Ahhh, PC time again! And this one is a doozy. The first era of DC Modern Age will come to a front in the Pro Circuit world as we get a taste of just how powerful the Green Lantern set really is. I’ve spoken to quite a few people over the last week, and a few things came up repeatedly:

1)     It’s just about unanimous that GLEE will be played by the vast majority of the pros. My guess is seventy to eighty percent, depending on how many people decide to go with the surprise factor and try something off the cuff. With perhaps a handful of those random surprise decks pulling through, it likely will be a question of which GLEE build wins out rather than whether or not GLEE wins out.

2)     Everyone seems to be down on the Superman set. Call me crazy (and many have!), but I think that most of those people are underestimating the tricks up many of the cosmic characters’ sleeves.

3)     Everyone hates the New Gods but me. Curses on you all! The New Gods will shock and awe everybody!

And now, down to the nitty-gritty. Here’s a look at the teams that will be gathering at Indy and the individuals who are most likely to dominate the pack.

Adam Prosak and TeamMarkCity

Adam Prosak

1st in Constructed, 138th in Sealed Pack

Won $10K San Diego

33rd $10K Origins

62nd PC NY

4th $10K Detroit

8th PC Amsterdam

Josh Wiitanen

81st in Constructed, 59th in Sealed Pack

42nd $10K San Diego

14th $10K NY

126th PC NY

Adam Prosak is starting to get a reputation. The Arizona wonder is now being thought of as the guy who Top 8s everything. He leads a team starring Josh Wiitanen, Brian Gates, and Niles Rowland, all of whom have had some level of success on the playing field. Five Top 4s at $10Ks and a PC Top 8 make Adam a very dangerous competitor. And Wiitanen isn’t too far behind him with three $10K Top 4s and a Top 8.

When I asked Adam about the apparent dominance of GLEE, he was the only one who was at all skeptical. “Even though everyone knew that Sentinels was the deck at PCNY, only forty percent actually played it. People (myself included) have a tendency not to want to play a dominant deck. I’d be shocked if something made a huge splash, but I’d definitely count on some obscure deck like Xavier’s Dream to do well. Not a huge splash, but a noticeable one.”

Adam prefers Modern Marvel to Modern DC because he feels that the teams were more evenly matched over the two sets at Amsterdam. Like many others, he feels that the key to this PC will be the draft. For Avengers, he doesn’t like “the fact that the set release is a day before the PC since it’s hard to playtest. I was lucky enough to be able to get enough packs at the Sneak Peek to get a good draft strategy together.” And draft preparation is the difference between that Day 3 appearance (as he’s tasted before) or being a spectator. “The first draft on Day 2 is the easiest three rounds of the tournament if you’re prepared. I remember getting a third pick Marvel Team-Up in pack 1 of the Marvel Knights draft in Amsterdam, and sixth and seventh [pick] Dracula’s Castles.”

And, as the number one Constructed player in the world right now, getting to Day 2 is the easier part. Winning out in those drafts can be a lot trickier. But Adam is a threat no matter the format, perhaps the threat, all things considered. And perhaps the time is right for him to push just a little bit further this time around.

“I’m definitely counting on a 3-0 for the Avengers draft, and there’s a huge difference between trying to squeak out a win or two and just protecting yourself from unlucky losses to unprepared players.”

Adam’s Top 5 non-teammate contenders for Day 3:

1) Vidi Wijaya

2) Nick Little (“You’d have to be dumb to expect either one to flop . . .”)

3) Milton Figueroa (“Milton has a lot of solid finishes. I was gonna say Niles Rowland for the same reason, but he’s on my squad.”)

4) Reinhard Blech

5) Jeroen Remie

“I’m gonna generalize and say one European and one Australian; the foreign competition has only gotten better. Reinhard Blech and Jeroen Remie are my picks if they come.”

Jason Hager

3rd in Constructed, 16th in Sealed Pack

5th $10K Origins

Won $10K Charlotte

2nd PC NY

2nd $10K Columbus

Anthony Justice

13th in Constructed, 59th in Sealed Pack

25th $10K Chicago

2nd $10K Origins

10th $10K Charlotte

72nd $10K Philly

54th PC NY

Matt Oldaker

26th in Constructed, 123rd in Sealed Pack

102nd $10K Chicago

89th $10K Origins

75th $10K Philly

55th PC NY

44th PC Amsterdam

Only Ryan Jones (5) and Vidi Wijaya (9) have a better combined rating than Jason Hager’s 9.5, and only Team Realmworx has had more success than the HK Cavaliers. Hager’s EvilMedicalSchool rocked the game to its foundations, and the Cavaliers’s NewSchool deck at PC New York shook it all apart again. The result was almost an entire team in Day 2 and a second place near-win for Hager.

