Some cynics might suggest that it’s too early to start waving the banner of Pro Circuit: Amsterdam in some sort of pre-event pep rally. To these people, I say tish and pish! In an untimely interruption from our traditional programming of “all strategy, all the time,” I feel duty bound to express my excitement about the impending stops on the premier Vs. System events circuit.

There is a reason why Christmas and birthdays and holidays and the Super Bowl are so much bigger than other days—anticipation. It doesn’t matter how good the event itself is. Even if you’re given cufflinks and socks, it won’t diminish the fact that in the two months prior to Christmas, you had a spark of excitement threatening to erupt into flame and consume you.

Take a doughnut, or a Twinkie*, or something similar. Put it on a plate. Put it on the other side of the room, maybe on top of the television. Do you want it? You aren’t allowed to have it for an hour, or a day, or until you’ve done those fifty sit-ups that you decided were a good idea when you planned out your year on January 1. All of a sudden, it seems a lot more attractive. Once you actually get it, it will be the best doughnut ever.

That’s how Amsterdam is for me right now. Every day that goes by is a day closer to the big party in a foreign land that is the Pro Circuit. There will be the journey with friends. The meals in restaurants serving food that I don’t recognise. Friends. Rivals. Friendly rivalry. I can’t wait.

Marvel Knights is out of the bag. Some of its characters are hiding, but we now know that they’re there (the cheeky little minxes). Suddenly, there is a whole new set of challenges for every deckbuilder in the land, a whole host of new interactions and predictions to be made. We have our format for Amsterdam, and it looks like a doozy.

If you are looking for a goal, let me set one for you. Build a great deck. Do some drafting. Qualify for a Pro Circuit. Go. The Pro Circuit itself is a big prize for every player that gets the chance to play there. If you cannot make it to Amsterdam, there’s always New Amsterdam (or New York, as I hear it’s now been renamed) shortly afterward.

As a self-confessed geek, I relish the Pro Circuit as a field on which to shine . . . a field without all that grass and “weather” to worry about. Good times. History is being made all the time. By definition, everything we do is history, but the Pro Circuit exists in more memories than most other things in which I’ve been involved. Have I done fun things? I’ve walked the red carpet at a premiere with Katie Holmes. I’ve had a (frankly rather bizarre) conversation with Lambert Wilson** about toilets. Does anyone remember these things but me? Probably not. I’d like to think that Katie still thinks of me fondly, but that’s probably a pipe dream. Her cute, lopsided smile is surely being used elsewhere right now to devastating effect. With any luck, I can carve my little piece of history on the Pro Circuit.

I have made many, many friends playing Vs. System. I’ve learned a few things about comics (there’s a weird green guy called Doop?), a few things about foreign climes (when you order a burger in the UK, you’re not typically asked how well-done you want it), and plenty about how to have a whale of a time. If playing cards in your local shop is a soiree, then the Pro Circuit is a massive New Year’s party in Times Square. It’s even invite-only. Do you see what those cunning foxes are doing? They’re putting the doughnut on your TV so you can see it—so you’ll enjoy it even more when you get it.

Grab the doughnut.

Devour it.

Come say hi at the Pro Circuit. There’s still time to qualify. Go!

Until the next time,

Tim “Only Doing One Type of Circuit Training This Year” Willoughby

timwilloughby (at) hotmail (dot) com

*I have never actually seen, let alone experienced, a Twinkie. It is on my big list of things to do when I’m next in the USA. Thank you, UDE. Thank you, Pro Circuit.

** The French guy in the second and third Matrix films.