill in a recent episode of Smallville, saying, “Out of great complexity, great simplicities may be derived.”* Both of these quotes form the foundations for today’s lesson. We are going to take a great deal of complexity and try to extract simple truths and guidelines. In the end, you will be prepared to look at the construction of your character curve in a way that most players never do.

This game is difficult: Over time, strategies that were once dominant become extinct and the consistent changes brought about by new cards, ever-expanding mechanics, developing Vs. System play skill, and theory force the average player into a constant state of limbo. The only way for a team or individual to break away from the struggling masses is to identify a set of survival skills and pair them with a set of basic “golden rules” that rarely fail.

Adaptive Skills: Surviving Change

Looking back to this game’s origins, we find deck types that once ruled the Earth. But like the dinosaurs, some of them have become extinct. Every once in a great while, a player might discover one of these prehistoric monoliths navigating the streams of a more modern metagame. Big Brotherhood stands out as an example of a deck that has not really changed much. It is, for the most part, extinct, but occasionally surfaces among competitive $10K decklists. Tried and true classics like Curve Sentinels, New Brotherhood, Common Enemy, and others involving the Fantastic Four characters still make a showing. However, if you’ve been in this game long, you start to notice the dust collecting on the hatches of older Rook boxes housing concoctions of Gotham Knights, Spider-Friends, and Marvel Knights.

Once-powerful long curves have been supplanted by flexible, shorter curves packing Chuck Norris-esque roundhouse kicks. Many players bailed on Origins-based decks in order to throw away their hands, lose enough endurance to hover at 25, and throw down four or five equipment cards in search of lucrative power-ups.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote that you may never step in the same river twice. He introduced the concept of Panta Rhei, basically describing change as a constant. To remain competitive, you must develop adaptive skills that allow you to survive the shifts that occur in this game. The Vs. designers often lead players to develop strategies geared around hand advantage, combat, and careful endurance maintenance, only to challenge them in later sets by bending the rules of the game in very contrary directions. Squadron Supreme and Shadowpact are key examples of decks that offer players outstanding rewards for violating this TCG’s most accepted practices.

X-Statix was one of the first deck types that attempted to break away from previously effective gaming strategies. Board advantage had been a huge part of a deck’s success (and arguably still is), but the designers attempted to offer players the chance to sacrifice a fundamentally strong aspect of play for beneficial bonuses. In the beginning, breaking the rules was not as effective as following the rules, but as time marched, the game has presented opportunities to shun conventional wisdom in order to reach vast power. The recent success of these rule-violating decks will likely establish a trend. What we hold as gaming “truths” will be questioned and forced to change. What is effective and what works at the time of this article is likely to be ineffective at a later date. The only way a player will remain competitive will be via the development of adaptive skills.

Innovation

Adaptive skills include the ability to playtest and generate decklists that are both competitive and original. Many people would nominate prominent deckbuilders like Jason Hager or Dean Sohnle as “most likely to succeed” in the category of adaptive skills development. This type of player demonstrates an ability to stay ahead of the metagame and ever-shifting play demands by building and playing decks that fall outside the box or work against popular metagame choices for a given tournament. If you ever want to know the best selections or dark horse decks bound for greatness, check out the lists from these players. Innovation is one of the most effective adaptive skills a player can hope to foster.

Work Ethic

Most talented players become great players through practice. If you talk to the perennial Top 8 performers, the guys cashing the big checks, and those players that grab feature matches in every tournament, you will find that they often share similar work habits. Those players select the best decks, they follow the best information, and they know the opponents and decks that they are likely to face. Preparedness is of paramount importance. Sure, every once in a while someone will luck into a trophy or money finish, but most of the time, coverage reporters at the PC are bearing witness to a final product. Only the order of the cards and the roll of the dice are random; for most players, the moves made are somewhat scripted and were decided before the flight and hotel stays were even booked.

Resilience

A player’s ability to bounce back after bad beats and horrible draws will dictate the likelihood of success over time. I’ve seen all sorts of players post impressive runs, only to crumble after a particularly biting loss. Those players were never able to regain their footing after one or two horrible games, and threw away their whole day as a result. In turn, I have watched champions climb out of 6-4 pits to emerge at the Day 3 tables. The defining characteristic seems to be a combination of play skill, luck, and concentration, but moreover, a player’s ability to leave the past in the past and to look toward the future. Everyone is going to suffer some Crushing Blows, but the best performers take their tournaments a game at a time.

Humility

The final adaptive skill that seems important for the professional Vs. player is a good old-fashioned taste of the humble pie. Some players are showboats, trash talkers, or feel like they are card-playing gods among common men. But take a look at the best players, and you begin to see a common thread. No matter how well you performed at your last PC, the opportunity to scrub out at the next one is just around the Pro Circuit corner. There used to be talk of a curse, but I have heard Mike Dalton say that this game has more luck then most people think.

He’s probably right. For all of your strong finishes, you are sure to have darker days. If you remain low key, respectful, and keep yourself open to new lessons, then you will have a better chance at generating the kind of consistent pro career that you desire. I don’t want to get into some sort of cheesy cliche, but this game has had some pretty strong performers who have grown silent over time, and there are some people at the top who will not stay there forever. In the end, it is best to remain a student of the game and keep your head down.