Well, now Hager’s back and he has the crew with him. Anthony Justice, Matt Oldaker, Heath Baker, Michael Higgins, and Shane Adams round out the team this time, and each and every one of them is a force to be reckoned with. While Jason didn’t tell me what deck they’re playing because he knew the article would be up before the PC started, you can be sure of two things from these crazy West Virginia deckbuilders:

1) No matter what it is, it will be a unique build that will surprise everyone.

2) We can expect to see all of them in Day 2 again.

As for the GLEE factor, Jason told me he thinks that “there will definitely be a showing of decks that don’t exclusively contain Emerald Enemies, Green Lantern, and Teen Titans [in the form of Roy Harper]. The percentage won’t be high—expect Curve Sentinel style numbers for GLEE, but nothing like eighty percent or anything. The interesting thing will be to see what people add to their GLEE decks to try to beat other GLEE decks. There is a lot of innovation. I also expect at least one, maybe two, underground decks to Day 2 at least fifty percent of the people who play it.” And we can be sure that their deck will be one of them! “We like our deck, of course, but it’s a tossup. It’s hard to beat the best deck (GLEE) when there are thirty different ways to build the best deck and have it be at least moderately successful.”

He prefers Modern Age to Golden (“‘The suspense is awful, I hope it never ends,’ as quoted from the only Willy Wonka movie that’s worth watching.”), and he actually enjoys a format that’s more confining—he claims that there are “more nuances” to it.

Jason also stressed the importance of the Avengers set and its potential to swing the team’s draft performance. The case of Avengers his team ordered hadn’t arrived as of the weekend, and “while we understand every single card in the set, we would just like more games of it under our belt. Less than a dozen drafts are just not enough.” He hopes to have the case with him at Indy.

Hager just missed out on the championship at New York, and he’s hungry for a second chance. His teammates, particularly Anthony Justice, have also come close in several tournaments, and they’re all due for a major showing. While Realmworx may still be the favorite team, sometimes it’s the underdogs you have to be more afraid of. And anyone who doesn’t fear Hager and the Hong Kong Cavaliers is dreaming in Technicolor.

Jason’s Top 5 non-teammate contenders for Day 3:

1) Nick Little

2) Adam Prozak [sic] (“People tell me he’s good . . .”)

3) Ryan Jones (“He has enough people working for him over at Realmworx; how can’t he Top 8?”)

4) Antonino De Rosa (“Just an all around pleasant gentleman.”)

5) Someone from Tim Batow’s team

Ryan Jones

4th in Constructed, 6th in Sealed Pack

5th $10K San Diego

7th PC NY

13th $10K Detroit

169th PC Amsterdam

Vidianto Wijaya

16th in Constructed, 2nd in Sealed Pack

26th $10K San Diego

8th PC NY

8th $10K Detroit

4th $10K Seattle

Patrick Yapjoco

99th in Constructed, 90th in Sealed Pack

28th $10K San Diego

16th $10K NY

308th PC NY

53rd $10K Detroit

2nd $10K Seattle

Word on the street is that Billy Zonos has decided to stop playing, at least temporarily, and will not be at Indy. On the flip side, the team Realmworx is bringing to Indy is by far the most sickeningly vicious team yet: Ryan Jones, Vidi Wijaya, Patrick Yapjoco, Dave Spears, and Alex Gellerman. Each and every one of them has had high level success—a Top 8 here, a Top 8 there, not to mention several PC Top 8s, including Ryan’s win at So Cal. It’s West Coast fever, with Spears an honorary West Coaster taking over for Carl Perlas, who is (alas!) stuck in the Philippines for the next few months but will resume his Realmworx spot at So Cal.

Even without Zonos, Perlas, Rian Fike, and John Rich, each of whom will not be repping Realmworx at this PC for a variety of reasons, this team still looks hella strong. I spoke to both Ryan and Vidi, and one thing is for sure—they’re both nervous about the untested format. In the words of Vidi, “I hate untested formats. I’m pretty sure Jonesy will give the same answer.” Ryan didn’t, though. Somewhat elusive about which he actually preferred (“Heh. I don’t know . . .”), he did run down the pros of each format. “Golden is easier; you know what to expect. Modern is more fun in the beginning, but then much more stressful as the PC approaches as you start to worry about what you’ve missed.”

And worry they do. Vidi said, “I think some stuff other than GLEE will make a splash . . . probably some Blue Abuse. But there’re like 38,471,034,816,510,928 ways to build GLEE. I prefer [Sealed Pack]. It’s more fun! We have [Curve Sentinels] in Golden and GLEE in Modern.” Ryan agreed: “GLEE is really the only deck to beat right now.” He adds that people will keep to themselves whatever decks they design to beat it that are good enough to play at the PC. “So while we may see a number of decks that beat GLEE, they’ll be small splashes.”

