These days, there are lots of reasons to be excited about Vs. System. I mean, not that there aren’t usually a lot of reasons to be excited about Vs. System. It’s just that with the release of the cosmically-charged Superman, Man of Steel set and the imminence of Pro Circuit 2, it’s all I can do not to pee myself with glee.

So many things to talk about and so little time before I have to go to bed so I can get some sleep to avoid getting sick and sneezing all over Mike Hummel’s turkey* on Thursday. You see, you might be reading this article over the long Thanksgiving weekend, but unlike usual when I stay up really late the night before my article goes up, I’m writing this on Tuesday because . . . well . . . I plan on eating myself into a coma on Thursday.

Things I’d Like To See At Pro Circuit 2.

The cool thing about this list is that it’s pretty much made up of stuff you guys have some control over. Here’s how it works. I tell you stuff that I’d like to see happen, and then you make it happen. Everybody wins! Let’s get started.

1. I’d like to see a robust metagame at the PC.

Pro Circuit 1 had an incredibly diverse breakdown of deck archetypes. The DC Origins set proved it was the real deal with strong performances from now-staples like Teen Titans Go!, The Brave and the Bold, and Rigged Elections. Brotherhood was finally dethroned, failing even to crack the Top 8. Common Enemy, a team-up deck (yay!), became the new king of the hill. Even the $10K event on Saturday had a diverse field, with Titans defeating Wild Vomit to take the title.

Will history repeat itself at Pro Circuit 2? Thus far, the new teams in the Spidey set have gotten little attention. However, it was pretty much the same deal at first for the DC teams, until innovative deck builders proved the nay-sayers wrong. Will a Spider-Friends deck evade its competition all the way to the Top 8? Will the Syndicate win and/or tear out the hearts and minds of players? What about the new toys for the older teams? Will the X-Men teleport their way past opponents? Will the Sentinels have dangerous curves? Will I keep asking questions with goofy metaphors? Well, I know the answer to that last one, but everything else is up to you.

2. I’d like to see a Man of Steel deck win the DC half of the Double $10K.

For those of you who don’t know, we hold a $10K tournament parallel to Day 2 of the Pro Circuit. At Pro Circuit 1, the $10K and PC formats were the same, but this time around, we’re shaking things up. Not only are we running a double $10K, with one half featuring Marvel and the other featuring DC, but the winner of each tournament will play in a super-final where the ultimate winner will earn double the prize payout for the entire tournament!

I’m a huge fan of alternate formats. There are several reasons for this (which I’ll cover in detail in a future article), but one of the strongest is that sometimes less is more. Removing components (in this case, whole sets) from a format often allows new decks or concepts to flourish. For example, the Marvel $10K decks need to adapt to a Have a Blast–less metagame, while the DC decks won’t have to worry about Flame Trap or Reign of Terror.

A side point of interest about the double-tournament concept is that players can choose which tourney to enter based not just on which deck or metagame he or she is more excited about or comfortable with, but also by his or her pot-odds or expected return with regard to the total number of players in each tournament. For example, you might like your Doom deck better than your Darkseid one, but there could be 100 players in the Marvel $10K and only 20 in the DC $10K. So, all other things being equal, you’d have a better chance of winning the DC event.

While I’m excited to see how the Marvel $10K’s metagame will play out, the addition of the fresh-out-of-the-oven, get ’em while they’re hot, get ’em while they’re buttered, Man of Steel cards makes the DC $10K a much larger question mark. So far, the smart money is on the classic DC Origins teams because they’re established and understood. The Man of Steel teams are simply too new and undigested for players to have a solid handle on them. At least that’s what some people think. In reality, this is a perfect opportunity for a clever, innovative deck builder to take the tournament by storm.

3. The first ever “Unused Robot Exchange Program.”

Okay, so maybe this one is a bit sillier than the other two . . . A while back, I wrote an article where I talked about all the robots in the Marvel Origins set. I mentioned that Robot Enforcer and Sentinel Mark I were very sad because nobody wanted to play with them. Sad . . .

Well, I’ve come up with an idea. Give them to me.

Here’s the deal. You give me fourteen cards made up solely of Robot Enforcers and Mark Is, and I’ll give you a pack of Vs. System. We can do this as many times as you want (until you run out of robots or I run out of packs), but here’s the catch: You have to sign every card you give me. So, yeah, that it. Give me your tired robots, your poor robots, your huddled robots yearning to breathe free, and I’ll give you a pack.

Also, Mike Hummel will be doing something similar for J. Jonah Jameson. No, really, I’m not lying**.

*Alright, let’s be honest. It’s not actually Mike’s turkey, but his wife Gina’s. In fact, pretty much everything we say is Mike’s is really Gina’s because, you know, she wears the metaphorical pants in the family. Mike wears the metaphorical jewelry from Pretty Pretty Princess***.

**Actually, I am lying.

***It’s a game. Check it out on boardgamegeek.com.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. Send Robot Enforcers and Sentinel Mark I’s to dmandel@metagame.com.

Send those weird astronaut ice cream thingees they give you in the third grade when you take a field trip to the Discovery Center to dhumpherys@metagame.com.

And tune in next time for a recap of the PC.