In the future, Americans will force Canadians to compete against one another in brutal cage matches for the sake of entertainment. While those days are two, perhaps even three years off, today afforded a preview of what North American society is creeping towards: top Canadian players David Fielder and Dean Sohnle went head to head in a Canuck-versus-Canuck match!
David Fielder Top 8’d PC So Cal, and is well-renowned as both a competitor and a judge in the Toronto area. Dean Sohnle needs no introduction; the winner of two $10Ks and the creator of Fantastic Fun, the plucky Edmonton native has spent the better part of a year traveling Europe.
“In the past month I’ve been to London, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, and Munich, just wandering around. I’m on a ‘Tour de Europe.’ I go back to London once I’m finished here, then maybe I’ll do Scotland. I’ll probably bike France.” Sohnle’s ongoing explorations have made him an ingrained member of the British Vs. System community, and his travels have no end in sight.
“Oh man, this is a comfortable seat,” he said, slipping into his feature match area chair.
“Just don’t lean back at all,” grinned Fielder, a veteran of chair mishaps in the pit.
Sohnle chuckled a bit as he shuffled, careful to heed Fielder’s advice. “I didn’t do enough play testing.”
“I have a friend that does that for me!” exclaimed Fielder, in his signature fashion before nearly falling backwards out of his chair and blurting an expletive. “God . . . A second was all this chair needed to get me . . .”
Fielder won the roll and took odds. “I’m not sure if it’s the right call, but it seems to be working.” He drew and inspected his hand: “Aaaand, you can go visit the bottom of the deck!” His draw, inspection, and mulligan were all one smooth motion executed in mid-quip.
He recruited G’Nort to open the game, and Sohnle dropped Salakk. Fielder immediately flipped down his puppy, taking his “G’Nort beatings” as both men moved to turn 2. Sohnle scored first blood, and the endurance totals were 49 to 50.
He followed up with Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern on turn 2 and casually flopped a Chopping Block onto Salakk. Fielder looked a touch perturbed—a turn 2 Block to anything other than Kyle Rayner is textbook bad news. Fielder had something of an answer in the form of Tomar Tu, and Tomar immediately dove in front of G’Nort to attempt to keep him safe. Tomar was marked for death as a result, but it was a sacrifice Fielder was banking on for long-term power—G’Nort could be capitalized on if things went fairly well. Rayner slammed into Tomar Tu with some help from Oa. With the early game a wash due to Sohnle’s Chopping Block, Fielder’s main chance at success was to build up more options and infrastructure. Oa was a strike against this plan, as Fielder did not have one of his own.
The turn ended, and Fielder stood at 48 endurance and a G’Nort to Sohnle’s 47. His superior board presence threatened to set a trend for the rest of the game.
With the initiative, Fielder recruited Olapet, boosting her to search for Arisia. He recruited Salakk with his extra resource point; while Arisia was a tempting play, Salakk offered some necessary resilience, as Fielder could use it to attack and then threaten a stun back. Sohnle brought out a G’Nort of his own, though, and that made aggression a bit more difficult.
Fielder sent Salakk at his evil twin, and Ole! beefed up the attacking one to make sure it survived. Olapet then attacked Kyle Rayner, and Sohnle exhausted Kyle and G’Nort to activate Guardians Reborn and bring back Salakk. That saved his Chopping Block, and a slight flinch from Fielder showed that it was a blow he felt. He sicced G’Nort on Sohnle’s red-eyed, evil counterpart, a move that would redeem the turn and gain some board advantage, but Sohnle had a power-up to deflect the stun. At a single stunned character each, there was no KO on either side of the board, and the endurance totals stood at 43 to 46 in Fielder’s favor. The score was on his side, but Sohnle had succeeded in maintaining his board presence to set himself up for a strong next turn.
