With Vs. System gaining momentum in Germany and the nation’s metagame speeding along to catch up with play trends in North America and Britain, I thought it would be interesting to ask twenty random people at the Hanover $10K tournament what they felt were the top three decks in the current environment.  As always, they had twenty seconds to tell me what they thought and why.

“Curve Sentinels as number one.  Teen Titans, and Brave and the Bold.”

—Jorge Cerda, $10K competitor

“Teen Titans, Curve [Sentinels], and Cosmic Cops. I think Teen Titans and Curve are the best decks, they are very versatile. And Cosmic Cops should win against those two, so it makes it very good.”

—Daniel “Stone” Steinsdoerfer, $10K competitor

“Cosmic Cops, Curve Sentinels, and hmm . . . Teen Titans. Gotham Knights is the best metagame choice, so Cosmic Cops does well. Curve Sentinels is very reliable, andTeen Titans is just so good! Very hard to play against.”

—Giuseppe Iacono, $10K competitor

“I think Teen Titans, Curve Sentinels, and . . . hmm.  Common Enemy. But I like Mutant Nation a lot, too.”

—Dagmar Bergem, $10K competitor

“I think Teen Titans is on top and will continue to be there. I’m not sure on the other two, but I think Marvel Knights will leave Titans intact.”

—Paul Jonas Prengel

“Curve Sentinels—they’re very tough to play against. X-Men too, I like the style of the characters.Third, Teen Titans. They’re very strong, and very disruptive.”

—Dirk Blohmann, Judge/ UDE official for the Hanover $10K

“At the moment it’s Teen Titans on top, no question. Then I think Curve Sentinels deserves a place and then . . . hmm. The third one, I’d probably give to Common Enemy.”

—Phylipp Rautenbach, $10K competitor

“Curve Sentinel, Teen Titans, and Cosmic Cops. These three decks seem to win the most.”

—Alexander Doring, $10K competitor

“Curve Sentinels, because it’s an easy build and it’s not that difficult to handle.  Then, Common Enemy, but it is harder to play.  You have the awesome Doom plot twists and strong curve-breaking F4 characters.  And Teen Titans . . . I suck,” in response to me asking if his third was going to be Teen Titans, the obvious candidate for the list. 

—Oliver Gehrmann, Live coverage Vs. reporter for Germany

“Curve Sentinel, Teen Titans, and Cosmic Cops.”

—Matthias Nagy, TO for the Hanover $10K

“I think at the moment, Teen Titans. Most people can’t play against it.  Second, although not a lot of people play it, Team Superman swarm. Curve Sentinel for third. I played it in my league and won all my games last month.”

—Klaus Springer, $10K competitor from the UK

“Definitely Titans…  I think that Common Enemy has come down, but right now people are trying to beat it and Titans, so it’s there.  It has the toolbox effect with Boris.  I’d also say Curve, I don’t really understand why, but it seems to have a great showing at $10Ks and other major tournaments. It always seems to have a decent chance going into Top 8s.”

—Duncan Tang, $10K competitor from the UK

“Teen Titans, first of all . . . it has the most tricks and I feel it is the best deck despite the metagame hate. Curve Sentinel for its pure numbers, and it’s solid.  It’s not too hard to play in my opinion. You just hit your curve, so people who don’t test too much can play it well.  And Cosmic Cops—it beats a lot of the popular decks.”

—Andreas Kruschel

“Curve Sentinels, Teen Titans, and Cosmic Cops.”

—Achim Guenzel, $10K competitor and Product Manager/Editor of Card Master magazine

“It’s very difficult because the most fantastic thing about the Vs. System is that you can play 10 different decks and they can all be very good. I like Common Enemy because it is pure control, Teen Titans for sure, and Brave and the Bold for its versatility.”

—Felipe Saavedra, $10K competitor

“Probably Brotherhood, Curve Sentinels, and Teen Titans. Why do I feel that way?  It’s just the general consensus in my area.”

—Jelger Wiegersma, $10K competitor

“Right now? Teen Titans, Curve Sentinels, and . . . X-Stall. Curve Sentinels and Teen Titans are a hard game for X-Stall, but I think Curve Sentinels has great matches against Titans. On a good draw, X-Stall can beat basically anything.”

—Moritz Hohmann, 10k competitor

Well, there it is. Unanimous and overwhelming, Teen Titans and Curve Sentinels are by far the top two favorite decks of this group, no matter the reason. There is however, some question as to the third most powerful or useful deck among what’s available right now.