6:58 pm: Memory Test
Jamie Tachiyama has made Day 2 of the Pro Circuit. Normally, that wouldn’t be news, but it presents a certain challenge to the judging staff. Jamie is blind, and so drafting Vs. is a tricky proposition. Jamie’s cards are usually marked with Braille for Constructed events, but with Draft using sealed product, it makes it hard to mark all the cards in a draft. To get around this difficulty, tournament organizer Scott Elliot has arranged for Jamie to be seated at a separate table from the normal draft, where a judge will whisper the contents of a pack to him as he gets passed the cards. This still means that Jamie needs to remember the text of every card in the X-Men set, which is no small challenge.
“I pretty much know every card in the set.” Jamie related. “I’ve drafted about four times in Hobby League and I made the Top 8 of a Sealed Pack PCQ, so the strategy of it isn’t foreign to me.”
Jamie is sitting pretty at 7-2 playing a Fate-a-Tron deck of his own design. “I made the deck pretty soon after the set came out and even before the Fate Artifact errata. My deck wasn’t trying to abuse the Artifacts in the same way, so I really didn’t lose much of the strategy. I have a rough time versus some of the weenie decks like X-Faces, but most of the curve matchups are really good.”
Well, good luck, Jamie—you’ve already made it big on the Pro Circuit. I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast, leave alone every card in a pack while blindfolded!
6:23 PM: The King is dead! Long live the . . . oops . . .
Ian Vincent from the United Kingdom was riding high with his Checkmate toolbox deck at 7-1 and was playing Scott Hunstad of Australia in the feature match area. Ian was beating Scott down hard with a combination involving a visible Ahmed Samsarra with a Knight Armor. But on the fourth turn, Scott recruited a Fatality, Flawless Victory. Ian, worried about his King getting KO’d by the Emerald Enemy, decided that the best way to avoid this was to move his King to the hidden area . . . by playing another Ahmed there. Scott looked enquiringly at Dave “Hump” Humpherys, wondering if he had missed something. They looked at each other, not sure if something had been missed. But Ian had just had a brain explosion that cost him the match.
“I was going to lose anyway,” Ian lamented. “I had no real way to get my Ahmed out of the visible area. I was dumb for putting him visible against Villains United. Oh well.” It still probably counts as the worst play of the tournament . . . and we haven’t even finished Day 1!
5:11 PM: For the love of the game . . . and a very considerate wife!
Ken Edwards of Virginia loves playing Vs. System, and he knew he wanted to go to the Pro Circuit whenever he could. But when he found out it was going to fall on his fifth wedding anniversary, he thought he wouldn’t be able to go. But Ken’s wife Rachel is the most understanding woman I have heard of, and Ken asked me if he could give a shout-out to his fans at home.
So to Rachel: “I miss you and thanks for the support! Happy anniversary!” I’m sure that if Ken can keep winning, he’ll be able to buy you a nice anniversary gift.
2:53 PM: Top Table Metagame - Five Rounds In
It’s the halfway point on Day 1, and the metagame is shaking out a little more. To give you a better idea of how each deck is going, here are the matchups for the top tables of Pro Circuit San Francisco after 5 rounds.
Table 1: Fate Squad vs. Squadron
Table 2: G’Lock vs. Checkmate Toolbox
Table 3: Checkmate Toolbox vs. Squadron
Table 4: Killing Joke vs. Killing Joke
Table 5: Checkmate Toolbox vs. Killing Joke
Table 6: Fate Squad vs. Fate Squad
Table 7: Killing Joke vs. Fate Squad
Table 8: Villains United Toolbox vs. Fate Squad
Table 9: Injustice Gang Hand-Flood vs. Squad
Table 10: Killing Joke vs Burn (Silver)
By the looks of the top tables, there seem to be three decks that are shaking up the new Silver Age metagame—Squadron, Checkmate Toolbox and “Killing Joke” (the discard-Justice League of Arkham deck). The builds of each deck are vastly different from player to player, and the Squadron decks don’t really look like any previous versions of the deck, with the Fate Artifact engine out in force. What it does show is a reasonable diversity of deck styles from aggro, to combo, to curve-based strategies. It’s hard to guess which deck will end up on top, but it seems that while the Killing Joke is doing well, it did have the most significant showing at the tournament, with over forty players running that strategy.
1:33 PM: Team Alternate Lose Condition
Shane Wiggans of Team Alternate Win Condition is having a terrific time playing his Checkmate deck. But the last round wasn’t so fun for the Metagame.com writer. His opponent was playing a Villains United aggressive deck and knew he was playing Checkmate. Shane missed his 1- and 2- drops, while his opponent dropped a Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant on turn 2 and a Dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint on turn 3. Shane played his Ahmed Samsarra in the visible area, thinking that he could move him out later with Rook Control or The Science Spire in his row. But Ahmed was team attacked and stunned, and when his opponent showed him the No Mercy in his row, he asked, “Do you have anything?” Shane didn’t have a way to team-up to allow him to use Science Spire, nor did he have a Threat Neutralized to stop the “lose the game” trigger from happening. So he just packed up his cards and decided to go for an early lunch.
“I think I have an advantage over the field now—I’ve had a good long lunch.” Shane smiled. “I don’t feel so bad. There have been twenty-eight games in this field with our deck (the rest of his team is playing it) and Tim [Batow] is 4-0. We haven’t had another loss due to the King trigger, so I’m still pretty happy.”
