9:30 PM – The Good with the Sad

While the Top 8 members are busy celebrating the fact they get to play on Sunday, and the rest of the Top 75 are pondering exactly how much monay they get to take home this weekend, this blog is going to sign off on a sad note, just to keep it real, yo.

We now return to where we started today, to the perennial slackass otherwise known as Matt Boccio. The story goes that Boccio’s alarm did not go off and he didn’t wake up until 8:45 this morning, meaning that in spite being a local, he was late to the first draft of the day. He thus tarnished his beautiful 8-4 Day 1record with an 0-3 right off the giddy. Draft 2 saw him post a 1-2 record, but then Draft 3 started off extremely well, with two wins pushing Matt into contention for a money finish. A loss in the last round shot that precarious lifeboat out of the water, and any thoughts of a recovery for cash from Boccio sank right to the bottom of Long Island Sound. If Boccio had managed to post a 6-3 record in the drafts, he probably would have placed around 20th, earning $3,400. A 5-4 record from Boccio would probably have put him around 39th or so, giving him $1500. Instead, he went a sleep-aided 3-6, finishing 95th and earning exactly zero on the weekend.

Remember kids, sometimes time really does equal money, and not being on time can cost you a lot of it.

7:30 PM - Tales from the Massage Room

Remember the glory of the Massage Room that we detailed in yesterday’s blog? Well, Gabe Walls officially broke the system shortly after my article was posted when he and Craig Krempels went to use their one free massage of the weekend. The nice attendant checked the name “Craig Krempels” off her list and Craig sat down in the chair, but when Gabe came in, he volunteered a pseudonym so as to get a massage now and still keep one in reserve for later. The name he used?

J. Gary Wise.

Steve Sadin heard about Gabe’s antics and decided to abuse the system for his own underage pleasure. After obtaining his free massage in the morning, he walked into the booth at midday and had this exchange with the attendant: 

Massage2Wellness: What’s your name?
Sadin: Peter Sundholm.
M2W: How do you spell that?
Sadin: [Pause] I have no idea . . . 

He then went up to Eugene Harvey a bit later and said, “Hey Eugene, have you had a massage yet?” Eugene answered in the negative. “Well, you might want to go use that soon . . . ” Sadin implied ominously, perhaps intimating that he would gladly swipe Eugene’s if the piano man didn’t take advantage of the service quickly enough.

7:00 PM - Keeping Up with The Joneses

After round 15, Ryan Jones was on top of the world with thirteen wins. He needed only two more for a good shot at another Top 8 spot. Since that time, he has scrapped for one more win, but the look on his face after the third draft made it look as if his fifteenth win on the weekend might never come. Unfortunately for Jones, his opponent for this round was Mad Russian Alex Shvartsman for the second draft in a row, and the result this time was arguably even worse than the last smashing.

On turn 5, Shvartsman's board sported a full set of burly drops to two underwhelming 4-drops and a stern frown from Jones. Ryan just rolled his eyes at his next draw and said, “I knew my deck needed help to win this matchup, and instead it provided the farthest thing from it.” Shvartsman let the beaters do the rest of his talking from there as he became the first person to clinch a Top 8 spot at PC New York.

Meanwhile, in the secret, uncovered feature match area, John Fiorillo and Neil Reeves were facing off in a Top 8 elimination match. Fiorillo had an early lead, but Reeves made huge strides in a combat-filled turn 6, using Zeitgeist to stonewall a pumped Dracula attack and then shoot down the Punisher, to boot. Sadly, in spite of some razor-thin margins and some incredible play, that's where Neil's fun ended.

“Varnae, huh? I guess that's my tournament.” Reeves recruited Mysterious Fan Boy on turn 7 and defrayed much of the endurance loss he might have taken, but Bullseye on turn 8 pushed Fiorillo's team over the top, and Reeves's lack of a 7- or 8-drop in hand did in fact spell the end of his tournament. Fiorollo will continue his impressive play on the weekend, but he still needs two more wins to give him a chance at the Top 8.

6:00 PM - Combat Math 

Going into the final draft of the day, Alex Shvartsman was the leader of the pack, but he still needed one more win to seal up a place in Sunday's Top 8. With the help of scorekeeper Rune Horvik, we have figured out that there will be five players with 16 wins or better who make the Top 8, so once you get to number 16, you are assured of Vs. System immortality. After those five, there will be another seven players with 15 wins or better, meaning tiebreakers will determine the last three members of the Top 8, while the other four players will be on the outside looking in at the smiling members of the Sunday Club.

Looking at the standings after round 18, players all the way down to 36th place are technically still in contention, but realistically, only players down to 30th have good enough tiebreakers to have a shot. Since the top three tables right now are absolutely loaded with strong players, it will be a very interesting final draft and race to the finish line to determine what might be the strongest PC Top 8 ever.


