"Werden die Spiele beginnen!" Let the games begin!

This quarterfinal match is the one featuring the hottest tech to come out of $10K Bremen—both Maik Stich’s MOEGLEE build and the rather spiffy Doom’s Cosmic Tactics coming from Thomas Scheer.

Both players mulliganed their opening four cards, and Thomas led off with Valeria Richards, looking to draw into his combo as soon as possible. Meanwhile Maik was looking to end the game in more straightforward fashion, with G’Nort and some Light Armor for his hound

With the initiative, Maik followed up with an extended art Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern, who duly fetched Chopping Block, but elected not to equip it. His team of G’Nort and Kyle were in full on attack mode for now. Scheer’s second turn was slightly less active, with just Robot Sentry, who exhausted Kyle before he could attack. G’Nort then went for the robot and took revenge in the most brutal fashion, using Chopping Block from hand to finish off the robot. Maik loaded both The Shark and Fatality, Emerald Assassin into his KO’d pile for later Dr. Light, Master of Holograms shenanigans in the process and passed on to turn three.

While Scheer had no recruits, Maik was all about building his board. He played out an extended art version of everyone’s favourite three drop, then used his Dr Light to return Fatality to play. She got given some more Light Armor, and after Scheer passed, Stich went in for a busty set of attacks that put his opponent down to just 28 endurance.

For turn four, Maik went off the curve with Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi from his hand and The Shark from the KO’d pile. He then used a resource point to burn Scheer down to 22 and passed. Still on 49, Maik was dominating game one.

The action finally began from Scheer on turn four with Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius, another extended art card to dominate the game state. With his ability on the chain, Common Enemy was flipped, briefly turned face down, then flipped again. Valeria made it three extra card draws for the turn, and Scheer passed.

Maik now had to consider his attacks carefully. It was not unlikely that Reign of Terror would show up at some point in the turn, and the Pro Circuit regular didn’t want to fall foul of too many tricks from his opponent. Screaming Mimi took down Valeria Richards, who interestingly decided not to dive out of the way. Kyle Rayner and G’Nort then tried their luck against Dr. Doom. Scheer flipped Doomstadt to make his character’s back end a little larger, but Maik effectively countered with No Man Escapes the Manhunters. This forced Scheer to make a decision. He elected not to play Reign of Terror, which seemed curious, especially as he didn’t play it on the following set of attacks either, going down to just 6 endurance with Screaming Mimi on the board. If he was slow playing something, it was unclear as to what. In the recovery phase, Scheer chose to recover Valeria Richards.

With the initiative on turn five, a new Dr. Doom came out to play, and with him came an extra card draw from flipping and re-flipping Common Enemy. Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom joined the fray, and Scheer looked like he needed to have one very big turn to pull things back.

Stich’s recruit step began with The Ring Has Chosen, which found Olapet and allowed Maik to discard Tomar Tu. Maik then boosted Olapet to find Arisia and put her into play. Dr Light fetched back Tomar Tu, and Scheer murmured that he wanted a Flame Trap.

Melissa Gold sang her little song, and Scheer went down to -3. He only needed to do 51 points of endurance loss in a single turn to pull ahead. If his one big Team Tactics attack was big enough, this seemed just barely possible. Fatality made Reign of Terror number one from Scheer pretty ineffective, but the second one stuck, returning Fatality and G’Nort to Stich’s hand, and leaving Dr. Light and The Shark unable to be reinforced.

Dr. Doom went for the 1-drop, and Scheer played Savage Beatdown. He then used Boris to find Cosmic Radiation. The Cosmic Radiation readied his team, and he drew a card with Valeria. He then used Team Tactics to double the attack power of Dr Doom. Unfortunately for Scheer though, he had no more pumps or Cosmic Radiations, and was as such unable to hit for any more, succumbing to Stich’s formidable board.

Maik Stich wins game 1.

Before game two, Maik realized that the head judge had picked up his pen while watching the end of the previous game. With a cry of “Sabotage everywhere!” he duly went and stole it right back.

With the even initiative, Scheer elected to keep the potentially busty draw of Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom, and three copies of Reign of Terror, while Stich had to mulligan. For those of you looking for the appropriate German phrase to describe this, might I remind you of the following handy statement?

“Drei Die Herrschaft des Schreckens?! Du bist so glücklich! Ich haß dich.”

