A native of Bochun, Hans Joachim Hoeh has attracted more attention than virtually any other European player as of late. The reason? Well, for those of you who’ve somehow managed to miss it, Hoeh has distinguished himself by joining the ranks of Rob Leander and winning two $10K events back to back—$10K Bologna and $10K Hannover. With a reputation for aggressive play that almost exceeds the boundaries of common sense, Hoeh has dominated against much of his competition and totally disproved a lot of North American conceptions about European players.

I caught up with Hoeh at the beginning of the day and watched his round 1 match against William Logan. Playing a Hounds Lock deck running Syndicate and Sentinel Mark V, Hoeh hit Hounds of Ahab on turn 2 against an open board. Next turn pitted Rhino with a Jetpack and Doc Ock’s Lab against Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. After losing his webslinger, Logan called it quits on turn 4. Ouch.

Hoeh’s deck is impressive. “I tested with a team, we all sort of live together. We were supposed to meet the entire last week for testing, but we didn’t end up with much. The last additions were made to this deck last evening. We actually came up with the Hounds-based idea three days ago.”

Hoeh’s short amount of testing time was made up for with defined and disciplined systems. “Every four hours of playtesting usually results in new tech. I see what is sucking and what I really want in each matchup, and I add new cards strictly on a four-hour basis. So if we would have had another week or so, I think the deck would have been unbeatable!” He laughed a bit. “But we just didn’t.”

He had a lot to say about Hounds of Ahab. “I think the Hounds are just stupid. They destroy the game when they hit the table. I liked the Sentinel mirror because it was very skill based, but if you get into a lock now, you’re not playing.  If you’re in the Hounds lock, you have no play.”

The deck is almost random in appearance, so I was interested in understanding its progression. It was a story that Hoeh was eager to tell. “We started building and testing Marvel Knights Beatdown because they have every form of beatdown power in the format. Three team-stamped ATK modifiers are impressive, so we started looking at how good it is to just go through with the beatdown plan. Then we started looking at the KO plan, especially in the mirror and stuff. As I said on the KO’ing approach, I decided I wanted the Hounds in Marvel Knights. Then after that, we came up with the idea that if a 1-drop could attack up on the 3-drop, then you could even start the lock there without a 3-drop. So we went with Syndicate because they have the best 1-drops.”

There were some issues with transport for the weekend. “It was pretty chaotic, because we normally have two cars for eight people, but both were unusable (like they were being destroyed), and therefore we had like, twenty hours of calling people and trying by the Internet and email. Like, calling parents and brothers and stuff to get a car. It was nearly impossible, but somehow we got here!”

“Wait, what do you mean they were being destroyed?” I asked.  

“They were useable, but one was turning off during driving, and the steering wheel would lock, so we, uhh . . . we didn’t want to use that car. The other one was making a noise that was, umm . . . sounding very unhealthy and very annoying. Like ‘REEEEEE!’ when we were driving.” Hoeh’s ear-piercingly impeccable imitation of what may have been a marmoset caught in a blender accurately communicated the state of the vehicle to everyone in the western half of the tournament hall. My ears are still ringing.

Knuckling down, I had to ask some of the difficult questions, like what he thought of the American players who felt that he only won his back-to-back events because he was in an easier field and didn’t play on the same level. He took the question in perfect stride—it was obviously something he’d given a bit of thought to.

“We will see. I will probably prove them wrong! I don’t know.” He smiled. I asked him what he thought of European play in general. “I think we are behind just because of the time. The Europeans are behind because the game was released longer in the U.S. and it took longer for the people here to get on [the bandwagon]. The people are behind on the learning curve. But, uh, it’s not a problem of potential per se.”

Hoeh touched on one of the least-understood problems that European players face. While the issues of distribution are widely known, many international competitors don’t understand that comic stores in many European countries are few and far between. Comics just aren’t as popular over here as they are in Australia, the U.S., and Canada, so many stores that open go belly up over a period of two or three months. The result is a society where a comics-license game has to be sold more on its merits of playability and without so much of a benefit from a driving brand identity.

With today’s event offering up a smorgasbord of top players and deckbuilding minds, I wondered if Hoeh had any particular personalities in mind that he’d like to go up against. “I don’t really care [who I play]. I’m not hoping to play the good Americans to disprove them, or anything. It will probably happen anyways, but you know.” He cracked a slightly crooked grin that might well become his trademark as his professional career carries on. “It’s stressing to go up against them. If I lose, they will all say, ‘Oh yes, we can beat the Europeans!’ But I don’t really care who I go up against.”

His deck was a bit oddly constructed. While it was well constructed, it was hard to read, so I had some questions about it. “X-Statix is probably the worst matchup just due to Star of the Show. Normal decks I can lock—if you’re locked, you’re not playing. Hounds of Ahab is so good, it’s almost like cheating.”

Gary Wise popped his head in to ask about what Hoeh thought of American confidence. “Confidence is good, but, um, I don’t think they should be looking down on the Europeans.”

There seems to be a general concern about the state of European players on Day 2. The draft portion of the event is typically regarded as the most difficult, and European players face a lot of obstacles in getting Sealed Pack experience. Hoeh admitted that this was an issue, saying he got “not nearly as much [experience] as I would have liked. It’s pretty hard to get eight people together, because you need eight people that are qualified and have the right spirit. There’s no use in practicing if you have someone sitting at the table who doesn’t know what to pick. You think, “Yeah, I got a good deck,” but it means nothing if you got it because people don’t know what they’re doing. It’s hard to draft when everyone has work. We did some, but, I think there are enough American pros who don’t have jobs or anything to do, so they meet and draft, draft, draft, draft, draft. They will have more practice. I’ve always been stronger in Constructed, anyways.”

I asked him what he thought of the X-Statix domination in yesterday’s drafts. “If people aren’t drafting it, it’s pretty good. I have preferences, but I normally look at what’s coming. I think MK and X-Statix are the better teams if you get it and if people don’t draft against you too hard.”

Finishing up, I asked him what he thought was so good about Hounds of Ahab. I had my own ideas, but I wasn’t the pro player out of the two of us. “There are multiple reasons. Being hidden and staying around all the time makes them so hard to deal with. A guy with a War Wagon you can just attack, and then he’s gone. That’s easier to handle. It punishes bad draws.”

Six more such punishments, and Hoeh would progress to Day 2. Hans Joachim Hoeh has distinguished himself as one of the best European players in this game, but with the doubts being slung his way, he has a lot to prove here at PC Amsterdam. If he can give an impressive showing, he’ll finally lay all the naysayers to rest.