So, will we see Realmworx playing GLEE? Only time will tell. But history has shown that Realmworx has used innovative builds of big decks (Curve Sentinels and Titans) to perform and devastate at major tournaments. As for the draft, Ryan ran down Avengers for us: “Kang is the Manhunter/X-Statix equivalent. Masters of Evil just seems terrible. Avengers are really big but I do terribly even when I have decks full of Avengers rares. T-Bolts seem really good. Squadron is really good, too, but I think you have to be the only one drafting them.” And Vidi summed up the team effort with this:“I haven’t been practicing lately. My teammates play more games than me,” he said with a laugh. “So you might want to ask them. Hopefully we’re all playing the same deck . . .” You just never know whether Vidi’s serious or not. But in the end, it doesn’t matter. We’re still likely to see them all in or approaching Day 3 with a vengeance.

Said Vidi, “So far my record on Day 2 in both PCs is 6-3, which means I do better in the Constructed portion. That kinda kills my suggestion about being a [Sealed Pack] player.”

Ryan added, “Heh, I even like drafting Qwardians sometimes if I’m playing a fast deck. They do speed up the game. Anti-Matter has lots of cool cards but not much synergy. You can’t play the search cards since half of them don’t have willpower, and can’t rush with ’em ’cause their rush guys KO themselves, so you can’t use Birthing Chamber to gain card advantage.”

Vidi’s Top 5 non-teammate contenders for Day 3:

1) Antonino De Rosa

2) Jason Dawson or Michael Dalton

3) Nick Little

4) Alex Shvartsman

5) GARY WISE!!

Ryan’s Top 5 non-teammate contenders for Day 3:

1) Niles Rowland (“He has 8-1’d two drafts in a row. If only he could more than 7-5 Day 1 . . .”)

2) Adam Prosak (“He Top 8s everything.”)

3) Matthew Tatar (“I’ll assume he still plays this game. He always does well; maybe he’ll finally Top 8, too.”)

4) Michael Dalton (“I’ve heard FTN’s deck is killer.”)

5) Nick Little (“I guess I’ll jump on the Nick Little bandwagon . . .)

Michael Jacob

19th in Constructed, 34th in Sealed Pack

17th $10K Chicago

12th PC NY

10th $10K Detroit

131st PC Amsterdam

Named after the Michigan store where they play, Team RIW Hobbies is filled with solid pro performers led by Michael Jacob and including Jeremy Pinter, James Beeton, Bill King, Di Shi, Dan Clark, and one or two tentative players.

Michael hasn’t broken the Top 10 since before PC Amsterdam, but a strong showing in New York made up for a rare poor one in PC Amsterdam. He hates the mirror match, so his whole team will be playing Blue Abuse, forgoing the GLEE phenom for something more exciting. While that is (as everything else) subject to change in the coming days—I still have the GLEE deck he passed me a couple of months ago and swore he would play back then—he may indeed be serious. And if anyone could power Blue Abuse to a berth in Day 3, it would be Michael.

He was slightly miffed that four others in the $10K at Wizard World Chicago were playing his exact Force decklist, card for card, as it was posted earlier on VsRealms. Michael was surprised that people netdecked him, as they always seemed to think that his success laid purely in his talent and not in his decks. When I asked him about other deck possibilities, he said that “the only Manhunter swarm is with Superman Robots, and the only Anti-Matter swarm is just worse than GLEE because their guys stick around and are the same size. New Gods are a really bad X-Men, and since X-Men aren’t used, why would New Gods be?” The New Gods just get no love, I tell you . . .

The only barrier between Michael and success at Indy is a failure to reach Day 2 at PC Amsterdam, his only DC Modern Age professional experience and the first and only time in four PC events that that happened to him. He prefers Golden Age to Modern Age and tends to perform better at it, so we’ll have to wait and see if Michael can pull it off. If he makes Day 2 he’s a serious threat, as he has a mean draft.

Michael finished by saying, “These modern formats are never defined, which means the teams who have the most members usually do best . . . I just hope I keep getting third pick Oas and sixth to seventh pick Superwomans like I did last Pro Circuit.”

Michael’s Top 5 non-teammate contenders for Day 3:

1) Antonino [De Rosa] will do fine like he usually does. He knocks me out of top 8; hopefully I’ll do that to him this time.

2) I like Dave Spears a lot, so I hope he does well.

Well . . . make that Top 2, as Michael says he really doesn’t know anyone else’s name.

