This week, I’m going to take a break from my regular deck analysis articles and write about my experiences during the weekend of July 1 in Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s right, I’m writing a tournament report—something Vs. System needs more of. Tournament reports are great because they allow those who didn’t attend an event to experience it, and they also reinforce the community aspect of our wonderful game. Oftentimes, we as players get into heated discussions involving strategy, pro players versus casual players, and the state of the game, and sometimes these discussions create a lot of tension between groups of players. Tournament reports remind us that we’re all playing the same game for the same reason—to have fun and hang out with our friends. All players, pro and casual alike, can relate to the amazing stories of losing by a single point of endurance or topdecking the one card you need to turn the tide of the game. Tournament reports are for everyone.

Even though I’ve played on the Pro Circuit, $10K Charlotte was my first ever $10K event. The tournament was taking place a full month after the Pro Circuit, so I knew I had plenty of time to test and find a deck I was comfortable playing.

Initially, I planned to take Good Guys to Charlotte, but two-and-a-half weeks prior to the event, I questioned my decision. The last two decks I did extensive testing against were Deep Green and Fate Squad, which happened to be the two worst matchups for Good Guys. Merlyn, Deadly Archer and Kang, Kang Cobra cause too much trouble if they’re allowed to remain in the hidden area, and the only way to make them visible is via No Man Escapes the Manhunters. I upped the No Man count to four copies, but even then, I couldn’t reliably draw into it by turn 4. By turn 5, there was the option of using Kooey Kooey Kooey to go get it, but by then it was usually too late. It’s hard to use Kooey on turn 4 because you run into uniqueness issues caused by not running a 4-drop that isn’t named Katar Hol.

Against Fate Squad, their characters are so huge that you almost always lose Booster Gold and your 1-drop on turn 3. The character wielding the Fate Artifacts is almost impossible to take down, and even if you do get them stunned, Panacea Potion will undo all your hard work. I considered running four copies of Meltdown to get rid of Amulet of Nabu, but to fit it in, I had to cut too many important cards. I was expecting the three most played decks to be Mexican Hardware Store, Fate Squad, and Deep Green, and I didn’t have a good matchup against two of them. There just wasn’t enough room to tech for bad matchups and keep the deck focused, so I decided I would have to play something else.

During that final week before the $10K, I scrambled to tweak my deck and become familiar with important matchups. I didn’t change too many things from the original build that TAWC played at PC: SF; I replaced Genis-Vell ◊ Photon with Huntress, Reluctant Queen and Connie Webb with more copies of Sarge Steel, but that was about it. The day before the $10K, I was confident that I had chosen the right deck, but I wasn’t too comfortable with my ability to play it or with my decklist. I was skilled enough that I could pilot it without making too many mistakes, but my knowledge of what cards were important in specific matchups was lacking. Also, my deck list seems pretty bland, as I went for consistency over flashy tech cards. During testing, I was so scared of missing drops against Mexican Hardware Store and Fate Squad that I decided it was better to be on the safe side and run more characters and search cards.

It’s only a two-hour drive from Chapel Hill to the Charlotte Convention Center, so my dad and I decided to leave at 7 a.m. Saturday and stay overnight. I got all my stuff together after getting little to no sleep, and we began the drive down to Charlotte. The highway isn’t very scenic; it’s just a lot of asphalt and trees, so I slept for the entire car ride. After we arrived, I went inside the convention center, registered for the $10K, and began looking around for people I knew. As I said before, none of my teammates were going to be attending, but I’m pretty good friends with some of the local North Carolina and Virginia players, so I went to hang out with them.

Stan Portnov has been one of my good Vs. friends since I met him at a PCQ last December, and I did the bulk of my testing with him. We were running the same deck, except he couldn’t find a fourth Huntress, Reluctant Queen, so he played Genis-Vell ◊ Photon, Transformed instead. Jokingly, I told him that the Photon would show up in a match when he needed a Huntress to negate something and it would keep him from placing in the money. Other players I hung out with throughout the day included Ryan and Adam Ward, Drago Bratic, and Michael Palmer, all players I normally see at local PCQs. They all ran different decks than Stan and I, and throughout the day, I checked back to see how they were doing.

