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This PC is also very exciting because the team frenzy is heating up in the pro neighborhood. Several new teams are sprouting, some already existed but have merely christened themselves, and others hit at Atlanta and are looking to make an impact in San Francisco.

What’s in a Deck?

Before we look at teams and who to expect in Northern California, let’s take a look at some of the deck types to expect.

First off, for quite a while now many people have seemed to expect rush to dominate. Several people have told me they’re sure Faces will dominate—either X-Faces or a new Faces deck—and several are sure AGL will be the deck to beat. G’Lock is 50/50: I expect we’ll see a lot of G’Lock decks, but it’s a crapshoot to guess whether or not they’ll be successful. Also, a lot of people are sure Shadow-Lock is really viable, especially with Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic and his alternate win condition. Squadron appears to be battling G’Lock as the default deck to play. Avengers and Good Guys are still around but seem to be dismissed as not viable. Meanwhile, Hellfire Club and Secret Society have slowly seeped into the metagame—particularly Secret Society/Injustice Gang. And there’s always the threat of a broken Secret Six (Victorious) or Energy burn deck.

The lesser archetypes that will pop up are High Voltage teched for Silver Age, X-Statix (particularly teamed-up with Villains United for that return-to-hand bonus), and Underworld teamed-up with several archetypes, including the Secret Society KO’d pile engine. Revenge Squad also got a nice bonus with the new Bizarro World text.

As for the new teams from Infinite Crisis? Villains burn (particularly in tandem with Energy burn), Shadowpact endurance, Checkmate control (perhaps entwined with Hellfire Club), and JSA aggro are all potentially viable. The question is whether or not there’s been enough time since the release of Crisis to strengthen the builds enough to compete. Certainly many competitors will try.

My prediction? A quarter of the field will play Squadron, 20% will play G’Lock or one of its derivatives, 20% will play Faces or one of its derivatives, 20% will play AGL, and 15% will play the bajillion other archetypes.

FTN has taken two of the last three PCs and has made a fair amount of money in the process. Scratch that—a LOT of money in the process. At one point during the final pod of Day Two at PC: Atlanta, the team was threatening to tie the record of four teammates in the Top 8 set way back at the first PC in Indianapolis in 2004. (For the record, the four people were winner Brian Kibler, Nick Little, Neil Reeves, and Gabe Walls.) No changes have been made to the team since Atlanta, though a couple of members may not make it this time around. Alex Tennet is likely to be there (but not guaranteed), and Chris Price may not be able to make it.

With three PC wins, seven PC Top 8s, four $10K wins, and 15 $10K Top 8s, they’re a force to be reckoned with, especially with their reputation for strong drafting.

It’s been a slow year for FTN so far, with a strong showing at the PC but not much else in terms of trophies. That may change, though, as the $10K season heats up and starts to slowly spread inland from the West Coast.

But all focus is on the PC now, and not on what might be over the coming summer. To start with, rumors are rampant that FTN has the nuts deck, though everyone from FTN that I spoke to p’shawed that notion. Of course, there are rumors about every team’s deck at this point—another piece of the Silver Age pie. FTN seem to like the format, though; Kim Caton says, “The last few sets have been really strong, and a lot of old options are viable since they no longer have the ‘can’t beat Titans, can’t beat Doom’ stigma. [This PC] should be a lot of fun!”

Vidi Wijaya, who claims the “Champion’s curse” has been broken due to Karl Horn’s money performance at Atlanta, also seems happy about Doom’s absence. “He stops combo decks that need to play [cards] from their hand,” says Wijaya. “Now there’s no [plot twist control] except for Null Time Zone.”

Mike Dalton also likes the format and FTN’s chances to exploit it. He says, “Silver Age is great. It feels very open, and losing the Origins sets gave us a lot of freedom; so many cards and decks you no longer have to account for when building a deck. I think we’re better off than we were for the last two PCs, which isn’t really saying that much since we decided on those decks about a week before the event. We should do really well in San Francisco—but ‘should’ and ‘will do’ are two very different things. We’re very happy with how we’ve done of late. We’re really on a roll, but we have high expectations.”

Kim agrees that FTN’s chances of a repeat are quite good, but she feels the need to caution, “I’d like to say [that our chances are] good, but one never knows. We make it a practice not to broadcast to the world that we’re going to win every tournament, as then we’d look rather silly when we didn’t.” Kim is also being cautious about the potential metagame for the PC, with too many decks out there to try to counter everything. When it comes to adding tech like Absolute Dominance to counter rush and weenie strategies, Kim says, “It depends on whether or not they can be fit into decks without diluting them. Every card that you put into your deck to counter someone else’s deck is a card geared towards your strategy that you have to sacrifice. A silver bullet may help you against a certain matchup, but it’s probable that it will hurt you [against others], since it becomes a dead card clogging your hand instead of a card that you could use. It’s a matter of weighing probabilities. And there’s a lot of searchable weenie hate that I’m sure will be in every deck: Mikado and Mosha, Speedy, etc. Being searchable, you don’t have to dedicate a bunch of card slots and then hope you draw one.”

