At the 2004 Origins $10K, Carl Perlas was the runner-up. It was the first event ever covered by Metagame.com. Carl won $1,500 with a deck that ran three copies of The New Brotherhood alongside Lost City, Avalon Space Station, and Genosha. His deck also packed Not So Fast. At the time, conventional deckbuilding wisdom insisted that those choices were dead wrong. It was said that Brotherhood needed to be either “big” or “little.” Carl’s deck won its way to the finals by hanging out somewhere in between. Not So Fast has always been considered a suboptimal card by most professional teams, but it stopped opponents dead in their Overloaded tracks that day. Carl Perlas proved early in the history of our game that prevailing tech opinions can easily be transcended by the hands of a skilled player with a personal strategy that he or she believes in.
Carl has always called this “playing through.” When he was my teammate on Team Realmworx, he used to catch all kinds of flack for it. But the criticism never fazes Carl; he simply continues to play through it. No matter how much playtesting data piles up in opposition to his individual strategy preferences, Carl Perlas always stays true to his school and adjusts his pets until he finds a way to win with them.
Carl Perlas
“Playing Through”
2004 Origins $10K, Second Place
Characters
2 Blob, Fred Dukes
3 Quicksilver, Speed Demon
3 Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff
4 Pyro, St. John Allerdyce
4 Sabretooth, Feral Rage
3 Toad, Mortimer Toynbee
4 Mystique, Raven Darkholme
2 Mystique, Shape-Changing Assassin
4 Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr
Plot Twists
3 The New Brotherhood
4 Savage Beatdown
3 Not So Fast
3 Flying Kick
3 Ka-Boom!
3 Acrobatic Dodge
Locations
4 Avalon Space Station
4 Lost City
4 Genosha
I will not pretend to be a Brotherhood expert, but after all this time, that deck still seems good to me. For Golden Age, with so many new versions of each character and some seriously powerful fresh abilities, Medium Brotherhood will always be a threat. And it will always be at the center of Carl Perlas’s heart when he sits down to play his way through a Vs. System match. Carl is so completely committed to the strategy that he built a deck with the same flavor for Pro Circuit Atlanta and Marvel Modern Age!
Carl Perlas
“Braces of Evil”
Characters
4 Beetle, Armorsmith
1 Chrome
1 Crimson Commando
1 Dallas Riordan, Mayoral Aide
1 Destiny, Freedom Force
1 Destiny, Future Sight
1 Gargantua
1 Joystick
1 Mastermind, Dark Dreamer
1 Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace
1 Melter
1 Nathan Garrett ◊ Black Knight
1 Paul Ebersol ◊ Fixer
1 Pyro, Freedom Force
1 Radioactive Man
1 Shocker
1 Stonewall
1 Toad, Hopalong
4 Toxin
2 Viper
4 Yellowjacket
Plot Twists
4 Faces of Evil
4 Flying Kick
4 Hard Sound Construct
4 Mob Mentality
1 No Fear
4 Planet X
4 The Wrecking Crew
Locations
1 Brotherhood Hideout
3 Hammer Bay
Since there was no Lost City available in the environment to make things Medium, Carl’s Modern masterpiece is much more akin to the original builds of Little Brotherhood. Stonewall, The Wrecking Crew, Hammer Bay, and Faces of Evil all recreate the experience of partying with The New Brotherhood pumping away from the resource row. Giving ATK bonuses to multiple characters is a very powerful tactic in any format, and if the potential exists, Carl Perlas will exploit it. The more things change, the more he stays the same. He did not repeat his money finish from two years ago, but he still played the game the same way he always has.
There was a bit of a changing of the guard last weekend. Pro Circuit Atlanta presented Vs. System with a shiny new PC Top 8 and the youngest Day 3 we have ever seen. Vidi Wijaya was the only repeat performer at the biggest day of the tournament, and he was crowned Champion when the dust settled. He is only twenty-two years old, yet he was the fifth oldest player in the Top 8! Patrick Richardson had not yet turned eighteen when he stood tall in the feature match area for the big money round, and he was not the only teenager wrecking shop and collecting cash in the Peach State. The Youth Movement has arrived.
In Vs. System, age is only a number. Pro Circuit Atlanta settled it. When my Multiple Man / Avengers team attack deck did not carry me to Day 2, I decided to cheer for all my friends in the Draft portion of the tournament, with a focus on the players who were at least half my age. It turned into one of the most thrilling sporting events I have ever witnessed.
