8:20 PM - FTN Rising!
As we head into round 3 of the final draft of Day 2, the word on the lips of many is “FTN.” While Team Donkey Club made waves upon its formation—and still sits some Top 8 hopefuls—FTN has already put Vidi Wijaya into the Top 8, and sits three more players on the edge. Alex Tennet is eighth and simply needs a win to make it. Ryan Jones is twelfth, and a win will almost assuredly give him a spot. And Michael Dalton is fifteenth, and although his tiebreakers are a tad low, a little luck would dish him that eighth spot if he wins.
This is Wijaya’s third PC Top 8, tying him with Dalton for the most, and Jones would hit that same mark. If Dalton somehow made it, it would become an unbelievable fourth PC Top 8.
And if FTN does place four players in the Top 8, it would be the first time since the very first PC, PC Indy 2004, that four teammates all placed in the Top 8—and in a much harder format and field. Gabe Walls, Nick Little, and Neil Reeves all made Top 8 that day, with Little and Reeves making Top 4, in the PC that Brian Kibler eventually won. Now Wijaya, Tennet, Jones, and Dalton have a chance to add their names to that group, and add another trophy to FTN’s already substantial showroom.
6:10 PM - The Name is Khare, Anand Khare.
You may recognize Anand Khare’s name; he’s traveled thousands of miles back and forth across North America to bring you top-notch $10K coverage. He’s also a member of TOGIT, and with Eugene Harvey absent from this PC, Anand represents one half of TOGIT’s Atlanta roster. But with both members (the other being PC Amsterdam winner Adam Horvath) in the middle of Day 2 and likely moneying, it’s been quite the PC for TOGIT! “I feel good. I’m very grateful that both of us are winning money.”
After drafting at table 1, Anand has a good shot at making the Top 8, and believe me when I say that all of his fellow Metagame staffers are cheering him on! His third draft gave him a Gypsy right away that led him to an off-curve hidden strategy—one that he wasn’t planning on, but it fell into his lap. He confidently asserts that, “I feel this deck can 3-0.”
“I have a good deck for the Top 8—the best in this format. All we were missing was Mob Mentality, which can be critical in certain matchups, but I don’t foresee many Hawkeyes in the Top 8.”
So, with the tension mounting as Day 2 wraps up, we have three rounds to cross our fingers through before Anand can represent in the Top 8!
5:45 PM - Down to the Wire!
Table 1 is the table to watch now, as the core of the Top 8 will be definitively decided here. At this table we have the usual suspects, FTN teammates Vidi Wijaya and Ryan Jones. We also have West Coaster Niles Rowland, Team Alternate Win Condition member Shane Wiggins, Metagame writer Anand Khare, Brian Gates, Patrick Richardson, and Jesse Hill.
Their predictions:
Anand: “I think I could 3-0 pretty easily, but I have no idea how it will end up.”
Patrick: “I’ll probably go 2-1. I was hoping for other stuff, but the passes got a little awkward and I never know what the others next to me have. I just hope to win the last one I need for Top 8.”
Shane: “This is my strongest draft today; I’m finally getting the hang of it . . . though I don’t know if that means anything. I’ll say 1-2 again, which seems to be working for me. I had what I thought was a mediocre deck and went 3-0, then went 2-1 with what I thought was a superior deck.”
Jesse: “Possibly my weakest draft today. But I’m shooting for 2-1.”
Vidi: “Not good at all. I think the deck is terrible. 1-2 probably? If I’m lucky?”
Ryan: “Doesn’t look too good. It seems nobody at this pod likes their decks! I need 2-1, so I’ll try for that. It won’t be easy, though.”
Brian: “It’s okay. Could be better. I need one win; should get that easily. I’ll say 2-1, probably.”
Niles: “Poor as my deck is, I hope the whole card pool sucked! I think I can pull it out, though. Having three copies of Illusionary Warriors and having no way to use their ability is tough. I’ll say 1-2, probably; no, hopefully!”
4:45 PM - Prediction Results, Volume 2
Donnie Noland went 2-1, and he cut me off before I could even ask him his record. “I’m just gonna tell you right now that I’m going 0-3 next round. I told you 0-3 twice, and I’ve gone 2-1 twice!”
Ah, Vs. players and their superstitions!
The other Table 2 results:
Quang Nguyen: 2-1
Anthony Justice: 2-1
Nick Little: 2-1
Nathaniel Curtis: 0-3
Mike Dalton: 1-2
Vidi Wijaya: 3-0
Alexander Jersch: 0-3
3:15 PM - A Little Goes A Long Way!
Nick Little and his fellow Team Donkey Club members came up with a drafting strategy that is similar to the hidden swarm but features mainly JLA and JLI characters instead. It goes to drop 5, usually the JLI Dinah Laurel Lance or any other reservist 5-drops possible.