Alex Tennet

8th in Constructed

53rd PC Amsterdam

3rd $10K Columbus

Jason Dawson

12th in Constructed

40th PC Amsterdam

Milton Figueroa

14th in Constructed, 27th in Sealed Pack

23rd PC NY

14th PC Amsterdam

Mike Dalton

28th in Constructed, 12th in Sealed Pack

3rd $10K NY

120th PC NY

2nd PC Amsterdam

Peter Sundholm

95th in Constructed, 124th in Sealed Pack

7th $10K NY

274th PC NY

Won $10K Seattle

31st PC Amsterdam

Kim Caton

57th in Sealed Pack

58th $10K Origins

8th $10K NY

176th PC NY

42nd PC Amsterdam

Chuck Bell, Kim Caton, Michael Dalton, Jason Dawson, Milton Figueroa, Steve Horowitz, David Leader, Chris Price, Peter Sundholm, Alex Tennet . . . the list of names reads like a Justice League roll call; some of the best in Constructed, some of the best in Sealed. The team is huge, both in size and stature, and with four of the Top 30 Constructed players and two of the Top 30 Sealed Pack players, there is little better potential team synergy. I witnessed firsthand the power of the team when they placed three members in the Top 8 of the Sealed Pack $10K in New York, and I almost had my guts ripped out and handed to me by Kim Caton at Origins in a game I’m still not sure I actually won. I don’t think there’s another team that works as hard as these guys do, and just looking at that roster I truly believe what several pros have told me about the size and quality of one’s team being a major factor in one’s performance. And even with the departure of Gabe Alonso, FTN is still one of the largest and fiercest teams on the PC. Dalton told me, “We lost one member; Gabe Alonso left the team to focus on other things. But the rest of the team is still intact, and they let Tennet back in the US, so he will be here for this one.” Which means no more frantic calls to Kim Caton’s cell phone every ten minutes for team updates, as Alex Tennet was making at New York during the FTN surge.

Dalton is definitely a Modern fan, (No kidding, he placed second at PC Amsterdam!), and he’s excited about the off-GLEE possibilities that pepper the DC stage. “There will definitely be a few other rogue decks out there. And a few of them will do well, even . . . I love Modern; I love new environments and fewer cards to think about.” While he agrees that diversity was the key to a wide-open Marvel Modern Age at Amsterdam, he looks forward to the different challenges a more claustrophobic—and therefore more challenging—format can cause. “This DC environment is a little confining, but that’s just because GLEE is such an easy deck to build. I think the Marvel environment was rather diverse and a ton of fun to play. I think the Modern environments will keep getting better.” Not one to argue, Dalton has the right idea about the Modern Age environments getting better. They’ll certainly keep getting more exciting as the balance issues get ironed out and the sets get more and more complex in terms of depth and development.

Though I just finished pumping out compliments on the strength of the powerhouse HK Cavaliers and Realmworx teams, FTN should never be counted out. While they haven’t earned as many accolades overall as the other teams have, they have been arguably the most consistent team in terms of repeatedly placing members in a position to win major events. And with the line-up they have and the lessons they learned at New York (where most of them ended up dropping from the PC to Top 8 at the $10K), it’s doubtful that we’ll see even one of them missing out on Day 2. If there isn’t at least one FTN member in the Top 8, I’ll be one of the first to pick my jaw up off the floor.

About drafting, Michael says, “Practice-drafting any set is very important, but with the release date being what it is . . . It’s gonna be very difficult to get a good handle on Avengers draft. We’ve drafted a ton of GLC, though. Avengers . . . we’ll just do the best we can to get a strategy going.”

Michael’s Top 5 non-teammate contenders for Day 3:

1) TJ Holman

2) Nick Little

3) Anthony Justice

4) Mark Slack

TJ Holman

10th in Constructed

30th PC NY

17th PC Amsterdam

Stop the presses! Somehow, TJ’s quietly crept up in the rankings to hit 10th in the world! We shouldn’t be too surprised, as those loco hombres from Decktech have been doing better and better at each PC. Known to choke on Day 2, though, they’re going to have to put up some solid numbers in the draft. With Erik Cabanero and Justin Desai on either side of TJ, those draft numbers should get better if they stop goofing around and heckling Dave Spears and start practicing a bit more! Jeremy Blair is also due for a good performance, and Colin Rodriguez, Mike French, Neal Razi, and Dan Blackford are other Decktech players we may see hit the top tables at Indy. But TJ is still the man to beat and he has Rian Fike’s backing, and anyone Rian backs is worth taking a peek at. There was even talk that Rian might be suiting up with the Decktech team, though I don’t know how that panned out in the end.

