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When tweaking and twooking my decks in preparation for a tournament, I often find myself sacrificing some of my favorite characters. Tonight, I will be splashing around in the City Championships of Miami with War Paint, but Mantis is no longer with us.

Mobilize is just too good in the deck. Shadow-Thief can provide the extra Infernal Minions necessary for the turn 3 World War III kill if anyone dares to drop an unsupervised Ahmed Samsarra. The bug gets squashed.

There are a few other ritual substitutions ready to wreck shop tonight, but you don’t get to hear about them until next time. Now I need to practice. Luckily for both of us, Carlos the Dwarf came up large in California on Saturday and he writes really well. He also publishes a truly outstanding Vs. System blog; be sure to check it out at www.vs-blog.com. While I am goldfishing my deck, you can enjoy his triumphant report right here in a Metagame.com exclusive. I’ll check back in when he’s done. This is amazing stuff.

My name is Miguel Rodriguez, but the Vs. System community knows me as Carlos the Dwarf. The nickname comes not from my size, since I am over six feet tall, but from the final episode of Freaks and Geeks. The show is about a group of D&D-playing, Star Trek–watching, Steve Martin–loving high school “nerds” who are just trying to make their way through the day without being beaten up. They are true underdogs. I totally relate.

I consider myself an underdog when it comes to winning organized Vs. System events. My standard record is 2-3, with an occasional 3-2 thrown in for good measure. One of my “problems” is that I refuse to use the top-tier “Deck of the Month.” You’ll never see me run popular builds like QuickFate, Squadron, GLEE, or Devil’s Due. Consequently, I was pretty sure you’d never see me win a tournament, either. But when I saw the deliciously beautiful City Championship playmat, I knew I had to try. After all, what fun is being an underdog if you don’t go for the gold every now and then?

The San Francisco Bay area had the massive good fortune of having six City Championships scheduled between late March and mid-April. In early March, I started working on a deck that would have a shot at navigating around the QuickFate builds, jumping over the Checkmate location insanity, and plowing through the Kree / VU swarm rush. I wanted to play something no one had ever seen before—something that would make my opponents’ heads hurt with the amount of math they’d have to do. It wasn’t easy. In the end, here’s what I ultimately came up with:

My plan: take odd initiatives and swing a beatstick on turns 3 (Meatmarket), 5 (Shinobi), and 7 (Sebastian) while creating a “recovery machine” on turn 4 (Chthon and Strange Love) and an attack disrupter on turn 6 (Magneto).

I took an early version of this build to the first local City Championship in Scotts Valley, CA. I went 2-3, but the games were so close that I knew I was on to something. I made a few changes and took the deck to a second City Championship in Berkeley, CA, where I made Top 8! I finished seventh and was swollen with confidence. I had high hopes heading to Hayward—after all, third time’s the charm, right?

Bryan’s deck had a nearly unthinkable trick: drop Rogue, Total Transformation on turn 6, give her the Underworld and Spider-Friends team affiliations, give her evasion and have her use it, use Underworld effects to stop her from being KO’d, search for another copy of herself, put it in to play, repeat, and then end the build phase with Undead Legions.

Because Bryan missed his 3-drop and a few key pumps, I had a slight endurance advantage going into turn 5. I dropped Shinobi Shaw into the visible area and flipped The Hellfire Club to move Meatmarket into the hidden area with Black Rose. With all my other characters concealed, Shinobi turned into a monster. On turn 6 (his kill turn), Bryan brought out Rogue and pulled off his combo once, but he was unable to do it multiple times due to a missed Spider-Sense Tingling! He still managed to control two Rogues, one ready and one exhausted. It was a sight to behold. Unfortunately for him, my 6-drop was Magneto and I was able to stonewall Rogue’s attack with the help of Army of One. With no one left to power through Mags and no way to get to my hidden characters, Bryan was forced to pass and I knocked his endurance down to -5.

Brian is probably the best Vs. System player I know, so I was going into this match with low expectations. I’d faced a number of his Checkmate builds before and they’d often left me bleeding, broken, and in a fetal position. Once he drops Ahmed and gives him the Cloak of Nabu, the game is pretty much over.

