This article will use a little challenge I proposed last week as the basis to discuss what happened at the PC this past week. I’ll do my best not to restate facts you already know from the coverage.

I haven’t been back in the office long enough to track down prizes for those of you that responded, and my co-workers have hidden most of their possessions in sight. If I mention your name below, I’ll try to let you know what you might expect to receive soon as a reward. For now, you’ll have to be content with seeing your name in print. I realize my challenge went up at the last minute and I’ll try to remedy that next time, assuming I get enough positive feedback on this contest to do it again in the future. 

On to the questions.

1) Choose the three players you think will take home the largest sum of money from the event.

Among the 17 responses I received, the top three players receiving votes were Robert Leander, Ryan Jones, and Jose Maria Aramburu (in that order).

Many of the best known players struggled at this PC. Of the ten players I suggested last week, only one, Alex Tennet, finished in the money. Aramburu, Batow, and Leander didn’t show. Meanwhile, Edwards, Jacob, Hoeh, Jones, Sohnle, and Walls all failed to post a 7-5 record on the first day of the PC.

Some of those players contined to demonstrate their excellence at the Golden Age format during the $10K tournament this weekend. Sohnle and Hoeh both made the Top 8 of the $10K, with Sohnle winning the whole thing. His deck made a strong statement, with first and second place finishes. By the time the next PC arrives, it should be interesting to see how Golden Age adapts to the recent uprising of Fantastic Fun decks.

Also of note: I believe Michael Jacob won a roughly fifty-person Modern Age PCQ in Amsterdam later that weekend with Marvel Knights/Underworld.

As for the contest, Ken Hagen was the only respondent to select a Top 8 player- Adam Prosak.  He also chose 22nd place finisher Nick Little, along with Gabe Walls, a pro who had assured me he had broken this format a few weeks ago.

2) Name the exact team affiliation(s) that will be represented in the deck that wins PC Amsterdam.

As all of you are likely aware, Crime Lords/Sinister Syndicate was the winning deck, and Syndicate was the only team represented in the decks of both finalists. As a developer, I found it satisfying for the Syndicate to have a chance to shine.

All but a few of the emails I received predicted Marvel Knights in combination with some other team as the winner.  Nobody choose Crime Lords/Sinister Syndicate, and nobody selected the Syndicate at all (although some mentioned that they were tempted to choose the Syndicate). Who was closest to reality? Well, since the first and second place finishers from Day 1 were playing Marvel Knights/Underworld, I’d say that the three people who predicted that combination were on the money. Those readers were: Lee Chung Wei, Dave Maynor, and one anonymous respondent.

3) At the end of Day 1, how many different decks will be represented in the Top 10?

The top 10 finishers after the first day consisted of seven different decks based on teams. The standings after the 12 rounds of Swiss Constructed were:

1 Kockott, Kristian: Marvel Knights/Underworld

2 Rabinowitz, Jacob: Marvel Knights/Underworld

3 Wright, Stuart: Crime Lords/Underworld

4 Hunstad, Scott: Marvel Knights/ Sinister Syndicate (only one SS card)

5 Postema, Bas: Marvel Knights

6 Dalton, Michael: Marvel Knights/Sinister Syndicate

7 Rivera, Tim: Crime Lords/Sinister Syndicate

8 Greco, Vincent: Spider-Friends/Marvel Knights (only Mikado and Mosha)

9 Bueno, Alfonso: Crime Lords/Sinister Syndicate

10 Paolucci, Matteo: X-Statix/X-Men

There was a lot of variety in card choices amongst even the decks with similar teams. For example, Kristian’s and Jacob’s decks have quite a number of differences in both characters and non-character cards. Kristian’s deck is very focused on aggression and utilizes its own hidden characters with cards like Head Shot, Punisher's Armory, and Sucker Punch. By contrast, Jacob’s deck is a little more controlling and oriented toward the KO’d pile, with cards like Brother Voodoo, Centurious, and Strength of the Grave.

The decklists for these players can be found here.

As for the contest, I received the following responses:

Three-1

Four-6

Five-3

Six-6

Seven-1

Patrick Yapjoco was the victor on this part, as he was the only person to choose seven different decks and went so far as to earn “extra credit” by guessing the teams represented very accurately (only being especially mistaken about a Witching Hour deck).

4) In the 3-0 deck at table #1, to which team will most of the cards be stamped?

Marvel Knights were a big fan favorite based on the responses I received:

Crime Lords - 1

Marvel Knights – 9

Underworld – 2

X-Statix - 5

Some of the details on the actual result to this question can be found here.

Jacob Rabinowitz took the X-Statix to a 3-0 record in the first table #1 draft, taking him to the best record in the Marvel portion of the event. Sadly, Man of Steel didn’t treat him so kindly.

The five correct answers were submitted by Erik Berg, Gary Eldridge, Joseph O'Regan, Bobby LaMee, and Craig Chenoweth.

5) In the 3-0 deck at table #1 during the first Man of Steel draft, to which team will most of the cards be stamped?

As it turns out there were two players, Michael Dalton and Kristian Kockott, who went 3-0 in this draft. At the moment, I don’t have access to their decklists, so this part of the contest will remained unresolved until a later date. Once I learn the details on this question, I’ll include it at the end of one of my future articles.

To get an idea of what team the respondents sided with, I received the following votes.

Darkseid's Elite – 6

New Gods -3

Revenge Squad - 6

Team Superman – 2

6) Which two of the following teams will be the most represented, and which of those two will appear in more decks?

By my count, X-Men cards showed up in the most decks followed by Doom. In my article, I didn’t tip readers off about Latverian Embassy since I wasn’t considering it, but technically it falls into the realm of Doom cards. None of the respondents listed Doom. Professor X, Mental Master swung the results in the favor of the X-Men as the character of choice in games going beyond turn 7, showing up in most X-Statix decks and in many other decks featuring teams without a splashy 8-drop of their own. He was also likely a precaution against decks worrying about Silver Surfer, since the Professor can empty the Surfer’s controller’s hand.

The other key card for this answer also appeared mainly in decks worried about long games. It would make sense that Latverian Embassy would be most effective in games where players went though more cards and thus had more time to accumulate additional copies of cards.  Consistent with this notion, at a quick glance it appears to be most represented in decks featuring X-Statix and Spider-Friends. It was also likely a response to fears that Midnight Sons might get out of control in terms of teaming-up multiple teams. 

I’ve included a breakdown of the number of decks using each legacy card or team below. The individual cards listed below will not sum to the total, since several decks used multiple copies of these cards.

X-Men: 62 decks

Professor X, Mental Master 58

Bamf! 13

Sunfire 11

Archangel, Angel of Death 1

Emma Frost 1

Doom: 37 decks

Latverian Embassy: 37 decks

Fantastic Four: 30 decks

Silver Surfer 30

Sentinels: 28 decks

Hounds of Ahab 28

Sentinel Mark V 5

Brotherhood: 9 decks

Insignificant Threat 2

Scarlet Witch, Eldritch Enchantress 7

Skrulls: 0 decks

Since no one mentioned Doom, the next closest prediction would be specifying X-Men and Fantastic Four. Four respondents chose those two teams, but only Mike Tyminski and Patrick Yapjoco specified the teams in that order.

Good luck in the upcoming Marvel Modern Age PCQ season!

Comments welcome at DHumpherys@metagame.com