The man cooked an outstanding plate of shrimp. He was a solid competitor and an even better person. Ariel Lightbourne was a positive influence on everyone he played. He was funny, friendly, and great to be around. Ariel was there for every one of our local Pro Circuit preparation Draft parties and he will be sorely missed. He went out as a winner, finishing first in his final PCQ and defeating defending champion Anthony Calabrese in his next-to-last match at Pro Circuit Los Angeles 2006.

We were blessed by Ariel’s company and he will draft with us in spirit whenever the Miami group gets together for practice. I always smile when I play against Shadowpact, reminiscing about Ariel’s uncanny knack for building Constructed-quality Draft decks with them. We shared eight full Infinite Crisis Drafts while practicing for Pro Circuit Indianapolis 2006 and he snagged a Conjuration almost every time. His third turn Dr. Occults were nasty fun to battle through, and his serious skills made us all better players.

With Ariel’s memory in our minds and a fresh set of cards to draft, we headed north for $10K Orlando. I had gotten permission to leave as soon as my students were dismissed, so Nina and I were whizzing up the turnpike when we encountered even more bad news; we drove over a nail. There is a DC Comics Elseworlds story in which the Kents get a flat tire on their farm truck and miss their chance to adopt Superman, so I was a bit worried. Our Mini Cooper drives on an odd size and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get off the emergency spare until Saturday afternoon. What. A. Blowout.

I can’t drive fifty-five, but this time I was forced to. Four hours later, we arrived visibly shaken from the experience. Michael Palmer was waiting, having driven down from North Carolina with confidence in his ability to make Day 2 and finance his trip. We strategized into the night, laughing about his successful use of the combination of Computo ◊ Mr. Venge with the Fatal Five characters for some extra burn on his way to winning his local Sneak Preview tournament.

The next morning, I headed out to go tire shopping and Mike hit the $10K. As I had feared, the tire was not in stock. The job wouldn’t be done until noon and the tournament started at 10:00 AM. I left the rim at the shop and headed to the hall anyway. Even though I wouldn’t be able to play, I got to chill with all my friends before they cracked their packs for the first-ever Legion of Super Heroes Premier event. That’s when the good news started.

Four handfuls of top pros had made the trip. The room was filled with a massive collection of Vs. System talent, including our latest Pro Circuit champion. Adam Prosak had raided Niles Rowland’s binder and brought along my prize. He whipped out a Gallery Pack copy of Mephisto, Soulstealer and unsheathed the Sharpie. My collection’s latest treasure was signed “Nice prediction! - Adam Prosak.” I will cherish it forever.

 

While registration was being completed, we were treated to an amazing sight. Four members of The Donkey Club and four other random pros spent their wait time by drafting Marvel Origins from packs with French and Italian text! The circus atmosphere cut some of the nervous tension in the room and everyone got a good laugh before entering battle. When the seating was announced, it was time for me to go.

With a heavy heart, I left the venue to pick up my repairs. The good news got better. As soon as my Mini was mended, my daughter called with an invitation to attend the night launch of Space Shuttle Discovery. Her husband is an aerospace engineer who is part of the team that assembles, recovers, disassembles, and re-assembles the solid fuel boosters that lift the magnificent mechanical bird out of the atmosphere. We had backstage passes for the most fantastic fireworks on Earth, along with an after-party packing twelve million pounds of thrust. It was a blast.

I discovered more good news the next morning by checking Metagame.com for the $10K Orlando coverage. Michael Palmer had justified his confidence and made the Top 24, along with the money to pay for his vacation. Luke Evich—one of our local players who’s kept plugging along through thick and thin—shocked the world and did the same. Cameron Robinson was fresh off a PCQ victory in Jacksonville and proved once and for all that he has the skills to compete at the highest level. The game’s biggest Gator fan fell just one win short of the Top 8. Maybe he was deflecting the last stroke of luck onto the University of Florida’s quest for dual championships in basketball and football this year.

The Legion of Super Heroes set held up fantastically in its maiden $10K voyage. When all was said and done, Craig Edwards drafted his way to the crown by building a Future Foes / Teen Titans deck that was slightly similar to the Sealed Pack concoction that had taken me to an undefeated record the weekend before at the South Florida Sneak Preview tournament. This is the list that led to ultimate victory and Craig’s first big trophy.

Craig Edwards

Champion

$10K Orlando 2006

Characters

Bette Kane ◊ Batwoman

Bart Allen ◊ Kid Flash

Jack Knight ◊ Starman

Crimson Avenger

Saturn Queen

Dominators

Terra, Titans Tomorrow East

2 Cosmic King

Cassie Sandsmark ◊ Wonder Girl, Ares’s Chosen

Alan Scott, White King

Glorith

Tim Drake ◊ Batman, Titans Tomorrow West

Computo, Rogue Program

Ra’s Al Ghul, Engine of Change

Freddy Freeman ◊ Captain Marvel

Ol-Vir

Koriand’r ◊ Starfire, Tamaranian Princess

Plot Twists

Fatal Five Hundred

The Future is Changing

Generation Next

Furious Assault

3 Five Against One

Chain Lightning

Order and Chaos

Tempus Fugit

Locations

Hall of Mentors

United Planets HQ

The winning deck squeezed a couple characters out in favor of ten plot twists and two locations. Fatal Five Hundred allows one search, while The Future is Changing cycles one card deeper into the deck. The eighteen characters proved to be the proper number. Darkseid didn’t doom the day, and that particular crossover of good guys and bad guys was just right.

There is no mythological precedent for that exact line-up of Teen Titans and Future Foes in the comic books. We can, however, look to the Dominators to explain why it works so well.

In late 1988, DC Comics began a series called Invasion that would affect every character they had ever created. It finally explained how their super heroes gained such extraordinary powers. Mixing the talents of such all-time greats as Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo, and Todd McFarlane, an alien war broke out and threatened to consume everything. The Dominators tend to do that.

A lone copy of Dominators started the Future Foes half of Craig Edwards’s deck, but in the Invasion storyline they were trying to finish things. In an attempt to discover the mechanism that separated super heroes from normal humans, they lined up fifty random people and shot them one by one. Seven survived to be studied. The Dominators discovered that every super-being in the DC Comics Universe possessed a “metagene” that could be triggered to activate their powers. Using this knowledge to guide their strategies, the Future Foes promptly took control of the entire continent of Australia. In the meantime, a rogue Dominator developed and detonated a “gene-bomb” that stripped all heroes and villains of their powers. Imagine a Vs. System card that could remove all text from characters in play. It was bad news, and a few characters were lost forever.

The super heroes saved the day and moved forward into the future. It is my hope that each of us can find the strength to carry on in the same way, despite any setback that life has to offer. 2007 is almost upon us, and our Metagame.com remix of the Greatest Hits of 2006 will be playing during the break as we share good times with family and friends. Risk Vs. Reward will return soon with a fresh set of mental batteries to launch us into the new year together. Happy Holidays to one and all.

Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes and he has truly enjoyed sharing this year with you. You can reach him at rianfike@hattch.com.