Vidi agrees, saying, “A lot of people will try to fit Absolute Dominance or Adam Strange into their deck to combat weenie decks. I don't really know if those cards are going to be enough, though; we’ll find out after the PC!” If anyone would know about the metagame and what to expect, it would be Vidi, whose performance is so strong that he even has an imitator on VSRealms! (Vidi’s nickname is BlackCatXIII, and now someone else has taken the name vidiisthenuts and is running around pretending to be him.) He tends to be humble about his performance and claims his work ethic is all laziness all the time, but several people have spilled the truth that Vidi eats, sleeps, and breathes Vs. System almost every waking hour. (When I mentioned that to him, he claimed, “That’s a lie! Your source sucks!”) Still, if there is one person who can repeat, it will be him.

Vidi Wijaya: “I dunno, and I don’t care, to be honest. Just tell them that I left the prediction to Kergillian ’cause he’s awesome.”

Kim Caton: “Milton, Vidi, Mike Barnes, Jason Hager, and . . . is there anybody left who isn't on TDC? I’ll say Kristian Kockott.”

“X-Men Draft is very difficult. I think it’s the hardest set to draft in a long while (maybe since Marvel Knights). My generic strategy of ‘draft good cards’ really doesn’t work. The specific archetypes are very powerful, which makes things a bit of a gamble.”

TEAM DONKEY CLUB

TDC hit the ground running; Atlanta proved that the team was a force to be reckoned with. And if their double Top 8 at Atlanta didn’t prove it, how about seven Top 8s in the two $10Ks following the last PC? Those numbers are correct; seven out of sixteen were Donkeys—almost a 50% showing.

As well, they picked up a couple of newcomers at PC Atlanta (Top 8 finisher Brian Gates) and $10K Austin (Top 8 finisher Kyle Dembinski). Overall, with two PC wins, 12 PC Top 8s, 11 $10K wins, and an absolutely mind-boggling 39 $10K Top 8s between them, they are all proven and raring to go.

Vidi Wijaya and Mike Dalton are certainly among the top players in this game, but right on their tails are Michael Jacob and Neil Reeves. If I were to pick players for a King of the Hill showdown, they would all be on my list. One thing to note about this team is that they’re nearly all in the Top 100 in rankings, and most of them in both formats! No other team can come close to saying that, nor display such diversity—it’s no wonder that they keep filling up the Top 8 slots, and in both formats. It’s this fact that sort of splits the team into separate factions. The West Virginia players—including the genius of Jason Hager, Matt Oldaker, and Anthony Justice—tend to be the master constructed deck builders, and the rest of the team focuses on draft strategy while contributing some tech and deck ideas to the team forums.

Jason tells me that drafting is what scares him the most, with PC New York being too far in the past. He says, “I can’t live on that performance much longer, so I’m planning on going 10-0 on Day 1, which would mean I need to 5-4 Day 2 for the Top 8. I’m aiming for at least 8-2 on Day 1, but I’ve got to stay positive!”

Drafting is Adam Prosak’s favorite format, and he says that he drafts once a week locally and several times online in preparation. He says, “Anyone can be good at X-Men [Draft], or any [Draft] set, for that matter. There’s enough on the ’net, and it’s easy to practice.” Adam himself is partially responsible for that information, often writing articles about drafting in his Prosak Nation column on VSRealms. He’ll draft with anyone available and then pass along information stemming from the drafts to his teammates. “We talk about [Draft] on our team forums,” says Adam. “We have a lot of people who enjoy [that] much more, myself included. Constructed is maybe slightly more important because if you can’t get enough wins on Day 1, you can’t play on Day 2—but you’ve got to play both. Most people have a clue how to play Constructed, but not a clue how to play [Draft].” He considers himself a better drafter, and his advice to the rookie drafter is: “Draft! And read my articles and Alex Brown’s articles on Metagame and StarCity.” He also thinks that an all-Draft PC would be an interesting venture, saying, “It would certainly be easier to prepare for, and an all-[Draft] PC would definitely get people hooked!”

Gabe Walls actually held a draft camp at his house in Indiana, with almost the entire team showing up, except the Las Vegans and the West Virginians. Gabe says, “We did 15 drafts or so last weekend. [Drafting online] just isn’t the same—you don’t get the feedback, you can’t discuss picks and such, [all of] which is what gets you better—being able to discuss theories as they come up and such. We keep all the records: wins, losses, etc. We also have a board on the ’net we discuss on.” Gabe is mum on the metagame, though he hinted at several new archetypes that will surprise people, particularly one that he wouldn’t specify, but suffice it to say, will likely be seen at the hands of TDC. He did say that he thinks that “SS” (Secret Six? Secret Society? You decide . . .) and “the new burn” (High Voltage? Energy burn? You decide again . . .) will be played by a lot of people, though he admits that Constructed is more or less dominated by the West Virginians while he and his crew take care of the drafting side of things. He says, “The West Virginians are the best at what they do. The drafters are the best at what they do. We cover all of our bases, and we don’t really miss anything. I think we are the most prepared we have been so far. I expect three members minimum in the Top 8, probably four.”

