Sadly, no one who registered for PC: Amsterdam felt it was worth being kicked out of the tournament to run Juggernaut. But there was a ton of alternative single-card tech present in the environment, and a lot of it was quite surprising. For some cards, the surprise lay in the location of the card—not necessarily that the card was being played, but the fact that it was being played in certain decks and in certain quantities. For other cards, it was indeed the “Huh, what?” factor that made them noticeable. Here’s the first round of the day’s highlights.
Gravesite
Just as the word of the weekend is “saucy,” so everyone is saying it, Gravesite is being run left, right, and center in all sorts of decks. Adding consistency to everything from Crime Lords/Syndicate to X-Statix decks, it has been common to see players begin their turns by looking at and then immediately discarding two, three, or even as many as four cards. While Gravesite was an obvious pick in Underworld builds, and it was easy to guess that other decks would be using the card as well, no one would have been able to predict just how rampant Gravesite would be. MK Toolbox particularly loves it, digging for combat tricks like Bamf! and Spider Senses that the deck wouldn’t necessarily be able to run reliably otherwise.
Many players who didn’t run Gravesite are openly wishing that they had. Expect Gravesite to begin the new format as a popular but debated card, and expect it to rise in popularity as time goes on.
Fight to the Finish
Weeks ago, I predicted that this card would be serious tech in Sinister Syndicate variants. A lot of Toronto players dubbed the card as “the only tech for Syndicate.” But other decks are running it too, and it’s making big waves in X-Statix Loner builds. John Ormerod, arguably one of the best deckbuilding minds for TCGs, was using Fight to the Finish, and since he’s currently sitting at a 3-0 record, that says something about the quality of the card in this type of deck. “It just fits,” explained one player. “Sometimes it can be difficult to continue building momentum with the deck, as once you start winning, it can be tricky to get your own characters out of play. Fight to the Finish really solves that problem while keeping the pressure on your opponent.” The card is really, really good and will likely be seen in a variety of different Modern Age decks over the coming months.
Latverian Embassy
It’s a lot easier being green in Marvel Modern Age than it is in Golden Age. The lack of Ka-Boom! and Have a Blast! makes locations completely viable, and Latverian Embassy has benefited from that fact. Seeing play in a variety of decks, the card techs not just Syndicate variants, but also X-Statix, where it can shut down important multiples of cards like Spin Doctoring. Highly splashable, the Embassy is great tech against two of the most popular decks in the format and has something to offer against virtually any opponent. The card is the sleeper of the event, but expect it to rear its disruptive head a lot as time goes on.
Hounds of Ahab
The Hounds are almost everywhere. The card is getting splashed in MK and Syndicate variants, and there are even entire decks focused around nothing but abusing the Hounds’ effect. The Hounds are easy to maintain and protect, and they’re not team stamped in any way. The fact that they’re army is definitely being taken advantage of. There isn’t a great deal of concealed hate in the environment, so the Hounds really are a safe bet. As the format progresses, it’s going to be an equally safe bet that anti-concealed tech will rise in popularity. Which brings us to . . .
Psychoville
A handful of players are running Psychoville, especially in X-Statix Team Xchange builds. The card is valuable against a lot of random decks running characters with concealed, and it’s especially good here against Marvel Knights decks. When Dr. Strange drops on the other side of the board on turn 8, the deck can Psychoville Professor X back out to run interference. When there’s a team attack to take him down, Spin Doctoring can bring him back up. Pretty cool.
Professor X, Mental Master
X himself has been played in virtually everything, proving to be far better than Doop, Ultimate Weapon as the deck’s grand finale. Covering both turn 8 and turn 9 in an environment that is at times exceedingly slow compared to Golden Age, the Professor is a great pick for anything that figures it might get to the late game. Functioning essentially as the environment’s only 9-drop, his presence and domination is surprising many players who didn’t think that games would go as long as they are.
That’s it for now. There are a ton of surprises at the event, but halfway through the day, these are definitely the most prominent.