An interesting facet of this year’s Top 8 is the range of player experience. On the one hand, we’ve got players like Arvin and Santos, who have little experience with competitive gaming; and on the other, we’ve got players like Domingo and Bertram, who are no strangers to the competitive environment and have prior $10K Top 8 finishes.

Checkmate seems to be the affiliation most in demand among the players here, and their struggle to gain a foothold in the affiliation may have hurt them all. Checkmate might really be the strongest affiliation in the expansion, given its ability to KO characters with Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot and the possibility of building a strong deck based on locations and equipment. But given that such information was common knowledge, perhaps a deliberate gambit to avoid the affiliation altogether might have served better.

Shadowpact appeared to be the next most favored affiliation for its large characters and plentitude of good plot twists. This was followed closely by Villains United, with its KO plot twist and burn theme.

Andrew Franscisco

Andrew Franscisco is in the game for the friendships and bonds that he’s forged. A player of many different TCGs, Andrew is also a fan of DC comics and started playing with the Batman starter deck. He was immediately hooked upon the game’s versatility and has been a fan of the game ever since.

Andrew had initially wanted to build a Checkmate location and equipment deck, but when the locations and equipment simply didn’t come his way, he had to change strategy.

He eventually went with a Checkmate / Villains United / JSA deck that planned on curving out with defensive pumps like Thanagar and Advance Warning to help him along. He says that the key card in his deck is Hourman III ◊ Hourman. It will allow him to stun up the curve and make it difficult for his opponents to attack across the curve.

Angelito Eusebio Jr.

Angelito is a competitive card player who plays for the financial incentives. He was introduced to the game by none other than Jonathan De Joseph, who made the Top 8 in last year’s $10K Manila.

What Angelito likes about the game is the complexity of thought and creativity required to create a “killer combo.”

Angelito likes to go for characters that enable board control, since he thinks that Filipino drafters tend to go for aggressive ones. His favorite character in Draft is Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot.

For the Top 8, he went with the Shadowpact affiliation because his first strong card was the Shadowpact searcher Detective Chimp, Shoeless Gumshoe, which would help him to make his later drops. Another reason he was confident in choosing the affiliation is because it tends to be under-drafted in the Philippines.

Arvin Jesus De Leon

Arvin is a self-professed amateur who has no inkling of probability or game plans. In his own words, he has made it thus far based purely on gut feel and doing “whatever feels right.”

During the Top 8 deck check, a judge pointed out that Arvin is playing with thirty-seven cards! His justification for this major breach of conventional drafting wisdom? “During my first Sealed pod yesterday, I couldn’t decide what cards to cut, so I just played them all. It worked for me, so I have been playing 37 cards ever since.”

I can’t tell you how Arvin built his deck. Most of the players who have seen his decklist say that is couldn’t possibly work out right. They think that his ratios are mightily out of proportion.

If you trust Arvin, though, then you should just trust your gut. Heck, maybe we all have the makings of a $10K champion inside us.

Bertram Chuang

Bertram is a longstanding gaming fanatic who enjoys the mental stimulation he derives from card and board games.

He enjoys Vs. System because it is very balanced and because of the people who play it. The Vs. System community in Singapore tends to be friendlier and less aggressive than those of most other games.

Bertram has also been reading comics since childhood and hopes that UDE will feature an expansion covering the 2024 series.

As mentioned in his Top 24 Draft Analysis, Bertram prefers to play Checkmate. He tried going the equipment and location plan here and pretty much succeeded, save for one flaw. He lacks a 5-drop!

Domingo Charlman

J.R. Santos

Santos is a comic book geek and proud of it! He says that comics aren’t just for kids and used trade paperbacks as an example. He picked up Vs. System because of his affection for comics and finds the game very balanced and fun to play. He says that card players make the best company.

For all the amateurs out there, he has this to say: “If I can make it this far, so can you!”

Santos usually drafts Villains United, but was forced into JSA / Shadowpact for the Top 8. His plan then morphed and he started taking the Shadowpact combat pumps and the JSA characters that could hit up the curve.

His game plan is to gain board advantage by attacking up the curve.

Ian Paul Beatingo

Ian is an IT professional who has a long history with various TCGs. A friend introduced him to the game when it first hit the market and he has since quit all other games to focus on Vs. System.

A huge comic book fan, he enjoys that fact that he is playing with characters he recognizes, and he finds Vs. System to be a greater test of skill than most of the other games he’s played. He’s already got several PCQ Top 8 finishes under his belt, though this is his first $10K event.

Married with a three-year-old son, he says with pride, “My son is named Cahlel, a name I got from Superman.”

Ian has been playing in the Hobby League drafts but says he is really more of a Constructed player. He prefers drafting the Checkmate OMAC Robot archetype, which landed him his spot here in the Top 8.

For the draft, he tried to curve out as much as possible and to pick out a few support cards. He tried to meet his affiliation, but used other affiliations when it wasn’t possible. His favorite card is Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot because it can net you board advantage. In the Top 24, he even managed to get it into play on turn 4 with Neutralization Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot. That same game, he followed that up with two copies of Elimination Protocol on turn 5.

Mon Lopez

Mon is a member of Team XP of the Philippines, whose motto is “sure win.”

He finished Day 1 with a perfect record and was the top player in the Swiss rounds with only a single loss. Mon sure hopes to duplicate that feat here in the Top 8.

Mon likes the Shadowpact and Villains United affiliations—Shadowpact for the large characters and Villains United for the theme of direct endurance loss. His concept is that Villains United can help offset the endurance loss that is the hallmark of Shadowpact.

Mon went for Villains United / Shadowpact from the very onset of the Top 8 draft. His major regret was not picking Abjuration, which he passed for an ATK pump.