In this final match of $10K Atlanta, two successful professionals face off for the trophy. Both Ryan Lockard and Patrick Yapjoco have had numerous Pro Circuit money finishes, but this weekend, each of them could only muster a 5-5 record on Day 1 of the main event. In the end, though, things worked out for them—the winner of this match walks away with $2,500, while the loser makes out with a not-too-shabby $1,500. They talked about the matchup as they shuffled up.

“My deck’s exactly what you just played against, except worse,” said Lockard.

“It can’t be that bad if you’re sitting here,” replied Yapjoco.

Lockard is playing an X-Men–Morlocks under-drop deck, while Yapjoco is playing straight Morlocks. Lockard won the all-important die roll and selected evens.

Game 1

Both players kept their opening hands. Yapjoco’s Toad, Hopalong was matched by an Artie from Lockard, and neither player had any attacks. Lockard had a character for the second turn in the form of Tar Baby, which he recruited alongside Artie in the front row. Yapjoco could only muster a Leech, which hid behind Toad. Tar Baby took down Toad, and that was the turn.

On turn 3, Yapjoco led with a Caliban. After a moment of thought, he pushed all of his characters to the front. Lockard had Beast, Feline Geneticist, and before forming up, he went into the tank. He flipped Above and Below to team up X-Men and Morlocks, and then set up shop with Beast protecting Artie, and Tar Baby next to Beast in the front row. He passed back to Yapjoco, who immediately sent Caliban into Beast. Kidney Punch served to both force the stun and eliminate the possibility of a stun back; Artie reinforced, and then Beast went down. The next attack brought Leech into Artie. Lockard simply evaded the 1-drop, shrinking Toad. Yapjoco passed, and Lockard smashed into Leech with Tar Baby. He had no further attacks, and that was the turn. The endurance score was tied at a healthy 46 apiece.

Lockard had the initiative on the fourth turn, and led off with an impressive Viper and Plague. All of his characters went to the front row. Yapjoco recruited Storm, Leader of the Morlocks and set her in front of Caliban. His remaining characters flanked the 4-drop, and Yapjoco passed to Lockard’s attack step. Lockard wasted no time in sending Plague and Tar Baby into Storm in a team attack. “That’s 8 . . .” said Yapjoco. “Actually, that’s 10,” replied Lockard, noting his Viper. Yapjoco nodded, choosing to trade his Storm for the Tar Baby. Next, Lockard sent Beast into Leech. Yapjoco thought for a bit and then evaded his Toad. Next, he flipped up The Forsaken, naming Morlocks and Brotherhood, and played Retribution on Leech. This brought Leech to 6 ATK, threatening the double stun. Lockard had nothing to prevent it, and both characters went down. Both players opted out of any further attacks. At the close of the turn, Lockard had established an endurance lead of 41-36.

Turn 5 was Yapjoco’s best opportunity to win, or at least make a very big dent in Lockard’s board position and endurance total. He did not disappoint in the character department, recruiting both Julia Carpenter, Freedom Force and Electric Eve. Yapjoco set up with Toad, Julia, Storm, and Caliban in the front row, in that order. He hid Electric Eve behind Storm, and passed to Lockard’s recruit. Lockard played another Above and Below from his hand before mustering a less-than impressive Healer and an Electric Eve of his own. Lockard used his final resource point to ship Plague to the hidden area, and moved to his formation. In the end, he set up with Beast protecting Viper, Healer protecting Electric Eve in the next column, and Artie alone adjacent to Electric Eve in the support row.