Jason Hager: “1. Anthony Justice, 2. Matt Oldaker, 3. Heath Baker, 4. Nick Little, 5. Some random Donk.”

Adam Prosak: “There’s only one choice, in my opinion: Anthony Justice is winning the PC. I’m calling it.”

Gabe Walls: “Adam Fears, Neil Reeves, Nick Little, Doug Tice, and Kyle Dembinski. Dark Horse is Jason Green. Honestly, I think there are five to ten top players in the game that aren’t on our team—Michael Dalton, Vidi [Wijaya], etc.”

“I don’t think Removed from Continuity or Absolute Dominance will be nearly as important as people think, but there are some DCR gems that will seem like ‘I should have played that’ cards after San Francisco.”

TEAM YOUR MOVE GAMES/KINGS GAMES

Vs. System is probably the only sport out there right now where New York and Boston combine to form a powerhouse team, working happily side by side. As this team’s roster changes from week to week, it’s never clear who’ll show up at any given PC, so I present to you their roster at PC Atlanta:

The numbers are a bit misleading, as even though there aren’t too many Top 8 performances among the team members, there are several high money finishes. When you have players like Shvartsman, Edwards, Dougherty, and Shaheen on your team, you can’t help but perform well, and that’s not even mentioning Darwin Kastle.

Most teams have players who are up and down from tourney to tourney, but this team has been quite consistent from day one. If you’re a betting man, these guys aren’t heavily favored, and they’re not the crazy long shots who’ll rake in the money with high odds if you’re lucky. This team is the safe bet: You won’t win as much betting on them, but you’re bound to win something because they’re always there on Day 2, finishing respectably in the money.

They were known as the only game in town. Then Antonino De Rosa defected to UDE, and Osyp Lebedowicz opted for a change of pace and started testing with Ryan Lockard, Dan Bridy, and various other pros. So that left Adam Horvath, Eugene Harvey, and Anand Khare to pick up the pieces and keep the TOGIT fires burning. With De Rosa gone, also gone are two PC Top 4s, a $10K Top 4, and a $10K Top 8. That still leaves a PC win, a PC Top 8, a $10K runner-up, and a $10K Top 8—but nothing notable for months. Still, their ratings are formidable, and they’ve kept testing and playing. It’s impossible to say how they’ll hold up, but Adam Horvath is the reigning Marvel Modern Age PC champion!

I haven’t heard from TOGIT this year, so I don’t know if Osyp is returning to the TOGIT Vs. fold, nor whether Eugene Harvey will make an appearance this time around. But one thing is for sure: no matter who plays under the TOGIT banner, they’re an immediate threat. Last year was Adam Horvath’s year, with a PC win and a near-miss at the New York $10K, shrugging off his Champion’s curse with a nice $1,500 consolation prize. And if 2005 belonged to Horvath, then 2006 belongs to Anand Khare so far, with a stellar performance in Atlanta that not only garnered him a Top 4 and a nice paycheck, but also pushed him up several hundred spots in the rankings and proved his mettle on the world’s toughest Vs. platform. If his performance surprised you, it certainly didn’t surprise us Metagamers who know exactly what Anand and his fellow TOGITers are capable of.

TEAM ALTERNATE WIN CONDITION (TAWC)

You may recognize Michael Barnes’s and Shane Wiggans’s names if you look at their fantastic Metagame articles on deck building and game strategy. But TAWC is more than just a pair of guys; it’s a solid team from end to end, and every member is a capable competitor. Tim Batow, for example, must be doing something right, with an excellent rating in both formats and four $10K Top 8s, including one win. Jeremy Blair, 4th in the Constructed rankings, has proven himself repeatedly to be one of the top Constructed players in the world; just look at his 9-1 record in Atlanta. TAWC is definitely a slumbering monster just waiting to emerge from Shane’s tattoos!

With everyone but Matt Meyer showing up for San Francisco, and with players like Shane Wiggans and Tim Batow on a roll, it should be interesting to see how they pan out at the PC. Shane Wiggans told me all of Day 2 in Atlanta how surprised he was to be there, and round after round, he predicted horrible failures but just kept winning. It really shouldn’t have surprised him—the members of TAWC are the underdogs when put alongside the accolades of FTN and TDC, but they’ve more than held their own and proven to be fierce competitors for such a laid-back gang of guys.

