It is unlikely that any player has traveled as far to get here this weekend as Josh Wiitanen has. Josh, who lives in Las Vegas, decided on Thursday to take a road trip. Driving from Nevada to Texas is a long enough trip without stopping first in California, but that is exactly what Josh did. He drove to San Diego to pick up John Stephens and then went on to Dallas—a 30-hour odyssey.
“Thursday, I was kind of bored . . . I was talking to John, and he was kind of bored too. Neither of us were doing anything this weekend and it just kind of happened.”
They were going to stay at Bill Hodak’s house, but when they realized that it was hours away from the tournament site, they continued their adventure by renting a $30 hotel room with no lights in the bathroom. Says Josh, “Using the bathroom in the dark is fun, let me tell you.”
What kind of deck could make Josh zigzag across the country, put up with such housing hardships, and suffer John Stephen’s questionable taste in pop music?
Common Enemy, of course! It is, by far, the most represented deck in the tournament. Josh and John were anticipating a heavy Common Enemy field, and wanted to play their tricked out version. It dominates the mirror match with 6-drop Iceman, Cool Customer and Pleasant Distraction.
“We knew there was going to be a ton of Common Enemy, and our version just wrecks them. On turn 6—we take the even initiative—we play Iceman and we Pleasant Distraction someone. Pleasant Distraction is the deck MVP. Any turn that you have the initiative you can attack so much better. On turn 7, if it is my initiative, I can attack all around Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing and just ignore him. And on their initiative, you have Mystical Paralysis.”
Josh finished in the money at the Indy Pro Circuit stop and is qualified for the next three events. He won a qualifier, finished in the Top 8 of the San Diego $10K tournament, and is one of the top ranked players in the world. He played Common Enemy in San Diego, though it was not nearly as prevalent then as it is this weekend. “It is definitely the best deck now. I didn’t play a single other Common Enemy deck in San Diego, but everyone is playing it now.”
When asked what he’s going to play at the next Pro Circuit stop in So Cal, he could only shrug. “I have no idea what the best deck is. We’re testing this to see if it is good. If this deck does well, it might be good. It beats Common Enemy. It beats Teen Titans because you have Total Anarchy, Flame Trap, and Reign of Terror. I guess it loses to X-men, but no one is playing X-men right now.”
Josh was confident that whatever deck did win the next PC, it would likely be a stall deck. “Aggression is not the way to go. Those decks can’t beat Common Enemy.”