On a whim, and with no small amount of nostalgia with the upcoming VS event in February, I found myself perusing the archived Metagame content and once again stumbled onto one of my all-time favorite lists... Fantastic Fun.
The original cool. The Fantastic Four monoteam under-curve concoction that proved to be a gift that kept on giving in the right hands. And in 2005 it gave in spades. The simplicity of the gameplan belies it's high degree of mastery to properly pilot, as only a handful of players ever saw any measurable success with it before Antarctic Research Base took its place on the banlist when the Crisis set arrived later in 2006. And the ever-abusive fate artifacts with it, leaving the family with no fun to be had anymore... fantastic or not.
So as I proceeded to slip into the archives it occurred to me, "I wonder what Dean "the creator of Fantastic Fun" has been up to?
A brief chat exchange later, I humbly present to you, the man himself, Pro Circuit finalist, multiple $10k-winner, former MechWarrior World Champion, former Star Trek CCG world player, and all around gaming lord, Dean Sohnle.
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| ....and he's all outta bubblegum. |
And before you tell me I'm embellishing, please consider:
He remains one of only a select few players to win multiple CONSECUTIVE Pro-level events, however he decided thebest time to do this, was while backpacking in europe, with no playgroup or draft team around him. Oh yes, through it all, he used the same deck.
*ahem*
The same deck.
Then he took that same deck, made a few meta-tweaks, and punted it at the pro circuit where he almost took that for himself too. Falling short in the finals for a second place finish.
The same deck.
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| You practiced? I went hiking. |
Now, there's talent and then there's karma giving you the O-face. So without Further delay, this is how our conversation went.
O- You are the only player in VS System history to ever win consecutive events with a virtually unchanged decklist. To what do you most attribute that kind of success?
D- There are a number of reasons - there wasn't a lot of time between the wins, so the meta didn't change much, the structure of the deck didn't really allow for a lot of changes without making it worse, it was a hard deck to play, which meant it was a hard deck to casually playtest against, and there simply wasn't a whole lot of options to actually counter it effectively.
O- What kind of preparation did it take to win back then? Drafting by the case? A solid playgroup? all of the above?
D-None of the above, I had just started traveling and got a working visa for the UK, but was still living on the cheap in London, looking for work at the time. I'd joined a board game group in Sheppard's Bush and a fellow there (Ian Vincent) introduced me to the game, and I had the idea for the deck a little later. I had time on my hands and so would solo play the deck repeatedly while watching tv at home. I kept refining the card ratios to get the draw rates right, but had only playtested it against people a few times before Ian invited me along to the London 10k. (I had played a lot of card games before this and was previously a world champion in another strategy game - mechwarrior, so I was quite confident it was a good deck and that it broke the usual "play the curve" mold that was pretty much the standard for other decks)
O- So it wouldn't be a stretch to say you have an innate habit of winning then.
You mentioned not being a stranger to card games I assume Magic and some others are on that list?
D- Yeah, I never liked the pro player pool for MTG much (Too much playing to screw the other guy as opposed to playing to have fun - rules lawyering, cheating, etc), but I had won some money at it previously. My friends back in Edmonton would pick up new card games every couple months just for fun (we'd buy boxes of dead games and make random decks etc..), so I'm sure I'd played 30-40 different card games by that point.
O- So if you had to pick something, what was the best thing about high level play back through 04-06?
D- The good part - The players - despite the cash prizes, everyone was friendly, many times if someone realized they had just mis-played their opponent would say they could take it back etc. A lot of the top players would just hang out after the games and joke around.
O- Can you tell me what was the worst?
D- The worst part - The tournaments could end up being really long days, and if we were at a convention you just didn't get to see any of it. Fantastic Fun was a little concentration/memory heavy too so it got exhausting to play - I had a friend (Richard Edbury) try FF for a tournament (he's the only person I've personally seen play the deck well - I think we actually ended up playing the only FF mirror match I remember). But after playing it he said something along the lines of "I think I'm quitting VS for a while - this is the best deck out there and I don't think I could stand playing it for a whole day again".
O- Richard was the other finalist in the other 10k! So clearly the deck had game! But I digress, since we routinely run online events (even now!), what advice would you give a new player looking to improve their VS gameplay?
D- It's been so long it's hard to remember too much specific. For most decks, I think it was about smoothing your card draw - make sure you had enough search etc to consistently get your mid game characters, and missing a low drop was no big deal, you could make it up. The pure card draw was really what made FF strong.
Also being selective in the fights you need to win - sometimes it's better to lose a fight and a low drop and save your tricks for the fights that matter (especially if you'll only stun one character with it)
O- What is your fondest VS related memory?
D- Definitely the other players I met were the best part. In terms of a specific event, for most of the time I was playing, I was backpacking, so I didn't get a lot of practice in between tournaments, but I definitely remember the excitement of getting to the pro tour final (I don't remember if that was in New York or LA). *Onyx's note, It was NY* I remember thinking that it was a good match up and the odds were heavily with me in that final and being really hopeful. I seem to recall some unlucky draws meaning that I didn't win it, but just getting there was great and I remember celebrating with a really good steak dinner with some other players!
O- Have you stayed in touch with any of the people that were in your orbit from those days? London, Edmonton or otherwise?
D- Not a lot. Ian and I are still in the same orbits though, he did stop by when he came to Canada, and I'd visit him if I went back to London. Oddly, we ended up having another mutual friend who we both talk to regularly. I'm still Facebook friends with a few others but not sure that really counts (David Spears comes to mind). And my friends from Edmonton were pretty good too, so we went to tourneys together (and I'm still getting on with them - Olav Rokne and Mitchell Fujino)
O- Do you presently play any other games? How does Dean Sohnle scratch his competitive itch over 15 years later?
D- Mostly board games with friends. I do play some random phone games etc to pass the time but nothing overly competitive. And it's been a while since I've been to a card tournament. (I) Still have the old FF deck, but it pretty much just sits on the shelf these days.
O- In a place of honor no doubt! Or perhaps a basement drawer of honor if you are like me.
Well, thanks so much for being so generous with your time today! I really appreciate it, I have to admit, I've been a longtime fan of yours, so it's really cool to get this opportunity and geek out a bit haha. One final question, Do you have a favorite VS card?
D- No worries, it was nice to reminisce - gotta be either A Child Named Valeria or the sadly banned Antarctic Research Base - Those two cards let the little guys and equipment stand up to the curve.
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| Just before the celebratory steak. |
So with an upcoming nostalgia-themed original sets to JLA, (no banlist except overload) event in February, I'm thinking, perhaps I'll take a page from Sohnle himself and go for a hike, and then have myself some fun.
...Fantastic even!
Fantastic Fun
Characters
2 Ant Man
1 Franklin Richards
1 Frankie Raye
1 Wyatt Wingfoot
4 Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl
4 Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards
2 She-Thing
2 Thing, Ben Grimm
1 Human Torch, Hotshot
1 Invisible Woman, Sue Storm
2 Mr. Fantastic, Stretch
Plot Twists
3 Signal Flare
1 Salvage
1 Foiled
4 Cosmic Radiation
4 A Child Named Valeria
2 Thinking Outside the Box
Locations
1 Pier 4
1 Baxter Building
4 Antarctic Research Base
Equipment
4 Advanced Hardware
1 War Wagon
4 Unstable Molecules
2 The Pogo Plane
4 Flamethrower
1 Fantasticar
2 Personal Force Field
