His opponent for round three of this tournament was Marshall Arthurs. Marshall sighed as his picture was taken. “Take the pictures now. I can’t stand to have another picture taken of me being beaten down.” Apparently Marshall was still bitter to have lost in the finals of the Magic: the Gathering Amateur Championships. “I figured I would give this a try…I have never played before.”

Game one

Marshall created the first character on turn two--Avalanche--and got in for two points of first blood. Jason introduced Mystique on turn three and ran her into Marshall’s freshly baked Toad. Marshall reinforced and both players took a little endurance loss.

Marshall drew an approving nod from Jason when he played Sabretooth on turn four. “That’s a good boy. That deck looks good. Is it Big Brotherhood.”

Marshall shrugged, “Dunno.”

“Big Brotherhood is the deck I played in Philly.”

“How did you do?”

“Third,” grinned Jason as he played out his Fred Dukes. Marshall rammed Blob with his Sabretooth and Jason powered it up so they would both stun and reinforced with Mystique. Marshall set his Toad on Mystique and she powered up as well. Marshall went for the Savage Beatdown and drew an Overload. He returned Toad to his hand and sent Avalanche in to finish the job with another Savage Beatdown.

Jason recovered his Blob and flipped up Avalon Space Station to get back some power-up fodder. He played Magneto and parked it behind the Blob. Marshall had his own Magneto and tucked his in behind Sabretooth.  Jason’s Magneto exhausted the Sabretooth and attacked it. Marshall decided to Ka-Boom the Space Station right away and see what was going to happen. Jason let it resolve and the two characters stunned. Blob rumbled over into Magneto and Jason lamented his lack of a Lost City. “I guess we have to do this the old-fashioned way.” He pumped his Blob twice and recovered them both with a flipped up Space Station and pumped one more time to make a 9/10 that would stun Magneto but not get stunned back.

Marshall allowed his Magneto to KO and recovered his Sabretooth. He sighed deeply as his sixth turn yielded Darkoth and Avalanche while Jason played a five-drop Quicksilver. When Sabretooth proposed to attack Quicksilver Jason exhausted Pietro to Entangle Marshall’s guy. Darkoth smashed into the Blob and ate a resource for maximum attack value.

Jason’s Magneto was able to smash back into Sabretooth and he readied the Quicksilver for a quick eight points across an empty board. Jason let his Blob slip away while Marshall could only keep Sabretooth. Jason played another Blob and Marshall put out his own Quicksilver but Jason had the initiative. As soon as Jason face-upped a Lost City Marshall scooped.

Marshall - 0 Jason  - 1

Game two

Jason was not sure which Brotherhood version he was up against in game one but his doubts were put to rest in game two when Marshall played a Pyro and flipped up double New Brotherhood and bashed for six. Marshall’s only three-drop was Toad but Jason had actual three-drop with Mystique. He also had his share of gas face down.

He sent Pyro in to deal with Mystique but Jason revealed Lost City and powered up twice, “I don’t want her to get stunned.” Marshall pressed on with a flipped up Savage Land and Jason shook his head. “That is pretty good but I cheated this game. By ‘cheated’ I mean I drew really, really well. He flipped up the other half of his combo and powered up again. Marshall shook his head and sent Toad in on the same mission but it was Overloaded. Jason got in for five with Mystique.

Jason’s Blob was a much more impressive play than the Toad Marshall replayed. Marshall looked for clarification as to when he could use a Ka-Boom on Lost City so as to prevent Jason from using it, “Let me know when I get priority please.” When Blob proposed to attack Pyro, Marshall had the opportunity to Ka-Boom it before Jason could use it on an actual attacker. Blob soundly smashed Pyro nonetheless.

Marshall played a three-drop Rogue and Jason passed with a grimace and no character. Marshall looked to exploit his window of opportunity and sent Rogue into Mystique. Jason powered up to minimize the damage--and give himself two targets for Space Station--and saved himself a point of breakthrough. Marshall used Savage Land on his Pyro and went after the Blob for ten. Jason Dodged and Marshall added a Flying Kick but Jason kicked back with Overload. Marshall was crushed.

“There is no shame in passing,” offered Marshall hopefully as Jason mulled his recruit step.

Jason shook his head, “I missed my last drop. That is not happening again.” He played Sabretooth and Marshall played Magneto. Jason sent Sabretooth after Rogue and Marshall cashed in a Genosha for four new cards. Marshall reinforced and Jason agreed with the play, “I am going for the win this turn. Hmm…what are the odds of you playing Overload?”

Mystique turned on Magneto and Jason used Savage Beatdown and a power-up to force Marshall’s hand. Marshall pitched two Magnetos to pump and Jason came back with two Mystiques. Marshall had two more seven-drop Magnetos but Jason trumped those with an Avalon Space Station and two more power-ups for Mystique.  Jason finished him off with a Savage Beatdown enhanced Blob for the killing blow.

Marshall flipped cards from his deck face-up until he hit and Overload, “I play four of them.”

Final result: Jason Dawson -2 Marshall Arthurs -0

After the match Jason discussed some of the changes he had made to his deck since Philadelphia. “I dropped Scarlet Witch and three-drop Rogue in favor of eight Quicksilvers.” He also added Savage Beatdowns to be able to punch through all the stall decks that are running around. “My deck was all defense and Dodges and I needed something.”