Nick Little

23rd in Constructed, 3rd in Sealed Pack

9th $10K Chicago

Won $10K Origins

10th PC NY

22nd PC Amsterdam

Sammy Gilly

68th in Constructed

14th $10K Chicago

50th $10K Origins

176th $10K NY

142nd PC NY

3rd $10K Detroit

70th PC Amsterdam

Mark Slack

257th in Constructed, 43rd in Sealed Pack

60th $10K Chicago

8th $10K Origins

12th $10K NY

237th PC NY

51st $10K Detroit

45th PC Amsterdam

Gabe Walls

108th in Constructed, 73rd in Sealed Pack

17th $10K Origins

59th PC NY

160th $10K Amsterdam

244th PC Amsterdam

Adam Bernstein

67th in Constructed, 182nd in Sealed Pack

Won PC NY

Indiana’s hometown teams are making waves at the PC, with Nick Little riding two solid PC performances and two straight $10K Top 10s, and Mark Slack leading Misunderstood to some solid numbers at the NY $10K and Origins. For Middlepair, Gabe Walls has fallen off the path a bit of late, and Neil Reeves has been declared a missing person, so it’s up to Little to pick up the . . . erm . . . Slack at the PC. Still, a top 64 performance at the PC is no slouching matter, so Walls hasn’t been exactly lying down on the job. Though with his recent $90K+ winnings in Vegas at the World Series of Poker Texas Hold ’Em Championships, he won’t be desperate for the cash (and is likely cruising the Bahamas right now, as I haven’t been able to get in touch with him for his usually fab quotes). Then there’s Adam Bernstein. You have to respect a guy who played to a horrible performance at Indy last year, barely touched Vs. until New York, and then walked in with a friend’s build after only a month of testing and won the tournament. I don’t know if he can pull it off again, but Bernstein doesn’t keep with bad company.

On the flip side, Misunderstood is looking more and more solid as time goes on. With Slack up in the Sealed Pack rankings and Gilly near the ceiling in Constructed, they have both sides of the coin. They’re joined by other top-ranked players such as Jason Green, Cory Dawson, and Vince Greco to make a team that’s always nipping at the heels of Day 3.

The day of reckoning is upon us. I know both teams test together, and I’m just waiting for the official amalgamation between them. The only thing that truly separates each one from being a superstar team is size and raw testing strength. If they truly joined into one team, than all havoc would break free and Indy would have a hometown team to dominate all comers. But even separate they will be fierce, and as each and every one of them has made a name in the halls of TCG history, you never know which member will be the one to take you down.

Antonino De Rosa

44th in Constructed, 15th in Sealed Pack

4th $10K Charlotte

4th PC NY

23rd $10K Amsterdam

202nd at PC Amsterdam

Adam Horvath

286th in Constructed, 1st in Sealed Pack

2nd $10K NY

197th PC NY

Won PC Amsterdam

Fresh from victory at the 2005 Magic US Nationals, De Rosa will be hungry for another title that has thus far eluded him—PC Champion. He’ll lead TOGIT into battle as he looks for another Day 3 performance to mirror his near-win at New York. Adam Horvath is equally dangerous, and he’s already had major success in the Modern arena with the win at PC Amsterdam. The best Sealed Pack player in the world (as his second place finish at $10K NY showed) and arguably the best Modern Age player, Horvath is definitely a menace to make Day 3. Could this be the day that TOGIT places two players in a PC Top 8 (De Rosa and Eugene Harvey made Top 8 in So Cal last fall) for the second time? Could we see Horvath become the first two-time PC winner?

The TOGIT line-up reads like a TCG all-star team. Aside from De Rosa and Horvath, we have Osyp Lebedowicz, Eugene Harvey, Craig Krempels, Anand Khare, and Gerard Fabiano. They’ve all had fair success at Vs. System, and are all dangerous opponents. While De Rosa may be a long shot to make Day 3 (depending on how much energy he has; insert joke here), the others will be hungry and may well build on De Rosa’s fortunes to make a move at the PC. Only time will tell.

Michael Barnes

29th in Constructed, 295th in Sealed Pack

3rd PC NY

Tim Batow

90th in Constructed, 23rd in Sealed Pack

13th $10K Chicago

10th $10K NY

125th PC NY

1st $10K Vegas

Who’da thunk it? An Xavier’s Dream deck at New York made Day 3. Well, it’s not that much of a surprise when you find out that it was built by deck-master Tim Batow. What was a surprise was that Big Spooky, Michael Barnes, was the pilot who took it to the semis (No offense to Barnes, as the man is a Vs. monster!). Now 29th in the rankings, the student has surpassed the master, and he’s climbing in the Sealed Pack rankings as well (with a little help from the Top 25 ranked Batow, no doubt).

The Dream Team has an unofficial rivalry with the Cavaliers when it comes to building whacked out and off the wall decks, so here’s hoping that Batow, Barnes, John Hall, Shane Wiggans, and Johnson Bailey can pull out all the stops and place more players in Day 2 at Indy. And I think they will. You heard it here first.