Shane likes Silver Age a lot and is really keen to see what mad science springs forth from the top deck builders this time around. He says, “[Silver Age is] the best idea so far. Batow and I were talking about it last night. Think what happens when Marvel Knights and Green Lantern shift out of Silver Age: a complete change of the game! And it’s for a good thing; this fosters creative deckbuilding. Overall, it’s just fun to see what all the major teams come up with. I am sure Jason Hager has some goodness up his sleeve . . .”

TAWC has apparently come up with a solid deck against what the team predicts the metagame to put forth, but he laments that it won’t be Secret Six: “Honestly, I REALLY wanted to play that deck—Secret Six is [such] an interesting deck—[but] I just don't see how it’s viable. KO effects kill it, and with multiple Breaking Grounds and G’Lock likely to be the non-team-affiliated deck of choice . . . And [even with [Scandal], you are asking a lot from your draw in regards to characters you get in play. We came to the conclusion that it needs more support cards with the metagame maybe more prepared for it. At the right time, we will likely spring it up, a lot like Dream. Tim and I both said that if someone gets a good build of it, watch out! I expect this PC to really showcase deck builders.”

Shane Wiggans: “Honestly, I can say with no bad feelings that I am rooting for Jason Hager. Jason Hager, Tim Batow, Kyle Dembinski, Ryan Jones, Niles [Rowland]. I would say Vidi [Wijaya], but the curse may come back, and he has a mind lock over me; I have lost four straight matches to Vidi!”

“I don't mean to sound cocky, but testing has gone really well for us. Tim Batow is a machine right now—I have never seen him so driven. And it’s my understanding that [Jeremy Blair] spent a lot of time on [drafting] this time around; his Constructed skills are unbelievable. It’s funny, because even though my team may not get much publicity, we have a great core group of players that contribute a ton and are all flying under the radar. Honestly, my game stepped up as a result of being on this team; it’s unreal how much it helps. I made like zero errors on Day 1 at Atlanta, and I attribute that to intensive playtesting with my team. I honestly think that this is the tournament where rivalries will really be created, and it will be great for the game. There are more and more competitive teams showing up, so that it’s not just like Realmworx and TOGIT, or TDC and FTN. And it should make for great side stories! In the end, I think that seven out of the eight top spots will be taken from players from major teams. Now, more than ever, many matches could be feature matches.”

They still don’t really have a name, so it’s been decided amongst them that until they do, they’ll settle for Team Edgeworld (named after Erick Reyes’s gaming store just outside of San Diego). A popular Vs. hangout, Edgeworld is where you’re likely to catch Vidi Wijaya and Ryan Jones playing, as well as some of the greatest deck builders (Patrick Yapjoco and Billy Zonos) and Sealed Pack specialists (Quang Nguyen) in the game. And you can catch the Team EW members wearing their swank Max Pro leather jackets—because yes, this team has sponsors! This is likely Billy’s swan song (though we’ve heard that before), and he’ll be fighting for a strong finish to an interesting Vs. career. Patrick is looking to build on his $10K win at Atlanta with a strong PC performance this time around, and Quang would love to make it an all-Edgeworld final by building on his strong Atlanta Top 4 result.

An informal team since PC LA last year, Billy tells me the members have all sorts of crazy deck ideas, and they’re simply deciding which one to use while searching their many sources for hints on the metagame. He says, “I think AGL and Faces variants will be big. G’Lock will probably come in 3rd, with those players opting for the Captain Marvel win condition. I love the time right before the PC; so much back stabbing and rampant speculation!”

Patrick is modest about past performances and about what to expect from two people who are considered deckbuilding geniuses for essentially creating X-Stall and G’Lock. He says, “[The West Virginians] have more credibility than us, I think. They also have more resources with TDC on their side. We're just the Mom & Pop shop versus their Wal-Mart.”

When it comes to the format, Patrick finds it exciting, though challenging, as there is a huge metagame to watch out for. He says, “With the rush decks, games last to turn 5, which means there is less breathing room, because turns 4-7 are [usually] the turns to set things up and actually think. But with rush decks, you can’t think because of all the pressure being put on from turn 1. In Golden Age, you had Doom to stop the rush decks, so you could make the game go to turn 7-8. Teen Titans normally went to turn 6-7; ditto with Curve Sentinels.

“I think there might be one or two viable control decks—G’Lock being one—but the weenie hate available (i.e., Absolute Dominance, Mikado and Mosha) hurts G’Lock too, which is ironic seeing as G’Lock is a stall engine. I’m still not sold on Absolute Dominance being as game-breaking as everyone makes it to be, though. I think Slaughter Swamp and Mikado and Mosha are actually better.”