When Lockard passed back, Yapjoco attacked Healer with Storm. Lockard could only reinforce. Next, Yapjoco sent Julia into Beast. Lockard flipped X-Corp: Hong Kong, and activated it, targeting Beast. This threatened the double stun. Yapjoco did not allow it—he played Bloodhound to search Callisto out of his deck before replacing The Forsaken to boost Julia’s DEF. Lockard had Kill or be Killed, though, and both characters stunned. Yapjoco’s next attack sent Caliban at Viper. Lockard had nothing, and Viper stunned. Yapjoco attacked Toad into Eve, but Lockard evaded Artie to reduce Toad’s ATK. Yapjoco evaded Toad, and Lockard evaded Eve so that she could not be the victim of an attack by her counterpart. Eve attacked Lockard directly, and Yapjoco passed. Lockard sent his Plague into Caliban. Both characters stunned, and that was the end of combat. Before recovery, Lockard used Harry’s Hideaway to recover one of his characters. By the end of the turn, Yapjoco had established an endurance lead of 27-22.

At the start of turn 6, the board was Plague, Viper, Eve, and Artie for Lockard, while Yapjoco had Storm, Julia, Toad, and an Eve of his own. Lockard thought for a minute before making his recruits. “This is so complicated,” he remarked, as he pondered his decision. In the end, the preferred play was both Sunder and Angel Dust. Lockard pushed each of his characters to the front, with the exception of Eve, which hid behind Sunder. Yapjoco immediately recruited Callisto and spent a few minutes rearranging his characters into various formations. His final setup had Eve protecting Callisto, Julia protecting Storm in the next column, and Toad in the support row next to Storm. This was a very defensive formation, and Lockard had to go into the tank to figure out how to attempt to overcome it. He finally chose to team attack Julia Carpenter with Eve, Artie, and Angel Dust. Yapjoco allowed it, and Julia traded stuns with Angel Dust. Next, Sunder went after Storm. Again, Yapjoco allowed the attack. Before passing, Lockard evaded Artie to reduce Storm’s ATK by a point. Yapjoco reinforced Toad and then evaded Toad for free. He used this extra stunned character to fuel a four-point Retribution. Both characters stunned. Lockard’s last attack sent Plague into Electric Eve. Yapjoco simply reinforced and chose not to attack back. In recovery, though, he played Good Samaritan to KO Electric Eve and keep the remainder of his characters around. At the end of the turn, Yapjoco still led, 18-13.

Turn 7 was Yapjoco’s initiative and almost certainly the last turn of the game. He recruited Postman and The Beautiful Dreamer, quickly pushed his characters to the front row, and passed. Lockard recruited Mystique, Freedom Force and paid a resource point to Sunder to give it an additional 5 DEF. He set up with Sunder protecting Viper, Mystique protecting Electric Eve in the next column, and Artie adjacent to Eve in the support row. Yapjoco’s first attack sent Postman into Artie. Neither player had any effects after Lockard reinforced, so both characters stunned. Lockard used Artie’s power to shrink Julia Carpenter. Yapjoco’s next attack brought The Beautiful Dreamer, Toad, and Julia into Sunder. Both players passed, and Julia Carpenter traded stuns with the oversized 5-drop. Next, Patrick attacked Viper with Electric Eve. Again, both characters stunned. Finally, Yapjoco attacked Mystique with Callisto. He gave Callisto a counter with her payment power, and passed to Lockard. After a moment’s consideration, Ryan conceded.

Game 2

Lockard again had his choice of initiatives, but this time, he took the odds. He shook his head and sighed as he surveyed his obviously sub-par hand. “I think I have to keep,” he said. Yapjoco mulliganed, and Lockard kicked the game off with Archangel, Angel. He discarded Psylocke, Armored Empath to fetch X-Corp: Hong Kong, and passed. Lockard had Tommy, who was immediately attacked, and that was the turn.

Yapjoco had a Tar Baby on the second turn, while Lockard missed completely. Yapjoco sent Tar Baby into Archangel, and Lockard used his Hong Kong to stun it. “I just took 2 points for no reason,” lamented Yapjoco. “I saw that card.” Tommy attacked directly, and the turn ended with Yapjoco ahead 46-44.

Lockard had Beast, Feline Geneticist for turn 3, while Yapjoco had Caliban protecting Tar Baby. Lockard sent Beast after Caliban and negated a power-up with another Hong Kong activation. Both characters stunned. Lockard then proposed a trade of Archangel for Tommy. Yapjoco allowed it, and again, both characters stunned. Yapjoco still maintained a lead of 42-40.