But Brian missed Ahmed this time around. And he missed his 4-drop, too. That’s all the advantage I needed. Brian fought valiantly and had a surprisingly strong board on turn 7, but I had odd initiatives. I successfully team attacked up the curve into his Silver Surfer, Harbinger of Oblivion with Shinobi and Blackheart. This left his remaining characters with no hope of reinforcement against my Sebastian Shaw and gave me the underdog victory.

This was a tough matchup for me. My deck relies heavily on locations and his deck was packed with copies of 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .. Jarrod loves to KO locations and keep the resources low so that he can dominate with high-ATK, low-cost characters. I was forced to play as much of the game as possible with my locations face down.

Luck was on my side, though. His rush deck missed its 1- and 2-drops. I had the initiative on turn 3 and was able to pick off his Dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint with Meatmarket. Dr. Light’s vengeance was triggered, but Jarrod had no characters with a cost of 2 or less to put into play. On turn 4, he recruited Alexander Luthor, Insidious Impostor. Because of the early characters he missed, Jarrod had quite a few cards in his hand. This scared me, since each VU character card could be used as a pump for Alex and each non-character card was probably a Blinding Rage or a Flying Kick. I dropped Chthon into my hidden area and braced myself.

Jarrod easily stunned Meatmarket with Dr. Light and a Blinding Rage. He used No Man Escapes the Manhunters on Chthon, bringing my demon into the visible area. Then he used two Flying Kicks and a Blinding Rage to bring Luthor up to 16 ATK against my 3 DEF. I could wait no longer; I flipped The Hellfire Club and moved Black Rose into my visible area to reinforce Chthon. Jarrod was not pleased, and my sigh of relief could be heard for miles.

I can’t even remember the last time I played a Shadowpact deck. What are the plot twists they use again? What do their characters do? Josh had me at a major disadvantage. He kept flipping cards that I forgot even existed. I tried to Join the Club! on turn 4, and he Conclaved me. I was forced to miss a drop. I attacked his June Moon with my Shinobi, and he used Magical Conduit to stun me back. Then he Death Trapped my Shinobi, bouncing him back into my hand!

As we entered turn 6, I was very, very worried. Josh’s endurance was low, but he had definite board advantage—a Dr. Occult with two Fate Artifacts, a June Moon, and a Detective Chimp. I was left with only my hidden Meatmarket. He dropped Nightmaster and I answered with Magneto. With the help of an Army of One and Shaw Industries, I was able to hold on until turn 7, even though he stunned my entire board.

On turn 7, Josh was at 8 endurance and I was at 24. I recruited Sebastian Shaw, even though there was no way for me to use his effect since my only other character was a visible Magneto. Josh dropped Dr. Fate into his hidden area. He had Dr. Occult, Detective Chimp, and Nightmaster in his front row, with June Moon hiding behind the monkey. I decided to go for as much breakthrough as possible by attacking June with Sebastian since I had Sewer System in play. Josh, through a series of pumps and payment effects, managed to bring June’s ATK up enough to stun Sebastian. At that point, I did the math and decided it was a better move to take out his Dr. Fate by stunning Sebastian to Magneto’s effect, and the attack disappeared.

Magneto stood alone, facing down four visible characters. I gambled, aiming for his Nightmaster. Fortunately for me, Josh had no more tricks up his sleeve. With his endurance at -9 and mine at 17, Josh didn’t have quite enough left to blemish my record.

Dude! I just went undefeated! Crazy! My best performance ever! On to the Top 4 . . .

This time around, Bryan hit drops 2–6. I did too. A serious case of beautiful luck and the perfect hand of cards kept me in the lead for the entire match. Since his hand was depleted from hitting every recruit step, Bryan had no gas left to pull off the Rogue trick on 6. I took the game and moved on to the finals.

What god did I offend? Why must I play this location-hate machine again . . . for the one game that counts the most? I cannot answer those questions, but I can tell you what happened.

