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Anand grew concerned that he and Adam had spilled all the secrets of the format to a potential competitor. Adam pooh-poohed the notion. “He’s one guy in the tournament among over 300 players. What are the odds we’ll end up playing him?” |
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Kristian Kockott finished the Constructed portion of the Swiss with an 11-1 record, the best record in the field. Michael Dalton, after starting 10-2 in that stretch, finished the Swiss rounds at 18-3, the best record in the field. |
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The mood in the match was pretty light, with the jovial TOGIT crew fighting for crowd dominance over the Australian contingent. But this was a battle of superheroes, not cheer squads, and the winner would be determined on the field of play. |
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Welcome to the European bracket of Pro Circuit: Amsterdam. It’s one of the most ancient of fights—the Netherlands against Germany. |
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Prosak offered the coin flip. “Okay, umm . . . do you want the number side or the, uhh . . . the weird side?” |
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In this match, Australia is fighting the “Old Country,” but the confluence of events does not end there. The very teams themselves are at odds, with the battle of the lawful Marvel Knights and the chaotic Crime Lords/Underworld being fought in the field of play. |
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Not only was this a quarterfinal matchup to determine who would fight on for at least one more round toward a $40,000 first prize, it was also the unofficial New Jersey State Championships. |
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Check out bios of the Top 8 players here! |
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Check out the decklists from the Top 8 here! |
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Two TGC juggernauts face off this last round with their first Vs. System Top 8 on the line. |
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This is it, crunch time! The winner gets a chance to play tomorrow, while the loser gets to sit on the sidelines. |
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Nick Little was hoping to win this match and become the first player in Vs. System history to make two Pro Circuit Top 8’s, a feat he last accomplished at the first Pro Circuit event. Despite having some ludicrous power in his deck, including three copies of Hordes of Apokolips, his battle to repeat Top 8 finishes has been fraught with peril throughout the last pod. |
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Last night over dinner, Gary Wise and I teamed up to draft Man of Steel against Jason Grabher-Meyer and Toby Wachter. |
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Jacob’s been on a horror run since dominating the early part of the tournament. He had a 13-2 record but proceeded to lose the next four rounds, putting him on the cusp of elimination from the Top 8. He needed to win his last two rounds and hope for some favorable breakers to keep the dream alive. |
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You would be very hard pressed to find two nicer players in this Pro Circuit. Bartter, sporting his VsParadise.com t-shirt, is from Australia, so he’s probably a bit tired of Americans complaining of jet lag. He came from Down Under. He knows everything about jet lag. |
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Eugene won the flip, and the players decided that whoever won also had to take care of the endurance totals on the touch-screen computer, as they saw it as quite the burden. Oh, the life of a professional TCG player is harsh. |
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Going into the draft, Nick knew he had to go 3-0 to lock down Top 8, and he would have a shot with a 2-1 record. However, he was seated between two people who had one loss more than he did, which made him scream out about his “God seat.” |
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Day 2 is getting closer and closer to the finish line, and the players are shaking off the tiredness that comes with two days of playing to put in their best effort to win those last few rounds to make it to the Top 8. |
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Jogia opened the game with turn 2 Shaligo, and Bravi played exactly the same card on the next turn while Danesh had no play. |
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When I asked them about any accomplishments, Chris just shrugged and said, “Well, I know he has done well in Magic.” David explained, “Yeah, I was the European Champion like 5 years ago.” |
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These two Europeans are TCG specialists. Both of them have attended many different TCG professional events and posted many money finishes. Now, they were facing each other with 10-6 records in the Pro Circuit, hoping to post a decent finish in this event. |
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Adam’s Round 16 opponent was Peter Sundholm, a great guy with a great accent, a great beard, and a great mullet. |
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It would be a classic battle at the top tables in any European premier event. The Germans and the Dutch are among the best card-gaming players in Europe . . . heck, in the world. |
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A native of Tilburg, The Netherlands, Remie didn’t have to come far for this event |
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For the second draft of the day, I covered Adam Prosak, a well-known player who has reached the Top 8 of multiple $10Ks. |
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Osyp and Dirk are both part of the high-profile TCG crew that made the move to Vs. System after picking it up to check it out. |
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From the misty depths of the press room came a hoarse, desperate cry . . . “What you mean, Zanzibar can’t spare the midgets?!” |
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We just reached the middle of the Marvel Knights draft rounds and we thought it might be a good time to check out how two of remaining Americans were faring out. With the rush of the draft now pass them, would jet lag crawl back into action? |
