This weekend has been a Dave Spears resurgence. The man who is the hardest working man in Vs.—and probably the hardest man on himself—has always been known as the guy who took it to the hole in the $10Ks but choked in the PCs. Still, his record is certainly solid enough to place him among the top names, so why so humble, Mr. Spears?

“I’d like to say my ‘resurgence’ here is some kind of skill-oriented thing, but I’m playing the auto-pilot deck of the format. I think it’s the best deck of the format. It’s nothing to do with skill or anything like that. I just think I have the best deck against GLEE. It’s not like Big Spooky’s (Michael Barnes) Xavier’s Dream deck of the (Modern Age) format, but it’s still the best for today.”

Despite his early success, Dave is down-to-earth when it comes to discussing his chances for a Top 8 at the PC. “This is not a self-confidence thing, I’m just very realistic. I’ll be less hard on myself when I concentrate more on the game, focus more on the game, and on improving my drafting. If I go 6-3 tomorrow and make Top 8, that’s different. But I have a horrible Day 2 record. The Constructed is fun but not very skill intensive. But the Sealed Pack is so hard—in Constructed, you can make mistakes and still recover, but with Sealed Pack if you make one mistake, it’s usually game over.” But that doesn’t stop Dave from being excited over the draft—especially the sleek, new Avengers set. “I like the set—love it to death even. Squadron Supreme is awesome—I’ll de drafting them, or thinking about it, anyway. I wanted to draft Avengers—heck I may still—but everyone’s drafting Avengers.”

Still, Dave, who constantly strives to be better, has found it difficult to keep his drafting skills up, and feels that he needs to be better. And so, this will be his final PC with Team Realmworx—a decision that has hit them all very hard. They want to consolidate their team to be a purely West Coast team, and he feels similarly—that it’s too hard to keep up with a team that has the advantage of testing, building, and drafting together, but where he has to travel across the country to work with them properly. In his ever-so-humble words, “I’m leaving them after the PC. They’re such a solid group together and I don’t think I add to the mix a lot.” But it is an amicable departure, and they are sad that it has come to the point where they need to separate.

But shed no tears for David Spears! As Dave explains the Realmworx departure to me, a very odd event occurs. Jason Dawson, who had just finished winning his eleventh round match, had overheard us and interjected, “He’s joining us! Put it in writing!” Could it be? Could the rascally Spears join the FTN network? “I think so, but don’t put it in writing ’cause I’m not sure. (oops!) There’s an offer and they’re really good—they have the draft testing, deck building, and everything. They’re all so much better than I am . . .”

And so it goes on forever. Dave will probably never admit to himself, much less the world, that he belongs up there with the rest of the names he works so hard to keep up with, and perhaps it will take that Top 8 to make him see the light. Call me a jinx, but I think he just might have a shot. He’s still my darkhorse pick, and I won’t back down from trying to prove his worth.