Vidi had exactly 50% of my lifespan on his driver’s license when he became our latest PC Champion, and he plays the game with the joy of youth. It is always a pleasure to watch while he dominates Vs. System at the highest level. He was, however, not much of a long shot in the tournament, and I like to cheer most for the least expected.
Patrick Richardson shocked the world at age seventeen. He practices with a small group of friends in St. Louis, and he fearlessly vanquished players with much more celebrity and experience on his way to the Top 8. He injected an exciting breath of fresh air into Day 2 by defeating former PC Champion Ryan Jones in their round 19 elimination match. Patrick displayed an ageless composure and an eternal confidence for three days straight, and he was rewarded with a crystal trophy when it was over.
Kyle Dembinski has become a force to be reckoned with on the Pro Circuit, and Atlanta was further proof of this status. He followed another in a long string of Pro Circuit money finishes with the runner-up check at the Austin $10K a week later. Three years ago, Kyle was crowned the Heroclix World Champion at age fifteen. He is still a winner at eighteen, and one of the rising stars of Vs. System.
Steven Altmark is another of the Pro Circuit teenage wonder-kids who made my weekend in Georgia so much fun. He is too young for a driver’s license but old enough to own an Extended Art Savage Beatdown. Steven’s skill continues to improve, and his confidence has never been shaky. There is a sense of resolve in him that I wish I could capture. He never gives up on any game and he is always ready to capitalize on opponents’ mistakes. Pro Circuit Atlanta made him a PC money winner when he battled his way through the Draft day to finish well above some big Pro Circuit names who were twice his age and had ten times more experience.
Nicholas Van Gundy finished just out of the money, but he was firmly planted in many hearts in the Pro Circuit hall. He playtests with Richard Vaughan and Chase Keaten in Colorado, and his mother, Theresa, is the closest thing to a human teddy bear that I have ever had the pleasure of hugging. Nicholas hung in there with everything his fifteen years had to offer, beating PC and $10K Champion Adam Bernstein in the process.
The final fantastic freshman story of the day is my favorite. Graham Van Leeuwen played such a solid, heartfelt Pro Circuit tournament that he almost made me forget about Stu Barnes. His name on the forums is “spid3rm4n.” He is a member of the biggest underdog team in the world, Team Online. He won a PCQ in North Carolina and he is a consistent threat in the VsRealms online tournaments, but no one expected Graham to do what he did in Atlanta. No one could.
Graham Van Leeuwen is only thirteen years old, but he has the heart of a giant redwood. He came to PC Atlanta with a reservist deck that he was confident would take him to Day 2. It did. He finished the Constructed portion at 7-3. The next day, Graham started drafting at the lower-middle tables. He got hot. After a 2-1 record in his first draft with a JLA deck, he followed the same strategy to the bank for an astounding 3-0 finish in draft pod two. This put him in 13th place going into the third pod. He was only thirteen years old, but he found his way to table two and sat down among the top pros.
Nick Little defeated Graham in the first match of the pod, but our underage hero was not fazed in the slightest. The feature match announcer blared out the pairings for the big show in round 18 with Day 3 still hanging in the balance. Graham was under the lights for the biggest match of his young life. The pressure got even worse.
Alex Tennet wanted to solicit Graham for a concession. This practice occurs occasionally among a few Pro Circuit players because it can ensure their continued appearance at the upper levels of the standings. Still, it is a very dicey and unsettling tactic that must be handled with extreme caution due to this rule from the UDE Tournament Policy:
21. Game Concession
Players may concede a game or match at any time, provided that the concession does not involve compensation in exchange for the concession. Players may not offer their opponents any type of compensation or bribe in exchange for a concession.
When the subject was discussed at the feature match table, the Pro Circuit community quickly discovered the strength of this thirteen-year-old’s character—and a Vs. System legend was born. Along with assorted fans, friends, and fellow players, we found out that deep, unshakable integrity sometimes lives in very young hearts. Graham Van Leeuwen scoops to no one.
The match was a heartbreaker, and it was followed by a bad beating at the hands of All Too Easy. Graham Van Leeuwen was still rewarded with 50th place and more respect than money could ever buy. He stood up to his mistakes and vowed to improve his game. He taught us all a timeless lesson in maturity, no matter how old he is.
The kids are all right.
Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes and he is having a second childhood in this game. If you can come over and play sometime, call his mom and ask at rianfike@hattch.com.