And that’s just what he got. He recruited Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and hid Salakk and the precious Chopping Block behind him while Kyle shielded G’Nort. Fielder matched Dr. Light with one of his own, but had the Arisia from the turn before to make full use of his resource points. He was still struggling to out-option Sohnle, establishing the potentially important Arisia and G’Nort before Sohnle could.
Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough. Kyle attacked Fielder’s G’Nort, and though Fielder used Central Power Battery with G’Nort, Arisia, and Salakk to draw a card, the dog still went down hard. The Dr. Lights then clashed, but when Fielder attempted to use Lanterns in Love to recover G’Nort, Salakk finished it off with the Chopping Block. The evil G’Nort focused its glowing little red eyes on Arisia and pounced on her. With Oa lending him a bit of strength, he shook Arisia’s limp form like a rag doll.
It was 38 to 42 for Sohnle, and Fielder recovered Dr. Light while losing the chew-toy Arisia. He was now definitely behind in field presence, but the promise of the initiative and a soon-to-be-pissed-off Olapet gave cause for one last bit of hope.
Fielder flipped Emerald City at the beginning of turn 5 and exhausted Olapet to draw a card for Battery. “I almost played this deck!” exclaimed Sohnle, suddenly understanding Fielder’s key synergy of Battery and City. “I built it last night!”
Fielder recruited Shadow Creatures and then activated Dr. Light to bring back Arisia. He formed up with Olapet in front of Light, and the worse-for-wear Arisia cowered behind Salakk, fearing another gnawing.
“Remoni Notra,” announced Sohnle, placing her on the table.
“Sheeeee’s unfortunate” said Fielder leerily, unhappy with the drop, as it would allow Sohnle to eke out KOs regardless of Emerald City’s effect. It put Fielder into a position where he needed to proactively eliminate Sohnle’s options before Sohnle could start swinging at things that really mattered.
Shadow Creatures smacked G’Nort for the dual stun, and Salakk also sacrificed himself to take down Kyle Rayner—Fielder needed to ride the City hard to have any chance at a win. Arisia swung into Dr. Light with an Ole!, but the evil Salakk Chopped at his twin across the field for a KO. It was then Sohnle’s turn to exercise some aggression, and Remoni Notra smacked Fielder for a massive 12 endurance thanks to Oa. Emerald City and a three-card discard then recovered Arisia, and Shadow Creatures recovered naturally. Sohnle was left with Dr. Light, Remoni Notra, and the Block-bearing Salakk. It was his initiative for turn 6.
He drew, played a resource, and immediately used Dr. Light to bring back Kyle Rayner, and Kyle in turn brought him a Light Armor. Sohnle then recruited Tomar Tu, and for a moment left him not protecting anyone. He then moved him in front of Salakk, before realizing he should definitely protect Dr. Light. Both Sohnle and Fielder chuckled a bit. “That would’ve been less than effective,” observed Sohnle cheerily.
Fielder also recruited Tomar Tu, flipped and activated Birthing Chamber, and then recruited Kyle Rayner to fetch a Breaking Ground with Rayner’s effect. He then recruited G’Nort, leaving himself with two cards in hand. He got his third thanks to Central Power Battery. Olapet protected Arisia, Tomar Tu protected G’Nort, and Kyle Rayner sat alone in the back petting G’Nort, bracing himself for the worst.
Both Tomar Tus clashed for the double-stun, and Rayner smacked Salakk for a KO courtesy of Remoni Notra. Remoni then KO’d Olapet for a big hit that brought Fielder down to 2. With the endurance totals at 32 to 2 in Sohnle’s favor, things were definitely over. Salakk then attacked Rayner, and a No Man Escapes the Manhunters sealed the deal!
Both competitors congratulated each other, and Fielder recapped his loss. “Normally in this kind of matchup, it’s a ‘he got a 1-drop and I didn’t’ type scenario deciding the win, but we both got it. The Chopping Block on turn 2 was basically ‘good game’ right there. The rest was just going through the motions.”
Dean Sohnle moves on with a 2-0 record, while David Fielder finds one more obstacle in his quest for Day 2!