Michael Jacob’s Force deck is being represented at the tournament by him and three of his friends, and so far, he’s only been defeated in the mirror! Today, he’s up against Patrick Yapjoco, who is running Teen Titans.
Jacob won the initiative and opened first, dropping a Longshot seconds after Patrick resolved his mulligan. Patrick had no play, and the $10K Chicago winner missed with Longshot, wincing as he watched both copies of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters (the only two in his deck) head to the bottom.
Patrick Optitroned for Hank Hall on turn 2, discarding Roy Harper ♦ Arsenal, but his intended opening was disrupted when Mike played Speedy on turn 2, throwing a monkey wrench into the Hawk/Dove plan. The game started out slow on both sides, with Longshot missing a second time to conclude turn 2.
With Mike now on initiative, he played Rogue. Patrick, unable to play Hawk/Dove without giving his opponent a free stun and a half-rigged Longshot activation, settled for Roy Harper, Arsenal. Rogue and Speedy bashed in and we were on turn 4 in no time.
Patrick flipped Argus. Michael responded by flipping his second Mutant Nation and drew a card, but he had to pass. Argus resolved. Patrick played Terra behind Roy and passed.
Michael missed with Longshot again on his turn before laying a resource. Patrick, aware of Michael’s fine record, couldn’t help but interject.
Patrick: “It’s been working for you so far.”
Michael was unconvinced: “It’s losing right now.”
Michael then laid Wolverine and a second Longshot with his 4 resource points, formed a box with the respective 3-drops in front, and passed back. Roy and Rogue traded without incident, and Terra declared that she would be clubbing Longshot personally. Michael, of course, had to activate.
MJ: “I say this time it will be there. Wolverine, Lost City.”
Another whiff. Indeed, Longshot seemed to be asleep on the job.
Longshot took a pounding, but Wolverine reclaimed some mutant honor by bashing Terra with the help of a power-up. Then, moonlighting as a beater, Roy plinked for one to end MJ’s offense. “The pain! The beatings!” cried Michael.
It was then turn 5, and Mike whiffed with Longshot again before recruiting Quicksilver, his sour expression all the evidence necessary to prove Longshot’s dereliction of duty. Patrick stunned Wolverine with Terra after using Argus and played his fifth resource before activating Argus again and playing Garth.
Unable to get his hands on Lost City, Michael could only raw dog the attack. He turned Quicksilver into the fray, declaring his assault with a weary, “Attack Garth, power up, power up . . . the old fashioned [expletive] way.”
For his part, Patrick managed to equal Quicksilver’s 10/10 by using Tamaran on Garth. Jacob activated his Avalon to grab more Quicksilvers and keep his meal ticket breathing, and the Atlantean Sorcerer took a dirt nap. Mike then readied Quicksilver and bashed Terra, as well, leaving life totals at 35–21 in his favor. Looking to turn things around on turn 6, Patrick fired with Argus and recruited Red Star and Tim Drake, giving him the very, very dangerous tandem of Tim Drake, Red Star, and Garth—perhaps the best one-two-three team attacking combo in the history of the game . . . especially when backed by Tamaran!
Mike went into the think tank, studied his notes, and couldn’t figure out what to name with Longshot for quite a while. Longshot still had yet to hit. After a minute or so of deliberation, he settled on Wolverine and Lost City (yet again) and whiffed (yet again), a happening that triggered more than a few gentle expletives.
Stubborn to the last, Mike unleashed another Longshot and named Wolverine/Lost City for the sixth time in the game . . . and hit! He even got the 5-drop Wolverine he needed to use his remaining 5 resource points. After forming up in a box, Patrick team attacked into Quicksilver with his squad, powering up Red Star with Tamaran and planning to redirect stun with Tim Drake. But Michael Jacob dismantled his entire offense with a timely Global Domination, allowing Quicksilver to stun Tim Drake (and more importantly, allowing future defenders to stun Garth, should he venture into the fray). After a Teen Titans Go!, Red Star went after Wolverine with some help from Savage Beatdown. Mike discarded to reduce the pain and keep Logan around, and then the turn finished with Garth delivering a pounding to Longshot, leaving the life totals at 23–12 for Michael.