5:30  PM - News and Notes

• If you talk to most players, they'll tell you that turn 6 is often one of the most important turns of the game and that draft decks can be made or broken on the backs of strong men with that recruit cost. That's why it was pretty astounding that John Fiorillo managed to pull out a 2-1 record with a deck that featured three 6-drops, two of which were Kirigi, Master Assassins. The problem? Those were the only Crime Lords in John's deck and both of them have loyalty, making them completely unplayable. Yet the Brooklyn native nearly beat PC So Cal Top 8 finisher Antonino De Rosa to go 3-0 at that draft table.
• Paul Rietzl won his last match of Draft 2 by playing Meltdown on the final turn against Colin Rodriguez, gaining 2 endurance and making the totals -9 to -10 in his favor. He is now 5-1 on the day. Milton Figueroa is also on fire in the Booster Draft portion of the event and sports a similar record.
• After past incidents where I have utterly sabotaged Michael Jacob's winning ways simply by talking to him or his teammates about how they were winning, I am no longer allowed to discuss the man or his methods while the streak is on. While we are not discussing him, though, I would like to point out that he's utterly smashing opponents today, earning him a 6-0 record on Day 2 to go along with his 7-5 record from the Constructed portion of the PC.

4:30 PM - J. Gary's Keepsakes

Some of us get sentimental about the history of silly little card games. For example, I have a Foil It's Clobberin' Time! from PC #1 signed by all the members of the Top 8. Gary Wisenheimer (I am contractually bound not to type his name as it should normally appear) has chosen to commemorate his working relationship with the various members of the PC staff here by having them sign cards that match their images or personalities in some way. This is what he came up with:

Strange Visitor - Tim Willoughby
Tech Upgrade - Jason Grabher-Meyer
Mastermind - Dave Humpherys
Mysterious Fan Boy - Geordie “I love Gary's Writing” Tait
Kingpin - Mike Guptil
The Russian - Alex Charsky
Stilt Man - Ian Estrin
Mammoth - Matt Tabak
J. Jonah Jameson - Toby Wachter
Shang Chi - James Lee
Bane - Ted Knutson
Doop - Photographer Craig Gibson
Extended Art Bamf! - German coverage reporter Oliver Gehrmann

It's a pretty neat idea that any of you can use to add more memories to your gaming collection.

Marvel Knights has been out for a while, but since drafts in the Vs. System take so long to do (or at least that's the excuse that I'm hearing from players), it seems that actual drafting is an infrequent event, even for players at the top of the Pro Circuit. With that in mind, I asked the best of the best what three cards they most wanted to see in their Sealed Packs.

Ryan Jones:
1) Blown to Pieces
2) Hell's Fury
3) Crime and Punishment 

Vidi Wijaya:
1) Marvel Team-Up
2) Crime and Punishment
3) Blown to Pieces 

Gabe Walls:
1) Midnight Sons
2) Dr. Strange                                   Vidi Wijaya competes in the feature match area
3) Marvel Team-Up 

Nick Little:
1) Zeitgeist
2) Dead Weight
3) Midnight Sons 

Four men, eight different cards, three very different drafting styles. Wijaya and Jones are teammates and they have similar card valuations. Walls and Little are very good friends and teammates as well, but Nick's interest in forcing X-Statix clearly affects which cards he'd like to see in his packs. After the MK draft, Little noted that he'd never been at a table where Marvel Knights seemed under-drafted, but that was the story from many of the competitors after Draft 1.

Wijaya also had an interesting note he wanted added to his list: “You know what cards I least want to see in my pack? Any of the double loyalty guys, because you always have to take them and if the guy sitting to your right drafts one, you are screwed.”

2:45 PM - Prediction vs. Reality

Vidi Wijaya: 3-0 (+1)
Matt Oldaker: 1-2 (-1)
Michael Barnes: 1-2 (+1)
Cory Eisenhard: 2-1 (-1)
Ryan Jones: 3-0 (+1)
Brian Eugenio: 0-3 (-2)
Donald Noland: 0-3 (-2)
Jason Dawson: 2-1 (+1) 

Jones's performance puts him alone atop the standings, followed by Barnes, Wijaya, Dawson, and Kings Games owner Alex Shvartsman. Shvartsman's 3-0 performance at his first table put him in a strong position for his first Vs. System Top 8, provided he nailed his next draft. That's exactly what Alex ended up doing—drafting what he claimed was perhaps the best deck he'd ever seen in the first draft of the day (Marvel Knights). Look for a feature article from Geordie Tait on the Mad Russian's maniacal draft in just a little bit.

Paul Rietzl scuffled into Day 2 at 7-5, and his breakers were so bad that he was sitting all the way down at table fifteen for the draft. But his 3-0 at that table, plus the fact that his deck is on the interesting side, merits a mention here in ye olde blog.  In Round 13, Rietzl won the game on turn 5 with four boost plot twists still in hand.  In Round 14, he had to wait until turn 6 to take it home, but he still had two pumps left in hand for that game.  He probably should have lost his final match, but a fortuitous error from his opponent on the second-to-last turn let Paul take that game home -3 to -4.  He missed some early drops and things looked very bad for him, but Chuck Bell missed his 6-drop, letting Paul get back in the game.  The ultimate turn was somewhat anticlimactic as Paul threw down his 7-drop (Alan Scott, Keeper of the Starheart) . . . to reinforce for the turn.  Whee!

