Are you ready to get the inside scoop on a cavalcade of Vs. System Champions? I am pleased to present a new series called Rubbing Shoulders with Royalty right here on Metagame.com that seeks to satisfy your needs.
Our first guest is the one and only David Leader. I first met the winner of Pro Circuit Indianapolis 2005 back in the spring of 2004 at the very first $10K tournament in Philadelphia. I had the pleasure of talking Vs. System with him and the rest of the community during the months preceding that inaugural big-money event, and for some reason he simply could not refrain from calling the big beater in my deck “Bastillion.” All typos aside, the man helped me more than any other player this side of Andrew Yip in the early days, and I have never forgotten it.
David Leader has been called “Disney” on more than one occasion, and his friendly attitude—combined with an endless source of serious skill—makes it a very fitting moniker. He can win with goofy decks like X-Statix or mighty favorites like GLEE. No matter what he chooses for a weapon, he will be laughing and loving this game we call Vs. System at the highest level. Sit back and relax for a trip to the magic kingdom inside the mind of a champion.
Where do you live and what do you do for a living?
I am a computer consultant here in Atlanta, Georgia.
How did you get started playing cards in the first place? Do you have childhood memories of little pieces of cardboard?
I’m not quite young enough to remember trading card games in my childhood, but my dad did teach me how to play poker when I was seven. My collectible card-slinging started right before my freshman year of college, with the introduction of an exciting new game called Spellfire, which enabled you to reenact the experience of becoming your favorite characters from the Dungeons & Dragons world in a multiplayer free-for-all. That game was, to be honest, truly awful. But we were excited about it, and had an excellent time.
Eventually this led me to pick up other TCGs, most notably Jihad (now known as Vampire: The Eternal Struggle) and Magic: The Gathering. Actually, Magic kind of evolved from Jihad. We used to have huge eleven-player games, and in that game you didn’t really care what was going on unless it was the turn of the person to your left or right. So to pass the 40 minutes that might occur between turns, people would play pick-up games of Magic on the side.
What did you think of super heroes and villains before you began playing Vs. System?
I was always a huge cartoon fan, but never followed the comics of anyone but Batman. I always have and always will adore Batman; mostly because the villains he fights are so well-developed. I was also a big fan of WildC.A.T.s, and I am pleased to see their re-release. (Although I’m hoping they are more story-driven than they appeared to be in the first issue.)
Please give us a bird’s-eye view of what it takes to win a match of Vs. System.
Well, Constructed has never been my specialty, but I’ll try. From my perspective in Constructed, 75% of the battle is won by metagaming your selected deck properly. This is usually done by thinking through the popular decks, what their weaknesses are, what may be done to improve them, and how you can build something to optimize their strategies. The other 25% comes from being able to read your plays, knowing how to change your play style based on what is going on, and adjusting to new strategies as they develop.
In Sealed, half of the battle is won by knowing the pick orders of your evolving deck. It’s important in the ever-flowing draft to be able to adjust your deck based on what you’re seeing, while remaining aware of what signals you send to the rest of the table. Actually playing the deck once it’s built is where many people falter. Many players view their deck like Constructed; either they are a fast aggressive deck, or a slow-curving control deck. What they fail to realize is they have to be ready to switch roles. Take Kree vs. Skrulls in the current Draft environment for example. Both have a standard kill turn of 6. So what happens when your opponent wins the die roll? On rare occasions you can pull off the turn 5 win; but it is often suicidal to try. You need to slow down both decks, maximizing stuns and board advantage instead of continuing to rush. If you think of your deck as only having a single mode, you will never be able to pull off a successful Sealed game.
What are some things that make Vs. System different from other trading card games?
Vs. System has a complexity that nothing else can match. The depth of formation, character abilities, and plot twist interactions is beyond anything I’ve experienced in all my years of card gaming. This is what has always drawn me to Vs. System.
Care to share any bad beats, on either side of the table?
