I had the pleasure of starting off my coverage with a bang by interviewing the well-known Mexico City local Alexander Sacal. A recognized and respected regular of the Vs. System scene in Mexico, Sacal has been playing TCGs, starting with Magic, for nine years. He’s been to thirteen Pro Tour events, including two Worlds competitions; and is especially proud, in an endearing and honest way, of going undefeated during the block portion of this past year’s Worlds. Now he’s set his sights on Mexico’s first Vs. System $10K event, with his ultimate goal being Gen Con So Cal.
Saying he was inspired to some degree by the Minehead $10K play choices of UK favorite Tim Willoughby, Sacal decided to play Teen Titans/Arsenal Abuse in the tournament.
“The initial thing that made me choose that deck is that it has pretty complex timing issues. Once you master those, it’s difficult for your opponent to predict your moves during combat. A lot of players get caught by surprise by things like Teen Titans Go! during an attack. They think it can only be used once the attack has concluded, so they don’t anticipate a lot of the little tricks that the deck has access to.”
Sacal thinks himself somewhat ahead in gameplay compared to most other competitors in the Mexican metagame. Vs. System is still relatively new here, so he’s likely quite qualified to make that statement. He thinks his major wildcard strength is his rules knowledge. With relatively very few players in Mexico intensively studying rulings at the moment, someone with a strong knowledge of timing, technical issues, and complex resolutions has a distinct advantage over the general player base.
“I didn’t want to play Common Enemy. A lot of people are working on playing against that deck right now, and I think people will over-prepare for that and thus not know how to play against [Teen] Titans.” Though the more publicized and celebrated combos, like various exploitations of Heroic Sacrifice, are well-known in all parts, there are intricacies that aren’t as explored. Sacal banked on those intricacies heavily.
“During testing I found some of the initial cards and choices that seemed obvious weren’t as good as some expect. I originally had Cassie Sandsmark ◊ Wonder Girl, a fourth copy of USS Argus, and a third copy of Foiled. I wanted to include Burn Rubber though, because during testing against Common Enemy the combination of Hulk and Apocalypse was just too much to handle. Just having four Heroic Sacrifice wasn’t enough to deal with the massive amounts of damage Common Enemy can deal in the late game. For me, Burn Rubber is a late-game winner. It prevents the last-minute comebacks that were the one major issue with Common Enemy for me.
“I think Common Enemy is going to be very, common . . .popular I mean!” He laughed. “I think that the better players are going to play it. I find that a lot of players flip Common Enemy as soon as they can for a lot of legitimate reasons. That leaves them vulnerable to Foiled. I don’t want the game to go to turn 7, because Thing is just huge against my deck. If I can play against inexperienced players who keep flipping things to destroy, I can lock the game in the early turns before Common Enemy really comes to its true potential. So I was running three Ka-Boom! and three Foiled. I originally had three Foiled, but now I’m down to two, just because it can be a dead card.”
His next remark was interesting. In short, Sacal acknowledged that scouting and corroboration of information can go on quite a bit at a high-level event—his veteran experience was showing through. He felt that there were possible advantages to the balance of Foiled and Ka-Boom!, that the information that he was running those cards might deter his opponents before the cards even started hitting the table. It’s a very legitimate point, and one of the first acknowledged examples of anti-scouting at a major Vs. System event. Alexander Sacal understands head games, and implements them wisely.
Attending the event alone and not considering himself part of a team per se, he did say that he had helped some of the players at the event with play testing and cards. As for playing as a team? “No, I’m just here alone. It’s just what I do.”
I finally asked him the million dollar question, as I always do—the one question that is always in all of my interviews: How do you think you’ll do today?
“Actually, I can’t get a gut feeling due to some other issues in my life, but I think if you want an objective answer from me, I think I will do pretty well. I have more experience than most players here today, plus a lot of rulings knowledge that isn’t common around here yet. If the tournament goes ten rounds or so, I think I can [make] Top 8, all bad luck aside. I’d like to win but my real goal is just to qualify for the Pro Circuit.”
From there, he went on to emphasize that his real goal for the day was just to qualify for So Cal. “Sure, for sure. That’s my main goal.” It’s rare to ask someone how they think they’ll do, and about their goals at a $10K, and not have the money come up once. But that’s Alexander Sacal. He’s intense, focused, and has the experience and wit to be one of the most high-impact players on the Pro Circuit. If he makes it to So Cal, he’s bound to leave his mark on the face of Vs. System.