You then scoop up as many Justice League Task Forces as you can and take advantage of cards like Trial By Fire, Plasma Blast, and JLI Embassy by keeping your resources at four or fewer. Nick lucked out in his second pod and snagged three copies of Justice League Task Force—two passed to him by teammate, Anthony Justice, and one that actually tabled through seven players’ hands (including the player opposite Little, Alexander Jersch, who also drafted an off-curve strategy).
Nick had a good first match, winning a very tight game on turn 7 after a team attack into his opponent’s The General resulted in three pumps on each side before the dust settled for the stun and an eventual win. His goal is to break through and smash on turn 5, play defensively and reinforce on turn 6, then swoop in for a turn 7 win. And with the deck he has, he may well win two more.
2:30 PM - There Goes The Spid3rm4n!
Meet Graham Van Leeuwen. Some of you may know his by his online moniker, Spid3rm4n. He’s a member of Team Online, along with Matt Hendell, Anthony Grabert, Greg Williams, and Ryan Gutierrez. The team met—you guessed it—online. They play online, test online. They rep the online part of this game to the Nth (Metal) degree!
Graham is only thirteen years old, and this is his first PC. The Floridian came to Atlanta with his fellow teammates, prepped to devastate the field with an Avengers Brotherhood deck. But only Graham made Day 2, and he did it with an amazing 7-3 record! He went 2-1 in his first draft pod, and he figures he needs to win five of the six remaining matches in order to make the Top 8. After a pretty good draft in his second pod, he thinks he has a shot at 2-1, if not better.
Graham’s final words? “Go Tar Heels!” He obviously knows the proper places from which to draw his inspiration!
2:00 PM - The Nightmare Draft
Picture a Day 2 draft with everything on the line. You have a solid record and you’re at table two, so this pod will get you to within a heartbeat of Day 3 if you 3-0. You’ll have a good shot at it even if you 2-1. Then you sit down. To the left of you is Nick Little and to the right is Michael Dalton. Also at the table is Vidi Wijaya, Alexander Jersch, Donnie Noland, Quang Nguyen, and Donnie Noland.
This is exactly what happened to Nathaniel Curtis. Still, after solid draft, he claimed he could probably go 2-1 with his deck . . . in normal circumstances, at least. “Not too sure, though. I’m a little out of my league with this competition.”
And here are the predictions from the rest of table two:
Nick Little: “2-1, maybe 3-0. I like [the deck] a lot. But there are a lot of god people in this pod.”
Alexander Jersch: “Not as good as my last deck! Maybe 2-1, maybe 1-2.”
Donnie Noland: “I’ll say 0-3 again!” he said with a wink. He was a bit disappointed that New Era didn’t interact with Field of Honor in the way he would have liked, and thought that might hurt his deck a bit.
Quang Nguyen: He though his deck was “okay, but could be a little better. 2-1 or 1-2.”
Anthony Justice: “3-0!”
Michael Dalton: “I should probably go 2-1, maybe 3-0.”
Vidi Wijaya: He didn’t even wait for me to speak; he said “2-1 again! I knew you were going to ask!”
Vidi and Michael also claimed mixed signals from one another, but looking at Vidi’s deck, he’d have to scrub out in a major way not to go 3-0; he snagged two
Atlantean Tridents, two
Nth Metals, three Steels, and a Shayera Thal!
12:30 PM - All Mogo’d Out!
It was Gabe Walls vs. Alex Tennet in the tensest and tightest match of the first round, just one step more dramatic than Jason Hager’s win over teammate Michael Jacob or Benoit Chaurette’s 5-endurance win over Heath Baker.
On turn 8, Walls played a Mogo, the Living Planet in front of Guy Gardner, Egomaniac, and it had a huge 30 DEF from Guy’s ability. His own ability made Guy un-attackable. Alex had six characters in play, but the important three were in his front row—Katar Hol equipped with an Nth Metal, Ultra-Humanite, and the 5-drop Steel equipped with a Quadromobile.
Alex, who had the initiative, team attacked Mogo with Katar Hol and Steel. With the Nth Metal power-up, Katar’s ability, and Ultra-Humanite’s Leader effect, that put Katar at 17 ATK and Steel at 16—a total of 33 ATK to Mogo’s 30 DEF.
But Gabe wasn’t dead yet. He played Shake It Off and then The Plunder Plan and gave Mogo a 4 DEF booster shot, bringing Mogo up to a whopping 34 DEF!
So Alex KO’d the Quadromobile, losing 2 ATK but powering-up Katar and therefore gaining 3 ATK, which enough to put him at exactly 34 and get the stun on Mogo! At that point, with a Humanite and two other attackers facing his lone Guy Gardner on the board, Gabe scooped in disbelief. What a match!
11:00 AM - The Tallies are In!
The end results from Draft Pod 1:
Vidi Wijaya: 2-1 (“I told you!”)