He led off with his old man, while Maik had no play.

“Ich bin tot!” I am dead! declared Stich with a chuckle as Boris drew first blood.

For turn two, he did have a play, in the form of Beetle, Armorsmith. He discarded Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi, and found Olapet in his deck to replace her with. After his brief foray into combat, it looked that Boris would retire a veteran with (at the time of writing) no Purple Hearts.

Scheer played Ant Man, Scott Lang, and some Tibetan Monks, before lining up everyone on the back row. Boris was not to stay out of combat for long though, as he was attacked immediately. He exhausted to the cost of Millennium, and then took his first injury of this second battle. Ant Man simply exhausted to a second Millennium rather than messing with a drop double his cost.

For turn three, with the initiative, Maik boosted out Olapet and found G’Nort, who was given some Light Armor. Scheer, meanwhile, played Valeria Richards and flipped Doomstadt to enable many of his 1-drops, and a Faces of Doom that found Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius. Scheer drew with his toddler, and played out Robot Sentry for his final two resource points.

“What I wouldn’t do for a Flame Trap,” suggested Stich, looking at the rather busy Common Enemy board.

Robot Sentry tried to exhaust G’Nort, but Maik beat him to the punch, exhausting the doggie to Millennium and teamed up Masters of Evil and Green Lanterns. Beetle tried to attack Boris, but Boris jumped out of the way to fetch Cosmic Radiation for Scheer. Olapet then took down Ant Man, who was reinforced by a helpful German Tibetan Monk. (Now there’s a sentence you don’t type every day.) Beetle then finally got a chance to get his beat on, taking down Robot Sentry. Scheer had no attacks, and lost his Ant Man during recovery to give him just Valeria, Robot Sentry and his Monk in play

At the start of the recruit step, Scheer used Valeria and Robot Sentry before playing Cosmic Radiation from his resource row. He then played Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius and flipped it face down. Valeria drew him another card and he passed—quietly happy in the knowledge that he had a lot of Terror to bring down on this turn, if he needed to.

Stich played The Ring Has Chosen to find Roy Harper ◊ Speedy and played the Mercurial Marksman along with Hector Hammond. He immediately used his archer to KO Valeria Richards, then flipped Birthing Chamber, threatening to do it again on something. In response to the activation, Scheer used Reign of Terror #1 targeting Olapet and G’Nort. Tiny Archer would be back though, as Olapet exhausted to Millenium to get the full MOEGLEE team running, and draw Roy again. He lost his two real Green Lanterns to the Reign, but he was still looking all right.

Robot Sentry attacked Roy Harper ◊ Speedy, who used that other ability (you know, the one nobody reads) to gain an extra attack, then Cover Fire in order to boost his defence enough to survive. Could this be time for Reign of Terror #2? Scheer thought not, using Savage Beatdown to come over the top. This could potentially force another Speedy activation from Stich, but it seemed a little bit of a waste of a pump when his deck likes to engineer one huge attack. The two characters traded, and the endurance race remained close, at 44–43 in Stich’s favor.

After combat, Reign of Terror returned both Speedy and Hector to Maik’s hand, leaving Doom to attack for lots with some help from his Monks. Between MOEGLEE and the Monk(eys), there was a royal battle to be the King of the Swingers.

For turn five, with so many cards in hand all of a sudden, Maik had a lot of options. He elected to boost Olapet in order to find Arisia for his first three resource points, then played Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern, netting Chopping Block in the process, for the remaining two.

Scheer had a little thinking to do to find his best play for the fifth turn, and eventually started out with Common Enemy which drew him Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom to further complicate his decisions. He played Valeria Richards and drew another card, played Darkoth, Major Desmund Pitt and finished off with the old man himself.

Prior to combat, Stich drew a card with Birthing Chamber, and had his Olapet exhausted by Robot Sentry. He then had to find a good attack, and plumped for a team attack with Beetle and Kyle on Dr. Doom. No Man Escapes the Manhunters made the attack dangerous for Doom. Clearly somewhere between Tibetan Monks and Doomstadt Maik had miscalculated, though, as when the Monks did what they do best, Doom was left standing tall. Arisia then attacked Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom, who again jumped out of the way in order to find a Signal Flare. Instead, Arisia went for Valeria Richards, again being thwarted, this time by Doom hiding her in the hidden area. Ultimately, there were no good attacks for the 1-drop, and Stich passed.