I’ve made countless mistakes, but my most recent fun story actually comes at the expense of the current Pro Circuit Champion Anthony Calabrese. At the most recent PC, we were paired in round 4 in Swiss, and on turn 4 he had out (among other characters) a Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose with Quadromobile and Gorilla City. He sent her into my Hawkman with Nth Metal, making my defender a 9 ATK / 9 DEF, then he powered up to get 9 ATK for Ivy. I responded by using Magical Lobotomy on Ivy. He responded by using Slaughter Swamp to get back the copy of Ivy and powering up again. Then just to be on the safe side, he sacrificed the Quadromobile to get another power-up for Poison Ivy just in case.
Naturally, losing the Quadromobile dropped Poison Ivy back down to 8 ATK, and he proceeded to stun his hapless 2-drop without a successful attack. The story does end favorably for him, though; despite that mistake he still pounded me into the ground.
What is your favorite travel memory from the first three years of Pro Circuit competition?
Amsterdam. Despite not doing well at that Pro Circuit, it was the one city where I actually went out and saw all the sites. Several of us took three or four extra days just to see the countryside; it was a good time. I’m really looking forward to touring Australia next year.
If you could be one of the super heroes or villains that we already have printed on a card, which one and why?
Hmmm, I’d obviously go with Batman. His methodical ways of solving crimes, coupled with his strong sense of justice, have always made him seem like the coolest super hero to me. Although there’s a lot I could do with one of those Green Lantern rings . . .
If you were given the chance to design your own card, what would it be like?
Harley Quinn, Leader of the Quintets
Arkham Inmates
Cost: 3
Leader: KO a character adjacent to Harley Quinn à Search your deck for an Arkham Inmates character card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Use this power only once per turn.
“Ya know, we don’t exactly have a good history of keeping our fifth members.”
5 ATK / 4 DEF
(This is from the Harley Quinn comic series, when she breaks up with Joker to form her own team. One of the hazards of joining the team is they always tended to sacrifice their fifth member, replacing them with the next person they could find!)
What would be the name of a new plot twist fashioned after your real life?
The Gamer’s Life
Cost: 3
Exhaust a member of FTN you control à Exhaust target character with cost less than that character’s cost. If you played this during your attack step, that character cannot ready during its controller’s next turn.
“Ah, the stress-free life.”
What existing plot twist would you like to be able to use on real people at work?
On occasion, Flying Kick comes to mind.
If you could create the perfect Draft set, what would it be like?
They already came pretty darn close with Infinite Crisis. That set really has a number of gems that people didn’t discover until much later: powerful effects that made both off-curve and on-curve decks equally viable, and many “thinking” cards that turned out to be the keys to the PC. To this day I imagine every pro player would still debate the best pick order for the set. I hope that future sets can meet (or exceed) the standard set by Infinite Crisis.
What is the key to your competitive success?
A willingness to listen, a great team, and a good knowledge of Draft. My team has been the backbone for providing me strong Constructed decks; without them, I would probably keep playing silly decks like I used at the first two Pro Circuits. Being willing to listen is important. It means adapting my play style and choices because those around me say they are right, and not being so arrogant as to believe that my way is the only way to do things. The Draft knowledge has come from a lot of practice and experience; I truly feel that my strong Day 2s have pulled me through when my Day 1s have faltered.
Remembering the time you won the whole thing, what was different in all the other tournaments that kept you from the Championship?
I think one of the biggest keys was the fact that we knew the metagame 100%, and had the perfect deck for defeating it. Using a GLEE build that was ready to adapt into a control deck (remember my early words?), we were able to make a version that was able to wreck both opposing GLEEs and Qward.
So in the other PCs, we’ve always said that we’re looking for the Helping Hand: that one gem that gives a huge advantage in mirror matches to give you the leg up on the competition.
Any final words for your adoring fans?
Adoring fans? Ummm . . . oh yeah, “Thanks for your support, Mom.”
Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes, and he wants to interview all the top players like this. If you have a Pro Circuit favorite who you would like to examine from the inside out, send them an email and ask them to answer the questions. Then tell them to send their responses to: rianfike@hattch.com.