A first walk through the top tables painted a scary picture for the staff and players—this is shaping up to be a very long day. Many players are packing slow, control oriented decks, including the extremely scary X-Stall and Evil Medical School builds.
So far, the rounds have been fast, but as the day grows long, the extra time will drag on. It’s a lot easier to solve the extra turn of an X-Stall match when you’re still fresh and the potential loss won’t cost you the Top 8.
So . . . I hope the players who decided to aim for the long game are ready to reach the later turns (I just walked past a game that was on turn fifteen) and solve combat phase puzzles involving stuff like multiple copies of Dr. Doom, Lord of Latveria, Dr. Light, Arthur Light, Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and our old friend Bastion.
Although there are a lot of Curve Sentinels, Common Enemy, and Teen Titans decks, along with a few disciples of Dean Shonle’s burn plan, there seems to be a much larger diversification of the archetypes . . . at least in the top tables.
Hopefully, I’ll soon be able to give you a numerical snapshot of the metagame.