Darkoth went straight for Arisia, and Scheer sacrificed a resource for value to do an additional 7 breakthrough endurance loss. Doom then went after Olapet in order to get almost the wipe. Leading 42–16, Scheer seemed happy to take things a little slower and ensure his win in the second game.

On turn six, he played his fifth resource and used Signal Flare to fetch Thing, Heavy Hitter, who he played before passing the turn. Without Dr Light, and in the face of two Reign of Terrors, Maik had been unable to build the sort of board position that was required to fight in game two, and he scooped up his cards.

Thomas Scheer wins game two.

As he shuffled up for game three, Maik confided that he felt he had made two bad decisions that had cost him the second game. He had no intention of doing the same in the third, as he replied to Thomas’ first-turn Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom with Roy Harper ◊ Speedy. The young gun looked pretty good, and tried to shoot down the old man, but it turns out that Boris is tricksy. Scheer flipped Doomstadt and sent his butler running for Reign of Terror.

“I’m not that lucky. I will not win this tournament,” remarked Stich dryly as his opponent pumped the fist.

On turn two, Stich led off with Beetle, Armorsmith, discarding Shocker in order to find Fatality, Emerald Assassin, who effectively turns Reign of Terror into a resource destruction card. Which is still pretty good. Scheer only had some Tibetan Monks, who going it alone were no match for Beetle, who took them down with ease, cassocks and all.

For turn three, Thomas had a decision to make. Without an ideal recruit, and eschewing the use of Secret Origins, he played Robot Sentry, while Stich had Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern. The powerful 2-drop didn’t come to the party empty-handed either, as he had a Chopping Block that he left in Stich’s hand, and a wingman in the form of Roy Harper ◊ Speedy.

The Tibetan Monks attacked Speedy, trying to break up the fancy dress party, and the little 1-drop that could first exhausted to use Millennium, then shot down the monk. Robot Sentry exhausted Beetle, then Kyle avenged his little buddy, beating up Robot Sentry and then hitting him with that Chopping Block.

For turn four, Scheer had no characters while Maik was looking good with two. He added to his throng with Olapet and Fatality, Emerald Assassin. Birthing Chamber let him draw a card, and then Beetle and Fatality lined up in the front, ready for action.

Without characters, or the potential to team up, Thomas’s plan of attack was hamstrung. Even the Reign of Terror wouldn’t pull him out of his hole. He elected to recruit Wonder Woman, Avatar of Truth, forcing Maik to make some decisions as well.

The cosmic counter didn’t last long. A team attack took Scheer’s lady out of action, leaving Olapet to attack to the face. Maik named No Man Escapes the Manhunters, but it didn’t really matter.

Secret Origins found She-Thing for Scheer, who then played Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius to flip down the plot twist that wasn’t working as hard for him in this matchup as it might in many others. Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom was soon to follow, and Thomas passed.

Maik played his fifth resource, making Olapet’s willpower the highest on the board, then Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. The good Doctor immediately returned Shocker to play, and Maik followed up with a Birthing Chamber activation to improve the quality and quantity of cards in his hand. He discarded Roy Harper, then played Henry King, Jr. ◊ Brainwave and Arisia for his final two resource points. All of Maik’s most important characters (Arisia, Olapet, Dr Light and Fatality) were protected in the back row, but this didn’t stop Wonder Woman from attacking Fatality in order to turn Scheer’s Reign of Terror back on.

The endurance totals were 38 each, and it seemed that the game might be slipping away from Thomas Scheer. Reign of Terror returned Shocker and Arisia (one column of Maik’s formation) to his hand, and then it looked like it was Doom’s time to attack. He casually threw another Reign of Terror Maik’s way, then Boris found a third, in order to return Dr. Light as well, leaving just Beetle and Kyle Rayner left unstunned in play.

Now it was time to attack.

Doom took down Beetle, and Kyle and Fatality both got to live into turn six. The endurance totals were 31–32, and it was up to Maik to rebuild from the previous devastating turn.

He led off with a boosted Olapet, who found G’Nort, then played Hector Hammond and Arisia along with the hound. He drew two cards with Birthing Chamber, then replaced it in order to draw a couple more. With the help of three copies of Reign of Terror, he had plenty of cards in hand to discard.