When the head judge announced that the $10K would be eleven rounds, everyone around me groaned. Most $10K events only go for nine or ten rounds, but we had 160 people registered, so apparently the head judge decided we needed to play an extra round. I knew that the tournament wouldn’t be over until 8 or 9 p.m. and that I would be completely burned out by the end of the day. Nevertheless, the first round pairings were posted, and I got my deck out and headed to where I was supposed to be.

Unlike at Pro Circuit: Atlanta, I kept score for all my matches and wrote down some generic notes about what happened during the games. So onto the part you’re probably waiting for: the actual tournament!

Round 1: Wes Edwards, X-Mental

I know Wes from local PCQs and Sneak Previews, but I had no idea what he was playing. He won the die roll and took evens, and then played Captain Boomerang, George Harkness on turn 2. I hit Sarge Steel (who was bounced to my hand by Boomerang) and then Ahmed Samsarra next turn, while the only play Wes had was replaying Boomerang. On turn 4, Wes hit Fatality, Flawless Victory, which scared me a bit because, even though my Ahmed was hidden, I knew he was in danger. I played Bizarro, ME AM BIZARRO #1, and Wes tried to play No Man Escapes the Manhunters on Ahmed. I used Brother I Satellite; fetched Huntress, Reluctant Queen; exhausted the Satellite; and negated the effect. He tried to send Fatality into Bizarro, but I had a Checkmate Safe House and Knightmare Scenario to brick-wall the attack. I attacked back into Boomerang, putting Wes down to 29 endurance. On turn 5, Wes missed again and played another Captain Boomerang, and I was able to attack for enough damage to end the game. I felt sorry for him because he missed all his drops, but at least he got his one bad draw out of the way early on.

1-0

Round 2: Kenneth Edwards, Fate Squad

You can read about this match here. Before we began, Kenneth told me he was cheering me on in Atlanta, and it was nice to know I had a fan. The match got underway, and after seeing him get all three Fate Artifacts out on turn 2, I thought I was in trouble. By turn 3, I thought it would be impossible for me to win, but I was able to stabilize with two copies of Knight Armor in play on turn 4. Slaughter Swamp single-handedly wins this matchup, and I’m glad I remembered that I could use it mid-attack to shrink Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke.

2-0

Round 3: Stephen Silverman, Good Guys

I know what you’re thinking: “Hey, you wrote that article about Good Guys, you should know how to beat it easily!” Well, ironically enough, I didn’t. It didn’t help when Stephen hit everything, including a turn 1 Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle and all his Nth Metals. And he won the die roll and took evens. I thought about getting Kang, Kang Cobra on turn 3 with my Enemy of My Enemy, but I thought it would be better to wait until turn 5 when I could really wreck his board, so I got Ahmed instead. This decision was probably the worst one I made all day, because on turn 4, he decimated my board and got pretty far ahead in the endurance race. I played a 2-drop and Kang on turn 5, but by then, it was way too late. He had the No Man to ship Kang to the visible area, and then he proceeded to deal even more damage by attacking him. I hate making bad plays and losing because of it.

2-1

Round 4: Michael Gemme, Mexican Hardware Store

Even though it was only one loss, I was already starting to feel kind of bad. Too much confidence can do that to you. However, when I sat down and saw what I was playing, I was pretty happy, because this matchup was the one I had had the most practice with. I never really felt threatened during the early game because I stabilized on turn 4, and even though he had all his burn effects (including Flamethrower), he still missed his 3-drop. That definitely hurt him the most because it made it extremely hard for him to stun Ahmed (who was equipped with Knight Armor) and start dealing direct breakthrough endurance loss. Michael got me down to 3 endurance, but I dealt more than enough damage to get him way into the negatives.