Jarrod won the die roll, smiled, and said, “I guess I’ll have to pick odds against you.” Then he missed his 1- and 2-drops again. On turn 3, Jarrod recruited Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive, and I used Death’s Embrace to grab two copies of Meatmarket. With the help of Trial by Fire, Zazz was able to stun Meatmarket anyway. I swung back at his empty board with Black Rose for 2. On turn 4, my Meatmarket took out his Alexander Luthor, Insidious Impostor, and Chthon got to smash face. Zazzala didn’t like that, so she pulled Chthon out and beat him senseless. Then she jumped back into Jarrod’s hand with The Science Spire to add insult to injury.

Turn 5 is where it all went down. Take a deep breath and brace yourself—this is sticky stuff. Jarrod had Alexander Luthor on the board and played Dr. Light and Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant. I dropped Shinobi and flipped two Ritual Sacrifices to team-up. Even though he had pulled Chthon into my visible area with No Man Escapes the Manhunters, I didn’t dare flip locations to send him back. I was stuck with two visible characters and no bonuses. I put Shinobi in front of Chthon and started praying.

Jarrod used a Flying Kick to attack Chthon with Dr. Psycho. The attack succeeded. He Science Spired Psycho back into his hand. Then he sent Dr. Light into Shinobi with just enough pumps to stun him. Unfortunately for me, one of those pumps was High Society, which returned both stunned characters to their owners’ hands. Ouch!

Dr. Light’s vengeance triggered and Jarrod put Dr. Psycho back into play. Jarrod had a handful of cards and two ready characters, and my visible area was clear. Jarrod obviously attempted to swing into me directly with Psycho.

The five cards I had in my hand were Army of One, two copies of Strange Love, Shinobi Shaw, and Join The Club!. I pitched a Strange Love and Shinobi to recover Chthon. Jarrod pumped Dr. Psycho to stun Chthon. I took a risk by flipping Shaw Industries, hoping Jarrod didn’t have a 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .. He did. I was a resource down and Chthon got stunned. I discarded Strange Love and Join the Club to recover Chthon again. Jarrod groaned. He pumped Alexander Luthor with all he had left. I played Army of One to absorb some of the damage and both of our characters stunned. I used Ritual Sacrifice to gain 2 endurance before the turn ended, and we both tried to catch our breath.

We composed ourselves and moved to turn 6. I was down a resource but able to use Black Rose to pull my 5-drop back from the KO’d pile. The setup for this turn looked just like my last: Shinobi in front of Chthon with Black Rose hidden. Jarrod didn’t play a resource and dropped Deathstroke the Terminator, Lethal Weapon behind Alex. Since I figured this might be the last turn anyway, I started flipping locations. I first tried The Hellfire Club to move Chthon to my hidden area. When no 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . followed, I used Sewer System to send Shinobi into Deathstroke without stunback. Jarrod Science Spired Deathstroke to dig through his deck. My attack with Chthon into Alex succeeded, and the turn ended with me using my two Ritual Sacrifices to put the endurance at 6 for me and 4 for Jarrod. We moved to turn 7 with the City Championship on the line.

With six resources in play to his five, I dropped Magneto into my visible area after he recruited Deathstroke behind Luthor again. I moved Shinobi into my hidden area beside Chthon and Black Rose. Jarrod started the combat phase by playing No Man Escapes the Manhunters on Shinobi. In response, I used Magneto’s effect and stunned Shinobi in order to stun Alexander Luthor. I was now at 1 endurance, while Jarrod was at 0. In his final attack, Jarrod unloaded everything on Magneto with Deathstroke, doing 3 breakthrough and burning me for 4 with his vengeance ability. I was at -12 to his -4. I attacked directly with Black Rose and Chthon. With their +1 ATK bonus from The Hellfire Club, the attacks were worth 11 endurance.

I got the Hayward City Champ title! I own the playmat! I get the chance for my face to be on a Vs. System card! (I hope it’s an Alpha Flight character.) My sole regret in winning the City Championship? I might finally have to give up my “underdog” status. I guess I can live with that.

Miguel is living high on the hog, no longer the underdog. He ritually sacrificed his scrub status to become the City Champion of Hayward, California. In twelve hours, someone will be similarly crowned in Miami, Florida. Will it be a bird? A plane? An underdog? Meet me back here next week to find out.

Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes and he knows that sacrifice is necessary more often than not. If you would like to share your stories of shedding the underdog, send them along to rianfike@hattch.com.