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When you draft, opening your first pack is always exciting. Which rare will be there, which uncommons, or for some of us, which foil? The first pick of the draft often dictates how the rest of your draft will shape up. |
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The first round of feature match action on Saturday showcased two players with 10-2 records from opposite ends of the globe. Like their time zones, their two drafts were like night and day. |
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Adam Horvath is from New Jersey, and is a member of the famed Team TOGIT. A 24-year-old network administrator, Horvath came in eleventh at PC: Los Angeles. Darwin Kastle is a game designer and developer from Boston. At 33 years of age, he has seven M:TG Top 8s in major event, won the first team Pro Tour, a Grand Prix, and the Rio Invitational. |
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After the unconventional draft, Alex was paired up with Simon O’Keefe in round 13. |
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For the first draft of Day 2 here at PC: Amsterdam, I decided to cover a friend of mine from Los Angeles. Most of you won’t know him, but he’s a strong player and a strong drafter who beats me far more often than I’d like. |
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Scott Hunstad is an expatriate American who now resides in Sydney, Australia. He co-owns the VSParadise.com fan-based website, but he was showing that he could mix it with the pros, posting an impressive 10-2 record in the Marvel Modern Age format. |
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Darwin is a true old-school TCG player, having attended almost every professional event since playing trading cards for money was first introduced. |
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Hometown favorite Bas Postema found himself sitting pretty in fifth position at 10-2 after Day 1. Saturday morning, however, was to be the true test of Europe vs. America. |
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For those of you who enjoy data, check out the breakdown of players by country at PC: Amsterdam! |
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Check out all the dirt from the tournament floor as our own J. Gary Wise brings you the highs, the lows, and the hilarity of PC: Amsterdam. |
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Check out all the decklists from Pro Circuit: Amsterdam! |
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These two are veterans of professional card games, and they probably have played against each other more times than they could really remember. This obviously means any game turns into a long series of jokes interrupted by some actual gaming. |
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It was that time of the day—elimination time. Both of these people were well-respected TCG players, so they had been in this type of spot before. |
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By the time the final round of Day 1 rolled around there were two beaten and jet lagged competitors seated for what amounted to an elimination match. Both players had picked up five losses over the course of the day, and one more would send them straight in the direction of tomorrow’s $10K tournament. |
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This match started off with a lot of confusion, as Rob Dougherty was nowhere to be found. Mark was already entertaining hopes of a free win after the three minute limit expired, but with this match being a Feature Match and all, Rob wasn’t in danger quite yet. |
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Ryan Jones is one of the top members of Team Realmworx and is the only PC Champion in attendance today. Al-Bacha Tarik is from the native side of the pond, and it looked as if he was a great deal fresher than Jones. |
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There seem to be infinite variations on the Marvel Knights theme this weekend, with Marvel Knights teaming up with just about every affiliation in the Modern Age format for a variety of effects. |
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In this battle of Europeans, Dutchman Bas Postema and Italian Matieo Stamini are sitting pretty at 7-2 and are among the most successful representatives of their continent. |
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Rivera had to take a mulligan but still came out with turn 1 Carbone’s Assassins, turn 2 Electro, while Wright only found a turn 2 Roscoe Sweeny. “That’s a turn late,” Rivera quipped. |
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Daniel probably drove here from his hometown of Erlangen, Germany. On the other hand . . . Luke surely didn’t drive. Even the plane trip must have felt like forever. He’s from Down Under, the lovely city of Sydney, Australia. |
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Dustin Pidgeon qualified in a local-level PCQ. From Brunswick, New Jersey, he was running a nearly all-concealed deck that was giving incredible results to those who were playing it. |
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More interesting single cards abound this weekend, and another group of interesting picks came to the forefront. |
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Andrea Santin is a longtime-TCG professional who has recently turned his hand to Vs. System. Playing in his first Vs. System tournament at $10K Bologna, he made the Top 8 with Curve Sentinels, and that qualified him for the PC. This is his second (!) event, which attests to his terrific TCG sense. |
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Olivier is another German in a long line of German players today that have been showing that they can help Europe take America’s crown when it comes to Vs. System supremacy. |
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Day 1 is halfway over, and there were only four undefeated players going into round seven. Table 1 was a match between Alfonso Bueno and Tim Rivera. |
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The young American Brian Gates found himself facing TCG veteran and well-known deckbuilder John Ormerod at a 5-1 record. |
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Although Kastle is surely a widely known player, he is not the reason I was prepared to come to blows with reporters much heavier than me to get this match. The reason is really João Bento. |
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Curious about what country each of the PC Amsterdam players call home? Check this out . . . |