Other Players to Watch

Hans Höh

5th in Constructed, 42nd in Sealed Pack

8th $10K Munich

6th PC NY

7th $10K Paris

220th PC Amsterdam

6th $10K Amsterdam

Kristian Kockott

7th in Constructed, 302nd in Sealed Pack

16th $10K Munich

20th PC NY

Won $10K Paris

3rd PC Amsterdam

All Germany all the time! It’s certainly looked like that on the European front, where Germany and England have just about dominated the scene. And leading the way is Hans Höh. Remember those words about Adam Prosak and how he Top 8s everything? Well, meet his German counterpart. Look at those numbers. Hans Höh is an unstoppable machine, and he’s proven that he can dominate just about any format. Any format but Modern Age, that is; the one glitch in his resume was an abysmal performance at PC Amsterdam (which he corrected the next day by Top 8ing the $10K). But 2005 turned around for Hans as he placed sixth in New York and then had yet another $10K Top 8 in Munich shortly afterward (playing a non-Sentinels deck, no less!).

If anyone can claim more success than Höh, it would be Kristian Kockott. After a blazing Amsterdam performance, he showed us that he wasn’t finished by winning at Paris. And he came very close to making it a double-German Day 3 in New York, finishing 20th.

These two, along with countrymen Andre Müller and Reinhard Blech, will almost certainly prove once again that when it comes to beating down your opponents at the Vs. tables, Germany owns the privilege. And I don’t want to be on the other side of the table when it happens.

Rich Edbury

19th in Constructed

2nd $10K Amsterdam

134th PC Amsterdam

Stuart Wright

49th in Constructed, 240th in Sealed Pack

5th PC Amsterdam

10th Gen Con UK $10K

Duncan Tang

236th in Constructed, 52nd in Sealed Pack

81st $10K NY

175th PC NY

38th PC Amsterdam

27th $10K London

I’ve no idea if they’ll show up—they didn’t grace us at New York—but just take a look at those numbers. What you don’t see is the series of $10K events that Edbury won just prior to Amsterdam, with Wright not far behind.

Now, neither of these gents played in Paris or Munich, so I’m not sure how heavily they’ve kept up in the game. But if they do decided to make the trip, they’ll have something up their sleeves. And someone’s got to keep a handle on those Germans . . .

Of course, if those lads don’t do it, Duncan Tang just might. The Scottish Vs. wizard followed up a strong performance in Amsterdam with a surprising one at New York (Must’ve been the jetlag!), though I’m sure he hugged his competitors with congratulations after each match—that’s just how he is. Duncan will be at PC Indy, and he’s due. If he can keep up the energy, a money performance is in the cards . . . literally.

Dean Sohnle

24th in Constructed, 7th in Sealed Pack

17th $10K Munich

25th PC NY

2nd $10K Paris

Winner $10K Amsterdam

117th PC Amsterdam

Winner $10K London

David Fielder

127th in Constructed, 63rd in Sealed Pack

67th PC NY

35th $10K Amsterdam

206th PC Amsterdam

Nobody was less surprised than I to see $10K master Dean Sohnle arrive in New York. And nobody was less surprised to see him follow up three $10K finals with a Top 25 performance at the PC. His performance in Munich was slightly off pace, but hey, you’ve gotta drop something, right?

Sohnle, who will always be Canadian no matter what the Brits say, is definitely going to be a challenger if he decides to show up again (and I have an inkling that he just might . . . Tim Willoughby needs someone to talk to, you know).

On the flipside, David Fielder hasn’t really repeated the kind of performance we pressured him into since his Top 8 at So Cal last fall. He’s more focused on judging than playing these days. But with a friend like Donald Grant to build and test with, he’s likely to pull out another decent performance like he did in New York. I think he’ll place higher.

Theresa Van Gundy

21st in Constructed

66th $10K Origins

Theresa tells me that she gained her (21st in the world!) ranking solely through the little games and shouldn’t be counted as a threat. She also told me she was horrible at Sealed Pack, yet she took horrid cards to a respectable 66th place finish at Origins in the Sealed Pack $10K. (And she should have been a couple of places higher. Don’t get me started on people who drop but maintain full tiebreakers . . .)

Theresa will be playing in the PC for the first time in 2005, and it’s only her second major tournament this year. As always, I’m her biggest fan, and I think she’s going to break out. She may not make Day 3, but she’s certainly a threat to place in the money.

Matthew Tatar (25 Con 18 Seal)

16th PC NY

19th PC Amsterdam

I met Matthew for the first time in New York, where he took it to the net and just missed Day 3. All I have to say is that he’s played two straight PCs, made Top 20 both times (and increased his performance each time), and is a Top 25 player in the world in both formats with a combined rating of 21.5.

