Neither of these players are quite Vs. System veterans yet. They have played the game some, decided they liked it, and qualified for this PC easily enough. When I asked them about any accomplishments, Chris just shrugged and said, “Well, I know he has done well in Magic.” David explained, “Yeah, I was the European Champion like 5 years ago.”

Impressive, but that wouldn’t help him much today. Both players had 11-4 records and would have a shot to get on the Vs. System radar if they won out and make Top 8.

A friendly argument broke out even before they started playing. They both noticed the high-tech-looking “thingie” with numbers on the table and wondered what it did. Eric Bess came over to explain that it was used to put up their endurance scores on the big overhead screens, and they both looked at it in disgust.

“I’m not using that!”

“I’m not using it either!”

“You do it!”

“No, you do it!”

Welcome to grade school. They eventually settled it by deciding that whoever won the flip for the initiative had to keep track of the endurance totals. After briefly considering just letting David choose, Chris agreed. David won the toss and the honors, choosing odds.

Desaad was the first character on the board, and Chris used him to deal first blood. Superman, Red then showed up for David, while Chris recruited Granny Goodness.
Superman swung into Desaad, and Granny evened the score at 42 endurance.

When Chris had the initiative on turn 4, he brought out Bernadeth and put all of his characters in the front row confidently. David found Metallo and hid Superman behind it. That wasn’t an issue though, as Bernadeth took out Metallo without any trouble. Granny was up next. She took on Superman, which didn’t seem too bad for David until Chris flipped Apokolips and pumped Granny up to 7 ATK. Desaad then added insult to injury by dealing twice his ATK power with his ability, putting Chris comfortably ahead in the endurance race.

The initiative and Cir-El ◊ Supergirl were the tools that David had to regain some lost ground and pull ahead. Steppenwolf entered play on Chris’s side and positioned himself in the support row next to Bernadeth, who was protected by good ol’ Granny Goodness. Cir-El flew over everyone with Up, Up, and Away to fight Steppenwolf, who tried to make a Narrow Escape, only to find out that it would leave his DEF at 10 just like Cir-El’s ATK. A Female Furies that KO’d Granny at least let Darkseid’s General return the favor of being stunned. Desaad got in for another quick and dirty 5 endurance by backstabbing the stunned Cir-El, and then Metallo crashed into Bernadeth, taking both out.

Turn 6 was rather boring, as both players recruited Big Barda. That clearly favored Chris, who had 26 endurance left plus an extra character. David thought so too, so he extended his hand. His Cir-El and Big Barda weren’t up to the task of protecting his last 12 endurance points. Game to Chris.

Chris 1 – David 0