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. The first LCQ today used the Golden Age formta, featuring not just the two sets used at the PC, but all the cards that came out up until now. That usually means it’s filled with Teen Titans Go! and Sentinel decks, and today wasn’t any different . . . except for one deck. A Marvel Knights deck was undefeated after the single-elimination rounds, which, while unconventional, shouldn’t be that strange. But this deck wasn’t just a Marvel Knights deck, it was one totally made up of concealed characters! I sat down with Torsten Brutschin, who piloted the deck, to ask him some questions about his card choices.

Torsten Brutschin

Characters
4 Orb, Drake Shannon
4 Iron Fist, Danny Rand
4 Luke Cage, Street Enforcer
3 Natasha Romanoff ◊ Black Widow
2 Yelena Belova ◊ Black Widow
4 Elektra, Elektra Natchios
2 Werewolf by Night, Jack Russell
1 Daredevil, Guardian Devil
4 Mephisto, Soulstealer
2 Skinner, Psychotic Shredder
1 Dagger, Child of Light

Plot Twists
4 Flying Kick
4 Wild Ride
3 Savage Beatdown
3 Quick Kill
3 Sucker Punch
4 Hell’s Fury
2 Evil Awakens
3 Crime and Punishment
1 Midnight Sons

Locations
2 Punisher’s Armory

Brutschin, a shopkeeper in Berlin, explained that he got tired of seeing all these players in his shop come in with staple Internet decks and just bash them into each other. He vowed to come up with something new. After doing some more research, he found out that concealed characters were generally considered less than stellar and definitely not a viable theme for a competitive deck. From there, it was an easy decision for him. He was going to build a Concealed deck that could beat all of those net decks. The final result got him exactly what he wanted: surprised opponents, a fun deck, and a qualification for the Pro Circuit.

If you look closely, you can see that Brutschin is running only two actual Golden Age cards—Savage Beatdown and Flying Kick. Savage Beatdown is just good, and Sucker Punch provides a great opportunity for the concealed theme of his deck to really shine. His opponent’s characters will always want to attack, since there’s nobody to get in the way, but they won’t be able to touch any of the sneaky concealed characters. This gives Brutschin the perfect setup for Sucker Punch to eliminate his opponent’s entire team without losing his. Mephisto, Soulstealer, rumored to be the secret tech for tomorrow, is another great addition to this deck. It’s ability to single-handedly shut down multiple strategies as well as the fact that it fits right into the concealed theme makes him a shoo-in for a deck like this. Brutschin thought Mephisto was probably the key card in his deck and he was very happy how Mephisto himself and the deck performed. When asked if he was going to play it tomorrow, he could only smile and say “Maybe. And maybe I will come up with something even more rogue!”

Brutschin did add that he thought it was a very good deck, even if the surprise factor would wear off over the day. Keep an eye on him tomorrow, as he will put whatever crazy concoction he comes up with into battle to win the $40,000 first prize in the Pro Circuit. The end product of all Brutschin’s tinkering is a very solid deck that only uses very few Golden Age cards, making it very adaptable for the Pro Circuit format, and that will be taking opponents by surprise. If it ends up winning the Pro Circuit, don’t say we didn’t warn you.