Two things immediately struck me about Kai Budde. It was my first time meeting him, and although I knew he was one of the best TCG players in the world, I wasn’t aware of two important facts. First, he’s a really nice guy. Second, he’s huge.
This guy could not only kick my butt in any card game of his choosing, but he could probably give me the royal beating of a lifetime. It’s a good thing he’s friendly.
Kai was playing a Brotherhood/League of Assassins build that you can read about in the deck profile coverage. It’s a nice deck that Gabe Walls showed him. “I didn’t really know what to play, so I asked Gabe Walls, and he gave me this list. So I went with that.” The deck is great. It exemplifies Kai’s legendary hunger for control and synergy, while at the same time possessing raw numbers and high utility so that it rarely gets hosed by topdecks.
“I don’t play Beatdown decks really, I always play Control. I love Combo decks, and this is what that is. It has the combo of Avalon Space Station and Lost City, and it can tutor for either when it needs to with The Demon’s Head. Merlyn is great! 
He gives a great deal of control with his effect, and when he hits the field on turn 4, he pins an opponent down. Your fourth-turn drop can take out the opponent’s fourth-turn drop, and Merlyn can remove the little guys. Generally if that happens twice it’s pretty game-breaking. Not an automatic win, but, very good.”
“My last two opponents had that happen, actually. The last guy I just played, he was one step behind his drop on several turns, and Merlyn just destroyed him. The game before that, my opponent was playing Teen Titans, and lost a resource early on due to Roy Harper’s effect. After that, Merlyn was just picking off characters. Titans can be a hard matchup,” he elaborated, acknowledging a fact that is often ignored by aspiring LOA players. “You have tricks to beat them, but really, their characters are better than yours, so control is important.”
I asked Kai if he was here on his own, or as part of a team. “No one plays [ Vs. System ] where I live!” he lamented. “Or else I’d probably play more. So I’m here alone. It hasn’t caught on yet in Germany, for several reasons, so I play mostly on the internet. It was only an eighteen-minute drive for me to get here, so I’d show up. I don’t think this is necessarily the best deck, but I’m having a good time.” I’d noticed and commented that he really looked like he was having fun, which I’ve found is often rare from pro-level TCG players. Budde came back at me with a resounding “Yeah! I love playing games, and I like the Vs. System very much. It’s a very good game system.”
“Here in Germany, comics aren’t very big. You have some people who have seen the movies, X-Men and Spider-Man and stuff, but no one really reads comics.” I’d noticed that too. The airport magazine stores didn't have any comic books. “People have tried to set up comic shops here in Germany, but they all inevitably go under. While anime is big here, comics are far bigger in America. But I play the game all the same, because I find it really enjoyable.”
Kai lost in round one, but after three more rounds, his record was 3-1. I was naturally curious about what happened in game one, though. “My opponent was playing the Batman deck, Cosmic Cops. He had Valeria on turns 4, 5, 6, and 7, and had Alfred on turn 2. I maybe could have pulled it out, because on turn 7 he drew 14 cards but didn’t see any pieces of his combo to have Batman attack multiple times. But the four Valeria was just too much.” Four consecutive copies of A Child Named Valeria with the perfect set up is pretty insurmountable. Wince-worthy.
I’d been wondering why Kai, who had played at PC Indy, hadn’t made an appearance at PC LA. “Unfortunately there’s no way I can play in more than 10 tournaments a year. Flying to California means leaving on Wednesday, and returning after the weekend, so I’m missing four days of class. It’s really exhausting, too. I just can’t play everything, it’s not possible.”
“I find Magic Pro Tours very tiring sometimes, but a tournament like this? I’m just having a lot of fun.”
A lot of pro players lose their edge, or perhaps their passion for the game, after a few years of professional play. After talking to him, I don’t think Kai Budde will ever be in that category. He loves games, and unlike many others, doesn’t seem to be driven by the money. With both a raw love for gaming and youth on his side it seems likely that Kai Budde will never just fade out of the industry, like so many who attempt to mimic his success. There’s a saying that goes, “To be the man, you have to beat the man.” That’s true in many cases in pro-level TCG competition. Sometimes a player is defined not just through success, but also by their heart, and Kai Budde is definitely one of these players.