3-1

Round 5: Brian Muller, PITA (I’m sure you can figure out what it stands for)

I won the die roll and chose evens, and at first I thought I was playing G’Lock when he dropped G’Nort, Tomar Re, and Malvolio. I was going to search out Bizarro World, but when he didn’t play Katma Tui on turn 5, I thought it was safe to get something else. Brian made a bad attack with Malvolio, forgetting that I had activated Checkmate Safe House, and got brick-walled. I was able to swing back for enough endurance loss to seal the game because of his error, winning with my endurance total still at 37. I asked him about his deck after the match, and it turned out he wasn’t playing G’Lock at all. Instead, he had built a deck that takes advantage of having characters with big DEF and using Sinestro, Enemy of the Corps to win on turn 7. It was an interesting deck, and after he told me what his strategy was, all his card choices made sense. It’s always nice to play something fresh for a change.

4-1

Round 6: Kevin Cavanagh, Good Guys

When Kevin played Sue Dibny on turn 1, I accidentally groaned out loud, thinking that this match would be a repeat of round 3. Kevin heard me sigh and asked what I was sighing about, and I said, “I hate this matchup; your deck is great, I love it, but I hate this matchup for my sake.” What caught me off guard was when he responded by saying he’d read my Good Guys article and thought that I would know the deck was good. The fact that people were actually reading my writing and saying they liked it still surprised me every time I heard it. I continued to play, feeling the boost in my confidence from a simple compliment from my opponent. He didn’t play an Nth Metal on Shayera ◊ Thal Hawkwoman, which certainly helped my situation. My draw wasn’t bad, but it could’ve been better. Still, his wasn’t so hot either, so I guess I can’t complain. Knight Armor kept me in the game during the early turns, allowing me to save endurance and keep my characters around for more than just a single turn. The game went to time, and I don’t have any notes about the last turn of the game, but I won on turn 6 by brick-walling one of his characters. Checkmate Safe House might be one of my new favorite cards because of the ridiculous DEF bonus it provides. I shook Kevin’s hand, wished him luck, and went to ask how my friends were doing.

5-1

Round 7: Christopher Carner, Dr. Strange / Spiderman, The Spectacular Spider-Man Lock

Chris won the die roll and chose evens, and we both whiffed on turn 1 and 2. When Chris started off with Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature and Fatality, Flawless Victory, I thought he was playing the deck that the Scott Hunstad, Alex Brown, and Luke Bartter played at PC: SF. I knew a little about the deck just from reading Alex Brown’s article about it, but not really enough to have a solid game plan. On turn 5, he used Coercion to team-up with Kang Council and then recruited Kang, The Conqueror, and I knew I was up against something I had never seen before. I deciphered from the Kang recruit that he was trying to stall the game out to turn 8 or 9, so I figured I would have to be aggressive and end the game before it got to the later turns. On turn 6, Chris recruited Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man and exhausted my board. However, I had initiative next turn and he under-dropped, so I was able to push through just enough damage to put him at -3. I talked to Chris after the match, curious about what his deck’s goal was, and he said he had planned to boost Dr. Strange, move all his opponent’s characters to the hidden area, use Spider-Man to exhaust them all, and attack direct for as much damage as possible. It looked like a really cool concept, and it was too bad for Chris that he missed his 7-drop, because if he hadn’t, our match would’ve ended quite differently.

6-1

Round 8: Matthew Frankl, Good Guys

At this point, I began to feel the fatigue that comes with playing in a long tournament. As soon as my opponent dropped Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle, I knew I was in for another long match. I couldn’t team-up with Villains United because I had to use my Ahmed search on turn 4 to get a Slaughter Swamp so that I could recruit Bizarro. So, even if I had drawn a copy of The Science Spire, it would’ve been completely useless. I didn’t get a Threat Neutralized, either, so I knew early on that my King would be a liability. During Matthew’s attack step on turn 4, he had his 2- through 4-drops all equipped with Nth Metals, but I almost managed to brick-wall one of his attacks. He thought for a few moments, then decided to use a Kooey Kooey Kooey from his resource row, putting him down to three resources. His attack succeeded, but I figured he’d be in big trouble next turn when he couldn’t play a character. However, both Ahmed and Bizarro were stunned, so I was forced to keep Ahmed while he didn’t lose a single character. On turn 5, my only play was Maxwell Lord, Black King, and even though Matt didn’t recruit anyone, I knew I was in trouble. Matt ended up stunning both of my Kings, forcing me to concede because one of them would end up hitting the KO’d pile. I found it ironic that so far, my only losses were to Good Guys, the deck I had originally planned to bring to Charlotte. Oh well, 6-2 is still respectable.