 

In case you are interested in what a highly aggressive Green Lantern deck looks like, here's an example.

 

Cooking With Gas

Paul Rietzl - PC NY Draft 1

 

Characters

1 Arisia, Green Lantern of Graxos IV

1 Salakk, Green Lantern of Slyggia

2 Tomar Tu, Green Lantern of Xudar

2 Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern

1 Guy Gardner, Warrior

1 Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Earth

1 Elastiman, Qwardian Conglomerate

1 Owlman, Crime Syndicate

1 Kyle Rayner, Green Lantern of the Universe

1 Ch'P, Green Lantern of H'Lven

1 Guy Gardner, Strong Arm of the Corps

1 Element Man, Qwardian Conglomerate

1 Fatality, Yrra Cynril

1 Sinestro, Lantern in Exile

1 Alan Scott, Keeper of the Starheart

 

Plot Twists

1 Nero Unleashed

2 Qwardian Pincer

1 Golden Death

1 Battle of Wills

2 Only a Friend Can Betray You

1 Yellow Impurity

1 Dimming of the Starheart

1 Sweeping Up, Construct

 

Locations

Book of Oa

 

Equipment

2 Light Armor, Construct

12:35 - Such Beats!

Vidi Wijaya is the first ranked Sealed Pack player in the world, and his 9-2 record on Day 1 was good enough to earn a seat at table one for the Booster Draft portion of this Pro Circuit event. His deck for the Green Lantern Corps draft this weekend turned out to be pretty solid, but not quite as hot as initially billed. Many of the spectators were whispering that Vidi's deck was a lock for 3-0, but upon closer inspection, what was rumored to be ridiculous was merely very solid.

 

Vidi's first lament when we sat down was that he only had two 6-drops in his deck, one of which was a ninth pick Sinestro, Lantern in Exile. The real strength of Vidi's deck came from his plot twists and locations. Four copies of Banished to the Anti-Matter Universe were present in the pile, but he said that he could only find room for two in the deck, which also featured a Book of Oa and Qwardian Council Hall. When asked for his feelings about the deck, Vidi said it wasn't great but he could probably pull a 2-1 out of it. At the suggestion of Tim Willoughby, I snagged the record predictions from the entirety of table one before play started. I'll compare them with the actual records after three rounds of play. Here's what they had to say:

 

Vidi Wijaya: 2-1

Matt Oldaker: A hopeful 2-1

Michael Barnes: 0-3

Cory Eisenhard: 3-Oa

Ryan Jones: 2-1

Brian Eugenio: 2-1

Donald Noland: 2-1 (though I could 3-0)

Jason Dawson: I would love 2-1, but 1-2 is more likely

 

Predicted wins: 14

Actual wins possible: 12

 

Not content to just glimpse one deck, I also snagged PC Indy Top 8 finisher Neil Reeves to see how his deck turned out. I watched a chunk of Neil's draft and it was clear while drafting that he was getting some strong cards absurdly late. I asked him how his draft went, and he had this to say: “It was weird. There weren't many good cards opened at this table, because I saw all of the good, non-obvious cards get passed and I just didn't see much quality. For example, I got a seventh pick Book of Oa with G'Nort still in the pack and a tenth pick Coast City. I also saw a series of Kronas passed to me after I first picked one in pack two, but my 7-drop slot was already full so I had to ship them along. I ended up with the 7-drop and the 8-drop Hal Jordan and had a chance at the 9-drop too, but I shipped him. My deck is good, but it could have been better if more people had opened good cards.”

 

Just after I got done talking to Neil, Nick Little, PC Indy Top 8 finisher, best friend of Gabe Walls, and dueling sound bite, asked this question: “So what do you think the best way of making sure I draw the one 5-drop and one 6-drop in my deck is? I think I should lick the back of Soloman Grundy and then stick Boodikka to the top of him.” Thankfully for Nick, if he manages to survive past turn 6, he only has two Sinestro, Enemy of the Corps to play before Appa Ali Apsa comes in to clean things up on turn 8.

10:15 AM - Beep! Beep! Beep!

An alarm clock is a good thing to have around, particularly if you've made it to Day 2 on the Pro Circuit and are in good position to make money with even a reasonable Draft performance. Matt Boccio took the school year off from Vs. System to better focus on his freshman year at college, but his play skill hardly eroded; he posted an 8-4 record on Day 1 in spite of not having played much since PC Indy.

 

That's why his friends were left holding their heads in their hands when Head Judge Alex Charsky paged the room asking if Boccio was present. The resounding silence was taken as a cue to proceed with Draft 1 on the day without Matt around, thus guaranteeing he would start the Draft portion with an 0-3 record. Craig Krempels called Boccio on his cell phone and Matt replied that he was “en route,” but en route does not equal present and accounted for, so Boccio missed out on his Green Lantern Draft. His 0-3 start to Day 2 guarantees he will not make Top 8 and will probably cost the young Long Islander a chance at thousands of dollars.

Check out all of Friday's stories, gossip, and action from yesterday's blog!