If you’re a regular reader of Metagame.com’s event coverage, you know I love single-card tech. I was a big advocate of Big Men strictly for that reason—it was 60 cards of delicious jank assembled like a genius mosaic. The last $10K in Mexico City gave birth to a great deal of successful creativity, so of course, I had to see what Mexico could come up with this time.

Here are some of my favorites.

Commissioner Gordon: Olav Rokne’s repeated pummeling of his $10K Seattle adversaries’ Fantastic Fun equipment cards did not go unnoticed. Between Evil Medical School and non-Evil Medical School Doom/Gotham Knights decks, there was a great deal of GK kicking around. As a result, many such decks featured the Commish. With the impact of Fantastic Fun growing, matchups against the deck were a big issue on player’s minds. A great deal of today’s card and tactical tech was keyed against it.

If anything could make chains in the Fantastic Fun matchup any more complicated, it’s definitely Gordon. In the first four turns of the game, his effect is just brutal—blowing away potential threats left right and center and leaving Fantastic Fun players without their walls of flame and molecules. When Stretch hits the table, things get chaotic as suddenly endurance is being lost in massive multiples of two. Gordon is a truly stellar card that’s very splashable. The fact that he’s searchable by what is hailed as the game’s number one character-search card, Bat-Signal, makes him even more viable in dedicated GK decks. Expect this one to make the cut at PC: New York.

Professor X, Mental Master: Titans and Blitz haven’t seen nearly as much play in Mexico as in other countries, and the result is that slower decks have seen more dominance than they have in other environments. Apocalypse was a staple of many players at the previous $10K Mexico City, but its replacement certainly appears to be the good professor.

As an alternate 8-drop in X-Stall decks, Professor X permits the deck to use Weapon of Choice for an 8-drop. He’s phenomenal in mirrors and Gamma Doom matchups as he can provide the card advantage necessary to break infinite loop draws, and outside of the limited X-Stall context, he’s just a sweet 8-drop that can fill the ninth turn’s curve.

In most environments, an emergency 9-drop character would be laughable, but in this one, it’s actually a concern. The pace of play is slow, and the venue is positioned on the upper floor of the convention hall. As such, the place has no air conditioning. Several players admitted to pushing games into later turns, strictly to sap their opponents’ mental faculties. Vs. System can be a mentally exhausting game, but it’s far more so in a stuffy hot box full of gamers. That’s good news for Professor X, who easily bats cleanup against anything other than Evil Medical School.

Backfire: Backfire saw a ton of play, splashing easily into the deck of anyone paranoid of the Fantastic Fun matchup. Out of 85 players, only three ran the much-feared burn machine, so Backfire’s utility was limited. Luckily, its first effect, reducing the DEF of a target character (attacker or defender) can be applied to any character regardless of the matchup.

Though a one-point modifier isn’t as impressive as the three or five points of advantage afforded by Flying Kick or Savage Beatdown it’s definitely better than nothing. Tech is often dead in the incorrect matchups. Josh Wiitanen’s statement of “I’m going to beat you with Betrayal,” in his $10K LA matchup against another Teen Titans player definitely comes to mind. There’s something to be said for conditional tech with secondary effects.

Despite the lack of Fantastic Fun in today’s metagame, there are tons of other equipment cards around. Builds of TNB and TNB Blitz are packing Dual Sidearms and Jetpack, while Evil Medical School, Common Enemy and other GK/Doom variants are running Utility Belt and Power Compressor. While several people, myself included, are keen to see Micro-Sentinels win games at PC: New York, it’s possible that other decks, especially Teen Titans, might run this if Fantastic Fun is seen as a big enough threat.