6-2

Round 9: Logan Powell, Mexican Hardware Store with Fate Artifacts

I was glad to see MHS again. When I saw Amulet of Nabu, I was sort of surprised, but then I figured that the suite of Fate Artifacts would actually be pretty good in a deck that focuses on equipment. However, he never managed to get the rest of the Artifacts into play before the character equipped with the Amulet got KO’d. Logan made a bad attack on turn 4 or 5, and it allowed me to turn the game around by stabilizing earlier than I thought I would. I made a mistake by forgetting to use Maxwell Lord’s effect to prevent Logan from reinforcing his Ape X, but in the end, I was able to deal enough damage to get him down to -4.

7-2

Round 10: Ryan Ward, Fate Squad

It always sucks to have to play one of your friends, especially this late in the tournament when you’re both on the bubble. I knew what Ryan was playing, so we just decided to skip the die roll because he wanted odds and I wanted evens. The early game was similar to my round 2 matchup; Ryan’s huge characters beat up my average-sized ones and got me pretty low on endurance. I used Slaughter Swamp again to shrink Ryan’s Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke mid-attack on turn 5, but he had a face-down copy of Dr. Fate’s Tower and used it to get rid of his extra card. I was actually unable to win on turn 6, so the game was dragged out to turn 7 with both of us below 10 endurance. I figured I had the advantage because I had dropped Deathstroke the Terminator, Ultimate Assassin and had three copies of Checkmate Safe House in my resource row. I shipped all my characters to the support row and passed. Ryan tried to swing into Deathstroke, but I was able to brick-wall the attack, and he promptly scooped up his cards.

8-2

Round 11: Colby Gerrish, Check-Mental

Surprisingly enough, this was my first matchup all day to feature another Checkmate deck. I figured that 9-2 would definitely Top 8, and 8-3 with good tiebreakers might make it, too. I wasn’t too nervous about this match because, win or lose, I was going to be in the Top 24, which was my primary goal going into the event. I got stuck with odds, but the matchup proceeded pretty smoothly. We both kept our Ahmeds in play and traded blows each turn, steadily reducing each other’s endurance. Throughout the course of the match, I felt like I was in control; although he had all his copies of Checkmate Safe House in his resource row, I had Brother Eye to make sure my attacks succeeded. I played a little more conservatively than normal so that I could save up for a turn 7 win, where I had Deathstroke, Huntress, Maxwell, and Bizarro to attack with. Colby missed his 7-drop, playing Professor X, Headmaster instead. I used Maxwell’s effect to prevent him from reinforcing, and then attacked for enough damage to bring Colby well into the negatives.

9-2

Whew. Day 1 was finally over. Knowing that I was guaranteed a Top 8 spot, I wasn’t actually as excited as I thought I would’ve been. Rather, I felt relieved, both that the day was over and that most of the pressure was gone. Ryan came up to me, telling me that he had won as well and thinking that maybe he could squeak in to the Top 8 in 8th place if his tiebreakers were good. The final standings went up and everyone rushed over to see how they finished, almost trampling one of the floor judges in the process. I finished second after the Swiss, behind only the amazing Billy Postlethwait, who didn’t lose a single game all day. Adam, Michael, and Stan all finished out the money, but Drago finished 22nd. Ryan, after seeing that he had finished in the ever-hated 9th place, was really disappointed, but at least he didn’t finish 25th. I stuck around for another hour, waiting for the judges to print out the Top 8 decklists so that I could take them back to my hotel room and study them. After the Top 8 went up on Metagame, some of my teammates called me and congratulated me on my finish. Ryan, Adam, and Drago wanted to go get pizza afterwards, but I was too exhausted and decided just to go back to the hotel and sleep.

