Living in Florida has its advantages. The fishing is spectacular, and so is the Pro Circuit competition. Let me tell you the tale of the biggest Vs. System catch I’ve made . . . and of the one that’s still swimming out there.

The first-ever Florida PCQ was held last spring in Orlando. Spring fishing is great, but I found out fast that I was in dangerous waters. With big barracudas such as Gabe Alonso, Joe Carey, Milton Figueroa, and Rob Leander circling the room, this casual catfish sat quietly on the bottom, studying their predatory patterns. Leander was the biggest fish in terms of height, and throughout the next four months, I watched him have huge successes with a variety of decks. We began playtesting together before the first $10K in Philadelphia, and the strangest thing happened. Even though we both finished well in Philly, and even though Rob consistently finished in the final four of every PCQ he had attended, neither one of us was qualified for the first PC in Indianapolis. UDE graciously made allowances for cases such as ours by giving courtesy invitations to all of the community websites. The members of VsRealms.com had already voted me onto Team Realmworx, and I set the hook deep when I realized that Rob was still available. Nominating Commander Leander for our team remains one of my biggest accomplishments in the game.

When DC Origins was released, I immediately caught sight of a shiny goldfish of a combo. The first thing I asked Rob to explore was the possibility of combining Press the Attack with Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal. (Of course, I wanted to use it with a swarm of Wild Sentinels.) He said that he would look into it, but he didn’t really like Roy’s ability.

That goldfish turned out to be a whale. Fast forward to PC Indy, when the two of us were nervously testing in the hall where we’d be competing the next morning. Actually, we were the only two people left in the room, and it was morning already. Arsenal Abuse was born, and it would change the seas of the metagame. There were two basic versions of Titans that day, and Jason Green’s Beatdownfish actually went undefeated in the Constructed portion of the tournament. Only one version is still swimming on top today—Rob’s Titans ate everything else in the pond.

I recently asked Rob Leander to tell me why Titans is so far above the rest of the metagame. He told me this:

“This is what I’ve always said about the Titans deck . . . it’s nearly a completely interdependent deck, meaning that it only relies on itself to make plays and win games, and it has almost no care for what your opponent plays. The deck has so much combo potential between the cards, and the deck is completely synergistic as a whole. There is practically zero percent wasted space in the deck. The strengths are within itself, and this is why it has hardly any bad matchups. You can completely wreck your opponent’s team before he or she can go into formation.”

He told me that six weeks ago, and then the fishing dried up. I got a bad case of Metagame.com writer’s block. I can’t write these articles unless I have an outrageously risky strategy to share with you. Enter Cameron Robinson, another veteran from the very first Florida PCQ. Cameron is also known as gator7870 on VsRealms.com, and he answered my plea for inspiration like this:

“How about an article about the hidden Blob? Wouldn’t it be fun to watch your opponent squirm with no way to attack you while you continue to burn him or her with an assortment of cards?”

That kind of idea gets me rigging tackle. I started fishing in the card lists, and I found that Medallion of Power could drag Blob into the hidden area and Misappropriation could transfer it onto him. Perhaps Doop, Forward Observer could wear the necklace until Blob could take it. I was thrilled—with the new Scarlet Witch, Eldritch Enchantress bringing bigger burn to Brotherhood, this strategy could be unbeatable. I tried to set the hook, but that lockfish wriggled off. Here is the ruling that spoiled that catch:

512.4 Some one-shot modifiers allow a player to transfer equipment. Transferring equipment allows it to be attached to another object. As part of transferring equipment from one object to another, its controller must check the legality of the object that he or she is transferring the equipment to. Transferring equipment simultaneously removes equipment from the character it was equipped to and equips it to another. Modifiers can’t transfer equipment from a character in the visible area to a character in the hidden area or vice versa.

So, since Medallion of Power can only be equipped to a hidden character, Blob can’t wear it unless he is concealed first. Dr. Strange could poof the big guy into the hidden area, but Blob’s new errata makes sure that a hidden Blob cannot shield visible characters, anyway. This kind of strategy fishing always runs the risk of snagging on the rules, but that doesn’t make it any less fun.

The hidden Blob remains the one that got away . . . for now. I leave it to you, humble fishermen. See if you can hook the big one. Is it possible for Blob to become untouchable and allow a combo deck unlike anything we have ever seen before? Only time will tell. Good luck and good fishing.