Billy, who calls himself the “worst pro with over 40 points on the Circuit,” isn’t quite as convinced on Silver Age’s superiority over Golden Age, much as he loves the Silver Age format. He says, “I haven’t been as excited for a PC since PC LA in 2004. Silver Age is a lot easier, I think, than Golden Age. I think it’s only hard right now because we are dealing with a brand new set that has a ton of great interactions with old archetypes. This PC isn’t just going to define the Silver environment, you know; it’s also going to define much of the DC Modern Age, so we won’t get anything really groundbreaking or innovative until PC LA, which has great potential. Anyways, I love Golden.”

Patrick Yapjoco: “Vidi, Ryan [Jones], Quang, Nick Little, Dalton. Vidi is that good—when we draft at the store, he still always wins, no matter what he drafts.”

Billy Zonos: “I was gonna say my name five times! But seriously: Vidi, Matt Oldaker (‘cause he's a grinder), Alex Gellerman, Dave Spears (‘cause, really, isn't he the obvious pick?), and my teammate Quang, ’cause, man, he was so close last time.”

“Shadowpact is very splashy, and since Marvel Knights is in Silver, I expect a lot of janky MS builds. Checkmate seems very strong, especially when teamed-up. JSA is nice, too, and the new ally stuff is very interesting. But honestly, I’m hoping for a really broken Villains United deck—I think they are the nuttiest bunch of villains yet even though, technically, Secret Society and Villains United are like the same thing.”

On paper, Team Bugz looks a little thin. Few of its members have won any accolades or made Top 8 in a major tourney, and most of them aren’t ranked in the Top 200 of either format. What makes this group special is that we can witness an up-and-coming team before it hits the “big time.” Alec Ruden turned heads recently when he won $10K Minneapolis with a revised High Voltage build. When I think of this team, aside from their vast difference in hairstyles (Keebler Powell and Loren Nolen would easily make the Top 8 in the Vs. Hair Awards), I can’t help but be reminded of a conversation I had with a certain pro at $10K Origins last year. We were discussing the pro turnout, and I was listing the pros who had shown up—Anthony Justice, Matt Oldaker, Jason Hager, Kim Caton, Nick Little, Gabe Walls—and when I got to Loren Nolen, the pro said, “Who?” I pointed Loren out and he said, “That kid? Who’s he? He’s not a real pro.” When I pointed out that Loren had won $10K Detroit earlier that year, he just shrugged his shoulders and passed it off as a fluke. Loren made Top 4 the weekend of Origins too, thus proving the point that one must never underestimate an opponent or team simply because one hasn’t heard of them. Loren beat me that same afternoon in a super-tight match, and that only heightened my respect for someone who definitely knows this game. Mark my words, this team is going places!

Bugz was a team that has existed in one form or another for a long time now. It’s made up of several Dayton, Ohio players who have practiced and played at the same store (Westford Hill Hobbies, the 10,000 square foot gaming coliseum where Keebler Powell works) for a long time. They accumulated a few out-of-town players on the team mainly from befriending them at PCQs and whatnot, and Rian Fike proudly announced to the team that he was joining them a short while ago. This was much to the amusement of its members, who said, “Hey, okay!” and welcomed Rian’s passion for the game and keen sense of humor with open arms.

Sadly, the team will be depleted in San Francisco, as Rian remains in Florida for the graduation of a family member, and Loren and Alex remain in Ohio for their own graduations. The lineup for SF, as of my writing this, is Corbett, Helt, Pooler, Powell, Frank Ramirez, and Detroit native Rob Rietze. They will also be joined by their friend and playing partner from Wisconsin, Yoshi.

Keebler tells me that the metagame is a toss-up at the moment, and much to his chagrin, he has chosen to abandon his favorite (X-Statix) for decks with better chances against the current favorites: “There are three different decks that look good, but it’s basically rock/paper/scissors. It all comes down to how big G’Lock is going to be. A lot of other pro teams think G’Lock can’t stand up to rush, but it all depends on how big the rush is. If there’s a ton of playtesting against it, then G’Lock isn’t going to make a big showing. Many will see it as default deck, but I think Squad should be the default. As for us, we found something special. It unfortunately loses to Faces, but my prediction is it will be huge deck.”

Loren Nolen tells me that the name was chosen by Alec Ruden for his Metagame profile after he made the Top 8 at Minneapolis. “We’re Bugz!” was the catchphrase that originally stemmed from an inside joke about how that would make such a better bit of flavor text for Insectoid Troopers. He thinks that one card that is underrated and can make a huge difference in the PC is Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster. He says, “I think Mr. Mxyzptlk is by far the best card in the format and is the best card, barring Enemy of My Enemy, printed for a long time. I think the JSA/JLA cards give Good Guys a boost, Good Guys being one of the best curve decks for the meta. But Mxy is by far the best card in the set—Enemy plus Mxy equals a search for any character in your deck for free. Any card that says ‘discard a card’ now does not; you may as well draw three cards a turn . . . and you can Straight to the Grave him to the pile and he comes back! The combination of Straight to the Grave plus Slaughter Swamp plus Enemy is going to replace every team’s team-stamped [search card].”

