Jeremy Gray is a name that’s fairly well known around Indianapolis. Playing at World of Fantasy Games in Greenwood twice a week, Gray has established a wealth of knowledge about the Vs. System and individual player tactics. Facing off against the 2–0 Tim Willoughby in round 3 of the Minehead $10K tournament, Gray claimed victory over Teen Titans with his Onslaught Stall deck, a deck type that could make serious waves in Gen Con SoCal in December.
At twenty-one years old, Gray is one of the youngest of the highly recognizable Vs. System personalities. Smiling, friendly, and without a hint of ego, Gray normally plays with a group but wasn’t accompanied this weekend. “I’m here on my own, but I play with a team. I’m actually here for school, studying, but I figured I’d come on down, try and do well!” At a record of 3–0, having just defeated the Gen Con Indy $10K champion, things certainly were going well.
When asked about his expectations for the metagame, Gray said he figured Common Enemy would be a dominant choice along with Big Brotherhood, partly because they are decks that are easy to access. He’d heard what many European players have affirmed—that cards are often difficult to get in certain areas of Europe, especially the newer ones. He didn’t count on Teen Titans being very big, which was the one surprise with its large presence in the metagame, but other than that he was essentially right. Common Enemy had the huge presence it always does in the current environment, and Big Brotherhood was played quite a bit as well.
The metagame wasn’t so big a concern for Gray as it was for some though, since he felt his matchup against Common Enemy was very good and he didn’t feel that any particular matchup gave him problems. Doom variants with Reign of Terror weren’t an issue for him, since, according to Gray, half of the time Reign of Terror is hitting Puppet Master. Though he said he was slightly concerned about his chances against Teen Titans decks, as long as he drew well in the early game his deck could easily prevent Teen Titans players from team attacking. The result is that Teen Titans Go! loses virtually all of its utility, and that hurts.
I had to ask what made Gray play the deck he did. It turns out that he played it in the comic tournament at Wizard World Chicago, and once Web of Spider-Man hit the environment the deck got Pleasant Distraction as well as Scorpion and Mimic. With a chance to try out the new and improved deck in an even bigger and more competitive field, Gray just couldn’t resist. “Also, it’s one of the only decks I brought with me.” Gray laughed at that “It’s just a fun deck to play. I had to try it!”
I asked him if he thought he could win. “Oh yeah!” He laughed again, but it was in a friendly way. Jeremy Gray is just one of those guys who you love to see succeed. Original deck, great attitude, friendly conversation—give him some Sentinels and a beard and he’d seem eerily familiar to another friendly fan favorite!
Stall decks have gained some serious power with the release of each new set. Though Gray likely won’t be able to make Gen Con SoCal, watch for Onslaught Stall to potentially make a big impact at that event.