My favorite part of every event I get to cover is the single-card tech. Whether it’s pure genius or pure jank, I love seeing what the often short-lived and under-recognized trends are in restricted metagames. Orlando did not disappoint my penchant for the extraordinary in the slightest.

Iceman, Cool Customer was run in several decks. While one Uncommon Enemy deck made the scene, Cool Customer was slipped into several different Spider-Friends decks to punish Curve Sentinels and its natural want to build a large hand. Without the full capability of Bastion at its fingertips for exploitation Curve Sentinels can falter, and several decks aside from Uncommon Enemy and Spider-Friends were running it. While the concept of Iceman as a splashable piece of Curve Sentinels tech that costs 6 resource points probably won’t stick around very long, it will definitely continue seeing play in Spider-Friends decks. It’s a far more natural fit here than any other deck available, strictly due to the issue of team affiliation. That said, Cool Customer is a definite card to watch on a long-term basis.

Daredevil, The Man Without Fear also saw a great deal of play over the course of the event. Again, Spider-Friends decks ran it, but that didn’t make it stand out. What made Daredevil a significant card for the day was the fact that a lot of other decks ran it too, almost strictly to stump Curve Sentinels in the late game. I found it a bit boggling that Daredevil was being seen with such unsavory individuals as Dr. Doom and Ra’s al Ghul, so I asked a few players about it. With Overload being so prevalent in most metagames, Daredevil was viewed as a safe 5-drop as well as being a solid answer to Sentinel decks. It definitely looks like a trend that won’t continue, but it’s certainly in the category of “intriguing phenomenon.” It’s really worth noting if only for the fact that it demonstrates the lengths to which players are willing to go in order to tech the purple powers that be. Now, why was Daredevil sometimes chosen over Betrayal? I guess some people just like red spandex.

Unmasked saw a great deal of play. Once thought of as only a “toolbox” card, something for Alfred Pennyworth or Boris to run off and fetch, it’s now making its way into a variety of decks as a tech card. Since both Teen Titans and Curve Sentinels aggressively power up their characters on both defense and offense, Unmasked can be utterly game-breaking when it’s used carefully. Foiled was pretty rare in the $10K Orlando metagame, so a single Unmasked set as a resource in the early game was often a big influence on a match. This is one trend that I believe could continue quite easily over the coming months in the Golden Age format. Curve Sentinels and Titans aren’t going to disappear any time soon, and the amount of use one can derive from just a single copy of Unmasked is really shockingly high. In an era dominated by Curve vs. Titans matchups and mirrors between the two archetypes, it’s definitely a high-utility card that’s worthy of some serious play.

The last major trend on the micro-level was drop-covering. I’ve never seen so many 1-drops and 1-cost equip cards being played as I did in Orlando. Titans was the big deck doing this, filling drops with Pantha and Twin Firearms in addition to its normal drop fillers of Red Star’s burn and Optitron. However, 1-drops as a whole made more frequent appearances in many decks, and Fantasticar popped up in traditional Common Enemy builds without their usual accompaniment of Mr. Fantastic, Stretch.
The slide towards 1-drops is an interesting trend. General convention has dictated that playing extra copies of mid-game drops has been the most popular way to utilize one’s resources to their utmost, but by taking the path of extra low-drops you get the advantage of hitting a character on the first turn. While that’s not much on its own, cards like Finishing Move become infinitely easier to play when you can make that drop on turn 1. I think this is indicative of a mild shift in views on 1-drops as a whole. Initially viewed as having the same value as other drops, and then later being devalued barring impressive effects, 1-drop characters and equipment may be headed towards a more balanced place in the minds of most players. I think this is definitely a paradigm shift that merits exploration. While one could easily ignore this view on 1-drops, it seems advantageous to always consider all aspects of a card as well as curve philosophy as a whole. $10K Orlando may give serious players something to think about, other than the conventional single-card highlights and deck ideas.