Loren Nolen: “Matt Oldaker, Dave Spears, Jason Hager, Adam Prosak, Mike Dalton. Adam is due to top 8 something [again]!”

Constructed player I’ve ever seen. I’ll go out on a limb and put some money on [Adam] Prosak; he will Top 8. I don’t know the rest, though, because there will be a lot of really, really off-the-wall, nut-crazy decks, and those who make it will be whoever can deal with that.”

“I come from the 40K CCG and was around third or fourth in the nation in that game. 40K has absolutely no limited game and was basically a “best jank wins” game. It’s a big hindrance because I’m the worst [Sealed Pack] player in Ohio. But the metagame is [almost] too open, and I love it! I hate the fact that X-Statix is bad in this format, but that means everything else is good.”

TEAM DECKTECH a.k.a. THE CULPER RING

Jason Dawson leads Team Decktech in the hunt for a little respect among the elite Vs. teams, and with his record in this game, he is certainly up for the challenge. With some top players like Justin Desai and TJ Holman, this team may look like a bunch of jokers on the outside, but the Decktechers have some strong potential to hit the big time if they can just get a bit more organized . . .

In my preview for PC Atlanta, TJ Holman said, “Right now, we are not really representing Decktech the way a team that reps them should.” He was essentially pushing the team for more unification and to be stronger. Well, although Holman isn’t much of a Decktecher these days (“I haven’t really been with Decktech for awhile but all my boys are going [to the PC]”), the team seems to have solidified under the strong work ethic of Jason Dawson, who is hosting the team at his place in San Francisco for some intensive Vs.-ing before the PC begins.

TJ Holman: “Dawson, Dalton, Tennet, and a wild card . . . maybe [Erik] Cabanero or the young German dude.”

FINAL WORDS - TJ Holman on the importance of drafting:

“Clearly it is [the key to PC success]. Look at that guy that went undefeated in Day 1 at PC LA. How’d he cash out? No matter how [good] your Constructed is, you have to know how to draft at least a little bit to at worst go 4-5. I draft almost every night online with Steve [Baroni], Justin [Desai], Gemme, Dalton, Tommy Ashton, Vidi, Justice, Prosak, and randoms—whoever we can get. And I play Constructed when I’m not drafting.”

Team Paradise is not really a team, but a group of Australians (and a lone New Zealander) who are clustered in with Scott Hunstad, owner of VSparadise.com. They comprise some of the best players in the world, including leading drafter Alex Brown and High Voltage creator Shaun Hayward, who has risen up and become a Vs. powerhouse, reaching the Top 10 in world Constructed rankings. This is his first PC, and I think we’re in for a pleasant surprise.

As for the concept of a Team Paradise, Scott puts it this way: “Technically there is no official Team Paradise, as it were, but as to whether we'll be wearing shirts to that effect, I’d say it’s likely. If not, I’ll hit them!”

Alex was the only one of the group to show up in Atlanta, and he was rather ill, which ended up skewing his performance. Expect him to be in tip-top shape for San Francisco, and for the Aussies to take the PC by storm. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that the $10K scene down under is a joke; it features some of the toughest competition on either side of the Pacific.

The one problem is jet lag, which is one reason I’d love to see a PC in Australia—to truly show us the local players’ mettle and to put us in their shoes. Scott tells me, “You don’t really [get over it], and that’s sort of the problem. It’s very different for us because the time change is so much different, i.e. 15 hours or so on average for a US-based PC. For San Francisco, we fly via Auckland, leave at around noon, spend 18 hours or so in a plane or in transit, and then end up getting to San Francisco at noon on the same day. That kind of messes you up because you’re obviously dog-tired, but you can’t go to sleep or you’ll be out of whack for the rest of the trip. So you kind of keep active in a zombie-like state till you can actually get to sleep at a reasonable hour, etc. Not that I’m complaining—we’re coming to SF four or five days early, so we should be right on the day.”

Like several other players, Scott points out the importance of drafting and draft preparation. He says, “It’s about half the PC, so [it’s] fairly important. That being said, you have to get there first. I think people are generally too dismissive of Draft—or at least they don’t put the weight on it that it warrants. Too many people have 8-2’d Day 1 only to completely fall out of the money on Day 2. That being said, we probably go to the other extreme and sacrifice playtesting at times in favor of draft.” He admits that the stream of articles on drafting X-Men has been a help for those who need it, but cautions people not to take stock in everything they read: “It’s still a matter of sifting the good information from the bad, accounting for the changing draft-meta, new information, local bias, and such. Overall, the writing on X-Men draft has been quite good—much better than previous sets—but the beauty of [Draft] is that, even with such guides, it’s different every time.”

Scott Hunstad: “I’m never one to really know these things. We’re far enough removed in Australia that while some of us

not in a position to make the call. I’ll of course pick Alex [Brown] for a slot; he’s definitely due. It’s hard to go past Dalton as well. I’ll leave it at that.”

