There was a lot of speculation as to what the metagame of $10K Mexico City would look like. While previously the doubt and naysaying had come from those outside of the country, this time it was mostly prominent local authorities anticipating a retro-themed metagame.

Those parties were disappointed once again, as all the leading decks were present at the event including Evil Medical School and Fantastic Fun, out in full force. Both decks were debated in the week leading up to the tournament, and it was anticipated that their complexity might have kept them out of this competition. That wasn’t the case, and the metagame had some other interesting surprises too.

Here’s the breakdown.

Curve Sentinels: 10
Common Enemy: 9        
Teen Titans: 6
Fantastic Fun: 5
TNB (Classic): 5
Medium Brotherhood: 4
Mutant Nation: 4
TNB Blitz: 4
F4 Beats: 3
GK/Doom: 3
X-Stall: 3
Evil Medical School: 2
The Brave and The Bold: 3
X-Beats: 2
Syndicate: 2
Spider-Friends: 2
Wild Vomit: 2
League of Assassins: 2

One each of: Rigged Elections, Midnight Sons, MK/Crime Lords, Superman/Revenge Squad, Gamma Doom, Superman Robots, X-Statix Loner, Satanus Go!, New Gods/Superman, Team Superman/GK, Darkseid’s Elite, New Gods/Doom, Doom/F5

The environment was basically what one would expect of any North American metagame, but it carried some Mexican flair. In the past, Mexican players have proven their love of Common Enemy and classic New Brotherhood builds, and this event was no exception. While TNB seems to be popular due to its high level of availability—it’s pretty easy to build with the exception of its four Savage Beatdowns—Common Enemy’s popularity was heavily bolstered by Gerardo Godinez-Estrada’s victory with it over Alexander Sacal* in last year’s $10K.

The field itself was an interesting mix of veteran players and those relatively new to the game. In true Mexican fashion, creativity was everywhere, with plays ranging from the smartly justified (Backfire) to the bizarre (Longshot plus Superman Robots plus no substantial count of any other card nor anything that lets you see the top card of your deck equals one confused Jason Grabher-Meyer). UDE’s Ives Rountree, event coordinator and my ride to the venue, explained it best when our car broke down Saturday morning. “Us Mexicans might not have the execution down, but we have ingenuity!” He then proceeded to rip the plastic shell off his car’s ignition lock, twist the lock’s plug, and jumpstart it with a plastic spoon. It certainly reinforced his point.

The field is fairly varied, and though the final Top 8 is a tough call at this point, it definitely seems like it will contain a great deal of variety. Despite the tech, at least one copy each of Fantastic Fun and Evil Medical School seem bound for Day Two, with local champions backing both. While at least one Curve Sentinels deck is always a lock for a qualifying finish, this may be the one environment where the impact of Curve Sentinels is minimized. Several players running the deck were making last-minute changes, and a few were packing Mega-Blast instead of Savage Beatdown due to the card’s limited availability.

With the varied metagame that seems to be a hallmark of Vs. System at this point, this tournament really seems as if it will come down to skill. With wads of tech and star players just waiting to be discovered, this should be an interesting lead up to PC: New York!

*As an interesting note, one-time Magic: The Gathering rapscallion Alexander Sacal has gone from pro Magic player to Vs. enthusiast, a driving force behind the game’s popularity in Mexico, and is now the area’s PTO. It’s a new role of responsibility for the well-recognized bad boy.