It seemed that whatever lucky draw Thomas had had thus far was sort of going downhill for turn six, as he led off with Valeria Richards. Maik responded with copies of No Man Escapes the Manhunters on both Dr. Doom and Wonder Woman. Once Valeria hit play, Scheer flipped Common Enemy and effectively drew two cards off it as Valeria’s ability became active.

Dallas Riordan came out and also allowed for a card draw, while Boris was slightly better again, allowing for some proper targeted card drawing. Secret Origins found Robot Sentry, who was played, leaving a single resource point remaining. The sentry exhausted Olapet, then Boris scurried off to find a Cosmic Radiation. Scheer played a Cosmic Radiation from his resource row and responded by teaming up with Millennium so that Dallas Riordan would also ready from its effect.

With the Cosmic Radiation still on the chain, Maik played Breaking Ground on Millennium. The Robot Sentry, Doom and Valeria readied, and the turn continued. Valeria drew a card, which was a Common Enemy to draw another card. Robot Sentry exhausted another character, but Maik still had plenty with which to take down first Wonder Woman. Valeria Richards ducked into the hidden area in order to avoid trouble, but Dallas Riordan had no such option and was beaten up by Arisia. Cosmic Radiation number two readied Robot Sentry such that he could try to exhaust Fatality (an action she negated) and she went for revenge by taking down Doom, thanks to another No Man Escapes the Manhunters. After Valeria drew Scheer another card, it was the end of the turn.

Maik led the endurance totals at 27 to 19, but it was now Thomas’s initiative, so he had the potential to cause some serious pain. The first recruit for Scheer was Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius. Maik had a few responses to this. Hard Sound Construct returned Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern to play, who in turn found another Hard Sound Construct which put Beetle, Armorsmith into play, who carried on the chain by finding Black Hand for Maik, whose deck was going nuts. Doom eventually resolved, flipping down Cosmic Radiation. He was followed up by She-Thing and Boris, Personal Servant of Dr Doom. Somehow it seemed unlikely that, even after various resource KO’s on Maiks side on the board, Scheer would get the most recruits in for the turn.

Birthing Chamber drew Maik some more cards, and with five resources, he played Dr. Light, Master of Holograms, returning Tomar Tu immediately to play in front of the 3-drop. Millennium got the full MOEGLEE team going, and Black Hand represented the final resource points from Maik. Ten characters on the board after a triple Reign of Terror in the game? Nicht so schlecht. Not so bad.

For Scheer’s attacks, things kicked off with She-Thing taking down G’Nort, who was reinforced. The majority of Maik’s formation was well worked out but not worthy of comment, beyond the fact that Tomar Tu was protecting Black Hand, telegraphing that this was the character he really wanted to keep around. Dr Doom and Wonder Woman followed up with attacks to take out some of Maik’s board. Maik tried to attack Boris, who (of course) ran away like a villain being chased by Batman himself.

Boris found a Team Tactics, and Maik reconsidered his attacks. Olapet tried to take down Robot Sentry, but a power-up made things a little more complicated. The Ring Has Chosen found a power-up for Stich.

At the start of the recovery phase, Maik gained 16 endurance from Black Hand just as time was called. At 29 to his opponent’s 17, he was looking good to take down the win on endurance if not by finishing off his opponent.

With the initiative on turn eight, Maik played Sinestro, Corrupted by the Ring, Hector Hammond (via Dr Light) and Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi. He burned his opponent for 10 before passing.

Scheer flipped another Common Enemy, which had Stich pumping the fist as his Sinestro became even more powerful. Valeria was exhausted to draw, then replaced to draw some more. Boris came down for the second resource point, then Robot Sentry exhausted Olapet.

A Cosmic Radiation was responded to with Birthing Chamber number three, from Stich (now down to five resources), who could then use Fatality to stop the plot twist. Boris then fetched Secret Origins, which was looking a lot better now that Stich had his five drop (that he had got at the knockdown price of three resource points). It was used to find Thing, Heavy Hitter.

Sinestro had a busty 13 ATK and took on Dr. Doom, knowing that Scheer’s combo deck was light on defenses. Scheer paid 1 endurance to move Valeria Richards, then went to -2 from the attack. Fatality, Tomar Tu and Kyle then beat up on Thing, and finally Thomas Scheer extended his hand.

Maik Stich wins an epic quarterfinal match!