Armed with a full belly, I’m sure Shane Wiggans will recover from his quick loss and put his Ahmed into his hidden area a little more often!
1:21 PM: Curve Sentinels?!
Pro Circuit Atlanta Champion Vidi Wijaya was cruising at 3-0 and thought he had the format all worked out. But in the next round, he saw something that he never thought he’d see in Silver Age. He got Hounds of Ahab locked. His opponent played a turn 2 Midnight Sons naming Sentinels (an affiliation I thought no one was playing in the event), then played a Wild Ride fetching a Hounds of Ahab. From that point on, Vidi’s Squadron deck couldn’t really handle the Marvel Knights powerhouse. Hounds really hasn’t been seen since the time of the purple robot menace, so it certainly was a blast from the past. “What is this,” asked Vidi, “Golden Age a year ago?”
1:05 PM: Lounging Around . . . Pro Style!
Upper Deck is always trying to improve the quality of life for our players at Pro Circuits, and this event is no different. Apart from the fact that the tournament site is on beautiful San Francisco Bay, they have added a new feature to the event site—the Pro Player Lounge. 
The Pro Player lounge is an exclusive area where Pro Players can relax in between rounds. There they can play a game of Vs. or even some other games, watch a DVD on the big screen TV, or just sitting around and watch the terrific view. Even better is that the area is stocked with plenty of sodas and snacks so that the long, grueling day at the office isn’t too hard on the stomach. I know I wish that I was still playing so that I could take advantage of the facilities.
I even know some players who wished they had played faster decks; those who finished their round earlier got first shot at the new snacks. Maybe this is a good way to make sure rounds end quickly . . .
11:18 AM: Loose Lips
One of the most prolific and powerful decks in the format is the Justice League of Arkham discard deck, which has been dubbed “The Killing Joke” by my Metagame.com colleague Tim Willoughby. This deck was A close-kept secret by a number of big pro teams, but as with most secrets, there were a number of leaks; gradually, rumors became whispers, and whispers became discussions, and of course all discussions lead to posts on the forums! This meant that many players prepared for the coming onslaught of discard by packing specific bullets to be searched for via Enemy of my Enemy and Straight to the Grave.
9:53 AM: Every Team Has Its Day
One of the most remarkable statistics of this Pro Circuit is that nearly every major team in the game is being represented. Even teams with no major Silver Age presence (teams from the Origins expansions) have had characters or team-stamped cards appear in decks today, even unaffiliated!
Here’s a list of cards that have turned up in the field:
X-Men – Archangel, Angel
Brotherhood – Rem-Ram
Doom – Latverian Embassy
Fantastic Four – Franklin Richards, Trapped in Time
Gotham Knights – Huntress, Reluctant Queen
Teen Titans – Roy Harper ◊ Speedy
League of Assassins – Talia, Daughter of Madness
Arkham Inmates – Amadeus Arkham, Architect of Insanity
Deathstroke – Deathstroke the Terminator, Lethal Weapon
Spider-Friends – Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man
Sinister Syndicate – Vermin
Team Superman – Superman, Clark Kent
New Gods – (unconfirmed)
Revenge Squad – Metallo
Darkseid’s Elite – Glorious Godfrey
Marvel Knights – Black Panther, King of Wakanda
Underworld – Mephisto, Soulstealer
Crime Lords – Jester
X-Statix – Coach
Green Lantern – Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern
Emerald Enemies – Dr. Light, Master of Holograms
Manhunter – Harlequin (unconfirmed)
Anti-Matter – Anti-Green Lantern
Avengers – Hawkeye, Clinton Barton
Masters of Evil – Beetle, Armorsmith
Thunderbolts – Joystick
Squadron Supreme – Golden Archer, Wyatt McDonald
Kang – Kang, Kang Cobra
JLA – Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer
JLI – Sue Dibny
Injustice Gang – Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose
Secret Society – Deadshot, Floyd Lawton
Hellfire Club – Shinobi Shaw
Morlocks – Leech, Inhibitor
JSA – The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero
Shadowpact – Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic
Checkmate – Ahmed Samsarra, White King
Villains United – Fatality, Flawless Victory
Unaffiliated – Professor Ivo
The no-shows are Sentinels, Negative Zone, Skrulls, Crisis, and Speed Force, none of which fielded a single character or team-stamped card in the tournament. But what that shows is that this is a wide-open format whose variety of cards is unparalleled in Vs. System history. Will there be one strategy that triumphs?
9:00 AM: Welcome to Pro Circuit San Francisco!
It’s PC time, and today, the Pro Circuit arrives for the first time in the beautiful port city of San Francisco. After gorging themselves on a variety of seafood down at the Fisherman’s Wharf, the players are ready for the debut of the newest member of the Vs. family, Silver Age. There are rumors of Turbo “Fate-a-tron” Artifact decks, as well as a less likely contender in the form of Justice League of Arkham. We’ll see soon if the decks live up to the hype. Also, this event marks the Pro Circuit debut of the powerful new Infinite Crisis expansion, which has been billed as the most influential set since Marvel Origins. It’s only a matter of time until we find out what the crisis has revealed to the Vs. pro players of the world.