On turn 4, Yapjoco led off with Storm, Leader of the Morlocks and flanked her with his remaining two characters. Lockard under-dropped with Healer and Artie, and set Healer behind Beast and adjacent to Artie in the support row. Yapjoco took a moment to consider his attacks. He finally decided to attack Artie with Tar Baby. Predictably, Artie evaded, shrinking Tar Baby in the process. Yapjoco’s next attempt sent Caliban into Beast with help from a Kidney Punch. Lockard had Kill or be Killed. “Spike it!” he exclaimed. Both characters stunned. Yapjoco’s last attack sent Storm after Healer. Lockard exhausted his 3-drop to Drain Essence Caliban before evading. Yapjoco attacked directly for 10 with the help of an evasion and The Hill. Neither player had any further effects, and Yapjoco still led, 39-27.

Lockard’s fifth turn play was fairly straightforward—Sunder, move everyone to the front. Yapjoco had Pyro, Freedom Force and Hump (discarding Sunder, by the way). Yapjoco set up with Tar Baby protecting Hump and Pyro protecting Storm. Lockard took Tar Baby down with Healer before trading Artie for Pyro, shrinking Storm. With Storm at a safe 6 ATK, Lockard sent Sunder after the 4-drop. Yapjoco reinforced and then played Retribution to force the double stun. Lockard spent a few moments trying to figure out to do with his Beast. He finally decided not to bother trying to stun Hump, and instead used Harry’s Hideaway to recover Artie. At the end of the turn, Yapjoco led the endurance race, 32-23.

Yapjoco again had a turn 6 Callisto. He set up with all of his characters in the front row, flanking Callisto with Hump and Storm. Yapjoco passed to Lockard, who teamed up with Above and Below before recruiting. He went into the tank, undoubtedly trying to figure out a way to survive the turn. Several minutes went by, and Lockard was still mulling over his decision. “Sorry, this turn’s tough,” he apologized. When he finally decided on a play, it was an interesting one. Rather than recruit a 6-drop, he recruited Bishop, XSE Commando. He used his remaining resource points to give Sunder +5 DEF and to use Healer’s ability to auto-recover Sunder at the end of the turn. Lockard set up with Beast protecting Healer, Sunder protecting Bishop, and Artie next to Bishop in the support row.

Lockard passed to Yapjoco, who took a dip into the tank himself. His first attack sent Storm into Beast. Lockard allowed it and simply reinforced. Next, Yapjoco brought Hump into Healer. Lockard evaded. Yapjoco took another minute before coming up with a third attack. At the end of the interlude, Hump went after Sunder with help from another Kidney Punch. Both characters stunned. Yapjoco’s final character, Callisto, was sent into Bishop. Artie reinforced, and that was the end of combat. In recovery, Lockard played Angel of Mercy, ensuring that all of his characters would stick around. At the end of the turn, Yapjoco maintained a lead of 25-11.

Lockard’s turn 7 was very impressive. First, he played Mystique, Freedom Force. Next, Angel Dust came into play. Finally Artie evaded to shrink Storm and power out Tommy. Lockard set up with Beast, Sunder, and Bishop adjacent to Mystique, and then passed. Yapjoco recruited Masque in front of Storm and Postman in front of Callisto, and set Hump next to Callisto in the support row. He passed to Ryan, who used Phase Shift to allow Sunder to attack Callisto. Yapjoco used her payment power to get Postman off the board—putting a counter on Hump—before reinforcing with Hump and allowing the mutual stun. Lockard considered further attacks. “If you have Shrapnel Blast, I don’t think that I can play around it,” he remarked. After another few minutes of thought, he opted to attack Hump with Mystique. Yapjoco had another Retribution to stun Mystique back. This brought Lockard to below 0 endurance. Realizing that he couldn’t force through enough endurance loss to even the score, Lockard conceded.

Congratulations to Patrick Yapjoco, winner of $10K Atlanta!