Whew. I can breathe again.

Since our February announcement, I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for the Modern Age format’s Pro Circuit debut. And today*, it finally happened. Sure, we held a double Modern Age $10K tournament as a side event at PC 2 (though at the time, the format didn’t have an official name), but back then, it was just something we were trying out ’cause we thought it’d be cool. Now, the format’s ready for prime time.

So how did it go?

As far as I can tell, it went really well. Of course, the funny part is that I’m not actually at the Pro Circuit. Rather, I’m in southern California, sitting in front of my computer and reading the Metagame.com coverage just like everyone else. So when I say, “It went really well,” what I really mean is that from what I’ve read, it seems like there are a lot of cool decks, interesting single card choices, and new play patterns. Yay!

There are a lot of reasons to be excited about new formats, many of which Dave Humpherys discussed in this article. Now, as many of you know, Dave Humpherys isn’t the smartest guy on the block. In fact, many of his friends and family often refer to him as “Dumb Humpherys,” or “Dumpherys” for short. That said, his article covers many great points about the potential awesomeness of the Modern Age formats—potential that I’m going to revisit now that we’ve actually seen the format in action.

In the section “Fewer Cards Doesn’t Mean Fewer Options,” Humpherys explains how while a larger card pool means more total possible combinations of cards, it doesn’t mean a strictly larger number of choices for a deckbuilder to make. There are often certain checks and/or metagame leanings that constrain a team or strategy’s ability to crack that elusive tier 1 status. Often, a smaller card pool removes such checks and alters the metagame such that new strategies and play patterns can flourish.

Case in point, the current Marvel Modern Age format. Without Overload or Flame Trap to check pumped-up weenies, the Honor Among Thieves deck is proving that crime really can pay. Further, for the above and other reasons (such as the preponderance of concealed characters and the Marvel Knights’ reliance on spending endurance), the environment on the whole seems to be more about aggressive blows to an opponent’s endurance than about the board dominance strategies exemplified by the current kings of Golden Age, Teen Titans and Curve Sentinels. Looking into the future of this metagame, perhaps Crowd Control will grow more popular, and more wacky endurance-supportive cards like Advance Recon will find homes.

Continuing the idea that less can be more, Humpherys points out in the section “Freeing Up Suppressed Teams” that sometimes an entire team suffers under the weight of environmental checks or metagame constraints. A terrific example of this is the sheer number of viable new decks in the Modern Age format. We’ve got X-Statix Loner, Honor Among Thieves, Spider-Man/Wild Pack, Crime Lords/Underworld, and several varieties of Marvel Knights decks all in the Top 10. Yes, all six major teams from the Web of Spider-Man and Marvel Knights expansions are represented. Man, that’s hot.

And while not every one of the above decks will end up being tier 1 (either in Golden Age or Modern Age), the high number of archetypes shows that even with a smaller card pool, a deckbuilder still has a large sandbox in which to play.

Possibly best of all, because Modern Age formats put the spotlight on a relatively small number of teams, players will look much more closely at those teams than they otherwise would have if those teams had simply been added to the Golden Age mix. After checking out the new Modern Age archetypes, clever players might consider expanding them into Golden Age builds. For example, perhaps the Marvel Knights/Underworld build will inspire someone to create a Golden Age version of the other cards that fill up the KO’d pile. Or perhaps one of the Wild Pack deck variants is ready to make a run at Golden Age with the currently MIA Longshot.

The “showcasing” aspect of a smaller format can also impact individual card choice. For example, Gravesite seems to be a hit at the Pro Circuit due to the draw smoothing it provides. Will it become a new staple in Golden Age?

Finally, in the section “Growing the Game: Making Constructed More Accessible to New Players,” Humpherys discusses how the insulated aspect of a Modern Age format makes it incredibly easy for a new player to get into the game. Let’s say you have a friend who wants to start playing Vs. System. Rather than having to learn the ins and outs of the large and complex Golden Age format, your friend can start off by building decks straight out of the latest release, knowing that it will be a full half of a Constructed format. (Two different Constructed formats, actually—Marvel Knights makes up half of the Web of Spider-Man/Marvel Knights format as well as the Marvel Knights/Avengers format.) While the ease of entry to a new player may not seem super important to a veteran player (like many of you), as Humpherys points out, it greatly affects the long term of health of Vs. System.

While we don’t yet have the numbers, I’m sure that there are several new Vs. players who were only able to compete at the Pro Circuit so soon because of the Modern Age format. Similarly, the upcoming Pro Circuit Qualifier season will make it easy for new players to enter the competitive fray.

So yeah, breathing is good. And I’m breathing a whole lot easier after reading about the variety and ingenuity of the Modern Age decks. Nice job, everyone.

Send questions of comments to dmandel@metagame.com.

And tune in next week for a Green Lantern preview that will leave you lightheaded**.
*I’m writing this article on Friday night, April 8 at the close of Day 1 of Pro Circuit 3.

**Don’t worry; it won’t actually leave you lightheaded. I just said that because the card has to do with light, and I couldn’t think of a better pun or play on words. Although, I suppose the preview could leave you lightheaded. I don’t really know. I guess I should neither suggest that the preview will leave you lightheaded nor suggest that the preview won’t leave you lightheaded. Hmmm. I figure there’s like an eight percent chance it leaves you lightheaded, though there should probably be some allowance for a margin of error based on how much you will have eaten in comparison to your body mass. Man, I hate Humpherys.