“It’s hard to go past the ‘old’ favorites. Some Golden Age decks haven’t really lost much of anything, and others haven’t lost much of importance. Squadron, G’Lock, Avengers, etc. should all have decent showings. AGL will most likely be big as well.”

CANADA – Maple Syrupy goodness!!

Alas! Team AttaQC is sitting this PC out. Benoit Chaurette and Paul Bernard couldn’t get time off from their jobs, and Max Bouchard has been in Moscow for the past few weeks doing field research, so I will be the sole Quebecer in the field (as far as I know). With a rising crew from Ottawa testing for Indy and also skipping San Francisco, the Canadian field is nearly as sparse as the British one.

However, Toronto should have its typical half-dozen or so players led by David Fielder, Donald Grant, and their testing crew. As well, Charlotte Ashley may emerge to hit the PC scene again, and she’s due for some success at the Pro level.

But the real excitement comes from out west. Olav Rokne has returned from the Metagame caverns and is playing again (and don’t get me started about how jealous I am of his über-cheap flight). Olav has a keen Vs. mind and looks at the format and the PC from a journalistic perspective, trying to remain objective and examining it from all angles. Here’s what he has to say about Silver Age: “It’s probably the best thing to happen to Vs. so far. The possibilities that are open to players with an extremely deep card pool are endless but haven’t been constrained by preconceived notions or early power cards. It’s a very well-named format; when the comic book Silver Age started in 1956, the four-color stories were flat and repetitive. The diversity of decks we’re going to see in this format is comparable to the richness and diversity of the early Marvel characters.”

But an exciting format isn’t everything—Olav stresses the importance of preparation but notes that even solid prep won’t win you money. He says, “At the PC, everything has to come together: the ability to call the metagame, play skill, draft skill, and some luck. But none of those things are worth anything without the rest of the equation. This will probably be the toughest PC ever, though. The wild metagame, a difficult set to draft, and a mature player base are making this one a really hard one to prepare for. Regardless, I’m going to have a blast!”

Olav Rokne: “In 5th place: Tommy Ashton. He’s got a lot of focus and a lot of talent.

“In 4th place: Dean Sohnle. I’ve known Dean for eight years, and he’s always got some weird gimmick up his sleeve. It may or may not work, but the trick will be there.

“In 3rd place: Vidianto Wijaya. I faced him in the second sanctioned tournament I ever played. I was undefeated up until I met him, and he totally schooled me. That one game probably taught me more about the game than anything else. The dude is just crazy good, and everybody knows it.

“In 2nd place: Joshua Wiitanen. I watched him for most of the last Pro Circuit when I was on the reporting team. He deserved to have done much better than he did (and still did well). But as he demonstrated last time around, if your deck doesn’t give you the card you need, and your opponent hits his curve, there’s not much you can do. That’s why you can’t count on any prediction ever coming true.

“In 1st place: An anonymous stranger with a fake mustache who won a PCQ a couple of weeks ago in Anchorage will turn up. He’ll be playing Big Bat (despite the fact that it’s a Golden Age deck), he’ll mysteriously get awesome draws, his opponents will somehow end up with food poisoning, and he’ll waltz his way to the winner’s circle.”

“I’m not sure I buy into the concept of teams—it’s too ‘us against them.’ There are people who are my friends: some I talk to in person regularly, others I talk to online, and more who I’m happy to share a pint with at the Pro Circuit. A number of them I share deck ideas with and discuss strategy. There are even more whom I cheer for. As I say, teams are too limiting.

“Some of the people I’ve tended to discuss ideas with more often have been the Western Canadians (Dean [Sohnle], Earl [Prusak], Mitchell Fujino) and the British crew (Sam Roads, Karl Bown, Ian Vincent). And if we had a team name it would likely be either the Anglo-Canadian Alliance or Team Eastern Express.”

GERMANY – Die Deutschmaschine lebt!

I’ve heard from several sources that the main German contingent will likely be skipping this PC. This means that players like Andre Müller, Markus Kolb, and Alexander Jersch will probably not show up and leaves Maik Stich and Kristian Kockott doubtful as well. Reinhard Blech may be there, but he alone would not be enough of a Deutsche presence to raise an eyebrow.

But have no fear—Germany is about to undergo a resuscitation thanks to a small team from Düsseldorf who arrived on the scene in Atlanta, left with a bit of US greenbackage (Mario Boley and Jonas Skali both finished in the money), and swore to return for more! I speak of Team Zissou, whose friendly grins and red toques were a fun spectacle in Atlanta and are due for a return trip.

Mario Boley tells me that they are not only excited to be in San Francisco, but that they also have spent a lot of time and effort to try to gauge the metagame. He says, “Besides G’Lock, we expect a lot of aggressive decks there. We think that in a new format, the aggressive decks always have a good stand at first. This is no great wisdom, I know, and I’m not sure that it will be actually Squad. AGL, for instance, seems a bit ‘straighter’ for me (although it has more issues with hate cards).”

