Table One: Patrick Yapjoco vs. Jason Kurtzhall

The match was incredibly short—both players recruited 2-drops as their first plays of the game. Yapjoco recruited Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective, and Kurtzhall recruited Hounds of Ahab. One Nasty Surprise/Overload combo later, the Hounds attacked directly, KO’ing Robin. It was downhill from there.

For the next two turns, Kurtzhall continued to curve. Yapjoco did too, but every character he dropped was instantly Hounded. Yapjoco asked him to show him a Nimrod, stating that if Kurtzhall could do so, he would scoop. Kurtzhall did him one better, showing him a full curve through turn 7, and that was all Yapjoco needed to see.

Match Win: Jason Kurtzhall


Table Two: Olav Rokne vs. Peter Soundholm

In yet another tight game, both players drew relatively well. Rokne played Evil Medical School, and Soundholm played Curve Sentinels. It was a race for Soundholm, though. He was struggling to disrupt Rokne’s setup as quickly as he could, so as to deprive Rokne of his late game. Pressing for as much damage and board advantage as he could get, Soundholm picked his spots carefully, but as the turn wore on, he just couldn’t suppress Rokne’s growing momentum.

Though he fended off Rokne’s turn 8 infinite loop with Dr. Doom, Lord of Latveria and Press the Attack, Soundholm had no response to turn 9’s Dr. Light with boost. He succumbed to the swirling mass of threats that Rokne threw at him.

Match Win: Olav Rokne


Table Three: Eric Cabanero vs. Kyle Krueger

Cabanero was one of two Fantastic Fun players in the top four tables, and he went up against Krueger’s TNB Blitz deck—it was a matchup that really could have gone either way.

Both players drew amazingly well, but while Krueger admittedly spaced on turn 1 by forgetting to recruit his in-hand 1-drop, Cabanero came out swinging. He first recruited Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl, and followed her up with Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards on turn 2.

She-Thing and assorted toys started hitting on turn 3, and with a copy of A Child Named Valeria to keep everyone alive on turn 4, Cabanero was set to go off. On turn 5, the lit fuse reached its combustible payload with the recruiting of Mr. Fantastic, Stretch. In a flurry of burn that was backed by four Cosmic Radiations, Krueger went down like a flaming sack of . . . well, like a flaming sack of fire, so much burn was going on.

Match Win: Eric Cabanero


Table Four: Vidianto Wijaya vs. Jaime Tachiyama

Wijaya was playing Fantastic Fun and had what was perhaps his ideal matchup—Curve Sentinels.

Tachiyama was packing all the tech he’d need to take on Fantastic Fun, even running Mark II, Number II in his deck. Unfortunately he managed to miss all of it. He curved perfectly, but did so without the ability to throw any serious disruption at Wijaya. As a result, Wijaya was able to establish a Personal Force Field early on, and once he gained the ability to bounce it around from character to character via Stretch, there was nothing Tachiyama could do to pound through damage.

The game would have been very different if that Mark II, Number II or a single Total Anarchy had hit the field, but unfortunately they did not. It was a clean sweep for Wijaya that ended on turn 6.

 Match Win: Vidianto Wijaya