Matthew will make Day 3 this time. It’s in the books.

David Bauer

25th in Constructed

Won $10K Chicago

82nd PC NY

19th $10K Amsterdam

143rd PC Amsterdam

David is fresh off of a win at $10K Chicago, so I had to give him a shout out. He told me that his biggest regret is that he’s not on a team. “I fall into the same category that Ryan Jones falls into. I hate untested environments; I’m a better player than builder. Plus, not being on a team for playtesting sucks. It’s hard to compete without a team when going into an untested Pro Circuit environment. And Texas sucks for [teams]. I have to wait ’til I get back to Miami, which will be after Indy. Considering that I have a $10K trophy and a second place finish, I hope [to get an offer to join a team].” He feels, as most others do, that non-GLEE decks just don’t have the consistency necessary to make it on the Modern Age stage, though he does point to the Anti-Matter Kiman deck that’s been floating around as a potential answer. “GLEE will make Day 2, draft will make Day 3. There are some tested decks that have been rumored to beat GLEE, but I don’t feel that they have consistency. GLEE can beat anything if it draws well, which is pretty common. It reminds me a little of Brotherhood.”

David is a solid player, but is only now reaching his potential. The $10K win is huge, and the fact that it’s his second $10K finals appearance pushes him past the fluke factor. Now we have to see him push farther forward in the PC arena to prove he’s not a one-trick pony.

About Avengers draft, he says, “It seems like it can be so explosive. Absolutely no real stall. I can see games ending on turn 5 and 6. I think players who have had a chance to get at least a few [practice drafts] in will be way better off. Watch out for Speed Demon as one of my high picks.”

David’s Top 5 Day 3 contenders:

1) Adam Prosak

2) Ryan Jones

3) Milton Figueroa

4) Michael Dalton

5) Vidi Wijaya

Craig Edwards

27th in Constructed, 67th in Sealed Pack

2nd $10K Philly

6th $10K Origins

86th PC NY

31st $10K Detroit

181st PC Amsterdam

Your Move Games veteran Craig Edwards is still best known for his Rigged Elections deck that brought him to the finals in last year’s PC Indy . . . and almost pulled it out against Brian Kibler. Not one to give up easily (though his PC performances have been below par this year), he’s fresh off of two $10K Top 8s, one Constructed and one Sealed Pack. He’s solid deckbuilder and an amazing drafter. Watch for him to make waves.

Russ Pippin

50th in Constructed

Russ Pippin is my man! I don’t care if he works for UDE! I stand by my words from the PC NY preview! He’ll break ’em all! Just wait and see!

Alex Shvartsman

53rd in Constructed, 8th in Sealed Pack

5th PC NY

16th PC Amsterdam

The Kings Games leader who has dominated in recent tournaments, Shvartsman finished in the Top 20 two PCs in a row. And he is the most underrated (or at least the most underappreciated and least written about) player on the PC. Quiet and under the radar until he’s slaughtering you, watch out for Alex; he’s a dangerous, dangerous player.

Scott Hunstad

56th in Constructed, 50th in Sealed Pack

8th $10K Sydney

25th $10K Brisbane

7th $10K Auckland

4th PC Amsterdam

I left Oz out of my country roundup because they didn’t show up for New York and will likely not show up until So Cal (it’s hella expensive and a looooooong flight). But if we do see an Aussie contingent, Scott Hunstad will lead the way . . . right into Day 3. I have little to no doubt that Hunstad will be right up there until the final bell rings. It all depends on whether or not he shows up.

John “Bam Bam” Rich

63rd in Constructed

88th PC NY

9th $10K Detroit

71st PC Amsterdam

6th $10K Columbus

Bam Bam was a founding member of Team 3BG with Joey Carey, Matt Meyer, Donnie Noland, and David De Michele (among others). He jumped ship to Realmworx with Meyer, and then they both got dumped from the west-centric Realmworx roster. The soap opera continues, as I haven’t seen or heard from John since NY, and like other players such as Rob Leander and Gabe Alonso, John seems to have left the Vs. route behind.

Still, I wouldn’t be surprise to see both him and Rob show up with some super secret deck to blow us all away. But the man who seems cursed to always just miss the Top 8 of a $10K or just lose in the quarters hasn’t really blown anyone away in the last couple of PCs. He’s a challenger to be wary of, but only if he plays.

Bulk Lao

188th in Constructed, 5th in Sealed Pack

22nd $10K Chicago

4th $10K Origins

32nd $10K San Diego

14th PC NY

52nd PC Amsterdam

I don’t know that much about Sealed specialist Bulk Lao, but seeing him play at Origins gave me a solid impression of his performance capability. He can obviously play the Constructed side as well, boasting a Top 20 performance in New York after a near Top 50 in Amsterdam. Look for him at the top tables.