On turn 7, Michael used Avalon Space Station to get back Rogue, Power Absorption and Speedy and recruited them both, pushing a team of Wolverine, Roy Harper ♦ Speedy, Rogue, Longshot, and Quicksilver into the front row. Patrick used Argus and then turned up a second one, grabbing a second card, and then went deep into thought trying to assemble a threat on this crucial turn. He eventually settled on a “small ball” lineup of Roy Harper, Arsenal, and the Dawn/Hank combo. Dawn and Hank went right to work pumping Roy, and after some deliberation, Michael allowed each pump to resolve. Roy activated to stun Rogue, dropping the attacking player to 19, and then a Press the Attack on Roy allowed him to stun Quicksilver as well, putting a large crimp in Michael’s offensive aspirations.
Patrick paid 3 life to get back Press the Attack via Garth, leaving life totals at 14–9, but Jacob responded with the savvy play of having Speedy KO Dawn. This left Patrick one character short of the number needed for Press the Attack to work . . . unless he used Garth, who up until that point would have been a good prospect for a damaging attack. Patrick exhausted Garth anyway and aimed his Arsenal stun at Wolverine. Michael discarded to keep Logan unstunned, but he had no offensive options for the turn.
Longshot was still alone in his front row, though. In another fine play, knowing that the eighth turn was imminent, Michael named Roy Harper (who was on the top of his deck via an activated power) and Jean Grey (who, his notes told him, was still abundant in the deck and a fine play on turn 8 and beyond). He hit! Roy and Jean Grey, Phoenix Force were both in the top four cards, and was set for turn 8. Patrick, on the other hand, could only roll his eyes at the way the game was shaping up.
Mike decided to recover Rogue, Power Absorption instead of Quicksilver, setting himself up to get tricky with her stolen abilities. Patrick, now down to four resources after his near-apocalyptic use of Roy Harper, had to Optitron away one of his last two cards, Koriand’r, to get a playable drop. In response, MJ used Longshot to search for Wolverine and Global Domination (which he knew were two of the final four unseen cards in his deck), allowing him to negate the effect. What had started out as a run of misses had turned into a virtuoso Longshot performance. Patrick could only arrange his Garth, Roy, Red Star, and Hank in a box formation and hope for the best.
Jacob, of course, played Jean Grey after using Avalon Space Station to discard a copy that had been sitting in his hand. He then stole Roy Harper’s power with Rogue, Power Absorption. Patrick moved all of his men forward and declared a four-way team attack on Jean, but with Michael in control of Avalon Space Station, Lost City, a 17/18, and Rogue masquerading as Roy Harper, it wasn’t long before Patrick’s attack was derailed and he had to scoop up his cards and admit defeat.
Michael Jacob wins!
Post-Match Reaction
Michael Jacob
GT: Okay, Mike, at the beginning of that match, Longshot was not hitting anything.
MJ: (emphatic) No.
GT: Then, things seemed to turn around for you. You made some good calls. What is your assessment of how that match went and how you managed to overcome that slow beginning?
MJ: I had an awful beginning, but I managed to make him have an even worse beginning. He Optitroned for Hank on turn 2, so his plan was Hawk/Dove, but I had Roy Harper ♦ Speedy. So he had to go with an awful 3-drop. It really affected his later turns; he didn’t have all these little chump blockers.
GT: Is that the exact kind of scenario you had in mind when you decided to splash Roy Harper, Speedy?
MJ: Yeah, yeah. That’s why I originally had Mikado/Mosha, but Roy Harper does the job a lot better. I always have extra resource points on turns 2, 6, and 7, so Roy Harper just getting a free KO in there is amazing.
GT: You made some great calls with Longshot at the end there.
MJ: Yeah. While he was thinking, I counted up the last eight cards in my deck, and the Jean Grey (the 4-drop) was in there, the 8-drop was in there. I put Roy Harper on top so all I had to do was hit the Jean Grey. And even if I miss there, I still draw the Jean Grey next turn. The Global Domination was the icing on the cake, though. It just happened to be my last card.
Patrick Yapjoco
GT: Obviously, not everything you needed happened during that match. What was the turning point?
PY: Well, turn 6 I had Tim Drake, Red Star, and Garth. I had a Teen Titans Go! in my hand; I was going to wipe his whole board. But he Global Dominationed my Tamaran so I couldn’t be unstunnable. When that happened, it basically fell apart. He’s pretty good with his Longshot calls. Even though he was missing early, he made some good calls. He’s a good player.