The Paradox

My favorite aspect of philosophical discovery and education is the ability to become the devil’s advocate. Challenge everything you know, and in the end, you will either arrive at new knowledge or secure the beliefs you already held. After reading the past three paragraphs, you might be thinking that change is a constant and the ideas spouted by that pre-Socratic Greek were wisdom for the ages. Enter the gamer’s paradox.

Change does seem inevitable, but at the same time, there are certain rules that survive time and playtesting. In Vs. System, there seem to be certain “golden rules” that guide the best players through top-level tournaments and lead to consistent money finishes.

The key to success in any endeavor is to establish a rule base that will guide a person through a given situation. We do this all of the time. We have laws that broadly dictate our actions while conducting the business of life, we have more subtle rules that guide our social interactions, and we have very specific rules that we follow while playing Vs. System. If you have not established your personal gaming constitution, then you should begin when you finish this article. It is important to understand the importance of factors like card and board advantage. The best players have a solid understanding of the best effects, how those effects meld into various strategies, and what type of tempo a deck should have.

The Golden Rule: Understand Tempo

One of my good buddies John Viola always asks himself if his deck is the aggressor in the match or if it wants to play for later turns. That is a good way to understand the most basic form of deck tempo. In DC Modern Age (beginning at PC: Indy III), there were several viable decks that all required different tempos. A defensive curve deck like Checkmate / Villains United may want to play for turn 7. That might mean taking some early damage, holding your plot twists until the kill turn, and making more conservative early game decisions. However, if the opponent was playing Good Guys (JLA / JLI), then CVU’s key turns would be somewhat earlier in the game.

Tim Batow and John Hall piloted the TAWC version of Good Guys to 9-1 and 8-2 Day 1 finishes by understanding the deck’s tempo. If your opponent was below 30 endurance on turn 4, then there was a very strong likelihood that you would finish your game on turn 5. The decisions players make based on the understanding of tempo dictate when to make a risky attack, when to blow your defensive plot twists, and when to under-drop or stay on curve. This knowledge can be gained through extensive playtesting, knowing and estimating a metagame for a given tournament, and a general understanding of the timing needs of various types of decks.

Golden Rule: Understand Hand Maintenance

Aside from tempo, other key factors for victory involve card and hand advantage, establishing and maintaining character and board advantage, and making the most effective attacks and formations to maintain endurance. While various decks have differing needs, hand advantage is a key concept in most trading card games. If you have played decks like Big Bat, then you understand how hand advantage may be directly linked to your win condition. However, our golden rule for card advantage may best be understood as hand maintenance.

With decks like Injustice Gang big-hand burn, Squadron, and even the range of off-curve to long-curve decks, a player must understand how the hand interacts with the deck’s goals. Off-curve decks tend to spend a lot of their resources early and run a risk of fading out as the game progresses. Card drawing and effective use of your resources is essential to avoid the combustion of the low-curve engine. In contrast, some decks desire very small hands or giant hands to reach a goal. The key is to understand the card-in-hand requirements for your individual deck. As with understanding tempo, understanding hand maintenance requirements takes practice. But certain deck types may be clustered together for understanding. Late game curve decks usually need to preserve their hands and tricks until late in the game, while shorter curves may only need to keep one or two cards in hand at a time. Each deck has different needs.

Golden Rule: Understand Board Presence

If you want to understand the importance of board advantage, then play in several hundred Sealed Pack matches. Some Constructed decks get away with hijinks because they are packing a ton of tasty tricks. But tricks are sparser in Sealed and Draft formats. The key to winning games often comes down to a critical turn in which a player is able to brickwall an attack, KO a key character, or make advantageous combat moves and gain a one or two character advantage over the opponent. Many players have been in this situation: Your opponent hits the beginning of his or her curve before you’re able to get characters on the board. The opponent hits his or her 1-drop and you whiff. He or she drops a 1- and 2- drop and you do not hit until 3. As the game progresses, you are forced into a constant state of catch-up while the opponent glides to an easy victory. Have you ever had an opponent KO your 5-drop? These instances speak volumes to the importance of board advantage. Some time ago, Adam Prosak wrote some articles on the benefits of team attacking in Vs. System. He provided a rationale for making safe team attacks to secure stuns up the curve rather than making a more risky attack with an ATK pump. If you have not had a chance to review that, it is perhaps some of the most important information provided on the concept of creating and maintaining board presence. In the end, board advantage seems to be the one rule that is difficult to break and is likely a key factor in the majority of match decisions.

Resolving the Paradox

I am sure that this article did not present an exhaustive list of adaptive skills and golden rules needed to dominate this game. Consider the source; I have not hoisted a trophy over my head or bought a new motorcycle with my winnings, but I have borne witness. To be sure, there are other skills and rules that are important, but this article may give you a chance to change as a player. It is a prompt to evaluate your practices, question what you think you know, and develop your own guidelines for success.

Your homework is to identify the adaptive skills that are keys for success. Which adaptive skills need the most work? Brainstorm on ways to improve. Begin your Vs. constitution and develop the laws that guide you to victory. Over time, it will need revision and you will add amendments, but in the end, you will be a stronger player and a better competitor.

*The original Winston Churchill quote: “Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge.”