Loren Nolen

113th in Constructed, 23rd in Sealed Pack

3rd $10K Origins

58th $10K Philly

55th $10K NY

152nd PC NY

Won $10K Detroit

If the ever-flowing mullet isn’t enough indication, you’ll recognize Loren by his ever-present smile and his ultra-fast play style. Playing against him at Origins was an adrenaline rush (and I almost beat him, too!). Loren is under the radar on the PC; several pros I spoke to at Origins, notably Craig Edwards, didn’t even consider him to be a true pro. But he won a $10K and nearly took Origins, as well. He’s not the first to prove the naysayers wrong, and he won’t be the last. But don’t be a naysayer—be sure not to underestimate his ability.

Alex Jebailey

133rd in Constructed

74th PC NY

42nd $10K Orlando

I saved the best for last. And you might now be going, “who?” But trust me—any man who can play Dance Dance Revolution for thirteen hours straight (a Guinness World Record, no less!) deserves a ton of respect. He told me that his secret “x-factor” was that Friday is his birthday (Happy Birthday, Alex!) and he’s looking to have his cake and eat it too!

“I think that PC Indy will come down to whoever can tech against GLEE decks. Or who will make the least mistakes, just like a Titans Mirror, with so many potential attacks and strategies you can use. There are some top secret decks that can handle GLEE, just nothing terribly consistently.” As for what other decks are solid, he said, “I’ve seen some New Gods/Superman Decks that can handle GLEE with Phantom Zone, The Source, Fastbak, and Super Speed, but again, it’s not consistent enough to handle GLEE. Anti-Matter rush has potential with double attacks, but what Modern Age comes down to is who can have more guys out. Manhunter seems to be okay with the 3 ATK/6 DEF Manhunter Guardsman and Orinda, but there’s certain tech in GLEE decks to handle hidden characters. GLEE is just too powerful not to be played; it’s the Curve Sentinels of Modern, and PC Indy will come down not to Bolivar Trask and Bastion, but to G’Nort and Kyle Rayner.”

Alex is an unofficial TOGIT member who tests with them and helps throw deck ideas around (I call him the TOGIT mascot . . . I mean, who doesn’t need a DDR dancer to lead the way to victory?). He met Antonino De Rosa through Billy Postlethwait, and they bonded in that TCG way. Since then, he’s been a usually-welcomed contributor to the team. And he doesn’t worry about pressure. “I had a very exciting younger life and I went through a lot, so now things don’t ever get to my head. Just inconsiderate people. Vs. System actually was the first game in a long time [that I worried about]. I would kinda worry about a match or not be one hundred percent confident ’cause for two years straight I never lost Street Fighter tournaments in Florida. I would put up headhunter challenges—if you could beat me, you get money. That’s how confident I was. Vs. is different. You don’t have one hundred percent of every game. Just this time, unlike any other, I really will be more prepared and more confident like I was in fighting games.

“[The Avengers draft] will definitely prove who has better natural drafting skills. Whoever the dealer at the Con will be is gonna bank on Avengers boxes. You’ll see everyone scrambling to get some practice . . . that or studying day and night the full card listings.”

Alex’s Top 5 contenders for Day 3:

1) Ryan Jones

2) Nick Little

3) Hans Höh

4) Dean Sohnle

5) And (since De Rosa may technically be a teammate) one unknown, because it is DC Modern Age and anything can happen.

Watch for Mike Rosenberg. His rankings (225th in Sealed Pack and somewhere in the abyss of Constructed) aren’t on top of the heap, but he’s one of the top Yu-Gi-Oh! players out there and he’s looking to switch over to Vs. full time. He’s convinced he’s going to scrub out, but I think he’ll at least Day 2.

And Gary Wise deserves props- I hear he just might try out the PC again. Gary is an old vet and can walk the walk. The only thing keeping him back would be a lack of familiarity.

For Top 8, Day 3, in alphabetical order:

Kim Caton, Jason Dawson, Jason Hager, Hans Höh, Adam Horvath, Ryan Jones, Matthew Tatar, Vidi Wijaya

Darkhorses:

David Bauer, Rian Fike, Alex Jebailey, Loren Nolen, Mike Rosenberg, Alex Shvartsman, Dave Spears, Duncan Tang

Questions? Queries? Comments? Send ’em along and I’ll try to get them answered in the column! Email me at Kergillian (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Corrections Dep’t

Thanks to Gambit266 of VsRealms for pointing out an “oops” in my Masters of Evil article a couple of weeks back. Captain America was not in the fight against the Wrecker in the recent New Avengers issues; it was just Spidey, Wolverine, Luke Cage, and Spider-Woman.

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 1,750 members! For more on the Yahoo! group, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Marvel_DC_TCG.