Jeremy Gray was playing a proactive exhaust stall deck that focused on using Apocalypse on turn 8 and Onslaught on turn 9 for the win. Vince Turner was running one of the event’s few Sinister Syndicate decks, playing a pseudo-rush build that used multiple copies of A Death In The Family and Sadistic Choice to achieve deadly board control.
Both players had known each other through Internet communities for the Warlord TCG for two and a half years, but had never met since Gray is from Indianapolis and Turner is European. They both needed to win this game to make it into the Top 8.
Jeremy Gray won the coin toss and chose the odd initiative. Both players decided to mulligan, and neither player recruited a character on turn 1. Turner missed his drop on turn 2, while Gray took a distinct advantage by recruiting a Puppet Master.
On turn 3, Gray recruited Medusa. Turner finally hit a drop, recruiting Alistair Smythe and declaring Rogue, Power Absorption when he did. Neither player even tried to attack, given that Puppet Master would exhaust Smythe if an attack was declared.
It was Gray’s turn to miss a recruit on turn 4, and though Turner missed his drop, he did recruit Vulture. Gray used Puppet Master and Entangle to prevent Turner from attacking. Gray’s deck was heating up, and on turn 5 the serious combos started coming. Two copies of Swift Escape meant that Puppet Master would immediately exhaust Vulture and Smythe, but Turner recruited a second Vulture to KO the previous one and then recruited Rhino. Medusa attacked Vulture in an effort to leave only Rhino ready, primed for a Puppet Mastering, but a Nasty Surprise led to the double stun. Puppet Master exhausted Rhino, but not before a Sadistic Choice KO’d Medusa.
Turner stormed turn 6 in a big way, paying to keep Rhino on the field, recruiting the 6-drop Venom, and giving Vulture a Dual Sidearms. The equipment would prove to be a rather poor choice, as a boosted Scarecrow from Gray would immediately send Vulture back to Turner’s hand. Venom went after Scarecrow, who exhausted in response to Entangle Rhino. Puppet Master’s effect was then chained and resolved, exhausting Alistair Smythe, but Turner used Team Tactics to boost Venom’s attack to deadly levels. Burn Rubber was the only thing that saved Gray from a massive chunk of breakthrough endurance loss, but Scarecrow would still be hit with A Death in the Family to conclude the turn.
Gray was losing endurance at a rapid pace, but was starting to gain some momentum, shifting from stall to offense. It was a shift he’d cement by recruiting Magneto, Master of Magnetism. Turner recruited Morbius, who quickly was taken out by Magneto. However, Venom attacked Magneto, and Turner would boost his ATK by six by flipping Doc Ock’s Lab, using its effect, and then flipping and using a second copy.
Turner recruited a replacement Morbius and a Vulture, but forgot to pay endurance for Rhino at the proper time, unfortunately losing the character. Gray recruited Apocalypse, destroyed two of Turner’s resources, and both players took a breather to count hands and observe the field. The only attack would be Morbius and Venom taking on Apocalypse, a rather ho-hum move that was quickly made stellar by Sadistic Choice. Vulture then attacked Magneto to try and prevent Vulture from being nailed for a great deal of breakthrough endurance loss, but it wasn’t enough. With 13 endurance remaining, Turner’s Alistair Smythe was attacked by Magneto, causing exactly 13 endurance loss from both stun and breakthrough!
Match Win to Jeremy Gray