The next day, I got up early and had some breakfast in the hotel lobby. My dad checked out of the hotel, and I walked down to the convention center and sat down to look at the other Top 8 decklists for the first time. I looked for my opponent’s deck and saw that I was massively out-teched. Dusty Hostutler’s list sported interesting pieces of tech, such as Glorious Godfrey, that I had never even though of, and right off the bat I knew it would be hard for me to beat him in two separate games.

I didn’t notice it at first, but after a few minutes, I realized that I wasn’t nervous or feeling any pressure at all. I was content with having gotten as far as I did, and I figured that if I didn’t win this $10K, there were plenty more in the future that I could attend and do better in. I reasoned that Top 8 in my first $10K was pretty good, and win or lose, I would leave Charlotte with more experience and skill than I had before. I was confident in my ability to succeed, but not so driven to win that I would be devastated if I lost. I wished I could’ve felt this way in every tournament I’ve played in, because having a relaxed state of mind makes everything seem so much easier.

The Top 8 began and I sat down across from Dusty. We shook hands, shuffled up really well (since our decks were just sorted from the deck check), and drew our opening hands. For game 1, I had a horrible draw because I missed Bizarro and couldn’t team-up. Dusty had Merlyn, Deadly Archer and attempted to shoot Ahmed, but I flipped Threat Neutralized to save myself from losing. Still, my King was off the board, and I had no way to search out my locations. I got Merlyn’s counter off on turn 5, but that was the only attack I got to make because Glorious Godfrey shut down my 4-drop. By turn 6, it was obvious that Dusty had won, but the game went to turn 7 because I was barely hanging on. The two cards I drew that turn were Sarge Steel and Ahmed, so I promptly scooped and hoped for a better draw in game 2.

For the next game, I got to choose evens and my opening hand was much better. I got a 2-drop, along with Ahmed and Bizarro, and Dusty had to play Elimination Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot instead of a more optimal character. We steadily traded blows, each trying to set up for the win on turn 6 or 7. I tried to end the game on turn 6, but I made a ton of mistakes, including targeting the wrong character with Maxwell’s effect and using Brother Eye while Dusty had a copy of The Science Spire in play. I only got Dusty down to 9 endurance, and then on turn 7, he busted out Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man. He exhausted my entire board and attacked my characters that were unable to be reinforced with two copies of Brother Eye. I was kind of upset that I couldn’t even win a single game in the Top 8, but Dusty’s deck was so much better than mine, and he certainly played the matchup better than I did. I shook his hand, wished him luck in his remaining matches, and went to go see if there was still time left to enter the Sealed Pack PCQ.

Unfortunately, the Sealed Pack PCQ had started ten minutes before I lost my second game, so there wasn’t any way for me to get in. I was pretty tired of playing Silver Age, and I didn’t have a Golden Age deck with me to play in the Scholarship Circuit, so I just decided to call my dad and start the drive home early.

Reflecting on the events of the weekend during the drive home, I was pretty proud of myself. Fifth place isn’t too bad for your first $10K, and neither is $500 and a box of Infinite Crisis. I got to see all of my friends that I only see every other month at PCQs, and I made up for the embarrassing loss to Alex Tennet at Pro Circuit: Atlanta by finally winning a feature match. It was a great weekend, and I’m glad I was able to make the trip. Billy Postlethwait really deserves a huge congratulation, though. X-0 at a $10K is a pretty big accomplishment in itself, but doing so while keeping a level head and being cool about it is something else. I didn’t have the pleasure of playing Billy during the tournament, but from what I saw and heard, he’s a really nice guy. I’m glad he finally won something big.

And now, it’s time for me to crack down on DC Modern Age for Pro Circuit: Indianapolis. Good luck to all who are going; I hope to see everyone there!

—Graham

(If you have questions, comments, suggestions, complaints, or other things you want me to know about, you can email me at gvl@nc.rr.com.)