Ryan Jones: 1-2
Markus Kolb: 2-1
Mat Oldaker: 1-2
Donnie Noland: 2-1 (“I said 0-3, so I’m happy!”)
Shane Wiggins: 3-0 (“Not sure how that happened . . . !”)
Loren Nolen: 1-2
Gabe Walls: 1-2 (“Exactly what I said—and I had to play Tico and Karl Horn . . .”)
Alex Tennet: 3-0
Dean Sohnle: 1-2
Neil Reeves: 1-2 (“Got very unlucky.”)
10:45 AM - Your Move!
Team Your Move Games had awful matchups at the last major Modern Age tournament, PC Indy—they had to face each other many times in a row. This PC has been a little better for them . . . or at least it was until Anthony Shaheen took out his own teammate in the final round of Day 1, moving on to the Drafts but leaving poor Jacob Rabinowitz behind (and sending him straight into the Metagame staff room!).
I caught up with Shaheen and YMG teammate Craig Edwards as they talked tech around the water cooler. They had just faced each other in round 11; Edwards had avenged his fallen friend by battering Shaheen on turn 5 on Shaheen’s initiative! It was a 30+ endurance team attack with Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist and Captain Boomerang, George Harkness. They’re both hoping that their pairings are less team-oriented in the future so that they can repeat their PC Indy fortunes, where both of them (and other teammates) were in the Top 20.
10:30 AM - Drafting at the Top!
Table two was the top table in this Draft pod in terms of sheer drafting prowess. Teammates Vidi Wijaya
and Ryan Jones were seated side by side in what may be a heartbreaking draft. Next to Ryan was Markus Kolb—no mean drafter himself—which made it especially tough for Ryan. Further over was Matt Oldaker, and then Donnie Noland and Shane Wiggins seated side by side across the table from Matt.
Here are their predictions for their pod one performances:
Vidi said, “I’ll hopefully go 2-1. Hopefully. I said, hopefully . . .” (He doesn’t sound too hopeful to me . . .)
Ryan said that his cards were terrible. “1-2 if I’m lucky.”
Markus Kolb said that he hated his build. “2-1, 1-2 . . . I don’t know.”
Matt Oldaker showed me an interesting build. “This is an archetype we’ve been working on.” It looked like a JLA/JLI swarm deck with nothing past the 5-drop slot. He predicted that he should go 2-1.
Donnie Noland said with a laugh, “I’ll probably go 0-3. I’m terrible at drafting. And look at this table!”
Shane Wiggins, playing in only his fourth JLA Draft, was relying on late-night Draft instructions from teammates “Tatta and Tippy-Toes.” He said he’d be happy with 2-1.
Meanwhile, at table three:
Loren Nolen had a “pretty good” draft and thought he could go 2-1 or even 3-0.
Alex Tennet got some gems, including a Hawkman and a Steel with an Nth Metal (he could have had a second, but was forced to pass on it for a Death Trap). He claims Funky’s Big Rat Code is his master card, and if he draws it in two games, he’ll 2-1.
Gabe Walls, at table four, wasn’t so confident. He claimed, “I might win one if I can play the 0-2!”
Up at table one:
Dean Sohnle was “not exactly happy.” He said he might be able to get 2-1, but “probably not.”
Neil Reeves was more confident. “Pretty good deck. No Citadels. Got two Gorilla Citys, coulda had three. I saw seven Slaughter Swamps, got two, and passed the rest.” He figured he’d go 2-1 at least.
10:00 AM - Wonder Man’s Bluff!
As the day wound down yesterday, Alex Shvartsman showed us that this game is not merely one of skill and strategy, but also one of mental wherewithal. While playing Adam Bernstein in the final match of the day, he had two characters on the field—Firestar and Golden Archer. When Bernstein recruited Wonder Man, he targeted Golden Archer. Shvartsman asked him whether or not he had to reveal his reservists immediately or upon resolution of Wonder Man’s effect, and Bernstein claimed he didn’t have to reveal immediately. After the feature match judge agreed with Bernstein that no, he didn’t need to, it got Shvartsman thinking; why was he so adamant that he didn’t have to? Knowing Bernstein to be a consummate poker player, Shvartsman thought something might be up, so he called Bernstein’s bluff. With a grin, Bernstein then revealed zero characters. He was trying to get Shvartsman to use Golden Archer for burn, thereby minimizing the damage he would take for the turn. But Shvartsman saw through it and won the Battle of the Bluff!
I mention this at the beginning of Day 2 for a reason. In Draft, one of the most important aspects of the game is . . . erm . . . Mental Domination. Because the cards are random (nobody’s decks are the same), your opponent may have an idea of what you have up your sleeve but can never really know for sure. This means that being able to bluff your opponents into thinking you have cards to use in various situations will inevitably make them more cautious. The mental game always goes far beyond drafting skills and knowing how to play the game.