When it comes to a specific deck, Team Zissou has one, and it just might be a backbreaker. Boley says, “We have a deck that stands a good chance against the old popular decks which adapt easily to Silver Age, but we’re of course very unsure of what will come out of Crisis. The few days where the Fate deck was discussed on VSRealms, the meta really had a mass point, before the rules were changed.” And as for those changes, Mario was probably less concerned than most others seemed to be about the Fate engine deck, though he doesn’t disagree with the changes: “I think players could have adapted to the deck itself and that the PC would not have become so terrible as many have said, but the actual rules change is okay. I think that there are many rules in Vs. which are rather difficult (or let’s say somehow hidden) but are nonetheless required for the players to use certain mechanics to their full extent, or even certain cards at all. For beginners and some casual players, for instance, the uniqueness rule is such a thing. Those players often do not know about the totally legal ways to put several copies of the same unique card into play, and that’s natural. So I don’t consider these rules as a real problem for the game . . . but anyway, I think what’s done with the equipment uniqueness now is a step in the right direction.”

Mario Boley: “That’s really a hard one for me, but the guys who were Top 8 in the X-Men $10K in LA are of course hot candidates, as I also expect them to do a good job in Constructed. So this would mean Doug Tice. Apart from that I have nothing qualified to say about this that goes beyond saying some well-known names, so I’ll skip it.”

“I don’t think they’re right. G’Lock is good, but it has too many weaknesses without cards like Cover Fire to save its butt. Often when you do not intend to play a specific deck, you do not have the strongest version of it for testing, and in the case of G’Lock it is in no way trivial what the optimal substitutes for some cards are. So maybe they have found a really good variant, but I don’t [necessarily] expect that.”

JAPAN – Super-VS-Win-the-PC-Technique!

I’m still not familiar with the Japanese game, though I’m starting to get there. There are three ways to look at the Japanese so far: their performances at Atlanta, their performances at the recent $10K Tokyo, and their performances at other $10Ks.

Atlanta was certainly interesting. The top Japanese player in the PC was Masami Ibamoto, who finished a stellar 20th. The next best was Shouta Yasooka at 65th, followed by Akihiro Shimizu, who finished 91st, just missing the money. Naoto Ikeda was the other Japanese player who had a fair amount of success, missing out on Day 2 and ending up in the Top 8 of the $10K. Shimizu looks to be there if possible, while the others are uncertain. We know that recent $10K Tokyo winner Yuuta Takami won’t be there, but runner-up Hiroki Takeda mentioned that he’d probably be there. One other player to keep an eye out for is Kunihiko Kishishita, who has a win and Top 8 at Tokyo $10Ks.

All in all, the Japanese game is too young to gauge just yet, but if recent events are any proof, they have landed and are out to compete. Duck and cover, my friends, duck and cover!

THE FREE AGENTS & OTHER ASSORTED PLAYERS

It’s so hard to pick a handful out of the dozens of great unaffiliated players. Graham Van Leeuwen, who led Team Online into a Day 2 win-fest, will not be making the trip from what I understand.

Among the players who are likely to make the trip and who should be watched closely are Matthew Tatar (whose foot has hopefully healed up by now), Tommy Ashton (who had a stellar 10th place performance in Atlanta), and William Postlethwait (who always seems to be at the top of the leader board).

Donnie Noland is always a big threat, and his constant insistence that he’ll 0-3 every draft pod—only to 2-1 each of them—was quite amusing!

Ben Stoll is always a solid choice, and Cory Eisenhard has typically good performances.

Bulk Lao, David Frayer, Daniella Grijalva, Niles Rowland, and Jerry Whaley are still the most amazing “non-team” in this game, and Niles’s Top 8 in Atlanta certainly helped to prove it.

If that’s not enough, don’t forget Alex Jebailey, who is likely to finish off on his way toward his goal of a Top 20, if not Top 8, performance.

And now, the moment everyone has been waiting for: my picks and Dark Horses for Top 8 (in alphabetical order).

Top 8: Tim Batow, Alex Brown, Nick Little, Neil Reeves, Alex Tennet, Doug Tice, Vidi Wijaya, Patrick Yapjoco

Dark Horse Picks: Jeremy Blair, Michael Dalton, Shaun Hayward, Scott Hunstad, Ryan Jones, Quang Nguyen, Dean Sohnle, The Billy Zonos

Questions? Queries? Comments? Send ‘em along and I’ll try to get them answered in the column! Email me at:

Also known by his screen name Kergillian, Ben Kalman has been involved in the Vs. community since day one. He started the first major online community, the Vs. Listserv, through Yahoo! Groups, and it now boasts well over 1,850 members! For more on the Yahoo! group, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Marvel_DC_TCG.