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Heath Scheiman is from Cincinnati. He is a 32-year-old independent IT consultant. Twelve years Scheiman’s senior, Daniel Zink is a civil servant from Bochun, Germany. He traveled here today as part of Hans Joachim Hoeh’s group. |
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The new Marvel Modern Age is a hit with players and deckbuilders alike, with no one agreeing what the best deck in the format is. The Marvel Knights team is numerically dominating, thanks mostly to the most powerful team-up card ever, Midnight Sons, and the suite of powerful cards the team brings to the table. |
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“If I get covered, can I say ‘hi’ to my mom?” asked Jacob Rabinowitz. Hi, Jacob’s mom! He’s doing pretty well today, so you can be proud of him. |
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Alfonso Bueno was running an aggressive Syndicate/Crime Lords deck, while Carl Perlas of Team Realmworx was playing Spider-Friends/Marvel Knights. |
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Both these players find themselves in the perfect position after four rounds—four wins each. Raffaele is a well-respected and accomplished TCG player from Italy, while Dair Grant’s claim to fame is a Top 8 finish at a $10K tournament and winning five Sealed Pack PCQs. |
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Sadly, no one who registered for PC: Amsterdam felt it was worth being kicked out of the tournament to run Juggernaut. |
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Neil Reeves got off to a fast start with his Team X-change deck, and after a couple of rounds of play, I had a chance to talk to him about why he and fellow PC: Indy Top 8 competitor Gabe Walls played their deck. |
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The resident of Florida, when asked what he does, replied, “Not a whole lot. I’ve graduated from college, so I’m being a bum!” With a big grin, he began the match. |
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Although they are no strangers to Feature Match areas, Karsten and Edbury started by learning how to operate the new scorekeeping system. Basically, players put their endurance changes on Tablet PC, and the changes show up on the huge screens, allowing the spectators to know a bit more about the game state. |
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Marshall James is the American representative in this match and should, to quote Antonino De Rosa, beat “the just weaker” European, Jelger Wiegersma. The Americans have been making bold statements about the play skill of the Europeans compared to theirs, and so far, it seems they weren’t quite right. |
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Both these Vs. System players have a lot of experience, with Anand making money at PC: Los Angeles and multiple $10K events, and Carl Perlas finishing second at the $10K Origins Convention Championship. Anand wanted me to mention a special shout-out to the lovely ladies of the Metagame.com editing team. |
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Jeroen Remie is one of the best card players in The Netherlands and surely one of its biggest hopes of keeping the first European Pro Circuit trophy at home. He’s hoping to ride his aggressive Marvel Knights characters into Day 2. |
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Alex is a well-known TCG professional and also owns the Kings Games store in Brooklyn, New York. Nick Little hails from the U.S. Midwest and made the Top 8 of the very first Pro Circuit event. |
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A native of Bochun, Hans Joachim Hoeh has attracted more attention than virtually any other European player as of late. The reason? Well, for those of you who’ve somehow managed to miss it, Hoeh has distinguished himself by joining the ranks of Rob Leander and winning two $10K events back to back—$10K Bologna and $10K Hannover. |
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Many PC competitors were running Hounds of Ahab, either as a splash into a pre-existing theme or as the heart of their deck. Bologna and Hannover $10K champion Hans Joachim Hoeh did the latter and had one of the best examples of such a deck in the tournament. |
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Pro Circuit: Amsterdam is officially underway, and the first round finds Antonino De Rosa matched up with Adam Fears. |
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Donald Noland has made three $10K Top 8s, but in the first round of this Professional Circuit, he has to face the current Magic World Champion, Julien Nuijten. |
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Ryan Jones is the returning Pro Circuit champion, having won PC Los Angeles at the end of 2004. He decided to bring what many Vs. pro players consider the “safest” deck in the format, Spider-Knights. |
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There are obviously inherent advantages coming into a tournament like PC Amsterdam for those on either side of the ocean. If you’re American, you’ve had access to Vs. System since the day it first hit the shelves . . . |
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Sowden, 29, is from London and is an IT contractor. You might recognize him as a Top 4 finisher from $10K Minehead, which was the event that qualified him for this weekend’s Pro Circuit. |
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Well known as one of the Top 8 contenders in the Vs. System’s first PC at Gen Con Indy, Steve Horowitz qualified on Day 2 through, as always, a draft. |
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Even though the Constructed portion of the Pro Circuit will use the brand-new Marvel Modern Age (MMA) format, the last-chance qualifier tournaments for PC: Amsterdam used the Golden Age format. |
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I can’t complain, though—at least I had a bed. Not every competitor at this event can say the same. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jason “J.T.” Tomberg, a.k.a. Tom Hanks in Terminal. |
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Pro Circuit Amsterdam unofficially kicked off today with the Last Chance Qualifiers. Those who found themselves unqualified for the main event traveled to Schiphol to hopefully get one of the last couple of slots still left up for grabs. |
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Out of all the elements of well-rounded Vs. play, the most difficult skill to hone is probably drafting. |
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