Oh, what a week it’s been! As I write this, I’m in a hotel room in Austin, Texas. Doug Tice just took home his third $10K trophy (more on that later), and I’m probably more exhausted than I’ve been in months. For the past month, Vs. System has completely consumed my life, as well as the lives of many other professionals. The chronology goes thusly: Several weeks of testing for the Pro Circuit, followed by $10K Los Angeles, followed by the main event (and let’s not forget its associated $10K), followed by this weekend’s $10K Austin and $10K Auckland. Where does this series of events leave us? Well, for one thing, Marvel Modern Age is done with. If there’s any other tech to be found, it’s been hidden spectacularly well. Another consequence of these past several weeks is that players are finally learning the ins and outs of the X-Men set in Sealed Pack play. Eighth pick Blackbird Blues just don’t happen anymore—very unfortunate for those who are in the know. So, to sum up, we’ve got one format solved and another format well on the way there. All in all, very productive, just like Metagame.com has been this week. Let’s talk about what you missed.
The week began on Monday, scant hours after Vidi took home the trophy in Atlanta. Toby brought us some good news—Vs. System is up for Scrye’s Player’s Choice award. I hope this award involves prize money. For me. I guess it’s a long shot. Anyway, if you’d like to show your support for your favorite TCG, you can go ahead and vote here.
Also on Monday, Ben Seck presented us with another installment of Fan Card Crossover. Now that things like name, affiliation, and art description are taken care of, it’s time to get down to the card’s functionality. This week’s vote is (was?) likely the most important of the series, as it determines both the card’s cost and which of the League’s themes Ms. Raatko will key off of. If you missed your chance to vote, I have good news: my dinner just arrived, and it’s delicious. Seriously, now . . . do you want to have a say in how the card ends up? Get on the ball, read Ben’s next article, and vote before the window closes. Best of luck.
Still on Monday—a banner day for Metagame, obviously—Michael Barnes delivered a new issue of Breaking Ground. This week’s deck is Morlocks/Spider-Friends. While you probably won’t be seeing it in Golden or Silver Age tournaments any time soon, it’s an interesting deck that really shows off the power of evasion to generate an unbalancing character advantage. Also, it’s fun. And it doesn’t play Joystick. Already a winner in my book.
On Tuesday, Nate came at us with a new Price is Right. He explores something that’s not talked about a great deal and that many players may not be familiar with if they haven’t drafted other TCGs before. Namely: how to draft. It’s easy to identify little combos, or to rate cards for their playability, or to force a certain team. However, the dynamics of what order to take your cards in and what principles should be guiding each of your picks are a little more subtle. Actually, I’ll venture to say that Draft strategy is complex enough that it can’t really be taught, but Nate gives some insight into how professionals think by analyzing a few of their drafts.
On Wednesday, Tim Willoughby closed out an early week (everyone’s still recovering from the PC, for real) with Two Turns Ahead. Basically, Tim discusses the factors that should go into choosing your deck for MMA. He notes, correctly, that the PC produced a ton of information to work with. $10K Austin produced even more. One note on his X-Faces commentary: I do not have more to say about the deck than he does. If you want to play the deck, start with the Donkey Club version and work from there.
Speaking of Austin . . . Faces won. Not too surprising; I think the general consensus at this point is that it’s the best deck in the format. Squadron is a close second (and it might be better. What do I know?), and the control decks certainly have a shot as well. Austin was somewhat uneventful, but also somewhat gratifying, in that nothing really new made an appearance. What we have is an almost completely solved format consisting of four decks: Faces, Squadron, Hellfire, and Mental. Success in PCQs is going to come down to metagaming and play skill. Individual tech cards are going to become quite a bit more critical in such a balanced format. For example, do you know what Donald Noland figured out this weekend? It turns out that Faces can’t beat a Mental deck with War of Attrition in it. There—I just altered the metagame. Best of luck figuring things out, PCQers. As for me, as much as I love this game, it’s time to take a little break. I’ll return next week with another Week in Review, and then it’s radio silence right up until $10K Minneapolis. Come to think of it, that’s not much of a break at all. Oh well—the game stops for no man. See you next week, I guess . . .